 Noteworthy
Items:
by DAVID
BIRD
Part I: Origins
We've finished a JLA three parter, the first book end, seven
minis, and now we are at the end. When this issue first came
out the word I used to sum it all up was “cacophony” -
it was jarring, discordant. One thing happened, then another,
then another. This is where all the pieces come together, but
like the heroes themselves, their stories never come together.
It never forms a simple, singular, story arc. One thing that
does run through the whole issue, though, is the virtuosity
shown by J. H. Williams III. Often touted as the best artist
in mainstream comics, he does some great work for this issue,
both in his own style and in mimicking the styles of several
others.
p 01 We start at the beginning, in Slaughter Swamp. One of
the Unknown Men is narrating; talking to someone we can’t
see. This sequence is done in Williams’ own style. The
Time Tailor is wearing a DC logo tie pin. Outside he can hear
a lynch mob after Cyrus Gold. He has something to do, some
tailoring, but while he’s at it he will tell the other
person a story: the story of the Seven Soldiers. “Destined
to save the world from an evil queen, yet never meet.” Which
reminds him of the story of the seven angels; one fell and
was judged by the others. But his listener knows that story.
The Time Tailors weave the thread of fate through the universe,
creating lives. Actually, there are a great many orders of
seven angels, of Watcher angels, left to oversee creation,
and of fallen angels. Morrison has a great deal of myth to
draw on here, and perhaps, if he’d been able to publish
his entire script, he might have, but we’re on to the
story of the Seven Soldiers.
p 02 Our narrator leaps ahead a billion years to where Frankenstein
#4 left off. Frankie has just destroyed the Sheeda armada,
but the Queen is still confident. She has her cauldron, which
means she can live forever, and she has her time machines.
She will simply rebuild her fleet and return to the 21st century
as though the Monster had never attacked. It’s hard to
overcome someone who has overcome the limitations of time itself.
She tells her attendants to send soldiers with witch-brands
after Frankie and to call her huntsman home. We’ve seen
the witch-brands before. The people of Limbo Town used them
to control their grundified forefathers, and Melmoth used one
to control Frankenstein on Mars (Frank being a form of grundy).
It’s a logical way to gain control of the situation.
Her huntsman is identified as “our undead spider.” Apparently,
I, Spyder has replaced the now dead Neh-buh-loh. Gloriana’s
only fear is the prophesied seven, and… she sees no
seven. She’s about to bathe in her restoring cauldron,
when out of it pops Justina (yes, Justin is Justina now). We
saw her hiding in Frankenstein #4 and somehow she’s managed
to get into the cauldron itself. Interestingly, this page is
drawn in the style of Simone Bianchi, Shining Knight’s
artist, and not Frankenstein’s Doug Mahnke. Perhaps that’s
a clue that Justina coming. Before going any further, however,
we jump back from one billion AD to forty thousand BC.
pp 03-07 This next sequence is drawn in the style of Jack
Kirby, whose legacy has been all over this series. Now we get
the New Gods terrifying Neanderthals in true Chariot of the
Gods fashion. Orion, Metron, and Ligthray swoop down on fleeing
primitives. While it may not seem like it, this is the beginning
of Justina’s story. And Alix’s. The New Gods, led
by “O’Ryan” create the four cities – Falias,
Findias, Murias, and Gorias – which have their basis
in Celtic myth, and were introduced to us through the Shining
Knight mini. It’s odd that Orion is called O’Ryan
here. O’Ryan is the name he adopted when he came to earth
in the earliest New Gods tales. It’s also Irish, which
fits into the Celtic theme. Morrison gives him the title “Silver
Arm” which belonged to the legendary Irish king Nuada
Airgetlám, whose sword was one of the Four Treasures
brought from the city of Findias.
What do the New Gods do on Earth? They create a hero, the
original superhero, Aurakles, by combining traits of “space
god and Neanderthal warrior.” How this is done, exactly,
isn’t explained, but we are shown him rising from a vat
that gives off a green energy akin to the cauldron, and we
see that his brain has been altered somehow. Once this is done
Aurakles is given the task of creating order and subduing the
666 Monsters of Chaos. The number 666 comes from the New Testament
book The Revelations of St. John, chapter 13, verses 16-18:
Quote:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their
foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that
had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of
his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a
man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
What the number refers to has been the subject of centuries
of speculation. The most likely explanation is that it represents
the name Caesar Nero, Emperor Nero, whose name has the numerical
value of six hundred and sixty six according to the number
values given to Hebrew letters. The reference to commerce may
refer to the tight control many guilds had over those who practiced
their given trade. If a person would not participate in such
activities as emperor worship, they could not earn their living.
Of course, the number 666 has come to mean so many things,
all of them bad, that it’s most likely that Morrison
picked it just to add its associations to the Monsters of Chaos – one
of whom, apparently, is Neh-buh-loh. We’re given no origin
for the monsters, but stories of champions defeating the forces
of chaos – such as the Babylonian Marduk’s defeat
of Tiamat –abound.
To accomplish his task, the New Gods give him seven treasures:
the Sword, Caliburn Ex Calibur; the Cauldron of Rebirth; the
Fatherbox, which we know of as Croatoan; the Hammer, perhaps
the one used to split the atom; the Merlin, Zee’s ideal
man; Pegazeus, the forefather of all flying horses; and the
Spear, whose name is both Love and Vengeance. In a moment we’ll
learn that the Spear is a riddle that Arthur was “too
callow” to guess, but you won’t have to. I’ll
give you the answer now. It’s his progeny. Technically,
its penis, but his penis isn’t a weapon, Full Metal Jacket
notwithstanding. The product of his love – his children
and his children’s children and his children’s
children’s… etc – will go on fighting the
good fight, bringing vengeance to his enemies and brining order
to the chaos. This could refer to all the heroes that follow.
It does refer to a specific member of our Seven Soldiers team,
who has already been told that she is. ‘the spear that
was never thrown.’
Things go very well for Neanderthal civilization. In spite
of their affection for Robert E. Howard inspired décor,
they become so technologically advanced that they are able
to build time machines. Which is a bad thing. It’s found
by “the Scavenger-King Melmoth, of the Sheeda” who
creates his own time machines and returns to destroy Aurakles’ world
in the First Harrowing. The advanced technology used by the
Sheeda is actually very, very old.
Before turning the page and jumping ahead thirty thousand
years, I’d like to give Morrison and Williams credit
for their redheaded hero. No doubt Aurakles was given red hair
as a means to tying him into his red haired descendant, but
it turns out Neanderthals did have red hair!
pp 08-11 Now its ten thousand years ago, and we’re just
a few years prior to the beginning of Shining Knight #1. Gorias, "city
of the east" is a ruin, and inhabited by winged horses.
Arthur, and presumably Merlin, lead a band of knight to this
lost citadel, and retrieve the sword and the horses. The sword
is now called Caliburn Ex Calibur. There is a reference to
the spear, but only to tell us that Arthur didn't understand
the riddle. These Arthurian scenes are in Alan Lee's style.
Lee is best known for his illustration of Tolkien's Lord of
the Rings. Caliburn Ex Calibur is the Sword in the Stone. There
seems to be a power chord running out from the stone, but it’s
not referenced at all. A riddle for us readers, perhaps.
Years later Arthur leads a second expedition. This time it’s
a military one against the Sheeda themselves. He wants the
Cauldron of Rebirth. We're not told how he gets there; presumably
through one of the world’s soft places (as Slaughter
Swamp is described in Seven Soldiers #0. This sequence quotes
from the poem Preiddeu Annwfn, which is referenced in the first
bookend. Across the bottom of pages ten and eleven we see Gloriana
triumphant and Arthur's fleet in flames. Quoting from Preiddeu
Annwfn, "And three times the fullness of great Arthur's
ship we went into it. Save seven, none returned."
p 12 Our tailor is listening to country music on his radio.
The lyrics are a pastiche inspired by at least three different
songs. I’m guessing, but I’m pretty sure it’s “Deep
In The Heart Of Texas”, “I Am So Lonesome I Could
Die”, and “Blue Moon Of Kentucky”. He continues
his narration as if it were a thirties radio program, and then
confesses that the coat he is making isn't for Cyrus Gold.
The Tailor has already drowned old Cyrus. The Miser’s
Coat is for the person he's been addressing. He hushes his
listener up, telling him that they – the mob after Gold – didn’t
have radio in 1846. I don’t know where the date comes
from. According to DCUGuide.com, which I have found to be reliable,
Gold was killed in 1894. Of course, that Grundy wasn’t
a child killer. The only other 19th century event related to
this story is when the Vigilante and Johnny Frankenstein went
up against the Ghost Spiders, but that was 1875.
The Tailor finds blood on his needle and realizes that it’s
his listener’s. He’s shaved him and now he looks
a lot like Gold. So, apparently, do the Unknown Men, “We
could all of us be brothers.” I wonder if Gold as one
of the Unknown Men. We are kept in the dark about a lot of
things here, but we’ll be returning to this scene later.
This first part offers us a lot. We get the origin of heroes,
the origin of the Harrowings. Interestingly, Melmoth was the
Sheeda king who began the Harrowings, and he was succeeded,
usurped, by his wife. We don’t know how long these two
have lived in reference to their own time frame, but everything
we know of the Sheeda has happened within a single generation’s
leadership. Another interesting thing we learn about the Sheeda
is that, although we’ve been told that they monitor from
infrared signals in order to know whether a culture is ripe
for the picking, in neither of these cases did that what happened.
They learned of the Neanderthals when the Neanderthals sent
a time machine to the Sheeda. The Neanderthals initiated contact.
Later it was Arthur who decided that he must have the Cauldron
and launched an attack to get it. We are never told why. We
will soon learn why they are attacking us, but next: The Battle
For New York!
Part II: Battle For New York
pp 13-15 We first see the battle through three pages of the
Manhattan Guardian newspaper, edition 777. The Guardian seems
to know a lot about the Sheeda. That they are the Sheeda, that
they are the for inspiration the fairy legends, why they are
here, and that they are from a doomed world. It’s not
a great leap to assume the editor – Ed Stargard – knows
that they are from the future, but he’s not saying so.
Perhaps the implications are just too grim to contemplate.
The paper gives a lot of coverage to the unfolding event, but
it also has a lot of the peripheral soft news items, cartoons,
and crosswords you’d expect to find in a paper. Not surprisingly,
it all sees to tie into the greater story.
The shorter news items tell us that a police horse, Harry,
is retiring after twelve years of service. That doesn’t
seem long enough for him to be Mo Colley’s old friend.
Maybe he is somehow related to Horsefeathers. Maybe he’s
the horse Jake is riding. Maybe he’s a red herring and
not everything is related to the Seven Soldiers saga. Actually,
that last one is the least likely to be true. We find out that
Antonio Silencio, Melmoth’s patron, died of a heart attack
when he learned of his son’s death. That Shilo Norman
really did disappear into the Black Hole for a week – implying
that the events in his mini were only a possible alternative
and not necessarily what had to/has to happen. We also learn
that shortly after his return he disappeared again! And, finally,
the weather. Hurricane Gloria has struck the city.
On the next page we get a comic strip, ‘Carla’,
with Jake’s girlfriend and her mother fleeing the city.
Carla says she can’t stand the thought of Jake risking
his life. Her mother tells her that she has to accept who he
is. “This isn’t some fairytale, mom!” Carla
replies, even as fairies chase the car. Not very funny, I know,
but Carla probably wouldn't appreciate her relationship to
the newspaper’s champion being turned into cartoon fodder
anyway.
And we get the crossword.
Starting with Across:
1 – Its Lena! The other twin would be Lars, assumed dead.
So Suzy gave birth to a couple of blue eyed blond kids. Obviously
not Captain 7’s. Before this revelation many assumed
that he had gotten pregnant, that she had died in childbirth – though
we only know that she died at age 14, we don’t know how – and
that the others blamed him and forced him into Ali Ka Zoom's
cabinet. With the knowledge that he wasn’t the father,
it was speculated that he assumed he was and killed her when
he realised he wasn’t. If that were true, why would Ka
Zoom go on to question their actions? Some have speculated
that Ed might be the father, but that’s just more speculation.
3 – Bors was the knight with the hammer. The disordered
orbs are the atoms smashed by him and, a hundred centuries
later, by Oppenheimer.
4 – Yep. Ebeneezer Badde was Klarion’s dad (“Ebeneezer
Badde/ He’s DAD!”).
7 – Gloriana, obviously. It all comes down to the big
bad.
9 - “This wino penitent contains a receptive state of
mind (4).” The answer, open, is contained in “win(o
pen)itent”. But who is the wino?
Down:
1 – If would be interesting if Morrison were to work
the New Gods into Voodun rituals, but this is only a play on
words. The Voodun gods are called Loa, and the capitals of “Life
Or Anti-Life” are L.O.A.
2 – The named Submissionaries were Judah and Shadrach.
The three Hebrew children, thrown into a fire for not worshipping
idols were Meschach, Shadrach, and Abednego. It might have
been more consistent if Judah was named Meschach, but “a
bad ego” is Abednego.
4 and 5 – The guys at Barbelith nailed this one. It’s
an old Socrates, Sartre, Sinatra joke about being and acting.
Kind of.
6 – This is a double reference to Alix. We already know
that she is Aurakles’ “spear.” Her husband
name was Lance, and a husband turns a maiden into a wife.
7 – “G.M.” is one of the Unknown Men and
it you didn’t realise that this meant Grant Morrison…
8 – “Seven into seven”? Seven goes into
seven one time.
The distinction between newspaper-within-a-comic and comic
page breaks down as Ed and Jake talk across the photos as though
they were panels. Jake contacts Ed and thanks him for the riding
lessons. Ed tells him that Jake has carried the fight far enough
and that he should look for his folks. Ed is now driving a
bus, leading his Legion and addressing his readers – us! – both ‘live’ and
in the pages of his tabloid. He quotes Shelley Gaynor, the
Whip in Seven Soldiers #0, “Every day is mythology when
you use your x-ray vision to really, really LOOK.” His
own paraphrase is “Instant myth.” It’s a
theme that has run throughout the series. The time of heroes
isn’t behind us, it’s right now. Something made
all the more real when you think of the mythic nature of the
attackers. In his editorial Ed mentions that it is all happening
on “a night without super-heroes,” a reminder that
the Infinite Crisis was supposed to be reaching its climax
right now (though, in fact, we were already into the One Year
Later DCU).
p 16 The Bulleteer is introduced on a page entitled ‘Never
Be Nice To Your Nemesis’. She is driving Sally Sonic
to the nearest hospital and is nothing if not apologetic. As
Sonic comes round, however, it’s obvious that she does
appreciate the gesture. On the same page we see Justina drive
a sword through Gloriana. She’s not getting the response
she wanted, either.
pp 17-18 Zatanna and Misty arrive with a squadron of flying
horses. Squadron is an old cavalry term adopted by the air
force, so its doubly fitting here. Vanguard and Misty found
them in the Himalayas, but we've already seen them in Frankenstein
#4. What we didn't see is that they have laser beam eyes! Once
they arrive Vanguard announces that he senses his knight nearby
and must go to him... her. Far be it for me to question the
bond between and horse and his rider, but Justina isn't there
yet. She's aboard the Revolving Castle and that does arrive
from the future for five more pages. Still, his departure leaves
our heroine and her sidekick alone. Zee assures the horse that
she'll be fine. She's "attended several Justice League
of America seminars on how to stay calm during the apocalypse." It's
an opportunity for Misty. She casts a sleep spell on Zee and
takes off alone to defeat her mother. Zee collapses in a pile
of playing cards, all the seven of diamonds, while her protege
explains that she can only stop Gloriana by usurping the throne.
Being Princess Rhiannon – her real name – of the
Sheeda makes her the true heir. As she says this she is again
surrounded by a halo of spine riders, this time there is a
green flash and her human appearance gives way to something
more Sheeda-like. I assume that Neh-Buh-Loh had disguised her
as a twenty first century human in order to hide her from her
evil step-mother. I have no idea why she thinks that leaving
Zatanna behind is a part of accepting her responsibilities.
Zee awakes a moment later, her self-doubt reinforced once again.
Magically, Ka Zoom appears to advise her on her next step.
She is 'surfing' the Spell of Seven. She needs use Gwydion
and "make her daddy proud one more time."
pp 19-20 Klarion arrives right in the thick of battle and
is thrilled at all the exciting things happening in the Blue
Rafters. Where we see firemen trying to save a building, he
sees an elemental battle of fire, water, and air. He may have
no idea whats happening, or going is to happen, but he understands
that he is the author of his own story. As he considers his
next step, which side of the battle to join, he is approached
by the Princess. Her tone is condescending, but what immediately
grabs their attention is the pinging sound their dice are making.
She makes the mistake of telling him that it's an important
weapon. Rhiannon tries to intimidate him, but he counters her
threat with a paradox. Which of the two came first? If she
harms him, could she possibly be harming herself? In the moment
of her hesitation, Teekl leaps at a spine rider and in her
surprise she drops her die. Now Klarion has both, he has the
whole Fatherbox. He and Teekl board and giant fly, "On
Beelzebottle, on to Glory!"
pp 21-25 A million things are happen at once. Rhiannon realizes
her mistake and runs back to Zee, who isn't as trusting as
she once was. Sally Sonic demonstrates that she's a girl of
very little brain, kicking her driver in the head, while the
car is speeding on to the hospital. Justina is still proving
her mettle, holding out against the Sheeda Queen. Carla and
her mother are driving through the chaos as George and Hanna,
from Manhattan Guardian #3, continue to argue. Yes, she's another
one of his robots. Castle Revolving appears over Manhattan,
crashing into its skyline, and Zee realises its time to put
her doubts aside and be a superhero. And just where the superheroes
are is what the President is demanding of Father Time; who
is in the old S.H.A.D.E. headquarters beneath the UN building,
receiving a transmission from Frankenstein. He contacts the
Bride – she's commanding the battle at the Superhero
Museum – and gives her the startling news: the Sheeda
aren't aliens, they are the future of mankind!
Not quite a startling as it once was.
pp 24-35 Part III: The Victory Of The Seven Soldiers
p 24 In Frankenstein #4 Gloriana had sent soldiers with witch-brands
to bring Frank under control. So far they haven’t succeeded,
but he admits it’s hard. He’s brought their Queen
and their flag ship back and established contact with S.H.A.D.E.
He asks for instructions. Should he destroy them all? No. Father
Time wants the time machine. Then Klarion shows up. He has
a witch-brand and wants to go to “Sheeda-Side.”
p 25 Misty/ Rhiannon is in full emo mode, complaining to Zee
that it’s a lose-lose situation. If Gloriana wins, it’s
the end of civilization for another ten thousand years. If
Rhiannon beats her, however, she will become the Sheeda queen,
there’ll be another Harrowing, and we’re all right
back where we started. Zee is busy letting Gwydion out. She
reminds Rhiannon of the Seven Soldiers prophecy, which Rhiannon
apparently told her about offstage. She tells her young apprentice
not to let others define who she must be, and that the best
part of magic is doing to impossible. “So let’s
save the world, you and me, together. Ready?” She gets
an interesting response. The reply, “Ready” appears
backwards. She is addressing the reader and we’re saying, “Yes!
Let’s go save the world!” We get an explosion of
card-like panels, each featuring a scene from the series. The
good people at Barbelith have identified the panels, but I
am going to list the results in a roughly clockwise manner:
1. Unknown. Barbelith thinks it could be from Klarion, but
doesn’t say why.
2. The Manhattan Guardian superhero ad from Guardian #1, p7,
panel 5.
3. The Kit-Kat wrapper that Ezekiel showed Klarion from Klarion
#1, p12, panel 1.
4. Zor attacking in Zatanna #4, p11, panel 2.
5. The Hand summoning the Nebula Man from Bulleteer #2, p13,
panel 2.
6. Alix in front of the mirror from Bulleteer #1, p22.
7. Mister Miracle entering the black hole from Mister Miracle
#1, p2, panel 5.
8. Spyder in his shades from Seven Soldiers #0, p4, panel 6.
9. The death of Aaron Norman from Mister Miracle #4, p6, panel
4.
10. Zatanna summoning Gwydion from Zatanna #1, p16, panel 3.
11. The founding of the Newsboys of Nowhere street from Guardian
#4, p7, panel 2.
12. Gloriana Tenebrae from Shining Knight #4, p3, panel 4.
13. Ibis the Invincible in flames from Zatanna #4, p15, panel
5.
14. Ystin with the Undry Cauldron from Shining Knight #1, p13,
panel 3.
15. The train crash from Frankenstein #1, p4, panel 3.
This is what people mean when they describe something as Morrison-esque – that
is, if they actually used the word ‘Morrison-esque’.
We, the readers, are the only ones who have been seeing all
the elements together. Neither the Queen nor any of the soldiers
have realized that everything is coming to a head as all the
players come together. Now our perception becomes the only
perception. And since our perception of events now defines
them, the seven are The Seven foretold in prophecy. It’s
a paradox, kind of. It’s been a few years since the last
philosophy class.
p 26 Carla and her mom swerve to avoid a girl on the road.
It’s Zee and from her stance, I think she’s looking
a little despondent. I get the impression that this scene happened
just prior to the previous one. She had just fallen for the “sidekick-turns-bad
twist” and had every reason to fell bad. When we left
her, however, she had shaken that off and was back in full
superheroic mode. Anyway, Carla’s sudden turn takes her
right to Jake, her very own knight in shining armour. Complete
with white horse. They’ve been through a lot, but it
ends with a kiss.
p 27 Justina’s battle with Gloriana comes to a head.
Unlike Rhiannon, this is a win-win situation for Justina. Even
if she dies, she gains an honourable death. Something denied
her when she fell through time. Gloriana threatens to zombify
her, as she did Galahad, but Justina isn’t intimidated.
She’s come through a lot to get her chance to revenging
Camelot, even if it’s only hacking off a portion of Gloriana’s
face. Gloriana shoves her off of the Revolving Castle and we
seeing the Shining Knight fall to her death. Maybe.
pp 28-30 Mister Miracle crashes Dark Side’s club and
the most troubled of minis gets even more confused. Dark Side
tries to dismiss Shilo, but Shilo replies, “You can hide
yourself in that man’s body, but you can’t hide
from me. I come with God-sight now.” Perhaps there really
is a Dark Side, a part from Darkseid. We get a two-fold reply
from Dark Side/Darkeid. The club owner continues to tell Shilo
to get out, while the New God’s enemy tells him that
he offered the Sheeda North America in return for Aurakles,
who’d been their captive for “seven score seven
years”. That’s nine hundred and eighty. Shilo offers
himself up in the place of the original super-hero. This surprises
Aurakles, but not Darkseid. This was his plan all along. He
offered the Sheeda North America in return for Aurakles, because
he knew Mister Miracle would step in and offer himself in his
stead. But Shilo isn’t worried. Even as he is shackled,
he tells them that he is the world’s greatest escape
artist. Dark Side draws a gun and shoots Shilo in the head.
Okay… Three short pages, but lots of stuff. Apparently,
Shilo’s real role in all this has been as Darkseid’s
motivation in bringing the Sheeda here in the first place.
So, this is the third Harrowing we know of and it’s the
third time the Sheeda were approached by us first! Do they
ever have to hunt, or do they always wait until some prey,
too stupid to realize what they are doing, comes to them? Darkseid’s
plan is to capture the New Gods avatar of freedom and then
hunt the rest down in the wreckage of the Harrowing. While
in the black hole, Shilo was not only given ‘god sight’,
but met with Aurakles, who told him he was running, but that
he could be saved if he was willing to pay with his life. Now
he is doing that, though he’s still convinced he can
escape. Aurakles doesn’t seem to understand what’s
going on. In Mister Miracle #4 we also learned that the Motherbox
had somehow merged with Shilo’s soul. Now, as he lies
dead on the floor, the Motherbox starts pinging. Is he really
dead?
p 31 Two scenes intercut. We see Baby Brain telling the evil
Time Tailor, Zor, that they will beat him “Somehow!!!” And
we see Ed Stargard remembering his earlier promise and realising
he is about to see it come true. The Newsboys of Nowhere Street
will be avenged. Just a Camelot has been. Even as Justina falls
through the sky, she is prepared to die knowing how low Camelot’s
destroyer has been brought down, but, like Jake and Carla,
she’s in for a happy reunion as Vanguard swoops in and
saves her.
pp 32-35 From her perch above the city, the Queen realizes
that Rhiannon is still alive. She gives her new huntsman the
same instructions she’d given the last. Kill her. They
are returning to Summer’s End. She asks Dalt if he’d
found the spear. “I did.” The spear is Alix, whom
he targeted in Bulleteer #3. He missed her – in spite
of his perfect aim – and was then approached by the Vigilante.
The three of them, Alix, Dalt, and Saunders, were, you’ll
recall, a part of the previous team of Seven Soldiers. He tells
her, “The Seven,” meaning the Unknown Men of Slaughter
Swamp, the Time Tailors, “made me unkillable, Lady. They
gave me cold blood and perfect aim. They made the perfect hunter
to stalk the ultimate game. What kind of prey do you suppose
I, Spyder would hunt?” As he brags of his aim, he shoots
her through the mouth from the back of the head. She falls
from her Castle. “’Pinnacle of natural selection’ my
ass.”
Has he turned against his queen, or has he been playing her
all along? If you asked him, I suspect he’d say the latter.
I get the impression that he’s the sort who revises their
life’s story in order to keep everything heading in the
direction circumstances have pointed them anyway. The ‘no
regrets, I wouldn’t be who I am if --- hadn’t’ sort
of person. But we saw him killed when we saw the footage from
the night on Miracle Mesa, so we know it is the queen and not
the Time Tailors who made him unkillable. From the night he
missed his shot at Alix, he’s been rationalizing himself
into the new role of Secret Agent Seven Soldier, and now he
has made his move. There’s more to this, but I will discuss
it further in part four.
Gloriana falls to the streets of New York. She’s not
dead, but she realizes now that she has seriously overestimated
herself. While she pulls Dalt’s arrow out – of
her mouth, through her head – she doesn’t see the
spear coming. Alix and Sally are still fighting in the moving
car. It hits the heap of stones thrown up by Klarion’s
Sapper. The car flies through the air and “prophecy moves
in for the kill. The spear thrown by Aurakles 42,000 years
before had finally found its mark.” Alix, being invulnerable,
has survived the crash. So have her clothes. Jake and Carla
are bystanders. Later a cop tells Alix that there were no other
survivors and that’s she’s free to go. “You’re
free.” “Am I?” Of course, she isn’t
and she realizes that now. The role she’s been cast in,
no pun intended, is hers whether she wants it or not.
The bottom half of pages 35 and 36 take us back to Slaughter
Swamp, but I am going to save that for next time too.
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