Electric Team

Hello, friends! It’s time for commentary on the last two pages of The Electric Team (for the time being.) I’ve been putting this off but hey, no time like the present.

1. For page 295, the script only said “bandits,” Jeffrey made them pig bandits, which was a nice touch.

2. I really like how Jeffrey illustrates the heroes using their different skills. Jax is doing his cool Kirby Krackle punch, Zarko’s levitating two bandits and bonking their heads together, Chrysanthemum is parrying a bandit’s sword with a staff . . . it’s always fun to see what an artist comes up with when the script just says “They fight the bandits.” My favorite touch is Plant Man sticking his arms in the ground and making vines come out and wrap up a bandit. Neat!

3. Then, on the bottom of page 295, the team reaches 100. The premise of the comic from the beginning has been that the Electric Team has to beat 1000 bad guys. That was always an ambitious goal. Over the course of the series, we’ve shown them beat, what, six? The goal was never to show each and every bad guy, I always assumed there would be a lot of random bandits included in the 1000, so I wanted to eventually do a montage scene to get us to a higher number.  One hundred seemed like a nice number to end on–there’s reason to hope, but still a long way to go. Just like in life.

4. As I said before, Chrysanthemum getting to know the team, and the team accepting her, would have originally been an ongoing subplot. We’re wrapping up the comic, though, so we did it here, and most of the character growth happened during the montage scene. Which seems kind of like cheating? But I dunno, you get the idea, right?

5. This story is all from Chrysanthemum’s perspective, so it’s about her accepting that she now lives on this world and is a part of this team. What we don’t get is Leeta’s perspective. You may recall that, when Leeta was a little girl, her father left her with the unicorns, because he said the world was too dangerous for her. But Chrysanthemum’s father, who was friends with Leeta’s dad, took his daughter with him on his adventures, and she did fine. As we saw earlier, looking at Chrysanthemum breaks Leeta’s heart, because it makes her think that her dad gave her up for no reason. It’s so sad. We didn’t have time to get into that, though. Maybe someday.

6. On page 296, we needed for Mr. Amazing to propose something fun, and the idea of s’mores popped into my head. But . . . I realize that the s’mores don’t quite make sense. The Electric Team lives in a postapocalyptic world where there’s no infrastructure or industry. Chocolate is made from cocoa, which is only grown in certain climates, presumably far from where the Electric Team lives. The cocoa would have to be transported and then processed. Marshmallows are made from gelatin and, again, require some processing. And Graham crackers! Invented in the United States in the 1880s, probably not found on every world in the multiverse, and presumably made in, like, a factory? Where could the Electric Team get any of these three ingredients? And yet we know that they recently visited mountains made of ice cream, so who knows, maybe they passed by a grove where chocolate grows on trees?

7. That last line, “But it could be worse,” was written by Abi. When we started this project she was very little and her role was contributing ideas. I’m happy that, as the years went on, she was able to take an active role in the writing. I particularly valued her input on Chrysanthemum’s dialogue, since she and Chrys are approximately the same age.  

8. I’m so, so fortunate that Jeffrey Johnson was available and willing to illustrate this story. The story ends on a happy moment, with the characters enjoying each others’ company, and the art needs to convey their emotions. Jeffrey is a genuinely kind, big-hearted guy, and that comes through in his work. His artwork here exudes so much warmth that you feel like you’re hanging out with old friends. Great job, Jeffrey!

9. As this year has worn on, the Electric Team has seemed more and more relevant. Their world is devastated, they have no reason to think things can get better, but they still do their best and hope that they can make a change. It’s a good sentiment. I wish I could have reached a wider audience with it.

10. When it was time to write the ending of this story, I knew that this was also going to be the end of the Electric Team series, at least for now. I didn’t want to make any big changes to the status quo or anything, but I wanted to end on a positive note. The last time we see our heroes, they’re happy, and that’s as it should be.