What I Bought 7/22/2026

What they told us a few months ago at work, if we didn't sign the agreement, we wouldn't have to use the AI, was not entirely true. We seem to have the option not to use it (for now), but still had to sign the agreement. And watch training videos, which were funny for how much they try to tap dance around the worthlessness of AI without actually saying so.

Use it for research, but make sure to verify what the answers it gives you. Why not just do the research myself then? Have it summarize e-mails or presentations, but double-check it didn't add anything just plain untrue. Don't put any proprietary or restricted information in there, because it could then share that information with anyone. If you use it, whatever you produced has to state that. So it's really just extra hassle across the board.

The video did end with a survey asking how often I expected to use AI for certain tasks. As, "when Hell is both empirically proven to exist, and then freezes over into a rainbow Popsicle," was not an option, I put "rarely, if ever" for each question. And the video responded, "That's OK. It's not for everyone!" No shit, tell that to the fools cramming it down our throats.

Moonstar #5, by Ashley Allen (writer), Edoardo Audino (artist), Arthur Hesli (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Every time I look at this cover, I feel like Dani's head is not centered on her body. Is it the sword, the shoulder plate? Something makes it look like it's off-kilter. 

Final battle for all life on Earth. Though Kian's burning up what life he's got on spells strong enough to make some sort of difference, while Kyrion keeps trying to goad Dani into taking the sword from him. It's the only way to stop him, but then she'll have to feed it two souls. His and, well, there's only one other person around.

Dani keeps refusing, firing off her psychic arrows and using spells. Which are very colorful, so that's nice. Hesli uses them to break up the depressing, deep-red that drenches everything else. Dani insists evil's always part of life, and so is chaos, you just have to learn to embrace the opportunities it holds. Chaos that is, not evil. Although it's not like evil doesn't have opportunities, too. Then she picks up the cursed sword, determined to be the one at the wheel

Dani doesn't want the sword's power, so she won't give it but one soul, the one trapped inside. Which is what sustains the sword, so it'll break. And Dani figures that's OK, because she can guide all the other souls to wherever they're supposed to go, being a valkyrie an all. I'm not clear on if that's back to their bodies, or to the other side. Maybe both. Her parents are back up and living, but I assume some of those souls no longer have bodies to go back to. Also, the part of the sword that was speaking gets ejected as well, which doesn't entirely make sense to me. I need to go back and re-read how the sword works.

Day is saved, parents saved, Dani's going to help Kian and Yansa with some of their society's work for at least a little while, and then Beta Ray Bill shows up to say thanks for handling the whole, evil Norse sword thing. Too busy off snogging with Sif or something, Bill? Not Cyborg-Horse-Thor's best moment. Also, he's carrying a big sword instead of a hammer. It just looks wrong. Do not approve.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #6, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Marc likes to give himself a handicap, so he's going to try staking vampires with blunt instruments.

This is a "get the team together" issue. Clea does the old Secret Defenders bit where the cards tell you who you need, and Moonie goes out to get them. Blade's easy. All Marc has to do is mention "Midnight Suns" and Blade's in. Well, he also had to kill some vampires to get Blade's attention. Couple of nice bits by the Pramanik/Rosenberg team here. One panel from inside a vamp's mouth before Moon Knight decapitates it, and the page where Blade agrees to help is three panels where the frames of the windows in the skyscraper act as the panel borders, with a full moon reflected off them. And the last panel is Blade stepping out through the window as he says, "Now let's go."

I'm also trying to figure out why Rosenberg colors the interior of Blade's coat as just solid red. No shading, shadows, or gradation. Just a solid red wall, every time. Feels significant, but heck if I can figure out what it would mean.  

That was the easy pitch, sandwiched between two harder sells. Although Robbie Reyes really just needs a chance to vent about, I guess, how badly he got treated in Jason Aaron's Avengers' run? Saving everything and getting left behind? I don't know, I didn't read any of the comics mentioned in the editor's notes. Nice intro for Moon Knight, though, reflected in one of the side mirrors of Robbie's car as he approaches. Robbie's not interested in doing any more world saving, but Marc just wants to save the people who pass for family with him, and that's enough to get Robbie on board.

And then there's Daredevil. Really?! Matt's being his usual holier-than-thou self. "Oh, I feel so bad about that one person I killed, and you don't feel bad about anyone you killed, blah blah." Yeah Matt, but as someone's who's read plenty of your history can attest, feeling guilty has never stopped you from doing another similarly dumbshit thing later. Just ask all your exes. The ones that are still alive, at least. Still, Moon Knight sells DD on demonstrating good choices, since Matt says he's one bad choice away from becoming Moon Knight. Pramanik uses Moon Knight's heartbeat as the top panel border a few times, showing it spiking as Matt keeps talking shit.

Of course, as they go charging in, it appears Moon Knight and Clea aren't being upfront with their new partners. Surely that won't come back to bite them (literally, with Blade around.) 

What I Bought 6/3/2026 - Part 2

My coworkers are having a good laugh at my misery as Emergency Unit Chief (or "yuc" as my mom put it.) To be fair, I'm also laughing. If I didn't, I'd be miserable. So I vowed to lead with apathy and cruelty, and feigned disappointment when I got off a lengthy phone conversation and found everybody had left for lunch.

Although when one of my coworkers said it was a mutiny, I pointed out a mutiny is supposed to involve them throwing me out and taking command for themselves. What they did was just desertion.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #5, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - The House has decided it will be the one bringing it down tonight.

Marc charges into the people-eating house with his dragon-sword. The house creates all kinds of greenish, half-formed ghosts or constructs or something. None of which have souls, to the sword's displeasure. All of which are capable of hurting Marc, to Marc's displeasure. Ginnaar swears if Marc gets him to the house's heart, it will drink up its soul, so Marc keeps going. And he finds the heart.

It's Achilles Fairchild, the Asgardian farmboy turned drug lord. Or, it's his body, being controlled by the house. Which explains the door he vanished through in the previous volume. It, and it says its name in The Mansion Ravenous, heard the Midnight Mission's death cries and came looking for the one responsible. Because they're of the same kind, but the Mission is just a child, and the Mansion's a full-grown adult.

Still, the monologuing lets Marc stab it in the heart. To no avail. Ginnaar decides the Mansion would be a better boss, because it can give it back its old form within those walls. It's a lovely image. The dragon, but its form is only partially real. So there are details - the teeth, the claws, some of the scales, but other parts are a swirl of this dull orange that just imposes itself on the page. Marc becomes this tiny white outline in the corner.

So, yeah, Marc's royally fucked, but they let him escape. Because he'll have to come back. With help. That they can also devour. He goes to Clea (since Strange is stuck in Asgard), and she's going to assemble a Midnight Sons, which Marc doesn't remember being a part of. I don't blame him, if Clea's referring to Damnation. I got hold of the complete collection last year. What a pile of shit. The Ewing-written stuff was OK, but the Donny Cates-written stuff was as bad as I'd expect. He wrote Moon Knight (in his "Mr. Knight" persona) as basically Deadpool. I'd blot that experience from my memory, too.

Fantastic Four #12, by Ryan North (writer), Pat Boutin (penciler), Serge LaPointe (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Well, it's happened. Reed's finally acknowledged what an egotistical prick he is and declared himself Emperor.

The aliens that attacked while the FF were in space a few issues ago decide to take a different approach and conquer the planet in the past. The team tries traveling to the point of the change, but only Reed and Johnny are sent back before the others get erased. So it's the two of them, posing as Gauls, helping some Roman legions fight an alien spaceship.

Also, because the attack was sudden, everybody was in bed when the warning came. Which is how we learn Reed Richards wears pajamas that say "Mr. Fantastic" on them. I'm sure this comes as a great shock to all of you, Reed being such a modest guy. 

The aliens also have a superweapon charging that could wipe out all life on the planet if they decide that's the best remaining option. Reed and Johnny must beat the aliens, but not badly enough they opt to go scorched Earth. At least until figuring out a way to neutralize the weapon. Against an alien force that all the non-Fantastic Four heroes in New York apparently couldn't drive back.

But they manage all this by, OK, you've maybe seen articles about those weird metal dodecahedrons that are dated back to Roman history, and nobody's sure what they were for? Reed invented them, because a whole bunch of them intercepting the superweapon refracts its energy into some less harmful wavelength. I have no idea which wavelength. Maybe all the legionnaires got really tan that day. Or got skin cancer. Presumably they didn't become Hulks, or the U-Foes.

To minimize effects on the timeline, Johnny suggests the Romans not tell anybody how they needed 'two weirdos' to save them from strange invaders, because it would make the Empire look bad, and the general vows to crucify any of his men who talk about it. Which, and I agree with Johnny here, was not an idle threat. Johnny is, apparently, less successful getting them to melt down all the "prismatic refractors", but to be fair, nobody talked about them. Except now Sue has to explain to the Archaeological Society that the answer to yet another long-standing mystery is, "The FF did some shit while time traveling."

I kind of groaned when Reed showed the Legion what he needed them to build, because I could see the punchline, but Sue's exasperation made it work. Even if it does sort of fall under the same notion as aliens building the pyramids. Although aliens totally, definitely exist in the Marvel Universe, and have done a lot more mucking around on Earth than building pyramids, so maybe that's not a big deal.  

What I Bought 5/6/2026

Well, we've finished April books, so it's on to selections from May! I was able to get all three comics from last week I wanted, although it took looking in a different shop in another town I happened to be passing through on other business Friday to get the third.

Batgirl #19, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (penciler/inker), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Looking at Batgirl charging into battle with a bunch of weapons made from her blood-shadows, all I can think is this power is a lot like having a symbiote, and my distaste for the whole concept becomes clear.

Cassandra fights her way up this big tower, from the inside and the outside, with the help of Tenji, Jaya, and Wu Lin She embraces the power at one point when it looks like her family is about to fall, but Miyazawa really draws it more like Cass just cut loose with her fighting abilities and that blood-shadow sword. She throws some regular old Batarangs, but I can't tell that she's making throwing stars or spears out of the blood.

Whatever, they make it to the top, she summons this Midnight Eye - basically a cloak, one of those broad rice-picking hats (festooned with streamers) and some glowing orange eyes - being her ancestor made the deal with. Even though he agrees she was cursed with this power being active without asking for or agreeing to it, he won't undo the situation. Because rules is rules and deals is deals and really, he's just a lazy bureaucrat.

Which is when Wu Lin makes his pitch, offering himself as a servant to handle things her and in the mortal realm, as well as offering up three living souls (Cass, Tenji, Jaya), in exchange for power. That, of course, is a deal the Midnight Eye is all about, so it looks like Cass and the other two got boned. Cass makes a speech that's half-apology to Tenji and Jaya, half her saying screw it to all this "family" that never did anything for her but place burdens on her.

Wu Lin returns, having dealt with the people that betrayed him in the mortal realm and declaring he's got to let these 3 living souls go, because otherwise things are out of balance. Sure, he's the one who offered them, but that was like 5 minutes ago! He's got an entirely different job now! I can at least appreciate the hustle there. And Midnight Eye agrees to remove the curse - as long as Batgirl agrees that someday she's going to work for him, or she gets cursed again. They return to Gotham, Cass introduces them all to her Bat-family, and that's that.

Does the fact Cassandra said family is what you make of it, which I've been yelling in these review posts for months, and that she chooses not to carry the burdens of this "family" that were never around or never accepted her mean she's going to let the Shiva issue go? Will Tenji stop bugging her about it? Their whole argument over whether to see if Shiva's soul was in the Spirit World and could be nudged into resurrection never really got finished. They just got busy with other stuff.

That's not even getting into the question of how rebirth works in this case. Presumably Shiva would be reborn as an infant, so it'd be years before she could even talk coherently with them. And is she going to have her past memories, or is she an entirely new person? If the latter, does it even matter? She's not Shiva at that point. Never been a fan of reincarnation, frankly. Feels like, with the way people want to play it that you have past memories and you're the same person, just in a new body, you probably stole that life away from someone new that could exist. Instead, it's just you, fucking things up a second time like you did the first time.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #4, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devamalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - The first glance I got at this cover, I thought the moon was actually some new design for Marc's hood, or it was billowing in a way that made it look really big and I was not a fan. Then I took a closer look.

This issue is Marc learning from Dr. Sterman about what the rest of the cast got up to when he went missing two weeks ago. In short, they beat up a bunch of villains for answers. That didn't work. Hunter's Moon communed with Khonshu to look for Marc. That didn't work, either. MacKay provides no explanation for that.

Then 8-Ball rushes in, pointing that several buildings are being slowly swallowed by darkness, and nobody other than their crew notices. And the people who lived in those buildings are vanishing, too. The others are skeptical it has anything to do with Marc's disappearance, but this is happening on his turf, so they need to handle for him.

They never came back out, so Marc's going in after them. Bringing along his big, soul-stealing dragon sword. Pramanik and Rosenberg are stretching Marc's cape to Breyfogle Batman and/or Spawn levels of size. On one page, as Marc ventures into the Midnight Mission's basement to retrieve the sword, it's a spiraling staircase - both comics in this post feature that, one going up, the other going down - and the cape trails behind him, making a spiral panel border.

On the last page, as he ventures into this new, haunted building, the cape actually has some threads that seem to be fluttering loose of the cape. Which could either read as the cape is, as part of a holy uniform, more than just fabric and has paranormal properties, or that Marc is, as Sterman suggests, making a mistake marching in there when he's wounded. Coming apart at the seams, so to speak.

What I Bought 4/22/2026

I may be just about recovered from the Chicago trip. Of course, I have to go out for 2+ days next week for work. The annual spring inspection trip where my boss comes along. At least his presence saves me from having to talk to the operators, since he loves to do that.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #3, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Stegman kind of Kelly Jones'ed Moon Knight's outfit there.

It's Moon Knight versus Bushman in a fear gas addled bout, with Zodiac being the most annoying pro wrestling announcer you can imagine. Yes, worse than Jerry the King Lawler screaming about "puppies," or Michael Cole existing on a plane of reality where he can interact with the rest of us. Honestly, Zodiac's glee at the violence just makes me wish Arcade was in the book. There's a guy that knows how to put on a show.

Moon Knight's losing, Bushman hacking him up while doing a whole spiel about how he created Moon Knight, and that'll always be true. Bleeding badly, Marc gets a visit from Steven and Jake, looking more ghostly than normal (Rosenberg colors them a sort of Ghostbusters ectoplasm green), who tell Marc Bushman's handling the fear gas' effects by causing fear so he doesn't feel it.

So Marc turns it around. That, actually, he haunts Bushman. The guy Bushman killed, who came back and kept kicking his ass. Who cut his face off, all that jazz. Moonie starts carving into Bushman, while Zodiac sounds about ready to achieve orgasm, and then, stops. Because he won't kill for anyone, not Bushman, Khonshu, or Zodiac. He will, however, kill Zodiac. Don't get my hopes up, man. Also, turns out something's going on in the city, and that's why none of the supporting cast found Marc.

Moon Knight's explanation for why he'd kill Zodiac but not Bushman is clever enough, but I think it's simpler, or maybe more selfish, than Marc makes it seem. He just doesn't want to give Zodiac what he wants, and Zodiac wants him to kill Bushman. So he won't do it. Which I guess means Zodiac better hire someone to cheer on Moon Knight killing him when (if) we get to that point.

What I Bought 4/1/2026

I traveled to the KC area for work today, and for once, the weather wasn't crap. Typically - doesn't matter the time of year - I draw the short straw. Unseasonable snow, 50+ mph winds, heavy rains, always something. Results had to change eventually, I guess. Let's get into April's books.

Nova: Centurion #6, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Going to try and shoot the most damage-resistant of the 3 first, huh? Bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it works.

Last issue, so Nova's got to kill the alien parasite infecting Cammi. He was going to use all that stolen Mysterium, but the parasite crumpled up his ship and chucked it into space. So Rich uses the promise of the Nova Force to lure it inside entirely inside him, then unleashes said Nova Force and incinerates the thing. While making a speech about how he's not just a Nova, he's the entire Corps, and it can't beat all of them.

It is with disappointment I report that, when Lopez draws a page showing dozens of Novas, as representative of the legacy of the Corps that Richard is the inheritor of, he doesn't follow Brian Denham's lead and draw a blue Pikachu Nova. Tsk, tsk.

Anyway, parasite dead, Cammi saved (thank you for that, Jed MacKay.) The Kree-Skrull War are still barking threats, and Nova reminds them that is pretty stupid considering he could kill them both in an instant. Of course, now he needs a new ship and energy for the Worldmind, both of which require money. But he's got his combat accountant and Cammi, so he ought to be OK.

So, obviously things got rushed. We never really got much about Aalbort (the accountant), and MacKay clearly had more in mind for Star-Lord, since he makes sure to throw in a page about Quill regretting backstabbing Nova and how this time, he's going to do the right thing instead of the smart thing. I assume there was going to be more build up to Quill coming through for Nova in a key moment, especially since he doesn't really get to do anything other than be there in this circumstance. Rich and the Worldmind handle the parasite by themselves, the others are just an audience.
 

Batgirl #18, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (penciler/inker), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - I bet the phosphorescent skeleton knows the best party spots in town.

Cass, Tenji and Jaya leap into the portal to Spirit World. Where they find the guy with a big old gunshot wound in the back of his head, minus the wound and saying he's been waiting for weeks. Turns out the Bloodmaster's father is trying to hijack his body to live again. Because apparently the tradeoff for the blood powers is you only live once. No reincarnation.

This is presented as something Cassandra should be very concerned about, though I can't tell that she is. She just wants the powers gone, but they have to talk to whoever granted the family these powers, and there's some angry lady with big teeth, that I guess Cass met in that Spirit World mini-series, waiting for her.

Cassandra is also, in between being trained to form the blood into weapons and stuff, arguing with Tenji about whether they should look for Shiva here and see if they can bring her back. Tenji wants to try, arguing they're supposed to honor their family in this world, while Cass brushes it off. So the same argument they've been having basically since Tenji was introduced, and I'm still on Cassandra's side.

There's just a sense of obligation Brombal's implying with all this, that Cass has to acknowledge a "family" that has never been there for her in any significant way, if she wants to progress, advance, whatever the hell it is she's actually supposed to do, that I think is horseshit. Family is what and who you make of it, and to be considered family by someone is, like respect, earned, not given. But, hey, Batman seems just about as irritated as me, so maybe the family Cassandra actually chose is going to step in and try to help.

What I Bought 3/18/2026

I did, in fact find a lot of books at the sale last week. Reviews of those start next week! Plus three movies, which I won't get around to reviewing for months yet. Still have all the movies I got at Christmas, plus Pluto's actually let me back in to a limited extent without an account, so I'm trying to finish off the films I had on my watch list before they change their minds. Plus I'll visit my dad sometime in the next month so, that'll be more old movies to review.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Just another, ordinary, "getting the shit kicked out of him," day for Moon Knight.

Moon Knight and Zodiac are tearing through the Agence Byzantine guys, while Mr. Fear and Mr. Smith look on. Pramanik seems to be having a lot of fun with the layouts. One page that all the panels are of Moon Knight tearins through guys, the panels contained with the outline of his arm pulping a guy's face, with Rosenberg using bright red for the outline of the victim and the borders.

Fear's ready to get out of there, but Smith simply asks him to hand over a box with a set of sharpened dentures and starts telling a story of his childhood. And the reveal is, it's Bushman. You know, the guy whose face Marc cut off 20 years ago (our time.) I was under the impression he was dead but not no more he ain't.

Meanwhile, Marc's gone from pulping idiots in red outfits to trying to strangle Zodiac. Zodiac runs, still spouting nonsense about being determined to make Moon Knight all he can be. Then Bushman steps in, and before he can fight Moon Knight, Zodiac's found the control room, and pumps the room full of fear gas, encouraging Moon Knight to cut Bushman's face off - again. Well, that'd be rather trite, wouldn't it? Oh you fixed your face, I'll trash it again the same way. A little too Punisher and Jigsaw, innit it?

Actually, I'd wonder why Zodiac doesn't target Punisher, but I assume Frank's too straightforward and clinical in his killing for Zodiac to take an interest in him. Frank just shoots them or blows them up and goes on to the next. To the extent there's artistry, as Zodiac might define it, it lies in the sheer relentless attrition the Punisher inflicts.

Or Zodiac's really a punk that knows Frank would just blow his head off at first sight.

What I Bought 3/4/2026 - Part 1

Last week was rainy, which beats snow. And I suppose we needed the rain. Far as I know we've been in drought conditions since August. For now, we leave February and January behind, and move on to books from March.

Batgirl #17, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (penciler/inker), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Might want to clean that sword, Cass. It's giving off quite the miasma.

Cass is back in Gotham and headed to dinner with the Bat-fam. Dinner Tenji and Jaya aren't invited to, although Stephanie is eager to meet Cass' new brother. But Cass is going to miss that dinner, because her blood starts going nuts. As in, it is somehow outside out her body, whipping around and tangling her up. Miyazawa draws it such that the tendrils obscure parts of the voice balloons for whatever Stephanie is saying over the phone, which is a nice representation of how this is seizing Cass' attention, and cutting Cass off from them again.

Or Cass is cutting herself off, because she goes to Tenji and Jaya for help, unwilling to let her family see her like this. Learned all the wrong lessons from Batman, I see. This is related to Shiva's family, the ones her parents took her and her sister away from. According to Jaya, Cass shouldn't have these abilities without a ritual, but here we are.

The Wu family's moved into Gotham, but something's up, because the guy in charge gets shot in the back of the head, by his assistant. Man, there are so many betrayals in this book. Call it Backstab Monthly or something. But the guy isn't actually dead, instead there's a portal to the Spirit World inside his skull. I'm just saying now, I didn't read that mini-series where she got lost there and Constantine and some new character Alyssa Wu created had to rescue Cass.

It feels like Brombal is making a point about Cassandra needing to accept her family's history as part of herself, instead of hiding or ignore it. The blood/shadow tendrils literally tie her up the harder she tries to control or deny them, which seems pretty on the nose. And I just don't know if she really does, in a real world sense of that being a message.

Some people just need to get away from their families and stay away. Shiva's sins, or the Wu Clan's sins, are not Cass'. She isn't guilty just because she's descended from them, that whole notion doesn't fly with me. It's too similar to the genetic determinism shit that got her turned into a killer post-Infinite Crisis. "Your biological parents are killers, so even though you've hardly met one, and rejected the other, you'll become a killer, too." So I don't know, guess we'll see.

Nova: Centurion #5, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - I know it's just the perspective, but it looks like Nova's the only one of the two smart enough to know you need to aim at your opponent.

First things first: Where Della Fonte drew Peter Quill with a beard and a really stupid mustache, Lopez draws it as a beard and goatee. Which has the benefit of making Quill look less stupid, but also takes a little of the joy out of Richard ditching the Nova helmet and immediately punching him. They fight a bit, usual break-up stuff. "You betrayed me, all the other Novas are dead (again)." Same song and dance we've heard a million times.

Quill is there because he knows Nova stole all that mysterium. More critically, the Kree-Skrull War (still a dumb name for a crime syndicate) know it, too. If Rich hands it over to Quill, he can get them to take it back and call it good. But Cammi really needs the mysterium for medical treatment. As in, the mysterium is the medicine she takes to keep some freaky monster from overtaking her.

My first thought was, we're dealing with another thing from the Cancerverse, given all the mouths and teeth and appendages. But no, it's some sort of weird monster thing the Worldmind found scattered records of in its databases. There's a nice panel before the exposition starts, where Lopez draws the Worldmind's face within the star on Rich's helmet. 

There's no time to settle that, the Kree-Skrull War are here (to be eaten by the Cammi-monster.) Because that Eden Rixlo guy double-crossed Quill, who apparently never considered this possibility. So has Marvel decided to include the original Star-Lord stuff, Engelhart and Claremont and all that, and the movie shit, and the stuff Giffen did in the early-2000s in Quill's history? I feel like that isn't compatible. Original Recipe Star-Lord was pretty on the ball, minus Doug Moench writing him, while Movie Star-Lord is a fucking idiot I wouldn't trust to tie his own shoes.

Can Richard rescue Cammi from the thing that's swallowed her up? Can he get the crime syndicate off his back? Can he get Star-Lord to ditch that terrible facial hair? Will Eden Rixlo suffer hilarious comeuppance? We'll find out next month.

What I Bought 2/11/2026

Not satisfied with simply restricting access to certain channels, Pluto TV now requires me to register an account if I want to use it at all. Which, if it would spare me the commercials, I might consider a fair trade. But since I know that ain't happening, the prospect of giving them another avenue to annoy me is not worth it.

Plus, I'm the contrary sort who resents their trying to force me to play their game.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Dr. Sterman should probably talk to Marc about sleeping with weapons.

Marc's kidnappers have him in a giant sound stage, Mr. Fear (looking like he stole Taskmaster's Udon Studios design mask, and one of Dr. Doom's cloaks) pumping him full of fear toxins while some large black man I don't recognize tries to break him down for Agence Byzantine. The big guy is going by "Mr. Smith," pretending to be Marc's boss at the company where Marc is mailroom guy, but that doesn't really help me i.d. him. He also seems like he's really enjoying humiliating Marc whether he's playing the scowling boss, or sitting in his control room full of monitors that wash everything in blue-white.

Marc delivers meaningless letters to members of the Agence, still wearing their read outfits, but with business suits over them, which Pramanik details in repetitive 9-panel grids. Rosenberg colors these pages a sort of dull, washed out yellow. has a room, where he eats dog food like cereal and stares at a non-functioning TV. But Marc sees a Moon Knight cartoon, with a broad-chested, smiling Moon Knight. He even sings a theme song as he goes about his day.

This isn't getting anyone anywhere, even as Mr. Fear ups the doses to dangerous levels, but then Zodiac breaks in to push Marc to find himself. Even brings him his mask and cloak (which Rosenberg colors as glowing) in a gift box. There's a nice page of interlocked crescents - claws? - of "Moon Knight" telling Marc what he needs to do, growing more terrifying in each panel, while the other side shows the Agence Byzantine guys rushing towards the room they're in. So it's Moon Knight (sorta) and Zodiac, teaming up to bust Marc out. Or just kill a bunch of guys.

At times like this, I wonder about Steven and Jake. Is the fear toxin keeping them incapacitated, too, or creating some kind of barrier where they can't supplant Marc as the part of the system in control? I would figure they'd be what's helping Marc resist, but I don't think that's what MacKay's going for, since he so rarely uses either of them. 

What I Bought 2/5/2026

I spent 4 days last week looking after Alex's cat. I took his advice and set his TV to some Youtube "cat tv" station full of birds and squirrels when I had to leave for a while, but the cat seemed equally interested in the NBA player podcasts I'd watch sometimes.

Batgirl #16, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Does Batgirl think she's learned to cut fire? Maybe.

Let's wrap this war up. Nyssa was unconcerned that the Unburied were infiltrating Samsara, because she wants them there to kill via machine gun towers, under the logic that the blue poppies grew from the corpses of the Unburied's ancestors, so that will definitely happen a second time if she can produce the corpses. And the Unburied wrecked her Lazarus Pit, so she's trying to avoid death.

Jaya takes out the towers, and apparently is not on Nyssa or the Unburied's side, but some third motive. Oy. Batgirl seems busier fighting her ghosts than anything else, but pulls it together enough to choose against vengeance. Rather than fight Kalden to the death for killing Shiva, she figures out the pressure point thing Jaya uses to make Nyssa able to feel stuff again. Which leaves Nyssa unable to continue fighting. And Batgirl freed Tenji, who was chained up for. . . reasons.

Was Nyssa thinking he'd work as bait for the Unburied? Was it supposed to distract Batgirl, or make her fight harder against the Unburied? I have absolutely no idea what Nyssa's end goal was there.

But Batgirl chose against vengeance, the Unburied get their home back, so I'm sure they'll just be all peace and love now, and definitely won't opt to hunt down Nyssa and anyone they think might strike against them. And Batgirl is maybe returning to Gotham with her half-brother and Jaya.

I assume Batgirl's able to use Jaya's pressure point stuff to heal Nyssa - though it's not like it does anything for her aging and dying problem - because she chose freeing Tenji over attacking Kalden, and this represents healing her past emotional wounds. It doesn't really feel like that significant of a choice - Cassandra Cain has chosen saving someone over beating someone else up plenty of times - and it also doesn't feel like it would resolve any of her issues with her mother, but here we are. 

Nova: Centurion #4, by Jed MacKay (writer), Matteo Della Fonte (artist), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - OK, I understand Nova's presence, and the former Nova turned wannabe Han Solo behind him. What's with the two red circles? Are they suns?

Nova's trying to get a recharge, but the technician is giving him a lot of static about how disrespectful it is for an Earther to be wearing a Nova Corps uniform, now that the Corps is gone. So, did the Corps get rebuilt and then destroyed again some time between the end of Thanos Imperative and now? I generally understood Rich was still the only Nova all throughout the Krakoa era, so how has word of that still not gotten around?

But he gets his recharge, and his being able to handle that much juice convinces the guy he really is a Nova. Meanwhile, some doofus named Eden Rixlo steals Nova's ship while Rich is buying groceries. What a fucking terrible name, what idiot came up with "Eden Rixlo"? Really? Gerry Duggan? I would have put money this guy was created by Jeph Loeb in his Sam Alexander Nova book. Good thing I don't gamble.

Cammi and Aalbort are on-board at the time of the theft, which is weird since Eden was apparently eyeing the ship the same time Nova was trying to get his recharge, which Cammi and the combat accountant were present for. Why wait? He could steal the ship, but not break in? Either way, there presence means this is a bad idea even if Nova didn't manage to get right on Rixlo's tail, including using the mines Rixlo drops as speed boosts (which was very cool) all the way to his destination.

But Nova did stay on his tail, and Cammi and Aalbort are in position to slit Eden's throat, as they arrive at some space station where Star-Lord is waiting. At least, the guy introduces himself as Star-Lord. 

Between the dumb hair and dumber mustache, and the stupid outfit that has what looks like backpack straps growing from the shoulders, it looks more like, I dunno, Andy Richter playing a cruise line captain. And he'd speak in some goofy accent. Something Scandinavian by way of Swedish Chef, maybe. At least the shoulder straps should make it easy for Nova to throw the Cruise-Lord into the airless vacuum.

What I Bought 1/7/2026

Two weekends ago, when I was working on a Saturday Splash Page for later this month, the post editor locked up when I went to load the image. I ended up closing Firefox, and when I reopened it, I couldn't open any posts, and some images were missing from posts that already went up. Logging out and back in didn't fix it, and I went to the extent of downloading Chrome to try and use that. It worked, but fortunately, things did eventually sort themselves out in Firefox. Hopefully that was some strange one-off. 

Nova: Centurion #3, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez and Matteo Della Fonte (artists), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'd tell Rich he needs to keep his Pip on a leash, but Pip would probably be into that.

The Accuser gets back in the game long enough to keep Nova from being completely drained of energy. They bail, and Richard decides they should actually have a plan. The interesting bit there is Rochard can apparently converse with the Worldmind in some virtual conference room, at 10,000% the speed of regular time. In other words, in what appears to be the space between two words to someone on the outside.

Lopez depicts the conference room as a mass, snowy graveyard, all the tombstone with crest on Nova's helmet and a serial number. Which seems like something Rider would do, to keep himself focused on his mission. Which makes me curious if the conference space always looks that way, or if it's because Richard is so fixated on getting Ravenous for what he did. Guess we'll see if MacKay and Lopez use it again in later issues.

The plan that involves using the facilities of this place to drain Ravenous' energy, then borrowing the Accuser's weapon to beat Ravenous like a rented mule. Annihilation did establish Ravenous is vulnerable to being smashed in the face with a big hammer. That done, Nova finds some Mysterium on Ravenous. Ravenous gets taken away by the Accuser, Rich gets paid, and Cammi's cleared of charges and looking to join the crew. Because she went snooping, and found the stolen Mysterium in the hold of Nova's ship. Because he was the thief.

So, did Rider do it because the Mysterium belonged to a big crime organization? Rob from the guilty, limit their ability to inflict harm, plus use it to keep the Worldmind charged up so he can protect the innocent? Or is the Worldmind piloting Rider when he's asleep again, to make sure they have enough money to pay the power bills so it doesn't go offline? I'd cling to my suggestion the Skrull side of the KSW did it, but that wouldn't explain the Mysterium being on Rider's ship. Unless the Accuser planted it, but then a Kree is involved in my plan that was supposed to be a Skrull double-cross..

What I Bought 12/17/2025

One of the floors at work had their holiday party on Tuesday, and I don't know what it was, but something I ate turned my stomach inside-out for about 18 hours. Didn't get more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep Tuesday night, because my stomach would keep informing me it was once again time to visit the bathroom. But it seemed to settle down by the time I went to the comic store Wednesday so you heard it here first: Comics cure gastrointestinal issues.

Black Cat #5, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - What are the units of measurement behind her? I'm guessing one is inches, but what's the other? Can't be centimeters, because 69 inches would be a lot more than 70-odd centimeters.

Not only does Felicia get caught by a bunch of cops in an empty house with a bunch of marked bills, Tombstone even has the house listed in her name. So it's a walk of shame past a bunch of reporters, with Felicia in vain trying to protest innocence. She ends up in jail until Mary Jane posts bail, they talk, Felicia is too wrapped up in her stuff to notice something is bugging MJ, and goes off to yell at Tombstone.

This turns into a fistfight between the two of them, and then he explains that money she was caught with will be booked as evidence until it vanishes and makes its way back to him. Then he just sort of, wanders off.

I mean, there's something to the idea Felicia wasn't just trying the hero thing so it would be easier for her to rob people once they were less fearful, that she liked the idea of being praised. But the way Wilson presents it, Felicia took such a half-assed approach. Once things didn't go how she anticipated, she starts charging into things. Especially weird after Wilson has Felicia talk about how everything about her, from the physique to the gear to the appearance, takes work.

Why is she being so much sloppier about heroing than she would be about thieving? Why is she trying to fistfight Tombstone, after throwing a bunch of half-assed insults into his face, rather than stealing something from him, or getting him busted doing something illegal? How did she give him a black eye? I thought he was supposed to have stone-hard skin. It's possible to write these situations as not going according to plan, and Black Cat having to wing it, without writing her like she took a page out of Homer's book and stuck a crayon too far up her nose.

Hate to say it, but I'm done with this book.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #15, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Moonie's not had a good time of it on the covers for this series. Always getting stabbed or stomped into the ground.

Moon Knight manages to get the possessed Wrecker into the Midnight Mission, where he at least can't hurt anyone but Moon Knight, while Scarlet Scarab and Reese try to reason with the Executor to release the ghosts he's using against the Wrecker. Because Marc's brought out the enchanted sword, and it would be perfectly fine gobbling up all those spirits.

Still, it's not until the Executor buries his ax in Reese's chest, and believes he's killed her, that he releases the spirits. Which is a pretty nice image or this green ooze pouring out of the Wreckers mouth and over the side of the crescent emblem he's standing on. And you can see screaming faces in the ooze. Very nice work by Carbone and Rosenberg.

The Executor retreats, promising he won't fight back if Reese's ghost comes after him. Reese, of course, is not dead, because she's a vampire. Ax to the chest ain't nothing. The Wrecker's pretty happy it's all over, then he and Moonie argue about if Moon Knight's really any less blood-stained, with Marc arguing he isn't, but at least he's trying to be better. Then Clea shows up and drags Wrecker off to the Dark Dimension for, torture I guess. Marc and Layla make tentative plans to team-up again some time in the future, she leaves, and Marc gets tranq darted and hauled off.

It'd be an abrupt end if I didn't know we're getting another Moon Knight series in two months. I'm not sure I see a throughline in this book's run, though. Marc fights an Asgardian farm boy turned drug lord, and then protects the Wrecker from a guy who let his frustration push him into revenge.

Executor seems meant to contrast with Moon Knight. Moonie did bad things in his past, and tries to atone with better actions in the present and future, while Executor was a firefighter, someone who helped people, but has let the ugliness of others turn him into someone who focuses solely on revenge. I guess he was closer to Moon Knight once, but has drifted nearer to the Wrecker, someone who cares only about himself. I'm not sure what Fairchild was supposed to reveal about Marc.

What I Bought 12/11/2025

The seventh issue of Dust to Dust, originally solicited for October, then pushed back to December, has since been pushed back into late January. J.G. Jones apparently waiting for the universe to end, restart and for time to once again reach the 1930s before he finishes this mini-series.

Nova: Centurion #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez and Matteo Della Fonte (artists), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - If you didn't spot the red suspenders, you'd think Nova was fighting Drax.

Cammi relates everything she went through preparing to pull this heist, before someone who might be Ravenous decided just blast his way in. Nova has another passenger on his ship, an Accuser who works for the Kree-Skrull War because she believes it's the best way for their people to work together: A group full of people who spent their lives up to then trying to kill each other.

Prediction: "Ravenous" will actually turn out to be a Skrull member of the group, maybe the leader from their side, maybe not, and Yr-Kett will be disillusioned by this betrayal.

They track down Ravenous, stealing power from a grid on some weapons disposal planet. Nova fights like a dumbass, needing several pages to be informed Ravenous is absorbing the energy he's throwing around. And Yr-Kett's not much better. I should have known things were gonna go badly when Nova got clean-shaven because he wanted to make sure Ravenous recognized him. The guy was on par with a Herald. Focus on winning, worry about introductions after.

We're two issues in, and Lopez is already sharing artist credit. Even for Marvel, that's a really quick bait-and-switch. Fonte leans harder into solid blacks, and Iacono's colors shift to duller or darker shades on those pages. Maybe the latter is just because they're fighting on a messy planet. On the other hand, Lopez makes Cammi look like a middle-aged woman, while Della Fonte doesn't. I don't know how much time has passed since Annihilation, but it can't have been that much.

I'm still not clear on this recurring mention of Nova and the Worldmind having limited power available. This was not a problem the last time I was watching Rider carry the entirety of the Nova Force. Where were they getting the power to "recharge" during the entirety of the Abnett/Lanning run?

What I Bought 11/20/2025

They've created all these stupid new systems at work, for things I could not give less of a shit about. This has not stopped people from sending me e-mails expecting me to learn procedures or do stuff related to these things, which makes me either want to scream at them to just leave me alone, or throttle them.

Nova: Centurion #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alvaro Lopez (writer), Mattia Iacono (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - With funds limited, Nova was forced to house the Worldmind in a less mobile mainframe.

Richard Rider's back to (still?) the last Nova, housing all the Nova Force. He's still determined to save every life he can, still getting chided by the Worldmind about putting it at risk by rescuing ships full of rich dumbasses from a black by doing crazy shit. But the Worldmind, wherever he's keeping it, comes with a cost. A financial cost. And people won't pay for help after you've saved their stupid asses.

Enter Pip the Troll (never a good sign.) For the low, low cost of 10%, he'll get Rich paying jobs to keep the Worldmind running. Paying jobs like hunting down the one responsible for stealing a bunch of that magic mineral stuff Krakoa was pumping out from a interstellar gang called "The Kree-Skrull War."

That is the stupidest gang name I've ever heard. Yes, you're Kree and Skrulls working together, and your leaders talk like a particularly condescending rich couple "It has pride, my love." "It" also has enough gravimetric power to incinerate you dipshits, and probably should. They're gangsters, doesn't that make them criminals? Shouldn't Nova Prime be taking down criminals?

Anyway, Rich takes the cash, and the accomplice left behind, Cammi, and gets ready to hunt down Ravenous. We only see him in a flashback to partway through Annihilation, so I don't know if half his face is still metal after Ronan crushed it.

It's not a bad engine for storytelling. Throw Richard into conflicts where he has to decide how much he's willing to compromise his values and what he feels being a Nova stands for, in exchange for the funds to keep the Worldmind - and the last vestige of Xandarian culture - alive. Although I've never seen anything of Xandarian culture except the Nova Corps. They got any decent poetry, films, anything except the desire to create an interstellar peacekeeping force that was not terribly effective? Certainly weren't doing anything about the Shi'ar routinely being run by nutsos like D'Ken, or the Kree and Skrulls from fighting all the damn time.

Do not love Rich sporting a goatee with a beard. Just looks weird. Would have preferred Lopez highlighted the facial scar Nova got in his first fight against Annihilus, but outside of Sean Chen drawing a small nick in his upper lip, nobody drew that after Annihilation. Guess it got erased via the magic of outer space medicine. 

What I Bought 11/5/2025

Last week dragged like an anchor, even worse than I suspected it would, coming off two vacation-shortened weeks. At least this week had a holiday in the middle of it, but now I've got a public meeting tomorrow. Will I, for once, resist the urge to try and offer information I think is helpful and just keep my mouth shut? We'll see!

Batgirl #13, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist), Juan Castro (inker), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - At least one of them is smart enough to cover their mouth before walking through a field of weird flowers.

It's the start of the assault on the Unburied, with flashbacks to how the different characters tried to prepare. Cass wanted to learn to heal, but won't let go of her past, so it's a no-go. Jade Tiger gets picked at by the shape-shifter in the crew about how he doesn't measure up to Cass. Nyssa and Angel Breaker discuss why they're bothering with this at all, which seems to boil down to Nyssa' daddy issues. She wants to accomplish what he didn't, as the forgotten daughter. Well, I can get behind spite as a motive.

They infiltrate easily enough, and then Cassandra gets distracted by some play about the history of the valley, which reveals that it wasn't just Ra's who attacked these people, Nyssa was involved, too. I'm shocked! Shocked! Well, not that shocked. More shocked Batgirl didn't recognize a lie or some dissembling when Nyssa was telling her little tale in the previous issue.

Then Batgirl starts having a panic attack when the play reenacts Shiva's death, but hey! Here's Kalden the Unseen as special guest! Rather than talk, or deal with emotions, Batgirl can just take revenge! Revenge: The source of, and solution to, all life's problems.

I really do wonder how long Brombal is going to drag this storyline out. It feels like there's a lot of going in circles, to no particular gain. Couldn't we have explored Cassandra's unresolved and messy issues with Shiva while doing other stuff?

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #14, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  Looks like Marc forgot his belt on tonight's patrol.

The guy summoning the ghosts is not a preexisting character I should have recognized. He's the strictly the guy that was a firefighter present at the Wrecker's rampage. Feeling the costumed types never notice the little people like him or the Wrecker's victims, he studied magic and did all this as a "voice to the powerless" thing. Which did involve putting together a costume of his own and giving himself the name "Executor," but he rationalizes that by arguing it's the only way to get them to notice him.

Does he want them to notice him, though? Is fighting Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab really helping his scheme to take revenge? Assuming that's all it is any longer. He mentions it's hard to learn magic because even if you find texts, they were written by crazy people, as he reasons all magic users are a little insane. Which means he is now at least a little insane.

Don't love the costume, what I can see of it anyway. There's a dark robe with a hood and a rope belt. Sort of a big skull facemask, a little like one of Taskmaster's, but the jaw is uncovered. I'm not sure if it's feathers or living shadows around the fringes. Honestly, the whole thing is so dark, it just kind of becomes a blob of darkness. Black outer garments over grey shirt and pants. The fire ax is as his enchanted weapon or mystical focus is a nice touch. Nods to his fireman work, but also towards an executioner. 

He sets the ghosts of all the people Marc and Layla killed in their merc days on them, and goes after the Wrecker, who is getting yelled at by Reese. Which is probably not a smart move on her part. I think "Guy who fights Thor," trumps "vampire." But Executor arrives, and his plan was - to let all the angry ghosts possess the Wrecker. That doesn't seem likely to produce any results but more dead regular folks.

Which I guess will make this a case of him stewing in his own anger and pain and ultimately using these spirits rather than helping them or providing any peace or working to prevent there being more dead people. Like Marc initially using all his skills as a mercenary, where now he tries to help people. Maybe the Wrecker shouldn't be one of those people, but that'll be a lesson to grow on.

What I Bought 10/23/2025 - Part 2

I noticed a few weeks ago the Roku Channel brought Hardcastle & McCormick back, so I decided to binge watch it before they pulled it again. I did not remember them trying to use a different opening theme song the first half of Season 2. It was terrible, better suited for Family Ties or Growing Pains, some happy family sitcom shit.

Fantastic Four #4, by Ryan North (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Victor Olazaba (inker), Edgar Delgado (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm not at all clear what's going on with Johnny's flaming hand? Was he making bunny fingers, and that's what got Ben riled?

The FF have gotten themselves another dog. Except Alicia isn't so sure that's correct. When she touches "Jellybean", for just a moment, everything feels wrong. Then, nope, nevermind, it's a cute little dog. Of course it is!

Still, Alicia's unease leads her to ask Reed about how something could mentally convince others it was harmless-looking. Which leads Reed into a long spiel about the part of out brain that recognizes faces, but also makes us see faces in other things. And then he builds a machine to block that part of the brain, and their dog turns out to be the pink tentacle thing on the cover. Who is just one of an entire invasion, an invasion abruptly canceled once Reed projects the effect over the entire planet.

So North is back to the clever one-and-dones. About time. Ramos makes the alien suitably creepy-looking, though it's really some of Alicia's expressions that sell it. The almost rictus grin she gets as it winds around her arm, asserting that message in her head that she's touching a cute little dog. Like someone asked you what you thought of their latest piece of art, and you're trying to be polite while internally screaming.

Later, after Alicia's conversation with Reed, when the alien has put more focus into keeping her under control, you get a glimpse of her face when Reed turns on his device. The alien practically blankets her, and she's wearing this blank-faced smile, even as the others freak out. Ramos' face always look strange to me, so he and North might as well put that to good use.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #13, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  The only cover the shop I stopped at had was a variant of Moon Knight being shocked or unnerved by what he was seeing in Marvel's new, "Red Band" Punisher book. Which is just silly. Marc may not be cutting dude's faces off these days, but he hasn't forgotten what it was like to do that.

Marc and Layla sit in on some sort of group therapy session where, among other things, a fireman describes coming across the Wrecker rampaging, killing, kicking Dr. Strange's ass. The Wrecker, when confronted with all this, pulls the, "I was possessed" card. New crowbar, yadda yadda. And he admits he's probably killed others, but why aren't any of those others haunting him? Only the ones from this specific rampage?

Which sends Marc and Layla looking for Dr. Strange, but he's off in Asgard, so will Clea do? Or maybe that should be, will Clea do something? She's not real interested in helping a murderer who hurt Stephen escape being haunted, but she'll help them see the world like magicians do.

Rosenberg keeps all the buildings and most of the people in plain black-and-white, but Marc and Layla are brightly colored, and there are all sorts of sprites, spirits, something around that are also colorful. Carbone draws them like a clay sculpture that as only halfway molded before the artist got distracted. A distinct limb or facial feature, but the rest a lump.

The search leads to a house, and inside the house is the firefighter from the help group. I'm not sure if Marc was supposed to know him from somewhere else or what. Also, he says it took years of study to be able to command the dead, but the story being referenced was in a volume of Dr. Strange that started in 2019. Which yes, is 7 years ago for us, but with how Marvel time operates, it's not that long ago. Even if you figure Krakoa was hosting Hellfire Galas annually, Krakoa lasted maybe 3 years. So was this firefighter guy actually planning this long before the Wrecker's rampage, or should I just deal with the uncertainty of Marvel's timeline?