>> "Why, Johnny Ringo, you look like someone just walked over your grave!" -- Doc Holliday, "Tombstone" <<

LOL yes.

>> I'm not sure it's exactly _fair_ to threaten muggles with the good (ahem) Doctor's attention. Besides, *she* probably doesn't want that kind of attention. <<

That depends on the muggle in question, and how much damage they've done. Case in point: minting supervillains absolutely is her concern.

>> Nor is simply Charlie-ing the colossal pricks an appropriate punishment... oh, no. <<

Probably so. The scope and context are different. Then again, if any of the people who raped Shiv have victim numbers toward the high range, they might have a little ... accident, courtesy of the Guardians. We've already seen how Dr. Infanta handles that, which really is conspicuous.

>> This warrants To The Pain. Not as much as some I can think of; they've only afflicted small numbers of people, not three hundred million or so... but still.<<

Well, a good start would be stripping away any license they have to work with children, and for the various flavors of abusers, looking to see if charges can be laid. For some, publicizing their offenses could make them quite miserable, especially if that encourages other victims to come out of the woodwork.

>> Come to think of it, from a certain point of view, Shiv is getting his revenge. For someone *so* fucked up at the point at which he was cuffed and stuffed, Shiv is living VERY well. <<

:D The best revenge is living well.

>> As he himself said, he has a rather long line of people who want to make life miserable for the people that (deliberately) hurt him, <<

I never get tired of watching that.

>> he's got good therapy, <<

Sooth. Shiv is even starting to get a sense of how it helps him, rather than just going along with it.

>> three _different_ branches of `ohana (one of each cape colour, and all with excellent ethics),<<

\o/ I think that's helping Shiv to figure out his own ethics.

>> (I guess the Finns are technically, what, green cape? Medically neutral, but still...) <<

Mostly white, in that they want to make the world a better place and strongly prefer not to solve problems with violence. But they are not pacifists, nor are they inclined to stop trying to solve a problem just because they ran out of purely legal options. They won't hesitate to provide emergency aid to anyone who needs it, and they happily consort with principled supervillains. If someone threatens their family, though? That will end very badly for the attacker -- and that's before the "connections" find out and add their vote to the mix.

>> AND he's about to get a hell of a lot of his head-mess un-messed... if the dude was in my hugspace I would SO bake him a Schadenfreude Pie in celebration. <<

That sounds like fun.

>>That's not to say that certain people shouldn't be removed from society on account of having fucked it up... but that's _justice_; as for revenge, Shiv's getting his, in spades, AND clubs, AND hearts, AND diamonds. <<

That he is.

>> (The thought occurs to me that having Shiv be the joker in the deck would NOT be inappropriate.) <<

Nailed it. He's more than a bit of a trickster. If his life had gone differently, he might have wound up a comedian.