Wonder what possible explanation Starson/Belhop could have for working for the Hand? Because while it’s great that he MIGHT not be a villain, he still killed Vermith in cold blood. Last time we saw Starson he was with the chiclets… now he’s here, working against humanity, and roping other chiclets into working against humanity. Does AEGIS have *any* alien allies left?
Weirdly, I almost guessed this, though I thought that his wrinkly-head was left over from being a glowing balloon-head imagination-baby rather than a disguise.
@Sushi Database. I still say Vermith’s death was an accident. I think the Hand would’ve preferred to put him on trial, but then he died during Bellhop and the Xenochiclet’s teleportation tug-o-war. I’m not sure why Bellhop would be working with the others since he’s a different species, but I think the cuckoos might’ve been one of the races General Maximilliana conquered in the alternate future. They might be just generic grey aliens, but the one that took on Lance Clarkson’s form and the ones surrendering to the General in a flashback look similar. Perhaps they sent people back in time to avert this in which case they are acting in self defense to a certain extent.
Oh, excellent, I almost thought it too much to hope to be right about this.
Soooo…. MY question is, how did this conversation go the first time? How did it go in the original timeline, when they did not have her son’s death mucking up the conversation? How did she die, when the most important member of the Hand must’ve been motivated to keep her alive? Why did Bellhop continue to work for the Hand after they killed her? So… Many… Questions….
@Stevarious. They might’ve been assumed dead. Will could be resurrected, but as far as they know he was disintegrated whereas Rikk and Rumy were teleported out and never seen again. In all the chaos the stories of their demise could easily be confused.
i must say that was totally unexpected to me. it also means that bell hop accidentally killed his half brother. they thing that really sticks in my gourd is how the future freedom fighters failed to plan for a traitor withing their ranks.
“You killed my son!”
“No, Rumy, I am your son”
“No…no! That’s not true, that’s impossible!”
“Join me, and together we can save Rikk as mother and son!”
“NOOOOOOOO~”
@Stevarious: Your question makes sense only if what the futurians said is true… Me, I have some doubts. It all sounded as an ERIS strategy to cause mistrust among the heroes and wreck havock in an event that could have been otherwise benevolent. Maybe its just the alien-lover in me.
By the by, that Dotty remembers me of somebody else besides Tim… and she is heading to the HQ right now…
Anyone who reads this strip and who claims their brains didn’t immediately have a Vader-Luke flashback is lying.
I’d like to say “well, this explains a lot” except it doesn’t. Still, at least there’s now a glimmer of hope on the horizon that we might eventually be able to work out wtf just happened. And why.
Okay, this is a wild thought- But have we considered that ‘cuckoos’ might not be a single species? So far, we’ve potentially got Hyperman, who was some form of wish-fulfilling Grey, and Starson, a Xenochiclet-Human Hybrid, who was raised primarily by the Xenochiclets…
Well, doesn’t it perhaps seem possible that the Cuckoos are a collection of races, rather than a single race, who find imaginative races and combine with them, hybridizing in a way, to overtake the species?
I tell you, it actually reminds me quite a bit of the Fair Folk/Raksha from Exalted, in the sense of a species that builds itself on the ideas and dreams of a meager Humanity.
Well, nice to have confirmation I guess.
But, I was kinda hoping we’d find out unequivocally who the traitor was at the end of this arch…..
However, since Tiki Wiki is not running out of Bellhop’s portal weapon in hand, I guess that means he went with them as one of them.
Which means Will is probably dead dead He really was my favorite male character. I really do wish Rikk had died instead.
Put yourselves in the position of the Hand and look at what Aegis is doing.
We, the readers, identify with Rikk, and Rumy, and the rest of them, since the beginning. Because back in the old days, they followed their hearts and did the Right Thing(tm).
But look now. Rikk’s suppressing free speech. Rumy, gleefully violent with no thought of due process and justice. They are harboring two insane scientists who have hardly rehabilitated. They’ve cloned a conqueror who makes Hitler and Napoleon look shy, and they’re letting a complete lunatic to raise her like a father. Has any of those extra-paranormal threats that Aegis has ever caught ever seen the inside of a court room? Let alone heard a sentence for the years of their unlawful imprisonment? What next, torture CIA style?
How many Wrong Things(tm) must Aegis do before we see them for what they have become?
If you were a benevolent alien, wouldn’t you wish to destroy such an organization for the sake of humanity?
The Hand has absolutely no say how things are run here on Earth.
The lot of them are a bunch of Aliens and the only one who has a legit status would be Bellhop/Soulson.
The rest of them should kindly mind the matters on their own home planet, before they start sticking their noses where they are not welcome.
@IS_Wolf I have to wonder if Bellhop is under some form of coercion by the Hand ie. “Join us or we’ll destroy the Xeno race.” In that instance his primary motivation would be protecting his “family” rather than warring against Earth.
According to meditations of a crazy person? When Aegis starts using vivid dreams as evidence sufficient to condemn or execute a person for crimes that have yet to commit, I’m sure the rest of the Earth’s population can finally relax and sleep well at night.
@Commiekeebler
I’m pretty sure that was not a “crazy dream” but an actual glimpse into the future. But, regardless, Aegis already used it as PROOF that FeddyG did not know anything about how to help Rikk. Why would we trust what he said in panel 4 but not 2?
When we first saw the Hand they were experimenting on humans with animal’s blood, killing them. The Hand’s first public action was to port someone into space that had obviously reformed. We’ve had two separate glimpse into a Hand-run future; both were clear dystopias. And in this latest encounter we saw them manipulate events to have a policeman’s gun attack them to get public support.
Which one of their actions makes them seem good to you? Am I missing something?
That being said, I do hope Bellhop and Tiki Wiki are on a “third team” and are only working with the hand for convenience/coercion. It would make Tiki Wiki’s actions make more sense, at the very least.
PS- @Commiekeebler: I agree with what you’re saying about Aegis becoming more and more what they used to fight against, but I don’t see how that translates into the Hand being good.
Just because Aegis is becoming more bad does not make the Hand good.
@CommieKiebler: As one of the people who have brought up the questionable direction that Aegis is taking, I have to agree with Lich Mong’s point that, just because Aegis is becoming more bad doesn’t make the Hand good.
However, panel 2 of http://www.faans.com/the-end-of-infinity-15-of-18/ can be taken another way.
First, we’re hearing this from FeddyG’s interpretation of why The Hand doesn’t come down hard on Feddy G’s lil’ empire. (As an aside, I don’t understand why people in general would let it exist. I know he’s got the super-charisma but convincing people that http://www.faans.com/the-end-of-infinity-14-of-18/ is in their best interests seems to be stretching it.) That is not necessarily the most trustworthy source
Second, perhaps the Hand has to follow the rules (whatever they may be) of the Community and aren’t allowed to come down hard unless the Community clears it. It may be that the Community has rules of engagement. This would also explain why there are only a few members of the Hand in the present day as an intergalactic community could just use brute force to convert Earth if that was their will. The rules of engagement could limit the Hand to making the argument for the Community or they may be here to assess Earth in terms of military preparedness/eligiblity to join/some other factor. (An example of this could be found with Wolf’s Dragoons in the old Battletech books.)
Still, that’s a lot of “maybes” and “perhaps”. Honestly, we really know very little of what makes the Hand tick and, given recent events, some of what we think we know may be false. (I find myself increasingly wondering if Di/Guth may have suspected a traitor or, if the time-travelers are the enemy, was a plant within their group. That would explain why she waited until Will/Shana was some distance away from the house before giving them the spheres.)
Now, why did you guys have to remind me of “Free Barbecue Tuesday?”
Now I’m hungry, dang it. The Hand better have ANOTHER pawn who’s a crazed cannibal.
Seriously, though, the Hand is just a group of power-hungry aliens who want to exploit the galactic community’s paranoia of a fledgling race so they can have total control of a planet. We know they’re evil. I’m just wondering what part Rumy’s Space Son plays in all of this.
Also, no confirmation that it was Belhop who put him in space. He seemed rather busy as a matter of fact. Maybe this mystery member that has been mentioned flew in super fast and then left.
@Lich Mong When we first saw the Hand they were experimenting on humans with animal’s blood, killing them.
Were they? The impression I got was that the Korean government had captured Animal and was running those experiments, and the rest of the Hand was in there to rescue him. Did I miss something?
From what I understand, The Community looks for sufficiently advanced races to join it, and the Cuckoos are a collection of pretenders. They are races (yes, plural) that pretend to be race X and to speak for said race, getting put in charge of the planet for The Cummunity. One is Soulchild, another is MechTech, etc., etc. All different races, all, with the possible exception of Soulchild, complete douche-nozzles
Still worried about Hyperman. He’s gonna be a problem.
@Jesse: It totally makes sense if the Community is some sort of democracy, where each planet has a vote and in that case, the Hand is just trying to rig the system to get more votes for something important to them.
Or if Community frowns on genocidal colonization of habitable planets and thus the Hand has to observe bizarre rules of engagement when colonizing Earth.
Or it could be that Jespin raised/brainwashed Julia/Maximiliana clone to be a better conqueror, and when she did, in fact, start to conquer things WITH THE MIGHT OF AEGIS BEHIND HER, the Hand decided to go back in time to prevent it… by undermining Aegis. Maximiliana was tipped off, and followed, taking some cronies with her, who are either insane or lying through their teeth. I mean, look at ’em.
Oh, even better. Check it. Aegis conquers Earth. The Hand goes back in time to stop it. Conquers Earth. Now in this timeline, Aegis is the underdog. So the underdog Aegis goes back in time to “fix things their way”.
Both groups see themselves as “good guys” and both are totally down with ‘ends justify the means’, including war crimes, torture, pissing on human rights, etc.
We all saw what FeddyG’s little empire of carnage looked like… did we ever -see- the world the Hand made, using his hellhole as the scary counter-example?
We saw the world in ruins before they went back in time, with a UFO destroying a pyramid and a broken statue of The Hand (or at least Mechtech and some others)
In retrospect, can I just say how brilliant this was? Not only does it make perfect sense — but you manage to INVERT the classic Empire Strikes Back moment without anyone seeing it coming. Bravo.
Wonder what possible explanation Starson/Belhop could have for working for the Hand? Because while it’s great that he MIGHT not be a villain, he still killed Vermith in cold blood. Last time we saw Starson he was with the chiclets… now he’s here, working against humanity, and roping other chiclets into working against humanity. Does AEGIS have *any* alien allies left?
Weirdly, I almost guessed this, though I thought that his wrinkly-head was left over from being a glowing balloon-head imagination-baby rather than a disguise.
In related news: ARG THE STORY BENDS MY HEAD.
Oh, what the christ is this buggerance? You guys are pulling this out of your asses now, I swear.
Didn’t see that coming.
Why so surprised?
We’ve been speculating that Bellhop had ties to the Xenochiclets ever since he “won” that tug of war with Blue and Banana.
The real question is as Sushi said.. Why is he even with the Hand in the first place?
@Sushi Database. I still say Vermith’s death was an accident. I think the Hand would’ve preferred to put him on trial, but then he died during Bellhop and the Xenochiclet’s teleportation tug-o-war. I’m not sure why Bellhop would be working with the others since he’s a different species, but I think the cuckoos might’ve been one of the races General Maximilliana conquered in the alternate future. They might be just generic grey aliens, but the one that took on Lance Clarkson’s form and the ones surrendering to the General in a flashback look similar. Perhaps they sent people back in time to avert this in which case they are acting in self defense to a certain extent.
Oh, excellent, I almost thought it too much to hope to be right about this.
Soooo…. MY question is, how did this conversation go the first time? How did it go in the original timeline, when they did not have her son’s death mucking up the conversation? How did she die, when the most important member of the Hand must’ve been motivated to keep her alive? Why did Bellhop continue to work for the Hand after they killed her? So… Many… Questions….
@Stevarious. They might’ve been assumed dead. Will could be resurrected, but as far as they know he was disintegrated whereas Rikk and Rumy were teleported out and never seen again. In all the chaos the stories of their demise could easily be confused.
i must say that was totally unexpected to me. it also means that bell hop accidentally killed his half brother. they thing that really sticks in my gourd is how the future freedom fighters failed to plan for a traitor withing their ranks.
Cannot wait to see where you take this.
Some called it, but I wouldn’t have guessed a mask.
And hey, I guess there’s some toying with the Cain and Abel myth, if you think about it.
“You killed my son!”
“No, Rumy, I am your son”
“No…no! That’s not true, that’s impossible!”
“Join me, and together we can save Rikk as mother and son!”
“NOOOOOOOO~”
@slipdance
ROFL
@Stevarious: Your question makes sense only if what the futurians said is true… Me, I have some doubts. It all sounded as an ERIS strategy to cause mistrust among the heroes and wreck havock in an event that could have been otherwise benevolent. Maybe its just the alien-lover in me.
By the by, that Dotty remembers me of somebody else besides Tim… and she is heading to the HQ right now…
The way I read it, the Hand is a good group, and the group that warned against them are the actual cuckoos.
That certainly explains why the aliens, loyal to Rumy, couldn’t attack Bellhop.
Anyone who reads this strip and who claims their brains didn’t immediately have a Vader-Luke flashback is lying.
I’d like to say “well, this explains a lot” except it doesn’t. Still, at least there’s now a glimmer of hope on the horizon that we might eventually be able to work out wtf just happened. And why.
Let’s see who the Bellhop really is!
PROFESSOR HYDE WHITE?
I mean…STARSON?
“And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids!”
asøhfæiwhøæ WHAT!?
Okay, this is a wild thought- But have we considered that ‘cuckoos’ might not be a single species? So far, we’ve potentially got Hyperman, who was some form of wish-fulfilling Grey, and Starson, a Xenochiclet-Human Hybrid, who was raised primarily by the Xenochiclets…
Well, doesn’t it perhaps seem possible that the Cuckoos are a collection of races, rather than a single race, who find imaginative races and combine with them, hybridizing in a way, to overtake the species?
I tell you, it actually reminds me quite a bit of the Fair Folk/Raksha from Exalted, in the sense of a species that builds itself on the ideas and dreams of a meager Humanity.
…what the….how ?
…moo?
The odds book has long since been thrown out the window, and is in freefall. Good job, Campbell.
What if all the hand are thought-born Xenochiclet hybrid babies?
Well, nice to have confirmation I guess.
He really was my favorite male character. I really do wish Rikk had died instead.
But, I was kinda hoping we’d find out unequivocally who the traitor was at the end of this arch…..
However, since Tiki Wiki is not running out of Bellhop’s portal weapon in hand, I guess that means he went with them as one of them.
Which means Will is probably dead dead
Put yourselves in the position of the Hand and look at what Aegis is doing.
We, the readers, identify with Rikk, and Rumy, and the rest of them, since the beginning. Because back in the old days, they followed their hearts and did the Right Thing(tm).
But look now. Rikk’s suppressing free speech. Rumy, gleefully violent with no thought of due process and justice. They are harboring two insane scientists who have hardly rehabilitated. They’ve cloned a conqueror who makes Hitler and Napoleon look shy, and they’re letting a complete lunatic to raise her like a father. Has any of those extra-paranormal threats that Aegis has ever caught ever seen the inside of a court room? Let alone heard a sentence for the years of their unlawful imprisonment? What next, torture CIA style?
How many Wrong Things(tm) must Aegis do before we see them for what they have become?
If you were a benevolent alien, wouldn’t you wish to destroy such an organization for the sake of humanity?
Commie, you’re forgetting one small thing.
The Hand has absolutely no say how things are run here on Earth.
The lot of them are a bunch of Aliens and the only one who has a legit status would be Bellhop/Soulson.
The rest of them should kindly mind the matters on their own home planet, before they start sticking their noses where they are not welcome.
Called it.
@Commiekeebler:
http://www.faans.com/the-end-of-infinity-15-of-18/
They’re evil.
@IS_Wolf I have to wonder if Bellhop is under some form of coercion by the Hand ie. “Join us or we’ll destroy the Xeno race.” In that instance his primary motivation would be protecting his “family” rather than warring against Earth.
I’m thinking Bellhop recruited them to help with the situation on Earth.
US miliary unloaded artillery on xenos for no good reason. Bellhop is like a kid in a divorced family, trying to make his parents get along.
@ Lich Mong
According to meditations of a crazy person? When Aegis starts using vivid dreams as evidence sufficient to condemn or execute a person for crimes that have yet to commit, I’m sure the rest of the Earth’s population can finally relax and sleep well at night.
I was wondering if he was her spacebaby.
@Commiekeebler
I’m pretty sure that was not a “crazy dream” but an actual glimpse into the future. But, regardless, Aegis already used it as PROOF that FeddyG did not know anything about how to help Rikk. Why would we trust what he said in panel 4 but not 2?
When we first saw the Hand they were experimenting on humans with animal’s blood, killing them. The Hand’s first public action was to port someone into space that had obviously reformed. We’ve had two separate glimpse into a Hand-run future; both were clear dystopias. And in this latest encounter we saw them manipulate events to have a policeman’s gun attack them to get public support.
Which one of their actions makes them seem good to you? Am I missing something?
That being said, I do hope Bellhop and Tiki Wiki are on a “third team” and are only working with the hand for convenience/coercion. It would make Tiki Wiki’s actions make more sense, at the very least.
PS- @Commiekeebler: I agree with what you’re saying about Aegis becoming more and more what they used to fight against, but I don’t see how that translates into the Hand being good.
Just because Aegis is becoming more bad does not make the Hand good.
@CommieKiebler: As one of the people who have brought up the questionable direction that Aegis is taking, I have to agree with Lich Mong’s point that, just because Aegis is becoming more bad doesn’t make the Hand good.
However, panel 2 of http://www.faans.com/the-end-of-infinity-15-of-18/ can be taken another way.
First, we’re hearing this from FeddyG’s interpretation of why The Hand doesn’t come down hard on Feddy G’s lil’ empire. (As an aside, I don’t understand why people in general would let it exist. I know he’s got the super-charisma but convincing people that http://www.faans.com/the-end-of-infinity-14-of-18/ is in their best interests seems to be stretching it.) That is not necessarily the most trustworthy source
Second, perhaps the Hand has to follow the rules (whatever they may be) of the Community and aren’t allowed to come down hard unless the Community clears it. It may be that the Community has rules of engagement. This would also explain why there are only a few members of the Hand in the present day as an intergalactic community could just use brute force to convert Earth if that was their will. The rules of engagement could limit the Hand to making the argument for the Community or they may be here to assess Earth in terms of military preparedness/eligiblity to join/some other factor. (An example of this could be found with Wolf’s Dragoons in the old Battletech books.)
Still, that’s a lot of “maybes” and “perhaps”. Honestly, we really know very little of what makes the Hand tick and, given recent events, some of what we think we know may be false. (I find myself increasingly wondering if Di/Guth may have suspected a traitor or, if the time-travelers are the enemy, was a plant within their group. That would explain why she waited until Will/Shana was some distance away from the house before giving them the spheres.)
Now, why did you guys have to remind me of “Free Barbecue Tuesday?”
Now I’m hungry, dang it. The Hand better have ANOTHER pawn who’s a crazed cannibal.
Seriously, though, the Hand is just a group of power-hungry aliens who want to exploit the galactic community’s paranoia of a fledgling race so they can have total control of a planet. We know they’re evil. I’m just wondering what part Rumy’s Space Son plays in all of this.
Called it.
Also, no confirmation that it was Belhop who put him in space. He seemed rather busy as a matter of fact. Maybe this mystery member that has been mentioned flew in super fast and then left.
@Lich Mong
When we first saw the Hand they were experimenting on humans with animal’s blood, killing them.
Were they? The impression I got was that the Korean government had captured Animal and was running those experiments, and the rest of the Hand was in there to rescue him. Did I miss something?
From what I understand, The Community looks for sufficiently advanced races to join it, and the Cuckoos are a collection of pretenders. They are races (yes, plural) that pretend to be race X and to speak for said race, getting put in charge of the planet for The Cummunity. One is Soulchild, another is MechTech, etc., etc. All different races, all, with the possible exception of Soulchild, complete douche-nozzles
Still worried about Hyperman. He’s gonna be a problem.
@Platonix
You might be right; I thought the Hand was working with the Koreans.
@Jesse: It totally makes sense if the Community is some sort of democracy, where each planet has a vote and in that case, the Hand is just trying to rig the system to get more votes for something important to them.
Or if Community frowns on genocidal colonization of habitable planets and thus the Hand has to observe bizarre rules of engagement when colonizing Earth.
Or it could be that Jespin raised/brainwashed Julia/Maximiliana clone to be a better conqueror, and when she did, in fact, start to conquer things WITH THE MIGHT OF AEGIS BEHIND HER, the Hand decided to go back in time to prevent it… by undermining Aegis. Maximiliana was tipped off, and followed, taking some cronies with her, who are either insane or lying through their teeth. I mean, look at ’em.
Dotty for president, anyone?
Oh, even better. Check it. Aegis conquers Earth. The Hand goes back in time to stop it. Conquers Earth. Now in this timeline, Aegis is the underdog. So the underdog Aegis goes back in time to “fix things their way”.
Both groups see themselves as “good guys” and both are totally down with ‘ends justify the means’, including war crimes, torture, pissing on human rights, etc.
No good guys in this comic strip detected.
We all saw what FeddyG’s little empire of carnage looked like… did we ever -see- the world the Hand made, using his hellhole as the scary counter-example?
We only ‘saw’ its description according to the loony team (Tiki Wiki, Dotty, etc).
http://www.faans.com/facing-the-future-11-of-15/
Oh… oh my. Is that Baxter jumping through a Bellhop portal I spy here in the archives??
We saw the world in ruins before they went back in time, with a UFO destroying a pyramid and a broken statue of The Hand (or at least Mechtech and some others)
Well, at least it was the son from a non-canon future that died. ^_^
O’course… Ru’s sons seem to have a whole Cain & Abel thing going on now, sort of…
“stockholm syndrome innocent friendly”
And now we know where Joseph got that verbal tic…
In retrospect, can I just say how brilliant this was? Not only does it make perfect sense — but you manage to INVERT the classic Empire Strikes Back moment without anyone seeing it coming. Bravo.