It’s difficult sometimes outwitting your readers. Maritza Campos has been doing the comic College Roomies from Hell for years now, with weird incident after odd occurrence, almost none of which have been predicted by her numerous fanbase. In fact, the CRfH forum board often goes into speculation fits about various story points (I should know, as I have written a number of voluminous posts concerning aspects of the comic going from Satanic involvement to how Marsha’s wings would affect her intimate affairs with Mike) at the drop of a hat.

So I keep waiting for the rabbit to be pulled out of the hat with the latest story arc. I mean, Maritza fried all of our brains when she had God dryclean Dave. I mean, the big guy drycleaned Dave, who has to be the most popular male character of the comic. When asked, Maritza even admitted it was divine intervention, and that she had several ways to save Dave that were mundane, but that for once, she wanted to have God work a miracle.

(And of course, the amusing thing is how Mike reacts to this… “Man, you just have to upstage me EVERY time, DON’T YOU???” Sorry, but this comic has to be one of the funniest that Maritza has put out. Closely followed by when Mike threatened to flush the metaphors out of Dave a little bit later. But then again, what would you do if your roommate said he was saved by God directly intervening? I’d not bother with flushing, just agree nicely, smile, and edge toward the phone…)

But now… Roger has Margaret in his arms. He says she’s dead. But naturally all of Maritza’s fans know she’s not. Margaret has nearly as big a following as Dave, and has been integral to so many plots (and fairly central until recent to the Satan mega-story). And while Maritza wouldn’t just allow her fanbase to influence the comic, I doubt she’d throw away a potent source of dozens of stories with such an ignominious end.

Where’s the kicker? I keep expecting something to happen. Dave trying to zap Roger… well, we could see that happening. Diana stowing away and saving Roger… we expected that as well. So where’s the unexpected twist?

Still… while the story is going on a predictable path (for the time being), there is one important thing about it: it’s been funny. For a while, CRfH was an interesting read, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t exactly funny. But now we’ve had Dave drycleaned by God, Mike seeing glorious possibilities in his girlfriend’s wings, and April actually outwitting Mike for a change. Maybe, just maybe, the comic will stay back in the college for a bit, and we can return to the roots of what brought so many of us to this comic.

In the meantime, it’s been a glorious and amusing ride, even if I’m left wondering when the next twist is going to hit. :)