Sunday Splash Page #378

"Extreme Elimination Challenge," in Nature's Labyrinth #1, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warina Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)

Eight people accept a cruise, that is really a way to dump them on an island that's been converted into essentially Murderworld, for the amusement of, well, whoever is watching I guess. The contestants have to navigate a labyrinth of traps and puzzles and human threats (both the other contestants and people besides that).

Thompson's protagonist is Jenny, a CIA agent there to shut this whole thing down, as it's apparently been going for some time. Although the married couple running the show insist the CIA sent Jenny there to die, because of something horrible they did. I don't know which is true, because Thompson leaves a lot of things unsaid. Jenny spends most their time working with Nasir (the guy freaking out in the above image), who was involved in weapons trafficking charges (which he insists were bullshit.) Whether that's true or not is also unclear. Nasir certainly seems incompetent and largely helpless, but he's also one of the only ones who survives to the end, so maybe that's an act.

Each of the contestants gets a specific weapon. Jenny, who has a lot of scars that could be from knives, gets a combat knife. Another guy gets a katana, one gets a flamethrower because he likes to set fires and killed his parents with an accidental fire. Nasir gets a Game Boy. The reason is never explained, nor does it ever prove useful in any way during the entire story.

Thompson uses the fact we don't know much about any of these characters to increase the unpredictability. Characters you might expect to fight bitterly instead become kindred spirits. Nasir seems quick to say whatever he needs to stay alive, then change sides at the drop of a hat. The labyrinth is interpersonal relationships as much as it's a physical place full of flowers with drugged scents and animatronic singing critters that pop up just to mess with the players. Even the machine gun toting squad that appears halfway through are actually players in a different game.

Mostly the story boils down to a lot of brutal fights. Some characters take to it like fish to water. Others get into the groove as they fall prey to some of the labyrinth's more underhanded dangers. Jenny doesn't go out of their way to pick fights, but also doesn't hold back once it starts. No stranger to violence, and one who accepts it as a necessity at times. That said, I think Underwood takes the brutality too far at times. Not in the sense of shock value; the idea behind this is the audience gets to watch these people who have apparently done awful things die horribly. Shock value is the point of the "show."

More because some of these people take damage that really ought to have killed them much sooner. In issue 2, Jenny fights the flamethrower guy. He takes a slash to the neck from the combat knife, gets half his face scraped off on jagged metal, and ends up with said jagged metal jammed into the back of his skull. He survives for another 3 issues, a span of at least 30 hours, without any apparent first aid or impairment.

The comic ends on another cliffhanger, as the surviving contestants know one of them took a knife off the wall, but we don't know which. I don't know what the point is, beyond violence begetting violence, often in ways you don't expect (the ones running the game clearly never grasped what impact it was having on their kid), and that every interaction with another person is taking a chance. You're never going to know them entirely, what they're hiding, what they're capable of. Who is on your side and who isn't. Seems like the life of an animal, the maze they navigate every day until they lose.

What I Bought 10/28/2024 - Part 1

Another week survived. Ummmm, I guess that's all I've got in terms of an introduction. Given I'm writing this Tuesday, it's not even necessarily accurate. I may not have survived. Update: I did survive! Congratulations to me! Here's two comics from October I'm going to review, as I have done hundreds of times before, since whatever algorithm Blogger uses to determine community guideline breaks is apparently dumb as shit.

Deadpool #7, by Cody Ziglar and Alexis Quasarano (writers), Andrea Di Vito (artist), Guru-eFX (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Taskmaster with no eyes visible behind his mask looks weird. Like the saddest sword-wielding skeleton possible.

Eleanor is dealing with Deadpool being dead by being extremely violent, indifferent to her own well-being and screwing up jobs while making social media posts about it. Like father, like daughter, though I'm pretty sure this is why Deadpool was staying away from her in the first place, so she didn't end up like him. Also, how the hell has Preston not tracked Eleanor down yet?

Taskmaster is trying to help them track down and kill Death Grip, but that requires money, which requires they either complete jobs successfully (glares at Eleanor) or steal from someone who has money. Like some pharmaceutical/biochem company. A company staffed by robots named T.O.D.D. (no clue what that stands for), who speak in meaningless executive lingo about tabling ideas and whatnot. One is a little tougher than the others, though Di Vito can't seem to decide how big he is. Seems normal sized in one panel, then he's big enough Eleanor can kick him in the chest the same time Princess hits him there with one paw and it looks like there's still room to spare.

They get the money, but Princess wants to investigate a familiar smell, which turns out to be Valentine from Alyssa Wong's run. Credit to Ziglar and Quasarano for not trying to just sweep the previous writer's work under the rug, I guess. Beyond that, I'm not sure how this is going to play out, other than I expect Eleanor to try and bargain for help bring her dad back to life. She seemed to see a link between biochemistry and the online video about alchemy she was watching.

I'm guessing Full Metal Alchemist isn't a thing in the Marvel Universe, or Eleanor would know better than trying to resurrect someone via alchemy. But maybe she figures she'll just regenerate her body, so it's no big deal.

Body Trade #2, by Zac Thompson (writer), Jok (artist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Groot really changed once he sold out.

Kim tries to break into the van with all the bodies. He fails, miserably, and the goon driver eventually drives away to deliver the remains. So Kim barges in on the extremely insensitive lady from last issue and steals a bunch of her files and her phone. He gives back the phone, though, which is how she takes a photo of his license plate. Batting a thousand here so far, champ.

He gets inside the branch office in Miami, makes a scene, catches an elevator and gets promptly clocked in the head with the but of a shotgun by security. But he gets to meet Ms. Wolfe, the local manager he thinks will get him his son's remains.

Instead she shows him a cutesy animated film (for which Jock goes with a simplified style and lighter tones) about what happens with the bodies, all the shareholders, I mean, sick people, that these corpses help. She keeps her distance pretty much throughout the entire conversation, such as it is. The one time she gets close is to dab some blood off his forehead where he got hit, and then she looks at it like she's almost confused by it. Otherwise, she either sits on the edge of her big desk, or goes to stand in front of the window. Either way, she's beyond his reach, face in shadow.

Which is her trying to dance around the fact his kid's body is G-O-N-E, but Kim's either dumb as shit or in denial. At which point she ditches any pretense of courtesy, reveals they know exactly who he is, and that they could easily have him killed. And they will if he comes back. Kim, of course, immediately calls some old friend from his ne'er-do-well days to request a gun.

So he's not going quietly. But Wolfe's going on vacation, and I suspect the child's body really is scattered across the world by now. Their coolant systems in the trucks are clearly second-rate, they can't afford to waste time. But if Kim doesn't do this, he has to deal with his apparent responsibility for his son's death (Wolfe brings it up, which makes 3 people in 2 issues so far, so I don't think Thompson's going to go for the fakeout), and clearly he's not ready for that. I'm not sure Thompson's really made me care, though.

What I Bought 9/27/2024 - Part 2

I went with Alex to one of his gigs in a town he hadn't played before. The attempt to visit the local comic shop ran aground because it was closed for a family matter, but there was an Asian restaurant next door, so I got the chance to try takoyaki.

Years of seeing anime characters eat it off skewers or toothpicks gave me the impression it would be crispier and crunchier. I guess I was expecting something like popcorn shrimp maybe, which it was not. That wasn't a bad thing, it was quite tasty. I didn't even have trouble with the sauces on top, which have typically been my arch-foe with other Asian cuisine. Just not what I was expecting, but a nice compliment to the fried rice.

The ice cream I had later that night may have been a bad idea, if my stomach's response around the time Alex's gig ended is any indication.

Babs #2, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy and Lee Loughridge (colorists), Rob Steen (letterer) - I envision Babs and Izzy tricked those guys into beating the crap out of each other to settle who would get to beat up Babs and Izzy. Hence the lack of blood spatter on the ladies. Fight smart not hard.

The Knights of Human Rights are for Humans are still prattling on about making the land safe for "normal" folk, but Mork the Orc (kind of small for an orc) and his dumbshit pals still think they can get in with this bunch, via some scroll Mork has. Leopards, faces being eaten, never thought my face, you can pretty well see the trajectory of that arc, though I can't rule out Ennis pulling a swerve.

Babs, meanwhile, spends half the issue wandering. First encountering a horde of undead warriors trying to figure out which way is the next place they're supposed to manifest. Which Ennis gets some humor from by having the horde bust each other's chops, because they've been together so long. Surprised he and Burrows didn't do more with the decomposing nature of their bodies. Later she shares a road with some poor knight trying to play at being a grand hero who won't shut up. Interacting with people locked in pitiful cycles prompts brief (one page worth) concern in Babs she'll end up like that, so she decides to steal some silver from the dwarf mines. Aim high! Except all the dwarves are missing.

Well, Tiberius Toledo - I think that name's supposed to mean something, possibly related to Roman history, but fuck if I know - did claim he already drove out the dwarves. Which I assume means he slaughtered them to the last child, but I guess I'll see next issue. It feels like Ennis is working towards Babs having to do more than simply wander and pull crimes that might grant her "middle class comfort" as the sword puts it, by dealing with Toledo and actually trying to rule like she's apparently supposed to. Except the tone feels too cynical for that, so either she turns it down and inter-species (class? race?) war erupts across the realm, or she tries and fucks it royally because she never finished princess school.

Body Trade #1, by Zac Thompson (writer), Jok (artist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - The way he's seated in front of that grand tree, with the thick clothes and beard, makes me think a bit of, like, Odin, seated in front of the World Tree or something.

Kim's son just passed away. The obituary says of prolonged illness, but based on the shouted accusations of Kim's ex-wife, it had something do to with Kim's bad driving. So that's an uncomfortable funeral, made worse for Kim by the fact there's no body. Because the hospital bills were enormous, so they had to sell the body to Bio-Mem to cover the costs. Kim doesn't give a shit, he just wants his son's body, to the extent he threatens a company rep (who is, admittedly preying on the desperation of an aged new-widow when he finds her.)

Kim gets his ass kicked by some meathead in a tank top who looks rougher than Kim and drives the H3 on steroids they transport bodies in. Up to that point, Jok's drawn Kim as a rough edges, heavily lined face, narrowed eyes and slanted brows. In the moment this new asshole shows up, he eases off all that, raises the brows, opens the eyes. Most of the lines on the face vanish. It doesn't make Kim look nice or anything, just lost and scared.

And he's not the only one, as even the "lead broker" for Bio-Mem is getting heat from her bosses, or maybe they're stockholders. Shitheads who have unreasonable expectations about profit and public image for what is essentially them being vultures. She also scratched her arm until she tore her coat, and Kim was scratching his cast (and his beard) earlier. I don't know if it's a nervous tic, or there's some contagion going around that results from whatever Bio-Mem is doing with these bodies, which aren't being transported humanly or with much concern to hygiene. Ah, the old cutting "costs to raise profits" gambit.

Thompson's playing cagey with what Bio-Mem does with the bodies, and also what's up with Kim. He keeps calling someone named "Cal", who seems to be a therapist or anger coach of some sorts. The cast on his arm is also too recent to be involved in whatever wreck his wife brought up (and I notice no one signed it, which could mean something or nothing. Cal's the only person who has anything nice to say to Kim.) I'm not nearly as invested in these mysteries as I was the incident on the mountain in Blow Away, or whatever was going on in Nature's Labyrinth. Which isn't great, since I didn't feel all that satisfied with the resolutions in either of those. Figure this book is on thin ice.

What I Bought 8/31/2024 - Part 1

I have today off for Labor Day, but the rest of the week intends to make me play for it. Another public meeting, oh joy. At least the weather has improved from last week's "sauna towel" experience.

Blow Away #5, by Zac Thompson (writer), Niccola Izzo (artist), Francesco Segala (colorist), DC Hopkins (letterer) - There was retailer incentive cover for 20 cents less, so I grabbed it. Looks basically the same, except it's like looking at the image through a grainy video camera.

Set a month after issue 4, Brynne's back in Toronto, using a crutch and still chewing over the experience on the mountain. Her boss announces a new documentary series about Nick's near-death experience, and Brynne will get credited because they're using some of her footage. Brynne learns there's two versions of footage on the server, because there were two cameras up there, one of them that wasn't hers.

And we're back to her poring over pixelated images frame-by-frame. As usual, it seems impossible to say anything for certain from the way they're presented by the art, but the story acknowledges that Brynne might just be seeing what she wants to, chasing ghosts. She talks her way into an interview with Nick and hides an extra camera in his office while his back is turned, then gets him to slip up and mention Andrew was sick with some terminal illness. Brynne gets footage of Nick and her boss discussing all this and how they can frame her, then leaks it online before confronting her boss, blowing up his plan to bribe her with fame.

I was a little confused that Matt, clearly aware that Brynne copied the camera files, and having received no confirmation she deleted them as he demanded, didn't warn Nick about her. But he seems perfectly willing to throw Nick under the bus when she confronts him at the end, so maybe the point was he didn't care. Nick may or may not have been helping Andrew with a mercy kill after one last climb (and Andrew may or may not have had second thoughts too late), but for Matt, it was only ever content. Get clicks, get eyes, get likes, so on. He clearly thinks he's clever and intimidating, but he misreads Brynne at every turn. She had a guy whose crimes she exposed shove a gun in her face before killing himself, Matt was never going to be intimidating with threats of lawyers, or even a hammer.

Rogues #2, by El Torres and Pablo M. Collar (creators), Monkey Typers (lettering) - This is actually just the cover to the first issue, but I didn't feel like tracking down the actual cover image.

The framing sequence for the issue is a guy in his library or writing room, feverishly scribbling down dire portents about horrors from beyond the veil preparing to attack and destroy the world. All of which is Bram and Weasel's fault, as we learn over the course of the rest of the issue. They got bored after a successful job left them comfortably well off and went for a walk. They returned a year later, sniping at each other and carrying a bag with an eye inside.

An eye which "voorps" them to the realm of Yog-Sothoth, who warns them they have opened a door that can't be closed, blah blah back to their world. Weasel talks Bram out of chopping the eye up with an axe, but fortunately demon dogs emerge from the fireplace, so the axe doesn't go unused. A subsequent flashback - within the original flashback? - shows they met a holy man in the north, who promised them ruins shown on no map, but full of treasures. Yeah, it was a trap, but they kill the Outer God he summoned and kept his eye, which they sell to the guy telling us the story. And then it starts raining frogs.

I can't tell if the writer, called Echpiel the Scholar, is eager to use the eye, or if he's just academically curious (in a slightly unhinged way) about seeing the emergence of these beings. Bram and Weasel are only starting to grasp this really could be something bad at the end, but I expect their response will still just be to try and stab whatever shows up while arguing with each other. Or maybe take a break from the arguing, which seems to be their default state, long enough to stab it, whichever.

The monsters, as drawn by Collar, don't really convey mind-shattering horror. They're large, there's usually a lot of tentacles, and there's liberal use of shadows to disguise things, but it is tricky to manage, I guess. It's easy to draw something disgusting or frightening in a body horror vein, but I'm not sure how you draw something and imply its presence drives you mad. Maybe you have to distort the image, or take a mosaic approach that suggests the viewer is losing their grip as they try to take in what they're looking at

In any event, it's probably moot since Bram and Weasel are the ones describing the encounters. They're clearly don't see the creatures as anything particularly horrific. Weasel dismissed Byatis, whose eye they took, as basically like a chimera. No big deal. Perhaps they're like the Tick, and you can't shatter a mind that doesn't exist?

What I Bought 8/2/2024

Alex visited over the weekend, and while we were discussing the lack of a direct route from our current Point A to the desired Point B, described the town as, 'like Cincinnati fucked San Francisco on the outskirts of Hell.' But real estate is so cheap on the outskirts!

Only two books from July, as the second issue of Rogues did not appear. Not giving me much confidence that Scout Comics got their shit together.

Blow Away #2, by Zac Thompson (writer), Niccola Izzo (artist), Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli (color artists), DC Hopkins (letterer) - Such natural beauty. Be a shame if someone were to spoil it with a murder.

Brynne falls down a ravine, somehow survives smacking her head against a ledge, and wakes up in a cave with the mysterious, masked hunter. The hunter seems to be lying, although it's hard to tell what is actual lies and what's Brynne's paranoia. She thinks he stole her glasses, presumably to make it harder to identify him, but why would she expect her glasses to stay on her face after a fall like that. Izzo draws her without them when she faceplants on that ravine, which presumably is by design and not a miscommunication.

But Thompson finally goes more fully into the flashbacks, everything colored by Segala and Martinelli with almost a kind of glaze, like looking through glass that's been stained by years of smoke or fumes. Brynne found stories detailing some popular TV personality had been abusing kids for years. Her bosses pressured her to kill the story because they were paid by the same company as the personality. Brynne put it out there anyway, the guy killed himself in her office rather than face the consequences of his actions.

At least, that's what we've got up to now. We'll see if there's a shocking twist reveal in the final issue. Brynne makes her escape, and the fact the hunter tries to shoot her (forgot to reload his gun) lends credence to the idea he's up to something. She finds some sort of shelter/shed, gets hold of her boss, is helicoptered into town, and is finds herself being investigated by the sheriff. Because she has been hiding evidence, and one of the climbers finally turned up, describing a terrible accident that he was fortunate to survive. Brynne's convinced it's a lie, so we'll see how that goes.

I don't think Nick - the survivor - was actually the hunter, although I wonder about the black eye after Brynne clocked the hunter with a rock. It would explain why he vanished around the time the climbers showed up, if Nick had been scouting, then flew home to meet Andrew and came back together. Unless Andrew is the hunter, trying to escape an unsatisfying life by faking his death? It would fit Brynne's persistence leading to destruction if she wrecked that for him, but I think they found Andrew's body, so that's no good.

Either Brynne's paranoid, trained by past experience to see cover-ups at all times, and she's going to get herself in bigger trouble, or there really is something there. I kind of think she's chasing ghosts. The 9-panel page of her and the sheriff, Brynne seems like she's always looking at something off-panel, like she can't face the truth. Or she's seeing what no one else does.

Blood and Fire #3, by Aaron Wroblewski (writer), Ezequiel Rubio Lancho (artist), Es Kay (letterer) - Halfway to dead.

The lone samurai reaches Lord Kiyotane's castle and begins his assault. But it's not only him the defenders have to worry about, as there are spirits with their own business to settle. Wroblewski flashes back a couple of times to show why the spirit is killing a particular guy - why shoot a person through the throat with an arrow? Just asking for painful retribution - and Lancho depicts only parts of the spirits coalescing into distinct features, the rest like puffs of smoke.

The samurai cuts down the last of the lord's defenders, who refuse to yield even when he gives them the chance. Leaving just Kiyotane himself, who is very surprised to be confronted by a dead man. Yep, the samurai died in the second issue - seriously, why do they keep shooting people in the throat? - and was brought back by the need for vengeance. Kiyotane is dumb enough to think this makes him safe. Kill him, and the samurai has no unfinished business to keep him here. As he gets hurled out the highest window to the cliffside below, that was a false assumption.

The notion that the samurai would rather be dead than let this guy live isn't exactly a shocking idea, but I like the way Wroblewski frames it. Kiyotane is used to people following his orders, even before he made this power play, he was a feudal lord. People die for him, but they fight with their very lives. So he expects that will save him, the need to survive to continue to serve. But for the samurai, all the people he considered worth serving, worth continuing to live for, are already dead. He failed in his duty to protect those people, so he's supposed to be dead. If Kiyotane's continued existence is what stands in the way, well, that's easily rectified.

What I Bought 6/28/2024 - Part 1

I had to drive through Illinois over the weekend, always an incredibly boring experience. I forgot that they really want you to know how close you are to road work, but never tell you how far the road work extends. The left lane closes in 3 miles, then 2 miles, then 1, then a half-mile, but nothing about how many miles the left lane is closed, which is what I actually want to know. How long am I stuck at the mercy of the slowest driver?

Blow Away #3, by Zac Thompson (writer), Niccola Izzo (artist), Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli (color artists), DC Hopkins (letterer) - Leaving nothing but tracks, shadows, and possibly a dead body or two.

Brynne's fixated on what happened to the mountain climbers. Asking questions, annoying the sheriff, who it feels like Izzo is drawing in the most suspicious ways possible. Face half in shadow, odd smirks or glares. Standing in front of one of Brynne's tables, eyeing a knife while Brynne's back is turned. It's like a blaring siren, to the extent it feels too obvious, though I can't figure the angle, unless it's meant to highlight Brynne's state of mind.

Because Brynne may have handed over copies of all her footage, but she didn't hand over the recorder the climbers had that she found. She's still poring over that, parsing silent looks or the fact Beardo is reading American Psycho, going frame-by-frame through the fight until she determines that when they both went over the side during their fight, one of them either got snagged on something, or was clipped to a safety anchor.

So, even with the sheriff having wanred her of a blizzard, Brynne follows their climb up the mountain (which Izzo does as a 9-panel grid starting in the lower left corner.) She finds some blood frozen on the snow, and a deep crevasse. before she can properly climb in, a rope gets tangled around her foot and she goes in the quick way.

With the one-panel flashbacks we keep getting of some previous project of hers that seems to have blown up, I feel like we're going to learn there was nothing suspicious. But part of that is because we've got basically nothing to go off. Brynne's got some blurry footage from her cameras and a few snippets (at least that's all we've seen) from their camera. None of which points to anything concrete. There's not even a body yet. It's similar to how the sheriff's being illustrated to seem suspicious, while we've got no idea why. The main thing it illustrates now is Brynne has a tendency to draw serious conclusions off little evidence.

All that said, I do at least want to find out what's happening, which is more than I can say for this next book.

Morning Star #3, by David Andry and Tim Daniel (writers), Marco Finnegan (artist), Jason Wordie (colorist), Justin Birch (letterer) - We've gone from gun to ax. Next issue they'll be down to a pointy stick.

Charlie's still missing, but now Marabeth's being chased by a weird version of the park ranger and a bunch of animals that talk in wavy voices balloons with elongated words. Marabeth flees across a river, but finds that weird pile or orange guys her dad and his partner found during the fire in issue 1. 

Meanwhile, Jolene gets briefly menaced by some flaming specter, then a whole bunch of funhouse mirror Charlies appear, also talking in the wavy voice bubbles with elongated words, asking her to help. Help Charlie, help them, help someone else?

This isn't working for me. Maybe the creatures, illusions, constructs, whatever they're meant to be, aren't supposed to be frightening, but it feels like, for how Marabeth flees, and how freaked out it's making Jolene, they should look more terrifying. But Finnegan's art doesn't sell it. The "park ranger", with his face entirely shadowed, and the spots where his glasses would be as white voids almost works. It's at least unsettling, but nothing further.

Maybe these scenes should be taking place at night, maybe it'd be scarier if the colors were darker, I don't know. But the story isn't really helping, either. We know Jolene feels stressed and probably guilty she didn't fight harder to get her husband to stay instead of going to fight this fire, but we still haven't seen much of Marabeth's thoughts, let alone Charlie's (outside the handful of panels in issue 1 that show all these odd things he sees in the world around him.) Does Marabeth resent having to find Charlie, does she envy him, does she worry about losing another member of her family? I feel like any connection or interest I have in the characters is the result of me working really hard to do so, not the result of Andry and Daniel's writing. I don't care much if any of them survive the story, let alone if they figure out what's going on.

What I Bought 5/31/2024 - Part 2

For part 2, we've got the second issues of two series, and I'm writing this on the 2nd. I hope Batman will at least knock on the door rather than crashing through the window.

Blow Away #2, by Zac Thompson (writer), Nicola Izzo (artist), Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli (color artists), DC Hopkins (letterer) - It's a quick trip to the bottom of the hill. Quicker if you don't care what condition you make it in.

Brynne finds a camera at the base of the mountain, but it's frozen solid, so she takes copies of her own footage to the nearest village where the sheriff is not on the same page about there being foul play. Brynne finds the locals uninterested in talking with her, minus a pilot who flew the two climbers in a few times, and that they worked with a local hunter. Likely the guy whose traps Brynne messes with.

The camera thaws and the footage reveals one of the climbers was nervous about something, and was recording the trip without his buddy's knowledge. The rest is unknown, but someone went through Brynne's cabin while she was away, the sheriff's looking funny at her (or Brynne's paranoid, I didn't really get the sense the sheriff was thinking of her as a suspect from their conversation), and her boss is on her butt to get those bird photos, which Brynne has decided don't matter.

We get a few more panels about some incident from Brynne's past. It looks like she recorded a man committing suicide, possibly in her office while they were talking. But there's never any dialogue, and it's always just one panel at a time, so it could turn out to be something entirely different. Much like Brynne's attempts to piece things together from the various footage she's found. Some of which has convinced her the climbers switched jackets at some point before reaching the summit.

I can't really tell that from the art, so maybe we're meant to take that as commentary on Brynne's character, that she jumps to conclusions based on insufficient evidence. The way Izzo draws the scene, as small panels of still images from the footage, where the climbers are little more than brightly colored stick figures, it doesn't really look like "Red" barely moved from being shoved, as Brynne sees it, given how far apart the two appear in the panel.

Morning Star #2, by David Andry and Tim Daniel (writers), Marco Finnegan (artist), Jason Wordie (colorist), Justin Birch (letterer) - It's Night of the Giant Children.

The family prepares to scatter the ashes, but the daughter, Marabeth, has some things to work through. Feeling abandoned by a father who willingly jumped out of planes into forest fires, mostly. Her mother tries to explain it, but it's unclear if that helps. And Charlie always seems at a remove. Jo reaches out to draw him into the hug and it looks like he steps back. At least, he's still at arms' length after the hug.

But the ashes get scattered and next morning, Charlie's gone. The ranger isn't answering the phone, so Marabeth goes looking while Jo waits to see if Charlie returns. No sign of Charlie either way, but Marabeth encounters a deer acting a little strangely. Not nearly so strangely as it does once it's out of sight, however.

The conversation that felt most relevant was thee part where Jo and Marabeth discuss which parent each kid is more like. Marabeth think Charlie is the one who takes after their father, while Jo is sure it's Marabeth. I think it says the most about how Marabeth saw her father, and how Jo sees herself. Jo describes Charlie, and herself, as feet in the air, head in the clouds. Charlie hasn't seemed at all connected to reality or the rest of his family up to this point, so I wonder if that's how Marabeth sees her father. Always off chasing some fantasy or dream.

Meanwhile, Jo saw her husband as a solid sort, protective, an anchor, based on how she compliments Marabeth and trusts her to take a rifle and go look for Charlie. But Nathan's the one who accepted a candle from a Romani woman and gave it to Jo, promising that as long as she burned it, he'd always come home to her, which seems pretty "head in the clouds" to me.

As for the weird animal behavior, I don't know. Something's infected them or duplicated them, I assume. What and why, no idea.

What I Bought 4/18/2024

My dad's dog is getting better behaved. It certainly helps to not be constantly having to tell her to get off me. Though she still doesn't do great at sitting still when you try to pet her. Hard to pet her when she chases her hand around with her mouth.

Black Widow and Hawkeye #2, by Stephanie Phillips (writer), Paolo Villanelli (artist), Matta Iacono (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - What is it with people in the Marvel Universe getting a symbiote and letting it near fire? Did no one give them the "how to care for your alien slime friend" pamphlet?

Clint tells the Natasha to leave, she refuses. He insists he killed the foreign minister (who he was tailing on some covert job), both she and the symbiote know he's lying. The symbiote attacks him, Natasha reels it in. Hawkeye acts like he doesn't recognize a symbiote when he sees one, but also comments that it seems jealous he knew Natasha first. Well, Phillips has the "cocky and kinda dim" aspects of his character down.

Hawkeye gets hit with a poison dart by someone in an old helmet. The shooter escapes because Natasha makes the symbiote deal with the poison, which may or may not have worked, but offers a chance for a trip down memory lane. This flashback actually started last issue, when someone sent Snapdragon after Natasha not long after she defected, and Hawkeye got smacked around trying to protect her.

I don't know who the mastermind villain controlling (and killing as a precautionary measure) the shooter. Name is vaguely familiar, but I guess he's another ghost from the Black Widow's past. What a shocker.

Villanelli softened his lines a lot for this issue. Definitely compared to the Captain Marvel mini-series he drew last year, but even compared to the first issue, the faces of the characters look a lot softer, less sharply defined. Maybe Villanelli didn't ink himself as strongly, so Iacono's colors are overwhelming the lines? It gives things a bit of an unfinished, smudged look.

I could argue it works for all the murkiness in the plot, between Clint's insistence on his guilt and the awkwardness of their past history with the added mess of the symbiote. But if that were the case, I think the flashback's art should be more distinct, sharper defined as a time when things were clearer between Nat and Clint, which isn't the case.

Blow Away #1, by Zac Thompson (writer), Nicola Izzo (artist), Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli (colorists), DC Hopkins (letterer) - You're not supposed to go out on the ice. A very annoying woman at a park once berated me about that.

Brynne's on assignment in the Baffin Islands, trying to capture photographic proof of a pair of nesting endangered bird. 6 weeks in, she's got a lot of pictures of snow and a few of a hunter. Then the mountain climbers show up. We don't know why they're there, because what we see is always through Brynne's camera, and it's set up for long shots. When she does zoom in on the photos, they're blurry and there's no audio, so it's all conjecture on her part that "Blue" looks frightened at one point, or that they started fighting at the summit.

There's also some sort of messy business in Brynne's backstory, involving something called "Arson Media" and blood splatter. She also seems to have some self-worth issues that are hinging on her getting these photos of the endangered birds. How that's going to factor in going forward, I don't know. I also don't know if the person watching Brynne through a sniper scope at the end of the issue is the same hunter as early, or some new problem.

Izzo keeps us at a distance from everything, even Brynne. There are very few close-ups on her, and when there are, she's usually outside with her face covered. Inside her base camp, there are a lot of panels looking over her shoulder the shots the cameras got. If the focus is on her, Brynne is usually looking off to one side, and our view is from at least a few feet away. Nothing close, nothing that's being said directly. Everything's inference and conjecture, which probably contrasts with her trying to get this definitive proof the birds nesting. That has to be a sure thing or it won't be accepted.

What I Bought 9/30/2023

Here we go, last two books from September. One is a mini-series nearing its conclusion, the other is one that's finally actually concluding.

Nature's Labyrinth #6, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - It turns out the Great Pacific Trash Ball was all part of an elaborate trap.

Long story short, J (or Jenny), kills the guy running the whole thing, before he can kill the game programmer, Naz. Naz injured the crazy kid (who is not related to Jenny, so that's another theory I whiffed on), but patches him up and the kid guides them to a boat that will autopilot to Fiji. The kid passes out shortly after, while Jenny and Naz each insist neither of them took the knife off the wall in the subterranean home before leaving.

And that's where it ends. There's a whole thing between Jenny and the chief psycho where Jenny insists the CIA sent them to stop him, that he and his family were poisoned from living near a toxic waste dump and he testified to Congress about it. Meanwhile, he insists the CIA and law enforcement love what he does and sent Jenny to die. Why that would be I'm still unclear, but his story sounds more likely than Jenny's. Either way, that remains unresolved, as does the question of whether Naz is telling the truth about his experiences. He certainly doesn't seem like a killer, as he only attacks the kid when seconds from having his head blown open with a shotgun, and doesn't rush to finish the job.

Nor can he pull the trigger to kill the chief psycho when the guy puts the barrel of the shotgun against his forehead. Although given how serious some of the injuries Underwood's drawn have been, and how little it seems to hamper them, a shotgun blast to the face might not cause more than a mild headache. Jenny's arm gets sliced open and two of her fingers bitten off and it barely slows them down.

I guess the uncertainty is the point. It's a labyrinth, and so long as you're alive, you're never out of it. Always guess if someone is who they claim to be, if you're safe around them, the motives of people you trust. Jenny doesn't know, and may never know. We don't know if Jenny's being honest. Presumably there is a partner and child, since they were mentioned when no one was around, but anything said to Naz about them could all be made up to make him drop his guard.

Grit n Gears #5, by Angel Fuentes (writer), Nahuel SB (artist), Carlos M. Mangual (letterer) - Trying to hide his gang's bounties. Jealousy, or protective instinct?

Ranger ONE keeps Razorneck from killing their creator's son, for a minute or so. Then the crazy priest and his floating fortress show up, promising to destroy the automatons with the aid of the new, big, controllable one constructed last issue. Razorneck is not impressed by someone proclaiming the superiority of humans to automatons while using automatons to win their battles and tears the big one to pieces. The preacher, like most figures proclaiming God supports them, proves chickenshit when rubber meets the road and retreats to his fortress. Which is then destroyed by one of Razorneck's gang. 

Nahuel draws the preacher with a lot of sweaty, righteous fervor. Looming over Razorneck and pointing down at him while he's got the upper hand, but running away as soon as things turn around. He makes no move to attack Razorneck himself, doesn't even offer a single word of defiance when they're face-to-face.

Amid all that, ONE and Razorneck have a conversation about what they hear. It's been established ONE somehow hears country music songs that won't exist for one hundred years. Razorneck, however, sees a future of screaming humans with automaton faces and burning fields. Because he's somehow perceiving Slipknot concerts. I'm not joking.

See? Two panels after this, Razorneck proclaims he's going to make sure those Slipknot fellers are never born. What a strange choice. The best I can figure is that the preacher and many others find the future they see represented in the automatons frightening, and this is paralleled by the future Razorneck thinks the visions are showing him, which he's determined to prevent. It comes across as vicious anger and cruelty, but it's really fear of something coming he can't understand driving everything.

What I Bought 5/1/2023 - Part 1

I took today off, intending to have a 4-day weekend, but I have to work on Monday after all. A public meeting no less. Forgoing a holiday to be yelled at by NIMBY morons. I do not expect to be in a good mood next week. Risk of me saying something I shouldn't at work: rising. Let's keep rolling through last month's books.

West of Sundown #10, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Another proud graduate of Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, joining the ranks of Dr. Nick Riveria.

Moreau's work on Griffin pushes him beyond Moreau's control, and possibly beyond Rosa's ability to fight. He's apparently linked to Azathoth, if I'm right that "blind idiot god" is referring to Lovecraft rather than some other writer. Thank goodness for Internet search engines.

The sheriff confronts one of Moreau's creations, who was the guy with milky blood he was supposed to have killed after the Civil War, for being too honest. He apologizes, and gives him a sheriff's badge, and the guy decides to protect all the people Moreau abducted and lobotomized. Which I guess means it's good Dooley and the others did refuse to fight them when they attacked. On the other hand, Dooley and the others were about to be torn apart until Rosa showed up. It's fine if you don't want to fight and kill with hate in your heart, but that doesn't mean you got to stand there like waiting for a firing squad.

Moreau's scheme is toast and he retreats to Europe, where a guy named Renfield suggests maybe trying a tropical island next time. And perhaps Mr. Renfield has another client who would be interested in America. . .

This seems to be the conclusion of the story for now, and the answers the characters found don't seem to address the problems they had. Part of the reason, beyond ego, she was vulnerable to the promises of Moreau's lickspittles was she was starving from lack of evil people to feed from. Moreau and said lickspittles are dead or gone. The railroad may or may not be coming through Sangre de Moro, so how will she feed? Dooley seems to have come to a realization about why he originally joined Rosa (beyond wanting out of the war), but while he wants to choose mercy, again, Rosa's gonna need to eat. How are those two things going to be compatible?

Nature's Labyrinth #5, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Just time your jumps carefully, and watch out for the flying Koopas that rise and fall.

The Shield, the Flame, and the Sword are the only three left officially in the game. They aren't being exciting enough, so the guy in control makes it so they can track each other, and tells them secrets about each other. Sadly, Flame and Sword decide they're still killin' buddies and try to tag team Shield. Which doesn't work, but it makes for a good fight.

Bit gruesome in places, and I continue to be confused by how much damage what appear to be otherwise average humans can take in this and keep going, but fun all the same. There's a nice flow to the action, Underwood and Thompson use the setting and the fact there are traps in the maze to mix things up a bit.

Shield had a point she could have attacked Sword while he was distracted murdering other folks, but she passed it up. Would have made life easier later, but the point seems to be she's trying to survive, but without playing along to the game any more than necessary. Sword and Flame both bought in fully to just having fun with the whole experience.

So the Shield wins, and it appears that involves the crazy old guy coming after her with a halberd. That's not much of a prize. Meanwhile, the podcaster guy was captured by the feral kid and his mom. The kid thinks the whole reality show thing is "for boomer losers", but also thinks the real money is in crypto, so everyone's a freaking scumbag. I liked the kid better when I thought he was basically a wolf-child. Anyway, looks like the last issue with be J dealing with halberd guy, and the podcaster running from the crypto-brat. Thompson has played so much hinting about the podcaster that it's going to have to be one heck of a reveal in the last issue to pay it off. Assuming he doesn't just leave it a mystery, which I wouldn't rule out.

On the penultimate page, Sahadewa colors two panels with a salmon-colored filter over everything. It seems like it's the crypto-brat's POV, so I thought maybe he had a tactical scope or goggles, but Underwood doesn't draw anything like that when we see him on the next page. Don't know what the purpose of that style choice was, then.

What I Bought 2/26/2023 - Part 2

I saw Joe Mad announced the 10th issue of Battle Chasers will be out in June.

Yes, June of this year. Whoever had midway through 2023 wins the bet! I mean, believe it when you see it (if you care), but certainly not news I was expecting to stumble across.

Immortal Sergeant #2, by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura - I thought the vehicle of fine American steel was not a park bench for dumbasses, yet there he is using it like a footstool.

The theme of this issue seems to be how comprehensively Sargent has fucked up his son Michael, as most of what we sees is Michael's life. He designs games, but he never finishes any of them. He's disorganized, incapable of dealing with his daughter's cut finger, incapable of standing up for his wife when his father insults her over speakerphone. From the bits we see in flashback, the fact his dad would not ever listen to what Michael thought or wanted seems to be part of it.

When they meet up, Kelly and Niimura present it as a double-page splash where Sargent dominates the left page, while Michael is consigned to less than a fifth of the right page. his dad's hand extends onto his "half", and his father insults his clothes by asking if the t-shirt comes in men's. 

Describing this guy as Eastwood's character from Gran Torino was giving him too much credit. Eastwood was mostly grouchy and silent with his family. This prick actively insults his daughter-in-law (who is also a defense lawyer, so lawyer + cop who thinks Miranda rights are stupid = real fire + gasoline combo there), his son, his ex-wife, his ex-wife's new wife. Michael makes a couple of attempts to keep his father from describing crime scenes of murders to the kids, but Sarge makes him look like the asshole for it.

It's probably meant to be something about how the cop deals with the things he's seen, but as they put it in an episode of M*A*S*H, he's such a remarkable example of walking fertilizer, it's hard for me to care. Niimura's very good at giving Sarge an especially irritating, shit-eating grin. He looks so gleeful as he fake-apologizes to his ex-wife's wife for his multiple homophobic slurs. Having the time of his life being a dick.

Nature's Labyrinth #4, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Into the wastelands.

The guy with the flamethrower (still don't know how he's alive) and the guy with the katana carve up most of the guys in the hazmat suits. Jay escapes into the desert, which immediately turns back into the labyrinth. Nasir and the girls run into a trap, which mangles one girl's arm and dumps Nasir to his apparent death. But whatever's in that bread the girls ate has made them both a little weird and possibly impervious to pain. So when Jay tries to take them on she gets her ass kicked. Ladies busted out some Street Fighter moves, until they started bickering and got blown up by some cat doll the weird hunter guy left behind.

It also looked like Sofia cut Jay's arm with the combat knife, but there's no wound or bleeding, so who knows. Injuries are extremely inconsistent in this book, between this and Jay slicing open Flamethrower Boy's neck a couple of issues ago. I'm not sure it's by design so much as a lack of communication between the creative team.

End result, as far as the folks running this know, it's down to Jay, Flamethrower Boy and Katana Dude. Look, Thompson has given me no reason to care about them enough to bother to remember their names or the stupid titles they got, so I'm not gonna bother checking an earlier issue. Guess we could call them Mayhem Bros. Jay's got to go the whole way back through the maze, which is probably going to lead to a run-in with the Mayhem Bros. But Nasir survived falling, 'several hundred feet' largely unharmed, so he's a wildcard. Assuming the feral kid doesn't get him.

What I Bought 1/28/2023 - Part 2

I attend a conference later this week. Will it be fun? I hope so, or at least not a waste of time. They awarded our unit this set amount of money for the next few months to spend on "trainings", so my boss was very encouraging I attend as a way to use some of it.

OK, the other two books from January, including one by a creative team we just looked at yesterday!

Immortal Sergeant #1, by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura - I kept thinking Niimura was emphasizing his upper lip, but no, the guy has a mustache.

James Sargent's retired from the force, though it's mandatory rather than voluntary. And he's got one case he can't let go of - you know how that goes - involving a child's shoe, which he has in its evidence bag in his early-70s Cadillac. He's also somehow equipped the car with essentially a taser to use on kids who loiter on it, and opines that being alcoholic doesn't make you bad, just weak. This while he's knocking back drinks at a bar before driving to another bar in a different part of town. And his son and his family are coming to visit, which Sargent may not be happy about. Or he's not happy about the food the mysterious "R" left for him. Either/or.

Niimura's going with a simpler style here than on I Kill Giants. Not necessarily stronger lines - the background characters often have a indistinct look, but Sargent probably doesn't care about them so that tracks - but a lot fewer lines. Characters pared down to a bare essence. Sargent is glasses that hid his eyes, the thick stripe of that mustache framing a smug grin. He likes his power and authority and likes throwing it around. Maybe not as racist as Eastwood's character in Gran Torino, but strong "get off my lawn" vibes.

There's not a lot else to say. Kelly and Niimura spent this issue establishing Sargent's character and hinting at a few mysteries. Like, what's with all the inflatable animals on his lawn? What kind of a number did he do on his son, the way the guy stammers through a voicemail? What's the significance of the second bar, where he was the only white person there (although he seems to be a regular)?

Nature's Labyrinth #3, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warina Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Time for a little post-urban exploration.

Jane and Nasir reach an information booth, where Nasir apparently ignores everything the animatronic cat tells him in favor of bitching at Jane about not being honest with him. They reach a safe zone where they have to wait six hours. The guy with the sword and the two girls both show up, as well as the guy with the flamethrower and I call bullshit. Jane cut his throat open then dragged his face down rusty metal last issue, and while he is missing half his face, he's otherwise fine.

Then all the people who were crew on the cruise ship pop up from underground with guns because they're playing for a chance at big money. At first I thought the goal was to kill the surviving players, but I think they have to kill each other as well. And Nasir takes this time to ditch Jane and team up with the two girls.

This after the cat explained one of them is heir to a crime family and the other runs a trafficking ring. The latter garrotes flunkies, the former killed her uncle with an icepick. These are not safe people to travel with (if there is such a thing)! On the other hand, the cat also said everyone was supposed to play on an empty stomach, and Nasir didn't eat the bread the girls offered. Instead he used it demonstrate how he could get them out. I'm pretty sure they don't need a computer programmer to pull a Hansel & Gretel. Maybe he listened amongst his bitching, but he's still an idiot.

I still don't know if the people behind this have anything larger at mind than entertaining themselves or not. It seems like a lot of work just to kill some people. An entire village of talking animatronic animals that I'm sure only look clunky and awkward? The village itself looks like it's been abandoned, some farm community or old mining town, but it really feels like something done for effect.

I'm pretty sure the feral kid Safari Bob is dragging around is related to Jane somehow. Underwood is keeping the kid's face behind a wooden mask, but the long hair looks very much like Jane's in color and style. Which might explain why Jane's here, since we haven't gotten much more of that than Nasir.

What I Bought 1/2/2023 - Part 2

Welcome to Friday, unless it's already Saturday where you are, you lucky devil. Today we're looking at the second issue of one mini-series, and the conclusion of another.

Nature's Labyrinth #2, by Zac Thompson (writer), Bayleigh Underwood (artist), Warnia Sahadewa (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer) - Find all the creatures that want to kill you! Trick question: Everything is lethal!

J. Roe and Nasir reach a checkpoint, where the surviving five contestants wait. It's time for Round 2, or the next stage, and everyone gets a present. Weapons! One for each. you get a handgun, and you get a katana, and whoops, the katana guy gleefully decapitated the guy with the gun. While katana guy gets immolated by flamethrower guy, J. and Nasir keep moving, only to encounter a path full of hallucinogenic flowers. Then they're ambushed by a stereotypical big game hunter with a glaive.

The hunter gets distracted, because he's not the only one besides the contestants roaming around in here. There's at least one feral looking child who ran into flamethrower guy, but the outcome of that is unclear. Flamethrower guy, who is apparently a notorious arsonist, his fate is made much more clear when he catches up to J and Nasir.

The fight is pretty brutal, but some of the proportions and perspectives seem off. Jane slices his throat open with a combat knife, but she looks unusually small, like she's far away or off to one side. Which doesn't make sense, because the panels before that establish they were facing each other and she charged right at him, but he's not even looking at her by the time she cuts him. Then in the next panel, he's uppercutting her in the chin. And I'm very surprised he can fight for that long with what looks like a jugular cut open.

Whatever, he's dead now, so depending on whether he torched katana guy long enough, we may be down to four contestants. I'm curious to see what Nasir's going to do with a Gameboy, as that was the weapon provided to him. Everyone else is given more obvious killing tools, so it kind of sticks out. Is he going to hack their environment with a 30-year-old game system?

Blink #5, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Frank Cvetkovic (letterer) - New definition of "cam girl."

Wren does not kill the one waiting for her. Instead, she's stuck playing witness and ghostwriter as he lays out his life, what he tried to accomplish here, and what he's unlocked. Of the latter, Sebela's going with the, "there are gods for everything," including gods for surveillance and (involuntary) transparency. I'm looking at these pages, and trying to decide if Sherman did the panel layouts to resemble the symbols of major communications or entertainment companies. All these polygons overlapping each other. There's one with a circular panel of Wren, overlapped at 10 and 2 o'clock by smaller circles. Kind of looks like a Mickey Mouse symbol.

Or it's just meant to be all the different cameras. Hundreds of different angles of the same conversation, letting you see it from anyway you choose. Every significant twitch, raised eyebrow, dramatic flourish with a handgun.

Wren learns she had to be drawn back, because the key to bringing this god through was in her. Cy, the monster from her dreams. So much for my theory the monster looking thing that saved her previously was her father, captured and turned into one of the Signal. It was Cy, back in a physical form once he was in this nightmare realm.

The guy behind it kills himself, although Wren turns off the camera right before the end. Given the number of other cameras, it seems kind of pointless, but I guess it's a ritual, and those are meant to be done a certain way. The god wants to see everything, so he offered it even his death. Either way, since Wren didn't kill him, the Static don't get what they want. Unless they kill Wren, who is meant to be in his place. But it's not Wren, it's Cy, and everyone dies except him and her. So Wren flees, but it may be too late for that to matter. Although Sherman shifts back to more ordinary rectangular panels as soon as she's back out in the world, but the more paranoid she gets, the more the angles we view her from start to get weird, and eventually the staticky backdrop in the gutters comes back.

So, where does that leave us? That people don't consider what getting the "whole truth" would really entail? Wren gets that chance, the chance to see everything from where she was born, and all it cost was everything else she had. She's afraid to go outside, she's wrecked her career, her relationships, her life, over this obsession. And she's helped bring some surveillance god into the world directly.

Or that people don't think about how much power they grant others over them with constantly recording themselves, or being recorded. Or they don't even know how much of their life is out there, things they don't remember seeing or doing, but somebody, somewhere, saw it, knows about it.