#rumours are city of the dead is a run-up for pepose taking over

[thevelominati]

I feel like I need to re-read it but my intial read was: no, thank you. Like, there are moments where Pepose seems to get the characters, but then the rest of the time it's just a total swing and a miss. The narration boxes just don't work, it's almost like Pepose is trying to lean into a Huston-esque portrayal of MK when the dramatism that Mackay's been leaning into just doesn't quite work with that. Yes, Marc is violent but that's not all there is. There are layers and depths to what he does and why he does it and Pepose just didn't really ... hit on any of those.

I'm also, like, really confused about his reading on the Badr-MK relationship. Maybe like, 10 issues or so ago in the Mackay run it'd have worked but not so much now .

Totally ignoring the existence of Greer lmfao

And I love Layla as a character but how she's been brought into the comics just doesn't quite work for me. I'm just really not sure on how we're supposed to read the importance of his relationship with Layla vs the importance of his relationships Marlene and Frenchie, and even Lisa! And the impact each of those has had on Marc and co. as a character and his personal development. It's just so weird to be told that Layla was so PIVOTAL to Marc's past and yet - for obvious reasons - that's not been shown once over the last forty-odd years of comics. There are ways to bring in a character and have them be important but, fam, this ain't it. This just ain't it.

GOD and "every night I try to forget". NO. the point is that Marc DOESN'T try to forget. he wants to make up for what he's done and that involves NOT forgetting what he's done. like, he kept hold of the files on both himself/his activities as a mercenary, his victims and the people he worked for FOR YEARS. he revisited them periodically in the Moench run, he re-visited them in the Huston/Benson run. He can't let himself forget what he's done!!

(Which is also part of why I'm not sure Layla's introduction quite works for me. The idea that her death led him to Bushman when it's always kind of been established that Marc was awful before Bushman and he didn't really need help into falling into questionable depths, and *then* his conscience was like LOL HOLD UP A MINUTE FAM.)