Ten-Month-Old Comics!: The August 2 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

Eleven-Month-Old Comics!: The May 10 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Black Cloak #5:  Holy fucking crap.  I did *not* see that coming.

I'll start by saying that McClaren is on fire throughout this issue.  I don't know how long it took her to get the floating staircase right in Phinneas II's apartment, but I want her to know that I see her and it's amazing.

The issue begins with Phinneas and his son, Devaki, on one couch and Phaedra and Nix on the facing one.  Phinneas apparently didn't know Phaedra knew he was her biological father, so they don't have the warm relationship I hoped they had when they met at the end of last issue.

Phaedra informs Phinneas that the Kiros Three are plotting against him, though Phinneas isn't particularly concerned as they've been plotting against him for years.  He respects humans, calling them some of the "brightest, most clever and most surprising of any beings living in Kiros," but frets that their short lifespans make them "ruthless, short-sighted, and desperate."  (Fair.)  To his mind, a human-ruled Kiros would be a disaster.  He expresses relief the elves are in charge, though Phaedra bursts that bubble when she reveals the Queen murdered Freyal.

Phinneas is appalled, since he knows the Queen loved Freyal "more than almost anything."  Phaedra points out the "almost" is the operative word there, though she agrees that the Queen loved Freyal.  She starts by saying that she doesn't think the Kiros Three are involved in the plot but merely taking advantage of a good hand.  Phaedra asks Phinneas what secret he thinks Freyal was hiding that the Queen would kill him to keep secret.  Phinneas responds that he doesn't have that kind of power, because - and, oof, this one had to hit Phaedra between the eyes - if he did, nothing in Kiros would've kept him from her.  Leaving that statement hanging, he announces that he'll fetch someone who might know the answer.  

While he's gone, Devaki brings Phaedra to a beautiful painting that isn't, as Phaedra says, "a print."  Devaki confirms that it's an original and tells her what he's going to do will be awkward but worth it.  He places her hand on the painting, informing her that only four prints in the world can activate it.  He encourages her to guess the passcode, which she does:  Phaedra.  (Again, oof.)  Suddenly, Phaedra experiences a flood of memories, some of which I think involve her.  Phinneas returns and tells Devaki that he shouldn't have shown Phaedra the painting as a grief-stricken Phaedra just stares at him.

Before Phinneas can explain, Phaedra and Nix pull their guns since Ividor, one of the elven wizards from previous issues, is standing next to him.  Ividor refuses to put up his hands, and Phinneas tells him to show them what he's holding because they all have the same problem.  He warns them that they might not like what they're going to see and opens his hands:  he's holding a baby taka.  OMG.  

Ividor reveals that he found the taka in the bowels of the castle, in an area "long closed off" but where people are now working in secret.  Phaedra asks, "On what?", to which Ividor responds, "I'd say that's our million-credit question, detective."  Indeed.  Phaedra tells the group that she has a plan that'll get them all killed if not court-martialed, and they're all game.  (Devaki smiles eagerly, so we totally love him.)  Ividor then departs.

In a literal example of Chekhov's gun, Phaedra inquires about the gun Devaki is holding, which is emphemeral.  Devaki explains that he and his father crafted it:  it made of magic and is as powerful as the magic channeled through it.  Phaedra and Nix leave (via Nix flying and carrying Phaedra), and Nix tells her that he likes her brother and father.  She confesses that she likes them, too.  

Nix asks if they're going straight to the North Tower, and Phaedra says no.  Since the seers and lookouts guarding the castle would easily notice people entering via the abandoned North Tower, she instead has them mingle into the crowd at a party in front of the West Tower.  The party is spectacular (Nix is appalled at some people wearing mechanical wings), and Phaedra directs Nix to a blind spot.  They enter an abandoned room in the Tower, move a stone, and follow a secret passage to a closet, where Phaedra finds clothes for them so they can blend more easily.  They look...ridiculous, in the best possible way.  It's like cyberpunk meets fantasy?  It's hilarious, and I hope McClaren had as much fun drawing it as I did looking at it.

The pair make their way to an elevator and, in another beautifully drawn sequence, through a series of passages to stairs under the North Tower (which, for reasons Thompson still hasn't told us, Phaedra says has been abandoned since she was a child).  They enter a cavern that almost looks like a Death Star inside, with a large mechanical object that resembles a heart hooked to a variety of pipes and tubes, all hanging over a blood-stained altar.  Nix expresses surprise that it wasn't more securely locked, but Phaedra says the people up there likely don't come down here since they don't want to know it exists.

Of course, they run into Hadrian, Phaedra's brother, who McClaren makes look like an '80s movie bully.  Phaedra dismisses his attempts to engage her, and they eventually handcuff him.  They find what Phaedra describes as a broom closet, where she hopes to drop Hadrian so they can investigate.  Suddenly the taka leaps from her cloak and gets all excited.  They find a door, prompting Nix to comment, "Door in a 'closet.'  Not a good sign."  They open the door to find a lab full of takas and large crystals.  

Holy fucking shit, are the elves sacrificing takas?!?

Dragon Age:  The Missing #4:  I don't know what I want to say about this one.  I generally have a low bar for these mini-series, and this one gets over it almost solely due to Varric's presence.  But the plot is thin at best.  

It turns out the Venatori were trailing Varric and Harding because Solas freed some of their slaves and attacked some of their sites, stealing artifacts from them.  The main goal of this issue is clearly the introduction of Neve Gallus, an "investigator" who works with a group called the Shadow Dragons, who are seemingly Tevinter do-gooders.  Neve leads Varric and Harding to one of the slaves who Solas freed, who informs them that the slaves aren't working for Solas anymore since he's leaving town.  When the slave mentions off-hand that the rest of the freed slaves are meeting that night to discuss what they should do next, Varric and Harding realize the Venatori probably think the elves are working for Solas just like they did.  They decide to let Solas slip through their fingers in order to protect the slaves from what the Venatoria, who they expect will try to recapture them.  

Varric and Harding realize at the end that Solas knew they'd help the elves instead of chasing him.  As a result, he realizes all his goals:  the elves are safe, the Venatori aren't on his tail, and he escaped Varric and Harding.  They realize that they need to chase Solas who he doesn't know as well as them, cueing up "Dragon Age:  Dreadwolf."

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #34:  I'm not really sure what happened here, to be honest.  

Vader seemingly kills Sabé after she refuses to hate and, thus, refuses to chose between power and suffering.  But Pak doesn't really explain why Vader is so focused on Sabé choosing one at this point in time.  In fact, he's really facing more pressing problems.  Before her "death," Sabé has a vision that, to her mind, confirms Anakin still has good in him, though Pak doesn't explain how Sabé is suddenly having visions.  

The issue ends with Vader taking out a Rebel party who stumbles upon him and takes their shot to kill him.  Vader seemed to know the Rebels were coming, though I don't know how he did as it feels totally random when it happens.  I thought Sabé brought him to a deserted planet so he couldn't hurt anyone?  Whatever.

Eleven-Month-Old Comics!: The April 12 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The March 15 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Black Cloak #3:  Thompson and McClaren deliver yet another spectacular issue as Thompson dives more into Kiros' history and precarious present.  

Over noodles, Phaedra exposits to Pax that people resent the Black Cloaks because law and order is a new concept in Kiros.  She stresses that they (the Black Cloaks) exist to prevent the sort of feuds that happened in the past, because Kiros, as the world's last city, would fail if those sorts of feuds reemerged.  It alludes to whatever happened to wipe out the rest of the world, and it seems clear that Freyal's murder is probably related to that larger reality (and not just succession politics).

In terms of that more specific mystery, Phaedra reveals that the scar on Freyal's tattooed arm was over the symbol for honor, meaning, as Pax says, he might've had something to confess.  Apparently Freyal and Phaedra had a secret spot in the Trees, so Phaedra explains that she's come there because Freyal might've left a message for her at the spot.  After Pax pleads with her to let him help her, she tells him about how the Kiros Three were in her apartment and tried to pin the murder on the dracona.  Pax tells her that the toxicology screen came back saying that Freyal had poison in his system and said poison used dracona blood as its base.  Given two dracona daggers are involved (presumably Thompson means the one used on Freyal and the one used on Phaedra), they agree someone is trying really hard to make it look like the dracona did it.

Pax carries Phaedra to the secret spot and asks how they go there without wings.  He correctly surmises they used "tech wings," which prompts him to comment on how he forgot how different their lives were...before.  Underscoring how tech exists here, Freyal's message is a hologram.  He confesses that he started unraveling after Phaedra left.  His mother became more distant, refusing to see him as a potentially good king.  But he unwound completely when he "found it."  He didn't know what to do, but he knew that he couldn't bring the information directly to Phaedra or "they'd" kill her.  It seems pretty clear that he killed himself as he contemplates ways of getting the message to her.  

As the Brownout ends, a flash of white light destroys the hologram, which Pax notes is their second "bright flash of light" (per the kids' testimony last issue).  They depart and, in the distance, a winged figure follows them.

During an interlude at the castle, Phaedra's friend Valorie is called before her professor, Master Ividor, after the Queen asked a question about the healing magic she used on Phaedra.  She walks him through the spells she used as well as a protection spell she created called the Hex of Solar.  Ividor is particularly interested in the purified dragon oil the spell uses, and Valorie explains that it's for regenerative purposes.  Ividor dismisses her and explains to the colleague that entered during the conversation that Phaedra survived the attack.  Dun-dun-DUN!  But Ividor doesn't think Valorie's spell was enough to save her, making it clear he may suspect she's part dracona.

At the Heights, Phaedra and Pax interview Dace's friend Renna.  Renna recognizes Phaedra as the "Black Cloak Frey was always going on about."  She noted Dace hated her because she was in love with Freyal and it was clear that he would always love Phaedra.  But Renna tells Phaedra that Freyal loved Dace as much as he could.  She tells them that dracona royals previously paid her a visit.  But Renna is street smart and knows that she could've been dealing with anyone, commenting that anyone capable of killing a prince is capable of magic that could fool her.  She remarks that there's nobody people like that can't get to, which makes Phaedra realize there is:  mermaids.

As I've previously said, it's hard to explain how dreamily wonderful this series is.  Moreover, Thompson opens up the world significantly in this issue.  Whereas before I could've seen it ending after ten or so issues, it's starting to feel like a much more immersive experience is in store for us, and I'm all for it.

The Forged #1:  I'll be honest:  the concept here is more fun than the execution.

The Forged are Her Eternal Majesty's SEALs, bred specifically to do her bidding.  We're introduced to a five-member team, which Victory leads, traveling on Her Majesty's Starfortress Her Endless Radiant Triumph.  The team's mission is to recover a black box from HMS The Ever Seeking Forward, which crashed on an uninhabited planet designated Gehenna D-54-C in the Hinterlands.  The team is skeptical about the mission, since it's pretty mundane given their usual missions.

Adding to the intrigue, the ship is carrying a Cassandra, seeresses who are part of the same breeding program as the Forged.  (She and Victory were in the same batch.)  They have telepathic powers and the Empress usually keeps them under lock and key, so everyone is curious about the fact that one is traveling on the ship with them.  The Cassandra calls for Victory and implants a memory into her brain that she then removes.  She then calls on the captain to deploy the team immediately upon arriving in realspace instead of engaging in standard security measures first.

Upon entering realspace, the Cassandra activates the memory she implanted in Victory, which prompts Victor to evacuate her team in their mecha suits immediately.  They plummet through space to Gehenna's surface while we watch the Cassandra board the deck and seemingly murder everyone.  Upon arriving on Gehenna's surface, Crazyjo spots Her Endless Radiant Triumph in ruins and plummeting towards them.  The team runs, which is how the story ends.

The back matter goes into more details about this reality, including the revelation that the Empress has lived and ruled for centuries from Homeworld in Sector Zero of the Throne Sectors.  For the most part, though, the back matter feels like a cheat, the reason why this story falls short of the heights Thompson reaches in "Black Cloak."  It's more exposition than character, but hopefully that'll improve.

No/One #1:  This story is complicated and immersive.  I love it.

Upfront, I'll mention this issue is hard to recap because it's pretty complicated.  Information unfurls slowly, so I'm going to use information provided later in the issue (particularly in the back matter) earlier than it appears, mostly to identify characters.

We begin with an artist and her boyfriend sneaking onto a patio connected to the gallery where her exhibit is opening, and they start to get busy on a couch.  (We're in Pittsburgh and it's snowing, so they must've been really horny.)  They discover a body lying on the patio as a Batman-like figure (i.e., No/One0 observes the scene from an above ledge.  

Later, at the crime scene, a detective named August Singh announces, "Fuck Richard Roe" to his partner, Kate Harper, and comments that they need to put four bullets in Roe's chest to, "send a message to all these fucking fakers."  We learn that this murder is the third murder related to a copycat, which the cops know because Roe is in prison.

The assistant police chief, named Ben Kern, arrives and learns the killer left a note in the deceased's jacket pocket.  Before he can ask the cops on the scene more questions, a cop arrives and tells Kern that Chief Mixon ordered him off the scene.  Meanwhile, a journalist named Julia Paige arrives and gets one of the cops controlling traffic outside the building to tell her that the victim is Louis Capel.  As Kern leaves, the press corps pepper him with questions, which is when we learn that his son, Aaron, is Roe.

Later, Singh and Harper speak with Capel's family. We learn that the No/One is a hactivist who engaged in a data drop last year that implicated several people in....something.  (The authors haven't made that clear yet.)  Capel's wife refers to him a builder, and it's clear the family believes that he was innocent, despite what No/One revealed in his drop.

Meanwhile, Julia learns that her bosses at the Pittsburgh Ledger want to spin off her "The Drop" site, which they set up the previous year to cover the No/One and Roe news, into a podcast.  Julia protests the podcast, because she's moved off the Metro desk to sports.  Her bosses stress that The Drop drove traffic to the Ledger's site and clearly hope the podcast will add more readers.  They've hired a guy from Edge News who helped "future-proof" that company with a similar strategy.

I'll break in here and say that Julia's reluctance to dive into this story, which stretches throughout the issue, seems ridiculous.  I don't know many journalists who would forgo their leading role in covering an internationally relevant story because they committed to covering the local sports team.  Julia also seems not to realize that print is in trouble, which, if true, means she isn't as good of a reporter as she claims.  I'd like Buccellato and Higgins to explore her motives more in future issues, because they don't really make sense to me here.

Later, at a diner, Julia argues with her boss, Teddy Barstow, because she doesn't want to be a columnist and complains about "new media divisions and over-produced audio."  As they're talking, a woman named Danielle Gaines approaches them.  At the crime scene, Julia mentioned Danielle's name, and we learn here that she's the Edge News reporter covering No/One and Roe.  Julia also notes that Danielle was part of the hacktivist group Veritas.  It's a chilly encounter, which Danielle senses and leaves.  Julia agrees to do the podcast, though I don't get why Danielle's presence seemingly convinced her.

Later, Ben meets his other son, Michael, at his wife's gravesite on her birthday.  We learn that Aaron confessed to Roe's crimes, namely killing two people, attacking a state senator, and shooting two cops.  That said, Michael seems skeptical.  Later, Ben meets Aaron in prison.  We learn the copycat who killed Capel left behind five shell casing just like Roe (though only shot Capel four times) and the note in the jacket said, "I am the real Richard Roe."  Aaron doesn't give Ben anything, so he leaves.

As Ben drives home, he listens to a broadcast where we learn Capel was the last person attacked of the four people No/One originally doxxed, joining Dr. Julian Colon, Edwin Lin, and state senator Noah Kemp (who survived).  As one of the reporters ask why no one has arrested Ben, a masked figure approaches his car with a gun.  Ben says, "Do it," and, as the figure shoots, No/One appears.  The figure (which the back material confirms is Copycat #3) and No/One engage in a fight, and an errant bullet wounds Kern.  The figure flees, and a bleeding Kern asks who No/One is.

Meanwhile, we get a series of scenes where a guy in a car is ominously approaching a target.  Buccellato and Higgins build up the tension as these scenes are interspersed with scenes of Julia, Michael, and Singh, making it unclear who the target is.  It seems like it's Singh when someone calls his name, but instead it's Harper telling him that the shell casings match the original Roe gun.  We learn Michael is the target when we see him shot on the street, surrounded, again, by five casings.  The back matters confirms Copycat #3 is the shooter and Michael died, though Ben survived.

At this point, the rest of the back matter fills in some of the blanks.  

On Aaron's "Knowpedia" page, we learn the cops booked him under the "Richard Roe" name when they busted him for possession in high school.  (He apparently spiraled after his mother died when he was 12 years old.)  Most oddly, we learn No/One prevented Aaron (or, at least, Richard Roe) from murdering Senator Kemp in his first appearance and that Aaron shot the police officers as he fled the scene.  The cops found him and items linking him to the crimes at the Carrie Blast Furnaces after an anonymous tip.  

On a timeline, Danielle is all over the initial revelations, including publishing No/One's website link for the first time.  We also learn that No/One is the one who captured Aaron at the Furnaces, apparently leaving him restrained for the police.  Danielle was the one to out Aaron as Roe a month later.  We also learn No/One apprehended the first two copycat killers, Oliver Simpson and Luke Cavanaugh, though I don't think we learn who their victims were.

In other words, it's a lot.  I love it, but only a few people (including Buccellato and Higgins) could handle a story this complicated.  That said, it's still confusing.  We've got three copycats, so four murderers, and five victims (not including the two cops Aaron or Richard Roe shot).  I could really use some photos and red string.

Star Wars:  Yoda #5:  The point of this issue, presumably, is to show how quickly a student can fall to the Dark Side, as Krrsish attacks Gheyr due to his ongoing visions that she will turn to the Dark Side and attack him.  

However, perhaps unintentionally, the issue only serves to highlight how the Jedi Order failed its youngest members.  The cover image shows Yoda drilling the students for war, a reminder of how ridiculous his and other Jedi's insistences that they were a peace-keeping force were.  Moreover, Yoda intervenes after Krrsish shoves Ghery but fails to probe deeper when Krrsish says that a vision motivated his actions.  Given the hostility between the Trandoshans and Wookiees, Yoda seemed overly confident that his admonishment that such animosity doesn't belong at the Jedi Temple would work.  

Moreover, Dooku, still a Jedi at this point in time, does little (shocker) to assuage Krrsish's anxiety.  Krrsish didn't reveal the full nature of his vision to Yoda, per Dooku's advice last issue, but Dooku knows its severity and simply advises him to keep watch.  During their conversation, Yoda warns Krrsish that anger, fear, and hate are paths to the Dark Side but clearly doesn't believe he's a true threat.  He's clearly wrong, yet again.

In other words, I'm really starting to feel like the Jedi were asking for their comeuppance.

Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 22 Top-Shelf Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Black Cloak #2:  This series is, bar none, the best on the market and everyone should read it now!

We begin with Phaedra on a slab in the morgue.  She isn't dead, though.  Nida enters as Phaedra awakens and informs her that the assailant stabbed her with a dracona dagger and informs *us* that only draconas are likely to survive assaults from dracona daggers.  Dun-dun-DUN!  Phaedra mentions off-handedly that someone attacked her at the castle, and Nida interrupts her, shocked, since Phaedra hadn't told her about the attack yet.  Phaedra dismisses the castle attack as "honor bullshit" but notes that the dracona attack was definitely not that.

To explain how she isn't dead, Phaedra recalls that the elves magically healed her after the castle attack, so they could argue the magic persisted and saved her.  Nida points out the small pair of wings Phaedra grew suggests she tell everyone the truth.  Phaedra refuses, saying people will kill her mother and possibly her father.  Nida is enraged that Phaedra has to live her life in exile, fearing "honor killings and retribution at any moment," thus directly tying Phaedra's exile to her heritage.  It sounds like she had to leave to keep the secret, but I wonder what the cover story for leaving was.  Phaedra tells Nida that she likes her life, but Nida isn't buying it.

After Nida leaves, Phaedra realizes that she's next to Freyal's body.  Upon inspection, she finds a scar in his tattoo, which the computer diagnoses as probably self-inflected.  A tearful Phaedra asks his body why he would do that and laments that he's cold, noting that he always hated the cold.

In a flashback, Phaedra's mother recalls when the tattoos were a solemn rite, which she hated, because she felt bound by it.  But she says all the kids think they're cool so they love them.  Phaedra replies that she loves Freyal and the tattoo is just a bonus.  She realizes though that her mother was saying that she didn't love her father, and her mother slyly tells her that she loved her father more than anything.  Phaedra realizes that the stories don't align, but Freyal arrives in time to distract her.  They have a lovely moment but, as they kiss, Phaedra feels an itch, not realizing that her nascent wings cause it.

Leaving the morgue, Phaedra encounters Pax as he reviews the "lookie-loos" he's had to interview (and accuses Phaedra of almost getting killed just to avoid the interviews.)  

After interviewing a few lunatics together, they come to Romu and Iona, who I think are two of the hooligans who were at the Lookout last issue.  Iona tells Phaedra that they're there because mermaids get a bad rap.  Romu tells Phaedra and Pax that he and Iona stayed after the other two hooligans (Jessup and Tomig) left.  Apparently if the wind is right you can hear the mermaids, which Romu describes as a test of wills.  As they watched (Romu says they "do really cool stuff"), a figure in a "long, dark hooded cloak" floated to the beach carrying a body.  Romu then saw a flash of light, and the body was gone and the figure was already at the wall leaving.  Iona tells Phaedra that she saw the "big flash of gold light," but Romu had the spyglass so she can't confirm everything else other than that she saw a figure.

Suddenly, a noise signaling "ten ticks until the Brownout" happens, and Iona and Romu panic, telling the detectives that they have to get home before their parents get mad.  After the kids leave, Pax notes that their figure didn't have wings so he assumes it used magic to float.

At home, Phaedra realizes that she isn't alone, and three very well dressed humans reveal themselves.  The woman is surprised Phaedra senses them since they were "well cloaked."  Phaedra tells them that she knows who they are:  the woman is Elea Veris, and the men are Galal III of Veris and Aldric II of Solas.  Phaedra describes them as the three most powerful humans in Kiros.  

Galal is apparently the next in life for the throne now that Freyal is dead, which is an interesting political arrangement.  Phaedra notes that it would shift power from the elves to humans for the first time.  Galal tells Phaedra that they want their names cleared so they don't ascend the throne under a scandal, and Phaedra notes that the Queen is still alive and will outlive them all.  Galal responds with a muted, "Of course," instantly putting our suspicion on them (particularly given that they're magic users).  

When Phaedra asks what they want, Galal responds that they don't want anything from her:  they want to give her a "nice juicy lead."  Next, Phaedra is exiting her apartment and calling Pax to meet her at the Trees, where he apparently already is.  She passes through a beautiful gate warning non-fliers to proceed with caution and takes a ferris wheel-like elevator into the Trees.  Cryptically, the issue ends with Phaedra saying to the camera (if you will), "Let's see what you can tell me yourself, Freyal."

As I mentioned last issue, the world-building here is spectacular.  Thompson has created a world so full of detail that it feels impossible that we'd ever come to grasp its full historical, political, and social realities, even in 100 issues.  Moreover, we get most of this information not through expository monologuing but through character development.  Moreover, McLaren's love of the story is clear in each line she draws and color she paints.

 Again, I can't recommend it enough.

Dragon Age:  The Missing #2:  I don't particularly remember Solas as turning people to stone, but I might've glossed over that detail after learning that he was the elven god responsible for creating the Fade.  But it's a relevant piece of data, since Varric and Harding arrive at Lady Crysanthus' estate in Vyrantium to discover her petrified (and the Antaam sieging Vyrantium).  After shaking down Crysanthus' valet, Varric and Harding discover a secret room showing her efforts to help the Venatori make a strike against the Imperium.  (I'm assuming she'd benefit from a Venatori-led Imperium.)  She and the Venatori sought the Crucious Stone, some sort of elven magical artifact in the Arlathan forest, where only a few Dalish tribes reside.  It seems clear now that the invitation we saw at the end of last issue is one Crysanthus sent the Venatori and Solas intercepted.  To Arlathan we go!

Local Man #1:  I picked up this series because I loved Seeley's work on "Grayson" and "Nightwing," and I'm thrilled I did.  Like Seely, I was a 15 year old (well, 16 year old) kid when "Youngblood" hit the stands, and I couldn't have been more excited.  I didn't totally understand it, and the focus on sex made me nervous.  (Shaft made me feel...things second only to the way Spartan from "WildC.A.T.s" made me feel...things.)  Like Seeley says here, it felt freeing to see Liefeld tell the story that he wanted to tell, one of the first times that comics seemed to depict superheroes the way that they'd likely exist in reality.

I'm thrilled to say Seeley and Fleecs capture that feeling in a bottle here.  First, they ramps up my excitement when Jack's mother asks him if he's tried getting Brigade or Cyberforce to hire him.  The authors doesn't just get the vibe of that Imageverse (which they totally get) but make it clear we're actually in that universe.  I enjoyed Chad Bowers' reboot of "Youngblood," as it was filled with the same bold-faced narrative and brightly colored action as the original series were.  But Seeley and Fleecs are taking the vibe of that era and infusing it with...well, a plot.  The art drives home this point, as the issue's color palette is subdued when portraying Jack's present and bold when portraying Third Gen.

Getting to the basics, the aforementioned "Jack" is Jack Xaver, formerly Crossjack of Third Gen.  Third Gen enterprises fired Jack for reasons that aren't clear.  It *is* clear that he's a disgrace, something his mother actually calls him when he arrives home.  (Also driving home that point is when a guy recognizes him sitting at the bus stop and yells out, "Fuck Crossjack.")  Jack escapes home for a bar where a guy named Hodag busts past the bouncer.  Jack thinks he wants to fight him and doesn't give Hodag a chance to reveal that he's there to tell him about a "place" he went.

After Jack gets thrown from the bar, his high-school sweetheart Inga takes him to her diner.  You get the sense that Inga isn't as happy as her Facebook page implies she is, but their conversation is interrupted when Third Gen appears to serve Jack papers for using a shield in his fight, contrary to his agreement.  Jack declines Inga's offer of a ride home (possibly because he knows something might develop) and is surprised to find to his parents' elderly dog, Pepper, in a field.  Pepper is more than she appears:  Jack swears she was 14 years old when he left home, and she evades the projectile he throws at her in the field despite his later insistence that he never misses.

But Pepper isn't the only mystery, as someone kills Hodag in his cell as he's yet again talking about how he's hoping to tell Jack about the place that can make the pain disappear.

All in all, it's a wonderful start.  I'm here for where Seeley and Fleece are taking us.

Star Wars:  Yoda #4:  This series is taking the vignette approach of similar series, though the recent "Star Wars:  Obi-Wan Kenobi" series felt more coherent than this one.  

Starting off this arc, Yoda invites Count Dooku to spend time with the recent class of Padawans.  Dooku becomes the confidante of a Wookiee Padawan who had a vision that the Trandoshians were going to massacre his people.  It's notable because one of the Wookiee's friends is a Trandoshian, which Yoda sees as evidence of what Jedi training can achieve by removing Padawans from their people's prejudices.  When the Wookiee tells Dooku about his vision, Dooku suggests the young Wookiee tell no one of his vision, alluding to the fate of Sifo-Dyas, his old yet seemingly estranged friend.

It's all fine, but it feels more like AI-generated fan-fiction right now than anything else.  Like the first arc, I don't particularly feel like I've gotten any insight into Yoda himself.  It's mostly Yoda being Yoda.

Undiscovered County #23:  Snyder and Soule are vamping here, as we don't really learn anything new.  

Future Chang and future Janet bring Present Chang and Present Janet to a movie theater to reveal the world's greatest secret, whatever it was that they saw in America that made them decide to kill Ace, Charlotte, and Daniel.  However, Ace arrives with a souped up Buzz and ruins the party before we can learn more.

In the flashback (flash forward?), Future Chang and Future Janet reveal that they only need to stop Charlotte and Daniel from reaching the center of the Spiral (and not necessarily to prevent them from leaving America with the Sky cure).  Future Ace has Future Valentina flee, which she does, but Future Valentina doesn't reveal why Future Chang and Future Janet let her live out her days in the Empire.  She tells Present Ace that she doesn't know why they decided to act agains their colleagues, so I guess she wasn't a risk.

In the past, Charlotte and Valentina swipe Lavant's tablet, which controls time, and escape through a variety of timelines until Lavant attacks them at Gettysburg.  I don't really get the physics here, to be honest.  Lavant told Charlotte and Valentina that Aurora was able to create all these timelines, but he actually becomes Abraham Lincoln, implying a higher level of manipulation than I thought.  I guess that makes sense, since the whole point of Zone History is to manipulate events to see how they create different outcomes.

This arc still remains intriguing, as it feels like the "greatest secret" will change what we understand about how Aurora works and where the team fits into her plans.  But it's time to get there.

Six-Month-Old Comics: The January 11 Edition - Part 1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #17:  OMG, this issue is awful.

On the plus side, the art is great:  McGuiness should draw Limbo demons full-time.  

Unfortunately, the issue also has words.

Ben decides to get Peter to eat the apple by casting him, JJJ, Jr., and Robbie in a work-place comedy set at The Bugle with the demons as the other employees.  I'm not kidding.  I'm not saying it isn't funny, but it goes to this event's  - and series' - main problem, the fact Wells can't decide if it's funny or serious.  

In a great example of that problem and pet peeve #3, Madelyne expresses concern that Ben isn't taking their plans seriously enough.  If he really wants Peter to eat the apple, why not just threaten all his loved ones with death?  But I'm not giving Wells credit for Madelyne pointing out his flaws.

In other words, Wells doesn't really explain why Ben is playing with his food here, and the story suffers for it.

Black Cloak #1:  Holy fucking shit, this issue is the best issue of a comic I've read in a really long time.  

McClaren and Thompson employ restraint to create a totally immersive experience.  McClaren's limited line strokes creates a fully realized reality, and Thompson's equally sparse script underscores the tension between the characters as they're reluctant to say what they feel.

You need to buy this comic now.

The issue's opening text informs us that Kiros is the known world's last city due to a cataclysmic war that happened hundreds of years ago.  The heroes defeated the great evil, but something is rotten in the state of Kiros.  As the unnamed narrator says, it "turns out beings get along better when there's a great evil to be vanquished."

The action begins when a mermaid crawls onto the beach at the Lagoon, spits up some black-looking liquid, and then collapses on the beach.  A group of screeching mermaids stare at her from the water and then throw a dead body next to her before departing.

On Merchant Row, a satyr named Vaissac attacks a black-cloaked elf.  She punches him, as she apparently does every week.  She tells him that they could either get along or ignore each other.  He tells her that he'll never be "good neighbors" with a "fucking Black Cloak." As the elf enters Coffee, Curios & Curiosities, demonic-looking rats attack Vaissac, and the elf uses her...magic gun? to scare them into fleeing.

The elf is Detective Phaedra Essex.  The store's proprietor, Laurel, shows her the prototype of a robotic taka (a cat-like creature) that she bought.  Phaedra is appalled because she was raised with a real taka before they went extinct.  Phaedra then gets a call and heads to the Salty Crow in the Narrows.

A the Crow, a (sexy as fuck) elf with a gold-flecked chest wound is lying naked on a bed.  A pair of cops are on the scene with a detective, and one of the cops, Clem, tells the detective, Pax, that the elf's tattoos use royal ink.  Pax asks Clem if he "netted" the room, and Clem responds that someone named Nina had done so.  Nina apparently didn't have her "soulprint" on her, though so she wasn't able to identify the elf.  Pax has his soulprint on him, but before he can scan the body a photographer appears in the doorway.  Pax tells the other cop, Benny, to control the crime scene and "get that capture."  Pax puts a set of goggles (I assume the soulprint) on the body, but they don't work.

Phaedra enters and identifies the elf as Freyal III of Sidra, the heir to the throne and Phaedra's fiancé at some point.  Pax suddenly yells, "The capture!" and manifests wings before leaping out the window.  Phaedra sends Clem after Pax and spends a moment with Freyal's body, showing a matching tattoo and telling him quietly how much she missed him.

Pax returns and tells Phaedra that Clem has "the capture" and is taking him to the station, though I still don't know what "the capture" is or how or why it escaped.  Pax and Phaedra then discuss how the murderer clearly used a dracona dagger due to the gold-flecked wound.  Phaedra tells Pax that she and Freyal were raised together and were best friends though she hadn't seen him in years.

They discuss how the Crow is a "glorified flophouse above a bar known for prostitution."  They go to the bar to interrogate the bartender, and this scene is a marvelous fantasy version of the Mos Eisley cantina.  Apparently an elf girl named Dace rented the room for the last three cycles, and the bartender confirmed she was with Freyal when he first rented the room to her.  Upon leaving the bar, Phaedra calls someone and asks them to pull out the mermaid the Crow was keeping in a tank.  (She mentions she saw tail rot.  Oof.)

At HQ, the captain exposits that Phaedra is exiled from the elven realms.  The conversation is interrupted when she and Pax are sent to the Lagoon because Nida has identified the dead woman as Dace.  Disturbingly, Phaedra asks why the mermaids didn't eat her, cueing up the enormous chunk of flesh missing from her back.  

Nida (who's a bat-like humanoid) opens the mouth of the dead mermaid next to Dace, causing Pax to panic.  Nida notes the mermaid is dead, but Pax's panic at Nida even touching the body makes you realize we're not dealing with Ariel here.  Nida notes a bit of flesh in the dead mermaid's teeth and the nearby bile, and Phaedra realizes that someone used a strong enough poison on Dace that it can kill a mermaid in one bite.  Based on their interactions, Nida and Phaedra are in a relationship, and they're adorable.

Before Phaedra leaves, Nida tells Phaedra that she's worried about Phaedra seeing her family because of the "old laws."  Phaedra stresses that the Black Cloak "should" protect her, and Nida notes that "should" is a "fucked-up word."  Pax and Phaedra discuss how you usually dump bodies in the Lagoon hoping the mermaids eat them, but the murderer may not have known that someone had already poisoned Dace.  So we may have two people trying to murder her?  

Pax interviews a nearby guard, Jakel, who tells Pax that he wasn't working the previous night.  (Throughout the issue, we see the security surrounding the Lagoon to keep out trespassers.)  Pax asks Jakel to turn down his music, which Jakel suggests is a bad idea.  When Pax insists, he does, and the mermaids immediately start screeching.  Pax allows Jakel to turn on the music again, and, on my second reading, I realized everyone near the water is wearing headphones.  

Jakel tells Pax that someone named Edgar was working the previous night.  He exposits that the guards are under constant surveillance so Edgar wouldn't likely have let someone into the Lagoon for fear of getting fired.  Jakel says that they only way to enter is through a gap where the cliff meets the wall, though it's usually sealed.

On Lookout Point, Phaedra notes that anyone up there could see the whole Lagoon.  She interviews four hooligans and tells them that someone killed a mermaid.  One of the hooligans quips that mermaids kill people, and Phaedra responds that it matters when they all kill each other.  She tells the hooligan who seemed the most cooperative that she might have something to pay in exchange for information, but one of the other hooligans tells her that they're not "wraiths" and don't work with Black Cloaks.  HQ calls Phaedra and tells her that she's clear to go to Castle Kiros.  She leaves while Pax stays at the Lagoon to investigate.

At the castle gates, Phaedra remembers playing with Freyal and the taka, Mister Starlight.  They're using a dracona dagger to cut a "very powerful tree," and we learn dracona daggers have dragon blood in them.  Before she can enter the castle grounds, someone knocks Phaedra unconscious.

In the Queen's private chambers, the Queen apolgizes for the "misunderstanding," and Phaedra comments that someone people have trouble letting go of the old rules.  The Queen notes that Phaedra's black cloak likely precipitated the attack, again making it clear that Black Cloaks aren't welcome.  Phaedra disagrees, saying she believes that it was her brother Hadrian.  

The Queen tells Phaedra she's called for a healer and asks how Freyal died.  Phaedra says that they don't yet know but she asked to see her in the hope that she'd hear about Freyal's death from her and not a stranger.  The Queen archly asks if Phaedra isn't a stranger, because she hasn't seen her in 20 years, and Phaedra parries that her exile wasn't her choice.

The healer, Valorie, enters.  Before the Queen can leave, she asks Phaedra if it occurred to her that Freyal would be alive if Phaedra hadn't been exiled.  (It's an interesting use of the passive voice, there, since the Queen presumably exiled her.  Guilt, your majesty?)  Freyal and Phaedra would've been married, and she'd perhaps have a grandchild "instead of...nothing."  Phaedra tells that it weights heavily on her that three lives were lost, and the Queen is surprised to hear about Dace and the mermaid.  (I'm guessing Phaedra was fishing to see if the Queen recognized Dace's name.)  

The Queen leaves, and Phaedra and Valorie enthusiastically greet each other.  Valorie suggests removing Phaedra's cloak to heal the wound, but Phaedra panics, making it clear the cloak isn't just a cloak.  Valorie heals Phaedra, who says that she feels 20 years younger.  A guard then arrives to escort Phaedra to the Silver Gate.  In the halls, Phaedra sees her mother, but her brother arrives to drag her mother from that "traitorous trash."  Phaedra tells that guard that she knows how to leave, and the guard threatens that her cloak doesn't protect her as much as she thinks it does.

Pax meets her at the gate, and they take an elevator down to the Heights. Pax marvels at the view, and Phaedra tells him that it's a lie curated for royalty.  She notes the elevator doesn't go below the Heights, which means the royals don't even see half of Kiros.  She comments darkly on the forces that don't want the nobility to see the reality that exists in that other half.  

The captain calls them back to HQ, where they encounter more demonic rats, which are apparently called wraiths (explaining the hooligan's comment, since wraith are this world's rats).  At the Department, it's chaos because all sorts of people have arrived to confess to killing Freyal, to carrying his lovechild, to being his lovechild, or to witnessing the murder.

Before Pax and Phaedra can start interviewing them, a kid with a glowing knife murmurs, "For Kiros," and stabs Phaedra before cutting his throat.  We end the issue with Pax holding Phaedra's bloody body.

Beyond the murder mystery itself, we're also in the dark about a lot of dynamics at play here.  Why does everyone hate the Black Cloaks?  It seems the only thing that unifies everyone is that hatred.  Why are the mermaids cannibals?  Did they follow the Great Evil or were they victims of it?  What's a "capture?"

Again, this triple-sized issue is spectacular.  It's worth every moment spent with it.  The art is unbelievable.  Thompson's story is unbelievable.  I'm all fucking in.

Blade Runner 2039 #2:  Ho boy, the chickens are coming home to roost!

Ash takes Lexi, the replicant from last issue, to a desolate place populated with only a trailer.  Ash enters expecting Freysa but sees an unknown man.  She draws a gun before she realizes Freysa is with him.  Ash tells Freysa that she should've told her that they were going to have visitors, and Freysa introduces him as "an old friend from the trenches" named Sapper.  Freysa notes that Ash herself has brought a stranger, and Ash introduces Lexi.  It's clear through their interactions that their relationship is tense.

At LAPD HQ, a bodiless voice coming from the device on Luv's desk is chastising her for her treatment of the officer last issue.  The voice tells her she's confined to HQ but she tells the voice that she's going to Santa Barbara on Niander Wallace, Jr.'s orders and the voice relents.  

At the former Selwyn estate in Santa Barbara, "Ms. Penelope" greets Luv, who marvels at the fresh water coming from the fountain.  Luv notes that Penelope's butler is a Nexus-8 Replicant, and Penelope tells her that she has dispensation from the police to own one.  When Luv tells Penelope that she can sense Nexus-8s, Penelope marvels at the "poetic" nature of Wallace making Replicants to catch Replicants.  

At the trailer, Ash installs one of the eyes in Freysa, and Freysa installs the other one in Ash, since her eye was apparently looking "diseased" like her spine and, lately, her lungs.  Freysa encourages Ash to stay, but Ash tells Freysa that Lexi told her about the Replicant Blade Runner.

At Selwyn's estate, Luv tells Penelope that Wallace thinks Selwyn may have left 

"sensitive material" hidden there.  Penelope knows that Wallace wants Luv to turn the estate upside down looking for what Selwyn knew, but Penelope refuses.  Luv tells Penelope that she doesn't need Penelope's cooperation, and Penelope and her butler kick Luv's ass.  Apparently Luv's ability to detect older Replican models isn't so great, because Penelope reveals herself as Hythe.  

To make matters more interesting, Cleo arrives on Earth!  

This series is playing for keeps, y'all.

Captain America:  Symbol of Truth #9:  This issue is better than the previous ones but still not good.

The kid who magically knows everything happening in Mohannda tells the adults that the government has bombed the hospital.  Nomad knows that it's a trap, but Cap insists that they go, so they all go.  What, you wouldn't take all the resistance forces to one place where the enemy could easily annihilate them?  Coward.

As the team helps survivors at the hospital, one of them tells Cap that someone evacuated many of the doctors before the attack, but apparently no one thinks it's significant.  Instead, they just rescue the doctors so they can get to work helping the other survivors.  Everyone is surprised when militarized Phrox from Dimension Z appear, no one more than Ian, who notes that they helped Steve raise him.

Sam realizes that they're in trouble since he puts together that the White Wolf has access to Zola tech.  Nightshade suggest that the White Wolf has "some sort of technology conduit" or "maybe a signal transmitter," though I don't get why summoning portals to Dimension Z would require a transmitter.  Anyway, she's confident she can understand Zola's technology.  

Sam leads the Phrox from the hospital but then decides the White Wolf must be keeping the transmitter in the sky because anyone could reach it on the ground.  (Look, I'm just trying to hang in here.)

On said ground, Nightshade declares a strong signal is coming from the Parliament, which is impressive since she's holding a gun and not some sort of signal detector.  But they all decide to head to Parliament.  Sam destroys the sky-based transmitter, but it only disables the portals.  (I'm not sure why they thought the Phrox would disappear simply because the portals were no longer working, but they did.)  

Suddenly, Falcon arrives in full vampire mode and declares that he's going to kill Sam for abandoning him.  I mean, what the fuck?  Last time we saw him, he was asking his grandmother for help and now he's a vampire intent on murdering Sam in Mohannda   What's next?  Is D-Man going to arrive as a zombie mad at Sam for missing poker night?

God, I hate this series.

Know Your Station #2:  We end this issue where we ended the last one:  Elise finds a body (well, two bodies this time), and she's the only person who accessed the room where they were killed, according to St. Brigid.  

It seems pretty clear that St. Brigid is, knowingly or not, assisting the killer in covering their tracks.  Given Elise is detoxing from the Blue, she isn't as sharp as she normally is, making it easier for the killer.  

Beyond the killer's identity, this issue's biggest mystery is where Pritchard's body went, given it disappeared from Elise's tub, where St. Brigid initially stashed it.  

If I had to guess, Marin - who whispers something to Elise that she won't remember since she's detoxing - is in love with Elise and killing her enemies, given Raulsson and his wife are the bodies Elise finds here.  We'll see.