[continued from previous message]   
      
   way to The World To Come.  Anyway, the interwoven flashbacks continue, this   
   time focusing more on Ross than on T'Challa, although I think part of the   
   plot got bobbled along the way, relying on the text piece timeline at the end   
   to clarify.  I get the impression that #3 will focus mostly on T'challa's   
   successor, now that his origin has been told this issue.  Mildly recommended.   
   $4.99   
      
        Moon Knight #10: Marvel - This is Legacy Number 250, so it's a big   
   double-sized special in which MacKay brings in a bunch of old Moon Knight   
   foes he hasn't yet brought back (and who are still alive, so the pool is   
   pretty shallow at this point).  Big running battle to bring down Fairchild,   
   with everyone getting a dance partner and Tigra getting to snark about 70s   
   and early 80s villain design.  The ending is a bit anticlimactic, I guess the   
   real resolution is being saved for #12.  Still, even though some ends are   
   left loose, thematically Fairchild is Dealt With and bad fashion choices are   
   punished.  Recommended.  $4.99   
      
        Moon Knight #11: Marvel - This issue is the fiftieth anniversary of Moon   
   Knight's first (heavily retconned now) appearance in Werewolf by Night, which   
   calls for an in-story birthday party for Marc (who is canonically fifty years   
   old now according to this story, although he's died and come back enough   
   times that he joins Magneto in the "doesn't look that old" club).  Of course,   
   with #12 coming up next, it's merely a breather before the next Big Issue,   
   and the hits are gonna keep coming.  The art is also by a different person   
   than #10, who had to deal with a oversized issue and might be up for another   
   oversized #12.  Still, as a breather, it still manages to accomplish some   
   things in terms of character development and resolving matters.  Recommended.   
   $3.99   
      
        Sonja Reborn #1 (of 6): Dynamite - My second Priest comic this month, it   
   marks his return to Hyperboria after a rather long absence (he worked on the   
   King Conan book as one of his first serious gigs at Marvel).  On the one   
   hand, this isekai takes the piss out of a lot of Sonja's tropes, as a modern   
   British woman named Maggie Sutherland ends up falling through a plot hole   
   (well, a hole that is a plot point) and waking up as Sonja, in a deliberate   
   echo of the very first Conan story.  Priest keeps it deliberately vague   
   whether this is a "really happening" isekai (think the Wizard of Oz books,   
   where Dorothy really did go to Oz) or a "hallucination after having been   
   knocked unconscious" isekai (like the Wizard of Oz movie, where it was all a   
   dream...spoiler warning, I guess?).  Even the short scene not from Maggie's   
   POV involving what seem to be divine avatars only puts a thumb on the scale,   
   since they could also be creating all this around Maggie for Reasons.  Either   
   way, as vicious as Maggie might be by modern standards, she doesn't exactly   
   react well to being surrounded by disemboweled corpses that she's told she   
   helped make.  In any case, no connection to any other current Red Sonja books   
   by other authors, or to the movie that came out this year.  Artist Miracolo's   
   style seems better suited to horror than fantasy, but at least the Stjepan   
   Sejic looks good.  A decent start story-wise, although I suspect Maggie's   
   "British" dialogue might make actual Brits cringe a bit.  Recommended.   
   $4.99, rated Teen.   
      
        Vampirella #3-4 (Legacy 678-9): Dynamite - Third Priest, and second to   
   have an alternate future where a supposed hero is responsible for a global   
   dictatorship (although in World To Come is more of a "screwed up bad"   
   responsibility, while Vampi's potential future self set out to conquer the   
   world on purpose).  I will say, it was a bit jarring to have the Sacred Six   
   portalling in and starting to throw magic around in #4 only to turn the page   
   and get a two page ad for the Wizard of Oz comic...because that sort of thing   
   happening as a continuation of the actual story could not be ruled out   
   entirely.  Like, okay, Vampi's in Oz, I can work with that.  Anyway, over the   
   course of these two issues, Cicero finishes telling Doc Chary his story, with   
   selected scenes from the coming world, leaving it pretty clear that if not   
   stopped Vampirella will doom the world while trying to save it.  This is a   
   Priest story, though, so it's never that simple, and it looks like #5 will   
   present an opposing interpretation of events (it's not too hard to see Cicero   
   being cast as the bad guy, even from the things he admitted himself, so   
   that'll probably get leaned on).  I'd recommend reading the trade, though,   
   because this is like one of those Lego-knockoff models where it's really   
   unstable until you're almost done and everything locks together.  $4.99 each,   
   rated Teen.   
      
        Star Trek Lower Decks #10: IDW - The first non-North arc wraps up, and   
   Sheridan does check off the various "why this plot device isn't stupid or   
   easily dismissed" boxes, but...a lot of the Wacky Stuff feels forced, like   
   Sheridan has a list of background gags and B-plots and is just tossing them   
   in to fill space.  Competent, I suppose, but there was precisely one gag that   
   really landed for me.  I'll give the post-North era one more arc, but if it   
   doesn't work better I'll be dropping this.  (My pull agreement might make me   
   buy a couple issues beyond that, but I wouldn't review 'em.)  Very mildly   
   recommended.  $4.99   
      
      
   Gatchaman - Joe: Bloodline one-shot: Mad Cave - Joe is an orphan, his parents   
   killed by Galactor, something he has in common with most of the core team   
   (although the fact Ken's father is still secretly alive as the captain of Red   
   Impulse is not something that the current comics have touched upon yet).   
   This one-shot has him get a lead on a possible cousin, and while it's   
   probably a trap, he can't just ignore the tiny tiny chance of finding some   
   family.  Along the way, Steve Orlando REALLY leans into the Gatchaman schtick   
   of nothing using real world place names...the opening scene has Joe driving   
   across not-America just...to get some scenery, I guess, since the main story   
   takes place in not-Italy, particularly not-Palermo (probably, although it   
   could be based on a different Italian city).  I wonder if they'll ever   
   publish a Gatchaman Gazetteer that places all these locations on a map.   
   Anyway, a good story about following your heart even when your head KNOWS   
   it's a bad idea...but also not being stupid about the way the heart gets   
   followed.  Recommended.  $6.99, rated Teen   
      
        Gatchaman #11: Mad Cave - Another one-shot filler story with no   
   connection to the ongoing arcs. written by Sam Humphries.  The team goes on a   
   fishing trip, only to have it interrupted by a Galactor cuttlefish mecha that   
   makes a typhoon.  The core series continues to be much weaker than the   
   one-shots and limited series, sometimes it feels like Humphries is just going   
   through a childhood notebook of Spectre/Galactor robot monster OCs and trying   
   to work them all into the comic.  Mildly recommended.  $4.99, rated Teen.   
      
        Expected next time: Probably a skip month, as only five of my titles   
   actually shipped in September after the current batch got mailed to me.   
   Well, I should have a new-to-me Matt Feazell thing I just ordered online, I   
   guess that's floppy.   
      
      
        Dave Van Domelen, "None of my childhood dreams came true.  All I've got   
   left...is this promise." - Kafka, Kaiju No. 8 vol 14   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)