What I Bought 8/12/2026 - Part 2

As I begin another no doubt exhausting week as Emergency Unit Chief - I'm 20 minutes into my term as this post goes up, so I'm probably still sifting through last week's e-mails - we look at the two comics from last week. A pair of 7th issues, books that narrowly avoided the ax in July.

D'Orc #7, by Brett Bean (writer/artist), Frank William (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - Dual-wielding a shield and a headless chicken. Bold choice, Cotton, let's see if it works for him.

D'Orc, the shield and the chicken fall into the Boglands. D'Orc's still reeling from the angry dwarf's "I am your father!" reveal last issue, and wanders about until he finds a cabin. Where a polite woman named Mylinda offers him tea, and the door is kicked in by bog monsters. Which are repelled by the tea, just like I would be.

D'Orc seems smitten with Mylinda, so he sticks around to help repair her door, and fend off more bog monsters. Mylinda kicks the chicken and the shield out to find ingredients for more tea, then drugs D'Orc with a candle. Because she's a succubus. Man, no luck at all for this kid. Chicken and shield are approached by the bog monsters, who are what's left of her past victims, including her first love, Charles. Chicken animates his body and guides Mylinda into the water, leaving the trio to press on again. Except now there's an angry golem-woman on their tail.

D'Orc can't find anyone that's not trying to use him. Even those not actively trying to kill or harm him, like the Bone Witch, want him alive to take revenge for them against someone else. There was Barry in issue 4, I suppose. He wasn't out to harm D'orc or get anything from him, but he also wasn't really helping him. Everyone who lends one hand is concealing something in their other. Which is a depressing state of affairs. He can't find anyone that is simply willing to help another person?

I mean, it's not like the shield or the chicken have much choice. One can't move on its own, the other wouldn't get far with a headless body. I don't know what Bean's trying to say with that state of affairs. The people on both sides are too concerned with "good" and "evil" as abstract concepts that are absolute, and miss the spirit of what doing good (or evil) really is? I may have to wait until D'Orc spends a little more time on the dark side of the scar, then compare who he met there versus the light side.

Bean does a good job on Mylinda's initial design, making her look unassuming. Some of it's the big eyes, and the wiggly, uneven line he uses for her mouth. Plus her tendency to make herself look small. Lean on a railing, or hold her arms in close to her body. Makes her look shy or a bit awkward, like she's worried about D'orc taking offense and leaving. Which she was, in a way. Nothing suspicious to see here! She's just oddball who likes living in this swamp, even with the frequent bog monster attacks.

He also mostly draws her and D'orc's interactions in profile up to that point, so that they're on the same level, even if she's taller. But when things shift, Bean either uses her bangs to shade her eyes ominously, or angles the perspective so she's looming over D'Orc. Of course, D'Or's also drugged unconscious by that point, which is ominous enough on its own.

Generation X-23 #7, by Jody Houser (writer), Marco Renna (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - Awwww, look who's front and center on the cover like he's still a sales draw. Who's the angry Canadian that still thinks it's 1993?

Laura and Gabby come home to find Logan bleeding on their floor, though he apparently didn't expect them to still be living there. Nor did he know they'd picked up some new boarders. Logan downplays his lack of a healing factor, because he's a man and that's what we do. Curiously, nobody mentions the set of broken claws. I guess it's obvious the claws wouldn't grow back if there's no healing factor, but you'd think the lack of adamantium would raise questions.

The Generated are listening in, and finally barge in when the conversation turns to them. They want to return to the Facility and explore. Learn more about themselves, and how much of what X-Infinite told them was true. The Snikt Squad reluctantly agree to take them back, where they find a bunch of dead humans, and that some of the Laura-bots have been rebuilt. There's a fight, and in the process, they find the Orphan-Maker. Which means Nanny's around, stealing genetically-altered mutant babies. Because apparently there was an entire nursery ward nobody found the last time.

We get to see the Generated help in the fight, and they seem to have gotten a little more comfortable since last issue. Which is strange, considering it's been one day since then. Maybe fight unliving robots is easier, but Port and Time Bomb combine their powers effectively, and Surprise! (she insists on the exclamation point) doesn't hesitate on what to shift into, and works up a combo with Scout.

Renna illustrates the fight pretty well, although it's funny to see Logan slashing at robots with his busted-ass bone claws. Or was he punching them? On the other hand, Nanny's Mr. Potato-head press-on lips were terrifying. When did that get added to her look? Admittedly, I'm not sure I've read a comic with Nanny in it since Storm got de-aged to a kid back in the Claremont/Jim Lee days, but I do not remember fake lips being part of the package. Does Nanny think they make her more acceptable to children?