TLOU | Lessons in Readiness

I'm sure that "haven't seen the last of us," joke has already been made a million times since the reveal of "The Last of Us Part II".  I think I actually saw one or two comments on my last TLOU comic that used it (and of course, puns in the comments are always appreciated... by me, at least).  Heck, people probably made this joke after "Left Behind" was announced, too.  It's ageless.  Timeless, even.  Why, it's practically achieved godlike status.  It's been used by so many people for so long and in so many different ways that it's spawned a sort of mythology of its own, like Hercules, or Thor, or the United States Constitution.  No one knows what's really "canon" about any of these things, per se, but there are vague elements that remain the same in every variant use, tale, and court ruling.

More importantly, because of the imprecise nature of age-old jokes, timeless mythology, and contemporary English documents, every use gives its own spin to the source material.  Think "Batman", for example.  He's a brooding detective/crime-fighter whose life was changed when his parents were murdered in an alley.  That basic underlying foundation almost never changes, but depending on which comic, movie, or show you see, there are several variations on some of the more nuanced aspects of Batman's mythology, such as the murderer of his parents.  In modern canon, it's a nameless mugger named Joe Chill, but in the 1989 movie, it was a notoriously violent gangster named Jack Napier, who becomes the Joker.  That's just one example.  So you see, when a mythology becomes as big as Hercules or Batman, various incarnations will keep certain things the same, and change others, and it's these small differences that give each incarnation its own identity, despite being rooted in the same source.

All this to say that, even though this joke has been made, I'm not "stealing" it.  I'm simply putting my own spin on a modern legend.  Don't sue me, please.  I have kids.  I don't.  But I want kids... I think.  Anyway, if you sue me, how will I buy a garage to store them in when they get noisy?  I'm a freakin' artist for cryin' out loud.  I'm not rolling in greenbacks over here.

PUNOGRAPHY:
1. "The Last of Us Part II" uses the Roman numeral "II" for "2".  I's look like 1's, so Ellie pretends that the Roman numeral "II" (which means "two") is actually the Arabic numeral "11" (eleven).
2. Ellie says "They haven't seen 'The Last of Us', yet!" implying that the audience has not yet seen the last of these characters or their game franchise.  The game franchise is called "The Last of Us", hence the double-meaning of the statement.  We haven't seen the last of the characters, but we also haven't seen the entirety of "The Last of Us".