Seven-Month-Old Comics!: The January 31 Top-Shelf Edition - Part Two (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Pathfinder:  Wake the Dead #5:  Oof.  This series hasn't been a great one.  

We end with the revelation that it was Nyctessa who alerted the party members' organizations to the sleeper agents in their midsts.  However, her plan went awry when Gabsalia died, forcing her to emerge from the shadows to direct events.  Quinn hypothesizes that Nyctessa was also his mysterious employer, though I don't understand why she would've needed her own agent, given Quinn didn't really have any information the other party members didn't.

At any rate, Kuo finds himself sent to the dungeon when his patron, Commander Bheldis, arrives given Bheldis forbade Kuo from implementing his "sleeper agent" plan.  If I'm following correctly, Kuo secretly defied Bheldis in the hopes that the information he gathered from the activated agents would help him usurp Bheldis.  That said, I still don't understand why Nyctessa got involved to stop Kuo's scheme.  Did she really care about Geb that much?  It seems...a stretch.

The team escapes Geb when the annual "Visitation" happens, freezing the city and making it easy for warm-blooded citizens (like the team) to escape.  They all decided to throw in their lot together (except Nyctessa, who stays in Geb), which I don't think Van Lente really sells well, since they never seemed to like one another.

It was interesting visiting this corner of Golarion, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed the characters or plot.  I hope we move onto another team for the next mini-series.

The Space Between #4:  I've liked like series, but Beckho really rushes the ending here.  112 years after the Tumult, we follow two pairs of people working toward opposing outcomes:  one pair is trying to stop resettlement on 'Dice, another one to guarantee it.  

Dr. Sky is treating a boy and realizes she's given him her last aspirin.  (The boy's mother initially doesn't want him to take it because it's been genetically modified, and Sky tells her that it'll be better than anything her kids get on 'Dice.)  She calls the requisition folks, but her communicator is on the fritz so she's forced to go downstairs herself.  She speaks to a man named Koa, who's rude to her after she's curt with him.  She demands a new communicator on top of the aspirin, and he tells her that she'll have to wait until someone dies since the Dodona mined its last metal the previous year.  

An announcement interrupts their fight and encourages everyone to go to a window screen to see the first image of 'Dice.  Koa sees Sky in the park and quips that he's surprised she isn't too busy to pause for the view.  Sky confesses to Koa that she doesn't believe they should leave the Dodona, which seems to be a pretty treasonous thing to confess to a guy who doesn't like you (and whom you don't like either).  It turns out Koa agrees, and he's been looking for an "upper" who supports his pro-Dodona view.  Sky says that humanity has always fixed problems, so they can fix the Dodona.  

I admit this argument makes no sense to me.  You've exhausted all your natural resources but somehow you're going to manage to survive while floating endlessly in space?  Sky's reasoning seems to be that humanity will have to start over on 'Dice, as if the resourcefulness that she previously mentioned wouldn't apply there.

Meanwhile, Auld and his colleague Hope, both navigators, explain to the Council that they only have one shot at landing on 'Dice, as they're going to have to burn all their fuel reserves to slow down enough to make orbital insertion possible.  Auld and Hope are outraged when the Council seems inclined not to land, and they later overhear some people fighting in the hallway over it.  Folks on all sides seem to hate the navigators:  one blames them for not doing their jobs in the first place (though they clearly corrected the problem from issue #3 sufficiently so I'm not sure what this person's point really is) and the other for making landing possible (though that's their job so I don't get that argument either).

In a garden, Auld and Hope discuss how to make people want to leave the Dodona.  Since they can't land as planned, they'll need to enter 'Dice's orbit and then send down life rafts to the surface.  Auld suggests poisoning the algae tanks, but Hope objects since it'll kill the animals, too.  (There's a weird blip in the conversation here, where Auld objects to Hope's use of the term "sugarcat" when referring to his pet — seemingly a hybrid of the escaped cats and flying squirrels, named Mabel — but Hope doesn't actually use this term in their conversation.)  Auld realizes that they can just make it look like they poisoned the tanks; by the time the others realize the truth, the Dodona'll be locked in orbit.

Before going that route, Auld and Hope try to convince people the Dodona is dying, but Koa isn't buying it and, in fact, threatens violence if they try to land on 'Dice.  In the end, the Council calls for a vote where more than half the ship's residents vote not to land.  

Auld tells Hope that he'll have to commit suicide to make it convincing that the O2 is poisoned, and the two implements their plan.  The sirens blare, and Sky follows Koa to the purification node.  They find a dead Hope — who joined Auld in committing suicide, possibly due to the feelings she realized she had for him — and a dying Auld.  Koa confirms the algae is fine and Auld and Hope just changed the data to set off the alarms.  Auld then asks Koa to take care of Mabel, which he does, which is weird, because he doesn't really seem that guy.  

Koa contemplates Mabel and tells Sky that he's had a change of heart and is ready to leave "home."  Beckho doesn't make clear why Koa suddenly changed his mind; he just states what was obvious all along, that, as Sky said, humanity can overcome any problems it encounters.  The issue ends with Sky addressing the crowd of residents who arrive on 'Dice via the life rafts, with the Dodona now 'Dice's moon.

In the previous issue, Beckho did a great job of moving us through these large philosophical concepts while still focusing on characterization, but, here, the characters are really just vehicles to advance the plot.  I would've liked to see what she could've done with a few more issues, giving her the space to really develop characters.   At it stands, I can't really say I recommend this series, but it was interesting at least.

ThunderCats #1:  I was going to list this one as an "Also Read."  Shavley does a great job of capturing the characters' voices, to the point where it reads like you're watching the '80s cartoon show.  But it results in an issue that isn't that complex.  Of course, then Slithe shatters the Sword of Omens and Mumm-Ra somehow summons Jaga's spirit, and I was like, OK, game on, Declan.

The Weatherman, Vol. 3 #2:  Oof.  As I mentioned last issue, LeHeup's genius here is that you really, really don't know whose side you want Ian to join.  Every time we get insight into this reality's status quo, it's one more point in Jenner's favor.

The issue begins with Ian arriving at Hera's Hope (Frontier Colony 62A) on Venus.  Fox gets the details right here, portraying Venus in a way that makes it clear why this hostile environment produced Jenner (as we learn later in the issue).  Humanity has yet to finish encasing Venus in orbital solar panels, and Hera's Hope exists in a barren desert landscape, like an overcrowded Mos Eisley.

Ian heads straight for a bar, where he finds Metal Molly, a cyborg member of the Sword of God.  She suggests they take a ride in Ghost, "a digital consciousness [who] projects a holographic memory of his physical self over a set of free-floatin' tactical drones."  An hour later, Ian and Molly arrive at a camp where she introduces a guy "named Wilma with an ex-wife, two loving sons, and a job in molecular advertising."  Wilmo is chained to a chair, and Molly wants Ian to kill him to show he's the same "stone-cold-killer" he was.

In a flashback to a week ago, a scientists walks Nathan through shooting a hog as Zane tells him that humanity is counting on him to infiltrate the Sword.  They tell Nathan that he has to shoot the hog since he'll likely have to shoot a human to prove his bona fides to the Sword.  Nathan does it, to Zane's delight.  On Venus, we see that Ian has killed the guy, blood splattered on his face.

On Burga's transport ship, Dr. Argus informs Cross that Nathan has "dissociative fugue."  Ian didn't need to have Dr. Nyseth wipe his mind because his trauma was so great and his need to escape himself so profound that he created Nathan on his own.  Argus hypothesizes that the training they've given Nathan likely made the Ian personality - previously deeply buried in Nathan's psyche - reemerge.  He believes "Nathan" is likely now Ian and Nathan combined.

Zane informs Cross that the tracker they implanted into Nathan's arm allows them to see all his movements and everything he sees.  Once Nathan sees Jenner, they'll order an orbital missile strike.  Someone notes that Nathan'll likely have a to pass a second loyalty test, namely "Alice's" psychic screening.  Zane hypothesizes that he'll be more likely to pass the test if Ian has reemerged, since he'll also keep the virtual memories they implanted to help him pass the test.  (In vol. 2, issue #6, LeHeup explains that they're using the Pearl's fantasy-murder tech to create a past for Ian.)  Argus worries that a reemerged Ian might not share their cause.

In another flashback, Cross asks Nathan if he's sure he wants to do what they're proposing.  She warns him that it's unlikely that he's going to succeed.  Nathan comments that Jenner'll just finish what he started if Nathan doesn't try.  Plus, he feels like he owes humanity one.  Then, in the best possible distillation of Nathan's personal philosophy, he says:  "Without people we wouldn't have ice cream, karate chops, doin' it, power chords, funky grandmas, 'the Worm'...if going away means more people get to experience that same joy I have...then I'm okay with that."  Cross asks if he's scared, and he says that he is.  But he says that he's getting "used to the fact that everyone else is supposed to be here...and I'm not."  You're a gem, Nathan Bright.

Zane wakes up Cross when Ghost arrives with Ian and Molly at Sword's base, where Ian meet Alice, who is totally bat shit crazy.  Alice confirms that Ian was living as a weatherman on Mars before the M.S.A. sent him undercover, which she acknowledges she almost missed because Mars' memory masks are getting harder to spot.  Alice exposits that Ian remembered everything about his past once he shot "the normie."  At this point, the camera turns, and we learn that Alice is talking to Jenner.  Dun-dun-DUN!  It's like a jump scare.

On her ship, Burga orders the strike, but Cross tries to convince her that she can't.  Zane says Nathan knew what he was doing, but Cross — not incorrectly — notes that Ian didn't.  Zane isn't particularly sympathetic towards Ian, but Cross reminds her that he wasn't a terrorist —he was trying to destroy the "extinction-level weapon" that humanity itself created.  Burga interrupts and says that they have to bring Jenner to justice.  Cross insists that they can't sacrifice Ian for politics, and Burga tells her that she could've found out the information about Ian's past before they sent him undercover but didn't.  She asks why she didn't, and Cross doesn't respond.  Burga again orders the hit, telling Cross that she (Burga) didn't kill Ian — Cross did.  She then relieves Cross of duty.

On Venus, Jenner greats Ian, who immediately threatens to kill him.  Jenner tells Ian that he's counting on him doing so but only after the conclusion of the mission.  Jenner then asks Ian if he hears the "wail of the Venusian wind."  He explains that he grew up listening to it, as he and his mother were poor, surviving on trade and what they could grow in the freezing temperatures.  He describes the unbearable isolation and unceasing wind, which eventually drove his mother insane — she walked into the desert one night to die. 

Jenner then gives us his political manifesto, and he's...not wrong.  He opines that humanity's survival depends on a healthy environment, but humanity destroys it anyway.  As people, we want to be heard but don't listen, we push our pain onto people we don't understand, we would destroy our world before we would see our foes' prosper.  He describes these flaws as "terminal deficiencies."  Ian tells Jenner that he (Jenner) killed his daughter, and Jenner wonders how may daughters Ian has killed.  (Fair point.)  Ian asks what Jenner wants, and he tells Ian that this time he wants Ian to help him save humanity from itself.

On Burga's ship, Cross commanders a smaller ship and makes a run for Venus as the Marshal watches from his ship.  On Venus, Ian uses a rusty mattress spring to pick his cell lock and break free.  He enters Jenner's hut, where Jenner is meditating.  Ian raises a knife and...jams it into his forearm.  

The missile strike destroys the camp, and the M.S.A.'s soldiers later find Ian's tracking device in the rubble, confirming that Ian joined Jenner.

In other words, it's a spectacular issue.  I can't recommend this series enough.  It was totally worth the wait between volumes. 

Eight-Month-Old Comics!: The November 22 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

From the World of Minor Threats:  The Alternates #3:  This issue is hard to follow, but, after a second read, I more or less understood where Oswalt, Blum, and Seeley were going.

In a flashback, we get a better sense of how the Alternates came to be, as the Searcher explains to Tripper that they need to enter Ledgerstone (a large creature/monster) in order to "turn him inside out and close his portal to the Ledge."  (It isn't entirely clear to me if the Ledge is inside Ledgerstone or if he just somehow creates portals to the Ledge.)  The Continuum can't enter the Ledge, because if they accessed it they would be too dangerous.  (I don't totally follow this argument since, after all, they'd be in the Ledge and not on Earth.  Are they arguing they'd somehow return from the Ledge altered?  Is it hinting the Alternates are more altered than they think they are?)  At any rate, the Alternates are the ones to take on the task.

In the present, the team follows the drug dealer who Kid Curious Alzheimered and a large ship appears in the sky.  Kid Curious describes it as "built from dreams and powered by fiction[,] emerged here from the collective imagination."  (I think he's saying that the wide-scale distribution of the Ledge via Prestige has somehow summoned the ship.)  Entering the ship, the team members all feel connections to who they were in the other dimension, apparently a sign that Ledgerstone (for some reason) is somehow using Prestige to get a hold in our dimension.

Mary Marie ponders using the ship to sail into the Ledge again, solving two problems with one stone:  getting to be important again and taking Prestige from our dimension.  Tripper tells her that he understands why she feels that way.  Before he can convince her otherwise, the Searcher appears and announces she's going to destroy the ship and Ledgerstone, who's apparently on the ship.  (As I said, it's hard to follow.)

Mary Marie is furious at the Searcher for using them (presumably to lead her to Ledgerstone) and attacks.  It does little good, even when the rest of the Alternates get involved.  Kid Curious tells Tripper that he knows many ways to killer the Searcher but doesn't want to prove her right about them so gets Tripper to knock him (Kid Curious) unconscious so he doesn't kill her.  (I didn't get this part.  What part of Kid Curious taking out Searcher would make her right about them?  She only ever really accused them of being the JV Team.)  Instead, Mary Marie sprays the Searcher with Prestige, knowing the Searcher is afraid of what she would do to the world while under its influence.  She flees to the Moon to remove herself from the equation.

With the Searcher dismissed, Mary Marie leads the team to Ledgerstone, who they're surprised to see is actually the prisoner.  Someone is using him to make the Prestige.  Tripper tells Lamhla to find the culprit, and she flies to Tripper's doppelgänger, surrounded by the other team members' doppelgängers.  Holding Lamhla, the other Tripper announces they're the Originals.

Honestly?  Meh.  "Minor Threats" was so great, but this mini-series is reading like Oswalt, Blum, and Seeley took some peyote and went to town.

Pathfinder:  Wake the Dead #4:  This issue isn't very good and makes little sense.  

The dialogue is stilted, as if Van Lente took a dare and wrote an entire script from clichéd lines.  ("We're all in this together.  You'd have done the same for me."  "Ugh, get a room at the inn, you two."  "Is something rotten in the state of Geb, Nyctessa?  Other than its citizens, that is...")  

The characterizations are also shallow, to the point where it's hard to understand anyone's motivations.  For example, Sajan is the party member tasked with carrying Gabsalia on his back into Yled.  He's taken to talking to her as if they're friends, and Van Lente doesn't bother to make it clear whether Sajan is doing so because Van Lente needs him to serve as our expositor or because the party's experiences have driven Sajan insane.

But the plot is even worse  The party manages to evade Yled's allegedly fearsome Bone Wall by swimming under said Wall while also fighting the undead.  They then make their way through a gate into Yled simply by moving quickly as a group.  Nctessa leads them to her laboratory and starts casting the spell to reanimate Gabsalia when Sajan notices a small creature bolt.  The party tries to stop it, but it makes its way to a robed figure who puts it in a jar of blood where it becomes...Gabsalia?

Confusing matters even further, Gabsalia reanimates at that moment and Nyctessa demands she tell her the identity of Kwo Qenguin's sleeper agents.  It turns out the guy holding the bottle of blood is Kwo, but for some reason Nyctessa doesn't really notice him.  She only does so when he announces himself and accuses her of scheming against him even though...he's the one with the sleeper agents?  He appears to be one of her students, though he also commands a troop of graveknights?

Honestly, I have no idea.

Star Wars:  Bounty Hunters #40:  Unlike Van Lente above, Sacks plays everyone exactly according to their characterization, which doesn't exactly guarantee a happy ending for this title, unfortunately.

T'onga and her crew approach Epikonia, per "Star Wars:  Dark Droids"#4, to find Valance and either save or eliminate him.  Khel is pretty close to calling it quits, given the danger a planet full of misbehaving droids obviously poses, so T'onga buys her loyalty by giving her the Mourner's Wail account's encryption key.  (How did T'onga get the key?  I can't say I'm sure.)  Deathstick gets ready to kill T'onga until she mentions that Khel still needs the secret code to access the account.  

The team lands on Epikonia, at which point Surge shoots Zuckuss in the back and Deathstick knocks T'onga for a loop.  Bossk reveals himself as a traitor (such as he ever wasn't one in the first place), giving Khel the code.  Honestly, though, it's kind of hard to blame him?  He makes the point that he hung in there as they made their best effort to save Valance, but they're supposed to chase bounties not, in his words, "lost causes."  Khel and her crew (including Bossk) depart, leaving T'onga and Zuckuss to the droids.

But hope exists as Haydenn creates a copy of Valance's memory and defects from the Empire to find her way to Valance.  Hope!  It's just not clear she'll save Valance before he helps the Scourge experiment on T'onga...

Void Rivals #6:  I've always had the same issue with Kirkman's work, namely that his sparsely worded stories lack emotional death.  For example, we watch Darak and Solila escape Zertonia into the Wastelands as they seek to enter Agorria, but it's like we're reading a checklist of events instead of a story.  It should be impactful as they face the unknown alone except for each other but instead it just feels like an obvious moment of plot progression.

At any rate, the issue opens with Kanela freeing Solila, who expresses surprise, noting she thought Kanela might one day become premier.  It's a sign of how successful Kanela has been in keeping the Resistance in the shadows.  Kanela informs Solila that she has a blaster waiting for them so she can escape.  But the bad blood between them is clear, as Kanela tells Solila to kill anyone they confront and comments, "I'm sure you won't have problem with that."  Given Kanela is also clearly a warrior, Solila must've done something brutal to prompt that remark.

Meanwhile, on Quintessa (I think), Skuxxoid sells the Agorrian and Zertonian ship to the Quintessons.  Two Quintessons discuss the discovery, with one expressing surprise that Zerta succeeded "all those eons ago" in creating Zertonia and another referring to her as "a memory of a rebellious child."

On the Ring, Kanela and Solila arrive at the Resistance's hideout, and Kanela informs Darak that, in exchange for Solila, he needs to smuggle out a data packet to her counterparts in Agorria so they can reestablish a secure link after losing contact.  As they depart the hideout, Kanela and Solila squabble again, with Solila commenting that you can't feed the "starving mouths of Zertonia" with a just cause.  To that end, Darak expresses shock at Zertonia's grimy conditions as he gets his first good look at it.  It's reminiscent of "Blade Runner 2039" or "Cyberpunk 2077."

Suddenly, guards stop them, and Kanela's young scout confesses he dimed out the group because the guards said they'd help him find his mother, something Kanela tells him she understands.  Solila promises to deliver the data packet and tells Kanela not to get caught as she and Darak take a motorcycle (a "slip rider") and flee the guards.  Solila informs Darak that the further North they go, the easier it'll be, since most resources - including electricity - are dedicated to the capital.

They take the railway as far as they can, but they're spotted immediately, as the guards figured they'd head North.  Solila expresses shock when she realizes Darak's plan, as he helps her up the wall that separates the two sides of the Ring.

Back in Zertonia, Zalilak isn't convinced the Wastelands' brutal reputation is enough to guarantee Darak and Solila won't survive, noting they survived the impossible before.  Zalilak exposits his sacred charge to prevent unity and, thus, the coming of Goliant and orders his underling to revive someone (or something) named Proximus.

Again, for all this action, it was a pretty dull read.

Eight-Month-Old Comics!: The September 20 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Pathfinder:  Wake the Dead #3:  This issue is fun.

The party (since they aren't really a team) is wandering the Spellscar desert searching for water but deal with the random encounters (water that becomes candy that becomes beetles!) and adversaries (a fluxwraith!  a zombie triceratops!) that the wild magic-cursed desert throws at them.  In a plot twist I didn't see coming, they find Gabsalia's body along with the other refugees' bodies.  She's been dead a week, which means the curse the Gebbians put on her that'll reanimate her as a quick has taken effect.  

Nyctessa informs the party that the only way to turn a quick into a more intelligible undead form is to take her to Geb, where more advanced magics are available.  Lem is *thrilled* with this news.

Star Wars:  Bounty Hunters #38:  Holy shit, this issue.  Sacks has us following three stories here, all as intense as the next.

First, in the past, General Grievous pays a visit to the Haven.  Kligson tries to convince Telemark to ally with the Separatists, but he silences him as he's only an organic.  Telemark dismisses Grievous' offer of an alliance, noting that Grievous enslaves his droids.  (We get some great B1 humor at this remark.)  Telling Grievous they only await Ajax's return, Telemark orders the colony to attack.

In the present, T'onga and company are growing impatient as they cool their jets in the docking bay.  Meanwhile, we learn Kligson is controlling Telemark completely as a shirtless (and sexy AF) Valance hangs behind him.

T'onga gets suspicious enough to ask Zuckuss and For-Elloem to gather intel from the station's droids, not realizing the Scourge has already seized them.  Zuckuss prevents a spider droid from taking over For-Elloem, and they fight their way to an escape pod.  (For-Elloem complains about his lack of a blaster and Zuckuss recommends he improvise, which he hilariously does by ripping the arm off a droid and using it to beat the others.)  Zuckuss puts For-Elloem in the escape pod to save him from the horde, and the droids lose interest in Zuckuss once For-Elloem departs.

In the docking bay, T'onga confesses that she's desperate to save Valance after failing to save her brother and Nakano Lash and sending away Losha to keep her safe.  Khel wonders why she's so loyal to this crew when she turned her back on Khel's crew, which is a story I'm also interested in hearing.  Khel dismisses her comment just as quickly, however, noting the crew that T'onga assembled could be great under the right leadership.  Do I think T'onga should retire with Losha and let Khel take over the crew?  Yes.  Do I think Losha is going to leave T'onga to go with Khel's crew?  Also yes.

Back in the past, the droids expel Grievous, and Telemark attacks Kligson for sending Grievous their coordinates.  A crazed Kligson mutters to himself after Telemark leaves that he *is* a droid and will "pave the way for a better future."

In that future, Valance arrives in the docking bay, and Khel realizes instantly that he isn't there.  Catak takes on Yura's face to distract Valance from attacking Khel (apparently the love of his life), and, in a shocking scene, Valance blows off Catak's head.

You guys, I know we only have four issues left in this series, and I'm not really sure we're going to get a happy ending.

Ten-Month-Old Comics!: The July 26 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Blade Runner 2039 #5:  Holy fucking shit, that's a helluva ending.

Niander Wallace, Jr. chews some scenery here, as he's want to do, as he introduces Rash to Luv and tells Luvthat Rash will obey her every word, except, like Luv, to kill a human.  Meanwhile, at Ash and Freya's refuge, Freya tells Ash that giving reproductive technology to Replicants is obscene because it means the Replicants themselves would need to build more Replicants and Freya believes no one should make more Replicants.

The argument goes unresolved as Freya and Chloe head to San Francisco.  Chloe notes that Luv knows Isobel was from San Francisco, but Ash reminds Chloe that the Bay Area is a dark zone and Luv doesn't likely have a contact, like they do, to get them into it.  (Man, I'm excited to see the Bay Area.)  Given the lack of electricity in the Bay Area, Ash and Chloe are taking an old, fuel-powered truck.

Problems occur when they get a flat tire and a group of cannibalistic yahoos who populate the Central Valley find them.  The leader sends one of the yahoos to check the truck bed, and Lexi opens fire.  Ash and she take out the rest of the gang, only to discover Chloe has a bullet wound above her heart!  Fuck!

Pathfinder:  Wake the Dead #2:  This issue is a lot better than the first one; with the characters and premise established, we actually get something approaching a story.

We begin with the Pathfinder Chronicles entry about Ecanus informing us that all its citizens graduate from Skirmish School, ready to fight the undead at any notice.  To this point, the authorities call the citizenry to action to capture the team for its "murder" of the two deathsealers.

Speaking of the team, Lem manages to send away last issue's threat with his flute, and Quinn grabs an "interesting blade."  Seelah suggests they escape to the sewers., but Quinn notes the citizens train blindfolded in the sewers.  He instead suggests they head to one of the city's "canvasariers," where the city makes all foreigners stay, figuring they can try to blend.  

Thankfully, Quinn's blade is a screamsword and warns them of danger.  It leads them a dark room in a nearby building, where a woman named Nyctessa silences the "crying blade" and introduces herself.  Seelah realizes Nyctessa was controlling the sword, which she confirms; she informs the team that it responds to necrotic energy, which she has "in abundance."  (I don't get this part.  Was she controlling it or was it just responding to her?)  The team learns Nyctessa was also trying to meet Gabsalia Venris but got trapped in Ecanus when they shut down the city.  

Nyctessa informs the team that her divination spell showed her Gabsalia trapped at a refuge for escaped Gebbite "quicks" in the Spellscar desert or, as Harsk calls it, the Mana Wastes, "with the wild magic storms and the zombie dinosaurs."  Harsh is ready to call it a day when Nyctessa reveals why everyone wants Gabsalia:  she has a list of embedded quicks in all the organizations that hired them.  That said, the quicks don't know they're spies:  when they die, they'll be reborn as loyal to Geb.

Without much choice, the team accepts Nyctessa into its ranks and flees the oncoming skirmishers.  Quinn reveals the Fleshforges on the city's border with the Wastes release their "unholy creations" into either the city or the Wastes.  If they can make their way through a Fleshforge, they can "escape" into the Wastes.  Sajan manages to save the team from a creature, and Lem uses his illusion skills to cover their escape.  With little choice, Harsk decides to stick with the crew to head into the Wastes to find Gabsalia.

Again, this issue is much stronger than the last one, with surprise twists that still make sense.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the story unfurls.

Star Wars: Darth Vader - Black, White, and Red #4:  This issue is great.  If last issue showed us where Anakin still exists inside Vader, this issue shows us where Vader is in complete control.  In fact, the authors make you almost root for Vader here as he faces some arrogant opponents.

First, I thought Cyn's story ended last issue, but Aaron shows us Vader actually taking out Cyn and his crew.  Vader first takes out Cyn's friends, who curse him as they die.  He leaves Cyn for last, and Cyn gloats that he exploited Vader's weakness in a way Vader couldn't do to him.  Somehow, though, Vader uses his powers to shut down Cyn's motor functions, allowing him to feel and watch as some local denizens eat him alive.  Honestly, I don't really feel bad for ol' Cyn.

Steve Orlando wrote the second story and, while I'm not normally a huge fan of his work, I think this story is probably the best of the bunch.  Vader conducts a reconnaissance mission on a seemingly uninhabited planet called Uokara in the Unknown Regions, declaring it ready for mining.  Later, we see a limbless Vader in a bacta tank, itself a remarkable site.  It reminds you that a man - Anakin - exists in that suit.  The medical droid tells Vader that even he needs quarantine after contact with a Class IV planet.  Suddenly, Vader finds himself in his mind, and we meet Ghymnon, the virus that inhabits the world.  He informs Vader that he's destroyed many would-be conquerors, but, of course, as Vader says, "There is will...and there is me."  Vader manages to expel the virus from his body, which the bacta sterilizes.  We later see Vader supervising the beginning of the mining mission.

Finally, Vader returns to Hoth after an officer gets word that something has destroyed a leftover Imperial probe droid.  Vader says he'll look into it, and the officer suggests it's too dangerous even for Vader.  The officer is proven correct when a family of Wampas attack Vader.  The battle sequence involves an overwhelmed Vader barely managing to hid in the remains of an AT-AT before calling for help.  He collapses after taking out the Wampas, and the Empire collects him.  When the officer notes that he warned Vader, Vader kills him.  Ha!  Seriously, only an idiot would do that and, as we know, Vader doesn't tolerate idiots.

Eleven-Month-Old Comics!: The May 31 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Local Man #4:  Man, our dude just can't keep himself from trouble.

Jack stands in front of a closed quarry and exposits (via a conversation with Pepper) that Inga's husband, Brian, mentioned he saw lights in the sky above the quarry and Frightside mentioned Hodag was obsessed with it (the quarry).  Jack initially pinned Hodag's death on interrupting a drug deal there since, in Jack's days, dealers used to work from the quarry.  Brian interrupts Jack's reverie when he arrives to inform him that someone drowned Frightside.  Brian notes the coincidence of Jack visiting her at the community center and her winding up dead.  Before Brian can arrest him, Jack flees over the fence and jumps into the quarry, following some underwater lights into a cave.

In said cave, Jack discovers human sized tubes and the Mercy Seat, the "literal lid that contained all the wisdom and power of God," which only the most devout can touch.  Camo Crusader appears from the shadows and Jack hugs him, telling him that "something cosmic-level fucked" is happening in the town.  Jack then realizes the Crusader isn't wet, meaning he didn't arrive via the quarry, and the Crusader begins beating Jack to a pulp.

As he kicks Jack's ass, the Crusader exposits that he'd never thought Jack would return to his home town, figuring instead that he'd "end up doing cheap carnival tricks at the Hall of Heroes like the others."  Showing how nuts he is, the Crusader asks why Jack suddenly decided to make something of himself, concluding that he wanted to ruin the Crusader's life by ensuring he didn't "leave anything behind on Earth."  (Um, OK.). The Crusader continues to rant, saying Erica did things for Jack that she'd never did for him.  (Um, OK.)  He then tells him that Jack stole "a child from my wife's womb."  (Um, did Erica have Jack's baby?)  The Crusader tells him that he now has no one with whom to share his immorality, and Jack realizes the Crusader opened the Mercy Seat.

Before the Crusader can kill Jack, Brian arrives and tells the Crusader he's under arrest for assault and trespassing.  (Um, sure, dude.  Like, you thought the gun would work on this guy?)  Before the Crusader can kill Brian, Jack mortally wounds the Crusader with an arrow through the eye. (He was shooting for his hand.  Apparently, he never mastered the bow and arrow.  Heh.)  Jack exposits that he thinks the Crusader was going to make himself a god by attaching the Mercy Seat to the Aphek Engine.  Jack accuses the Crusader of killing Hodag and Frightside for stumbling upon his secret, but the Crusader cryptically says before he dies that, "All my children must now do for themselves."

Later, Jack awakens in the police HQ, which is in the same building as the community center and is apparently the former 4th Gen training facility.  Jack finds some files of his fellow former 4th Gen recruits and connects the recruits to the Crusader, either as his "children" themselves or as victims of his children because they stole the 4th Genners' powers via the Aphek Engine.  Outside, some guy with a mullet who I think we're supposed to recognize arrives and stabs Brian and makes his way to Jack.

Meanwhile, the back-up story confirms that Erica did seemingly have Jack's baby.  The Crusader, Neon (a.k.a. Erica), and Jack wind up stranded on a strange planet.  After Jack confesses that his failure to kill a deer while hunting with his dad led to their estrangement (and his inability to shoot a bow and arrow), the Crusader helps Jack aim his bow and arrow.  Later, the Crusader asks Jack to impregnate Erica, since the tonic that gave him his powers also means that he can't feel (or, presumably, you know).  It seems like the Crusader thought that Erica and Jack would just have sex the one time, but they definitely didn't stop.

Pathfinder:  Wake the Dead #1:  Van Lente spends a lot of time telling us the characters' histories and motivations here, which makes me long for the days when everything wasn't mini-series that required constant exposition.

At any rate, six adventurers find themselves in Ecanus, a Nexian city on the border with the "undead nation of Geb."  More specifically, they're in "the Awful," a former garden district "reduced to viscera thanks to the explosion of a massive flesh forge" that Nex's battlemages used to churn "out Nexian horrors to battle Geb's lifeless hordes."  Fun place!

Sajan Gadadvara and Lem (!) are an Irorian monk and Chelaxian minstrel, respectively, working for the Firebrands for their first brand, though Sajan is also trying to get the Brands to tell him something about his sister (of course).  Quinn, a "consulting investigator," is our insufferable expositor who provides this information to us.  Seelah is an Iomedaean paladin working on behalf of the Knights of Lastwall, and Harsk (!) rounds out the group as a Pathfinder agent.  They're all after Gabsalia Venris, an advisor to Geb's spymaster.  She clearly put out word to every group in Golarion that she wanted to escape Geb.

The adventures becomes a team when two Nexian deathsealers, Hazan and Jawar, arrive to make sure that Nex gets Gabsalia.  Before either side can gain the upper hand, three Gebian undead arrive.  They inform the group they were Gabsalia's mother, husband, and daughter, who the Gebians tortured to death and rose to chase Gabsalia.  Nice.  The zombies hurl their skins at the team, revealing themselves as shredskins.  Seelah exposits that her parents left Geb due to the undead legions, and she makes quick work of Gabsalia's family to send their bodies to rest.  Moving from the pan to the fire, the team discovers the deathsealers' bodies just as some other Nexian figures arrive to blame them for Hazan and Jawar's deaths.

Again, the exposition sucks, but I like the premise enough that I'm hoping Van Lente is able to dive into the story next issue, with the table now set.  The "Pathfinder" comics really excel when they're showing how awful Golarion can be, and this series promises to be no different.

Star Wars:  Sana Starros #4:  I like Sana Starros, and she deserves better than this series.  After so much promise, it's devolved into an unceasing series of aphorisms about family to the point where a Real Housewife of New Jersey would cringe.  The plot, such as it is, involves a data cube onboard the King's Ransom, a Starros possibly dealing with the Soikans (which is apparently bad), and Mevera needing a stockpile of gherlian fur.  Yeah, I don't know either.  At any rate, if Phel is right and the family abandoned him after the Empire arrested him, it isn't easy to empathize with the Starros women as they keep trying to make him the bad guy.  In fact, it seems like the Starros women all make terrible decisions and disown anyone who calls them on it.