Star Power IV: Boldly Bolding Where No Man Has Bolded Before!

[lord_khaine]

Alright.. does panel 2 on this comic reminds anyone else of the Joker?

Am i the only one who likes the previous story about the desert guys better?

[TheEmerged]

"I'm sorry, Star Power, but that information appears to have been blocked by my Necessary Exposition filter. Please commence with the Necessary Exposition when convenient for our release schedule..."

[Zaq]

Alright.. does panel 2 on this comic reminds anyone else of the Joker?

It's a scary face, that's for sure.

Anyway, so Danica's just back up to full power now? No worries about that solar flare thing being a temporary recharge? No problems with her powers fluctuating out of control? Everything's just hunky-dory forever?

I find it a little interesting that Danica is wearing civilian clothes. Has she just stopped being a research assistant on SSSSSSS? I mean, I understand that a superhero's civilian life generally takes a very definite back seat to their superhero life, at least as far as screen time goes, but it's a little weird to not have it be mentioned at all. The fact that Danica's objections to packing up and leaving for a distant star system aren't based on, you know, having responsibilities at home makes it seem like we're basically just ignoring that now.

(Also, a superhero's civilian life generally takes that back seat because the superhero feels the need to use their powers to do good and thwart evil, but there isn't really any evil for Danica to thwart here. SSSSSSSSS isn't a big city full of muggers and criminals, so it takes an external threat to give her an enemy, and there's no external threat at this time. So it doesn't seem like Danica has a lot of call to totally abandon her normal life and devote herself to superheroing.)

I mean, yeah, it's Mookie, and he never thinks anything through, but to just skip over that entirely seems weird. Maybe we'll get an offhand remark about it later. We'll see.

[Neoriceisgood]

I can't wait to see space Celesto!

[Lord Raziere]

yeah, if Mookie has screwed up, its because he hasn't been unrealistic enough.

in a superhero story, you need to have criminals inexplicably around every corner causing trouble for one reason or another. if you make them as rare as they are in real life, your super has nothing to do. They get up in the morning? there is a bank robber. they go to work? there is a car chase in progress. they go grocery shopping? there is a guy with a gun try to rob the cashier. doesn't matter if that wouldn't actually happen, we came to see a superhero and we want to see superheroin'.

[Traab]

Meh, thats why most heroes work in big cities like new york, or crime riddled cesspools like new york gotham. A city that big is always going to have some sort of crime or "save me superman!!" type scenario going on. In new york city alone there were almost enough murders for there to be one every day last year. That doesnt count assaults, robberies, rapes, or anything else. And all that carnage is without so much as a single super villain.

[Kornaki]

I.... I'm not sure, I guess that seemed like a useless piece of trivia at the time.

We need a Mitch smiley.

Anyway, the reason Danica hasn't returned to civilian life is because why would she? She was a lab assistant with no family in the station, what responsibilities does she actually have. If there was a movie in which a worker at Burger King inherited 100 million dollars and then they skipped to a montage of the guy blowing it on hookers and jet skis, you would be the person going "but who's going to cover his shift??"

Getting back on track, I suspect this memory slip up portends further Mitch malfunctions that will eventually be traced back to him being damaged during the solar flare arc.

[random11]

Just a guess: During the recharge, Mitch2 erased memories from Mitch because he considered them to be wrong.

Anyway, I don't have a problem with Danica just leaving everything.
The only thing she loved was her job, and now instead of observing stars through a telescope she can actually fly there and back whenever she wants to.

I would prefer some conflicts, but going for the "monster of the week" approach can also work.
The only problem is that this comic doesn't seem to make up its mind on what direction to go to.
On one hand, we have reoccurring villains in a relatively small number of issues.
On the other hand, they seem to be completely different each issue and could have easily been replaced with a different character.

[Zaq]

Anyway, the reason Danica hasn't returned to civilian life is because why would she? She was a lab assistant with no family in the station, what responsibilities does she actually have. If there was a movie in which a worker at Burger King inherited 100 million dollars and then they skipped to a montage of the guy blowing it on hookers and jet skis, you would be the person going "but who's going to cover his shift??"

But Danica didn't inherit 100 million space-dollars. There's a difference between suddenly becoming independently wealthy and suddenly becoming super-powered. Someone who suddenly becomes independently wealthy is highly likely to quit their menial job, but that's not necessarily the case for someone who suddenly becomes super-powered, depending on the circumstances. (Spider-Man still has to eat, you know?)

I mean, I'm not saying that it would necessarily be the best thing for us to spend a ton of screen time on Danica's menial lab duties. What I'm saying is that there should either be some minor acknowledgement that those duties still exist (I'm totally okay with this plot arc taking place during her time off or something—and of course there's always the trope of an emergency forcing a superhero to suddenly abandon their mundane duties for a time, but that's not what's happening here), or else some minor acknowledgement that Da Cheef / the Drs. Brightman / TPTB have freed up her schedule so that she can investigate the Star Power and/or deal with (currently nonexistent) threats. Hell, I could see the Drs. Brightman specifically changing her research duties to "figure out what the hell this Star Power is and get us as much info about it as possible." That's totally in line with how things have been presented.

What I'm not okay with is just forgetting about it altogether. All I'm asking for is a throwaway line or two acknowledging that Danica's civilian life either does or does not still affect things. I'm totally okay with her leaving her lab duties and taking a different position on SSSSSSSSS. But this isn't the kind of superhero story where Danica should be fighting crime/thwarting evil 24/7, and I don't think it's good writing to simply ignore the fact that Danica hasn't always been super-powered (and therefore has something resembling a civilian life, no matter how much that's changed by the advent of her superpowers).

[halfeye]

But Danica didn't inherit 100 million space-dollars. There's a difference between suddenly becoming independently wealthy and suddenly becoming super-powered. Someone who suddenly becomes independently wealthy is highly likely to quit their menial job, but that's not necessarily the case for someone who suddenly becomes super-powered, depending on the circumstances. (Spider-Man still has to eat, you know?)

I mean, I'm not saying that it would necessarily be the best thing for us to spend a ton of screen time on Danica's menial lab duties. What I'm saying is that there should either be some minor acknowledgement that those duties still exist (I'm totally okay with this plot arc taking place during her time off or something—and of course there's always the trope of an emergency forcing a superhero to suddenly abandon their mundane duties for a time, but that's not what's happening here), or else some minor acknowledgement that Da Cheef / the Drs. Brightman / TPTB have freed up her schedule so that she can investigate the Star Power and/or deal with (currently nonexistent) threats. Hell, I could see the Drs. Brightman specifically changing her research duties to "figure out what the hell this Star Power is and get us as much info about it as possible." That's totally in line with how things have been presented.

What I'm not okay with is just forgetting about it altogether. All I'm asking for is a throwaway line or two acknowledging that Danica's civilian life either does or does not still affect things. I'm totally okay with her leaving her lab duties and taking a different position on SSSSSSSSS. But this isn't the kind of superhero story where Danica should be fighting crime/thwarting evil 24/7, and I don't think it's good writing to simply ignore the fact that Danica hasn't always been super-powered (and therefore has something resembling a civilian life, no matter how much that's changed by the advent of her superpowers).

Her civilian identity isn't secret though. So her superpowers are on her CV. Which radically changes her job prospects. I don't know what jobs would be suitable for someone with her powers.

[Kornaki]

For whatever it's worth it was mentioned in the previous issue
http://www.starpowercomic.com/better-than-expected/

[Zaq]

New update.

Nothing new here, really. I guess I can kind of understand the desire to have a recap after nearly a month of no updates, but after nearly a month of no updates, a strip that doesn't move the plot forward doesn't necessarily seem like the greatest idea for generating interest.

[guttering flame]

New update.

Nothing new here, really. I guess I can kind of understand the desire to have a recap after nearly a month of no updates, but after nearly a month of no updates, a strip that doesn't move the plot forward doesn't necessarily seem like the greatest idea for generating interest.

The art was pretty good for Star Power.

[random11]

New update.

Nothing new here, really. I guess I can kind of understand the desire to have a recap after nearly a month of no updates, but after nearly a month of no updates, a strip that doesn't move the plot forward doesn't necessarily seem like the greatest idea for generating interest.

I'm not sure if it's a recap, or if it's a character pointing out that the timing was too coincidental and something doesn't sound right here.

[guttering flame]

Actually it kind of makes sense that her distress call would only be heard when she was 'turbo-charged'. Her signal was probably much stronger then. Forgetting information about the target is suspicious though.

[random11]

Update

Could have been slightly amusing if her face wasn't so scary.

And while Danica can just leave whenever she wants, I doubt Dr. Brightman is in the same position.
Danica isn't in charge of anyone, she is technically on vacation, her boss knows where and why she is going, and she doesn't need to use a ship to get to her destination.

[guttering flame]

'Dynasty worlds' sounds like a fancy place with royalty, posh porcelain sets, and quality room service.

[Neoriceisgood]

That face is gonna give me nightmares ...

[Wayson]

That face is gonna give me nightmares ...

Garth seems to have a thing about terrifying faces. Like the second-to-last panel showing Danica's terrifying amount of teeth in this update.

Seriously if she opened her mouth all the way she could probably eat a small child in a single bite.

[Traab]

Dang it you two, STOP MAKING SMILING PEOPLE TERRIFYING!

[Welf]

Alright.. does panel 2 on this comic reminds anyone else of the Joker?

Am i the only one who likes the previous story about the desert guys better?

Update

Could have been slightly amusing if her face wasn't so scary.

And while Danica can just leave whenever she wants, I doubt Dr. Brightman is in the same position.
Danica isn't in charge of anyone, she is technically on vacation, her boss knows where and why she is going, and she doesn't need to use a ship to get to her destination.

I sense a theme here. Two pages, two serial killer smiles? Maybe the next comic will be an Indiana Jones/Slasher movie mix.

[MReav]

Geecz, why does everyone want to kill Batman?

[Cen]

Spoiler: just a little thing I made

Show

pic upload

[Oracle_Hunter]

Spoiler: just a little thing I made

Show

pic upload

What did you change?

Spoiler

Show

[Traab]

Too be honest, im kinda liking this startup. Why? Because it shows them actually going through proper procedure instead of just a unilateral take off and do what you want. Also, its helping to build up this new area. We now know there are ruins of some empire there. We also know there are plenty of mysteries since they even make schlocky films about what happened to them, and the entire area is heavily regulated meaning its important to the higher ups of the federation that the area be preserved. There are all sorts of potential reasons for that, and yeah its kinda obvious that there will be a link to the star power and the destruction of this empire somehow. I wonder if we will find a person, or maybe a corrupted mitch ai active? Like, the star powered it was connected to died, but for some reason he didnt shut down and has gone crazy.

[halfeye]

Too be honest, im kinda liking this startup. Why? Because it shows them actually going through proper procedure instead of just a unilateral take off and do what you want. Also, its helping to build up this new area. We now know there are ruins of some empire there. We also know there are plenty of mysteries since they even make schlocky films about what happened to them, and the entire area is heavily regulated meaning its important to the higher ups of the federation that the area be preserved. There are all sorts of potential reasons for that, and yeah its kinda obvious that there will be a link to the star power and the destruction of this empire somehow. I wonder if we will find a person, or maybe a corrupted mitch ai active? Like, the star powered it was connected to died, but for some reason he didnt shut down and has gone crazy.

Maybe, but zombies and ghosts ain't science fiction, at least, not usually.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Maybe, but zombies and ghosts ain't science fiction, at least, not usually.

Aren't sci fi zombies MORE common than magic ones nowadays?

[Zaq]

I wonder how the traveling to this system is actually going to work. Since we're bringing along people who aren't SPS, the special SPS FTL traveling power isn't going to be useful. It's implied that this is an exotic location that's more full of ruins than of active civilizations, so it seems unlikely to me that the "jump gate" network will get them there with no fuss (if nothing else, it's likely to be expensive, no?).

I'm not saying that there's no way that Mookie could solve this issue, so I'm not going to count this as a writing fail just yet, but I do hope that he actually addresses the fact that the logistics of Danica going to this place are very different than the logistics of Danica and all her friends going to this place. If nothing else, where are they getting the ship they'll need? Only Danica can breathe in space, after all, and this doesn't appear to be a specific mission ordered by the SSSSSSSS higher-ups, so that ship's gotta come from somewhere. It doesn't seem to fit with what we've seen so far to have the various SSSSSSSSSSSS inhabitants have their own personal ships appropriate for this kind of journey, don't you think?

Like I said, there's still ways to address these issues. I just hope that he does address them. It's not impossible, but I'm less than hopeful.

[Traab]

Im taking it more as it being a government protected area. So you need to get permission to go there. Not that it will be somehow super expensive to do so. They will likely need official permission, be contacted on the other side of the jump gate by patrol craft keeping an eye on things, that sort of thing.

[Nerd-o-rama]

And given that SSSSSSSSSSSS is among other things scientific research/repository station, it shouldn't be hard to fudge a requisition for a ship for purposes either archaeological or Star Powerogical (since they are, officially, supposed to be studying the Star Power).