Captain Europa meets with his E.U. overlords to observe a Paris riot-in-the-making between French nationalists and Antifa. The Captain’s team is scattered around, but the U.N. has their own superteam held in reserve just in case the police can’t handle it.
There’s no confusion about which side Captain Europa wants to prevail; but unlike real-life situations in places like Berkeley, the police actually try to restrain both sides. It turns out, though, the cops can’t handle it.
To make matters a whole lot more interesting, there are some super-powered folks on the nationalist side.
I’ve still got some nits to pick about the art. Sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly what I’m seeing–especially in the details of the big splash panels. It’s too bad, because from what I could make out, it looks like those details would have been quite interesting if discernible.
I’m still really fuzzy on who has what powers, which works to the writers’ favor, I guess. Two super-strong dudes duked it out at one point, and one seemed to have the other outclassed by an order of magnitude. …Or maybe not? The outclassed guy, after playing punching bag for most of the fight, ended it (?) with a comic book haymaker–and I’m not sure how. Because he got really, really, reallymad, I suppose. This is far from the first time that a comic book hero surpassed the limits of their own defined abilities, so it’s not that big a deal. I’d just like to know more about those abilities, that’s all.
This is turning out to be a humdinger of a series. I haven’t been this engaged by a comic storyline for a couple decades. When all these are combined into a print graphic novel, I will probably buy a copy for my son.
Arkhaven is turning up the heat, and steering us toward a big showdown. They’re also still improving on all fronts in Alt Hero 3. The Rebel character is growing on me, too, though the sperg in me wants to inform her that foreigners are not Yankees. In fact, foreigners refer to all Americans, North and South, as Yankees.
Anyway…the SPC is aware there’s a rogue team of superheroes out there–nothing less could have liberated Rebel from their holding tank. So they do what the Federal government has done before: go after the family when their target proves too elusive. They set a trap for the rogues.
But the true heroes are a little too streetwise to fall for it. I won’t give any more away. Suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to the next issue (and 26 ad-free pages just don’t seem like nearly enough for each comic. Sigh.)
Arkhaven Comics is already making a name for itself. Granted: it couldn’t have come along at a time when the competition was less formidable. Still, they’re doing a lot of things right, and may just revive an interest in the medium from someone other than obese gamma basement-dwellers looking for something to do in between LGBT parades.
I don’t want to evoke the old post-Watchmen/Dark Knight Returns “grim and gritty” ideal…but to describe my impression in one sentence, I would say this: Avalon reminds me of the early Astro City comics, only darker.
The art strikes me as somewhere between classic Kirby and some of the ’60s Charlton work. As for the story…it seems Dixon is laying the groundwork for a character-driven saga that might border on deconstructive.
Forgive me for all the analogies (and I’m not going to assume Dixon’s goal is moral ambiguity), but Issue #1 strikes me as how the Cohen Brothers might attempt to tell a superhero story. A certain character pontificates on ethics, appointing himself to define the moral code all masked vigilantes should abide by. Meanwhile, some glaring chinks come into focus on his own shining moral armor.
With understated irony Dixon has no doubt honed to a fine point over his prolific career, this same character warns his crimefighting partner not to breathe in the cocaine dust kicked up by a fight with some bad guys. “Don’t want to get a taste for it,” he says. This comes just after a series of panels documenting his own (presumably first) moral failing–for which he will probably develop a taste.
Then again, will it be considered a moral failing in this narrative? I can’t predict for certain.
Another vigilante guns down some unarmed individuals–a couple in bathrobes–who have a child locked in a cage, waiting to be used in some sort of child pornography. As much as I cherish the Bill of Rights, the last thing I want to hear (read) is some speech about due process and how it’s wrong to become judge, jury and executioner, blah blah blah.
I suppose I’m jaded by the criminal “justice” system that occupies reality. Maybe Dixon is, too. It will be interesting to find out as this story weaves out.
Paul Manafort sits in solitary confinement, facing 305 years in prison for alleged tax evasion in 2005 (for which he hasn’t been convicted as of this writing).
While this has been going on, a gang of Invaders have been training children to execute (more) false-flag school shootings, at a compound in New Mexico. At least one of the children was murdered at the compound.
Obviously the uselessness extends well beyond 2016.
The FBI has known about the group for a while, but of course did nothing. They had more important things to do, like trying to spy on, entrap, or frame American citizens, cover up their own crimes, and overturn the results of the 2016 election.
On Tuesday New Mexico Judge Sarah Backusreleased the five Islamist defendants, Siraj Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhannah Wahhaj, Jany Leveille, and Lucas Morten, on a $20,000 “signature bond.”
In making her decision to release the extremists, Judge Backus accused prosecutors of anti-Muslim bias against the Islamic terror camp organizers.
And, much like at Waco, the FBI immediately sent bulldozers in to destroy the crime scene. They couldn’t be bothered to save the children (whom they are SOOOO concerned about in cases like Waco); but they wasted no time plowing over evidence after the cat got out of the bag.
Now I just wonder what could be their possible motive for this skewed set of priorities?
I ask again: Whose interests are being served in this country? Who and what do our public servants owe allegiance to? Is it We the People who pay their salaries and foot the bill for their weapons and equipment?
In the reality we inhabit, it’s difficult to imagine a world where Darwinism hasn’t been pushed by academia until it undergirds nearly every creative work, dominates every alleged discussion of science, and permeates the thinking of so many people (even those considered religious). But in the ancient world, it’s unlikely anyone promoted an idea that life originated, then evolved, by random accident–either according to the Big Bang process as conceptualized by atheists (“first there was nothing, then it exploded”); or via pan-spermia (“life originated in some far-away solar system according to Darwin’s model–therefore you can’t examine any evidence–then Earth was seeded by the resulting advanced life forms as an experiment”).
Whether or not humanity was entirely composed of superstitious simpletons, what evidence has survived suggests that supernatural creation was a mainstream concept and supernatural intervention was often expected.
Supernatural intervention is commonplace in the many surviving variations of the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. Other mythologies are more difficult to research, but share most of the same themes. And, though it was rare for the Israelites to witness a physical manifestation of their God, they frequently begged His intervention, and often got it.
Initially (when Gods & Proxies was the first draft of a screenplay), I had characters with a 20th/21st Century attitude (agnostic, leaning toward atheist). It was an easy mistake to make, because you can’t go anywhere in the present day without encountering Darwinist worldviews, and assumptions based on the work of his zealous disciples. It’s only natural for a writer wanting to include life-like characters to craft them so that they wouldn’t seem out-of-place in the real world.
Which takes me back to my point: the real world now is perceived much differently than the real world was thousands of years ago.
It’s a major blunder to transpose modern values and attitudes into a period piece with no consideration for credibility. We see it in movies, TV shows, and books all the time. It’s a lazy and rather arrogant blunder. That’s why, when adapting the story into prose form, that anachronistic worldview had to go.
That said, human nature hasn’t changed, at all. Certainly the sophistication of deception has advanced considerably from ancient times, but not what deception is perpetrated to accomplish (abandonment of the Creator God, a hate for the truth and what is right, debauchery, and a love affair with lies).
There is no political correlation between what happens in our time and what happens in Gods & Proxies. Any flavor of social conflict you may find in the book is not inspired by current controversy, but by the clues from the ancient historical records, influenced by what the author understands about human nature.
Just a few years ago, myself and others were ridiculed for suggesting the USA was in a Cold Civil War, and there was little chance left for peaceful repair of our constitutional republic. Now, a second civil war is a mainstream speculation, and a Rassmusen Poll suggests 31% of the population in the US believes such a conflict is “likely” in the next five years.
Hive Mind Drones and the useful idiots of the left have evidently been ordered to make this a “national conversation,” as so many are openly calling for civil war now, and some seem to be trying to instigate one. It’s difficult to deny, after the disastrous eight years under Obamunism, and the hysteria/dementia so shamelessly on display since Donald Trump’s upset victory over the Deep State Machine in 2016, that the political factions in this country are more polarized, and people more divided, than at any other time since the first Civil War. And maybe it’s worse than even then. The only reason the Cold Civil War hasn’t turned hot, frankly, is because the population is still too comfortable. Instigate the right kind of crisis (economic collapse, a grid-down scenario, etc.); make people hungry; take away modern conveniences and stuff we take for granted like hot and cold running water; and the streets will flow with blood as the entitled urban masses prey on each other and blame the demographics they hate for everything that went wrong.
“And anybody who disagrees with us is a fascist!”
Ignoring the advantages of the America-hating left (monopoly over education, entertainment, media, federal law enforcement, the courts, etc., and their infiltration of government at every level), let’s imagine, as an exercise, that the Deep State loses the impending hot conflict. Let’s indulge ourselves even more and assume that our borders will be secured; that we shift to a sane immigration policy (or even a strict one like Japan’s); that our foreign and trade policies stop giving every advantage to our enemies and actually safeguard the interests of our country and its people; that institutionalized discrimination (and pop culture demonization) against white males ends; everyone but the hardcorps Marxist base abandons the Democrat party; the GOP is purged of traitors and impostors–or a third party with an “America first” orientation rises up to dominate; and our economy is rescued from Death Row.
Paradise, right?
Not so fast.
The underlying cause of all our national ills would still be unaddressed.
The root cause of our problems is a spiritual one.
Even if your cause is just, that doesn’t automatically sanctify every ally of the cause (contrary to Star Wars philosophy and WWII propaganda). The god of this world has an angle and contingency plan for everyone and everything. And unlike our Fearless Champions in Congress and the Church, he never quits fighting. He will never accept defeat until he is thrown in the lake of fire at the conclusion of history.
Even if the #MAGA phenomenon envisioned by so many comes to pass, the enemy of your soul has got those bases covered, too. He just has to shift tactics a little bit, and his agenda keeps on pushing. Whether he has to divert you around the Truth to the right or the left (no pun intended), what’s important to him is that you miss the Truth. And he’s an expert at getting people (and nations) to do just that. Under the Old Covenant, our Creator chose to deal with humanity through Israel. Some would think (and many still assume) that because they are His chosen people, Israelis/Israelites are somehow morally irreproachable. The Old Testament and Gospels document the fallacy of this assumption. In fact, the Israelites were a priority target for our spiritual enemy, and were far from impervious to his tactics. The best of the patriarchs had major moral failures, as did Israel’s greatest king, and the most faithful aspect of that people was how predictably they periodically abandoned their God and whored after false gods.
Our spiritual enemy has already infiltrated the MAGA movement. The seeds of his agenda (and our ultimate destruction) are already planted, in the event we win a seeming/temporary victory in America. I’ll just mention two such seeds for now.
That they so proudly place a self-proclaimed dangerous faggot on a pedestal pretty much speaks for itself.
SEXUAL DEVIANCY:
Once upon a time, only the left openly advocated for the proliferation of perversion. “Conservatives” didn’t work up a sweat trying to conserve morality (or anything else), but they at least paid lip service to “family values” and other rhetorical ideals. Then along came the “Log Cabin Club” and the RINOs began to come out of the closet. Right-of-center icons like Barry Goldwater went public with their approval of degenerate “lifestyles.” Government schools began ramming the sodomite agenda down children’s throats, as early as kindergarten, while good men did nothing. Now those heavily-conditioned children are grown and voting.
Perversion, like feminism, is now embraced equally on both sides of the political divide. You can hardly find a dissenting opinion anywhere, since those have been driven into the closet by people programmed to accept perversion as healthy. (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”) Trump himself proudly waves the rainbow flag and can’t refer to homosexuals without applying “wonderful” or some other flattering adjective to their demographic. Even groups like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys (unique so far, in that they’re willing to push back against the left’s violent Blackshirts) deliberately pander to the sodomite lobby.
“I vill not tolerate any hate speech!”
Throughout history, a society’s plunge into sexual degeneracy precedes collapse (or transition, as in the Weimar Republic). And depraved minds reject the Truth. Who knows how many people inside the USA are leading a sexually deviant lifestyle? But it appears that 75-90% approve of those who practice it, while calling good evil and evil good.
RACIAL IDENTITY:
Before Obamunism, the Swamp Media’s portrayal of opposition to the left as fraught with KKK Nazis was just a politically expedient fabrication used for recruitment, retainment, and marginalizing dissidents who could not be otherwise silenced. Now it has become a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Granted: the #FakeRight are as leftist as they’ve ever been, and perhaps the majority of “white nationalists” on the Internet and at rallies are agents provacateur whose mission is to infiltrate, instigate, agitate, and associate their boogeyman reputation with actual right-wingers. But the provocation seems to be working on a lot of non-LARPers in the #MAGA movement, who fantasize about hook-nosed Joooooos behind every tree and examine every single issue through a racial or ethnic lens. Some of them even claim to be Christians, even though the god they serve is clearly Racial Purity and “muh westurn sivuluhzayshun.” They are, in fact, the mirror image of the professional victim classes in the SJW ranks who have played the race card to get special treatment for the last half-century, all while shrieking about “muh oppression” and “white privilege.”
“Western Civilization” in action. Obviously superior to the Bill of Rights, says the “alt right.”
These people will prove just as easy to manipulate as the minorities they so despise. Identity politics is always accompanied by conformity and GroupThink. Moronic obsession with superficial differences has been historically used to cause people to surrender their own freedom and long-term interests for the hollow ambition of extracting a pound of flesh from tribal outsiders.
Seeds planted by our spiritual adversary spread like cancer. They don’t go into remission just because one political faction (or ethnic group) triumphs over another. If the source is never attacked, the seeds are guaranteed to take root and flourish.
The only way to effectively combat your spiritual enemy is by turning to the God who is more powerful than the god of this world (and every other “god”). If America doesn’t do this, then our ruin is assured–regardless of either side’s political fortunes in November or in 2020.
Alt★Hero #1 was set in Europe, and concentrated on an EU-sanctioned supergroup. This one is set in the states, focusing on a subversive superteam organized to pursue American interests. Obviously this puts them at odds with the Deep State and gives them a lot tougher “row to hoe” than their European counterparts.
The pivotal character in both issues is an aesthetically appealing, nubile heroine–a shrewd marketing decision, if nothing else.
Arkhaven/Alt Hero is improving rapidly on all fronts. The artwork and composition is better in this issue, and we’ve got a clearer picture of where the story is taking us, now: (a superteam showdown, eventually, I hope. But not too soon…)
Hammer is my favorite character so far, while Ryu no Seishin is my favorite to look at. The writer(s) teased us with just enough of Martel’s backstory to make us want to know more. I’m also curious about this subplot the bureaucrats mention regarding the President and Singapore.
I’m not sure exactly what Rebel’s metahuman abilities are. Invulnerable skin is one. Super-strength, too? I’m guessing Hammer already has that, but it’s hard to tell in comics, because even “normal” human heroes are drawn as if they have superhuman strength. Physique is no indication, because non-powered heroes look just as sculpted as superpowered characters. And regardless of whether a human or superhuman hero throws a punch, the recipient of the punch usually goes flying backwards out of the panel.
So far, we’ve been introduced to SoulSight, who can read other people’s memories; Quantum Kitty, who can phase through solid objects; Ryu, who is kinda’ like the Human Torch, I guess, though her whole body doesn’t turn to flame; Rebel; Hammer; and the dude in the black tee-shirt. No idea what he does, yet. There’s a couple more team members mentioned but not seen. Guess we’ll meet them in forthcoming issues.
It’s really a shame this issue was only 28 pages. It was over too soon. I hope they compile the first 12 issues or so into a graphic novel one day. In any case, I look forward to Alt Hero #3.
BTW, I’ve seen Issue #1 of Avanon now, and will review it soon, hopefully.
An excerpt from the afterword in Gods & Proxies, discussing how belief in the existence of “other gods” is not necessarily pagan, anti-Christian, or unbiblical:
There’s a famous road paved with good intentions. One good intention of theologians in centuries past was to eliminate or explain away any passage in the Bible which could be construed as supporting polytheism.
The Bible clearly portrays Yahweh (El Elyon/El Shaddai/”The God of Many Names”/etc.) as the One True God; but it also documents that He judged the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12). In the Commandments we are warned not to put other gods before Him (Deuteronomy 5:7). The Adversary, called “the devil” and “Satan” in English, is referred to as “the god of this world” or “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) depending on translation (or “prince,” which is also how the messenger* in Daniel 12:1 referred to the Archangel Michael).
Acknowledging that the ancient pagans were worshiping living entities, and not just the idols formed to represent them, is not polytheistic. It is simply biblical.
Those of us who learned the Bible from an English translation (or worse yet, from “preacher talk”) have inherited many assumptions about our Creator. For instance, we assume that “God” is His name.
One of the Commandments forbids us to misuse His name (Deuteronomy 5:11). Well, what exactly is His name? Most Gentiles have no idea, except for the cryptic statement given to Moses via the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). But where our English translations call him simply “THE LORD,” the original text used one of His names.** How many times have we seen references to His name in our English translations, without actually seeing His name in the text? Those translations also use the word “God” as if it is a name (hence we assume “God” is his name), but the word “el” that is translated “god” was a more generic term in Hebrew for a supernatural being that is not necessarily the Creator God. Many of us were taught that the word Elohim, which includes the word for “god” with a Hebrew plural suffix, is a reference to the Trinity–one God in three persons. But some Hebrew scholars insist it refers to a pantheon, the Divine Council, or Heavenly Assembly.*** (Not that they deny the Trinity, as there is textual evidence of that concept elsewhere in Scripture.)
*The word angel means “messenger,” but, in our lexicon, has come to refer exclusively to created celestial beings. Certainly the word often refers to those; but sometimes a human being can be an “angel,” and sometimes the Messiah Himself plays the role of a messenger, or “angel.”
**That is, the “Tetragrammaton.” This has been pronounced “Yaweh” or “Jehovah,” historically, though exact pronunciation is not certain because there were no vowels in the original Hebrew. It’s like an acronym formed from the Hebrew phrase the Creator used to answer Moses: “I am that I am.”
***Psalm 82:1 “God has taken his place in the Divine Council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” Deuteronomy 32:8-9 “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the Heavenly Assembly.” Job 1:6 and 1 Kings 22 also give us a fleeting glimpse of this Heavenly Assembly.
Another phenomenon mentioned in Gods & Proxies is “spiritually charged objects.” This sounds like a pagan or Wiccan concept, but it’s also Biblical. In the New Testament, certain people were healed and/or delivered merely by physical contact with aprons and handkerchiefs touched by Paul (Acts 19:11-12).
If the Holy Spirit (working through Paul) could spiritually charge an inanimate object, then it’s entirely possible that evil spirits could supernaturally charge objects as well–such as the items in Jericho that the Israelites were forbidden to take as plunder (Joshua 6:17-18, 7:1).
Those who like to deny the supernatural also insist that witchcraft is nothing more than a myth perpetuated by tricksters and illusionists. But the author(s) of the Bible saw it much differently. God considers witchcraft a serious manifestation of evil, not to be dismissed as harmless Halloween stories. The Bible also documents how Pharoah’s magicians, and the witch of Endor accessed some sort of actual power that no huckster could ever duplicate.
Or perhaps “Religion Vs. Truth” would be a better title for this scene:
Some priests, and others from the L’vim sat with the visitors all that day. The offer was made early that the visitors were welcome to come outside the outer court of the Temple and worship Hashem.
“Thank-you, but no,” the ambassador said, with a nervous laugh. “That won’t be necessary.”
“I beg your pardon?” a priest asked, brows knitting. “You traveled all this way to make peace with us because you’ve heard that nothing and no one can stand against our god…yet you don’t want to know him?”
The visitors all glanced around their own countrymen, but eventually their collective gaze focused on the ambassador. He wiped sweat from his forehead and said, “True. We don’t want him to destroy us, but we’d prefer to serve our own gods.”
“You mean your own gods who can’t protect you from him?” a priest suggested.
“Well, um…yes,” the ambassador said.
The priest pointed at the stone idol resting on a wooden pedestal at the center of the visitors’ encampment. “That is the god you prefer to serve?” he asked.
“It is a representation of our god,” the ambassador said, uncomfortably. “It is sacred, because it bears his likeness. He dwells within it sometimes. It can receive our worship in his stead, when he chooses not to show us his image directly.”
“Let me make sure I understand this,” a priest said. “You have an opportunity to know the ultimate god, who created the world; and the wood, the stone, the metals that your so-called “gods” are made out of. And he created man, who formed your ‘gods’ out of wood, stone, or metals. But you would rather worship lifeless objects?”
“We wouldn’t expect you to understand,” the ambassador said.
“I think we do understand,” an angry-faced priest said. “You want Hashem’s mercy; you want his blessings; but you don’t want to give him anything in return.”
“It’s not just a stone idol,” one of the ambassador’s men stated, hotly. “It has power it is foolish to disrespect.”
Now Pinchas rose to his feet. “Let me give you a practical demonstration of religion,” he said, strolling toward the idol.
The visitors watched him apprehensively, some twitching as if about to stand.
Pinchas poked the statue with his staff. It toppled off the pedestal and thumped on the ground.
The visitors gasped. Some of the escorts shot to their feet, hands on weapons.
“Why would you disrespect our god this way, Yacovite?” demanded one of the escorts.
Pinchas turned to face the guests, shrugging. “When he puts himself back up on this pedestal, I’ll apologize.”
Gods & Proxies has gone wide. You can get it for most e-readers, including the Kindle.
Red-Blooded American Men Examine Pop-Culture and the World
Anyway…the SPC is aware there’s a rogue team of superheroes out there–nothing less could have liberated Rebel from their holding tank. So they do what the Federal government has done before: go after the family when their target proves too elusive. They set a trap for the rogues.
Hive Mind Drones and the useful idiots of the left have evidently been ordered to make this a “national conversation,” as so many are openly calling for civil war now, and 
heroes look just as sculpted as superpowered characters. And regardless of whether a human or superhuman hero throws a punch, the recipient of the punch usually goes flying backwards out of the panel.