#infelsinave

[badjohnspeakeasy]

Time for a Crackpot Theory (Webcomic Spoilers)

One-Punch Man Webcomic readers might remember this guy. The Neo Leader and Great Prophet Infelsinave, founder of the Church of Otherworldly Reincarnation. He had nearly a million loyal followers, and he joined the Neo Heroes to fight for justice or something.

I don't think he ever said a single fuggin' word, so I guess if one wanted to list his positive traits, you could call him stoic and humble.

His fighting abilities were probably negligeable, other than the well-built suit of armor underneath his regal robes, but he was elected a Neo Leader due to his admittedly vast influence.

He had divine powers, whatever that means.

To be quite honest, I use the phrase "might remember" because he's pretty forgettable.

He was murdered recently.

As you can see, he had a tough go of it during his first battle and wound up dead in the road.

I'm here to give the prophet his due and investigate his murder a little. Let's put on our detective hats and examine the evidence.

He got a hole punched in his Neo Hero armor by a monster.

The monster killed him, then bounced. It's quite possible that's all it was; a monster saw Infelsinave, brutally ran him through, then walked away.

But notice that his homies were there to witness the murder. A horde of allies who were as weak as Infelsinave survived the attack without so much as being looked at by the murderer.

Are monsters usually that selective? No! Monsters are typically connoisseurs of surplus killing, like weasels targeting hordes of hapless mice.

So, why didn't the monster go on to maul the rest of the Neo Heroes present? Why were the other humans on-scene not worth its aggression?

So, that's my first piece of evidence; the monster seemed to have a grudge against Lord Infelsinave specifically.

But we don't know a single person with enmity towards Lord Infelsinave, do we? He had a lot of followers, which means he probably had plenty of detractors. Maybe there was a monster who hated cult leaders? In that case, we'd have no idea who killed him.

But what if, and bear with me on this, the monster didn't have a beef with Infelsinave in particular?

What if the monster was looking for a different person, and mistook Infelsinave for someone we know a little better?

I have a long-shot theory; whatever attacked Infelsinave was actually hunting our friendly neighborhood Saitama.

Both are bald, both wear flowing garments (Saitama's cape, and Infelsinave's dorky cloak), and though their similarities are only passing, Saitama has a bland enough look that Infelsinave's attacker might have made the honest mistake of killing the Neo Leader like a dog without taking a closer gander for Saitama's trademark perfunctory visage.

Now, who has the power to smash through Neo Hero armor like butter, a grudge against Saitama, and the speed to assault Infelsinave and leave before his Neo Hero squad could react?

Well...any Demon-level monster, really. Awakened Cockroach, Bug God, Royal Ripper, or even the Lion Eating Zebra could probably speedblitz Infelsinave and leave, unfraught by any Neo Goon resistance.

But I have a theory.

It was THIS GUY. The Ninja Village Leader!

He has the skills,

he has the motive,

and he's so unfamiliar with Saitama that mistaking Infelsinave for him would be believable.

Call me a gormless gumshoe. Mistake my detective hat for tin-foil. But I'd bet a fat Hamilton ($10) that the Ninja Village Leader is the culprit who eliminated Infelsinave, and he did it under the mistaken belief that he was taking down Saitama, the man who beat him up and stole all his cool ninja stuff.

Mystery solved!

"But BadJohn, Infelsinave is alive!"

No he's not. That's baloney. That guy is a fucking robot husk designed to fool his followers and steal all his money.

I'm not crazy, YOU'RE crazy

[gofancyninjaworld]

Most of the Neo Leaders are Complicit

I had been getting a bit suspicious of Accel seeking Mumen out to give him a special body suit just before things started getting really bad, but I thought too, well, it could be a coincidence. After all, hero work is dangerous at the best of times.

However, I was rereading the relevant chapter (138), and in light of what's been happening since, Accel making specific mention of culling the weak is no longer innocent:

'The age has come where the powerless will start being culled,' speaks to a plan rather than mere accident.

It's intensified by what Ryumon says in an interview in the same chapter, saying that pro-heroes ought to join the Neo Heroes while they're still alive. Again, in isolation, it could just be him speaking to the harshness of hero life, but in the round, it's a threat.

They know. The fuckers knew this was coming. So much for not wanting to be corrupted by the Hero Association, Accel: we see you buying in to much worse.

Across the board, various Neo Hero leaders have bought into the evil to different extents.

We have those who are 100% for it, like A. He's just in it to see how many people he can kill before he dies, and seeing Zaedats and Infelsinave (poor patsies) turned into meat puppets to be milked for every last dollar pleased him.

We have Raiden and Suiryu, who may not be outright evil but see nothing wrong with rounding up outlaws for cyborgization. Don't you dare give these fuckers a pass just because you think they're cool.

For all his highfalutin talk, Blue can't see evil when it's staring him right in the face.

Significantly, the former pro-heroes *don't* seem to have been entrusted with the Neo Hero true agenda.

Child Emperor is suspicious and is trying to investigate, but he's being kept under close surveillance. There's a good reason Metal Knight doesn't want Child Emperor anywhere near him.

Metal Bat has realised that the Neo Heroes are evil. Unfortunately for him, he's under house arrest as they're holding his sister hostage. Seems the free babysitting came at an unacceptable price.

Superalloy Darkshine is uneasy, but currently, he has his head down and is busying himself with his trainees. He knows nothing.

I don't think that Max's feet being shot out from under him was an accident: his feet are his main weapon and taking them out inflicts the maximum devastation, even if he survives. There's only 500 pro-heroes at most: uploading a database of their identification and key attributes would be trivial.

I'm sure that there's a lot more to come, but don't imagine the Neo Heroes are innocent fools being bamboozled by a super-slick evil. A lot of them know. And are fine with it.

[gofancyninjaworld]

Call me suspicious but I don’t think this guy was attacked by a monster

The neatness with which Infelsinave’s throat has been slit and a substantial hole punched through his centre of mass speaks to something that knows how to kill humans and isn’t wasting time.  And then the ‘monster’ left without accosting any of his followers.   That’s just not very monster. 

Monsters tend to be like angry grizzly bears -- lots of noise, lots of whacking people about, or they’re just hungry and eat a person without fuss or noise.  Very strange.

I call shenanigans.

When’s the next chapter, ONE?

[gofancyninjaworld]

Neo-Hero Leaders (@otsunaruse)

Link

[gofancyninjaworld]

I'm glad Air is adjusting well to his new robotic larynx in the webcomic. He's lucky he didn't migrate over to the Neo Heroes; instead of a cybernetic throat, he'd be a glassy eyed yes-man like Zaedats and Infelsinave.

Hooo hooo, the tender mercies of the Neo Hero 'medicine' reminds me a bit of the Gary Larson comic about horse medicine.

[gofancyninjaworld]

the devil you know

True talk:  There is nothing so badly wrong at the Hero Association that it cannot be fixed by the pro-heroes unionizing and an independent auditor to keep any sticky-fingered execs in check.

these guys have the right idea but they’re thinking too small

I can unpack it, but it’s what it comes down to.  The failure to take care of heroes other than their superstars, the shitty pay, the lack of equipment, the business-heavy composition of the HA board, their ongoing failure to understand what it is that truly motivates heroes, all that is very fixable.  That’s the sort of things unions are great at forcing change on. And as the Hero Association only takes street-ready heroes, the pro-heroes aren’t replaceable, meaning that they’ve long had a strong hand they just didn’t appreciate.

As opposed to the Neo Heroes who’ve head-hunted the perfect Judas Goat: Mc Coy.  As someone who could see what needed doing, but never had quite enough authority to see operational changes through, it’s no wonder the Neo Heroes could attract him.  He knows what appeals to heroes: decent pay, not having to worry about daily essentials, good equipment, being able to do your work without excessive risk, readily-available back up, ongoing training.   It’s a wonderful package.

no one’s idea of a nice guy, but he’s sharp and knows what he’s doing

The trouble is, the Neo Heroes really is run by evil doers.  And so... having housing provided means that Neo-Heroes’ environment is controlled.  Food and drink,  looks like some of those are laced with drugs, equipment provided means that someone else has control, and working in pre-selected teams means that there’s always eyes on you. All packaged up so slickly it hasn’t occurred to the vast majority of its heroes that they’re turkeys at a turkey farm and Thanksgiving is just round the corner. 

ah, how little you know, Darkshine.

Chapter 130, I’d been wondering if A at least was aware of the surgery that had been done on Infelsinave and Zaedats as he seemed unsurprised to see them resurrected.  Now come chapter 132, it turns out I was too sanguine.   The Neo Heroes are looking to consolidate their gains by taking on troublesome criminals the Hero Association has tolerated.  And gain some additional benefit besides.

A wanting Sonic kept more or less in one piece to be turned into a compliant cyborg is one thing.  We know he has no morals.

But Raiden demanding that Puri Puri Prisoner hand over the prisoners under his care for the same purpose?  Truly a fish rots from the head!  It’s one thing to have Destro and Erimin picking people off for conversion -- after all, they might be hoodwinking the leadership.  But no,  looks like at least those two of the ten leaders are in on it and actively collaborating on the cyborgification project.  Two of the other leaders are already converted.  And someone like Ryomon is probably in on it as well.  Oh dear...

The Hero Association has many flaws, but at least they knew how to pick people who really had morals, imperfect though they were.

I’ll let Sonic take it away:

well said, Sonic.  Although Saitama is nothing to do with these shits, they need taking out like the trash they are

If somebody is aiming to discredit the idea of a hero to the public, then the Neo Heroes are doing just great.

[gofancyninjaworld]

filthy bastards

Chapter 131 finally reveals the secret behind the mystery of the miraculous recoveries of Zaedats and Infelsinave.   Erimin and Destro have no trouble telling Metal Bat what they’re up to. As long as a person has an intact brain, they will replace the body as long as that person isn’t completely dead.

Overnight.

Only they’re not asking permission but rather doing it to people who aren’t in a state to refuse.

You tell them Metal Bat.  And then break their filthy heads. So thoroughly the cleaning staff will be scraping brain matter off the ceiling.

[gofancyninjaworld]

The Human Cockroach Plan

(an expanded version of an extract that I posted on Reddit)

Context for the title: a jeweled wasp taking over a cockroach and turning it into an unresisting host for its young. Warning: grisly.

https://youtu.be/ovo_T0KqdYg

To dismantle the Hero Association, the Neo Heroes are doing two things.  

​Attracting heroes.   Pro-heroes have a long list of legitimate complaints about the Hero  Association, and with the way the Monster Association raid went down, everyone's feeling a little down and asking themselves some hard questions. The speed with which the Neo Heroes have moved speaks to an outfit was waiting for that perfect moment. 

The frustrated employee is one of the best tools for a challenger looking to steal an incumbent’s thunder.  To that end, the Neo-Heroes have head-hunted McCoy. It’s no co-incidence he’s the second chief of operations at the Hero Association. It makes him someone who can see what needed doing, but who never has quite enough authority to see operational changes through. 

He knows what appeals to heroes: decent pay, not having to worry about daily essentials, good equipment, being able to do their work without excessive risk, readily-available back up, ongoing training. It’s a wonderful package. It’s a package the Hero Association would do very well indeed to offer. And it's worked like new money to attract a lot of pro-heroes.      

everything they’re discussing makes sense -- it’s a shame it’s under false pretenses

Seeding a false narrative. The Organization may not like monsters, but they know how to control them. They sent out five dragon-level threats to various cities, all beautifully controlled so that Blue managed to 'defeat' his without coming to harm and  saved a lot of the city he was protecting and looks like the up and coming messiah. While the pro-heroes couldn't save the cities they sought to protect. The Organization doesn't give a damn that they killed thousands of people, displaced hundreds of thousands and destroyed billions of dollars of property to tell that story. Individual human lives mean nothing to them.  Outside of that splendid victory by Blue, the record for the rest of the Neo Heroes was not quite so stellar.       

A new messiah raised on a literal hill of dead bodies

It's not enough to scatter the Hero Association and co-opt many of its heroes into working for them. They still need an army, which they're busy But stop and think: WOULDN'T IT BE EASIER TO USE ROBOTS? After all, we've seen their Machine Gods.

There are two advantages that people have over robots. First, no matter how clever an AI, when it's faced with inputs that weren't anticipated, it produces results that are logically consistent, but not useful. That's how King managed to fool Machine God G4 into letting him use the bathroom. We got a milder example with the VGS, which gave odd, but logical answers for some of the heroes who used it, answers based on the assumptions with which it was programmed. Second, there's the 'fun factor' that Atomic Samurai talked about. People have talents and gain mastery that eclipses any mimickry or adaptation. 

Even the cleverest AI  has its limitations

So to kill two birds with one stone, they're taking strong, talented people and gutting them like a wasp does a cockroach to produce powerful, flexible, talented warriors who are nevertheless as compliant and expendable as robots. Notice that they have no interest in cyborgizing the amateurs -- at least not until they get trained appropriately. Thank you, coach Darkshine!    Zaedats and Infelsinave have been converted. They’re living cockroaches, conscious and lucid but having no choice but to hand over all their resources until they’re empty.

All the good things they're providing serve their purpose of raising the Neo Heroes into products. Having housing provided means that Neo-Heroes’ environment is controlled. Especially the choice of a tower rather than an open city means that there’s little reason to mix with the outside world.  It’s not insignificant that heroes are overwhelmingly young men. What is a key point of young men?  They tend to hate cooking and aren’t afraid of taking supplements to get ‘gains’.  Free food? Sold. No need to lie about putting stuff in their drink -- guys who want to bulk up will grab it.  Free standardised equipment provided is perfect for grabbing highly-detailed data. And working in pre-selected teams means that there’s always eyes on you. All packaged up so slickly it hasn’t occurred to the vast majority of its heroes that they’re turkeys at a turkey farm and Thanksgiving is just round the corner.  

They're also cynically hunting down criminals with the talent to stay out of the Hero Association's grasp. Why? It's as one of the prisoners explains to Puri Puri -- society has little sympathy for them, even after they've done their time. Few people have the moral decency to protest if they're treated inhumanely.  After all, deluding ourselves into thinking that it can't possibly happen to us is a very human failing.

how generous we are with other peoples’ lives!

I have to admire how brazen the Neo Hero’s paymasters are.  The Organization is building that army they need, right under people's noses.   Mostly out of the people who are supposed to be opposing them. And in doing that, they're perverting the idea of hero into that of a hypocrite, which works perfectly for them. No one is moved by a hypocrite's words.  

You can call them a lot of things, but you can’t claim they’re hypocrites.  They’ve being upfront about what they’re doing. If you choose to read benign intent into their actions, it’s your funeral.  Literally.

[gofancyninjaworld]

a few more thoughts: so much for the Neo Heroes

We always knew the pro-heroes were the real deal, but the last batch of chapters has really shown up the Neo Hero leadership for what it isn’t. One by one, the Neo leaders are being tested in the field they claim to be good at and found wanting. 

Blue's sense of justice turns out to be pretty damn empty. He’s looking at evil and letting it go by unchallenged.  Raiden and Suiryu's vaunted martial arts choked when faced with actual resistance -- even though neither of their opponents fought back.  Infelsinave's resurrection skills weren't.  Zaedat's money didn't buy him a good enough suit to protect himself from an actual monster.   Webigaza has shackled herself to the dubious workings of the Neo Heroes in exchange for a shot at fame that's turned out empty.  The only ones it seems to be working out for are A and Ryomon, who are just happy to have license to do their no-good plans freely without fear of interception by pro-heroes.  

The only Neo leader doing okay is Accel.  It’s probably not insignficant that he’s the only one who was actually undertaking heroic activities beforehand.  And he was also the only one appropriately appalled at seeing wanted criminals among their number.

Meanwhile Child Emperor and Metal Bat smelled rats as soon as they laid eyes on the place and went to investigate -- their suspicions are absolutely spot on.  Darkshine has his unease, but right now he’s got his head in the sand.  I hope someone gives him a poke soon.  I could do with Righteously Indignant Darkshine.

[gofancyninjaworld]

If the Neo Hero Leaders joined the HA, where do you figure they'd rationally fit into the roster? (The handful who are flat out unfit for hero-work notwithstanding)

Right now, the HA would make them all S-Class heroes because they’re in that big a panic.  If they weren’t...

...hm!  That’s an interesting question.  They’d want to, but the Hero Test does one thing damn well, and it’s to weed out the psychopaths and sociopaths (seriously, the pro-heroes have many faults but they have way fewer of them than you’d expect in a high-profile job that grants one power over others with near-complete discretion as to how to work).   ‘A’ has no place in the Hero Association and they’ll be iffy about Ryomon, Infelsinave, and Zaedats.

The way that Raiden is such an eager pair of hands for rounding up the prisoners to cyborgify them tells us a lot about his non-heroic character.  He doesn’t go ‘this is immoral’ but stops at ‘this is legal and it’s happening to people I don’t like’. (*) They might give him the Saitama treatment, which is to acknowledge his great power, but stick him in Class C first to see who he really is first.  Suiryu is iffy as well -- his self-centred nature and expectation of an easy ride doesn’t mix well with the grind of hero work.

Child Emperor, Metal Bat, and Superalloy Darkshine are of course welcome back, if they want to be back. 

Which leaves us Webigaza, and Raiden.  They’d have few problems putting them in Class S.  They’d both struggle to break into the upper half of Class S, Webigaza because of her competing work schedule and terrible tendency to overheat in any extended engagement,  Raiden because he’s not personally that powerful.

(*) This is the other reason heroes and the police don’t always get along. The police enforce the law, the heroes aren’t necessarily concerned about the law but rather their idea of what’s right.

[gofancyninjaworld]

According to Amai Mask, the Hero Association originally had no exam and everyone was allowed to join, but after only 2 months only one out of ten heroes remained. Considering the amount of injuries, near-deaths, and potential actual deaths, it is highly-likely that hundreds of Neo Heroes will quit with the only ones staying being former pro heroes or others that are experienced in the field.

A slight correction -- Amai Mask said the test then was even easier than it is now -- but yes, you’re right.   The Hero Association learned the hard way to only pass candidates that were battle-ready.  Basically, if you’re not already a hero, you’re not ready to be a pro-hero.  Which is great: they can trust their heroes to do the right thing even as they work largely alone and they don’t need much in the way of ongoing investment. The flip side is that they’ve recruited like mad but have never been able to get so much as 600 heroes working.

The Neo Heroes have decided to train up people to work as heroes and to make up for individual deficits using equipment and organisation.  That idea is sound, but their more relaxed standards aren’t just physical, they’re moral too -- I mean, 400 gangsters?

They’re set up to learn the Hero Association’s lesson very hard, very soon.  Particularly because they’re fielding their new neo-heroes right away.  We’ve started seeing casualties already as inexperienced fighters come up against strong monsters and their powered suits don’t compensate for the injuries monsters can inflict. Some of the Neo leaders have done great in protecting their recruits. The best have gotten their full involvement -- surprise, surprise it’s from the guys who already had a basis of teamwork.  Some have done crap, like Blue.  Some haven’t even been able to protect themselves... although what happened to Infelsinave looks awfully like an assassination.

Give it a month.  They’re going to be down to the same tiny pool of people that the Hero Association also chases after.

[gofancyninjaworld]

It's understandable that the public doesn't know this, but I think the most damning thing about the Neo Heroes is that their battle-record has been more of a mixed bag than people seem to realize. Zaedats and Infelsinave got publicly whooped, Blue lost his entire squad, and 'A' suffered a crushing tactical defeat and abandoned his backup (and all that crucial tech) to the mercy of an assassin despite 30-to-1 odds. I think it's just a matter of time before the public is less than impressed.

That’s exactly right.  The narrative the Neo Heroes is telling is as fake as a three-dollar bill. Of course, given the scale of the destruction the(ir) five dragons unleashed, it’s understandable that public scrutiny isn’t on the smaller details.

Look past the stage-managed mass destruction and it’s a much less edifying sight.  Most of their rank and file are complete amateurs who over-rely on battle suits to give them an edge.  Most of their leaders aren’t very good at leading -- I think only Accel fully involved his group.  Some of the leaders have no business being there at all... but that’s okay, they’ve been turned into living puppets and are being bled dry. 

And that’s before we consider how unheroic many of its ‘heroes’ are.  Written test?  What’s that?  Funny how what seemed to be an unnecessary bureaucratic hindrance turns out to really matter.  There’s lots of strong people out there and yes, you can always give someone powerful weapons, but the sense of justice is much rarer.

It’s not a question of IF the wheels will come off the Neo Hero train.  It’s a question of how soon, and to what consequence. 

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Webcomic Chapters 127 - 128 Reviews: Like a Tiger With Wings

With apologies to Devil Long Hair, who liked to wax on about the benefits of adding strength to the strong.

There’s a ridiculous amount to unpack in just 30 pages.  So brew two cups of tea!

Story

Building directly on the previous chapter, we get to find out what happens when you give the suits to already strong, capable heroes.

Accel catches up with a snail charging down the road at 390 km/h (240 mph). He weakens it by chopping into its shell with his axe, allowing his team to stop it with a palisade of poisoned spears (1).  No casualties. It’s a big change from the last time the Hunters took down a demon-level monster, when the lost a quarter of their number. Their suits and improved weaponry have been a game-changer.

Suiryu and Metal Bat both use their suits to do what they already do, but with great ease and and far less risk.  When you add strength to the strong, you free them up to do more.  Suiryu uses his time to go try picking up a girl.  Metal Bat uses his to try going to the aid of other Neo Leaders who aren’t having such a good time. More on that later.

There’s trouble brewing on several fronts.  Double Hole and Feather find and confront ‘A’ as the latter is dispatching monsters.  A lets them know that as a hero, he’s now immune from prosecution and threatens them with an ‘accident.’  Elsewhere, Crescent Eyebroll is forced to retreat and is saved by Ryomon.  Instead of working with him, Ryomon’s gang shove Eyebroll out of the way as they claim the monster as ‘their’ turf and thank him for losing so publicly.

Child Emperor marvels at the power and technology behind the suits, but has been troubled about their provenance.  He saw plans for one in Metal Knight’s development lab, leading him to surmise that perhaps Metal Knight is in control of both the Hero Association and the Neo Heroes.   As he wonders whether to take off the suit and whether Metal Knight is planning to be a dictator, he seems to be echoing Drive Knight.

short on concrete facts, long on conspiracies, these two appear to be thinking along similar lines

And what if the wearers aren’t strong?  Certainly, when we add strength to the weak, they gain confidence.  Lethal confidence in some cases. Zaegats, who spent two billion dollars on his suit, gets turned into a meat dumpling by the aptly-named Meat Dumpling -- while watching employees click the ‘Like’ button.  Infelsinave resurrects into the next world, having had his throat slit and torso holed by a mysterious monster that struck and left without anyone seeing it. Hmm...  And Blue loses a lot of his squad when he fails to stop them rushing at a demon-level monster.  He’s able to defeat it, noting that real monsters are a lot trickier than the virtual ones he practiced against and reflects that it’s not possible to win 100% of the time.   He hares off to answer yet another call for help.

Metal Bat arrives to render assistance to the stricken Neo Leaders, only to find Destro and Erimin carrying off their bodies.  Puzzling.

No time to worry, we’re at the Hero Association where the Bespectacled Worker is summing up their situation.  The fact that they’d never given attention to leadership amongst the heroes, only prioritising individual strength, is really come back to bite them.  As has their board composition, which is made up of people who are good at pleasing sponsors rather than operating an emergency service.  They’re losing brand, face, and soon public support will trickle away. Unless...

...yes, there are some heroes outside, passionate about something.  They throw open the windows to listen and find:

Yup, they’re sunk.  But no time to reflect on how sunk they are.  There’s yet another monster outbreak.  This time, five, yes five, dragon-level monsters, each in a different city.  They dispatch the only Class S heroes they have on scene, one to each place, lock down City A and ask the others to stand by.

We leave the chapter with a tense tableau.  Blue trying to find a way to attack a monster that spits corrosives strong enough to melt buildings (no good if you’re wearing a power suit!). Tank Top Master confronting a smoking monster and pondering how to beat it before he suffocates. Genos surrounded by monsters.  Tatsumaki disgusted at what looks like the world’s most obscene insect swarm.    And lovely Suiko biting off way, way more than she can chew as yet another Machine God roams the streets, yelling for King to come out and fight.

Meta

If the Neo Hero debut was not orchestrated in some way, I’m a monkey’s uncle.  Things seem to be getting a little out of hand though.  Someone better come through for Suiko.  She’s brave, but this is not her bag and OPM isn’t big on underdog upsets.

Cybernetics is not Necromancy, and other Mechanations

With thanks to @jokepool for bringing up a lot of these points.

So very many things going on behind the scenes.  The ‘glimpse behind the scenes’ that ONE gave us in the manga only seems to add to the confusion of mecha-themed schemers maneuvering for some outcome.

Like: why are Destro and Erimin carrying off the bodies of Infelisave and Zaegats?  They’re the only two Neo Leaders with no battle experience whatsoever, and it seems like they’ve paid the ultimate price for their hubris.  They’re also the two leaders with the most influence and money.   What are they planning to do with them?

At the very least, it’s not in the Neo Hero’s interest to have known that two of their leaders got killed on their very first foray.  Less innocently, they (they being whoever is actually paying the bills for Destro and Erimin, not whoever is officially in charge of the Neo Heroes) may want to keep the illusion that those two are alive for now.  They might swap them out for robotic doubles.

Why not cyborgs? With all due respect to James Cameron, cyborgs are people whose physiology is aided by some kind of device (yes, there are a lot of cyborgs IRL), not robots with some human tissue attached.  Furthermore, ONE has taken the time to define what he means by a cyborg in chapter 125.  All the cyborgs we see have had their body modifications done out of their free will: it carries risks, and takes time.  What trying to turn Infelisave and Zaegats into cyborgs would achieve is most likely death, several months of recovery, and if it worked, two traumatised men furious at having their bodies so violated.  None of which work for them.

Why bother? It depends on who they need to fool and how long they need to work for. No matter how well made the robots are and how good their AIs, long-term, they'll be rumbled. If they only need to be 'alive' for a few weeks while the assets they control get stripped, wonderful.

Whatever they’re planning, so far only Metal Bat knows anything is up.

Speaking of suspicious heroes,  Child Emperor’s pointing to Metal Knight as a possible link is also troubling.  We know that Metal Knight is at least aware of The Organization. And the idea of a body suit in his lab would seem to damn him.   But we’ve also seen The Organization work against Metal Knight, at least in the manga.   What’s going on here?   Drive Knight has also been very suspicious of Metal Knight, but in a world where monsters have no political leanings, only caring about opportunities to hurt people, it’s hard to imagine that Metal Knight would want to create an organization that works at cross-purposes to his own.

And of course, the Organization is still gathering information on heroes.  Still looking to understand King.  It’s all getting a bit tangled.

So far, none of this is on Genos’s radar, although he’d be very interested if he knew.  Speaking of whom, as he faces off against The Extended Family of Darkness, as far as I’m concerned, this is a shit-or-get-off-the-pot moment for Genos.  Unlike monsters, the very human minds behind this are both clever and powerful. He had better at least get the power part down if he’s to have any chance of surviving long enough to find out what’s going on -- chances are, the mystery of the Mad Cyborg are tangled up in there somewhere.

“When I see a money problem, I see an idea problem”

The late Reverend Schuller might have sounded glib when he said this, but his wider point about many crises being rooted in failures of imagination is very true.  It’s certainly true here for the Hero Association.  I’ve written elsewhere about the way the Hero Association organises its heroes and how individual achievement is promoted over group ones and annoyingly, there was a piece I meant to write to tie it all together but I never got round to it. Never mind.  We’re here now, where the Hero Association has belatedly realised that it’s neglected to raise leaders amongst its heroes,  and that their board lacks the diversity to consider other possible ways of doing things. 

Diversity isn’t a ‘nice’ thing to have at workplaces and in boardrooms. It’s literally life-and-death to be able to have more than one way to see things, so getting, involving, and keeping people who don’t necessarily ‘fit’ is such an important thing. McCoy may not be our favourite person, but he did what many ‘misfits’ do -- got the experience, actually talked to staffers about what wasn’t working, then left to another outfit and is now organising Neo Heroes in a way the Hero Association top brass envies but could never have imagined doing.

If Sekingar exists as a webcomic character, this would be a real good time for him to show up.

On balance, the Hero Association still has the stronger warriors, and the more experienced heroes, so it’s going to be a case of if they can find a way to work with the Neo Heroes to meet the surging tide of monsters.

Asides

(1) At first I’d wondered why they’d used such an anachronistic weapon, but then I remembered that in chapter 123, we learned that civilians couldn’t carry handguns. Hunting guns are okay: cast your mind way back to Beefcake walking past some hunters.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Webcomic Chapter 125 Review: Neo Heroes

Actually, fuck it. No summary! You know where the chapter is, go read it and then come back.  I’m GOING FULL META HERE.   And if it turns out that ONE wrong-foots us, then he does.

So we’ve met the Neo Heroes and have found that they’ve organised their 2000 strong force between rank-and-file and group leaders.  Very fair, the lack of a formal leadership structure was one of the big weaknesses of the way the Hero Association ran its heroes. 

And then we get their leaders.   Talk about a motley crew!   I thought we knew about weirdos, having met Class S, and to be fair, there are no undeads or people with uncanny powers here. But what they lack in physical weirdness they more than make up for in the sheer variety of backgrounds and outlooks.  Let’s have a peep:

We’ve got bored sportsmen, Suiryu and Raiden.

We’ve got criminals, Ryumon (who controls 400 criminals), and the wanted serial killer known only as A.

We’ve got a vigilante, Accel, who has issues with the criminals.

We’ve got a frustrated idol, Webigaza, who is upset that she’s lost her chance to show up Amai Mask, what with having spent the last six months getting her body modified.

We’ve got the leader of a cult, Infelisave.  The too-rich donor who wants to play hero, Zaedats.

And of course, representing actual heroes, we’ve got the still-active Child Emperor and Metal Bat and the retired Superalloy Darkshine.

All topped with a 16-year old with daddy issues, Blue.

Interesting.

Right there and then, we understand why the Neo Heroes are so much more presecriptive as to hero conduct and operations than the Hero Association has ever been. 

bla bla bla

The Hero Association places a lot of weight on the written portion of its Hero Test and in understanding the values and motivations of anyone it accepts to become a hero.   If they have any doubts about a hero, then regardless of strength, they place them in Class C, where the quota expectations and low pay quickly scrub out anyone who is money-motivated, who is looking for fame or glamour, who lacks initiative, lacks commitment, won’t follow lawful orders, or is just plain trouble.  Fundamentally, their expectation is that they should be able to trust their heroes enough to leave them be to make the best decisions for the situation. 

The Neo Heroes do have some great ideas, especially around supporting heroes better, but they can’t afford to leave their ‘heroes’ to do their own thing. They’ll just start killing each other instead.  It says a lot that they need their own internal security detail with the remit to enforce the rules amongst their heroes.  Of course I have more to say about these guys. In a moment.

And of course, we can’t not talk about their ostensible leader, Blue.   He’s a very zealous teenager, who we had seen last chapter going out to try killing Amai Mask as his first heroic mission.   It doesn’t go well as he’s effortlessly intercepted by Genos, who loses interest in him once Saitama is safely away -- and it turns out that Blue, as a hero, can legally carry powerful weapons.

that feeling you get when you burn out your suit chasing after a baldy and get intercepted like a teenager caught trying to sneak into a nightclub

Speaking of which, Blue notes that Genos isn’t one to talk about illegal weapons, what with having been active before he became a hero.  What can I say?  Sometimes, might makes right-of-way. 

In any case, Blue is convinced that the Hero Association is corrupt top to bottom and so far, founding a clean alternative forms his motivation for founding the Neo Heroes.  He should know.  He’s Blast’s son.

What an interesting mixture.

Link Ups

A number of things link up to stuff we’ve previously seen in the webcomic and manga.

Blue’s noting that Genos hadn’t been acting legally previously links up nicely with just why the Hero Association had been trailing Genos before the latter joins them of his own free will. 

The existence of Infelsinave’s “Church of Otherworldly Reincarnation” explains why Genos initially thought that the “House of Evolution” was a cult. 

What Child Emperor references when he talks about the Neo Heroes being able to do what the Hero Association couldn’t with regards to incorporating criminals, he’s referencing Sicchi’s disastrous attempt to draft criminals to help with the monster threat.  Sicchi’s reasoning was that monsters don’t discriminate between good and bad, so it’s in all humans’ interests to unite against that threat.  But if there’s one thing that heroes hate, it’s bad guys -- and OPM bad guys are anything but cartoonish in their criminality.   Before Garou kicked off, the Class A heroes present had already made up their minds to kill the present lot off as soon as the meeting ended:

betraying your boss by slaughtering the people whose safety he guaranteed isn’t very cash money but the more of OPM we read, the more understandable their decision becomes

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

There are two separate HMMMM! moments that come from the appearance of Destro and Erimin.  The first is that they’re cyborgs, and not only cyborgs, but the first very high percentage modfied cyborgs we’ve seen other than Genos (and possibly Drive Knight).  What are the chances that a high percentage cyborg tastefully named Genocide (Genos) has no connection to two high percentage cyborgs tastefully named Destroy (Destro) and Eliminate (Erimin)?   Just as the redundant names of Flashy Flash and Speed o’ Sound Sonic led eventually to The Village, I wouldn’t bet against there being a tangible connection here.

I have more to say but speaking of cyborgs specifically is yet another meta post.

Of course, any such connection could be entirely separate from those two providing security.  After all, they say they’re former mercenaries and thus work for whoever can afford them.  And you can be sure they don’t work cheap.

But that brings up the question of who has paid their salaries and who trusts them so?   When we look at the bigger picture of everything that’s been going on, the incredible timing of the Neo Heroes, the incredible speed with which the Neo Hero building was put up, the money and the political connections behind them together with who is policing it,  it starts to take on the air of the most shadowy foe, one that has been intermittently present nearly since the start of the story: The Organization.

If it's The Organization behind the Neo Heroes, it establishes them as a truly dangerous force.  They've studied the Hero Association and have decided to take it on. Not by rushing the gates. But intelligently, by disrupting them just as they’re weakened and legitimate questions are being asked about them.  [Just the sort of scenario Metal Knight feared, eh?]

If it’s them, it’s consistent with what we’ve known about them, that they do their homework very thoroughly before acting. Whoever is behind the Neo-Heroes has pitched their siren songs to what pro-heroes have found a pain. And they’ve also targeted individual heroes  -- getting Metal Bat by giving him what bothers him most, his sister’s safety when he isn’t around, Child Emperor by listening to his recommendations, and SuperAlloy Darkshine by giving him an arena where he can start reinventing himself.   It explains the volatile nature of the Neo Hero recruits.  They don’t need the Neo Heroes to succeed long term.  Just long enough to destroy the Hero Association and then it too can tear itself apart.

And like that, there’s no organised hero opposition to whatever they plan to do.

Of course, it might not be The Organization.  But I’m willing to bet that it is.

[gofancyninjaworld]

No civil war please: addendum

I’ve written the meta on how the Hero Association and Neo Heroes should get along for future’s sake, but one thing I didn’t put in.

The truest determiner of whether they can cooperate, or even merge is the opinion of whoever it is who is actually paying these two alleged security guards:

McCoy doesn’t know where they’re actually from.  And somehow, I don’t think he’d approve of where they’re going with the bodies of Zaegats and Infelsinave:

Hmm...