PS238

American comic book

PS238 is an American comic book written and drawn by Aaron Williams and published by Do Gooder Press. It follows the lives of both teachers and students at an elementary school for children with superpowers, which the comic calls metaprodigies. It was also adapted into a role playing game by Hero Games, using their Champions game system.

Issue #0 was published in November 2002. Until issue #20 it was published by Dork Storm Press and Henchman Publishing. In December 2006, Aaron Williams started posting the comic page by page on his website. The online version was updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In the storyline, PS238 is a school only recently founded, three miles below the seemingly normal Excelsior School, with many of the teachers having little or no experience teaching, because most of the teachers are former superheroes. Part of the school is made from the old satellite headquarters of the Union of Justice, a superhero team whose members founded the school. Each of the Issues from #0 #2 follow different characters. Issue #3 introduces Tyler Marlocke, who becomes the central character. Tyler's parents, two of the most powerful metahumans, refuse to accept that their son has no superpowers and manage to enroll him in PS 238. Though the school let Tyler attend, but only after they determined that he would actually be safer at the school than subject to his parents' attempts to discover any latent superpowers he might have. The Revenant, a Batman analogue and crime fighter with no superhuman abilities, is recruited as Tyler's tutor and mentor. Reluctantly Tyler assumes the identity of Moon Shadow, becoming Revenant's Robin like sidekick. Toby, Tyler's clone, proclaims himself his twin brother. Tyler makes friends with Cecil Holmes, Ambriel, Angie, Julie, Malphast and many others. Only Zodon, of all PS 238 students, is hostile to Tyler and Zodon is hostile to everybody. Tyler is so popular that he was once elected class president. Within the fictional history of comic, the original Rainmaker Program was a US government project to study superhumans, with the aim of finding out how to give people superpowers (or take them away). The project started in the 1960s and focused on one boy, Harold Nelson, who had the power to make rain start and stop. The government had become increasingly insecure about metahumans and a boy who couldn't fight back with super strength was an appealing research subject. For 6 years, Harold was put through tests to try to find how his power worked, but with little success. The scientist working on the project started to get worried about the lack of results and resorted to drastic measures. Enlisting the help of Dr. Irons (an imprisoned supervillain in a robotic body) they tried a new machine of Dr. Irons' own creation. The machine was actually made to enhance Harold's power, not to study it, and with a torrential downpour of rain, the lab wall was broken. In an ensuing explosion, Dr. Irons lost his body and Harold made a run for it carrying away Dr. Irons' still functioning head. It is not known what happened to the Rainmaker Program after Harold's escape. The modern day Rainmaker Program was started when PS238 was opened as an alternative program geared towards those with superpowers deemed unfit for super heroics. The program is very similar to that of the rest of the school except that the Rainmaker children don't participate in activities like combat training. Those in the program include:
The Earthly incarnation of Hestia Goddess of the Hearth. Uther, a boy who can make anything into an edible substance. Zachary, a kid who can dig through any kind of soil or rock. He is one of Moon Shadow's biggest fans. Lyle, a boy who can deduce probable events from patterns around him. Kathy, a girl who can rebuild any object from its remains and repair any damaged machine (including Dr. Positron). Vera, a girl who can see the past of any item or area by looking at it or touching it. Alec, a boy whose drawings come to life. Orchid, a girl who can accelerate and intensify plant growth. Steve, a boy with musical powers. Marvin, who can put anyone to sleep instantaneously. Vern (see below).

Many characters in PS238 are analogues, homages or outright parodies of heroes from other publishers. Other characters correspond to familiar superhero archetypes: they may or may not be direct references to heroes in other media.

In the episode "Time After Tyler," we see Tyler 15 years in the future. He still has his alter ego as Moon Shadow. He is now working on salary for the Revenant. One issue takes place in a mythological medieval Europe, where dragons and magic users exist. This was the time and place of origin of Vashti Imperia. Nodwick and his colleagues have a guest turn. Zodon, while traveling through time, barely escapes being electrocuted by the truculent Native warrior Cloud Splitter.

The Golden Age of comics character Blue Beetle discovers a secret school for young metahumans. Like PS238's rival, Praetorian Academy, it is led by a "Headmaster," and some of the students have been abducted into it. The made for TV movie Up, Up, and Away, released by Disney in 2000, has a similar plot line, though without the school setting. The character of William Stronghold in the 2005 theatrical film Sky High closely resembles Tyler Marlocke as a child with no superpowers born to super parents and sent to a school for superpowered kids, which is isolated from the public. There was considerable controversy among Williams' fans about whether Sky High was plagiarized from PS238. So far, no evidence that this was the case has come to light. According to scifi. com, Disney was attracted by the "original concept" of "children of superheroes going to high school," originally conceived by screenwriter Paul Hernandez in the 1990s. Another similar feature, Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures' film Zoom, was released in summer 2006.