Annotated 33-2
It’s WAV! WAV the totally original character! WAV the sensational character find of 2014! WAV of conviction, WAV of light, WAV of the future, oh CRAP you guys figured it out already, didn’t you.
It took exactly EIGHTEEN MINUTES for the readers to start guessing this was somehow Payet Best, and the only thing they did first was note the (fairly obvious) Daft Punk influence. It wasn’t a total surprise to us that they’d figure it out at some point, since they’d theorized other new characters were “Best’s alt” with fairly little evidence (Penk’s a musical warrior too! Or what about Scipio, we’ve never seen him and Best in the same place, and the opposite of always boasting is never saying much… no no, Best left the game and is now JJ Berten! I kid, but the real theories were about as tenuous). And we were making his identity a plays-fair mystery: the Daft Punk look was in keeping with the way Best had cycled through a Bowie phase earlier.
I warned Flo not to get too invested in fooling the readers with this (she thought the earlier theories would provide some cover), and I was perhaps a little smug about it when I was proven right. Or, well, righter than Flo, at least. But even I would’ve figured on the disguise holding up until WAV took out his keytar or at least gave his name. Eighteen minutes, cripes, that’s like someone guessing the rest of the lyrics before you even finish your first chorus.
Best? Isn’t he one of those guys from 1979’s The Black Hole? I don’t know why he’s doing the crying emoji face in the last panel, though
“But even I would’ve figured on the disguise holding up until WAV took out his keytar or at least gave his name. Eighteen minutes, cripes, that’s like someone guessing the rest of the lyrics before you even finish your first chorus.”
Not sure I agree. At some point, the conservation of characterfs effect has to come in, and it was clear Best was one of the five in the tubes, so he had to come back at some point.
“It took exactly EIGHTEEN MINUTES for the readers to start guessing this was somehow Payet Best”
That would be more impressive as a deduction without the “throw things at the wall until something finally sticks” approach to “deducing” here.
That is: Guy with his face covered? Of course people in the comment section are going to immediately say “it’s Best!”
Pardon me, you keep referring to Flo in your comments. Who is she, she is not listed anywhere in the credits that I can find.
Flo Kahn is credited in the images by her former name, which I avoid using in alignment with her wishes and generally accepted practice. Her last name has not changed. She is Guilded Age’s co-writer and co-creator.
It may be less confusing if she were credited as such in the header, instead of just the footer? (Obviously going back and changing all of the actual comics is untenable, since it’s just her (or Jason?) to do it.)
Said header also gives an incorrect schedule and claims there are still new comics, so an update in general might be worth it, if whoever is in charge of maintaining the website is available.
This is a good idea, and I will try to make it a reality this weekend.
Thank you! I thought that might be the case, but it was also possible that she was an uncredited girlfriend.
WAV was the first of the ‘OMG, Best’s alt!’ theories that didn’t annoy me. (Well, maybe second…I can’t remember how I initially reacted to the first one, but I retroactively hated it after it became a meme, anyway.) Because he’s the first one it made any sense, because he clearly came from another setting, and thus couldn’t have coexisted with Best on Arkherra, and the mask meant he could fit in the Tube Crew’s obviously being modeled after their Sepia selves. (I can’t remember if we’d seen their Sepia faces at this point, but even the shadowed forms were obviously just more ‘realistically’ drawn versions of their Arkherran selves.)
I seem to remember seeing them in the material Shanna had gotten; the interviews the Five had given before getting into the tubes.
After his 20-odd chapter absence, I remember reading the comments and asking, “Who was Best, again?”