Despite the place I planned to buy them from having their shipment delayed for a week, and then something weird going on with the post office for three days last week (the package showed as not having even reached the post office, then was suddenly in the state with no updates in between), I have the last three comics from 2021. Huzzah!
The dead astronaut was picked up by an alien vessel and by the end of the issue, may no longer be dead. Turns out we're not getting three new stories, but continuations of the three from the first issue. The shapeshifting rock star finds being a solo act depressing, while his buddy lives it up drinking and meeting women. Until he dies. Turns out the machinist guy that decided to conquer the world had a sister even better at making things than him. Who built her own war suit and promptly killed her brother. Probably. And in the story about the people who live connected to a grove of trees that float around and land on different worlds searching for life, one member has decided it might be better for them to create something themselves, instead of just looking for someone else to have already done it.
Of the three, the last is most interesting to me because I could see it go several different ways. Split along generational lines, the one stays behind alone while the others move on (and maybe drift back millions of years later), the one gets killed as defective, a bunch of other possibilities. The other two, I just don't care that much either way.
Gabotto's art still has a lot of panels where either the linework is very light or the coloring (which still seems like watercolors) overwhelms it and makes things kind of muddled. It's not all the time; comes and goes and maybe it's as simple the main characters get heavier lines and less washed colors. It makes them pop off the page more than all the supporting characters, solidifies their standing as the important one. But it still gives the whole thing a messy air.
Having bought two of the three issues, I'll probably just go for it and buy the third later this month, but it'd be in the hope there's something intriguing waiting at the end, because for now, this mini-series is not producing much reaction.
This issue is all a flashback to immediately over Belle realized she's got weird powers. She has to escape the ruin of the Tech Arcana lab, with powers she doesn't entirely grasp. She pulls that off, but her attempt to track down the member of her heist who betrayed her runs into some complications. Her first guess agrees he did graze her with a gunshot and throw her in a closet (though he doesn't recognize Belle, maybe bullets bouncing off her threw him), but he wouldn't know how to toss her in a 'weird-ass sci-fi room'.
So she goes looking for the lady who helped them break in. Who seems suitably nervous (and also doesn't recognize Belle), but might be about the palette-swapped Clockwork Orange looking guy calling himself the "Saint of Knives." And as with all stretchy people, bullets may not bother Belle, but sharp instruments do. There's also a couple of pages devoted to Belle's friend Jimmy, who thinks she's dead and starts fiddling with the device they stole. Which turns him into something like the Spot, but with pixels rather than dark circles.
Kesel and Hahn are really working hard to try and worldbuild on the fly. Quick descriptions of different parts of the city, established crimelords, alien cultures, things like that. I don't think the story is getting bogged down in it. . .yet. We'll see if they can continue to toe the line. Hahn's working to make the sections of the city look distinct in how apartments to look, and while I was glib about Jimmy's transformation, it's honestly kind of cool.
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