Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 16759 : Be Like Me!

July 01 2008

Be Like Me! - The Dr. Horrible comic strip. That comic about Captain Hammer, nemesis of Dr. Horrible, can be read right now, although MySpace Dark Horse Presents Issue 12 isn't supposed to be up until July 2. [Note: Pulled? See below.]

Basically, the individual story links work, even through the site's main page hasn't yet put up the Issue 12 index. Oops!

ETA: It seems at some point on July 1, they might have pulled it. Although they'll just have to put it back inless than 24 hours.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-07-01 20:36 ]

The One True b!X | 09:14 CET | 54 comments total | tags: never start a fire you can't put out yourself, captain hammer, nemesis of dr. horrible

Pure comedic beauty! Oh, those Whedons...

marvelknight616 | July 01, 09:20 CET

Delicious stuff. And I'm loving Eric Canete's artwork.

SoddingNancyTribe | July 01, 09:37 CET

Oh, man! Captain Hammer kind of reminds me of Johnny Bravo. Which is awesome. And poor Dr. Horrible! No wonder we're rooting for him!

But I'm confused (no, not about the lurking in plain view, as I'm pretty much sure lurking is more a state of mind than an action). If geeks are future evil masterminds--or just minds, at least--isn't everyone here a potential destructor of the universe? Cool.

Or maybe it is just math, science, and strange clothing. In that case, I'm all of a sudden very glad that I slept through most of math and science in high school, as freedom is covetable--plus, I don't have fabulous bone structure.

Yay! Thanks, b!x for finding the "oops" for us.

BandofBuggered | July 01, 09:37 CET

Yay! Thanks, b!x for finding the "oops" for us.

Well, we geeky weirdo perverts need to stick together. Not that I'm sticky. Or you. Well, I'm assuming. It doesn't matter, carry on.

The One True b!X | July 01, 09:42 CET

:) Awesome.

zeitgeist | July 01, 09:43 CET

One of the "harmless death nerds" reminds me of Nico from Runaways...

deird | July 01, 09:45 CET

Awesome! Thanks for the link!

kishi | July 01, 09:46 CET

"What does this one not do?"

BWAHAHAHA!!

Uh, it's funnier in context.

crossoverman | July 01, 09:58 CET

So what will Captain Hammer do to me? I'm good with math, but not with science. And I don't think I'm a harmless death nerd. Maybe a harmless nerd. Anyways, Captain Hammer, you are going down!

crazygolfa | July 01, 10:18 CET

Have we ever heard about the other Whedon brothers writing in the past ? What other projects have they done ?

"You have good bone structure." So wrong. It felt like Oz for a second there (still haven't seen Season 6, can't find it for rent anywhere, guess I'll just buy the inevitable Complete Series).

I think I can see where they might be going with Captain Hammer already.

Funny stuff, Zack takes after Joss.

The art is magic.

Kris | July 01, 10:22 CET

Oh this is sweet! I love the artwork, it is a thing of beauty, and totally hilarious! Why do I always write with exclamation points when talking about Dr. Horrible?!?

embers | July 01, 10:34 CET

Funny, anticipation built even more. Kris, I know Zack has written episodes of Deadwood and John From Cinncinatti before. Jed's done Apt 4B which some of the more in the know people have pointed out before, his band The Southland surprised me though. It always amazes me (and slightly pisses me off) how talent seems to come all clumped up in one shiny person, the Whedon family seems to have gotten their fair share for sure. Or more than their fair share coming from an ordinary and talentless perspective.;)

onthedrift | July 01, 10:42 CET

"You have good bone structure." So wrong. It felt like Oz for a second there...

Yep, it looks as if Captain Hammer is an authoritarian law and order fanatic who enjoys a nice prison rape joke. And his remarks about 'death nerds' are reminiscent of the hysteria about goths and Marilyn Manson after the Columbine shootings.

Gag Halfrunt | July 01, 11:37 CET

It reminds me of the short stories Alan Moore did for 2000 AD back in the early 80s. There's no higher praise than that. It's really good. Kudos to everyone involved.

Simon | July 01, 11:52 CET

it looks as if Captain Hammer is an authoritarian law and order fanatic who enjoys a nice prison rape joke.

Or maybe it's just the Whedony touch: in the BtVS episode I Only Have Eyes for You, Buffy says that James should pay for his murdering his teacher/lover, but not with his life: "No, he should be in prison for sixty years breaking rocks and making 'special friends' with Roscoe the weight lifter."

And in Firefly's The Message, that Alliance cop (Womack, was it?) told the spJew mail guy that in prison, "you sure as a hundred moons ain't gonna be pitching, so whatk ind of sorry-ass troll is gonna get blue enough to grapple with you?" So yup, I was not surprised by that little joke.

As for the remarks about "death nerds," those dudes are a wee bit unsettling at times. It depends on their moods, though, as well as mine. Funnily enough, though, I don't see goth much with the students I work with. No, calling each other "emo" is enough of an insult. I haven't the heart to explain the term, nor do I wish to educate them in proper taunting, as I learned it from the Python boys.

I like to think of it more as any and all nerds are suspect, as it tickles me a bit. :) Plus, it just reminds me of the SNL joke about the terrorist scare, circa 2002: "if your idea of being stoned involves actual stones, you might be a terrorist."

[ edited by BandofBuggered on 2008-07-01 09:10 ]

BandofBuggered | July 01, 12:10 CET

I'm confused. What should I do, since I'm good at math and science? Captain Hammer doesn't explain that to me. Should I report myself or should I become a super villain? Maybe become a cardiologist to figure out whether you can lurk in plain sight (but I can't handle the sight of blood, so this might not be the best of career options).

Celebithil | July 01, 12:29 CET

That was ace, well written and the art was absolutely perfect for the story and characters.

I'm more of a harmless death geek, does that make me safe ? I do like the idea of science perverts roaming the land, ready at any moment to do science and/or maths at people though. *strikes karate pose* Differentiate ! Titrate ! *spits on hands, takes run up* Use Mass Spectrometer !

Personally I don't find goths scary in any way, it's the folks that wear their weirdness on the inside that you have to watch out for (except you can't watch out for them cos it's on the inside. See ? Scary ;).

Re: any subtext, it's probably genuinely there. Captain Hammer is a sort of satire on super-heroes in the same way Judge Dredd was a satire on super-cops and a comment on government interference (OK, not exactly the same way ;). So maybe in 20 years or so someone will make a Captain Hammer film that totally misses that point and ends up being a celebration of everything he's meant to poke fun at.

(and even in cartoon form Nathan is very clearly a hair actor ;-)

Saje | July 01, 12:46 CET

Really good - bang on the mark. Loved it, can't say enough good stuff about it - writing and art and Hero Hair Management are all perfection.

It's filled with sound advice:

"Never start a fire you can't put out yourself."

and equally useful aphorisms:

"Evil Is Everywhere."

All at the low, low price of... free, so how can you kick? I'm waiting for the "Doctor Horrible Tarot Card Deck" 'cause I'm gonna really leap on that.

(I've made both large [31.8MB] and small [1.2MB] pdfs of the combined comic pages, to hold us 'til we can buy a PB, so you know how to reach me if you want either.)

QuoterGal | July 01, 13:15 CET

Perfection! I was in denial that it was The End that I kept on clicking...

Aahhhh... to think I thought I couldn't wait to see Dr. H and Capt. H meet in flesh and animated hair before, now I'm this close to sobbing.

Am I the only one who's making up supposed scenes in their mind of what is to come? *fades into a Whedony daydream*

Mirage | July 01, 14:30 CET

Wow, this was so fun. C

Numfar PTB | July 01, 14:45 CET

I had a bit of a problem with this in my AOL browser. The link and the page themselves work, but the comic wouldn't load, so I had to use Firefox.

Anyway...

That was awesome. Even without context, it works as brilliantly dark satire. It not only lampoons the stereotypical masculine superhero, but it also mocks the inherent fear in more than just a few people in today's society who continue to be frightened by science, progress, or just difference in general.

Maybe we could get Nathan and NPH to sing the dialogue at Comic-Con? Then it would musically dark satire!

UnpluggedCrazy | July 01, 16:09 CET

Pass me the science ingredient!

jcs | July 01, 17:21 CET

haha..thats pretty funny. I still don't know who i'll be rooting for.

the FAT indian | July 01, 17:46 CET

I'm glad the Whedonbros view the wish to have someone subjected to prison rape as a bad sign. It's a characteristic of villainy (in Firefly) of villainy that mistakes itself for heroism (Dr. Horrible) or of a hero who has an important flaw (Buffy, who judges before she understands in "I Only Have Eyes for You.")

[ edited by Pointy on 2008-07-01 15:17 ]

Pointy | July 01, 18:07 CET

Wow. Captain Hammer is pretty much a cartoony embodiment of certain public service announcements in the U.S. in recent years.

I'm confused. What should I do, since I'm good at math and science? Captain Hammer doesn't explain that to me. Should I report myself or should I become a super villain?

You should totally ignore him and join evil forces with me! Little does Captain Hammer know, but the dinosaur island is actually science nerd paradise. It's the best place to hide out and design freeze-ray guns.

Sunfire | July 01, 19:51 CET

What a hoot!

Go Captain Hammer!

I mean...go Doctor Horrible!

I mean...oh heck, I don't know what I mean, except YAY.

rockgoddes | July 01, 20:37 CET

I normally don't read comics, strips or otherwise, but this was really funny. I can't wait to see how Nathan plays the part of C. Hammer.

romanceguru | July 01, 21:57 CET

Is my Internet at work just being very sluggish and so loading is taking forever, or have they yanked it? (Which would seem silly and completely pointless, if that's the case, since they'd just be putting it up again in less than 24 hours.)

The One True b!X | July 01, 22:55 CET

Still working for me, b!X.

zeitgeist | July 01, 22:58 CET

I couldn't access it early this morning (9 ish), but then had no problems around 10. Maybe it is getting a lot of traffic?

TamaraC | July 01, 22:58 CET

Can someone try cache flushing? I'm trying to access it on a machine that had not previously loaded the strip (and so it can't simply be stored in the cache), and while the wrapper of the page comes up fine, the strip player itself just comes up entirely black and blank.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-07-01 20:00 ]

The One True b!X | July 01, 22:59 CET

Same here, b!X, now I've flushed the cache. Also tried it on a machine that hadn't viewed it and got the black screen.

zeitgeist | July 01, 23:05 CET

Lame.

(So now what happens? Do we delete this post and have everyone remember their comments so they can re-post them tomorrow when the strip is back again?)

The One True b!X | July 01, 23:08 CET

As an alternative we could just not post any duplicate entries or links to web comics with Firefly references. That would probably keep this on the front page ;).

zeitgeist | July 01, 23:15 CET

Saje:

Use Mass Spectrometer !

That's really funny, Saje. Especially since I'm using one. Right now.

Unfortunately, I can't join in on the merriment (yet!) because of the big unfriendly black screen on Myspace, but that will be fixed (or QuoterGal will come to my rescue!) and I'll have to choose a side.

Just for all to know: Yes, I'm a death nerd. Yes, I'm evil. Yes, I bwa ha ha!

>)

korkster | July 01, 23:18 CET

Ack! Where'd it go??? *refresh* I knew I should've saved it, but, nooo, it could wait until I got back from work. *whimpers at the loss*

Mirage | July 01, 23:20 CET

Hmmmmmmm... bow down before me and my pdfs.

Um, or not.

(Korks, check yer email...)

QuoterGal | July 01, 23:26 CET

Be Like Me!

Be... invisible? OMG it's a secret message from Dr. Horrible!

No? Ok, kill my joy.

Sunfire | July 01, 23:28 CET

*bows down to QuoterGal* Can I check my email too? *flutters lashes*

Mirage | July 01, 23:34 CET

Perhaps they are revising it to further develop the theme of personal hygiene.

[ edited by Pointy on 2008-07-01 22:40 ]

Pointy | July 01, 23:58 CET

*bowed*

Thank you, Empress of PDFs, Queen of screen captures, the one we call, QuoterGal!

:)

After reading the comic, I stand by my statement. The little mad scientist is a spitting image of me. Except that I have brown hair. And no freckles. And I'm not a guy. Or am (that) short. Or, you know, 2-dimensional. :) But the evil grin is TOTALLY me! >->

korkster | July 02, 00:22 CET

I missed it... *is sad*

Aloha Joe | July 02, 00:32 CET

I missed it... *is sad*

You do understand, yes, that all you missed was getting to see it a day or two early?

The One True b!X | July 02, 00:35 CET

Bix, I think Aloha Joe is impatient, not retarded.

Succatash | July 02, 01:33 CET

I didn't call anyone retarded, that's your word. But generally speaking, I don't assume that people are actually reading everything. The opposite happens here more than one would think, after all.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-07-01 22:48 ]

The One True b!X | July 02, 01:48 CET

It was wonderful, and shiny, and like almost all things of Jossness, it went away too soon. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

htom | July 02, 03:16 CET

Quorter gal
*waves*
HI, I'm your new bestest friend
*winsome smile*
my computer just told me it needs pdf's and fast
*begging unashamedly*
It's not me, you see, but the evil electronic thought machine is hungry and I don't want it to go on a rampage....
*hopeful glance*
Could you help?

Please mylady?

Harpy | July 02, 03:49 CET

No worries - it is back. And very very funny.
Kudos to Caroline who clearly foresaw a time when we would need to talk about multiple Whedons and did not call this blog "Josseque".

Lioness | July 02, 05:52 CET

No worries - it is back.

My browsers say otherwise.

The One True b!X | July 02, 05:57 CET

Impatient would be my middle name, but it's Steven.

Yes, I know it's coming soon, I just wants my precious NOW.

Aloha Joe | July 02, 06:52 CET

I still don't see it.

QuoterGal, I'm totally bowing before your pdfs.

*smiles hopefully*

erendis | July 02, 07:01 CET

Well, I just saw it.... And I hadn't see it before so it wasn't cached.

Lioness | July 02, 07:02 CET

Issue 12 is up, except for whatever reason the stories are not loading for me at work.

ETA it was just slow.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-07-02 20:59 ]

The One True b!X | July 02, 23:58 CET

"...Or is that just walking?" Hahahaha. Good stuff. (Says this geeky wierdo pervert death nerd. That so needs to be on a t-shirt.)

NYPinTA | July 03, 00:41 CET

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