007 #1: I loved Kennedy Johnson's "The Last God" and I'm always game for a good James Bond film, so I was happy to give this series a shot. I'll hang in there a while, but I'll admit after reading this issue that it might just be that hard to put a new spin on Bond.
The drama starts when M removes Bond from the field after he failed to extract a Russian asset (who ends up dead). The Prime Minister wants someone to take the fall, and Bond warns M that he might not be there for him when M inevitably calls. A week later, Bond gets a call from Gwendolyn Gann, the former 003, who asks for help because she's "stepped in something rather bigger" than she is. Bond arrives at the designated rendezvous point only for Gann not to appear. Instead, he watches some guys dump a body (presumably Gann's) into the river.
Bond goes to Gann's ransacked apartment and finds a note for him about Project Myrmidon. As he sifts through the apartment, a sniper watches him from a rooftop across the street. Through his telephone conversation with his boss, we learn the sniper is part of the group that spoiled Bond's attempt to extract the Russian. Gann was apparently working for them, because the sniper and his boss discuss how she thought Bond could be an asset. But the sniper is worried that Bond will expose them before "the London operation," and his boss agrees that he can kill Bond.
It's a totally fine Bond story, but it's also a standard Bond story. Kennedy Johnson was able to breathe new life into the fantasy genre in "The Last God," so I'm willing to see what he can do for the spy game. I'm just not sure what innovation is left.
Astronaut Down #3: In this issue, we learn why Dr. Engle believed Douglas wasn't a good fit for the mission: he felt like his reality's humans deserved to die for failing to stop the plague and prevent Maddie's death. Honestly, as an American in 2023, Patrick is channeling something that we've probably all felt at one point or another in the last, oh, I don't know, seven years.
This reality's Maddie is appalled when Douglas admits these feelings and demands he complete the mission, particularly as Douglas essentially killed her Douglas for it. But Douglas refuses to sacrifice her even as Vernon-possessed bystanders arrive to kill Maddie so he has nothing left to lose. Instead, he activates his ejection protocol, resulting in him now "skipping from reality to reality like a stone on a pond."
In so doing, he's destroyed his transmission abilities, which doesn't bode well for his reality. But the new reality in which he arrives also has a Maddie so maybe he doesn't care (particularly given next issue's sexy cover, where he appears shirtless). Patrick makes it really hard to root for Douglas' reality over him, to be honest.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus #1: Other than K's trip to Las Vegas in "Blade Runner 2049," we get our first real look at Earth in the Blade Runner universe in this issue.
We begin in the desert outside Los Angeles with Elle non-lethally taking out a group of scavengers who attempt to jack J's spinner bike. She swipes their truck and arrives in a place called Jacktown, over which an enormous fracking facility looms menacingly. Elle heads to the repair shop, and the bike impresses the owner, Junkett Jones, who comments that the cops used bikes like it "during the famine." Junkett agrees to fix the bike in exchange for the truck. As they complete the deal, a besuited man named Barnes offers to buy the bike. Elle declines, and a man named Miguel arrives. In the grand Western stand-off tradition, Miguel tells Barnes that Elle doesn't want to sell. Barnes departs suddenly when he's notified that an inspector has arrived, leaving Elle with the locals.
Junkett realizes Elle is bleeding, and Miguel takes Elle back to "the farm," where his wife is a medic. Through his conversation with Elle, we learn that the farm - or the "Inland Empire Clean Energy Co-Op" as it's known - and the facility are in a struggle because the fracking operation, which Barnes runs, is exhausting the water supply. Miguel warns Elle to avoid Las Vegas, since it's a "no-go zone since the dirty bomb."
Returning to the facility, Henchman #1 tells Barnes that he recognized the truck as belonging to the Bushwhack family and wonders how Elle managed to take out the three of them. (You'll see, dude.) At the facility's "Employee Recreation Center" (i.e., the Golden Garter Club), Barnes meets a Mr. Menzes from the Wallace Corporation. Weirdly, Barnes seems unaware that Wallace bought the Tyrell Corporation's remains. Menzes' enormous bodyguard Tatsuo notes that Barnes was only able to retain his 32 Nexus 8s - including 12 pleasure models - because the Replicant ban exempts energy facilities. Menzes is there because only 20 Nexus 8s remain. Barnes claims the other 12 models broke or fled.
Menzes pulls back a sheet covering a pleasure model that was clearly killed and expresses surprise that the Replicants didn't attack Barnes or his men because even they have limits. He announces that the abuse violates the contract and is confiscating the remaining Nexus 8s. (I love that, in this world, the regulator was there for the Replicants not the fracking.) After Tatsuo prevents Barnes from attacking Menzes, Menzes returns to his car. In his conversation with a "Ms. Tyler," we learn he's really there searching for Elle and has a "dead or alive" order to retrieve her.
In an exposition-heavy sequence, we learn the co-op is a solar and wind farm that survived the Blackout because they didn't rely on the grid. Their peace with Barnes is bought with their extra crops, but the situation is getting worse now that Barnes is exhausting the well. The co-op runs on a "according to their gifts" philosophy, with Miguel's wife Nyoko serving as the medic. She patches up Elle and shows her to her quarters. There, Miguel and Nyoko's daughter Kaja invites Elle to play since the adults are all busy and the co-op doesn't get many newcomers. In one of the issue's few character-driven moments, Kaja is surprised that Elle doesn't know how to play soccer and Elle touchingly admits that she's never "played" before.
Of course, this moment is ominous (because it's Elle) as Henchman #1 watches them from afar. A few pages earlier, Barnes was in a rage over the loss of the Replicants. He fears a walk-out once the men realize they've lost the pleasure models, though Henchman #1 is dismissive, saying the men can walk if they prefer skin jobs to paying ones. Barnes throws a drink at him and blames Henchman #1 for the situation, implying he's the one killing the pleasure models. (Henchman #1 is apparently Barnes cousin who he hired after Henchman #1's "discharge.") Watching Elle and Kaja play, Henchman #1 orders an attack, though I'm not entirely sure why.
Although I love learning about the Blade Runner universe, this issue was a little too heavy on exposition. Given how kinetic the Black Lotus TV series was, it felt odd to see Elle mostly just stand there with people talking at her. That said, it looks like the action gets going next issue, which I'm excited to see. It seems pretty clear Elle's "according to their gifts" gift is her ability to defend the co-op. Poor Henchman #1.
Dark Beach #5: As this series rushes to a conclusion, it all comes to a head, not surprisingly, at the Mayflower.
It turns out Eve hid the incomplete data download that Schultz managed to get about Project Daydream at the Mayflower. Thankfully, Roman doesn't realize that, because he's taken Lilly hostage as a way to get Eve to hand over the information. Before Eve and Gordon arrive, Julyus appears to take out Roman.
Roman thinks he's outsmarted everyone: once he gets the information from Eve, he'll upload it to a private server. If he doesn't enter a password every two days, the information will get transmitted to a variety of economic and political elites, tipping off a "new age of corporate espionage and war." Gordo tells Julyus that the New Reykjavik Corps of Engineers (NRCE) - whose chief, Jozef Stanley, hired Julyus - is trying to kill everyone to hide the fact they can anchor the Earth again. Julyus contemplates his daughter and kills Roman.
Eve gives Julyus the data, and Julyus calls Stanley to tell him he's coming with it. Julyus then tells Eve, Gordo, and Lilly that he's going to go into hiding but he'll let them know when Stanley realizes that he isn't coming with the data. Gordo tells Julyus that they're going after the rest of it. Gordo leaves the data at the Mayflower with a note for Duke, and then Eve, Lilly, and he head for the NRCE's Center for Science and Technology.
Looking at issue #6, we have two related questions that need answering. First, it isn't clear to me what the "updated version" of Project Daydream is and why the NRCE decided to go with that plan over Daydream's original plan to re-anchor Earth. Second, why does Stanley have "something to lose and everything to gain" by hiding the information that re-anchoring is possible? Wouldn't he be a hero if he lead the project that made it happen?
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