Joe vs. Elan School / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Ron, big time. Joe's narration has no trouble calling him a psychopath, but it's not clear if Ron is a bona fide psychopath who went through the Elan program and uses it as an excuse to lord power over others, or if he's just another victim and is so entrenched within his own addictions and the Elan program that he can't pull himself out. Even later, when Ron reappears in Chapters 60 and 61 and tries to get Joe to leave with him, it's not clear whether it's another trick, if Ron had a change of heart and genuinely wants to protect Joe from becoming like him, or if he's trying to become The Svengali for Joe by making Joe owe him. Joe concludes with the view that while Ron was "one of the worst things that Elan created," he was also "Elan's worst victim."
- Gino multiple times during the story.
  - It's unclear right up to Joe's graduation day what his intentions are; he's either gaining other inmates' confidence so he can screw them over later for his own gain, or he's genuinely reaching out to others because he sees through what Elan does to people. Or it could be a little of both, in that he's only turning in people who he believes deserve it, and actually likes Joe or feels sorry for him.
  - After they leave Elan, Gino occasionally drops in on Joe in college — always unexpectedly, and without Joe telling him his address — and during one of these visits casually tells Joe that he's on his way to hang out with Ron in Las Vegas. During a later visit, Gino says he's gone into "business" with Ron and tries to get Joe to go visit Ron with him, and Joe later finds that Gino is named as an Elan recruiter. It's unclear whether Gino has Stockholm Syndrome, if he's keeping tabs on Joe for Ron/Elan, or if he's building Ron's confidence and working against Ron/Elan.
  - Late in the story, Gino flat-out asks Joe if he was "Dave Westminister," and Joe confirms it. Gino has a faraway look at first, then develops an expression "almost like he was angry and proud at the same time." It's unclear whether Gino had been suspicious beforehand, if he'd been protecting Joe, if he was angry at Joe for taking away his meal ticket, if he was relieved that Joe had been successful, if he was hurt that Joe hadn't told him the truth beforehand, or any combination of these. That said, after Gino passes away shortly afterwards, Joe decides that he doesn't want to find out and simply wants to remember Gino as his best friend.
- Joe's parents. It's not clear if they mean well and naively buy into the bullshit fed to them by the social worker and Elan, or if they're narcissists who are overreacting to save face with their community. Joe adopts the former viewpoint, saying that much of the problems his parents had likely stemmed from Elan's gaslighting.
- Eva. Joe mentions that she "officially" became his girlfriend, but it's not clear what the relationship is like from her perspective. Does she see her relationship with Joe as a Friends with Benefits relationship, or does she also see it as a boyfriend/girlfriend thing but she's actively cheating on him anyway?
- The journalists that Joe contacts about Elan. Are they stonewalling Joe because they're disinterested, or because they're genuinely afraid of Jay Cirri's influence? Are they demanding Joe's identity out of actual disinterest or malice, or because they want to properly vet a source making wild and borderline-unbelievable accusations? Or is it possibly most or all of these at once?
Anti-Climax Boss:
- Jay Cirri is built up as a psychopathic, mercurial, well-connected, and wealthy criminal who profits off of child abuse. However, when Joe actually meets Cirri a few weeks before leaving Elan, he finds that Cirri is an Empty Shell with dementia, and is very likely not long for the world.
- Elan itself. In the middle of his Internet Counterattack, Joe is prepared for an extended fight against the school and its administration, since he knows that they'll fight to keep their piggy bank operational. However, this ultimately doesn't come to pass; because of a low post-recession headcount and Joe's efforts, Elan fairly quickly throws in the towel, announces its closure, sends its students away, and abandons the campus.
Anvilicious: Every panel of this comic is meant to illustrate that "troubled youth" programs and attack therapy are profoundly damaging, their lack of oversight is abhorrent, and kids shouldn't be sent to places like that.
Arc Fatigue: Joe's stories post-Elan, especially following his trip to Denver. As readers on the comic's subreddit have noted, aside from occasional mentions about Elan (and oblique references to how it affects his mindset), or the arguments he has with his parents, the comic feels like it is straying away from the "versus Elan" focus and has fallen into an Exponential Plot Delay documenting all of Joe's borderline-unbelievable misadventures. To his credit, though, Joe acknowledges this in later chapters, and the payoff ends up being Joe stopping his risky behaviors after one too many close calls, meeting and falling in love with Maria, then pouring his energies into taking down Elan School once and for all.
Catharsis Factor: Katie's chapter ends with her mother rescuing her from Elan. Given everything that Joe went through with his own parents, it's a HUGE breath of fresh air to get a parent that is not only willing to go to such extraordinary lengths to free their child from the school's abuse, but willing to help other kids as well.
Genius Bonus: The Vietnam vet who gives Joe a ride to New York City tells Joe to call him "Casey Jones."
Harsher in Hindsight: Joe describes Wilma as "the female Gino" based on her sense of humor and his relative closeness with her at Elan. She dies of a drug overdose not long after Joe visits her in Denver. Gino himself would later die in a similar manner, of a drug overdose two days after a video chat with Joe.
I Knew It!: Shortly after Chapter 62 was released, a Redditor named u/cuentatiraalabasura posted a theory that Joe would turn out to be u/gzasmyhero, the Redditor who made a viral post about Elan in 2010 that was instrumental in getting the school closed for good. This was definitively proven in Chapter 90, and Joe even made a note congratulating the Redditor for guessing correctly.
Moral Event Horizon: Joe ostensibly is sent to Elan to get out of drug trafficking charges, but he finds out a few weeks after he returns home that his charges were fully dropped after three months into his stay. For many readers, his parents' dismissive and casual admission that the dropped charges were "irrelevant" to them, and that they left him in Elan for three years to punish and "help" him, is seen as this.
Narm: For German readers, anyway. A German Redditor pointed out that the drawing of a man holding a cup of coffee in Chapter 50 seems to be sourced from a stock photo that is well-known in Germany because of a documentary about stock photo models. Joe, who had no idea, amusedly admitted that he sometimes uses free-to-use stock photos as references for his illustrations.
One-Scene Wonder:
- "Casey Jones," who is only around for a brief time as he gives Joe a ride to New York City, is a mysterious man whose real name Joe never learns. However, the man's compassion in helping Joe escape, listening quietly to Joe's story, and giving Joe money — essentially offering a rare moment of understanding and empathy in what is a difficult period of Joe's life — makes him stand out in the story.
- Ditto Nate, the Brooklyn teen who lets Joe crash at his house for the night while Joe is on the run, and provides him with some clothes, food, and amenities. He and Joe make plans to meet back up later on, except it doesn't happen because Joe gets recaptured.
- Caesar and Larry, two of the three senior directors at Elan who Joe says he's still terrified of to this day, only appear in an aside during Chapter 61 when he talks about Ron threatening Christy with going "to the top" to get Joe to graduate.^note
- Chloe, a Girl Next Door who Joe says used to be one of his closest friends. It's almost like she's set up to be a new recurring character, but she only appears in Chapter 63, and her only purpose in the story is to show that Joe has become a Stranger in a Familiar Land.
- Similarly, Joe's childhood bully Darren only appears in Chapter 65, and like Chloe his only purpose in the story is to show how much Elan has changed Joe, by way of Darren Bullying a Dragon.
- Jerry. Despite being one of Joe and Gino's teachers at Elan, and one of the only staff members to treat the students kindly, Jerry only appears in Chapter 69 when Joe and Gino go up to Maine. Joe mentions that he never sees him again after that.
- Katie narrates Chapter 88, but aside from a handful of mentions, she isn't seen again and doesn't get a mention in the Epilogue.
Paranoia Fuel: Ye gods.
- First, knowing that your parents could sign a deal to have professional kidnappers break into your room in the middle of the night, and there's nothing you can do to escape. This is one of the major things that still affects Joe as soon as he returns home; he barricades his bedroom door on the regular.
- The Elan program itself is insidious with the paranoia it is designed to generate. Everyone is watching each other, there are kids in there who are legit criminals alongside otherwise harmless children, and if you get caught doing something that isn't approved by the program, you get heavily reprimanded. Worse, you could be "booked" for something completely made up by someone trying to meet their "book" quota. And All Crimes Are Equal, meaning if you make it to the top of the food chain and you mess up, even if it is just in the tiniest of ways, then you're shotdown to 0.
- There is no escape whatsoever, as Joe finds out. There are regular bed checks, plus guards in the woods surrounding the compound, and other Elan students would have no problems bringing you back since the punishment for failing to do so would be extreme. Plus, the owner is rich enough and influential enough that even if you escape Maine and make it as far as New York City, there will be a bounty on your head and eyes everywhere.
- Paranoia fuel abounds when Peter calls Joe up on the phone after Joe graduates, and tries to arrange a meetup. Since Peter was a cold, petty bully anyway, and their last major interaction had been Joe macing the hell out of Peter in order to escape going back to Elan, Joe realizes how bad it is that this person somehow knows his address and phone number — which is even more chilling when you remember that this is before smartphones and social media — and spends the next several days looking over his shoulder.
- As noted in Chapter 66, Joe notes that the Poland, Maine police are downright hostile when he calls to report Elan, and demand to know his name, Social Security number, date of birth, and location. Joe's narration then cuts away to show a photo of a file folder from Elan called "Former Students / Negative Posting" where Elan collected and saved info on former students trying to expose them. Joe's narration says he can't definitively prove that the Poland police were also a part of this, but given the tone of the call he definitely believes they were.
- In Chapter 67, after arguing with pro-Elan people posting positive lies about Elan on a forum called Fornits, Joe gets a DM from another user, and even though he hadn't shared any personal info, it still makes his blood run cold.
  We found you once, do you really think we can't do it again? Just fucking move on with your life.
- In Chapter 75, Gino tells Joe that he's gone into "business" with Ron, who apparently asks Gino about Joe from time to time. Given how often Gino visits Joe up until that point, it's horrifying to wonder about what Gino is telling their former abuser about Joe. Later on, Joe finds out that Gino may have even been a recruiter for Elan, and expresses relief that he didn't tell Gino about all of his anti-Elan activities online.
- In Chapter 83, Joe reads a passage in Duck in a Raincoat that says that going against Cirri or Elan means that you and your family are no longer safe. Joe goes on to say that the book's author had to flee the country when she received death threats, and Joe himself starts receiving death threats over his anti-Elan blog posts a few days later.
Realism-Induced Horror: The fact that Joe has to repeatedly tell the audience that this actually happened, that he's left out a lot of worse things about Elan because he still find them too difficult to talk about, and that places like Elan still operate to this day, is absolutely horrifying. But at the same time, that's exactly the point.
Spiritual Successor:
- The tone of the comic — that of an autobiographical First-Person Perspective comic with very natural and casual narration — matches that of American Splendor, even though the content itself is radically different. Joe's illustrations even have some similarities to those of occasional American Splendor illustrator Sue Cavey.
- There's also parallels to the works of Charles Dickens, especially given the story's propensity for social commentary — although Joe is much more blatant with it than Dickens — and generous usage of cliffhangers and Contrived Coincidences. The argument could be made that that Joe himself is like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, Ron is like Fagin, and Gino is like the Artful Dodger and Steerforth. Elan itself could even parallel the workhouse from Twist or the boarding school from Copperfield.
Unexpected Character: No one was expecting Peter, the Elan "Support Person" who was shotdown for letting Joe escape in Chapter 38, and last seen in Chapter 48, to reappear in Chapters 64 and 65, post-Elan.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Eva to a certain extent. Joe's narration says that she's a full-on crazy drug addict with an addiction to dangerous behaviors, she two-times him while they're still an item, and her casual admission of the abortion comes across as callous to Joe. But his narration also strongly implies that she's got a bunch of her own horrible demons that she's avoiding through her risky and selfish actions. Plus, Joe actively stalks her for a while after she tells him about the pregnancy, which is uncalled for in any case. There was speculation from a reader on Reddit that she'd already had her abortion and had originally hoped to break the news to Joe gently, but freaked out and withdrew when he immediately became clingy and obsessive.
The Woobie:
- Poor, poor Joe. He suffers Yank the Dog's Chain so much that you'll get whiplash. Despite having a few problems in need of intervention from a licensed therapist, his parents have him ripped from his bed and tortured with "attack therapy" at Elan School for three years initially because a social worker spooks them into believing that he'll be going to prison, and they refuse to believe him about the abuse because Elan has them brainwashed. He's forbidden from speaking with his beloved older sister at any point. He finds next to no comfort during his three years, is forced to take part in perpetuating the school's cycle of abuse in order to survive, to the point that he is fully aware that it's infecting his mind. Even after he returns, he has to deal with lingering PTSD, which is compounded when he learns that his drug charges had been dropped three months into his stay, but his parents decided to keep him in Elan for a full three years anyway as punishment. And no matter what he does to better himself, including finishing college, moving away, or getting married, he always ends up back living in his childhood bedroom anyway. The entire time you're reading the comic you want to give the poor guy a big hug.
- Brian in Chapter 48. His parents died when he was a baby, and he spent the better portion of his childhood running away from abusive group homes. As Joe says, "...this prompted the state to punish him with the Elan School." Joe notes that Brian has a breakdown every two weeks, and when he does he spends the entire day crying in the dining room.
- Todd in Chapter 56, who seeks comfort and approval from Joe for his part in "helping out" with quelling the Elan 8 riot. Joe's narration mentions that Todd is Dumb Muscle, and Joe and stops just short of pitying him — he says the guy is an easy target for ridicule and had been in Elan for a long time without much change in status — yet Todd still fights for Elan to seek approval from his captors, which Joe says he can't respect.
- In the same chapter, Julian, a 14-year-old Canadian kid who'd been given up for adoption, had spent his whole childhood running away from abusive caretakers, and was dumped in Elan as a last resort. Immediately after the riot, he reaches his Despair Event Horizon and impales himself with a ballpoint pen, and Joe says it's one of the worst things he's ever seen in his life. Joe's narration says that he never saw anyone take Julian to the hospital, never saw an ambulance, quietly cried about it that night, and cried while writing that part of the chapter. Julian doesn't die, though, and apparently is forced to sit in the corner for a bit before being released; Joe notes that Julian wanders the Elan 8 dining room "...with a dead look in his eyes, wavering between bouts of crying and habitual nervous breakdowns."
- Gino, a bright lower-class teen about six months younger than Joe, is a High-School Hustler from New York City who is caught bringing a gun to school to confront some other kids who'd thrice beaten and robbed him. He sits in a juvie cell for two months before being kidnapped and sent to Elan, with only a note from his mother telling him that a Hanging Judge has sent him to Elan because he had no prior record, and that he has to see the program to completion or else go to jail.^note With Elan's penchant for Moving the Goalposts, if Gino were to make it to the end only to trip before the finish line, he could very well be forced to stay longer, or else leave in handcuffs per the judge's order. This ultimately doesn't happen, but what does happen is that, after Joe graduates, Gino falls into Stockholm Syndrome and bonds with Ron. After Gino graduates, Ron acts as The Svengali and gets Gino involved with implied drug running, drug usage, and possibly even recruiting for Elan. This eventually leads to Gino's death by overdose the night before he has to report to prison, three days after finding out that Joe had been the guy who stopped Elan.
- Definitely "Casey Jones," the Vietnam veteran who gives a runaway Joe a ride to New York. In the story he tells Joe, one moment he's smoking weed and listening to The Grateful Dead, and the next he's been drafted and is deep within the jungles of Vietnam. One morning Casey's platoon awakens and finds that their sentries have been murdered, and half of the troops have had their throats slit in the night by the Vietcong. The survivors are left crying and traumatized; Casey then explains that this is a part of the Vietcong's psychological warfare, and explains that it worked — after that night, many in his platoon either deserted or committed suicide. By the time Joe meets Casey, he's clearly still battling those demons.
- Gina, a 17 year old girl who'd spent two and a half years clawing her way up to a coordinator position, is demoted back to 0 rank and relocated to Elan 7 after it's discovered during the riot that she'd been sneaking off, had had sex with an 18 year old coordinator, and was pregnant. Elan quietly unpersons her shortly after, and Joe says that he's never found out what happened to her.
- "Quiet Bill," Joe's college friend. Joe notices that Bill keeps to himself and doesn't do well in social situations, so Joe makes it a point to reach out and befriend him. As Joe comes to find out, Bill is actually a Lonely Rich Kid who idolizes a father who completely ignores him.
- Ezra, Joe's freshman dorm roommate. He grew up in a fanatical religious cult with practices that Joe says even makes Elan seem normal, including childhood marriage betrothal and adhering to a "book of decency" that Joe equates to Elan's "guilt" system. Ezra spends much of his time in the dorm second guessing himself due to his cult programming. Happily, Joe eventually helps break Ezra out of the cult's mindset, and Ezra resolves to set out on his own path away from the cult. Joe mentions that he and Ezra kept up for a few years after, and the last Joe had heard, Ezra had followed through on every one of his goals, earning his own happy ending.
- Wilma for sure. She was the girl that Joe was closest to in Elan — or as close as two members of the opposite gender could be with the school's draconian ruleset — and Joe remembers her as girly and funny, and as someone who had never touched drugs before Elan. When he meets up with her in Denver a few years after leaving Elan, she's cropped off her hair and is a drug seeker looking to score some heroin. What's worse, a drug deal gone awry gets her home completely robbed, and she dies of an implied drug overdose not very long after Joe returns home from visiting her.
- Katie as well, who is eight months into her Elan stay when we meet her. Her chapter starts off with a reminder from another student that she's still a non-strength "ramrod," followed by Christy berating the girls in her house for not dusting the lights properly — which had been Katie's job — causing the girls to miss out on breakfast, and earning Katie an earful from a fellow student she'd considered a friend. Three days later, Katie gets assigned "the poem" in an "MMR" session, which is specifically designed for high-strength students to point and laugh at non-strength. Worse, Katie narrates that she has a thing for a particular male classmate, but refuses to name him in her "guilt" out of fear that he would berate her or be made to laugh at her just like everyone else. It's also not mentioned why she's in Elan, other than her stepfather wanted her there and bent her mother to his will.
- Sandra is one. As Katie notes, Sandra enters Elan "with the longest, most beautiful hair that had never been cut her entire life," which Elan sees as "image" and forcibly cuts, causing Sandra to lose her mind. Katie also notes that Sandra is constantly treated like the "house enemy" by everyone there. And Sandra's mother refuses to withdraw Sandra for months after Katie's mom and Joe reach out. What's worse, the narration never even says why Sandra is there in the first place, other than her mother's insinuation that Sandra needed more structure in her life.
- Maria. After a Slap-Slap-Kiss romance, she marries Joe, briefly has to deal with his horrible parents, but eventually settles with him in New York City. She watches his emotional breakdown after he finds out that Elan is open, witnesses his obsession and his paranoia when he works to stop Elan, is denied immigration into Italy, and has several fights with Joe leading to a separation between the two after they exhaust their savings while they're overseas. She returns to her home country for a time, but eventually reconnects with Joe, and they briefly get back together and resettle in New York...only for an emotionally empty Joe to tell her nearly a year later that he's leaving her over a nebulous gut feeling that he can't explain.

YMMV / Joe vs. Elan School

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