The Young Protectors: Engaging The Enemy Chapter 4—Page 20

March 22, 2016 Alex Woolfson 382 Comments

Shane! Come back!

I’m at WonderCon in Los Angeles this weekend. I’ll be selling and signing my books, and will even have Trading Cards (including sexy 18+ Trading Cards) with The Young Protectors characters for sale. If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by! 🙂

Earlier, I let March’s Patreon backers know that they were getting something a little different at the end of the month — a sexy, nude romantic pin-up of Commander, the Young Protectors’ team leader. But that’s not all they’re getting!

Last week I sent them a pin-up showing Spooky’s very first kiss! Here’s a sneak preview of that:

Hmm. I wonder what the story here is…

Patrons get to download the full wallpaper of that image—and because Patreon is changing the way pledges are charged, new Patrons (and upgraders) will get to download that full wallpaper immediately!

How are things changing with Patreon? Well, in the past, if you signed up as a new Patron (or upgraded your pledge), you got to access to all the Updates/rewards of that pledge level, but your card wouldn’t be charged until the end of the month. That lead to some folks gaming the system (pledging high amounts with fake credit cards to try to get the rewards/Milestone Goals without paying), which meant that creators like me had to withhold the good stuff, and then only send those digital files out by personal message to pledgers that Patreon confirmed had successful payments. It was a slow and somewhat laborious process.

Well, no more! Now, when new folks pledge to my Patreon (or current Patrons upgrade their pledge to get access to a particular reward), their cards will be charged immediately—and so that means I don’t have to wait to post the good stuff. (After that immediate payment, Patrons then get charged on the 1st of every month. Current Patrons won’t see any change with their payment at all—they’ll be charged on the 1st of the month like always, they’ll just get to see more of the good stuff right away now.)

I’ll probably still have some rewards I’ll Private Message to Patrons each month, such as the high-res files, because I want to reward folks who pledge every month with something special. But for most of my rewards, I’ll be able to post them right away. And that’s a very good thing. 🙂

Speaking of rewards I’ll be PMing out, $5+ Patrons for March will get to see the full nude version of Commander’s pin-up once their pledges clear after the first week of April. $10+ Patrons will get sent a high-res version of that image plus this special Spooky Kiss, both with over double the resolution!

There are lots of great benefits to being a Patron (you can see them all here along with an explanation of what the heck Patreon is), and you’d really be helping me out if you became one too. If you’re enjoying our work here and would like to see it continue (and would like to get access to all kinds of special benefits),

please take a moment to watch the video on my Patreon page and consider becoming a Patron.

So! The Annihilator tells Kyle to talk to the hand… or the back… or something. Anyway, he’s not talking anymore. And the clock’s still ticking. What will our heroes do now? Is there anything they can do?

Tune in this Saturday to find out! Hope to see you there! 🙂

Liked it? Take a second to support Alex Woolfson on Patreon!

382 Comments

“Wait, I just thought of the perfect comeback to that!”

You got it 🙂

My army is growing in strength. 😉

I find it interesting. Most of us talk about gaining a harem and yet you’re growing an army. I wonder what this says about all of us. 😀

…..Doki has a small harem army! HA!

…..or is it army harem?

I think harem army, but I could be wrong. I suppose in that instance I have me at least two ships worth of crew with mine. 😀

Yeah, but your ships are water based, I have an airship! 😛 ^_^

And I have a cape. 😛 lol

…and therefore on the wrong side of Edna. I am still on her good side. ^_^

Never get on Edna’s bad side.

Exactly. ^_^

😛 I’ve always been a rebel.

I vote harem army.

Well, after a certain point there were just too many to attend to properly, harem-wise. And I didn’t want them to get bored. They’re not particularly militant, but it’s nice to have a sizable force to draw on nevertheless.

This is too true. And they make my boats look particularly spiffy. 😀

SNAKE GUY!

Snake guy is my favorite minion.

And bad guys remain consistently bad, not even bothering to help him. Poor guy. Didn’t sign up for being tied up…by snakes.

Demonic snakes, at that. (Well, probably)

Most likely. Either he’s going to end this with a snake fetish or the worst phobia ever seen by a minion.

Did we give Snake Guy a name yet? I can’t remember.

I don’t think we did. Quick! Think of one!

…Donald?

Ha!!!

Carl? Miguel? Alexi?

Snake? LOL!

Alex used a reference in the page note that I don’t get, but he used the name Shane.

So.. What about Minion Shane, snake guy. Short could be MS Snake then he alreasy sounds like a ship 😉

From the Urban Dictionary:
“Come back Shane” is “Come back, Sexy Beast”

PS – I’ve not seen the western movie with Alan Ladd.

There is an old western movie called “Shane” about a drifter, cowboy who stays awhile with a mother and boy. At the end of the movie Shane rides off into the sunset with the boy calling out to him to return but he keeps on leaving.

Both yours and Dave’s explanation fits well with this. I love when something can have two good meanings.

or a BDSM fetish, you never know ^^

Would Snake Guy feel better if he knew he had fans?

Maybe if the fans were willing to GET THOSE DAMN SNAKES OFF OF HIM, AAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!

He might! His suffering wouldn’t be in vain?

And Duncan gets the last word…
After all that, Duncan figured out how to “win” the argument and lose the war.
That is unless Laampros is ruling the earth in a few days…

“How about stupid? Can you still be that?”

I was trying to think of something, but it sounded better in my head.

It’s frustrating when that happens.

Something something tightass something something

How about calling him… “virile worm secretion”?

Haha! There was also a thought regarding the big stick between his cheeks but it seemed nest to let that alone. 😛

Call him Old Man and see what happens.

*pouts* I really wanted PP to interrupt….

Nice to see Sircea posing as sassily as ever. Normal human standing is for plebs, apparently. I’m honestly just delighted that she hasn’t released Snake Guy yet — whether because she can’t interfere with Spooky’s bottle spell or because she just doesn’t care, it makes for a great visual gag.

Agreed!

She does care! He is providing peripheral amusement! She might free him when she actually needs him again….maybe….

Peripheral amusement — that’s perfect!

He improves morale, in that all of the other minions are very glad they aren’t him.

*sings* Maybe he’s born with it… Maybe it’s serpentine!

I’m also interested in Amanda’s expression — it looks calculating. I wonder if she’s putting a plan together as we speak (or…don’t, if we’re Duncan).

Go Amanda, go!

Well. More superviallin pouty face, a clear shot of Commander, and a final panel that includes three butt shots, some posing by the Priestess, and another guest appearance by Still-Tied-Up-With-These-Damned-(Literally)-Snakes Guy.

Would somebody please get these FUCKIN SNAKES OFF ME!!!!!

Okay, I think the Commander could easily compete for best tush.

Nope

Honestly, everyone in this comic has a great butt. Snake Guy probably has a great butt — it’s just the way of this world.

This is true! I haven’t yet seen a bad butt.

This world must be protected at all costs!

And he pulls out the first name.

I can almost hear his thoughts: “Fuckity fuck, I fucked it up big time. Why the hell did I call him weak?? Quick, damage control!”

Duncan knows how to lay on the guilt trip. 🙂

Nah, he did fine, Duncan’s not at a point where he can be simply talked out of this, he’s come too far. Now he needs to see how wrong he was.

Uggh, knew it. I said that calling Duncan weak was a dangerous thing. It was a great reply we knew would sting, but pretty much the most provocative tjing to say to him.

It was necessary to make him listen.

How is this dangerous? He’s made no effective counter points, he just raised his voice and stomped off so he could pretend he’s won the argument.

Oh-ho-ho. first name. Now we’re getting real serious. xD You in some trouble now.

Two things:
a) The Commander activated their GPS thingie that calls the military. So reinforcements are coming.

b) Why does Sircea need Duncan? In the first images in Ch4 that we see of the ceremony being cast, Duncan is taking a prominent part. Duncan also traveled to the hell dimension and made the deal with Laampros. And in this panel, Duncan brags to Kyle about how big and strong his part int he opening of the portal will be. What don’t we know about that? Why doesn’t Sircea just do it? Why wasn’t Sircea at the flaming when it opened for Duncan and Kyle?

My pet theory: Platinum Palpatine is using Duncan to take the fall while she runs away with the goodies. Duncan is making the binding pacts, not her. His soul is on the line, not hers. She can be wholly sincere about sharing power with Duncan knowing that Lumpy Lampy will drag Duncan screaming to hell if it all goes kerflooey.

I agree.

Why risk yourself if you can risk someone else instead? Even if she’s been 100% honest and genuine there’s still a chance things will go wrong and she’s made sure Duncan’s the one who will suffer for it.

That’s more concise than I stated it.

You can question the practicality of PP’s villain suit a lot, but it sure does a lot of good things for her body. Even the scorched cape actually makes it better along with that staff. Makes her poses more impressive.

welp, there he goes
you did what you could, Kyle, but Anni is a little too butthurt by your words to listen anymore
truly the question now is “what CAN they do?”
also, first time in a while i’ve seen the pencil work, i love it, i always like to watch art come together

Since it is a primary Tuesday somewhere in these United States, we should note that at twenty minutes past midnight eastern time, Utah and Idaho are counting their caucus votes.

The state officials expect to be done before the Democratic and Republican party conventions but just in case, a week after the conventions at the latest.

(that was sarcasm, BTW)

There are still those apparently standing in line in AZ.

That’s a good one!

I’ve seen some sites stating how there are only 60 polling places when there were 200 in a previous election.

Now I’m lost. Arizona was called and it has 1322 precincts. Utah decided to close at 1am EDT and I don’t know a damn thing about Idaho.

AZ only has around 21% reporting.

Both sides have been called for Clinton and Trump by all the networks.

I was making fun of Utah closing so late and added Idaho in for funsies.

It’s all so silly. Media is desperate for it to be Drumpf and Clinton.

I just heard that Idaho has had a very large number of voters at the caucus and they might not be finished counting. They don’t expect votes to be reported until 1:30am EDT or later. That’s unexpected.

It’s a contentious primary for sure

I can’t stand Trump. Please just don’t ask me to say more than that. However, ever since Ronald Reagan took away the project money for my own personal coal liquefaction research plant, I vote democrat.

Oh I won’t ask you to say more. I can’t stand him either.

Yanno, I worked for six administrations starting with Gerald Ford and ending with GW Bush. I know what policy change means and requires. Somedays I think I am the only one.

You might be!

As a Chemical Engineer ages out of the research career path, the logical step into management is to direct others in research. SO that was half my career. When we (this was an organization of 1100 people) implemented ISO 14001, it took three years to reach 95 to 98% compliance. That’s with planning for a year before the implementation.
Some of these politicians act like they can snap their fingers and the world changes. HA

I understand what this was. I didn’t see the explanation until today. Yes, it was Arizona and yes, there were lines.

Fun attempts at voter suppression I’m certain.

I’m kinda entranced by Kyle’s booty.

It is a very nice booty.

dem butts. Buttsy buttsy butts.

Definitely some cheeky goodness going on there!

I see what you did there…

Finally! Gawd, that scene lasted WAY longer than it should have. Seriously, Mr. Woolfson, it was a small handful of characters trying to 1-Up each other in the Moral Highground category for 19 pages straight. That was, frankly, terrible pacing and planning on the part of anyone who had a hand in the creation of this comic.

Can we NOT do this again?

I think this goes beyond constructive criticism, I liked the whole exchange at least.

My, my,
I heard the “much put upon” sigh and eyeballs rolling from here. You have every right to your opinion and to your comment. I have every reason to call your opinion pointlessly rude.and intellectually lazy.

If you have a beef with the pacing of the comic, how about offering an alternative, like how you might have arranged the pages? Make your criticism useful, instead of what is posted here.

Bottom line, this is Alex’s comic. He is busting his balls to bring it to us on a punctual schedule. He can make the pacing what he wants. Nobody must read it. The success of this comic, not to mention the amount of support Alex receives on Patreon, indicates unequivocally that a lot of people like how he is presenting the story just fine.

I support sharing observations, but how much effort does it really take to present criticism politely and offer viable alternatives that the artist might find useful?

This might might start a flame war, and to Alex I apologize. I’m content to have my comment deleted. I simply could not in good conscience allow such behavior to go unchallenged.

Odin Hath Spoketh.
Don

Thank God someone pointed out how rude that was! Seriously, I am a fundoshi, the fact that I love this comic, should be more than enough. I hate seeing rude comments go unchallenged, if I was a comic book writer, I would have been very taken aback by the way that was worded.

As an artist I crave constructive criticism. There is a way to get the point across politely and be very helpful.

Same. I draw childrens books for a living and there is a BIG difference between when people say “hey, next time you could try this, so it feels a bit more dynamic bla bla” than “this is bad, that was done wrong etc.” The first one really helps (and you can as an artist choose whether or not to pick up the advice), while the second version just freakkin hurts…for no damn good reason at all than making the sender of the critique offload his frustration.

Hey everyone! (and this is to everyone)

Hope you’re all having a great time. As always, all opinions are welcome here, whether they are in favor or critical of The Young Protectors, but just remember if there is a disagreement to please be courteous and follow our fine comment policy throughout your discourse. 🙂

Thanks!

I did my best to be polite, though I opened with more “bite” than intended. If you deem fit, please remove my comment. I’m content to let it go.

Danish and I are watching the whole thing. So no worries, but if you wanted to, you could edit the first line. 🙂

I think I will. I am human. I have fits of pique like others. OMG, did I just pull a Duncan…? *facepalm*

Hahahahaha! Never that!

How is that edit, ma chere Admiral?

That’s good. 🙂

Hm, I felt something needed to be said.
After all this is the first time Kyle has gotten to talk to Duncan since he basically used him.

And this was a last-ditch attempt by Kyle to try to appeal to Duncan’s better angel. Little did he know that his better angel was partying somewhere with Beelzebub.

I actually don’t agree I enjoyed every bit of it, but I guess tastes differ. In fact I looked forward to their verbal showdown, too ^^

Am I the only one that imagines Duncan stomping off with an “I’ll show you” pout?

Haha! I was imagining something similar, but he’s definitely flouncing!

Ma chere Admiral! As ever, it is a joy to see you.

And you as well, sir!

YES!! I mean, no, definitely not the only one!

Pretty pretty colors!!

He really is insulted. His little hero was mean!!

Hee, yes, that’s how I read it!

His feelings are hurt! *sniff*
Kyle gave him a heart boo-boo! :'(

(karma is a bitch)

Those first two panels just scream just how deeply Kyle struck.

(heart boo-boo hahaha!)

was he THAT insulted that in the first panel he pushed his lower jaw forward to add to it?

Pouty pout pout 😉

I like the fact that that one minion is still wrapped up in Spooky’s snakes. It’s the little details that count, not only for the sake of continuity, but also to show how Sircea really feels about her minions, that she either doesn’t care to (or can’t???) dispell them. Or she doesn’t actually need the minions for the spell/ritual to be completed, they’re just handy servants

It is so stupid. Loyalty goes both ways. Now they all know that the boss is not going to save them if they get in trouble. Better not take any risks. Especially don’t risk yourself to help the boss.

This sums up Sircea iin my opinion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk47saogI8o

I noticed that minion was still tied up with snakes on other pages.
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch4-page-2/
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch4-page-7/
Chekhov’s Gun makes me think there’s a reason for this. (Just like how Killer’s rope came into play after being displayed several times) Supposedly everyone’s powers but Duncan’s should be neutralized, yet we see some of Spooky’s magic still working. It could be because the snake ropes came from the vials of potion Spooky brought and maybe aren’t affected by the power neutralizer.
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch3-page-100/
http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch3-page-101/
If he still has one or two that haven’t broken yet…

I am pretty sure the dampener does not work on magic. If it did, Sircea would have insisted on wearing the anitdampener. Or at the very least killed the YP quickly, and shut off the dampener.

But if the dampener didn’t affect magic, wouldn’t that leave Spooky free to continue fighting? (Well, after he regained consciousness, anyway.)

He is the one worst hurt.

Doki would argue Mitch is the worst hurt. The only reason he isn’t dead, it because Spooky saved him from a fatal landing. Spooky is just the one with a visible, bleeding wound.

Spooky was hoist by his own petard.

Mitch was hit by a blast from PP’s staff that she had to slam into the ground before shooting Mitch with it…..one does not just slam a staff into the ground to fire off magic unless it is BAD.

As I said to syllbub, he is providing PP with peripheral entertainment. ^_^

What? And actually sweat? Sweating is for the common folks and why Herself has minions. To do the sweating.

More George: http://scottadams-tttt.tumblr.com/post/141464706711/top-tech-220-recycling-robot-floating-drone

And that is how you stomp away. You can practically feel how heavy his footsteps are. Nice work, Adam!

…There, there, Duncan. You’re still big, strong and dangerous.
And you still got a marvelous ass. Better?

I am still very very curious to see just what happens when Laampros arrives, given the fact that his very own son is sitting there as a prisoner to those he struck a deal with in order to get to Earth. How will he react? What will this change? This has the potential to send the plot in quite a number of possible directions and this element of unpredictability is just marvellous.

aaand the minion is still fighting Spooky’s snakes xD

but what will happen now?!
I’m staying tuned… I’m too tired to speculate today >/////<'
but I'm gonna read everyone's thopughts now 🙂

hmm, I’m moving down on the chances-of-a-make-out-o-meter.

Duncan…I think you’re getting too emotional here….and Kyle’s the one who got backstabbed….

Haha! I LOVE your Shane reference! As a Shane, I have been hearing it all my life but never as cool as this!

Well, I guess he told you, Kyle. Of course, that exit line would have had more impact if he weren’t sauntering over to where the boss-lady is holding court.

He is going to do it anyway. Damn. Thought Kyle could convince him

Sigh. Oh Anni. Even Kyle “the child” was willing to listen to stuff he didn’t want to hear, realize the merit of it and try to do better. Looks like he’s more of an adult than you’re capable of. You may have just walked away from your last shot at redemption; may you be able to live (or not) with the consequences of that decision. :-

And to the poster who criticized the pacing of this sequence; please keep in mind that these pages are and have always been written first for a print book format, so if you keep this in mind, this scene was not gratuitous in the least. If you don’t have the capacity to make that accommodation, then maybe you should do what some other readers have decided to do, which is visit the site every couple of weeks, so you can get more satisfying chunks of pages. Or if that’s not in your ability, then maybe you should go read another more web-comic based work that has pacing more to your satisfaction? Just a suggestion.

well you tried

Duncan just spit on his hands and said, “Well, time to get on to bidness.”

Duncan may not show it, but I’m pretty sure Kyle has sowed the seeds of doubt in his subconscious. He’s going to start questioning PP’s every action from now on.

Snake guy should have his own webcomic :3

But that might cause delays in the main comic.

I got my Kickstarter package a couple days ago. Everything is so beautiful.

I love updates, they’re the best medicine right now, we’ll next to cuddles from my pets.

I hate it when they walk away before you’re done talking. Rude.

Oh poor man. A stomp off like that deserves and, indeed, requires a good house-shaking DOOR SLAM!

The kind designed to let your parents know how deeply unhappy you are that they hate you and won’t let you go to that all night party (that is perfectly SAFE, thank you very much) and shows that no one EVER understands you and life is totally ferking unfair!

Just one door slam sound-effect… that’s all. (sigh) So sad.

Well, I just got back from a friend’s birthday party, where I had a nice evening, including catching up with a few people I hadn’t seen since Aussiecon 4, and getting a number of compliments on the butterscotch meringue pie I cooked.

But lets talk about Snake Guy. There have been several comments on this page about how he should get his own webcomic, although Klaus correctly points out that that would further delay the main Young Protectors series. But that’s okay, because if we fans can come up with elaborate backstory for George Finnigan the demonic eye moon, then we can do the heavy lifting to create an appropriately batsh!t insane plotline for Snake Guy too.

Firstly, a quick summary of what we know. On the page they first appear in (way back on chap.3 p.100) I counted nine of them, and Alex made the author’s comment that they were just like the snake-in-a-can joke, but with hell snakes.

So, first up, name. Out of the ones bandied about by Stickfigurefairytales and DanishWolf, I like Carl or Shane, but any one syllable name or nickname would do me fine.

Next up, the nature of his relationship with the snakes. At first I though he obviously had to keep the snakes, and whether events after that were a situation-comedy or a horror story would depend on whether the snakes liked him. However then I realized that he might loose the snakes, and the story would be about how he missed them. (And, no, that doesn’t necessarily mean an emotional attachment to them, although it might. They’re hell snakes. They might have eaten part of his soul, or something, and that’s what he’s concerned about.)

Anyway, personally I’m partial to a sitcom, where most of the snakes go back to hell, but three of them stick around. Naturally, he calls them Huey, Dewey and Louie. Shenanigans ensue. Now, are they animal level intellects or sapient? Pets? Friends? A very strange variation of the yaoi/bara ‘demon boyfriend’ trope? Tormentors? Magical parasites that have bonded to his soul and grant minor magical abilities? Any other suggestions? Or am I over-extended this joke too far?

I just personally crack up over the arrogance of, “I am 30-40 entire YEARS older than you, and therefore know exactly what I am doing and am mature and can handle things. There is no logical reason that my puny 30 extra years can’t make me fully competent to deal as equals with a person thousands of years older than me, despite how I was able to play you like a violin.”

Agewise, Duncan and Kyle are on exactly the same team as far as PP is concerned. Duncan’s obviously manipulated, and he’s too proud to see that. Either that or he’s faking everyone out bc he knows PP can hear them. Doubt that though.

I am so excite to see what happens!

Yeah, about those cards… Weren’t we backers supposed to get a choice of SFW or NSFW with our orders? Because I didn’t and I’ve ended up with the SFW versions :-/ Maybe I’m mistaken… But at least the stuff finally came, I guess.

That was for the prints only. The prints (poster) versions of the trading cards came with the choice of whether or not you wanted the extra 9 NSFW posters along with the regular poster set. For those who got the high poster levels.
For the rest of us, the NSFW art has been sent out digitally along the way.

(It was possible to add stuff on your original pledge as add-ons on the pledge manager. That included a special set of NSFW trading cards that was made special next to the original 36 cards. The art for those have also been sent out digitally in the various updates. The Spooky/Kyle art -also shown on Patreon – was for one of those cards, and also come as a poster)

Hey, anyone camping yet?

Yep 🙂

So how is it going?

Great! Just realized what day it was and it’s still a little early for the update, but I checked anyways.

I’m taking the night free of politics and watching Jurassic World and waiting for the update.

I was about to fall asleep when I remembered about an update.

I have to work in the morning but TYP is always worth it.

Well, It’s only 10:30pm here. Not too bad.

Yeah same time here. I’ll probably fall asleep since I’m losing to it, but I’ll wake to an update which will be a great start to my day.
Sorry if I stop replying. So sleepy

cool

Hope you camp it out till the update. I’m not going to make it haha

G’night

have a good night

Watching. Running late.

Had Thor 1 on in the background. There is quite a bit wrong with it. Though Chris Hemsworth shirtless isn’t one of them. 😀

I just read a review of Batman V Superman and it was a psychological treatise on how awful the reviewer’s childhood was compared to the movie. I like THOR because it’s enjoyable. So I ignore all the crap that wrong with it.

Drifting in and out. How are you doing?

Better than I’ve felt in a while. I think one of my friends gave me a virus. But otherwise, my family finally made its Easter dinner plans. Yay — late as always.

pencils popped on patreon.
ooh alliteration!

Here we go: http://webcomics.yaoi911.com/typ/ete-ch4-page-21/

dang it he’s leaving