Wednesday, January 25, 2023

What I Bought 1/11/2023 - Part 2

Our state legislature actually devoted time two weeks ago to discussing passing a dress code for women in the Senate. No bare arms or some such shit. Are the guys the imbeciles I share this state with so far gone a woman's bare arm sends them into an uncontrollable orgasmic tizzy? If so, I would encourage all women legislators to go bare-armed and maybe these guys will all have strokes and die.

It'd be a nice state if 40% of the people that live here. . .didn't.

Tiger Division #3, by Emily Kim (writer), Creees Lee and Craig Yeung (artists), Yen Nitro (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - The others are just happy to actually get some visibility.

This is mostly about how Tae got his powers. He and his pal Min decided to have their gang steal something from a military lab. Alarms went off, Tae got shackled to a table and blasted with the damaged gizmo. Turns out the gizmo was powered by a gem Loki stashed in what became Korea way back when, and somehow or the other, Tae got super-powers rather than being atomized or turned into a skink, either of which seems more likely for something Loki would bother to steal.

Min thinks Tae died in the explosion, and had to fake his own death with the military blamed him (I mean, the theft was partially his idea) only to figure out the truth later. The gem is the one his robots stole in issue 1, as he's going to use it to steal Tae's powers for himself. Most of the team are back at the base, having hacked into the security feed, by Lady Bright followed Tae, so presumably she'll get off her flying card and save his butt.

So Tae went through this experience, nearly died, thought his best friend died, and decided to become a hero. I assume the whys and hows will be covered next issue (still think it's a mistake focusing the entire mini-series on one character). Mae-Jin believed his best friend died (and took it hard, as the panel above shows), faked his own death to avoid prison or death, and doubled down. He'd be better at being a criminal. Use a family as a corporate figurehead to keep himself hidden, rather than take part in shakedowns. Rather than steal money from the government, be a corporation and the government will just give you money. Tae thinks his friend is wrong. Mae-Jin thinks Tae is either putting up a front or just too naive.

In the flashbacks, Kim has been writing Tae as not really focused on the details. He's bad at lying, takes the straightforward approach. He's not exactly short-sighted, but he seems like someone who went to crime because it would keep him fed. Mae-Jin seems to be the one hammering out the details, really making the decisions and the plans. So I wonder if the end of this is going to be Tae managing to out-think his old friend when it really matters. Do something unexpected or creative, rather than simply charging straight ahead.

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