Dawnrunner #2: The art in this series is beautiful except, ironically, for the battle sequences, which are almost impossible to follow.
The day after Dawnrunner's debut, Anita meets with her daughter, Annie, while wearing a Hazmat suit. Eventually, other people in Hazmat suits approach and tell Anita that it's time for Annie to return to the "hypo-u," because they can't risk exposure anymore. I initially thought they were protecting Annie from Anita, but then Anita leaves the facility without a Hazmat suit. Outside, she finds Lestern in his car, and he offers her a ride to campus. He asks about Annie, and Anita exposits that Annie has a disease that tricks her body into attacking itself and that it likely came from the Tetza.
But Anita sees through Lestern's fake concern and asks why he's there. He tells her they lost contact with her for four minutes and eighteen seconds, and the world came close to losing its shit during that time. In a flashback, Anita recalls that she was unable to control Dawnrunner while stuck in Ichiro's memories and the Tetza was winning. Then Ichiro jumpstarted a car in his memories and, when the engine sparked, it awakened Anita and she brutally took down the Tetza. But, when Lestern again prompts her to tell him what happened during the time they lost contact, she simply responds that it's his people's responsibility to find out what happened.
At the lab, Cat tells Anita that Lestern has managed to turn the debacle into a PR success, telling the people that Anita is so good she put on a bit of a show for everyone. Anita tells Cat that she can't really remember anything, just flashes of "things, faces, images." Then, Cat drops the bomb: the Dawnrunner's innovation is that Cordonware has been preserving the brains of deceased combatants since the Tetza arrived and it used Ichiro's mind as Dawnrunner's processors, reducing the lag between the human pilot initiating an action and the IK undertaking it. Anita asks if she can enter Dawnrunner again, just to connect to the neural link with Ichiro, and Cat rules out the possibility.
After Anita leaves, Murali chases her, telling her that he can connect her so long as he gets to download everything she senses, since it represents "untapped data on the Tetza from the contact event." Anita agrees and finds herself engaged with Ichiro more seamlessly: he recognizes she's there and they're able to talk to each other. She follows him (so to speak) as he heads to the research facility to find his family. In despair over the devastation he finds, Ichiro gives up hope, but Anita encourages him to keep looking. Suddenly, his children emerge from under some rubble.
This issue definitely rights the ship quite a bit. Other than the incomprehensible battle scenes, it's an intriguing story. I'm still not sure I'd hang in there longer than five issues, but I'm happy to hang in there three more issues to see what happens.
Duke #5: Oof, we are going places, people.
This mini-series seamlessly sets up the "Destro" one, as Duke accuses Destro of using a robot who transformed from a jet (i.e., Starscream) to kill Frost and thereby informs Destro of the Transformers' existence. Destro offers Duke a place at his side, which I initially thought Duke was going to take thanks to great panel sequencing on Williamson's part. But Duke refuses the offer by headbutting Destro, a somewhat futile move given Destro's helmet but one that underscores Duke's grit.
Destro leaves his HQ and orders his minion, Scrap-Iron, to burn it to the ground as he also leaves Duke to survive a fight with a Battle Action Trooper (B.A.T.). Duke manages to defeat the B.A.T., displaying his combat genius as he improvises moves and weapons to stay in the fight. As he recalls Frost's death, Duke amps up his ferocity and brutally destroys the B.A.T.
With the public thinking Duke dead (given his presence in the destroyed M.A.R.S. HQ), Hawk admits to Duke at his bedside that he manipulated him into going after Destro and M.A.R.S. Before Duke can tell him to go fuck himself, Hawk brings him to the Pit, where Clutch is working on creating the installation that we all now know. Hawk also shows Duke security footage of Optimus Prime and asks Duke to lead the team that he's assembling to get more information about the Transformers. Duke agrees but modifies the mission to destroying them.
Again, this series was excellent in no small part because Williamson really centers Duke's determination and pain. He isn't just some superhuman hero, but a man on a quest to avenge his friend. I can't wait to see where we go from here.
Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures II #4: This issue is better than the last one but, oof, it still isn't great.
The kids wait with Jarlaxle on the Luskan shore as a storm blows into the city. Hank is concerned that Drizzt and Dungeon Master are late, but Jarlaxle cautions him against taking the Flyin' Maiden to find them. Based on Hank's comment about "home," Jarlaxle asks Hank to explain their situation to him, which he does. Jarlaxle wonders why someone as powerful as Dungeon Master can't just send them home and then comments, wryly, that "those with power rarely use it to help others without expecting something in return." (He humorously notes Minsc and Boo are the exception.)
Diana encourages Sheila to stop wondering if Bobby is mad at her and actually talk with him, which she does. It prompts a reconciliation, as Diana pledges to treat him more like an adult and Bobby acknowledges that she's going to worry about him no matter how old he is. As the storm worsens, Bobby demands that they take the Maiden to find Dungeon Master, but Jarlaxle pulls a fast one, noting the Maiden is the price for his help. Hank notes that he got all of Wrathun's treasure (did he?), but Jarlaxle is unmoved. The gang gets ready to attack him.
Before Bobby can bodyslam Jarlaxle, Guenhwyvar tackles him for kisses and snuggles and Drizzt arrives. Drizzt notes that the kids ridding Luskan's shores of Wrathun was a fair price for Jarlaxle's help, and Jarlaxle tells him he'd kill anyone who said that to him other than Drizzt. Then, they shake like bros. Yes, it's totally random.
Anyway, Dungeon Master is dying, and he's apparently sussed out Venger as the culprit. "He has found a way to siphon my power to add to his own." Does anyone explain that? No. Whatever. Let's just ride this cart to the end.
Of course, Venger appears, and Presto figures out Dungeon Master's riddle means that he can using Wrathun's healing staff to steal back Dungeon Master's power and Venger's power. He then infuses both powers into Dungeon Master, who uses them to open the portal for the kids to return home.
[Sigh. Prepare yourself, here.] Venger informs the team that Dungeon Master and Venger will die if they enter the portal as the portal consumers magic. (Given the endless number of spells that allow walking between worlds, this explanation makes no sense.) Dungeon Master confirms Venger's assertion and says he's willing to sacrifice himself. Eric — Eric — then says no because Dungeon Master is part of their team. Fine. Whatever.
Anyway, Jarlaxle takes Venger to a Luskan prison, Minsc and Boo go with Drizzt to Iceland Dale to battle ice trolls, and the kids agree to help some kid who suddenly appears asking for help to rid his village of ankheg.
I wanted this series to do so well, but the random developments in issue #3 and this one were serious disappointments. Oh, well. I'll still probably buy a sequel.
If You Find This, I'm Already Dead #3: Oof. I didn't see where we were going here!
Robin informs us that the man at the center of all things is named Brand and that he's been on Terminus for five years. You initially think she's learned that from her conversation with Brand, but it becomes clear later that Robin came to Terminus with that knowledge.
Brand exposits his origin story as they walk. He was part of the expeditionary team that first arrived on Terminus. The Skrulls, whom he calls "Dirt Eaters," captured him and then tortured and brainwashed him and his teammates. Robin informs us that Brand lost his mind rather than submit to the brainwashing and killed his teammates. In fact, it isn't even clear if the Dirt Eater really tried to brainwash him or if he simply snapped in the face of their "inhuman...customs." That said, we do see in his memory the Dirt Eaters plucking an eye from his head, so it isn't hard to see why he lost his mind.
Robin tries to draw out Brand's humanity, telling him that he was known for his intellect, that the military called him the "warrior-scientist." Brand explains his background in genetics allowed him to create the Prongs (i.e., the Tuning Forks). Since "all anyone wants is to feel superior to someone else," he used the Prongs as his own personal army.
Robin tells us that Brand continued to ramble, including about making her his queen. A Prong takes her to a cell, and she says something in alien. She must've convinced the Prong of whatever she was saying, because he hits a button and she falls into an underground river. She then reveals that the military asked her to find and kill Brand. She refused but hypothesizes that the military gave everyone else on her team the same mission.
Traveling through the sewers, she finds the creature who previously digested her in issue #2, who I initially thought was Terminus in that issue. She somehow realizes that she should attempt to bond with it, and, in so doing, we see glimpses of her past: for example, I'm pretty sure she became a war correspondent after losing her family in a bombing of some sort. For her part, she realizes the creature is one of the gods originally sent to Terminus for battle.
Now bonded, she and the creature rise as one. Brand sees the threat and enters the god that he himself created, and we get a good ol' fashioned kaiju battle. But the battle awakens other gods, who join Robin in the fight. After defeating Brand, the gods excess their gratitude for letting them fight one last time and open a portal for Robin to return home before resuming their sleep.
In the epilogue, Robin reveals that society fractured after she told her tale. Knowing an alien race existed largely caused humanity to lose its faith in religion, at least as they existed at the time. Some in society believe her; some don't. Some want her dead; others see her as a messiah. Robin reflects on the irony that she learned that gods do exist, but most of the ones she found are dead.
Overall, Kindt somehow told an incredibly complicated story over only three issues. Usually in these situations, I'm left feeling like we needed more issues, but Kindt really nailed the pacing here. I definitely recommend.
Star Wars: Jango Fett #2: This issue is fun because Jango is pretty evenly matched, making it unclear which bounty hunter — him, Aurra Sing, or Vigor Struk — is going to find the Hope of Glee Anselm first.
On Level 1313 of Coruscant, the "heart of the black market," Jango enters an office to find a group of Anselmi speaking with an information broker. The Anselmi leader tells Jango that they're on a secret operation to recover the Hope and can't leave behind any witnesses. Jango then thanks the Anselmi for standing so close together and uses the Whistling Bird to eliminate them.
Jango tells the broker that he's been working over fences to get a lead (which we apparently saw in "Star Wars: Revelations (2023)" #1 though I don't remember that), but he's got nothing. The broker tells him that they picked up a recording of a ship leaving Jaloria after the heist, when the ports were shut. Jango takes the recording and tells the broker to consider it a fair trade for sparing their life. As Jango boards Slave 1, Aurra Sing tags him with a tracer after Judicial Huijari tells her not to kill Jango.
Fairok of the Nautolans contacts Jango while he's flying Slave 1 and tells him that he's calling off his contract, but Jango reminds him that only the Republic can do that. He then cuts off Fairok to speak with Kligson (!), who identified the ship that left Jaloria as a garbage scow of the type only used on Hallitron-7 in the Jalor Sector.
On Hallitron-7, Jango shakes down Renzoh Silliace, a guy who works in the junkyard for the Blood Oath Syndicate and who confirms that he was paid a lot to transport the thief and the Hope. But Renzoh tells Jango it was a double-cross — whoever paid the thief planned on killing her. Since the thief was just a kid, Renzoh decided to help her escape. Before Renzoh can say more, Vigor Struk arrives. Meanwhile, Aurra heads into Renzoh's office while Huijari heads to where Jango and Vigor are fighting.
Vigor is giving Jango a run for his money, and Renzoh flees the scene — only for Huijari, surprisingly, to kill him. Jango calls Slave 1 to save him, and Aurra finds Huijari and tells him that the thief left Hallitron-7 on a commuter ship to Coruscant but the ship makes supply drops to the "remote mining colony of Roxuli," an excellent place to hide On Slave 1, Jango is frustrated that he has no leads only for someone, presumably the thief, to send him a message to meet them on Roxuli.
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