If You Find This, I'm Already Dead #2: I was skeptical of this issue as I read it, as I wasn't particularly buying Kindt's assertion that certain behaviors and stories are universal. But the revelation at the end of the issue that a human sits at Terminus' makes all that make sense (including the homages to popular culture that I mentioned in my review of issue #1).
Robin has managed to find shelter and identify the food that doesn't make her sick. Her next step is trying to learn the language, which eventually leads her to a religious text and thus to priests. She comes to realize Terminus' religion is based on a pantheon of ancient gods who created Terminus as a battleground, "a kind of 'Olympics' where the gods could fight to the death." It's here where we start seeing the parallels to Earth, with the religion's creation myth mirroring many Earth ones (though, instead of a flood of water, it's blood).
Eventually, Robin realizes that it's a death cult, but it's too late, as the priests throw her into a portal. It turns out Terminus is a living creature, and she's a blood sacrifice. As she moves through Terminus' digestive system, Robin gains an awareness and survives since she isn't made of the same organic materials as Terminus' other denizens.
Suddenly, she's kidnapped by the Tuning Forks who fly her to an amazing complex, with a humanoid sculpture atop it. (Think Mount Rushmore looming over Santorini.) The Forks bring her to the wheels that the Skrulls walk like hamsters to power Terminus. Robin reflects on how similar this world is to Earth: "Can it be that atrocity, exploitation, greed, lust for power...aren't just humanity's traits? They are universal. Literally, universally universal."
As a group of Skrulls attack her, a shaman-looking Skrull saves her. Robin comes to realize the shaman plans on throwing people at the fence that keeps them penned, and Robin tries to convince him not to do so, since it's electrified. But the Shaman turns out correct: the fences can't kill everyone, and they get over the wall.
As they make their way through catacombs filled with gardens and sculptures, Robin realizes that she fulfills some part of the plan, though the shaman doesn't have a word for her role. Eventually she realizes that word is "human" because she arrives in a sanctum sanctorum to find a grizzled man sitting on a wire-connected throne.
Again, I found myself happy with this outcome, since it explains some of the coincidences that bothered me. You don't often get that satisfaction in a comic, but I'll take it.
Kill Your Darlings #7: Oof, Parker and Sheridan aren't fucking around here.
The Witch has captured two Rosewood denizens and tied them to stakes, so you know it's going to turn out well. She casts a spell ("Change. To bend at will. From dream to dream."), and the denizens mutate into her parents. Their irises are white, though the Witch's mother recognizes "Eleanor." The Witch tells her that she isn't Eleanor anymore and the woman isn't her mother. Setting them alight, she says, "But your pain is enough." Seriously, someone needs therapy.
The Witch tells Evil that this world is malleable, bending at will "with a firm hand." She expresses shock that a girl created it and informs Evil it's time to discard his "brittle form." On cue, Elliott awakens in a jail cell, covered in blood. He's horrified when Rose confirms that he did everything he saw. Rose tells him that he didn't kill those people, just like she didn't kill her mother. Elliott tells her that he was - and still is - in agony due to Evil tunneling into his brain. Before they can escape, the prison door opens and the Witch calls to Rose to come to her.
We learn the Witch believed herself to be the last of her kind after they were hunted to extinction during the Colonial era hysteria. (It's an interesting proposition, the idea that the hunters were successful...almost.) The Witch tells Rose she clung to life due to "spite and hatred," but "a heart can only endure so much tragedy." She then reveals to Rose that her mother took away her final hope, murdering her grandson. Elliott confirms that it's true based on what he saw in Evil's head. The Witch then confirms that she cursed her to years of "torment and misery."
Rose is appalled that the Witch and her servant Evil are behind all their suffering, though the Witch says that it isn't Rose's story, it's hers. (Seriously, get thee to therapy, girl.) The Witch tells Rose that she would've save her from her life of misery if she would've known she was a witch and exults that they can be free in Rosewood, "this realm of granted desires." Rose tells her to go fuck herself at the idea that they'd work together, since she's the reason Rose's been a victim since she was eight years old.
The Witch grabs Rose's arm, and suddenly we see the Witch's younger self in the space where Rose used to go when the Witch was in control. Rose realizes that she has Eleanor trapped in that mental space and knocks her unconscious. Wallace arrives, and Rose grabs the Witch's spellbook and they bolt.
At the Sanctuary, the denizens are getting onto ships, with Wallace explaining Rosewood is only one kingdom in the "greater Wilderlands." (Are there other witches who made these lands?) Rose encounters a crying young tiger cub named Aryll, and Wallace keeps pushing everyone to the boats. On the boat, Rose sees so many more denizens on the docks, and a devastated Wallace said that they did all they could do. Rose sees a sad Annabelle, but suddenly Evil splits the mountain behind the Sanctuary, destroying it.
Devastated at the idea of the denizens dying, Rose holds a terrified Aryll and tells the denizens on the ships that they'll retreat now but they're returning to settle matters. Meanwhile, the Witch looks desperately for something (I think the spellbook) and begins vomiting purple light.
As I said, the dudes aren't fucking around here.
Star Wars: Jango Fett #1: In some ways, this series does a better job telling the sort of bounty hunter story I love than Sacks' "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter" series did. We start with an action sequence, segue into a heist, and then end with an action sequence, picking up clients and enemies along the way.
The issue begins in a "secret gambling den" on Oosalon, where Jango tells Fissure Tozan that he's claiming the bounty that the Crymorah Syndicate put on him over a sabacc debt. Tozan notes that Jango has some big ones on him to enter a den full of assassins to claim that bounty. Of course, Jango shows us why he's so dangerous as he takes out Tozan's cohort and flies out the skylight with Tozan in tow. Sacks also reminds us that Jango is an asshole when he unnecessarily throws a thermal detonator, killing everyone in the den, despite the fact most of them were just gambling.
Meanwhile, on Jaloria, a bored Repubic diplomat is making a terrible speech about the Republic supporting the Anselmi and the Nautolans in making peace on Glee Anselm. As a gesture of support, Chancellor Valorum has the Republic Museum turn over one of its most valuable artifacts, the Hope of Glee Anselm. It's a wave with two enormous jewels on it, one the Anselmi's Sacred Firestone of King Skrawll, the other the Nautolans' Leviathan Gem. Of course, masked raiders immediately arrive to steal the Hope.
Later, a broadcast reveals that the Republican guards killed all the thieves save the one who managed to steal the Hope. The dead thieves' armor all self-destructed upon their death, leaving no clues. The broadcast says it's another embarrassment for Valorum, who's struggling to broker an agreement between the Trade Federation and Naboo. (He sure is.)
At Y3-99's Bounty Services on Halmad, Jango turns in Tozan and learns about the bounty the Republic has placed on the Hope. (They can't use the Jedi, because Kit Fisto is Valorum and the Anselmi don't trust them.) Whythree-ninenine sheepishly admits he handed out the bounty to several favorites, and we segue to watching a group of brutish brothers celebrating getting the bounty at the Two Blasters Bar on Daiyu. A fellow bounty hunter takes notice, and they spill his drink to warn him not to interfere. (Somehow the guy was able to tell the bounty was "lucrative" from its beeping.) Unsurprisingly, the guy tracks down the brothers after they leave the bar and makes short work of them, announcing himself as Vigor Struk.
Meanwhile, at the Megalox Penitentiary on Megalox Beta in the "Expansion Region," Judicial Huijari bribes the warden to release a prisoner to help the Republic track down a "certain bounty hunter." The prisoner? Aurra Sing.
We then return to Halmad where a group of the armored thieves are doing something to Slave 1. Screaming "For Glee Anselm!", they open fire on Jango. (I guess they aren't just thieves but patriots.) Jango shows off several fancy moves, like throwing some sort of disc on a wall and using it to ricochet a shot into a thief's face. Contemplating Whythree-ninenine's broken body (he got caught in the cross-fire), an annoyed Jango boards Slave I.
Beyond Jango's character in and of himself, the most interesting part about this issue is the obvious mess that is the Republic. First, we have the totally bored diplomat and the incompetent chancellor as signs of the Republic's rot. But we also have some sort of secret conspiracy, because why else would one part of the Republic hire Jango only for another part of the Republic to spring a notorious assassin to go after him? Also I'm not entirely sure why the thieves went after Jango on Halmad unless they're going after all the bounty hunters who took the bounty to find the Hope? I guess we'll see.
Star Wars: Visions - Takashi Okazaki #1: We learn how the Ronin came upon his droid and the droid came upon his hat in this issue; namely, the Ronin slayed the droid's hat-wearing master, and the droid went with him, per a vision the master had.
Initially, the master found the droid in a river after a battle involving TIE Fighters that happened over the village where the master lived. In addition to the master fishing the droid's body from the river, we watch the other villagers scavenge the battle's wreckage, a reminder of the marginal existence that regular people in the Republic eke out every day. The master's fellow villagers later note his improved mood since the droid came into his life, and they all share some laughs.
This fellowship makes it poignant as we watch the village slowly dissolve over time; after ten years it's just the master and his droid. We never learn what kills the villagers, only that the master asks the droid to ensure he's buried with him, a sign, I guess, that even the Sith need community. In fact, one of the most poignant moments I've read in a Star Wars comic is when the master and the droid sit silently at the memorial they've established for this friends.