405: Journal 3
| Journal 3 |
 Title text: Oh, and, uh, if the Russian government asks, that submarine was always there. |
Explanation[edit]
In 374: Journal, Black Hat explains to Cueball that a hobby of his is to pretend to write in a journal while on the subway, acting embarrassed if anyone sees. He then proceeds to silently scorn the person once they give him any kind of reassurance.
In 377: Journal 2, however, Danish sees through his ruse. She counteracts it by proving that she understands him, and attempts to resign him to the fact that he will never see her again, thus stripping him of the satisfaction and confidence of a proper social connection. She decamps, abducting his hat in the process. (We also explored the fact that she might be even better than Black Hat. But Black Hat shows his true power and ingeniosity.)
Initially vanquished, Black Hat seems to have recovered and tracked Danish down, even to the extreme fringes of the Earth. He tells Danish that although she was able to read him impossibly adequately she blundered one "inconsequential" detail. We are led to believe that this is some mistake in the disguising of her tracks, but then he explains that it was simply how much he values his hat. It may also be the possibility that Black Hat placed a tracking device of some sort on his hat. This way he trampolines her wrath back at her. She thought that he would agonise the loss of her - the only person who understands him - but he subdues her ego when claiming that he likes his hat (implicitly saying that he doesn't care for her). The series continues in 432: Journal 4. He leaves, taking “her hat" from her.
The title text continues the theme of Black Hat's supernatural ability to troll and to deftly dodge the consequences: If Black Hat stole a military submarine, said military is probably going to be hot on his tail, but he writes it off with: "just tell them it was always here," as if it is no big deal. Black Hat will even be blamed for stealing the submarine in 496: Secretary: Part 3. However, since this is (presumably) the American Senate reviewing him, it may be that he simply has stolen two submarines. It is also possible that the submarine is the American submarine and the title text refers to the Russian Government because their current location is in their territory, and he is shifting any reason for the submarine being there away from himself.
It perhaps may be significant that this comic includes the line "So, you found me after all", given that the previous comic number 404: Not Found was skipped, leading instead to an HTTP 404 Not Found error page. The destiny of Black Hat is fully known in The Journal.
The whole "Journal" story is:
Transcript[edit]
- [Two women ice-skating outside.]
- Ponytail: Wait up!
- Danish (wearing Black Hat's Hat): Skate faster!
- [Danish sees cracking ice.]
- Crack Crack
- [Danish on chunk of ice broken off.]
- Crack Rumble
- [Submarine dorsal fin emerging.]
- AWOOGA
- [Black Hat (without hat) coming out of hatch.]
- CREAK
- Black Hat: Hi.
- Black Hat: That's my hat you're wearing.
- Danish (wearing Black Hat's Hat(stolen in Journal 2)): So, you found me after all.
- Black Hat (out of frame): You didn't make it easy.
- Black Hat: You saw through me, all right. But not quite well enough.
- Black Hat: Because if you wanted to stay lost forever, you made one mistake.
- [Black Hat climbing out of hatch.]
- [Black Hat sliding down a sheet of ice.]
- [Black Hat taking back his hat from Danish's head as he slides by on the ice.]
- [Black Hat skidding to a stop and putting hat back on his head.]
- Black Hat: You took my hat.
- Black Hat: I LIKE my hat.
- [Black Hat walking away.]
- [Danish left standing, feeling like Black Hat in Journal 2.]
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In this comic, the Black Hat guy retrieves his hat from the girl he tried (unsuccessfully) to seduce in Journal 2. He does this by stealing a Russian submarine (according to the alt-text) and breaking through the ice the girl and her friend are skating on. This is the third and middle part of the Journal story arc. 108.162.219.209 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Just a correction, Black Hat was not trying to seduce her. This is quite obvious from the dialogue in Journal 1, and I have no idea where you would possibly get the idea that Black Hat's original intention was anything close to seduction. He was trying to hurt her feelings, and leave her feeling alienated and upset. -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 02:42, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
There's also the prospect that Black Hat put a tracking device on his hat.
I might be mistaken, but I believe that the last title text is a reference to The Hunt of Red October, and specifically the line "And I - was never here" (which is famous enough to have have named a trope). 173.245.53.183 22:30, 18 February 2014 (UTC)
I think comic 496 refers to this one. 173.245.53.135 13:11, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
The sub through the ice, i think, is "Ice Station Zebra," on WMATA's silver line. 173.245.54.167 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Should remove spoilers of future comics such as references to 432 and 496. The references made her can be covered in those as one would expect most readers to follow the comics chronologically. Refer to 374 for a better way to reference a future comic. flewk (talk) 07:08, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
Could black hat have had a GPS tracker in his hat? 141.101.70.61 19:17, 24 March 2016 (UTC)
Could any of this be a reference to 'I Want My Hat Back', an excellent children's picture book by Jon Klassen. The ending text is extremely similar 'You stole my hat. I love my hat.' vs 'You took my hat. I like my hat.' 162.158.91.185 15:58, 14 November 2017 (UTC)
Those are some great sliding skills by Black Hat. :) Nyx goddess (talk) 01:49, 7 December 2018 (UTC)
Maybe Black Hat has a permanent tracking device inside his hat Beanie (talk) 11:31, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
