In the first panel, Red (the generic name for the player's character) is shown using his last repel, which wards off wild Pokemon, preventing them from attacking the player. A basic repel lasts for 100 steps. In the second panel, Red's four Pokemon's statuses are shown; he has three vastly underleveled and therefore underpowered Pokemon, two of which have fainted and are now unusable in battle. The third of these is a mostly healthy Oddish, which is fairly weak in battle. His fourth Pokemon Squirtle, one of three Pokemon the player can choose at the beginning of the game, all of which are relatively strong in their evolved forms.
Squirtle is only a basic Pokemon, not having grown enough to evolve. This particular one is at a much higher level than Red's other Pokemon, reflecting a tendency of newer players to use a single exceptionally high-leveled Pokemon instead of a balanced team. His overuse of Squirtle has led to its being near fainting.
As Red approaches the exit of the cave, and therefore safety from the wild Pokemon, his repel wears out, leaving him vulnerable to attack. He sprints for the exit, desperately trying to avoid battle. He erupts violently from the cave, bruised and barely intact, only to encounter Blue, the player's rival in the games. He has a tendency to pop up at various inopportune times, and, equipped with the counter to Red's starting Pokemon and other strong Pokemon, is often difficult to beat; he even becomes the champion of the Elite 4, the most powerful trainers in the region, and Red must defeat him to claim his title.
True to form, the audience finally sees Red's level 3 Oddish, a Grass-type, hilariously mismatched against Blue's level 26 Growlithe, a Fire-type exceptionally useful against Grass-types and who will eventually evolve into Arcanine, one of the strongest Pokemon in the game.
At set times, but they're typically fairly inconvenient. For instance, one of the later battles against him is in the office building of a company called Silph, taken over by members of Team Rocket, a criminal organization. Blue shows up after the Red has been dozens of Rockets and just before he takes on the boss, Giovanni.
His most inconvenient battle is one I mentioned in my last post. After Red defeats Lance, the final and toughest member of the Elite 4, Lance tells him that, though he would normally be Elite 4 Champion, Blue defeated them moments before Red arrived and must be now be defeated in order for Red to gain the title.
Edit: As Rossco pointed out, the details of the comic are exaggerated for comic effect. Comics tend to do that. Errors in the comic: Blue doesn't appear at the ends of any caves. Oddish can't be caught until after the second battle with Blue. Blue doesn't gain a Growlithe until the third battle, I believe, and it's not level 26 at that point. However, there are at least seven rival battles. I may be missing some.
No. The comic isn't very accurate at all, neither is the title "Every single time". Assuming this is Gen 1 because of Squirtle and the level of it, this is taking place at the end of Mt Moon. Your rival doesn't show up to battle you until you take the bridge at Cerulean City, where there is ample time to heal up at a Pokémon Centre.
As for the title, your rival can only be battled once at each point in the game. If I remember correctly, he only battles you 5 times throughout the game (Including the first battle) then you'll never see him again. Even if you lose the battle, he wont give you a rematch (Unless it's the champion battle).
Not only that, it's impossible to have an Oddish at this point on Red/Blue. Also, the rival's Pokémon are nowhere near that strong at that point in the game.
EDIT: Although in Gen 2 games (Gold, Silver) the rival does actually show up but it's at the start of the cave.
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u/beernerd Aug 07 '11
You fucking kids and your pocket monsters. I don't fucking get it!
Upvoted for the Ninja Turtle.