I wish the “back arrow” would just work as it does on every other single webcomic on the internet and just point to the previous thing that was released before the current page (instead of going to the previous page of the same tagged comic). Having to go to the archive to see if you missed something is a real pain.
Yo, reading the comic from chrome on an android. Pressing the back button goes to “nightmares”, skipping the rest of this arc, and pressing search shows this as the only comic for October 🙂
Elias’ power is very convenient for him. It makes sure he doesn’t have to stick around long enough to have a debate. He claims to see and make others see, but that’s really just a euphemism for “I’m gonna make you believe what I think is right”, but the fact of the matter is that psychos are psychos and ANYTHING can set them off at any time. Sometimes, it’s video games, sure. That can form a fixation and shape psychosis, but in past eras, it was religion. Or skin color. Or racial purity if you want to bring up the… Read more »
Except he DID stick around. Sort of. He multitasked a semblance of debate (or at least discussion) in with his almost relativistic tagging. He could have ignored the whole “capes nagging me” altogether. He may appear blinded by his own anger and thus largely unreceptive to valid counterpoints, but he did *not* run when confronted. His argument was “not hiding from anyone, but good luck stopping and catching me. That was WHY he was making tags at the same time as talking. He never stops making his point. That said, if you can’t catch or stop something, you can at… Read more »
You may have a good point there. Now that I think about it, he noticed Ethan and Lucas watching him and approached them way before they saw him. Goddamn OP ghosts, blizzard plz nerf. I concede the point
Be fair. Plenty of psychos still base their evil on religion. Child molesters, wife abusers, clinic bombers, Timothy McVeigh (the guy who blew up the child care of an IRS building), Osama Bin Laden, virtually every member of the KKK…
Greeny
6 years ago
After these messages. We’ll be right back.
Mike
6 years ago
I love how Ethan, unintentionally or otherwise, nails the point of the entire Pokemon franchise in two sentences.
FITCamaro
6 years ago
The More You GI JOE!!!
lurker
6 years ago
It was all about the road traveled, not the destination…
Croi
6 years ago
Even with Ethan’s character, he’s gotta be screwing with Lucas *LOL*
Me-me
6 years ago
I mean, it’s KINDA that last one. Think about it.
Halosty
6 years ago
The most important thing about this change is the flyers are more clear in what they are saying- the spray paint didn’t clearly express his intentions.
…
Bets on Elijah showing up in their shop to explain why they should stop selling video games?
He might see them as a local place and decide to talk to the store owners and then not realize that those are A&D.
Brendan J Keating
6 years ago
So Elijah and the North Jefferson Nine, Redux. I voiced this concern earlier, and now seeing (What I assume to be) the end of this arc, I want to revisit it. First off, I want to explain what this arc did really, really effectively: I think it provided the pro-video game argument in a very convincing, very sympathetic way. I feel like it did a great job of showing rational debate rather than violence, which, in the context of a superhero comic, was a masterful stroke. I do have one criticism, and I voiced it earlier, but after comments from… Read more »
What if they had shouted “Chocolate made me do this!!!”? Would you consider boycotting chocolate?
I don’t see why the rantings of a madman should change the context of the debate. Like Ethan said, it was people who carried out the massacre, not things. People in a poor state of mental health. Just because there are potential triggers in the world for people like this, doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t have nice things.
As a clarification (and I had to check this myself before finalizing my reply), the kid said “Fortnite law!”, not “Battle Royale rules!” The latter could have been the movie about kids in a Japanese school killing each other where the last one alive is the victor, though it’s also a mode in Fortnite, and the media could have assumed one. The former (and correct) phrase makes it clear that he’s influenced by the game, even if it’s not his (sole?) motivator. Just had to put that out there. Love your well-written comment, otherwise.
I think linking the killings more directly to video games was a good call. It removes the easiest rebuttal to the panic that you can’t directly link video games to any of the real world killings. This forces the characters (and us) to react to the direct accusation that video games caused the violence. Now we *have* to use the other arguments as presented in this strip. It shows even in the extreme case of a pyscho loudly proclaiming that video games made him do it that it still doesn’t prove it or justify banning games. This is something that… Read more »
“So my problem with how this event is portrayed is, it doesn’t reflect reality. While video games are often blamed for the violence, it has never been directly mentioned by a killer during their shooting spree.” Super heroes running around in tights slinging energy arrows doesn’t reflect reality, either. 😉 This, as you mentioned, is a fictional story. I made it up. It’s rooted in things that definitely happen, but that doesn’t mean I have to be so completely bound by them. Just because nobody has literally shouted about video games during a mass shooting doesn’t mean it COULDN’T happen.… Read more »
So, what you’re saying is that the moral of the story is that there will always be people on both sides of the aisle who will believe what their sense of logic pieces together from the evidence they have observed, and are unlikely to ever overcome their own personal biases to change their viewpoints. I can’t help but feel that this is gonna blow up to be something so much bigger in future comics. Obviously, Elijah is going to fail in spreading his message because giving up video gaming entirely because some psycho MIGHT use it as an excuse to… Read more »
video games themselves didn’t make the kid violent, his parents not teaching him what they were worth, and his own stupidity made.him violent. video games are just a distraction like everyhing else, can’t blame them for people being stupid and taking them too seriously
Brent
6 years ago
So if he’s switched to fliers, does that mean they’ll be able to see him in the light of day now? That could be interesting, kind of a “Clark Kent interviews Lex Luthor” scenario.
Man of the West
6 years ago
I’ll be looking forward to seeing Elijah again.
James Not-A-Zombie Jameson
6 years ago
The true lesson is “sometimes you don’t have to beat the snot out of someone to get your point across.”
DannyboyO1
6 years ago
I feel like Ethan is… trolling Lucas here.
they failed
6 years ago
Lucas couldn’t be more wrong. This is a total failure. Now instead of just tagging up stores, he’s putting even more nonsense rhetoric out there. “Infecting our children, turning them violent, will yours be the next killer?” No, you fucking moron, because video games don’t turn children into violent killers. At least with the spraypaint, it was just a tag. Now there’s a very stupid message that people might believe. Not only did they not succeed, they made things worse. They should have fought him and handed him over to the police to go to jail for his crimes. Trying… Read more »
When I use to tag, ironically they were all video game based pieces, the cops would always just let me off with a warning even if they had caught me the 3rd time but I also only tagged long abandoned buildings not operating businesses.
. . . Your comment is rather disturbing I think. We should much rather people enter civilized debate rather than illegal acts such as property damage. In this case folks can now read his arguments and rebuke them as they will. The stores could release counter flyers, etc. Though pamphlets would work better than flyers for this. Only so much space. Though as Lucas pointed out the flyers could still be a violation of city ordinance. And even in the event that it is a violation it is a lot less severe than graffiti. Texas for example apparently has it… Read more »
Ceomyr
6 years ago
After considering that Ethan blamed a PERSON for the death of Elijah’s brother, not games, I thought Elijah was going to run off and kill the kid who did it, if the kid was still alive
Will they be fighting a notorious jaywalker next? Maybe there’s a park bench that has been damaged by teen vandals?
They all have amazing super-powers and what are they concerned with? Graffiti! This Villain has the speed to be able to do ANYTHING too! He could steal millions to finance a corrupt political campaign against gaming. He could finance a campaign of destructive acts against the games industry… but no, he uses his amazing powers to ‘tag’ a few shops.
“Join us next week when Ethan trips over a wonky paving stone and takes the Council to task!”
A) Analog and D-Pad are not at the top of the food chain re: super heroes in this city. They are street-level heroes that tend to patrol their section of the city. They’re not going to act like smaller crimes are beneath them. B) They didn’t go LOOKING to fight grafitti, this literally fell into their laps and involved them because their store was tagged and it became personal. C) Just because someone HAS incredible super powers, doesn’t mean they automatically HAVE to turn evil and rob people. From Elijah’s point of view, he wants to raise awareness. “Stealing millions”… Read more »
Halosty
6 years ago
Hmm. I just realized, Elijah could have peeked under their masks and they never would have noticed. Unless there’s something about his powers that doesn’t work when he contacts things held by other people?
It’s not really something he would probably think of doing.
sandygoblin
6 years ago
I have an aching feeling that what they did was talk him out of committing minor crimes against video game and gun stores, and INTO committing a far more serious, and potentially deadly crime against the person who killed Zion. That would be the most tragic way to take this, because as others have pointed out, the maximum punishment for what he has done is a few thousand dollar fine and maybe less than a year in jail. If he assaults or kills the shooter, that’s many years, possibly life, and he’s a super villain. I hope Elijah doesn’t act… Read more »
Jumbo Small
6 years ago
They remove comments that offer legitimate criticism of this storyline. I’m done.
Nobody removed anything. You aren’t registered, thus your comments get held for moderation. So stow the dramatics and settle down. I’ll be happy to address your “legitimate criticism.”
preston
6 years ago
You know, sometimes I wonder if Ethan is really that stupid, or if he is just constantly Punking Lucas. The end to this comment only solidifies that thought even more for me.
24
Knowing is half the battle!
And of course, Knowing is half the Battle.
I have a feeling Ethan will talk for the rest of the day in memorable one-liners. xD
Many a true word is spoken in jest.
“If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago.”
Sure, but HOW do I ascend?
Lightning flashes, sparks shower; in one blink of an eye, you have missed seeing.
Hi Ethan
This comic is tagged “Ctrl Alt Del” and not “Analog and D Pad”
makes for confusing “back arrow” 🙂
Good catch, thank you. Fixed it.
I wish the “back arrow” would just work as it does on every other single webcomic on the internet and just point to the previous thing that was released before the current page (instead of going to the previous page of the same tagged comic). Having to go to the archive to see if you missed something is a real pain.
Or better still have TWO back arrows!
Prev comic by date
Prev comic in series
🙂
I totally agree with both previous posters
That is “Tim” ofc not “Ethan” – not same person at all 🙂
The Sphinx: “You’re temper is very quick, my friend, but until you master your rage..”
Mr. Furious: (interrupting sarcastically) “..Your rage will become your master. That’s what you were going to say, right?”
The Sphinx: “…… Not necessarily.”
best obscure reference ever? xD
good ol’ ethan is back
Yo, reading the comic from chrome on an android. Pressing the back button goes to “nightmares”, skipping the rest of this arc, and pressing search shows this as the only comic for October 🙂
I think this wound up in the CAD pile instead of A&D
Yup, hit the wrong tag.
Elias’ power is very convenient for him. It makes sure he doesn’t have to stick around long enough to have a debate. He claims to see and make others see, but that’s really just a euphemism for “I’m gonna make you believe what I think is right”, but the fact of the matter is that psychos are psychos and ANYTHING can set them off at any time. Sometimes, it’s video games, sure. That can form a fixation and shape psychosis, but in past eras, it was religion. Or skin color. Or racial purity if you want to bring up the… Read more »
yes look at teariest they dont play video games and they killed more people that video games ever will
Except he DID stick around. Sort of. He multitasked a semblance of debate (or at least discussion) in with his almost relativistic tagging. He could have ignored the whole “capes nagging me” altogether. He may appear blinded by his own anger and thus largely unreceptive to valid counterpoints, but he did *not* run when confronted. His argument was “not hiding from anyone, but good luck stopping and catching me. That was WHY he was making tags at the same time as talking. He never stops making his point. That said, if you can’t catch or stop something, you can at… Read more »
You may have a good point there. Now that I think about it, he noticed Ethan and Lucas watching him and approached them way before they saw him. Goddamn OP ghosts, blizzard plz nerf. I concede the point
Be fair. Plenty of psychos still base their evil on religion. Child molesters, wife abusers, clinic bombers, Timothy McVeigh (the guy who blew up the child care of an IRS building), Osama Bin Laden, virtually every member of the KKK…
After these messages. We’ll be right back.
I love how Ethan, unintentionally or otherwise, nails the point of the entire Pokemon franchise in two sentences.
The More You GI JOE!!!
It was all about the road traveled, not the destination…
Even with Ethan’s character, he’s gotta be screwing with Lucas *LOL*
I mean, it’s KINDA that last one. Think about it.
The most important thing about this change is the flyers are more clear in what they are saying- the spray paint didn’t clearly express his intentions.
…
Bets on Elijah showing up in their shop to explain why they should stop selling video games?
He might see them as a local place and decide to talk to the store owners and then not realize that those are A&D.
So Elijah and the North Jefferson Nine, Redux. I voiced this concern earlier, and now seeing (What I assume to be) the end of this arc, I want to revisit it. First off, I want to explain what this arc did really, really effectively: I think it provided the pro-video game argument in a very convincing, very sympathetic way. I feel like it did a great job of showing rational debate rather than violence, which, in the context of a superhero comic, was a masterful stroke. I do have one criticism, and I voiced it earlier, but after comments from… Read more »
What if they had shouted “Chocolate made me do this!!!”? Would you consider boycotting chocolate?
I don’t see why the rantings of a madman should change the context of the debate. Like Ethan said, it was people who carried out the massacre, not things. People in a poor state of mental health. Just because there are potential triggers in the world for people like this, doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t have nice things.
As a clarification (and I had to check this myself before finalizing my reply), the kid said “Fortnite law!”, not “Battle Royale rules!” The latter could have been the movie about kids in a Japanese school killing each other where the last one alive is the victor, though it’s also a mode in Fortnite, and the media could have assumed one. The former (and correct) phrase makes it clear that he’s influenced by the game, even if it’s not his (sole?) motivator. Just had to put that out there. Love your well-written comment, otherwise.
I think linking the killings more directly to video games was a good call. It removes the easiest rebuttal to the panic that you can’t directly link video games to any of the real world killings. This forces the characters (and us) to react to the direct accusation that video games caused the violence. Now we *have* to use the other arguments as presented in this strip. It shows even in the extreme case of a pyscho loudly proclaiming that video games made him do it that it still doesn’t prove it or justify banning games. This is something that… Read more »
“So my problem with how this event is portrayed is, it doesn’t reflect reality. While video games are often blamed for the violence, it has never been directly mentioned by a killer during their shooting spree.” Super heroes running around in tights slinging energy arrows doesn’t reflect reality, either. 😉 This, as you mentioned, is a fictional story. I made it up. It’s rooted in things that definitely happen, but that doesn’t mean I have to be so completely bound by them. Just because nobody has literally shouted about video games during a mass shooting doesn’t mean it COULDN’T happen.… Read more »
So, what you’re saying is that the moral of the story is that there will always be people on both sides of the aisle who will believe what their sense of logic pieces together from the evidence they have observed, and are unlikely to ever overcome their own personal biases to change their viewpoints. I can’t help but feel that this is gonna blow up to be something so much bigger in future comics. Obviously, Elijah is going to fail in spreading his message because giving up video gaming entirely because some psycho MIGHT use it as an excuse to… Read more »
video games themselves didn’t make the kid violent, his parents not teaching him what they were worth, and his own stupidity made.him violent. video games are just a distraction like everyhing else, can’t blame them for people being stupid and taking them too seriously
So if he’s switched to fliers, does that mean they’ll be able to see him in the light of day now? That could be interesting, kind of a “Clark Kent interviews Lex Luthor” scenario.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing Elijah again.
The true lesson is “sometimes you don’t have to beat the snot out of someone to get your point across.”
I feel like Ethan is… trolling Lucas here.
Lucas couldn’t be more wrong. This is a total failure. Now instead of just tagging up stores, he’s putting even more nonsense rhetoric out there. “Infecting our children, turning them violent, will yours be the next killer?” No, you fucking moron, because video games don’t turn children into violent killers. At least with the spraypaint, it was just a tag. Now there’s a very stupid message that people might believe. Not only did they not succeed, they made things worse. They should have fought him and handed him over to the police to go to jail for his crimes. Trying… Read more »
I’m not sure they put people “behind bars” for grafitti.
I’d also prefer not write superheroes that beat people up for expressing their freedom of speech.
Depends on if you keep getting fined and ignoring it they might put you in for a little while, can’t imagine more than a month though.
When I use to tag, ironically they were all video game based pieces, the cops would always just let me off with a warning even if they had caught me the 3rd time but I also only tagged long abandoned buildings not operating businesses.
The irony here is by your logic we should beat the wrong out of you because you’re too cemented in your mindset to be talked down
. . . Your comment is rather disturbing I think. We should much rather people enter civilized debate rather than illegal acts such as property damage. In this case folks can now read his arguments and rebuke them as they will. The stores could release counter flyers, etc. Though pamphlets would work better than flyers for this. Only so much space. Though as Lucas pointed out the flyers could still be a violation of city ordinance. And even in the event that it is a violation it is a lot less severe than graffiti. Texas for example apparently has it… Read more »
After considering that Ethan blamed a PERSON for the death of Elijah’s brother, not games, I thought Elijah was going to run off and kill the kid who did it, if the kid was still alive
Did Elijah give up about the gun stores?
He never went after them to begin with
Probably has different flyers for the gun stores
Will they be fighting a notorious jaywalker next? Maybe there’s a park bench that has been damaged by teen vandals?
They all have amazing super-powers and what are they concerned with? Graffiti! This Villain has the speed to be able to do ANYTHING too! He could steal millions to finance a corrupt political campaign against gaming. He could finance a campaign of destructive acts against the games industry… but no, he uses his amazing powers to ‘tag’ a few shops.
“Join us next week when Ethan trips over a wonky paving stone and takes the Council to task!”
A) Analog and D-Pad are not at the top of the food chain re: super heroes in this city. They are street-level heroes that tend to patrol their section of the city. They’re not going to act like smaller crimes are beneath them. B) They didn’t go LOOKING to fight grafitti, this literally fell into their laps and involved them because their store was tagged and it became personal. C) Just because someone HAS incredible super powers, doesn’t mean they automatically HAVE to turn evil and rob people. From Elijah’s point of view, he wants to raise awareness. “Stealing millions”… Read more »
Hmm. I just realized, Elijah could have peeked under their masks and they never would have noticed. Unless there’s something about his powers that doesn’t work when he contacts things held by other people?
It’s not really something he would probably think of doing.
I have an aching feeling that what they did was talk him out of committing minor crimes against video game and gun stores, and INTO committing a far more serious, and potentially deadly crime against the person who killed Zion. That would be the most tragic way to take this, because as others have pointed out, the maximum punishment for what he has done is a few thousand dollar fine and maybe less than a year in jail. If he assaults or kills the shooter, that’s many years, possibly life, and he’s a super villain. I hope Elijah doesn’t act… Read more »
They remove comments that offer legitimate criticism of this storyline. I’m done.
Nobody removed anything. You aren’t registered, thus your comments get held for moderation. So stow the dramatics and settle down. I’ll be happy to address your “legitimate criticism.”
You know, sometimes I wonder if Ethan is really that stupid, or if he is just constantly Punking Lucas. The end to this comment only solidifies that thought even more for me.