Will Ethan stay put I wonder? An active shooter is something else than the low level thugs they often handle. Assuming some fucked up country where you can get AR-15 with armour piercing bullets and whatnot to shoot up schools his armour might not be enough.
That being said, is it any safer for Lucas? His arrows can take a big punch, but can they handle repeated fire?
That’s an interesting thought. His arrows handle much more than the amount of force a bullet provides, we’ve seen them multi-ton ton chunks of concrete and catch humans of various sizes. That indicates they can handle quite a bit of force, but only on a very board “Per square inch” basis. We don’t have much info on what a penetrating force will do though. Best I can remember he blocked the mechanically launch throwing stars from Zeke with one, but we don’t really know the velocity on those so getting a muzzle energy is no use. I also don’t recall… Read more »
Gonfrask
21 days ago
What will be? Ethan get the shot saving Ben and then cliffhanger to see if he survives or not? Or Ben get the shot to save Ethan after he freezes (don’t know… getting wounded?) And then Lucas breaks his friendship with Ethan?
What I hope, is that this ends with Ethan going in, and without us knowing whether he has any powers or not.
True heroism isn’t running in and fighting people who can’t hurt you, and risking only the lives of the people you’re trying to save. True heroism is risking life and limb to help people who desperately need it.
Yes because he’s running in with the possibility of death being permanent. It’s heroism regardless because he’s still risking his life, he can just use his temporary death to his advantage. Immortality doesn’t take away your ability to be a hero.
An immortal person can still be heroic even if they aren’t at risk of death.
It’s irrelevant as to whether or not Ethan thinks he can die as regards to being heroic.
However, Ethan thinking he can die, but acting heroic anyway, is an act of courage.
Bwauder
21 days ago
In a reality where superheroes are a happening thing, an APB for all officers would hopefully get notice from some of the more legitimate and powerful superheroes as well.
Not that even the presence of ‘the big guys’ would necessarily stop Ethan and Lucas trying to help because they found out early…
I think in a world like this, the big advantage a police force could provide is consistency and speed of response. Having people who are trained for a situation like this and have an established protocol to follow means that they will usually be the first people you can deploy on scene, compared to loosely organized heros that may or may not be available.
When it comes to active shooters, seconds matter.
PhobosRising
21 days ago
But I thought “Thoughts and Prayers” stopped all that?
Ah, the Lucas curse. At least this one would be “dying heroically” instead of “betraying him over a fortune he doesn’t have” or something wacky like that
Ben should be safe. By the time he gets to his kit (house or office) and drives to the campus, it should be over. Unless it turns into a protracted hostage situation. But if that’s the case, I don’t think Ben has mentioned being SWAT/SRT/SET or anything like that.
You’re probably right, unless he keeps his kit in his personal vehicle. Granted, I don’t see a firearm on him, and there’s a number of reasons why keeping a firearm in his personal vehicle is a bad idea (ESPECIALLY in a superhero setting where x-ray vision and other powers are likely common).
But yeah, he’d probably be there after the initial response, so probably safe unless it’s something much bigger than that.
Though in general you’d be right, but I’ll play the advocate of the devil. There’s instances where it easily is protracted. I remember a case where the shooter went in, killed a bunch of people, went to his own living space to post on social media, and then went back. A police action can also easily be protracted by uncertainty. They need to know if there’s multiple shooters. Ben would be safe while they find this, but what if a second shooter did hide out or was just on their bicycle to get more ammo. Not to mention that they… Read more »
Dom
21 days ago
So there’s an active photographer on campus. Volonteer police group photo day?
I wrote and finished this comic/storyline in January. I started releasing it to you over two weeks ago, and these stories last about 2 months. If I had started it a week earlier, this comic would have fallen on the Wednesday just before FSU, and you’d be saying “Oh wow, that’s an eerie coincidence!” There were 83 school shootings in the US in 2024 (not all fatal). No matter when I released it, what do you think the chances are the story was going to run 2 months of the year without falling in some proximity to a real-life school… Read more »
It’s terrible to think that the situation in the US is so dire, that said tone keeps ringing. And you’re absolutely not wrong, because it’s only every couple of weeks I see some story come out of the US. What’s worse is that I barely glance at it because I frankly don’t care anymore because America refuses to do anything material about it – and it’s only getting worse. The exception to that was the Vegas shooting by virtue of it being record-breaking. I’m a Canadian, so when a major shooting like this happens here, or in any other Western… Read more »
Pretty much. I still have my empathy, but if I worried about every single injustice in the world I would be an absolute mess – and I’m already enough of a mess as it is.
According to Wikipedia, in 2025 there have been 110 mass shootings so far, 19 of them in April alone (including FSU).
And to think, for many people (including myself), the only silver lining once Sandy Hook happened, was that that particular incident would we the one that would unite society (& both parties) to finally establish gun control/reform (being that the victims were small children).
That sad thing is: Until both sides of the gun control discussion understand that the problem totally isn’t gun control, but a deeply embedded culture/society problem, nothing will ever change. That is actually the same problem that prevents a sane healthcare system, for example… And the same problem that somehow still seems to glorify bullies because they are “so strong and mighty”… (Heck, they even voted a proto bully as their president, twice…) Collectively the american mind still sits in their covered wagons, fearing the big unknown enemy (natives, then communists, then terrorists, etc) outside, in the night, and by… Read more »
When could you ever release a comic about a shooting without it being around a shooting actually happening? Maybe if you time travelled to before guns were invented. Or at least before America became so…Murica
Well, from a european vantage point, it seems to be a complicated thing to position something like this between all the shootings happening. Depending on statistics you’d have like 4 to 5 days between incidents in the recent years.
So, in reality, sadly, it’s always “too soon” over there.
That’s not always accurate. That being said, Ben could be volunteering to go in, and I’m pretty sure that’s pretty common for the good officers out there.
Unless he’s on-call, he’s not. In any case, it would take a lot of time for him to get to the precinct, get geared up, and take a squad car to the scene. It would be totally pointless. If it were a natural disaster that would be different. Those can cause emergencies that could last hours or days. Supervillains raising hell wouldn’t be that kind of thing unless you’re facing something city-wide.
That’s on-call, which is different than just than “all available”. You’re not actually available if you don’t have your gear. The time it would take to get ready would be too long to be effective, unless the situation has long-lasting effects, like Loki attacking NYC.
He didn’t say he was “on-call”, did he? That would have changed everything, and I wouldn’t have commented.
wysskers4
21 days ago
just laying down my guess with everyone else. Ethan trusts in his new gear, his new gear works flawlessly, we’re still in Limbo about his Respawn status.
Ben’s car breaks down on the way to pick up his kit, he’s safe the whole time.
Giggity Goo
21 days ago
I hope the first panel of the next one is Lucas saying “Can we do anything to help?” cause I feel like there’s a chance that they show up and Ben is like “You shouldn’t be here…” cause they’re using info they shouldn’t have and there’s also a chance that they don’t go and he’s like “Where were you? Why do you think I told you?”
Definitely an interesting possibility. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if Ben would be okay with them showing up, especially with Lucas’s proven ability to *literally stop cars* with his arrows. In a mass shooting scenario, that kind of power would save lives.
Kevin Greenbaum
21 days ago
I do have the early comic access, but I like the suspense so I only go on for Starcaster Chronicles and the exclusives.
Austin Mills
20 days ago
Alright everyone: suit up. Lucas, put on your D-Pad costume. Ethan, get on your new armored costume. Ben, put on your cop costume. Wow, that’s a pretty convincing costume.
KliwX
20 days ago
Is this the way it gonna be now? That I have to worry about Ben all the time? Shiiiiit…
This is what he signed up for when he became a cop. It’s not even “ACAB” garbage to say that it’s better for a cop to die than a citizen, that’s literally the point.
“Do… Do you want us to join? We don’t want to interfere with your professional metho-”
“Are you kidding me? There’s shooter out there. He’s killing people, we probably can’t get very close to him without being shot too. You’re a f*****g superhero, that creates f*****g arrow shield, and your friend is kinda bullet proof. Yes, if you want to help, then thank you so, so much”
Del Cox
20 days ago
Even if a lot of folks are calling in the idea that Ethan takes a bullet to save Ben for Lucas, I hope Tim doesn’t change things to avoid being predictable. Some plot beats I’d love to read, even if they’re foreseeable. My wife has a habit of “welp, I guess I can’t do that now” if I predict a twist or even a catchy line of dialogue in her stories; it’s regrettable.
24
Will Ethan stay put I wonder? An active shooter is something else than the low level thugs they often handle. Assuming some fucked up country where you can get AR-15 with armour piercing bullets and whatnot to shoot up schools his armour might not be enough.
That being said, is it any safer for Lucas? His arrows can take a big punch, but can they handle repeated fire?
That’s an interesting thought. His arrows handle much more than the amount of force a bullet provides, we’ve seen them multi-ton ton chunks of concrete and catch humans of various sizes. That indicates they can handle quite a bit of force, but only on a very board “Per square inch” basis. We don’t have much info on what a penetrating force will do though. Best I can remember he blocked the mechanically launch throwing stars from Zeke with one, but we don’t really know the velocity on those so getting a muzzle energy is no use. I also don’t recall… Read more »
What will be? Ethan get the shot saving Ben and then cliffhanger to see if he survives or not? Or Ben get the shot to save Ethan after he freezes (don’t know… getting wounded?) And then Lucas breaks his friendship with Ethan?
What I hope, is that this ends with Ethan going in, and without us knowing whether he has any powers or not.
True heroism isn’t running in and fighting people who can’t hurt you, and risking only the lives of the people you’re trying to save. True heroism is risking life and limb to help people who desperately need it.
What if it turns out he’s still immortal but didn’t know it yet? Ethan wouldn’t actually be risking anything, but he doesn’t know that.
Is that.. Heroism?
Yes because he’s running in with the possibility of death being permanent. It’s heroism regardless because he’s still risking his life, he can just use his temporary death to his advantage. Immortality doesn’t take away your ability to be a hero.
In the stated definition of heroism the risk is valid if the person thinks it’s valid.
If someone throws a grenade into a crowd and someone jumps on it to save everyone else, it’s no less heroic if it turns out it was a fake grenade
Heroism is in doing something heroic.
An immortal person can still be heroic even if they aren’t at risk of death.
It’s irrelevant as to whether or not Ethan thinks he can die as regards to being heroic.
However, Ethan thinking he can die, but acting heroic anyway, is an act of courage.
In a reality where superheroes are a happening thing, an APB for all officers would hopefully get notice from some of the more legitimate and powerful superheroes as well.
Not that even the presence of ‘the big guys’ would necessarily stop Ethan and Lucas trying to help because they found out early…
I think in a world like this, the big advantage a police force could provide is consistency and speed of response. Having people who are trained for a situation like this and have an established protocol to follow means that they will usually be the first people you can deploy on scene, compared to loosely organized heros that may or may not be available.
When it comes to active shooters, seconds matter.
But I thought “Thoughts and Prayers” stopped all that?
The cops sure didn’t in Texas.
Not really surprised, once went to police 3 times over a stalker doing vandalism of home. Police did shit.
Tim. No. Don’t.
We like Ben.
Ah, the Lucas curse. At least this one would be “dying heroically” instead of “betraying him over a fortune he doesn’t have” or something wacky like that
My prediction: Scott eventually DOESN’T get it, after all, and becomes a villain hell bent on destroying Zeke. Ben gets hurt today.
After some rough patches, Ben becomes the new Guy in the Chair.
You have it all wrong; Ethan is the one getting shot in the head.
OMU = Omegatropolis [M] University. M for… Medical?
My first thought was Metropolitan.
Manatee. It’s a very specialised oceanographic institute.
Metrosexual.
Monsters
Omegatropolis Mancomingupwithfakenamesishard University
Or Muncipial
This is about to get interesting *Rubs hands together*
The obvious route this’ll go is that Ethan somehow psychs himself into saying “F* It”, and going in, and ends up tanking a shot at Ben.
Tim tries to subvert the obvious one, so i have no idea where this’ll end up
“Calling all officers, we need you to stay outside and make sure nobody tries to get in to rescue the people or stop the shooter.”
Someone has to stop the parents.
Ben should be safe. By the time he gets to his kit (house or office) and drives to the campus, it should be over. Unless it turns into a protracted hostage situation. But if that’s the case, I don’t think Ben has mentioned being SWAT/SRT/SET or anything like that.
You’re probably right, unless he keeps his kit in his personal vehicle. Granted, I don’t see a firearm on him, and there’s a number of reasons why keeping a firearm in his personal vehicle is a bad idea (ESPECIALLY in a superhero setting where x-ray vision and other powers are likely common).
But yeah, he’d probably be there after the initial response, so probably safe unless it’s something much bigger than that.
At the bare minimum, getting your personal vehicle thrown at villains have a high chance to crack any gun safes inside.
You wouldn’t think it is that common a problem, but in Omegatropolis you’d be surprised…
Though in general you’d be right, but I’ll play the advocate of the devil. There’s instances where it easily is protracted. I remember a case where the shooter went in, killed a bunch of people, went to his own living space to post on social media, and then went back. A police action can also easily be protracted by uncertainty. They need to know if there’s multiple shooters. Ben would be safe while they find this, but what if a second shooter did hide out or was just on their bicycle to get more ammo. Not to mention that they… Read more »
So there’s an active photographer on campus. Volonteer police group photo day?
I mean, they tend to just stand around at those sorts of alerts. So….
Anyone else think this is a little tone deaf? There was an active shooter Friday on FSU campus. Too soon.
I wrote and finished this comic/storyline in January. I started releasing it to you over two weeks ago, and these stories last about 2 months. If I had started it a week earlier, this comic would have fallen on the Wednesday just before FSU, and you’d be saying “Oh wow, that’s an eerie coincidence!” There were 83 school shootings in the US in 2024 (not all fatal). No matter when I released it, what do you think the chances are the story was going to run 2 months of the year without falling in some proximity to a real-life school… Read more »
It’s terrible to think that the situation in the US is so dire, that said tone keeps ringing. And you’re absolutely not wrong, because it’s only every couple of weeks I see some story come out of the US. What’s worse is that I barely glance at it because I frankly don’t care anymore because America refuses to do anything material about it – and it’s only getting worse. The exception to that was the Vegas shooting by virtue of it being record-breaking. I’m a Canadian, so when a major shooting like this happens here, or in any other Western… Read more »
Empathy Fatigue?
Pretty much. I still have my empathy, but if I worried about every single injustice in the world I would be an absolute mess – and I’m already enough of a mess as it is.
According to Wikipedia, in 2025 there have been 110 mass shootings so far, 19 of them in April alone (including FSU).
And to think, for many people (including myself), the only silver lining once Sandy Hook happened, was that that particular incident would we the one that would unite society (& both parties) to finally establish gun control/reform (being that the victims were small children).
Oh, how naïve we were…
That sad thing is: Until both sides of the gun control discussion understand that the problem totally isn’t gun control, but a deeply embedded culture/society problem, nothing will ever change. That is actually the same problem that prevents a sane healthcare system, for example… And the same problem that somehow still seems to glorify bullies because they are “so strong and mighty”… (Heck, they even voted a proto bully as their president, twice…) Collectively the american mind still sits in their covered wagons, fearing the big unknown enemy (natives, then communists, then terrorists, etc) outside, in the night, and by… Read more »
This is, sadly, very well said Tim.
When could you ever release a comic about a shooting without it being around a shooting actually happening? Maybe if you time travelled to before guns were invented. Or at least before America became so…Murica
You mean roughly before 1492?
Well, from a european vantage point, it seems to be a complicated thing to position something like this between all the shootings happening. Depending on statistics you’d have like 4 to 5 days between incidents in the recent years.
So, in reality, sadly, it’s always “too soon” over there.
well, there was like, 500 mass shooting in 2024 in the usa, according to gunviolencearchive, so…
Urg. This happens every single week, wake up.
technically, “day”, depending of the definition of shooting…
Lucas has to decide…. save Ben, or save Ethan.
Chooses Ben and hopes Ethan still has his powers.
Cliffhanger with dead(?) Ethan….
If you’re not on duty, you’re not available.
That’s not always accurate. That being said, Ben could be volunteering to go in, and I’m pretty sure that’s pretty common for the good officers out there.
Unless he’s on-call, he’s not. In any case, it would take a lot of time for him to get to the precinct, get geared up, and take a squad car to the scene. It would be totally pointless. If it were a natural disaster that would be different. Those can cause emergencies that could last hours or days. Supervillains raising hell wouldn’t be that kind of thing unless you’re facing something city-wide.
that isnt really how it works in some jobs, like cops, firemen, nurses, etc.
That’s on-call, which is different than just than “all available”. You’re not actually available if you don’t have your gear. The time it would take to get ready would be too long to be effective, unless the situation has long-lasting effects, like Loki attacking NYC.
Never heard of “on call,” huh?
He didn’t say he was “on-call”, did he? That would have changed everything, and I wouldn’t have commented.
just laying down my guess with everyone else. Ethan trusts in his new gear, his new gear works flawlessly, we’re still in Limbo about his Respawn status.
Ben’s car breaks down on the way to pick up his kit, he’s safe the whole time.
I hope the first panel of the next one is Lucas saying “Can we do anything to help?” cause I feel like there’s a chance that they show up and Ben is like “You shouldn’t be here…” cause they’re using info they shouldn’t have and there’s also a chance that they don’t go and he’s like “Where were you? Why do you think I told you?”
Definitely an interesting possibility. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if Ben would be okay with them showing up, especially with Lucas’s proven ability to *literally stop cars* with his arrows. In a mass shooting scenario, that kind of power would save lives.
I do have the early comic access, but I like the suspense so I only go on for Starcaster Chronicles and the exclusives.
Alright everyone: suit up. Lucas, put on your D-Pad costume. Ethan, get on your new armored costume. Ben, put on your cop costume. Wow, that’s a pretty convincing costume.
Is this the way it gonna be now? That I have to worry about Ben all the time? Shiiiiit…
This is what he signed up for when he became a cop. It’s not even “ACAB” garbage to say that it’s better for a cop to die than a citizen, that’s literally the point.
Someone should remind the cops of that tbh
I suspect Ethan’s respawning gets tested here
“Do… Do you want us to join? We don’t want to interfere with your professional metho-”
“Are you kidding me? There’s shooter out there. He’s killing people, we probably can’t get very close to him without being shot too. You’re a f*****g superhero, that creates f*****g arrow shield, and your friend is kinda bullet proof. Yes, if you want to help, then thank you so, so much”
Even if a lot of folks are calling in the idea that Ethan takes a bullet to save Ben for Lucas, I hope Tim doesn’t change things to avoid being predictable. Some plot beats I’d love to read, even if they’re foreseeable. My wife has a habit of “welp, I guess I can’t do that now” if I predict a twist or even a catchy line of dialogue in her stories; it’s regrettable.