I thought the point was that Sulla was very similar in most ways to Al. Something that Brendan acknowledges, Al notices, and refutes your point. I don’t think Brendan ever would have rejected his daughter, and we’ve seen no evidence of him being anything but a very loving, giving, and even slightly over-protective father.

Brendan’s issues with Al’s trauma comping mechanisms aside, I think even if Sulla exhibited those same qualities of refusing to discuss or engage or share or support, he would still not reject her, because their relationship is inherently different. He has a duty of care and he loves her like a daughter. I don’t think he’d ever attempt to end their relationship…

(Of course, given today’s (10-7-16) panels, it looks like he didn’t even want to end his relationship with Al. He just did an overnight flounce to chill out and consider if breaking up was worth it. It seems like it’s not, not until the meeting is over, but I understand that’s using future comics to relate to this and may be editted out to preserve spoilers, which is cool.)

I think Al’s made more than one mistake re: Brendan, but other than that very minor thing, this reply is gold. Strongly agree.

It’s funny how you keep ignoring the indisputable mistake that Al made, which relationship problems aside, also finally got Brendan to explode: Not acknowledging his role as a business partner.

Al’s reputation and skill was already almost legendary in their world, or at least that’s how Brendan saw it. Al’s hermit tendencies (due to his past and fears), not to mention his gruff and abrasive demeanor kept many from getting to work with him though, aside from Brendan, who saw through that, and liked what he saw.

Brendan helped Al get to an even higher level of notoriety and they both worked hard to get their names’ out there, but aside from being unable to acknowledge Brendan as a lover due to his own insecurities/homophobia/fears, he willingly chose to allow the people they were being paid by and others in the military sphere to see Brendan as nothing more than an assistant, all because he was more openly gay.

Brendan said hurtful assholish things to someone who obviously has major mental and emotional (and unbeknownst to either, health) problems, so fuck him for that.

But Al? Chose to turn his back and publicly deny his Business partner’s worth and input. So fuck Him for that.

I edited the OP this was a reply to because it used the word “rape” to describe something which was not a literal rape, and I can’t stand that kind of thing. To all commenters: don’t do that. Jarvis, you’re fine.

I agree with you and I think it’s a complex idea…toxic masculinity doesn’t mean all men are inherently toxic, or that masculinity is inherently toxic. It’s a pervasive cultural idea that men have to deal with their problems in certain ways, such as closing people out, shouldering the burden alone, or even violence at the expense of your loved ones. We see countless examples in our media (fact and fiction) today of ‘manly’ characters acting in ways towards others that in the real world would be rightfully called abusive. And this is not to say that men are inherently abusive; it’s just a pervasive cultural script that too often lazy writers fall back on (not you, Blue!), and it’s all part of the complex system of gender roles we have in our society. And Brendan is guilty of this too; by defining a ‘real man’ as someone who meets his needs, no matter how much he has the right to ask Al to meet them, he’s turning it into an assessment of Al’s masculinity, which Al responds to by equating masculinity with violence and destruction. Toxic masculinity doesn’t mean Al is inherently a toxic person, it means that he uses ‘manliness’ (at least in his head) to justify his shitty behavior and not deal with his feelings. I agree that he’s latched onto it because of his personality as something he can defend himself with; the unconscious (or conscious) drive within a person to self-destruct, at least through non-action, is a highly personalized thing, as is the drive to justify or rationalize one’s self destruction. The idea of masculinity that masc-identified people hold is very subject to their own experiences and personality, though reinforced by cultural ideas of what being a ‘real man’ is supposed to be. As someone who was raised in male society and assumed to be male for a very long time, I’ve had to think a lot with my own ideas of what ‘masculinity’ is, and how certain things in my mind are or were tied to ideas of masculinity completely arbitrarily, like my lexicon and speech patterns, or my tendency to fight when confronted with threats, which I used to think made me a contradiction but now realize that they have nothing to do with being masculine; it’s just part of who I am and I can be feminine identified and still talk like I do and defend myself. Fuck all gender roles, be yourself, no matter if anyone thinks you’re not who they think you should be. Fuck those people.

(first and probably last time posting, love this comic, keep up the good work!)

I really hope we;ll see Brendan grieving, because I want to know exactly how it effected hi, and how he copes and how he moves on…not to mention how Sulla was “born” and stuff

I’m sure part of it also has to do with the gender identity issue presented by Sulla. If that sort of confusion wasn’t enough to drive a man insane, top it all off with this ridiculous machismo he’s been instilled with and you’ve got a real powderkeg. (Now that machismo is what I’d like to see the origins of. It’s pretty fierce.)

Yeah, I tell myself that all the time. Saying it to yourself and thinking about how you’ll ask or tell people is a lot easier than doing it.