Home » Mark and the Polluted Lake » Is this a subtle tip o’ the Mark Trail Hat to its own past?

Is this a subtle tip o’ the Mark Trail Hat to its own past?

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Taken at face value (pun intended), Mark appears to be getting the worst of this “tussle.” Either Mark is holding back or his vaunted Two Fists O’ Jello … I mean, Justice, are not doing the job they were anointed to do.

Now, as for panel 2, I’m gobsmacked, as the Brits sometimes exclaim. We can see that Brett is shocked, as well. But I like his expression! Cherry showed up as if she is arriving at a neighbor’s backyard BBQ party … accompanied by her pet peacock!? I don’t see a string or leash, so how is it the peacock also showed up?  They don’t even like people. Did Cherry win it over with her winsome ways? Did she bring along rare peacock food to entice it?

Or is the peacock on its way to actually attack the Cheddersons, just on principle?

At this point, I thinking that a once-plausible storyline has rolled into a hazard, and there will be penalties to pay.

Tip of the hat: Okay, what’s with today’s podcast title? If you observe all of the dialog today, notice that every statement ends with an exclamation point! This was pro-forma for dialog in the Mark Trail strips before Rivera took over. One of her improvements was to stop that and only use them when they were called for. And she has been fairly consistent with that. Until today. So, are all of those !s in every speech balloon appropriate for today?

5 thoughts on “Is this a subtle tip o’ the Mark Trail Hat to its own past?”

    • Nice! Thanks for that. I quit reading/collecting comics before Iron Fist came along. Alex Saviuk drawing, right? I really liked Steve Ditko’s work on the earliest Spiderman comics (and Dr. Strange).

      But nowadays, Spidey is like Superman, with too many covers and variations running (or swinging) around.

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  2. Oh, I definitely see Mark holding back. He’s blocking Chedder’s punches several inches from his face. Exactly why he’s not administering Justice™ is a bit of a mystery to me. Every previous incarnation of Mark Trail would have clobbered Chedder at this point. The kinder, gentler Rivera Mark, I guess.

    I’m still trying to figure out how this connects to the supposed story of lake pollution…

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    • “Join the club!”, as the saying goes. But I may have an answer for your perplexity: As I tried to point out in the Sunday discussion, had this confrontation happened later—after actual evidence was laid before the Cheddersons—Brett might have been motivated to go after Mark. But at this point in the story, Brett could/should have just said “Screw you, Trail. Get off my property before I have you arrested!” That might have actually spurred Mark to investigate more covertly, after hours.

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  3. This story arc is so goofy it stopped making sense a while ago. What’s next?

    Cherry: Oh, hi, Mark! If you boys are busy fighting, can the peacock and I play through? 😆

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