Luann. Again.
You know, the more I read the comics, the more ambiguous unarticulated themes I seem to find, from the repressed homosexuality in Beetle Bailey, to the Electra/Oedipus complexes played out in For Better or For Worse.
Last week, I made a snarky remark about Bernice’s “hunky” long-lost brother Ben York, but alas I knew it wouldn’t be the end: inevitably Luann would develop a crush on him, giving Greg Evans just the opening he needs to take off on yet another one of the teenaged girl fantasies that make up his portfolio.
Ok, I don’t know what the hell is going on here. I’m going to tell myself that Bernice is starry-eyed because after all, before two weeks ago (real time, not comic strip time) she had no idea she even HAD a brother. Sam was conceived when his mom and I went to her newly-discovered half-brother’s wedding, a guy her mom had tracked down nearly 30 years after giving him up for adoption. Sam’s just loved her half-brother to death, and was so grateful and surprised to have this new family member in her life. So I can explain Bernice’s goo-goo eyes.
And I can explain Luann’s expression too: Ben’s a good looking guy, Luann’s always hawt-to-trawt, and 2+2=4.
But what is going on with Luann’s brother Brad, who two days prior, reacted the news of Bernice’s brother with crunches? And why is he so sulky and bitchy? It’s not protectiveness, that’s for sure: as an older brother, I can tell you what that looks like. I’d tease my sister about her boyfriends, I’d warn her about guys who I knew were sleazebags, and I let my friends know that my sister was off-limits. But I never felt the need to compete with Kate’s boyfriends for my sister’s attention, which is what Brad seems to do.
If you look at the sequence of events in Thursday’s strip, it’s quite clear that Brad’s ire is… um, aroused after Ben gets all touchy feely with Luann, causing her vagina to swell into a cameltoe that evidently would put even Ron Jeremy’s erect penis to shame.
Were it not for Tuesday’s “Brad-doing-crunches” strip, I could assume that the character was just expressing concern that some guy is grabbing on his sister. But Brad’s initial reaction to Bernice’s brother’s visit was essentially to whip himself into shape, as if Ben would be competing with him for the attentions of either Bernice (Ben’s sister, ewww!) or Luann (his own sister, double-ewww!): really, that’s the only way to read this.
I don’t know what’s more disturbing: Greg Evans deep interest in the lives of teenage girls, or that he’s writing a storyline that can only be described as incestuous.
