DP Blog Interview: Deacon, Founding Member of The Coalition

After numerous attempts to get in touch with one of the founding members of The Coalition, Deacon finally breaks his silence and answers the questions that have been on everyone's minds. From the death of his longtime friend, Phipher, to the division of his teams over ideological differences. Nothing was off limits.

The Super Reporter - Let's get to the meat of the current state of The Coalition if you don't mind. Start off by telling us how has Phipher's death affected your team?

Deacon - It's been hard, especially for myself. It's not like I just met the guy in the streets and we decided to partner up. Phipher and I were friends before I even knew how to stop a purse snatcher. Everyone else is pretty devastated by his death but this is especially personal to me.

SR - Do you have any leads to who may have been responsible? 

Deac - Not at this moment. The killer took extra care in making it seem like this was anything but a murder. 

The GCPD have written it off as if Phipher had just gotten in over his head and messed with the wrong group of thugs. I'm not stupid enough to believe that.

SR - Recently there was a split where some Coalition members chose to form their own team, any comment?

Deac - I guess everyone is wondering what happened exactly. My former colleagues were not happy with how things were being ran on our team. As Flameman put it, he thought I was trying to rule with an iron fist and that it was either my way or the highway. That couldn't be anything closer to the truth. The only thing that I've been strict on is what type of heroes we let onto our team, how we should conduct ourselves when on patrol and who we take on missions, that's it. Everything was basically up for a majority vote. Flame wouldn't know this because he was hardly every there. He was basically a weekend warrior while the rest of us fought crime whenever we could, even at the expense of our personal lives.

SR - Is the situation unresolvable?

Deac - No. We don't need people on our team who are only out for themselves. We all want to become stronger but not at the expense of everyone else. Along with the attempted cue that took place I don't see this happening. All they had to do was say, "Deacon, we disagree with how you're running things and we think we should take our leave." Instead of just doing that, they tried to get everyone to turn against me by making me look incompetent and then try and wrestle leadership away from me. Nuh uh. Ain't happening.

SR - We have to ask based on some of the rumors floating around. Are the two events related?

Deac - I'm not sure. Even though he would have you believe otherwise, Flameman doesn't shy away from killing in cold blood. He tried to kill ACE 1 (which is a plus in my book) after he had basically already made ACE submit to him. Although, ACE had gone off on the deep end and needed to be subdued. After he was defeated, defenseless, and begging for mercy, Flame stabbed ACE in the head with his sword. Not sure how ACE lived through that but I think you see what I'm saying. I'm not ruling anything out.

SR - Reports are surfacing that someone "with knowledge of the situation" (Phipher's murder) may be under your protection, is there any truth to this?

Deac - I personally haven't heard anything about this but I will be looking into it!

SR - Former Coalition member Flameman was quoted as saying "I've lost my faith in Deacon." what does this mean to you?

Deac - We've had several missions where it required us to go out of country and other missions where we were helping other heroes pierce the Batman's Batcave defenses. He was there only for one mission. We infiltrated the borders of Kahndaq to help rescue one of our teammates. Flameman was there but as soon as he came across an artifact that gave him a significant power boost, he skidaddled. Leaving us to pick up his slack. When Superman put the call out for help in taking back his Fortress of Solitude back from Braniac, Flameman was all of a sudden ready to "help" the team out again. I told him that he didn't have the experience needed to take on such a mission. I'm not sure if anyone knows this but Flame is a big Superman ass kisser so when I denied him the chance to help out his idol, he took it to heart. I don't care though. I wasn't going to have anyone get killed because of Flame's lack of proper experience.

SR - Meta Militia leader, Flameman stated that he holds no ill will towards you and wishes your team the best of luck, but then seems to throw insults freely, whats the real status of your relationship? 

Deac - Anything that kid said is bullshit. He may wish the best of luck for my teammates but he has nothing but ill will against me. I know he was really pissed that I passed him up on a team leader position because of his past actions along with the other things I previously mentioned. He's a guy that wants something he didn't earn and it shows in his past interview.

SR - You've been described as obsessed with control, respond.

Deac - Like I said, this the furthest thing from the truth. Almost every decision that is made, is made as a team. The team leaders that we have were given their position by a majority vote. Of course with me being in a leadership position, I have to make certain decisions that wouldn't be up for debate (his exclusion from the FoS mission being one of them) but I rarely exercised this power because I wanted to avoid the very thing that Flame is accusing me of.

SR - What effect did your former members being more "heroes" while the Coalition being more than a vigilante sect have on the situation?

Deac - None at all. The guys that left along with Flame were also vigilantes as well. 

SR -Your teammate Heat Source seems to contradict Flameman's comments, does this make you feel validated?

Deac - It does. I can't remember if he mentioned it in his interview but Heat Source was actually one of the guys in that little cabal that tried to take over. We got together and had a man to man conversation about everything and he saw the truth for what it was. After we came to an understanding, he basically told me everything that had been going on behind the scenes and that this wasn't the first time that they had tried to take over. I asked him to keep in contact with Flame and the others so that he could find out anything else about what they were planning. Found out a lot of interesting stuff too.

SR - In the end, what effect do you think your split with Flameman and his allies will have on your team?

Deac - Minimal. At first our ability to take on higher level crime was hindered but we have since made up for the loss in ranks. There was no replacement for Flame, of course, because had never contributed anything to the team in the first place.

SR - Have you talked to Heat Source about his formal challenge to Flame Man?

Deac - I have and he's dead set on having it out with Flame. He took this whole ordeal more personally than I did for some reason. I keep asking him why but he doesn't want to tell me. I try not to press him on it too much.

SR - Is there anything you'd like to add, any mentions to our readers? The time is yours.

Deac - Nighthood, who was also part of the take over attempt and who is also the real leader of the Meta Militia although Flame would have you believe otherwise, and myself have sat down with each other and talked and we've come to an understanding. Even though we have our differences, I'll still help them if they need it.