698 | I Know

Gunner goes to Earth and gets completely destroyed for underestimating us. Yay!

Immediately brings to mind that “Welcome to Earth! *headpunch!*” line. If Gunner’s arrival is anything like most alien arrives on Earth movies, he’ll be able to destroy L.A. and/or D.C. before someone stops him.

I don’t know if you can raise the stakes once you’ve got you’re Villain talking about Genocide but still:

The stakes, they have been raised

Those cities only exist for aliens to destroy. :)

Really having a hard time seeing Earth as defensible right now. They’ve committed genocide on AT LEAST two worlds on screen. (Planet Elementals) and (Planet Psychics) purely for the evulz. Those on Earth who aren’t part of the Resistance are COMPLICIT. Remember, they elected Mr. GPF president, and either stood silent, or cheered as the slaughter went on, or are currently partaking of the spoils.

Frankly, I think having them feel a bit of the terror they made Gunner, the elemental four, and whatever other worlds they screwed over would be more than a bit appropriate, or maybe just take out all the infrastructure and set it up so they are forced to kill each other, just like the former actual pacifist, Gunner, was forced to take assassination missions.

My favorite thing about this page is how Zap’s feet look when he’s sitting in the chair in panel 5. So cute for some reason.

That does make me wonder, do movies made in other non-American markets tend to destroy their major cities and capitals in alien invasion/natural/unnatural disaster films, or is it just us Americans. I know a couple French people in my lab, I’ll have to ask them someday.

:/
I don’t know what nation you’re from or how it is with your “leaders”, but it’s not fair to assume just because a leader was “elected” that all the citizens are hunky dory calling him leader. I mean if you think back to the previous US president and look at our current one, you’ll find there’s at least half the country who was/is bothered over the fact that that person’s their leader. Most presidents are elected only by a slim majority. And honestly have you ever tried to speak out against the established government? It’s rare that people get anywhere protesting governmental polices they don’t agree with. It’s also a rare governmental leader, elected or not, who actually does the things that the citizens want them to do.

I’m sure every country has their fair share of local destructions, but almost every global disaster has to include Washington D.C. and/or New York City. I think the reason for that is, if those cities can be destroyed, then nowhere is safe.

I’d love to see a count of destroyed cities from every sci-fi movie and TV show ever made. I bet D.C. and NYC would be at or near the top.

oh sure. as for reference watch almost any anime about alien invasion. They always attack Tokyo.

Also in Dr Who, the aliens always attack London.

Excellent points, all, but there are two, maybe three points to bring up.

1.) We are not talking about real-world geo-politics, only about what we’ve seen in the Zap Verse.

2.) No one, least of all Gunner, is saying he’s better than the GEF, in fact, many would argue he’s worse.

3.) There is no evidence that the people of Earth (as shown) were FORCED to vote for President Evil. It WAS, however, shown that he had a 98% approval rating with parades showing people shouting things along the line of “he’s so nice! He gives us free stuff! NO! I don’t care where it’s from, or how he got it!” Implying that they know full well about the genocide (or at least suspect it) and they just don’t care.

As it stands for Gunner, these are the questions any court would ask on war crimes.

1.) Does Gunner have a valid grievance against the Earth, and the G.E.F. in particular? HELL YES!

2.) Does Gunner have just cause to demand retribution and/or restitution from the offending parties? Absolutely.

3.) Does Gunner have any means available to publicly and peacefully redress his grievances? NO.

4.) Does Gunner have the CAPACITY to peacefully redress his grievances if a forum is presented to him? Absolutely not. The G.E.F. made certain of that. God (and maybe the author knows what kind of inhumane tortures, torments, and treatment he received as a conscript of the G.E.F. AFTER his planet and species were wiped out.)

As such, should Gunner succeed in reducing the Earth (in the Zapverse) to ash, I personally would not shed a tear. They brought it on themselves.

That being said, is the Resistance right to stop him? Absolutely.

1.) He has attacked numerous Resistance interests, and the Resistance itself as a whole on numerous occasions starting with the bar where Reona used to work, and Reona herself.

2.) He has publicly, privately, and deliberately targeted the remaining 2% that (at worst) were strongly opposed to President Evil’s genocidal policies, but were unable to act upon threat of deadly force, as well as all of humanity everywhere. (Of whom the Resistance has many members.)

3.) He has shown that not only is his word meaningless, but he’s perfectly willing to use any and all means at his disposal to brutalize or even slaughter innocents, allies, and his own subordinates.

4.) Gunner will not, and apparently can not listen to reason. (He will pretend to do so while it serves his ends, but will immediately betray and destroy anyone he can’t exploit.)

Do I like Gunner? No.

Does he deserve justice? Yes.

Sheesh. You’re a little too invested in making this complicated from my perspective. I didn’t really read through all that, sorry.

But even from your initial point of this being a fictional universe it’s still reasonable to assume that the way a government gets elected and holds power is similar to the way it works in the real world. Most people aren’t happy with the government if you really ask them about it. Most people feel like they can’t do anything about it or are too apathetic to try. I seriously doubt that Pascalle has shown us even a a tenth of the people who occupy the entire planet Earth in this comic. And even if the people she has shown are the majority of the planet’s population and they all, as you suppose, support the GEF’s genocidical tendencies, there is still no justice to be had by figuring Gunner should do the same to them. Justice for mass genocide doesn’t equate to more mass genocide.

Or more simply put, I stand by the concept of two wrongs don’t make a right. But it’s clear to me you disagree. That’s fine. At least this is just a comic.

I’m confused. I don’t remember ever saying anywhere that Billings had a 98% approval rating. The former President of the GEF had a 95% rate, but that was under a different governmental structure and was way before the multiple genocides of Billings.

Maybe I’m just forgetting something I wrote a long time ago, but where did you see Billings having a 98% approval in the current GEF?

I mean, I don’t agree with your view that any intelligent race/species deserves genocide for any reason except as MAYBE a last resort… but I’m not sure even then. But right now I’m just curious where you got your info.

Actually, it’s not just anime, All the live action Godzilla movies always attack Tokyo and for that matter just about every giant monster / robot movie in Japan destories some part of Japan. It all comes down to who your target crowd is. If local then you will use local places because it’s easier for them to relate.

I know that this is necromancy, but we’re doing much better now. SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin…
Also, the shuttle was designed (with an excess of “input” by Congress) to put a specific spy satellite into orbit, and that satellite was replaced by others that were much smaller and lighter before the shuttle ever flew.