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Skeeter lays it on thick and Mark eats it up!

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Okay, how many of you really did an Internet search for “Manatee Fighter”!? Let’s see those hands!
…well, I did, too, of course.

Needless to say, most of us are familiar with the many tales of Mark Trail: Manatee Fighter as relayed by Rivera’s predecessors. The earliest adventure was probably “Mark Saves Cherry Davis from pet Manatee.” Then there was the notorious “Don’t Manhandle My Manatee!” One of his more recent stories was “The Manatee Make-out Caper”, where criminal manatee kidnapers chase Mark, Carina, and Gabe the Manatee through a dangerous cave that took several months of newspaper time to traverse. Gabe was so feisty that Carina barely had an opportunity to flash her assets at Mark

It appears that there is more manatee backstory in Rivera’s Mark Trail that hasn’t yet made it to print. And I know a lot of you are hoping it remains that way..*

Now, keep in mind that Rivera’s Mark Trail is not yet the internationally known and respected nature reporter his “dad” was. This current incarnation of Mark is a fringe up-and-comer, eager to take on just about any project that will get him more exposure. That might also explain Mark’s willingness to continue moving between reporting and activism as well as crossing that red line of legality when he deems it necessary.

Internet: Speaking of Internet searches,  you will not find the “Whether Men”, but you will find entries for “The Whethermen.” I’ll leave it to you to find out who they are and what they do.

* I hope readers realize this is just sarcasm. As far as I know, Mark has no manatee history.

Mark looks back over his shoulder and wonders where Skeeter bought his cargo vest.

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I think we can all agree that there are some aspects to this “feel-good story of inspiration and hope” that don’t make a lot of sense (at this point). And I’m not referring to the fact that Rita and Skeeter immediately reintroduce themselves to Mark, after having just done so a moment before.

Skeeter and Rita claim their lives have been upended as a result of raising funds to transport Max back into the ocean. So …
1. Who put these two civilians in charge of arranging transportation? Are they qualified?
2. Wouldn’t the first people you turn to for a project like this be actual marine biologists and other specialists? (I think I mentioned this point, previously.)
3. Where the heck is Max right now? According to Bill Ellis (see the December 6 strip), Max had already been removed from the freshwater pool and put into a van (“Oh The Hu-Manatee! Manatee Movers”) apparently containing sufficient ocean water to keep it healthy and alive. So why wasn’t Max immediately driven to the ocean and put back? Did they have to put up a GoFundMe page to buy gas?

The needs of the story outweigh the needs of logic and reality.

4. Still, why contrive the context of two aspirational meteorological educators working in underprivileged schools when Rivera could have fashioned a more plausible setting by making them members of an underfunded marine biology research center, a zoo, or the Department of Natural Resources? Heck, any of these positions would be even more likely to receive threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists and other nut jobs.