For some reason, Rivera chose to portray Mark this week as some kind of urban fanboy from the 1950s getting to meet Trigger for the first time. This Mark Trail is a Jules Rivera reboot, of course, so Mark’s pre-Rivera experience with horses means bupkis here (There, I got to use that word again!).

Diana Daggers drove Mark to the Happy Hoovez horse sanctuary, an organization set up to rescue mustangs from possible slaughter or government oversight. Weird spelling aside, this organization is concerned with seeing that mustangs get a safe home, along with a dose of birth control (owing to the rapid increase in mustang populations). Or so it claims. Meanwhile, Diana just stood around.

While Clayton (the program’s caretaker) delivered his “what we’re about” speech, Mark spent his time slobbering with excitement over the horses. When Clayton said Mark could offer an apple to one of the horses, Mark almost wet his pants. Hmm, I suppose that could have happened as well, given Mark’s rear-facing final appearance this week.

So, my initial reaction this week was that Rivera was treating this story more seriously than normal, which is good! But that feeling dissipated with her depiction of Mark. Hoo boy.

I read that crows and ravens do not get along. Anyway, it’s a well-drawn and informative Sunday sequence, along with a clever “Mark Trail” bird call title panel.  Heck, even the normally cornball joke in the last panel seems to be more relevant and less obnoxious than normal. But I still prefer Mark’s original beard.