2021-03-05
Posted on 2021-03-05 by Aaron

40 thoughts on “2021-03-05”

  1. Xel+Unknown

    It takes a lot of will to admit that you were a badguy and doing evil. Power to him to admitting that to himself and thanking his item for getting unbounded.

    1. Prairie Son

      Yeah, part of any Twelve Step program is admitting your errors and making some level of restitution. Sounds like he’s been through Supervillain Anonymous.

      1. Qwerty

        Either that or he is playing the chain’s emotions to get it to help him from the rubble. Yes I’m a cynic

        1. Some Ed

          Personally, I don’t care what Belkar’s real reasoning is. If he’s consistently doing the right things for the team, I don’t mind him being on the team.

          More relevant to this story, if Lester acts more like a hero than Tyler’s parents, as little as it would take to do that, it’s an overall win. I’m expecting Lester will fly over that hurdle without even noticing it like the buried rod that it is.

        2. 7eggert

          My dog acts more like a hero than Tyler’s parents and I don’t have a pet.

        3. LaughingDemon

          It’s also about what his new actions do to him. “People don’t just change who they are inside in an instant. It doesn’t work like that. It takes time, so you don’t even know you’re changing. Until one day, you’re just a little different than you used to be and you can’t even tell what happened.” (Also Belkar.. paraphrased for language just in case).

        4. LookieLouE1707

          Okay, but do you care about durkula’s real reasoning? Because it’s possible to be consistently doing the right things for the team, right up until you aren’t. As it turns out underlying motive is vital. I will admit I will be disappointed if the primary superpowers from this plot arc turn out to be super introspection and super mopery. A little bit of eeyore goes a long way.

        5. Devlerbat

          I am honestly confused why we are talking about Order of the Stick here. Sure there is a parallel, but it just seems like it is being treated as always being part of the conversation.

        6. 7eggert

          (Still Lester is doing good as a hero here, the others are just super-heroes.)

        7. The Gorram Batguy

          Wait, you think he’s yanking his chain’s chain?

        8. 7eggert

          No, he’s the hero here because he’s a Joe Normal in a superhero fight and still rather does the right thing.

      2. TBeholder

        Or he’s sulking again.

    2. KentDA

      Couldn’t comment on what LaughingDemon said as its too deep in the thread. He has a point, sometimes change is so gradual you never notice it until something big happens. Then you go “When did I change?” And there’s no one single point you can say “it was here”.

      And it sounds very much like Lester has realized this, that he’s gradually changed. But, he’s thinking that there’s no escape and it doesn’t really matter. Of course, since his desire to change seems honest, something will happen to save him. I’m betting on the chain deciding to do more than just talk.

  2. Stephen Bierce

    Zaglabor astragard! Hootrimansion Bambria~a~ar…

  3. BaronBruce

    “Starwand”? The implication when we first met Lester was that the Revenant (“gadget nut in a cape”) was responsible for him losing the Manacle — using wits, not magic.

    1. Messenger

      Yes. That was my guess too.

      It’s possible it was a tandem effort between the Revenant and Starwand.

      If it was just Starwand, it implies Starwand is a gadget nut rather than a magical superhero or someone with innate powers.

      Is this a possible in-story ret-con by Aaron? He intended it to be The Revenant but changed his mind as the story progressed?

    2. Messenger

      Yes. That was my guess too.

      It’s possible it was a tandem effort between the Revenant and Starwand.

      If it was just Starwand, it implies Starwand is a gadget nut rather than a magical superhero or someone with innate powers.

      Is this a possible in-story ret-con by Aaron? He intended it to be The Revenant but changed his mind as the story progressed?

    3. Messenger

      Incidentally, “Starwand” could be a play on DC’s Starman, his son who became Starman II, and the current wielder of their source of power Star. They got their powers from a high-tech staff. That technically qualifies them all as “gadget nuts”, especially where Star also wears the Cosmic Converter Belt.

      1. Some Ed

        Or maybe Starwand just has one gadget from the stars, but has found that a bunch of Earth gadgets could be useful in some of the corners of the wand’s limitations. And, as it happens, a core feature of the wand assists with juggling all of the different gadgets. Note: Starwand’s gadgets tend to be a bit more magical than the Revenant’s.

        1. Messenger

          Or Starwand is another version of the Doctor (referencing his Gallifreyan Sonic Screwdiver) for the PS238-verse.
          (The other being Tom Davidson.)

        2. Messenger

          *Screwdriver

    4. Joseph Arnaud

      He could have been defeated by revenant then ‘starwand removed his powers by removing the chain.

    5. EB0

      I like it. The ratio of batman vs anyone else cosplayers is what, 99 to 1? Why would the revenant be the only caped gadget guy? It’s cool that not everything in the world revolves around the revenant too.

      Alternatively, getting fire from Olympus does not seem to be within the revenant’s skillset, so hiring some magical helper isn’t really far fetched.

      1. Knug

        Hmmm, spidey is pretty popular as well, and I doubt Batman is 99x spiderman in popularity

    6. Veritas

      “Gadget nut in a cape” was never a category that only included Revenant. You could go right back to Mantium, and more recently there’s Pistonic. And that’s just two that have had prominent roles that we’ve seen in the comic right off the top of my head.

      Most of them are meta-intellects; Revenant is distinct for not having any more brainpower than the upper end of the normal human intelligence curve, but being canny enough to apply that well and resourceful enough to make the most of it.

      1. Nobody

        Technically, neither of the two you mentioned wore capes. Pistonic has some weird inverted wings jetpack thing and the Mantium armor didn’t have anything on its backside.

        1. Veritas

          Technically correct, at least in the version of Mantium’s outfit we saw (Pistonic is IIRC fairly new as a hero and thus less likely to have seen multiple costume revisions), but it was more to illustrate that there are plenty of gadgeteers out there that aren’t Revenant. And that’s assuming Lester was being literal about the cape.

  4. notovny

    “Right. Right. Fine. We were bad for each other. Yes…. Anyway, not that it’s any of my business anymore, but… Well, I saw you with the Hammer of Hephaestus over there… How’s that going?”

    1. TBeholder

      That, too. 😆

  5. TemperaryObsessor

    I think Lester sort of blamed the chain last page.

    1. Thozmp

      Nah, it was mostly a “this is a shitty situation” kind of mope. He seemed to blame himself mostly.

  6. Rock

    Why, Les… That actually sounds like character growth, right there. I like it. ^_^

  7. Knug

    Dollar’s to doughnuts that its Tyler coming back to rescue, not the Terrible Twosome

    1. evileeyore

      Nah, that’s totally a stray magic ball from the Dire Duo, he’ll be saved by the Chain of Fools rejoining him, turning him into a super…

      … hero this time.

  8. DougJoe

    The first page of this issue of the comic was posted on March 21st, 2016. It’s been almost *5* years now…

    … and, much like 84’s story before it (which ran for almost 3 years) it’s been totally worth the wait.

    I hope there are dead trees versions of both available someday (I don’t see them in the store.)

    1. skullthetroll

      It’s a free comic. I check here every month or two and get a page of this, maybe a page of Use sword on monster and 6-8 FFN. All for free.

      1. Mike S

        The original issues are also available as printed comic books, which is what DougJoe was referring to. They were actually printed first, then posted online later. He’s just hoping these latest two will also be available in print form eventually.

        1. Prairie Son

          Digital trades, most likely. The sad truth is that printed comics aren’t worth the cost of production anymore unless you have a massive print run to drive the price down.

    2. Bookworm

      There used to be. Some are even on Amazon currently though most are out of print or a very high price. You might find them elsewhere.

  9. David Carlson

    I wonder if the manacle is a _Super_ Villainous object, and its problem with being used to “rob and steal” is that material gain is a petty use of its power. I mean, a villain named “Omnius” (isn’t that what Lester used to call himself as a villain?) being a thief strikes me as… odd. So maybe Lester is about to become a much less _petty_ super-villain… who is still a decent guy as far as taking care of kids goes.

    If PS238 is about anything, it is about the subversion of trope, after all.

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