Comic for Monday, May 17th, 2021
May17
Mium only occasionally calls people by their actual name. This not one of those cases. Just because Mium may or may not already know all that doesn’t mean he’d turn down a good testimonial. It’s useful for when people want you to show your sources, and just cryptically saying you’re omniscient isn’t considered evidence (not that Mium himself claims omniscience… he doesn’t have the processing power for it).
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Seraine knew Kally, and what she’s capable of, but greatly over-estimated herself in a direct confrontation, and that’s what left her vulnerable to Ashvalt’s retaliation for laying hands on his son, because she thought he’d play by Consul rules while she didn’t. SURPRISE!
As for these two, former Bureau and very, very low ranked Family, so can’t blame them too much, but their bosses should have been better informed, yes.
These two might also simply be sacrificial.
I believe it’s been stated by the artist / author / creator something along the lines of most of history with our Earth versus Central are very similar, but a history test would likely expose a transplant reasonably quickly.
Or maybe it’s that the maps don’t like up well?
I think it’s a bit of both. For example, while there was a translation done for Mr. Quisling’s surname, I’d expect the rest of the essential traitor/collaborator’s name was likely different, and quite possibly the context/details as well.
I mean, maybe the maps lined up pretty well pre-incursion, but if you activate sufficient numbers of weapons of mass destruction, coastlines tend to change. (Well, if the weapons of mass destruction are gas weapons, they may not change immediately. That said, such weapons still could cause climate change that could alter coastlines.)
Guess who forgot to make sure they were replying correctly? Yes, me. 🙁
Are you suggesting that between the plunging population and the likely nuclear winter, Central is entering another ice age?
She’s using a Green Lantern Power Ring™, and they can only inflict lethal force only when unlocked by the Guardians of Oa.
Which would be more convincing if Ila didn’t frequently resort to lethal force…
I think I could make a plausable argument that Ila has not killed anyone with the green construct before. All of her previous kills have been with projectiles. boosted from a gun or hand held of one sort or another. for instance when rescuing Arkady, the soldiers were in a circle meaning that when she moved out of the way they shot each other.
She might have tossed an assassin out the window with a green construct, unclear how she dealt with the assassin in Tyler’s hospital room.
I’m pretty sure she was trying to kill Mium with this, and only failed because he’s Mium. Visual similarity of effects with stuff from other artists is not necessarily indicative of practical similarity of effects. There are definitely times when artists will tie the visuals with the same effects, but there’s also definitely times when they don’t. I doubt that Ila would’ve used it in her battle with Mium if she thought she couldn’t inflict lethal damage with it.
It just occurred to me that Ila is using a lot of restraint by not crushing/smushing the goons. Normally, my favorite little, lovable homicidal maniac would have blotted them from existence. Instead, she is holding them down firmly with the famous green magic three fingered bridge hold down. Maybe she knew Mium wanted to talk to Dumb and Dumber.
I think you’re right. Everything about this reminds me of the kidnapping of the head of state. While not all the detail is obvious to Larry and Moe here, I believe Ila and Mium walked in her with specific plans. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were also ice cream involved here somewhere, which would help explain Ila’s causal restraint. She’s got her eye on the prize.
ah excellent mr quisling, now which family are we working with. oh and ms saraine appears to have met an accident named ashvalt
What is it with the green haired families lack of intel? Old green haired vile hag had no idea of Kally’s power before her minions were smashed and she was killed by Ashvalt. These two clueless twits are poster children for a future “Dumb and Dumber” movie. Before an operation/action/Family war, you would think that leaders and minions would at least be informed of major powers such as Eliana and Kally. I can understand their ignorance of Mium and Ila. They might even have an excuse for not knowing Kally but you need to be aware of powerful players even if they are not current enemies.
Don’t forget they also dismissed Naomi out of hand. I feel these people might live a bit distant from the city(ies), and came in because they heard there was a power vacuum. And then caught but dismissed rumors, because no one outside the families could be that strong, and they ‘know’ all the powerful people in the families.
The whole rogue families thing happened before the IDS really got involved here. The rogue families have been in exile for the most part until they were invited to a meeting and decided it was time to make a play. While they have agents in places like Levenworth, as Jindra34 pointed out, they didn’t have such a high regard for the accuracy of the information those agents gave regarding power levels. If they come in conflict with Amaranth I mean Magnolia, I’m sure they’ll once more be caught flat-footted, even though she appears to be focused on non-combat stuff. That said, even if they were listening to those reports, she’d still catch them flat-footed, because apart from her quirk of never opening her eyes, she stealths her abilities a lot.
I’m sure they knew about who Kally was. Saraine told Kally she was on the wrong side, which kind of indicates she was recognized. But Biana and Sophie didn’t feel it was in their best interests to tell their new friends about IDS infighting, and they probably had no reason to even know that Kally was able to draw mana in from such a range. Saraine was probably literally the only one outside of IDS Criminal Investigations we’ve seen in the strip so far who had a reason to care of which they were aware. (Sophie technically did have a reason to care when Kally was working for her, but she is the sort to be dismissive of others’ abilities.)
Oh, good. Someone finally smart enough to realize “but they’ll kill me!” merely means “die now or die later,” without being informed of that fact.
It’s something sorely lacking in media.
To quote sir pterry:
“while it ALSO meant death, it didn’t mean immediate, this-actual-second death, and was there as the smart monkey option”
I’m pretty sure there’s an unstated, “I’ll talk if you separate us such that this other guy can’t overhear that I’ve talked.” Right now, if he talks, it’s guaranteed that it’ll get back to “them”. He can’t ask for that separation, as that would be just as bad as him talking.
Actually, even if he doesn’t talk once they’re separated, he’s probably still dead, so long as the other guy makes it back to the rogue families to report, or the rogue families find out that he survived when the other guy didn’t.
I do feel the “other guy” getting back to report would be one of those things Ila considers “a very solvable problem”….
I like how he just rattles off one of the worst insults possible. You know, they revived capital punishment for that guy, and banned it again immediately after.
Edit. Okay, apparently they revived capital punishment for several collaborators, and banned it again after.
Hmmmm … Mium knows of the infamous Earth WW2 traitor Quisling. Would someone please remind me how Earth relates into Utopia? Is Central the planet Earth? Pardon me, but this old man’s memory isn’t the best. Thanks. I recommend reading the Quisling wiki page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling for discussion of the term Qusiling and the man whose name will be forever used for traitors.
They also reference Babylon and Miko. This is just one more piece of evidence … it’s either Earth or an Earth expy. 😉
its been… kinda heavily hinted at that Central is in orbit of the burnt husk of Terra (Earth) from after the Kor’s world invasion.
I’m not sure if there is an official trope page for this (I’m not brave enough to look), that all planet names roughly translate to ‘earth’ or ‘dirt’ in the native language. In the case of monsoon planets this is ‘mud’ or ‘wet’ instead.
Not wrong, but given we don’t actually speak any of the languages used here, you could also assume that Past is translating Central idiom into English idiom for our convenience.
This. The vast majority of the hints that Central is orbiting the husk of our world fall into this.
That said, it’s pretty clear that Central is the world and the orbiting space stations. There are *several* orbiting space stations, only one of which is very nice. One assumes that is a term relative to the others, though, so it’s possible it’s still pretty bad, just not as bad as the rest. It’s my inclination to think that basically translates to how close each is to failing, rather than to the level of opulence each provides. I mean, they’re space stations, some of which were constructed rather hastily, so opulence isn’t something that was likely an initial design consideration.
As far as the husk of the planet goes, radiation levels vary, and in some areas, the radiation levels are just high enough to be eventual doom, rather than immediate doom, and there are still people living in these places. It’s logistically impossible to evacuate all inhabitants from a planet unless it’s a small colony world or one has a mass transporter technology and somewhere to put them all. If ones technology is limited to loading people onto ships, some people will refuse to go, even if the peril to the planet is guaranteed.
Quisling might be an English idiom, but it would be a stretch to call Babylon idiomatic as used here, and miko certainly isn’t …
These appear for all the world to be cultural references.
Ila: keep talking pal.
I’m surprised Ila didn’t kill Dumb and Dumber when they attacked.
There is an ice cream promise in play somewhere. I feel confident of it.