I think Bill Ellis might want to fire Mark and hire Rusty, because he just did something Mark rarely bothers to do:  Research. Sure, Rusty did his research after the fact, but he still did it. So he’s young. He’ll likely learn from the experience. And the way Rusty can flex his anatomy (panel 1) has to be a game changer!

But Rusty’s revelation puts a new light on things. Mark should now be the one who is embarrassed by his own deference to that fraud. Sadly, it seems as if Mark is always getting played for a mark, which is another reason he needs a wingman.

Oh, on the artistic front, Rivera designs yet another visual flashback technique (panel 2), where Rusty’s recollection appears in an isolated area without context. Well, I should not call these images flashbacks, because they are really just memory snapshots frozen in time. I think I’ll go with the term recollection from here on.