Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 28, 2011

Hope her calculations are as good as Mallard’s.

I was quite surprised at a comment That was posted yesterday One person raised objections Here’s what he had to say:

Gosh, so at least three of those on this board are in favor of genocide to achieve peace?I’m one of the evil Americans Perhaps worthy of your scorn But you also included Jenner And that label seems poorly worn I’ll say for my case and in general We adopt a role for the purpose We might don Holly’s heart Or Flask’s quite rough-edged surface Or even a Topsider Or a mutt, or the world in large Be careful, friend derider: We’re innocent of your charge =|====/ Level Head Vote for Endtown 2.0 And for Doc Rat, too The Endtown Forum

GOD, I love Flask! She’s SUCH a BRUNNHILDE! Burn a city! HELL, burn a WHOLE WORLD for the sake of revenge! There is something so PURE, almost HOLY about that.

Until…

You realize there are more stories there than just your own.

And YOUR getting of revenge for what was done to YOU, now turns around to others wanting revenge on YOU for what was done to THEM!

Woohoo i was right about her evil plan! Of course, Linda’s baby might be in that city ! Watch out !

although flask’s tortured soul is causing her to commit genocide, i’ve always been with the doctor (peter davision’s) when he said, “there should’ve been another way.”

I keep telling myself: “Whoa. They’re just lines on paper, boy, just lines on paper.”It is to the credit of the narrative skill of Aaron Neathery that we are all so worked up and engrossed into the issues of this tale. Anything less, and we just wouldn’t be caring so much. But we actually feel, in our hearts, that there is someone called Captain Flask, who is screwed up in pain at this very moment and is trying to work it out of her system with an enormous hit to the enemy that is both strategic and personal. That there is someone called Linda, who is watching it happen to her people – who treated (what we presume she had been brought up to consider) inferior life forms with callousness, and toyed around with torture, possibly as the way she had been taught, as a form of psychological defence, the mentality of the seige of Fortress Homo sapiens. We have Wally, who would find a non-killing option even to his own risk, because instead of counting people as playing pieces on a board, he works to understand the “why”, the first step on the road to making things better for all. And so forth.As with all successful, well-told stories, there are rarely motives that can be ruled in or ruled out. The reason there is such debate is because Captain Flask’s horrible solution has its pros and cons. I mean, it’s appalling, but… well it does have its real world precedents, the merits of which are still debated to this day, depending on where you want to listen.The clincher to the most brilliant of stories is the end play. Will the story tie up with the best ending, the most thoughtful, the most clever, the one which demonstrates the most profound human wisdom? Will it pull something out of the bag? Will it avoid the less-good outcome and present us with a better one, a more humane one, a solution that we had not thought of, even when it was staring us in the face, and which at last tells us: “Yes, there are better ways to put things right in your life, if you only stop, and look around, and think, and listen to the feelings of others.”That would be the case in the most brilliant of narratives. Neathery has brought us this far, and in my opinion, his stride has not missed a beat. Is he up to the challenge that he himself has set? Tall order, Mr Neathery , but I have faith in you.End game. The final round. Play on!

No song today. I reaslise I’ve been misspelling Wallechinsky. @#$!

Three points to consider – Wally and Holly can try to fight Flask before she can press the button. Petey can object to having a fleet of transporters that he knows by serial number flambeed in his name. The Topsiders never intended the rocket to be launchable in the first place. So, Flask’s plans may not get of the ground.“My darling”. This makes it sound like Petey was either her husband, her lover or her son. OMG!!! This is Romeo and Juliet! Flask was a Topsider captain secretly in love with a handsome mutant. The other TSer’s found out about their illicit affair and canned Petey and mutated Flask as punishment…

The Endtown mini-comic that I produced for Comicpalooza 2011 is now available to YOU for the offensively low price of $2.50 (price includes s&h, international add $1 for each copy ordered ). Besides sporting a snazzy full color cover, it contains an all-new 22 page story that is available nowhere else. And just because I feel like doing it, I’ll sign and personalize (if desired) each and every copy I mail out. Simply pay via PayPal using my email address, aaronneathery@gmail.com, and be sure to include your mailing address. If you can’t pay with PayPal, send payment to:Aaron NeatheryPO Box 920558Houston, TX 77292And, just so you know, I’m completely open to donations. The cat and mouse that live in my head will thank you. :-).. and original Endtown art is still for sale. Contact me for details @ aaronneathery@gmail.com

She should NOT destroy the entire city. There might be something there to eat besides beans…

Wow. I read a lot of comics but this is the only one where I read every single comment and come back later in the day and read the rest. It’s almost as interesting as the comic. I don’t think Flask was mutated as punishment only because the Topsiders seem like they would just zap a person out of existence. I do think we are about to get a glimpse into what day-to-day Topsider life is like through the eyes of Linda, Petey and the deranged Flask. But what will Mallard say when he finds out because I think it’s probably right that the Topsiders will seek serious revenge. Also, we know almost nothing about what goes on in the TS cities, like, do they have dissenters, what sort of government is it?

I expect that Petey will recoil from Flask when he learns of their relationship and how she’s become. I expect her reaction will not be pretty.

k time for a flashback isnt it?

when it’s all said and done, if its “us or them” by all means, throw the rocket at the city. as appalling as it is, its survival in the face of a relentless fanatic enemy.if its revenge for revenges sake, be very careful YOU don’t become a relentless fanatic.

“The point is not to become the monsters you are escaping.” I think that Flask has failed in that.

“NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN!”

Wally looks freaked……Hell I’m freaked!

Yes!! YES!!! Finally more back-story on these two!!!!

Sometimes the comments are right on & other times they are completely wrong. A tribute to Aaron’s ability to throw curve balls.

So much unsaid that we’re speculating on… but my immediate questions are these: 1- Four minutes? Tsk, Flask, take a page from Ozymandias. Don’t leave them plenty of time to change the outcome. 2- by “that topsider outpost”, does she mean the one next to the rocket? The dome we only mutts – wait, only mutts in those few rooms we saw, but maybe it goes deep down like Endtown… and 3- is the transporter far enough to avoid burning up with it? Our initial fears of a murder-suicide missions are suddenly still valid. Forget week-end cliffhangers, I’m starting to dread/enjoy what we’ll have as a YEAR-end cliffhanger. :) :)

Petey is a human head inside of the robot, which implies that he either had this done to him before he was exposed to the open air, or (what I’m predicting), he might be a human that is immune to the disease. If it’s the former, than the mutation is not activated by exposure to the skin/brain, and needs something else (maybe blood? I’m guessing that Petey doesn’t have any blood and is kept alive from some other artificial robotic means).

I also don’t think Flask was banished for being a mutant for the same reason DADOF3 said (they’d most likely just fry her, and I don’t think banishing her for having the disease would be worthy of so much hateful vengeance.) I do think that the cause of her mutation was the defect in her bio suit, but I am very curious as to the circumstances of it and her relationship with Petey (I agree that her verbal and body language seems to imply mother/son, marriage or lovers. I think Petey might be too old to be her kid, so I’m leaning towards marriage or lovers).

I’m curious as to what the topsiders did to her that was so bad that she was driven to this extreme – especially if she was a topsider once and obviously must have some understanding as to their motives. Unless, possibly, that she was a Topsider but maybe had mutant sympathies and was against what they were doing. I eagerly cross my little fingers and hope for the flashback cue! Great job, Aaron! You’ve got us at the edge of our seats!

Press the button? If that chip changes the programming, the rocket will hit where it is sent. And, OK, if it is fired. But it does not need Flask to hit that button, it either could be on automatic countdown, or someone will ‘innocently’ try to send it to space, again assuming that there is someone to do so. We have not seen many, and the places where Flask has gone are now ‘poisoned’ to the topsiders. When they do find that their perimeter has been breached, they will mutate and be aware, which leads to monsters, not altered anthropomorphs. That is almost as bad a scene as the rocket’s kill-all ending.Jenner, thanks for the write up on writing. So any non-good ending is the lesser one?

Great! Let’s introduce a paraniod german philoslopter…philslopet. you know what I mean! And who’s won hung low? Is that the Art Of War guy? Actually, good quote from Nietzsche. Very germane to the story. But didn’t he also say “Don’t let your taxi driver beat his horse”?

So, going out on a limb here, Petey and Blackie were some sort of dissident faction among the genetically pure. She learned about the bio-suit’s weak spot after having it used on her. She escaped. Petey wasn’t so fortunate and got the ignominy of being stuffed into a transporter. I’m starting to see where her extreme hatred may have come from. To be seen, what Koala Girl might decide to do about it.

I knew it!

Now, burn it all! Let cleansing flames scorch the earth!

On a more serious note, pretty sure it’s too late to stop it from happening. Flask already got inside the control room. The modified guidance chip has already been installed. Short of turning around RIGHT NOW and shooting up the rocket before it launches, the topsiders are hosed.

Ethically speaking… ho boy. On one hand, the Topsiders are the antagonists in a genocidal war. At the risk of invoking Godwins law, I don’t think the world shed many tears over bombs dropped on Tokyo and Berlin, even though there were tons of civilian deaths. On the other hand… jeez. We know there are kids in that place…

I think I agree with Flask’s tactics here, especially given the resource disparity between the Endtowners and the Topsiders. Maybe it would be different if they had access to things like precision munitions, combat drones, and reliable mass-produced sidearms. But her motives frighten me. She isn’t doing this for survival, she’s doing this for sheer bloody revenge. Somebody like Wally would be happy with a ceasefire and a peace treaty. Flask doesn’t look like she’ll stop until the Topsiders are extinct.

I wonder if Linda could be so horrified by what Flask said that she escapes from them, and in her worry about the plan uses her “special entry code” to run into the city—-temporarily forgetting that she has the nanovirus? THAT could destroy the city, too!Getting really suspenseful now, Aaron! panels # 2,3, & 4 show extremely STRONG EMOTIONS.

KUTGW,

Noreen

O.K. I think Pete is either the boyfriend or Husband to Flask

I like how Wally’s drawn, with one snagger hanging out of his mouth!

Flask is still very much a topsider at heart. Most (all?) other mutants were a result of the initial infection. She was a topsider for some time after the ‘segregation’, and cultivated that attitude of superiority. Since her mutation, and subsequent banishment, were a result of failed topsider technology; she has come to blame them for her new, substandard surroundings. Whatever happened to Petey, his ‘condition’ has only added more fuel to the fire, and perhaps provided the final nudge to send Flask completely over the edge. Mallard hinted at an alterior motive back at the beginning of this arc. Flask may claim that Endtown’s survival is her primary motivation, but is it simply an amazing coincidence that this mission provides the perfect opportunity for exacting her revenge as well? Since the reason for destroying the satellite was to allow mutants the freedom to scavage topside, this escalation of hostilities may lead to just the opposite. If Flask succeeds with this, there is no way they will ever be able to integrate Linda into mutant society. I get the feeling someone may end up sacrificing themself to undo this plan…

Ok, got me. 31715 sho seems to be Flask is in love with him?I came into this story late. What kind of deal was he (31715) making with the other “transporter”? I feel that he is a good guy. Is He???Thanks.

Some one has anger issues