At this point it should be pretty clear that the female alien is going to be a new major character. I wanted to do a slight misdirect and play the opening scene initially as if Azarek was a new hero character in the series, only to reveal the clichéd “pretty barfly” to be the REAL new hero character.
I’m not really sure it worked though. In the original version, with the extended fight between Azarek and the bounty hunters in the alley, that gave Azarek a bit more time to shine before getting to the bar. As it is, you only get him for two pages before the female alien shows up, so you don’t really get that time with Azarek to really fool you into thinking he’s going to be a lead. Not a huge deal, but that was the intent.
I like the booze gag at the end, which serves two purposes. It ends the action scene with a lighter bit of humor but it’s also meant to establish a bit of character. Azarek would probably gravitate towards something strong to drink and he even describes it as such, so for the female alien to find it weak helps to establish a bit of her bad-assery. Or maybe it really IS weak and Azarek just isn’t as tough as he thinks he is!
Girl got SKILLS! Mad respect!!
I will say, from the fact that both of this characters have a fairly equal slice of space between them on the volume’s cover, my first assumption from the get-go was of them getting an equal amount of the plot importance spotlight, VS thinking it’d be one leading over the other (And no hard assumptions over which one, if either, is a”Hero”, since, well, the main series tagline haha!)
All the same, absolutely no complaints if we’re following Ms. Trouble for the main part~ (Though here’s hoping we can learn some more of Azarek’s story, too.)
For the short time we’ve been introduced to these new characters, they’ve already become a delight to read, the both of them 🙂
I have to say I was fooled for a while
So the bad ass ‘barfly’ doesn’t like the taste of buffalo wings? 😉
I thought Azarek was going to be forced to go after our heroes and not necessarily a heroic character.
But I was fooled nonetheless, unless there is a plot twist lurking somewhere.
Never let your guard down around a girl in bell-bottom jeans. Doubly so if her anatomy gives her bell-bottom legs. 😀
As for the strength of the booze, that is something that has never really translated for me with aliens. You can’t even tell if it is alcohol or some weird compound that gets that species drunk. For all we know Azarek gets drunk on alcohol while this girl gets drunk on benzine. Xenobiology opens up so many questions that it chips away at some of the clichés automatically for me.
Ha! Bell-bottom legs! And good point with the alcohol and xenobiology.
Yay! Glad the misdirect worked to some extent. As for Azarek, he isn’t out of the story yet! He’s just taking a short nap for now.
The misdirect worked well enough that I have made a mental note of it as a story-telling device I could use in the future for some of my own comics. =) Great work!
Hey! All is great so far! .. .I wonder if anyone else was around to witness all this (bartender) or if it’s during a slow time or some kinda semi-private space cafe hookup lounge. Or if the next panel is going to be some chameleon guy trying to blend in with the cushions of his booth… and she says something charming and disarming as she walks out?
Funny, I had actually planned to have a short interaction with the bartender! In the next scene (not really a spoiler), the female alien will be carting Azarek away on a lift sled, the kind of thing Roka uses to move goods (and Bocce uses as a dog sled!). I was going to have a very quick scene right after the events of this page where she asks the bartender how much for one of his lift sleds. But ultimately, the bit (a) didn’t add much to the scene and (b) made her seem a bit less prepared and her plan not fully thought out. So I nixed it. But I did think it would be good to show someone else in the bar.