One of the interesting things about the first three games in the Keen series is that he actually kills the Vorticons when he shoots them. In the later games the creators apparently realized that it may be a little too dark to have an 8-year old mercilessly slaughter other intelligent beings without any apparent psychological ramifications, and instead had him simply stun them (complete with cartoony stars circling over their heads). And even though the writers tried to brush the whole thing off by jokingly referring to the survivors as “the other Vorticons you haven’t slaughtered” it still seemed weirdly off-putting to me. As a result, I think a huge part of my version of Keen’s personality is a direct result of trying to reconcile this phase in the mythos. You can see this when Rex mentions how Keen created a slew of orphans by killing their parents, to which Keen basically shrugs his shoulders and says “what’re ya gonna do?”

I originally wrote another comic where Rex goads Keen even more and tries to force him to face what he did, and Keen responds by putting a tear on his face with an eye-dropper and claims to be emotionally distraught (while still grinning). But unfortunatelly I couldn’t fit it in and still tell the story how I wanted to, so I left it out. Plus I think this comic subtlely addresses it enough for you to get the gist of Keen’s attitude.

Next Update: November 9, 2015