Ow! Stabbed in the back again! Rivera tries to get cute by having Mark respond to the narration box in panel 1, as if it actually is his own thought. Actually, that is kind of clever, but not here, not now.

The big stab comes as Rivera pulls the rug out from under her suspenseful buildup and returns to her comfort zone of farce. Farce has its place and I enjoy it, but once in a while I’d like to see some actual drama play out here, without oddball jacks-in-the-box popping up or suffering Rivera’s inexplicable reliance on retreading the same opponents, over and over, like the 1960s Batman TV show and its rotating list of villains. Okay, so Jebediah Jeter is a “new” member of the troupe. Journalist? He looks more like “Jebediah Jeter, Professional Hobo.” And he has to portray another joker familiar with Mark and his work. Small world.

So what the hell has Jeter been doing, wandering around the woods for the past several Trailverse days or more? After all, he went missing before Mark was even called to take on this assignment.