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I think they may be confusing that with the "All-father"
, which Odin is often called. According to the Marvel wiki at least, "Highfather" has never been one of his nicknames or aliases.
That's more or less what I told him in the PM, but as said, his response was just to say it "doesn't matter."
Unless Another Guy is willing to come here and actually discuss his position, I'd say you can safely restores the example to what it was, citing your arguments.
I think there's enough of a possibility that Rich Burlew may have also confused the "Highfather" and "All-father" titles - or deliberately ignored the difference for the sake of a joke - that Another Guy may actually be right, as there's nothing else in that strip that continues the Kirby reference.
The comic book part seems pretty damn good evidence.
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^^ Counterpoint; "all" and "high" are not synonyms. Therefore the confusion could only have occurred from the existence of Kirby's character.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
^^Nobody's disputing the first strip being a shout-out. I'm just not sure whether the next one is meant to continue the reference in the absence of anything else.
Not that it's a big deal either way - I just feel like if the goal was a New Gods shout-out it'd have been easy to make that clearer given this was a scene with, well, gods.
I will say that, though I am familiar with Kirby's Fourth World, I personally did not consciously realize that "the Highfather" (possibly with a dash) wasn't an actual mythological title of Odin's. So it's not inconceivable.
Edited by nrjxll
The only reference I'm finding on the entire internet to "Highfather" is the DC comics character, created by Jack Kirby.
The immediately preceding strip references Kirby by name.
I think that makes it pretty clear. It's something he's obviously familiar with, and there's nothing else it would be a play on words for.
Also I did send a follow-up PM to Another Guy two days ago, in response to his, "it doesn't matter," and so far no response from him, even though he has been editing on the site in the meantime.
Then he wouldn't object to you adding it back.
On the ShoutOut.The Order Of The Stick page, Another Guy edited this entry:
to remove the last sentence, with the edit reason, "No. Odin was always called Highfather. Also, it's a pun on being stoned."
I googled, but could not find, a single reference to Odin being known as the Highfather; every combination of the terms that I tried only brought up references to the DC Comics character Highfather.
I PMed Another Guy about this, asking what reference he had for Odin being known as Highfather and he responded only that it doesn't matter because it's a part of the joke.
I've also started a discussion thread on the page about this, but I'd like more eyes on this and a consensus before adding it back.