This page is a story that was hinted at a loooooong time ago. Now that you’ve finally seen, what do you think? Big thanks to artist Marjorie Rishel for the epic rendering of a tough scene.
Sometimes, things get in your head and you’ve got to get them out. This week, it was an allegory buggin’ my brain. Check out “The Oncoming Train” to see it for yourself.
Phew, this family has issues….
I think every family does… but hopefully less than this one.
Wow, sorta bloody one.
BTW, LOVE Harvey at the control panel. Nice detail.
I love that too!
And yes… a bit bloody. Not my favorite thing to do, admittedly, but that was the story.
Brock’s script made it very clear that Harvey needed to be at the controls too. I suspect he was largely added for my benefit.
I’m going to be brutally honest, but this storyline is far beneath you Brock. I know Super Fogeys is a parody as well as a self-contained world, but it’s the weakest excuse of an origin story I’ve seen from you. It’s not funny, it’s not smart, it’s just this random, out-of-nowhere “Hey let’s do something evil enough to get me killed” nonsense. The worst part is that it doesn’t even invoke any emotion from me, which is probably the most damning thing I can say about it.
Scott, as always I appreciate your honesty. These origin stories are always compact and experimental and I know they’re not always going to be a hit with everyone.
What happens on this page isn’t really the full story. Obviously, we’re getting a limited, singular perspective on something much bigger. Lots of the origin stories do this (Six Wives of Captain Spectacular being notable for being almost nothing BUT glimpses at bigger stories) and it’s a tricky thing to do.
Whether it’s “beneath” me or not I don’t know. I think the last page (coming next week) is really the point of this story and I feel like what happens in that page is where the emotion is and that it’s earned. You may feel differently and I welcome that.
I guess all I can really say is… I hope you enjoy the next story more.
Okay so why did the boys make such a big deal about him killing their mother if she was trying to combine them. He was trying to save them…
There’s a difference between “trying to save” and “extreme measures.” That’s always been the the problem with Tangerine. Notice the boys in the last panel–they’re not too thrilled about the final result (also, if you go back to that scene where Emo and Healer make a “big deal about killing their mother”, it wasn’t an out-of-the-blue expression of anger; it was Emo responding mid-argument in in disbelief to Tangerine’s heated claim that “Maybe I wasn’t the perfect image of parenting, but I LOVE my family.” ).
As Brock mentioned in an earlier posting, this is Mega Matt’s origin, told from his perspective, and Mega Matt isn’t exactly one for deep thought or empathy. He’s always been a somewhat self-centered character, and any telling on his part would focus on how things affected him. The O’Hara family obviously has issues that run really deep, but Mega Matt only touches on them when they directly affect him.
Brock, the problem here is that your other origin stories are still well thought out despite the length. They’re glimpses, but they work in context either because of the parody nature or because they still manage to set the story up nicely before the payoff.
In this one, the final page comes out of nowhere with insufficient set-up, a ridiculous premise (which is normally fine except it’s supposed to be dramatic) and then Tangerine’s typical idiotic resolution. Yes, he’s a parody of Wolverine except Tangerine’s a lot worse since at least being stabbed to death still allows some sort of dignity to the corpse afterwards, where as skull-crushing isn’t just needlessly gruesome but violates the corpse at the same time. Tangerine never tries to change his tactics ever, despite having abilities that would allow him to do so. This might not be a problem except for the fact that he had a celebrity-welcome upon arriving at Vahalla where instead he should be universally disliked considering he’s not just violent murderer but an idiot as well.
OK, so basically Tangerine ruins comics, but I have a problem with the story even if we took him out of the equation, and that boils down to a lack of development with the mother. We basically have her popping out babies and then having this grandiose evil plan out of nowhere. In your other origin stories, there’s a set-up and payoff appropriate even to the limited screen-time a characters gets — the wives of CS for example, and the reason why it works is because we either have met one of the wives before or they’re based off a familiar archtype. Since it’s a very short story and because we’re pretty familiar with CS by this point, it all makes sense and flows pretty well.
Tangerine’s wife on the other hand is defined as having babies and being evil for no reason. That’s where the story is beneath you.
How much character development or depth are you expecting from a short rap from MM, who’s already known to be a talentless hack? The entire story is about 25 lines, there’s no room for development in the style or PoV the story was written in. MM apparently doesn’t care to give his mother more than a token guest appearance here because she’s not him.
I agree that I thought this particular story was lacking, but I’m not sure complaining about it is worth it. The main strip is where the gold is and this flash back in the eyes of Mega Matt is somewhat revealing, but not very important. Hopefully the same story will be delved into from another character’s or characters’ perspectives in the future and given a much more professional treatment. If not, oh well. I think it would be great if we learned more about the ninja mother character at some point. What makes her tick, her goals and ambitions, etc. (Theory: It would seem sadly to me that she didn’t truly love Tangerine but instead may have been a plot from the very beginning to conceive genetically altered children for this one very purpose of combining them to make Dr. Rocket yet another child to try to use to help him take over (A.K.A. Thrice Evil and Herman being previous under-age tools of his)).
Mostly, I think this particular story is badly written only due to it being from Mega Matt’s perspective and using the rap beat of “Fresh Prince of Belair” as the model for the narrative’s lyrics.
What makes this story worth it is not only a glimpse as to maybe answering the age-old question of why the O’Hara brothers are so different genetically (their super powers or lack thereof) but also the fate of Mega Matt in the 1950’s: he has the respect (and maybe love?) that he felt has long been deprived from him among the Beatniks.
Dr. Rocket is just…there. No opinion whatsoever. Love it.
wow pop goes the weasel. love how Dr Rocket is running scared in the background.
That’s pretty messed up she wanted to combine her sons. Seems like she could have just corrupted them and made them work together, but i guess evil is usually not logical with their plans. Ha