Hidden Details: You Really Are a Heel (Patreon)

Hey, the very title of this comic is a hidden detail! "You Really Are a Heel" is a reference to the song from the Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch:

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel
You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch
You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel!

And this is, of course, a reference to the Grinch leak. The big, juicy Smash leak that turned out to be fake. Incineroar mentions this very leak in the comic, when he says Banjo, Shadow, Mach Rider, Chorus Kids and Isaac are not in the game.

Halfway through drawing this comic I realized it may not be clear when this comic takes place, so I put a little calendar in the background of the first panel. The comic takes place on the very day Incineroar, Ken and Piranha Plant were revealed: last Thursday, November 1st.

There are some details hidden in the bottom of the first panel. Mario/Incineroar knows the truth about the leak, so he's certain the leak is fake, which is reflected on his ballot box. Technically, he should be convincing other characters the leak is real, so he'd earn a lot of profits when he would be the only one betting on "fake", but that scenario was too difficult to explain in a single image.

Also, Robin's name on his voting ballot is written in the same style as his name on the door in "Roster Imposter"!

Pikachu's ballot only shows some scribbles, since I don't think Pikachu can write. He can't even talk. (Okay, he did in that one movie but I'm going to ignore that)

In the second panel, Pikachu looks like he's smelling something suspicious, which is probably Incineroar's burning crotch.

The whole third panel is a very obvious reference to Vince McMahon's classic "IT'S ME AUSTIN"-moment. This is also the only reason I chose Robin as the secondary character in this comic: out of all the characters, "Robin" sounds the most like "Austin". I even included the "summabitch!" exclaimed by one of the narrators in the original clip. In the comic, it's Ivysaur who says it, because he's a Grass Pokémon. Grass is weak against Fire, so it's only natural he's shocked.

There's a bunch of stuff happening in the background of the fourth panel. Ken is there, just saying hi (just like he did in the Direct). Robin is confused by the sudden appearance of a boxing ring and microphone. This is a reference to Incineroar's move (I think it's his side B?) where a bunch of boxing ring-ropes appear out of nowhere so he can throw his opponent in it. Also, if you look very closely, you can see Incineroar's nemesis, Sakurai & Plant, loom in the shadows.

Sakurai & Plant have crept even closer to Incineroar in the fifth panel. It's hard to make out, but I've increased the brightness in the picture above so it's a lot more obvious.

And lastly, I've put another logo on Sakurai's burgundy shirt, as is tradition. It's nothing Nintendo-related this week though. It's the WWE logo, to end the wrestling theme of this comic on a high note.

And that's it for this week's Hidden Details! I have SO much stuff to make comics about now that everything about Ultimate has been revealed. I haven't even touched World of Light yet. I think I'm set until the game launches, haha. Hope to see you all next week!

Cheers!

- Abel