Sunday Splash Page #446

"Two Sides of the Coin," in Batman '89 #6, by Sam Hamm (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Leonardo Ito (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

Reviewed a year ago, but briefly, the first mini-series continuing the universe of the Tim Burton Batman movies. A Batman that looks like Michael Keaton is still roaming the night, beating up muggers, to limited effect. He's not considered a friend by the Gotham City government, including its social climbing D.A., Harvey Dent. Dent is engaged to Barbara Gordon, the two of them working to stop Batman, even as they expect it to bring Barbara's father down in the process.

The story is about choices, those you make and those you don't. Bruce is still doing the Batman thing, but little else. This isn't even a Bruce Wayne that's a frequent subject of the tabloids, as evidenced by how blindsided he is by the media attention when he rushes into a burning auto repair shop to save Dent and becomes a major figure of public interest. As Batman, he stops an armored car heist, completely oblivious the real target was documents implicating several city and state politicians for siphoning federal aid funds into their own pockets, keeping Gotham in its miserable state. It's Catwoman who brings that to his attention.

Selina spent the year since the near-exhaustion of her nine lives in Batman Returns laying low, playing it smart. She still has the costume, but it's unclear how active she's been. Instead, she established a computer security firm, really just her, that gives her a way to bug those same systems and track everything in them. She's also going to therapy, though one questions how much good TV shrink Dr. Quinzel is doing her. Point is, Selina's evolved, at least somewhat. She still hates the Max Schrecks of the world, but she's not trying to attack them directly.

Selina makes a point Bruce's development basically arrested at age 8, but only because he was rich enough to get away with it. If he had to work for a living, support a family, maybe he'd have gotten his shit together. Stop thinking everyone could be saved, or that everyone needs to be saved according to his specific (and selective, often hypocritical) morality. At the very least, there'd be no Batman. I'm not sure about that last one. Selina's still running around as Catwoman, even with a job. But I suppose outside the cats, she's not supporting anyone. 

There's Winston Drake, a teenager living in the same Burnside District Dent hails from. (I read somewhere Quinones based him on Marlon Wayans, but can't confirm that.) Winston isn't above putting on a cloak and mask to beat up people causing trouble in his neighborhood (including Batman), but sees it's a dead end street. It's not inspiring people to do anything, except go out and beat up anyone they think doesn't belong.

Which doesn't mean he won't help people actively trying to accomplish something. When Burnside residents stage a peaceful march after Harvey's injuries, and Bullock (who I think Quinones bases on John Goodman) ignores Gordon's orders and brings out the riot cops, it's Drake who lends a hand, lobbing a big paint bomb at the cops from a rooftop, then providing spray paint cans to the protestors to help blind the cops. Meanwhile, Batman is chasing Catwoman, aka, sorting out his relationship issues.

And there's Harvey Dent. Dent is a man who, when rubber meets road, throws away principles for what he wants. Which is more power. He's going to do good things, really! He just needs more power than he has. He'll return to Burnside to show off his car, show the kids a successful black man that's not an athlete or a drug dealer, as he puts it, but he's there rarely enough the locals feel he's left them behind to move in white society. He won't let Barbara come with him to a rally in Burnside, because it wouldn't look good for the people of the neighborhood to see him with a white lady, even his fiance. But it's other peoples' expectations that make him do those things! It's what he has to do to get ahead!

The mini-series dips briefly into the difficulty for a black person to operate in a society where most (all?) levers of power are held by white people. Most of whom, consciously or unconsciously, think that's how it should be. Harvey probably wouldn't have gotten to District Attorney without "playing the game," so to speak. But he decided it was worth it, then tries to pretend he didn't, protesting when accused of not being around much for the people he grew up with.

Ultimately, the coin is, as Commissioner Gordon notes, just anothher convenient excuse Dent uses to abdicate responsibility for his choices. Dent used it even before his face was marked. Catching a purse snatcher and getting the guy's gun from him, Dent pretends to use the coin to decide whether he'll just murder the guy. To terrorize him, or maybe just make Dent feel big. Next morning, he's up at Wayne Manor, trying to sell Bruce on the idea they can't have Gordon's personal hit squad - he thinks Batman is multiple people, all taking orders from the Commish - roaming the streets. Vigilantism was fine for him the night before, as a momentary thrill, but today is for politicking.

Issue 3 starts with a hallucination of Harvey's about him saving Drake from the burning auto shop, while in reality his attempt went poorly and Wayne and Drake saved him. In the hallucination, everyone tells Harvey how swell he is. Drake admits he was wrong about Dent. Bruce Wayne says there's no way he'd have the guts to do that. Dent rides the wave of acclaim straight to Governor, loved by all demographics. Bruce admits he's funding Gordon's Bat-squad, Bruce and Gordon both go down, and Barbara loves Harvey for it.

Basically, in this dream world Harvey gets everything he wants, without any conflict or difficulty. He doesn't have to deal with anyone not liking him or calling him a sellout. He doesn't have to choose between a friend and his political career, or the woman he loves and putting a man he considers a criminal behind bars. There's no moral conflict or doubt, no one who can challenge him. He wants it all handed to him.

Even once he embraces being Two-Face persona, he bends the rules around the coin flips, when not outright ignoring them. He flips the coin to decide what to do about Boss Maroni and it comes up good head. So he does something nice - for himself, and shoots Maroni. The coin comes up good head when he flips it for Gordon, and Harvey kills him anyway.

(It's a major flaw in Bruce's big plan in the final issue to turn Harvey around. He's going to switch the coins and make the outcome what he wants. Great, except we've seen Harvey just decide to rationalize doing what he wants anyway.)

Once Two-Face is in the picture, Quinones starts using a lot of split panels. Not just to show the difference between the two halves of Harvey, but also Harvey seeing the way things are and the way they could have been. Like each eye is peering into a different universe. The climax in the Batcave is split down the middle of the page, the coin falling between the two columns. One where Harvey lands on a rock outcropping, another where he only barely grabs hold of it with one hand. The two threads continue on their separate courses across the top half of the next two pages, before coalescing into a single outcome on the bottom half. It's in the universe of Burton's Batman films, so take a wild guess how things work out for the bad guy.

Saturday Splash Page #248

"Talking Turkey," in The Tick: Heroes of the City #3, by Clay and Susan Griffith, Marc Silva (writers), Gabe Crate (penciler), Tak Toyoshima (inker), Dave Garcia, Nathan MacDicken (artists)

A late-90s series running concurrently with The Tick and Arthur (which I'll get to if I can ever find the final issue), Heroes of the City was an anthology, with several shorter stories in each of its 6 issues. Some focused on the main characters, but also stories exploring the other heroes of The City.

The book actually starts with Arthur blowing up at the Tick for taking him for granted and treating him like a servant. In the tradition of Boxing Day, this leads to Tick trying his hand at sidekicking, though not for Arthur. Instead, he works for several other heroes, such as Super Pilgrim, who makes the Tick rent dirty videos, which Super Pilgrim is confiscating for morality reasons. Yep, just to protect the citizenry from such filth. No other reason!

A couple of those issues show Arthur attempting the life of a solo hero while the Tick explores sidekicking. Rescuing a kitten from a tree doesn't go well, but he saved a man from choking and stopped a convenience store robbery with a gallon of milk. Successes to build on! To be fair, Tick's attempt at cat rescuing in issue 5 doesn't go much better.

Most stories are silly as you'd expect from the Tick's universe. Issue 6 is devoted to Tick and Arthur getting jobs, because Tick thinks civilian identities will protect them if the UPS man turns evil. Paul the Samurai and his assistant Ashley (formerly ninja lady Oedipus) tangle with a heartbroken Paul Bunyan. There's a 3-parter where Arthur's girlfriend(?!) imagines herself as a cheerleader-themed superhero, whose pom-pons have more tricks than Batman's utility belt. That one got at least one complaint letter about how Myndi was depicted with basically beach balls for boobs. Not sure if that person was assuaged when it turned out to be a power fantasy by Myndi herself.

Then there's issue 4, where, besides Part 1 of the Paul the Samurai story, you have one story about "Red Eye", a Tales from the Crypt-style thing about a mysterious hitchhiker who leads you to doom. Especially if you won't let him order off the dinner menu after 10. And then a story about the Crazy Blue Rocket that reveals he used to be a James Bond figure in a nice suit, with a teen ward. Now he's a deranged man eating flavored paste, replaying memories of his past life as he crash lands throughout the City.

Those are the only two stories in the six issues that take a scary or sad approach, so it makes for an abrupt tonal shift.

What I Bought 9/23/2026

I've spent most of this week doing remediation on an old site. We had some work done by contractors three years ago that didn't entirely take. Vegetation not establishing, erosion cuts, things of that nature. My bosses won't authorize using mechanical equipment on it after they've already done that once. So I've been out there trying to knock the sides in on multiple trenches 3+ feet deep to level everything back out, then seeding it, spreading straw and whatever else, by hand, alone. I may not move all weekend.

Weather's been lovely, though. Couldn't have asked for better on that score. 

D'Orc #8, by Brett Bean (writer/artist), Frank William (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - Great, the feral hogs have invaded my blog, and I don't own an AR-15 to protect my non-existent children.

Chicken's attempt to trick knobgoblins out of their roasted unicorn is interrupted by a pig-man duel-wielding meat cleavers. Schweinehund - I can see a little dog in the snout or ears, but he really just looks like a boar - kills the knobgoblins, but shares the meat. The tradeoff is he criticizes D'Orc for hiding from violence and sitting around bemoaning his fate. Everyone has sob stories, and nobody wants to listen to yours, unless you make them. By hurting them.

They travel to the castle of a Goblin King who Pig-Man says deserves death. D'orc's supposed to steal the valuables, but balks at killing the guards and Schweinehund killing the king. Chicken possesses the king to keep him alive long enough for D'Orc to get there. Chicken also alerts the guards which, less good. But he pushes Schweinehund off the castle wall into the moat, mid-spiel about how he works alone, with no one to watch his back. Or dry you off after falling in a moat!

At which point the angry golem from the end of the previous issue shows up, telling D'Orc to come peacefully to the Lords of Darkness. But when D'orc asks if she would peacefully go meet with people who wanted to execute her, she answers no. Then D'Orc gets airmailed out of there by Chicken's body. I found that scene, I guess because of her straightforward answer.

It was probably meant to blunt the Golem into less of antagonist, but I'd say we can add two more people to the list of those hunting him. D'Orc is not great at making friends, so I'm still not sure what Bean is planning with this. D'Orc rejected Schweinehund's psychopathic worldview that no matters but him, and everyone is to be used and discarded as the situation demands. I can't imagine the point is for D'Orc to just run off and hide somewhere forever, either.

But he's not really made any allies, so what's the path forward here? Get the two sides so crazed about killing him he can lead them into a battle with each other, and let Light and Dark annihilate one another? Would expect a lot of innocent deaths in that event. Maybe the Golem is the first step on the path of gaining allies.

Generation X-23 #8, Jody Houser (writer), Emilio Laiso (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - Logan, take your brokedown ass home. 

The Wolverines and the Generated finding a spiral staircase in the Facility none of the Generated knew about. Laura, noticing Logan's healing factor isn't working, takes point. Nanny intercepts, but after disarming her, Laura tries talking. Schweinehund does not approve. You have unbreakable claws, simply hack the egg-woman to pieces, before she can kill you. Or use Logan for a bullet shield if he is no longer an effective fighter.

Talking works, though. Nanny brings them to the nursery she found, telling how she got there in a nursery rhyme. Is that a new thing? I don't remember Nanny doing a lot of singing in the few Claremont comics I saw her in. Laura tries to leave Logan behind with the Generated, but they just follow. Not showing much respect for your authoritah, Laura.

While Laura tries to figure out if these are mutant babies that were being used as a source of genetic material for powers, or human babies mutant powers were being grafted onto, Nanny leaves. Just like that? She didn't try to take even one with her? Just decided the Wolverines were suitable parental figures and that's that? I'm not saying there needed to be a huge fight in a room full of infants - maybe that's why Nanny left, to avoid endangering the children - but it feels odd. Nanny went to all that trouble, all the killing, to get to these babies, then just left.

Laura and Logan have a rooftop conversation about the difficulties of guiding children. Logan says the key is he cared. I thought it was that he taught them ninja stuff. They don't talk about his non-functioning healing factor, beyond Laura admitting she worries about him, and Logan assuring her he'll be fine. Yeah, he's getting to be in two different team books again and everything. Life is good for the ol' Canucklehead!

I know the book ends in two issues, so Houser is probably trying to get in position to wrap up stuff with X-Infinite - seen on the final page planning something involving Robo-Scorpion Kimura - by then. But that just makes wasting two issues on another awful secret of the Facility and/or gratuitous Logan appearance all the worse. Maybe it plays out the Generated have to protect Laura from X-Infinite, the way she stepped forward to protect Logan. That could be something. I don't figure Laura would let the Generated take sole responsibility for looking after all the babies, so I can't imagine that's going to be the resolution.

History Repeating, But Improved

Late in Gundam Wing, Heero infiltrates the White Fang's space battleship, Libra. I say infiltrate, he crashes a captured White Fang shuttle in a shuttle bay and slips away in the confusion of fire suppression. 

He's partly there to rescue Relena, who went to Libra on her own to try reasoning with her brother. Zechs plans, going by his public statements, to bring about peace by killing everyone on Earth, since it's clearly the source of the problems. As though the people living in space are some different species entirely and it'll all be Lionel Hutz's vision of a world without lawyers if only Earth weren't around. More likely, he plans such an ugly, horrific battle people will be too frightened/disgusted to fight wars again.

Which is actually stupider than the idea it's all the Earth's fault. Clearly the helmet he wore all those years did about as much good preventing cranial trauma as your average NFL player's.

So Heero is also there to assess if Zechs is really committed to this (idiotic) path. They both have suits with the Zero System, and Heero's has shown him Zechs has no future. Is Zechs seeing something different?

He and Relena confront Zechs in some command center*. Zechs gives them a history lesson on how, a couple decades ago, two people worked towards total pacifism. Zechs and Relena's father, King Peacecraft on Earth, and in space, the politician Heero Yuy. They were assassinated, and things continued on the same old path of those with military power dominating those without, making them afraid and desperate enough to do crazy shit like give five 15-year-olds incredibly powerful mobile suits and tells them to kill a bunch of people.

Back when I first watched the series, I didn't think much of that scene. I figured Zechs was making a point about why preaching of pacifism was pointless. You have to fight for peace, crush your enemies, because that's what they'll do to you. That sort of thing. But, he also asks Relena if she agrees, and when she doesn't, praises her for thinking as a member of the Peacecrafts should.

So the parallel finally dawned on me. Zechs talks about a Peacecraft and a Heero Yuy, one from Earth and one from space, working towards peace. He tells this story to a Peacecraft and a Heero Yuy, one from Earth and one from space, both working towards peace. Relena had to grow to understand the gap between ideals and reality, and Heero had to understand what he was actually fighting for, what he was hoping to achieve with all the battles. But they've each retained their resolve, maybe even honed it through their what their experiences taught them.

The critical difference between them and the predecessors Zechs spoke of is, unlike Original Recipe Heero Yuy, Kickin' Buffalo Ranch Heero Yuy is a soldier. He's not easy to kill. Hell, as good a soldier as he is, even he can't manage to successfully kill himself, and not for lack of trying. And he has, at some point along the line, decided he will protect Relena (instead of threatening to kill her.) Which means now Relena is not easy to kill, either. Good luck, would-be assassins.

I thought that was a nifty little piece of the series, certain things repeat, but people can actually learn from the past failures and get it right. Of course, Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop might very well have blown that whole notion to hell. I've only read plot summaries off the Gundam wiki, and am not sure I understand them - I can't even follow the way of marking years that tries to manage the difference in the length of Martian years versus Earth years - but it read like a lot of the characters ended up repeating the mistakes of the prior generations, as badly or worse. Sending kids off to war, when they weren't fucking up raising them or outright abandoning them, things of that nature.

Maybe, if you go back far enough before the events of Gundam Wing, there was a point where humanity was actually getting along pretty well, those on Earth and those in the space colonies, and then things went downhill, only to rise again, briefly. Hopefully not, I'd like to think things could trend up against the inexorable pull of entropy, but maybe.

* Actually a hologram of Zechs. Kind of odd, since there hadn't been any sign of similar technology up to that point.

The Frisco Kid (1979)

In 1850, the city of San Francisco needs a rabbi. So Poland sends the 87th-best student (out of 88) of that year's graduating class, Avram Belinski (Gene Wilder.)

Unfortunately, he arrives in Philadelphia, which is a long way from San Francisco. He doesn't make it far before two brothers and their pal, having fed him a sob story about needing to buy back their wagon and horses to get to their sick mother in San Fran, beat him, rob him, strip him to his longjohns and leave him in the middle of a dirt road somewhere in Pennsylvania.

After some brief stints with the Amish and working a railroad, Avram tries riding a horse, alone, to San Francisco. Too bad he can't tell which direction that is, but Tommy (Harrison Ford), a bank robber, takes pity on him and guides him to the Pacific coast.

At times, the movie feels like a series of brief skits. Here's Avram trying to catch some food after raccoons raided his pack, and Tommy shoots some fish for him. Here's Avram and Tommy arguing because there's a posse after them, but Avram still won't ride his horse on the Sabbath. Here they're prisoners of some tribe, but Avram's faith impresses the chief. Late in the movie, Avram gets a chance to confront the men who robbed him (who have also crossed most of the country for some reason), which turns into a gun battle on the beach, and a crisis of faith for Avram that he must confront, along with one of the two brothers, after he reaches San Francisco.

That's the most consistent thread, the fraction between Avram's faith and Tommy's more pragmatic perspective. There's probably something about how what you put in determines what you receive, because Avram is met with kindness. You know, besides the 3 guys who robbed him. Certainly more kindness than I would expect for a lone Jewish man roaming the United States in the middle of the 19th Century to get. The Amish help him, the railroad workers help him, Tommy helps him, that one tribe seems to like him, some monks share their breakfast with he and Tommy. Avram is always grateful, accepting the hospitality, thanking them for their help, apologizing when he commits a faux pas (like talking in a monastery with a vow of silence.)

Meanwhile, Tommy robs people at gunpoint. So he spends a lot of time riding away from people who want to string him up. But he tries to protect Avram, mostly from Avram's own innocence. It becomes a recurring gag of Tommy insisting he's not going to do some foolish thing Avram intends to do - ride in a blizzard, walk with a posse on their heels - only to end up doing said foolish thing with Avram after all. And when Tommy is wounded, Avram cares for him. Tommy treated Avram with kindness - minus the times he was calling him an asshole - and receives kindness in return.

Actually, I expected Tommy's wound to be a bigger deal. The movie glosses over it. Tommy says he'll talk him through it, and the next we see, they're sitting around a fire, Tommy drunk but otherwise fine. I guess because the movie wanted to focus on Avram feeling he wasn't fit to call himself a rabbi which, surprisingly, was not because he killed a man, but because of what he did before that.

But I also thought the movie would do more with Tommy, when he robbed the train, claiming he had a partner guarding all of the passengers from behind with a shotgun. After he departs, Avram steps out of the bathroom (behind the passengers) and takes his seat like nothing happened. I figured he would be accused of being the other robber, which would tie he and Tommy's fates together early on, but no.

Wilder plays Avram as sort of frazzled, initial enthusiasm for America and cowboys fading quickly. He always looks tired, maybe it's the beard, but he seems to move with almost grim determination. I guess he sees the whole thing as a trial from God.

Ford plays Tommy as sort of a loud, cocky idiot. He is good with a gun, and he must be good at robbing banks and trains if he hasn't been caught yet, but he loses his cool easily, and gives way to Avram at every turn. In terms of the competence to bullshit ratio, he probably runs higher on the competence end than Han Solo, but lower than Indiana Jones.

Ultimately though, Tommy's lonely; he makes it seem like a magnanimous gesture on his part to guide Avram, but I think it's an opportunity to have some company. If he makes himself useful, then this guy will spend time with him. Ford looks genuinely embarrassed when Avram calls him friend, and is shocked to be asked to be best man at Avram's wedding. Again, it's probably a matter of input influencing output. You rob people, they aren't going to treat you like a pal. You look after them, they'll look after you and want you to be around for important moments in their lives.

Wedding Meddling

Pre-wedding jitters.

Total coincidence it worked like this, schedule-wise. The 5th volume of Bandette, The Wedding of B.D. Belgique, revolves around Bandette's efforts to engineer a marriage between Inspector Belgique and his lieutenant, Heloise Price.

Ostensibly, this is because there is a ring with a map of the Paris catacombs that will lead to an underground base where there is, in addition to art and other valuables, there is evidence of the true identity of the ruthless underworld figure, The Voice. As you might expect, The Voice doesn't want anyone getting that info. And the ring is passed down to the first daughter of each generation of a particular family to get married. In this cases, it's between Heloise and her sister, Abigail, who sees helping The Voice as her path to a life of riches, not realizing it's a path to a grave.

If you're wondering why Heloise and Belgique don't just have a quick marriage to get the ring, well, you, me and Monsieur are all in the same boat. Unfortunately, it's a boat with several very cross women and an irate Chihuahua, so we better just keep our common sense to ourselves. This is an affair of the heart, or something.

Much of the story is Bandette trying to arrange the marriage, including getting Belgique to recognize his feelings for Heloise so this is not a sham joining of two souls, while The Voice tries to wipe out her circle of confederates. Although in that, he's kind of half-assed. He's goes after a couple of the urchins and a young thief named Femme Felon, rather than Monsieur or even Daniel the delivery boy. He does try to take out Heloise via a bomb, which I guess is going straight for the head of the snake.

Tobin writes Bandette as so unserious most of the time it's hard to tell she really cares about this. She and Daniel travel to the circus, on what she says is a matter of learning how to win another's heart. It seems mostly to be an opportunity for her to eat cotton candy and encourage Pimento to make friends with elephants. Which is adorable, but doesn't exactly convey a sense of urgency to the proceedings.

But Bandette is also simply operating on a different level from everyone else. She's less a human thief and more a trickster god, having fun playing around with mortals who think they've got a chance of competing with her. She can afford to goof off, because she already knows where all paths lead.

Coover uses pages with lots of panels. The absolute fewest panels on a page in this volume is 5, and that only a few times. The most is 11, also rare. Usually it's 9 or 8, either 3 rows of 3, or 2 rows of 3 and a row with just 2. The latter seems to be for when she wants to focus a panel on the faces of two characters, say Belgique and Heloise, and give it a little more space.

But she puts all those panels to good use. Showing off the rooftops, cafes, and museums of Paris, but even more than that, showing off Bandette's nature. She is never still, so a series of panels is an opportunity to show her in a variety of postures or activities. It works for montages, as when she drags Daniel around as she questions a variety of people (and also pigeons) about falling in love.

Also, it highlights how quick and sly she can be. In one panel she's looking at a photo of a bust Monsieur planned to steal, in the next she's about to climb in his car while holding his keys. Or she's talking on the phone with The Voice, while assassins try to kill her, then pauses to grab the phone number on a flyer for someone who makes pies.

Sunday Splash Page #445

"Priorities," in Bandette: The Six Finger Secret #1, by Paul Tobin (writer) and Colleen Coover (artist)

Bandette is not a series that utilizes splash pages. No doubt Bandette, the world's greatest thief, would find such things far too limiting. To be satisfied with a single large space to operate in, rather than many small panels from which she can appear and disappear, with almost Looney Tunes-esque defiance of laws of motion? What an absurd notion!

I am inconsistent with titles that were or are a string of mini-series. I've done a lot of the individual Atomic Robo minis, but one post for all of Dave Stevens' Rocketeer stuff, and one for all of Adventures of Dr. McNinja. But my original Sunday Splash Page on Bandette was rather more abbreviated than I would have liked. 

In my defense, I was out of sorts after the tornado that left me living at my father's house, my comic collection piled atop itself in one of the less-cluttered rooms of his house. Tobin and Coover have released two more volumes of Bandette since that post, so I say we're doing this.

So, Bandette. World's greatest thief. Lover of chocolates and art and cats and her little dog Pimento and harassing chain-smoking police officers. A young woman with, a complicated and scandalous lineage, the details of which I can't keep straight. Most every story makes some reference to her ancestors having posed for a sculpture or having deep alliances with the circus or something of that sort.

She is, as presented by Tobin and Coover, almost a mythological trickster figure. Brightly garbed, dramatic just for the fun of it. Always playing a game with people, carrying on monologues as she casually avoids attempts on her life from a variety of weirdos. Backflipping across car roofs while pursued by ninjas without ever breaking her thread of conversation with the mysterious underworld figure who sent the ninjas, or casually eating chocolate while walking across a wire between two buildings.

Even her friends and allies, and she has several people who drop everything to aid her, are often confused. She disappears from one side of a panel, only to reappear from the opposite side of the next panel. Steals the shoes off her rival's feet without his noticing, while he's driving. Pauses in the middle of explaining the history of some mysterious ring to answer the door for a cookie delivery. Even when she seems cross, it feels feigned, irritation with someone foolish who doesn't see the obvious. Like she's dealing with a child.

When I think about it, she's Bugs Bunny and everyone else is Elmer Fudd. Her opponents think they're competing with her for some specific prize, a painting or a secret. The outcome of that was never in doubt. Bandette was already at the finish line before they even started. No, Bandette's concerned with some more intangible goal. A matter of the heart, usually. The prize everyone else is chasing is just a carrot on a stick she uses to create the outcome she wants.

Which, admittedly, irks me at times. I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of stories where the protagonist or antagonist knew everything a character had planned before they even tried and perfectly countered it. That is very much in effect here, especially by volume 5. Bandette seemingly could have nipped The Voice's entire plan in the bud right from the start, as she had it all mapped out and knew everything he was going to do.

I suppose it doesn't bother as much as it did with, for example, Al Ewing's New Avengers, because Tobin and Coover are using their own characters, not someone else's. Also, Bandette does have some ulterior motive she's driving at that accounts for why she's doing things her way. Double-also, her tales, despite the frequent attempts of murder and blackmail, are generally light-hearted. Even if what The Voice or Absinthe seek could be extremely harmful to innocent people, there's no real risk. Bandette's operating on a different level from them. The stories are more about the fun she has along the way than the MacGuffin.

Coover's Paris is a perfect dramatic backdrop, full of steep roofs with chimneys for people to step dramatically from behind. Wires to use like a trapeze, old buildings full of secret passages and rooms. Seemingly an endless supply of cemeteries for tense meetings and museums with things for her to steal. Narrow alleys for ominous footsteps to echo through and make a person feel trapped, but also enough broad streets to have car chases on. Advantage of a city that's grown and expanded across centuries I suppose. Can be a lot of things.

It's a cute series. Charming, maybe. The things that should irritate me more, don't. It's hard to hold a grudge against someone enjoying life as much as Bandette.