While we never see it happen “on panel”, the IDW comic CLEARLY SHOWS that they can both change their colour schemes from one to the other, possibly at will. You never see them both the same colour at the same time, though, because that would be embarrassing.
I tend to think his Shortpacked love interest probably didn’t actually like Transformers. He just didn’t bother commenting on it, sort of like my wife’s ambivalence to *looks at massive shelves of toys* everything.
Hah. For my wife and me, it was Bloom County. She says when I said “Legs shaved?” and she said “Halfway,” that was the moment when – in hindsight – she knew we’d get married.
“Goddamn it, Ravage is a cat”, said Ethan, sensual energy charging every word
“Babe”, said Thad, penisly, “Ravage was only in the original cartoon that ended nearly two decades before I was born, you’re going to need to give me some slack that I’m even humoring this conversation, let alone that I vaguely of know what you’re talking about.”
Ethan sighed lustily, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt “He was also in some of the Michael Bay movies. Didn’t you read the Shattered Glass comics?”
Thad unveiled his thick, throbbing truth in Ethan’s face “Dude, “mainstream” American comic books haven’t been culturally relevant since the Raten administration”
“D….did you mean the ‘Reagan’ administration?”, asked Ethan, quivering.
“Yeah, whatever, high school history only goes up to reconstruction”
Spiderman famously lost his first love interest to the Green Goblin. Gwen Stacy stayed dead except for the awesome Spidergwen in an alternate universe–unlike every other character in comics ever.
Secondly, because they felt the character was aging too much by being married and having a kid, Marvel comics had a supervillain kill off his baby daughter (or kidnap her–its unclear) then erased the marriage entirely by having Peter Parker make a deal with Mephisto.
He’s talking about One More Day, happened during Civil War.
TL:DR–Spiderman got soft rebooted without his marriage to MJ–the event just before it was AMAZING. the follow-up fell horribly, horribly flat.
Basically Spiderman took Iron Man’s side in the Civil War, flipped sides, then decided to run.
Kingpin put a hit out on Parker (who had outed himself, crashing the entire internet [including the porn sites] as billions of people searchd for him online), Aunt May got hit instead.
Spiderman took up the black costume, and Peter Parker (not Spiderman) beat the shit out of Kingpin, promising that if May died, he’d be back.
…….then Mephisto showed up, showed him alternate Parkers, and the daughter-that-wasn’t-yet was wished away by Peter/MJ saying “Save May” instead of their marraige, which led directly into the shitty-ass reboot that retconned 20-30 years of marriage away and was a disaster IMHO.
Personally it would have been a more interesting story if May had been allowed to die. I love May, but she’s been 80-90 years old for what, 40-50 years now? Exploring the consequeces of her death would have been….fascinating.
It’s a weird effect if you were a long time Spidey fan from the 80s and 90s and saw Into The Spiderverse. You see the adult, 37 year old “Peter B. Parker” and go, “Oh hey, I haven’t seen you in awhile. You know, we used to be friends. What happened to you, man?”
I thought after all these years of searching around
I’d found my soulmate finally
But one day I found OUT she actually owned a copy
Of “Joe Dirt” on DVD – Oh, no!
Ethan’s fanboyism can get annoying, and even Shortpacked! Tadd made a “reason you suck” speech about Ethan using his lore knowledge to be condescending.
Maybe the reason Ethan and Danny have a nice romantic chemistry is because their previous incarnations and themselves are condescending nice guys that have difficulties standing for what they want (Ethan standing against his mom and Danny standing to be respected).
Something tells me that it’s going to take Ethan a while to sufficiently acclimatise himself to others’ opinions so that he can handle having a relationship!
Do college students really get that wrapped up about Transformers yet?
And incidentally, I had to Google “ravage is a dog” to find out just whatthehell he was talking about in the first place.
This is a major character quirk for Ethan. He’s a Transformers franchise megafan and gets very prickly about people who give even casual opinions about the franchise that are not thoroughly researched.
Oops, I forgot I’d left this page open since last night because I wanted to read the comments. Ah, well, at least my unnecessary reply adds a subtextual joke about Ethan’s old fear that he was unique and therefore destined to die alone.
Compelling evidence why Ethan and Amber were friends, few other people share the intensity of their interests. Current likely ships include Ethan/Danny, the less desirable Ethan/Mike, and the infinitely improbable Ethan/Jocelyn ship. The last one is mainly for the imaginary shocked Joyce face.
Here’s what I’d like: At the end of DoA, several of the main characters are still single and there is an epilogue chapter where Joyce summarises the rest of their college careers and what happened to them afterwards. I’d like at least a few to meet their life partners after graduation because Willis is working on realism here.
I’d like for one panel to be a grown-up looking Amazi-Girl and Sal standing in superhero poses on a roof-top at night with the caption. “As for Indianapolis…? There is… justice, of sorts there.”
Sounds like Ethan is living his best life right now. He wants his nerdiness to be more important than his sexuality, and he’s prioritising accordingly. Or am I overremembering from Shortpacked?
Ethan didn’t realise he was gay until about midway through Shortpacked!
However, yes, it took him a long while to realise that his somewhat-fanatical treatment of this hobby interests were turn-offs for some people and that he has to deprioritise his interests if he wanted a relationship to work.
What really sank that ship is the argument over what colors Frenzy and Rumble are.
Wars have been fought over that.
FIBRIR
They’re green.
Now, my first exposure to G1 Transformers was a viewmaster™ that my parents had, and in it the cassette friend with the thumpy arms was purple.
Where do I stand in this war?
RIBFIR side.
While we never see it happen “on panel”, the IDW comic CLEARLY SHOWS that they can both change their colour schemes from one to the other, possibly at will. You never see them both the same colour at the same time, though, because that would be embarrassing.
Well YEAH, that’s a deal breaker right there ?
It’s one thing to disagree on RIBFIR vs FIBRIR, but this is basically someone being insane!
Damnit Ethan.
Ethan.. priorities…
Are in order. Something are more important than a 45 minute long relationship.
I guess Ethan want to ravage a dog
I tend to think his Shortpacked love interest probably didn’t actually like Transformers. He just didn’t bother commenting on it, sort of like my wife’s ambivalence to *looks at massive shelves of toys* everything.
Or how I feel about the Bachelor.
Gotta have standards, right?
Ethan’s Tinder profile says “Trukk and Munky” on it.
I…I have no idea who Ravage is. As much as I like Ethan, I don’t know how many guys he wants to just pitch out like this.
I have nearly witnessed a bar fight between the Rodgers and Hart faction and the Rodger and Hammerstein fans, however.
This is Ravage.
As his personality in that panel makes abundantly clear, he is a kitty cat.
Could be a robotweiler.
Thanks.
Glad that knew enough about old movies when I met the Wizard of Oz geek who is now my wife. (And this was before the internet.)
Hah. For my wife and me, it was Bloom County. She says when I said “Legs shaved?” and she said “Halfway,” that was the moment when – in hindsight – she knew we’d get married.
Okay, that reference I got.
So Ravage is a Transformer?
If Ethan says a word you don’t recognize, it’s probably a transformer
If Punaparta says a word you don’t recognize, it’s probably a Pokémon.
And I here I thought Ravage was an alien robot.
In my experience this is only barely an exaggeration
Ethan/Thad slipshine???
I think Ethan said nothing sexual happened in the last panel so unlikely unless it’s an April Fools panel…
They were snogging a bit in public (not in a dorm bldg); so unless they made fairly direct steps in the 45 minutes, no Slipshine.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/flashing/
“Goddamn it, Ravage is a cat”, said Ethan, sensual energy charging every word
“Babe”, said Thad, penisly, “Ravage was only in the original cartoon that ended nearly two decades before I was born, you’re going to need to give me some slack that I’m even humoring this conversation, let alone that I vaguely of know what you’re talking about.”
Ethan sighed lustily, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt “He was also in some of the Michael Bay movies. Didn’t you read the Shattered Glass comics?”
Thad unveiled his thick, throbbing truth in Ethan’s face “Dude, “mainstream” American comic books haven’t been culturally relevant since the Raten administration”
“D….did you mean the ‘Reagan’ administration?”, asked Ethan, quivering.
“Yeah, whatever, high school history only goes up to reconstruction”
“said Thad, penisly”
hahahahaha
Wouldn’t that be Evan and Chad in the Julia Gray universe?
You need to continue this. This is the best.
A+, ““said Thad, penisly” is a masterwork of hilariously bad “literature”.
*the hacked Muzak plays a live version of David Bowie’s “Young Americans”*
The “he coughs as he passes her Ford Mustang” part gets a Transformers reference awkwardly shoehorned in.
Goddammit Ethan.
Aww. I guess Ethad was too beautiful (or, um, non-Transformers-fact-friendly) for this world.
At least it’s sinking was relatively peaceful. Casual Ethan is pretty great!
Farewell, Ethad! At least you didn’t break my heart like in Shortpacked!
Ethan’s love life will be like a wonderful gay Spiderman’s, except without the horrible death and Satanism.
Uhhhhhh explanation?
I mean I’m about to Google it but what?
Spiderman famously lost his first love interest to the Green Goblin. Gwen Stacy stayed dead except for the awesome Spidergwen in an alternate universe–unlike every other character in comics ever.
Secondly, because they felt the character was aging too much by being married and having a kid, Marvel comics had a supervillain kill off his baby daughter (or kidnap her–its unclear) then erased the marriage entirely by having Peter Parker make a deal with Mephisto.
Aka Satan.
I found nothing please explain
He’s talking about One More Day, happened during Civil War.
TL:DR–Spiderman got soft rebooted without his marriage to MJ–the event just before it was AMAZING. the follow-up fell horribly, horribly flat.
Basically Spiderman took Iron Man’s side in the Civil War, flipped sides, then decided to run.
Kingpin put a hit out on Parker (who had outed himself, crashing the entire internet [including the porn sites] as billions of people searchd for him online), Aunt May got hit instead.
Spiderman took up the black costume, and Peter Parker (not Spiderman) beat the shit out of Kingpin, promising that if May died, he’d be back.
…….then Mephisto showed up, showed him alternate Parkers, and the daughter-that-wasn’t-yet was wished away by Peter/MJ saying “Save May” instead of their marraige, which led directly into the shitty-ass reboot that retconned 20-30 years of marriage away and was a disaster IMHO.
Personally it would have been a more interesting story if May had been allowed to die. I love May, but she’s been 80-90 years old for what, 40-50 years now? Exploring the consequeces of her death would have been….fascinating.
With great power comes great “duck the consequences of your mistakes by making a pact with Satan.”
With decades of publishing come horrible editorial decisions.
Honestly, Civil War was pretty shitty too, but One More Day did not improve it.
It’s a weird effect if you were a long time Spidey fan from the 80s and 90s and saw Into The Spiderverse. You see the adult, 37 year old “Peter B. Parker” and go, “Oh hey, I haven’t seen you in awhile. You know, we used to be friends. What happened to you, man?”
“Quesada.”
Always Quesada.
There is a hyphen.
I mentally assume hypenated Spider-Man is when you’re being formal. 🙂
Oh my god they were roomates
No, roommates. “Roomates” means that they share a pouch.
Sooo… ‘Roomies’ actually means ‘Brothers From Another Marsupial’?
Methinks he took Weird Al’s “Close, But No Cigar” at face-value – https://youtu.be/PtMU8nvZzOs
I thought after all these years of searching around
I’d found my soulmate finally
But one day I found OUT she actually owned a copy
Of “Joe Dirt” on DVD – Oh, no!
Now, Ethan, just find a nerdy guy who will care about your interests and learn these important facts.
But…nerds can be nerdy about DIFFERENT THINGS!
The Dumbiverse NEEDS CATMAN!
Maybe the real Catman.
Oh, Ethan. Honey. You dork. I love you.
What’s even worse is that Thad thought they were talking about Ravage 2099.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravage_2099
An unforgivable sin.
“He’s so un-hip, when you say Dylan, he thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas. Whoever he was. The man ain’t got no culture!”
Ooh, Jacob, looking cool in the Miles shirt.
I know! I love Jacob’s Marvel nerdy and am pleased to see it reappear.
What’s UP, danger?
That’s fair
I had tons of exes. Some of them I even dated.
Sometimes Ravage looks more like a dog than a cat. Depends.
Oh my god they were roommates
…incompatible orientations aside, ethan and joyce really were made for each other, huh.
Yeah, that sounds like college.
Citations count as foreplay
Ethan’s fanboyism can get annoying, and even Shortpacked! Tadd made a “reason you suck” speech about Ethan using his lore knowledge to be condescending.
Maybe the reason Ethan and Danny have a nice romantic chemistry is because their previous incarnations and themselves are condescending nice guys that have difficulties standing for what they want (Ethan standing against his mom and Danny standing to be respected).
I am not sure it counts as a relationship, but there have been marriages that lasted less.
Not upset. I was happy Ethan ended up with somebody but Thad kept calling him “poor baby” which really grated me
Yeah it didn’t seem like a good or solid basis for a relationship and any survivors of Shortpacked! need their happy, non-zombie Thevan.
(Ethan doesn’t get Evan because a) selfcest and b) he seems weirdly into the prosthetic.)
Also, should’ve predicted Ethan would turn up a day after a strip featuring a “Mexo Loco” sign… we all know what that’s one letter away from
Mexo Loch, the Mexican/Scottish fusion eatery?
One of my favorite strips: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/disappoint/
You made the right choice Ethan. Now If he got Frenzy’s colors wrong, that there is grounds for justified execution
Something tells me that it’s going to take Ethan a while to sufficiently acclimatise himself to others’ opinions so that he can handle having a relationship!
Well, that’s not going to happen, because everyone else’s opinions are wrong.
Of course Ethan would break up with someone over a disagreement about Transformers.
Do college students really get that wrapped up about Transformers yet?
And incidentally, I had to Google “ravage is a dog” to find out just whatthehell he was talking about in the first place.
This is a major character quirk for Ethan. He’s a Transformers franchise megafan and gets very prickly about people who give even casual opinions about the franchise that are not thoroughly researched.
College students in general? No. Transformers fans? Definitely.
Not all college students. Just Ethan.
Oops, I forgot I’d left this page open since last night because I wanted to read the comments. Ah, well, at least my unnecessary reply adds a subtextual joke about Ethan’s old fear that he was unique and therefore destined to die alone.
Did… Jacob choose this shirt because it is Halloween? Are we heading towards a party?
It’s October 16th-ish, so maybe?
No April Fools surprise it would seem.
Yay! Now I can ship Ethan with you-know-who!
He’s been dead for years, just say Voldemort.
AVADA KEDAVRA! *Apperates out*
It’s good when you can clear up fundamental incompatibilities early on.
The Reverse Bechdel! Sort of feels like an April fool’s, at this point.
Compelling evidence why Ethan and Amber were friends, few other people share the intensity of their interests. Current likely ships include Ethan/Danny, the less desirable Ethan/Mike, and the infinitely improbable Ethan/Jocelyn ship. The last one is mainly for the imaginary shocked Joyce face.
Here’s what I’d like: At the end of DoA, several of the main characters are still single and there is an epilogue chapter where Joyce summarises the rest of their college careers and what happened to them afterwards. I’d like at least a few to meet their life partners after graduation because Willis is working on realism here.
I’d like for one panel to be a grown-up looking Amazi-Girl and Sal standing in superhero poses on a roof-top at night with the caption. “As for Indianapolis…? There is… justice, of sorts there.”
They’re not in Indianapolis. They’re in Bloomington.
It’s my post-IU headcanon: Amber and Danny move to Indianapolis to start a software company; not ACTUAL canon yet, of course.
Ahhhhh! I see. My bad!
Just an image montage like at the end of “Daria”. Or was it the “Daria” movie?
Sounds like Ethan is living his best life right now. He wants his nerdiness to be more important than his sexuality, and he’s prioritising accordingly. Or am I overremembering from Shortpacked?
Ethan didn’t realise he was gay until about midway through Shortpacked!
However, yes, it took him a long while to realise that his somewhat-fanatical treatment of this hobby interests were turn-offs for some people and that he has to deprioritise his interests if he wanted a relationship to work.
I thought that what he learned was that it was worth it to find someone who didn’t need him to dial down his interests.
Wow, Ethan’s more dysfunctional at dating than I am.
I really am digging your “Claire for each occasion” gravatar system.
^.^ I try to match right Claireface for the mood of the comment, however this one is from a very recent QC strip so I wanted to try it out.
I’d like to say I in no way identify with what Claire’s going thru this week. But I can’t even type that with a straight face, so…
If I’m reading the subtext right good luck and knock ’em dead 🙂
Nah, no subtext, it was (mumblemumble) years ago. But thanks.
Well, considering Megatron once got him a bone for Christmas…
Megatron? More like MegaTROLL, amirite?
Oh well, on to the next ship: The S.S. Ethvan.
I thought it was tres kinky what they were doing with that honey
was that a Slipshine? i’m not a member, but honey is slippery so that would make sense.
I luv the spiderverse shirt so much
Of course he’s not a dog.
He’s a Transformer.
Goddamnit, Ethan