Grrl Power #146 – Opossum Ocomitatus?
So much text…
Since I know someone will mention it, apparently both “possum” and “opossum” are correct. They’re actually two similar but different animals. Opossum refers to the North American variety, they’re gray and have a bare tail. They sort of look like giant rats with white faces. Possums are natives of Australia and some of the surrounding island countries, have fuzzy tails, and look more like chubby brown lemurs, though there’s a lot of variety among the 70 subspecies.
Poor Suzie, she may be a little underprepared for this. She’s wanted to be a reporter forever, but doesn’t quite have the requisite banked knowledge yet.
In my head, Maxima’s teacher with matches comment was longer and a bit more antagonistic, but the editor in me said she’s probably at least trying to play ball a little here and not make an enemy of the press right off the bat. Certainly there will be lots of hyperactive reactionary radio talk show and internet comments and wringing of hands about that topic and others, but I think for the most part, those battles will be fought outside of the comic with just a mention here and there.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
One reporter did not do her homework (or needs to broaden her working knowledge)…
Though, to be fair, that IS one pretty good legal hurdle for Archon.
I’d tend to think it’s more important to recognise the point than to know the jargon.
I think that was an intelligent question, just phrased poorly due to language.
Imagine a Mathematical proof written in crayon.
mathematical proof written in crayon might not be taken seriously long enough for them to see the proof as the proof it is
My point precisely.
The medium should not be the message.
I know a guy who did indeed do calculus in crayon. And magic marker. Large colourful scrawled numbers everywhere. A lecturer complained…once. But it wasn’t actually against the rules, since it was still permanent and non-erasable. So the department was forced to accept it, and he just kept doing it.
The man has two degrees in economics now.
Unless she is getting the messages from a medium. Necromantic sources can put her in a compromising situation.
Play on words aside, I wholeheartedly agree though. And Suzie got to ask the sound-byte question that is likely to be the focus of media analysis. Her own company will edit out the awkward bit. And rival companies which do not, or who are silly enough to draw attention to it, will probably loose favour with the general public. The other reporters coming across as being intellectual snobs, who do not like a new girl intruding on their clique.
I think she will gain a big public fan-base, as ‘the intern who made good’. This incident just serving to endear her to the general public. Especially for those who see it live and empathise with her.
And a reasonable description of the law’s current state.
Even so, it’s a good question and deserves an answer. Now to see if ms. PR will take the easy way out or gives an actual honest answer.
Unrelatedly, possums are considered pests in New Zealand, and I’m informed the prices for fur went way downhill when PETA came along with some lovely indiscriminate screaming about how all fur is all bad. That did trapping for pest control no good, predictably.
Oh, actually, that’s easily solved: Archon can be a gendarmerie, which is a military unit that’s been given civilian police duties and abilities. They’re common in other countries, and we even have one in the United States – the Coast Guard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie
How they could bypass posse comitatus is that like the USCG, it’s not attached to the military during peacetime, but could be under wartime (USCG falls under the Dept. of Homeland Security normally, but switches to the Dept. of the Navy during wartime). Archon could easily go under DOJ for peacetime and then Dept. of the Army when things really get bad.
Quite a topical issue, this week, given that Turkey sent its gendarmarie into the park and square in Istanbul to disperse the protesters there. And there are fears (supported by ill thought out comments by their deputy prime minister) that the general army will be used to combat the rioters. Something that I keep a very close eye on, given that Turkey is an adjacent country to me. And that about 1/3 of my village is inhabited by folks who consider themselves ethnic Turks.
It was bad enough seeing things starting to go bad, and then spiral out of control, in Syria. That has quite a big effect here, on its own. Given the number of Syrian refugees flooding through Bulgaria. I seriously hope that the Turkish leadership manage to get their heads out their butts and resolve the issue peacefully.
If ARCHON is a new organization, it will have to be added to the Posse Comitatus Act specifically for the act to apply to it.
Not necessarily. The Air Force, when it branched off to become a new Department under the DOD, did not have to have the act amended to have it applied to. Nor, for that matter, did the Departments of War and Navy do so when they merged to become the Department of Defense.
ARCHON wouldn’t either, but it would still need to be labeled as a gendamerie and placed under another department for peacetime purposes.
Suzi News!
Was a intern, and now because she broke the bank robbery story, they sent her to the news confrence.
I know her name isn’t really Suzi News, but I don’t feel like looking up what her name really is right now.
According to her “Who’s Who” entry to the right of the comic, it appears her name actually is Susie News.
Suzie Wen actually.
Shame. Suzie News had a nice ring to it.
That’ll be the name of her segment.
Howabout Suzie Swen?
S. Wen
Hah! Only just got that! Nicely done DaveB :)
(And if it wasn’t deliberate have a pat on the back anyway)
I thought WEN was her TV station Callsign when I looked at the who’s who (it still could be).
>.<
…so the whole "Suzy Shitwhiskers" discussion was over a silly stage name? Pity
No, she was just trying to say something like “This is Suzy Wen for Channel 4 news” and her nerves turned it into word-salad of “This is Suzy News”. Being live prevented any editing, and any bleeping of that could only make things worse. Forcing the viewers to guess what obscenity she might have said! But that interview will have already gone viral (doubtless posted by Leon, if he had not been beaten to it by enthusiasts). So the nick name “Suzy News” will probably stick to her up to, and including, her obituary.
It’s Suzie News now :)
The internet is a harsh and unforgiving environment.
Yeah best thing would be to roll with it. Have someone else at the station mention it’s her nickname, or change her byline to Suzie “News” Wen.
And never, ever let Suzie Shitwhiskers out of the bag. There’s a sentence you don’t type very often…
Around here I’m sure it’ll stick anyway. TIM and Patches from Dominic Deegan spring to mind, and of course Tingles.
And now back to Sharon Weir and Tom Howe at the desk!
Reporters not doing their homework before engaging mouth is all too common.
And some presidents (Mental image of George Bush singing: “Someday I’ll find it, the brain-mouth connection…” to the tune of “Rainbow Connection”) And remember, mangling your words doesn’t make you stupid (just verbally clumbsy), any more than the ability to read a teleprompter well makes you smart.
It’s the general modus-operandi for Fox News.
Pretty sure you mean CBS there, Josh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy
CNN has been known to do the same kinda crap ref: the false report of a black suspect in the Boston Bombings.
Yeah but at least CNN will correct their mistake when it’s been pointed out to them. Fox on the other hand. . .
Well Faux News is not really a news show. When they get taken to court about anything said on their show they claim they are just “entertainment”.
Speaking of court: https://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/07/09/why-murdoch-cant-escape-the-stench-of-scandal/194776
I mentioned this thread to my brother a few days back, when we were comparing which news feeds we subscribed to. We fiercely debate some issues, although we agree on others. One noticeable difference in our attitudes though is that he heavily weighs the politics of a source, possibly to the extent of dismissing it outright due to lack of credibility. Whereas I merely take it into account as being biassed, but still weigh the merits of the argument they present.
Which meant that I was surprised that he included Fox in his feeds. I queried him as to why he would use a source with the reputation that they have? Paraphrasing his replies, firstly he was not bothered about any scandals as those affected specific issues rather than the quality of the reporting overall. And he felt that much of the poor reputation of media on both sides of the political divide were down to the polarity of US politics and the vehemence that it created more than any reflection on the journalistic integrity. Overall he wanted to get a balanced view of US opinion and policy, which meant subscribing to feeds from opposing organisations.
My brother is way smarter and better educated than me, so I thought I may as well mention his views on the issue. They made me slightly adjust my thinking on the matter.
As regards court cases though, I felt that yesterday’s verdict was an important milestone in dealing with deceit and criminal abuse. Albeit dealing at an individual, rather than corporate, level as it sent a troll to jail. One of several such cases over the last year or so.
to be fair the law she is talking about has a Latin name cause it actually dates back to Rome except there fersion said that solders couldn’t even enter the city in uniform (though i think there was an exception for a general being honored but even then i think it was more of a Dress uniform)
Posse Comitatus is the actual name and i had to Google how to spell it
Posse Comitatus is also the name of a Right Wing organization of the 1970’s.
You’re quite correct. The Triumph at the end of a campaign also marked the general’s re-entry into civilian society. (until they started working around that restriction in the later years of the empire)
One of the features of triumphs that I like is the slave who’s job it is to stand behind the commander, who was receiving the triumph, and continually whispering a phrase in his ear. We can only speculate what exactly was said, but it was on the lines of “Remember you are not a god”.
Dabbler or Leon aught to rig up an electronic equivalent and make sure that Sydney wears it.
…
Before anything gets out of hand, I will have to respectfully request that political and inflammatory discussion be shelved, or at least moved to a venue devoted to such things – Dave has mentioned this in the past and I wholeheartedly agree with him that this is not the place for flame-wars or right-vs-left arguments by political idealogues.
Thank you very much for your understanding and courtesy.
Aka. When it comes to politics. SHUT IT!
It’s amazing how you managed to capture the enitre reason registration is stupid in 2 text bubbles.
Very impressive
He’ll never be hired by Marvel now!
Why does Suzie News have a choker design in the who’s who box? And why is it the same as Dabbler’s? Where is Sydney’s choker design?
I was wondering that same thing.
Sharp spot :P
I’m guessing we’ll see a ninja fix soon? :P
Maybe Dabbler can copy Harems power and Suzie is one of her alts.
I have to know that I would not be the first with that observation. I am sure DaveB will fix it shortly, maybe before going off to work..
Whoops. I modified Dabbbler’s to make hers.
Halo just got her choker and there hasn’t been enough time to fix her official file yet. As for Suzie …………………………………. I got nothin’.
^_~
I was riding down the road one day and
Someone hit a possum
The road was his end
His end was the road
So they say
I didn’t see any of the other reporters referencing posse comitatus. It was a good question; I’m kinda expecting Arianna to defend her in the next page.
Technically, possum is also valid usage in the North American one, even though opossum is its official name.
Jea, a()typical reaction. ;)
“Let´s concentrate on the little mistake (lack of precise knowledge) to hide the fact that i didn´t even think of the question”.
Quite annoying, but quite psychological…or whatever…
If I had been in the Archon-Team, I’d probably responded immediately by asking something like:
“Does anybody know how it’s really called? Maybe even how it’s spelled?”
It would have surely been followed by a tumbleweed-moment by the reporters.
And then: Brooke answers completely correctly.
Shame, Sydney didn’t blurt that statement out.
FYI, Possums are an introduced species in New Zealand and are considered a pest, this is also why you can buy possum scarves and other possum clothing items over there. In Australia possums, while native, are still a pest, and have a habit of jumping all over my roof at about 5 in the morning.
At least you don´t need to set the alarm.
They also used to make great stew and pies, until the smackers in teh Beehive decided to try and poison them (like that even works *eyerollsdownahill*)
Actually, the brush tailed possum was introduced to New Zealand for the fur industry but escaped (or was let loose). So being able to buy possum fur clothing in New Zealand is the reason that they’re a pest species.
There’s also a few dozen species of opossum besides the Virginia opossum that live in North and South America, including the yapok, the world’s only species of aquatic marsupial (remember, the platypus is a monotreme, not a marsupial).
Don’t forget the marsupial sub-species known as the O’Possum that lives only in Ireland.
More seriously opossums (also commonly called possums.) is in South America,
Think of it this way, you are a pest to them. An alien species in their world. So are the rabbits, cats and any other pests brought by the settlers to have more of their origin there in the wrong place.
Well. Posse Comitatus Act has, among others, JSOC in support roles as an exception… Wouldn’t ARCHON technically fit there? (provided that ARCHON would fit under JSOC, and would not comprise an independent branch of US military; mind you, I am neither American nor knowledgable about US laws, therefore I could be completely wrong about that)
Not American… And still you know what JSOC means.
Geeze there are so many branches and groups. Archon could really fit in a lot of places. JSOC sort of makes sense but reading the wikipedia article it looks like they’re almost entirely dedicated to counterterrorism now.
Terror with supers NNOOOO!!! On the other hand bureaucracy with supers WORK GETTING DONE.
Seems pretty straightforward to me offhand, at least as far as creating the legal justification.
“Like the Coast Guard, ARCHON is not restricted by the Posse Comitatus Act.”
I think that the most unbelievable part of the whole series is in this strip. There’s a reporter with pink hair? Say what?
Reddish blond.
If she weren’t being mean to Suzy News I would assume she was from the BBC. It has the policy of using people who are clearly (visually and audibly) representative of the community they live in. I hear rumour that a reasonable proportion of women like to dye their hair.
While there is no correlation between powers and sociopathy, there is a correlation between powers and believing you can do whatever you like (for some types of powers anyway). Of course, having a super powered military force will reduce that happening to some extent.
Are you sure about this?
Bullys may be bullys because they are strong enough to be bullys, but if they had no power to be a bully they’d still be unadjusted assholes.
You don’t become a bully by being strong, you use the strenght to bully because you are a bully.
Alternatively if you are a nice guy and you suddenly become very powerfull, you won’t just turn into a villain
Unless you’ve been pushed to the Line by various a$$holes in your life.
Those people would even more want to stop bullying, thus being a sortof good guy
Yeah, the “being bullied/abused turns someone into a bully/abuser” was actually disproven decades ago, it’s just such a popular myth that it refuses to die (rather like the “humans only use 10% of their brains” myth).
The other thing about superhumans is that while many times the registration/monitoring thing is framed in a manner similar to real world gun control discussions, in many superhero universes the power level of the characters means that it should really be framed as something closer to nuclear proliferation. If you look at Marvel or DC, even many of the characters in the middle of the power scale are quite capable of destroying a small city in a very short amount of time.
rather like the “humans only use 10% of their brains” myth
It’s still true for FoxNews viewers. ;)
It’s funny how you can interpet that in 2 ways, and both are pritty accurate.
Is it true that fox viewers use 10% of brain, or do fox viewers believe the myth? :P
Both interpretations made me smile too. In the UK the same flippancy would be said about the tabloid papers, such as the Sun. My gran used to read it, and it always amazed me that they would routinely put in obviously doctored photographs. Like a story about someone growing a giant marrow. Then rather than actually put in a photo of it, enlarging a pot plant to ridiculous proportions and putting it in a real photo of the grower. A pot that would have to mass more than the weight of ten people if real! Credit where due though that they made no attempt to make it look realistic. Clashing light sources, tell-tale soil grains the size of grapefruit and all.
A funny visual gag, true enough. Up until you are standing next to a couple of guys in a chip shop talking about it “yea but look how big it is, who would have thought geraniums could get that big?” Awaiting the punch line, or the expected laugh finds disappointment. Especially after ten minutes of serious conversation on the matter. Without the slightest hint of an ironic tone. Despite the fact that the article was about a vegetable and not an ornamental flower! One example amongst a vast sea of ignorance. Deepened by an organisation which is legally allowed to impart “news” to the voting public.
And, by an amazing coincidence, the Sun just happens to be owned by the same man as FOXNews…
Well to be fair, The Sun was a yellow rag even before Rupert Murdoch bought it. . . Mmmm.
The funny thing is FoxNews isn’t even the worst source of information Americans turn to. Remember, Glenn Beck was so bad he got “KICKED OFF” FoxNews.
And then there’s Alex Jones, Michael Savage & wnd.com . . . don’t get me started.
Which makes me think: If this were a real life news conference it would be sure to spawn dozens of conspiracy theories in no time at all. These days it just donesn’t take much to start those; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhWpP-vPUcQ
BTW: https://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/174826/survey-nprs-listeners-best-informed-fox-news-viewers-worst-informed/
Wow. Two “Foxnews sucks” trollposts in a day.
People generally watch news that fits with their belief system. The reason for this is simple: people don’t want to be insulted – and that’s basically what most news orgs have descended into, praising their political views and their proponents while bashing opposing views. It’s why liberals tend to watch MSNBC and the like, while conservatives tend to watch FoxNews. Basically, those who insult one or the other are basically insulting a mirror: insulting someone for their news choice because they’re threatened by its content.
I stopped relying on the news years ago. I have logic and mathematics, and a well-trained BS meter. Works wonders with news from any source, and lets me find truths floating around in the misinformation.
The difference is that while MSNBC slants the news with a liberal bias, FOX blatantly lies.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
I’m sorry; I haven’t laughed so hard in years. Fox lies; MSNBC lies; CNN lies; they all lie. The only difference is that MSNBC tells lies that you agree with. I do find it interesting, though, that the one piece of evidence of media untruth that’s been posted on this board was of a CBS fib.
That said, and this is why I’m attacking this so hard: Grrl Power fans come from all sorts of backgrounds. Some liberal, some conservative, some US, some international. You may have your biases and bigotries. But please… leave it off the forum. Just because someone has a different political viewpoint as your own does not mean they are somehow mentally defective. That’s pretty massive bigotry, and pretty much asking to start a flamewar.
Just tell us a few “lies” that MSNBC has given. Not seen any in the evening shows. MSNBC is still right wing but mostly during the day and there is no analogy to Fox “News.” I have yet to see any of you actually come up with any lies you claim is told.
I guess the UK is lucky. For TV anyhow. As, in my opinion, the terrestrial TV* news in the UK never really showed polarised political opinions. Doubtless it is impossible for any organisation not to have some political opinions. But they kept it all low key enough that it was neither intrusive nor irritating. Mind you, all you need to remember that the BBC is populated with tree-hugging hippies and you can adjust for that bias in their reporting, for example. And, on the plus side, they do go to lengths to try and keep their reporting politically neutral.
Other types of individual programs within a TV station and/or specific presenters being a different case. But those you can avoid any you dislike. The news though, you need to keep up to date with, if you wish to remain an informed member of society.
One final note, having lived in one country where the state had absolute censorship over the press and which totally controlled what the public had access to, means I got to see what life was from both the inside and the out. Having regular contact with those outside of the restrictions, to see how the reporting varied.
Although some aspects of life are better, such as not getting the raft of daily scare stories that the media like to drum up, others are far worse. Such as malpractice and injustice going unreported. Clearly having the press to keep an eye on governmental abuses is a good thing. We just need to make sure that they are not the ultimate arbiter of our society. Somebody needs to watch our watchers.
* I can’t speak for how things have changed with the introduction of the masses of stations that y’all are used to in the US, as I lost interest in watching TV at all around about that time.
I’ll stay as far out of the political arena as I can, and just focus on ordinary people.
MSNBC specializes in the “creatively edited” clip. Probably the most notorious is the “edited” recording of the George Zimmerman 911 call, basically designed to make him look like a racist. A second example is the “edited” video of a Sandy Hook parent who asked an audience why people needed larger clips for their weapons; the question was edited out, making the response – that the second amendment should not be infringed – look like inappropriate heckling.
If this is what they do to normal, ordinary people, what do you think they do to politicians?
Doh! I forgot to say that, ever since that experience, I have been very aware of the propaganda one is exposed to by your own country’s media and society in general. It exists, whether you think you have access to free and unbiased reporting, or not. And even the BBC has gone through some bad periods, with very poor standards. No single source is to be trusted too much.
Plus, in listening only to the sources that please us, we get a positive feedback loop which reinforces that our opinions are right and other people’s are wrong. Which is kinda silly. We still do it, but just remember that you will be doing that yourself and take it into account, when you choose to judge others. Someone else probably made a point along those lines, in which case I am just endorsing it.
Like the man said: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” At best FoxNews uses its own facts, at worst they lie. That’s why you can now find the question “Is That True or Did You Hear It On Fox News?” printed on bumper stickers, T-shirts & coffee mugs.
Now i just have to get a few of thoseXD
Yea, I have no axe to grind about political bias in newspapers. I simply never buy any as I consider them all to have too may vested interests and do not want to have my opinions clouded by their propaganda. And until they are properly accountable to an independent regulator, I never will.
Meanwhile, they continue to engage in frequent lying, mis-representation and other shady practices such as bribery and phone tapping. Likewise press harassment and intrusion into peoples’ private lives. Something the paparazzi, amongst others, have been getting away with unchallenged for years. All of which I do have big issues with. Long pre-dating the current UK enquiry into the matter. Although it has shown that the tabloids are (as expected) the worst offenders on those issues. I imagine, as the regulator proposed will have no teeth, they probably will continue to do so in future too. Just being more discreet about it for a while, until the dust has settled.
Newspapers, collectively, have far too much political power. Which they can use to sway the voters in any way they choose. What they choose to say does not bother me The fact that they can does. Personally I would prefer that they be banned from doing other than reporting the facts. Ie not allow them to express opinions and draw their own conclusions. But I appreciate that is very unrealistic. However I do feel that it would be fair to require they very clearly separate the two roles, to make it easier for the public to see what is truth and what is a political opinion. And for there to be legal sanctions (financial and custodial as appropriate) if the truth turns out not to be so.
Sorry about expressing my political opinions on the power of the press. But at least I avoided any party specific issues. Easy enough to do, as I do not support any in particular.
And right on cue, see what story floated up to the top three spot on the BBC’s ‘most read’ list. As if Angelina Jolie had not been through enough anyhow! Having that compounded by illegal phone tapping, just goes to show my point.
Not that we should assume that the allegations are true, until it is proven. But it is wholly consistent with the vast number of similar incidents which have recently been uncovered.
*sigh*
[Disengaging real-world commentary mode, in deference to fellow reader sensibility]
We used to have a saying here which, loosely translated, goes “The Newspaper is a Gentleman”. Meaning that you’re told the news (and opinion) from somebody’s (well, an editorial team’s collective) perspective and that this differs by newspaper.
When I lived somewhere where they got two daily newspapers delivered, I read both, and it was instructive to compare and contrast. Now, I more or less do the same only with a selection of (news)websites and such. This bias is always there, and not really a problem if you’re aware of it–though it can get grating.
That plenty of people literally get their opinions from their daily newspaper (which they even might have picked because that’s what their parents read), well, such people wouldn’t have a better-educated opinion otherwise. Recall that at least half the people have at or below average intelligence.
Relatedly, I infer that getting opinion pieces published in major newspaper is a requirement for becoming a politician, though I rarely see any of them write anything worthy of reading these days. The knack for getting published apparently involves saying bland, agreeable to the audience things, not anything thoughtful. And that, that is a real shame.
The problem is that news, real, actual news, shouldn’t support any belief system. It should be as unbiased as possible. Unfortunately that’s not the world we live in.
Not meaning to sound cynical, but it never was.
No, but at one point it was the ideal that was held up and strived for.
The major networks used to consider news programs as ‘loss leaders’. Expensive, and not profitable. But they were done for two reasons: One because it was conciously held to be the civic duty of media organizations, snd two becuase having a well reguarded news program or anchorman like Walter Cronkite added prestige and trustworthyness to the network as a whole.
Then Fox discovered news programs themselves could be profitable and we went to the infortainment and the 24 hr news cycle model. I don’t have the math yet to describe just how much damage this has done, but I’m working on it.
@Andor
Agreed.
I think this demonstrates the difference between real news and Fox nicely; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBis0Alaz_Q
Susie has Dabbler’s collar in the “Who’s Who” section. That made me laugh.
Also, smart girl, asking the law-type question. Up-and-coming reporter or not, she knows her stuff. I like her even more now.
And the guy in panel 1 looks cross-eyed, I just noticed. Funny.
Even if she forgot the exact word for it, she still asked a better question than anyone else :P
Suzie may well be playing dim, to help connect with her audience. She is paid to maximize her viewer headcount, not to convince ’em she’s smart.
It’s also possible that Suzie is Not Just A Reporter. If your real job was spying on the local Supers, what better cover than being a local reporter, eh?
And she just happened to be at staged bank-heist with Supers, before Supers were officially introduced to the world? O_o
Making her a really good spy. ;-)
We already know that Machina industrys (I believe that was it?) talks to Harem, to an unknown level of spy-like level.
And Harem knew about the little bank setup thing before it happened (along with every other super in Archon), so it’s not impossible for a spy to know about it
i don’t think she playing dim, nor that she’s a plant… i DO however, think she’s relatively new as an intern and that she hasn’t been around long enough to know to NOT ask those kind of questions yet. for me personally, i find that it always seems that the Joe-blow-reporter-on-the-street never asks the “real” important questions, but is instead relegated to asking the stupid ones that nobody really cares about just so they can fill in the time slot and its only if the story turns out to be an important one, that a more senior reporter almost always takes over, and THEY get to ask those questions, thus reinforcing the hierarchy inherent in the system… BUT, since Suzie was the reporter on the scene for the bank heist, in what I’ll bet was an “exclusive interview” for her station (she definitely gets kudos from the station for wrangling that one, seeing as how no other stations crews were there) I’m sure that her boss wanted her specifically to go for the conference, rather than a more senior reporter because A) she’s already a “known” person to the Arc-Swat team members, and B) the management at her station is afraid of putting one of their Anchors out in the wind like that, possibly to avoid them being made the butt of a joke in the industry as if this were a publicity stunt for a movie or something… if they let the intern go, and it IS a joke, then they just don’t have to show Suzie. she can still be a reporter, just not on camera anymore.she’ll end up doing B-Roll and background fluff and follow up stuff for the more senior reporters, just not her OWN stories.. and thus, the Anchor’s rep is secure… though, personally, i think that if they were going for that angle, it’s just back-fired on them… i think that Suzie will soon be seen as the “go-to” reporter when it comes to anything supers-related, even though she’s still technically inexperienced in her craft overall.
as for her mispronunciation, eh, no biggie, especially when you have IRL President’s mispronouncing COUNTRIES names even after reading it on the teleprompter (remember Reagan with his “Lebazon” instead of Lebanon” slip-up in one of his speeches? and i’m sure that Bush messed up some stuff too, though i never really paid attention to stuff like that) at least she ASKED the question, rather than going with the fluff questions/ or fear-mongering ones that the other reporters were asking… that, to me, shows that she DOES know her stuff, and that it’s just the lack-of-experience jitters that causes her to slip up like that. then again, I’ll admit that while i have HEARD of P.C. i really have no clue as to what it’s FOR, let alone the exact pronunciation of it (i get the Posse right, but i always screw up the Comatose part… see :) i did it just like she did…)
Most of the Anchors are busy on the bank robbery story – it’s known gold, and there’s plenty of time to do interviews, etc. before it leads the evening news. Arianna’s press conference is too late in the day, and too likely to be dull legal stuff – maybe it’ll be worth 30 seconds at the end of the lead story, maybe not.
The few remaining Anchors are in a hastily-dug bunker two miles from the press conference, wondering if the “I will SMASH this press conference!!! -Dr. Destructo” tip that they received will pan out.
If she means the Southern Hemisphere possum, the comment should read: “The military is here to illegally occupy our town! Quick everyone jump on them and scratch their faces off!”
If a new, independently operating branch of the DOD were created, its operational procedures would have to be written from scratch. There are many DOD departments that operate within the USA but are not considered a deployment. Deployments are for wars. Deployments happen in Archon does not handle war. Archon has an assistive, cooperative role with National Guard, FBI and local law enforcement. They are Federal Agents working for the DOD, just like NSA agents. Posse Comitatus simply doesn’t apply. If ARCHON were organizationally structured into USNORTHCOM Command, it would be considered a deployment for war. However, ARCHON will be its own independent department of the DOD, placing outside of Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force and Coast Guard department jurisdictions. DOD departments all answer to the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense. So yes, ARCHON is part of the DOD, but is not part of the US Armed Forces. Therefore Posse Comitatus does not apply. However, I’m sure David will give a much more concise answer in the next page.
Bravo! That’ a good explanation and something i wasn’t aware of. Well done.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that the NSA was part of the DoD. Now I feel dumb. I’ve been watching Chuck for the first time while drawing the last few scripts, and I never picked up on the fact that Kayce is a Lieutenant who gets promoted to Colonel and is overseen by a General.
Funny that you mention the NSA and other alphabet agencies. Reminds me of X; I wonder what his pre-super background is.
The National Security Agency is huge, with a secret budget and has been over stepping its Constitutional limits ever since its inception. Makes the CIA look like a pimple on its huge butt.
And even then it is quite possible to write an exception into the Posse Comitatus like there is now for the transportation/use of nuclear materials.
Further if they don’t get their own command I’d expect them not to be under NORTHCOM but SOCOM or even ‘just’ JSOC.
Within the normal standards of superpowers, I’d sort of expect a carve-out similar to the nuclear materials exemption for certain types of super-powered crime. I mean, how many times has the US military deployed against the Hulk? However, Archon probably has its own charter as well that allows for more routine operations.
I’d guess Arianna’s reply would be something kinda dull and legal, about how the new “Supers Law” covers Posse Comitatus issues. (Thus protecting Dave from the frequent recent changes to that law – see Wikipedia…:)
Max could point out that foreign Supervillians might see America as a nice place to “move up” to, especially if there was no local Supers group to discourage that. That’s be scary, but also typical of post-9/11 government attitudes.
Or (more calming) Max might continue her last sentiment by noting that Posse Comitatus is about keeping the military from being used as a giant domestic police force. But Supers are so scarce that Archon might not be able to recruit even 100 – “ask a cop you trust how meaningful any police force with scarcely 2 officers per state could be. We’re here for extremely special situations, folks. With how few of us there are, that’s all that we could possibly do anyway.”
Encouraging talented people with extraordinary talents to your country is not only a positive thing but absolutely vital. Fairly recently British politicians implemented a knee jerk blanket response to negative publicity about the levels of immigration. But, other than having little effect on the targeted immigrants, had the side effect that skilled academics, amongst them scientists, found that they were not getting visas, due to quotas, and were having other barriers even if they did get them.
Which had UK universities tearing their hair out as these were people with unique talents who could cherry pick their posts anywhere in the world and were permanently being put off the UK. It is believed that the year it took for politicians to accept it was a serious problem and implement exemptions to the rules has caused a permanent drop in the UK’s science capability. Irreparably in some areas where the UK got knocked out of key fields due to competition. If you do not get the people with unique talents, but your rivals do, you are out of business.
Of course, if the talent is in crime, perhaps you have a good point. ;-) But law is a notoriously blunt instrument which harms the innocent as well as the guilty.
Ooops, I did not finish editing my post before posting. This is what happens when I interrupt myself with too many streams of thought. My apologies:
“Deployments happen in Archon does not handle war.” should be “Deployments happen in Areas of Involvement. Archon does not handle war. The Area of Involvement for the United States is USNORTHCOM.” I hope that makes my post clearer.
And people wonder why the government picks stupid names for some of their legal laws and technical bits. It is so that people trying to say them sound even more stupid so that the general public ignores it.
Still nice going on the super laws bit.
It’s latin for “force of the country”. Lots of legalese is latin, because the roman empire was kinda cool.
But is ‘kinda cool’ a good justification for the majority of the public not understanding something? You might guess that I am a fan of plain, easy to understand, English being used in all official matters. And the more important the subject the greater the need for universal clarity in a country where the common man’s vote counts.
Eschew obfuscation!
I agree in general about legalese vs plain English – just reading your average lease or contract requires insane amounts of parsing, back-references, scratching your head and such. But for legal issues certain phrases have a very specific meaning above and beyond their direct translation. So having them in another language (moreover one which isn’t much used otherwise) is quite a sensible way of saying something succinctly and understandably. Or understood by other lawyers at least.
Of course you get problems with phrases like “in camera” which the Latin and legal meaning is precisely opposite of what you might think. Like “hoi polloi” which is almost always mistaken to mean the exact opposite, although that’s Greek not Latin and isn’t lawyers’ fault :)
Touché.
Truth be told, I doubt that any of Arianna’s or Max’ statements can be dumbed down enough for a majority of people to really understand them.
That is why society employs commentators and TV programs analyse and simplify speeches and other issues of public interest. I use them in order to get specialist scientific jargon and papers simplified enough to be understandable with general scientific knowledge. Whereas organisations like Voice of America exist to make subjects understandable to anyone*.
* I really wanted to phrase that as “…understandable to Americans”, as I love to tease. But that would both be very unfair (given that the station exists for foreigners trying to learn English as a second language) and that, although it would be intended as simple fun, it would be too likely to cause offence in an open forum.
If the guy to the left of Suzi is the same guy that was to the left of her in the last comic, he’s had a quick shave in the past 30 seconds.
And Suzi’s top has changed from light blue to white.
That happens when a cloud pass overhead. Err the shade, not the instant shave. ;-)
Posse Comitatus is to keep the Military from being an instrument of Executive Policy within the United States, it dose not bar Federal Law Enforcement that is part of the DoD from executing it’s Duties and Powers (like the Coast Guard before it became part of the Treasury and later Department of Transport and as ’02 Homeland Security), otherwise NCIS, CID, OSI and a like couldn’t investigate or use their powers of arrest outside federal reservations.
Can anyone think of destructive applications for putting out fires with your mind? So far, I’ve gotten “ruin Bonfire Night” and “extinguish the Sun”.
Actually fire is the proccess of chemical bonding with oxygen. The sun has nothing to do with fire, as counter intuitive as that may be.
On the other hand, any power that stops fire, would either have to remove one of the three ingredients from the fire equation (fuel+oxidant+heat), or inhibit the reaction per se.
To remove fuel or heat would be telekinesis or cyrokinesis and not limited to putting out fires. That leaves removing the oxidant and that power could also be used to suffocate somebody.. even Maxima could have problems dealing with such power (of course she probably can hold her breath for hours)
Inhibiting the proccess itself is even more devious. If you had that power you can stop fires, but you can also stop the burning of fuel in living cells and kill somebody flat as the heart, lungs and brain shut down for lack of energy.
Don’t underestimate silly powers!
It’s funny how the throwaway ‘stupid’ powers are often VERY powerfull when you think about it.
Same with healing powers. If you can heal someone, do you do that by speeding natural recovery? Or directy influencing how cells in your body grow? Both can be used extremely deadly, affecting aging of a person, or even of a person’s specific body part, or destroying specific cells, causing cancer like conditions, that sort of thing
Also, fuel in living cells doesn’t actually burn. It’s a completly different chemical reaction than a fire, with enzymes transfering electrons and protons and thus generating energy,
So if your power was to specificly block the chemical reaction of FIRE, than you would not be able to affect living things.
Than again, being able to affect 1 chemical reaction might logically extend to ALL chemical reactions (in a way). If this is by lowering or increasing the energy needed to start the reaction (if you incread this high enough, not even the extreme heat coming out of a fire would be able to start the next reactions needed to keep the fire going), than you could block any and all reactions that are going on in living cells
If I had the chance to choose from any specific power, and could have only one at all, I’d choose complete elemental control, aka controlling every element. Starting with the old beliefs (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water –> Avatar), then working my way over combined stuff like steel or wood down to transforming anything into anything else by messing with their molecular structure.
Imagine the help you could give people in desert areas by turning sand into water, or cleaning up radioactive trash, by turning it into air and/or water;
or the shock for some faiths by literally splitting any ocean, not to mention turning water into wine…
Or, as these things go, you could have the ability to extinguish FIRE. Period. No inhibiting, no manipulating, no removing oxygen.
You think at the fire, and it goes out. Plain and simple.
Anything else is just crazytalk of roleplayers, who go on my nerves by trying to put down a Dragon by using a lvl. 1 Spell.
It doesn´t work like that, People!
You want to kill a Dragon? Use the lvl. 9 Dragonkiller Spell. That´s what it´s there for!
Magic missle, called shot, point-blank range, to the base of the skull, while riding on the neck (agility feat). Old dragon currently having to deal with the rest of the party (two bowmen on opposite sides and the mounted lancer doing light cavalry charges with a curved long sword. Also having to deal with his pre-existing pneumonia as well as the cleric’s Cause Disease. Otto’s Irresistible Dance does not kill him but it will distract so that the Magic Missle can do its job. That new poison that the assassin managed to collect from those mushrooms is having an effect too (causes hallucinations at low doses and death at high doses and a dragon this big, almost anything is a low dose). I think the dragon is sufficiently distracted.
I thought magic missile either expressly or implicitly prohibits called shots? Because it auto-hits there is no chance for a critical hit (assuming house rules introduce such) or rules which use similar mechanisms to determine results.
Mind you, like Maxima, I am getting rusty on the rules, being rather a lapsed player. And I have no idea how the modern editions handle it. 4th edition finally put me off any thought of buying more manuals.
Seconded. I don´t count 4th as D&D at all. No one does, thats why 5th is in the works.
And yes, there are no called shots with a MM. Actually, there are no called shots in the rules, period.
And the day an old Dragon doesn´t make his Saves against a bunch of lvl 1-3 Spells or has a preexisting affliction, is the day Dragons would go extinct on my World.
That´s not to say that Magic Missile isn´t the most powerful Spell in the book, doing 25 GUARANTEED damage, if you maximize it, against any enemy, regardless of damage reduction or resistances.
It is just not able to one hit a Dragon. Why should it? Wizards are Batman already, they really don´t need house rules to increase their power level.
Besides a 500 years old Dragon with 5 Attacks, a breath Weapon and a cornucopia of Spells on his own should hardly be irritated by four heroes, much less distracted.
As a “lesser” power I always thought Force Fields were totally underutilized. First they can be sharper than any blade (an edge less than a molecule thick) you can make them any shape you want (keys, flying platforms, containers, weapons, etc, etc,) and you can change the permeability (let in air but not water). If you could also change what they look like you’d have instant camouflage or disguises.
Yup, that is perfect thinking on how to make good use of a technology or ability. And covering a wide enough range that not many other examples spring to mind beyond it. Although there are a few. Such as using the forcefields to enhance the structural integrity of other structures. Allowing for wispy, flimsy seeming, vehicles or buildings which are actually strong enough to be fit for any purpose. Combined with the functionalities you suggest, giving engineers vast aesthetic and practical scope.
When I get taken on walkies in the hills around here, I like to visualise where I would situate a castle. Sadly much of the area is dominated by sand, which would not make an adequate foundation for a traditional castle. But, imagining the use of force fields, I can construct one wherever I fancy it, and need not be concerned about the mundane practicalities.
The resultant virtual building ends up with whole segments being translucent. With walls that can be seen enough to avoid bumping into, like glass, but which otherwise allow a panoramic view. And other areas which simulate pink marble, by adjusting the opacity. The temperature is regulated by use of permeability and architectural techniques. Such as excavating a cavern beneath it, supporting the walls with force-fields, regardless of how crumbly the sand would be, giving it the rigidity of a limestone cave. With appropriate illumination and other accessories making a nicely aesthetic indoors pond.
But also providing a volume of cold air which can be drawn, with a variety of tricks, to cool the building in summer. Or be sealed off in winter. Bulgaria having intense extremes of weather. Being swelteringly hot in summer and deadly cold in winter.
Mind you, if I did stumble upon a means of doing that, I would probably run the risk of getting burnt at the stake. Frankenstein’s fate at the hands of the mob of pitchfork-wielding villagers does not seem much of a stretch from this vantage point.
Problem with your ideas is that it would probably take some form of concentration to keep a force field up. This is a serieus problem if you want to intergrade a forcefield in a construction that’s suposed to stay up for prolonged time
Technology would be unlikely to require concentration to maintain a forcefield, and I did mention it at the start of my reply. Although, granted, I did mention “ability” too, and your comments are perfectly fair as regards that. Magic might fall into either camp, depending on the rationale used for it.
Needless to say though, as I was picturing a use for it in the real world, I was visualising some form of technology. Albeit one that we realistically may never achieve, or which may take centuries before we get. Some form of invisibility is looking increasingly practical, as are tractor/repulsor beams (albeit probably not with the strength shown in sci fi movies) but I have yet to see any promising proto-type in the force field line.
Although something that creates a strong magnetic field, thus describable by the media as a ‘force field’ could be practically used to deflect solar radiation from Mars-bound ships. We will need something like that, as current vehicles (or, more correctly “previous”, given the last to leave Earth’s gravitational pull were the Apollo craft), rely purely on luck. Because if an energetic flare does occur when an unshielded craft is beyond the Earth’s protective magnetic field, the inhabitants would be corpsified.
Magnetic fields that strong would take a lot of energy but if we could manipulate them well enough we could use the old Sci-Fi standby the Bussard Ram Jet for propulsion.
well there is putting out the pilot light in peoples houses or preventing the combustion of fuel in cars and such.
The former being potentially deadly, the latter little more of an inconvenience, most of the time. Used on an aircraft though…
You could use your power to stop the ignition of bullets, bombs, and grenades… if your power only suppressed or could be used to hold back the ignition then you could cause a lot of mayhem with that. could stop cars from running, or any ICE engine such as jets in flight, You could cut the power to a rocket or space shuttle in mid flight which most would consider bad lol.
ICE? You play BattleTech, don’t you.
One of us! One of us! One of us! And if you think about how much fire is actually used in daily life, someone capable of telepyrosis can do quite a bit just by being an extinguisher
*holds up paw* At least back in the day when I lived near folks who played games. And the alternative, of training them up from scratch, just takes such a tediously long time. Especially if you have to wait for them to get out of that nappy* wearing phase.
* Aka diapers. Translation service provided free to colonial cousins.
ICE – Grade 11 chemistry mnemonic: Input, Change, Equilibrium. Used in determining reaction equilibrium levels and rates of reaction.
ICE – Grade 10 autoshop: Internal Combustion Engine. as opposed to External Combustion Engine (cracked cylinder head).
I’m picturing an armed assailant pulling the trigger to his firearm, and it not firing, then looking down the barrel, only to have the oxidizing reaction resume within the cartridge…
Even if it fails to shoot, why the hell would you look down the barrel? :P
Perhaps the superpower being used affects both fire / combustion AND intelligence. ;) Lord knows, there are stranger juxtapostions of abilities out there.
1) Knock out any pilot light you can get access to. In the winter and in some places, that’s a killer.
2) Depending on your range and what you can get access to, knock out any fossil-fuel power plant.
3) For sufficiently vague definitions of “fire”:
3.1) Knock out all electrical power in range.
3.2) Halt cellular metabolism.
3.3) Snuff out the Sun.
3.4) Control the weather by producing “cold spots”
4) Possibilities in combination with a bit of magical knowledge:
4.1) Alter people’s personalities by reducing their black bile levels.
4.2) Transmute gold or sulfur into useless stone, or acids into water, or anything organic into ashes.
Erm, yellow. Not black.
Anyway, a few more:
5) Be a surprisingly brave arsonist/welder/anything else that involves handling fire, since you can’t be burned unless you want to. If “putting out fires” extends to explosives, you also make a good bomber/chemist and can’t be shot as long as you can see the gun.
6) If you have access to something that makes wherever you are unusually flammable (like, say, a high-oxygen environment), a spark can become a blast of flame that doesn’t touch anything you don’t want it to touch.
I’m not laughing at Suzie, myself; I’m a very intelligent woman (turned down MENSA at the age of 8–long story short, “Any group that expects an 8 year old girl to put away her Barbie dolls in favor of focusing on schoolwork is too dumb for me to join!”), widely read, large vocabulary, a good knowledge of Latin phrases (res ipsa loquitur, regarding MENSA)…yet I didn’t know that one. I knew there was a law about deployment in civilian circumstances, but didn’t know any Latin term.
So I’m not laughing at her. Maybe -with- her, because “possum comatose” IS funny, but not at her…
I’m surprised as many people have heard of it as it seems from reading comments on previous comics, though this is obviously a self selecting group to some degree. Honestly if not for those comments and one mention of it in an episode of The West Wing, I don’t think I would have heard of it either. Or if I had I would have forgotten about it. The only reason I remembered it from The West Wing was that I was thought make a note of it for the comic.
I’ll remind you she’s not a p***y communist.
I first heard about it when watching the movie “Tank”.
Anndd….if I’d had read just a few more comments, I wouldn’t have seen a need to post my own…
Probably somebody mentioned it already… but if so I’ll mention it again.
The phrase “posse comitatus” isn’t just used for the law limiting federal military interventions domestically; it’s also used in various contexts all the way back to Rome, including “west wing” in the sense of being the source of “posse”, as in a sheriff recruiting a posse and chasing down bad guys.
Just saying.
Hah, we also have the luxury of looking it up right quick at the prompting of your comic. I’m in the category of “I knew that law existed, but didn’t know the latin phrase offhand”.
MENSA’s membership requirements are a joke anyway.
You gotta be S.M.R.T.!
Or S.M.E.R.S.H.
“Posse Comitatus” is familiar to me but then I read and follow the news and investigate. Come across something unfamiliar I want to find out what it is and means. Just as JSOC too I am familiar with.
It is also natural for our minds to try to make the new and strange familiar as well. There are also even more exacting groups than MENSA which you rarely hear of.
Actually, Suzi did better than that sheriff in the movie Tank (with James Garner). “Did you just call me a p***y communist?”
if she is a good a PR agent as she says she is, im betting she planted a reporter there to aid her or make the harder points easer to manage
Pretty good chance of that, although I’m sure she herself prepared very well for this, being the consummate professional that she is. After all, there’s nothing stopping non-planted reporters from raising tough questions out of the blue.
Again I find myself wanting to compare subtle hints in the comic to certain political movements.
I can’t really suppose that it’s intended, but I still feel like I want to solute you for Maxima’s reply.
Grrr, I mean “salute.” I hate not being able to edit comments.
OK…I never had a thing for women in uniform before but Maxima in that hat…yowza! ;)
Lots of text, yes, but a good way to move the storyline forward. Looking forward to more. And yes, as someone remarked above: bravo on the political stance.
Question: “… three inches of water…”? Kinda lost me there. :-| Also, using inches is an odd way to measure water outside of gauging rainfall.
People can drown in 3 inches of water (and it’s easier to gauge volume that way sometimes)
“A child can drown in just three inches of water.”
Meaning water just three inches deep.
It’s a common warning given about the safety of your children.
It always sounded like a stupid thing to me, because I can’t imagine a child of any age wilfully sticking its face into water that shallow, breathing it, and never turning his/her face to the side. At best, I could imagine it being a problem with a newborn that can’t sit up yet, in which case, half an inch of water will do.
Cause kids never trip, fall and knock themselves out, right?
They don’t, actually. It is extremely difficult to knock someone out with a blow to the head. Even in boxing, it is actually the twisting motion that does them in. Before a kid could get knocked out from a simple trip and fall they’d get a concussion, or worse.
It’s also instinctive for us to fall on other parts of our body; putting our hands out or bending to ensure that the head hits last.
It’s a rare situation indeed what a child could trip, fall onto an odd surface that hits the head first and is positioned in a way to knock the head to the side causing it to twist and falling with enough momentum to render the child completely unconscious, and then somehow land face-down into a fixed and stable container with no more than three inches of water in it.
A couple of years back one of my neighbours wanted to read his water metre. Which locally are always at the bottom of an access pit in the garden. The bottom had accumulated enough water from a leak or rain that he did not want to tread in it without wearing wellingtons. So he decided to lean in, rather than to step down into it.
As you might expect, he lost balance and fell in, head first. And immediately started to drown. He had no leverage with which to extract himself at that angle. Had a neighbour not chosen that minute to pop round for a chat, and see the pair of legs sticking up out of the hole, he would have drowned. That is in his own words, as he was feeling himself loosing consciousness as he was pulled out.
And that is an adult, who had an active physical job for his entire career (as a welder, but that is more physical than a desk job anyhow) and was not long retired. Not a toddler, who has had no chance to develop upper arm strength.
Apparently you are unfamiliar with these new fangled things called curbs and puddles.
“I can’t imagine a child of any age wilfully sticking its face into water that shallow, breathing it, and never turning his/her face to the side.”
It has happened. Children reach for stuff, there is a reason they put this sticker on buckets; https://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhuber/readings/jpg/warning_an_unsuspected_caus.jpg
Sorry, but that’s still stupid. If a toddler fell into a bucket they would knock the bucket over, spilling out all the water. You’d need the bucket to mostly full in order for that to not happen.
In order for a child to drown in three-inch deep water you’d need something like a bathtub or kiddy pool, the sort of thing that people “commonly” know can be a hazard because they commonly hold a lot more water.
And straight away I break my self-imposed moratorium. But it is to do with child safety, so I feel compelled. Although I hate arguing the case for the politically-correct side.
“Since 1984 more than 327 children have drowned in buckets used for mopping floors. It is estimated that approximately 30 children a year die as a result of falling into a pail or bucket.” *
* https://www.realhomesafety.com/drowning.htm
It’s not the volume but the depth that does it, that’s why it’s measured in cm/inches rather than mls
And then there’s warning signs on microwaves like: “Do not use to dry your pet.”
Nothing is idiot-proof, as there is always at least ONE idiot to prove you wrong, some of them even in or past college.
Or the warning label on packets of peanuts “WARNING: may contain nuts”. I bloody well hope it does, or I am suing for mis-representation of goods!
Different interpretation, but that warning also works for my family.
Being allergic to nuts I a quite fond of saying it’s because I can’t handle cannibalism, being a nut myself.
a person can drown in three inches of water
As others have mentioned, it’s the drowning thing. That was Maxima being flippant as she thought the question was one of those “fear sells, so let me ask a question that will whip viewers in to a frenzy” ones. Especially when she thinks her answer is a slam dunk shut down, but as a friend of mine once said, “never underestimate human stupidity” He may or may not have been paraphrasing Heinlein. I think he actually came up with it on his own.
Einstien “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
As somebody who has worked as a cashier in retail to finance college, I can only wholeheartedly concur.
Kinda looks like Sydney is going to be thinking of what a Fire Golem looks like soon :D
Heck I’m not an American and I know the history of Posse Comitatus and how it’s meant to work, and if you ask me it’s a stupid law, but Lincon had to give the Confederates something to get their Congress men and Senators to come back to D.C. otherwise the oucpation of the south would have broken the Union and set back American democracy a centuary
A couple years back, we had a landslide hit and killed 3 people. It also made dozens of people temporarily homeless with a ton of monetary damage of their homes. I don’t think anyone would complain about supers operating as disaster relief in that situation or something bigger like Katrina.
I think Susie is mentioning a concern people would have in real life though. Abuse of power. Yes, that teacher with a book of matches has the right to operate as normal, but she’s not likely to go insane with power. The teacher with fire power might not either, but there’s a chance. The old chestnut: If you want to test someone, give them power.
I only say this because I would be one of the people Archon would be dealing with.
It’s not people who just happen to have a lethal ability you should worry about, it’s people who WANT one you need to look out for! Don’t worry about the teacher who finds out she can start fires with her mind, worry about the one who buys a flamethrower and researches napalm recipes online.
then of course, there are the wannabe’s: those that are just slightly loopy enough to THINK they have powers but in actuality, don’t… yep, i expect that the mall attached to Archon HQ will be getting really busy in the near future what with all them nut-jobs showing up to apply for membership in the club…
The point is actualy that the power to start fire with your mind is not actually any more powerful than a book of matches. The ability to hit like a buick is actually more conspicuous than simply hitting someone with a buick. Hit and runs happen all the time, people remember superhero fights.
Joe laser-eyes can kill you with a look from a mile off. That does not actually make him any more dangerous than Peggy. So why should he have to register his eyeballs if we’re not making Peggy register her ability to shoot well?
Superpowers are really only a problem when they are too easy. In Akira for example Tetsuo might blow up a city-block because he stubbed his toe, not because he meant to, but because he had to keep his powers actively leashed. If killing someone with your power requires an act of will at least as deliberate as drawing a knife, then your power should be treated in exactly the same way we regulate pocket knives. I.E: Not at all except perhaps in special situations.
It was an interesting point in the Harry Potter books that to kill someone directly with magic you had to really REALLY mean it. Of course there’s a million ways you could probably kill someone with other spells given how little effort they seemed to take.
So yeah, powers that can be triggered instinctively/accidentally are probably the most dangerous. I’m sure Archon folks will be trained to the point where using their powers is near-instinctive for them – once Syd is accustomed to reaching for the orbs instead of punching people I think she could be downright terrifying in that respect. I guess DaveB hinted at that regarding her affinity for power stunts and such.
so.. choker and all.. will Suzie be the next Lois Lane? Or is she a plant, working for archon all along?
I have speculated on the latter option myself, in the past. It being a little suspicious that a member of the media, even if only an intern happened to be at the very bank at the instant that Arianna was staging a pre-planned publicity incident.
That said, co-incidences do happen. And news staff use banks just like other people. That said, although the possibility is there, she comes across to me as too naively innocent to be actively involved in any conspiracy. On the other hand there is the possibility she nudged there, by some covert influence via Arianna. Much as one of the (non-canon) mini-comics showed that Maxima was.
Arianna (to a friend): “I just saw a snappy blue suit on a sale at [insert shop located close to Suzie’s own bank]. They did not have one in my size, but I saw one that I just know would fit Suzie*. Only trouble is that they are selling out fast, so she better rush! I know it is only just down the road from her. There is a big discount for cash too, so tell her to get some on the way.”
* Her friend’s niece. A tenuous enough connection to give plausible deniability, should the need arise. Assuming she has chosen a friend who will not let her involvement slip.
bah, that would take Sr. Director Oduya levels of manipulation in order to get Suzie, Max, and the two robbers there all at the EXACT same time, well. OK, maybe not the robbers since they would have been told to wait until Max got there, but for Suzie too… nope, until told otherwise by Dave, I’m all for it being a total coincidence.
The only variable in that proposal is Suzie. Maxima they can delay with routine stuff at any point, until the witness is in position. And there was a long, presumably slow moving queue. So giving plenty of leeway. Not to mention that such a plan could easily have a member of Arc-Dark in the queue, to ensure that it did not move too quickly.
Not that I consider it likely to have happened. Merely pointing out that it could be done. Rather easily*.
* By the terms of the intelligence community. Have a look at the resources they put into just one project. Which mainly involved spying on their allies! Quoting a newspaper source should not be taken as any indication of its truth or veracity. Lying and propaganda may be involved. Read at your own discretion.
Interesting thought – Sooner or later there are going to be several groups of civilian supers working through specialized temp agencies at jobs specifically needing their ‘talent’. That hypothetical teacher could make a lot of money suppressing fires if they could cover a building or even a couple of acres…
Sounds like something our mysterious bad guy with the facial scar will do, don’t you think? Gives him great cover for all kinds of sneaky super/ espionage type stuff.
Interesting indeed.
What’s more dangerous?
A country with a supers-police force or a private supers-for-hire company / company with hired-supers?
This is the first time the public is hearing about this, and the initial response is to complain of how the presence of supers may break the law of the land. What I’m waiting for is for people to start mulling it over and start complaining the the presence of supers is breaking the laws of physics. We will have assorted ‘experts’ making announcements that this is all a hoax by the government because there is no way that a human skeleton could support lifting twenty tons, or that people can not hover in the air without breaking Newton’s laws of motion, or that a human metabolism can not generate enough energy to shoot lasers out of a person’s eyes (or other body part of choice).
And by the way, when matches are outlawed, only outlaws will have matches!
How about people worried that if the Supers are breaking the Laws Of Physics, they will somehow damage the universe in doing so and doom us all to extinction? Remember the fuss about CERN?
That may be overlooked due to the other more obvious problems so there would probably only be a few people complaining in comparison to all the other issues
Don’t forget that we have already had a Dabbler’s science corner which covered the issue (for Maxima anyhow). I think it is safe to assume that a lot of questions like that will be asked in talk shows and the like. And that Arianna and other official Arc representatives will appear to answer them with that kind of reply and debunk the rubbish.
But probably best not to dwell on that too much. Lest we inspire DaveB to do an evening talkshow special. Just when somebody had persuaded him to move on to some action. Not that I mind where he goes, it is all interesting stuff. But, after three years, Sydney must be feeling a bit tired by now and probably should get to bed!
This comic has enough subtext that even though each page only documents a few seconds we can still get a good amount of time where we can still se jokes and it flows so well that I keep forgetting that this still the first day in the storyline, well done
Random question not particularly related to the comic, on the who’s who thing : is there a reason why Sydney doesn’t have her choker deelie on hers?
Dave hasn’t updated her picture yet (she only got it about 3 or 5 pages back)
Hurting someone by putting out fires? if you can stop things from oxidizing, that probably involves the chemical reactions commonly known as breathing…
Well not breathing per se, but yeah probably any number of reactions that are really important to keeping living. You know, I reckon you could use that as a pretty plausible zombie concept. Although maybe the other way round, the ability to accelerate cell metabolic reactions that otherwise wouldn’t keep functioning once the blood supply stopped. Totally off topic it really annoys me how few zombie films actually spend any time considering how their premise could possibly cause a human muscular and nervous system to continue functioning, particularly for long periods. Resident evil sequels I’m looking at you (although there’s plenty more wrong with those films if you start trying to pick them apart). There’s only so much stored energy in a body and eating people isn’t going to restore it once the digestive system is no longer functioning.
Thank you for giving Suzie an entry in the Who’s Who, but now the earlier pages with her need them as well. Specifically, #52, 60-63, 65, 70, and 73.
I added her from where she introduced herself as Suzie News on.
This steps on several hot buttons. Right to bear arms, Posse Comitatus, & several non-discrimination laws. When you have the equivalent of a semi-automatic RPG for an arm, what good are gun restrictions? Posse Comitatus is largely an inconvenience until actual civil war breaks out, as the DOJ already has law enforcement officers with military grade weapons and training. What it boils down to, is that every ability is a responsibility, including walking. If you can walk, you are expected to not walk on people. You get in trouble doing that. I do believe Archon would be better suited as part of the DOJ, but your call.
You might have the right to bear arms, but you don’t have the right to wave it around in peoples’ faces (unless you happen to be of the ursine persuasion :P)
Have no idea about US laws and crap, but even with the ‘Right to bear arms’ you still have to register them and still can’t carry them openly (and concealed weapons have to have a special permit or something, even for law-enforcers)
All those gun nutters complaining about their gun-conrtol, sampling their right to bear arms?
I say, take away their guns and give them swords.
And if somebody decides to duke it out afterwards, tell me beforehand so I can sell tickets for the bloodshed.
Guns are easy, (almost) every moron can use them and they’re not too messy for the user to actually use and harm people; distance, mostly no direect contact necessary.
Swords on the other hand? You get the drift…
Uh oh. You better start running, to get a head start. Grrl Power has a huge gun-friendly following!
Although I sympathise with the principle, have you considered the likely consequences if actually attempting that proposition. When you turn up with a sword and demand that the guys with guns swap them for that?
Never bring a sword to a gunfight.
Meh, you want to carry a sword into a gun fight, be my guest. Just don’t force your decision on me. Combat has never been about honor, glory, as associated crap. Except for the gullible, it has always been about making the other person die for their position.
Yup. War doesn’t determine who’s right, just who’s left.
you’re being too provicial.
Maybe in YOUR neck of the woods, people cant carry openly. But in other parts of the US, you can ONLY carry firearms openly (unless you get a concealed weapon permit)
Technically speaking, all of those restrictions and permits qualify as an infringement and are thus a violation of the Second Amendment. Violating the US Constitution is typically a Felony when people care about such things. Fortunately for many government types, not many people who matter care about the constitution anymore. Too inconvenient.
So we’ve cut out the “world that hates and fears them” and any “registration act” story arcs. Good thing Sydney’s here otherwise things might be a bit dull.
The world may still hate and fear them. Certain parts of it anyhow. But Arc are not going to be the ones poking the hornets nest to make them feel that way.
Basic human behavior.
I don’t know it or it doesn’t fit into my carefully crafted picture of the world?
So I fear and hate it and try to make it go away at any cost.
Heh heh. Heh heh.
Why does Sydney, the raw recruit, get to sit on the table instead of standing in the back?
It’s so everybody else can keep an eye on her.
it’s so that Arianna can trot her out as a new recruit, found “right there at the bank” and that you don’t need to be afraid to sign up… as well as the fact that since Sydney’s been seen by millions already, it’s that little bit more publicity that she’s after (Arianna, not Sydney)
Think back to the strip where Arianna said “Collect. Them. All.” The front row is for VIP’s and team members with the most merchandising potential.
At this point she’s probably the most well-known member of the team, what with the tongue-fu video and the “like a boss” interview. Even though she could be a double-edged sword, you can’t risk keeping her sidelined. Too much PR riding on making the team look accessible and human, and she’ll be good for that whatever happens.
I was thinking that the TV crew would not have caught the tongue-fu, as that would have been before Suzie called them to come running. But, of course, there will have been security camera feed. Which doubtless will have been immediately leaked to the TV companies. So you are quite right.
Leon specifically mentions “leaking” the security cam footage through various parties very early on.
Thinking on this, it is probably more accurate to say “distributing” said footage.
… Which can only help Sydney’s rep when she is on active duty with ARCHON.
“Yeah, that gold chick is pretty scary, but that little one. She FLIPPED a dude three times her size – by his @#$%^& tongue!!!!“.
Some kinds of rep just cannot be planned or bought.
Yup. Folks will think twice before messing with Halo! :-D
That is a fairly American-influenced line of thought (eyes fairly non-American avatar name dubiously). I find it quite shocking every time, in America, a recently arrested, but not necessarily even charged, celebrity gets their official police mug shot splashed over media headlines worldwide. The leaking of police records in the UK or EU being considered a gross violation of data-protection laws.
If the same happened in the UK, you would expect, in due course, to find out what prison time the officer(s) responsible for the leak got to serve. Likewise for all reporter(s) and/or their editor(s) for publishing the private material illegally. That it is held by public officials does not stop the fact that it relates to private individuals. It simply means that they have a duty to protect that data from being abused.
Just last week a UK police officer (a sergeant, from memory) and his civilian wife got a prison term for leaking stories (even without any supporting official documents) relating to celebrities under investigation.
Likewise, if footage from CCTV cameras is officially released, you will typically see any clearly identifiable individuals, number plates and the like blurred. When they relate to private individuals not under suspicion or sought after in the enquiry. Those that are not, you can confidently assume have given permission for their likeness to be shown. Failure to do so, especially if the footage, shown out of context could make the public assume that an innocent individual was involved in a crime, could leave the company who owned the CCTV, the media outlet involved and anyone else involved in providing the footage being sued for a considerable amount.
But I realise things are different in the US. No privacy or data-protection laws. So Leon is safe, and your comments are appropriate.
It’s actualy a bit more complicated than that. While there are still limits, most goverment agencies operate under https://www.foia.gov
But note that even on the front page of your link it mentions that there are exemptions from revealing personal information. So the press are entitled to ask if any celebrities have been arrested that evening. And the police should decline to answer beyond indicating that ‘a male is helping police with their enquiries’ or that ‘a male aged X has been arrested’ and providing the charges.
Should the press choose to assume that confirms their suspicions, and publish, they do so at their own risk that it may be someone else of the matching age and gender. So the sensible ones will only report what they can prove. Typically presenting any circumstantial evidence they may have acquired and then quoting the bare bones the police have provided.
That makes for much less scandalous headlines. Which is appropriate if the celebrity is innocent. They have as much right to protection from false accusations as anyone else.
So did not read the 149 proceeding comments, but just a note, posse comitatus (nice insert there) only applies to military. All military are under DoD, but not all DoD personell are military.
Also, even if they were “military” and couldn’t be deployed domestically except by “special order,” Just how hard is it to get that special order?
From reading previous comments on the subject, I think the issue is that such special order has to be provided in each specific instance. And waking up the president in the middle of the night to ask permission to stop a super bank robbery in progress will wear his patience thin fast. Not to mention probably giving the crooks time to get away.