Damn, that Chiefs/Bills playoff game was insane. Sucks if you were playing defense for either team, because you ended up looking like a chump, repeatedly, but fun to watch. Feel
Steph and Cass have to run for their lives from the three Magistrates, who Oracle tells us all about during a 4+-page long fight/exposition sequence. The fight's going on while she's yammering through the walkie-talkie about each one and what they can do. Except Steph dropped the radio right off, so nobody's listening, and it never occurs to Oracle to stop and take a breath to actually see if either girl would like to tell her anything. It helped me have some idea who these characters are, but it's a clunky method.
Also, the Magistrate designs kind of suck. Valentine is this skinny little girl with these huge bionic or just armor things on her legs that look like they were stolen from a Rob Liefeld character. And they have these really busy armor designs, but 85% of the armor is this blah grey, with a bit of color here and there.
Anyway, the Magistrates think their leader is not dead after all, but the hologram they're listening to is this Seer person. Still not clear on what the Seer's beef with the Batgirls is. Oracle's going to try tracking her down, while the girls try to investigate the serial killer in the neighborhood. They don't get anywhere with that, but find a bunch of people bringing stolen junk to the docks to build - something. Maybe it's a Boom Tube! This book could use a little Kirby bright colors.
Then they run into a gathering of people listening to this "Tutor" guy, and Steph seems to fall under hypnotic control. Probably because she's been in touch with the Spellbinder gallery. The Tutor has a lower face that lacks skin, and wears a gas mask that pumps green gas to him. Which could be a lot of things - fear toxin, Joker gas, Poison ivy pheromones - but none of them good.
I can't say Cloonan and Conrad aren't putting a lot of things in motion, even if I feel like I lack context for half of them.They're trying hard to create a sense of the cast being hemmed in and under siege, while also trying to make the Hill feel like a real place. Work in progress on both those fronts, but at least they're trying. I feel like the coloring could stand to be a bit brighter. I know it's Gotham, it's dirty as hell, they operate mostly at night. But Stern is doing some interesting color combinations, they're just murky. The Tutor's art doesn't pop nearly as much as it should, even with all the surrounding buildings being drab.
Ben, Amaryllis and Bobby make it back to the surface and find the cops waiting. Ben remote calls the Fantasticar and they bail. They head to Brusque's apartment the next day, and when Ben touches the poster of Amaryllis, the Champion of the Universe pops up. Cue 7-page fight across the city, ended when Amaryllis smacks the Champion in the head with the weird light vial. They flee the cops again, and chat with the Champion in Reed's interrogation room. Champ says he was hired to protect someone for the Matriarch, and he's there to save the universe.
So Ben's figured out, if he hadn't already, his two new friends aren't what they seem. Credit again to Mosley for writing Ben as observant and smart. Amaryllis seems connected to the weird pixie that got Ben in the dating app, and Bobby's having conversations about the burden of life without end with the Champion when they think Ben's not around. Are they both manifestations of some abstract concept? Bobby as Curiosity or Wisdom, Amaryllis as. . . I don't know. They can't be just everyday people, but beyond that I got very little. What's their interest in Ben Grimm?
How's it going to relate to his temper and unwillingness to give up (things he mentioned in his profile for the dating service)? As Champion notes, Ben attacked first, though it's hard for me to see Champion not throwing a punch if Ben held off. Is there a point Ben's going to have to give up, accept that some things, (like death, for instance) are inevitable?
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