Anomalie

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"Anomalie"

Strip: It's Walky!

Start Date: November 9, 2003

End Date: January 4, 2004

Squadron 128, commanded by Walky arrives in Canada to investigate a "temporal anomaly". The storyline continues, and resolves, the conflict between Walky and Joyce from the Goodbye To You storyline. In addition to some character development, it sets up important plot points for the final storylines of the comic.

Story

The storyline is driven by the tensions between the main characters. Walky and Joyce are still not talking to each other, and Walky's ability to command is in question, in particular by Tony, who even tries to assume command.

The opportunity to make fun of things Canadian is also taken: there is an abundance of Tim Horton's, everyone carries a hockey stick, Canadian fashion is stuck in the eighties, etc. The showdown takes place in a high school that seems quite similar to Avalon High.

The temporal anomaly turns out to be one of Head Alien's schemes. Using info "gleaned from those sci-fi fans" ([1], also refers to the The Seventh Power storyline) he has developed a gun that affects subjective time. He has used it to time-stop The Cheese (together with the entire town around them). When Walky breaks it in mid-beam, the gun causes Joyce, Walky, the Head Alien, Monkey Master and Sensitive Scanner to have their genders inverted. "Jayce" and "Walkie" pull back to recover and regroup.

While Joe and Tony freak out over Walkie, Robin runs into Jayce and finds him interesting. The crew disguise themselves in school uniforms and stage a diversion by Walkie, Jayce, and Tony which lets Joe and Robin sneak up to The Cheese to try unfreezing him. Hedy Alien taunts Walkie and Jayce, telling them that the gender change can't be reversed. She also tries to provoke Tony into a murderous rage in order to assume total control over him. Monkey Mistress then punches them through the floor. In their despair, Walkie and Jayce instinctively hug and kiss, and so realize that the anger between them has subsided.

Meanwhile, Monkey Mistress alerts Hedy Alien to the fact that two agents remain, and they spot Joe and Robin working on The Cheese. Hedy Alien tries to use psychological hooks on them but fails ("Shoulda killed their parents" she says [2]). Robin draws off Monkey Mistress by scribbling "munky" all over her and then running away. Hedy Alien can't reach Joe, so she uses the weapon on him instead. The broken weapons' effects, however, begin to collapse the integrity of reality. Randomness ensues (teleported Jason: "Bloody hell, I'm a fish" [3]). Right as everything goes black, and the continuity suckhole appears to have collapsed on itself, the Cheese flashes white, and everything appears to return to normal.

Monkey Master and Sensitive Scanner flee, and the Cheese says Head Alien is "Gone". Walky assumes Joe fixed it all, but Joe denies doing it. The Cheese seems a bit humbled by the experience, and even thanks them before leaving.

Squadron 128 returns to SEMME HQ. Walky talks with Tony and, later, Joyce. The talk with Joyce reveals that even though Walky has forgiven Joyce, he has also lost his previous optimism and hope for the future. He states that it doesn't matter anymore whether or not they are together: "the universe doesn't depend on it". Alone in her room, Joyce tearfully replies "But what if it does?" ([4]).

Trivia

• The storyline has 47 black-and-white strips and 9 sunday color pages (though one of those is actually in grayscale). There is also a Christmas special featuring the infamous "pooping snowman" ([5]).

• In the immediate aftermath, the high school students begin to move and speak, but then inexplicably freeze up again ([6]). This seems to be a reference to the sporadic updates to the Avalon High comic at the time.

• During the chaos, Joe's arm turns into a tentacle ([7]), just like the character Mike in College Roomies from Hell!!!.

Previous storyline	This storyline	Next storyline
Goodbye To You	Anomalie	Destiny