Aftermath

Aftermath

Posted by Brian • June 26, 2017

Original Release Date: May 21, 2013

It doesn't make sense that Ohtani asks Stu if The Six are gone in panel one, unless he's trying to be absolutely positively certain. In panel five, he tells Renee that the member of The Six that was in his head left when the Chaos Drive exploded, which means he already knows The Six are gone. It's more likely that this page just didn't make it past the first draft.

The rest of the conversation here is pretty exposition-heavy. Stu does take the opportunity to clarify what happened between him and Evil Bad Guy Ninja in the compound, so there's that, but otherwise, I feel like it comes off as heavy-handed. For a guy who just lost his friend-turned-enemy-finally-turned-friend-again, Stu is shockingly articulate. Plus, everybody except for maybe Ohtani already knows all of this stuff, including the readers, so it all feels like unnecessary dialogue. I feel like maybe an ending more akin to the last scene of The Empire Strikes Back would have made more sense here. In Empire, you got a sense of quiet resolve to keep fighting from Luke and Leia and the droids as they watch Chewie and Lando leave. Here, I feel like a quiet processing of everything that just happened would have been more appropriate, because all four of these characters have a lot of thinking to do. Stu just lost his friend and rival, Ohtani and Renee are now both without purpose with The Six vanquished, and Mike has to reconcile the fact that they just barely prevented his genes from being the catalyst in the destruction of mankind. It's heavy stuff, but it doesn't really come off as such.

On the other hand, the last panel breaks the somber mood effectively. The ninja in the foreground is clearly not that happy about sharing a drink with a goon after having to join forces to take down that giant tarantula.