Supurbia #3 -

[lucky_gamble]

Last we saw, the son was in a tight spot in issue #2...
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4143090.html

The dad, having his suspicions, finds his son escaping the group of warriors after him...

Comments

[auggie18]

I'm glad the dad had a back-up plan and that they both escaped. Really hoping a divorce is soon to follow because, seriously.

This family is the most interesting part of the book. I actually care what happens next to them. How will the daughter take the news that her mom tried to murder her brother? Will the mom go all stab happy at poor Eli again? I genuinely want to know what's going to happen! Don't even remember the other families' stories...

(Not!Batman cheated on his wife with not!Robin and someone's dating a super villainess, I think.)

[shadowpsykie]

Unman I don't think Not!WonderWoman wants to kill the son anymore. It would be cool if she took to training him to defend himself.

Also teeheehee to Not!Batman and Not!Robin affair :)

[auggie18]

Why do you think she's not trying to kill him anymore? Last time we saw her, she was trying to play stabbycakes with him.

If I were that dad, I would do everything in power to keep her the hell away from my son.

[shadowpsykie]

Wasn't that before the others wanted to use him as beefing stock and then helped him escape?

[auggie18]

Yeah, but I'm not really seeing her having any major attitude changes. She tried to give him an "honorable death." They wanted him for the breeding pits. She saved him from a situation she put him in solely because it wouldn't kill him in the proper manner.


Even if she doesn't try and kill him "properly" later, I see no reason for him to ever talk to her ever again.

[captainbellman]

They might play it later that she's had this attitude because she knew from the moment of his birth that her tribe would be trying to destroy him for the horrible crime of being male, so she brought him to the island to have him killed with due ceremony and respect rather than by subterfuge or assassination. Get it done on her own terms, sort of thing.

And, hey, no mother would want their child as an unwilling sex slave for the rest of their natural life. It's twisted, but some would prefer death as an alternative.

[auggie18]

She was perfectly content with ignoring him for about eight years until she discovered he had super powers. Then she brought him to a very specific place to be very specifically killed. I'm not even sure that her people knew he existed until she brought him before the council to be killed.


I just really can't see this being played to make her sympathetic at all.

[silicondream]

And, hey, no mother would want their child as an unwilling sex slave for the rest of their natural life.

The council didn't say it would be for the rest of his natural life, so far as I can see, and he didn't say he was unwilling. He didn't get a chance to express an opinion at all. (I mean, it's probably not his ideal way to spend the next few years, but it could be way better than death.)

Eli's the first male they've ever wanted to incorporate into their society in any capacity, and they seem respectful of--if terrified by--his abilities. They also seem far more willing to have actual conversations with him than his own mother is. They could be planning to shackle him to a dungeon wall and rape him every couple of hours for the rest of his life, but they could also be planning to raise him as a reasonably-free member of the tribe who just has a general obligation to impregnate a certain number of warriors per year. Or something.

Batu doesn't know--she can't know, given how badly she's miscalculated the council's response so far--and she's apparently uninterested in finding out the details of the plan or Eli's feelings about any of it. She simply prefers him dead to sexually dishonored, full stop.

Which is pretty realistic if she's a high-status person coming from a mirror-patriarchy, IMO.

[silverhammerman]

Motto, this is the coolest looking thing in the book. It's somewhat predictable, but it's still not something I've seen done a lot of times, unlike gay Batman and Robin or heroes marrying reformed villains. Though I do think this might be the first time I've seen a gay crimefighting duo that wasn't played for cheap laughs or squickiness.
It seems like this family is really the only noteworthy part of the book from what I've seen.

[sinisterlink]

Awwww...that dragon's face is so cute when it pops up for the fish. Also love the women being all like, "We have Batu! We're gonna tell her that you guys left her behind!" After what has happened, at this point I'd be like, "Yeah, well you can also tell her that I'm getting a restraining order to keep her away from our kids and also, all of you can go screw yourselves". Seriously.

[silicondream]

Yeah, that's another good mirror-patriarchy moment. You gotta be loyal and stick with your husband even if he abuses you, etc.

[akodo_rokku]

Things are looking up for Wonder Boy!

I am calling him that forever.

[md84]

Okay, so Eli just found out his mother is willing to kill him for the sake of "honor" and her society of female warriors wants to make him into a breeding horse.

But he also got a pet dragon.

This is either the most awful or the most awesome day of his life.

[captainbellman]

So is super-strength passed down by blood in this family, from Mum to Son? Because I'm finding it hard to fathom how the weight of a falling full-grown man didn't pull the kid's hand off at the wrist, or at least rope-burn his palm into a bloody mess.

[auggie18]

Yeah, the reason the mother wanted to play human sacrifice with her son is because it looks like he got the super powers and her daughter didn't. (Or they both got them and the daughter is just not using them.)

[md84]

I think the daughter has them too. In the last issue of the original series, the mother attacked her daughter with deadly intent in a desperate attempt to force her to develop powers (she's not Mother of the Year material) and it worked. That's also the incident that forced Eli to reveal his powers; he wall-jumped in the hallway and shot a dart into his mom's neck to stop her rampage. She called him an abomination before passing out (really not Mother of the Year material).

[silicondream]

In the last issue of the original series, the mother attacked her daughter with deadly intent in a desperate attempt to force her to develop powers (she's not Mother of the Year material) and it worked.

It worked? I thought the daughter and her neighbor just tried to fake it working so that the mom would stop attacking her, and the mom wasn't fooled. (Which is why Eli had to knock her out after all.)

[cypherfdp]

Eli doesn't really have much of a reason to hesitate, considering that A, his mom is more than capable of taking care of herself, and B, she just tried to ceremonially sacrifice him.

[md84]

Rationally, he really shouldn't want anything to do with her anymore. But she's his mom. Familial connections tend to complicate things.