Some jerk blames Tyler for his parents decision to send him to the school. Good chance that jerk is also sort of ticked off that Tyler is finally appreciated and fits in at the place that is supposed to do that for him, whereas he is still treated as a nuisance and outright criminal by the students and teachers.
Nah, Tyler isn’t important enough to Zordon for this to be personal. More like he was just the easiest target that happened to be in the tower’s database.
Zodon didn’t create whatever this elaborate scheme is just to target Tyler that is true but he didn’t choose Tyler for strictly practical reasons either. He has basically stated that he feels Tyler is infringing on the place which is meant for supers as his reason for bullying him, and he felt betrayed when his mother said that it might be better if he wasn’t a super.
Zodon doesn’t feel Tyler’s infringing on ‘their space’, he actually feels it’s simply not someplace he should be because it’s dangerous and he’s a normal, non-powered human lacking even superhuman genius like Zodon has. Since he’s still a child in spite of his genius he doesn’t handle things in a mature fashion, so at some level he’s framing Tyler to separate him from the dangerous world of PS238 and supers. He just doesn’t consider that Tyler’s parents will keep putting him in that danger anyway and no amount of trying to drive Tyler out will make that happen.
I agree; Zodon’s expressing his desire to see Tyler leave in a bullying fashion, but combined with other things we’ve seen about his self-proclaimed villainous motives, it’s not too far a stretch to think that there is genuine concern for the normal kid’s safety in there.
That said, I don’t doubt that Zodon feels like Tyler is his personal bad luck charm (kind-of like Ron does for Moonshadow), given how Tyler was there at least 70% of the time his plans went awry, particularly in the time-travel arc. So he probably has a mix of genuine and “protests too much” annoyance with the kid.
Zodon has a high potential to grow up to be a genuine hero, if he out grows his need to prove he’s got entirely selfish motives for everything. Even if he keeps his “charming” personality, he probably won’t really ever manage to be a true villain. Criminal, perhaps; he has little to no respect for rules nor authority. But the one thing I can’t see him doing is (deliberately) crossing a line that leads to innocent people getting hurt. We’ll see if he outgrows his need to justify it as something other than actually having a conscience.
And Zodon has always been irked by Tyler. I think for his good attitude and relatively stable emotions as much as for the fact that he can eat large amounts of craziness for breakfast… when he has no powers. Witness how Zodon stranded Tyler back in time at the first opportunity.
I think his plan is multi-level:
1 — Tyler is in the database and relatively defenseless (all the others in that security list are hyper-powered dynamos).
2 — 30 or 50 Tylers is personal. It might even get the Powers themselves worried about it and thus paying less attention to other things.
3 — It might get Tyler in trouble somehow, and Zodon would love that.
If this leads to something like Tyler being further alienated, expelled, neglected, looked won, etc., by the EDL and other supers, I am going to be so sad and pissed.
“Wait, why is he staying in a storage closet? Ah crap, they didn’t try treating him like Harry Potter in an attempt to activate magic abilities, did they?”
Multiple eye guy seems pretty open to the idea that Tyler accidentally brought in a space computer virus or something that is messing with their computer.
As long as nobody else buys into his “parents” decision that might have some upsides for Tyler. Mostly that I’m not allowed there after one of my classmates framed me for some dumb prank pretty much shuts down conversations about meeting at Tyler’s house.
Considering what we can see of him and his clothing looking on the armored side I wouldn’t be surprised that his costume actually works as a container giving him a humanoid form like that one Legion of Super-Heroes member or for that matter like Sam Starfall from the Freefall webcomic.
If the tickets are handed out from games like at Chucky Cheese for prize redemption, then Tyler can give them to his friends. However, the other possibility is that the computer automatically submits the tickets into the drawings and, therefore, Tyler is in the high 90% odds to win all of the super prizes. (If all of the super prizes go to Tyler, then taking the one [or more] that Zodan really wants from Tyler is much easier than from any super-powered kid.)
But more likely, Tyler would be ostracized even further by all the other super kids who are not Ron, Cecil or the Flea for being the normal kid who stole everyone’s tickets because he can’t win them on his own merits.
Is he really ostracized? I mean he did win a popularity contest sure his opponents were both actively disliked at the time but it suggests that a good amount of the student body at PS238 tend towards pitying him rather than bullying him.
Between getting the tickets and the draw he would likely decide to change into his Moonshadow gear.
A well liked uber super winning all the prizes wouldn’t surprise anyone.
So, what are the chances Tyler’s parents just assume that their kid’s multiplying/replicating again? I kind of hope we get a line along the lines of “if we’re getting thirty-five more kids, I hope at least a few are girls.”
hmmm, They seemed to be doing a “don’t call me Chief/yes Chief” gag….but when Floyd gave his status report, he didn’t call Zodon “father”……so why did he tell Floyd to stop calling him that?
That’s not a problem, since they’d never believe it’s Tyler’s costume they’d simply assume he found it somewhere or stole it if they did find it. Inspecting it would show nothing in it was responsible for the security problems either.
Good point! Worst case, he’d just be confirmed as “That normal kid who knows how to contact Moonshadow. Who is apparently here, although no sensors can find him.”
Pretty much. Back in the Silver Age comics Superman had an unofficial brother (a young man his adoptive parents pretty much raised and set on the right path) who became I think a Private Investigator or some kind of special agent who’d been hired to investigate Clark Kent by someone who didn’t know about their connection. He found Superman’s closet with his spare costumes and some of his mementos (why he has spares when the costumes are indestructible so he only needs one is another question entirely) and confronted Clark about it, only to reveal that since he grew up in Smallville he knew Clark and Superboy were close friends and simply figured Clark’s secret closet was him being a good buddy for Superman and helping store some stuff for him since the thought that he WAS Superman was naturally quite absurd.
No reason to think anyone finding Tyler with a Moonshadow costume wouldn’t think something similar, that Tyler’s simply holding a spare costume for Moonshadow and nothing suspicious about it otherwise.
Oh my God! I didn’t know that was a real thing. Many, MANY years ago, Playboy magazine did a story called “Clark Ghent’s School Days” about Ma and Pa Ghent raising their little Clark that they found in a rocket. The story is told from the point of view of Clark’s “brother” who is someone they found as a young boy and raised as well, but didn’t really consider “theirs” as he hasn’t been a baby when they found him. Satirical point of the story was the Clark was a stereotypical hayseed redneck! He’s so dumb, if you told him; “Holy $#^%, Clark! A twenty dollar bill just blew under that car!” He’d knock the car over trying to find it. They can tell when puberty sets in from the holes burned in the walls of the girl’s gym shower. Upon getting his iconic costume, the brother says with his muscles and the blue tights, red trunk, boots and cape, he looked like “the world’s most dangerous fairy!” Of the “S” he says the nearest anyone could figure out was that it meant “Stupid,” but they didn’t think Ma Ghent was that cruel, or that perceptive.
Just realized Tyler “isn’t on the high clearance list…..anymore”….meaning he did have high clearance, but they proactively took it away. Is there a reason? Or just more evidence of Tyler’s parents being utter tools?
When they were hoping he’d become a superbeing, having their son on the priority security clearance list made sense. Now that they have Toby to fill that void, why would they be inviting a normal child into such a dangerous environment?
Yes Tyler was high clearance because his parents were certain of his ‘cosmic destiny’ so naturally wanted him around so that they could see him get his powers (just look how ecstatic they were about Toby when he showed up displaying powers and they thought he was Tyler), perhaps as a result of the ‘contagious powers’ trope from being around other supers. Now though they have a super-son like they always wanted and can barely remember that Tyler exists and as we already saw earlier when Tyler returned from space that his father wasn’t quite sure who he was and saying how he needed to run a security check on him, foreshadowing Tyler’s security reduction. Which is why Tyler got a broom closet and just as he feared Toby got his room and all his things (looks like the living spaces are on the high security side of things).
So the Moonshadow garb will be found and all kids attending will be suspected of being him and to blame. One more so than the rest when they find out he sneaked in. Moonshadow will get the blame.
Toby claimed the broom closet for Tyler due to not being able to get their “parents” to find a space for Tyler, I don’t think Tyler keeps much there. They put their stuff in lockers. The powers basically invited every kid with super powers I don’t know why Moonshadow’s stuff would raise any red flags unless they recognized it as belonging to R.
It’s worth noting that the Powers also exhibit memory difficulty regarding Tyler existing at all. His father (I can never remember which name goes with which parent) even spoke of having a background check done on this “Tyler” kid at one point. The downgraded security probably happened during the background check, when it was in doubt whether he really was the Powers’s son or not, and never got elevated again based on no need.
That others are reacting with clearer memory of Tyler’s past than his parents is encouraging, and will be telling when and if we see how they perceive the Powers’s treatment of their son.
Calling it right now: Necronomik and Pistonic are Sarah Bartlett’s parents.
– Both joined the EDL at the same time.
– Their presence in the EDL would explain why Sarah is so interested in crashing the party. Since as an unpowered human, the party may be a rare opportunity for her to see her parents.
– Their recent arrival to the city would explain why Sarah is not attending PS238 or Exelsior.
Sarah herself is either:
– Abandoned by her parents after she lost her powers (if her parents are like Sovereign and Ultima)
– Presumed dead by her parents due to being locked in a form they don’t recognize and has no way of proving her identity.
I reread the beginning of this arc. I thought I remembered something like that but while I didn’t read through all of the pages I noticed that somebody made a theory that she could be an adult where I expected it might be stated in comic.
Necronomik said that Tyler’s soul smells like Tobie’s not that they look the same to excuse his getting them mixed up. He could be bluffing but based on what he said I don’t think a physical transformation would stop him from recognizing someone.
This is why humint is so important. Anyone who knew this group would be able to identify the culprit off the bat, but having settled on the wrong perp to investigate, confirmation bias will doubtless only confirm his guilt, no matter what evidence is discovered.
I find it interesting that Zodon treats Tyler like a full motion decoy in live fire exercise and people here are looking for reasons why Zodon is doing it “to help Tyler” because of latent hero-like genes. And his parents, while not Ma and Pa Brady, are somehow the epitome of evil parenting. Seriously, why?
While I don’t think Zodon is in any way trying to help Tyler, I think the reason people might be willing to give Zodon’s “help” a pass (if it were part of his motive) but not Tyler’s parents is because Zodon, for all his genius, is a kid, and kids can “help” with good intentions and awful, short-sighted results and still be considered good people. Adults don’t get passes like that, because they SHOULD know better.
I agree Toby for instance pressures Tyler to live in a hostile place and is likely trying to pull off a plan to get Tyler powers that Tyler rejected is likely to backfire, and its clear that he’s a good person with good intentions.
Ron treated MoonShadow like dirt for his parents decision to divorce, he also is likely the reason why he is not telling people about his secret identity and while Moonshadow eventually did snap at Ron we see Ron as a good person and Tyler is still his friend.
Zodon is bullies Tyler, most likely out of some sort of jealousy, and uses, and insults his son F.L.O.Y.D., and is constantly trying to gain power and insult others. If he was an adult I would likely hate him regardless of his issues but as a kid I can sympathize with him.
A part of me hopes that multi eye guy is not actually trying to pursue Tyler as a suspect but using it as an excuse to con Tyler and Tobie’s “parents” into confirming that Tobie’s story.
What are they more likely to agree to letting Multi eye guy confirm that they are stuffing Tyler in a storage closet when he is “home”, or letting Multi eye guy confirm the destiny they already picked out for Tyler without having to admit to anybody including themselves that they wanted it.
I think Necronomik is more concerned with Pistonic’s self-criticism, and trying to give her alternate theories to investigate before she pummels herself too badly about the system’s glitches.
You might be right. The way she acted does suggest making the system work might be part of her job. I sort of assumed that she was just another false Tyler.
But to defend my theory. I do know that Toby told him something about Tyler. He called Toby a credit to his family. That phrase is sometimes used to say you’re better than I’d expect from a member of your blank. And given the fact that their souls smell pretty dang close I think he would infer that Tyler is about as good as Toby.
Now lets get to this page. The last line suggest he does not think Tyler is guilty. So why bring up Tyler’s possible guilt and not Tyler being chosen at random in response to her belief that Tyler ticked someone off. It seems odd he would suggest Tyler did it without suggesting Tyler was a victim of opportunity unless he was trying to lead her down a specific line.
Hmmm. I’d been thinking he was less concerned with the particular theory than with getting Pistonic looking outside herself, but re-reading the panel, it does seem that he may be trying to lead her thinking in a specific direction. He moved from talking about the guests, to Tyler specifically, to something Tyler may have brought in. While I still think he’s trying to get her to quit beating on herself, he may also be sensing a “contamination” of Tyler’s being with something else (not to mention that Zodon’s swiping of Tyler’s hair for his DNA did happen inside the tower during the party).
I do note that he never actually suggested Tyler did it, just questioned the possibility. But his wording is very interesting:
“Perhaps one of our guests is responsible?” – this is actually true if we count Zodon as a “guest”, and he is legitimately an invitee. “Could Tyler himself have done it?” – while Zodon is the perpetrator, Tyler’s DNA is an active part of the process. “We could search his room to see if he brought anything capable of this, knowingly or unknowingly.” – Necronomic might actually be sensing a connection between Tyler and something/someone else that is causing their current problem.
This appears to have been done by Freewilled Lab Orbiting Young Dad and Zodon. Cecil was invited by Tyler and used Vance to get in. Freewilled Lab Orbiting Young Dad and Vance gained sentience from the same type of Nanobots.
Depending on how they were programmed the nanobots could have hitched a ride on Moonshadow’s gear and even upgraded it. Tyler might not know everything he has as Moonshadow. The Nanobots might have hitched a ride on Tyler and discovered something in his storage closet or the base itself. Depending on how Tobies powers work dispatching the clone could have increased the chances of something weird happening because of the previous things mentioned. There’s also the possibility that whatever he thinks hitched a ride on Tyler hitched a ride on Toby possibly from the shop. None of this is directly responsible but if and of this happened and he was able to sense it he could reach the wrong conclusion.
As an aside, the other day I stopped in at the local library, and the librarian was wearing a t-shirt that said “I am too emotionally attached to fictional characters.” We should probably all get one of those.
I really would love for at least one adult superhero to notice and confront Tyler’s parents about how neglectful they are and what bad parents they are. Just a huge “the reason you suck” trope is sooooo needed.
While I think that they’re too delusional for that to do any good it would still be satisfying to see someone in universe acting as an audience avatar and reading them the riot act so many of us have wanted to do. Even if it didn’t do any good it’d still be nice to see SOMEONE directly confronting them over their awful behavior towards their son.
Right now most of my hope is resting on Ms Kyle (Micro-Might) who seems like the most grounded of all the grown-ups on Tyler’s actual home life situation (other than Revenant).
I suspect we’re only going to get that if my theory is right, because it would be a good opportunity for the revelation that something’s been messing with them. Unfortunately, they might get a pass for the bad behavior that’s all them, too, because of it. Certainly, they’d give themselves that pass.
Otherwise, they won’t be called out on it because it wouldn’t actually lead anywhere except adult drama, and this comic isn’t about adult drama.
I sort of want it to be someone who hasn’t already decided the way they are acting is not okay but calling them out is a waste of energy and could limit my ability to help Tyler.
Actually Zero would be good. He has a lot of experience with people like the Power’s, and might be familiar with Nobility mistreating their softy children and pretending they don’t exist. Also calling them out would for him be a sign of character growth instead of a moment of weakness.
I sort of want it to be someone who hasn’t already decided the way they are acting is not okay but calling them out is a waste of energy and could limit my ability to help Tyler.
Zero would be good. He has a lot of experience with people like the Power’s they would fit right in where he is from, and might be familiar with Nobility mistreating their softy children and pretending they don’t exist. Also calling them out would for him be a sign of character growth instead of a moment of weakness.
Some jerk blames Tyler for his parents decision to send him to the school. Good chance that jerk is also sort of ticked off that Tyler is finally appreciated and fits in at the place that is supposed to do that for him, whereas he is still treated as a nuisance and outright criminal by the students and teachers.
Nah, Tyler isn’t important enough to Zordon for this to be personal. More like he was just the easiest target that happened to be in the tower’s database.
Zodon didn’t create whatever this elaborate scheme is just to target Tyler that is true but he didn’t choose Tyler for strictly practical reasons either. He has basically stated that he feels Tyler is infringing on the place which is meant for supers as his reason for bullying him, and he felt betrayed when his mother said that it might be better if he wasn’t a super.
Zodon doesn’t feel Tyler’s infringing on ‘their space’, he actually feels it’s simply not someplace he should be because it’s dangerous and he’s a normal, non-powered human lacking even superhuman genius like Zodon has. Since he’s still a child in spite of his genius he doesn’t handle things in a mature fashion, so at some level he’s framing Tyler to separate him from the dangerous world of PS238 and supers. He just doesn’t consider that Tyler’s parents will keep putting him in that danger anyway and no amount of trying to drive Tyler out will make that happen.
I agree; Zodon’s expressing his desire to see Tyler leave in a bullying fashion, but combined with other things we’ve seen about his self-proclaimed villainous motives, it’s not too far a stretch to think that there is genuine concern for the normal kid’s safety in there.
That said, I don’t doubt that Zodon feels like Tyler is his personal bad luck charm (kind-of like Ron does for Moonshadow), given how Tyler was there at least 70% of the time his plans went awry, particularly in the time-travel arc. So he probably has a mix of genuine and “protests too much” annoyance with the kid.
Zodon has a high potential to grow up to be a genuine hero, if he out grows his need to prove he’s got entirely selfish motives for everything. Even if he keeps his “charming” personality, he probably won’t really ever manage to be a true villain. Criminal, perhaps; he has little to no respect for rules nor authority. But the one thing I can’t see him doing is (deliberately) crossing a line that leads to innocent people getting hurt. We’ll see if he outgrows his need to justify it as something other than actually having a conscience.
And Zodon has always been irked by Tyler. I think for his good attitude and relatively stable emotions as much as for the fact that he can eat large amounts of craziness for breakfast… when he has no powers. Witness how Zodon stranded Tyler back in time at the first opportunity.
I think his plan is multi-level:
1 — Tyler is in the database and relatively defenseless (all the others in that security list are hyper-powered dynamos).
2 — 30 or 50 Tylers is personal. It might even get the Powers themselves worried about it and thus paying less attention to other things.
3 — It might get Tyler in trouble somehow, and Zodon would love that.
If this leads to something like Tyler being further alienated, expelled, neglected, looked won, etc., by the EDL and other supers, I am going to be so sad and pissed.
Could easily be the opposite. They are about to find he doesn’t even have a room.
Will Moonshadow gain some sympathetic allies when they find his costume?
“Wait, why is he staying in a storage closet? Ah crap, they didn’t try treating him like Harry Potter in an attempt to activate magic abilities, did they?”
I guess when people do it to try to discourage people from being a muggle it makes the person discover muggle power.
I literally never thought of that, but it’s definitely something I could see them doing!
That would only make him more suspicious, as it would provide further evidence for the supposed resentment which is his purported motive for sabotage.
Multiple eye guy seems pretty open to the idea that Tyler accidentally brought in a space computer virus or something that is messing with their computer.
It’s a ‘superhero’ setting: That sort of thing probably happens at least once a year…
^_^
As long as nobody else buys into his “parents” decision that might have some upsides for Tyler. Mostly that I’m not allowed there after one of my classmates framed me for some dumb prank pretty much shuts down conversations about meeting at Tyler’s house.
Well, Pistonic might not like her name, but I DO love her outfit.
And Necronimicon’s cloak is also touching fingertips together XD That’s adorable <3
Those pants look uncomfortable, though
Considering what we can see of him and his clothing looking on the armored side I wouldn’t be surprised that his costume actually works as a container giving him a humanoid form like that one Legion of Super-Heroes member or for that matter like Sam Starfall from the Freefall webcomic.
I wonder if Necronomicon’s cloak is related to Cecil’s coat? Maybe they’re the same kind of entity.
Cecil’s cloak was basically created by Malphast’s mother, there’s no reason to think it has any relation to any other animate cloaks that show up.
35-50 people recognised as Tyler by the same computer that will be dishing out the tickets and they will be split between his three friends…
He will basically be Winning back his own old presents although not by means above board. The adults may contemplate reasoning regarding this.
You know, I didn’t catch that implication. Heh. His friends are going to be super-excited, later. Maybe.
THAT… is brilliant.
If the tickets are handed out from games like at Chucky Cheese for prize redemption, then Tyler can give them to his friends. However, the other possibility is that the computer automatically submits the tickets into the drawings and, therefore, Tyler is in the high 90% odds to win all of the super prizes. (If all of the super prizes go to Tyler, then taking the one [or more] that Zodan really wants from Tyler is much easier than from any super-powered kid.)
Best case scenario: Tyler wins lots of prizes.
But more likely, Tyler would be ostracized even further by all the other super kids who are not Ron, Cecil or the Flea for being the normal kid who stole everyone’s tickets because he can’t win them on his own merits.
Is he really ostracized? I mean he did win a popularity contest sure his opponents were both actively disliked at the time but it suggests that a good amount of the student body at PS238 tend towards pitying him rather than bullying him.
Between getting the tickets and the draw he would likely decide to change into his Moonshadow gear.
A well liked uber super winning all the prizes wouldn’t surprise anyone.
To be fair, it was all Tyler’s stuff anyway that he didn’t want anymore. 😀
So, what are the chances Tyler’s parents just assume that their kid’s multiplying/replicating again? I kind of hope we get a line along the lines of “if we’re getting thirty-five more kids, I hope at least a few are girls.”
hmmm, They seemed to be doing a “don’t call me Chief/yes Chief” gag….but when Floyd gave his status report, he didn’t call Zodon “father”……so why did he tell Floyd to stop calling him that?
“The code we inserted is running as expected father.”
“the code we inserted is running as expected, *father*.” [more dialogue].
He gets called father mid-paragraph, and zodon waits for the info to finish to complain.
Because Floyd did call him ‘father’. End of his first sentence in panel two.
That was after he reprimanded him
oops, see it now, point withdrawn
Pleeaaasse may they not find incriminating Moonshadow stuff.
Well they won’t find it in his room. They will likely not find much evidence that he even exists there.
That’s not a problem, since they’d never believe it’s Tyler’s costume they’d simply assume he found it somewhere or stole it if they did find it. Inspecting it would show nothing in it was responsible for the security problems either.
Good point! Worst case, he’d just be confirmed as “That normal kid who knows how to contact Moonshadow. Who is apparently here, although no sensors can find him.”
Pretty much. Back in the Silver Age comics Superman had an unofficial brother (a young man his adoptive parents pretty much raised and set on the right path) who became I think a Private Investigator or some kind of special agent who’d been hired to investigate Clark Kent by someone who didn’t know about their connection. He found Superman’s closet with his spare costumes and some of his mementos (why he has spares when the costumes are indestructible so he only needs one is another question entirely) and confronted Clark about it, only to reveal that since he grew up in Smallville he knew Clark and Superboy were close friends and simply figured Clark’s secret closet was him being a good buddy for Superman and helping store some stuff for him since the thought that he WAS Superman was naturally quite absurd.
No reason to think anyone finding Tyler with a Moonshadow costume wouldn’t think something similar, that Tyler’s simply holding a spare costume for Moonshadow and nothing suspicious about it otherwise.
Oh my God! I didn’t know that was a real thing. Many, MANY years ago, Playboy magazine did a story called “Clark Ghent’s School Days” about Ma and Pa Ghent raising their little Clark that they found in a rocket. The story is told from the point of view of Clark’s “brother” who is someone they found as a young boy and raised as well, but didn’t really consider “theirs” as he hasn’t been a baby when they found him. Satirical point of the story was the Clark was a stereotypical hayseed redneck! He’s so dumb, if you told him; “Holy $#^%, Clark! A twenty dollar bill just blew under that car!” He’d knock the car over trying to find it. They can tell when puberty sets in from the holes burned in the walls of the girl’s gym shower. Upon getting his iconic costume, the brother says with his muscles and the blue tights, red trunk, boots and cape, he looked like “the world’s most dangerous fairy!” Of the “S” he says the nearest anyone could figure out was that it meant “Stupid,” but they didn’t think Ma Ghent was that cruel, or that perceptive.
I wonder what will happen when Necronimicon sees Cecil’s cloak. Will he consider it an abomination? Will both cloaks fall in love?
Nah that’s in his actual room at school.
Just realized Tyler “isn’t on the high clearance list…..anymore”….meaning he did have high clearance, but they proactively took it away. Is there a reason? Or just more evidence of Tyler’s parents being utter tools?
When they were hoping he’d become a superbeing, having their son on the priority security clearance list made sense. Now that they have Toby to fill that void, why would they be inviting a normal child into such a dangerous environment?
Yes Tyler was high clearance because his parents were certain of his ‘cosmic destiny’ so naturally wanted him around so that they could see him get his powers (just look how ecstatic they were about Toby when he showed up displaying powers and they thought he was Tyler), perhaps as a result of the ‘contagious powers’ trope from being around other supers. Now though they have a super-son like they always wanted and can barely remember that Tyler exists and as we already saw earlier when Tyler returned from space that his father wasn’t quite sure who he was and saying how he needed to run a security check on him, foreshadowing Tyler’s security reduction. Which is why Tyler got a broom closet and just as he feared Toby got his room and all his things (looks like the living spaces are on the high security side of things).
If I remember right, he claimed the broom closet due to not having a room. It wasn’t even assigned to him.
So the Moonshadow garb will be found and all kids attending will be suspected of being him and to blame. One more so than the rest when they find out he sneaked in. Moonshadow will get the blame.
Toby claimed the broom closet for Tyler due to not being able to get their “parents” to find a space for Tyler, I don’t think Tyler keeps much there. They put their stuff in lockers. The powers basically invited every kid with super powers I don’t know why Moonshadow’s stuff would raise any red flags unless they recognized it as belonging to R.
It’s worth noting that the Powers also exhibit memory difficulty regarding Tyler existing at all. His father (I can never remember which name goes with which parent) even spoke of having a background check done on this “Tyler” kid at one point. The downgraded security probably happened during the background check, when it was in doubt whether he really was the Powers’s son or not, and never got elevated again based on no need.
That others are reacting with clearer memory of Tyler’s past than his parents is encouraging, and will be telling when and if we see how they perceive the Powers’s treatment of their son.
Calling it right now: Necronomik and Pistonic are Sarah Bartlett’s parents.
– Both joined the EDL at the same time.
– Their presence in the EDL would explain why Sarah is so interested in crashing the party. Since as an unpowered human, the party may be a rare opportunity for her to see her parents.
– Their recent arrival to the city would explain why Sarah is not attending PS238 or Exelsior.
Sarah herself is either:
– Abandoned by her parents after she lost her powers (if her parents are like Sovereign and Ultima)
– Presumed dead by her parents due to being locked in a form they don’t recognize and has no way of proving her identity.
But, if I understood correctly, Sarah isn’t a kid. She’s just trapped in the body of one.
So maybe she and Necronomik are Pistonic’s parents, instead?
^_^
I reread the beginning of this arc. I thought I remembered something like that but while I didn’t read through all of the pages I noticed that somebody made a theory that she could be an adult where I expected it might be stated in comic.
Necronomik said that Tyler’s soul smells like Tobie’s not that they look the same to excuse his getting them mixed up. He could be bluffing but based on what he said I don’t think a physical transformation would stop him from recognizing someone.
This is why humint is so important. Anyone who knew this group would be able to identify the culprit off the bat, but having settled on the wrong perp to investigate, confirmation bias will doubtless only confirm his guilt, no matter what evidence is discovered.
“humint”?
‘superhumint’?
I find it interesting that Zodon treats Tyler like a full motion decoy in live fire exercise and people here are looking for reasons why Zodon is doing it “to help Tyler” because of latent hero-like genes. And his parents, while not Ma and Pa Brady, are somehow the epitome of evil parenting. Seriously, why?
While I don’t think Zodon is in any way trying to help Tyler, I think the reason people might be willing to give Zodon’s “help” a pass (if it were part of his motive) but not Tyler’s parents is because Zodon, for all his genius, is a kid, and kids can “help” with good intentions and awful, short-sighted results and still be considered good people. Adults don’t get passes like that, because they SHOULD know better.
I agree Toby for instance pressures Tyler to live in a hostile place and is likely trying to pull off a plan to get Tyler powers that Tyler rejected is likely to backfire, and its clear that he’s a good person with good intentions.
Ron treated MoonShadow like dirt for his parents decision to divorce, he also is likely the reason why he is not telling people about his secret identity and while Moonshadow eventually did snap at Ron we see Ron as a good person and Tyler is still his friend.
Zodon is bullies Tyler, most likely out of some sort of jealousy, and uses, and insults his son F.L.O.Y.D., and is constantly trying to gain power and insult others. If he was an adult I would likely hate him regardless of his issues but as a kid I can sympathize with him.
A part of me hopes that multi eye guy is not actually trying to pursue Tyler as a suspect but using it as an excuse to con Tyler and Tobie’s “parents” into confirming that Tobie’s story.
What are they more likely to agree to letting Multi eye guy confirm that they are stuffing Tyler in a storage closet when he is “home”, or letting Multi eye guy confirm the destiny they already picked out for Tyler without having to admit to anybody including themselves that they wanted it.
I think Necronomik is more concerned with Pistonic’s self-criticism, and trying to give her alternate theories to investigate before she pummels herself too badly about the system’s glitches.
You might be right. The way she acted does suggest making the system work might be part of her job. I sort of assumed that she was just another false Tyler.
But to defend my theory. I do know that Toby told him something about Tyler. He called Toby a credit to his family. That phrase is sometimes used to say you’re better than I’d expect from a member of your blank. And given the fact that their souls smell pretty dang close I think he would infer that Tyler is about as good as Toby.
Now lets get to this page. The last line suggest he does not think Tyler is guilty. So why bring up Tyler’s possible guilt and not Tyler being chosen at random in response to her belief that Tyler ticked someone off. It seems odd he would suggest Tyler did it without suggesting Tyler was a victim of opportunity unless he was trying to lead her down a specific line.
Hmmm. I’d been thinking he was less concerned with the particular theory than with getting Pistonic looking outside herself, but re-reading the panel, it does seem that he may be trying to lead her thinking in a specific direction. He moved from talking about the guests, to Tyler specifically, to something Tyler may have brought in. While I still think he’s trying to get her to quit beating on herself, he may also be sensing a “contamination” of Tyler’s being with something else (not to mention that Zodon’s swiping of Tyler’s hair for his DNA did happen inside the tower during the party).
I do note that he never actually suggested Tyler did it, just questioned the possibility. But his wording is very interesting:
“Perhaps one of our guests is responsible?” – this is actually true if we count Zodon as a “guest”, and he is legitimately an invitee.
“Could Tyler himself have done it?” – while Zodon is the perpetrator, Tyler’s DNA is an active part of the process.
“We could search his room to see if he brought anything capable of this, knowingly or unknowingly.” – Necronomic might actually be sensing a connection between Tyler and something/someone else that is causing their current problem.
Gak. Forgot to delete the last two paragraphs, which were just thinking-by-writing.
This appears to have been done by Freewilled Lab Orbiting Young Dad and Zodon. Cecil was invited by Tyler and used Vance to get in. Freewilled Lab Orbiting Young Dad and Vance gained sentience from the same type of Nanobots.
Depending on how they were programmed the nanobots could have hitched a ride on Moonshadow’s gear and even upgraded it. Tyler might not know everything he has as Moonshadow. The Nanobots might have hitched a ride on Tyler and discovered something in his storage closet or the base itself. Depending on how Tobies powers work dispatching the clone could have increased the chances of something weird happening because of the previous things mentioned. There’s also the possibility that whatever he thinks hitched a ride on Tyler hitched a ride on Toby possibly from the shop. None of this is directly responsible but if and of this happened and he was able to sense it he could reach the wrong conclusion.
As an aside, the other day I stopped in at the local library, and the librarian was wearing a t-shirt that said “I am too emotionally attached to fictional characters.” We should probably all get one of those.
I really would love for at least one adult superhero to notice and confront Tyler’s parents about how neglectful they are and what bad parents they are. Just a huge “the reason you suck” trope is sooooo needed.
While I think that they’re too delusional for that to do any good it would still be satisfying to see someone in universe acting as an audience avatar and reading them the riot act so many of us have wanted to do. Even if it didn’t do any good it’d still be nice to see SOMEONE directly confronting them over their awful behavior towards their son.
Right now most of my hope is resting on Ms Kyle (Micro-Might) who seems like the most grounded of all the grown-ups on Tyler’s actual home life situation (other than Revenant).
I suspect we’re only going to get that if my theory is right, because it would be a good opportunity for the revelation that something’s been messing with them. Unfortunately, they might get a pass for the bad behavior that’s all them, too, because of it. Certainly, they’d give themselves that pass.
Otherwise, they won’t be called out on it because it wouldn’t actually lead anywhere except adult drama, and this comic isn’t about adult drama.
I sort of want it to be someone who hasn’t already decided the way they are acting is not okay but calling them out is a waste of energy and could limit my ability to help Tyler.
Actually Zero would be good. He has a lot of experience with people like the Power’s, and might be familiar with Nobility mistreating their softy children and pretending they don’t exist. Also calling them out would for him be a sign of character growth instead of a moment of weakness.
I sort of want it to be someone who hasn’t already decided the way they are acting is not okay but calling them out is a waste of energy and could limit my ability to help Tyler.
Zero would be good. He has a lot of experience with people like the Power’s they would fit right in where he is from, and might be familiar with Nobility mistreating their softy children and pretending they don’t exist. Also calling them out would for him be a sign of character growth instead of a moment of weakness.
Sorry about the double post.