Hidden Details: Everyone Is Dead (Patreon)

This week's comic performed super well, both on Reddit, Instagram and Twitter. For the first time ever, I didn't even need to share it myself. When I've made a new comic, I schedule a post on this Patreon and our website and it automatically updates at Wednesday 12:00 AM in our local timezone. Most of the time, I post the comic on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit somewhere in the afternoon on that same Wednesday. But this time, when I arrived on /r/SmashBros to post it, it was already there. I asked the poster and they told me the comic had already traveled from our website to Know Your Meme and Instagram before he decided to repost it on Reddit. Amazing.

The success of this comic might be caused by the amount of hidden details, which is, admittedly, pretty high. Even for my standards. Let's dive in, shall we?

I'm going to start with some backstory about the first four panels. They all feature Smash fighters being traumatized/mangled or dead. Every panel is based on stuff that happened in the four Smash Ultimate trailers that have so far been revealed:

The Inkling is traumatized by the flaming apocalyptic Smash logo in the Smash Bros Ultimate reveal trailer.

Mario is wearing a neck brace because his head/neck was snapped by Ridley's claw in the Ridley reveal trailer...

...and Mega Man was impaled by Ridley's tail. There's no way you survive that. I've already made a comic about this by the way.

Luigi's soulless body is lying on the floor of Dracula's castle after being slashed by the Grim Reaper's scythe. I'm not even making this up. It actually happened in the Simon/Richter reveal trailer.

There. Context. Now that's out the way, I'll dive into the REAL hidden details. Let's go.

There's a bunch of stuff hanging on the wall behind Dr. Mario in his office. To the left a regular calendar and his PhD (complete with his signature!). To the right a poster about Super Mushrooms and Poison Mushrooms in Smash. When I showed this to my girlfriend, she said "but they look exactly the same". To which I replied "EXACTLY!". In Smash, these items sometimes appear and they're pretty much indistinguishable from one another, but one of them makes you big and powerful while the other one makes you tiny and weak. The only difference between the two is a pair of angry eyebrows on the Poison Mushroom. And if you look very carefully, you can see the angry eyebrows on this poster as well.

Beneath that, there's a poster about nerfs featuring a crying Falco. Falco was one of the best characters in both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but he is one of the worst characters in Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, since he's been nerfed vigorously.

The male Inkling is supporting his traumatized friend and he's carrying a little booklet that will help him learn how to live with someone who's affected by PTSD. Only in this case, that's an acronym for Post-Trailer Stress Disorder.

The final hidden detail in this panel was a very quick one. I just threw it in there without thinking. It cost me about 2 minutes to draw.

But somehow, this is BY FAR the most pointed-out detail on Reddit, Instagram and Twitter.

YES. YES THIS IS LOSS. NOW STOP ASKING.

On to the next panel! Maybe no one has pointed this out because it's too obvious or maybe it's too vague. You know why I had Yoshi comfort Rush Coil standing next to Mega Man's grave? Because they're both "animal" sidekicks! Yoshi is Mario's and Rush Coil is Mega Man's.

The tombstone behind Yoshi describes the life and death of the infamous Hoo Hah combo that Diddy Kong could perform in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS until he was nerfed.

The other tombstone marks the grave of Brawlout, an indie game very similar to Smash Bros. I regret this hidden detail, actually. We're an indie game company ourselves and I wouldn't like anyone telling me my game is "dead" even though it's meant as a joke. If anyone from the Brawlout team ever reads this: I apologize. It's an insensitive joke.

In the background of this panel, I drew Ridley flying off after stabbing Mega Man, crushing Mario's neck and stealing his hat, as he did in the trailer. Look, he's actually wearing the iconic cap!

In the fourth panel, I didn't HAVE to draw Villager standing there menacingly, but I just couldn't resist. The dog-cop next to him is Copper, who's an actual character from the Animal Crossing series. Looks like Copper is onto the Villager, who is probably the mastermind behind all these deaths, in secret. Fuckin' psycho.

There's also "ANIMALS CROSSING" on the police lint among the "DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE" text. This is an obvious nod to the Animal Crossing series.

The pattern on Sakurai's shirt references the shape of the reflector of Fox and Falco. That move (often called "shining") is particularly popular in the Melee competitive scene. This little detail has been mentioned by NOBODY. And I'm always kinda proud when that happened. Maybe all the other, obvious details have served as lightning rods. 

And finally, we have the sixth panel. I don't know what counts as a "Hidden Detail" in this group of frightened fighters, so I'm just going to point out a few things that you might have missed:

- Snake's eyes are visible in his box;
- Wario is hiding beneath Bowser. You can see his eyes, nose and hands;
- Awww, Fox and Falco are holding each other;
- Cloud's sword, the Buster Sword, is visible above Pac-Man;
- Next to Sonic and above Samus, you can JUST make out R.O.B.;
- Pit is climbing out of the window, trying to escape Sakurai's wrath;
- Olimar just flew away.

And I think that's about it!

Loved making this comic, loved writing this blog, loved reading all your comments and reactions! Thank you all and I'll see you next week!

Cheers!

- Abel