Friday, February 16th, 2001	#308
Prelude to a Bad Time	Bad Things Happening

< February 2001 > 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 W 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 W 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 W 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 W 25 26 27 28 1 2 3 W
		The First Strips The Beginning of the Story Mega Man's Missing! The Introduction of the Author The Author as Mega Man The Return of Mega Man The Hand-drawn Comics I - The Introduction of George The Hand-drawn Comics I - George's Summer Job The Hand-drawn Comics I - The Introduction of Napalm The Hand-drawn Comics I - The Return of Mega Man The Return to the Beginning The Attack of the Yellow Demon The Return of the Author The White Space Why Alcohol is Bad for You The First Megaman Game The Attack on Dr. Wily The Hand-drawn Comics II - Introductions, Version 2.0 The Hand-drawn Comics II - College Orientation Not Again Just Another Day Not Just Another Day The Introduction of George The Introduction of Bob The Attack of Bob The Aftermath of Bob Tales From a Parallel Universe 1 Prelude to a Bad Time A Bad Time Tales From a Parallel Universe 2 Back to the Past The Party The Second Megaman Game - Prologue The Second Megaman Game - The First 4 Robot Masters The Second Megaman Game - The Last 4 Robot Masters The Second Megaman Game - Back at the Lab The Second Megaman Game - Meanwhile The Second Megaman Game - The Attack on Dr. Wily The Second Megaman Game - The Aftermath Back in the Future The Author's Breakdown Tales From a Parallel Universe 3 Something Stupid The Next Generation Another Coffee Break Tales From a Parallel Universe 4 In the Year 21XX The Arrival of Mynd The Attack of Mynd The Third Megaman Game - The Pregame Show The Third Megaman Game - Magnet Man & Hard Man The Third Megaman Game - Top Man & Shadow Man Tales From a Parallel Time The Second Party The Third Megaman Game - Spark Man & SnakeMan The Third Megaman Game - Needle Man & Gemini Man The Third Megaman Game - Doc Robot The Cataclysm Flashback The Third Megaman Game - The Doc Robot Fight The Third Megaman Game - Resolution Something Different The Attack of Mega Man Tales From a Parallel Universe 5 N4T3'5 R3C4P W33K The Fourth Megaman Game - Stalin's Brain The Fourth Megaman Game - Exposition Exposition The Fourth Megaman Game - Fixing Ran Dave's Adventures in Canada The Fourth Megaman Game - Wily's Fortress The Third Party The Fourth Megaman Game - Mega Man The Fourth Megaman Game - Bright Man & Pharaoh Man The Fourth Megaman Game - Ring Man & Dust Man Non Sequitur The Fourth Megaman Game - Skull, Drill, & Dive Man The Fourth Megaman Game - Ran The Fourth Megaman Game - Cossack Bots BnG News Story Time Another Bad Time A Dog's Day George's Bad Day George's Really Bad Day BnG News Exposé Helmeted Preparations Helmeted Attack The Fourth Party The Adventures of Ninja Ned Tales From a Parallel Universe 5½, Part 1 The Fifth Megaman Game - Prologue Tales From a Parallel Universe 5½, Part 2 The Fifth Megaman Game - Star Man Tales From a Parallel Universe 5½, Part 3 The Fifth Megaman Game - Preparations The Fifth Megaman Game - Robot Masters The Fifth Megaman Game - Month of Destruction The Fifth Megaman Game - Darth Volcanus The Fifth Megaman Game - Wave, Stone, & Charge Man The Fifth Megaman Game - Final Battle The Fifth Megaman Game - Resolution The Attack of Non-Alternate Mynd - Preamble The Attack of Non-Alternate Mynd - Flashback The Attack of Non-Alternate Mynd - Protean The Attack of Non-Alternate Mynd - Charge A&E Biography Month The Fifth Party The Introduction of X The Attack of X The Mind of X, Part 1 Megaman 6 The Mind of X, Part 2 The Aftermath of X Prelude to the Worst Time The Worst Time The First Annual Robot Tournament - Introduction The First Annual Robot Tournament - Round One, Part 1 The Sixth Party The First Annual Robot Tournament - Round One, Part 2 The Sixth Megaman Game - Vic The Sixth Megaman Game - Stalling The Sixth Megaman Game - Wily's Fortress All Good Things - The First Cycle All Good Things - The Second Cycle All Good Things - The Third Cycle All Good Things - Flashback All Good Things - The Fourth Cycle All Good Things - Mynd All Good Things - Sigma All Good Things - Captain Kinesis The Seventh Party All Good Things - Captain Kinesis All Good Things - The Last Cycle The Return of Bob - Shields The Return of Bob - Standoff The Last Strips The Epilogue

In case it's not clear, Mega Man is still talking about the events of Megaman 7 in that first panel, not realizing that Bass has walked away. It might be a little confusing, since Mega Man and Bass were talking about a different subject in the last comic, but maybe it was one of those situations where, after a brief and awkward pause in the conversation (in which Bass probably walked away), Mega Man returned to the previous conversation topic and simply continued on. This comic features one of my favorite concepts regarding time travel: the temporal ripple effect. That is, the idea that it somehow takes "time" for the effects of time travel to be felt further up the time stream. Usually, the further you are from the event, the longer it takes before the ripple overtakes and alters your time period. In this case, though it's not yet known that Bass has traveled into the past through that portal, clearly he has done something that has screwed up time, and the alert is due to the detection of that temporal ripple on its "way". What's never really explained, though, is why the effects of time travel would work this way. Why aren't any changes to the the time stream felt instantaneously throughout the entire space-time continuum? Why would it take "time", from some observer's perspective, for reality to be altered? I mean, aside from it being really inconvenient to the plot to have the main characters be unable to fix the damage to the time stream since they've already been affected and altered by that damage, that is. I suppose you could argue that like any effect, changes caused by time travel have some sort of speed limit as they travel through the space-time continuum, perhaps even the speed of light somehow, and cannot instantaneously affect everything, in the same way gravity can't cause instantaneous changes between masses. But then, if the ripple effect is traveling at some speed limit, what exactly is it supposedly moving through? If it's moving through the fourth dimension, time, then why would we have any perception of a time delay? After all, we're limited to traveling at a fairly constant speed through that dimension, and our perception of the passage of time is rather limited. Though, it all obviously makes perfect sense once you have an understanding of the fifth dimension.

All material except that already © Capcom, © David Anez, 2000-2015. This site is best viewed in Firefox with a 1024x768 resolution. This comic is for entertainment purposes only and not to be taken internally. Please consult a physician before use.