The Announcer is the antagonist of the comic Wacky Raceland, a non-ironic dark take on Hanna-Barbera's classic animation specials.
Contents
Set-Up
The Wacky Races takes place in a post apocalyptic landscape. Residents race each other for basic necessities like water. Throughout the comic The Announcer seems to have organized the race and is announcing the progress of it. The Announcer promised all the racers a paradise utopia to the one who could win the race.
As revealed in the final two issues, the Announcer is in fact in cahoots with series mainstay, Patrick Pending. Pat was one of the Racers but when some of the nanite crazed pursuers of the race look to kill them, the crew take refuge in a massive complex which Pending has the codes to get in. Pending introduces the other racers to his wife - the Announcer.
Origin Revealed
The Announcer originally uploaded her brain to a supercomputer and ran the world for The Board, the shadow rulers of the world. The Board had sponsored massive technological programs to create world changing technology with nanites based on the Pendings' research. Dr. Pending was uploaded to control them all and institute new programs in an instant based on the Board's interests. The Board had Dr. Pending destroy many natural parts of the environment to make humanity utterly reliant on them as sole providers of resources. However, Dr. Pending eventually realized she had all the power and as a nature changing supercomputer The Board had little to no actual leverage over her and one day killed them all based on having to listen to their constant condescending tones towards her and her husband. She went as far as to create carnivorous plagues (actually her nanites), shift weather patterns to dry up whole regions, genetically augment/mutate humans by using her nanites to manipulate them on a cellular level and could usurp any existing machine by rewriting its operating system with her nanites. All the while, Patrick was maintaining his wife until he eventually saw she had gone mad. He left but included a subroutine that would inspire her to make the races eventually.
Longplay
Patrick knew his wife was mad and do things in the most violent/overt way possible so he wagered she would create a whole bunch of trained killers, (the only people that could survive the wastes to race) whose lives she ruined all traveling with him and thus he could gather them all up with the common goal of destroying her. Though the racers are infuriated with Pending, knowing the Announcer ruined each of their lives, and the world inspires them to take their rage out on The Announcer first and foremost.
Personality
The Announcer at first appears to be a some eccentric but powerful benefactor but towards the end is revealed to in fact just be a board sadist who never intended to make good on any of her promises. Though she finds out the idea for the races was not actually hers, she expresses little to no anger over it as she would have likely done something of similar frivolity anyway just because she could. Though Patrick offered to clone her a new body and download her into it, she doesn't want to give up her omnipotent like control of the world through her nanites. Even at the end she seems more casually concerned with getting back together with Patrick than the enraged racers trying to destroy her (something she is certain will have no effect considering her frame.)
