SFP

K Shorten

This sounds like a woman who’s talents weren’t being appreciated to the fullest. If I were the coast guard, I would want her on my team yesterday (or whoever patrols the great lakes, if she’s a freshwater only gal), because she’d probably be awesome at aquatic search and rescue.

deebles

She’d also likely be in demand for international agencies intervening in floods and similar disasters.
ZBass

Apparently the large majority of coast guard activity is to help motor boats who’ve run out of fuel. I imagine that search and rescue fits into the ‘incredibly rare’ category.
- Tylikcat
  
  I wonder if there’s volunteer marine search and rescue the way there is on land. I mean, I could see her keeping her hand in, during the right sort of situations, but still mostly focusing on school.
- MisterTeatime
  
  Still sounds like a good job for Amanda- she’s strong, she’s a good swimmer, and if she only deals with people who’ve been notified in advance, that’ll require fewer pairs of brown pants.
  
  Also, is it Coast Guard respect time already?
- D. Schwartz
  
  The USCG mainly does the Rescue part of SAR versus the whole Search and Rescue aspect. In about 90% of the cases the person needing rescue has a radio or other contact system (cell phone usually) and their location is fairly well known. In the remainder technology like AIS and AMSAR help minimize the search area and time frequently. Nothing’s perfect though.
Christophe2314

Problem is she can’t really be an effective superhero and at the same time have an even remotely stable home life. Events requiring the help of an aquatic superhero do happen a lot, just not all in one place. She’d need to be moving all the time, never having a place to call home. It’s not like, say, Spider-Man who can just hang around in New York where there’s a never-ending supply of crime.
- J B Bell
  
  There’s a pretty fair amount of illegal clamming here in BC, and not enough agents by far to police it. A superhero for our coastal waters and rivers would be amazing!
  
  In the Amazon it would probably need a bulletproof superhero. 🙁
- Amilynn
  
  She could do seasons in the Bering Sea and head home. The coast guard there is tragically overworked.

Regret

I totally agree with Alison in the second to last panel, fishlady said something beautiful (durhur, my sense of humour is weird)

JanetBird

Well. That was unexpected. Way to crack down on those illegal fishermen, Amanda!

martynW

“You’d be amazed at how simultaneously rare and boring most aquatic crime is.” Aquaman has this same problem.

KevlarNinja

Nah, Aquaman manages to do lots of stuff. The problem here seems to be the difference between stuff that happens in an area covering 75% of the Earth vs. a lake in the middle of nowhere.
- Mitchell Lord
  
  Aquaman also manages to handle it by protesting “Technically legal” stuff. Also, by handling the fact that “Underwater stuff” is kinda more interesting for him, since he handles DEEP underwater stuff.
  
  *Switches to Aquaman fighting Cthulhu* . But, yeah. For DAY TO DAY stuff…poaching…Pirates in Somalia. More poaching. Violation of offshore drilling standards. Clean up oil spill for same. Fight with Superman after he tries to strangle those guys to death…
Balthazar

Aquaman: Alright, let’s see… Whaling in Japan… Technically legal… Offshore drilling… Legal… Any pirates? …Don’t really want to swim to Somalia. … Guess I should save that beached whale… Again.
- Mitchell Lord
  
  Now that I think of it….this actually fits very well into the theme. Namely, superheroes handling “What to do now that Supervillains aren’t an issue”

Richard Griffith

The question is, were the fishermen wearing their brown pants?

Kid Chaos

Caring Alison is caring. 😎

Tylikcat

It’s pretty consistent with Alison’s experience though – they kind of tore through all the large and interesting crimes, and the rest of it seemed a bit disproportionate.

Tylikcat

Are we going to ship Amanda and Alison now? Because that would be adorable. I’m bored with Max already.

Lysiuj

I’m still rooting for Al and Lisa, but this is awesome too.
- Tylikcat
  
  I hear you – though I’m not sure the role Lisa is in would mix with romance well. (But then, I’m a bit of a stickler about not mixing certain roles – as my former roommate, Lisa, who became my girlfriend about a week after she moved out would attest!)

leoboiko

I thought illegal fishing was actually a pretty big problem? As in, “as much of 85% of the world’s fisheries may be over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation”? And not by cute grandpas on little boats, but by big operations involving computerized radars, huge fishing nets, dynamite, and clandestine ships from distant countries in forbidden waters. Though I guess most of that happens on oceans, not lakes; and perhaps she’s unable to survive in salt water.

There’s also illegal dumping and pollution, but again, it’s probably not healthy for her to be swimming after those.

She’d make one hell of a lifeguard / rescue swimmer, though; and drowning is a pretty big cause of death, more than most people would expect.

Lysiuj

Taking on those corporations would be a lot more than she can handle on her own though, and unless they’re doing something illegal it would fall into vigilantism, which we don’t know if Amanda wants to do.
Bobo Chimpan

Yeah, I imagine illegal fishing is more of a problem on the high seas than the northern end of Lake Michigan
- Day
  
  You’d be suprised then. Although the real issue is stuff like Asian Carp and zebra mussels:Amanda would probs be a godsend to biologists and those fighting invasive species
Jubal DiGriz

It’s possible Amanda is stuck with fresh water, which greatly limits options.

Lysiuj

Shane Fishing Permits will return after these messages.

OoO!

I imagine that she wants to live near home what with being young and having trouble fitting in.

OoO!

Alison could become a dictator or destroy the world with no hassle at all. She has much more power than POTUS. Yet somehow most people treat her as just another celebrity. Maybe it’s the superhero image and the fact that she has never (intentionally) used her influence that make people treat her like that. I reread chapter 3 and it has me thinking, what do you think she should use her powers for?

Oren Leifer

Yes, exactly. “it has me thinking, what do you think she should use her powers for?” is the point of this comic. I don’t quite have any answers, but it’s definitely the right question.
- Lostman
  
  Bigger question; should she even use her powers at all?
  - Richard Griffith
    
    That brings us back almost to the first comic where her presence at a protest and powers were leveraged by someone else.
Ian Osmond

Yep, it’s got her thinking that, too. In terms of actually making a difference in the world, “being a celebrity” may be more powerful that “indestructibility, superstrength, and flight.”

David Gillon

Ah, not so much tragic backstory as sidelining the minority backstory.

Loranna

Random observation: Amanda’s bow is all but absent in this page. You can see the base of the band in panels four and five, but otherwise? Not in sight.

Given how the fishermen likely thought of Amanda when she rose up from the depths to confront them, it seems appropriate – but a touch saddening – that her sign of femininity – and, by extension, humanity – is kept hidden from our sight.

Loranna

KevlarNinja

Aquaman’s gotta stop outsourcing.

Liz

I think we’re supposed to infer from the “Hercules spending a year in the woods” page that a lot of time has been passing while Allison sets up her organization. It’s possible she’s in her spring semester now.

Valerie Cardona

OMG I want to be her friend.

She seriously seems like a legitimately super interesting person I’d share cheese sticks with (I dont drink)

Jubal DiGriz

Perhaps Amanda found ocean patrols less a-lure-ing,

Stephanie Gertsch

I am curious why Amanda seems so much bigger next to the fishermen than she does next to Allison. Is the comic showing her as the size the scared men perceive rather than her actual size?