Endtown by Aaron Neathery for January 22, 2025

THAT shut him up.

Rats hunting in the dark. Not a good thought.

Endtown in the dark. Now there’s a thought that should give pause to everyone there.

Been there seen that.

Never thought I’d feel sympathy for the rats..!

You can check out, Joe. But you can never leave.

Was that a threat by the rat, or a hint that Endtown’s resources are running low?

We had a bit of a shock when this new storyline started, but now I think it was the right thing to do. The old one of Wally and his problems was getting played out and hard to know where it would have gone. Hopefully, Mr. Neathery will bring it back some day. And, hopefully, I’ll still be around to read it. I ain’t no spring chicken!

I like that the Rats will apparently be getting more development is this arc. There’s always been a bit of a mystery surrounding them.

Remember – they didn’t mutate like everybody else, but were already there from the beginning with guns, uniforms… and a plan to follow. It’s likely the work of Marx again, but there’s never been much detail about them aside from that.

Something else that caught my attention, while re-reading that might just be a coincidence:The name ‘Ben’ seems to pop up often in conversations between the Rats and it’s possibly a discreet way to establish a continuity of some sort.

I thought it stretches facts too much, but after this conversation about how wanting to ‘check out of here’ is NOT possible, I’m starting to think that there’s something literally preventing them from dying. Maybe a deal with Marx, guaranteeing them survival from the Apocalypse in exchange for their unwavering and UNDYING vigilance over Endtown.

We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s possible Ben might have been at Death’s door before.

Another enigma wrapped in a riddle

Endtown had been struggling with resources before our Wally Holly adventure. Food production was becoming critical. It was discussed my Prof Mallard. The underground hydroponics was not working at a sustainable rate with Endtown’s growth. They have to go topside to survive. But that leads to conflict with Topsiders, rogue creatures, rogue Dittos, and other settlements which are all competing for the limited resources left. Linda worked it out using available mutants to create the cake. That led to the situation of personal identity. Are you human or a milk cow.There’s a lot left to cover.

I need to take stock here of the plot, we had a person whos speices is anthro wolf demanding all wolf haters must die running with a knife after commiting violence.We then have him knife and get shot by security, Ben, who is one of the named rats.another Person of the speices Antrho Wolf, with a Wolf head badge, calls the rats Fascists and makes several accurate but possibly misaimed arguments about fascism. I feel this is a bit too close to real life right now. I mean it’s good to be anti fascist and anti nazi, but some people have just as equally twisted views about what a Nazi is, we’re talking beyond Hitler ate sugar here. I had family who lived thru the second world war, and I am of german ancestry. They say plenty, from people who wanted to know who my grandfather thought would win, to people calling my mother a Nazi for bringing a care package to the post office. to people who made my grand parents go to court to prove citizenship because somehow being proud to live in a country where they could give their kids piano lessons was objectionable.

It’s one thing to be anti nazi, but just remember not to be the ones who locked the Japanese in to camps and push for liberty cabbage, understand.

Even in their early appearances, the Security Rats are authoritarians—and jerks. I went back and found these: [02/13/2009] “authoritarians” (first appearance); [09/17/2010] Flask: “What we do here is meant to keep this community safe”. “Trash like Anderson and Greene…”; [09/23/2010] Mallard “back the #$% off!” (Flask is their boss now.); [10/11/2010] The Rats recover sensitive information. There is property damage. And, they retrieve Jacob Jackrabbit.; [10/25/2010] Rats show they are basically unfriendly to everyone, including Walt, the Mayor. ; [03/16/2011] Official Rat in an office. Next strip, Rat doctor. All screening apparently done by Security.; [08/24/2011] Rat actually invites Wally to join a mission. ; [08/31/2011] Rat (wearing glasses) welcomes Wally to mission room. ; [07/27/2012] Rat trash talking Linda Kowalski (who’d just appeared in Endtown with Marx and the others).(I see here that Petey flew off with the brain from the other PT. I wonder if that person will reapper in the current arc.); [01/24/2013]The Rats come to visit Maude and Linda. “step away from the cake”. Property damage ensues. ; [02/25/2013] The Rats “greet” Walt the Mayor again. ; [03/29/2013] The Rats are handling the trial, and are also doing the media coverage.; [04/26/2013] The Rats come in to break up a fight—which escalates over the next few strips. ; [05/06/2013] Things have gotten really bad for the Rats. But no orders to retaliate. ; [05/10/2013]This shows that the carnage in Endtown at this time (such as wounding of Allie)—was all caused by Endtowners. The Rats were out of it. I had fogotten this. ;[05/30/2013] This is why the local cops hadn’t been involved. No one called them. “Security” has been sent out. Note the dates of the strips. Of course there are more, but I stopped after this, since I was only curious about earlier appearances. The latest of these is from 12 years ago. My recollection of the Rats as “comic relief” isn’t really correct.

I need a lot more context because I’m having a hard time understanding the wolf’s position. The wolf that was just killed was apparently a murderer, and this other wolf is trying to find some political excuse? For all I know in this situation it’s like a guy who just committed a mass shooting getting killed by cops, and some people in the crowd trying to turn him into a martyr because they were in the same group as him

Ok it is not Hotel California then. There you can check out anytime….