Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 10, 2022

Altitude for Attitude. He dances on the roof

Sees the Space Coupe fly away. His eyes reveal the truth.

Walter sees it too and hoots. He’s such a wise old owl

Cut his ties with Memory, a criminal so foul.

Look to see post-treachery a leader deep in thought

What good is zero tolerance? See what our system wrought.

Drop him in the river? Let the lava deal fast death?

Little time for last regrets or taking one last breath.

Eye for an eye we all go blind. Must be a better way

“To kill so wrong! He must be killed!” Won’t make a better day.

WOW… now THAT’S a twist…

Good morning™, everyone!

The epilogue continues with a shocking last-minute twist, continuing the family theme. Who would have guessed that Ro-Zan was Thorin’s brother? I never would have guessed. I don’t expect that we’ll find out anytime soon how Thorin solves his dilemma, but it sure introduces a hook into the next story that we see him in.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is September 11, and it has become a tradition in recent years to devote the September 11 strip to a tribute to first responders.

I thought they looked alike, so I quipped that they were father/son a while back. I should have thought of brothers.

No surprise, I TOLD you weeks ago they looked exactly the same!

Geez, is this average story EVER going to be finished?

Moonies put family ahead of the law. The Govassador should recuse himself.

Well that was unexpected and it’s strange no mention was made of it previously in the story. When Thorin first introduced Ro-zan why he didn’t mention he was his brother?

Rozan seems to be lacking in brotherly love himself

Ro-zan did not have such qualms at having his own brother killed.

I’ll admit that I didn’t see this happening, but I remember Tracy and Thorin discussing Ro-zan’s possible fate and Tracy was trying to dissuade Thorin from executing him…

Then, there are those who followed him…

I wonder if something similar to what happened when the original Lunar City had to be abandoned where a lottery was held and the “winners” left to find another planet to live instead of moving to Antarctica ?

Also, Thorin has to treat all of them as he will Ro-zan…

Thorin has some heavy thinking to do…

Good morning™, unrepentant tenants !

Zero tolerance – permanent solution. Sounds like the same side of the coin to me. He could send him to Gitmo; no one gets out of that place. Thorin should also be thinking of the followers who are still free and may even make an attempt to break Ro-Zan out of jail because he is still “president” of the movement.

Wait … Tracy spent all that time investigating RoZan & his plot to overthrow the New Moon Valley government … & never uncovered the fact that RoZan & Thorin were brothers (which, in a community like New Moon Valley, would be an open secret, if it was a secret at all)? Really?

Whoa! Wha???

Interesting twist.

I thought yesterday was a final " cute" wrapup today this bombshell

Panel 3: “Mom always liked him better. He never lets me have any fun, or kill him or anything! IT’S NOT FAIR!!”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8hm-MkxHZVY

This plot twist reminded of when Spider-Man first fought Man-Wolf off (1973) from killing J Jonah Jameson and we heard from JJJ that Man-Wolf was actually his son!

If only JJJ was immunized from rabies ahead of time! LOL!!!

Wait. This mean that Thorin was trying ….. Mysta that looks exactly like his niece!?

Nice little twist. Wasn’t expecting that.

Ya think that something a important as him being Moondoggydaddy’s brother would have come up in conversation….then again, it took what; 60 friggin years for tracy to even ask Moondoggydaddy’s name so this shouldn’t be much of a surprise

So are we just going to overlook the surrogate incest that took place? The original Moon Maid was Ro-zan’s niece. Ro-zan was attracted to Mysta, and had a one-night stand with her. Mysta is almost a clone of Moon Maid. Seems creepy to me.

Thorin to Guard: “Here. You. Execute my brother.”

You’ll be sorry

You want to be wary of Permanent (or Final) Solutions.

wait, that’s his brother!? tell mom on him, that’ll teach him.

Ro-zan is his Brother, and Zonar is Honeymoon’s cousin. So it COULD follow, that Zonar is RoZan’s kid.

(And now I have Toto’s Rosanna stuck in my head….)

“I must eliminate everyone who knows anything of this! I can’t afford another Krazy Kat incident like the one in 2010! Which…pretty much leaves me all alone here. BUT, HEY, on the BRIGHT side, I get all their STUFF!”

HE was going to kill YOU!

Excuse me, Mr. Ambassador/Governor, but isn’t “Zero Tolerance” a permanent solution? And, you can always let someone else pronounce sentence on RoZan, and, direct the execution of sentence. It’s called delegation.

Ro-zan had no problem pulling the trigger on you, brother mine.

@BreathlessMahoney77 – I agree!!!

Very i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g! Even in Moon Valley, they have sibling rivalry.

“Despite the terrible things Ro-zan has done, I can’t execute my own brother”. Well your brother had no hang-ups about having Marina executed and trying to overthrow you. If he does not get therapy, what is to stop Ro-zan from trying the same thing again?

The Ambassador, in spite of the family dynamics, must have an excess of short-term memory.

OK – here’s the skinny on why Ro-Zan was willing to kill his own brother. First – it was NOT for the power. He couldn’t care less about that. It was because, in Lunie Moonie society, as it was in ancient England, a brother TOOK THE WIFE OF HIS DEAD BROTHER AND LISKA IS HOT HOT HOT! And, we know that Mysta left Ro-Zan in a frustrated condition and Liska has been known to have done the deed at least once so…Ro-Zan took a chance.

Let that be the end of future speculation.

If we assume that the leadership of Luney society is inherited, then the title “Governor” equals “King” and “Deputy Governor” equals “Prince.” It is the old story of the younger brother trying to usurp the throne. It has happened in fiction and in the real world. It is the story of greed, jealousy, and power; the story of Prince John and King Richard in Ivanhoe; of Cain and Abel offering a sacrifice in the Bible. Variations of this tale never go out of style.

Like the usual illogical inconsistencies, how could Tracy not have known Thorin & Ro-Zan were brothers with all of the snooping around (off panel) he supposedly did? I don’t see a reason for Thorin to have kept the information from Tracy nor Mike’s reason for keeping the information from the reader. With this knowledge, several elements in the story now make more sense. I think that if the reader had been told this before, it would have added more intrigue and more depth to the storytelling. Nevertheless, I like this twist to the story.

My only real criticism of the arc was the slow-start exposition which seemed to last forever and go nowhere

With Marina’s death, the story picked up in pace and interest and ended with a great fight scene (we need to see Tracy in action more often). The action saved the day and then Honeymoon’s douement scene with Thorin poured a little syrup over everything for a sentimental ending. Now this excellent twist.

Something for everyone and overall one of the better stories in a long time. I was entertained once it got going. The artwork was spectacular throughout.

There are still unanswered questions: What caused the oxygen demise in Moon Valley? What happened to the Moonies who set off for another world? Did they intercept Ghote and Sail?

There are plenty of opportunities for further stories with the Moonies. I just hope they don’t come too soon and ignore the real crimes in Tracyville, but I also hope it doesn’t take another 8 years to refresh our memories.

cue the ominous music

1-THOR-IN: Well, I’m talking to myself again so I’d better get back to where I can at least pretend someone else is listening to me…

2- …It’s so odd how your problems return the instant you get back from vacation. I just remembered that I have to tell Mom that her other son (I’ll make sure she knows it’s Bro-Zan – she’s lost a step since she turned 900)…

3- …is a bad seed and that, as the weedy old flower bed of that bad seed, she’ll have to suffer the Weed-B-Gone penalty just like hIm! It’s the law after all – well, it will be once I get back- and it locks in the “Poor Orphan” vote for me. WINNING!

That means Ro-Zan hooked up with a lady who was designed and genetically altered to be like his niece! Ick!

debonismichael26 about 14 hours ago@avenger09 How would you have spruced up this story’s plot, if you were writing it?

Very reasonable question.

I’m not a fan of the Moonie stories and I’m sure everyone knows I despise Mad Mindy but I’ll try to approach this as neutral as possible.

My version will ignore all the restrictions and rules Team Tracy has to deal with so it might be unprintable but hey, “It’s just a fantasy!”

1. First off I wouldn’t have had the 2 ladies come at all since it was foolish of the Govassador to place them into an unstable situation. Having said that let’s keep them in the story.

2. Kill all the needless story filler, Honeymoon strolling with moonteen, Mad Mindy having a one night stand, way too much coffee drinking, etc. Stick to the rebellion.

3. It was the low point in the story to let Shay – Gin simply stroll away. At the very least if you’re not going to kill her you need to hold her captive.

4. Both girls played no part in the story. Despite my dislike of Mad Mindy I would have had her and Honeymoon help defeat Roe -Zan and his goons. You could have shown some conflict in MM before she intervened.

5. (Get ready, this is awesome) I would have caused major injury to MM resulting in her being in a coma. At some future date she would emerge with her Mindy memories restored. This would lead to some interesting plot directions.

6. Finally, Honeymoon gets a puppy named Fiddler.

The end?

Well, this is going to tick off a bunch of bleeding hearts, but…

…..Thorin is a weak leader. If you can’t excute a murderous traitor because he “Is family” …how can you demand that punishment for anyone else?History is paved with Leaders, Good and Bad, who did what was needed, either for the good of their people…or for their continued power.If Ro-zan does not deserve the ultimate penalty…NONE of his lackeys should face it either.Better either man up Thorin…or step aside for someone who can face the darker aspects of Command.

One last surprise twist to the NMV Story (though I suppose if we were alert some among us should have suspected this). Dropping the reveal this late is problematic for what went before, what with Tracy spending lots of time with Thorin and much of the rest of his time investigating the rebel cabal and Ro-Zan, yet with no prior hint of this rather significant relationship.

It is hard on Thorin, but given the magnitude of Ro-Zan’s offenses, plus his lack of remorse, it is still my opinion that Ro-Zan should be subjected to capital punishment….

I’ve really enjoyed this Moon story. Its sent me back to look at the history of the the whole Moon story and there’s been some lovely and dynamic artwork and colour.

The detail isn’t very…detailed…but that’s the same “barless electronic prison” that Tracy and Diet Smith were in back in the 1960’s.

Some “Earth technology” added to security would help,as Roz-An would be unfamiliar with it.

Which one is Aquaman and which one is Ocean Master?