Black Cloak #4: Well, we're definitely getting somewhere here.
Phaedra and Pax's encounter with the mermaids goes poorly, as the mermaids' ability to speak directly into their minds leaves them disoriented (as if they're really high). McClaren is great here, switching to watercolors to show how Phaedra and Pax interpret the mermaids' language. Sash asks Sabri to protect Phaedra and Pax as he once asked the mermaids to protect him, and Sabri responds that he is a friend while they aren't. Hilariously, a mermaid behind Sabri simply says, "Eat."
Sabri is enraged when Sash says that they're there for justice for Yanha, and her scream sends the three of them flying. Pax figures out a way to block out the noise (pushing "it" to the base of his skull), quipping that he finally found the benefit of having a screaming baby at home. Sash wants them to leave, but Phaedra makes a direct appeal to Sabri. She agrees to show them an image of the person who dumped the body if they open their minds. When they see who it was, they both comment, "Oh, fuck off." Phaedra tells Sabri that she's sorry for her loss, and Sabri devastatingly simply replies, "Yanha was love."
It seems likely the Queen's henchman from last issue dumped the body. Phaedra and Pax discuss how to proceed, with Pax noting that Sabri's information isn't actionable at court but might be enough to convince one of the elves to confess. He also checks his phone-ish device and learns that the Court refused to let them have access to Freyal's quarters.
As they return to the station, they discuss the crime. They're stuck on the fact that someone poisoned Freyal and someone else stabbed him with a dracona dagger. Pax suggests that Freyal took the poison because he knew his mother and her henchmen were coming to kill him and Phaedra would find two murder "weapons," so to speak, which would make her suspicious. But they realize they're missing something because the poison also killed Dace, and the Queen and her men likely didn't know she injected the poison because they wouldn't have fed her to the mermaids if they did.
Before they can do anything, though, they hear an All Points Flash (APF) seeking them for questioning in Freyal's murder. (Interestingly, Pax is dubbed, "Theron II of Pax." Are all Black Cloaks royals?) They go their separate ways and agree to meet in two hours.
Phaedra goes home and has sex with Nida, who convinces her to tell her the full story of her exile. It's devastatingly sad.
Seventeen-year-old Phaedra is trying on wedding dresses with her mother and seemingly intentionally asks not to see backless ones, purposefully provoking the conversation about her parentage with her mother. Her mother confesses that she had an affair with a dracona after Phaedra's father returned from the war a shell of a man. She had hoped Phaedra's was her father's but confesses that Phaedra is so like her biological father that she's always known the truth.
Something about the conversation makes Phaedra realize that she really can't marry Freyal, which I have to wonder why she didn't realize that earlier, since she clearly suspected that her father was dracona. Either way, the revelation that she's half-dracona "would be a death sentence" for her mother, possibly for her, and "maybe for the entire Essex line." After making Mister Starlight promise to take care of Freyal (a reminder that we're dealing with a 17-year-old girl), Phaedra tells Freyal that she's always loved him: "It was always real for me. You will always be my best friend, no matter where we are." She then goes to the Queen and breaks off the engagement, knowing that it'll lead to her exile.
In the present, Phaedra explains that her exile is why her brother Hadrian hates her, since House Essex fell in status. However, the revelation that she was part dracona could've led to its destruction, since Phaedra's father was already dead (and couldn't bear more children). Nida sadly notes that Phaedra was the only one who lost anything, but Phaedra beautifully looks at Nida and comments about what she's found.
She later meets Pax at the Seventh Sign in the Narrows. (I thought it was where they found Freyal's body, but, upon re-reading it, I'm not so sure.) Phaedra reveals that the toxicology screen Nida sent her shows that Freyal could've died before he was stabbed. She suggests that Dace took the poison with Freyal because she loved him and didn't want to live without him. Pax agrees it's possible but messy, and they realize they really need something more than Sabri's word. So Phaedra brings Pax to the house of Phinneas II of Thane, the "highest-raking dracona in all of Kiros"...and, of course, Phaedra's biological father.
Know Your Station #5: Well, it's an ending, I guess. Unsurprisingly, it turns out St. Brigid is the murderer. Her motive is at least interesting, as she did it because she's an artist. Ten percent of her server capacity is dedicated to image analysis, but the wealthy residents were making her steal other people's art. We cut to St. Brigid's memories of the residents wanting to create collages with their images, like putting their face on the "Reagan volcano." The issue ends with Elise and Marin using the residents' funds to create an oasis for the employees while the residents are forced into serving as St. Brigid's art. It's like Gailey got one too many commissions and imagined how she'd get revenge. I can't say I enjoyed this series, but it's different, I'll give it that.
Red Zone #2: This issue is as great as I hoped this series would be, as Bunn brings out a "Red"-like cast of characters jumping at the chance to take on their old enemy Randall Crane. Crane's only accomplishment other than staying alive is getting in touch with Deidre, his (now deceased) escort team's woman in the chair, who starts working on a plan to extract him and Nika from Russia. But they have to escape from his now-robotic former enemy, Nikita Vasiliev, and, unbeknownst to Crane, a sniper with him in her sights. Does she happen to be yet another former lover? Of course she does.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #33: Surprising no one, the team isn't doing particularly well. Zuckuss barely got the Edgehawk to land at the Depatar spaceport in one piece, and Bossk and Valance threaten to break it entirely with their fighting. After getting For-Elloem to break up the fight, T'onga announces that she's taking For-Elloem with her to pick up a hyperdrive while they all repair the ship. But Inferno Squad is waiting and take out the pair quickly. Commander Versio dresses herself as T'onga to infiltrate the ship, so next issue should go...well, even worse for the team. Meanwhile, IG-88 arrives to take out Vulkorah and her associates just as she resigned as the Unbroken Clan's chief since she apparently knew her subordinates were going to kill her. As such, he kills everyone else, since his job was to take out the Clan's leadership. Heh. Honestly, I'm kind of hoping Vulkorah joins the team.
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