Twenty-something, scientist, occasional meme-maker and writer. Posting isn't always consistent. Mostly band stuff and pictures of moss. I abide by "The Cornflakes Principle," which is to say, please take your bad vibes elsewhere.
For those asking–yup, Cherri Cola was indeed portrayed as a violent Drac killer when the Twitter accounts were active. For whatever reason, the comics presented a “nicer” version of the characters. As another example, Tommy Chow Mein was a creepy, sleazy weirdo on Twitter, but in the comics he seemed like a normal guy running a legitimate business.
If you haven’t read the Twitter accounts (AgentCherriCola, DrDeathDefying, TommyChowMein, DJHotChimp, GaryLevko, NewsAGoGo, and partypoison), I highly suggest doing so, even though they’re no longer active. The world of Killjoys presented there is so strange and eerie. I’d say it’s my favorite version of Killjoys, even over the videos.
Someone talking about Tommy Chow Mein on an old MCR forum just after the creation of the Twitter accounts (and after the release of the Nanana video I think?)
(Uh oh: essay incoming.) I’m almost certain the “nicer” version of Cherri was intentional to contrast with his more violent side earlier in the universe canon. He lost his friends, he’d been fighting for a long time (and probably losing), and he just got older. People can get disillusioned and/or change their priorities. I’m not trying to be intentionally… er… relevant to current events, but that worked really well in the context of how the different generations of killjoys saw the revolutionary movement: the older generation was venerated, but they sort of stepped down a little after getting tired of seeing so many bad things happen over the years (and again, they just got older.) In contrast, the younger generation was much more energized and willing to fight harder. (That’s not to say they were in the right: the violence and impulsivity was almost as bad as BLI, in contrast with the relative wisdom and compassion of the older generation. They both have faults and strengths.)
It also fits well with where the band (especially Gerard) was mentally at the time. (“Kids from Yesterday”) They were becoming parents, the band was going to split up, they were just plain getting older. But they hadn’t completely given up: they still wanted to support and guide younger “killjoys,” they just didn’t have the drive to fight in the same way anymore.
As a side note, change was always an important part of who Cherri was and that’s what makes me love the character so much: he recovered from addiction, he gave up fighting with a raygun, he tried to help out even though he knew it might be futile; he had a whole different worldview. Even if you don’t agree with some of the changes, he represents the fact that people can change.
I’ll be honest: Gerard isn’t perfect with writing (*coughplotcohesion*) but he’s damn good at characterization. Even if he didn’t intend for Cherri to end up more subdued when he first created him, it still works with who Cherri is as a character. Gerard knew what he was doing.
