Comic for Monday, November 21st
Naomi can be a little scary sometimes.
Naomi has excellent recovery, but it’s more in the form of “improved recuperation”. Something that a human cannot recover from, neither probably can she – she can just recover much faster than a normal human. The wound probably includes damage that needs to be “rebuilt” or “regenerated” – someone like Rovak who has a true regeneration could probably regenerate from a wound like that without much trouble, but Naomi does not have an I-Code, even if her eyes can be a little scary sometimes… 😛
Of course, in her case the “improved recuperation” is really just a side effect.
Seems like Miko has managed to make it back to her sanctuary… Will that be enough to end this hectic day though?
I am still on the fence about Thursday’s comic. I think it will go up, but it might look a little funny (I will see if I can finish it up on my Surface since I don’t have a real computer with me at the moment). I will update something in regard to Monday’s comic then either way. After Monday’s comic I will be back on schedule and everything will be happiness and rainbows (till mid January…)
We are very close to funding the bonus comic, I expect we’ll hit that next month. In the future I will probably put which bonus-comic mini-chapter is up next up for a vote, but I think I will go ahead with Minus Years for this one. I think those will be a good way to expand the world and backstory for people that like those things.
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Hoo boy….Miko’s day just gets better and better…..pass the-
….I’m out of popcorn. (For once, a delay between strips might be a good thing….)
I am getting a worried feeling that Peter may have provoked all this somewhat intentionally. As I have come to conclusion in other comments, Arron is the only person in the IDS that cares about Malsa’s sovereignty or opinion. Peter knew that using Levenworth, Arron would be unable to arrest him.
It seems extremely likely that he would know Corporate Affairs and Headquarters would not have the same qualms (considering his very negative opinion of them), yet he clearly did not intend to hide his presence (using his real name).
So basically he standing out in the open while preventing the only people that would have tried to arrest him peacefully cannot act against him.
I do suppose this seems bigger than just Peter. He may have just not accounted for how aggressive the IDS would get in pursuing its agenda.
Combat drones? Snipers? It looks like they gave up trying to capture Naomi alive and they want to take her out now.
Is this IDS? I don’t see how their leaders can believe that they can keep pushing the envelope. They must be breaking their treaty in so many ways.
For example: NATO has rules and treaties to follow. I can’t imagine them blowing up buildings or engaging whatever targets they want without being invited or going through proper channels. They couldn’t do that without consequences – unless the UN is doing it to save lives and has already declared that nation hostile. Also, when a government wants a criminal in another nation, they go through proper channels and push for extradition.
At the start of this story, Malsa already had tense relations with IDS. Now their government knows that IDS is ignoring illegal gate activity, which is what they promised to do. IDS has to be looking worse and worse.
IDS has just invaded Avon – a global corporation of some significance – on the pretense of containing a terrorist attack. However, they were not invited and there was nothing to overtly suggest that the situation fell within their jurisdiction. That mission went rather fubar. Instead, Malsa’s own MSB had a run in with them and will no doubt report the incident.
On the same day, they blew up a house in what I assume is a suburban area. They either intended to take Peter out or send him ‘a message’. And I think it’s safe to say that they didn’t care if others got hurt by the blast. That’s the behavior of a criminal or terrarist organization, not a global or inter-dimensional peace force.
The ashes haven’t even cooled. And here they are employing assassins and combat drones.
This is an assassination on foreign soil. What about the publicity this could generate? Even without witnesses, I’d imagine that Malsa has a few forensic scientists who could find evidence on where to points the finger. Where are the reporters? Where are the local authorities? For that matter, where are the firetrucks?
Peter, at least, is a rogue agent and a citizen of Central. Naomi is a citizen of Malsa and a student – in good standing – with their prestigious magic school. They did not identify themselves as IDS agents or try to arrest her. Instead, they’re in disguise and attack suddenly. Can you imagine what would happen if the press got wind of this?
And I have to wonder what these IDS agents are thinking. Following orders like these could easily start a war. Something doesn’t add up…
Well, if you are speaking of real life examples. The CIA does this all the time.
Because you are in America, you don’t hear about it on the main stream mockingbird news.
Clinton has body count of over 50 people who mysteriously died, and all the press said is that they mysteriously died, next the weather.
In real life, this shit is seriously buried. I hope Malsa doesn’t take it lying down, but they are probably in a position of not having much say.
I think Arron is pretty much the only one in the IDS that cares about Malsa’s opinion. Otte basically straight up said he was planning to make Tyler disappear (before he got his ass handed to him).
By the time you are saying things like that, it seems pretty clear that HQ and Corporate Affairs were ready to tread all over Malsa. Malsa made the MSB because they did not trust the IDS (as I recall, anyway).
There are no clear parallels between the universes that comprise The Far Side Of Utopia and the situation here on Earth. The I.D.S. has simply proclaimed their control over the Gates, but is apparently unable to annex territory by force of arms. It is an enormous, bloated bureaucracy, with factions at odds with each other, but there is no indication that they function as a UN-style group. They may have made promises about protection to keep the locals happy, but no one has the strength to force them to fulfill said promises.
Pact is a Syndicate of Multinationals working loosely and a bit uneasily with the I.D.S. on matters of commerce and trade (and backstabbing). What real treaties that are in existence are within this group.
As far as starting a war goes, the faction that’s causing all the problems isn’t the faction that’s going to have to deal with the results. The miscreants just don’t care about legality or bad press.
I think this is why it is all happening at once. The IDS CA (presumably who is backing these people) has abandoned subtlety here. I suspect the fall out of this will be the attempted expulsion of the IDS from the country (Malsa was already leaning in this direction).
But I think this is where CA is clever, because they will get Criminal Investigations expelled, and out of the way (where CA does not seem to have official relations with Malsa). This probably is part what has been hinted at with their plan to dump responsibility on Arron. Since the very earliest scenes Kally suggested the Director of Corporate Affairs has wanted very badly to get Arron out of her way but been unable to.
Another thing worth noting is that the IDS does not take Malsa all that seriously. It has been noted there are several major players in the Palindra, and Malsa is not one of them. We are essentially in a backwater here.
Actually… that does make sense.
However, I’m reminded of how the head of that one IDS department (Corporate Affairs?) talked about being behind in their plans to move a lot more personnel to Malsa. Granted, the various departments seem to have their own agendas. But that does not sound like the plans to make if they plan on getting kicked out of that nation.
Looking forward to seeing how Malsa reacts. They may not react exactly as the culprit expects.
“…We are essentially in a backwater here.”
I do not think the term “backwater” fits. The World(s) page describes it as:
“Malsa – A small but fairly prosperous country, raising rapidly in prosperity, many major corporations have a large presence here. A major center of genetic modification…”
This does not describe some poor, 3rd world country which could not afford a decent military and is behind the mainstream in technology. Rather, this sounds more like an up-and-coming nation that now has the capitol to attempt to compete globally with the big boys – or at least deserves some respect from them.
i think backwater means, in this case, the planet as a whole is somewhat hard to get to dimentionaly. without knowing how one connects planets dimentionally, nor how many are connected and in what ways. it makes this a bit of guess work.
otoh the sovernty treading parts of the various ids groups are… while yes rl groups like the cia(nsa, mi6, kgb, mossad, and all the others) do some things like this… they dont normally have small armies hitting single targets. seal (or other specops) teams yes. but all of this is something like the bay of pigs, not going after high value tagrets like a terrorist leader.
add to the fact that they (hq and corperate affairs) ARE treating peter & co like he came in and blew up their hq and left a “your momma” note, and not like a guy who just up and whent “bush.”
Backwater may have been the wrong term, but it is not really the seat of Corporate Affair’s power the way I understand it. They mostly have power through PACT, and PACT does not have a strong presence in Malsa (or at least is not friendly with the Malsa government).
The person that wanted to relocate people to Malsa I do not think is the same person as the Director of Corporate Affairs, though now that I think about it I am not entirely sure.
I think Arron and some other faction want Malsa’s cooperation to relocate people, but the Corporate Affairs branch is either works for or with PACT and wants both Arron and the Malsa government out of the way.
umm oh your talking about the hologram head and the lady seen for one or 2 pages on central. yeah thats something else.
not shure what this relocation plan is. but im guessing its either some sort of population control (send the unwanted ppl somewhere thats not here. kinda like australia) or send all the “right” ppl to someplace thats not as messed up. or maybe to where kworld wont attack them.
-note there was a bit where peter mentions that specifically, mainly that there was not even a whisper of a rumor that kworld attacked malsa. even tho im sure a trio of unkown mecha blasting a school would never made it to the 9oclock news. i mean look how jonny on the spot those news ppl where not with avon being put under seige.
Hmm. Thoughts. Miko is going to have a really bad day. A wounded purple gorilla possibly still being chased by the IDS is going to be very low on the list of things she wants to see. Naomi would know Peter’s priority on Miko’s safety, so I can’t see her leading danger that way unless Miko is well defended there (Mium should be back by now?)
Naomi seems pretty hurt, but on the hand… damn. She has raised the ante on “glowing person of doom”. The lines on her arm there match what happens when she holds things (airball racket, piece of rebar) so probably has something to do with her innate power. Going to guess it is something more than just purely boosting her own “stats”. Seems significant that it started to mark her own body only when she started using a huge amount of power, but not sure why.
PS. The art on a few of those panels is really good, 4 and 6 being stand outs. Still think the reading order could be improved though.