tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41003232191606575222024-03-17T21:01:14.831-06:00(Un)Timely ComicsI cover a lot of different titles, with some particular attention to the previous runs of "Spider-Man 2099" and "Nova." Welcome back, Richard! Until next time, Miguel.JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.comBlogger2352125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-73643733764339796712024-03-08T06:00:00.108-07:002024-03-08T12:03:02.709-07:00Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The March 1 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Red Zone #1</u>: I honestly don't have too much to say about this issue since it's pretty self-explanatory. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A (handsome as fuck) special ops captain named Simon Crow approaches Professor Randall Crane in his office and tells him that his old lover, <i>prima ballerina assoluta</i> Elena Sidorov, demanded his presence as a condition of her defection. Crane accompanies Crow and his team to Russia and discovers Elena also wants her daughter (allegedly not Randall's) Nika to come with her. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Via Crane's earpiece, Crow agrees, but the enemy arrives. Elena leaps across the table and opens fire on the soldiers, making it clear she wasn't just a ballerina. The enemy takes out Crow and his team as Randall escapes with Nika to an old warehouse, making it clear that he isn't just a professor. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The story is great, but Deodata's art, as always, is the main draw. I've always wished comics told more stories like this one.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars #32</u></b>: Holy shit, the issue is more fucking like it! </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After so many issue of exposition, Soule finally returns to the type of issue where you can hear the characters speaking in the actors' voices in your head.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First things first, it's hard with characters this iconic to make other characters interesting enough that you focus on them, but the banter between the two guards watching Chewie and Lobot is reminiscent of Adam Pally's and Jason Sudeikis' in "The Mandalorian." After discussing the mechanics of Shyriiwook, the pair agree to take Chewie (and Lobot) to Lando since he speaks Shyriiwook. Hilariously, the minute Chewie walks into Lando's cell, he's distracted by the fact that he knows Lando and Amilyn did stuff; according to Lando, "Wookiees always pick up the vibes."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Lando brings Chewie to Blythe to explain his epiphany from last issue about the mural depicting a Nihil path engine, but Blythe dismisses it since he figures, after all these centuries, someone else would've already put two and two together. Blythe warns Lando that hope is dangerous in No-Space. Lando responds that he doesn't believe in hope but does believe in luck. Arguing Chewie arriving in No-Space is the latter not the former, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Lando informs Blythe that the team has a path engine back at the Great Hall. Feeling the first bloom of hope, Blythe agrees to lend them a ship. He refuses to risk his own people, though, so he's only going to send the team. He's going to hold Leia at the Colony, though, so the team doesn't escape No-Space once they get the engine. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We then begin the comedy segment of the show. When the team discovers the condition of the ship - a bucket of bolts where Blythe once let "voidroaches" mate - they're hilarious outraged. Later, Blythe and Leia have a similarly hilarious conversation as she updates him on the galaxy's recent events over the last 35 years. When he asks if the people fight back against the Emperor, Leia quips, "Some." Heh.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the Hall, Luke leaps from the ship to distract the killdroids, prompting Lando to quip, "Just don't know about that kid sometimes." Before Amilyn and Lando leap into the fray, they have a nice moment. Eventually Chewie makes a break for it and grabs the path engine. As the fight continues, Luke gets increasingly more cocky. If he was concerned about his connection with the Force before, he isn't now. However, before the team leaves, he decides to nab the sacred Jedi text, opening the door to a killdroid grabbing his hand and crushing his lightsaber. Uh-oh!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, this issue is the first fun one we've had for a while, with Soule taking the time to show everyone's personality clearly. He also puts them in a barely operational ship, which is basically the only way we know this crowd. It's great stuff.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca #10</u></b>: It was pretty clear from the start of this endeavor that the urn was a McGuffin. As such, the plot isn't really impacted when Greedo turns over the urn to Jabba at the issue's start.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Instead, the real drama happens in the flashback to 36 hours earlier as the various players attempt to escape each other. Han does battle with Tyra aboard the <i>Falcon</i> as Akko opens fire on them, leaving Phaedra to pilot the ship (which she doesn't know how to do). Meanwhile, Chewie and Marshall Vancto battle while Khel, Ooris, and T'onga all open fire on them.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Aboard the <i>Falcon</i>, Han lies and tells Tyra that the urn contained nothing, which Tyra wisely doesn't believe. Chewie breaks free from his fight with Vancto in time to see Khel land a hit on the <i>Falcon. </i>Meanwhile, Vancto gets hold of T'onga and threatens to kill her if Khel and Ooris don't surrender. But Chewie gets the drop on them all and makes a deal to turn over Khel to Vancto if Vancto gets Chewie to the <i>Falcon</i>. Aboard the <i>Falcon</i>, Han eventually knocks out Tyra and takes the controls in time to crash land it safely-ish.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On the ground, Han goes after an escaping Tyra, who taunts him that he's soft given how quickly he jumped at the possibility that Tyra was his dad. As Tyra tells Han that he's too trusting, Han shoots him and he falls from the log where they're standing into the river. Han recalls that Tyra isn't the first father figure who thought that he was soft. (It's a nice callback to "Solo: A Star Wars Adventure.") Han returns to find Akko holding Phaedra at gun point, but Chewie arrives with Vancto and company.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Vancto departs to collect the bounty on Khel for her role in the Galator III heist (which I don't remember, but apparently happened in issue #1), and Han leaves Akko, Ooris, and T'onga stranded like they did to him in issue #7. Later, he buries the neural core where Jabba won't find it and offers to take Phaedra with him to rob Augustus Graves' accounts on Scipio. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends in the present, as Greedo tells a not-surprisingly still alive Tyra that Jabba bought their story but seemed to expect something else in the urn than the charred ronto ashes they put in it. (Instead of 1,000,000 credits, Bib Fortuna earlier suggested he pay Greedo 80,000 credits, which is something for charred ronto ashes, I guess.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The biggest reveal is the end page's assertion that Ajax Sigma, like Optimus Prime, will return. Since I'm reading this issue several months (ahem, a year) late, I'm going to assume the "Star Wars: Dark Droids" event involves him, which makes me more excited about it than I was.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm sad to see this series end, since it was clever and fun. But, it's obvious we have unsettled business here, as Guggenheim never revealed how Tyra knew what he knew about Han's father. <i>Is</i> he Han's father? I'm pretty sure we'll never know, but Han'll go through some heartache nevertheless.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Hidden Empire #4</u></b>: Just like "Star Wars" #32, this issue is an unexpected surprise, as Soule supercharges a story that seemed to have no point into one that seems to explain everything that we know about this galaxy far, far away.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue begins creepily. Vader tells Palpatine that he felt a "great intensity of the Dark Side" in the Fermata Cage, seemingly confirming Qi'ra's assertion that the Cage contains an ancient Sith Lord. Palpatine challenges Vader to a duel and reminds Vader that, per the Rule of Two, only two of them can survive if this Sith Lord emerges. Palpatine expresses admiration for Qi'ra's trap, hilariously quipping, "She will be missed." It's like a Sith "Bless your heart."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Sava the Archivist is frantically flying to a "hidden, ancient place" that I believe (but can't confirm) we've seen before. Sava tells Qi'ra that the place is filled with "<i>both</i> the Dark Side and abundant <i>life</i>" to feed the Cage, which her experiments indicate needs such fuel. Sava tells Qi'ra she's willing to sacrifice her life for the cause, but she'd die before she could fully charge and activate the Cage.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As such, Qi'ra sets in motion her final plan. Deathstick refuses to join the effort, as she isn't a foot solider, though Qi'ra convinces a skeptical Ren to join with the Knights after she observes that taking out the Sith is the only way they won't spend the rest of their lives on the run after attacking Vader's fortess. She tells Cadeliah she likely won't see her again, instructing her to play a message from a disc she hands her in five days if she hasn't heard from her. She then contacts a third entity, though we don't find out who it is in this issue.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the Amaxine Station (the place for which Sava was searching), Sava turns on the Cage. Meanwhile, Qi'ra delivers a rousing speech to the Dawn's troops before they head to the Station. It's in this moment that Soule finally sells everything that he and the other authors have done with Qi'ra, as you realize that we're seeing a separate rebellion against the Empire here. You have to wonder if Leia didn't make a catastrophic mistake not trying harder to bring Qi'ra into the Rebellion's fold when you see the resolve (and resources) she brings to the table here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the Station, Sava is panicked when the <i>Executor</i> arrives. Palpatine taunts Vader by telling him that he can feel his desire to fight the Sith Lord allegedly inside the Cage, in part because he feels the same way. Instead, he isn't an idiot and orders the <i>Executor</i>'s crew to open fire on the Station. Suddenly, the Dawn arrives! These scenes are impressive, as you see just how many people and ships Qi'ra is throwing against the Sith. You also get to see the commitment of the foot soldiers Deathstick so dismissed earlier in the issue as they prepare for the coming fight. The issue ends with Palpatine and Vader arriving at the Station, so a fight they shall have!</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-46516412879590534272024-03-07T06:00:00.183-07:002024-03-07T10:34:04.529-07:00Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 22 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Black Cloak #2</u>: This series is, bar none, the best on the market and everyone should read it now!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We begin with Phaedra on a slab in the morgue. She isn't dead, though. Nida enters as Phaedra awakens and informs her that the assailant stabbed her with a dracona dagger and informs *us* that only draconas are likely to survive assaults from dracona daggers. Dun-dun-DUN! Phaedra mentions off-handedly that someone attacked her at the castle, and Nida interrupts her, shocked, since Phaedra hadn't told her about the attack yet. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Phaedra dismisses the castle attack as "honor bullshit" but notes that the dracona attack was definitely not that.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To explain how she isn't dead, Phaedra recalls that the elves magically healed her after the castle attack, so they could argue the magic persisted and saved her. Nida points out the small pair of wings Phaedra grew suggests she tell everyone the truth. Phaedra refuses, saying people will kill her mother and possibly her father. Nida is enraged that Phaedra has to live her life in exile, fearing "honor killings and retribution at any moment," thus directly tying Phaedra's exile to her heritage. It sounds like she had to leave to keep the secret, but I wonder what the cover story for leaving was. Phaedra tells Nida that she likes her life, but Nida isn't buying it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After Nida leaves, Phaedra realizes that she's next to Freyal's body. Upon inspection, she finds a scar in his tattoo, which the computer diagnoses as probably self-inflected. A tearful Phaedra asks his body why he would do that and laments that he's cold, noting that he always hated the cold.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In a flashback, Phaedra's mother recalls when the tattoos were a solemn rite, which she hated, because she felt bound by it. But she says all the kids think they're cool so they love them. Phaedra replies that she loves Freyal and the tattoo is just a bonus. She realizes though that her mother was saying that she didn't love her father, and her mother slyly tells her that she loved her father more than anything. Phaedra realizes that the stories don't align, but Freyal arrives in time to distract her. They have a lovely moment but, as they kiss, Phaedra feels an itch, not realizing that her nascent wings cause it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Leaving the morgue, Phaedra encounters Pax as he reviews the "lookie-loos" he's had to interview (and accuses Phaedra of almost getting killed just to avoid the interviews.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After interviewing a few lunatics together, they come to Romu and Iona, who I think are two of the hooligans who were at the Lookout last issue. Iona tells Phaedra that they're there because mermaids get a bad rap. Romu tells Phaedra and Pax that he and Iona stayed after the other two hooligans (Jessup and Tomig) left. Apparently if the wind is right you can hear the mermaids, which Romu describes as a test of wills. As they watched (Romu says they "do really cool stuff"), a figure in a "long, dark hooded cloak" floated to the beach carrying a body. Romu then saw a flash of light, and the body was gone and the figure was already at the wall leaving. Iona tells Phaedra that she saw the "big flash of gold light," but Romu had the spyglass so she can't confirm everything else other than that she saw a figure.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Suddenly, a noise signaling "ten ticks until the Brownout" happens, and Iona and Romu panic, telling the detectives that they have to get home before their parents get mad. After the kids leave, Pax notes that their figure didn't have wings so he assumes it used magic to float.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At home, Phaedra realizes that she isn't alone, and three very well dressed humans reveal themselves. The woman is surprised Phaedra senses them since they were "well cloaked." Phaedra tells them that she knows who they are: the woman is Elea Veris, and the men are Galal III of Veris and Aldric II of Solas. Phaedra describes them as the three most powerful humans in Kiros. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Galal is apparently the next in life for the throne now that Freyal is dead, which is an interesting political arrangement. Phaedra notes that it would shift power from the elves to humans for the first time. Galal tells Phaedra that they want their names cleared so they don't ascend the throne under a scandal, and Phaedra notes that the Queen is still alive and will outlive them all. Galal responds with a muted, "Of course," instantly putting our suspicion on them (particularly given that they're magic users). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">When Phaedra asks what they want, Galal responds that they don't want anything from her: they want to give her a "nice juicy lead." Next, Phaedra is exiting her apartment and calling Pax to meet her at the Trees, where he apparently already is. She passes through a beautiful gate warning non-fliers to proceed with caution and takes a ferris wheel-like elevator into the Trees. Cryptically, the issue ends with Phaedra saying to the camera (if you will), "Let's see what you can tell me <i>yourself</i>, Freyal."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As I mentioned last issue, the world-building here is spectacular. Thompson has created a world so full of detail that it feels impossible that we'd ever come to grasp its full historical, political, and social realities, even in 100 issues. Moreover, we get most of this information not through expository monologuing but through character development. Moreover, McLaren's love of the story is clear in each line she draws and color she paints.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> Again, I can't recommend it enough.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dragon Age: The Missing #2</u></b>: I don't particularly remember Solas as turning people to stone, but I might've glossed over that detail after learning that he was the elven god responsible for creating the Fade. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But it's a relevant piece of data, since Varric and Harding arrive at Lady Crysanthus' estate in Vyrantium to discover her petrified (and the Antaam sieging Vyrantium). After shaking down Crysanthus' valet, Varric and Harding discover a secret room showing her efforts to help the Venatori make a strike against the Imperium. (I'm assuming she'd benefit from a Venatori-led Imperium.) She and the Venatori sought the Crucious Stone, some sort of elven magical artifact in the Arlathan forest, where only a few Dalish tribes reside. It seems clear now that the invitation we saw at the end of last issue is one Crysanthus sent the Venatori and Solas intercepted. To Arlathan we go!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Local Man #1</u></b>: I picked up this series because I loved Seeley's work on "Grayson" and "Nightwing," and I'm thrilled I did. Like Seely, I was a 15 year old (well, 16 year old) kid when "Youngblood" hit the stands, and I couldn't have been more excited. I didn't totally understand it, and the focus on sex made me nervous. (Shaft made me feel...things second only to the way Spartan from "WildC.A.T.s" made me feel...things.) Like Seeley says here, it felt freeing to see Liefeld tell the story that he wanted to tell, one of the first times that comics seemed to depict superheroes the way that they'd likely exist in reality.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm thrilled to say Seeley and Fleecs capture that feeling in a bottle here. First, they ramps up my excitement when Jack's mother asks him if he's tried getting Brigade or Cyberforce to hire him. The authors doesn't just get the vibe of that Imageverse (which they totally get) but make it clear we're actually in that universe. I enjoyed Chad Bowers' reboot of "Youngblood," as it was filled with the same bold-faced narrative and brightly colored action as the original series were. But Seeley and Fleecs are taking the vibe of that era and infusing it with...well, a plot. The art drives home this point, as the issue's color palette is subdued when portraying Jack's present and bold when portraying Third Gen.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Getting to the basics, the aforementioned "Jack" is Jack Xaver, formerly Crossjack of Third Gen. Third Gen enterprises fired Jack for reasons that aren't clear. It *is* clear that he's a disgrace, something his mother actually calls him when he arrives home. (Also driving home that point is when a guy recognizes him sitting at the bus stop and yells out, "Fuck Crossjack.") Jack escapes home for a bar where a guy named Hodag busts past the bouncer. Jack thinks he wants to fight him and doesn't give Hodag a chance to reveal that he's there to tell him about a "place" he went.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After Jack gets thrown from the bar, his high-school sweetheart Inga takes him to her diner. You get the sense that Inga isn't as happy as her Facebook page implies she is, but their conversation is interrupted when Third Gen appears to serve Jack papers for using a shield in his fight, contrary to his agreement. Jack declines Inga's offer of a ride home (possibly because he knows something might develop) and is surprised to find to his parents' elderly dog, Pepper, in a field. Pepper is more than she appears: Jack swears she was 14 years old when he left home, and she evades the projectile he throws at her in the field despite his later insistence that he never misses.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But Pepper isn't the only mystery, as someone kills Hodag in his cell as he's yet again talking about how he's hoping to tell Jack about the place that can make the pain disappear.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">All in all, it's a wonderful start. I'm here for where Seeley and Fleece are taking us.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Yoda #4</u></b>: This series is taking the vignette approach of similar series, though the recent "Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi" series felt more coherent than this one. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Starting off this arc, Yoda invites Count Dooku to spend time with the recent class of Padawans. Dooku becomes the confidante of a Wookiee Padawan who had a vision that the Trandoshians were going to massacre his people. It's notable because one of the Wookiee's friends is a Trandoshian, which Yoda sees as evidence of what Jedi training can achieve by removing Padawans from their people's prejudices. When the Wookiee tells Dooku about his vision, Dooku suggests the young Wookiee tell no one of his vision, alluding to the fate of Sifo-Dyas, his old yet seemingly estranged friend.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's all fine, but it feels more like AI-generated fan-fiction right now than anything else. Like the first arc, I don't particularly feel like I've gotten any insight into Yoda himself. It's mostly Yoda being Yoda.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Undiscovered County #23</u></b>: Snyder and Soule are vamping here, as we don't really learn anything new. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Future Chang and future Janet bring Present Chang and Present Janet to a movie theater to reveal the world's greatest secret, whatever it was that they saw in America that made them decide to kill Ace, Charlotte, and Daniel. However, Ace arrives with a souped up Buzz and ruins the party before we can learn more.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the flashback (flash forward?), Future Chang and Future Janet reveal that they only need to stop Charlotte and Daniel from reaching the center of the Spiral (and not necessarily to prevent them from leaving America with the Sky cure). Future Ace has Future Valentina flee, which she does, but Future Valentina doesn't reveal why Future Chang and Future Janet let her live out her days in the Empire. She tells Present Ace that she doesn't know why they decided to act agains their colleagues, so I guess she wasn't a risk.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the past, Charlotte and Valentina swipe Lavant's tablet, which controls time, and escape through a variety of timelines until Lavant attacks them at Gettysburg. I don't really get the physics here, to be honest. Lavant told Charlotte and Valentina that Aurora was able to create all these timelines, but he actually becomes Abraham Lincoln, implying a higher level of manipulation than I thought. I guess that makes sense, since the whole point of Zone History is to manipulate events to see how they create different outcomes.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This arc still remains intriguing, as it feels like the "greatest secret" will change what we understand about how Aurora works and where the team fits into her plans. But it's time to get there.</span></div></span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-60155267799362457052024-03-06T06:00:00.110-07:002024-03-06T14:21:33.896-07:00Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 15 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars #31</u></b>: This issue isn't particularly exciting, as Soule spends most of it setting up the narrative framework for where we go from here. But it does give me hope for future issues now that he's accomplished that task.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue begins with the Kezarat Colony's leader - a green-skinned, one-eyed humanoid named Captain Blythe - expositing the Colony's history to the team. H</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">e describes the convoy's initial encounters with the Nihil and their Killdroids and the original colonists' suspicion that the Nihil had technology allowing them to come and go from No-Space. The original colonists eventually raided the Nihil's home base, the Great Hall, but found only the Killdroids. To this day, the Colony doesn't know whether the Nihil left No-Space or the Killdroids eradicated them.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Blythe's surprisingly human-looking son, Forvan, expresses disdain for Blythe leaving out the most important part (to him) of the tale, of a Jedi finding her way to the Colony and helping it fight off the Nihil. Blythe explains Forvan and others believe in a legend that a Jedi will one day free them and asks Luke to let Forvan down easy. When Luke tries, Forvan isn't having it. (Of course, *we* know that Forvan is right, so...)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Chewie offers to go through the Colony's records to see if other people missed a clue, which Blythe agrees to let him do...in six months, when they start thinking like "olds" instead of "news." Blythe then separates the team into three groups: Chewie and Lobot, who sit around quietly; Holdo and Lando, who make out; and Leia and Luke, who discuss Luke's anxiety over leaving the sacred Jedi text on Holdo's ship. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends with Chewie realizing that the glowing green light on the mural that Forvan showed them (the one that depicts the Jedi) is the Nihil Path engine.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In addition to this issue's exposition, we thankfully get some characterization, particularly through Lando and Holdo's flirting. Lando asks if Holdo has any cards for them to play, and she tells him that she wouldn't play cards with him after everything she's heard about him from Leia. Lando laments that he feels stuck as the person that he was because no one believes that he is trying to change. Holdo encourages him not to worry about what other people think of him, a little disingenuous given she's the only who dismissed him based on what other people said about him. Maybe that's why she made out with him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, hopefully we'll get some action - and not just Lando and Holdo's version of it - next issue.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #31</u></b>: This issue's suspense coms from the fact that Valance is <i>almost</i> a match for Vader, but, of course, Vader eventually gets the upper hand. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Vader being Vader, he doesn't </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">just</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> get the upper hand by physically besting Valance; he also destroys the village that Valance spared last issue. In so doing, he underscores for Valance the Empire's ability to negate his attempts to be a hero. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Haydenn volunteers to serve as Valance's executioner but instead uses her cybernetic eye to shoot him in a way that he'd survive </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">and</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> conveniently send him off a cliff where T'onga and her crew can collect him. Later, o</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">n Vader's ship, Haydenn dispatches Inferno Squad to track down Valance. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, on Corellia, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">as she listens to underlings plotting to replace her with Cadelia, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Vukorah recalls her father forcing her as a child to kill her cat to prove her loyalty to the Unbroken Clan.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Overall, it's a solid issue, but I still feel like we're missing something. For example, I felt barely anything when Haydenn and Valance ended their relationship at gun point, because I don't really feel like Sacks did anything to convince me they really cared for the other one (despite their declarations here). It's probably a reflection of the fact we have way too much characters. Hopefully with Valance with T'onga's crew Sacks can focus the lens a little more tightly.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-19760637212796191232024-03-05T06:00:00.194-07:002024-03-05T13:24:39.828-07:00Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 8 Edition - Part 2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #4</u>: This issue stalls us a bit, as we don't gain any new insights into the story that Gaiman is telling. Instead, two adolescents - Phon Mooda and Dickie Dauntless - ponder why they can't quite put their finger on what feels wrong about this world.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First, Phon Mooda is called before the Black Warpsmiths, a trio of enormous Warpsmiths who are connected to each other and, we learn, created the other Warpsmiths. They ask Phon Mooda for her thoughts about the "confluent world" rather than the facts she usually delivers. She confesses that something about the world seems wrong, though she can't yet define it. They ask about the Miraclechildren, and, except for Winter, Phon Mooda dismisses the others as focused on "entertaining" themselves and little more. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We then get some cryptic alien speak, as the Black Warpsmiths ask her about the Qys and she tells them that the Qys "never understood how the Cuckoo Seed was fertile to begin with." (Sure.) Phon Mooda admits that, unlike other worlds, this one doesn't seem to mature, opining that "this relatively short experiment may actually be winding up." The Black Warpsmiths inform her that something Phon Mooda calls "the Whisper" at the edge of the Universe merits their attention. She leaves their presence.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Dickie asks Tom Caxton if Miracelman did anything to make him want to stop being Mister Master. Caxton obviously doesn't understand why Dickie asks this question and instead narrates his realization that he had gotten everything he ever wanted and didn't know what happened next, which is why he asked for the Gold Kryptonite. Caxton tells Dickie that he knows that he's Young Miracleman and asks him what his real name is, provoking Dickie to realize, seemingly or the first time, that it probably isn't Dickie. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meta-maid arrives and informs Dickie that sexy, sexy Jason is ready to leave and confides to Caxton that she's going with Dickie because she's tired of being around "superfucks." Hauntingly, she says that it's "so nice to be around someone who knows who they are."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the post-script story, Miracleman reviews Dickie's past to try to find evidence of what he's missing, as Avril earlier suggested that maybe it wasn't Miracleman but something else he wanted. He reviews Miracelman's first encounter with Young Nastyman but finds nothing to light a path for him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, Gaiman is flagging a central mystery that we maybe didn't realize yet was a mystery. Phon Mooda, Dickie, and Miracleman are all looking for something that explains an absence they feel, which implies that it's something bigger than just Miracleman's machinations. We'll see.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Darth Vader #31</u></b>: OMG, we're *finally* starting to get somewhere here. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After yet another issue of Vader playing with his food, he and the Handmaidens <i>finally</i> force Jul Tambor to flee and rescue to Sabé. Pak reveals that Vader's motive is really to find a consort that he thought he had in Padmé, as we see through flashbacks of his confrontation with Padmé on Mustafar as well as his imaginings of how it could've gone if Padmé accepted his offer to rule the galaxy. Acting on these feelings, Vader holds the rest of the Handmaidens in a Force Grip as he offers Sabé a place by his side. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, it's taken *way* too long to get here, but I'm glad we're finally here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Hidden Empire #3</u></b>: I remember not being particularly impressed with this series, which is surprising given how much I like Charles Soule. But this issue is solid. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Chanath Cha and her team, the Orphans, arrive on whichever planet it is where the Archivist finds herself to save her and the Fermata Cage. (No one particularly seems to care about her assistant, Kho Phon Farrus.) Chanath has apparently spent her life trying to get close to Vader to avenger her parents, so she and Sear stay to take on Vader while Imara Vex and Ladybright accompany the Archivist and Kho to their ship. Vader unsurprisingly kills Sear and knocks Imara off the ship (to an uncertain fate). Ladybright plans on saving Chanath (and disobeying Qi'ra), but the Archivist disassembles her in order to stay safe from Vader. As brutal as it seems, the Archivist is smart in doing so, as Vader easily kills Chanath.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This issue is about more than just getting the Archivist from Vader. It's also a rumination on how revenge motivates so many people in this galaxy far, far away, though they seldom get to see their first for it satisfied. Vader notes that Chanath sacrifices her whole life to get her the point where she could stop Vader, but, of course, all the time she stopped him not at all. Similarly</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">, Qi'ra notes to Cadeliah that Chanath <i>thought</i> she was the main character in her own story, when really she was just a side character in Qi'ra's (and not even a character in Vader's). It's brutal but true. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, we all know that Qi'ra is a side character in Vader's life. Soule is pretty much winking to the audience on this point, stressing what we all know except for Qi'ra, that this damned fool idealistic crusade ends poorly for her.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #1</u></b>: Storm recounts the fall of Arakko as Sinister finally launches his invasion, blaming augmented Skrull troops for the attack. She's recounting these events from the remains of Arakko - an asteroid archipelago - as she berates Destiny for advising her not to attack Sinister and Krakoa when she wanted, ten years earlier.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, it turns out "Destiny" is Mystique, who informs Storm about Sinister manufacturing Moira clones, including one created ten years ago. Storm and company travel to Muir Island with Sinister, where Whiz Kid uses technology he created - and Storm recognizes as not the same as his usual technology - to teleport away Sinister's lab. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But it turns out "Taki" was Mystique (again), and she kills Storm once the lab is transported to the World Farm, where Destiny and Orbit Stellaris await. (She was clearly using Sinister's technology instead of Taki's, addressing Storm's suspicion.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We learn that Destiny is doing everything because this timeline is the only one where Mystique lives, a reminder that she is a villain at her core. Not only did she advise Storm not to attack Sinister ten years ago, she has Mystique steal the lab because Sinister was going to reset this timeline the next day when he loses a Quiet Council vote. (I don't get how he could lose a vote to people he controlled, but I'll allow the mulligan because I liked this issue.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The remaining questions from this issue is what the force field at the center of Sinister's lab hid. Next issue jumps 100 years, a reminder that the team is telling a story related to the X3 timeline that Hickman showed us in "Powers of X."</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-81755833872961402962024-03-04T06:00:00.088-07:002024-03-05T13:24:28.392-07:00Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 8 Edition - Part 1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Amazing Spider-Man #19</u></b>: The only problem with this issue is that it makes me pine for Kelly and Dodson to take over this title. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Unlike Wells, Kelly manages to mix comedy with action and drama in an organic way throughout the issue. Deciding to take their relationship to the next level, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Felicia and Peter unexpected find Mary Jane and Paul at the same upstate spa. (Hilariously, Felicia and Paul have a </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">sotte voce</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> conversation about using a Snapshot groupon.) </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Kelly milks the tension for all its worth, from Peter clutching shut his robe (and Felicia, to Paul's discomfort, reminding Peter that both she and Mary Jane has seen him naked) to Peter finally opening his robe to reveal "Here, Kitty, Kitty" boxer shorts. Ha! </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The comedic awkwardness also advances the plot as Felicia tells Peter that he needs to be honest with her (and himself) about his feelings for Mary Jane. It's always fun when Felicia is the responsible adult.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Moreover, this tension isn't <i>just</i> the issue's point, as it so often is in Wells' stories. Instead, it's the backdrop of Peter and Felicia discovering that White Rabbit has stolen gear that mimics the Sinister Six's powers. She's dating a genius, Mychal, who installed safeties on the gear so they can rent it to rich tech bros to play "The Greatest Game," super-villain style. Honestly? I'm surprised this scenario hasn't played out yet in the real world. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Kelly's gift for comedy remains on full display throughout the action as Peter gets into a genius pissing contest as the bros trying to figure out how his Web-Shooters work, resulting in Felicia telling him to stop Spideysplaining to "entitled felons."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But it isn't all giggles and laughs as Mychal winds up dead and the bro seem to want to kill Spider and Felicia as they take off the safeties.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">[Sigh.] If only we got such a multifaceted story every moth...I guess I'll have to enjoy it while I can.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Batman #132</u></b>: Zdarsky throws us right into the mystery here as the </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">issue begins with Bruce shadowing Jewel as she tries to save people from getting sent to Arkham. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As they patrol the streets, Bruce learns that Judge Dent sent Jewel's father to Arkham due to his grief over her mother's death from cancer. Jewel recognizes Bruce is having a hallucination (he's staring at Jimbo from last issue) and tells him that they aren't from "multiversal travel" (as Bruce thought) but from "Crane Brain," a drug the authorities pump into the air to find more victims for Arkham. She gives Bruce pills that block the drug's effect and tells Bruce that Halliday Industries produces the pills at Athena Tower. Bruce realizes that Halliday might have taken over the role that Wayne Enterprises played in his Gotham so heads there.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In an interlude, Red Mask visits Dent, who's stewing about the possibility that Bruce is out there. In a show of power, Red Mask de-Venomizes Dent, shrinking him into a skeletal version of himself. Red Mask demands Dent find Bruce, treating to take away his "gift" more permanently.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bruce begins to show uncharacteristic signs of emotional trauma as he talks to Jewel. He makes her eggs, and she's amazed at how good they are. He comments on how his sons were always hungry, and an old friend taught him how to make them. Later, Jewel works with Bruce to develop a persona so he can attend Halliday's upcoming fundraiser where, of course, Bruce encounters Selina. She</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> exposits for us that this world's Bruce Wayne gave up his billions to become a social worker before his presumed death. She points out Halliday in the crowd...and it's the Joker. Man, I did *not* see that coming. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before Bruce (or we) can process that, Punchline arrives, and she and Selina attack. Killer Croc joins the fun, and Bruce realizes he's in trouble. He takes out Croc and marvels how the wealthy Athena Tower residents don't even flinch at the violence.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Then he sees Alfred. At the issue's start, we saw that this world's Alfred is in a relationship with Leslie Thompkins, and it's clear that he used the money Bruce left him to buy their safety in the Tower. Bruce shakes off the idea that it's *his* Alfred or *his* Selina, but he's distracted enough for a cop to shoot him, propelling him out the building. Bruce falls through a warehouse skylight and, lying on the floor, confesses to himself that</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> he misses his "sons" and "his" Selina. It's a heartbreaking moment, but he tells himself that any Gotham is his Gotham. Stumbling through the streets, Bruce tries to help someone fight off one of Judge Dent's cops but gets his ass handed to him. In one of Zdarksy's most brilliant moments, as Bruce lays bleeding in the alley, he sees a bat and decides, "I shall become a bat." Damn, this series is on fire.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The back-up story is just as good. We learn that Toyman went on a rampage before he died, and the gun he used - the one Failsafe used on Batman - either turned people into toy versions of themselves or dissipated them. Tim examines one of the toys and realizes that it's producing multiversal energy. Correctly realizing that Toyman didn't kill himself but instead sent himself and the disappeared and toy people to another reality, Tim calls Mister Terrific. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Mister Terrific provides Tim with a new invention, an outfit that creates a tether and discs so the user can travel multiversally. Tim is surprised when he arrives in a suburban area but quickly tracks down the victims...only for Toyman and his army of toy-ified victims to find him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, it's great stuff. If I have one complaint it's that Zdarsky feels like he's rushing a bit. He probably could've found a way to delay the confrontation at Athena Tower to next issue. I'm just greedy, though. I don't want any of it to end.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Blade Runner 2039 #3</u></b>: As usual, Johnson does a great job of slowly unspooling the mystery at this series' core. We don't know everything yet, but we know enough that Ash should be worried.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ash visits Wojciech in a retirement home; it seems lovely so it's nice to see <i>someone</i> in this series might have a happy ending (hopefully). Wojciech confirms that she heard rumors about a Replicant Blade Runner but doesn't have any more information about it. She encourages Ash to leave it be, which we (including Wojciech) know she won't do.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ash stops by a noodle place before heading to the sticks, and Cleo finds her there because Ash took her there once. Ash is enraged that Cleo is there, but Cleo tells her that Isobel is missing. Cleo takes Ash to her penthouse, explaining that they're not rich on Arcadia but money goes further on Earth. She explains that she's a schoolteacher and married with a son. She wants to know more about Ash, but Ash is worried about her safety so tells her to stay in the apartment.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At a bar later, Ash is worried about all these "coincidences:" a Replicant Blade Runner, Cleo on Earth, Isobel in the wind. Underscoring Ash's senes, Hythe arrives and tells Ash that she met the Replicant Blade Runner. She hands Ash the data Wallace wants, figuring they'll be safer with her, and Ash saves her right before she's assassinated. Ash and Hythe then take out two Wallace employees who originally picked up Luv at the issue's start. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends with Luv arriving at Cleo's apartment, though I don't know how she realized "Mrs. Calhoun" was Cleo. She had been reviewing traffic files (as part of her punishment), so maybe a traffic camera identified her? We'll see.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America: Symbol of Truth #10</u></b>: Silva is spectacular here, as he walks us through Cap and Nomad trying to take out Falcon in a battle in the sky. Thankfully, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Onyebuchi more or less manages not to get in the way. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That said, it was incredibly disingenuous to lead us to believe JoaquÃn killed his grandmother only to reveal that he only fed on the horses. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Moreover, White Wolf goes all <b>pet peeve #3</b> here as he tells his general that he just wanted to take JoaquÃn off the board but got lucky when the "chemical" turned him into a vampire. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">D</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">oes he explain what the chemical is or why he used a chemical instead of just killing JoaquÃn? No, no, he doesn't. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But given how awful the previous issues have been I'm glad I didn't hate this one. That's where I am with this series.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Know Your Station #3</u></b>: I'm still not entirely convinced Marin or St. Brigid isn't behind the murders, but Elise and Marin do establish some baseline criteria for the killer that makes sense.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First thing first, they're called to Vesper Norton's suite where they find his body. Like the Raulssons, the killer has...arranged it. Whereas the killer strung up the Raulssons artistically, the killer has drained Norton's blood into hundreds of tiny vials and replaced the blood with Blue. It's...a lot. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But it also makes Elise and Marin realize that the killer has pretty advanced medical skills. They feel like it all points to a staff member, but, as staff members, they don't feel like one of their colleagues did it. Presumably their motive would be vengeance against an asshole billionaire, but, as Elise says, all the staff know the score so it seems weird one of them would go rogue. But, given the "celebratory" nature of the killings, it also doesn't feel like a Board member offing other Board members for power. In other words, they have no idea.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue has other strange revelations, like the fact St. Brigid deactivates *all* suite cameras when Elise is on Blue, not just hers. Also, Elise confesses to Marin that she was a dishwasher with no background in security. For some reason, though, Raulsson liked her energy when she onboarded and gave her the security job.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends with all the residents getting a message saying that they're next. Gailey doesn't have Elise tell Marin that St. Brigid keeps telling her that she was the only person to access the rooms of the previous victims, which is ostensibly the reason why she isn't calling the police. Marin doesn't trust the police to solve the problem anyway, so he isn't asking. But at this point it's hard to believe that Elise is going to retain control over this situation much longer.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-85893698864300532302023-12-11T06:00:00.557-07:002023-12-12T18:22:51.626-07:00Eleven-Month-Old Comics: The February 1 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's been a few months - OK, almost a year - but am I going to give it the old college try and attempt to get through my backlog? Yes, I am!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #9</u>: Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what happens here. I <i>think</i> Captain America and his new Invaders' attempt to free Manhattan from A.I.M.'s control is all part of a simulation that M.O.D.O.C. created to keep them busy for...reasons? I think? Complicating matters, someone attacked M.O.D.O.K. during an interlude, but I'm not sure what conclusion we're supposed to draw from the attack. It maybe turned him into M.O.D.O.C.? Maybe? Oof, this issue.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dark Web Finale #1</u></b>: I don't even know what to say here. This entire event was so utterly ridiculous that it seems equally ridiculous to try to recap it. It's my job, though, so I'll try.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Madelyne opens Limbo's embassy to the United States in New York to show the people in the dark that they're also in the light. (We're really pushing the "bad guys are just misunderstood good guys" schtick beyond the point of reasonable disbelief here.) </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">She also decides to keep Ben in prison in Limbo (something all good guys would totally do). Of all the possible outcomes for Ben, "locked in prison in Limbo" is the lowest on my preferred list. I'd almost rather him dead.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of my many complaints about this "event," the central one is the fact that Wells seems to have created a solution to Ben's problem that no one ever suggested. I don't see why Jean could've shared Peter's memories with Ben the way she did with Madelyne. B</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">efore this event, Wells implied that Peter would lose his memories if he shared them with Ben (though Wells never really fleshed out that premise). As such, Jean's abilities resolve that problem (if it was indeed a problem). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But, again, no one even <i>suggests</i> that course of action. It isn't like someone did suggest it and Peter refused because he wouldn't be special if he shared his memories with Ben. <i>That</i> would've at least given us an interesting moral quandary, since Peter would definitely be the asshole in that situation. But, again, we never even get there.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, given that Ben's lack of Peter's (good) memories is allegedly what drives Chasm's darkness, he seems a pretty problem to solve with Jean's help. (He isn't Maria.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To make matters worse, Peter constantly harangues Ben for his anger that he isn't really a person, as if he should just get over it. Does Peter forget the "Shrieking" arc, where he decided that he'd never be Peter Parker again given the pain he felt losing his parents during "Lifetheft?" </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, even if Peter isn't the asshole (in the sense that he's unaware he could use Jean's powers to solve the problem), he is here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I could continue but I won't. It's all a fucking mess.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Minor Threats #4</u></b>: Holy fucking shit, this issue is amazing and intense.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Patton and Blum do a phenomenal job of keeping the gang ridiculous but the story serious all at once. I really had no idea where the story was going page to page. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">More than anything, though, it's Pigeon's narration that makes this issue, as it really amps up the emotional punch of his eventual heel turn. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In a flashback, Pigeon breaks into a museum to steal Fabergé eggs only to find a scalped security guard with one of the eggs implanted in his exposed brain. His horror at the scene reminds me of Riddler's iconic line from "Secret Origins Special" #1: "Joker is killing people, for God's sake."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Returning to the present, Pigeon explicates Stickman's goals for us. First, he</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> decided that his relationship with Insomniac had gotten too complicated. He wanted to go back to basics; by killing Kid Dusk, he discarded the "child-endangerment thing." Next, Stickman set the trap at the Trophy Room to trim Insomniac's rogues' gallery. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Now, he implants bombs in the team's brainstems and sends them, via his sidekick Sideswipe, to the Dream Cave with enough C-4 to destroy it. To Stickman's mind, he'll make Insomniac "fun again" by breaking all his toys. Ho boy. Not many people are playing with full decks in Twilight City.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But the team's paranoia about the traitor amongst them gets the better of them; as Stickman </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">listens via the microphones he fitted on them, they kill each other. After Stickman arrives, a toy distracts Sideswipe, and his portal closes while he's halfway through it, killing him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, it turns out the gang isn't dead. That said, man, the guys had me going there for a while. I noticed the various tanks full of fish when the gang arrived in the Dream Cave, and apparently Scalpel did as well. Once Playtime used her powers to send in nano-sized Army soldiers to remove the bombs from their brains, Scalpel used the puffer fish's tetrodotoxin to simulate their deaths. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Confronting Stickman, Brain Tease claims that he saw through Stickman's "ruse" about a traitor amongst them, but he's proven wrong yet again when Pigeon holds a gun behind Playtime's head.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Via another flashback, Pigeon explains that he feared not just a future that involved this new level of brutality but also that he had no role in it. Throwing in his lot with Stickman, Pigeon decided he might escape irrelevance. (The scene where someone sends him a drink in a lonely diner on Christmas Eve is devastating.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Stickman starts attacking the gang, Pigeon begins to realize his mistake and recalls how he had no one and nothing, but putting on the mask made him somebody. He aches for the days when "the Code" meant something and the supervillains were all thick as thieves. To save Frankie, he drives the Dreammobile (or whatever it's called) into Stickman. Stickman tries to kill Pigeon as he reaches through the broken windshield, but Frankie uses his hammer to kill him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">With Stickman dead, a terrified Frankie tries to find a way to escape the Dream Cave. But Insomniac arrives, and he's fucking nuts. He's furious they took away killing Stickman from him and attacks Frankie. Snake Stomper saves her, telling Insomniac that his punch is for Diego Salas before Insomniac kills him, another devastating moment in this issue. Insomniac moves to take out Frankie, but she sees Toy Queen's jack-in-the-box gun in one of Insomniac's shattered trophy cases and uses it to decapitate him. Never has a murder felt more just, I have to say.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In a news report, we watch as the cops lead Brian Tease to prison for the murders, and he seems thrilled. Toy Queen wakes from a nap to find the blood-splattered gun where it belonged in her trophy case, realizing (also with joy) that Frankie killed Insomniac.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Frankie goes to Pigeon's hospital room and tells him that the Continuum agreed to leave Redport if she agreed to keep Insomniac's murder quiet. To his horror, she then exiles him from Twilight City. We later see Frankie with her daughter, so it's clear that the Continuum also cleared Frankie's name. (Frankie's daughter apparently made a terrifying toy pony at daycare, so that's fun.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Later that night, Frankie enters the bar where it all began. Based on the respectful (and fearful) looks she gets, everyone knows that she killed Insomniac and Stickman. Someone hands her usual ("Chilled it eight minutes like you said."), and she passes a shrine to Snake Stomper to the backroom. There, Scalpel has a superhero tied to a chair, and he starts to rant about the Continuum. Frankie holds a gun to his head and tells him to send a message that superheros aren't welcome in Redport. He asks what the message is, and she says, "You are."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, it's all just fucking amazing. Unlike the tonal mess that is Wells' "Amazing Spider-Man," Oswalt and Blum really manage to combine drama and humor in a wonderful blend, so you never really know what to expect panel to panel. I cannot recommend this series enough.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Moon Knight #20</u></b>: This issue is solid. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Someone - "the Ghost in the Telephone" - brainwashed a pair of two-bit goons who 8 Ball identifies as the Harlequin Hit Men and had them kill Marc's five of the 12 members of Marc's former "Shadow Cabinet." Hilariously, Marc dismisses the Hit Men as D-List villains given that <i>8 Ball</i> called them "a couple of jokes" and they once fought Speedball. But Marc isn't likely to take their murder spree lightly.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The back-up story is possibly the best part. We learn that Marc's predecessor once helped Blade, so he's willing to do Marc a favor and teach Reece how to be a vampire. I wouldn't have put two and two together there, but I'm thrilled McKay did because it's a great pairing. Reece showed her worth in the main story as Marc's "woman in the chair," keeping him focused and using Jake to identify the route the Hit Men were taking so he could stop them. Under Blade's guidance, she'll be a kick-ass vampire.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Sana Starros #1</u></b>: Sana has two dads! As a gay man raising a kick-ass daughter, I have to say that I love the idea that my little girl could one day maim and murder her way across the galaxy with the flare and grumpiness of Sana Starros. (We also learn that Sana has an estranged twin brother, Phel.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue begins with Sana realizing that she needs a break after apparently ending her relationship with Aphra. As such, she comes to her grandmother's house, where her grandmother, Grammy Thea, informs us that she always comes home after a break-up.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, it turns out Sana isn't the only one who makes questionable romantic decisions in the Starros family. Her cousin, Aryssha, is pregnant with twins whose father is an Imperial officer, Captain Cerasus Ehllo, who storms Sana's grandmother house to find Aryssha. It turns out Aryssha wanted to give birth at her ancestral home, but Ehllo wants her to give birth on his ship. He takes her with him and then orders his troopers to kill Aryssha's mother, Mevera, and Grammy Thea.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, Sana saves them...except they pretty much save themselves. They take her to the armory, underscoring that Sana isn't the only, um, "capable" woman in the family. It also turns out Ehllo taking Aryssha is part of the family's plan to steal back a family heirloom. As Sana says, you can see why she doesn't visit often. So much for her vacation.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-24065369571063843212023-07-09T10:00:00.222-06:002023-07-09T10:00:00.140-06:00Six-Month-Old Comics: The January 25 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Amazing Spider-Man #18</u></b>: OMG, this issue is really one of the worst comics I've ever read. I just don't know what I can say at this point. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Instead of Madelyne suggesting to Jean that she facilitate Peter sharing his memories with Ben in a way that won't compromise said memories (like Jean did for Madelyne in "Dark Web: X-Men" #3), Madelyne just cuts Ben loose and sides with the X-Men. Oof.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, that said, I *think* Peter's objection to sharing his memories with Ben was that it would cause him to loose said memories, but I don't actually know at this point. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It all just sucks. Honestly, I can't believe I'm going to say what I'm going to say, but I'm considering not reading this series anymore.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dragon Age: The Missing #1</u></b>: This series finally puts aside the increasingly confusing Wraith-related stories and brings back Varic as he and Harding search for Solas. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Following rumors that Solas is hiding in the Deep Roads, Varic and Harding bump into a pair of Grey Wardens investigating disappearances that started after excavations broke into the Roads.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After helping the Wardens take out the Darkspawn behind the abductions, Varic and Harding find Solas' lair and an invitation to "call upon the Lady Crysanthus" in Vyrantium, where they head next.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I don't have much else to say at this point, other than I'm interested to see where we go.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Justice Society of America #2</u></b>: This series isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, and given all the time travel I'd normally put myself in that camp. But something about Helena leaving the infirmary and walking into the spectacular hotness (and chest hair) of the assembled Society is thrilling to me. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, as I said, it involves time travel, so it's hard to follow at the best of times.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Helena awakens in 1940 and tells the Society that she's from a future where someone murders her Society. Helena exposits that she recognized the someone as "a man I've seen on the edges of my perisperhal visions since I was ten." </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Dr. Fate attempts to peer into her timeline to share her experiences with the group but the same "someone" transports his consciousness into his future 1941 </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">where he and his protégée, Salem the Witch Girl, are trying to find Mister Miracle to free her from her curse. Instead, they find him fighting Solomon Grundy, though Fate's consciousness is snapped back to 1940 again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the present, Catwoman fights the "someone" whom she recognizes as "Degaton," who Wikipedia tells me is an old-school Society enemy. He refers to "Snow Globe" turning Helena into a "blind spot," which makes no particular sense now but likely will later. He also exposits that he needs to kill all the Society members for "the ritual" to work, so he clearly needs to track down Helena. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Anyway, he kills Selina, which Helena can somehow see. But she's again somehow transfered through time again (with Dr. Fate's symbols in her eyes) and awakens in another alley, this time at Khalid's feet though he doesn't recognize her. He's joined by Deadman and Detective Chimp.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, it's a lot. But I'm down with seeing where we go from here if we get more shots of Jay Garrick's eyes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Sins of Sinister #1</u></b>: I stopped reading "Immortal X-Men" with issue #6, but this issue recaps the relevant developments that I assume happened in issues #7-#10: namely, Sinister compromises the Krakoan DNA database so that every resurrected mutant is secretly subservient to him. He begins with Charles, Emma, Exodus, and Hope. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sinister isn't an idiot, though, so he has the Council put him in the Pit while his pawns carry out his plan: namely, Krakoa offers humans an X-Gene to get them in the resurrection queue. Of course, it's a Trojan Horse that will enable Sinister to take over the planet. Clever, that Sinister.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Thanks to an interstitial page, we learn his ultimate plan is to use Earth's population and the Moira Engine to achieve Dominion status before "hyper-A.I.s" take over the planet.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As he takes over the mutants, he has Sinister-Forge launch an attack from space that fries Krakoa's brain, allowing the mutants to claim to the public that all non-mutant backups were lost. It therefore encourages more humans to get the X-Gene, accelerating Sinister's takeover. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We then get a series of splash pages that details the next ten years of Sinister taking out his enemies, like corrupting the Avengers through the X-Gene. Storm is the only person who eludes capture after she guess something was amiss in the Council and worked out a deal with Lactuca to make sure Sinister couldn't control her.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But it all goes to hell when Sinister discovers someone has stolen his lab and his Moiras. Ruh-roh.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Over all, it's a solid introduction to this event. Gillen expertly weaves his story through the X-Men recent <i>status quo</i>, making for a story that feels like it was Hickman's intent from the start. We'll see where we go from here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars: Yoda #3</u>: My issue with Yoda has always been that he's <i>so</i> wise yet missed the fact that he was sitting next to Darth Sidious for years. He also oversaw a system that treated young children as little more than soldiers for present and future wars. This issue underscores that he didn't just treat Force-sensitive children that way. Equal opportunity assholery!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Although Bree's murder of Riak last issue ensures the Scalvi's safety for years, Yoda's abrupt departure leaves Bree a broken shell of a person. As an adult, Bree has never gotten over Yoda's abandonment despite the Scalvi treating him as a hero. Yoda returns just in time for Bree's nephew to kidnap the Crulkon leader's daughter. Bree listens to the girl as she informs him that Turrak's oceans are devoid of life, and he realizes that the Crulkon are, and always have been, starving. He opens the Scalvis' gates to the Crulkon, which is obviously the outcome Yoda wanted.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But you have to wonder if it had to happen this way. Yoda admits that he allowed the Crulkon to kidnap him to test Bree, and Bree of course failed when he killed Riak. But Yoda simply abandoned him to his failure. It seems possible that Bree could've become the sort of man to see the Crulkon's suffering without taking a life or spending years wondering why he failed Yoda.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A hero, I'm not sure Yoda is.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: X-Terminators #5</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-17463833176100910032023-07-08T10:00:00.045-06:002023-07-08T10:00:00.149-06:00Six-Month-Old Comics: The January 18 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dark Web: X-Men #3</u></b>: This issue is terrible as it nullifies the entire point of this event. When Jean realizes that Madelyne is after her memories of Nathan, she simply gives them to her, raising the question why Madelyne hadn't just asked her for them earlier. Now, the only question hanging over this event, to my mind, is whether Jean can do the same thing for Ben. Even if she does, this event feels like it could've been handled as an annual's back-up story. What a joke.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #30</u></b>: <i>Now</i> we're getting somewhere.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Valance defects from the Empire after Tonga tells him that Cadeliah is with Crimson Dawn and Yura is dead. Valance realizes that Vader and, to a lesser extent, Haydenn played him this entire time. He uses the thermonuclear detonators </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">that the supply ship was actually transporting to Bestine</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">- notably not the alleged "food" for the people living outside the Imperial base - to destroy said base</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">. He explains to T'onga the attack was simply bait for Vader, who arrives at the issue's end.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sacks doesn't have a lot of time to dwell on the emotions, but he doesn't miss the chance to do so. He includes a flashback to Bossk, T'onga, and Valance's time on Nakano Lash's crew when Nakano tells them that their successes come from the fact that they're family. T'onga reminds a devastated Valance of this conversation in an attempt to comfort him. But Valance works out his feeling through taking out Imps, a reminder of how Tonga's offer of humanity is unlikely to get Valance to see his.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca #9</u></b>: This issue gets the whole gang together again.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Han brings the urn to Nar Shaddaa after he, Chewie, and Phaedra discover it doesn't contain ashes but an orb. Lando's contact, an Ugnaught Sava, informs Han that it's actually the neural core of a droid named Ajax Sigma who led a droid rebellion two centuries ago. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, one of Khel Tanna's contacts tipped off Tanna that Han was on Nar Shaada and, of course again, Corbus Tyra bugged Tanna's communicator so he passed on this information to Marshall Vancto. As such, everyone converges on the Sava's office. The trio escapes only for Chewie to go after Marshall Vancto for shooting him in the back and Han and Phaedra encountering a blastered-up Tyra in the </span><i>Falcon</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Han explains to Phaedra, it's all a pretty good example of his luck.</span></span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-27560101938385277142023-07-07T08:00:00.048-06:002024-03-16T18:01:10.402-06:00Six-Month-Old Comics: The January 11 Edition - Part 2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Mary Jane & Black Cat #2</u>: N</span></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">ow that this series doesn't have anything to do with Dark Web, it's much better.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Belasco explains to Felicia and Mary Jane that, when Madelyne connected Limbo to Earth, she created "arcane vibrations" that rendered the spell phasing the Screaming Tower outside reality vulnerable. Belsaco destroyed the spell, and he wants Felicia and Mary Jane to beat out all the other thieves trying to swipe his Soulsword from the Tower so he can rule Limbo. I'm not entirely sure why he chose this pair but, given the nonsense we've seen in Spidey books lately, I'm good with the ambiguity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We also get a hint that Mary Jane and Peter were gone longer than the six months everyone on Earth thought they were gone, but I've given up hope we'll ever fully understand that story.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u>Star Wars: Darth Vader #30</u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: I've said it a lot, and I'll say it again: I still don't understand this arc. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Soule reveals that Rabé infiltrated the </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">Executor</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> at the same time as Dormé. While Dormé distracted Vader, Rabé hacked into the <i>Executor's</i> systems and discovered Sabé was on Brentaal IV. When Vader takes Dormé with him en route to Fentalle, for reasons Soule doesn't make clear, the Handmaidens attack. They threaten to blow up the </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">Executor </i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">with a code Eirtaé wrote based on information Dormé and Rabé pulled from its system. But it's an easy bluff for Vader to call.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, it turns out Sabé only wounded Jul Tambor, since she knew that Vader would've killed all his allies if he insisted on destroying the Imperial garrison on Skako Minor. Tambor reveals that he's been buying up droids that Vader killed to analyze his movements (using their last memories). As the Handmaidens struggle with Vader calling their bluff, Tambor contacts Vader to tell him that he has Sabé. The Handmaidens agree to accompany Vader to retrieve her.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To a certain extent, I get all the Handmaidens' motives. Sabé is using her influence to save as many people as she can, and the remaining Handmaidens are just trying to save Sabé. But I still don't understand why Vader is entertaining this nonsense. Is it really worth his time to toy with them? Soule has gone to great lengths to show that Anakin is gone, so I don't think we're supposed to believe that he's in love with them.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">[Sigh.] I hope one day this story ends.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u><br /></u></b></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u>Wild C.A.Ts #3</u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: Rosenberg makes it clear here that these series isn't going to win any awards for narrative complexity, and I'm OK with that. </span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Grifter immediately gets into a fight with Pike, one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory who worked with him on Team 6, when Grifter was known as Deadeye. Marlowe suspends Cole for the fracas, but he's unsuspended when Deathblow, Fairchild, and Zealot need help saving Damon Walsh, the son of Dante Walsh,"the Ambassador." Apparently some group kidnapped Damon to prevent the United States from getting involved in their country's internal affairs, but Voodoo reveals to the team that Damon's death would end the world. Voodoo seems to direct the team's missions based on her visions.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the time the team call him for help, Cole was visiting a rich guy named Jason Halliday because Cole somehow found out Halliday was a member of the Court of Owls. (Halliday was shirtless when Cole awakened him in bed, but he's wearing a shirt when Cole is hanging him out a window, and I like to think Cole made him put on the shirt just to do that.) I still don't get why Cole is so obsessed with the Court, but Rosenberg is a good writer so I assume we'll get there.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>X-Men #18</u></b>: This issue is a mess. The art is rushed, with everyone looking more like sketches than characters. Moreover, Laura, Sr. confronts Laura, Jr. as if it's her fault that they're both alive. Duggan also weirdly ties this issue to the "X-Terminators" series, meaning the Lauras have this conversation while fighting vampires. Also Beast apparently thinks that Laura's discovery is overly convenient, which Jean dismisses since she and Synch both verified her identity. It's supposedly showing how dark Beast's heart has gotten, but we all know that he's going to turn out being correct. Also, Jean and Scott save some Orchis workers from an exploding space station? As I said, it's a mess.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: Moon Knight #19</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-84279501902689011712023-07-06T08:00:00.003-06:002023-07-06T09:59:25.471-06:00Six-Month-Old Comics: The January 11 Edition - Part 1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Amazing Spider-Man #17</u>: OMG, this issue is awful.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On the plus side, the art is great: McGuiness should draw Limbo demons full-time. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Unfortunately, the issue also has words.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ben decides to get Peter to eat the apple by casting him, JJJ, Jr., and Robbie in a work-place comedy set at <i>The Bugle</i> with the demons as the other employees. I'm not kidding. I'm not saying it isn't funny, but it goes to this event's - and series' - main problem, the fact Wells can't decide if it's funny or serious. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In a great example of that problem and </span><b style="font-family: Merriweather;">pet peeve #3</b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">, Madelyne expresses concern that Ben isn't taking their plans seriously enough. If he really wants Peter to eat the apple, why not just threaten all his loved ones with death? But I'm not giving Wells credit for Madelyne pointing out his flaws.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, Wells doesn't really explain why Ben is playing with his food here, and the story suffers for it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Black Cloak #1</u></b>: Holy fucking shit, this issue is the best issue of a comic I've read in a really long time. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">McClaren and Thompson employ restraint to create a totally immersive experience. McClaren's limited line strokes creates a fully realized reality, and Thompson's equally sparse script underscores the tension between the characters as they're reluctant to say what they feel.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">You need to buy this comic now.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue's opening text informs us that Kiros is the known world's last city due to a cataclysmic war that happened hundreds of years ago. The heroes defeated the great evil, but something is rotten in the state of Kiros. As the unnamed narrator says, it "turns out beings get along better when there's a great evil to be vanquished."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The action begins when a mermaid crawls onto the beach at the Lagoon, spits up some black-looking liquid, and then collapses on the beach. A group of screeching mermaids stare at her from the water and then throw a dead body next to her before departing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On Merchant Row, a satyr named Vaissac attacks a black-cloaked elf. She punches him, as she apparently does every week. She tells him that they could either get along or ignore each other. He tells her that he'll never be "good neighbors" with a "fucking Black Cloak." As the elf enters Coffee, Curios & Curiosities, demonic-looking rats attack Vaissac, and the elf uses her...magic gun? to scare them into fleeing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The elf is Detective Phaedra Essex. The store's proprietor, Laurel, shows her the prototype of a robotic taka (a cat-like creature) that she bought. Phaedra is appalled because she was raised with a real taka before they went extinct. Phaedra then gets a call and heads to the Salty Crow in the Narrows.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A the Crow, a (sexy as fuck) elf with a gold-flecked chest wound </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">is lying naked on a bed</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">. A pair of cops are on the scene with a detective, and one of the cops, Clem, tells the detective, Pax, that the elf's tattoos use royal ink. Pax asks Clem if he "netted" the room, and Clem responds that someone named Nina had done so. Nina apparently didn't have her "soulprint" on her, though so she wasn't able to identify the elf. Pax has his soulprint on him, but before he can scan the body a photographer appears in the doorway. Pax tells the other cop, Benny, to control the crime scene and "get that capture." Pax puts a set of goggles (I assume the soulprint) on the body, but they don't work.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Phaedra enters and identifies the elf as Freyal III of Sidra, the heir to the throne <i>and</i> Phaedra's fiancé at some point. Pax suddenly yells, "The capture!" and manifests wings before leaping out the window. Phaedra sends Clem after Pax and spends a moment with Freyal's body, showing a matching tattoo and telling him quietly how much she missed him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Pax returns and tells Phaedra that Clem has "the capture" and is taking him to the station, though I still don't know what "the capture" is or how or why it escaped. Pax and Phaedra then discuss how the murderer clearly used a dracona dagger due to the gold-flecked wound. Phaedra tells Pax that she and Freyal were raised together and were best friends though she hadn't seen him in years.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">They discuss how the Crow is a "glorified flophouse above a bar known for prostitution." They go to the bar to interrogate the bartender, and this scene is a marvelous fantasy version of the Mos Eisley cantina. Apparently an elf girl named Dace rented the room for the last three cycles, and the bartender confirmed she was with Freyal when he first rented the room to her. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Upon leaving the bar, Phaedra calls someone and asks them to pull out the mermaid the Crow was keeping in a tank. (She mentions she saw tail rot. Oof.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At HQ, the captain exposits that Phaedra is exiled from the elven realms. The conversation is interrupted when she and Pax are sent to the Lagoon because Nida has identified the dead woman as Dace. Disturbingly, Phaedra asks why the mermaids didn't eat her, cueing up the enormous chunk of flesh missing from her back. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Nida (who's a bat-like humanoid) opens the mouth of the dead mermaid next to Dace, causing Pax to panic. Nida notes the mermaid is dead, but Pax's panic at Nida even touching the body makes you realize we're not dealing with Ariel here. Nida notes a bit of flesh in the dead mermaid's teeth and the nearby bile, and Phaedra realizes that someone used a strong enough poison on Dace that it can kill a mermaid in one bite. Based on their interactions, Nida and Phaedra are in a relationship, and they're adorable.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before Phaedra leaves, Nida tells Phaedra that she's worried about Phaedra seeing her family because of the "old laws." Phaedra stresses that the Black Cloak "should" protect her, and Nida notes that "should" is a "fucked-up word." Pax and Phaedra discuss how you usually dump bodies in the Lagoon hoping the mermaids eat them, but the murderer may not have known that someone had already poisoned Dace. So we may have two people trying to murder her? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Pax interviews a nearby guard, Jakel, who tells Pax that he wasn't working the previous night. (Throughout the issue, we see the security surrounding the Lagoon to keep out trespassers.) Pax asks Jakel to turn down his music, which Jakel suggests is a bad idea. When Pax insists, he does, and the mermaids immediately start screeching. Pax allows Jakel to turn on the music again, and, on my second reading, I realized everyone near the water is wearing headphones. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Jakel tells Pax that someone named Edgar was working the previous night. He exposits that the guards are </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">under constant surveillance so Edgar wouldn't likely have let someone into the Lagoon for fear of getting fired. Jakel says that they only way to enter is through a gap where the cliff meets the wall, though it's usually sealed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On Lookout Point, Phaedra notes that anyone up there could see the whole Lagoon. She interviews four hooligans and tells them that someone killed a mermaid. One of the hooligans quips that mermaids kill people, and Phaedra responds that it matters when they all kill each other. She tells the hooligan who seemed the most cooperative that she might have something to pay in exchange for information, but one of the other hooligans tells her that they're not "wraiths" and don't work with Black Cloaks. HQ calls Phaedra and tells her that she's clear to go to Castle Kiros. She leaves while Pax stays at the Lagoon to investigate.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the castle gates, Phaedra remembers playing with Freyal and the taka, Mister Starlight. They're using a dracona dagger to cut a "very powerful tree," and we learn dracona daggers have dragon blood in them. Before she can enter the castle grounds, someone knocks Phaedra unconscious.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the Queen's private chambers, the Queen apolgizes for the "misunderstanding," and Phaedra comments that someone people have trouble letting go of the old rules. The Queen notes that Phaedra's black cloak likely precipitated the attack, again making it clear that Black Cloaks aren't welcome. Phaedra disagrees, saying she believes that it was her brother Hadrian. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The Queen tells Phaedra she's called for a healer and asks how Freyal died. Phaedra says that they don't yet know but she asked to see her in the hope that she'd hear about Freyal's death from her and not a stranger. The Queen archly asks if Phaedra isn't a stranger, because she hasn't seen her in 20 years, and Phaedra parries that her exile wasn't her choice.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The healer, Valorie, enters. Before the Queen can leave, she asks Phaedra if it occurred to her that Freyal would be alive if Phaedra hadn't been exiled. (It's an interesting use of the passive voice, there, since the Queen presumably exiled her. Guilt, your majesty?) Freyal and Phaedra would've been married, and she'd perhaps have a grandchild "instead of...nothing." Phaedra tells that it weights heavily on her that three lives were lost, and the Queen is surprised to hear about Dace and the mermaid. (I'm guessing Phaedra was fishing to see if the Queen recognized Dace's name.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The Queen leaves, and Phaedra and Valorie enthusiastically greet each other. Valorie suggests removing Phaedra's cloak to heal the wound, but Phaedra panics, making it clear the cloak isn't just a cloak. Valorie heals Phaedra, who says that she feels 20 years younger. A guard then arrives to escort Phaedra to the Silver Gate. In the halls, Phaedra sees her mother, but her brother arrives to drag her mother from that "traitorous trash." Phaedra tells that guard that she knows how to leave, and the guard threatens that her cloak doesn't protect her as much as she thinks it does.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Pax meets her at the gate, and they take an elevator down to the Heights. Pax marvels at the view, and Phaedra tells him that it's a lie curated for royalty. She notes the elevator doesn't go below the Heights, which means the royals don't even see half of Kiros. She comments darkly on the forces that don't want the nobility to see the reality that exists in that other half. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The captain calls them back to HQ, where they encounter more demonic rats, which are apparently called wraiths (explaining the hooligan's comment, since wraith are this world's rats). At the Department, it's chaos because all sorts of people have arrived to confess to killing Freyal, to carrying his lovechild, to being his lovechild, or to witnessing the murder.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before Pax and Phaedra can start interviewing them, a kid with a glowing knife murmurs, "For Kiros," and stabs Phaedra before cutting his throat. We end the issue with Pax holding Phaedra's bloody body.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond the murder mystery itself, we're also in the dark about a lot of dynamics at play here. Why does everyone hate the Black Cloaks? It seems the only thing that unifies everyone is that hatred. Why are the mermaids cannibals? Did they follow the Great Evil or were they victims of it? What's a "capture?"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, this triple-sized issue is spectacular. It's worth every moment spent with it. The art is unbelievable. Thompson's story is unbelievable. I'm all fucking in.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Blade Runner 2039 #2</u></b>: Ho boy, the chickens are coming home to roost!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ash takes Lexi, the replicant from last issue, to a desolate place populated with only a trailer. Ash enters expecting Freysa but sees an unknown man. She draws a gun before she realizes Freysa is with him. Ash tells Freysa that she should've told her that they were going to have visitors, and Freysa introduces him as "an old friend from the trenches" named Sapper. Freysa notes that Ash herself has brought a stranger, and Ash introduces Lexi. It's clear through their interactions that their relationship is tense.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At LAPD HQ, a bodiless voice coming from the device on Luv's desk is chastising her for her treatment of the officer last issue. The voice tells her she's confined to HQ but she tells the voice that she's going to Santa Barbara on Niander Wallace, Jr.'s orders and the voice relents. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the former Selwyn estate in Santa Barbara, "Ms. Penelope" greets Luv, who marvels at the fresh water coming from the fountain. Luv notes that Penelope's butler is a Nexus-8 Replicant, and Penelope tells her that she has dispensation from the police to own one. When Luv tells Penelope that she can sense Nexus-8s, Penelope marvels at the "poetic" nature of Wallace making Replicants to catch Replicants. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the trailer, Ash installs one of the eyes in Freysa, and Freysa installs the other one in Ash, since her eye was apparently looking "diseased" like her spine and, lately, her lungs. Freysa encourages Ash to stay, but Ash tells Freysa that Lexi told her about the Replicant Blade Runner.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At Selwyn's estate, Luv tells Penelope that Wallace thinks Selwyn may have left </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">"sensitive material" hidden there. Penelope knows that Wallace wants Luv to turn the estate upside down looking for what Selwyn knew, but Penelope refuses. Luv tells Penelope that she doesn't need Penelope's cooperation, and Penelope and her butler kick Luv's ass. Apparently Luv's ability to detect older Replican models isn't so great, because Penelope reveals herself as Hythe. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To make matters more interesting, Cleo arrives on Earth! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This series is playing for keeps, y'all.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America: Symbol of Truth #9</u></b>: This issue is better than the previous ones but still not good.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The kid who magically knows everything happening in Mohannda tells the adults that the government has bombed the hospital. Nomad knows that it's a trap, but Cap insists that they go, so they all go. What, you wouldn't take all the resistance forces to one place where the enemy could easily annihilate them? Coward.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As the team helps survivors at the hospital, one of them tells Cap that someone evacuated many of the doctors before the attack, but apparently no one thinks it's significant. Instead, they just rescue the doctors so they can get to work helping the other survivors. Everyone is surprised when militarized Phrox from Dimension Z appear, no one more than Ian, who notes that they helped Steve raise him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sam realizes that they're in trouble since he puts together that the White Wolf has access to Zola tech. Nightshade suggest that the White Wolf has "some sort of technology conduit" or "maybe a signal transmitter," though I don't get why summoning portals to Dimension Z would require a transmitter. Anyway, she's confident she can understand Zola's technology. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sam leads the Phrox from the hospital but then decides the White Wolf must be keeping the transmitter in the sky because anyone could reach it on the ground. (Look, I'm just trying to hang in here.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On said ground, Nightshade declares a strong signal is coming from the Parliament, which is impressive since she's holding a gun and not some sort of signal detector. But they all decide to head to Parliament. Sam destroys the sky-based transmitter, but it only disables the portals. (I'm not sure why they thought the Phrox would disappear simply because the portals were no longer working, but they did.) </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Suddenly, Falcon arrives in full vampire mode and declares that he's going to kill Sam for abandoning him. I mean, what the fuck? Last time we saw him, he was asking his grandmother for help and now he's a vampire intent on murdering Sam in Mohannda What's next? Is D-Man going to arrive as a zombie mad at Sam for missing poker night?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">God, I hate this series.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Know Your Station #2</u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: We end this issue where we ended the last one: Elise finds a body (well, two bodies this time), and she's the only person who accessed the room where they were killed, according to St. Brigid. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It seems pretty clear that St. Brigid is, knowingly or not, assisting the killer in covering their tracks. Given Elise is detoxing from the Blue, she isn't as sharp as she normally is, making it easier for the killer. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond the killer's identity, this issue's biggest mystery is where Pritchard's body went, given it disappeared from Elise's tub, where St. Brigid initially stashed it. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If I had to guess, Marin - who whispers something to Elise that she won't remember since she's detoxing - is in love with Elise and killing her enemies, given Raulsson and his wife are the bodies Elise finds here. We'll see.</span></span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-41663725495709370042023-05-03T08:00:00.000-06:002023-05-03T10:58:57.386-06:00Four-Month-Old Comics: The January 4 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Astronaut Down #5</u></b>: We get a pretty anticlimactic ending to the series here, as Douglas does the right thing and sends the transmission to his Earth. Before he does, he knocks up Maddie, explaining that he caught glimpses of other realities during this travels and in most of them he saw their daughter. In the transmission, he includes a message about learning how to bridge our divides and forgive each other, which felt more saccharine than we've seen Douglas be. To that point, we aren't really given a solid reason for Douglas' change of heart, other than maybe feeling like it was OK to die so long as he procreated? It's unclear. All in all, it was an interesting series, though more notable for its concept than its execution.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Batman #131</u></b>: Zdarsky shows no sign of slowing down here. In fact, this arc seems poised to exceed his first one in excellence if this issue is any indication.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bruce awakens in the alley that we saw at the end of last issue. A couple of punks have stolen his equipment and, notably, don't recognize him; one of them comments that Bruce looks like a "Venomed-up freak." Bruce realizes that he's in Crime Alley, but something about it feels different. His proof comes in the form of a skeletal Jim Gordon with the personality of the Joker. He calls himself "Jimbo" and tells Bruce that they fight crime together! "Biff! Bam! Pow!"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bruce realizes that he's on a different Earth, one where his brownstone lays abandoned and someone else owns Wayne Tower. Zdarksy underscores the seriousness of the situation when Bruce says this "Gotham feels...more foreboding. Darker." If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Bruce quips, it's still Gotham, though, and he follows a scream to an apartment where a Judge Dredd-like "Judge Dent" is terrorizing the residents, asking if they're sane or insane. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bruce recognizes that it's Harvey </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">and</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> that Harvey and his goons are on Venom. When Firely (ever the idiot, as Bruce mentions) sets the building on fire in an attempt to get Bruce, Bruce helps a woman escape but Dent nabs him before he can follow her to safety. Zdarskey does a great job of showing how Bruce is struggling here. He still hasn't recovered from Failsafe, and a Venomized Dent beats him to a pulp. He survives only when a street kid saves him via two knives she throws into Dent's face. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the girl's dilapidated apartment, she tells Bruce that her name is Julia but everyone calls her Jewel. Zdarsky shifts pace here as we segue from action to characterization. Bruce asks where Jewel's parents are and she doesn't respond, leaving the room to get more alcohol for Bruce's wounds. Bruce realizes that she has the same look of an orphan that he and his raven-haired boys do. Bruce realizes that he and Batman are dead in this reality, which is why Failsafe sent him here: his version of compassion was giving Bruce another Gotham to save.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Selina is running her own operation but responds to a call from the Red Mask, who sends a carrier raven with a photo of Bruce and tells her to bring Bruce to him alive. I'm not sure who Red Mask is, but, given the torture victims behind him and his Klan-like costume, I don't think he's a nice guy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the back-up story, we learn that Tim recognized the gun that Failsafe used on Bruce. Jon Kent apparently took it from Toyman after Toyman killed himself (I thought Grifter killed him?) and stored it - and all other supervillain weapons he found - in the Fortress of Solitude while his father was in space. <i>We</i> know that Toyman is alive given the introduction so clearly we're going on a Toyman hunt.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Later, Tim helps Dick take down one of Joker's goons calling himself Cutup. Dick and Tim discuss how all the low-level goons are making a play based on the rumor that Batman is dead. (As Tim says, the Banes and the Riddlers know not to believe it.) Dick suggests Tim let Batman save himself while they save Gotham, which Tim isn't buying. You'd think Dick would remember how Tim found Bruce the last time he died? Then again Dick is the pretty one so... </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, Jon calls Tim from the Fortress and suggests that Toyman may have left some clues when it comes to the gun. Dun-dun-DUN!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, this issue is great, and I'm so fucking happy we're finally getting the type of stories that Batman deserves.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #8</u></b>: This issue is <i>dense</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Steve goes into a gas station and calls Aaron Fischer, the Captain America of the Railways, telling him to activate the Captains Network. It took some Googling to discover that Aaron is one of the heroes introduced in "United States of Captain America." Aaron manages to collect everyone but Black Widow, who Roger says has gone dark, and Hawkeye, who is apparently still in New York. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Honestly, this entire sequence doesn't make much sense. Does Aaron have some sort of magical railcar? Peggy complains about having to ride outside the car, which Nick says made sense since A.I.M. is likely looking for them. But doesn't it make more sense to ride <i>inside</i> the car where they can't see them? Also, I don't get why Aaron had to assemble everyone. Couldn't Steve just have called them all and told them to meet him in Kansas? To that end, we've not told where the rest of them were during these five days.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, Steve mentally calls Emma with the code she gave him: hilariously, it's "Mommy." Although Peggy refuses to submit to Emma, the rest of the group does and realizes that the Outer Circle used a M.O.D.O.C. (Mental Organism Designed Only for Control) to disappear them for the five days they needed to take over Lower Manhattan. M.O.D.O.C. also apparently saw into their secrets, which could get interesting down the line. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, though, this sequence has issues. First, we're not told A.I.M. was somehow able to take down Cap, Peggy Carter, Sharon Carter, Nick Fury, and Redacted. Sharon discovers a subdermal scar next to her ear, which implies they were attacked and A.I.M. inserted an implant M.O.D.O.C. to use. But how did A.I.M. manage to take down this group, particularly since Black Widow and Hawkeye were also with them at the time. Also, why not just kill them? Also, did A.I.M. really need to take over Lower Manhattan just to get the neganite? It seems like a lot of effort.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, the authors tried to tell a larger story than this issue could contain. Honestly, the best part of the issue is when Steve's art-class friends try to find him and run into Amari. They've all got great chemistry together, and I'd love to see them fight A.I.M. from the inside now that they're captured.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars #30</u>: This issue is reminiscent of Gillen's initial run on "Star Wars (2015)," as I can hear the characters speaking in the actors' voices for the first time in a long while. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Amilyn, Lando, and Luke particularly jump off the page. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The team finds itself in a serious pickle: they learn that the Kezarat convoy has turned into the Kezarat <i>colony</i> because no one has found a way to escape No-Space in two centuries. Uh-oh.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At this stage, my only complaint is that the story's flow remains clunky. I think it's due to the extensive script, which I appreciate narratively but seems better suited to a movie or TV show. I found myself almost tired of flipping pages at the issue's end, which isn't a good place to find oneself.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Hopefully now that Soule has set up the story it'll move more quickly.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>X-Men Red #10</u></b>: Oof. Like other issues this week, this issue has <i>way</i> too many stories happening at once, making it difficult to follow. Moreover, Ewing leans a little too heavily into the Arakkii way of speaking in riddles, slowing down the pace even further. If you strip out the verbiage, this issue's</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> overarching theme is that the Arakkii are finally starting to learn how to cooperate. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Khora uses her powers to amplify Cable's so that he can use his telekinesis to absorb the techo-organic virus Orbis Stellaris has sitting in the lab. He creates a pretty fucking cool set of armor with it and becomes the Progenitors' focus. As such, they take their attention off Manifold who works with Lactuca to teleport the Progenitors "all the way outside," which he hypothesizes is where they originated in the first place.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Lodus Logos, Sobunar, and Wrongslide help Storm defeat Vulcan, encasing him in a mysterium suit until they can figure out his future.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Brand realizes that Roberto paid off Mentallo to relay Xandra's telepathic manipulation of Brand so Brand wouldn't realize Xandra was hiding Storm at the Autumn Palace. (I'm still not sure about this part. Per my question last issue, I think now that Xandra also manipulated Vulcan to go there so that Storm could finish him, but Ewing doesn't make that clear.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Roberto, Xandra, and company arrive to confront Brand, but she uses Cable's bodyslide technology to escape. That said, she arrives at her safehouse to discover the Fisher King waiting for her. I'm still not sure what the Fisher King's powers are, so I'm not sure what kind of threat he is to Brand. But he uses her true name (Abigail Thanriaguiaxus, or "Born-as-Axus-Ended") and knew her safehouse's location, so it probably isn't good for her that he calls her an enemy of Arakko.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Underlining my point about how we have too much going on here, the issue ends with the revelation that Orbis Stellaris is somehow Nathan Essex, something Cable also knows after he asked Weaponless Zen (whose power is to draw the truth) to draw his identity.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm hoping Ewing uses the end of this arc to focus a little more next issue, because I can't keep all these plots straight much longer.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-44817498176823945112023-05-02T08:00:00.114-06:002023-05-02T08:00:00.141-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 28 Edition - Part 2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #3</u></b>: This issue's sub-title should be, "Let's Talk about Sex, Baby." </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I mean, no one actually talks about sex. But the issue is all about Young Miracelman finding himself surrounded by breasts and dicks.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In his flight from Miracleman, Dickie for some reasons loses consciousness and reverts to his messenger outfit, crash-landing on Mt. Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas. A hiker named Jason finds him. Jason is a suspicious character mostly for his lack of curiosity over finding a besuited teenager in the snow in the Himalayas. He just assumes Dickie set out poorly prepared like he did as a kid. Conveniently, he has an extra thermal suit he lends Dicky.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Jason is apparently going to see Tom Caxton, a.k.a. Mister Master. We learn that Caxton was the first enhanced human Miracelman created but he eventually retired to Mt. Kanchenjunga. Jason tells Dicky that he was close to the top of the enhancement list but pulled his name from consideration, which is why he wants to talk to Caxton. Just as Jason complains about losing time (presumably due to helping Dicky), two enhanced humans on a flying motorcycle appear and offer to bring them to the lodge up the mountain. The woman introduces herself as Meta-Maid and the man as Deadlock the Demolisher. Dicky sits behind Meta-Maid on the bike, and she not subtly at all places his hands on her breasts.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That night, Jason (wearing a Kimota! t-shirt) reads from Caxton's book, which is essentially a screed against enhancement. Meta-Maid invites Dicky to sleep with her, but he declines, as does Jason. For the second time in the issue, Johnny Bates approaches Dicky in his sleep. Dickie awakens from the nightmare to find a buff and naked Jason crouched at the foot of his bed asking if he's OK. Something about Jason's nudity implies Jason's interest in Dicky might not be platonic. (In Buckingham's original sketches including in the issue's back matter, we see Jason from behind, his naked ass prominent, which means Dicky is looking straight at his junk.)</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The next morning, Jason and Dicky depart for Caxton's abode, and Jason tells an odd story about how he once met Miracleman as a kid because he was chosen to have a conversation with him. It was staged as a play and later a movie, and Jason confesses that he doesn't remember what Miracleman actually said to Jason. Shortly thereafter, Meta-Maid appears, having dumped Deadlock (who admittedly seemed dull). They all arrive at Caxton's together. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That night, Meta-Maid tells the story about how her boyfriend left her for Kay after the Young Miracelman parade. (She implies her boyfriend will change into something after sex with Kay, which is interesting.) Deadlock offered her a ride to see the Himalayas, which is how we came to meet them.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">For his part, Caxton tells the story of becoming the first enhanced human, a chance he won in a lottery. Interestingly, he says Miracleman originally thought everyone would become enhanced, so something clearly happened to disrupt those plans. Jason asks why Caxton decided to give up his enhancements, and Caxton says that he forgot what it was like to be a human. He eventually climbs Olympus and asks Miracelman to turn him into a human again. Miracleman asks Caxton if the project failed, and Caxton replies that he didn't think it did: he just came through it. Now, he's simply Tom Caxton again. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Jason tells Caxton that he'd answered most of his questions. When it's time for bed, Caxton has Jason come with him to get the sleeping bags and asks Jason if he's looking after Dicky. Jason says he is, and Caxton tells him to take care of him because he needs it. I wonder if Caxton knows Dicky is Young Miracelman?</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Later that night, Johnny appears to Dicky again, but Dicky banishes him.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As I said at the top, this issue reads as hypersexualized, a vibe that Gaiman and Buckingham use to highlight Dicky's profound innocence in this new world. Jason's rugged handsomeness and humanity stand in contrast to Miracelman's perfection and visual blandness. In fact, Jason's attractiveness also stands in contrast to Meta-Maid's sexuality. If Dicky realizes Jason might want to fuck him, it would likely scare him less than if Meta-Maid wanted to fuck him. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It all just seems like it's going to be too much for Dicky.</span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Han Solo and Chewbacca #8</u></b>: I don't know how he does it, but Guggenheim writes Phaedra in a way that makes me totally believe in her ability to smuggle Han and Chewie into Grand Moff Tarkin's office to steal the urn. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue stars with the trio shaking down Greedo in Mos Eisley. He tells them that Khel and her crew, Han's "dad" (i.e., Corbus Tyra), and he all went their separate ways after the last job. When Han asks about the urn, Greedo confirms that the Imperials picked up the urn when they scanned the <i>Falcon </i>and that it's in Tarkin's office on Coruscant.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Han reasonably assumes that it's unreachable, but Phaedra has a plan. Said pain relies on a mysterious person (or persons) owing Phaedra not one, but two, favors. Favor #1 involves said person (or persons) getting the trio hired as "waste-disposal personnel" because the Empire apparently doesn't do background checks on the people who keep the sewers working. Favor #2 involves said person (or persons) getting Phaedra the "full schematics for the sewer network and the Grand Moff's building." They're definitely <i>convenient</i> favors. But s</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">omething about Phaedra makes you believe that said person (or persons) really does owe her these favors.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, it isn't all smooth sailing for the trio, and I don't just mean Chewie falling off the roof of the train that serves as their get-away car. As they're going to work on Coruscant, Marshal Vancto tracks down Tyra who offers him Han's location (since he knows Han would go after the urn) in exchange for his freedom. Honestly, I almost think Corbus <i>is</i> Han's dad...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /><b><u>Also Read</u></b><span>: Moon Knight #18; X-Terminators #4; Star Wars: Yoda #2</span></span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-28715724062659507342023-05-01T08:00:00.180-06:002023-05-01T16:13:44.191-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 28 Edition - Part 1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Amazing Spider-Man #16</u>: The tone of these "Dark Web" issues remains weird. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We went from oddly jokey last issue to bro-y aggro in this one. Peter isn't even remotely sympathetic when it comes to Ben's situation and simply throws hands. It's weird because Peter is the most empathetic characters in comics; you'd think he'd understand that Ben doesn't have a moral code because he needs Peter's memories to have one.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Putting aside the tone, the plot is also weird. Madelyne's "secret mission" is to send Venom into the Treehouse to recover her "soul." I'm assuming she means her Cerebro back-up, but they're stored in Krakoa and not New York. If it isn't her back-up, I have no idea what she's doing. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, I still don't get Hallows' Eve. She uses a mask to become Frankenstein's Monster, seemingly to accompany Eddie into the Treehouse to take on the X-Men. But once Eddie enters she takes off the mask and apparently plans on entering stealthily while Eddie attacks. Why change into Frankenstein's Monster then?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Moreover, I thought Ben was using the orb he displays here to steal Peter's memories, somehow channeling the Tree of Exquisite Liberation (which we saw in issue #14). Instead he sends Peter to Limbo, where he also has JJJ, Jr. and Robbie Robertson. Doesn't that get him farther from his goal of stealing Peter's memories? He seems more focused on the demonic attack of New York, and I still don't get how that furthers either Ben's or Madelyne's goals.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, I'm just at a loss here.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dark Web: X-Men #2</u></b>: I haven't liked a damn thing about "Dark Web," but Jean Grey smacking Madelyne Pryor and telling her, "If you want to go, let's go" is 30+ years coming and I'm here for it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America: Symbol of Truth #8</u></b>: This issue is just awful. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Throughout the issue, we get a series of statements that either contradict previous statements or just don't make sense. To wit:</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Nomad uses a "Theseus and the minotaur" metaphor to describe why he and the refugees are safe from the oncoming tanks as they walk through the village's ruins. Sam says soldiers may get lost in ruins but tanks don't. Does he mean the tanks will somehow run over the ruins? It isn't clear.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A small child is leading Nomad and the refugees to a safe house, whose location apparently only he knows. We're never told why he, and not a single adult, alone knows where it is.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It turns out the shelter has a hidden button you press to enter, like it's the Batcave. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sam notes the tanks are getting closer, and Ian quips that he "was hoping maybe they had other rides to drop off." Is that a joke? If not, I have no idea what he means.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> As Sam and Nomad discuss the situation with the resistance leaders, Nightshade appears. She apparently emigrated to Wakanda as part of the Wakanda Forever movement. She claims many émigrés had "no way back" to America and found themselves stuck in Mohannda. I find it hard to believe that the Wakandans not only revoked the émigrés' citizenship but then dumped them into an apartheid state? Who's running Wakanda's PR team?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Nightshade says she isn't a villain anymore, which I guess is true-ish, but she then claims, "I'm not someone with a past," which is very not true-ish. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Nightshade then tells us that she didn't just go to Mohannda because she had "no way back" to America, but because she believed in the deceased prime minister's cause. Pick a reason!</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I went to the trouble of listing these inconsistencies and oddities to show that I'm not just exaggerating. The issue reads like a bad AI wrote it. It also comes nowhere close to explaining what Sam is planning to do about the White Wolf, particularly now that he knows the White Wolf was the one behind the prime minister's assassination, ostensibly the reason why he's there.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I've said it before, but Sam doesn't deserve this series.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-57720014018413827822023-04-28T08:00:00.204-06:002024-03-16T18:00:57.532-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 14 and 21 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span>Amazing Spider-Man #15</span><span> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(December 14)</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: This issue is weirdly jokey given the fact that Peter discovers Ben is still alive and Eddie Brock has reverted to his more brainless (and dangerous) iteration. (</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Peter responds to both developments essentially with a shrug.) As he goes to save Norman, he comments how Norman helped him when he lost Mary Jane, a situation he described as "a pickle." It's bizarre.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, Ben can apparently cast spells now, which he uses to do...something to Ms. Marvel, whose appearance here feels completely unnecessary. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In terms of continuity, this issue clearly happens after "Dark Web: X-Men" #1 (despite the checklist saying it comes before it), since Peter refers to leaving the X-Men at Rockefeller Center, which happens in that issue (see below). To make matters more complicated, Madelyne and Hallows' Eve collect Eddie here for their "secret mission," but they already had him in "Dark Web" #1.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, it isn't the most promising star to this event.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Dark Web: X-Men #1 </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(December 14)</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: This issue is worth the price of admission only for nostalgic 80s children (like me) who'll appreciate Spidey's team-up with Firestar and Iceman. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Like "Amazing Spider-Man" #15, though, it suffers from an inappropriately jokey tone. For example, as they're imprisoned in Limbo, Alex desperately tries to get Scott to engage with his pain, which he claims is similar to Madelyne's (a stretch, but consistent with Duggan's portrayal of Alex as a whiny brat). Scott completely rebuffs him. To be fair, Scott is trying to get Alex to help him escape their cell, but still. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond the issues mentioned in the above review, this issue's chronological sequencing is also odd. Madelyne is in Limbo torturing the Summer brothers but also in New York going on her "secret mission" with Hallows' Eve. Also I thought she told Ben in "Amazing Spider-Man" #14 that she wouldn't go to New York to maintain some plausible deniability with the X-Men? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's a mess.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Mary Jane & Black Cat (December 21)</u></b>: For fuck's sake, Wells has got to tell us what happened six months ago. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I say that because Mary Jane didn't just collect a husband and two children in the ensuing period, she also gained superpowers. Said powers involve her spinning a slot-machine wheel and manifesting a power based on whatever she gets spin-wise. It isn't just ridiculous (which it is). It's also repetitive. We've already had <i>two</i> extremely confusing iterations of the Jackpot hero, though neither one possessed these powers. [Sigh.] </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If you're asking what Mary Jane's powers have to do with "Dark Web," Black Cat sees her manifest them to protect Paul and the kids from demons. Of course, before we can address that, Belasco kidnaps Black Cat and Mary Jane because he wants a favor. [Sigh, again.]</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u><br /></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #29 </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(December 14)</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: This issue is fun when it's Bossk and Tasu fighting off Imps or IG-88 taking out the Son-tuul Pride syndicate basically on his own. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But I still have the problem I've had for a while, which is that this series has so many main and supporting characters that it's really hard to keep them all straight. When and why did Crimson Dawn destroy Ankala and her compatriots' villages? How and why did the Pride help Crimson Dawn and thus earn an Imperial bounty? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's a small complaint, but it does occasionally slow down my ability to follow the action, which is fast and furious here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>WildC.A.Ts #2 </u></b></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>(December 14)</u></b></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: This issue moves </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">fast</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The beginning is a good time as Cole expresses frustration while he and Zealot find themselves battling the H.I.V.E troops </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">and</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> the Court of Owls' Talons. Cole gets injured, forcing Zealot to fight off their attackers alone while getting a still unconscious Fairchild and him to a place where Void can teleport them.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Cole isn't a "sitting in bed" type of guy, though, so he leaves the hospital early to attend the Halo directors meeting. (In the hospital, he relays another multiverse story, though I don't recognize this one.) At the meeting, we see various familiar faces at the table, including Dr. Anthony Ivo, Norah Fries (who I though the WildC.A.Ts killed per a comment last issue but is clearly alive here), and a resurrected (female) Michael Cray. For reasons Rosenberg doesn't make clear, Cole encourages Marlowe to let them go after the Court, but Void disapproves. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That doesn't stop Cole from getting Voodoo to go over the crime scene with him later that night. She doesn't find anything, though their search clearly pisses off the Court, which sends an assassin after Marlowe at a party later that evening. Marlowe decides that it's time to take the WildC.A.Ts public, though he unveils a team called the Seven Soldiers of Victory, most of whom I don't recognize. I'm sure (I hope) Rosenberg has something up his sleeve.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: Night Club #1 </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(December 14)</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">; X-Men Annual #1 (December 21)</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-21106616312279900852023-04-27T08:00:00.119-06:002023-04-27T10:03:32.740-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 7 Non-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Batman #130</u>: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Zdarsky is playing for keeps here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue opens with a spectacular seven-page spread focused on Bruce finding a way to survive falling from the Moon to Earth. He swipes a booster and oxygen canister from one of the Justice League ships that Failsafe destroyed last issue, initiates</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> nine-g bursts of propulsion every three to four seconds for an hour, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">spends eight hours and 31 minutes in free fall, and uses his trunks as a face shield after his oxygen mask burns in reentry. It's something else.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, Bruce doesn't just randomly land on Earth: he lands at the Fortress of Solitude. (He used the compressed air in his grappling hook to direct the booster's position because of course he did.) Failsafe almost immediately arrives after him, and an awakened Superman goes to fight it as Bruce and Tim plan. Bruce realizes their only option is to use the hole he created in Failsafe's armor last issue to inject him with virus-enabled nanobots. Since Failsafe's programming would reject an attack, Bruce has the bots introduce a new program: compassion.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Failsafe is rattled, but his definition of compassion entails him disintegrating Bruce. Of course, the story ends with Bruce somehow lying unconscious in a Gotham City alley, so we'll see what he did to survive next issue. Meanwhile, Failsafe announces his mission complete and departs for parts unknown.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As action packed as this issue is, Zdarsky doesn't skimp on the emotions. Bruce reflects on how Tim always relished teamwork more than Dick or Jason, which is how he's able to get close enough to Failsafe to inject the nanobots. Shortly before Failsafe shoots him, Bruce looks mournfully at Tim and tells him that it'lll be OK. It's a reach, though, given the last scene in the North Pole is Tim crying next to the hole where Bruce was with Superman lying unconscious behind him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the "Zur en Arrh: Year One" back-up story, Bruce summons his mother to remind him that her son and his father's son isn't a murderer. As Zur en Arrh stands in the corner watching them, she pulls back his cowl to reveal he has no eyes: just a face with a smile, an embodiment of "hollow anger." Emboldened, Bruce takes over the body in time to save the Joker from falling to his death after Zur en Arrh threw him out the window. The story ends with Bruce realizing that he is the most dangerous man alive and installing the same "failsafes and barriers" that he has in real life into Zur en Arrh.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I can't wait to see where we go from here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Blade Runner 2039 #1</u></b>: Every time you think this series of mini-series is at its bleakest, Johnson proves you wrong.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Unlike the two previous mini-series, Ash isn't the focus at the start of this one. Instead, we're introduced to Luv, the first Replicant Blade Runner (and obviously a precursor to "Blade Runner 2049's" handsome, handsome K). The issue begins with Luv taking out a Replicant named Tabitha but not realizing that Tabitha's unnamed friend is also a Replicant. Back at HQ, we witness the same hostility towards Luv that K experienced, though she seems more frustrated by it than K was.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Elsewhere, Tabitha's friend is trying to buy two eyes from a creepy flesh dealer. He tells her that she can't afford them until she makes it clear they're for "payment" and the flesh dealer correctly guesses that she's trying to see "the Ferryman." Knowing the Ferryman will make sure he gets paid, the flesh dealer gives the eyes to Tabitha's friend, telling her that no one returns from the Ferryman, "least, not how they were before they left." At Hermosa Beach, Tabitha's friend finds the Ferryman who tells her that the eyes aren't for him (he's blind, with a rag around his eyes) but for the "monster at the end of the Labyrinth."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In an alleyway, a cop shakes down a man who's fallen on hard times, as we can tell by the photo that he clutches of him dressed in a suit with his family. The officer informs him that "you people aren't supposed to go past the shoreline encampment anymore," and the man complains that he used to live there. The officer is ready to beat him when Luv intervenes. She forces the officer to beg her to spare him in progressively pathetic ways because she knows that he was patrolling outside his beat (for reasons that aren't made clear). Before she can get him to grovel further, Niander Wallace, Jr. directly gives her a new job: track down the Replicant based on Alexander Selwyn's late wife, who's gone missing. Dun-dun-DUN!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Twenty miles off the California coast, the Ferryman arrives at Catalina Island, and Tabitha's friend panics, noting that it's poisoned. She departs the boat to find Ash, wearing dark glasses, asking for the eyes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">These series are so effing good. Johnson somehow makes real the further decline in the quality of life for Angelenos, as it seems like the middle class doesn't even exist anymore. His ability to use small moments - a few panels, really - to get across this message is amazing. I'm excited to find myself in Ash's world again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Know Your Station #1</u></b>: I enjoyed this issue, but I wouldn't keep reading it if I didn't know it was only five issues long.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The premise is great: someone has flayed Alberto Fairmilk, the chief financial officer of First Resort, an Avulsion Corporation space station for the ultrarich escaping Earth's climate chaos. As the station's security liaison, Elise greets Detective Sergeant Leona Pritchard from Avulsion's "Soilside Carceral Operations." A few hours later, Elise finds <i>Pritchard</i> murdered. Troublingly, St. Brigid, the station's AI, informs Elise that she was the only person who accessed the airlock where she found Pritchard's body. Since Elise is a frequent user of the Blue, it's possible she killed Pritchard without knowing it, though it seems unlikely.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sounds great, right? It is. But something about the presentation was so stiff that I found it hard to connect with the characters. Hopefully it'lll improve now that Kangas has set the stage.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Undiscovered Country #22</u></b>: As usual with this series' arcs, we're speeding up now as we approach the conclusion.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Charlotte figures out Aurora is sending Valentina and she to wars and correctly predicts that they'll respawn in 1812 once the Civil War soldiers kill them. But they're both fading at this point: Charlotte is struggling to remember the other wars, and Valentina notes their wounds are no longer healing. But they figure out what Aurora wants them to know: every place they've been, America defeats a foreign invader. They throw themselves into the burning White House and reappear in the Monitorium, a space where the historians monitor Zone History. They meet a head connected to a robot body who identifies himself as Henri Lavant. He's lonely, so he proposes keeping them for a while since, after all, he controls time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Chang and Janet learn that Ace, Charlotte, and Daniel died during whatever they did to conquer America. They're running an authoritarian regime with a personality cult dedicated to them. But Ace exists in this reality and was separated from them when they respawned. He heads to a library to get more information, but, when he searches for "America," the librarian tells him that she'll call the police if he isn't more careful about his searches. He uses the computer to look up an elderly Valentina, who tells him that Chang and Janet got started on their road to victory by killing him, Charlotte, and Daniel.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Yup, it's pretty grim.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-70037915338839345932023-04-26T08:00:00.117-06:002023-04-26T09:07:21.814-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 7 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #7</u></b>: Lanzing and Kelly show that Bucky knew what he was doing when he sent Sharon to Steve as she gets him going again (in more ways than one).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In fact, this issue is all about Steve remembering who his friends are, which is great, because they don't necessarily tell him what he wants to hear. For example, the issue begins with Namor finding Steve to return his shield (which he lost during his fall from the Outer Circle's headquarters). When Steve tells Namor about Bucky, Namor tells him what he still refuses to believe, that Bucky works in the shadows so Steve doesn't have to enter them. Namor gives Steve solid advice in telling him to find people comfortable in the shadows if he's going to save Bucky. Enter Sharon.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sharon then puts together a group of Steve's friends to help, and I couldn't be happier with this team: Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Peggy Carter, and Roger Aubrey. (When Steve previously mentioned Roger during his conversation with Namor, Namor was thrilled to find out Roger was still alive. He told Steve to send Roger his regards, which Steve does. An overjoyed Roger tells Steve to put it on his tombstone. Roger is very much a breath of fresh air here.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Steve passes on information that Roger found to the team, namely that A.I.M. technology is unavailable on the black market right now. Natasha says that fits with three of her A.I.M. contacts going missing, and the team assumes A.I.M. is cleaning house before something big. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The team then considers the piece of neganite that Bucky and Steve collected from the Destroyer and that Bucky left as a clue for Steve in his emptied-out apartment. Nick notes that it's usually used only in zero gravity, and the team concludes that Arnim Zola is the likely the person who put it in play (which we know, given the Circle last issue identified him as a Starpoint). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Hawkeye tells the team that the Thunderbolts are currently cleaning out a Zola facility. The team prepares to set a trap for the Circle, assuming they'll make a move on the facility. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The problem is that Steve wakes up four days later in Kansas with no idea how he got there and A.I.M. seems to have sealed off New York City. D'oh!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Lanzing and Kelly do a great job of making all these developments flow from one moment to the next. Despite a lot of exposition in the team's conversation, it felt like an organic dialogue between the characters, a rarity in comics. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Moreover, the authors stay focused on the pain that Steve feels over what he sees as Bucky's betrayal. I could find fault with this series over Steve's refusal to believe Bucky is doing the right thing, but Lanzing and Kelly make it clear that they're intentionally making Steve feel this way. They're feelings, not logic. They're totally right that Steve would feel depressed both by confronting a situation where he isn't in charge and where he's trying not to face the sacrifices Bucky makes for him. Moreover, Lanzing and Kelly make it clear that Steve's friends are aware of this blindspot, again a rarity in comics.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As I've previously said, Lanzing and Kelly are seriously overcoming my doubts about this story and delivering what I think is going to become a classic Captain America tale. It's great stuff.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Dark Web #1</u></b>: OK, "Dark Web." Here we go.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As a Spider-Man and X-Men fan, I'm more excited about the Spider-Man side of this event than the X-Men one. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On the Spider-Man side, I totally get Ben's motivations. In order to regain his memories (and sanity), Ben needs Peter's memories. It isn't that complicated. Madelyne gives him a means to that end.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I still don't get <i>Madelyne's</i> part, though. Magik turned over Limbo to her in "New Mutants" in recognition of her desire to belong somewhere. As we saw in "Amazing Spider-Man" #14, Madelyne has doubts that Magik had her best interests at heart. I get that. But I feel like Madelyne had many more options than diving into "Inferno Part Deux" just because a hot blond dude appeared on her doorstep. (She does like her hot blond dudes, though...)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, shenanigans will ensure. Madelyne and Hallow's Eve (the Summers Eve jokes really make themselves, so I won't belabor the point) are on some sort of mission with Venom (whose son Madelyne has kidnapped and who Madelyne magically lobotomized) while Ben takes the fight to Norman, the guy who engineered his (first) death. We'll see where we go from here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Hidden Empire #2</u></b>: This issue is refreshingly direct. The Archivist and the woman helping her, Kho Phon Farrus, manage to turn on the Fermata Cage. But it attracts Darth Sidious' and Darth Vader's attention, and Sidioius dispatches Vader to get the Cage. While Qi'ra regroups at a hidden safehouse, she dispatches Chanath Cha and her team to help the Archivist. But I'm pretty sure Vader is just going to kill them all, so I'm not really sure what Soule is going to do with the last three issues.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>X-Men Red #9</u></b>: Roberto's ongoing role as Sol's underestimated kingmaker kicks up a notch here as Brand is surprised when it turns out he, and not Xandra, sat on the Diplomatic Zone's throne when Vulcan tried to assassinate Xandra. Poor Abby.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Ewing shows us how Brand manipulated Xavier into resurrecting Gabriel. She convinced him that Magneto's death left an Omega-level hole in the mutants' defenses, and Charles ego did the rest: he decides that he can "cure" Vulcan before he hatches. As expected, it didn't work, and Vulcan tears through the Galactic Council before trying to assassinate Xandra here. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But the revelation that Roberto was using a Shi'ar image inducer to act as Xandra sends off Vulcan to find her. For some reason he decides that she's in the Autumn Palace, Magneto's former residence, which I don't totally understand. But he does find Storm, so I'm not complaining because I'm here for <i>that</i> fight.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-685350457874951552023-04-22T09:00:00.000-06:002023-04-22T09:12:21.992-06:00Transformers (1984) #3<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This issue opens with Starscream and the Seekers returning to the Decepticons' new base with Sparkplug so he can create for them the process of converting gasoline into energon that he was going to create for the Autobots. In yet more thought-bubbling, Megatron exposits that his fusion cannon is the reason his leadership over the Decepticons is assured. He views Starscream's "services" as necessary <i>for now</i> but anticipates a time when he can rid himself of the would-be "assassin" (his words).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Salicrup cleverly uses Sparkplug as a way to remind us that the Decepticons are like "modern man trying to hack it back in cavemen days." They need fuel, but they stripped the Harrison nuclear plant for parts for their base instead of using its nuclear power capabilities to create energon. We also learn Sparkplug was a POW in Korea! Sparkplug initially refuses to help Megatron, but after Megatron has Laserbeak train his eyebeams on him Sparkplug relents.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Buster leaves behind Jesse and O at his father's garage to accompany the Autobots to the Ark. We need to straighten out Buster again here as Jesse notes that he's sensitive, but he's also "so </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">brave</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">" for going with the Autobots in the hope that they can save his father. Brave equals straight so we're all good. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Because it's 1984, Spider-Man has an obligatory guest appearance, but this one makes more sense than his other ones during this era. (I read <i>a lot</i> of Spider-Man guest appearances at this time, usually on failing or new series.) Joe Roberston sends Peter to join the media phalanx surrounding Decepticon headquarters, hoping his experience taking Spidey photos will mean he can get some great action shots. Peter changes into his Spidey costume to get closer to the action, as the media are behind the U.S. military, which surrounds the headquarters. The Decepticons rebuff the military's offer to talk and then engage them in combat.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As he scouts the location, Spidey encounters Gears, who's grumbling that he doesn't even care about the humans. After Spidey discovers that Gears isn't the enemy, Gears explains that the Decepticons are hoping to strip Earth from resources to fuel their war with the Autobots. (I enjoyed Gears complaining that Spidey, like Bluestreak, likes the sound of his own voice.) Gears and Spidey invade the Decepticons' headquarters to get Sparkplug while the Autobots intervene on the military's behalf, despite the military shooting at every Transformer willy-nilly.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Gears' crankiness is a great foil for Spider-Man, making it feel like one of his Wolverine team-ups. Gears comes to appreciate how Spidey's acrobatics and chatter create enough of a distraction for him to take out Ravage and Soundwave. Megatron is obviously another order of magnitude in terms of difficulty, and Spidey is upset when Gears seemingly sacrifices himself to save Sparkplug after Megatron shoots out the floor beneath them. Interestingly, Gears is resurrectable here, after the Autbots collect all his pieces. I wonder how future issues will address that.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, we get a great cliffhanger (heh) as Gears awakens with enough energy to inform the Autobots that Megatron got what he wanted from Sparkplug. Say it ain't so, Dad!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issues contains a lot of narrating the Transformers' abilities that seems clearly connected to selling the toys. On the Decepticon side, Buzzsaw uses his "diamond-hard, micro-serrated edged beak" to take out an Air Force jet, Skywarp teleports to evade a jet, and Thundercracker uses his "defining sonic book" to stun the Army soldiers. (The Seekers are so definitely the coolest Transformers in school). Gears uses "a cushion of compressed air" to land after saving a group of reporters by grabbing a tank that Thundercracker throws at them, and Sunstreaker's "shoulder-mounted, laser-guided, ground-to-air missile" takes out Skywarp. Frenzy - who explicitly calls Rumble his brother here - later knocks out Gears with his "high-pitched grating sound."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">All in all, it's a pretty great issue, particularly with Spidey's appearance.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-1656909612695511752023-04-21T08:00:00.247-06:002023-04-21T08:00:00.206-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 30 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span>I am unfortunately reading "Captain America: Symbol of Truth" again because I love Ian Rogers and he returns in issue #7. But I'm not happy about it.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Symbol of Truth #5</u>: Ugh. I'd say this issue was the worst, but given the way this series is going, I'll probably say that next issue.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Sam and T'Challa fight in this issue for reasons that still make no sense. Sam accuses the Wakandans of failing to save their neighbors as the colonizers came, and T'Challa keeps repeating the Wakandans' line that Sam doesn't have authority to act there. To make matters worse, the new Wakandan prime minister expels all the Americans who tried to emigrate to Wakanda as part of "Wakanda Forever," going so far as revoking the citizenship of the ones who successfully did so. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, it's insane. Onyebuchi doesn't even attempt to explain the Wakandans' motivations; they all just repeat that Sam didn't have authorization to act on Wakandan soil. They never acknowledge that Sam not only stopped a bioterrorist threat but also alerted them to someone smuggling vibranium. Something is clearly happening in Wakanda, but Onyebuchi doesn't give us enough information to make this arc make sense.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Turning to this series' other ridiculous story, the former hostage LuÃsa tells JoaquÃn that she smuggled out a "piece of this giant rock" that the White Wolf's men used for experiments and asks him if it made "the señora" sick. JoaquÃn explains the vibranium (i.e., the giant rock) likely triggered the bioweapon. But I have no idea who "the señora" is. The last we saw JoaquÃn, the superhuman immigrants were helping him escape from prison. No one seemed sick at all.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends with the White Wolf staring at a futuristic cityscape with an enormous panther statue - which apparently is an unknown location and not Wakanda - and waxing poetic about going home to Mohannda.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">God, I hate this series.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Symbol of Truth #6</u><span>: This issue is a marginal improvement over the first five issues, as we get more information about Mohannda and better (though not great) insight into the White Wolf's motivations. But it's still rough going, as Onyebuchi continues to rely on his characters delivering monologues instead of talking like humans.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span>Sam is providing security to the new Mohanndan prime minister as she appeals to the United Nations for financial support as she tries to end apartheid. As the prime minister and Sam are departing the building, she suddenly sees her grandfather in the crowd. He goes into cardiac arrest, and Sam realizes it's a trap. The assassins release gas into the U.N. building, forcing Sam to flee with the prime minister. However, the assassins were planning on that and detonate an explosion that kills her. Meanwhile, Falcon remains on the scene to help the prime minister's grandfather but the arriving EMT injects him with a poison. The issue ends with the White Wolf preparing to take control of Mohannda.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span>At this stage, I think it's probably best to ignore the first arc. We're apparently never going to learn how the White Wolf got his hands on all that vibranium, why he was experimenting on the immigrants, or why he was trying to release a bioweapon in Wakanda. None of it seems to have anything to do with him taking power in Mohannda. Also, lest I overstate how much we learn about him, we still don't know <i>why</i> he wants to take power. Is he a segregationist? I wonder what his adopted brother T'Challa would think.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span>Whatever. Let's get onto sexy Ian Rogers.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><u style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Symbol of Truth #7</u><span>: [Sigh.]</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><span>First, someone needs to explain to Onyebuchi that senators don't send troops into foreign countries. The <i>president</i> is the commander-in-chief. But Senator Mansfield is the one here trying to convince Sam that diving into the Mohanndan civil war to get revenge on the person who murdered the prime minister last issue isn't the greatest idea. Of course, he then suddenly drops this opposition and decides that Sam needs a partner to keep the mission from getting too personal.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><span>He chooses Ian Rogers, who apparently isn't dead but taking out HYDRA cells for shits and giggles on the Office of Foreign Utilities' (OFU) behalf. Oh, you thought that Bucky and Sam shut down the OFU in "Falcon and Winter Soldier," did you? Me, too. So did Sam. Apparently Bucky kept it running because Bucky somehow has the authority to keep open a federal government office whose job it is to murder terrorists, which we see Ian nonchalantly doing here. Let's just say, I'm not sure Ian was the best choice if Mansfield was trying to keep Sam's operation in Mohannda quiet.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If I was annoyed by this poor plotting, I was downright incandescent with rage when Sam asks Ian if his father knows that he's alive and Ian quips, "Dad'll find out on his own time." WTF? Ian might have some anger issues (as I'm now developing reading this series) but he isn't an asshole. What exactly does Onyebuchi propose that Steve did to Ian to make him so callous that he lets his father still think that he's dead? Also Bucky knew Ian was alive and didn't do anything other than send him to kill people? Grrrr.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, Sam and Ian land in Mohannda and...randomly attack a battalion to help civilians? I thought they were going to get the person who killed the prime minister? That's a spy mission not a "use a bazooka to take out an anti-aircraft battery" mission. What, they're now going to save the whole country on their own? Also, Falcon is a vampire?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If I don't get a shirtless Ian Rogers every issue to pacify my rage, I'm going to need to drink more to keep reading this series.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Justice Society of America #1</u></b>: In typical Johns' fashion, this issue is an explosive start to this series.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We begin 26 years from now, as Helena Wayne shakes down a Falcone to find out where Dr. Fate is. Helena exposits that a random criminal somehow gained unspecified powers and killed Batman eight years earlier, dying in the act. Now Helena is worried Dr. Fate is also dead. He summoned her to his apartment after a disturbing vision, but Falcone and his men were on the premises cleaning up a crime scene when she arrived. Much to the reader's surprise, Helena is there with her teammate, Solomon Grundy, who shockingly convinces Falcone to talk, though he doesn't know where Dr. Fate is. (We never do discover why Falcone and his men were on the scene if the time-traveling figure I mention in the next paragraph was the one who killed Dr. Fate.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As the story progresses, we learn that Helena has put together a new Justice Society of America filled with famous super-villains' children, most of whom are criminals themselves. According to Helena, she did so in an attempt to honor her father's legacy; as she notes, she's alive because he gave her mother another chance. Power Girl thinks she's insane.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'd introduced the Society members to you, but they don't last long. A security guard discovers Dr. Fate's body in a sarcophagus, and the Society takes possession of his body. As Power Girl mourns over him, the rest of the team discusses the mystery of how his corpse appears to be over 1,000 years. Providing an answer they don't live long enough to process, a mysterious figure arrives and uses his time-traveling powers to kill every team member except Helena</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Helena only survives when her mother - who Helena previously told to stop tailing her - intervenes before he can age her to death. Selena tells Helena to find the original Society. Telling her that Dr. Fate can explain (and that she should've), Catwoman throws an orb at Helena. We next see her youthful again and unconscious in an alley in 1940.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In other words, I'm totally on board. Hopefully we'll get some sexy Alan Scott time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Darth Vader #29</u></b>: This issue is better than the last few issues, as Soule switches focus to Dormé. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The Handmaidens have sent Dormé to pose as Sabé and confirm whether or not Sabé's really working for Vader. Ochi helps Dormé make it into Sabé private quarters, where she looks for evidence that Sabé hasn't turned. Ochi tells her that she's barking up the wrong tree, providing the body count that Sabé's association with Vader has entailed. Eventually, Vader calls on Dormé and also tells her that she's barking up the wrong tree.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, on Brentall IV, Jul Tambor impresses Sabé. Jul informs her that he started his rebellion against the Empire after the Emperor forced into exile everyone on Skako Minor </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">who protested him taking control<i>. </i>To make matters worse, the Emperor also</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> banned the export of the rebreathers the Skakans need to survive off-world, forcing them to recycle ones they find. Sabé pushes against this narrative, noting that one could argue that Jul started the war. Jul replies that they just wanted some air. He confirms his goal is to kill Vader, which Sabé tells him he won't be able to do. He particularly won't be able to do it after she shoots him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, this issue is better, possibly because I'm resigned to the fact that Soule is going to beat this dead horse. At some point, though, he really needs to tell us why Sabé is so willing to jump into the Abyss with Vader.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: X-Terminators #3</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-22986035468153933662023-04-20T08:00:00.191-06:002023-04-20T09:28:30.301-06:00Transformers (1984) #2<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First things first, Salicrup takes over writing from Mantol and Macchio with this issue. It's a pretty seamless transition, probably because we still get an <i>enormous</i> amount of exposition. For example, over the first few pages, Megatron thought-bubbles about how Starscream is right to criticize his desire to leap into battle and Starscream thought-bubbles about how Megatron is cunning.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This thought-bubbling occurs as the Decepticons attack the still under </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">construction Harrison nuclear power plant. Megatron seems to realize halfway through the attack that they could use the plant's technology to build a base and create a generator, so he has the Decepticons halt the attack and strip it for parts. This sequence certainly supports Starscream's criticism that Megatron doesn't think through his plans carefully.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Buster convinces Sparkplug to repair Bumblebee, who confirms Buster's seemingly outrageous story about alien robots when he transforms into robot mode. Unlike in the TV show, where the Autobots never seemed to notice the lack of energy, Bumblebee explicitly states his need for fuel. Sparkplug offers to help the Autobots find a way to convert gas into Transformer-ready fuel. (Interestingly, Bumblebee identifies Huffer - not Wheeljack - as the Autobots' engineer.) Bumblebee tells Sparkplug that he'll return to the Ark to inform Optimus about Sparkplug's offer and takes Buster with him so he can see the Ark.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In town, Ravage recognizes Jesse and O from the drive-in. He transforms into cassette mode and inserts himself into O's boombox just as Jesse and O spot Buster in Bumblebee. (O is listening to a radio station, and the DJ informs us that Dazzler sang the previous song. Synergy!) Buster explains that he and Bumblebee are on their way to the Ark, though Jesse and O still don't believe that Bumblebee is an alien robot. Bumblebee informs Buster that he's running lower on fuel than he thought, so they return to Sparkplug's garage. Ravage then leaves to tell Megatron about Sparkplug.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the Ark, we get a better sense of the dynamics between the Autobots. It's clear that Optimus has a tougher job managing his larger force than Megatron does his smaller one. Whereas every Deception except Starscream is loyal to Megatron, Optimus has to deal with the Autobots' more democratic impulses. For example, Mirage doubts his allegiance to the Autobots when Optimus shoots down his argument that they just take the fuel from the humans. Despite Ironhide and Ratchet supporting Mirage's call for action, Optimus - with Prowl's support - decides that they'll offer the humans their advanced technology in exchange for fuel.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">On cue, Bumblebee makes contact after working with Sparkplug to develop a communications system. The Autobots all transform into their vehicle modes to go to Sparkplug's garage. (</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of note, Optimus doesn't say "Transform...and roll out!" here. He says the much less inspiring: "Autobots, convert to Earth-modes! Let's move out!") </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">By the time the Autobots arrive, Ravage has informed Megatron about Sparkplug, so we get an all-out battle as both sides converge on the garage. During the melee, Sideswipe uses his rocket backpack, which is part of the reason he's my favorite character. Calling him "brother" for the first time, Sunstreaker reminds the reader that Sideswipe is burning through fuel that he doesn't have to use it. We also get another hint that Mirage really isn't into fighting. Whereas last issue he lamented how he'd rather be hunting turbofoxes than fighting with the Autobots, this issue he tells us that</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"> he'd rather be "retro-wing gliding" back on Cybertron. Who knew Mirage was such a hobbyist?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;">As the Transformers battle, Megatron grabs Sparkplug but Optimus arrives to stop him. After Sparkplug miraculously survives the fall from Megatron's grasp, Starscream snatches him and flees. The Decepticons depart, and Buster begs the Autobots to save Sparkplug. Optimus obviously wants to do so, but he and the other Autobots begin dropping to the ground due to their low fuel levels.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Thoughts</u>: With the introductions complete, we're starting to get somewhere here</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As mentioned above, it was always weird that the TV series ignored the Autobots' need for energy despite every episode revolving around the Decepticons' need for it. Salicrup corrects that mistake and makes it clear that this mini-series is going to focus on both sides' struggles to find power sources to keep them operating, let alone accomplish goals like invading Cybertron (Megatron) or expelling the Decepticons from Earth (Optimus). </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;">Salicrup also starts <i>showing</i> us some of the powers that Mantol and Macchio had the Transformers exposit last issue. For example, he explicitly states that Ravage shrinks when he turns into cassette mode, something that I'm pretty sure we never saw the TV series acknowledge.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather;">Finally, Salicrup introducing tension within the Autobot ranks helps make them feel like, well, people and not just robots. If I'm connecting the dots, Mirage's willingness to plunder Earth is connected to his overwhelming desire just to go home. It makes you wonder how Optimus convinced him to go on the original mission. But Ironhide and Ratchet supporting Mirage's preference for action (if for different reasons) lays the groundwork for some interesting stories to come.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-10509577409034639252023-04-19T08:00:00.222-06:002023-04-19T12:08:50.123-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 23 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Amazing Spider-Man #14</u></b>: </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I was upset about Ben's fall during Spencer's run, but damn if the Beyond arc wasn't one of the most intense stories that I've ever read. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Maybe Wells is better at telling other people's stories than his own, because he takes Spencer's ball and fucking </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">runs</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> with it here. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First things first, Wells addresses Janine. We learn at the issue's start that Ben is raiding Beyond warehouses with the goal of finding a technology that'lll help him steal Peter's memories. Janine decides to leave him over his obsession. As she sits dejectedly picking at her eggs at a café in Grand Central Station, the friendly owner asks what's bothering her. But Janine has been down this road many times before and realizes the owner is stalling for time after he called the police. When he begins to judge her for murdering her father, she attacks him and flees. She realizes that Ben is the only sanctuary she's ever had, so she returns to him and commits to supporting him fully.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Ben finds himself called to Limbo after he discovers that one of the devices he swiped opens a portal there. Enter Madelyne Pryor. This pairing makes perfect sense. In fact, the only reason that I could see for not getting these two together is that they're from such different corners of the Marvel Universe that I'm sure it required some legwork on the authors' and editors' parts to make it happen. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ben and Janine eventually move to Limbo where Ben convinces Madelyne to lend him her demon army to invade New York. We're not clear <i>why</i> Ben wants to invade New York at this point, but we'll see. For Madelyne's part, she's starting to wonder if the mutants really gave her what she wanted or simply exiled away a bad memory.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before the invasion begins, Madelyne powers up Janine using S'ym's finger, introducing us to the worst-named character ever, Hallows' Eve. Name aside, Wells does a great job showing how this outcome is really the only one that makes sense for Janine. If she wants to inhabit Ben's world, she needs to do so fully.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue ends with Ben standing outside Peter's apartment in the hope of seeing him once last time before he attacks him. Instead, he runs into the increasingly unhinged debt collector chasing Peter. The collector (understandably) mistakes Ben for Peter, and Ben mishears the comma and believes that the collector called him a "fake[,] Peter Parker." Ben loses it and drag the collector to Limbo where we learn that he isn't the nicest of men. Madelyne has him taste from the Tree of Exquisite Liberation, confirming her theory that it can free a soul from a body. Guess how Ben wants to use that?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Honestly, I find myself surprisingly stoked about the upcoming "Dark Web" event after this issue. Go figure.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #2</u></b>: This issue is the finally step in getting us ready for new stories, as Miracleman kisses Dicky at Miraclewoman's urging. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Miraclewoman is convinced that Dicky has always been in love with Miracelman. Miracelman sees Dicky's violent reaction to the kiss as proof that she was wrong and that Dicky doesn't love him, though I wouldn't necessarily read it that way. A devastated Dicky leaves Olympus after telling Miracelman not to follow him, and Miracleman tells Miraclewoman that they need to talk. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The way Buckingham draws that last panel, Miracleman seems to suspect Miraclewoman had ulterior motives for pushing him to kiss Dicky. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Looking ahead, Dicky seems destined for some role in taking on the Pantheon. For most of this issue, we're following him as New York throws him a ticker-tape parade. At the post-parade gala, a "spaceman" appears and rambles. Winter tells Dicky that it portends great things (the spaceman is a known quantity somehow to her), and Miraclewoman tells Miracleman later that he didn't understand the spaceman's message because it was meant for Dicky. The intriguing part of said message is the end, when he says, "If sanity consists of adapting to uncover crimes of light." It isn't hard to see Dicky as the one undercovering Miracelman's well meaning crimes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond the plot, Gaiman and Buckingham do a spectacular job of showing how awful Miracelman's betrayal is. Dicky's been alive for days, maybe weeks. Rather than waiting to address the potential for his feelings when the stress of his reincarnation is less, Miracleman kisses him. The look of horror and shock on Dicky's face is a testament of Buckingham's skill. Miracelman's actions send a confused yet powerful adolescent into this carefully crafted world. We've been down that road before, and it doesn't end well.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Revelations #1</u></b>: As a public-service announcement, I'd warn anyone reading even one of the "Star Wars" series to skip this issue, as it basically just summarizes recent events in each series. As someone reading all the series except "Star Wars: Doctor Aphra," I was as annoyed as Vader was.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Yoda #1</u></b>: This issue is solid. Scott does an excellent job of showing Yoda's ability to focus on doing the right thing when he insists on personally responding to a distress call from Turrak, a backwater planet in the Outer Rim. But Scott also doesn't make it that easy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Arriving on Turrak, Yoda helps Sclavi villagers survive Crulkon pirates' third raid in as many days. Deciding to fight against the galaxy usually works, he decides to stay on the planet. If I'm reading between the lines correctly, Yoda's decision is motivated from the knowledge that the pirates would simply destroy the village the minute he left. It's obviously noble, but the Council isn't wrong when it's concerned that his absence from Coruscant will mean more people will suffer in the aggregate. Yoda clearly knows that, too, so it'll be interesting to explore his thought process as events progress. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I was worried this series would lean too much into Yoda's more cartoon-y iterations, but Scott really captures Yoda's essence here. Great stuff.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>X-Men #17</u></b>: I wasn't really feeling this arc, but Duggan wraps it up beautifully. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Caliban - or, at least, Caliban's essence - argues with Forge when he decides to leave Laura to find Darwin. Forge's logic is that the Five have already resurrected her, which he mutters is the second time that they've resurrected someone not actually dead. (I'm not sure who the other one is.) Caliban's essence sees Forge as yet another person misusing his gift.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But Forge's search is frustrated when Serafina attacks him. Duggan doesn't explain how she avoided Forge's trap, but Caliban's kindness - and her apparent debt to the mutants, who previously saved her from Orchis (seriously, don't we do editor's notes anymore?) convinces her to let them leave with Laura. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before they can, Darwin contacts Forge in his subconscious, revealing that he turned into code when he needed a way to escape the living autopsies to which the Children of the Vault subjected him. Darwin declines to leave with Forge, and Forge instead leaves with Laura, the happiest of all possible endings for an overjoyed Synch. Seriously, it's possibly the only clear romantic win for an X-Men maybe...ever. Wrapping up a minor mystery, Tempo was the third mutant's gift who Forge used, to make sure that he didn't age in the Vault.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Fascinatingly, Dr. Reyes' medical report about Forge's condition at the issue's end makes it clear that Darwin embedded himself into Forge, since Forge's Cerebro backup "was measured in Zettabytes." It eventually returned to normal, implying Darwin is now in Krakoa somehow. I'm sure that'll turn out well.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-26077990573318946322023-04-18T08:00:00.109-06:002023-04-18T14:09:54.548-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 16 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Captain America & The Winter Soldier Special #1</u></b>: I'll admit that Lanzing and Kelly do a great job with each successive issue in making the Outer Circle's ability to influence outcomes more and more believable. This issue pretty much seals the deal for me.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We begin at the beginning (a very good place to start) as we watch the Power convene the Circle for the first time in 1922. He is a Latverian prince; the Money is the world's first (secret) multibillionaire, the Machine is Wakanda's former engineering chief, and the Love is Europe's most prominent underground artist. Brilliantly, the Revolution is Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian student who assassinate Archduke Ferdinand. He's there to riot against the rest of the Circle's stabs at oligarchy: to keep them honest, if you will.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As we've seen, he resolves to commit suicide after a century of failing to stop the Circle. As the Love later informs Bucky, Princip selected Bucky to succeed him because he believed that Bucky could achieve his goal. The Love warns Bucky that the Money and the Power won the last century through an iron-clad alliance and the Machine is insane, having sacrificed her own child at one point.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But all isn't great for the Circle. Four of their five Starpoints are off the table: the Destroyer is dead, Dryad is "self-aware," the Redacted is "malfunctioning," and Bucky is now at the table. As such, they only have left the Reactor: Zola.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Elsewhere, Peggy realizes that Bucky was right, and he contacts her, asking her to serve as his Starpoint to help take down the Circle. The thing I like about this entire arrangement is that he's <i>supposed</i> to do that. He's an inside agent in a conspiracy, just like the Revolution is supposed to be. It's what he was trying to tell Steve in "Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty "#6 but Steve wasn't listening. Somehow I doubt he will now.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca #7</u></b>: We get a pretty great jail-break story here, and that's a high bar because I've read <i>a lot</i> of jailbreak stories over the years. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">For the story to work, you have to believe that Phaedra is capable of devising a concoction that makes it seem like Chewie is dead but allows him to revive later. But she was on the cleaning detail so it's within my reasonable suspension of disbelief to do so. At some point, Chewie quips to Max that Phaedra reminds him of Han, a similarity underscored when the trio makes it all the way to the landing pad only to discover that the ship Phaedra planned on swiping had departed. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Thankfully, Han arrives after seeing a news bulletin on the planet where Tanna dumped him about Chewie's pending execution. The story behind Han's survival is the issue's only eye-rolling part, as Tanna objected to Greedo shooting Han again after realizing that he wasn't dead yet. Tanna claims that she isn't a murderer, which...doesn't really track with what we've seen.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">All in all, it's a solid end to a tight arc. The issue concludes with Han brining Phaedra with him and Chewie to find Greedo on Tatooine. It'll be good for such old friends to catch up.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars: Hidden Empire #1</u></b>: Ugh. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To be fair, this issue isn't awful when it comes to the plot. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Qi'ra reveals to Darth Sidious that the Screaming Key, which the Knights of Ren previously stole from Fortress Vader, activates the Fermata Cage. She's apparently implementing a plan that Darth Maul originally devised. As she exposits, someone used the Cage to trap an ancient Sith Lord. Qi'ra wants to unfreeze them so that they can go after Sidious and Darth Vader. It's a solid plan, honestly. Sidious seems almost scared.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Qi'ra's problem is that the Archivist can't figure out a way to open the Cage. She tries using the Knights and technology that a group called the Ascendancy developed to mimic the Dark Side of the Force, but the attempt fails. Sidious now knows what Qi'ra is planning, so the clock is ticking. But the Knights quit, leaving the Archivist with limited options.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, I'm actually intrigued by all that. My complaint is that Soule uses an incredible amount of text boxes to get us there. Qi'ra's conversation with Sidious alone takes up what feels like <i>pages</i> of text. For a sequel to a sequel of an event that no one seems to want, Soule needs to kick it up a notch in subsequent issues now that he's set the stakes.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-33199774917931907002023-04-17T08:00:00.159-06:002023-04-18T14:11:14.026-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 9 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A.X.E.: Judgment Day - Omega #1</u>: This issue is almost exclusively focused on the Eternals, so if you're not particularly interested in how they're handling the Judgment Day fall-out you can safely skip it. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That said, although I don't really follow the Eternals, I was still plenty interested in what Gillen does here. Zuras declares that Ajak's followers - Ikaris, Kingo, Makkari, Phastos, Sprite, and Thena - are heretics for supporting her reinterpretation of the principles, which puts the Eternals in humanity's service. He warns that he will Exclude them if their actions go against the principles, so things should get interesting in that corner of the House of Ideas. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, the Machine's narration ends with an emoticon, a sign that its personality might still be there, so that's nice. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, I felt this event was one of the better ones in recent memory, and this epilogue doesn't do anything to change that.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Amazing Spider-Man #13</u></b>: Oof, this series is just not going well. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As excited as I was about the Hobgoblin arc when it first started, it ends in a total mess. It turns out the Goblin Queen was the one using the "Winkler device" on Ned <i>and</i> Roderick in order to manipulate Norman into "becoming his true self again." She certainly gets him on that road when a still hospital-bound Norman is forced to use an Iron Man-like suit to save Peter. (He's been watching on the laptop his assistant provided last issue.)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">My problem with this issue is that no one seems particularly concerned with the consequences of these events (other than Norman's potential first step on the road back to Goblinhood). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First things first, Peter is unmasked in front of Ned and Roderick. I assume that the Winkler device's impact on their memories means that they don't remember that Peter is Spider-Man. But <i>Peter</i> doesn't know that Goblin Queen mindwipes them after every excursion, so shouldn't <i>he</i> be worried about the fact they both saw him without his mask?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To that point, Wells never explains <i>why</i> Goblin Queen mindwipes them. Sure, it explains why Roderick was confused in issue #11 when Norman said that he was present when Hobgoblin attacked them. But why wouldn't the Goblin Queen want him to remember his time as Hogbolin? Why risk exposing herself to Norman by getting directly involved and not just manipulating Roderick from the shadows? Along those lines, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Norman learns that his assistant <i>didn't</i> bring the laptop to him. We're clearly supposed to believe that it was Goblin Queen but, again, it was pretty easy for Norman to learn that his staff didn't bring it to him so why risk it?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, even if Roderick is mindwiped, Ned isn't. He's in jail, so it isn't like Goblin Queen can get him into the device. Shouldn't Peter at least worry that Ned now knows? Again, we're left to assume that the Winkler device affects his memory enough that he wouldn't remember but stilll.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">[Sigh.] Once again, I'm finding myself on the "obligation," and not "enjoyment," end of the reading "Amazing Spider-Man" spectrum.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #6</u>: Honestly, I'm Team Bucky on this one. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bucky makes a pretty compelling case that entities like the Outer Circle are only defeated by people on the inside, which is why he needs to take the Revolution's place. But, as always, Steve decides that he knows what's best and they come to blows. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, part of Steve's objection comes from his disapproval that Bucky killed someone (i.e., the Revolution). Lanzing and Kelly use Steve's tantrum to underscore his blindspot when it comes to what Bucky is trying to tell him, that he's always been the one to do the dirty work so he understands the Circle better than Steve does. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Hopefully Sharon will take some sense into Steve next issue.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>WildC.A.Ts #1</u></b>: I'm pretty stoked about the WildC.A.Ts' relaunch even if it isn't part of Ellis' amazing "The Wild Storm" series from a few years ago.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Rosenberg throws us right into the action as Grifter, Deathblow (i.e., Michael Cray), and Zealot invade a H.I.V.E. lab to try to recruit a scientist named Tremont for Marlowe. (We don't really establish why Marlowe can't just, like, ask him to send a resume.) We begin <i>in media res</i> as (a chattier and more charming than usual) Grifter explains the Dhaemonite-Kherubim war to a security guard. He's trying to convince the guard that he's unknowingly working for the Dhemonites, but Zealot just kills the guard instead, telling Grifter that his stories are "getting stranger" (thus implying that, in this iteration, the Dhaemonite-Kherubim war didn't happen).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But Grifter fucks up the mission when he shoots Tremont because he (Tremont) killed a chimpanzee that he's using as a lab animal just to prove how useful he can be. Shortly before Nightwing and Cassandra Cain arrive, the team departs the lab for the still under construction Halo Building in Star City. Marlowe informs Cray and Zealot that he's adding Fairchild to the team due to their recent failures. When they balk, he brings them to Adrianna who confirms that she wants Fairchild on the roster. Based on this exchange and another one later in the issue, it appears Adrianna is more in charge than Marlowe.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At a bar, Grifter tells a fellow patron about how the Anti-Life Equation took over his Earth and he and his companions fled through the Multiverse to this Earth. (Did that happen?) It turns out the patron is a scientist at Althea Labs, and Grifter swipes his badge before two heavies try to kill him for his role in killing Mrs. Freeze and Toyman. (Really? Did that happen?) Grifter spends a night in jail, and Marlowe springs him the next morning with his hulking blond bodyguard Jack Colt, who some Googling made me realize is Spartan.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, the mission at Althea <i>also</i> goes badly, and we learn Cray's death is his third one this month. Also, all the scientists are dead for reasons that aren't clear, as we begin this segment <i>in media res</i> as well. Maxine - the team's coordinator - has Grifter use Fairchild to escape, though they eventually find themselves in a sub-basement surrounded by the Court of Owls. That'll go well.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond just the joy of seeing the WildC.A.Ts in action, Rosenberg underlines how integrated the team now is in the DC Universe. I'm not sure how I feel of that, to be honest. I don't know if I really want Grifter fighting Green Arrow, as he does here, but I could be persuaded otherwise. We'll see.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: Minor Threats #3; Moon Knight #17</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-63270641337636087092023-04-16T08:00:00.001-06:002023-04-20T09:28:47.255-06:00Transformers (1984) #1<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Between my son discovering my Soundwave action figure and me building Lego's recent Optimus Prime set, I decided it was time to get going on my long-standing goal of reading the original "Transformers" series. Away we go!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The series was originally a four-issue mini-series. In order to convey all the information we need to understand the Transformers, the authors resort to an incredible number of text boxes. At some points, it's hard even to see the action. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The first issue's first page is a great example of this trait as we get a </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">lot</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> of information thrown at us. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First and foremost, we're told Cybertron is a "Saturn-sized" planet that orbits Alpha Centauri. The Transformers apparently evolved from "the interaction of </span><b style="font-family: Merriweather;">naturally occurring gears"</b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> [emphasis added]. Notably, the planet's - and Transformers' - origins are lost to the "dead past" (despite us seemingly knowing the gears developed "naturally).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Shockingly, </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><i>Ravage</i></span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;"> </i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">has the series'</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> first word, spoken to Megatron. Megatron exposits that the Decepticons have lived in peace with the Autobots for eons but have bided their time to strike at those who brought the "stagnation of peace and prosperity" to Cyberton. I get why a committed warrior like Megatron could find peace "stagnant" but prosperity? How do you get so mad at prosperity? I guess it reduces the number of lifeforms susceptible to falling into Megatron's thrall.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, Megatron launches his war. The Deceptions' advanced technology allows them to transform into "weapons of unprecedented power" (e.g., Megatron, whose fusion cannon can apparently destroy entire Autobot strongholds). The war causes Cybertron to spin from its orbit and costs "billions" of Autobot lives. (Cybertron becoming a rogue planet is one of the more interesting deviations from the cartoon series that we see in this issue.) Megatron's goal is to turn Cybertron into a "cosmic dreadnought," presumably so he can conquer the galaxy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The tide turns when Optimus Prime emerges from Iacon, Cybertron's most powerful city-state. Mantol and Macchio inform us that only Megatron can match Optimus' vehicle form's firepower.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Other than the "spinning from its orbit" revelation, this exposition's description of the <i>status quo</i> on Cybertron more or less matches the TV series' plot at the start, mostly providing some interesting extra details. We deviate soon, however.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The rogue Cybertron enters an asteroid field and <i>someone </i>has to clear the way. Enter Optimus and his team of Autobots boarding the Ark. Interestingly, it's Ravage, not Laserbeak, who gathers this information after eavesdropping on an Autobot meeting. (Ravage allegedly "absorbs electromagnetic radiation," which is how he remained undetected.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, it turns out the asteroid belt is the one between Mars and Jupiter, setting up how the Ark eventually crashed into Earth. Allegedly, the Autobots were so exhausted from clearing the asteroids that they're helpless against the Deceptions (who seek to take out Optimus while he and his team are vulnerable). With no good options, Optimus activates his fall-back plan to crash the Ark into Earth to take out the Decepticons with them. (How...prescient.) </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At this point, we return to the TV series' storyline. "Mt. St. Hilary" erupts, activating one of the Ark's sensor drones, which departs the Ark to scan 1984 Earth. The authors remind us that the Decepticons had advanced technology on Cybertron and imply it's why they wind up having a more diverse range of Earth forms, mostly communications devices, jets, and weapons. Conversely, the Autobots wind up being mostly vehicles that the Ark's drone saw on an Oregon highway.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The authors then deliver the most text-based page I've ever seen in a comic. The Decepticons introduce themselves to...themselves and explain their powers to...themselves: Skywarp (teleportation), Thundercracker (rockets and sonic booms), Starscream (maneuverability and speed), Rumble (low-frequency "ground-waves"), Frenzy (high-pitched sound waves), Soundwave (monitor transmissions, read "electrical impulses," and photographic memory), Ravage (a nose module that allows him to "smell, hear and detect electromagnetic radiation"), Buzzsaw (powerful optical sensors), and Laserbeak (optical lasers). Some of these "powers" aren't exactly clear, like how Ravage can "hear" and "smell"</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> electromagnetic radiation. But it's 1984 so I'm just going with it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond Buzzsaw and Lazerbeak's abilities to speak (as seen earlier with Ravage), the most interesting revelations to me were that Frenzy and Rumble actually have different powers and that Starscream is (at least somewhat) loyal to Megatron at the start ("I...shall accumulate Autobot body-count that enhance the reputation of our leader.").</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Unlike the TV series, the authors do a solid job explaining why the Decepticons don't just end the Autobotos in the Ark. Instead of the Ark resurrecting Skywarp who then resurrects the Decepticons (as we see in the TV show), the Ark resurrects everyone at the same time. Megatron notes to a questioning Starscream that "one of our mightiest is missing" (huh?) and they're low on fuel so they might lose. To underline that point, the Autobots open fire on them as they leave.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">We now get more text, this time with the Autobot line-up: Ironhide (steel-alloy skin and liquids), Huffer (stress-testing sensors and mathematical skill), Bumblebee (low fuel needs), Sunstreaker (ground-to-air missiles and hotness), Cliffjumber (fast and glass gas), Brawn (strong), Sideswipe (piledriver arms), Mirage (electro-disrupter, which can disrupt circuits and project his mirages), Bluestreak (fast), Prowl (logic circuits that identify the most advantageous course of action), Jazz (photon rifle and overhead flamethrowers), Hound (infrared radiation collector and terrain map-projecting hologram gun), Windcharger (magnetic arms), Gears (serves as a mobile transport unit), Ratchet (tools to fix anything), Wheeljack (shoulder cannons), and Trailbreaker (force-field projector).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First, it's crazy we have 18 Autobots but only ten Decepticons (and five of the Decepticons are Soundwave's cassettes). The most interesting revelations on the Autobot side are that Bumblebee apparently likes swimming (?) and Ironhide and Ratchet have their terrible toy-consistent designs. The Autobots also have a lot more personality than the Decepticons. Similar to the TV show, Huffer is pessimistic, Sunstreaker is vain, Mirage is a reluctant warrior (he'd rather hunt turbofoxes on Cybertron), and Bluesreak is chatty. Unlike the TV show, Ratchet would apparently rather be "partying than tinkering." Who knew? Also, did you notice how many Autobots' powers were just being fast?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, the series' most interesting twist is that Buster, not Spike, is Sparkplug's son. Unlike Spike (who starts the TV series as child labor on an oil rig), Buster is a nerd, much to his father's disappointment. (The authors show Sparkplug is just worried about how a kid without skills will survive.) Lest we think he's a gay, though, Buster gets hot and heavy with his girlfriend Jesse at a drive-in while his friend "O" tries to watch (allegedly the movie) from the backseat. Maybe Buster is gay and just likes to make "O" jealous?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, Buster and company are on hand when the Autobots stumble upon the drive-in. Laserbeak observes them and, to Starscream's disapproval, Megatron dispatches the Decepticons to attack. The Seekers open fire, and Bumblebee takes the brunt of the attack in vehicle mode. Cliffjumper turns the Seekers' wings to gas, forcing them to retreat, and Hound dispatches Ravage with his holograms. Cliffjumper and Prowl take on Soundwave, who's confusingly colored like Megatron. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The Autobots realize the humans </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(and not the vehicles) </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">are Earth's dominant lifeforms and depart given their inability to protect themselves from the Decepticons. They leave behind Bumblebee, who they hope fled. Instead, Buster heard him cry in pain when the Seekers wounded him and drove him to his father's garage, where he's dying.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Thoughts</u></b>: As mentioned, the authors introduce the Transformers in a way that fills in some gaps that I truthfully hadn't noticed in the TV series but make their backstory more interesting. That said, the series' focus stays the same: Megatron realizes that the Decepticons can strip-mine Earth for resources to conquer the galaxy, and Optimus understands that the now-inhabited Earth needs protection from the Decepticons. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">My only complaint at this stage is that the coloring is pretty awful. You can tell the limitations that colorists faced in this era, as Yomtov struggles to stay within the confines of all the small details. By the end, though, he's also frequently off model, making it hard to tell characters apart (particularly the Seekers). Given how many similar models there are (particularly on the Autobot side), it leads to some serious confusion at times.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">All in all, though, it's a pretty solid comic, particularly for the fact that it's there mostly to sell a toy line.</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-6322756749164385052023-04-15T10:00:00.144-06:002023-04-15T10:00:00.182-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 2 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Astronaut Down #4</u></b>: This issue is best enjoyed if you accept the metaphysical explanations at face value.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Newly arrived in another reality (again), Douglas hears from this reality's scientists that they <i>just</i> sent out their own astronauts when Douglas appeared. Due to what the scientists call "shift theory," Douglas shifted to this reality almost immediately after its Douglas departed his body, since "neighboring realities have only slight variations and would be in the same crises and attempting the same mission." This part I accept (more or less).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">However, I raised an eyebrow at the next part, where the scientists explain that, by imbedding their reality's cure equation in every astronaut's consciousness pack, they ensure the neighboring realities would do the same. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First, I'm now sure about the causal directionality there. It implies that events aren't happening independently in each reality. In other words, the cancer might have occurred in Set B of realities only because it occurred </span><i style="font-family: Merriweather;">sui generis</i><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> in Set A of neighboring realities.</span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> Second, if they had the cure, why did they need Douglas? Did their cure not work in their reality? </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At any rate, as I said, it's easier to accept it at face value: Douglas arrives in this reality with the cure, which we know he found in his previous reality. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The rest of the issue focuses on Douglas' guilt over saving this reality but not his own one. Complicating matters, this reality's Maddie proposes they get together. Douglas doesn't initially respond, but he later activates a message from Dr. Engle in which she confirms that they knew his mission may only save another reality. She encourages him to live his life wherever he is, and he and Maddie get together.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of course, just as Maddie tells Douglas she wants a baby, this new reality's scientists inform Douglas that they think they can send back his consciousness to his reality if they can retrieve some equipment from a warehouse in an area where the cancer's control is fading. Of course, Douglas would die in said mission. Poor Douglas.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Batman #129</u></b>: The irony of this issue is that the fight between Batman and Failsafe is almost boring. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Just before Failsafe arrives in Atlantis and captures Aquaman, Bruce escapes to the Moon-based Watchtower. He's surprised Failsafe makes it there as quickly as he does but manages to do some damage to him thanks to a gun that involves "three quadrillion watts and New Genesis steel." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Batman then pulls a "Superman 2:" figuring Failsafe destroyed all the Justice League's teleporters except one - which would inevitably lead him to a similar "Home Alone"-esque gauntlet the Justice League encountered in Gotham - Batman reversed the, I don't know, polarities. As such, he sends Failsafe to the Hall of Justice, where he was planning on running Batman through said gauntlet. But for some reason doing so caused the Watchtower to explode, leaving Batman floating in space with few options. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Again, it's action-packed, but we're watching Bruce match wits essentially against himself, which makes it feel clinical. We really need to amp up the emotional stakes with the Bat-family's lives on the line to make this arc as legendary as I think it's going to be.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Blade Runner: Black Lotus #4</u></b>: This issue is a disappointing end to a disappointing series. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First, Collins throws us an unnecessary curveball when it turns out one of the "hostages," Preston, was the one who initially betrayed the co-op. He collided with Barnes to set up the assassination attempt on Miguel and the kidnapping of the hostages. Why, you ask? Because he loved Nyoko! Men are such dummies.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After Elle defeats Preston, Kozlov sets up Miguel when he demands that he meet him alone at Junktown for "negotiations." Despite Junkett warning Miguel that Kozlov was in town stirring up the townspeople against the co-op, Miguel insists on going - alone - because...I don't know, peace. If he's really such an idiot, I'm surprised he survived his time as a Blade Runner. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Elle rushes ahead of Miguel to fight Kozlov, forcing him to confess Barnes' scheme to the townspeople. But she's such a fucking idiot that she goes full Replicant on a guy who barely has a face at this point, raising the townspeople's suspicions. She decides that she has to leave to keep the co-op safe, which in and of itself doesn't make sense. Making matters worse, she decides not to say good-bye, even with a wailing Kaja begging her not to leave. She literally just gets on her spinner bike and tells the co-op folks to have a good life.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Elle deserved better than this series.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Star Wars #29</u></b>: I wanted to like this issue. After all, it does what I've been asking Soule to do, to refocus on the main characters after his recent attempts at telling stories involving marginal characters haven't worked so well. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Here, Amilyn Holdo bringing Chewbacca, Lando, Leia, and Luke on a wild goose chase to find the legendary lost Kezarat convoy and its hundred tankers full of tibanna coaxium. We even get some surprisingly great banter between Amilyn and Lando.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But something about the issue's flow is clunky. Maybe it's because Amilyn keeps going to ridiculous lengths to keep the plan from Leia, all under the guise that they're just on a vacation. Maybe it's because Soule is forced to jam Amilyn's eventual explanation into too few panels after spending so much time setting up the denouement. Whatever it is, meh.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u><b>X-Men Red #8</b></u>: </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ewing exhibits a masterful control over the pace and tone of this story as he weaves together several seemingly unconnected events into <i>drama</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Cable recruits a team to find a sample of his techno-organic virus that a race called the Progenitors stole from him. (I would've appreciated an editor's note here to give me a little more information about when that happened.) He explains that it involves eventually taking out Abigail Brand, though going about it the long way.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Using their combined resources, the team finds the virus on a planet in the gap between galaxies and stumbles upon the entities who buried Vulcan's dark side in "X-Men (2019)" #10. Intrigued by the entitites' creepiness when the team finds them in some form of stasis, Cable (somehow) activates their memories. The team (conveniently) sees their memories regarding tinkering with Vulcan. Before Cable can warn anyone, Orbis Stellaris attacks, as he's apparently the progenitor of the Progenitors.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, the Kree-Skrull Alliance has called a diplomatic meeting in the Diplomatic Zone of Lake Hellas on Arakko to inform the Galactic Council that "new information" has come to light showing the Shi'ar were behind a massacre at a place called Shapeless Ridge. (The Kree actually committed said killings during a lull in the Kree-Skrull War.) Xandra arrives and confirms the information, as it was one of the Ten Shames the Kin Crimson was trying to hide. Before Xandra and Paibok can agree to compensation, an unhinged Vulcan arrives at Lake Hellas to declare himself King of the Shi'ar. The issue ends showing a gleeful Abigail Brand exulting in her plan coming to fruition.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the back matter, we learn about said plan. Brand worked with Orbis Stellaris because he could retrieve Vulcan from the Fault and make him docile until Brand needed him not to be. In exchange, Orbis Stellaris got "credits up front and favors down the line." Brand also leaked the information about Shapeless Ridge to the Alliance. By unleashing Vulcan at that moment, she ensured (to her mind) a Shi'ar civil war between Vulcan and Xandra while they're also fighting off the Alliance.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Honestly, I'm shocked by how much Brand's plan makes sense. In order to strengthen the Sol system, she's unleashing war among (and within) our rivals. Moreover, she's positioning Sol as the peacemaker. The only problem with her plan that I can see is her hope that the X-Men will force the Arakkii to return to Amenth and S.W.O.R.D. will take over Arakko as a "diplomatic world." But given how successful she's been so far, I don't put it past her to make that happen.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, as a Nova fan, let me just say that I love how the Arakkii acknowledge him as one of them given his heroics in the face of Uranos. It's the respect he so deserves and rarely gets.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #28</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4100323219160657522.post-48343720561546848562023-04-14T08:00:00.054-06:002023-04-14T11:21:33.728-06:00Five-Month-Old Comics: The October 26 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)<div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6</u>: You know, this event wasn't half bad!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Gillen delivers what I can honestly say is the best concluding chapter to an event in recent memory. The resolution isn't convenient or easy, and the Marvel Universe's <i>status quo</i> really is changed. Go figure, right?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">First things first, the heroes win by convincing the Progenitor to change his mind. Gillen walks us through the Progenitor's thought process throughout the issue, as he finds himself impressed in the small and big ways the Earthlings are resisting his efforts. That said, he's still actively trying to destroy the Earth and decides to go straight to the Eternals' city at the Earth's core to destroy the Reality Loom.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Tony's team makes its way to the Progenitor's core, where they encounter the Progenitor's astral form (more or less). Before Jean can go all Betsy on it, Ajak stops her. I initially thought it was the moment Ajak turned on the team in the Progenitor's defense. Then she pointed out he's the only way for them to resurrect the seven billion humans that he's killed, a consequence she (rightfully) says Jean isn't taking seriously given the mutants' ability to resurrect themselves.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At the Earth's core, Cap, Nightcrawler, and Starfox respond to the Progenitor's arrival by opening up Uranos' armories and arming all the humans who sought refuge in the city. To help defend the city, Syne the Memotaur works with Exodus to somehow channels mutantdom's powers into her so she can take on the Progenitor. To Jean's horror, Orchis also helps fight the Progenitor. Believing that they don't have anymore time, Jean commits to taking out the Progenitor and saving who she can.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">However, the Progenitor surprises everyone by revealing that he was aware they were in his core (despite him seemingly ignoring them). He tells the team that Jean's actions secured his belief that the Earthlings deserve to die, since they're all creatures guided by self-interest. To prove him wrong by showing the Etnerals <i>can</i> change (as seen in "A.X.E.: Eternals" #1, when the Progenitor feed them from their restraints), Sersi has the Machine connect her to the world's population. She reveals that the Eternals kill a human whenever they're resurrected and asks the non-Eternal Earthlings to judge them for it. As Sersi tells the Progenitor that her actions show the Eternals' ability to change, he kills her since the Earthlings wanted her dead.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Before the Progenitor can finish off Earth, Jean reminds him that he failed her for killing a planet when she was totally insane and points out he's doing so with a "cold heart." She ask if he thinks he can live with his choice, and he begins to realize that he can stop his course. (Previously, he mused that stopping himself would mean that he made a mistake and thus wasn't a god, something that he comes to realize). Tony gets him there by saying that he makes amends every day for his actions. Finally acknowledging that he isn't a god, the Progenitor uses his power to fix what he's done. Dying from the power he's expended, he asks Ajak if he was a worthy god and she says no. He agrees and tells her to be better as he gives her his remaining power.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Tony's team takes in its win, Ajak arrives as Ajak Celstia. She says that the Progenitor didn't resurrect Sersi as she's a martyr for the Eternals' "new church," bringing "a chance of redemption for our fallen people."</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the epilogue, we get a number of touching moments. Kenta tells his parents all about the people who helped him in the Eternals' city, not realizing that they were dead. As a parent, Gillen tugs at my heart strings here as Kenta's parents realize that they're weirdly comforted to learn that kind-hearted strangers took care of their son after they died.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, Zuras apologizes to Storm in front of the cameras for the Eternals attacking the mutants and offers the Arakkii Uranos for one hour in compensation. Zuras later reveals that he sentenced Druig to serve as Uranos' cellmate, which isn't going to be a pleasant experience for him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The biggest <i>status quo</i> change here isn't that humanity hates the Eternals (though it does). It's the revelation of Starfox's plan: the resurrection of worthy humans. Jean explains to the world that mutantkind will first resurrect the mutants who died in the mutant genocides. Then, since mutantkind doesn't have the resources to backup the minds of eight billion humans, Jean will personally backup the chosen few through the Phoenix Foundation, with a priority on "the vulnerable, the weak, the poor and those whom the world has abandoned." The Five will use five percent of their time to resurrect them. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Scott tells Jean that it's a win, and it's hard not to see it as such. In fact, it feels like it really fulfills Hickman's promise of a new reality for the X-Men. They're not only helping to extend humans' lives and heal humanity's sick, they're now resurrecting humanity's most vulnerable. But Scott points out the fight was also a win for Orchis, too, given its publicly viewed heroics, which complicates matters.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">All in all, though, it was a pretty solid event. I think we probably could've wrapped it up more quickly and you probably only really enjoyed it if you're an X-Men fan. But I definitely take a good event any day!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Amazing Spider-Man #11</u></b>: Oof. This issue is a mess. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">When Norman confirms to Peter that Kingsley was on hand when Hobgoblin thrashed him, Peter heads to Betty's. When <i>Betty</i> confirms that Ned has been wearing the costume again, she sends Peter to Ned's secret office. There, Peter learns that Ned is using the "Winkler device," which is what Kingsley originally used to make Ned think that he was Hobgoblin. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As such, it isn't a surprise when the Hobgoblin attacks Spidey or when Spidey unmasks him as Kingsley. It <i>is</i> a surprise when Kingsley seems unaware that he was at the site of Hobgoblin's hit on Kingsley and Norman <i>and</i> when Ned appears beside Kingsley as Hobgoblin. Two Hobgoblins!</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm assuming Kingsley is actually Daniel Kingsley, Roderick's twin brother. If he is, Wells has to explain how he isn't dead. But I'm disappointed that Wells seems to tread on familiar ground hre. Insane Hobgoblins with memory issues aren't really a hot take on this old character. We'll see where we go.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Moon Knight Annual #1</u></b>: We get an excellent annual here, as Jack Russell kidnaps Diatrice in order to fulfill a prophecy that allows him to murder Khonshu. Marc and Badr stop him, obviously, but not before McKay makes you wish that Marlene would allow Diatrice to stay in New York so we could marinate in her awesomeness more often. In addition to Diatrice's awesomeness, McKay peppers great character moments throughout the issue, like when Marc slips into the Jake persona over the shock of seeing Marlene and Badr showing almost a sense of humor when he refuses to obey Khonshu's orders to kill Diatrice. Marlene's warning to Reese that she'll one day realize that she can't keep Marc safe also rings scarily true. All in all, it's a textbook definition of what a great annual should be.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>New Mutants #31</u></b>: I have the same problem with this issue as I do with most gay movies, which is that I don't understand how we gays can make good movies for straight people but not for ourselves. You would think that Charlie Jane Anders could write about the transgendered mutant she created for "Marvel Voices: Pride" in a way that worked. Instead, Escapade feels just like every "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss," where the only notable thing about the character is that they're [x]. Knowing this series is canceled after another two issues, I don't feel the need to hang around any longer.</span></div><div><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b style="font-family: Merriweather;"><u>Sins of the Black Flamingo #5</u></b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">: For how uneven the last few issues were, Wheeler really sticks the landing here.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The issue begins with Sebastian touching the Devil's Tooth so that he can find Ezekiel. (Apparently he saw Ezekiel the first time he touched the Tooth, which I don't remember.) We then move to Ofelia later meeting with Scar and offering him Ezekiel's location since she's (allegedly) furious that Sebastian is going to give him to the Nazis. Ofelia also gives Scar the Tooth as proof she isn't lying and asks only that Scar doesn't kill Sebastian.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">At Ezekiel's location, Merrilee is none-too-pleased when Scar's men surprise her men. Believing Sebastian betrayed her, she shoots him. Sebastian plummets off the roof of the building where they're standing as Scar and Ofelia land in his helicopter. Ofelia is furious that Scar let Sebastian (seemingly) die, though Scar makes the excellent point that <i>he</i> didn't kill Sebastian and it isn't <i>his</i> fault if Sebastian has so many people who want to kill him. (Fair.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Scar prepares to retrieve Ezekiel, Sebastian arrives burning a magical incense that paralyzes Scar with fear. Having covered himself in "dead things that allow us to walk among marsh lights" (whatever that means), Sebastian reveals that he's immune to the incense's power. He then opens the storage container where Ezekiel is imprisoned and tongues him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Meanwhile, in a nearby alley, a distraught Ofelia contemplates leaving behind magic and living a quiet life somewhere nice. ("Open a bakery. Date someone in flannel. Live, laugh, love.") Always-sexy Abel is with her and worries about Sebastian. Ofelia is also worried, though more because Abel dies if Sebastian does. </span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It isn't looking good for Sebastian (and Abel), though, when Scar reveals that he was playing dead and stabs Sebastian in the neck with the Tooth.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As Abel collapses, Ofelia begins a spell that would sever his connection to Sebastian, though Abel stops her from completing it, giving Sebastian some time. Sebastian proves worthy of Abel's trust as we learn that he slipped Ezekiel a shard of the Tooth when they kissed. Ezekiel uses it to cut his collar and then destroys Scar and heals Sebastian, possibly also returning his soul (which Sebastian allegedly sacrificed when he touched the Tooth again, according to Ofelia). As Ezekiel dissipates, he encourages Sebastian to live.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In the epilogue, Ofelia and Sebastian walk with Abel contemplating how to make the world a better place.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If it isn't clear from this recap, this issue crackles with efficiency and energy. You really don't know what Sebastian is planning from page to page, making his redemption not a foregone conclusion but a welcome one when it comes. I'm excited for the next installment in Sebastian's story, because he may just start seeing the benefit of walking on the light side. Either way, he should definitely fuck Abel.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><u>Also Read</u></b>: X-Terminators #2</span></div>JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384937330661711685noreply@blogger.com0