there's an interesting juxtaposition with these panels that are stacked atop each other here. in the top panel, lucy's allowed to keep her overly-simplistic expression, and in the bottom one, the orbital eyebrow cannon was fired at her.
now, it's kind of a nitpick to even point this out. the eyebrow cannon in these 4-pagers really isn't a huge deal, since basically all the art is being totally redrawn. i'm only really bugged about the cannon being fired when it's a later page (like in the next chapter, hahahaha) in those, the art is clearly perfectly fine already and the cannon is just being fired for no reason (in my opinion!)
in this case, it was just something i noticed and wanted to point out like "lol, isn't that interesting i wonder why"
anyway stop thinking about all of that, we've got an appearance from bald sue and AMAYA ON-SCREEN
she's so unbelievably cute here. what the hell. that's amaya. she's so sad. like to spare her.
when paulo helpfully calls out that mike isn't into girls, a gaggle of male nobodies accosts him. in the redraws, the author drew some random male inserts. in the original, however, i guess she just didn't feel like drawing dudes. based alert?
also lol @ that girl. i'm glad that one got kept. if she was a TRUE fan she'd just start shipping him with his guy friends.
okay, wait, i have another redraw nitpick, please don't unfollow. take a look at this panel, yes lucy is cute but look at the text bubbles.
the way you're supposed to read this is top-left, bottom-left, top-right. BUT. this doesn't follow text bubble law! text bubbles, like any other narrative text, are read left-to-right first, and then you go a layer down. so in this, the second and third bubbles should be switched. funny thing is, the original got this right!
sometimes, in second-guessing yourself, you create a problem that wasn't previously present. now if you'll excuse me, i'm getting a call from the get-a-life foundation.
anyways, speaking of old internet humor, pretty much all of the mid-2000s gags built around the internet's fascination with AAVE are intact here. paulo and david are eager to discuss pimps and hoes (that far-right guy even calls mike a "hustla" in the redraw) and i'm sure we all recall yashy's attitude towards her own discrimination earlier.
but as interesting as all that is, i want to pay special mind to the middle panel in this row, where david asks mike for the "blue-eyed one."
in the redraw, he says this instead:
and like... maybe i'm crazy, and it's certainly up for interpretation, but this almost reads like... david x amaya crumbs? i know that ship has a few die-hard fans out there, and i've never seen ANYONE ship david and stacy, so...? eat up, i guess? didn't see that one coming! fun!
also, look, more stacys. i'm posting the redraw here because originally that stacy and sue on the left were just a couple of blank inserts. more stacy is always the right call, so i'm fully in support of this change.
funny that mike doesn't take the opportunity to mention sandy here.
the next chapter is a BIG DAMN DEAL. it's CONFRONTATION, a chapter that has lasting implications on the comic for... well, the next 19 and a half years, i guess! see you then!