Whoa, June’s almost over already. It certainly has been an eventful few weeks. So have the last round up of the month on the last day of the month.
Africa | Page(s): 428| Patreon
Kitendo is definitely thinking more with his stomach than his brain. He and the others were supposed to be discreetly monitoring the lions, but here he is trying to drag an entire gemsbok away. Of course the lions noticed the commotion, and it won’t be long before they’re driving him off in order to take the food for themselves. If he were less impulsive he would have either remained hidden, dropped the gemsbok, or ripped out a chunk and went back into hiding. Right now it feels like this Wild Dog has a death wish.
I can’t imagine this encounter will end well for Kitendo. If it does, he’s one supremely lucky dog.
What Lurks Beneath | Pages(s): 904, 905 | Patreon
Again, I’m so glad that Sturgeon has Tansy as a companion and possible mate now. I just can’t imagine her stewing on her own regarding how to get through to Trout. I’m also happy that they’re thinking of ways to possibly talk it out with the queen. That said, it’s kind of sad that Sturgeon feels backed into a corner and in their heated moment she could only think to yell or grab at her little sister. Having to grow up way too fast under Thresher’s reign without her mother really left her emotionally stunted. I’m just a bit surprised at seeing this comic’s schemer at a lost for words on what to do next.
Though I think she and Tansy recognizing Skua as a problem is a good first step. At this point Sturgeon has realized the queen being alone with her Lionheart and yes man isn’t good. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to separate the two. I’m sure if Sturgeon could remain calm and talk to Trout alone, she might be able to make a breakthrough. At the moment, everything is just bad, especially after how things went down with Hake. I fear things will only get worse before they even have a shot of getting better for these island cats. Trout as queen might be the ultimate issue given how far she’s spiraled into paranoia.
The Order of the Black Dog | Issue 29, Page: 13 | Patreon
I thought the Black Idol using the body of Krizman would immediately attack, but it wants to talk. Fun fact, I couldn’t remember who Krizman was from previous issues, aside from his name being mentioned. He actually is first seen in Issue 16 on page 4. A silver fox in the first panel on the far left. He’s part of the security team. He ultimately went with Julia, Rati, and Raynott’s group and had a few spoken lines, but it was unclear what happened to him. Of course this page makes it obvious he was assimilated by the Black Idol as the group only had seven hours worth of oxygen, and it’s been months since the incident. Why it decided to not fully absorb Krizman’s body is a mystery. Perhaps it left some members of the security forces with their original appearances intact in order to serve as defenders. Perhaps because the Black Idol is a hive mind it had some inkling of what the Earth scientists wanted to do, and put countermeasures in place for the device Melissa is using.
It’s curious that it acknowledges that the group must have risked a lot coming to the lunar base, and smirks that they must have missed being a part of the Black Idol. Krizman’s body is staring directly at Melissa. Perhaps she’s the biggest threat right now, and it is trying to make her to drop her guard to render the device is less effective. Or perhaps it remembers her from the time the sand cat-tiger mix had her body possessed.
Golden Shrike | Page(s): 318 | Patreon
As Usma sagely points out, no matter how much the fawn was loved by her parents and herself, they wouldn’t be in this mess if all had gone well. I have to admit, the changing of the panel border colors confused me. As white borders mean flashback, while black borders mean the present day. I thought the fade of white into black might have signaled the story was moving into the present, but on the last four panels, Antaras doesn’t have Loss’s ring on his tine.
So we’re still in the past. Perhaps the black panel borders represent a dark choice that the Northerner buck is about to make or has made while he looked up at the moon. Perhaps he prayed to Eve, Loss, or both looking for a way to ensure that his fawn would be born alive and healthy. At the same time, perhaps Eve and her brother are looking for a way to leave the heavens, so they make a deal with Antaras. Or perhaps he calls them down and whatever he offers is persuasive enough to trap them in those rings.
I still circle back to my original theory that Oudia had an accident of some sort, and her mate is able to somehow trap Eve in her body ensuring their child will be born alive. A commenter pointed out the red in Antaras’s eyes and how the chapter name is “Red.” Going back to the chapter cover, the bird is red and looks like it could be Oudia’s halv. We know that if a deer’s halv dies they’re unable to have children– at least the does are anyway. Here’s another theory. Maybe nothing bad happened to Oudia, but her halv was killed (we don’t see it in the present day), and she agreed to be possessed by Eve in order to save their fawn. At the same time, Antaras trapped Loss to guarantee their child didn’t die before Eve could do her thing. Again, this is just another theory in a long line of my theories for this chapter.
After so many pages of Marduk never saying the pack couldn’t leave the territory, he finally admits it now. I know I’ve brought it up over and over again, but we should have had at least a panel of this evil Sky God/Green One telling the pack that leaving the area was forbidden. Instead, we have this square character being hammered into an evil round hole because an antagonist was needed. Worse, this guy sucks so hard as an evil, spurned god.
Think about it for a second. As I said earlier, he was the leader of the Green Ones. And according to Marduk the humans (which share blood with the Sky Gods) on Earth worshiped him to the point of building statues and temples in his honor. (Guess he missed that so much he forced a bunch of dogs to carve him a statue.) After all that, he decided that the humans were unruly, so they had to die. Except Father keeps on saving their lives. This confuses me, though. Wasn’t Father originally going to restore the balance regarding the humans? It was heavily implied he would be killing said humans.
Anyway, the gray alien dog calls Father weak for sparing them and tells the Asmundr pack to bow to him. Honestly, if I had enough worshipers to make me temples and statues, trying to get a bunch of elderly dogs to bow would be a MASSIVE downgrade in terms of importance. This entire plot makes Marduk look extremely petty at best. He and Father had a disagreement about the humans, so Marduk gives up his humanity to become a dog. Then he takes over the obelisk. Next, he forces the Asmundr pack to carve a statue for him out of wood, and demands that they bow because they’re Father’s favorites. It just feels like a parent trying to get their children to love them because you hate your ex that much.
This guy could have done better by presenting himself to the Origin Orion Tribe Akiulfrs, and having an enclave full of powerful wolfdogs worshiping him. I just don’t understand Marduk’s obsession with this pack when he previously had so much. I guess he really wants to get back at Father by corrupting his favorite dogs.
In rushing to make a villain out of Marduk so much about him was skipped. Here are a bunch of questions I have:
If he was that powerful, why was he hiding from his family as a dog?
Did the humans on Earth stop worshiping him or did he become disillusioned and abandon them?
Was he previously friends with Father or were they always rivals?
When the Asmundr pack was moved was that Father’s doing or did he body snatch the Sky God who was supposed to join the pack as a dog?
We know that Marduk was supposed to have a very different story, but his character was changed because of a falling out with Kique’s previous co-writer. Nevertheless, I wish he had put more thought into Marduk’s character going forward because none of this makes any sense the more you think about it.
I would have ended my thoughts here, but I came across Zombie Review’s thoughts on this page via Tumblr. They single out a comment where a reader tries to make sense of Marduk having human worshipers despite the humans being extremely primitive at the start of the story. The reader comes to the conclusion that the dogs might have been in cryostasis for hundreds or thousands of years. Meanwhile, Home’s newest co-writer, Pralig responds that time on Earth moves faster than on Aedra. While Zombie notes that it’s actually the opposite according to Kique’s own story and Wiki. As the days are shorter on Solar Stag versus Earth. And yes, that’s the name of this planet as illustrated on the Wiki’s map. The island the dogs all live on is Aedra. You think the writers of this comic would know their own comic better.
Zombie notes that based on how our solar system works, planets closer to the sun have shorter days, while those further away have much longer days. Based on the Wiki, I’m positive that Solar Stag is close to the sun in whatever solar system its located, as the dogs note that the patterns of the stars in the night sky are not recognizable. So if that much time passed on Earth, the journey from Earth to Solar Stag was likely a long one, as the reader suggested, and not a difference in the passage of time on each planet.
Kique and Pralig can’t keep this story straight regarding Marduk. In trying to flesh out whatever motivations he has for hating Father and wanting the Asmundr pack to worship him, they didn’t think about the implications of stating the humans worship Marduk. If they had left the term at “worshiped” and didn’t go into specifying statues and temples people wouldn’t be confused over how much time has passed on Earth, as a prehistoric society can worship gods. Also, the excuse of time passing differently doesn’t hold up as the days, months, and years are actually shorter on Solar Stag. Heck, they could have just said the statues and temples were relatively primitive, and the humans already saw him as god before the dogs were moved. As always, Kique and his co-writer have put very little thought into the details of the world they’re building.
Anyway, we now have Marduk’s motivation and I remain unconvinced. I’m just waiting for this scene to be over as this dog’s transformation from Kheller into this lukewarm evil mess has been a disappointment all around.
On hiatus:
Lost Scent | Page(s): | Patreon
In The Lion’s Den: The Scarlet Uproar | Page(s): | Patreon
Golden Shrike’s page border is still white which means still past and it’s not moving. The “inside” black borders might be an stylistic choice. I think Oudia definitely died‚ her face in present seems like one of a corpse.
Yeah, you’re definitely right about the borders. I was probably looking too hard into it! XD