2014-07-01

Action Tuesday: Mystery and Deception

Dick Tracy, having received a coded message somehow sent out by Annie, has gone off by himself to look for her in the middle of the night with no backup and no wrist wizard. I'm not sure if he even owns a mobile phone, given that he normally uses the wrist wizard, but it's probably safe to say that he didn't bring one of those either. So of course he's been knocked unconscious and taken to an unknown location.

Dick Tracy, 2014-06-29.

A calendar on the wall reads "June 1944" and rather than a picture the inside cover bears the slogan "Loose Lips Sink Ships". Dick wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. A woman wearing an old-fashioned nurse's uniform stands beside his bed. Her eyes are white, no pupils or irises.
"Is it morning already?" asks Dick. "Where am I?"
"Officer Tracy!" says the nurse. "You're finally awake!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Nurse Pardene. You're in the hospital at Simmons Corners. You used to be our police officer. Don't you remember?"
"No..." says Dick, clutching his head.
"You enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. You were sent home when you were injured at Anzio."
Nurse Pardene opens the door.
"Maybe some fresh baked cookies will make you feel better."
Dick looks up as a young red-haired girl comes into the room.
"Annie?"
"Hi, Officer Tracy!" says Annie, apparently totally at ease with her surroundings. "Have some cookies?"

What does this mean? I'm assuming it's not time travel (although given the moon people, clones, space ships, etc. it's not totally out of the question), but why is someone going to all this trouble to make Tracy think it's 1944? Why is Nurse Pardene drawn with Annie-style eyes? If she's an existing character, I don't think she went by this name before since I couldn't turn anything up on Google. Are they still on the island that Dick traced Annie to? What is going on here, and why?



The Phantom, 2014-06-30.

"The Phantom is rough on roughnecks!" - Old Jungle Saying.

Some of those old jungle sayings just don't sound very impressive. There's some awesome violence to distract us in that strip though. Also in today's. The Phantom is so cool.



On the other end of the super-her spectrum, Spider-Man is still being made to look stupid by the apparently reformed Doc Ock. Peter, J Jonah Jameson and Otto were in a car together as JJJ and Ock discussed their proposed business relationship. Jonah hates Spider-Man, but he apparently doesn't have any problem with suddenly repentant super-villains.

Anyway, as they drove they encountered a fleeing carjacker and Octavius decided he'd go after it. Peter tried to convince Jonah to let him out of the car too so that he could take pictures, but JJJ was quick to point out that that was a stupid idea as there was no possible way for a photographer on foot to keep up with a high-speed car chase.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-06-30.

Dr. Octopus goes after the carjacker...
"You wanted me to garner publicity for your paper, Jameson," says Ock, climbing out of the moving car, "will this do?"
"It sure will!" calls Jonah. "Well, what're you waiting for, Parker? Chase after him and take some pictures!"

See, it was a dumb idea when Peter suggested it, but now that Jonah is suggesting it it just makes Peter look even dumber, so everyone wins.

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