Star Power III: Fail to the Void!

[Kwatsu]

Let me get this straight.

-- The Scintillians, the Countess's people, are fighting some gigantic empire in what looks like a last stand, and losing. Their hatchery ships are being destroyed, so the Countess's mother tries to retreat to timeless space to save their people from extinction.
-- When the Countess refuses, they argue, while more ships are destroyed. Then the Sentinels arrive, the ancient enemies of the Scintillians...
--...and start defending the hatchery ships from the empire. Their "pity" gives the Countess's mother a chance to escape, but the Countess stabs her trying to prevent her giving the order.
-- The Countess tries to counter-attack, but her mother's dying act is to trigger the signal to flee, and they jump into timeless space.
-- Once in timeless space, the Countess goes axe crazy and starts slaughtering everyone she sees, thinking they're cowards for following her mother's orders.
-- Finally, she kills everyone aboard her ship, then turns around and kills her entire species because she thinks she's the last true Scintillian.

And the hilarious irony is: the only people she hasn't managed to kill is any Sentinels--the people she's best known for killing. Maybe those lens trophies of hers are really old. The alternative is that she managed to take them down later, without an army of loyal soldiers or a fleet, and with a legion of robots which, given what we're shown, I have to assume she built in timeless space single-handed.

[Welf]

Apparently the Countess is more about values and right behaviour than setting and achieving targets.

[Mr. McGician]

Mookiewriting 101, lesson 15: The bad guy is directly responsible for everything bad that ever happens or is implied to have happened before the story began. If you discover that what you've just written implies some that some new bad thing happened in the past that wasn't mentioned before, be sure to show a flashback detailing how it was caused by the bad guy.

[Kwatsu]

Apparently the Countess is more about values and right behaviour than setting and achieving targets.

"If murder is right, then extinction must be even better. So I'll do it to my whole species! Whoo!"

[AMX]

Maybe those lens trophies of hers are really old. The alternative is that she managed to take them down later, without an army of loyal soldiers or a fleet, and with a legion of robots which, given what we're shown, I have to assume she built in timeless space single-handed.

I'm pretty sure those trophies were provided by the Void Angels, using that "ambush them before they power up the first time" plan.

You appear to be spot-on about everything else.

[Welf]

"If murder is right, then extinction must be even better. So I'll do it to my whole species! Whoo!"

I have mixed feelings for the Countess. On the one hand she is a psychopathic murderer, but on the other hand I just pity her. I think I have more empathy for her than for the supposed heroine. Not that I want to be in the same room as her. Or building. Or country. Or planet. Or universe.

[Mewtarthio]

As I'm not that familiar with his writing... how does he pose his dead women?

Like this.

No, context does not make it better.

[Zaq]

Credit where credit is due: Countess Von Evil's line in panel 4 almost sounds cool. It's dumb in context, but I think that it could be cool if it weren't surrounded by Mookieness.

Otherwise, this is dumb. Oh, and having a single swipe command be enough to kill everyone on four of your own ships is . . . Okay, that's actually stupidly in-character for Countess Von Evil here.

I'm not sure how okay I am with the fact that these so-called "life ships" look like spermatozoa.

[Vinyadan]

I'm not sure how okay I am with the fact that these so-called "life ships" look like spermatozoa.

Think of it as tadpoles. Or trichomonas.

[random11]

In the beginning off the flashbacks I had some hopes for a villain with some decent motivation.
Then I thought it was going to be just another cartoonish "arr I'm EVIL" kind of villain.

But now? This page goes beyond anything I dared to hope for.
This is a new level of Mookie-style villain that goes beyond warlord mustache, Sig AND the king all together. And the flashback isn't even over!
This is not just "so bad it's good", we're in "so awful it's hilarious" territory now.

So if anyone left the comic because it was boring, I urge him to come back and take a look at this masterpiece.

I just hope the countess will not be knocked out with a punch in the next few pages.

[slayerx]

Otherwise, this is dumb. Oh, and having a single swipe command be enough to kill everyone on four of your own ships is . . . Okay, that's actually stupidly in-character for Countess Von Evil here.

I'm not sure how okay I am with the fact that these so-called "life ships" look like spermatozoa.

Why would you even put a self-destruct button on a "life ship"?... military ships make sense, since in a pinch you can sacrifice the ship to cause damage to the enemy, but a life-ship is something that's supposed to be protected at all costs

[Lord Raziere]

Mookie no. you can't control audience reaction like that. you can't brute force story telling. you have to weave and spin and entwine, you have to trick and misdirect and set up and softly manipulate things this way and that.

not shove in our faces that she is EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL. while shoving in our face that Danica is HERO HERO HERO.

[MReav]

I'm not sure how okay I am with the fact that these so-called "life ships" look like spermatozoa.

They look like Mass Relays to me.

As for the level of villainy, that's Megatron-level villainy.

"Unacceptable, they should be victorious, or dead!"

[Kwatsu]

I have mixed feelings for the Countess. On the one hand she is a psychopathic murderer, but on the other hand I just pity her.

*STAB* --Sorry, not sure what came over me.

[Traab]

Why would you even put a self-destruct button on a "life ship"?... military ships make sense, since in a pinch you can sacrifice the ship to cause damage to the enemy, but a life-ship is something that's supposed to be protected at all costs

Would you really leave your babies to be raised as slaves by an enemy nation? To be possibly tortured and killed horribly instead of a quick clean death by kaboom? In all seriousness, thats something I have come across in fantasy literature. Even tolkein did that in the two towers. During the battle for helms deep, I think, iirc, eowyn was basically given a blade to grant mercy to the kids if the defenders failed. Even if I got that wrong, I HAVE read it in other stories. Generally its done when the bad guys, or whoever the people with kids are fighting are so bad they will do horrible things to the kids that would make them wish for death.

[Wayson]

Which would make sense, except that these lifeships can seemingly jump into timeless space at the drop of a hat. Here's a better question: why weren't the lifeships just LEFT in timeless space? Why risk everything on one throw of the dice, when you can simply build up an infrastructure in total safety and, oh, not run the risk of a (probably justifiably) genocidal empire empire try to wipe you out once and for all?

My biggest issue here is that Mookie hasn't reconciled several different plot points but the news post seems to indicate that everything will be neatly wrapped up in the next issue. Mitch The Useless says something like "Time dilation hasn't been a factor since ---" before shutting up, and the conversation JUST MOVES ON PAST THAT. We're told that the war 'destroyed everything', but it looks like the Sentinels and Empire were just fine when the wormholers bugged out. The three vorps that we meet early on (who hire Disappointingly Weaksauce Bill) would seem to be recurring secondary antagonists or eventual allies, but they've dropped off the radar. The ex-vorp now working for the Chief would seem to have a tragic or mysterious past *DUN DUN DUN* but nothing's made of it. There's probably more but I've forgotten it.

Long story short Mookie is the worst writer ever, no surprise.

[Kwatsu]

Which would make sense, except that these lifeships can seemingly jump into timeless space at the drop of a hat. Here's a better question: why weren't the lifeships just LEFT in timeless space? Why risk everything on one throw of the dice, when you can simply build up an infrastructure in total safety and, oh, not run the risk of a (probably justifiably) genocidal empire empire try to wipe you out once and for all?

My biggest issue here is that Mookie hasn't reconciled several different plot points but the news post seems to indicate that everything will be neatly wrapped up in the next issue. Mitch The Useless says something like "Time dilation hasn't been a factor since ---" before shutting up, and the conversation JUST MOVES ON PAST THAT. We're told that the war 'destroyed everything', but it looks like the Sentinels and Empire were just fine when the wormholers bugged out. The three vorps that we meet early on (who hire Disappointingly Weaksauce Bill) would seem to be recurring secondary antagonists or eventual allies, but they've dropped off the radar. The ex-vorp now working for the Chief would seem to have a tragic or mysterious past *DUN DUN DUN* but nothing's made of it. There's probably more but I've forgotten it.

Long story short Mookie is the worst writer ever, no surprise.

"Time changes everything."

[AMX]

Which would make sense, except that these lifeships can seemingly jump into timeless space at the drop of a hat. Here's a better question: why weren't the lifeships just LEFT in timeless space? Why risk everything on one throw of the dice, when you can simply build up an infrastructure in total safety and, oh, not run the risk of a (probably justifiably) genocidal empire empire try to wipe you out once and for all?

"Timeless space" does not sound like a good place to "build up an infrastructure" - more like a place to hide until the enemy forgets about you.

Between the name, the countess still being alive after what appears to be several millenia, and the "time dilation has not been a factor" thing, I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that time in the so-called timeless space moves extremely slowly - so slowly that leaving the life ships there would be pointless; if you try to send out only your warships, let them conquer a nice bit of the galaxy, then have somebody come back to fetch the lifeships... that last bit would take so long all the troops outside would have died of old age already, wiping out your gains and putting you in essentially the same position as before, except with less troops.
Which sort-of explains why the entire fleet is set up to jump simultaneously at the press of a button.
(Only sort of, though, because the important bit is the jump out of timeless space, not the jump into it...)

[AgentPaper]

Long story short Mookie is the worst writer ever, no surprise.

He's not the worst writer ever, he's the best bad writer ever.

[Traab]

Which would make sense, except that these lifeships can seemingly jump into timeless space at the drop of a hat. Here's a better question: why weren't the lifeships just LEFT in timeless space? Why risk everything on one throw of the dice, when you can simply build up an infrastructure in total safety and, oh, not run the risk of a (probably justifiably) genocidal empire empire try to wipe you out once and for all?

My biggest issue here is that Mookie hasn't reconciled several different plot points but the news post seems to indicate that everything will be neatly wrapped up in the next issue. Mitch The Useless says something like "Time dilation hasn't been a factor since ---" before shutting up, and the conversation JUST MOVES ON PAST THAT. We're told that the war 'destroyed everything', but it looks like the Sentinels and Empire were just fine when the wormholers bugged out. The three vorps that we meet early on (who hire Disappointingly Weaksauce Bill) would seem to be recurring secondary antagonists or eventual allies, but they've dropped off the radar. The ex-vorp now working for the Chief would seem to have a tragic or mysterious past *DUN DUN DUN* but nothing's made of it. There's probably more but I've forgotten it.

Long story short Mookie is the worst writer ever, no surprise.

I get the feeling timeless space is exactly what it sounds like. Everything in it is frozen in time. Nothing ages, so no eggs can hatch. They HAVE to get into regular space. If they cant conquer it, then at least be there long enough to hatch and age a new generation of beings.

Obviously this is all theory and guesswork and if it sounds good its probably wrong because this is mookie, but my theory is, that time dilation thing mitch mentioned caused an accident, trapping these beings in "timeless space" Needless to say that has left them pissed off. They have been stuck there and abandoned. There is also the possibility that the wormhole is only one way and temporary. Basically, the countess and her troops can leave only through the wormhole. So if they leave their egg ships behind and the wormhole closes, it could be an incredible length of time before they can bring them out. They can return to timeless space at will though. Its clearly not a complicated process considering how quickly it happened in the countess' freakout flashback.

[Zaq]

Given that there's a distinction between "life-ship" and "hatchery," my current hypothesis is that "life-ships" designate ships that contain live people (rather than robots). Which makes this merely kind of pretentious, as it were, rather than asinine.

Well, okay, still kind of asinine.

[T-O-E]

Timeless space is actually Maltak.

[Oracle_Hunter]

So, the BBEG of this comic is revealed to be a raving lunatic in Issue 4 of the series. The only sort of threat she presents now is that of a mad dog -- anyone who has condemned her own species to extinction for no appreciable reason cannot be expected to operate with the coherence necessary to act as a Villain as opposed to a Natural Disaster.

This means that the Countess is only a threat as long as she has enough brute power that she can overcome any amount of planning. Since Danica is unlikely to remain "underpowered" for long, this means the Countess is soon to be not-a-threat.

Congratulations, Mookie. You accomplished in months with the Countess what it took your years to do with DJ Callan

A few side points

• The Countess is now roughly comparable to Lobo.
• The Wormhole Invasion has already failed. The Countess lacks people to actually colonize Time-full Space.

[Vinyadan]

I don't know if you noticed, but next issue will see the end of the 9th wormhole saga. It's come to the last 24 pages for the countess, and "the fleet's lit up!"

[Oracle_Hunter]

I don't know if you noticed, but next issue will see the end of the 9th wormhole saga. It's come to the last 24 pages for the countess, and "the fleet's lit up!"

I... I didn't notice that.

So the entity responsible for wiping out the SPS was only a five-issue villain? I guess Mookie really is getting his writing cues from comic books

I mean, what's next up the power scale? How long before we hit Galactus? Two, three arcs?

[Trazoi]

I mean, what's next up the power scale?

I'm guessing the Evil Empire (Fiendish Federation?) is next given the way they've been portrayed so far.

And again it's probably only going to take five issues for Danica to punch her way up the entire chain of command.

[Lord_Gareth]

Okay, I have to ask - I know who Mookie is, but who the hell is this other guy and why did they team up?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Okay, I have to ask - I know who Mookie Melna is, but who the hell is this other guy Huk Thak and why did they team up he want to kill Melna?

Fixed that for you

But seriously, Garth in his own words:

Spoiler

Show

Born in Known Space, raised by the likes of Lazarus Long, Dr. Susan Calvin, and Lt. Miles Vorkosigan, Garth Graham has only ever partially shared the same reality as most of us. Fascinated by what might be and what isn't, rather than weighed down by the drama of what is, he has forged a tenuous bridge made of ink and paper between our world and some strange unknowable scape where improbable dreams are born. Perhaps it has driven him a little mad. Yet such madness has born fine delectable fruit for our eye organs. His previous works include the webcomics Comedity and Finder's Keepers. In his spare time Garth likes to laugh maniacally about the abstract and fictional concept of “spare time” and does his level best to refute entropy.

Basically he's a copycat webcomicker with a bizarre conception of the English language. I presume they teamed up to fulfill some Sign of the Apocalypse

[Lord_Gareth]

Sweet freakin' zombies that's psychotic >.<

[Traab]

I'm guessing the Evil Empire (Fiendish Federation?) is next given the way they've been portrayed so far.

And again it's probably only going to take five issues for Danica to punch her way up the entire chain of command.

That makes a lot of sense. This whole confusion deal with her thinking the station is gone and getting captured and blah blah blah, is going to end up bringing her to the attention of the government and will cause all sorts of issues.

*EDIT* And they teamed up because mookie sucks as an artist and wanted this comic of his to look like silver age type of comic art. He can only draw pointy snouts and inappropriate walls.