To Be Continued! This seems like a good place to leave off for a couple of months, do some Starcaster, some Campaign…
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… I’m just kidding. I promise you, I don’t actually write to the calendar, these pages just land on Fridays for some reason.
As I mentioned earlier, our game Axe-A-Lot-L is now available for general purchase. You can get the game from the game’s website, or if you’re in North America, you can also find it on Amazon.
If you’re one of the people that has already bought the game on Amazon, it would be incredibly helpful if you could leave a review. I know, I never bother to review the things I buy on Amazon, but now that I’m selling something there, I’ve come to realize how ridiculously important they are to Amazon’s entire backend algorithm, so if you’ve picked up Axe-A-Lot-L via Amazon, and enjoyed it with your friends or family, it would be a huge help if you could take a moment to leave it a review!
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Me, after reading the first paragraph of the post description:
-Hello, officer? I would like to report an act of cruelty against humanity’s collective mental health… Yes, this guy, right here!
That Read More link. Vicious. Just vicious.
About that description … You had me in the first half, not gonna lie 😀
Hey, it’s a great way to incentivize purchasing the Comic.
Webtoon’s had that scheme on lock-down for year’s.
Well played on the fake cliffhanger trolling, Tim. Can’t wait to see the results of this standoff on Monday. Those last two panels, the standoff between those two..Whatever Scott does next will have one of two very different outcomes. If he drops the phone, Zeke will see undeniably that Ethan is right that he needs to reconsider his own judgement and give humanity another chance. If Scott doesn’t drop it, though, Zeke’s lack of trust will be justified before his eyes, and it’ll take hell and high water to change his mind after that. If they ever decide it’s safe… Read more »
Solid plot setup. Even if Scott sets the phone aside, ZK will think this is all staged since he knows Ethan can respawn.
Or not. Keep in mind that Zeke has already established that they have incredible aptitude with the internet. It wouldn’t surprise me if Zeke already knows about Ethan’s current situation by gleening it off of Reddit posts, his game store’s security cameras, etc. It also wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve been spying on him with their bot legion this whole time.
That assumes Scott can still deactivate Zeke. Zeke wasn’t aware of Scott’s intrusion the first time, so Zeke couldn’t counter Scott’s tinkering till it was too late.
Now Zeke is aware of Scott’s intrusion and is taking active counter measures to kick Scott back out. It’s entirely possible Scott might partially succeed, but not completely, allowing Scott and Ethan to escape, but not recapture Zeke.
That’s my thought as well. Scott won’t be able to disable/recapture Zeke again, but he probably can mess with him enough to allow him and Ethan to escape.
I don’t think Ethan will run though.
This story arc, it’s movie worthy you know.
Assuming that did happen and someone picked it up, who would you cast in each role?
Muppets. All Muppets.
Except Zeke. He gets played by Ryan Gosling but in a full body suit that doesn’t let us see his face.
Tom Holland as Analog, Colin Farrel as D-Pad, Gina Carano as Captain Prime, and myself as Scott if I slim down.
I was gonna joke about Scarlett Johansen playing all of those characters, but then I realized that James Mcavoy has already played almost all the characters in a movie, and did very well at it.
So James Mcavoy as everyone. Except Zeke. Whoever as Zeke. Maybe Ryan Reynolds.
Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston bulked for Heroes. Scott played by Jeremy Renner. Zeke is played by John Cena under the suit.
You are an evil genius, Tim
I like that Zeke actually shows a bit of fear here. It’s not just anger and superiority, they’re terrified of going back to being locked away.
They almost – *almost* – come across like a child seeking a parent’s comfort.
So Tim IS a troll – just in a different way than expected 😉
Tim trolling harder than his in-universe character that goes by that name.
Scotts behaviour?
I am reminded of the behaviour of Caleb Prior from the Divergent series.
Just. Fracking. Stop. Fracking. Everything. Up. Or I will end you. TOSSER.
(Also why I prefer the film ending of Divergent to the book ending)
everything he’s doing is rational though.
I really appreciate how empathatic this incarnation of Ethan is. He is still reckless (well, less so recently) and impulsive, but especially in the last few strips, it shows just how well he has a grasp on human (or android) interaction – at least when it really matters.
This is just me but if Tim did decide to cliff hang here and go do the other comics I’d be perfectly fine with that!
……Please dont kill me everyone in response for this opinion lol
DONT GIVE HIM ANY IDEAS 😂
This is the killswitch moment all over again, isn’t it?
Will Scott pull the trigger? Will Zeke perma-despawn Ethan before he is shut down?
Find out next season, only on cad-comic.com! 😉
Cue Aubrey Plaza: “FORGET IT, SCOTT!!”
In Scott’s defense,
He’s paralyzed,lying on the floor, has just been assaulted and Zeke has one hand around Zeke’s neck
But they both should really listen to Ethan. Currently Zeke does more listening to Ethan than Scott does
Doh….Around Ethan’s neck even…
Tim, you BAHStahd!
OK – done laughing now.
“No”
Epic Lord of The Rings soundtrack
Only resolution I see is the parallel between Zeke being locked inside a robot body and Scott feeling stuck in his chair, and Zeke makes that parallel that Scott is no better than the mugger. However, I don’t see Zeke doing this… and the difference here is Scott has already been directly assaulted (by the robot ninja drone) and is still being imminently threatened (by the arm shuriken), Ethan is being assaulted and is possibly in mortal danger, and Scott was more of a poor-planner kidnapper/blackmailer/hostage-taker than an overt attempted murderer, which Zeke is *several* times over. And Zeke certainly… Read more »
Shoot the mobile phone Zeke!
Then talk
Seriously though, either Scott drops it or throws it to Zeke, or Zeke has to destroy it regardless. It’s an electronic gun pointed directly at Zeke’s head right now
Would you like a loaded gun in the hands of someone who’s almost succeeded in killing you once already?
If Scott doesn’t willingly stop, then all the talk will be one-sided and Zeke wouldn’t be able to trust anything Scott said because Zeke would have complete control over the situation and know that Scott would probably say anything out of fear for his own life.
Well I’m just glad this comic doesn’t have a survey to let us decide how the story is going forward, Starcaster Chronicle’s style.
I’m genuinely confused by something. When a Sys Admin finds a back door into his server, he removes the back door. Basic server security. (Or, maybe booby traps it, but removing it is safer.)
If Zeke knew about Scott’s program, why didn’t they remove it?
Unclear, but there’s plenty of possible explanations. A : The hack relies on some integral part(s) of their functionality, hard to remove those. B : No good opportunity to fix it between the bombing and their current rebuilding of their existence. (Might also not be a priority, given their other ongoing objectives and them having zero intentions to interact with Scott anyway.) C : Given how much their code is apparently shifting, there might not even be a fixed vulnerability they could easily fix. It also doesn’t have to be the exact same hack, just the same tools (and pieces… Read more »
I stg, I saw the TBC and I was ready to burn the internet down. I am too invested in this story.
Is it wrong that I initially did not read the rest of the page description and really had no problem with it? I have no problem with building dramatic tension. That being said, I am anxiously waiting for the next installment. Also, please keep in mind that Monday is Memorial Day. Somehow the terms “ultimate sacrifice” and “gave all” seem too simplistic. It is more than that. While I served in the Army and have some modicum of appreciation for what Memorial Day truly represents, none of us can know what those who died in the service of this Nation… Read more »
Thank you, and welcome home. We also appreciate and memorialize all those who served with honor and are blessed and thankful they are home among us.
WHY ARE THERE DOWN VOTES ON THIS?!? Like seriously! This and the one below by Desert downvoting and/or being negative about people who serve our country is just a terrible thing. Yes ok the ‘votes’ don’t matter in a material way etc because its one a site on the Internet. I get it, but its the intention of it in a wider scheme of making someone who risked their lives or worse came back injured mentally or physically or both that echoes to this action as well. Ahem, with that off my chest, thank you Nik for your service I… Read more »
“He’s going to lock me inside with no control.” Yeah, Scott feels that one my dude.
Wow Tim, this is the first time I feel so emotionally involved with a comic. Kudos!
That… was cruel of you sir. Very very cruel.
Scott is the person that jumped in front of a bullet to try to save his so. Can he even stand by and watch?
If he’s not going to kill Ethan so he could respawn and ralise he had his powers all along, I’d be a little angry.
Only a little.
I bet the cliffhanger will be that Zeke does kill Ethan, and we will be left to wonder if he will respawn in the next chapter.
But since he’s a main character in this universe named in part after him, of course he will.
Seems like a nice compromise between providing some sort of cliffhanger and not being a total jerk to the captive audience.
Or Zeke does break his neck and Ethan respawns……but not wholly intact. Some form of partial body paralysis that is temporary but the gang doesn’t know that. Lingering pain that goes from criippling to dull ache before disappearing would also serve the same purpose.
This would give Ethan (and the fanbase) a WHOLE new perspective on the situation.
Plus, people keep treating the Troll’s chemical as a binary “It works or it doesn’t” choice. The third option of “It partially works” would be a nice twist.
If this comic does not at some point have a cameo going around with small flaming axe lizards, it will be a wasted merchandise opportunity. Here as psychotic chaotic good do-gooders as an example Starcaster as the ACTUAL Aug, etc.
Illegal cliffhanger
My partner reminded me to catch up on comics (my ADHD plus stress makes me usually forget for a few weeks at a clip) — and when I got to this page I literally was like “YOU LET ME READ THAT KNOWING WE ARE ON A CLIFFHANGER!?!? ARGH.” Then I saw your notes and was like “TIM, I SWEAR TO FREAKING GOD—” I’d have been rage-playing Axe-a-Lotl for the next few months, with a lot of cursing to alleviate my stress, lol. But I started reading back in 2004 — and only took a major break after 1.0 ended (I’m… Read more »
Really looks like he has a weather app up.
Meanwhile, Lucas on hits date: “Looking into someone’s eyes is the most claming experience I can think of…”
I’ll bet that Zeke is locking on to the phone with the shurikens by how the whites of his diodes(?)/eyes are looking at a direction that suggests from his angle it’s looking at his hands.
I mean, the shuriken will probably take a few fingers or his entire wrist, if it hits the phone, it may be enough to stop the hacking process.. but imagine! Zeke could apologize then by making him a prosthetic hand.
Been saving Axe-a-lotl for my daughter’s birthday (which was earlier this week) so we finally got to play it. It is a lot of fun!