"Ithaqa" Comic Book Update #156 Mookie Finally Steps Up (Albeit Too Late)

This was a hard scene for me to balance character wise, and I'm not even fully sure that I nailed it in the end. I wanted to write a scene in which Mookie was a little bit selfish (trying to film some crazy shit in order to save his career) without him coming across as a complete sociopath.

Earlier he thinks Joseph is just some kook, and not an actual threat, so he doesn't take the confrontation truly seriously. Then he sees what happens to Hugo/Daniel and the stakes are reaaaallly raised. I've talked to Theresa about redoing some of his panels on the previous pages to show us that he's in a state of shock, and not just staring through his viewfinder like this is "Nightcrawler".

When his film runs out he makes the selfish choice to attend to that, rather than help Ruth. My hope is that that comes off as a snap judgement call, and not as a complete lack of empathy for human life. Now that the film has been loaded, and the camera is whirring to life again, he feels he can leave it be and help Ruth out. He gets a good kick in, but slightly too late as the cultist pulls the trigger. Luckily both shots in the double barrel have been spent, and Ruth lives to punch assholes another day.

It's a fine line to walk characterizing Mookie, and like I said I'm not positive I knocked it out of the park. We have a scene later on in the comic in which he admits that he felt Ruth could handle herself (which is true) but I guess it'll be up to the readers to tell me if this scene is either unbelievable, or very off putting for his character...

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