Six-Month-Old Comics: The September 7 Non-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

007 #2:  First things first, the Mark Aspinall cover is a thing of beauty.  I would love to see him take a turn as the artist on this series, even if I enjoy Finnegan's work.

Moving onto the story, Kennedy Johnson shows the same attention to detail as he did on "The Last God."  We learn that Gwen's note informed James that she had been working for M as a mole inside Myrmidon.  At Gwen's funeral, James signals to M that he knows the truth, prompting M to approach him later with the whole story.

M tells James that Gwen realized a deep-pocketed new player was building a nationless intelligence agency.  Concerned about their motives, she and M arranged for her fall at MI6 so she could embed in Myrmidon.  M tells James that Myrmidon has now moved beyond assassinations and data breaches and is planning some sort of full-scale military operation.  When M offers James Gwen's spot inside Myrmidon, he refuses, saying that he can't forgive M for disgracing her.

James arrives home only to encounter some sort of super-soldier.  James manages to kill him but discovers the rest of the Myrmidon crew in his apartment.  They were there to kill him but, when they overheard James telling the super-solider that "Gwen Gann sends her regards," they're now worried about what James knows.  I think James is going to have an uncomfortable few days.

Again, Kennedy Johnson does great stuff here, subverting a series of spy-story tropes.  First, James is behind the cueball for most of this issue, which is fun.  Second, James doesn't swing when M pitches him the Myrmidon job.  Finally, even if he did take the job, it's clear that Myrmidon is too on the ball to fall for his cover.  You really don't know what to expect, which breathes some life back into these sorts of stories.

Batman #127:  This issue is everything I wanted in a "Batman" story, which validates my decision to give Zdarsky a shot.

It turns out Zur-en-Arrh created Failsafe.  Surprise!  This arc is essentially a sequel to the classic "Justice League" Tower of Babel story.  As we see in the first few pages, Bruce believed that he didn't need a plan for if he went rogue because the League - particularly Superman - was his plan.  But Zur-en-Arrh believed that "they" did need a plan, so he created a Failsafe.  (As Tim says, leave it to Bruce to "create a contingency backup who created a contingency plan.")  Of course, Zu-en-Arrh erased the memory since he knew that Batman would call on him if he went rogue.  Of course he did.

Zdarksy makes it clear that Failsafe activated because it believed Batman took a life when he seemingly killed the Penguin.  I love this development.  As I've mentioned before, my favorite runs on Batman and Spider-Man are when the hero faces multiple crises of various intensity all at once.  Here, Bruce had enough on his hands with his alleged murder of the Penguin; he didn't need Failsafe added to the fire.

Bruce is appalled from inside Zur-en-Arrh's consciousness when he refers to Tim as his "soldier."  Tim is Bruce's son, full stop, so he takes back control of their shared body to save Tim.  With Failsafe looming over him, Bruce contemplates dying in a good place - on the stairs of Wayne Manor, surrounded by memories of his parents and his boys.  But, of course, it turns out Bruce wasn't wrong about his plan:  Superman arrives to stop Batman, just not the one Bruce thought he'd have to stop.

The back-up story isn't any less spectacular.  Selina follows the money trail right to the Penguin's new identity.  Apparently the Penguin installed a friend who did time with him as the bookkeeper at the bird sanctuary that his will endowed.  The friend then bought supplies from "less-than-reputable" companies, and a "modest florist" in Metropolis owned said companies via a shell company.  If you hadn't guessed, the Penguin is the "modest florist."  

Oswald makes a compelling case for why he disappeared, opining that Gotham was so dangerous they all became night people because sleep was risky.  He wanted a new life:  if he stayed in Gotham he knew that he wouldn't be able to take it when that "rich, brooding model" (i.e., Bruce) kept winning.  That said, he didn't want his kids to kill each other over the will; he just wanted to inspire some friendly-ish competition.  Selina buys it and chats with Oswald for an hour or so before leaving.

After Selina leaves, Oswald wishes Addison and Aiden luck in killing the Bat and the Cat.  He legitimately seems like he's done for a while, enjoying the quiet life in Metropolis while his kids continue the fight.  Selina herself contemplates that quiet as she decides to spend an extra night there.  

Both stories show Zdarsky's command of the characters and their motivations, a good sign this early into his run.  I think we're going great places.

Blade Runner:  Black Lotus #2:  Damn, this issue is d-a-r-k.

Barnes' troops invade the co-op to round up women so they can replace the Replicants the Wallace Corporation took back last issue.  It's a brutally realistic premise, and Collins handles it directly.  A now-wounded Miguel  wonders why Barnes would attack his only food source, a valid question that underscores Barnes feeling like he lacks any good options.  Lest you feel sympathy for Barnes, he later tells a kidnapped Nyoko to sedate the women and take care of any "accidents" or he'll use Kaja as a slave as well.  Yeah, it isn't an uplifting read.

Collins unfortunately deploys a number of overly convenient developments to move along the story.  

For example, Nyoko decides to run to her tent to get her med-kit to help Miguel as Barnes' troops are ransacking the village.  She assures Miguel that she'll be fine, which makes zero sense.  A drone just shot her husband, and she can clearly hear her neighbors' screams.  Why would she assume she could just waltz to her office and get her equipment?  Of course, she can't:  Kaja runs after Nyoko, and Barnes' men kidnap both of them.  To make matters worse, Miguel later assures everyone that he's fine, calling into question why Nyoko felt the need to take the risk in the first place.

The most eye-rolling development though is the revelation that Miguel was previously a Blade Runner.  I mean, really?  It's starting to feel like every man in this reality was once a Blade Runner who saw the light.  In the "also bad" category, he then hands Eve the samurai sword that is one of Nyoko's family heirlooms. Honestly, I woud've enjoyed watching Elle try to find a way to storm Barnes' compound without her weapon of choice.

At any rate, it is what it is.  I'm ready just to watch Elle go to work.

Six-Month-Old Comics: The August 10 Non-Big Two Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

007 #1:  I loved Kennedy Johnson's "The Last God" and I'm always game for a good James Bond film, so I was happy to give this series a shot.  I'll hang in there a while, but I'll admit after reading this issue that it might just be that hard to put a new spin on Bond.

The drama starts when M removes Bond from the field after he failed to extract a Russian asset (who ends up dead).  The Prime Minister wants someone to take the fall, and Bond warns M that he might not be there for him when M inevitably calls.  A week later, Bond gets a call from Gwendolyn Gann, the former 003, who asks for help because she's "stepped in something rather bigger" than she is.  Bond arrives at the designated rendezvous point only for Gann not to appear.  Instead, he watches some guys dump a body (presumably Gann's) into the river.

Bond goes to Gann's ransacked apartment and finds a note for him about Project Myrmidon.  As he sifts through the apartment, a sniper watches him from a rooftop across the street.  Through his telephone conversation with his boss, we learn the sniper is part of the group that spoiled Bond's attempt to extract the Russian.  Gann was apparently working for them, because the sniper and his boss discuss how she thought Bond could be an asset.  But the sniper is worried that Bond will expose them before "the London operation," and his boss agrees that he can kill Bond.

It's a totally fine Bond story, but it's also a standard Bond story.  Kennedy Johnson was able to breathe new life into the fantasy genre in "The Last God," so I'm willing to see what he can do for the spy game.  I'm just not sure what innovation is left.

Astronaut Down #3:  In this issue, we learn why Dr. Engle believed Douglas wasn't a good fit for the mission:  he felt like his reality's humans deserved to die for failing to stop the plague and prevent Maddie's death.  Honestly, as an American in 2023, Patrick is channeling something that we've probably all felt at one point or another in the last, oh, I don't know, seven years.  

This reality's Maddie is appalled when Douglas admits these feelings and demands he complete the mission, particularly as Douglas essentially killed her Douglas for it.  But Douglas refuses to sacrifice her even as Vernon-possessed bystanders arrive to kill Maddie so he has nothing left to lose. Instead, he activates his ejection protocol, resulting in him now "skipping from reality to reality like a stone on a pond."  

In so doing, he's destroyed his transmission abilities, which doesn't bode well for his reality.  But the new reality in which he arrives also has a Maddie so maybe he doesn't care (particularly given next issue's sexy cover, where he appears shirtless).  Patrick makes it really hard to root for Douglas' reality over him, to be honest.

Blade Runner:  Black Lotus #1:  Other than K's trip to Las Vegas in "Blade Runner 2049," we get our first real look at Earth in the Blade Runner universe in this issue.

We begin in the desert outside Los Angeles with Elle non-lethally taking out a group of scavengers who attempt to jack J's spinner bike.  She swipes their truck and arrives in a place called Jacktown, over which an enormous fracking facility looms menacingly.  Elle heads to the repair shop, and the bike impresses the owner, Junkett Jones, who comments that the cops used bikes like it "during the famine."  Junkett agrees to fix the bike in exchange for the truck.  As they complete the deal, a besuited man named Barnes offers to buy the bike.  Elle declines, and a man named Miguel arrives.  In the grand Western stand-off tradition, Miguel tells Barnes that Elle doesn't want to sell.  Barnes departs suddenly when he's notified that an inspector has arrived, leaving Elle with the locals.

Junkett realizes Elle is bleeding, and Miguel takes Elle back to "the farm," where his wife is a medic.  Through his conversation with Elle, we learn that the farm - or the "Inland Empire Clean Energy Co-Op" as it's known - and the facility are in a struggle because the fracking operation, which Barnes runs, is exhausting the water supply.  Miguel warns Elle to avoid Las Vegas, since it's a "no-go zone since the dirty bomb."

Returning to the facility, Henchman #1 tells Barnes that he recognized the truck as belonging to the Bushwhack family and wonders how Elle managed to take out the three of them.  (You'll see, dude.)  At the facility's "Employee Recreation Center" (i.e., the Golden Garter Club), Barnes meets a Mr. Menzes from the Wallace Corporation.  Weirdly, Barnes seems unaware that Wallace bought the Tyrell Corporation's remains.  Menzes' enormous bodyguard Tatsuo notes that Barnes was only able to retain his 32 Nexus 8s - including 12 pleasure models - because the Replicant ban exempts energy facilities.  Menzes is there because only 20 Nexus 8s remain.  Barnes claims the other 12 models broke or fled.

Menzes pulls back a sheet covering a pleasure model that was clearly killed and expresses surprise that the Replicants didn't attack Barnes or his men because even they have limits.  He announces that the abuse violates the contract and is confiscating the remaining Nexus 8s.  (I love that, in this world, the regulator was there for the Replicants not the fracking.)  After Tatsuo prevents Barnes from attacking Menzes, Menzes returns to his car.  In his conversation with a "Ms. Tyler," we learn he's really there searching for Elle and has a "dead or alive" order to retrieve her.

In an exposition-heavy sequence, we learn the co-op is a solar and wind farm that survived the Blackout because they didn't rely on the grid.  Their peace with Barnes is bought with their extra crops, but the situation is getting worse now that Barnes is exhausting the well.  The co-op runs on a "according to their gifts" philosophy, with Miguel's wife Nyoko serving as the medic.  She patches up Elle and shows her to her quarters.  There, Miguel and Nyoko's daughter Kaja invites Elle to play since the adults are all busy and the co-op doesn't get many newcomers.  In one of the issue's few character-driven moments, Kaja is surprised that Elle doesn't know how to play soccer and Elle touchingly admits that she's never "played" before.

Of course, this moment is ominous (because it's Elle) as Henchman #1 watches them from afar.  A few pages earlier, Barnes was in a rage over the loss of the Replicants.  He fears a walk-out once the men realize they've lost the pleasure models, though Henchman #1 is dismissive, saying the men can walk if they prefer skin jobs to paying ones.  Barnes throws a drink at him and blames Henchman #1 for the situation, implying he's the one killing the pleasure models.  (Henchman #1 is apparently Barnes cousin who he hired after Henchman #1's "discharge.")  Watching Elle and Kaja play, Henchman #1 orders an attack, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Although I love learning about the Blade Runner universe, this issue was a little too heavy on exposition.  Given how kinetic the Black Lotus TV series was, it felt odd to see Elle mostly just stand there with people talking at her.  That said, it looks like the action gets going next issue, which I'm excited to see.  It seems pretty clear Elle's "according to their gifts" gift is her ability to defend the co-op.  Poor Henchman #1.

Dark Beach #5:  As this series rushes to a conclusion, it all comes to a head, not surprisingly, at the Mayflower.  

It turns out Eve hid the incomplete data download that Schultz managed to get about Project Daydream at the Mayflower.  Thankfully, Roman doesn't realize that, because he's taken Lilly hostage as a way to get Eve to hand over the information.  Before Eve and Gordon arrive, Julyus appears to take out Roman.

Roman thinks he's outsmarted everyone:  once he gets the information from Eve, he'll upload it to a private server.  If he doesn't enter a password every two days, the information will get transmitted to a variety of economic and political elites, tipping off a "new age of corporate espionage and war."  Gordo tells Julyus that the New Reykjavik Corps of Engineers (NRCE) - whose chief, Jozef Stanley, hired Julyus - is trying to kill everyone to hide the fact they can anchor the Earth again.  Julyus contemplates his daughter and kills Roman.

Eve gives Julyus the data, and Julyus calls Stanley to tell him he's coming with it.  Julyus then tells Eve, Gordo, and Lilly that he's going to go into hiding but he'll let them know when Stanley realizes that he isn't coming with the data.  Gordo tells Julyus that they're going after the rest of it.  Gordo leaves the data at the Mayflower with a note for Duke, and then Eve, Lilly, and he head for the NRCE's Center for Science and Technology.

Looking at issue #6, we have two related questions that need answering.  First, it isn't clear to me what the "updated version" of Project Daydream is and why the NRCE decided to go with that plan over Daydream's original plan to re-anchor Earth.  Second, why does Stanley have "something to lose and everything to gain" by hiding the information that re-anchoring is possible?  Wouldn't he be a hero if he lead the project that made it happen?