A tip of the hat to jd. for successfully guessing that this was a pre-recorded message. Also, for offering detailed reasons for his suspicion. Namely that Kickman’s costume is not destroyed and also because the message addresses not The Zodiac, but just criminals. If you look at the exchange of dialog, you can see that it is not an exchange at all. Kickman talks over the bad guy and doesn’t actually respond to anything he says. (“Hello?”)
10 “spoiler” Kick Points to jd. Good job!
I haven’t been responding to too many comments lately because I was in transition. I am once again in Long Beach, Washington on a separate pet-sit from Cheri. I’m watching two houses, with a total of four dogs and a cat between them. Cheri is watching a dog, a cat, and four chickens between two houses, also. We’re stretched pretty thin as pet-sitters go. Luckily all we have to do is play with animals and keep them alive for the next couple of weeks.
Next week: Kickman Vs Sagittarius, Capricorn, Cancer, and Pisces.
Wah-hooooo, I called it and turned out to be right! (Since you’re using the word “spoiler”, I hope I haven’t been an annoyance. I’ll be happy to keep my musings to myself rather than get your goat.)
Speaking of goats, nice specialized outcry from Capricorn!
I also love how Kickman mixes up similes there. (And how he paused to still make it sound like he was responding to the likely reactions.)
I’m not sure what’s Grayhawk is cutting in panel five, or how it seems to be affecting Pisces (why is his left eye so huge all of a sudden?). But I guess it’s something disabling Libra, since s/he’s conspicuously missing from the list of villains Kickman will fight next week. (Not to mention Virgo, once again…)
Last, good for you on the pet-sitting jobs! I wish you both the strength to enjoy them!
‘Spoiler’ points have been awarded many times before, so I think he’s cool with perceptive readers. He’s normally pretty good about reading comments but must have a busy period right now. We’ll see what Matt says when he checks in, hm?
Yup, I’m back. Wasn’t actually that busy, but doing a lot of relaxing these last few days. Perhaps too much. Actually I probably need to lay off the booze for a couple days.
I just thought of something a while ago while shopping for groceries and cleaning stuff. Matt, I think you mentioned something about Kickman’s wardrobe malfunction leading to something, and now I gotta wonder, was it to give us a clue about the hologram, something else no one has picked up on so far, or both?
The death of Virgo perhaps?
It wasn’t meant to be a clue… at first. Originally I had the script written out addressing the Zodiac specifically and was going to have him with the torn clothes. I figure they could record it off-camera before sending in the drone. I called an audible as I was drawing out the page and thought, “Grayhawk might actually have pre-recorded a distraction hologram message before this fight started. Possibly before they even entered the city… (which is why the message references Kickman’s statement that he broadcast on the VNN Network, “I’m coming for you… and Hell’s coming with me. It was still fresh in the heroes’ minds at that point).
I forgot to address the Pisces “Bug Eye.” When I had a salt-water aquarium there always seemed to be a fish that would have an eye get all bugged out like that. Not sure if it was from fighting with other fish, infection, or stress. I’m assuming stress, and that’s why Pisces is having the fish-bug-eye moment.
He’s about to have another one next page…
Oo
(-)
Not at all! I encourage everyone to guess how the plot goes. That way if someone has a very clever idea I can just run with that for the next strip and not have to pay for a professional writer. I just pay in Kick Points. As for the missing Libra, that was just a mistake on my part. I forgot that Sagittarius has already been defeated and counted four bad guys in the “Next Week:” section and didn’t realize I was missing him.
I Don’t suppose anyone has commented yet, but this storyline has echoes of the Batman storyline “No Man’s Land”. at any rate, it’s interesting that Kickman’s bothering with the Civics Lesson here. I mean, it’s BASIC civics, aka ‘How even criminals benefit from the presence of and upholding of, the rule of law’. It might be interesting to see which ones actually LEARN that lesson. (or how many work out that the previous regime, with licensed heroes and such, was a system designed to maintain a supercrime problem.)
I’ve heard of No Man’s Land, but never read it. That said, even though I’ve never read it I’ve read ABOUT it, so it probably was an influence on this arc.