Comic for Monday, July 9th, 2018
Rovak actually suspected back during his briefly confrontation with Mium that something was wrong.It made him think, and he didn’t like it. Guess he’s in a more pondering mood now. Or at least bored.
For those that don’t recognize the woman in the last panel, we’ve seen her before as part of Rovak’s squad, though it she has had poor luck the last few times she’s been deployed with him, as she seems to run into Mium a lot.
I don’t know if Thursday will be a half page or not. Realistically it’s… uh… well, I’m not really good at a half a page. If the last two pages were a page they’d have been ~18 panels… Back in the day my target was 6, so… we’ll see.
I have the idea of making a wiki on the radar. No updates yet though, I need to take a look at where I want to put it; it’s a little tricky these days as we have a lot more problem with hackers around here these days as ya’ll might remember, so it’s not quite as simple to just spin up a new server and slap some wiki-software on it, though it shouldn’t be that hard. I am currently operating under the assumption that it won’t be any harder to moderate than the comments, so I’m mostly just worried about it making sure that the site is generally malware proof (well, malware resistant, nothing is malware proof) and safe once its stood up. Moderating the comments hasn’t been too bad recently.
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Looks like the link to the next page is borked. It points to an old page from a past year.
It seems to be working for me, but the date of the next page was wrong originally, so that’s probably it. Let me know if you’re still seeing the issue.
Thanks for reporting it!
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If I didn’t think such an idea so incongruous with this comic, I would posit a theory about time travel or a time loop of which only Peter and perhaps Dr. Martin are aware. If travel were a legitimate theory I would posit that Dr. Martin is a disguised-future Peter who has come back to supervise the timeline and ensure his past-self properly informed and equipped. The possibility that these events are stuck in a loop has a certain appeal but fails to adequately explain the identity of Dr. Martin.
As it is, I must wonder why our illustrious author has deemed it necessary to hide the face of the ingenious Dr. Martin. If the good Doctor was a new character, such omission seems pointless, therefor the logical conclusion is that the doctor must be a previously introduced character. Furthermore, this character must not be adept at hiding his appearance or, again, there would be little point in hiding his face. At present, I see only two possible options for the identity of Dr. Martin, and they are as follows, Peter Kepler or a background character with little importance to the plot thus-far.
Dr. Martin cannot be any of current the employees of Avon. He cannot be Aaron Kepler, Rovak Stas, Marc (whose last name I do not know), or the blonde man seen talking with Acalia (whose name utterly escapes me).
If Dr. Martin is the same man we know to be Peter Kepler, we must account for the Doctor’s high standing at Avon, something that would have taken time. It is possible that Peter was working remotely before he went rogue, but that doesn’t seem likely. Another issue lies in the fact that Peter has been well tracked during his tenure as head of the MSB and should, at present, be with Miss Kallisto Summers. This challenge is more easily remedied than the previous because the possibility remains that this is taking place at a different time or even a different night altogether. Still, I think it unlikely that Peter and Dr. Martin are the same person, despite the appealing nature of such a mystery.
I think the most probable outcome is that Dr. Martin is a former background character that has been in contact with Peter since before he went rogue. If it is revealed that the good doctor and Peter are in fact the same person, I must wonder how Peter managed to get Avon to give him so much funding and even assistants.
It would not surprise me if Dr. Martin was responsible for the healing of Miss Miko or if this act of charity was conferred as a bribe of sorts to get Peter to work at Avon and help develop an SMAI. If Peter and the doctor are different people as I suspect, Dr. Martin will be the first true equal Peter has ever met in the realm of scheming.
You posit some interesting theories, here. Seriously. However… and I want to make sure that I understand you correctly: You’re saying that you believe it is more likely that Dr. Martin is a future-version of Peter Kepler gone back in time than it is to believe that the present-day Peter we know and love was posing as a head of research at Avon?
As far as Dr. Martin’s high standing at Avon, why couldn’t Peter just fake some computer records? Isn’t he a hacker? Didn’t he create Query? Isn’t he the kind of genius so smart that it’s difficult to measure their IQ? He could give himself several degrees. (Heck, he probably has several degrees back in Central). Peter did manage to get himself (and Mium) enrolled at Levenworth as students. And he did so without the authorities suspecting Peter of being a rogue IDS agent. Tyler did have his suspicions about him, but that was after meeting with Peter and talking with him.
For that matter, if Peter offered Avon some technology from, say, Central or, perhaps, scavenged from Kor’s World robots (like I suspect he did), whoever hired him at Avon was most likely tripping over themselves to hire him and give him his own lab – especially if it’s technology like nothing they’ve ever seen before. This goes double if Peter could prove that he had some understand of the technology, only needing a proper lab to do his research to reverse-engineer it. The alternative is to let such tech end up in the hands of a corporate rival.
“and I want to make sure that I understand you correctly: You’re saying that you believe it is more likely that Dr. Martin is a future-version of Peter Kepler gone back in time than it is to believe that the present-day Peter we know and love was posing as a head of research at Avon?” Thank you for asking for clarification. No. Please refer to “If I didn’t think such an idea so incongruous with this comic…”
I believe that it is likely that Dr. Martin is not Peter Kepler. It is very possible that Peter faked various records in order for Avon to hire him, however the idea that Dr. Martin is a separate entity appeals to me a little more. One reason is that, according to my memory (which is, of course, fallible) Peter has been rogue for less than a year. I believe the time to be 9 months. My own sense of time considers 9 months to be too short a period for Avon to have hired Peter, funded him, and see the kind of results that Peter now employs (though I don’t think he pays any of them…) without there existing some background, foundation if you will, from which Peter could start.
It is because of this lack of time that I presented the possibility of Peter being in contact with Avon before going rogue, but as I said previously, that theory doesn’t appeal to me as much as the theory of Dr. Martin being a completely separate person.
There are other reasons to hide a face.
Perhaps he is a different species? A reptilian from Kors World? A robot of some other wordly design?
Or perhaps he is a different race? Given the exchange it is unlikely that he is an Orish Was Mage, but maybe he IS Orish? That might explain Rovak knowing him.
Or maybe he is an Atter like creature, host for an Eidos symbiont or parasite?
Lots of reasons to hide a face. Maybe Past just hasn’t come up with a good design for him yet. 😉
-G-
If you look closely at panels #5 and #7, you can see a bit of bare skin on his hand. And his skin clearly looks Caucasian or, at least, colored to be nearly identical to Mr. Stas, Peter and other’s we’ve seen.
As such, I think it’s safe to say that Dr. Martin is not an obvious reptilian or mechanical-type robot. This also makes it unlikely that readers would instantly be able to tell that he’s of a different race. His skin is not, say, red or green or blue. And his hand at least looks human enough.
Oh, sure: Dr. Martin could be a reptilian or something in disguise. I suppose he could even be an android like Mium. But if Dr. Martin was one of those weird things in a very excellent diguise, then there isn’t much excuse to not show his face… is there?
(Side note: I do think there is a strong possibility that Kor’s World was completely taken over by AI and robots, Terminator/Skynet style. But then, maybe not…)
To be fair: It is entirely possible to have an ordinary-looking human body with a face that would look very strange or be a giveaway to important info. There is a very rare sci-fi theme in which mad scientists put a robot brain in or even a mechanical robot head on a human body. (I think this was part of the plot of Dominion Tank Police.) Another possibility is Dr. Martin having, say, a cybernetic eye or really horrible scars on his face – esp. if that becomes a plot point later.
But, don’t you think those kind of things are a bit of a stretch?
And how can one tell who is Orish and who is not, aside from how he or she talks? Both Mr. Stas and that one female Orish warrior we saw look very similar to Peter, Tyler, Ryn and other characters we’ve seen. Is yellow-blonde hair the giveaway?
At present I can only think of two reasons for hiding his face and they are, first, that it is done out of a sense of dramatic timing (which seems the weaker of the two), or that Dr. Martin will have an appearance later as someone else (possibly as an entirely new character). If the second reason is the correct theory, it is possible that the doctor has been in the background before, which is why I listed it as a possibility in my initial post.
Not that there’s much point to this statement, but your reasoning (“But if Dr. Martin was one of those weird things in a very excellent diguise, then there isn’t much excuse to not show his face…”) is why I concluded in my initial post that “this character must not be adept at hiding his appearance.”
The idea that his face isn’t being shown because it bears some unique, identifying mark seems largely irrelevant. We can, without undue effort, identify a face (even in cartoons and comics) without the presence of such marks rendering the idea that the current obfuscation of his face would not be motivated by the presence of such marks. Please understand that I’m not discounting the possibility of the good doctor of having these marks, only that these marks present enough of a reason to hide his face without there being some other reason.
Some ideas of why his face might give away too much:
He has colorful hair, it would tell us from the Malsan families or a Designer Child – this is probably not worth hiding though, as that would not tell us much.
His eyes might be blue and glowing. It’s hard to remember, but we actually have seen the face of someone from Kor’s World, and their eyes were blue and glowing. That might be unique to that individual, but it would definitely be a clue if Doctor Martin’s were.
He might be slightly blurred. Remember that Peter’s hologram was not perfect, the comments noticed something was wrong even before the reveal.
He might not actually have a face. If he is Rovak’s hallucination here, Rovak may not actually know what he looks like.
He could be Peter. I do not think so, but it is worth keeping on the list.
He could look like Miko. Best I can tell, Miko’s parents are both missing. Miko’s mother was Kyle and Arron’s sister from what I can tell. He could be Miko’s father, they clearly have some association with high tech given that Miko was an experiment.
He could look exactly like Mium, or like an older Mium. I do not know for sure what that would mean, but it would mean something.
He could have white hair without looking that old. Again, I do not know what this would tell us, but remember that both Mium and Ila naturally have white hair.
There could be no clue, and PastUtopia just knows he can make us froth by not showing someone’s face.
Maybe I spent awhile thinking about this. Maybe I spent too long.
Disbanded Babylonian ashes, what the hell is this….
…FINALLY get what should be real, solid info on Martin at all and it’s THE OPPOSITE OF THAT.
For all we know this wasn’t even the real Martin he was hallucinating! Just someone who Rovak knows as “Martin”! (Or was it another of those hologram things like the ball Peter used when he and Naomi “visited” Arron’s offices (by “falling into the wall”…. multiple stories up….don’t think that’s getting old anytime soon…..))
Again weird seeing Rovak sounding like he’s really smart. He usually makes such a good case for being, well, not an idiot, just not the type to bother with….thinking. (Or…hm. He enjoys being the brawn to/for someone else’s brain?)
This actually has me wondering if Dr. Martin is just an alter-ego of Rovak’s. It seems insane, but I can see parallels in how they talk, and Rovak’s final response could be seen that way. Rovak is certainly unhinged enough that I could see him having an alternate personality or persona, and he may know some form of disguise magic. Given his ability to heal himself, he might even have the ability to alter his appearance physically/biologically.
If so, that certainly puts Rovak’s attempts to recruit Mium into an interesting light. Still, there are enough holes and contradictions in the idea that I’m even convinced. I figured I’d throw it out there, though.
As funny as the thought is, there’s no way it could be, since Rovak’s apparently “finding out” about Avon’s workings with “artificial humans” when he fixed up Ila (right before Mium “thanked” him by throwing him off of the roof they were chatting on: he commented on “she’s definitely artificial” as he fell.)
Maybe it could’ve just been a completely different personality entirely, with an entirely different look, and is being very selective in what information it shares, but he’d have to be able look (and, presumably, sound) that completely different. And “dropping off the radar for a few years” sounds like an achievement for Rovak that would’ve come up at some point when someone was talking about him.
I just can’t get over the fact that Rovak may have just told his own hallucination “I might be barking mad by your standards[…]”. Sweet Jesus I love Rovak sometimes.
Of course, that is assuming that Dr. Martin is in fact a hallucination. That is a question I think is very much not put to rest. As usual @PastUtopia you’ve managed to raise more questions than you’ve answered with the first appearance of the infamous Dr. Martin, hat’s off.
Let’s assume, for a moment, that Dr. Martin really was, physically, in this room with Mr. Stas. How could this be, if Mr. Stas’ associate did not see (or hear) him?
Well, we know this world has various kinds of magic, including major stuff like limb regeneration, virtual immortality, and teleportation. But who do we know that has the ability to slip by most security teams and systems without being noticed? (I’m speaking of Arron Kepler, of course.)
My point? Perhaps Peter Kepler, in the guise of “Dr. Martin”, inherited or learned… Alright, that’s probably a long-shot, especially since we haven’t see Peter do much of anything magical (aside from his incredible mastery of manipulation and strategy). But it is an interesting coincidence.
It seems more likely that the Dr. Martin he heard and saw here was only a figment of his twisted mind. The only way Peter would visit Stas would be if he felt it necessary to further manipulate him for his plans. But there is surely an easier, less risky way of doing that. Besides, isn’t Peter supposed to be having a late dinner with Ms. Summers about now?
Still, I very much hold to the theory that Peter used to pose as Dr. Martin at Avon when he worked there. This is probably why we don’t get a view of Dr. Martin’s head in these panels as it would give that away.
That said: Kldran’s theory about this guy possibly being Dr. Mir’s opposite number in Avon’s secret research branch was brilliant. I thought this to be more likely than it turning out to be Dr. Martin.
It seems like it’s also possible that Dr. Martin was communicating with Mr. Stas, but not physically present in the room–come to think of it, didn’t peter do something like that. . . .
sevenfivel, that’s an interesting idea. Perhaps Peter used MYM to project a hologram/image in the room to talk with him? We saw Peter do something similar when Naomi visited Arron at his local branch office, bringing with her a hologram of Peter.
Alternatively, perhaps it was Mium posing as Dr. Martin in a hologram?
I feel like this page puts to rest my belief that Peter was Martin and instead brings up the idea that Martin was who Peter learned to make SMAIs from. While it is possible that Rovak was merely speaking to himself, I’d expect his hallucination of Dr. Martin to resemble the real person, and this guy’s speaking patterns don’t quite match Peter’s.
Overall, I feel like this page makes the question of “What happened at Avon?” a lot more interesting. In large part because Martin keeps getting name dropped by Avon personnel, and that strongly implies that Dr. Martin managed to become more (in)famous than Peter. How?! The simple fact that Peter can’t seem to avoid getting tons of attention when working somewhere, is a major part of why I assumed the person everyone kept mentioning had to be him.
The thought that this guy’s speech pattern may not match what we know of Peter did cross my mind. However, can we honestly say that there is enough of “Dr. Martin’s” dialog on this page to make a determination, either way?
For that matter, I don’t see how the very limited view we get of Dr. Martin is sufficient to make much of a determination based on appearance. All we see on this page are 3 side views of someone in a lab coat plus what I assume to be a (lab coat-covered) arm. The previous page wasn’t any more illuminating, either. Honestly, I don’t think we see enough of Dr. Martin to determine more than that he seems Caucasian. Indeed, it could be a woman for all we can see.
There are several reasons to suspect Peter of being Dr. Martin. Among others: (1) Dr. Martin suddenly disappeared and nobody seems to know where he is and disappearing suddenly is pretty much Peter’s M.O. (2) Peter seems perfectly willing and capable of making a fake identity to infiltrate a business or organization. At least, his associates (Mium/Naomi/Miko) get away with this rather often. (3) Peter had Miko pose as the hacker/troubleshooter at Avon because Peter would be recognized, (4) Dr. Mir hates Peter with a passion, which proves she knows him and that kind of hate likely comes from being her boss, (5) Mium/MYM (both the AI ‘virus’ and the chassis) were created by Dr. Martin, (6) MYM seems loyal to Peter, (7) Peter has a bunch of protocols in place which MYM must follow (8), MYM has integrated Query (9), We’ve seen Peter disassemble and tinker with Kor’s World tech, which is interesting because it seemed implied that Avon has reverse-engineered Kor’s World tech.
Also, it seems that Miko has some ability to give MYM directives – perhaps not top-level stuff like Peter seems to do, but at least some control. How would Peter have that level of control over MYM – even being able to add new people in a position of control over MYM – without being MYM’s creator? Whether or not he’s Peter, we know Dr. Martin has to be smart. He surely would’ve put safeguards in place to prevent just anyone from giving MYM top-level directives. Had Peter merely been Dr. Martin’s underling, do you think Dr. Martin would have given him that kind of authority over MYM?
And then there’s this:
http://pastutopia.com/?comic=comic-for-monday-october-23rd
Arron says, “…so you did go to Avon afterall. Kally says you have a humanoid frame for Query… That’s where you got that too, isn’t it? There have been rumors about Avon’s darker dealings, but… Damnation, Peter, you are Avon’s darker dealings, aren’t you?”
These are good points, and I do not discount that Doctor Martin might be Peter. I agree with some others that the time does not seem to line up, but it would be really hard to say there is no chance that “a mysterious apparently brilliant person shrouded in mystery” has no chance of being Peter.
But it is worth noting right after that quote, Peter demurs on if he is actually responsible for everything.
Last page showed us two benches.
The question now is do we have confirmation that Rovak’s imagining Dr Martin with his teammate appearing to walk in on the same side, is Dr. Martin a mental projection only visible to Rovak, or did she come in from the other side and he successfully hid (or can cast some kind of glamor such that people don’t notice him that Rovak can see through, I guess).
Given Mr Rovak Stas’s response, I’m inlined to believe that Rovak was willing to believe it was a hallucination.
That triggers several thoughts on its own.
If Rovak believed it could be a hallucination, then Rovak had enough familiarity with the real Dr Martin that hallucinating the Dr as a friend/confidant could be likely. Isn’t Rovak Orish? How much contact did researchers in Avon have with the competitor state was mages?
On the same token, Rovak send to have believed the exchange was real while it was happening. That suggests that Rovak doesn’t believe Martin is dead. It also suggests that Martin and Rovak are still on close terms, at least in Rovak’s mind. And that this sort of thing happens with some frequency, and doesn’t seem to trouble Rovak.
How old is this guy anyway? Part of his insanity apparently is the disconnect between the priorities of the normal compared to the priorities of someone who expects the world to change over hundreds of years? When did this planet develop immortal war mages?
Ye gods. It was Doctor Martin. Who has apparently gone merc. Also this again brings up the issue of what is a successful prototype what with all the bloody things Mium/M.Y.M. can do.
Seriously if that was your definition of failed, then whats your target? Mass producable Rovak*Mium combos?
I get the feeling he is only “failed” in the sense that whoever was scoring the tests was… less than honest about his performance.
“Failed” as in very hard to control when he doesn’t feel like being controlled?
From what I can understand M.Y.M. likely wasn’t a failed anything but it was F8 that was deemed a failure. My guess is that F8 was meant to test some stronger tech, likely testing some stronger processors for Eidos detection/processing, but the on-board AI couldn’t handle the full data and got fried before it could be turned on. Still we don’t know what F8 was testing, just that M.Y.M./Query could take it over since it wouldn’t turn on or otherwise couldn’t make it’s own decisions. Mium did say it was nothing but parts after all.
Anything F8 could do after that could be nothing more than what Peter or Miko could upgrade the chassis for.
Recall that Peter commented about needing to give Mium the edios interface card that he pulled out of the Kor’s World mech as Mium needed one and that Peter didn’t want him stealing Avon’s.
Mium as we see him in the F8 (or F5 was it) chassis is what MYM the AI decided to mod them into, including probably a Kor’s World eidos card in each (which he could use similarly to Naomi to boost his physical abilities/potential in the chassis as well).
So Mium himself is a potential modifier too. Both in the general sense of improving the tech and in the on-the-fly active sense of modifying his body’s eidos construct to improve performance of the moment, aside from whatever other capabilities he’s teased out of the Kor’s World tech.