I took today off, intending to have a 4-day weekend, but I have to work on Monday after all. A public meeting no less. Forgoing a holiday to be yelled at by NIMBY morons. I do not expect to be in a good mood next week. Risk of me saying something I shouldn't at work: rising. Let's keep rolling through last month's books.
Moreau's work on Griffin pushes him beyond Moreau's control, and possibly beyond Rosa's ability to fight. He's apparently linked to Azathoth, if I'm right that "blind idiot god" is referring to Lovecraft rather than some other writer. Thank goodness for Internet search engines.
The sheriff confronts one of Moreau's creations, who was the guy with milky blood he was supposed to have killed after the Civil War, for being too honest. He apologizes, and gives him a sheriff's badge, and the guy decides to protect all the people Moreau abducted and lobotomized. Which I guess means it's good Dooley and the others did refuse to fight them when they attacked. On the other hand, Dooley and the others were about to be torn apart until Rosa showed up. It's fine if you don't want to fight and kill with hate in your heart, but that doesn't mean you got to stand there like waiting for a firing squad.
Moreau's scheme is toast and he retreats to Europe, where a guy named Renfield suggests maybe trying a tropical island next time. And perhaps Mr. Renfield has another client who would be interested in America. . .
This seems to be the conclusion of the story for now, and the answers the characters found don't seem to address the problems they had. Part of the reason, beyond ego, she was vulnerable to the promises of Moreau's lickspittles was she was starving from lack of evil people to feed from. Moreau and said lickspittles are dead or gone. The railroad may or may not be coming through Sangre de Moro, so how will she feed? Dooley seems to have come to a realization about why he originally joined Rosa (beyond wanting out of the war), but while he wants to choose mercy, again, Rosa's gonna need to eat. How are those two things going to be compatible?
The Shield, the Flame, and the Sword are the only three left officially in the game. They aren't being exciting enough, so the guy in control makes it so they can track each other, and tells them secrets about each other. Sadly, Flame and Sword decide they're still killin' buddies and try to tag team Shield. Which doesn't work, but it makes for a good fight.
Bit gruesome in places, and I continue to be confused by how much damage what appear to be otherwise average humans can take in this and keep going, but fun all the same. There's a nice flow to the action, Underwood and Thompson use the setting and the fact there are traps in the maze to mix things up a bit.
Shield had a point she could have attacked Sword while he was distracted murdering other folks, but she passed it up. Would have made life easier later, but the point seems to be she's trying to survive, but without playing along to the game any more than necessary. Sword and Flame both bought in fully to just having fun with the whole experience.
So the Shield wins, and it appears that involves the crazy old guy coming after her with a halberd. That's not much of a prize. Meanwhile, the podcaster guy was captured by the feral kid and his mom. The kid thinks the whole reality show thing is "for boomer losers", but also thinks the real money is in crypto, so everyone's a freaking scumbag. I liked the kid better when I thought he was basically a wolf-child. Anyway, looks like the last issue with be J dealing with halberd guy, and the podcaster running from the crypto-brat. Thompson has played so much hinting about the podcaster that it's going to have to be one heck of a reveal in the last issue to pay it off. Assuming he doesn't just leave it a mystery, which I wouldn't rule out.
On the penultimate page, Sahadewa colors two panels with a salmon-colored filter over everything. It seems like it's the crypto-brat's POV, so I thought maybe he had a tactical scope or goggles, but Underwood doesn't draw anything like that when we see him on the next page. Don't know what the purpose of that style choice was, then.
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