Knights of X #2 (June 1): One of my challenges with this series is that it's so dense that I can't tell if I'm missing something because I don't know the back story (since I didn't read Howard's "Excalibur" run) or because Howard didn't explain it well.
I get the overall story. Betsy realizes that she has to go after the Siege Perilous to save Otherworld's mutants from Merlyn. But, before she can do that, she receives a distress call from Mad Jim after Merlyn arrests him. While Betsy, Mordred, Rictor, and Shatterstar bring Shogo to Roma for care and training, Gambit takes Bei, Kylun, Meggan, and Rachel to the Crooked Market to rescue Jim. Once there, they learn what we've previously seen, that Merlyn is using Blightswill to strip Jim of his powers.
When Rachel reports this information to Betsy, Roma tells her that no one's heard from Sheriff Whitechapel from Blightspoke in ages. Betsy takes her team there and discovers the Vescora engaged in a coup. Betsy frees Whitechapel and her crew, but Whitechapel has Betsy drop them into some sort of lava-filled pit since the Vescora are a hive mind so she wants them to think that they're dead. She promises to meet Betsy at the Citadel though it's unclear to me (and Betsy) how she and her crew are going to survive the lava.
In the Crooked Market, Gambit and his team take on some Furies (which appear to be fey Sentinels) while Betsy and her team are now ready to cross the Sevalithi border to find the Siege.
As I said, I get the overall story, but the nuances are hard to follow. For example, at one point we get an interstitial page comprised of an email from Doug to Rictor and Shatterstar. He describes his translation of a document that Apocalypse wrote in a language pre-dating the Okarra split, which apparently calls into question whether Rictor really inherited everything when Apocalypse left Earth. I have no idea how that even remotely connects with the story at hand. My best hope for this series is that Howard has now gotten some of the necessary world-building behind her so that the story can flow more evenly.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #22 (April 6): When I started issue #23 I realized that I missed this issue. I'm glad I made that discovery because this issue is a rollicking good time. It's essentially an extended fight scene as T'onga and the crew flee the Unbroken Clan's seemingly unending army as they try to leave Corellia with Vukorah. The banter is top-notch, from Tasu exulting in the joy of battle to Losha telling Zuckuss how proud she is of him when he makes a successful quip. Sacks really gets this series, as this issue is exactly the type of issue I hoped we'd get when this series launched.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #23 (June 1): From a plot perspective, this issue is fine-ish.
This issues centers around how people underestimate Dengar all the time. Here, it allows Dengar to get close enough to Khamdek to assassinate him after he refuses to play ball with Crimson Dawn. That said, I'm not entirely sure what Dengar was initially trying to accomplish with Khamdek. At first, he was seemingly trying to extort Khamdek in exchange for Cadeliah's location not assassinate him. But given he had Crimson Dawn operatives stash a gun for him, assassination was definitely on the table. Was he just trying to make a quick buck while fulfilling Qi'ra's contract?
Meanwhile, with Khamdek's funds no longer available for her hunt for Cadeliah, T'onga has to ask Syphacc the Bounty Broker for help, though we know from issue #21 that he's in Dengar's pocket. As such, Dengar joins T'onga's crew as Syphacc has identified him (not exactly incorrectly, as Bossk attests) as someone who can get around the Vermillion and, thus, get the crew to Cadeliah.
Again, it's fine-ish. Throughout this series, authors have pretty reliable shown Dengar as an idiot, so I'm not sure I'm buying Sacks' attempt to make him into an idiot savant. Most notably, though, the main problem with this issue is that the art is abysmal. The characters are all almost virtually indistinguishable they have so few features. Khamdek looks like he's a teenager despite the fact that we've previously seen him portrayed as the grandfather he is. With a somewhat wobbly plot, the particularly terrible art hits this issue hard.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #23 (June 1): This issue is interesting as Pak raises the question whether Vader is evil or just obsessed with order at all costs.
Sabé reveals to Vader that she knows that he's Anakin. Vader asks what she wants, and she tells him that she wants him to help her rescue a group of refugees. It turns out Sabé was so moved by Anakin's inability to free his mother that she's been freeing Tatooine slaves in Shmi's honor. (I definitely rolled my eyes here.) After freeing them, she's settled them on Gabredor III. However, a corrupt Crimson Dawn-affiliated governor has stiffed them on the resources that they manufacture for him. Sabé enrolls Vader in the quest to help them, since it will allow him to strike at Crimson Dawn and, to her mind, prove if Padmé was right that good still exists in him.
Again, it's an interesting idea, whether Vader can act on the good that Padmé and Luke saw in a way that still furthers his goals. That said, as smart as Sabé is, it's hard to believe that Vader won't still find a way to twist this outcome fully to his advantage. Vader might not be fully evil, but he isn't good either.
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