Grrl Power #856 – Space kickstand
This is one of those pages where the Grrl-verse kind of got away from me. I hadn’t ever intended to grant Peggy a new leg, but… for Cora and her level of technology, it’s a trivial fix. They don’t want to give her a cybernetic leg, or a hard light one like what Cora has, because that would be handing Earth tech they haven’t earned yet, but growing a new leg from her DNA and attaching it with the stuff in their med bay wouldn’t pollute Earth’s tech tree in any way.
Cora and crew probably aren’t hanging around on Earth for too long, I haven’t quite decided how some storylines are going to shake down, but the fact that they need to be around to attach the leg means Peggy won’t lose her handicapped parking sticker quite yet, whatever she decides to do with the appendage in a bottle there.
It’s kind of funny, I recently had someone message me and say “Thanks for the amputee representation.” but I was setting this up as early as Peggy’s absence from the gun range when Sydney discovered her smart glasses. And again when she got the selfie from Frix. If you look real close by Frix’s side, you can see Peggy’s arm. You can tell it’s her because it has her color banded tattoo on the right side that goes down below her elbow. It’s honestly pretty hard to see.
Anyway, after I got the message, I was like “Thanks, and/or you’re welcome?” Hah hah ho-boy. But like I said it’ll be a while before any progress is made on that front.
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It’s funny how much chance enters in to things
Thought that was some kind of alien kebob or jerky in the jar when I first saw it.
Could be both…depends on the alien…
I mean……….. It’s not cannibalism if your are different species…….
And they can grow the meat in a jar, so you are not killing a sentient lifeforms.
Would it be cannibalism if you grew human meat in a jar? Would it still be wrong if no one got hurt?
These are questions that must be debated at great length, and then it will probably come down to what you believe personally. Kinda like Vegetarianism or Vegan.
The “evil” (no such thing!) part of cannibalism is that it’s sapient. It’s “evil” only because our present food procurement practices are quite violent, and we don’t want us to be targets thereof. Personally, if it’s not alive, what’s the difference to it. When I die, I want all my flesh to be put to good use—it’s only efficient. There was an author who wanted leather of his skin to cover some his manuscript after he died. Stupid “next of kin” or whatever prevented that. Puts a whole nother meaning on the “eat me” retort.
\rant And then there’s the argument against veganism, that it’s essentially racism against plants. People often make claims that veganism is more ethical because it’s not harming animals, but really, it comes back to cannibalism. Humans don’t want humans to be food, because they don’t want to be hunted or farmed. Animals are closer than plants, in semblance to humans. By extension, veganism is a way to put more distance between what is the {\sl me} of the particular person, and the idea of {\sl food}. And cannibalism isn’t really about humans. Well, maybe for some humans it is, but the real reason, the compelling reason, is that one would prefer being {\sl not food} (because of violence in food procurement, as mentioned elsewhere), and placing a complete ban on eating anything of the species is one way to ensure that that particular member of the species is not hunted for food. Obviously, this is very crude, and should be reconsidered. I’m not saying that we should hunt people—in fact, we should support all sapients so that they may focus on higher-level activities, such as technical, intellectual, or aesthetical innovation—but that we should let each individual decide for himself the circumstances under which he may be food.\unrant
“And cannibalism isn’t really about humans.”
Fortunately, it is. Cannibalism, Experimentation and Murder are closely intertwined, so all are forbidden by almost all governments and religions. We are using the “deliberate” and “negligent” (aka “didn’t mean to do it”) senses of killing a human to define the concept of failing to take great care with human lives, when we talk about Murder.
One may argue that the ability to experiment on humans (with or without the subjects’ permission) would greatly simplify the development of effective medications. However, the moral accounting in the development of LDnn doses could be seen as a disincentive. And the recognition that many “human” medications in our current philosphy have wide-ranging applications in Veterinary Science could be problematical if we don’t bother to test on animals because the drugs are targetted specifically to humans in a Cannibalist society.
It’s a bit like “The Right to Die” movement*. The reason we trust doctors with our lives is that all doctors are accountable at law for the death of a patient. Most such deaths on examination are generally held to be due to causes not related to the doctors’ practice. But every so often rogue medical people are uncovered; and the right to test a given medical treatment by sueing the care-givers is preserved in most nations legal framework. Allowing any person to involve a care-giver with an “assisted suicide” weakens the protection given to both doctors and their patients.
* Yes, I know that far too many people wish to escape the unending pain and abysmally low quality of life. But this is an indictment of selfish political greed in refusal to mandate better palliative care. It would be interesting to see how many voters can be persuaded to help others by recalling politicians who don’t put enough funds toward such better palliative care. I’m thinking that there won’t be very many takers, as it’s not as empowering as the Second Amendment. It’s easier to kill than to give a better life.
Actually, no it’s not: it’s about eating members of your same species, whether it be hyu-mon, canine, or vegan
People have just as much right to decide how they want to end their life as they have in extending it
That, in no way, should have any deterrent on creating better palliative care. Even if they had Star Wars slash Trek health and medical care, people still should have the right to decide they have had a enough
Certainly many non-sapient species engage in cannibalistic behaviour. However, the OP — @Gilhelmi — was talking about humans: “Would it be cannibalism if you grew human meat in a jar?“. And humans are (allegedly) sapient, though from time to time I have my doubts.
. . .
I totally agree that people should have the right to end their own lives. It’s the enlistment of the medical profession which gets me and many others. There is hope, though. Any person of sound mind — we’ll call that “able to speak for themselves” — can direct the care-givers to cease all life-preservation, and simply provide palliative care until the patient dies. Or recovers.
Ideally, the patient should be allowed to self-medicate. I draw a clear distinction here, between providing self-adminstered palliative care, and actively giving the patient a death-machine or poisonous drug. One gives a peaceful and pain-free end, the other provides a weapon of suicide. There is a difference.
An excellent treatment, to date I think the only treatment of the subject is the “Declaration on Euthanasia (Rome, 5 May 1980)”, A.C.T.S. Publications (No. 1778), ISBN 85862-247-9, February 1984, in particular the last two paragraphs of Ch 4, that extraordinary treatments may be refused by the patient or (if incapacitated) the patient’s representatives and the attending medical professionals.
I am no longer a Christian, but it is strange that the world’s second most maligned mainstream religious community should be the only such voice on the planet. And I stand by my statement that the world generally would be a better place if politicians were to cease nationalistic chest-thumping and try serving their electorates for a change. Especially those that call themselves “Democratic”.
The church had a heck of a time with what to say when a Ukranian soccer team’s plane crashed in the mountains and the survivors had to resort to eating their dead after being stuck in the mountains with no way out for months upon months after the small amount of food supplies they had (in the part of the plane they were in, since the front and back of the plane landed miles apart) ran out . Good book called ‘Alive’ (they also made a movie about it).
As I know you know, it was Uruguayans, not Ukrainians – there’s a world of difference between them …
Omg I cant believe I wrote Ukrainians instead of Uruguayans :)
Didn’t know it was a Ukrainian soccer team. I have a memory of seeing reports of the same type of thing but there were women on board, and some children.
These situations always call for lateral thinking. Nobody (I hope) thinks it’s nice, and most survivors will need or be seeking a lot of counselling. But in the end, it’s like the wild animal caught in a trap: the animal will chew its leg off, the humans will reluctantly eat those that died.
The Church is composed of humans, and it’s the human voices we hear when things like this happen. Many people don’t have much of a clue about the world outside the city, and probably less about the will to live. And when the victims want to talk it out of their systems, we won’t listen, only contemn and condemn.
The Uruguayan football team was a famous example – probably at least in part because those involved had that link rather than being strangers – but I’m fairly sure it’s not the only one. Certainly if you widen the search beyond aeroplane crashes, there are plenty of examples of strandings and other isolations.
It was Uruguayans, of course not Ukrainians – there’s a world of difference between them …
I know you knew, it was just a typo.
I have no Idea why I wrote ukrainians. That was the biggest typo I have ever done, lol.
\quote Fortunately, it [cannibalism] is [about humans].\unquote
I didn’t say that it wasn’t about humans. I said that it wasn’t {\sl really} about humans. The essence is that some persons prefer being not eaten. My issue with anticannibalism is that, instead of banning the eating those persons who prefer to be not eaten, there’s a ban on eating everything that is in a certain class that that person is in. That’s like removing a tumor in the thigh by chopping the leg off. It might cure the cancer, but it also cures standing, walking, and running. I’ve been told that there are some weirdos who consider those conditions nondiseases.
You really need to read what was written, and observe what was quoted.
You wrote “And cannibalism isn’t really about humans.“, and I wrote “Fortunately, it is.“, where “it” refers to “cannibalism”, and “is” carries the implied statement “is really about humans.”
Nobody cares about non-sentient animals eating their kin, it’s what they do.
I’m still trying to unwrap the “in a certain class that that person is in“. I’m pretty sure most readers are puzzled here. So your comparison with diseased body parts is — at the moment — complete nonsense.
“non-sentient” should of course be “non-sapient”. Naturally.
The part about \quote in a certain class that that person is in\unquote is about the inappropriate attempt to make it so that a class that one is in is protected, for the sake of making oneself protected.
The analogy with curing cancer by tumorectomy was about the scale. You cure the cancer—maybe—but you lose the leg. It’s much better to have a precise technique, that cuts out the tumor with as little other stuff as possible. Likewise, if one want’s to protect himself from a particular situation, he should go about it by protecting exactly himself from exactly that act, but not preventing others from being in that situation, because it might be better for them to be able to be in that situation.
Also, something that one can’t make sense of is not necessarily nonsensical. I think that the expansion in my last prior paragraphs—which doesn’t add anything beyond what was in comment 848722—should make that clear. Although comment 848722 may have been phrased poorly, as indicated by someone expressing trouble understanding it.
\quote You really need to read what was written, and observe what was quoted.\unquote
\quote Nobody cares about non-sapient [your corrigendum] animals eating their kin, it’s what they do.\unquote
If we’re going to discuss what one has or hasn’t read, I would like to point out that comment 848555 opened with the observation that \quote the “evil” (no such thing!) part of [i.e. what some might consider objectionable about] cannibalism is that it’s [I recognize that this “it’s” is vague: I meant “the eaten/hunted/farmed is”—but I would have thought that a charitable interpretation would have that noticed] sapient.\unquote
To be quite clear, I’ve experienced a person explicitly {\sl not caring a whit} whether his food is sapient. I don’t directly care, either, but for now, I’m against eating sapient food, because that’s one of the protections against eating me. What I’d like is to move towards a world where we don’t need that hyperprotection, where we don’t eat sapients because it’s mutually beneficial—and we have explicit contracts to that effect—that we not eat other sapients.
Corrigendum: When I said “act,” I meant to say “situation.”
I’m Delvian https://farscape.fandom.com/wiki/Delvian
and I find vegans to be abhorrent. You should be carnivores.
Just makes you wonder what those poor plants did to them early in their life to make them focus on them so much. I myself am not speciest in my choices, I eat both plants and animals. Therefore I am not being unfair to any one of them.
See if you can find “Green Thumb, 1961″ by Clifford Simak.
I don’t know if it count as cannibalism, but is certainly in bad taste.
If you can grow human meat then you can grow cow meat or any other meat-like substance, maybe not even tied to a specific DNA, and then the only reason to grow human meat is to be ‘edgy’.
Is it really ‘human meat’ if it did not come from a human?
If it is grown from a human cell, if it have human DNA, then is human.Synthetic human meat, but still human.
Eh, I see where you’re going with that, but that whole ‘synthetic’ part is a sticking point in my lawyer-adled brain, since ‘synthetic’ seems to be really close to saying ‘fake’ or at least ‘not natural’ (which for this purpose could mean fake).
I could argue either side honestly :)
Oh! Just thought of something else.
Probably because it’s 5am and I’ve been going over e-disovery documents for 16 hours and my brain is going to weird places….
What if you ate meat grown in a vat of a hybrid pig-man? Is that cannibalism? What percentage of human DNA in the never-having-been-alive meat makes the consumer a cannibal?
There there now, it’ll be okay. Now drink this chicken soup, and have a quick toke on this joint… Just relax, let it all fade wa-a-a-ayyy…
Percentage of DNA from one species vs another isn’t a great measurement, since we share so much with other mammals anyways. As for the morality, some vegetarians thing vat-grown meat doesn’t count since it was never a live animal, while others do. I imagine a cell source with any mixture of human genes would be similarly divisive. But personally, I wouldn’t touch it.
No, then it would be called S.P.A.M. Scientifically Produced Animal Matter…
Apparently eating human flesh is legal in many places, tastes like veal, but costs an arm and a leg.
“If you can grow … meat […] then the only reason to grow human meat is to be ‘edgy’ – Sebastian
Or for the taste.
I wonder if they’ll work out a way to make those legs in large numbers. we could do a kickstarter
. . .
your comment fits your pic
I’d prefer to have a wealthy benefactor foot the bill.
but then we’d have to give him a leg up.
I don’t think I will ever heel emotionally from all these foot puns.
just walk it off.
I cant think of a good response pun to that
You win this day, palmvos.
+1 internet for you.
Just make sure they keep toeing the line…
My, that’s somehow the sweetest page in a long time! (I feel that this a poor expression but I can’t do better right now :’-) )
Peggy sure looks cute in that last panel.
DaveB sure has gotten good at the soft subtleties, hasn’t he.
Makes up for panel three
And perhaps panel 1, where Peggy’s arm and leg appear grafted onto Cora.
No, that’s simply Pegs walking behind Cora
Right – in a far-too-close-yet-easier-to-draw-on-a-deadline sort of way that makes it looks like Cora has an extra arm and mis-matched shoes.
When did Peggy and Hiro have that kind of interplay? Did I miss something? Guess it might come up sooner or later… hmm.
Maybe they’re Eskimo sisters now?
Right, Thank you. I spaced on that. That would be a point for. Maybe Dabbler is a bit envious as she has to keep away per Max for now.
For the same reason Hiro and Math looked at each other like that, the morning after the party.
Well, slightly less extreme reason.
Thanks, I completely blanked on that. Of course, I’m happy they both have a fond memory to look back on for it. Cora seems to be making a lot of friends this trip around.
Cora is a friend of Dabbler’s. Something tells me this is normal for her.
Cora doesn’t exactly leave a trail of broken hearts behind… but more a trail of awkward coworkers and friends who can’t make eye contact with each other anymore. :D
Cora working her way through the team fast. I bet Dabbler is jealous.
Bet she wants to get that moratorium fixed even more so now.
Why? Usually when Cora is around, so is her crew and they don’t have the hang-ups humans have.
Other way ’round: Dabbler’s not allowed to go through the ARCHON team.
“Entire Team” Cora.
A r̶e̶a̶lfictional team playa
I suspect I would never even think twice about getting a new leg. It would just be / how long until I can have it attached / what is the rehab experience / how close to 100% function will it be / what medicine is involved and what are the side effects / what are the other questions I should be asking?
For that matter, should Jiggawatt be seen since her hearing wasn’t quite fixed? Or might they not be able to do a better job than Dr. Chevy?
A new eardrum would probably be a much more complicated procedure than a new leg. You’d have to do surgery basically right next to the brain, as opposed to just on a stump that’s sticking out.
Cora and crew could probably do it with their tech though.
I had a tympanoplasty when I was 12. It’s day surgery and honestly not that complicated.
There’s a ton of stuff that is technically “day surgery” these days. My left knee was rebuilt after the wreck and I basically walked out of the hospital that evening. I was already using a cane anyway so it’s not like they had to train me on assistive devices. Even in 2002 they did tons of surgery semi-robotically through an arthroscope which had really quick recovery times.
Had cancer surgery in 2012 or ’13, was cleared to go home that same day, was feeling a little lightheaded (which may have had more to do with CFS than the surgery) so opted to remain overnight ‘just in case’ and went home the next day
The drum isn’t the issue, that typically regrows on its own even if you blow it out. It’s the hair cells in the organ of Corti that are the big issue with hearing loss. They’re what actually transduces sound into nerve signals, and an overload can kill them. Well, maybe not kill them, perhaps just tear the hair off, so that they can’t pick up the sound.
It’s not clear whether the Doc can make you heal in ways humans don’t naturally, or whether she just accelerates and fine tunes the normal healing process. Probably the latter, because she couldn’t regrow Heatwave’s toe.
Honestly kinda surprised she couldn’t. Toes and fingers are one of the few parts of the human body that _do_ have regenerative properties.
I could see that, at that tech level I would be expecting to see nanotech surgery being rather common.
Archon’s team doctor can induce rapid healing in her patients, so she was pretty busy after the Restaurant Rumble, which included Harem’s wrist and Jiggawatt’s eardrums. Peggy’s leg was probably just too much mass for her abilities to have a positive effect. Also, that much healing would probably exhaust her.
“Let’s see. I would have to cut off all that scar tissue then induce the bones, muscles, nerves, skin, etc. to regrow, which would still take a few weeks, all while not letting you bleed out from your regrowing blood vessels. Every few days I would probably have to cut off new scar tissue too. It will not be a pain-free procedure. You might want to keep the prosthetic after all.”
Also while she can do rapid healing it doesn’t look like she can do regeneration. So if you can heal from it naturally she can speed that up but if you can’t (eg missing toe) all she can do is make sure it heals as best as possible.
I’ve regrown several finger tips, and there’s no removing scar tissue; Scaring is an alternative to regeneration. But humans don’t naturally regenerate past joints. Or really at all once they get older, the last finger tip I regrew was in my 20’s.
I am a bit surprised at the word ‘several’ in your sentence. :)
Look, you don’t get to be a champion at mumpty-peg without PRACTICE………
Peggy lost her leg before there was an Archon so she probably didn’t have access to Super Doc at the time even if the Doc would have been able to re-attach/regrow Peggy’s leg.
Valid point
At least you acknowledged it.
Many other Superhero writers don’t.
The X-Men were one where it was acknowledged, which was the reason that they had the best training room of all superhero teams in the Marvel Universe as well as one of the best jets. If your girlfriend is the Empress of a Galactic Empire with no first contact rules, take advantage of it. That’s also where Xavier’s hooverchair came from.
Some things that are trivial for superheroes can be a huge influence in civilian hands. For example the X-Men uniforms gave good protection against most normal hand-held firearms and some of the weaker energy attacks. During one adventure they loaned one to a New York Cop and forgot to ask it back. Thanks to the tight fit she could wear it under her duty uniform and it saved her live several times afterwards.
Which makes me wonder. Those uniforms, at least the unstable molecule part that allows them to adapt to most powers came from Reed Richards. Has he ever offered them to the police? And what would they cost? Many superhero teams and heroes in the Marvel Universe have access to them.
Batman Begins addresses the “cost” aspect quite nicely.
Bean counters didn’t think a soldier’s life was worth 300 grand
(Perspective: cost to kit out 1 soldier is currently about $17.5k. So, a Batsuit for 1 soldier – no other gear, just the armoured suit – would cost more than fully kitting out 17 soldiers the normal way)
It’s still interesting that it hasn’t been considered for high-risk special forces, bomb squads and similar specialized uses.
Bomb squad does have heavier gear that is even more protective then the bat suit would be because they don’t have to be fast or operate long with them. For SF there is also the question of how far does it weight them down?
Actually they are. And yes they have built prototypes and tested them. The power supply is the big hangup. DARPA is still working on it. And it isn’t just the US Army that is working on it. The Russians, the Japanese and the Chinese are reported to be working on them as well. It’s one, well, three of the under reported current arms races. And yes I am talking the regeneration of lost limbs, bionic replacement limbs and power armors.
Wait, is THAT the real reason Japan was experimenting with a Human/Pig hybrid?
If they are really experimenting with growing human organs/tissue then that would be amazing. I should find out what companies are doing the research and invest heavily in them.
The veterans administration hospitals in the US are a major driving force behind most prosthetic limb research here. And yes, that definitely includes “induced regeneration” as they’re calling it.
It doesn’t work, but there are so many little clues and hints that somehow it might, and they (and everybody else) are after the ‘somehow’ with obsessive intensity.
Earth has already experimented with cloning. Cora might be able to release the limb regeneration technology to our medical system, but once the big corporations get involved it will probably cost an arm and a leg.
That bad joke is deserving of the finger or two of them. Still regeneration or replication technology falling into medical hands would have limb et less adaptations.
There’s a reason there’s a trope named “Reed Richards Is Useless”; he very well could offer it to people like that, but for whatever reason, doesn’t, by and large. (Granted, there’s plenty he does do, and his reputation for being ‘useless’ is exaggerated, butstill.)
Usually I try not to think about stuff like that because this destroys superhero universes.
Reed Richards and Lex Luthor are not the only super geniuses around. They are just the top. All that equipment that ends up with the government after a villain with special equipment has been sent to jail, alien tech left behind ans so on.
There is enough super tech around to change the world several times.
Read the TVTropes link to Reed Richards is useless that I posted below. They lay out the many justifications for not having this (the world changing many times) happen. The largest, imo, is to keep the setting recognizable by the typical reader. Cops in super suits with ray guns battling criminal gangs also in super suits and with ray guns makes for a wildly different ‘feel’ than cops and crooks using typical pistols, shotguns, etc.
As Stan Lee put it, no matter how many years go by he wants to have people in his comics react to Spider Man swinging by with “Wow, there goes Spider Man!” rather than with “Yawn, another Spider Man sighting.”
That RRIU link also contains a link to Status Quo is God, which you should also read.
And then you might want to read the page “TVTropes ruined my life.” ;-P
The secret is, the modern Marvel Universe is actually set in 1972.
That’s why in the early days of the comic, DaveB explicitly said there would be very few gadgeteer geniuses
For those interested in a universe where superheroes actually use their powers rationally for the common good, I recommend With This Ring, wherein an Orange Lantern rapidly maxes himself out using his ring with fridge logic, and then starts shaming the Justice League members into doing something useful with all their insane tech instead of just punching bad guys.
That’s a good one, I like how he goes through and rehabilitates or prevents villains just by giving them someone who will invest in their tech.
Also the Villain version story line reminds me of Deus from here.
“He’s not evil, Just an Asshole.”
I love that type of Antagonist.
I don’t think Deus is particularly evil {\sl or} assholish. He {\sl is} a driven, single-minded (but with a (hereto\”unexplicit) grandish vision), intelligent businessman. Probably nonneurotypical. A psychopath? maybe. (Psychopaths are people, too.) I don’t even know how much he’s an antagonist. Sure, he has his subtle schemes, and he did steal from the protagonists’ allies. But I don’t doubt his ability to achieve a beneficent goal such by detestable means that terminate each other and themselves. What remains is to see his grandish vision. Maybe he just want’s to own the world.
Forgot to also mention How To Succeed In Evil, about a long-suffering business advisor to wanna-be supervillains.
He’s actually much worse than useless: it’s actually canon that most of his cash comes from big companies paying him to NOT release his tech, even incrementally in a way that would not fuck over the economy.
Reed Richards is an asshole.
yep, a couple of his patents are in the public, unstable molecules for example were widely available for clothing for example because there was a actual market for them that everyone felt was needed (Mutants and supers in general, there was a segment of them who had either powers or an ability that was basically a case of Blessed with suck powers that were either mostly annoying or would have made using there powers annoying at best or left them naked while just doing there job.
“None can stop me for I am the Streaker!” “So you can’t be stopped when naked.” “… . . . . yes…” *hits with towel*
Reed Richards isn’t useless, but his superpower is.
Try telling Sue that!
Or Heatwave (last panel).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-56-and-that-would-explain-why/
Can unstable molecules outfits even be mass produced? Do they require any exotic components that are rare or unaffordable? Is there any part of the manufacturing process that would be too complex or too dangerous for ordinary humans to handle? We’re never told about this, most likely because Richards never shares his best tech with humanity or even think about the impact he COULD have on improving earth.
Doom would shake his head in disapproval at his lack of concern.
They did address this to some degree in a quick arc in the FF. Business people stole Johnny’s wallet which was made of unstable molecules wanting to reverse engineer it and make billions (the material Reed gave as a study sample couldn’t be reverse-engineered) only to have their tampering cause it to begin converting EVERYTHING it touched into unstable molecules (so kind of like a nanotech Grey Goo scenario). Susan had to overtax her FF to contain it long enough for the reaction to die out and stop, so presumably Reed doesn’t make it available for fear idiots will destroy the planet, although of course by the 2099 comic line they’d become a fairly common material albeit a high end fashion fabric (Spider-man 2099’s Costume was a Day Of The Dead costume he’d purchased of unstable molecules).
Except they had elsewhere established that anyone who actually needed unstable molecule clothing had no real problems getting it. Its just more of a niche thing kind of like fetish or period clothing. Its common enough that people get it that the government does not even bother trying to track it because really do you know how many people own dog collars without an attached dog? supposedly their is a line of Yoga and exercise clothing that exists made with unstable molecules simply because someone swore by it when doing high intensity workouts.
All it would take is one hot twitch girl making yoga videos wearing one and the demand for them would skyrocket.
The very idea of clothing being made out of “unstable molecules” is severely painful to me. You want your clothes to disintegrate into base elements? You want your clothes to be spontaneously combust or react violently with oxygen or other reactive elements? Sure, go right on ahead. Wear clothes made from “unstable molecules”.
I get that’s not what is meant in the comic that uses that, but it’s what’s literally being said to anyone who didn’t sleep through science or chemistry class in grade school.
“That’s also where Xavier’s hooverchair came from.”
It provides transportation AND the mansion’s floors have never been cleaner. :)
Ha!
Hooverchairs are the best! You just ‘pace’ around your home and your floors are sparkling clean! And thanks to the alien tech, there’s no annoying sound, either. Plus you wouldn’t believe how great it is on deep pile carpeting.
No, because Reed Richards is useless.
Is Peggy experiencing the injury recovery version of survivor’s guilt? Is there a name for that?
Not sure about if there is a specific term, but I think it does still fall under survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s Guilt may not always refer to death, though that is the most common event. It can simply refer to avoid any sort of significant misfortune that you manage to avoid, but have trouble processing why you avoided it. A group of people could get injured, and if your own injury is mostly superficial or minor, while the injuries of others are much more severe and long lasting, that might technically fall under survivor’s guilt.
A large component of survivor’s guilt, from my very basic understanding, is the fact that you may not be able to process why you avoided misfortune.
And just realized I basically talked in a circle…
It’s OK. I think you gave a good summary.
From my experience with fellow veterans who have survived you gave a pretty good summary. Survivor’s guilt can be a pretty strong block that sometimes you yourself cannot realize is affecting you. And, although Dave hasn’t touched that much on it, she survived a helicopter crash that took her leg. It is quite possible that other crew on that helicopter didn’t survive. I used to work on helicopters in the military “back in the day”. I have seen that. It wasn’t ……………….. I wasn’t on board the helicopters. But I knew the people that were. And I served with people that were coping with survivor’s guilt. And, sadly, sometimes they lost that struggle.
My ex was told she was feeling survivor’s guilt when she was concerned about having a power chair to help her cope with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, when other people couldn’t afford one. This feels pretty similar.
Well, apart from the bit where there are fewer people who can’t afford power chairs than she realized, because of governmental assistance programs. (Medicaid is specific to the US, but various other countries have similar programs, or don’t need them because their health care system is sufficiently non-discriminating that it covers low income people under the same plan as high income people well enough. True, there are some countries that *don’t*, but she hadn’t been thinking about the fact that any governments helped out in this regard.) Also, her chair is closer to Peggy’s artificial leg than her replacement leg. But I’ve heard of people having the same concern over artificial legs, too.
The UK NHS supplied my (titanium framed) manual wheelchair, zero cost to me. But a lot of friends who need powerchairs haven’t been able to persuade the system to deliver them. As a rule of thumb, if you have any ability to stand or walk, then the NHS will try to avoid stretching to a powerchair, even if you can’t reliably walk from one room to the next and can’t propel a manual. And the system varies by area, resulting in a post-code lottery. I know people who with the same disability as me (EDS/HMS) couldn’t get their local system to cough up a chair even though they only live 30 miles from me. It’s much better than nothing, but it’s not one of the better parts of the NHS. So maybe there are more people falling through the cracks than you think.
The prosthetics situation is probably similarly mixed, but the problem for people falling through the cracks, whether here in the UK, in the US, or elsewhere, is a good prosthetic probably costs far more than a good wheelchair (powerchairs often run somewhere in the region of £10k+, advanced prosthetics can run several times that, per limb). And they both need regular replacement.
I think it’s a form of survivor’s guilt, but also, she’s been missing a leg for awhile now. She had to process that loss, and get over it, and she did really well, and probably integrated the loss into her personality a bit. That’s a part of her now, that she lost a leg in a helicopter crash, and something that came at the expense of a lot of hard mental work.
And then she gets it back just like that.
My best analogy might be if you spent years saving up money to buy something, like a house. You scrimped, and saved, and went without for years. And then one day, you’re talking to some billionaire in a pub about how you’re almost ready to afford a small starter home and they go “Oh, you’re looking to buy a home? Here, I have a spare” and just transfers ownership of a small mansion.
Yeah, I think everyone on this thread is making good points in general on the topic.
Where my head is right now, I feel like lack of control might be another component. Being unable to save others from misfortune, avoiding it through simply being ‘lucky’, etc. When simple chance is the best explanation one can offer for death, pain, safety or fortune, it can make other things appear meaningless.
Yay, keeping the Sydney x Frix ship afloat. Also, cool a new leg, but to be honest I would go for robot arm with a few gadgets in it to help with your job. It is interesting to see a vet be able to get their limb back but feel a little guilty about it.
I’m pretty sure the robot arm with a few gadgets in it is not something Cora’s offering. She *might* be able to get a robot leg with a few gadgets from Archon, but I doubt it. They don’t have that much more tech than Earth standard, and legs tend to be awkwardly located relative to ones eyes to use a lot of potential gadgets.
Rocket booster is probably not viable (it would probably be easier to control a jet pack, due to the relative attachment point differences), so basically what I could see would be having a telescoping leg to let her reach things that are much higher up, or possibly climb over larger than her but relatively small obstacles. But a replacement leg would be much more useful for climbing over an obstacle that was too large for that telescoping leg to reach over. Also, one could just carry a ladder around instead. Except, well, the utility is lower than the inconvenience cost of carrying the ladder. But the utility of the telescoping leg probably is also lower than the inconvenience of not having a replacement leg.
Maybe you have more imagination than I do and can come up with other leg gadgets. But I’d guess the fact that you said you’d go for a ‘robot arm’ is probably a hint that you at least subconsciously admit that same issue. Or maybe I don’t understand and you’d like to be the Cobra Commander with three arms and one leg. Which would be different, but even more awkward than anything I imagined before this paragraph. Possibly ever.
Oh right, leg. Forgot that, I wrote that when I just woke up. Thanks for the short essay
Also, hidden compartment leg (Weapon, ammo, and/or extra supplies), taser leg (kick enemies away and stun them, just in case I was being too imaginative for you), a super jump leg would be cool (but maybe something that would give her anti gravity abilities would be good too), and maybe just a cool gun leg. Gun leg would be useless because how do you aim???, but a leg that carries a some sort of compact sniper would be neat, which I guess counts as hidden compartment leg?
Are you ok? Want to talk about it? We are here for you man
Will Peggy put that limb into cold storage?
BTW-will Sydney secretly shave Frixx,so no more fur kisses?
Sydney likes the fur, so probably not
Didn’t Black Rose mean the face fur?
Face fur is cute too. She just needs a comb.
It looks as if it isn’t ripe yet.
Are Frixx and Sydney a full on couple, testing the waters or what? I do think they look adorable together but untill now I thought they just had a one off fling.
Given that almost the first thing that Sydney did after getting off the spaceship was to hunt down Leon and declare that they would be a couple, and then the exploration of Leon possibly dating both Sydney and Crona at the same time, it sure looks like the author has turned our fairly prudish lead character into someone who is more than willing to casually ‘date’ multiple people at the same time. All without the slightest bit of character development towards that huge change ever being shown.
Next, Maxima will start wearing clothing cut to the navel, because why the fuck not when characters change just like flipping a switch, amiright? Math will discover that he actually is gay and his earlier obsession with every woman was just because he wanted their fashion advice for his new, and quite fabulous, outfits.
I find you quite unfair, here.
First, the discussion with Leon was long enough to expand on how she had thought about all this during her time in space, both with the “carpe diem” opinion developed after her near-death trauma while stranded on a dead planet, and with the “polyamorous” mindset she experienced, while still shaken by said near-death trauma, when in Cora’s ship.
Second, the explanation given was, indeed, quite reasonable in my opinion. A little bit fast? Maybe. I don’t think so, but I could see how it may be perceived to be so. Still, in a fiction, things tend to go fast, otherwise, you have people complaining because things are moving too slow, especially in a super-hero(ins) comics… (what? no, I don’t mean anything by that, why should I? ;-) ).
Third, she has accepted the idea of polyamori, not of a restraint-free sex life (which would be a different thing for her, I agree). She wants to DATE Leon, not just shag him. While dating Frix, too. That’s the point of polyamori, after all. Your quotes around “date” are, indeed, unwarranted in my opinion.
The quotes around “date” are quite fair. Sydney had just met Frix, had spent literally zero time with him, and then they fucked. That wasn’t a date, it was just sex. She may want to spend some non-fucking time with him going forward, but that hasn’t been shown at all.
Or maybe just traded back rubs, albeit in the buff. Dave specifically left the extent and type of activities ambiguous.
Are you suggesting tough guys can’t dress nicely?
Sydney’s definitely gotten more adventurous fast, but it’s not completely without development. She has gotten a huge confidence boost becoming powerful, rich, and famous though, so it’s actually a reasonable stage of life for her to try new things relationship-wise.
\quote Are you suggesting tough guys can’t dress nicely?\unquote
I think it’s plausible that Mathias’ womanizings are essentially a result of culture. A very warped reaction to culture, but not inexplicably so. Further evidence to support this could be his obsession with martial arts. (Though he probably has some superpowers, his martial artistry (my guess) is not a superpower, but the form he applies his superpower to.) Both of these can be interpreted as elements of the involution of a certain puerile conception of masculinity in a mind augmented by … superspeedy-perception?, super strength?,, さぁ. Tongue in cheek, Mathias is super{\sl man}. It could well be that homosexuality could exist under that lifestyle, buried before his full sexuality may have otherwise emerged.
I’ve always assumed that Math’s woman obsession was just an overly-done gag on anime, where so many male martial artist types can’t get a glimpse of panty without bleeding a bucket out their nose.
It may seem pretty abrupt, but I don’t think it’s too unrealistic. Sydney is just now starting to bloom sexually. I’m sure she’s had boyfriends and sex before, but I think before now, she was a bit passive and nervous. She has spent a lot of time around supers who have fantastic bodies and around Dabler who is extremely casual about sex. That can have a pretty significant impact on things like sexual desire and openness. She then spent some time with Frix and this acted as a catalyst that broke some of her inhibition. She decided that she wanted to date Leon and she used her new-found confidence to ask him out. Then, she found out that Crona is dating him. She has already challenged a lot of her preconceived notions about relationships and sex, so she impulsively (totally in character for her) decided to float the idea of sharing him because she is really interested in being with him and the other guy she would like to be with (Frix) is going to be out of the world mostly, so not really an option unless you like Loooog-distance dating. So far, other than Frix, everything is theoretical. She still has plenty of time to freak out about the Leon situation if it advances any.
As someone who is a lot more reserved sexually, I can also admit that I have placed myself in situations that were vastly out of character for me because I was horny and lonely. To an outside observer, it would have appeared to come out of nowhere, but to me, an opportunity presented itself and I decided to try it out. I now am a lot more secure in the knowledge of what I am unlikely to do again and what I am willing to consider in the future, but a lot of people probably wouldn’t see me as being vastly different than I started out other than being a little more confident. Character development doesn’t always have to be in your face. Sometimes it can be as subtle as a shift in perspective that is never talked about or seen until you do something you wouldn’t have before.
“Character development” is called character development because words have meanings.
Development is a slow process. To reference another webcomic, in Dumbing of Age Sarah (I think) cracked a joke about Joyce, the repressed, religious obsessed, completely innocent to the point of being unable to say a curseword. It went something like this: “One day she’ll snap and suck a million dicks.”
That’s basically what’s happened to Sydney.
Joyce, on the other hand, has gone through a very long and painful process of examining the preconceptions taught to her by her religious upbringing and slowly becoming more tolerant of non-religious people, people of other religions, gays, lesbians, cursing, and several other things including doubting her religion in its entirety. But she hasn’t just snapped and sucked a million dicks. Or jumped into bed with an alien wolfman in an act of near bestiality which went against everything we’d ever seen from her with regards to her attitudes about sex. Unlike Sydney.
Aside from that time right after she joined the team when she specifically acknowledged she’d be into fur given the chance.
Did Cora do a treatment on Peggy’s scar? It looks a lot thinner.
Indeed. They’re almost invisible now. I had to tilt my monitor to a particular angle just to confirm they hadn’t disappeared entirely.
Perhaps Peggy didn’t want to change her face entirely (and remember, this is a girl with several tattoos and piercings; a dramatic scar is in someways just a badass tattoo that you don’t pick the colour for). One’s face is one’s identity, after all. It’s also possible her facial scars are part of an important memory for her (although likely not a 100% pleasant one).
However, toning the scars down a bit so that it’s less of a distraction from her face itself (or her feminine attractiveness) is probably a compromise Peggy wouldn’t say no to.
Of course… the other possibility is that it’s just been a while since Dave drew her and he forgot what her face looks like, or he’s trying new techniques within his ever-evolving art style. Yeah, that sounds better :P
That was my assumption at first ;)
Of course even in real life different lighting can change how prominent scars look.
Or maybe she’s just healing. I’ve gotten some really nasty scars, (Walked up behind my brother once when he was cutting weeds with an antique scythe, and got a pretty nice one on my chin; He would have been in so much trouble with Mom if it had hit a half inch lower!) and until I was in my late 50’s, they’d just sort of… go away after a while.
Not uncommon in pale complected people who don’t get keloids. Technically they’re still there, but they become practically invisible after a while, once your body remodels the excess collagen.
Yes, scars do vanish.
I used to have serious leg and face scars, but they’ve almost vanished. I had a great one on my forehead and used to tell people it was where they cut my horns off. Then I’d stare devilishly at them. Then it faded – really annoying.
It’s not supposed to look different. I’m just not that consistent of an artist unfortunately. I have a bad habit of thinking I remember what my characters look like. I usually have to look at old reference anyway because I’m only about 50% on remembering eye color.
I would like to state that i appreciate all the work you do, and the developing skill you’ve shown. and that you haven’t quit for more lucrative work *name omitted* nor have you gone to such an eclectic schedule that you have to ban people who wine about it. *name also omitted*
I don’t know what I’d do when given the choice after rebuilding my whole life around dealing with the amputation. Without that, I’d probably go for the flesh fix. Phantom pains, weather pangs, and itches you cannot scratch are really annoying.
On that note, whatever happened with that modified-pig-cells-powder, or whatever it was, that was supposed to help grow you back fingers, for starters? It was supposed to work by tricking the body into not going for scar tissue, but for growing normal tissue instead despite that there’s a wound right there. I saw it fly by on the telly ages ago, and haven’t heard from it since. Not that I’ve looked, but anyway.
oh what the heck… quick google.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/revisited-the-regenerative-power-of-pig-guts
that’s from 2017 it looks like they are having some success and some not so successful. given the nature of it- I only scanned the article. we may be in long term safety and technique refinement.
Thanks. I think I saw something about the military guy, well before 2017 at least. But good to see that they’re still doing it. My take from this article, is that the poorer results are with regrowth in limbs that are gangrenous or septic or something. Still better than not doing it, but not as good as a “clean” re-grow. So I wonder how this’d work with, say, burn wounds. Or what’d happen if you combined tricks, like stuff maggots in there to eat the rotten meat, leaving the still-good meat alone, then powder up and see what happens.
Over hyped “PIXIE DUST”.
Suposedly some RC plane enthusiast lost part of his finger to the tiny propeler and used
a miracle treatment to grow it back.
Actually the injury was overstated and it was normal healing.
Now that I’m at my main PC I can post a link… from 12 years ago!
https://www.badscience.net/2008/05/finger-bullshit/
Congratulations Peggy.
I’m happy for her, but does it seem like Sydney is getting a little too attached to Frix? Knowing he wont always be around and is really close to Cora is different when it really hits home. Like seeing him close to someone else or not seeing him at all for who knows how long. Even if they can text. Really dont want to see our little spaz get hurt.
She can’t possibly be hurt. Her switch has been flipped from shy, prudish tomboy to person more than willing to announce to an entire room that a person she hasn’t even spoken about the subject with that they will now be dating, and potentially in an open relationship with another person, while she still has her alien boy-toy Frix on the side whenever he’s in town. In other words, instead of a person who responds to Peggy’s euphemism for sex with “gross” Sydney is now a swinger.
Yeah, been there. Um, just because you think you’re prepared for shit doesn’t mean you are.
I’m on the side of this that thinks she’s setting herself up for some hurt, and she’s not going to be as prepared for it as she thought she was. But I think it’s going to be the character-growing sort of hurt, rather than the character-shattering kind of hurt.
Quite possibly yeah, at least a minor amount of hurt.
She is new to this kind of dating and she’s probably, at least in the back of her head, thinking of the western style monogamous dating even if she’s consciously aware that’s not what he’s used to.
But also that’s part of trying new things and branching out, I think long term she’ll be OK.
(ignore Oberon on this, they’re on a bit of a rant on this topic but it’s been addressed elsewhere)
Ignore Mike on this, he’s just spewing his own brand of bullshit that exists only in his head and has no relationship to the canon.
I back up my posts with citations from canon, unlike your completely unfounded speculations about how Sydney is “thinking of the western style monogamous dating” without a single shred of canon source to support it, and plenty that outright denies it.
Frix is a member of the crew of a spaceship which is only on Earth for a second time because they are dropping Peggy back off. If they are ever around again it’ll be because the author shoehorns in some flimsy justification. Think about it: Why are they even dropping Peggy back off? A cheek swab would have gotten them her DNA, there was zero reason for her to travel with them anywhere. Them returning with the leg would have been reason enough to come back, but why return with it’s still too small to surgically attach? Cora and company presumably have some motivation for owning and operating their ship, which motivations are being disrupted by unnecessary trips to Earth. So now they either hang out on Earth, not doing whatever it is they would have doing otherwise, waiting for the leg to grow, or they leave and have to return yet again, also disrupting their normal schedule.
I suppose it’s possible that Cora is just so fabulously wealthy that she and her crew have no need to use their ship to make a living, but that’s an unlikely possibility, and a pretty lousy character background if it is true.
Ah~ Well, sometimes a story gets away from you. If you want things to make sense then some things must follow other things. Peggy was shown to be alright with being down a leg, not thrilled about it, but okay with it. Her inclusion was a pretty big deal buuuuuuut for things to continue making sense she’d need to get a new leg or have a really important conversation about turning one down and I feel like the mental gymnastics to keep the status quo would end up being fairly insulting to others with some missing limb issues as well as others with conditions like survivor’s guilt. You might be able to write it but the thought of it is giving me a headache trying to work out how her mind and the conversation with the base shrink would go.
Doctor: You do not know whether to accept or refuse this. Why would you refuse this help?
Peggy: there are lots of others who need that sort of help, very often way more than me. And they will not get it.
Doctor: So you feel it’s unfair to others?
Peggy: Yes. I was lucky enough to be able to continue working. And it’s through my work that I met by chance the right person who can fix it. I started out luckier and that got me even more luck.
Doctor: Will refusing this help those others?
Peggy: No. But accepting it might hurt others. If it gets known it is possible, just not for them? What will that do?
Doctor: But knowing it is possible might also give them hope for the future.
Peggy: I know. But it still doesn’t feel right.
Doctor: do you have to decide now, or is there time to think about it?
Peggy: I have time …
Doctor: Then allow yourself to take that time.
And that’s exactly why she has the leg in a bottle instead of it being part of her.
That’s more or less how my headcannon went for this, too.
i think the reason it’s still in the bottle is it isn’t fully “ripe”, as someone else said
Honestly though, if you were going to go down that road, logically speaking, and wanted to be consistent about it, then Peggy also should not accept a high tech prosthetic, which she had several of before now, because some people are unlucky to not be able to afford those types of prosthetic limbs, or might not live in a nation which had the technology to create them.
Cora’s right. Life is largely about chance, and you should not feel awful about being lucky enough to know someone who can help you fix a major problem in your life. It’s not like she (Peggy) is mocking those who do not have the same chance.
Well, there is nothing to say the replacement wasn’t augmented somehow. It might be easier to splice into some shape changing cells a ‘human’ setting to make a leg and end up with a limb that can be a hand, an ear, eyes etc. Or to be really funny, still be detachable and run off to go grab her keys… Let the cells slowly mix into the rest of her system and pretty soon she is Odo light.
Nothing except the author’s words, you mean…
This is a clear statement that the leg is just a straight up replacement for Peggy’s lost limb, and nothing more. Not some detachable alien limb that can go grab her keys or make her into a shape shifter, or whatever other things a person might dream up in the time that they spent on that instead of reading the author’s notes.
I need to expand the Patreon version to make sure it’s not a left leg – Peggy already has one of those. But I read Bill The Galactic Hero, and things happen.
I guess knowing some friendly aliens with a cell forge will help you get a leg up.
OUCH! *giggle*
Only once they know you personally though, first you’ve got to get your foot in the door
Yeah, they might feel charitable towards strangers, but it helps tibia friend.
Does no one but me notice the incredible inconsistency between those two statements? It’s kind of sad that the author is capable of going from “in my setting, space faring aliens don’t give advanced tech to pre-space civilizations” to “check out this link to when Sydney first discovered the advanced tech glasses she got from the aliens!” in the space of three paragraphs.
I was thinking the same thing regarding the ‘no advanced tech sharing’ vs ‘giving Sydney advanced tech glasses’ situation.
Then again, Sydney is already in possession of technology that makes anything else in the known galaxy seem outdated in comparison.
Theoretically. Cora speculated on this, but it’s not a canon fact.*
And at least on Earth, USA, law enforcement doesn’t grant wavers just because the law has already been broken.
.
* Maxima’s geode could just as well be “nth” tech. It did after all turn her into a close analogue of Sydney (or vice verse, if you want to go by the timeline). Her powers are internal, but just like Sydney she can’t use all of them at the same time at full effect.
“Sydney is already in possession of technology that makes anything else in the known galaxy seem outdated in comparison.” . . . “Theoretically. Cora speculated on this, but it’s not a canon fact.”
Respectfully, it is canon fact. Cora’s comment on Sydney’s ability to make gateways: “NO ONE has technology like that”. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-689-customs-conundrum/
No, it’s not canon fact. Cora is merely speculating, she has no facts or evidence. She even makes a statement about how Sydney wouldn’t be allowed through a gateway with her orbs, when the canon on that is that the orbs don’t read anything to anyone. You can’t disallow an object through your gateway that looks like a child’s toy to your best sensors… No energy emissions, nothing.
So yeah, Cora’s speculations are indeed just that, and the information she has to make those speculations doesn’t appear to even be complete at all.
What Cora did with Sydney’s glasses is on thin ice i’ll give you. the key here is there was not maintenance manual or theory document given. so in a real sense Cora gave someone that in her opinion is already in possession of obscene level tech a small upgrade with no way of fixing or recreating it. interesting note- go back to the fight at the steakhouse- arc light has tech a generation or so off of Sydney’s glasses.
Just a thought of note, it’s also not all that different from what we already have. It has a targeting system to allow the shooter to aim better (it still requires skill and practice though) and it functions as a smart phone. We have both these technologies. The main difference is that it is in her glasses, something that we are also capable of doing (though admittedly not as effectively). It’s a jump up in technology, but not a significant one. It may be that this is considered tech appropriate for Earth’s level of development and she didn’t think to check if we actually had it or not.
I don’t want to give the wrong people ideas, but I would think an aim-assist gun would be more useful than a machine gun.
My camera has face detect and there are gyro handgrips for cameras so all the parts are off the shelf to build one.
one of the most disappointing things about having a twenty-something son (yes im old, GOML) who’s gun obsessed is finding out how spectacularly specialized a machine gun really is. yes, many militaries want burst fire, but the continuous fire of a machine gun- that has limited use in a battle field. they are more of a fear weapon than anything. *see British comment about machine guns*
There are several auto-aim guns available commercially, such as the Tracking Point system. Basically an on-board ballistics computer wired to the scope, as long as the shooter can keep it reasonably still and tag a target, the computer decides when to fire.
I can only imagine what the military has but won’t admit to publicly.
She meets somebody who stumbled onto nth tech, and just wants to keep an eye on them. How better than giving them a gadget they’ll be sure to treasure and keep close every waking hour, and nearly as close while sleeping?
The glasses are Sydney’s tracking collar, she just hasn’t figured it out yet.
Why would someone’s response to a person being more powerful than anyone else involved in their world be that person’s further empowerment?
I wouldn’t call it further empowerment. Sure Sidney temporarely gets better results than normal, but since she hides those glasses specs, she kinda cheats during training , significantly reduce the training impact and become reliant on those glasses. Not to mention they most likely were not checked by arclight (else they wouldnt allow their use during training)so they might include surveillance tools to keep tabs on sid, and maybe a remote offswitch.
And i dont think i have to tell ya what happens if ,midfight, someone turns off all those assist tools you always trained with, her aim alone most likely drops even below the point where she was before she got those glasses (atleast temporarely until she adjusts, but that delay can be a deathsentance on the battlefield (if not for her due to shieldbubble, then to her teammates who were counting on her support)
Well…
Cora did say that the tech restrictions were mostly about avoiding major paradigm shifts in the low-tech civ.
What Sidney’s got are augmented reality glasses with a heads-up display for useful data (like ammo count and a virtual laser-sight). All that’s within our reach, technologically-speaking, and shouldn’t cause us to rethink what’s possible with technology. The only question is how her glasses managed to x-ray (or something like that) the gun and identify the number of rounds and their place in the magazine.
Terahertz imaging.
It’s also entirely possible (as was stated in the comments on the linked page) that Cora didn’t recognize that while we had the tech to do all the things she put in Sydney’s glasses, we don’t have the tech to put them all together in glasses without it being obvious that they’re not just normal glasses.
In any event, as Reltzik said, making Sydney’s glasses is something we can conceive of doing at this point, and may be able to do mostly with refinement of our existing tech. There might be a few barriers that require a novel solution, but it’s definitely plausible within my lifetime, so long as we also manage to not kill the planet, each other, or run out of power first.
Sydney’s glasses have one advantage over a prosthetic leg – they are extremely low-key. Sydney wears glasses – to the casual observer, nothing has changed. I imaging that the tech concealed in the glasses is very hard to spot, unless you have a microscope on them, it’d be hard to tell there’s anything unusual about them. Even if someone else put them on, there’s evidence of biometrics embedded in the glasses, so the interface probably won’t engage for anyone but Sydney.
A prosthetic limb, OTOH, would be VERY visible. Unless you could make it completely human-looking, it’d be noticeable to anyone who spent time with her. Plus, every gadget you load it up with (and the comment section seems to think it should be TOTALLY tricked out) will increase its noticeability. Of course, you could make it match completely human specs, and look completely human, and do the things a human leg can do, and nothing it can’t – but in that case, you could just grow her a new biological leg. Which is what Cora did.
The difference is maintenance.
If she give Peggy a new cybernetic leg she should be able to clean it, fix it, recharge it, etc,. This mean give Earth access to enough information to eventually recreate the new tech for themselves.
Sidney glasses are a “black box”, they don’t need to know how to fix them, if they break, it is a shame but no big deal, and there is little reason to think that Earthlings can reverse engineer their technology from scratch..
I love this page. I really do :).
“This is one of those pages where the Grrl-verse kind of got away from me.”
As a fellow creator, I feel the urge to cry ‘It lives!’ ‘It liiiiives’ and then cackle. Honestly, it’s kinda wonderful when something you’ve created surprises you with what it does ^^.
The whole not sharing tech meme does not really address the elephant in the room.
Just landing on the planet reveals that some things are possible, bang, the world bankrupts itself trying to duplicate what they now know is possible a hundred years or more before their base tech is good enough to do it.
yes, however as Cora put it ‘the genitals are unveiled’. when she first showed up the world media was already talking about an alien ship landing. (thanks Dues) so that damage was done. anyway, I’d argue that as long as there isn’t a maintenance manual or theory of FTL drive given to the natives then the spacecraft isn’t responsible. after all would Gene Roddenberry or his estate be liable if we bankrupted ourselves trying to make a real warp drive or transporter?
An apples and oranges statement. There is a complete difference between trying to do something that you’ve seen done and therefore know that it is possible, and trying to duplicate something that some writer invented for their fictional setting.
There is a difference in ability. its a lot easier to figure out how to do something if you know it can be done. but that wasn’t the question- it was one of responsibility. i.e. would an alien who landed a ship and refused to make the tech available or discuss it be responsible if the primitive society bankrupted itself trying to create it? or to use a more real word example Cargo cults- do the technologically advanced societies bear any responsibilities for the cargo cults that their use of cargo planes create?
I think there’s a big difference between cargo cults and showing people that tech is possible.
As I understand it, the cargo cults were not about untrained people attempting to make planes that could deliver goods from far away places. They were about summoning goods out of thin air with no attempt at understanding the delivery mechanism or even that it was a delivery mechanism – that the goods had previously been made somewhere else. Just “we make something that looks like the other thing and good stuff happens.”
The Alari landing surely triggered a massive amount of money to be dumped into research trying to figure this stuff out, and that can probably be blamed fairly readily on the Alari^WDeus for inviting the Alari here. But it also surely triggered a large amount of money to be dumped into retooling existing model product lines to make stuff that looks more like the Alari ship. Cora’s landing did the same thing. But that money was already being spent making toys for kids, and it’s still making toys for kids. Well, probably a few more grown up kids than normal, but…
I doubt that there’s much money that’s being spent on making mere look-alike models with the belief that they’ll actually work. That would probably happen if Cora dumped a bunch of her tech toys on people who didn’t have the scientific grasp to understand how to figure stuff out at all. But she didn’t dump much of her tech toys at all. Basically just Sydney’s glasses. As mentioned, the person she gave them to already has more tech than Cora can imagine, and Sydney’s glasses aren’t that incredible of a stretch from what we have.
once again i am reminded that analogies have no place on the internet. it ought to be a law- ‘if you use an analogy on the internet it will be misunderstood’ stick it in the section near Poe’s law. I hate that- i think in analogies often and based on the coverage of legal opinions I’ve seen it is perfectly acceptable.
to be clear I don’t think that a flyover/landing with no explanation is a but-for cause for a less advanced society bankrupting itself trying to replicate it. *analogy deleted for clarity*
side note cargo cults don’t try to replicate a plane- they pray and do things to try to cause more cargo to drop on them or whaever good thing happened right as a plane flew over.
so I’ll ask a question that will seriously date me:
is anyone other than the young man who did it responsible to the likely death that happened in pink floyd’s learning to fly video? (im ignoring the suggestion he turned into an eagle)
No, Dabbles has a personal ‘no sharing her tech’ thing going on
No, not Roddenberry’s estate, CBS and Paramount on the other flipper…
Not even going to talk about how impossible transporter technology is based on the physics, but warp drive is physically possible, and almost technologically possible right now. Unless Agent Orange destroys everything like he destroyed his casinos(!) I might even live long enough to see a working warp drive.
Probably dreaming there. It still needs negative mass, and nobody has proven that’s physically possible, even if you can extrapolate things you could do with it.
And, honestly, I’ve looked at the math on the Albercumbie warp proposal, and there are some serious issues being papered over, such as it not really being compatible with general relativity.
In one way I think you’re right, significant parts of quantum theory don’t really meld with General Relativity.
But — and this is stretching the laccy — there was a time when otherwise sensible folks were looking fo a way to transmute lead into gold… We’re in a large cave of treasures here, with only a flickering candle for light. Hopefully we’ll find a better light source.
Sometimes it’s really “right place, right time” to get things that aren’t a big deal to the giver… and HUGE for the recipient.
It’s where you start to be kind to those in need, pay it forward to those you can, and realize it’s the little things that matter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ld9_p2bS0
There are only 5 people besides Core. And only 2 of them never had sex with Cora.
The tech will at some point become common place on earth. Though it really should be something similar and I can’t believe I’m saying this to how limb regrowth was done in Bill the Galactic Hero. Which is a safety covering on the effected limb and the regrowth solution/ gene forge/ regenerator built into it. This way you don’t have the mess surgery once you have the limb it just grows out. Just make sure you don’t get two of the same limb.
Didn’t Bill rely on transplants? That’s how he ended up with two right arms – one belonged to a friend who was killed in battle. And he had a regular succession of new feet. Plus he had tusks – again, transplants from a dead friend.
Yes he had his best friends right arm as his left arm. He also had a foot he lost which was regrown it went through several phases, before becoming normal. So yeah Bill had transplants and regrows the Phot I’m referring to was in the book where they ran into the alien like creatures with the cute face huggers. If I remember correctly, yeah Bill was Harry’s haha funny character compared to Jimmy The Stainless Steel Rat. Both series are worth reading.
Is Peggy letting her side-shave grow out? o_O
Did anyone else get a flashback to the below image when the leg-in-a-jar was revealed?
http://doctorwhoworlduk.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/doctorshandda.jpg
I was thinking more like this from The Doctor Dances.
Dr. Constantine: Mrs. Harcourt. How much better you’re looking.
Mrs. Harcourt : My leg’s grown back. When I come to the ‘ospital I had one leg.
Dr. Constantine: Well, there is a war on. Is it possible you miscounted?
oh Peggy will need this joke if the leg gets reattached!
Yes!!!
DaveB, I think you handled the question and the moment really well, with the ‘…somehow betraying other disabled veterans’ line.
It’s not like Peggy’s being forced to regrow a new leg-clone and attach it. And no, not everyone has access to this tech…yet. But also, getting a cloned leg reattached does *NOT* in any way invalidate Peggy’s experiences and span of life spent as a disabled veteran. She’ll still have those memories, and have had those experiences. She’ll still be both aware of and an advocate for disability and veteran healthcare.
Deaf folks who can afford a cochlear implant aren’t magically never ever deaf anymore if the cochlear implant works for them. (It doesn’t always work for everyone; it didn’t for one of my deaf friends.) They’re still people who have lived a deaf life, have had deaf experiences, and still use sign language to communicate, as well as speech. (It worked for my other deaf friend.)
You handled the ambivalence well.
Agreed. This is a touchy subject, and rapidly slips into the morals of eugenics – what physiological variations should be “fixed”, and which are just “different”? Who gets to decide whether a given deviation from the norm results in an unacceptable quality of life?
In the case of amputations, if everyone can just have a limb regrown and spliced back on that seems pretty straightforward to me – someone without amputations, and therefore insufficient context to tell someone like Peggy she’s being ridiculous not to jump (ha) at the chance. But what about things that completely change the way you live when you (and quite possibly your parents and grandparents) have always just had it as part of life, like blindness or deafness or dwarfism? Do you ‘fix’ a fetus with those ‘issues’ via some in-utero gene splicing, while telling their ‘unfixable’ parents with the same condition that no one should have to live like that? Space-Lasik for everyone that wants it is very different from replacing eyeballs without asking.
\quote Who gets to decide whether a given deviation from the norm results in an unacceptable quality of life?\unquote
Oh, that’s easy. I do. For myself, I mean. (And that’s with for my penchant towards strangety.) Anyone else deciding about my would be highly improper.
ok. now what about when you were unformed enough that your informed opinion cannot be obtained *analogy removed for clarity*
Well, if I don’t exist as a person yet, then I’m yet a thing. If I’m yet a thing (that maybe shall become a person), then whoever owns me ({\sl potentially bound up in other agreements!}) would have the right to make that decision. The question then becomes {\sl who owns the thing that maybe shall become me?} I think it’s probably the parents, but there may be situations where it’s not. I think the principle is about who participated in the creation of that thing. Those persons might have other agreements or promises that dictate what they’re allowed to do with that thing that they made (that maybe shall become me).
Until I’m a person able to independently make an informed decision about it, the persons who yet own me (to a lesser extent as time passes and I gain experience which increase my independent- informed-decisions skill, which decreases my status as thing and increases my status as person, which decreases their “ownership” of me—the ownership transferring to me; that’s how I interpret personal-maturation) would have a say in the decision.
Just for shits and giggles…
We already practise “eugenics”. We are the only species that does not permit “survival of the fittest” (and yes I know that’s always a misquote). We are guiding our species’ development as surely as if we mandated that only suitable parents could have children. Except that in failing to plan, we plan to fail.
Eventually we will learn to plan our future, but the way forward will be painful.
I have had many people point out the inescapable: that we are the most successful species on the planet. But the example of the bacterial disease keeps coming to mind: the disease that wipes out its host has just failed. On the other hand, the disease that permits some strong hosts to survive has also failed, as the host then develops inherited immunity. (We cannot use this reasoning easily with viral diseases. The successful viral disease makes a home for itself in the host, but so far has not yet altered the host’s system to make it smarter to avoid destroying itself.)
Provided we don’t destroy the planet, it is probable that cockroaches may be the most successful species, followed maybe by houseflies.
as someone born with a significant hearing loss i’d like to bristle at the suggestion the world would be a better place without me.
‘Except that in failing to plan, we plan to fail.’ actually that’s the normal situation- so far we have not shown the wisdom to plan correctly. we have a great deal of difficulty planning even 2 or three decades into the future. now you want us to work on nearly millennia timescales? where do you get that much hubris?
very little on the evolutionary front has been done by plan. even domestication has succeeded more by random chance than by deliberate effort. we teach and study history as a narrative because its convenient, but in reality it absolutely can’t be a planned thing. we make small plans and have a few succeed usually at the cost of other things.
Why bristle? Did anybody actually suggest you should not have been born?
I appreciate your insight that we as a species show no wisdom in forward planning. May I say that it’s not our fault? We were put here with a God-given mission to be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the Earth and its animals!
Except we’ve grown smarter. I think. We have learned how to guide the evolution of almost any species we choose, and the results are due to careful genetic selection. And planning. We know lots about genetics. We’re even coming to understand that slaughtering our smartest children on the battle-field is a bad idea. We have to use our smartest youth, since Secretary MacNamara discovered — what everybody else already knew — that children of low intelligence make poor soldiers.
We are supposed to be the only species on Earth that possesses Abstract Reasoning. But I don’t think we are. Capable of Abstract Reasoning, I mean.
Eugenics is not a bad thing. Eugenics does not automatically mean we have to sterilise our children. The Hitlers and Stalins of this world might have different ideas, but we can always slaughter a few more thousands and impose a “regime change”. Eugenics does mean we learn how to adjust our childrens’ genes to remove various genetic diseases, and maybe enhance their immune sytems so they grow up with in-built immunity to (for example) all infuenza strains. Eugenics means we may one day discover what autism is all about, and perhaps remove it as completely as we removed smallpox. “Start wif da egzotick danser fingy, den make her reeely smart.”
But planning we will most certainly have to learn.
Except that regardless of what type of controls are used, eugenics is subject to abuse by those implementing it, and historically has been extremely abusive. The underlying tools don’t have to be misused, but historically they have been every time. I’m absolutely going to opt in to my eventual grandkids having perfect teeth and vision when that’s possible and proven safe, but vehemently opposed to any mandatory programs aimed at eradicating those issues – too slippery of a slope.
The film Gattaca did a great job looking some of at the moral and societal issues of designer genetics.
Also, nice Schlock reference :)
Eugenics is more selective than just the existence of human society. (Why do we have society? Because we can keep more of us alive as a group than as individuals).
We’ve seen a disturbing resurgence in eugenics this year, with doctors across multiple countries trying to impose Coronavirus treatment protocols that would exclude disabled people from access to ventilators, or attempting to put DNRs in the medical records of entire groups of disabled people. And not just severely physical disabled people, the first cut of the UK protocol would also have excluded many people with autism, who as a rule are just as physically fit as the neurotypical population. Disabled people have had to bring multiple legal actions to oppose these, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. And sometimes, as with the UK protocol, the evidence-base turned out to be incredibly flimsy: ‘We thought we’d just apply the same assessment we’d use for the terminally ill elderly without checking whether it can be used for disabled people’ (My personal opinion is that’s just the excuse and the real thought process was ‘We might not have enough ventilators, right, let’s exclude the disabled as a start’).
The consistent thing we see with people advocating eugenics is that their personal group would make the cut. Odd that.
Whenever eugenics pops up, there are people volunteering disabled people as first to be bred out of the species. But would we really want to make sure we never have another Stephen Hawking? And it’s not just Hawking, there are disabilities which give selective evolutionary advantages, such as increased resistance to malaria, or better ability to think in 3D, and so one
oh dear, that was an interesting turn of events. and now that i return to the selfie with the hint, i can see it… and a yellow but that is probably one of the guys from the crew.
I was really distracted by the huge extremely hot husband material covered in blue fur to notice it before.
Cora: Hey Dabs, we’re back!
Dabbler: Hrm. Whatever.
Cora: …Is something wrong?
Dabbler: ‘Sfine. Have fun with your “stump buddy”?
C: Okay, now, that’s unca – Wait. Are you… JEALOUS??
D: *blushes* I’m allowed to be jealous!
C: Yeah, but we share partners all the time! Why would she be-
*Dabbler looks away*
C: Wait! You haven’t –
*Dabbler blushes harder*
C: *gasps* Not with ANY of them??? Ohmygod! What HAPPENED??
D: A-Archon’s got all these STUPID non-fraternization rules!! And Maxima watches me like a hawk!!
C: That’s… that’s so CRUEL!!!
D: RIGHT!?!? It’s like they’re so… Why are you SMILING??
*Cora covers her mouth with her hand, but is still clearly grinning*
C: I’m… I’m getting more sex than you are!
D: G- *splutter* IT’S NOT A COMPETITION!!
C: IT TOTALLY IS AND I’M WINNING!!
My apologies if anyone was offended by Dabbler’s slur – Cora certainly was.
this. must.be.cannon.
thanks for the laugh.
Just don’t reattach to soon… or to late.
Some times Peggy agrees that size matters.
*Mind immediately goes to the Deadpool 2 ‘feet’ scene.
I just wanna see Peggy’s struggle with her “new” leg, and her happiness for having her leg back.
And I like Halo finding her place as a sexy and cool superhero among all these boys and girls, that get that with their powers.
I would not put it beyond her to do a little embarrassing dance after a fun night, “..I am sexy, and I know it..”
Totally love that last panel – so often in life our attitude and disposition depends on who we know and how events and circumstances affects them, because now those events and circumstances, by proximity, are affecting us.
“Not my problem until it becomes my problem” is such a human thing…
Also, digging the compassion level being shown. Very nice.
You know, it’s entirely possible that Peggy will decide to not have the leg attached.
It’s like with Tenel-Ka in the Young Jedi Knights universe. She losses an arm above the elbow, and learns how to go about her life, and, indeed, kick ass, without it. But this is the Star Wars universe, and she’s from a rich family that can easily get her a new cybernetic that’s just as good as the old one (like Luke’s hand).
But the moment to do the attachment comes, and she rejects it- not because it wouldn’t work, not because it wouldn’t be handy, but because she doesn’t need it to be completed- and indeed, it’s something foreign and outside of her body, rather than of herself.
Granted, I imagine Peggy doesn’t have the same sort of background that Tenel-Ka had for her decision, and yes, _technically_ the leg is going to be ‘of her flesh’… But it’s still something added. Something external, from a different source than herself. And Peggy’s more than proven that she’s a credit to the team without one of her bio-legs. (Not to mention, current prosthetic leg/foot technologies have already reached the point that they can be better in some ways than the original- and she could always go the low-tech cyborg route of just having compartments with useful stuff in there.)
I see no reason to not have her accept the leg. It’s a form of technology that won’t violate Cora’s laws, but still puts Peggy back in a state of being ‘whole.’ If Cora gave her holographic legs, or even a variant of her old limb suit, that would violate the whole prime directive dealio.
And yes I know Earth is getting an FTL ship, but that was a special case since they already HAD one – the Fel ship – which was dangerous (although they could not prove it without giving humans advanced tech anyway, or going to war with Earth – not a great idea), so that was just trying to make the best of a bad situation for the aliens.
“But the moment to do the attachment comes, and she rejects it- not because it wouldn’t work, not because it wouldn’t be handy, but because she doesn’t need it to be completed- and indeed, it’s something foreign and outside of her body, rather than of herself.”
Yeah, it easy to say that when you got the Force, Who needs hands when you can move things with your mind?
So… how long until Sydney considers talking to Frix about exclusivity considering he’s on Cora’s crew and all that entails?
I appreciate how you also have non-neurotypical representation. Although, if there was space-tech to fix my brain so I don’t feel constantly depressed and frustrated about how it feels I can’t do anything no matter how much I want to, I would jump at the chance.
I’m happy that this happened. It makes SENSE if aliens who were friends with ARCHON had the tech to be able to restore her leg without giving humans advanced tech directly (it’s not like they can backwards engineer the leg, assuming they don’t get to keep a cell forge), that they would do so.
Honestly it’s one of the problems I had with Barbara Gordon being in a wheelchair for 20 years. Her being Oracle was very cool, no doubt. In fact her being Oracle was much cooler than her being Batgirl. But….. in a world where they had super-science, cloning, magic, and superpowers which could heal people, cybernetics, exoskeletons, and LAZARUS PITS, you don’t think there was a way to give Barbara Gordon back the ability to walk?
Batman had his back broken and he was back on his feet in no time.
Superman and Supergirl and Superboy (and Batman actually) all died and came back.
It felt unnecessarily forced for her to refuse any of those ways of regaining the ability to walk, just because ‘other people don’t have those ways to fix the problem.’ Heck, there was an alt-universe version where Barbara Gordon got a green lantern ring (she definitely has the willpower for it – anyone who can hack their own brain to defeat Brainiac, a 12th level intellect, has serious willpower), and as a result she was able to walk again because the ring took over those functions that the injured spine took away.
Plus it made it a lot lamer that Barbara Gordon became Batgirl again in New 52 for no reason – basically where the 20 year stint as Oracle (who ran the frickin’ Justice League for years mind you) pretty much never happened. At the very least, they could have just healed her spine or something. Also it was annoying that she’d go back to just being Batgirl, instead of staying Oracle. As if being able to walk suddenly made her NOT the best hacker and information broker in the DC Universe.
Side note – According to Batman, Barbara is smarter than he is. But that’s par for the course with his partners. Dick is a better athlete and acrobat. Tim is a better detective (and Bruce has said that he would be a much better Batman than he ever was in the future). Jason is more ruthless and able to go where Bruce was not willing to go (except that one time that Batman was willing to blow up Apokolips if Darkseid did not give up Kara Zor-El and forswear ever going after her again as his new general – Darkseid was impressed with Batman because of how ruthless that was). Stephanie is more stubborn and has greater will (again, according to Bruce himself), and Cassandra is a better fighter. Damian isnt particularly better than Bruce at anything, although he has the same ‘jack of all trades’ skillset.
One of the many marks of a good leader- acquire people who are better than you, and recognize them for their superiority. But through proper behavior on your part, they still follow and obey.
“Superman and Supergirl and Superboy (and Batman actually) all died and came back.”
Supergirl did not come back, Kara Zorel is still dead!
No, she did come back. Crisis on Infinite Earths. There was a brief no Kara Zor-El time though during New Earth, during which we first had Matrix, then Linda Danvers/Matrix merged (Earthborn Angel of Fire), then Linda Danvers on her own without Matrix), then a brief period during Justice League Unlimited during which we had Kara In-Ze (which was not Kara Zor-El only for marketing reasons (that was when DC was all gung ho about Superman being the ONLY kryptonian, so they had to make Kara an Argonian instead, which was a Kryptonian that happened to be from a colony world of Krypton).
THEN they brought back Kara Zor-El in the Supergirl vol 6, when she crashed into Gotham harbor and was found by Batman. That’s Kara Zor-El, who was hinted to be coming back at the end of Supergirl vol 5 with Linda Danvers and Matrix, after Linda Danvers sacrificed Kara Zor-El from Earth-1 when it was discovered that she couldnt just take Kara Zor-El’s place to be sacrificed.
Then New 52 came along and that also is Kara Zor-El, but they just wiped away everything dealing with her death and rebirth.
Btw when I say Supergirl vol 6, I’m referring to Supergirl who was drawn first by Loeb. I miiight have gotten the volume numbers wrong and it might be vol 5, and that would make the Linda Danvers Supergirl 80 comics run volume 4, and the Matrix Supergirl 4 comic mini-run volume 3.
To be fair, Linda Danvers was the best Supergirl run – especially the last 5 issues. It should have gone on much, much longer, and it was doing great in sales, but DC wanted to bring back Kara Zor-El, so they didnt want both Kara Zor-El and Linda Danvers around at the same time.
Even though that would have been awesome.
Next Peggy needs to see if she can get an osprey in a bottle.
It is all well and good being a top sniper and osprey pilot, but it is hard for her to use both in a single mission, without it being militarily odd. Unless she intends to park her osprey near to the alien breeding ground, to give them a good chance to infiltrate and obliterate, whilst she heads off to find an overwatch position.
But, with the osprey in a bottle option, she can carry it around in her pocket, operating as a sniper/grunt, until if it is time escape a nuclear blast. When Peggy can unenshrinken the osprey and whoosh the team can escape!
Some bungee cords and she could lay down on the outer top of Halo’s shield.
starfinder mechanic kit skill basicly at max level can call in your ship from orbit and remote control it and go all shadowrun rigger style
“unenshrinken” Inventing new words is fun.
As someone with one leg.
Thank you for the vicarious experience of seeing a cripple get fully repaired.
(Yes cripple is MY self identity word
No, able bodied people should not that that as permission to use the word for other disabled.)
I’ve lost my ability to walk, and can’t climb mountains to take pictures of mountain flowers anymore. I still have both legs, but neither work. I also identify as a cripple, and feel the same way about it. I get to say it, not someone else.
And in the end isnt that what superhero comics are really about? :)
Living vicariously through the exploits of fictional characters that can do and experience things that cannot be necessarily done in the real world?
I though they were about exploring the imbalances that are in our world, metaphorized as humans. I’ve heard that many a human tends to understand it easier when it’s presented as a human. Weirdos, I tell ya.
Meh, depends on the comic and particular title, I guess. Marvel tends to be more about ‘closer to real life narratives’ while DC tended to be ‘larger than life’ – at least for the most part, for most of each company’s histories, until maybe the 90s.
The whole hero narrative as a stand-in for the reader does go back as far as ancient characters like Beowulf (in Beowulf) and Hrothgar (in the Niebelungenlied) though. They’re usually larger than life characters who do things which the reader will never do (killing a monster, slaying a dragon, etc)