As mentioned, I found yesterday’s strip kind of cute and a bit of a relief from the usual fare. However, it appears I’ve picked up a terrible habit from reading this strip: I didn’t think things through.
I figured the guy would take off his costume to perform the ceremony, you know, the way a normal person would. (Indeed, I thought that’s what had happened in the second panel, with the minister the bearded guy in the back.) Instead, this turned to the Dumb Side, really, really fast. So, what kind of church does this guy lead? Can he perform marriages that will hold up in court? I think if he’s an ordained minister for the Church of St. Leeloo Dallas Multipass, Cindy, Vera, Cliff and Mason might find themselves in something of a pickle down the road.
What’s probably most irksome here is John. His nonchalance from yesterday has cooled into a deep boredom–as if he searched all over for a priest of the Holy Order of Batman, Batman, the one he really wanted, but damn it couldn’t find one and had to settle for one who wouldn’t be able to give him first communion. Screw you, Mason, you wanted a damned minister and I got you a damned minister. Can I go home now?
I do like how the Xaxian is posing in panel two, in that James Dean in “East of Eden” symbolism pose, though I kind of think it’s a bit inappropriate here. I remember doing that pose as a kid, and usually the spear would be going behind the neck–it looks here like it’s piercing his chest. Maybe that’s why Mason looks so distraught–he watched someone commit hara-kiri right in front of him! He couldn’t be hiding his face in shame because of comic books, because Mason sure strikes me as the kind of guy who’d leap at the chance for a comic-book themed wedding.
Son of Stuck Funky 
The weird part is how John found a minister who “cosplays” a character in a film that just debuted that very same night. I guess we have to assume that this minister was really into the Xanax warriors from the SJ comic books…REALLY into the Xanax warriors from the comic books. Likewise we have to assume that the Xanax warriors in the film are amazingly faithful to the ones in the comic books too. It’s quite a few assumptions to have to make for such a pitiful payoff.
I have no sympathy at all for Masone, for many reasons of course, but here specifically because he asked Pete to find a minister for him.
Yes this – Really send a comic book obsessed man child out to find a minster and well what the hell did you expect?
Not only that, but he and Cindy got engaged in December of 2015, so he’s had almost two years to get this shit together but instead the two of them decided to do no planning whatsoever and then throw some crap together at the last minute. And he actually delegated important tasks to the schlumpy losers he knows rather than doing it himself. Isn’t deciding who presides over the wedding a fairly important detail (rhetorical question)? It’s a shame Pete didn’t find an orthodox rabbi, or even better a Moonie, a hyper-religious Christian minister or a cultist.
“I thought this whole Starbuck Jones premiere thing was a little weird, honey, but when the minister for the spontaneous double wedding slashed the couples’ hands, held them all together in some kind of horrific blood oath and started speaking in tongues, it got really weird.”
Love the masthead ’cause maybe, finally, someone is gonna die.
Someone other than Lisa.
The masthead image appears to be that of present day Crankshaft, who will never die, but I’m not sure how his presence will be shoe-horned into this story arc.
@Bobanero. Obviously Crankshaft is an ordained minister and will conduct the weddings in between wheezing gasps from his oxygen tank.
Yeah, it’s fucking Crankshaft, because of course that’s what this story was missing.
Thanks for clarifying panel 2. I read it as if the guy in the background took the suit off and hung it up, and John was having a wry joke. The art is finally imitating the sloppy writing.
Lesson to be learned here: the bridal couple(s) should never delegate the selection of an officient to people who dedicate their lives to comic books.
I love how in true Batiukian fashion no one is reacting to or talking about the movie at all. The actual SJ movie itself didn’t merit even a single panel, which is pretty funny when you think about it.
Biggest difference between Les and Dead Skunk Head John is you want to punch Les in the face, but with John, you want to knock him to the ground and just pound him repeatedly until your own arms go numb.
By the way, does this mean the movie was already shown?!
We were never going to see the movie because, well, it would never occur to Batiuk to show the movie. What we’re going to see tomorrow is Mason having a stupid objection to John’s turning his wedding into a ridiculous farce. If you ain’t anticipating him bleating that Starbuck cannot be married by one of his mortal enemies, you ain’t trying.
Sadly, that is where this is going. Not that John’s choice of officiant is cosplaying, but who he’s cosplaying. In Batty’s world, everyone is so obsessed with comic books that all weddings must be comics-themed.
1. Don’t ever say “Church of St. Leeloo Dallas Multipass” unless you’re posting proof that it exists… I’ve dealt with way too much disappointment in adulthood and my heart won’t be able to take it if I ever find out that church isn’t a real thing.
2. Seriously, just WTF did Masone expect anyway after shamelessly commercializing his own wedding?