Star Power 7: Bad Luck for the Starstruck!

[faustin]

BTW, they are in the middle of the street, while the shops nearby have people, shouting about being sneaky while showing a huge 3D model of the city right there on the ground.

[Vinyadan]

I am kind of liking this neo-noir setting. It solves my perennial problem with Danica: she is just immensely powerful, and she is backed by the also immensely powerful federation, and so she's never been thrown a really dangerous challenge (except maybe that time when she was depleted and they had to fight Roarboar). Instead of going by power levels, this plot throws a real challenge to Danica by creating a situation that cannot be solved by strength alone and where calling in allies represents a danger.

[random11]

Update

Not sure what will happen, but both action and inaction are justified from a narrative perspective, as long as the story later considers the consequences.
So I can honestly say that for the first time in the comic I'm actually curious about what choice Danica will make.


Still, I'm kind of an A-hole sometimes, so a little nitpick
Danica seems very angry about one hit on Burke's face.
Wait until she finds out that he was beaten up for several minutes according to Grex's plan for what was eventually a pointless distraction.
Not to mention that this was the reason Burke was taken as a slave, and that he was alone because Grex was... Busy at the time.
And remember, that was plan A!

[Oracle_Hunter]

I'm glad these Space Criminals take the time to obfuscate their crimes by referring to their slaves as "merchandise" but decide that the much larger conspiracy should be called what it is" "Live Trafficking Circle"

[Traab]

I'm glad these Space Criminals take the time to obfuscate their crimes by referring to their slaves as "merchandise" but decide that the much larger conspiracy should be called what it is" "Live Trafficking Circle"

Less obfuscation and more dehumanizing. Parrot smuggling could be considered "live trafficking" so by calling the slaves merchandise it lowers them to subhuman levels on par with selling trees and puppies. And about as likely to empathize with them as the trees.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Less obfuscation and more dehumanizing. Parrot smuggling could be considered "live trafficking" so by calling the slaves merchandise it lowers them to subhuman levels on par with selling trees and puppies. And about as likely to empathize with them as the trees.

I was more pointing out that the criminals named their criminal conspiracy "Live Trafficking Operation." There's a reason that people who want to keep something secret tend to give it an innocuous code name. For example, the Allies called it Operation Bodyguard instead of Operation Distract The Axis From Normandy

[Shogo]

Well, it'll be nice to see Burke's stupidity here have some consequences. Assuming the next comic isn't just Danica rushing in and blocking the shot.

[random11]

The good the bad and the maybe

I'll start with the good:

In reality, Burke was never in actual danger.
Danica can easily follow the ship they are in and catch it whenever she wants.
Even without her, the chief is aware of the situation, so it will be relatively easy to find a ship if you have the right people looking for it.
However, Burke is not aware of the details, he is also in a mental condition that justifies him to react rashly considering his past with slavery.
So his stupidity is a character flaw and not a writing flaw, which can be a good thing.

Danica is currently in a situation where she can choose to act or not act.
She will probably do something, and that too is justified by the situation and her state of mind.

Edit: using a random guy instead of Burke is also a positive choice.
If Burke was the target, Danica's choice would be obvious to the readers.
Now, at least on a theoretical level, it's harder to guess what will happen.
So far so good.

The bad:

Like I wrote in the DD thread, Mookie does not write stories, he writes a scene connected with rushed stuff to reach the next "cool scene".
So no matter how good it is, it won't fix the holes, stupid actions and coincidences that led to this point.

Still, I might call it a good partial story, but it all depends on...

The maybe:

Consequences.
Like mentioned before, a character can make mistakes but that has to be followed by some consequences for them instead of the universe rearranging himself to justify the action.

[random11]

Update

Not unexpected, but that's not a problem.

Let's wait and see how it unfolds.

[faustin]

The universe will conspire to make Danica's choice the most strategical one.

Or the Chef's men will arrive to arrest the beaten trafficking families and corrupt cops making the whole "incognito" thing pointless from the start.

[PraetorDragoon]

Please have consequences.

[Celestia]

I'm going to guess there will be consequences in name only so that it looks like she's being punished for her mistake, and Mookie can deflect claims that she's a Mary Sue, but then it will do nothing to actually impact or interfere with her, allowing him to just keep on writing his Mary Sue wish fulfillment.

[Celestia]

It's bad enough when the mooks with guns never actually shoot the protagonist in a king fu movie, but when your hero is literally bullet proof, anyways, it's just dumb.

Also, why is there a blue light coming from inside Burke's shirt?

[Kornaki]

Three out of four are thwacks? Where did the pows and the bams go?

The blue light has been part of his shirt for a while. I don't remember if it represents something.

[faustin]

Also, why is there a blue light coming from inside Burke's shirt?

Future Blue Lantern Burke confirmed. :)

[Vinyadan]

Look! Self-awareness!

[random11]

Update

I hope I'm wrong, but this looks like the beginning of "let's solve the problem despite taking the wrong action"
Either that or a feeble attempt to bribe that will go far south he's going to see penguins.

[Celestia]

Update

I hope I'm wrong, but this looks like the beginning of "let's solve the problem despite taking the wrong action"
Either that or a feeble attempt to bribe that will go far south he's going to see penguins.

I think that's the son who has already been shown to have reservations on this (it's so hard to tell; all these aliens look the same). In that case, I'd bet on the first possibility.

[Shogo]

Yeah. This looks to be a pretty blatant case of it not mattering that Danica potentially screwed everything up because the son of one of the crime bosses is going to flip and provide the needed evidence regardless.

Not a surprise. Mookie has always been someone who wants to have his cake and eat it, too.

[random11]

Update

Technically there is still a chance for consequences since they have only one instead of all the families, but the son looks too cooperative so I predict a sting operation with his help.

Also, getting REALLY tired of the "character says something and next panel shows the exact opposite" shtick.

[Traab]

At least it was foreshadowed somewhat early on with angry pants dad and his son arguing. I mean, it would have been so much worse if we just had random nearly identical purple alien jump up and go "Wait! I will help you!" And yeah, detecto lad is justifiably ticked. Though now im starting to wonder what his end game plan even was. I mean, he is certain basically everyone in power is either dirty or over ruled by the dirty ones, so even if he did manage to setup a sting, what then? Im guessing he planned to slaughter the ruling members of all the families at once. A bomb blast or something to decapitate the leadership and throw things into so much chaos it would actually be possible to roll up the families from there.

[random11]

At least it was foreshadowed somewhat early on with angry pants dad and his son arguing. I mean, it would have been so much worse if we just had random nearly identical purple alien jump up and go "Wait! I will help you!"

I agree it could have been worse but I wouldn't call a single sentence just a couple of pages ago "foreshadowing", especially when we are expected to believe the lad turned so quickly during stress from obedient son to basically a traitor to his own family without even knowing what Danica wants (obviously to protect the slaves, but what makes him think she will turn a blind eye toward the rest of the crimes?).
That's either a very clever and opportunistic lad, or very poor writing.

I mean, would it kill him to write at least a partial information gathering story? Something that forces Danica outside of her comfort zone for more than 10 seconds and at the same time make a more natural introduction of the villains and the families?
It makes me think who it is that needs to learn the lesson that not everything can be solved with brute force, Danica or Mookie.

And yeah, detecto lad is justifiably ticked. Though now im starting to wonder what his end game plan even was. I mean, he is certain basically everyone in power is either dirty or over ruled by the dirty ones, so even if he did manage to setup a sting, what then? Im guessing he planned to slaughter the ruling members of all the families at once. A bomb blast or something to decapitate the leadership and throw things into so much chaos it would actually be possible to roll up the families from there.

I think his basic plan was to just gather intel and evidence in this meeting, then use the Chief and his contacts to work behind the corrupted people and make the actual arrests.
Similar to the previous story I'm not sure how the chief has jurisdiction for this, but whatever, that's the least of our problems here.

[Traab]

I think its less that the chief has jurisdiction and more that this is a path for the evidence to take that isnt likely to hit people owned by the crime families so it wont vanish. The chief can pass the data on to someone else and bypass the dirty guys, or at least is more likely to do so. But im still thinking this guy is dangerously obsessed and a bomb would be a good way for him to take care of the bad guys since he is surrounded by corruption. Part of me is also expecting a similar punchline to when the chief and such were hiding danicas powers for fear of the federation experimenting on her or something. ".... How LONG have you been out here?" As the cops show up, promptly arrest everyone involved, and the judicial system grinds into high gear to put them all away.

[Vinyadan]

I'm expecting conflict between Grex and Detective.

[Vinyadan]

I'm OK with the current development. But am I the only one who got six rss notifications from SP today?

[random11]

Update

A bit predictable, but not good.

Just to be clear, they are going to have the meeting with the other families to stop the slavery.
But not only the rest is considered okay (protection, murder, prostitution, smuggling etc.), it's now going to be controlled by the only family that is left.

With any other author I would suspect these are the consequences for her actions, but I have a feeling this is going to be described as a good thing.



Also, I almost missed it, was this the LGBT thing we were promised earlier?

[Vinyadan]

I assume it is.

Personally, I find this thing about Lexie interesting. It adds a bit to the detective's motivations.

Also, admire the zhit! It's the second most used profanity in the galaxy, after zuck.


Thinking about it, however, if it was Danica who crashed the party, did the data transmitted by Chief to the unreliable chief of police of Planet Mafia become inconsequential?

[Celestia]

Also, I almost missed it, was this the LGBT thing we were promised earlier?

Wait, do you you think so? I assumed it was just a comment about under cover disguises. Man, I sure hope this isn't a real attempt at LGBT representation, because that would be insulting.

[Traab]

Wait, do you you think so? I assumed it was just a comment about under cover disguises. Man, I sure hope this isn't a real attempt at LGBT representation, because that would be insulting.

I dunno, I find it worse when its done in a ham handed way. Something like this shows that the detectives status, gender wise, is so unimportant to everyone around him, the most obvious reference to it is some crime boss trying to drop a snarky insult on him about it. Which suggests its considered so unimportant and casually accepted it might as well be his race, or the color of the sky. There is no big "Omg we are SOOOOO accepting of you" moment for everyone to declare their wokeness, or a speech about the evils of not accepting people for who they are, its just there and nobody cares because its not a big deal in any way shape or form. And its probably less about representing the lgbt community with a character (as I doubt this detective is going to stick around long term) and more establishing the near universal outlook on the whole spectrum which seems to be "Im gay/bi/trans" being on par with "I like waffles" for general reactions.

[Celestia]

I dunno, I find it worse when its done in a ham handed way. Something like this shows that the detectives status, gender wise, is so unimportant to everyone around him, the most obvious reference to it is some crime boss trying to drop a snarky insult on him about it. Which suggests its considered so unimportant and casually accepted it might as well be his race, or the color of the sky. There is no big "Omg we are SOOOOO accepting of you" moment for everyone to declare their wokeness, or a speech about the evils of not accepting people for who they are, its just there and nobody cares because its not a big deal in any way shape or form. And its probably less about representing the lgbt community with a character (as I doubt this detective is going to stick around long term) and more establishing the near universal outlook on the whole spectrum which seems to be "Im gay/bi/trans" being on par with "I like waffles" for general reactions.

I agree with you that such overreactions are, generally, intolerable. My problem with this is that the representation is so quiet, so subtle that it may as well not exist. Smith looks like a normal straight dude, acts like a normal straight dude, and is by all examination just a normal straight dude. Him not being such is merely an informed trait that we are told about but never see. This is roughly on par with JK Rowling simply telling us that Dumbledore is gay. It's trying to appease the LGBT crowd without putting in any actual effort to add in real representation. It's queer baiting.