Oh, the suspense - isn't it killing you? No? Well, whatever then.
As for Ruki's little speech, I kind of meant to change that but never got around to it before the page was drawn. Still, it isn't bad - and it does bring up the Order, who along with the occasionally mentioned AME you will be seeing more of.
I feel bad for the bystanders here in the bank. They flicker in and out of existence over the next ten pages based on how lazy/bored I happen to be.
On these two, Paul and Ruki, Martin let me do the designs for them. Somehow over the course of the comic, mainly after Orlando from earlier got that good blaxploytation-film-star look to him, I somehow got the idea that all of Power's henchmen should be handsome and good-looking, like movie stars. So when I designed those two I brought that in.
Martin's main inspiration for the character of Ruki was Rukia from Bleach, a show I never really got into (although I am an anime fan). I tried using her as a visual basis as well, but tweaked the hair and put her in some clothes that pass for attractive under my art style. Sunglasses in particular I'm pleased with.
Paul I just kinda made up. At some point in the planning stages, although I don't think from the beginning, Alex's current plain-purple longcoat was a primarily black with bits of purple in it. I found that out around the time I was doing these pages (looking through early sketches Martin had of the charaters), and thought it looked pretty cool, so recycled that for Paul. Some things about his design are going to change over the course of the fight, but I'll get to that as it comes.
As for Ruki's little speech, I kind of meant to change that but never got around to it before the page was drawn. Still, it isn't bad - and it does bring up the Order, who along with the occasionally mentioned AME you will be seeing more of.