Star Power VI: Shooting Stars (VORP VORP VORP)

[Vinyadan]

a) They trained with Stormtroopers.
b) The P.I trained with Neo.
c) Pocket Protector trope: The P.I had a cellphone, locket, etc.. which stopped the only bullet directed to his heart (let's assume the specie's biology is human enough to have a heart near a breastbone).

d) the last panel references another location or a TV show.

[Spojaz]

"Dang. We payed all that money for holographic sights, but we still can't seem to hit anything."
"Maybe we're supposed to hold them up to our eyes?"
"No, just look at them! These guns have to be shot from the hip, you know - 'human-style'."

[Traab]

"Dang. We payed all that money for holographic sights, but we still can't seem to hit anything."
"Maybe we're supposed to hold them up to our eyes?"
"No, just look at them! These guns have to be shot from the hip, you know - 'human-style'."

Pfft, sights are for when you arent going full auto. Now, laser sniper tommy guns are awesome!

[Vinyadan]

Well, generally speaking, gangsters are not professionals. That's why criminals shoot gripping the gun sideways. They've seen it in the movies, they think it looks cool and right, so they replicate it.

[faustin]

Gangster 1: "(Pssss...How did we miss him?)."
Ganster 2: "(...He moved) Terribly sorry, sir."

[sihnfahl]

Pfft, sights are for when you arent going full auto. Now, laser sniper tommy guns are awesome!

Holographic sniper scope on a laser shotgun!

[PraetorDragoon]

I actually find the vorp tommy guns endearing.

[faustin]

So the crime families confined to five cities have still enough pull to sustain an intergalactic, live trafficking smuggle ring?

When something goes wrong, blame Axiosis.

[Kwatsu]

“They’re expert kidnappers. They fake crime scenes to make it appear their victims have been killed so no one comes looking for them.”

...Unless they’re leaving a cloned corpse behind, or using weapons that supposedly completely vaporize a victim, how does that work exactly? Faking your death is one thing, but if you don’t want someone to come looking, a crime scene is not the way to avoid attention.

May explain the nerf Tommy guns, though.

[PraetorDragoon]

“They’re expert kidnappers. They fake crime scenes to make it appear their victims have been killed so no one comes looking for them.”

...Unless they’re leaving a cloned corpse behind, or using weapons that supposedly completely vaporize a victim, how does that work exactly? Faking your death is one thing, but if you don’t want someone to come looking, a crime scene is not the way to avoid attention.

May explain the nerf Tommy guns, though.

Shoot them with paralyze/fake-death rays, then take them from the coroners room?

[Kato]

Sssshhhh, stop questioning the logic behind it. Instead admire the forward thinking terminology of 'life trafficking' because the obvious alternative would be specist (despite Hymn only buying humans but I guess the Craigslist entry offered other species, too) and they apparently also include animals and plants. And mushrooms? But not AI. Or other goods.
I'm sorry, life trafficking just sounds like a really poor attempt to be inclusive but failing.
And it sure is a good thing this connects to the last arc or Danica would have no reason to get involved.

[faustin]

"Sapient trafficking" would have been a bit more accurate.
Also why bother faking deaths and smuggling former citizens when you have the technology to manufacture as many slaves as you want via cloning and mental programming?

[Celestia]

I'm not sure why everyone seems to be honing in on the term. Sure, it's dumb, and people trafficking would be better, but it's not an egregious fault. No, the biggest problem with this page is that the exposition dump, itself, makes no sense.

First, you don't fake a worse crime (murder) to try hiding a lesser crime (kidnapping). That's just plain stupid, and any professional criminal should know that. All it does is draw additional attention to you.

Second, you don't try faking a murder when you don't have a body to provide. That would just make the investigators more suspicious, and if they become interested in solving the case, they'll work harder to do so.

Third, how the heck do the good guys even know any of this? There is no way for them to know this much without also knowing more. The only solid lead they have to go on is Hymn who would not know the specifics of how the crime families do their business. He's the end customer. All he knows is the guy he's buying from. And the cops don't even have any hard evidence to work with since Hymn melted all the slaves down to make his clones. Thus, the only way they could know about these fakes murders is by either direct investigation or a mole/snitch. In the former case, they'd necessarily have to discover other facts before they could reach this conclusion, and in the latter case, they'd have an information source that they'd be stupid not to exploit further. This is a classic case of trying to drop exposition for the audience without thinking about the consequences of doing so, a problem that Mookie has historically been terrible about.

And this is just the single worst problem with the page. Honestly, the whole thing is so bad that it could serve as an excellent example of what not to do in a writing class. This is the Mookie I know and love. Star Power has spent way too long wallowing in boring mediocrity. The Hymn arc was good, but I was afraid that it would be an exception. I'm glad to see I was wrong, and Mookie is still wearing his stupid helmet for this story, too.

[Traab]

Hmmmm, let me try to put this together in a rational way. Maybe cloning is just too expensive and/or risky for most to deal with. Yes cloning is a thing that exists. However, it apparently takes the materials of a human body to make a human body, so its not like you can just flip a switch and crank out a thousand clone slaves to make a profit in bulk over the initial expenses. On top of that, for all we know, getting the parts to build a flash cloning and brainwashing center is as carefully watched as people trying to get their hands on the machines and materials needed to build a nuke. So someone absurdly rich like the galactic superstar hymn could afford the price, and has the madness to take the risk of getting caught with his underworld connections, but normal syndicates dont find it worth the effort.

As for faking crimes, it DOES make sense to stage isolated murders when you are hiding intergalactic slaving rings. Maybe its possible to create a reasonable meat puppet version of someone who can pass visual inspection as the victim. You "kill" it in a very obvious way making it unneeded to do an in depth autopsy so no signs of a fake are spotted, then wander off with your collection of random people you kidnapped off the street to sell for a profit with nobody the wiser.

How does the federation have this info now? Because hymn dealt directly with these "live traffickers" he would be aware of at least the general outline of how it works, after all, "Im not doing business if I cant be assured of discretion." or whatever. After all, my earlier comment aside, we dont know how they fake the crime scenes, so its possible that hymn didnt either, just that they do. I dont think any of this info counts as something unreasonable to have learned from the interrogation of Hymn. Or at the very least to be the piece of the puzzle they needed to make the various connections, They knew burkes old captain was smuggling people for someone, but couldnt figure out who. Hymn gave them the names of the people he worked with, and those who got him in contact with the slavers. So now they have a lead on the source of the criminals, so the next step is capture these gangsters, get them to name names, and clean up the federations military.

[Welf]

I understood that the criminal investigators are involved. The families abduct people, create a reasonably deceptive crime scene for the families, and the local law enforcement turn this into an unsolved case, an accident or kill a fall guy if too many questions are asked. There's probably always some prostitute that fell from a window, a drug addict that overdosed, a mentally ill person that killed themselves, a backpacker that got eaten by a space mountain lion.

[random11]

What bothers me is that there is a much simpler solution.

There are already plenty of people that fell between the cracks due to the brainwashing by the crime families.
All of them are expendable, no one is actively looking for them, and even if they disappear the law will not look for them because it will never know they were missing.

In addition of solving all problems Celestia already mentioned, there is a story reason to use this method: It uses a detail already provided for us twice during the comic, and adds drama because it will show just how close Grex was to be just another slave.

[Celestia]

Hmmmm, let me try to put this together in a rational way. Maybe cloning is just too expensive and/or risky for most to deal with. Yes cloning is a thing that exists. However, it apparently takes the materials of a human body to make a human body, so its not like you can just flip a switch and crank out a thousand clone slaves to make a profit in bulk over the initial expenses. On top of that, for all we know, getting the parts to build a flash cloning and brainwashing center is as carefully watched as people trying to get their hands on the machines and materials needed to build a nuke. So someone absurdly rich like the galactic superstar hymn could afford the price, and has the madness to take the risk of getting caught with his underworld connections, but normal syndicates dont find it worth the effort.

I agree completely. Just because a technology exists, that doesn't mean it's commonplace. There are numerous technologies in our own world that are exclusive to the rich.

As for faking crimes, it DOES make sense to stage isolated murders when you are hiding intergalactic slaving rings.

Still nope. You hide your kidnappings as disappearances. People care about murders. People care even more about serial murders. Pretending to be a serial murderer is a great way to draw a lot of attention to your operation. That's why you, instead, kidnap the homeless, the runaways, and the degenerate, people nobody will miss, and then you just leave it at that with no fair crimes. Giving the cops more evidence is always a bad idea.

Maybe its possible to create a reasonable meat puppet version of someone who can pass visual inspection as the victim. You "kill" it in a very obvious way making it unneeded to do an in depth autopsy so no signs of a fake are spotted, then wander off with your collection of random people you kidnapped off the street to sell for a profit with nobody the wiser.

That's absurd. Even with our level of technology it's relatively easy to tell the difference between different types of meat. Trying to make a fake body out of pig guts doesn't work today, and it definitely won't work in the distant future when the cops probably walk around with DNA sequencers in their pockets. Also, all murder victims are autopsied regardless of how obvious the cause of death may appear to be. That's standard procedure.

How does the federation have this info now? Because hymn dealt directly with these "live traffickers" he would be aware of at least the general outline of how it works, after all, "Im not doing business if I cant be assured of discretion." or whatever. After all, my earlier comment aside, we dont know how they fake the crime scenes, so its possible that hymn didnt either, just that they do. I dont think any of this info counts as something unreasonable to have learned from the interrogation of Hymn. Or at the very least to be the piece of the puzzle they needed to make the various connections, They knew burkes old captain was smuggling people for someone, but couldnt figure out who. Hymn gave them the names of the people he worked with, and those who got him in contact with the slavers. So now they have a lead on the source of the criminals, so the next step is capture these gangsters, get them to name names, and clean up the federations military.

Intelligent criminals do not divulge unnecessary information, especially not to customers who are not under the mafia's direct control. That's how the cops get the evidence needed to dismantle the organization.

What bothers me is that there is a much simpler solution.

There are already plenty of people that fell between the cracks due to the brainwashing by the crime families.
All of them are expendable, no one is actively looking for them, and even if they disappear the law will not look for them because it will never know they were missing.

In addition of solving all problems Celestia already mentioned, there is a story reason to use this method: It uses a detail already provided for us twice during the comic, and adds drama because it will show just how close Grex was to be just another slave.

That would have certainly made a much better story. It's always a great idea to find ways to make the plot personal to the characters.

[Traab]

By meat puppet I meant a soulless husk that looks like the victim. As for grabbing the homeless they probably do that too but I wouldnt be surprised if most homeless types werent suitable as slaves since they wouldnt be in good enough condition to get much work out of them. As examples they could be crazy, strung out on drugs, crippled in some way. While being down on your luck is of course a common reason to be homeless, there are many other reasons that would make enslaving you unprofitable.

[faustin]

Did you noticed even the energy blasts of their weapons are code colored by alignment, like lightsabers?

[Onyavar]

By meat puppet I meant a soulless husk that looks like the victim.

Like, say, a flash clone?

I don't exactly remember: How did Hymn use his "life traffic"? Did he clone/experiment on them (with the Kerina as one result) and then stopped buying "life traffic" in order to concentrate on flash cloning? Or did he continue to buy people and feed them into a grinder for raw materials?

If he did the latter, then "meat puppets" aka flash clones are not an option to fake deaths, and the plot is nonsense. If it's the former (and the flash clones can be built from any organic matter), then it also explains from whom Hymn got the tech for his procedure. After all, he is primarily a mad musician, not a mad bio tech engineer.

[Celestia]

Like, say, a flash clone?

I don't exactly remember: How did Hymn use his "life traffic"? Did he clone/experiment on them (with the Kerina as one result) and then stopped buying "life traffic" in order to concentrate on flash cloning? Or did he continue to buy people and feed them into a grinder for raw materials?

If he did the latter, then "meat puppets" aka flash clones are not an option to fake deaths, and the plot is nonsense. If it's the former (and the flash clones can be built from any organic matter), then it also explains from whom Hymn got the tech for his procedure. After all, he is primarily a mad musician, not a mad bio tech engineer.

It's neither, actually. Flash clones require people materials to make, but Hymn recycled his clones to make new ones. Though, I'm assuming that he had to still have some slaves coming in as I'm sure the recycling process is not perfect and results in a net loss of usable organic material over time.

[halfeye]

It's neither, actually. Flash clones require people materials to make, but Hymn recycled his clones to make new ones. Though, I'm assuming that he had to still have some slaves coming in as I'm sure the recycling process is not perfect and results in a net loss of usable organic material over time.

He recycled them via incineration. That's totally what you do when you need human parts, incineration keeps the human bits intact and doesn't burn them to ashes that could just as easily come from plants at all.

[Celestia]

He recycled them via incineration. That's totally what you do when you need human parts, incineration keeps the human bits intact and doesn't burn them to ashes that could just as easily come from plants at all.

Possibly, but until the process is further explained, I'm going to assume that's just Mookie being dumb.

[Honest Tiefling]

Intelligent criminals do not divulge unnecessary information, especially not to customers who are not under the mafia's direct control. That's how the cops get the evidence needed to dismantle the organization.

Hymn is also the moron who divulged his entire operation to a woman who...Really didn't put in that much effort to seduce him. Now, I'm not putting down Doctor Brightman by saying she couldn't, but it didn't seem like the man needed much convincing, either. Just take off dress and BAM! Hooked. Five minutes later he's giving her a guided tour. Overly dramatic artists are probably the last category of people you tell about your intergalactic crime ring, so I agree with Celestia, Hymn shouldn't even know real names.

However, the murders could have been arranged in such a way that an autopsy wasn't possible. Industrial 'accidents' involving chemical solvents, explosions, arson, or even organ harvesting could be used to give plausible methods of murder that would give DNA evidence, but not a whole lot of other evidence. Given the crime rate of the city, having people be offed by odd methods by a supposed crime family could be overlooked.

It also may not matter if civilians have access to DNA tech, if the GD can quarantine bodies quickly. Having a bunch of people wave things that were likely in an other organism and having more of their DNA fall into the mix is probably going to cause some errors. I assume that if the GD was successful, they kept people away from the 'bodies'. And that some species probably shed like crazy to further encourage police, legitimate or not, to keep the general public as far away from murder sites as possible.

[Traab]

I honestly wonder about that with hymn. I mean, its possible brightman just happened to hit his personal perfection checklist on looks and personality, as I can see him keeping himself fairly isolated from normal human contact as a general rule so her being there kinda bypassed all his normal reasons to not be effected by similar women in the past. Basically, he got hit by the hormone hammer right between the eyes and so wasnt thinking clearly. But even so, that was more than a little absurd. But he is also a control freak so I can see him demanding to know what steps they take to make certain they cant be traced back to him.

[Celestia]

However, the murders could have been arranged in such a way that an autopsy wasn't possible. Industrial 'accidents' involving chemical solvents, explosions, arson, or even organ harvesting could be used to give plausible methods of murder that would give DNA evidence, but not a whole lot of other evidence. Given the crime rate of the city, having people be offed by odd methods by a supposed crime family could be overlooked.

It also may not matter if civilians have access to DNA tech, if the GD can quarantine bodies quickly. Having a bunch of people wave things that were likely in an other organism and having more of their DNA fall into the mix is probably going to cause some errors. I assume that if the GD was successful, they kept people away from the 'bodies'. And that some species probably shed like crazy to further encourage police, legitimate or not, to keep the general public as far away from murder sites as possible.

Those are good points.

I honestly wonder about that with hymn. I mean, its possible brightman just happened to hit his personal perfection checklist on looks and personality, as I can see him keeping himself fairly isolated from normal human contact as a general rule so her being there kinda bypassed all his normal reasons to not be effected by similar women in the past. Basically, he got hit by the hormone hammer right between the eyes and so wasnt thinking clearly. But even so, that was more than a little absurd. But he is also a control freak so I can see him demanding to know what steps they take to make certain they cant be traced back to him.

I highly doubt that. From what we saw of his own operations, he left all the details and work to Kerina and his clones and just took care of the final steps. He cared about perfection, and he enjoyed being in charge, but he didn't care about control. The details didn't matter to him, only the final product. One of the things the thread was complaining about during the Hymn story was how silly it was that he didn't seem to have any idea what was happening on his own property the entire time. Hymn seems like the guy who is so flighty and airheaded that I'm actually surprised it took him this long to get caught. I bet he'd easily fall for even the most obvious of sting operations. He is absolutely the person who'd go out to buy slaves and wouldn't even bother finding out who he was buying, where they came from, or if anyone cared about them.

[Honest Tiefling]

I honestly wonder about that with hymn. I mean, its possible brightman just happened to hit his personal perfection checklist on looks and personality, as I can see him keeping himself fairly isolated from normal human contact as a general rule so her being there kinda bypassed all his normal reasons to not be effected by similar women in the past. Basically, he got hit by the hormone hammer right between the eyes and so wasnt thinking clearly. But even so, that was more than a little absurd. But he is also a control freak so I can see him demanding to know what steps they take to make certain they cant be traced back to him.

I'd think that one of the greatest living composers would probably have plenty of people of various genders throwing themselves at him. And if Brightman was definitely his type, why didn't he make any sort of move before she took off her clothes? I think in the Space Future we don't need the man to make the first move, but maybe he should have showed a little more interest BEFORE that point? He did get her alone with him, but then seemed pretty shocked when the clothes came off. That was clearly not his plan.

The hormone hammer seemed to have hit him when she took off the clothes, not that I blame him, as Dr. Brightman is a very pretty lady. But he really doesn't seem to possess much in the way of suaveness outside of his music and mystique, and seems a little wrapped up in his music...Which is exactly why criminals wouldn't trust him with their deep dark secrets he doesn't really need to know.

The human isolation thing...Well, he was surrounded by clones that he considered to be a part of himself. My brain is shutting down before I can process this point. It's probably valid, but I really don't want to think through the implications.

[Traab]

I'd think that one of the greatest living composers would probably have plenty of people of various genders throwing themselves at him. And if Brightman was definitely his type, why didn't he make any sort of move before she took off her clothes? I think in the Space Future we don't need the man to make the first move, but maybe he should have showed a little more interest BEFORE that point? He did get her alone with him, but then seemed pretty shocked when the clothes came off. That was clearly not his plan.

The hormone hammer seemed to have hit him when she took off the clothes, not that I blame him, as Dr. Brightman is a very pretty lady. But he really doesn't seem to possess much in the way of suaveness outside of his music and mystique, and seems a little wrapped up in his music...Which is exactly why criminals wouldn't trust him with their deep dark secrets he doesn't really need to know.

The human isolation thing...Well, he was surrounded by clones that he considered to be a part of himself. My brain is shutting down before I can process this point. It's probably valid, but I really don't want to think through the implications.

I was thinking less the clone angle and more the superstar surrounded by bodyguards, like when brightman first tried to talk to him on the station and whats her face, the assistant tried to shut her down fast. Like, he goes out, performs, maybe waves to the crowd from a safe distance, at best signs a few autographs and chit chats with those who are sufficiently important, then retreats back to his private asteroid. Very little one on one interaction outside of his assistant. And most of that would be music related most likely. So while a normal person would likely have spent plenty of time around beautiful examples of whatever you personally prefer, he did not. Attractive lady in a dress was like looking at a sculpture to him, he doesnt make the connection to sexual being since he sees it all the time from a distance. Naked woman who is very much so attractive and into him from a foot away? Thats a bit harder to miss. And without much, if any, experience in that area, I could see him being overwhelmed. Especially by a mature woman who is REALLY into him and thus would be very much so motivated to make this probably one night only event special.

[Honest Tiefling]

So you are saying that Doctor Brightman uncovered Hymn's plans for illegal human cloning because Hymn's daughter-clone stopping him from 'conducting' with other people.

I'm not saying you are wrong (because that theory is hilarious), and that would make a lot of sense...But I am not sure the author of this comic really wanted his Big Bad Evil Doer to be undone by a lack of planning and hormones hijacking his brain. I get the feeling that he was meant to be a bit more menacing than 'OoooOOoOoOoooh, boobies'.

[Traab]

So you are saying that Doctor Brightman uncovered Hymn's plans for illegal human cloning because Hymn's daughter-clone stopping him from 'conducting' with other people.

I'm not saying you are wrong (because that theory is hilarious), and that would make a lot of sense...But I am not sure the author of this comic really wanted his Big Bad Evil Doer to be undone by a lack of planning and hormones hijacking his brain. I get the feeling that he was meant to be a bit more menacing than 'OoooOOoOoOoooh, boobies'.

Well then he shouldnt have written him going "OOOOOH! BOOBIES!"