Starbolts #602: Northern Charms

 Trigger warning: There is a discussion of sexual abuse in this week's comic. If you or someone you know is a victim of abuse, please contact someone for help. Viewer discretion is advised.

 

Hail!

    In a way this week's comic is a sequel to Starbolts #302: Southern Charms.  In that comic, we saw the beginning of Marcus and Crystal's romantic relationship. In this week's comic, we go back in time to when their friendship began. Their friendship ultimately turned into romance once they admitted their feelings toward one another. We've gone full circle and explored how everything started for our heroes. Of course the road to get to this point in the present was treacherous. 

    Crystal had a lot of issues to overcome between now and then and in the ten years she's known Marcus she has gotten therapy for the myriad of issues plaguing her. Her ideals about relationships were forged by a man who took advantage of a thirteen year old and abused her for three years. The type of issues that come from that kind of abuse does not go away overnight. Marcus knew that and that's why he was playing it cool in this week's comic. He knew that if he acted the wrong way, she'd have fallen deeper into her beliefs about men.

    The flashback in this week's comic take place a few hours after Crystal and Firaxil (Then known as Dennis) were rescued by the Starbolts. You can see the incident in Starbolts #304 and in Starbolts #472. For a long time that one moment haunted Crystal and it didn't quite click that she was abused until a few weeks later when she was in therapy. At this point in time, she was still operating under the misguided belief that she and Cody were still together and that he loved her. That was about to change.

    Aquita and Harris showed the teenager how he abused her using alien technology. That's when things started to click. However, she still had other issues to overcome and that was going to take a long time to get past. It's only recently that the nightmares she endured have ended. At least our heroine has grown and she's now with a man who treats her right. Like Andrea said. It's about time!

See ya next time! And who knows. Perhaps one day we'll get a comic where we see a continuation of Sara and Firaxil's first meeting.