Thursday 22 June 2017

Small Solutions To Big Problems

Turning to graphic fiction for a change from prose, I read:

"...downsizing conventional numbers and reinvesting in a small, Superhuman Unit for Twenty-First Century problems."
-Mark Millar, The Ultimates, Vol 1, Super-Human (New York, 2005), Chapter Two, Big, p. 7, panel 2.

This speech balloon describes a superhero team but also recalls two of Poul Anderson's time travel organizations. See:

An Army Of One;
Team Work And Individual Excellence.

A Time Patrol Academy graduate armed with weapons from uptime would be equal to Tony Stark who is the superhuman Iron Man only when wearing his suit. Both can replace a battalion.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But the agents of Anderson's Time Patrol were also taught and trained to use such futuristic technologies, weapons, capabilities, etc., as SPARINGLY and inconspicuously as possible. Because to too openly and often use things would change and disrupt the time line the Patrol was tasked with preserving.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
A time traveler who went public with anachronistic technology would be a time criminal.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And we see such a time criminal in Anderson's very first Patrol story, "Time Patrol."

Sean