Post by codystarbuck on Mar 28, 2019 15:03:50 GMT -5
Supreme Power #15
So, what keeps Redstone from flying or leaping up to the bars and ripping them out; or, smashing through the walls?
Creative Team: Dave Sharpe is the new computer operator, on the lettering. Just kidding; the computer is still just a tool andthe art is in how you use it.
Synopsis: General Alexander begins an interrogation of Michael Redstone. Gen Alexander outlines the cell, which uses halothane, a heavier than air anaesthetic to keep Redstone too incoherent to smash out of the cell or rip open the top. The general, at any time can also release cyanide gas to kill Redstone, via asphyxiation.
Meanwhile, Mark and Kyle have a chat. Kyle berates Mark for turning Redstone over to the government and Mark retorts with the question of what other option was there? Kyle speaks of bringing him to justice, in a court, so the victims could have closure. Mark says that would only happen with his dead body and Kyle replies he has no problem with that. That sparks a debate about Kyle's attitude vs Stan. Stan had nothing and is a friendly, nice, receptive person. Kyle has everything and is a ball of anger and hate. Kyle responds with an analogy that came from Malcolm X, about the life of the "House Negro" vs the "Field Negro."
Stan has just returned from the red herring errand that Kyle sent him on for privacy. He slings newspapers into Kyle's gut and tells him to F off. Mark gets in a word about opening old wounds, as blood seeps through Kyle's bandages.
I'll get back to the interrogation of Redstone in a minute. It is broken up with vignettes. The first features Gen Alexander meeting with Col. (formerly corporal) Joe Ledger, giving him a new assignment and showing him a tabloid newspaper, with the original photo of the aquatic creature (Amphibian) and a woman who killed an Italian police unit (Zarda). he is sent to find them and others and bring them in for detention and control.
Stan and Mark meet and have dinner, as Mark confides about his programming and detection of the fabrication. Stan talks about Kyle's anger and feelings that everyone who doesn't share it is deluded. he wouldn't be there if Kyle didn't do a lot of great good. Still, the attitude wears upon him. Mark speaks of the 500 lb gorilla and gives a demonstration as he burns the bill for the meal, intimidating the waiter to comp it. Stan objects and Mark explains that people like them are outside the general consensus that defines law and morality.
Joe Ledger meets up with Amphibian and bestows upon her the name Kingsley Rice, from someone he knew. He then shows the photo and asks for the story.
Gen Alexander continues the interrogation of Redstone, or, rather, exposition. Redstone enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18; but failed to complete boot camp. He was rejected by the Tallahassee Police Department, moved to Chicago and was turned down by the police there. Alexander suggests he sought a uniform to convey a sense of power, rather than service. He joined the National Guard, while moving from job to job, due to a violent temper. he killed his first prostitute in an unplanned moment, possibly during a fantasy scenario that went wrong. He paid the hotel for another hour and stared at the dead body, feeling calm for the first time in his life. He had found his calling. He began to use his uniform to put prostitutes at ease, making them believe he was a soldier on leave. He was methodical and smart, except for his trophies and their storage. He is humiliated by a female sergeant, in the National Guard and murders her, slowly, over a prolonged period, taking souvenirs.
He buried some on the spot where she chewed him out and had evidence in his locker, uncovered during a random drug search.
Redstone was court martialed and sentenced to prison, where, after 4 years, he was recruited for the DNA experiment. We see, in a glass jar, a tiny man in skivvies, who profanely tells Redstone to move on. We also see the failures. Redstone eventually escaped, releasing an undetermined number of prisoners. Undetermined because it is classified, though how many truly had special abilities is unknown. Alexander then comes to a proposition, that hinges on an honest answer to his question: "Why do you kill?" Redstone replies because he can, because he is good at it and he likes it.
The general offers his proposition. The US has enemies that need removal, but collateral damage is a problem. Redstone would be sent into one of these problems, where he can kill and cause the people to respond to their government's inability to protect them from a monster. he can also kill the leaders, to create a power void, until someone more receptive to US interests is in power. Then he can move on to the next country. Redstone smiles at the idea.
Thoughts: JMS gets to the heart of Kyle's attitude, presenting Kyle's rationale for his anger and hatred of "the system." It isn't just the system, it's racial and it is species, if you consider the super powered to be a new species of man (or in Mark's case, an alien species). He presents the counter to the secrecy of Redstone's detention and existence, establishing strong arguments against government secrecy and control. he also argues about the limits on the super powered.
The arguments about the powered echo Mr Garibaldi, the security chief of Babylon 5, in the wake of the Shadow War. He comes to feel that Capt. Sheridan is exercising too much power and influence, for personal gain, with no limits on him. He sees alien influence and also Sheridan imposing his will and his ideas of morality on the people, rather than rule by their elected government, ignoring that a coup was effectively orchestrated by Clarke, with the aid of the Shadows. We later learn that Garibaldi is under the control of Bester and the Psi Corps, having been captured and conditioned by them to get close to an industrialist who has developed a genetic virus that attacks only telepaths.
Redstone brings to mind several dark little episodes in US history; most involving the military and the CIA. During Vietnam, the Phoenix Program was initiated by the CIA and carried out by members of the military, under CIA direction. Various communist leaders and military personnel were singled out for assassination, which was carried out through special forces operatives and hired mercenaries (Nungs, ethnic Chinese; montagnards, the people of the mountain regions, who were at odds with the Vietnamese, and others). The program was uncovered and created a stir in government and the media, as the thought of assassination as a weapon flew in the face of American principles, the rules of warfare (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and US law. There were the CIA coups in places like Guatemala and Iran, the training of government sponsored terror agents, in the School of the Americas, development of bio-weapons and chemical agents, and the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking to the US, to fund covert operations in Nicaragua (the Contras) and other operations. Then, there was the use of drones for assassination in recent wars and the hunting and killing of Bin Laden. Much debate has raged over these policies and operations, questioning the morality vs the need to end their threat in further attacks. The question becomes how far principles will be compromised in search of security? How much liberty is given up for safety? And, when you give in on these points, how long before you give up your liberty?
Redstone has now been weaponized, sent to destroy targets designated by a very small bunch, who are not elected officials, subject to the will of the people. They are functionaries within the government, make decisions without input from the populace. These were the charges against the Dulles CIA, which was caught up in scandals to assassinate Castro, and regain control of Cuba, which had carried out a rebellion to free itself of exploitation by American interests, both economic and criminal. This led to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the comedy of errors that were the assassination attempts, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was a mixture of Cold War power plays and Castro seeking a defense against US incursion.
Similar charges were brought against the CIA's role in the War on Terror, with extraordinary rendition, foreign torture prisons, questionable internees, imprisonment without trial, and similar things. Various quasi-legal justifications were trotted out; but, it still boiled down to how far is society willing to go in pursuit of safety and security and does it achieve it, when those extreme means are pursued?
The scarier thought here, though, is how can Gen Alexander be assured that he can control Redstone? He thinks he has a smart weapon to inflict upon a target; but, smart weapons are single use. Alexander intends to reuse. What makes him think that he can direct Redstone any more than the previous masters could direct Mark, once he started asking questions? Redstone is intelligent and clever; who says the same trick will work again if capture is necessary? What of the other missing prisoners? How much does Redstone know of there whereabouts and abilities? What happens if he assembles his own little team?
There is yet another parallel to Miracleman here. In issue 15, Kid Miracleman has a piece of steel reinforced concrete teleported into his skull, by a Warpsmith. It causes intense pain and leads to KM saying the change word and switching places with young Johnny Bates, who is killed by Miracleman. However, as we later see, KM's body still exists in underspace and can be retrieved by other means, as a running piece of the Golden Age is a probe to Underspace, which brings back genetic material from the husk that is the fused body of Dickie Dauntless and Young Miracleman. MM succeeds in cloning Young Miracleman's body and returning Dickie's consciousness to it, with the technology of the Warpsmiths and Qys. However, in the Silver Age, Gaiman seemed to be leading to a frightened and confused Young Miracleman causing the release of Kid Miracleman, returning the terror of that figure to this utopia. Redstone is Kid Miracleman, off in his own world, until circumstances bring him back.
We also have the Joe Ledger subplot of his mission to locate others: DLDC. Detect, Locate, Detain, Control, as the general says. he starts with Amphibian, who he knows. The suggestion is that Zarda will be a different story and what happens when she is in the presence of of the crystal? Meanwhile, when did he get a promotion? At the start, he is a corporal; an enlisted rank. Now, he holds the officer rank of colonel, which is a divisional command rank, just shy of general. That's a pretty big leap. Did JMS get confused about Ledger's rank? Did he intend colonel in the beginning or did he forget corporal now? Civilians!
We see Tom Thumb, the tiny vulgar man. Here, he is more the Silver Age Atom, than the original, who was a mix of the smaller stature of the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt (though even smaller) and the scientific genius of Ray Palmer.
JMS is building towards the team; but, he is also building the opposition. Nighthawk is the one outside it all, while Stan seems to be the real wildcard. Which side will he, ultimately chose? And, is he more powerful than perceived, due to the application of his speed? Check out Justice League Unlimited episode "The Great Brain Robbery," where Flask and Lex Luthor's minds are swapped between bodies. Luthor applies his intellect to Flash's abilities, in ways that Wally never considered. He proves to be a one man army.
So, what keeps Redstone from flying or leaping up to the bars and ripping them out; or, smashing through the walls?
Creative Team: Dave Sharpe is the new computer operator, on the lettering. Just kidding; the computer is still just a tool andthe art is in how you use it.
Synopsis: General Alexander begins an interrogation of Michael Redstone. Gen Alexander outlines the cell, which uses halothane, a heavier than air anaesthetic to keep Redstone too incoherent to smash out of the cell or rip open the top. The general, at any time can also release cyanide gas to kill Redstone, via asphyxiation.
Meanwhile, Mark and Kyle have a chat. Kyle berates Mark for turning Redstone over to the government and Mark retorts with the question of what other option was there? Kyle speaks of bringing him to justice, in a court, so the victims could have closure. Mark says that would only happen with his dead body and Kyle replies he has no problem with that. That sparks a debate about Kyle's attitude vs Stan. Stan had nothing and is a friendly, nice, receptive person. Kyle has everything and is a ball of anger and hate. Kyle responds with an analogy that came from Malcolm X, about the life of the "House Negro" vs the "Field Negro."
Stan has just returned from the red herring errand that Kyle sent him on for privacy. He slings newspapers into Kyle's gut and tells him to F off. Mark gets in a word about opening old wounds, as blood seeps through Kyle's bandages.
I'll get back to the interrogation of Redstone in a minute. It is broken up with vignettes. The first features Gen Alexander meeting with Col. (formerly corporal) Joe Ledger, giving him a new assignment and showing him a tabloid newspaper, with the original photo of the aquatic creature (Amphibian) and a woman who killed an Italian police unit (Zarda). he is sent to find them and others and bring them in for detention and control.
Stan and Mark meet and have dinner, as Mark confides about his programming and detection of the fabrication. Stan talks about Kyle's anger and feelings that everyone who doesn't share it is deluded. he wouldn't be there if Kyle didn't do a lot of great good. Still, the attitude wears upon him. Mark speaks of the 500 lb gorilla and gives a demonstration as he burns the bill for the meal, intimidating the waiter to comp it. Stan objects and Mark explains that people like them are outside the general consensus that defines law and morality.
Joe Ledger meets up with Amphibian and bestows upon her the name Kingsley Rice, from someone he knew. He then shows the photo and asks for the story.
Gen Alexander continues the interrogation of Redstone, or, rather, exposition. Redstone enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18; but failed to complete boot camp. He was rejected by the Tallahassee Police Department, moved to Chicago and was turned down by the police there. Alexander suggests he sought a uniform to convey a sense of power, rather than service. He joined the National Guard, while moving from job to job, due to a violent temper. he killed his first prostitute in an unplanned moment, possibly during a fantasy scenario that went wrong. He paid the hotel for another hour and stared at the dead body, feeling calm for the first time in his life. He had found his calling. He began to use his uniform to put prostitutes at ease, making them believe he was a soldier on leave. He was methodical and smart, except for his trophies and their storage. He is humiliated by a female sergeant, in the National Guard and murders her, slowly, over a prolonged period, taking souvenirs.
He buried some on the spot where she chewed him out and had evidence in his locker, uncovered during a random drug search.
Redstone was court martialed and sentenced to prison, where, after 4 years, he was recruited for the DNA experiment. We see, in a glass jar, a tiny man in skivvies, who profanely tells Redstone to move on. We also see the failures. Redstone eventually escaped, releasing an undetermined number of prisoners. Undetermined because it is classified, though how many truly had special abilities is unknown. Alexander then comes to a proposition, that hinges on an honest answer to his question: "Why do you kill?" Redstone replies because he can, because he is good at it and he likes it.
The general offers his proposition. The US has enemies that need removal, but collateral damage is a problem. Redstone would be sent into one of these problems, where he can kill and cause the people to respond to their government's inability to protect them from a monster. he can also kill the leaders, to create a power void, until someone more receptive to US interests is in power. Then he can move on to the next country. Redstone smiles at the idea.
Thoughts: JMS gets to the heart of Kyle's attitude, presenting Kyle's rationale for his anger and hatred of "the system." It isn't just the system, it's racial and it is species, if you consider the super powered to be a new species of man (or in Mark's case, an alien species). He presents the counter to the secrecy of Redstone's detention and existence, establishing strong arguments against government secrecy and control. he also argues about the limits on the super powered.
The arguments about the powered echo Mr Garibaldi, the security chief of Babylon 5, in the wake of the Shadow War. He comes to feel that Capt. Sheridan is exercising too much power and influence, for personal gain, with no limits on him. He sees alien influence and also Sheridan imposing his will and his ideas of morality on the people, rather than rule by their elected government, ignoring that a coup was effectively orchestrated by Clarke, with the aid of the Shadows. We later learn that Garibaldi is under the control of Bester and the Psi Corps, having been captured and conditioned by them to get close to an industrialist who has developed a genetic virus that attacks only telepaths.
Redstone brings to mind several dark little episodes in US history; most involving the military and the CIA. During Vietnam, the Phoenix Program was initiated by the CIA and carried out by members of the military, under CIA direction. Various communist leaders and military personnel were singled out for assassination, which was carried out through special forces operatives and hired mercenaries (Nungs, ethnic Chinese; montagnards, the people of the mountain regions, who were at odds with the Vietnamese, and others). The program was uncovered and created a stir in government and the media, as the thought of assassination as a weapon flew in the face of American principles, the rules of warfare (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and US law. There were the CIA coups in places like Guatemala and Iran, the training of government sponsored terror agents, in the School of the Americas, development of bio-weapons and chemical agents, and the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking to the US, to fund covert operations in Nicaragua (the Contras) and other operations. Then, there was the use of drones for assassination in recent wars and the hunting and killing of Bin Laden. Much debate has raged over these policies and operations, questioning the morality vs the need to end their threat in further attacks. The question becomes how far principles will be compromised in search of security? How much liberty is given up for safety? And, when you give in on these points, how long before you give up your liberty?
Redstone has now been weaponized, sent to destroy targets designated by a very small bunch, who are not elected officials, subject to the will of the people. They are functionaries within the government, make decisions without input from the populace. These were the charges against the Dulles CIA, which was caught up in scandals to assassinate Castro, and regain control of Cuba, which had carried out a rebellion to free itself of exploitation by American interests, both economic and criminal. This led to the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the comedy of errors that were the assassination attempts, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was a mixture of Cold War power plays and Castro seeking a defense against US incursion.
Similar charges were brought against the CIA's role in the War on Terror, with extraordinary rendition, foreign torture prisons, questionable internees, imprisonment without trial, and similar things. Various quasi-legal justifications were trotted out; but, it still boiled down to how far is society willing to go in pursuit of safety and security and does it achieve it, when those extreme means are pursued?
The scarier thought here, though, is how can Gen Alexander be assured that he can control Redstone? He thinks he has a smart weapon to inflict upon a target; but, smart weapons are single use. Alexander intends to reuse. What makes him think that he can direct Redstone any more than the previous masters could direct Mark, once he started asking questions? Redstone is intelligent and clever; who says the same trick will work again if capture is necessary? What of the other missing prisoners? How much does Redstone know of there whereabouts and abilities? What happens if he assembles his own little team?
There is yet another parallel to Miracleman here. In issue 15, Kid Miracleman has a piece of steel reinforced concrete teleported into his skull, by a Warpsmith. It causes intense pain and leads to KM saying the change word and switching places with young Johnny Bates, who is killed by Miracleman. However, as we later see, KM's body still exists in underspace and can be retrieved by other means, as a running piece of the Golden Age is a probe to Underspace, which brings back genetic material from the husk that is the fused body of Dickie Dauntless and Young Miracleman. MM succeeds in cloning Young Miracleman's body and returning Dickie's consciousness to it, with the technology of the Warpsmiths and Qys. However, in the Silver Age, Gaiman seemed to be leading to a frightened and confused Young Miracleman causing the release of Kid Miracleman, returning the terror of that figure to this utopia. Redstone is Kid Miracleman, off in his own world, until circumstances bring him back.
We also have the Joe Ledger subplot of his mission to locate others: DLDC. Detect, Locate, Detain, Control, as the general says. he starts with Amphibian, who he knows. The suggestion is that Zarda will be a different story and what happens when she is in the presence of of the crystal? Meanwhile, when did he get a promotion? At the start, he is a corporal; an enlisted rank. Now, he holds the officer rank of colonel, which is a divisional command rank, just shy of general. That's a pretty big leap. Did JMS get confused about Ledger's rank? Did he intend colonel in the beginning or did he forget corporal now? Civilians!
We see Tom Thumb, the tiny vulgar man. Here, he is more the Silver Age Atom, than the original, who was a mix of the smaller stature of the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt (though even smaller) and the scientific genius of Ray Palmer.
JMS is building towards the team; but, he is also building the opposition. Nighthawk is the one outside it all, while Stan seems to be the real wildcard. Which side will he, ultimately chose? And, is he more powerful than perceived, due to the application of his speed? Check out Justice League Unlimited episode "The Great Brain Robbery," where Flask and Lex Luthor's minds are swapped between bodies. Luthor applies his intellect to Flash's abilities, in ways that Wally never considered. He proves to be a one man army.
