TWWR Round up 04/08/2024– It’s A Little Surreal At the Moment

Today there’s a total solar eclipse happening over much of the country. While my area isn’t in the path of totality, I will be able to observe a nice partial eclipse this afternoon. If you live in the United States or Mexico and plan to check out today’s eclipse make sure to use proper eyewear. You’ll need a set of ISO 12312-2 certified safety glasses for viewing. While it is too late to purchase a pair of glasses, here’s a great site of approved vendors for future solar events. Also, here’s a handy guide to make sure the glasses or solar viewers you have are safe. If you want to check out the solar eclipse online, NASA is a great place to start. With today’s PSA done, let’s talk about webcomics!

Africa | Page(s): 366 | Patreon

Mosi continues his attack on Mondo, and he’s dangerously close to catching the serval. Africa has a flashback to when Chui once attacked Mosi and Binti, and another flashback to when she found Binti dead. Snapping into action, she attacks Mosi just before he can touch Mondo.

In terms of dynamic action this is another great page. The first panel with Mosi’s paws splayed wide as a terrified Mondo runs for his life just looks so very cool. Juxtapose that with Africa coming in from the opposite direction as her forward motion not only stops her son, but she pushes him back. As she does so, the redder hues begin to fade into cooler the blue-green hues. This page also shows that while Mosi has grown and is much larger than Mondo, he’s still small compared to Africa. I’m not concerned for her safety, but I hope she recognizes her own cub before she does any damage. After all, I can imagine this isn’t the way either of them thought their reunion would play out.

To Catch a Star | Page(s): 475, 476, 477, 478 | Patreon

Sweep and Tussle keep running after being chased off by Takedown. They eventually stumble upon Danger’s hiding place. The alpha was injured by Takedown’s earlier attack, and she growls at them. The pair prostrate themselves. Seeing the two girls are not a threat, Danger pants heavily and resumes resting. Meanwhile, Lupi and Shadow are wandering aimlessly below the clouds, depressed over Backlash’s death.

Suddenly, the pair hear a distorted howl. Recognizing it, Shadow runs off as Lupi begs her not to leave them behind. She dashes ahead where she discovers the howl is coming from Backlash who’s fully Lost. Even so, he’s still taking orders from Takedown. The one-eyed wolf tells his dead brother to stop howling once Shadow arrives, and taunts the Nova about how Backlash is still loyal to him. In response, Shadow can only begin to growl in anger and indignation.

I’m kind of hoping that Danger, Tussle, Sweep, and some of the kinder wolves go back below the clouds and form a new pack. One not bound by the rules of the old pack, but where Danger can at least see her vision (and Backlash’s) come to fruition. At the moment, Danger might not be able to travel. She’s either badly injured from the still bleeding wound she received from Takedown, or the stress of everything has caused her to go into labor. Whatever her condition turns out to be, it may be life-threatening. Hopefully, Tussle and Sweep can help her in some way.

The main plot unfolding right now is even worse than I could have predicted. Now only did Takedown catch up to Shadow and Lupi, but he’s using Backlash’s undead corpse to get to them. I predicted they would go back for their friend, not that he’d be brought to them. Which begs the question of how both brothers managed to catch up to Shadow and Lupi so quickly. Was Backlash able to track them even when dead? Did Takedown just figure out the trajectory of Lupi’s shooting star? Sadly, not even Sleepy has a good answer for this, as she’s just hand waved Takedown’s ability to catch up with the pair. It’s not a huge deal, but a panel’s worth of explanation would have been nice.

As for the Lost, we really don’t know much about them. They seem to be more than just shambling zombies, though. The few we’ve seen keep their personalities from when they were alive. Basically, if they’re violent in life, they’re violent in death. The same is true if they were peaceful or overly helpful. Still, no one’s ever tried to use a Lost as a minion before Takedown did with Backlash in this story. I’m guessing most wolves want to put their loved ones to rest, or get rid of potentially hostile reanimated corpses. However, Takedown was just twisted enough to keep using his brother’s body and sweet nature after murdering the poor guy.

I’m certain Shadow is going to snap and attack her friend’s older brother. Still, I’m worried she won’t win because he’s ruthless, and she’s not in a good headspace now. Physically, she’s larger than him, but I think his drive to kill is much stronger than her will. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Shadow gets out of this one alive.

The Order of the Black Dog | Page(s): Issue 27, page 39 | Patreon

Julia and Mel harshly return to their physical bodies, now back in reality. The two girls writhe on the ground with Mel clutching her head, and Julia her stomach. As Mel rolls onto her back she curses in pain. As Julia recovers she asks if the tiger is okay, and Mel utters a weak “I think so…”

I figured Zalef-Labev would eventually kick them out of the realm of the gods. He just needed to give Julia a figurative tongue-lashing before they went. Which is a petty, god-like thing to do, unsurprisingly. I’m glad Mel is okay and that nothing notable happened to her while she was off-screen for the last two pages. That said, I suppose it’ll be another page or so before we see the results of gaining Kenazil’s key from Zalef-Labev.

Lost Scent | Page(s): 45, 46 | Patreon

It turns out Chaluny just forgot to upload page 45 to DeviantArt. It was uploaded to ComicFury last Sunday. Everything seems to be caught up on DA now, but I’ve switched the link above over to CF. It’s just easier to read there.

Motte comes to in a barnyard, resting in a pile of hay. She notices Tulpi isn’t around at all and panics. Looking around, she finds her Akita companion talking to another dog. She breathes a sigh of relief before approaching the two dogs. As Tulpi is talking to the other dog, she notices Motte is up and about. The Borzoi-mix asks where they are, and her smaller friend is surprised she doesn’t remember anything. After Motte collapsed, Tulpi went to find help. She found dogs at a place called Woofs Fawr, and they were able to take Motte to their farm.

The girls lucked out in the sense that kind strangers weren’t far away. Spending a night on the farm beats being stuck out in the freezing weather. At this point I’m wondering if they’ll want to stay for a few days to fully recover, or if Motte will insist they keep moving. It feels like the story could go either way. I’m also going to take a moment to admire the backgrounds on these pages. They’re just so very pretty!

Golden Shrike | Page(s): 259 | Patreon

Antaras tells Usma to leave Helevise’s body, as they need to return to Eve. His daughter notes she’ll catch up after removing the Fox Chasers from the body. The buck tells her to be quick, and returns to where he left Eve. There’s she’s being pressured by a doe and buck who want her to lend them a little of her light. They promise they won’t bother her again, and insist she’s their only hope. Antaras silently walks up behind the pair.

It strikes me as fairly respectable that Usma wants to remove the Fox Chasers. I imagine she might not want any other deer to stumble upon Helevise’s body, and that it might be more respectful for her corpse not to slowly rot away. It’s a small act of kindness. As for the random deer pressuring Eve, it’s not surprising that they’re being followed after the stunt at the Gathering. With Antaras away temporarily, more enterprising deer would seek to either have loved ones or shrikes brought back to life, or maybe they could be asking for a blessing regarding the birth of their offspring. After all, it has been noted multiple times that more deer are delivered stillborn, so I imagine any expecting parents would be desperate to ensure their fawns are born alive. (Antaras is doing the same himself.)

Speaking of which, will he’ll be content to merely chase these deer off, or will he kill them in a display of supernatural power?

Home | Page(s): 848 | Patreon

Jahla asks Romé to clarify what he means about her desires. He notes that he’s noticed she’s mostly been focused on wanting to find her family and less focused on the cause that Ninmah gave her. Jahla then ponders her earlier thoughts about the gods bringing them to Aedra in order to reach their true potential. What if her true potential isn’t for her? That said, the tribe leader can’t just stop what she’s doing. Romé suggests she ought to talk to Ninmah about it, as the Matriarch might understand. Jahla hugs Romé as she mentions how much she misses her family, and the Great Vildmarkens states she’ll see them again someday.

First, it’s amazing that Jahla told Romé about Ninmah off-screen. If I’m not mistaken, aren’t most dogs in the dark about the Matriarch and who she is, including her name? Yet Romé is privy to this information. If Jahla didn’t tell him, he’s stealing peeks at this comic’s script. Worse, considering this was a task originally undertaken by Jahla and Thakir, it’s weird that she’s not having this conversation with him– especially since he was at least with her in Solar Stag Tribe when Jahla learned about the Matriarch. It strikes me as really odd that Jahla has shared some dark secrets with a dog she barely knows instead of her Thane or Priest. Like many have pointed out, Romé has pretty much taken over Thakir’s role in Home.

It’s possible that he could have served as Jahla’s second-in-command and been around to give input while Romé still serves as the love interest. (Thakir could have been a brother-like figure or a good friend.) Instead, he’s been completely pushed out for a dog who’s howling got Jahla captured by assholes. I guess all of this is in service of Romé eventually becoming Jahla’s partner, as she couldn’t be single after breaking it off with Rhov.

The proposal to ask Ninmah to release her from the duty of running Havenreach as outreach for other tribes isn’t a bad thing to ask about. I’m still of the mind that Jahla shouldn’t have accepted her proposal to begin with. And it’s not like she’s doing anything of note with Havenreach, so the tribe should be allowed to do its own thing. Or better yet, perhaps she could find the Asmundr pack and just take her members to live with them instead. We all know she’s not going north to find Ronja, Roamer, and Keirr. (Also, let me remind you that Roamer IS HER FIRST COUSIN. Yet they’re little more than strangers despite growing up together. Also, Rhov and Keirr are Ronja’s first cousins as well. She even helped raise them, yet neither of them give a damn about her. Family is handled so badly in Home.) Tangent aside, yeah, there’s not really a reason for Havenreach to exist, as I said last week.