This full-color graphic novel is based on legendary accounts about an abandoned U.S. military base (sometimes referred to as Area 51 East) located off the eastern end of Long Island, New York, and the strange events that allegedly took place there. Four senior high school friends, including two smart kick-ass young women, wander onto the decommissioned military base and are soon drawn to mysterious shield-like alien objects hidden in one of the base's underground tunnels. The strange objects transform the friends into the incarnations of powerful warriors that once protected another world in another dimension. And just in time-As all hell is about to be unleashed on Earth ... and they must deal with the consequences of accepting unexamined things into their lives! ShieldMaster: The Phoenix Project (Vol 1), follows the bande dessinée style (connected story strips), and reads like a sci-fi animated adventure as it introduces ShieldMaster and the ShieldMaster team's new world of humans with sudden alien powers -- A mash-up, send-off homage of retro comic book iconography and story that flashes like a blinding lightsaber among sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, superheroes, teen angst, alien power transfer, and the legendary Montauk Project/Conspiracy ... ShieldMaster: The Phoenix Project is a dead-on scatter-shot homage blast in part inspired by Joe Simon, creator, with Jack Kirby, of the iconic comic book and blockbuster movie superhero, Captain America!