The Alternates #3: This issue is hard to follow, but, after a second read, I more or less understood where Oswalt, Blum, and Seeley were going.
In a flashback, we get a better sense of how the Alternates came to be, as the Searcher explains to Tripper that they need to enter Ledgerstone (a large creature/monster) in order to "turn him inside out and close his portal to the Ledge." (It isn't entirely clear to me if the Ledge is inside Ledgerstone or if he just somehow creates portals to the Ledge.) The Continuum can't enter the Ledge, because if they accessed it they would be too dangerous. (I don't totally follow this argument since, after all, they'd be in the Ledge and not on Earth. Are they arguing they'd somehow return from the Ledge altered? Is it hinting the Alternates are more altered than they think they are?) At any rate, the Alternates are the ones to take on the task.
In the present, the team follows the drug dealer who Kid Curious Alzheimered and a large ship appears in the sky. Kid Curious describes it as "built from dreams and powered by fiction[,] emerged here from the collective imagination." (I think he's saying that the wide-scale distribution of the Ledge via Prestige has somehow summoned the ship.) Entering the ship, the team members all feel connections to who they were in the other dimension, apparently a sign that Ledgerstone (for some reason) is somehow using Prestige to get a hold in our dimension.
Mary Marie ponders using the ship to sail into the Ledge again, solving two problems with one stone: getting to be important again and taking Prestige from our dimension. Tripper tells her that he understands why she feels that way. Before he can convince her otherwise, the Searcher appears and announces she's going to destroy the ship and Ledgerstone, who's apparently on the ship. (As I said, it's hard to follow.)
Mary Marie is furious at the Searcher for using them (presumably to lead her to Ledgerstone) and attacks. It does little good, even when the rest of the Alternates get involved. Kid Curious tells Tripper that he knows many ways to killer the Searcher but doesn't want to prove her right about them so gets Tripper to knock him (Kid Curious) unconscious so he doesn't kill her. (I didn't get this part. What part of Kid Curious taking out Searcher would make her right about them? She only ever really accused them of being the JV Team.) Instead, Mary Marie sprays the Searcher with Prestige, knowing the Searcher is afraid of what she would do to the world while under its influence. She flees to the Moon to remove herself from the equation.
With the Searcher dismissed, Mary Marie leads the team to Ledgerstone, who they're surprised to see is actually the prisoner. Someone is using him to make the Prestige. Tripper tells Lamhla to find the culprit, and she flies to Tripper's doppelgänger, surrounded by the other team members' doppelgängers. Holding Lamhla, the other Tripper announces they're the Originals.
Honestly? Meh. "Minor Threats" was so great, but this mini-series is reading like Oswalt, Blum, and Seeley took some peyote and went to town.
Pathfinder: Wake the Dead #4: This issue isn't very good and makes little sense.
The dialogue is stilted, as if Van Lente took a dare and wrote an entire script from clichéd lines. ("We're all in this together. You'd have done the same for me." "Ugh, get a room at the inn, you two." "Is something rotten in the state of Geb, Nyctessa? Other than its citizens, that is...")
The characterizations are also shallow, to the point where it's hard to understand anyone's motivations. For example, Sajan is the party member tasked with carrying Gabsalia on his back into Yled. He's taken to talking to her as if they're friends, and Van Lente doesn't bother to make it clear whether Sajan is doing so because Van Lente needs him to serve as our expositor or because the party's experiences have driven Sajan insane.
But the plot is even worse The party manages to evade Yled's allegedly fearsome Bone Wall by swimming under said Wall while also fighting the undead. They then make their way through a gate into Yled simply by moving quickly as a group. Nctessa leads them to her laboratory and starts casting the spell to reanimate Gabsalia when Sajan notices a small creature bolt. The party tries to stop it, but it makes its way to a robed figure who puts it in a jar of blood where it becomes...Gabsalia?
Confusing matters even further, Gabsalia reanimates at that moment and Nyctessa demands she tell her the identity of Kwo Qenguin's sleeper agents. It turns out the guy holding the bottle of blood is Kwo, but for some reason Nyctessa doesn't really notice him. She only does so when he announces himself and accuses her of scheming against him even though...he's the one with the sleeper agents? He appears to be one of her students, though he also commands a troop of graveknights?
Honestly, I have no idea.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #40: Unlike Van Lente above, Sacks plays everyone exactly according to their characterization, which doesn't exactly guarantee a happy ending for this title, unfortunately.
T'onga and her crew approach Epikonia, per "Star Wars: Dark Droids"#4, to find Valance and either save or eliminate him. Khel is pretty close to calling it quits, given the danger a planet full of misbehaving droids obviously poses, so T'onga buys her loyalty by giving her the Mourner's Wail account's encryption key. (How did T'onga get the key? I can't say I'm sure.) Deathstick gets ready to kill T'onga until she mentions that Khel still needs the secret code to access the account.
The team lands on Epikonia, at which point Surge shoots Zuckuss in the back and Deathstick knocks T'onga for a loop. Bossk reveals himself as a traitor (such as he ever wasn't one in the first place), giving Khel the code. Honestly, though, it's kind of hard to blame him? He makes the point that he hung in there as they made their best effort to save Valance, but they're supposed to chase bounties not, in his words, "lost causes." Khel and her crew (including Bossk) depart, leaving T'onga and Zuckuss to the droids.
But hope exists as Haydenn creates a copy of Valance's memory and defects from the Empire to find her way to Valance. Hope! It's just not clear she'll save Valance before he helps the Scourge experiment on T'onga...
Void Rivals #6: I've always had the same issue with Kirkman's work, namely that his sparsely worded stories lack emotional death. For example, we watch Darak and Solila escape Zertonia into the Wastelands as they seek to enter Agorria, but it's like we're reading a checklist of events instead of a story. It should be impactful as they face the unknown alone except for each other but instead it just feels like an obvious moment of plot progression.
At any rate, the issue opens with Kanela freeing Solila, who expresses surprise, noting she thought Kanela might one day become premier. It's a sign of how successful Kanela has been in keeping the Resistance in the shadows. Kanela informs Solila that she has a blaster waiting for them so she can escape. But the bad blood between them is clear, as Kanela tells Solila to kill anyone they confront and comments, "I'm sure you won't have problem with that." Given Kanela is also clearly a warrior, Solila must've done something brutal to prompt that remark.
Meanwhile, on Quintessa (I think), Skuxxoid sells the Agorrian and Zertonian ship to the Quintessons. Two Quintessons discuss the discovery, with one expressing surprise that Zerta succeeded "all those eons ago" in creating Zertonia and another referring to her as "a memory of a rebellious child."
On the Ring, Kanela and Solila arrive at the Resistance's hideout, and Kanela informs Darak that, in exchange for Solila, he needs to smuggle out a data packet to her counterparts in Agorria so they can reestablish a secure link after losing contact. As they depart the hideout, Kanela and Solila squabble again, with Solila commenting that you can't feed the "starving mouths of Zertonia" with a just cause. To that end, Darak expresses shock at Zertonia's grimy conditions as he gets his first good look at it. It's reminiscent of "Blade Runner 2039" or "Cyberpunk 2077."
Suddenly, guards stop them, and Kanela's young scout confesses he dimed out the group because the guards said they'd help him find his mother, something Kanela tells him she understands. Solila promises to deliver the data packet and tells Kanela not to get caught as she and Darak take a motorcycle (a "slip rider") and flee the guards. Solila informs Darak that the further North they go, the easier it'll be, since most resources - including electricity - are dedicated to the capital.
They take the railway as far as they can, but they're spotted immediately, as the guards figured they'd head North. Solila expresses shock when she realizes Darak's plan, as he helps her up the wall that separates the two sides of the Ring.
Back in Zertonia, Zalilak isn't convinced the Wastelands' brutal reputation is enough to guarantee Darak and Solila won't survive, noting they survived the impossible before. Zalilak exposits his sacred charge to prevent unity and, thus, the coming of Goliant and orders his underling to revive someone (or something) named Proximus.
Again, for all this action, it was a pretty dull read.
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