What I Bought 6/29/2020 - Part 1

There were no comics out I wanted this week, and as far as I know, there aren't any I want coming out next week. But I have a few books from earlier in June that showed up, so let's take a look at the third issue of a couple of DC titles.

Amethyst #3, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Marissa Louise (colorist), Gabriela Downie (letterer) - I gotta say, compared to riding a giant caterpillar or a narwhal, a flying horse seems kinda dull.

Amy does receive help from the Kingdom of Aquamarine, except it's in the form of a prince who really doesn't want to accompany her. So there's some squabbling, they find an encampment of nomadic merchants, who Amethyst has to defend from Prince Topaz, and then they use a secret passage that Prince Maxixe knows to get them to Dark Opal's Castle Greyskull looking fortress.

I feel like Amethyst is supposed to be learning a lesson from all this, but a) I'm not sure what it is, and b) I don't think she's learning it. Phoss keeps insisting Amethyst spends too much time in her castle or up in the air with her flying horse, which feels significant. But Amy only seems to take the advice to interact with everyday people like the Banned under duress. She also doesn't seem very appreciative of the allies she does have, for as much griping as she does about all the people that won't help her. To be fair, she did grant the Banned safe haven in whatever is left of her kingdom, which is nice. She still has some sense of right and wrong, she's just weak on the concept of persuasion. Or negotiation.

I wonder if Amy has fallen into some bizarre reflection of Gemworld, where the people she could always trust are now against her, and those she couldn't are actually helpful. I don't know, just a gut feeling, which is almost certainly wrong given my awful track record of predictions.

The opening page is nice, a quick recap done as Amethyst explaining the situation to Lady Aquamarine, set against a backdrop of a map of Gemworld. I love the the lands apparently still form a giant skull. So odd, and given how often the different lands fight, you'd think they'd have spread the landmass out a little more. Make an archipelago in the form of a constellation or something like that. The lands of Diamond being the teeth is a nice touch.

Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #3, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Denys Cowan (penciler), Bill Sienkiewicz (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer) - Dang Vic, what did you eat to create that kind of a cloud?

In 1940, gumshoe Charles Sage takes a case from the sister of a missing factory worker. Maggie and her brother were encouraging the others to unionize, and Jacob's vanished. He barely gets started before some guys show up to gently suggest he drop the case. At which point Charles abruptly becomes the Question, beats their asses, and then turns back to normal. He continues working on the case, but keeps having flashes of being other people, in other times, which he doesn't understand. He gets captured and dragged to a building built on top of the mine the guy last issue died in. At which point Maggie shows up, and stabs him. Man with a Thousand Faces 2, Man with No Faces 0. But in the present, Vic thinks he knows what he's up against, and thinks it's going to tell him who he really is.

I don't know. Having the Question fight an enemy who can take on different appearances as it pleases, who can manipulate people from all walks of life and levels of money and influence, seems like an appropriate match up. As Richard Dragon notes, this isn't an enemy you can just choke the life out of, but Vic is a reporter, he can shine the light in other ways, if he remembers to.

At the same time, the whole past life thing just doesn't work great for me. Denny O'Neill and Denys Cowan gave the Question a certain amount of mysticism (or maybe spirituality is a better word), but he's not exactly magical himself. This smacks a little bit of whatever it was they did with him in the New 52, where he was an angel that forgot who he was. Or was he Judas? Or was that the Phantom Stranger? I know, I know, better to not bring up such things at all.

There are a few points in the issue where Charles' face almost disappears. Not counting the brief moment where he becomes a later reincarnation of himself. Mostly the eyes are shadowed to the point nothing is visible, but sometimes Cowan draws him so that even the mouth is a barely distinguishable line. Maybe it's just a mood thing - this is very much in line with a noir, with the private detective getting into hot water after a dame brings him a sob story - but it's usually when he's following a lead, or trying to put the pieces together. Trying to figure out what the right question is.