Paranatural

PJ pointing out panel 3 to his grandkids years later. "i was there, and helping"
>Heyo, the archive is fixed and much more functional now, check it out!

Other urls found in this thread:

mobile.twitter.com/paranaturalzack/status/626387962926862336
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

I'm kind of surprised that Isabel and Ed were able to walk away from lifting up the principal and saying a bunch of nonsense at her.
Also, the one advantage Hijack has is that they're standing in a hallway right now (not that you can really tell right now), which means that there's a greater likelihood of witnesses.
>Hijack, Ed, and Isabel fighting each other with spectral constructs while faking carrying out a normal conversation as people walk by

>local spic ruins everything

Remaining complications:
>Zarei is speeding towards the school
>Day and two other Consortium agents are in pursuit
>Dmitri noticed something was up with Spender and is moving to do... something.

There's also a local business owner in the supply closet.

...

True, but I think he's mostly concerned with "where's my bat" and not "why was there thunder in a school"

Who? I genuinely don't remember that.

>maybe if i constantly draw spectral energy instead of backgrounds, nobody will notice

This guy who's clearly designed to be an important character.

He's later seen lurking in a sports supply closet, and people have theorized that the reason that he would be there is that the Scrapdragon bat was originally left for him to pick up, only for it to lure Max instead.

Oh right thanks. I'd completely blanked that we'd seen that guy before. I'd also forgotten about the school council, and now I'm sad that I've remembered that's an oncoming story line.

Oh right, one probably incorrect theory I saw is that this guy somehow is Student Council President by taking advantage of the whole "secret ballot" thing, as evidenced by a similar tie and vest, and the yin-yang-kid's response.

Thinking about it I liked Paranatural much more when the Activity Club were by far the weirdest thing in Mayview Middle.

I feel like you're nostalgic for something that was never actually the case.

Like to me, it's always been the joke that the "normal" people are far more bizarre than the ones with ghost powers.

Hell, the first students we saw was fucking Johnny and his gang.

And after a brief cameo by Isabel, the next student we met was Suzy.

The only Activity Club member who is even close to being as strange is Ed, and it's not actually that close.

Huh, I'm kind of surprised that Zack hasn't edited out Johnny's retroactive homophobia.

Also just a reminder that the comic will end when Suzy blows up Max's house.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH

Maybe it is false nostalgia. But Starchman has gone from being a joke about an over enthusiastic teacher, to being pursued by a Mad Max style gang for his stars at lunchtime. Johnnys gang has Zacks self insert non binary, the tuckshop is an old west style saloon, the principle is... Well she's not even tall enough to be a Dwarf. At this point if people were told about the ghosts it would probably be the most normal part of their day. But yeah me being more of a miserable cunt than I was when I was 15 is probably part of the problem.

It looks like Cody was supposed to have East Asian lineage.

Could be, but those eyes are definitely blue. I think it's just that Zack was more of a weeb at the start.

Hijack can fly, right? And he can go through walls?

What's stopping him from just noping straight up into the sky?

Anime rules indicate that he's probably not fast enough and that they can get him before he can go through the ceiling or something.

He probably has very low defense and it's unclear how fast Spender would be able to recover, much less whether he'd be able to dodge Ed and Isabel.

It's too dangerous to eject as long as there are spectrals facing him, and even when he does leave, he needs to hide in a way that Spender can't find him.

>retroactive homophobia
I always read panel 7 as Johnny dissing Cody playing the peacemaker - because "peacemaking is for wimps, real men don't stop wars".

He could be half-Asian on his mum's side like Jake Long...if only his look hadn't gone all smooth and his features still recognizable.

Yeah, I really miss PNAT's minimalist approach to settings and characters too. I mean, the fact that the Club people are trying to keep the bizzare, weird spectral shenaningans to themselves and safe from the rest of the plain normie world (re: Isaac's worried arse in pic related) added a lot of believable tension and significant stakes, hence added interest to Paranatural to me. Now everyone's trying too hard to be special with their superhuman athletics, high-profile hidden council memeberships and shit.

>Johnnys gang has Zacks self insert non binary
Wasn't surprised with R.J myself since the character's supposed to be on the same "rebellious against the establishments" streak as Johnny...though I'm rather concerned should that aspect be THE ONLY THING R.J is merely defined as, as a character.

Probably yeah. I'm just saying that pansy is traditionally a slur against effeminate homosexuals, though it's one of those words where people aren't really thinking of that when they use it, I guess.
>though I'm rather concerned should that aspect be THE ONLY THING R.J is merely defined as, as a character.
In all fairness, Ollie and Stephen (I think that's his name? I don't even remember) don't really have much going on either.

So wait, can Ed decide whether or not his ink can be seen by normies? Like context indicates that Starchman can see both the ink and the paper, but the writing on the club door is invisible to non-spectrals.

their faces are turning into wikihow style now

>mean, the fact that the Club people are trying to keep the bizzare, weird spectral shenaningans to themselves and safe from the rest of the plain normie world (re: Isaac's worried arse in pic related) added a lot of believable tension and significant stakes, hence added interest to Paranatural to me.
To me, it seemed like the joke was that people seem to be keeping the ghost stuff a secret just because that's what you're "supposed to do" and didn't really put any higher thought into it.

Whoops, forgot the image.

Why did the Guerra child start taking Hijack so personally in the first place again?

I'd say probably because of this.

The disproportionate anger was already there pages earlier though, and is what provoked the attack that never landed.

While she was taking the situation seriously she wasn't angry at Hijack either from the start, or when he turbocharged that throw at Max.
So I think what set her off was either just getting frustrated with Cody's obliviousness and how long the game was going on, or that Hijack hit Dmitri, who Isabel has some kind of history with.

keep in mind that just last night she lost Eightfold, got a mean bite, got scolded by her gramps, and was ditched by Ed. We can also assume spirit shenanigans have hurt one of her peers before, so all things considered she wasn't having any of Hijack's shit

Maybe the answer lies outside the comic. On July 29, someone complained about too much focus on the boys during Hitball. 3 weeks later on August 21, he posts page 58 where suddenly Isabel shows the beginnings of an all consuming personal vendetta against Hijack.
mobile.twitter.com/paranaturalzack/status/626387962926862336

Eh, while she definitely took Hijack seriously right after she figured out something weird was going on, she seemed to be keeping her cool for a while.

So the scene with only ladies was the lesbian date, right? AKA the worst part of the chapter?

Also in hindsight, it's kind of weird that Hijack first attempted to throw a ball at Max instead of at Johnny,

Like did he conclude that given the generally freakish levels of competence and at least three spectrals participating meant that he should just wrap things up as soon as possible, but then lost his temper and got carried away?

Well like he said. He missed.

It was misdirection. We all thought, and Max thought, it was meant for him. But it also barely missed Johnny.

It had some plus points.

I guess it makes sense, since it would theoretically block Johnny's line of sight until it was too late (and indeed Max and Johnny used similar positioning against Johnny in the endgame)
But PJ was the one to warn Max, not any of the players or Hijack, so I don't know.
I mean it's possible Hijack was precise enough to aim above Max's shoulder and not hit him, and it was Max ducking that caused Johnny to move out of the way a bit, but I'm not sure the trajectory lines up that way.

Forgive me webcomic gods for complaining about the art during the Hitball arc. I didn't know how bad it'd get

Speaking of more Hitball stuff, it's possible that the Vice Principal is a spectral or some manner of supernatural being (maybe an actual witch like from the fairy tales)?

Like it's hard to tell with her opaque glasses, but it seems as if she's looking directly at Hijack.

I forget, do the kids know about Spender's lightbulb buddy? No, right? I think we're entering the tunnel to the DRAMA ZONE. (which does not have to do with the Order or whatever because nobody has any clue what's going on with that yet)

Hm. I'm trying to figure out if there's any kind of pattern on when someone is or isn't upset enough to emit spectral energy, but I'm not sure there's any underlying logic on whether it's visible or not.

Well if VP DuNacht is an orange spectral they are the last person you'd want to have Hijack as a tool.

And she's already proven to be a master puppeteer.

They know that Spender has at least one spirit partner that grants him control over light. They either know or can safely assume that the sunglasses are a part of it. Thanks to Spender's Spirit Fusion, they can probably extrapolate a very general idea of what Spender's spirit partner looks like. So even if he never told them about Lucifer, they still know of him, if that makes sense.

I cannot stand how much open-ended "Wait a minute! C-could you actually be...?" stuff is in this comic. There is no way she matters. Let a character just NOT MATTER, Zack.

How would Hijack being a tool even work? Like it seems as if he's created to be able to act as a wisp in terms of merging with people and controlling their actions (like Lucifer recently did and something did with Max so long ago) only without having to have his body destroyed.

Like I think tools need to be in contact with the host to work, so I'm not really sure what he'd be able to do as a tool or medium.

part of it is a joke, the problem is the parts that isn't a joke at all.

Parodying shounen tropes is a double-edged sword.

>tools need to be in contact with the host to work
Not always. Further is harder.

Ah good point.

...Yeah that could be a very nasty power then.

It's definitely one of those "having your cake and eating it too" things. Playing the shounen genre off as a gag but at the same time legitimately using it to drive the plot.

He's doing this "haha isn't this ironic, but guys, here's this new threat that's totally serious!"

Can't wait to get more Isabel/Spender tearful nostalgic backstory. I can understand Isabel not giving a bother about finding out more about Spender, because of the context she was raised in, I can see Mr. Spender being a tutor of Spectral Things, which are Most Important, at her school and who also isn't her grandpa. He knows too much about the world she's in and doesn't understand for her to not trust him without placing her mortality at a perilous disadvantage. I'm guessing Ed doesn't care if she doesn't.

Isaac cares, a whole bunch, about everything, but the only people he has to guide him are Spender, Isabel, and Ed? and Ed honestly seems the most helpful. Before Max got here none of these people had any goddamn ability or want to ascertain the credibility of the person leading their dangerous missions.

how are these kids not dead yet

(i know this is all obvious but i haven't reread the archives in a while ok?)

>unexplained phenomena 13 years ago
>Isaac born 13 years ago
wow who wouldve guessed

Still doesn't justify:
>the retroactive plotholes made e.g existence of 6th and 8th graders in the entire comic, how do Club activities roll with members at different school levels etc

>how Zack has to interrupt the already sluggish narrative just to plop in a page announcing "hey u guys issac a teen" instead of when he was introduced in the first place

I think it's because Spender is the only game in town more than anything else.

>You shut your subhuman cum guzzling herpes infested whore of a mouth, Cody
Did Raimi write this page?