Pandemica #3

[history79]

Comments

[thanekos]

" .. the fuc- is this your naming scheme? Is there a twelve-year-old involved in this?! "

[mastermahan]

They actually named one KEK, so apparently.

[tcampbell1000]

"He-he-he said there were babies down here... AND THERE WERE BABIES DOWN HERE OH MY GOD, WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN THIS, MY BRAIN B-B-BROKE"

[jlbarnett]

those aren't standard hospital ward cribs you know

[tcampbell1000]

Yes, fair, but that'd be considerably more of a shock to the reader if we hadn't established that "the babies" were infected and therefore required quarantine, that "the babies" were being kept down where the cures to every disease were, and like four other levels of atrocity that our protagonists accepted about as calmly as if they were browsing Reddit Shower Thoughts. Were they really expecting a nursery that didn't look Borg-designed after all that lead-in?

[super_fly]

It looks pretty haphazard too, some tubes are mounted horizontally some are vertical with varying sizes, and the rest are just hanging about like flystrips.

[jlbarnett]

did they know they had the tech to design it like that?

[tcampbell1000]

I don't think the tech is meant to be the shocking part? I mean, surely the infant-harvesting is a little more objectionable?

Look, I don't want to be mean, but I feel like I'm not communicating clearly here. My issue here isn't the reveal, it's that Maberry and Sanchez do not seem to know how humans work. You could sell the Pandemica pair as people who never imagined the level of horror that they came across--but then you'd have to make them react a lot more intensely as soon as Dr. "Hoss" starts spilling secrets, not just whisper "Babies, fuck me" and then stare blankly while he narrates.

Or you could have them stay low-key throughout the sequence and trust the audience to do the reacting.

Or if you really wanted to try to get both detachment and wide-eyed shock in there, you could present actually coming face-to-face with actual babies as the moment that their detachment finally slips. You'd still have to dial down the Home Alone-ing and it'd play much better if one of them slipped instead of both, but you could do that... if you showed interest in them as people. What you can't do is just have them switch from one set of mannerisms to another and expect us to follow along with a muddled-at-best idea of what they're reacting to. (Maybe it is the tech? But it's not that clear what the tech's supposed to do-- so could it be the babies after all? Or the naming scheme? Gah, this would be so much clearer if the doctor had just called them "the assets!")

There's also the way Pandemica Guy grins when he says "Sure, Doc, you can trust us compleeetelyyy"; like, are you really so bad at interrogation that you can't hide your plans to kill your sole informant for ten minutes? But then Doc Hoss starts grinning right back and going "We're doing the racial purity bombs because hooray genocide boo climate change" as if he thinks he's sitting in front of a sympathetic audience. Like, maybe I'm supposed to think he's given up on being alive so he might as well show his true self, or that it all starts pouring out once he starts confessing? But I'm not given any evidence of that! I am doing way too much work to convince myself these people make sense!

Art with more of a gift for natural expressions could've covered the deficiencies in the script, or a script with more humanity could've-- well-- mitigated the issues with the art. But as it is, they come together and cost this story the psychological plausibility it needs.

I mean, at least for me! Your mileage may vary.

[beyondthefringe]

"Promise you won't kill me!"
"Suuuuure."
*Racist bullshit ensues*
*blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam*

[bruinsfan]

You forgot "blammity" before those last two blams.

[super_fly]

The government assassin wears Ninja Turtle boxers, how wacky!

[mazway_75]

I'm sure the writers are now wincing over the timing of this book.....