Couple extra pages of story this month. Anyone want to guess what's going on? (I will not confirm or deny anything so don't be upset if you guess and I don't respond to it.)
This honestly wasn't even close to what I was expecting for this page! well done indeed!
As far as guesses go, the only thing I'm willing to guess on is that Nightchantress got away and got her money, and that LL's secret identity is probably not a secret anymore.
WELL, I think this is all an illusion/hallucination caused by the Nightchantress, to keep Abby both literally and figuratively in the dark, while she continues to drain her power (and I do not like the short hair).
I have to agree, it's an illusion and her short hair is not cute. However, it might be reasonable to have cut it depending on the "cause" of the coma. Wonder what mom's going to say next.
It’s all in her mind. It’s an attempt to brain wash her into thinking her role as a heroine has been a fantasy. Nightchantress said she would eliminate Liberty Lass from interfering in her own way. Probably has put her in a coma like state to do this.
Good work and congratulations on publishing this long.
This is an interesting turn. I too thought "illusion" at first. After all, seemingly every storyteller eventually has to tell one; right? But still not sure. This has to play out.
Then I thought they probably mistakenly thought her hair was the key to her flying around. So like Samson, they cut her hair. Oh, and took away the boots and gloves too, just in case. ;)
I'm happy to let this play out and see where it goes next.
The shorter hair is probably a lot easier to work with.
But why would anybody (doctors, mom, etc) cut a young girl's hair if she's in a coma? They wouldn't; not if they didn't want World War III on their hands when she awoke! Now, explaining the short hair, it's possible that her hair (and costume maybe) got burned off of her in the fight, leaving nothing but a naked, unconscious girl on the street afterward. She is invulnerable, but her clothing, even from Odo's genius, might have limits. And her hair can grow back.
The current hair length could be about 4 months worth.
So loss of hair and clothing could explain how they found her but didn't find out about her secret.
As a minor, possibly found on the street naked, the press might not have access to her name. That would not explain her absence from school, however. But of course, if it was near the end of the school year, maybe nothing came of it.
That's pretty dark, Comic Fan, but certainly plausible.
What I'm having a hard time reconciling in either the illusion or the real scenario though, is why would she be wearing lipstick if she just woke from a coma? Steven is far too detail oriented to miss something like that, so that's got to be deliberate!
I think there's a missing piece to this particular puzzle
Her mother could have done her makeup. Desperate people can go to great lengths for minor problems when they are powerless against the greater ones.
So, if we go with the extremely creative naked hairless coma theory, Abby might have been assumed to be a bystander victim of the fight, so her secret identity is not compromised. Then we can hypothesize that she needed 4 months to heal the damage, and longer to recharge her powers.
My thoughts go clearly to "illusion". Looking at panel 3 and panel 4 I don't see any tubes sticking out of our young Abby. I don't see any machines monitoring vitals either. 4 months without nourishment... I doubt it.
I think this villianess is powerful, but not exceptionally detail oriented because of that power. Those are some pretty big details to miss.
I think Abby is going to notice this in pretty short order and clue in.
Good catch. I did not notice the lipstick, but I did notice the lack of even a simple IV. The lipstick is easily answered. Mother, Dee, other female friend or family member; or even a nurse. When fighting an illness, family members will often help out by washing and grooming hair, helping to shave, or doing some light makeup for the patient.
When I was in the hospital a few years back, I didn't need anybody to do that stuff for me, but I do remember that the moment I was well enough to go to the bathroom by myself, the next thing I wanted to do was shave my face and head; even though I only had one working arm and the IV nearly immobilizing the other. It had been over a week since my last shave, so I asked for cream and a razor anyway.
It probably took me 90 minutes to finish and then take a mostly dry shower (bandages), but it was the best shave I'd ever had before or since. It really IS the seemingly small things that can make us feel human again.
Explaining the lack of IV or feeding equipment in the room is somewhat more difficult.
Somebody who's been conked out for 4 months would have to be fed somehow. With her powers and invulnerability, she might not need it, but the doctors, not knowing her identity and powers (if we subscribe to my "clothes burned off and found as a victim" theory) would surely have tried to feed her by way of either IV or a tube. Either one would have required that they find a way to puncture her skin.
A temporary depletion of powers could allow that. And she did used to get injured before her powers came; per a prior issue.
But with the evidence shown so far, we can't explain why she doesn't have any feeding mechanism now, upon waking up supposedly in a real hospital. Surely there would be some device nearby. I know, next week, when donning her backup costume, Abbey finds the feeding port. Surprise! And yikes! :O
That's true for unconscious patients. But she wasn't intubated either, which would be the other way to get a feeding tube down there, right?
Also, upon a new look, I see that neither is she wearing the typical hospital gown thingee. Limitations in the DAZ store notwithstanding, the shirt she's wearing is a lot tighter than a hospital gown, which would likely have ties around the shoulders and the back of the neck, rather than t-shirt like placking. Patients often can't move their head, arms, torso well enough to put on or remove any over-the-head type of shirt, so it would be more likely that she'd have a tied-on gown/top.
But at this point, we may be getting too deep in the weeds. Of course, that's what I do best, so...
We also see mom dressed a little too nicely for a visit in the 4th or 5th month of a comatose daughter. Unless she's running for mayor or something and is visiting today on a lunch break in the electioneering, I'd expect to see mom in jeans and a t-shirt by now, with more personal effects scattered about the room than just a tablet. Because mom would be basically living in the room with her beloved daughter.
Well in retrospect, I am glad this page auto-posted while I was in Disney World with my family. I might have been tempted to individually answer all these interesting comments, which it's easier not to do now that there are so many. I won't confirm or deny anything at this point.
I do want to make a few things clear, however. Some of the details people have noticed are "real" and some are DAZ studio artifacts.
For example, she's wearing a hospital gown. It's a G1 gown so the auto-fitting sucks. There wasn't a good one for G2F that I could find. This is actually the same product I use on Liberty Man. It doesn't fit him right either. Don't read anything into that.
As for lack of IV tubes, I won't say whether that's deliberate or not, but note that even though there is an IV in the other hospital room that Liberty Man uses, it's not attached to anything because that particular model can't be used that way. So you might not want to read too much into that.
Hair on the other hand was on purpose. Obviously I could choose whatever hair model I wanted. This was a G2F hair style (can't remember the name, but it should be in the credits in a couple weeks). Hair *color* was the best I can do. It's not a perfect match to Abby's other hair styles and no amount of fighting with it could get it any closer. It has to do with how many strands there are and the fact that none of her hair models are iRay by default.
Of the rest... I will say nothing for the moment. ;)
May I suggest a larger image for the vote link? I hadn’t noticed it until after I searched top webcomics for your comic there. It may be my old eyes, but it took me a while to find it once I started looking. Don’t feel shy about making it prominent. I noticed you have a loyal following and I bet they all want you to get more exposure. I’ll make sure to vote for you regularly now that I know it’s there. Cheers.
I appreciate the support but I really don't pay much attention to TWC. Ever since I found out that there are "voting rings" here and elsewhere and realized the whole thing is effectively bogus, it has lost any meaning for me. I've left the link there mostly because I'm too lazy to take it down, and because I know some of the readers here like to vote for their favorites. But I've no plans to make the link more prominent.
Ok, I wasn’t aware of that. I rarely go there directly, just vote for a few artists from their comic links. Incidentally, I found your comic by way of browsing bing. Was trying to remember City of Heroes character and saw a picture of your comic. It’s been enjoyable.
Glad you are enjoying it. LL is in fact based on a City of Heroes character I played for about 5 years. The costume she wears here is actually the 2nd one I created for her (the first had a blue top and red skirt and cape).
As far as guesses go, the only thing I'm willing to guess on is that Nightchantress got away and got her money, and that LL's secret identity is probably not a secret anymore.
Also, I kinda like the shorter hair
Good work and congratulations on publishing this long.
Then I thought they probably mistakenly thought her hair was the key to her flying around. So like Samson, they cut her hair. Oh, and took away the boots and gloves too, just in case. ;)
I'm happy to let this play out and see where it goes next.
The shorter hair is probably a lot easier to work with.
But why would anybody (doctors, mom, etc) cut a young girl's hair if she's in a coma? They wouldn't; not if they didn't want World War III on their hands when she awoke! Now, explaining the short hair, it's possible that her hair (and costume maybe) got burned off of her in the fight, leaving nothing but a naked, unconscious girl on the street afterward. She is invulnerable, but her clothing, even from Odo's genius, might have limits. And her hair can grow back.
The current hair length could be about 4 months worth.
So loss of hair and clothing could explain how they found her but didn't find out about her secret.
As a minor, possibly found on the street naked, the press might not have access to her name. That would not explain her absence from school, however. But of course, if it was near the end of the school year, maybe nothing came of it.
What I'm having a hard time reconciling in either the illusion or the real scenario though, is why would she be wearing lipstick if she just woke from a coma? Steven is far too detail oriented to miss something like that, so that's got to be deliberate!
I think there's a missing piece to this particular puzzle
So, if we go with the extremely creative naked hairless coma theory, Abby might have been assumed to be a bystander victim of the fight, so her secret identity is not compromised. Then we can hypothesize that she needed 4 months to heal the damage, and longer to recharge her powers.
I think this villianess is powerful, but not exceptionally detail oriented because of that power. Those are some pretty big details to miss.
I think Abby is going to notice this in pretty short order and clue in.
When I was in the hospital a few years back, I didn't need anybody to do that stuff for me, but I do remember that the moment I was well enough to go to the bathroom by myself, the next thing I wanted to do was shave my face and head; even though I only had one working arm and the IV nearly immobilizing the other. It had been over a week since my last shave, so I asked for cream and a razor anyway.
It probably took me 90 minutes to finish and then take a mostly dry shower (bandages), but it was the best shave I'd ever had before or since. It really IS the seemingly small things that can make us feel human again.
Explaining the lack of IV or feeding equipment in the room is somewhat more difficult.
Somebody who's been conked out for 4 months would have to be fed somehow. With her powers and invulnerability, she might not need it, but the doctors, not knowing her identity and powers (if we subscribe to my "clothes burned off and found as a victim" theory) would surely have tried to feed her by way of either IV or a tube. Either one would have required that they find a way to puncture her skin.
A temporary depletion of powers could allow that. And she did used to get injured before her powers came; per a prior issue.
But with the evidence shown so far, we can't explain why she doesn't have any feeding mechanism now, upon waking up supposedly in a real hospital. Surely there would be some device nearby. I know, next week, when donning her backup costume, Abbey finds the feeding port. Surprise! And yikes! :O
Also, upon a new look, I see that neither is she wearing the typical hospital gown thingee. Limitations in the DAZ store notwithstanding, the shirt she's wearing is a lot tighter than a hospital gown, which would likely have ties around the shoulders and the back of the neck, rather than t-shirt like placking. Patients often can't move their head, arms, torso well enough to put on or remove any over-the-head type of shirt, so it would be more likely that she'd have a tied-on gown/top.
But at this point, we may be getting too deep in the weeds. Of course, that's what I do best, so...
We also see mom dressed a little too nicely for a visit in the 4th or 5th month of a comatose daughter. Unless she's running for mayor or something and is visiting today on a lunch break in the electioneering, I'd expect to see mom in jeans and a t-shirt by now, with more personal effects scattered about the room than just a tablet. Because mom would be basically living in the room with her beloved daughter.
So I'm sure there's a lot more to this story.
I do want to make a few things clear, however. Some of the details people have noticed are "real" and some are DAZ studio artifacts.
For example, she's wearing a hospital gown. It's a G1 gown so the auto-fitting sucks. There wasn't a good one for G2F that I could find. This is actually the same product I use on Liberty Man. It doesn't fit him right either. Don't read anything into that.
As for lack of IV tubes, I won't say whether that's deliberate or not, but note that even though there is an IV in the other hospital room that Liberty Man uses, it's not attached to anything because that particular model can't be used that way. So you might not want to read too much into that.
Hair on the other hand was on purpose. Obviously I could choose whatever hair model I wanted. This was a G2F hair style (can't remember the name, but it should be in the credits in a couple weeks). Hair *color* was the best I can do. It's not a perfect match to Abby's other hair styles and no amount of fighting with it could get it any closer. It has to do with how many strands there are and the fact that none of her hair models are iRay by default.
Of the rest... I will say nothing for the moment. ;)