Today is your first real look at the Reactors. What are Reactors? They’re basically Zurida’s peacekeeping force in this new world. For their design, I had Marc draw upon equal parts Mad Max and a particular kind of soldier in US history (I’m sure some astute reader will guess it correctly in the first or second comment below). As per usual, Marc knocked it out of the park. It’s rare I ever ask him for more than one version of a design.
Wondering what the heck is going on? This is One Year Later and whole new start as an alien invasion has made the US occupied territory! See the beginning of One Year Later right here. Listen to a podcast in which I discuss the reasons behind this jump and what’s ahead right here.
I guess it makes sense that the minions are called Reactors since the government is very reactionary (political science joke yay).
I don’t get the grammar of the minion in the first panel.
It is great to see Sam being awesome.
Bob, your theory on the Reactors’ name isn’t too far off.
Grammar? What grammar? I see no grammar. That dude needs to learn how to talk.
The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!
See? I knew it would be either the first or second comment. Thanks for stepping up!
Actually the helm had me thinking the Germans. But yeah, Redcoats. I can see that.
Yes, because lines like, “Gon’ get shot, sucker,” always turn out so well for the minions who say them.
Ha. True. But… not that it’s a super original line, but I was actually thinking of a real life incident in which some shooters called a guy “sucker” before raining down a hail of bullets on him. So, sometimes it does work. Just not in this case.
I forget to check in for a few days and everything’s gone weird. What the devil is going on?!
Ha! Welcome back! Hope you saw the links I provided in my write up. Everything’s changed!
Well, where those buttons converge in that “X” in the middle of their chests would make a lovely target, so yes, Redcoats. They made that mistake too.
Never thought of it like that. Nice.
Targets were largely irrelevant in 18th century open-field engagements, since the madly inaccurate smoothbore muskets that the infantry carried meant that battalions were essentially enormous claymore mines. Since the effective range of those muskets was basically about eighty to a hundred yards, the challenge was to hold fire in the face of the enemy until they came into range (“wait until you see the whites of their eyes!”) and deliver fire in a proper volley, properly lowered and not discharged over the heads of the other line – something quite challenging in a black-power cloud of smoke with buck and ball flying by your ears and through your squadmates’ guts. And *then*, if the resulting carnage didn’t break the other line, to charge bayonets and do your best to spear them with the pointy bit stuck on the end of your barrel. Hint: it almost never came to actual bayoneting.
Yes, you had specialty riflemen who actually cared about aiming, but until the invention of the minie ball, a rifleman had a firing rate measured in shots per half-hour rather than shots per minute. Meanwhile, an infantryman trained to continental standards could rip off three to four rounds a minute.
Awesome history lesson! Thanks, Mitch. I knew those rifles were super inaccurate, but I had no idea how truly bad they really were.
Those are some seriously good helmets!
They are AMAZING helmets.
Helmets are from the WWI German or more precisely Prussian enlisteds’ uniform called Pickelhaubs. just missing the eagle. I knew they were WWI, but had to research the rest. BTW the word “biddy” always makes me laugh.
Dang! We got a bunch of historians in here. (Or adept users of Google. Either way…) Thanks for that, Heather.
German WWI helmets…everybody loves ’em!
Taking the minions down with headgear as an improvised weapon. Soviet Sam is that much of bad a**.