An Evronian ship crashes down to Earth, carrying an injuried Gorthan. Paperinik finds him and discovers that he is on the run from his own kind. Meanwhile a scientist finds Gorthan's tank, which contains his nourishment, and not knowing where it came from he uses it to power up his robot. What Could Possibly Go Wrong??
Tropes Present In This Issue:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Mekkano becomes unstable because of the effects of Gorthan's energy tank.
- Ambiguously Evil: Gorthan admits he would kill Paperinik if only he had the chance, except we later learn he could have done it, since he was able to break the magnetic handcuffs easily. Paperinik is understandably confused by the implication.
- Asian and Nerdy: Engineer Takeda.
- The Assimilator: Mekkano was built to find raw materials to modify itself in order to be a space explorer. Gorthan's tank messed it up,so it instead absorbs everything it can (including weapons and engines) ands use them. In the end it assimilates Gorthan.
- Bookend: In the beginning Gorthan is quoting "The Little Prince".In the end Paperinik is reading it.
- Body Horror: Given Gorthan's scream, it seems that removing an Evronian's tank from them is possible but extremely painful.
- Breaking the Bonds: Gorthan breaks the magnetic handcuffs Paperinik puts on him.
- Brick Joke: To avoid a poor figure in the beginning Tod Voight tries to persuade a group of investors that Paperinik's flying car is one of his projects while running away. In the very last page we see that they are still waiting for it to return.First investor: Do you think it will come back?Others: It will,it will!
- Butt-Monkey: Tod Voight. He largely deserves it.
- The Drag-Along: Mekkano's creator, engineer Takeda, is dragged along by his robot. It's hinted that the machine is actually fond of him.
- Enemy Mine: Paperinik must team up with Gorthan to take back his energy tank before it explodes. And no, neither of them is the least bit happy about that.
- Genius Bruiser: Gorthan isn't just the smartest scientist of the Evron Empire, he is also super strong.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Gorthan isn't just angry to humans for causing him to defy his race,but also envious for our ability to feel powerful emotion and creating works of art thanks to them.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: After getting exposed to Earth's culture, Gorthan came to questions his people's point of view. Being a military kin where the lowly soldiers are barely self-aware, they try to kill him. It's also deconstructed: he has a deep hatred for humans, since their culture caused him to be hated by his culture.
- Obfuscating Disability:
- Edward J. Voight, Tod's uncle, is actually pretending to be a sick man forced in bed to better observe his nephew.
- While Gorthan is really going to die if they don't get his tank back, he has much more strength that he lets Paperinik believe.
- One Last Smoke: Realizing he is going to die without his tank, Gorthan has one last request for our heroes."Do you have a good book?"
- Play-Along Prisoner: Gorthan. See under Breaking the Bonds.
- Shout-Out: When Gorthan reveals he has Super-Strength, Paperinik jokes that he must have fallen on his test tubes when he was a kid.
- Straw Vulcan: Oddly averted by One, who suggests to bring a wounded Gorthan to the secret floor to better take care of him. Paperinik is less idealistic, noticing it could be a trap.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: In the note that Edward give to its nephew he predicted Tod would have misunderstood the praise it was written on.
- You No Take Candle: Mekkano repeats what its inventor says in an extremely broken way.
- You See, I'm Dying: Without his tank Gorthan is going to die of starvation. Paperinik teams up with him to retrieve it and to stop the crazy robot that he is using it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Both Mekkano and Gorthan are taken by an Evronian ship. We will never hear from any of them.
- Wicked Cultured: Gorthan starts the issue by quoting "The Little Prince". The book is quoted again at the end of it.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: After taking back his tank, Gorthan is overloaded by the unpurified energy inside it and starts smashing things.
- Wolverine Claws: Gorthan has artificial ones in a glove.
