Guess we’ll just have to go talk to god then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I heard He has presents
To cap out the year, a little article on B.M.D. with some nice sci-fi comics, with a mention of several webcomic friends on there, so yay.
Chapter 5 begins on Jan 1, and we will be going into a hardcore three updates a week until the comic is complete in Q1 of the year. I was a little quiet on all fronts in December preparing for this… the Patreon will also be updating each day of the first week of Jan with a veritable slew of things because again, why not wait to drop everything on you at once is my motto.
Again, thank you all so much for reading my work in 2017! It was a very tough year creating-wise, and I’m grateful that you were here to keep me going. I’m hoping to make 2018 my most productive year yet, and of course keep on keeping all of you entertained with odd stories.
See you in the New Year~
70 Comments
Ooh, that’s a good list of comics, thank you!
Looks like we’re getting into the home stretch here, mixed feelings, but mostly the usual excitement to see where the story goes!
Floating cars?
Wellp, ready to see a pumped up Der-Shing
… it’s not the future, if there are no flying cars!
Well, Levi floats… if something that size can manage to do so for long enough to function as a remote exploration ‘bot, cars must be easy-peasy!
It does help that Mars has lower gravity, though- probably easier to design a hovering explorer drone for Mars than it is a hovering personal transport vehicle for regular Earth usage.
Although, LEVi worked on Earth before iirc
What a powerful 3 pages!
So cool that BMD mentioned your comic! Their parent company is from my hometown so I was even more excited.
Hope your next year is better and more enjoyable than the last (in all facets), Der-Shing. Thanks for the comics.
*cough* which one? (god)
Yes, thanks for the comic (it is inspiring), and happy new one.
I guess it depends which religion Bex’s husband practices; unless I’m being forgetful, I don’t recall it ever being established in the comic itself. Of course, you don’t need to be a member of a religion in particular to believe in a more general idea of God.
*SOBS*
AAAAAH this is so sad ;_;
Well, I’m glad their conversation didn’t end on a completely terrible note.
Sorry hubby, it’s never good to go into a relationship thinking you can “save” someone. But you seem like a decent fellow.
Great dialogue on this interlude, Shing!
Aww. That ended a lot better than it could have. Talk to the kids tons about this, will you, hubby dear? Like talk them into not deleting her “got here safely” email and reading it later when they feel up to it?
Bex’ husband is, at least, showing himself to be doing what he believes to be in the best interests of all concerned. I’m not surprised that he is religious; it’s quite common in West Africa (wherever they actually live in the “now” of the story)
Yeah, I’m glad that didn’t end as a total disaster.
Whoops, some sort of keyboard error there!
Sorry you’re Benõ now
Always be yourself. Unless you can be Benõ.
I don’t know whether the processor is old enough or had anything to do with the shipments of interplanetary garbage, but if it was involved, and literally created life on earth (or even ejected it from the primeval garden of Mars), then, uh, yeah, Bex is about to talk to G-d.
oh
my
garbage god
Bex’s husband is a presumptuous ass and has assumed what is best for EVERYONE without consultation from the rest of the family. I seriously doubt the children did not want to talk to their mother. He did not LET them. Typical of controlling, emotionally abusive types. In a way, I think Bex was trying to escape that. Too bad she felt she had to leave the goddamn planet and her children to do it.
I feel like that statement presumes a lot. We really don’t (and from the sound of things, never will) get a detailed enough view of their marriage to get proof of that. His statement at the start of the conversation, while hurtful, was understandable given the few certainties about the situation. Maybe he is the kind of abusive scum who will deliberately keep her messages from reaching the kids. Or maybe he just said something hurtful in the height of emotion and will allow them to communicate when the pain isn’t quite so fresh. I really don’t know. Something tells me none of us will know until perhaps the very end if we’re lucky.
He pretty much bulldozed over Bex’ feelings in the previous interlude. While we don’t get a complete picture of him, it seems clear he’s unable to accomodate Bex’ most fundamental ambitions and personality traits.
Given how he prescribed Bex how she should feel in the other interlude, I would not be surprised if he handled the decision to withhold the kids from her similarly.
Well, at least it looked like he had a good relationship with the kids in the photos from chapter 1.
Agreed. Interlude 3 reads quite differently now. I had thought he was giving her a pep talk (albeit clumsily), trying to encourage her, but in light of this exchange, we see that he was *telling* her how she was allowed to feel.
His ‘you should be thanking god’ line takes on new -and ominous- meaning. Like he’s one of those people who attribute to his god everything that happens, which amounts to judging everything and denying human achievement – if something good happens, it’s because god blessed you, not that you worked your ass off- and plain bad luck – if something bad happens you deserve it because you must have made god mad.
Fortunately [*coff*] he happens to know what god wants, and whoa! what a surprise, god wants what he wants.
He thought he could “save” her. What a jerk.
On the flipside :P (arguing for two different extremes… this is a weird day!), we don’t really see what kind of Father he is either. People don’t typically keep photos of the unpleasant moments or even think of taking them except as evidence later. It’s how Mike got the impression that she was a good mom when she later admitted she wasn’t. We really don’t know how the man is like with his kids, just like we don’t really know how Bex was like with them.
I’m sorry about this. Somehow, the path from point A to point B doesn’t feel as clear to me as it had for Mike’s interludes. If it’s clear to you guys, that’s great, but for me, there’s so much ambiguity. I still see Bex’s husband as a man prone to snapping and saying hurtful things, but then realizing he went too far and tries to mend things between them. Rereading the previous interlude, I can see your interpretations, but I still feel there’s enough ambiguity here for alternatives.
As I see it, there should be no reason for her husband to react that aggressively, and neither for him to let their children get so angry at her (rather than explaining them the whole situation and supporting her decision). After all, it’s not like she’s abandoning her family: it’s only a six months contract (http://www.marecomic.com/comic/ch1-page-11/), right?
Also, not that I think his attitudes would be justified if she intended to stay away longer (or forever, for that matter). But it’d then be more understandable. Now I think he’s just an abusive a-hole.
Bex’ total mission duration must be at least 18 months, given the conversation between Mike and Goto (which refers to the Mars-Earth transfer being around 6 months flight time). Also, that makes no sense in terms of the usual Hohmann transfer orbit, which provides windows every 18 months or so.
The originally implied scenario – that Bex’ arrival, and Mike’s departure take place a few days apart – DOES fit the Hohmann scenario, though.
So, the implication is that Bex is IN FACT, on Mars for either a few days (making her contract about 13 months, and returning when Mike returns – which isn’t consistent with Goto requiring Mike to hand-over to Bex) OR around 30 months – 6 months in space, 18 months on Mars and 6 months back again.
Since Bex is described as a “permanent colonist” in the strip, and subsequently (by the author, in a reply) described as visiting various bases in succession, then the conclusion must be that her contract is for 6 months AT THAT STATION. That, or it’s just an oversight in the writing…
There’s also the matter that Bex appears, in some unspecified way, to be Mike’s replacement on the Levi team.
Looking back…
There are at least three habitats, because two other names are given. They seem to be within a fairly short journey by whatever is used for local transport, which is either some sort of Rover or some sort of sub-orbital craft.
Mike has been at the Station for twelve months. This doesn’t QUITE fit the Hohmann windows, but it’s not far out. He may, of course, have been at one of the other habitats previously.
Mike’s partner on the Levi project, appears to be the (otherwise unseen) Dr Braid, who doesn’t appear to be at the Station at present, but IS still on Mars.
Mike’s been on Mars for 3+ years, and would have had to leaves soon anyways because of the 4-year cap that’s in place (for non-colonists) and also because of the Hohmann window like you mentioned. At the start of the story he was headed back to Intersection after the transport came back, to wait for the window to open and the next round of flights to leave.
I dunno, to me, it sounds like hubby is one of those guys who makes everything so calm and rationally YOUR FAULT, while you turn yourself inside out trying to meet impossible standards. If you run, you’ll hear all about the things you’ve destroyed by leaving, no, don’t try to make amends, everything you touch turns to $#!t, hasn’t he explained that already?
you write bex and her situation so beautifully that one could write an entire thesis on that angle in this comic – but also, my gosh, the lighting (and the stars!!!) in this whole scene has been stunning. but that’s part of the point too, isn’t it?
Thanks :] Not stars tho, cuz of the rain, just the lights from departing/ arriving flights.
Harsh criticism of Bex’ husband, here. Let’s consider this.
We don’t know the date of the events described, but it seems to be 20 to 50 years from the present.
Bex is self-described as “a Yoruba, from Nigeria” and it’s probably safe to assume that her husband is the same. They may, or may not currently be resident in Nigeria (Bex has a Nigerian flag on her EVA suit) but appear to retain Nigerian nationality; markers like that on international projects are documented facts, not identity politics games on Facebook.
Tribal and ethnic identities are important in Africa. They form the main outlines of the tribal warfare which has characterised post-colonial Africa; the Yorùbá conducted a brutal civil war against the breakaway state of Biafra in the 1960s. Religion is influential in Africa, because in a landscape of violence over resources, kidnapping for ransom, political corruption and ethnic Division, it provides a measure of certainty and security which is not otherwise present.
So it’s probsbly safe to assume that Bex’ husband is some kind of orthodox Anglican (because the Anglican Communion is widespread in sub-Saharan West Africa) and sees that as an important part of his overall view of life. Bex, by inference, is quite likely a more Westernised character, although she comes from a background sufficiently like his, that they should meet and marry. They are both quite affluent, by their lights; Western dress, the baby shop, Bex at least is educated to PhD level and employed by a major multinational project, they have access to videophones and a swimming pool.
No, abusing him as “controlling scum, yada yada” is just wrong. He seems to be a fairly typical example of a family man from a culture where certainties are important in daily life, doing what he regards as best. After all, he isn’t the one who abandoned his spouse and two children after a decade or so of marriage (? inferred from the pictures of the boys) to pursue an objective which in his terms, is very difficult to make sense of.
Trying to “save” someone without consent is abuse, whether intended to be or not; it’s controlling behavior; and the only failure he admits here is a failure to control her more.
Without the context of the previous interlude, he could be taken by surprise by her needs. But with that context it’s pretty clear he was ignoring them and minimizing her experience for years.
Consider: he could have admitted that they had incompatible needs, taken her fear of losing herself seriously, and found someone else.
Which is what a woman is expected to do if a man wants stuff she doesn’t — or worse, rewrite her own desires and goals to fit his, especially when he’s an exceptional man doing something groundbreaking.
It’s a common pattern and socially condoned, and it’s still abuse. It’s based on the assumption that women will make the compromises in a het relationship, do the invisible labor, stay home if they have kids, will sacrifice their own interests to promote whatever the husband wants, etc.
And it kills women. There’s hard data on it. It leads to lower life expectancies for married women vs single, and higher for married men vs single for example.
There were a lot of metrics telling the same story – happiness measurements, career success, hours a week doing domestic work, proportion of childcare, etc; but that’s the one I remember most starkly — on average marrying a man takes years off a woman’s life, and gives them to him.
Could you maybe take it down a notch with summarising other people’s comments as “ra ra” and “yada yada”? I find it not very respectful.
I read your comment as saying “it’s not controlling, it’s his culture/nurture/…” – which is not a contradiction at all. It’s not surprising for a culture to usher people into predefined roles, and to appoint some people to do the ushering. Simply doing what you saw other people doing, without malicious intent, does not absolve you of accountability.
And btw, I don’t think this portrayal is particularly specific to Yoruba. I can absolutely picture Bex’ relationship dynamic in Europe or the USA or wherever.
That’s an important element of MI; there are no villains, with the exception of Mike’s uncle, and to some extent his parents; but the latter two, are only reacting to their domestic issues. We don’t really know what caused the divorce, but it seems to be mundane.
Penelope Goto is only doing her job, and (by her account) has tried to protect him from the consequences of his self-destructive behaviour. Mike is not a sympathetic character, but deserves sympathy. Bex has made a difficult choice, which she clearly hasn’t fully resolved yet. Bex’ husband is doing the right thing, by his lights.
I don’t really understand why Bex killed Kayla, though.
Bex killed what looked like an apex predator, before it had a chance to kill her. Given what she knew at the time it was the only reasonable action — we knew better, but she did not.
I am feeling all the feels. I think about the religious people I know who keep telling me that to be truly happy, I need to let God control my life. I think about the people I dated who were not evil but never quite understood I was a separate entity with different wants and needs.
Life is very messy and sometimes there isn’t the right choice, only the one you perceive to be the better one at the time.
> Life is very messy
Truth.
“It seems like nothing on earth […] has what you need”
Is this line just Shing trying to be cute, or is he actually encouraging her to go to Mars? If the latter, should it be read as “you should pursue your personal goals”, or “get away from me/the kids!”?
Also, this whole time I’ve been reading Bex’s trip to Mars as her deliberately sacrificing her family life, without condemning or condoning. Now, though, she seems less driven. Is it really admirable to throw yourself into pursuing your dreams because external factors took everything else away from you? It’s like the choice has been made for you.
I read that as Bex’ husband simply signifying acceptance that whatever it is she wants, it exerts claims on her above and beyond her marriage and family, and appears to be calling her to Mars. He also appears to suspect that she doesn’t KNOW what she wants, and lacks the ability to make a life from what is available.
He doesn’t understand it, and doesn’t accept it. He regards her, most likely, as having defaulted on her obligations – voluntarily taken, let’s remember – and left him with the care and upbringing of the children.
He simply wants to move on, without unnecessary ill-will but without the continuing disruption she brings to family life. He is telling her, calmly but firmly, that if she WANTS to do whatever it is she thinks wants to do, she is free to do so; but that comes at a price.
Disrespectful, moi? ‘Tisn’t ME ranting about Bex’ husband. All I’m saying is that he is a man of his time and place, as most people are.
We actually know quite a lot about Bex. She tells us that she is Yoruba, from Nigeria, and wears a Nigerian flag on her EVA suit. From that, and what we see second-hand and in this interlude, various inferences can be drawn.
Is her husband’s behaviour specific to Yoruba? Why, no. I never said any such thing. What I DID say, is that it’s a common pattern in English-speaking West Africa. Francophone Africa, they tend to be Catholic, if Christian. There are also sizeable Muslim populations.
What I AM saying, from experience of the region, is that religion DOES tend to occupy the place of law and/or national cohesion. There are few, if any social services, not much rule of law and high levels of corruption and nepotism. People tend to draw their moral guidance from other sources. Morality there tends to be “old-school”, by Western standards, and quite a lot of people are comfortable with the concept of God.
Bex’ husband probsbly regards himself as quite moderate and enlightened, and compared to some people he would be familiar with, he is right. His views and hopes vis-a-vis Bex haven’t stood the test, but so it goes…
“He’s a man of his time…”
And that time is THE F U T U R E.
To be fair, the future could go any way, especially in regards to religion.
I’m just inferring from present knowns, and the assumption that the comic is set somewhere between 20-50 years from the present.
Occam’s Razor says that Bex and her husband are members of the Anglican Communion.
Of course, the author is free to inform us otherwise, but that’s my best guess.
Occam’s Razor also says that everything in the world is a hallucination and that I’m the only being who truly exists.
I don’t disagree with you that Bex’s husband is not necessarily malicious. In fact, I’d argue that his talk about god and trying to “save” her don’t immediately peg their relationship as abusive.
What I *am* arguing is that, while Shing’s research and representation of the Yoruba tribe is great, it doesn’t have much bearing on this exchange. This is partly because there are highly religious folk all over the world who also talk like (and possibly are) reasonable and forward-thinking people, but it’s mostly because this is *Bex’s* story. Her husband’s words and actions only matter insofar as they motivate her.
Occam’s Razor states that conclusions should be based upon known certainties as far as possible, and unknown or hypothetical elements should not be introduced unless necessary; at which point, the validity of the conclusion is weakened.
“Everything is an illusion, and only the observer’s mind can be known to exist” is a form of solipsism.
Exactly. I only know for certain that I exist (for some definition of I), therefore Occam’s Razor says the most likely answer is that I am the only being that exists.
Conveniently, Solipsism is also impossible to logically disprove, but that’s a mute point.
Again, I must wonder aloud what sort of person is being depicted in Bex. I initially believed she made a hard decision, rightly or wrongly, to pursue her goals despite her family. This interlude blows that away. It seems she went to Mars because she had nothing else, rather than as an act of extreme decisiveness. This is a nice direction with Shing’s theme of “strong-seeming scientists in challenging environments also having weaknesses”, and I’m gonna go back a re-read all of her early scenes with this in mind as soon as I’m done being needlessly confrontational.
The abusiveness of Bex’s husband is all well and good, but I’m still working out how to see Bex with this new revelation. I wonder what my fellow commenters are thinking about her now.
I agree with Android 21 … way above: I don’t have a firm, complete picture of what went down in that family. It’s entirely possible or even quite likely that my current conclusions will be blown apart by the next chapter or the extro.
It’s just a couple of pages ago that Bex confirmed that she abandoned her kids, which sounds like she still thinks that’s something she actively did. After this interlude it seems possible that her husband got a divorce and fought to get custody. (Or not.) So there might be a discrepancy between what happened and how Bex interprets her role in it.
Levi was artificially created and absolutely controlled; Kalla ended up in complete custody of the processors; Mike’s teenage years were structured by the Personalized Education Plan; and apparently Bex spent about over ten years with a husband who tried to gently guide her away from working?
So … self-determination and external pressures I guess?
I wonder how thighfriend feels about Mike carrying them wherever he wants.
“[flap]”
Next thing we know, Mike’s toaster fungal crown announces to him that they’re unionizing.
Bex’s husband’s response to her emotional crisis in the last interlude told me all I ever needed to know about him as a partner. He cuts her off, tells her how she should be feeling, and then after she tells him “I feel like I’m dying. […] What is my identity now outside of ‘mother’?” his response is basically “your identity is GREAT mother”! He may be a great guy, maybe even a great father, but he is a terrible partner.
Bex is a terrible partner, too.
They are RESPONSIBLE for those boys; just them, and no one else. Did Bex take her marriage vows, or didn’t she?
Marriage isn’t “just a piece of paper”, it’s a mechanism, or structure by which the great challenge of parenthood is addressed and managed. It’s about the most challenging thing most people ever do.
Bex clearly didn’t want to be a mother, and as far as I can tell was pressured into it by her husband.
Even if you’re right (and I’m not saying you are) she’s now responsible for those lives.
This is child abandonment.
What person does not say hurtful things when their patience has worn thin? Doesn’t make it right, but it does make it very human. Bex was heavily pregnant, likely suffering from anxiety and mood swings due to the hormones and stress of the drastic changes to her life, and they probably had this discussion many times before. After he snapped, her husband did apologize. When he said she’d be a great mother, it doesn’t sound like he meant that she’d be a great mother exclusively. It sounded to me as if “great mother” would merely be an additional facet to her identity alongside “great culinary entomologist” (I’m guessing that’s what her career title is?).
It’s entirely possible he was a consistently terrible and/or incompatible partner that was unable to reconcile Bex’s needs. Or Bex might have been the incompatible partner that was unable to reconcile her husband’s needs. Or both. Seriously, those two moments in their lives are not enough to give us what we need to assign the blame solidly on anyone. And perhaps that might be the point. Perhaps there’s no real villain in the equation like Mike’s uncle had been. Perhaps it’s just two people unable to compromise each other’s needs properly.
Women DO have emotional crises around the time of late pregnancy and childbirth. It’s to be expected, it’s the most profound emotional experience most women go through in their whole lives, and these crises have to be dealt with, because they pass.
But, from the little we’ve seen of the boys, that’s several years ago “now”.
Bex clearly has a professional, academic life which she places great importance in. Fair enough, these things are hard-won. But (and this is what constitutes her failure, in context) she has allowed her academic/professional ambition to conflict directly with her family commitments.
She is, after all, an entomologist, not a rocket scientist.
No one would call it a failure if a man valued his career over his partner and family …
What nonsense. Plenty of us would.
Mork, your statement isn’t true. Many people would and do consider it a failure for a man to value career over partner and family.
Teaching a man obsessed with his career to learn to value relationships/quality time with loved ones more is a common trope of storytelling.
I never said he was a villain, but someone who thinks another person needs saving just because they would rather have a career than be a mother? That’s a toxic relationship, and I hate using the word toxic.
If my mother or father abandons a child for life for their job then they’re a bad mother or father.
If the problem is the partner then divorce the partner and get split custody.
Are there no lengths most thread posters won’t go to, to make it ok to abandon people?
We can’t tell what their relationship was like from what we’ve seen so far, the husband seems to have had unrealistic expectations, but we don’t know why they married despite that.
But that’s an aside, once you bring someone else into the world you’re responsible for them FIRST until the age of majority. This is simple, they should either divorce or not, but children come first, and anyone who abandons their offspring is a terrible person.
If you breed, you are responsible. Man or woman. This is simple.
Changed it from first to third, but messed up the early sentence. My parents are happily married.
But like, seriously, if you’re not happy in a marriage, then get divorced. Some of you posters who think her husband is an abusive, controlling person forcing her to run away or kill her dreams think that somehow if you’re right it makes it ok for her to do this?
Of course not!
Whether he is or not, that can be dealt with while staying on Earth.
This is child abandonment, plain and simple, and whether her husband had unrealistic expectations of her or not (the evidence leans yes. We don’t know whether she made her ambitions clear early on, but probably, although one would ask why she married him then, but also why he married her), it doesn’t remove the fact that she’s abandoning them.
This is well said.
Re various points above
It isn’t specifically crucial that Bex and, presumably, her husband are Yoruba, but that being said, characters need to be understandable. Since there are a lot of things we don’t know about Bex’ and Mike’s world, we can only assume that where references to ours are given, they are as we would understand them.
So, we have a picture of a couple who in many respects, are people you might meet in our world. They are, it appears, Christian – the recent exchange doesn’t read like a Muslim talking, and Anglican Christians are an identifiable type in that part of the world. Bex is conflicted between her professional ambitions and family life. Emotional crises of that sort are common in recent mothers, and in Bex’ case it appears to have become perpetuated as the communication within the marriage has broken down. She has, for her own reasons, retreated into her professional persona. In this case, she has gone to Mars, but she could just as easily have gone to Sydney or New York, or the Antarctic, and the story would be the same, on that level.
Ok, I’ll buy all that.
Of COURSE Bex thinks that abandoning her kids, is something she actively did. She has left Earth, hasn’t she? She must have applied herself to achieving that, at great length; opportunities like that aren’t easily accessed.
Of COURSE she had a moment of emotional stress, immediately before committing irrevocably to the flight; who wouldn’t?
What I thought I was observing: two lovers who are parting, both in pain. One says “If you go now, don’t come back.” The other replies, “Wait–I will do anything–just tell me not to go.” The first says, “Actually, I don’t want to try again. I’ve tried to help you through your crises the way I get through mine, and it doesn’t work. I don’t like or understand your crises, and I don’t believe that I have any. Good bye.”
That is, one says “I still love you,” and the other says, “sorry, I don’t”–but they never say “love” at all, and he is (fill in the blank–angry? hurtful?) enough to throw in a self-righteous “God help you.”
I have heard repeatedly that children don’t thrive with both parents in the home if the parents really can’t cooperate with each other at all. The children tend to be better off if the incompatible parents are separated.
There is no point painting all people with the same brush when it comes to the responsibilities of parenthood. The first responsibility is to get along with the spouse, one way or another, when the door closes, and you are alone–good luck, I say, and I am not young, and my marriage has been very long. Regardless of the kinds of rule books available to throw at each other when disappointment turns to something more serious, the best things to model for children are ways to be compassionate and ways to find new pathways out of mistakes.
I wonder if the fence is symbolism. And what a beautiful interlude.Didnt expect Bex to consider staying. It never even occurred to me that there was a fallout. I totally thought the family was super supportive this whole time