In the original myths, it didn’t have anything to do with rebellion. Most forms of Judaism and Islam claim that the only important difference between man and angel is that angels do not possess will. They cannot do anything except exactly what they were created to do. (Also, in most forms of Judaism, satanael/ha-satan is a title referring to the vocation of “testing of faith”, not a name, and is actually held by several different angels.)

What do the madmen not want to be?
Sane!
What will they be when fighting with me?
Sane!

I’m feeling full of meanness, and
Inspiration, alcohol, and spite!
I will destroy their genius, and
Make a gun for Mell, to her delight!

A special serum sends all my peers
Sane!
I’ve been inspired by eight or nine beers!
Sane!

I will destroy mad scientists!
I’m the only one that will remain!
I will declare, with fancy “No!”
Back to the lab I’m gonna go,
And make some juice to drive my foe
Sane!

Helen temporarily forgetting what dart guns are is a pretty good punchline, albeit a bit easy to miss.

I wonder what sort of world Helen would usher in if she actually created a gun that permanently removes geniuses’ brain-powers. Would this gradually lead to mad genius’s eradication at the hands of a secret cabal of do-gooders? Would such a hypothetical storyline necessitate a banding-together of perfect enemies in the madsci community to combat this mutual threat in an extremely marketable all-star battle? The sky’s the limit on this one.

I was doomed to go insane, I had no choice in that …
We will see a parrot and a guy in cowboy hat!
I have got a mad brain, gorillas in my skin!
How can I be not insane?  Well, how do I begin?

I need mojitos!  I need another mojito, pickle people demand!
Why is service so slow?  Because I need to know
Why there isn’t a drink in my hand?!
I need mojitos!  I need another mojito, pickle people insist!
And my sorrows I’ll drown, make my neurons shut down,
‘Cause I want to get totally p*ssed!
Royally p*ssed …

Helen’s prognostications aren’t really unique to the mad.

I just love looking at the fantastically drawn parrot-man – the way his eyes line up with the parrot’s, and that tiny filament of a line marking the parrot’s spot.

Unrelatedly, I’m trying to figure out how to interpret Helen’s mouth in panel 2. Is that white inner portion her upper teeth, or what? (Flashbacks to comments threads circa 2008…)

Yesterday Shaenon kindly clarified Caliban’s position on the org chart of Hell.  I see in the archives that, several times, she has mentioned Caliban’s backstory and the earlier stories which featured him.  [They don’t appear to be on the ‘Net.  I got lost in the Branch Library of Babel for a while last night.  Said stories may have disappeared with that.]  Now that he’s done with his appearances in Narbonic (as drawn by Shaenon, at least), it clearly is high time to make use of all that material!  I would really enjoy an Elizabethan spinoff, but perhaps that’s too much work until Skin Horse has finished.  Until then, perhaps we’ll simply see one Skin Horse story arc set in Caliban and Seth’s apartment?