Wolves in Sheep's Capes
We all knew that it was only a matter of time. At least, those of us who were not addle-brained by a sappy sentimentality and a "love conquers all" mentality. I am, of course, referring to OctoPersia's return to a life of crime, evidenced by the violent altercation between her, Doctor Quantum ,and Jonni Sonic that left the last of those in the hospital, in critical condition. While the town prays for the recovery of one of its heroes, it is time to reflect on the mistakes that brought us to this point-the largest of those mistakes being to give any credence to the 'work' of the Good Triumphs Initiative.
The Good Triumphs Initiative is a so-called "intervention" group, based on the fundamentally misguided premise that it is possible for a supervillain to simply 'change sides' and become a hero, as if he were some kind of professional wrestler making a heel-face turn. What gets lost in this process is any sense of responsibility, to society or to the villain's victims, in favor of a blank slate that seems to be accepted by far too many of our superhuman protectors.
The recidivism rate of the Initiative's clients is, as could be expected, extremely high. OctoPersia is only the latest in a long line of supposedly-reformed evildoers who have, just as soon as life on the right side of the law became even slightly hard or inconvenient, returned to their criminal fraternity. Some of them, like the Mullet seem to change sides so often that a scorecard is required to keep track. (And there is every indication that the Flying Squirrel is headed down the same treacherous path.)
It's time we stopped accepting these so-called "reforms" peddled by the Good Triumphs Initiative and insisted that the villainous instead do hard time in the hyper-security wing of Killraven Prison, before another of our city's heroes ends up sharing a hospital room-or worse- with Jonni Sonic.
-Editorial by Frank Cooper
See Also:
Doctor Quantum
Killraven Prison
OctoPersia
This is a GHI entry in the Cosmopolis Lexicon