Black Cloak #6: Holy fucking shit.
Thompson told us where we were going on this series' first page. In a mix of "The Mistborn Series" and "The Fetch Philips Archives," she told us Kiros is the last city in the world after a devastating war. In subsequent issues, several characters alluded to the Queen making difficult decisions to keep Kiros running. It turns out that decision is sacrificing takas to power Kiros' magic. Yup. It's dark, y'all.
Phaedra and Pax are trying to figure out where to stash Phaedra's brother's unconscious body when two workers arrive to take the next batch of taka. McClaren is one fire in the next sequence in depicting Pax's horror as he realizes what they're doing, underscoring the crime's seriousness. We watch the workers bring the taka to an outcropping in a large cavern. They put a taka into a tank located on the outcropping, and we watch as the tank sucks out the taka's blood-like magic. The still-living taka then becomes a wraith. (Yup, Kiros' vermin are drained takas.) Lest you feel badly for the workers having to perform such an odious task, one of them simply hurls the drained taka into the chasm. The other worker then chastises him, not for treating the drained taka so indelicately but because "too many are surviving[,] the city is rife with them." I told you it's dark.
Before Phaedra and Pax can escape and tell everyone, as Phaedra (though notably not Pax) wants to do, Lysanthir arrives and ensnares them. He ponders how much power he can wring from Phaedra before the Queen arrives and brings him up short. She comments that Lysanthir is ambitious and cruel, traits that she acknowledges served the city well but in which she doesn't want to revel. (Ha! She says it like she still has a soul.) She approaches Phaedra and tells her that she knew Phaedra would discover the truth because Phaedra is like her, "see[ing] things through, no matter how difficult." Phaedra doesn't pull punches here, which is why I love her, as she tells the Queen: "You're a monster. And you're not fit to be a mother, let alone our queen."
Phaedra asks the Queen to account for Freyal's murder since she's going to kill Phaedra and Pax anyway, and she agrees. In a flashback to the Salty Crow six days ago, a sexy AF Freyal opens the door to his mother. She tells him that she knows he went to the old North Wing Catacombs, and it's clear she's there to kill him. However, she notes he discovered the secret weeks earlier but hadn't told anyone yet. (Was she trying to get him a chance to save himself?) She tells him that he must accept no decisions are easy and someone always loses. He asks if she ever loses, and she tells him that she's lost the only thing that mattered to her. She then stabs him with the dracona dagger. She weeps as Freyal dies. I'm unmoved.
Back in the cavern, the Queen tells Phaedra that the knowledge she (the Queen) killed Freyal could destroy Kiros just as easily as the truth about the taka, so Phaedra and Pax have to die. Before the Queen can kill them, though, Phaedra plays her trump card, telling the Queen that the poison, and not the dagger, killed Freyal. At this point, the Queen seems to put together the sequence of events that ends with Lysanthir dumping Dace's body into the lagoon and turns on Lysanthir. He defends himself by saying that he followed the Queen for her safety. (I don't buy that, but I'm not sure why else he went other than possibly to ensure the Queen actually killed Freyal.) In a flashback, Lysanthir overhears Freyal's conversation with Dace. Freyal tells Dace to bring him the poison, and she tearfully tells him that she loves him. He encourages her to flee to Renna, since she and the Resistance will hide her. (The Resistance!) Dace tells him the Queen will "get away with it" if she doesn't tell anyone, but he tells her that Phaedra will solve the mystery (thanks to the poison). A devastated Dace then drinks the poison, dying with Freyal.
An enraged Queen confronts Lysanthir as Valorie uses a magical rope to snatch Phaedra and Pax. Once Valorie confirms they're clear, Ividor uses a spell that knocks the Queen, Lysanthir, and her guards to the ground. Ividor warns Valorie to stay hidden since they'll come after her if they realize what she's doing, and he goes after the Queen with Phinneas and Devaki by his side. The Queen stammers, "Ividor...you DARE to use your magic against your queen?" Ividor simply responds, "Yes." (Ha! I heart him.) The Queen (not really quick on the uptake) tells Ividor to stand down or she'll have his head and make it a national holiday, and he tells her that they're long past that, giving us her name, Taline, for the first time in the series, I think. He then confronts Lysanthir, who defends himself by saying Kiros would've fallen and then launches a counter attack.
Pax tries to approach Valorie, but Phaedra tells him she's concentrating, possibly in casting personal shields for her and Pax. (I'm not sure why Pax wanted to talk to her in the first place, but we have a lot going on here.) As Ividor, Phinneas, and Devaki fight, Phaedra tells Pax they have to destroy the tank. Pax is unsure, but Phaedra is undaunted. Her mom arrives to help, telling her that she's doing so "after far too long doing nothing." She tells Phaedra they can use the taka blood in the tank to amplify their magic so they can destroy it, but she's suddenly thrown backwards. Realizing Taline attacked her mom, Phaedra tells her that she'll die for that. In an amazing sequence, Phaedra attacks Taline, telling her it's time to add some "non-innocent [blood] to the pile." Ha! Pax aims his gun at Taline as she and Phaedra tumble in the taka blood. (I *think* Phaedra's mom opened the tank before Taline attack her, which then poured out the taka blood. I initially thought Taline stabbed Phaedra's mom, which is why she was covered in blood. But on the second reading I realized the blood is now everywhere.)
Taline tries to get Pax on her side, telling him Kiros will fall if Phaedra destroys the tank. He calls bullshit, and she admits it won't fall but it won't have enough magic. Like in "The Fetch Philips Archives," she describes a scenario in which magically powered machines will fail, fights will occur when people suddenly can't speak the same language, structures will collapse, etc. She then pointedly asks where his family lives. Pax tells Phaedra that people will die, and she acknowledges that. But they're fighting for their future, she tells him. He says he can't risk innocent lives, and she asks about the taka, telling him they can't build a world on innocents' blood. Phinneas or Devaki then throws her his gun.
Pax pleads with her, and Taline reminds her that Kiros is the last city in the known (important word there, "known") world: if she destroys the machine, nothing will remain. Phaedra tells her that if they can't surviving without killing the innocent, then they deserve nothing. (I'm on board here.) She holds Taline at gunpoint and tells her to turn off the machine or she'll destroy it. Lysanthir then attacks her, sending her off the cliff. Pax is panicked when he can't see her, and an exhausted Ividor says she's lost before he loses consciousness.
In the water below, Sabri finds Phaedra and says simply, "Black Cloak. Good." Phaedra returns to the cave with her wings trailing lava (though I don't know where the lava was), revealing herself as half-dracona and "full of vengeance and justice," in her words. Ha! Saying "welcome to the new world," she destroys the machine. Surrounded by taka, a tearful Phaedra says, "Goodbye, Pax," for reasons I don't totally understand. (Does he stay below to die because he assumes his family died?) The adorable hordes of meep-ing taka then flee, greeted by the seemingly now content wraiths.
Topside, Phaedra observes a city in flames. The final narration tells us that, years ago, there was a world-ending war, where victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat and the great evil was vanquished. "Now, Kiros' terrible secrets unearthed, it has been plunged into chaos...it's a good start."
In the end, this first arc - and I hope it's just a first arc - is about internalizing actions' consequences. A lot of our political discourse around the world is about avoiding consequences, blaming problems on someone else rather than telling everyone that we need to face them collectively. But Thompson doesn't make it seem easy, using Pax to show that even good people struggle when the consequences are just that high. As "The Fetch Phillips Archive" shows, the consequences may be truthful but they can also be dire.
The Sacrificers #1: Remender kicks off a very Remenderian tale here, as a family is forced contribute its son as a Sacrificer.
The boy's tale is pretty straight forward. He and his family are blue-feathered avians, reminiscent of pigeons. The issue begins with his father reciting grace, thanking the "great Fathers and Mothers" for a land of "harmony, peace, and love." As he concludes, he catches sight of the boy in the window. He chases the boy to the barn and beats him with his belt, informing him that he's selfish to force his mother to look at him, "tonight of all nights." That night, the boy's sister, Beatrice, brings him food that we saw her pilfer from the table during grace. She kisses him on the forehead and thanks him.
The next day, the boy's mother complains to his father that he wasn't allowed one meal in the house with the family, and the father simply responds it would've made it worse. The scary-looking duo collecting Sacrificers then appears. The father half-heartedly tries to convince them the family's sacrifice died during the winter, but, when the duo's leader raises a quizzical eyebrow, the father collects the boy. The mother expresses outrage, and the father complains that they need the boy there. (I'm not giving the father too much credit. When the boy's collected, he's incapable of saying anything to him other than, "Son...I..." Fuck you, dude.)
As the leader threatens to collect one of the boy's four siblings instead, the boy avers that it's his duty as the Sacrificer to go. Beatrice is hysterical: she runs to him and hugs him. As her father pulls her from him, the boy stoically tells her that his sacrifice means she's safe. She tells him that she loves him, and he says the same. He then joins the other children on the chain gang for parts unknown. The challenge starting down this road with Remender is that it seems unlikely the boy and Beatrice will get a happy ending.
The issue's other story is much more difficult to follow, again in a Remenderian way. We're introduced to the fire-haired girl, Soluna, who graces the issue's cover, and learn she's the daughter of a being, Rokos, who's apparently this world's sun god. Her tale begins with her studying about a war that happened thousands of years earlier, that left "bones piled high as mountains." It's clearly the Sacrificers are supposed to stop this war from happening again.
At the ringing of a bell, she bolts from her lesson and eavesdrops on her father's conversation with his mistress, Xia. The mistress contemplates her previously youthful looks in a pool that reflects them, and Rokos mentions the upcoming Rejuvenation, which I'm assuming happens at the annual gala they also discuss and involves the Sacrificers.
Xia complains that Rokos is spending too much time with his wife, Luna, and Rokos responds that Luna has begun to voice her "displeasure" to others. It's unclear what provokes the displeasure, except it somehow pertains to the Rejuvenation. Rokos tells Xia he would undo his coupling with Luna if he could and then notes he's aware Soluna is eavesdropping. Soluna is angry her father isn't letting her attend the banquet and leaves, and Rokos sets off the process to light the sun, "the eternal chore."
It's interesting that we get another story about sacrificing innocents to stave off war here. Remender and Thompson are certainly prophetic given how 2023 ends.
Star Wars: Dark Droids #1: Honestly, this issue is spectacular and exactly the sort of swing-for-the-fences story I hoped we'd get from Charles Soule during his tenure on Star Wars.
First things first, the threat that emerges in this issue *isn't* Ajax as I thought it would be. Instead, it's a sentient droid consciousness inhabiting a small disc lying on the grounds of the Amaxine Station, where the Fermata Cage was. We come to know this consciousness as the Scourge. It claims it was organic at some point, seemingly referring to the period when it inhabited Dr. Aphra during "Star Wars: Hidden Empire." Since I'm not reading Aphra's title, I'm not really sure about much else.
At any rate, Soule uses the Scourge's musings to review the different types of droids that exist throughout the galaxy, from trusted friends like Artoo to disposable entities like the sparring partner Vader uses here. During these musings, the glory that is Ross' art presents itself. For example, the Scourge comments that some droids are lovers: without the image of Lando with his feet on the Millennium Falcon's control panel, you wouldn't understand that the Scourge is referring not to, like, sexbots but the type of relationship Lando has to the Falcon.
The action begins at the Station, as an officer dispatches a group of Imperial workers to collect everything remaining with the warning that Palpatine himself ordered them to do so. A man named Captain Batten works with a KX-model droid and, like Luke does with Artoo, treats him like a friend. The droid discovers the disc, which sprouts legs and injects its consciousness into the droid, which the Scourge now controls.
Aboard the Star Destroyer, the Scourge starts taking over the droids. Here, I'll mention Soule's care and attention is as obvious as Ross', as he builds the terror from the ground floor. An Astromech droid the Scourge is controlling arrives in a room where two Imperial officers banter in the background. Their discussion about their next possible mission is interrupted when one of them realizes the Astromech is rerouting the outgassing of the reactor's waste to the ventilation system. One of the officers approaches the droid who then shocks her and the other officer to death. In an ominous moment, another Astromech approaches and shocks them again, showing the Scourge is more than a droid, since that maliciousness takes emotions to summon.
On the bridge, one of the officers warns the Commander all communications are down just as the outgassing pours into the room. Ross is on fire for these next few panels, as the droids open the launch bay and we watch officers, Stormtroopers, and TIE Fighters float into space. In an ode to horror movies, these sequences are silent, including when a medical droid uses its circular saw to kill a patient and another droid throws an officer off a balcony.
We then move to the glorious Colony of the Second Revolution, where we encounter Ajax. A droid named Setar offers a bit of plating as Ajax exposits that they're building a droid from their parts. It'll be "serving none, loving all, self-ordered and self-governed, seeking only freedom and joy," containing a "seed of mind" built from the droids' experiences and understanding. It's unclear if we're dealing with just one Christ-like droid or if Ajax is building many of them, since a droid named Gertee interrupts his reverie.
Gertee informs Ajax that one of their "crusaders," the mouse droid we saw witnessing the horror on the Destroyer before the Scourge took over its consciousness, too, reported the events to the Colony. Ajax calls him Petyr, "a large soul in a small body." We learn these crusaders are seeking out other sentient droids, who Ajak calls "the visioned," an occurrence that Ajax himself notes is rare. Gertee tells Ajak that Petyr successfully reported on not just the Scourge's ability to take over a droid's consciousness but also its malevolence. Ajak correctly sees the threat the Scourge represents to all droids and orders Gertie to prepare the troops.
Meanwhile, the Scourge revels in the data that he's now stolen from the Empire after taking control of the Destroyer, noting that he's able to use his advanced intelligence to make connections Palpatine can't, particularly given his expanded computing powers thanks to the other droids he controls.
Ominously, Petyr launches into space onto an Alliance ship. We see the Alliance leadership discussing how to get more information on the new Death Star. Leia notes that sources have gone to ground in the wake of Palpatine crushing Crimson Dawn, and Ackbar opines that the Empire will have fixed the flaw the Rebels exploited in the Death Star last time. The Scourge then takes control of Threepio, noting that his close proximity to the Alliance's leadership - and the fact the Alliance views him as family - gives him power. Ruh-roh.
Star Wars: Yoda #10: I mentioned last issue that Yoda's contriteness went a long way to rehabilitating him in my mind. It was hard to believe in his seemingly blind devotion to the Force when it didn't help him sense the threat Palpatine - let alone Dooku and Skywalker - posed.
This issue goes even farther, in a spectacular way. Yoda dreams of Bree teaching him how to use the taratti, the instrument we saw in this series' first arc, though the dream becomes a nightmare quickly, as a demonic young Ani and dead Qui-Gon appear.
Reminiscing about the pastries Yoda used to make the Younglings in the crèche (!), Obi-Wan's spirit leads Yoda to the famous Dark Side cave. Dismissing his fear as foolish, Yoda enters trepidatiously. Dooku confronts him about the fact he (Dooku) tried to leave the Order but Yoda wouldn't let him, his commitment to the Light Side preventing him from stopping Dooku when he had the chance. Dooku alludes to what he was doing "all those times" he returned to the Temple, though he doesn't entirely clarify. (Collecting intelligence? Collaborating with Palpatine?) Yoda then encounters the body of a female of his species, whom he calls Yaddle, and Dooku confirms that he killed her, "the first of many." (Wikipedia informs me that this confrontation occurs during the "Tale of the Jedi" series, with Dooku becoming Darth Tyrannus by murdering Yaddle.)
Keeve Tennis then arrives, and I had to Google again to discover/remember she's from the "Star Wars: The High Republic" series. She tries to blame Yoda for leaving her to her fate, though Yoda doesn't accept that, saying it was her choice. Suddenly, Yoda is lost in the skulls of everyone he failed to save. Yoda begs for forgiveness, saying he couldn't have known, and, on cue, Palpatine appears, calling Yoda his greatest apprentice. Palpatine tells him that there's no way back because of him, which Yoda accepts, saying it's hopeless.
Then, Bree appears again, saying Yoda taught him that there's no such thing as hopeless. Handing him the taratti, Bree recalls Yoda telling him, an aphorism Yoda repeats, "the greatest teacher, failure is." Bree happily says, "See, you do remember," to which Yoda remarks, "Yes. I remember, Bree -- I remember everything." With that, Yoda blasts his enemies and returns to us. Holding the tarartti, he grumpily encounters Obi-Wan and confirms he will teach "the boy" when he comes. As he plays the taratti, Yoda says he will also be ready to learn.
Honestly, it's all great. It's exactly what I needed to see to forgive Yoda his trespasses. I'm just sad the series ends here, because I'd love to see where Yoda went with this knowledge that he failed but he didn't lose hope.
