Saturday Splash Page #221

"Dark Light," in The Ray (vol. 2) #3, by Christopher Priest (writer), Howard Porter (penciler), Robert Jones (inker), Pat Garrahy (colorist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer)

About 2 years after his mini-series ended, and after he'd gotten some play in that era's Justice League titles, The Ray got an ongoing series. It lasted 28 issues, counting the Zero Hour tie-in #0, Christopher Priest the writer, Howard Porter the penciler for most of the first half of the series, Jason Armstrong illustrating most of the second half.

Jack C. Harris' mini-series was about moving beyond adolescence, growing and coming into your own, with Ray accepting his powers and symbolically shutting the door on the home where he'd spent his entire life up to that point. Priest carries that forward, but with more emphasis on the reality of being a "grown-up" versus the illusion.

Ray's an adult now! He gets to live in his own place! Earn his own money! Date the girl that was his childhood best friend! Hang out with his birth father! Be a superhero!

Except it's not such a great time. The only apartment he can get has no fridge, and comes with an ugly industrial sculpture bolted to the floor. He works at a fast food chicken restaurant. He has almost no furniture, because he spent his money on a souped-up laptop and a cardboard standee of Superman. Jenny, who was not only accepting, but encouraging of Ray embracing his powers, no longer seems to have time for him. Eventually there's a young woman he meets first in the future, then the present, then her future self travels back to his present to avert a bad future. There may have been at least one other brief romantic interest, but if so, the character made zero impact.

Happy Terrill turns out to be not just a congenital liar, as he's still deceiving Ray and Ray's mother - Ray thinks she died in childbirth, she thinks Ray was stillborn - but a domineering, frankly, abusive prick. When he thinks Ray isn't taking his powers seriously, Happy somehow makes Ray think he stole his powers, then dumps him in Chernobyl. Later, when Ray seems to have adjusted to not having powers, Happy disguises himself as a robber and jams a shotgun in Ray's face to terrorize him. It's like Happy took all his parenting techniques from Silver Age Superman.

I was entirely OK when it appeared Happy was killed by Death Masque, the game program Ray designed as a training tool, which subsequently slipped his control and eventually conquered a country. Unfortunately, Priest revealed Happy wasn't dead near the end of the series, which might have been with some notion of reconciliation, as part of a larger thing Priest was doing about family, but I wasn't really having it. If there was some chance Happy could fix all his mistakes, maybe, but he hadn't demonstrated that level of competence in anything, so everyone's really just better off if he's dead.

Ray's superheroing doesn't go so great either. Obviously the issues with Death Masque, which hang over the book throughout. Especially when one of the Justice League squads - I don't know which, that Triumph character was leading it, straight to the dollar bin I assume -  refuses to help, so Ray turns to Vandal Savage for some reason I'm sure was addressed in another book. Priest tried to acknowledge developments in Justice League comics that might impact Ray, but as I didn't buy those comics or care about them, it just ends up being confusing. Ray was gone for months because of what? Long-distance space travel time dilation? Huh?

His team-up with Superboy almost results in Ray killing Superboy, then almost dying against Brimstone because Ray exhausted all his power. Black Canary takes advantage of his school boy crush to get him to help her chase a crook through a dimensional doorway to another world, which later results in Ray having to fight Lobo, then time-traveling and messing up certain details of his father's life. The better half of Dr. Polaris contacts Ray to warn him about the return of the Light Entity, but when Ray can't make heads or trails of the warning, and neither can anyone else, he busts out Emerson. Which backfires when Polaris retakes control. Neron approaches Ray, initially as a woman, and after revealing his true form, Ray's more freaked out he kissed a guy than that the devil is bargaining for his soul.

Porter's work in less exaggerated than Quesada's. He tones down Ray's frankly ridiculous hair and Jenny stops looking like her skirts and suits are going to tear apart if she breaths too deeply. But he and Garrahy don't have the same knack (interest?) in playing with contrast in how they depict Ray's powers or appearance. He still looks similar when powered up, but there's less flair to it, less exaggeration for effect. Ray's not suddenly turning into a little bowl-cut version of himself while interacting with the Light Entity.

Though Priest doesn't entirely forgo embarrassing Ray for comedy's sake. Ray has to kick Lobo out of a space station bar to get Canary medical treatment, and on his initial approach, Lobo simply tears the top off Ray's helmet, taps his cigar ashes on Ray's head, then slams the helmet closed again. Ray gets attacked by Happy while still a little power-drunk from contact with the Entity, and after getting knocked into a clothing shop, emerges wearing a sun hat and a body-length green dress with polka dots. Porter's art has the pacing and body language to sell those moments, despite the times where you can feel his work veering into that '90 Image style of too much cross-hatching or characters gritting an impossible number of teeth.

It's strange, a big part of the series revolves around family. Ray's strained relationship with Happy, especially when he thinks Happy's dead. Ray trying to covertly kindle a relationship (not romantic!) with his mother, by pretending he wants to earn money mowing her lawn. (His mother assumes he's the result of some affair Happy had.) Death Masque is like a jealous child, especially once Vandal Savage starts sniffing around. It turns out Ray has a brother who is both older and younger than him, who comes into play in the last-third of the series. Ray's cousin Dean pops up occasionally, dealing out sage "wisdom."

I'm not sure what the goal is, given Priest also seems to be making the point, as an adult, Ray has to solve his own problems. Ray ultimately stops Death Masque, and settles down the Light Entity. He has to protect his mother and his younger/older sibling. He has to find their dad. He has to recognize Vandal Savage is a scumbag who was never going to help Ray, but instead groom Ray into something Savage could use. That fits with the notion of adulthood that, at a certain point, you have to take ownership of your life, but as far as the "family" aspect, I'm less sure. It's caring about his family that makes Ray stop whining about not being able to beat Death Masque, and just knuckle down and do it to save their lives?

What I Bought 3/18/2026

I did, in fact find a lot of books at the sale last week. Reviews of those start next week! Plus three movies, which I won't get around to reviewing for months yet. Still have all the movies I got at Christmas, plus Pluto's actually let me back in to a limited extent without an account, so I'm trying to finish off the films I had on my watch list before they change their minds. Plus I'll visit my dad sometime in the next month so, that'll be more old movies to review.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Just another, ordinary, "getting the shit kicked out of him," day for Moon Knight.

Moon Knight and Zodiac are tearing through the Agence Byzantine guys, while Mr. Fear and Mr. Smith look on. Pramanik seems to be having a lot of fun with the layouts. One page that all the panels are of Moon Knight tearins through guys, the panels contained with the outline of his arm pulping a guy's face, with Rosenberg using bright red for the outline of the victim and the borders.

Fear's ready to get out of there, but Smith simply asks him to hand over a box with a set of sharpened dentures and starts telling a story of his childhood. And the reveal is, it's Bushman. You know, the guy whose face Marc cut off 20 years ago (our time.) I was under the impression he was dead but not no more he ain't.

Meanwhile, Marc's gone from pulping idiots in red outfits to trying to strangle Zodiac. Zodiac runs, still spouting nonsense about being determined to make Moon Knight all he can be. Then Bushman steps in, and before he can fight Moon Knight, Zodiac's found the control room, and pumps the room full of fear gas, encouraging Moon Knight to cut Bushman's face off - again. Well, that'd be rather trite, wouldn't it? Oh you fixed your face, I'll trash it again the same way. A little too Punisher and Jigsaw, innit it?

Actually, I'd wonder why Zodiac doesn't target Punisher, but I assume Frank's too straightforward and clinical in his killing for Zodiac to take an interest in him. Frank just shoots them or blows them up and goes on to the next. To the extent there's artistry, as Zodiac might define it, it lies in the sheer relentless attrition the Punisher inflicts.

Or Zodiac's really a punk that knows Frank would just blow his head off at first sight.

Hell Cell Motel

There are no good answers to what was going on in this room. 

Oxide Room 104 puts you in the role of Matt, who returns to a motel after some sort of crime, only to get ambushed by a weirdo and wake up naked in a tub. The bathroom door is locked, his name scrawled on it. 

So you have to find your clothes, and figure out how to unlock the door. Search the cabinet over the sink. Search the dresser. Search the toilet. Once you find your way out, you learn the door out of the room is locked. So are the windows (as far as I can tell, you don't need to bother with the windows. While the game will always let you check them, they never open.) The key is on a plate, a giant centipede coiled around it.

If you make it out of the room, you find yourself in the inner courtyard of the motel. And there's a strange woman whose face is shrouded by her ink-black hair! And she vanished, in her place some creature with a human's lower body, but the upper body is just a set of jaws.

At this point, what has been a sort of horror puzzle game, with you searching your (creepy) surroundings for items you need to escape the room, becomes a quick-time event, as you hit buttons when prompted to help Matt avoid other monsters. You make it to another room, and the item hunt/puzzle aspect resumes. That's what dominates the game. The quick-time stuff is sporadic, saved for when, I guess, the game designers decided they needed to shake you up a bit.

If you die, from blood loss or poisoning or stupidity - like firing a gun at a monster in a room filled with gas, whoops - you wake up shackled in a different tub, Orange Jumpsuit standing over you. He tells you what a useless idiot you are - in a profane and British voice that nonetheless has a breathy aspect that reminds me of the Abominable Snowman character from Looney Tunes - and cuts off one of your limbs with a saw. Then you wake up again in the tub where you started, all limbs present and accounted for, and start your attempt to escape from square 1.

You get up to 3 "deaths" before he decides you're not worth the hassle. Four if you find a picture of the girl, which somehow acts as an extra life. My impression is the subsequent attempts will take a different route, in terms of which rooms you visit and search. The puzzles may be simpler, but there are a lot more monsters, including roaming the courtyard. At least the game doesn't skimp on bullets for your handgun.

I don't entirely understand what's going on. Something about Orange Jumpsuit using Mysterious Girl's mind as sort of a computer in a bio-engineering experiment. A way to rifle through people's thoughts and memories? You find a lot of documents as you search the rooms, some signed as "Eva", some as "Evil", some as "Matt", and some as "Doc", which is Orange Jumpsuit. Those didn't really tell me much other than someone in here is suffering a break in their mind, darker impulses taking over. Whether Evil is Eva or Matt, I don't know. Maybe one, then the other? Some of Matt's writing you find later suggests his worst impulses are getting stronger, so maybe he's getting infected while he's here?

The game ends rather abruptly. You wake up in the tub where you usually lose limbs, but Doc's not there. You can see someone strapped in a chair under a tarp, but can't do anything to help. You stumble into the hall, and then Doc is chasing you as you try to reach an elevator. Apparently that turns out differently, depending on how many times you died, but none of the endings seem to tell you much. I gather there's a sequel, Oxide Room 208, which may be set concurrently with this game and tells another side of it, but I'm not buying it.

I got the "too many deaths" ending, and the "no deaths" ending. The latter at least gives you a fun option, once you make it to the elevator. Doc keeps futilely trying to reach through the gate, and the game lets you click a button like he's an object to interact with. Normally when you do that, the button options are things like "Examine", or "Inventory." This time, the only option was "Revenge." Well, you know I love me a good revenge opportunity, so at least the playthrough ended on a high note (even if there's a phone call between Doc and his benefactor afterwards where he states he doesn't think Matt will make it through the forest.)

Overdue Movie Reviews #10 - High Plains Drifter (1973)

A stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides into the town of Lago, and within a matter of minutes, guns down 3 men who were hassling him, and rapes a woman. Curiously, rather than insisting on his arrest, the leaders of the town send the sheriff to offer the stranger a job: protect Lago from 3 other men, about to be released from prison, who swore revenge.

The stranger agrees, for a price. The price turns out to be the townspeople's dignity and self-respect as much as anything. He takes, and takes, and takes, and they bear it, because the alternative is to fight for themselves, or to simply take the revenge they've got coming.

My dad would say this is definitely a '70s Western, and he'd say it in the most scornful tone possible. Basically everyone is an amoral scumbag, constant betrayals, backstabbing and abuse. Promises are made with no intention of honoring them. There's no loyalty to anyone or anything, all that unites the townsfolk is the idea they can always put off the point when payment will come due. Two rapes, because I'm hesitant to define what happens between the stranger and Sarah Belding (Verna Bloom) late in the film as anything other than that. He not only takes over her bedroom, but drags her along with him, then kisses her when she tries to stab him with scissors, and things progress from there. The movie certainly frames it as Mrs. Belding being into it once they got started (and does the same with the first as well), but I'm not really prepared to make that allowance.

There's no real good guy. Mordecai (Billy Curtis) isn't an awful person, but once he figures out the stranger at least tolerates him (or finds him a useful prop to humiliate the townsfolk), he milks it for all he's worth, just like the stranger. Sarah seems to have a conscience, but she has, as her conniving lickspittle of a husband points out, kept quiet about it for a long time. She wasn't happy, she could have left Lago and that useless bastard anytime. He wasn't going to abandon his precious hotel to chase her.

The closest thing to a good person would be the marshal, who we only see in flashback (sort of), because he got whipped to death in the street by Stacey Bridges and the Carlin brothers while the entire town looked on over a year before the movie begins.

I'm curious why they decided on whipping him. It wasn't to terrify the townspeople, the townspeople hired them to do the killing, so he wouldn't blow the whistle about the town mine being on government land. Why not just shoot him?

I guess because whipping is more brutal, and the movie wants to be brutal. Wants to provide a reason for the stranger to whip one of the Carlin brothers to death. Because otherwise, there's no real difference. Shot or whipped, the marshal died because he was going to insist on following the law, and that would have hurt the townspeople's economic status, so he had to go. And it allows for one of the two moments where Eastwood isn't scowling or smirking, when he first arrives in Lago and whips around at a whipcrack.

(The other moment is when the stranger, having ordered all other guests out of the hotel, hears the preacher promise they'll find shelter in the homes of the townspeople - at regular hotel rates, of course. Eastwood does this surprised jerk, almost a spasm, as though even he can't believe they sink that low.)

Of course there's the supernatural element, the stranger riding out of the heat waves coming off the desert, giving the impression he materialized from the air, then departing the same way at the end. The creepy intro music, I'm guessing that's a theremin, really helps establish an odd atmosphere, along with the first 5+ minutes of the film having no dialogue. Like we've entered a land of the dead.

There's also the stranger's ability to seemingly cover a lot of ground quickly and without notice.  His brief attack on Bridges and the Carlins in the rockpile, where he seems able to move from one side to the other within seconds, but also when the men attempt to ambush him in his hotel room. The time between when Callie slips from the room to when the men charge in couldn't have been more than a few seconds, yet he got out the window with all his clothes, and had a stick of dynamite ready. Also, when Callie first tried to kill him herself, she fired 4 shots into a little metal tub where he was submerged, and somehow didn't even scratch him. Which doesn't seem possible, but it's almost like once he went under the water, he was gone until he chose to stick his head back out.

It's a little like Charles Bronson's Harmonica character in Once Upon a Time in the West constantly appearing by stepping from behind something (a door, a pillar, a train.) Suggesting that in their quest for vengeance, they've transcended human capabilities somehow.

It's, I wouldn't say a happy end to the movie. The stranger leaves, satisfied his work is done. The marshal is going to have an actual grave marker. Seems strange they wouldn't have done that already, if just for appearances' sake. Sarah Belding is indeed, getting the fuck out of Lago. Not that there's much left of Lago. Most of the town was burned down by Bridges, what's left is painted bright red. A bunch of townspeople are dead, at either the stranger's hands or Bridges', the remainder look like war wounded, watching the stranger leave with shell-shocked expressions.

Back in 2009, I wrote a post wondering if the stranger spent all that time prepping the townspeople to defend their town because he wanted to give them the chance to clean up their own mess for once, or if he knew they never had a chance and just wanted to humiliate them a little more. It's hard for me to picture him being satisfied with Bridges dying at their hands, so I suspect it was one more prank he pulled. There's never any indication the practice is having an effect; their aim is no better, they're still counting on him to take care of business. They're just going along with this because he insisted and they want to keep him happy and willing to solve their problems.

This isn't the kind of film where people confront their fears and triumph, it's one where they keep running until their fears trample them into the dirt.

Honeymoon Headache

If it was that easy to make Harley be quiet, everyone would try being smelly. 

Starting immediately after the end of the second season of the animated series, Harley Quinn: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour is Harley and Ivy celebrating their honeymoon - although they didn't really get married so much as just drove off together - by crashing in other villains' houses on short (or no) notice, while trying to outrun an increasingly deranged and pathetic Commissioner Gordon.

While writer Tee Franklin throws in plenty of public (and private) displays of affection between Harley and Ivy, things get increasingly rocky as the mini-series progresses. Ivy's having a variety of doubts, from the pain she caused her fiance Kite Man by messing around with Harley behind his back, plus some childhood trauma from her father telling her no one would ever love her. There's also the part where she realizes a relationship with Harley is never going to have much in the way of peace or tranquility.

All the guilt and self-doubt and whatnot results in her repeatedly snapping at Harley, only to get cuddly and apologetic moments later. In Ivy's defense, Harley does repeatedly do shit that's pretty rude or flat out stupid. When they decide to leave town, Harley suggests leaving her hyenas with Catwoman. Does she call Selina ahead of time to check if this is OK? Well, if you count texting as they get out of their car in front of Selina's building, then sure. Harley suggests they crash in the home of a villainess who got arrested at Ivy's wedding-that-wasn't, again without asking for permission. There's just a real lack of impulse control or consideration for anyone other than Ivy.

In Harley's defense, Ivy should have known about these tendencies long before now and possibly taken them into consideration before making major life decisions, but the heart wants what it blah blah blah.

By the back half of the mini-series, they've reached Detroit and run afoul of part of a Justice League (Vixen, and to lesser extents Cyborg and Zatanna), and some sludge-villain called Mephitic. Harley gets captured, Ivy has to try and deal with her own shit so she can rescue her girl.

Max Sarin draws 5 of the 6 issues (issue 4 is drawn by Erich Owen) with Marissa Louise as color artist throughout. Sarin gets to draw a lot more fight scenes than they did on Giant Days, and they handle Harley's acrobatic flips and bat swinging very well. And their art is perfect for the roller-coaster of emotions the characters are going through. In particular, I love how Sarin has the plant life around Ivy react to her emotional state. And with Mephitic's power being essentially stench-based, Sarin and Louise combine to give the smell a physical weight to it. The color is nausea-inducing, and the little flourishes as it jabs its way into Harley's nostrils really add to the toxicity.

I wonder why Franklin chose Mephitic as the main villain of the mini-series - unless you figure it's Gordon, or Ivy's issues - unless it was because he provides the opportunity to make all kinds of cracks about how bad he smells. 

Sunday Splash Page #418

"Multiplication Problem," in Power Up, by Doug Tennapel (writer/artist), Jennifer Barker (letterer)

Hugh works at a copy shop with his buddy Doyle. They have an idea for a video game, Earth Dog Jim, but Hugh can never work up the nerve to submit it to a game company. So he keeps working at the copy place, dealing with a boss who promotes him, then gives him the job of firing Old Man Wembly so they won't have to pay his retirement.

Hugh finds an old video game that, when you press a button hidden in the controller, sends the power-ups out of the screen and into the real world. So many problems solved! Gold coins to make him rich. An invisibility power-up to make to make the boss think Old Man Wembly got fired (doesn't that mean he's not getting paid?) Extra lives that provide extra Hughs to take care of other tasks around the house.

Obviously, this all backfires, as the pursuit of happiness through material wealth is always shown to do. (I would at least like the opportunity to see if purchasing my own island can fill the yawning hole in my heart.) Old Man Wembly eventually reappears, Hugh's attempt to help his son in paintball instead gets the kid banned, his wife doesn't like this fixation on stuff. Oh yeah, and their cat hits the special button when the final boss is on the screen, and Hugh ends up in a battle for his life with a scowling guy with horns and a cloak, who Tennapel drenches in black ink, with just a little bit of white around the joints and eyes for contrast.

That's one of Tennapel's recurring themes, that you can't live your life retreating into fantasy. You have to interact with real people and pursue dreams and stuff like that. Although he illustrates the pitfalls at the very end, as Hugh and Doyle present their game to the CEO of "Electronic Artisans," who replies to Doyle's comment about this being paradise with, 'If it was paradise, I wouldn't make you sign all the rights over to me in a rapacious, one-sided agreement.' Well, then.

Despite some of the fantastic elements, Tennapel keeps his art grounded. It's still his distinctive style, but the characters mostly look like regular people going about their days, and the power-ups are low-key. Old Man Wembly just vanishes and goes about his work, and we aren't updated on him until it wears off and he reappears. The extra Hughs look just like original Hugh, save a number on their shirt and an off switch under their chest that makes them vanish.

The running battle with "Lord Doomus" is a little different, as Hugh's trying to escape in his new muscle car, given the ability to leave a Tron-style wall behind it via power-up, and Doomus can shoot missiles out of his chest. But Hugh's still just a guy. He's no ace driver, and he drops most of his power-ups during the fight, leaving him with only one option.

Saturday Splash Page #220

"First Light," in The Ray (vol. 1) #1, by Jack C. Harris (writer), Joe Quesada (penciler), Art Nichols (inker), John Cebollero (colorist), Stevie Hayne (letterer)

In 1992, Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada introduced a new version of the Golden Age hero, The Ray, via 6-issue mini-series. The character, creatively named Ray Terrill, was the son of the original, but didn't have any idea about that, or his father's past until his father, well, passed.

The first issue I owned was #3, purchased off a spinner rack in a bookstore in a mall. I still can't recall what made me want to buy it; I'd never heard of the character. The cover is probably the least dynamic or eye-catching of the mini-series. But I did buy it, and Ray saving a village from a volcano - plus how cool Quesada, Nichols and Cebollero made his "powered-up" form look - apparently sold me. It took time, but I eventually tracked the rest of the mini-series down.

I discussed this in my Favorite Characters post on The Ray, but in addition to the usual "superpowers as a metaphor for puberty or adolescence," Jack C. Harris is focused on another theme of growing up: "lies my parents told me." Sure there are parts where Ray struggles to control his powers. He tries to chase bank robbers, but goes so fast he lands in front of them without realizing it and gets hit by the van. Also, he burns off his pants in the process. He saves the village by flying into the volcano then carving a tunnel underground into the sea, only to surface and remember he never learned how to swim.

But isn't just superpowers he gains, it's the knowledge so much was held back from him. He spent his entire life up to that point believing the sun would kill him. He was "Night Boy," living indoors, with nothing more than candlelight. His one childhood friend, Jenny, gets hauled away by her mother at his 8th birthday, when a camera flash triggers a reaction in Ray. He learns the truth as his father dies, so there's not even anyone to demand answers from, or to rage at, save his cousin Hank, who shows up at the funeral (and who Quesada draws as basically the Fonz.)

The lies keep coming. The man who died was Ray's uncle. His father shows up and turns out to be the original Ray, but he's a ghost who needs Ray's help, yet keeps running away rather than explaining what he needs help with. Also, he's not actually dead. There's a weirdo with a candle fetish in a mental hospital monitoring Ray through light or flame, because there's something Ray needs to handle, and he ropes Jenny into helping push Ray where he wants him to go. Ray's finally able to go out in the light, but he's still in the dark.

The manipulation gets to the point that, when Dr. Polaris attacks Ray, he thinks this is another kooky test his father lined up. It takes nearly being crushed to death underground to clue him in Polaris really is trying to kill him, but he still thinks Ray Classic set it up.

For all my issues with Quesada as an Editor-in-Chief, as an artist, he's got a distinct style. Ray's eventual costume is a little goofy - the ankle boots and the yellow-on-white pants aren't something I particularly love - but the powered-up form looks great. He shifts to mostly black, with only the yellow highlights on the jacket and gloves for contrast. Where they depict Ray Classic in flight as an upper body with a yellow trail, Ray is a dark form surrounded by a rectangular yellow field with a dark edge, like he flies so fast he cuts the sky.

To this day, I don't really understand the "Light Entity," the threat Ray's meant to confront. There's a whole thing about some wacky scientist in the '30s believing the Light Entity was created with the Earth, and it'll return some day, and that's bad, and they need someone born of the light to communicate. So Ray Classic getting powers was the scientist trying to set that up, because the powers would be passed along to his kid? Ray and the Entity mingle, it's trying to get him to lead it home, but Ray 'shuts the door.' 

I think it's supposed to dovetail with the fact, throughout the mini-series, Ray keeps retreating to his childhood home, even as the family lawyer is selling it and finding him a new apartment. The Entity tries to guide Ray by showing him a vision of the home, and Ray rejects it, shutting the door on that part of his past as well? It's the weakest part of the mini-series, which is kind of a bummer, since it occupies the entire final issue.

What I Bought 3/4/2026 - Part 2

It's the annual big book sale for the regional library this weekend. I plan to hit it today with my dad, even if, as my mother says, bringing him is like taking an alcoholic to a brewery. Hopefully, this means lots of book reviews in the near future!

Moonstar #1, by Ashley Allen (writer), Eduardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I've never thought to ask, what is Dani's belt made out of, with all those big ovals? Are they glass, polished turquoise, something else entirely?

So there's a dwarf-forged sword, cursed with a valkyrie's desire to keep fighting and a host that made some sort of deal with it. A group Moonstar was working with were responsible for keeping the pair under lock and key, but Moonstar and Magik took the group down, and everybody's forgotten about Asgard (and apparently the other seven realms besides), so the sword and its host are on the loose.

Two members of the group show up, wanting Dani's help finding the sword, because whoever is using it is killing larger and larger numbers of people. Dani knows Norse mythology - as they don't accept she was a Valkyrie, since they've forgotten such things existed - and they figure it was her actions that let the sword escape, so she can help clean up the mess.

They find the guy, Kyron, doing some sort of ritual that's going to collect an entire city worth of dead souls. Or just souls? I'm unclear if he only collected the souls of those already dead, or everyone's souls, living or dead. The attempt to stop him fails, one of Dani's allies sacrifices herself to give them time to escape, but the ritual wasn't enough for whatever Kyron and the sword are after - an end, apparently, to avoid nothingness - so he'll need something bigger.

Allen writes Dani as someone who wants to help, whether that's mutantkind in general - she apparently joined this Society of the Eternal Dawn thinking she could help protect mutants' future - or a person specifically - a comatose child, a friend. But she also tends to take the most optimistic view of how things will work out, and this perhaps causes her to rush into things without weighing consequences. So when things go wrong, she beats herself up and bleeds (metaphorically) for the people who she feels she failed.

I think the idea driving the conflict is going to be Kyron suffered losses at some point that made him decide it was better to simply not suffer, but there was still enough kindness and empathy in him the sword convinced him that really, it would be better to grant everyone that same gift, of no longer losing anyone. And if Dani's attempts to stop him keep failing, her doubts about her judgment will grow, and there'll be a moment where she may be ready to stop losing.

Audino makes Dani look really young. The fact she seems significantly smaller than everyone doesn't help with that. Maybe that's always been the case. Kyron's design isn't bad; the tattoos on the sides of his skull that curve onto his cheekbones help draw attention towards the eyes, which Helsi makes an attention-grabbing gold-yellow pupils surrounded by red. Action scenes are, OK. Not sure how Kyron went from winding up for a full, two-handed swing to simply bopping Dani on the forehead with the pommel. I'm curious to see if the red coloration begins to cover more of Dainself as more lives are taken into the sword, like a warning it's hitting critical mass.

Hide - Kiersten White

Mack was the lone survivor of a tragedy when she was very young, one she only survived by being very good hiding. And since then, she's done her best to stay hidden, unnoticed, drifting through the cracks of life. Maintaining as much distance from everyone else as she can manage.

But that sort of life tends to leave limited opportunities for employment, so Mack isn't left with many other options when she gets an offer to join in a contest sponsored by a sports equipment company. Spend a week in a long-shuttered amusement park with 13 other contestants, where the goal every day is to hide. Last one to be found wins 50 grand. Who is doing the seeking, isn't exactly explained.

Would it surprise you to learn that the people putting the contest on have nefarious motives? That the amusement park - which seems deliberately designed to be as difficult to navigate as possible - has a dark secret, a terrible horror lurking at its heart? No? Well aren't you special. Why don't you pat yourself on the back some more. Careful not to tear your rotator cuff doing it.

One nice thing, the book includes a map of the park on both the inside cover and the facing page, front and back. Not only so you get a sense of just what a boondoggle it would be finding your way in there, but also so you can kind of figure out who hides where.

White spends maybe the first 20% of the book on the run-up to the start of the game. Most of that focuses on Mack, specifically her circumstances and how she got cornered into this. But she doesn't ignore the other characters, and takes different opportunities to delve into their backstories, their psychology, why they're here. For example, all the contestants are offered a spa day ahead of time, and White describes how each of the women approach the pool, where they sit, what they're thinking about, whether that's what they'll do with the money, or how they hope to impress these people and get an actual job, and so on.

That continues into the actual game, where the book will flit about from one character to the next, letting us see their thoughts about where they're going to hide, or how annoying they find it to hide in one place for hours (the battle between needing to pee and not wanting to reveal their location comes up a lot.) It's enough that even for the ones the audience probably finds unlikable, you can at least understand the desperation that brought them this far.

And spreading the focus around at least adds some mystery to who's going to make it. Mack is certainly more focused on some characters than others, but she's also got enough survivor's guilt that you aren't sure she's secure, or that, just because she doesn't pay much mind to the guy with the notebook or the "other" Ava that those people are necessarily cooked.

It's pretty tense and I wasn't sure how things were going to be resolved. I could see them marching into the lion's den for a final confrontation, or just getting out and running as far as they could. There are some journals floating around with entries I thought might provide clues to how to end things. Whether anyone was going to find them that knew what to do was another matter. Either outcome seemed possible, depending on who was left to make the decision.

I do think the very last line was a mistake, like White was trying too hard to end on a cool moment and instead it just kind of hung there. Maybe it was meant to symbolize a new path for that character, being more vocal about their feelings, but I thought a disinterested shrug might have worked just as well. Especially considering it's directed at someone that works themselves into knots justifying their selfish actions as actually being for everyone's benefit, complete with big speeches and accusations that, actually, it's all of you refusing to die that are the selfish ones. Giving that the barest minimum of response feels like it would have been a great rebuttal, but oh well. 

'The floor is black marble, so polished they can see themselves in it. The walls and the furniture are pristine white. The kind of white that screams Don't touch me to people like Mack. The kind of white that purrs You deserve me to people like Rebecca.'

What I Bought 3/4/2026 - Part 1

Last week was rainy, which beats snow. And I suppose we needed the rain. Far as I know we've been in drought conditions since August. For now, we leave February and January behind, and move on to books from March.

Batgirl #17, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (penciler/inker), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Might want to clean that sword, Cass. It's giving off quite the miasma.

Cass is back in Gotham and headed to dinner with the Bat-fam. Dinner Tenji and Jaya aren't invited to, although Stephanie is eager to meet Cass' new brother. But Cass is going to miss that dinner, because her blood starts going nuts. As in, it is somehow outside out her body, whipping around and tangling her up. Miyazawa draws it such that the tendrils obscure parts of the voice balloons for whatever Stephanie is saying over the phone, which is a nice representation of how this is seizing Cass' attention, and cutting Cass off from them again.

Or Cass is cutting herself off, because she goes to Tenji and Jaya for help, unwilling to let her family see her like this. Learned all the wrong lessons from Batman, I see. This is related to Shiva's family, the ones her parents took her and her sister away from. According to Jaya, Cass shouldn't have these abilities without a ritual, but here we are.

The Wu family's moved into Gotham, but something's up, because the guy in charge gets shot in the back of the head, by his assistant. Man, there are so many betrayals in this book. Call it Backstab Monthly or something. But the guy isn't actually dead, instead there's a portal to the Spirit World inside his skull. I'm just saying now, I didn't read that mini-series where she got lost there and Constantine and some new character Alyssa Wu created had to rescue Cass.

It feels like Brombal is making a point about Cassandra needing to accept her family's history as part of herself, instead of hiding or ignore it. The blood/shadow tendrils literally tie her up the harder she tries to control or deny them, which seems pretty on the nose. And I just don't know if she really does, in a real world sense of that being a message.

Some people just need to get away from their families and stay away. Shiva's sins, or the Wu Clan's sins, are not Cass'. She isn't guilty just because she's descended from them, that whole notion doesn't fly with me. It's too similar to the genetic determinism shit that got her turned into a killer post-Infinite Crisis. "Your biological parents are killers, so even though you've hardly met one, and rejected the other, you'll become a killer, too." So I don't know, guess we'll see.

Nova: Centurion #5, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - I know it's just the perspective, but it looks like Nova's the only one of the two smart enough to know you need to aim at your opponent.

First things first: Where Della Fonte drew Peter Quill with a beard and a really stupid mustache, Lopez draws it as a beard and goatee. Which has the benefit of making Quill look less stupid, but also takes a little of the joy out of Richard ditching the Nova helmet and immediately punching him. They fight a bit, usual break-up stuff. "You betrayed me, all the other Novas are dead (again)." Same song and dance we've heard a million times.

Quill is there because he knows Nova stole all that mysterium. More critically, the Kree-Skrull War (still a dumb name for a crime syndicate) know it, too. If Rich hands it over to Quill, he can get them to take it back and call it good. But Cammi really needs the mysterium for medical treatment. As in, the mysterium is the medicine she takes to keep some freaky monster from overtaking her.

My first thought was, we're dealing with another thing from the Cancerverse, given all the mouths and teeth and appendages. But no, it's some sort of weird monster thing the Worldmind found scattered records of in its databases. There's a nice panel before the exposition starts, where Lopez draws the Worldmind's face within the star on Rich's helmet. 

There's no time to settle that, the Kree-Skrull War are here (to be eaten by the Cammi-monster.) Because that Eden Rixlo guy double-crossed Quill, who apparently never considered this possibility. So has Marvel decided to include the original Star-Lord stuff, Engelhart and Claremont and all that, and the movie shit, and the stuff Giffen did in the early-2000s in Quill's history? I feel like that isn't compatible. Original Recipe Star-Lord was pretty on the ball, minus Doug Moench writing him, while Movie Star-Lord is a fucking idiot I wouldn't trust to tie his own shoes.

Can Richard rescue Cammi from the thing that's swallowed her up? Can he get the crime syndicate off his back? Can he get Star-Lord to ditch that terrible facial hair? Will Eden Rixlo suffer hilarious comeuppance? We'll find out next month.

Sinners (2025)

Twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan and Michael B. Jordan) return to Mississippi after a stint in Chicago, with plans to open their own juke joint. Most of the first hour is them setting things up for opening night. Getting the booze and food arranged, the sign, the security, and most importantly, the music. That's going to be provided by Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and Sammie (Miles Caton.) Delta's a blues man through and through, adept with a bunch of instruments. Sammie's a guitar player, with a real gift.

Or curse, if you prefer, because his playing and singing attract the attention of an Irish vampire (Jack O'Connell) named Remmick, and a couple of people he's already turned. As things go downhill, it turns into a standoff between a dwindling number of holdouts inside the building, and an increasing number of vampires outside.

When the opening narration explains that there have always been people with voices that can pierce the veil between living and the dead, and this can be used for good or evil, I figured Sammie's voice was going to be the source of both the problem and the solution. And it is his singing, combined with his guitar playing, that draws Remmick, in a scene where the people dancing and celebrating span generations, decades. '80s breakdancers and beatboxers, tribal drummers and singers from Africa, all connected to Sammie by history and culture and, I assume, just the love of music and what it can express about the human soul.

That said, Sammie's gift does not save the day. Ryan Coogler's not going for the kind of film where this teenager, so eager to become an adult like his cool older cousins, is going to open a door to Hell with his singing. But I at least expected, given how we first see Sammie stagger into his father's church the following morning, gripping the broken bridge of the guitar, to use it to stake a vamp. Nope! (The guitar does buy Sammie a few critical seconds, but it's not a finishing blow.) Either that, or him praying was going to make the water they were standing in holy water and oops, bad luck for the vamps. But no, wrong again.

Caton's very good; wide-eyed, eager to both learn and impress. He wants to show what he can do, and he wants to break out of this life of picking cotton and being pious that his father's trying to push him into. He wants what he thinks Smoke and Stack have, but doesn't understand how they got to where they were, or what they lost along the way. I think that's why I really enjoy the first stretch of the film, all the prep. It introduces us to a lot of characters, and kind of shows the lay of the land - the Chows having a grocery store on each side of the street, one the white folks use and one black folks use - but also shows bits and pieces of the twins' pasts, and who they are.

Smoke (I kept thinking the names were being switched, and that it was on purpose, the brothers wanting to confuse others on who's who) encouraging the girl he hires to watch his truck to negotiate a higher wage, then shooting both guys who try to steal his liquor to make a point. (Also, I liked the line, 'Where you going? I bet this bullet gets there first.' It was clever, truthful, and threatening.) Or Stack being eager to gather attention at all times, loud and brash and confident, until Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) walks up, and then it's "keep your voice down."

It's a good stretch of film, lets Jordan show the depth of both characters beyond the dangerous glares and slick talk. Smoke's visit to Annie in particular, where they sort of talk around his leaving, talk about the child they lost, the danger Smoke and Stack are courting with this business of theirs, because they didn't exactly acquire their booze legally. You can kind of see how these guys have run from this place more than once - WWI, Chicago, the town run by black people they tell Sammie about - because there are things here they can't handle or don't want to deal with. Yet they keep getting drawn back somehow. Either because it isn't any better anywhere else, or there's just a pull that home has, even if it was terrible.

Granted, most of the stuff I've reviewed that was new to me this year has been middling at best, shit at worst - looking at you, Track of the Cat - but Sinners is easily the best movie I've watched so far this year. 

What I Bought 2/28/2026 - Part 3

OK, I didn't end up sleeping the entire weekend, as I unfortunately had a few things I had to get done. Like laundry. Booo. Now we come to the last of the stuff from the first two months. At least until I find the books I missed on this sweep, whenever that ends up happening.

Touched by a Demon #1, by Kristen Gudsnuk - Maybe lighting a car on fire to illuminate your storefront was a bad idea.

Bifrons followed Lucifer in his rebellion, but however many years later, is finding life in Hell pretty unsatisfying. He's stuck attending Anti-Christmas parties (every June 24th!), and Mammon won't give his ideas a fair shake. At least he has Pazuzu, who believes in him and likes working for him.

So he decided to earn his way back into Heaven by starting a life coaching agency to help humans' souls. For their first case, Wendy, a girl whose parents only had her to act as an an organ farm for the first child, who is constantly ill. Wendy tried being a high achiever to earn their love, but it didn't work, and she's about to lose her liver. Bifrons and Zuzu's response is heartfelt, but their advice was not well thought out, especially as she took them up on it.

So far, I'm not sure whether to laugh or be horrified. I think it's meant to be darkly comic, and it certainly is, but Wendy's story was so sad, I ended up feeling a little gleeful about the ending. The demons turning out to be kinder than the humans, but their version of help may cause more problems than it solves. I'm curious if the plan Bifrons' pitched to Mammon, about combining the souls their torments shatter into one, purely evil being, is going to factor in. Or was that just something Gudsnuk used to show Bifrons is more of a lateral thinker than most of the hierarchy in Hell? The sort of fallen angel who thinks of a life coaching agency as a way back to Heaven?

Gudsnuk's art is mostly like I remember from Henchgirl. Pretty simple, but distinct character designs. The linework is a bit smoother, steadier maybe. There are some panels with a gentler, more gradual shading, though Gudsnuk saves that for the more somber panels. The one panel of Wendy's sister, asleep in her bed, or the panels of Wendy reflecting on the misery of her life. It makes for a strange contrast to the panels of Bifrons and Zuzu hi-fiving about how they're totally going to pull this scheme off.

Sunday Splash Page #417

"Power-less Pack," in Power Pack (2020) #4, by Ryan North (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

In 2020, Marvel was going to do another event about government overreach, this time targeted at teen heroes, who would have to either knock off being superheroes, or accept an adult hero as a "mentor." Called Outlawed, the event got kneecapped by the disruptions in distribution (among other things) from COVID.

There were a few tie-ins, but a lot of stuff got canceled. From what I can tell, the most notable moment was Cyclops, now able to remember the time his teenage self was brought to the future, declaring the Champions were under Krakoa's protection. But really, when the best moment in the event involves Cyclops doing something (admittedly) cool, you know it was a bum idea.

That said, besides the Champions, Power Pack were probably the perfect group to put in the crosshairs of this sort of foolishness. Ryan North does have Alex try to argue that, due to time spent traveling the new multiverse (post-Hickman's Secret Wars) with the Future Foundation, he's actually old enough to qualify as a mentor to his siblings, only to be shot down by some bureaucrat fascist on the grounds time dilation due to multiversal travel doesn't count. Although this was around the same time as Rainbow Rowell's Runaways, when Julie was dating Karolina Dean, who was a college student by that point, so it seems like Julie ought to have counted.

But it sets the tone - if the mini-series starting with another Katie-drawn intro to the Power Pack, outlining their powers and general deal didn't do that already - that North may not be taking this entirely seriously. The kids' efforts to find a mentor focus first on Frog Thor - who became a character separate from the "Thor turned into a frog" bit in Simonson's run at some point - and eventually settle on some guy we've never heard of, Agent Aether. Who encourages the kids to use their various powers to generate electricity to help people.

Except Agent Aether's the Wizard, whose machines are actually draining the kids' powers into him. Oh, and he sold the electricity they created to a multinational company to make himself money. In other words, the Wizard finally found his proper level as a villain: A schmuck who cons desperate kids and commits petty fraud. Only took him 60 years, but congrats on finally recognizing his place in the hierarchy.

There's probably something North's pointing out, about how dangerous it is to give an adult responsibility for a kid just because they were able or willing to register an identity in a government database. That's all the Wizard had to do, cook up a fake look and make a show of being helpful. Whoever was in charge of the government department didn't do any sort of vetting, either from laziness or understaffing. 'He's an adult, wears a costume, good enough. Next!'

Still, the Wizard's an idiot, so all it takes is the kids, with some help from Wolverine, pretending they actually had more power than he thought, to goad him into throwing them back in his machines, which they reversed ahead of time, so they'd drain the powers back out of him. Continuing with the notion of North not taking this seriously, Logan responds to a written request left at the Krakoan Embassy by showing up at the Powers' home, where the kids claim he's a special tutor who helps kids from early elementary to college. Their dad remarks he looks just like that X-Man, Wolverine, but is otherwise OK with "Professor Brucie Mansworth" tutoring his kids.

Maybe North's point wasn't how half-baked most attempts to "protect" children via government intervention are, but that parents are incredibly stupid and nobody should be procreating? Anyway,  to sell the notion the kids still have powers, Logan stages a battle against them as "Wolvermean", Wolverine's evil twin (which Leon and Rosenberg depict as a palette-swapped, arts-and-crafts version of Logan's costume.) The battle ends up televised, with the scroll at the bottom wondering if violent video games are helping kids be better at fighting crime? I enjoyed all of that, found it hilarious.

There is some nonsense in the fourth issue about how, when the Wizard drained their powers, some part of his selfish, misanthropic nature leached into the kids. Julie posits this because Katie is angry adults put them in this position. Plus, she tried to fry the Wizard with the last bit of power she had and nearly killed a forklift driver. But, Katie's got good reason to be pissed.

And not just at the Wizard. The intro was part of her plan to finally tell their parents about their powers (North references her previous plan to do this in the mini-series we looked at last week, which may be one of the only times I've seen those mini-series get referenced by something in-continuity, for whatever value that term has at Marvel these days), and Katie got overruled by her siblings again. Now her powers were stolen by a bad guy that only got his hooks in them because of poorly thought out nanny state bullshit, and her siblings are dismissing her feelings, telling her she doesn't really feel that way. That seems like a bird turd cherry atop a cow shit sundae.

That said, the generally lighter tone lets Leon add in a bunch of humorous touches. The Asgardians have a sign that tell visitors, no, they don't know where Frog Thor is, and are insulted you think he's an acceptable substitute for their ruler. The Wizard's HQ has hand-drawn plans for how he'll beat other villains, like Juggernaut, with his new powers. He might be a worse artist than Katie, so I guess he didn't swipe that along with her powers. The team beat Taskmaster and Jack and Katie can't resist poking him with sticks while he's down. Each issue is from a different kid's perspective, and Jack filters a lot of his perception through his dream of having a social media account dedicated to his adventures. So we get panels of Alex using his powers presented as videos to click on, with titles like, 'BLACK HOLE IN BROOKLYN??? Video footage PROVES it happened!'

Saturday Splash Page #219

"Party Down One," in Real Hero Shit, by Kendra Wells (writer/artist), Amanda Lafrenais (color artist)

Prince Eugene Edouard Emmanuel D'Pasha, heir to the Kingdom of Marble, sporting a set of horns that suggest unusual parentage on at least one side of his family, is feeling a little bored. He spies an ad from an adventuring party looking for a fighter, and joins up. 

Eugene is a good fighter, but energetic, easily distracted, and constantly horny, managing to exhaust each of Michel, Hocus, and Ani in various ways. Still, when they reach a town where people keep going missing and the local church may be involved, he doesn't shy from a fight, or from asserting his authority as Prince to make certain the guilty party will face repercussions.

Wells throws in some backstory for each party member, and has them interact as a group and in various pairs to let the personalities show through. For example, Ani is the most abrasive, but there's an ease to how Michel and Hocus react that shows they're familiar with her personality in a way Eugene is not.

Wells sets up a few things that likely would pay off in subsequent adventures - Michel having been hunted in the past, Ani's fury at how people like her who gained magic without praying to a deity were exterminated, Michel's warning to Eugene that if he rules, his hands will become bloody - but as far as I know, there hasn't been another volume released.

I posted a longer review 3.5 years ago. Doesn't feel like it was that long ago, but time flies. 

What I Bought 2/28/2026 - Part 2

I spent most of last Friday on the road. Driving to Alex's, driving to his gig 300 miles away, driving back, then driving home, on about 1 hour of sleep. To be fair, that's more than I usually manage when he drives, but I still basically flopped on my couch as soon as I got home 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Next I knew, it was noon, and I was basically useless the rest of the weekend.

I don't intend to do anything like that this weekend. In fact, maybe I'll just sleep the entire weekend. That sounds fantastic.

Babs: The Black Road South #2, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy and Lee Loughridge (colorists), Rob Steen (letterer) - I don't know what Babs and Barry are looking at, but the horse is appalled.

Babs and Izzy pursue the questing party that's got all their money with the aid of a punch-drunk dragon. Who passes the time telling about how he used to be quite the fighter, with all the riches and women that came with it, until all the blunt force trauma put his career on the downslope. Then he confused one of his ladies for a sheep, and well, look, it's awful he ate her, but I don't think it's accurately described as toxic masculinity, as the other ladies accused, and which Babs and Izzy agree. He's got CTE and no depth perception, for fuck's sake!

Also, I imagine a dragon's metabolism is a real bear to keep fed. As in, a whole bear is something they'd probably like to eat, given the chance. 

Whatever. They catch up to the questing party in the town everyone stops at before continuing on to die in Mordynn. Babs is very concerned about being recognized, and reluctant to talk about her past experience. But she offers enough, combined with a flashback at the beginning of the issue, to know Ennis is parodying Lord of the Rings. With Babs in Sean Bean's spot, I believe, since everyone else is accounted for. Babs leaves Izzy to talk the body count, I mean, party into letting the two of them join, as their only hope to get back their money is make sure these goobers actually complete the quest and return with significant loot.

Yeah, I wouldn't bet on it, either. Especially since what appears to be the only other survivor of the faux-fellowship is lurking in the shadows, and the years don't appear to have been kind to him. 

Dust to Dust #7, by JG Jones (writer/artist), Phil Bram (writer), Jackie Marzan (letterer) - Back in the mid-2000s, there were these awful TV commercials for this local church. They always ended with, "Family Worship Center, it's a church on fire!" From a marketing sense, just terrible. However, it was great for my mood, Alex and I laughed our asses off. Still do. The only good thing organized religion in the United States, quite possibly the world, has ever produced.

The masked killer is getting down to business now. The baseball player fooling around with the preacher's daughter, in the church? Dead. The preacher's daughter, too. Then it's immediately to the farmhouse where the photographer's staying. It turns into an awkward fight of her, an old man in a wheelchair, and his wife with her frying pan, all against a guy in a gas mask.

Jones uses tall, narrow panels during the struggle, usually breaking up a single setting into discrete pieces that each center on one character. A panel of the old man trying to use his cane to stand, another of the killer with his machete, holding the photographer by the hair. A third of the missus coming in hot with the skillet, concluded by the start of her swing.

A chaotic, uncoordinated and ultimately, somewhat successful, fight for both sides. The killer doesn't manage to get the photographer, but does manage to escape with some of her photos. All because the sheriff couldn't haul himself out of the bath fast enough to do anything. Jeez, this guy ain't exactly impressing me, especially as he still thinks it's the moonshiners who've been dead for a couple of issues now.

The rest of the issue is spent on the rainmaker setting up his equipment while the Mayor looks on. The Mayor's brother is helping, which puts the two prime suspects for the killer in the same place, so I thought Jones and Bram might do something to hint at a head injury for one of them, after the frying pan, but no. It's getting difficult for me to figure this story is actually going to resolve next issue. Especially after the preacher chucks a rattlesnake at the rainmaker, causing a flinch and misfire of the device, which lights the church on fire.

I at least appreciate the preacher's own self-righteousness getting his place burned down.

Feeling Shifty

Mr. Shifty involves a silent, teleporting guy who infiltrates a hi-rise tower. As you find out from his tech support, Nyx, the tower is owned by Chairman Stone, who stole MEGA Plutonium. You've got to steal it back via teleporting and punching.

Every level is a different floor in the tower (or under it.) The view is topdown, enabling you to see the layout of the halls and rooms in your vicinity. You can also move the camera a limited distance with the right thumbstick, to peek ahead. There's usually some objective you're trying to complete on each floor. Reach a security terminal to get more accurate blueprints, destroy a certain machine. Sometimes you're just trying to make it to a different elevator to take you to the next floor.

There are lots of hazards in your path. The goons ramp up from guys with handguns, to shotguns, to machine guns, to flamethrowers and grenade launchers. There are big dudes who just punch, but take an extra hit (3 instead of 2) to knock down, women with dual pistols who seem to have limited super-speed (after the first time you hit them, they do a very fast backwards dash to escape your punching range), and vaguely ninja-ish women who can zip into your face faster than you expect. There are also exploding barrels, automated machine guns and missile launchers, and laser traps. So many laser traps. Chairman Stone must have loved the first Resident Evil movie. 

All of that in a variety of configurations. However, friendly fire is a thing, so you can often get the opposition to eliminate itself. There was one particular room, in the last level, where I had my most success when I stuck to safe spots as much as possible, and the moving lasers mowed down most of the enemies. Just don't get caught in the blast radius, because Mr. Shifty is a real glass cannon. One hit and you're down. Most enemies' weapons have laser sights, so you can tell where they're aiming and, you know, not be there. But with how much ordinance is flying around sometimes, that can be difficult to track. Fortunately, the game restarts from the room you died in, rather than the start of the level, but at the same time, when you finish a level, it tells you how long it took, and how many times you died.

Seeing I died 59 times on level 16 was disheartening.

You also have a limited number of teleports you can use at one time, highlighted at the bottom of the screen as five boxes. You recharge, but it sure feels like, when you've exhausted your jumps, it takes forever for even one to recharge versus how quickly it happens if you're just recharging from 4 to 5 available teleports. The teleports are aimed with a little cursor that swivels and moves as you do. Range is limited, so some levels involve puzzles where you have to figure out how to get from A to B when the most direct hallway is separated from you by a thicker than usual wall.

Fighting fills a meter just above the teleport capacity display. When it's full, and you're about to get shot, you enter a sort of bullet time where everyone else slows down. So you can get clear and hopefully knock out several enemies in the few seconds before it drains.

Almost everything in the environment is destructible. On the one hand, this is dangerous. If you aren't careful, an enemy might have a strong enough weapon to just destroy the wall between you and keep firing. Though again, helpful in terms of friendly fire. However, this means there are all sorts of things you can use as weapons. Not guns - Mr. Shifty considers guns to be a coward's weapon, not like teleporting behind someone and punching them in the skull - but broken pipes, staffs, keyboards, the heads off marble busts, sodas from the drink machine. Chairman Stone has a lot of Greek or Roman statues with tridents or shields that you can pick up and hurl. Then pick up and hurl again. (You can't Captain America the shield, or maybe I just wasn't doing it right.)

I at least understand those as a design choice; Stone's a wealthy guy who thinks he's hot shit. I'm less sure why he has boat oars displayed on the walls everywhere, but hell, they make for good cannon fodder smacking.

Mr. Shifty is a game that, when it's going you well, you feel super-slick and accomplished. The one-hit-kill nature of the gameplay means that can vanish in an instant and, at least for me, once it was gone, it was hard to get back. One death seemed to wreck my timing. I'd start dying repeatedly in the same room. So it can be anger inducing sometimes.

What I Bought 2/28/2026 - Part 1

Had a dream early Monday morning where I was locked in an airtight room with a window in the door. I could feel myself running out of air as I managed to break the glass, at which point water started to pour in. Managed to tear the opening wider, which let in more water, but seemed to drain the hallway of the Gothic mansion I was in fast enough I didn't drown or asphyxiate. Nice when dream logic works in your favor.

I didn't find everything from January and February I missed, but I found most of it, so let's get started.

Spirit of the Shadows #1 and 2, by Daniel Ziegler (writer), Nick Cagnetti (writer/artist/colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Play something lively, my man, it'll be funny. 'Cause you're in a graveyard.

Erik Leroux is dead, and finally reunited with his love, Katrina, in the Sacred Realm. Or not, because he has to pass through the Spirit Realm first and be judged. To be judged, he needs a book that documents his entire life. It'll also help him remember, since his memories are a little fuzzy. Too bad a creature grabs his book and shreds it, but Erik manages to find some pages that show him and us his life.

At first, it feels like Ziegler and Cagnetti are going for the approach of starting at the end, then flashing back to how we got there. Except Erik's time in the Spirit Realm is interrupted with activity back in the living world, where a doctor buries Erik, only to be captured by a traveler that turns out to be a witch named Helena Hextress. She's after Erik because he's responsible for her sister's death. No, her sister isn't Katrina, but Katrina's fate is tied to what happened.

Erik being dead is only a minor inconvenience to Helena, who turns the doctor into a wooden figure, then resurrects Erik with a spell she originally learned to revive her sister. But you've got to use it quick, and it took her too long to learn it. Cagnetti depicts the resurrection as a giant, ghoul-mouthed, alternate color version of Spirit of the Shadows bursting from the Spirit Realm's ground and swallowing Erik. Gotta be up there with resurrection via enormous, wish-granting dragon in terms of unique ways to do it. That's where issue 2 ends, Erik alive again (and not for the first time), but not aware what danger he's in, with the book of his life (what he collected of it) still in the Spirit Realm, with Elizabeth.

I'm curious whether Erik will remember his life now that he's alive, or if Ziegler and Cagnetti intend to flesh out the rest of his life via Elizabeth continuing the search for Erik's pages. In which case, Erik's time in the living world would be focused on him trying not to be killed by Helena. The being that explained the rules to Erik within the first few pages of issue 1 asked him a question he said was the basis of the judgement: Did you lead a moral life? Based on what we've seen in the first 2 issues, the answer is no, so Erik probably needs to stay alive long enough to reverse that trend (if he can), while Elizabeth learns things that would probably turn her against him.

Cagnetti's art feels very Kirby-influenced at times, though maybe that's just Helena's hair. But the squared off buildings and blocky protagonist has a similar vibe. The shading on the faces, narrow smudges of black here and there, has is more what I associate with '50s horror comic (or Black Jack Demon.) Which makes for a contrast with the vivid, solid block colors of the Spirit Realm scenes, which feel closer to a Ditko Dr. Strange book. Like two different stories taking place in the same book. I won't say it doesn't work, if I take it that the ultimately Earthly motivations Erik had pushed him into this supernatural situation (somehow.) It's just noticeable in a way I find distracting sometimes.

The Running Man (2025)

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) needs money for his sick kid, so he applies to appear on a Network show, and Network show, to make said money. Just as long as it's not The Running Man. He's very angry, so the producer (Josh Brolin), thinks he'd be great for The Running Man. Richards is desperate enough to accept and quickly learns TV is, gasp, fake!

Not in the sense that people are trying to kill him, or that he can make big bucks if he can stay alive. Those are both real. But in the sense the show lies about how he got to this point, and when he sends in the required daily videos, they fake them to be more incendiary. And at a certain point, the show starts working to keep him alive, at least so long as the ratings are good.

I can't decide if Powell, or maybe it's the movie in general, overplays the "angry" thing. It feels like too much, but the commercials and the other touches Edgar Wright puts in the movie - the clips of the obnoxious "Americanos" show, the videos by "The Apostle" - make the film feel like it's meant to be a satire, Robocop-style. If so, maybe having Ben Richards be a comically angry man, who responds to everything with either acerbic comments or violence, is a good choice. He tried to be a good man, it got him nowhere, now he's pissed off all the time.

Still, the performance puts me in the mind of what Robert Downey Jr. said in Tropic Thunder when watching the play version of Simple Jack. When Powell dials back on the anger throttle, it allows the audience to connect. The moments where Powell is allowed to show Richards' humanity through trying to help people, whether it's offering money to get a sick kid some medicine, or trying to talk a dementia-addled old woman out doing something that will get her killed, those make me root for the guy more than when he's screaming into the floating cameras. Even the bits where he's being funny in the daily videos he's supposed to send in convey his anger in a more relatable way. 

Brolin's excellent as this complete scumbag, who is always selling. The conversation near the end, where Powell asks if "they", meaning his wife and daughter, are OK, and Brolin legitimately can't figure out who Powell means until he spells it out. Even though Richards got into this to make money for them, even though that's what Brolin used to convince him. Because it was never anything other than a lever to get what he wanted, a promising contestant. If it didn't work, he'd have tried something else until Richards agreed.

There are some nice scenes or pieces of the film. I think the one I found most disquieting was the part with the two kids who got Laughlin. Them standing on either side of Buddy T (who I kept thinking was a CGI de-aged Ernie Hudson, sorry Colman Domingo!), stone-faced while holding the flamethrowers they used, was unsettling. They're not even happy to be on TV getting cheered for, might as well be telling them it's oatmeal for dinner tonight.

The part where Richards is in the trunk of a car, only aware of how badly things are going via the discussion he can hear and the way he's being bounced around, that was a nice bit. Michael Cera walking Richards through his secret room - 'this is where I make handmade soap, as far as you know' -  that was good. I enjoyed a lot of the cat-and-mouse between Richards and the Hunters in general, Richards mostly running for his life, taking out pursuers by sheer dumb luck as much as anything else.

The people he meets along the way were crucial for me to be pulled into the film. They living in the same world as Richards, but they've chosen different approaches to survive than "angrier than Vegeta with a permanent case of hemorrhoids." Whether it's Molie with his business selling TVs that, 'don't watch you back,' or The Apostle sharing the truth about the Network shows through underground tape distribution, or Amelia sneering at the "welfs" who watch The Running Man while insisting she's an open-minded person. Some of them try to address the problem, some put their head down and focus on the ground in front of them, some don't see a problem at all until they see a faked video of themselves leaning out a car window screaming for help.