The Spirit of Science Fairs Past – Chapter 9, Prologue, Strip 8

Yeah, Snuka still holds the idiot ball, which is particularly effective when used to break the fourth wall – but he isn’t actually enough of an idiot to do it out loud, this time.

Part of the reason for his restraint might be the fact that he’s still wearing a hospital patients smock (from the emergency treatment that -barely- saved his life after the exertion of rebuilding the lab)…and you really don’t want to stick your neck out too far when your bare ass is already sticking out the other side. Poor defensive position, and all that.

And I’m not even sure whether the blame for the baking soda volcano’s appearance can be placed with George Geekish, as Snuka/Lee suspects. I mean, George Geekish loves baking soda volcanoes, since his success with his very first one was a life-changing experience – in a way, most of his life was spent chasing the kind of kick he got from the admiration of his (easily impressed) classmates at that elementary school science fair, all those years ago. He wouldn’t be the man he is today if it wasn’t for that formative experience.

But that’s exactly the point – there are people out there, quite a few of them in fact, who wouldn’t mind terribly if George would be an at least slightly different man than the man he is today. Like, a more responsible and less accident-prone man… So, yeah, it might well have been Nolan who insisted on the volcano, not because George felt he couldn’t pull off something more elaborate…but because Nolan thought George couldn’t pull of something more elaborate safely. The baking soda volcano is a reasonably save experiment, after all – and the touches George added to make it appear a little more substantial, like the robotic arm and the enclosure, also happen to add an extra layer of safety. See? George isn’t against safety, as long as it’s just a side effect of something he wants to do.

More on Thursday.