What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 8

One of these days, I'll end these reviews. This isn't that day. In other news, it's raining again, which means the ceiling is dripping again. Hopefully it stops before I try to sleep.

Katana #1 & 2, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Alex Sanchez (artist), Claude St. Aubin (inker #2), Matt Vackey (colorist), Taylor Esposito (letterer) - I have nothing to say about either of the covers.

So Tatsu/Katana has this nifty sword, the Soultaker. Near I can tell, her husband used to wield it, but he died under somewhat vague circumstances, involving fire. And blood. As far as Tatsu's concerned, his soul is within the sword, which means they'll be taking vengeance on his killers together. That would seem to be the Sword Clan, and to that end, Tatsu's set up shop in the Japantown section of San Francisco. Her initial attempts aren't entirely successful. She managed to overcome Coil - narrowly - but the fact he knows more about her and the sword than she does seems to give him an upper hand. Her attempt to call out Sickle didn't quite work, either. She trounced all his followers, but he didn't actually fight her. Instead, he threatened to leak her identity if she didn't work with them. Tatsu figures you have to be close to someone to stab them, so she agrees.

You have to say this for Nocenti: She doesn't waste time. She's already introduced at least 5 characters I expect to be regular members of the supporting cast, from a potential boss (Nori, her landlady), to a mole (who names their son Thrust? Unless it's Gatotsu, and he just used the English translation), a couple of elder sorts, and Shun the Untouchable. Not sure if she and Tatsu will ever get any time to actually converse, but it ought to be interesting when they do.

As for Tatsu herself, she's on this interesting line between confidence and false bravado. I honestly can't tell which it is sometimes. When she attacks Thrust and harries him, insults him, that's fake. That's her trying out Batman's "scare people into talking" stuff. But when she leaps out of the crowd to challenge Sickle and his ladies, I think that's genuine. She's honestly that sure of herself, even when she knows how far she has to go. So she's overconfident, but I can't tell if that's because she doesn't realize the difficulty of the task ahead of her, or if she just doesn't care. She may figure this is something she has to do, whatever the risks to herself. So she ignores them.

As for Sanchez' art, I prefer it with St. Aubin inking. When Sanchez inks himself, he goes overboard, too many small lines, and things get muddled. The details can get buried under the shadows, especially on things at a distance, such as faces. St. Aubin smooths things out, the shadows there are go deeper, but they aren't as prevalent, so they don't threaten to overwhelm everything.

One other credit, for whomever is responsible, the sound effects. In issue 2, they seem to hang around the borders of the panels, either at the top or bottom. The laughter in the panel where Tatsu gets her second glimpse of Shun, the "swoosh" as Junko leg sweeps Tatsu, the applause when Tatsu first leaps onto the stage with Sickle, and again when the fight ends. There are very few effects in the center of panels. Maybe that's deliberate, or just chance. I like that the applause is set against a narrow line of curtains, as though they're rising on the show and the start, and descending at the end.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 7

It's been a few days, but I'm back to it. We're even covering multiple titles today.

Dial H #10, by China Mieville (writer), Alberto Ponticelli (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Richard & Tanya Horie (colors) - Amazing. Brian Bolland managed to make the Bristol Bloodhound look even creepier than he does inside the book. Something about those long, black fingernails, combined with the very pale pink skin, like the rest of the body was supposed to shift, but it didn't.

With the help of the Bristol Bloodhound, Nelson's able to escape the Centipede. Why did the Bloodhound help? Because he doesn't have a HERO dial, he has a sidekick dial. He needs a hero to tell him what to do, or he locks up, and Nelson (as the Glimpse) qualified. Well, it's perhaps not ideal, but two dials are still better than one, so Nelson takes the SIDE dial, and lets Manteau give the orders. Meanwhile, the Centipede is pursuing his own angle, believing that combining the technology his government has with the knowledge or faith of some of the cultists, he can get in touch with someone. O, maybe, or someone similar.

I can't decide why the Centipede's keeping the helmet on. He thought it was pretty undignified, but now he wears it even for an interrogation. I can't decide if he's playing dutiful soldier, if he's decided it has its uses, or if he's actually grown fond of it. Likes how disturbing, or unusual it makes him look. I'm also not sure if the name "Eddison", rather than "Edison" is deliberate, or just a spelling error. At any rate, Centipede's got something planned, but I can't figure out what his goal is. What's he hoping for the "dial emissaries" to accomplish? It has to be more than eliminating Roxie and Nelson, but I'm not sure he isn't getting too cocky. I don't understand everything, neither does Roxie, but I don't think the Centipede does either.

Ponticelli does a good job during the stretch where Nelson's the Glimpse, always just a small portion of him in the panel, nothing more. The little hairs all over the Centipede's helmet are a nice touch. Make it look that much more real, which makes it that much more unnerving.

Fearless Defenders #2, by Cullen Bunn (writer), Will Sliney (artist), Veronica Gandini (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I don't know, that Dani Moonstar action figure doesn't look like it has many points of articulation. Can it even stand up on its own?

Dani herself gets captured by Le Fay's agents, because Le Fay wants to become a Valkyrie. Well that seems a sensible plan. Become a Valkyrie! You too can be summoned to Asgardia and told you're doing a shit job of carrying out your appointed duties, then have a Goddess of Death show up and claim she's doing your job for you! That's pretty much it. Val got a bad performance review for not creating this Valkyrior from Earth's heroes, and Hela's gone and selected one of her own. And the Deathmaidens were black ops Valkyries that went nutso after they saw something. Always with the black ops branches. The Green Lanterns had 'em, the Nova Corps apparently has one, the X-Men, the Avengers, sure why not the Valkyries?

Well, at least this issue got more of a reaction from me than the first one, but it's mostly irritation. Like, why does Misty Knight try to jump kick Hela, when she has a perfectly good repulsor ray in her bionic arm? Why would Le Fay say that if Dani's friends knew what her plan was, they'd be wetting themselves? They're superheroes. Whatever she's got planned, I'm sure they've seen worse. Just say, even if they knew, they couldn't stop it.

I want to say something about Sliney's art, but it's just kind of there. I don't dislike it, other than some of the postures during fight scenes are a little odd. Dani seemed tilted too far to one side when she was sliding down the railing, and when she landed and did the jump and flip, I'm not sure which direction she went. It looks like she jumped backwards, which is why her back's to the ground while she's in midair, but judging by where the stairs are when she lands, she jumped forward, which doesn't make sense to me.

Hawkeye #8, by Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja and Annie Wu (artists), Matt Hollingsworth (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer) - So Cherry's back. Fortunately not for her car, since that got washed away. Unfortunately, she's back to steal a little safe from the Tracksuit Brigade, and she wants Clint's help. Clint, being a dumbass, agrees to start a fight in the Russkies' strip club while she grabs the safe. Which gets him arrested, which gets him chewed out by Captain America and Stark. Let's pause here a moment to savor the absolute stupidity of Tony Stark chewing anyone else out for breaking a morals clause. Stark's practically a war criminal. If he's not talking to the Red Skull, he does not get to take the moral high ground. Ever.

And all this accomplishes nothing, because Cherry was using comic book covers as a way to remember the combination, and Clint read the comics and messed up the order. So she leaves him with the safe, and the Russians vowing to eliminate him.

OK. Several months ago, I took Clint's little liaison with Cherry as a sign he and Jessica Drew had broken up. Apparently not. So it took 8 issues, but Fraction finally wrote something stupid that pissed me off. Look, Clint Barton has many character flaws. He's hot-tempered, stubborn, arrogant, rebellious, doesn't think before he speaks or acts. One thing he has not been, is a philanderer. That's Oliver Queen's shtick. So yeah, I'm fairly annoyed by that.

Actually, I can't tell whether that opening sequence really happened, or if it was a nightmare Clint had. Or a metaphor for how Cherry reentered his life. She really showed up at Avengers Mansion looking for Clint (when she knows who he is well enough to mail him comics), and Natasha, Bobbi, and Jessica all happened to be there? With playing cards landing on their foreheads? Dressed like something out of the '60s? Seriously, I love Aja's artwork, but no way I believe anyone has worn a dress like Jessica's willingly since the Adam West Batman was premiering episodes. And it's especially silly for her to wear that, then question Cherry's dress. Ladies, ladies, both your outfits are hideous, let's just move on.

I like Hollingsworth's red lighting for Clint's scenes in the club. Conveys how this is an emotional thing for him, while the lighting in the room with Cherry and the safe is more standard white lighting. More cold and sterile. Also, I enjoyed Clint punching the old man. And I liked how, during the conversation where Cherry is convincing Clint to help, Aja uses a lot of tall, narrow panels, which jam the two characters closely together. If only one of them is in panel, it's a close-up, implying the lack of distance between them. At the end, when she's raging about the comics, he uses wider panels, and typically only puts one character in them, at a middle distance. If both characters are in panel, he makes certain there's space between them.

So, Aja, and Hollingsworth do their usual excellent work. I'm all for anything that makes the Russians more aggressive, because that means their inevitable end draws near. Which means no more "bro", and I am all for that. I just really hate that Fraction had Clint cheat on Jessica. Infidelity seems to be a particular flaw I don't like in characters that I want to root for.

The Beggar King - Oliver Poetzsch

The Beggar King is the third book in Poetzsch's "Hangman's Daughter" series.  For this one Poetzsch moves the action away from Schongau to the city of Regensburg, home at that time to the Reichstag. Jakob Kuisl received a letter saying his sister's deathly ill, and when he reaches the bathhouse she and her husband run, he finds it's worse than he suspected. They've both contracted a fatal case of stab wounds, and the city watch just happen to show up seconds after Kuisl finds them. Kuisl's thrown in the keep, where he'll have to resist confessing under torture until he can figure out who set him up, and why.

Unaware of all this, Magdalena and Simon have also made their way to Regensburg. Magdalena's sick and tired of being called a witch or the devil's daughter, and when the master baker in town accuses her of poisoning his maid to obscure the fact he's the one who gave her too much ergot to abort the baby he produced, and the entire town goes along with him, she convinces Simon it's time to leave. Once they arrive, they learn of her father's predicament, and set to proving his innocence, which is tricky when you don't know anyone or anything about the city you're in.

It might have been a mistake to read this so soon after The Hangman's Daughter. It makes me notice patterns in Poetzsch's writing more readily. People from Kuisl's past with a grudge, who may also be unhinged? Check. The introduction of a new possible love interest to cause strife for the young couple? Check. The new love interest turns out to be other than what they appear? Check. At least Magdalena got the chance to make Simon jealous this time.

I liked the use of Teuber, the Regensburg hangman. Through the first two books, Poetzsch has told us how closely knit the hangman community is, since they can only associate openly with others like themselves. Everyone else treats them as unclean. We haven't seen it, though, outside of the frequent threats of Magdalena's parents to marry her to the Steingarden hangman. This was a chance to see that, and Poetzsch did a pretty good job. He captures Teuber's conflict between his desire to keep his job and care for his family, while gradually recognizing Kuisl is innocent and has someone out to get him. Someone who's using Teuber to carry out their revenge.

The Ink-Stained Trail - Chapter 7

I sat in my dark room, the blinds down, the window open. I was still sweating, but the breeze helped. I was certain Maggie and her boys had something going on out in the housing. I was less certain if Hector or any of the other families were involved. Hector's fear could mean he was an innocent guy getting pushed around, but he could just be some low-level mook, worried about riling his boss. He wouldn't be the first crook with a family, if that's what they were. I remembered the Shrew brothers, Pac and Bly. They'd hire themselves out as kids for people who needed to pose as family men, or wanted muscle people would underestimate. I'd been socked in the jaw - and the garbanzos - more than enough to know they were up for it. Then they riled Victor de la Cruz and wound up sharing a steamer trunk at the bottom of the bay.

One other thing I felt sure of was the Charlanes' involvement. It couldn't be a coincidence they sold the land so cheap, after going to all the trouble to build expensive-looking homes on it. They gained something from all this, the question was what.

I tried looking them up in the archives for the local paper. Didn't find much. The family moved here over a century ago. Started with one small farm, but lucked out that it had a deep well that kept them going through the drought years. They grew, and eventually bought most of the surrounding land over a span of 20 years. Not bad. During the last war, they got some notice for shipping large quantities of food overseas on their own dime. Since they used their own ships, I had a hunch they got Uncle Sam to foot at least some of that bill, but none of the articles mentioned it. Now they were building homes. The paper didn't have any answers as to why, but one advantage to being the wealthiest folks in town is you can convince people not to ask questions.

Even so, the papers noted the Charlanes were notoriously reclusive. Didn't throw big parties or get active in local activities. No lions' Club or anything like that. Just kept to themselves. The family was currently Cyril and Josephine (Cyril was the one who knocked over the display in the general store that day), and their daughter Rosalind (pretty good student by on the awards she was pulling in). They had a son off at college, no specifics as to where. Just "overseas".

None of that told me much, so I decided on the direct approach. Their estate was to the west of their housing plan. Up on a hill. Big gate, high stone fence, gravel drive winding it's way up the hill to an even bigger house. Made me wonder if they bought it in England and had it shipped over. Didn't really fit here. I stopped in front of the gate, which was locked. There was no buzzer to ring to announce myself. The lock was heavy duty, a grey slab of pig iron serving as a padlock. It looked intimidating, but easy enough to pick if you know how. Few minutes work and I was pocketing the lock as I shoved the gate open, and followed the path to the house. My hat was off to the grounds crew. It was a big lawn, but they kept it cut short and neat. There were some trees near the house, but most of the lawn was wide open. The house was a three-story job, made out of granite. It looked well-kept, too, but it had a secretive air to it. Like when you step into a room and everyone gets quiet because they were talking about you. At least the door had a brass knocker to use. I lifted it and let it drop a few times.

After an couple eternities, the door opened. A pair of sea-green eyes peered out from behind the door, set in a young face. "What are you doing here?"

I took a guess. "Rosalind Charlane?"

The door opened a fraction wider. The face was flushed, too much sun, not a hard thing to accomplish around here. The face watched my suspiciously. "No, I'm Laurie Breston, the head maid, and I repeat, what are you doing here?"

I tried for cordial. "I'm sorry, you have such a young voice, I thought you were a teenager. I have an appointment with Mr. Charlane."

The eyes narrowed, that green sea getting pretty stormy. "I highly doubt that," she sniffed. "Mr. C never sees guests."

"I'm really more a prospective employee."

"Then he'd meet with you at his office." I noticed she didn't say that's where he was at the moment, so I kept pressing.

"It's about a private matter."

She'd had enough. "I'll not listen to any more of your stories! Be gone, or I'll set the grounds crew on you." The door slammed in my face.

I've had friendlier conversations hanging upside down in my bookie's basement. I turned and scanned the lawn as I started back to the road. I glanced back and saw Laurie was keeping an eye on me through a window next to the front door. I also noticed a curtain shift on the third floor, but didn't get a glimpse of who'd been there. Nice to see my curiosity had sparked someone else's.

Evidently I'd walked far enough Laurie didn't need to watch me. I turned and ambled around the side of the house, looking for another entrance, trying to be casual about it. Just a guy enjoying the view. I didn't make it far before a man stepped out of the shadows. He wore a straw hat big enough to use as a beach umbrella, with skin so burnt and weathered it looked tougher than his boots. He had a pair of gardening shears in his hands, pointed right at me.

"Mrs. Breston told ye to shove off," he rasped out. His voice was like sandpaper against the wood of his throat.

"Er, sorry. Which way is out again?" I really can't help myself.

"It's that way, ye daft snoop," he jeered, and jerked his head in the direction behind me. "And if ye still can't find it, I'm sure an ambulance can carry you out. Or a hearse." He jabbed the shears at me. I tried not to laugh. Maybe it was all the sun, but he looked old enough to be my grandfather's father. I was pretty sure I could take him, but assaulting the elderly isn't my style. Not when it won't accomplish anything.

I figured I'd pissed enough people off for the day. I turned and walked quickly back down the hill to my car, and drove back to town. I wanted to get a quick nap before I tonight. I had things to do.

Burn Notice 5.1 - Company Man

Plot: Michael's working with the CIA, but he's not exactly back in. The burn notice is still under review. You wouldn't think that'd be the case, seeing as he's spent six months since the end of Season 4 roaming the world, helping them hunt down all the people on that list. But that's government for you. The wheels grind slowly, but exceedingly dumb.

Michael and Max (his partner for the time being, who is in the CIA) tracked down Hector in Ontario, and Michael's able to play sympathetic enough to convince Hector to give up the name of the last guy they need. A John Kessler, hiding in Venezuela. Michael manages to get Sam and Fi involved, but they're chafe a bit at how the CIA does things. They fact they'll be relegated to the sidelines for the attempted abduction of Kessler doesn't help things, either.

The abduction doesn't go as planned. The attempt to bribe an official at a checkpoint by having Mike pose as a Russian agent almost goes sour, but even after they smooth that out, there's still the fact they underestimated Kessler's resources. He's able to pick up and jam their allegedly coded transmissions, and the team gets crushed while Kessler hightails it back to his fortress. Mike and Max can't get to him before he shoots himself, which leaves Mike extremely frustrated. He didn't get the answers he wanted. But Jesse did get him the Charger back (slightly mangled), that should count for something.

The Players: Max (CIA Officer), Michael (CIA Asset), Raines (The Boss), Kessler (Michael's Last Chance For Answers)

Quote of the Episode: Mike - 'A plan? No, I got some tactical goals and a rough approach.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? A telephone pole. Or a power pole. One or the other. It blocks a road with wood and a shower of sparks.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 2 (2 overall). They say Sam slimmed down. I don't really see it myself. Maybe it's the baggy shirts.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (0 overall)

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (0 overall)

Other: Michael's alias is "Vasily Andropov". Sam and Fi were stuck with "Greg and Tara Winter". yes, the CIA broke Sam's Chuck Finley mojo.  Because they are morons.

Jesse getting his job at CIFA back only to quit it strikes me as kind of silly. I assume the idea was they want to keep him as a cast regular - something I'm fine with - and thought working for a private security company would better facilitate that than if he worked for a different large government agency than Michael (probably one that is a rival of the CIA, knowing the pissing contests and jurisdictional battles agencies have). Even so, Jesse's argument that he wanted to be helping people more directly is a little naive. There's no guarantee the people he'll protect deserve protection, simply because they can afford to pay for it. If he'd started his own security operation, where he had final say on the clientele, sure.

Michael's relationships with Madeline and Fiona are both surprisingly positive, considering how much he's keeping them in the dark. He couldn't even tell Fiona he went to Canada, for pete's sake. But it's strong inferred that Mike's been returning to Miami regularly in between these missions, so they've been getting to see him at least, which is more than they probably expected when those CIA guys took him away at the end of last season.

I laughed when Hector told Mike he wouldn't get Kessler because he was too careful. He asked him how he though Kessler had avoided him so long, and all I could think was, "He stayed out of Miami?" If you just stay away from Florida in general, Michael's been largely powerless these last 4 seasons. Yet people keep showing up, all the way back to Phillip Cowan at the end of Season 1.

Cowan, incidentally, is the one who first told Michael he wouldn't be able to get any easy answers. That it was as simple as Cowan being the sole bad guy, so if Michael defeated him - somehow - everything would be fixed. Cowan was right, even if he died about 10 seconds later. Victor told him much the same thing in a men's room a season later. Here we are in Season 5, and I'm not sure Michael's ever let that sink in. Still running for answers about why him, specifically. And now it appears he lost the chance to find out. Maybe that's why things are going well with Maddy and Fi. His personal life is on a high note, so professionally things need to start deteriorating again. Like Peter Parker, things can't go well for Michael Westen in both halves of his life? When he thought Strickler was gonna get him back in, he almost lost Fiona, and getting her back led to him killing Strickler, which kind of tossed any chance he had of helping Michael.

Is there a psychological difference between people who search for reasons why something bad happens to them, and people who accept it as chance, fate, God's will, whatever? Michael's clearly in the former category.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 6

Keep these reviews rollin' along.

Daredevil #22, 23, 24, by Mark Waid (writer), Chris Samnee (artist), Javier Rodriguez (color art), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I like DD's posture on that cover. Makes him look slightly weary, not really enjoying his triumph over these goons. Plus how the line from his billy club is draped over and around the statue and the goons.

First off, Matt's almost out of money since he and Foggy split up. Then Octavius Spidey attacks him, but that's broken up by the appearance of Stilt-Man, who has upgraded his gear by stealing some of Ock's designs. You know, Stilt-Man was a woman in last year's Villains for Hire mini-series. Maybe people trade the name off between them. "Here, you try and be a decent villain named Stilt-Man, I can't do it." Octavius manages to do a passable enough Parker that Matt doesn't suspect anything. I gotta say, I find it hard to believe Octavius can copy Pete's posture that well that it fools Daredevil. Anyway, DD convinces Ock he's not a danger and they part ways so Matt can learn Foggy may have cancer.

Well, then.

Matt tries taking Foggy out for some fun to take his mind of it and for them to reconnect. The fun's interrupted by a horde of guys who have all been blinded by the same radioactive sludge that Matt was hit with. So they have super-senses too, they just don't know how to control and focus them like he does. Which comes in handy for corralling them, but it's pretty disturbing. When that doesn't get Matt moving fast enough to suit his mysterious, darkness loving adversary, he receives a crate full of blinded, hypersensitive attack dogs at the office. Just what every person needs. However, Matt may have just gotten a lead. Or it may be a trap. Knowing Matt's luck, I'd bet on trap.

I have absolutely no idea who is after Matt. He had his assistant make a big collage of relevant pictures into a bullseye, but I can't believe it's Bullseye. I'm fairly confident it isn't the Kingpin, though, which is enough for me. Oh crap, it isn't the old man he saved when he was boy, bitter because he wasn't gifted with super-senses to compensate for his preexisting blindness, is it? I was about to say I'm more curious about this mysterious client Matt hasn't told Foggy about, but now I'm not sure that's true.

Damn, I almost forgot Matt talked with Assistant D.A. Kirsten McDuffie, who admitted she doesn't want to be in a relationship with Matt because it leads to a point where everyone defines her in relation to him. "Daredevil's Girlfriend", rather than "Assistant District Attorney", that sort of thing. Naturally, her ability to walk away from him only makes Matt more attracted. Just leave her be, Matt. She hasn't died or gone insane yet, don't tempt fate.

Let's talk about sound effects. there are a few good ones, but as usual, I don't know whether to credit Samnee or Caramagna. There's the "POP" as Spidey's shoulder is separated in #22, with the letters done in the shape of bones. The "BLAM" in #23, with concentric circles inside the letters, emanating from right where the "wilder"'s ears are.

On the definite art side, I thought Samnee and Rodriguez did a good job with "Superior" Spidey. His costume has no blue, just black with the red, and his posture is much more aggressive. He's always leaning forward poised to attack, and he always seems to be in the upper part of the panels, above Daredevil, or trying to get above him. Plus he moves more forcefully. He goes right through a wall, rather than use the window he already chucked DD through. Also, he moves differently from Daredevil. It's hard to describe how, exactly, but it's a matter of training. Matt's trained, so his body works as one, while Spidey in general, but especially with a relatively inexperienced Ock driving it, moves on instinct, so his body is more all over the place. The panel where Matt mentions Ock as a tub of lard (page 11), DD's dodges an arm by seemingly twisting slightly and deflecting with the billy club. Spidey has to duck with his entire body. There's an unfamiliarity to it for him where he can't do subtle movements. Also, I like Matt's surprise when Spidey beats him to the punch - literally - on disabling Stilt-Man's armor.

My favorite panel from 22  is still Foggy's visualization of Matt as a magician. The cape, top hat, doves, puff of smoke, Typhoid Mary as the smiling assistant. It's a nice visual. There's the bit at the end of 23, as they wait for the diagnosis, and Matt is convinced it's Foggy who is terrified because he hears an incredibly rapid heatbeat. But we can see Foggy's face, his expression, which Matt can't, so we know he's totally calm before Matt does. It's excellently set-up.

I'm not sure about the Foggy has cancer thing (I'm also not sure about a bacon and limburger cheesecake. Anyone who makes that ought to be on trial for war crimes. Not sure how Matt carried it to the office without passing out), but I've trusted Waid this far, and I would say other than the "Omega Effect" crossover, he hasn't let me down. Either way, the die is cast.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 5

I forgot to mention yesterday, but we did get that rain they were calling for Wednesday night. Naturally, the hole in the ceiling started dripping, which makes trying to sleep fun. It's not the sort of repetitive sound that escorts on gently off to slumberland.

Captain Marvel #10, 11, by Kelly Sue DeConnick * Christopher Sebela (writers), Filipe Andrade (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I like the visual of Carol leaping across rooftops with some small-time burglar (complete with domino mask and striped prison shirt). But the way the Carol on the poster is smiling creeps me out. It's her cheeks, they're too shiny, too cherubic, it's freaky. I know, that was the style at one time, and Quinones is trying to evoke that. And he does a good job of it, but it's still freaky looking. Also, I notice Quinones has Carol rocking her new hairstyle on the covers, but Andrade has gone back to the long, flowing locks. I don't care one way or the other - though the new haircut gives Carol a more distinctive look - I'd just like everyone to get on the same page.

Carol, having been told there's a lesion in her brain that moving deeper into her brain every time she flies, so she should not fly, does what most people do when they get news from the doctor they don't want to hear: She ignores it. She gets angry when Frank Gianelli tells her he's going to hire a different pilot until her situation is sorted. She charges out to do her Captain Marvel thing, and nearly passes out after lifting a subway train. Frankly, that doesn't seem like an unusual response to lifting and dragging a train, but I still like it because I've had that response. Where I know I'm sick, or might be getting sick, and every little ache, pain, or sneeze, is a sign of doom. Carol also tries to turn down Captain America's offer of his flying motorcycle, but her assistant Wendy paints it up in Carol's colors and hires Dakota North to teach Carol how to fly it, since it's the "motorcycle" part that's more relevant to driving it than the "flying" part, apparently.

It's not a bad thing to have because an old-school Deathbird has shown up (flowing the orders of some mysterious guy), and when Carol tried to fly under her own power in their first fight, she blacked out and pancaked into the pavement. I'm not sure jumping off the bike while having it ram Deathbird in mid-air was the best approach, seeing as she can't use it to fly if she isn't riding it, but she's new at this, she'll get the hang of it. Also, her asshole neighbor filed a lawsuit to have her evicted. No matter what, always remember average people in the Marvel Universe are terrible.

Tom Foss noted that issue 9 had a panel where they used "diffused", instead of "defused", which is not great work by someone in quality control. Issue 10 had "tunned" when it was supposed to be "tunnel", and come on people, do you not have spell check? I know those things aren't perfect, but even the Blogger's spell check recognizes "tunned" is not a word. Just putting that out there, moving on.

I think Andrade does better on maintaining panel-to-panel consistency with character faces over these two issues, though I feel like the shape of Carol's face does shift a lot. How prominent her jaw line is, how far her chin just out, things like that. Beyond that, Andrade overdoes it one the perspective sometimes. There's a panel of Dakota sitting in a chair and calling the cops, and the hand furthest away from us is just miniscule. I don't mind some exaggeration, but that's too much.

Complaints aside, Andrade does bring a lot of energy to the fight scenes, and uses overlapping panels well to carry the eye from one to the other. I thought page 16 in issue 10 was a good example. The panel of Deathbird landing on the roof, slightly overlaps the one above of Carol clocking her with the heavy bag, and heavily overlaps the next panel of Deathbird rising as Carol winds up again. The panel below that has the characters in the same places relative to each other, but uses the "SLIIIIIIICCEE" sound effect and the torn heavy bag to draw the eye down to the next panel, which is slightly overlapped by the one following it, with the knife-feathers rushing towards Carol. There's another good bit on the next page at the bottom, with the closeup of Carol's hand and Deathbird's face, leading into a larger panel of Carol blasting Deathbird, where it's like we've been thrown back by the force of it, just as the panel borders have been pushed outwards.

I also notice that through the first half of #10, Andrade sticks to mostly square or rectangular panels. The number and layout shifts, but otherwise they're pretty similar. Once Deathbird kicks Carol off the roof and the fight starts, Andrade starts using a lot of slanted panels with either 2 or zero parallel sides, trapezoids (or trapeziums, if you're in the UK, apparently, who knew?). I can't detect a pattern to it, where the narrow side is the one the action originates from, or it's the side Carol's on. It produces a see-saw effect down the page, moving you from side to side, so maybe it's supposed to represent shifts in momentum. It stops when Carol decides to fly after Deathbird, Andrade goes back to square and rectangles, because the fight is effectively over, I guess. Once Carol tried to fly, she was beat. So Andrade has some interesting compositional beats, but needs to improve drawing characters consistently.

I don't know if it's Andrade's inks of Bellaire's colors, but the frequent use of shadow, or outline for Deathbird's a nice touch. Plays up the "bird of prey" aspect to have her silhouetted or shadowed. Death from above, and all that.

Outlaw - Angus Donald

Outlaw produces two conflicting opinions in me. One is that it's undoubtedly a more realistic depiction of how Robin Hood would have operated/did operate. The other is that it's a grim n' gritty updating of the character.

This King of Sherwood Forest is a bit harsher than what you see most of the time in films and books. He operates as sort of a ruler himself, or maybe a mob boss. People can come to him with problems or disputes, and he'll make a decision, for a price. He'll promise to protect villages from the Sheriff Ralph Murdac, or other bandit groups. When one of those groups attacks a village in his territory, he hunts them down, kills all of them save the leader and one other, then has Little John lop off all the man's limbs save one. Then has the stumps cauterized so the man won't bleed to death, and tells the other man he spared to care for the leader, so I guess he'll survive long enough to spread word of what happened. That's the sort of thing I'd expect of a Garth Ennis character, rather than Robin Hood.

It isn't all like that. He takes in orphaned children (to train them as part of his army, but still), will treat prisoners who met him honorably in battle well, and is quite loyal to the people who are loyal to him. He takes some amusement from stealing arrows from the stores of Murdac's forces, and he has big feasts where he invites people from all across the countryside. OK, those are also sort of recruitment drives or attempts to win hearts and minds, but again, he does enjoy it.

It's probably a wise decision on Donald's part that the story is at least as much Alan Dale's. He's the one telling the tale, who was taken in by Robin to save him from the Sheriff, and the book is as much about his growth as it is Robin's struggle with Murdac. Alan struggles with fear, with disappointment, with the realization things aren't always as simple as we'd like them to be, both with our heroes and our villains. He learns to look at things from different perspectives from those he was raised with, or at least not to cling so doggedly to those beliefs that he can't recognize the validity of others'.

As I said, the book produces that strange disconnect inside me. I did enjoy it, once I decided to accept the tone and violence for what they were. Donald writes it pretty well, makes it easy enough to understand some of the more archaic words, keeps the plot moving. Certainly, if you're going to consume some sort of Robin Hood based entertainment, I'd absolutely recommend you read Outlaw as opposed to watching that Russell Crowe movie from a few years ago.3. Even so, I still prefer the more lighthearted, gently playful Robin Hood of the Disney animated movie for example, to the more vicious one Donald opts for here.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 4

They keep saying it's going to rain, but so far, it refuses to do so.

Captain America #4, 5, by Rick Remender (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker, #4), Tom Palmer and Scott Hanna (inkers, #5), Dean White and Lee Loughridge (color artists) - I wouldn't say I love the covers for this book - they're fairly pedestrian - but I appreciate that they actually depict something relevant to what's happening inside.

It's eleven years since issue 3, at least as Steve's measuring it. They've become part of the Phrox community and Ian has grown up. Sort of. He's still pretty small. Hard to tell if that's because puberty hasn't kicked in yet, or if he's malnourished from living rough. Steve's still got Zola yammering in his head, picking through his memories, and sharing some of Zola's. Just about the time Steve finds a mutate bike with a map back to Zola's fortress, the virus makes a push, he blacks out, and Ian learns the truth about his heritage. Well, to the extent he learns who his father is, the rest is just crap.

Steve and Ian start towards Zolandia, but in the meantime, Zola's found the Phrox colony and launched an attack, so they turn back. The weird gamma-irradiated clones Zola made of Cap (basically, they're Bizarro Captain Americas) are trouble enough, but then Ian's sister brings her omnisenses and Tachyon Fu into play and Steve gets a beating. On the plus side, this leads to Ian meeting his sister, and Jet learning her brother wasn't killed by Rogers. The sweet reunion's broken up by Zola kicking Cap's ass over a cliff, and leaving with his kids, and all the Phrox women, who he'll use for building material for his creations. Naturally, Steve isn't dead, and cuts that Zola screen out of his chest. Which doesn't seem like it would remove a consciousness virus, but at least it might shut up.

Steve can't stop getting his butt kicked. I think issue 4 might be the only one so far where it hasn't happened, and then he got at least two whuppins - or one really long one - in issue 5. Which is the point. He's out of his depth here, in a place where someone who's the peak of human physical ability might as well be just human. Everything is bigger, stronger, faster, more aware than he is, and there are no Avengers to have his back. Just a kid. Even so, he keeps picking himself up and moving forward. trying to help people, protect them. It's who he is, who he was even before the serum. It's why he was the one they chose to give the serum to (which was one of those things Stark got wrong about him in the Avengers movie. "Everything special about you came out of bottle", my ass. Though if anyone would know about bottles, it'd be the guy on a first name basis with Johnnie Walker).

I didn't buy Steve's self-doubt about taking Ian away from Zola. Look at Jet, who did get raised by Zola. She's murderous, vindictive, cruel, completely unconcerned with the suffering of others. That's what Ian would be if Steve hadn't taken him, because he would have been raised by Arnim Zola. When a parent is unfit, we do remove children from their care. About the only person in the Marvel Universe more unfit to be a parent is Magneto.

Some of Romita Jr.'s faces look a little unfinished, a bit flat in places. I notice it more in #5, when Palmer and Hanna inked him. Which is strange, because they took a more active hand, I think. There are a lot more lines on Cap and Ian's faces than in the previous issue. With Cap especially, it makes him look old. I know he's supposed to be 11 years older, and it's bee a hard 11 years, but there are a couple of spots where the way his lips are drawn make me think he lost all his teeth (page 6, panel 3). I also thought Jet looked cooler with the sensory deprivation suit on, but perhaps that was the cape. The shield seems to change size, too. That being said, I like the design on the burrow-squids they were hunting, the Captains of Zolandia, and that full page splash of Zola bringing his fist down on Cap was really nice. When Janson's inking, Cap looks weathered, but he doesn't look ancient, which is appropriate. The serum should be reducing the speed he ages at anyway, right? Enhanced metabolism, some regenerative ability.

Now Zola has both kids, Cap's on his own, and really needs to rest up from that emergency surgery he just performed on himself. No time for that, though, because I have a feeling one of the kids is gonna die, either Ian fighting Zola, or Jet protecting her brother.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 3

Today's for Batman Beyond Unlimited 13 and 14. So I figured I'd just hit each story individually, and list the credits as I go along.

"Flashdrive", parts 1, 2, and 3, by Derek Fridolfs (writer/inker), Jorge Corona (penciler), Nick Filardi (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) - Bruce has another cave under the reguler one, where he stores the corpses of super criminals, because Harvey Dent got a law passed that said he could, basically. This feels like it would run up against the same issues as Marvel's Super Hero Registration Act, namely, what constitutes a "super criminal". Also, the criminals may lose all rights, but what about any family or loved ones? Something to consider later.

A fellow named Ronald Tagg has the ability to copy powers and memories of anyone or anything he touches, and he's been a busy boy down in the Vault. Hmm, if they're corpses, would their cells still have anything in them to download? Something else to consider later. Now he's on his way to the Flash Museum, and while he handles the Justice League pretty easily, he can't handle the new Flash, a young lady named Danica. Her connection to the Speed Force lets her communicate mentally with all the other Flashes, and she uses that to overwhelm Tagg's mind.

I'd like to see what Nguyen would have done with a speedster artistically, but oh well. Corona's OK, though there isn't any flow to the fights scenes. Most of it feels static. Also, he drew Mr. Miracle as being taller than Barda, which, no. Then again, Fridolfs wrote dialogue which suggests Barda likes for Scott to carry her (and that Barda didn't like Wally West), which again, NO. The story's a good intro to the new Flash, but other than that, it's pretty weak.

"10,000 Clowns: Conclusion", by Adam Beechen (writer), Norm breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) - Even working together, Grayson and Terry can't handle the Joker King. Because he's nuts, I guess. Dana rushes in and is taken hostage, Doug ranting about how he's won, he's gonna kill one more person, then Dana elbows him in the ribs and they both fall off the building. Terry catches her, Doug's foot gets tangled in a rope and his head hits a girder. Terry says they won, but Doug's corpse sure does look happy. Also, Undercloud's about to make their big play, which looks like it involves a robot I could swear I've seen in Metal Men.

The thing about villains like Doug, it's hard for me to care, because he's a petulant kid denying reality. If you stop him from killing his sister, or from killing you, well so what? He didn't need to do that anyway, man. If you keep any more of his followers from killing themselves, he doesn't care, because he'll claim it was a victory just getting them here. Even if you punched him out the second he left jail and threw him back in, he'd still claim he "won", because you had to waste time stopping him or something. He keeps moving the goalposts, and if he's going to keep doing that, eventually I'll stop caring. Punch him out and move on. If we accept everything is meaningless, then what he did is meaningless. People will eventually forget what he was after, if they even know. They'll rebuild, move on, and probably learn nothing from it. Ultimately he killed some people, but hell, everyone was gonna die someday, some way, so what did he accomplish?

"Legends of the Dark Knight: Dana", by Adam Beechen (writer), Peter Nguyen (penciler), Craig Yeung (inker), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) - Dana reflects on her childhood in the aftermath of her brother's death. There's a lot about Doug and her father fighting, her trying to ignore it all, and then she tells Terry and Bruce she knows their secret. Good luck with that one, Dana. Good news, they found a new liver for Mr. Wayne. Doug's. I suppose we should worry about what sort of Joker toxins might be in there, but Bruce had so many painkillers running through his system for so long, he probably wouldn't notice.

The part I found most interesting was when Dana says that while Doug was in jail, she'd pretend she didn't have a brother. At the same time, she'd wonder whether she'd let him down somehow, like it was her fault. That seemed real, a kid simultaneously wanting to deny unpleasant truths, and to fix them. I'd prefer more of that, and less of Terry making up stories to protect the secret identity. Nguyen's artowrk looks stiff, people are kind of oddly shaped, faces lopsided at times. Maybe it's supposed to be more realistic, but there are only a few times Dana actually looks like she usually does. Elder also turned down the intensity of the colors for this part. Normally I'd be opposed to that, but it works pretty well for what's meant to be a period of decompression for the characters. The worst is over, now they have to regroup, reassess, so the adrenaline wears off and things get a bit duller.

"Judgment Day" and "A Gift From Above", by J.T. Krul (writer), Howard Porter (penciler), Livesay (inker), Carrie Strachan (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) - Superman's been captured by the Trillians, and their leader promptly sets to torturing him for the masses. The lead scientist who captured Supes - really, it was Lobo - has doubts, especially when his kid asks if he can flip the switch next time. Tyro and Supes talk a bit, then the Mangals show up and rescue Superman, bringing him to their home in the forests. One is left behind, who Epoq starts torturing for the location of that home. Superman is busy learning that the reason the Mangals look so much bigger now is they were children when he last saw them. Because there were only children left. Because the Trillians killed all the adults.

I had thought this was going to be a story about the dangers of butting in without understanding the situation, as the U.S. frequently does, then leaving a big mess behind. It still might be, if Superman decides he really should have stuck around to help the Mangals and Trillians learn to work together without subjugation. That was going to be tricky, considering the Trillians had enslaved the Mangals, and outright denied they had the capacity to govern themselves, but I don't know, there might be a way to pull it off. Maybe a plague had struck the Mangals, the Trillians originally (generations ago) took them in to help, and that was lost over time? Maybe not.

However, once you introduce the idea that one group killed every single adult of the other group, that's out the window. At that point, I'm not wondering if Superman should have stuck around to help them work together, I'm wondering if he should have used his heat vision to burn every trace of the Trillians off that planet. Which is not a Superman thing to do, but that's where my mind went.

Best I can figure, Krul's trying to show us something about privilege. Tyro's not a bad guy, he doesn't approve of torture, worries that his son's excited by it. At the same time, he buys into the party line that the Mangals were basically meant to serve the Trillians, and that it was wrong of Superman to free them. Because it inconveniences Trillians (though their homes and cities look fine, people aren't afraid to gather in one place to watch a torturing. it's not '90s Kosovo or '80s Beirut). So Superman's going to have to convince the Trillians to change their perspective, I guess. Not sure how that'll work when they all hate his guts.

The Ink-Stained Trail - Chapter 6

I walked slowly back through town, trying to decide on my next move. Or I tried, but the question of why I was bothering at all kept cropping up. I hadn't been hired, wasn't being paid. Not something I want to make a habit of. I'd gotten involved at the start because I couldn't figure what the Raccoons were doing running a racket out here in the sticks. I'd gone wide off that trail.

I had a feeling I was getting in out of my depth, but before that train of thought went any further, I spotted the husband and father from last night's trip to the country, Mr. Guttierez. He was headed into the drugstore, so I followed him in, wandered up and down a couple of aisles, and eventually sidled up nest to him to introduce myself. He looked up, kind of distracted. he'd been eying the allergy remedies. Good place to start.

"A summer cold? Those are the worst."

He shook his head. "Not for me. My son Juan has allergies."

"Must be rough then, living in the middle of a field full of flowers." Hector, that was his name, look surprised, but then shrugged.

"He never had them back home, and his mother and I thought it would be good to have room to play."

"There's certainly plenty of that out there," I nodded vigorously, my head bobbing like a cork in the water. "Must have cost a pretty penny."

Now Hector looked a bit uncomfortable. Understandable. Some folks don't like to talk about money. Usually they've got it, but don't want anyone to know it. Didn't seem like the case here. "No, not really. The Charlanes gave us a very good deal."

Hector was starting to back down the aisle, allergy remedies forgotten. I decided to press before he bolted. "I thought maybe your old friend Maggie lent you the bread."

Eyes darting about, anywhere that wasn't my face. "I don't know what you mean. I don't know any Maggie."

I stepped closer, pitched my voice low, sharing a secret with just Hector. "I figured anyone who drops by to visit after dark like she did last night my be an old friend. The sort of friend who would help you out." I tried to keep it a friendly whisper, like it was a private joke we were sharing, but Hector just looked petrified. It took a moment for me to realize he was focused on something over my shoulder. I glanced back and saw one of, no, two of the Cowbirds back there. One was working behind the register, the other was standing nearby. They tried to look like they were discussing eczema treatments, but they kept looking our way. I turned back to Hector. I'd seen the look in his eyes before, Buddy's in The Dive Bar. Two hours later, they'd been empty, cold, and dead as he was flat on his back in an alley. I tried to shake the memory off, but there was no getting around it: I'd handled this poorly. Now I had to fix it.

I discarded the idea of making a big scene, make it look like Hector stonewalled me. As shaken as he looked, a loud noise might spook him into blurting something out after all. Better to stick with the original plan.

"So no one helped you out?" I put on my best hangdog look, the one Nancy had found endearing - she had a real soft spot for down and out types - and tried to sound disappointed. "That's too bad. Not for you, obviously, but my pockets are a little empty these days. I was just hoping there was someone who helped." Hector's face relaxed a bit at that, like an old door you broke the hinges off of.

"Well, like I said, the Charlanes gave my family and all the others fair prices. I bet if you asked, they'd work something out with you. The homes mean a lot to them, and they'd be glad to have people moving in."

I lifted my shoulders up and put some pep in my voice. "That'd be just great. I'll have to be in touch with them. Thanks." I shook his hand rapidly, like he was a pump I wanted water from, and I rushed out into the street. Hopefully I hadn't gotten him in dutch with those overgrown doorstops. Just to be sure, I crossed the street and turned left, then watched the drugstore from an alley. Hector found something he thought was worth trying, bought it, and left. he crossed the street same as me, but went north instead of west, probably towards' Charlie's, one of the higher-end restaurants in town. The high-end restaurant in town, which wasn't saying much. Our eavesdroppers didn't follow. One was still working, but the other exited, and turned east, in the direction of the hotel. He cast a glance around, on the lookout for me, maybe, but I went a third direction, continuing west back to my room.

Burn Notice - The Fall Of Sam Axe

I figured since this aired between Seasons 4 and 5, and since certain characters in it appear during Season 5, we ought to at least touch on it.

Plot: So this is how Sam winds up in out of the military, and in Miami. He sleeps with an admiral's wife (he didn't know she was married), and the admiral sends him to Colombia. He's going to help the local military there deal with some terrorist group called Espada Ardiente. It doesn't take Sam long to learn that Veracruz, the military commander, plans to destroy a clinic and pin it on this group. After a lot of arguing with Ben and Amanda, who run the clinic, Sam's able to convince them he's sincere, and they flee into the hills. After blowing up the clinic themselves, but hey, they needed the cover.

There's also a nosy teenager named Beatriz in tow, who just so happens to know where the Espada Ardiente are holed up. Turns out they're a bunch of farmers who don't like being caught in some territorial pissing match between Veracruz and drug traffickers. They number about a dozen, have almost no training, and almost no ammunition. And they're all Sam's got. So he tries to stall by returning to Veracruz, pretending he escaped the "terrorists", and trying to lead them on a wild goose chase while he calls the admiral for help. Too bad Veracruz' boss listened in on that phone conversation. Sam narrowly escapes, but no Veracruz is really gunning for them. So he leads everyone to a CIA outpost an familiar friend of his mentioned, where he can presumably call in some real help, if they can hold Veracruz off long enough.

Quote of the Episode: Sam -'And the only reason I called the one guy a goatherder is because he has goats and he herds them.'

Sam Axe Drink Count: We saw at least 3 beers, but that only covers up to the time Michael left the bowling alley. Sam clearly did a lot more thinkin' drinkin' after that.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 8. Yeah, Veracruz really teed off on him.

Other: It occurs to me that if he Sam was already in Poland by '92, then high school must have been several decades ago. Did the zone blitz even exist yet? Would the Analee High School J.V. football team have used it if it did?

At least the Espada Ardiente hated the idea of the prevent defense, as all right thinking people should. The Prevent Defense sucks, and the person who devised it should have been slapped across the face the moment they suggested it. It's like the DH, or the possession arrow, utter nonsense.

Ben went from staunchly against violence and soldiers to building all the explosives he could awful fast. He built a pressure mine before anyone even asked him to, and another bomb on top of that. Was he inspired by the heroic actions of the part-time farmer army, or did he decide his first duty was to his patients, so screw those soldiers trying to hurt them.

Absolutely nobody believes anything Sam tells them. He tells Veracruz something, Veracruz doesn't believe it. He tells Admiral Maitland what Veracruz is up to, Maitland doesn't believe it. He tells Ben and Amanda he's not abandoning them, they don't believe him. Sam tells them the downed tree is suspicious and they should back in the trucks, no one listens until after they come under fire.

I didn't buy the chemistry between Sam and Amanda. She had so much hostility towards him at the start, I think it would have been enough for them to part as friends. But this is Sam we're talking about, so I guess romance was inevitable.

About the time Sam first met Beatriz, I made a note, 'His Spanish seems pretty good.' Two notes later I wrote, 'Maybe his Spanish isn't so good.' I think that was the point when he said something about 'to sleep'. I actually think his Spanish got worse the farther in we got. Maybe he was just having difficulty with tenses.

The most significant scene to me was the bit where the come across the roadblock, which Veracruz' men have set up to delay them. When the soldiers open fire, Sam's first response is to grab Beatriz and get her behind cover. I figure that tells you who he is at his core. Whatever else he might be - boozy flirter, loudmouth - he protects people who can't protect themselves.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 2

Nothing for an intro that wouldn't be complaining. And I did enough of that to myself all through work today. Onward!

Avengers Arena #5, 6, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank Martin (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - What do you think is more relevant on the cover, that Hazmat's giving everyone cancer by not wearing her containment suit, or that Darkhawk hasn't quite mastered using starfish as part of a swimsuit?

Arcade wants things to get hopping, so he cranks up the natural disasters. There are safe zones, one of which has a box full of food and medicine. During this announcement, Nico and Chase save Cammi from an avalanche. Walker has a nice bit where the middle panel is of Cammi about to get buried, then below it are two panels. On the left, Nico casting a protective spell, on the right Cammi inside the "snow globe" as the snow covers it. What I like is that not only does the staff cross over from one panel to the next, but some of the energy from it moves in a line between the two panels with Cammi. It's like she was trying to outrun the snow in the first panel, then passed through the energy on her way to the later panel, and that's how she was encased. Anyway, after that, she wants to work together with the Runaways, and they agree. Go, teamwork!

Elsewhere, Reptil's sort of up and moving, and tells Hazmat and X-23 it was Death Locket who fried him not Chase. Before they can really do much with this, Hazmat trips a trap loaded with a trigger scent, which sends X-23 into a killing fury, forcing the two Young Avengers to flee. I'm not really clear on the trigger scent. I get Weapon X used it to make her kill, but does it throw her into a complete fury, where anyone she meets is dead, or just anyone covered with that scent? I'm guessing the latter, since it effectively wrecks that trio, and probably leaves her scared to approach anyone else, either. Walker does a good job there, too. She looks so out of it, with the red eyes and the drooling, but also tortured, because Arcade's just forced her to stay away from her friends. Credit to Frank Martin for the red eyes, too. They're disturbing, in a way that makes them both scary, but also haunting when she looks devastated in the middle panel of page 8 of #6.

I thought this stuff was mostly incidental and I'd move through it quickly to the main show, the Braddock Academy bunch. So much for that. So Kid Briton is a complete jerk, who was dating Apex, but also fooling around with Nara on the side. Bloodstone and Anachronism were a couple of his punching bags. Anachronism is probably strong enough to take him, but unwilling to really use that power. Apex has some kind of hold over Death Locket, making her shoot Nara in the back and over a cliff. Nara wants revenge, and she also wants Anachronism (I'm going to stick with "Aiden" from this point forward) to stop holding back, stop pretending any urges to fight are the warlock which possesses him (allegedly). This argument is cut short by Arcade teleporting them to the box of goodies, just as their three compadres reach it. Cue Nara going after Apex, Cullen finding a bazooka amongst the tasty cakes to keep Death Locket out of it, and Briton getting his dander up and attacking Nara. At which point, Aiden jumps in a decapitates him. Well then.

There are certain things coming that I can see pretty easily. Chase is going to activate the Darkhawk armor at some point, which will lead Cammi (and maybe Nico) to suspect he's the one who took Darkhawk out. Actually, Cammi will suspect it was a dual effort. Either way, that's another alliance shattered. Apex is a little harder to figure out. I'm already pretty sure that bit about her only power being to fly (slowly), was a load of crap. She's some sort of technopath, like Machinesmith, which is why she can control Death Locket, take out a Sentinel, and Darkhawk (I'm sorry, I refuse to buy that a Deathlok has enough juice to do either of those things). The question is, what's she up to? I can't decide whether she's doing what she thinks she must to survive, and Arcade's taking advantage, if she has some larger plan in mind, or if she's working with Arcade. Assuming it is Arcade. In issue 5, there's some sort of wire or tubing running from off panel up inside his coat. Not sure what that is.

Then there's Aiden. Now that he's let loose and killed a guy, where does he go from here? Does he try to blame it on the warlock, absolving himself of blame, does he get so terrified of himself he refuses to use his power, or does he turn into a big, swaggering alpha male dimwit like the one he just killed? It'll be interesting, the bullied nerd has power now, what does he do with it?

Veil of Lies - Jeri Westerson

The cover of Veil of Lies describes it as 'a medieval noir', and I certainly can't disagree with that assessment. You have Crispin Guest, once a knight, now known as The Tracker, hired by wealthy cloth merchant Nicolas Walcote to observe if his wife is being unfaithful. Guest wouldn't take the job, but he's broke so there you go. It's not long before the merchant winds up dead in a room locked from the inside. Then people representing foreign interests begin approaching Guest because they think Walcote had a valuable relic, which they want. There's a sheriff who sort of tolerates Guest, but isn't above roughing him up at the first sign of backtalk (Guest gets beat up a lot in this book), a former street urchin who serves as Guest's sidekick, and of course, the widow herself. Young, attractive, secretive.

Half the fun of reading it for me was comparing and contrasting it to Bogart movies. The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, things like that. Westerson does a good job of transferring the conventions of the genre to a different era (the story's set in 1384). I'm curious about the use of a former knight as the proto-private detective. It gives a Guest a certain haughtiness. Even eight years after being stripped of rank, lands, and wealth, he still thinks of himself as a knight. Which means he tends to look down on people, and also speak down to them, and sometimes those people don't take kindly to it. A lot of the private eye types have a sneering cynicism that leads them to speak harshly to, well, practically everyone. Perhaps Westerson figured that for someone to speak that way to their alleged "betters" in the 14th Century, they would have needed to be in those social ranks at some point. (In the afterword, she mentions she liked having him stripped of everything but not killed, because it means that Richard II murdered Guest without actually killing him).

'Mahmoud ran the back of his hand under his chin and wiped away the blood. He chuckled. "I like men who are hard to kill. It is more satisfactory when the task is finally done.' From that line, I'm guessing Mahmoud is the 14th Century's Sydney Greenstreet.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 1

Comics! Six weeks' worth, no less. In many cases - most cases - two months worth of titles. So yes, this spate of reviews is going to go for some time. Especially since I'll be throwing book reviews and the other usual stuff in there as well.

Angel & Faith #19, 20, by Christos Gage (writer), Rebekah Isaacs (artist), Dan Jackson (colorist), Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (letterers) - I had to lead with the cover for issue 20. Faith's look of exasperation is just perfect. "Oh Christ, don't drag me into their pissing contest," she thinks.

Starts with a flashback to when Giles' grandmum convinced him to come back to the Watchers. To the present, where it takes Angel less than one page to hit a sore spot with Spike - namely, Buffy - and away they go. Fortunately, Eyghon arrives with his minions to distract from the arguing with the opportunity to kill things. The Slayers manage to capture their possessed friends (and Giles) quite easily, but the vampires are having a bit more trouble. With Eyghon fully manifested in this universe, having a demon and a soul isn't enough to prevent possession. Sorry Spike. Fortunately, Angel has half, two-thirds, some portion of Rupert's soul as well, which lets him be the big, bloody hero. Booooo. I'm reading this to see Spike save the day, Gage. Failing that, Faith. Who wants to see Angel save the day? No one, that's who.

Getting the rest of Giles' soul makes Angel into a complete mess, which means he can't tell them how to put Rupert's soul back in its body. Instead, Angel will spend the next century eating rats, and being worthless, emerging periodically to attend Manilow concerts, dressed in filthy rags. He will be too crazy to realize Manilow should be dead by 2072, and thus Mecha-Manilow will conquer Europe, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa (he avoids the Sahara because the sand fouls up his gears, obviously).

OK, not really. Alasdiar knows of a bowl called the Essuary that can collect Giles' soul. Just have to kill a bunch of Enders to get it. They eat souls. Fun. Spike gets to do most of that, after Faith tweaks him about a bromance with Angel. Oh, Spike, you can deny there being anything with back doors going on between you and Angel, but the Internet says otherwise. Magic bowl recovered, they get Giles' soul into it, leaving Angel as the guy he was before. I preferred him crazy and drooling. He helps Spike get over his issue of feeling adrift without Buffy. No, not that way. He gives Spike Harmony's phone number. I really hope for both of them this is a temporary hook-up thing. I don't much care for Harmony, but I do feel bad when she follows Spike about like a puppy, as it goes much the same as when Spike follows Buffy around. Namely, the puppy gets kicked a lot.

Oh, and all the Junior Slayers are leaving the supernatural fighting biz. Except Nadira, who is still self-righteous and irritating. Just as well. If the others had stayed, they'd likely be slaughtered by Pearl and Nash. This way, only Nadira will have that fate.

I usually rave about Isaacs' artwork, and it's still largely the case. The fight scenes are good, her expression work is solid. Even better when used to humorous effect. The disgusted looks on Faith and Angel's faces on the last page of issue 20 are great. Though I'm surprised Faith would object to Spike sans clothes. Just because she's not interested in sleeping with him, she doesn't want to check him out either? I notice Angel didn't cover his eyes.

I spendtoo much time on the Internet. Anyway, good work all around, but I thought her version of Spike was a little off. Maybe he's just hard to draw. The cheekbones and all, seems like it would be tricky. Mostly, he looks too thick in the face. She does draw him as very animated though, always gesturing, moving, talking with his hands. Definitely on the mark.

One little screwup in issue 20, I think. Page 4, panel 3. I feel like it's supposed to be Spike suggesting they just stake crazy Angel, and defending it by saying it's what everyone's thinking. All the words balloons point at Faith. Which makes no sense considering she says in the next panel that she wasn't thinking that. So she couldn't very well be suggesting it then, could she? I don't know, the two panels almost work in tandem, but not quite.

The Essuary still being around seems ominous. Whistler's supposed to be collecting these sorts of things, so the fact he didn't get this one could mean nothing, or it could be he wants to keep Angel occupied while he proceeds. Or he could need Giles for something. Is it a coincidence, or a sign not to trust Alasdair?

Beyond that, Gage is still doing a good job writing the thing. Seems significant that Faith admits she's gone along with Angel's plan because she wants Giles back as much or more than because she was worried what Angel might do to himself without a goal to work towards. Is that a road to hell issue, or the danger of confusing selfishness with a desire to help (something Angel and Spike would both know about)? Spike seemed a bit odd to me, but it might make more sense if I'd read his mini-series or the Buffy book. Like, his tendency to act cool, or only let out his true feelings by accident or when he thinks no one is listening seems right, but in other ways he seemed so off his game.

When Evil Opposites Are Around, Surprise Reversals Abound

*Two weeks prior to April Fools' Day, in a tastefully lit study, a shadowy figure checks their voicemail. . .*

Voicemail: You have five new messages. First message:

Calvin: {Hey, UnCalvin, it's Calvin. As you know, April Fools' Day is coming up, and I felt bad about not being around for your visit last year, so I was hoping we could schedule a time so I can make sure to be here. Call me back! Um, bye!}

Shadowy Figure (UnCalvin, obviously): Dullard. Still, it's not the same without him there to humiliate. I'll call later.

*Fifteen days later*

UnCalvin: Damn! I forgot to call him back! Where is that number? Ah, here it is! *dials phone*

Nasal, Feminine Voice: Yes, how may I help you?

UnCalvin: Er, uh, I need to speak to Calvin.

Nasal Voice: May I ask what this is about?

UnCalvin: I was told to call and try to schedule a time to meet him. Tell him it's UnCalvin, he knows me!

Nasal Voice: *bored* I'm sure he does, sir. Still, I handle his appointments, let me see if I can fit you in. *sound of humming over the phone, UnCalvin taps his foot impatiently* I'm sorry, it appears Mr. Pitt is booked solid for the next two weeks. You could come in the 17th.

UnCalvin: The 17th?! That's for too late, even for me!

Nasal Voice: *More humming* It does appear he has a 30 minute break in his schedule this afternoon. Can you be here in a hour?

UnCalvin: An hour?! But I'm halfway across the cou - I mean, I suppose I could manage that.

Nasal Voice: Very good, sir. I'll pencil you in. In the future, I suggest you make appointments further ahead of time. Mr. Pitt is very busy, and has little time for slugabeds. Have a nice day! *hangs up*

UnCalvin: What?! Slugabeds? How dare you? Who are you? Did you hang up on me?! Ooooh! *Charges out of the room, cape trailing behind* Prep my jet!

*Elsewhere*

Clever Adolescent Panda: UnCalvin's gonna be pretty sore.

Calvin: *stops pinching nose, sets aside phone* {More likely to be impatient and careless that way, right?}

CAP: As long as he doesn't figure out something's up.

Calvin: {How would he?}

CAP: You used "slugabed", for one thing. That's totally a word you'd use.

*66 minutes later, a small jet makes a rather ungainly landing in the parking lot. It manages to stop before rolling down the hill into the brush, and only damages five cars. UnCalvin leaps out and hustles inside, stopping in the hall*

UnCalvin: Where are you, Calvin?

*From behind one of the doors*: This room!

UnCalvin: *barging in* I'll get to you in a minute, but first, where's that receptionist of yours?

Calvin: {Receptionist?}

UnCalvin: Receptionist, secretary, administrative assistant, whatever her title. She was snotty with me.

Calvin: {Well, she is suffering from allergies. . .}

UnCalvin: That's not at all what I mean, and you know it!

Calvin: {Yeah, there is no receptionist.}

UnCalvin: What?

Calvin: {I had a plan to tell you she was on break, then watch as you charge into the common area and demand to know where Petricia is, but eh, it's not worth the effort.}

UnCalvin: Then why do it in the first place?

Calvin: {Because you waited until today to call me back! It's lazy and inconsiderate. So I decided to tweak you a bit.}

UnCalvin: Some of us have lives, Calvin:

Calvin: *leans back against wall* {Really? Tell me all about it.}

UnCalvin: *very animated* Well, I've set up in the most delightful high-rise, with a beautiful view of - wait a minute. I'm not revealing my base's location to you! *a muffled "poo" is heard* What was that?

Calvin: {I had chili for lunch.}

UnCalvin: *slightly repulsed* Ah. I might have guessed.

Calvin: *slightly shamefaced* {Hey, I'm doing the best I can with it.}

UnCalvin: *renewed determination* Be that as it may, I shall have to reprimand you for your chicanery, and destroying your blog seems as good a way as any.

*UnCalvin steps forward, bumps plastic trash can sitting in the middle of the room. It rocks, and water splashes out over the side onto UnCalvin's neatly shined boots*

UnCalvin: Gah! Why is there a trash can full of water in the middle of your room? Were you going to set it over the door before you decided that was too much effort as well?

Calvin: {No. The ceiling leaks there. *points up* That's why the smoke alarm's taken down. It's shorts out and starts beeping like crazy.}

UnCalvin: Then get them to fix it!

Calvin: {They would, but the higher-ups are considering tearing the place down and building a new one, so they don't see the point in repairing leaky roofs.}

UnCalvin: Clods.

Calvin: {Get no argument from me on that.}

UnCalvin: And why do you have your computer set up in such an awkward position?

Calvin: {Space restrictions. I have a roomie this year.}

UnCalvin: *indignant* They've consigned two of you to this drippy hell?

Calvin: {That's his stuff on the other side, so I'd appreciate it if your rampage didn't spread that far.}

UnCalvin: Understood. *eyes narrow* What do you mean rampage?

Calvin: {I mean, every time you show up, my room gets totaled. What else would you call it? In fact, it's probably your fault they decided to just build a new place!}

UnCalvin: Now see here, I have never engaged in wanton destruction of property. That was always the furry little dervish, or that scarred misanthrope you used to associate with.

Calvin: {Cornelius Potfiller?}

UnCalvin: You know who I mean.

Calvin: {Oh, right. He hasn't come around since I dropped his last series. Didn't appreciate my assessment of it as muddled, unfocused, unfunny, and artistically unappealing. I hear the new one is pretty good, though. Can't go wrong with killing reanimated presidents, I guess.}

UnCalvin: Oh, quite. *rolls eyes* My point stands: I don't wreck your domiciles.

Calvin: {You brought the big crazy guy that ripped off the wall and yelled about waffles.}

UnCalvin: He was my patron! I can't be held responsible for his maladies!

Calvin: *makes wanking motion* Yeah, yeah. Just make sure no "maladies" show up today.

UnCalvin: Crass berk. I must say, I'm so depressed for you, I'm not certain I want to further destroy you.

Calvin: {Well, in the spirit of me not being destroyed, here's a gift.} *Hands UnCalvin a large box*

UnCalvin: *takes the box cautiously* A gift? What is it?

Calvin: {Um, a blender? How the hell should I know? Someone else picked it out, I just put my name on it.}

*UnCalvin shakes the box vigorously. Several grunts and "oofs" can be heard. Also possibly some muttered curses.*

UnCalvin: The blender seems to be talking.

Calvin: {Of course. It's a new model. Instead of an irritating whirring sound, it makes small talk based on what it hears around it. They took the idea from those little toys. Whatchamacallit, Furbies. Perfect for when you make fruit smoothies. As I assume you do, since I do not.}

UnCalvin: I'm sure. *Hands box to Calvin* Why don't you keep it? And open it? *draws nifty laser pistol from folds of his cape* I insist.

Calvin: {OK, fine. Jeez, try to be nice, and the guy pulls a gun.} *Calvin opens the box, reaches in, and removes a Furby. Which is also a blender. It utters a stream of Japanese phrases, German numbers, and English swears* {Now what am I gonna do with this?}

UnCalvin: Hmm. I thought you'd hidden the panda in there as part of some attempt to find my base.

Calvin: {I don't care where your base is. That's the panda's pressing concern. My concern is seeing you hit with a pie.}

UnCalvin: What?

Calvin: {Now!} *Nothing happens* {I said, now! Oh, what the hell?} *Calvin stomps over to the closet and flings the door open. Clever Adolescent Panda sits within, an empty pie tin in front of it.*

CAP: You took too long. I got hungry, the pie smelled good, and. . .

Blender Furby: Aw, damn it.

Calvin: {Great, now the homunculus kitchen accessory is stepping on my lines.}

UnCalvin: *laughs loudly* Things not going quite as you planned, eh? How wonderful! I daresay this has been the best of these yet!

*UnCalvin resumes laughing, as the panda alternates between looking irate and licking whipped cream off its whiskers. Calvin wanders back to his computer and glances out the window*

Calvin: {Hey, UnCalvin. Did you clip anybody's car when you arrived?}

UnCalvin: A few. It was unavoidable some vehicles would be destroyed, given the space limitations. Only a pilot of my peerless skill could have managed it so well.

Calvin: {Yeah, you might want to go tell them that. Seems the owners of the unavoidably damaged cars are about to push your jet into the sewage lagoon.}

UnCalvin: What? No! I haven't finished paying for that yet! *dashes out of the room* Please, hold a minute peons- I mean friends! I can reimburse you for the repairs! Really, Let's not do anything rash! No! Noooo! *loud splash, then a gurgle* It had just been detailed!

CAP: *pats Calvin on the leg* Don't worry, I'll find his base and take him down.

Calvin: {Whatever. I wanted the pie gag.} *CAP looks crestfallen, and turns to leave*

Blender Furby: You'll have to open Site 1 tomorrow.

*Calvin picks up the unholy chatterbox, and tosses it to CAP*

Calvin: {When you find his base, make sure he gets that. It was his gift, after all.} *Calvin and the panda share a grin*

The Hangman's Daughter - Oliver Poetzsch

Last fall, I reviewed The Dark Monk, which was the second in Poetzsch's series of novels starring his ancestor Jakob Kuisl, the executioner of Schongau. This is the first book.

This time around, a child is found dead, repeatedly stabbed, with what appears to be the Mark of Venus on his shoulder. Which gets everyone in Schongau riled up about witchcraft, and they quickly settle on local midwife Marta Stechlin as the witch in question. Except even after she's jailed, children - others who played together with Peter, the first victim - start turning up dead. This is also laid on Marta's head, regardless of the fact she's jailed. She's a witch after all (the question of why, if she has sufficient power to get the children killed, she doesn't escape rather than be tortured, is ignored, because people are superstitious dumbasses).

Kuisl and Simon Fronweiser, son of the local physician (stretching the term somewhat), both believe she's innocent, but are hard-pressed to find any evidence that will save her. They need to hurry, because the kids are being picked off one by one, and the prominent citizens want it wrapped up before the Landgrave arrives with his retinue, as that whole group will be supplied and cared for out of their pockets. The faster a solution can be reached, the faster he'll be on his way. If that solution can be reached with one death, rather than dozens in a hysterical witch burning frenzy, all the better.

Reading this made me aware of how well Poetzsch did to make the second book accessible to new readers. There weren't any particular revelations about the main characters - Simon, Kuisl, or his daughter Magdalena - that I hadn't learned in The Dark Monk. All the interconnections are established here, he simply went to the trouble of making sure they were fresh in the reader's minds in the sequel as well. The book breezes along, someone is always asking questions, snooping around, chasing or being chased.

Poetzsch uses Kuisl's time spent fighting in the Thirty Years' War more heavily in The Hangman's Daughter, but it's more relevant here than it was in The Dark Monk, so that makes sense. Also, I think Poetzsch has a reasonable amount of pride in his ancestor, and is trying to make certain points. The hangman is considered a dishonorable position, because he works with death and the dead (I don't remember this from the second book, but he's also apparently the garbageman). The end result is that everyone is nervous about talking to him - or being seen doing so, at least - and they cross themselves or look away as he passes. This doesn't stop them from expecting him to handle all these jobs, or keep them from coming to him with their maladies. And Kuisl's own experiences have taught him there's worse violence out there than the work a hangman does.

I feel Magdalena got the short shrift here. She's around a lot, but doesn't get to do much, other than sort of prod her father or Simon along. The times she comes to some important conclusion, one of the other two will have figured it out as well by the time she finds them. I think she fared better in The Dark Monk, so perhaps it's going to be a progressive increase in her role across the series. The third book is sitting in the box, I'll have to get to it here soon.

The Ink-Stained Trail - Chapter 5

A lot of gumshoes like to pay other people to do research for them. I'm not against the practice myself, when I can spare the cash. But then you have to find someone you can trust to do the job right, and to keep their mouth shut. I didn't know anyone around here who fit the bill, so it was up to me.

The county courthouse was a low, squat building, a fat red tick on a dog's back. It shimmered and baked in the late morning sun. The inside wasn't much better. The tile floors were worn and scuffed, the fans on the ceiling rotated slowly, barely making headway through the hot, still air. The doors to the courtroom were shut, but the silence through the rest of the building made it easy to hear the attorneys blather on about some guy's repeated drunkenness.

How'd they know I was standing outside?

I found the assessor's office at the end of a side hall, wooden door flung open to try and generate some current of air in the room. It was a losing battle. The dame behind the desk looked up uncertainly when she saw me walk in. Early to mid-30s, rounded face with lines around her eyes that said she squinted a lot, some more around her mouth that said she smiled a lot, too. That's promising. In spite of the heat, her hair was combed back neatly into a bun, except for one strand that fell forward and was plastered to her forehead. The sleeves on her blouse weren't rolled up to combat the heat, and were actually still buttoned at the cuff. Her hazel eyes watched me patiently. "How may I help you?"

"Yes, well, I was hoping to do some research on the ownership history of certain piece of land." I hoped the glasses I'd put on were working with my tone of voice to make me look like a professor.

"Oh? Which pieces of land were you interested in?" She remained completely serious, not hostile, but strictly professional. I couldn't tell if she was buying it or not.

"Some of the fields southwest of town. Out near those new houses. Those as well, actually. If that's possible."

At first, I thought doubling down on the disorganized academic was a mistake. She gave me a long, calculating look, but then she nodded, and after a moment where she seemed to stare into space, she retreated into the filing stacks. She returned a few minutes later with a stack of books. I started to reach for one and she balked, like a skittish snitch. "You have to be careful with these," she explained.

She opened the first book slowly. Inside was a map, with papers glued to it. "It's not very efficient, but we're in the process of filing in a more convenient manner. Here's one for the property the homes are being built on." She pointed to a square with three or four pieces of paper stuck to it. I took her word for it, I sure couldn't tell that.

"That would be what you're interested in, right?" Her tone made me look up to see a sly look on her face. Clearly the "earnest historian" bit wasn't making it past opening weekend.

"Yeah, that'll work," I mumbled. Good thing she was more amused than anything else. Maybe this was the most interesting thing to happen in a while. She reached for a pitcher of water and poured herself a glass. She looked in my direction, bit of a grin still on her face, and poured one for me.

"It's pretty straightforward. It's been owned by the Charlanes for the last 80 years. They bought that parcel from the county, after some farms were foreclosed. They applied for housing permits three years ago, I believe, and they've only finished a half-dozen or so."

"Does that include the Charlanes home?"

"No, that's further to the north." She pointed to a different section of the grid, one with fewer papers attached. "That's been in their family for over a century."

"Do they own everything around their new houses?"

"There are some smaller farms out there - the Johnsons, Hansons, the Johanssons, a few others - but otherwise, yes. There were some hard times 80 years back, drought, I think - that led to people either giving up their land, or losing it, and the Charlanes bought it up when things started to turn around." She paused, then her eyes opened a bit wider. "There is one other parcel they bought 20 years ago. The Duncan farm."

I was in the middle of a drink, but that name caught my attention. "What about Maggie Duncan? She own any land out there? Maybe some of these pieces neighboring the Charlanes?"

She got a curious look on her face. "The lady all the somber-looking fellows follow? No, she doesn't own anything. Why?"

She was watching me like a cat eyes a mouse. "I saw her driving out there recently, and when you mentioned a Duncan had owned some land, I thought maybe they were connected, and she'd come back to buy the old family plot."

"Hmm." This lady wasn't buying anything I was selling. "I think she is related to those Duncans. She mentioned something to that effect when she first moved here, and people were getting to know her. But no, she doesn't own anything out there. However. . ." A cloud swept over her eyes, like she was on a different wavelength, as she rose and moved back into the stacks. When she reappeared, she had another book. She opened it carefully, like it might crumble to pieces otherwise. Even so, some of those pieces of paper fluttered like a dying rat's heartbeat. the old glue barely holding them in place.

She skimmed a few pages. "Here we are. She purchased a few warehouses when she first arrived, but she sold those a year ago. Since then, she hasn't bought anything property. I heard she bought some large trucks, though."

"She doesn't own a house? Where does she live then?" It sure wasn't the boarding house I was in.

"She has a room on permanent reserve at the hotel near the main road." Regular Fountain of Knowledge, this lady was. The sly grin was back. I wasn't sure what she thought was going on, but she was certainly enjoying it.

I tipped my hat to her. "Thanks kindly. You've been a great help, Mrs. uh. . ." There wasn't a name plate on the desk.

"Jody Castiglione. Ms. Castiglione. And I'm always glad to help an enthusiastic scholar." Perfect deadpan delivery, but with a twinkle in her eye that made me smile back. Heck, I didn't mind if she had a laugh at my expense.

"All scholars could use help like yours," I replied as I tipped my hat again and stepped out the door.