Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #4: This issue stalls us a bit, as we don't gain any new insights into the story that Gaiman is telling. Instead, two adolescents - Phon Mooda and Dickie Dauntless - ponder why they can't quite put their finger on what feels wrong about this world.
First, Phon Mooda is called before the Black Warpsmiths, a trio of enormous Warpsmiths who are connected to each other and, we learn, created the other Warpsmiths. They ask Phon Mooda for her thoughts about the "confluent world" rather than the facts she usually delivers. She confesses that something about the world seems wrong, though she can't yet define it. They ask about the Miraclechildren, and, except for Winter, Phon Mooda dismisses the others as focused on "entertaining" themselves and little more.
We then get some cryptic alien speak, as the Black Warpsmiths ask her about the Qys and she tells them that the Qys "never understood how the Cuckoo Seed was fertile to begin with." (Sure.) Phon Mooda admits that, unlike other worlds, this one doesn't seem to mature, opining that "this relatively short experiment may actually be winding up." The Black Warpsmiths inform her that something Phon Mooda calls "the Whisper" at the edge of the Universe merits their attention. She leaves their presence.
Meanwhile, Dickie asks Tom Caxton if Miracelman did anything to make him want to stop being Mister Master. Caxton obviously doesn't understand why Dickie asks this question and instead narrates his realization that he had gotten everything he ever wanted and didn't know what happened next, which is why he asked for the Gold Kryptonite. Caxton tells Dickie that he knows that he's Young Miracleman and asks him what his real name is, provoking Dickie to realize, seemingly or the first time, that it probably isn't Dickie.
Meta-maid arrives and informs Dickie that sexy, sexy Jason is ready to leave and confides to Caxton that she's going with Dickie because she's tired of being around "superfucks." Hauntingly, she says that it's "so nice to be around someone who knows who they are."
In the post-script story, Miracleman reviews Dickie's past to try to find evidence of what he's missing, as Avril earlier suggested that maybe it wasn't Miracleman but something else he wanted. He reviews Miracelman's first encounter with Young Nastyman but finds nothing to light a path for him.
In other words, Gaiman is flagging a central mystery that we maybe didn't realize yet was a mystery. Phon Mooda, Dickie, and Miracleman are all looking for something that explains an absence they feel, which implies that it's something bigger than just Miracleman's machinations. We'll see.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #31: OMG, we're *finally* starting to get somewhere here.
After yet another issue of Vader playing with his food, he and the Handmaidens finally force Jul Tambor to flee and rescue to Sabé. Pak reveals that Vader's motive is really to find a consort that he thought he had in Padmé, as we see through flashbacks of his confrontation with Padmé on Mustafar as well as his imaginings of how it could've gone if Padmé accepted his offer to rule the galaxy. Acting on these feelings, Vader holds the rest of the Handmaidens in a Force Grip as he offers Sabé a place by his side.
Again, it's taken *way* too long to get here, but I'm glad we're finally here.
Star Wars: Hidden Empire #3: I remember not being particularly impressed with this series, which is surprising given how much I like Charles Soule. But this issue is solid.
Chanath Cha and her team, the Orphans, arrive on whichever planet it is where the Archivist finds herself to save her and the Fermata Cage. (No one particularly seems to care about her assistant, Kho Phon Farrus.) Chanath has apparently spent her life trying to get close to Vader to avenger her parents, so she and Sear stay to take on Vader while Imara Vex and Ladybright accompany the Archivist and Kho to their ship. Vader unsurprisingly kills Sear and knocks Imara off the ship (to an uncertain fate). Ladybright plans on saving Chanath (and disobeying Qi'ra), but the Archivist disassembles her in order to stay safe from Vader. As brutal as it seems, the Archivist is smart in doing so, as Vader easily kills Chanath.
This issue is about more than just getting the Archivist from Vader. It's also a rumination on how revenge motivates so many people in this galaxy far, far away, though they seldom get to see their first for it satisfied. Vader notes that Chanath sacrifices her whole life to get her the point where she could stop Vader, but, of course, all the time she stopped him not at all. Similarly, Qi'ra notes to Cadeliah that Chanath thought she was the main character in her own story, when really she was just a side character in Qi'ra's (and not even a character in Vader's). It's brutal but true.
Of course, we all know that Qi'ra is a side character in Vader's life. Soule is pretty much winking to the audience on this point, stressing what we all know except for Qi'ra, that this damned fool idealistic crusade ends poorly for her.
Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #1: Storm recounts the fall of Arakko as Sinister finally launches his invasion, blaming augmented Skrull troops for the attack. She's recounting these events from the remains of Arakko - an asteroid archipelago - as she berates Destiny for advising her not to attack Sinister and Krakoa when she wanted, ten years earlier.
Of course, it turns out "Destiny" is Mystique, who informs Storm about Sinister manufacturing Moira clones, including one created ten years ago. Storm and company travel to Muir Island with Sinister, where Whiz Kid uses technology he created - and Storm recognizes as not the same as his usual technology - to teleport away Sinister's lab. But it turns out "Taki" was Mystique (again), and she kills Storm once the lab is transported to the World Farm, where Destiny and Orbit Stellaris await. (She was clearly using Sinister's technology instead of Taki's, addressing Storm's suspicion.)
We learn that Destiny is doing everything because this timeline is the only one where Mystique lives, a reminder that she is a villain at her core. Not only did she advise Storm not to attack Sinister ten years ago, she has Mystique steal the lab because Sinister was going to reset this timeline the next day when he loses a Quiet Council vote. (I don't get how he could lose a vote to people he controlled, but I'll allow the mulligan because I liked this issue.)
The remaining questions from this issue is what the force field at the center of Sinister's lab hid. Next issue jumps 100 years, a reminder that the team is telling a story related to the X3 timeline that Hickman showed us in "Powers of X."
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