Maybe Jules Rivera thinks the soporific dialog and near total lack of movement this past week offer her readers a break from the hard-hitting action of Mark’s latest adventure. Or maybe not. Maybe Rivera is just carrying on her tradition of emphasizing the domestic side of the Trail family, something prior Trail cartoonists usually rushed over. Some of Mark’s newer adventures have been outgrowths of hanging out with Rusty and Cherry. I think that is fine. Mark gets seen as a (somewhat over-the-top) family man, not just an Adventure Hero coming home long enough to wave to Rusty and give Cherry a test drive before heading out to his next assignment.

“But wait!” you say, “those are some of the classic Mark Trail tropes we love to make fun of!” Of course, but Rivera produces her own memes and tropes that we can pillory.

Rivera’s lighter approach to the family-based scenarios (including Cherry’s) should find in Mark’s official assignments a balance that emphasizes more mature plots, action, and danger. Unfortunately, those traits have gone wanting for the most part. For example, we’ve seen Mark in car chases, but they usually look more like The Dukes of Hazzard than Mission Impossible or The Transporter. So c’mon, Rivera! Mark can handle the extra weight. If you can’t spend extra time on the art, spend extra time on the stories.

Back to the review: This past week was mostly about Cherry feeling guilty for not having time to take Rusty on a school trip to Washington, D.C. and having to once again depend on Mark. I think we can understand that concern! At the same time, did we really need to see so much of Cherry’s self-recrimination?  Rivera couldn’t find a better way to pad out the week? Anyway, we ended with Mark and Rusty flying off to our nation’s capital. What could go wrong?

Yikes! More information on how gosh-darned weird and dangerous the world is to all living things.