"Siege" V #12 (DC Comics) Written by Cary Bates Pencils by Carmine Infantino Inks by Tony DeZuniga Cover by Jerry Bingham January 1986

Willie is captured and tortured for information; Donovan and Julie run for their lives with Prince Bron in tow.

Story Summary

Donovan, Julie, Kyle, Elizabeth, and Bron land their skyfighter in the woods to camp overnight, in hiding from the Visitors who have destroyed the resistance base. Donovan uses a Visitor face-creator, with which the skyfighter happens to be equipped, to give Bron a human face as a disguise. Bron chooses the human name of Brad as part of his disguise. Bron, despite being the Leader's son, seems like a nice kid and he claims to have studied the ways of the outlawed Zon religion in secret.

The next morning, Donovan and Julie hitchhike into the nearest town to rent a car and buy some farm clothes for themselves and Bron as part of an attempt to pass themselves off as a family driving back up to their northern California farm. The three head north while Kyle and Elizabeth are left with the skyfighter. During the drive north, the three come across police and rescue workers attempting to rescue a man trapped in a collapsed mine shaft. Bron is instrumental in saving him.

Up on the mothership, Lydia tortures Willie for information on the whereabouts of Prince Bron. But Willie refuses to betray the prince and his resistance friends. Later, Diana outfits one of her best killers in a mask made to look exactly like Willie and sends him to Earth to infiltrate and destroy the remaining L.A. resistance. 

TO BE CONTINUED IN V #13!

Didja Notice? 

For some reason the cover appears to depict both Ham Tyler and Robin Maxwell fighting side-by-side with Donovan, Julie, Kyle, and Elizabeth even though the two are long gone to Chicago at this point! Note also that the wall behind the group seems to have a picture of a reptilian Visitor face on it; perhaps it's meant to be a missing-poster for the lost Prince Bron?

The title of the issue ("Siege") does not actually appear on any interior page. It seems the title was inadvertently left off of page one where the credit box appears. I used the title indicated on the cover. An episode of the V2000 TV series also uses "Siege" as a title.

On page 1, Lydia has promised Jurgen a Prime-Star commendation for his efforts in taking the resistance's L.A. headquarters. Presumably, a Prime-Star is a Visitor military award.

Page 2 implies that the abandoned movie studio that serves as an L.A. resistance base is the same movie ranch they have occupied more-or-less continuously since "The Masterpiece", rather than the movie studio that became their headquarters in "The Rescue". Of course, the real implication is more likely that writer Cary Bates forgot that the abandoned studio seen as the headquarters since "The Rescue" is a different place than the aforementioned movie ranch. This page also reveals that the movie ranch was the home of Sovereign Studios, where many classic serials were filmed in the 1940s-1950s; Sovereign Studios is a fictional movie studio, not existing in the real world.

On page 9, during his conversation with Bron, Donovan mentions the Sears Catalogue. The catalog has been published annually, or more frequently, by Sears, Roebuck and Company since 1888.

Donovan and Julie disguise themselves as farmers Jonathan and Martha Morris, with Prince Bron as their son, Brad. The names Jonathan and Martha are borrowed from Jonathan and Martha Kent, the adoptive Earth parents of Clark Kent from the various Superman comics (also, like V, published by DC Comics). So, both sets of Jonathan and Martha have an alien son who crash landed on Earth! Like Clark, will Bron go on to become a champion for humanity?

Page 10 reveals that the name of the Leader's Prime Adjutant is Sondral.

On page 16, Bron refers to the Visitor laser pistol he holds as a third-gauge laser refractogun.

On page 17, Soames takes the laser gun from Bron, saying, "...now, thanks to you...I got myself a weapon straight outa Star Wars..." This, of course, is a reference to the Star Wars movie saga created by George Lucas.

When young Bron throws Soames out of the mine, one of the rescue workers comments that he doesn't think even Hulk Hogan could manage a throw like that. Hulk Hogan was an extremely popular American professional wrestler at the time and is still involved with the sport today.

Page 22 informs us that Donovan's son, Sean, is being trained as a killer at a Visitor Youth Camp near San Francisco. This jibes with Diana's comment in Death Tide that Sean was in a Visitor-run camp for boys near Carmel-Monterey.