And there it is – the real goal of The Crimson Claw’s plan, and of course, it involves the trademark Claw tactic of messing with space-time to generate an endless resource.
Out of Gas
By
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By Ladon. Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 3:52 am
Burdock perplexes me. He designed a fully functioning and effective combat enhancing mechanical arm for himself yet he appears to be, for all intents and purposes, an imbecile. At first I thought his character was some kind of example of backwoods ingenuity but now I don’t know what to think. Regardless, I LOVE Anna’s plan. Utilizing game breaking alien tech to create a Solarpunk utopia while cementing a seat of absolute power for herself to shape the world to her benevolent ends? I’m not gonna lie, even if there was virtually no obsticals and the comic just became about her ruthlessly crushing all opposition to her goals without effort, I would continue to read if gleefully.
By CyborgJesus Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 6:11 pm
You would be surprised how many people are talented engineers with no formal education, and certainly no understanding of temporal techno babble.
By Towering Barbarian Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 12:01 am
There’s also the possibility that Keith pointed out back on June 4, that Burdock and Emma have opted to go the Claudius route and are feigning a lot less comprehension of what’s going on then they actually have. When becoming the minion of a mastermind supervillain this can be sometimes prudent and helps keep you off the “You know too much!” list. ^_^
By winger Sun Dec 23rd 2018 at 9:30 pm
also the fact she is going in to time travel something in canon she made mind you. and as the TF2 engineer said and yes i am going to quote him. “i solve practical problems” he knows how to make a cyborg arm but likely doesn’t care about what is the exact name of what his used to do it. or all that goes in to what parts he used.
By CTNC Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 4:35 am
I don’t care what other people say about her hero/villain status, I have a new favorite super hero. I’m not one to use profanities, but batteries powered by time itself duplicated with alternate time lines is so bad ass! She should pimp out her costume with diamonds just because she deserves to. 😀
By Titan Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 5:09 am
Smart Oil Barons would try to team up with her.
It’s kind of a stupid Hollywood myth that Big Oil would try to bury new form of energy such as Cold Fusion, they’ve already bought out Solar, Wind and other environmentally friendly power production methods. But, before you think I’m just kissing up to them, I’ll point out that it’s not necessarily because they care about the environment (I man, some might, but I can’t say for certain who) but because it’s ultimately cheaper and more profitable for them, think about it an Oil Rig cost hundreds of millions, if not billions to build, maintain and the resource it’s mining is becoming increasingly scarce as well as getting a lot of bad PR. So, yeah, they’d happily embrace stuff like Cold Fusion, especially if they could find some way to profit from it.
Of course, Anna will be seriously pissing of those whom she refuses to work with, so she might wanna start building an interdimensional gateway and start getting some tips from Scrooge McDuck on how to deal with Billionaire arch-nemesis’s
By Wizard Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 3:19 pm
Also, petroleum has numerous uses aside from fuel. So even if you replaced every internal combustion engine and oil or coal fired power plant on earth, oil might decline in value, but it would hardly be worthless.
By Xero Wed Jul 4th 2018 at 10:45 am
Medicine and textiles mostly super useful stuff but the majority of it gets wasted as fuel for obsolete engines
By Xero Wed Jul 4th 2018 at 10:44 am
Except they have the internal combustion engine has been obsolete for almost a century big oil has bought bribed and suppresed the creators of every alternate only reason its not happening anymore is Elon Musk has bond villian/fuck you money
By Belake Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 6:16 am
I understand your reasoning, but I have to disagree on a few points.Industries fight to keep themselves relevant. the people who invents the new, more efficient thing don’t always have a reason to share with the industry they’re replacing.
Even if they did, the fact that the energy is more efficient means that there won’t be as much need for people to run it. Several of the energy industry leaders would be able to jump on, but many more would be left jobless.
By that_jedi_girl Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 3:52 pm
Robert Heinlein’s – “Let There Be Light” – came to mind when I read your comment.
By Sid Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 7:40 am
Yeah, I imagine after finding out that stopping her is impossible, oil barons and such would likely invest in these batteries or move to another industry with their money
By Simon Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 10:46 am
Not a lot of investment opportunities here though… she’s the one with an unlimited energy source (and other alien tech), which means she has no need for outside investment herself. And since she’s basically doing this for free, investing in competing products won’t pay its way…
By Gianluca Burdon Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 12:07 pm
To complete her goals she’s gonna need cash, to get cash she’s gonna need to sell something, to sell something she’s either gotta start up a company or use a internet shopping site used by a company, which will put her in the Stock Market, which anybody can invest in whether she likes it or not
She could go the Black Market route, but then she going to have to deal with gangs like MS-13, the Mafia, Yakuza & so on, all of which could easily have Supers under there employ, plus such a move would slowly drive the economy into chaos, which along with increased gang violence, would put a lot of people out of work, effectively ruining a lot of innocent peoples lives, the exact opposite of what Anna wants, as well as get her a top stop on the Onorabile Mafia‘s hit list, which might lead to the Action Faction showing up again, at the very least GooFather will return
By Gianluca Burdon Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 12:09 pm
oops… forgot to close the Bold tag after “Action Faction”
By Vulcan Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 8:54 pm
Given that she’s out to wreck the trade in blood diamonds as well, I think she has the financial aspects of this planned out already.
By Ladon Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 3:18 am
Not gonna lie, dude. I think we’re done with those guys. The action faction had broken up. It was a one-off thing that Zap has moved on from. I kinda wanna make a fanfic with them though. Would you be cool with me using goofather as a character?
By Gianluca Burdon Sun Jun 24th 2018 at 2:31 am
Sure, go right ahead. 🙂 Most of the info on him is in the comments section of the Action Faction short story pages
By Gianluca Burdon Sun Jun 24th 2018 at 7:46 am
Though could you give a link to it when you’re done writing it. Thanks
P>S> I know the chances of seeing them again in the story are low, I was just reverencing how’d things would play out if Anna took a certain path, based on what’d happening reality and what’s been established in-universe
By Rigor Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 6:27 pm
There’s nothing that requires a company to join the stock market, they do it to get money faster than they can by sales alone. Ana may not need to do that.
By Dogma Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 8:54 am
She’ll also be pissing off all the people who inevitably lose their jobs due to obsolescence, the best historical example being the Luddite movement. Of course those people could retrain, but that hasn’t been historically popular either.
Though the will be presented by the Stonecutters.
By Klorix Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 11:30 am
Could that please happen IRL?
By Wizard Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 3:13 pm
I’m pretty sure that violates multiple laws of physics, so no.
By Vulcan Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 9:09 pm
Well, so does time travel, so…
By Xeiran Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 3:22 pm
It’s been hypothesized that “uplifting” the human race to a new era of prosperity, where humans basically want for nothing and doesn’t need to work to live, will require several things; cheap unlimited energy, cheap unlimited resources, and artificial intelligence for cheap unlimited labor. So Anna Claw is working on energy, and has already created AI. Unlimited resources would complete the triad to creating nirvana on earth.
But of course it’s never so simple. Anna’s space-time solutions have all sorts of potential problems, not the least of which is paradox; if you reset to an earlier version of the battery and use the power, what happens to past events that relied on that power in the past? Do they never happen? She herself is from an alternate timeline, is her solution effectively stealing power from various other timelines? What would the alternate-timeline versions of herself do about that theft?
Even absent time-space hijinks, just having AI could be a giant problem; intelligence is one thing – sentience and being *aware* of oneself is quite another. Intelligence without sentient awareness is the ideal form of cheap unlimited labor; with awareness (as Anna’s creations seem to be), well, you’ve just re-created slavery.
Definitely looking forward to where this goes!
By Otaku Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 4:54 pm
Even if everything else about Anna’s plan was right, it has the same flaw as all attempts at “uplifting” humanity; humans. I don’t care if people are uncomfortable because of potential religious connotations, if you wish to stop being a bad person, you’ve got to cop to it first, then at least make an effort to become better. Would I be a better person if I were born into better circumstances? Perhaps superficially, but I mostly expect I’d just have different or potentially worse problems because my biggest issues are all my own fault. While many people may be better than I am, none of them are perfect.
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Now look at Anna’s plan itself. Which at first had me very worried, because these kinds of “pie in the sky” don’t work in real life, and in comics they inevitably end up being retconned not only because it is difficult to maintain a grounded feel once the storyline deviates in such a substantial way (it can be done, it is just more difficult to write), but also because this kind of sci-fi is notorious for backfiring as well after future discoveries or clarifications make it clear such and such a thing won’t work. Then I remembered that Zap Pitt is a better writer than that and that this is Supervillanous. Sorry, Zap. 😉
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I look forward to how he’ll continue this storyline, perhaps even exposing that aspects of Anna’s plan are shortsighted and/or outright ignorant because she trusted unreliable modern media and/or historical data (from her own future)… ignoring how silly it is to trust individuals, corporations, or government to be completely honest and altruistic.
By Marscaleb Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 5:41 pm
This sounds like a horrible plan that is going to backfire.
I’d go into details, but judging by the wall of comments above me, I imagine I’m not the only one who thinks this.
By ukezi Fri Jun 22nd 2018 at 9:13 pm
I think her plan to crush the carbon industry is not necessary. Just sell the batteries cheap enough and they will be gone fast. Of cause, she can set herself up as the sole provider of energy and rule the world.
By nothing that can be spoken in a human tongue Sat Jun 23rd 2018 at 10:25 pm
yeah, but we still need oil to make good plastic
By TheItzal Sun Jun 24th 2018 at 7:14 pm
here’s hoping your time travel is truly without paradox and not just building up to some critical mass of ultimate destruction of all universes
By steve Sun Jun 24th 2018 at 9:16 pm
new claw seems a little more sanctimonious and a little less amusing.
By just me Mon Jun 25th 2018 at 1:25 pm
he reminds me of what they used to call early car mechanics by the name of shade tree mechanics, who never went to school or learned the math and engineering, but would be able to fix and improve cars, back when the only people to fix cars would be at dealerships, who were sometimes hundreds of miles away. this was before repair shops or filling stations became very common. they got the name from things like a block and tackle hanging from a tree for those times they needed to lift heavy things like engines.
many of these mechanics were great at intuitive thinking and could just know where problem was or how to put parts together into usable devices. many of them could even make the parts they needed from just basic blacksmithing skills.
By just me Mon Jun 25th 2018 at 1:41 pm
you know, when you think about her battery pack as using time loop technology to constantly renew and recharge itself, imagine other things it could be used for.
a laser gun that never runs out of power, and when it time loops itself to recharge, it could also refresh gun so you never have to worry about it overheating.
time loop tech on a chain gun to automatically reload and reverse wear and tear and overheating
even on a crossbow, instant reload and recocking bowstring (a vampires worst nightmare)
kids would love that on their nerf guns
and think of possibilities if you could time loop a troop carrier filled with henchmen. unending army. drop load of troops, loop the carrier to refill then drop another load of troops. unending cannon fodder