MISC: OCTO-BOY # 1: Octo-Boy's First Day part 1 by J. Vandersteen

[Scott Eiler]

On 8/22/2014 5:05 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
> I was really surprised to find out in OCTO-BOY # 1 that the
> titular/tentacular character was fifteen.

Well, he does go around a crime-ridden town on his own.  Under modern 
conditions, if he weren't fifteen his mother would probably face child 
neglect charges.  So I wasn't expecting the Power Pack.


> + Like, I don't talk
> about it very much, but my relationship with my family is strained
> and prickly. So much so that my natural assumption is that parents
> and siblings are people who can never understand you, and that
> relationships with blood relatives are either toxic or distant. So
> close, non-toxic family relationships, while I know they exist, they
> just seem beyond weird to me. Almost incomprehensible.

Aww.  My own experience is, family is fine but one either loses it or 
stows it out of the way somewhere while living one's life.  That's the 
way my own heroes usually work.


> + Indeed, there's very little friction in his life. None of the angst
> or worries that usually come with a teen hero. He's always cheerful,
> plucky, helpful, gee-whiz-- again, qualities I associate with a kid.

Actually, those are qualities I associate more with a Godling-Universe 
comic.  :)


> I have a feeling-- which could be completely and totally off-base--
> that Jochem is setting us up for a defining tragedy of some sort
> somewhere down the road. The cheerful nothing-can-go-wrong attitude,
> the close (and so far, character-defining) relationship with his
> mother, who is very heavily idealized... what would happen to
> Octo-Boy if something happened to her? Something very interesting,
> I'd imagine; something very, very Fifteen.

I would be very surprised if a serious tragedy happened anywhere in the 
Godling Universe.  It seems to be dedicated to bringing back the Silver 
Age of Comics.  Remember, *Psychovant the Duck* actually had to "review" 
Godling until the series took up the 1980s "Substitute Hero" trope.  I 
think Octo-Boy might stay in the 1960s tropes for a while.  So I expect 
his mom will end up in the hospital sometime and he'll have to go on a 
classic Find The Cure quest, but that'll be the closest we get to tragedy.

In short, I sense the classic Spider-Man plotline, only more so due to 
actual physical transformation of the hero.  There's a bit more of that 
to explore before Psychovant comes in to make helpful comments.  :)


-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

When you *are* the leader... whatever goes wrong... whether you did it
or not... *you* are held responsible. - Barack Obama

I know. - Archie Andrews

- from Archie #617, March 2011, scripted by Alex Simmons.