Well, due various holiday and shipping issues, these two comics from last month only arrived yesterday evening. I was hoping to have Red Before Black #3, but the shop didn't have it, possibly due to other shipping issues, so maybe I'll be able to find it somewhere else.
So, Babs is on a ship full of very pointy-eared elves (whose cheekbones give them a slightly wasting look) that can't stop singing songs, with a sword that gets seasick. She's not getting much of anywhere finding out what happened to her friend Izzy. She thinks she's onto something when the captain invites her to a private function in his quarters, but nope, it's just an elf orgy. Did Ennis read my posts about that one D&D campaign I was in?
There is one, very old, famous elf that's willing to help, but she gets killed by some lackey of Tiberius', via a frog that can spit green bubbles that disintegrate people, assuming you jab your finger up its, well cloaca, I assume. Burrows draws the frog as looking particularly determined in one panel, not that that saves the guy using it. I'm not sure what joke Ennis is going for, that sharks are called "Sea Bears," but bears, per issue 1, are called "Land Sharks." People in this world unnecessarily complicate everything?
Also, Mork's buddies seem to be slowly realizing working for Tiberius is not getting them the things Mork promised. So we'll see if they try a last-minute face-turn, or just end up dead once someone decides they aren't needed. Could see Mork turning on them himself, since he doesn't seem to have accepted the perks he imagined aren't coming.
Pedestrian shows up to fight all the hand-faced lackeys of the weird red guy. The other people try to help with street signs, which do repel or maybe even burn the lackeys, so the weird red guy goes after one of the kids and Pedestrian. . .I'm not sure. Pushes the red guy's influence away from Syd with the power of stoplights?
Either way, that seems to have given Syd access to the weird floating green light Pedestrian saw in issue 3, which sends the lackeys into retreat. Floaty Red Guy (Klutch?) tries chasing Pedestrian across a crosswalk and is. . .disintegrated? But promises more is coming. Also, it looks as though the Pedestrian is more of a force that possess - or maybe displaces - a person, at least for a time.
The last few pages check in on some of the characters. The former valedictorian checks in on the would-be mugger, recovering from his time as a lackey, and tries to encourage him to not play into peoples' worst impressions of him. Except the charity hospital he's at is a front for whatever messed up stuff is going on here, and Jeremy and Syd's dad is involved. Meanwhile, Jeremy and Syd are trying to get Kira to help them make sense of the Pedestrian's deal.
So, I don't really know what's going on in this book, beyond there are forces that want everyone to just accept things are awful and give up on doing anything better, and those that are trying to resist that. Why those forces are symbolized by crosswalk symbols, and why road signs help Pedestrian, I'm not sure. His symbol is one of movement, steady progress in a direction. I can sort of see signs indicating which way to turn being helpful, but why does the "Stop" sign work against Klutch's guys? Their symbol is a don't walk sign. No progress, no movement, just stopping dead, but that's what a stop sign makes you do.
Supposedly there's going to be more, so maybe it'll make more sense to me then.
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