by Lewis Lovhaug

Sometimes the problem with long-term planning is that things occur between the time the idea is originally thought up and the time the actual story comes along. Take, for example, the Villain Contest.

When I originally conceived of it, I don't know the things I know now. For example, the fact that I became a Feminist between that point and this has caused me to become a bit more squirmish when it came to the origins of female characters. It's why I pushed White Death's story out of the Issue 8 slot until I could revise it to not make it such a gendered story with a clichéd trope(though I kept the idea of a story from Hannah's perspective plus her yelling at Carter). However, I also made a promise to those who took the time to participate and won the Villain Contest that I'd follow through with their characters, although I've made minor tweaks here or there to make them fit better into the Lightbringer universe.

Had I known then what I know now, I probably wouldn't even have created the Slavers, they would've just been some gang. However, I do believe in acknowledging my failures and simply trying to build something better out of it. As a result, we have three female villains who are all villians only because they're victims. Sure, we have Bruiser who's also a victim, but he's only a victim because someone else got directly hurt. As such, hopefully by the end of this three-parter I'll be able to make something good out of my mistakes, because if I don't I'll just be throwing more mistakes onto the pile and I hate it when I make mistakes.