#I'm hoping that something big does happen to expose the evil behind the Neo Heroes

[gofancyninjaworld]

Webcomic Chapter 143 Review

Fetch yourself a cup of tea or beverage of choice: this is a long one.

Story Summary

In brief, we are staying with the scenes of the last chapter, and have moved our viewpoint to take in the responses of various heroes from the two organisations as they try to deal with the influx of killer robots as the latter scythe down civilians and pulverise buildings.

Straight away, we see very different fates play out. Lightning Max cautiously sizes up a single robot and tries to work out who best to tackle one that shrugs off his blows nonchalantly, but soon a sea of robots approach, driving before them a wave of panicked civilians. Max's feet are shot out from under him and he is surely at the end as a robot takes aim at him, but...

No lie, when I first saw these panels I felt so ill I had to stop reading for a few minutes

... the shot is absorbed by an armoured figure and Mumen Rider -- no Neo Mumen now -- protects him. He carries Max off to safety.

Around the various locals, it is a similar story of pro-heroes struggling to make headway against the robots, only to find Neo Heroes sweep in to make short work of them. Even former pro-heroes (we met this lot suffering in chapter 138) who've taken up with the Neo Heroes are finding it easy.

Who needs courage or skill when you've got tech?

The situation reaches its apogee with Tank Top Master. He finds it easy enough to destroy the robots, but is prevented from ploughing through them by needing to defend his comrades who were felled after mistaking approaching figures for escaping civilians. He's desperate to fight back but moving means abandoning his comrades to die.

what a bind!

Relief arrives in the form of the Neo Hero Hunter group, but with it comes real ugliness. The Hunters start mincing up the robots and are hailed as the true heroes of the day by the present civilians. Fair enough, however, when Tank Top Master asks for help moving his comrades to safety so he can join the offence, only to be so rudely rebuffed the man is left stunned into silence.

Tank Top Master is really too nice

The chapter closes with Axel's thoughts as he and his team destroy the robots. He sees this as the start of a society kept safe from monsters by universally-worn power armour from the Neo Heroes. If the world has changed, then so must mankind.

And he will permit no one to stand in the way of this vision.

Oh. Dear.

Much more below the cut!

Meta: Roundup Ready

A: So this is how you kill an organisation

Unless something big and wonderful happens, today is the day the Hero Association dies. Its destruction has been as systematic as watching a once well-unionised trade be dismantled.

The Neo-Heroes didn't do it all on their own. They've been aided by a press that has highlighted every scandal and flow of the Hero Association (ably aided by data breaches -- cough McCoy cough) while fawning uncritically over the Neo Heroes. The government has been persuaded to dilute the Hero Association's position by giving the Neo Heroes the same rights once only entrusted to the HA.

They have then stolen away sponsors and enticed away pro-heroes with lavish salaries, equipment, free housing, and even clothing and food. They've run a slick public relations campaign the HA can't hope to match and have stolen public approbation from the HA.

And then they've gone a lot further. At some plausible remove, someone has been systematically unleashing cybernetically-enhanced monsters (and now robots) onto the populace. These threats have been marked by their ferocity and destructiveness when faced by pro-heroes, and their willingness to lie down and die when confronted by Neo Heroes, making even inexperienced fighters feel powerful and leaving an impression on the public. [1]

RoundUp Ready is the Monsanto trademark for its patented line of genetically modified crop seeds that are resistant to its glyphosate-based herbicide, Roundup. By deploying a cybernetically-enhanced campaign of terror, pro-heroes are being culled like weeds [2].

It is no accident at all that the three S-Class heroes who succeeded in defeating the dragon-level threats sent simultaneously to several cities, Tatsumaki, Flashy Flash, and Genos, are precisely the heroes sent on special missions when they are most needed on the front lines.

In Genos's case, he's been sent on the sort of mission designed to finish off whatever lingering credibility the Hero Association has. At the very best, deadly infighting is a foul look on any organization. At the worst, his destroying Metal Knight's arsenal (and maybe Bofoi too) will remove the only source of systematic mass defense the Hero Association has. No matter how things turn out between Genos and Metal Knight, only the Organization wins.

This is how the bad guys win. There are more ways to defeat a hero than engaging them in head-on combat. [3] The bad guys don't care in the slightest about the value of the human lives they've destroyed to achieve this. For Tumblr readers, I've spoken about it here.

B: Brave New Techno World

On the one level, a conflict like the one between the Hero Association and the Neo Heroes was always going to come. We've learned that monsters have long been part of the Earth, and so long as humans aren't being excessive, they're happy not to attack humanity.

In a world where monster attacks were sporadic, the Hero Association, with its emphasis on finding and supporting exceptional individuals to be heroes, was a brilliant innovation. In a world where monster attacks have become endemic, there was always going to be pressure to move away from dedicated amateurs to a more standardized, professional response.

However, as we've seen, the magnitude of the threat has been artificially worsened. Also, as we've noticed, the ultimate goal of the founder of the Neo Heroes, Mr Fuzzy, is control.

World Dominion: an oldie but goodie. And damn is he being clever about it.

Once the actual heroes are gone, with the politicians and businesses bought, there's little preventing the Neo Heroes (or more precisely, the powers behind them) from becoming an oppressive force keeping the populace in line.

Any protests from within can be silenced by cyborgization. Any protests from without... Ah, remember when Raiden tried to take in Puri Puri and his men for forcible thought correction? Remember the stupid people cheering the prospect?

This is the note-perfect way to introduce unjust laws: inflict them first on those society does not respect, not thinking that laws apply to *everyone*, not just the ones we don't like. There will be no wrong thought in this brave new world.

All the bits are in place: the satellite surveillance, the instruments of terror, the legal right to act with impunity, the conspiracy of other powerful organisations working in the shadows.

It'll be a brave new world all right. You may be alive and tech-savvy, but you won't be free. And you'll like it.

Or else.

The only question is: How is our titular hero going to deal with this? Against an evil that seemingly has no form? I guess we'll have to pray ONE is minded to give us more soon!

Asides

[1] We see what happens when the Neo Heroes face non-nobbled opposition. It often doesn't go well, not even against regular monsters:

[2] This development puts a much more sinister cast on the delegation that sought Mumen Rider to press on him a specially-modified Neo suit. It's as if they knew the cull was coming.

[3] Yes, there are wildcards such as Saitama, Garou, and even Sonic, but the enemy knows something that the Hero Association understands well: without credibility, a hero is just a weirdo ranting in the street no matter how strong they are. A discredited hero is no threat.