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  • Fair for Its Day:
    • Setting aside whether or not including promiscuity in a comic purporting to be displaying realistic gay lifestyle in a way to encourage acceptance is counterproductive, many of the comic's detractors have come to it many years after its initial publication—and having already been exposed to the other furry or gay-themed comics which came later and were less about porn, more nuanced, in a number of cases better written, and certainly less predictable and cliche, they tend to view ASB as not living up to the hype. What is forgotten is that, however flawed the final product might be, it was a product of its time, and groundbreaking for its time. Stereotyped or not, unrealistically (or counterintuitively) promiscuous or not, it enabled and set the stage for everything which came after. Despite its flaws, this should be remembered—even if the standard it set was one which has long since been surpassed (and thankfully so), it still set it.
    • Every character in the comics is categorised as either straight or gay, even when they have had relationships and/or sexual encounters (and often, implied attraction) outside of their respective label. How much of that is simplification for the sake of the story, how much it's acknowledgement that people can have sex outside their sexual preference, and how much is good ol' bi erasure is debatable. Bisexual people were less visible in popular culture back when the comics were published (and that's saying something, as bi characters are still not exactly omnipresent).
  • Tear Jerker: While the Drama Bomb that is Daniel being outed to his family and rejected by his father, speaking with the priest, and fighting and then making up with Marcus is one intense emotional wringer, at the end of issue 6, rather than a usual letter column, is a letter from Daniel to his mother which clearly would have been sent in the middle of the situation...and it's so painfully heartbreaking in its simplicity and earnestness.
    Dear Mom,
    How are you doing? I know things have been rough lately for you, and I am sorry that this whole situation came up. I can only imagine what you are going through, but I know it can't be easy.
    I'm doing okay. The hurt doesn't go away or get any easier, but I am living with it, and will survive it. My friends are wonderful, and have been very supportive. I don't think I could have endured the pain without them.
    Please tell Stephanie I'm all right. I'm sure that word has gotten around, and I'm also sure Michael isn't exactly on my side. I wish it were different, but he and I never got along.
    If Dad will listen, please let him know I still love him, though I am not sure how he feels about me. I wish I knew what it was like to know he was proud of me.
    I love you, Mom. No matter what happens, that will never change.
    • During the gay-bashing issue, as soon as Tiny finds out the ones who did it were fellow jocks on his football team, he immediately goes to "attend to business". When he returns saying it's taken care of, Vince discovers his hands are wounded and even have what looks like a couple teeth embedded. "They had kinda thick skulls, so it took extra work." What's worse, he's still dealing with the aftermath an issue later, when he breaks down in Professor Reid's office—not just because of having to hurt his friends, but because he feels by doing so he was just living up to the stereotype of hyenas as aggressive and violent.
    • While it's a bit heavy-handed (justifiably so, particularly for the time), Daniel's visit to the cathedral is chock-full of moments like this, starting from him praying by a stained-glass window of one of the Stations of the Cross (ending with a plaintive "Help?"), to a panel truly emphasizing how alone he feels with him and the priest sitting at the end of an empty pew surrounded by blank white space ("I'm so scared...") followed by wishing he'd never been born, and the moment where he gazes at the leonine Jesus on the cross. Even the cover of the issue itself counts as one, with Daniel kneeling on the floor, crying in the sunlight shining through a rose window, while the priest watches sympathetically behind him (and with a quote from the Book of Matthew, "A sparrow shall not fall to the ground, save that God knows it").
    • As soon as Daniel returns to their room in issue 7 after the fight, Marcus jumps out of his chair, haggard and (in his own words) scared out of his mind, hugging him and apologizing as he begs him never to run away again. Then, when they go out for their walk to talk it out, Daniel takes his hand. It's really emotional, and powerful, seeing the previously confident wolf so lost and in need of guidance, and this time it's Daniel who's the strong one, giving him the support he needs.
  • The Woobie: While what Daniel goes through is pretty awful—the fear of his first time having gay (or any) sex, coming to terms with his sexuality with his religious background, getting attacked by gay-bashing jocks, then finally getting outed to his family, disowned by his father, and fighting with his lover so that he feels completely alone, unloved, and worthless—Marcus himself has a Trauma Conga Line of his own. From an abusive, drunk father who led him to become The Alcoholic himself, to joining the ROTC to try and make something of himself without turning into his father, only to make the mistake of dating a fellow (male) cadet at the same time he was seeing a Clingy Jealous Girl. She finds out, and despite them not being committed to each other, she reveals the secret to his unit commander and (due to military regulations at the time) he ends up having to resign to protect his lover. (This even still has repercussions in the present, since the tuition which his unit commander made sure was still covered was only for undergrad, affecting his ability to go to graduate school and stay with Daniel.) And after all of this, he still has to face not only the gay-bashing incident but the confrontation with Mr. King that almost leads to violence, losing himself in booze again, and almost losing Daniel due to being a Control Freak. This, of course, makes the two of them talking everything out, committing properly to each other, and then (at the end of the comic) being able to stay together such an Emotional Torque.

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