WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

[SKJAM!]

With minimal warning, large starships appear over every capital city on Earth. These turn out to be inhabited by three meter tall intelligent preying mantises. They're more technically advanced than Earthlings (even if your campaign is high-tech) and claim to have ways to prevent military force from being used against them.

 

The Mantii (as best humans can pronounce it) explain that they will generously take over governing Earth, in exchange for massive amounts of meat. Not, thankfully, human meat, but they are interested in oh, say, 90% of the cattle humans would normally slaughter each year. There are also various smaller demands, none of which seem particularly onerous, but the whole taking over Earth thing doesn't sit well with many people.

 

However, several governments do take up the offer, mostly economically fragile Third World countries--and the one the player characters live in/most often visit. The Mantii quickly move in, and at least initially act in a benevolent manner. Then they announce that regrettably, the other countries will have to join the Mantii Protectorate...or "face the consequences."

 

What Would Your Character Do? (Feel free to pick an earlier point in the process that he/she/it would intervene.)

[Mantis]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

It's about time you bipeds were put in your place!

 

EDIT: Actually, I'd be fairly obviously torn between joining with my interstellar kin and remaining loyal to the locals, given that the locals do discriminate against me... quite possibly the newcomers would not accept me either, it might depend on whether the GM decided that these visitors were part of my secret origin story or not.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dolphin is not that happy about the amount of rangeland needed for humans to eat beef, he's certainly not going to stand by while alien invaders cause more ecological damage. "Excuse me, but if you are as technologically advanced as you claim, why do you still need to raise and slaughter animals for food? Isn't vat cultured tissue more efficent? Let's get you together with some people who can help you design some O'Neil habitats, you can move to an uninhabited system, and not have to worry about an indigenous population." If it seems that he knows more biology than thys do, he will start wondering if they are as advanced as they claim.

 

Snow Leopard Much the same as Dolphin, but not nearly as good natured. Willing to be the test case to see if they really do have technology to prevent military force from being used against them if that military force inclues Wolverine's daughter. Claws vs starship hull, any bets?

 

Iron Will Is a tachnomage. If they are using technological defenses, maybe magic is their vullnerability. Use clairsentience to explore their ships, reverse engineer thier technology, maybe reset the self-destruct system codes.

 

Cheeta goes to the matress, prepairing to train and lead the inevitable insurgency.

 

Millennium will have defintie mixed feelings about this. Would certainly welcome trade and cultural exchange with another alien species, but is reluctant to have them take over. If however that is the legitimate decision of the government, he'll go along.

 

All Characters will be really suspicious that the United States went along with this so quickly and easily. If some sort of mind control or cohersion is being used, why not use it on all countries? Looks like a plot to exterminate humans by turning them against each other.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dolphin is not that happy about the amount of rangeland needed for humans to eat beef' date=' he's certainly not going to stand by while alien invaders cause more ecological damage. "Excuse me, but if you are as technologically advanced as you claim, why do you still need to raise and slaughter animals for food? Isn't vat cultured tissue more efficent? [/quote']

 

"We require live prey for best digestion. While we can live on pre-processed meat, it's not pleasant. One of our most destructive wars was fought because one social group tried to force the lower-prestige groups to only eat pre-processed meat. Just be grateful we have decided not to eat sentients. Other than our own species, that is."

[Duke Bushido]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Iron Max and her team do all they can to learn the technology of the aliens in the hopes of countering it or turning it against the invaders. At the very least, they hope to reduce human dependance on the aliens. In the meantime, she will devote as much time as possible to forming a solid resitance.

 

Mark 2: Offer himself up as a fuel / energy source in exhange for the invaders leaving the planet.

 

Armorine: Depends entirely on her armor's reaction to the aliens. If it recognizes them as 'enemies,' then the suit takes over, and skirmish battles will result until either the armor is destroyed or the aliens repulsed. If the suit does not recognize them, she offers her services to any well-organized resistance

 

Martin Power: "Shoo. Get out. Go away peaceful-like, or get tossed out."

 

SilverStar (flagsuit): he and his team do what they can to 'rescue' the government, and help to form a government-in-exile to control any remaining military resources. They will also train and organize any willing resitance volunteers.

 

Shadow Lance: Attempt to enter and learn the minds of the invaders. His ultimate goal will be to attempt to find an achilles heel of sorts, or possibly even mind-control the horde to leave.

 

All other characters: help resistance / surviving governments anyway that they can.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

"We require live prey for best digestion. While we can live on pre-processed meat' date=' it's not pleasant. One of our most destructive wars was fought because one social group tried to force the lower-prestige groups to only eat pre-processed meat. Just be grateful we have decided not to eat sentients. Other than our own species, that is."[/quote']

Dolphin "Then how about rabbits, cavies, or for that matter tilopia? All of which are more efficently raised than cattle, mature more quickly, have more than a single young in a breeding cycle, and may other advantages. An average cow is, what, three to five times your average body mass? Not a single serving. If you have had wars over this need for "live prey," why haven't you genetically engineered it out of your species? Or made some sort of enzyme supplement to aid digestion. In fact, from your narrow throats, I would assume all food has to be very carefully and throughly masticated, and you would better digest blood or meat that has been through the blender rather than raw muscle tissue. Anyway, haven't you found that relying on large grasing animals as a primary food source has a long term detrimental effect on a planet's ecology? It certainly has here, we've sacrificed a lot of biodiversity for beef."

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Jessica - cattle is her main form of food. They might start cutting into her food supply. She'd fight. Pesky aliens.

 

Silence - Could care less about the meat (doesn't eat, possibly can't), but is kind of partial to the planet in general. She would most likely fight to protect it if it came down to that. If it seemed peacable all around she'd go along with it, if they aren't severely distrupting the cycle of life/death she has little issue with it.

[Hypnotoad, the]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dr. Kami: I was going to do my expedition into the galactic black hole today, but nooOOoo, you had to come down and make demands on top of demands on top of demands. Your annoying insistence that the other governments of this primitive world submit to you, backed up by the threat of your primitive technology (Dr. Kami's special effect is that everyone's primitive to her, I even bought a perk), have forced my hand.

 

So I, DOCTOR KAMI, have engineered the FINAL SOLUTION to the threat of your belligerence by introducing a simple synanotech virus into the food chain. It evolves, adapts, and DOES NOT STOP until it runs out of its primary prey--which happens to be YOU!!!

 

In short, I have created the ultimate insecticide...insect.

 

 

 

Did I mention that Dr. Kami's something of a mad scientist? And often does mad scientist things without permission?

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

I don't imagine that the US government would go along with these aliens without some sort of mind control going on. (What is it with all the WWYCD threads where the government collectively goes insane lately?) Even if they did, I'd imagine the government would be working behind the scenes to make this occupation as painful as possible for the aliens, while simultaneously stealing as much tech as possible.

 

Moreover, again barring mind control, it's nearly impossible for these aliens to actually govern earth if humanity resists their governance, and the fact that they are trying anyway indicates that aren't able to colonize the planet at this time themselves. The best they can reasonably expect to manage is to wipe out humanity ala Independence Day, but they don't seem interested in that. This is even more true in a world where there are superheroes.

 

Soulbarb is a street-level heroine; this sort of thing is beyond her usual mandate. However, her favourite teacher has some sort of connection with the superhero scene, and probably with the government as well. She'll probably get involved in a government-sponsored resistance movement through him. (Though he probably doesn't know that she is Soulbarb, he knows that she can get in contact with Soulbarb.)

 

Cerulean: Fighting off dimensional invasions is a significant part of the reason he's on the campaign Earth as opposed to his own alternate one. As soon as hostile aliens show up, they're gonna be in for a fight. These aliens might be more technologically advanced than Earth, but it's unlikely that they're more technologically advanced than V'han, so the Spire should make for a potent base of operations. This will probably be more Dr. Quantum's show than Cerulean's, but it's quite possible that if the aliens are not magically apt, he will have quite a few surprises for them... like the ability to turn their warships' hulls into the consistency of soft butter, for instance. I bet even conventional tech will work wonders under those circumstances.

[Cancer]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Mr. Terrific would siliently start looking into texts on arthropod physiology and insecticides, and turn his considerable abilities with biochemistry into developing a form of cattle feed that impregnates the beef with a harmless-to-humans but highly-lethal-to mantids neurotoxin.

 

Just in case.

[BcAugust]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

(By the way, it said that the US didn't agree)

 

Crown Princess Cyrande would be upset. How dare they try and start a war with her on the planet. And while they might be more powerful then earth, they definitely aren't more powerful then Malva. Be gone before my father learns of this breach of ettiquete.

 

Nox... would be in a bind. She won't kill any of them, but she'd likely try and work with any resistance that was trying to make them see reason.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

(By the way' date=' it said that the US didn't agree)[/quote']

What is actually said was:

However, several governments do take up the offer, mostly economically fragile Third World countries--and the one the player characters live in/most often visit.

Since most PCs live in the US, and most PCs don't have cause to visit 3rd world countries, this seems to imply that the US would be agreeing for most WWYCD responses. YMMV, but I think that's the interpretation most posters have been using.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dolphin "Then how about rabbits' date=' cavies, or for that matter tilopia? All of which are more efficently raised than cattle, mature more quickly, have more than a single young in a breeding cycle, and may other advantages. [/quote']

 

"They're in the agreement under 'light snacks.' One of your 'cows' can feed an entire pod at the same time."

 

An average cow is, what, three to five times your average body mass? Not a single serving. If you have had wars over this need for "live prey," why haven't you genetically engineered it out of your species?

 

"I see by the history tapes that competition for the most desirable mate causes much strife among Earthlings. Why then, have Earthlings not genetically engineered the desire for a physically attractive mate out of their species?"

 

Or made some sort of enzyme supplement to aid digestion. In fact, from your narrow throats, I would assume all food has to be very carefully and throughly masticated, and you would better digest blood or meat that has been through the blender rather than raw muscle tissue.

 

"You are certainly welcome to talk to out scientists about these interesting ideas. So far, all attempts at artificial solutions have been...unpalatable."

 

A tall Mantii in the back of the room, notable for filmy eyefacets, grumbles "Why are we still talking to the (untranslatable)? We should just take what we want"

 

"No, General, we do not come as invaders! Er, excuse General Tk-ch'tk. She's still fuming over the 'no eating sentients' laws."

 

 

Anyway, haven't you found that relying on large grazing animals as a primary food source has a long term detrimental effect on a planet's ecology? It certainly has here, we've sacrificed a lot of biodiversity for beef."

 

"That would be why we are here, offering our services."

[radioKAOS]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Orion/Dr. Charles Fantazzi: Orion sees himself as a protector of humanity and would see these aliens as a threat to humanity. He would definately protect any innocents involved in any skirmishes, and would fight for humanity. The good Doctor is an Archaeologist/Anthropologist and is schooled in Alien artefacts, so he may be able to piece something together about this race's origins and motivations. Both would do what they could to gather a resistance at the newly created base. Governmental involvement is meaningless.

 

Impact: Erik would make himself scarce, using hit and run tactics to fight the invaders on the planet. Teleport and Martial Arts are good friends.

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Starguard -- lets the New Sentinels handle the job of saying "no".

 

Dr. Pain -- screams in agony at the thought of what this is going to do to the price of beef.

 

Baron von Darien -- "The moral issue here is not that you wish to eat a great deal of meat... the morality of slaughtering cows for food has already been accepted by every person on Earth who enjoys steak, hamburger, etc.

 

No, the problem here is that you wish /us/ to do the /labor/ of raising all the cows /for/ you... and then to take the vast majority of the fruit of that labor for your own, without equitable compensation, and in return only for allowing us to continue to live. I speak from experience in saying that such is how a feudal overlord would speak to his serfs.

 

Counteroffer -- we will gladly sell you enough breeding pairs of cows that you can set up your own continent-sized stockyard operations on whatever uninhabited Earth-type planet you fancy. We will even sell them cheaply.

 

But the terms of your original offer, as stated, would reduce the population of the Earth to serfdom. And if you insist upon so reducing the population of the planet Earth to your unwilling vassals, then despite the treachery of certain of our nations, I think I can still speak for the majority of us -- retract your demands or die."

[incrdbil]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Schaister: corners the market in mad-cow infected cattle.

 

Blaze: Initiates imediate attack with whatever heroes are available--or villains if need be; clains toi be acting for the US and other cooperating countries, just to stop that sillyness.

 

Hornet: Immediately prepares to research of the Aliens technology and biochemistry to create a weapon to make earth based bio-products unpalatable. Prepares a complete study of cattle, from DNA to necessary diet., environment, various methods for robotic cattle herders/minders, and kindly directs the aliens leave before the certain conflict, and their inevitable defeat.

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Schaister: corners the market in mad-cow infected cattle.

 

That's brilliant!

 

Sadly... "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to incrdbil again."

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

The Silver Knights (the world's JLA) would be among the first to stand as a defense. A quick point to make would be that, if all the manti want is lots of beef, surely a profitable arrangement could be made where a free Earth could start raising tons of cows and sell to the Manti. What would the alien's response be?

 

Lady Silver: She'd try to talk with the US government to try to figure out why it would so uncharistically surrrender power to an invader. In general she'd be a major agitator, preferably peacefully and urge the people to NOT surrender their freedoms. She *might* offer to work (or more importantly observe) with the Manti to help implement peaceful reforms to better the lots of people (especially the third worlders) that would be willingly accepted. She's a very good hearted person who wants to better the world and make it a more peaceful place but not under the iron hand of a tyrant, no matter how comforting the glove might be. If rebuffed, she would ready the Knights to go underground and link up with as many supers as possible.

 

Nova: someone had better hold her back. She lost one world to invaders and she won't lose a second. She's very untrusting.

 

Starknight: as the resident GL analogue, she contact the other Celestial Order to find out about the Manti. If they were cons, she'd spread the word very quickly. Any government who didn't believe her, she'd chalk them up to being either mind controlled or collaboraters and ignore since she considers herself above the laws of any one country. She would instead take the fight to the aliens with the other Knights and possibly others of the Order. If the Order revealed that the Manti were benevolent (which seems unlikely given the desire of some to eat sentients and the latter demands), she's watch very closely and demand to be an observer given her status as protector of the Earth sector.

 

Sentinel: would resign in disgust and go underground to start training resistance. He KNOWS this is going to end badly.

 

Titan: after geeking out over all of the cool tech, he'd sober up and act as a representative of his nation (he's a Prince of a major African nation) to oppose any type of take over and would try to convince his father the king to take a firm stand as well. Given that many of his neighbors might fall under the sway of the Manti, defenses would be shorn up immediately as well with the declaration that any foray into his country would be considered an act of war.

 

Tyr: not sure here. As a god of justice and law, he'd act to correct any injustice but are there any being committed at the moment? That said, he would stand fast against any attempt by the Manti to threaten other nations into joining their League.

 

Speed Demon: nothing comes to mind. He's in over his head and would just follow the lead of his comrades and thus probably fight.

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Badger and Frosty Bob- would likely both lead some resistance group.

 

Bob loves his steaks (preferably raw) so dont you dare take that away.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

*Notes that Dolphin is the only one being responded to. Think the boy is onto something here.*

 

"They're in the agreement under 'light snacks.' One of your 'cows' can feed an entire pod at the same time.

From your reference, I assume there is a social or sociological component to a satisfying dining expierence as well as just a physiological one. You didn't mention that before.

 

"I see by the history tapes that competition for the most desirable mate causes much strife among Earthlings. Why then' date=' have Earthlings not genetically engineered the desire for a physically attractive mate out of their species?"[/quote']

First, we don't have a sufficent technological level to engineer our own species, we probably will get to it as we advance. I was under the impression that you were more advanced. Second, competition for the most desireable mate may cause strife for individuals, but has seldomly lead to warfare. It is more frequent in our fiction than in our history that the desire for a single woman launches a thousand ships or burns the topless towers of Illium. Third, the desire for a physically attractive mate has been bred out of approximently half our species. Look at Bill Gates, Donald Trump, or Hugh Heffner, none of whom can be considered conventionally attractive by the standards of our species, yet each is considered a catch. At the other end of the spectrum look at our youth culture. Young males adopt clothing styles, hairstyles, even tattoos and piercings, that the dominant culture finds bizare. Are they physically attractive? No, they are subconciously saying to potential mates "I am brave enough to defy the dominate culture, and strong enough to get away with it."

 

"You are certainly welcome to talk to out scientists about these interesting ideas. So far, all attempts at artificial solutions have been...unpalatable."

 

A tall Mantii in the back of the room, notable for filmy eyefacets, grumbles "Why are we still talking to the (untranslatable)? We should just take what we want"

 

"No, General, we do not come as invaders! Er, excuse General Tk-ch'tk. She's still fuming over the 'no eating sentients' laws."

Thank you. I look forward to the exchange. If I could start by geting some basic references on your anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Also, as there does seem to be a social bonding component to your eating rituals, I would like to observe different pods feeding if this is not taboo.

 

"That would be why we are here' date=' offering our services."[/quote']

Ah, you have techniques that will allow us to double our beef production with no further harm to our ecology? That is good news indeed. I definitely look forward to learning about them.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dr. Kami: I was going to do my expedition into the galactic black hole today, but nooOOoo, you had to come down and make demands on top of demands on top of demands. Your annoying insistence that the other governments of this primitive world submit to you, backed up by the threat of your primitive technology (Dr. Kami's special effect is that everyone's primitive to her, I even bought a perk), have forced my hand.

 

Gotta love a "Pro from Dover" character. How much did the perk cost in your campaign?

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Dr. Pain -- screams in agony at the thought of what this is going to do to the price of beef.

 

Yup. Also pork, mutton, rabbit, chicken....

 

Baron von Darien -- "The moral issue here is not that you wish to eat a great deal of meat... the morality of slaughtering cows for food has already been accepted by every person on Earth who enjoys steak, hamburger, etc.

 

No, the problem here is that you wish /us/ to do the /labor/ of raising all the cows /for/ you... and then to take the vast majority of the fruit of that labor for your own, without equitable compensation, and in return only for allowing us to continue to live. I speak from experience in saying that such is how a feudal overlord would speak to his serfs.

 

"We feel that relieving your species of the burdens of government, and sharing our technology, is equitable compensation. Oh, and you get to continue to live, of course. Except possibly this "president" we have been dealing with, who seems to think we do not know about his plan to betray us once we've turned over our technology."

 

Counteroffer -- we will gladly sell you enough breeding pairs of cows that you can set up your own continent-sized stockyard operations on whatever uninhabited Earth-type planet you fancy. We will even sell them cheaply.

 

"An interesting proposition, presuming we had a suitable uninhabited planet to work with. Unfortunately, the mantiiforming of the planets we have available will still take decades."

 

But the terms of your original offer, as stated, would reduce the population of the Earth to serfdom. And if you insist upon so reducing the population of the planet Earth to your unwilling vassals, then despite the treachery of certain of our nations, I think I can still speak for the majority of us -- retract your demands or die."

 

"Your objections are noted."

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

> "We feel that relieving your species of the burdens of government, and

> sharing our technology, is equitable compensation."

 

"And /we/ feel that such a relationship is more accurately described as 'slavery' or 'serfdom', a condition we absolutely refuse to live under no matter how politely it is stated."

 

> Oh, and you get to continue to live, of course."

 

"At this point, we have very little left to say to one another. War it is."

[assault]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

Assault would consult with as many of the other aliens present on Earth at the time as possible, in order to find out what, if anything, they know about these guys. Of course, at least some of these other aliens are probably POWs from the previous invasion, so they may not be reliable sources.

 

As always in these situations, he will consult with both his public and secret allies. The latter are those who he really trusts to guard his back in a pinch, even though several of them are commonly regarded as supervillains.

 

I suppose I should explain this. This is something I've never fully written out before, but has been a long term aspect of the character. It's a digression from the topic of the thread, but hopefully amusing...

 

During the early days of the Cold War, there was something of a polarisation amongst superbeings along political lines. This quite often blurred the line between "superheroes" and "supervillains". One of the results of this was a secret society generally referred to as "The Pledge". Essentially, the members of this group were committed to attempting to prevent nuclear war, or other forms of world conquest/destruction. In doing so, of course, they were at least potentially likely to come into opposition with their own governments. In short, while entirely benevolent in purpose, it was, in effect, a subversive group.

 

Furthermore, within it was a hardcore Leftist group - the so-called "Metahuman Anti-Imperialist League" (MAIL). To put it simply, a bunch of Super-Reds. Other members of The Pledge included various flavours of super-powered "freedom fighter", including the notorious Irish supervillain Shamrock.

 

On the more respectable side was a considerable number of well-respected superheroes, who tended to keep their connection to The Pledge very quiet.

 

The Pledge, incidentally, also serves as a support network for mutants and other supers who have difficulties blending into "normal" society.

 

Assault, of course, is a member of The Pledge, and they are the people who he turns to when large scale conflicts like alien invasions are threatening.

 

I have another character on the drawing board, but I haven't nailed him down enough to know what he would do. In particular, I haven't got him adequately distinguished from Assault, since they both draw on some of the same inspirational material.

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: "I, For One, Welcome Our New Insect Overlords"

 

With minimal warning, large starships appear over every capital city on Earth. These turn out to be inhabited by three meter tall intelligent preying mantises. They're more technically advanced than Earthlings (even if your campaign is high-tech) and claim to have ways to prevent military force from being used against them.

 

The Mantii (as best humans can pronounce it) explain that they will generously take over governing Earth, in exchange for massive amounts of meat. Not, thankfully, human meat, but they are interested in oh, say, 90% of the cattle humans would normally slaughter each year. There are also various smaller demands, none of which seem particularly onerous, but the whole taking over Earth thing doesn't sit well with many people.

 

However, several governments do take up the offer, mostly economically fragile Third World countries--and the one the player characters live in/most often visit. The Mantii quickly move in, and at least initially act in a benevolent manner. Then they announce that regrettably, the other countries will have to join the Mantii Protectorate...or "face the consequences."

 

What Would Your Character Do? (Feel free to pick an earlier point in the process that he/she/it would intervene.)

 

Astro-Knight: Wearing (though he does not know it) the ancient armor of Malvan enforcers, Astro-Knight might shake the aliens just appearing. He'd certainly be involved as he works for NASA, and if he found out about the truth behind his own armor, might play up the Earth as already being a "Malvan" interest, and try to get them to leave.

 

Hey, bluffs worked for Kirk.

Assuming it failed, well, we'll see.

 

Gaze: Depends if he could affect them mentally or not (many 'aliens' never the less have a human class of minds). If it turns out he can influence them, well, they might find themselves leaving and thinking it was their own idea. One of his team MIGHT talk him into using his powers on the 3rd World dictators etc (though lawfully elected sorts he'd be more adamant against over riding) and getting them to refuse. Yes, he'd be against it from the start. He's seen "Protection rackets" on the street, and this just seems like it on a global scale.

 

Max Thunder: The godly part of Max's personality would be insulted. Who are these overgrown bugs that demand sacrifices and worship as if they were TRUE Gods? If he were currently in a "Godly mood" he might get on the ship and challenge one. Might get him killed. Or it might stir up an odd war of "Alien vs Olympians"

 

Recluse: MAJOR disturbance in the web, and with a few exceptions, insects totems and Grandmother Spider do -not- get along. The normally genteel (even reluctant) Recluse might find himself feeling an almost instinctive distrust of these things even if he didn't already distrust them anyways. He'd try to slip on a ship (Shrinking etc makes that possible IF The life support they use can handle earthmen) and learn more.

 

Scarlet Archer: Ask the rest of the Frontline what they think, and begin working on a new paralyzing insecticide arrow just in case. When the threats started rolling in, if he had chance to interact, he'd probably ask for clairification on just what the 'consequences' were. Coordination with the Champions and other super teams would come up. It would be possible that to handle this it will take a LOT of heroes. It is an alien invasion after all, some part of him would love every minute of it.