The Badlands (Comic)

***The Badlands*** was a weekly comic created by Edmund McMillen available on Diverge.ws.
Set around a Boonie's adventure as he tried to discover his identity when he was living, the comic ended up going unfinished due to each page taking far too much time to be drawn to Edmund's liking.

## Plot Synopsis

### Pages 1-10 (Introduction)

The comic starts with a monologue about the concept of God and immortality from the comic's protagonist, an unnamed Boonie (who also serves as the narrator throughout the comic), as he witnesses the birth of a Dumpling. He expresses jealousy at the latter, calling it a "lucky bastard" and claiming that in comparison to his existence, it has much less things to worry about. As the Dumpling leaves it's mother's body, he gives a comment on birth, saying that while some consider it one of the most traumatizing pain one can suffer and that is not easily recovered, he instead considers it "[...] that one split second that one is actually alive".

Once it lands on the ground below it, the Boonie approaches the Dumpling, sitting on a rock and staring it in the eyes and in turn, the Dumpling looks at the creature with fear. The Boonie starts monologuing about how one will see death two times in their life, the first "being right as your soul enters your body" and that, although one may not recognize it then, "when you see me the second time, you will remenber".

The Boonie gives helpful insight into it's monologue in the next page, describing what he is - a Boonie, a "evil creature" that waits in the shadows, waiting for their victim to fall asleep so they can try to remove their soul although they cannot remove one's soul when death would not occur naturally and attempting to do so would result in the Boonie's death. The Boonie also comments that sometimes "that doesn't seem like that much of a bad deal". The page immediately afterwards gives a biographical description of a Dumpling, stating their behaviour and movement, noting that despite lacking limbs, they are mobile creatures.

The Boonie keeps following the Dumpling, watching it venture through many of the world's regions before stopping near a group of Cereus Peashy at night - the Boonie describes as why exactly they're gathered and mentions the Night of the Forgotten, a celebration of sorts where the Peashy remenber their victims, "by mocking their ways and desecrating their corpses", often wearing their skin as if they were costumes and saying that they are as aggressive as they are because of their primal perception on life - they're aware of the fact that "life is meant to end" and that they kill to show the other creatures of the region "how alive they are", respecting the latter action.

The last (finished) page, page 10, ends with the Peashy putting the dessecrated corpses in a pile infront of a massive, bulging green being, partially submerged in the ground and with one eye open. While the Dumpling looks at it with confusion, the Boonie grins.

Originally, this was the end of the comic as, until 2008, only 10 pages were released. The release of *This is a Cry for Help*, a compilation of Edmund McMillen's works such as comics and games, in the same year provided owners with two more pages of the comic that, although were never completed, provide insight on a sparsely mentioned character, **Ire**.

### Pages 11/12 (Ire's Tale)

The eleventh page starts with the Boonie telling a legend on a particular tribe of Cereus Peashy and their leader, Ire. According to him, it's told that one day, Ire and his tribe rallied in the heart of Golgotha for a peculiar reason - Ire had his hatred directed towards a peaceful race of Begotten, the "Bygones", which inhabited the "Lost City of Neverliss". A map is also presented, illustrating that Golgotha and Neverliss were distant from one another. Despite this, him and his tribe still decided to go on a "phenomenal" killing spree and that **"**from Dumpling to Weltling, Dimkin to Plodling**"**, nothing was able to deterr the tribe on their quest for blood. Crossing through hills and swamps, the tribe made their way to Neverliss but the tribe noticed that with every kill, Ire's lust for blood and size grew, to the point he was towering over any of them. Reaching Neverliss, Ire immediately moved in to slaughter every single Bygone it saw, to the point it covered his giant frame.

On the twelfth and final page, the Boonie states that some individuals have theorized that Ire's growth was the result of him somehow managing to steal the souls of his victims although the Boonie negates that conclusion and instead says that "that isn't the case" and instead that it was the blood driving him, to the point that after he presumably exterminated every single Bygone, he turned on his tribe and proceeded to disembowel them as they pleaded for their lives and afterwards proceeded to bathe in the blood of his friends and enemies. The Boonie, in it's first piece of dialog in the comic, states that after this point, the details on the story get hazy; Debates on how Ire died are rampant, with some stating that some believe that Ire killed himself by severing his own arteries, driven by one last fit of rage, while others say that Ire's legs eventually gave out due to his otherwordly size, dying of starvation "in the city he hated so much". The final panel shows the Dumpling, in it's first line of dialogue in the comic, stating that whoever tells the tale, it always ends with Ire dying before the Boonie interjects, noting the green being from page 10.

## Pages

1/12
## Trivia

* In the eleventh page, a Plodling can be seen dead near a maggot.