Annotated 32-7
As Flo pointed out to me several times over the course of the series, Superman vs. bank robbers is not usually an interesting fight. Assigned to do that scene, most people would have Superman relax and have fun, smirking as the bullets bounce off him, confident in his invulnerability and ability to protect others from harm. Still, there’s no challenge there, no real conflict, so you either want to rush past the scene or find some new angle to make it novel.
None of our heroes are quite Superman, but we wanted things to feel similarly lopsided in their favor here. So how to make that interesting? Setting up a montage pace is a good start, but even that’s a little generic. We instead took the opportunity to show an aspect of Gastonian life we hadn’t really focused on, but which would have important roles in both the next set of chapters and the finale.
Of course, flipping through headlines has been a standard narrative trick since Citizen Kane at least, but the sort of propaganda/”news” popular with the average Gastonian citizen was here an important thing to establish. Right at this moment, it’s working in our heroes’ favor, but lines like “nothing is truly free” and “our glorious hometown defenders” might still arch an eyebrow or two.
Gods damn, that illustrator made E-Merl look majestic.
I like the hat-tip to the end of “Stripes” (“Northern Outpost Welcomes New Commander”)!
I was wondering if anyone would get that! ;-D
Gastonia might be a flawed society, but any medieval-ish society that has enough literate individuals to support a gazette is doing something right
Isn’t it Renaissance-ish with Steampunky levels of Industrialist Era?
Rather Gazetteery times.
You know what? You’re right. I always think “Middle Ages” when I think of elves, wizards and hulking barbarians with fuzzy speedos, but now that you point that out, Gastonia is rather Renaissancey. They’re doing even better than I thought as a society
E-Merl sure is styling with that funky and clean look and Bragga’s looking buff, it’s a nice “media enhanced” bit, but honestly Johan Wandversagen for the illustrator has to be my favorite part.
Ja, er ist ein guter Künstler und auch ein wirklich netter Kerl!
He later emigrated and changed his name to “John Wallfail”…
I’d suggest the more direct translation “Wandstolper” — not that that made any more sense, seeing as how walls don’t usually trip, which I suspect is not really the origin of your last name, either. But it sounds a more like a name you might encounter in Germany or Austria.
It looks like there are a bunch of cultists walking around behind Byron.