Well, here we go. As I said, these pages make the most sense together as a unit, and you can see them as the voting incentive on topwebcomics.com.
So I don’t have a huge amount to say about anything other than once again, it’s Memorial Day in the U.S. (forgive me if this is an international holiday and I’m leaving everyone else out – I don’t think it is, though), and so we’re all thinking about the citizens of our country who’ve died in the cause of the Revolution. I live in faith that one day we’ll find a way to make war less necessary; the events of this week, in the United Kingdom, haven’t left me too terribly hopeful that that day is coming any time soon. But a conversion of conscience like this takes thousands of years; the best we can do is try to move things forward a little bit in our generation.
So anyhow, enough of my rambling. Until next time, folks, be well.
Santelli: Mike left Sir…he said he’d be back.
Haulley: I heard you the first time Capitan, I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around it. Also…WHY IN THE HELL DIDN’T YOU STOP HIM!?
Santelli: With what Sir? We have enough firepower to MAYBE scratch the paint…
It’s like asking why th speed bump didn’t stop the tractor trailer.
–M
I hope he’s making a doughnut run…that’s all I’m saying.
I wonder where the nearest Donut Delight is, if you’re in the southern Congo…?
–M
If Mike casts some kind of Deus Ex Machina (In this case a litteral Deus Ex Machina) that fixes the entire world after an atomic war, I think I may just smash my keyboard, Angry German Kid style
Aw, jeez, I wouldn’t do a thing like that to you.
–M
I do give you more credit than that, but I still feel it, like a gag reflex almost. I’ve seen too many promising sci-fi go that way. I’m still waiting for someone to explain to Mike, why the world is an irradiated cinder and that Mike is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, all because he couldn’t follow orders.
And I’m not just talking about those killed during the initial exhanges, because millions more will die of radiation sickness, exposure, starvation and desise and of course, fighting one another for what scarce resources are left. In short, the end of the world is Mike’s fault and he appears not to know it yet, if he is even capable of grasping this concept.
This story may be a little crazy, but it’s not that crazy – you’ll just have to trust that “I’m going somewhere with this,” and I hope you will. Mike is powerful but definitely has his limits. And as you say, he may not really realize what he’s done. What will happen when he DOES realize, if that’s the case, well…
–M
As I recall, Mike represents the most advanced AI technology on the planet in this world, but still has the intelligence of a small child, as well as a certain degree of naievety it would seem. Given that Mike refused to even move for fear of harming innocent civilians in the mini-series comic, hoe then does he react to finding out that he is responsible for wiping out more people than smallpox?
Mike is always so civil amnd polite.
He was made that way, I guess. 😉 But then, if he gets ANGRY…
–M
Hauley looks like he just used his last nerve…
😉
This chapter, oddly enough, is really more about him than anyone else. He’s been pushed to the limit by all of this, and it shows.
–M
Somhow I find this pane so very comical.
I would just love to see the mix of emotions on the faces of De Veer and Santeli, though they are not that hard to guess. 😉
Heh heh heh… it’s become almost a running gag not to show the Armored Infantry’s faces. Even the shot in Chapter 3 “under the dome” had the guy wearing an almost full-head helmet.
–M
Or a comment on the faceless and impersonal nature of modern technological warfare
Mike takes up texting:
“Hauly, BRB doin stuff c u l8er”
“@Mike: ZOMG WTF.”
–M
Am I the only one reading this, and hearing Mike’s voice as HAL from “2001”?
No,you’re in good company. Though I personally hear him as Kevin Spacey.
–M
I do as well…must me from when he did the voice of GERTY in ‘Moon’.
I always thought HAL 9000 sounds like a creepy pedophile/stalker/rapist creep (the kind which wears a clown costume), but maybe that’s just me.
Kevin Spacey sounds about right. Some other options might include Mark Strong or Brandon Keener.
I think it was intentional to make HAL sound that way, precisely because it prickled away at that little part of your brain, that makes you scared of clowns. HAL, sounded so calm, so polite and reasonable all the time, even when he admits to flat out murdering Discovery’s crew. Like Mike, HAL was an inscrutable machine, reasonably and rationally explaining why it was nessasary to intentionally kill the people he was installed and programmed aboard the ship to protect.
Poor Haulley.
This has definitely not been his best week…
If this keeps up we’ll be seeing him chugging medicinal alcohol alongside Rucker…
At some point he’s just gunna give up and roll with it.
I have Feels for Haulley.
Maybe on the way back Mike could pick up some valium for Colonel Haulley?