This isn’t any kind of secret, but at the same time I’m not sure anyone has noticed that Swifty is the one character who has not changed one bit since Chapter 1. There’s no arc for him, no softening of his hard edges. Swifty is Swifty. Does that mean he can NEVER change? No, but that doesn’t mean he will.
Looking at this strip, I admire all over again Marc’s design for General Will. It’s just very striking and the elements balance well. Not an easy feat for a character type who has little precedent. The basic idea behind General Will is… what if Superman turned into Captain America? I don’t know if I ever expressed the idea in that way to Marc, but darn it if that’s not exactly what he is.
There’s a blog coming on this, but in case you missed it over at Bleeding Cool, you might want to check this out.
So he’s basically the superfogey’s version of http://amalgam.wikia.com/wiki/Super-Soldier?
In other news, judgmental much General?
If we’re going back to cases, all of this, all of this can be traced back to the Good General’s failure to put his Thrice Evil in the ground, even with an entire universal principle working in his favor.
As far as swifty not changing…it works. At the risk of being obscure, another webcomic I follow, “Order of the Stick” by Rich Burlew, had an antagonistic character who was a fanatic, that wanted to do good, but refused to accept the fact that what she’d actually done was evil. She died technically saving the world, and fulfilling her duty, but there was no redemption for her. In a way it can make those who do walk the hard road of repentance that much more amazing.
I’m with Professor Harmless. All the Earth Avalon heroes can take their Judgy McJudgy Pants ™ and sit on tacks.
As far as Swifty goes, if we’re going to give Jerry any leeway for causing the dominaton of Earth by Zuraida, than I’d argue we have to give Swifty the same treatment. Remember in Swifty Origins when he first words were “Jerry. Bad.”? He’s had the same amount of direct time traveler tinkering as Jerry.
Having Swifty not change over time is kinda a good way to notice the change in others, and he’s kinda an ar$e, but that makes when he’s sweet even better. I’d have to say his race with Cami and his interactions with Star Maiden are my favorite Swifty moments.
I third this opinion, they are awfully preachy considering the whole situation in earth-Abaddon (and indeed the existence of that reality in the first place) is owed to their failure to contain evil in a universe where they ALWAYS win… Yes, things are much worse in Abaddon, but really, all the heroes failures there, stem from a huge failure on part of the heroes of Avalon. Time to take a little responsibility for the mess guys!
Wow this is truly an unbelievable sight to see. Even after he was told everything about the origin of his world and how it differs from this one, Swifty will still not change his stubborn ways.
I know you said he will not changed the story, but this has to be the story arc where SOMEBODY GOT TO SLAP SOME SENSE INTO HIS MIND. I mean after all he was told and he still will not let the Jerry thing go. Honestly out of all of the heroes in the story, Swifty has to be the saddest case out of all of them. š
I’m willing to give Swifty a chance to explain himself and his reasoning, but someone has to teach him a lesson where the others have failed. Someone has to tell him he’s wrong and show him the right way. I mean he been told that most of his blaming of Jerry was partly in the wrong and that Jerry could’ve been a better hero.
Someone has to teach Swifty a good lesson of judgement or else both earths are doom for destruction and conquest by Thrice evil. š
Well, to be completely fair to Swifty, it is a lot to just let go, because Jerry “could have been better”. While I like the fact that there is/has been a better version of Jerry, and that Abaddon Jerry could have gone the same way, had his life not been tampered with (read; destroyed) It still doesn’t change anything he has done.
Money Man dies, the Society of Heroes fails repeatedly, evil abounds – proof that capitalism is a good thing.
… No.. Loss of Money Man was an effect not a cause. Dr Rocket led the Lodge of Doom when MM was killed. this means that the downfall of this earth started way before. Where did it really start is the question. It will best say it did all start with Jerry. Twisting Jerrys origins to turn him into someone who only thinks of himself.
I think if you trace it back, you will find the original oen to blame is Jerry… of EA
Dang. Strong opinions today. I love it, but it would be wrong of me to chime in.
Another character in this chapter is going to weigh in soon on all this. Or at least part of it. Love that you guys are digging in like this.
Kind of wierd that the alternate Dr Rocket hasn’t shown up or was mentioned at all by the others.
Maybe he was killed by Thrice Evil?