If you think about it, all superheroes (except some vigilantes) are there to maintain the status quo. Galactus playing mini-golf through Manhattan? Call the Avengers. Don’t call the Fantastic Four though. Mr. Fantastic actually argued that Galactus (the guy who eats inhabited planets) should be spared because he’s a force of nature. If the Weather Wizard used his powers to stop hurricanes, Mr. Fantastic would probably beat him up for it.

Sorry, I digressed. While everyone else is trying to keep Magneto and Hydra from taking over the world, (i.e., maintaining the status quo) guys like the Punisher are arguably trying to change the s.q. I say arguably, because murdering a bunch of bad guys is likely to have limited effect. In the area he’s operating, sure, but his efforts are likely to be a minor blip in national statistics. Don’t get me started on Batman and the revolving door that is Arkham.

Obviously, maintaining the status quo isn’t a bad thing… if your quo is humming along just fine. If you’re living in “The Nazi’s Won” universe, or “Insert Dystopian Government/Reality of Your Choice,” then the civilian population is probably champing at the bit for a little re-quoing. If you’re living in a society that’s doing anywhere from “Excellent” to “Used to be all that but is in something of a backslide” to “Not great but up and coming,” having someone come in and stamp all over your quo is harder sell.

I have no idea how brandy snifters… I was going to say ‘work,’ but I get that it’s about smelling the brandy as much as it is drinking it, and sometimes that involves a slightly heated glass. I don’t know the etiquette. It’s possible blowing cigar smoke into the glass is some sort of high crime against the haut monde. Though alternating between brandy and a stogie probably means you’re not there to appreciate the subtle notes.

Actually, Max isn’t chomping on a stogie. I decided to google the word after I typed it, and learned that a stogie is “a thin, inexpensive cigar” which sounds a lot like an unfiltered cigarette to me. I also learned that a ‘corona’ is the benchmark size against which all other cigar sizes are measured. Given the news for the past few months, that piece of information caught my eye.

If I had googled cigars before drawing this page, I definitely would have had Deus smoking a ‘culebra‘ which is like three cigars braided around each other like a cinnamon twist.


Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!