Grrl Power #847 – Status quoverthrow
If you think about it, all superheroes (except some vigilantes) are there to maintain the status quo. Galactus playing mini-golf through Manhattan? Call the Avengers. Don’t call the Fantastic Four though. Mr. Fantastic actually argued that Galactus (the guy who eats inhabited planets) should be spared because he’s a force of nature. If the Weather Wizard used his powers to stop hurricanes, Mr. Fantastic would probably beat him up for it.
Sorry, I digressed. While everyone else is trying to keep Magneto and Hydra from taking over the world, (i.e., maintaining the status quo) guys like the Punisher are arguably trying to change the s.q. I say arguably, because murdering a bunch of bad guys is likely to have limited effect. In the area he’s operating, sure, but his efforts are likely to be a minor blip in national statistics. Don’t get me started on Batman and the revolving door that is Arkham.
Obviously, maintaining the status quo isn’t a bad thing… if your quo is humming along just fine. If you’re living in “The Nazi’s Won” universe, or “Insert Dystopian Government/Reality of Your Choice,” then the civilian population is probably champing at the bit for a little re-quoing. If you’re living in a society that’s doing anywhere from “Excellent” to “Used to be all that but is in something of a backslide” to “Not great but up and coming,” having someone come in and stamp all over your quo is harder sell.
I have no idea how brandy snifters… I was going to say ‘work,’ but I get that it’s about smelling the brandy as much as it is drinking it, and sometimes that involves a slightly heated glass. I don’t know the etiquette. It’s possible blowing cigar smoke into the glass is some sort of high crime against the haut monde. Though alternating between brandy and a stogie probably means you’re not there to appreciate the subtle notes.
Actually, Max isn’t chomping on a stogie. I decided to google the word after I typed it, and learned that a stogie is “a thin, inexpensive cigar” which sounds a lot like an unfiltered cigarette to me. I also learned that a ‘corona’ is the benchmark size against which all other cigar sizes are measured. Given the news for the past few months, that piece of information caught my eye.
If I had googled cigars before drawing this page, I definitely would have had Deus smoking a ‘culebra‘ which is like three cigars braided around each other like a cinnamon twist.
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I am now imagining a drunk “Tinkabell” type Drow flying around swearing while drinking brandy and smoking a cigar!
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And in the name of the rude and crass guiiiiiild… we wish to welcome you to Galtynland!
Interesting analysis there.
Deus is certainly shaping up to be an interesting character. He *is* a megalomaniac and has all the supervillain tropes and trappings working for him, and we still don’t quite know his ulterior motives (unless he really just wants to take over the world). Taking over a third world country is one way to secure population base for more ambitious projects, but his people seem to genuinely profit from that.
Then again, the question is, what could be his motives to take over the world? Enforce global peace and prepare the humanity to enter the galactic society from a stronger position, maybe? And should we applaud such enlightened dictatorship?…
Just like with Doucheville, he wants to take over the world, he just doesn’t want to own it and all the shit that comes with ownership
My take on him is that his megalomania is, to a large extent, a facade. I mean, it is definitely there, but the thunder and all that? He’s making fun of his own megalomania. Honestly, he’s more chuuni than a megalomaniac.
He’s very good a what he does. It’s all theater, all working together. Being simultaneously upfront about his big plans, earnest about the value those plans bestow on others, and yet subtle in phrasing so that others can read his statements as being barely within the edge of the law and ethics or wildly off into criminality or unethicality.
Then there’s panels 2-3.
Yeah – panel 2-3 is all ‘do I really have to be honest for you to make a proper judgement and look at what I’m actually doing? oh well’ – then there is panel ‘I can take a jab at you while at it, lol’ 5.
I’m not quite sure what his approach to government is though. I suspect he’s not that into dictatorship (because there is no reason why it would work out well when he’s no longer in control, if nothing else), but what else that wouldn’t maintain status quo? Or maybe change things into a new status quo he would approve?
Having a point, clear intentions, a valid cause and not acting stupid or narrow-minded makes for a great character, villian or otherwise.
Deus already stated his motivation – it is not about domination, it is about the urge to acquire and expand – Control merely is side effect. And he does not want the world, he wants the galaxy (at least).
…on the other hand, these statements could also be ironic exxagerations, just to keep them and us all guessing (and to wind up Maxima).
He strikes me as a more mellow Dr Room, wants to control the world but improve the lives of the people living in it at the same time.
He’s clearly read Dr. Doom’s playbook on how to seed a dictatorship, and now the rest of the world is starting to take notice.
“That was what it meant to be used by a friend, that they would want the use to make you stronger instead of weaker.”
Have you noticed that everyone’s view of Deus is based on comments made by Deus himself?
That’s like Vladimir Putin telling us that he has the mass support of the Russian people. (ignore the fact that he heavily controls the mass media, and shuts down any which cause difficulties. Anyone who seriously chalenges him ends up in jail, charged with business fraud.)
We have little independent evidence of the views of the people of Galytn, or what is their current experience of life. We saw one scene where a child thanks him. But scenes like that happen to the Kims every day in North Korea.
So, we are relying on a very suspicious billionaire’s view of the lives of ordinary people. He may be bringing joy to the lives of the Galytn people, but we need to hear from other witnesses.
Excellent Observation! Deus should be viewed as an “unreliable narrator”. Everything he’s said and done is for a purpose, a carefully planned purpose. He’s saying and doing the things he believes will manipulate the people and events toward his goal. The biggest mistake is to take what he says at face value.
Except we’ve seen flashbacks of the little girl that thanked Deus and stated the things that Deus has done for her and her people as well. And the news broadcaster also mentioned the strides that Galytin has made as well.
The fact that Deus is so heavily investigated, and the people of Galytin seem to be quite happy, AND he seems anxious to have Maxima see this should lead someone to expect that Deus is telling the truth about his having the support of the Galytin people.
Unlike Putin, where there ARE dissidents who decry him.
Watch all the little girls who do the exact same thing in North Korea. And have always done the same thing for every dictator.
It’s part of the standard dictator PR plan.
Well, he has invited Maxima to come and see for herself, rather than rely on his word alone. That kinda suggests he at least believes it to be true.
Isn’t most of our ‘negative’ views based on how he has been presented as well?
I don’t remember details so I might be wrong, but I can’t remember him actually done anything that is clearly villanous? We have seen some moral ambiguity well into the dark grey (e.g. accepting sex as payment, or actually selling the thing sold and stealing all the stuff) but I don’t think any of that was clearly villainous as there may well be circumstances that have been hidden from us. As such, hasn’t most of the painting him a villain been just that – paint?
We’re getting into “Strong Female Protagonist” territory here, a comic sadly on hiatus at the moment. It’s about a superhero who gives it up when she realizes something similar to what Deus says here: “What are you going to do, Mega-Girl, throw poverty into the sea?”
That comic was not afraid to acknowledge that it didn’t have all the answers, I saw 4chan going nuts about it and trying to treat it as advocating for what Mega-Girl did as how feminists should behave, explaining that asking what the right thing to do is was a theme of the comic didn’t make much difference to the debate.
I remember the comment section of that comic… I can’t imagine what 4chan discussions were like
-never say anything about Patrick- never.
Basically “this is what SJWs actually believe” or they ignored it, 4chan isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be but there’s no mechanism to remove the idiots so they hang about.
SFP was good… for a while, before it went off the deep end. When it presented a former superheroine as being remotely justified in being a serial killer (mostly by having every single one of her victims be retroactively revealed as deserving it, along with her dismissing the inevitable murders of an innocent person as a “mistake”), that was a bit iffy for me (especially since nobody in the comic seemed to have enough of a brain to point out that her invisibility/illusion powers would have made her MUCH better suited to ferreting out secrets and revealing conspiracies. Which would have made a much, much more positive difference). Then came the boyfriend who basically existed to spout ridiculous Objectivist quotes and make the protagonist’s position seem more solid than it was.
…Then came the bit where she kidnapped the ex-boyfriend and engaged in torture, terroristic threats, and medical fraud. When she could have gotten him to cooperate willingly if she had given him an iota of the empathy she demanded he give to others. At that point she had entered full on, bona fide supervillain status.
Regarding what Noname said… the problem isn’t that the comic was “asking what was the right thing to do.” The problem was that the comic was strongly implying that the actions being taken were the correct ones.
I never got that vibe from it, the weird reality manipulating philosophy teacher pointed out that her outlook could be used to justify tyranny.
That’s because she (Alison) IS a tyrant. She was pretty blatant about it in her actions with a might makes right attitude and people’s personal liberties did not matter to her. She engaged in straight up torture of a person to make him do what she wanted.
Archone’s absolutely right. She was in full on supervillain status, and basically was saying ‘if your views differ from someone else, it’s okay to be able to torture a person to make them do something that YOU consider to be good, even if it robs them of their freedom and liberty.’ The comic also considered libertarianism to be evil… ie, they were very pro authoritarianism at the expense of liberty. It’s a horrible message, especially in this day and age. And worse yet, the comic said was implying that what she did was good, and justified, just because the author wanted her to be good even when doing evil. Now THAT is the definition of a mary sue (for those who throw around the term incorrectly to describe any of DaveB’s characters, none of whom are Mary Sues).
It’s when I quit bothering to read that comic, and I was rather happy that the artist moved on to other stuff and left it in the lurch.
I see, I tend to ignore or forget what the author says about stuff like that so since people in comic were willing to offer opposing views I assumed the best.
you forgot the guy who got his father killed, his mother’s brain utterly rewritten, and then he killed her. I consider the mother a rare instance of someone murdered twice. that comic went dark places. I wondered where it was going to go. sadly like blind springs… we will never know.
“(especially since nobody in the comic seemed to have enough of a brain to point out that her invisibility/illusion powers would have made her MUCH better suited to ferreting out secrets and revealing conspiracies. Which would have made a much, much more positive difference).”
Panama, Epstein, Brock Turner, BLM,… Trump…
Recent events clearly show that the corrupt system does not give a rats ass about evidence. Especially evidence that can be so easily dismissed by how it was aquired. It is not unreasonable for her to be so dissolusioned with the system that she had zero faith in it no matter what she did.
I assumed there were eventually going to be consequences for her actions around the ex-boyfriend. That arc followed the one with the faux-philosophy professor where the main lesson was “its not moral to force other people to do the right thing”, and then she did exactly that – there’s no way they were going to just leave that hanging.
And on things like murdering rapists, it never seemed to me the comic *approved* at all, but it was exploring the ways people with effective impunity might actually behave. Like the later conversation about it where the ex-supervillain’s main objection was only that it was *inefficient* to attack rape culture through a series of individual murders. He proposed destroying the concept of gender, divorcing power from sexuality, overthrowing capitalism so people weren’t treated as objects, and so on. “Those plans don’t sound very actionable”, Mega Girl replies, to which he responds “well, they do get slightly more actionable if you’ve taken over the world”.
I was going to mention SFP.
Particuarly the part where she’s the discussing the Slasher with her doctor and the doctor is explaining how since half of all supers are women and the vast majority will be from impoverished backgrounds on top of that, the emergence is the biggest threat ever to those who are invested in existing power systems and their corruption, and that she’s not surprised that someone like the Slasher has emerged, she’s just surprised it didn’t happen *sooner*.
Ooo busted! This should be good.
I wonder what kind of Fed he is?
My first thought was that he was a reporter.
Oh look, the IRS.
I don’t think so. I imagine Deus’ is a citizen of Galytn by now. With diplomatic immunity of some style
Yeah, tell Al Capone that the IRS is no threat
Don’t believe SmugD gave up his US citizenship, or closed his
sweat shopslegitimate ‘businesses’ on US soilthis is a question i keep thinking was answered earlier, but can you be a citizen of the US and the unofficial ruler of another country? at least publicly like dues is? Especially if you are also working with military industries.
My understanding is that the US is one of the few countries that demands taxes from all its citizens regardless of where they live in any given financial year.
It also “gifts” citizenship on anyone born on American soil and you have to pay to have that citizenship removed. There was some talk recently about the posibility of the UK Priminister being asked to pay tax by the IRS since he was born while his parents were traveling in the US.
The US is the *ONLY* country in the world that demands that all citizens, regardless of location, pay taxes based in any income. This includes income earned in a non-US country of residence for which that nation’s taxes have been paid. The US is the ONLY country that does this. There are highly annoying and irritating documents which have to be filled out to grant a partial, one year, exemption for *some* of the income.
It has made life very difficult. Oh, and the US also does not recognize renouncing US citizenship unless you pay a fee, currently around $2,500 USD to do so….
ok, as far as taxes. Dues is at the level where he has a staff for that. in fact just by virtue of his acknowledged ownership of galytn (on national TV he was accused and he confirmed it) his tax situation is a mess. I can see him going to court and winning just on the grounds that the IRS submits 5 or so different and conflicting interpretations to the court. (don’t try to confuse the judge). I suppose its fairly hard to loose your citizenship and not spend time in one prison or another.
I’m sure Deus has things arraigned so that he has little, if any taxable income. He also likely has plenipotentiary powers granted by Galytn which would make the IRS hassling him an international incident. The State Department would end up having some harsh words with the Treasury Department if Treasury ended up starting a war.
The US requires all citizens to report their income, domestic and foreign-earned. If you are in the latter group, you can file for the Foreign Income Exclusion. There is a specified amount that is untaxed (the foreign income might be the equivalent of $97,600 USD or less for the 2019 tax return), but you must meet one of the two specific requirements–a Bona Fide Residence Test (i.e., working full-time in a foreign country and receiving foreign income within a calendar year) or a Physical Presence Test (receiving a foreign income but having spent no more than 35 days in the US or a US territory in a 12 month period). If your income is $97,601 or greater, be ready to pay the tax man. Regardless, you are still subjected to being taxed by the country where you live.
First, that’s the Foreign EARNED Income Exclusion. It applies only to employment income, not investments or other nonemployment income, like pensions. Second, there is also a Foreign Tax Credit that is also applicable, allowing you to deduct taxes paid on foreign income.
And that’s only the start of the complications that can result, particularly as a result of the different treaties between the US and other nations. There’s the US Treasury’s demand to see foreign bank accounts.
Expats trying to drop their citizenship face months to potentially years-long waits to get an appointment at an embassy, have to pay a fee, have to prove they’re in good standing with the IRS, and potentially a 3rd-degree ‘interview’ by embassy staff on why they are turning their back on America. (Although, reportedly, that last one has gone out of style)
The US is probably the most… Enthusiastic about it, but they’re not the only ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Citizenship
SmugD is not the ruler of another country, he’s just an ‘advisor’ for the new King
Hence “unofficial”.
Look into Boris Johnson.
Ask Manuel Noriega how much diplomatic immunity really means to the US Government.
I can well imagine blowing cigar smoke into a brandy snifter is against etiquette.
It is about the aroma of the brandy and not the aroma of brandy mixed with the smell of burned tobacco.
As far as I know you don’t smoke the ‘culebra’ cigars all three at once, it’s just the way they are packaged.
I smoked them in my younger days in the version named ‘krumme hunde’
If you’re smoking a cigar while drinking brandy, there’s no way to avoid some overlap in aroma. OTOH, I’m sure that actually blowing smoke into the snifter isn’t according to Hoyle. I am driven to wonder… How has Maxima’s sense of taste changed in general since her transformation (I’m assuming she didn’t smoke cigars and drink expensive brandy as a teen and thus has no standard of comparison).
Actually, you do smoke the ‘culebra’ all three at once, it is not just three cigars tied together, they are twined together, which means, if you separated them, they would be twisted
just a quick search, ended up on an old Reddit page
https://www.reddit.com/r/cigars/comments/14rj12/so_rcigars_how_do_you_smoke_a_culebra/
Yeah, you don’t listen to Redditors
Oh, and this link
http://www.stogiefresh.info/edu-cigars/articles/culebra-a-definitive-guide.html
Excerpt:
Once the cigars are aged and ready to smoke, any cap over the end will be removed and the ribbons or strings will be removed from the cigars. You can separate the Culebras and smoke each cigar individually. Although you can leave the cigars bound together and smoke them all at once, Culebras should be smoked individually and shared among friends.
If you just look at the dozen or so pictures on that site, it’s pretty clear that not ALL culebras would it even be possible to smoke by yourself.
A couple of them – the Don Vicente, for example – look like it would be possible, if wasteful. Most of them, however, the physics isn’t going to work for them to burn and draw evenly into a single human mouth.
Take it from someone who actually has culebras in his humidor (specifically Partagas Culebras), they are not to be smoked bound together. They are to be unbound and shared with friends. It is quite nice watching the ash form as you smoke, following the twists and turns of the cigar. And the ash, surprisingly, manages to hold quite well and keep significant length if smoked carefully.
The rounded bottom of the brandy snifter allows the liquor to be heated by the drinker’s hand, while the large surface area of the drink aids evaporation. The narrow mouth of the glass traps the aroma.
Panel 7 looks as if Maxima is using her powers to heat the brandy.
Sorry, I have to disagree. That’s Maxima exhaling cigarsmoke into the snifter.
One could construe that as an insult. Especially for a brandy puritan.
Remember, Deus does not like his suit sprayed with whiskey.
And now I’ve put Deus firmly into the “Hero” category. Right alongside Skitter.
PLEASE tell me you are talking about Wildbow’s Taylor Hebert, and not any of the other insect-themed wannabe’s.
I love her character arc and how she, as a terrorist gangleader, is still one of the good guys in Brockton Bay :-)
More terrifying than terrorist I think. She did not target civilians for the sake of targeting civilians.
Of course.
The trouble of that is that Deus is currently hard coding himself as a supervillain. It isn’t even “i’m a scary person, fear me”, but “Im a sunday morning cartoon supervillain, be wary of me and against me”. Along with that, he has done a lot of supervillain stuff that could’ve resulted in earth being wiped out. There has been the trend that he is very well traveled for a human, but especially giving the skyripper to sciona when he knew she was planning on opening a portal to her homeworld and invading bends away from being a hero.
There is the possibility that he knew that maxima and co could have effortlessly ended an alari invasion, and that the only fallout would be humanity learning about aliens and having a hostile first encounter, but I don’t think he could be sure about that. Dabbler can counter most magic and Maxima most weapons, but all it would take is a lucky spell to subvert Maxima and Dabbler can’t fight an army directly singlehanded. He was legitimately prepared for humanity to be invaded, for populations to die, just so he could harvest the macguffin for himself afterwards.
Only possibility where he in genuinely benevolent is that he has a precog who could assure him that the invasion would amount to a damaged bridge and a busted mountain.
He also offered to help Wyrmil recharge the Transmogrifier at the cost of 99 lives. Deus seems to have a couple classic villain tropes going: “I know best for everyone.” and “Individual liberty doesn’t matter.”
I’ve also started to wonder if his playing up being a villain is an Ozymandias gambit. “I don’t mind being the smartest man in the world, I just wish it wasn’t this one.”
“individual liberty doesn’t matter.” I’m going to get complained at but most of the time I see ‘individual liberty’ invoked it really sums up to I get to do what I want and prevent others from interfering with my profits. its deniable sure (and I’m sure someone will) but the end effect comes to privilege for me but not for thee. so I see Dues as an ‘individual liberty’ person.
That may be what you’ve seen, but I don’t think Deus is a good example of it. There is a difference between concern for civil liberty and solipsism. Deus falls firmly on the latter.
I would honestly be shocked to see Deus make an argument in favor of personal liberty of any kind. He’s the sort that would look at someone trying to take away his options and only see ways to subvert them. It would never occur to him to get philosophical or political about the problems of society, because he’d be too busy being corrupt to go through legitimate channels to do anything.
“liberty for me and not for thee” is the *opposite* of individual liberty.
That doesn’t stop people from making whatever kinds of claims and such, of course, nor does it keep politicians from trying to implement any particular form of it for their own benefit with whatever justification they think the masses might swallow.
“Individual liberty” means everybody has those liberties, or at least all citizens (much bigger discussion point there).
I think individualism and collectivism become indistinguishable when fully developed. What’s good for every single individual is good for the whole, and vice-versa. The opposing philosophy is actually tribalism, which assigns different values and rights to different groups.
He had also mentioned a ‘way’ at the time and showed he used lateral thinking to bypass magical issues. Like a bamboo plant to knock an artifact from the holders.
99 ‘lives’ can be as simple as more bamboo or an anthill.
More cynically, considering the nature of conflicts that have burnt and smoldered across Africa, how hard would it be to find 99 people he’d be praised as a hero for having executed? Or just have, let’s say, one really fast guy that’s good with knives against an invasion by a neighboring country? Who’s going to blink at 100 dead soldiers in a war, after all?
Deus has an army which is expanding his territory. Killing people is implied.
Deus claims that he is welcomed by the people of the cities he has annexed. It could be as simple as moving his troops into the city, and the city police and the nation’s armed forces realizing that they have no chance. I’m sure some lives are lost, because you can’t really expect to pull this off without some bloodshed, but it could hypothetically be fairly minimal.
I would not be surprised if Deus had a workaround to the ’99 lives’ problem that would not involve murdering 99 people. He seems very “Xanatosian” in his ability to get around magical problems, like he did in the Vault. Because Deus is brilliant. :)
Just like Xanatos did in Disney’s Gargoyles with undoing the Archmage’s curse, and with lighting the sky on fire.
Gargoyles caught my interest with the premise and characters, but Xanatos is the one that drove the entire plot and keep me watching it past the first season. Just like Luthor is what keeps Superman from becoming a routine villain-of-the-week serial.*
*To be fair, I’ve only ever seen the original movies, watched Smallville, and read a few of the actual comics. It all seemed pretty rote aside from the one
villainanti-hero with a grander vision.Superman’s problem is that he’s *too powerful to be interesting*, so they have to write him stupid.
For early seasons of Smallville at least Clark was just learning his powers and a good number of the “freak of the week” were powered by kryptonite. So he wasn’t quite the unstoppable force that he is in most settings where he is at full power as an adult.
Which is why it ended where it did, the same with Got Ham: neither show was about the super hero they became, rather it was about the boy who grew up and the forces that made them the super hero we know and hate
Really liked the concept of Gotham, although it was much too graphic for my taste. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the development of James Gordon and a few of the villains (I had never taken the Penguin or Ed Nygma seriously before), but Bruce Wayne wasn’t all that interesting as a kid.
You really are just an utter fucktard, aren’t you? You’re constitutionally incapable of calling a thing by it’s name, leaving you with your utter fucktard idiot substitutions. I’d say ‘grow up,’ but I think you claim to be an adult. So that just leaves me with the complete disdain for you that you have well earned as a supposed adult who can’t be bothered to communicate accurately.
Yes, but Deus also knows that conflict is inevitable and that casualties will occur, especially in a region that tends towards the lawless side and favors warlords and dictators. So why let the deaths go to waste when they can at least do double duty in furthering his political goals and recharging the weapon?
What has he done that’s actually bad?
He obviously loves the supervillian aesthetic, but so far everything he’s done has obviously been intended to make the world a better place.
He still wants to own everything and there is a 100% chance that he’ll need to break quite a few eggs to make that omelette.
“Firmly”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
I can’t help but notice that he didn’t answer the question.
As usual.
this is a skill of the businessman. the lawyers teach it to him. Politicians play at it.
I noticed that he sidestepped it because he wanted to change the context. She was asking him, “are you planning to conquer the world like a cliched cartoon supervillain?” He wants to show her what he’s been doing, so he can answer, “I am in fact planning to reform the world and make it a better place.”
He’s got a ridiculously hammy personality… but in terms of actual deeds, I haven’t seen him do anything particularly evil.
“‘World domination’ is such an ugly phrase. I prefer the term ‘world optimization'”
-HJPEV
This is what I’ve been saying for a while now. :) Deus likes the tropes of supervillainy, largely because he has a very showman attitude, but he really has not done anything that I’d be able to argue has been ‘villainous.’ If anything, everything that I’ve seen him do winds up seeming more virtuous or outright heroic. At worst, he’s sometimes neutral. That’s about as low as he ever goes, and even then, it’s incredibly easy to argue that his ‘neutral’ stuff winds up also being virtuous or heroic as well.
All praise Deus, amen.
Which is exactly what every villain has claimed, SmugD is no different
I think you meant “most well-written villains” there.
Still, feel free to back up your claim with an example of him doing something actually evil.
The job of the military is not to maintain the status quo, it’s to be the goverment’s big stick to wave at threats. Unfortunately, the politicians and civil servants that make up the government prefer to warp the status quo to their liking, and then defend it at all costs which can involve the military, but more often involves corrupting court cases and inquiries, suppressing journalism, and backroom dealing.
ie the status quo.
Now the question is; is that guy reaching for a gun, or for a subpoena?
Lorlara may try to kill him with her signature dagger.
Fortunately super fast Maxima should be able to defuse the situation.
It’s a subpoena.
I love the 2nd panel! Deus’ expression tells a lot more than any text balloon would ever tell. He’s disappointed at the simple notion at being compared to any cliché villain. He obviously wants power and he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty if needed but not to the point of “evil overlord”. He believes himself better than that. The only other character that I can remember being similar is David Xanatos form Gargoyles.
Like the kind of guy that knows that sometimes you need to break eggs to make an omelette.. but you don’t need to break all the eggs just to make your own omelette.. leave some eggs for everyone else and people won’t get too angry…
It’s better to have other people make you the omelet, so it helps if you own all the eggs… or have massive leverage over the people who own the eggs… etc
He is a pretty cliche villain, though. About the only thing he doesn’t do that sets him apart is to actually be in direct conflict with the protagonists. Which, honestly, I don’t even understand. I assume it’s because he’s manipulating them with powers in one way or another, so it can be justified in-universe. But from pretty much any standpoint other than a narrative pacing one, it really doesn’t make sense.
In any case, protecting the status quo is underrated. Firemen do that. Changing things for the sake of change is irresponsible and almost always makes things worse, even when you start with a pretty bad situation to begin with. The way Deus is being presented kinda bugs me because of that: his strategies aren’t original (or legal, or well-considered) nor do they have a positive track record in the real world, but because he’s supposed to be successful, he is. I guess I just have to be happy that DaveB is in the webcomics industry and not politics.
I’m beginning to see him as a subversion of the cliche villain. his goals, some of his speeches, his remote, and his ‘condition’ all point to classic villain. yet he avoids the classic actions. as far as we know he doen’t have a super suit that can beat maxima that by the way has about 20 techs on it that fortunes would be paid if they were put on the market. instead he gets the tech and uses it to make another fortune. he is ethically flexible and astute to walk the line.
I have asked what a story would look like if the villain used the evil overlord list. Dues is pretty close. we forget that some of the stuff we see is not known widely in universe. and it could even be a ‘put it in plain sight’ thing. after all its easy to believe has nefarious plans because he’s secretive. but one like Dues? few take him seriously. reminds me of a guy who few took seriously yet clearly stated his intentions and has been delivering on them. not mentioning any names….
BLANKING BLANK….
oh well
corrected sentence
after all its easy to believe ‘insert billionaire’ has nefarious plans because he’s secretive.
not doing what i want just what i lell it….
> I have asked what a story would look like if the villain used the evil overlord list.
Two web serials for you to read:
Worm, by Wildbow (parahumans.net)
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by some atheist televangelist.
HPMR has been floating around my reading list for years, maybe I should bump it up a few notches.
Whether or not the status quo is “humming along just fine” depends on who you ask.
The first question to ask about any Utopia is “who does it hurt?”
Indeed. Are you familiar with the short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin? If not, you can read it here:
http://sites.asiasociety.org/asia21summit/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/3.-Le-Guin-Ursula-The-Ones-Who-Walk-Away-From-Omelas.pdf
Ah yes, the triumph of feel-good emotionalism over all else. Don’t try to improve the lot of those on the wrong side of the status quo, just walk away as if it’s nothing to do with you. One could even argue that, since the same price is paid regardless of whether you stay or go, the ‘good’ response is to stay and maximise the benefit gained for that price.
And the second question should be “is the overall outcome worth it?”.
I was thinking this comic, whether intentional or not, is very timely.
I’m sure I have no idea what you mean. There is no systemic racism in
Ba Sing SeU.S.A.And that’s how you know there’s something wrong with it. If a society serves some of its members at the expense of others, it’s fundamentally exploitative.
Nope, you smoke culebras separately and it does not look as cool then. He’s rather a “presidente” or “perfecto” type, if for the name only. Or “Churchill”.
Here comes Mulder and Skully! I wonder what they need to ask him?
+1 My though on seeing that last panel myself.
i’m going for forgotten staffer who has something important to tell Dues.
Sunglasses at night. Always a worry.
unless they are driving to Chicago in a former cop car….
Or you want to forget your name
As I discused before, I wonder how much Maxima can sense outside our own sensitivity. It is clear by her own reactions that she, at least, retains sensitivity within average human ranges. [At least with taste, sight and hearing]
But… [And pardon my impulse to search for “real fisical laws” explanations for everything fictional as well as my english] if she has human ranged senses she must have another way to percive them. Becouse she is INDOUGHTABLY more durable even “powered down” than a human. And our senses depend on hour bodys being deformed and disolved.
So, she may be have, withought her knowing, more “precise” senses.
Lets place this act of… “snob shin” showd were she breathes a cigar within a glass of expensive alcohol. Most human would be undercut by the sense duming properties of the smoke. But she might be able to even taste the braking point between the smoked alcohol and the “virgin” one.
Trying to clarify myself. It would be like… when you focus hard on a LED screen (old model). You can still see the big picture but you can also start to see the individuall RGB lights.
My guess would be that Maxima is as deformable as a normal human, until a certain point where she is just rigid. Think of a tarpaulin, it’s soft and deformable until its taunt and then isn’t.
Note that most LED screens you get are not really LED screens, they are LCD with LED back light. with real LED screens you usually still can see the LEDs because that constriction only is sensible above a certain size and at that point the pixel are multi-millimetre in diameter.
But Max cannot be examined by average human methods. If she would be “deformable like a human until x is surpassed” she sould be susceptible to more subtle kinds of examination. Yet, no one knows her composition or exact properties.
Previously confirmed she does not have super hearing because of the construction workers. Just letting you know. No I don’t have the page number handy.
Superhearing can go in a lot of directions. Range and wavelenth are just 2 of the multiple abilities. Albeit the 2 that usually confine “hearing”.
She may not have super hearing, she still has enhanced (or better than normal) hearing
And fairly sure the page you are thinking of was when Maxi and Sydney (and Dabbles) arrived at the Vault
Mulder and Scully? I want to believe.
If you like brandy and tobacco smoke together then you can have them together…
Who’s going to argue with Maxima anyway ?
I assume she’s tried all the combinations and this is what she likes
And what you like is what you should get to have, provided nobody gets hurt
She isn’t hurting anyone else, no ‘second hand smoke’ issues here.
What I have problems with is people trying to force other people to do or not do something because they’ve decided they get to say what’s right and what isn’t.
It’s not like brandy and cigars don’t go together anyway. Any oak aging, even in raw oak, will give cognac and armagnac smoky notes that pair well together with unfiltered tobacco.
I see Deus as a Dr. Doom type of villain. The take over the world to run it better type. Also, Dave, think cigarillo.
I don’t. Dr. Doom is outright villainous, and while he runs his country well, he curtails his citizens’ freedom in the process. Deus does the opposite – he expanded the amount of freedom the average citizen of Galytin had instead. IF i had to compare Deus to another character in fiction, it would probably be to David Xanatos from Disney’s Gargoyles, AFTER Xanatos had his son.
Okay, so now I may be hearing Deus voiced by Frakes. Hmmm. Not a bad choice.
I can TOTALLY envision that.
Let’s not forget that the status quo blocks advancements being used practical.
If we really used all the technology available and all our resources we could do things many would consider Science Fiction. It’s just not possible with the current status quo.
And it gets worse in a superhero universe. Only one super being that can has superman’s skill set, especially super strength, orbital or space flight and the ability to survive in space would speed up the industrialization of space considerably.
One flight per day with a 100 tons?
Until drones found resources to mine on the moon, mars and the asteroids we’d have the mining equipment and some factories up there.
Reminds me of the time I came up with a gravitokinetic character: instead of that superhero nonsense, she found a mining company she liked and used her powers to help them set up operations in the asteroid belt. She ended up with a better security detail than most world leaders.
True, to some degree. In the real world, such ideas are often blocked not so much by “status quo” as by physics and logistics and obvious emergent effects. Hovercars and jetpacks exist, but their logistics are terrible, and if they became 1% of our travel miles, they’d triple our travel death rate, whole driving up the energy cost about 5% iigc.
On the other hand, if global warming were a serious thing, it could be solved relatively cheaply by establishing manufacturing on the moon to manufacture a few hundred square miles of orbital parasols. That would simultaneously give us facilities to put armored taxis in to all the Aldrin cyclers.
“if global warming were a serious thing” There is no”IF” about it. Mass extinctions werer caused by changing climates, The real question, will we, as a species survive it?
We probably will. Probably even most of us. A lot of poor people may die but nobody important care much about them so it’s probably inevitable. I should probably use the word “probably” less often.
Climate change is a real thing, and it has both warmed and cooled (the cooling, actually, is *by far* the worse of the two, at least in terms of what the Earth has gone through). The question is not “will the climate change”, but “HOW will the climate change?” and, secondarily, “How might we affect that?”
We do not have answers to those questions. We have… vague guesses based on ridiculously incomplete computer models. As only the most obvious incompleteness, none of the models, last I checked, even attempted to deal with what the changes they were trying to model would do to cloud formation. Cloud formation affects planetary albedo. Any significant change to planetary albedo would dwarf every other effect we know of save solar output.
And we’re just ignoring that. So, to sum up, the single largest factor is completely and utterly beyond our control for the forseeable future, and the second biggest factor, we have *no bloody clue about*.
Change *will* come. We don’t know which way it will go (we are guessing “hotter”, based on the history of the planetary cycles, but the pattern isn’t remotely perfect, so it’s just a “best bet”), and we have no idea how much we might or might not be affecting it (again, for only the most obvious, we don’t know what higher CO2 does to cloud formation).
Well they’ve been working on those computer models for a while. They’ve come a long way, just look at the covid-19 models.
/sarc
Nicely said.
This illustrates the rapidity of recent change better than anything else I’ve seen – https://xkcd.com/1732/
And of course, the fact that the system is so complex that our current models are primarily of statistical use is a perfect reason to keep disrupting the system, rather than minimising how much we push it. [/sarc]
Churchill smoked a cigar that looked like it ate a Cuban cigar
The double stogie… but what does it mean?
Basically, a cigar is made of rolled leaves of tobacco, a cigarette is made of shredded tobacco rolled in paper. So that’s the difference between a stogie (a thin, cheap cigar), a cigarillo (a small cigar made of better quality materials) and a cigar. A cigarillo or stogie could be wrapped in a tobacco-based paper.
Always thought a stogie was the short bit left over from a cigar
The etiquette among connoisseurs seems to be that cigars and brandy can be enjoyed together but separately. Fully appreciate the craftsmanship of each one, but blending the two in any way is a faux pas.
That’s not a brandy snifter. The opening needs to be narrower than the base. Just sayin’.
Ah, yes, the old “Reed Richards Is Useless” trope. There is an unspoken conceit in most of superhero fiction that the world depicted is “just like ours, only with superheroes”. Therefore, no permanent change can ever be achieved, as that would result in a world drastically different from the real world. Superman can’t prevent 9/11. The X-Men did squat for racial equality. And since superheroes (who always win, in the end) are therefore fighting to keep the status quo, the villains can be cast as agents of change. Unwanted change, for sure – they’re still villains – but change nonetheless.
Free education for every child in America? Must be a Luthor plot. A new mayor successfully solves the city’s homelessness crisis? He’s actually locking them up in his sweatshops (and let’s not examine in much detail that the heroes rarely ever have any plans for dealing with the aftermath; what are these hundreds/thousands of people going to do when their only source of employment – and sustenance – however dubious, suddenly collapses?). Millions of people start donating to a charity? They’re mind-controlled by the cabal of magicians controlling the charity in order to summon an overpowered demon to destroy their enemies.
Ah, the Wonder Woman corollary. She’s virtually the only hero whose raison d’être is massive systemic change, so can never enjoy any sort of success related to that fact. Rucka’s first run on the title was one of the very few times the character was ever allowed to engage with that idea, and we all know what happened straight afterwards
“we all”?
Quick google on the word “Rucka” reveals that it post-dates my years for reading WW by… three decades.
I don’t think this “status quo” comment is about the “Reed Richards” trope. I think it is more because Maxima is a member of the military and, as such, a servant of the US government. All governments try to maintain a certain status quo, it’s in the job description (since society cannot thrive amidst chaos). If you are lucky, they also want to find some ways to allow progress, be it societal, scientific and/or economic (unfortunately, I would say that entropy is valid also against governments and if a country does not improve fast enough, it will regress… which is sadly what I see in many countries, my own included).
So, Max’s job as an ARC-HON officer is indeed to maintain the US’ status quo, whereas Deus presents himself as an agent of change and progress.
I won’t say if he is plausible or not, many others have commented here against or for him with quite good arguments on both sides.
Worm does a pretty good job of engaging with the “what would actually happen if superheroes were real” question.
At their core, a lot of superheroes being pro-status quo seems like it has more to do with the way comics are set up to run for infinity years. As a result, you can’t deviate too strongly from reality, and the existence of a large number of supers, much less transferable abilities like magic or super science, would cause some serious deviation.
A competent super police force means that the sixteen year old that just learned they can fly has someone that they can call rather than be forced to be a superhero themselves. Significantly more realistic, but seems like it would be a much more boring story. One of the reasons I like this comic is the fact that DaveB recognized that 90% of super stuff is already resolved by existing vigilante laws rather than being this totally separate thing that exists outside the normies unless a supervillain blows up a bank.
Superhero (or super powers at least) series that are willing to make large scale changes to the world are rarer, likely because they’re seen as more difficult to get into, as well as the fact that it takes some serious focus on making a world bible and sticking to it. Not something fifty different writers on a revolving door can pull off.
Writing systemic change is about the hardest thing an author can ever try. Not only do you run into issues of realism basically immediately, but the simple scale of the idea is pretty much impossible to deal with. Look at all the science fiction from the past 60 years and you’ll see many, many renditions of computers changing the world, but not a single one that actually anticipates the complexity of the consequences in a way that mirrors what actually happened.
The same is true for any systemic change you can think of. The Civil Rights movement, space exploration, modern medicine, and especially fictional ones like the advent of super powers or literally anything premised on an apocalypse scenario.
I don’t drink or smoke and so I don’t know personally, but this reminded me of a passage from one of my favorite non-fiction books, “You’re Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger” which is about a junior officer’s experiences in the O.S.S. in World War Two. This bit is in London after the liberation of Paris, when the O.S.S. forces were being withdrawn from France to England in preparation to being sent to the China-Burma-India theater.
Colonel Delano was wearing his ribbons, five rows of them, and looked even more impressive this time. He was in a jovial mood, and after a few drinks, insisted on taking me to dinner at Claridge’s, the ultimate in English hash houses. A haughty maître d’ unbent practically to the point of crawling as he led us to a fine table. The Colonel was obviously well known in these parts. After a sumptuous meal, he swizzled the unlighted end of his cigar around in a brandy snifter. I was fairly glonked by then, and did the same. From the next puff on, opium was for the poor people.
Exactly this is what I understood about brandy and cigars — which is, you know, what the men were doing when the women withdrew after dinner: sitting around the dinner table, smoking cigars, drinking brandy, and talking about politics.
While connoisseurs of both would naturally desire to focus on one at a time, I always understood the two together as being a top-notch, elite experience not to be missed.
Christ isnt this just another page of useless exposition and very little substance. This is like the third page of “come to gatlyn so i can show you all the stuff the covers up my illegal activities” and “i dont trust you because your obviously slimy, but your good looking enough im more willing to flirt.” Could we please have an actual plot instead of just pages of dave’s random trains of thought?
No.
So, you don’t enjoy subtle interaction?
Please explain to me exactly what Deus just explained. I really think you missed it.
This is extremely tight writing. I could write a two-page essay on exactly what just happened and why, and what it reveals about Deus’s character and plans.
This is a visceral example of what Lorlara was talking about. We often see him blatant about his plans, moving his audience around because their response to his statements is almost mandatory and automatic. Here, however, he did something else, and most will have missed it.
Max didn’t miss it. Why didn’t she? Can you explain that?
If you don’t like what has been happening for the last 847 pages, fuck off
I don’t see how this is ‘useless exposition.’ It seems entirely in line with furthering the story and stuff which the characters would NATURALLY say in a meeting like this. I’m not sure if you are understanding what exposition is.
Exposition is the descriptive description and explanation of an idea or theory. I’m not sure how this qualifies as exposition. I mean… there IS a lot of exposition in this comic (Dabbler’s Science corner, the press conference, Sydney asking about how Supers exist, etc) but they always seem to be natural for the story and not forced. In this particular strip, I don’t think this is much exposition at all – if anything it’s just some foreshadowing.
But in general, this comic has ALWAYS been about dissecting tropes and superhero genre savvy characters. It’s the main focus of the comic in fact, rather than the fight scenes. Which is why the only time I ever was frustrated in this comic was when the fight scene in the parking lot took over a year realtime (6 months of which was spent on Vehemence).
In fact some of my favorite parts HAVE been the pages which were pretty much just exposition, because DaveB tend to do it very well in a way that does not disrupt the story (ie, Dabbler’s Science Corner, Sydney asking Cora’s crew about how to use certain things on the orbs, etc).
Also there is DEFINITELY a plot. It’s not just random thoughts.
Deus: Despite your opinions, I do not own Galytn and I do not own or run the government.
The government of Galytn is an absolute monarchy; the government is run by the king, not me. He makes the laws and sees to it that they are enforced. What he says goes, but he does have many advisors. He has a board of advisors made of representatives from each of the regions, a parliament if you will, that make recommendations to the king, but he is free to ignore their advice or only partially implement their ideas, but he wants to stay popular, so gives their advise strong weight. I don’t think this will become a republic any time soon. The king also has other advisors from outside the government, including myself. I tend to advise him on matters of economics, business affairs and government reform. As well, although I am not employed by the government, the king has, from time to time, asked me to be his representative in various matters of state where the king has insufficient experience or time.
The previous king, the father of the current king, was very set in his ways, which included vast amounts of corruption, graft and bribery, which the king promoted and participated in. In fact, he expected me to pay him substantial bribes in order to work on some of the projects I wanted to bring to his country, which would have injected large amounts of capitol into the country’s economy had they gone forward. The current king understands that allowing government bribery and graft is counter-productive to improving the economy, international relations and the lives of the people of the country as a whole. While laws against corruption were on the books before, they were generally not enforced.
The current king has made sure that the officers of his government understand that bribes and graft will no longer be tolerated. He has cleaned up the existing corruption regulations and added crucial new laws to tighten things up to international standards. Even more importantly, these regulations are being enforced and being seen to be enforced. Also, by improving the standard of living across the country, including among the civil service, some of the motivation for accepting bribery has gone down. As for offering bribes, the king has made it clear that offering bribes to officials can get you arrested and put it in prison. Prison reform has been slower than the reform of other government services, so prison is much scarier in Galytn than in western countries.
A licence issued by the government should not be given to someone just because they can pay the biggest bribe to the decision maker, but a licence needs to be provided only to those that meet certain objective criteria, including standards of skill, and the fees go to the government coffers that pay for managing the licences and for providing infrastructure, not just lining the official’s pocket. It used to be that to get a driver’s licence, you would pay a standard bribe to a police officer and within a couple of days, that police officer would come to your home to give you your new driver’s licence, without any questions of competence or testing at all. After the reforms, one has to demonstrate that the person knows and can follow the traffic laws to get a licence. The fee is lower, but the requirements are much higher. Also, the police are enforcing the traffic laws instead of spending their time delivering useless driver’s licences. Galytn has gone from having one of the worst traffic safety standards on the continent to one of the better ones. Everyone who got their driver’s licence under the old scheme was required to get tested and, in many cases trained, to get the new driver’s licence. One of the main reasons there weren’t more traffic injuries and fatalities under the old regime was that most people in the country could not afford a car. As the modern middle class expands, the people that can now afford a car are going through modern training and testing.
My company and its subsidiaries own less than 1% of the land in Galytn. The vast majority of the land is owned by individual farmers, and the vast majority of them are citizens of the country. A huge amount of land is wildlife and nature reserves, set aside by the crown for ecological preservation. My companies have been providing training and resources to help make the farms productive, by providing such things as improved seed stock, fertilizers, modern farm equipment, etc. to help bring the farmers’ crop yields and efficiencies up to help feed an expanding population. Even the vendors of these modern wonders are locally owned franchises under a Machina brand. Using a franchise model helps these people learn how to do business in the new economics of their country, while promoting a standard of quality that helps raise our brand across the country, and at the same time promoting independent business and entrepreneurship.
We have no monopolies in the country; if another company wants to do business in Galytn, they are free to do so; in fact, several have. We just happen to be well placed to do business in an expanding economy and I will admit, a large part of that expanding economy is due to the efforts of my company and its subsidiaries, but by no means are we solely responsible for that. My company and its subsidiaries employ less than 10% of the population and generate less than half the GDP. I admit my companies do most of the international trade, but for the first time in a long time, Galytn has a substantial trade surplus. The vast majority of businesses are independent small and medium-sized businesses, that provide a variety of products and services. The nature of some businesses has changed along with the changes in the country as a whole, as some old businesses become obsolete or even outlawed, but new opportunities for entrepreneurship are opening up all the time.
While Machina Industries and its subsidiaries are an important part of the economy of Galytn, and, in no small part, responsible for much of the modernization of industry, infrastructure, education and society in general, we are not the only game in town, and a lot of the advancements in Galytn must be attributed to the resilience and perseverance of the people themselves.
Wow. Nicely written.
Seconded… and requesting cannonization.
You do realize that would give us another 2 pages of exposition text, right?
Good businessmen don’t need to explain the minutiae of their outcomes, but rather the aim of their actions. Because their results speak for them. Hence why he wants Maxima to come look.
That’s true. I’m just saying that David Nutall’s post was nicely written though. But i do agree with you that Deus is more about showing results than explaining it in detail (unless he’s on a news show, in which case he seems to like to explain at least his PHILOSOPHY in detail).
Philosophy is the rationale of purpose; the precursor to science was natural philosophy. So yes, we are in agreement that he explains his aims. Suppose I could’ve worded that better. :)
In any case, I was responding to David’s comment “another 2 pages of exposition text.”
As a counter I would like to present him using words like we to describe Galytn. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-829-spilling-news/
I wonder what those two in the last panel want with Deus!? Who knows…???
I get the feeling there is another guy named Dave around here might know. Not this Dave, that’s for sure. I think we might find out on Thursday.
Either that or we get a snap-cut to Sydney swimming laps in the pool, when we see Varia grab onto Vince then jump into the water, looking like a mermaid and moving like a tuna. Math is seen stretching out in a splits-position off to the side with his feet on a pair of chairs and his hips below the level of the chairs. Anvil is wearing a one-piece swim suit off in a corner with Dabbler, dress like we saw her at the pool before; they are having a conversation about what it appropriate to wear at a pool that is open to more than just women.
You know im actually a little angry about its taken me until this very page to get the fact that his name is Deus and his scar is an X… Deus Ex… WAY TO LONG!!!!
And his company is called…?
In the end what Deus desires is simply a different status quo. From what we’ve seen, and from the question he refuses to answer, one where he runs things. And maybe he’d be a philosopher king… but a philosopher king is still a king.
My guess is that the question was not answerable in the form it was asked.
While probably foolhardy, he could have answered ‘Yes’.
A much more strategic answer would have been some variant on, ‘No’.
Answering the question of, “Are you really planning on taking over the world?” with an invitation to see how much better things are in a place you’ve already effectively taken over is a pretty clear non-response indicating that yes, you are planning on it, and you think the questioner should support the matter.
In all fairness, it’s not a bad way to answer the question. Yes or no will likely gain you an opponent. Saying “but look what I’ve accomplished” is more likely to gain allies. Just look at Singapore.
It also deflects nicely, if the true answer was along the lines of “not yet”. He could be planning to see how well his system works at an increasing but still relatively local scale, and only start aiming for global once he’s confident it will work at that scale.
Or “It is a long-term objective, but there’s no point fixing details too far ahead. No plan long survives contact with the opposition, and all that. The ‘plan’ per se only goes as far as Phase Three, the rest of Southern Africa.”
No government is going to willingly step aside in favor of a better government/form of governance if that means losing the option of being a part of that better government.
The status quo will not defend itself because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the self-serving thing to do.
Sad, but completely true.
There are a very few exceptions in human history, and the individuals involved are still respected and revered in many places today.
If Max read an economics textbook, she’d ask where she could get one of those signs.
Depends which book.
On the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith, is in the public domain and available for download for free from several document-preservation websites. That explains things pretty succinctly and most other economics texts are either at least partially based on it, or are written assuming you know the material of that book first.
You do realize the gold standard was violated at nations’ whims whenever they needed to go fiat, right?
The gold standard was more of a parade than an actual economic system. The man behind the curtain controlled everything. Which is why nations around the world refused to remain attached to said system and real fiat was born (again) quite quickly after the gold standard went international. In fact, fiat predates the gold standard – it was enacted first in Mongolia back during the reign of Genghis Khan.
Prior to that, all money represented physical worth in some capacity. Yet, despite this tie to real value, the first recorded quantitative easing occurred in Ancient Rome (yes, really!) – while they were using a near-bullion standard (!).* The Romans also essentially scammed people by repeatedly debasing their money.** Fiat has a far longer history of success than the gold standard and both were developed as a consequence of the failures of bullion and near-bullion standards.
* https://www.businessinsider.com/qe-in-the-financial-crisis-of-33-ad-2013-10?op=1&r=US&IR=T
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_currency#Value_and_composition
The idea that the gold standard is somehow superior is just the ramblings of people who yearn for better days… When the U.S. controlled the world’s currency and got rich. Except, that was bad for the U.S. too because then everyone hated them.
Plus the gold standard probably did make he Great Depression last significantly longer, and limits the amount that an economy can grow or the speed at which it can grow. :)
Although the US still sort of controls the world’s economy, mainly by being its biggest consumer of goods and services.
Much of that arises from the actions of JP Morgan, oddly enough. A little known bit of history is the Pujo Committee. It was discovered that JP Morgan controlled assets in excess of 2/3rds of the U.S.’ GDP. This in a time when the U.S. had 1/4th of the entire world’s GDP. As a share of global wealth, JP Morgan is likely the single wealthiest individual who ever lived, even surpassing more famous names like the East India Company and Lord Rothchild. Obviously unable to prosecute Mr. Morgan, they kept him in court until he died.
The U.S. once used him personally as a lender during the panic of 1907. Oh, and his lending house also initiated the panic of 1907, what a coincidence… It’s not often you see individuals loaning their assets to support the economy of the world’s richest nation. Likewise, it’s suspected his actions played a major role in the collapse of the German Empire and thus the later rise of the Nazi Party.
Nonsense like this is partly why the growth of the U.S. has been disdained by many despite the country’s relatively bloodless methods and generally pro-freedom stance. Freedom lends itself to ‘capitalist warlords’ who wield power far beyond that of a standing army. It was only a matter of time until a state like China appeared; clearly wanting to go back to the mercantile colonialist system.
Why? In a modern, global economy, the gold standard is a shite idea. Hells, it was shite long before there was a global economy.
Gold is not where you want to go. The real value is in gold-pressed Latinum.
+1.5 Quarks for this post.
And Rootbeer. It’s insidious.
Hmm… For some reason, I cannot help but feel that some kind of assault (orchestrated or not, actually life-threatening or not) is going to happen to Deus within the next few pages (if not the immediate next). It also feels to me like the coming pages will define the comic for a long lime coming… more so than most others.
I cautiously, yet nervously look forward to the coming event
He’s Deus and has yet to clash with Arc-Swat. Both from meta-perspective as from story perspective the man is invunrable. At most het gets safed by Maxima putting her at conflict with the US government or some other organisation who employs supers
Why can’t super heroes be there to free up a cosmopolitan world for its progress free of super exploitation? Seems like a lack of philosophical consideration that supers would probably take on. I keep the world free of interfering supers, but your future is up to you. Want to move to as gummi based economy? Sounds like a stretch but okay. Oh wait, that was mind control? No way bucko!
that happens it just tends to not be a comic book, as the comic format is never meant to end.
a book can have a super hero that changes the world for good because Books have a beginning, middle and finally an END.
I think I’d argue that the whole ‘maintain the status quo’ thing is an artifact of DC and Marvel keeping their settings ‘close enough’ to real-world Earth. Recognizable. Within shouting distance. So they don’t use their wealth or genius to fund research that ignores establishment sinecurist tendencies to blaze ahead down a thousand trails to find the handful that are transformative. Even though Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark could absolutely do that. (To be fair to MCU Tony, he was _trying_ to get it’s-got-to-be-aneutronic-fusion arc reactor tech to the point of replacing our dependence on burning hydrocarbons and covering wilderness with bird-shredding windmills and eco-devouring solar panels and dams. The whiny entitled assholes calling themselves SHIELD and The Avengers just kept pulling him back in for the free ride that his money meant to them.)
(That said, is it a Keynesian textbook? If Gold Protestor is aware that the dollar plummeted in value after we got off commodity standards entirely, she may be educated enough to be able to counter-argue the endless deficit spending that politicians use Keynes to justify.)
I never cared for the way the typical DC / Marvel superhero story was presented or the way it progressed.
I was more of a fan of things like ‘Those Annoying Post Brothers’ from the Black & White boom. I don’t most super heroes would be interested in the status quo all that much, and the regular citizens would be terrified of what they could do if the government got control over them.
And of course you then have the bad supers, who are really not interested in following any laws at all. So I think you’d end up with more of a society within a society. Good supers vs Bad ones, predominately, with some working for the government mainly to help keep the bad ones from destroying society.
So when I wrote about it, I approached it more from this angle than the ‘goody two-shoes’ that four color comics always seem to push.
I think I can guess the problem. Lorlara has a prominent place in the chain of the Deus command structure. Earlier at the restaurant she made the command “Bring me all the bacon!”. The conversation is going to start: “Sir, about an hour ago witnesses reported that Kevin Bacon was kidnapped and placed aboard a plane. We have tracked that plane to this destination.”
Could we be misunderstanding this guy? Maybe he’s going to be the unsung hero of the Grrlverse?
Pander has not been missunderstanding him at all, if so. If you don’t know her, she is Deus’s head cheerleader.
Rah rah Deus, yaaay Deus!
All praise Deus, amen.
I love that you just own this role. I got the giggles imagining you alternating voices between a pep rally cheer and chant of the Python monks
hope not that would be a horrible story.
I think it would be pretty good.
Take a show which has gone horribly off the rails – Supergirl.
In the first season, the main antagonist was Maxwell Lord (who in the comics DOES become a villain, but in the TV show really was not very villainous at all, just an antagonist). In fact, he was also pretty heroic in many ways. He was basically Earth’s hero (from the humans) and stood up against Kryptonians like Non.
Then Supergirl writers went sort of crazy, put Maxwell Lord on a bus to nowhere figuratively speaking, and made the show sort of suck.
The season with Maxwell Lord being the ‘actual hero’ for Earth would have been so much better than what happened to Supergirl. It would be a GOOD subversion of a villain trope, and Maxwell Lord had all the makings for that.
Same for Disney’s Gargoyles. David Xanatos had all the makings of a villain, but he turns out to sort of be a hero by the end of the second season, and became an ACTUAL ally of the Gargoyles, instead of a foil against them.
Well done antagonists who turn out to be heroes while STILL being antagonists are so much better than a cookie cutter villainous antagonist, any day of the week. They’re always more complex, better written, and easier to identify with than someone who acts like Dr. Doom or Black Adam and has people say ‘sure, they’re villains, but they’re good leaders.’ That’s not the case with Deus. He’s a good leader AND is not a villain, at least not from ANYTHING he’s ever been shown to do, onscreen or even implied offscreen.
TL;DR – Deus is an excellent antagonist/unexpected hero, like Xanatos but more virtuous.
Is MCU Loki what you’re getting at?
I was somewhat surprised the first time everyone got out cigars, is it really that common in the military? Also how common is it to take a brandy outside a restaurant?
The only person I know, who works for the US military, shares a box of cigars with me, every time we meet up.
OK, testing that link it does not seem to work, so try this one instead.
Seems legit, thanks for the insight.