Three-Month-Old Comics: The July 13 Edition - The Everything-Else Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Moon Knight #13:  Ooo, this series keeps getting better and better.

Moon Knight has set his sights on Tutor and his vampire pyramid-scheme, which remains one of the best and funniest plots that I've ever read in a comic.  According to Moon Knight, he's put off getting vengeance for what Tutor did to Reese for too long.  It's a solid enough excuse; he's had a lot on his plate since then.  I was actually impressed with McKay returning to it.  It's like how the best Batman and Spider-Man writers get the balance between "monthly idiot villain" and "shadowy scheming adversary" just right.  Even though Joker is planning on blowing up Gotham, it doesn't mean Calendar Man isn't also trying to rob a bank.

But McKay goes one further:  Reese and Tigra discuss how Steve is really doing it as revenge for Soldier.  The way everyone talked about Soldier, I figured that we were going to see him in comatose in a hospital.  Instead, Reese turned him into a vampire!  Brilliant!  That said, Tutor is pissed, because he believes that he's the only person in New York who can convert people.  He hires Taskmaster as a consultant and tries to get him to take out Moon Knight.  Taskmaster, wisely, declines.  As such, Tutor hires Grand Mal and Nemean, who I don't know but look, um, unfriendly.

Meanwhile, Reese wants more information about Steve, which Steve is unwilling to provide at this point.  But he does call a meeting between the various personalities, which promises to make next issue a fun one.

I'm really impressed with McKay moving us into such a great premise for the next arc.  These transitions are usually difficult, but McKay launches us here into a status quo that makes perfect sense in terms of where we've been.  Read this series!

Spider-Man 2099:  Exodus #4:  At some point, it became clear that Orlando wasn't putting in too much effort to tell whatever story he initially intended to tell.  For example, Miguel starts this issue by suddenly informing us that he needs to find the Black Widow so that she can lead him to Doom's heir, a technopathic mutant named Nostromo.  Apparently Nostromo turned over Latveria to its people so Miguel figures that he can use his technopathic powers to take out the Cabal's Black Cards without feeling tempted to use said Black Cards.  (Of course, I don't understand why the Cabal couldn't just make new Black Cards, but, again, we're kind of past trying to find narrative logic here.)  

I had to read it twice to (almost) understand, but Nostromo is in hiding because he knows that Doom (and not Osborn) actually killed Jovion the Enactor with Hawkeye's help.  Hawkeye wants Nostromo dead because the Cabal would otherwise want him dead as the only other person who knows that Doom, and not Osborn, killed the Celestial.  (It has something to do with the right of ownership, I think?)  Anyway, after finding Nostromo, Black Widow travels to Hawkeye's orbiting station and kills Hawkeye before he can kill Nostromo.  She's Yelena, somehow, and Hawkeye apparently killed Natasha.  So it's revenge.  Sure.  Great.

Miguel takes Nostromo to the Celestial Garden but Sentinels are attacking so the X-Men on next issue's "heroes of the month."  [Sigh.]  We'll just stop there.

Spider-Punk #3:  This series continues to be the best time in comics.  After the Spider-Van dies in a confrontation with Kingpin's Marauders (a brilliant combination of Armor, Daken, and Sunfire that I wouldn't mind seeing in the real world), Hobie and Kamala put together a side project (hilarious) with Philly's Daredevil to take out Kingpin and free the goods that he hoards so they can fix the van.  (It gave me March 2020 flashbacks, y'all.)  Along the way, we get the same whip-smart banter that we've gotten through out this series.  I love it so, and I would love to see what Ziglar could do beyond the five-issue structure.  But, if I only get these five issues, I'll take it.

Star Wars:  Bounty Hunters #25:  This issue is like an old "Challenge of the Super-Friends" episode, as T'onga and her crew battle the Knights of Ren.  Obviously, that's high praise

Sacks does something here that we often don't see, namely putting the series' main characters in a situation they can't overcome.  When Bossk realizes that they're facing the Knights of Ren and immediately suggests they run, Tasu is dismissive.  By the time the team is lucky enough to escape with their lives, Tasu realizes that the guy with maybe more muscles than he has (i.e., Ren) almost beat him.  I'm hoping Sacks follows up this realization with a deep dive into Tasu's psyche, since it seems like his abilities are almost like Gladiator's, dependent on his self-confidence.  T'onga releasing the injured crew to continue what now seems like a suicide mission to get Cadeliah is poignant, a sign of just how close this crew has become.  It isn't all emotion, though, as Sacks has the characters also get in some pretty great banter.

My only criticism is that Valance continues to feel like an afterthought here.  That said, Sacks ups the stakes as Haydenn learns that the Empire wiped out the Rebel base where Yuralla was stationed.  She declines to tell Valance that, as she's trying to get him to see that he could be happy with the Empire, introducing him to the engineers he saved.  (I don't recall that happening but it sounds like it happened last issue.  I only remember the failure to prevent the officer's assassination last issue.)

The good news is that I feel like Sacks is moving us where we need to be, concluding T'onga's quest for Cadeliah while at the same time preparing Valance for the next stage.  I'm curious where we go when that happens.

Undiscovered Country #19:  This issue is straight to the point.  

While Charlotte and Valentina are stuck in a time loop in Revolutionary War America -- dying in a hail of bullets every time they're discovered -- Ace, Chang, and Janet find themselves at a "V-Day" parade in Times Square.  A besuited President [Alex] Graves is cheering the "great liberators" - Ace, Charlotte, Daniel, Pavel, and Valentina - but the crowd recoils in horror  when they realize the "great villains of our greater nation" are in the crowd - Chang and Janet!

In their era, Charlotte and Valentina wonder how they've gone backwards in history, and it's clear that Ace, Chang, and Janet have gone forward, possibly to an era after the Closing.  It implies some treachery on Chang and Janet's part, treachery that the rest of the team overcame.  But it also raises the question how Alex can be in two times at once, unless he and Daniel arrived here after the events of "Undiscovered Country:  Destiny Man Special" #1.

In other words, it isn't the most exciting issue in and of itself, but it sets up a story that I think could really get to the core of what Snyder and Soule are doing here.

Three-Month-Old Comics: The July 13 Edition - The X-Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I'm going to put these issues in what I think is their chronological order, though it isn't the order in which I read them.

X-Men:  Hellfire Gala #1:  Despite its 66-page length, this issue is pretty to the point.

Beyond the naming of the new X-Men team, this issue's most significant development is Moira informing Druig (the Eternal) and an accomplice that the Five are the secret to Krakoa's resurrection protocols.  As we'll see in "A.X.E.:  Eve of Judgment" #1, Druig uses this information as inspiration to remove the "deviant" mutants from Earth.

That said, Moira's other actions in this issue don't particularly make sense.  At the risk of exposing herself to the Krakoans (as she eventually does), Moira inhabits Mary Jane Watson's body in order to attend the Hellfire Gala.  (Mary Jane is apparently Emma's new spokesperson for the Krakoan medicines initiative because it's helping with Aunt Anna's dementia.)  Apparently, Moira's only reason for attending the Gala is so that she can taunt Proteus by telling him that she never loved him, seeing his creation as merely necessary to bring about the resurrection protocols.  Duggan never explains why Moira does so, particularly now.  Given the attention the Gala attracts, it seems she had plenty of other avenues to taunt Proteus.  I assume she had reasons why she did so and did so now, but again Duggan doesn't delve into them.

In terms of setting up later developments, Tony learns from Reed that Charles and Erik stole his memories of suppressing the X-gene, which sets up an alliance between them.  But Tony also informs Emma that they did so.  Scott eventually gets to talk to a reeling Emma, revealing to her that Nathaniel Essex is Dr. Stasis.  he tells her that he and Jean only trust her with this information, which inspires her to tell him about Moira.  She also tells him what Charles and Erik did to Reed, and he shares her concern that they're almost too far gone.

We have other developments whose directions are less clear.  Dr. Stasis appears to invade one of the secret Krakoan facilities where the mutants grow the Flowers of Krakoa that produce the medicines.  I'm assuming Moira told him about its location, though Duggan never confirms that.  At any rate, he not only seems to steal one of the Flowers but also detonate the facility.  Either way, I don't buy it.  Shouldn't someone be guarding it?  I'm pretty sure the Quiet Council knew that Moira was still in the wind.  Since she knows all their secrets, wouldn't they have been more careful with one of the more important ones?  Couldn't they see that the Gala was a perfect time for a raid?

In other words, meh.  For all it seems like we're going to war with Orchis soon, we're actually going to war with the Eternals.  Although I'm stoked that Firestar, Havok, and Iceman joining the X-Men, this promised fight with Orchis is starting to drag out way too long.  We need at least a skirmish soon lest it becomes the X-Men's Kindred.  [Shudder.]

Immortal X-Men #4:  Ugh.  I just can't with this series.  

On the plus side, we finally get somewhere when it comes to the Sinister drama, as Emma relays Scott's discovery to the Council that someone claiming that he's the "real" Nathaniel Essex is Dr. Stasis.  As Emma says, it's hard to tell by his reaction if Sinister knew or not.  He opens a portal to escape to his lab.  Destiny is standing next to where the portal is and, as he passes through it, tells him not to be a coward.  As he prepares to activate a Moira to burn this reality, Destiny's words give him pause.  Instead, he returns to the Council to offer his apologies.  However, as we'll see in "A.X.E.:  Eve of Judgment #1," someone kidnaps him via teleportation before the Council can act.

Also running through this issue is the fall-out from Scott's revelation of the resurrection protocols. Unsurprisingly, Emma has the best answer when an ambassador presses her to give humanity's VIPs the secret.  The response?  "16 million."  It seems a pretty solid position to say that the mutants won't resurrect a human until the 16 million mutants lost on Genosha are resurrected.  That said, the grieving woman who throws pig's blood on Emma after she lost her husband shows that humanity won't necessarily accept said position, even if it's a solid one.

Despite the good, I still find myself suffering through these issues as they mostly involve some arrogant mutant leader expositing all over us.  This issue isn't too terrible because Emma is the least insufferable of them.  I'm dreading when Gillen puts us in Charles' mind.

A.X.E.:  Eve of Judgment #1:  You have to get through a lot of exposition about the current state of the Deviants and Eternals here, but it sets up an interesting enough premise for this event that it's worth it.

After his appearance in "X-Men:  Hellfire Gala" #1, Druig - the Eternal Prime - is advancing two separate schemes in this issue.

First, the Machine that is Earth informs us that the Eternals have three core directives:  1) protect the Celestials; 2) protect the Machine; and 3) correct excess deviation.  According to the Machine, the last one is open to interpretation.  

Druig wants to eliminate all mutants as excess deviations.  As the Machine notes, Druig could rule for a million years as Druig the Merciless if he shows the Eternals his commitment to principles "in a fallen age" by destroying the mutants.  However, Domo's plan to detonate an anti-matter bomb under Krakoa backfires when it turns out Krakoa is part of the Machine.  Druig decides to consult Uranos for some help.

Ikaris, Sersei, and Thena are living in Lemuria to help the Deviants recover from an attack by the Eternals and Thanos.  They've separated themselves from the Eternals since they're reeling from the revelation that the Machine kills a human every time it resurrects them.  For Ikaris, protecting the Machine means protecting humans, and he's working out this contradiction of his existence.

Meanwhile, Druig releases one of Ikaris and company's allies, Phastos, who is also appalled by the secret of Eternal resurrection.  Druig releases him at the request of Ajak and Makkari, two priestesses who want him to determine whether their plans to create a god could work.  Their plan appalls him, but his response inadvertently confirms that they could do so.  The person they plan to upgrade?  Sinister (as seen in "Immortal X-Men" #4).  Why did Druig help?  He's just currying favor with the priestesses before he can find away to mind-wipe Phastos and the other rebels of the resurrection secret.

Again, it isn't the most exciting issue, but Gillen really does a solid job quickly moving us through the Eternals' status quo without making it too boring.  Moreover, as I said, the premise here - of the Avengers between two immortal species at war - could go really interesting places.

Marauders #4:  You guys, this issue is so bad.

It starts OK-ish.  Kate dies (eye roll) saving Bishop from the Kin soldiers as the team makes their way to the Chronicle.  It turns out the Chronicle is a person, so Kwannon reads his mind.  It turns out the ancient (and more avian) Shi'ar stumbled upon the First Mutants' colony (named Threshold) on a pre-humanity Earth.  Furious the mutants defeated their attempt at conquest, they returned with more troops to commit genocide.  But Threshold won again.  This sequence is what the Kin mean by "First Blood."

The Shi'ar then engineered themselves to become stronger and less avian, though I lose the plot after this point.  Per the Chronicle's memories, the Shi'ar returned to confront Threshold a third time, but it had disappeared.  I thought that the focus of the next few issues was going to involve the Marauders trying to find where they went.  Instead, the Chronicle says that the Kin's "prescients foresaw [mutants'] desperate lifeboats in time...and vaporized them on arrival."  What lifeboats?  Previously, we learned that the Shi'ar only survived their first altercation with Threshold because its mutants were scared of space and didn't chase them.  What changed?  Was it the K-T extinction event?  Also, arrival where?  Did they try to flee to the Shi'ar?  Also, the Chronicle was pretty clear that the mutants were gone before the Shi'ar arrived, so how did they also destroy them?

To make matters worse, Cassandra says that some escapees survived and were kept in "timedrives," which were stored on a destroyed Shi'ar base.  As such, Bishop and Cassandra want to travel in time to save them; of course, it turns out the "base" was Asteroid M, and Tempus has them arrive just as Nemesis does to destroy it.

What a fucking mess.  It's one thing for an arc occasionally to lose internal narrative consistency, but Orlando can't even keep this issue internally consistent.  It's just plain bad.

New Mutants #27:  As confusing as this issue could've been, Ayala does a solid job moving the pieces around the board in a followable way.

Young Illyana accidentally turns Limbo - or, at least, her part of Limbo - into Alice in Wonderland, summoning not only Dani, Illyana, Madelyne, and Rahne but also Colossus.  Young Illyana saves Illyana as the Red King (i.e., Belasco) kidnaps Dani, Madelyne, and Rahne.  She, the ever handsome Colossus, and Illyana confront the Red King, and Illyana manages to summon the Soulsword briefly again to break the spell.

She's hesitant to leave her former self to the torture that she knows is coming, but young Illyana assures her that she has to do so so that she can become her, who she'd be proud to be.  She then gives Illyana an acorn she created in her 1983 limited series ("Magik"), though I don't remember why it's significant.  (It's been a while.)

The most compelling parts of this issue are Colossus and Magik's interactions, as they're full of hurt and sorrow.  You have to hope that Ayala is showing us these emotions with the intent on addressing them down the line, particularly as it seems like Illyana might unify her soul next issue.  Belasco's comments about how broken she is makes it seem like her soul is still fractured.  I remember a previous iteration of "New Mutants" tackling this issue, but I don't think we ever got a clear resolution.  I'd love for us to get one here.

Three-Month-Old Comics: The July 6 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #5:  This issue is surprisingly uneventful, given the events of this series' first four issues.  

Peter gets revenge on Tombstone by sending Digger to break up one of Tombstone's shipments.  Digger is jobless after he failed to arrive when the Rose was frantically calling for help last issue; we learn in this issue that he went for ice cream.  Peter convinced Digger that taking on Tombstone might get him back into the Rose's good graces.  To ensure Tombstone knows that Spidey is fucking with him, Peter is at Tombstone's mansion when Tombstone hears about Digger's rampage.  Peter indirectly threatens to confirm the other dons' suspicion (as seen earlier in the issue) that Tombstone is working with Spidey by going to stop Digger.

In that way, all's well that ends well:  Spidey gets even with Tombstone by ruining his shipment (which involved "a lotta capital," according to Tombstone), Tombstone has to take it on the chin so that he doesn't inadvertently confirm an alliance that doesn't exist (though he still benefits from the Rose's incarceration), and Digger gets to show everyone that he's still reliable(-ish).

Between scenes, Felicia visits Peter to express concern about the crazy stories that she's hearing on the street.  She wants to make sure that things "aren't...bad again."  She tells Peter that she knows that he's been playing hurt since the "accident with Ben," which I think means what happened six months earlier and not what happened at the end of the last series.  Peter admits that he doesn't know what to do, and Felicia tells him that he does:  he needs to stop playing hurt, because he's at his best when he's having fun.  We end the issue with him visiting Aunt May, which seems like a good start.

Beyond the big mystery (or maybe connected to it), Digger is the other mystery.  He mentions twice in this issue that he has "thirteen people" in him, which makes me wonder if Ben's accident didn't involve him becoming some sort of gestalt.  I really wouldn't mind getting to the bottom of this one soon.  I get Wells wants to keep up the suspense, but I can only handle it for so long.  I hope Wells gets that we all have PTSD from Kindred.

Also, I have to say that JR JR's pencils just keep getting worse.  I get that he wanted to portray Peter as hurt in his conversation with Felicia, but his cheekbone looks completely disconnected from the rest of his face.  We're well past the point where it's believable he's even alive if that's true.

Astronaut Down #2:  This issue gets directly to the point.  

Douglas discovers that this reality tackled the quantum cancer early, as it developed more effective approaches to communicate across beliefs and differences (thereby overcoming the "Don't Look Up" crowd's opposition).  As a result, they not only cured the mutation but developed a process through which they could transmit a consciousness and allow it to return.  (I'm still not sure why they're exploring this possibility, unless they're trying to prevent the cancer from happening in the first place.)  Douglas is paralyzed by the prospect of getting to return to his body and not having to die in this reality. 

Mission Control, however, is panicked that Douglas hasn't transmitted the "equation" (i.e., the cure) so they send Vernon to see what Douglas' situation is.  Vernon is enraged when he realizes that Douglas is having a picnic with his wife and attacks.  He dies but not before rattling Douglas.  Meanwhile, the situation goes from bad to worse in Douglas' reality when the cancer overtakes Florida City, where Mission Control is located.

Batman #125:  If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I stopped reading "Batman" when I just couldn't handle Tom King anymore.  Given my love of Chip Zdarsky, I decided to take a leap of faith here, and I'm glad that I did.

All but the last two pages of this issue takes place in "Another Time" when:  1) Tim is Robin; 2) Bruce has lost all his money; 3) Clayface is a villain, and 4) Barbara is Oracle.  A little Googling reveals that Bruce lost his fortune during "Joker War" (I vaguely remember that), and Barbara and Tim moved to their new/old status quos as part of DC's (ridiculous sounding) "Infinite Frontier" relaunch.  I still don't have an answer for Clayface, though it could be that he wasn't the one from "Detective Comics."  (There are a lot of Clayfaces after all.)

At any rate, Bruce awakens after a dream involving the three Jokers perched a top a mountain of dead Batfamily members.  Jimenez gives us gays some great fan service as he's only in a pair of briefs and, might I say, is pitching a tent.  He calls Selina, and they seem to be on good terms, though she has to go when "Valmont" appears with coffee.  Meanwhile, Bruce looks into the recent murders of wealthy people.  

The mystery is quickly resolved when the Penguin reveals publicly that he's killing everyone in Gotham who inherited more than five million dollars.  Bruce isn't moved by the Penguin's claim that he's doing it for people like him who had to struggle to get where they are, since it isn't true:  Cobblepot also inherited it.  It's here when Tim appears as Robin and mentions that Bruce is worrying everyone since he's spending so much time as Batman since he lost all his money.

Bruce agrees with Tim, though it isn't why Tim thinks:  it's because Bruce Wayne is a useful tool.  For example, Bruce gets him invited to the Flugelheim Gala, where all Gotham's rich people will be in one place.  (Tim expresses surprise that they didn't cancel it, and Bruce hilariously quips that, "No.  It's the hardest part of this job -- this city wants to die.")  As expected, Cobblepot tries to use gas to kill everyone, and Bruce swings into action after retrieving his utility belt from where Tim stashed it in a bathroom and pulling on his mask.

Bruce quickly takes out Cobblepot, which surprises him given how easy it was to do so.  He then realizes that Clayface is acting as Cobblepot.  Clayface tells Bruce that the building is rigged to explode if the gas didn't work, and Tim tries to get the doors open so everyone can leave.  While he's doing so, a goon gets in a lucky shot through Tim's throat.  The explosives he planted on the door before he's shot blasts open the door, and Bruce rushes him to the hospital since the goon hit an artery.  Tim exhorts him to take off his clothes so that they don't know that Robin is Tim Drake, and Bruce grimly remembers doing so with Jason Todd's body.

Later, Bruce arrives in Cobblepot's hospital room, where we learn that he's dying.  (Clayface gave up his location.)  Bruce expresses surprise that Oswald went this far, and Oswald tells him that he's dying of mercury poisoning and wants to kill the elites who refused to accept him.  Bruce argues that he killed good men like Colin Fitzroy, but Oswald laughs, saying Fitzoy was a boar who'd insult and pawn his staff at the Iceberg Lounge.  Knowing Batman under the mask is one of them, Oswald tells Bruce that he only ever sees his friends while they're wearing their masks; Oswald and everyone else see them as they really are.  It's a compelling argument, and Bruce seems to take it on board.

At any rate, Oswald announces that Batman was last on his list.  He reveals that he's called the police and, as he pushes the call button to summon a nurse, takes a cyanide pill.  Bruce tries to save him, but he can't.  Instead, a nurse enters as he's perched over Oswald's body, making it seem like he killed Oswald, which the cops therefore also witness.  Well played, Oswald.  Later, a distracted Bruce admits (to himself only, natch) that he's lost, facing a mystery "just out of reach."  Most intriguingly, "Now," a Batman-looking robot activates in the Batcave, announcing "Failsafe online."

In the back-up story, a robot dubbed the Executor (who works for the Underbroker) hires Catwoman (for $500,000!) to track down Oswald's ten (!) children to inform them of the contents of his will, which the Executor will read in seven days' time.  (We learn the latter piece of information when Finbar Sullivan and the Yakuza try to take over the Iceberg Lounge.)

All in all, it's a good start.  I feel like I have the continuity answers that I need from Googling, and I hope that Zdarsky doesn't lean too much on that right now.  This issue was emotional and fun, and it's been so long since we've had a Batman story like that that I don't want the dream to end.

Captain America:  Sentinel of Liberty #2:  This issue is WAY too talky, but I'm hoping that we go somewhere now that we've got the exposition on the table. 

It turns out the shadowy organization has five leaders (just like the five points on the star on Steve's shield):  the Machine, the Money, the Power, Love, and the Revolution (who's the figure we saw at the end of last issue talking about getting Steve on the board).  Radio Company has been following their broadcasts, and it seems like they don't know that Steve has cracked their code (unlike what I thought last issue).  Why are they broadcasting codes openly over the radio?  God only knows.

The latest message sends Steve to the Forge, a new German power station just brought online that'll power half of Europe.  He's surprised when he runs into silver armored soldiers with Hydra symbology, Hand techniques, and AIM technology.  He's even more surprised when he discovered one of the soldiers is actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who informs Steve that he and the rest of the soldiers are all acting on orders.

Relatedly, a very handsome looking Bucky arrives at a card game in Madripoor to interrogate the dealer who's apparently one of the five soldiers fighting for a mysterious cause (as we saw at the end of last issue).  It turns out the dealer is Peggy Carter, so it's going to get interesting soon I hope.

That said, again, this issue gets mostly lost in the worst kind of Steve monologue, as we have to slog through a fairly maudlin rumination over how he isn't in the loop.  Hopefully we'll spend the next issue or two punching Nazis.

Dark Beach #4:  Hoo boy.

Ruíz-Unger lifts the lid off the mystery here.  In a flashback, Schultz informs the Sun Freaks that the Center for Science and Tech assigned him to Project Daydream.  He learned that it plans on returning Earth to its original orbit, though he can't access information beyond that, since it's classified.  He doesn't know if the Center has already built the machine but did learn that Stanley didn't originate it:  Marie Clara proposed it 16 years earlier.  (I think that explains the time discrepancy.  The Center didn't move Earth to the outer solar system 16 years ago; they started planning to return it then.)  Then, we get to the connection with Gordo:  Clara, who I'm guessing is Gordo's mother, was found dead of an apparent suicide.

The Freaks have Roman develop a way for Schultz to get around the Center's security protocols, but, once they all leave, Roman immediately calls a "doctor" and asks about Project Daydream.  Shortly thereafter, we see someone calling Julyus to hire him.  Julyus murders Ket as she and Eve are having sex, and Raz finds Schultz dead at his desk.  If I'm not mistaken, we don't see Roman's fate, so I'm not actually sure that he's dead like we thought.

In the postlude, fourteen years ago, Stanley's creature warns Clara that it came to Earth because Earth has to return to the Sun before the "Realignment" and the "Correction."  Clara exposits that she created Project Daydream to protect Earth from the Sun's "violent outbursts," allowing them to return to the Sun.  Stanley, though, is adamant that they're not returning.  Clara is just as adamant that they are, but Stanley says that her Dyson sphere will allow humanity to travel between planets, though they seem to need the creature's intelligence to do that.  But I'm confused here since haven't we already traveled between planets if we're in the outer solar system?  At any rate, Clara says that it isn't the future that she wanted for her son (making it clear that her son is Gordo), and Stanley threatens her.

I'd still like a clearer timeline of events at some point, but I feel like that we have enough clarity now that we can really focus on the story itself in these last two issues.  Hopefully Gordo gets some revenge.

Blade Runner 2019 (2019) #9-#12: Home Again Home Again (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Green and Johnson wrap up this series in a pretty efficient and logical manner.

Upon returning to Earth, Ash seeks out Wojciech, her former boss at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).  Wojciech has no leads on Selwyn, telling Ash that he's become a hermit.  

Following Wojciech's advice to hit the streets, Ash goes to the Tyrell Corporation, and I totally gasped when I saw that its headquarters was so dilapidated.  The building is so iconic that I found myself waiting impatiently for it to appear in "Blade Runner 2049," as if it couldn't be a Blade Runner movie without it.  

Between Tyrell's death in "Blade Runner" and the Blackout in 2022, Tyrell Corporation apparently collapsed.  Walking through the building, cannibals attack Ash.  She's saved by Dr. Fost, a scientist whose isolation has clearly driven him insane.  He introduces Ash to his "team," a group of rotting, undelivered Replicants sitting at a conference table.

My initial complaint about this development is that Fost appears to serve as a deus ex machina.  Beyond saving Ash, he just happened to have worked on the team that created Isobel, allowing Ash to build a connection with him.  Moreover, he also just so happens to have access to the Tyrell server, allowing Ash to get the locations of people who worked on the Isobel project.

That said, Green and Johnson don't make it that easy for Ash as Fost's information ultimately proves useless.  Before Ash can start tracking down the scientists, the LAPD arrests her.  Ash thinks that it's Wojciech who sold her down the river.  However, we learn in issue #11's introduction page (hi, pet peeve #2) that it was Selwyn.  Issue #10 ends with the Replicant Underground freeing Ash from the cruiser taking her to jail.  (It turns out Wojciech tipped off the Underground.)  Meanwhile, at his mountain-top retreat, Selwyn sends another version of Hythe after Ash.

Issue #11 begins with the Underground's leader Freysa explaining to Ash that the Underground mostly helps Off-Worlders on the run settle into new lives as they don't have the numbers for a revolution now that Tyrell Corporation ceased making Replicants.  A former combat medic, Freysa repairs Ash's back brace, which was damaged in her scuffle with the cannibals.  Ash panics when Freysa touches the brace, though it isn't clear to me if it's because of some unconscious revulsion to Replicants or something else.

Everything goes to hell when Hythe arrives, after one of the Underground members dimes out Ash.  (Hythe hilariously shoots the woman, who clearly thought that she was getting some reward.)  Three other Underground members sacrifice themselves so that Ash can escape with Freysa and Efraim, a young human boy for whom Freysa is a surrogate mother.  The scene of him wrapped in a blanket on Freysa's lap is heartbreaking, expressing just how fragile life is in this reality.

At Freysa's bolthole in the city, she informs Ash that Selwyn bought up the remains of the Tyrell Corporation and has been making the technically banned Nexus 8s for rich people.  Freysa wants Ash to stop him, horrified as she is by his Nexus 8s' lack of "light."  She sends Ash back to Tyrell's estate in Santa Barbara, where Ash encounters Selwyn and four Hythes.

Selwyn is clearly nuts in his rich-guy way, coming to confront Ash face-to-face over her breaking their contract.  In the ensuing gun fight, Ash takes out two Hythes before Selwyn disables her back brace, which, after all, Hythe herself installed.  

I was wondering how Ash would escape this jam, as she seemed to have backed herself into a pretty serious corner.  Though the answer is another deus ex machina, it's thankfully a fairly believable one.  Chloe and Isobel return, since Chloe knew that Ash would go after her father.  Chloe asks if he really intended to sell her to Tyrell, and he admits that he did, telling her that he regretted it every second of her disappearance.  Chloe hugs him...and then has Isobel break his neck.  So much for his belief that they could be a family again.  

Remaining Hythe A goes to kill Isobel, but Remaining Hythe B kills A before she can do so.  Like so many other Replicants, it turns out B wasn't as obedient as programmed.  In exchange for the house and anonymity, B lets them go and gives Ash the controls to her back brace.

Later, they all enjoy some noodles, and Ash declines to Chloe's offer to go with her and Isobel to Arcadia, realizing that she belongs on Earth.  Ash tells her that she won't be a Blade Runner anymore and says that Chloe can buy her a meal when she visits her on Arcadia.  In yet another heart-breaking moment, Chloe tells her that she'll never come, and Ash tells her to send a postcard anyway.  Oof.

The series ends with Ash in bed with Freysa, contemplating yet another new life and surrogate family ahead of her.

Final Thoughts:  Although this arc wasn't as strong as the previous two, it was still a solid ending to this part of Ash's story.  Green and Johnson did an amazing job putting us in this reality again, and I'm ecstatic that I've got other "Blade Runner" mini-series ahead of me.  Not only do I want to see what Ash decides to do with her life, I'm excited by the numerous stories that this reality has left to show us.

Also Read:  Blade Runner 2019 FCBD (2020) (August 26, 2020)

Three-Month-Old Comics: The June 29 Edition - Part Two (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Spider-Man 2099:  Exodus #3:  Thanks to Carlos' art, this issue at least feels like an old-school 2099 story.  Orlando is still using the "hero of the month" schtick that's plagued the 2099 line during its last few iterations, but the heroes he uses here at least make sense in terms of the larger story that he's telling.

To whit, Moon Knight contacts Spider-Man telepathically from her Crescent Crypt on the Moon, where she's been healing since the Masters of Evil killed the Avengers a year earlier.  The Masters at the time were the (Iron) Patriot, Black Knight, Enchantress, Melter, Radioactive Man, and Zemo.  (The Avengers themselves are never identified here; the only one I vaguely recognized one was a gray Hulk.)  After killing the Avengers, the Patriot showed his black card to the people recording the fight with their smartphones, making it clear that he and the Masters were now above the law.

Moon Knight is contacting Spider-Man because her alarms awoke her with the Celestial's arrival.  Her alarms sound again when the Masters (minus the Patriot) return to our solar system after traveling in their spaceship to plunder other systems (including the Cancerverse).  Enchantress exposits that Doom "is gone" so figures (correctly) that Osborn is behind pulling down the Celestial.  (We also learn that Zemo killed Black Knight for insubordination.). 

With Spider-Man agreeing to help Moon Knight get vengeance on the Masters (and stop them from helping Osborn secure the Garden), Moon Knight assembles the team:  John Eisenhart (the Hulk), Rowena Stern (Captain Marvel), Zhe Li (Aero), MacKenzie Salgado (Wave), Roberta Mendez (Captain America), and T'Shamba (Black Panther).  As an old-school 2099 fan, Eisenhart and Mendez's inclusion is the most exciting, as it's the clearest sign that we're gotten that we're operating in some version of the original timeline.  At some point, the Masters had control over Roberta and used John as a "doomsday device."  They also destroyed poisoned "Super Malay" (Wave's homeland) and Wakanda and murdered Rowena's fathers and Zhe's students.  In other words, everyone has a reason for vengeance.

As the fight begins, Miguel realizes that Osborn isn't with the Masters, meaning that they're just his soldiers.  Moon Knight reminds Miguel that they don't want the Masters in charge of the Garden either, so they fight in earnest.  The team makes fairly quick work of the Masters, and Black Panther takes them to Planet Wakanda to stand trial, since they're outside Osborn's black-card immunity.  Moon Knight declares to Planet Wakanda (and presumably Earth) that the Avengers have returned.  As she does so, four additional Avengers are standing with the team:  a Captain Britain, Kid Gladiator (if I'm not mistaken) a She-Hulk, and I think a Black Widow.  In the epilogue, Miguel tells Moon Knight that he's heading for Latveria for help taking down Osborn, though he doesn't explain why.

At any rate, it all is what it is.  It isn't terrible, and I can accept the "hero of the month" approach as long as it's ground in the story like it was in this issue (unlike last issue).  Black Widow and Hawkeye are up next, so we'll see if that peace holds.

Star Wars:  Obi-Wan Kenobi #2:  I don't usually have high hopes for these anthology series, but this issue is great.  One challenge I've found that trips up authors of these sorts of issues is that they imagine too complicated a plot or setting for one issue.  Cantwell successfully avoids that trap and keeps the narrative tightly enough focused that the story really sings. 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan travel to a moon that has inexplicably descended into darkness.  When they arrive at the mine that sent the S.O.S., they discover bloodshed.  Qui-Gon discovers a thief who admits that he and his crew used a "non-incendiary photonic charge" to take out the outpost's power core.  Obi-Wan realizes that the charge likely resulted in the core's accelerite producing a radiation capable of supressing the light spectrum.

The issue's tension comes from the fact that one of the miners is from a light-sensitive, werewolf-like race.  The darkness has driven him insane, and it's only when Obi-Wan is able to reactivate the core with the help of the mining supervisor that the remaining miners and thieves are saved.  Obi-Wan is temporarily blinded (due to the supervisor having to raise the heat levels high enough to fuse the accelerite back together), which plays nicely to the issue's theme, of Obi-Wan getting lost in the facts in front of him and not feeling the larger context.

In sum, it's a great issue.  If you aren't reading the full series, it's definitely worth checking out this issue.

X-Men Red #4:  This issue is incredibly interesting, as it centers entirely around the question of death and what it means now that mutants are functionally immortal.

The issue arrises in three separate places:  Arrako, Earth, and the Proscenium.

• On Arakko, Ora Serrata, who sits in the Seat of Law, notes that Magneto and Storm are, on some level, cheating in holding seats on the Great Ring.  After all, the seats are won through combat in the Circle.  Ora Serrata caveats her statement by noting that the Great Ring has never allowed back a member who was defeated in the Circle but was somehow later resurrected.  As a result, she isn't saying that Magneto and Storm are cheating because if they died they'll get back their seats.  She's more asking whether Magneto and Storm really faced the same stakes as the rest of them since they knew that they couldn't die.  After some squabbling (particularly with Isca the Unbeaten), Magneto announces that he and Storm have destroyed their backups.  As Storm says, "to everything a season."

• At the Proscenium, Oracle has gathered galactic representatives to announce that Xandra is dead.  Fearing an astro-nuclear war as various Shi'ar factions jockey for control, Oracle is implementing a protocol that Deathbird put in place of shoring up support of the Empire's most important allies.

T'Challa gets around the issue by asking if Krakoa can resurrect Xandra, since she's a mutant.  Orbis Stellaris of the Galactic Rim Collective objects for two reasons:  first, the unfairness of an empress getting resurrected when her subjects do not have a similar option and, second, the possibility of an eternal Xandra becoming a helluva dictator.  Nova recalls resurrecting Xandar with the Nova Force and notes that Xandar was destroyed again during the Annihilation Wave. He stresses that no one is immortal; even if the mutants can resurrect people, it doesn't mean that they don't die.  He supports resurrecting Xandra since he doesn't regret giving the Xandarians a few more days' peace. 

Ororo then announces that Krakoa has already resurrected Xandra, since her father (Charles) heard her psychic broadcast just as Oracle did.  Ororo then basically tells Orbis Stellaris to go fuck itself since mutants won't bow to anyone.  Richard follows her and ask if he can spend some time on Arrako, since his "Nova-sense" has him worried that its Diplomatic Zone is the focal point of a coming "big" event.  Ororo agrees and welcomes him.  Again, I love seeing people like Ororo giving Rich the respect that he deserves.

• On Earth, Roberto is resurrected, since Isca the Unbeaten apparently killed him last issue.  Rockslide is there because he likes to observe the resurrections, though we learn that it really isn't "our" Rockslide:  "our" Santo died in Otherworld as seen in "X of Swords."  This Santo is somehow an amalgam of all possible Santos.  I had to Google to find out it happened in "X-Factor;" an editor's note would've been nice here.  At any rate, the kids called Rockslide "Wrongslide," which he doesn't mind because it at least addresses that he isn't "our" Santo.  He knows that his presence hurts people, which hurts him because he loves it so much on Krakoa.  Roberto echoes what Nova said, that everyone dies.  He then invites Rockslide to Arrako.

Again, I loved the big questions that Ewing is asking here, particularly because it's clearly setting up the next few months of stories given Scott's revelation of mutant immortality.  This series continues to feel like what "Immortal X-Men" is supposed to be.

Blade Runner 2019 (2019) #5-#8: Off-World (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This arc is interesting, though less expansive and immersive than the first one.  

In 2026, a wheelchair-bound Ash is working as a mining-station administration while Cleo - posing as a boy named Rabbit - works as a fixer.  Not surprisingly, everything goes wrong when a group of Replicant rebels storm the station.  (Where would it be if they didn't?)

During the invasion, Ash and Rabbit are separated.  Rabbit's friend Padraic convinces the rebels not to kill Rabbit, and Rabbit gets all of them to Ramajuna, a trade-route nexus where you can buy whatever you want.  The rebels all opt to have their eyes - and, thus, serial numbers - removed, but Padraic refuses.  Instead, he accompanies Rabbit to the Hartawan, one of Rabbit's suppliers located on Ramajuna.  Rabbit asks the Hartawan to smuggle him and Padraic to Arcadia, the subject of a brochure that Rabbit has carried with him ever since Ash read it to him when they first fled Earth.

Meanwhile, Ash survives the attack on the station, though it's put her on the radar of Hythe, an aggressive Blade Runner.  She offers Ash a cybernetic brace if she helps her track down Rabbit.  Ash agrees (to use Hythe's resources to find Rabbit), and the pair are about a week behind Padraic and Rabbit.  Along the way, we learn that Hythe doesn't work for the police; corporations now hire most Blade Runners post-Blackout.  At the end of issue #7, we learn that she's working for Isobel.

Of course, Ash isn't stupid, so she doesn't fall for the claim that Isobel didn't really die at el Santuario.  But, she works with Hythe and Isobel to track down Rabbit.  Meanwhile, the Hartawan tells Rabbit to improve his look if he wants Arcadia to accept him.  Padraic tells him that he knows that she's a girl, and Chloe is reborn, as the Hartawan encouraged her to be.  At Ramajuna's transit station, Ash realizes that Rabbit would be going to Arcadia (because of the brochure), so she and Hythe head to the platform where that ship is departing.

When Ash IDs Chloe, Hythe puts a gun to her head.  Ash says that Isobel would never do what this Isobel is doing, and Hythe confirms that this Isobel is a new model, more devoted to her husband.  Padraic attacks Hythe, and Isobel screams for Chloe who emerges from the crowd.  Padraic is confused that Ash (or "Ms. Kady" as he knows her) is helping Hythe, who uses the distraction to kill him.  Before Hythe can kill Ash, Isobel kills her.  

Ash is surprised, and Isobel tells her that she's not there to take home Chloe.  Ash and Chloe embrace, and Isobel tells Ash that she still had all the same memories that the previous Isobel had.  Chloe is upset that Ash won't come with them to Arcadia, but Ash tells her that she has to return to Earth to make sure her father can never find her.

As I mentioned, this arc lacks the first one's ooomph.  For example, Green and Johnson never really explain Padraic's loyalty to Rabbit/Chloe, particularly his willingness to die for him/her.  It may just be because Rabbit was his only friend, but we only have hints at that.  That said, I was glad to see that Chloe wanted Ash to join them.  The arc starts with an angry Rabbit expressing an adolescent belief that he can live without Ash.  With her mother restored to her, Chloe seems to appreciate Ash for the surrogate mother that she was.

Going forward, Green and Johnson certainly plant some intriguing questions for the future.  First, I'm excited to explore post-Blackout Earth.  Second, I was surprised how extensively humanity had colonized the galaxy by 2026.  It feels more like a "Mass Effect" scenario, where we stumbled upon existing technology to help us do so.  I wouldn't mind them digging into that mystery at some point.

Three-Month-Old Comics: The June 29 Edition - Part One (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Captain America:  Symbol of Truth #2:  This issue is a mixed bag.  

It's pretty clear that someone (presumably White Wolf, though maybe not) injected the super-soldier serum (or "Triple S," as Deadpool later make Sam call it) into Falcon's cousin and her fellow migrants.  When Luísa is the "unidentified substance" that sets off an alarm at the lab where they're "housing" the migrants, Falcon wisely extricates her.  Meanwhile, White Wolf has two agents pose as guards and assassinate the mercenary who survived his team's attack on the train.

Unfortunately, the Falcon sequence makes less sense.  He arrives in Latveria in his hunt for the mastermind of the attack on the train, though we're never told how he followed the trail there.  He finds Deadpool there, because Deadpool is hunting a white supremacist.  I think the creative team wants us to believe that both the mastermind and white supremacist is White Wolf, though that isn't super clear.  I think that White Wolf hired Deadpool to set up this situation (of Sam encountering him), though I don't know why he would do so.  After all, he had the mercenary killed to make sure he wasn't leaving loose ends. Moreover, we border on pet peeve #3 here.  As Doom says, Sam should know better than to think that Doom would let him just run an op in Latveria.

I think this issue's split focus might be a little too much for the creative team.  If they're going to keep it going, I think they need to connect the dots a little better as we continue with the story.

Sins of the Black Flamingo #1:  Come for the thirsty gayness, stay for the intriguing plot!  

Sebastian Harlow is the Black Flamingo, a "gentleman thief" who "steal[s] magic artifacts from idiots and debutantes and [puts] them where they belong."  

The issue begins when a Jewish man hires Sebastian to find a token (for lack of a better word) that his Holocaust-survivor grandfather kept with him his entire life.  His grandfather was a gay mystic rabbi (love it) and was clearly building a golem of his former lover as the token contained his lover's soul.  It became lost after his grandfather's death and eventually passed from collector to collector of Holocaust memorabilia.  (That's as gross as that sounds.)  

Sebastian tracks it down in a hidden room of Nazi memorabilia at the white-supremacist "Museum of American Heritage and Culture" in Key West.  (It's like that great "Difficult People" episode!)  While there, he discovers a diagram of some sort of magical collar that he finds too dangerous to leave in the Museum's hands and takes it with him.  Returning to the grandson's house, Sebastian inserts the token into the golem, activating it to the grandson's surprise.

Later, Sebastian's friend/handler Ofelia examines the diagram and discovers that it's a collar to contain a demon or other spirit.  Apparently, it was in possession of a Thorndike Scar at the time of the document's writing 200 years earlier.   Ofelia just so happens to be going to Scar's descendant's party that evening, so Sebastian goes with her to case the joint with a plan to return later to liberate the collar.  ("God knows what those idiots would do if they captured a demon. Elect him, probably.")

At the party, Scar recognizes Sebastian as the "fucker" who won't sell the Devil's Tooth, which we see in an aside panel is in fact in Sebastian's safe.  Sebastian denies that he dabbles in "hocus pocus" but suddenly gets a vision.  While he sees everyone else in some form of decay, Scar's blood shines.  Sebastian senses something else, so he has Ofelia us her powers to create a distraction.  (She casts a spell to make two people "open [their] mind's eye to the horrible futility of [their] existence" as well as "suggest" they act in a certain way.)  As Ofelia makes a woman throw a couch and another one set a fire, Sebastian goes upstairs and breaks into a room to find a collared, scarred angel begging for death.  (I'm guessing Scar isn't actually the descendant...)

As I said, this issue goes beyond the thirsty presentation to a great premise.  I mean, a gay thief of supernatural artifacts with a day job as an antiquities dealer in Miami?  You wonder how someone hasn't thought of it previously.

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #24:  The issue begins with ZED discovering that the governor isn't on her flagship:  she's on a shuttle en route to an abandoned science colony.  When Vader and Sabé arrive at the site, the governor sends for help from Crimson Dawn ("send for the Dawn") and orders an attack.

While Sabé goes to free the Tatooine refugees who the governor has conscripted into service, Vader takes on the governor, only for her to reveal that she's working on a weapon capable of stunning him.  Ochi arrives in time to save Vader from the now-arrived Dawn agents and the governor's troops.  

After the governor escapes, Sabé interviews a conscript who explains that the governor's weapon can drain power from living things, even entire plants.  The conscript is devastated to learn that she used it on Karolia, a densely forested planet.  As he grieves, Vader recalls Tarkin's destruction of Alderaan and his final moments with Padmé where he refused her entreaties to return to the light side.  (I'll be honest that I didn't see the connection between the two memories.)

While Sabé stays to destroy the weapon, Vader leaves in hot pursuit of the governor, whose future is pretty short, clearly.

Star Wars:  Han Solo and Chewbacca #3:  This issue is a deep cut.  

Han manages to exfiltrate himself, Greedo, and Ovan from Graves' apartment by playing the various security teams against each other.  Before they leave, though, Han hacks into Graves' security system to learn that he sold the urn to someone on Antillion.  

After ditching Greedo (since he's no longer necessary to find the urn), Chewie, Han, and Ovan arrive on Antillion only for us to discover that Graves sold the urn to the Archivist.  Qi'ra arrives to spirt away the Archivist, as seen in "Star Wars:  Crimson Dawn" #3.  Ovan finds the urn in her back room, but, before they can flee, Krrsantan from "Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra" arrives!  I'm sure that'll turn out well.  

The most interesting part of this story is that the Archivist clearly couldn't afford to pay Graves for the urn (given its value), which means she had something of similar value that she traded to him.  I'm sure Han isn't going to forget that.

Three-Month-Old Comics: The June 22 Edition - Part Two (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Newburn #8:  To save Emily, Newburn has Sumire's boyfriend (i.e, the Yakuza head's actual murderer) take the fall for the Albano nephew's murder and turns over Sydney (i.e., Emily's academy classmate involved in the death of said nephew) to the Albanos to satisfy their need for revenge.

To be honest, I'm not sure I buy either outcome.  The Yakuza head's (i.e., Sumire's husband's) murder remains unsolved, and it seems weird the Yakuza would be OK with the other criminal elements believing that they just let their head's murder go unavenged.  Moreover, the Albano head seemed pretty bound and determined in both this issue and last issue to get both Sydney and Emily.  The Albano family even sent guys to kill Emily outside the police station, which, as I said last issue, was reckless at best (and ridiculous at worst).  Newburn watches the Albanos torture and presumably murder Sydney, so maybe he struck some sort of a deal with them.  But we're never told why they would accept it.  For that matter, we're never actually told how Emily and Sydney were involved in the nephew's death.  Emily claims that it was an accident, but we have no further details.  [Update:  I eventually realized that I somehow missed issue #6, which shows us how Emily accidentally kills the Albano nephew to protect Syd.]

Along the way, Newburn loses his shit on McGinty when she balks at the deal he strikes with Sumire's boyfriend.  With Newburn telling her that he runs the town, Zdarksy definitely seems to imply that Newburn may have officially gotten too big for his britches.  I don't see the upcoming next volume as going well for Newburn.

New Mutants #26:  Now this issue I love.

Following Rahne as she hears combat sounds, the team (such as they are) comes across an aged Illyana wielding a Warlock arm.  As the team watches, she takes out a horde of demons infected with the techno-organic virus and then invites the team into her fortress.  

Inside, aged Illyana reveals that she's from a future where S'ym breaking the Soulsword left her and her teammates indefinitely trapped in Limbo.  Her versions of Dani, Madelyne, and Rahne have all died, though she's survived because Warlock arrived from Earth after Krakoa fell.  She discovered that Warlock's essence wounded the demons who attack her fortress every few weeks, so she crafted a spell around that.  Both she and Warlock are weakening, though.  She hopes to take out the horde's mysterious leader and return to Earth, but she doubts she can do that given the current state of their powers.

Our Illyana sees the flaw in her plan.  She has aged Illyana challenge S'ym (the horde's "mysterious" leader) and use Warlock to take control of his techno-organic virus when he touches her.  She destroys S'ym and de-viruses the horde.  Our Illyana uses S'ym's core to create a Soulsword temporarily, and she and the team decimate the de-virused horde.  

In the epilogue, aged Illyana declines to go with the team so she can address her own losses.  The team goes to find a way to fix what's preventing Illyana from summoning the Soulsword permanently.

In addition to the excellent plot, which finally does something with Illyana as a person for the first time in a long time, the art is excellent.  This arc is really righting this series' footing after it's spent so much time adrift lately.

Star Wars:  Crimson Reign #5:  Soule is smart enough to make clear that Qi'ra didn't think that she was going to defeat the Emperor in a fair fight.  

As Qi'ra knew he eventually would, the Emperor puts two and two together and realizes that Crimson Dawn is responsible for his and Vader's recent setbacks:  the Hutt Council's attack on Vader's flagship, the Syndicate War, Zahra's failure to take out the Rebel Fleet (a stretch), his Royal Guards' assassination.  The Emperor brings in Director Barsha, the head of the Imperial Security Bureau division focused on the criminal gangs, to confirm that Crimson Dawn is behind these moves.  (It's clear Barsha will play an important role in the next event because his face is covered in shadows.)  The Emperor then launches his counterattack.

Knowing said attack was coming, Qi'ra puts into action her next plan.  She sends the Knights of Ren with the Archivist to use the Screaming Key they took from Vader's citadel to activate some sort of creature, which I'm guessing will provide Qi'ra with a connection to the Force, either directly or indirectly.  (Based on the Emperor and Vader's conversation, Maul told Qi'ra about the creature.  The Archivist herself didn't believe it was real.)  Qi'ra then activates her network to create chaos for the Empire, announcing it as her Hidden Empire.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure this story need a third arc.  Sure, it was interesting to see what Qi'ra had planned after "Star Wars:  War of the Bounty Hunters."  It seems difficult to believe, though, that she's going to accomplish anything more than annoying the Emperor with guerrilla-war tactics now that he's focused on her.  I guess we'll see.

X-Men #12:  This issue is pretty great.  

I love the possibility that Dr. Stasis isn't Mr. Sinister but Nathaniel Essex, who despises Mr. Sinister for taking Thunderbird's DNA and polluting himself with mutant genes.  (Did we know that he took Thunderbird's DNA?)  Of course, as Cyclops says, I use "the possibility" here because it's anyone guess whether this guy really is Essex.  That said, it doesn't really matter; he thinks that he is.  To be fair, he does seem significantly less crazy than Sinister.  He apparently also has a secret mission to save a boy, but he'll get to that after he destroys the X-Men, natch.  

Later, Cyclops and Synch meet with Ben Ulrich to give him back his notebook and confirm that mutants are immortal.  As Scott said, if the X-Men don't stand for the truth, they're just another Council "and the world has enough of those."  Heh.  Cyclops is anticipating his actions may cost him a spot on the roster, which prompts a discussion about who'll stand for re-election at the upcoming Gala.  At this point, it's Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Synch, and maybe Wolverine.  Meanwhile, Essex has his own plans for the "fall of the mutants" at the Gala, which involves a woman. 

Oh, also, the ladies defeated Cordyceps Jones and saved trillions of lives in the process.  Lorna may have found a handsome man to kiss and/or slap.  You should really read the issue to see why that line is so fucking funny.

Man, it's a good time to be a X-Men fan.

Three-Month-Old Comics: The June 22 Edition - Part One (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #4:  Other than the MJ sub-plot, this issue is everything I want a Spider-Man story to be.  

Kareem saves Peter before Tombstone's goon shoots him in the head.  Kareem tells Peter that Tombstone is also gunning for Robbie (in addition to planning the 125th massacre to pin on the Rose).  Peter makes his way through Tombstone's hideout in the hopes that he can stop the massacre before it begins.  Along the way, he manages to call Randy to warn him about his father.  

Of course, it turns out Tombstone made Peter do his dirty work:  Peter wasn't below Tombstone's hideout, but the Rose's.  Man, if only we had more villains like Wells' Tombstone!  

Meanwhile, Tombstone apparently just wanted to have a man-to-man talk with Robbie now that they're going to be family.  Rubbing salt in that wound, the issue starts with MJ speaking with her daughter, who looks almost exactly like her so maybe isn't her step-daughter?  In sum, Tombstone gets a happy ending with family and Peter gets...well, not a happy ending.

In other words, it's a spectacular issue from start to finish.

Immortal X-Men #3:  I still feel like I'm reading this series more from obligation than anything Gillen is doing here.  Like the other issues, I came close to skimming as Destiny monologued as she always does.  

To save you the time, Destiny has the same precognitive explosion - presumably due to her new body - as she did when her powers first manifested when she turned 13 years old.  Many of these visions relate to Mr. Sinister's cloning of Moira, as her powers allow him to dominate future timelines.  When something goes wrong for him, he simply resets the timeline.  

Awakened from the explosion-induced coma, Destiny now must find a way to stop Sinister without tipping her hand to other Council members, given her lack of trust in them.  (To show she isn't crazy for thinking that way, Charles' continued asshole behavior gets so bad in this issue that even Kate calls him on it.)  Destiny's real sorrow comes from the fact that she doesn't see Raven in any of these timelines.  As Raven is the only person she trusts, she's a woman alone.

The only interesting part of this issue for me was Gillen cleverly ret-coning Destiny's previous death as necessary for Krakoa to come into existence.  Destiny now realizes that she would've killed Moira as planned, preventing the sequences of events that led to Krakoa happening.  At the time, Destiny only knew her death was necessary, since, as we know, she couldn't see Moira.  In the Krakoa era, I appreciate it when authors take the time to make Krakoa seem inevitable, even if we didn't know it at the time.

Knights of X #3:  Enh.  I'm finding it increasingly hard to engage with this mini-series, because every time we seem close to moving to the story's next phase Howard throws up a roadblock.  

Here, Betsy and her team make their way to the stronghold where the Sevalithi are holding Death.  (According to the editor's note, the Sevalithi imprisoned him after his defeat in "X of Swords."  I have no recollection of that, so I assume that it happened in Howard's "Excalibur.")  Death informs Betsy that Apocalypse was obsessed with the Siege Perilous, and Rictor realizes that Apocalypse's grimoire has the answer to its location.  Building off Doug's email to Rictor last issue, Rictor gives the grimoire to Death to read, and Death confirms that it details Apocalypse giving the Siege Perilous to Mercator to start his land.  I don't recognize Mercator or his land, but I'm sure we'll get there.

Meanwhile, Rachel is finally able to connect telepathically with Betsy (probably because it's daylight in Sevalith, reducing the vampires' powers).  To Mordred's disappointment, Shatterstar teleports the team to the Crooked Market to help.  It all goes to Hell when Merlyn arrives, and Gambit sacrifices himself in attacking Merlyn so Meggan can free Crooked Jim.  Gambit somehow seems confident in his resurrection, even though I'm pretty sure that the Five can't resurrect mutants who die in Otherworld?  Is the Siege Perilous going to do it?  I guess we'll see. 

At any rate, the Crooked Jim story hopefully related somehow to the Siege Perilous story since, at this point, I'm wondering why we've spent so much time on it.  It feels like Howard didn't have enough story related to the Siege Perilous for five issues so she cooked up this sideplot.  Hopefully I'm wrong.

Moon Knight #12:  Marc's fight with Zodiac surprisingly wraps up here.  That said, no one is more surprised about it than Marc.  Why?  Brilliantly, McKay has Steve Grant take control of their shared body.  Steve does so because he's concerned that Reese will see Marc differently if she watches him kill Zodiac.  To be fair to Marc, he was going to kill Zodiac to save Reese from doing it because he was worried it would change her.  (Reese was going to do it because Zodiac shot Soldier after he realized that he wasn't Moon Knight.  I'm just hoping Soldier really isn't dead.)

In addition to this unexpected twist, McKay is a delight throughout this issue as he uses every character in the roster to their fullest potential.  The path that Khonshu opened for Marc and Tigra goes right through the resting place in the Afterworld of the Firsts of Khonshu (which is news to Marc).  After the former Fists follow Marc and Tigra to Earth and wind up helping them take out Zodiac's goons, a now-freed Hunter's Moon returns them to their rest, since, after all, Marc doesn't know how to do so.  With everyone pissed at Zodiac, I can't wait to see how this crew is going to handle Steve and goody two shoe-ness.

Undiscovered Country: Destiny Man Special #1 (2022)

I'm dedicating a full post to this issue because Snyder and Soule provide one of our best glimpses so far into post-Sealing America life through Alex's story.  As a result, I can't say that it's the most thrilling issue, since it's almost entirely exposition. But it does answer a lot of the questions surrounding the Graves family and fills in some gaps in our understanding of the Sealing's timeline.  Since it doesn't really have a story, I'm just going to walk through the revelations in list form:

- Alex was born twelve years after the Sealing or 19 years ago, which is 135 years in Destiny time (I think).

- His parents, David and Elena, made a deal with Aurora that Charlotte and Daniel's DNA would serve as the key to "end all of this, when the time comes - or sooner, if need be."  When they become concerned about the direction Aurora is taking, they have Alex as a fallback plan (since he serves as the same DNA key).

- David and Elena eventually realize their experiment failed.  They observe in horror as the artists in Possibility go to war with each other.  David mentions "Jain's horror show in Unity," "the murder festival...in History," and turning "Alaska to glass to make sure the stuff we stashed up there doesn't get out."  Elena fears Aurora will release the pathogen that she and her team created outside America.  You can see why they're skeptical it's going to end well.

- David and Elena decide to bring Charlotte and Daniel to America to walk the Spiral because Alex is too young and they can't wait any longer.

- Alex turns in David and Elena to Aurora after he overhears them recording their message for Charlotte and Daniel.  He figures Aurora will punish them but doesn't realize that she'll imprison them.  He's then left alone in Destiny.  Cryptically, he mentions that he doesn't see them for a long time, implying they may still live.

- Alex survives because some farmers take him under their wing.  He becomes a hunter and realizes that the lack of restrictions on Destiny's science means that it has more potential than just as America's food-production zone.

- This next part is a little unclear to me.  Alex somehow manages to become a scientist at the Body Farms.  I'm not surprised that he's smart enough to do so, given his parents, or educated enough to do so, given his parents' colleagues - all geniuses - were his teachers.  But how does he convince the Body Farms to make him a scientist though?  Did he just show up one day and say, "I can do the maths?"

- Alex transforms himself into the Destiny Man to show Destiny's people that he wasn't just cosplaying freedom but living it.

- Alex forms a following, and Aurora sends an Uncle Sam and his Silent Majority to stop (or test) him.

- Eventually, we get to where the series begins.  Alex is at a stalemate with Uncle Sam but needs the information from him on how to leave Destiny.  

Returning to the present, Alex complains to Daniel that every time he thinks that he's done what Aurora wants she smacks him with some new challenge.  He tells Daniel that he branded him when they first met because it was important for him to dominate Daniel, since he was one of the loved children and Alex was merely the necessary child.  

Daniel dismisses him as a narcissistic psychopath but realizes that he needs to travel "the River" with him because Alex knows where they are and where they need to go.  I'm sure we'll get some brotherly bonding!