I'm already comfortable with the idea Padma is more than simply Dora-with-a-twist, and wonder what nuances Renee will bring; one thing Jeph has NOT written so far is a "simple" character. So I welcome the new wrinkles provided by our new "pretty good" bakery.
That said, one place I hope the story returns to soon is what I see as the center core of the strip: Marten and Faye.
No, I'm not "shipping." But I think (slightly departing from my fellow forumites who say, with some justification, the strip is mostly about Faye) that F-M is the core: Marten-and-Faye as new acquaintances, friends, coulda-been-lovers, roommates, hell-or-high-water friends (The Pugnacious Peach is depicted as the kind of person whom I call "fierce friend") -- but the last time we saw them together, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Veronica, Marten's mouth had again operated independently of his brain and Faye's expression looked to me a little hurt and sad and resigned to the discovery her flower-pitted true friend is also a bit of a doofus.
Of course, now that I've said that, we'll have a strip this week of Marten and Faye laughing drunkenly together on the couch over Marten's Steve story. Top hats and ushankas will be in evidence, and Hanners will be discovered on the floor behind the couch, wearing a lampshade and being soundly trounced by Pintsize in drunken Scrabble.