Wednesday, October 04, 2023

What I Bought 9/30/2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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