Since I was out of town last week (which turned into its own little disaster), I tried ordering last week's books online. I only found three of the ones I wanted, and they arrived Saturday. I was already out that, and managed to find one of the other books I was looking for, plus a couple of others we'll get to Wednesday. For now, I figured I'd start with the two Marvel books, because I'm very tired and there's less to explain.
Dane's bleeding out, Jacks was disintegrated, Elsa flew off, and Mordred combined the remaining ebony items in a crown, which he's hooked into the files from the e-therapist app he created. That gives him access to everyone else's pain, fear, doubts, resentments, which grant him great magic while those people pay the cost. Guy should be an attorney with his ability to exploit loopholes. In the midst of this, he stumbles across the recording of Dane's final words, his confession that he bailed on his his college girlfriend when she went to England for cancer treatments. Which she did not survive, because she refused radiation. Because she was pregnant, with Dane's kid, who is, drumroll, Jacks! Ta-da! Meaning she's part of Arthur's bloodline too, so the Ebony Blade brings her back, confused and full of rage.
I figured, with her being able to speak with Merlin's raven, she had to be tied to Arthur's line somehow, but I figured she might be a distant descendant some other way. Maybe Mordred's great-great-great-grandaughter. I guess if he was so focused on making sure there'd be no one to challenge him for the throne, he wouldn't be careless about those sorts of things. Or, as Dane says, he'd just dismiss the possibility of a woman being a threat.
(I'm betting that doesn't jibe with any number of Arthurian legends that would point out women being dangerous and capable as hell, but I'm not reading through them to confirm that.)
Anyway, while Jacks and a returned Elsa throw down with Mordred, Dane's recording is chipping away at Mordred, too. Because the Chalice made sure Dane saw all this coming. Including that Mordred listening to Dane's voice while wearing the crown would enable Dane to sort of resurrect in that strange place Merlin banished everything he didn't want around, and then sort of emerge from inside Mordred, like a bug molting. I don't entirely get that part, but end result, Dane and Jacks are alive, Mordred isn't (for now.) Dane tears apart the crown and turns it into a chair to use to see bad things coming. As Elsa notes, just want an unhinged person needs, right before she steals the Atomic Steed. Jacks suggests she and Dane split the job. Takes turns wielding the sword, while the other directs from the chair. Maybe together, they won't go nuts.
Or when they do go nuts, they'll just take each other out.
I guess as far as a new direction for the character, it's fine. It requires someone to actually use the Black Knights going forward, which I can't see happening much. But I could be wrong. 2022 could be the year of the Knights. I do like that Jacks did modify her armor to match Dane's, and came up with the helmet to mask their faces, if they want to keep people from realizing there are two of them. Especially since the armor that formed on her during the fight with Mordred gave her the boob plate look. I guess it's magic armor, so maybe it still works find that way. Also glad Dane broke down the crown, because it looked dumb as hell. Davila trying too hard to make a Kirby-style headpiece. I guess it fits if you figure it as an expression of Mordred's feelings of inadequacy or something.
Felicia's done grieving or more likely avoiding doing so, and on a job stealing something incredibly valuable. Stealing it from Nick Fury, the one that looks like buff Sam Jackson, not old white guy Nick Fury. Fury shows up mid-heist with some spiel about how warning labels are useless because it just makes people want to investigate more.
Well yeah, because people know other people are liars. Just because you tell someone, "Oh, nothing valuable or cool in here, it's actually super-dangerous," doesn't mean they're going to believe you. Especially if it's super-spy Nick Fury telling you this. He's a professional liar, it's his job.
Felicia wasn't actually planning to take the object from the shipping container, though. instead, Bruno's got a big helicopter with a magnet on it, and they just take the whole container. Fury objects, but Felicia's determined enough to charge at him and get shot in the leg, all for the chance to throw his ass out into the river. Or the bay. Or maybe the Atlantic? I'm not sure what NYC-adjacent water body that was. Either way, hahahahahaha, eat shit Fury. If only it could have been Maria Hill, but honestly, I'd be insulted on the character's behalf if Maria Hill gave Felicia that much trouble.
Turns out the prize is a new character I think is named Star. She's a villain, maybe tangled with Carol Danvers a couple times? Manifestation of one of the Infinity Gems. Whose genius idea was it to make the Infinity Gems actual people now? Is this Gerry Duggan's fault? Anyway, I'm assuming Felicia has some ill-advised plan to get either the Black Fox or her father back using these people, and that's why she's determined enough to, 'punch out Galactus,' to complete this job.
Villa's artwork looks a little different from before, especially on faces, but I can't place what the difference is. Basically, the lines of Felicia's face are softer than before, her face looks rounder a bit. Either Villa is using a lighter line to outline characters compared to the King in Black tie-in issues, or Reber has shifted his coloring style slightly. The shading seems more gradual, less stark, which might be softening or blunting Villa's lines. Or, like I said, it might be Villa changing up. This is a different story situation from those earlier issues. Instead of a situation she had nothing to do with that's already terrible that Felicia's trying to fix, it's a case of her actively making trouble for herself.
Either way, it was nice to see some action after three issues of people just talking.
No comments:
Post a Comment