The D-Lister versus a big villain The Letters Page
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They’re both D-Listers.
They are not.
I do think that, before he became Deadline, Tarogath was most likely a D-lister — he was just another Endling in the Enclave. But once he becomes Deadline, it’s bit less clear, I think. He has a real big event, but IIRC not much prominence immediately before or after. So, maybe C-list? Though I think as Lifeline he is most likely C-list; he takes part in events like OblivAeon and SkinWalker GloomWeaver, but he’s certainly not as popular as the likes of Bunker or Tachyon.
So in summary:
- Pre-Deadline Tarogath: D-List
- Deadline: ???C-List???
- Lifeline: C-List
But it’s also worthwhile to recall that IIRC “listiness” is about real life popularity, not in-universe importance. Wellspring’s super “big” in-universe, but virtually unknown out of universe. Deadline is certainly a pretty big deal in universe, even if many non-dedicated comic fans probably haven’t heard of him.
I love her 2000’s glowup! 
That’s such a cool look!
Wow, they left an “oh shit” in there! 
I can’t help but feel like Wipeout was the blueprint for Aeon Girl somehow, and also the reason Tarogath is an absent father XD
Wow, I cannot believe we’re getting the First Fear’s backstory! Complete with bonus Biaha! And very cool Mr. Jitters story!
I’m okay with this Patreon-primed episode format. 
It sounds like the results will be worth waiting for!
“I think Scholar might be dead.” TOO SOON MAN, TOO SOON
By the time of this comic, Deadline would not be D-lister. Anything prior to his event I don’t see much point of ranking him as he was just seen in the background once.
have not listened yet since we can’t download anymore but I like the glow up of going from Punky Brewster to Jubilee
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Haven yet listened to the episode — cuz even after a year-long hiatus I’m still super behind : ( — but I’m unfoundedly speculating that what brings these two into conflict is that Deadline’s disaster-making is messing with the waters of Earth, which Wipeout’s connexion to water somehow sorta twigs her to, so she goes and tries to stop him.
What do you mean you can’t download anymore? I use a podcatcher app and the RSS feed, and it glitched out for a day last week but it’s fine now…
WalkingTarget on the Letters Page discord has been posting direct download links since Libsyn did their update. This is the link for this one https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/theletterspage/LettersPage-07272026-325-Widepout-vs-Deadline.mp3
that the Patreon Discord? I have not joined yet
Yes, that’s the letter page patreon discord. The link I posted isn’t specific to that discord but just wanted to credit the person who provided it.
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just needed to make sure. I checked Realm of Discord and saw nothing, but I have an exhausting job and am too tired to get on Patreon so I could have missed something on realm
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My vague understanding is that prior to Deadline, Tarogath is a cameo more than anything, without a real character to speak of. Deadline is a big event but is also intended as a one-time thing, and then three years later he launches as Lifeline and is a moderate deal in OblivAeon.
We haven’t seen enough RPG material to know if he takes and becomes a solid C-Lister, but my understanding is that everyone who gets a deck is meant to be at least a C-Lister so probably.
Some top kek just before the story kicks off. “I hope it’s what we think, otherwise we’re both in trouble!” That could be an Abbot and Costello quality skit if they ran with it a little longer.
#BringDebbieDuceroBack
I wonder if Principle of Compassion is First Appearance Tarogath…
A story slowly slouches toward Bethlehem to be born…
I am definitely more of an Adam than a Christopher where cakes are concerned.
Seems like Wipeout is kinda “Jubilee but done right.”
I wonder if Adam squelches pie
“Six Hundred and Sixty Nine, dude!” It’s Adam and Christopher from the future.
I call BS on Mango Julia; Orange Julius is way older than the status of mangos as a trendy or even familiar Western food. Maybe do Strawberry Julia or Banana Julia.
I’m not calling BS on the Wipeout Base, just as I wouldn’t about the Batcave, but I do wonder how the power company doesn’t detect an arcade in an abandoned mall getting power, or security seeing the lights on. I know we won’t get an answer, I just kinda chew on the question while listening to the story.
I know C&A are cool with the idea of just having space wizards, and mostly I’m cool with that too, but listening to a lot of Warhammer 40K stories lately has got me wanting to have less magic-as-magic in a science fiction context, and more the kind of “tune my psychic resonance to the harmonics of the cosmic background radiation, in order to generate a quantum flux within myself which then propagates through the sub dimensional nexus layer” sort of technomancy. I don’t want Deadline to “reach out with his power”, that’s a cliche I’m very tired of. Give me well thought out hard-SF technobabble, where the state of the caster’s mind is part of the equation, but what you’re doing is still science, not magic, it’s simply a science absent some of the ignorant assumptions of technologically primitive humanity.
Self Sacrifice Deadline critical event?
The question of the limits of Wipeout’s power fails to distinguish between elements in solution, their molecules dispersed into the water itself, and objects (creatures) that are swimming or floating or sunken into the water. Lifting a river with all its fish would require her to exert control over the water around a fish in order to grip it and lift it up.
The long question with all the weird hypotheticals about Isoflux Alpha, I think it was from Achilles Turtle, seems an awful lot like the kind of experiments that Antimox would do.
If the Idealist is a reality warper, does that mean her constructs are only glowing blue things because she wants them to be glowing blue things? I’m reminded of Plastic Man, who can take any shape but never changes his color. But for a reality warper to have that restriction is odd. I wonder if it’s just a Because Comics visual signature.
Welcome to the Letters Page, a podcast where Adam and Christopher split hairs.
Okay, super interesting lore drop. The first sentient beings in each universe experienced fear, and thus gave shape to The First Fear. So the Singular Entity of fear represents …fear as a concept when no creatures capable of fear exist? The name Byaha scans as a reference to Byakhees from Lovecraft, so I think it works to say that the SE represents a formless ineffable kind of fear. This being is then the “father” of each universe’s FF, whose “mother” is the first sentient being’s first experience of being frightened? (Reverse the genders if you wish.) Either way, I can definitely see that a different first being in a different universe would have different fears. Humans might fear the dark, but entities that evolved far underground in lightless caves presumably would not. So if there were no humans, but Magmarians were the first beings, then the First Fear would be fear of cold more than anything, since Magmarians can’t really die and aren’t super capable of starving, so their fears would be very definitely different from humans.
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