SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLES FEATURE pt.18
Today is Comikaze! Come on out and enjoy the show…and buy some comics, dagnabbit!
Well, wouldja’ look at this mess: the building’s been blown up, the owner’s home (that would be the REAL Jemini, in case if you’ve forgotten), and the guilty party is everyone’s favorite surly grump in the gas-mask, Toxsick! All the details (along with the Comikaze con recap) will be filled in next week, so be there, true believer!
…yeah, I said “true believer”…’cuz Stan Lee will be at the convention. Get it? Never mind…’nuff said!
F*CK YEAH! doughnuts make the whole day better 😀
Toxsick is by far my favorite character in this whole comic, his: Yeah i just murderd everyone in a radius of 200 meters but hey we can have doughnuts. aditude is awsome
btw poor sam thinking that jemini died 🙁 i think she is gonna murder some people O_o
Ok, Reverso HAD to survive, didn’t he? I mean, he was right on Scap’s tail when the blast hit, and Scap got out without a scratch (damn, how *do* those scrawny shanks put on such a turn of speed? He should’a been an Olympic sprinter :D).
If Reverso kicked the bucket (or punched it, y’know, whatever works for him) then who’ll be the smooth ladies’ man villain in Scap’s world? You never know, maybe Scap would pull an Ace Rimmer, the humiliation forcing him to buckle down and… nah, who am I kidding? Let’s raise a glass to Scap, the eternal loser :D!
Beautiful explosion! There is not one panel I could single out because this whole comic is sweet. And boy do you know how to keep your hooks in us to get us to come back. 😀
@BarbaricBob First off, good eye being able to spot Sam. If was kind of worried that no one would see her, but at the same time I didn’t want to make her too obvious (as opposed to having her front and center, holding the body and wailing like that Superman cover).
Toxsick is a bastard; yeah, he’s not as aggressive or insane as the other supervillains, but he’s just blown up a building and killed X amount of people. Why? He’ll explain himself next week.
@AndyW Reverso? Actually, that’s probably as good of a name as Inverto. I may have to do an entire ‘evil twin’ brigade (….on second thought, let’s not do that. ‘Tis a silly idea.)
Punch the bucket? Good one!
@Roland Thank ya, good sir! Just trying to put on a good show for all of you kind folk who feel like returning, week after week. I’m a happy clown.
Hahahaha I seem that Toxsick used the Dark Knight Joker method of blowing up a buidling!
Look what he did with a few barrels fo gasoline and dyamite.
Awesome chapter can;t wait for more and oh…Poor Sam.
Good ol’ Toxsick. He’s too apathetic to put as much energy into hating Scap as everyone else.
@Diablo2000 Well, Toxsick got the building to blow up on the first try (I absolutely love the Joker’s reaction to the explosions only going off halfway).
There was actually a whole parking garage filled with it, but I guess I didn’t draw enough to make that clear. Shame on me, bad cartoonist.
We’ll see Sam’s reaction next week.
@Reikenbach Everyone hates Scapula, but to different degrees. I’m sure Toxsick is fully aware that Scap is a douche, but chooses not to make a big fuss over it. Hey, why stress over what can’t be changed?
“Douchey prick”… I like that insult! Now I just need to find someone who deserves to be told he’s one.
Yay! ‘Splosions!
I had a feeling Toxsick was in the wings when I saw the bombs. The goons weren’t hauling and didn’t look bright enough for that sort of thing. Maybe I’m cruel and heartless but Sam’s survival made me happy….. and her cradling the Jemini clone’s body oh so sadly made me laugh until I fell over! And once again, Toxsick reasserts himself as one of the most hilariously effective and unconcerned characters in the series.
What can I say, you promised much violence this series and have delivered spectacularily. I raise my glass to you, kind sir.
…. incidentally, am I the only person in the world that thinks the Dark Knight’s version of the Joker was complete crap? He could have been ANY other villain in Batman’s lineup and kept the same lines and actions and nobody would have noticed. The ‘Ironic’ depressed loser vague anarchist archetype in gaudy colors is far too common among Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery. Why wreck the fun guy?
Heath Ledger’s Joker stands beside Danny DeVito’s Penguin and Arnold Shwartz-whatever’s Mr. Freeze in shit acting hell. I firmly believe that Heath dying was karmic retribution for it. When you remove the Joker from his element just so the disaffected of the world can go ‘hur hur, purple man blow stuff up’, hack writing has truely taken over.
Of course, being a sadist and knowing that this doesn’t immediately translate into being an emotionally unresponsive douche who feels compelled to mope and wear makeup that won’t stay on, I’ve always been a fan of the actual Joker. Mark Hamil actually does what I consider the best version of the character. Yep, Luke Skywalker makes the best clown prince of crime.
Heh agree with on on Joker’s reaction inthe movie.
Was great scence!
Be funny Toxsick saw the movie and thought to himself…Note make sure to pack enough explsoives to blow up buildings i one go.
Thou in Joker’s defense not all the bombs went off as they should of till he reclicked the switch a few times then smacked it. LOL
@KevinJoyce …well, don’t look at me when you want to use it! Try it sometime when you’re stuck in traffic, or in line at the DMV. You might get a priceless reaction or two!
@LadyJenn It was a bit of an overrated performance; I don’t necessarily think it was BAD, but so many people, mainly reacting the actor’s death, raised it up to a plateau of acting that most mortal men shall never achieve (if anyone, and I mean ANYONE, had beaten Heath’s ghost to the Best Supporting Actor they would have been tarred and feathered by angry fans).
Ledger’s Joker was a very vague character. Whether that’s good or bad all depends on your personal taste. Since the Joker wasn’t really the central character of the movie (although he stole so many scenes you’re inclined to think it was HIS damned movie!) he didn’t need to be that much more than a scary antagonist, but again, that’s all up to you.
The Penguin is my favorite Batman bad guy, and yeah, I can see the flaws in DeVito’s performance now that I sift through nostalgia and watch the movie for what it is. Penguin is a character who composes himself with a lot of dignity and class (all the better to mask his ugly little runt-self) and a lot of DeVito was just screaming and slobbering, which really hurt his impact as a villain. By the time he’s running around in that AWFUL baby pajama suit he’s strictly comic relief, and the joke gets old fast (I like Danny DeVito a lot, so it’s all the more disappointing).
Not that I really hate that Penguin or ‘Batman Returns’; that film introduced the concept of the Penguin as genuinely deformed, instead of just ‘funny looking’, and thus created a sympathetic aspect to the character that had never been used before. This was much better explored in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’, with Paul Williams’ excellent performance of the Penguin, in one of the very best episodes, “Birds of a Feather”. The Penguin’s self image and dreams really come to a collision with his hideous form and social-awkwardness in that episode, and it make shim both tragic and endearing.
I still go to cons and talk to comic book folks who love Mark Hamill’s Joker forever and ever, so there isn’t really much more I can add on that topic.
@Diablo2000 …and Joker looks so much better in a nurse’s drag outfit than Toxsick would. Don’t even try to conjure up that mental image (…I said don’t! DON’T!…aww, now you’ve gone and done it!).
I take it we have a fan of Heath Ledger’s Joker here; again, all a matter of personal choice (and disregard the conversation above. We have ‘fanboy/girl rants here on occasion).
This….was amazing, Aidan. Heck yeah, I wanna go get some donuts and hear about this one. Count me in! All of these visual effects were extraordinarily fantastic!
A lot of praise for Ledger’s Joker may well come from the writing just as much as the acting. Many scenes were built up to make the Joker seem a clever, clever bastard with unorthodox-but-terribly-effective methods, both of which translate into quirky dark horse popularity. Ledger acted well, if not strictly true to the Joker’s shticky, manic self.
Take heart that Joker’s big screen adaptation fared better than Catwoman.
Neglected to add that, of the entire cast, Toxsick is the only one who’s shown any willingness to voluntarily associate with Scap. Without pay. In a public setting.
I guess donuts help.
@George Thanks a ton, man! Anytime I can promote the God-given wonders of explosions and fatty donuts I’m doing a good day’s work.
@Reikenbach the First Agreed. The movie was very well written (even if there were a lot of monologues), which is sad because a few terrible performances ruin it. I will never, EVER, be able to take Christian Bale seriously as either Bruce Wayne or Batman; it was such a wrongheaded casting decision. I don’t recall any comic saying that Batman spoke in a Cookie Monster voice.
But yes, the writing was appropriate for most all of the characters. Joker was well done, same with Two-Face and Commissioner Gordon. There were deviations from the established characters we all know, but that’s natural for any movie adaptation.
I don’t know what the next Catwoman will be like, just as long as it doesn’t stink like that litterbox Halle Berry film.
@Reikenbach the Second Tox seems to have other things on his mind right now. Donuts is donuts, but I wouldn’t expect him to invite Scap over to his house for dinner or anything.
Well, that’s one way to take care of most of the doubles. Time will tell if Inverto survived.
And, darn it, I’m not getting dragged into the Batman movies conversation. Okay, maybe a little. Overall, I thought these two new movies were pretty good, but I still don’t think they’ve managed to capture the essence of the comic book version. Not really. Maybe the third time’s the charm.
@lady jen
wel i got to agree with you on the joker thing he wasn’t nearly as funny as i wanted the joker to be :/
his humor of making a baloon animal by blowing up a dog is what hits my funny bone
but never the less for the serious type of batman they are trying to make that joker was perfect
i just hope they dont f*ck up bain and catwoman in the next movie :/ most people tend to forget that bain is higly intelligent and also the mastermind behind his own steroid serum: venom
i fear some asshat from jersy shore is gonna be bain and flex his muscles like 12 times per second =__=
’cause, garsh darn, Donuts make everything groovy. So in this case, is it like having a cigarette after weh-hey-hay?
Now that’s what I can an explosion! Practically seared my retinas with those colors, Dada! Those panels could give Nagasaki a run for its money. Some great Scap body and face language, to boot! And ain’t it just like a sociopath to think about his stomach at a time like this?
@macsnafu I’m pretty mixed about the Nolan films. The first one is kind of forgettable (and the fanboy in me is irked that no one could properly pronounce “Ra’s al Ghul” and kept calling him “Razzle Ghoul”). We’ll have to wait and see what “The Dark Knight Rises” will be like before passing judgment (unlike 99% of the people online talking about it!).
@SquidRowMommy Not in the least! He invited Scapula to join…would YOU want Scap around you after the weh-hey-hay? During the weh-hey-hay?! What the hey-hey-hey?!
@MarkStokes If Michael Bay did a webcomic it would be explosions every single panel…and the story would be completely stupid, too, but who am I to talk?
Nothing whets your appetite like massive property damage!
I hope those Donuts are Krispy Kreme! Those would be the only donuts worthy of such an explosion.
@JerryBenedict Oh, geez…the only explosions you’ll get from Krispy Kremes are from your arteries! I can only eat one Krispy donut a year, but hey, it’s an annual occasion I look forward to as much as Thanksgiving.
You’ve probably heard this already, but SWEET explosion! and I love the color scheme of this comic. very consistent and adds to the mood overall
@Jenn Aww, ainchoo the sweetest? Celebrate the holiday season with a festive building explosion (not for real, folks…).
Not for real?! Aww…. but I’m trying for my explosives handling permit now. I mean hey, they let me carry a gun.
For reference, Trevie has actually done a breakdown of most of your villains and if I can ever convince him to let me actually get a copy, I’ll send it to you. I’ve read only a few snippets, but the ones about Toxsick are particularily interesting!
Although the one on Dog Doo Doug is my favorite so far.
It’s funny how Toxsick is one of the only effective villains in this comic, while he also doesn’t seem to give a @#%$ about the job. That is how I know he is a true professional!
On the whole topic of the Bat-movies: while I like quite a few of them, I don’t think any of them really captured the feeling the comics have, although Batman: the Animated Series comes close. I think Batman: Arkham Asylum (the videogame) actually captures the right mood; while playing it I think I actually got an impression how it would be to be Batman. I haven’t played the sequel yet, but I hoped it has the same kind of mood.
REALLY QUICK INTERJECTION FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD CARTOONIST: there have been a couple of comments submitted that ride the line of attacking the other readers (I’ve deleted them already). I know we voice a lot of extreme opinions and make weird comments around here, but please people, if you feel offended or hurt by what other readers are saying either ignore them or e-mail me personally and let me know if there’s a problem.
While I like to encourage everyone to be themselves and say what they have on their minds (no matter how bizarre or politically incorrect it can be), this still needs to be a safe environment for everyone. If I lose readers because someone is angry at another person then that just makes my day really suck.
…and if you want to dig into someone, go for me or Scapula. We’re used to it!
Okay, back to the comments:
@LadyJenn Wow, here I was thinking I’d have to call that Dr. Laura person to get evaluations on all of the characters’ psyches…she would have just yelled at me, so maybe it’s for the best.
Dog Doo Doug’s mind is something I don’t ever want to explore again. Sometimes readers wonder why I kill off so many characters; in Doug’s case, it’s pretty obvious.
@ToCoWu When you’re sick of your job/s, but know you’ve got rent to pay, you just kind of have to shrug and bear it. I doubt Tox’s dayjob is any better than his nightly supervillain shenanigans, but he seems to live with it.
Batman: The Animated Series, in my humble opinion, really remains the greatest superhero series ever done. Brilliant stories, art direction, character development, etc, etc. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I loved that show, but I’m sure most of you already feel the same way.
If I was Scapula, I would just take the donuts without a second thought.
hmm or jemini has had acting lessons or the real jemini didn’t hire toxsick to blow up the building out of fear that she knows herself to well and that only one can have it all….so…why did toxsick do it? im confused beyond confused right now
Not really a fan of laryngitis Batso myself, though Christian Bale makes a passable Bruce Wayne, at least.
Now, Adam West, THERE was a Batman voice.
@mehdi Maybe that’s his plan? A double-cross is always sweeter when there’s sweets involved.
@BarbaricBob More conspiracies than the JFK assassination, the moon landing and 9/11 all rolled into one, eh? Or maybe he just felt like blowing stuff up. We’ll find out next Sunday.
@Reikenbach Yeah, Batman should have laid off of the Bat-Cigarettes with extra Bat-Menthol. He’ll be in the Bat-Iron Lung before you know it…same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!
If the donuts are glazed, I’ll join em! [slurp]
Throwing my two cents in on guessing Toxie’s motives. I suspect he just doesn’t want the status quo to change in the criminal world just now. If one specific power rises, the loose cannons like him are going to get hunted down and ousted in a permanent way, or have to cough up to operate in very limited venues. Organized crime hates freewheelers, but organized crime at war loves a merc. Especially one with a signature look or calling card (Seal’s asian weapons and distinct appearance, anyone?)
Ah, Toxsick, the ever-unflappable sewer-bomber…
I’m betting he was paid to blow the place by the real Jemini, who must’ve sensed somewhere along the line that Mira’s experiments were going too far.
And the fate of Inverto is left conveniently ambiguous…dun dun dunnnn!
@jynksie Just as long as them donuts ain’t…WHITE-POWDERED!
@LadyJenn Not a bad theory at all. It’s weird how much the criminal underworld seems to run like any corporate business (except there are fewer retirement plans). Toxsick’s just a blue-collar crook trying to get by (his only associations with other criminals are the occasional ‘supervillain get-togethers’ that never seem to end well); he probably knows better than to get too involved. Just as long as none of them ever find out he blew up the place…
@Treike Again, not a bad theory at all. We’ll find out just what happened with our pal Toxie next Sunday. As for Inverto…we’ll find out what happened to him too, soon. There’s only so much I can cram into a Sunday page!
I don’t know if Inverto should survive. I mean, he’s the opposite of Scapula, right? And Scapula may be incompetent as a villain, he does have a knack for surviving life-threatening situations. This doesn;t mean I hope Inverto dies, in fact, I hope he survives and I’m just throwing my thougts out there into the swirling depths called the internet.
If Rod managed to survive that explosion, I’m calling it now. He’s gonna turn into an Inverto on the night on the new moon.
@ToCoWu I guess that all depends on how much you can push the idea of Inverto being the total opposite of Scapula. Does he not have to breath, eat or sleep if Scapula does? Can he survive with his head cut off if Scapula can’t? And if Scapula can survive with his head NOT cut off, does that mean Inverto can’t survive unless if someone cuts his head off and….right, stop that! It’s silly, very silly indeed.
@Broseph Maybe everyone will turn into ‘Inverto’ versions of themselves, and Inverto will…I dunno, become a talking dog. Any idea’s a possibility at this point!
Ha!
Might not hurt… I’d imagine surviving an ordeal like that would leave Scapula with an ‘explosive’ appetite!
🙂
@SpilledInky Hey! Lousy puns are MY department! For that you shall be pun-ished! (…okay, maybe REALLY lousy puns are my department).
Great explosion and aftermath. You really captured that well.
@FrankMHansen Thanks, man! Here’s hoping things don’t explode too much at the CTN (unless it’s one of the lousy studios…).
You know what? I’d totally go for donuts with Toxsick. I dunno, I could honestly see myself tossing off the office jacket and saying ‘Yeah, hey, gonna get a dozen double chocolate with the toxic substance handling guy, you know, the one in the gas mask. Anyone want a coffee or whatever?’.
I’m not sure if that makes me jaded, or normal, these days. That’s the worrisome part.
Donuts do sound good. Blowin’ up buildings is hard work.
@LadyJenn Hey, he’s probably more hygienic to share food with than Throgor. Hypnausea probably would purge right after one bite (he likes to keep trim). Scapula would just drink a pot of coffee, rave for an hour, then grumble to himself all night.
Supervillains don’t make very good company.
@MortJMoose I don’t know if demolition experts have a teamster’s union or whatever; if so, they’d probably just sit around all day eating donuts before blowing up something.
…now I’m just asking for someone to come blow up my place of residence.
So the Gemini in the building was a clone??? She was in the building wasn’t she. I may have to backtrack a few episodes…
Scap is a good runner. Running away VS death in an explosion. Yep better to run like a coward than to die like a hero. Donuts will make it all ok???
Yep she was in the buiding so this one is real & the in the building one was a clone or reverse of what I just said.
Or she has a twin sister…
@TonyMcGurk the First Jump back to http://www.scapulacomic.com//?p=1192
@TonyMcGurk the Second Or maybe it’s those shape-shifting alien pods! YOU’RE ALL NEXT!
Ah that’s right. I’d forgot about her duplication. Thanks for the referring link Aiden. So many webcomics & so much to remember.