In layman's terms, the idea of transhumanism is that humans should overcome their limits by using science. Now I just saved you a whole lot of time from reading Dresden Codak, a webcomic that pretty much advocates said idea though hasn't updated since the last paradigm shift or whatever the fuck that is- it just sounds like there'd be a giant-ass time interval between the two, and also would be appropriate since the webcomic loves all things science and set-in-stone as science. That's also another joke because the comic's presentation itself is as abstract and surreal as watching John R. Dilworth dance to Velvet Vick hits with Syd Barret on The Dark Side of the Moon while tripping on acid laden LSD.
That last overly extensive comparison ought to reveal my main problem with Dresden Codak: it's a mess of inconsistencies and bizarre art presentation amalgamated with some arcane facts and references to science theories and philosophies. What that means is that it succeeds in pandering to nerds and failing in literary standards.
First let's avoid getting into the whole argument over whether or not transhumanism is something worth subscribing to. I'm a little bit ambivalent towards the idea myself; humans continually reaching to greater heights as a fundamental notion doesn't settle with me for the same reason I feel no sympathy for Kid Icarus, but the prospect of being able to achieve things like eternal life or the ability to pull a Jesus across the Pacific Ocean whenever I damned well please sounds very tempting.
But that's just the message that Dresden Codak attempts to deliver, the "what", if you will. What needs to have punches thrown at is the "how" of this webcomic - "how" this webcomic brings us the "what." Quite frankly, it brings to us the what in the same way a milkman were to and bring us all spoiled milk. From a dead cow. That had AIDS.
First off is the webcomic's informedly Japanese main character, Kimiko Ross. Let's first toss out my most superficial criticism that she looks like your standard animu dude. Like I said, that was superficial, but other than that, her design fits with the rest of the art style, which admittedly, is quite decent, but is largely inappropriate for the webcomic's subject matter (more on that later.) It's her characterization that fails. She, for all intensive purposes, acts as the vehicle for which transhumanism is advocated for, all done by characterizing her as an introverted, geeky, "misanthrope." These traits are fitting for the idea she's promoting, but the rest of the things around and about her contradict these notions. For example, how/why does she even manage to form a posse willing to follow her in the first place if her misanthropic tendencies would imply that she probably hates their guts as well? And what's with that short lived but overly contrived love interest? Think about how little sense it makes for someone who'd supposedly have the guts and initiative inherently needed to express the "break the unbreakable" doctrines of transhumanism to be that cripplingly shy; it would make more sense if her introvertedness was a product of arrogance and disdain for social interaction then some hamhanded attempt at creating that jejunely relatable side that every protagonist seems to need to have regardless of how well it works in-story. If I'm the only one willing to admit that she is, beneath it all, a Mary-Sue - at age 22 she is an accomplished super genius, has an overly contrived dark and troubled past involving daddy issues and a dead mom (that just has cliche written all over it in several different languages) and apparently has as much personality as there are dimensions in Atari Pong - then I'm more than willing to be labeled a crazy loon for that. Bring on the ad hominems.
Next issue is the inevitable trainwreck between the artsy presentation and the scientific message. The comic goes out of its way - very often, might I add - to explain already established theories, ideas, and philosophies, about science, but fails to do any explaining for the very universe in which it exists. And no, Rule of Funny is not an excuse because the banal, childish nerd humor just doesn;t work with the profound and mature message the story purports. There's not at least one viable or believeable explanation for when or how this takes place - yes you can argue it's inferrably the future, but a lot of the character's garments, behaviors, and dialogue don't reflect on a time any different than the present. The presentation of the comic seems to stem from techniques established by cartoons and modern art, which operated under the mantra "art for art's sake." So how does one use a presentation of art that's solely meant for itself but for the sake of science? Well, too bad there aren't any theories or laws to explain that. Also as a meta-example, were you confused by any of the references I made prior? If so, imagine those references cranked up to eleven (hey, there's another reference) except using sciency verbiage instead of literary/pop culture jargon. It may seem like a small difference, but realize that pop culture knowledge just takes a quick search on Google whereas Dresden Codak's science references take a college degree to fully understand. This is where Dresden Codak fails as a representation of the webcomics medium. Webcomics are a form of comic presentation meant to be much more accessible than a traditional comic book, and because of which, should at least try to garner as large and diverse an audience as possible. Unfortunately, the success of webcomics such as Dresden Codak and XKCD only prove how vastly inhabited the internet is by utter nerds who grow hard at the mention of something like Neils Bohr or Erlen Meyer.
Simply put, Dresden Codak is what the title of this entry suggests: veiled beneath the cryptions of science and intellectual concepts is a story that is sickeningly awful and poorly planned out. I'm sure in science when you're the only one who understands what's going on while most of everyone else is confused it means they're the idiots. However, when it comes to storytelling, you're the one who's fucking up when you're the only one who understands what's going on while the majority of the people think you're speaking E.T.ese.
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