Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 24, 2013

The plot thickens . . .

Good morning from Great Granddad Bill…

Thanks for the nice comments! They were the icing on the cake yesterday.

Think he may have a gun…

Good morning GGVB!

Tracy disguised as a security guard. First one is a dummy.

It is now obvious that:1) MM is NOT the real one. She doesn’t have any real memories, her brain has been programmed to simulate those memories.2) She is NOT a clone. Why? Because Dr. Sail is a fraud, just as Dr. Ghote is. We know Sail is a fraud because of the information offered by Oliver Warbucks.So, what/who is Moon Maid (Mysta)?Don’t say “a replicant”, replicants did not exist in this continuity before. So that is not a possibility. Sorry, guys. Accept that fact.

I bet his pass is loaded.

Ok, maybe they ARE after the Space Coupe??? That Security guard certainly has the CHIN to be Tracy in disguise… you may have something there, daedalusomega !(As for Tracy in the room being a manikin; I think so too… I mentioned it last night)

….bang bang, g’bye Mr. Guard! (of course, in real life a halfway competent guard doesn’t LET him reach inside his jacket to begin with, as we all know…..). Somehow the drama and excitement is starting to ebb a little, I think, rather than build……I mean, Tracy, Diet and Co. are holding all the aces now…they KNOW Sail’s a fake, as well as the others….and Sail and the rest are unaware of that little fact, putting them at a tremendous disadvantage…..all that’s left is for Dick to pick when he’s going to slam the cuffs on them…..guess that’s why having security screw up is necessary, to keep the story running, lol

The facial surgery might be a clue to Mysta’s identity. Whatever she looked like before, she didn’t look like she does now. She has had plastic surgery to make her look like the original Moon Maid. I now am 100% sure that the original MM died in that car explosion (though for some time I did believe this was the original MM).

Is that Sam at the far right of the first panel? (Looks as if he’s started smoking again :( )

And… Tracy discovered that “Mysta’s” DNA is… Pollyanna’s…

I wonder if that pass is from Smith & Wesson or Ruger.

In reality and standard operating procedure, security would have been informed beforehand that someone would be visiting that area.

Let’s see. If Sail is not really stupid, then he might have anticipated Tracy pretending to be a guard, then engaging in a deadly fight with Bardoll. That, of course, if Sail has been hired by Mrs Flattop to eliminate Tracy. This, by using Pollyanna as the new Mysta, and pretending they want to steal the Coupé. If this is correct, then Tracy’s life is now in great danger.

Oops. So, Pollyanna is dead?

tsull2121 said, about 17 hours ago

this is weird… even for tracy. i dont think thats our intrepid detective standing in front of moon maid lite at all…. he is PROBABLY waiting by the space coupe to catch bardoll.^^Tsull has the same idea about the security guard as you, daedalusomega

Tracy carries a SIG these days.

Looks like the excrement is about to hit the air circulation device!

I sure don’t like this Bardoll. Poor Girl, I hope tis Moon Maid will be ok after all this.

And as for Mr. Unibrow, I’m thinking it’s weapon but perhaps not a pistol. Some sort of gas, magnetic or electric zapper with a power not unlike Mysta’s perhaps.

this is the best storyline so far since staton and curtis took over…hope it keeps going on for a while longer.

“Let me show you my pass” must be one one of the most cliche bad guy lines in the book.

Moon Maid continues to not fire on all cylinders. Several Mysta believers no longer believe Mysta is the “real deal.” I echo my previous concerns, which are, if this Mysta is any kind of a fake, to include clone, replicant, regenerate, plastic surgery, or a mannequin, she becomes either a disposable character or a new villain. If this is the case, this will be a terrible let down.

Time for a straw poll: How many folks still want Mysta to be the real deal?

Tracy’s gettin’ fancy wearing those white gloves.

Mannequin? Dummy? Pollyanna? I think some of us have been in conspiracy mode too long. It’s fun to speculate, but I think it’s clear that the person standing in front of Mysta is Tracy and Mysta is not a person who was vaporized by a laser gun.

And Congrats to GGVB! That is great news.

No one knows for sure who Mysta is, but it’s becoming clear to me she’s just a pawn in all this. Sail is using her to distract while his real purpose is to have Bardoll steal the Space Coupe. I still think the best conclusion is that Mysta is a real moon person and probably the regenerated original since she has the scarred horns and memories. But it will be awhile before we know for sure.

didnt tracy run down a list of people who are still around that are capable of piloting a space coupe before? how would someone of bardoll’s stature flown under the radar so to speak?

also somewhat “telling” are a few facts… 1) bardoll knows where the space coupe is located, which seems rather odd since normally only employees or FORMER employees would have such inside knowledge, and 2) he uses the phrase “i’ve been given security clearabnce to the moon suite”… which, again implies that he is some sort of an “inside man” and possibly a former smith enterprises employee? someone who maybe worked in a research and development area and wouldnt have had run ins with too many of the security staff on site.. which would explain why (at least at THIS time) the guard doesnt recognize him AND how he knows about the “moon suite”.. 3) he made a bee-line towards the space coupe area the second he entered the building… meaning he either cased the place or has inside information as to the set up of the warehouse/building itself… which would again hint at him being a former smith enterprises employee.. since i hardly think diet has a map on the wall saying “YOU ARE HERE… AND THE SPACE COUPE IS THERE!”

just some things i noticed today.. that and the fact that tracy hasnt said a WORD to moon maid lite… but sam is moving up from behind her… lending credence to the “tracy is a dummy and really in disguise in the warehouse” theory someone else mentioned.. cause tracy would DEFINITELY have at least either registered shock at seeing a duplicate of his dead former daughter-in-law standing in front of him, or he would have asked about two TRILLION questions already. i’m thinking Sam is gonna get the collar on this one and tracy will somehow end up being the one to take down bardoll.. but i still see stellaluna biting the big one by the end of this story and retik somehow saving the day by taking out bardoll in a typical tracy-esque hand to hand fight, probably on the rooftops of smith industries with bardoll falling into a smokestack and meeting his demise

I think some commentators are grasping at straws. Tracy is confronting Clone-Moon Maid; he just hasn’t said anything yet, testing the clone. It is reassuring to see that Sam is also on the scene. On the other hand, it appears that Bardoll’s pass is going to be a .40 caliber and that Diet Smith Enterprises is about to lose the services of an insufficiently alert security guard….

Does DT normally wear white gloves? A substitute might.

Without having read the rest of the commentary, first — I am thinking this is no clone, as our Doctors have stated for the past couple of weeks…

Then who/what is she/it? I have two theories…

1. It could be the original MM from 1978 — thinking she was badly-burned, and the cloning bit was the regeneration of skin tissue (hence, the mask). As for her memories, I am thinking she could’ve been thrown from the burning vehicle, and suffered some sort of amnesia/brain damage.

2. It could be anothr female Moon citizen who looked somewhat like MM (back “in the day”, we saw plently of them drawn by Chet Gould — namely, when MM tossed the wedding bouquet when she and Junior landed on the moon after their wedding). Thinking one of these females left the moon when the environment got bad, there, came to Earth,and through means yet to be explained to us, hooked-up with Drs. Sail and Ghote., had a little plastic surgery, and we have Mrs. Junior Tracy “reborn”!

Regardless of the theories, the DNA test will tell-all…

How did Bardoll get into the “Moon Suite?” Wasn’t the hangar with the Space Coupe locked?

I don’t think a mannequin would fool anybody. Dick Tracy is pretty stoic, but his stance here is especially stiff. I agree with the theory that the DNA results have come back and he knows this is NOT his daughter-in-law.

I’ve said before that a story of this complexity and length is not going to end with a “gotcha.” For this story to not bring about the permanent return of Mysta makes no sense, imo. Mike Curtis is a very skilled storyteller. He is not likely to take the better part of a year building suspense and tension, only to reveal that we’ve been watching a Lunarian with plastic surgery pretending to be Mysta. There is no payoff to such a story, only disappointment, frustration and even anger. I believe that Team Tracy is embracing all aspects of Gould’s decades of impressive creativity. I believe that Mysta is alive and will be a recurring character.To those who say this is impossible, we need only reference the recent appearance of Punjab and the Asp: two of Harold Gray’s very best creations last seen being “blown to bits” (March 9, 2008). We don’t know the exact circumstances of Mysta’s recovery. Sail is dishonest and is using her to further his nefarious plans. We do know that she remembers the day of the car bomb and waking up in Sail’s “hospital.” The image used to show her recollection of the tragic car bombing is the same one used when Tracy tells Honeymoon of that fateful day (although he was asleep and not an eyewitness until after the explosion). Our knowledge of Lunarian physiology is extremely limited, which gives Mr. Curtis a ton of creative leeway. We can’t say what constitutes death or what path recovery might take in the wake of grievous injury. That many readers suspect this Moon Maiden is not Mysta strikes me as exactly the reaction Team Tracy wants at this point in the story. I’ll resist the urge to speculate further. Team Tracy has my attention and admiration.

That red bowtie was a dead giveaway in that it was Sam Catchem; that and his smoking.