OK, here we go!
Dragon Age: Blue Wraith #3 (March 18): For how uneven this mini-series has been, this issue wraps up the story rather nicely.
At Nenealeus' estate, Fenris, Francesca, and Vaea defeat the Qunari but the Viddasala manages to escape. Fenris wants to question the slaves, which Francesca fears means torture. She tries to block him from doing so, telling him that the slaves have been through enough already. Fenris tells the slaves that they're all free and asks if they know where Nenealeus was going. One of the kids tells him that the caravan is heading for Tenebris, but he doesn't know where they're meeting with Nenealeus. Autumn then picks up the Viddasala's trail. Meanwhile, Marius and Tessa realize that the exploding human from last issue was some sort of experiment.
Nenealeus and Cedric realize that the Qunari are on their tail in addition to the heroes. Cedric hopes their Qunari problem will take care of their pursuer problem, but Nenealeus doesn't want to rely on that. He recruits more human bombs, promising freedom for the families of the slaves who agree. The Qunari stumble upon Ser Aaron's team just as Fenris' team finds them. Unfortunately for the now-unified team, Nenealeus' human bombs start coming after them, too. Fenris catches the caravan, and Shirallas informs him that the humans explode because they can't handle the power. Meanwhile, Calix convinces the team to retreat, correctly realizing that the human bombs will take out the Qunari.
Later, Francesca frees her father, who attacks her. Francesca discovers that her father and brother were part of Nenealeus' scheme as her father screams at her that it was his chance to restore the Venatori and their family name. Impressed by Francesca's heart at the mansion, Fenris intervenes, telling Magister Invidus that he's only alive because of Francesca. The two battle, but Francesca uses her magic to save Fenris, killing her father. Vaea comforts her as she cries.
That night, Calix tells Ser Aaron that he's not built for this life. Francesca lets him keep the trinket of hers that he has (I assume from an earlier series), telling him to go to Fort Viridan and use it to set up a life. Calix pledges to be their man in Fort Viridan, which Tessa says they'll need one day. He also sadly lets Autumn stay with the team as they head to Tenebris. Fenris agrees to stay with them as well, to prevent Shirallas from getting in the sarcophagus.
Seriously, I wasn't a fan of this series after the first two issues, but DeFilippis and Weir really nail the landing here. It was smart to narrow down the character roster by sending away Calix, particularly since he probably really will contribute more to the team as a local agent than active player. I feel like we also finally resolved some loose threads, given the story more focus as we go forward.
Star Wars #4 (March 18): Given the dire straits in which the gang found itself last time, Soule warps up this story really quickly.
In trying to use the Force to find his lightsaber, Luke winds up touching minds with Leia and realizing that she's in carbonite. Seeing a vision of Yoda telling him that he won't need his weapons, Luke realizes that he doesn't need a lightsaber (particularly one that his father owned) to be a Jedi. Meanwhile, Lobot helps Lando escape the Stormtroopers, and they run into Luke who convinces Lando to help him find Leia by...not telling him that they're going to find Leia. (Smart kid.) Instead, he suggests they go to the biggest hangar (where he knows Leia is) to escape, and Lando agrees since it's the best place to find a ship.
After Luke reveals his plan, Lando is aghast at the brazenness of it, particularly when Luke adds that he wants to recover his X-Wing. But, Lando also mentions that carbonite freezing isn't that difficult to undo, given that it's used for cargo. Luke uses the Force to free all the prisoners, including Leia, and they make short work of some Stormtroopers after Luke uses the Force to swipe the guns.
On board their ship, Lando admits to Leia that he went on the mission not only to save Lobot but also to ruin Cloud City for the Empire, which he did by poisoning the tibanna gas. He notes that it'll take a long time to process out the impurities, so the Empire will likely leave. I thought that Lando was going to say that he did it for his former citizens, but he tells Leia that he did it so the Empire knows that you pay a price when you rob from him. But, when one of the prisoners whom Luke freed hugs Lando, telling him that he's a hero for returning to help them, Lando has a moment where he realizes maybe, just maybe, this hero bit isn't so terrible. Luke then departs to try to find the woman in his vision, having Artoo triangulate the location of the planet that he describes from his dreams.
As I said, I was surprised this arc wrapped up so quickly, but Soule made it feel pretty organic. That said, it isn't like the team's problems have magically disappeared...
Undiscovered Country #5 (March 18): At this point in the story, we have three separate groups, which eventually splinter even further into four groups by the end.
First, we learn more about Pavel this issue. He apparently became a hero in both the empires for his role in taking down the world's last remaining terrorist group, the Gray Zeroes. He did so by simply staying alive for two years in captivity: his biosignature allowed the two empires to find him and take out the Zeros' last stronghold. He was the only member of his squad to survive, and their deaths haunt him: he has lockpicks installed in his teeth and his heel so he's never helpless again. At some point after the empires free him, he becomes a drunk. Returning to the present, Pavel uses the picks to escape the Wall, coughing up the one in his tooth to take off his mask. Snyder and Soule are at their grossest here in describing how awful the Wall is. The Destiny Man's agents use spears to poke the star-like creatures on top of the Wall, prompting them to defecate scalding liquid on anyone who stops looking up (and, presumably, stops contemplating the futility of their escape).
Meanwhile, Ace leads the team to the parking garage that we saw last issue, and they break free on shark-pulling speeders. Buzz, Valentina's drone, locates Pavel and they head straight for him. But, the Destiny Man's agents are in hot pursuit, and the Destiny Man - after changing to a new set of neon horns - tells his henchman that they'll lead them to Aurora and the door.
Elsewhere, Daniel and Lottie are in their own crazy vehicle. Daniel tries to convince Lottie that their father spoke with him, explaining that he said that the key not only to curing Sky but fixing the world was at the center of America. Daniel devoted himself to a "vocation" that would get him there. Lottie accuses Daniel of immediately throwing in his lot with a tyrannical maniac, which is a pretty fucking shocking show of naivety given what she's already seen in America. Daniel tells her that the Destiny Man was there when he arrived where their father told him to go. The Destiny Man tortured Daniel and then put him in touch with his father, who looked terrible and told him that things had changed and the "deal" was the only possible option. Daniel tells Lottie that it's a bad deal, but he's aiming higher. Before he can elaborate, Sam arrives in the Space Shuttle Atlantis tied to two blimps. (Yup.) Daniel tells Lottie to trust his plan, but she dismisses him as a selfish asshole set on a revenge narrative. (I'm definitely Team Daniel here.) Daniel calls bullshit, noting that her whole martyr complex gave her a reason to ignore their family and avoid looking at the uncomfortable things. She then crashes the car, steals the Golden Spike, and flees to Sam.
When Lottie says the rest of the team isn't with her, Sam tells her that she needs to use the shuttle to get them. Sam then admits the keyhole isn't at the Wall, where the Destiny Man thinks it is. He says that he set the coordinates himself the last time he saw her parents as he plunges the Spike into a mountainside. She asks if he's really Sam Elgin, and he cryptically says, "We all are." He tells her that she'll have to wait for that story (of course). They now have to pass from the "introductory place" to the next zone as a train appears in the mountainside opening.
In terms of where we're heading, perhaps the most important piece of information is on the timeline at the back, where we now learn that a "gravitational lensing" experiment 18 months before the Sealing allowed scientist to age a patch of farmland in a matter of minutes. It reminds us that the team is really on a clock here.
The Last God #6 (March 25): In retrospect, I should've guessed that Kennedy Johnson was going to replace the original companions with their children the moment that Valko reappeared at the Pinnacle in issue #4. But, I didn't, so this issue was a fucking trip.
In the past, Cyanthe whistles a tune that Tyr tells her Torma used to sing as a child. She tells him that her father taught it to her. Tyr can barely hide his incredulity when Cyanthe tells him that her father was a kind man who would've liked him. As she mentions that he appears to her in dreams, the group comes upon a group of truly savage looking Aelva. It's clear that the Aelva aren't one united group when the leader - who wears a skin-stitched mask with rings hanging from leather straps - asks Veikko if "Tchakatl whores [were] no longer taught that the Habokuk tribe rules east of Tchaatla Kuelo." Well, OK, then. Veikko offers gems in tribute and asks if the Habokuk leader knows of a place "where light and sound imitate the living." After a beat, he directs her south but warns her that "a servant of the dead" dwells near there as well. He also tells her not to pass that way again. In a great example of pet peeve #2, I only realize that Veikko means a place where the fey live because the introductory page told me that Skol concluded that the fey can help them after the conversation with the Book of Ages.
In the present, all hell has broken loose. Veikko tries to convince Valko to escape as they fight the Flowering Dead outside the Pinnacle. Valko tells her that he won't listen to her given her betrayal. Veikko then delivers the speech that sums up adulthood. She explains that the companions all thought that they would build something better: an end to slavery, their people restored, and harmony among the races. But they failed. She tells him that being a Ferryman King in their time means "to sacrifice pieces of oneself until nothing remains[,] to be betrayed by one's comrades and to accept our own powerlessness to seek justice." She tells him that she takes only what victories she can as they continue to battle. Meanwhile, Shyf is surprised Eyvindr helps her after calling her a monster, but he notes that the "old woman" said that they needed her.
Inside the Pinnacle, Skol is engaged in a self-centered ramble that makes all these events about her, about some plan she imagined that Mol Uhltep put into play to rob her of all she's built. In an another example of pet peeve #2, the introductory page informs us that Skol used a binding spell on Cyanthe, who's struggling against it as Skol begins to open a portal to another world. It's telling that Skol's ready to escape once she concludes that she can't get Shyf to the Black Stair, believing the planet doomed. Before she can enter, Cyanthe fires an arrow through her neck in a moment that's really shocking when it happens. Cyanthe tells her that her and Tyr's flaws were that they never respected anyone's strength but their own. Skol asks if her father still haunts her dreams and calls her a whore. Announcing "this is for Grey," Cyanthe cuts off Skol's head and splits it down the middle. She then hilariously turns to the ursulon and asks what his name is.
Outside, Dead-Tyr throws down the gauntlet to Veikko to see who was the better warrior, and Veikko delivers an unbelievable performance in seemingly defeating him. But, in a move I don't fully understand, Tyr uses the twinning spell against her, implanting a branch in her hand where she had stabbed herself with a knife in issue #4. Veikko asks Valko to forgive her, saying that she was unworthy of him. She beseeches him to be more than she was and warns him to stay away from the Black Stair. She then becomes a Flowering Dead. Federici is amazing in depicting Veikko's horrific fate here, as Dead-Veikko loses her lower face to thorns. Shyf teleports Eyvindr and Valko - as well as Cyanthe and the usulon - onto a nearby hillside, and they all watch the Pinnacle burn. Eyvindr tells Valko to rise, but Valko tells him to begone. Eyvindr then notes that Valko "pissed and moaned" in Tyrgolad about not getting to go to the Stair but he know wants to "lay down and die" when no one is left to go. Eyvindr rallies the troops, asking Cyanthe if she'll join them. She pulls back the corruption in her eyes and face - corruption that the rest of them don't see - and agrees.
In the past, as the companions arrive at the fey's gate, the Flowering Dead attack, seemingly killing Grey and Tyr. A glowing figure destroys them, asking who dares to bring the dead into "Eshua." The figure's glow fades and explains that the fey are as children and don't interfere in the realm of men. We learn that it's Haakon, the fey's guardian. He informs the team that they have to deal with him. I'm sure that'll go well.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #2 (March 25): Whew, Sacks manages to cram in a lot of narrative here while still throwing a lot of action and gunfire our way.
In the past, Nakano Lash, T'ongor, and T'onga are meeting with a black-market tech supplier named Jhorstek in a bar on Eriadu. The barkeep is tossing a boy from a bar because he swiped some rations from an Imperial speeder and has Stormtroopers on his tail. The bar denizens, including Valance, turn a deaf ear to the kid's cries as the Stormtroopers arrive. Lash prepares to help the kid, over Jhorstek and T'ongor's objections, but Valance beats her to the punch.
Sacks makes it clear that we're in an era where Valance is bitter about his fate. He's screaming about how the Empire made him barley human as he takes out the Stormtroopers, though the reinforcements manage to put him down. Lash and her team save him because, as she tells Valance before he loses consciousness, she was that boy and no one saved her. She then has Jhorstek fix him, putting it on her tab. It seems clear that Sacks is going to be telling a story here about how Lash helps Valance deal with his anger, hence why she becomes his mentor.
In the present, Valance has found Jhorstek's dead body and, thus, a cold trail in his search for Lash. He hacks into the security system and discovers to his chagrin that it was Boba Fett who beat him to the punch. Although there's no audio, Valance manages to read Jhorstek's lips in his reflection on Boba Fett's helmet, revealing the word "Galmerah." Valance picks up a tail as he heads there, and we see that Bossk is already on Galmerah, the Graveyard Planet. Valance finds Lash's parents' grave and, when touching it, coordinates. Bossk arrives just in time to open fire, pledging to steal the coordinates from Valance's droid.
Meanwhile, at the Fortress of the Mourner's Wail on Dotharian, Tong'a makes her way through a series of guards until she catches the attention of Lord Khamdek. He's impressed, and she pledges to kill Lash for the death of his son and her brother. He responds that Lash appeared near Kessel and made contact with the Unbroken Clan, proof in his mind of a conspiracy to kill his son, the Mourner's Wail's only heir. (Khamdek describes his loss as a worse blow than any the Unbroken Clan has struck in a century of war.) In other words, I think we have more gunfire coming our way.
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