Oh Tyler. That’s the kind of thing you really do need a support group for. Not the one you’re in.
Also, does it count as sloppiness here? Does it matter if the little people know the super-atti are having a party? Nothing does it for the ego like a little envy.
The fact that the super-atti are having a party probably doesn’t need to be kept a secret, yeah, but the fact that the apparent muggles Tyler Marlocke and Ron LastNameHere (as opposed to, say, Moon Shadow and Captain Clarinet) have been invited probably does.
Basically, Tyler should have gotten in his Moon Shadow outfit if he was going to be waving that thing around in public.
I dunno. Sounds like an opportunity for a super-villain to do something that really takes advantage of having lots of kids of your enemies in one place, even if they’re mostly or all powered. If you’ve got something that can disable or kill all of them at once, suddenly, and with good chance of success, you’d be eliminating a lot of future threats (plus some current ones) all at once. Remember when Tyler, Angie, and Prospero were in orbit in the place where the Union of Justice’s station used to be?
That said, Cecil plays up his paranoid conspiracy theorist side of himself way too much at times.
Yeah, remember how that ENDED? One super kid, a normal, and an alien and they solved it with seconds to spare. A whole BASE full of them? And whatever security the EDL base has for itself? yeah, no baddy’s going to want to get within one AU of THAT party. And that’s not counting the Powers themselves, and whichever other parents decide to act as chaperones.
And if you DID manage to kill them all? You better have left no evidence that even omniscience can trace, or you’re going to have every superhero in the WORLD hunting you. And you better be hoping they catch you before the super VILLIANS do.
We don’t know who that is picking up the flier (Sarah?)
Cecil presumably does, so he could be admonishing Tyler specifically about letting whoever it is get the invite, rather than it being a problem if people in general know.
I’m kind of amazed Tyler is as well-adjusted as he is. I’d be a complete wreck if I grew up in his situation. I’m starting to wonder if he really does have a superpower, and it’s some kind of superhuman emotional fortitude.
Despite his crappy parents, Tyler does have good friends and great teachers. He’s learned a lot from them.
I don’t want to be a downer, but there are kids out there with some real personal tragedies in their lives who’ve had to grow up so fast and early. They got scars, but some of them turn out quite fine.
Sorry Tyler, but their now throwing you a party… their throwing your clone a party. He was the one who talked about it and they simply ignored your name when he said it.
If your lucky then a villain will attack. Not so much harm the other supers, but more of… Moon Shadow Saves Everyone… jet transfers over friends you want to one of Revenant’s places so you can have a “normal” and happy party.
As for the villain attack? Power loss hero/villains + random chance for a power back = idiot who wants to show off and causing a disaster because they weren’t thinking straight.
I have to wonder; is what Tyler states in the first panel — that his parents still hope that he’ll get superpowers — something they actually said recently, or is he just referencing a memory from the last time his parents talked to him on the subject, before Toby and therefore before they started forgetting he exists?
It’s possible that like some RL cases of insanity his parents go through phases where they vaguely remember their real son and want to see him become a ‘proper’ child of theirs, just like they apparently enrolled him in that group therapy thing for supers who lost their powers since to them him having no powers must be a horrible mental handicap to deal with.
Have we seen the Powers parents interacting with Tyler recently?
An interestingly paranoid idea I had is that the signing up for the depowered therapy group, and the above business about powers maybe being contagious, and similar stuff, is actually all from Toby, pretending to be relaying this on behalf of the parents (going by what he remembers of them doing), in order to help hide how much they’ve forgotten Tyler.
So maybe the big party wasn’t actually the Powers’ own idea — Toby might have come up with it to let Tyler come over with any friend (or group of friends) he wanted.
It’s not from Toby it’s from the Powers, all of it. They left him at the school to live hoping powers would ‘rub off’ on him, it’s one of the first things Tyler says back in the beginning and why he repeats it here now. Toby’s not doing any of it. Seriously, I wish people would quit trying to shift the blame for Tyler’s parents being such awful parents onto him. He’s not to blame for how they are THEY are to blame for how they are.
First of all, just to be clear, this is all just speculation. I do not claim psychic mind-reading powers or precognition; I’m just thinking about a possible interesting twist.
Second, Tyler uses the phrase “still hope” (my emph), implying that he’s recently heard the “superpowers via contagion” idea repeated.
Third, I’m not blaming Toby here; I’m suggesting that Toby is trying to cover for how awful their parents are being to Tyler — for whatever reason that may be.
I’ve always assumed that Tyler’s parents still hope he will develop superpowers, but not necessarily because they feel that Tyler should have them. I figure they’re more concerned with the fact that the Universe dared to deny them a powered child and what that says about them (I can fully imagine that Tyler’s parents figure that a whispered conversation that stops when they enter the room is all about how the mighty Powers genes couldn’t even produce a super-powered child) then how Tyler feels about being the un-powered child of a couple major super heroes.
In their mind, Tyler developing powers legitimizes them as parents, so of course they still hope it will happen. Any benefit Tyler might gain from developing powers would be secondary.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m currently on the side of those who think that Toby has something to do with Tyler’s parents displaying some sort of amnesia about their natural-born son.
1) I just did an archive re-read of the “birth” of Toby, and I noticed how overjoyed Supreme and Ultima Powers were when “Tyler” (that is, his drone partial-clone, not that they knew that) was returned to them safe and well. Sure, they were still all “get any powers yet?”, but they were actually very happy to see him.
2) All other things being equal, I really think that the Powers would be happier with two powered sons — and they wouldn’t normally just reject the possibility of Tyler eventually developing powers just because they had Toby, with powers, to bond with. It’s precisely because Tyler is their natural-born son that they would presumably still hold out hope.
3) However, I got to thinking about Toby’s powers. And I suspect that at least part of the reason he uses them is because it makes his parents so happy and so accepting of him. It’s a psychological feedback loop, and is completely understandable in any child who craves parental approval.
But…
4) Because Toby’s powers result in cosmic “rebalancing”, without his conscious control, the “balancing” of Toby getting more and more parental acceptance is Tyler getting more and more parental rejection.
5) One question that occurred to me: Is Toby actually aware of this? He certainly seems to be aware sometimes of what the “rebalancing” is, but is he aware of every instance?
6) If Toby is aware, he’s presumably hiding it from Tyler. Is that why he’s so eager to help Tyler out all the time? Is his enthusiasm partially prompted by guilt?
7) I wonder if the end-stage of Tyler being rejected by his parents will result in him being disowned and/or being barred permanently from all of the EDL — literally thrown out of the house?
8) I have to wonder if that, or some stage of rejection before that, will trigger something in Toby to rebel against his parents. Presumably, rejection of Toby might lead to re-acceptance of Tyler — but maybe it’s not that simple.
9) I also wonder if Toby might end up rejecting his powers altogether. He might decide that the constant swings between Chaos and Order are causing too much suffering, rather than doing anything to alleviate suffering, and he will find a tree, sit down under it, and try to stay in the stillness of the center. Maybe becoming Tobhisattva? (Heh)
Okay now see that makes no sense at all. Toby is Tyler with super-powers which is EXACTLY what Tyler’s parents wanted there is no ‘using his powers to make them accept him’ because he’s already exactly what they want. He does not have to force acceptance because he’s already what they accept it’s TYLER who they’d have to be forced to accept and clearly he’s not doing anything of the sort. Something that the ‘they can’t be that bad of parents someone must be making them that way’ crowd just doesn’t seem to get it for some baffling reason, they CAN and clearly ARE that bad and certainly if Toby were unconsciously using his powers on them (which again we’ve NO reason to believe) it would be to make them accept Tyler not forget him.
No, you misunderstood — I didn’t mean than any coercion of feelings was going on. I meant that the feelings of acceptance and approval and bonding, which naturally occurred in the Powers on perceiving Toby/Absolute use those powers — those feelings themselves are a putative imbalance (from the perspective of Order and Chaos) which then require the rebalance of feelings of indifference, coldness, and similar negative feelings regarding Tyler.
Sorry, that was still unclear. I meant “which naturally occurred in the Powers on perceiving Toby/Absolute use his powers”. His powers in the general sense — flying around, stopping “villains” like Bolt, all the things he’s been doing in the EDL; every demonstration that he is now a full-fledged metahuman.
Ah, okay but it’s still flawed as that ‘cosmic balance’ inflicted on Toby by the Imp and Cherub is on his powers and his powers aren’t what caused Tyler’s parents to lock onto him as their son instead of Tyler (as in his powers didn’t actively make them feel that way it only happened because he had powers). Since his powers weren’t actually involved in that fashion to make them focus on him there wouldn’t be any kind of countering effect.
At this point, it’s just an idea. But I think it’s consistent (if anything can be consistent about how weird Toby’s powers are) with what we’ve seen.
I mean, it isn’t really obvious how removing a telepathic hex on Cranston would naturally lead to a “rebalancing” of Toby losing his potential best friend (by somehow making Cecil feel all paranoid about him).
Toby removed the curse on Cranston with the bargain that Cranston would do all the paperwork and talking to get him accepted with Tyler’s parents so they could be family, Cranston lost redemption because the curse was a punishment for removing the power-suppressing headband (because of course nobody considered it might HAVE to be removed for some life-threatening reason) and if he’d suffered through it could have outed the ‘good’ senator as the Headmaster and his various crimes. Toby lost the best friend he could have had in Cecil (who btw was always paranoid about supers and reacted in fear with a knee-jerk attempt to shrink Toby the first time they met when he teleported to him at Revenant’s safehouse) because what he got with his bargain was the love of Tyler’s parents so in gaining parents as he did he had to lose the best friend.
Seeing it all laid out like that emphasizes how the logic is very problematic. It’s all very well to say that getting accepted by the Powers was in “exchange” for fixing the hex, but really, it’s kind of Cranston’s job to help metapowered kids. If Cranston hadn’t needed the hex removed, and Toby had shown up, would Cranston have said “No, I won’t help you.”? Really? I can’t see him being that callous.
Cecil’s reaction seems excessive and strange. He’s worked with various other metahuman kids without drawing down and firing on them. Why does “Tyler” get this extreme fear reaction?
I think you’re kind of ignoring the fact that it doesn’t matter what Cranston MIGHT have done, even if (as he surely would have) he’d have helped Toby anyway Toby still made a bargain with him to remove the curse and as a result had to suffer some bad karma because removing it would definitely benefit him (maybe Cranston wouldn’t have been able to help because of the curse broadcasting his thoughts resulting in the Powers finding out how poorly he thinks of their treatment of Tyler).
You’re also kind of ignoring that Cecil had recently had a run-in with super-villains courtesy of Revenant and he was in a terrified state prior to that incident due to the constant exposure to super-humans all over the town after the alien invasion and thinking he was sensing dangerous aliens since he didn’t know what his special sense actually was detecting. When Toby showed up all Cecil knew was an extremely powerful being had just appeared and was approaching rapidly and when he saw it it looked to be his friend he never got the ‘alien’ feeling off of. He even explicitly shouts ‘He’s one of them now!’ before pulling out his gun and firing, which is TOTALLY in keeping with his character and events he’d experienced up to that point.
As to #7, I think there could be a gradual cooling if they learn about him, which may key off his alliance with Revenant. The future Moodshadow was certainnly embedded in the Revenant-cave. If their opinion on non-powered heroes is that entrenched, they will not like his heing an active and effective hero. I can’t see him giving that up, even if he desperately wants their approval. He’s balanced enough to know blackmail is BAD.
Honestly they should be proud that he wants to be a hero like them, and is already good at it. But the parent-fear and meta-contempt-for-non-meta will make for a nasty storm.
Firstly, in cases of parental favoritism, the favorite child doesn’t feel the bite of injustice as much as the unfavorite.
Secondly, an important thing to remember is that Toby has most of Tyler’s memories. While Toby may consciously acknowledge himself as the clone, he may not feel as beholden to Tyler as you claim. After all, according to Toby’s memories, Tyler’s room as always been his room, Tyler’s stuff has always been his stuff, Tyler’s parents has always been his parents. For Toby, Sovereign and Ultima giving him everything Tyler owned wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary.
Even Toby and Tyler’s view on Sovereign and Ultima may also differ. Remember that Tyler used to believe that his parents are disappointed in his lack of powers but still love him, and that they were too busy saving the world to visit. Thus from Toby’s point of view, Sovereign and Ultima’s favoritism would be an affirmation of his earlier beliefs (i.e. they are loving parents who are simply too busy); as for Tyler, being seriously disillusioned would be an understatement.
For Tyler every second he spends at the EDL is a reminder of his unfavorite status, which is why he tends to avoid his family.
On the other hand, Toby likely still thinks Sovereign and Ultima are great parents (who are simply much too busy saving the world), which is why he wants Tyler to stay at the EDL so that they might make some room for him someday.
Okay as much as I am against Tyler’s parents I think there might be something to this theory. Toby has to pay for changes that are done and they are potentially meta. Fixing Cranston’s mind cost him redemption, and getting his parents to accept him as Toby cost him the best friend he could ever have. We assume he meant Cecil.
Before Toby was his own person, Tyler’s parents may have wanted him to have powers, but they still loved him very much. Even bringing both boys home they seemed elated.
Now as of the story assignment, Toby gave powers to Tyler which caused all supers to lose their powers. All non-supers to gain powers and the world almost blow up. He fixed it but everyone forgot what he did. Then Moonshadow goes into space and Toby makes a homunculus of Tyler. How many times did he have to nudge his parents to ‘ignore’ wrong behavior in the pseudo-Tyler? Or ‘forget’ about something he did? To Toby these might have been innocent suggestions to protect his brother. But the result is his parents forget they even had a son named Tyler in the first place.
Toby does not need to be bad to be causing this chaos. Just not mindful he is causing it.
There’s no evidence Toby did anything to affect either of Tyler’s parents minds to make them ignore the odd behavior on the part of his replica of Tyler that he created to fill in for him, they don’t pay enough attention to Tyler to even notice such stuff like that they’re off focusing their attention on their favored son the one with super-powers.
Not much to say it isn’t either. The only thing compelling on this is that they were not totally aweful like they are now. Before Tyler went into space. Once back his father had forgotten him. That is the unshown area that this theory builds from.
That’s the thing though, you can’t build from things like that you can invent ANYTHING in those spaces. You have to build from what we’ve seen and what we’ve seen is that even early on his parents barely spent time with Tyler, to the point they shipped him off to the school dorms rather than have him stay at the satellite and commute in via teleportal because they were so uninterested in spending time with him because he was normal. It’s a totally believable and plausible progression for them to get even worse after the introduction of a super-powered clone of their son that fulfills their dream, it’s considerably less believable that somehow it’s all Toby’s fault when he can tell he’s using his powers and actively works to not use them to work changes if he can help it because he knows something bad also happens.
That’s the thing, Nightmask. It is NOT “totally believable” that they would get worse in this specific way. This specific method of “getting worse” requires one of two things:
1) Insanity so deep that they literally cannot perceive reality in a reliable fashion, which would make them dangerous super-villains unable to hide their psychopathic tendencies (and thus make them entirely unable to function as leaders of a well-respected HERO group); or
2) A deliberate and vile cruelty with a desire to intentionally inflict emotional pain upon a CHILD they spent years raising by pretending he doesn’t exist or that they don’t remember him. To his face. Dursley-level evil, where they actively LOATHE this boy and want him to suffer and KNOW he is MEANT to suffer.
Option 2) doesn’t jive with their desired self-image. Option 1) would require that they be actively engaged in von-Fog level supervillainy while claiming it’s all “For your own good” to their victims. Because anything else is inconsistent.
The level of delusional madness that it would take to make them edit out Tyler and replace Toby entirely, name and all, and forget the circumstances of Toby’s creation AS IT WAS EXPLAINED TO THEM would mean that they would also not accept things like court decisions that release their supervillains, or things like personal property rights (since they “deserve” whatever they want by “cosmic destiny”). They would be known and feared supervillains viewed as delusional or hypocritical.
It isn’t that it’s unbelievable that they’d be awful parents. That they’d unfavorite Tyler and forget about him. Heck, even the storage closet “room” they gave him is believable (“He’s here so little, so he just needs space for his stuff and the occasional sleep-over”), though it would make more sense for them to simply have Toby and Tyler share a room (“Tyler’s here so little; it’ll be like Toby has a room to himself most of the time.”) but, again, unfavoriting can mean they justify some small cruelties for Toby’s benefit (“they deserve their own space, but Tyler doesn’t need as much since he’s got that one in the dorms.”) and the like.
Where the line is crossed into “unbelievable” territory is the things like “background check” and FORGETTING TYLER’S NAME. That’s either mind-alteration or genuine madness that could not be contained to just one thing.
No Segev neither of those things are required and none of what you list there is a reasonable extrapolation of things. Nor does their behavior require mind control or delusional madness that would affect everything that they do. The only reason you insist on that is because you don’t want to accept them as being as bad as they are so are inventing some totally unproven mind-controlling entity doing things FOR NO EXPLAINABLE REASON to explain away their awfulness. ‘Well someone must be making them behave like that even though I have no reason why anyone would be doing that there just has to be someone doing it’ doesn’t cut it, currently we’ve NO evidence that how they’re behaving is due to anyone but themselves. All of it makes perfect sense building on their past actions and demonstrated behavior none of it needs the invention of some outside force making it happen.
I think the point that you’re missing, Nightmask, is that there’s as little evidence for the Powers being delusional to the point that they rewrite their OWN brains as there is of some outside force doing it; the only thing we actually KNOW is that the Powers Parents are exhibiting some fairly extreme dissociations from reality, at least insofar as said reality involves Tyler.
That being said, their behaviour doesn’t align well with any of the mental disorders I’m aware of; dissociations like this one generally seem to come from severe trauma, and I’m having a hard time imagining Tyler causing his parents that kind of psychological damage, at least in any scenario he *survived* through. His father *clearly and obviously NOT KNOWING Tyler* isn’t ‘unfavouriting’ or ‘bad parenting’ or ‘being horrible people’; it’s mental damage from either an internal or external source, and I don’t see why an external source for that damage is any less likely than an internal one.
For that matter, I’m a little worried about how they’re going to react to Ron. He was a massively powerful superhuman who no longer has any powers (as far as anyone who’s not Cecil can tell, anyhow), which would appear to violate their whole ‘cosmic destiny’ mindset. The only saving grace there is that he’s quite sure that his powers will come back, which would align nicely with their beliefs
As I’ve tried very hard to outline, I in no way am trying to exonerate the Powers for their mistreatment and abuse of Tyler. I am saying that this particular FORM does not … fit.
Either it’s some sort of “influence” causing it, or I’m disappointed in Aaron’s writing.
Consistent characterization, with no external influence, would have them ignore Tyler and come up with excuse after excuse to keep him out of their hair “for his own safety” (as they can now safely acknowledge, when convenient, that he’s mortal and vulnerable, since Toby fills their “superpowered son” needs), and continue to put him in needless harm’s way (as Tyler notes in this page) to try to get him to meet his “cosmic destiny.”
It’s a little over-the-top, but not out of character, to have his room moved to the supply closet. But to be unable to remember his name and to do a background check on him is…
It’s not believable. No matter how awful they are as parents, having their memories edit Tyler out entirely to the point of full-fledged delusion just doesn’t fit. It harms THEIR image too much, because it’s something others will notice. ESPECIALLY if they’re doing things like going out of their way to make it obvious, like having background checks run on their own son.
To repeat: I in part base this on the fact that they ARE such narcissists and wouldn’t want to engage in behavior that makes them look bad. And this makes them look (to other people) either insane or deliberately cruel, neither of which are images they want to portray.
TeChameleon, I think Ron is an area they’ll probably actually have a blind spot. They never knew Captain Clarinet all that well, and they thus are very likely to simply assume this “nerdy kid with glasses” is a mortal kid. Assuming they remember Tyler has mortal friends. (It’s possible, especially if they keep playing up the “can’t remember Tyler at all” angle, that they’ll wonder who put these two – Tyler and Ron – up to infiltrating a super-kids’ party.)
But even assuming they remember Tyler, it is very likely they’ll assume – aggressively – that Ron is and always has been a mortal friend of Tyler’s. They may or may not express concern that Tyler is hanging out with him rather than super-kids, as hanging out with normal people won’t help him reach his “cosmic destiny.”
I fully expect that if it’s called out that Ron is Atlas’s son, they’ll either laugh it off as “cute” and “flattering” that a mortal kid wants to pretend to have superpowers, or they’ll express commiseration with Atlas that they’re sure his son will reach his “destiny” the way theirs has.
(I will note that they’ll reference the latter even if they aren’t being influenced, as it’s FULLY within character to, in that context, think of Toby as having achieved his destiny and conveniently forget about Tyler until reminded. Again: the issue I take with their level of delusion being “natural” is that they don’t remember him WHEN REMINDED.)
I’m not missing any points though TeChameleon, there’s plenty of evidence to the delusional state of the Powers right from the start. They outright declare that their son has a Cosmic Destiny and that they’ll allow none to stand in the way of it and actively demanded their child be put in harm’s way because of their absolute certainty that it would only bring about the reveal of the vast cosmic powers they’re certain he’s destined to have. It was that fear that his parents would get Tyler killed that led Cranston to hooking Tyler up with Revenant for training so he’d have a chance of surviving and growing up. His parents have never been shown to be right in the head especially where he’s concerned, everything that they’ve done is consistent with their delusional nature and requires the invention of no outside mind-warping beings to explain, for which again ‘I can’t accept that they could be this bad without outside influence’ does not actually constitute a valid justification for any such being. Those insisting some outside agency must exist have provide zero rationale for why said agency would be manipulating the Powers in such a fashion, why it would be so important to have them be such awful parents towards their son. Truth is the only outside agency is the writer and none of the actions we see out of the Powers fail to be consistent with their proven delusional nature from the very beginning of the comic.
Nightmask, you continue to assert that the motive of those suggesting it is outside influence is to in some way exonerate or excuse the Powers’ awful parenting. To make them seem like better, less-awful people.
This is not so.
No, I don’t know why such an outside influence would be acting on them. I merely hope it’s the case because, if it is not, then this seems like bad writing, and I expect better of Aaron. This is an otherwise-excellent story.
And no, they have not shown active levels of delusion that include editing their active perceptions and memories of reality. At least, not before the “can’t remember Tyler” incidents started. The equivalent level of delusion would not have been, “Our son has a destiny that has yet to manifest.” It would have been, “Our son has superpowers. I’m suspicious of your motives for asserting otherwise. What have you done with our boy!?”
The level of delusion required for “I think this ‘Tylin’ person – or whatever his name is – is a fake who needs to be background checked” is the same as the level of delusion they would be displaying iff they said Tyler ALREADY HAD POWERS from the very beginning.
The narcissistic faith in the inherent specialness of any combination of their genes manifesting as an insistence that he WILL develop superpowers (even though he hasn’t, yet) to the point that they think putting him in danger is perfectly acceptable is not, for all it’s horrid display, a refusal to recognize an active reality they have lived. It IS possible for Tyler to spontaneously develop powers; this seems to be, if not common, then at least a relatively known origin story amongst the super-population. They’re no more delusional than the person who is certain that THIS time, they’ll win the lottery.
The level of delusion that you’re ascribing would be the delusion that they already HAVE won the lottery, even though they patently have not.
Oh give it a rest, will you? This conversation is getting repetitive and dull. If there is something affecting Tyler’s parents, we’ll find out in due time. If not, then the author made a mistake. It happens. Let’s find something else to argue about.
Is it bad that I want a Cape-killer to show up and rampage through the town? Maybe de-power Tyler’s parents, toss them around a bit, kill some supers. Then leave it up to Green Gauntlet, The Revenant, Toby, and Tyler to take him down. Maybe form a Batman and the Outsiders-esque Team? It would put Tyler’s parents in their place, strengthen Toby and Tyler’s friendship, bring GG and GG jr to the forefront of the superhero scene, and shatter the egos of many, many supers by showing them that Revenant IS infact better than them.
Since Ron exclusively attends Excelsior now, the recycling bin is likely in Exelsior. By dropping the flier in a location accessible to normal humans, Tyler just got a whole bunch of civilians into the mix not to mention jeopardized the whole masquerade of PS238.
Very sloppy indeed, and quite out of character for Tyler.
I think he’s a tad upset that a sleep over for he and his friends got coopted for the parents’ need to show how cool they are. Like the 80’s dad who tried to break dance or prove he could win Mortal Wombat.
Just because Ron wasn’t old enough to play a NES when it was first out doesn’t mean he didn’t get to play one at all. Maybe his mom still had a NES from when she was younger and passed it down to Ron.
Or maybe it’s just a reference from the author and we’re not supposed to take it too seriously.
Yea Toby getting Tylor’s room has already been established still sucks though. I imagine half the time Tylor manages to somehow end up spending the night at Ron’s or Cecil’s place during vacations which might require a sleeping bag and when that does not pan out mostly treating the place as emergency shelter and otherwise actively avoiding everyone but Toby.
They likely managed to maintain their beliefs about the best course of action for Tylor despite; being told something like only a monster would seriously risk their childs life on the off chance he will develop superpowers fairly regularely; people treating them like they are insane for their beliefs that Tylor child is one accident away from superpowers; nobody really showing belief when they stop arguing just realizing they are really that insane; Tylor himself never developing powers; Tylor likely actually siding with the doubters; the numerous evidence that developing and discovering superpowers in life threatening accidents is rarer than dying from said accidents.
I actually think this delusion is easier to maintain than the previous one. One adult mentioned once that they now had twins with emperical evidence which lasted a few hours before Tylor went home to school. Toby’s name changed but they are close. Most times where Toby or Tylor try to remind the parents that Tylor exists, kids and their imagionary friends. Since the Powers social circle does not intersect with people who know about the whole twin thing, all their friends believe Toby’s an only child whose name they might have remembered wrong and/ or might have an imagionary friend. That time Toby faked Tylor clearly weird wait Toby could totally manage something like that to support his story of his imagionary friend who’s name I’m pretty sure was close to his. Overall there is a lot which would allow someone who secretly even to themselves wants to forget about Tylor rewrite him as a quirk of Toby’s.
No, I’m sorry, but “Tyler’s name changed but they are close” is where you lose this argument, to me. And “kids and their imaginary friends” doesn’t cover “do a background check when faced with the very real Tyler.” Nor does it work when they discuss both Toby and Tyler to Tyler, and can’t remember Tyler’s name.
I won’t say Aaron isn’t going that direction. I will say that it’s not good writing on his part if he is, if only because it’s just not believable without vacillating your belief in their level of insanity all over the place to make it work.
Oh Tyler. That’s the kind of thing you really do need a support group for. Not the one you’re in.
Also, does it count as sloppiness here? Does it matter if the little people know the super-atti are having a party? Nothing does it for the ego like a little envy.
The fact that the super-atti are having a party probably doesn’t need to be kept a secret, yeah, but the fact that the apparent muggles Tyler Marlocke and Ron LastNameHere (as opposed to, say, Moon Shadow and Captain Clarinet) have been invited probably does.
Basically, Tyler should have gotten in his Moon Shadow outfit if he was going to be waving that thing around in public.
I dunno. Sounds like an opportunity for a super-villain to do something that really takes advantage of having lots of kids of your enemies in one place, even if they’re mostly or all powered. If you’ve got something that can disable or kill all of them at once, suddenly, and with good chance of success, you’d be eliminating a lot of future threats (plus some current ones) all at once. Remember when Tyler, Angie, and Prospero were in orbit in the place where the Union of Justice’s station used to be?
That said, Cecil plays up his paranoid conspiracy theorist side of himself way too much at times.
…That’s the sort of plan that would make the Joker laugh maniacally and then knife you in the kidney repeatedly. “I’m CRAZY, buddy. I’m not STUPID.”
Yeah, remember how that ENDED? One super kid, a normal, and an alien and they solved it with seconds to spare. A whole BASE full of them? And whatever security the EDL base has for itself? yeah, no baddy’s going to want to get within one AU of THAT party. And that’s not counting the Powers themselves, and whichever other parents decide to act as chaperones.
And if you DID manage to kill them all? You better have left no evidence that even omniscience can trace, or you’re going to have every superhero in the WORLD hunting you. And you better be hoping they catch you before the super VILLIANS do.
And when they’re finished huNting you, they’ll likely all start huRting you…
We don’t know who that is picking up the flier (Sarah?)
Cecil presumably does, so he could be admonishing Tyler specifically about letting whoever it is get the invite, rather than it being a problem if people in general know.
I suspect the “Sloppy, Agent Marlocke” is a transition to Cecil scolding Tyler for missing the shop.
I’m kind of amazed Tyler is as well-adjusted as he is. I’d be a complete wreck if I grew up in his situation. I’m starting to wonder if he really does have a superpower, and it’s some kind of superhuman emotional fortitude.
Despite his crappy parents, Tyler does have good friends and great teachers. He’s learned a lot from them.
I don’t want to be a downer, but there are kids out there with some real personal tragedies in their lives who’ve had to grow up so fast and early. They got scars, but some of them turn out quite fine.
Sorry Tyler, but their now throwing you a party… their throwing your clone a party. He was the one who talked about it and they simply ignored your name when he said it.
If your lucky then a villain will attack. Not so much harm the other supers, but more of… Moon Shadow Saves Everyone… jet transfers over friends you want to one of Revenant’s places so you can have a “normal” and happy party.
As for the villain attack? Power loss hero/villains + random chance for a power back = idiot who wants to show off and causing a disaster because they weren’t thinking straight.
I have to wonder; is what Tyler states in the first panel — that his parents still hope that he’ll get superpowers — something they actually said recently, or is he just referencing a memory from the last time his parents talked to him on the subject, before Toby and therefore before they started forgetting he exists?
It’s possible that like some RL cases of insanity his parents go through phases where they vaguely remember their real son and want to see him become a ‘proper’ child of theirs, just like they apparently enrolled him in that group therapy thing for supers who lost their powers since to them him having no powers must be a horrible mental handicap to deal with.
Have we seen the Powers parents interacting with Tyler recently?
An interestingly paranoid idea I had is that the signing up for the depowered therapy group, and the above business about powers maybe being contagious, and similar stuff, is actually all from Toby, pretending to be relaying this on behalf of the parents (going by what he remembers of them doing), in order to help hide how much they’ve forgotten Tyler.
So maybe the big party wasn’t actually the Powers’ own idea — Toby might have come up with it to let Tyler come over with any friend (or group of friends) he wanted.
That… would be even more depressing than the thought of them giving misguided attention to Tyler. :-/
It’s not from Toby it’s from the Powers, all of it. They left him at the school to live hoping powers would ‘rub off’ on him, it’s one of the first things Tyler says back in the beginning and why he repeats it here now. Toby’s not doing any of it. Seriously, I wish people would quit trying to shift the blame for Tyler’s parents being such awful parents onto him. He’s not to blame for how they are THEY are to blame for how they are.
First of all, just to be clear, this is all just speculation. I do not claim psychic mind-reading powers or precognition; I’m just thinking about a possible interesting twist.
Second, Tyler uses the phrase “still hope” (my emph), implying that he’s recently heard the “superpowers via contagion” idea repeated.
Third, I’m not blaming Toby here; I’m suggesting that Toby is trying to cover for how awful their parents are being to Tyler — for whatever reason that may be.
I’ve always assumed that Tyler’s parents still hope he will develop superpowers, but not necessarily because they feel that Tyler should have them. I figure they’re more concerned with the fact that the Universe dared to deny them a powered child and what that says about them (I can fully imagine that Tyler’s parents figure that a whispered conversation that stops when they enter the room is all about how the mighty Powers genes couldn’t even produce a super-powered child) then how Tyler feels about being the un-powered child of a couple major super heroes.
In their mind, Tyler developing powers legitimizes them as parents, so of course they still hope it will happen. Any benefit Tyler might gain from developing powers would be secondary.
Is it bad that I’m not even surprised that they gave Toby Tyler’s room and now Tyler sleeps in a sleeping bag?
It just shows you’ve been paying attention.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m currently on the side of those who think that Toby has something to do with Tyler’s parents displaying some sort of amnesia about their natural-born son.
1) I just did an archive re-read of the “birth” of Toby, and I noticed how overjoyed Supreme and Ultima Powers were when “Tyler” (that is, his drone partial-clone, not that they knew that) was returned to them safe and well. Sure, they were still all “get any powers yet?”, but they were actually very happy to see him.
2) All other things being equal, I really think that the Powers would be happier with two powered sons — and they wouldn’t normally just reject the possibility of Tyler eventually developing powers just because they had Toby, with powers, to bond with. It’s precisely because Tyler is their natural-born son that they would presumably still hold out hope.
3) However, I got to thinking about Toby’s powers. And I suspect that at least part of the reason he uses them is because it makes his parents so happy and so accepting of him. It’s a psychological feedback loop, and is completely understandable in any child who craves parental approval.
But…
4) Because Toby’s powers result in cosmic “rebalancing”, without his conscious control, the “balancing” of Toby getting more and more parental acceptance is Tyler getting more and more parental rejection.
5) One question that occurred to me: Is Toby actually aware of this? He certainly seems to be aware sometimes of what the “rebalancing” is, but is he aware of every instance?
6) If Toby is aware, he’s presumably hiding it from Tyler. Is that why he’s so eager to help Tyler out all the time? Is his enthusiasm partially prompted by guilt?
7) I wonder if the end-stage of Tyler being rejected by his parents will result in him being disowned and/or being barred permanently from all of the EDL — literally thrown out of the house?
8) I have to wonder if that, or some stage of rejection before that, will trigger something in Toby to rebel against his parents. Presumably, rejection of Toby might lead to re-acceptance of Tyler — but maybe it’s not that simple.
9) I also wonder if Toby might end up rejecting his powers altogether. He might decide that the constant swings between Chaos and Order are causing too much suffering, rather than doing anything to alleviate suffering, and he will find a tree, sit down under it, and try to stay in the stillness of the center. Maybe becoming Tobhisattva? (Heh)
Okay now see that makes no sense at all. Toby is Tyler with super-powers which is EXACTLY what Tyler’s parents wanted there is no ‘using his powers to make them accept him’ because he’s already exactly what they want. He does not have to force acceptance because he’s already what they accept it’s TYLER who they’d have to be forced to accept and clearly he’s not doing anything of the sort. Something that the ‘they can’t be that bad of parents someone must be making them that way’ crowd just doesn’t seem to get it for some baffling reason, they CAN and clearly ARE that bad and certainly if Toby were unconsciously using his powers on them (which again we’ve NO reason to believe) it would be to make them accept Tyler not forget him.
No, you misunderstood — I didn’t mean than any coercion of feelings was going on. I meant that the feelings of acceptance and approval and bonding, which naturally occurred in the Powers on perceiving Toby/Absolute use those powers — those feelings themselves are a putative imbalance (from the perspective of Order and Chaos) which then require the rebalance of feelings of indifference, coldness, and similar negative feelings regarding Tyler.
Sorry, that was still unclear. I meant “which naturally occurred in the Powers on perceiving Toby/Absolute use his powers”. His powers in the general sense — flying around, stopping “villains” like Bolt, all the things he’s been doing in the EDL; every demonstration that he is now a full-fledged metahuman.
Ah, okay but it’s still flawed as that ‘cosmic balance’ inflicted on Toby by the Imp and Cherub is on his powers and his powers aren’t what caused Tyler’s parents to lock onto him as their son instead of Tyler (as in his powers didn’t actively make them feel that way it only happened because he had powers). Since his powers weren’t actually involved in that fashion to make them focus on him there wouldn’t be any kind of countering effect.
At this point, it’s just an idea. But I think it’s consistent (if anything can be consistent about how weird Toby’s powers are) with what we’ve seen.
I mean, it isn’t really obvious how removing a telepathic hex on Cranston would naturally lead to a “rebalancing” of Toby losing his potential best friend (by somehow making Cecil feel all paranoid about him).
Toby removed the curse on Cranston with the bargain that Cranston would do all the paperwork and talking to get him accepted with Tyler’s parents so they could be family, Cranston lost redemption because the curse was a punishment for removing the power-suppressing headband (because of course nobody considered it might HAVE to be removed for some life-threatening reason) and if he’d suffered through it could have outed the ‘good’ senator as the Headmaster and his various crimes. Toby lost the best friend he could have had in Cecil (who btw was always paranoid about supers and reacted in fear with a knee-jerk attempt to shrink Toby the first time they met when he teleported to him at Revenant’s safehouse) because what he got with his bargain was the love of Tyler’s parents so in gaining parents as he did he had to lose the best friend.
Seeing it all laid out like that emphasizes how the logic is very problematic. It’s all very well to say that getting accepted by the Powers was in “exchange” for fixing the hex, but really, it’s kind of Cranston’s job to help metapowered kids. If Cranston hadn’t needed the hex removed, and Toby had shown up, would Cranston have said “No, I won’t help you.”? Really? I can’t see him being that callous.
Cecil’s reaction seems excessive and strange. He’s worked with various other metahuman kids without drawing down and firing on them. Why does “Tyler” get this extreme fear reaction?
I think you’re kind of ignoring the fact that it doesn’t matter what Cranston MIGHT have done, even if (as he surely would have) he’d have helped Toby anyway Toby still made a bargain with him to remove the curse and as a result had to suffer some bad karma because removing it would definitely benefit him (maybe Cranston wouldn’t have been able to help because of the curse broadcasting his thoughts resulting in the Powers finding out how poorly he thinks of their treatment of Tyler).
You’re also kind of ignoring that Cecil had recently had a run-in with super-villains courtesy of Revenant and he was in a terrified state prior to that incident due to the constant exposure to super-humans all over the town after the alien invasion and thinking he was sensing dangerous aliens since he didn’t know what his special sense actually was detecting. When Toby showed up all Cecil knew was an extremely powerful being had just appeared and was approaching rapidly and when he saw it it looked to be his friend he never got the ‘alien’ feeling off of. He even explicitly shouts ‘He’s one of them now!’ before pulling out his gun and firing, which is TOTALLY in keeping with his character and events he’d experienced up to that point.
As to #7, I think there could be a gradual cooling if they learn about him, which may key off his alliance with Revenant. The future Moodshadow was certainnly embedded in the Revenant-cave. If their opinion on non-powered heroes is that entrenched, they will not like his heing an active and effective hero. I can’t see him giving that up, even if he desperately wants their approval. He’s balanced enough to know blackmail is BAD.
Honestly they should be proud that he wants to be a hero like them, and is already good at it. But the parent-fear and meta-contempt-for-non-meta will make for a nasty storm.
Firstly, in cases of parental favoritism, the favorite child doesn’t feel the bite of injustice as much as the unfavorite.
Secondly, an important thing to remember is that Toby has most of Tyler’s memories. While Toby may consciously acknowledge himself as the clone, he may not feel as beholden to Tyler as you claim. After all, according to Toby’s memories, Tyler’s room as always been his room, Tyler’s stuff has always been his stuff, Tyler’s parents has always been his parents. For Toby, Sovereign and Ultima giving him everything Tyler owned wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary.
Even Toby and Tyler’s view on Sovereign and Ultima may also differ. Remember that Tyler used to believe that his parents are disappointed in his lack of powers but still love him, and that they were too busy saving the world to visit. Thus from Toby’s point of view, Sovereign and Ultima’s favoritism would be an affirmation of his earlier beliefs (i.e. they are loving parents who are simply too busy); as for Tyler, being seriously disillusioned would be an understatement.
For Tyler every second he spends at the EDL is a reminder of his unfavorite status, which is why he tends to avoid his family.
On the other hand, Toby likely still thinks Sovereign and Ultima are great parents (who are simply much too busy saving the world), which is why he wants Tyler to stay at the EDL so that they might make some room for him someday.
Okay as much as I am against Tyler’s parents I think there might be something to this theory. Toby has to pay for changes that are done and they are potentially meta. Fixing Cranston’s mind cost him redemption, and getting his parents to accept him as Toby cost him the best friend he could ever have. We assume he meant Cecil.
Before Toby was his own person, Tyler’s parents may have wanted him to have powers, but they still loved him very much. Even bringing both boys home they seemed elated.
Now as of the story assignment, Toby gave powers to Tyler which caused all supers to lose their powers. All non-supers to gain powers and the world almost blow up. He fixed it but everyone forgot what he did. Then Moonshadow goes into space and Toby makes a homunculus of Tyler. How many times did he have to nudge his parents to ‘ignore’ wrong behavior in the pseudo-Tyler? Or ‘forget’ about something he did? To Toby these might have been innocent suggestions to protect his brother. But the result is his parents forget they even had a son named Tyler in the first place.
Toby does not need to be bad to be causing this chaos. Just not mindful he is causing it.
There’s no evidence Toby did anything to affect either of Tyler’s parents minds to make them ignore the odd behavior on the part of his replica of Tyler that he created to fill in for him, they don’t pay enough attention to Tyler to even notice such stuff like that they’re off focusing their attention on their favored son the one with super-powers.
Not much to say it isn’t either. The only thing compelling on this is that they were not totally aweful like they are now. Before Tyler went into space. Once back his father had forgotten him. That is the unshown area that this theory builds from.
That’s the thing though, you can’t build from things like that you can invent ANYTHING in those spaces. You have to build from what we’ve seen and what we’ve seen is that even early on his parents barely spent time with Tyler, to the point they shipped him off to the school dorms rather than have him stay at the satellite and commute in via teleportal because they were so uninterested in spending time with him because he was normal. It’s a totally believable and plausible progression for them to get even worse after the introduction of a super-powered clone of their son that fulfills their dream, it’s considerably less believable that somehow it’s all Toby’s fault when he can tell he’s using his powers and actively works to not use them to work changes if he can help it because he knows something bad also happens.
That’s the thing, Nightmask. It is NOT “totally believable” that they would get worse in this specific way. This specific method of “getting worse” requires one of two things:
1) Insanity so deep that they literally cannot perceive reality in a reliable fashion, which would make them dangerous super-villains unable to hide their psychopathic tendencies (and thus make them entirely unable to function as leaders of a well-respected HERO group); or
2) A deliberate and vile cruelty with a desire to intentionally inflict emotional pain upon a CHILD they spent years raising by pretending he doesn’t exist or that they don’t remember him. To his face. Dursley-level evil, where they actively LOATHE this boy and want him to suffer and KNOW he is MEANT to suffer.
Option 2) doesn’t jive with their desired self-image. Option 1) would require that they be actively engaged in von-Fog level supervillainy while claiming it’s all “For your own good” to their victims. Because anything else is inconsistent.
The level of delusional madness that it would take to make them edit out Tyler and replace Toby entirely, name and all, and forget the circumstances of Toby’s creation AS IT WAS EXPLAINED TO THEM would mean that they would also not accept things like court decisions that release their supervillains, or things like personal property rights (since they “deserve” whatever they want by “cosmic destiny”). They would be known and feared supervillains viewed as delusional or hypocritical.
It isn’t that it’s unbelievable that they’d be awful parents. That they’d unfavorite Tyler and forget about him. Heck, even the storage closet “room” they gave him is believable (“He’s here so little, so he just needs space for his stuff and the occasional sleep-over”), though it would make more sense for them to simply have Toby and Tyler share a room (“Tyler’s here so little; it’ll be like Toby has a room to himself most of the time.”) but, again, unfavoriting can mean they justify some small cruelties for Toby’s benefit (“they deserve their own space, but Tyler doesn’t need as much since he’s got that one in the dorms.”) and the like.
Where the line is crossed into “unbelievable” territory is the things like “background check” and FORGETTING TYLER’S NAME. That’s either mind-alteration or genuine madness that could not be contained to just one thing.
No Segev neither of those things are required and none of what you list there is a reasonable extrapolation of things. Nor does their behavior require mind control or delusional madness that would affect everything that they do. The only reason you insist on that is because you don’t want to accept them as being as bad as they are so are inventing some totally unproven mind-controlling entity doing things FOR NO EXPLAINABLE REASON to explain away their awfulness. ‘Well someone must be making them behave like that even though I have no reason why anyone would be doing that there just has to be someone doing it’ doesn’t cut it, currently we’ve NO evidence that how they’re behaving is due to anyone but themselves. All of it makes perfect sense building on their past actions and demonstrated behavior none of it needs the invention of some outside force making it happen.
I think the point that you’re missing, Nightmask, is that there’s as little evidence for the Powers being delusional to the point that they rewrite their OWN brains as there is of some outside force doing it; the only thing we actually KNOW is that the Powers Parents are exhibiting some fairly extreme dissociations from reality, at least insofar as said reality involves Tyler.
That being said, their behaviour doesn’t align well with any of the mental disorders I’m aware of; dissociations like this one generally seem to come from severe trauma, and I’m having a hard time imagining Tyler causing his parents that kind of psychological damage, at least in any scenario he *survived* through. His father *clearly and obviously NOT KNOWING Tyler* isn’t ‘unfavouriting’ or ‘bad parenting’ or ‘being horrible people’; it’s mental damage from either an internal or external source, and I don’t see why an external source for that damage is any less likely than an internal one.
For that matter, I’m a little worried about how they’re going to react to Ron. He was a massively powerful superhuman who no longer has any powers (as far as anyone who’s not Cecil can tell, anyhow), which would appear to violate their whole ‘cosmic destiny’ mindset. The only saving grace there is that he’s quite sure that his powers will come back, which would align nicely with their beliefs
As I’ve tried very hard to outline, I in no way am trying to exonerate the Powers for their mistreatment and abuse of Tyler. I am saying that this particular FORM does not … fit.
Either it’s some sort of “influence” causing it, or I’m disappointed in Aaron’s writing.
Consistent characterization, with no external influence, would have them ignore Tyler and come up with excuse after excuse to keep him out of their hair “for his own safety” (as they can now safely acknowledge, when convenient, that he’s mortal and vulnerable, since Toby fills their “superpowered son” needs), and continue to put him in needless harm’s way (as Tyler notes in this page) to try to get him to meet his “cosmic destiny.”
It’s a little over-the-top, but not out of character, to have his room moved to the supply closet. But to be unable to remember his name and to do a background check on him is…
It’s not believable. No matter how awful they are as parents, having their memories edit Tyler out entirely to the point of full-fledged delusion just doesn’t fit. It harms THEIR image too much, because it’s something others will notice. ESPECIALLY if they’re doing things like going out of their way to make it obvious, like having background checks run on their own son.
To repeat: I in part base this on the fact that they ARE such narcissists and wouldn’t want to engage in behavior that makes them look bad. And this makes them look (to other people) either insane or deliberately cruel, neither of which are images they want to portray.
TeChameleon, I think Ron is an area they’ll probably actually have a blind spot. They never knew Captain Clarinet all that well, and they thus are very likely to simply assume this “nerdy kid with glasses” is a mortal kid. Assuming they remember Tyler has mortal friends. (It’s possible, especially if they keep playing up the “can’t remember Tyler at all” angle, that they’ll wonder who put these two – Tyler and Ron – up to infiltrating a super-kids’ party.)
But even assuming they remember Tyler, it is very likely they’ll assume – aggressively – that Ron is and always has been a mortal friend of Tyler’s. They may or may not express concern that Tyler is hanging out with him rather than super-kids, as hanging out with normal people won’t help him reach his “cosmic destiny.”
I fully expect that if it’s called out that Ron is Atlas’s son, they’ll either laugh it off as “cute” and “flattering” that a mortal kid wants to pretend to have superpowers, or they’ll express commiseration with Atlas that they’re sure his son will reach his “destiny” the way theirs has.
(I will note that they’ll reference the latter even if they aren’t being influenced, as it’s FULLY within character to, in that context, think of Toby as having achieved his destiny and conveniently forget about Tyler until reminded. Again: the issue I take with their level of delusion being “natural” is that they don’t remember him WHEN REMINDED.)
I’m not missing any points though TeChameleon, there’s plenty of evidence to the delusional state of the Powers right from the start. They outright declare that their son has a Cosmic Destiny and that they’ll allow none to stand in the way of it and actively demanded their child be put in harm’s way because of their absolute certainty that it would only bring about the reveal of the vast cosmic powers they’re certain he’s destined to have. It was that fear that his parents would get Tyler killed that led Cranston to hooking Tyler up with Revenant for training so he’d have a chance of surviving and growing up. His parents have never been shown to be right in the head especially where he’s concerned, everything that they’ve done is consistent with their delusional nature and requires the invention of no outside mind-warping beings to explain, for which again ‘I can’t accept that they could be this bad without outside influence’ does not actually constitute a valid justification for any such being. Those insisting some outside agency must exist have provide zero rationale for why said agency would be manipulating the Powers in such a fashion, why it would be so important to have them be such awful parents towards their son. Truth is the only outside agency is the writer and none of the actions we see out of the Powers fail to be consistent with their proven delusional nature from the very beginning of the comic.
Nightmask, you continue to assert that the motive of those suggesting it is outside influence is to in some way exonerate or excuse the Powers’ awful parenting. To make them seem like better, less-awful people.
This is not so.
No, I don’t know why such an outside influence would be acting on them. I merely hope it’s the case because, if it is not, then this seems like bad writing, and I expect better of Aaron. This is an otherwise-excellent story.
And no, they have not shown active levels of delusion that include editing their active perceptions and memories of reality. At least, not before the “can’t remember Tyler” incidents started. The equivalent level of delusion would not have been, “Our son has a destiny that has yet to manifest.” It would have been, “Our son has superpowers. I’m suspicious of your motives for asserting otherwise. What have you done with our boy!?”
The level of delusion required for “I think this ‘Tylin’ person – or whatever his name is – is a fake who needs to be background checked” is the same as the level of delusion they would be displaying iff they said Tyler ALREADY HAD POWERS from the very beginning.
The narcissistic faith in the inherent specialness of any combination of their genes manifesting as an insistence that he WILL develop superpowers (even though he hasn’t, yet) to the point that they think putting him in danger is perfectly acceptable is not, for all it’s horrid display, a refusal to recognize an active reality they have lived. It IS possible for Tyler to spontaneously develop powers; this seems to be, if not common, then at least a relatively known origin story amongst the super-population. They’re no more delusional than the person who is certain that THIS time, they’ll win the lottery.
The level of delusion that you’re ascribing would be the delusion that they already HAVE won the lottery, even though they patently have not.
Oh give it a rest, will you? This conversation is getting repetitive and dull. If there is something affecting Tyler’s parents, we’ll find out in due time. If not, then the author made a mistake. It happens. Let’s find something else to argue about.
Is it bad that I want a Cape-killer to show up and rampage through the town? Maybe de-power Tyler’s parents, toss them around a bit, kill some supers. Then leave it up to Green Gauntlet, The Revenant, Toby, and Tyler to take him down. Maybe form a Batman and the Outsiders-esque Team? It would put Tyler’s parents in their place, strengthen Toby and Tyler’s friendship, bring GG and GG jr to the forefront of the superhero scene, and shatter the egos of many, many supers by showing them that Revenant IS infact better than them.
Since Ron exclusively attends Excelsior now, the recycling bin is likely in Exelsior. By dropping the flier in a location accessible to normal humans, Tyler just got a whole bunch of civilians into the mix not to mention jeopardized the whole masquerade of PS238.
Very sloppy indeed, and quite out of character for Tyler.
I think he’s a tad upset that a sleep over for he and his friends got coopted for the parents’ need to show how cool they are. Like the 80’s dad who tried to break dance or prove he could win Mortal Wombat.
Hundreds of normal kids in costume showing up also lol
Adahn, I would have agreed with you before “Wonderburg” happened, but now it probably wouldn’t raise many eyebrows.
That picture gave me an idea.
Captain Clarinette is what he liked to be called.
Glory & Power just opened shop nearby.
What if they have an actually Clarinette of power?
Can we talk about Rons backpack? he is way too young to have ever played the NES Is his mom a o;d school gamer?
Just because Ron wasn’t old enough to play a NES when it was first out doesn’t mean he didn’t get to play one at all. Maybe his mom still had a NES from when she was younger and passed it down to Ron.
Or maybe it’s just a reference from the author and we’re not supposed to take it too seriously.
no every single reference must be dissected and any and all possible meanings squeezed from the corpse 😉
Also, the are rereleasing it. Google it if you don’t believe me.
Yea Toby getting Tylor’s room has already been established still sucks though. I imagine half the time Tylor manages to somehow end up spending the night at Ron’s or Cecil’s place during vacations which might require a sleeping bag and when that does not pan out mostly treating the place as emergency shelter and otherwise actively avoiding everyone but Toby.
They likely managed to maintain their beliefs about the best course of action for Tylor despite; being told something like only a monster would seriously risk their childs life on the off chance he will develop superpowers fairly regularely; people treating them like they are insane for their beliefs that Tylor child is one accident away from superpowers; nobody really showing belief when they stop arguing just realizing they are really that insane; Tylor himself never developing powers; Tylor likely actually siding with the doubters; the numerous evidence that developing and discovering superpowers in life threatening accidents is rarer than dying from said accidents.
I actually think this delusion is easier to maintain than the previous one. One adult mentioned once that they now had twins with emperical evidence which lasted a few hours before Tylor went home to school. Toby’s name changed but they are close. Most times where Toby or Tylor try to remind the parents that Tylor exists, kids and their imagionary friends. Since the Powers social circle does not intersect with people who know about the whole twin thing, all their friends believe Toby’s an only child whose name they might have remembered wrong and/ or might have an imagionary friend. That time Toby faked Tylor clearly weird wait Toby could totally manage something like that to support his story of his imagionary friend who’s name I’m pretty sure was close to his. Overall there is a lot which would allow someone who secretly even to themselves wants to forget about Tylor rewrite him as a quirk of Toby’s.
No, I’m sorry, but “Tyler’s name changed but they are close” is where you lose this argument, to me. And “kids and their imaginary friends” doesn’t cover “do a background check when faced with the very real Tyler.” Nor does it work when they discuss both Toby and Tyler to Tyler, and can’t remember Tyler’s name.
I won’t say Aaron isn’t going that direction. I will say that it’s not good writing on his part if he is, if only because it’s just not believable without vacillating your belief in their level of insanity all over the place to make it work.
I hope everything’s all right with Aaron. He’s usually got the update up by Friday night, latest.
Indeed. I mean, it’s free entertainment, so we shouldn’t complain, but it is a concerning break in pattern.
That said, he’s missed weeks before. I’m sure he’ll announce something if something is really wrong.
That poor kid, his parents are determined to see if they can turn him into a super-villain aren’t they?