Copyright notes: The webcomic that's being referenced here throughout is created by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag. Cute animal gif created by I don't know who. Panels from The Authority by Tom Peyer and Dustin Nguyen. Webcomic page of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull.
Let's just keep going while I've got my steam up.
Chapter 2, cover
What have we got here. . .a fairly standard image of the looming shadow of the menacing, spiky villain surrounding the roughed-up hero posing defiantly. This might not be super deep I think. It might just be telling us we're in for some basic straightforward superhero battle, and at this stage we can't just assume it's setting up that expectation in order to subvert it.
Though there's one thing you'd never see on a traditional superhero comic cover: The hero wearing regular street clothes without the slightest suggestion of a secret identity.
Page 1
I had this dream some years before Alison did. Well, not exactly the same. I was flying around a big city and dodging these steel bars some bad guys were launching at me telekinetically. It might have been inspired a lot by Chronicle. But for the most part, except for there being heavy bars stabbing through the air with great psychic effort instead of a manhole cover launched with super strength, and multiple nonspecific entities arrayed against me representing nothing but fear chemicals in my brain coloring my dream instead of an incarnation of my own superhero persona representing a buttload of highly meaningful internal conflicts I've got going on, pretty much the same.
Okay, on the face of it, getting wrestled by yourself, the only opponent who could ever hurt you, while they're making incomprehensible accusations against you would be pretty scary.
Well, at least while Alison is fighting for her life this would seem like incomprehensible accusations. But I think what we're seeing is her subconscious still mulling over the question of the Great Conspiracy: Who gave the biodynamics their powers? Also, perhaps, how guilty should she be about getting to be the most powerful individual in the world, knowing that those responsible like to go around killing children?
P 3
Ah, the struggle between not being late for school and not having people gawk at you leaping tall buildings in a single bound. (I don't care if the comments already made that joke.) (Yes I do.) The comic does this blending of the fantastic and the mundane so much, and I eat it up every time.
Half of the onlookers seem mildly thrilled and half look like they aren't noticing anything out of the ordinary. It's just so believable I want to squeeze it and pet it and call it George.
Can't tell if that cop in the middle of the crowd I'm just noticing has a prosthetic hand or some exoskeleton thing, but I suppose it doesn't make a lot of difference either way. We see (presumably) Templar industries at work, empowering the system. Low key scary, and not just because of associations with the real world NYPD. It's the implication of how far Patrick goes into the big picture.
Think about it. He's handing out top of the line science fiction prosthetics-or-body armor to law enforcement. Not just bipedal tanks that might possibly make sense as a counter-biodynamic measure, but everyday tools to assist them in beating up poor and mentally ill people. Well, I'm being reductive, but that's at least a part of what they're going to use the things for, and Patrick has decided it's worth it for whatever connections or favors or credibility it may have bought him. Which is probably not a lot in itself. More likely just a step in a long term, loose ended plan to gain influence over the US government and military to leverage their resources against the Great Conspiracy.
And likely at least a few Eric Garners and Tamir Rices have to pay for it. That's the kind of thing Patrick thinks he wants to avoid but, here's the cop with her cyber gauntlet anyway. It suggests he may lose sight of the full impact of his big decisions.
P 4
Gee Alison, for talking about quitting the superhero game, you sure made that entrance in the nick of time.
And we'll get back to Professor Antipathy presently
P 5
Oh, just you wait, Perfesser. While I worry if I made the right call here trying to comment on one page at a time.
P 6
Yeah, so, Alison killed his husband by throwing a giant robot at him in a careless gesture, in a fight where no one was really in danger, while he was listening on the phone, and nobody cared. I'd probably try to get some passive aggressive revenge too.
I mean, I'd like to think massive aggression is more my style, but maybe I'd be just as scared as Cohen in his place. Fighting this untouchable power, you'd probably learn to know the fear of God.
But he's still so shitty about it it makes him less sympathetic than certain mass murderers. Bluh bluh I have decided you aren't human and now I'm going to ignore anything you have to say, sabotage your attempts to learn things and lecture you about how evil this monster is that I have made up in my head bluh.
Everyone who makes Alison the object of their scorn seem to decide she has been invincible from birth and also can't imagine what it's like for people who aren't and cannot be scared or betrayed or ashamed or lonely or any of those things that really hurt. I mean it's such a persistent theme, conflating her being the strongest person in the world with the literal Overman. (Cohen even spells it out for us.) Guess it's how she presented as Mega Girl, but how angry do they have to be to keep looking at her that way after talking to her for one minute and seeing the almost constant parade of hurt or insecure or concerned expressions on her face that even I can read. . .
Who, me, protective? No no, Alison is a fictional character, it would be ridiculous.
P 7
I wonder what it is Cohen has done before, taken personal gripes with students as a reason not to teach them or discriminated against biodynamics?
Also, how deep in thought do you have to be to not notice a rat person? Who you know personally? Who's doing crimes on the street? I love it. Such realism.
P 8
A bunch of little things going on here. Is it bad I think Rat trying to scratch and bite Alison is the cutest thing? Like a kitten wrestling a S:t Bernard. Maybe he's just in complete panic.
And it's sort of disconcerting what casual and precise violence Alison is capable of. Yes, it's good for avoiding squishing any bystanders that she can throw a garbage container with this kind of accuracy, not to mention launching Rat into the air just as high as she wants him, and with a a knee soft enough that he doesn't go splat. But the implications in that she thinks to do these things so easily, with no hesitation, and that she stays calm and completely in control over the confrontation. A chilling display of tactical thinking and tight discipline from a highly trained child soldier.
RIP sweet jacket
P 9
Now I'm thinking of how differently Alison feels about welding Rat into a garbage can and twisting Max's arm, let's make a note to get back to that when we get to the Max affair.
For now let's just breathe in her strong zinger game.
P 10
I don't know what to make of Rat's whole thing here. Well, we'll find out the factual statements are disinformation, not much to that. And the sass in panels 6 and 7 is largely in line with indignant speeches of defeated villains. But then he brings a twist at the end. "I know who my friends are and where I ought to be" doesn't sound like he's trying to like, get Alison. Okay I guess it could be a jab about not knowing her place, but does that make sense? Does he want her running around in costume and throwing him and his friends into the Atlantic ocean?
I think it's more a cry of self-affirmation. And in that light, it looks like he means the other stuff. His loyalty is a big part of his self-image; he's proud of holding out, and he thinks maybe Alison really doesn't get that. Maybe he's not being snarky but he's actually offended. So angry he can hardly think, so then he loses the plot and goes on about being too cool for school and knowing where he belongs.
Sweet little character moment from someone we then never see or hear from again.
Maybe it's just me, but I constantly take breaks from my stories (especially comics) to fill out details in the scenes I'm shown in my head. Here I picture the phone conversation covering a bit more. "Yes, sealed. As in, I think, they - someone molded the lid closed with super strength. You probably will want to bring crowbars or bolt cutters or something. Jaws of life, that's probably overkill but. He, uh, it would be inhumane to have him sit in there any longer than completely necessary. I don't know what's the, legally, but I know the guy, he will make a big stink about his civil rights if he thinks he has a case. No, obviously, we have to protect our civil rights, I'm saying we should try and not violate Rat's to begin with."
It can go on and on. In one parallel universe Alison keeps rambling the whole time while the cops get there and extract Rat from the can and then hang up on her. I have way too much fun writing halves of phone conversations.
Anyway I'm with Rich here.
P 12
Speaking of hypothetical conversations, there's some tricky ones Alison could have with various people to make it clear Menace is no longer operating. Maybe the trick would be hinting that she killed him and it was so bad even she couldn't get away with openly admitting it. But it's pretty interesting everyone just trusts her (at least to some degree) when she says he's gone and doesn't say how she knows that.
It seems, as far as anyone knows, Alison confronted Menace, but she says he got away and also he isn't a threat anymore, and in a year since no one's seen him. Given that I don't know who wouldn't assume she killed him in a way that she has to cover up, but I think they just think she wouldn't do that.
Saving the world all those times have bought her a lot of "sure"s from her peers, I guess.
P 13
Is it funny Alison isn't troubled by the ethics of hacking her antagonistic professor but just wants to keep a clear line between the superhero business and her education? Let's go with funny.
And whoaa cool meaningful scene transition.
P 14
Clearly you're not in the AV club, Graveyard. I know some filmmakers/streamers and they call video of any kind "tape" any chance they get. It's especially funny when they say for the audience to "check the tapes" of a live digital broadcast with digital cameras. Maybe Cleaver is just too hip for you huh?
Kind of terrible that Cleaver, aka Daniel, has not had an opportunity to see this film clip that's probably been making waves all over the world for a year, before breaking out of prison and hiding in an abandoned gloom factory and getting his buddy to help out with finding it and also operating a laptop for him.
P 15
Brad has such a goofy costume, reminds me of Captain Hammer with the logo on the chest looking so out of place on an otherwise super generic outfit it sort of just draws attention to how "assembled from items I found at home at the last minute" it looks. Which, it occurs to me, may be very deliberate. A look that says he can't be bothered to care about his appearance might be meaningful for a guy going through life with a big fleshy bat face.
When I hit puberty I had the most terrifying dream I can remember: I looked in the bathroom mirror and saw I had three eyes. The fear of my body changing was so complete I began to neglect it if not subconsciously trying to destroy it - not cleaning myself, cracking every joint I had, sitting very still in uncomfortable positions, listening to Metallica, what have you. Obviously, in hindsight, I couldn't stand it because I was never supposed to be a boy, and not having any language to express such an idea, I could only protest by keeping a wide distance between myself and my body.
So I can relate to the dynamorphic biodynamics, whose bodies changed into unpredictable alien shapes when they were about 14 years old. I can imagine Brad living my nightmare in real life every time he sees his reflection.
But where were we? Ah yes. Tandry Connors is the anti-Lois Lane. Mary blends into the background. Hector loves fighting crime. Alison is just now figuring out something. Everyone's being very in character. Makes sense for this page where we're first introduced to the Guardians as a unit.
P 16 (Help me, the page URLs are getting confusing.)
Welp, the only comment I could have here Alison makes for me on the next page.
P 17
Yeah, this is an inspired reveal. Impulsive and melodramatic, sure, but I think to the TV watching audience that would make it all the more candid.
Haha can you imagine the reactions of the legions of supervillains watching this? I'm thinking specifically of the part where Alison goes "stay away from my family." I'm picturing all of them individually considering their options and going "yeah I'm good. *fake laughter* It would be in bad taste to go after the family, right? PleaseohGodIdon'twanttodie."
I mean, it never even comes up. Alison doesn't even make any security arrangements, or any explicit threats. The Green family might be the most safe from being victims of violence of all the people in the world, cause everyone's that scared of the mere concept of having Alison come after them with a grudge.
I actually forgot we were watching this scene flashback style along with Daniel. Those nearly two pages of television took forever.
P 18
Everything's about you huh Cleaver. No okay I get metaphors. (Sometimes.) He's angry because Alison made it sound like she's just been playing cops and robbers and now she's decided she's done, while Daniel has never had a choice, has never been doing this for fun, and will never (as far as he knows) be able to quit and return to civilian life. It's terribly unfair even if she wasn't thinking of him at any point in that speech, and he probably isn't so conceited as to think she was.
Although, on a certain level Daniel might feel that his identity has been shaped by his conflict with Mega Girl. They're the top two most indestructible individuals known to science, he was a trusted henchman to Menace which probably would mean most of his job consisted of "slowing down Mega Girl", he might not have had a lot going on in his life beyond fighting her and finding ways to masturbate with swords for hands, and then she put him away for three years. He's been told she retired, of course, but he's still been expecting her to come for him every moment since he broke out. Seeing this video instead might just feel a little bit like he's not real, just a ragged old toy.
And Graveyard was there too. (Hilarious joke just for me.) No but do we even see her again?
P 19
I'd like to imagine this song has a verse talking about the difference between bullet resistant (a thing that exists in our world) and bulletproof (which doesn't).
P 20
Alison must have so many anecdotes about being five to thirteen years old. Okay, just a normal amount, but that's all the time she had to have her own life that wasn't being drafted into a new type of war, being a superstar and having more expectations and responsibilities placed on her than a mortal mind could withstand. So I expect she gives a lot of focus to that period.
Also it may be useful to have such stories up her sleeve to prove her basic humanity.
In other news, this may be the only time we see Violet respecting Alison's express wishes.
Later on we see Alison and Tara debating super resilience contra super regeneration and now I wonder which is worse to have if you like tattoos. Just not being allowed tattoos, or getting them and having them fade within hours or days at best?
Of course, being excluded from the group activity maybe stings more than a tattoo needle. It seems to instantly deplete Alisons party energy reserves, in fact. Even Violet feels bad.
P 22
Such a gorgeous, moody scene. Pity about the guy with the death wish causing a "scene" eh.
Imagine what would happen if he like, startled Alison. Come to think, in this world I think I'd wear a bell just in case.
P 23
"It was just a joke" yeah I've heard that one before. I guess I could feel sad for these kids, torn between worshiping their saviors and resenting them, and burying themselves in layers of irony. Alison looks sad.
Although then she just walks away. The problem here could be that she possesses a streak of idealism.
"Wait," you say, "isn't idealism good? Why, on this very blog you have talked many times -" - About optimism. Optimism is to dare to believe good things can happen, that the world can be better. Idealism is the belief that the world can be ideal, and it tends to lead to ignoring bad things that you don't know how to fix. The Good Place in The Good Place (spoilers) goes from an idealistic invention in the beginning of the show to an optimistic one by the end - from keeping sick souls out of sight (and in eternal punishment!) to giving them time and space and support to heal.
And if Alison is going to make some serious improvements to the world, the biodynamic hate movement is just going to get worse. They're people who just won't fit into any model of a better world Alison can conceive of because she's the one conceiving it. At best their politics can be as irrelevant to society as they feel her mere existence makes theirs.
As she walks away, maybe she thinks "How can I help you? The only thing you want is for me not to be here."
See, now who's the sad one? Checkmate, side characters!
P 24
I don't know what a credit union is and I don't care. Something involving stupid evil credit scores, I'm sure.
And yeah, I think "I don't want Cohen to be fired" and "I want to learn the stuff I signed up to his class for" were both very reasonable requests that the school board completely ignored. Maybe Alison needs to find a school less concerned with that they think will make her happy and more focused on learning.
We know, everything changes with Lisa attacks starts teaching, I'm being facetious. But it would be a low key nightmare when you want to - indeed, you have world-shatteringly important reasons to - learn as much as you can about everything you can as fast as you can to have a chance to even begin to figure out the limits of what you need to learn to be able to leverage your considerable resources to change the world in a positive direction, but your teachers are all "We'll give you the best grades you could ask for, the higher the grades the better PR for our school. Don't like this guy? He's fired. Don't know what you're trying to do? How about an independent study where you just decide what you want to do and we sign off to make that your class. Please don't get mad." How long can you maintain any doubt in yourself to think critically about what you know and how you know it in such conditions? I mean it's basically how Elon Musk ended up convinced he's super smart.
P 25
TFW the worst person you know wants to violate your principles in order to help you.
Yeah there isn't anything Alison can do here. But then, she doesn't know that because Cohen thinks it's beneath his dignity to talk to her about his situation.
P 26
Because he blames biodynamics, and Alison especially, for being born. I wonder if there's even more resentment going on here than the normal everyday "you killed my husband and got away with it" grudge, or if he turned against all the "aberrations" just because of her.
P 27
I mean, here he also dismisses all young people and their "trademark vanity." Oh please bring on the supervillain fight already.
P 28
Everyone else thinking: "Should I move away from the area as fast as I can, look more to put solid buildings between myself and the fight for cover, and/or slow down to alert/help other people on the way?"
Alison thinking: "Should I take my clothes off so they don't get ruined? Okay I can at least lose the shoes."
Sure, maybe the shoes have such terrible grip they'd be a hindrance, it could be strategic thinking. But let me keep my funny headcanon.
Remember when twitter was useful for immediate alerts about giant emergencies? Today I imagine the Guardians would have a messaging function on their website to inform them about this kind of thing. Probably need a full time staff to sift through the information, maybe with some algorithmic aid for when hundreds of messages come in at the same time from the same area so they can quickly see it's serious business.
You know, I'm starting to think Hector and the rest of the team aren't on the same page about their mission these days. Even if Those Two are correctly assessing they don't have a lot to contribute in this fight. (Wait, Cleaver could very likely be susceptible to Sonar's power of yelling.)
P 30
You sure picked a day to put on your "Innocent bystander" t-shirt, random citizen! They'll probably be laughing about that later. In like ten years.
I wonder what "I'm a fucking superhero" Furnace is doing right now.
And I wonder what tone Alison is taking exactly. Everything she's doing looks very practiced. Folding up shirt sleeves, making fists, maintaining eye contact: It could be taken for intimidation, but to someone this big and stupid it probably comes across more like fearlessness, just telling him that he's not intimidating her. She might be striking a perfect balance of being willing to hear him out while also ready to kick his ass; not listening to him because she's afraid to do anything else but because so far there's no reason not to be polite.
That would be difficult to pull off perfectly, but she's had a lot of practice.
So, I'm reading her line in a very neutral tone. Not too unconcerned, that'd be fakey, but just politely engaging. Alison answers Daniel's direct question and doesn't give him anything else. Taking him in good faith because she can afford to. The longer they can talk and avoid throwing ha *cough* fighting the better
P 31
Character is the puns you make when nobody's around to hear you talk to yourself. "Big guns," hue hue.
Maybe Hector's anomaly is making real life more like comic books. In which he can have an airplane the size of a fruit fly to fly out of another airplane that's flying itself with a natural voice recognition-AI that thinks its Alfred Pennyworth.
P 32
Oh boy. We've got one biodynamic cop, one guy who wishes he was biodynamic thinking this is the appropriate time to leap onto police cars, one guy clearly too old to be biodynamic wielding some science fictional healing staff, one guy who seems to be a D&D bard trying to keep the crowd calm with his song, and that's just the worldbuilding going on in one panel.
And yet all the action is immediately overshadowed by John the fire chief worrying about his invincible recruit. And then she has to suddenly face her mortality. I'm just describing what's happening on the page but I love it.
P 33
Yeah the keep him talking plan didn't have a lot going for it long term.
Here, it's Alison finding the leverage to push Daniel with that little tackle I have to write off as artistic license. The United States government would spare no resources to hurry the development of unbreakable shorts for the four meters tall teenage boy, that part is actually super believable.
P 34
That guy just threw a car with his foot.
Yeah that's all I've got.
P 35
Even though we have established Daniel's TV watching privileges have been harshly constrained, I'm assuming he's riffing on Scrubs here. You know, the part when JD gets appendicitis and Turk does a whole song and dance called "I get to cut you open." That's much less distressing than imagining he says that just to be literal.
I mean, he doesn't seem to care a lot about what he's saying to begin with. Leaving himself wide open to "I just said I don't want to fight you" repartee.
P 36
Speaking of witty banter, Hector you goofball. I take it as a positive Alison is annoyed, in panel 1 she looks more discombobulated. Probably knowing Hector indeed has her back is a comfort at this point when she's suddenly having to think about not getting stabbed
They say Alison was always a bad team player, but I suspect she does have a lot of respect for Hector's resourcefulness. Held back by being annoyed with him as only family can annoy you, obviously.
P 37
See, teamwork!
You know, this development where Daniel might be able to hurt Alison is a complete paradigm shift. I like that Hector's impulse is to protect her. And I like that they both stop freaking out and get on with it immediately even more.
P 38
He had to go "quit playing" just when she went and picked up a toy. We know what's coming next. . .
P 39
Admittedly, I did not remember or expect another full page of anticipation here. . .
Tag!
P 41
The medical terms for the characters' various anomalies the alt text here mentions followed by "Pintsize can shrink real small" cracks me up, but maybe his power is just so weird the doctors haven't classified it. I mean, he can keep thinking and talking with a brain the size of a fat virus, I don't think anything related to biology can explain that, even if it's some special organs that allow him to do it. He could be bending space around him, manipulate physical dimension itself. So weird if you start thinking about it.
P 42
Nothing much going on here, just some super violence. And Alison turning off comms.
P 43
He doesn't hear a lot of this but she really just wanted to say it I think.
And really, walking into the sea while in deep shock? Did you have to remind me of I May Destroy You, comic? No that's fine, I'm not crying.
P44
She hasn't figured out she's wounded yet but she's figuring out a whole other thing. . .
P 45
It occurs to me this could just be how Alison imagines it happened
P 46
Yep, she's inferring from the obituary, memory and epiphany, apparently. "It probably happened. Yes, while they were on the phone. What, twisting the knife? No no it's just a reasonable assumption."
She's never going to pick those shoes back up is she.
P 47
Okay this is just a great concussion/shock/guilt montage.
Fine now I am crying.
I wonder why Hector is crying though. He missed out on all the intense stuff. Maybe he was that scared of Alison getting hurt. But I'd like to think he just knows her enough to sympathize with how much it hurts her to not be able to fix the things she's broken.
P 49
Hang on, where did those glasses come from? Okay, let's see, he can shrink his clothes and stuff, maybe he keeps a separately shrunken backup pair on him. (Procedure: Shrink, remove glasses, grow, pick up glasses with some micro-pincers, carry on and don't worry too much about what happens when they double-shrink.)
A variety of neatly presented exposition here, once again.
P 50
A nice heart warming ending. Except for the lies.
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