Gwen, on the other hand, is the complete opposite: she comes from a world very similar to the real world, where all the superheroes are comics—in other words, she is actually a transmigrator. She considers herself knowledgeable about everything in the comic world.
But precisely because of this, she has a deeper and more genuine understanding of the "popularity theory" in comics than Deadpool does, which is: it's not just the less popular characters that die.
The more the audience likes a character, the more that character gets drawn, so that they can sell more. As a result, only the fans of the less popular characters might criticize the comic companies for being overly commercialized.
But in reality, it's not like that at all. Almost all character fans criticize, and the fans of the more popular characters criticize even more. Because the more popular the character, the more value needs to be squeezed out, and the comic company relies on these popular characters to make money.
No matter how popular a character, if the same story keeps being drawn, no one will buy it. However, the characteristics that can be portrayed on a character are limited. For instance, you can't depict Superman working out, The Flash jogging in the morning, or Batman performing a rap—a scene that conflicts with a character's attributes—so the things that can be portrayed are very limited.
But in order for these characters to keep appearing in comics and making money, they have to come up with some absurd stories, using absurdity as a selling point to entice fans to watch and make fans buy into it.
Even to meet deadlines and achieve predetermined sales targets, they'll draw some bizarre things for shock value, completely disregarding the original settings of the character, and rely on novelty to boost sales.
If a character's popularity is too low, they'll be forgotten, which is a type of extinction; but if their popularity is too high, the character becomes completely unlike themselves, isn't that also death?
As a transmigrator who's browsed through all sorts of comics, Gwen is very familiar with these tactics of comic companies. Neither being too outstanding nor too mediocre is acceptable. Moreover, the probability of a character appearing isn't only influenced by fans, but also by political trends, investor opinions, media reviews, and public opinion.
Because Gwen understands these things so well, she chose the position most suitable for her, which is: the comedic character.
The comedic character is unbeatable, and this law doesn't just apply in comics. In the arena of public opinion, in the mouths of media critics, and among other fans, everything she does can be explained as "this guy is just here to be funny, don't take her seriously."
However, there's still that saying: once a comedy is mixed with tragedy elements, it's like a kite having a string, she would be controlled and turn into that kind of black humor absurd character—which is not what Gwen wants.
Therefore, she refuses to disguise herself in any form: She won't make up some tragic background for herself, nor will she let anyone misunderstand that she has some hidden reasons. So she always keeps "comics" on her lips, meeting a character and using the story she knows about them to poke at their lungs, firmly refusing to blend in, acting as if she has no desires from the collective and society. Only in this way can she be a kite flying freely forever, not tied down by some ridiculous background story.
Of course, she does need to balance her own popularity: if it's too low, she needs to boost it a bit, if it's too high, she needs to lower it a bit. From Shiller's observation of her performance today, her popularity should be pretty good recently, or even a bit too high, so she has to find a way to appear a little more annoying, then conveniently throw the extremely popular Shark Puppy onto herself.
If nothing unexpected happens, during this journey, she's also going to cause various troubles, acting like a complete back-tugging "attention-seeker," thus balancing her own popularity.
And that's exactly what Shiller wants. The two of them don't even need to deliberately create trouble—disagreeing and dragging each other down is likely to cause more destruction than scheming diligently.
More importantly, if you find someone very organized to do this, it actually hits the gun head of the Electronic Life. Because Electronic Life excels in logical reasoning, the speed of checking and filling in gaps is faster than anyone else, and they can quickly plug the loopholes. This way, not only does it fail to divert attention, but also helps them reduce program vulnerabilities, which is really not worthwhile.
But if you let these two completely incompatible comedic characters roam around their territory, just the "bad luck effect" brought about by those comedic attributes causing a series of chain reactions is already enough for those inflexible Electronic Life to handle. And they don't even notice what's wrong, it's not something that can be fixed by patching holes.
Shiller first went to buy some raw meat, and then discovered that Jeff doesn't eat it raw, so Shiller roasted the meat for him at the stove in the side yard. After feeding him a large piece of pork ribs and half a chicken, Jeff was finally full, lying on top of the garden pavilion basking in the sun, occasionally humming a few notes.
At this time, the small spacecraft and the travelers from another world who came to help almost arrived simultaneously. Considering that there were Mutants handling the deliveries, Shiller went to meet the helpers from the neighboring world.
They were gathering in the arrival hall of the space station. As soon as Shiller walked in, he saw a whole slew of Robins. This was more shocking than seeing a room full of Batman, because on average, every Batman has two or three Robins, which adds up to a lot of people.
Despite the somewhat delicate relationships among the Robins, after arriving in the unfamiliar cosmos, they still preferred to stay with their companions from their universe, rather than seeking out their counterparts, currently grouped in small clusters, speaking in hushed tones.
When Shiller walked in, everyone turned their eyes to him. Shiller instantly had a headache: Batman really doesn't consider himself an outsider. When the Primary Universe Batman sent Robin to the Arrogant Universe for foster care, he only sent one team, but ended up with dozens of teams here.
Honestly, if he wasn't so short on people, he would never allow so many Robins to come at the same time—this is much more destructive than Batman. Batman is a smart and cautious adult, whereas the Robins are smart, strong, cunning, but they're all teenagers.
This means all three previous virtues are faults: intelligence means acting impulsively, strength means unstoppable, and cunning means full of mischievous ideas. And now, there's a room full of such teenagers here.
And the reason Batman agreed to send the Robins over is actually because they might also be somewhat overwhelmed.
The vast majority of Robins did not participate in the previous Multiverse War. For various reasons, Batman didn't want them to fight in this war, and some were not even told about it.
But this kind of thing can't be kept secret, especially after the Battleworld appeared, the whole world is discussing Multiverse warfare, and since they didn't participate or understand, the Robins are sure to have complaints.
Especially when finding out that quite a few Batmen sacrificed themselves in the war or faced various difficulties, and in the end, they even lost the war, those grievances only grew bigger.
In the period after the war ended, the Bat nests in different universes witnessed varying degrees of turmoil, with the Robins kicking up quite a fuss.
That's not the worst part, the scariest is those universes where some Robins went, but not all of them did, like the universe of Arkham Batman, where the Arkham Knight went to battle, but Nightwing and Robin didn't come along. How could they not be angry?
Right now happens to be a crucial phase of the universe's transformation, having to set up the magical defense network, recap the war, and analyze all sorts of data gathered from next door. Batman is so busy his feet barely touch the ground.
With Robin making such a fuss, they had no choice but to compromise and let the Robins go on a multiverse trip, sending them over to Marvel. But worried about causing too much chaos, they entrusted them all to Schiller's place.
It just so happens that Schiller needed more hands. Anyway, it doesn't matter where strong labor comes from, and Robins are top-notch manpower, so he accepted the task.
But making a decision is one thing; seeing it with your own eyes is another. Seeing so many Robins, Schiller sighed, as he couldn't begin to imagine what chaos would ensue thereafter. God bless the Milky Way.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat and began, "Now everyone take out the phones distributed to you, scan this code, and download the Milky Way Travellers' Guide app. Each of you should read through the guide carefully, then you'll have a day to form teams. Tomorrow evening we will begin distributing spacecraft…"
As soon as he said this, the Robins were in an uproar:
"Spacecraft too?!"
"Weren't we told it was a vacation???"
"Where are we going?"
"What's the Milky Way Travellers' Guide?"
Schiller was taken aback; Batman hadn't told them? Probably because he was too busy, so he said, "You're not here for a vacation, but for work. We're implementing the Milky Way Development Plan and need personnel to survey various parts. You need to form teams of three to five people, and we will provide the necessary equipment and a small spacecraft."
"Cool!!!!"
"The Milky Way? The one I'm thinking of, or is it some kind of arcade name?"
"But we don't know how to pilot a spaceship…"
"Are we heading for cosmic battles?"
"Like Star Wars?"
Schiller pressed his forehead with some frustration. He thought he could handle situations like these after dealing with the Spider Legion, but apparently, even the Robins, who appear more reserved than Spider Man, are just as noisy, making his head buzz.
"Alright! Alright!" Schiller shouted, "All the questions you want answered are in the guide. Go back and read it thoroughly; if in doubt, you can find Spider Man…"
"Spider Man? Is it the Spider Man I know?"
"Batman mentioned him, didn't he write 'Gotham Travel Notes'?"
"I faced off with him before. He has an amazing danger sense, fought him for half a day, and couldn't land a punch."
"That guy packs quite the punch, a formidable opponent."
"Heh, Batman really likes him, you guys have no idea…"
The discussions inside grew even more fervent. Schiller took a deep breath and shouted, "Quiet!!!"
Everyone finally quieted down, looking at him. Schiller continued, "Alright, now everyone follow me through the teleportation portal back to S.H.I.E.L.D. An agent will brief you on points to note. Follow me."
Schiller waved his hand and everyone followed behind him. Upon reaching the teleportation portal, another round of discussion broke out, talking about the color of the portal, the mage, then onto the space station… Schiller felt like he was leading elementary school students on a field trip.
And passing through the portal back to S.H.I.E.L.D. was predictably followed by more chatter, snapping photos as if they were mere tourists in the world's most confidential special agent organization base.
Schiller could only stand helplessly to the side, watching them upload photos online from the most secretive base in the world, resentfully thinking to himself: Batman should pay me a service fee for this!