Retribution!
on November 28, 2021 at 12:01 amBecause this is Comedy Malaya, they have a single-word catchphrase just like Ninja Rick does. It works for her, I think!
Now here’s… a panel. The Drama is coming from also OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, so to speak, and I got to 1) draw the outside of the original pre-renovation Shortpacked!, complete with the original store/strip logo, and 2) figure out what It’s Walky! looks like in a drama-free world. Apparently the squad consists of the usual subjects, minus Jason, plus Dina? Honestly, the Dina’s probably there just to affirm that she’s alive here. Maybe Jason never made it here from his universe? I dunno. But they’re fighting the Mutant Frosted Honey Bun, who is definitely a Monster Of The Week sort of deal. Absolutely comedy-only no-drama vibes with that weirdo.
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Now I’m officially confused.
Also, is this the first time we’ve seen the jet pack part of Joyce’s vest before?
Who is they in the first commentary sentence? Just confused if Malaya is she/they, I can’t remember
Malaya is she/they/whatever.
Malaya’s explicitly she/they, but ‘they’ is also just a neutral non-gendered pronoun.
I kinda wish we’d gotten to see drama-free versions of specific scenes from the original. Like, imagine someone throws a big, cartoony bomb, and Dina gets stuck with it in a game of hot potato, and it explodes on her face… and when the smoke clears, she’s perfectly fine, just covered in cartoony ash marks.
Sorry, some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.
A fellow original Batman movie fan I see. That is my favourite line from that movie.
God Sal’s gotta repressing so much shit right now.
Jason can’t be here because either he’s immune to the Drama Tag and that’s an unnecessary wrench in a story that’s not about him, or you’d need to explain why he’s succumbed but Leslie, Rachel, UC and HAII haven’t.
…to say nothing of Dargon, Penny, and the Britjas, thinking about it.
Jason’s already a traveler from a parallel world, so he might not have a counterpart
Right, what I’m saying is that since travelers from parallel worlds are immune to the Tag, Jason being here just makes a complicated story more complicated.
They aren’t though, they’re all clearly effected by it.
I mean, they’re certainly restricted in taking action, but their thoughts and behaviors aren’t being controlled.
Affected, not effected.
Technically, Jason is native and not a traveler. That was his whole deal with his dad.
I think Jason being immune would be a good excuse for him not being there all on its own really; the drama tag’s influence spreads far enough to effect SEMME, he ends up noping out to try to find a solution when it’s obvious the rest of the team are going to be useless for help, he’s busily investigating possible alien sources and has no reason to ever check some random toystore.
Outside of that, the fact that Sal’s there instead of off Hey Danny!ing it up helps pin down when its influence started a little more.
Maybe Jason’s settled into a mission control role? These sorts of shows always need a dude in the chair.
That jetpack still makes zero sense
But now it doesn’t have to!
I do love that exterior shot, though. Very dynamic – just looks good all around.
I forgot how I loved this arc. The whole multiverse feel really appeals to me.
Fun fact: with this strip, Honey Bun has appeared more in Shortpacked! than they have in the Walky saga.
That is a fun fact, thank you!
Whenever Honey Bun appeared in Shortpacked it was to say ‘look, this is an It’s Walky style story’ so that’s honestly pretty interesting.
Honestly it makes sense that Jason’s not here.
Remember, his dad is a “universe foreigner”.
So while one version of him might exist, he wouldn’t be the spy version of himself, unless another version of his dad and the Britjas came from “Universe #4” and invaded THIS “Universe #3” under similar circumstances.
“Retribution!” “Spite!” is one of my favorite single panels.
I’m seconding the ‘Jason doesn’t properly exist in this universe because the JFO didn’t hit this particular universe, probably, or something’ headcanon. But realistically, yeah, the Britjas would just make things too complicated unless you somehow come up with an excuse for how they aren’t immune to the drama tag but the other travelers are, and while you CAN make one up without too much trouble (native to the universe or not, if you were present when it was installed you got impacted, maybe,) that’s time that doesn’t need to be spent here and it requires exposition about Jason’s Whole Deal that’d slow the story down.
I thought about it some more and was like ‘why DOES that panel bring me such joy?’ and then I realized, I’m pretty sure we never saw Malaya with a knife before this one panel. Suddenly, she has a knife, and I accept this without hesitation because even Comedyverse Malaya is still a Malaya and thus WOULD just randomly have a knife, but because we’ve never seen it before I find them suddenly brandishing it while shouting ‘Spite!’ inexplicably and disproportionately funny.
I find it interesting that in a more comedic universe, SEMMF still exists (though without Jason apparently) and fights the giant mutant frosted honey bun once a week. Aside from HA II stuck there from a different universe, I wonder if the Aliens even exist in this universe.
So, the drama tag didn’t stop trauma from HAPPENING retroactively, it just meant that that trauma always gets swallowed into comedy. So the Aliens are probably there, but it’s ALWAYS skewed towards Friends jokes and wacky hijinks – no murderous breakdowns confronting the parts of your psyche you’d rather ignore, no ‘This was the best I could do’s. Sal might have killed people on Zero Day, but if so it’s either ignored or just ‘oh that Sal! She killed a bunch of our comrades! How zany!’
Tangent: This arc is new to me.
My favorite bit is how here DofA refers back to Amber and Ethan being married.
…oops.
By which I mean back here.
SPITE!