I think the guy is not just homeless but is Francis of Assisi. I mean, he's got long hair and combat boots (from his stint in the military?) and intuitively understands animals and begs to get his food, right?
Ok, I don't really think that, but I think the boots are important because of the implication that he, like a significant number of other homeless men, might also be a veteran. Whether he realizes it or not, he's taking in these animals who followed the same trajectory he did, if not an uglier and nastier one. Maybe that's why home for him means the same thing it does for them.
Ah, that's good; I hadn't picked up on the vet stuff at all, but it fits in pretty well... really well actually.
For some reason I find it interesting that he's suddenly clean-shaven at the end of the book, while he has a lot of stubble at the top of issue #3; it's obviously meant to be the same guy... just something that caught my eye (the animals are making him appear friendlier, perhaps, aside from giving him luck?)...
Were you to be feeling especially playful, you could follow Roses line out to answer your medical question. Why can he help heal the animals? Because that's what vets do.
Now that's just too much... TOO MUCH AWESOME!
An excellent review and I love the vet comment - very smart.
The medicine angle bothers me mildly too, although not to the point of distracting from this wonderful story. One explanation I concocted, and the observation that the homeless guy is more clean shaven, is that Dr. Trendle has been helping him out. It seems a little too convenient that they're all there on the steps to Congress (?) but if you link Dr. T to removing the equipment, and providing some type of antidote to the medicine, then this could be a second or third and, I think, given the end's tone, final meeting for them.
We know that Dr. T isn't going to die, but he's gone into the belly of the whale to testify and there is the strong implication that his career is definitely over, thus he "dies" to the We3 animals/project, at least.
Michael - Interesting stuff. I like the bit about Dr. T 'dying' in a sense...
I don't think Dr. T has been in contact with the animals before the ending though; it's clearly the vet who discovers them after they remove their armor (he's wearing the same boots as he had on at the top of the issue), and judging from the tone of the dialogue between the vet and Dr. T on the final pages, the vet doesn't appear to know who Dr. T is (and he really looks surprised to be handed all that cash), so it's unlikely that they've met before. I took Dr. T's line of "Clever little dog" to mean that he understands how the animals have gotten away: now that they're not wearing their armor, nobody realizes how special they were, even though they're living in the very same city right near the base (and I got the feeling that Dr. T is simply entering the local federal courthouse or something on the final page). In this way, they're similar to the vet, who's also forgotten and ignored by
the people, despite his military service.
Oh, Haloscan...
Commenting by HaloScan
