And now, we see the big reveal as the mysterious “Rocky” is unveiled to us. To give Tom Batiuk credit, it is a genuine surprise. To take back a bit of that credit, though, it’s mainly a surprise because I’ve never heard of anyone named “Roxanne” who chooses to go by the name “Rocky.” It’s generally “Roxy” isn’t it?
The surprise is also unexpected because we’ve never really been given any reason to care who Rocky might be. I note that no one in the comments this week has hazarded any guesses about Rocky–Rocky has always been referred to as “he.” And why not? The focus of this arc has been on comic books, with nothing much about Cory and Friends other than their sudden interest in those comic books. If Funky or Holly said, “Say, who is this ‘Rocky’ anyway?” that would have laid the groundwork for today’s strip; as it is, it literally comes out of nowhere. It’s as if, in tomorrow’s strip, Carla should say “Oh, by the way, I used to be a man,” well, that will be a surprise as well. (That’s if Carla survives for another day. Her descent from “looks like a Popeye character” in panel one to “prop from a horror film” in panel three is pretty alarming.)
By contrast, Holly’s appearance has been consistent enough that I wonder if Tom Batiuk simply has a set of Holly colorforms that he just moves around.
Another thing for which Mr. Batiuk deserves credit is that Rocky actually appears to be attractive (as much as we can tell in the artwork). However, I have to dock points here as well, because, if you look closely you’ll see that Rocky is also smirking.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Wah wah wah waaaaaaaah.
So Rocky is short for Roxanne, eh? And Cory’s already exchanging old comic books with her? Damn, they’re moving fast. Speaking of things happening quickly, has any FW character aged as much as Carla has in a comparable period of time? Was there a “time jump” this week or something? Or is having a conversation with Holly really just THAT exhausting? At this rate she’ll just be a small pile of dust by Monday.
I’ll bet that “Roxy” went to Big Walnut Tech.
Cory will be killed trying to rescue her not knowing that she was carrying his love child. Afterwards she will return to a non-welcome (as is par for returning veterans in Westview) and gets a job at Montoni’s under the adoptive eye of Holly.
Well, give Batiuk credit for drawing a character who looks young, attractive, and distinguishable from the rest of the cast. Carla, on the other hand, is melting like she just looked into the Ark of the Covenant.
My first thought here was that Rocky used to be Roxanne, which honestly says more about the character than a gender reveal. I never understood this kind of twist, because if you don’t know a character that well, their gender doesn’t make a difference.
Also, it only works if you just assume the character male. At least Funky gave us a male-sounding name first.
I’m not sure I can give Batiuk credit, because the idea that Cory had talked to Holly enough about his friend Rocky to set up this encounter but never used pronouns referring to her is ludicrous. You’d have to talk as awkwardly and as unnaturally as a… Funky Winkerbean character. Whaddya know!
I have to wonder, was the change allowing women in combat positions done a year ago? Is this possibly what prompted Batiuk to make Cory’s friend a woman? And if so, which one of them gets his/her head blown off, leaving the other a shattered shell of a person?
Or Rocky could be a drag queen or transgender, but Batiuk doesn’t have the imagination for that.
I’m with Inkwell here, at first glance I thought TB dared to make this Rocky formerly to be female, who has transgendered (if that’s the term, I don’t care enough to look it up) to male since the picture was taken. Which may have been interesting, so naturally I was mistaken.
Is “Rocky” an actual girl in the Army, or is she a girl who used to be a guy? I honestly can’t tell which reveal Batiuk is going for here, as fodder to shock us and Holly. I suppose women in combat could be an interesting story (*cough*Doonesbury*cough*), but Panel 3 looks too much like Batiuk is going for a sex change/transgender reveal, what with the prom photo being her beauty peak, her sort of masculine face in the photo, and mom’s whole slow-morphing-into-Ron-Wood thing happening before our very eyes.
I’m really enjoying Epicus’ strip remakes (Epicus, and anybody else’s, to be honest)…gives the strip a purpose!
It’s hard to tell who’s more surprised here…Holly, upon finding out that Rocky is actually a babe-o-rama. or me, upon discovering that Jughead Jones is a transgendered woman.
The way to figure this is to ask yourself: “which scenario is the most contrived?” I go with the Rocky/Roxy mangled speech gambit. I suspect that no one has ever heard of anyone named Roxanne calling themselves Rocky – to the extent that this becomes a candidate for the old Batiuktionary.
“And this was Cory in high school, which is basically a current picture of Cory, since he never actually graduated. I think he lied about his age to the recruiter.”
“Carla, on the other hand, is melting like she just looked into the Ark of the Covenant.”
Just being in the presence of a genuine Westviewian is enough to cause rapid and premature aging…………………….
The guy in the tux should be knocking on the door any second………
Perhaps Holly is………the angel of death.
I’ll admit that I smiled when I saw the picture of Rocky from the prom because the joke I thought was set up well enough. I do now fear for Rocky’s safety because TB seems to be such a big believer of “Women in Refrigerators (http://lby3.com/wir/women.html)”. And we all know that there will be no better way, at least according to TB, for .Cory to become a man than for his new lady friend to be taken out by an IED. Man, I hope I’m wrong about this.
What I want to know is why Lisa’s name isn’t on the “Women in Refrigerators” list. After all, she was dress as Robing for her wedding. That’s close enough to being a superhero for me.
There IS a precedent for a woman named “Roxanne” using the nickname “Rocky”…and big surprise, it’s from the world of comic books! In the ’70s Marvel comic “Ghost Rider” (the source of the crappy Nicolas Cage movies), the hero’s love interest was Roxanne “Rocky” Simpson.
http://www.comicvine.com/roxanne-simpson-blaze/4005-8073/
Why wasn’t Holly equally surprised to find out the “Cory” was a boy? It’s become something of an androgynous name lately.
The idea of a female soldier calling herself (or being nicknamed) Rocky instead of Roxanne or even Roxxy is actually plausible. It’s just that the idea that this close friend would never be mentioned once by gender that’s pretty odd.
I don’t know why everyone is so shocked that Holly is suprised that Rocky is a woman. Considering how much time Westviewian boys spend with DSH John, I figure Holly half expected Cory was already turned by now.
Late to the party here. I have a friend who always refers to his wife as Rocky, and her name is Roxanne. Thus it does happen in real life as well as the comics.