Girl Genius

Welp, talk about Nightmare Retardant. Though I imagine they still can kill at a touch, unless Agatha's new scepter neutralizes that.

Also, they looked identical before, and now they don't.

April 10. Eh. Having them revert when out of the Star's glow is interesting, but lounging and snacking on shortbread? Barf.

...So this is the most feared race in Europa, huh?

Why is this page so funny.

I guess it's because seeing beings hyped up as dreaded eldritch horrors from beyond turning out to be regular folks instead is always funny.

Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu? basically.

They are still legitimately powerful and dangerous given what we've seen them do in the past. But knowing the Dreen aren't monsters but people does make them less unknowable and thus less scary.

Edited by M84 on Apr 10th 2024 at 6:50:34 PM

I feel like the Dreen being creepy and scary is a bit of an Informed Attribute, I wish we could see more of why Bang finds them scary (the bar should be pretty high for that!). Or am I not remembering a moment they did something more creepy than stand around and speak cryptically? Oh yeah that time Martellus tried to squash one with his giant knight-robot I guess.

Edited by Nomophilos on Apr 11th 2024 at 5:37:46 AM

They're scary because nobody knows what they are or how to actually hurt them.

It's made far more explicit in the print-novels than the comic, but two of them on Castle Wulfenbach effortlessly ripped their way through the attacking slaver-wasps.

The Dreen just seem to be impervious to damn near anything anyone can throw at them. It might have something to do with their wonky relation to space-time.

Yeah, we haven't seen hostile Dreen very much, but the scariness is definitely from the combination of being basically invulnerable and incredibly lethal. They can kill (or destroy an enormous clank) with a touch, and I don't think we've ever seen anything actually hurt them.

What's scarier is that the Dreen aren't even actively attacking for the most part when that happens. Things just break when they come in contact with Dreen.

It at least is something they can control, considering they don't break everything they touch.

Edited by M84 on Apr 11th 2024 at 11:56:11 PM

Their general inscrutability doesn't help, either. Makes it hard to predict whether you need to be running or not, so most people just run to be on the safe side.

Them existing outside of regular space-time makes it more confusing too. The whole reason they decided to help Klaus was because they owed a debt to him for something that he hasn't done yet from his pov.

The funny thing is that this is apparently as frustrating for the Dreen as it is for everyone else.

Edited by M84 on Apr 12th 2024 at 12:08:53 AM

New comic. More Dreen stuff. More portraying the previously unstoppable, inscrutable beings as total goobers.

I'm guessing the Lantern's time stop effect — while it doesn't stop them — somehow synchronizes the Dreen to everyone else's perception of time. Hence why they seem more like regular people.

I wish to record my deep unhappiness with the artistic decision that all sapient alien life across universes are actually Green Skinned Space Babes (gender-neutral) and if they don't look that way it's just due to dimensional interference. The abyssal fish people look less human than the beings from beyond the flow of time.

Best case scenario, the Europan universe itself essentially imposes anthropomorphism on its visitors, and if Agatha managed to transport herself to wherever the Dreen are from she'd take the form of a Dreen. But it seems unlikely that the Foglios would do that.

Complaint registered. Carry on.

I mean they do still have disproportionate limbs compared to regular humans.

Vapnoople's buddies didn't seem all that anthropomorphic.

I'll admit, I'm also kinda disappointed by this turn of events as well. Sure, I'll also admit it's funny as hell but I'm still disappointed.

I Win!!

Damn, I'm good. But even I didn't predict who these guys would turn out to be.

Edited by DeMarquis on Apr 14th 2024 at 12:43:00 PM

Comic for Monday, April 15, 2024

Who are the monsters? Depends on where you're standing.

"With what? Your bare hands?"

Comic for Wednesday

So that's the thing they were indebted to Klaus for doing; luring out the creature with his time doohickey.

And now we know the real reason they're feared by those who actually know what they are.

It's because the Dreen are murderhobo monster hunters who don't give a shit about collateral damage as long as they get their quarry.