My only beef with this is that we've spent AGES getting to know Daedalus, but Roberts is pretty much unknown, minus a few appearances with the board members.

It feels like a bait and switch near the end. Kill off the person we know, and replace him with some other random guy to fulfill the same task. Kind of like in a story where the main characters spend AGES with the main villain, only to have them swapped for someone else right at the end.

Obviously Schlock is the big badguy, but it still feels funny to have Roberts playing such a big role right near the end.

Unless you're an active Sluggyverse analyzer, you're gonna say "Who the heck is this Roberts guy, anyway? Was he always around?"

Naw. "No turning on the lights in the evil room, dammit!" was one of my favourite lines ever. :D I'm far from an analyser but I knew who Roberts was. :)

Even my husband who hasn't read the comic in about 7 years remembered Roberts. :)
("He's the one who turned on the lights in the Evil Room, yeah?")

I think we've known Daedalus only slightly more than Roberts over the entirety of the strip. For all the "screentime" Daedalus got, we only ever knew he was Dr. Steve's son, and even that turned out to be false.

Then you've got a much better memory than me! I always remembered Quite a few of the board members, but not him :(

I remember those jokes though!

So that's how forest fires get started.

Roberts kind of sticks out in the HeretiCorp plots, especially if you're a long term reader, because he is (or, at least, was) the group's designated comic relief. Especially when Daedalus was boss, because him being the only one willing to take Daed down a peg was a constant running gag. The Dimension of Sentient Pies [With Great Comedic Timing -G] bit is still one of my favorite Sluggy moments.

Admittedly, he didn't have anywhere near as much to do when Schlock became boss and thus hasn't appeared in a major way for a while, so that might be why he feels out of nowhere now, but I find him more memorable than a lot of the other members - it might take me a minute to remember which one's Gennaro and which one's Shankraft, but Roberts is immediately recognizable.

Even if he didn't turn out to be plot important, him being the only one besides Schlock to make it out of HC is hysterical because it feels like the punchline to a really long running joke.

The fire comes out spontaneously sometimes when Oasis is extremely upset, but her aim is erratic in that state. Precise control of the fire requires a command spoken into a control watch in Steve's voice.


Why? One Kusari was wearing the control watch, and the other was busy driving. It was obvious which one could best hold the phone near the watch.

Personally I would be a bit nervous to be in that van while they're testing Oasis. Torg can attest that her control is not always great. Maybe it's better when she's controlled by the watch, but I'd still rather find out from a distance.