One of the greatest strengths of Order of the Stick has to lie with its characterization. Of course, considering Rich Burlew uses glorified stick figures for the comic, a reliance on art wouldn’t get the comic very far, leaving storytelling and characterization as the two key aspects that carry this comic. OotS’s reliance on the wacky hijinks of his crew help to counterbalance a storyline that gets rather deep in places… and while some of the hijinks may have been run into the grave, every so often Burlew will unearth a few of the old ones and let them shamble across the monitor like a zombified clown.

Perhaps one of the more amusing of these hijinks has to deal with Elan’s little handpuppet, Banjo. The thought of Elan creating his own church based off of the concept of a “God of Puppets” (or rather, the state of mind of a God of Puppets) is somewhat amusing. Fortunately, after running with the puppet for a bit, Burlew buried him deep into the forgotten depths of the world, where he would only return upon hearing the call of Banjulhu… well, it would be fairly certain we’d heard the last of Banjo.

Thus our latest comic, with Banjo’s triumphant return as the object of worship for an island of orcs, was a shot out of the blue. And much like Q in the second Star Trek television series, Banjo’s appearance here isn’t overdone. Enough time has passed for the joke to recover some of its steam, and while it’s more than likely that we’ll be having Banjo-related wacky hijinks for the next half dozen or so comics, it’s workable now. Besides, it should be amusing to watch a somewhat-more-competent Elan deals with his mad godling, buoyed on the worship of an island of orcs, while leaving time for the occasional punchline.