The question now is this a sign of compassion of not suffering the disease , lack of faith in her ability to cure the disease , or blinded by her though of revenge for Hunter. also , who going to tell the old man?
I’ll stick with rooting for Miz Black. Not because I think she has the moral high ground left any more after this page. But only because dying from a gunshot wound likely hurts less than being burned alive. And she’s kinda right about to hypocrisy thing…
What is her trade exactly? Was it a weapon she was manufacturing? Also, why didn’t she go for one of her handguns and shoot him, she had an opening there, I’d say.
“plying her trade” was a reference to the last comic. she was trying to cure a disease and made it multitudes worse. so now she’s implying that her trade is indiscriminate mass murder.
Sweet Jesus Erin. Take a Valium. Man, point bank into the dog, and damn near the same for the boy. Mercy killings perhaps? Donno. But your lovin’ every pondering that will come from this page I’ll wager.
Wow. We plainly do not know these people the way we thought we did. There is nothing like a story unfolding in such a way that you have to go back in your mind and rethink it over and over again as new information emerges… I love the way there doesn’t seem to be anything contrived or deliberately hidden – we are just getting the story in an order that naturally causes these twists and turns. Masterfully done.
I don’t know why people are so surprised. Remember that Blacksmith that had his hand shot just because he wasn’t getting out of the smithy fast enough? Or any of other instances where she put bystanders in danger to get him.
She shouldn’t have killed the boy. I’m not going to dissect her psyche to figure out why she did it, I leave that to the author and sit back and enjoy the wild ride that’s coming.
9:10 that this town burns too by the time they leave.
I’d still say the blacksmith was a different issue, as she was having a flashback when she shot him. And yes, she’s put bystanders in danger, but this is the first time she’s directly harmed one purposely for the sake of harming, not as a means to an end and not as collateral damage and in a supposedly lucid state of mind. (There is of course the possibility that her mind/humanity is going the longer the spell has her reanimated for.)
I don’t know how well towns burn in the rain, but yeah, it will probably see a lot more damage before they’re through with it. I’d wager she’s going to get her very own wanted poster very very soon, possibly the next town.
Don’t know about that actually… the dialogue about the “reddest parts of the town” and “doing it for her” might imply using human sacrifice to resurrect her. And he certainly has no qualms when it comes to colletaral either. And everyone else would be raging or crying right now. He is merely irriated by the looks of it.
(And I think that is the most words Miss Black has said ever on a single page
Nah, she also mentioned that she “turn[ed] a blind eye”, implying that she was alive at the time, and was, or at least should have been, aware of his actions. My interpretation was that he was looking for prostitutes (“reddest” as in red-light district, “whores you could conscion killing”) that he could persuade, by money or force, to serve as test subjects for her vaccine. Still a pretty grisly thing to do, especially since the cure turned out to be literally worse than the disease.
Or I could be completely wrong. I’m just going to sit back and watch the story unfold.
My thoughts were actually going in the direction of him allready working on a contingency plan if her vaccine does not work. Hunter allready preparing his antidote (for death).
Whoa, didn’t expect her to shoot the kid–but maybe she could tell he was almost gone anyway? I don’t know why she didn’t shoot Hunter then though, instead. She’d have been at leisure for anyone else after that. I guess she knows that regular bullets won’t do it for him though-maybe she’s not loaded up right????? questions, always questions! and holy cow, look at the art!
Thought: why if she can’t kill Hunter? Either because the magic prevents her from killing him, because it wouldn’t work given his unnatural healing ability, because there’s still a little piece of her that loves him, or because she made him in a sense.
I mean she’s apparently cured paralysis before her death, he’s got a very nasty scar where his spinal cord is, supposedly, and having his own flesh explode isn’t enough to stop him (she blew quite a chunk out of him at Baron’s Crossing, not to mention the grappling hook through the guts before then). So how much man is Hunter? We know she’s a walking corpse, but is he very different? Is he the steampunk equivalent of a cyborg?
Actually, on second review, I’m not sure she did shoot the kid. The blood spatter is from the panel below where she shoots the dog. Again Erin, great work. We got to get you hooked up with the Disney studios. This story needs animation. 🙂
I got the feeling John’s getting the temptation to pull the plug on what used to be his magic assistant. We know he can kill and revive in fire, and I’m betting that’s what he did to Miss Black. I also have the feeling that for plot’s sake, he somehow lost the means to end her… undeath.
His resurrected wife, by all we know. I doubt assistant is the right word. And we knew actually saw her rise from the dead in fire somewhere at the beginning of the comic… And I think the dialogue on the page before this one shows him still loving her? So that is why he won’t kill her. Nono of his firespells were aimed at her until now. The worst he did was explode her guns in her hands and string her up. And his comments about ‘So long, Darling’ and ‘Maybe next time, angel eyes’ imply he knew this was not going to kill her.
Dang, Erin. You did the two things the big studios say never to do in the movies: you killed the kid and the dog… at the same time!
It’s things like that that make this story so delightfully unpredicatable. I especially love the fact that Vane has gone from this vigilante hero type to someone who is quite possibly the villain of the story. I’d be surprised (but I wouldn’t consider it beyond your story telling abilities) if she can find her way back to the readers’ good graces. I mean, even as a mercy killing, this is extremely shocking and cruel.
Intimately! I used to have a 20 page-ish buffer; watching that dwindle away to today, as I now finish pages on the Saturday they post, was pretty excrutiating!
Ha, wait until Hunter burn down another town. Or we got more revelations on his own ugly past…
By the way, we don’t know what is the late stage of violet fever. Is it hideous amount of pain? Remember one thing : she knows too well. Okay, she could have used some drug to put the kid out of his misery quietly, but she’s a cold pragmatic : same result with a bullet, only faster. And the dog? Healthy carrier.
Anyway, congratulation to the author for not sugar-coating it. It’s a cruel world out there.
I don’t know who to root for, Ms Black or Hunter. Both have shown that they are willing and capable of killing. My guess is that Black shot the kid to spare him a slow painful death from a illness she created. Has for Hunter, Black is right about how he has burned to the ground towns less deserving as this one. I’m waiting with baited breat (Or breath that smells like bait) to learn more about hteir mutual pasts to take side yet.
My prediction: He either runs or temporarily holds her off somehow… Maybe buying time enough to reanimate the dog and maybe the kid too… though my money is on him getting a hell hound as a companion. Fighting causes the building to catch fire, and the barkeep/surgeon ends up joining the party of people also on his trail.
She was trying to shoot hunter the dog knocked the rifle in the kids direction. I don’t think hunter really wants to kill her, so lets hope she kills him before too many more innocent people get caught in the crossfire.
it looks more like she wasn’t paying attention when she was pointing it to me. That’s kind of what happens when you’re waving around a big gun with your finger on the trigger, especially considering it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to pull it, and you’re trying to do the big dramatic swing n’ shoot move
I’ll be honest I was expecting Hunter to burn this place down to put these people out of their misery I was not expecting her to just straight up shoot a child and his dog
Although I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s been well established that Hunter and Black aren’t as different as it might appear. They’re both murderers, they’re both thieves, and they both only really care about themselves.
The question now is this a sign of compassion of not suffering the disease , lack of faith in her ability to cure the disease , or blinded by her though of revenge for Hunter.
also , who going to tell the old man?
:’O
😮 Daaamn. Fire in her eyes yet cold as ice.
GAAAASSSSSPPPP
Okay, I’m gonna root for John Hunter now.
I’ll stick with rooting for Miz Black. Not because I think she has the moral high ground left any more after this page. But only because dying from a gunshot wound likely hurts less than being burned alive. And she’s kinda right about to hypocrisy thing…
What is her trade exactly? Was it a weapon she was manufacturing? Also, why didn’t she go for one of her handguns and shoot him, she had an opening there, I’d say.
> What is her trade exactly?
I took it as her saying she’s dead outside, too …
“plying her trade” was a reference to the last comic. she was trying to cure a disease and made it multitudes worse. so now she’s implying that her trade is indiscriminate mass murder.
^
Sweet Jesus Erin. Take a Valium. Man, point bank into the dog, and damn near the same for the boy. Mercy killings perhaps? Donno. But your lovin’ every pondering that will come from this page I’ll wager.
Not the dog! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! 🙁
Ok, JUST noticed what happened to the boy. OMG! Not him, too!!! Wonder how Doc will take this?
Wow. We plainly do not know these people the way we thought we did. There is nothing like a story unfolding in such a way that you have to go back in your mind and rethink it over and over again as new information emerges… I love the way there doesn’t seem to be anything contrived or deliberately hidden – we are just getting the story in an order that naturally causes these twists and turns. Masterfully done.
As always, very much obliged!
Alright, from now on, I officially want them to kill each other.
This here attitude of hers, is the reason why all my sympathy goes for J.H.Hunter, from the very beginning of this comic.
Dogie noooooooooooooo!!
:'(
Aslo did she just shot that sick child?
Man she really is dead inside…
I don’t know why people are so surprised. Remember that Blacksmith that had his hand shot just because he wasn’t getting out of the smithy fast enough? Or any of other instances where she put bystanders in danger to get him.
She shouldn’t have killed the boy. I’m not going to dissect her psyche to figure out why she did it, I leave that to the author and sit back and enjoy the wild ride that’s coming.
9:10 that this town burns too by the time they leave.
I’d still say the blacksmith was a different issue, as she was having a flashback when she shot him. And yes, she’s put bystanders in danger, but this is the first time she’s directly harmed one purposely for the sake of harming, not as a means to an end and not as collateral damage and in a supposedly lucid state of mind. (There is of course the possibility that her mind/humanity is going the longer the spell has her reanimated for.)
I don’t know how well towns burn in the rain, but yeah, it will probably see a lot more damage before they’re through with it. I’d wager she’s going to get her very own wanted poster very very soon, possibly the next town.
Holy shit.
That was no mercy killing. The kid didn’t deserve that, even if he was sick with a fatal disease. And certainly Hunter wasn’t burning anyone there.
Miss Black just crossed a moral event horizon. Hunter’s no saint, but at least he’s better than that.
Don’t know about that actually… the dialogue about the “reddest parts of the town” and “doing it for her” might imply using human sacrifice to resurrect her. And he certainly has no qualms when it comes to colletaral either.
And everyone else would be raging or crying right now. He is merely irriated by the looks of it.
(And I think that is the most words Miss Black has said ever on a single page
Nah, she also mentioned that she “turn[ed] a blind eye”, implying that she was alive at the time, and was, or at least should have been, aware of his actions. My interpretation was that he was looking for prostitutes (“reddest” as in red-light district, “whores you could conscion killing”) that he could persuade, by money or force, to serve as test subjects for her vaccine. Still a pretty grisly thing to do, especially since the cure turned out to be literally worse than the disease.
Or I could be completely wrong. I’m just going to sit back and watch the story unfold.
My thoughts were actually going in the direction of him allready working on a contingency plan if her vaccine does not work. Hunter allready preparing his antidote (for death).
Whoa, didn’t expect her to shoot the kid–but maybe she could tell he was almost gone anyway? I don’t know why she didn’t shoot Hunter then though, instead. She’d have been at leisure for anyone else after that.
I guess she knows that regular bullets won’t do it for him though-maybe she’s not loaded up right????? questions, always questions!
and holy cow, look at the art!
Thought: why if she can’t kill Hunter? Either because the magic prevents her from killing him, because it wouldn’t work given his unnatural healing ability, because there’s still a little piece of her that loves him, or because she made him in a sense.
I mean she’s apparently cured paralysis before her death, he’s got a very nasty scar where his spinal cord is, supposedly, and having his own flesh explode isn’t enough to stop him (she blew quite a chunk out of him at Baron’s Crossing, not to mention the grappling hook through the guts before then). So how much man is Hunter? We know she’s a walking corpse, but is he very different? Is he the steampunk equivalent of a cyborg?
…
Actually, on second review, I’m not sure she did shoot the kid. The blood spatter is from the panel below where she shoots the dog. Again Erin, great work. We got to get you hooked up with the Disney studios. This story needs animation. 🙂
(She shot the kid.)
I got the feeling John’s getting the temptation to pull the plug on what used to be his magic assistant. We know he can kill and revive in fire, and I’m betting that’s what he did to Miss Black. I also have the feeling that for plot’s sake, he somehow lost the means to end her… undeath.
His resurrected wife, by all we know. I doubt assistant is the right word.
And we knew actually saw her rise from the dead in fire somewhere at the beginning of the comic… And I think the dialogue on the page before this one shows him still loving her? So that is why he won’t kill her.
Nono of his firespells were aimed at her until now. The worst he did was explode her guns in her hands and string her up. And his comments about ‘So long, Darling’ and ‘Maybe next time, angel eyes’ imply he knew this was not going to kill her.
DID SHE KILL THE LITTLE BOY?! Yeah, I’m on Hunter’s side now.
Just when you think you’re starting to figure this strip out…
This just gets better and better.
Glad you feel that way — was afraid this might put a lot of folks off, really.
Dang, Erin. You did the two things the big studios say never to do in the movies: you killed the kid and the dog… at the same time!
It’s things like that that make this story so delightfully unpredicatable. I especially love the fact that Vane has gone from this vigilante hero type to someone who is quite possibly the villain of the story. I’d be surprised (but I wouldn’t consider it beyond your story telling abilities) if she can find her way back to the readers’ good graces. I mean, even as a mercy killing, this is extremely shocking and cruel.
I am amazed at how many Vane Black White Knights there still are even as of this page. Hmm. Black Knights?
Do you know what kind of torture it is to see the dates under the strips rapidly approaching today?
Intimately! I used to have a 20 page-ish buffer; watching that dwindle away to today, as I now finish pages on the Saturday they post, was pretty excrutiating!
Ha, wait until Hunter burn down another town. Or we got more revelations on his own ugly past…
By the way, we don’t know what is the late stage of violet fever. Is it hideous amount of pain? Remember one thing : she knows too well. Okay, she could have used some drug to put the kid out of his misery quietly, but she’s a cold pragmatic : same result with a bullet, only faster. And the dog? Healthy carrier.
Anyway, congratulation to the author for not sugar-coating it. It’s a cruel world out there.
Thanks!
Whoa.
This page really is a litmus-test.
Far beyond the usual stuff on the internet – and i absolutely love it.
Dang, Kudos!
Ha! Thanks so much.
I don’t know who to root for, Ms Black or Hunter. Both have shown that they are willing and capable of killing.
My guess is that Black shot the kid to spare him a slow painful death from a illness she created.
Has for Hunter, Black is right about how he has burned to the ground towns less deserving as this one.
I’m waiting with baited breat (Or breath that smells like bait) to learn more about hteir mutual pasts to take side yet.
Also, great story telling Erin!
Thankee!
My prediction: He either runs or temporarily holds her off somehow… Maybe buying time enough to reanimate the dog and maybe the kid too… though my money is on him getting a hell hound as a companion. Fighting causes the building to catch fire, and the barkeep/surgeon ends up joining the party of people also on his trail.
NOOOO NOT THE DOG!
..or the kid!!!
I’m just enjoying the fact that there is no “hero” in this story.
Loving the art and the story.
Thanks so much!
!?!?
She was trying to shoot hunter the dog knocked the rifle in the kids direction. I don’t think hunter really wants to kill her, so lets hope she kills him before too many more innocent people get caught in the crossfire.
it looks more like she wasn’t paying attention when she was pointing it to me. That’s kind of what happens when you’re waving around a big gun with your finger on the trigger, especially considering it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to pull it, and you’re trying to do the big dramatic swing n’ shoot move
Honestly it’s probably a gentler death than whatever he would have had if they hadn’t shown up. I mean, he technically died in his sleep (hopefully)
Oh my gosh, what is with these people and murdering animals? As soon as that poor pooch came on screen I knew he was doomed ;__;
I’ll be honest I was expecting Hunter to burn this place down to put these people out of their misery I was not expecting her to just straight up shoot a child and his dog
Although I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s been well established that Hunter and Black aren’t as different as it might appear. They’re both murderers, they’re both thieves, and they both only really care about themselves.