With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Or the League could have an adaptive response system where Street Level Heroes are deployed to deal with Street Level issues. Like this.

And the Heroes like Superman triaged to situations as needed. Sure, being free to engage in events and situations like the power station and the fence and whatever, but also having a system to have Heroes do the PR shit like this.

The League has straight up teleporters after all. The Logistics are fundamentally relatively simple, so long as the monitoring works properly. Imagine the League use their equipment to better coordinate emergency responses, as well as better classifying and organizing the deployment of heroes.

 

This is reminding me of the SMBC "Peak Superman" comic.

Welcome to the best way to be an Orange Lantern.

For an Enlightened one, possibly the ONLY way to be an Orange Lantern.

 

Until they do? What Superman did is good enough.

 

I don't disagree.

Merely thinking about the nature of Emergency Response Management, and how given the League has a relatively large roster of Heroes as well as teleportation and monitoring capacity seemingly beyond most Governments, I could see a world where those functions are also contracted out to the League on some level, or the League chooses to better organize their deployment strategy of Heroes after doing away with the mentality that individual Heroes "belong" to individual cities.

 

Hmm, maybe that could be summarised as choosing to save people from their own decisions, vs saving them from circumstance? Then you can expand the discussion into why people make decisions and, for instance, whether those children were above the age of legal responsibility and therefore assumed by their own society to understand consequences, and whether that age threshold for personal responsibility is reasonable. Sort of cross related to the AI rights thing very early in the story.

 

The lesson seems to be that there is no such thing as Uncomplicated Good Works when you take opportunity cost into account.

 

Heh. Not the smartest place to be, but... kids. Likely pre-teen. And what ten-year-old is going to be thinking 'oh my god, this could kill me' when they see something cool? Plus, getting to meet Superman? Best day ever.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

That's the name, don't go tugging on the cape.

Feeling a bit insulted they didn't call out your name, OL? I mean, they would probably have called you 'Cake Man'...

Well, people in Gotham... 'Asshole' is being charitable. And in Gotham, they'd probably be looking to strip any resalable metal they could get their hands on, like copper coils. Which would put them square in the bat-spank target zone.

Oooh, guilt trip.Bonus points for style, Supes.

One upside of having someone hanging around with a 'do anything' tool in their arsenal: instant fixes instead of having to call it in to the power company.

Or someone else had been there first, discreetly. Is Parasite locked up somewhere, or..?

Never underestimate a kid's tunnel vision when retrieving...

...Dang, OL beat me to it.

Did Supes ever have a toll-free hotline or something in the comics? I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising entrepreneur licensed his likeness and voice for something like that.

Ah, Supes, thoughtful as ever. Living up to that 'Big Blue Boy Scout' reputation.

...You need a place to be made resistant to, well, damn near anything up to a nuke?

I mean, surely the Daily Planet could use a little security upgrade?

Yeah, super-strong cribs and baby gates probably sounds like a good idea, if he ever gets Lois in the family way somehow.

And there's a big difference between you and him. There's a reason 'Blackest Night' gave him a Blue Ring, after all.

But, as he noted, he can't be there every time this happens. What would humanity learn if he did that?

Wise man. And yes, OL generally doesn't offer any information he doesn't think is needed, after all.

And he does do good in these little moments. Even when some people can't imagine a person that nice...

Learning how to prioritise little things instead of big ones. Because sometimes, the little things are as important as the big.

Oh, this could take all day. And that's just what he could do for Earth...

But, as noted, the Reach won't let him do that willy-nilly.

Except as his meta-knowledge tells him, Sinestro could be useful someday. Sure, a lot of people might die, but...

Ironically, the only link I could find to explain it... ...comes from this very thread.

To be fair, it would have been so long ago no-one would know. Krypton is hardly above editing it's own history.

Such is the nature of a very, very old culture. History is at the mercy of the person writing it down.

At least he can keep the point of the exercise in mind. No life is too big or too small to not care about...

Is it just me, or did this have something of an '80's moral lesson' segment out of something like the Superfriends, with that initial set-up? And boy, would being that OL be suffering or what? At any rate, good to see OL's not getting bored of doing the 'community relations officer' thing yet. Though I can't help but imagine that the second a giant killer robot shows up, he'll grin... And then have it restrained in two seconds flat.

---

"That's a thoughtful idea."

"But it might have been fuel." He nods.

 

This section is reminding me why I still love the older Superman comics. Ark where he was just walking around was the one that I enjoyed the most. The best Superman is the Superman that connects to people.

 

Well you could add kryptonite to things like paint or add lead to paint.

Granted, both could kill a person, or make them ill.

Yeah, I'm also not sure why it's hard for him and a lot of others.

"bringing"

 

I still remember when LePaul was 100% sure Kryptonian's and humans couldn't have children together.

Glad to see he's finally realized he's wrong.

Given the last time you encountered Sinestro you got played like mandolin, I wouldn't put much stock in your ability to do this.

 

When has Paul ever met Sinestro? I know Dox talked to him but other than that they've never interacted.

 

It's good to remember that Superheroes are superheroes, generally, voluntarily and by conviction. They all want to, generally, do good but they all have priorities. If they are informed and have the opportunity they will help and do good, but it isn't their job to hold society's hand or be capable of solving every problem; they should be the emergency, extracurricular or, just in particular cases, rapid response.

They don't "belong" to cities, they live in those cities and as such that particular city is important to that particular heroe. They also have lives and loved ones and all that stuff. No matter how fast Flash may be, if there is a crime in front of him or if Iris needs him, he won't leave because there is a special treadmill in Africa that will give the continent all the food and water it needs if he runs in it 10 hours a day.

Oh, and if I'm not misremembering, the League's teleporters are point to point, they can't just go anywhere at anytime in the blink of an eye. Best League teleporter I've seen is the animated one and not even that one was perfect.

 

I just thought of something rather heartwarming. Paul’s actions over the next arc, combined with Alan’s temporary hope!enlightenment during the search for Constantine, will help Alan create a blue lantern ring. I’m not expecting anything this year, I just mean Paul’s growth here will be one memory for him to call on.

I think a second memory will form when the Sivana family decisively turn against villainy… perhaps by sponsoring a superhero in a part of the world where they can make a serious difference. Oh! Their hero could join that corporate team, The Alliance of the Just, in order to justify looting equipment and materials from missions for study. Fewer restrictions than the Justice League in some regards, more opportunities in other ways. Alpha Centurion seemed nice enough.

 

There isn't much that Sinestro can do that Batman can't do less malevolently.

Why is that ironic? I made the term up.

Thank you, corrected.

 

I think the point about heroes being volunteer is an important one- clearly E16 has yet to find/try a better system, given they didn't implement one in the decades between the JSA and JL.

It should be noted that heroes like Superman often have to do small things for their sanity, and to be connected to the community. Sure, giving $5 to the homeless guy isn't the most efficient, but it helps the culture in the community and the person.

Of course, how much this applies to Paul solely depends on his want. Like helping out Jade or Conner versus any number of randos.

 

Its not really about the numbers in the end I feel. Sure Paul wants to do the most amount of good for everyone... but feels like he is a losing a lot of that goal by not really interacting with the regular people he wants to help since most of his friends are in his line of work in some way or another.

There are regular joes who have to live in a universe where living WMDs are around after all, and part of a hero's job is to show that they are people too that just want to help like someone who becomes a police officer, a fireman, etc.

Dox has kinda the same problem, he wants an orderly universe but really lacks ability to connect outside a small group of people. Both him and Paul need to realize its more than being efficient, but just doing good for good's sake.

 

They never met.

He did see what appeared to be a projection of the man when they visited that Green Lantern worshipping planet.

 

Not good for Clark's mental well being.
You know what you can do to make up for it?
Reminding him that he isn't alone to take care of threats Large or small.

Justice League party or Super Family supper.

 

"Old" he says..

That one came out not too long before they stopped making Superman comics.

 

‘dependent’

 

Thank you, corrected.

Wait, was that Grounded? Where the author couldn't be bothered to finish it and Superman burned down a city?

 

Agreed, that's why I call them the "old" Superman comics.

 

American, so "in the hospital"

 

Wait he burned down a city? I don't remember that bit. But yes, grounded.

 

He set fire to drug stashes. With heat vision. From across the city. The stashes were in separate locations.

So as a result those locations would burn out of control as the fire service desperately tried to put them out, but suddenly there are far more fires than they're set up to handle.

 

Even if it didn't lead to that, some of the early Superman comics had him destroying old buildings to force officials to make better buildings.

 

And he didn't fly there and use his breath weapon to put those fires out?

 

No, if I'm remembering this right he purposely set those fires as a warning to not have drugs in this city anymore and said he would do it again if he ever saw drugs there again.

 

In economics we call these things “positive externalities.”

 

Ironically enough, "Paragon Paul" is the one that fails most succinctly to understand the purpose of superheros.

They are exemplars, archetypes, cough paragons even.

Much like Greek hero's and mid gothic pilgrims, we use superhero tales to create examples of correct behavior.

An entire league of pragmatic utilitarians just re-creates modern real politic but with spandex.

That's why the alt universe Justice Society feels so bad, they are just a government. Sure they may be well intentioned but by acting as the deciders of policy rather than the examples of good behavior, they make others subject to their policy. When a person makes a mistake others can call them out on it and engage in restorative justice. When an Institution makes a mistake, the integrity of their mission dictates that they must preserve their power base by concealing it.

Grayven Paul ironically enough, gets this idea so hard he's literally dating it.