26. Gilda and Meek "Who Framed Bernadette Anderson: Part Two: Amalgamation" (Un-Iverse #39)

June 22, 2022

Rating: PG-13 (Adult Themes, Bloody Violence).

Author's Note for Gilda And Meek #26 "Who Framed Bernadette Anderson: Part Two Amalgamation" (Un-Iverse #39)

It is entirely on-brand for the resolution of The Un-Iverse's first actual mystery be broader than the mystery issues themselves, and suggest the entire saga has been leading up to it instead. Because it has. Many people will say that makes it an unfair mystery solve on par with The Murders In The Rue Morgue. I ask when has life ever been fair? I think The Un-Iverse itself is DAMN fair. I think the reader could actually use the occasional swat on the behind.

Let me also put another idea in your head. If the culprit had been one of the suspects we saw in the issue it would have sucked.

The first Red Herring is Bill The Blue. The grease at the mechanic's workshop is the biggest hint its him, and the second is that Gilda doesn't share a scene with him. His alibi is that he doesn't have a motive that would make a lick of rational sense. I could give him a stupid motive that makes little sense just to make him fit, but if I did that I'm a bad writer. Is the reader 100% convinced I'm not? If they aren't, Bill's guilt is also on the table.

The second big red herring is Dr. Raggleworth himself. He has a pretty huge alibi: Gilda's b.s. detector. But in the last issue I suggested Gilda was having doubts about it and worried it wasn't currently working properly. I could have been setting up one of those infamous "exceptions to the superpower that never fails" bits in genre Emma Swann always seemed to suffer. And again Dr. Raggleworth himself is only a legit suspect if the reader doesn't trust me and thinks I will treat them dirty. Which also makes him a good red herring. Because nearly ALL genre treats the reader dirty at some point, especially if it's gone on for awhile, the reader might assume they are due to be screwed over. On long-running TV shows and comics, perfectly written characters simply are NOT usually sustainable. Maybe they'll look at the comic's previous insistence that Gilda is awesome and would never be written out of character and say, "It was nice while it lasted." Because that was my take on on how erratically the previously perfect character of Felicity Smoak was written in the later seasons of Arrow. If you are cynical and don't trust me yet, the notion is terrifying. If you DO by now and believe I won't treat you dirty, you'll instantly know that there is something else going on with his involvement.

Speaking of story disappointments, if in the final Narf-Narf and Chirp story you were miffed you didn't learn what the sore throat spray was for, and we didn't get to see either Narf-Narf save the world with it, or learn once and for all he's simply insane, sorry, that was never in the cards for the finale of the characters in The Un-Iverse who most closely resemble the Observer from Fringe on their good days, and Beavis and Butt-Head on their bad ones. I was much more interested in exploring their friendship and learning WHY they trust and care about each other. That struck me as the more important thing, and if you think about it why a cat and a bird are friends at ALL is a pretty big mystery in its own right. I felt it deserved a better and more in-depth explanation than the sore throat spray gimmick did. Sorry.

Milestone: This is the final issue in the entire Un-Iverse EVER with the tagline "The Epic Continues!". It truly is an end of an era.

Next Issue: UnComix Tales #3: Howler "Cureds" (Un-Iverse #40)

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