Strong Female Protagonist II

[endur]

Today's comic includes incredible artwork and minimalistic verbiage.

I think its the beginning of a realization for Alison as to what she needs to do.

[The Troubadour]

A Social Justice League!
(Sorry, too tempting to pass up. :-P)
Should provide an interesting storyline. Truth be told, I was beginning to feel Allison was a bit too aimless as a character.

[Lethologica]

Getting Patrick and Lisa to work together will be something of a challenge.

[Kantaki]

Getting Patrick and Lisa to work together will be something of a challenge.

That might be understating the situation a little bit. I wonder how Alison wants to sell them that idea,

More importantly what is her idea? Sure, she wants to get everyone to team up, but then what? What can they do as a group? And since when is "superhero" a verb?

So many questions...
Well, whatever happens it should be entertaining.

[Lethologica]

Hm.
(1) Why only supers?
(2) What vetting?
(3) Any vetting for the clients?
(4) Men too?

[Kantaki]

Hm.
(1) Why only supers?
(2) What vetting?
(3) Any vetting for the clients?
(4) Men too?

(1) Because Alison looks for a way for superheroes to safe the world without superheroing. And I think „Sierra Steel” seems to be a normal.

(2) To make sure they don't hire Furnaces I think.

(3) I doubt they are going to act without checking the facts.

(4) Well, Alison talks about „people” who need their help so lets hope so. If someone needs the help of Al’s new group they need their help.

I wonder how long it will take for something to go wrong with this plan.

[Lethologica]

NB: My (2) was wondering what the vetting process would be, not why a vetting process would exist at all.

[Kantaki]

NB: My (2) was wondering what the vetting process would be, not why a vetting process would exist at all.

I think that would involve checking the records (is that the right word?) of the people Al’s team hires. If they have a history of violent (maybe not so much with supers) and abusive behaviour and/or a worldview that doesn't fit the operation they can go home.
Both Furnace and Moonshadow are examples of people Alison shouldn't employ.

[Sapphire Guard]

While there's still time to refine it, I would like this better if a) male supers were allowed into the club, and b) were allowed avail of the service. But maybe that's what the 'Wait...' is for.

[Officer Joy]

Yes I do believe and hope that's what the "wait" is for.
Making a service like this only availible for women seems wrong somehow. Even if they will be the ones that use it most.

[Dodom]

I imagine the "wait..." being about the consequences of supers attempting to take over for something the police is expected to do. Either their meddling into public security is condemned and/or fought, or society accepts that it's now superheroes' job to take care of this and what little resources there were dwindle further.

[Lizard Lord]

While there's still time to refine it, I would like this better if a) male supers were allowed into the club, and b) were allowed avail of the service. But maybe that's what the 'Wait...' is for.

I'm hoping that's not what the wait was for and just something that is implied rather than an after thought.

[Kantaki]

New comic.

Well, that explains the "Wait". Alison doubts herself and her plan. Fortunately Lisa is there to keep her on track. It is a good thing that Alison with her single stroke mentality is discussing this with someone else. I'm not sure she would try this otherwise.

[Nettlekid]

Does this strike anyone else as kind of...anticlimactic? They're talking about putting together a superhero-fueled women's relief center. Which is certainly a noble idea, but doesn't it seem like too little? It kind of calls back to some of Patrick's remarks about how it's easy to want to kill Hitler, but not easy to want to undo slavery. They'd be using their superhero abilities to take care of injured people, but isn't that less effective than stopping those people from being injured in the first place? Of course the solution to that is pretty difficult (it would be more complex than the "kill anyone who might harm a woman" approach that Moonshadow has) and would involve a huge upheaval of social trends, but that's the kind of work that genius superheroes should be concerning themselves with. Changing the world, not sweeping up after it.

[Kantaki]

It is better than what Alison did so far. Sitting around and waiting for the perfect single stroke solution accomplishes nothing.
Helping others might only make a small impact, but it is still a impact and it is a first step to change the world.
More importantly, it inspires others to do something similar. Unlike Feral, who helps, but doesn't inpire others to imitate her, or Mary, who doesn't really make anything better and hopefully doesn't inspire others to imitate her*, or Pintsize, who is playing Superman, or Lisa and Patrick for that matter, this can make a difference. I think Sonar is the only one who does something similar. Most others are trying to superhero the world better in single-player-mode.

Alison alone can't fix the world, not with this not with something bigger. But if she can get others to make small steps in the right direction? That will change the world.

Sure, it is less impressive than the usual superheroing, but the potential effect is far greater.

*Okay, I'm willing to admit that she got Alison to stop sitting around

[Nettlekid]

I'm talking about the scope of the webcomic. I feel like this isn't a particularly interesting or compelling direction to take the story. I'm sure they'll run into challenges along the way, but the drama of coming out on top of those obstacles is somewhat lessened if the end goal is...well, a relief center.

[Kantaki]

What I said still fits.
A small goal is better than no goal. I will take „Mega Girl and friends manage a relief center” over „Alison sits on her butt and does nothing while trying to find the perfect, single stroke solution and occasionally reacts to random stuff from her past” any time.

[Lethologica]

Alison's speech in this comic feels like a FAQ instead of a character.

Re: scope discussion, I agree this isn't exactly the Big Fix implied by previous pages' buildup, but that's on the buildup more than the fix, which is a genuinely good idea that will have a genuine impact on a common problem if executed well.

[Frozen_Feet]

Big part of the preceding discussion was that there isn't a big fix. This may be small, but as noted it's doing something instead of nothing.

I also feel "why has no-one done this before" to be foreshadowing for inevitable entanglement with the conspiracy.

[Guancyto]

I also feel "why has no-one done this before" to be foreshadowing for inevitable entanglement with the conspiracy.

Two economists are walking down the street. One of them spots and points out a $20 bill on the sidewalk. "It's not a real $20 bill," the other economist says, "if it were a real $20 bill, someone would have picked it up already."

[Traab]

Big part of the preceding discussion was that there isn't a big fix. This may be small, but as noted it's doing something instead of nothing.

I also feel "why has no-one done this before" to be foreshadowing for inevitable entanglement with the conspiracy.

This, she is finally realizing that there is no perfect solution, but that there are plenty of steps you can take to help change things bit by bit. Noone will ever be able to wave a magic wand and say, "Poof pow blam! The world is utopia!" All you can do is find a worthy cause, and try to treat the root of the problem, instead of just the symptoms as best you can. Ugh, I just did a massive archive binge of the entire comic. Its a hell of a lot more weighty and moral debating than I was expecting. Its an interesting story though.

[Lethologica]

Big part of the preceding discussion was that there isn't a big fix. This may be small, but as noted it's doing something instead of nothing.

I mean, yeah, but reread the page and a half of Alison being all revelatory with the Social Justice League imitating famous art in the background and so on. I certainly got the sense of "Maybe none of our solutions work alone, but together we can Do The Big Thing!" Which is why I said the buildup is the issue more than the solution itself. (Worth it for that image, though.)

[Tyrrell]

Looking over the last issue I see that Patrick claimed to have had all of the protesters at Feral's clinic rounded up and shot. Do we believe him? That's a lot less defensible than moonshadow's murder spree, especially since he made it clear that he could convince darn near anyone to do as he wanted because he could perceive their minds.

[Lethologica]

Looking over the last issue I see that Patrick claimed to have had all of the protesters at Feral's clinic rounded up and shot. Do we believe him? That's a lot less defensible than moonshadow's murder spree, especially since he made it clear that he could convince darn near anyone to do as he wanted because he could perceive their minds.

Patrick claimed to have "the men who organized the attack on Feral" killed. Not the same thing. But he was claiming that Mary's killings were insignificant, so I imagine he'd agree with you about the 'defensible' part.

[Kantaki]

New comic.

Look like we are dealing with Alison's job as a firefighter now. That could be interesting.

[Lethologica]

I, too, have read Moby Dik.

(I haven't read Moby Dik.)

[LadyEowyn]

It's good and quite worth reading, if you skim over the long sections discussing whaling in far too much depth (including a stubbon insistence that whales are fish). There's a reason why the sections focusing on the characters have become so highly quoted.

[Lethologica]

Yeah, it's definitely something I should read. I'm just obliquely interrogating the claim that most poets and storytellers gloss over the difficult journey to achievement.

[Kantaki]

New comic.

Now this is really cute.

Silly Alison, forgetting that most people don't know how to get down from random roofs.

[The Glyphstone]

So, current over/under odds on this new crush turning out to be the villain of this arc?