The Movement #3

Either Katharsis is a giant bad-ass or the Coral City cops are pusses. Maybe it's a little bit of one and a whole lotta the other.

Can we discuss the bravery of Gail Simone for naming her comic book The Movement? You realize if it had sucked, every critic on the internet would be saying, "More like The Bowel Movement!" At least I know I would have! Man, now I wish this comic book sucked. Except DC doesn't actually need another poorly written comic book about teenagers. Thank God for this book!

Hmm, as an atheist, maybe I should praise this book differently.

Amen! No, wait, that doesn't work either.

Hallelujah! Fuck. What the hell?

This book is a long awaited miracle! Jesus Christ! Oh fuck, I can't even swear without religion butting in! And people think I'm being intrusive and upsetting when I simply mention I don't believe in God. How would you like it if every third thing in your language involved Satanism?! Yeah, you'd be pissed, right?

Well, you know, I don't actually care. I do say "thank God" and "Jesus Christ" and all sorts of other phrases with religious connotations. It's just the way language is. It doesn't bother me which is why I don't fucking care if the Pledge of Allegiance has "Under God" in it or not. What I find more upsetting is forcing kids to constantly repeat a pledge they can't even understand!

Oh! Speaking of Religion, I just received the "Family Bible" yesterday.

Black Lightning says, "Holy Bible? More like Holy Fuck That Thing Is Massive!"

My grandfather wanted me to have it simply because I'm the youngest male son of one of his sons. You know, the keeper of the family name bullshit. The only other son of a son was the oldest grandson. And neither of us had planned on having children. I don't think either of us felt any obligation to keeping something like the family name going. Although eventually, and, at first accidentally, my cousin did manage to become a father. And he had a boy somewhere in his late middle ages there! So I suppose the family Bible should go to him. And, eventually, maybe it will. But my Uncle decided it should go where Grandpa Doil explicitly said it should go: to me. He decided that because I said, "Even though I'm a bit interested in it, it really should go to someone to whom it means something." But because I said the "slightly bit interested" part, he thought it best to stick with Grandpa's exact wishes. Also, I think he'd already put it in the mail.

The best part about this Bible is that it includes the Apocrypha right smack in-between the Old and the New Testaments! And I was planning to do those as well as the Old and New Books as part of Lyle's Study Guide for the Literal Interpretation of The Bible for Dumb Dumbs.

And, no, it did not burn me when I embraced it for the photo shoot. Smart asses.

Now, where did I set down that comic book I was supposed to be reading?

Well Narration Boxed, Katharsis.

I don't think enough people think about the true security civilization offers them. It's just a massive illusion that could break down at any moment and no authority could stop the rampaging, looting, killing, or destruction of an out of control mob of people that have decided they don't buy into the social contract anymore. Katharsis believes it's based on fear. But that's understandable considering what we've seen of her attitude and background in this comic and Batgirl. I've always believed the biggest part of the illusion is grounded in empathy. The main reason civilization works is not because police are keeping us safe. It isn't because soldiers are dying for our freedom. And it definitely isn't because government is taking care of us. The main reason it works is because the majority of us understand that what is best for each of us is for each of us to be the best we can be to each of the others. It's partially selfishly motivated, granted. But selfish motivations work best on us humans. And by being selfish in this way, we actually promote the lives and the growth of others who are similarly acting selfishly. And so it's not really so selfish in the end.

Although a lot of people buy into Katharsis's belief that it is only fear of authority that keeps a lot of people in line. And many think the only authority that really keeps people in line is God. And so they believe religion helps more than it hurts. I'd say raising your children with pets helps build a stronger society than raising your children with God. You know. Because they learn empathy instead of fear and/or reward as the means to the end.

At this point, if you really just want a review about The Movement #3, you should probably find another website because I haven't finished reading page one yet.

Katharsis ends up captured at the hands of Coral City's Police force and this rich, powerful man, Mr. Cannon. Get it? His name is Mr. Cannon because he's powerful and explosive and he has big balls. Also it's a weapon useful against the masses. Also, it's phallic and I already mentioned the balls.

Meanwhile The Movement have begun their meeting with the Weather Witch.

There's less coffee and doughnuts than I was expecting.

I had to make a conscious effort to not scan in every picture of Mouse's rats or else I'd completely fill up my commentary space with random pictures like this:

And this:

And this:

I guess my conscious effort sucked.

As Mouse's Mieces are being flung about in a mini-hurricane, a homeless war veteran is chosen by a passing raincloud as the next victim of the Cornea Killer.

Vengeance Moth is currently busy feeding the two Coral City Police Prisoners and not showing anybody her awesome powers of erratic flight, flammability, and vengeful wrath. The police officer that got the short end of Katharsis's fist continues to try to portray The Movement as being as horrible or worse than the Coral City Police Force. He mentions that the police force might be more merciful than The Movement because they would not have punished the Police as severely as The Movement are punishing them. But once again, he's missing the main distinction: the Coral City Police Force are abusing their power. If it had been left up to their brothers in the force (and isn't THAT word dripping with meaning), they would not have been punished at all. A Police Officer committing a crime can't be compared to a civilian committing the same crime. They are completely different situations.

The Movement manage to calm Weather Witch's squall and get her to put the storms away so they can talk. For some reason, Weather Witch saw the young woman in a mask with the other young woman in a cape and the devil dude in the hoodie and the pale boy surrounded by rats and thought, "The police are here!" Maybe she can't see very well with all that milk in her corneas.

Superheroes really need to belong to some kind of Guild and have some kind of App running on their phone that identifies them as one of the good guys so these fights stop breaking out all over the place. I suppose The Movement wouldn't exactly be thrilled about joining some kind of bullshit patriarchal corporate program like that anyway.

Rainmaker mentions how Jim Cannon is set on gentrifying Coral City and pushing all the inconsequential people to the edges of livability. The inconsequential people, by the way, are the ones without any money. You know how it is! That part of town you never would have set foot in six months ago but now has such cute, trendy shops and eateries with the most amazing pulled pork sandwiches? And you shop there and eat there and comment on how they've really transformed the neighborhood without thinking about all the people that were moved out through higher rents and constructions of condominiums? And everybody happily praises the contractors and the city and the people who turned the neighborhood around without giving a single thought to poor people that don't fucking matter anyway. Do they?

Rainmaker decides to stay out of The Movement's fight although if Virtue ever wants to stop by and be, you know, opposite of her name, she should call. Rainmaker and her team disappear while Tremor gets the call from Vengeance Moth that Katharsis has been arrested. Or kidnapped, really.

Virtue decides to pay a visit to her father's the police captain's office.

The police chief seems like he could be a reasonable guy but he reacts badly to being painted into corners. And Virtue keeps slopping on the primer.

Virtue's next move is to threaten to tear down the police station with a whole mob of masked Movementeers.

The Movement #3 Rating: +1 Ranking. I don't think there were any overt ties to The Green Team although Jim Cannon is a big wealthy businessman and Wall Street tycoon, so he may end up being the father or uncle to one of the Green Team. Although they did mention the person who put The Movement together was female, so maybe L.L. really did put it all together. Unless it was Cecilia since Cecilia sounds like Caesar!