Catholic Hell
on February 11, 2018 at 12:01 amChapter: The Seventh Power
Characters: Alisin Oberf, David Walkerton, Dina Sarazu, Head Alien, Joyce Brown, Meighan McDowell, Mike Warner, Monkey Master, Rikk Oberf, Rumiko Tanaka, Shanna Cochran, The Cheese, Tony McHenry
Location: Mexico somewhere
Y’know, it’s my understanding that Catholic Hell is just having to listen to Protestants.
TBH, neither strip was super great at rendering the “Picasso” thing, but we carried on.Even when he’s not actively distrusting their judgment, Rikk has a tendency to usurp the mic from any other field commander in his presence. Wait long enough and it’ll happen. He just can’t help it. This came up a half-dozen times or so in Fans, including its very first arc and the (final) series finale.
One weakness in his strategic abilities: he has a physical courage and self-sacrificing impulse that often get him in more trouble than his body can handle. “I won’t ask anyone to do what I wouldn’t do myself” is a fine policy for a scoutmaster, and Rikk, it’s great you’re willing to dive into Hell to rescue people. But dude, maybe first ask one of those actually super-strong people standing right next to you to do it? Or even just Will? You’ve got nothing to prove.I like that the characters find four different ways to describe what’s going on that are all sort of right and all show how much they don’t understand, like four blind women feeling their way around different parts of a Hellephant.
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“Y’know, it’s my understanding that Catholic Hell is just having to listen to Protestants.”
As a self-excommunicated ex-Catholic, excuse me while I spit tea all over my laptop screen.
Just declaring yourself an ex-Catholic makes you guilty of apostasy, for which excommunication is automatic. I just learned this fun fact a few minutes ago because I saw the phrase “latae sententiae” in an article I was reading. Since I wasn’t familiar with it, I looked it up.
But remember, Catholics also believe in a forgiving God — so even as an apostate, as long as you repent before you draw your last breath you’ve got a one-way ticket to the Promised Land.
Yeah, Bill, but you have to actually mean it. You can’t just say “I repent” and be done with it. You have to regret everything you’ve done wrong.
I have a feeling whatever Mike is doing in the last panel (while everyone else ignores him) is going to be important.
Everything Mike does is important. If he’s not doing something for the current situation, it’s part of one of his long cons.
Y’know, re-reading this arc that has dredged up long-suppressed memories of how deeply, thoroughly, and purely I loathed Rikk Oberf.
Oh good, it’s not just me.
I reread Faans recently (before the crossover started here) and was struck by how it’s not until at least halfway through the whole run that I started to see why anyone in-comic might appreciate him. And even there, when we got references to him being an angel and the Best, Most-Good Ever, I was left staring at the screen going “…what?” (I have a somewhat similar reaction to Byron in Guilded Age. Maybe my conception of good people just isn’t the same as T’s.)
Rikk, who’s done nothing wrong at all yet? Who’s been cheated on but is somehow the bad guy for praying with Joyce?