Lone Justice #29

Russ Rogers (12:58 PM on Mon Jul 27, 2009)

Lone Justice gives an eloquent speech about the Law and Justice. He calms the mob and convinces them that their Vigilante Justice will only be counter-productive. And then, as soon as the mob turns it's back, he illustrates his point ironically by trying to interrogate someone with his fists! No one is ever going to accuse Lone Justice of being the "World's Greatest Detective" this way!

What! Lone Justice can't even pull down the criminal's masks to see if he recognizes a face? He can't rifle these men's pockets? Look for clues? (I bet one of these guys is carrying a matchbook from the Pioneer Club!)

Lone Justice's first instinct is, "Well, I can beat the truth out of anyone!" Why not just have a scene where Lone Justice is driving bamboo splints under a criminal's fingernails or attaching jumper cables to their genitals? Drive the point home that Lone Justice is a Bully, a Torturer and a Hypocrite at heart.

Maybe you could have a scene where Jean asks Octavius, "Did you get any information out of that man by beating his face into hamburger?" And Octavius replies, "No. I didn't think I would, especially after he started coughing up teeth. But it sure made me feel good!" And then they kiss.

Lone Justice has shown that he can be witty and clever. He's shown that he can outsmart criminals as well as out-punch them. Why not this time? You must have written this scene with Lone Justice using his fists instead of his brains specifically to be ironic. But it's especially nauseating to see a character resort to violence and torture right on the heals of an impassioned plea for Justice.

I guess I'm sensitive to this issue because of all the torture that was done recently by the USA in the name of security and justice. And by how much objective evidence there is that Torture doesn't work as an interrogation technique. Because, Torture doesn't produce accurate information. On top of that, as we torture, we lose the moral high ground on terrorists (and become terrorists ourselves). You really have to try hard to lose your moral superiority to terrorism. And we actually fuel the fires of anti-American sentiment and thus, backhandedly, support and validate the terrorists! It makes NO sense! I'm horrified that torture was done in my name under the guise of "trying to keep me safe." Torture didn't work on any level. We gained nothing and lost so much of what we value, like our values! All this, and I'm LESS safe for it! And the fact that the torture continued even after the tortures themselves said that they couldn't gain any more intelligence from their victims meant that one of the only reasons we were doing it was so that someone could get their jollies from violent retribution.

Thanks for producing a smart comic, where Big and Important Ideas (like Law, Justice, Vigilantism, Fear and Fascism) aren't just talked about by the characters, but illustrated too.

Lord Snooty (12:48 PM on Fri Jul 31, 2009)

Well as always with this story I'm loving it, keeping in mind that its 1930's "Pulp action" its in great keeping with that line of story telling.In a time when its was your two fists did the talking for you !, as for Lone Justice himself he's lost everything and with his back against the wall is leaning to stand up those around him and not just fighting the "good" fight.