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

It's kind of silly that at this point LePaul still isn't trying to contact Hephestus...

 

They didn't. That part was inner monologue.

 

Well since Captain Atom is now President Atom I hope he gets his dilustel shield.

In Arena, multiple Captain Atoms from across the multiverse were shown, including President Atom, who was very much a Captain America expy.

Which has always had me picturing a universe where all the DC characters are expies of Marvel characters, kind of like Heroes Reborn in reverse.

 

So, first it was Angel (is there an official designation for him?), and now Paragon finally shelled out for the DLC. I guess that the Anti-Life Event is a bit too much to F2P it.

 

Damn... I was gonna make the joke that "Looks like Paul finally bought the DLC!"

 

Having considered what happened later in canon, I suspect that this was a deliberate action on Celestia's part. She wanted to quit as sovereign and dump the whole thing on Twilight. If she'd taught Luna how to rule in the modern era, Luna would naturally want to actually rule. Keeping her ignorant left her with a few negative associations and no reason to not go along with the 'retirement' thing.

 

I thought of Sportsmaster too. This seems like his big chance to actually get out of prison without Orange Lantern tracking him down and killing him.

 

I don't think they'd have to worry all that much, since aside from Adams, no civil servant or civilian was spared.

Went from being a disgraced soldier to the leader of a powerful country, though not how he'd like it.

Plus they lose all those souls.

Well there was that attack in Kahndaq, but that was Queen Bee.

I'm kinda reminded of the last episode of JLU.

 

You know, with Maze showing up and Lucifer being mentioned, I can't help but think that she will somehow contact him to deal with this.

Can't wait to see how Darkseid likes dealing with him.

Darkseid: Behold! My power is limitless! All shall fall before Anti_Life!

Lucifer: Hmm, oh now I remember that little thing. Some uppity little void-dweller started spewing nonsense when me, Michael and father were creating the universe and said that he'll rule everything. Killing it was such an annoyance. I guess some of it must have survived. Oh well, I'll finish killing it so that I can go back to traveling.

Dsrkseid: Fool! Nothing can stand up to Anti-Life! I will destroy you!

...

Lucifer:...Riiiiight. Well good luck with that.

 

Technically, Major Adams is only Acting President, and only by virtue of the President's role as Commander in Chief of the US armed forces. Since Major Adams is the highest-ranking American military officer not affected by the Anti-Life and thus not rendered incapable of discharging his duties, he has become the de facto Commander in Chief of what remains of the US military until such time as a higher-ranking officer is able to once again take control of the situation.

Civilian presidential succession is actually very much a matter of established law in the US (it goes Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and then proceeds down the list of Cabinet Secretaries in order of the job's seniority, starting with the Secretary of State and ending, currently, with the Secretary of Homeland Security). Nobody outside that list can technically be President; the non-elected positions must have first had their nominations confirmed by the Senate. That said, the position of Acting President can be (and has been) effectively held by people outside the official chain of succession. The most famous example would probably be from when President Reagan was shot in 1981; during the first press briefing, White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig told the media that, "for the moment, I'm in charge here at the White House, pending the arrival of the Vice President," as VP George Bush (the elder, not GWB) had been on vacation in Maine at the time and needed to fly back to DC. While Haig technically had no actual power (and, had it come up, until they got Bush back in communication, control of the nuclear forces would have been in the hands of the Speaker of the House), he was effectively acting as President until the official line of succession could be brought into play.

At this point, Major Adams isn't, technically, POTUS--he wasn't VP, Speaker, or President Pro Temp, and he was never nominated or confirmed as a Cabinet Secretary--but he's the closest thing that there is to a legitimate head of state the country has and thus people are basically accepting that he's de facto in charge until a legitimate member of the succession is found who is capable of governing. Will he be on the historical list of Presidents? Not unless he's elected (or appointed to a vacant post in the Succession and then becomes President via the succession) in the future, but the buck has to stop somewhere, and he's the highest-ranking person in US government service (civilian or military) who is currently mentally competent to make decisions, and this is a crisis, so the niceties of normal law don't exactly apply for the duration.

 

Yeah, but on the other hand who is he giving orders too? If an Air Force major is the highest ranking officer not affected, that pretty much means that everyone is affected. If he radios out some orders to any random military group he gets one of two responses:
1. Manheim IS!
2. Uh, Major Adams? Who? Well you say you're not affected and that you're the highest ranking officer who isn't, but maybe you're just fighting through it like I am. You tell me what you want me to do and I'll judge if it seems sensible or if the mind control is creeping in.

What I'm trying to add to what you wrote is that it's not like this gives Adams much practical authority. It mattered in this situation because Orange Lantern was telling Waller to do something she wanted to do anyway, and telling her that Adams is "acting president" gives her a legal fig leaf to justify it afterwards. That's all.

 

Sorry. If it helps, technically we're both late on making the joke since King of Frost already did so way back when the AngelPaul bit came out in the first place.

 

The POTUS isn't dead, resigned, or impeached, just incapable of performing his duties, which means that he would be Acting President but not actually President. He wouldn't be included in the historical list of Presidents any more than would a VP who held that role while POTUS was undertaking medical care.

And since this is a case of temporary inability to serve, the rules of the 25th Amendment don't apply, and the Presidential Succession Act doesn't say what to do in such a situation, it falls back to Article II Section 1 Clause 6, which says that Congress may by law declare any Officer of the United States to serve in that position -- and military officers do qualify under this definition. Military officer promotions do, in fact, require Senate confirmation, although typically this is done in bulk without ceremony.

The challenge here is finding a quorum of Congress to make such a declaration. This matter came up in 2004 as the House tried to figure out what to do if a terrorist attack were to incapacitate but not kill the majority of congresspeople. The consensus there is that the quorum could be provisionally reduced in case of extreme emergency -- though that is merely consensus, not conclusion, and as far as I can tell no further action was ever taken. It's still a strong enough consensus that I believe that should the need actually arise in practice that we would probably just run with it on a temporary basis for the duration of the emergency. (I imagine there would be a massive call for review afterward.)

So... I think that what's described here is probably as accurate as it could be!

 

So a quorum of 0 then? Unless Paul has managed to find an unaffected congressman somewhere?

 

If Paul could, depending, that Senator or Congressperson might be Acting President instead.

Still, imagine Captain Atom getting a medal or award for his excellent leadership of the country in time of crisis. In front of Eiling.

More on that, I guess that Billy channeling the shield against Anti-Life requires him to not be transformed to maximize effectiveness. Of course, now he has Waller's consideration. After the crisis, at least.

It will be interesting to see which villains go along- and which end up surviving. It could lead to a very interesting shake up.

 

There is a constitutional argument to be made that congresspeople, as part of the legislative branch, are barred from concurrently holding executive office. There's another argument that they aren't confirmed by the Senate. In either case, a military officer would outrank them in the executive branch barring an explicit act of Congress such as the Presidential Succession Act that makes exceptions for the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

There definitely can't be a quorum of 0; that's division by zero. But there's a pretty solid argument found in the papers of the Founding Fathers that the Constitution shouldn't force the country to fail. In that case, something akin to the "rational basis" test might apply for extremely short-term emergency powers -- when all else fails and there's no established precedent for what to do, the minimum necessary action for the minimum sufficient time that seems to have a reasonable rationale for why that action was chosen over others is the best you can do, and you restore the status quo ante as quickly as possible, with special elections if necessary.

 

This is usually phrased as 'The Constitution is not a suicide pact,' and has been used by people in various parts of the political map at various times for various purposes. It tends to be used in hypotheticals and stories a lot, and while AFAICT this has never needed to be tested in real life, it does make sense.

 

Cut off sentence.
I love the rules lawyering with Mr Crock.

 

I'm a little curious on what exactly they did to Eiling. Is he as strong as the Shaggy Man from the comics?

Forcing all the irredeemable villains to sell their souls. I really want to see the Justice League's reaction to Paul doing this. Also, it's nice that Paul has more options for magic support now that he has Satanus as a new Construct-Lantern.

 

Ah, looks like OL will be walking out of this with at least one new Construct Lantern made from a former foe. And a powerful one at that. Which explains how he's going to do the 'strip their soul out' penalty for the Task Force volunteers.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I suppose that's one way to avoid invoking the 'If I ever see you again...' threat he made. After all, Sportsmaster might still be useful. And good to see at least some of them are joining up of their own free will, rather than by the carrot and the stick.

Oh, you may mock, to make it sound less nasty to them, but this is not going to be easy.

Like I said yesterday. These are the career masterminds, gang bosses and goons. The clever ones, the mean ones and the stupid ones.

Yeah, he can already guess how bad things are if they're waving that big a carrot in front of multiple-murderers, lunatic and outright monsters.

The same thing that happened to everyone else. A big old dose of 'fuck your independent thoughts'. Not a lot would be able to withstand Anti-Life with no warning...

Ooh, the General? I didn't think he'd have gone through the comics storyline that saw his brain implanted in the Shaggy Man. Not in Earth-16...

Ah, right. He fucked up big time... Off-screen, apparently, mentioned as being in prison here. Amusingly, in the same post as the debrief of the League's attack on Apokalips, and a mention of the Infinity Man...

Because of course they would have. Never mind that the Shaggy Man's android body is extremely resilient, and thus unlikely to be harmed much by a bomb, short of it being planted inside Eiling's brain. Nor that Eiling would not be in the most cooperative mood at that point...

This is going to be a shadow war against Mannheim. Small elite unites hitting targets of opportunity. Just the thing the Suicide Squad was made for!

Admitting that does give them more leverage in negotiations, though. Even with the promise of a pardon, some of them will probably be considering just fucking off when they're deployed...

Ah, a pleasant specimen of humanity, isn't he? God knows how many reasons he has to hate OL on principle...

...And every man there feels a chill run down their spine... Because OL smiling is not necessarily good for them.

Ah, Icicle I. The father of one Cameron Mahkent, who's an old friend of Artemis, who played a part in the foiled breakout from year one. Like father, like son... Though they don't really get along.

And as noted, those can be subverted or foiled. I suspect OL's idea is far more reliable...

...Okay, that's one way to enforce loyalty in these matters.

And with the mechanism of it being tied to OL's control, means Waller won't be as capable of abusing the system as she sometimes did in the comics...

Which are not likely to be good thoughts. Wonder if this could be one of the many straws that ruin Batman's relationship with OL?

And no doubt his reputation precedes him, so those present will understand just what will face them if they double-cross him, even without the contract's penalty.

Knives available on request, I suppose?

So, no pressure, gentlemen. After all, this isn't the only wing he has to make the offer to...

Mammoth, no doubt concerned about his sister. They always were close.

Ah, peer pressure. The best method to encourage acquiescence. Once Mammoth signed, and didn't instantly die, the rest were more likely to follow. Then the desperate ones sign. And finally the reluctant ones. Persuasion skill check aced, OL.

And so the Suicide Squad Task Force X gains its first official recruits. I expect many on the ladies' side will sign on as well, especially if they consider what might happen to those who remain behind... And the League gains an army of its' own. One made of barely-restrained criminals half-pressed into service, but an army nonetheless. What happens next will be a sight to see, I think.

---

His aim, so far as we can tell, is make everyone feel so completely miserable...

Joar Mahkent's face is impassive.

 

...As what? As WHAT!? I MUST KNOW!

 

New Construct Lantern acquired!

I know it's a messed up thing to do, but damn, it is the signature move of the Orange Light! Had I an orange ring I would Identity Thieving left, right and center!

And nice way of giving certainty to this Suicide Squad (or is it battalion?). No bomb in their necks, but a one way instant ticket to Hell, and depending on how the contract was worded it could activate with a simple thought to betray, double cross or escape.

 

I don't like this. I get that this is a crisis situation, but literally enslaving people forever is not going to go over well with anyone.

 

It's kinda fucked when the chips are down OL resorts to the fuckery he was trying to reform out of in the last arc. But what are you gonna do.

 

Paul has no fucks left to give. The situation must be hitting him hard.

 

Am I the only one who's kind of disappointed we didnt get to see Satanus becoming a Construct-Lantern? I mean, the whole stick of the OL Corps is enslaving your enemies for eternity, and we don't really see that happen since... I think Von Daggle (Savage if we go by finished Assimilations)? I get why we don't see it a lot cause it's a Fate Worse Than Death, but still, it'd be nice to see the Construct-Lanterns once in a while.

Hope the next chapter shows how Satanus thinks of his new life? Being a slave and all. Plus, keeping him out to fight will probably be helpful with everything cause Paul needs all the help he can get.

 

Want the ends, want the means.

 

"Technically, Satanus was serving a life sentence in the United States of America, which, as an immortal, would continue until he was killed by outside means. The Thirteenth Amendment still permits slavery as punishment for a crime. Given he was in Federal prison, and I am acting under the authority of Acting President Adams, the conversion of Satanus into a construct is legal, despite being indefinite and irreversible slavery."

I do suspect OL is going to take a hefty number of Renegade points in the coming chapters, even if we don't see the Renegade symbol anymore.

 

From yesterday:

‘helmets’

I don’t think he is enslaving anyone. I got the impression that these criminals will be allowed to go free at the end of this crisis. Unless you meant Satanus, but I think assimilation is more like killing someone and creating a compliant clone than slavery.

I’ve always felt that assimilation is criminally underused by Paragon. One of the things I really liked about Warhammer Paul was his army of Construct-Lanterns.

I feel that the thing with blurring Crock is a bit silly. If he’d had sworn a binding magical oath or something, I’d understand, but is he really so unwilling to break his word that he’ll use a technicality like this? The circumstances are special enough that nobody would be likely to blame him, and if they’d blame him anyway then it’s unlikely that the technicality would be enough to stop them.