Flesh Forge posted:

Oh, this.



I guess I see her point in gloating but imo his path is way better (fusion power to make fossil fuels obsolete vs. domestic disturbance patrol)

Warmachine posted:

I really hate defending this comic, but exactly how is Alison suited to making fusion power a reality?

Cat Mattress posted:

She can talk at atoms until they merge off-panel because she's so right and they're so wrong.

Flesh Forge posted:

Alison actually has tremendous social leverage (she had much more before she decided to wear jeans and be a college student) and chooses not to employ that at all, whether because the author has a blind spot or has just chosen to depict what he's depicting. There are many things that she could accomplish with that leverage, things that could change our society in a more impactful way than being basically a police person and doing strictly physical things It's early in the chapter though.

e: although depicting your super strong characters making PSAs and poo poo would probably not be all that exciting to look at in a comic book however interesting I might think the concept is

Tenebrais posted:

Eh, I'm not sure celebrity endorsements are the answer to all life's problems.

Warmachine posted:

I really hate defending this comic, but exactly how is Alison suited to making fusion power a reality? Or is this the "fix our problems down here" argument modified for STEM worshippers? Both are useful things. Domestic violence is a problem. Global warming is a problem. Different people are suited to different problems.

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

super strength and invulnerability: less useful for high-energy research and massive construction projects than for running a call center

Warmachine posted:

All evidence suggests that, like plenty of liberal arts majors I know, she's bad at math, and probably doesn't care to bash her (admittedly invulnerable) face into it until she becomes good, like I did. She already does the firefighting thing, so... yeah. There's also the motivation question. I'm sure you've noticed that people who don't want to be at their jobs also tend to perform worse than people who want to be there. Ergo, rather than forcing your humanities major to shift into STEM because her superpower would be great to stand inside a nuclear reactor, have your humanities person do humanities stuff, and your stem person do stem stuff.

Or are we going full on SMBC-Superman here? Because while a funny comic, it's a little... well, it's kinda hosed up. Feral levels of hosed up, actually.

Toshimo posted:

• Allison's good friend is being tortured forever to harvest body parts.
  

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

'understanding math' doesn't really factor into it, there's tens if not hundreds of thousands of people involved in professionally supporting scientific research who don't have anything beyond a high school education in the subject or any particular interest in pursuing one, self included, most of the work of research and development isn't writing really complicated formulas on blackboards and then stroking your chin at them critically. the basic calculation here is not some utilitarian maximizing-good one or that without a stack of doctorates superman powers will be no use in bringing water to the starving children of the world or whatever, it's that volunteering at a crisis center and doing about as good a job as literally any other adult human with a taser or a pistol makes you A Hero and using your one-of-a-kind physics-defying untrained physical ability at the behest of the nerds who actually understand the plan to save the world makes you a glorified forklift

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

'understanding math' doesn't really factor into it, there's tens if not hundreds of thousands of people involved in professionally supporting scientific research who don't have anything beyond a high school education in the subject or any particular interest in pursuing one, self included, most of the work of research and development isn't writing really complicated formulas on blackboards and then stroking your chin at them critically. the basic calculation here is not some utilitarian maximizing-good one or that without a stack of doctorates superman powers will be no use in bringing water to the starving children of the world or whatever, it's that volunteering at a crisis center and doing about as good a job as literally any other adult human with a taser or a pistol makes you A Hero and using your one-of-a-kind physics-defying untrained physical ability at the behest of the nerds who actually understand the plan to save the world makes you a glorified forklift

Warmachine posted:

All evidence suggests that, like plenty of liberal arts majors I know, she's bad at math, and probably doesn't care to bash her (admittedly invulnerable) face into it until she becomes good, like I did.

Cat Mattress posted:

"I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Allison."
"Yes, but with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet."
"And potentially the most unstable!"
"Oh, if you follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine."
"I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I remain uncomfortable with the---"
"Allison doesn't need to hear this. She's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong."
"Ah yes, you're right. Allison, we have complete confidence in you."
"Well, go ahead. Let's let her in now."

Toshimo posted:

Things we know about the SFP Universe:

• A bunch of people mysteriously gained superpowers in a very suspicious way and we don't know why.
  
• Aliison pals around with a literal supervillain who, for the most part, isn't really all that reformed.
  
• There's a shadowy organization killing and/or abducting heroes who make too much noise.
  
• There's a serial killer with super powers roaming around killing people.
  
• Governments are still wielding superheroes like the blunt force object at people and situations they don't like.
  
• Allison's good friend is being tortured forever to harvest body parts.
  
• One of Allison's nemeses turned sorta-friend is dying of super-cancer.
  
• Allison is mutating at a suspicious rate.
  

And more....


And this chapter has been about...

• Drinking coffee
  
• Cameos
  
• Telling each other how great we are.
  
• Dancing on heads.
  

THIS SURE IS A++ COMICS WRITING, GENTS.

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

that superman comic pretty much covered everything sfp is trying to do in a single strip aside from the incredibly unappealing character portraits, and its point wasn't some Randian poo poo about how doing necessary work that isn't fun is the world enslaving you with its need

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

that was in reference to that other dude itt trying to use it as an example of how evil doing work that isn't all about your gratification is, not the comic.

A Wizard of Goatse posted:

that was in reference to that other dude itt trying to use it as an example of how evil doing work that isn't all about your gratification is, not the comic.

Cat Mattress posted:

"I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Allison."
"Yes, but with good reason. This is a rare opportunity for us. This is the purest sample we've seen yet."
"And potentially the most unstable!"
"Oh, if you follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine."
"I don't know how you can say that. Although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade scenario is extremely unlikely, I remain uncomfortable with the---"
"Allison doesn't need to hear this. She's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong."
"Ah yes, you're right. Allison, we have complete confidence in you."
"Well, go ahead. Let's let her in now."

Discendo Vox posted:

It's Randian in that it's a sequence of scenes in which two characters speechify at each other, and one of them (usually the protagonist) is Right and the other is Wrong and Dumb, and the rest of the narrative exists largely to set up these scenes, being contradicted or discarded in their service.

Flesh Forge posted:

I dunno I think aside from this particular couple of pages, that's pretty fair to say about the comic in general.

idonotlikepeas posted:

Toshimo posted:

Things we know about the SFP Universe:

• A bunch of people mysteriously gained superpowers in a very suspicious way and we don't know why.
  
• Aliison pals around with a literal supervillain who, for the most part, isn't really all that reformed.
  
• There's a shadowy organization killing and/or abducting heroes who make too much noise.
  
• There's a serial killer with super powers roaming around killing people.
  
• Governments are still wielding superheroes like the blunt force object at people and situations they don't like.
  
• Allison's good friend is being tortured forever to harvest body parts.
  
• One of Allison's nemeses turned sorta-friend is dying of super-cancer.
  
• Allison is mutating at a suspicious rate.
  

idonotlikepeas posted:

This comic is not in the least Randian.

The closest it has come is is "a character is upset because doing the most useful work he could be doing is a lot more boring than being a showboating famous superhero like in his precious childhood comics, but eventually relents and then his friend dances on his head in celebration" which is... basically the opposite?

Galvanik posted:

If it does exist, I guess that means they're going to kill Pintsize at some point to keep the world dependent on fossil fuels or whatever.

idonotlikepeas posted:

It may be that ability to change the world isn't the only thing the secret murderers were selecting for; Patrick only believes that based on the evidence he's found; he's never been able to catch any of them, so he has no direct knowledge of their motivations.