Given what certain students have found on what the Headmaster is doing, I’m fairly sure that there was a lot of harm. What it is, I’m not sure, but he doesn’t seem to be doing a lot of good.
Honestly? Maybe no harm. This seems perfectly in line with the Headmaster’s stated objectives. ‘Stop swanning about dramatically and form a sane person’s business’ is a perfectly reasonable thing to do; even if his “ulterior motive” is ‘prevent the universe from exploding’ rather than ‘get you the respect of your peers’.
Although that might help to, given that FISS is a relatively ‘safe’ powerset.
But his main way of achieving his objective revolve around the idea of keeping the most powerful superheroes from breeding with one another. I don’t see how making a more effective organization helps with that goal. Especially if this organization is so good that it gets copied.
While the “drama” may actually be mating display behavior, at least the best at drama may not be the fittest. But if you have a system that rewards real ability, the best wind up on top, and those people have higher status and thus, under the evolutionary theory he’s using, would find the fittest mates. Hence you accelerate the creation of what he fears the most.
I just think he’s moving more slowly because this group is one he can completely shut down. These are FISS. There is already a government-created countermeasure for dealing with them: Argonite. And he has to at least know that Argonaut was depowered, and with his scanning equipment probably figured out how when Ron came back to get his stuff. So he can completely depower any FISS. (And hence why having non-FISS members may be important in the future.)
I think that’s an elaborate setup to entangle our girl genius further into the academy, not their real motive. It might even be true, but I doubt that’s the end goal here.
It’s been awhile since I read that part (I’ll review it out later), but wasn’t the “prevent super-superhuman bringing about the apocalypse” sort of a lie or at least a smokescreen for his real agenda while he discussed things with Alex Von Fogg after she’d figured things out? It was sort of implied after Alex had left and he was talking to The Prefect. Even if true, it doesn’t stop him from having his own real sinister agenda.
That’s possible, but it’s not necessarily true. I’d suspect that what he told Alex (excuse me, I meant Lady Alexandria von Fogg, please don’t alter my genome…) was actually true, at least for the most part – but like any good super-villian (especially one who got his start in politics), the Headmaster has plans within plans and layers of misdirection. Truth can often be a more effective smokescreen than lies, if used properly.
In itself, probably nothing. The Headmaster looks like he could get whatever names 71 would be able to provide in some other ways, just the Revenant. But it opens 71 to blackmail for progressively worse stuff. Kinda like Revenant’s doing to him right now, hopefully with better intentions.
I suspect the Headmaster is trying to use divide and rule tactics to weaken and perhaps ultimately destroy his world’s metahumans. The way he encourages his students to be as mercenary and exploitive as possible when using their talents means that they will be resented by the general population. Now he’s trying to exploit and magnify the hostility that exists between FISS and the other metahumans. He may know how the FISS on Atlas’s world fought and ultimately destroyed their world’s ‘feral’ metahumans, and hope to eventually start a metahuman civil war himself. Of course he’ll try to make sure that all the metahumans are destroyed in such a war, since he has no intention of letting any metahuman group take over the world the way the Atlas FISS did.
There is is a benefit to keeping groups inbred or “pure” as they are less likely to produce prone that have even more sets of powers in the same individuals and to produce or maintain genetic weaknesses. The more FISS are segregated in work or social status the more they will naturally breed with each other without mandating the effect. However, the goals of integration and leveling the economic field will work against this segregation and the headmasters agenda. Obviously 71 is intended to do more than provide names as the Academy student is also capable of providing information. What I do not know is how well Forak can keep secrets from 84
Take [expletive deleted] NOTES here, Forak. Every Talented Normal superhero in the multiverse would love to intern with Batman and/or one of his avatars; and here you are, almost literally looking over his shoulder.
I assume he’s trying to associate the whole team with this. “I wasn’t doing it for my personal finances I was doing it for the good of the TEAM!” kinda thing.
Always have a backup plan or two in place, and keep the enemy guessing about where you’re going to strike.
If the enemy does not even realize he’s the enemy, that’s a big plus.
Not to mention having one blatant in-uniform Praetorian student. As Quarrel, put it so well, when you have an obvious villain nobody looks at the quiet, “harmless” one.
To be expected. Back in issue 19, when Charles Brigman teleported most of Moon Shadow’s super-team all over the country, the Revenant was able to check the Brigman family’s past five years worth of credit card records to find out where they had gone on vacation, giving Moon Shadow a list of places to look for his teammates (the assumption being Charles could only teleport to places he’d been before).
The plot thickens.
It’s interesting that the Headmaster told Ajax to infiltrate the organization forming around 84, considering that he is actually bankrolling the Infinite Vanguard (and probably instructed Brian to add Julie onto the roster). It’s highly probable that the Headmaster’s target is Julie.
Whatever the Headmaster is planning it probably requires a high level FISS, given the extent he went through to get Ron to enroll at the Praetorian Academy (including brainwashing his mother). It’s no coincidence that the Headmaster put his plan into motion after Ron had to withdraw due to losing his powers.
In short, the Headmaster probably wants Julie to take Ron’s place.
Interesting theory, and I would not be surprised if you are correct. If that’s true, I wonder how far back the Headmaster’s scheming went? Did he directly influence the breakup of Ron’s parents, or just take advantage of the situation?
Unrelated to the page: I found this comic recently and was wondering if there is somewhere to post/read fanfiction of it (or if that is even allowed) cause I got some ideas. (and just wanna see what other people write)
Okay, trying this post again. Dang for not copy/pasting first.
It strikes me that the horror-story of the super-strong wiping out every other variety of superpower and dominating the weak might be the actual intended goal of the Headmaster. The FISS is an especially stable power type – it isn’t diverse, it has physical limits, and no aspect of its powers can be re-tasked to altering cosmic constants or spontaneously transforming every human being into a chinchilla. The FISS can cause horrifying destruction, but is not the tool for sudden total human world annihilation, which makes them profoundly safe as a sole form of superpower. Dividing them against the others encourages a conflict between them, which may culminate in the FISS wiping out the others and taking control.
Put it another way, this may be the start of how Argos happened, and that may be the Headmaster’s intention. Or it may be the ultimate result of his plans should they unfold as he plans, regardless of his intentions.
Unrelated to the page: I found this comic recently and was wondering if there is somewhere to post/read fanfiction of it (or if that is even allowed) cause I got some ideas. (and just wanna see what other people write)
Even more unrelated: how long does it take comments to get through moderation? I have one waiting for 4 days now
The problem that 71 doesn’t see is that now that he’s done ‘just a little to help’ he’s now on the hook for bigger and bigger requests, that’s how black mail works.
It’s a little like boiling a frog, you start off by putting the frog in cold water and slowly raise the temp. By the temp the frog realizes what’s going on he’s cooked.
Given what certain students have found on what the Headmaster is doing, I’m fairly sure that there was a lot of harm. What it is, I’m not sure, but he doesn’t seem to be doing a lot of good.
His kind never are. Although, they do seem to insist that they are the only ones doing good.
isn’t he just trying to prevent supers from breeding a child to end the world?
The best lies are ones that can be told sincerely.
And am I the only one with Captcha time out errors?
Nope, lots of people ae dealing with them. Although I’ve been getting around them by refreshing the Captcha immediately after completing my post.
Honestly? Maybe no harm. This seems perfectly in line with the Headmaster’s stated objectives. ‘Stop swanning about dramatically and form a sane person’s business’ is a perfectly reasonable thing to do; even if his “ulterior motive” is ‘prevent the universe from exploding’ rather than ‘get you the respect of your peers’.
Although that might help to, given that FISS is a relatively ‘safe’ powerset.
But his main way of achieving his objective revolve around the idea of keeping the most powerful superheroes from breeding with one another. I don’t see how making a more effective organization helps with that goal. Especially if this organization is so good that it gets copied.
While the “drama” may actually be mating display behavior, at least the best at drama may not be the fittest. But if you have a system that rewards real ability, the best wind up on top, and those people have higher status and thus, under the evolutionary theory he’s using, would find the fittest mates. Hence you accelerate the creation of what he fears the most.
I just think he’s moving more slowly because this group is one he can completely shut down. These are FISS. There is already a government-created countermeasure for dealing with them: Argonite. And he has to at least know that Argonaut was depowered, and with his scanning equipment probably figured out how when Ron came back to get his stuff. So he can completely depower any FISS. (And hence why having non-FISS members may be important in the future.)
I think that’s an elaborate setup to entangle our girl genius further into the academy, not their real motive. It might even be true, but I doubt that’s the end goal here.
It’s been awhile since I read that part (I’ll review it out later), but wasn’t the “prevent super-superhuman bringing about the apocalypse” sort of a lie or at least a smokescreen for his real agenda while he discussed things with Alex Von Fogg after she’d figured things out? It was sort of implied after Alex had left and he was talking to The Prefect. Even if true, it doesn’t stop him from having his own real sinister agenda.
That’s possible, but it’s not necessarily true. I’d suspect that what he told Alex (excuse me, I meant Lady Alexandria von Fogg, please don’t alter my genome…) was actually true, at least for the most part – but like any good super-villian (especially one who got his start in politics), the Headmaster has plans within plans and layers of misdirection. Truth can often be a more effective smokescreen than lies, if used properly.
Actually, his real purpose is to control all of the supers with him the one controlling them.
“Names” could possibly include the real names associated with the Hero Identities. That could have quite a bit of long-term harm.
In itself, probably nothing. The Headmaster looks like he could get whatever names 71 would be able to provide in some other ways, just the Revenant. But it opens 71 to blackmail for progressively worse stuff. Kinda like Revenant’s doing to him right now, hopefully with better intentions.
“just like the Revenant”, I meant.
He’s a senator, if anyone would be able to politically push their way into the DoMA, and learn real identities, I’m guessing he could.
I suspect the Headmaster is trying to use divide and rule tactics to weaken and perhaps ultimately destroy his world’s metahumans. The way he encourages his students to be as mercenary and exploitive as possible when using their talents means that they will be resented by the general population. Now he’s trying to exploit and magnify the hostility that exists between FISS and the other metahumans. He may know how the FISS on Atlas’s world fought and ultimately destroyed their world’s ‘feral’ metahumans, and hope to eventually start a metahuman civil war himself. Of course he’ll try to make sure that all the metahumans are destroyed in such a war, since he has no intention of letting any metahuman group take over the world the way the Atlas FISS did.
I suspect 71 is about to learn the truth of the old Italian proverb “When making a deal with the devil, only the devil will profit”.
Mr. Holland is not very bright, is he…? =_=;
Way back near the beginning of this issue, someone commented that he had “turned the cluelessness up to 11”. Sounds about right…
There is is a benefit to keeping groups inbred or “pure” as they are less likely to produce prone that have even more sets of powers in the same individuals and to produce or maintain genetic weaknesses. The more FISS are segregated in work or social status the more they will naturally breed with each other without mandating the effect. However, the goals of integration and leveling the economic field will work against this segregation and the headmasters agenda. Obviously 71 is intended to do more than provide names as the Academy student is also capable of providing information. What I do not know is how well Forak can keep secrets from 84
Take [expletive deleted] NOTES here, Forak. Every Talented Normal superhero in the multiverse would love to intern with Batman and/or one of his avatars; and here you are, almost literally looking over his shoulder.
This is almost certainly not Forak, who doesn’t have the gravitas to pull off this kind of dialogue.
I’m betting this is Revenant posing as Forak posing as Zero, because really that’s the kind of complex plan that our vigilante friend enjoys.
As described last page, this is Forak in the suit, and Revenant speaking.
…Which gives Forak an excellent opportunity to take notes. 🙂
“We”? Who else is associated with this chump, now?
I assume he’s trying to associate the whole team with this. “I wasn’t doing it for my personal finances I was doing it for the good of the TEAM!” kinda thing.
Spouse? Child? His sentient toaster? (Or, as Nobody said (ever!), the whole team?)
Can anyone recognize that poster in the last panel?
I think its a Star Wars poster.
Something like this…
mF2c0-8-pGu-xsnsEmJJcGg.jpg
Looks like a Nodwick poster to me.
I think it’s This One Movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0447166/
I think so, too. Also
“How many of those have you got?”
“…Fifty.”
Thank you. I see now that the poster matches the cover of the DVD I have.
Looks like a He-man and the defenders of the universe poster to me.
So Ajax was the open agent and Brian was undercover? The Headmaster is very thorough.
Always have a backup plan or two in place, and keep the enemy guessing about where you’re going to strike.
If the enemy does not even realize he’s the enemy, that’s a big plus.
Not to mention having one blatant in-uniform Praetorian student. As Quarrel, put it so well, when you have an obvious villain nobody looks at the quiet, “harmless” one.
That should have been “Quirrel”. Darn autocorrect… >.<
I wouldn’t assume that there are only 2 agents in place.
Vigilance !
Proof again, that ungodly wealth is a superpower on its own. In this case, is a super defense.
Am I the only one perturbed that Revenant was able to take a look at Mr Holland/71’s bank records?
It’s par for the course, really.
The Revenant? Of course he can.
To be expected. Back in issue 19, when Charles Brigman teleported most of Moon Shadow’s super-team all over the country, the Revenant was able to check the Brigman family’s past five years worth of credit card records to find out where they had gone on vacation, giving Moon Shadow a list of places to look for his teammates (the assumption being Charles could only teleport to places he’d been before).
Zero gives me constant Code Geass vibes here.
The plot thickens.
It’s interesting that the Headmaster told Ajax to infiltrate the organization forming around 84, considering that he is actually bankrolling the Infinite Vanguard (and probably instructed Brian to add Julie onto the roster). It’s highly probable that the Headmaster’s target is Julie.
Whatever the Headmaster is planning it probably requires a high level FISS, given the extent he went through to get Ron to enroll at the Praetorian Academy (including brainwashing his mother). It’s no coincidence that the Headmaster put his plan into motion after Ron had to withdraw due to losing his powers.
In short, the Headmaster probably wants Julie to take Ron’s place.
Interesting theory, and I would not be surprised if you are correct. If that’s true, I wonder how far back the Headmaster’s scheming went? Did he directly influence the breakup of Ron’s parents, or just take advantage of the situation?
Welp, 71 has 71 problems and 0 is 1 of them XD
Unrelated to the page: I found this comic recently and was wondering if there is somewhere to post/read fanfiction of it (or if that is even allowed) cause I got some ideas. (and just wanna see what other people write)
Okay, trying this post again. Dang for not copy/pasting first.
It strikes me that the horror-story of the super-strong wiping out every other variety of superpower and dominating the weak might be the actual intended goal of the Headmaster. The FISS is an especially stable power type – it isn’t diverse, it has physical limits, and no aspect of its powers can be re-tasked to altering cosmic constants or spontaneously transforming every human being into a chinchilla. The FISS can cause horrifying destruction, but is not the tool for sudden total human world annihilation, which makes them profoundly safe as a sole form of superpower. Dividing them against the others encourages a conflict between them, which may culminate in the FISS wiping out the others and taking control.
Put it another way, this may be the start of how Argos happened, and that may be the Headmaster’s intention. Or it may be the ultimate result of his plans should they unfold as he plans, regardless of his intentions.
Welp, 71 has 71 problems and 0 is 1 of them XD
Unrelated to the page: I found this comic recently and was wondering if there is somewhere to post/read fanfiction of it (or if that is even allowed) cause I got some ideas. (and just wanna see what other people write)
Even more unrelated: how long does it take comments to get through moderation? I have one waiting for 4 days now
The problem that 71 doesn’t see is that now that he’s done ‘just a little to help’ he’s now on the hook for bigger and bigger requests, that’s how black mail works.
It’s a little like boiling a frog, you start off by putting the frog in cold water and slowly raise the temp. By the temp the frog realizes what’s going on he’s cooked.
And apparently I really like the word “that” tonight.
One day I’ll remember to proof read