Today in the Trinity Universe: She was young and dumb, she'd just turned 21...

[aberrantangels]

Hmm...

2006
[Aberrant] A progress report on nova development written at an unidentified Rashoud facility reflects on the problem of novas who lack the intelligence or social awareness to understand what constitutes an appropriate use of their powers. "To that end, this researcher must recommend continued pursuit of the proposed 'M-R lobotomy' treatment."

The report's author cites, as an example, "case UT-117-UK; Marjorie McCannagh. At 60 IQ, Marjorie was only marginally aware of her surroundings, so her power to sever organic molecular bonds and turn living things into puddles of carbon sludge posed more threat than advantage." (Admittedly, most eruptions improve the subject's body and mind both, cf. Hugo Pinella.) Earlier, the author drew parallels with star athletes, prior to N-Day and the decline of baseline sports, who "made a good deal of money, often with little more than cursory education [...] and insufficient socialization[, which] made for [...] 'hillbillies with money'".

The author recommends that "sociopathic, asocial and criminally inclined subjects" face cautery of the Mazarin-Rashoud node "as early in its eruption as possible", before its effects on the body's self-repair system render it potentially capable of regenerating from such damage.

Comments

I'm Suicida, point man for Gangreen.

[aberrantangels]

The Crown took a lonely, frightened girl and made her a weapon; all we did was wrest that weapon from their hands.

And she wasn't the only one; I forgot Charlie "Epoch" Benton (and Natalya "Swarm Queen" Dornova, but I don't know much about her beyond the names). Aberrant: Teragen mentions that a lot of the movement's early members started as elites; I wonder, did a life of war make them proof against the four-color Utopian Way image of novahood the way it did Marshal Law?

Re: I'm Suicida, point man for Gangreen.

[md_donighal]

...That sounds like a very interesting series. I'd never heard of it before; it may not even have existed back home. In fact, judging from the awe with which most baselines regarded novas for the first decade or two, it may be that none of the "revisionist" superhero comics existed on our Earth.

But yes, the Marshal does sound like a typical disillusioned elite. I see the "Gangreen" of your subject line also rate a mention in the Marshal's listing at International Hero (linked from the Wikipedia page); is "Suicida" another of that world's super-soldiers?

Re: I'm Suicida, point man for Gangreen.

[aberrantangels]

I dunno. It may be that they existed and, as in this world, just couldn't make any enough headway (mindway?) against the "Sock! Pow! Bam!" view of comics and supers.

And yeah, Suicida's another Zone vet. He gets quoted (as "Suicida Gangreen") in the second edition of Werewolf: The Apocalypse (quote courtesy of a webpage that appears to be in Japan):

I could say..."You can't turn me on and off like a tap, man." But what's the point? Just got to hit them, that's all. Smack them in the mouth.

It's part of an internal monologue about how they made him a weapon, but didn't make any real effort to readjust him to civilian life. So he reacts to things the way they taught him to: "I JUST WANT TO SMACK THE WHOLE FRAGGGIN' WORLD IN THE MOUTH!" (The phrasing "smack my in the mouth" is the webpage's problem, not the book's.)