Rivera continues her portrayal of Honest Ernest as the archetypal primitive male, brash and always ready to rush into any situation based on sheer bravado. When faced with a setback, he attempts to brush it off as a minor annoyance. Well, that has been a male stereotype since, uh, forever. The ancient Greek warrior Achilles tried to brush off a Trojan arrow shot into his heel as just another workplace injury (“Just don’t call OSHA!”). That didn’t work out too well in the end for “swift-footed” Achilles. But in our current setting, Ernest got snicked by a bat and doesn’t get to brush it off. Instead, he is put his place (or into his van, if you will) by the women and rushed to treatment.

As longtime readers (Trailheads) know, it was standard practice in the pre-Rivera era to populate panels, whenever possible, with wildlife scampering around the scenery. Rivera continues that tradition, but almost always has the animal facing the reader, oftentimes with what appears to be some kind of human-like expression or emotion. I’m not sure what the motivation is, nor if I’m interpreting it correctly.