Sidekick Girl

Saving the City: Sans-Spandex

Clearly the cellmate also helps him with his hair.

The first time typing 2017!  Yowza.  This is going to be a big year for us, so stay tuned for announcements that hopefully will be coming soon.

We had wanted to make this a short arc since talking heads aren’t very dynamic.  It was hard to cram all the ideas we wanted to express into only a few panels, and ultimately, I think that Dion could have a lot more insight to offer.  For now, though, this is where we will leave this, and you can all hammer it out in the comments.  🙂

14 responses to “Visitation IV”

  • Skyler Ammons on January 4, 2017 at 3:03 PM

    While I appreciate wanting to move past a dialogue heavy arc, I feel like this one could have been at least broken up into 2 pages. lot to cover. XD

    I am a little disappointed yet glad this didn’t go the route of “the system is broken and Val should get out and deal with it.” At the beginning of the comic this concept fit it’s less than serious tone at the time (what if superheroes was a regulated job and had the same hiring process of Ambercrombie and Fitch outlets) but as the series got a bit darker and more serious, the superhero concept of “pretty people out front and average people in the back” suddenly got a little frustrating, since it felt utterly ridiculous to keep someone as skilled as Val as a sidekick just because she was a muscly tomboy and not a supermodel. I was always annoyed at how un-vocal Val was to the higher ups about their hero qualifications.

    but the last few arcs have been showing that not everyone in the system has blinders to how BS it is for people like Val, and that Val, while she really doesn’t like how things are done, isn’t pissy enough to cause trouble for others over it (like Declan was).

    No matter where the story goes, I hope we at least have Val confronting someone of authority and asking point blank whats the point of hiring beauty over skill and experience in a job like superheroics, since I would really like to see how the people higher than Agent Gray justify this system.

  • Black Rose on January 4, 2017 at 7:11 PM

    Maybe this would lead up into becoming Sidekick Girl-Civil War?!?

  • Sidekickgirl on January 4, 2017 at 7:27 PM

    You brought up the idea of an SG “Civil War” before, and I thought we clearly addressed it then. No. Not a thing, not relevant, and our universe is not based on, affiliated with, or related to Marvel. So no. There will be nothing “Civil War” regardless of what conflicts do or do not arise in the Agency in the future.

  • David Johnston on January 5, 2017 at 1:45 AM

    When this isn’t being funny it’s a deconstructive superhero series. Actually even when its being funny it’s deconstructive. Dumb elements of the genre are either held up to ridicule or dispensed with. And “superheroes will take any excuse for a brawl” is a dumb element of the genre.

  • Zodo on January 4, 2017 at 9:46 PM

    Dion has incredible self-awareness, and I think that he can still be of value to the system. He knows that he needs to be punished for his crimes, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still provide advice.

    I’ve just envisioned another future for Val, aside from being in stasis to be pulled out when it hits the fan. This future has her wearing a suit, wearing the silver shades, as a high level director for the HeroCorp. She’s got the brains to make it and climb the ladder despite all the glass ceilings currently in place.

  • Skyler Ammons on January 4, 2017 at 10:33 PM

    @Sidekickgirl: Yeah personally I’m glad you’re not planning a civil war plot (enough of that nonsense as it is).

    But it would be interesting to see some actual (nonviolent) conflict between the sidekicks and the association. So far we’ve only seen people (like Val) who are annoyed with the system but roll with it regardless. We’ve never seen a sidekick who’s outright BITTER about the system but not villainous or violent like Declan.

    It would be a pretty interesting arc to see the Sidekicks fed up with the hero associations treatment if them, and how the association would try to handle them post- Declan, and where Val would be in the debate.

  • Kaian on January 5, 2017 at 9:37 AM

    As much as the way the system works irks. There is something note worthy that may have been missed. Haze has good powers but didn’t have the ‘look’ for being a superhero according to the school. But once in the field her hero took to mentoring her and used a process in the system to get her promoted to hero status and they are now partners. Not just hero and sidekick.

    What I recall from this is even Val seemed oblivious to this path built into the system. As though it all started as one thing then altered to its present state by a change on the board of directors or the like. It should be interesting to see what happened and why.

  • David Johnston on January 8, 2017 at 12:06 AM

    Haze’s only problem in being defined as a hero is that she’s short. She definitely would have been hero track in Sky High. Val has two problems. The first is that her power, while an excellent one for taking on a dangerous profession, isn’t a great one for actually defeating a foe. It means she can survive a loss, but what makes her actually effective is a combination of training, physical conditioning, intelligence and a general aptitude for violence. She’s Batman, but without the marketable tragic backstory. In Sky High, despite them not considering appearance at all, Coach Boomer would still shout “Sidekick!”

    But there’s the other consideration which would certainly keep Val from following Haze’s path into full hero status. She’s not going to stuff her bra.

  • SolCannibal on February 9, 2017 at 4:37 AM

    Little things that make me think terms like “Frontliner/Striker” and “Support/Tactical” would be far more appropriate substitutes – if not for the whole lampshade hanging on Supers & Sidekicks that is…

  • Imgran on January 6, 2017 at 8:01 PM

    LOOK AT THE CHAIN IN THE LAST PANEL!

  • Sidekickgirl on January 6, 2017 at 9:27 PM

    It’s just a wonky stroke of the stylus. Nothing to see here.

  • Tilly the Hun on January 11, 2017 at 1:25 AM

    As per my slow-poke icon, this is coming late (it’s been a busy last few days).

    I just want to say thank you, and I hope you understand.

  • SolCannibal on January 22, 2017 at 10:12 AM

    Wordy, but a fine read after so much time without checking on SG (since the start of the coloring contest i guess). Dion has certainly had lots of time to oinder on his actions and their morality in jail – but then it might be said time to think/stew is the one constant from prison and the source of so much trouble in the penitentiary system.

  • Greywolf1963 on October 15, 2020 at 3:13 AM

    I understand what you say about talking heads not being dynamic, but this conversation was needed to tie together the massively different ways the system, and the Agency has failed. I have to be honest and say that I would likely want to go on a murder spree if someone took the most important person in my life away that way. Instead of platitudes, help in tracking down his sister’s murderer would have been a better response. And the standards of appearances failed Val, Jasper, Declan and Illumina all. Shiver just reminds me of institutions trying to cover their own asses rather than acknowledging a problem or mistake. Great power does not always translate into a responsible individual, but when that power and authority is being abused then someone has to step up and take responsibility.
    And the need to look at all this and sort it out is why this section of talking heads is one of my favorite arcs. Usually the audience never sees the aftermath, and I for one enjoyed this departure from that pattern.

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