Hey, I finally got some comics! There were about six books I wanted out last week, plus one from the week before, and one from May I missed entirely somehow. So we're set into the middle of next week on reviews.
So let's get to it, starting with an Annual and the fourth issue of a mini-series.
Felicia and her crew decide to take an overseas vacation, but are detained in South Korea by White Fox. She needs Felicia to help because some crime boss has got Korea's version of Superman (or Hyperion, whatever) over a barrel and are demanding the country be placed under their control. She's got a whole team of superheroes to face Taegukgi, but she needs someone to help with the criminals. And she took a page from Amanda Waller and jammed a bomb in Felicia's neck. Sorry, nanomunitions.
Turns out, the gangsters aren't blackmailing him, they busted out some Korean Shadow King to possess him. But the guy decided being Taegukgi is pretty cool and killed them all. Whoops. Felicia found him before White Fox, and lifted the nanomunition injector thing and once they trick the guy's mind back into his body, she lets him monologue a bit and then kills him. Not sure how she knew it would only trigger his and hers, but I'm assuming her luck powers would cause the ones injected into her to malfunction anyway.
There's a five-page thing after this about Nick Fury trying to find these people the Infinity Stones are bonded to and getting ambushed by what looks like some version of Nighthawk, going by the silhouette. I don't care about that, so I'm grateful it stayed out of the main story. Not that the main story was spectacular. Felicia feels like bystander for stretches of it, since MacKay's gotta introduce most of the characters (who do sound cool, to be fair). And White Fox has to compel Felicia's help somehow, because otherwise this isn't the sort of thing she'd bother with. Feel like they could have done the thing where she's in the middle of a job and this whole mess erupts around her, but MacKay did already use that when Blastaar showed up while she was trying to swipe a book from under Johnny Storm's nose.
Vazquez gave White Fox a very different costume from the one she was rocking last time I saw her (that Domino: Hotshots mini-series), but it does help distinguish her from Felicia more. And the sort of holographic multiple tails things is a neat touch, even if I can't see any practical use for it. I feel like Vazquez maybe elongates arms too much, or maybe it's just how skinny her draws Felicia's arms that makes it seem that way. I did enjoy the two pages cutting back and forth between Felicia and Fox' fight against the mercenary death cult and the rest of Tiger Division getting pummeled by Taegukgi, even if the ladies costumes naturally get the strategic tearing effect.
Dane drank from the chalice so he knows lots of horrible things now. Like how Merlin started banishing anything from Camelot that didn't meet the image he wanted it to project, creating a sterile, I hesitate to use the word Puritanical given that wouldn't have existed but Spurrier does, myth. And how all the past wielders of the Ebony Blade tried to convince themselves they could bear up under the misery of what they did for a greater purpose, but all of them broke and became monsters eventually. So after fighting Mordred a bit, Dane drops his sword and lets himself be knifed in the gut.
Elsa already left because Mordred handed over the chunk of the Bloodstone so she can resurrect her father. After telling Jacks that, as an orphan, she wouldn't understand the importance of family bonds. Elsa Bloodstone for Biggest Asshole of 2021. I mean, I'd expect that from Emma Frost or Monet, but it feels needlessly cruel for Elsa. But it keeps her from persisting in shooting at Mordred, so plot must be served. Mordred grabs up all the enchanted thingamajigs, except the Blade, to form an Ebony Crown he will use to conquer Britain. Between this guy and the villains from The Union, everyone's trying to conquer the British Isles. Hell, they'd probably be better leaders than Boris Johnson.
When Jacks tries to use the sword to stop him, she's reduced to dust. And since she's presumably not of Arthur's bloodline, it won't resurrect her like it did Dane. Meanwhile, Dane (who knew that was gonna happen to her and just let it), crawled off to die in a bathroom. Well, real feel-good issue there. No, seriously. You can always remind yourself you aren't as big a fuck-up as Dane Whitman when you're feeling down.
No, I know, he's seen how it ends, so there's some big twist coming he knew had to play out like this. Jacks will be back, presumably Dane will, too. Maybe Jacks is descended from Merlin, which might explain her ability to speak with the raven. Maybe Elsa pulls her head out of her ass, maybe she doesn't.
Multiple inkers and colorists rarely bodes well, but the art stays solid here. Davila draws Dane as hunched over, like he's being crushed under a great weight (or about to hurl). The only point where he really stands up straight is the moment he decides he's going to let go of the sword. He's not trying to think of or use all the painful stuff to empower the sword. He's made a decision and come to peace with it.
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