Strong Female Protagonist (webcomic)

[LadyEowyn]

Sonar didn't say Moonshadow resented the lack of public visibility now that they weren't fighting supervillains. He said she got really mad at Pintsize and almost quit the team because of the idea that they start helping the Drug Enforcement Agency bust non-violent offenders.

It's possible she decided to start using her powers to deal with people who were guilty of a lot worse than using banned substances, and who weren't being dealt with by the justice system.

Either that or she'll be suspected as the culprit, but it will turn out to be someone else. But the line about her being the only one who can sneak up on Sonar definitely points to her being related in some way to the invisible-killer plot.

[Tectonic Robot]

In regards to the Allison debate going on earlier, I believe that she took more or less the right steps in dealing with the situation.

[Coidzor]

Sonar didn't say Moonshadow resented the lack of public visibility now that they weren't fighting supervillains. He said she got really mad at Pintsize and almost quit the team because of the idea that they start helping the Drug Enforcement Agency bust non-violent offenders.

It's possible she decided to start using her powers to deal with people who were guilty of a lot worse than using banned substances, and who weren't being dealt with by the justice system.

Either that or she'll be suspected as the culprit, but it will turn out to be someone else. But the line about her being the only one who can sneak up on Sonar definitely points to her being related in some way to the invisible-killer plot.

It would conceivably be pretty natural for someone to go Dexter after going from supervillains to real violent criminals better handled by SWAT teams and detective work and then sliding down to being asked to work as muscle dealing with petty, non-violent crime while the system is patently failing to deal with certain serious problems.

That does raise an interesting question though. If we are to believe that any biodynamic individual with powers that could actually change the world were eliminated early on in their lives, what kind of odds was Alison against that would constitute "Saving the world"? We know from her flashbacks that she usually only fought Patrick's robots and minions in New York but she bowed out of superheroing around the time people started asking her how she would handle international incidents and the escalating presence of biodynamics in foreign military's. Aside from the Chinese, biodynamics around the world seem to interact with the general population in a completely different way than Alison and her peers if Feral's chapter is accurate.

So how exactly has Alison saved the world if she has only dealt with criminals who are relatively small time in the greater context of the world? I think the answer to that might shed more light on her obsession with saving the actual world.

We already have the capability of killing off our species, so someone with incredible destructive potential wouldn't fundamentally change the world the way the elimination of disease, hunger, or scarcity of energy would.

You could also read in an unspoken "for the better" there as well, I suppose, though someone with Music Meister level mind-control abilities wouldn't really be an improvement, per se, and would be an existential threat in their own way different from the kid that's a living neutron bomb.

[The Troubadour]

In regards to the Allison debate going on earlier, I believe that she took more or less the right steps in dealing with the situation.

From the point of view of the audience, certainly. I mean, there was little to no ambiguity left for us that Miles was a scumbag; and preventing someone from being raped takes precedence over a large number of concerns.

But from the point of view of a character from inside the story? Alison has no mind-reading abilities, no "super detective" powers that would have allowed her to know with all certainty what was going to happen. Not only that, but the story has, at various points, addressed how she would actually LOVE to be able to deal with things in a violent manner (interestingly enough, usually when she interacted with Cleaver).
She's super strong, invulnerable and is a trained combatant, there were a variety of methods she could have employed to restrain Miles without exercising undue strength.

[LadyEowyn]

Looking more like theangelJean and I were on the right track.

So Moonshadow's powers are similar to those of Imp in the Worm web serial. She's not invisible, she just has an effect where people automatically don't notice her.

As a general rule that's really not a good power for a teenager to have, psychologically speaking. Poor Moonshadow.

[Morquard]

Yes, I came here to say that it looks like the poeple who said Moonshadow is the invisible killer seemed to be right.

All this isn't going to end well, is it?

[The Glyphstone]

Invisibility (in a Ignore Me I'm Not Here sense, like a WoD vampire's Obfuscate), skill in knife-range combat, and resentment/anger issues?

Ladies and gentlemen and non-binary identifiers, we have our vigilante.

[Coidzor]

Yes, I came here to say that it looks like the poeple who said Moonshadow is the invisible killer seemed to be right.

All this isn't going to end well, is it?

That seems to be a theme of this series. Nothing is going to end well until they escape the cycle set up by whoever introduced Supers and offed the ones who could make a positive change innately.

[AllenFromMars]

Sorry to bring up some old topics but:

1) Violet has always used Allison to further her own agenda. Ex: [HTML=http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-1/page-5/]Page 5[/HTML] where Violet, already at the front of the crowd, looking to start some trouble, uses Allison's presence to act as a shield to attack the police (throwing a drink at someone is battery or assault, iirc), and then escapes scott free because, well "look [MegaGirl is here]"

-Violet is the only chromo-stable friend Allison has, and she's using that to manipulate Allison. Her whole "I'm sorry, I'm not using you I was just caught up in an emotion" on page 12 is just so insincere and just reinforces for me that the power in the relationship goes one way: from Allison to Violet.

-This may be reading too much symbolism into the comic (but I think that like OOTS, the author is smart enough to do this intentionally), that during the rooftop party scene, Violet is wearing a mask (empowering her and making her feel in control: this is her party and everything is going to plan). When Violet is wearing the mask, we see her non-verbally to be very distressed at Allison's actions as she starts to lose control of the party. On page 20-3 she is shocked, on page 21-3 we see her with her hands in the air with her fingers curled, and in the next pane, her hands are down and she's grimacing/frowning. Followed by a stress reaction (hands on back of her neck). Only after Allison takes away this feeling of security/power does Violet take off the mask and revert to her insecure, "It's me against the world" 'tude again (personally I find her to be really fake and egocentric, but even if you think her beliefs are sincere, hear me out). Instead of being the solution to the world's problems, Violet is confronted with the fact that she is part of the problem, or at least turns a blind eye to the world's problems when faced with them.

-This idea can be extrapolated to every superhero/villian that wears a mask. When Patrick takes off his Menace hood, he's surrendering himself (whether sincerely or not is to be debated); he's taking away his power. When Allison takes off her mask she's admitting that she's not a powerful demigod: she's a teenager struggling to find her place in the world like all teenagers are. We all have a mask of confidence and competence that we wear to protect our own self image against the fact that the world is broken and I am practically powerless to stop it all by myself.

Whether or not Allison's actions are warranted, the bigger picture is that she is faced with societal problems everyday, and she just isn't equipped with an actual solution. You can't punch an idea: you can't punch/choke/restrain a man into the believing that he shouldn't rape someone. The reaction that she got was counter-productive to her intention: she caused resentment instead of creating an accord. She didn't cause the young man to think about the fact that he isn't treating his "date" as a human being, but rather as an outlet for his feelings of insecurity and dis-empowerment.

[Cikomyr]

Oh man, Allison. Of all the things you cpuld have said...

[AllenFromMars]

...this comic had 2 panels that really got to me on an emotional level. This newest one is one of them.

Spoiler

Show

Seeing Hector's start as a super and this current state is just so heartbreaking. It feels as if before Allison took off her mask, they were in a Superman comic, and then afterwards, fighting low-life crime, they were in Watchmen. Moonshadow's descent into darkness parallel's Rorschach's, in my opinion.

[The Troubadour]

Interesting that neither this comic nor the previous one had alt texts.

[Temotei]

Interesting that neither this comic nor the previous one had alt texts.

They're showing up on my side.

[The Troubadour]

They're showing up on my side.

Huh. Weird. I tried again, and yeah, they're showing up, just not as promptly as the others.
Thanks for letting me know. :-)

[Dragonus45]

Pintsize is definitely dropping a lot of truths in this one.

[Maryring]

You're saying that like Allison hasn't already been struggling with her own feeling of inability to do anything. Regardless of how factual it is that Allison doesn't have all solutions, or even any single one, Pintsize is still acting like an overly entitled selfish brat of epic proportions. Whining and moping on Allison's cellphone, and then doing things like blaming her for Feral (which is darkly funny considering Feral's probably already saved more lives than their entire super hero gang did during their stint), trying to devalue her compared to Sonar or Moonshadow, one who decided to cut off all contact suddenly, the other who is trying to figure out of problems he's never had to endure...

I'm unsure exactly what these past comics have been trying to tell, but the only thing I'm left with is that Pintsize is a pretty horrible person and Allison'd be far better of without him in her life.

[LadyEowyn]

I think that's overly harsh. Pintsize is going through an extremely rough time, with the kind of life he's always dreamed of collapsing around him, and he's reacting badly. He still does care about Allison, and he recognized that his comment about Feral was out of line and apologized for it.

But Allison's right that beating up bad guys isn't the answer to most of the world's problems, and Pintsize's "other stuff is haaard" attitude is definitely immature. (Being able to shrink and study things at the molecular or atomic level would be fascinating, I think!) He's proving Allison's point, in that being a superhero about him isn't just about what would do the most good - it's about being cool, and famous, and meeting the President; doing something with less glamour and notoriety doesn't appeal. And that's not what being a hero (as opposed to a "superhero") is about. Long story short, he needs to grow up.

Allison hasn't figured out an alternative, but she's trying, which is a step beyond not trying and just accepting the status quo.

It might help if she shared Patrick's evidence with Pintsize - that some group was killing off metahumans even before superheroes and supervillains became the norm, taking out all the people with the ability to comprehensively changed the world for the better. His ability to shrink would make Pintsize an effective spy - investigating that might be useful as well as providing the kind of excitement he wants.

[Avilan the Grey]

You're saying that like Allison hasn't already been struggling with her own feeling of inability to do anything. Regardless of how factual it is that Allison doesn't have all solutions, or even any single one, Pintsize is still acting like an overly entitled selfish brat of epic proportions. Whining and moping on Allison's cellphone, and then doing things like blaming her for Feral (which is darkly funny considering Feral's probably already saved more lives than their entire super hero gang did during their stint), trying to devalue her compared to Sonar or Moonshadow, one who decided to cut off all contact suddenly, the other who is trying to figure out of problems he's never had to endure...

I'm unsure exactly what these past comics have been trying to tell, but the only thing I'm left with is that Pintsize is a pretty horrible person and Allison'd be far better of without him in her life.

See, we have completely different takes on things. Allison is the character I like LEAST in the comic. Pintsize has not really done anything close to horrible, in my view.

[Cikomyr]

I think that's overly harsh. Pintsize is going through an extremely rough time, with the kind of life he's always dreamed of collapsing around him, and he's reacting badly. He still does care about Allison, and he recognized that his comment about Feral was out of line and apologized for it.

But Allison's right that beating up bad guys isn't the answer to most of the world's problems, and Pintsize's "other stuff is haaard" attitude is definitely immature. (Being able to shrink and study things at the molecular or atomic level would be fascinating, I think!) He's proving Allison's point, in that being a superhero about him isn't just about what would do the most good - it's about being cool, and famous, and meeting the President; doing something with less glamour and notoriety doesn't appeal. And that's not what being a hero (as opposed to a "superhero") is about. Long story short, he needs to grow up.

Allison hasn't figured out an alternative, but she's trying, which is a step beyond not trying and just accepting the status quo.

It might help if she shared Patrick's evidence with Pintsize - that some group was killing off metahumans even before superheroes and supervillains became the norm, taking out all the people with the ability to comprehensively changed the world for the better. His ability to shrink would make Pintsize an effective spy - investigating that might be useful as well as providing the kind of excitement he wants.

Science is certainly boring compared to Supercrime fighting. It's observation, explanation and speculation. The most exciting you get to do is either having a fantastic flash of genius that revolutionize the field's paradigm or find a way to prove theories.

Obviously, Pintsize's qualities would most likely be the latter. His abilities would basically turn him into a super-glorified Lab Assistant, trying to prove/study/verify other scientist's theories.

Pintsize has the choice between being the leader of a team of superheroes that are trying to save the world and becoming a specialist executer that will forever work to prove/disprove other men's ideas, based on other men's protocols.

[The Troubadour]

True. Pintsize is lashing out and he's being way too harsh on Alison, but where he's coming from is understandable.
I don't think we're supposed to be on anybody's side in this debate, actually. They're both people, with their own qualities and flaws, and sometimes the flaws take center stage.

[Dragonus45]

For me the main point is The Team really does still have value. The thing that worries me most is the idea that if a new generation of supers suddenly pops up or a whole new batch of "Tier One" evil comes out of no where there isn't a lot left to deal with it in a timely manner. Yea Alison had a lot of really good points in her speech but her flipping the table and going home feels like it came to early. There is no new alternative popping up.

[LadyEowyn]

Well, I suppose the last couple strips answer one question definitively.

...I kind of like her line about the police. It does seem that way, a lot of the time. But if the SFP world is going to use superheroes to fight crime, they would at least benefit from giving them training in de-escalation, investigation, and the rights of suspects, of the kind that police are supposed to get. She has got a point that there's not much of a line between superheroes killing gangsters without warrant or trial and doing the same to rapists - people with the kind of power the Guardians have should have the capability to bring people in non-lethally. But killing people after they've been brought to trial and acquitted is problematic in a completely different way from killing people in the process of trying to arrest them - it's a rejection of the entire justice system. Superpowered lynchings are not a good direction to be going in.

She's using the same tactic as the hardline war-on-crime types by classifying people as criminals in order to dehumanize them. "It's rapists, not boys."

[Lost Demiurge]

I have the strong, strong feeling that this mercenary team isn't going to walk out of that barn.

[The Glyphstone]

I have the strong, strong feeling that this mercenary team isn't going to walk out of that barn.

Especially with that comment about the family in Fallujah. I'm betting they've all got similar things on their record, stuff she considers war crimes or whatever, and hiring them to come out here was as much to isolate (and disarm) them to be killed as it was an exercise.

[Lost Demiurge]

Ahahahahahah! called it!

[Cikomyr]

Ahahahahahah! called it!

What the hell am i seeing?

[Lost Demiurge]

What the hell am i seeing?

In the comic, or with my post?

[The Glyphstone]

What the hell am i seeing?

1) Moonshadow hires shady merc team to 'practice' against in remote, deserted location.
2) Moonshadow easily defeats shady merc team armed with non-lethal ammunition/weapons.
3) Moonshadow gives cliched Villain Justification Speech to shady merc team.
4) Moonshadow betrays shady merc team by 'paying' them in live ammo instead of cash.
5) Moonshadow goes invisible again, trapping shady merc team in barn with a futile hope of defending themselves.
6) (on Tuesday) Moonshadow kills shady merc team for real.

[Dragonus45]

I would laugh if this all went wrong and the arc abruptly ended with the big arc villain dying when the building burns down. It would certainly be unexpected.

[Cikomyr]

1) Moonshadow hires shady merc team to 'practice' against in remote, deserted location.
2) Moonshadow easily defeats shady merc team armed with non-lethal ammunition/weapons.
3) Moonshadow gives cliched Villain Justification Speech to shady merc team.
4) Moonshadow betrays shady merc team by 'paying' them in live ammo instead of cash.
5) Moonshadow goes invisible again, trapping shady merc team in barn with a futile hope of defending themselves.
6) (on Tuesday) Moonshadow kills shady merc team for real.

What is asked is, why.is the ammo box's cover.. Err.. Blurry?