Welcome to the Lead service!
Meaney and Llewellyn are trainees in the Lead Service - a sort-of self-appointed "Reality Police" who travel to parallel Universe and ensure everything is occurring as it should. They've hit a bit of a problem, however - a disastrous set of circumstances during their first field training exercise have left them stranded in a broken JumpShip, aimlessly jumping from one random Universe to the next. While Meaney is trying hard to return to the career he loves, Llewellyn is content to meander aimlessly through existence.
Getting back to Lead H.Q. continues to look like an impossible task...
The Story So Sar... If you're new to the comic or need a refresher, this section will get you up to date on the important plot points. If you plan to read the comic from the beginning and wish to avoid spoilers, I'd suggest you avoid reading this.
Meaney and Llewellyn arrive at the Hub, the central headquarters for all Lead activity, and are told by Captain Whedon that they will be embarking on field training exercises - the first such exercises in several decades due to a prior incident in which an entire group of trainees were slaughtered, as Llewellyn mentions to Meaney.
The pair are assigned to Captain Lucas, who takes them aboard his dimensional JumpShip, the Flurry, to a parallel universe. Lucas is subsequently killed by a rampaging horde of Deadly Deadly Robots, and the pair jump away. They discover that The Flurry has a technical fault - the Homing Pigeon hardware is down, meaning that the ship cannot pinpoint the Multiversal location of the Hub and thus they cannot return home - pressing the Recall Switch will only send them to a random point in a random Universe. (#1: Training Day)
Following an encounter with an apparently life-threatening alien aboard a cargo ship (#2: It Came From Space!), Meaney and llewellyn later arrive in a Universe where they thwart an alien gang's sinister plot. Llewellyn is shot, and their next Jump fortunately takes them to a Hospital. Meaney meets a parallel version of his girlfriend, Ryder, who is a General in the army and mistakes Meaney for a new recruit. Meanwhile, Llewellyn's wound is patched up, but his body is taken over by a parasite called Nimoy, a slug-like Iob - a race of mercenaries hired by the opposing side of a war that Ryder's army is fighting. Nimoy is defeated and Meaney and Llewellyn are reunited, however a cache of infant Iobs are smuggled aboard the Flurry by Nimoy before he dies. (#3: Trojan Horse)
Soon after this, Meaney and Llewellyn face off against the largely nonthreatening genre-savvy General Gray. They escape, but Gray is given the opportunity to reverse-engineer the technology behind their JumpShip, and plans to travel out to parallel worlds to conquer them. (#5: Who Wants To Rule The World?)
After an incredibly brief encounter with a couple from a now-destroyed Universe who are capable of travelling through time and space using a magical necklace (#6: The Travellers) they wind up in a Medieval world where they are promptly thrown in a dungeon for practicing Witchcraft. There they meet Hayter, a dimension-jumping mercendary hired to travel to this Universe and take a supposedly enchanted sword from Lord Elpus. Elpus offers the three their freedom in exchange for performing a small favour to Elpus' domain. The deed one, Elpus grants their freedom. Hayter shows his thanks by killing Elpus, stealing the sword he was sent to procure, and Jumping away using a personal jump device.
During a private moment, Llewellyn and Hayter reveal they know each other and were involved in some kind of plan, however when Llewellyn didn't turn up Hayter sought other work. Hayter knew who Lucas was and was shocked when he heard he had died... more specifically, when he heard what had killed them. Meaney is not present during this discussion and has no idea of their connection. (#7: Rogues and Scallywags)
The Characters
Llewellyn
Richard Llewellyn is in his late twenties. He has absolutely no interest in becoming a Lead whatsoever, and has attempted (and failed) the Lead training process at least four times. Despite this, he still hasn’t moved onto something new. His “pretentious git” goatee very nicely counterbalances Meaney’s perpetually out-of-season mullet.
Cynical, bitter, and perhaps resentful of Meaney for having some real direction in life, Llewellyn is far less interested in getting home and more interested in just relaxing, hopping between Universes in the Multiverse in search of nothing in particular.
Meaney
Thomas Meaney is young, excitable, a little naive and fairly career-minded. He is also quite possibly the only person left in the Multiverse who still thinks mullets are fashionable. While he can be fairly simple, don’t mistake it for stupidity - He has a Hell of a head on his shoulders, and is a more-than-competent problem-solver.
He does have a habit of getting overly enthusiastic about… well, a lot of things. This is the sort of behaviour which is going to get both him and Llewellyn into more than a few "sticky situations". He’s very keen to get back to the Hub and continue his training.
The Creative Team
JjAR
Co-Creator, Artist.
Daniel Albano
Webmaster.
Euan Mumford
Writer.
Ben Paddon
Co-Creator, Head Writer, Script Editor.
