Wow. Of all the characters, that would have felt like a stretch on a few levels. I don’t remember the arc that Greg did use on drunk driving, or whether Aaron was drinking (and driving) or not. While I think an arc about the death of a character would have been valid, I think I would have chosen someone else (one of the regulars rather than Luann’s unrequited crush).
I think it would be a terrific change in trajectory of this strip to have an arc featuring Luann having learning adventures somewhere other than Pitts. If it were up to me I wouldn’t bother having her travel with any of the familiar cast of characters although Tara would make the most sense in this case. As for Quill, I definitely like him much more than you do although the travel scenario I would like to have seen with him and Luann would have been working in theatre in New York.
While I will be thrilled to be proven wrong I think it’s very unlikely that we will see an Italian arc with Luann. I think as has been the case up until now, anything involving her will, sadly, remain in Pitts. It’s almost as if comic strips think that it would cost money to place their characters in other locales, particularly out of the country. (I know Gunther was a brief exception but was quickly returned to his mother’s house and the status quo in Pitts.)
Mike and JJ’s marriage was on the rocks long before Zeke showed up. Mike was wallowing in depression over a job he hated and wouldn’t do anything to deal with it despite JJ asking him to. He also did his best to have an affair with an old college flame (I think he changed his mind when he discovered she’d gained weight). Probably most importantly Mike had married a very young girl who mistakenly thought he was a romantic rebel because he’d taken her mother on a cross country motorcycle trip. Once she started growing up it became clear these were two people with little or nothing in common.
I think a lot of the reaction, whatever Zeke did or did not do (and Duke and son don’t get this sort of negative response) is essentially anger that JJ left Mike (even though it was pretty clear to me that there were reasons for it).
It’s very strange for me to reread these strips now that there is all of this negative commentary attached to them. Originally I just took the strips about JJ and Zeke as a humorous satirical take on an ex wife and her new amour. I don’t think there was ever any intention on the part of the cartoonist to engender this much hostility.
That reminds me of a cartoon I once saw in which a man pulls his scuba gear wearing cat out of the toilet tank saying “You can come out now, Fluffy, the landlord’s gone.”
Below “camera” level, on the floor.