Sanity and Olympian pantheon are mutually exclusive. I mean come on, they are the most dysfunctional pantheon family I have ever read off. At least the Norse Pantheon only has to worry about Loki most of the time. The Egyptian Pantheon, well, are extremely ordered.
That’s because the Greco-Roman pantheon is actually about five different groups smooshed together. Many of the stories, if properly translated instead of Bowdlerized, relate to the violent overthrow of one group’s deities by an invading group’s deities.
Market research is also misleading. Who would you rather have leading the Justice League:
The Bright open honest stand up man that inspires boyscouts?
Or the dark hidden man that rumour says drinks the blood of his victims in the insane asylum of his trashed city?
Or:
The big dumb muscle that flys around and like to punch stuff till it stops fighting back.
Or the guy that can out think any foe so that while having no powers can stand equal to the highest and mightiest of heroes?
“The dark hidden man that rumour says drinks the blood of his victims in the insane asylum of his trashed city?”
Of course, I’m pretty sure Batman deliberately spreads those stories… he might be the guy who fights powers without any of his own, but that’s not the image he chooses to present.
The Big S has been established to be very bright (depending on the writer it ranges from very smart to genius) for the most part. And while he might not be as smart as Bats, he’s leagues (hehe) ahead in the social skills department.
My point was how you spin questions and opinions can change things a lot.
Superman has been shown to be bright and open and the embodiment of a tank. He is virtually invulnerable so he rarely dodges attacks and just punches stuff.
Batman gets bad press because he is that ‘nutjob’ from Gotham. But those that know more of him, get that he is a tactician that could use the least resources to handle larger dangers.
And noting differing writers is why I did not include Wonder Woman on the list. Her power level seems to vary from Superman level but an honour before reason berserker mentality. All the way down (Still pretty good though) to Batman peak human strength and agility and smarter than batman. Depending on the writer.
The PS238 universe is a very diverse place. It doesn’t surprise me that some teams choose their lineup, leadership, etc. based on marketing or public opinion polls, but I doubt many of them do. I’m sure there are many that choose their leaders by a vote of their members (LSH-style), by seniority, by who pays the bills, who owns their HQ, who the ruling body behind the field team selects, etc., etc.
That they seem to universally not following sane practices like pooling their merchandising income and dividing it evenly among band members to avoid some of the most useful characters getting shortchanged suggests that they are in fact letting marketing have undue influence on how they operate.
It actually seems like FISS is the most common power set, so with all the teams running around, if they need a ‘strong man’ they only need 1. So if anyone else already has FISS powers (or the other members possess a combination of those abilities) they just don’t get ‘hired.’
Imagine you have 50 ‘Justice Leagues’ but 500 Supermen. Best case scenario you only need 50 Supermen. But the problem you run into is that lots of other folks already can Fly. Lots of other folks already seem to have Super Strength. So Invulnerability & Speed are your selling points. But let’s take a look at a few of the other heroes we’ve seen. We’ve seen Speedsters. We’ve seen folks with varying degrees of ‘toughness.’
So in a 5 man group, why use a FISS? Sure they’re useful. As we’ve seen, they’re ‘the whole package’ but you just don’t ‘need’ them in a team.
Heck, in the Justice League, you don’t need Superman. Between Green Lantern (Invulnerability), Martian Manhunter (Strength), Flash (Speed), and everyone else that can just fly in that group… Superman is redundant.
On the other hand, anyone who runs computers professionally knows the usefulness of having backups. Also, sometimes you need strength _and_ another talent, such as speed and/or flight to get to where the strength will be useful.
The concept of market research is nothing new. How many ‘boy bands’ have we seen since The Monkees that were created not with an eye towards talent, but with sex appeal to draw in tweenagers, merchandise marketability and specific ‘looks’ that the research department deem necessary (the brooding one, the blonde surfer, the cute one etc)? Reasonably, it makes sense that super hero teams might be created that way, and the heroes would get corporate sponsorship in return. “Hi, I’m Meson and when I bar-b-q, I use Grannie Creoles 5 Alarm hot sauce. It’s so hot even I get burned.”
Veles probably doesn’t want a dumb brick to be facing off against, hence Phlogiston got chosen. Plus, running things from behind the scenes is probably something he would like, as a frigging trickster god and all.
With 84, you can tell he’s charmed by her, plus she DID clear up the confusion with Atlas. Though that leaves me to wonder what Firedrake’s qualifications are… maybe he’s the foil, or maybe he just amused Veles. Hell, that may be the reason for the grouping in the first place, to create conflict. All of them are reasonably strong-willed in their own fashion, which is the key to creating drama.
They’re all also a decent cross-section of different power and personality types. That way Veles gets to test a variety of candidates so he can find one that would be both interesting to fight and argue with. The main thing they have in common is they’re all leader-y sorts, whether they have it thrust upon them (84), take the lead (Firedrake and the Conjurer), or lead from the shadows (Phlogiston). Though heck if I know where psychic-boy falls on that, since he seems to think himself a take-the-lead type yet so far has kept falling in behind others.
I think Bubble-boy is meant to be The Lancer of this little shindig. Constantly butting heads, but in a way that is meant to refine whatever plans are developed.
Personality wise, i don’t think it’s because Friedrake’s any sort of leader, but because he’s a fun, dynamic personality whose pun filled battlecries say “I can spar verbally as well as physically”
remember: veres wants a new ‘playmate’. so long as he has fun, it doesn’t matter if they can’t even lead anyone down a straight hall. a shot at the heart of Koschei the Deathless is an added bonus
I think you’re right, but I don’t think the test is for her sake. I think Veles has set up a situation where 84 can prove to the other super teams that she’s a worthy nemesis for him. After all, that will shut up their grand-standing, and I can’t imagine Veles wants a nemesis without a respectable reputation. Even if he has to craft that reputation for them.
I think you hit the nail on the head. She just needs ‘Street Cred.’ The FISS community already likes her. It’s everyone else that doesn’t know her yet. Phlog however seems to be won over. I think Firedrake is going to be next to come to her side (Wuwu Flying Brick!!!! I do think he likes the concept of a Tank!!)
That’s a scary way of looking at it. But, considering what we know about Veles, I wouldn’t put it past him to engineer events where she has a reputation.
After all, he wants someone to keep him amused, and that can often include how Everyone Else reacts to their scuffles. When the “Champion” does a fine job of ‘defeating’ him(for a time), he no doubt finds amusement in how its portrayed afterwards. A Nobody wouldn’t get that kind of attention.
When she had the FISS move giant lizard to the lake, she beat the first test. When ‘new’ Atlas rescued what’s’face (with 84’s help) she passed the second. I think this is just him driving the point home.
The other ‘Teams’ couldn’t even get to Veles until Julie showed up. She’s already won. They just don’t know it yet.
Well, she was the only one showing him any respect, let alone asking intelligent questions. And she did also start out by seeking to minimize collateral damage, which none of the other teams were even trying to do. I think that may have been the thing that caught his attention first. He most likely knew already that Atlas had left, but was checking out the competition, boy did they blow it.
And I’m starting to strongly suspect that each of the other members of this little party was chosen because there was something Veles thought 84 could learn from them.
Phlogiston’s found how to both be the real power behind the “throne” and how to advise Meson and others without them losing face. Nice secondary use of her powers and gives her character real depth (the fact that she is considerate enough to advise her teammates without the risk of them losing face AND the fact that she is confident enough not to just move to another team where she could lead openly or stop trying to advice and let them suffer the consequences of their own decisions)… Looking forward to how this develops.
“Right, we need to atta….”
(“Evacuate the citizens first.”)
“Evacuate the citizens! Once they’re out of harms way, we can start whaling on the moron who’s wrecking our city!”
I may be reading too much into it, but did anyone else notice that the “good” leaders are female and the “bad” leaders are male? Seems a bit sexist to me.
Eh, it’s more of a darned if you do, darned if you don’t when writing female characters. If she had been placed in the role of the irritating or bossy one, someone else would claim it sexist. In this case, I think it was because 84 Really needs someone to talk to/vent at, and having someone her own gender would make things easier.
Right, and if this storyline is partially to help set up a mentorship relationship for Julie, it makes sense that that mentor would be a woman as well. And generally speaking women are better at the whole “behind the throne” thing because that’s the only way they could be involved in politics for a long time.
Better would be if one of the other three along with Phlogiston was a woman. The more female characters you have, the more diversity there can be, so no one character feels like a creator statement about women in general. Of the three, I think I would have liked for Firedrake to be a woman as well. We don’t get to see that sort of fiery, cocky attitude very often in female characters and his reactions to 84 have a underestimating older sibling feel that would work just as well if that sibling is the brother or a sister. Plus, both sorcery and psionic abilities are a touch overdone with women in a way elemental fire is not.
In the background of this universe, Revenant is essentially a Batman+ analogue. He is the only *known* hero with no powers. He has no team association, which is also rare. He also tends to do what is right, as opposed to what is legal.
In his introductory short story he basically committed a federal crime, kidnapping a minor across state lines, to save the life that minor’s sibling. This is *after* taking out a team of superheroes specifically there to prevent the kidnapping due to custody issues.
The superteam was in the legal right, Revenant was in the moral right. Revenant “won”, but broken almost an even dozen federal and state laws doing it. Not to mention completely humiliating a hero team which he basically beat with a party-popper full of pepper, a dart gun, and one other thing, but I can’t remember what.
That or you join pretty much any branch of the military. Shrapnel does not play nicely with the soft fleshy tissue on your head.
But yeah, helmets in the genre are … meh, unless really done well. Conjurer just looks stupid, while Neuro-net, it looks like his ‘bubble’ may just be part of the whole outfit which not only amplifies his abilities but also provides full life support (as needed).
If Conjurer had a Roman style about him, he could get away with it. I think that helmet is Roman style. I might be wrong though.
That was my thought on the helmet as well. But his attire also looks vaguely familiar – that thing that looks like a cross between a bathrobe and a smoking jacket – I just can’t place it with any characters I can remember.
The way those guys with the helmets are acting, it is way too late for them to be wearing helmets. Either that or some of their team mates decided that they needed to be hit in the head more often.
‘Plasma Pack’, Ha! That’s hilarious, remember how we were all calling them the ‘on’ group a couple pages ago because their name hadn’t been divulged yet. It’s so simple that I can’t belive that none of us came up with it when we were trying to guess the real team name.
Looking back briefly, is it just me, or does Conjurer’s helmet bear an odd resemblance to the Praetorian Academy’s logo? Granted, it could be as simple as both being inspired by a vaguely Spartan helmet… although the character whose helmet inspired the Praetorian Academy logo also had one that was mostly just a faceplate. Hmm.
Oh, and for the curious, I’m about 99% certain that the Praetorian Academy’s logo was inspired by the City of Heroes archvillain, ‘Tyrant’, since he was the evil alternate reality double of the premier NPC hero Statesman, and ran the world dubbed Praetoria… (although I’m not about to admit how long it took me to twig to that, despite being an avid follower of both PS238 and City of Heroes since day one. Eesh >.>)
Going to be interesting to see how this all plays out in any case- Aaron is one of the very few writers who can genuinely surprise me on a fairly consistent basis, which makes reading his stuff a real treat for me.
So she had to develop the ability to secretly communicate with her abilities (abilities that certainly aren’t optimized for it) in order to be able to guide from behind the scenes because the public is too stupid to want her team led by the one with the best leadership abilities and favors the one with the best public appeal instead? Man that’s sad that she had to develop that ability for a reason like that instead of doing so to use it for secret reconnaissance.
She states she spent years learning how to create and detect sound waves – I assume that she also uses it for secret reconnaissance – she seems too logical not to consider all possible uses of her secondary power including using it to secretly advise her teammates. I imagine she’s enjoying the profits from the team’s marketing too much to publicly dispute the leadership decision of Marketing.
Anyway, the shadows is the best place to lead from. You can always just blame the “leader”if anything goes wrong, and if somebody takes out your team “leader”, then you don’t have to worry – he/she never did anything anyway!
How old is 84 suppose to be at this point? She’s feeling a lot more like a 12-14 year old than an 8 or 9 year old. A lot more. (Says the parent of a 12 and 8 year old…)
I love the comic, but I feel that the level of maturity shown by the characters is well into the teen years (at least).
So, 84 hurt some feelings? And now there are other members of the group acting at an 8YO level?
I’m starting to like Phlogiston, she seems like the only person in the group that is physically and mentally an “adult”.
Note, she’s fallen into Beta Mode with 84 as well. Phlo can recognize a true leader, and knows when to give good /sound/ advice…
*Smacks you with the punhammer*
*groan* So bad. …I like it.
Oh thank goodness, I thought Julie was the Only Sane Person transported in the Egg.
Guess Veles is more perceptive than the run–of–the–mill Olympian Pantheon.
Sanity and Olympian pantheon are mutually exclusive. I mean come on, they are the most dysfunctional pantheon family I have ever read off. At least the Norse Pantheon only has to worry about Loki most of the time. The Egyptian Pantheon, well, are extremely ordered.
That’s because the Greco-Roman pantheon is actually about five different groups smooshed together. Many of the stories, if properly translated instead of Bowdlerized, relate to the violent overthrow of one group’s deities by an invading group’s deities.
So in the ps328 verse, superteam leaders are decided based on marketing. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!!!!
Market research is also misleading. Who would you rather have leading the Justice League:
The Bright open honest stand up man that inspires boyscouts?
Or the dark hidden man that rumour says drinks the blood of his victims in the insane asylum of his trashed city?
Or:
The big dumb muscle that flys around and like to punch stuff till it stops fighting back.
Or the guy that can out think any foe so that while having no powers can stand equal to the highest and mightiest of heroes?
Or the girl in the wheelchair with a photographic memory.
http://atopfourthwall.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-letter-to-james-robinson.html
Oh, I’m sorry, not leading. “Suggesting”.
“The dark hidden man that rumour says drinks the blood of his victims in the insane asylum of his trashed city?”
Of course, I’m pretty sure Batman deliberately spreads those stories… he might be the guy who fights powers without any of his own, but that’s not the image he chooses to present.
Not quite a good example.
The Big S has been established to be very bright (depending on the writer it ranges from very smart to genius) for the most part. And while he might not be as smart as Bats, he’s leagues (hehe) ahead in the social skills department.
My point was how you spin questions and opinions can change things a lot.
Superman has been shown to be bright and open and the embodiment of a tank. He is virtually invulnerable so he rarely dodges attacks and just punches stuff.
Batman gets bad press because he is that ‘nutjob’ from Gotham. But those that know more of him, get that he is a tactician that could use the least resources to handle larger dangers.
And noting differing writers is why I did not include Wonder Woman on the list. Her power level seems to vary from Superman level but an honour before reason berserker mentality. All the way down (Still pretty good though) to Batman peak human strength and agility and smarter than batman. Depending on the writer.
The PS238 universe is a very diverse place. It doesn’t surprise me that some teams choose their lineup, leadership, etc. based on marketing or public opinion polls, but I doubt many of them do. I’m sure there are many that choose their leaders by a vote of their members (LSH-style), by seniority, by who pays the bills, who owns their HQ, who the ruling body behind the field team selects, etc., etc.
That they seem to universally not following sane practices like pooling their merchandising income and dividing it evenly among band members to avoid some of the most useful characters getting shortchanged suggests that they are in fact letting marketing have undue influence on how they operate.
It actually seems like FISS is the most common power set, so with all the teams running around, if they need a ‘strong man’ they only need 1. So if anyone else already has FISS powers (or the other members possess a combination of those abilities) they just don’t get ‘hired.’
Imagine you have 50 ‘Justice Leagues’ but 500 Supermen. Best case scenario you only need 50 Supermen. But the problem you run into is that lots of other folks already can Fly. Lots of other folks already seem to have Super Strength. So Invulnerability & Speed are your selling points. But let’s take a look at a few of the other heroes we’ve seen. We’ve seen Speedsters. We’ve seen folks with varying degrees of ‘toughness.’
So in a 5 man group, why use a FISS? Sure they’re useful. As we’ve seen, they’re ‘the whole package’ but you just don’t ‘need’ them in a team.
Heck, in the Justice League, you don’t need Superman. Between Green Lantern (Invulnerability), Martian Manhunter (Strength), Flash (Speed), and everyone else that can just fly in that group… Superman is redundant.
On the other hand, anyone who runs computers professionally knows the usefulness of having backups. Also, sometimes you need strength _and_ another talent, such as speed and/or flight to get to where the strength will be useful.
It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. Just ask Captain Amazing.
The concept of market research is nothing new. How many ‘boy bands’ have we seen since The Monkees that were created not with an eye towards talent, but with sex appeal to draw in tweenagers, merchandise marketability and specific ‘looks’ that the research department deem necessary (the brooding one, the blonde surfer, the cute one etc)? Reasonably, it makes sense that super hero teams might be created that way, and the heroes would get corporate sponsorship in return. “Hi, I’m Meson and when I bar-b-q, I use Grannie Creoles 5 Alarm hot sauce. It’s so hot even I get burned.”
Well, they’re trying to make a living here, market research is probably very useful.
Veles probably doesn’t want a dumb brick to be facing off against, hence Phlogiston got chosen. Plus, running things from behind the scenes is probably something he would like, as a frigging trickster god and all.
With 84, you can tell he’s charmed by her, plus she DID clear up the confusion with Atlas. Though that leaves me to wonder what Firedrake’s qualifications are… maybe he’s the foil, or maybe he just amused Veles. Hell, that may be the reason for the grouping in the first place, to create conflict. All of them are reasonably strong-willed in their own fashion, which is the key to creating drama.
They’re all also a decent cross-section of different power and personality types. That way Veles gets to test a variety of candidates so he can find one that would be both interesting to fight and argue with. The main thing they have in common is they’re all leader-y sorts, whether they have it thrust upon them (84), take the lead (Firedrake and the Conjurer), or lead from the shadows (Phlogiston). Though heck if I know where psychic-boy falls on that, since he seems to think himself a take-the-lead type yet so far has kept falling in behind others.
I think Bubble-boy is meant to be The Lancer of this little shindig. Constantly butting heads, but in a way that is meant to refine whatever plans are developed.
Maby Firedrake is a tactical leader type he doesn’t come up with strategy and plans but is good at calling the shots while the action is in progress.
Personality wise, i don’t think it’s because Friedrake’s any sort of leader, but because he’s a fun, dynamic personality whose pun filled battlecries say “I can spar verbally as well as physically”
remember: veres wants a new ‘playmate’. so long as he has fun, it doesn’t matter if they can’t even lead anyone down a straight hall. a shot at the heart of Koschei the Deathless is an added bonus
Firedrake got chose because he launched a firebolt at Veles all willynilly. It was more because he took action than anything else.
That was Meson ignoring allies in the AOE.
I got the impression it was Firedrake with the ‘Fire in the Hole’ comment.
no there were two other teams introduced between the fire blast and his team showing up
Some pursue greatness.
Others have greatness thrust upon them.
84 gets stealth railroaded into it while still in grade school.
Stealth Railroaded! I’m gonna have to use that one in the future.
Sounds better than Being Groomed.
I think Veles has already chosen 84. The egg is just her first “test”
I think you’re right, but I don’t think the test is for her sake. I think Veles has set up a situation where 84 can prove to the other super teams that she’s a worthy nemesis for him. After all, that will shut up their grand-standing, and I can’t imagine Veles wants a nemesis without a respectable reputation. Even if he has to craft that reputation for them.
I think you hit the nail on the head. She just needs ‘Street Cred.’ The FISS community already likes her. It’s everyone else that doesn’t know her yet. Phlog however seems to be won over. I think Firedrake is going to be next to come to her side (Wuwu Flying Brick!!!! I do think he likes the concept of a Tank!!)
That’s a scary way of looking at it. But, considering what we know about Veles, I wouldn’t put it past him to engineer events where she has a reputation.
After all, he wants someone to keep him amused, and that can often include how Everyone Else reacts to their scuffles. When the “Champion” does a fine job of ‘defeating’ him(for a time), he no doubt finds amusement in how its portrayed afterwards. A Nobody wouldn’t get that kind of attention.
When she had the FISS move giant lizard to the lake, she beat the first test. When ‘new’ Atlas rescued what’s’face (with 84’s help) she passed the second. I think this is just him driving the point home.
The other ‘Teams’ couldn’t even get to Veles until Julie showed up. She’s already won. They just don’t know it yet.
Well, she was the only one showing him any respect, let alone asking intelligent questions. And she did also start out by seeking to minimize collateral damage, which none of the other teams were even trying to do. I think that may have been the thing that caught his attention first. He most likely knew already that Atlas had left, but was checking out the competition, boy did they blow it.
And I’m starting to strongly suspect that each of the other members of this little party was chosen because there was something Veles thought 84 could learn from them.
Well, she has already learned from them how not to be an arse.
…It’s amazing how often people need to actually learn this one. Note that I am not excepting myself.
Well you do have to admit, those guys could hold seminars on arse-hood.
Ah, that’s what those helmets are. They got them as trophies for being A$$ Hat of the Year.
“This is what it looks like from the outside when someone is being a jackass. Please, don’t be a jackass.”
Please be careful where you are kicking that rock. With your strength, that could be lethal to your team-mates or the surrounding scenery.
That was just a tap. You can tell by how much gravity is already affecting its trajectory. ^_^
Be careful of that rock, anyway. Sometimes a rock is just a rock, sometimes it’s Chekhov’s gun.
Why, thank you! ^^
Phlogiston’s found how to both be the real power behind the “throne” and how to advise Meson and others without them losing face. Nice secondary use of her powers and gives her character real depth (the fact that she is considerate enough to advise her teammates without the risk of them losing face AND the fact that she is confident enough not to just move to another team where she could lead openly or stop trying to advice and let them suffer the consequences of their own decisions)… Looking forward to how this develops.
“Right, we need to atta….”
(“Evacuate the citizens first.”)
“Evacuate the citizens! Once they’re out of harms way, we can start whaling on the moron who’s wrecking our city!”
“Right! Let’s go get the harpoons!”
That sounds about right
I really hope that Phlogiston becomes Julie’s mentor after this storyline, the way that Tyler has Revenant to be his mentor.
I may be reading too much into it, but did anyone else notice that the “good” leaders are female and the “bad” leaders are male? Seems a bit sexist to me.
Eh, it’s more of a darned if you do, darned if you don’t when writing female characters. If she had been placed in the role of the irritating or bossy one, someone else would claim it sexist. In this case, I think it was because 84 Really needs someone to talk to/vent at, and having someone her own gender would make things easier.
Right, and if this storyline is partially to help set up a mentorship relationship for Julie, it makes sense that that mentor would be a woman as well. And generally speaking women are better at the whole “behind the throne” thing because that’s the only way they could be involved in politics for a long time.
Better would be if one of the other three along with Phlogiston was a woman. The more female characters you have, the more diversity there can be, so no one character feels like a creator statement about women in general. Of the three, I think I would have liked for Firedrake to be a woman as well. We don’t get to see that sort of fiery, cocky attitude very often in female characters and his reactions to 84 have a underestimating older sibling feel that would work just as well if that sibling is the brother or a sister. Plus, both sorcery and psionic abilities are a touch overdone with women in a way elemental fire is not.
To be fair though the Union of Justice/Ps 238 teachers don’t necessarily match archetypes. At least when I think of Micro-Might, you know?
To Julie, this particular potential mentor would have the appeal of an older sister-type of vibe.
In the context of this single story, yes. In the larger context, if you include mentors, Revenant is extraordinarily competent.
In the background of this universe, Revenant is essentially a Batman+ analogue. He is the only *known* hero with no powers. He has no team association, which is also rare. He also tends to do what is right, as opposed to what is legal.
In his introductory short story he basically committed a federal crime, kidnapping a minor across state lines, to save the life that minor’s sibling. This is *after* taking out a team of superheroes specifically there to prevent the kidnapping due to custody issues.
The superteam was in the legal right, Revenant was in the moral right. Revenant “won”, but broken almost an even dozen federal and state laws doing it. Not to mention completely humiliating a hero team which he basically beat with a party-popper full of pepper, a dart gun, and one other thing, but I can’t remember what.
All of this shows that Veles is more perceptive than the two maroons with helmets on.
Most folks don’t start wearing helmets until after they’ve been hit one too many times in the head.
That or you join pretty much any branch of the military. Shrapnel does not play nicely with the soft fleshy tissue on your head.
But yeah, helmets in the genre are … meh, unless really done well. Conjurer just looks stupid, while Neuro-net, it looks like his ‘bubble’ may just be part of the whole outfit which not only amplifies his abilities but also provides full life support (as needed).
If Conjurer had a Roman style about him, he could get away with it. I think that helmet is Roman style. I might be wrong though.
I got more of a ‘Doctor Fate’ homage than Romanesque.
Yeah, it seems to be a mix of Doctor Fate’s helmet and a sort of super-stylized Spartan thing.
That was my thought on the helmet as well. But his attire also looks vaguely familiar – that thing that looks like a cross between a bathrobe and a smoking jacket – I just can’t place it with any characters I can remember.
That smoking jacket-comment put me in mind of Dr. Strange… and Hugh Heffner. I don’t know whether H.H. has been in a superhero comic yet, though.
As an old tabletop gaming magazine put it “everyone fears the bullet with their name on it, but shrapnel arrives addressed to occupant.”
The way those guys with the helmets are acting, it is way too late for them to be wearing helmets. Either that or some of their team mates decided that they needed to be hit in the head more often.
‘Plasma Pack’, Ha! That’s hilarious, remember how we were all calling them the ‘on’ group a couple pages ago because their name hadn’t been divulged yet. It’s so simple that I can’t belive that none of us came up with it when we were trying to guess the real team name.
… huh.
Looking back briefly, is it just me, or does Conjurer’s helmet bear an odd resemblance to the Praetorian Academy’s logo? Granted, it could be as simple as both being inspired by a vaguely Spartan helmet… although the character whose helmet inspired the Praetorian Academy logo also had one that was mostly just a faceplate. Hmm.
Oh, and for the curious, I’m about 99% certain that the Praetorian Academy’s logo was inspired by the City of Heroes archvillain, ‘Tyrant’, since he was the evil alternate reality double of the premier NPC hero Statesman, and ran the world dubbed Praetoria… (although I’m not about to admit how long it took me to twig to that, despite being an avid follower of both PS238 and City of Heroes since day one. Eesh >.>)
Going to be interesting to see how this all plays out in any case- Aaron is one of the very few writers who can genuinely surprise me on a fairly consistent basis, which makes reading his stuff a real treat for me.
So she had to develop the ability to secretly communicate with her abilities (abilities that certainly aren’t optimized for it) in order to be able to guide from behind the scenes because the public is too stupid to want her team led by the one with the best leadership abilities and favors the one with the best public appeal instead? Man that’s sad that she had to develop that ability for a reason like that instead of doing so to use it for secret reconnaissance.
She states she spent years learning how to create and detect sound waves – I assume that she also uses it for secret reconnaissance – she seems too logical not to consider all possible uses of her secondary power including using it to secretly advise her teammates. I imagine she’s enjoying the profits from the team’s marketing too much to publicly dispute the leadership decision of Marketing.
Or too much the hero to care who the public thinks is leading as long as lives are saved and good deeds done right.
Anyway, the shadows is the best place to lead from. You can always just blame the “leader”if anything goes wrong, and if somebody takes out your team “leader”, then you don’t have to worry – he/she never did anything anyway!
How old is 84 suppose to be at this point? She’s feeling a lot more like a 12-14 year old than an 8 or 9 year old. A lot more. (Says the parent of a 12 and 8 year old…)
I love the comic, but I feel that the level of maturity shown by the characters is well into the teen years (at least).