Evil Empire #3

[history79]

"I know it's a very far-fetched scenario and that's why it's an entertaining comic book. At the same time, I'm the type of guy who feels that insecurity on these tiny levels, even when I see a guy like -- I hate to pick on him -- but Kanye West. This is a guy who's extremely talented and a great musician, but his ego is insane. He's in this position of power culturally where a lot of people are listening to what he's saying. Every time I see someone like that and they say disappointing, ego-maniacal or amoral stuff, it kind of scares me. Or if I'm at a party and I see some guy being picked on passive-aggressively because someone else wants to feel cool. These things scare and disturb me. They make me wonder about the nature of our society and if humans really just want to fuck each other over. Or, at least, a lot of us. If we were given the freedom to just do whatever the hell we wanted and be dicks and kill and rape and maim, would we do it? I think the sad part is that a lot of people would."

- Max Bemis




8 pages of 24









Present Day:

Comments

[scelestus]

Great, now I'm in the mood for curried blunt. Thanks.

[silicondream]

This story would be much better if Kanye West were the emperor of Evil America.

I mean, that wouldn't make it good, but it'd be more entertaining.

[reveen]

That's not a blunt.

No seriously, that's clearly not a cigar.

Also, lol at signaling how eeeeevil this society is by having them smoke weed in bars. Do we have people having the Sex and girls wearing skirts that go up to their knees too?

Like, apparently in Evil Empire world lacing in weed means... flavoring? And that's apparently terrible.

[matrix_dragon]

Wait wait, so Mister 'Boring Generic Evil Speech' was just making shit up? What, for a really badly done insanity plea, even by comic book standards? That makes the fact he somehow talked America into going utterly mad... well, still really stupid, but kinda funny, in a 'Planet of morons' kind of way.

[fra080389]

so the daughter is the big bad master mind?

[skjam]

That's my guess too as it would be the most "shocking."

[wizardru]

Let me guess, the 'shocking twist' is that his daughter is the evil mastermind? This gets weirder and weirder.

You know, I didn't really like that series 'Genius', where the main character was a criminal mastermind and tactical genius because the LAPD and government were total idiots, but they tracked about ten times better than this.

[cypherfdp]

I like to think that, in this world, the US has literally changed its name to The United States of Evil.

[mastermahan]

Oh my god, those people we saw gun down two men in cold blood are... smoking pot!!! Now I know they're bad guys!

Evil Empire might be the best comedy book of 2016.

[filthysize]

Isn't it... the exact opposite? I feel like the intent here is to normalize them. The whole point of the book is the banality of evil thing, that these gestapo-like baddies are not deranged psychopaths but regular idiots who like to smoke pot and drink tequila like pretty much every young person you know.

[lordultimus]

Yeah, but the thing about pot apparently being everywhere seems to be a sign of how corrupt everything is.

Y'know, as if the people in the background screwing each other in public wasn't enough.

[mastermahan]

Exactly. If it was just these two hanging around and talking about, say, blond guy's crush on Evil Imperial Stormtrooper Janet, then it might be the banality of evil. Instead, they're talking about how much they love being evil.

Also, apparently being productive is considered a negative here? How exactly does that make for a functioning society?

[filthysize]

Hmm, all right, sure. I thought all it was showing was that this society is more tolerant of hedonism. Marijuana bars where you can order joints just like what's depicted already exist in the US today, so I feel like it's pretty fair to imagine a near future where that's become more common, dystopia or not. I was merely questioning how the pot smoking is meant to say anything about these two characters's evilness any more than them drinking alcohol does, because I read it more about contrasting their job as authoritarian cops with them fucking around having good times.

[lordultimus]

Who wants to be that the resistance will turn out to be eeeeevillll too?

[mastermahan]

To quote from Star Control 2:

Captain: Do you really consider yourselves Evil?

Ilwrath: Ha! Evil! Of Course We're Evil! Dogar And Kazon Would Never Reward A Less-Than-Hideously Evil Species With Their Baleful Grace. Why We Are The Very Definition Of Evil! Everything About Us, Within And Without, Reeks Of Heinous Deeds, Deceit And Treachery! Even Our House Pets Are Rather Evil.

Captain: But 'evil' is that which is morally bad or wrong. And if your actions are judged by your society as correct, aren't you, in fact, good?

Ilwrath: Hmmm... We ARE All Evil. We All Behave In A Mutually Agreed-Upon Fashion Of Murder, Torture, Deceit And So Forth. Our Uniform Acceptance Of This Heinous Credo Creates An Orderly And Cooperative Society. Which Hardly Seems Evil. Evil Is Doing Things That Make Others Hurt Or Fear. We ALL Do That, Of Course. But Since We ALL Do Such Things, As Sanctioned By Our Culture, It Would Be `Bad' To Do Otherwise. Which Means... Er... Puny Hu-Man, Do Not Play With Words! You Anger Both Dogar And Kazon! Now You Must Die!

[shadur]

You gotta hand it to Toys For Bob. They wrote a more compelling and interesting Culture of Obvious And Unmitigated Evil more than twenty years ago, and they did it as a side note while writing a dozen other distinct species in a game that fit on a couple of 3.5" floppy disks.

This is just third-rate hackery by someone who apparently thinks surprise murders are shocking and edgy plot twists.