"So after Lucy consumed all the CPH4, she transformed into a spiritual entity that exists within the world?"
"That's right." Ethan nodded. "Her physical body could no longer sustain the expansion of her mind. You could say she ascended to a higher dimension—she gained insight into the dimension of time and can exist at any point in history."
"Wow, that's really cool. What happened next? What did she do after becoming the Super Being?"
"She started correcting things… Because at the moment of her being a higher entity, she saw through history. She witnessed the ancestors of humanity, the birth of the life factor, and the indescribable creators hidden above the skies, shrouding everything in their vast presence."
Logan Urther, with his vivid imagination, was completely stunned by what he had just heard.
"So Lucy realized her mission. She had to warn humanity about the real crisis lurking in the universe. But she also understood that this was not something one or two people could solve—it was a challenge the entire human race had to face together."
"Thus, she decided to correct history, setting everything back on track, forcing superhumans to confront the threats of the cosmos."
"My God, she's truly incredible." Logan Urther had to admit, the character of the Super Being was fantastic. He was sure that once comic readers saw this moment, they would fall in love with her.
"Exactly. And this is the beginning of our Supercyc Universe—the origin of everything." Ethan revealed his ultimate vision. "Through the path of correction laid out by the Super Being, we will keep introducing new superpowered heroes. They will evolve from confused individuals into divine saviors, breaking free from Earth and stepping into the vast universe."
This was the final effect Ethan wanted to achieve.
Within a unified worldview, he would continuously introduce compelling characters, gradually leading up to a series of grand events.
If successful, Norton's Eye would have enough IP resources to last for the next twenty years. As long as they didn't self-sabotage, they would eventually grow into a giant on par with Disney.
Of course, making this a reality was far from simple—theme parks, supporting facilities, and a fully developed merchandise industry were all problems Ethan had to tackle one by one. But at least now, there was a clear path forward.
Zach Godwin, the company manager standing beside Logan Urther, nodded in admiration after hearing Ethan's vision. "This is truly a wildly imaginative idea—I love it. Honestly, when I read DC and Marvel comics, I also followed their big event storylines, like The Avengers and such. But I found their comic universes a bit too chaotic… Sometimes, their settings even contradict themselves. If the stories weren't so good, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep reading."
"That's normal. Comic artists love to insert their personal touches." Ethan shrugged.
This was one of the long-standing issues in the comic industry.
Comics had always been in a state of wild growth. To boost sales, artists constantly competed in artwork, storytelling, and paneling techniques.
The upside of this fierce competition was that many great comics gained recognition—the better the story, the more it sold. This pushed comic companies to keep innovating and also allowed comic artists to maintain a relatively independent and free position within the industry.
The downside, however, was that companies struggled to establish a unified tone.
Take Marvel or DC, for example—each character was often drawn by multiple artists. Every artist had their own unique style and narrative approach, and even things like costumes and power levels frequently changed.
When these comics hit the market, they left fans feeling confused, as there was never a truly unified understanding of the characters and the world.
In the comic book era, this wasn't too big of a deal—at worst, fans would just argue over differing interpretations.
But in the movie era, this lack of consistency would spark fan disputes.
Comic companies certainly didn't want that to happen, so they tried to smooth things over as best they could. If they couldn't, they would simply reboot the universe.
That's exactly what DC did—they had rebooted their universe five times by now.
To avoid falling into the same cycle of endless reboots like DC, Ethan had established the most important concept for the Supercyc Universe right from the start.
That was: Who are the Creators, and who are the Destroyers?
How does the universe's power system work?
How should the power levels be structured?
Anyone who has written or read novels knows how crucial a well-structured and scalable power system is.
It determines not only the progression of the plot but also the scope of the world itself.
In Ethan's setting, the Ancient Creator Gods were omnipotent. They were the origin and endpoint of both the multiverse and the multidimensional universe, controlling all power.
However, there was one thing they could not do: eliminate the Ancient Destroyer Gods that devoured universes.
Because the two forces came from the same source—twin aspects of the same existence.
To prevent the universe from being consumed by the Destroyer Gods, the Creator Gods scattered their life factors, allowing civilizations of various forms to emerge across the cosmos.
Their purpose? To reclaim the devoured fragments of the universe from the Destroyer Gods' bodies.
Simply put, they were cosmic gold miners.
Each fragmented universe was wrapped in negative energy, a collective of the cosmos' dark side, where countless bizarre and gruesome stories unfolded.
This also gave Ethan the perfect space to introduce darker, more mature narratives.
After all, in comics, graphic violence and R-rated storylines were an essential part of the medium's appeal.
Many comic artists loved drawing these types of stories to give readers a visceral thrill.
That's why, the moment Logan Urther heard this setting, his eyes lit up.
"Ethan, we could totally build on these negative universes! Imagine a righteous hero accidentally ending up in one. Or maybe, some morally ambiguous heroes emerge from within them! This setting is incredible."
True to his nature as a comic artist, after hearing the setup, Logan had already thought of multiple ways to expand the story.
"Exactly, that's the idea." Ethan nodded. "But remember—every character must have only one primary artist. And the primary artist's concept sketches need to be reviewed by me. As long as they're not too outrageous, I won't restrict your creativity."
"Understood…" Logan Urther and Ethan continued discussing the Supercyc Universe's setting.
However, at this stage, the framework was still far from complete. Logan's next task was to gather several lead comic artists and writers to flesh out the universe and establish a basic distribution of powers and factions.
By the time Ethan left Valiant Comics, the sky had already turned to dusk.
He drove straight home.
As soon as he walked in, he heard the voices of Jessica Alba and Anne Hathaway.
"Oh, baby! Don't touch that!"
"Hey, sweetheart, that's dangerous, you know?"
Ethan pushed open the door and looked into the living room.
He saw Anne Hathaway holding little Elena, who was just over a year old, speaking to her gently, while Jessica was in the kitchen behind them, wearing an apron.
"What happened?" Ethan took off his shoes and stepped into the living room.
Anne Hathaway stroked Elena's black hair while explaining, "This little angel just tried to touch the hot kettle."
"That's really dangerous." Ethan walked over to her and playfully teased his baby daughter's soft, chubby cheeks with his fingers.
Seeing her father return, Elena immediately let out a happy "yaah" and waved her plump little arms, wrapping them around his neck.
Ethan lifted her into his arms and bounced her up and down twice. "Little angel, did you have fun today?"
"Fun…" Elena responded in broken words.
"Great job! You're getting better at talking." Ethan smiled and carried her to the couch.
But Elena couldn't sit still at all. She immediately started climbing all over Ethan.
"How's work been lately?" Anne Hathaway asked, sitting beside him.
"Not bad. The cinematic universe plan is finally taking shape. What about you? I heard Nolan has already booked you for his next film?"
"That's right." Anne Hathaway nodded. "He wants me to play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises."
"That's a great role. Oh, by the way, I also have a movie offer for you." Ethan pulled his daughter down from his neck as he spoke.
"What role?" Anne Hathaway was curious.
"The King's Speech, one of the supporting female roles. I think it has decent screen time, so I saved it for you," Ethan explained.
"Really? I really like that director." Anne Hathaway raised an eyebrow. The film, directed by Tom Hooper, had been attracting a lot of attention ever since it was announced.
"Yeah, and I think your look perfectly fits the regal aesthetic they're going for."
"Then I definitely need to take a good look at the script."
"You look absolutely stunning in period costumes." Ethan threw in a sweet compliment.
"Really?" Anne Hathaway leaned in closer, asking meaningfully.
"Really." But before Ethan could answer, Elena spoke up instead.
The little one was gnawing on Ethan's arm with her baby teeth while mumbling her response.
Her adorable reaction made both of them burst into laughter.
"What's going on? What happened?" Jessica walked out of the kitchen and came over to her daughter, gently patting the little one's bottom before picking her up.
"You little troublemaker, always biting your daddy's hand."
Ethan smiled and said, "Thanks for the hard work, Jessica."
"It's nothing." Jessica sat down on the couch. "The soup will be ready soon, then we can eat."
Ever since she had some of the chicken soup Ethan made for her during pregnancy, she had developed a love for soups. Now, she was even learning how to make them herself.
The group sat together watching TV, enjoying a warm and cozy evening.
A few days passed like this, and on the second week, Ethan didn't go to the office first thing in the morning. Instead, he went to Digital Domain for a VFX meeting.
However, right after he finished the meeting, he suddenly received a call from Yuffie.
"What's up?" Ethan picked up the phone.
At this time, the launch of Apple's iPhone 4 was still a year away.
But Ethan had already made early investments in Apple stocks.
For clear profit opportunities like this, he wasn't going to miss out.
Yuffie's voice came through the phone: "Boss, Victor just publicly accused you in a newspaper of violating his creative freedom. He's calling you a dictator and says he's going to sue you with support from the Writers Guild."
"?" Ethan was full of question marks. "What did he say? Creative freedom?"
"Yeah," Yuffie explained. "He published the accusations in The Hollywood Industry Journal. We don't have any partnerships with that media outlet, so we can't control the narrative. We can only counter it through other papers. I've already reached out to three of our media partners, and they'll publish our response tomorrow."
"Alright, go ahead and clarify things," Ethan frowned. "And have the legal team prepare the documents. If he wants a lawsuit, then we'll go to court."
"Understood."
After hanging up, Ethan asked an assistant to buy him a copy of The Hollywood Industry Journal.
Flipping through the pages, he quickly found Victor's accusations on page two.
In the article, Victor painted Ethan as an outright dictator. He claimed that during scriptwriting, Ethan repeatedly intimidated and verbally attacked him, disrespected his work, and dismissed his script as garbage, causing him undue mental distress.
He also alleged that Ethan had suddenly terminated his contract, leaving him under severe financial strain. Furthermore, because of his firing, other companies that had partnerships with Ethan now refused to hire him, leading to multiple job offers being rescinded.
According to Victor, these actions had ruined his life. He claimed that every time he tried to write, he was haunted by Ethan's psychological abuse, making it impossible to concentrate. A medical diagnosis had even confirmed that he was now suffering from depression.
Thus, he was suing Ethan for oppressive management and psychological abuse, demanding a public apology and $5 million in damages.
Ethan read the article and couldn't help but laugh in disbelief.
This guy had absolutely no shame. Sure, he had criticized Victor's script harshly, even using strong language, but he had never personally attacked him.
Ethan didn't have the time to bully a mere screenwriter.
And "psychological abuse"? That was outright nonsense. It was clear Victor knew the public loved a "little guy vs. corporate tyrant" narrative.
This wasn't a major incident, but it needed to be handled properly.
The Writers Guild had just ended a major strike last year, and they were still in a highly vigilant state. If Norton's Eye got caught in the crossfire, the Guild might seize the opportunity to flex their muscles.
So Yuffie's cautious approach was correct.
After reading the article, Ethan put it aside. Norton's Eye was no longer a small company. If someone wanted to sling mud at him, they'd better be ready to face his legal team.
He had no problem suing Victor into bankruptcy.
As expected, the next day, several major media outlets published Norton's Eye's official statement.
The statement laid out a few key facts:
First, Victor was fired because he repeatedly ignored Ethan's fundamental creative guidelines, making arbitrary changes. Ethan had tolerated this multiple times before finally terminating the contract.
Second, Victor had a history of tense relationships with other writers, frequently getting into arguments over trivial matters. He had even made disturbing comments about blowing up buildings.
Finally, Norton's Eye's legal team was gathering evidence for a countersuit against Victor.
Most people who read the news saw it as just another industry dispute—screenwriter vs. studio, a routine case of mutual mudslinging.
But then, out of nowhere, one company publicly declared support for Victor and vowed to take on Norton's Eye in court.
"Who is it?" Ethan was sitting in his office when he got the news.
"It's Miramax," Yuffie answered from across the desk.
Hearing this, Ethan raised an eyebrow in surprise.
....
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