Mind Control Comics Forum

Coming Christmas Day! (Merry Christmas!)

This sounds like it could be one of three things

1. a history of the breeding experiment in '83 as it centers on the college's admission policy and how the old algorithms are applied currently with the belltower revved up or
2. Erin having another think about making more permanent arrangements with Raven (pause while the audience cheers) or
3. A discussion of the structure and current state of the New York harem.

Or it could be something else I'm not considering.  Still, a lot of possibilities.

Well, it's a little late for Erin to spring a 'surprise' on Raven on their date night.

We don't know what she did after she saw that photograph, but you're right.  But I said she might give it more thought...perhaps discuss it with Dani, Mallory, and Jacqui so that they set an admission policy.

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I figured that would fall under the heading of "current state of the New York Harem."

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Admission OF Guilt!!! Policy?!.. Thats right Q-tip! I'm looking right at you Bucko!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Adrian said back to page (138) (I just Recognize the name, friend of a friend)
So Claudia Coulbeck was the Roommate of Echo and took the photographed, The picture we see of echo and Adrian
So Claudia can tell a lie.
So Adrian Know more about New York Harem or White Slave.

I think Claudia can tell a lot of lies.

Full disclosure--I woke up very early and checked this on my phone and thought for a half-second that Chet was right...Christmas bummer.

Minor side question--Who's the generous audience in panel #3?  Red top bending down next to Adrian's guitar case.  She looks too interesting to be a throwaway character.

Now, on to the other stuff.  Is the pink top and rose choker Claudia's undercover recruitment outfit?  Or were she and Echo recruited on or about the same time?  Also, Echo's from England?  Is her personal history affected by the Rain?

Now, let's back up.  He was supposed to go to Juliard?  He was actually admitted?  And his specialty was guitar?  He can't have been that awful (unless papa struck it really rich after his undergrad days with Miel, but even then).  This sounds like he might be Jacqui's type even without the aid of The Watch.

Oh, so there must have been two bad breakup experiences.  This narrative doesn't mesh with the one Adrian described back at the beginning...unless he was embellishing to gain sympathy.  Hmm....

And speaking of The Watch...which of the girls is holding...er, storing it now? ??? ;) ;D

What a gift
Merry Christmas to all and have good night and dinner.

So by my reading... Adrian thinks Echo is back in England.  But she was actually enslaved.  Interesting.

Also, she can't be the ex he described as breaking up with him while en flagrante with a new significant other.  And, given the timeline, this could have been as much as two or three years ago.  He's 22, I think he could have been as young as 19 when he and Echo split.  Echo being English also might be significant, depending on how snarled the Wilmot ancestry story is.

Well crap, we're going down the rabbit hole again.  This is what, sub level 26 now?

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I'm sorry but bug me each time look at the Cell phone
Claudia is whole the cell phone the worng way for a Iphone for that type picture.

The way she have it is a wide picture.

Just bug me Sorry :-\

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That doesn't look like an iPhone case to me... and I have iPhones from the first through the 5 here on my desk. :)

GW--I think we're having a definition of terms problem here.  The initial story...WAY back before Christmas sounded as if the break-up happened over the phone, a conversation, not a voicemail message.  Think Alan and Vicki in Splash or Philip and Susan on Mixed Nuts, not Radar's recording on MASH.

Mixed Nuts is an okay "zany" Christmas comedy from the early 90s starring Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, and Madeline Kahn.  Martin's character, Philip, runs a suicide hotline out of his apartment and learns he is being evicted on the same Christmas Eve that his girlfriend breaks up with him:

A portion of their conversation as exemplar of this phenomenon:

"My psychiatrist thinks we should break up."

"What?  I didn't know you were going to a psychiatrist."

"Well, I'm not actually going to one.  I've been dating one for four months."

"This is so sudden!"

"I didn't want to tell you over the phone.  I really wanted to fax you.  But you don't even have a fax." [click]


Anyway, that passed for an actual conversation, as opposed to a recorded message.

The story with Echo is different.  She seems to have left him a strange, obviously unclear voicemail about needing space, that Claudia had to clarify by spinning the tale of Echo returning to England.  I don't think any sort of explanation would have been necessary if Adrian could have heard Echo and...presumalby, the head of the New York Harem en flagrante on the message.

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Neither she nor Jacqui ask follow-up questions...or we don't see them ask yet.   And, you're right.  That is pretty weird.  Of course, we don't know what her immediate reaction to seeing the photo was either.  That could have been quite interesting.  For now, I guess we're left to postulate...or assume...that the Watch programming is dampening reactions dangerous to the survival of the Harem.  Incidentally, if that's true, it makes Dani's Escape from New York that much more of a puzzle.

I know I've been away from the forum for a few weeks, but I don't think anyone has pointed this out - if they have, my apologies:  I just noticed on a reread of earlier issues while looking for hints about what's going on that the woman in the polaroids (issues 30, 31, 51) is wearing the same choker as Claudia in this one, so I think it's reasonable to assume that Claudia and woman-in-polaroids are the same person.

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While we might enjoy Raven embracing Claudia's other fashion choices, the idea that she'd get flipped into something like Claudia in other aspects is...well, personally horrifying.

My personal guess as to the third person would be the as yet unseen absent "master" of the New York harem given that Dani was first among equals.  I don't think the red book is a photo album, but I have no evidence one way or the other...it's just more interesting that way (not that this needs to be more interesting or more layered, but...just my personal take).

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Well, did any of the inductees in the SJI harem know anything about it before it was used on them?

I think this was a much easier cover...advertise a model search, applicants come for the tasteful shoot, ...and then, "Surprise!"

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THREAD EDIT:  I originally posted this analysis of perceptions about Claudia in the wrong thread and have reposted them here, after the post to which they originally intended to respond.

I think we are prejudiced against her because

1. She uses Derek the moron and the Notorious Zenon, and
2. She sort of looks the part in her current attire, but mostly because of Derek and Zenon.

It WOULD be a twist if the villain turned out to be Dani, but I much prefer the current alingment.

It might even be more fun if the real villain turned out to be the absent head of the Harem who is either staying behind the curtain for a reveal much later after a lot of fun, frolic, and intertwisting of plot threads...or,

he's dead, and there's a vacuum where he used to be, so all we have is minor annoyances like Derek and Q and Yves who, while potentially damaging, in the short term can't do much to damage anyone in their circle of influence long-term.

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