Grrl Power #147 – Flying not allowed in the Super High Jump
I really hope I got the particulars about Posse Comitatus correct. There’s been significant discussion about it in the comments leading up to this so I absorbed what I could. There are probably plenty of nuances I’ve missed, for instance it was suggested they should live under DoHS until wartime, when they’d be moved back under DoD… except that would probably never happen since (hopefully) war will never be declared within the borders of the US after the pending GIF/JIF civil war. Look at the Coast Guard. They used to be military but are now under DoHS. Well, we’ve been at war for the last decade at least, and they’re still under DoHS, presumably because there isn’t an enemy navy encroaching on the US Coastline.
That final panel is probably one of my favorites so far, and not just because it’s the one with all the jokes in it. We’re almost past the perfunctory stuff in the press conference, I’m aiming to make it far shorter than some of the other scenes so far because there’s lots of fun stuff after it.
It’s too far in to fix now, but I realize that as a Lt., Peggy should be wearing her dress… purples. Dress eggplants? Red gets maroon, but there isn’t a word for dark purple that just means dark purple. Well, for whatever reason Max okayed it.
Anyone spot the cameo here?
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Have we gotten max’s last name before this?
Yes.
Most of the principle supers have their full names in the cast list. The exceptions being Math, Mr Amorphous and Achilles. Two of whom have their first names listed at least.
I wonder if there’s going to be a scene with Halo running up to ppl and asking them if they wanna see her balls.
I hope, immature person that I am.
Suzie’s face in the first panel: “She knows my name! How does she know my name? Why does she know my name?” (and that’s if the fan-spect that Ari knows her mother is not true)
Well spotted.
+2 points to Arianna/ Suzi conspiracy theory.
-1 point for the debunking probability that Arianna is just good enough at her job to have checked out the details of the interviewer at the bank.
+2 points to Suzie remaining a permanent feature of the Arc press-corps. Being the only reporter referred to by name, on-air, in one of the most important press conferences in history.
no, that’s just good showmanship from Arianna, it’s always better to talk TO a Person rather than AT a body…
besides, do you REALLY think that every single person in that room/courtyard has NOT been vetted by some kind of security force?, HA!, i’ll bet that ARC-Dark has been going over the proposed list of invitees since the day that Arianna thought up the press conference. as well as, i’ll bet there are either (or both) actual seating arrangements for the newsies as well, with the higher rated ones front center and the well, the fringe-cases out in the edges of the pack.. or she has the equivalent of a teleprompter in her ear with someone like Leon doing a Cyrano De-Bergerac on everyone that needs identifying…
i still think that Suzie is NOT a plant, that since she was the one to get the breaking story at the bank, she’s been given an unplanned, but rather rapid background check (just like Sydney was) and approved for attendance, with details pending (also, just like Sydney) mostly because they weren’t expecting an INTERN to get the task from her channel, as they probably completed an in-depth background check for one of the other anchors, or at least someone higher-up-the-food-chain as an actual newscaster, not that low on the totem-pole as an intern, so she was a surprise entry to the list.
You’re right, that IS a Major coup for her to be mentioned by name, AND having asked an extremely relevant question when all the others were asking basic BS questions… i foresee that she will soon be the “Go To Gal” for anything Supers/News related, just because of her asking the “right” questions at the right time (ie, she basically made the others who laughed at her just now seem like stupid idiots) especially when the host of the press conference takes that question and answers it in an extremely in-depth manner. all those others are gonna get reamed a new one when they get back to their respective editors/publishers… i can almost hear the screams of anguish from here :”how did you let that pipsqueak INTERN ASK THAT!!!” and others will get the “SPANDEX? Spandex!!… You were asking what they were going to WEAR AS COSTUMES!!! and not what that Wen lady was asking about?…. Argh!, and we’re paying you HOW MUCH?!?”
I was going to just agree with what you said overall, and commend you on the amusing final paragraph. Both of which were, indeed, well said. Especially as I do view Suzie the same, positive, way that you do. Despite my tongue-in-cheek support for the Arianna-Suziegate conspiracy.
Were it not for thinking on your second paragraph. You are right that I was not giving proper consideration to the likely extent of security activity going on behind the scenes. But, when I dwelt on it, the following line of reasoning suggested itself.
This is a critical event. Their initial reception by the public being pivotal on the future effectiveness of the organisation. A disastrous start could terminate Arc even before it starts. But it is a pre-planned two-part operation. The fake bank robbery, followed by the press conference. The extreme degree of vetting and other activity you describe seeming not just plausible but highly likely.
However, of the two parts of the plan it is actually the simple, relatively safe every-day activity that is easy to control. American business and government bodies in particular being past-masters at handling press coverage (even if they do cock it up sometimes). The part of the plan that is borderline illegal, definitely unethical and which would be disastrous to public relations if it were to be exposed is the bank robbery.
Given the forethought, planning, and other preparedness, such as laws and treaties all hinging on today’s event, I think that the overall plan would direct far more resources to the security of the bank operation than to the follow-up press conference.
Which has the ironic consequence that your second paragraph has actually shifted my thinking slightly away from the conspiracy being a fun theory, and (somewhat) more towards it being a plausible option. As Chaos says below, Suzie is actually an ideal media witness to the event. Something that any parties with a vested interest might not have been willing to leave to chance. And Arianna, Arc, the US government and even the UN all have a lot riding on the success of that one event.
Susie’s also young and less experienced, so she’s less likely to have developed a nasty angle for her news. This makes her a great candidate for their press corps as she’s not going to be following up her reporting with “And as you can clearly see ARC is plotting to take over the world.”. Cuz she’s not faux.
*****De-cloaks*******Looks around******
Admas not around? (GRIN)
Why does “Chaos” get to bring up the most interesting theories?
****Re-cloaks****
Been kinda “Bleh” lately. That and the past few weeks when I get up on Monday Morning there’s 200+ comments, half of which are saying what I was gonna too. No need to restate it.
Actually there is, when yer awesome, you must speechify!
I stand witness that Adamas has made awesome comments in the past. Was there somebody else lurking around here just now? Oh, maybe not.
Did you know speechify is an actual word? I just assumed it was a made up word that some min-max character in a heavy metal story came up with.
Li is like “if china must grow larger, it wont while dressed like this. in an arena.”
Poor Mr. Li.
He must have Zen-superpowers, with the presence of all the admittedly very distracting ladies present.
Most men – including me- would have utterly shown in those leotards (we can only guess about the other dude, due to as set of ‘conveniently’ placed info-bars).
I am sure that he’ll be in the top10 of Sydney’s “favorite superheroes” list.
I mean, look at his suit. He’s totally red, and… it spells Chili…
I think of flying vs. running speed this way:
They can’t fly faster than they can run because then supers would just tow themselves through air at ground level. Some level of flying ability seems to be REQUIRED by those with super speed to prevent self-launching into orbit, and if the flying ability is activated while sprinting runners would first stumble and then eventually give up on running anywhere altogether, like birds pulling their legs up to not catch and trip into the ground.
If supers run at the same speed as their flight, then speed seems to be a magical limit like being unable to surpass the sound barrier. Not fun for comics.
The basic concept can be tested irl by holding yourself up on the bars of a treadmill. You – holding on the bars – are at “flying” speed. If the treadmill is too fast and it is unsafe for you to touch down without falling, you fly faster than you run and need to dial it back each time you land. If you can lower yourself to the treads without your torso moving, you run as fast as you can fly.
Running as a super is like pulling yourself forwards by your feet simultaneously as you pull your body through the air, which means more force. Ergo, science says supers can run faster than they fly. Yay science!
That only works if you can only fly at ground level. Some supers could fly in the upper atmosphere where the air is thin enough to allow them a significantly increased airspeed, and flying allows a straighter path than running. Not important in an Olympic race, but in other situations…
Actually, science would say that running speed would be more limited than flying speed. A super runner without the ability to fly can really only affect his movement in two dimensions: Forward/backward & Left/Right. Whereas a flyer can control his movement in three dimensions: add Up/Down.
A flyer’s speed depends mostly on conditions relevant to the air itself: Barometric pressure/density, prevailing wind, humidity, etc. A runner is also constrained by the geographic terrain & gravity.
For example, a flyer can counteract gravity & theoretically leave Earth’s atmosphere (whether or not they’re capable of surviving that or not is another factor). However, a runner may be capable of running fast enough to counteract gravity, but without the ability to fly, would quickly slow down from the conditions of the air & the fact that he loses traction (& loses speed) as soon as his feet don’t connect with the terrain anymore. Gravity would them bring them back down.
Thus, runners are limited in their top speed & couldn’t even theoretically launch themselves off of the Earth, accidently OR deliberately.
True, but that wasn’t the original argument. The original argument was that someone who can fly is able to run at least as fast as they can fly, or faster, because they could just fly at ground level and use their legs to propel themselves even faster or keep their weight up allowing their flight power to be directed more horizontally than diagonally.
And while that would normally be true that only takes effect in a universe where speedsters are considered friction-less, like they are in DC where their power is assumed to be given from the speed force. The flash is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than quicksilver from Marvel and has even been known to jump seconds in time (Example Blackest Night). Quicksilver while incredibly fast is more on the level of Wally West (Kid Flash) who has an incomplete link to the speed force and can thus not match the flashes top speed or even come close to it. Barry Allen is able to cross the planet in under three seconds, Wally can barely cross the planet in under an hour. I could be wrong on Wally’s top speed but the point is made. If a speedster is affected by the friction necessary to keep them on the ground then they are stupidly fast. however this means that someone with a flight speed of say 100 meters per second could only RUN maybe normal speeds of a 17 mile an hour human. This is because their flight powers are then affected by friction which they normally ignore while airborne.
I know these pages are boring (a month of one per week). But I really do like the flushing out of the details for this world. This does make the world more believable and we have a better understanding of the rules governing things.
Though, I do not know if the UN would ever be able to ratify a useful treaty about supers. The ‘Rouge’ nations might give lip service and ignore the treaty. The ‘weak’ nations already ignore the UN rules (unless they are getting money, that lines the pockets of politicians). I could go on but I will be nice and stop.
So far, the UN ratifying a useful treaty is the most unbelievable thing in your comic *sad chuckle*
I would disagree, the UN is constantly trying to do things. Like in Syria. Which is all the comic above is saying, emphasising that it is in the early stages. That part is quite believable, to me. How realistically any nations would sign up to it depends on a lot of factors. Including the distribution of militarily strong supers. All it takes is for one of the veto nations to get dealt a strong suit of powers and they could just block any motion. As with Syria.
Given the context of the speech, we can assume that the US is pushing for the treaty. Russia has half the population of the US, so given a balanced distribution of powers, would probably be ok with a ban, being at a numeric disadvantage with their old rival. The UK, assuming a similar ‘special relationship’ with the US, in the comic world, would likely follow the US lead. Barring some particular incident to the contrary, no reason for France to do otherwise.
Although history can play strange tricks. For instance if Argentina turned belligerent again, the UK would find itself at a considerable disadvantage, not currently having any aircraft carriers (being dependant on the French for them for a decade). Having a 50% bigger population than them, and probably an equal super advantage, might make the immediate priority of winning a war more important than the niceties of ratifying an inconvenient treaty.
The biggest elephant in the room being China of course. Veto holder. Industrialised (albeit a relative newcomer, which might tweak the figures). And having over 4 times the population of the US. Plus being engaged in active territorial disputes with Taiwan and Japan, amongst others. I suspect it would take something extraordinary to prevent them from vetoing the treaty every time it was proposed.
DaveB may or may not realise, but he is actually very closely following historical president. Frequently when a radical new weapon of war becomes available, there are dire predictions of just how devastating it will be. Followed swiftly by international calls to ban it’s use. Which is inevitably ignored by the nations which have the upper hand. Wishing to exploit it whilst they can.
Once they have seen significant battlefield use, then the debate will either falter, if it turns out the dire predictions were false. Or will intensify, and may get results. Examples being Zeppelins which were deemed (very widely) to have changed the face of modern warfare and it was anticipated could cause cities to collapse and surrender overnight. Which turned out rather anti-climactic. Not totally ineffective, but well short of prediction. And napalm, which was all too effective. And one photograph, in particular, saw world opinion crystallize on that issue.
Although I too found the ‘negotiating to ban use in warfare’ notion to be odd, at first. Until I compared it to the analogies above. And the very actions of the, now highly-visible, Arc supers may well, realistically, influence world opinion on the matter. One way or the other. Perhaps in surprising ways.
Oh I realize it. Just because the UN is trying to do something doesn’t mean anyone, even the nations that sign it will actually go along with it. Arianna made a point of bringing it up because it another bullet point to show how the government and the international community is being proactive etc etc. In reality the first country to violate it knows at most the UN will have a few members signing a letter saying “hey stop.”
with an unaffiliated convenient group of people willing to use illegal force and procedures to choosing that time to target the nation breaching protocol in protest of the misbehavior. just ask peggy for a read in on Pakistan/ Taliban operation bleachstreet she will inquire about permission to give you the real ops codename to her handlers and get back to you.
I know that the UN has quite a poor reputation within the US (well amongst the folks I get exposed to anyhow, I have no idea how true that generally is). Which is quite strange, given how strongly influenced it is, as an organisation, by the US itself. But do remember that there is a very powerful effect of a breaking UN mandates. In that it gives Causus belli, which basically means “just cause for war”.
So, although you are right about how the international community treats treaties in general, to say that “the most” that would happen if a UN treaty were to be broken is a letter getting sent out is not strictly true. That may be the typical first response. But the most that can happen is that your country gets invaded by a coalition of the most powerful countries in the world!
Which is why I think China, if it did have the upper hand (or Russia, if it were dealt a good set of military super powers) would not permit the treaty to be put in place through the UN. Not that it would stop an independent treaty being set up. Or some other contingency such as the “friends of Syria” group of nations. But that would be handled within the scope of general international diplomacy, rather than directly under the UN umbrella.
One interesting line, within the above link, is the following:
The USA is notorious for ignoring the UN on one hand then using it on another. When you are a hyper power you can get away with it as long as most countries are on your side or are too weak to oppose you.
Not just the USA, and not just the Big Boys either.
I think it will be interesting to see the political Left and Right talking points.
I do not understand the Left too much, so someone might help me out there.
I think the Right would be glad to see the protection, but very apprehensive about the amount of power the government just got. The NRA (National Rifle Association) and other gun groups will use the precedent of no registration for supers to help block gun registrations. The MODERATE militia groups (I stress not all militias are out to over throw the government, some are just fancy clubs for preppers) are going to see this as a generally good thing as well because they have been worrying about a super-villain attack for a long time.
Note: I only put up points for the moderate groups (I know ‘my opinion’). The radical group can go f*** themselves, I have little patients for extremest. Maxiam should pay the extremist a visit using her fists.
There’s a lot of political ramification to the stuff happening, but if any of it shows up in the comic it will be in off hand comments or stuff in the background. I think it’s an interesting thing to explore, and if I was writing a novel I’d definitely get into it, but that stuff is so divisive I think it will derail the community. That said I think the points you make are pretty spot on.
If you do write a novel I will want to get a copy. Just like your illustrated version. Though you could create a hybrid novel with some illustrations.
which I have noted recent passing research that higher registration requirements reduce the number of people who educate themselves about guns, as not wanting to go to the hassle to get a gun license they become uninterested in knowing about safe proper and real operations of guns. this leaves the people to operate on tv learning about guns. tv promotes a scratched or dead concept that results in uneducated people fearing excessively when exposed to guns in real life. now that isn’t to say don’t license guns to insure people do educate themselves about the tool they are acquiring and will attempt to use it responsibly, as lack of regulation makes access to criminals easier but criminals will obtain guns no matter what precautions are taken they do not care what is legal.
I must be one of those rare outliers on such subjects. I don’t own a gun but I am familiar with them and if given the chance I could disassemble one and clean it. I just don’t have the extra money for a gun anyway.
Hollywood has ZERO comprehension of guns. They’ve misconstrued and misstated their function and ability for decades, and the whole “laying the gun on the side” nonsense came from bad John Woo movies. You can’t hit the barn side of a broad with the gun on its side.
It depends on who the president is in this world. If a democrat is in the white house any action like this will be deemed a great thing by the democrats and a horrible violation of liberties by the republicans. If a republican is in the white house, then this action will be a horrible violation of liberties by the democrats and a great thing by the republicans. The sad part is, the two parties may have opposite views, but in the end, they’re pretty much the same thing. Not much difference between them.
First time commenting though I ve been lurking for some time. Whats weird is that instead of things I like about the story (of which there are many) what gets me commenting is hypothetical and probably totally story unrelated stuff like this.
Well I m not to sure about left and right politics since I am not from America but I wouldn t be surprised if some organizations like the police force or maybe the fbi would get a bit miffed about the regulations now in place. If and when it happens how strongly expressed that would be is probably entirely based on the background deals that led to ARC’s founding in the first place.
But even that would only influence the higher leadership of such groups. What i.e a police officer that just discovered powers thinks about the notion of having to be in the military to use those we ll have to see when that may happen.
I think that race would be rather anticlimactic to watch — what with being finished before he audience can even blink?
that’s why it’s the ten-THOUSAND meter DASH… pretty equivalent to the current 100 meter dash… ALSO over in a few blinks…
which is why when supes and flash do it, it’s more on the order of a ten thousand KILOMETER dash.
Video technology will be very important in such super metahuman races.
Now, a superfast camera that captures the speed of light!
– See more at: https://www.indianexpress.com/news/now-a-superfast-camera-that-captures-the-speed-of-light-/889612#sthash.mkfm6viV.dpuf
Believe it or not, scientists have developed a superfast camera, the size of a dustbin, which can capture the speed of light.
At team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claims its superfast camera can show a bullet-shaped pulse of light travelling from one end of a laboratory flask to another in a fraction of a second, the British media said.
The scientists, however, say that it will be some time before the camera is commercially available.
Prof Ramesh Raskar at the MIT Media Lab told ‘The Sunday Times’: “With our ultra-fast imaging we can actually analyse how the photons are travelling through the world.”
The camera can also create 3D images because it is capable of “seeing” photons of light even inside objects, say the scientists.
The device was made by adapting a “streaker tube” – used by chemists to scan and capture light. It can record the progress of light pulses through a flask of liquid. Each still picture had a shutter speed of 1.7 picoseconds — a trillionth of a second.
Raskar added: “Watching this it looks like light in slowmotion. It is so slow you can see the light itself move across the distance. This is the speed of light captured: there is nothing in the universe that moves faster, so we are at the physical limit of high-speed photography.”
– See more at: https://www.indianexpress.com/news/now-a-superfast-camera-that-captures-the-speed-of-light-/889612#sthash.mkfm6viV.dpuf
The Coast Guard was actually never part of the military. They were created under the Department of the Treasury so that when they board a foreign ship without that government’s permission, it is not an act of war, like it would be if an actual military ship did
The point of the Coast Guard was more along the lines of the Customs Service; watch who is coming in and leaving the country and collect tariffs, duties and taxes on imported, and sometimes, exported goods. Part of that mandate also requires them to watch for people trying to enter or leave inappropriately, often smugglers.
The origins of the US Coast Guard are officially traced to the foundation of the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790 (though some claim the Lighthouse Service, founded a year earlier and later merged, for this honour). Also worth noting that between the disbanding of the Continental Navy in 1790 and the foundation of the US Navy eight years later, the Revenue Cutters were the nation’s only seagoing military force.
Collecting import duties and responsibility for the safe navigation of merchant vessels were the organization’s earliest duties. The added responsibilities of Lighthouse operation and, later on, Lifeboats, gave the service its strong rescue ethos.
Gleaned from ‘Rescue Warriors’ by David Helvarg – a very interesting book about the USCG past and present. Highly recommended. Was always aware of the organization but, until reading this book, never realized just how much it did and how admirable it is.
Sidney’s reaction brings to mind another hero from an earlier day.
https://www.thetick.ws/car24.html
“SPOON!“
The Tick has done this same thing at least a couple of times. Once, when given a briefing on Pokoponesia, he muttered “Slideshow … BORING … losing … consciousness …”
The other quote is on the link I posted.
Last panel reminds me of Numan Athletics. Pretty fun, but it had some difficult moments.
There are around thirty scenes or specific locations for this comic so far.
‘Comic RPG’ and ‘my other job’. Then back in time to the longest day. The Store, the bank, Outside the bank, Archon, meetings, and finally the ‘press conference’ we are at now. (I skipped a few.)
Anyone want to guess what some of the next scenes will be before we finish the ‘longest day’.
I’m Guessing ….
Talk to Joel or phone Joel?
Go Home (apartment or house)?
Anyone else want to guess?
You left out the restaurants. Not counting another visit to one of those, I think home is a safe bet. Maybe a stop at the shop, if it’s not too late in the day, to tell Joel her tale.
I think we can all guess where she lives, she’s a comic geek so she clearly lives in her parents’ basement like the rest of us.
Heh. Or in a back room/attic in the shop? That being the kind of economy that small businesses might use to free up finances, if local zoning regulations allow such. Not having to find the cash to pay rent on a flat (by living at parents or in a spare part of a shop) might have been the only way that someone as young as her could free up enough cash to become a partner in the first place. Barring a windfall inheritance or the like.
She was scuba diving in the keys, I don’t think her finances are quite that tight.
She SAYS she was scuba-diving in the Keys.
I saw her! And I have faith in her. Ok, she may be holding out on something but she has only just met them. They do not have high enough security clearance for all the facts, just yet.
African nations don’t have speedsters in joke image.
Usain Bolt still wins
Isn’t Insane Bolt from Jamaica? Pretty sure that’s in the Caribbean (which is part of the America’s)
Playing up the ridiculous factor, don’t ruin it!
Dress purples could be called “Dress Indigos”. That sounds more impressive, and it’s a darker color than simple purple, like maroon is to red.
It does have a nice ring to it. And easy to understand, rather than the rather more obscure ‘dress byzantiums’ :-D
I like Suzy’s “Damn right” pose in the first panel, and Ari sounds like she’s got the whole posse comitaters thing by the short hairs. Yay, Ari! Good for Suzy too, since Ari segued right into a scoop on the proposed treaty to ban supers from battlefields. Yay, Suzy!
Poor Syd. She’s in the spotlight, but only as a prop, so far. A rumbling belly or a wandering bug or who knows what might tip her into the spaz place, if her control slips. Yay, Sydney! (So far.)
I assume the powers that be decided to let Peggy wear her flight suit to match Sydney (who has no dress purples).
That last panel is, well, those are outstanding representatives of their countries, I must say. Once I could see past the ladies, I noted the adverts and logos. There’s a lot going on in there, beyond the hubba hubba. Thanks, DaveB!
:D
Anyone want to guess what would be in the thought bubbles above everyone’s heads in the last panel?
If anyone else has left it to the last minute to replace their Google Reader account, you may want to check out Feedly, which as that article says, is one of the lead contenders customers are migrating to.
The only reason I mention it here (not having had a chance to give it a proper test yet) is that the data transfer is incredibly simple. Just do a Google search for “Feedly” and your top result is likely to be the company’s own, with one of the sub-options being to do a “one click import of your Google Reader account”. I just tried it and it really was as simple as that. Even if you, later, decide you do not like the service, at least all your data will be preserved in a supported, ongoing product, until you get the time to check out an alternative.
I would give you a link to the option in question, but it no longer appears in my Google search results. Presumably it is being overly clever in detecting that I have already used it, so is not being displayed. Besides which it is always safer for folks to directly look up critical sites, rather than rely on a link from a third party. Even one as upright and reputable as myself ;-)
Have I mentioned yet that Peggy is my favorite character? Because she totally is!
So… they’re trying to pull what Marvel failed to do with the Civil War series?
You know back when they posted that note about people with x-ray vision did anyone mentioned Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four?
She can make walls transparent although I suspect they also make it clear it can be seen through both sides I wonder if that could be one sided?
Anyone care to guess if this shindig will be interrupted after all that is a trope of superhero comics!
I approve of the last panel SO MUCH
For anyone who did not have Sydney’s bout with Math tagged with “Email me when new comments are added to this thread.”, my opinion of Math has just jumped up a notch.
the British super should look like Jessica Ennis – who is nearer to Sydney’s height and build, but very incredibly toned and buff, as befits a world and Olympic champion. Incidentally, for another British Super,and a military one at that, look up the Royal Marines officer Captain Hurricane. This long-running comic character burst into an uncontrollable Ragin’ Fury once per comic, in which bullets bounced off, and any number of heartless Huns, bragadoccio Italians, or evil souless Japanese, would get pasted over the shop (this was set in WW2) In hindsight, evidently a Super.
Agh! Even more textwalls! The way I see it, Arianna is the female equivalent of Edward Verres when it comes to exposition…
I just wanted to say I am truly enjoying where you have been going with the story line recently. Perhaps the core issue in your comic in the current plot will help those with a somewhat, shall we say, limited access to the logic of the argument. Well done.
Thanks :)
I’m coining a new name for the uniform colors based on existing color names: dark slate purple.
When the US ratifies a treaty, it becomes a federal law. The problem with the UN treaty forbidding supers in war zones is it would clash directly with anti-discrimination laws in the US by effectively denying a super to join, for example, the Army Rangers. Two conflicting federal laws are one thing, but the 14th amendment would be the deal breaker for the treaty.
All it would take would be a super, denied enlistment, suing the federal government for discrimination on the basis of race (which is what a genetic difference like super powers would be) and they’d win. The court would strike down at least a portion of the treaty, which would remove it from federal law. At that point, existing federal laws would make felons of anyone who (as a group) tries to enforce the treaty anyway.
The treaty sounds like a great idea, but it’s just not compatible in any way with US laws.
Sure but someone would have to challenge it in the first place. Which would eventually happen I would imagine, but the initial thinking is “lets keep this from escalating if we can”
Also, any super joining Archon becomes part of their chain of command, and they’re specifically a domestic force, so hopefully they’ll be able to avoid that for a while. Then I guess we get into a super being denied entry into the marines because he’s a super and the only branch available to supers is Archon for the above reason. I suppose he could be allowed to join, then be reassigned to another branch? Privates don’t get much say in that sort of thing I don’t think.
An interesting conundrum. And the kind of thing that does crop up, frequently in international politics. Personally I am highly sympathetic to both sides of the equation. Whatever solution is found, should be optimised to prevent it being applied as precedent to allow discrimination against supers.
After all, if it is deemed that supers are too dangerous to allow near a combat zone, then that will give ample fuel to attempts to ban them from public transport or whatever.
It is worth pointing out that Arianna’s dialoge indicates that “the UN is working towards a treaty…” So it is clearly being as contentious an issue as you have concluded. But, equally, avoiding a globally catestrophic super war is in everybody’s interests, so I am sure there would be intense effort in this area.
Note that your “… but it’s just not compatible in any way with US laws.” is not actually something that would stop this treaty from happening. It simply makes the process a lot harder. And it worth bearing in mind that, if anything, EU laws are even stronger in this area, than the US.
Plus they fall squarely under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, which is the highest court in Europe, having precedence over even the highest national courts and laws (including constitutional ones). So they would have even more of a problem.
The way that such conflicts are resolved, should the international concerns be greater than the pre-existing US and EU (etc) laws, and should an acceptable compromise be found, then, every country ratifying the treaty first has to amend their constitutional laws (and the European Human Rights Act) first, to be compatible with the treaty.
Clearly avoiding going extinct, takes precedence over avoiding discrimination, which is of equal benefit to both supers and non-supers. But that should not allow any weakening of discrimination laws, until every possible alternative has been explored and discounted. And if no perfect solution is found (and I suspect that none is possible) then alternative solutions, that do not use this treaty, need to be considered.
If, after doing all that, it ends up needing to compromise the rights of supers, in this one specific regard, then that may need to happen. The rule of thumb to find out if the compromise is fair, is “would I be happy having this restriction placed on me (if I were a person who liked going into war zones)?”
Currently the solutions that are occurring to me all have more impact on discrimination, when analysed, than I would find acceptable. You have come up with a significant brain teaser…
The treaty is to ban Supers from war zones. Nothing in it so far has said anything about not allowing them to join the army. As long as they’re not deployed to war zones the treaty/law isn’t being broken.
OH, crap crap crap. The name on the guy at the far left just twigged on me. ROFLMAO! I once had to track down a guy with the actual, honest to god name of Chi Li.
Seriously. This was during the blaster worm breakout about twelve years ago. I had written a query for the firewalls that checked for the probes the worm was doing on my network. There were a few infections (I take security seriously, so it was a very few) and I had to track them down. One was on a computer that was tagged chili. So I’m looking for a TexMex fan, and I’m going crazy because it keeps moving around. Turned out it was a contractor named Chi Li, and I was following him from jack to jack because he was moving around with a laptop. Finally caught up with him, after chasing all over the campus – two rooms away from my office.
Heh.
Their left, rather than ours.
When you told him, how did he take it? Was he chilly?
Oddly enough, I was thinking of LT COL Leander’s left when I wrote that.
Actually, he was kind of shocked that his security team at the home office had missed it, since he was on their network just a couple of days before. I cleaned up his machine, and advised him to have a word with their network security lead before he plugged it back in over there.
Disney™
Chiming in from 2020. Nope no Olympics this year, at least in Our timeline.
And no Wimbledon, football or other such events. Whoot!
Silver lining to a very dark cloud.
Just found this comic today and love the dang thing… anyway, quick and dirty on posse comitatus. Recall back in the day, some dudes steal cattle and the sheriff would raise a posse to go get them scoundrels? Sort of the same here. Active duty and Reserve are always federal forces. Guard are not. So, when stuff goes down in the USA, like Hurricane Katrina, the Guard and Reserve CAN both be there. The Guard (at least from Louisiana) will do cop stuff like traffic control, arrest looters and tell people not to be a dumbass in Louisiana. To parallel, the Governor being the sheriff and the Soldiers being his posse. The Reserve will give you a bottle of water, some snacks and a roll of TP and do other non-cop stuff. Army Corps of Engineers can come in and say “That bridge is AFU.” But they can’t stop looting. In wartime, Active and Reserve are still Federal, but the Guard are like supers and they have the power to become Federal. Like the President tells the Governor “I need your Joes and Josephines” and poof, they become Federal and go off to war. Has to do with the Congressional authority under which they are summoned… (Title 10 versus Title 32 of the US Code) so being a new federal agency, I’m sure they have at least one lawyer so they’d design it not to run afoul of Posse Comitatus. Not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence, rather trying to simplify for benefit of the most people. (And, yes…caveats apply so, NO, not looking to argue but to add clarity!) TLDR: under the act federal forces can’t do cop stuff.
Ah, back when we thought that the olympics would take place with hundreds of thousands in the seats. In the year 2020. Simpler times.
Oh, damn.
Yeah, that 2020 Olympics were rather… special… ocasion.
Hey is it too late for us to time warp/dimension hop to this version of 2020? I’d really like to live there.