What I Bought 8/3/2026 - Part 2

I guess Sony honked some people off when they announced they'd cease producing physical copies of their games in the next couple of years. Because Sony has a past record of removing stuff people bought off the electronic store if they happen to lose the rights to it. Which tells me I need to hurry up and buy whatever games I plan to get electronically, then never connect my PS4 to the Internet again. Won't be difficult; I only connect now when I want to see if the most recent sale put anything I want at a price point I'll pay.

The Matron #2, by David Bowles and Drew Edwards (writers), Monica Gallagher (artist), Harry Saxon (color artist), Stephen Kok (letterer) - Somebody needed to ask for help with their markings ahead of the Big Homecoming Game.

Like this first issue, this is split between two threads. Unlike the first issue, the threads take place concurrently, rather than a half-century apart. College students Roz and Samantha leave their classes on a quest for food, followed by a trip back to Sam's dorm room. The two are apparently girlfriends, or at least moving that direction, though Sam has misgivings. Partially because they, as Roz puts it, share two ancestors, six generations ago, but mostly because of the ill will Roz's grandmother bears anyone with the last name Maldonado, including Sam.

This is a valid concern, as we see in the other thread, which focuses on Zina and her diner job. Or her former diner job, as her boss has sold the diner to some gentrifiers who plan to turn the it into a 'gourmet taqueria.' So Zina's fired, but she got 10 months pay as severance, so it's all good, right?

Well, not really. Zina felt like she was family with these folks, but apparently not. And like Michael Jordan, she took that personally. Maybe they shouldn't have asked her to put patties in the freezer right after letting her go. She hears a voice, speaking in a language which Google Translate says is Russian, frost briefly grows around her eyes, and she picks up a meat cleaver. Or the Matron picks up the cleaver, as the font in Zina's voice balloons shifts.

The actual killing is presented by Gallagher as methodical and calm. A single chop to the chest for the guy, then another to the neck for the woman. There's no frantic hacking or slashing. She does respond to Sally's plea to stop, but only to tell her Zina is gone. There is one extreme close-up panel of Zina's eyes, colored in red, but she isn't getting wild. Just stating a fact.

Worth noting that Sam and Roz don't view the change in downtown as negatively as Zina, though Sam had some misgivings about her father's involvement. I imagine the sushi place they have dinner at is probably part of the revamping. Roz is hoping to move forward, that maybe they can leave the mess of the past behind. Zina, even if she's focused on caring for family, is still fixated on that past. The Maldonados are enemies, full stop. So that's bound to be an issue.

Vampyrates! #1, by Fred van Lente (writer), Luca Pizzari (artist), Adam Guzowski (color artist), Jodie Troutman (letterer) -  The exclamation point appears to be part of the official title, so I'm leaving it in.

In this world, vampires rule, and humans are an underclass. And if vampires rule, then they're going to fight over which of them specifically, gets to rule. But whatever war was going on, ended without anyone telling Captain Akeyo to stop attacking what she thought were enemy ships, which are now allied. So she's considered a pirate now.

As it turns out, the war is ending via arranged marriage. The Empress Nira isn't happy about it, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And what her cousin the Duchess thinks she's gotta do is stage a violent coup. Which at least results in the death of Nira's betrothed, but also the deaths of all her guards. I'm not sure who the robed guys that serve the Duchess are, but they're apparently big and tough enough Nira's guards go down like Hand ninjas against Wolverine.

It is a little weird that in one panel, Nira is calling for her guards while wielding two clean swords, but in the next panel, her guards are being slaughtered, and both her swords have blood running down them.

Nira flees, gets wounded with an elaborate crossbow that fires jagged bolts, and only escapes because she lands in the red light district, and all the ladies of the evening are wearing versions of her dress, confusing those hunting her. But they're not the only ones confused. Nira had a human lover (taboo!), a man named Davin who wants to explore some uncharted region of the world. They had a bit of an argument, but he made an offer for her to board his ship and flee. Nira tries for it, but winds up on Akeyo's ship instead, and gets K.O.'ed. Someone wasn't paying enough attention to directions!

 

I am confused why Akeyo would be anchored at the harbor of the kingdom that just declared her a pirate and put a bounty on her head. I guess you don't survive as a captain who actually attacks other ships without being a little bold. Or a bit of a gambler, and Akeyo recognizes Nira from her image on the nation's coins.

Pizzari's art has a but of an Adam Kubert vibe to it, in the squared off jaws, the art that kind of straddles the line between angular and blocky, and the shading. I was a little confused during the fight because it seemed like Nira was using two swords, then one, then two again once she grabbed one of the robed guy's swords. Turns out the sword the Duchess offered her was still sheathed, so the initial second sword was actually just the scabbard. Does raise another question of why the Duchess did that. Attacking from behind during a wedding doesn't seem like the act of someone concerned with a fair fight, but giving Nira a weapon does.

I'll say this, Pizzari definitely draws some stylish pirates. All of Akeyo's crew that we actually see have distinct, often wildly different looks. One of them appears to have a beard that's on fire. Seems like the sort of thing to get looked at, if only so the captain doesn't have to smell burning hair all the time.

Anyway, it's a promising enough start. A pirate with a possible grudge and uncertain motives. An empress on the run with a possible ally if she can find Davin. And there's the mystery of that unexplored region, which van Lente could use in any number of ways. Hideout, source of allies, or possibly a reveal that things are very different in the rest of the world than what Nira or her people imagine.

What I Bought 6/1/2026 - Part 1

As we begin June, I now have the last four comics from May I was looking for. Busy couple of weeks, comicswise, for me. Four books out last week, and potentially six(!) this week. And then just 1 over the next two weeks combined. Having big weeks and empty weeks isn't weird, but May was pretty even throughout. 3-2-2-4 comics from the first week through the last.

So it goes. For today, a last issue and a first issue.

Spirit of the Shadows #5, by Nick Cagnetti (writer/artist/colorist), Daniel Ziegler (writer), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - The one Kirby monster is drooling all over poor Erik's leg. Gross man, he doesn't need marinating, just eat him!

Helena's about to kill Erik for good, per his wishes, but the spell that brought out all these ghosts brought back her sister. I note that while Elizabeth has a monster-hand in the Spirit Realm, as she's been there too long and was starting to turn, her ghost has regular human hands. She only remembers she had a sister, nothing about her, but is still horrified by what Helena is doing. So Helena relents, the spell ends, the ghosts go back where they were and Erik follows.

Which puts him in position to save Elizabeth from the angry father that had him killed in the first place, now basically a red, 4-legged monster, with an Arnim Zola face. Erik figures he'll be that way soon, too, but Elizabeth finds the last pages of his book and insists they take the carriage to the Judgement Hall. The last pages also reveal how Erik died at the start of the series. Katrina's ghost reached out to him, via some weird scepter and begged him to stop trying to bring her back. So he had the doc work out something to kill him for real.

So, the Realmkeepers, a couple of giants in robes and opera masks with their colors swapped. They also have lizard-looking guys dressed like the Nutcracker, but with no legs, for doormen/guards. Neat design choice by Cagnetti, he really let himself get bizarre with some of the creatures in this mini-series. The Realmkeepers start to review Erik's case, and he tells them to skip it. He's guilty, but Elizabeth's a good person, please let her into the Sacred Realm. This causes them to ponder their system of judgement, they let her in, and Erik gets a role as someone who roams the Spirit Realm, seeking others who might have been misjudged. He does get to accompany Elizabeth long enough to speak with Katrina, and then it's off to work. First person we see him protect - and it's strange Erik talked about remembering having powers in life, but we only see him use them in the Spirit Realm - the doctor that resurrected him in the first place.

So Erik accepts his loss and tries to make amends. I'm not really clear on why Elizabeth was sent to the Spirit Realm in the first place, and since her book is gone, presumably she doesn't know either (though she claims her memories are coming back.) The story ends with her ghost visiting Helena (now setting up shop in the mansion where Erik and the doc lived) and admitting she doesn't even remember this argument she had with Helena, which Helena blames for driving Elizabeth into the night.

Which is a little bit of an odd way to end. Not the idea that the disagreements we think are so important in life really aren't. But Cagnetti and Ziegler have Katrina says she wasn't even aware of it. I guess the point is it doesn't matter what they disagreed about, it wasn't what killed Katrina, and it didn't mean Helena needed to go around killing people and seeking vengeance. But something about framing that way is sticking in my craw. Maybe that it leaves open the possibility Katrina regains the memory later and changes her mind.

The Matron #1, by David Bowles and Drew Edwards (writers), Monica Gallagher (artist), Hary Saxon (color artist), Stephen Kok (letterer) - Great, now she's tracked blood all through John Byrne's Alpha Flight blizzard fight issue.

The issue shifts between February of 1975, and February of 2021. In 1975, Rozina Krenek was apparently a cannibalistic serial killer called The Matron, who killed people. Possibly only criminals, possibly only men. That's just going off what we've seen so far, plus a "FBI file" on a murder from the 1950s as some extra material.) One potential victim, who hadn't really been on board with robbery anyway, escaped and told the sheriff. Who Rozina seemed confident would look the other way, being a relative.

He didn't look the other way this time, for reasons presently unclear. There was a shootout, Rozina got lit on fire, she died, although she killed two or three cops first. The rest of the family except her granddaughter died too. The granddaughter works in a diner and still carried a grudge. Her granddaughter Roz is attending college and is friends with the great-granddaughter of the sheriff, to the displeasure of said grudge-holding grandma.

That's where we're at. There may be a supernatural element. The Matron's axe has some runes on it, and when she captures the reluctant robber a storm seems to have started from nowhere. When he escapes, she yells something at the sky that Kok puts in much larger, bolder letters, and the rain turns to snow. 

During the shootout, Rozina is still standing while on fire, only falling after the sheriff's last bullet bounces off the mask. Doesn't penetrate it, doesn't crack it break it, nothing like that. But if comes loose, and Rozina falls in a creek. Or maybe it's a moat. It seems very straight and very deep for as narrow as it appears.

Gallagher depicts Rozina's strength casually. She hauls the reluctant guy - old enough to have gone to 'Nam and returned, so we're not talking about a child here - out through the window of his truck with one hand. She cuts through both of a cop's legs with one swing. She's as tall or taller than anyone else and tends to dominate panels she's in, either taking up the foreground or looming over other characters. Roz is similarly tall, and has the same hair and facial structure, so that's either foreshadowing or just making clear the familial bloodline.