Star Power III: Fail to the Void!

[Zaq]

This is just standard villain fare. The Countess needs to appear to be so overpowering that her troops can afford to use hand-to-hand combat and still come out overwhelmingly ahead in this fight. We'll see them use legitimate weapons later. It's by no means good writing, but I don't think this fight is intended to be representative of the best weaponry they have available

I dunno, "blades > guns" is a pretty deeply seated trope in Mookie's style of fantasy. I doubt he's ever seriously considered otherwise.

Lunica's beam spam, incidentally, is both, so she comes out ahead no matter what. Of course. Hail to the Blank White Void.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Well, I like the fact the same threat has lasted a few pages now. In a typical Dominic Deegan story we would have had several threats be puffed up and deflated by nonsense in the same time span.

The main problem with this is that the only reason there's tension is that Danica is acting stupid. She still has no stake in this fight; it's her enemies fighting each other. She should have used the confusion to kill or incapacitate Archvorp, dismantle the shipnearthestationblowup mechanism (if possible) and then leave. But that would have been easier, thus less tension.

That held true for the first few issues like it did in the last few arcs of DD, but maybe Mookie's regressing back to when he could keep tension up for a few updates in a row. If we're lucky we'll see a backwards progression all the way to Visions of Doom, where the initial gang of Chosen actually had the hero completely on the ropes for most of the storyline.

[Mewtarthio]

Perhaps this comic will end with a jaded, cynical Danica complaining about all the rubes who try to exploit her Star Power to solve their trivial problems.

Then, of course, Mookie will stop writing comics and go back to high school. Eventually, after regressing through all the grades, he will crawl back into the womb and disappear. At this point, the cycle will start over, and Mookie will be born anew, this time going though childhood with the knowledge he gained from adulthood. Hopefully, this new outlook on life will result in a more mature Mookie, one without so much high school baggage to deal with, and he will finally produce some decent fantasy comics.

...I may have lost control of my speculation a bit.

[Mr. McGician]

Perhaps this comic will end with a jaded, cynical Danica complaining about all the rubes who try to exploit her Star Power to solve their trivial problems.

Then, of course, Mookie will stop writing comics and go back to high school. Eventually, after regressing through all the grades, he will crawl back into the womb and disappear. At this point, the cycle will start over, and Mookie will be born anew, this time going though childhood with the knowledge he gained from adulthood. Hopefully, this new outlook on life will result in a more mature Mookie, one without so much high school baggage to deal with, and he will finally produce some decent fantasy comics.

...I may have lost control of my speculation a bit.

I was predicting that this comic would follow a trajectory similar to DD: It would start out with promise, but then eventually stagnate. It turned out to be somewhat the opposite: The beginning was like a retread of the final arc of DD, with a pair of incompetent, one-dimensional villains tripping over their own shoelaces. It's gotten somewhat better now with the Countess looking threatening, but the storyline is still mostly stupid.

[AgentPaper]

I was predicting that this comic would follow a trajectory similar to DD: It would start out with promise, but then eventually stagnate. It turned out to be somewhat the opposite: The beginning was like a retread of the final arc of DD, with a pair of incompetent, one-dimensional villains tripping over their own shoelaces. It's gotten somewhat better now with the Countess looking threatening, but the storyline is still mostly stupid.

I've actually expected it to start out terrible and become better, not because Mookie will learn anything, but because Garth will slowly realize how terrible Mookie's writing is and become more and more willing to call him on stuff and force him to change things. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up with Garth doing basically all of the writing himself, whether he realizes it or not. Or maybe with Garth constantly pointing out the flaws in his work, Mookie will get kicked out of his rut and finally start to improve as a writer. Or maybe Garth will just get fed up and either leave Mookie to write and draw the story on his own, or just kick him out and handle everything himself if he thinks the comic is still worth salvaging.

[Vinyadan]

I've actually expected it to start out terrible and become better, not because Mookie will learn anything, but because Garth will slowly realize how terrible Mookie's writing is and become more and more willing to call him on stuff and force him to change things. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up with Garth doing basically all of the writing himself, whether he realizes it or not. Or maybe with Garth constantly pointing out the flaws in his work, Mookie will get kicked out of his rut and finally start to improve as a writer. Or maybe Garth will just get fed up and either leave Mookie to write and draw the story on his own, or just kick him out and handle everything himself if he thinks the comic is still worth salvaging.

You forgot Mookie's magnetic optimism-charisma superpowers

[Nerd-o-rama]

You forgot Mookie's magnetic optimism-charisma superpowers

Well, they make him likeable, not his writing. It really just depends on how much Garth cares about the story he's illustrating and/or whether he has any better ideas (I'm not a big fan of his solo work, personally).

[random11]

Death of a space station?
Who are you trying to fool?
This MIGHT have worked if we didn't have a scene before with the the station sending someone disarming the bomb. Or if we didn't have the exact same thing with the smaller bomb in the previous chapter.
There isn't even a dramatic "boom" sound effect since they are too far, so what purpose does it serve?

Also, the voider is stupid, he is right in Danica's punching range and instead of running he's showing her that he just lost the only advantage he has on her?
And as a bonus, at the same time as making Danica his enemy (again), he is also distracting the only thing that is preventing him from being killed by the sword guys.

[Humbug]

Oh no, S-Infinity Space Station got blown up. Poor Danica. /deadpan

[Hopeless]

Death of a space station?
Who are you trying to fool?
This MIGHT have worked if we didn't have a scene before with the the station sending someone disarming the bomb. Or if we didn't have the exact same thing with the smaller bomb in the previous chapter.
There isn't even a dramatic "boom" sound effect since they are too far, so what purpose does it serve?

Also, the voider is stupid, he is right in Danica's punching range and instead of running he's showing her that he just lost the only advantage he has on her?
And as a bonus, at the same time as making Danica his enemy (again), he is also distracting the only thing that is preventing him from being killed by the sword guys.

So how will he know if that works?

I assume unless he had time to make appropriate precautions that will cause the bombs on all of the Void ships to detonate after all he's fleeing in an escape pod that I hope he remembered to not sabotage...

Then there's the fact this could allow Danica to escape since the ship she's on should also start blowing up and given recent characterisation this should mean she'll immediately fly back to SSS6 to discover its safe...

Maybe a cut scene to Black Hole Billy showing him sneezing as a reminder to when he tried that tactic?

[Cavelcade]

Well, at least it looks like there'll still be tension until next issue - how will Danica escape and save the void angels? There can't be enough pages left to show that...can there?

[Gez]

Rest in piece, Space Station Sanctuary Six.[/quote]
Spoiler alert:

Spoiler

Show

notice he uses the singular: "piece", not "pieces". Everybody's actually fine!

Honestly, I'm actually a bit impressed they have managed to kill some of the nameless, faceless Vorp Angel goons.

[Kato]

Oh no, S-Infinity Space Station got blown up. Poor Danica. /deadpan

Pretty much this...

The best thing that could come out of this is Danica blasting his ass and get some serious character development but....

[Traab]

Ok, now its time for danica to do something truly dumb. NOT go back to the station because she has assumed they are all dead. "There is nothing left for me there now that its blown up. Time to wander the galaxy as a hermit, training and solving problems as I go, never once talking to anyone who could let me know the station was fine and not even damaged. At least not until it would be at its most dramatic." Oh, and several cut away arcs as the chief and crew try to find danica, either she saves one of them from a bad scenario, or they swoop in and save HER from one. Tune in next week to, "Star Powered-Fu: The Legend Continues."

[Analytica]

Maybe the writer feels it's kind of a cool running gag that someone presses a detonator, only without effect because the bombs are disarmed? If we're laughing now, imagine how hard we will laugh when it happens the twentieth time!

[Mr. McGician]

Maybe the writer feels it's kind of a cool running gag that someone presses a detonator, only without effect because the bombs are disarmed? If we're laughing now, imagine how hard we will laugh when it happens the twentieth time!

What makes it even more hilarious is how it's the resolution to a dramatic cliffhanger that had no element of comedy whatsoever. Because suddenly changing moods like that is the sign of an experienced writer who can handle a wide range of themes.

[Traab]

Maybe the writer feels it's kind of a cool running gag that someone presses a detonator, only without effect because the bombs are disarmed? If we're laughing now, imagine how hard we will laugh when it happens the twentieth time!

Hey, it could work as a sort of running gag. Especially if there is a twist eventually. Danica and her band of merry whatevers face the bad guy who pulls out the trusty detonator and threatens to blow up christmas, or whatever lunatic thing they are going to make explode and danica goes,

"Yeah right, like that ever" /BOOOOOOM!!! "works?!"

[Mewtarthio]

Well, at least it looks like there'll still be tension until next issue - how will Danica escape and save the void angels?

Her grief and rage will transform her into Super Mode in the very next update, letting her drive off the wormholians effortlessly. She'll also say a few very harsh words to Archangel, which will leave her haunted with guilt for the next issue. Mitch will note that she is the first Sentinel to ever achieve Super Mode, but Danica will respond that she doesn't care, now that Sigma Six is dead. Then she'll find out that Sigma Six is totally fine.

[sihnfahl]

... I'm not sure if it's a perspective thing or what, but doesn't it look like those two troopers are kind of ... bendy?

And, uh, Voidguy (don't even care about his 'title') ... there's something to be said about snapping a very powerful person's sanity when you're standing right there.

"Well, shoot. I guess I'll just destroy your escape pod and let YOU be these guys' bait."

Edit: A poor gag would have had the lack of response cause it to explode in his hand. After all, if you trigger a detonator, what's it going to do? Detonate...

[Oracle_Hunter]

And, uh, Voidguy (don't even care about his 'title') ... there's something to be said about snapping a very powerful person's sanity when you're standing right there.

Relevant link to a better comic

I'm concerned that my "alternative universe" prediction is still in play after nearly a week. If Danica actually in danger of learning a valuable lesson

[Zaq]

I can't decide if Mookie showing us that the bomb has been disarmed so far in advance counts as a step forward or a step backward as far as his skill as a writer is concerned. On the one hand, he actually had to plan ahead a little bit, and he didn't just make up a "nope, everything's A-OK" wildcard at the last second. On the other hand, this is already a foregone conclusion, and we don't even get to pretend that something bad might happen to Team Hero.

Anyone catch his comments about making a buffer in the newspost? Three weeks until the next issue is probably pretty ill-advised, though I look forward to the plotholes-in-the-making that his "lore comics*" are supposed to be. But the really weird part is that Mookie, who explicitly stated in the past that he hates having a buffer, is saying that he is looking forward to replenishing it, though why they can't do so, oh, while the issues are running is beyond me.

*Not to be confused with Lore Brand Comics, which are/were awesome, and which I would link to if I weren't on my phone.

[Kornaki]

No, there's way too much setup. We don't know the bomb has been disarmed, all we know is that there is one left to be disarmed at some point in the past, and not too distant past. We've seen the clickclickclick a couple times to set up our belief that this click is similarly meaningless. I predict that Space Station Six will be destroyed in the next comic, along with a closeup of froggie getting disintegrated in the blast.

Chief will survive just so he can tell Danica that if she hadn't been so rash and helped the Void guy off the ship she would have been able to save so many lives.

[Trazoi]

Maybe Garth has started putting input into the comic, because none of these scenarios sound like Mookie.

Something's changed at least; this last chapter started slicing people all over the place, while the previous chapters were death and blood free.

[T-O-E]

The man who out-Mookie'd Mookie.

[Humbug]

Maybe Garth has started putting input into the comic, because none of these scenarios sound like Mookie.

Something's changed at least; this last chapter started slicing people all over the place, while the previous chapters were death and blood free.

I dunno, I could see Mookie doing slasher stuff like this. DD has flip-flopped between juvenile humour to exploding jocks between chapters after all.

I would say this could be unusual for Garth, granted, I've never read through Finder's Keepers so I have no idea how violent it actually is, but it never gave me that impression when I was reading through the early issues.

[Trazoi]

The slasher element fits with Mookie but killing everyone in the station certainly isn't. (That hasn't been resolved yet, but I was referring to the theories listed above. Also Garth's newspost wasn't a complete tension killer.)

From what I remember from the start of Finder's Keepers (all I read), the main problem was he cribbed too heavily off other work. However stuff happened I don't think he was afraid to let the main characters get hurt if the story/drama required it.

[Humbug]

We'll have to see how everything works out tomorrow. If Mookie does kill off everyone at Space Station SSSSS-* it would be an interesting surprise, (that really sounded weird, haha) but if he doesn't, then he's still stuck to his Mookie habits.

[Traab]

I would cut him slack if ANYONE died. Even bomb disposal billy. Like, he disabled enough of the bombs to keep the ship from erupting in a cataclysmic shockwave that destroys the station, but since he was working on it at the time, he got blown up. Something to create a negative consequence.

[T-O-E]

LICD talk: The people Sohmer chose to show as inspirational seem to be alright so far. Admittedly I haven't heard of them before so I guess it's worked. I anticipate him making a really bad decision for tomorrow's comic however.

[Trazoi]

LICD talk: The people Sohmer chose to show as inspirational seem to be alright so far. Admittedly I haven't heard of them before so I guess it's worked. I anticipate him making a really bad decision for tomorrow's comic however.

Is there a reason why you're posting this here and not in the LICD thread? Is it because we have the best opinions?

(I'm following that sequence in bemusement mostly because I've got no idea why he's doing that.)