Random Back Issues #127 - Test #1

Looks more like Kansas to me. Maybe eastern Colorado.

Aleph's hitchhiking comes to an abrupt end after asking too many personal questions and gets dropped off somewhere in Iowa. Or Nebraska.

While Aleph converses with some sort of AI/Alexa thing, a bunch of guys in white SUVs show up. Aleph underwent a lot of experiments that involved modifications, and the companies that did those experiments want their proprietary technology back.

Judging by the flashback to Aleph's journey to the middle of nowhere, those aren't the first people they've killed trying to find Laurelwood. A town that was removed from all the maps. What's there? Aleph doesn't know, but they want to find out.

Their arrival is marked by immediately being stung by some mechanical mosquito, prompting Aleph to bolt for the nearest hotel to wait out whatever will happen. Takes a bunch of "brain pills" (use not detailed) and crawls inside the steamer trunk to sleep, while weird shadows watching through the mirror. You know, one of my coworkers briefly stayed in a hotel where she thought there was something weird about the mirror and promptly found a different hotel. But Aleph's in either no position or no mind to be choosy.

After another flashback detailing how Aleph escaped the research lab (having a fellow patient stab them bad enough to get moved to a less-secure place) Aleph's up and patching up the places where the seams are starting to show, it's time to investigate the town. Laurelwood looks a lot like a regular town, except for all the things that don't fit. Roombas cleaning the streets, VR helmets, grocery stores stocked with brands never seen before.

All of which seems to overload Aleph, who then somehow overloads the lights in the supermarket. Well, that'll get most anyone asked to leave, but the streets are full of more guys with white SUVs, so Aleph tries their luck in a bookstore, and gets a quartet of senior citizens wielding sabers for the effort.

{11th longbox, 75th comic, Test #1, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer}

Saturday Splash Page #91

 

"Experimental Stage," in Test #2, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer)

A mini-series from 2019 about Aleph Null, a young person who has spent years signing up to be a test subject for different studies which may work, or may not. Either way, Aleph takes the money and uses it to try and make themselves into what they think feels right. Magnets under the fingers, all sorts of bits of software or hardware that work, some of the time. Because Aleph's obsessed with finding the future, finding where they fit.

That future might just exist in the town of Laurelwood, but once Aleph gets there, they find the future's not much of an improvement, not in the ways Aleph might hope, anyway. There are still factions, humans fighting and squabbling over different interests. The ones who want the technology destroyed, whose futures lie in the past. The corporations, looking for the next thing that will make them big bucks, whether it's Laurelwood or Aleph. The people who think they can win a big fight and fix everything.

It seems like Sebela's writing about control, who has it, who doesn't. Aleph wants control of themself at least. That's what they've been striving for in one way or another. To not lose people, even if that means trying to stay away from everyone, or by experimenting on themself, make themself into whatever they can manage, because at least it'll be their choice.

In the town of Laurelwood, mirrors are actual portals that people can move through. Most of the time, they just spy through them. Like all the experimental studies they were part of, doctors sitting behind fake mirrors, watching to see what happens to the guinea pigs. Hickman draws those people as dark shapes with big empty eyes peering out, to the point Aleph takes to sleeping in a trunk suitcase to stay hidden. Trapped in a box within a larger box. The world behind the mirrors is a mess of dark hallways and twisting stairs. Another maze for Aleph to find their way through.

It can lead anywhere, but that doesn't really matter because Aleph finds much the same thing in every direction. They're always being manipulated, always seen as the key in someone else's plans. Even the piece of the future, however it frames what it's doing, has its own designs and desires for Aleph. But that isn't only Aleph's problem, as they know. The doctors that watched the studies were themselves watched by someone else. Even those mysterious, faceless suits were being watched by what exists in the town. Everyone's being watched, everyone is a potential tool for someone or something else.

Hickman rarely usually panels that give expansive views. Even panels of the town are wide but short. You can't see beyond the buildings, and usually not beyond whatever street Aleph's looking at. The future is not a wide universe of possibilities. It's still a bunch of confining spaces, small boxes and test chambers.

Aleph ultimately is able to do some good for other people in a similar state, and maybe find some measure of peace for themself. Some acceptance of who they are, assuming that's actually how they feel, and not something imposed on them by the one helping. That seems to be the best one can hope for. The world's not presented as one where there will stop being conflict. As long as there are people and their wants, the same themes will occur, and that's not going to change, even in the amorphous future.

What I Bought 1/2/2023 - Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I Bought 10/29/2022 - Part 2

I do love autumn. I'd love it more if my boss hadn't sent us out on inspections today. What the hell, like any of us want to be out in the field when we could be starting our weekends early. Let's roll on with a couple of books on their penultimate issues.

Agent of WORLDE #3, by Deniz Camp (writer), Filya Bratukhin (artist), Jason Wordie (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - I think he's got one of the robots arms, but it really looks like he's fighting them with a lute.

The issue plays out in reverse, as Philip and yet another agent are sent to capture a former agent of WORLDE who has escaped with certain pieces of equipment, including eyes that can see future events, and some sort of living combat suit. Which Philip shoots with a bullet designed to give the suit, 'Fast-Forward Alzheimers.' Bratukhin illustrates this by having the suit taking on a fleshy tumorous appearance like something out of a Berni Wrightson illustrated horror story, where it was previously like an overly-detailed Iron Man suit.

As it turns out, the former agent had desired to start a family of her own. Surely, Philip, with a secret family of his own, would be sympathetic? Well, if you consider knee-capping her with armor piercing rounds after his partner kills her family, then hooking her up to a machine so the precognitive eyes only show her certain happy moments from her life over and over, sympathetic, then sure. A bundle of compassion this one is.

I don't really know where Camp is going with all this. What am I supposed to feel towards Philip? In terms of the question posed in issue 1, whether he's any better than the other agents because he feels sad about the things he does, my general response is, "no." He still does these things, and then goes home to the happy family he, but none of the others, get to have. Why? Because he's smarter, so he's earned having his family?

But he seems to be irritating his higher-ups with his recent actions, so maybe it's all going to come to a head. WORLDE is a vicious, cruel, dehumanizing organization that feels it has the right to control everything, and Philip is, in that sense, as much a victim of it as the people WORLDE sics him on. But he is still helping line people up against the wall, so I can't muster much sympathy for him.

Blink #4, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Nick Filardi (color artist), Frank Cvetkovic (letterer) - Behind every terrified person stands a succession of creepy weirdos.

The Static are quite insistent Wren must confront "Oz" and kill him, it, whatever. Wren tries to convince them to find a way out, but the Static feel they understand this world, and they won't make it out there. And if Wren won't help, they'll kill her. So she's down the rabbit hole, sneaking around the monsters' backs as they watch footage from myriad points in the history of this place. The way the Static describe it, Blink itself is a living place that provides for them, independent of whatever "Oz" is doing. That backstory is outlined in a couple of pages that Sherman draws where the panels are either bordered by of VHS tape, or are drawn as like pieces of skin or hide stretched out with wires. 

One has to question, given that, Oz apparently saw the Static and Wren coming, whether it is behind all that as well. Giving the Static enough to keep them going against the Signal, because all this is going towards some goal it wants. Wren takes an endless dumbwaiter ride to a white room with a pyramid of TVs. My immediate thought was whether where in the Matrix, or that one episode of Cowboy Bebop with the weird cult leader guy. Wren smashes open a screen, and crawls through to find herself looking into the barrel of a gun.

The big reveal of the issue is that one of the Static, presumably the one constantly pushing her, is one of her parents. Which Wren only finds out as said parent falls to a likely death. I guess that's a hell of a way to find that out, and not much of a reunion. My guess is the one monster that protected her in an earlier issue was her other parent, captured at some point and changed. That wouldn't explain to me why Wren was seeing him in her sleep before she ever returned, since he hadn't been captured when they got her out. I really hope this is not going to end up as "all a simulation, even the part outside the building." I might throw the comics in the trash on principle if it is.

Wren's constantly doubted whether she can do anything, yet also constantly been able to keep going. Keep moving, keep fighting, even take command and figure out how to get to the dumbwaiter when the Static didn't know what lay ahead. Somehow that feels connected to the way the Static told her they couldn't go back to the basement and try to escape. That there was no going back to the past, Blink wouldn't allow it. That doesn't feel entirely accurate, seeing as returning to this place was Wren returning to her past, but if we're meant to see her life since then as drifting or hiding, maybe she had to go back to move forward. I hope this all makes some sort of sense after next issue, but I don't remember feeling like I understood Test, either, so I'm not confident.

What I Bought 10/30/2022 - Part 2

Well, great. I can't get images to load properly in these posts. It was working fine Tuesday when I typed up Wednesday's post, but last night, I could upload from my computer, I could select, but it would not put the images in the freaking post. I got them in by switching to HTML mode, but now the spacing is wonky. Although I fiddled with an upcoming Saturday Splash Page and it looks like I can just drag and drop from my computer into the window, so maybe I'll go with that if this problem persists.

Blink #3, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Frank Cvetkovic (letterer) - The plumbing in that place must be a nightmare, assuming anything bothers to use toilets any longer.

Wren is rescued by a bunch of whispery people wrapped up in tinfoil calling themselves "the static." They will give Wren answers, if she follows them, so for lack of any better options (unless being killed by the monster-things is something you consider better) she follows. This quickly turns into a flight for life from the monsters, which Sherman draws as a twisting, topsy-turvy flight through narrow hallways that stretch forever above Wren.

And I mean, twisting. The first page starts with a panel in the upper left, and then the panels fall in an arc across the page, seeming to rotate as they do. By the last panel in the arc, you've turned the book on its side, and you could be at the start once more, but a different start. And this sort of thing recurs across six pages. The panels overlap, and at times, it almost seems like you could choose one of two different paths to take that would represent her panicked scramble for safety. At the end, the panels tilt once more so that you're holding the book as you normally would. It's very effective at creating disorientation and the sense of finding it hard to interpret all the information when there's a stressful situation.

Wren was nearly captured, but saved by the monster she sees in her dreams. Which looks like most of the others, but she's sure she recognizes it. Then comes the information, displayed through a bunch of panels presented like closed-circuit camera footage. That, when the people who agreed to take part were told they wouldn't be released as promised, some people tried to take away the cameras to force a response. Others chose to defend them cameras, and there was fighting and death. The ones protecting the cameras gradually became monsters, and took the dead to make them into monsters as well. The resistance decided their only protection was to hide their identities. If they couldn't be distinguished, the one watching couldn't track numbers or tell what they were up to. From what they say, it doesn't sound like that's been particularly successful.

Wren's parents got her out, the only escapee, and so the static are convinced she's the only one who can get them out. To do that, she has to confront the source, the one behind all this, and kill him. Except the source, or some sort of staticky ghost thing is watching all this, which doesn't bode well for her success.

What I Bought 9/3/2022 - Part 3

I was thinking about going to a comic convention tomorrow, but I don't really want to drive 3 hours. Plus, I'd probably pick up a bug while I was there and I've got an elderly relative's birthday to attend next weekend, so maybe next year. In the meantime, here's two second issues.

Agent of WORLDE #2, by Deniz Camp (writer), Filya Bratukhin (artist), Jason Wordie (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Weird how there are dead bodies wherever this guy goes.

Our protagonist teams up with another old acquaintance, Ares Hill. He gets along better with Ares than Kilgore last issue, as they spend part of the story reminiscing and catching up while retrieving the MacGuffin. This action is interspersed with scenes from Phil's quiet home life watching movies with his daughter and talking her through nightmares.

At the end of the issue, Ares intends to use the MacGuffin to make things how he wants. He'd been undercover, with an entire implanted psyche and a family. A family he killed when the mission was over, per his orders. He wants that back. Phil kills him and tells him he ought to have grown up, or come to Phil for help. Before he dies, Ares asks if Phil would have done the same if their situation was reversed? Judging by Phil's expression, I'm guessing the answer is no.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of Phil. He claims he sees everything a person can be, which Bratukhin shows with all the tiny little sepia or greyed-out panels that surround the main action as Phil walks through a mess of enemies, killing a bunch of them. And he seems sad about this, but, as Kilgore noted in issue 1, that doesn't stop Phil from doing it. So what's the difference? Those people are dead whether Phil feels bad about it afterwards while he tucks in his daughter (that he hasn't had to kill).

Camp seems to position Ares a bit like the old friend from college that never grew up or beyond what they were then, while Phil has matured in worldview with his additional responsibilities. Camp's good at writing them as old friends who had a lot of good times once. But Phil's worldview seems to be to kill whoever WORLDE tells him to, then go home to his family. They were arguing earlier in the issue about movies and how Ares can't enjoy the special effects spectacle because he knows it's fake, while Phil says he can see the wires, but enjoys it anyway. Which seems to suggest he knows he's in a crappy world, and helping make it crappier, but he doesn't really care. "Fuck everyone, I got mine," ain't a particularly mature worldview either.

Blink #2, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Frank Cvetkovic (letterer) - Can you turn the sound up? It's hard to hear over all this demonic chittering.

Wren and Joel run from the creatures, but their way out is sealed, and they can't find another. Not that Wren is willing to go. She wants answers, even if it kills her. I don't know if I can follow that thinking, that the life she built was 'hollow' as she puts it, because she doesn't have these answers. But my situation is not her situation. I know where I came from, at least enough to satisfy me. 

Wren doesn't know anything, and the next set of security monitors don't tell much. People agreed to stay in this place for six months back during the Y2K freakout. But whoever set it up changed their minds and wouldn't let anyone out at the end. The creatures find them again, Wren and Joel run, Joel gets a knife through the skull. Bye Joel.

Wren finds her way to a hall full with photographs, then some immense cathedral. Where she's captured by a creepy whispering guy in a hood. Good luck with those answers.

All the panels are set against a backdrop of TV snow or static, streaks of pixels. Some of the panels themselves have those blurring effects, like we're watching this through those same broken-down monitors Wren and Joel found. Sherman uses a lot of panels that are focused tightly on Wren. He might pull back for an establishing shot, to give us a sense of what she's found. Then he draws in close immediately afterward to make her feel trapped. Some pages, the panels fit around each other like puzzle pieces, in others, they're arranged as a giant arrow when Wren gets dragged down. He plays with the sense of space, in that you can't tell if Wren's pushed up against a wall, or flat on the floor. The panels may point down, but which direction is that at this point?

What I Bought 7/30/2022 - Part 3

Hi, you've reached Reporting on Marvels and Legends. I'm not here, but you can still read these posts and leave a comment if you want. Or go someplace else. It's a big internet. Or go outside and enjoy fresh air before you have to start paying for the privilege.

Blink #1, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Hayden Sherman (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Frank Cvetkovic (letterer) - Inside every person lurks a camera and a bunch of creepy hands. It's remarkable how life works, when you think about it.

Wren's a freelance journalist. As a child, she was found wandering a street with blood on her. No one knows what the blood was from and she couldn't lead them back to where she came from. She's been trying to find answers ever since, while dealing with the fallout the experience made of her life. She gets a clue, a brief glimpse of a website with a bunch of camera feeds of a place that looks familiar. Wren and Joel find the building and sneak into the basement, but it's not as deserted as it first appears.

Sherman uses a lot of panels that overlap just a little. Like tossing out a pack of playing cards on a table and drawing the arrangement. It makes a cluttered, untidy feel that mirrors the fragments of memories Wren has, or thinks she has. Sebela has Wren acknowledge that she's been trying to piece things together so long, she's not sure what she remembers that isn't actually something she made up. 

Lot of using camera views as panels, and some of those show the past, some the present, some just static. Gaps in the recall that Wren can't abide. Which is another thing I appreciate about the writing. Wren has a husband, partner, person she lives with named Nico. She knows or fears she's messing things up with Nico by getting sucked into this. But while Nico thinks things were fine, thought she was fine as she was, it's different for Wren, viewing it from the inside. While they're having that conversation, the panels are set against a backdrop of electronic static. Wren's need for answers is a backdrop to their lives together whether Nico realized it or not.

So, yes, I'm very intrigued by the first issue. I like these stories about exploring creepy places and trying to piece together a past.

Iron Cat #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Pere Perez (artist), Frank D'Armata (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - I don't like the gold shoulder pads on the Iron Man armor. Too much uninterrupted gold, I think.

A lot of the issue is focused on Tamara, Felicia's ex and the one running around in the Iron Cat suit. How she and the Black Fox first met, her perspective on Felicia and how they're different as thieves, the start of their relationship. D'Armata again using that softer shading on the colors for the flashback parts.

Also explained, how Tamara was able to steal the armor from Stark. The answer is she made a copy of Sunset Bain, who is apparently now an AI called Madame Menace. This also explains the problems Stark's having with all his systems, because the Madame is running amok in there. Perez chooses kind of an interesting angle for the panel that introduces her, where we seem to be looking down slightly on her. It makes her eyes seem unusually far apart, and the straight ahead look (not at us, but at Tamara who is positioned somewhere lower than our viewpoint) and the grin make an unsettling combo. She never looks quite as inhuman as in that panel.

As for our two leads, Felicia convinces Tony to set a trap by having a big public party on a yacht to draw Tamara out. But it's one of those, "your trap has fallen right into my trap," situations. Exactly how that works will wait for next issue. There's not much else to it, since MacKay focused a lot on Tamara. Which makes sense, as she's the new character in this and the one whose desire for revenge is driving this whole thing (although I won't be at all surprised if she decides Madame Menace has gone too far at some point.)

What I Bought 11/20/2019 - Part 1

It was actually a pretty decent haul for comics this week. 4 books, plus 2 books from last month that finally showed up. The downside is, right now there's only 6 comics coming out the rest of the year I want to get. December is gonna be a long, cold month.

Anyway! Here's one comic about a person who thinks they're nothing, and another about one with no face.

Test #5, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Got the whole, wide something in their hands.

Aleph is alive again, making their way to Laurelwood, again, talking to Mary (who is actually Laurelwood) as he goes. Aleph had found the town once before by chance, all their modifications somehow honing in on it. But Aleph wasn't ever ready, or was close to dying, or the city was being torn apart, so Laurel kept resetting things to get how they want it. But now that they're together, there's still the matter of what comes next, and that's a bit of a stumbling block. Aleph isn't entirely sure what they want, and even when things seem to be going well, Laurel is more like us than they might admit.

It's a bit of an ominous ending, or maybe just realistic. Hoping that you can find some perfect point, then just hold there, isn't going to happen. Laurel mentions it midway through, that humans always want some big ending where everything is resolved, but it doesn't work like that. Things keep happening, good and bad, only the details change. The future is going to have a lot of the same bullshit mistakes the present does, and the past did. Just different people making the mistakes, even if they don't think they're people.

I like the last few pages, where Aleph initially wakes up alone in an empty apartment, then goes out to meet Aleph in an empty town, devoid of any details. Then you turn the page and Aleph's waking up again, but it's their apartment with Laurel, and there are paintings on the wall. Clothing is a little more elaborate - Aleph's at least wearing a collared shirt now - and the town has other people, the buildings have marquees on them now. Laurel is still learning from Aleph, but not everything is something Aleph would want them to learn. Although there's the suspicious part of me that wonders if Laurel killed Aleph again before that reboot or retooling.

This was interesting. I don't know that I love it, but it was neat. Be good to read it all over again at some point soon. 

Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Denys Cowan (penciler), Bill Sienkiewicz (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer) - I love that swirly smoke and the implied red building in the background.

The Question exposes a councilman molesting underage kids, but finds a curious ring on the councilman. While he's chasing that rabbit hole, Myra is accepting her brother the mayor is a scumbag, and the entire city begins to go up in flames over a cop shooting a black man for running a red light. But Vic is trying to figure out why he found a skeleton in a long-abandoned building with a bullet hole in its head, and a mask just like his over its face. So naturally he goes to Richard Dragon, who roofies his tea, and now Vic's wandering around in the past. As you do.

I'm curious what direction this will go with the stuff in the past versus the stuff in the present. Vic is chasing down this secret order while the city quite possibly burns. It's clear the Mayor won't take any action that will help, but is that a conspiracy? Or is he just an incompetent, hamhanded doofus? Is Tot right that Vic Sage would be more use than the Question right now? Maybe none of this is going to factor into the story, but it feels like the moment Vic decides to just leave to go talk to Richard Dragon about his visions is a big deal.

There are several moments in this where his eyes aren't visible, even as a Vic Sage. They're these black pits, even if the rest of his face is perfectly visible. The moment after Myra walks away with the mayor's attorney. Again when he sees the video of the shooting and stumbles into the riot. I like how placid all the panels are on that page - dull colors, empty alleys - and then the final panel, a brick comes in from the right side of the page and smashes a window with a big red sound effect. And then the majority of the next page is Vic standing there alone on one side of the street, while the other side is total chaos. Then, in the panel below that, he pulls his hat down low and walks away. Caught in the Question, rather than the problem at hand.

What I Bought 9/18/2019 - Part 1

While I was on the road last week, I managed to pick up three of the four books that were out I wanted, which was better than I thought I'd do. That was a nice development in the midst of all the heat and my allergies going haywire again. Really hope I'm nearing the end of that difficulty for the year.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #7, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Joez Vazquez (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nakia strikes me as someone who drives aggressively without realizing it. She gets on a tirade about something and all the while she's crossing three lanes at a time without signaling.

Kamala's in one of those stretches where the personal life aspects are suffering. Grades are down, father sick, late for school, needs to join an extracurricular, unresolved romantic tension with Bruno, all that jazz. So Zoe and Nakia take her on a road trip to the place with the best gyros in New Jersey. But the place is only full of wage zombies from a nearby company, who quickly surround them, and then Josh and that annoying redheaded fascist girl show up.

As far as recurring enemies of Kamala's go, they aren't the Inventor, but they're better than the sentient computer program. Because she can punch them. Although first we'll have to listen to them whine about how all their misfortune is Kamala's fault.  At least Josh already got his in this issue. No we'll just have to sit through Lockdown's next month.

Vazquez' style reminds me of Sara Pichelli's from when she was drawing Ultimate Spider-Man. Crisp look to the characters, not a lot of excess lines. Everything and everyone looks fairly clean and not necessarily a lot of background detail, It works. I like the liquid (tears?) running from all the zombies eyes, if you figure they're victims being abused by their bosses. Nakia says Rubicon "bought the whole town", and you wonder how accurate that is. Of course, all the zombies also have the liquid running from their mouths, which is gross rather than sad, but oh well.

The color work from the diner until the end was really nice. A lot of purples and oranges on the horizon, as we move towards dusk. The way the town or the trees are just shadowy outlines all around, with no hint of what's there. It's capturing that horror movie feel of being in dangerous, unknown territory as it's about to get very dark.

Test #4, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - I'd say Aleph has stuck their neck in out, but it might be they need to push the rest of themselves through, too.

The person who asked Aleph to lead them last time may actually be Aleph, but a future version. Or someone who can look like them. That doesn't exactly reassure, so Aleph runs from place to place, through mirror after mirror, through some of their memories, and eventually they meet a personification of the town of Laurelwood itself. The town was able to access the future, but bringing pieces of it here only excited people as to the commercial possibilities, instead of scaring them. At the moment, all the different forces are burning the city to the ground in a struggle for dominance, but that doesn't seem relevant, as Laurel and Aleph are planning to do something, but it requires Aleph to die. Again, because this isn't the first time Laurel's tried this.

So everything that's happened with Aleph has been an attempt by Laurel to make him ready for whatever it is the city plans to do with their access to the future? Like, going all the way back to childhood, or just since Aleph started trying to modify themselves? And it's been attempt after attempt after attempt? Or is that all those times Aleph thinks they should have died, they actually did, but Laurel's winding it back somehow? Laurel said the future isn't a place you can go, but I don't know that means the same is true of the past.

Yes, I'm fumbling here. I really don't grasp what Sebela's going for here, beyond Aleph trying to figure out what they really want and why, and how difficult that can be for someone else to understand. Laurel admits they never know what to say to help Aleph understand, and that they can't grasp why Aleph wants to not exist so badly. I feel like Aleph's line about "sapes" barely being able to exist now is and that being off the board entirely is the only way to be is just another cover. It's easier to pretend not to care, speaking as someone with experience in that viewpoint.

The weird in-between space is kind of nifty. A whole lot darkness, except there's something that reminds me of lungs sitting in the middle of a field of weird mushroom things. Everything has a soft blue tint, like the mushroom things are giving off the light. You could see it being almost soothing in spite of how weird it is. At least no one is chasing after Aleph or trying to attack him there, right? But it's still off to Aleph, enough they feel they have to run, even if there's no place to run to exactly. And hiding seems futile from something that can see you anywhere, since you're within it, sort of.

As a man once said, Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass. True enough. Maybe I'll be able to make sense of it after next month. But probably not.

What I Bought 8/31/2019 - Part 3

It's been in the 90s here basically all week. I hope this is summer's last gasp, I would like to actual have autumn this year. OK, let's wrap up the stuff from August with the second and third issues of Test.

Test #2 and 3, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Lost in the weeds, which is about how I felt after reading these two issues.

Aleph is in over their head, because everybody wants something from them. The Resistance wants him to help them undo the future that's infiltrated their town, because they want things back the way they used to be. But they can't or won't disguise their underlying contempt for Aleph (and Aleph's generation in general), and so Aleph escapes them. Only to cross paths with the Repo guys, who are actually waiting for Aleph and all the various implants to give out under the stress. 'Damage is how we get our best data.' The local gendarmes are bit more than the Repo guys were counting on, though.

Which brings Aleph to Bob and his mother, Lenore, who run the town. They want Aleph on board, and they're externally a lot nicer about it, while trying to put a higher spin on the whole thing. Yes, there's buttloads of cash to be made, but this about preparing humanity for the future. What kind of future, and whether it's one better off averted isn't addressed. And after all that, with the Repos still after them, and the suits or whatever they are watching from behind the mirrors, Aleph falls down a rabbit hole and meets a bunch of other people who got lost in the shuffle somewhere. And all they want, is for him to tell them what to do.

Yeah, the bit at the end lost me entirely. Part of me thinks the one making speeches at Aleph is some future version of Aleph, waiting impatiently for their past self to get a clue. But I don't think Sebela's going for something that trite. There's a whole thing about Aleph having spent a lot of time being observed by people behind mirrors, but those people are in turn being observed by someone else behind another mirror, and those people are being observed, ad infinitum. Except eventually you have to find someone far enough up the chain there's no one looking over their shoulder, right?

The part where Aleph's wandering the world behind mirrors, even if I don't understand half of what everyone's going on about, it looked interesting. A void that gradually resolves itself into a maze. Doors with bar codes on them that open to allow vaguely shaped lumps with luminous empty eyes to emerge. I don't know if those are supposed to be Aleph's memories, or some residual trace of some other test subjects who didn't survive as long as Aleph, but it makes for a nice visual. It's the place where Aleph drops this act about how they've always been in control, always been manipulating these people who thought Aleph was only a lab rat, how Aleph just watches everything dispassionately to find the loopholes and the weak points to exploit. There aren't any of those to exploit in that maze, though, so Aleph can't keep telling themselves that.

Hickman provides a lot of different visuals, for all the different pieces. The Resistance operate out of a rundown, ramshackle place, but it probably doesn't have anything that could spy on them. But they also think Aleph's blood is a weapon, like he was crossbred with something out of Alien. Bob and Lenore live in what's outwardly an ordinary 2-story house, until the walls start shifting and coming to life, reaching out to touch someone, or threaten them if they won't sign the contract. The Repo guys brandish contracts above their heads like a badge or club.

There's a lot of pieces, and I don't think I'm at all close to figuring them out, but we'll see. I really want to see if this comes together and pays off at the end.

What I Bought 8/3/2019 - Part 2

For today, a couple of first issues. Well, one of them is sort of a first issue, sort of a continuation. And I thought I'd have the first two issues of the other book, but it didn't work out that way.

Test #1, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (writer) - Updated form of Operation! they've got going there.

Aleph is trying to find the town of Laurelwood, which is supposedly incredibly futuristic and has been erased from all maps. Aleph's had a lot of upgrades or random tests done on their body, because they're trying to find a particular feeling, I think. But they also signed a lot of contracts that give the companies that performed those procedures control of their body, so they're being hunted. And they may have killed some people, and may not be taking all the proper meds. But they found Laurelwood, although things don't seem great there, and the repo guys are still coming.

Things aren't entirely linear so far. The story goes back and forth between present and Aleph's past that led to this point. The escape from the hospital is shown in reverse, the end first, going back to what set it off. Part of the road trip is shown in reverse too, I think, because I feel like the RV crashed before the nervous young couple picked Aleph up. The windshield of their vehicle didn't match the RV's, so I don't think that was their vehicle. I don't know what that means yet. If that's how Aleph's mind works, focus on what's now and work back to where it started. If they're this focused on what they're pursuing that might make sense.

Hickman draws Laurelwood as basically a normal town with some unusual features bolted on. A strange car, Roombas keeping the streets clean, weird liquid metal things cross roads or dropping off rooftops. So a gradual infiltration of this futuristic stuff, to ease the shock of it. The inhabitants look mostly what we might think of as normal, although I haven't seen any kids yet. No usual appendages or outlandish fashion choices. A few new products at a time, see how people respond, then maybe a few more. But it isn't clear if the locals are really taking to the stuff or not.

Lot of questions, which is usually good. Questions mean they captured my interest. Whether I'll enjoy the answers, assuming there are any, is another matter, but cross that bridge when we get there.

Infinity 8 #13, by Lewis Trondheim and Davy Mourier (writers), Lorenzo de Felici (artist/color artist) - She should probably focus more on the undead grasping at her legs and less on whatever is in the distance. Unless she's saluting, in which case she should definitely focus more on the undead.

Fifth try at figuring out what's going on, and this time it's a Major Ann Ninurta on deck. Before she could even get to that, she had to drop her kid off at school, and arrest a person for shooting someone. While she's off exploring the vast graveyard in space, it turns out the murderer and his assistant were trying to test a resurrection gun of sorts, but obviously the assistant had to die first. Well, the gun works, but he comes back as a shambling, mindless creature that craves flesh and spreads his condition by biting people. Then the gun falls into some power conduit that carries its energy through the entire ship and the space graveyard, meaning everyone's in trouble now. Although i enjoy how she was mostly just annoyed when one of the zombies tried biting through her space helmet.

de Felici draws a decent variety of aliens, although he seems to lean towards them being small and kind of lumpy. But they mostly look suitably alien, so that's the important thing. He varies the size of Ann's eyes relative to the rest of her face by a lot. In some panels, they look about normal. In other panels they take up half her face. I can't tell that there's a pattern, so it's just a thing he has issues with. It isn't a huge issue except for being very distracting when I come across one of the panels where the eyes are enormous. I stop and just gawk, like what the hell happened there?

There's also a subplot about Ann's deadbeat ex, and also possibly her trying to hook up with some guy that caught her eye while she was on patrol? These stories usually have some sort of element beyond whatever trouble the agent runs into out in the graveyard, and I guess that's going to be this one's.