That reflects well on Faite. However, the Hood is a genuine, if sometimes charming, evil man, and his sympathetic qualities and life traumas do not excuse his behaviour. As with all fictional archvillains in traditional comic-book universes he must one day face justice for what he has done - and his downfall must be epic.




I have no doubt that if we ever see the Hood finally take his big shot there would be a last major conflict with the Lair Legion and all the resources they can pull in. And there would finally be a definitive winner.

Remarkably, the Hooded Hood has only really gone all out against the LL twice, and each time he was only stopped by someone close to him (and behind him). The first time it was Lisa and the second time his then-daughter Troia. A third confrontation might be decisive.










That is part of overcoming the barrier. Cracking the interface is only the first part. Surviving and achieving an agenda beyond that is also required.

The Hood likes to think big.




the Hood has gathered intelligence from all kind of weird places now, including the database of the Celestian Space Robots, the combined observations of the Observers (the PV's Watchers), the entire database of the Intergalactic Order of Librarians, Wilbur Parody (the only man to hold all three Triumverate offices and the only one to set them aside and still keep the forbidden information that was supposed to be erased from him), the Resolution Prophecy personified, the Faerie Queene, the Allied Pantheons, and of course his Portal of Pretentiousness.

There are still some bits of knowledge he's missing, though. For example, only a few people have been exposed to the Storyheart, and he hasn;t yet gleaned what they got from that. Since Trickshot is now gone from the PV, top of the list would be Yuki Shiro, Knifey, and Visionary. Plans are afoot.




The Hood does tend to adapt based upon information gathered, so he's always ready to add more variations and contingencies to his planning. After all, he can literally be trying a thousand different ways all at once and then select which one really happened.

Right now the Hood probably knows he hasn't got the whole plan. But he has plans to get it.




If you want to see the Babel story as a parable or kinds, and one that even reflects on the modern day, consider this.

Somewhere about the time the Tower of Babel story is set, the most technologically advanced people on Earth lived in the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, modern-day Iran and Iraq. They had agriculture, pottery, mathematics, building, literature, and medicine; we have archeology to demonstate this.

Then some unknown genius worked out how science could overcome nature's limit. Civilisation was dependent upon the annual river floods to sustain a farming belt roughly half a mile inland all along the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys. Beyond that was dustbowl. But somebody invented the canal, to channel river-water for miles, and suddenly fertile land grew by a magnitude. Population soared. More people with more food led to rapid expansion, including more specialisation of labour and more technical advancements. No need to pray to the gods for water and food now. Science had conquered the need for religion.

Except... if you break down the natural river wall defences and allow water onto the plains beyond, when you have atypical bad weather what you get is a flood. Or a Flood. It's a man-made eco-disaster, perhaps the first ever. And it's happening to a culture where the best buildings are made out of baked bricks of mud and straw, that don't react well to ten feet of overflowing river.

And that seems to have been the downfall of that civilisation and all their amazing buildings and towers.

If that doesn't translate into Bible stories about God sending floods and casting down an impertinent tower I don't know what will. If it doesn't have something to say to us about our choices for science and technology today than I don't know what does.




You are quite correct, as verified by my son who is now preparing for his law exam but paused to give me a lecture.







Wouldn't she also be signing that staff member's death warrant?




It's a time of upheavals in the criminal underworld that the Baroness might hope to exploit. That said, she is very distracted right now by what she's learned that the Hood is doing. He's much nearer to the finishing line than she is - and that can't happen!







It would likely be someone outside Paradopolis or GMY that she has pissed off. Maybe ZOXXON or HERPES or BALD using dummy shells, or somebody like Thighmaster in Borovia - or spiffy in Badripoor!







The challenge comes because a Beth von Zemo kill order (probably contracted out via a pro middle-man like Screwdriver) would specify some assassin she assessed had a good chance of beating Yuki. It might make for an interesting fight.