ASH: Coherent Super Stories #20 - Flag Line featuring Rechtigkeit II

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:56:33 +0000 (UTC), Dave Van Domelen wrote:

>      [Author's Note: All dialogue in this issue is in German, translated into
> English (codenames like Rechtigkeit/Justice and Herr Stark/Mr. Strong not
> translated).]
> 
> [June 14, 1995 - Lower City, Khadam]
> 
>      "So, y'gonna tell me where ta find Herr Stark now, punk?" the petite
> blonde woman hefted the dazed bouncer up as high as she could, barely lifting
> his feet off the floor.  "Or do I hafta get mean?"

Well now, I wonder why--

>      Rechtigkeit suppressed a snicker.  Onslaught was trying to come across
> all suave and highborn, but what Khadam passed off as German made everyone
> sound like country bumpkins.  Came from being founded by a mix of Berbers
> and...Thuringians, maybe.  A bit hard to place, but definitely very rural.
> To a Berliner like Sofie, it sounded almost comic.

Ohhhhh.

>      "Serving justice, or servin' Rechtigkeit?  

That's a great line.

> Ah, never mind that, you
> patriotic blond legacy heroes are a lot alike, you know?  You, the new Lady
> Lawful, the new Brightsword...draped in the flag and just *oozin'* righteous
> rage.  Hear Brazil's blonde flag lady is more mellow, but Ah also hear she
> ain' really blonde," Onslaught chuckled.  "Be int'restin' t'find out, ah?"

I'd think dark hair would go better with Brazilian colors, anyway.

>      Written for High Concept Challenge #8, "Opposites". 

Woo!  Well-done!  And interesting ways of making them opposite.

>      While it's not as obvious as it usually is, I did try to write this as
> a sort of period piece, as I do most issues of CSS.  The period in question,
> though, was the mid-90s.

Interesting, especially as this was a period I actually experienced
firsthand! (Sort of, anyway; I drifted away from comics in late '94 (around
the time I started reading RACC (one didn't cause the other)), and didn't
get back into them until 2002 (right around the time I started writing on
RACC (both sprang from the same cause, about six months with nothing to
do)).)

> Herr Stark's
> costume (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/gallery/herrstark.JPG) is a
> deliberate riff on Superman's, a comment on various "Dark Superman"
> characters like Hank Henshaw.  

Is he supposed to be disturbingly misshapen? o.o

>      Brightsword II is more like a Wally West figure, brought up by the
> predecessor and encouraged to grow into the role.

I'd like to see more of them interacting!

>      In the generation between 1995 and the 2020s, the Khadam accent has
> shifted significantly, due in part to the influx of refugees from other parts
> of Africa after 1998's events, as well as the deaths of all the original Nazi
> soldiers and most of their children due to old age (Arnold's uncle Hans
> survives as a brain in a jar).  The idea to have the Zugmanns speak in "hick
> Deutsch" comes from the fact that Erwin Rommel was Swabian and his native
> dialect of German was pretty incomprehensible to Allied translators (a point
> made in the Desert Peach comic).  The remaining old guard (mostly third
> generation and some fourth) probably still speaks German with a pronounced
> Upper Saxon accent, but they're a shrinking minority.  Central African tone
> patterns are likely starting to filter into the street patois, mixing with
> the Berber elements, despite Khadam's central media striving to homogenize
> the spoken language.
>      Hey, Tony may be the one with a degree in linguistics, but that doesn't
> mean I can't dabble in it too.  ;)

Deeeeeeeeetails. *hwargle*

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, wooooorldbuilding.