forces
Original: forces on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Batman: You'll never get away with it, historical materialist!
Panel 2:
The historical materialist (a figure in red): I don't need to, since the flow of human action is the product of economic forces. If the laws that govern economies kill Batman, the hand that presses the button is incidental.
Panel 3:
Batman (eyes closed, resigned): So...
Panel 4:
The historical materialist stands at a lever/pulley mechanism that lowers a heavy weight (or blade) toward Batman, who is small and tied up below.
Batman: Dammit.
Votey:
A thought/caption at the top reads: History is so cruel...
Below, a glass of milk is shown being drunk down, the milk level dropping panel by panel until the glass is nearly empty.
Batman: You'll never get away with it, historical materialist!
Panel 2:
The historical materialist (a figure in red): I don't need to, since the flow of human action is the product of economic forces. If the laws that govern economies kill Batman, the hand that presses the button is incidental.
Panel 3:
Batman (eyes closed, resigned): So...
Panel 4:
The historical materialist stands at a lever/pulley mechanism that lowers a heavy weight (or blade) toward Batman, who is small and tied up below.
Batman: Dammit.
Votey:
A thought/caption at the top reads: History is so cruel...
Below, a glass of milk is shown being drunk down, the milk level dropping panel by panel until the glass is nearly empty.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: Batman shouts, "You'll never get away with it, historical materialist!" Panel 2: A villain figure in red robes calmly replies, "I don't need to, since the flow of human action is the product of economic forces. If the laws that govern economies kill Batman, the hand that presses the button is incidental." Panel 3: A close-up of Batman with eyes closed, resigned, saying "So..." Panel 4: The red-robed historical materialist stands at a rope-and-pulley device lowering a heavy weight toward a tiny, trapped Batman below, who mutters "Dammit." The joke: a supervillain who believes individuals don't matter to history nonetheless personally operates the death trap. Votey (aftercomic): A caption reads "History is so cruel..." above a drawing of a glass of milk being steadily drunk down to nearly empty, panel by panel.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.