2013-02-08
Explanation
This comic follows the logical progression of a real scientific problem: lab rats are not humans, so cures that work in rats often fail in humans. Scientists keep making breakthroughs in rats -- curing cancer "again," making rats immortal -- but these discoveries have limited applicability. Still, rats remain the best animal model, so researchers press on, creating hyper-intelligent rat breeds with no trade-offs in muscle strength.
As research funding becomes harder to obtain and agencies demand more specific programs, scientists begin creating "more humanoid rats for better testing." The comic then takes a dark turn: by the time anyone realizes what is happening, it is too late. The rats, now hyper-intelligent and humanoid, have taken over the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through telepathy. The narrator reveals this account is being written from a cage, in a chilling role reversal where humans are now the lab animals.
The final panels show the rats facing the same problem scientists originally had, but in reverse: they cannot test humans for "telepathic degeneration" because humans are not telepathic, and they consider breeding a new type of human -- mirroring exactly how human scientists approached the rat problem. The votey panel shows a young rat-child who has never seen a real rat, only knowing them from "Ninja Turtles" (referencing Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), suggesting the takeover is so complete that the original rats have been forgotten.