So we take a well-earned break from Mark’s chaotic and absurd contretemps and finally get a second dose of Dad…er…Doc Davis, clearly worried that Cherry may go off half-cocked and make things worse.

One thing you can say about the Davis daughters is that they are not wilting flowers or demur debutantes. Will Cherry go in loaded for bear, like some kind of Michelle Yeoh protégé and try to kick the Association members into submission? Or will she adopt more of a Dread Pirate Roberts (The Princess Bride) approach and beat them in a test of wits and logic?

Cherry’s short-fuse personality is an interesting contrast with Mark’s slow-to-boil attitude. Not that the previous incarnation of Cherry was a pushover; but she operated within the constraints of the moral universe that guided the strip then. Nevertheless, living more or less independently in Lost Forest (as Mark was often on assignment), I have to believe the old Cherry would have developed a good degree of self-resilience and toughness and acted a bit more like this Cherry, given the freedom. (Rats! I just broke my rule against looking back.)

As for the alliterative and redundantly-named neighborhood association, Doc has it nailed in one:  It does look a bit snooty, with its flagstone walkway, ethical front garden, and framed timber cottage architecture. And instead of a normal (that is, déclassé) business sign, there is only an obscure graphic placard hanging over the door, like you would find outside an old European business. Snooty, indeed! It kind of looks like a strange blue wave with the sun to the right. But with that strangely-lined “sky”, the “sun” disc looks more like the center of a camera’s aperture. The kind you see in the beginning of James Bond films. Uh-oh!