991: Phantom Menace

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Phantom Menace

Title text: We could go to the theater across town and see if it's opened THERE yet, but we don't want to lose our place in line.

Explanation

Cueball is waiting outside a building with an unidentified character, who is dressed as Darth Maul, a character from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Before its release in May 1999, The Phantom Menace was one of the most anticipated movies of all time, with fans camped in lines outside of movie theaters as much as a full month in advance of ticket sales. In this comic, Cueball and his friend are apparently still waiting to see the movie, not having realized that they are waiting outside of a building that is not a movie theater. More importantly, they have been waiting for thirteen years, which should be long enough to realize their error.

Darth Maul, the source of Cueball's friend's costume, is a Sith apprentice in the film. The Sith are the group of characters in the Star Wars universe who embrace the dark side of the Force and are the enemies throughout the series. Cueball is holding a cheap replica of a lightsaber, which is the weapon used by the Jedi and the Sith.

This comic seems to be poking fun at those people who are willing to wait long in advance for the release of some product or the first theatrical release of a movie. The title text expands upon this when one of the characters states that going to a theater across town may be better, but he is worried about taking the chance due to the possibility of losing their place in this line, a misplaced sense of priorities if the line goes nowhere, and they are presently the only two in it.

Transcript

[Cueball, holding a lightsaber, and another stick figure character in a Darth Maul mask stand on the sidewalk outside of a brick building in an urban area. Each is holding money in his or her hand. There is a broken window on the building.]

[Beat panel. They continue to stand there.]

[Beat panel. They continue to stand there.]

[Darth Maul turns to Cueball.]

Darth Maul: Are you sure this place is a theater?

Cueball: Let's give it one more month.

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Discussion

Episode I is so much maligned that some fans have created their own viewing order:

• IV: A New Hope
• V: The Empire Strikes Back
• II: Attack of the Clones
• III: Revenge of the Sith
• VI: Return of the Jedi

Skipping The Pantom Menace entirely. [1]

lcarsos (talk) 23:26, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

I like to believe that being in line early is a phantom menace.--Shine (talk) 05:37, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

I actually saw the 3D rerelease... BlueDudeWithATude (talk) 15:43, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

I think that the existing explanation kind of misses the comic entirely. The comic was published 2 months before the 3D rerelease, so we can assume that the events of the comic take place at the same time as the publishing and so the characters are standing there at least 2 months early. Also, Cueball says "Let's give it one more month" to the suggestion that they aren't even in line for a theatre, suggesting that a) they've probably been waiting for at least a month, and b) they're so dedicated that they went to watch the movie without even knowing where they were going. So, my explanation would be that the characters are die-hard Star Wars fans, willing to watch even the much-maligned Episode I and also convinced of the sheer importance of this event that they're willing to line up at least 3 months in advance at what might not even be a theatre. Gman314 (talk) 16:57, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm reasonably certain (but not so certain as to edit the article) that the joke is not that they're waiting for the re-release of Phantom Menace in 2012, but the original release in 1999. Neito (talk) 02:50, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

The intent of the comic is identical either way, and there are no clues to help us decide, except for the timing of publication. They both seem pretty clueless; the terrible props, the inane conversation, and the simple fact that they have been in line *by themselves* for a long time, with no clear indication that they are even at a theater. Is Randall trying to say that people queuing up to see phantom menace, are, to put it bluntly, stupid? 108.162.219.223 22:40, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

The first time I read this, without reading the explanation, I thought that they want to be the first to see the movie, even going as far as waiting for an abandoned building to become a theater. This way, they guarantee that they will be the first in line when the theater opens. 141.101.99.245 04:03, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Wait!

They weren't?

Oh wait... IDGAF! (I forgot.)

 I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 07:28, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

This is me with star wars 7 173.245.52.27 22:34, 17 December 2015 (UTC)