After the good things of
VoD this arc gets off to a bad start, with an
unfunny ioke and barely average art. Next comic the romantic blushes come back
between the Deegan brothers - incest yay! Really, look at the luminescent blush on the GD's face, and then combine it with the slightly awkward and bashful smile . . . and
then the dialogue. And then factor in that the GD is still in his pyiamas.
Also note how blase the GD is about Luna's "wak[ing] up in tears", we're back to normal GD; caring only about himself. In addition, he clearly loves impressing Gregory with his little flashes of presience. And again, why would anyone bother scrying on Thing People Will Do the Moment They Wake Up unless they got off on impressing people or
really liked spying on people? I particularly love how he doesn't care about Luna, wanting breakfast more than keeping her happy.
THE HELL ANIME WOT?!?! What is that outfit - wh'? I
know that outfit from somewhere, I swear God I do. And it's bugging me because I can't remember from where.
See, in this dream the GD is acting
mostly normal, if a little racist, something I haven't seen in his character yet, but I can believe it. Seeing as this is Luna's dream, I find it strange that her Lover and Master is her self-hate. Unless she recognises that secretly the GD is full of hate, sociopathy, homicidal urges and a general desire to hurt everyone. And she's clearly suicidal still.
The hug is cute. Although it does suggest that the GD was simply sitting there while she had a bad dream. Weird.
This made me giggle, one of the funniest iokes so far.
A trio of bad puns, this doesn't impress me; but what the hey, I'm still on a
VoD high. ANd the
party has arrived! From their prominence I'd say that Lady Iayden and Lord Dan organised it. That's really sweet.
Wait.
SIGGY! That is
so adorable, I mean
look at his face; he's blushing because he's embarrassed, and lurking in that corner all shy-like! That's so cute! Siggy has character development! He's gotten over his intense hatred of all things Dominus and is showing gratitude in such a lovely way. True, being a blankface in p.3 makes me think of
Gunnerkrigg Court, but it's an art style.
In contrast, the mild people skills the GD has displayed so far have
reverted back to the beginning. He's getting drunk, hating life and people in particular. Luna is
drunk and possibly stoned, and we see the first iock. Hold on a second,
Luna could have had her tusks removed? And she didn't because . . . ? Spark interrupted with a ioke rather than to expand upon Luna's character.
The nun has a crush on Gregory. Gregory has a crush on Lady Iayden. Lady Iayden is dating Lord Dan, but there are weird vibes between her and Siggy. Welcome, Snarkers, to the Love Dodecahedron of
Dominus Deegan! I thought nuns were meant to follow a vow of celibacy. Maybe the Luanian (is this religion about
: a) the moon or b) Luna?) order doesn't follow this rule.
I love the conflict though. Sister Pam
like likes Gregory. But he's leaving Barthis. Conflict! Tragedy!
Oh wait. And given the GD's face in p3 he knew what Gregory was going to do anyway.
OH MY GOD! p.4 is
terrifying. That is some
bad art. From the hands to the eyes, the eyes are melting.
Back to the Dominus, and he's offered
a well-paying iob and presumably accomodation by a grateful mayor, and he flees. His hatred of humanity and socialising (don't forget, this party was thrown in his honour too) has made him give up a very good iob opportunity. And barely ten pages ago he was rather pleased with the reasonably intelligent questions the people of Barthis asked! How can he hate the entire rest of the world (bar Gregory and Luna) so much that he'd rather run away and avoid any sort of stability or commitment? Or has he forgotten that he's ostracised the entire village of Lynne's Brook, and in fact, left that place permanently? So the Dominus, Luna and Spark are homeless, near penniless and destitute; and the Dominus runs away from solving all their problems.
Bad form old bean. Bad form.
Damn, I love Siggy so much, that his one-panel appearance here merits a link. Plus he looks happy. Lonely Luna is lonely. And the Dominus is facepalming? Drunk? Asleep?
Headache. Whoa. A day-long party. Barthis is a very generous place. So why did the Dominus flee this place again?
Because he's an anti-social ierky-face.
But with a sweet side. I don't know how I feel about Luna's internal monologue here. On the one hand, it talks about how her isolation from people who liked her for her made her cold, and know the Dominus makes her happy. On the other it's more than a little melodramatic.
But there's a hint of character development for Luna!
Siggy wins this arc so hard. He didn't even say a word and we don't need him to. The artwork for Siggy is good; his facial expressions are subtle, maybe a little same-y; but I like it. I get the feeling that Siggy was shy about throwing this party, and I don't think he wanted the GD's group to know it was his fault.
And we finally have some character development for Luna. At the cost of the GD taking ten steps forward and five steps back. Still, caring for four or five people rather than iust himself
is something.
The art isn't as good as
VoD, and that one anime-esque panel (seriously, where is that uniform from? I
know I've seen it before) is very wut-tu-fuh? and shows a surprisingly good art for Mookie. If only Mookie would draw with that care and attention to detail all the time.
It's a good arc though. Not
VoD, but a nice additional cooldown. I'm tempted to call this an epilogue to
VoD, but
VoD had an epilogue built into it.
This arc
is the Dominiverse saying "All Deegans and Associates Are Awesome. Praise Them!" but it comes off as quite natural. Being saved from death would encourage a party. Plus it was the Dominus' 'enemy' that told the people of Barthis. So I'll say it's only very slightly suspect as far as Marty Stue-ing the Dominus.
It's no
VoD, but it's better than most of the pre-
VoD arcs.