Random Back Issues #160 - Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2

New champion for most recently published Random Back Issue! Also, he's right. The Midnight Mission is not rent-controlled, and the landlord's taking overtures from gentrifiers.

Marc Spector's dead. Again. But with Khonshu locked up in Asgard jail, there's no resurrections. So make that, Marc's Spector's dead. For good. Or 5 months, whichever. So who's the new guy who showed up beating the crap out of former loser villain/current ally 8-Ball?

In this first arc, MacKay would have a different member of the cast talking with Marc's therapist Dr. Sterman in each issue, interspersed with whatever was going on. It's Tigra's turn. She was first to attack "Moon Knight," and got a face full of pepper powder to block her sense of smell, but she's already sure it's not Marc Spector in that suit. Why? We'll get to that.

As the new Moon Knight envelops her in the darkness of the new moon and sucker punches her, and takes down Hunter's Moon with some sickle-bladed axe things, Tigra tells the doc about her past loves. The first, a cop named Bill Nelson. He liked tradition, woman's place at home and all that jazz, and Greer loved him so she went along with it.

He died, she got angry, became a costumed hero called The Cat, and then a were-woman, which she describes as becoming who she wanted to be. I would say this overlooks all the stuff Englehart did about her struggling with her cat half, but all that is best stuffed in the garbage anyway.

Next up, Hank Pym. She describes him as smarter than any man she ever knew, because unlike Richards or Stark, Pym doubted himself. With good reason! But when it was the two of them, Tigra felt like they were moving forward. She could be with Hank and be herself, rather than someone he wanted her to be.

He died. Which brings us to Marc Spector, who Tigra thinks needed her in a different way from Bill or Pym. Marc needed someone who was kind of wild inside, like him. Used to things falling apart and having to put it back together. Marc's a lot more self-destructive than Tigra ever was, but maybe she's done a much better job dealing with the incredible amounts of shit writers heaped on her over the decades.

In the fight, Reese tells "Moon Knight" that if he wants the Midnight Mission, then go on in. Because the Mission belonged to Moon Knight. The Mission does not like the new guy, I think preparing to eat him before the new guy manages to escape.

But the Mission's reaction isn't what tipped Tigra off. No, she says she knew this new guy wasn't Marc because she loved Marc, and that means he wouldn't come back. Nobody she loves comes back. It's a good thing she admitted to Sterman at the start that she was not, in fact, fine, because that is a concerning view to have.

(I'm pretty sure Pym had been revealed to be alive in Al Ewing's Avengers Inc. mini-series by this point, and Marc knew it. But he didn't get around to telling Tigra before getting blown up, so she doesn't know it.)

{12th longbox, 100th comic. Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)}

Things Could Be Chill, Under the Sea

In Abzu, you play as some sort of scuba-diving android. You make your way deeper into the sea, finding little drone submersibles to help you open giant metal, triangular doors. As you progress, you find temples underwater, surrounded by sparkly dense water you can't swim through. There's always a portal in the top of the temple, taking you to some other, larger temple where you offer up a glowy blue orb from your chest that prompts a burst of life and growth from the around the temple. Could be a lot of kelp fluttering in the waves, or a trio of orcas bursting out of that portal.

Broadly, your goal is to restore the life to the seas that was stolen by the immense inverted metal pyramid (all its many, many associated smaller inverted metal pyramids.) The only way I could find that you can die is get too close to the smaller inverted pyramids (which will flash and blare warnings before electrocuting you if you get too close.) But if they fry you, you simply respawn a moment later, though they can then fry you again.

I was pretty concerned about the Great White Shark I encountered early on, which ate one of the little submersible drones that was helping me. Mostly because I could not figure out how I was going to escape if it came after me. You can find power-ups that increase the length of your flippers, which gives you a momentary speed boost, similar to the scarf that lets you fly in Journey. But the boost, a) doesn't last very long, and b) isn't nearly enough for you to outrun the shark. Fortunately, it turns out you and the shark are on the same side. Underwater pals!

Noooooooo, underwater pal! 

Mostly, the game is about letting you enjoy the pretty scenery. There are mosaics to look at, cut scenes where you descend deep into the ocean alongside blue whales. Nothing actually tries to eat you, and you can hitch rides on the larger animals if you get close enough (and can remember the right button, which was my problem.) Watch giant squids fluoresce, or swim into a swirling mass of tuna and just enjoy being in the center of a living hurricane. You aren't a fast swimmer compared to everything else, but the controls are responsive, so its easy to twist and weave and flip as you swim. It lets you feel graceful.

There are smaller versions of the glowy water that can reintroduce small animals into certain locations, and shark statues to interact with. You can just sit on the statues, or there's the option to meditate. Meditation has you become one with any of the sea life around you, so you can watch a sea turtle swim around, or switch to something else by moving the control stick. Sometimes the thing you're communing with gets eaten, but you switch to another lifeform nearby. The game will let you do that for as long as you want.

The music has a strong Fantasia vibe in places, especially when you're weaving through kelp fields or doing a leap out of the water with a bunch of dolphins. Lots of string instruments, very airy and punchy. The tempo picks up during the "jet stream" sequences, where you're pushed along in a strong current, and can boost your speed by swimming through schools of fish(?)

It works nicely as a contrast to the parts inside the giant pyramid, where everything is predominated by a stifling orange glow that gives the whole thing an unpleasant, oppressive feel. You're still not under any time constraint, but I didn't find myself wanting to linger in those areas, eager to get back into the open water. Because the rest of the time, things are tranquil. Even if you're putting some great wrong to right, none of this sea life knows about that. They're just going about their business, and you're some odd thing in the water with them. 

What I Bought 9/5/2025

In a surprising turn of events, the local store had both of last week's comics I wanted. Maybe he's gotten things stabilized a bit. That'd be helpful.

Batgirl #11, by Tate Brombal (writer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist), Mike Spicer (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - That cloud looks like. . .3 people about to get their butts kicked.

The lady with the scythe isn't there to fight Batgirl. She's part of that group that can turn their blood to a weapon, and since Shiva was descended from that line, Cass has the potential as well. So they want her to join them. Tenji, too, once she knows he's also Shiva's kid.

Of course, the offer is "join or die," and Cass kicked her in the face, so fight's on. Tenji stands up to his dad, determined to help, but when he almost immediately gets injured, Cass flips out and starts beating the crap out of blood lady. Bronze Tiger stops her, but Wu Lin won't take the hint and puts everything she's got left into basically a hail of blood needles. Only some of which Cass is able to keep from hitting Bronze Tiger's back, though he doesn't seem to bothered either way.

And then the third weirdo arrives. She was sent by Nyssa al Ghul, offering Cassandra an opportunity to team up with the League of Shadows, and her dad was the nice Shiva devotee who died very quickly several issues ago. So Cass agrees to come along, and Tenji's coming too, with his dad's blessing and some cool tiger claw gauntlet things. And maybe Bronze Tiger will stop hiding on a ranch and go out in the world to do some good? Maybe?

So, with this 3-issue arc in the books, what did it get us? Cass has a half-brother who looks up to her, but had an entirely different, sheltered upbringing. Which would seem to make him a liability in what's undoubtedly coming. Cass learned a little more about her mother, and is still trying to deal with the fact she's dead, or maybe the fact that Cass is bothered that Shiva's dead. If she is. I retain serious doubts on that score. And now Cassandra's returning to a place that was not a good part of her life, League of Assassins/Shadows-related nonsense from the ugly years of Johns and Beechen insisting that because her parents were evil killers, Cass would also therefore become a killer.

Nothing bad can come of that stroll down memory lane!

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #12, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Geez, what did Swamp Thing ever do to Moon Knight?

Marc's actually seeing his therapist! Yay! Because he has a problem. Well, at least he's seeking a second opinion. The Wrecker is being haunted, and seeing as he helped free Khonshu during Blood Hunt, which meant Marc could be resurrected, he figures he's owed a favor. Of course, Tigra and Hunter's Moon paid him, but as Marc notes, the Wrecker is the kind of guy to always expect a favor to be repaid in kind. Just like himself.

That seems to suggest the Wrecker is never going to consider the debt repaid, in which case maybe Marc ought to just sic Thor, sorry, Beta Ray Bill on the guy and call it a day. But he doesn't, so out comes the enchanted skeleton armor from that one Ellis/Shalvey story, and commence to ghost punchin'!

The ghosts prove resistant to punching, and in fact, get stronger as they're pissed off Wrecker found someone to defend him. Marc borrows the crowbar, and combining that with his outfit seems enough to start shredding the ghosts. At which point that Layla character from the TV show pops up, as whatever role she has as this Scarlet Scarab - I never finished the show, so hell if I know her deal - to advocate for Marc to get out of the way and let the ghosts take revenge on their killer.

It's kind of ridiculous that Marc seemingly never questioned why these ghosts were hounding the Wrecker, and only the Wrecker (he mentions he called the rest of the Wrecking Crew for back-up, and they couldn't see them.) But Marc doesn't typically ask that when someone comes into his place looking for help, so why start now? He wants to divest himself of the debt, he thinks this is the way to do it, let's get it over with.

Carbone and Rosenberg make the ghosts look like blurry, glowy-eyed rotting corpses. There aren't a lot of details to the spectres - the outline of their nose or a rib here and there - and a fair amount of what looks like lightning or electrical discharge around them. Certainly not like the ghosts in the earlier story, who Shalvey drew as basically fully formed '80s punks, just colored Slimer green. But this issue was mostly focused on the Wrecker being under attack. Now that we know why, maybe they'll become more distinct as we see their own backstories and reasons for wanting revenge. 

The Killer Elite (1975)

Mike (James Caan) and George (Robert Duvall) work for a private company that handles, among other things, protection of people governments might want eliminated. George proves a turncoat, and after killing a client, shoots Mike in the knee and elbow to encourage him to retire.

Mike's not willing to go quiet like that, and much of the first hour is him trying to rehab. Adjusting to the metal brace around his arm that helps stabilize it. Rebuilding strength in the leg, learning how to adjust to the change in balance as he moves or fights.

Mike gets an opportunity to get back in action when there's an attempt on the life of Yuen Chung (Mako) almost as soon as he gets off the plane. By ninjas, no less, albeit in plainclothes. The stereotypical ninja garb doesn't come until the climactic fight scene aboard a derelict ship. (To their credit, the ninjas at least wear outfits that blend in with the ship's paint job, not that it helps.) Hedging their bets, whoever is after Chung also hired George, and Mike is tasked to protect Chung until he leaves the country.

Mike brings in two guys, Mac (Burt Young) and Miller (Bo Hopkins.) Mac runs a cab company and thinks Mike going back to this work is a bad idea, while Miller's a gun nut with an itchy trigger finger, but that's who Mike wanted, so that's who he gets. It's hard for me not to see Burt Young and just picture him as Rocky Balboa's loudmouth brother-in-law, but he plays Mac much quieter. Head down and shoulders slouched. Not defeated - he doesn't let Miller push him around - but tired. Like he knows this is all a bad idea, but maybe he can keep his friend alive.

Broadly, the film is about how dirty and messy all this political squabbling is. How temporary alliances are, how easily people turn on others. The CIA hires the company to protect Chung (the CIA also accounts for 11% of the company's annual revenue), but make it clear they just don't want him dying on American soil. Once he's out of the country, they don't care. Or more accurately, the CIA guy's attitude suggests they'll probably try to kill Chung, once he's far enough away they have deniability.

George changed sides for money. Mike's boss, Cap, bemoans that the world belongs to men like George, and that heroes are on the way out. Then turns out to be a traitor, but his boss doesn't really care beyond it might affect the company's bottom line. He was ready to throw Mike away when he assumed there was no coming back from the injuries, but now that Mike's proven otherwise, well, would he like Cap's job?

Mike seems disgusted by all this, but also ridicules Chung's idealism. When the leader of the ninja challenges Chung to a swordfight, Chung accepts rather than let Mike just shoot the guy. He says if he loses, he's not the man his country needs. There's probably a fair point that his value to his nation lies in something other than his facility with a blade, but I don't think that's the argument Mike's making. He just thinks it's dumb to risk your life over things like national pride, in a world where loyalty is bought and sold so easily.

Which makes it seem like everything is on a personal level for Mike. The politics don't matter, the money doesn't matter. But he doesn't really seem to be out for vengeance. He decks Miller when Miller gets George, but I don't think it's because he wanted more info. George already told who hired him, whether Mike believed it or not. Unless he wanted to understand why George let him live, but again, I think George explained that he felt enough camaraderie to not want to kill Mike. Maybe he's mad he couldn't beat George personally, but he put together the team that beat George, out of guys the company would never have used. That ought to count for something, even if Mike doesn't seem to understand the people he chose.

He's constantly frustrated Miller is so quick to shoot, so casual brandishing his guns in public. Except Cap described Miller as nuts when Mike mentioned him, and Miller repeated it when Mike approached him. Then Mike does the shocked Pikachu face when Miller turns out to be trigger happy. It's like the only criteria Mike used in picking his team was guys on the outs with the company.

The big fight aboard the ship is kind of a mess. All these ninjas, just charging at guys with guns and getting shot up in slow-motion. Mac at one point just picks a ninja up, carries him to the railing, and dumps him over the side like a sack of garbage. Maybe there was meant to be contrast between the code of these men and guys like Mike and George, but the film didn't go into enough depth about the ninjas to really sell that notion. It feels like there's gotta be some thematic reason for using them, but I can't see it.

What I Bought 9/2/2025 - Part 3

The food truck selling the Cuban sandwiches still has not been at the big Friday food truck thing since the first time I went. I missed my chance. On the other hand, I did have some jerk chicken tacos last Friday. The spiciness kicked my ass.

Wrapping up the books from August with the last issue of one mini-series, and the return of another after an absence of several months.

Dust to Dust #6, by JG Jones (writer/artist), Phil Bram (wirter), Jackie Marzan (letterer) - The jackrabbits all being very careful not to make eye contact with the person in the gas mask.

Sarah the photographer is still asking questions about the alleged child killer the sheriff let escape, while also trying to better understand the sheriff. The sheriff, back on his feet after the moonshine brothers beat his ass, has sworn off the demon drink and sets out to fix a break in the phone lines that he says the mayor didn't seem too concerned about finding and repairing.

But the mayor's found the rough drafts of Sarah's article, and doesn't approve of how his town is being portrayed. So he shreds her notes and boots her from the hotel. In general, the mayor appears to be grow aggressive and unhinged. The sight of a photo of his wife makes him hit his daughter (who is starting to figure out her baseball-playing fiance is a loser), and he's lost all patience with the alleged "rainmaker", who has produced bupkis so far.

And run through all this is the jackrabbit drive. Essentially, the locals feel there are so many rabbits they're like a plague. So they run them all into a big chicken-wire cage, and beat them to death with sticks. Based on what the sheriff tells Roscoe, they don't even use them for meat, they just kill them so they don't eat whatever pitiful amount of crops grow. The parents even encourage the kids to grab a stick and join in, but one boy, Roger, would rather read a book or help the rabbits escape.

Jones spends quite a few pages in this issue on that whole deal, but it's entirely ignored by any of the main cast. The sheriff is playing repairman, the ballplayer is fooling around with the preacher's daughter, the mayor's having his breakdown over the bleak financial situation, Sarah's not interested in taking pictures of that bit of local color. Because it's a waste of time. It doesn't solve any of the problems facing the town; it's just an opportunity for these people who feel beaten down by the world to take out their frustration on something that can't fight back, then go have themselves some booze to cool the thirst they worked up in a pointless effort.

Past Time #5, by Joe Harris (writer), Russell Olson (artist), Carlos M. Mangual (letterer) - There's always gotta be one class clown in the team photo.

Henry murdering that scout last issue brings the story back to where the mini-series began. Because the scout's sportswriter buddy, Jack, was a day late showing up, but spent the next several decades tracking Henry as he jumped from one bush league to another, under vaguely similar names, sometimes with an excuse for the affliction that made him need to stay out of the sun.

Eventually Henry had enough of being hounded, and has sufficient power to put everyone else in the stadium into a stupor while he smacked line drives at the writer's head. Terry ends up caught, hanging from the ceiling and bleeding into a bucket, but Henry lets him live. No thanks to Ronny, who is still hanging around with Henry for some reason, but doesn't care what he does to this guy.

Olson sets the scene in two columns of panels, one red and one blue on each row. The red are focused on Henry, on his anger or maybe just on his wants. He wants a story written about him (but only the story he wants told.) He doesn't want to hear about the war. The blue are focused more on Jack or Ronny. Jack bringing up Henry's war record like that matters at this point, Ronny just bored with the whole thing.

But they let Jack live and now it's 1988. Henry might just get to play in the major leagues, and Jack abide that thought, or whatever Henry is getting to play in the majors. But he's too late. Henry gets his at-bat, and Jack Terry gets hit by a car because he stopped in the middle of the street, too aghast at Henry getting his dream.

The book ends in the "present day" where, despite what Henry told Ronny that night in Chicago "one last time", he's still playing baseball. In Mexico, wearing a luchador mask and calling himself "Hector Hermanos." So Henry's selfish to the end, or maybe he just loves playing baseball too much to stop. And being an immortal creature of the night means he never has to stop. Ronny's still with him, I guess the effect of Henry siring him. In an earlier issue, Henry staked someone he bit that was still trying to find him to be with him.

Or maybe for all Ronnie's talk about dying in a church, and being angry about what Henry took from him, he doesn't want his life to end, either. Continuing on, for the love of the game.

Sunday Splash Page #391

"X-Babies, Version 1.0," in Nightcrawler (vol. 1) #3, by Dave Cockrum (writer/artist), Paty Cockrum (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)

Released in 1985, a 4-issue mini-series about Nightcrawler and Lockheed getting lost in other dimensions because Kitty messed around with the Danger Room after Nightcrawler described a past adventure he had after his teleportation powers got tangled with the Vanisher's and they ended up at the Well of Time. 

Nightcrawler initially ends up in a world of sky pirates, which seems like a dream come true until he realizes these aren't nice honorable pirates, but greedy killers. It does present him the opportunity to rescue a scantily-clad princess, but he also runs afoul of a shark-looking wizard, Shagreen, who'd sacrifices young women, and wouldn't mind hacking Nightcrawler up in an attempt to unlock the secrets of teleportation.

Eventually, Dave Cockrum brings in the versions of the X-Men from some fairy tale story Kitty told Illyana, where Kitty's a pirate (sailing seas, not skies), Storm's called "Windrider," and Wolverine's an even shorter-than-usual dwarf-looking thing called "Mean." Shagreen's defeated a second time, and Nightcrawler eventually finds his way back to the X-Mansion.

The series seems to get sillier the further along it goes. Kitty does, in one of her attempts to rescue Kurt, only manage to grab his costume, while he's wooing the princess. At another point, she grabs Shagreen's muscle, "Dark Bamf", who can't explain where he went when he's sent back, only that he just pawn, in game of life. During the climactic battle, Kitty's at least able to open a portal to see what's going on, and be seen. Her attempt to intimidate Shagreen with a "Great and Powerful Oz" routine is entirely ineffective. Before he makes it home, Kurt has a brief run in with Cretaceous Sam, a mammal-hating Tyrannosaur cowboy.

And then there's the Bamfs. Kurt meets two different races of being that bear similarities to him. In the sky pirate world, there's the Boggies. They only reach waist-height on him, wear little but loincloths and ragged boots, and speak in a weird jumble of mashed together words ("turnloose", "nastyface" "fastpoof" for teleporting.) They also have the ability to move into and through mirrors. Boggies don't seem well-regarded, and Kurt's appearance in a town market prompts a panicked frenzy of people wanting to kill the "Boggie."

The Bamfs look more like Kurt, albeit they don't come up to his knees. They speak a bit like they escaped from the Little Rascals or something of a similar era. That's the boy Bamfs anyway; the girls are almost Kurt's size - he describes them as all looking like his kid sister - and are pretty wary of the boys, who are apparently really horny. Though the girls all start drooling over Kurt the moment they see him, so they're just as bad. One actually uses the phrase, "Hubba-hubba." 

Actually, the last we saw of the Boggies was them being happy Kurt got zapped away, because it meant the princess was alone. Which, yikes, but also, apparently the defining characteristic of furry, blue teleporters with spiked tails is a high libido.

Saturday Splash Page #193

"Sand Trap", in Sand Land ch. 1, by Akira Toriyama

Sand Land was a manga Akira Toriyama wrote and drew in 2000, running a total of 14 chapters, and about 215 pages. Set on a world where humans narrowly avoided wiping themselves out in a war decades ago, only for the great river that provided water to most of the inhabitants to dry up as a great drought took hold. Everyone is stuck buying their water from the king, but Sheriff Rao wants to go looking for the "Phantom Lake." It's a dangerous journey, so he travels to the home of the demons that also live on the planet, and requests help. Ultimately, the Prince of Demons, Beelzebub, and one of his servants, named Thief, agree to go along (Rao offering them a Playstation 6, complete with Dragon Quest 13, helps seal the deal.)

A lot of the story revolves around Rao's past. We gets hint at it when Rao turns out to be a pretty good hand-to-hand fighter, taking on a gang of KISS Army rejects with just a pair of tonfa, or when he knows how to turn on and drive a tank belonging to the King's Army. Toriyama pulls a fast one on us when Rao hangs a pin-up of a well-known actress - named Sexy Terrier - in a tank they've stolen. It seems like Toiyama's usual gag about dirty old men.

It turns out more sad than anything. Rao was a general, who attacked a peaceful race because he was told they were building a doomsday weapon. The resulting explosion killed most of the Picchi people, and also destroyed Rao's home village, killing his wife in the process. His wife was the actress, and with his home destroyed, that magazine pin-up is the best he can do for a photo. The real joke, such as it is, was that the Picchi people were building a machine to make water, something Rao learns from Thief.

Which is a recurring theme in the story. For all they're called demons, even by themselves, Beezlebub and his people aren't all that bad, or even bad, period. Certainly not compared to humans. Beezlebub does rob water shipments, but doesn't take all of it, and even gives some of it to a small child, arguing it's better to wait until the kid gets bigger to beat him up, when it'll be more fun. His examples of "evil" are sleeping in late and not brushing his teeth, whereas Rao acknowledges that he's killed many. In war, but, 'killing is killing.' He was the one fooled by the propaganda of his superiors, and went on a mission he wasn't meant to survive, because he didn't like his bosses and was outspoken about it. Yet he followed orders all the same, and it cost him everything. His wife, his home, the men who followed him, his idealism. It's the demons, who exist outside human society, but could conquer it easily if they chose, who see the truth of things.

Toriyama does add in a few goofier aspects. There's a family of criminals called "The Swimmers" who wear swim trunks, swimming caps and goggles. None of them except the father can actually swim, since there's not been any water around to learn, but they've got history with Rao and Beelzebub both. Thief gets them supplies from a village while dressed as Santa, because that'll provide a cover story if anyone catches him. The Supreme Commander of the King's Army is a miserable, withered old bastard, but he's confined to a floating version of that wheelchair Commander Pike had on Star Trek.

I believe Toriyama was working on a sequel or continuation to Sand Land when he passed away, and there was going to be anime adaptation as well. I don't know what the status is on those at this point, and the series seemed to pretty well resolve itself. The river was restored, Commander Zeu is dead, the King's pressured into giving up half his wealth as food for the people, and the demons are revealed to be great heroes who helped the land.

And with that, throw your hands in the air, because we are finally - finally! - done with the letter "S."

What I Bought 9/2/2025 - Part 2

My work computer is the only one I know of that hasn't "upgraded" to Windows 11. Supposedly the update has tried to take effect a couple of times, but has not gone through. But the laptop seems resistant to updates for some reason. There was an Adobe update - which I would say has not improved the product based on my coworkers' grumbling - earlier this year that somehow never took hold. Strange.

Runaways #3, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Roberta Ingranata with Elena Casagrande (artists), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Even setting aside the way they're all hitching a ride on Doombot, the cast look younger - or maybe just smaller - than is typical.

So Alex offers to tell Karolina what happened to the others. Courtesy of the secret spy cameras he had set up around the Hostel. Then he offers to help her find them by tracking their phones. Which is a thing he does, under his definition of being a caring friend. Wilder looked at the overbearing paternalistic attitudes of Silver Age Reed Richards and Charles Xavier and said, "Hold my non-alcoholic beer."

(I actually don't know if Wilder drinks beer, or if he's even old enough, given the time he spent dead.)

At Gert's old house, the cast are. . .not doing a whole lot. Molly's tired and hungry, Victor's feeling "glitchy", which probably isn't good. Gert is trying to help Nico find innate magical ability that doesn't require the Staff of One, under the reasoning neither of her parents needed it to do magic. Fair enough. Chase goes out to get groceries, rather than let Doombot do it. That does lead to the most interesting conversation, where Doombot says that it's his primary responsibility to care for all these kids, because the youth are the most important thing in Latveria, and that he took on the responsibility when Chase ran off (or was abducted) to the future. It's a nice explanation beyond his friendship with Victor for why Doombot's stuck around.

But, if Alex can track them by their phones, so can the other Doombots. Things look bad, but Nico is able to cast some sort of teleportation spell while she's holding Gert's hand, and I hope Rowell isn't about to start another relationship between Nico and one of her teammates. That would leave Molly as the only one not checked off the list at this point (depending on whether you count Old Lace, Gib, or Doombot.)

I'm not really sure what it means that Ingranata was the artist "with" Casagrande. Ingranata only did breakdowns on some pages, with Casagrande finishing the art (ala Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema on Amazing Spider-Girl), but on others it was all Ingranata? I was thinking maybe you could tell based on which way Wilder's hair falls - left for Casagrande, right for Ingranata - but I don't think that holds up. But there are definitely some pages where the linework looks thinner and sharper, or faces look a little wonky in terms or proportions or perspective, which is maybe not great in a comic so focused on people just sitting around talking. In the example above, I feel like maybe there's more of Casagrande in the close-up than in the first two panels, but it's just the angle we're seeing Nico's face from.

The Thing #4, by Tony Fleecs (writer), Justin Mason (artist), Alex Sinclair (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Juggernaut ruined my paper mache float for the big holiday parade!

Let's start with this: The Juggernaut/Thing fight is a dud. Ben's trying to hold Marko back with one hand, Black Tom zaps him, talks a bunch of junk while getting too close, and Ben chucks him down the street, Juggernaut rushing after him. Huge letdown, hence my using italics, bold, and underline. I haven't been this disappointed since the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye run went off the rails.

Yeah, fine, it's a valuable point about Ben that he's not fighting to prove something about how tough he is, he's trying to protect this kid, so it's better to avoid the fight. Still disappointing.

Ben tries calling the FF for back-up - via a phone booth! - but they had to return to the Negative Zone. Then he has to punch out Moonstone. Then Rhino and Jigsaw. Then Grizzly and Hate-Monger show up. Then Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. Then 5/6ths of the Sinister Six. No Sandman, so maybe Fleecs is saving him as someone to help Ben out in the final issue? This seems set around the era when Sandman was shifting towards a sorta good guy. Through all this, Ben is trying to explain to Sara that while he does punch a lot of people, it's different. He's not punching them because he's angry, even if he is angry while he's punching them. It's because he's trying to stop them from hurting people.

It's unclear if Sara can follow the distinction - and who can blame her, it's been a bad day - because they get jumped in the subway by Viper/Madame Hydra and more goons hopped up on the super-strength drug. Really doesn't seem like Ben should be having that much trouble with these losers after trouncing the entire Wrecking Crew and all those guys I mentioned above, but maybe he's tired. Either way, Sara freaks out and erupts in flames, which explains that explosion at the docks.

The best part of this issue is the first page, when the Serpent Society hear about the bounty and Cobra raises the idea of going for it, only to be immediately shot down by half the roster. See, those are super-villains with sense! I mean, I know Grizzly's a sub-literate moron, no surprise he lacks common sense. What the heck did the Vulture or Kraven think they were gonna do against the Thing?

No Name on the Bullet - Don Graham

According to my dad, this is generally considered the best Audie Murphy biography. It hits a lot of the same pointss as David Smith's The Price of Valor. Hardscrabble childhood in east Texas, Murphy dropping out of school to help care for his siblings after his father vanished and his mother passed away. The war record, the initially reluctant entry into Hollywood after the war. The gambling issues, the skirt-chasing, the untreated PTSD that resulted in nightmares and an occasionally explosive temper.

In many ways, it was interesting to compare and contrast what Graham and Smith focused on. Graham went into more depth about Murphy's life prior to the war, although that might be a result of there being more people still alive in the 1980s to discuss that than in the 2010s. While both authors discuss Murphy's role in the adaptation of The Quiet American, Graham focuses on Murphy's role and acting and how it fits with the changes made to the plot of the book. Smith focused on Murphy taking ill, but also how Murphy, as he did with many things, rapidly lost interest in the project as it progressed.

Graham doesn't ignore that Murphy's war-time experiences, the 2+ years spent knowing he might be killed at any moment, seemed to make him a bit of an adrenaline junkie, always needing something new to stimulate him. But it's more of a constant background radiation, as Graham details the gambling, which only grows worse over time, the buying racehorses, Murphy being made an honorary deputy by more than one law enforcement agency, and even helping the Tuscon police bust drug dealers by wandering the streets at night, looking for people dealing weed or heroin.

Before Shaq or Steven Seagal, there was Audie Murphy, apparently.

Graham actually has several anecdotes about Murphy late in the book that surprised me. Don Siegel considered Murphy for the "Scorpio" role in Dirty Harry. Murphy was in debt from gambling to a guy the FBI were investigating as a big wheel in the Chicago mob. Most bizarrely, Murphy spearheaded an (unsuccessful) effort to get evidence that would convince Nixon to pardon Jimmy Hoffa. While I understood the idea that getting Hoffa out of prison would get Nixon the Teamsters vote, I was less clear what Murphy was expecting to gain. For Tricky Dick or Hoffa to owe him one?

At any rate, Smith didn't include any of those, but since nothing ultimately came of them - just more examples of Audie Murphy not really going anywhere in the last few years of his life - he may have felt they weren't important enough to mention. Smith also made a lot more of Murphy giving away medals, and the psychology behind it, than Graham, who doesn't seem to buy into that idea nearly as much. According to Graham, Audie's family still had plenty of his medals, so he didn't get rid of all of them.

Graham uses a lot of quotes from fan magazines to show either public perception of Murphy, or the type of spin people were putting on his troubled marriage(s). Which was an unexpected approach that acted as a barometer of Murphy's status in Hollywood over the years, and served as a different opening to discuss how things were going for Murphy, or to psychoanalyze him. Either way, this is a much denser book than Smith's, with a lot more details (although it feels like Smith discussed the sometimes dangerous practical jokes and the various romantic liaisons in more detail than Graham.) 

'Increasingly Audie had friends in different levels of life and the levels rarely or never came into contact with each other. Audie liked it that way. He could move up or down the scale, in or out of all kinds of groups. He could deal with wranglers and starlets, a filling station owner or a U.S. congressman. He could talk ideas with a doctor of psychology or the metaphysics of betting odds with a bookie. Audie Murphy's America was a place of infinite democratic fluidity where there were no boundaries. Everything was possible if you had the guts and the savvy. Audie thought he had both.'

What I Bought 9/2/2025 - Part 1

According to the post office's website, my comics order arrived in the town 30 minutes away on Friday afternoon. By 3:30 a.m. Saturday, it was in my town. 4 hours later, it was back in the town 30 minutes away, only to be shipped out again 3 hours after that, arriving back here near noon. Which was, of course, too late for it to go out with the mailman on Saturday. So they just arrived yesterday evening. I get slower delivery due to understaffing due to Trump administration budget bullshit, but that sequence is just bizarre.

Deadpool #15, by Cody Ziglar, Gerry Duggan, and Sanshiro Kasama (writers), Roge Antonio, Andrea Di Vito, Matteo Lolli, and Hikaru Uesugi (artists), Guru-eFX and Yen Nitro (color artists), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Almost none of those characters appear in this comic.

I found a variant cover copy for less than half-price, so what the hell. Might as well see how this ends. Ziglar and Antonio continue the battle between Deadpool & Daughters and Death Grip, who seems to have a much firmer grip on his life. Guy takes an arrow in the mouth, another in the eye, stabbed with the magic sword in the heart. None of it kills him. Because somehow he coated his heart with pieces of the Muramasa Blade.

Yes, a sword that cancels out healing factors is somehow helping someone not die. It's handwaved as some combination of the sword and Death Grip's own magic, so that's the best we're going to get. It is being chipped away, although Antonio draws it like Deadpool was able to expose the upper half of the heart with his stab, which seems like it oughta be enough. Anyway, Ellie is able to fire magic energy out of their magic sword to win a beam struggle against Death Grip, then she and Deadpool stab him again, and this time he dies. Though Deadpool and Taskmaster shoot him in the head a lot to make sure. 

We never do figure out what's up with the oddly intelligent "Water Cooler Rat," and I still don't entirely understand Death Grip's deal. He wants to learn from death, or teach others, by killing them? I dunno. Preston somehow never showed up to beat Wade's ass for letting his daughter - who is also Preston's daughter, adoptive parents matter! - do merc gigs. But Deadpool has time to feel bad about Eleanor helping him kill a guy. Which, by Deadpool's standards, is actually the best parenting he can manage short of not being in his kid's life at all.

As for the extra stories. Ziglar and Di Vito do a comedy bit about Doug letting Princess outside, then trying to corral her before she causes major property damage or death. It's fine. I'd probably like it more if Doug had personality or characterization beyond referring to himself as 'ya boy'. Hell, I initially typed his name as "Dave", which tells you how memorable he is.

Duggan and Lolli's story is about Deadpool being interrupted by a merc trying to kill him to collect a reward. Except Deadpool put the hit on himself, because he feels most alive when fighting people in the same line of work as himself? I don't know if Kurami is an entirely new character, or someone Duggan introduced in a different book and is trying to create buzz for her here, but credit for bringing a metal container full of acid to dissolve Deadpool with. But she also describes Deadpool as a "rich assassin", so I have no idea when this is taking place. The last time he was rich was right after Secret Wars, and he pissed all that money away founding the Avengers. He probably owes Taskmaster alone millions after all the talk about "field rate" in Ziglar's run.

Sanshiro Kasama and Hikaru Uesugi's story is a little taste of what the Deadpool manga they're doing is like, I guess? The funniest bit was that it starts at the end of the comic and reads right to left, and opens with a gag of Deadpool being stuck in the pages. When you turn the page, it reads like you tore him in half, and after turning another page, you finally find his legs sticking out. Well, I thought it was clever, at least. 

Mortal Kombat (2021)

I would like to say, at the start, I didn't suggest Alex spend $3.79 renting this movie off Amazon Prime. All I did was ask if he'd seen that there was a new Mortal Kombat movie coming out and, once we got past him not remembering who Karl Urban ('cause he's playing Johnny Cage in the upcoming movie) is, mentioning it's Mortal Kombat II, and I didn't even know there'd been a first movie (assuming it wasn't being set up as a sequel to the '90s movie with Christopher Lambert.) At which point Alex insisted we watch this, and that's how I spent the hours of 2-4 a.m. two Fridays ago.

Once it started, I did vaguely recall reading something about a Mortal Kombat movie got everything backwards as far as Sub-Zero and Scorpion's history. Which I guess was referring to how this starts with Sub-Zero (still just Bi-Han at this time, played by Joe Taslim) attacking a famous ninja's home in an attempt to wipe out the guy's bloodline. Because prophecy, or "for the Lin Kuei," which he says a couple of times without explaining who or what that is. But he missed a baby. Can't go giving yourself a codename if you're going to make rookie mistakes! Then it jumps to the present, to focus on a fading MMA fighter, Cole Young (Lewis Tan), who's unaware he's the most recent member of the ninja's bloodline. 

This is really a "getting the team together" movie. The actual tournament to keep "Earthrealm" from being invaded by "Outworld" starts in a month, and the movie never gets that far. Earth's side is still trying to find its fighters, while Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has decided the easiest way to win is make sure Earth doesn't have any fighters to participate. Apparently it's fine if all their would-be champions just happen to get brutally murdered before the tournament begins, and even if it wasn't, the "Elder Gods" are apparently too lazy to get off their asses and dish out punishment.

Wow, those in authority unwilling to uphold their responsibilities? The gods really did create us in their image.

So it ends up being the few fighters that have unlocked their "arcana" - Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) - trying to both train the others and keep them alive until the tournament. So it's a lot of Cole trying to figure out what drives him, or Jax (Mehcad Brooks) trying to adapt to losing his arms, or Sonya (Jessica McNamee) coming to grips with the fact she's not considered a champion, so even though she seems the most raring and ready-to-go, she can't fight. And then there's Kano, who Josh Lawson plays as a loud-mouthed, unscrupulous dick all the other characters despise. Which means he's the best part of the movie. He has a good delivery on a lot of his lines, and it's fun watching him get his ass kicked. Win-win.

I was curious if they were going to kill off Cole's wife and daughter, since they went to the trouble of showing they're a close family, and his daughter is actually the one in his corner during his bouts. Considering his ancestor lost his wife and one child, leaving him so vengeful he's spent centuries roaming the Netherealm, I figured they might go for history repeating itself. While the movie does tease that possibility, a lot, it never actually follows through. Which is fine. Different people, different era, different motivations.

It's kind of funny, for someone who hasn't really played a Mortal Kombat game since whichever one I had on the N64, to see Sub-Zero played as the Big Bad. Yes, Shang Tsung's his boss, and this is all his plan, but the story revolves around Cole and his ancestor, and Bi-Han's attempt to prevent the prophecy. He's the last of Shang Tsung's guys they actually beat, and it takes two of them. When Shang Tsung shows up spouting more threats, Raiden kind of casually zaps him back where he came from, which makes him look like a chump.

I'm sure Raiden is trying to push Earth's defenders by vocally doubting them, or by explaining all the things he can't do, but it does make him look kind of incompetent when the barrier he put up gets wrecked, his fighters start dying, and he's nowhere to be found. 

In like a Lamb, Out like a Hero

Sadly, despite taking a lot of (well-deserved) damage in this volume, Spandam survives.

One Piece, volume 44. CP9 is (mostly) beat, Robin's free of the seastone cuffs and ready to rumble.  But the Marine fleet responding to the Buster Call has arrived, and they intend to blow up almost everything. They still want to take Robin alive, which means the bridge she and Franky are standing on is the one safe place to be, if the rest of the crew can get there. 

Unfortunately, Luffy still hasn't finished off Rob Lucci, who damages the tunnel so it'll flood. Fortunately, Franky's mother-figure, Kokoro, is a merwoman, much to the dismay of Sanji, who naturally envisions mermaids as gorgeous. Whatever, she got them to the bridge, so they're safe. Thanks, lady!

Or not. That's a lot of Marines, though the Straw Hats' fight is played as secondary to Luffy's, which gets most of the panel space. The crew are relegated to montages of panels showing them crushing a bunch of mostly-generic characters that don't get names. 

(It's a little ridiculous, because the Buster Call is supposedly led by 5 Vice-Admirals. Any one of which ought to be enough to stomp the entire crew into the dirt. The only thing any of them do is give us Lucci's backstory, which, I don't care, and shoot one of their men when he hesitates to carry out an order. What, afraid to get your coat dirty?)

In the meantime, Luffy's running out of gas, as even busting out the only hinted at until now Third Gear doesn't help (it massively inflates one part of his body, increasing his strength, but is too slow to actually hit Lucci.) It's only when Usopp discards his "Sniper King" mask to first call out Lucci, then yell at Luffy to get up and fight for his crew like he promised, that Luffy is back on his feet. Oda overdoes it a bit, as he introduces some ultimate Cipher Pol attack, a combination of all Six Powers in one move, which appears to stop Luffy cold the first time it's used. But then he gets tagged by it two more times, and by the third, he's not even falling down. Maybe it would have been enough if Oda removed the second hit.

But really, all that's preamble. The main show is, once Lucci's down, the Straw Hats still can't escape, because the ship they intended to use gets shelled. And then, out of the smoke, appears the Going Merry. With no one sailing it.

Merry, with a little help from Iceburg, pulled itself together to save its crew. There's a nice bit where all the massive Marine ships can't hit this one caravel, partially because of something Sanji did that abruptly changed the currents, but also because it's one tiny ship among ten giants. (Also, the one time someone did actually demonstrate good aim, Zoro and Sanji use an exhausted Luffy to catch the cannonballs and sling them back, which is hilarious.)

Unfortunately, the escape from Ennies Lobby takes all Merry had left. The bow falls off right as they meet Iceburg, aboard another ship. Which really sells the idea Merry was holding together on sheer will until it knew the crew would be OK. And so the volume ends on a downer note. The crew won the fight. Robin's with them in body and spirit. Usopp maybe proved something to himself (although after his big speech, he threw the Sniper King mask back on. Luffy and Chopper are left wondering where Usopp went.) But they lost the ship that carried them this far. At least Luffy acknowledged how much of the damage was his fault for being an idiot (though he didn't apologize for ripping out the mast to hit a whale, which is still such a mind-boggling stupid thing to do I can't get over it.)

So they're a crew without a ship. What now?

Sunday Splash Page #390

"X-Terminate the X-Apes," in NextWave #11, by Warren Ellis (writer), Stuart Immonen (penciler), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Dave McCaig (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

As a plot description, NextWave was about 5 heroes who find out the top-secret organization they're working for (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort), and its corporate sponsors (Beyond Corporation), are creating all sorts of dangerous weapons. So they go rogue, stealing a ship and traveling the country, attacking various installations of freaky crap.

In practice, NextWave seemed to be about Warren Ellis giving Stuart Immonen lots of fights between angrily sarcastic heroes and weird and/or cool shit to draw. As one of the caption boxes says after a sequence of kicking and exploding things, "This is what they want!"

The "they" in this scenario I assume applied to the readers. The readers say they want action, they want fight scenes, they want cool one-liners and all manner of weird shit? Well unhinge your jaw, because Ellis and Immonen are jamming a funnel down your throat and pouring in all you can take.

So, of course, the book sold like crap. There were no crossovers! No guest appearances from more popular characters! No event tie-ins, unless you count the cover for issue 11, which proclaimed it "Not Part of a Marvel Comics Event", and featured Machine Man holding a sign that read, "Mark Millar Licks Goats" (Those poor goats.)

It was just a book about five characters running around blowing up stuff like samurai robots, or Mindless Ones summoned by the Dread Rorkannu on behalf of the Beyond Corporation in exchange for $100 and some of those "Suicide Girls." Clearly, it wasn't making any attempt to take itself seriously, even if the characters were (to the extent they were capable of taking anything seriously.)

The best known character was probably Monica Rambeau, formerly Captain Marvel the 2nd, now a grouchy woman trying to use her limited cred as having led the Avengers to ride herd on 4 lunatics. Or maybe original X-Forcer Boom-Boom, who just goes by Tabby in this book, and gets written as a sort of Valley Girl idiot. Actually kind of weird reading that New Warriors Annual last week and she's shown to know her way around computer databases. Not no more she ain't! Machine Man calls himself "Aaron", and is an arrogant, drunk, robot. Ellis turns Elsa Bloodstone from a Buffy knock-off to Hellboy crossed with the Punisher, combined with an acerbic British attitude. The Captain was a new character, and was just some loser from Jersey who got powers from dumb aliens, who he then kicked the crap out of because he was drunk and thought they were leprechauns. His best moment was probably beating Rorkannu's skull in with a toilet.

They argue all the time. Tabby gives Elsa grief about a European Union shirt (which Ellis later uses to mock the, "Do you think this A on my head stands for France?" line from Ultimates. Which, to be clear, deserved to be mocked.) Aaron keeps calling everyone else "fleshy ones", and at one point gets the shit kicked out of him by the 3 women on the team. The Captain's a dope that everyone barely tolerates and no one worries when he gets smacked over the horizon. It's a workplace comedy, but they all really dislike each other. They just hate Beyond Corp more.

It's a very early-2000s style of humor. They're being chased by Dirk Anger, a parody Nick Fury who yells angrily all the time and keeps trying to kill himself through methods like sitting in a chair staring down the barrel of a revolver the size of a tank, as some kind of gag about masculinity issues or repressed homosexuality or something. Beyond Corp throws a bunch of knock-off Avengers at them, including a guy who got Captain America powers because Rogers took a whiz after the procedure, and the super-soldier serum was still viable in that form. Another guy got Hulk powers because he tried to huff gamma-irradiated nuclear waste. They're led by Forbush Man, who makes a lot of proclamations about how mighty he is, especially with the girls.

I can't remember laughing a lot when I bought the entire run at one of the first Cape-Cons. Either I didn't get the joke, or (more likely) I didn't read it as a joke at all. I was mostly just impressed at all the strange things Immonen and Ellis came up with for them to fight. And Immonen draws the heck out of all of it. Forbush Man uses the power of his "Omni-Mind" to send each member of the team into some ugly alternate reality, and Immonen shifts his art style for each. So he draws Elsa's nightmare world - where she wasn't diligent enough exterminating monsters and they've overtaken the world - in a faux-Mignola style. (Tabby was unaffected by Forbush Man's power, because she's too dumb, you see.) Issue 11 has 6 consecutive double-page splashes, including the one up there, of NextWave just tearing their way through things like brontosaurs with optic blasts, or MODOKs that are Elvis (and shoot cheeseburgers.)

Of course, the last one has the tagline, "nextwave: blatantly wasting your money since 2006." But it's only a waste if I feel ripped off. Relative to a Bendis comic where the artist only gets to draw people sitting around talking about nothing that couldn't be handled in 2 pages or less, this was a steal.

Bits and pieces of this series have leaked into larger use around the Marvel Universe. Elsa Bloodstone most obviously. She seems to be getting used in some book, somewhere, pretty much constantly, and it's always Ellis' version. Although I think most writers leave out an element of enjoyment she gets from her work that we see here, in the shooting and decapitating robots with shovels.

I don't see a lot of Boom-Boom these days, but I think the "Valley Girl" characterization kind of stuck. Brian Reed used this version of Machine Man in Ms. Marvel volume 2, but when Jeff Parker added the character to the cast of Red Hulk a few years later, he went back to the classic look and characterization. But it was a Red Hulk book, so who gives a shit, really? Al Ewing used Beyond Corp in one of his Avengers books (I think Luke Cage and the Mighty Avengers), as did the Amazing Spider-Man writers between Nick Spencer and Zeb Wells' runs.

 Monica was part of the cast in Ewing's book, so when Beyond returned, so did the trench coat and "Auntie Monica" nickname. The trench coat was also part of Monica's look when Kelly Sue DeConnick used her in Captain Marvel volume 7. I think most writers who've use Monica since NextWave give her a bit more of a blunt approach. Take no shit, don't defer or get pushed around. So maybe she's a case of gradual bleed into the character, rather than a wholesale revision like Elsa and Tabitha got.

The Captain, I think may have vanished entirely. I guess there's no place for a super-strong, flying idiot in the Marvel Universe. Or, he's not the type to save the day unless someone's cutting a check.

Saturday Splash Page #192

"Remains," in Scout: War Shaman #5, by Tim Truman (writer/artist), Sam Parsons (painter), Tim Harkins (letterer)

After returning to Earth from the mission on the space station at the end of Scout, Emanuel Santana disappears into the hills for years. A brief encounter with Rosa Winter in the final issue of New America revealed he met a woman and had two sons.

Scout: War Shaman is set a year later, in 2015, after the mother of his children has died, and people are starting to nose around the valley where they'd lived. So Santana and his sons, Victorio and Tahezy, leave the valley in search of a new place to live. 

But the world hasn't stood still in the time Santana's spent hidden away. A steamboat trip brings him into conflict with pirates. The survivors among his old friend Doody's followers are still around, and when they realize Victorio has strange powers, their priests decide he's the prophesied child Doody mentioned before his death, the Life-Giver. Which sets off a long, and frankly annoying, pattern of them trying to abduct Victorio, or betraying Santana to keep the kid, and Truman contriving some reason why Santana doesn't blow their damn heads off and be done with it. I'm not a parent, but I'd figure the first time someone tries stealing your kid would be the last time.

(The series sometimes, like in the pages above, has narration boxes from an interview between physicians and the "marauder" Victorio, in the year 2030. Which suggests whatever notions those priests had, Victorio didn't quite live up to them, if he got captured. Maybe Truman has plans for another series that never got off the ground.) 

The reason is usually a greater threat. Specifically, Rosa Winter, now titular head of what's left of the U.S. She's trying to pull the country, which has fallen into more of a wide mass of city-states, back together, under her rule. Her methods are of the classic style: You can surrender, or you can be killed. Your choice. The "priests" think she's the darkness the Life-Bringer must combat, which is bad enough. And Santana can't seem to avoid crossing paths with her, to the extent that, when she's overthrown by an old acquaintance of theirs, back from the dead, they work together.

(Truman, for reasons I don't know, uses a lot of the same design elements for "Redwire" as he did for GrimJack, minus the beret.)

Until the inevitable betrayal, of course. Rosa regains the upper hand, but decides Santana's too dangerous to let live, even if he'd agree to work with her. But from her perspective, she let Santana go AWOL originally, and when he reappeared, he flipped the world on its head, killing the President and setting off a wild chain of events that Rosa often found herself caught up in. There were wars, cities were nuked, lots of people died.

And then, at a certain point, Santana just disappeared into the hills again. To start a family, while Rosa was the one left behind, carving off pieces of her soul trying to protect her country. It's all his doing, but she's the one with the scars, the mechanical hands and mechanical eye. She helps him save his sons, but when she wants to save her adopted daughter, Santana knocks her unconscious and takes her hostage, leaving the young woman to be locked up. (Truman never tells us what happened to her, but I assume it's nothing good, given how the book ends.) 

Santana would no doubt argue that he wasn't given a choice in that initial quest. The gods pushed it on him against his will, and everything after was just him trying to deal with the consequences. But Rosa would have no reason to think that was anything more than evidence he's nuts and she should have stopped him from leaving in the first place. Every time they work together, Rosa loses something.

But she made her choices. She could have withdrawn to the shadows after she was presumed dead in the plane crash. Let Bill Loder run the country into the ground, but no. She had to take revenge. And then she just couldn't leave a power vacuum, so she had to assume control. And then she couldn't allow any elements to survive as persistent threats, so she crushed them. Rosa had a sense of responsibility, or perhaps duty is the better word. It brought her first into contact with power, and later power herself, but she didn't use that power responsibly, if that makes sense.

Random Back Issues #159 - Lead City #4

Hey, I may be stupid, and stupid, but, uh what was that third thing you said? 

We looked at the first issue about 10 months ago, when the stage was being set for this free-for-all battle to the death. As the final issue starts, we're down to just 4 of the 8 competitors left. Two of which, Ravinder Singh and soldier-turned-failed-farmer Colman Cooper, are having a knife fight in a bar.

Singh's been shot twice, but has the upper hand, twice catching Cooper with a left hook, all the while rattling on about how Americans are too slow and weak. Cooper responds that U.S. not being under the Union Jack, while India is, has to count for something. Then he smashes a bottle across Singh's face.

Which doesn't do much beyond adding another scar and getting Cooper chucked headfirst through a window. But he bumps into one of the city's hidden weapons, a loaded shotgun, and then there were 3. Back in Duganville, the bettors are not impressed, Cooper's survival dismissed as luck. Which has his son worried, but his wife is confident enough to tell the town doc - a price-gouging shitheel - he can discuss any bills for room and board with Colman when he returns.

The other fighters left are the Huntsville Hammer and a young Mexican woman apparently dubbed "Lady Lullaby." The Hammer's been taking a breather, after he decided to hang two of the other fighters' corpses from the rafters, seemingly to throw anyone who finds them off their game for a minute. Kind of late in the proceedings to bother with haunted house games, but break time's over, 'cause he's in the lady's sights. 

Which suits him fine. Hammer's been making threats and come-ons towards her from the start, but she's got him outclassed on all counts. She sticks to the shadows, taunting him with terms like 'ten cent man,' and shooting him in the arm before moving again. The Hammer chases her out of the building, around the corner - and right into her sights. Determined to go out classy as he came in, he asks her to grant his dying request, and flash him (not the way he phrased it, for the record.)

Meanwhile, Cooper's holed up in the mock-jail tending his wounds and realizing all the other contestants have bounties, the biggest bounty belonging to the lady, who has caught up to him. But wait, she's got an offer. If Cooper kills himself, she promises to make sure his wife and son are looked after. Cooper agrees, but it's a sin to commit suicide, so he asks if she'll do it, promising to give her his back if she gives him a moment to prepare.

He uses that moment to ready the TNT that left in the jail as a potential weapons and sneak out the back door. When she walks in, kaboom. He did have his back turned to her when he pushed the plunger, so he kept his word. Technically. Well, she's dead, so there's no one to know he lied but him. I suspect it won't bother him much, especially as he's now 10 grand richer and going back to Missouri with his family. 

{6th longbox, 112th comic. Lead City #4, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist)} 

On the Road of the Winds - Patrick Vinton Kirch

This book was referenced in Nicholas Thomas' Voyagers as a more comprehensive discussion of the history of the settlement of the Pacific Islands, and it is that.

Kirch cites a lot research, including some of his own, working from as far back as they can manage - at least 40,000 years ago for the initial human arrival in the Papua New Guinea/Bismarck Archipelago region - up to the time of European contact. He splits the book into broad geographic regions - Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia - then dives into the existing evidence for habitation, cultural changes, agricultural practices, trade relations. Basically anything and everything they had evidence or research for (as of ~25 years ago, when the book was published.)

One of the fascinating aspects of the book, beyond all the actual information, is how they get that information from different disciplines to flesh out their understanding. Comparing not only changes in the pottery they find or similarities between languages, but also looking at the ancestral forms of different languages to see what terms or concepts they had words for. If they have a word for "outrigger", well, that tells you something about the kinds of boats they had. If a particular island or people have a lot of words for "kinship" or "clan", it might tell you something about how their society was organized.

On a different front, pollen records or animal remains can show when species that weren't native to a particular island, like taro or Pacific rats, first appear on that island. Because there's a decent chance they were brought there (or stowed away) on human vessels. Or, make inferences based on when certain native plants or animals stop showing up in pollen or bone remains, because the new inhabitants probably wiped them out with overhunting, excess burn regimes, or poor soil conservation practices. It's heartening on some level to know it's not just white people who fuck up nature.

Kirch is also open about where the gaps exist. Not only just islands that hadn't really been surveyed very much, but the areas of inquiry that were going to need new information or new techniques to tease out. There's still a lot in here. A brief section about navigation, and how the Polynesians were able to combine knowing latitude with knowing the prevailing wind currents to seek out new islands. Kirch discusses how a lot of islands gradually simplify their pottery designs away from dentate markings of the Lapita pottery, and in some cases ultimately discard pottery altogether. Critically, though it takes him a while to do it, he explains why they would discard pottery (wood bowls last longer and are better for cooking over earth ovens), which I was wondering about after the first time he mentioned it.

He discusses how malaria may have played a role in why communities in Melanesia rarely reached the same densities or total populations as those in Polynesia, where the mosquitos didn't exist. There's comparisons of societies run based on heredity versus those based more on actual deeds, and why an island might go one way or the other. To be sure, some of that's conjecture, but it's still nice to learn about the hypotheses.

I do wonder, as I usually do after reading an older book like this, how much new knowledge has come to light since this was published. Voyagers listed later dates for dispersal to the more distant Polynesian islands than Kirch does. In some cases, Kirch is talking about people having reached New Zealand or Hawaii or Rapa Nui 300-500 years earlier than what Thomas mentioned. So I don't know if there's new data, or the old data was tested again, but it keeps me curious.

'More than anywhere else within island Melanesia, the stylistic differentiation of New Caldonian pottery parallels the differentiation of its ethno-linguistic groups. Indeed, it seems likely that ceramics, as well as other forms of material culture, were actively manipulated by local peoples as symbols of ethnic identity.'

There's One Thing to be Thankful For

There wasn't a lot in the most recent round of solicitations, but Yen Press did list volume 16 of Yotsuba! So really, who needs anything else? Granted, it's not actually out until January, but it got solicited, and that's the important thing.

(Until it becomes available, at which point the important thing becomes my acquiring it.)

What's new? Jesse Lonergan (Hedra) has a new GN out through Bulgilhan Press, called Racer. Which is about, car racing. Not typically my interest, and $20 for 68 pages ain't lighting my world on fire, but I did like Hedra, so, you know, maybe, eventually?

It's DC's turn to do a Batman and Deadpool book. As with Marvel's, maybe I'll buy it a few months later, if I can find a reduced price copy. Gabriel Hardman's writing and drawing a mini-series under the Black Label imprint, Batman/Green Arrow/Question: Arcadia, which is an updated/homage/new take on the crossover between those characters Annuals DC did that one time. It caught my eye, but I've had bad luck with Black Label books. It's probably a "wait for the trade" circumstance.

At Marvel, another month has not made me any more disposed to buy any of those Age of Revelation mini-series. So much for that! However, Marvel does have a new Nova book, Nova: Centurion, written by Jed Mackay, spinning out of the cosmic-themed mini-series Hickman's got coming out/on the way. Alvaro Lopez is listed as artist, and going through my archives, all the listings I could find for him were as an inker (usually for Javier Rodriguez or Marcos Martin.) I don't know how things will go with him being lead artist, but I suppose I'll find out.

What's ending? I still haven't seen a solicit for the 8th and final issue of Dust to Dust. I even double-checked last month's listings on Image's website to make sure I didn't miss it. Which means, nothing. 

And the rest: Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu is still helping the Wrecker, while Black Cat finds Felicia in a trap set by some irate criminals. Fantastic Four is finally out of One World Under Doom hell, as Sue finds herself having to help prove the Black Cat isn't guilty of murder. Except the solicit describes Felicia as Sue's "least favorite person in New York." Really? Last I checked, the Kingpin still lives in New York. There are at least a couple of symbiotes walking around, the Wrecker's apparently in town, Frank Castle's apparently alive and on Earth again. Pretty sure Sue should like all those people less than the thief who sometimes fights crime.

On the other hand, Sue married Reed Richards - another awful person in NYC! - so there's solid evidence for her being a poor judge of character.

Batgirl's possibly going to team up - again! - with the League of Assassins against the Unburied, and I really find it suspicious Nyssa didn't die during the ambush on the train. The Unburied had them on the ropes, why let them live? Hector Plasm: Hunt for Bigfoot is on issue 2, and volume 12 of The Boxer was solicited, but I'm still way behind on the book.