As readers of the blog know, I'm not big on self-promotion. (Did I just self-promote my lack of self-promotion?) That doesn't mean I won't hype other people's stuff. With that in mind, I announce Alex's second album, The Catalogue (featuring Requiem) is available on most (all? He said Saturday he hadn't seen it on Spotify yet) digital music, um, sellers? Distributors? The places you can go online to listen to music, will have the album to listen to!
It's lo-fi jazz hip-hop, so mostly very chill. I'm particularly fond of "Sunflower Sam" and "Lofi Moomba" myself!
Cassandra's rescue plan kind of isn't working, but she does learn why the Unburied are after Shiva. She cam to their underground world, seeking a challenge, and took the blue flowers. The Unburied realized hiding away wasn't letting them live in peace, and so they decided to seek and destroy.
Jayesh gets them free, then promptly dies at the blades of Neguri. Shiva wants to burn the flowers, Cassandra is determined to just get her to safety, and then be done with her. She takes a page from Batman's book and uses a colony of bats as cover to get through the Unburied, even briefly kicking Kalden's ass. Outside, Shiva tells Cass to find Bronze Tiger, then apparently falls covering Cassandra's retreat.
I say "apparently", because this really feels like a set-up. Kalden mentions the Unburied have a 'sublime leader.' Shiva says she doesn't know who it is, only that, if they're strong enough to defeat Kalden, they're someone she hopes Cass never faces until she's ready. And she sends Cass to find Bronze Tiger to 'help' her. When Batgirl carries the two of them out of the cave, after knocking Kalden on his ass in 5 strikes (the same number he needed to beat her in their first encounter), Shiva's looking at Cassandra with an approving smile.
When Cass asks Shiva why she bothered the Unburied, it's the "I am Lady Shiva. I am what I am." that Cassandra reads as truth. The rest is 'pain' and 'avoidance.' Shiva knows how Cass "sees", helped her regain it once. If David Cain knew how to obscure that, why wouldn't Shiva? So I really think Shiva is trying to improve her daughter, unfortunately in the way she defines that. Which seems to be making her a better fighter/warrior/weapon.
Random observation: I like how, after they pull themselves from the underground river, Miyazawa draws both of them with that similar strand of dark hair plastered across their face. Initially it's even running across the bridge of both their noses, though Shiva apparently quickly pushes her to the side, where it sticks to her cheek.
At least some of Val's PTSD issues stem from an incident in Iraq, where she tried to get a pregnant woman, whose husband had been killed for aiding the U.S. forces, to give up the true name of the guy responsible. She did this by promising Sarah she and her family could come to the U.S., which base don Miles's reaction, was something she absolutely did NOT have authority to do. Quite possibly irrelevant, as they came under fire and Sarah got a piece of glass through the neck.
Interspersed with that is the present day, where Miles is about to kill Val. But first he has to complain about how he felt guilty, too, and betrayed by Val, and that he didn't sell her out in military court. Who knows if any of that is true. Obviously beside the part about Val betraying him, because that's what she's done. It's also largely irrelevant, because Agent Lamb shows up and shoots Miles through the back. Hilariously, he says Miles will get medical attention.
Dude, you almost certainly hit him in the heart. He's dead. Anyway, Val convinces Lamb to help her rescue Leo, except Leo already escaped and kicked her step-brother's ass. Then Lamb lets Val leave, calling him a bleeding heart as that weird jungle fills the room (though unlike Leo, Lamb doesn't appear able to see it.) Leo helps Val escape the cops, and then there's a couple of old ladies, who will apparently be important next issue.
The 'bleeding heart' comment was interesting, especially given where Miles was shot (the gunshot seems too low to perfectly mirror where Sarah's wound was located, but that doesn't mean Val wouldn't draw connections.) She thinks Lamb wants to bring her in, but in a way that gives her some respect. And she uses that apparent weakness to escape. The same way she used Miles' apparent guilt and camaraderie to get her foot in the door with his organization. The same way she used Sarah's hope of getting her family someplace, well, I hesitate to safe "safer" given the state of the U.S. at present, but that seems like the basic idea.
Use them up, get them killed, though in Lamb's case it's probably just his career that died. But Val got used by the U.S. government and military, then cast aside (see the flashback in the earlier issue where she's not allowed to sit in on a support group for veterans because she's a woman.) Don't know the circumstances that led her to enlist, but it seems likely she saw a chance for better prospects and took it. Then got used up and spit out.
How all that ties in with what's going on between her and Leo, I don't know. Other than she called Lamb a bleeding heart because like recognizes like, and she's trying to save Leo. Whether Leo wants or needs that is another matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment