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It’s hard to not feel as if the modern era of comics is trying to push its way through. But here it is, with characters who occasionally bump up against The Avengers, presented with all the tropes and trappings of late-Bronze Age Marvel. This is a plot that wouldn’t feel out of place in an Image or Vertigo title. But issue #1 gives us a tale of superheroes conspiring to rebuild a world they themselves destroyed (albeit because mind control) into a literal Utopia, all while maneuvering through what remains of the world’s governments.
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The phrase “ahead of its time” is one that gets thrown about so often that it pretty much loses all meaning. The comparisons to Watchmen instantly made sense, even if it was still very much 80s Marvel Comics. This is the same kind of system that you use to do your Internet banking.So… the first issue of Mark Guenwald and Bob Hall’s “Squadron Supreme” hooked me immediately in a way few first issues ever have. These systems are cheap and work exceptionally well by encrypting your traffic between sites, as well as acting as a relay point for your Internet traffic. One tool they use is a virtual private network, or VPN, that disguises your activity on the internet. Privacy can be a matter of life and death as whistle-blowers and activists struggle to get the word out in the face of authoritarian governments. The Romans had a Latin phrase that is most appropriate for this situation: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” Translated, it means: “Who watches the watchmen?” The answer is nobody. But, since the deliberations of these courts are secret, who knows what they are doing? Certainly not the public. Special secret courts have been set up to provide protection to people’s rights. Governments try to frighten us into allowing such surveillance under the guise of law and order – to keep the criminals away from decent people. We are often willing to trade privacy for convenience. However, most people carry cellphones, which have the capability to do just that and we have accepted it with hardly a thought. A riot would be sparked if a government mandated a tracker to report on a person’s every movement, what they read and who they talk to. Totalitarian governments view the internet as a golden opportunity to invade people’s personal privacy with unprecedented ease.
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Movies are pirated, books are shared online and newspapers and electronic media, while trying to adapt to the new paradigm, have found their credibility and financial viability strained by the torrent of misinformation. The internet has disrupted our normal ways of doing business. It has allowed conspiracy theorists of all description to flourish and spread their lies to a public that is seemingly ill equipped to interpret what is true and what is false. It has been used to subvert our democracies, spread deadly misinformation and confused people about what is a fact. It also has brought a plethora of bad outcomes. Indeed, the internet has brought us scientific achievement beyond our dreams, spread the arts, given a voice to the disenfranchised and allowed ideas to proliferate.
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However, no technology is neutral.įor example, guns can be used to hunt food but they also can be used to kill our fellow humans. It has heralded a golden age of progress in the arts and sciences, dwarfing all of our previous accomplishments. Today, we carry in our pockets a device that puts at everyone’s fingertips the sum total of human knowledge. The internet, as a world-wide communications network, has delivered on all the promises of the information superhighway and many more. Little did I and others know that a true revolution that would turn our entire world upside down was about to happen. I had always viewed it to be the classic “information superhighway” that it was touted to be. But I did not foresee the current state of the internet.