There was a little comic convention in the next town over last weekend, so Alex brought along his nephew and we met up there. Alex bought a couple of detective novels on a whim (I think the author really pitched them hard), and his nephew found a big Godzilla figure. I didn't expect to find anything, but the guy that put the convention on had issues 23-45 of Justice League International for $15, which seemed like too good a deal to ignore.
Picking up where issue 14 left off, the FF can't figure out why the Baxter Building didn't appear as planned. Well, the app they tried to destroy the previous issue is already sentient, and exists (on the Internet somewhere, I assume.) So it (somehow) shunted the building and its inhabitants into a pocket dimension. It will bring them back, as long as Richards stays out of the way. Then it somehow engineers a bunch of other problems to keep them busy while it also engineers a way to get people to build a big transmitter so it can search for other beings like itself in space.
Reed figures out a way to bring it into the open so to speak, and makes an offer to work together. But the techbro that started the app figured out how to cut it off from over a quarter of the users that make up its mind, so it falls to pieces. It got to me, the all-black panels and Metamind's rapidly degrading speech patterns as it dies. Maybe I'm just feeling maudlin these days. I felt sad about that lunar lander Japan sent up landing upside-down and slowly running out of power without really getting to do anything.
Well, the upshot is, however Metamind sent the Baxter Building to another dimension, it only stays there as long as Metamind says so. So everyone comes back, just a little later than planned, there's a happy reunion with the kids. Reed even sends Doom a photo so he knows his goddaughter made it back OK. Something about doing the kind thing. As a teaser, Metamind did manage several transmissions Reed can't decipher, sent to an empty portion of space. Given this issue is called "China Brain Chapter One," I suspect we're going to find out what's out there at some point.
Fingers crossed it's not a Dominion. If I never see that word in a comic again, it'll suit me fine.
Weasel (the lady) and Bram (the big dude) got hired to beat up a scarlet-ish witch on behalf of her angry apprentice. Unfortunately, they didn't finish the beating before they were cursed. Now their souls are scattered through their timelines and if they don't want them devoured by the witchity order's gods, they have to jump in a well and hop through their lives to recover them.
Which is one way to introduce the main characters. Do quick jaunts through their pasts, where they grew up, some of their other friends, how they met, things like that. Hint at things to possibly revisit later. We know that one of Bram's friends later became a draugr and they fought to the death, and that they were cursed to be pursued by chickens.
So most of the times they visit are treated as jokes. The chickens, them finding out one job went wrong because their future selves killed the rest of the crew in a misunderstanding about betrayal. Weasel beating up a wizard with a mustache and familiar cloak because she just hates that guy so much. They aren't laugh out loud funny, I think because we lack context, so it's sort of random, and that can only go so far.
Collar's art is selectively busy. When the characters are supposed to look serious, usually seriously pissed, the amount of hatching and scratchy lines increase. When it's a comedic reaction, he goes simpler. It works for the book's generally irreverent tone, so that's good.
I'm not sure if we're meant to take it that the Amaranth Sorceress got herself killed in her attempt to chase Weasel and Bram, or that she found her avenue to take further revenge. Could go either way.
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