So…One guy uses telepathy to better understand the intentions of others and tries to do a better job by it is the bad guy…
And the one that uses mind wipes, mind control and shock collars on people in a military school wherin he forces people to enroll is the supposed morally right one? XD
Gosh, this might be one of the stupidest smart people ive yet to see in a story.
The Headmaster is convinced he’s saving the world by running Praetorian Academy the way he does. The ends justified the means, and Durvin’s means include theft, tampering with electronic records, kidnapping, abuse of minors, torture, and illegal surveillance. (And those are only the crimes we know about. Who knows what type of bribes or graft he took while he was just a Senator, or how many the android that replaced him has been taking.)
In short, Durvin’s a hypocrite. President Cranston admitted that he was wrong, trying to justify the good he could accomplish while using a means that was unethical (if not illegal; I’m not sure if telepathic probes are considered invasion of privacy in the “PS238” ‘verse or not). But once he saw how far things were falling apart (namely a coup to remove him from office) he did the right thing and stepped down to found PS238. That’s because at the end of the day, Alfred Cranston is a good man. Good men and women can make mistakes, but they acknowledge their mistakes and try to make up for them. Walter Durvin is a megalomaniacal supervillain, and he will never admit that he’s wrong. People like Durvin (and Alex and her brother) don’t admit they make mistakes, they just blame other people for what they do wrong.
Interestingly enough, Zodon, of all characters, doesn’t seem to share this trait. He can be a real jerk, but Zodon doesn’t blame others for his mistakes, at least not completely. He may be unhappy when he gets caught, but he owns up to his misdeeds.
And yet, near as I can tell, it’s quite true to life, apart from the superpowers.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen the people trying to understand other people being labeled the bad guys, and the people trying to control everyone being labeled the good guys. It’s almost like the people doing the labeling are trying to do it as some form of mind control.
I think that’s because they are.
I’m not aware of having ever been unable to think something because I lacked the words. Instead, I have frequently lacked the ability to communicate because of it. However, I’ve been led to understand that this is not how it is for a lot of people, maybe even most people.
@leor613: I don’t have a number, but I kind of know the quantity. It was “all of them”. Who cares if someone else bribed with more money; someone is giving money. Take it, and let the poorer shmoes be disappointed.
I think Zodon *not* blaming others was my first clue that he had potential hero material. I mean, his response on 08012007 could have been to suggest any number of people leaking his cleaning code to them, but he’s responsible enough to realize it was himself, not Herschel, Victor, or whomever.
The trade contained an issue that was never printed as a single. Aaron has talked about releasing the next installment as a direct-to-trade. We live in hope.
Actually she believes she is setting him up to take the fall, which she may also arrange in order to open the way for a complete takeover.
He of course knows this and is planning to betray her first, which she knows and intends to supersede, which he knows and …
Hilarity ensues as evil backstabs itself to death. The ‘heroes’ on earth think it is their work succeeding. Meanwhile Zodon is forced to become a hero a view multiverses over. Let’s see if a permanent ‘heal-face-turn’ results from his need to protect it from vonFog’s future ambitions.
I think the EOL has a couple of relevant rules here:
“I will not make alliances with those more powerful than myself. Such a person would only double-cross me in my moment of glory. I will make alliances with those less powerful than myself. I will then double-cross them in their moment of glory.”
“All guest-quarters will be bugged and monitored so that I can keep track of what the visitors I have for some reason allowed to roam about my fortress are actually plotting.”
So if Alex was being a good little EO, then yes, she’ll be recording this for later double-crossing.
Yes, well… the difficulty is in telling whether your potential partner is in the “more powerful” or “less powerful” category. It’s clear that both Alex and the Headmaster regard themselves as the superior being…
Well, on the last page of the previous issue Alexandra mentioned that his office was currently being run by a ‘quite clever android duplicate’, so he could easily see himself as not really being senator anymore…
At last, we get the full story behind The Headmaster, aka Senator Walter Durvin! Durvin first showed up in the prelude mini-comics collected in PS238 #0, where he attacked the school at the Congressional hearings on PS238’s curriculum and funding. Apparently that wasn’t actually the real Durvin, but an android double.
Durvin continued to be mentioned, usually when flunkies from Washington, DC would show up. As for the Headmaster, until the soccer game, he’d always been a shadowy figure, directing Praetorian Academy’s activities from behind the scenes. Now the curtain has been parted, and he stands fully revealed!
There’s not much I can write without going into spoilers. He’s about to confirm what Herschel and Lady Alex discussed: that Durvin stole the PS238 Mark I device, along with the schematics for the armor and weapons that the Praetorians’ Centurions use. Herschel has suspected that since Alejandro and Ron provided him with a circuit board they took from a group of Centurions. But I can’t discuss more than that without spoiling some major secrets.
So instead, let’s discuss my “PS238” fanfiction. Anyone interested?
An interesting take on time travel, which would further explore the character development of Julie, Tyler, Zodon and Ambriel (and either Alejandro or Kevin, I’m not sure which), while raising some interesting issues regarding what Tom Davison can and can’t accomplish.
Basically, I’d be using the concept of “quantum instances” raised back when Tyler was deciding the fate of metahumanity. In this case, 84’s quantum instance from fifteen years in the future has been swapped with her present day quantum instance, courtesy of a supervillain with a grudge against his high school graduating class. (Class Reunions can be stressful for barely employed scientists who haven’t figured out how to turn their inventions into marketable stuff. :P)
84’s future quantum instant is stuck in the present, in her nine year old body, having to still babysit Forak, and try to get herself and the other victims back to the future, without compromising the space-time continuum or failing a math quiz.
Meanwhile, fifteen years from now, the All-New, All-Different Union of Justice has to figure out how to send a message back fifteen years into the past to their team’s powerhouse, and how to reverse the effects of the Quantum Quannon!
Well it sounds like a fairly interesting concept, though im not sure limits for Tom have yet been established.
Eitheer way though, it sounds like it has great potential.
Thanks! I’ve worked a basic outline for the story, the motive for the villain, and the line-up of the future Union of Justice: Moonshadow, Guardian Angel, 84, Zodon, Miss Positron, Malphast and either Flea or Emerald Gauntlet. Moonshadow would be wearing the costume we saw him in back in the “flash-forward” when Tyler was lost at the Castle Beyond Time, and one or more members of the Union would know Moonshadow’s secret ID.
Zodon would have decided to go legit, after becoming a celebrity in Norway, when Zodon, his space station and Asgard prevent The Linnorm from eating Oslo. He’s still as snarky as ever, and his morals are a bit shaky, since he’s fighting crime for the wrong reasons, but he’s basically the brains of the team, along with Miss Positron. Guardian Angel would be the team’s leader, since she has a lot of enthusiasm, can’t really be hurt, and enjoys telling people what to do. Moonshadow is the voice of common sense, and their detective. 84 is their F.I.S.S. and the public face of the team due to reasons I can’t go into (Spoilers, and all that.) Malphast deals with mystical stuff. I’m not sure whether to put Flea or Emerald Gauntlet in.
Most of the drama in the story has to do with adult Julie seeing her mom, while the comedy comes from adult Julie realizing she has a math test she hasn’t studied for in fifteen years, trying to get young Zodon to help her without messing up history, and young Julie getting used to her newest superpower (the one Power Girl is famous for). Plus, the mystery of whether Tom Davidson can’t help 84, or won’t help her.
That’s usually how the Flash figures out which Mirror Master is the real one, and which ones are mirror doppelgangers: they’re holding Mirror Master’s mirror gun in the other hand. 🙂
Ah yes, to the villian rant about how they’re justified in their actions. Love that bit when done right. Like it is here. :3
So…One guy uses telepathy to better understand the intentions of others and tries to do a better job by it is the bad guy…
And the one that uses mind wipes, mind control and shock collars on people in a military school wherin he forces people to enroll is the supposed morally right one? XD
Gosh, this might be one of the stupidest smart people ive yet to see in a story.
The Headmaster is convinced he’s saving the world by running Praetorian Academy the way he does. The ends justified the means, and Durvin’s means include theft, tampering with electronic records, kidnapping, abuse of minors, torture, and illegal surveillance. (And those are only the crimes we know about. Who knows what type of bribes or graft he took while he was just a Senator, or how many the android that replaced him has been taking.)
In short, Durvin’s a hypocrite. President Cranston admitted that he was wrong, trying to justify the good he could accomplish while using a means that was unethical (if not illegal; I’m not sure if telepathic probes are considered invasion of privacy in the “PS238” ‘verse or not). But once he saw how far things were falling apart (namely a coup to remove him from office) he did the right thing and stepped down to found PS238. That’s because at the end of the day, Alfred Cranston is a good man. Good men and women can make mistakes, but they acknowledge their mistakes and try to make up for them. Walter Durvin is a megalomaniacal supervillain, and he will never admit that he’s wrong. People like Durvin (and Alex and her brother) don’t admit they make mistakes, they just blame other people for what they do wrong.
Interestingly enough, Zodon, of all characters, doesn’t seem to share this trait. He can be a real jerk, but Zodon doesn’t blame others for his mistakes, at least not completely. He may be unhappy when he gets caught, but he owns up to his misdeeds.
It’s probably illegal. I think as soon as telepathy exists, people would legislate against it.
And yet, near as I can tell, it’s quite true to life, apart from the superpowers.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen the people trying to understand other people being labeled the bad guys, and the people trying to control everyone being labeled the good guys. It’s almost like the people doing the labeling are trying to do it as some form of mind control.
I think that’s because they are.
I’m not aware of having ever been unable to think something because I lacked the words. Instead, I have frequently lacked the ability to communicate because of it. However, I’ve been led to understand that this is not how it is for a lot of people, maybe even most people.
@leor613: I don’t have a number, but I kind of know the quantity. It was “all of them”. Who cares if someone else bribed with more money; someone is giving money. Take it, and let the poorer shmoes be disappointed.
I think Zodon *not* blaming others was my first clue that he had potential hero material. I mean, his response on 08012007 could have been to suggest any number of people leaking his cleaning code to them, but he’s responsible enough to realize it was himself, not Herschel, Victor, or whomever.
So a question, is this the last Issue to be printed, or the last issue period?
The comment was the last SINGLE (as in not a bundled volume) issue. I presume that means there’s at least one trade paperback to follow.
The trade contained an issue that was never printed as a single. Aaron has talked about releasing the next installment as a direct-to-trade. We live in hope.
I wonder if she realizes that by becoming his ‘partner’, she is no in a position to take the fall for him if things go badly?
Actually she believes she is setting him up to take the fall, which she may also arrange in order to open the way for a complete takeover.
He of course knows this and is planning to betray her first, which she knows and intends to supersede, which he knows and …
Hilarity ensues as evil backstabs itself to death. The ‘heroes’ on earth think it is their work succeeding. Meanwhile Zodon is forced to become a hero a view multiverses over. Let’s see if a permanent ‘heal-face-turn’ results from his need to protect it from vonFog’s future ambitions.
These are great predictions… too bad this is the penultimate issue of “PS238” (and the last to be printed as an individual issue). 🙁
What? You mean the next issue is it? Done? Finished? Or just that your powers of prognostication will fail you?
He means that Aaron hasn’t provided a new hit for all of us junkies jonesing for a fix.
Is it wrong that I hope that Alex is recording this or live feeding it to PS238?
I think the EOL has a couple of relevant rules here:
“I will not make alliances with those more powerful than myself. Such a person would only double-cross me in my moment of glory. I will make alliances with those less powerful than myself. I will then double-cross them in their moment of glory.”
“All guest-quarters will be bugged and monitored so that I can keep track of what the visitors I have for some reason allowed to roam about my fortress are actually plotting.”
So if Alex was being a good little EO, then yes, she’ll be recording this for later double-crossing.
Yes, well… the difficulty is in telling whether your potential partner is in the “more powerful” or “less powerful” category. It’s clear that both Alex and the Headmaster regard themselves as the superior being…
You mean this list? http://txfellowship.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-215-rules-for-evil-overlord.html
So was Herschel’s hypothesis about letting the AI run unfettered for so long wrong? Or have we not gotten to that reveal?
I think it’s safe to say this guy is a few fries short of a happy meal.
Somehow, the vibe says the Headmaster is not as outmanoeuvred as the little Von Fogg hellion thinks he is…
The “because that’s what I’d have done” school of justified villainy…
Wait, I just realized that wording. He ‘Once was senator Durvin’? So he isn’t Durvin anymore?
I’d say he considers himself a different being now, seeing as he’s constantly connected to his building…
If nothing else, he’s probably not a senator anymore…
Well, on the last page of the previous issue Alexandra mentioned that his office was currently being run by a ‘quite clever android duplicate’, so he could easily see himself as not really being senator anymore…
His version doesn’t have a space station under it though, does it?
Nope. That station belonged to the Union of Justice, and was not in the original design specs for the Mark 1.
Is it wrong to hope they destroy each other?
Yes, it is… ’cause Lady Alexandria is awesome and robot-guy is not.
At last, we get the full story behind The Headmaster, aka Senator Walter Durvin! Durvin first showed up in the prelude mini-comics collected in PS238 #0, where he attacked the school at the Congressional hearings on PS238’s curriculum and funding. Apparently that wasn’t actually the real Durvin, but an android double.
Durvin continued to be mentioned, usually when flunkies from Washington, DC would show up. As for the Headmaster, until the soccer game, he’d always been a shadowy figure, directing Praetorian Academy’s activities from behind the scenes. Now the curtain has been parted, and he stands fully revealed!
There’s not much I can write without going into spoilers. He’s about to confirm what Herschel and Lady Alex discussed: that Durvin stole the PS238 Mark I device, along with the schematics for the armor and weapons that the Praetorians’ Centurions use. Herschel has suspected that since Alejandro and Ron provided him with a circuit board they took from a group of Centurions. But I can’t discuss more than that without spoiling some major secrets.
So instead, let’s discuss my “PS238” fanfiction. Anyone interested?
Sure, whats the concept?
An interesting take on time travel, which would further explore the character development of Julie, Tyler, Zodon and Ambriel (and either Alejandro or Kevin, I’m not sure which), while raising some interesting issues regarding what Tom Davison can and can’t accomplish.
Basically, I’d be using the concept of “quantum instances” raised back when Tyler was deciding the fate of metahumanity. In this case, 84’s quantum instance from fifteen years in the future has been swapped with her present day quantum instance, courtesy of a supervillain with a grudge against his high school graduating class. (Class Reunions can be stressful for barely employed scientists who haven’t figured out how to turn their inventions into marketable stuff. :P)
84’s future quantum instant is stuck in the present, in her nine year old body, having to still babysit Forak, and try to get herself and the other victims back to the future, without compromising the space-time continuum or failing a math quiz.
Meanwhile, fifteen years from now, the All-New, All-Different Union of Justice has to figure out how to send a message back fifteen years into the past to their team’s powerhouse, and how to reverse the effects of the Quantum Quannon!
Any thoughts?
Well it sounds like a fairly interesting concept, though im not sure limits for Tom have yet been established.
Eitheer way though, it sounds like it has great potential.
Thanks! I’ve worked a basic outline for the story, the motive for the villain, and the line-up of the future Union of Justice: Moonshadow, Guardian Angel, 84, Zodon, Miss Positron, Malphast and either Flea or Emerald Gauntlet. Moonshadow would be wearing the costume we saw him in back in the “flash-forward” when Tyler was lost at the Castle Beyond Time, and one or more members of the Union would know Moonshadow’s secret ID.
Zodon would have decided to go legit, after becoming a celebrity in Norway, when Zodon, his space station and Asgard prevent The Linnorm from eating Oslo. He’s still as snarky as ever, and his morals are a bit shaky, since he’s fighting crime for the wrong reasons, but he’s basically the brains of the team, along with Miss Positron. Guardian Angel would be the team’s leader, since she has a lot of enthusiasm, can’t really be hurt, and enjoys telling people what to do. Moonshadow is the voice of common sense, and their detective. 84 is their F.I.S.S. and the public face of the team due to reasons I can’t go into (Spoilers, and all that.) Malphast deals with mystical stuff. I’m not sure whether to put Flea or Emerald Gauntlet in.
Most of the drama in the story has to do with adult Julie seeing her mom, while the comedy comes from adult Julie realizing she has a math test she hasn’t studied for in fifteen years, trying to get young Zodon to help her without messing up history, and young Julie getting used to her newest superpower (the one Power Girl is famous for). Plus, the mystery of whether Tom Davidson can’t help 84, or won’t help her.
is it a slashfic?
I wrote an adventure that kind of featured several of the alternate-Tylers from “Time After Tyler”, but we never used it. Forget why.
The onees we actually saw the worlds of or newly formed concepts?
The gravity one and the psychic one, yes. Not the crazy one. The ones we made in a couple places drew on the other mirror images for inspiration.
Interestingly, Tyler’s the only lefty. All of the others are (like Toby) right-handed.
That’s usually how the Flash figures out which Mirror Master is the real one, and which ones are mirror doppelgangers: they’re holding Mirror Master’s mirror gun in the other hand. 🙂
The point is that in some way they’re all reflections of Tyler. Interesting point suddenly raised about Toby, yes?
Maybe I should write that up as a short story. Be nice to get some use out of it.
I’m not sure his indoctination and baddie optimization isn’t worse for his world than one corrupt president.