Seven-Month-Old Comics!: The May 8 Top-Shelf Edition - Part Two (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The One Hand #5:  We really go off the rails here, in the best possible way.

We pick up right where we left off last issue, with Ari talking to the One Hand killer through the wall.  He asks what the writing on the wall represents, and the killer says that it's a language.  Ari asks what it says, and the killer says that's what he's been doing — trying to find meaning.  Ari asks why he's been killing all these years, and the killer is adamant that he didn't kill his victims.  Ari asks if they're all cogs, and the killer again says he isn't a killer.  Ari asks what he is, and the killer responds that he's an archeologist, which is creepy as fuck.

In what seems like a parallel dimension on the other side of the wall — a cave of some sort — a woman addresses the killer as "Johannes" and says they have to go before Ari shoots through the wall.  Ari runs next door only to find a storage closet.  Mac then calls Ari to tell him that the lieutenant is coming with a response team and a warrant and Ari needs to run.  Mac tells Ari that he'll find him the usual way, and Ari bolts.

Ari then meets Helene for lunch, at her invitation.  (She got word to the precinct, and Mac passed on the message to him.)  Helene asks if Ari was looking for someone named Nemone and confesses she hasn't stopped thinking about her since the day he visited.  Even though she's never met anyone by that name, she tells Ari that she has the feeling of being haunted "by a memory that isn't real."  She then recounts a legend related to the Greek Titan Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, from which the name Nemone derives.  Mnemosyne would give her priests the ability to see other people's memories, and Helene asks Ari if he believes memory can exist beyond our own lifetimes.

Helene tells Ari that Nemone would be happy to know that Ari didn't stop looking for her.  Ari then carefully asks Helene if she knows what she is, and Helene stands up, kisses Ari and then holds his chin as she says, "Ari..."  She then leaves, asking behind her, "Do you know what you are?"

At a safe house (or, more accurately, a safe apartment), someone (I think Juice from issue #2) gets Ari a clean gun as Mac arrives.  Mac tells Ari that he thought he'd finally gone around the bend when he asked whether the victim was a cog, but the coroner called him to the microscope because he found the killer's symbols in the blood or tissue sample he was examining.  Suddenly, the coroner's entire system then burst into flames.  Mac remembers that, when they were looking at the security footage at the hospital looking for Odell's murderer, it suddenly went glitchy, too.  Realizing someone is protecting the killer, Mac has the IT boys put together a path of camera outages, which leads to an apartment building.  Mac tells Ari that he's giving him a head start, but he's going to the lieutenant with it.

At the apartment building, Ari finds the woman from the art show, who tells Ari that she knows he's looking for the man with six fingers, whom she calls Johannes Vale.  The woman is nuts, but she tells Ari that Johannes' father went missing when he was young and he "still sees him every now and then."  We learn her name is Ada, and she tells Ari that Johannes went lookin for someone named Helene.  Ada tells Ari that he's "talking to someone now, detective...a voice only he can hear.  It sends him places...opens doors that don't exist."  

This story concludes next issue, which seems crazy.  I guess at this point, though, our only real question is whether we're dealing with someone or something supernatural, as Johannes seemed to create the pocket dimension behind the wall that Ari couldn't find.  I guess we'll see.

The Sacrificers #8:  Remender delivers another brutal issue that makes you want Pigeon just to raze this place to the ground.

It begins with a tired old man taking Pigeon on his wagon to the South End Trading Post, from where Pigeon'll head home.  The world is clearly collapsing around them, and Pigeon fights his anger over the way his family treated him as he makes his way from the Trading Post to his village.  There, he finds it completely destroyed, and we're reminded that he's really only there for Beatrice.  But he finds her destroyed doll in the wreckage, and you can see something break in him.

Later, Pigeon arrives in Noom's devastated village, and the townspeople come close to killing him, blaming him for their lot.  A guy who looks like the king appears, but he informs Pigeon that the king left for higher ground before the storm hit.  Pigeon loses consciousness, and later he's seated at a banquet table with the Fake King who serves him...chicken.  Asshole.  (Pigeon sticks to the vegetables.)  

The Fake King asks Pigeon about Paradise, and Pigeon tells him it was "hell, a factory of death."  The Fake King rages at him as a blasphemer, telling him that he can't believe a Sacrificer who abandoned his responsibility.  He accuses Pigeon of inventing the story to justify his failure; when Piegon mentions Noom, he blames her as well.  The Fake King mentions Piegon's people were destroyed, commenting, wickedly, "I would imagine your family amongst them."

The Fake King sees a glint of guilt in Pigeon's eyes at that comment and convinces him to sacrifice himself.  Clad in ceremonial gear, Fake King prepares to cut off Pigeon's head, but Pigeon grabs the axe before he can.  Furious, Pigeon tells the Fake King that Noom did sacrifice herself.  He says he'd understand if only his village perished, but the fact that Noom's village also perished makes no sense.  Stalking the Fake King, Pigeon tells him that he's tired of assholes like him telling him what his responsibility is when the collective never did anything for him.  In fact, this guy is only focused on making things better for himself.

Repeating something he said earlier, the Fake King tells Piegon that it isn't his job to question the gods but to serve them.  Pigeon then cuts off his head, telling his corpse, "Then that's what I'll do."  Team Pigeon, y'all.

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #46:  Ugh, I don't know if I care enough to put in the effort necessary to understand the nuance of Pak's story here.  I mean, once you involve the Sith Eternal, you've pretty much lost me.

Anyway, we start with the sequel to the Darth Vader story in "Free Comic Book Day 2024:  Star Wars" #1 as Warba joins Sabé in her search for Luke Skywalker.  Warba claims that she wants to see Luke before Sabé and Vader do whatever they're planning on doing to him, but we know Warba is also serving Vader so who knows.

Meanwhile, Sly Moore sends Corleque to deliver a shipment to the Sith Eternal on Exegol, since they'll scan his mind and see that he hates Vader.  The teams passes through the Red Honeycomb Zone in a Kyberite-plated shuttle, which more or less protects them from the Summa-Verminoth.  (Pryde does see his death on Exegol.)

On Exegol, "Vader" engages the Sith Eternal and loses, which draws the other Sith Eternal to see his defeat.  However, it turns out the cargo that Corleque delivered has the real Vader and battle droids, who launch another attack.  We learn that Vader is there for the Kyber Temple, which he destroys for the kyber.  The attack somehow frees the M.A.R. Corps, but, before we can process that, the apparent leader of the Sith Eternal (or at least this contingent of them) hits a button that fires a beam from...somewhere?

The beam appears to come from the sky onto a large black monolith, particularly since Pryde gloats that Vader somehow deflected it from hitting them.  (They're all standing next to the monolith.)  But then Vader says they weren't aiming for them, and the beam seems instead to have come from the monolith to the sky, where it hits the Summa-Verminoth.  Why the Sith Eternal decided to do that now is beyond me, but I guess Pak'll tell us at some point.

Transformers #8:  I know it's ridiculous to say about a series revolving around sentient robots, but this issue is an emotional tour de force.

With Arcee along, Carly takes Spike to a lake at sunset, hoping some fresh air clears his head.  Spike admits that he doesn't feel anything, because the world has changed so much.  Carly shows the anger that we saw last issue, telling Spike that they now have "big metal warriors" to help them get revenge on the "ones who killed our dads!"  But Spike notes his father just disappeared, like his brother.

Cliffjumper arrives with some "colas" because he's learned that it's "the thing to do near bodies of water."  (Fair, Cliff.)  He offers one to Carly, who doesn't respond.  Spike encourages her to speak to Cliff, reminding her that he saved her from "Lazerbeam."  Carly tells Cliff that she isn't "not" talking to him but she's furious that he had the chance to stop Starscream after he murdered his friend (Cliff brokenly mutters, "Bumblebee," at this point) but didn't take it.  As such, she feels like she can't trust him.  Cliff sits with his head between his legs, in the most dejected (and human) way a robot can look, and Spike wordlessly put his hand on Cliff's arm.

On Cybertron, Elita is motoring with the body she's carrying.  The robot speaks, telling her that he's endured 150 years of torture, day and night, and begs Elita to kill him.  Elita tells him that she's sorry it took her so long to find him but, yes, if they "get taken" she'll end both their sparks.

On the U.S.S. Henry Harrison, Soundwave and Thundercracker land on deck.  Soundwave orders Thundercracker not to destroy the ship yet, and the sailors try to stop them.  Thundercracker grabs the captain who begs him not to kill him.  Thundercracker places him on the deck, telling him that he pities humanity's fragility and that they should all "be on [their] way."  

As the ship burns around them and they watch the liferafts drift into sea, Soundwave asks what Thundercracker is doing, and Thundercracker comments that the humans can't hurt them.  Soundwave says they can't have witnesses, and Thundercracker starts to object — but then Soundwave simply kills them.  It's brutal, you guys.  It's interesting how...noble Thundercracker has been.  Whereas Cliffjumper's pacifism comes from a place of exhaustion, Thundercracker has almost Optimus levels of compassion and conscientiousness.

We then move onto a pretty hilarious segment.  Optimus enters the Ark's main room as Wheeljack and Skywarp are trading insults.  Wheeljack confirms that he can't separate Skywarp from Teletran 1 until he gets more Cybertronian tech.  Optimus has Wheeljack replay the video for Skywarp of Starscream and Soundwave ripping him into pieces, but they're interrupted when Carly enters with a RPG (with the intent to kill Skywarp).   Optimus is like, "For fuck's safe, Carly," and Carly falters when he explains that they need Skywarp — even if he's the reason Spike got shot — to save the other Autobots.  Carly accidentally shoots the RPG, and Arcee hurls herself in front of the blast, saving Skywarp.  Suddenly, Skywarp fixes Wheeljack's legs, to his delight.  Optimus tries to talk to Carly, but she tells him that it isn't an "Optimus teaching moment."  Ha!  She asks if she's just supposed to "wait around and get squished," and, honestly?  It's a good point.  

Arcee follows Carly to her van, telling her it's "quite the vehicle."  Carly apologies for shooting Arcee and asks why Teletraan didn't fix her.  Arcee explains they're low on Energon, since the Decepticons used most of it on the Constructicons.  Carly asks why the Autobots don't act as badass as they are, and Arcee explains that they "were scattered and lost" before the war but Optimus brought them together to fight for peace.  Carly snidely comments, "easy for him to say," and Arcee cautions her that Optimus' losses "could fill a chasm."

On the seafloor, Soundwave explains that they sank the Harrison since it has the most advanced energy technology the humans have — nuclear power — and then orders the Constructions to unearth the Nemesis.

In the Ark (seriously, this issue has so much jammed into it), Jetfire awakens.  He's hazy, and Optimus tells him that he lost some of his spark.  Ratchet is there and expound that they could only bring back one form, his jet form.  Jetfire asks why Optimus didn't let him rest, and Optimus explains they need his help to travel the world (per his comment at the end of last issue).  Devastatingly, Jetfire asks if he's really just a husk to them, saying that he can't see anything, including the stars.  Optimus offers to leave, but Jetfire asks him to stay, since it's so dark.  Optimus sits next to him, and it's just so much, you guys.

Soundwave and company enter the Nemesis and hear pounding.  They're all surprised that the Transformer in the cell making the noise survived the crash.  Thundercracker is nervous, but Soundwave orders him to open the cell, since they need all the help they can get.  Suddenly, Astrotrain emerges like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."  He demands to know where "he" is, throwing Thudnercracker into a wall when Soundwave says that they don't know.  He's just a total raving mess, and Soundwave swears when they find Megatron (aha!) Astrotrain is free to do whatever he wants with him.  But, for now, Soundwave has a mission.

At the Ark, Wheeljack notes the awakening of Cybertronian technology (i.e., the Nemesis), and Optimus calls the Autobots to action.  Optimus refuses to bring Carly with them, and Arcee asks if she can take on Carly as her Iron Apprentice.  Optimus says only two Cybertronians can have that relationship, but Arcee says she's willing to try if Carly is.  Arcee explains that it's a "sacred bond" between two beings, "one older and one younger."  It marks the beginning of a clan, and it's what she had with Ultra Magnus.  Although Carly doesn't formally agree, Optimus leaves Arcee and Carly to stay with Wheeljack to defend the Ark and watch over "young Spike."  Cliffjumper then takes control of Jetfire, and he, Jazz, Optimus, and Ratchet head to the Nemesis.

On the Nemesis, Soundwave tells Thundercracker that the goal of resurrecting it wasn't to fly it, but to use its antennae to call for reinforcements.  Enter Shockwave!

Eight-Month-Old Comics!: The April 3 Top-Shelf Edition - Part Two (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Minor Threats II:  The Fastest Way Down #1:  Blum and Oswalt really just set up this next arc in the Minor Threats story here, but it's definitely a story that I want to watch unfold.

In the aftermath of the Insomniac and Stickman's deaths, Frankie and Scalpel are building an empire.  With Scalpel as the brains and Frankie as the face, they seek to unify Redport under Follis Industries' leadership.  Almost everyone in Redport is thrilled to have a locally grown hero, at least as Redport defines "hero."  

But they have challenges.  Frankie isn't thrilled with the real estate kingpin looking to gentrify Report, and the Holiday Gang refuses her demand that they swear allegiance to her.  But Scalpel has a vision, and Frankie is game to implement it.  

As her new bodyman, Backdrop, learns, though, it's only "good" Frankie who's willing to implement it.  "Bad" Frankie decides to ignore Scalpel and murders the Holiday Gang for refusing to bend the knee (and acting like misogynistic assholes).  

Moreover, a group of sadistic teenage heroes, dubbed The Action, torture Brain Tease to learn who really killed the Insomniac.  I don't remember why it's important no one knows Frankie killed the Insomniac and Stickman, though I think it's related to the deal she made with The Continuum for control over Redport.  Whatever the reason, it's clear the issue isn't as settled as she and Scalpel think/hope it is.

Moon Man #2:  Cudi and Higgins give us Ramon's obligatory "dancing on the rooftops" training sequence here as he begins to play with his powers.  Just like Peter Parker, though, Ramon learns that it isn't all fun and games.

The issue opens with Ramon heading to Los Angeles, where Buckley has called together the members of the lunar expedition team.  In a call with Micah, Ramon confirms that his gravitational warping scrambled all the recordings of him, so no one has a clear idea of what he did in issue #1.

At Janus Aerospace, Buckley arrives, calling the other team members "sibs."  He informs them that they're all doing "60 Minutes" at noon, and Ramon calls bullshit, saying that it's obviously a PR response to the protests.  

That said, the interview still happens.  The reporter asks about the "event," but the team members really don't remember much about it.   Nine hours into the mission, the team members saw a bright flash and went unconscious.  For seven minutes, it looks like they disappeared.   Ramon woke up first and managed to get in touch with mission control.  That's about it.

The reporter brings up the ongoing criticism of Janus, that it's focusing on a "massive vanity project" at a time when "nationwide protests continue to shine a spotlight on Janus and its industry strangle-holds."  Glenn essentially invokes the mythological figure of Janus, noting that it can both be true that Janus is "leading the way in a return to our exploratory roots" while at the same time engaging in activity that "we probably do need to talk about."  Addison echoes Glenn's sentiment, saying that Mr. Cordell (Janus' CEO) has issues that he needs to resolve.  Ramon simply says that it's part of the "'What's next' mindset."

At a bar later, Addison says that she's going to stay in Los Angeles and get a job consulting while Janus fights out the next mission.  Glenn is heading to Santa Fe, because he needs not to see people for a while.  (Fair.)  Ramon asks how they're all feeling, and they all acknowledge having weird dreams.

Back home, Micah criticizes Ramon for not taking a hit at Janus while he had a chance, and Ramon is over it, hitting the bricks.  Wearing a mask, Ramon practices with his powers, leaping from building to building with the rainbows trailing him like we saw last issue.  At some point, he falls and hits his head on the street.  Two graffiti artists help him, and Ramon seems hurt so it's interesting that he isn't invulnerable while, ahem, blastin'.  They ask why he's wearing a mask, and he tells them for the same reason they should be given they're tagging in the open.  The kids tell him to go fuck himself, and Ramon leaves.

Of course, Ramon is immediately proven correct when some Janus thugs appear and kick the kids' asses (since they're tagging Janus property).  Ramon returns and tells the guards to let the kids go before it hits the news.  The guards then open fire on him, and the bullet bounces off him.  (So...he is invulnerable?)  Ramon is furious that they responded by trying to shoot him, and the guards retreat.  Ramon makes short work of them, though, and, when one of them tells him to desist in Janus' name, he responds, "Fuck Janus."

He heads home, where he finds an upset Micah who tells him Glenn is dead.

 
The One Hand #3:  Man, this series is getting good.

Ari is waxing poetic about humanity's fate as Mac asks why they're at the site of the chemical spill and not the North Penton murder.  The office in charge of the scene, Detective Black, tells Ari that it was just an accident, but Ari tells her that they've both been in Neo Novena long enough to know that two large scale incidents don't accidentally happen meters apart.  Black grudgingly agrees to keep him informed of developments, though we don't hear anything about the accident for the rest of the issue.

Next, Ari takes Mac to see Odell (the man Ari put in prison for the One Hand murders), even though Mac warns Ari that it's going to piss off the D.A.  Odell doesn't really tell Ari anything other than the fact that Ari see the victims from his perspective - the perspective of the chase - and urges him to see them from a different one - the perspective of the victim.  Odell cryptically tells him that he (Odell) is more like his victims than Ari will ever understand.  Then, he goes to the exit and asks Ari to watch as he gets repeatedly shivved by a bunch of inmates the minute they open the door.

At the hospital where they take Odell, Ari's boss tears him a new one as she asks him how bad it looks that inmates shivved the man everyone now thinks Ari wrongly put in prison while Ari was present.  She suspends him and tells him to stay far from the case; she only keeps Mac on it for "continuity."

Because Ari is Ari, he tracks down Nemone, where she's working at a factory.  He's met there by Lori McKinnon, the in-house counsel for Kore-Sap, who makes the "cogs."  McKinnon is worried that Ari thinks Nemone is the One Hand killer, something that didn't seem to dawn on Ari when he used his credentials to get the appointment.  He's startled when he meets Nemone, who's now called Helene, and learns that she remembers nothing of her previous life.  Instead, Helene tells Ari that she's worked at the factory for 12 years.

Something about that conversation sparks something for Ari, and he calls Mac, who's in the autopsy of the latest victim.  Recalling Odell talking about how he "held their deepest flesh in [his] hands," Ari tells Mac to have the coroner go really deep to see if the victim is some new type of cog.  Paging "Blade Runner!"  Mac is furious when he hears hospital announcements in the background and realizes that Ari is going to try to talk to Odell again.  Ari was in fact planning on doing that, but his plans change when he walks into Odell's room and finds that the One Hand has gotten to him.  (It's gruesome.)  Ari realizes the blood is still wet and says, aloud, "You're still here, aren't you?"  He's startled when the wall responds, "The other hand."

Seriously, I got chills.  The idea that Ari is stumbling upon the fact that a new race of "cogs" exists and only they know it could really kick up this story a notch.  I wonder how the chemical spill is going to play into it, but now we at least now how Nemone does.

Eight-Month-Old Comics!: The March 13 Top-Shelf Edition - Part One (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Napalm Lullaby #1:  I love Rick Remender, but, oof, this issue is a lot, even for me.

A couple named Paul and Brenda are leading a rally in Norfolk, Nebraska.  Around sunset, they send the participants home and themselves head home in their pickup truck.  Given the cross hanging in the truck's rear-view mirror, it seems like Brenda is talking about God and/or Jesus when she tells Paul that they need to enforce "his" will.  Before they can finish that discussion, however, a light appears, and they crash into a tree.  

From a portal, a leonine robot emerges with futuristic troops in pursuit.  After the troops take down the robot, one of them refers to it as the "last of the Mechawombs."  They open the robot and discover a baby in a nest, Kal-El style, inside its chest cavity; they then argue over who's going to kill the baby.  Before they can, the baby's glowing eyes explode, eliminating the troops.  Paul and Brenda approach the baby and bring it into their car, with Paul telling Brenda that "he" heard her prayers.  As Brenda cuddles the baby, she says that "he" answered them, and we learn that "he" is an entity named "Glokor." 

Fifty years later, a brute that looks like the X-Men's Caliban murders three priests and steals the halos that hover over their heads.  As he walks through a slum, a beggar on "pilgrimage to the Crystal Temple" asks him for "protein."  A man at Old Nan's Funhouse calls him "Hork the Penniless," and Hork passes the wheelchair-ridden Nan on his way to a room.

He enters an Olympus-inspired garden, where a woman named Rose meets him.  Hork warns Rose about entering (presumably the Palace) with "dead priest haloports," predicting she'll be in one of the "straightening camps" by morning.  Agreeing that a deal is a deal, Rose strips down and begins to have sex with him, but the hologram is interrupted when someone pounds on the door.

It becomes clear that Hork and Rose are in cyberspace as the man banging on the door in reality enters the room.   The man wears a habuki-inspired mask, and Rose later calls him Sam.  Rose herself is dressed in black and white, with an all-black visor.  She warns Sam that he can't wake her like so abruptly, and Sam says that he couldn't "feel" Hork's lust any longer.  Hork pulls a knife to attack Rose, and Sam launches a pick-like object into Hork's head, mortally wounding him.  (He was aiming for his arm.). However, Sam is emotionally connected to Hork as he slowly dies, and, calling Rose "Sarah," asks her to sedate him.  Sarah is furious at him, since they're low on sedatives, but complies.

At that point, Nan and the doorman enter, and she orders the doorman to swipe the haloports.  Sarah asks Sam for the pen that dispenses the sedatives as they flee the doorman, who corners them quickly.  Sam offers him the haloports, but the doorman stomps Sam's head instead.  Sarah leaps for the gun that fires the pick-like objects, but the doorman breaks her back over his knee before she can grab it.  The doorman returns to Nan's and gives her the bag with the haloports, and she exposits that she'll finally make the pilgrimage with them.

Meanwhile, Sam and Sarah are alive, escaping on a motorcycle with a sidecar.  If I'm following correctly, the sedative they used while fleeing the doorman allowed Sarah to create the illusion that the doorman killed them and swiped the haloports, so they're trying to escape before he and Nan realize the truth, that they still have them.  Sarah is concerned that they only have one dose of sedative left, but sam tells them that it doesn't matter since the gates are only open a little while longer.  As Bandal gives us a view of the city, full with the spectacular Palace and smaller gates, Sam opines, "How do you prepare to kill a god?"

Having just read "Mistborn:  The Final Empire," I'm guessing that we're facing a similar story, particularly given Remender's backmatter treatise.  However, Remember doesn't quite deliver the same excitement as he did in "The Sacrificers" #1.  Although we were also dropped in media res in that issue, the emotions that Pigeon and his family felt about his impending sacrifice grabbed you by the lapels.  Here, we're given little insight into any of the characters, watching them mostly responding to external events.  I'm happy to hang in here, but I think we need some better focus in the next few issues to make this story as gripping as Remender's other series.

No/One #8:  At this point, I'm hard pressed to see how Higgins and Buccellato are going to wrap up this story in two issues, given it just got even more complicated.

Three weeks after Gill slipping capture, the cops still can't find him.  Chief Mixon correctly points out Gill was working service industry jobs and likely didn't have the resources to evade capture this long without help.  Before the meeting adjourns, Singh tells Mixon the Ledger "has the story" about the .38 Special; Mixon thanks Singh for the heads-up and comments that he'll warn Ben.

At a coffee shop, Teddy approaches Julia to tell her that he meant what he said on the podcast — about how he hadn't intended to hang out Julia to dry but acknowledges that he did so all the same.  Julia thanks him, but, before they discuss the podcast, their phones buzz.  At Ledger HQ, they learn Ben Kern's training officer, Jack Sherman, used the .38 Special 35 years earlier to shoot and kill a kid named Daryl Graves.  In the series of news clips that fill the next two pages, Graves' parents say their son never owned a gun and a salesman says he sold Sherman the gun.

Later, at a diner, Sherman meets Ben and leaps across the table to make sure he wasn't wearing a wire.  Sherman accuses Ben of telling people what they did, and Ben says he only ever told his wife.  Sherman wisely notes Aaron could've overheard him, and Ben tells Sherman he accepts the consequences for their actions, namely that Sherman shot an unarmed kid and they lied about it.  Meanwhile, outside the diner, the Weiss Macht Brotherhood (WMB) are preparing to go after Ben.  (They're also demanding the authorities nullify the convictions they won based on Ben's infiltration of the group.)  Of course, Chobsky is with them.

Despite how badly it ended with Ben, Sherman calls him to warn him the WMD is outside the diner.  Revealing he's holding a gun, Ben tells Sherman that he plans to face them.  (At Major Crimes, Singh gets a call — likely from Sherman — that the WMB have pinned down Ben.)  As the WMB approaches Ben, No/One arrives and knocks off a guy on a motorcycle charging at Ben.  Ben jumps in No/One's car, and No/One berates him while evading the pursuing WMB bikers.  Ben swears he's already dead, and No/One tells him to find purpose in finding someone who needs help, saying, "You of all people should know that!"

Two days later, Ben calls Julia and promises to tell her everything about the gun.  First, though, he goes to Chuck's and tells him to tell him everything he remembers about Clarity because, in his words, he needs to know "if there's someone still waiting for her to come home."

OK, let's get down to brass tacks.

First, as Julia notes, both Harrison Gill and Aaron Kern used the .38 Special.  In his conversation with Sherman, Ben hypothesizes that either Aaron and Gill were working together or Gill got his hands on the gun somehow after the cops arrest Aaron.  In other words, it underscores that we really have no one what connections exist among the Accountability Killer(s), including the two Copycats we never mention.

Second, Ben's visit to Chuck implies that he thinks that the Clarity connection is more important than we've seen so far.  That makes sense, though you have to wonder why the Killer(s) didn't go after Coach Cade first in that case.  That said, given the (s) at the end of Killer(s), it isn't clear which killer might have the connection.  Is it Aaron?  Is it Harrison?  Is it one of the two Copycats?  Is it No/One?  It's possible that No/One's motivation for exposing corruption was the fact he knew people covered up Charity's death.  Or did Aaron or Gill or the Copycats get involved because they have a connection to Charity that we haven't yet seen?

Third, we still don't even have a hint about No/One's connection to the Killer(s).  All we know is that No/One started the campaign with his data drops but isn't (in theory) responsible for the Killer(s) starting to off people.  I think we're supposed to believe that No/One adopted his costumed identity to take responsibility for his actions.  In other words, he was initially content with the drops but took on the identity to stop the Killers from reverting his work.  But I don't think Higgins and Buccellato have even made that clear.

Finally, it's getting to hard to believe there is a connection here.  I'm worried it's going to feel hand-wavy at the end, like all the "victims" were members of the same BDSM club or something.

The podcast doesn't really shed much more light on the issue other than Ben publicly confirming that Sherman shot the kid, which Sherman denies in a preemptive press conference.  (I was figuring he was going to pin blame on Ben, which he doesn't here though may later.)  Notably, Julia is on the podcast, so we're all friends again, it seems.

In other words, as I said before, we have a lot to go with only two issues left.

The One Hand #2:  It's apparently murder mystery week this week!

The issue opens with Ari visiting an informant, Juice, after he (Juice) witnessed a murder.  Juice tells Ari that he watched some clubbers beat up a kid and douse him with paint thinner.  When the kid shut down completely, they got annoyed and set him on fire.  Juice can't get over the fact the kid just stood there and let them burn him alive; as Ari is leaving, Juice reveals the kid kept saying, over and over again, "Can't get out."

At the precinct, Ari is upset when the person answering the phone at the brothel doesn't know who Nemone is.  He ends the call, and Mac approaches his desk.  Mac tells Ari the Department has "the new guy from crypto" working on the cipher, though Ari views it as a waste of time.  As they're leaving the precinct to interview last issue's victim's next of kin, Ari is served papers as the District Attorney is reviewing his conviction of the previous One Hand Killer.

At the victim's house, the victim's wife is somewhat ambivalent about his death, telling the detectives that he was an unremarkable man who you could forget was there.  She explains she only went on a date with him because she spilled a drink on him.  Ari looks around the room and sees one of the ciphers in the way a set of photos are arranged.  (It's unclear if we're supposed to conclude the Killer actually uses items close to the victims as inspiration for the ciphers or if Ari just sees the case everywhere.)  

As Ari and Mac are leaving, Ari asks the widow if she loved the victim.  She slams the door in their faces.  Mac is annoyed at Ari, but Ari makes the point the Killer might  be targeting the people who live in the gaps in society.

Along those lines, Ari heads to the brothel, and the maintenance guy tells him they overhauled the operation the previous day.  He brings Ari to storage, but Ari doesn't find Nemone there.  Instead, he finds flyers for a lady who runs a gallery and comes to the brothel for parts.

Ari heads to the Marker-Vaugn Art Gallery, where a decadent party is in full swing.  A drunk man accosts Ari after he recognizes him from the papers, and Ari starts to leave but notices a faceless person in the crowd seemingly with a sixth finger.  Ari tries to follow him, but security has him to leave since he's causing a disturbance.  When he exits the building, the skyline is green, the result of a chemical truck that overturned.  He returns a call from Mac who informs him they have another case.  Mac comments that he feels like he stepped into a "murder room" as a rookie and "can't get out."

I'm definitely down with Ram V is going here.  Plenty of cop stories deal with people on the margins, since they're easy victims.  But it feels like Ram V is making the point that more of us are in those gaps than we think, that really only the movers and shakers matter.  I'm not sure how that's going to play into the mystery, but it feels relevant at this point.

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Seven-Month-Old Comics!: The February 7 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The One Hand #1:  This issue is interesting and, despite my backlog, I'll hang in there a while.  The best and worst parts about this issue wind up being the same thing, namely that the futuristic setting feels like an afterthought.  

Ari Nassar is a hard-boiled detective who cancels his retirement after a case from his past returns on his last day.  ("You've just eaten the frosting.")  The case involves a killer who uses their victim's blood to create intricate geometric symbols on the wall; Ari notes to his partner, Mac, that they never released photos of the symbols.  Ram V leads you to believe the problem is that Ari hasn't caught the One Hand Killer; in a great twist, though, the problem is that he's caught them...twice.

The killer first emerged 23 years ago.  Ari tells Mac that the killer randomly selected all his 32 victims; the police never established any connection between them.  Mac explains to a cop on the scene that Ari caught the perp for the first time three years and 12 murders into his spree:  a man named Martin Tillman, who later died from injuries sustained in a prison attack.  However, someone started the murders again, and Ari eventually put away Odell Watts.  This time, Ari notices a slightly different symbol at the end of the sequence of symbols.

The futuristic setting — "Neo Novena.  November 5th, 2873." — reveals itself when Ari steps into the street after his mandatory session with a therapist due to his retirement.  Later, Ari has sex and converses with Nemone, an android hooker, at a brothel.  When Nem freezes mid-conversation, Ari finds the madam, whose technician is working on the "unicon."  Ari clearly cares for Nem, and he asks the madam to make sure Nem doesn't get cold (given she froze standing up naked).

The brothel plays a role in Ari finding a clue to the killer's identity as he stops a kid using a discarded android hand to create graffiti.  The kid mentions that the dumpster behind the brothel has all sorts of android body parts, and Ari lets him go.  In looking at the handprint the kid spray-painted on the wall, Ari notices a smudge that makes it look like there's a sixth finger jutting opposite the right-hand thumb.  

Ari rushes back to the crime scene and calls Mac after he realizes that the palm print the killer left has a smudge on the right hand that might also be a sixth finger.  Mac confirms none of the other handprints have that smudge.  Dun-dun-DUN!

Again, the futuristic setting is cool, particularly given the "Blade Runner" feel it gives to the issue.  But it also feels like it's distracting from the pretty gripping mystery Ram V is weaving here.  As I said, I'd normally pass given my backlog, but the issue is sufficiently gripping to keep me hanging in there.