Star Wars #8 (November 4): It's hard to have sympathy for Zahra when she complains to Leia that a terrorist (i.e., Rebel) attack killed her parents and another one killed her mentor when said mentor, you know, destroyed Leia's planet. But, Pak is making exactly that point here: her confrontation with Zahra leaves Leia uncharacteristically unnerved since it's clear to her, and us, that Zahra is unhinged. I'm intrigued to see to what lengths Zahra is willing to go to extract her revenge.
Die #15 (November 18): Oof. This issue, man.
Matt arrives at Verdopolis all anger and rage, and Hans is still on fire throughout this issue in depicting him. Realizing that she's a coward, Ash's first impulse is to agree to go home, but Izzy says that they can't agree because they still have people to help. Isabelle also notes that Matt probably wouldn't accept a surrender. Ash suggests throwing all the city's resources at him, and Izzy is appalled that she would suggest sending those people to their deaths since Matt will cut through them like a knife through butter. But, as Ash notes, her only power as queen is the city; if Matt kills people, it's on him. An even more appalled Izzy calls on the Dreamer to put the entire city to sleep, ruining Ash's plan before she can implement it. Izzy tells Ash that they will face Matt alone, and they're surprised to discover that Augustus is also still awake. (As he reminds us later, he's God-touched, which is probably why he remains awake.) Ash then takes Augustus and Izzy to the basement.
In Glass Town, Angela struggles to hack the Forge as Chuck, Delighted, and Dour fight the Predator-like defenses. Dour sacrifices himself to save Chuck, and Gillen delivers perhaps this series' most heart-breaking scenes here, as a crying yet smiling Delighted tells Chuck that he wishes that he could mourn his friend but NPC aren't allowed such freedom. (Oof.) Chuck tells Angela to make it with the hacking, and she's forced to dedicate all her resources to it, freeing Molly from her control.
In the basement, Izzy confirms that she agreed never to bear a child. Ash asks if she regretted that decision, because she, too, used to feel like she never wanted a child. Izzy says that she hasn't, because she's just such a mess. (At one point, Izzy says that she understood the subtext of "used to" and apologizes to Ash. I didn't get this part, but I think that it's because Ash didn't get to deliver Augustus.) Before they can actually have a grown-up conversation, Matt arrives. Izzy gets the idea from him of combining Bear and Pyrrhus. But, as Ash says, gods are creatures of belief, and Matt knows that he wants them dead. Matt starts making short work of the gestalt god, and Augustus prepares to attack. But, Ash can't let him do so, so she uses the Voice to stop him, freeing Zamorna. She tries to use the voice on Matt, and the Maul and the Sword simply laugh at her.
Ash asks for the Grandmaster's dice, and Sol asks if she's sure, since Galadriel turned down the ring. Ash notes to herself that, after reading "The Silmarillion," she realizes a young Galadriel would've taken it. She takes the dice...
...and holy shit Gillen reminds us - as if we need reminding - how fucking brilliant he is. Augustus tells his mother that, as he's "divinely touched," he knows magic and the dice aren't magic. Sol disagrees, saying that he killed the Grandmaster to get his die and that he's the Grandmaster...until he realizes that he isn't. It is a toy, and he was never the Grandmaster.
Realizing that she's fucked, Ash tells Matt to stop attacking the Bear/Pyrrhus, since it's killing Izzy. She tells him that Izzy stayed to help people so he should kill her. But, Zamorna is coming to kill her anyway, so he should just let him do it. She tells him what he already knows, that Die is a threat to everyone back home and pledges to follow him if she survives to save the "real" world. She realizes as Zamorna arrives that she was never Cleopatra or Galadriel - she was Wormtongue, manipulating the ruler. Ash tells Matt that his father didn't raise a murderer as Zamorna appears over his shoulder. Using the Sword and then the Maul, Matt destroys Zamorna, agreeing that his father didn't raise a murderer - his friends made him one.
At Glass Town, Angela can't bear to an attacking Molly, using her powers to stop her and allowing the Forge to create the die. An outraged Chuck tells Angela that she doomed the "real" Molly and the entire "real" world because she couldn't kill this Molly but realizes he's being an asshole and comforts her. At that point, the "invisible beings" retreat (they're the Predator-like creatures who I assume were Little England's Invisible Men). Ash, Izzy, Matt, and Sol then arrive in Glass Town. Sol informs them that the dice are traveling to the center of world so haven't yet left Die. If they can get to the center of the world before them, the team could prevent them from combining our worlds. Delighted then informs the team that his people have a tale about a dangerous mine that reaches to the center of the world, though no one has survived. To quote Matt, "we're going down a fucking dungeon."
I mean, all fucking right! Just when I thought Gillen couldn't be giving us such an amazing RPG tale, he takes us into a fucking dungeon. I'm so excited about this next arc, particularly what happens now that everyone is on much more even footing. Along those lines, Gillen makes it clear that Sol is now a player, and I'm fascinated to see how his addition affects the team's already contentious and fucked decision-making process. Also, everyone - even Chuck - has undergone growth here except Ash. What'll it take for her to do so?
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #7 (November 18): Man, this issue is brutal. Valance brings Cadeliah to the Rebel base on Lowik where Yura and her husband live (the same one that Valance helped establish in "Target Vader" #6). The Rebels barely manage to fix some of Valance's injuries before Zuckuss and 4-LOM arrive. Valance stays alive long enough to make a deal with Zuckuss to give him a head start before they go after him and to cease their pursuit of the girl's bounty. In exchange, Valance offers them Yura's ruby. Zuckuss accepts since, between the ruby and the money that the Empire will pay them for the Rebel base's location, it nets out the loss of the Solo bounty. Yura promises to take care of Cadeliah and, knowing that she likely won't see him again, tearfully tells Valance that she would've loved him despite how he looked if she only knew that he cared. Valance tells her that it's because he cared that he couldn't let her wait for him. With tears in his eyes, a broken Valance departs. I mean, it's just brutal. It's hard to pull off this sort of emotion in comics or science fiction, but Sacks does such a spectacular job of it. After all these issues featuring Valance, I think we finally see the extent to which he's been a hollow shell ever since he became a cyborg, going through the motions because he just doesn't know what else to do. Oof. Poor Valance, man.
The Last God #10 (November 25): And the truth comes out! I wasn't expecting to get the answers to all our questions in this issue, which implies to me that we're going to get answers to questions that we haven't thought to ask in the next two issues.
Cyanthe flees with Shyf on the back of Shadow as the blue dragon unleashes a blue-colored flame at them. Shyf tries to attack, but the dragon dismounts Cyanthe and Shyf by hurling Shadow. Kolba manages to hit the dragon with lava via his ability to control stone, but the fight ends when Cyanthe demands the rider show himself because she knows who it is: Haakon. I was shocked, y'all. I truly didn't see that development coming.
Cyanthe and company follow a bent-over Haakon as he reveals that he saved Eyvindr and Valko. He tells Cyanthe that he survived on grubs and roots to guard the Black Stair from them, "those Mol Uhltep warned us of thirty years ago." Haakon admits that he let them live solely to draw out the rest of the team. When Kolba asks how he knew they were coming, Haakon explains their coming was foretold.
At this point, we move into the past. Haakon recounts the treacherous climb up the Black Stair, the fellowship battling all sorts of creatures on their way to the top. They then come face-to-face with Mol Uhltep. Skol warns everyone to stay near the Pyre as the battle begins. Cyanthe shouts that the Fey's power seems not to work against him while Haakon encourages them to keep fighting. It's here we see the image that Skol saw in the Bloodglass happening: Skol strikes Haakon from behind with her magic, breaking his back. Veikko is enraged, but Skol tells her that the Bloodglass foretold that the Fey's power isn't enough. But, Skol says that, since Mol Anwe created the Fey and Mol Uhltep, they can destroy one by destroying the other.
A broken Haakon begs the fellowship through gritted teeth not to take that step. He expresses his belief that they can defeat Mol Uhltep, but Skol insists that she's seen that they cannot through the Bloodglass. Jorrun and Tyr easily agree, and Veikko less readily. Cyanthe gets ready to battle to save them, telling them that Ruarc made them all monsters. Tyr then confesses that he does truly love her, the songbird that keeps them true. He tells her that they've done what no one else could, but they can't take this last step because they lack the power. He says that Skol has been right since the beginning and that, if they take this last terrible step, they'll save the world (and become kings and queens, important to Tyr). A tearful Cyanthe agrees. Jorunn, Skol, Tyr, and Veikko begin to murder the Fey, with Skol murdering Grey when he tries to stop them. Skol binds Cyanthe when she tries to kill her so they can continue killing the Fey. Before Mol Uhltep dies -- because Skol was correct -- he issues his threat that they will see their sins made flesh and lead Mol Uhltep's "most beloved servants back to the Fells Pyre."
In the present, Haakon explains that he woke near the Pyre after the fellowship left. He wept for having led the Fey, who trusted him to protect them, to their deaths. Then, he felt a trace of the Fey's power, so he held his hammer and prayed. He gathered the remnants of their spirits until he held a tiny seed of light. Cyanthe is appalled and shocked when Haakon reveals a living Fey who grew from that seed. She tells them that all their sacrifice - and, for her, most importantly, Grey's death - was for nothing because of him. Haakon tells her to get off her high horse, nothing that she's brought the children of Skol, Tyr (to Eyvindr's surprise), and Veikko to the Stair. He says that they each wear "the crowns their true father gave them" and the final pages shows each of them bathed in a red light wearing a black crown.
I can't explain how brilliant I find this revelation. I thought we were going to learn that the fellowship murdered Haakon because they made a deal for power with Mol Uhltep. But, no. They did the terrible thing that they did in the hope of saving the world (even if Jorunn, Skol, and Tyr were also motivated by power). Instead, it's Haakon who dooms the world by bringing back the Fey and thus opening the door to the return of the Flowering Dead. Suddenly, the whole narrative is flipped: the cursed heroes who "claimed" to kill Mol Uhltep thought that they had done so, and the "new" heroes who came to the Stair to kill him again may in fact be the harbingers of the end of the world.
Undiscovered Country #10: In the past, Jain describes her vision for Unity, but Sam confronts her about using more energy than she's been allotted to develop it. Sam insists that it's time for her to share her research with the other zones, but she refuses, saying that she wants to do it with her people. She pledges to make the system self-contained, and Sam gives her one year.
In the present, Ace and Valentina travel across the Shining Sea to the location of the electromagnetic burst that the rest of the world tracked 16 years earlier. Ace explains that it was the second biggest reading after the Juneau Event but admits that even he doesn't really have a theory about what happened. They come across a dead techno-whale and discover that a shark that looks a lot like the ones they saw in Destiny killed it. As they're closer to the site of the "Liberty Surge" than the shore, Valentina allows Ace to take her that way to escape the shark.
Meanwhile, in Unity City, Charlotte and Daniel beg Jain to let them finish the memory from their parents, but Jain explains that Unity's memory lies in its structures, so they need to help fend off the attacking Destiny creatures to save the memory. Jain suddenly takes command of all of Unity's citizens, including Chang.
Ace and Valentina stumble upon a walled-off replica of the U.S. Capitol and follow one of the sharks through the wall that it shatters. They barely escape a techno-whale (which destroys their car), and a holographic Sam greets them. Sam explains that they're only there because Jain is distracted but that they are in the right place. Jain did find a solution to her energy problem, but it started all 13 zones on the path to isolation, starting with Alaska (presumably with the Juneau Event). It was Jain's job to make them all play well together, but, as Sam explains, she never got there.
In Unity City, Jain fends off the attackers. Janet accuses her of using her people to do so, but they explain that they all made the choice to make themselves available for defense of the common good when they became Unity citizens. Jain says that she's glad that they got to see Unity at its best, since the United States before the Sealing was so divided that the only thing one side cared about happening is the other side losing. Chang agrees, telling Janet that his experience was beautiful.
In the Shining Sea, Ace and Valentina enter the U.S Capitol's dome to find a multitude of brains connects to wires. Valentina notes that they're small, and a voice explains that they're children's brains because they're the most pliable, "open to reconfiguration to serve the community's needs." Ace and Valentina turn to find a corpse-like woman with long white hair in a similarly wired pod. Is it the real Jain? That would make sense, but, man, we took a turn here.
Also Read: Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #1 (November 11), Star Wars: Darth Vader #7 (November 11), Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - Dark Temple #1-#5 (September 4 and 25, October 9, November 13, and December 4, 2019)
