Ring of Fired
| Ring of Fired | |
|---|---|
| |
| Comic Strip Info | |
| Released: | August 27, 2013 |
| Number of pages: | 68 |
| Artist: | makani |
| Writer: | Eric Wolpaw |
| Colorist: | Nick Filardi |
| “ | Hh hh hh hh! Yesh, Saxshton. And when you can't, Mann Co. is mine.
— Gray Mann
|
” |
Ring of Fired (also known as Team Fortress Comics #1) is a comic released on August 27, 2013 Patch. It is the first part of a six-part bi-monthly comic series.
Contents
Synopsis
The comic opens with Saxton Hale jumping from a plane with the pilot and the stuffed yeti he fought in A Fate Worse Than Chess. After landing in Mann Co. Headquarters, he is confronted by Gray Mann who has come for the "Mann. Co Challenge"; if the CEO of another company defeats Hale in unarmed combat, they take over. Gray, however, reveals that his infant daughter, Olivia, is the owner of Gray Gravel. Saxton refuses to fight her, and thus the company is transferred to Gray, who fires the mercenaries. Hale leaves the country, and Miss Pauling finds that the Administrator has also vanished, leaving the message "Miss Pauling... hide" on the computer screen.
Six months later, the Soldier is now leading a tour of celebrities' homes where he, and a group of elderly women, run to Tom Jones's home where Merasmus is living. The Soldier kills Tom, and Merasmus calls the police. Soon enough, Miss Pauling, dressed as a police officer, "arrests" Soldier and tells him that they need to find the rest of the team. They lure Pyro from his job as CEO of Frontier Engineering by setting fire to a nearby building, while Demoman readily joins them despite becoming overweight and even more of an alcoholic. Miss Pauling explains that the Administrator, whose current whereabouts are still unknown, gave the order to reassemble the mercenaries.
Meanwhile, Gray Mann finds that Mann. Co's entire supply of Australium has been taken, presumably by the Administrator. It is revealed that Gray's life-extending machine is powered by Australium and that his own supply is starting to run low. An unseen figure explains that all the other Australium sites have been emptied as well.
The team, now consisting of the Soldier, Pyro, Demoman and Miss Pauling, make plans to fly to Siberia and Australia to pick up Heavy and Sniper, respectively. Demoman mentions that Medic now has "a fancy job", while Miss Pauling worries as the Engineer has become especially hard to find. While they deliberate as to where the remaining mercenaries are, they find a newspaper saying that the Scout and Spy have been arrested and will be hanged for large-scale acts of vandalism.
Pages
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
Trivia
- The title is a reference to the 1963 Johnny Cash song, "Ring of Fire."
- The title page is a reference to a famous panel in the comic "Spider-Man No More!"
- On the title page, a magazine titled "Hat-Wearing MAN" can be seen. This is a reference to the Sniper vs. Spy Update in which hats were added to the game.
- Page 8 references the origin of Batman, where Batman's alias, Bruce Wayne, witnesses his parents' murder in a back alley after an opera.
- On pages 11 and 23, unlike most of the photos that show Saxton fighting some animal, a photo shows Saxton in a celebrity handshake pose with a tie-wearing bear. A similar tie-wearing bear also appears in another celebrity handshake photo in Tom Jones’ home on page 38.
- The colors of several characters' ties inexplicably change between panels - Gray Mann's tie changes from gray to blue after he burns his hands on page 15, and it is black on page 24. The same occurs with Mr. Bidwell and Mr. Reddy's ties, both changing from blue to black on page 23.
- In the third panel on pages 38-39, Soldier is missing the vertical flap down the middle of his coat.
- On pages 45–48, the back page of Pyro's newspaper is the second page of Lecture Valley.
- On the top two panels page 45, the tips of the Pyro's gloves are yellow, just like its in game model, but are black in the rest of the comic, with the exception of bottom panel on pg. 48.
- On page 45, on the bottom of the newspaper's front page is an article claiming that the Beatles are missing and were last seen near a lake, confirming the Soldier's claim on page 37 that the Beatles were the floating logs the old women saw in a lake.
- It is revealed that fire itself is what causes Pyro's vision of the world. Without it, Pyro sees everything as dull and grey, but still cartoonish.
- Demoman's Eyelander is shown to be fully sentient and capable of speech; it was previously shown to be simply haunted and only whisper 'heads'.
- Demoman is wearing a Badlands Brawlers T-shirt, the same team that appeared in the WAR! Comic.
- Page 61 shows the statue fountain in the Demoman's front yard, still spouting water from the neck from when he first decapitated it with the Eyelander in the WAR! Comic.
- Page 66–67 shows the Pyro holding up a puppy in admiration, while in a pose greatly resembling the way Rafiki holds up a newborn Simba when revealing him to the other animals of the Pride Lands in the movie The Lion King, with the exception that the puppy is facing towards the Pyro instead of away.
External links
- Ring of Fired on the TF2 Official Website.
