I saw a book excerpt a couple months ago, how worldwide birth rates had fallen to the point that the world's population was going to peak. Not for another 40-60 years mind you, at somewhere over 10 billion people, but this was presented as a sad thing, that after that point, there would never be as many people again. I am never the person to try and sell on that idea, but certainly not now, given the current state of things in this world.
Here's one book from September and another from October.
This issue revolves around a heist at a big estate in Croydon. Shobo and Shof alternate between the heist as it's getting going, and the planning six months earlier between Gbonka, Sango, and Timi, set up so that what they discuss is reflected in the present. Gbonka and Sango argue about whether a Nigerian cleaning lady can be trusted to help, or if she needs to be bought, and we see her going about her routine with the pass key that's only good for a certain amount of time, making a bit of a mess that grants her an extension, which she can use to help the thieves enter in disguise as a trash haulers.
The conflict comes in Timi's insistence they have to recover all the bronzes, and that's tricky. The ones in storage, no problem. The cleaning lady got them in there. The ones on display? Those are being watched, and there's no time. So Sango, as usual just does what she wants and takes them anyway, chucking around smoke grenades as a distraction. Or maybe a statement, because it sure didn't distract the cops.
I was, reading this issue, getting really confused on the timeline. Because Timi's supposed to distract all the museum staff by pretending to be a caterer bringing in tons of free food, but Timi died at the end of issue 3. So I started wondering if maybe he didn't die, or this heist was set before the ones in earlier issues, or if this was the heist that ended with them in a boat being chased. None of this confusion was helped by the issue ending with the crew visiting a Scotland Yard morgue to see Timi's body, and getting caught by that one determined cop.
What I think is happening, Sango is dealing with her grief at Timi's death by pulling the heist, using the people she told Gbonka six months ago she could recruit. And that's why Sango goes for it all, because that's what Timi wanted. Although I suspect she might have done it anyway. The person the others keep calling "Chibuzo," that is taking Timi's role, is one of the new recruits, not just Timi with his hair in a mohawk.
(I was thinking Chibuzo was like, some new pet name one of the crew had given Timi. And some of the crew looked different because one guy left, and another guy was nearly dead of a gunshot, so they had to find replacements.)
Meanwhile, Gbonka's with the rest of what's left of the original crew, visiting Timi's body. Although, he was killed off the coast of Cape Verde. What is his body doing in a morgue in London? I know Scotland Yard was after them, because that's who Detective Lai works for, but he got killed committing a crime in another country. Can they just extradite the body to the UK?
Felicia doesn't love the coverage of her attempt to bust vampire smuggling last issue, but she has a chance to try again, with regular old hallucinogenic plants from another planet smuggling. Except the hideout is in Jersey, so Ms. Marvel shows up, because there was some larger law enforcement operation going around this smuggling operation.
Two attempts at do-gooding, with no criminals in her custody, Felicia. . .calls Jonah Jameson to complain?! And Jonah handles this far more calmly than I'd expect, basically explaining a recent do-gooder not successfully catching crooks isn't news. Catch some crooks, then he'll care. Then Sandman shows up, knocks out Felicia after a brief scuffle, and hauls her before Tombstone.
That fight with Sandman was odd to me. Not that Felicia lost; even if Wilson hadn't significantly lowered the Cat's competence, fighting Sandman solo in the middle of Jersey was a tall order. But when she's initially knocked down, Melnikov spends a panel on just the pistol she took off one of the smugglers, which Felicia had been twirling and fiddling with for a few pages. Maybe that's going to prove relevant next issue - she got it back when she dodged the next attack and the bullets help her escape somehow - but as it stands, kind of odd. A revolver isn't worth much against Sandman or Tombstone.
I do like that she apparently took it from the smuggler, named Jim, before he even realized she did it, and Wilson and Melnikov didn't feel the need to show us that. I don't like we had more occasions of the Black Cat breaking the 4th wall to address us directly. Not digging that aspect.
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