The first summer vacation issue finds Punchy back home in Maryville, a small town that is positively boring. The only thing about it that provides some comfort is Flora, another superhuman and friend of Punchy, who didn't get accepted to the Seminary. She has plant powers and a mean streak. Most of this issue is devoted to her and Punchy hanging out and bitching about how shitty Maryville is. At one point, they have sex (Punchy's first time!) and are discovered by two local redneck teens who like to pick on the freaks--only to have Flora do apeshit and would kill them had Punchy not stopped her.Not much plot here and not much original plot, but Casey does a good job of capturing that "back home for summer" feel that comes with college or university. You're out in the world for most of the year only to come "home" to find that it's a lot smaller, a lot more boring and not much home anymore. You've outgrown it, you've changed, it's now just the place where you used to be. Of course, it can never just be the place where your parents are, because there's so much memory attached to it--the conflict between viewing it as "home" and viewing it as "your parents' home" is a strange one. You think of where you currently live as home, but... I'm not sure I can explain it. I'm not sure Casey does either, but he comes pretty close.
Flora is an interesting character as Casey hints at her being the opposite of a vegetarian in many ways. We're told in the infoscrolls that she's tortured and killed small animals and seems ready to kill the rednecks... Because she's so closely tied to plant life, she would obviously view animals as lesser and have little problem killing them. You could almost see her eating nothing but meat and by-products of animals. A very interesting idea.
Also, we see that Empty Vee is hanging out with the Weirdness and her boyfriend, the bassist for the summer. There's an odd moment in the comic that I'm not quite sure what to make of where the transition from that brief scene to Punchy is done in a manner in which they obvious influence one another. We see the Weirdness playing a show and the lead singer screams, but the balloon for that happens in the panel below it, where Punchy suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night. As well, the panel borders aren't solid, but fade into one another. My first thought is that this suggests that I was right in thinking that Sykes was influencing the bassist's mind back in issue four and because of what happened in issue six, there's a link between Sykes and Punchy. I'm probably wrong as the infoscroll says he's been having recurring nightmares since issue six, but that doesn't mean there isn't something there necessarily.
We also get to see Duke working the National Park Service and taking down a supervillain, but he accidentally kills him instead of bringing him in alive as ordered. Throughout this scene, we get shots of Agent Boss Tempo in action, a character normally associated with Punchy (he's reading the comic at the time)--but, here, with Duke? Duke is having the summer experience Punchy wants to have, obviously. Not spelled out, but suggested through the use of the spy comic.
At the end of the issue, Destra shows up at Punchy's place...
Some infoscroll bits:
* "PUNCHY TAUGHT HIMSELF TO READ USING COMIC BOOKS..."
* "TEEN HOMETOWN TIP: NEVER LIVE AS AN ADULT IN THE TOWN YOU GREW UP IN..."
* "STUDIES SHOW THAT INFO SCROLL COMPOSITION HAS LED TO NIGHT BLINDNESS, INSOMNIA, DRUG USE AND OCCASIONAL BOUTS OF INSANITY..."
* "MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR THESE LATE, LAMENTED MARKET COMICS SERIES: RAWDOGS VERSION 8.0, MR. MAGNIFICENT, AROMATIC KRAKA..."
Next issue: road trip!
