What I Bought 8/15/2025

I found out a few weeks ago the city arranges for a bunch of food trucks to get together in this one spot each Friday. I decided to use it as a way to try some different foods, except the pickings have been slim the last two weeks. I don't know if I got there too early in the afternoon, and some of the trucks don't show until later, if it was because of the miserable heat, or if the whole thing is winding down for the season and people are peeling off to other gigs. The weather's supposed to be much nicer this Friday, so I'm hoping for more options.

Batgirl #10, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist), Mike Spicer (color artist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - An actual tiger would be more help to Cass than the boy has been so far.

So, we got Norbu the Untested here to end the line of Shiva. Except there's at least one more kid in that lineage than he expected. Not that it matters. If it was just Cassandra, Norbu is toast, in five moves. But Tenji's here, and he's less tested than Norbu, but not smart enough to stay out of the way. He gets injured, Bronze Tiger puts Norbu through the side of the barn. 

Which doesn't finish the fight, but puts it on pause long enough for Cass and Bronze Tiger to argue some more. Because Tenji knows the moves, but not how to use them. Because Bronze Tiger thought he could keep the kid sealed away from Cass' fate. Which is remarkably naive for a guy with his past, but I guess he's trying to make his son gentler than he is. And since Shiva apparently only came to visit on Tenji's birthday to spar with him, she wasn't much of an influence.

I still don't know when Bronze Tiger got the little stripe marks on his face. He either had the tiger-headdress, or he painted stripes on his face. These are like scars, or extremely faint tattoos. Not loving it as a look.

Which, fair enough, provided Tenji survives the experience. Norbu pulls himself off the canvas, amps up with some of those blue petals, gets ready to unleash his ultimate attack - and get decapitated by the second of the "Swords." Fine, "Blue Blossom Omnistrike's" a dumb name, anyway. It probably would have been a totally lame ultimate attack.

Moon Knight; Fist of Khonshu #11, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - The cover suggests a much grimmer story than what we actually get, fyi.

It's Marc Spector's birthday, and you're getting a tour of his life from the perspective of his supporting cast. Meaning that we're seeing the entire issue through the eyes of a character that's unnamed for 60% of the comic. So the characters use the same sorts of language murder victims do in mysteries just before they expire. "Oh, it's you." "Sorry! Didn't see you there!" That sort of thing.

Admittedly, I couldn't figure out who was still alive from Marc's previous supporting casts that might bother to show up, so I was toying with the idea Marc had drawn back and let Jake or Steven take the reins. It would have been weird, but I could see some of the cast trying to speak with those guys about Marc. Get perspective from a man on the inside, so to speak.

But it's actually Diatrice, Marc and Marlene's kid, who we haven't seen since the Annual a couple years ago. And I would never have expected Marlene to let her daughter attend Marc's birthday party, especially when he was being hunted by the police for suspicion of being a drug lord two issues ago, but here we are. And then Zodiac tries to take Diatrice hostage, has a lot of blah blah about how being a dad's not what Moon Knight is, and Marlene blows Zodiac's head open with a shot gun.

OK, that's a lie, or maybe a wish. Neither Marlene or Zodiac are present, though I assume Marlene's around somewhere. No way she let her kid come here on her own. Whatever, Marc makes his new sword release the soul of the Midnight Mission, and so the crew have their base back. And Moon Knight actually got someone back that he lost! Only running a deficit of 50-to-1 now. Also, I figure Marc asking the Mission to be friends with Diatrice will factor in at some point in the future.