# 18 The Scarlet Revenger
May07
on May 7, 2015
at 9:00 PM
If you terrorize us, do we not tinkle?
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Gee, I guess having money only goes so far. Liam finally got his stuff handed to him. But, I am share he will recover for the up coming game and try to act like he got everything all together. Liam is just that kind of guy.
Hmm….
Unexpectedly, pimply fanboy terror pee is not as endearing as bombshell redhead confusion pee.
It is, in fact, terror pee! Though a harsh, much deserved lesson…I feel a little bad for Liam. The terror BACH-MANN captured in his expression in panel one is so well done I could feel it.
I admit, I’m confused a bit myself, although I currently don’t need to pee. Red gets a cast credit for this strip, and I don’t know the black haired babe.
Unless–has Kazoom camouflaged BJ as Red, and Red as Melvin? But why isn’t BJ also credited?
What am I missing?
The black haired babe what wearing a Red wig and she took it off and throw it at Liam when Liam either pissed or threw up all over the place.
Wait–is Clipboard Girl Melvin’s Mom? Is this just a revenge fantasy?
The Redhead with the Clipboard is Red.
Ah, the cast list has been updated since my first post. Black Hair is “Ida Snow”, Red’s handler.
And Red’s “Whoa” shows she’s just been given a lesson on how to handle pompous wannabees.
Also, Red’s friend from the girls’ school in the last strip is “Patricia Stockmen”. I’m glad to see Red is in fact making friends.
Thank you, I was wondering what the name of Red’s friend was.
The Redhead can’t be Red, she’s wearing glasses. Next thing you’ll be saying is that Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent is Superman! Ludicrous I say! (LOL)
It didn’t occur to me that it was Red until I read your comment. I was thinking “who is this person and why are they focusing on her?” Also, the use of the word “handler” in Ida’s description makes me think of spies. I’ve only seen it used in spy shows like Burn Notice, Covert Affairs.
The Raven haired girl seems to be called Ida Snow.
Wait… what just happened? mind you I’m ok with liam having his ass handed to him.. but kinda lost why she suddenly exploded on him..
I think he hired somebody to play a part dressed as Red, motive unknown. But his script was crap, and Red’s handler, Ivy, crammed it down his throat, possbily because whatever was in the script would have damaged Red’s War Mallet brand.
The party started at 6:00 p.m. By 7:26 p.m., Liam had pissed off (and perhaps pissed on) Ida Snow.
Could’ve been worse: Liam could have p.o.’d Coriolanus Snow.
What I’m confused about: Why is Red at the party, dressed as a census taker?
Oh, right. Thanks.
Possibly Red is at the party dressed as Red’s handler? Nice bit of self-reference loop there, Backmann.
Handlers all the way down. :p
I’m sure there will be some kind of explanation in the next strip. Maybe Liam was getting a little too “touchy-feely” with Ida or Red. I kinda hope Ida is being protective of Red, making her character a “tough older sister” type, watching out for the “new girl”.
Was hard to tell that was Red, was she binding her breasts down as she has been shown to be much more developed than she appears in this strip.
Riniko– Good observation, she very well may be, considering she just became aware, in that last two strips, that the girls at her school thought her parents allowed her a boob job…then she became aware of what a boob job is. What she’d do with that information depends on how it made her feel. I originally figured it was the black and clipboard in panel 2, and perspective in panel 3. Hadn’t even considered she may have done something to herself. Hmmmmm
Should “clones” be “clowns”?
I like “yuppity puppety” as a profanity.
Clowns is a good possibility, but I think clones kindof works. She may be referring to him a clone derogatorily, basically saying that he’s been overly pampered by his parents in their attempt to make him just like them.
It seemed “clones” was used deliberately here, considering the other things Ida says, though it also made me think about clowns(Love when writers are clever like that). She’s dealt with alot of other entitled rich puppet clones, controlled by money, performing on a stage set by other clones, starring themselves, with no regard for anyone else.
It sounds like Ida had been pressure cooking this explosion for a while, as Liam has been demeaning the people in his world. Whether or not Liam did/said anything to elicit this response from her(though it’s entirely believable he did), is beside the point for me. True justice serves the bigger truth and often comes most unexpectedly.
This time it is not a typo. 😉
Looks like Red and her handler got hire as actors in Admiral pissy pants fantasy pre-victory party.
I’m sort of assuming Red went along with Ida as a training exercise. Watch how an experienced pro works a cosplay party and take notes. She is there not as an actor, but strictly as an observer, which is a bit of luck for Melvin and BJ because Red will now have some inside intelligence on Liam.
“Red went along as a training exercise.”
That is an outstanding observation, although I expect it applies to more than cosplay parties. She’s being taught how to be a girl; someone at her agency has noticed that she doesn’t even know to keep her legs together. That is, how to carry herself, walk in heels, present herself appropriately for different goals, and of course how to respond to the adoring and overbearing.
One of the other comics I follow, Misfile, involves Ash, a new-made girl whose Mom turns out to be a former lingerie model and current fashion executive. Ash pretty much refuses to take advantage of her Mom’s modeling offers. She makes one exception–and doesn’t even bother to learn how to walk in heels.
Although it’s framed in terms of Ash defending her born identity as a male, one of the things we see is that she has lost a great deal of social balance and flexibility. She is strong in her way, but also brittle and easily knocked over.
Tiffany, it seems, will not be having that problem nearly so badly–and if she doesn’t get changed back fairly soon, being able to play the role, personally as well as professionally, could prove to be a strong advantage.
In fact, while Clarence was likely an unnoticed, socially awkward nerd, Tiffany is probably discovering she has quite a lot of social power simply because she’s so spectacularly attractive. And she absolutely must learn to manage it, or it will manage her.
There really doesn’t seem to be enough setting being established in the last few pages. It seems like the only way to have the remotest idea of what happened in this page is by inferring details from the cast listing. That is… less than stellar writing.
I already said my piece on how confusing the previous page was, and looking back to the one before that, I’m feeling really in the dark about what’s going on in the last panel. Have we just not been made aware of what Liam is talking about, yet? If so, leaving that explanation until multiple pages into the future is risky…
The comic didn’t have problems like these until the last 2-3 pages. I’m just hoping this trend doesn’t continue.
On the other hand, we’re getting a great deal of story compressed into just a handful of strips. And as Luna said in her reply to Tom, below, it’s early days. They don’t call ’em “shakedown cruises” for nothing.
Double length strips probably would have been useful these last few posts
I don’t really consider over-compression of storylines to be a good thing. I feel like decompressing the last two pages into four would have helped quite a lot.
I’m going to give an opinion about the strip overall, at the risk of sounding like trolling.
A long time ago, there was a TV show set in the 1950s, “Happy Days.” It was supposed to be about a high-school kid, Richie Cunningham, and Richie’s parents, sister, and friends. Richie (played by Ron Howard) was the star of the show, supposedly.
But one of Richie’s friends was a motorcycle tough named Arthur Fonzarelli, a.k.a. “Fonzie,” played by Henry Winkler. That character got mega-popular — to the point where Fonzie wasn’t Richie’s sidekick, Richie became Fonzie’s sidekick.
The reason that Richie’s show evolved into being Fonzie’s show was that Fonzie was a more interesting character than Richie was. Richie was a goody-two-shoes; Fonzie had an edge.
See where I’m going with this? In theory, Red is Melvin’s sidekick, and Melvin is the central character of this comic strip. But Red has been in almost every strip, and Melvin has been in very few. And look at the current strip — Liam is supposedly MELVIN’S enemy, but who is battling Liam? Red, and Red’s agent — Melvin is nowhere to be seen.
Not that I’m complaining — just as Fonzie was a more interesting character than Richie Cunningham, so Red is much more of an interesting character than Melvin.
My recommendation? Either rename the strip, or make Melvin more interesting.
Early days, Tom. There is much more to come involving all 4 of our main cast. 😉
I always thought the story was about Red. It was only named after Melvin because Red didn’t have a name at that point. I haven’t given up on this comic but there’s a difference between tight plotting and incomprehensible plotting. This is the first story arc with the first “major antagonist” and it is over in 3 comics. That could have been stretched to twice as long easily and been much better for it.
What gives you the idea that this arc is over? It’s still in the setup phase from what I can see. The payoff will have to be either during or after the War Mallet competition.
Quite. It looks like this incident is what is going to add more fuel to the fire and get everyone wanting to win at all costs, including dirty tricks.
I hoped it was over because that’s a damn fine ending and because it’s so impossible to follow I WANT it to be over so we can hopefully get a little more world building and character building before jumping into the next plot where I don’t care what’s going on because the characters mean nothing to me.
The Happy Days analogy has crossed my mind. Of course, I think Red already had a bigger fanbase than Melvin just from her appearances in Jeanie Bottle. I’m not complaining about Melvin at all. It’s just an odd situation where Red was a breakout character before the strip even started.
They could always Have arcs that switch focus between each of the main characters. One could be about Melvin trying to win the heart of the girl of his dreams, the next could be about Red’s school problems, then one about BJ’s lack of story appearance (LOL). As long as they switch it up it should be fine.
(I had to write this twice because I was disconnected from the internet right as I tried to post. I hope I don’t come back and find two comments by me in a row.LOL)
Knowing Liam, he probably crossed some kind of line.
In ALL of Liams appearances previously, he has presented as a complete douche….calling everyone “simpletons”, hosting a “pre-victory” party(believing there’s no chance he could lose), the way he’s spoken to his own mother. There are reasons Melvin, BJ and Red hate him other than he’s won the ‘War Mallet’ tournament again and again.
Liam has had something like this coming for a long time. Unfortunately, when parents don’t set us straight lovingly, the world finds a way of “schooling” us in a much harsher way.
I know a guy in my personal life who reminds me a lot of Liam, although he was not the inspiration for Liam. A pretentious know-it-all who had everything handed to him and only worked a job because he was bored. He and I did not get along and he eventually quit the gaming group I was in because of it.
Ida reading the script “‘Scarlet Avenger passionately kisses Kirk’?! F**k this job, I’m out!”
It does seem to be enough of a jump as to be confusing. First we see Red (alone) at the door asking if anybody needed a fighter, the we see Red after a time jump with indications that events have occurred, but nothing solid upon which to speculate except a “script.” Then “Red” rips off her wig, we discover that this is really Red’s agent/handler & apparently Red herself is dressed as the “Minion with a clip-board.”
Are we ever going to see what happened between those scenes? Has Red ever worn heels before? Or is everything going to remain confined to our own imaginations, which can lead to some awful speculations & assumptions becoming “canon” in our own minds.
The person at the door was not Red, it was Ida Snow. Lots of folks noticed the woman at the door had a different shade of red hair, and probably was not Red. Red is the one with her hair in a bun and a clipboard. And apparently Red is having trouble getting used to heels. No surprise there, really, even after a few weeks they are probably hard to adjust to. I know women who don’t wear heels often will have trouble on the occasions when they do.
When I started wearing heels for the first time it was hard to keep my balance. Now I can run in them if I have to.
I was glad to see Red has a handler and struggling in heels. I hire models for art classes, and that has caused a little difficulty with me when it comes to Red’s plotline. More so than looks, being a model takes poise and grace, which relies on being comfortable in your own skin. If there is one thing I expect Red is not, it is being comfortable in her own skin. It’s been hard for me to buy the idea of her succeeding as a model.
Seeing that she is really more a model in training under a mentor makes for a far more plausible situation. It also presents interesting plot developments if she is really going to learn to be a successful model.
If there just taking photo shoot for a clothing magazine to show off cloth to be shown to other people display purposes only. Then Red doesn’t need the pose and grace starting off. There just doing single pose pictures of her, they might be OK. But, once Red move to the run way walk, Red would definitely need a handler to teach how to do it.
Which will give BECH-MANN another story line in the future of Red learning to be a modal.
“Office Lady Red” I approve. I’m for more full body shots of sexy female characters.
A comic page that is double length would have been useful for these recent bits where many things are happening all at once. I know that’s easy for me to say, I don’t know if that’s hard to do. I just think more space would have allowed for things to be made clearer.
Not that I’m complaining about the story, but I’m still kinda waiting for the gender switching hijinks. I suppose even now we’re still only at the beginning of the adventures.
What, Tiff peeing down her leg wasn’t jinks enough? :)’
I’m willing to wait. There seems to be some foundation-building going on here, establishing characters and personalities, that sort of thing.
I do very much want to see Tiffany learning to be a girl, though.
I’d prefer the characters getting an item that lets them switch between male and female then seeing what they might do with it.
That’s probably unlikely. Red is already switched and her dealing with that should be part of the story here.
Just a heads up. This comic is getting confusing and hard to follow… might want to rethink how your planing this out since its very early for things to be getting confusing already…
Red is the protagonist of this comic?
and what happened to the character development?
I reconized Red i wonder if Liam did. Or was he too fixated on the buxom Redhead to notice a spy in his court?
It was clear from the first appearance of the busty Red fighter it was not Red she was way to confident.
I like the out fit you put Red in. Classy business attire. The bun in her hair really sells the look.
The whooa is proof of her dorkiness and innocence.
😉
Bach-Mann and Luna, let me just jump in here in opposition to the folks saying the story is too confusing or you’re not doing this or that. I’m happy with the pacing and I’m seeing character and setting being developed in a reasonable way. I say keep it up . . .
As confused as I’ve been, and granting there are some rough edges and a bit of stickiness because the paint isn’t quite dry yet, nevertheless, I pretty much agree with ranck.
Thanks, guys!
As much as the characters have the potential to be interesting, things are all over the place and the story is hard to follow. Things jump around too much and we’re not getting any rationale for why actions are occurring – why is Ida so angry at Liam, for instance? Sure, he may be a bit of a pretentious jerk, but that surely doesn’t warrant the sort of bullying pulled off in this comic.
Also, please stop with all the piss and toilets. It’s really not ever appropriate to portray.