Ten-Month Old Comics!: The May 3 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Star Wars #34:  So much talking.  Soule is clearly setting up a huge story here, so I'll give him a pass.  But.  SO.  MUCH.  TALKING.

This arc focuses on Luke finding a way to fix his lightsaber.  I'll admit that I'm a little lost on which lightsaber has at this point.  He mentions the one Obi-Wan gave him, though I'm pretty sure he lost that one in "Empire Strikes Back" when Vader cut off his hands.  I don't totally recall how he got this one other than a vague memory of him finding it in a room full of artifacts in this series?  Maybe?

At any rate, he loses himself a little when he tells Artoo how strange this one now feels, and he heads to Christophsis, which is apparently the only place other than Ilum (which any player of "Star Wars Jedi" knows the Empire has locked down tight) that routinely produces kyber crystals.

He heads to a cantina to put out word that he's an interested buyer, and a woman named Gretta saves him from himself.  She reveals that the outpost runs on the bartender luring in a mark who wants a kyber crystal and then everyone taking him hostage and selling him to the Empire.  Luke is petulant as ever after Gretta kills everyone planning on kidnapping him, telling her that she doesn't know for sure they would've sold him to the Empire (despite the fact that they obviously would).  But Gretta is a fan:  she knew who Luke was from conversations on the "dark channels."

Gretta offers to bring Luke to the kyber, though Luke is super moralistic about her "being a killer," despite, you know, his own body count.  (The Jedi are always self-righteous and squishy on this point.)  Gretta reveals that her family was from Jedha, so his attack on the Death Star avenged their deaths.  

Luke leaves Artoo and heads into the Wastes with Gretta to meet a guy named Cuata.  He apparently worked with people like Galen Erso on the kyber crystals that the Empire used to make the Death Star's weapon, something I didn't realize used kyber crystals until now.  (It makes it all the cooler, to be honest.)  When his colleagues started disappearing, Cuata fled to the Wastes to continue his research.  After fleeing a creature, a concussed Gretta and Luke encounter Cuata.

As I said, this issue is way too wordy.  But it's an intriguing story, so I'm willing to accept a wordy issue to pave the way for the greatness to come.

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #33:  Ugh.  I don't know why I'm bothering with this series.   Pak can't put Sabé behind him.  It was one thing when she was the arc's main focus, but she's really shoehorned in here.  

The story is ostensibly about the Force Wave that the Fermata Cage's destruction in "Star Wars:  Hidden Empire" #5 unleashed.  For reasons that aren't clear to me, the Wave causes a surge in the Force in this issue, delighting Palpatine and terrifying Vader.  Vader nearly takes out the Executor as he loses control of his powers, though Sabé (of course) manages to expel him from the ship after he breaches the hull.  She then collects his unconscious body as it floats in space and takes him to an uninhabited planet where he destroys their shuttle mid-flight.  

I know Sabé's resourcefulness is supposed to impress me here.  She pilots the disintegrating shuttle!  She grabs Vader mid-air with her winged jetpack!  Instead, it's all just as eye roll-inducing as it ever is.  To make matters weirder, Vader decides the entire episode is all about Sabé and her need to choose between her old life and her new one.  Sure.  Whatever, I don't care (to quote my son).

Star Wars:  Return of the Jedi - Lando #1:  This one-shot is fun and addresses a question I hadn't really pondered, namely how Artoo, Chewie, Lando, Leia, and Luke executed the plan to free Han as well as they did (or, well, as well as they managed).  (I didn't mention Threepio on purpose since, well, he wasn't really all that helpful.)  

Lando approaches a contact named Narin who's in possession of a map of Jabba's Palace.  As Lando goes to win the money Narin wants for the map, Narin contacts the Imps for Lando's bounty.  Lando tries to win the money from another contact, Elocin.  It's clear that she has a history with all three scoundrels and, against her better judgement, agrees to play Lando for the credits...after Chewie offers himself as the ante, agreeing to complete ten jobs for Elocin if she wins.  Their game is disturbed, though, when Narin arrives with the Imps, though Chewie, Elocin, and Lando make quick work of them.  

Chewie and Lando escape, and Elocin later sends them the plans, clearly harboring the affection for the scoundrels that Lando hoped she had.

Star Wars:  Yoda #7:  I'll admit I'm just reading this series because I feel like I should.  I like it better than "Star Wars:  Darth Vader," but it isn't all that interesting.  

Guggenheim goes down the well trod path of "size matters not" here as Yoda stumbles upon discovering that the Separatists are building "megadroids."  At least it wasn't the Death Star, which I assumed it was.  That said, that pleasant surprise made me realize the extent to which so many series in the "Star Wars" line are falling back on fleshing out previously told stories instead of telling anything knew.  It stands in contrast to the first few arcs of Aaron's "Star Wars," which were amazingly fresh.  To that end, I have to give Guggenheim credit for breaking the recent pattern.

But it isn't like a story where Anakin and Yoda try to stop a General Grievous plan is remotely new to anyone who watched "The Clone Wars."  Again, it wasn't terrible, but I'm left wondering what the point is.

Eleven-Month-Old Comics! The April 26 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Blade Runner 2039 #3:  As usual, Johnson tells a story where it isn't totally clear - in the best possible way - where we're going and it's definitely unclear if we're going to get anything close to a happy ending.

Ash has two goldfish-eating twins decrypt the disk Hythe gave her, revealing that Niander is trying to create Replicants who can breed.  (One of them refers to the new Replicants as "new Isobels," so I'm not sure Isobel is safe, wherever she is.)

In her penthouse, Chloe reminds us how sharp she is when she figures out Luv isn't there to protect her.  Luv lets Chloe know that it was Chloe's use of her mother's maiden name when she arrived on Earth that threw up the red flag.  Ash arrives and hands Luv the disc, which I initially thought meant she didn't really care about Niander's efforts and just wanted to save Isobel.  Instead, Luv departs to verify the disc, and Ash reveals to Chloe that it's blank.  They bolt in Ash's spinner, but Luv is in pursuit.  Ash crashes the spinner just past the Seawall, and she and Chloe swim to where Taki runs the Railroad.  She informs him that she's closing the Railroad for a while and makes her way home with Chloe.

At home, she learns the Replicants from last issue are still trapped on Earth because the off-world smuggling network has gone to ground.  Freysa and Ash are warmer here, which makes me happy.  Freysa reveals that she knows about the Replicant cop, and Ash tells her that Luv seemed "less human than human" to her.  (Johnson may be setting up some reveal where this breed of Replicant is indeed less human, which seems to track with K's portrayal in "Blade Runner 2049.")  When Ash reveals Niander's experiments in fertility, Freysa pushes her to destroy the disc since no one should have that knowledge.  Ash archly asks, "Not even Replicants?"

Chloe exits the bathroom having shaved her hair to make her look like Rabbit, and it's a really warm moment between the three of them, which, again, makes me happy.  Chloe reveals that Isobel is likely in San Francisco since the original Isobel had family with money there.  Freysa says the Bay is a "dark zone," making entry and exit difficult, and, man, I can't wait to see what the Bay is like after the glory of Vegas in "Blade Runner 2049."

The issue ends with Niander revealing to Luv that he made her a partner better able to navigate the world with information the LAPD gave him:  a Replicant young Ash!

Local Man #3:  The issue starts with Jack attending a book reading, which isn't exactly the way you'd expect this series to start an issue.  It turns out Hodag's former teammate, Stacy Wohl, a.k.a. Frightside, wrote the book.  Stacy's power is that a "hateful, whispering, inky monster from beyond" possesses her, and Jack doesn't find it a coincidence that Stacy is in Farmington the week someone murdered Hodag, particularly since The Fright (Stacy's monster) could perpetrate the crimes against Hodag's body the murderer did.  

Jack shows Stacy Hodag's drawing of the Aphek Engine and wonders if the Desolators were trying to find it.  To Jack's mind, Hodag couldn't join the team due to his condition, and the Desolators iced him given his knowledge.  Stacy laughs and reveals that Hodag made the drawing based on a conversation they had in an online support group, the Constructors, which Hodag established for ex-villains.  But Hodag never got the token because he kept backsliding, "trying to burrow into a quarry...looking for imaginary doomsday devices so he could play villain."  Interestingly, Stacy reveals that Hodag developed an eidetic memory after the accident, even though all his drawings look like a toddler drew them.  Stacy says that she was in town to help Hodak but is now just staying for the funeral.

There's then a hilarious sequence where Jack thanks the metal-detecting priest who watched Pepper for him (after Pepper yet again unexpectedly followed him) by letting him know God is real, even if God is a "weird android thing made out of gold and platinum" and "eats souls."  He then saves said priest from a car hitting him.  

Meanwhile, at Stacy's hotel room, someone attacks her, telling her that he read the parts of her book he was supposed to read.  She admitted in the book that the Fright gets stronger the more scared she is, so it seems like he's trying to kill her to bring out the Fright.

We end with a few quick hits:

• Jack talks to Inga, and he (not unreasonably) thinks they're flirting.  But he crosses a line when he kisses her, which is pretty much Jack to a T.  She doesn't react too badly (though makes it clear it shouldn't happen again).  When thinking about how Inga's husband is basically just guarding the quarry since nothing happens in the town, Jack realizes he needs to go to the quarry to investigate the Hodag mystery.
• At Third Gen HQ, Cutting Edge sends Soft-Kore into Camo Crusader's quarters; as he pulls a huge cross, she shows him a headline about Jack saving the priest.  
• At Stacy's hotel, a maid discovers Stacy's body as the Fright appears ready to enter our dimension.

As expected, we're going interesting places that didn't seem obvious at the series' start.

Star Wars:  Darth Vader - Black, White, and Red #1:  I haven't been a fan of the previous iterations of this idea, to the point where I felt like an idiot buying this one.  But I'm happy to say this one is much better, perhaps because Vader lends himself so well to the concept.

Aaron's story is the series' marquee event, in part because it's going to run through each issue.  If I'm guessing correctly, "Doctor Sendvall" helped transform Anakin into Vader, a fact Sendvall's son leverages to lure Vader into an ambush.  Vader is aware that the ambush is coming but mistakes Sendvall as a Rebel, which he assures Vader he isn't.  Vader is impressive as usual, using a Stormtrooper as a battering ram and severing the hands of several of the attackers and then using said hands to continuing firing the weapons they're holding.  (It's a little...much.)  Vader corners Sendvall, who utters "Padmé...help me."  (It's part of the reason I assume his father was in the room when Vader uttered those words.). Vader is enraged, and Sendvall uses his rage against him, triggering a device that incapacitates Vader.  He then calls someone to say that he's bringing Vader to the chop shop.  That'll go well.

Although I don't know who Momoko's character is, she dreams of Vader chasing her regardless of what she does to escape, definitely underscoring the story's "Inescapable" title.

The final story does involve rebels, though not the Rebels we know.  A group of Torku residents engage in a suicide mission, planning to use an orbital weapon (I think) to destroy an Imperial base hosting a gathering of some of the Empire's most elite citizens, including Vader.  The rebels sneak in a scientist who can fix the weapon, which they've been sabotaging for a year so the Empire couldn't use it.  Of course, Vader somehow knew their plan, allowing the scientist to fix it and then killing him before he can use it.  It's an interesting story in that it reminds us that not everyone was just waiting for the Rebellion to save them.  But it does lean a little too much into omnipotent Vader for my tastes.

Also Read:  Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures #2

Eleven-Month-Old Comics!: The April 19 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The Forged #2:  Honestly, 13 pages of back matter in the second issue is probably a sign that a series maybe isn't worth the time.

Like many other science-fiction series, the problem here is that the idea is great but the execution isn't.  In a way, this series is sort of like a companion to "A Memory Called Empire," except focused on the front line not imperial ballrooms.

Rucka and Trautmann spend the first dozen pages or so throwing around a lot of almost incomprehensible jargon as Victory and Hap devise a way to save the team from the crashing Her Endless Radiant Triumph.  The main problem is that the Triumph's T-space engines will crack upon crashing, creating an emp blast that'll knock out their communications.  For reasons that aren't clear to me, Victory decides rebooting the suits will somehow protect them from the blast (which I'm not sure is how emp blasts work) but directs E.V.I.L. to flood the suits with kinetic energy-absorption gel before it goes off-line.

After surviving the impact, the team reassambles itself.  Rucka and Trautmann engage in Hickmanesque behavior here, equating "confusion" with "interesting."  For example, Hap investigates some sort of goo, which, if I had to guess, came from the Triumph.  Her assessment that the "heat-tolerance before dissolution is off" clearly means it's going to matter later.  It took me reading the Gamma entry in the back matter to realize that Hap shares some sort of symbiotic relationship with the drone, Spot, which is why Victory trusts Spot when it answers on Hap's behalf.

At any rate, the team arrives at a lifeboat, where they realize the mission isn't a black box but a person.  Harpo and Pusher argue over which way they should go until Jo finds a literal arrow built from the lifeboat's crash debris. Something then bites off her arm, and we then enter into a tedious mash-up of "Dune" and "Starship Troopers."

After defeating round after round of bugs, the team finds the abandoned al-Ashanti Terraforming installation.  The team is surprised when the doors open for them and the installation is still powered.  They're able to take off their helmets due to the artificial atmosphere, and Victory has a memory appear from her conversation with the Cassandra and tells another Cassandra she can stop hiding.

The Cassandra's presence shocks the team, and she's pissed they're behind schedule.  That said, she's confident they can rearm for the "initial attack."  Victory tries to tell her that they're safe from the bugs, but the Cassandra interrupts, telling her that she isn't worried about them.  She reveals that they're there to protect her because, after 10,000 years, they've made first contact and "they mean to kill every last one of us."

In other words, meh.  It isn't terrible, but I can't say it's particularly interesting.  If I didn't have a 300+ issue backlog, I'd consider hanging in there, but I think I'm done.

No/One #2:  This issue flows a little better than the first one, as Higgins and Buccellato lean into “The Wire” vibe and make it a journalism and police procedural.

Chief Mixon arrives at Ben’s house to take him to work on his first day back in the office, though it isn’t as friendly as you’d expect, as he’s doing so to encourage Ben to retire.  Ben refuses, since he’s committed to finding Michael’s murderer.   Mixon points out Ben is the assistant chief for ops, so it isn’t even his job to do that.  Their conversation is interrupted, though, when Mixon is notified that Richard Roe struck again.  

Walt leads the Detectives Singh and Harper to a parking garage where Three Rivers University’s football coach, Nathan Cade, lies dead, with four shots to the chest and an extra casing on the floor.  Singh complains about Julia’s podcast getting out word about Roe’s modus operandi, and Walt notes that Roe left another note, this time saying just, “Clarity.” 
 
Outside the scene, Walt refuses to give Julia any more information, since the brass (particularly Mixon) is pissed that she’s out there putting them on blast.  Julia calls Teddy, who celebrates the fact Julia can’t get the scoop because it means the Powers That Be are paying attention.  But Julia is pissed when Teddy suggests that they’ll start having Alejandro do the reporting, reducing Julia to playing the role of the public face of the paper's coverage of the No/One story.  

As Walt returns from his smoke break, he spots No/One lurking in the garage and engages in a chase.  A helicopter quickly arrives to assist, and No/One uses some sort of taser device to take out one cop before successfully fleeing.  It’s all very Batman.
 
Later, Ben visits Aaron, who is truly as asshole.  Aaron declines to confirm if Cade was on his list but claims he wasn’t responsible for Cade's murder.  He notes that he thought Roe might go after Cade, though, after someone sent him Three Rivers’ football schedule with what Aaron thought was Cade’s autograph.  When he saw Roe’s note from last issue, though, he realized the same person wrote Cade’s name, since it had the same weird E.  He informs Ben that he told Alejandro from the Ledger about it when he visited because Ben was in the hospital.  Ben asks Aaron how No/One knew to save him, and Aaron says simply that he doesn’t know who No/One is because he would’ve been there for Michael had he known.  (I don’t believe that for a minute.)  Like last time, Aaron wants his dad to beg for his help, and Ben blames the situation on Aaron, who tries to blame Ben for it, unbelievably, since he was with Michael on the day he was killed.  (“I was wondering how long it would take to blame me for this.”  JFC, dude.)
 
At Teddy’s office, Ben and Teddy call in Alejandro, and Teddy is furious that he didn’t tell him about Cade.  (I can’t believe Alejandro didn’t run to him immediately when he found out Roe killed Cade.  Is Alejandro No/One or Roe maybe?)  Alejandro explains that he had spoken with a former player, Chuck Tate, who accused Cade of a “pay to play” scheme, though Alejandro notes it didn’t seem on the level of the four people No/One doxxed.  Alejandro tells them that he thought Tate had more he wanted to say but wasn’t ready yet.  Ben is clearly going to pay Tate a visit.
 
Later, at police headquarters, Mixon is for some reason forcing Ben to attend the press conference to discuss Cade's murder.   In the mens’ room, Ben runs into Senator Kemp, the victim who survived No/One's attack.  Kemp wants Ben to plead guilty to…something so he can then work with Kemp to go after No/One.  Kemp grandstands at the press conference, where, for some reason, Ben announces his retirement.

P.S.:  I listened to the first podcast.  I applaud the creators for trying something new.  That said, the acting is a little awkward if you listen to a lot of podcasts, since it's too expository.  Rachel Maddow doesn't give us her life story when she starts a podcast.  (Actually, she kind of does, now that I think about it, so maybe I'm too harsh here.)  

At any rate, it's relevant for two pieces of information that we get that I don't think we've gotten in the comic.  

First, we learn that the fifth "bullet" in Roe's gun is a blank, explaining why the cops find five casings at each crime scene.  Teddy (played by Patton Oswalt) explains that it's an homage to the random blank that firing squads often use.  He also explains that Roe had to pop out the casings physically given the nature of his .38 Special.  Singh alludes to this conversation in the issue, when he complains that everyone now knows Roe's modus operandi due to the podcast.  

Second, the tip that led the cops to Roe at the Carrie Blast Furnace also revealed to the cops that Roe uses a blank.  It means that, unless Roe outted himself to the cops, someone who knew Roe's modus operandi provided the tip.  

In addition to this new information, the authors may have mentioned it in passing in the series, but the podcast underscores more clearly the fact that the district attorney suspiciously never brought charges against anyone No/One doxxed.  It's clear that we have some sort of story there.

Star Wars:  Sana Starros #3:  Oof, a lot happens in this issue.
 
First, we learn that Deva Lompop is Grammy Thel’s auntie because she made a promise a long time ago to protect the Starros family as if it were her own.  (Given Deva looks about 20, I’m guessing she’s older than she looks if Grammy Thel is calling her auntie.)  Sana is outraged to learn that her brother, Phel, swiped a set of journals when he visited Grammy Thel.  We also learn that Phel is an Imp, which explains why he and Sana aren’t on speaking terms.  Sana storms to the bar to order a drink, where she meets a hot blue-skinned dish named Lanitra who invites her to her ship.  Deva appears and informs the pair that they leave for Hon-Tallos in three hours, apparently to steal a rancor.

 

At Wild Wollina’s Animal Adventures park, Grammy Thel and Mevera try to talk to Sana, but she isn’t having it:  she informs them that she’s leaving once they get Aryssha back because they once again chose Phel (because they allowed him to visit, I think).  To clear the park, Lanitra frees a three-headed monster called a hragscythe; Sana saves a kid from getting crushed in its stampede, and Deva uses her poison to put it to sleep.  Deva hilariously has Sana douse herself in juvenile rancor urine so the rancor thinks that she’s its cub.  (When Sana asks why Deva isn’t doused in urine, she remarks that rancors can sense predators.  God, I love her.) 

 

Wollina arrives along with a bounty hunter named Marl Jibs who’s apparently looking for Mevera, which is confusing because I initially thought he was there helping Wollina instead of them coincidentally arriving at the same spot at the same time, as I think happened.  (I don't know if we know why Jibs wants Mevera but details at the this point.)  Deva takes on Wollina as Jibs chases Sana, who eventually realizes she’s riding a rancor and has it attack him.  

Deva re-appears after her “productive chat” with Wollina, and they board the rancor into a crate.  Deva apparently helped Wollina build the park years ago, and we learn Lanitra is part of the Genetian Collective, a syndicate with a heart of gold because it wanted Deva’s help in shutting down the park.  (Lanitra declares, “Down with tyranny!” as they discuss the park’s closing.)  But Sana puts two and two together and realizes the Collective now owes Deva a favor, which she’ll use to get back Aryssha. 

 

Unfortunately, Jibs apparently swiped Grammy Thel in the chaos, which is impressive given the fact a rancor smacked him moments earlier.  He’s threatening to kill her if Mevera doesn’t surrender in 24 hours.  Also Ehllo and Phel discover Aryssha eavesdropping on people trying to open one of the aforementioned journals.  Ruh-roh!

 

It’s a fun issue, but, honestly, it’s a little too much.  After only two issues, it’s really hard to keep everyone and all the intersecting plots straight.  Hopefully we won't add any more characters or plots in the next few issues.

Star Wars:  Yoda #6:  As I've mentioned, my main complaint about the way Yoda is treated in the prequel era is that no one acknowledges that he had a Sith Lord (or two) sitting right next to him for many years.  Houser does a better job than pretty much anyone else of presenting that reality, as Yoda is forced to acknowledge that he failed young Gheyr when she leaves the Temple to prevent Krrsish's vision from becoming a reality.  Yoda chastises Dooku when he discovers Dooku knew about Krrsish's vision, but Dooku correctly points out the Order is often harsh on seers, such as it was with his friend Sifo-Dyas (i.e., the clones' creator).  In the end, Yoda is left with Krrsish - the one who acted from a place of anger and fear - as he watches the thoughtful Dooku and promising Gheyr leave Coruscant.  Yoda knows that he was wrong in the future that serves as this issue's framing device - as he waits for Luke on Dagobah - but I wonder if he knew he was wrong then.

Eleven-Month-Old Comics!: The April 12 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Black Cloak #4:  Well, we're definitely getting somewhere here.

Phaedra and Pax's encounter with the mermaids goes poorly, as the mermaids' ability to speak directly into their minds leaves them disoriented (as if they're really high).  McClaren is great here, switching to watercolors to show how Phaedra and Pax interpret the mermaids' language.  Sash asks Sabri to protect Phaedra and Pax as he once asked the mermaids to protect him, and Sabri responds that he is a friend while they aren't.  Hilariously, a mermaid behind Sabri simply says, "Eat." 

Sabri is enraged when Sash says that they're there for justice for Yanha, and her scream sends the three of them flying.  Pax figures out a way to block out the noise (pushing "it" to the base of his skull), quipping that he finally found the benefit of having a screaming baby at home.  Sash wants them to leave, but Phaedra makes a direct appeal to Sabri.  She agrees to show them an image of the person who dumped the body if they open their minds.  When they see who it was, they both comment, "Oh, fuck off."  Phaedra tells Sabri that she's sorry for her loss, and Sabri devastatingly simply replies, "Yanha was love."

It seems likely the Queen's henchman from last issue dumped the body.  Phaedra and Pax discuss how to proceed, with Pax noting that Sabri's information isn't actionable at court but might be enough to convince one of the elves to confess.  He also checks his phone-ish device and learns that the Court refused to let them have access to Freyal's quarters.

As they return to the station, they discuss the crime.  They're stuck on the fact that someone poisoned Freyal and someone else stabbed him with a dracona dagger.  Pax suggests that Freyal took the poison because he knew his mother and her henchmen were coming to kill him and Phaedra would find two murder "weapons," so to speak, which would make her suspicious.  But they realize they're missing something because the poison also killed Dace, and the Queen and her men likely didn't know she injected the poison because they wouldn't have fed her to the mermaids if they did.

Before they can do anything, though, they hear an All Points Flash (APF) seeking them for questioning in Freyal's murder.  (Interestingly, Pax is dubbed, "Theron II of Pax."  Are all Black Cloaks royals?)  They go their separate ways and agree to meet in two hours.

Phaedra goes home and has sex with Nida, who convinces her to tell her the full story of her exile.  It's devastatingly sad.

Seventeen-year-old Phaedra is trying on wedding dresses with her mother and seemingly intentionally asks not to see backless ones, purposefully provoking the conversation about her parentage with her mother.  Her mother confesses that she had an affair with a dracona after Phaedra's father returned from the war a shell of a man.  She had hoped Phaedra's was her father's but confesses that Phaedra is so like her biological father that she's always known the truth.

Something about the conversation makes Phaedra realize that she really can't marry Freyal, which I have to wonder why she didn't realize that earlier, since she clearly suspected that her father was dracona.  Either way, the revelation that she's half-dracona "would be a death sentence" for her mother, possibly for her, and "maybe for the entire Essex line."  After making Mister Starlight promise to take care of Freyal (a reminder that we're dealing with a 17-year-old girl), Phaedra tells Freyal that she's always loved him:  "It was always real for me.  You will always be my best friend, no matter where we are."  She then goes to the Queen and breaks off the engagement, knowing that it'll lead to her exile.

In the present, Phaedra explains that her exile is why her brother Hadrian hates her, since House Essex fell in status.  However, the revelation that she was part dracona could've led to its destruction, since Phaedra's father was already dead (and couldn't bear more children).  Nida sadly notes that Phaedra was the only one who lost anything, but Phaedra beautifully looks at Nida and comments about what she's found.

She later meets Pax at the Seventh Sign in the Narrows.  (I thought it was where they found Freyal's body, but, upon re-reading it, I'm not so sure.)  Phaedra reveals that the toxicology screen Nida sent her shows that Freyal could've died before he was stabbed.  She suggests that Dace took the poison with Freyal because she loved him and didn't want to live without him.  Pax agrees it's possible but messy, and they realize they really need something more than Sabri's word.  So Phaedra brings Pax to the house of Phinneas II of Thane, the "highest-raking dracona in all of Kiros"...and, of course, Phaedra's biological father.

Know Your Station #5:  Well, it's an ending, I guess.  Unsurprisingly, it turns out St. Brigid is the murderer.  Her motive is at least interesting, as she did it because she's an artist.  Ten percent of her server capacity is dedicated to image analysis, but the wealthy residents were making her steal other people's art.  We cut to St. Brigid's memories of the residents wanting to create collages with their images, like putting their face on the "Reagan volcano."  The issue ends with Elise and Marin using the residents' funds to create an oasis for the employees while the residents are forced into serving as St. Brigid's art.  It's like Gailey got one too many commissions and imagined how she'd get revenge.  I can't say I enjoyed this series, but it's different, I'll give it that.

Red Zone #2:  This issue is as great as I hoped this series would be, as Bunn brings out a "Red"-like cast of characters jumping at the chance to take on their old enemy Randall Crane.  Crane's only accomplishment other than staying alive is getting in touch with Deidre, his (now deceased) escort team's woman in the chair, who starts working on a plan to extract him and Nika from Russia.  But they have to escape from his now-robotic former enemy, Nikita Vasiliev, and, unbeknownst to Crane, a sniper with him in her sights.  Does she happen to be yet another former lover?  Of course she does.

Star Wars:  Bounty Hunters #33:  Surprising no one, the team isn't doing particularly well.  Zuckuss barely got the Edgehawk to land at the Depatar spaceport in one piece, and Bossk and Valance threaten to break it entirely with their fighting.  After getting For-Elloem to break up the fight, T'onga announces that she's taking For-Elloem with her to pick up a hyperdrive while they all repair the ship.  But Inferno Squad is waiting and take out the pair quickly.  Commander Versio dresses herself as T'onga to infiltrate the ship, so next issue should go...well, even worse for the team.  Meanwhile, IG-88 arrives to take out Vulkorah and her associates just as she resigned as the Unbroken Clan's chief since she apparently knew her subordinates were going to kill her.  As such, he kills everyone else, since his job was to take out the Clan's leadership.  Heh.  Honestly, I'm kind of hoping Vulkorah joins the team.