Last two books for 2023, which means I'll start the Year in Review posts on Monday, and run those through Friday. As for the two books, we've got a pair of fourth issues. One is from last week, and the other is from six months ago, but I finally found a copy last week.
So, what did I miss back in the summer? Casper's cop friend shows up wanting answers about a murder victim in a subway. The victim was left with coins over his eyes and a Hades' symbol on his forehead. Which is enough to get Hades involved (big surprise for the cop, learning gods are walking around and his private dick pal is actually immortal), and find out he actually has a little power.
This does lead to a clue as to what's going on, but indirectly. The murder is the work of the guy Hades kept from getting hit by a car in the prior issue, so he's not involved in the god murders. But now Hades has enough power to raise a victim of the drugs and learn Apollo and Loki are behind that problem. Which is kind of irrelevant since the Japanese pantheon's about to kill them, but it catches the characters up to us.
The biggest development here is that Nemesis (rocking the '80s aerobics instructor look like she escaped from a Jane Fonda workout video) shows up to kill Casper as she promised. Instead Casper, in a panicked moment, blows her head off with lightning. At least that's what it looks like, with how her head disappears from its spot atop her impressive trapezius muscle in a burst of green smoke.
I hadn't realized Casper unlocked that move prior to using it for the final showdown in issue 6. It explains his lack of desperation in that scene, if he'd busted it out before, even if the story never explains how it happened that he got Zeus' power, or if he's even considered how.
The first 3 pages are set in the distant past, revealing the Plague Doctor was a sorcerer in service of the Pharaoh Khufu, and he foresaw Ortensia's peculiar existence. Back in 1857, Sarah's already dead, which he relates to a very confused Ortensia, not to mention a very surprised me. I thought the witch trial was going to take at least a couple of issues.
The Plague Doctor wants to get them both out of there before Corson arrives, but Ortensia's not inclined to play along. She's even less inclined after the doc gets frustrated and tells Ortensia he made sure Sarah found her, and that Ortensia will be the one who brings ruin up the world for its sins. Complete with big, spooky fog machine special effects!
She stabs him and runs away, which puts lie to the doc's notion he should have raised Ortensia himself, I'd say. Still, when Corson shows up, the doc stares him down and calls him out for really just being pissed Sarah didn't stay broken the way he wanted, and instead tried to be a proper mentor to Ortensia. I don't think Southard wants us to read it as the harsh words to Ortensia were meant to drive her away to safety, but maybe the Plague Doctor saw things more clearly one he calmed down. A little bleeding does wonders for overwrought humors.
Mapa makes Corson's default expression that wide, toothy smile. Almost like he was cursed with it, to the point it takes effort to make any other expression. In a couple of panels, it looks just an inch away from Corson holding back a scream or crying. Again, not sure that's the intent, it's just how it reads.
Ortensia, meanwhile, has encountered a cheerful masked stranger calling himself the Lone Spirit, who talks in lavender speech balloons. They talk a bit, about her problems, about what the doc told her, and the Spirit's advice is to accept her destiny, but on her terms. It has a feel of Tony Stark telling Banner he owes his life to "the other guy" in the first Avengers movie, but it seems to do the trick. Or it gets Ortensia to stop freaking out long enough to get pissed off.
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