Annotated 43-22
I appreciate the Sith-like detail of Best summoning his guitar, which morphs from his keytar to its original ax-shape. It puts a bow on his transformation and displays some of the more magical elements of his power, which otherwise won’t get too much of a workout until the finale.
ICYMI, Best’s current look is inspired by Kurt Cobain, which has certain implications about the demons he’ll be wrestling with for as long as he retains that look.
FB: “As he prepares for his next performance, Best tries some simple vowel exercises to warm up his voice, on today’s GUILDED AGE.”
Huh. Cobain? Always read as Iggy Pop to me. It’s definitely the shirtless aspect…that was a big part of Pop’s image, whereas I can’t think of a single shot of Kurt shirtless.
Beat me to it. Definitely Iggy Pop.
I’d probably place him either in the post-1980’s Hard Rock/Metal scene, or pre-1980’s (i.e. not bombastic hair-metal), but not in the shoe-gazing/Grunge scene. I always got a very introverted vibe from Kurt Cobain, which is absolutely not a good fit for Best — the demon-wrestling stuff absolutely does match my impression of Kurt, though.
And now that you mention it, Iggy Pop is a really good fit: Shirtless, loud and angry, with a big axe to grind (haha). BTW, I think he’s still doing the shirtless thing, and looking pretty good for his age, I have to say.
Yeah…I only used the past tense because I’m not sure if he’s still performing, but the most recent pics I’ve seen of him (from a decade ago)…yeah. He was clearly 60+, but he was still absolutely cut…just…wrinklier. Like quickly run an iron over him and he’d look like it was 1980.
Iggy pop interview from ’82
You guys are probably right, more on this tomorrow…
Oh man. Unlike some readers, who were (understandably) all “NOOO! Bring back WAV!” at this point, I was stoked to have Best back. He may have been a jerk up to that point, but he was an entertaining jerk.
Also, for me Best in the third panel has always recalled not so much Invasion of the Body Snatchers as Ren in Sven Hoek.
We all knew it was coming back but we are about to see Best at his worst. Best was always a douche but I couldn’t help but to loathe him in the upcoming pages.
same here.
I had a little hope that his experience as WAV, and being “born again” would have at least caused him to have a thought or three before reverting back to Best mode, but he went straight past that and to Worst. I have no idea why anyone would put up with that guy for anything, ever.
Bard buffs arethat good, man.
And he, himself, is actually that good. Like those self-important blowhards who brag about personal DPS but then actually carry the party when half the group goes down. I have to give it to GA that they made him so incredibly competent to go with his horrible personality.
Is he? Most of the time, he just bosses people around or is otherwise a total dick. Every once in a while, he shows he’s actually capable of keeping up with the rest of them. Of course, that’s only when the alternative would be dying along with the rest of the group, which means it’s in moments when the others’ abilities either aren’t suited or they are otherwise incapacitated.
The only reason he’s able to save the group in such moments is because he’s been hanging back the rest of the time. Had he been actually interested in being their peer, most of the situations he saved them from with wouldn’t even have happened.
So, this was all back when the team was not very powered up yet, and didn’t have it together, but back then Best was almost out-gunning the rest of the team, by his lonesome.
Of course he was by his lonesome on account of his shit personality.
And he could only compete because the team didn’t have full teamwork going yet.
A well-tacticked team with a strong strategist is pretty much unbeatable… but they had all manner of trust issues and idiosyncracies-at-odds back then.
The current team is no longer competeable by any soloer.