Not-Even-Remotely New Comics: The December 4 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Annihilation - Scourge:  Nova #1:  Given this blog's focus on Nova, I was obviously excited about this issue.  I wasn't disappointed exactly, but it's definitely a mixed bag.

Rosenberg has always done a great job with down-on-their-luck characters; his Nova reminds me a lot of Havok from his "Astonishing X-Men" run, and I consider that a good thing.  I'm actually surprised Marvel doesn't more often tell this type of story, of a hero succumbing to the unrelenting tragedies that he's experienced.

Nova isn't just an alcoholic here, though Rosenberg underlines the fact that he is one when Rich experiences tremors after too much time without a drink.  Perhaps more significantly, Nova abandons the battlefield after encountering the Revengers.  Although his panic at the possibility of becoming infected again is certainly understandable, he doesn't give a second thought to abandoning Annihilus and the refugees that they were protecting.  This abandonment is particularly noteworthy since Nova had just stopped Annihilus from killing a crying child to silence it; as a result, the Revengers find them, as Annihilus feared.  Rich fleeing without thinking of the refugees' safety under Annihilus' care makes it clear that he's not thinking straight; his panicked flight is proof that he's broken.

The only downside of this issue is that Rosenberg has Annihilus and Nova engage in too much banter.  I love banter, don't get me wrong.  But, he almost writes this issue as a buddy-cop romp.  It not only doesn't fit the seriousness of Rich's predicament, but it definitely doesn't fit Annihilus' personality or their relationship.  It's almost like Rosenberg wanted to write a Nova and Star-Lord adventure, so he just did so anyway.  Thankfully, it doesn't totally overshadow my joy at seeing Rich in action, so I'm still looking forward to seeing where we go from here.

Annihilation - Scourge:  Fantastic Four #1:  I'm not really sure who the target audience for this issue is.  Any "Annihilation" story is a pretty deep cut when it comes to comics, so it's presumably aimed at a pretty serious reader.  But, Gage writes this story at an almost elementary-school level.

The moral of the issue is that Johnny learns that people can change.  On the face of it, it's an innovative reading of the Cancerverse denizens' psyches:  since they can't evolve past where they were when they were consumed, they aren't really alive.  In other words, we're not alive if we can't grow.  Johnny defeats the Fhtagn Four by using Reed's memory-projection device to show them the lives that "our" Fantastic Four have lived.  The Fhtagn Four thus understand the evolution as people that they didn't get to experience.  It inspires Ben and Sue to rebel against Reed's control, though ultimately Johnny incinerates them all to keep them a family.

The problem isn't this read on the Cancerverse, but Gage's script, which feels like it's pulled from an after-school special.  Sue has to explain to Johnny that he can be the annoying little brother and the Negative Zone's general, and you have to wonder how imbecilic Johnny is if he couldn't figure out that part on his own.  He's not a teenager anymore.  It's almost like a Women in Refrigerators situation, where the Negative Zone's civilizations are almost obliterated so Johnny can learn a valuable lesson about himself.  [Sigh.]

Die #10:  This issue is surprisingly straightforward, though it doesn't make this issue any less compelling.  

Ash tells Izzy that she's accepted the premise that they need to treat this world like it matters; as such, Ash is playing to win.  She, Izzy, and Zamorna begin the issue by invading Angria's military leader's house.  Izzy convinces the gods not to focus on the house so that the leader's holy symbols don't prevent Zamorna from entering.  Zamorna then smuggles in Ash, who uses her powers to compel the leader to tell them his worst secret.  It's apparently a doozy, and she uses it to blackmail him so that the military will allow her to enter the chamber where the Chainmaster enslaves Dictators to patrons.  (It's how Angria controls Dictators.)  She has the Chainmaster give her control of all of Angria's Dictators and thus Angria.

After telling Izzy that she trusts her, she then binds Zamorna to her because she doesn't trust him.  (She's still mad at him for using her to break Izzy's heart back in the day, though Zamorna pretty convincingly argues that a seventeen-year-old girl created him to be exactly that guy.)  She then has Zamorna marry her, installing herself as Angria's queen.  With Angria in her grasp, she says that they can go about establishing "order," which doesn't sound ominous at all.  Izzy warns Ash that the evil queen doesn't win, prompting Ash to respond, "Watch me."  Hans is splenderific on this page, imbuing Ash with beauty and menace to a terrific extent.

Meanwhile, Chuck gets so drunk that he can be sufficiently stupid to maximize his luck, using it to free Angela and Matt.  (They leave Sol chained.)  Ash sends Zamorna after them, though, as Chuck mentions, it seems unlikely Queen Ash wants to go home now that she has all the power.  As such, we'll see where we go from here, with the Boggle cube of alliances having been slammed onto the table.

Marauders #3:  Duggan gets Shaw exactly right here.  The entire issue revolves around his plans for a resurrected Shinobi, though we're mostly only given clues and hints about what they are.  We're also treated to Shaw's own spin on recent events, such as claiming that Emma used her powers to convince Charles and Magneto to make her the Hellfire Trading Company's CEO.

The first half of the issue takes place before Emma makes Shadowcat the Red Queen and shows Shaw's belief that he'll be able to install Shinobi in that position.  

The second half of the issue takes place after Emma has disabused Shaw of that notion.  Shaw instead makes Shinobi his Black Bishop, providing him with an invisible ship that clearly puts him in opposition to Shadowcat and the Marauders.  Shaw's plans become clearer here, as he mentions that the world's aging one-percenters own 90 percent of the world's wealth.  Since L extends human lives for five years, Shaw sees himself as having a five-year window to bleed them dry.  Shaw tells Shinobi that he wants him to serve as Krakoa's Coast Guard, and Shinobi and Kate are clearly going to have differing views on how to protect Krakoa and distribute the drugs (as we saw last issue).  

Duggan is leaning fully into Hickman's reboot here, using this dispute to highlight the larger philosophical divide amongst the Krakoa mutants.  So far, the more an author leans into the reboot, the more exciting the series is.  This series continues to be the best of the lot, to my mind.

Also Read:  Amazing Spider-Man #35; Ghost Rider 2099 #1; Venom 2099 #1; X-Men #3

Not-Even-Remotely New Comics: The November 27 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Detective Comics #1,016: Tomasi does something rare in this arc, organically replacing Norah for Victor as Mr. (now Mrs.) Freeze.  Marvel got a lot of heat when it rolled out gender changes  too quickly, shoehorning in diversity in some cases at the sacrifice of the story.  Tomasi does the opposite here.

First, he reveals that Lex Luthor gave Victor the B-Zero Serum from "Forever Evil" that created Bizarro.  We also learn that the Serum is toxic to the amygdala, the brain's emotional-processing center.  Victor admits to Batman that he thought that he could successfully limit the toxicity where Luthor failed but now realizes that he was wrong.  He agrees to work with Batman to try to heal Norah, but Norah doesn't want him to heal her.  She accuses him of not wanting to "save" her because he loves her but because he needs her "frozen in more ways than one to give [his] life meaning."  (Um, fair.)  She injects him with one of his "special syringes," which accelerates his internal temperature.  Batman is forced to put him in frozen stasis in Arkham as Norah plots in the backwoods of Canada to freeze the world.  

Rather than forcing a change in identity, Tomasi builds the story step by step here, to the point where you wonder if Batman wasn't in a better place with Victor as Mr. Freeze, given how capable Norah is throughout this issue.

The Last God #2:  Given the scope of the story that Johnson is telling, this issue is pretty to the point.

Thirty years in the past, Tyr and his brother Torma are part of a reaver party poised to raid a village.  Before they begin, Tyr realizes that it's all too quiet.  As they move through the village, Tyr and Torma discover a man and girl hiding in a barn cellar.  Tyr initially believes that they're hiding from the reavers, but the father tells Tyr that the girl's mother is still lurking around the village.  Yup, it's the thorn monsters.  (Do we have a name for them yet?)  Tyr escorts Torma, the man, and his daughter in flight through the marshes, but one of the monsters grabs Torma.  Tyr follows it underwater, but Torma speaks to Tyr telepathically as his eyes turn black, telling him to let him go because the Void is so beautiful.  Later, the girl badgers Tyr with questions, noting that Torma didn't seem like a reaver.  She earns a slap from her father and departs in a huff.  Tyr tells the father that she was right:  Torma wasn't a reaver; he just went where Tyr led him.  The father reveals that the girl is Cyanthe and tells us that she has Teymsong, an art that "folk" think is lost.  Tyr then notices the cut on the father's arm as Cyanthe encounters a young Veikko on the river banks;  Veikko warns Cyanthe to take care.

In the present, Monster-Tyr tells Cyanthe that she's hurting him with her arrows, and she tells Monster-Tyr that if he were really Tyr then he'd know that his pain would please her.  Veikko beseeches Cyanthe to run, but she refuses to abandon her kingdom.  Still, they're forced to retreat as the onslaught is too much.  Veikko cuts off a guildsman's bracelet -- clearly a magical item -- of some sort and throws it at Monster-Tyr, flagging it for Cyanthe.  Cyanthe utters a magic word and fires her arrow at it, causing Monster-Tyr to explode.  (Clearly, the Teymsong amplified her arrow, though we don't yet know that; the father doesn't reveal her powers until later in the issue.  As such, it's a great surprise.)  Meanwhile, Eyvindr continues to fight his way through the hordes of thorn monsters, and two of them allude to the Last God knowing who he was before he was born.  (One of them calls him "His Grace.")  

Preparing to depart Cyulí, Veikko orders Valko to take all the Aelvans to Tchakatla Tuo, and we learn that Veikko (I thought that she was a he last issue) is Valko's mother.  Valko is furious that his mother intends to go to the Black Stair, spitting "Ferryman King" in disgust after she uses it to justify her orders.  Eyvindr gets Cyanthe on a horse, as she's clearly weakened, and they escape the burning city.  Cyanthe insists on returning, but Veikko tells her that the city is lost and that she knows where her path leads.  Tears in her eyes, Cyanthe recites a poem about the fall of the gleaming city of Cyulí.

Eyvindr now rides with Veikko and asks her what she meant by her earlier comment that it was all a lie.  He comments that he's killed Hakkon the Shamed a thousand times on the play-yard, and he'd be lost if he learned that Tyr failed to kill Mol Uhltep.  Veikko dodges the question, telling him that they'll gather the old allies, starting with Skol and the Guild Eldritch.  When Eyvindr presses her, Veikko simply says that they did something terrible to kill Mol Uhltep because they thought that they must.  Veikko also seems to guess correctly that Cyanthe is becoming a creature of the Void, as she has a daydream where she encounters a crying Tyr along the riverbank where they met.  He ominously tells her that Mol Uhltep isn't done with them yet.

Again, Johnson does a good job of not tripping over his world building, though he does come close to it a few times.  Either way, this series is one of the most exciting new titles in recent years from me, an excellent use of DC's Black Label.  I'm in it for the long haul on this one.

New Mutants #2:  OK, this issue, this issue, I love.  The banter sounds like the appropriate banter, unlike the first issue.  Most importantly, I'm warming to the way that Hickman writes Roberto as a pampered, pompous asshole who you just can't help loving.

Hickman spends the first three pages giving us Bobby's (perhaps skewed) version of recent events, which mostly focuses on how handsome and smart he is.  He tells us that his Earth lawyers are good because they're expensive; the fact that he just signed everything they put in front of him to safeguard X-Corp while he's in space maybe calls into question the "smart" part.  After all, as the interstitial page mentions, the space lawyer that his Earth lawyers got sucked.)

Thankfully, Hickman also makes it clear that only Bobby thinks that he's going to convince Sam to leave his "space wife" and "space child" to come home; everyone else is there to see Sam and because Bobby promised to let them use his second-best house in Rio for Carnival.  (Totally understandable.)  After they're convicted and remanded into Sam and Smasher's custody, Bobby complains that Sam doesn't look a mess, winning him a punch from Smasher.  ("To say noting of the fact that we left the kid at home with someone who is not our regular babysitter to come babysit you."  I seriously feel you, Smasher.)

Beyond Smasher later telling Illyana to form a line for punching Bobby, I think my favorite moment was Sam expressing clear pride over Doug creating Krakoan and getting a seat on the Council, particularly given his sheer delight over how annoyed Bobby is that they didn't ask him.  This entire interaction is great, as they laugh over banter that clearly only the two of them find hilarious.  It makes my heart glad.  I hope we stay in space forever.

Punisher 2099 #1:  This issue is hard to follow, mostly because Nadler and Thompson really swing for the fences.  This review is longer than I expected, but this issue really breaks down the dynamics of this new 2099 timeline, particularly how a person's social score dictates the contours of his life.

The issues begins with Lt. Hector Tago and other Public Eye officers confronting a Thorite mob.  When a Thorite wielding two hammers comes close to braining a helmetless Public Eye officer, Tago opens fire, killing the Thorite.  This scene unfolds as Tago reviews his "Iris," a drone that accompanies him at all times and records everything that he sees, smells, tastes, and feels.  The Iris then uploads these memories to the Vision, creating an enormous Public Eye archive.  We learn that Tago has become a hero as a result of his actions.

Jake Gallows discovers Tago hacking into the Vision and is impressed, wondering why Tago didn't become part of Sector 14, the Public Eye's "proactionary cybercrime prevention" unit.  Tago tells Gallows that he's reviewing the Iris' files because the moment the Iris recorded doesn't match his memory of the encounter.  Gallows tells Tago that he understands; he used to review his feed constantly (particularly after Thorites murdered his family) before "they" outlawed doing so because it drags one's attention from the present.  Gallows tells Tago that his family's murder also didn't match his memory when he reviewed the footage; Gallows ascribes this discrepancy to the fact that rage no longer clouded his memory.  Perhaps most importantly, Tago reveals that his grandfather became a Thorite after his "social score," which we see displayed occasionally next to a character, tanked.

Later, Tago encounters a street-cleaning robot gone rogue, spouting anti-corporation rhetoric, particularly about how the social-scoring system is ruining everyone's lives.  Tago connects to the bot to shut down its processor, and he's stunned to discover that it possesses a human's consciousness.  The consciousness belongs to a man named Kenji Walker, a former Alchemax "UX designer" arrested for insider trading who joined the Thorites.  After Tago has disabled him, Gallows alleges the Thorites helped Walker upload his consciousness into the bot.  Tago isn't buying that, though, since the Thorites aren't tech-savvy.

As Tago tries to fix his broken Iris, Gallows later tells him that they found the guy who helped Walker:  Davis Dunn, a "high-ranking A.I. specialist" who also worked for Alchemax.  Tago expresses surprise that he'd be a Thorite, and Gallows says that a lifetime of Syn-C doses will cure that.  (We learn that Syn-C allows a "criminal" to continue working but limits his brain capacity.)  At home, Tago finally manages to download the raw footage of the initial encounter and discovers that the Thorite definitely wasn't holding two hammers; Tago shot an unarmed man trying to get the other Thorite to drop his hammer.

Tago visits his destitute grandfather in his attempt to confirm whether or not the Thorite was armed, but his grandfather notes that it wouldn't make a difference, because they carry hammers as an expression of their faith.  Tago then enters the Vision again and discovers all sorts of footage of Gallows mowing down Thorites.  Tago's social score begins to drop for his incursions into the archives.  He visits Dunn, who reveals that the Public Eye, not the Thorites, had him install Walker's consciousness into the bot, which we learn Walker only wanted so he could see his boyfriend again after getting banished to the slums (presumably for the insider trading).  In exchange, the Public Eye would up Dunn's social score and get him a new apartment.  But, the Public Eye reneged on the deal, and now he's "a workhorse by prescription."  (I don't get here why the Public Eye would want Walker to upload his consciousness into the bot or why Walker would go on a rant instead of using his new abilities to get to his boyfriend.  Dunn seems to imply someone other than the Public Eye caught him, but who else would review the security tapes to discover that he was working with Walker?)

In Brooklyn, the Thorites have created a Yggdrasil from human sacrifices, and the Public Eye arrives to save the citizens, with orders to prioritize ones with scores above 50,000.  Tago arrives as the Punisher to take on Gallows, who argues that the Vision is only "altruistically" tampering the feeds to make them more productive in saving people's lives.  ("When everything's so transitory, all we've got is efficiency.")  Tago then snaps Gallows neck, completing his transformation.  He publicly releases the unedited footage of him killing the Thorite and then visits his grandfather, explaining that Hector is dead, that he "got what he deserved."

I'm not really sure how I feel about this issue.  It isn't terrible, but Nadler and Thompson don't use the flashback scenes well, making it confusing to tell where we are in the story at times.  Also, I'm not really sure they convince us why Tago would sacrifice everything to become the Punisher.  For example, the Thorites murdered Gallows' family; his anger, we understand.  Tago just had his memories edited, which, for someone living in 2099, doesn't seem that bad by comparison.  Without a better explanation of Tago's motives, it just feels like he became the Punisher because he had to do so.  Oh, well.  You can't win them all.

Also Read:  Conan 2099 #1

Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The November 20 Marvel Event Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Annihilation - Scourge:  Alpha #1:  Rosenberg does a great job here using the reader's knowledge of previous events and storylines to keep you engaged.  As a long-time fan of Marvel Cosmic, I appreciated that.

Anyone familiar with the Cancerverse recognized the squid-faced creature emerging from the survivor of the attack on Nefig.  Days later, after Annihilus and Blastaar join forces to prevent the Cancerverse from taking over the Negative Zone, Blastaar addresses his troops on Annihilus' homeworld, Arthros.  When a group of indistinct figures crashes on Arthros, a soldier asks Blastar what the explosion was.  When he answers, "Our defeat," I knew that it was the Revengers before I turned the page and saw them.  But, Rosenberg still manages to amp up the mystery when Annihilus and Blastaar express shock and horror over the Revengers' leader.  I initially thought that it was Thor from the glimpse of blond hair that we see, but Annihilus' and Blastaar's fear seemed disproportionate to "just" Thor.  Blastaar holds the line against the Revengers as Annihilus uses his portal to the Positive Zone to escape with some troops.

In the Positive Zone, Cosmo looks at a vomiting Rich Rider with dismay.  We know from "Guardians of the Galaxy" that Rich was already on stress-related leave before the Church of Universal Truth then destroyed the Nova Corps, so the fact that he's fallen so far into alcoholism is no surprise.  When Annihilus' ship almost crashes into the "second-best bar in the third-best spaceport in this sector," Nova reluctantly stops it.  However, he's so drunk that he doesn't recognize that it's Annihilus' ship until he discovers that Annihilus is the crash's sole survivor.   Annihilus tells Rich that they need the Nova Corps, and Rich informs Annihilus that they're dead.  Annihilus responds that they are as well, and we learn why he's so worried:  the Sentry is the Revengers' leader.

In other words, I loved this issue.  It's grounded so heavily in previous stories that it was particularly rewarding to read as someone who's loved all the previous Marvel Cosmic cross-over events.  Given Nova is one of the two characters mentioned in this blog's mission statement, I'm obviously a huge fan.  I've been pretty happy with Cates' treatment of him in "Guardians of the Galaxy."  Like Star-Lord, he's been through such much grief and trauma over the years, and I'm thrilled to see it addressed honestly, with him crumbling under the weight of it.  This event gives the authors the chance to really explore his struggle, and I hope they lean into it along the way.  I was apprehensive about this event, because I so wanted it to meet the same high quality of the previous Marvel Cosmic cross-over events.  I'm thrilled to say that it does.  I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Marvel 2099:  Alpha #1:  Like "Annihilation - Scourge:  Alpha" #1, I was very excited about this issue, since it involves the other character in this blog's mission statement!  That said, I'll admit that this issue was something of a miss for me.  I'm not totally disappointed, because Spencer certainly throws enough at us here to keep our interest.  But, it's also too much thrown at us really to follow.  Moreover, it becomes clear that Spencer is rebooting the entire line.  Whereas "Annihilation - Scourge:  Alpha" #1 built off years of previous stories, Spencer sweeps all previous 2099-related stories under the rug here.  It seems clear that this event will undo this new status quo at least in part.  But, I would've preferred to see Spencer follow Rosenberg's lead and build on existing stories.

At any rate, the issue starts with a young blond child finding Mjolnir in "the Ravage."  Before the child can grab it (as he or she hears someone chanting "worthy"), a pack of vaguely outlined humanoids appear and the child flees.  The humanoids appear to be some form of mutated humans, and I'm guessing the Ravage is an irradiated landscape.

In Brooklyn, Public Eye officers fight rampaging Thorites.  I only realized at the end of the issue that one of the offices is Jake Gallows (i.e., the Punisher 2099).  He's frustrated that they're just getting back-up because he's trying to complete his mission, finding some "guy from E.C.O." who works on cell therapy.  Apparently, a woman approached this guy to help her son, who suffers from "skullfire."  Realizing that he could cure it with an injection, the guy snuck into Brooklyn to help.  From the Public Eye officer's comment to Jake, it's clear that Brooklyn is total chaos all the time.  Jake informs the officer that they found the woman and child's body on "the pyres," though they were barely recognizable because the "drangs" didn't go easy.  Jake says that the E.C.O. guy was valuable to his "circle," but they find him hanging from ropes with a hammer dangling from his throat.

In Nueva York, Tyler Stone is thrilled with Miguel's progress on the Raider Initiative, and the only difference from Miguel's original origin story is that his research seems to come from studying a spider-like mutant from the Ravage.  Miguel expresses disapproval that Tyler is going to use the Initiative to steal other companies' intellectual property and not just defend Alchemax's, but Tyler brushes aside his concerns.  Miguel also stresses that he needs to do more testing, but Tyler is also unconvinced.  We all know where this story is going to go.

We then get to the heart of the matter.  Doom 2099 is holding Uatu hostage to monitor the Earth.  We learn that he is somehow responsible for this reboot, wiping the population's minds clear of their history.  Doom justifies his actions as saying that he's saving them from the "heroes," who we see fighting here in a flashback.  He is using Uatu to police this wipe, something that Nate Grey probably should've thought to do in "Age of X-Man."

We're then given glimpses of Conan 2099 and Ghost Rider 2099, a young thief who grifts people newly arriving at Transverse City, where the authorities can't arrest you so long as you keep moving on the Road That Never Ends.  

We move onto a bar full of "raiders," or mercenaries, where Venture (now a woman) prevents two raiders from destroying H.E.R.B.I.E. for parts, recognizing him as a relic from another time and possessing "unregistered processors."  H.E.R.B.I.E. is looking for his mother's friends, and he offers Venture something "better than money" that convinces her to help him.  (Apparently, money doesn't mean much here, but H.E.R.B.I.E.'s mother told him to go specifically there, which is probably why she didn't give him money.)  Doom tells Uatu that he'll leave H.E.R.B.I.E. alone in honor of his "mother," who's clearly the Invisible Woman.  Uatu warns Doom that the only thing he "sees" is something that he hears and that he knows that Doom also hears:  a bandaged man forging something, which means doom.  Doom dismisses it, saying that he'll send the Kingpin.  Uatu wonders if it's the beginning of the end of Doom, warning him that no matter how hard he tries, he can't snuff out man's very nature.

It seems hard to believe at this point that a cross-over event with so few issues is going to manage to tie up all the storylines that Spencer launches here, but we'll see where we go.  If you're not a huge fan of the 2099 line, I'm not sure this event is going to have much for you.

Amazing Spider-Man #34:  For the fact that Spencer is coordinating the Marvel 2099 event, this issue interestingly doesn't take place in 2099.  We remain in 2020 as Peter has to deal with the consequences of Dr. Doom's (alleged) assassination while Miguel desperately searches for Peter.

The only real piece of information that we get about the events in 2099 is that reality started changing in front of everyone's eyes.  Having read "Marvel 2099:  Alpha" #1, it's pretty clear that this change occurred when Doom altered history.  Interestingly, though, Miguel runs into Doom as he tries to flee the chaos emanating from the change, and Doom claims that he isn't responsible.  Doom sends him into the past to rectify the situation, as we saw last issue.

In the present, Jaime offers to make Peter a partner in Clairvoyant.  He notes that the device that he created is pretty limited in scope given its lack of access to enough power to really engage in quantum computing.  He's also afraid that giving it too much power would wind up changing the multiverse rather than scanning it.  Jamie gives Peter the device to try to figure out a way to solve that equation, saying that he trusts him.  (I think that we can all see where this plot is going.)  At that point, Spidey learns that the Hitman successfully shot Doom.  Spidey visits the body and, surprise, it's a Doombot.  Said Doombot is furious, but, before we can learn why (other than, you know, the assassination), Miguel arrives and pulls Spidey into a time-pausing dome.  Miguel explains that the future's scientists eventually figured out that our present and Miguel's present are linked.  Whereas Peter often encounters people from other futures, Miguel's future is our future, a superposition.  Miguel explains that he can't find anything to prevent his timeline's collapse, but, before he can elaborate, something explodes.  Meanwhile, an army of Doombots appears over New York and demands justice.  Ruh-roh.

All in all, it's a solid companion piece to "Marvel 2099:  Alpha" #1, as it hints at where we're going.  I'm intrigued by the duality of Doom telling Miguel in this issue that he wasn't responsible for the time change, but a Doom telling Uatu in "Marvel 2099:  Alpha" #1 that he was.  Otherwise, everything lines up decently, to the extent this issue deals with the larger event, which it admittedly doesn't do much.  We'll see if "Amazing Spider-Man" gets more involved as we progress.

Fantastic Four 2099 #1:  Holy fucking shit.  For 90 percent of this issue, you're just cruising along the road with Pacheco, maybe rolling your eyes a little at how the Fantastic Four is all lesbians until you realize the Invisible Girl is an Invisible Boy.  Sure, H.E.R.B.I.E. seems a little...unhinged, and he seems to be taking as gospel a possibly off-handed comment the Invisible Woman made years ago.  Then, suddenly, as the new Fantastic Four are putting their hands together, everything goes haywire:  the Human Torch attacks the Thing (her daughter, who seems made of ice) and then burns out entirely, and Ms. Fantastic turns herself into knots.  H.E.R.B.I.E. comments that he fixed them this time, and Venture suddenly realizes that we've got a problem.  We learn that the Invisible Boy's family was supposed to be the Fantastic Four, but the Thorites killed his family because they started to change.  (We don't get any reason why they started to change.  I think that it was H.E.R.B.I.E.'s doing, but I'm not sure.)  H.E.R.B.I.E. apparently then started exposing people to cosmic rays because his family got their powers that way.  He becomes unhinged telling Venture and the Invisible Boy this story, finally screaming "None of you are special enough!" as he unleashes a fusillade at them, killing them.  Yup.  You think you're getting clichéd "let's all put our hands together in friendship" story, but, nope, they're all dead now because H.E.R.B.I.E. is off his fucking rocker.  It isn't a perfect story, but, man, it's definitely a 2099 story.  I totally, totally didn't see that end coming.

Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The November 20 Marvel Non-Event Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Captain America #16:  Coates really kicks it up a notch here as we make our way through the second act of this drama.  First, we see a situation that we almost never see:  a powerless Kingpin.  Coates explains that HYDRA's overthrow of the United States left the NYPD decimated and that it's now impossible to tell if some of the remaining officers are HYDRA loyalists.  Fisk called the Power Elite for help, and they provided soldiers to act as "cops" to make sure Fisk had some control over the NYPD.  After last issue's massacre, Fisk suspects an inside job, and he wants Lukin to give him information on these "cops."  Lukin refuses.  When the Kingpin gets mad, she cows him with a show of sorcery.

Meanwhile, Misty and Steve stumble upon a former Scourge base where they encounter U.S.Agent.  Can I just say how glad I am to see John back in the game?  Spencer did great work with him in his run, in part because it was easy to believe that fascists could manipulate John into pressing Sam to give up the shield.  But, Coates adds some nuance here, as John rages against Cap for betraying him.  John clearly believes that Steve was the Supreme Leader, and Coates does a great job conveying John's very, very personal anger at Steve.  I loved Cap's response, as he tells John that he'll explain over a beer one day.  Yes, they'll probably yell at each other and throw a few punches, but then they'll be good.  But, Steve stresses that they don't have time for that right now.  John seems to agree, telling Cap that he's barking up the wrong tree:  Scourge is an idea, not a person.  Later, Misty realizes that she didn't recognize any of the massacred "cops" from her time on the force.  Toni's research backs up her hunch, as she learned that all but Cap's friend Larimore were rookies.  Cap goes to question Fisk about it, but Fisk is seemingly assassinated.

In other words?  Whoa.  Coates makes this issue feel like you're watching a really intense episode of "Law and Order," an approach that fits this series well.  It's a great issue from start to finish, and I look forward to reading this title so much every month.  It continues to be a great era to be a Captain America fan.

Conan the Barbarian #11:  Conan awakens as a boy in his Cimmerian village, unsure of how he got there and surprised to find himself staring at his parents.  They believe that he lost his memory due to a fall from a tree.  His father gives him a good slap in the head, arguing that another blow to the head might restore his memory.  They then tell him that they have work to do.  Of course, said work is fighting off an oncoming horde.  Conan realizes that everything isn't as it seems and abandons his parents to make for the nearby mountain, even though his mother warns him that the mountain doesn't like it when people climb it.  Conan ages as he climbs the mountain, dying an untold number of times in his battles with the scourges the mountain sends his way.  This entire sequence is really just Aaron's way of letting Asrar loose, and it's a wonder to behold.

By the time Conan arrives at the summit, he's a man and you feel like you've earned your spot there as well.  But, Conan isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he continually defies the voice encouraging him to leave.  Eventually, the voice reveals itself to be Crom himself, and Asrar is on fire here.  You really feel Crom's grandeur, and it really makes Conan essentially telling Crom to go fuck himself all the more profound.  Conan is appalled that Crom is willing to let the Earth suffer under Razazel until the gods get tired of it and go to war with him to stop his plundering.  Conan tells Crom that he's a king with a responsibility to his people and that he'll meet Crom's responsibility to his people if Crom is unwilling to do it.  Aaron injects just a tiny bit of exhaustion and frustration in Conan's rant, as he somewhat adolescently complains to Crom that he spread his word throughout the lands and Crom never noticed.  Crom eventually curses Conan by returning him to life to fight Razazel, telling him that he'll rue this conversation when he dies old and forgotten (as opposed to dying brave and strong, as he would've done here).

It's really just a great issue, delving into Conan's psyche in a way that we don't normally see laid so plain, particularly when it comes to his sense of responsibility.  The back-up story also underlines Conan's sense of honor and loyalty, as he once again climbs a mountain, this time to save Zelandra.  Put together, the stories make you almost feel sorry for Razazel and his child minions as Conan awakens to face them.

King Thor #3:  I feel like Aaron has lost some steam here.  The girls travel to the planet Indigarr, where Thor sent the gods without planets after the events of "Thor:  God of Thunder - Godbomb."  Elli prays and convinces her sisters to join her.  In so doing, they awaken Indigarr's gods, who they bring with them to join the fight against Gorr.   But, even as Thor and eventually Loki emerge from the Necro-Ocean and join the girls and gods in the fight, it doesn't do any good.  Despite the constant heroic pontificating from the gods, they lose.  Atli chops off Gorr's head, but they then realize all the stars are dark, because Gorr has become the Universe.  Although it's Thor flying to confront Gorr the Necroverse, salvation likely will come in the form of Loki, who picks up Elli's book as they make a last stand against Gorr.  At this point, it all feels a little ridiculous, like Aaron has accidentally upped the stakes too much, making any solution seem overly convenient.  How does Loki overcome a Universe?  I guess we'll see.

Marauders #2:  You get you some Bobby!

I loved everything about this issue.  I loved Kate leaning into pirating and getting knuckle tattoos and a great coat.  I loved Storm expressing an extreme dislike of Batroc (which totally makes sense, given who she is and who he is) and displaying an agitated annoyance that we rarely see from her.  ("'Kill no man.'  I made a promise to kill no man.")  I loved Batroc negotiating with Kate in an attempt to sell at least some of the pilfered antibiotics that the Black King hired him to protect.  I loved Kate telling Batroc that money grows on trees on Krakoa as she orders Pyro to burn it.  I loved Emma playing a clearly bankrupt Sebastian like a fucking fiddle.  I loved Pyro enjoying himself immensely the whole time.  I definitely loved Bobby kissing some random guy at a Taipei gay bar and Kate kissing her tattoo artist.  I loved everyone's response to their new ship, from Storm's small-lettered "Oh, Emma" to even Bishop deciding he didn't have to return to Taipei too quickly.  I loved how I can't even describe how witty all the interactions are throughout this issue as Duggan just really leans into the characterizations and the dialogue.  

In addition to his character-first storytelling, Duggan continues to embrace the specifics of the reboot, as he makes it clear that the Marauders are wiling to break humanity's laws (as they steal a pleasure craft in Tokyo to chase down the Black King's ship, much to Storm's nervousness) to ensure that Krakoa's drugs get to the right people.  (Kate makes a point of burning Sebastian's supply, which he redirected from the African country, where it was supposed to go, to a U.S. country club, as a reminder that the drugs aren't a scarce resource.)  This issue is the best of the reboot so far, if not the best issue of the year.  I'm really excited to see where we go from here.

Star Wars #75:  Pak wraps up this arc -- and series -- nicely, as he reminds us that Chewie and Threepio -- often the team's most overlooked members -- are the heart of this operation.

We pick up right where Pack lefts us last issue as Chewie manages to throw Vader into a lava-filled ravine.  However, Vader parts the lava and throws some at Chewie, scorching his fur.  Luke saves Chewie by using his powers to turn a single tumbling rock into an avalanche heading at Vader.  Chewie returns the favor when Luke miscalculates and sends himself and said avalanche right at Vader.  (Chewie leaping from rock to rock while carrying Luke and under fire from Stormtroopers reminds us just how committed Chewie is to his friends.)  Dar, Han, and Leia arrive just in time to save the pair (by landing on top of the Stormtroopers), and Luke informs them that the emp blast has left Vader wounded.  When everyone gets their blasters ready to take advantage of this rare opportunity to take out Vader, Dar hilariously asks Leia if all her friends are just like her.  When she flirts with him by saying that he should know because they're just like him, he joins the charge, saying that it'll be an honor to die among fellow champions.  Awww.  (Han is obviously less than amused.)

But, Vader is Vader, hurt or not.  He fends off the team long enough to set the stage for an unthinkable scene, as Stormtroopers arrive to help his injured self to his ship.  (He waves them off him, of course.)  When he arrives on the ship and an office tries to depart to save them, Vader uses the Force to strangle him.  As he uses the ship's power to reverse the emp blast, he tells the officer that "those with power do not run."  The renewed power brings Artoo and Threepio online again, but it also means the detonators are online as well.

Here, Threepio has his turn to shine.  Threepio is panicked over the impending implosion, and Leia exhorts the Kakrans to pile into the Falcon and Dar's shuttle to escape.  They refuse, instead taking Threepio with him.  K-43 begins to disintegrate, leaving Dar and Leia on one side of a ravine and the rest of the team on the other side.  (Han observes that Dar "always manages to end up right next to her," and Chewie playfully asks why Han would care.)  Threepio assures Chewie that he's safe with the Kakrans, and the Falcon and the shuttle depart.  Luke stays on K-43 and heads to his X-Wing to save Artoo, much to the Kakrans' shock.  Before the moon detonates, Luke arrives at his disabled X-Wing to depart with Artoo.  Once again, Artoo saves Luke by blasting off K-43 before Vader -- who was laying in wait, knowing that Luke would return for Artoo -- could grab him.

As K-43 explodes, the Kakrans reveal that they weren't worried about the detonators because the "moon" is really just a cocoon for their sleeping grandmother; she awakens, breaking apart the cocoon.  They tell Threepio that they helped him not for fear of their safety (they knew the detonators would only awaken their grandmother), but because of his concern for his friends and his friends' concern for him.  It's a wonderful moment.  The Elder tells Threepio that he hopes that the "flesh" remembers Threepio's heart that day.  As Threepio begins to tell him that he's an android so he doesn't have a heart, Chewie arrives in a spacesuit to collect him.  The issue ends with Threepio exulting in reuniting with his friends (and telling Chewie to stop hugging him lest he get fur in his gears).  An android with a heart indeed.

This entire series was spectacular, from start to finish.  It felt like such an honor to spend time with these characters in this way, with each arc feeling like an additional movie worth of emotions and experiences.  I love the fact that the next series will follow "Empire Strikes Back," and I can't wait to join the gang again for more adventures.

Also Read:  Guardians of the Galaxy #11

The End of Paternity Leave

I'm back!  We're now a family of five, dog included.  My paternity leave from comics, so to speak, coincided with the comics industry's coronavirus pause, so I'm only 150 comics behind, not 200+.  It helped that I pared down my pull list a few months ago, reducing my superhero comics to long-time favorites like Captain America, Spider-Man, and the X-Men.  However, I found that I missed these comics less than I did the non-superhero ones, such as "Die," "Undiscovered Country," or "The Weatherman."  As such, I'm returning to blogging with a new approach.  I'll stay current on what I'm calling the top-shelf comics, the ones that I really missed during my leave.  For the rest -- mostly the superhero comics -- I'll read them once I'm current on the top-shelf ones.  In terms of formatting, Blogger updated itself while I was gone, and I'm one of many people having issues with the fonts.  Hopefully they'll fix it soon, but, in the meantime, you'll notice a change in the new posts.  Onwards and upwards!

Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The November 20 Non-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batman:  White Knight Presents Von Freeze #1:  It's hard to critique a comic that the author says resulted in him crying hysterically over his estranged relationship with his parents at brunch with an artist who he idolized.  In other words, I'll try to be gentle.

This issue isn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but it confuses me.  First, we learn that it fits between "Batman:  Curse of the White Knight" issues #6 and #7, even though DC hadn't yet published issue #5 at this point.  I'm left to assume that Dr. Fries will become more relevant and, presumably, tragic by issue #8.  I only vaguely remember him from the first series, making this issue feel all the more unmoored from the main story that Murphy is telling.

But, even if I read it in the proper sequence, I'm not sure that it would improve my understanding of why it exists.  Virtually the entire issue is exposition, as Fries describes his family's past to Thomas Wayne.  It doesn't help that the reason they're in this situation is ridiculous.  Martha is pregnant with Bruce, and Thomas brought her to see Fries' lab, which he's funding.  Martha has a complication with the pregnancy, forcing Fries to use his cryogenic equipment to freeze her until such a point when they can address the problem.  Fries is telling Wayne his story to keep his mind off Martha and the baby.  Sure, OK.  A good Holocaust story always cheers up a man worried his wife and child are going to die.

It's also hard to tell what Murphy wants us to feel about Victor's father, Baron von Fries. He joins the SS as a way to continue his research, even though he's hiding his Jewish partner and his partner's extended family in their joint lab.  At several points throughout the story it seems clear that the Baron doesn't have his partner's best interests at heart, but Victor's recollections often portray him as always trying to do right by his partner.  I get that it might just be a son's skewed memories, but Murphy doesn't do anything to convey that.  I'm just connecting the dots that Murphy himself left unconnected.

Honestly, given the struggle that I'm already having with the main series, I feel like Murphy might have been better served spending more time tightening up that story rather than taking us on this journey that we didn't really ask to take.

The Weatherman, Vol. 2 #5:  Christ on the cross, Kathleen.  This issue is insane, and I mean that in the best possible way.  It's actually very straightforward for how significant it is.  But it's one of the wildest rides that I've ever taken in a comic.

It turns out Nathan didn't become a biophagus construct.  At the last minute, he decided not to sacrifice himself to the biophagus mob.  Instead, he stole the soldiers' ship at Syngen Station and flew to Dr. Argus' lab to pick up his lab assistant, Regi.  (Before they left, they apparently had milk and cookies, which excited Nathan greatly).  Regi then assumed Nathan's form upon arriving at Skyborough and starts taking down Skyborough's soldiers.

In the present, Kestrel's assistant/lover Vager wants to evacuate her, but she refuses.  She tells him to exterminate the construct (i.e., Regi) since they've only survived this long through keeping the biophagus on the surface; if it comes to Skyborough, they're all dead.  Speaking of the surface, the rest of the team gets loaded onto the next transport to feed the biophagus before Nathan can board.  Nathan wonders what Cross would do when he notices their ship in Skyborough's hanger.

On Mars, the president had a director stage the terrorist attack, using already dead bodies (presumably of people they didn't kill explicitly for the attack...) instead of living people.  They've captured Jenner's agent, Djinn, and she confirms that Jenner has a psychic, explaining why Jenner has successfully rooted out Arcadia's attempts to infiltrate his operation.  Unfortunately, Djinn has resisted their probes; they just learned that Jenner is somewhere on Venus.  The President is discouraged and tells Councilman Cyrus that they can resume thermal drops but she first asks a favor as she looks at Cross' image.

On Earth, the team lands and starts to run from the biophagus, but it looks grim.  However, Nathan hits a bunch of buttons on the ship and it turns out the ship is a Transformer.  He's now basically Voltron and saves the day!  Woot!  White Light takes the controls as Nathan explains to Cross how he got there, as described above.  (Earlier, he commented to himself as he struggled to fly the ship that it's much harder than it looks and he now understands why White Light acts like she's surrounded by idiots.)  White Light destroys a few large constructs only for the kid from last issue to unleash his bomb aboard one of the transport ships, sending it straight at Voltron.  

On Skyborough, Kestrel realizes that the biophagus will attack the station given the kid's action have destroyed half its food.  She tells Vager to evacuate the city because it's over and they share a kiss.  The biophagus forms essentially an enormous Mothra and starts tearing through Skyborough.  White Light docks with a burning Skyborough, and Cross attempts to depart the ship to retrieve Ian Black's memory drive.  Oddly, Nathan is the voice of reason, convincing her that it's hopeless.  He promises her that they'll find Jenner another way.  Tellingly, Cross listens to him, a sign that Nathan is becoming less of a jester as the story advances.

On Skyborough, Kestrel straps on a bunch of guns to fight the biophagus, telling it that she's been waiting for this moment her whole life.  She then sees Mero in the construct, and she's frozen in grief as the construct crashes over her.  Dr. Argus emerges from the crowds fleeing to the escape transports, and Cross pulls him onto their ship.  Argus offers his hand to Regi, telling him that he could save humanity.  Regi simply comments, "'I know this hurts'" (echoing Dr. Argus from issue #2), and Regi explodes with Skyborough as Argus screams in fury.  The ship then closes its doors and departs.  

Whoa.  I assume that we're going to Venus in volume 3 to get Jenner, since Cross no longer needs Black's memory drive to find him.  But, man, I'm going to need a few months before I can handle that story.  I'm just afraid what LeHeup is going to do to us next issue!

Not-Very-New Comics: The November 13 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Detective Comics #1,015:  I enjoy the idea of a revived Nora Fries turning on Victor, deciding that she wants to be her own woman and to exert power over other people for a change.  No one ever thought Victor's dream would, to use the cliché, become his nightmare, but here we are.  Tomasi also does a good job of keeping the focus on Victor's commitment to Nora; throughout the issue, Fries says that he regrets his life of crime, seeing it solely as a means to an end (i.e., resurrecting Nora).  Nora's refusal to travel to Alaska with him as he researches how to heal them fully is all the more of a blow.  The serum that Lex gave Fries is clearly altering not just her physiology but her psychology.  It helps make Nora's actions more believable, though it was already pretty believable that she'd be disoriented after so long on ice.  My only problem with this issue is that Bruce and Fries' confrontation on the GCPD rooftop feels rushed.  If Tomasi had taken more time, we could've really dug into Fries' psyche, with Batman pushing against his assertion that it was all for Nora.  Instead, we have to take that assertion for granted so they can move through the trust exercises necessary to establish their temporary partnership.  Again, it isn't terrible, it just feels like a somewhat wasted opportunity.

Invaders #11:  I'll forgive Zdarsky for putting Roxxon's research compound on the same island where Namor and Steve are stranded, since it makes sense that the Roxxon ship that they attacked last issue would be coming from said island.  The real question is whether Steve's almost childish devotion to Namor is merited.  After all, Namor lets the scientists' experiments kill them here.  Steve is enraged, but he's still trying to convince Namor not to be the kind of man who they've always fought, who thinks that he can impose his will on other people.  (Has he met Namor?)  Steve tries to convince Namor that, if he accepts that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't do, he has a responsibility, as a king, to correct his mistake.  Zdarsky has Steve throw a minor tantrum when Namor (like everyone else) accuses him of only seeing black-and-white.  Steve insists that he sees grey, but I feel like maybe here he's seeing too much grey?  It's getting harder and harder to see Namor as redeemable here, as his actions in the lab prove, as he himself says in this issue, that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't have done.  I don't see how Cap accepts anything other than Namor standing trial if he's going to uphold his ideals, black-and-white they may be.

Star Wars #74:  This issue is great.  I've rolled my eyes for most of Luke's story as his dedication to Warba seemed like yet another example of his child-like naïveté.  But, Warba does arrive in the nick of time to save Luke after previously abandoning him, allowing him to fend off the Stormtroopers intent on attacking the Rebel base.  (The "desert mangler-mounted" Stormtrooper patrol is definitely one of the most unexpectedly cool moments in this run.  It's hilarious and deadly all at once, to see Stormtroopers on top of basically desert Tauntauns.)

As Luke prepares to depart Sergia, he asks the Rebels to take Warba to the next safe planet.  Warba tells Luke that she isn't a Jedi:  she just repeated whatever she heard the believers on Jedha say.  Luke buys it for a moment, but then he tells her that she's more than she thinks.  Earlier, he compared her to Han Solo (who also keeps insisting that he's leaving once the job is done), and his belief in the truth of that comparison shines in his eyes.  Warba is the lone figure left standing on Sergia's desert as the Rebels and Luke go their separate ways, and something about the way Noto portrays it -- with the wistful desert sky beyond her - makes you wonder if she doesn't believe Luke a little.

Meanwhile, Threepio confesses to the Kakrans that Chewie and he set bombs on the planet before they realized that intelligent life lived there.  The elder Kakran tells Threepio that they can disable "the flesh's" machines, and Threepio realizes that they can generate electricity.  When the elder Kakran notes that they'll take out "Brother Ore" as well, Threepio tells "Brother Stone" to do it, so he can be helpful.  Threepio, man.  Luke arrives on K-43 just in time for the emp blast to disable Artoo and his ship.  It sets up one of the best scenes of this series, as Vader emerges from the rubble and makes his way toward Luke, his plan realized.  However, he hadn't planned on Chewie knocking him over the head with a boulder.  Chewie vs. Vader, next issue!  I can't wait!

Star Wars:  Target Vader #5:  I'm not quite sure I follow what Vader wants here.  As Beilert notes, Vader tortures him for no real reason, since Vader just shows him a holomap of Hidden Hand outposts that both he and Beilert know that Vader has already destroyed.  So why show him them?

Anyway, the journey into Beilert's history is much more interesting, and the art for certain segments is less bracing (in a good way), making Beilert less grotesque than he's appeared on the covers.  We learn that Beilert is from a mining planet named Chorin, which he leaves for a better future.  After the events of "Star Wars:  Han Solo - Imperial Cadet," he became a grunt (as we knew).  The rest of his body (beyond his eye, which he lost in "Imperial Cadet") was burned in a battle where he lead his soldiers to safety after the Empire refused them air support.  A former commander intervened to make sure that the Empire didn't just let him die, pulling strings to have him built into a cyborg.  Upon returning home to Chorin, he discovered that his father and fellow minters were dead.  He learns from his lost love, Yura, that they died after the Empire withdrew once the mines ran dry.  "Raiders" then overtook Chorin, and Beilert leaves Yura to find them.  

In the present, Beilert breaks off his arm to escape the Imperials, but it's a trap that Vader set for him.  Vader brings him to Chorin where he tells Beilert that the "raiders" who overtook Chorin became the Hidden Hand.  Vader then welcomes Beilert back to the Empire, threatening the rest of Chorin if he doesn't cooperate.  (Couldn't he just revealed this plan from the start and save everyone time?  Why the torture charade?  Isn't Vader busy?)  Beilert then finds his Rebel contacts, telling them that they need weapons and he needs the Hidden Hand.  But, isn't the Rebellion the Hidden Hand?  I don't get that part either.   Vamos a ver.

X-Men #2:  Whereas Hickman's emotionless and stilted dialogue was a poor fit for the New Mutants, it works quite well for the Summers family.  Even Scott's attempts at bonding with his children sound like someone delivering a PowerPoint presentation, which is totally in line with Scott's personality.  It also fits Nate's personality, as his arrogance on display as he frequently refuses to spend too many words discussing his mistakes.  Hickman needs to turn over "New Mutants" to Kelly Thompson and focus exclusively on the Summers family.

The premise of this issue is that Arakko is apparently on Earth now.  This surprise, combined with the revelation that someone assassinated Xavier in "X-Force" #1, leaves me feeling somewhat confused from the start.  At this point, I'm getting half the new series:  "Marauders," "New Mutants," and "X-Men."  I'm not getting "Excalibur," "Fallen Angels," or "X-Force," and it obviously means that I'm getting an incomplete view of the "Dawn of X."  But, I don't really plan on changing my subscriptions, so I'm going to have to roll with these punches.  At any rate, we learn that Arakko appeared 100 miles off Krakoa and Krakoa is heading toward it quickly.  Scott takes Rachel and Nate within him on a recon mission after Aurora and Northstar observed some pretty large monsters on "the other place we don't normally speak of" (i.e., Arakko).

Meanwhile, at the heart of a volcano called the Arak Maw (it has glowing white tentacles emerging from it, just to make it extra creepy), we learn more about Arakko.  We're introduced to a shock white boy with bleeding black eyes (similar to the girl we encountered last issue) conversing with his mother, War.  We learn that the boy and his siblings were raised constantly engaged in some sort of war, presumably the one that Apocalypse left War and the other Horsemen to fight.  An interstitial page tells us that Arakko has a legion of Summoners who've protected Arakko from the "land beyond the wild borders of Otherworld" through summoning demons.  It's all pretty grim.

After the Summers family defeat a carnivorous squid (and Rachel and Nate enjoy some banter), the team encounters the boy.  However, they don't speak the same language; he hears the Summers speaking in grunts, and they hear him as singing.  Nate gives him a thermal grenade as a gift, and the boy accidentally detonates it, leading him to interpret (understandably) that the Summers mean him harm.  He then summons three demons (making him a High Summoner, based on what the interstitial page showed us).  The fact that these demons all have names (which the boy uses when "introducing" them to the Summers), implies to me that we're going to learn a lot about whatever corner of Hell (or maybe the Otherworld) the Arakkans control.  Scott eventually suggests that Rachel download Krakoan into the boy's brain, allowing them to converse.  Nate apologizes to the boy ("Can we agree that I've made some poor choices today and just move on?"), and Scott asks why Krakoa is headed to Arakko.  Hilariously, the boy asks Scott if he loves someone, and he responds, "Complicated question," with a hilarious tight smile.  (All the funnier?  He adds, "But for the sake of expedience let's just say yes.  I love a single someone."  Oh, Scott.  Who knew you, of all people, would get the ladies?)  We then witness Krakoa and Arakko "merging."  The boy comments that he lives "here" now because "he" lives here.  War encouraged the boy to find "him" earlier in the issue, and it seems clear that it's the same person:  Apocalypse.  The boy tells Apocalypse that Arakko will soon fall, though his children do their best to hold off the enemies.  Apocalypse embraces him, telling him that he saves all his children.  Dun-dun-DUN!

Again, Scott has all sorts of bon mots here, from telling Rachel to throw the book at him because he's a guilty man (for letting Cypher go to the Shi'ar Imperium, denying the X-Men the only person who can communicate with Krakoa) to covering up Nate's eyes while the islands "merge" and telling him, "Well, son, I think that's how all my best mistakes happened."  I also enjoyed him telling Nate that he's spent more time in the cockpit than in therapy and that he has "done the work."  I am totally here for this Scott Summers, and I hope Jonathan Hickman continues writing him this way for a long, long time.

Also Read:  The Batman's Grave #2

Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The November 6 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Die #9:  This issue is reminiscent of the journey through 1914 of issue #3.  Instead of J.R.R. Tolkien, we learn that Angria's master is Charlotte Brontë.  It's less crazy than it sounds.

We begin the issue with everyone in dangling glass cages, presumably because Isabelle announced to the assembled Angrians last issue that they destroyed Glass Town.  Chuck didn't come with Isabelle and the Angrians took Matt's sword and gagged Ash, so they're in a bit of a pickle.  As they're dangling there, Isabelle realizes that Sol is Fallen, and Angela explains that they learned that the Fallen are people who die on Die.  Except...Isabelle calls bullshit, because they were the first people to come to Die and the Fallen were already here.

I love this part.  I honestly can't recall the last time that someone questions an assertion that the author originally presented to us, the reader, as fact.  It isn't even meta commentary.  It's just someone bringing up evidence that questions an assertion.  Even though it happens all the time in the real world, it rarely happens in comics, mostly because authors don't really have time for it.  I love that Gillen does it here, making this completely unreal situation feel all the more real.

Sol acknowledges the disconnect, and their jailor says that she knows the answer.  Isabelle then recognizes her as Brontë.  Gillen informs us non-English majors that Charlotte and her siblings created Angria, Glass Town, and Gondol after their father gave her brother a dozen toy soldiers after their two elder sisters died.  The Brontë siblings became obsessed with the soldiers and created stories related to a shared world throughout their adolescence.  But, when Charlotte sees her Zamorna one day in a vision, she is spooked.  Later, she tries to summon her Angrian visions, and she's left almost literally petrified.  Remembering her sister's chilled bodies, she realizes that the stories are consuming them.  Branwell refuses to stop writing the stories and descends into alcoholism.  Emily said that she had given up her Gondol stories, but Charlotte found new stories she wrote right before she died.  Anne died later and, when Charlotte died, she awoke as a Fallen in Die.

Once again, Isabelle points out this story makes no sense.  Charlotte claims that Die had to consume all six children to become real, but Isabelle observes that her two eldest sisters died before the rest of the siblings created Angria and Gondol.  Isabelle wonders if it's a trick, and Charlotte says that it's all a trick:  she's "a person made of a person," a literary concept.  Although she's a master, she doesn't think that Die really has masters, but she protects who she can.  At this point, Zamorna arrives in mist form, and Isabelle announces that they need to take over Angria to save Die.  Zamorna frees Ash from her gag, and she commands Charlotte to free her.  Ash asks Isabelle if she really trusts Zamorna, but she correctly asserts that they don't really have a choice:  after all, an angry crowd took away Augustus as they arrested Ash and company.  Angela begs Ash not to help, and Ash leaves her and Matt in jail so they can't stop them.  Ash repeats something she said at the start of the issue, about how Isabelle defeated them not through weaponry but through guile:  "This is how you fight in Angria."  Indeed.

New Mutants #1:  It took me a while to read this issue, because I was so excited about it that I was worried that I would be disappointed.  Unfortunately, I was right.

I love the New Mutants.  "Amazing Spider-Man" and "New Mutants" were my gateway drugs into comics as a kid, and I've followed them ever since.  The problem is that we get old Hickman here; everyone sounds like robots reciting a script instead of people engaging in conversation.  For example, Hickman starts the issue with Dani and Roberto reciting mutant history to each other as they walk through the Sextant, the area of Krakoa where the younger mutants live.  Dani literally says things like, "And then came those like Xavier and Magneto -- elders of a more modern time  -- and after that came the first wide-scale emergence of mutants" and "And then after that the mutant population exploded.  Both exponentially and globally."  People don't talk this way, particularly to life-long friends with the same shared experience.

It isn't just a dialogue problem, but a characterization problem.  For example, Corsair and Hepzibah seem annoyed that Cyclops asked them to take the New Mutants to see Cannonball, because it brings them near the Shi'ar space.  But, Roberto notes that Corsair told Cyclops that they were headed that way anyway.  Corsair confirms that they were, that they're pirates who laugh at danger.  So, he isn't annoyed then?  When the team arrives at a space station called Benevolence, Corsair lies to the team about the Starjammer's plans.  Moreover, he expects them to stay on board the ship despite telling them all about the innocent and tortured people who live under a religious cult's thumb on the station.  Has he not met his son and his friends?  Even more unbelievably, when the team comes under fire from Shi'ar troops as they try to free the prisoners, Corsair abandons them.  I'm sure that'll ingratiate him to Cyclops next times he goes for a barbecue.  Moreover, Hickman ignores the maturity that Sunspot has exhibited in other series, reducing him to the carefree playboy who he was at 13 years old.  I originally thought that Bobby was taking everyone to see Sam just to visit and let him know that mutantdom is (allegedly) safe now.  Instead, he seems to want to convince him to leave his wife and child.  It doesn't say a lot about Bobby as a man.

The only interesting parts of this issue relate to Krakoa.  First, Cypher has Mondo try to bond with Krakoa to learn more about him, but he infuriates Krakoa in so doing.  Second, on board the Starjammer, the Krakoa flower that Cyclops gave Corsair is slowing killing the plants that Ch'od has planted, raising interesting questions about what Krakoa is doing to the Earth.  It sets up the dropping shoe that we all know is coming as a result of Krakoa's sudden manifestations on Earth.  But, I'm not sure if it's interesting enough to outweigh the other problems.  If everyone is going to sound like exposition robots at worst or their teenage selves at best, I can't find a lot of reason to hang in here.  These characters might in theory be the ones that I love, but until they start acting like the characters I know they're just lines on a page.

Also Read:  Amazing Spider-Man #33

Undiscovered Country #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I could write pages and pages about this issue, but I'll try to keep it short(-ish).  Snyder and Soule uses two premises ripped from the headlines as this series' backbone.  Over the past few months since this issue was published, I have to say that both scenarios unbelievably became more likely.

The first premise is somewhat obvious.  We learn from an information page at the back of the issue that the United States began declining when China called in its outstanding U.S.-currency debt, pushing the United States into a recession.  Eight years later, the United States suddenly closed off itself from the rest of the world, using "Air Wall" force-shield technology that DARPA developed.  In the ensuing 30 years, no one has heard from America at all.  This premise is obviously an extrapolation of the Trump administration's policies, from building the infamous wall with Mexico to the trade war with China.  It also isn't that much of a stretch.  It injects the series with some serious energy as you're reading about something that could possibly happen in some form in your lifetime (regardless of how unlikely).

But, it's the second premise that went from probably feeling like a remote likelihood in November 2019 when this issue was published to feeling like cinéma vérité in May 2020.  The issue opens with a team in a helicopter approaching America's famous Air Wall.  Although America has allegedly invited the team to come (more on that later), they're still nervous, since, after all, no one has gotten into America in 30 years.  The team is there because the United States offered the Alliance Euro-Afrique and the Pan Asiatic Prosperity Zone a cure for the Sky Plague, which is ravaging both areas. I'm reading this issue under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.  This part of the plot obviously takes on more urgency.

We learn more about the Sky Plague in a flashback where someone named Colonel Bukowski recruits a doctor named Claire Graves to join the eventual team.  At the time, she's working at a refugee camp in Athens delivering, as Bukowski calls it, highly impressive but highly illegal palliative care.  Claire is in the process of trying to save a patient when helicopters spray vapor on the camp, allegedly to help the residents though they all assume (probably rightly so) that it's poison meant to kill everyone before they spread the disease.  Claire is annoyed at Bukowksi's interruption and wonders if Bukowski is really there for her brother, though we don't yet know why he would be.  But, her patient dies, and she agrees to follow Bukowski after he tells her that America has contacted them about a cure.

In a command center somewhere, the Alliance and Zone are hosting a meeting to show Claire and others experts America's message, from a man calling himself Dr. Samuel Elgin.  He says that America is ready to serve as a shining beacon again, and he offers the cure.  He offers that the Plague will wipe out everyone in six months, and Claire tells the meeting's participants that she agrees with that timeline.  Claire also vaguely recognizes the man, saying that he seems like someone who came to their house a few times when she was a child.  She asks her also-present brother, handsome Major Daniel Graves, if he remembers, but he can't remember any more details either.  Daniel is there because he's the only person who's ever come close to infiltrating America.  We learn that he and Claire's parents sent them outside America when they were children.

The Alliance and the Zone plan to send a joint team to negotiate with the Americans for a care.  Joining Bukowski, Claire, and Daniel at the table and on the mission are:  Ace Kenyatta, an expert on American society to serve as a cultural translator; Valentina Sandoval, a journalist to record the mission; and Chang Enlou and Janet Worthington, senior diplomats from the Zone and the Alliance.  (We learn that the two groupings hate each other so much that Janet notes the fact that she and Enlou hadn't poisoned the other rone within minutes is a sign how seriously they're treating the issue.)

It's this team on the helicopter that approaches America in the first few pages...and promptly gets shot down.  Claire convinces an always-skeptical Daniel to take the group to a flashing light that Valentina's drone saw while Bukowski tries to fix the helicopter.  The group finds the light is coming from an old TV, and Daniel isn't sure if it's a lure or a warning.  Either way, we start to get the real story when they look over the cliff and see...chaos.  It's a Mad Max-esque gathering of possibly mutated humans wrapped in thermal-shielding bandages accompanied by definitely mutated animals.  The team watches in horror as some mutants drag Bukowski before their leader, who looks like a mummy riding a mutated bison.  He orders the bison to bite off Bukowski's feet as, in an inverse black-and-white speech bubble, he declares, "no foreign boots shall ever set foot on American soil."  The team flees to the other side of the ridge, only to discover an even larger flotilla  of mutants coming their way.  (The flotilla flies the same flag Ace noted when they first saw the mutants on the other side of the ridge, a red-and-blue "X.")

Someone dressed in an outfit reminiscent of the Young Avengers' Patriot then appears and offers to lead them to safety.  Daniel is skeptical until the guy shows a patch of the real American flag.  He informs the team that the Destiny Man is behind the flotilla; his lieutenant was the mummy who ordered Bukowski's feet eaten.  The team follows him into his underground bunker where they see other humans like him.  The man knows who Claire and Daniel are and brings them into a smaller cave alone.  He jokingly calls it his Oval Office and shows them a map of America.  He says they'll go on the "Spiral Walk" and reveals that he knows their names because the prophecy told him about them.  (Uh-oh.)  When they ask about the message that America sent, he says that he doesn't know anything about it, which is troubling because he reveals that he's Sam Elgin and he wants you (them) to save America.

Snyder and Soule are obviously engaged in a serious world-building experiment here, so I'm going to give them a lot of time to do it.  But, they also engage in a lot of character establishment as well, a sign of Soule's presence on this team, to my mind.  In terms of America's decision to close its borders, I'd say the only real question is how the President (assuming that it was the President) got the government's other senior leaders, particularly in the Congress, to agree.  But, the fact that Ellis' map shows America divided into zones makes it clear that it might not exactly have been a consensus decision.  It's also interesting that no one knows:  when the team is discussing the fact that they don't even know if America has a President anymore, Snyder and Soule are making it clear that America was really that isolated.  I am definitely intrigued to see where we go from here.  At the very least, this series has Netflix series written all over it.

Not-Even-Remotely New Comics: The October 23 and 30 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #32:  Given I started this blog as essentially a Miguel O'Hara tribute site, I'm obviously so fucking excited about this event.

First, let's talk about the Peter parts of this issue.  Spencer does a lot to secure Peter in his new status quo here, in important but not overly obvious ways.

We begin with Peter daydreaming during his group-exercise meeting, prompting his two partners, Kel and Derrick, to lay into him.  They both focus on the fact that Dr. Connors got him readmitted to the Ph.D. program, with Derrick calling him Connors' "pet" after T.A.ing for him "back in the eighties or something" and Kel assuming that the Lizard almost ate him.  Kel says that he was probably just bored because he's a "big shot who had his own crash-and-burn start-up."  As Derrick's laying into Peter about plagiarism, a guy named Jamie saves him.  Jamie reveals that he turned an old WebWare watch into an early-warning device for large-scale emergencies.  Jamie also lauds Peter's attempt to provide free high-speed internet to everyone worldwide, whereas he notes that Google keeps rejecting Kel and Derrick is a patent troll.  In other words, Spencer repositions Peter not as a failure but as a doer.  Jamie (and likely others) see his failure as a totally acceptable setback given what Parker Industries accomplished (or tried to accomplish).  Spencer also doesn't drop the plagiarism angle here.  But, when Peter suggests a way to solve the problem the professor assigned the group, Kel acknowledges that it's a good idea.  In other words, Spencer is setting up Peter's academic redemption since it's clear that he can get a Ph.D. on his own merits.

But, perhaps the best part of this issue is Gleason.  Teresa pulls a fire alarm to get Peter's attention, and they head to a meeting between the Chameleon and the Foreigner.  This Foreigner seems new (and hot), and the Chameleon is selling him Infiniti Formula from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "going-out-of-business" sale.  Gleason is on fire during the entire confrontation between the Foreigner and Spidey.  The Foreigner looks like an action hero in a suit, rolling up his sleeves like he's Henry Cavill in "Mission Impossible:  Ghost Protocol."  Spidey is lithe in contrast, prancing around the Foreigner while delivering quips.  Spidey's head tilt here somehow accentuates how happy-go-lucky he is, particularly in contrast to the Foreigner's more serious mien.  (It reminds me of "Avenging Spider-Man" #5, where Spidey looks like a gawky teenager next to Cap.)  They're small things, but they really sum up the characters (and the differences between them) perfectly.  The scene is also bathed in a red light as they're confronting each other right in front of a car shining its break lights, making the entire sequence even more arresting.

Moreover, the Miguel part of the issue is also pretty on point.  He arrives in the present falling onto a burning oil platform that Roxxon owns.  Roxxon retrieves his unconscious body, and its scientists have him under observation at their headquarters, where the suits delight in the technology that they can steal from him.  He awakens groggy but manages to break free.  However, he's still disoriented and his powers aren't working.  We only know that he's escaping the "end of everything" in his future, desperately looking for Peter.  But, he falls several stories when he forgets how to glide, landing on a taxi.  It's an inauspicious start for our man, Miguel.

All in all, it's a strong start and I'm needless to say, excited about this event.

King Thor #2:  Aaron is as good as he's ever been here, as each character plays his role perfectly.  We learn that Loki resurrected the God Butcher not to kill Thor, but to kill him.  Loki himself wanted to kill Thor, but knew that, after eons of trying, he didn't have the courage to kill himself.  He needed Gorr to do that.  Aaron even manages to inject some humor here, with Loki scoffing that he's been killing gods since Gorr was in short pants and he's offended at the implication that he needed help killing Gorr.  Aaron and Ribic pull out all the stops in showing these final moments.  Loki derides a human as he prays to Thor.  The human is confused, wondering if he's praying wrong since he never had to pray before:  Thor always provided.  Loki tells him that they're all going to die and that no eternal reward is forthcoming.  As other humans gather with him, the human simply says that he'll pray for Loki then, too.  The issue ends with Thor and Loki dying in Gorr's goo, with Thor telling Loki that he lied when he said earlier (I think in issue #1) that Freyja gave up hope for him.  He reveals that her last words were:  "Never let go of your brother.  And someday he'll save us all."  Ribic uses a different style here, with Renaissance-inspired pencils, to show the "dying of the light," as Loki's hand, initially far from Thor's, clasps it.  Earlier, Thor told Loki that -- after Gorr took his arm and eye -- they still had Thor's strength and Loki's brain.  Loki refused to tell Thor how to defeat Gorr, saying it was impossible.  But, in this last moment, does Loki give Thor what he needs?  It's amazing after all this time that Aaron can conjure these sorts of emotional moments, keeping us on the edges of our seats waiting to see who Loki really is.

Marauders #1:  This issue is spectacular.  It's everything I hoped that I could have in an X-Men comic.  I've always liked Duggan; his run on "Uncanny Avengers" was on my favorites.  But, he really outdoes himself here.

First, we start with a great premise:  Kitty Pryde can't use the Krakoa gates.  On the first page, Nightcrawler and Storm deliver a rousing speech in Central Park to a group of mutant refugees seeking to use the gates, about how they're going home and leaving behind their old life.  Telling Kurt and Ororo that she'll see them on the island, Kitty walks into the portal...and busts her nose on it.  It's particularly funny given her power:  she can phase through walls, but she's the only mutant who can't use the portal.

With few options, she steals a sailboat and makes her way to the island with Lockheed, who's having a spectacular time eating all the fish and seagulls that he can find.  (Can I just say how happy I am to see Lockheed again?  In these dark times, we need more Lockheed.)  Kitty arrives to Bobby welcoming her on the beach.  When he asks whether she still can't use the gates, she tells him that "top men" are working on it.  Bobby quips that he'd like to meet these "top men."  Duggan!  How risqué!  In the same panel as the one where Bobby makes this comment, we see a quotation bubble from an off-panel person shouting, "Did you get it?!?"  The next panel reveals that it's Logan theoretically yelling about where Kitty got the supplies that he asked her to bring (mainly BBQ and whisky).  But, Duggan really uses it to draw a line under Bobby's joke.  Moreover, Logan's note to Kitty about the supplies, presented in one of the interstitial pages, itself is hilarious, particularly his "tell no one" instructions about his "dapper dude" pomade.  This entire sequence alone made me loves this book.  But, wait, there's more!

Bobby bids Kitty adieu as he explores why no one has used a certain portal.  Kitty is then called to a telepathic meeting with Emma Frost, who calls her Kate.  Kitty is on the defensive throughout this interaction, behaving more insecure than we usually see her.  But, Duggan uses that insecurity to show the respect that Emma has for her, not only because she calls her Kate but because, as she explains:  "You've been fighting your whole life against impossible odds, and you never once gave someone an extra shot in the ribs simply because they deserved it."  I have to say that it's the perfect description of what makes Kitty special, and it's why Emma offers Kitty a job.  She wants Kitty to take command of a large ship that helps mutants who can't use the portals for a variety of reasons, mostly because they're guarded by anti-mutant nutjobs.  Kitty hilarious remarks, "Ororo said 'No,' huh?", to which Emma responds, "Before I could finish my pitch -- but darling, you will be grand!"

I read a review somewhere in which the reviewer sagely noted that some authors are going to ignore the new status quo to their detriment and some authors are going to lean into it to great success.  Duggan happily takes the latter route here.  On the very first page when I saw Kurt and Ororo leading the kids to the gates, I wondered about whether every gate would be so easy to access.  Duggan wanted me to think exactly that in order to set up where he goes here.  Moreover, Emma seems to be offering Kitty the Red Queenship, which, OMG, yes!  Duggan didn't have to make Kitty unable to use the portals, but, by doing so, we're not getting some random team whose entire roster will change by issue #6 and whose orienting mission will change by issue #8.  Kitty is front and center here as she has to be:  her inability to use the portals means that the ship is her only option.  As Emma says, she might as well use that opportunity.

Meanwhile, Bobby goes through the portal and is immediately attacked by one of the aforementioned anti-mutant nutjobs, a Russian solider wearing a power-eliminating suit of armor (proving why the Marauders are needed).  We are then treated to an underwear-clad Bobby leaping back through the portal to a whisky-swilling Kitty.  I mean, what more could you want?  Kitty recruits Storm for the boat and away we go.  On board is also the old Pyro, seemingly to Bobby's dismay, given his previous sexy time with new Pyro.  The team arrives at the portal and the solider takes out Bobby and Ororo's powers quickly.  But, they were a distraction, as Kitty uses her powers to disrupt the armor.  Bobby and Ororo go to free the imprisoned mutants, and Duggan and Lolli go to town in showing Kitty ruthlessly making her way through the attacking soldiers by her own damn self.  (Phasing the gun into the legs of two of the soldiers was...brutal.)  Pyro exults as Lockheed provides him dragonfire, and the rest of the soldiers retreat.  One of the refugees is recording the scene as they're freed, and Kitty announces to the interwebs that they're the Marauders and they'll bring any mutant who can't get to Krakoa "home."  The issue ends with the team agreeing to stay with Kitty and her asking them to call her Kate.  (Well, it really ends with the Red Diamond saying that Kate was actually Emma's third choice, but whatever.)

Elsewhere in the issue, Bishop is investigating an anti-mutant activist in Taiwan named Mrs. Zhao who claims that her husband disappeared when he touched the gate.  Bishop confronts her, informing her that they don't have any record of her husband, and she departs with an insult.  Interesting.

All in all, I just can't describe how happy I am.  First, the mission is great.  It's like X-Force without the brutality.  As Storm says, how could she turn her back on mutants who need them the most?  But, most importantly, the cast is great.  Bobby, Kate, and Storm are three of my favorite X-Men.  Seeing them galavanting around the world together on a ship with booze, guys, and quips?  Pinch me.

Star Wars #73:  Like any good "Star Wars" story, everything goes from bad to worse here.  After torturing Han, Carpo releases him to Leia and Dar's reconnaissance so the three of them can attack the regional governor.  (I now realize that Dar didn't intentionally set up Han, which sucks, because it would've been easier not to like him as much as I do.)  Leia and Dar have to explain to Han that the only reason that Carpo thinks the governor is attacking is because they changed the plan.  Of course, Han notes that, instead of Carpo dying in their plan, they will.  (He ain't wrong.)  Han realizes that they don't have any hope of breaking into an Imperial Star Destroyer, so he plans on brining them to K-43 because, "the more, the merrier."  Of course, he still thinks that Chewie and Threepio are planning to blow up K-43, taking said Star Destroyer with it.  Meanwhile, Chewie rescues Threepio from Vader's grasp after Vader catches Threepio lying that the Kakrans were under his thrall.  Chewie tells Threepio that he only managed to disable half the detonators, so Threepio calls Luke for help.  But, Luke has to protect the Rebel base, though he may actually convince Warba to help.  As Carpo says, so complicated!

Also Read:  Conan The Barbarian #10; Journey to Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker - Allegiance #3 and #4