Grrl Power #788 – Apologies to anyone named Agnes
So this is a weird page. When I wrote it, I was thinking that, as Krona suggested, Archon actually does have a sort of secret identity allowance of sorts. Not that members of Arc-SWAT are allowed to have a secret, second life, but they they would have access to temporary fake identities. I also figured that if cops and feds can place agents undercover, those covers, especially these days, can't just be a fake driver's license. It would have to have social media accounts, parental social media accounts with baby pictures, high school transcripts, tax records from their first part time job, the works.
So why not give the nation's superheroes some fake I.D.s that are for all intents and purposes, real? I know, that's overkill for getting into a nightclub. Especially considering someone in the comments of the previous page said that famous people going out to a club anonymously happens all the time. They just call ahead and make arrangements with the owners, who obviously pass that on to the bouncers.
There's no way Harem wouldn't know about that sort of thing, so it doesn't really make sense she would go to the effort of procuring rock solid fake I.D.s for Sydney, and presumably the other members of Arc-SWAT. The only way I have to reconcile this is that a properly mocked up cover I.D. had long term uses. Sydney can keep it handy, as long as she has somewhere to stash the wig as well. Some eyebrow dye wouldn't be out of order either, honestly. But a fake I.D. like that would be pretty useful for setting up an anonymous P.O. Box or ordering stuff on DoorDash without setting off a social media/paparazzi frenzy. Obviously if someone looked like Maxima, the gig would be up when she answered the door, and the guy with her avocado eggrolls and salted caramel cookies hands her the order.
The other big tidbit we learn on this page is that the Council's Semper Vigilantis aren't real big on procedural law. Yes, they have people placed in the FBI and Homeland, and while they sometimes bother with warrants, especially when human agents are watching, it's not like a lot of what they do is going to wind up in human criminal or appellate court. They still appreciate things like chain of custody and obtaining actual evidence - any police/justice system that ignores basic stuff like that is just asking to be beset with corruption and tampering - they're just not always beholden to all the particulars of human procedural law.
BTW: Sydney is supposed to be eating fried pickles, but my coloring made them kind of off-gray, it just looks like she's eating some middling pumpernickel bread or something.
Edit: Forgot Pixel's bell choker in panel 6.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!