In the home stretch now
April 14, 2014
1:01 am
I tell you what it is not easy getting ready for a con and prepping a new comic and doing OT at your real job and looking for a new apartment and still keeping your webcomic alive but hey, I’m making it happen.
Also, new desktop wallpaper available on Patreon for $1+ backers!
Exactly! once he punches him, he loses that.
But as long as he doesn’t use that punch, the Admiral will live in fear each time he visits the future! >:3
Yep. It’s not a “sucker punch” if the Admiral knows when it’s coming…That would be defeating the purpose.
DEAR GOD IT’S LIKE SLAPSGIVING.
It’s like Brian and Stewie after Brian finally payed Stewie the money he owed ’em. That was the best thing about that whole episode! Stewie slowly going mad with paranoia!
Dear god YES
The Slapbet is my single favorite thing from that show. Ever.
Anyone who has ever been punched by the Commander loses EVERYTHING.
The commander was punched by himself. He didn’t lost everything because…?
Unstoppable force, Immoveable object :3
It’s a freakin’ PARADOX, dammit!! XD
Did we ever discover what the Commander punched himself for? I hope it’s not because he punches the admiral at the wrong time.
He punched his past self and stole his coffee because his future self punched him and stole his coffee.
It was a demonstration on time travel.
He punched himself to get his coffee that his future self stole from his past self.
Nah, he punched himself partially to remind himself to always stay on guard, and partially to get back the coffee that he caused himself to drop at the time.
…that was confusing. Let me try again.
The Commander that we follow in comic-time was jumped by himself from the immediate future, who I will call Commander* (“Commander-Prime”). Commander* caused Commander to drop his coffee during the attack, and left by reminding him to stay on his guard.
Then we saw our Commander preparing to time travel, presumably to the immediate past to beat up his past self (Commander**, “Commander-double-Prime”). Thus, he both fulfills the time loop by taking the place of Commander* to Commander**, and also retrieving from Commander** the coffee which the original Commander* caused Commander to drop.
…I don’t know if that was more or less confusing. Fuck time travel.
He was also probably trying to impress Jones.
He did it because he let his guard down and let his future self punk him for his coffee- setting up a short stable time loop as part of the gag when he immediately went back to ‘get it back’.
Please, punching the Admiral at the designated future? Your not thinking this through enough. With time travel Rock Lobster can punch the Admiral anywhen he likes. Admiral at the highest point of his life? PUNCHED! Child Admiral not at all suspecting to be permanently scarred by being punched in the face by a muscular man? PUNCHED! Admiral on his deathbed in a final meeting with an aged Commander, ready to humbly accept the punch that he deserved from the elderly and weakened Commander? SUCKER PUNCHED IN THE FACE BY THE FULL FORCE COMMANDER WE KNOW AND LOVE WHO THEN HIGH FIVES HIS OLDER COUNTERPART BEFORE THE TWO GO TIME SURFING!
Paranoia fuel much? XDDDDD
Prediction: The admiral will meet with him privately to agree not to experiment on the Commander anymore in exchange for forfeiting the punch.
Commander’s gonna have a lot of fun with rapidly throwing his hand out for a handshake every time he runs into the admiral.
Heck, just a swift salute-gesture will keep the Admiral on edge…
Rock would be best by milking this for all it’s worth…showing the Admiral that these troops have been on this kind of edge for their WHOLE LIVES!
Given that an Admiral had to work their way up the ranks at least from Ensign, they already know what it’s like to be wondering if the person coming towards them – or hidden around the corner – is going to have that special bit of shininess on their shoulder/collar/etc.
… unless they cloned him that way. It’s not like they haven’t given out military ranks based on how badass your name is, was it?
It’s hard to convince anyone a name with “Admiral” in it is badass. It just doesn’t work right. General, Corporal, Captain (if pronounced the US way), Sergeant, these kinds of names work into the badass sphere properly.
Admiral is up there with Seaman and Private in the world of can never sound badass sounding military ranks.
*Minor note – originally had Lieutenant, which is why the strange (if pronounced the US way) is still hovering in there. I haven’t hired an editor to look over my Internet posts.
Eh, Admiral sounds like classy badass material, something like James Bond.
Bond is actually a commander in the Royal Navy. Well actually-fictitiously…you know what I mean.
Nope, Bond was a Lieutenant Commander, IIRC and before that in the Special Boat Squad, the cream of the Royal Marine Commandos and one inspiration for the SEALs.
Well yeah. I was just giving an example of a classy badass.
Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Admiral Kunkka begs to differ.
These are the official Badass Ranks, in order:
Captain
Sergeant
Commander
Major
Colonel
Admiral
Lieutenant, Corporal, and Private don’t work, nor do the petty/warrant officer ranks, or any “hybrid” terms like lieutenant colonel, with the exception of Gunnery Sergeant.
I really wouldn’t say that a Corporal isn’t badass…That’s the rank of the marine protagonist in Doom 3. That guy is badass enough to go through hell & back to save the whole planet Earth from demon invasion, ya’ know.
Also Adrian Shepard from Half Life: Opposing Force.
Which is why we know them by name, and not their ranks. Well, not doomguy. He’s just doomguy, not corporal doomguy.
Don’t forget Master Chief, which is a rank :P
You forgot “Brigadier General.”
What, you never hired of buying a commission? Or getting one for having gone to ‘the right schools’ or by having the right parents? Or brown-nosing through the lower ranks, for that matter?
The admiral there had an even easier out; he’s human, Rock Lobster and company are not. In a world where cloned meat-robots are the weapons in a war of badassery, you can bet your spit-shined boots that he’s a paper pusher who earned his stripes doing exactly what he was trying to do here… make the weapons as badass as possible, by hook or (mostly) by crook.
I think it would be kinda cool if the Commander just kept this hanging this over the Admiral just to screw with him.
Ha, ha!
I was thinking the same thing.
I don’t know if he should ever use it! You could make him squirm for years!
Then again, the Admiral doesn’t look like a Spring chicken. You’d want to cash that in before he starts to really look old. Punching old bastards is kind of creepy. Negative bad arse points.
I think that’s his plan exactly.
Ha, look at this autobot over here in the first panel. Sucks to be that guy. Err, hrm… Or is that really awesome? I’m not sure.
She’s Commander’s Ex-Space-Future Girlfriend who got addicted to robo-body-mods
just gotta say i love the epic level trolling he’s got goin on there
also i want Commander’s jacket and his gloves
Okay, throw it in!
*Shoves the Ep!c Jar*
heheheheeh:
*Admiral gets a call* “Sir you’re needed in [public square]”
*admiral arrives in square with giant cannon sitting in it* “So what am I needed for?”
Soldier: “Oh, Rock Lobster asked me to get you here” *runs away as cannon swivels to aim at admiral*
*Cannon fires, slo-mo field and camera’s activate*
*Commander flies fist first into Admiral yelling cool catchphrase*
*final panel shows Admiral whose head is now a brain in a jar with robotic face watching the action on a news program. ticker bar at bottom explaining the reason for ultra-omega sucker punch*
This should be how it happens.
Seconding.
No, Rocky would never do that, he is a Badass, not a douchenozzledick
I concur! No douchenozzledickery! The Captain is a gentleman far above that.
Though cyborg brain Admiral sounds mighty cool…
We need a douchenozzledick ray!
And you continue to amaze me with your ability to make entirely new fantastic words. Like adorbubbilicious =O Or…um…I think that was it >.<;
Adorabubbilicious :D So glad someone remembered :D
Huh. I’ve called people “adorabibble”. Your version has so much more… SASS. <3
Sass is beautiful; I bow to your skills.
You know, I almost feel sorry for the Admiral… Almost.
Angel’s got a Paladin thing going on in that wallpaper. Is the wallpaper a reference to something?
Looks more like Doc Holliday to me (but, thought it was Jarod at first, but he doesn’t have bewbs, or even passable pectoral muscles)
I have to say I love the commander even more after this stunt
There is a lot of wisdom in that last panel.
Reminds me of the slap bet from How I Met Your Mother. Its gonna happen, even if its a year from now. It’s just not knowing when…
Commander is the only one who manages to make an admiral from the badass war industry shits its pant. Great job.
Once again, the Commander continues to prove himself to be a very pragmatic person all in all. He could take the immediate satisfaction, but he’s willing to play the long, evil game. Even better, remember that this isn’t just a free punch, either. This is a free punch endorsed by MARKETING. Think about that for a brief moment. Whenever the Commander is anywhere near the Admiral, Marketing is going to be recording it for propaganda purposes.
Think about the implications (and possible uses) of that for a brief moment. This isn’t just a way for the Commander to get revenge, this is something that is going to cause the Admiral to look over his shoulder constantly whenever he hears that the Commander is in the space future. Because everything he does now will be carefully recorded and watched during those times, ready to portray Rock in whatever light marketing will find most useful. So not only does the Admiral have to suck up his ego and take the hit, but he has to be careful not to do something that marketing won’t like… and that won’t hurt his ego even more in the process. That’s a hard line to be walking for anyone. Welcome to being an actor in the spacefuture military reality TV series. Hope you’re good at improv.
BRILLIANT.
The Commander is even going to keep Marketing on edge too…Even as they record each meeting between him & the Admiral, they’re going to waste a lot of video resources for each time the Commander DOESN’T sucker punch the Admiral. Marketing is going to be on edge that whole time too!
…In other words, he’s going to be in the same spot they are. Love it.
Oh, this is so deliciously evil. I approve.
This is like an order of magnitude up from HIMYM’s “Slap Bet”
I love it that the whole scene takes place with people talking over beer. Seems very … natural.
Commander has some impressive talking-with-his-mouth-full skills in panel 4.
Relevant.
And THAT, folks, is why he’s Commander /Badass/.
I’m fairly confident that the Marketing team will give the Admiral a cybernetic eye to fix the black eye he’ll end up with after the Commander punches him.
I mean, what’s more bad-ass than an evil military leader than an evil military leader WITH A CYBERNETIC EYE!
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/square/000/000/013/all-your-base.png
This reminded me of “How I Met Your Mother“, but Rock is not an arsehole* like Marshall was about it, Rocky is not going to do anything, not even fake-punch, maybe not until the Admiral’s retirement (which would be the perfect time to do it: instead of a gold watch he gets a Sucker Punch :D)
*interesting, spellchecker wants to change that to ‘hoarse’ o_O
Have we met/been introduced to Cyber Joe over there before?
It’s the Commander’s ex, from http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/happy-four-years-of-mgdmt
No, the one next to her, between her and Angel
UGH I LOVE Rock’s family. So much. I especially like trying to guess their genres. I *think* I’ve ID’d space opera, spy novel, and space marines. There may also be gritty rebellion, cyberpunk, and…generic robot?
I can’t quite recall the red head’s name, but I keep thinking of her as “The Admiral” in my brain.
Commander Badass clearly understands the Kids In The Hall Effect:
“People think I’ve got the power because I got the monkeys. Nah, nah! I got the power till I let the monkeys loose! They g_____n don’t understand that; they g_____n don’t understand me! That’s alright, that’s okay, see, cuz people… they understands monkeys!”
The Good, The Bad and The Fish!
I bet they will set up a high-speed camera to catch that moment, then they will print/3D print/turn into hologram the whole thing and keep on their desks.
Where are you looking for an apartment?
We all appreciate you (and other providers of free quality webcomics) taking the time to share your talent with the world. Keep up the amazing work at whatever pace doesn’t burn you out.
Seconded. All the work you put into this comic while coping with the pressures of your job and life are greatly appreciated.
Is it me, or is that dude copping a feel on Jet. o.O
Jet has his arm around Angel
That was my thought, too – along with how weird that is, considering they’re all related. Looking carefully, though, I’m thinking his palm is sitting low enough that it’s not awkward.
I think you’re right. I figure that they’ve grown up together so the Westermarck effect is in play, they shower together as in Starship Troopers, it ain’t a thing.
Is Demoguy grabbing Angel’s tit in the first panel?
No, Jet knows if he did that, Angel would make him eat his own arm
…which would then be replaced by some kind of cybernetic limb/weapon, I’d guess…
Which he definitely doesn’t want.
Actually, it’s quite likely that they’re lovers. The cyborg from the first panel is B-52’s ex-girlfriend, remember. It’s quite possible that his hand is there because Angel insisted on it. She doesn’t strike me as the shy type.
So are you gonna end the entire comic at any point in the forseeable future or will we have good Spacefuture fun for years to come?
You know, between his day job and the attire of his siblings/comrades from the future, CB must know what it would be like to live everyday as inside a cos-play convention. Also, good to see Jonesy is slooowly recovering from here traumatic experience, whatever it maybe.
The great thing about going to the future isn’t punching the Admiral, it’s showing everyone online that I did.
This has probably been the most badass way to gloat ever to been concocted by the human mind. To basically have one free punch on someone that you are not simply going to waste. And that the people higher than the Admiral have permitted it, it is an extremely valid reason.
It’s OK Coelasquid, I have been thoroughly convinced you aren’t human. I have followed many, many web comics over the years and I’ve never seen one with such an outstanding track record as MLDMT.
I only keep wondering if you’re eco-friendly.
Why does Bolt van der Huge have a control panel on his chest?
So the Space Commies can decide exactly how they want their horrible, painful death to be delivered. He’s polite like that.
+2 for the MST3K reference.
Maybe it keeps track of the datafeed running through that cluster of highly vulnerable cables going into the back of his head from what I assume would be some sort of back-mounted apparatus? (Either that or they wire directly into his trapezius muscles, which is an oddly short distance for external cabling.)
Alternately, it could just display small snippets of information during beatdowns. Rears back for a left overhand, “ＴＨＩＳ ＩＳ ＧＯＩＮＧ ＴＯ ＨＵＲＴ” runs across the panel as he does so, then nails the target in the temple. *shrug*
That punch is something you’d save as a retirement present. You let him get aaaalllll the way to the end of his career in pristine condition, let him think you forgot about the whole thing attend his promotion and fairwell ceremony in your best set of military issued formal wear, freshly shaven, hair nicely trimmed and combed, as you’re in charge of all the formal announcements and handing out of medals, etc… Then right as he’s about to take his plaque or end the handshake… you make sure the last thing he sees is a big toothy grin before he spends the next few days in a hospital bed as you’ve, literally, socked him into next week. All done live on intergalactic television.
Indicators would be little things like The Commander picking up his freshly drycleaned and pressed suit, seeing an actual professional barber, or practicing formal ceremony stuff. Likely in the future, Admiral’s retiring is still a big deal, since unless they’ve royally screwed up or committed treason, they’d get promoted to a first rank General and the whole thing would be lauded over by politicians to give speeches and peacock in front of cameras.
Definitely make the most of your freebies.
This is why I like the Commander. He’s more than a beefcake! He understands that it’s not punching the guy that’ll hurt him the most, but KNOWING and FEARING that it’s coming. Any time, anywhere.
This comic keeps on getting better.
Hi, Kelly! This is the first post i made but i’ve been your fan for quite a while
Is true that you are doing a kickstarter? :)
Keep the good work.
I bet B52 will punch the Admiral at a Space Future Burger King…I’m hungry it seems.
Is the black dude there inspired by the Demo Man? Cause he looks an awful lot like the Demo Man.
Is Jonesy going to be okay? She looks like she’s on acid.
I can’t help but notice the subtle similarities between the Commander and Jack Caymen. For the longest time I thought they were the same person. kinda just hit me again today.
There are like a dozen hueg-blond-guy-characters people constantly message me about how Commander looks JUST LIKE, without realizing Commander is an intentional parody of all these unoriginal gritty blond action men.
I know this is way late but holy mother of god I adore the look on Jonesy’s face as she stares up at CB. It’s the mix of drunk, admiring (maybe), amused, affectionate and comfortable that does it.
Four years and counting. I’m still looking forward to the eventual sucker-punch but I’m glad he’s taking his time with it >:)