Genius #4

[history79]

"Every villain is the hero of his or her own story. But Destiny Ajaye is smart enough to know that she’s the villain of this drama. She is an agent of change. And change is almost always bloody."

- Marc Bernardin

Comments

[informationgeek]

Oh? You skipped the "wonderful" scene where cops undercover got into Destiny's neighborhood and shoot up a bunch of people for no reason. Then they accidentally killed one of Destiny's friends and we were suppose to feel sorry for her, even though the character barely was in the comic and he was completely flat as an individual.


But I guess this works. This is just completely and utterly stupid. Also, it leads Destiny and everyone to start bombing and attacking the National Guard.

[md84]

Kind of interesting that she feels compelled to explain herself to the one person she's met who almost understands her. Here she's more or less admitting that she's doing all of this because she's bored.

[ozaline]

Reminds me of Light Yagami.

[freezer]

She does realize there's an actual army she could've joined to utilize those kind of skills, yes?

ETA: These scans also make it seem like she didn't factor in the Ntional Guard as a possible threat until just now. Which would be impossibly short sighted on her part.

[yvonmukluk]

Also is she supposed to be the frickin' Joker? she 'wants to watch the world burn'? That's her stated goal.

Also how did she even discover she was the next Alexander the Great, anyway? It doesn't seem like she'd have much opportunity to discover that sort of talent in her circumstances, anyway.

Not to mention this smacks of the 'great man' view of history anyway - people like Alexander only got their opportunities because they were already in positions of power (usually though heredity) and got the education to become so important because, again, he was in the right place at the right time. I'm sure many people could have matched his achievements or even surpassed them, but died anonymous to history because they didn't have his opportunities. But despite Destiny apparently being in incredibly poor circumstances to learn these skills (I'm fairly certain gang wars *don't* prepare one for armed insurgency against the government), she's still this military genius, because she's 'Great', never mind the historical context. Of course, the narrative is bending over backwards in her favour anyway, so its not that surprising.

When was this actually published, anyway?

[informationgeek]

This was publish August 2014. It was weekly and happened just before the events in Ferguson.

[wizardru]

The 'Great Man' theory is pretty flawed in that it assumes that certain people would automatically always succeed because they were Just That Good. That doesn't mean that they aren't highly talented, though. History is chock full of people who had the same opportunities and absolutely blew it. The annals of history are overloaded with tales of hereditary rulers who have all the benefits of a seat of power and privelege inherited from their accomplished heirs who steadily lost influence and power, despite all the privileges of rank, title, education and money.

As John Scalzi would describe it, they were playing on the lowest difficulty setting...but that doesn't mean that they would automatically be great or win, simply that they had fewer impediments or challenges.

I don't particularly care for this series...but on the other hand, it's a limited series telling a single story and as much as I dislike how everyone kind of has to act like a moron for her to be the genius, it isn't that far off from how some characters act in a standard superhero story.

[halloweenjack]

Not sure what my favorite part here is, the one where she can just claim to be Internal Affairs and walks right in without anyone questioning her, without even a fake badge (in fact, I only see one cop badge here), or the part where she keeps the very distinct amulet on in plain sight.