Sidekick Girl

Saving the City: Sans-Spandex

Is she still very much against?  Has her opinion changed?  Why?  Whyyyy?

Cue the discussion.

16 responses to “HeroCon VI”

  • Ed Rhodes on August 30, 2017 at 12:23 PM

    Well thought out response. And now, the ball’s in Val’s court!

  • Black Rose on August 30, 2017 at 12:55 PM

    Put Val in the spotlight why don’t you!?!?

  • Pygmy D. H. on August 30, 2017 at 1:09 PM

    The dreaded cliffhanger. My old foe returns.

  • Pygmy D. H. on August 30, 2017 at 1:11 PM

    P.S. Cyclone, loving the hair.

  • Ragingagnostic on August 30, 2017 at 1:46 PM

    This man makes a lot of cogent and intelligent points which I like much more than the kneejerk automatic reactions from the other panel members. There is also the case about making a citizen’s arrest. I believe that it’s still legal to commit such an act and if this Vigilante IS a citizen then he’s perfectly within his rights to apprehend a criminal and leave him for the police.

  • Kaian on August 30, 2017 at 7:57 PM

    I love how he was the one to spot the ‘legality aside’ part. Like he came to think and respond thoughtfully. Versus the others toeing the party line too much.

  • The passing critic on August 30, 2017 at 11:57 PM

    That awkward moment when a hero speaks from the heart rather than just parroting what his boss wanted him to say.Hehe got to admit I like that an actual hero is pointing out that the only problem that he has with the vigilante is that hes breaking the law and pointing it out intelligently noless.

    Its going to be interesting to see out favourate sidekicks answer though its kind of showing that the lineup for this panel is a beaurocrat more interested in his business,a detective who has to be careful what he says to the public if he wants a job future and a hero whos relatively safe to say what he really feels about this kind of thing.In theory Vals position is more punishable than Cyclones but lets be honest-The heros agency already gives her the worst things it can so theres not much for her to worry about ^^.

  • SolCannibal on August 31, 2017 at 10:09 AM

    Well, Cyclone is certainly contributing to make the panel anything but simple, what is interesting. Pretty good showing considering how little “screen time” he usually get (so little i almost confused him with Maelstrom)

  • Foradain on August 31, 2017 at 9:57 PM

    Careful Val. Keep it on topic, and don’t get into how screwed up The Agency is.

  • Relybarcom on September 1, 2017 at 12:50 AM

    i am just catchign up to todays comic and am confused about the art…did you switch artists…what happened to the coloring cause this used to look nicer and the lines did not have the white on them

  • Jordan on September 1, 2017 at 12:30 PM

    Oh wow… That’s a good point from Cyclone.

    Still, kind of a dick move to put the spotlight on Val, who doesn’t have a full hero license like the rest of them, and asking her what she thinks of it. If she ever wants to move up to full hero, she’s likely going to need to toe the company line, but if she’s honest, she won’t.

  • Nightmask on September 2, 2017 at 8:54 AM

    @jordan Val set herself up for that, since she asked the question and if you aren’t willing to answer a question you bring up then you don’t ask the question in the first place. That’s basic for something like being on a panel, you don’t get to toss out questions and not expect people to want to hear your personal views on it.

  • billydaking on September 3, 2017 at 11:44 AM

    The problem is this…you can’t separate the Vigilante from what he does, and “heroing without a license” is something that, for a superpowered being interacting with regular people, is entirely dependent on the attitude of the vigilante. That’s what the law prevents–a type of frontier justice that would eventually blur the lines so much that you wind up with a world not unlike the one depicted in Alex Ross and Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come. Also, this comic has had two vigilantes, and Dion wasn’t anywhere near as benevolent.

    And Cylone’s unintended implication here with the Vigilante is that they shouldn’t do anything until he actually hurts–or kills–someone. They don’t know anything about him, what his motivations are, and what he’s actually capable of or planning. That makes him an unknown wild card, which is dicey when you’re dealing with human life.

    There’s a reason why the cop’s automatically against the Vigilante (without anger). He’s the one who has to clean up the mess, and whose own job to just enforce the law and keep the peace becomes a 100 times harder when you have a freelancer conducting a personal war in your jurisdiction.

    I know…we had a vigilante on my street back when it was taken over by a gang. The vigilante got himself jumped and put into the hospital, as well as had his firearms stolen and put to bad use. The cops, meanwhile, managed to build a case and put all 12 members away for more than a decade, with double suspended sentence on top.

    That’s the difference between them…one is about acting against crime, the other is actually fighting crime.

  • Kaian on September 3, 2017 at 10:49 PM

    Hmm moved from commenting on the strip to replying to the question in it.

    The answer I have is you can’t set legality aside in this case. He is a vigilante. First time out the gate Val and Lumina had to show ID to a police man to not be arrested. The law of the land demands accountability and this person is not accountable. There is an excellent point in that he is going after lesser crimes that are often missed. But he still is a loose cannon. He may escalate and be harder to track than when a hero goes off the reservation. Or he might end as another body in the river. And no matter what you think of the sidekick courses. The powers training the licensed heroes have undergone means less chances of accidents.
    And do you want to encourage others to emulate him by ignoring registration and just going off on their own?

  • Greywolf1963 on September 4, 2017 at 3:04 PM

    The hero system provides a logical answer to one of the inconsistencies that has long bugged me about most superhero comics. How do you successfully prosecute the alledged perpetrator if the person making the arrest can not show up in court to provide testimony about what they saw, did, heard, etc? I would think that Batman and Spider-Man’s captures would go free as soon as the individual claimed they were innocently walking down the street when this crazy person grabs them, ties them up and plants this evidence and a note on them. A vigilante can’t exactly show up in court and counter such an argument, and even if they did, how much credibility would they have with a judge or jury? It could be anyone in the costume. The hero system here provides for accountability and lets the hero maintain a secret identity while being able to follow due process, testify and maintain a proper chain of custody of the evidence.

  • Sean Duggan on September 5, 2017 at 11:21 AM

    I wonder if Val will invoke her experiences with Shiver, which both exhibits the issues that happen when someone takes the law into their own hands and also touches on how the licensing system really doesn’t do enough to prevent those excesses.

    To use the parallel mentioned above about the difference between police and vigilantes, a staple of vigilante justice fiction involves the police being corrupt, too brutal, or incompetent. It’s hard to argue that the training of the police officer makes them more accountable if it’s evident that they’re not going after the crime they should, or they’re getting slaps on the wrist for shooting unarmed suspects with a flimsy excuse of “I felt that my life was in danger” with no evidence that they felt they were in danger.

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