SFP

Dave Van Domelen

When you CAN throw a nuke at the Moon, legal issues tend to avoid you.

Spawn

And so the Social Justice League was born…

Quite Likely

Hmm, that seems like a nice thing for Allison to do, but not exactly the world shaking new kind of superheroing the last page made me expect.

Daniel Vogelsong

“In fact, we could reference that, like a slogan. ‘Abusers get a one-way ticket to…’ or ‘Making the moon the only safe haven for…’ or maybe… Listen, I can throw people at the moon, I’m not a marketing genius. We’ll work on it.”

danny in canada

I’m thinking about the logistics of throwing a nuke at the moon. That she could throw a nuke *towards* the *general direction of* the moon, sure. But the moon is almost one and a half light-seconds away. I strongly doubt her toss made it much beyond earth orbit.

… which means it could someday come back, which means she *might* hear about it again.

Caliban

She may be optimistic about the legal side of things. Supers doing stuff out in space or against other supers is much easier to let slide than supers being involved with ordinary citizens. Paranoid government types could easily see it as undermining their authority.

Happyroach

But then again, it comes down to doing aggravating things against the walking WMD. Allison backing the project is probably going to make governments take a much more cautious stance.
ZBass

You make a fair point. Perhaps she needs to watch The Incredibles?

∫Clémens×ds

You did it, Alison! You found an area of superheroing that was really dumb of you to completely forget about during all these years! Way to feel accomplished. Existential crisis: AVERTED!

Mike_McMullan

To be fair, in her universe it looks like supers were mostly “Point an overwhelming amount of force at a just insane amount of force (super villains), ok now point it at a pretty powerful amount of force (organized crime), and ok now just point it at sorta dangerous stuff (disasters, terrorists, individual instances of crime)…”

I don’t think she ever connected what she was doing at the party or with volunteer firefighting with the concept of being a superhero, because one was just “what everyone should do, right?” but with super strength and the other was putting herself under a pre-existing system. The idea of organizing what is basically a superhero team to tackle an pervasive mundane problem in a measured way could indeed be totally new.

Or, to put it another way; I doubt there have been alot of postmodern or reconstructionist superhero stories in her world. 🙂
- ∫Clémens×ds
  
  A world wherein the comic Ex Machina was never released is definitely one without joy.

William Lancaster

Oh, poor Alison.

“Will there be any Legal issues?”

She hasn’t learned yet. If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

Throwing a nuke at the moon is rather simple. Getting between an entitled good-old-boy and what he thinks is his?

Yes, there are going to be massive legal issues.

Still, it’s going to be a learning experiance.

Arkone Axon

That actually makes it an even better situation; it frames the problem into a situation where violence is justified. There’s no laws requiring someone to return to their abusive partner; quite literally the only thing the abuser can do is show up at the shelter and scream and threaten violence to get the abused partner to come back with him. And when you’ve got a network of metahumans and normal people working together, you can’t threaten to unleash more violence then they have ready to use in retaliation. Reminds me of India’s Gulabi Gang:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulabi_Gang

Pol Subanajouy

ALISON WHY DID YOU THROW A NUKE AT THE MOON WE NEED THAT

Mujaki

We needed the nuke?
Ganurath

…Why do we need a nuke?

Lostman

You throw a nuke at the MOON!

ampg

I love how most conversations Alison has have to start with the “thank you for saving my life” exchange.

Paradoxius

Punch the Sun! Nuke the Moon! Casually berate the stars!

Nickname of the Day

What about those pesky comets?

AvangionQ

That smile is contagious … 😉

Martin Cohen

The second syllable of “Sierra” is the stressed one, at least the way I pronounce it.

masterofbones

I thought that Alison wanted macro-scaled solutions… This isn’t even going to average a single life saved/protected per day. Being firefighters would be a more efficient solution than this.

chaosvii

I thought that the previous pages made it clear that she doesn’t believe that she has a meaningful capacity to enact any macro-scale solution nor any good reason to keep trying in her futile manner. As a result, she is instead is putting that desire aside in order to “have something better to give them [people in Pintsize’s position & similar critics] than a lot of whiny, preachy bullshit coming out of my mouth”
She pretty much said that she is following Feral’s example of “STFU and do something” with the caveat of “it doesn’t have to destroy you!”
She’s acting upon her recent declaration of “people in actual crises aren’t looking for the perfect solution” by proposing a solution that is preferable to the existing methods.

Ideal efficiency isn’t the goal anymore, it’s demonstrating how superheroes can & should be an amazing asset to the betterment of existing inefficient solutions rather than telling all these folks that superheroes are hardly an asset to society anymore and that something ought to be done about that.

Tsapki

Reference to the increased reporting of rape with the mass immigration?

Mystery girl

But that doesn’t explain Patrick…

Kid Chaos

Because she’s still mad at him.
ApostateltsopA

True,

Perhaps she has another mixed gender problem for him to work on. It could also be there is a project for each of the four pictured heroes.

MrSokar

Am I the only one who has no idea what an ushe is? What are you saying Sierra? Why so nonchalant about your nonsensical words?

Alfred Rudzki

Ushe (pronounced Youzh). Usually.
Caeli Jollimore

That’s “ushe” as in short for “usual.”
- MrSokar
  
  I get it. Well I don’t because there’s no h anywhere in the vicinity of usual, but I at least now the abbreviation when I hear it. Written out it looks like it would be pronounced like koosh, without the k.

MrSokar

Alt text states she’s a cameo, so expect we didn’t see her before. Question isn’t stupid though as it was a frequent one on the previous page too.

MrSokar

I’m not sure if Sierra has cool color-changing earrings or if its a clue to her powers.

Geary

I don’t think Mary would really mind. Alison found a way to help the same women she’s trying to help, and in her own way.

kwerboom

Moonshadow’s actions irked me so much that I commented on Page 147 about how its not only important WHAT and WHY something is done, but also HOW it is done as well. Furthermore, things like methods, strategies, and tactics have to be appropriate or regarded as appropriate by people in society to succeed. I’m glad Alison has given some thought to the HOW part of this problem.

The getting female superheroes to protect women is a solid method to handle the rape and abuse problem. It puts the focus on rape in a more positive light as it focuses on protecting the vulnerable and the only type of man liable to get hurt is the one who deserves it (especially in society’s eyes) for attacking a woman who has already said ‘no’ instead of getting a clue and staying away or moving on. Alison’s solution doesn’t fix the underlying social, political, and legal problems but this solution can at least be used as a starting point to have that discussion.

That said, I would like to see some role for male superheroes. Maybe getting male superheroes to talk salvageable abusers back from the abyss that they are about to jump into and find a healthier and more constructive path to walk. Maybe have one of the male superheroes who is seen a real/positive manly role model back Alison’s work and talk up said work’s importance.

As for Alison’s naive comment about hearing about throwing a nuke a the moon first, William Lancaster beat me to that. That said, throwing a nuke at the moon doesn’t involve changing how society views privilege, but protecting women from their abusive partners does. I could see certain political leaders, authors, and TV/radio talk show hosts using Alison’s former team status with Moonshadow to connect Moonshadow’s murdering of rapists with Alison’s protecting of rape victims as a way to attempt to discredit Alison’s work, maintain the status quo, and bump up ratings by acting like they are fighting the new world order overlords (aka Moonshadow and Alison) trying to destroy tradition values on behalf of common citizens. Bonus points if the demagoguing casts a wide enough net to get biodynamic hate group members in as well with talk of male bystander impotence.

Shino

“Are there gonna be legal issues?”
Yeah, I imagine the first time the abuser is going to be a cop, politician, or simply someone rich, that will put you guys in a LOT of trouble. Better get good legal help for your team, and fast.

MrSing

I don’t want to sound like that guy, you know the one, but it troubles me somewhat that Alison wants to only include female superheroes.
It is so important for these people to heal that they need to understand that the problem isn’t men or women, but a habit of violence.
When you come into a relation with an abuser by accident your entire world becomes fear. People change and break under this fear. The media doesn’t like to show it, but a lot of victims aren’t meek people standing in the corner. Victims become bitter, filled with rage and fear. A lot of abused people become part of the cycle of abuse themselves because of this. They goat on their partners, they hit their children. They can’t love anymore and become ugly on the inside.
For these people to heal they need to be loved, and recognise what happened to them and how they’ve changed and can change again..
Part of that is recognising that their partner was to blame, and not an entire gender. And how can they do that when they are isolated like that?
They need to learn where the blame really lies before they can start to work on themselves and grow from being a victim into a person again.

Tylikcat

Y’know, when people in the process of trying to get away from their abuser, they don’t need to deal with any more additional stress. Trying to force them to do so is totally being That Guy.

Also, you’re making a lot of assertions – where do they come from?

(Though a parallel organization to work with men? would be awesome.)
- MrSing
  
  I got my assertions from Erin Pizzey, the inventor of women shelters who worked for decades with abused people and abusers.
  No women shelters in her days took you in if you were addicted, alcoholic, or a prostitute. (I don’t know how it’s nowadays. Couldn’t find any info on it). Erin Pizzey did and she spoke extensively about this and generational abuse.
  She said there were two kinds of women seeking her help. The ones who were innocent victims, basically healthy normal women who accidentally got into an abusive relationship, and broken women, who were junkies, homeless, and/or abusive people.
  The innocent women were the smallest group and in the least need of her help. After a few months they could generally leave and get on with their live as normal.
  The others were more prevelant and much harder to deal with. These were women who had often been abused by their entire family from birth, because of this they were very difficult people that often abused their kids and subconsciously or not sought out abusive men. Basically endangering their children and themselves even more.
  These women and the children they brought with them had never had a single positive male figure in their live. Do you understand why they would need them to heal? These women didn’t know how what a socially acceptable way is for men to act, and if they never saw it, how could they prevent ending up in an abusive relationship again? And for children a father figure is just as essential as a mother figure. When they grow up the shouldn’t fear or hate half the world based on their gender, you can’t live like that.
  In fact, nearly all women she dealt with had no problems with the male helpers and actually appreciated them a lot. So it isn’t very valid to say that they cause any long term stress, they are in fact essential for the healing proces.
chaosvii

“And how can they do that [heal emotionally] when they are isolated like that?
They need to learn where the blame really lies before they can start to work on themselves and grow from being a victim into a person again.”
This is a fine ideal to work towards, but that’s for licensed therapists, empathetic friends, and well-educated role models to properly sort out. This thing that Al is proposing on the other hand?! It’s the physical safety of the people in need of healing first and foremost.

She’ll learn how to integrate the other concepts once she actually starts working with those shelters who will do a far better job than Al can be expected to do without months to years of training. Teaching people to be better people is incredibly difficult and superpowers generally don’t help, but keeping them out of the way of an abuser is incredibly straightforward. Especially when typical superpowers combined with military training are an asset to such a goal.
- MrSing
  
  That wasn’t the point I was trying to make.
  I was talking about how it can be counter productive to exclude men from helping women shelters. And how Alison could include male superheroes too.
  - chaosvii
    
    Then the statement I was replying to wasn’t really in support of that point you were trying to make. And so as to remove any confusion as to what I desire to discuss: I’m addressing that statement, and ignoring your overall point, as I personally don’t care to speculate as to how her strung-out epiphany & plan of action of what to do with the resources she has access to *might* be hamstrung by failing to think of how to do it in a perfectly egalitarian (with respect to gender) fashion.
    Further, doing so would miss the in-story point of how Alison is only now refusing to let perfect be the enemy of the good. And it require presumptions like Al refusing to include any male superheroes who ask to join, which she hasn’t done yet nor shown meaningful reasons that she would do so such a thing. It would be a silly move for her to do, but I don’t worry about all possible stupid things Alison is capable of doing, I only concern myself with silly things she might do as a character in a story which I view as meaningful sources of conflict & character growth.
    Denying male superheroes comes off as a waste of narrative time that only makes Al look like some ideologue that doesn’t so much as try to make things better through teamwork.

MisterTeatime

Molly, you’re totally killing it on these facial expressions, by the way. The progression from panels 2 and 5 to panel 7 looks exactly like how “please don’t laugh at my idea … oh my god, outside confirmation, I did something smart!” feels.

Pol Subanajouy

I hadn’t noticed. Good point about comic book names!

Urthman

Maybe Alison needs to read the very first few Superman comic books in which he:
-Breaks into the Governor’s mansion in the middle of the night demanding that he stop the execution of an innocent man
-Stops a man who is beating his wife
-Rescues Lois from a dude who is cross because she didn’t want to dance with him
-Intimidates an arms dealer who is bribing senators to vote for war
-Grabs the head arms dealer and hauls him to the front lines to see how he likes war
-Stops an officer from torturing a POW
-Grabs the leaders from opposing nations and insists that if they want a war they have to fight each other personally
-Infiltrates the posh party of the owner of a mine with unsafe working conditions, tricks the party into taking a tour of the mine, then arranges for them to be trapped, convincing the owner to improve the safety conditions
-Disguises himself as a football player to foil a ring of game-fixing gamblers
-Saves some people from natural disasters
-Foils a man’s schemes to get rich selling by impersonating Superman and selling Superman merchandise

So basically, the original conception of Superman is that you make a difference in the world with super powers by threatening/intimidating leaders and powerful people into doing what’s right.

Mike_McMullan

Reminds me a little bit of these folks:
http://www.people.com/article/california-moving-company-moves-domestic-violence-victism-free

It’s a moving company started by two brothers in the 90s, and mostly staffed by student athletes, who would sometimes get calls from women who needed help fleeing their abuser. They took those jobs on for free, and in the 2000s (after a violent incident with an abuser who unexpectedly returned while they were working) organized in a more structured way by partnering up with a women’s shelter program.

Sean Cavanaugh

There are motorcycle gangs that do this exact thing against child abuse. They take shifts hanging out outside foster homes of kids that were recently removed from their home and are deemed to have a high risk of a parent either attacking them or trying to take them, and act as a scary deterrent. They also provide fodder for a discussion in irony.

Amber Yust

This has interesting parallels with the real-world organization Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA).

Aroel

Well the moon controls the tides. Without it they’d be caused solely by the sun, meaning high tide every noon, and they’d be smaller. And lots of animals would have their breeding cycles affected, and nocturnal animals would lose a major light source. Ecosystems would be messed up. And we don’t want pieces of broken moon falling on us…

Earth’s tilt and orbit would also be destabilized, resulting in massive climate change, but that would only happen over millions of years.

Though one nuke wouldn’t be enough to destroy the moon.

martynW

I’ve seen some comments on how having a superhero do social work is kind of overkill, but if she can get her head straight and do some good in the meantime, why not? It’s not like she’s going to be unavailable if a building catches fire, and even Superman, in the movies, rescued a cat from a tree.
As the old story goes, if there are millions of starfish stranded on the beach, if you throw one back, it may not change the bigger picture, but it matters to that one.
(Anybody else really miss Christopher Reeve’s Superman?)

entirelyuseless

How is this supposed to be so much bigger and better than what Feral is doing?

chaosvii

She’s not aiming to change the world anymore, she’s aiming to change the way superheroes are viewed in the world.

chaosvii

Be so famous that the abuser will make national news whenever they confront their victim under such protection, perhaps?

Graeme Sutton

There aren’t enough superheroes for that to be effective for more than a handful, and most of them aren’t particularly famous, also the protection goes away as soon as the superhero leaves so they can’t help anyone else at the same time.
- chaosvii
  
  You said “a superhero,” not “superheros in general.”
  
  “so they can’t help anyone else at the same time.”
  Presumably, this is a replacement job for superheros in a world that no longer have supervillians to thwart, and thus have more free time than opportunities to help people effectively.
  I’ll grant you that this plan of action is inefficient, but Al isn’t aiming for “efficient” yet, she’s aiming for “better than what we’re currently doing, which is a huge waste and risks crazy shit like what Moonshadow is doing.”