If Cuanta Vida has a worst problem, it's the pacing of the entire last third or so of the comic not meshing well at all with the update schedule. Now that it's finished, new readers will probably have a much different experience than long-time followers with the ability to parse the final act act all at once instead of the extremely short time frame being an extreme contrast against two or three updates a month.
Ultimately, calling CV a deconstruction of TF2 isn't really accurate, for better or worse. There is no answer to the original questions of how the conflict, played straight as presented in the game, can possibly work. It's almost an homage to The Big O and one can practically hear Schwarzwald saying "...and waiting for us were not gods, but only this abandoned equipment." Perhaps the author decided not to write something that would conflict with the canon that's been established since the comic began, perhaps she felt it was best left to imagination, perhaps she never cared to begin with. The focus very quickly shifts to the characters and never goes back, exploring different directions the cliches they're based on can go.
The biggest folly of most TF2 fanwork is a complete unwillingness on a creator's part to admit that the characters not only aren't three-dimensional, but were deliberately crafted not to be. The result is wildly out of character nonsense with forced character traits based on an arbitrary idea of how the classes must behave. Despite it's long-running character development for the main protagonists, CV does not fall into this trap. The BLU and RED Pyros, despite behaving very differently, are still loony pyromaniacs. Bleu is still a Spy; the fact that he has a kind heart and isn't cold-blooded like Rojo or a natural schemer like Gabry doesn't raise him above the others, it makes him a terrible Spy (indeed, we see later that he's just as effective as Rojo when breaking his principles is the lesser of two evils.)
Cuanta Vida is a fun romp through the cliches and mindless violence of Team Fortress 2 from a perspective other than the player's. The romance is believable, the cast are all true to their classes, and the setting is faithful to the source material. The ending is a well-deserved prize for the heroes, and it wouldn't have been any different if the mysteries of the setting had been answered.
"Better on DVD" in Comic Form
If Cuanta Vida has a worst problem, it's the pacing of the entire last third or so of the comic not meshing well at all with the update schedule. Now that it's finished, new readers will probably have a much different experience than long-time followers with the ability to parse the final act act all at once instead of the extremely short time frame being an extreme contrast against two or three updates a month.
Ultimately, calling CV a deconstruction of TF2 isn't really accurate, for better or worse. There is no answer to the original questions of how the conflict, played straight as presented in the game, can possibly work. It's almost an homage to The Big O and one can practically hear Schwarzwald saying "...and waiting for us were not gods, but only this abandoned equipment." Perhaps the author decided not to write something that would conflict with the canon that's been established since the comic began, perhaps she felt it was best left to imagination, perhaps she never cared to begin with. The focus very quickly shifts to the characters and never goes back, exploring different directions the cliches they're based on can go.
The biggest folly of most TF2 fanwork is a complete unwillingness on a creator's part to admit that the characters not only aren't three-dimensional, but were deliberately crafted not to be. The result is wildly out of character nonsense with forced character traits based on an arbitrary idea of how the classes must behave. Despite it's long-running character development for the main protagonists, CV does not fall into this trap. The BLU and RED Pyros, despite behaving very differently, are still loony pyromaniacs. Bleu is still a Spy; the fact that he has a kind heart and isn't cold-blooded like Rojo or a natural schemer like Gabry doesn't raise him above the others, it makes him a terrible Spy (indeed, we see later that he's just as effective as Rojo when breaking his principles is the lesser of two evils.)
Cuanta Vida is a fun romp through the cliches and mindless violence of Team Fortress 2 from a perspective other than the player's. The romance is believable, the cast are all true to their classes, and the setting is faithful to the source material. The ending is a well-deserved prize for the heroes, and it wouldn't have been any different if the mysteries of the setting had been answered.