Given what’s happened to Tyler over the course of the comic, it seems more likely that if he does have an actual power it’s of the more subtle type that just seems to be bad luck on the side of his opponents rather than something that’s noticeable.
At this point I’m pretty sure he’s powerless, because otherwise Cecil would sense it. Granted, a “mess up people’s powers” ability could explain that away, but I’d personally prefer him to stay a Squib.
I think if he has a power, it’s probably ‘Cannot be identified as a Superhero’. No one will ever believe Moon Shadow is Tyler without an explicit reveal, except Cecil, because Tyler’s power convinced Cecil that Moon Shadow is not a superhero, since then Cecil would detect him.
That would also ensure that his parents never get what they want from him, even if he does get (other) superpowers.
He’s not – exactly – a squib. It was mentioned back in the alien+virus storyline that his DNA has some suspicious additions and that DNA, when such additions were removed and used to create a clone, led to his brother having a complete set of powers.
Huh. I’d always read that as the *clone* having “all dis… /junk/ in it.” I thought it was the corruption caused by an inaccurate cloning process (or just the meddling of Order & Chaos) that introduced the instabilities which gave Toby powers. Looking back at the comic, though (http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07202011/), it could be a little ambiguous.
I had forgotten about that. Hypothetically he could have had a few random gene mutations (like everyone has) and they happened to block his powers, but that seems highly suspicious given his family and the world they live in.
If I recall correctly, Tyler’s clone was created from DNA collected from his dorm room at school. I always assumed the mutant DNA was cross-contamination from other students visiting his room.
I’m sure they have fired their beams at him before incase it gave him powers. Sounds like an easy assumption if he inherited their powers and just needed the same energy type to jump start his own beam powers.
Take the deal, give them the orb and walk away. The Revenant just told you to make a deal. Your parents may be lousy parents, but they are two of the greatest heroes in the world.
You have a point and the Revenant has a good plan/idea.
Consider: the Chaos Orb concerns their son- the son they actually care about. While they will try to apprehend Moon Shadow, retrieving the Orb and making sure it doesn’t come in contact with Kid Powers- screwing up his superpowers- is their first priority.
Also, Moon Shadow doesn’t have to directly and politely and carefully hand it to them, if you catch my drift.
I always thought the Marlocks’ ignoring Tyler was exaggerated for comedic hyperbole, mixed with a child’s perspective of events. They represent the parents in real life who are so busy with their careers that they ignore their child. Every time they’re too busy for Tyler is going to mean significantly more to Tyler than it is to them.
But the counter to that is that the Powers are excellent at their jobs. They are two of the most powerful, most respected heroes on the planet.
And in keeping with the theme of the last page, cue up “Cat’s in the Cradle”
“I always thought the Marlocks’ ignoring Tyler was exaggerated for comedic hyperbole, mixed with a child’s perspective of events. They represent the parents in real life who are so busy with their careers that they ignore their child. Every time they’re too busy for Tyler is going to mean significantly more to Tyler than it is to them.”
That’s a very sharp insight.
The Marlockes/Powers hold being superheroes/metahumans at the heart of their identities, hence it is unacceptable to them that their son, Tyler, doesn’t have powers. Alternatively (both, actually), they think he is destined to gain powers (emphasis on the denial part of this).
But this just makes what you said likely. We do know other superheroes hold them in high regard. I don’t think it’s just because they have strong powers- they’re likely quite competent and dedicated at being superheroes. Sadly, the only time we really see them in action was a) during the attempted kidnapping of the Rainmaker kids, wherein Ultima was nearly smothered, and b) during the EDL-Fusion Family cookout. However, I doubt they’d have the reputation they have (known and feared by most metahumans and civilians, including an intimidated Charles) if they really weren’t good at their job.
So… They love their job and identify with it to the point of valuing their son according to it…
That just makes Tyler’s family relations all the more depressing. :-/
I get the impression that on some level most likely without fully realizing it they do it on purpose now. I mean the easiest way to handle the whole bedroom fiasco would be to make Toby share. Do you really think it was less work to remove Tyler’s access. Also instead of making visitor passes for less than five students they made a whole event which is basically a middle finger to Tyler. They are subtly sending a message to Tyler that he’s no longer welcome here, and to Toby that any attempt to involve them with his pet Tyler will not work and possibly make things worse for Tyler.
Also I get the impression that they might be good at appearing to be good heroes but middling at actual heroing.
I’ve seen parents, who are more obsessed with their careers than their children, overdo a party as an attempt to make it up to the child. They don’t spend any more time with the child, but attempt to compensate by throwing outlandish, over the top parties. That’s how I’ve been reading this whole thing.
Yeah, he can trust their intent and even tell them of the bill of sale. Let them deal with the snake in the grass. They may not value him much the way he needs, but this was supposed to be a slumber party for him. I’d really like to see a bit of honest parental care as they don’t mean evil with their neglect. AND maybe let someone seal the thing proper… It’d be nice if Moonshadow is introduced to them and trusted a bit before they discover who he is…
Trust their intent? What about HIS intent? From their perspective he’s the bad guy. Do you really think they’ll take the words of a (very short) villain at face value, especially if he says one of their own is a traitor? Please, that’s Evil 101. If he gives them the orb, they’ll take him into custody, not listening to what he has to say and then he’s a sitting duck. Remember, Moon Shadow is a hero to the kids, but the grown up heroes don’t know him or only heard rumours of him.
Tyler can trust there intent but he knows they are not reasonable people, and they know less about what actually happened than he does. It does not help that Toby is sort of in on the plan and Ron might still have mixed feeling about Moonshadow.
So to the best of his knowledge Toby will lie to go forward with the plan because while he may admire Moonshadow he cares more about magically fixing his family, Ron and the Flea may believe he’s solid but won’t really know beyond admiring him, and Zodon and Redhead will lie because they are the bad guys. And in theory Tyler could reveal himself to Toby but the Evil Queen and Last Place are just waiting for the narrative where Tyler’s evil and deserves the way they treat him and Toby is just so naive when it comes to his evil twin to be confirmed.
It’s about time we find out how the parents are going to react to Tyler being trained by the Revenant. Maybe it will cause them to actually remember his name?
Considering they think Revenant should be imprisoned for daring to hero without meta powers, it just means they’ll likely keep Tyler locked in a cell to ‘protect’ him from a bad influence. And if they find out PS238 arranged it, well, that’s not going to go well for anybody.
Could trigger Aaron’s version of Civil War, though.
Wait, the revenant has to hang up, because the threat he’s facing is so serious he can’t deal with it while multitasking? Longcat is powerful indeed … Meanwhile, I assume Sarah has also been equipped with a teleportation device, so she can snatch up the orb and vanish – p&g must have had some means in mind of extracting her. Moonshadow will be assumed in league with her, etc.
Can we take a moment to appreciate how cool the Power’s costume designs look in color? Like, I don’t know if Aaron ever reads these comments, but he needs to know how awesome the composition in that last panel is. I think he really outdid himself this time.
I also now have a sudden urge to draw the Powers fighting crime side by side… by side
I like how their costumes match while also highlighting and emphasizing their very different body shapes. Ultima’s cloak makes his shoulders appear broader. Sovereign’s emphasizes her figure. I do wonder what happened to Sovereign’s underwear-on-the-outside and how her cape is attached, but otherwise the costumes look very nice. Were they hats, I would try to defeat them to acquire ownership thereof.
To be honest, prior to them appearing in color, I imagined that they’d have a more red-white-and-blue-(plus-gold) color scheme. The white-and-blues is nice and unique, although too… “peaceful” (?) a color scheme for what they do.
Since it works on all FISS, not just on Argosians, it presumably works on some core principles related to power expression, rather than specific DNA or physiology. The question is whether they’re close enough to being FISS, having most or all of that power suite plus their energy blasts, for Argonite to work anyway.
That is a tempting image. I still think telling that so called hero was carrying a receipt for one Tyler Marlock as payment. I think they are very careless and neglectful, but not evil. Even if they don’t react very well on their own, there are enough witnesses to throw this into chaos. Even Zodon might start to wonder and Flea/Ron won’t like that and support Moonshadow. Play this smart, smarter than the average bear. And revenant is the BEST mentor.
I think it would be really cool if at some point, not too, too far in the future, they find out in a private venue. I think it would do a lot of good for them to hear that he is ALREADY a respected hero among his peers and hear the missions he’s been on. He really is a son to be proud of, regardless of his powers. And it would mean the world to him to tell them/brag about his adventures. (they also might get the hint he doesn’t want or need the powers. Maybe a mystic can tell them that getting them is a bad idea)
And they dessrve some panic to realizes they’ve been encouraging danger and reckless patterns. Them bing this bad is getting too old entrenched. I don’t mind light neglect, but it would be interesting to mix it up and keep us guessing more insted of all bad parent.
Tyler doesn’t do this sort of thing, but it is amusing to think about:
Place a booby trap on the orb casing in a position that Ultima and Sovereign can’t see. Step away from the orb. Let them pick it up. Booby trap activates and they get to deal with the unleashed… whatever. Chaos I guess.
Truer EEP!s have never been spoken.
I know the Evil Queen and Last Place have been terrorizing you for years but in theory they don’t want the bad guys to get the thing either.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if they tried to use their powers on him and failed proving that he is actually a type of super. A son they always wanted.
@Qwerty Ahhh, the Touma effect! Appears literally powerless when tested because their power is mess up other people’s powers! Could be interesting.
My first thought along those lines was Bink from “A Spell for Chameleon” by Piers Anthony
Given what’s happened to Tyler over the course of the comic, it seems more likely that if he does have an actual power it’s of the more subtle type that just seems to be bad luck on the side of his opponents rather than something that’s noticeable.
At this point I’m pretty sure he’s powerless, because otherwise Cecil would sense it. Granted, a “mess up people’s powers” ability could explain that away, but I’d personally prefer him to stay a Squib.
I think if he has a power, it’s probably ‘Cannot be identified as a Superhero’. No one will ever believe Moon Shadow is Tyler without an explicit reveal, except Cecil, because Tyler’s power convinced Cecil that Moon Shadow is not a superhero, since then Cecil would detect him.
That would also ensure that his parents never get what they want from him, even if he does get (other) superpowers.
Tyler once accidentally erased his own memory with magic. He was teleported by telebully. He’s a squib.
He’s not – exactly – a squib. It was mentioned back in the alien+virus storyline that his DNA has some suspicious additions and that DNA, when such additions were removed and used to create a clone, led to his brother having a complete set of powers.
Huh. I’d always read that as the *clone* having “all dis… /junk/ in it.” I thought it was the corruption caused by an inaccurate cloning process (or just the meddling of Order & Chaos) that introduced the instabilities which gave Toby powers. Looking back at the comic, though (http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07202011/), it could be a little ambiguous.
I had forgotten about that. Hypothetically he could have had a few random gene mutations (like everyone has) and they happened to block his powers, but that seems highly suspicious given his family and the world they live in.
I thought the random additions were to the clone’s DNA, not to Tyler’s.
If I recall correctly, Tyler’s clone was created from DNA collected from his dorm room at school. I always assumed the mutant DNA was cross-contamination from other students visiting his room.
So he has the potential of two superpowers.
1) Some sort of super power
2) A second super power that blocks the first superpower
Interesting.
Bink, Bink…
Bink, Bink, Bink, Bink, Bink, Biiiinnnnnk!
(A Spell for Chameleon indeed…)
It’s not like they’d care if anything happened to Tyler…
I’m sure they have fired their beams at him before incase it gave him powers. Sounds like an easy assumption if he inherited their powers and just needed the same energy type to jump start his own beam powers.
It’s in public space, they do care … to not look bad. Which is as good as they can be.
I wonder if Moon Shadow has gotten good at the ol’ smoke grenade vanishing act?
(Seriously- what’s the best way to get out of this jam for Tyler?)
A game of hot potato.
Stir and utilise the group of chaos following him. Smoke grenades won’t hurt also.
Bit of of the ol’ Razzle Dazzle with Flea and Cecil, I’d wager.
That could get the Chaos Orb out of there. 🙂 Hard to follow them.
If comics and anime have taught me anything it’s that smoke bombs are always a good idea.
Take the deal, give them the orb and walk away. The Revenant just told you to make a deal. Your parents may be lousy parents, but they are two of the greatest heroes in the world.
Take the deal.
You have a point and the Revenant has a good plan/idea.
Consider: the Chaos Orb concerns their son- the son they actually care about. While they will try to apprehend Moon Shadow, retrieving the Orb and making sure it doesn’t come in contact with Kid Powers- screwing up his superpowers- is their first priority.
Also, Moon Shadow doesn’t have to directly and politely and carefully hand it to them, if you catch my drift.
I get your meaning.
I always thought the Marlocks’ ignoring Tyler was exaggerated for comedic hyperbole, mixed with a child’s perspective of events. They represent the parents in real life who are so busy with their careers that they ignore their child. Every time they’re too busy for Tyler is going to mean significantly more to Tyler than it is to them.
But the counter to that is that the Powers are excellent at their jobs. They are two of the most powerful, most respected heroes on the planet.
And in keeping with the theme of the last page, cue up “Cat’s in the Cradle”
“I always thought the Marlocks’ ignoring Tyler was exaggerated for comedic hyperbole, mixed with a child’s perspective of events. They represent the parents in real life who are so busy with their careers that they ignore their child. Every time they’re too busy for Tyler is going to mean significantly more to Tyler than it is to them.”
That’s a very sharp insight.
The Marlockes/Powers hold being superheroes/metahumans at the heart of their identities, hence it is unacceptable to them that their son, Tyler, doesn’t have powers. Alternatively (both, actually), they think he is destined to gain powers (emphasis on the denial part of this).
But this just makes what you said likely. We do know other superheroes hold them in high regard. I don’t think it’s just because they have strong powers- they’re likely quite competent and dedicated at being superheroes. Sadly, the only time we really see them in action was a) during the attempted kidnapping of the Rainmaker kids, wherein Ultima was nearly smothered, and b) during the EDL-Fusion Family cookout. However, I doubt they’d have the reputation they have (known and feared by most metahumans and civilians, including an intimidated Charles) if they really weren’t good at their job.
So… They love their job and identify with it to the point of valuing their son according to it…
That just makes Tyler’s family relations all the more depressing. :-/
I get the impression that on some level most likely without fully realizing it they do it on purpose now. I mean the easiest way to handle the whole bedroom fiasco would be to make Toby share. Do you really think it was less work to remove Tyler’s access. Also instead of making visitor passes for less than five students they made a whole event which is basically a middle finger to Tyler. They are subtly sending a message to Tyler that he’s no longer welcome here, and to Toby that any attempt to involve them with his pet Tyler will not work and possibly make things worse for Tyler.
Also I get the impression that they might be good at appearing to be good heroes but middling at actual heroing.
More likely they are just overdoing it – not to please Tyler and Toby, but to please themselves in *showing* affection.
They do the expected thing – more than anybody else could, and for everybody to see. Look, how great we are at parenting, you can’t compete!
I’ve seen parents, who are more obsessed with their careers than their children, overdo a party as an attempt to make it up to the child. They don’t spend any more time with the child, but attempt to compensate by throwing outlandish, over the top parties. That’s how I’ve been reading this whole thing.
Yeah, he can trust their intent and even tell them of the bill of sale. Let them deal with the snake in the grass. They may not value him much the way he needs, but this was supposed to be a slumber party for him. I’d really like to see a bit of honest parental care as they don’t mean evil with their neglect. AND maybe let someone seal the thing proper… It’d be nice if Moonshadow is introduced to them and trusted a bit before they discover who he is…
Trust their intent? What about HIS intent? From their perspective he’s the bad guy. Do you really think they’ll take the words of a (very short) villain at face value, especially if he says one of their own is a traitor? Please, that’s Evil 101. If he gives them the orb, they’ll take him into custody, not listening to what he has to say and then he’s a sitting duck. Remember, Moon Shadow is a hero to the kids, but the grown up heroes don’t know him or only heard rumours of him.
Tyler can trust there intent but he knows they are not reasonable people, and they know less about what actually happened than he does. It does not help that Toby is sort of in on the plan and Ron might still have mixed feeling about Moonshadow.
So to the best of his knowledge Toby will lie to go forward with the plan because while he may admire Moonshadow he cares more about magically fixing his family, Ron and the Flea may believe he’s solid but won’t really know beyond admiring him, and Zodon and Redhead will lie because they are the bad guys. And in theory Tyler could reveal himself to Toby but the Evil Queen and Last Place are just waiting for the narrative where Tyler’s evil and deserves the way they treat him and Toby is just so naive when it comes to his evil twin to be confirmed.
What’s with the skidmarks?
Also: I agree with @Marie.
Those aren’t skidmarks. Tyler’s standing on the L in EDL.
There are also skidmarks where he is coming to a sudden stop, after swinging into the room.
There are also skidmarks in his underwear after the scare he just had, to use the vernacular of his age cohort …
It’s about time we find out how the parents are going to react to Tyler being trained by the Revenant. Maybe it will cause them to actually remember his name?
Considering they think Revenant should be imprisoned for daring to hero without meta powers, it just means they’ll likely keep Tyler locked in a cell to ‘protect’ him from a bad influence. And if they find out PS238 arranged it, well, that’s not going to go well for anybody.
Could trigger Aaron’s version of Civil War, though.
Leave out the Revenant and just say extra training arranged by the school. Don’t say who with.
… and this is where Tyler actually bests his parents. Both of them. At once. WITH NO POWERS.
… someday, they are going to realize just how much EPIC egg they’re about to get on their face …
If they knew it was Tyler they’d probably just threaten to ground him. (And somehow I feel like that would actually be more effective.)
Given the security issues recently, grounded at school.
Wait, the revenant has to hang up, because the threat he’s facing is so serious he can’t deal with it while multitasking? Longcat is powerful indeed … Meanwhile, I assume Sarah has also been equipped with a teleportation device, so she can snatch up the orb and vanish – p&g must have had some means in mind of extracting her. Moonshadow will be assumed in league with her, etc.
Can we take a moment to appreciate how cool the Power’s costume designs look in color? Like, I don’t know if Aaron ever reads these comments, but he needs to know how awesome the composition in that last panel is. I think he really outdid himself this time.
I also now have a sudden urge to draw the Powers fighting crime side by side… by side
I like how their costumes match while also highlighting and emphasizing their very different body shapes. Ultima’s cloak makes his shoulders appear broader. Sovereign’s emphasizes her figure. I do wonder what happened to Sovereign’s underwear-on-the-outside and how her cape is attached, but otherwise the costumes look very nice. Were they hats, I would try to defeat them to acquire ownership thereof.
I didn’t even notice that she doesn’t have her “underwhere on the outside!” Ha ha ha ha ha 🤣
Sovereign has shoulderpauldronthingies to hold her cape. I guess those are hidden behind her hair on this page.
Well it’s a casual party. Maybe Sovereign’s casual superhero outfit doesn’t include underwear on the outside.
To be honest, prior to them appearing in color, I imagined that they’d have a more red-white-and-blue-(plus-gold) color scheme. The white-and-blues is nice and unique, although too… “peaceful” (?) a color scheme for what they do.
Cue “Ron Ex-Machia”
Or “Julie Swoop”.
Could this be it? The confrontation we’ve been waiting for?
Moonshadow vs. the Powers…
Time for the previously-unmentioned piece of Argonite that Revenant installed in Moon Shadow’s gear?
^_^
That would only work if the Powers were FISS. Both of them are energy blasters besides having flight and super-strength.
That would only work if the Powers were FISS metas. Having energy blasts puts them outside of that category.
Since it works on all FISS, not just on Argosians, it presumably works on some core principles related to power expression, rather than specific DNA or physiology. The question is whether they’re close enough to being FISS, having most or all of that power suite plus their energy blasts, for Argonite to work anyway.
Okay Tyler.
Time to kick your parents’ butts.
That is a tempting image. I still think telling that so called hero was carrying a receipt for one Tyler Marlock as payment. I think they are very careless and neglectful, but not evil. Even if they don’t react very well on their own, there are enough witnesses to throw this into chaos. Even Zodon might start to wonder and Flea/Ron won’t like that and support Moonshadow. Play this smart, smarter than the average bear. And revenant is the BEST mentor.
I think it would be really cool if at some point, not too, too far in the future, they find out in a private venue. I think it would do a lot of good for them to hear that he is ALREADY a respected hero among his peers and hear the missions he’s been on. He really is a son to be proud of, regardless of his powers. And it would mean the world to him to tell them/brag about his adventures. (they also might get the hint he doesn’t want or need the powers. Maybe a mystic can tell them that getting them is a bad idea)
And they dessrve some panic to realizes they’ve been encouraging danger and reckless patterns. Them bing this bad is getting too old entrenched. I don’t mind light neglect, but it would be interesting to mix it up and keep us guessing more insted of all bad parent.
♪ Take it from me, Parents just don’t understand… ♪
Tyler doesn’t do this sort of thing, but it is amusing to think about:
Place a booby trap on the orb casing in a position that Ultima and Sovereign can’t see. Step away from the orb. Let them pick it up. Booby trap activates and they get to deal with the unleashed… whatever. Chaos I guess.
Paintball grenade and smoke canister? He does have the kid safe gear set.
“Kid, were going to want to talk to your parents.”
“Err – Captain loco in parentis isn’t here right now.”
I think they are to strong to be bosses of Level 3.That game needs to be rebalanced.