I don’t think Tyler would be prone to resentment even without the Revenant’s training considering his situation is a direct result of his own decision.
Let’s just hope that Tyler’s faith that “enough people will do the right thing when it counts” isn’t misplaced.
Afraid I don’t see how you arrive at that conclusion, since that question had nothing to do with removing all superpowers but whether or not new people would be allowed to develop them. Tyler had no ability to decide to depower everyone a la the Scarlet Witch and if he’d decided ‘NO’ the only result would have been no one would have been able to become super-powered until things cycled back around again.
Also it’s not like Tyler has reason to dislike super-powers, he has reason to dislike his parents who likely would have been bad parents even if they’d been normal.
Hmmmm, they’d have to be really, really smart to be that devious at that age and most of the students seem pretty average, even a little dense.
The only student at PS238 I can think of that’s that smart is Angie and she seems more interested in inventing stuff than being evil. That said, she’d make an scary super villain.
Anjie built a rocket from scrap she found in her father’s junkyard, and primed its engine so it had a sick beat (ba-ba-boom). And then there’s the 30 foot tall robot she built during that alien invasion.
If she went evil the first sign would be alarm clocks strangling everyone in their sleep.
The only one who actually qualify as an outright villain so far is Charles Brigman, who would be guilty of murder if his first victim didn’t happen to be Dr. Positron’s sister. (To recap, Charles is the bully who used his teleportation powers to torment other students.) He strands the owner of the K-Square in another dimension for two whole weeks just because he got caught shoplifting.
Currently, Charles is only being kept in check by an explosive collar courtesy of the Praetorian Academy. Thus, most of the sociopathic metas are most likely in the Praetorian Academy, which serves both as a school as well as a prison.
This is probably also why the Headmaster has such a high clearance level (he can actually override the Head of the Department of Metahuman affairs) and why he has access to as much resources as the Revenant.
Well the Headmaster’s resources are likely mostly from the fact he’s got nanotech assemblers that can fabricate pretty much anything he’s got specs for like the Academy being the original prototype for PS238. That plus the genius metas under his country and his political connections and knowing how to deal under the table covers the rest of his resource needs. Kind of like how the Mary Sue version of Madison Jeffries could match the resources of a small nation due to his ability to fabricate just about anything from the surrounding materials (heck he expanded his Box robot to the size of a small mountain from local materials while fighting Tundra and included a hyper-drive and space capabilities to ensure he and his teammates survived the battle when he blew most of it up).
to be fair, didn’t they say he left her food and drink too? IIRC her complaint was if she was human she would have stunk from not bathing, not that she would have died.
Override (Jared Whitman). He’s the mind-controlling kid from the intro who was dominating his parents until Miss Kyle slipped a dose of psi-block virus into their coffee (http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/12132006/). It seems unlikely that his attitude has improved, and mind control powers + bad attitude is a pretty good recipe for villainy.
That kid looked older than the one in the opening. Are we sure it’s the same one? (I mean, similar powers, certainly, but it looked like the kid in the Praetorians’ employ had range issues that the early-installment kid did not.)
Tyler has been receiving that kind of treatment from his parents his entire life; I don’t think he would be too upset about a few mini-metas looking down on him.
Zodon may have just stated the motive of the Headmaster in the last panel.
TBH, while that started off as joke, Tyler’s parents having moved from pushing him hard into becoming what he is not to just straight up completely neglecting him in favor of Toby is SUPER-DEPRESSING. 🙁 No joke, no exaggeration. The scene of him staying in the broom closet and being tended to by Toby is so freaking sad. His parents don’t even remember his name or his existence- that’s TRAUMATIC. 🙁
As for the kids at PS238, I’d guess that the worst the other kids do feel towards him is pity or sympathy (or empathy? I’m getting those two confused). Remember when they originally elected him “Official Protector of Student Liberty and Guardian of Constitutional Values at PS238” to make up for his lack of powers? I’m giving the kids the benefit of the doubt and guessing they’re good-natured enough to feel for Tyler even until now.
Of course, American Eagle and USA Patriot Act stripping him of that office- even for the right legal reasons- still pisses me off.
Tyler’s parents are trash, really. Elitists who believe only their own clique can know what is right and have all but abandoned their own child.
Eagle and Patriot are pitiful victims of politics. They need help to shake off the years of indoctrination and FAST… before they grow up to be their respective parties’ goons – or in Patriot’s case, Zodon’s goon.
I wanted to defend them a bit, saying they’re not THAT bad- but you’re right. 🙁 That’s the point Moon Shadow and Revenant discussed at the end of the Rainmaker story arc.
They ARE that bad, to the point where Toby had to warp reality just to have them accept Tyler living in the broom closet. Remember the price for Cranston’s redemption? 🙁
Toby didn’t warp reality like that, he used his powers to cure Cranston of his curse with the deal he’d take care of working out all the paperwork and dealing with Tyler’s parents. The actions of Tyler’s parents are totally, 100% (barring some sort of retcon/reveal saying otherwise) their own actions and decisions including forgetting their own son in favor of his super-powered clone. Which just makes it all the worse because his parents have no excuse for their behavior as it’s all on them.
I doubt it, or at least hope not. That would just be sad and mean of them; bigger picture is that the tone of this comic is going to become so much darker and harsher. Superheroes vs. supervillains straight-up and parody is one thing; class warfare/prejudice based on superhuman powers is another. It’s up to Aaron as author, but PS238 would become such a different thing from what it is should the Headmaster’s agenda become everyone else’s.
It’s fine, it’s just really funny. I got both panels to appear at the same spot on my screen, and flipping back and forth was pretty funny.
As for the callback thing, I believe it’s a signal we’re finally approaching the end of this nearly 2-year chapter. If you’re wondering, I only found the other page when I was trying to find where we’d last seen Tyler.
He reused some of the line art for the characters, props and location, but recolored after making adjustments. The humor depends on creating a striking similarity between the old and new versions, but the joke would probably work better if seven months hadn’t passed since we last saw Zodon trailing the Super Justice League of Awesome Mightiness. The scene looked vaguely familiar, but I never would have thought to go looking for that link.
Both you and monochromaticprism are correct. Copy-pasting previous panels as a callback or for some other effect is something lots of comic books do, and it usually works, particularly when the story calls for something humorous. It’s okay here.
Not that anyone is likely to believe it, but he knows enough and is good enough at human nature, and possess enough skills that he could probably do untold damage if he ever went to the dark side.
Aaron, Fix your captcha. I have to save my posts and try three or four times before I can get the thing to accept it. And that’s with me doing the math first.
As someone else state earlier, if you type out your whole post and everything, then hit the refresh button to the right of the captcha, it won’t be a problem. It only takes a few seconds to do the math, so you shouldn’t have a problem fitting your post in before it locks you out. It would be nice for it to warn you on the time remaining, though.
I love the put-upon attitude of the “Restroom Stall Vertical Transport System”, and can’t help but think of it having the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4P3pvKmbsg (apologies to the late great Alan Rickman, who voiced him in the movie, but Stephen Moore is Marvin’s real voice).
Except when ever I hit the refresh button it not only doesn’t refresh it goes does a 404 not found pop up error message page and I lose the post when I actually get it on.
It’s nice to see new characters/students at PS238, but not knowing their names and more about them really bugs me. I hope Aaron gives us a more extensive and formal introduction to floating fire girl and alien boy. We also still don’t know what mini-Cylcops/George (I believe that’s his name as mentioned in a short story in the 3rd collected volume where Rockslide calls someone that while looking in his direction).
That said- a little off-topic- I’d like to know what happened to Satori Deacon and Alec Kent. Satori’s character-focus story is over but I’d still like to know what she’s doing now. I keep imagining them enrolled in Vashti’s magic class and the image makes me geek out.
I don’t know about Saturn-boy (maybe a play on the Martian Manhunter?) or the fire girl, but I’m pretty sure the other kid is Kyle Curtis/”Laser Sight”, based on the PS238 RPG book. He shoots beams from his eyes…but he’s crosseyed. The big lens corrects for it so he can aim both beams at the same target.
I’m going to review the books, but I don’t remember seeing fiery girl and Saturn boy before. That they’re not listed in the RPG means they’re totally new additions to the cast.
Recording of Mr. Clay’s voice: Please do not use the transportation toilet for waste elimination while in motion as the plumbing system is not currently connected. Please wait until the ride has come to a complete stop.
Related to nothing, staring at The Whiz’s costume for thirty seconds made me realize that I would like nothing better than an Expy of Shazam!/Captain Marvel to appear in PS238. There is some kind of humorous irony in a child who needs to transform into an adult in order to wear a cape in this universe, and I’m sure whoever winds up being “Billy Batson” would get along great with Tyler.
Captain Marvel has been a favorite of mine since I saw him in the DCAU, and that would be amusing.
Though I can see it happening at least three ways:
1) Direct expy, with his “adult” form not actually participating in the kids’ super-stuff as he’s…well, grown up. So he’s just there in kid-form as a school-kid.
2) Aged-down expy: he’s a baby/toddler, even younger than Zodon, who turns into a gradeschool kid.
3) Reversed expy: He’s a grown man who finds himself transforming into a super-powered kid. To explain why the kid has to go to school, the kid doesn’t retain the decision-making skills of the adult version. His adult form may well be his “guardian” with whom parent-teacher meetings occur. How he supports himself while going to grade-school is an open question.
Aw man, I love it, especially possibilities #1 and #3.
Re: 1) Billy Batson was chosen for the purity of his soul (and because his family in/directly helped out The wizard Shazam somehow but anyways), so having a direct expy hanging out with Tyler and Cecil would be funny AND cute… I imagine it being sorta like having an extra Suzy around? But the super form being an adult does sorta inhibit maximum possible interactions with the kids of PS238…
Re: 3) I really love this because I automatically imagine a kid with roughly the same snark levels as Zodon, except he makes jokes about adulthood things instead of lording intellectual superiority over his peers… Kinda like Principal Cranston as a PS238 student, honestly. Also there is a glorious symmetry in the grown up giving up the trappings and freedoms of adulthood… in exchange for a F.I.S.S.+ set of abilities and all the trappings/freedoms of youth. I *really* want to see this happen, with or without PS238!
He’s already done that, saved an entire universe after forming his own super-team with a super-hero team-up event. Also instrumental in helping defeat the alien invasion.
Heh heh… I doubt Tyler ever needs to resent anyone for having powers ever again, thanks to the Revenant’s training! ^_^
But only the staff (and his best friend) know about the training.
The truly important thing is for Tyler to know his own worth.
I don’t think Tyler would be prone to resentment even without the Revenant’s training considering his situation is a direct result of his own decision.
Let’s just hope that Tyler’s faith that “enough people will do the right thing when it counts” isn’t misplaced.
Afraid I don’t see how you arrive at that conclusion, since that question had nothing to do with removing all superpowers but whether or not new people would be allowed to develop them. Tyler had no ability to decide to depower everyone a la the Scarlet Witch and if he’d decided ‘NO’ the only result would have been no one would have been able to become super-powered until things cycled back around again.
Also it’s not like Tyler has reason to dislike super-powers, he has reason to dislike his parents who likely would have been bad parents even if they’d been normal.
That’s not a bad ploy by Zodon. Now we’ll see if the rest of the school looks down on normal boy as well.
If I were Zodon, I’d try to palm off my groupies on Von Fogg.
Of course, Von Fogg must have his own groupies.
That makes me wonder if Zordon and Von Fogg are the only evil villain students in PS238, all the other students being good guys or neutral.
Nah. Those two are just the ones stupid enough to advertise. The smart ones are pretending to be heroes or keeping their heads down.
Hmmmm, they’d have to be really, really smart to be that devious at that age and most of the students seem pretty average, even a little dense.
The only student at PS238 I can think of that’s that smart is Angie and she seems more interested in inventing stuff than being evil. That said, she’d make an scary super villain.
Maybe the evil ones remaining unrecognized were told to keep quiet by their mommies and daddies. 😉
On the other hand, I’m sure she’d make a scary* super hero as well. 😉
* – Not Batman scary but hilariously scary, such as being terrifying to her own allies and the innocents she saves.
Anjie built a rocket from scrap she found in her father’s junkyard, and primed its engine so it had a sick beat (ba-ba-boom). And then there’s the 30 foot tall robot she built during that alien invasion.
If she went evil the first sign would be alarm clocks strangling everyone in their sleep.
– Nate, editor of The Digital Reader
More likely, the ‘evil ones’ haven’t turned that heel yet. They’re kids. They have time to spoil.
The only one who actually qualify as an outright villain so far is Charles Brigman, who would be guilty of murder if his first victim didn’t happen to be Dr. Positron’s sister. (To recap, Charles is the bully who used his teleportation powers to torment other students.) He strands the owner of the K-Square in another dimension for two whole weeks just because he got caught shoplifting.
Currently, Charles is only being kept in check by an explosive collar courtesy of the Praetorian Academy. Thus, most of the sociopathic metas are most likely in the Praetorian Academy, which serves both as a school as well as a prison.
This is probably also why the Headmaster has such a high clearance level (he can actually override the Head of the Department of Metahuman affairs) and why he has access to as much resources as the Revenant.
Well the Headmaster’s resources are likely mostly from the fact he’s got nanotech assemblers that can fabricate pretty much anything he’s got specs for like the Academy being the original prototype for PS238. That plus the genius metas under his country and his political connections and knowing how to deal under the table covers the rest of his resource needs. Kind of like how the Mary Sue version of Madison Jeffries could match the resources of a small nation due to his ability to fabricate just about anything from the surrounding materials (heck he expanded his Box robot to the size of a small mountain from local materials while fighting Tundra and included a hyper-drive and space capabilities to ensure he and his teammates survived the battle when he blew most of it up).
to be fair, didn’t they say he left her food and drink too? IIRC her complaint was if she was human she would have stunk from not bathing, not that she would have died.
Override (Jared Whitman). He’s the mind-controlling kid from the intro who was dominating his parents until Miss Kyle slipped a dose of psi-block virus into their coffee (http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/12132006/). It seems unlikely that his attitude has improved, and mind control powers + bad attitude is a pretty good recipe for villainy.
He’s a Praetorian now. We see him putting the whammy on Ron’s mom when he was talking about how he joined the Academy.
That kid looked older than the one in the opening. Are we sure it’s the same one? (I mean, similar powers, certainly, but it looked like the kid in the Praetorians’ employ had range issues that the early-installment kid did not.)
Tyler has been receiving that kind of treatment from his parents his entire life; I don’t think he would be too upset about a few mini-metas looking down on him.
Zodon may have just stated the motive of the Headmaster in the last panel.
TBH, while that started off as joke, Tyler’s parents having moved from pushing him hard into becoming what he is not to just straight up completely neglecting him in favor of Toby is SUPER-DEPRESSING. 🙁 No joke, no exaggeration. The scene of him staying in the broom closet and being tended to by Toby is so freaking sad. His parents don’t even remember his name or his existence- that’s TRAUMATIC. 🙁
As for the kids at PS238, I’d guess that the worst the other kids do feel towards him is pity or sympathy (or empathy? I’m getting those two confused). Remember when they originally elected him “Official Protector of Student Liberty and Guardian of Constitutional Values at PS238” to make up for his lack of powers? I’m giving the kids the benefit of the doubt and guessing they’re good-natured enough to feel for Tyler even until now.
Of course, American Eagle and USA Patriot Act stripping him of that office- even for the right legal reasons- still pisses me off.
Tyler’s parents are trash, really. Elitists who believe only their own clique can know what is right and have all but abandoned their own child.
Eagle and Patriot are pitiful victims of politics. They need help to shake off the years of indoctrination and FAST… before they grow up to be their respective parties’ goons – or in Patriot’s case, Zodon’s goon.
I wanted to defend them a bit, saying they’re not THAT bad- but you’re right. 🙁 That’s the point Moon Shadow and Revenant discussed at the end of the Rainmaker story arc.
Yeah. It stuck in my memory. :-/
They ARE that bad, to the point where Toby had to warp reality just to have them accept Tyler living in the broom closet. Remember the price for Cranston’s redemption? 🙁
Toby didn’t warp reality like that, he used his powers to cure Cranston of his curse with the deal he’d take care of working out all the paperwork and dealing with Tyler’s parents. The actions of Tyler’s parents are totally, 100% (barring some sort of retcon/reveal saying otherwise) their own actions and decisions including forgetting their own son in favor of his super-powered clone. Which just makes it all the worse because his parents have no excuse for their behavior as it’s all on them.
I doubt it, or at least hope not. That would just be sad and mean of them; bigger picture is that the tone of this comic is going to become so much darker and harsher. Superheroes vs. supervillains straight-up and parody is one thing; class warfare/prejudice based on superhuman powers is another. It’s up to Aaron as author, but PS238 would become such a different thing from what it is should the Headmaster’s agenda become everyone else’s.
Honestly, I can see Tyler becoming quite sought after by all those supergroups. Every Justice League needs their Snapper Carr, right?
I think Aaron copy-pasted a scene from earlier:
http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07302014/
It’s fairly obvious, especially when you look at the blue & yellow kid’s index finger.
Personally I interpret it as a callback. (I follow a couple webcomics, such as homestuck, that make heavy use of this as a literary/visual device)
I’m cool with it. Never would have noticed, and frankly I am more interested in updates than having every line an original work.
It’s fine, it’s just really funny. I got both panels to appear at the same spot on my screen, and flipping back and forth was pretty funny.
As for the callback thing, I believe it’s a signal we’re finally approaching the end of this nearly 2-year chapter. If you’re wondering, I only found the other page when I was trying to find where we’d last seen Tyler.
He reused some of the line art for the characters, props and location, but recolored after making adjustments. The humor depends on creating a striking similarity between the old and new versions, but the joke would probably work better if seven months hadn’t passed since we last saw Zodon trailing the Super Justice League of Awesome Mightiness. The scene looked vaguely familiar, but I never would have thought to go looking for that link.
Oops — I meant “a year and seven months”. This is story is not being told rapidly.
It is definitely recycled art. It might be part saving time, and part callback of course.
Also it looks as if Zodons harassment lawsuit did not go through after all…
Feels a bit like a game of Spot the Difference.
Both you and monochromaticprism are correct. Copy-pasting previous panels as a callback or for some other effect is something lots of comic books do, and it usually works, particularly when the story calls for something humorous. It’s okay here.
That’s because this is a daily occurrence for Zodon.
Probably you could show up “tomorrow” in comic and see this same scene play out.
Tyler could actually do it, too.
Not that anyone is likely to believe it, but he knows enough and is good enough at human nature, and possess enough skills that he could probably do untold damage if he ever went to the dark side.
…and then he’d be taken down by the Revenant.
Aaron, Fix your captcha. I have to save my posts and try three or four times before I can get the thing to accept it. And that’s with me doing the math first.
Seconded. As is, it’s functionally useless.
As someone else state earlier, if you type out your whole post and everything, then hit the refresh button to the right of the captcha, it won’t be a problem. It only takes a few seconds to do the math, so you shouldn’t have a problem fitting your post in before it locks you out. It would be nice for it to warn you on the time remaining, though.
Oh, this cannot end well.
The teachers should really be breaking this up.
Even if Zodon’s a pain and a brat he has a right to not be harassed and bullied.
Agreed. Besides, constant harassment will only make him angrier and more likely to lash out at the world.
Of course the teachers SHOULD be breaking it up, but did you GO to school? The amount of enforcement is negligible outside of classrooms.
I love the put-upon attitude of the “Restroom Stall Vertical Transport System”, and can’t help but think of it having the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4P3pvKmbsg (apologies to the late great Alan Rickman, who voiced him in the movie, but Stephen Moore is Marvin’s real voice).
Except when ever I hit the refresh button it not only doesn’t refresh it goes does a 404 not found pop up error message page and I lose the post when I actually get it on.
It’s nice to see new characters/students at PS238, but not knowing their names and more about them really bugs me. I hope Aaron gives us a more extensive and formal introduction to floating fire girl and alien boy. We also still don’t know what mini-Cylcops/George (I believe that’s his name as mentioned in a short story in the 3rd collected volume where Rockslide calls someone that while looking in his direction).
That said- a little off-topic- I’d like to know what happened to Satori Deacon and Alec Kent. Satori’s character-focus story is over but I’d still like to know what she’s doing now. I keep imagining them enrolled in Vashti’s magic class and the image makes me geek out.
I don’t know about Saturn-boy (maybe a play on the Martian Manhunter?) or the fire girl, but I’m pretty sure the other kid is Kyle Curtis/”Laser Sight”, based on the PS238 RPG book. He shoots beams from his eyes…but he’s crosseyed. The big lens corrects for it so he can aim both beams at the same target.
Thanks!
I’m going to review the books, but I don’t remember seeing fiery girl and Saturn boy before. That they’re not listed in the RPG means they’re totally new additions to the cast.
I’d say Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5 from the Legion of Superhero’s
Recording of Mr. Clay’s voice: Please do not use the transportation toilet for waste elimination while in motion as the plumbing system is not currently connected. Please wait until the ride has come to a complete stop.
He saved himself some work and got another page out “on time”. I just got a lot of deja vu out of the transition, but I still like the use.
Related to nothing, staring at The Whiz’s costume for thirty seconds made me realize that I would like nothing better than an Expy of Shazam!/Captain Marvel to appear in PS238. There is some kind of humorous irony in a child who needs to transform into an adult in order to wear a cape in this universe, and I’m sure whoever winds up being “Billy Batson” would get along great with Tyler.
Yes! I love Captian Marvel, and the way that you describe the “sceane” between him and Tyler is hilarious. 🙂
Captain Marvel has been a favorite of mine since I saw him in the DCAU, and that would be amusing.
Though I can see it happening at least three ways:
1) Direct expy, with his “adult” form not actually participating in the kids’ super-stuff as he’s…well, grown up. So he’s just there in kid-form as a school-kid.
2) Aged-down expy: he’s a baby/toddler, even younger than Zodon, who turns into a gradeschool kid.
3) Reversed expy: He’s a grown man who finds himself transforming into a super-powered kid. To explain why the kid has to go to school, the kid doesn’t retain the decision-making skills of the adult version. His adult form may well be his “guardian” with whom parent-teacher meetings occur. How he supports himself while going to grade-school is an open question.
Aw man, I love it, especially possibilities #1 and #3.
Re: 1) Billy Batson was chosen for the purity of his soul (and because his family in/directly helped out The wizard Shazam somehow but anyways), so having a direct expy hanging out with Tyler and Cecil would be funny AND cute… I imagine it being sorta like having an extra Suzy around? But the super form being an adult does sorta inhibit maximum possible interactions with the kids of PS238…
Re: 3) I really love this because I automatically imagine a kid with roughly the same snark levels as Zodon, except he makes jokes about adulthood things instead of lording intellectual superiority over his peers… Kinda like Principal Cranston as a PS238 student, honestly. Also there is a glorious symmetry in the grown up giving up the trappings and freedoms of adulthood… in exchange for a F.I.S.S.+ set of abilities and all the trappings/freedoms of youth. I *really* want to see this happen, with or without PS238!
What would be even funnier is if Zodon turns out to be a better hero than the rat pack following him combined..
He’s already done that, saved an entire universe after forming his own super-team with a super-hero team-up event. Also instrumental in helping defeat the alien invasion.
“That’s not true! Okay, so there are few doodles in my notebook, but—”