One of my goals is to try to keep up with Marc by continually challenging him to draw cool stuff. It seems like the more I do, the more he steps up in a big way. That middle panel is about 1000 times better than it would have been under my pen.
We’re at a point in this chapter where your knowledge of the characters really has to come into play. Otherwise, this dialogue is kind of boring. I think it’s a temptation for any writer to constantly spice things up by being clever. But, sometimes, you gotta take a step back and let the scene do its thing. Sometimes, you just gotta get out of the way of the story.
Clever, Jerry. Clever.
I completely misunderstood his purpose for the giant robot. I thought it was to take out the Captain, but it makes a dang lot more sense to stop the robot himself in order to impress Spy Gal. Dang, I hope Jerry never comes after my girlfriend/fiance or I’m a goner apparently.
Wait. Does Spy Gal have her power dampener on in this chapter? Doesn’t make a lot of sense for her to have it anymore now that they assume she’s not going to leave Valhalla due to the Captain’s presence. And by they I mean Gene and Dr. Klein, with either complete reason to believe she’s insane or complete reason to keep her there. What am I thinking? lol
No, I totally agree. The power dampener is a plot hole at the moment. So we’ll have to see. Also I never thought he was going to use the robot against Cap. I mean, I couldn’t have imagined this, but the way he was approaching things, I didn’t think he would target the Cap in such a way. Either way, I don’t know if I like Spy Gal being like this with him. She seems too impressed. :/
Remember, this is Spy Gal we’re talking about. Reformed criminal. Lust for adventure. And Jerry knows this, having spent time with (and studied) her for many years. The two of them even had a conversation about how CS doesn’t have that spark of life that she has. I think this is Jerry’s cleverest plan to win her heart to date. But I guess we’ll see what happens.
This is true. Still the turnabout speed of it all is a little too fast. I guess that problem is inherent to a webcomic that airs twice a week and not a writer issue. It’s tough to pace it just right. Either way I do think that if Captain doesn’t straighten himself out soon then he won’t be getting Spy Gal. Hopefully, Jerry doesn’t get her either.
You mentioning that makes me think of how little we’ve seen of CS’s serious side of late. He just doesn’t strike me as very committed to his fiancee. I want him to straighten out and kick things in gear, but his weakness is that he’s just generally oblivious. It’s like he has this 30-year-old superhero mindset that life is carefree and every woman should fall for him like in the old days. If Jerry makes any headway, it’ll be a wakeup call, I think. If not, Jerry might do something drastic and shift into some super—and I mean super—villain mode. Like the kind where he hates everybody and is bent on destruction. Overall, I find SF hard to predict because at this point it’s about everybody. There’s not really a main character anymore. LOST style.
Good point about the power dampener. SpyGal was fighting that giant troll with the help of her younger self, but still doing it with her dampener on. Wonder if Jerry will remove it for her during this time of crisis.
Unfortunately for them, they’re going to have to deal with all Dr. Rocket’s enemies shortly…
Maybe Jerry has left the power dampener on so that she can’t personally fight the robot at full power which would mean losing his chance to impress her? Think about it. The robot, unless it has some sort of energy field or something, could never touch Spy Gal and all she would have to do is take a peak inside and pull out it’s power source or computer chip brain – in this case I guess that would be the crystal Dr. Rocket put inside. And viola! No more robot problems. Keeping her power dampener on means Spy Gal can’t make the battle too quick and easy, allowing Jerry to get the chance he needs.
He won’t need to remove her damper, I’m sure he’ll find a way to convince her to fight as is and with his strategic control of the robot make it as if his encouragement is pushing her forward. I foresee this getting beyond Jerry’s control and things going very south for all our heroes.
Now that Dorothy and Sophia are out of the way it makes room for Rose to come in and tell some of her St. Olaf stories and bore the robot into submission. If that doesn’t work then Blanche may be able to swoon it. 🙂 I couldn’t resist a Golden Girls reference, had to get one in as the ladies exited stage right.
Yeah… I was wondering if those were the Golden Girls… Apparently my girlfriend really likes that show. I’ve not really seen much of it though.
Ahhhh so the robot is a decoy to sweep Spy-gal off her feet by ‘rescuing’ her in a perilous moment….. Hmmmmm smoove Jerry, very smoove.
I bet the robot also has the stuff necessary to take out Wilbur too…. UNLESS! New thinking/feeling Dr. R. had some kind of second thought and decided to screw Dr. Jerry Kleinman the 3rd over! And thus left out that extra little kick it would’ve needed to ice Captain Stupendous….. ~stroking goatee thoughtfully~ So many moves in this crazy chess game of revenge and romance!
Back when I thought this was to take out the Captain – because Jerry told young Jerry “You’ll have to break her heart!” – I figured that’s why Dr. Rocket said to Cap, “Terrible. You?” when asked how he was doing at the time he activated the robot (and took his pills). I figured although he still holds some animosity toward the Captain that maybe he felt regret towards his impending but unavoidable doom by the hands of the Jerry-bot?
You guys are having so much fun theorizing that I don’t want to ruin it. I don’t say it enough… but thanks for making SuperFogeys such a fun thing to create.
I didn’t see him using the robot this way either. Though I do think that Spy Gal may get hurt if the power dampener isn’t removed soon. Thus making Jerry the bad guy in the eyes of everyone ells…but Speedy already knew this. Or maybe our Soviet Sam will be the Hero here for once?
Soviet Sam? I think so. I feel that this chapter is very much about him as it opened with him. I think he’ll be the unexpected wild card Jerry isn’t expecting. Hopefully it’ll give Jerry something to chew on about what a hero is. Hope I’m not spoiling anything, but hey — when has Brock’s writing ever been predictable? 😉 Never, usually.
Off topic, but I’ve been wondering why Jerry openly disdains or even hates Soviet Sam and Tangerine for killing good guys or reformed villains but has little no disdain whatsoever for Dr. Rocket? At first I considered it was because he knew the fake Dr. R was Herman and was innocent, but later I realized that he treats the real Dr. Rocket with an equal absence of disdain. Surely Nikola T. Rocket has killed his fair share of people or even heroes through out the decades? Is the disdain or lack thereof simply and only a part of the characters that Jerry plays? Who even is the real Jerry? We’ve seen it’s not the old man who acts like a boy who yells, “BOY HOWDY!!! IS SHARING EVER FUN!!!” I didn’t realize until lately but not only is Jerry putting on an act with Klein and the Third Man, but even his Jerry persona is a lie. I believe he continues to say things like, “Jumping Juju-bees!” to fit what he thinks the other SuperFogeys think Jerry should act like. Maybe the only time we’ve seen maybe who present-time Jerry really is (excluding pre-superhero kid Jerry as he’s changed over the years) is when he removed his mask for Tom in the secret no-doored prison cell in the SFO story of his origin? But I think today’s strip and the few Jerry centered strips before it are starting to reveal a little more of who Jerry might be. He’s certainly acting a lot less like pre-teen Robin from decades ago in comics and more manly and grown up.
Speaking of Jerry, here’s a fun and completely wrong theory I had AGES ago about Klein and the Third Man. I could have never guessed they were Jerry, but at the time I thought they were an adult and embittered Mega Matt since his WebSpace page said he liked to cosplay. I thought it fit? After the Jerry revelation I tried to get the idea to jive but it just couldn’t hold water anymore, so I was obviously wrong, ha ha. Wait. I just had a timeline shattering thought. This is Mega Matt we’re talking about. Wouldn’t he be dumb enough to go to Tangerine, his future father, for help in that time period? Or possibly sell the lyrics to 80’s songs or ideas of 80’s cartoon or comic book series that haven’t been written yet? There goes TMNT and Karate Kid…
The bad guy in everyone’s eyes? Yeah. Poetic irony and something big enough maybe to cause Jerry to doubt himself and break his illusion? (Or create a stronger, more horrible illusion comprised of extreme, extreme unreasonable guilt? Then again, his plan is “villainous” as thought by young Jerry). I thought something similar though, except I was wondering how he’d view himself if any of those civilians were hurt or killed during the robot rampage? Or would he go as far as making up excusing and pretending it was anyone’s fault but his?
Run Dorothy and Ma!!
…… Jerry, Syndrome tried this. It didn’t end well.
[…] 19 – The Man Who Sold the World One of Marc’s artistic high watermarks has got to be the Donutron destruction of Las Vegas. That’s a sequence that also took place at night. I think Marc is just really good at […]