I don’t expect to see Mark portrayed as the moral, all-knowing, macho hero of old, especially after Rivera’s debut Mark Trail adventure (“Happy Trails”). However, I do expect him to be presented as fully capable when it comes to activities he’s supposed to know something about. But we can exclude the teaching part, for which Mark seems to have little aptitude.

This week, Mark’s Fishing/Survival Camp imploded, in large part through allowing Connor’s ranting and self-inflicted accidents to distract Mark and throw the class into chaos. One should wonder why this unstable person was even allowed to take this class, except that Connor admitted his friends on the De-Bait Team talked him into it! Doesn’t say much for them, does it? Then there is the fact that Cliff happened to be absent for most of the class, leaving Mark to handle everything. Since Cliff was aware that Connor had issues, one would think that he would be on hand to watch over Connor and help out.

But the story is not over, as the week ended with Mark and Cliff bundling Connor into a car to rush him to the ER to remove a fishhook from (I think) his thumb. Don’t you think Cliff’s fishing lodge should have had a first aid kit on hand and the expertise to deal with injuries such as this? Could this be something that Rivera did not think of, or does she just want to make Mark and Cliff look like bumbling fools?

Evolution is an interesting—if difficult—topic to try and encapsulate into a Sunday strip. I don’t even play an evolutionary biologist on TV, so not a lot I can say about the topic. But I did find a lot of Mark’s information in a PBS NewsHour release (Search for “PBS naked lizard”).

Art Dept. In Rivera’s customized title panel, I’m surprised she didn’t design the “Mark Trail” name using reptile scat, since it fits the lizard theme.