#and also fascinated by what the bprd is getting up to

[ensnchekov-a]

@bprdmyers, x.

no, no he certainly isn’t fictional. she can see that much as she pauses her steps a few feet away from him, almost tempted to reach out and poke him to prove, if only to herself, that this was actually happening. she doesn’t, but she’s certainly tempted. “this is some dc comics multiverse level crazy.” who would have thought the fact she liked comic books would ever really come in handy? then again, maybe it wasn’t exactly handy as much as it was attempting to supply her with some sort of explanation for how this was possible. either way, there’s a starfleet officer standing in front of her on a day that had no business being as weird as it was. 

“it’s called star trek. been on television since.. i think nineteen-sixty.. uh– maybe sixty-six? i can’t remember. then there was movies and more shows and more movies and more shows. it’s kinda the go to in sci-fi. well, that and star wars but that’s a bit more fantasy than star trek’s dream of a better future.” 

“yeah, so way before any vulcans or warp-drives at least.. from what i imagine your perceptive would be. i don’t really know that any of that would exist in the future of.. of this universe? i mean, in theory, if your history was the same as my history or future, you’d know about star trek and well, not exist because you’d be.. fictional.” it was enough to cause a headache to begin to form in her temples but at least she was following a linear train of thought, even if she had comic books to thank for it. 

“it’s–” she pauses for a moment, suddenly unsure how much she should reveal. reality was beginning to creep it’s way back in and the bprd wasn’t common knowledge to the general public. but then, who was he going to tell? “uh– think section 31 but like a paranormal version that deals with demons and monsters and those types of threats. actually wait, maybe don’t think section 31, the bprd isn’t ominous. it’s the bureau for paranormal research and defense. it’s a private organization but partners with multiple governments.” maybe it was a little bit like the federation in that respect. “–and lets just say the book was in the possession of one really bad guy who had his sights on dark magic.”

Impossible may not be a word that exists on the flagship, but he can't think of any instance, in his own readings or in studies required by the Academy, that an officer has encountered a situation like this in their service. This in itself is not terribly surprising—the Enterprise is a ship of many firsts in Starfleet—but it would help to have even the smallest shred of previous information to go off of to help him navigate this situation.

Comic books and superheroes aren't an area he can boast an exceptional knowledge of, but he is familiar with the concept of the multiverse, with its infinite potential for alternate realities. Their own reality is living proof of that, born of the unforeseen consequences of Ambassador Spock's actions and that unfortunate disaster that occurred eight years before he was even born.

He listens intently to her explanation of this show, Star Trek, the supposed source of all of her knowledge and insight into him. His surprise and disbelief shows on his face; he can feel it in the downturn of his lips, the further slope of his brows, and it just sounds crazy.

Absolutely insane.

But he can't deny that she knows far too much for someone still living in the twenty-first century.

So for now, with no other information to go off of, he can only accept this as the most logical conclusion and proceed on the basis that the book they were gifted back on Iyati VI has brought him to a universe where the Federation may never even exist and where the starship Enterprise, and by extension himself and his friends, are nothing but stories people tell each other.

Pavel doesn't entirely know how to feel about this. It all seems—surreal, the knowledge that people he has never met could know so very much about him. Not too much, hopefully. He makes a mental note to see this show for himself at some point before he is sent back off to his own time.

There is one benefit, however, to all this and that is the fact that if she already knows this much—he was not the first to mention Vulcans or warp capability or even the Federation itself—he can be a little more lax in what he says. This technically cannot be a Prime Directive violation if this is information she already knows, even if the source is...well.

"Unless this universe uses our...story—" that does not feel any less weird to say out loud "—as inspiration. Media has always inspired change or been used to challenge the times. It may be the same thing." Some of his favourite ancient Terran poets and writers are proof of that. He shrugs. "But you will show me this series, Star Trek? I want to see it for myself."

Pavel can't help the involuntary shiver that creeps along his spine to think of Section 31 again, not after the incident with Admiral Marcus and Khan and what was easily fifteen Starfleet violations and layers of red and black tape.

"Not ominous, but secret? Close enough." He hums. "So you study the supernatural. This means here, creatures of fairytale exist?" How often do threats of that nature pop up here?

"And you are studying this book of dark magic?" His eyes shift back to the book on the bench, covered by her jacket. "How far into studying it have you gotten? Can they tell me at the bprd how to use it to get back—" he hesitates, only briefly, as if unsure of the word to use "—home?"

[wiredaughter]

@augustwritingchallenge 8: nomad

A Storm You're Starting

abe sapien & ofc ▪︎ 864 words ▪︎ ao3

It started with a thought. How I wish I’d got to actually know him. Kraus agreed when I vocalised it, but didn’t bring it up again so I knew he was quite indifferent. And why wouldn’t he be, neither him or I got to exchange more than a couple of words with Sapien before he quit the bureau. When asked, both Corrigan and Manning said it had nothing to do with our recruitment and they had no idea what or where for he’d left, but since when do we trust feds?

It was laughably easy, getting into their users. They’ve become complacent in their cybersecurity, shielded from public attention by their cover, and I was in faster than you can say NIST. I found they, truthfully, had no idea where he was. Doesn’t mean they didn’t look, didn’t put out feelers and got enough information to point me in the right direction.

Dare I say Manning didn’t want me to leave. Well, he didn’t, if only to keep the freak machine on. Really, the only reason I gave it a shot was Hellboy, for all the good that did me. He was gone. Now, with Sapien gone too and Sherman going through a complex recovery, their ranks are made of a paranormal gimp, an exorcist I never even met and a homunculus. And he doesn’t even wear trousers, but I digress. He asked me to stay and I declined. Guessing he’d try and have me followed, my first stop was a nightclub.

It’s an old technique, you know, you go in and go home with someone who looks like you. Morning after, make sure to wake up before her and steal her clothes, makeup, bike even. After a couple of nights, I was sure I was on the clear. To be safe, though, I kept it up for a week. I also hoped it’d distract me, remind me I don’t even like Sapien, and I don’t. As fascinating as his merman routine might be he’s a tad standoffish, right. And wouldn’t I be better off living the fast life until another business venture presents itself? Apparently not, for I couldn’t get him out of my head with all the drinks and drugs and that pirate from a pirate/mermaid act I went home with towards the end. Well I was already out of danger of being spotted and, to be fair, he did look vaguely like me after the fourth drink.

And so, after a week I went on to check my notes, the documents I’d copied and any updates on the BPRD desktops I’d cloned to my laptop. No luck. They lost him like they lost me, so the only clue I had was Cavendish Hall. Now talk about a haunted house. Got into some trouble there, but the stitchup was easy, considering. Not even that improved my mood at having missed him. Chatting with the real dead in there, though, I got my next destination. What if not another ruin of an antebellum manor.

Instead of going directly there, I figure catching up with him before getting to the resting place of old Edith Howard, and for all I know her stiff of a husband, would be the right call. So I follow his pilgrimage. Every town’s got its ghosts, and even if they’ve seen nothing, there’s also the bodies in the graveyards and they know all the earth knows. And the earth does take notice of whatever an ichtyo is walking it.

He never stays more than two nights in a place, and so I never linger past the one; making up for lost time. Sometimes he camps it out in the woods, sometimes he gets a room in a motel, all done up in a trenchcoat and a fake beard, from what I hear. I keep to churches and cemeteries, letting someone love and house me for the night from time to time. For all that, when I finally reach him it’s too late for me to learn Edith’s secrets.

The manor is shaking when I get there, lone victim of a targeted hurricane, or crumbling under a curse for all I know. Waterlogged, as I notice when I buttress my courage long enough to go in, yet not touched by time. There’s nothing here. Not that’s never been, there was grief hollow as the sea, but not now. I advance through quickly decaying halls until I come up on some sort of music room, and find him lying on the ground.

‘Sapien.’

He’s on his feet in a moment, feral as I’ve only guessed him in chapel dreams. ‘I’m not going back to the bureau.’

I arch a brow. ‘Do you think I followed you through half the country for Manning, of all people?’

He doesn’t know, I’ve left the bureau, he doesn’t trust me and I’m not leaving; we argue as we get out of the house, still taken by dying tremors before it sinks into the ground.

‘There, I saved your life, can you trust me now?’

He shakes his head. ‘I’ll let you come with, though, to Washington if you want to.’

‘What’s in Washington?’

‘Water.’

[trailofstardust]

I've got an idea for a story that I want to talk about here, and I would love to get some opinions and input so I can expand my idea. The basic plot is that there are two teenagers with tragic pasts and supernatural powers who have been found and held in custody by a secret organization dedicated to studying and protecting the public from supernatural threats, similar to the BPRD in Hellboy or the SCP foundation. The main antagonist is a CEO who wants to exploit these kids for his personal ends, seeking to use their powers to gain world-domination.As of now, the two protagonists have yet to be named, and I would like some suggestions.

The main protagonist is a 15-year old boy grew up in a doomsday cult that abused and groomed him into their beliefs. At the age of ten he abducted and murdered a young child.

Shortly after, the cult tried sacrificing him to an eldritch abomination to bring about the end times, but before they could kill him, the deity possessed him and killed all the cultists. After coming to his senses he flees the scene and starts wandering the streets.The authorities have started investigating the murder he committed and soon enough, he is identified by the police. A secret organization for studying and protecting the public from the supernatural found him first and took custody of him. While the public believes that he is being held at an institution for juvenile offenders, in reality he is kept inside the headquarters of the organization, kept in a cell and studied by the scientists. Later on during the story, it turns out that he is a potential herald of the apocalypse, and the fate of the world rests in his hands. If he would ever lose control and fall into despair the eldritch god inside him could break free and devour the entire planet.

Another protagonist is a 16 year old girl with telepathic powers. She was sexually abused at an early age by her father, and when her mother found out she reacted by physically abusing and victim-blaming her. Her mother divorced, took custody of her and moved away to a small town. There, the mother turned to religion and became a religious fanatic, seeing practically everything as sinful. As well as being abused by her mother, the girl was also viciously bullied at school. One day, after a particularly horrible prank she discovered that she has telepathic powers, being able to read and control minds. She enacted her revenge by murdering her bullies and the teachers who did nothing to stop the bullying, as well as some students she blames for not intervening, using her powers to mind-control them into committing suicide. Her victims were hanged, set on fire, jumped off buildings and stabbed.She turned her mother into a vegetable and brainwashed a good portion of her high school-students and staff-into becoming her slaves, and turned the gym into her personal throne-room.

Having been denied many comforts by her fundamentalist mother who saw practically everything not related to the bible as "sinful", once she left her control she indulged in everything previously forbidden-such as sweets, nice clothes and boys. She has a liking for gothic lolita fashion. She was eventually discovered by the organization. Using technology that weaken her powers to make her easier to contain, she has been placed under supervision.

A scientist named dr Helen Fields becomes a mother-figure to these children, treating them with understanding and compassion.

My inspiration for this story was reading about real-life stories of children and teenagers who have committed murder, and felt fascinated both by their motivations as well as how the world reacts to them. Despite being children some people have called them "monsters" and even called for their deaths, which I found grotesquely unjust and wrong.

In-story, the outside world largely believes that the kids are irredeemably evil monsters. Knowing this only adds to the male protagonist's despair-the belief that no matter what he does, he can and will never be seen as anything other than a monster. Characters like Helen who treat him with sympathy and understanding are literally the buffer against the apocalypse.

One point I want to make inside the story is that even though the protagonists have committed horrific crimes, they are still children and thus vulnerable-the villain will use their insecurities to manipulate them-and that they should be treated as traumatized kids in need of help, not monsters or criminals, nor should they be expected to spend their lives grovelling and making up for their crimes, since they already had their own lives destroyed long before they did anything wrong.

[eddycurrents]

BPRD: The Devil You Know ~ Ragna Rok - Chapter Five

Story: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie | Art: Laurence Campbell & Mike Mignola | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in BPRD: The Devil You Know #15 | April 2019

Collected in BPRD: The Devil You Know - Volume 3: Ragna Rok

Plot Summary:

Hellboy witnesses the end.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything found in the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - I’m impressed overall in the sheer feeling of desolation that Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart accomplish here. And it just gets better from there.

It’s also interesting that Hellboy, and Grey, aren’t quite sure what Hellboy is any more. Especially when you consider that he’s also apparently still down in hell. It’s like there are multiple permutations of Hellboy’s soul/spirit/whatever out there now.

pg. 2 - Phenomenal view of the Ogdru Hem ruling the Earth.

pg. 3 - Here’s where the desolation gets ramped up just by a change of colour. That shade of grey, the appearance of the Ogdru Jahad on Earth, this just reminds us that everything’s well and truly screwed for life as we knew it on the surface.

pg. 4 - But they’re dead. That’s a very neat twist that the big bad, the huge evil that has been looming in space since the beginning of the narrative, are reduced to nothing sometime between Hellboy’s second death and now. It’s unexpected to see one of the series’ primary antagonists, the prima facie moving force of evil throughout existence, just...gone.

pg. 6 - And to find out that it was all the machinations of the Osiris Club. 

pg. 8 - That they did it with Hellboy’s severed hand fits in with the idea that his hand would bring about the end the of world. And that it didn’t quite matter if it was attached or not, the key would still unlock the Ogdru Jahad’s prison. Just that the end of the world didn’t quite occur how we thought it would, with the Ogdru Jahad taking over everything.

pg. 10 - I love the full colour coming back into Hellboy as he reattaches his hand.

pg. 11 - The destruction of their mansion is just magnificent.

pg. 12 - This is fitting. Both the shift to Mike Mignola’s own art to close out the story and the return of Hecate. She said that she’d be waiting for the end to be by Hellboy’s side for the finale.

pg. 13 - Also an interesting shift here. Going from fight to discussion.

pg. 15 - After all of the time that has passed during the reign of the Ogdru Hem, the fall of the Ogdru Jahad, that Liz is still alive is interesting. Though we’re not given an actual span, which may be shorter depending on how the Osiris Club’s story actually played out, it further ties into the idea that the Vril energy has been keeping her alive and keeping her relatively youthful. After all, she was born in 1962.

pg. 16 - The old world dying by fire, beautifully rendered by Mignola and Stewart.

pg. 20 - The synthesis between Hecate and Hellboy to give the life’s blood to the new world is a fascinating development. A transformation to bring about what’s next to come.

pg. 22 - I like that these frog people aren’t quite the same as the frogstrocities that we’ve seen since the Plague of Frogs. That they look more like Abe, and potentially have more of Abe’s disposition.

pg. 24 - This would seem to suggest that the cycle repeats. That a new version of the story told from Hyperborea to now may occur with the new race of man. Also, I find it kind of funny that Liz, the one character that Mignola didn’t necessarily know what to do with and was going to kill early on in the series, is the only one who definitely continues on into the future.

Final Thoughts:

The subversion of expectation while delivering exactly what was foretold is an interesting consequence of this finale. The end of the world comes to pass by Hellboy’s hand, Abe becomes the progenitor of the next race of man, and Liz takes on the role of the past priestesses of the Hyperboreans after unleashing the Vril energy across the world. It’s basically what we’ve been told was going to happen since the introduction of the larger end of the world mythos into the Hellboy narrative, but it’s not quite executed in how many of us probably thought it would play out.

To me, it’s one of the series that absolutely stuck the landing with a satisfying and entertaining ending. Whether you’ve only been reading Hellboy, BPRD, or everything within the universe, this is a well-told, well-executed ending that brings together the themes of destiny, transformation, and renunciation that have been running through the narrative since Seed of Destruction and pays them off beautifully. The story can potentially continue in extremely different ways, but this serves as a capstone to 25 years of storytelling.

d. emerson eddy wonders if frog scientists will try cloning Liz for a theme park; Lizassic Park.

[dont-tell-anyone-im-here]

Abe Sapien Headcanons

~*When You First Meet/Fall in Love~*

Abe is shy at first when meeting you. He thought you were fascinating though. He wants to get to know you better since you’ll be working together, but also because he thinks you can be friends.

Abe, though he feels guilty about it, would watch you from afar, paying attention to things you might like, hoping to use them to maybe start talking to you.

You’ve been eating chocolate, he mentions chocolate; you mention a favorite color, he mentions a favorite color.

He doesn’t know how to initiate conversation, he’s a baby.

When you two do end up talking though, he ends up rambling a little, not knowing what words are going to come out of his mouth, staying slightly on topic. Others would roll their eyes and stop listening but you couldn’t. He speaks so passionately about things it’s hard not to.

“You don’t understand! “Bootylicious” isn’t a word but it’s ended up in the dictionary, and people keep calling me that!”

You had to hold back that whoever’s been saying that is not wrong.

Fish man’s got a nice booty.

Abe doesn’t like to touch you with his hands without his gloves on. He’s had too many incidents of finding out private information that way.

You understood this, but you wondered what his hands felt like. I weird thing to wonder, but you couldn’t stop wondering.

Abe likes to listen to you ramble as well as he does, returning the favor for you listening to him but also because he loves to learn new things or here another side of things.

“Did you know that about vampires? Don’t worry, at least I do. Good thing I was the weird vampire kid growing up.”

It was after your vampire ramblings that Abe knew that he had kinda fallen for you.

Cue Barry Manilow’s “I Can’t Smile Without You”

Whenever you two would go on missions together, he didn’t know how to mediate being too protective and being too uncaring. If he was too protective it was suspicious, if he was too uncaring it could result in you dying.

If fish men could sweat, he would be, profusely, nearly the entire time you two would be on a mission together.

Abe likes when you come into the library. Slightly because you’ll turn the pages for him in the books he’s reading, also slightly because you’ll give him some extra rotten eggs. But mostly, he liked seeing you. He’d never admit though.

Even if he got so awkward when you’d come in.

He’s like a twelve year old boy seeing his crush that’s a high school senior.

One time, you ask if you can read in the library with him and he gets so excited. He wants to spend time with you, and this may be one of the most comfortable ways he can, even if you weren’t speaking to each other.

You end up mumbling along with your words one time, and Abe asks you if you can speak up, he wanted to know what you were reading and he was interested.

This ended up with you and him having almost nightly meetings of you two reading to each other. You bonded a lot when you did this.

It was during one of these nights that you realized you’ve fallen for Abe.

You had glanced up from the book you were reading to see that he was watching you with such admiration, so happy and content to listen to you read when he could definitely read it faster and better than you did.

Upon realizing that you’ve fallen for a nerdy fish man, you went an old fashioned route of finding different egg recipes you could get him to try instead of eating plain old rotten eggs.

Abe is a big fan of egg sandwiches now.

You two really should’ve known that you were in love with each other but you two are dorks so of course you didn’t.

When you did, however, find out that you were in love with each other, it was by accident.

It was during a mission and Abe had his gloves off to do his job. As the mission went on, it escalated, ending up with people firing their guns at each other and everything was a blur.

Abe had pushed you behind him to help shield you, and he accidentally finds out that you’re in love with him.

“YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH ME?!”

“YOU’RE JUST NOW FIGURING THAT OUT?!”

Of course, you couldn’t really talk then since you were in the middle of a shoot out, but you said that you’d talk later, if there was a later.

There was a later.

You two spoke on the ride home, figuring out what you wanted to do.

Abe brought up how he’d understand if you didn’t want to be in a relationship, but you immediately shut him down, telling him you’d love to date him, you just needed to lay everything out and think.

You two ended up dating and the BPRD handled it well, almost ecstatic for Abe.

Hellboy likes to tease Abe about his new lil friend.

Abe get flustered and embarrassed.

You of course joining in.

[fallxnprxnce]

You are such a talented writer especially in terms of exploring a character's personality, may we know the "origin story" between you and this character? Like, how did it go? What did you feel the first time you watched Hellboy II? We all always feel more interested in a certain type of characters, what made you feel so interested in Nuada? The way you explore his personality is great because he is more complex than most people think.

{out of exile} What a great question this is! I actually haven’t thought about it in a long time, heh. So... the very first time I saw Nuada was sometime in 2006 when I first saw this Hellboy II trailer in the movies. I was with my ex-boyfriend at the time, and I remember the first thing I took notice of was the creature in Nuada’s hand at 0:54. Me and my ex looked at each other at the same time and were like, “It’s a shilke!” I had been working on a short story as part of a world I’d been building for about a year (it is now my most developed fictional world), and I had created an original creature called a shilke that looked 95% like whatever that little guy was that Nuada tossed on the auctioneer’s face. I say 95% because mine didn’t have a big eyeball in the center of its back, heh, but otherwise, the size, shape, color, and even how it attacks (it sucks onto your face/head) was exactly the same. I felt kinda cool for a second, but that was quickly forgotten because as the trailer went on, I was just glued to whoever this white-haired dude was. my ex thought he was Drizzt, haha. I haven’t ever read those books, so I didn’t know who the hell he was... but I really wanted to know. I remember I wanted to know so badly, I actually turned my phone back on so I could text myself the name of the movie and look it up later. XD

I was fascinated with his appearance, his actions, his words... but most of all his voice. He seems like an angry violent sort, and Luke Goss’ softspoken, almost gentle-sounding voice is not what you would expect to come out of such a person. Plus, I recognized his voice right away because I was already a fan of his from seeing him in Blade II. So once I realized it was him I definitely wanted to find out more about the character, because LG always adds a lot of emotional depth to his characters, whether they are main characters or not, and I really love that. That’s my strength as a writer as well, character development and emotional writing, so actors like him tend to inspire me.

When I finally saw the movie, once wasn’t enough. I saw it two more times in the movies and bought the DVD as soon as it came out, heh. But my initial impression watching the movie wasn’t what I expected. I expected a fun fantasy film. I did not expect to cry as much as I did, to think as much as I did, and I certainly didn’t expect to walk out angry. I loved the movie, I really did... but at the time I was knee-deep in working through graduate school to get my PhD in environmental microbiology, in an environmental sciences department, and I had always been an environmentally conscious person. Over the years I’ve done my best to reduce my carbon footprint and to educate others on what they can do to do the same. I’ve always been passionate about environmental issues, and it takes the forefront a lot of times for me when I am voting for a political candidate or considering whether or not to work for a particular industry. And... from my specific point of view, having come through all of that and being where I was at the time, I left the theater angry and ashamed. Angry because I understood where Nuada was coming from and I agreed 100% with him (as far as environmental issues, not about the whole wiping out humans thing, heh), and ashamed because I was one of the humans he wanted to kill, essentially. I’m part of the problem, part of this misguided race, and while I realize this is fiction and there are no elves dying out because of us humans, there are tree frogs, tigers, sequoias, butterflies, polar bears, honey bees, and lots of other creatures that are slowly getting dangerously close to extinction because we over-harvest or over-hunt them, because we improperly dispose of and release chemicals into the environment that kills them, and because our industrialization habits are changing the world climate to the point of these creatures losing their habitats. So... I felt this sense of loss almost, watching the movie... as if I had just quit the BPRD myself like the rest of them at the end because I was pissed off at “our” collective behavior as a race up until that point. I found myself really mulling over what Nuada did in the movie, what was done to him, what he intended to do, what others ended up doing, and what the greater message for real life was among all of that.

My immediate response to “meeting” Nuada and seeing this movie for the first time, was to work through my thoughts in my writing. Years ago when I had more time, was happier, and felt a lot more creative than I do now for a number of personal reasons, my first response to anything I loved, hated, laughed about, cried about, etc. was to put it into writing. Not literally, and not directly... but I would let these sights, sounds, and experiences inspire me to write my own original stories and characters. Hellboy II and Nuada will forever be etched in my mind as one of the movies and characters that inspired me the most and produced the most incarnations of me thinking about this character, world, and situation. (Other characters on the same level as this are Ned Stark of ASoIaF/Game of Thrones and Karon of The Bridge of D’Arnath series.)

So what made me so interested in Nuada was how he made me feel and emote, and the sheer amount of writing that just flowed out of me after encountering him and his world. Nuada ended up inspiring five original characters of mine in three different worlds. I would like to summarize them for you, just to share a little about what he fueled for me, and I’ll try to pinpoint what aspects of Nuada or his situation inspired me to write them. Under the cut, though, because LONG:

Au’duin (in a series of short stories entitled The Ulaeri Chronicles completed in 2010, meant to be companions to an epic fantasy novel The Mask of Truth, unfinished since 2012) - His name means “elegance” in the Ulaeri language, a fictional language I created for this world. With this character, I chose to focus on my thoughts surrounding Nuada’s identity as a warrior and how he sees life through that lens, in addition to him dealing with social and racial prejudices, even among his own people. So the character of Au’duin grows up a male warrior who relies on his own body instead of magic in a matriarchal magical society that looks down on physical activity. I don’t want to get into plot and all that because long post, but he ends up getting arrested and being imprisoned in the royal palace during an assassination attempt that wipes out almost the entire royal family except for one of the princesses. He actually enlists in the help of a shilke and a sidekick of his, Jix (my leafling muse, @xleafyheartx), to rescue her from enemies that are largely magical in nature, so he is out of his element but also willing to go the distance for this one princess who had been willing to listen to him and talk to him like he was a person instead of treating him like this abhorrent warrior society hated. So I suppose I also explored some Nuada/Nuala thoughts of mine with this relationship as well.

Miennan (in The Ulaeri Chronicles) - His name means “strong one” in the Ulaeri tongue. This character was definitely meant to help me work through my Nuada/Nuala feelings and also Nuada’s anger and possessiveness towards his father/sister. This one has kindof a complicated plot, but Miennan is a twin brother to Arienne but does not know he was adopted. Basically, the Ulaeri queen never wants to admit she has a son, it’s an evil-aligned matriarchal society, so sons end up uh... disappearing, heh. But the queen’s mate at the time didn’t want anything to happen to his son, so he is able to hide him with another couple having a single child, and they just said they were twins. The problem with this is that Miennan grows up being far more powerful than his sister magically, he falls in love with her which is seen as taboo even though they are not related by blood, and his power is way out of line with his caste, so that draws attention. So with this character I explored not only the dynamics of Nuada and Nuala’s relationship, but also what Nuada was feeling as far as being alienated within his own family. Miennan ends up giving his life to save Arienne and their child, so he changes from a selfish and possessive youth to someone willing to live and die for others.

Sri’hen (in both The Ulaeri Chronicles and The Mask of Truth) - His name means “the weaver” in the Ulaeri tongue. He is Miennan’s older brother, the firstborn, in fact, but he was given away outside the Ulaeri community and never met any of his siblings. With this character (who is the ex of Channe, @fxcelessqueen), I really chose to explore some of the worst attributes about Nuada. Violence, anger, possessiveness, sexism, defensiveness, and a desire for power for all the wrong reasons. Sri’hen becomes one of the most prominent villains in the story, but he changes into actually a rather honorable character with age and with changing relationships. His relationship with Channe was utterly toxic and fueled the worst things about both of them. Being misunderstood and misguided and too arrogant to ask for help, Sri’hen stewed for decades after Channe betrays and leaves him, and he ends up becoming very evil. But as time went on, he was able to mature and to find someone else with whom he had a much more positive relationship that changed him for the better. It’s a long journey for him, about 300 years, but his is one of the most complex and detailed character arcs I’ve ever written, so I’m pretty proud of it.

Caden Ostyrian (inan epic fantasy novel called Blood is Thicker, completed in 2012) - With this character, I wanted to explore Nuada’s feelings of exclusion, abandonment, betrayal, and oppression within his own family, how an individual like him would respond, and how it might come to be resolved in a positive way. Caden was born Ashen in a world where simply being Ashen is pretty much a crime. Females are killed and males are suffered to exist until age ten and then they are sent to the Divide, a 300 ft. wall that basically walls in the country of Astvar on its peninsula. Below it is hundreds of miles of marshlands and dangerous creatures. So... Ashen people just pop up randomly in society. It’s not genetic, and I’m not going to get into what it actually is because this post is already super long, but ashen people have pale skin, white or gray hair, and blue or gray eyes, hence being called “ashen.” So all the boys are sent to live on the Divide because the wall needs to be manned to keep the rest of the country safe and of course “normal” people don’t want to do this themselves, so they force the Ashen population to do it. It’s a pretty grim setup for them. They’re basically prisoners there. Caden... was born a prince, the second oldest son of three of the king of Astvar. He was supposed to go to the Divide at age ten, but the king hypocritically didn’t send him until he was 25. Caden, like Nuada, is a natural warrior with a serious wild streak in him, so to suddenly be sent to the Divide at age 25 and have this pompous attitude like “I’m a prince, I shouldn’t be here,” really pissed off all the other people there, haha. But he ends up, after a long time of having his ego beaten down and maturing emotionally, uniting the Ashen on all three sections of the Divide and basically turns them into a very capable army that goes on to fight for their rights against the northern country. So with this character I mulled over my thoughts about Nuada’s arrogance and level of maturity, his identity as a warrior, and his ability to be an actual leader instead of a lone, pissed-off force, heh.

Aerahdlanion “Adanion” for short (in a fantasy novel called Journey, unfinished since 2015) - I honestly forget what his name means in the language of the Purplewood Elves, heh... it’s been a while... XD I never finished this book and I was really sorry that I didn’t, but certain things going on in my life at the time caused me to lose my inspiration for it. But Adanion was a very gentle and selfless elf who makes a journey by himself that he knows he’s not going to be able to complete. Basically, his people are dying from an illness, and most of them believe this is happening for a reason and that it’s their time to fade. Others, like Adanion, are not so sure. He loses his wife to the illness and then becomes afflicted himself, and although he’s starting to lose his faculties and he’s in a lot of pain, he volunteers to make the trek to the mountains where it is believed that the essence of an ancient goddess his people pray to is stored in a large crystal. His people believe this because they have a piece of the crystal, and the legend basically says that when the crystal is mended, the goddess will awaken and either save them in their hour of need, or help them all pass over into the Afterplane. Adanion ends up dying of his illness very early on in the story, but not before he stops at a human inn and meets several other characters who are moved by his cause and want to help him make this journey. After he dies, they continue on, taking the piece of the crystal to the location he specified. Adanion seems very central to the story, but really it’s about the relationships between the very different humans (some use magic, some don’t, some have conflicting religions, some have disabilities of their own, some are tolerant, some are intolerant, etc.), what they all think of Adanion’s sacrifice and the plight of his people, and how much they’re willing to do for this race of people they didn’t even know existed until they met Adanion. So with this character and story, I wanted to explore everything outside of Nuada and his people and go more into how humans looking in on his story and plight (as I was watching the movie) would feel about what was happening to them, and how that might change their thinking going forward.

Aaaaaaaand that is enough blabbing for this post, holy cow, haha. Sorry for the length. But yeah, my initial response to Nuada was to be very emotionally moved, engaged by his plight, interested in his psychology, and motivated to write characters with similar pieces-parts and explore different situations with them. And then by the end of 2015, I was looking to get into rping on Tumblr, and at that time I remember thinking okay, what is a character that is easy for me to write, that I’m comfortable with, that I know like the back of my hand, but that there’s also plenty left for me to explore and expand upon? And the first one I thought of was Nuada, heh. So he was just a natural fit for me as far as getting started. Now I have way too many muses, hahaha. XD

[thetygre]

30 Day Monster Challenge 2 - Day #5: Favorite Fish-Man

1.)    Abe Sapien (BPRD)

Good old Abraham Sapien. Been with us since the fist arc of Hellboy. Abe’s come a long way since then; met his mom, found his wife, subsequently lost her, reunited with his old steampunk buddies, got elected as antichrist after Hellboy and Liz, went into a coma, mutated a couple of feet taller, and so and so on. Into Abe is thrown a lot of bigger themes that inform us of the Mignolaverse’s overall composure. On the aesthetic side, Abe always brings the ocean, fish, and water with him. Lovecraft’s fear of the ocean, Verne’s fascination, and Melville’s awe of it are all wrapped up in Abe Sapien. In his past life, he even came from a whaling family, and he was part of a secret society of ocean-worshiping spiritualists. That’s the other aesthetic cue in Abe; Victoriana. Even when in body armor and running across the flooded remains of the Gulf Coast, Abe never loses a certain gentility. But as a character theme, more than anything, I think Abe represents tragedy. He’s lost more than anyone; Even Liz can still say she has her humanity. Abe can’t even remember his past life, and now he’s becoming a little more monstrous every day.

But through all that, Abe is still maybe the most relatable member of the BPRD for me. (Well, the superpowered ones anyway.) Abe isn’t really sure of who he is or his place in the world, and he’s still looking for those connections that root a person. At the same time, Abe sticks to the middle of the road, acting as the voice of reason even in unreasonable circumstances. He’s capable of emotional outbursts and faults, but for the most part, Abe succeeds at being a good person. Abe might be the strangest core member of the BPRD, but that he’s never inhuman. We don’t need to be super heroes; just basically good people are enough to keep the world running.

2.)    Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Man, I just love how cool this guy is. Sea monster octopus pirate; that’s a character description that makes my inner ten year old want to jump and down. Davy Jones’ whole character design is just so nifty; tentacle beard, organic peg-leg, crab-claw hook hand, a sweet pipe and a giant hat. Hat’s also important for the other reason I love Jones; plays into so many mythical archetypes. Costumers for PotC explicitly stated they picked Jones’ hat because it looked like horns, and they really wanted Jones to fit his role as essentially the pirate devil. As the PotC spans out, Jones is revealed to have been even more legendary characters; he’s the Old Man of the Sea that Odysseus had to wrestle to go to Hades, and Charon guiding souls over to the underworld. I’ll be honest, Davy Jones’ pathos with the lost love never really struck a chord with me. Bill Nighy’s performance of it was great, though, so props are definitely in order for that. And last, but certainly not least, I can’t not love a man who keeps a kraken as a pet.

3.)    Deep Ones (H.P. Lovecraft)

The classic. The first. Your one and only. It’s beginning to look a lot like fish-men. The blue-collar workers of the Cthulhu Mythos. H.P. Lovecraft’s fear of the ocean and corrupted bloodlines all wrapped into one beautiful, horrible fish creature. Nothing quite beats Lovecraft’s originals; he goes out of his way to describe them as alien, foul, and horrible. They’re another one of those monsters you can practically smell through the pages. I think it’s safe to say that half the other fish-men on this list wouldn’t exist without the Deep Ones. People are still scared of the ocean and the alien things living in it, and the Deep Ones give that fear a face. All the while they call to some primal part of us, an archaic memory that remembers when our species used to be fish, and they tell us to come home. Just as angels call us to come to God, the Deep Ones call us back to the sea. (Also; fat and hunchbacked Deep Ones only. I’m sorry; I wish I didn’t have to make that call. If it was up to me, all Deep Ones would be valid. But these are the times we live in, and sacrifices have to be made, preferably to Father Dagon.)

4.)    The Creature from the Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters)

Deep Ones lite. There’s actually a lot I like about the Creature on its own merits. It’s such a natural creature, as far as monsters go. It lives in harmony with its ecosystem, and its design really conveys that its simply a fish that has evolved into a humanoid shape. You can say the same thing about humans, though, and that ultimately is where we connect with the Creature. He’s also kind of charming in his own way; wide eyes, smiling face, no big pointy teeth. He’s practically a goldfish compared to the Deep Ones. And of course those underwater ballet sequences are still just absolutely beautiful. I think more than the Deep Ones, the Creature can probably be compared to King Kong; a primal, more innocent creature so strange that humanity wouldn’t leave it alone. Mankind’s desire to know more about the mysterious ultimately destroyed that mystery, conveying the paradox of how destructive discovery can be.

5.)    The Asset (Shape of Water)

We’ve come full circle now, I suppose. Centuries ago, sailors dreamed up half women/half fish creatures to ease their loneliness, and now we’ve made a half man/half fish to do the same for women. The Asset is pretty explicitly a makeover of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, even coming from a distant part of South America. There’s also clearly some Abe Sapien in there, which is only to be expected coming from Guillermo del Toro. This might sound weird, but I think the details I appreciate most are the spines and the fangs. I know this whole movie was supposed to be about how the monster was less dangerous than the Creature, but the spines and fangs just make it feel like a more believable creature.

6.)    The Creature (Monster Squad)

But before the asset, there was another Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot in The Monster Squad. This movie is just the gift that keeps on giving. I’d say that the Creature here is the strongest individual design out of the whole batch. He didn’t really do much in this movie, but he made one heck of an impression. Designed by none other than the late, great Stan Winston, this version of the Creature looks like its ready to kick ass and take names. I distinctly get the impression of a piranha from it, and you can just imagine a mob of these guys rising up out of the Amazon and pulling down a river boat.

7.)    Sahuagin (Dungeons and Dragons)

There are a lot of different fish people to choose from in D&D. Kuo Toa, Skum, Locathah, mermaids, Atlanteans, and the list grow longer every year. But my personal favorite are the Sahuagin; brutal, murderous raiders living in a strict tribal hierarchy, worshiping a giant shark, and prone to mutations. While most fish men draw from Lovecraft, I got the distinct impression that the Sahuagin were more pulpy, a bit more Edgar Rice Burroughs. Even their other name, the Sea Devils, sounds like something Conan or Tarzan would fight in a comic book. Their designs are just so cool; fin ears, bullet heads, shark teeth, long tails. Before ‘scary’, these were sea monsters made to look intimidating. They are the most organized antagonistic force under the waves, threatening everything from merfolk to sailors. Their goal? Nothing short of supreme domination of the sea.

8.)    Shark Giant (Bloodborne)

Another Deep One descendent, and this one hits like a truck. There’s a lot to be said for the shark giant on its own merits. It’s lack of eyes make you think that it senses by scent, and remind you of how a shark can sense a drop of blood in water a hundred miles away. There are, of course, the teeth, and how they seem to take up more space than there is for the mouth. The barnacles on its back are both a crest and a fin. Its paleness makes it seem to glow in the dark, like its bioluminescent. It really reinforces the feeling in the Fishing Hamlet that you’re underwater, like the boundaries between land, sea, and sky have been blurred. More than any other monster in the Fishing Hamlet, the shark giant is what reminds me of Lovecraft’s Dagon; a huge, deformed figure skulking over the mud of a submarine nightmare-scape.

9.)    The Children of the Thing That Drifted Ashore (Junji Ito)

The Thing That Drifted Ashore isn’t even really my favorite Junji Ito sea monster story; that would probably be Gyo. But the things that come crawling out of it are some of the first fish people I find genuinely disgusting, evoking that same feeling Lovecraft wanted from his Deep Ones. The Thing had apparently swallowed dozens of people that fell into the sea over the years, keeping them in its stomach. But rather than being digested, the people changed. It’s subtle, but you can still see it; webbed fingers, widened eyes, transparent skin. Inside the Thing, the people were witnesses to the abyss of the deep sea and driven mad by it. I’m reminded of an old version of the story of Jonah I was read as a child, where Jonah looked through the great fish’s eyes and saw the fires of Sheol and the Leviathan at the bottom of the ocean. The people swallowed are reborn, now children of the Thing, belonging only to the deep sea.

10.)    Otto Aquarius (The Venture Bros)

I just love this cute little guy. He’s only a minor character on the Venture Brothers, but he still made an impression on me. A half Atlantean that became a Mormon missionary, he’s just so earnest and eager. He’s an obvious play on superheroes like Namor and Aquaman, but they can’t hold a candle to this sweetheart. He’s clean, he’s polite, he’s socially conservative, he’s useless in combat; Otto’s just endearing. Dump the Asset and get with the real catch, folks.

[rkfstudio]

Top Ten Comic Characters of All Time (according to me)

Introduction/disclaimer:

This list is mine and is based on my personal and subjective criteria. My choices are based on what I have read in comics as opposed to other media. For instance, one of my favorite superheroes, Squirrel Girl, is not on this list because I have read next to none of her comics and my love of the character is based almost exclusively on her concept and her appearances in other media.

Also, some people might want to fault me and my list for a lack of “inclusiveness” or “representation” or whatever. Full disclosure: I’m a straight white dude and I tend to relate most to the straight white dude characters that have historically dominated the comics world. Thus, I’m more likely to be drawn to stories about those characters. I do not apologize for my tastes. If they radically differ from yours, feel free to make your own list and tell me why you like the characters you like. That would be awesome.

Finally, there are half a dozen characters outside this Top Ten that could jump into it at any moment. This list represents my Top Ten at the time I wrote this and is subject to change.

Still with me? Cool! Here we go!

 10. Wolverine

               Most people would put Logan aka James Howlett aka the Wolverine much higher on their lists, and I completely understand why. He is “the best he is at what he does” ™ and is one of the most complex and interesting characters in comics. He also, until his death a couple of years ago, was perhaps the most overexposed character in all of comics. He’s a down to earth guy who mostly just wants to be left alone, but neither the comic world nor the comic industry is willing to give him a break. With a cool and dark backstory and super cool powers, he’s one of the legitimate badasses in the Marvel universe.

9. Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes

               “What is this blasphemy?! Jaime Reyes ranked higher than Mr. Snikt?!” Yes. This is my list and I say Jaime gets a higher spot.

Hear me out on this. Beetle gets this spot on my list mainly due to his introductory arc during DC’s “One Year Later” event and his recent “Rebirth” run. Both runs are well written with great character interaction and dialogue. Jaime’s just a regular high school kid who also happens to be a superhero. Not the most original concept (*cough* Spider-Man! *cough*) but he pulls it off in what feels like a fresh way. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a show stealer in his recurring role in the “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” cartoon a few years ago. But his comics just shine to me.

8. Batman

               More controversy! Batman is only at number 8! I realize most people place him much higher because he’s one of the more relatable members of DC’s top-flight heroes in that he’s just a man in a world of gods. For me, he suffers from the same kind of overexposure that Wolverine has had over the years. I also don’t tend to find him as interesting as the characters he deals with, whether his allies or his rogues' gallery. He’s a darker, more brooding Iron Man (I realize Batman came first, but I think the comparison is still valid). I find him at his best when he’s forced to play with others, especially Superman, because the tension between the “solitary crimefighter” and the “super team” dynamics can be so fun. Recommended reading includes the Justice miniseries by Alex Ross and Co. and the Justice League: Lightning Saga story arc.

7. Captain Marvel/Shazam!

               For the five of you that are still reading, this entry might be the last straw. Bear with me. Batman is the dark, brooding hero of the night. Captain Marvel (or Shazam for those willing to give up the ghost of Fawcett Comics) is the polar opposite of that: he is bright, colorful, and full of whimsy. Whimsy and wonder are both things that are in short supply in this post-Watchmen comics world, and that’s a shame. It’s that harkening back to the core of how comics began that is a large part of his appeal to me. Interestingly enough, it’s a couple of his more recent stories that have made me love him as a character. Jeff Smith, of Bone fame, wrote an origin miniseries for Captain Marvel called Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil and it’s wonderful. Also recommended is his part in the previously mentioned Justice series.

6. Captain America

               This is a more conventional pick. Cap makes this list for similar reasons to the previous Captain on this list: he represents the values and sentiments of a bygone age. In particular, his refusal to compromise his beliefs regardless of the personal cost is a breath of fresh air and too seldom seen anymore. Leader, soldier, champion of liberty, that’s Cap. Look up his run in the New Avengers series up through the Civil War arc to see exactly what I’m talking about.

Also, Hydra Cap never happened. Just no.

5. Joker

               You know how the last two choices were upstanding, almost squeaky-clean citizens?

              Yeah, good times.

              For someone completely different, Number Five gives us the Joker. He is, bar none, the most fascinating supervillain ever, responsible for some of the most twisted moments in mainstream comics. Jason Todd? That was the Joker. Barbara Gordon? Yep, that was him, too. Harley Quinn? Mistah J says, “You’re welcome.” The Joker is sick, twisted, and downright evil, and he embraces it like no other. Sometimes, a villain isn’t misunderstood; sometimes a villain is just a villain. And the Joker does “villain” with a style all his own. Required reading includes the Justice series (can you tell I like this series? I do.), the Dark Knight Returns, and, of course, The Killing Joke.

4. Superman

               Honestly, I thought Supes would be higher on my list. He’s the first superhero and still, to me at least, one of the best. I realize most folks find him to be too powerful to be relatable, and there’s no small amount of validity to that point. But the best part of this character isn’t his ability to punch planets out of orbit or “leap tall buildings” or any of that. It’s his... well, his character. That middle-America farmer’s son upbringing, with its sense of right and wrong that has so seldom failed him, is what makes Superman more than just the Last Son of Krypton. To borrow from Kingdom Come, it’s the “man” more than the “super” that makes him special. It’s what makes him a symbol of virtue and excellence, a standard to which we can aspire. It’s Clark Kent, rather than Kal-El, that I want to be like. Some good reading includes the aforementioned Kingdom Come, The Superman/Batman Supergirl arc (this is actually a good Batman read, as well) and, you guessed it, Justice.

3. Hellboy

               Sadly, this is the only non-Big-Two character on my list. For now. I’m just starting to branch out so future lists might have more.

               Anyway, Hellboy makes the list because he isn’t what you’d expect him to be. The son of a major league demon and destined to bring about the apocalypse, he should be an earth-shattering villain. But he’s a hero because of his upbringing by a paranormal expert. Nurture triumphing over Nature. The monster as the hero. Also, he’s just a fun character and his stories are good stuff. Of particular note, mainly because this is what I’ve read, is the recent Hellboy and the BPRD 1950s series.

2. Rocket Raccoon

               If you’ve read this far, this pick really shouldn’t surprise you. Sometimes, we want heroes to inspire us to be better people.  Sometimes, we just want a raccoon with a big flarkkin’ gun. Rocket’s recent string of short series, both solo and with Groot, are just fun reading.

1. Hulk

               This was the one pick I didn’t need to think about; Hulk was at Number One from the start. The concept of a super smart guy who turns into a raging monster when he loses his cool resonates with me on an intensely personal level. While he has had quite a few strange turns in his comics history, the big guy really came into his own during the Planet Hulk series, where he was shot into space by his best “friends” to a planet full of enemies and dangers that only the Hulk could survive. His development from monster to gladiator to fugitive to king, and then to vengeful conqueror in the following World War Hulk, is one of my favorite arcs in all of comics. Whether big and kind of dumb or big and super smart or somewhere in between like in the stories I’ve mentioned, Hulk is my Number One comic character of all time. At least until the next time.

                So, that’s my list. But what’s a list like this without some honorable mentions?

Honorable Mentions:

12. Rorschach

               This is the obligatory Watchmen pick. While I don’t like the story, I appreciate the historical impact it’s had on the comics industry. Rorschach is the only character that I can call anything close to a “good guy” despite his extreme homicidal tendencies. His refusal to go along with the alien invasion story covering Ozymandias’s murder of millions of people “so billions might live”, his refusal to accept the lesser evil, shows an integrity that is perhaps outdated but no less laudable for being outdated.

13. Renee Montoya/the Question

               The first woman on this list and it’s neither Wonder Woman nor fan-favorite Kitty Pryde. Renee Montoya is, to me, a more interesting character than either, mostly because she’s very flawed. She’s rough around the edges; she drinks to excess; she has doubts about her abilities and her value as a detective. I gather most of this info from her run in DC’s 52 series, which is a great read on its own.

16. Lex Luthor

               This guy.

               This guy right here.

               He’s the stereotypical “evil businessman” and yet he is so much more. A legit genius who inevitably uses that genius to fight petty grudges rather than help humanity reach claims potential like he claims to care about. Kingdom Come, Justice, you know the drill.

19. Iron Man

               Some characters combine seriously cool abilities with personalities that are seriously hard to like. Iron Man is cool; Tony Stark is just an egomaniacal jerk. It’s also worth noting that Tony often has to use Iron Man (and the Avengers) to fix problems of his own making. He’s a great character, but he’s not a good one.

25. Deadpool

               Because Wade was going to kill me if I didn’t put him somewhere on this list.

               Seriously. He’s standing right next to me while I’m writing this.

              Help me.

30. Death of the Endless

               I’ve honestly only read one issue featuring Death, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, #8. But that one issue is probably my favorite single comic issue ever. It’s stark, poignant, and beautiful. My list had 29 characters and I immediately thought of her for Number Thirty, but I’m sure she’ll move higher if I ever read any more of her stories.

               Well, that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this strange trip through my comic book preferences. For real, to all who’ve gotten this far, I’d love to read your Top Ten. I find the reasons why different people like different characters fascinating.

              Till next time, cheers, y’all!

[heedra]

Exalted Secret Santa

I’m excited to jump in on @shiftingpath‘s Exalted Secret Santa for the first time! A busy quarter meant I didn’t really have time to get adequate reference material for everyone I wanted to add to this list (there’s always next time!), but here are two of my (terrible) favorites.

Avenging Phoenix- Dawn Caste Solar (Formerly Ravenous Vulture Picks Clean the Bones of Creation, Dusk Caste Abyssal)

Orphaned at an early age, Phoenix was adopted by a Guild mercenary and raised as such. He spent his later mortal life as a city guard captain in Thorns, where he exalted during the fateful siege itself, disillusionment and rage at the circumstances of his death making him an easy recruit for the Mask. His path has weaved far and wide since then, a slow painful crawl from rebellion to eventual redemption; a journey that ultimately gave him a place among the saviors of Creation. He now helps command an organization that trains mortals, ghosts, and renegade deathknights alike to combat the forces of the Underworld (is it based on the BPRD? yes.). As long as his soul is on this side of Lethe, he is determined to fight against the Void- not because he considers himself antithesis to it, but because he has known it and survived it. He has impostor’s syndrome when it comes to his redemption by the Sun, and still feels uncomfortable thinking of himself as a peer to the other members of the Solar Host.

Phoenix is of Western descent, very short, fat, and beefy, with warm brown skin and a round, open face.  He keeps his burgundy hair closely shaved, not fond of dealing with the mess of wavy curls it becomes when allowed to grow out. His eyes are dark brown, almost black, the outside of the iris rimmed with the faintest edge of golden yellow. His nose looks like it has been broken multiple times in the past, and never properly healed. Due to unfortunate wyld misadventures his tongue has been mutated to resemble and function like that of a frog or chameleon’s, though this is only really apparent when he opens his mouth to use the damn thing. He is frequently found wearing his armor; black jade lamellar embellished with cruel-looking spikes, and often a shaggy grey fur cloak made from the pelt of some hunting trophy. A horned skull helm, made from the skull of a nephwrack’s war-body, often completes this ensemble. The helmet is a minor artifact: when worn, it causes his eyes to glow balefully behind its sockets and makes his voice gravelly with deathly menace. He is reluctant to take it off unless he feels at ease in a situation. Phoenix’s casual clothes tend to be simple, comfortable, loose, and in sharp contrast to his prickly combat garb. He enjoys floral patterns. He does not dress fancily unless pressed to for big occasions, and in those cases usually grudgingly follows the fashion direction of the one twisting his arm.

He usually tends to give off a vibe of someone who is tired, stressed, and sad but trying to seem laid back and amiable wrt expression and body language. Other common emotions include: ‘concerned dad face’, polite confusion, grumpy confusion, blank confusion, tired confusion, worried confusion, exasperated confusion, “is it time for me to fight something yet” confusion, and general gormlessness. This all hides a talent for strategic leadership and a stoic determination that gets fiercer as the going gets tougher. On the battlefield, he is brutal and bloodthirsty. He goes out of his way to make sure his enemies are intimidated, and few of his threats go unbacked. 

His anima banner starts as burst of gold-and crimson fire that solidifies into the form of a fierce and predatory-looking phoenix, with aspects of a garda bird and a lammergeier both. It moves as he does across the battlefield, swooping and rising with each swing of his axe, its fierce eyes focused on his prey. Refs: [1] [2]  Quick sketch of the skull helm (messy, sorry!) His grand grimcleaver looks like this, except made of solar essence (a la Glorious Solar Saber).

Example of the sort of casual clothing he wears

Feel free to get creative with the armor if you want. I’ve never had a fully cemented design for it, besides the fact that it is black jade lamellar and has those spiky shoulder pads. The one thing I would say is that it likely has spikes elsewhere as well, and has clawed gauntlets.

Harvester Of Corpses from Bones of the Barren Wasteland- Daybreak Caste Abyssal Necrosurgeon Harvester grew up in a small villages of ancestor-worshipping farmers that had lived next to the shadowlands southeast of Thorns for generations upon generations. He exalted at 19 in an unceremonious manner when he was ambushed and gutted by bandits upon returning from selling crops and wool at the market. Fueled by bitterness towards his previous life of powerlessness and poverty and the rush of newfound power he received, he served as a loyal deathknight for several years, but mounting attacks of conscience and growing fear of his master eventually led him to abandon his increasingly half-hearted servitude and flee with what little he could take. He now lives a destitute life on the run, hiding beneath rags and the veneer of disease, adrift in a world that rejects his essence, still reeling from just how far in over his head he’s managed to get himself. Harv is 6ft8 (or rather, the Creation equivalent in comparison to average height), very thin, bony and gangly, with greyish, clammy skin that used to be brown. The tips of his fingers and toes are marked with the black of necrosis, and his skin is marked by leprous boils and sores. Hardly any of his hair is left, only his big eyebrows and one small, scraggly patch remaining. His eyes are tired, underscored by heavy shadows, and often seem to have a pale, unhealthy yellow cast to them. He has several scars, most of them from his ‘trials’ as a new deathknight and one from the moment of his ‘death’, a giant scar across his stomach that still looks supernaturally raw and unhealed. The scar on his nose, however, is just from a time he got attacked by a chicken as a kid, a scar which got repeatedly reopened throughout incidents in his childhood and is kind of there to stay.

Harv wears an ever-shifting litany of ragged and grimy cloaks and bandages, prefering to conceal his body as much as possible. Beneath, he wears an unadorned soulsteel breastplate, nabbed from the armory on his way out of dodge, which fits poorly on his scrawny frame, and beneath this a sleeveless high-necked shirt, also black. His one accessory is a pair of obsidian earrings, tokens that marked the passage to adulthood in his village, which he wears at all times. His weapon of choice is Famine’s Mouth, a relatively unadorned artifact soulsteel war-scythe. 

Harvester is an unsettling deadbeat drifter with a penchant for drink. He comes off as defeated and glum, prone to melodrama, cowardice, passive-aggression, and extremely dry humor. Deep down he’s still the gentle and caring farmboy he once was, though it is hidden behind paranoia, avoidance, a nasty passive agressive dramatic streak, and immense social awkwardness. Despite his fear of his deathlord and peers and self-hatred towards his abyssal nature, he is also a zealous underworld nerd, fascinated with necromancy and the Neverborn alike (tho certainly not interested in being loyal to the latter). His passion for his craft is such that he makes use of pretty much any corpse he finds, and is not averse to graverobbing (he’s big on recycling). Harvester can often be found with a retinue of equally cloaked and bandaged zombies, frequently with bizarre and dangerous modifications made to them; this has gotten him in trouble one more than one occasion. He daydreams of one day having the workspace, safety, and materials to create much more ambitious constructs. He is also, despite himself, too fond of dogs to avoid them for resonance’s sake, and the local strays frequently trail after him once they realize that he hands out treats. His anima banner is a sickly green and black swarm of locusts that coalesce thickest behind his head in a grim halo. 

Refs: [1] [2] [3] (old, but good outfit ref] [4 (not my art!)] [5 (ignore the silly outfit and tatoos, but there’s colors here)] The top three drawings here show the weapon his grimscythe is based on. I don’t have a cemented design for it, but it resembles a basic war scythe like the one shown here only much larger, crueler, and made of soulsteel. If you choose to depict it, feel free to get creative!

[eddycurrents]

Abe Sapien: The Secret Fire - “The Garden (II)”

Words: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie | Art: Max Fiumara | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Abe Sapien #28-29 | November-December 2015

Collected in Abe Sapien - Volume 7: The Secret Fire | Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible - Volume 2

Plot Summary:

Abe Sapien visits with Maggie, a girl literally touched by those who first came after the Hyperboreans, and learns a bit more about his place in the world to come.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything within the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - Something seems to be whispering to Abe. Not sure that’s a good thing or a sign that he’s losing it.

pg. 2/3 - Great double-page spread here that gives voice to many of his concerns through snippets of conversations with others.

pg. 4 - I think this may just be the bear that we saw in “The Shadow Over Suwanee”, unfortunately changed by the mists. Tentacles, exposed flesh, not very pretty, but a great design from Max Fiumara. Also, a nice way to further tie this together with the last arc.

pg. 7 - And still haunted by Grace’s words. Keeping him away from going towards another city. It’s sad to see Abe alienating and distancing himself from the world.

pg. 9 - Nice to see Stazz back. Even if it’s just a brief moment for Panya to tell her to continue to keep Abe’s location secret.

pg. 10 - It’s still very interesting that Panya wants Abe on his own, finding out whatever he needs to find out. It makes you wonder what she herself knows.

pg. 11 - Gorgeous art here from Fiumara and Dave Stewart. It’s nice to see that there are still some areas that are lush with “normal” wildlife. Even if it is a swamp in the Carolinas.

pg. 13 - Abe seems a little snippy.

pg. 15 - Interesting to see that the girl that the witch was talking about turns out to be real. Although the build up of “destiny” again seems to be something that all of the agents seem to rankle against.

pg. 17 - The continued blending of past and present is interesting here. It continues to make it feel as though Abe is haunted by the past.

pg. 19 - Maggie doesn’t look like she was actually Abe to be...well Abe.

pg. 22 - I’m not sure if the occultist getting closer to the Black School is ultimately a good thing. The Ogdru Hem just hanging out in the background is also spooky.

pg. 23 - More beautiful nature. I love that colour on the bird in contrast to the darkness of the land and house.

pg. 25 - That Maggie’s mother can understand her fine is an interesting detail. Also, Abe reassuring them that she’s not speaking gibberish, but an ancient language.

pg. 28 - This is a different interpretation of the two paths. Traditionally, this is something that’s broken down into the two different types of magick. The right-hand path representing white magic, the left-hand path black magic. Though many reject the idea of black magic as an impossibility, defining it as magick that works against the will of magician, and instead look at it as embracing subjects that would otherwise be considered taboo, like sex magick. There are many who will argue the differing points of what constitutes what, but by and large they all almost posit that it doesn’t categorize as “good” and “evil” forms of magick.

pg. 30 - Maggie seems to think that Abe is going to do something to everyone else that’s not led down into the ancient city underground. It’s like Hellboy’s destiny to destroy the world.

pg. 31 - And just like Hellboy, Abe rejects the idea of that destiny. It’s nice that they’re all consistent.

pg. 33 - I do love the presentation of these flashbacks. Nice colour wash and worn panel borders.

pg. 35 - This bit on many different factions knowing of something coming in the future and recontextualizing it to fit within their own perspective to their own ends makes a lot of sense.

pg. 37 - So Liz is a “Vessel of the Fire”. We should probably remember that and put it in context with some other stuff we’ve seen recently.

pg. 38 - Interesting to find out that Abe has “guardian angels” and that one of them is Panya.

pg. 40 - And that the other one is indeed Edith Caul. It seems I wasn’t crazy in thinking that it was her back in A Darkness So Great.

pg. 42 - Even more fascinating that she doesn’t consider him Caul any more, that he’s been reborn and transformed. That his “home” isn’t Rhode Island, but with his new family of the Bureau.

pg. 44 - This should be an interesting homecoming.

Final Thoughts:

Everything is coming together in Abe Sapien and BPRD: Hell on Earth as the end nears and all of the pieces are falling into place. It’s very impressive the interconnectivity of the various seemingly disparate parts of the overall Hellboy universe going right back to the very first story. It’s been a long game, but it’s very fulfilling as we see what happens of all the little bits and pieces. Even if the answers that we do get don’t necessarily fill Abe with confidence or hope.

It’s also very interesting that Mike Mignola and Scott Allie are telling us exactly what Abe and Liz are supposed to be in the future of the next race of men and a vessel for the fire, but we’re still not quite sure what that means.

d. emerson eddy feels like onion rings. A crusty fried exterior with a soft tissue inside that makes you cry.

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 28 October 2019

Quick Bits:

Afterlift #1 is a digital original from Chip Zdarsky, Jason Loo, Paris Alleyne, and Aditya Bidikar. Very interesting concept here playing with a character who drives for a Lyft analogue in Cabit, leading to becoming a rather unique courier.

| Published by Jams & Jellies

Batman Annual #4 actually gives us many adventures and stories as we go through almost two months’ of diary entries of Batman’s exploits from Alfred, as told by Tom King, Jorge Fornés, Mike Norton, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles. It’s a nice way to pack a lot of story into this annual in a fairly unique way, while also showcasing just how busy Batman really is. 

| Published by DC Comics

Black Panther #17 sets up for the next confrontation with N’Jadaka and his forces, also giving us a rather...awkward but interesting conversation between Storm and Nakia. Gorgeous art from Daniel Acuña.

| Published by Marvel

Bloodshot #2 continues the balls to the wall action as Bloodshot and the Black Bar conflict escalates, from Tim Seeley, Brett Booth, Adelso Corona, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe. It’s a bit of a throwback to a more action-oriented style, but it definitely works for Bloodshot. A nice change of pace to give a variety of storytelling.

| Published by Valiant

Conan the Barbarian #10 spins us the twins’ yarn as they plotted their revenge on Conan, from Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson, and Travis Lanham. The art from Asrar and Wilson is gorgeous. The backstory building up to last parts of this story and the fate of Conan is gripping.

| Published by Marvel

Contagion #5 brings an end to this series from Ed Brisson, Adam Gorham, Veronica Gandini, and Cory Petit. Gorgeous and creepy art here from Gorham and Gandini. 

| Published by Marvel

DCeased #6 is surprisingly hopefully, even as everything dies and everybody hurts. It appears to be setting up a sequel, though likely to be incredibly bleak. Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Neil Edwards, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte conclude this series in epic fashion as we say goodbye to Earth.

| Published by DC Comics

Death’s Head #4 is another ending to a series this week, from Tini Howard, Kei Zama, Felipe Sobreiro, and Travis Lanham. Some very nice character work here for Death’s Head and Vee.

| Published by Marvel

Doctor Strange Annual #1 gives us a pair of tales. The lead from Tini Howard, Andy MacDonald, Tríona Farrell, and Cory Petit is a fun Halloween story dealing with the spirits haunting the Sanctum Sanctorum. Any art from MacDonald is a treat. The back up is a bit more deadly serious with Pornsak Pichetshote, Lalit Kumar Sharma, Sean Parsons, José Villarrubia, and Petit revealing a failsafe should Strange go rogue.

| Published by Marvel

Ether: The Disappearance of Violet Bell #2 continues to be incredibly inventive as Boone tries to track down the assassin. David Rubín’s art is absolutely amazing. And Boone’s continued inability to really think about anyone other than himself is telling.

| Published by Dark Horse

Excalibur #1 is another tick in the win column for “Dawn of X”. The X-Men dabbling in magic isn’t common, but Tini Howard, Marcus To, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit do so with amazing flair, fittingly taking us in through Otherworld, Captain Britain, and Betsy Braddock. Apocalypse’s new incarnation as  “ •|A| •” and his newfound interest in magic is fascinating.

| Published by Marvel

Five Years #5 spotlights Zoe’s rather elaborate imagination for coming up with ways to murder people. Granted, the Russian agent may well deserve it, but still... Terry Moore continues to deliver some unexpected twists as the end of the world inches closer.

| Published by Abstract Studio

Giant Days: As Time Goes By #1 is a one-shot finale special from John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell. It picks up roughly a year from the end of the series, dealing with why Esther has been missing from their reunions. It’s full of all of the humour that we’ve been used to and hammers home the power of friendship. Also, it gets very, very weird. 

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

Harleen #2 works hard to portray Harley’s seduction by the Joker. Stjepan Šejić and Gabriela Downie portray it as an insidious, manipulative thing. It might appear romantic on the surface, but there’s definitely a darkness there. There are ideas of bringing back a monster from the edge of insanity, but the story makes you realize that some may well be beyond hope.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Hellboy and the BPRD: Long Night at Goloski Station might well be the best of these new format tales yet, and both of the previous ones were incredibly strong. Here Mike Mignola, Matt Smith, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins deliver a single issue story building on Hellboy’s confrontation with Baba Yaga, Sir Edward Grey, and demons. 

| Published by Dark Horse

Invisible Kingdom #6 begins the second arc, “Edge of Everything”, as the crew first try to find food and fuel and then run afoul of a salvage ship. G. Willow Wilson, Christian Ward, and Sal Cipriano keep things interesting as we start to see the crew’s life after Lux.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Invisible Woman #4 is disturbing, basically everything goes to hell and everyone that Sue was trusting to see this operation through has let her down. Or worse. Mark Waid, Mattia De Iulis, and Joe Caramagna set up a rather horrifying situation in this penultimate chapter. Again, De Iulis’ artwork is stunning. 

| Published by Marvel

Joker: Killer Smile #1 is essentially a psychological horror from Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Jordie Bellaire, and Steve Wands. It comes from the point of view of a psychiatrist, Dr. Ben Arnell, who is trying to get to the heart of Joker’s mental state. It’s not going so well and it appears like the good doctor is losing time, doing strange things, and possibly worse. Very intriguing beginning to this story.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Knights Temporal #4 has some stunning artwork from Fran Galán, particularly during the gangster sequences where colour comes into play as another important storytelling element. There are some very nice twists this issue, making you wonder about a lot of what we thought we knew.

| Published by AfterShock

The Last God #1 is dark fantasy done right by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Riccardo Federici, Sunny Gho, Dean White, Tom Napolitano, Steve Wands, and Jared Blando. It gives us lying kings, heroes who weren’t rightly heroes, and a Lovecraftian terror returned to show the truth. It plays deep on resentment and distrust, and of a complete failure of institutions to uphold a decent society. All with absolutely stunning artwork from Federici, Gho, and White. This is a beautiful, haunting work.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Last Stop on the Red Line #4 is very, very weird. We get a peek behind the masks of the monsters and it’s even stranger. There’s a very interesting mix of symbolism and the supernatural where we’re really not sure where one begins and the other ends. This was a very unique series from Paul Maybury, Sam Lotfi, and Adam Pruett.

| Published by Dark Horse

Mall #3 goes even harder into inter-faction warfare as it seems like all of the groups are at one another’s throats. Great world-building here from Michael Moreci, Gary Dauberman, Zak Hartong, Addison Duke, and Jim Campbell, with some interesting plot developments.

| Published by Vault

Manor Black #4 concludes the series as we see what essentially amounts to order vs. chaos as the old blood takes on wild magic. This doesn’t feel so much as a conclusion as an end to a chapter of a wider arc, leaving much unresolved. Hopefully we see more. The artwork from Tyler Crook is phenomenal.

| Published by Dark Horse

Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1 is really damn good. Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Leonard Kirk, Guru-eFX, and Travis Lanham kick off this series with a new angle on the Marvel Zombies, playing up more on the horror angle, with a truly terrifying spread of the disease through a new vector. Gorgeous artwork from Kirk and Guru-eFX.

| Published by Marvel

Monster Planet #1 is the kind of thing that you used to see regularly published by Image and Top Cow, the military action comic that throws in horror elements, from Joe Brusha, Marcelo Mueller, Maxflan Araujo, and Taylor Esposito. It’s not bad, setting up a world where humanity has been turned into dinosaur-like beasts and the remnants of society need to turn to classical monsters for help.

| Published by Zenescope

The Necromancer’s Map #3 takes a bit of a different approach, giving us a fair amount of action as Tristan’s Will catch up with Bethany and co. as well as some great character building in between the action. Great stuff from Andrea Fort, Michael Christopher Horn, Sam Beck, Ellie Wright, and AndWorld Design.

| Published by Vault

The Plot #2 is wonderful horror storytelling from Tim Daniel, Michael Moreci, Joshua Hixson, Jordan Boyd, and Jim Campbell. Very creepy build of supernatural events once Chase Blaine and his family arrive back at his ancestral home. Hixson and Boyd’s presentation of the black, gooey masses are also disturbing.

| Published by Vault

Queen of Bad Dreams #5 concludes this excellent series from Danny Lore, Jordi Pérez, Dearbhla Kelly, and AndWorld Design. Rather interesting confrontation with and revelations about Eleanor Chase here.

| Published by Vault

Red Goblin: Red Death #1 is a one-shot featuring three stories set during Norman Osborn’s tenure as the Red Goblin at the end of Dan Slott’s run on Amazing Spider-Man. It’s kind of weird that it doesn’t instead tie-in with current events in Absolute Carnage, but it’s not bad for what it is. The art of the first two stories from Pete Woods is great.

| Published by Marvel

Relics of Youth #2 is even better than the first issue, delving deeper into the mysterious tattoos that the kids have been branded with and their connection to the island that they’ve landed on within the Bermuda Triangle. Matt Nicholas, Chad Rebmann, Skylar Partridge, Vladimir Popov, and AndWorld Design are telling a very compelling adventure here.

| Published by Vault

Roku #1 begins another mini-series focusing on one of the luminary villains in the Valiant Universe, this one from Cullen Bunn, Ramón F. Bachs, Stéphane Paitreau, and Dave Sharpe. It’s full of action and intrigue as Roku is hired by an unknown client to retrieve...someone. Things get more interesting as a new face stands in her way and we find out the unusual nature of the target.

| Published by Valiant

The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer #1 is a homecoming of sorts for John Constantine, back to his old haunts alongside some of the other Vertigo corner of the DC Universe. Si Spurrier, Marcio Takara, Cris Peter, and Aditya Bidikar spin a yarn that reconstitutes John after a massive magic war led by an evil Tim Hunter. How exactly the pieces fit are anyone’s guess, but it’s a brilliant darker take resetting him here. 

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label / The Sandman Universe

Savage Avengers Annual #1, though largely a self-contained story, is still integral to Conan’s adventure through the Marvel universe and the overall narrative as he, Hellstorm, and Black Widow stumble across a human trafficking ring that bears the marks of Kulan Gath. Gerry Duggan, Ron Garney, Matt Milla, and Travis Lanham deliver a compelling story.

| Published by Marvel

SFSX #2 does further world and character building, showing us just how much has changed since the Party took over, and how utterly betrayed many of the people from the Dirty Mind felt of Avory abandoning them. Very interesting stuff from Tina Horn, Michael Dowling, Chris O’Halloran, and Steve Wands.

| Published by Image

Silver Surfer: Black #5 concludes what has been a very trippy series from Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles. There are some very interesting revelations of the past here, and it really makes you wonder about the Surfer’s new incarnation.

| Published by Marvel

Star Pig #4 concludes the series, kind of, from Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston, Sebastian Cheng, and Shawn Lee. There’s some rather disturbing tentacles in this one.

| Published by IDW

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #5 brings an end to this round of the series. I think it’s a perfect approach for some all ages “ghost stories” within the Star Wars universe. Wonderful resolution for the framing story from Cavan Scott, Francesco Francavilla, and AndWorld Design.

| Published by IDW

Tales from the Dark Multiverse: The Death of Superman #1 is the second of these one-shots spotlighting DC events gone horribly wrong, this time giving us a much angrier Lois Lane’s grief at the loss of Superman to Doomsday. Jeff Loveness, Brad Walker, Drew Hennessy, Norm Rapmund, John Kalisz, and Clayton Cowles present her as vengeance against a world that didn’t deserve Superman’s grace, raising some of the questions that you’d often see in The Authority. Only, you know, kind of evil. It’s not bad, but definitely dark.

| Published by DC Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #99 is the extra-sized penultimate chapter of “City at War” as all of the pieces begin falling into place for the grand finale. The story here from Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Dave Wachter, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee feels truly epic and that something huge may just happen next issue. As it is, there’s still a ton of action here, some interesting developments with the Rat King, more disappointment when it comes to Raph, and something new with the mutagenic bomb.

| Published by IDW

Test #5 is very strange. Christopher Sebela, Jen Hickman, Harry Saxon, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou end this story as Aleph and Laurel find one another and a new way is planted, but there’s still seeds of something going awry.

| Published by Vault

Venom #19 largely plays out the end bits for the Maker and Dylan’s portions of Absolute Carnage, with some very interesting revelations. It seems like even bigger seeds are being lain for future stories here. Great art from Iban Coello and Rain Beredo.

| Published by Marvel

Witchblade #16 gives us the fight between Alex and Haley, after a few distractions and discursions. The stakes are pretty high here and there are a few rather tense moments as it plays out. Beautiful art from Roberta Ingranata and Bryan Valenza.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Wonder Woman Annual #3 is largely a flashback tale, set five years ago as Wonder Woman and ARGUS attempt to extract an agent sent to infiltrate Gorilla City to see the legitimacy of Grodd’s rule. What Steve Orlando, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Hi-Fi, and Pat Brosseau do with is establish a new backstory and interpretation for a very old Wonder Woman foe in a fairly interesting way that even ties in to Event Leviathan. It may strain a bit of credibility for the villainous turn, but that will largely depend on the follow-up.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Archie 1955 #2, A Basketful of Heads #1, Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1, Chrononauts: Futureshock #1-4, Dead Man Logan #12, Fantastic Four: Grand Design #1, Fight Club 3 #10, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #13, Ironheart #11, James Bond 007 #12, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance #2, Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Alliance #4, Jughead’s Time Police #5, Kick-Ass #18, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44, Rick & Morty #55, The Ride: Burning Desire #5, Runaways #26, Star Trek: Year Five #7, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Annual #3, Star Wars Adventures #27, Superior Spider-Man #2, Tremor Dose, Warlord of Mars Attacks #5

Recommended Collections: Amazing Spider-Man: Red Goblin, Amber Blake - Volume 1, Black Science - Volume 9: No Authority But Yourself, Deadpool - Volume 3: Weasel Goes to Hell, Dept H. Omnibus - Volume 3: Decompressed & Lifeboat, Dick Tracy Forever, Hit-Girl - Volume 5, Jimmy’s Bastards - Volume 1: Year One, Lucifer Omnibus - Volume 1, Marvel Action: Spider-Man - Book 2: Spider-Chase, Punk Mambo, Spider-Gwen: Gwen Stacy, Star Trek: The Q Conflict, Symbiote Spider-Man, Thor - Volume 3: Wars End, Tony Stark: Iron Man - Volume 3: War of the Realms, Vamps: The Complete Collection, War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men, The Wild Storm - Volume 4

d. emerson eddy feels like stale, day old pepperoni pizza.

[eddycurrents]

Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore - “Dark and Terrible Deep”

Words: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie | Art: Sebastián Fiumara | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Abe Sapien #34 | June 2016

Collected in Abe Sapien - Volume 8: The Desolate Shore | Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible - Volume 2

Plot Summary:

Abe returns to the sunken temple where he initially found the stone that transformed him into his fishy state and has a most unexpected discussion with a long expected party.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything within the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - I love the juxtaposition of the dark waters that Abe is navigating in the present against the warm, yet ominous glow of the Oannes Society consulting the medium for the location of the sunken city that they think contains their god.

pg. 3 - Likewise that shift between the blues of the present and that weird pink glow for when Caul found the city and the “spirit” jellyfish. Sebastián Fiumara and Dave Stewart are really bringing it for this chapter. Not to say their work isn’t gorgeous always, but there’s a real...depth to the storytelling here.

pg. 4 - This transformation of the ruins into one of the ancient cities of the Hyperboreans is fascinating and rather unexpected.

pg. 5 - It’s also interesting to see that from the interview tapes, Strobl decided to go off to Saint-Sébastien. There’s almost a kind of parallel here between Abe going somewhere potentially full of light, though diminished, and another place full of darkness and death for the occultist.

pg. 6 - It’s horrifying to see anyone still remain after The Drowning. That there’s someone left to speak a warning makes it even more disturbing.

pg. 8 - Great art again here from Fiumara and Stewart. Just beautiful as the “spirit” appears to claim Strobl. Though, this does raise questions about the nature of the jellyfish that changed Abe. Whether the spirit indwells him, as it seemed to in the interviews with Bruttenholm, 

pg. 9 - The knowing smile here raises an eyebrow. Also, it’s a somewhat sad thing to be longing for the end, to be relieved that everything is over, or almost over. There’s a weariness here that we haven’t necessarily seen previously in his appearances.

pg. 10 - Though the cycles repeat, it’s fascinating here in the last rise of the Ogdru Hem, they were fought back. That’s a significant difference than what we’re seeing for this age. This time around, we seem to be seeing the “bad guys” win. The apocalypse may be slow moving, but humanity lost and something new is on the way.

pg. 11 - Also, I quite like the clarification and context for the cave-dwellers. We’ve seen this distinction before between them and the Hyperboreans, but it’s nice that it’s explained again along with the fate of many of their masters.

pg. 12 - I love how these panels look. The art, the colour, and the narration placement from Clem Robins. I also think it’s important still to see this progression of history with further context. Each repetition seems to bring about a different perspective and new information, creating a very fascinating broader picture of everything that potentially happened over time.

pg. 13 - This tie to Howards is neat. It does raise questions about timeframe, but it’s not necessarily something that will take you out of the narrative. 

Although the idea of the remaining Hyperboreans leaving to allow mankind to fend for themselves is interesting. It makes sense, but in other ways it does seem somewhat irresponsible, knowing that the evils that they themselves ultimately created or at least fed are still out there, waiting in the dark.

pg. 14 - It seems like pride will always be a downfall for many. A lesson we never seem to learn.

pg. 18 - This is a particularly stunning revelation about the shaman who has been popping up for quite some time through the narrative. It makes you wonder about his motivation. Whether or not he really is on “our side”. Couple that with relief at the world almost being over...

pg. 19 - And then finding out that the “spirit” that infused Abe was the other shaman. It makes the shaman’s statement make more sense, but it still raises questions about what’s there over in Saint-Sébastien. While the shaman/”spirit” jellyfish was drawn to the light, the water god thing there seems dark.

pg. 21 - I can understand why this would be a lot for Abe to process. Pretty deep to find out that the transformative property is an ancient spirit devoted to the light.

pg. 22 - Contrasted against whatever nightmare Strobl seems to be becoming.

Final Thoughts:

The art here from Sebastián Fiumara and Dave Stewart is incredible. The variety and depth of tone and atmosphere from wonder to abject horror is amazing, guiding us through the most unexpected origin of Abe’s “spirit” and the horrifying transformation of Strobl. 

This is a very interesting origin story, weaving in pieces of what we’ve already seen through this series and BPRD, introducing new elements in regards to the shaman who carried on the knowledge from the Hyperboreans. Not to mention the rather shocking revelation that he’s not exactly who we thought he was, but maybe possibly trying to make amends for breaking with his faith.

But, it’s not just Abe’s origin story, that’s what’s incredibly clever about this. It’s also Strobl’s into what might be some dark reflection of Abe. Or maybe a divine tonic to stop him, depending on the way you choose to look at it. It gives an even deeper kind of idea of nemesis for the occultist versus Abe.

d. emerson eddy knows that the night is getting darker, the world growing colder.

[eddycurrents]

Abe Sapien: The Desolate Shore - “Regressions”

Words: Mike Mignola & Scott Allie | Art: Max Fiumara | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Abe Sapien #32-33 | April-May 2016

Collected in Abe Sapien - Volume 8: The Desolate Shore | Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible - Volume 2

Plot Summary:

Abe visits Bruttenholm’s home in New York and listens to some old tapes of interview sessions he had, discovering that Bruttenholm knew bits of his past before he did. Then the occultist attacks.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything within the issues or collections.)

pg. 1 - These are some gorgeous establishing shots from Max Fiumara and Dave Stewart. Complete with the giant sinkhole that Liz created back in her battle with the Black Flame, New York is looking even more devastated than it was before. It’s terrifying to see such a beautiful, well-known city as NYC in this state. It reinforces how much of a nightmare the world has become.

pg. 2 - That derelict state just comes even further into view seeing the condition of Bruttenholm’s home. 

pg. 3 - Abe trying to find the hidden door is hilarious.

pg. 4 - This is interesting seeing Professor Bruttenholm keeping a whole load of interview tapes with Abe. Also adding a complication through the corroded batteries.

pg. 6 - I know there were some random people who were still living in NYC outside of Zinco’s realm of influence, but it’s interesting to see kids living on their own. You wonder how many of them escaped from Zinco’s farms. Not to mention what happened to those who survived from Zinco going down into the subway station.

pg. 7 - Still, this silent search for batteries really allows Fiumara and Stewart to show off a bit.

pg. 10 - Bruttenholm knowing about Caul before he went on his Cavendish expedition is a surprise revelation. It’s really weird that he didn’t share any of these discussions with Abe. It makes you wonder why he didn’t tell him, whether there was some sort of trepidation about Abe knowing the truth.

pg. 11 - Also, I think this bit of Abe reacting to Bruttenholm knowing about Caul isn’t anger or disappointment. He mentions again the Cavendishes, which ultimately led to Bruttenholm’s death. I think this is guilt, a sense of responsibility that Abe feels Bruttenholm’s death is his fault.

pg. 13 - So too with the information that they knew about the Oannes Society. It’s fascinating to see Abe’s history lain out like this with so much of the connective tissue.

pg. 14 - Strobl’s definitely creepy.

pg. 17 - The layout here, with the transitions between Abe and Caul during the interview is beautiful. It’s also interesting to see the connection, or rather lack thereof, between Caul and the experience that Abe had with the water god on Saint-Sebastien. 

pg. 18 - The slight change to a chalkier shadow, more akin to Jason Shawn Alexander’s work back in The Drowning, is very nice for this flashback.

pg. 19 - Again, this is just gorgeous work from Fiumara and Stewart.

pg. 20 - Same with the reveal of the jellyfish thing that Abe keeps seeing.

pg. 22 - So, Zinco’s still around NYC.

pg. 24 - Gorgeous reaction here. It’s interesting to see the idea that there are multiple things to make up Abe, not just a transformation of Caul. This seed that there’s a third aspect to Abe that we’ve not seen definitely raises questions.

pg. 26 - The parallel tales here between the occultist’s fight with Zinco versus Abe listening to the interviews is interesting. We’re getting into some pretty heavy revelations, so it’s kind of neat that there’s an action “distraction” in the flow of the storytelling. It adds a bit more tension to the overall flow.

pg. 27 - Vaughn taking out Zinco is impressive.

pg. 30 - This repetition of the priest and the discovery of the stone that ultimately turned Caul into Abe is interesting. It makes sense that something this important would be repeated, especially coming on the heels of the weird discussion with the third spirit speaking that Hyperborean language.

pg. 32 - Caul definitely seems testy about this whole thing.

pg. 33 - I also quite like the shift here again of the overlapping bits of the interview with what Strobl is doing.

pg. 35 - I love this. Vaughn breaking through Strobl’s control and shouting a warning to Abe. It reminds you of the entire tragedy of him being subverted.

pg. 36 - Poor Vaughn.

pg. 37 - Dave Stewart’s colours all through this have been fabulous. The shifts between the main narrative, its sequences, and the flashbacks are very evocative.

pg. 40 - Exploiting the spirit within Abe is fascinating. Just as we learned really of its existence within Abe.

pg. 41 - Abe being contained within the circle is one hell of an interesting development. How exactly is he going to get out of this one?

pg. 42 - And yet he does. Hmm...

pg. 44 - It would appear that this battle still isn’t over.

Final Thoughts:

You get the feeling here again of things ending, concurrent with the culmination of storylines in BPRD: Hell on Earth and Hellboy in Hell. As this story begins to come full circle with the first Abe Sapien mini-series and a confrontation with the occultist, Gustav Strobl. It’s really rather satisfying as pieces fall into place and we get a few more details on to how the narrative all fits together, explaining more of how Abe came to be.

I absolutely love how these three major narratives for Hellboy, Abe, and Liz have been developing. Not quite converging, but running parallel with major developments for all of them. It’s beautiful large scale storytelling from Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, and John Arcudi.

d. emerson eddy is full of turkey. Lots of turkey. And still has more turkey that has been turned into soup, turkey that will be turned into a casserole, and more turkey that will turkey turkey turkey...

[eddycurrents]

BPRD: Hell on Earth ~ Cometh the Hour - Chapter Four

Story: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi | Art: Laurence Campbell | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in BPRD: Hell on Earth #146 | October 2016

Collected in BPRD: Hell on Earth - Volume 15: Cometh the Hour | BPRD: Hell on Earth Omnibus - Volume 5

Plot Summary:

The remaining Bureau agents kind of go into a holding pattern following the destruction of the Colorado headquarters.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything found in the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - Fenix warned her.

pg. 3 - Seeing that it was another monster falling to Earth, possibly one of the Dragon’s spawns I think, gives more context as to what exactly happened to cause the destruction of the Colorado HQ. Definitely not pretty.

pg. 4 - The first angels fighting the dragon, though, very pretty. Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart continue to make this just epic.

pg. 5 - It’s kind of cute that Varvara is still hanging on to hope. As she talks to Iosif’s puddle, though, you realize that she too is thoroughly insane. That was kind of true before she was bound beneath a dome, but it’s absolutely true now. This isn’t going to be good if she wins, or if she somehow still survives this conflict and doesn’t wind up a dragon snack.

pg. 6 - This is a very sad confirmation of the deaths.

pg. 7 - It’s sad to think of Liz blaming Johann for their deaths, though I basically thought similar as to blaming herself for sleeping while Kate and Panya died.

pg. 9 - There’s also a reiteration here of Johann’s current state. That he’s essentially sealed within the Sledgehammer suit, that his usual medium ectoplasmic powers don’t work anymore, and that his death is a real possibility without his old containment suits. 

It’s also interesting to see Nichols acting more like a decent human being again. It’s funny how death can do that to a person.

pg. 10 - The giants don’t seem to be faring so well...

pg. 12/13 - This double page spread reinforces how incredibly screwed everyone seems to be. Varvara’s plan failed and well...when you’ve thrown even the people who created the Dragon (and just part of the overall Ogdru Jahad, this is just 1/7th) at it and they got spanked, what’s left?

pg. 15 - It’s still weird to see Fenix essentially being more mature than everyone else.

pg. 16 - Two of your best friends dead. But at least they were together. Still a bitter pill. Tian’s definitely not sugar coating anything.

pg. 18 - There’s a bittersweet feeling from Johann killing the monster that destroyed the headquarters.

pg. 19 - There’s a really fascinating idea here about power and impotence. That despite having near infinite power, you still can’t save everyone. Especially people that you care about. You see it explored from time to time, but it really hits home here. Certainly from the fact that the only thing that stopped Redding as Sledgehammer was his own faltering when he was unable to save his friend.

pg. 22 - The idea of Johann reanimating corpse after corpse as the world goes through its death throes is a frightening concept. It kind of makes me wish there had have been a Johann: Corpse Jumper series between Cometh the Hour and the ultimate end.

pg. 24 - I know Redding is trying to get Johann to let go himself and dissolve into the infinite, but you’ve got to wonder what he saw.

Final Thoughts:

This one might anger people when a critical point hits them. The deaths of Kate and Panya definitely give a blow. It’s a hard thing to process on its own of the death of two beloved characters, especially one who has been there almost from the beginning and was such a backbone to the entire Bureau and the story. That’s the first gut punch. It gets you sad, as incredibly effective characters and storytelling, you feel grief when your favourites die.

But then the anger hits when you realize something else. Kate knew. I mean, the previous chapter Panya essentially decided that it was her own time to pass, and sure it came out of nowhere, but it did kind of make sense for a several thousand year old to just want everything to end. For Kate...she was the glue that kept everything together. The one single person who was still manning the ship and keeping the lights on. You expect her to fight. I know, this kind of situation would be hard, friends and family dying left and right, the world coming apart at the seams, but for 20 years, she was the fighter, you’d think she’d go down with the ship.

So, when you realize that through Fenix she knew that the headquarters was going to get hit, and was warned about it, this stopped being just a sad incident where a beloved character got caught in a rogue explosion or monster falling from the sky. It became suicide by monster.

That’s a rough one to deal with. It’s understandable the stress of the entire situation that someone would just want to give up. Like Johann basically wanted to do earlier, what Redding did previously, even Roger the Homunculus kind of did choosing to remain in his own private world, it’s not new subject matter for the overall Hellboy universe or even the BPRD: Hell on Earth series, but it doesn’t make it easier. 

It’s hard when one of your favourite characters dies in such a fashion, without a fight, seemingly without reason, just as it tends to make very little sense when it happens in real life. Ultimately that sadness and anger that the story generates here is a testament to the creators, making you feel something. Reminding you that this story has stakes and that the world is ending. There are no feel good moments here, just an oncoming emptiness.

d. emerson eddy is forever in debt to your priceless advice.

[eddycurrents]

BPRD: Hell on Earth ~ Cometh the Hour - Chapter Three

Story: Mike Mignola & John Arcudi | Art: Laurence Campbell | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in BPRD: Hell on Earth #145 | September 2016

Collected in BPRD: Hell on Earth - Volume 15: Cometh the Hour | BPRD: Hell on Earth Omnibus - Volume 5

Plot Summary:

Liz and Johann run interference as the Bureau evacuates their compound. Panya runs an escape plan for her pretties. And Varvara and Iosif return from Hell with their newfound friends.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything found in the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - The world is ending and they’re running for their lives, Nichols is still an asshole. It’s a wonder that he still had a job after what he pulled previously over Johann, it becomes even more apparent here with direct insubordination over Bruiser.

pg. 2 - The return of the UN liaison couldn’t have been timelier to take care of the puppy. 

pg. 3 - Fair weather kitty. Given the kitty and pelican monkey’s presence still, the other hybrids are still there too, I find it hard to believe the government wouldn’t have a contingency plan for animals too. Animal rights groups would be all up in their face if they found out that the squid hippo wasn’t treated fairly.

pg. 4 - I’m still absolutely loving the Liz and Johann scenes this arc. Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart are incredible.

pg. 5 - The burnout is real.

pg. 6 - More phenomenal art here. It also really seems like Redding is still trying to get Johann to let go and give up. While it seemed like Johann was indeed beginning to check out in the first chapter, it’s got to be difficult to keep things together when you literally have a voice in your head telling you to hang up your boots.

pg. 8 - This is harsh, though it definitely points out as to what Nichols would be doing to the dog.

pg. 10 - You get the impression that Panya isn’t planning on leaving here. Someone doesn’t just disable access and lock everyone else out if their only plan is to jailbreak some animals.

pg. 13 - Run free! Though, when you think about it, if the Dragon, the Ogdru Hem, and the other monsters are on their way towards the BPRD’s headquarters, wouldn’t the animals roaming free in their path just wind up as some unfortunate snacks? I’m not sure this was the best plan.

pg. 14 - Panya suddenly questioning why she’s still alive kind of comes out of nowhere. Yes, it is a sensible character point, but in the narrative there was no build.

pg. 15 - This is indeed a very sweet character moment, though.

pg. 16 - And then that...woof. We don’t see the bodies, so...maybe? Not seeing the end result here yet is a definite hook to keep you coming back for the next chapters.

pg. 17 - If Kate and Panya are indeed dead, Liz is never going to forgive herself that she wasn’t there, fighting, when it happened.

pg. 18 - Nichols going back is interesting.

pg. 20/21 - The scope of this double-page spread is incredible as the Hell Giants rise to face off against the Dragon.

pg. 23 - Seeing the first Watchers, what happened to them, and their potential for revenge against their own creation is a fascinating development.

pg. 24 - Oof. Poor Iosif... It still makes you wonder why Varvara was being so kind before and not immediately taking Iosif out. Though, is subjecting someone to oblivion when the afterlife itself is crumbling apart not perhaps a small mercy?

Final Thoughts:

There it is, the death of hope. Or at lest possibly the deathblow, it might take a bit longer for it to bleed out. Granted, there are still questions about whether there’s a way out of this for some of our favourites, continuing to wonder whether or not there’s some sort of survival. Whether or not Varvara’s initiative will pan out or the Dragon will just kill them too.

Two more chapters until the end of Hell on Earth, so anything can happen still.

d. emerson eddy feels like waffles.

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 19 August 2019

Quick Bits:

Aquaman #51 continues “Amnesty” as Aquaman, and now Aqualad, help the elder sea gods move in to their new home on Amnesty Island. There’s a lot of character building and reflection throughout this story and definitely feels like a calm before the storm hinted at by the cliffhanger and the “Year of the Villain” material. Kelly Sue DeConnick, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles are continuing to deliver one of DC’s best comics.

| Published by DC Comics

Bad Reception #1 isn’t a bad start to this horror series fully written, illustrated, and lettered by Juan Doe. The title is a clever play on both concepts in the story of no connectivity to social media and on a wedding reception. Utilizing a highly publicized wedding event that’s being promoted as “off the grid” to potentially commit a murder (or whatever actually happens at the wedding or after) is an interesting hook.

| Published by AfterShock

Bettie Unbound #3 sends her to Mars this go around to land smack in the middle of a conflict. Things only seem to go downhill from there. Great art from Julius Ohta, Ellie Wright, and Sheelagh D.

| Published by Dynamite

Black Mask: Year of the Villain #1 gives us Luthor’s offer and gift to Black Mask from Tom Taylor, Cully Hamner, Dave Stewart, and Wes Abbott. It nicely gives us some insight into Black Mask’s childhood, before changing him into essentially a parallel to a Marvel villain. There’s also a bit of a new status quo for Batwoman.

| Published by DC Comics

Blade Runner 2019 #2 continues to be a wonderful ride from Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Andres Guinaldo, Marco Lesko, and Jim Campbell. This is still a wonderful exploration of the tone and feel of the Blade Runner franchise in an entirely different setting with different people. 

| Published by Titan

Bloodborne #14 is going to mess with you as “The Veil, Torn Asunder” continues and our protagonist this arc keeps breaking with reality. It’s disturbing and unnerving, perfect for this series. Piotr Kowalski and Brad Simpson’s art just seems to keep getting better and better here too.

| Published by Titan

Bronze Age Boogie #5 is fairly insane as this penultimate issue careens through the past with a rather nasty battle between humanity and the Martian forces. The artwork from Alberto Ponticelli and Giulia Brusco is incredible. The back-up featuring “Moon-Thing” this issue from Stuart Moore, Shawn Crystal, Lee Loughridge, and Rob Steen is also great.

| Published by Ahoy

Canto #3 has some more interesting twists and revelations as this beautiful fable continues to unfold from David M. Booher, Drew Zucker, Vittorio Astone, and Deron Bennett. Continuing to build the story on storytelling is wonderful and your perspective on the slavers might change.

| Published by IDW

Criminal #7 pushes “Cruel Summer” forward as we get Ricky Lawless’ perspective on Teeg and Jane’s relationship and how it, and pretty much everything else, is ruining his life. Very interesting development of Ricky’s youth as he becomes more and more of a jerk.

| Published by Image

Deadpool Annual #1 is a heartfelt and funny story as Deadpool explains why he’s better than Squirrel Girl from Dana Schwartz, Reilly Brown, Nelson DeCastro, Craig Yeung, Matt Herms, Guru-eFX, and Joe Sabino. Actually, it’s more about Deadpool helping a young kid deal with Nightmare, featuring a hilarious trip through Nightmare’s realm, and a horrifying realization. It’s also really nice to see Reilly Brown back at doing some Deadpool.

| Published by Marvel

Death’s Head #2 is more glorious madness as Death’s Head, “Vee”, Wiccan, and Hulkling try to work out who’s going to be parts or who’s going to face Dr. Evelyn Necker (the alternate reality doctor who made Death’s Head II and apparently eventually this upgrade Death’s Head V) from Tini Howard, Kei Zama, Felipe Sobreiro, and Travis Lanham, yes?

| Published by Marvel

Eve Stranger #3 gives us some deep revelations on Eve’s past, her parents, and how she came to live with Delilah. David Barnett, Philip Bond, Eva de la Cruz, Lee Loughridge, and Jane Heir continue to deliver a deeply funny thriller here.

| Published by IDW / Black Crown

Excellence #4 deals with the fallout of the battle between Spencer and Aaron. It’s nasty, and further reinforces just how much Spencer’s father is a jerk. It’s interesting as to how layered and complicated that Brandon Thomas, Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, and Deron Bennett are making this world, and yet the key motivating factors are still some of the most simple, basic human interactions and how we hurt one another.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Fairlady #5 is a rough one to end this on. Don’t get me wrong, this story is great. Brian Schirmer, Claudia Balboni, Marissa Louise, Lesley Atlansky, and David Bowman deliver another interesting mystery with gorgeous art, and an interesting tie to a previous issue, but the build up for an even broader mystery hurts. It hints at possibilities that may never be answered because this series is now cancelled. Still, this was great while it lasted.

| Published by Image

Ghost Spider #1 is a direct continuation from the previous Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider series, from Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, Ian Herring, and Clayton Cowles. As Gwen moves to the 616 to go to school, I guess it makes sense to relaunch the series with a new number 1, but, as said, it’s still continuing on the same story with the same creative team. Thankfully it’s a great creative team and story, so it’s well worth picking up.

| Published by Marvel

Guardians of the Galaxy #8 is heartbreaking. Donny Cates, Cory Smith, David Curiel, and Cory Petit continue “Faithless” as we learn what’s going on with Rocket. It ties together much of his past with his Guardians tales and his current condition. Very nice character moments.

| Published by Marvel

Hellboy and the BPRD: Saturn Returns #1 begins a new historical mini from Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Christopher Mitten, Brennan Wagner, and Clem Robins. This one’s set in 1975, but spans a wide time period as they discover more and more bodies. The mystery set up of who’s committing the murders is quite compelling, especially with the pseudo-occult drawings likely to have been drawn to give a misleading impression of the murders. But the real gold is in the character development, looking at how Liz Sherman is adjusting to some of her early years at the Bureau.

| Published by Dark Horse

History of the Marvel Universe #2 is again worth it alone for the absolutely stunning artwork from Javier Rodríguez and Álvaro López. Like the first issue, it’s a dry read, but it can be fascinating as Mark Waid, Rodríguez, López, and Joe Caramagna guide us through Marvel’s history.

| Published by Marvel

Killer Groove #4 is kind of messed up as everything practically goes to hell. I love the approach to flashbacks and hallucinations this issue, keeping the main characters in full colour while the rest are a grey wash. Really neat effect from Eoin Marron and Jordie Bellaire.

| Published by AfterShock

Last Stop on the Red Line #3 is still one of the most unique series on the stands, even as it gets weirder and more straight-forward as the secrets and truth start potentially sliding into place. The art from Sam Lotfi and John Rauch is incredible.

| Published by Dark Horse

Livewire #9 kicks off a new arc from Vita Ayala, Tana Ford, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Saida Temofonte, building on Amanda’s confrontation with PSEP and adding a new wrinkle on politics. It’s interesting to see the problem from the political perspective and addresses some of the issues that naturally arise from a government program sanctioned to abduct and murder children.

| Published by Valiant

Middlewest #10 introduces us to Abel’s grandfather and it goes about as well as you’d expect. More toxic masculinity, more “be a man” and “embrace your anger” nonsense, leaving Abel a confused and scared child. Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos are continuing to tell a very strong story here of abuse and survival in a magical realist way.

| Published by Image

Outpost Zero #12 asks some very important questions as it demonstrates that a portion of the colony certainly would rather keep their heads buried in the sand, ignoring the potential of alien life and secrets from their past, rather than confront possibilities of their future. Great character work here from Sean Kelley McKeever.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Pearl #12 concludes the series (for now at least) with some explosions, gun fights, and a new kind of order. Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, and Joshua Reed have really been telling a compelling crime thriller here, offbeat and with some oblique humour, with impressive artwork.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

Psi-Lords #3 is another beautifully illustrated issue by Renato Guedes. This series is worth it even just for the artwork. We also get further backstory on the genesis of the Psi-Lords and the Starwatchers and the reason for sending the “Astro-Friends” to the Gyre. And some may not be what they seem.

| Published by Valiant

Savage Sword of Conan #8 continues “Conan the Gambler” from Jim Zub, Patch Zircher, Java Tartaglia, and Travis Lanham. There’s a great build of tension as Conan plays his game of cards and a wonderful twist as we go into the finale next issue. Nice detail on the trump cards.

| Published by Marvel

Strayed #1 is a very strong debut from Carlos Giffoni, Juan Doe, and Matt Krotzer. It’s a rather interesting concept of harnessing communication with a cat who can astral project, coupled with the horrors of humanity colonizing alien worlds. Stunning artwork from Doe.

| Published by Dark Horse

Stronghold #5 is a very interesting conclusion to this series, giving more information on the true nature and history of Michael, and setting up the potential for more stories somewhere down the road. Gorgeous artwork from Ryan Kelly and Dee Cunniffe.

| Published by AfterShock

Superior Spider-Man #10 sees much of Otto’s past come back to haunt him as his identity as the former Doctor Octopus goes public and he searches for who is trying to ruin his new life as San Francisco’s Spider-Man. Very nice build on Spider-Geddon and the most nightmare inducing character from therein from Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles.

| Published by Marvel

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #2 is another fun issue from Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Nathan Fairbairn, and Clayton Cowles. We get more on Jimmy’s family, his legacy, and Superman’s secret super powers, but it also introduces the next sensation who should be lighting up the charts, Pawquaman.

| Published by DC Comics

Teen Titans #33 elaborates on Luthor’s offer to Lobo. We also get more on the current state of the team and on just how far, and rather villainous, Damian and Djinn’s actions are now in regards to how they’re dealing with criminals. Adam Glass has been taking the team down a dark road for a while now and I’m interested to see how this blows up.

| Published by DC Comics

Transformers ‘84 #0 is a bit of an oddity, reuniting the Regeneration One team of Simon Furman and Guido Guidi to celebrate the 35th anniversary. It’s a one-shot tale set in nebulous continuity detailing trying to discover the Ark in medieval Earth. Great art from Guidi and John-Paul Bove.

| Published by IDW

Valkyrie #2 is another great issue from Jason Aaron, Al Ewing, CAFU, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Sabino as Jane takes on Bullseye. It’s a pretty epic battle, beautifully illustrated, that looks like it’s going to have some interesting ramifications.

| Published by Marvel

Vampirella #2 is liable to divide people further on this new run as it leans heavier into sex & violence and reveals Vampirella’s therapist as a potential misogynist with very problematic diagnoses for mental conditions. I mean, I don’t think “crazy vampire bitch” is anywhere in the DSM-5. Great art from Ergün Gündüz, though.

| Published by Dynamite

The Weatherman vol. 2 #3 reveals more information about the virus plaguing Earth and sets up even more problems in the way of Nathan, Cross, and co.’s attempt to restore Nathan’s memories. Gorgeous artwork from Nathan Fox and Moreno Dinisio. 

| Published by Image

Other Highlights: Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool #1, Batman #77, Daredevil #10, Faithless #5, Fearless #2, The Goon #4, Grumble #9, James Bond 007 #10, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #12, Jughead’s Time Police #3, Lucifer #11, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #6, Marvel Comics Presents #8, New World, Powers of X #3, Red Sonja: Birth of the She-Devil #3, The Ride: Burning Desire #3, Spider-Man: City at War #6, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #35, Star Wars: Tie Fighter #5, Star Wars Adventures #24, Tony Stark: Iron Man #15, Warlord of Mars Attacks #3, Wonder Woman: Come Back to Me #2

Recommended Collections: Age of X-Man: Marvelous X-Men, Age of X-Man: NextGen, Bloodborne - Volume 3: Song of Crows, Corto Maltese: The Early Years, The Curse of Brimstone - Volume 2: Ashes, Hawkeye: Private Eye, Klaus - Volume 1: How Santa Claus Began, Meet the Skrulls, Ophiucus, Saga Compendium - Volume 1, Spawn: Enemy of the State, Star Wars - Volume 11: The Scourging of Shu-Torun, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Villains, War of the Realms: Strikeforce, X-Men: Grand Design - X-Tinction

d. emerson eddy would like to be a mongoose dog.