Again, with stating the obvious in textboxes!? Tell us something different that the illustrations don’t, Rivera. You know how to be creative, right?

I have to say that I’m not at all happy with how this nature retreat is run. For one thing, where is the director/founder? Shouldn’t he be directing something? If this is a nature retreat, how come there isn’t a naturalist on staff? I suppose Rivera’s satiric goal here is to point out how ill-prepared and naïve tech-weenies are in the real world. That’s fine. It’s a popular theme that Rivera has used before. I just hope that Rivera has added some original, creative, twists to give this story some interest.

For example, just why is Mark’s usual collection of opponents all here at this camp at the same time? Why is it they seem to be the only people at this retreat? Did Bill Ellis pull strings behind the scenes to engineer this entire setup because he secretly loathes Mark?  That might account for the serendipitous matchups that keep happening on Mark’s assignments. I have an hypothesis:  Kelly Welly is having an affair with Bill Ellis and pushing him to hamstring Mark at every turn so that she can more easily ascend to the top of the nature-reporting hill. It’s not as if she’s had any real part in any adventures since Rivera took over. That’s a missed opportunity.