Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11 – “Wake the Dragon”

* Part 5 of 5 of The Last White Event storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11 – “Wake the Dragon”! In the previous installment, the Gang visits Regina, Saskatchewan where Ex Nihilo flung a bunch of those space pods that are ruining the world. A small group of what I assume are the Canadian Avengers investigate the event site, and then they all get trapped in a biodome and then something bad happens to all of them! Then the American Avengers – the regular Avengers – investigate Regina and something bad happens to all of them too and they don’t want to talk about it.

Apparently, the System is online too. This news is treated like it’s bad.

Bad stuff is happening all around, I guess. This issue ends the storyline, so I’m sure nothing will get wrapped up and I’ll be left with absolutely no answers. Stupid comic books


Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11 [July, 2013]
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
“Wake the Dragon”

Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11

Based on the cover, we’re cramming the B-Team into the final pages of the story.

“Using recently formed back channels on the U.N. Human Rights Council, the A.I.M. Island nation-state has recently opened bidding on the prototypes of their next generation bioweapons.”

Yeesh, that sounds dull as fucking dirt. Everything about the weapon is a highly guarded secret, except for the name (S7) and where the sale will happen (up your butt). The B-Team Avengers are tasked with flying out to Macau and rubbing elbows with the local snoots.

“Your mission has four primary objectives. One: Secure the weapon by any means necessary. Two: Infiltrate the A.I.M. agents… win their trust. Three: Identify all possible buyers. And four: At all costs, maintain a low profile. The last thing S.H.I.E.L.D. wants is an international incident.”

You forgot the secret fifth primary objective: Go to the local Hard Rock Café and get me one of them collectible guitar pins.

We see a montage of who I think is Shang-Chi in a fancy-ass tux crashing through a round window with a dragon on it. He is followed by a heavily-armored ninja warrior named Chimera with a bunch of other wannabe ninja grunts following suit. He rips off his jacket and shirt, looking hella like Bruce Lee. The ninjas circle him. He’s ready.

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11

Yippee, my custom butt plugs have finally arrived!

Four hours ago, the Avengers are planning to cozy up with the other fancy mofos at an A.I.M. negotiating party led by Dr. Mathias “Who-Cares” Deeds. I don’t know who’s who, and I don’t give a shit, but one of them will engage with Dr. Deeds, two of them will work the other lesser A.I.M. agents, and three of them will scope out the buyers. Any questions?… put your hand down, Shang-Chi. You already went to the bathroom six hours ago!

Natasha “Black Widow” Scarlet Johansson has a problem: this whole plan stinks to high heaven! For one thing, too many moving parts! Everyone everywhere all which way, it’s chaos! “Wouldn’t it be easier if I seduced Deeds, brought him back here, and then pulled his fingernails out one-by-one until he gives us what we want?”

They all stare at her like a swarm of bees just flew out of her vagina. “Because after we get that information,” she continues, “I’ll shoot him in the head, we throw the body in the ocean, and then we drink and behave very badly until morning.”

Someone who I think is Spider-Woman asks Natasha “Lucy” Johansson how torturing a guy into screaming and wailing is going to help them keep a low profile.

“We’ll stick a sock in his mouth,” she responds. I like this woman.

“Then how is he going to tell us what he knows?”

“We’ll take the sock out.”

“Then what about the screaming?”

“Then we stick the sock back–”

Carol “Captain Marvel is better than Captain America” Danvers, exasperated, tells them both to shut their holes so they can all move on with the original plan. Ready? Let’s go to the casino and make a ruckus.

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11

Jeff Goldblum is less than pleased.

Carol Danvers is playin’ some Texas hold’em against Deeds, who is losing miserably. She claims that, possibly, he’s playing the wrong game against the wrong person. He counters this claim by informing the stylish Danvers that she’s the only one pretending to be someone she isn’t. CAPTAIN MARVEL, IN THE FLESH? A FUCKING AVENGER. He’s on to you, lady.

Danvers doesn’t bat an eye. Cool as a cucumber! Deeds, however, is very VERY suspicious of this whole charade. Something’s up.

“I’m asking if you came all this way just to spend an evening with me? Or do I have something you want?”

“Want implies I might not get what I’m after.”

“So you expect me to just give it to you?”

“Well…” she glares at him. “I could always play you for it.”

Very sexy indeed. Shang-Chi, four hours later, after obviously fucking something up and drawing very unwanted attention to himself, battles the ninjas. It’s uninteresting.

Sunspot and Cannonball, meanwhile, are raking it in playing Craps. They are winning so handily that three mafioso-type gentlemen in suits and stupid A.I.M. helmets kindly ask the two to, uh, get the hell out. Sam Cannonball opens his jacket to reveal his swanky Cannonball uniform and asks them to bring it on.

The three mafioso-type gentlemen in suits and stupid A.I.M. helmets are like “no, actually, we want to party with you guys instead” and then they party with them instead. Champagne is uncorked, women in revealing dresses cavort, and everyone has a gay old time.

Black Widow and Spider-Woman scope out the potential buyers, who appear to be five white dudes. They are all from separate organizations, but they share a common goal: watching every episode of Frasier.

Shang-Chi still battles the ninjas. He pulls out some lightning nunchucks and goes to town.

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #11

Speaking of bees out the ol’ vagina…

Deeds starts whooping Danvers’ ass, considering he’s wearing special sunglasses that can reveal the turned-down cards. We call this “cheating” where I come from (North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal). Danvers is getting salty. Deeds offers to allow her to ask one question. He’ll answer honestly as long as she answers a question in return.

“I want to know who you are going to sell the S7 to.”

“No one.”

Brrrt! Well, that’s a wrap, ladies and gentlemen!

“I’m not here in Hong Kong to sell, dear… I’m buying.”

Sunspot and Cannonball are enjoying a drunk conversation with the anonymous A.I.M. agents. They know Deeds is buying, but they never know what he’s really up to. They thank the two Avengers for a great time – best time they’ve had in a while, actually! They are offered a job as Avengers double agents! They say yes! Oh boy!

Black Widow ended up flying off the fucking handle and shot dead the five men in the room. They were all guilty of bombings and gassings that killed hundreds of people in the Philippines, Romania, and India. Spider-Woman calls Black Widow’s decision “unnecessary”, which is a very tame word to say the least. Black Widow handily disagrees.

Shang-Chi keeps fighting ninjas. He calls himself the Dragon, which doesn’t detract much from the Bruce Lee comparison.

It’s Deeds’ turn to ask a question:

“How lonely of a job is it? Do you like always being alone?”

“Actually,” Danvers responds, “I’ve made quite a few acquaintances over the years – I have a little black book.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. Full of names. Mostly men… a few women.”

Really?

“Yep. It’s a list of everyone I’m going to beat the hell out of first chance I get. And now you’re number one, pal. With a bullet.”

Fucking GROAN, Carol Danvers. Not at all badass.

So that’s that! The Avengers pack up and board their jet. Nothing was learned, people died, drinks were drunk.

Shang-Chi is already waiting in the jet. He absolutely learned something, you guys. “I found out exactly why they were here. And what they were buying. An army of assassins. It seems our friends at A.I.M. are gearing up for a war.”

Final Thoughts

This had nothing to do with any White Events whatsoever! I’m pissed!

It’s going to be a while before I return to this run since the next storyline is involved in the epic Infinity event. Until then, keep watching the skies!

Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2 – “Chapter Two: Thanksgiving”

* Part 2 of 13 of the Batman: The Long Halloween limited series *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2 – “Chapter Two: Thanksgiving”! In the previous installment, a whole slew of shit happens to set up the story. The fighting crime families, Falcone and Maroni, need to launder their money through the Gotham Bank and the Bank’s newest president, Bruce Wayne, ain’t letting it happen. In fact, Batman and Harvey Dent tracked down the warehouse where Falcone’s dirty money is being stored and they light it on fire! Just sets the whole thing ablaze! Fucking hilarious!

Meanwhile, there’s someone out there killing people. Namely Johnny Viti, the dimwitted Falcone nephew, and his own mother is the prime suspect.

Also, Batman and Catwoman fight and fuck a little bit.

Someone sends Harvey Dent a bomb. It blows up right in his One-Face.

This is gonna be one looooong Halloween, my friends.


Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2 [January, 1997]
Written by: Jeph Loeb
“Chapter Two: Thanksgiving”

Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2

Thanksgiving turkey with skellingtons! Eek!

Batman is shrouded in darkness. He uses his best Christian Bale-type voice. “HARVEY DENT IS DEAD.”

They got some weasel named Mickey in Jim Gordon’s office. They know he killed the Harvey Dent man, but they’ve got bigger fish to fry, so spill. “We want you to know who hired you to do the job, Mickey,” Jim Gordon says, eyes narrowed. “If you help us – maybe we’ll help you.”

Mickey “The Mink” Sullivan. He runs “The Irish”, a group of ragtag miscreants who like to do Hard Crimes. They’re all holed up in a jail cell right now, jerking each other off.

It’s Thanksgiving, and Gordon whines to Mickey about how he wants to eat turkey instead of talking to his punk-ass. Mickey rats out Carmine Falcone without really ratting him out, you see. Real slick stuff.

Batman throws a nail on the table, one that was used in Mickey’s homemade bomb. Its serial number was traced back to a hardware store two blocks from Mickey’s apartment. And they have the receipt. Mickey looks kind of scared now. “Oh shit” is what he’s thinking. “Someone filled my pants with diarrhea,” he thinks.

Mickey launches into a monologue about Harvey Dent having had it coming. If it wasn’t Mickey, it was going to be someone else anyway. We see a montage of Batman bursting into Mickey’s place and Mickey running away through the sewers. Dumb stuff, since sewers are Batman’s playground. He loves to roll around in the shit, as they say.

But in the sewer is another assailant who keeps talking about “Solomon Grundy born on a Monday”. He punches the kid’s lights out before Batman shows up. “I have no quarrel with you,” he rasps. “I only came for the man who disturbed your privacy.” He looks at the lump on the ground. “That man.”

They fight. This raving dude keeps rhyming about Grundy and Monday. I’m guessing he is Solomon Grundy. I’m guessing he was born on a Monday.

 Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2

Keep on rhymin’, Queen. YAAAS.

“Mickey talks about how Grundy would have hurt me… if… if I wasn’t forced to hurt him first…”

It looks like Batman breaks his nose, which sends Grundy into a downward sprial of sad rhyming. Batman leaves through a sewer grate and watches Grundy slink back into the darkness.

Back to Mickey’s confession, he still insists that Dent ain’t no saint. I mean, let’s face it. Who killed Johnny Viti, huh? Sounds like a Dent job to me, fam.

Batman just stares within a shadow kinda like in a “good point” kinda way.

“We’re done with you, Mickey. Get out of here.” Jim Gordon thinks about all that turkey he’ll never get to eat. Mickey leaves, and Gordon asks Batman if he thinks there was any weight to what he was saying about Dent. Batman tells him that it sounds like an impossible notion and fuck you for entertaining it, Jim Gordon! I will slap my dick across your face, sir! “We’ve only begun to learn the truth,” Batman adds.

 Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2

Jonathan Taylor Thomas?

“Why would Mickey confess and not implicate the Roman?” Gordon asks. Because he’s a ‘fraidy cat, that’s why, Mr. Mustache.

Speaking of Carmine Falcone, he’s in his penthouse makin’ a’spaghetti! He tells his smartypants son Alberto that they have a lot to be thankful for, but Carla disagrees! Her son is dead, idiot!

Don’t worry yourself, little lady. Harvey Dent has been murdered and justice has been served on a platter with pasta and a’meatballs! So let’s sit down to a nice Thanksgiving dinner and stuff a cork in it!

“This wasn’t business, Carmine,” Carla continues forcefully. “Johnny was my only son. My baby.” Hey Carla, let’s stop living in the past! You’re being such a Karen about it. WHY DON’T YOU ASK TO SEE CARMINE’S MANAGER? That’ll show him.

In the holding cell, Mickey meets up with his fellow Irish. He asks his team if they know what to do next. They know what to do next. Stickin’ together is what pals do while committing crimes! Everyone has a good laugh. Especially me! HA HA HA HA HA!!

One by one, the men of the Irish get interrogated. Jimmy Slick drove the getaway car. Dapper Kevin delivered the package to Dent’s wife. Willie Two Times followed Dent home. Donny Boy detonated the bomb with a switch. They all swear that’s what really happened! They swears it on they mudder’s graves!

 Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2

Harvey Dent has more than one face?! You don’t say!

Batman knows that Carmine is paying these guys a pretty mean sum to keep their lies straight and clean and orderly. It’s really fucking shit up for him, honestly. It might take another 10 issues to sort this mess out! Batman has no choice but to bring Mickey “The Mouse” Sullivan back up for more questioning. And boy howdy, this will be a doozy!

They bring fake Mickey back up to wonder if the rest of the Irish suspected anything. And the answer is “absolutely not”. Dent is a master of disguise! Good job, men. That’s another notch for your collective belts.

So, as you can see, the next order of business is projecting that the police cut a deal with the Irish and see how Carmine reacts to that bit of news.

“We can still charge them,” Gordon says. “They confessed to attempted murder. They blew up your house… put Gilda in the hospital for God’s sake.”

“They’ll make bail in an hour,” Dent points out. “Bribe the judge. And we’ll still have nothing.”

“Charge them, Harvey.” Gordon puts on his meanest scowl. “Or I’ll find someone else in the D.A.’s office who will.”

FINE, SIR. ON THE DOUBLE, BOSS. Batman leaves and mentions later that the Irish made bail in less than an hour. “The Dents spent Thanksgiving together and Gotham City Memorial. Gordon went home late.”

 Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue #2

Yum, yum. Rat turd turkey.

“As I finished my patrol past the Astoria Towers Hotel, I couldn’t help but wonder with The Roman’s grip getting tighter on the city… will there be anything to be thankful for in the coming year?”

In the hotel, big-eared Real Mickey raises a Thanksgiving toast to The Roman! Here, here! Let’s dig in to some delicious corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and stew with vinegar and, like, a cake shaped into a shamrock.

A man with a silenced pistol enters the hotel room…

Everyone is shocked… SHOCKED… to see who it is…

PING PANG BOOM BANG POW WOW HONK HONK. Everyone goes down.

No more Irish.

Final Thoughts

Bam. Short, sweet, and to the point! It’s a good thing I wasn’t heavily invested in Mickey “The Rock” Sullivan as a character, tragically gunned down too soon by Harvey Dent… uh, I mean… Wednesday Addams. Yeah.

Burn After Reading (2008)

Tagline:
Intelligence is relative.

Wide Release Date:
September 12, 2008

Directed by:
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Written by:
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Produced by:
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Starring:
George Clooney
Frances McDormand
John Malkovich
Tilda Swinton
Richard Jenkins
Brad Pitt

Burn After Reading

PREGAME THOUGHTS

I saw this movie in the theater! It’s the only Coen brothers movie I had ever seen at the time since Raising Arizona, and in the last fifteen years I’ve seen exactly two more! Those brothers sure have made a profound impact on my life!

Not knowing what to expect going in, I liked this movie a lot. There’s also a certain two seconds involving Brad Pitt and George Clooney that’s burned in my brain forever, and for that I’m forever indebted to the Coens. Thank you, sirs.


THE 500(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

The plot is all sorts of twisty and turny and, in the end, it all amounts to nothing.

Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA agent who quits his job after getting demoted. He’s trying to write his memoirs. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton), a doctor, is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a U.S. Marshal.

Burn After Reading

You wanna be John Malkovich? I’ve got your John Malkovich right here buddy!

Katie’s sends copies of Osbourne’s financial records — accidentally including his memoirs — to her divorce lawyer. The lawyer’s assistant copies the files to a CD, which she accidentally leaves on the locker room floor of a gym that employs personal trainers Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt). Now, Linda, you see, is trying to afford her extravagant plastic surgery endeavors. When Linda finds the disc and discovers what she thinks are very sensitive CIA files and documents, she and Chad jump at the opportunity to return the disc for compensation.

After attempts to get money from the irate Osbourne Cox prove fruitless, Linda and Chad turn the disc over to the Russian embassy with hopes that they’ll get money for their information. They happen to talk to a spy for the CIA.

Since Osbourne’s all sorts of unhinged, Katie changes the locks on the house and gives keys to Harry. Harry begins cheating on Katie with Linda, whom he meets through online dating.

Linda and Chad promise the Russian embassy more government information, so Chad stakes out the Cox household until the coast is clear to steal more files from Osbourne’s computer. While sneaking around, Harry shows up and takes a shower while Chad hides in the closet. In the movie’s best single second, Harry discovers Chad in the closet and shoots him in the fucking face point-blank. Since Chad doesn’t have any identification on him, Harry assumes he’s a CIA agent. He becomes increasingly paranoid when he appears to be followed by an unknown assailant, who turns to to be his own wife’s divorce lawyer. Harry looks to Linda for support, who is also distressed about Chad’s sudden disappearance.

Burn After Reading

Something fun happens in this scene less than one second later! I promise!

Linda, believing that the Russians have abducted Chad, returns to the embassy for confrontation. It was pointless, and she is told that the disc contained nothing but garbage. Linda convinces the manager of her gym, the smitten Ted (Richard Jenkins), to sneak into the Cox residence to steal more files from Osbourne’s computer. Ring a bell? It doesn’t work. Osbourne pops into the house to retrieve some of his belongings and discovers Ted. Thinking that Ted is his wife’s affair partner, he kills him with a hatchet.

Meanwhile, after another meetup with Linda in the park, Harry learns the address where Chad was staking out before his disappearance. This freaks the fuck out of Harry, who flees the country thinking that Linda is another CIA agent.

All this information is relayed to Osbourne Cox’s former director, J.K. Simmons, who is perplexed by the pointlessness of everything that happened in the movie. He learns that Linda requested compensation to keep quiet about literally nothing, which the director agrees to out of exasperation and everyone moves on.


TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — General Movie Thoughts

Burn After Reading is better than I remember, and I loved it the first time around. I would have thought knowing the general structure of the story and remembering some basics of the plot threads would diminish the enjoyment, but the opposite happened! I got to much more appreciate nearly everyone in their roles. Such a perfectly cast movie, I can’t even decide who I liked best. Clooney’s great. Malkovich’s great. McDormand’s great. Pitt’s great. J.K. Simmons is fucking great. Richard Jenkins? Meh. Tilda Swinton? Meh.

Burn After Reading

You wanna be Frances McDormand? I’ve got your Frances McDormand right here, buddy!

The beauty of the movie is twofold. There’s the first time through, where you don’t know where anything is going. It’s not going anywhere for a while, but you just know that there’s going to be a huge payoff that ties everything together at the end! Then the end comes suddenly without the huge payoff! Then you’re like, wtf. Then you think about it and realize that everything does tie together. It all ties together beautifully! Everything that everyone does in the movie is a pointless misunderstanding of a situation caused by someone else in the movie.

The second time through — as is the case with this particular viewing that I’m writing about now — you know what’s going to happen. You spend less time focused on the payoff and more time focused on how these people are comically bumbling their way through matters that they are in no way equipped to handle properly. Linda thinks she can blackmail the CIA into a payout and she indirectly kills two co-workers who agree to help. Harry spends the whole movie deeply paranoid. Osbourne spends most of his scenes hollerin’. It’s a work of art, is what it is.

I think, overall, the storytelling and they everything weaves into each other — with everything ultimate pointless — is simply brilliant. It’s the kind of story I’d like to write some day.

TOPIC 2 — Writing a Story

Burn After Reading has the kind of story I’d like to write some day! I’m trying to write a book and it’s slow-going, but the concept revolves around about 40 characters who go about their day. It’s not an ordinary day. Some characters interact with multiple characters as the day goes on, and I’d like to create a story that takes advantage of this kind of intricate weaving of character interaction without being too dense and hard to follow. This sounds impossible, right? I’ve roughed out about three chapters and nobody in the story has really even talked to anyone yet!

This movie only has six or seven characters and I’m sure the Coens had to spend a lot of time at the drawing board trying to see how everything could fit together. I think that’s the difference between people who like Burn After Reading and people who don’t. The former appreciates the nimble storytelling. The latter are frustrated because nothing mattered.

But hey, I’m not going to psychoanalyze the two different types of Burn After Reading viewers! It’s just that the latter are wrong!

Burn After Reading

Pictured: The two different types of Burn After Reading viewers.


IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

According to costume designer Mary Zophres, even cheap suits look good on Brad Pitt. Thus, for the scene where his character Chad wears a cheap suit, she dressed Pitt in a suit with a purposefully bad and ill-fitting cut and a horrid-looking wool tie.
Okay, so you’re Brad Pitt. That don’t impress me much (oh oh ohh-ohh).

Tilda Swinton modeled her character’s hairdo after Edna Krabappel’s from The Simpsons (1989).
John Malkovich modeled his character’s after Homer.

“Wink.”

It was George Clooney’s idea that his character wear a gold chain, thinking it would make him look ordinary and a bit old-fashioned.
Not one person watched Burn After Reading and mused upon George Clooney’s ordinary, old-fashioned gold chain. They mostly mused upon his handmade dildo chair.


IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Oh hell yeah. You get a great, but pointless story and everyone’s on top of their acting game.

Hey, I forgot. I was going to muse upon the significance of the movie title. Perhaps on one level it means to literally destroy classified documents, i.e. relevant to Osbourne’s disc. Perhaps on another level the audience is burned after finishing the movie! Perhaps on a third level I’m an idiot and I need to stop writing. Goodbye, everybody!

Burn After Reading

Bonus Malkovich! This shit never gets old.

Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10 – “Validator”

* Part 4 of 5 of The Last White Event storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10 – “Validator”! In the previous installment, Nightmask (Adam, whatever you want to call him) speaks with Ex Nihilo and Abyss about his and Kevin Connor’s changes. Turns out it’s not them that changed, it’s Earth! Ex Nihilo is attempting to turn Earth into a fully sentient entity! Bwahahaha!

I think this was stopped anyway by Kevin Connor blowing up a weird brain-thing that was growing on a Croatian beach. Captain America decides Kevin is too dangerous for Earth, so they’re going to figure out what to do with this dork soon enough. I’m all for launching him out of a cannon into the sun, but a man can dream.


Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10 [June, 2013]
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
“Validator”

Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10

Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, which is a real place and not some goofy made-up place, is the location for the beginning of Issue #10! A couple of officers of some sort of organization look upon their dead friend hunched against a rock, blood all over the side of his face.

“Can we transport him back to the carrier?” asks one.
“I’m worried about degredation,” says the other.

One sticks a plug into the dead one’s brain, hoping to record an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond based on his memories. “Why did you do it, Agent Michaud?” asks the other officer vaguely, who is revealed to be Commander Maria Hill. “What did you see in there?”

Eight hours ago, the Avengers have docked their jet onto another bigger jet and are getting briefed by Hill. There’s a lot going on at once, so bear with her: Shit is going down like bananas, son. All this space pod flingin’ from Ex Nihilo has really gummed up Earth’s works. Kobe, Chhatarpir, Split, all those places have been quarantined. Regina and Perth, however, are being taken care of by their respective governments, so we expect that to get abso-fucking-lutely mishandled royally.

Oh wait, it’s already been mishandled! Ha! Before they go into detail to the de facto dumbass leader of the Avengers, Captain ‘Murrica, it needs to be reiterated that the whole situation is CLASSIFIED and any WHISTLEBLOWING could lead to SEVEN MONTHS unclogging the MANY S.H.I.E.L.D. TOILETS. Understand?

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10

If I so much as hear ONE COMPLAINT I’m turning this car around.

Yes, they understand.

OK good. Sit back and relax, grab some popcorn, here’s a video for y’all:

“DEPARTMENT H MISSION LOGS: 044399-978.

EVENT SITE: REGINA

LAT: 50 DEGREES, 24 MINUTES

LONG: 104 DEGREES, 37 MINUTES”

Boooo-o-o-o-orrriing! This video sucks! Where are the guns and titties?!

The mission video goes on to relay the primary mission objective (Secure Event Site) and the agents tasked with the mission (Wendigo, Validator, Kingdom, and Boxx) and the threat level (Black) and the entertainment after the mission (Jeff Dunham stand-up comedy).

The mission clock starts when they leap majestically off of their ship! Four minutes in, they see no life signs in Regina. The population of Regina is/was 203,975, which is what I just Googled give or take a decade of explosive population growth! Jonathan Hickman did his homework!

At 23 minutes in, they see some stuff. At 42 minutes in, they see some other stuff. Mostly just those space pods. I’m wondering what’s taking so long to engage with these space pods? Are they playing Angry Birds are their phones?! Ha! 2013!

At 1.5 hours in, things start getting blown up and Wendigo gets a hole ripped out of his chest for some reason.

At 2.5 hours in, a weird biodome closes over the survivors. They are verily trapped!

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10

Help me, mysterious metal eyeball!

The survivors start getting hella attacked by hostile lifeforms. The dome becomes a fiery inferno of biblical proportions! You remember that part in the Bible with all the fires in the biodomes, right? It’s just like that!

Then the transmission ends. Video over. Jeff Dunham still got paid for showing up.

S.H.I.E.L.D. says that all happened a month ago, which the Avengers find inexcusible! Why wait this long to do anything? What is this, the government??? S.H.I.E.L.D. claims they spent that time trying to get into the dome by bombing it and using wire cutters and even asking it very nicely to open up. Nothing worked. So now the Avengers are here to hump the dome into submission.

Since this was eight hours ago, Agent Michaud is still alive and he’s able to tell the Avengers that he tried digging under the dome to set a big ol’ bomb to blow up the Earth to get into the dome. It didn’t work. The dome extends into the ground, forming a perfect sphere of isolation, loneliness, and really angry bug creatures. Now the Avengers are here to hump the dome into submission. I believe we’ve already covered this.

Eden is able to get in there. I don’t remember who Eden is or what he does, but he obviously has dome-breaching capabilities. Beautiful! Agent Michaud wants to go too so he can die for no reason, so that’s happening.

An hour later, a ragtag mini team of Avengers get beamed down to the ruins of Regina in order to hump their way into the dome. Just outside the city, they find a little Gollum-like hobbit thing with a large stick who points them into a specific direction.

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10

Translation: The bathroom’s this way.

Captain America, with his endless fountain of wisdom, decides to follow the creepy little creature. “Let’s go,” he says wisely. The group gets followed by a large gaggle of creepy little creatures. They all point to a very large pit filled with glowing lava-like liquid. “Hey! I think something’s moving in there!” yells Nameless Avenger Member #4.

A shape emerges from the pool.

“It’s Validator.”

It’s Validator. She looks like a mime. She raises her hand and starts speaking the Builders’ language. Probably asking what these honkies are up to.

She then whispers in Michaud’s ear…

Later, the group waits in the desolation for S.H.I.E.L.D. to pick them up. Michaud asks Captain America if he’s going to tell anyone what he saw. He says no, and then asks Michaud the same question. He claims that he has a chip in his head that records video – no audio – and the department is going to review it. And they’re going to ask questions. And…

“Robert…” says Wolverine to Michaud. “What did she say?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Michaud responds before pulling out a gun and blasting his head wide open.

Everyone is STUNNED! STUNNED!

So now, after reviewing the footage on Michaud’s chip, there was nothing to see but that episode where Ray Romano and Brad Garrett get made fun of by Peter Boyle. Maria Hill got nothing from debriefing the Avengers, those sluts. They went to Regina and found nothing Regina-like anymore. The end.

“Do you believe them?”

“No. I think they were holding something back. But they’ve left, and I’m not much for chasing air.”

Ha. OK. Just let the Avengers leave suspiciously. Nice commanding, Commander.

Agent Porter is holding something back from Maria Hill, as it turns out! Tables have turned, lol lol. Roll that beautiful bean footage:

 Avengers (Vol. 5), Issue #10

Just a big stash of VHS tapes!

On top of the 49 minutes of footage, they also found an additional 327 hours! Isn’t that hilarious? Some of it was from 30 years ago. Some of it is from decades in the future. We see a montage of each Avenger changing slightly. An extra piece of armor here. Extra feathery wings there. Hulk with, like, a beard or something. There’s a vision of Michaud raising his gun to stop Validator, but he gets vaporized into a pile of skeleton bones!

The last bit of footage is Validator pulling Michaud in to tell him something…

Meanwhile, the Avengers all talk amongst themselves as they leave on their jet. And by “talk amongst themselves” I mean “barely talk about anything” like they don’t want to relive any of the event.

When asked why Michaud shot himself in the fucking head, Wolverine is like “he thought it was for the best”.

“He did what someone does when keeping a secret is worth more than their life.”

Anyway, there’s this whole thing where Validator is apparently Michaud’s daughter and here were her words to him:

“The System is now online.”

Final Thoughts

They sure are building up to this mysterious system-like system, like it’s the Internet and it’s all important and a matter of life or death or something actually worth something. BUT I DON’T BUY IT.

This is all obviously bigger than the Avengers, who are used to punching bad guys in the face. Maybe they should sit this one out.

East of West, Issue #35 – “Things Fathers Do with Their Sons”

* Part 6 of 16 of the The Apocalypse: Year Three storyline *

Welcome to Ghostliness & Nerfherders Presents: East of West, Issue #35 – “Things Fathers Do With Their Sons”! In the previous installment, in a nutshell, Archibald and his Confederacy do a massive attack on Xiaolian Mao’s palace and reduces the People’s Republic armies down to nothing.

Xiaolian is still alive, and her meager resistance team will still stand by her side.

I predict that Xiaolian’s little army will thoroughly fuck up Archibald’s shit. He’s winning the battles, but he’s going to handily lose the war. Take that to the spank bank.


East of West, Issue #35 [November, 2017]
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
“Things Fathers Do with Their Sons”

East of West, Issue #35

If you choose, choose now. Or soon that decision will be taken from you.

So what could possible happen next, you ask? Well, the Three Horsemen walk along an empty plain toward a hidden sniper. They’re all excited that they can feel the violence and the impending doom in the air. Like when the air is all misty and/or foggy? Except with doom.

“I think we’re running out of time,” says the yellow one. Famine, right? The skeleton. War agrees that shit’s coming up very quickly. “This should be our time, but we’re rudderless and without purpose. Adrift on a bloody sea.”

Conquest is extremely optimistic, but he’s also the one that has the biggest boner for war. Even War’s boner isn’t as boney for war, and he’s War! “We need to find the boy, Babylon, and serve him.”

Serve him what? A steak sandwich? I could use one right now for sure.

“I’m not so sure,” War mumbles.

“I am.” Conquest smiles smugly. “Mankind is waiting for him. And he is waiting for us.”

Do you know what else is waiting for you, Bluey? A fucking shot in the mouth.

East of West, Issue #35

Oh dear. That’s going to sting for about a day.

The bullets keep flying.

“What the hell?” Conquest says, surprised and missing a tooth out of his blue head. “Someone shot me!”

War tells him that his missing tooth makes him look like an idiot. I agree, but he looked like an idiot anyway. For the most part, the bullets seem to be bouncing off these mopes. Conquest whips out an enormous sword, whips it around with all his might, and slices it into the ground toward the location of the shooter. The makeshift bunker explodes into nothing, the shooter starts hobbling away.

“No, no… There’s not going to be any running tonight… There’s not going to be an escape… Not for any of you. Because you’re right where you wanted to be. You made a choice… And these are the consequences.”

Conquest pulls out a 900-ft whip and flings it toward the assailant, wrapping it around his neck. In one quick motion, Conquest pulls the fucker right to himself. Neck buldging, tongue a-floppin’, the gunner starts begging all while the whip chokes the breath out of him.

The Three Horsemen give the guy their best autistic sociopathic child stares and tell him that there’s no begging, no pleading, no praying. No mercy, no forgiveness. “You have earned what is coming to you,” War says.

AND WHAT MIGHT THAT BE? I DUNNO!

Here’s what I know to be true: Before it all comes crashing down, the people will wake up. It will just be too late to do anything about it.”

East of West, Issue #35

Balloon’s gonna sit this one out, Chatty Cathy.

What’s up with Death and Son? Palling around, that’s what’s up. Death rides his robot horse. Babylon rides his giant piggy.

Death asks his boy which way he wants to go. Not a hard decision. Just a matter o’ turnin’ right or left. East or west. Spit it out, son. Let’s get on with it. And Babylon crunches the numbers and analyzes his options like Young Sheldon, possibly annoying his big, white father. Every decision matters! This is why Babylon and Balloon spent so much time running simulations! “’Cause bad decisions will get you killed every time, and let me tell you, Dad, I’ve died around one point seven million times. It is definitely not cool.”

When Death asks him what the hell he means by that, Babylon explains that Balloon taught the child how to survive. Death thinks this is weird, being Death and all. Balloon says that going east is 16.3% more safe than going west, based on weather and rocks and bugs and stalling airplanes and viruses and Republicans. Babylon’s feelin’ lucky tonight, though! Let’s go west!

Later, Death teaches his son how to skip some stones in the lake. Balloon tells the kid to consider kinematics and vector angles and all sorts of other nerdy factors. Babylon deliberately throws his rock right at a fish with a WAK. Balloon praises his effort. Death is exasperated.

Death takes this opportunity to teach the boy fishing, since we’ve moved on to dead fish and the like!

“And we just stand here and wait?”

“Yep. Practicin’ patience until we a get a… nibble.”

Death gets one hooked almost immediately. After putting a ton of strain into reeling it in, it’s the size of a chub. “Good news is we got all day, son.”

I think all this is so family friendly that it’s making me “laugh” and “grin”. In fact, the smiles will keep on going, because Babylon’s got a joke to tell!

East of West, Issue #35

A touching Kodak moment :>

Balloon interrupts the laugh fest by being a downer about the spot they picked. Saying there’s more fish over there *points with no fingers*. Death is good where he is, but Babylon wants to actually eat for once so he moseys over to the better spot. While behind a rock, blocked from Death’s view, there’s a sudden ZZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZ of electricity. Death panics, runs over and discovers… Balloon zapping fish after fish dead in quick succession. “Look Dad!” Babylon yells happily, raising up two enormous fish with each hand. “I have defeated all the fish. Tonight we eat like kings!”

Babylon asks Death to help him carry all these fish back to camp. Death stares quite despondently. “… Sure.”

Two weeks of trekking pass, and our two favorite White Characters happen upon some exposed underground ruins. Death calls it a monument to the impermanence of man. Perhaps a giant flood washed out the city, and when the water receded all that was left were the half-collapsed buildings. Perhaps it was a plague? Maybe it was some vengeful god. “BUT ALL OF THAT IS WRONG,” Death says. “What happened here was much worse.”

Oh boy. Aliens? Space aliens?

Babylon thinks Death is crazy bones, because from his point of view the desolate, crumbling ruins looks like an awesome carnival! “I’m going to go see if I can find some cool stuff,” he says, running through a hole in the side of one of the old buildings. Death grimaces, annoyed.

Babylon observes what looks to him like a teddy bear. “It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

It’s a human skull. “I just love it,” he continues. “Can I keep it?”

“What?”

Death looks at his happy son and just stares silently. I bet dollars to donuts that Death is going to give this kid the boot and move on with his own damn lonesome self. After 35 issues, he’s going to learn that he hates his kid! LOL!

Later that night, while Babylon is asleep with his new skull, Death sits and looks on in the far distance.

“So…” he looks to Balloon. “Is he really asleep?”

“I understand your trepidation, Death. Babylon is more than capable of achieving a dormant regenerative state without lapsing into unconsciousness.”

“And?”

“And yes. He is asleep.”

“So he won’t hear us talkin’? Not a word that’s bein’ said?”

“No. He will not. Is there something on your mind, Horseman?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong with him?”

Relationships are tensing up! Death has noticed that he doesn’t see the world for how it is. That something’s wrong with the way his eyes are hooked up. Balloon agrees, but argues that Babylon sees something better: What it can be. How it should be. What he can make it.

East of West, Issue #35

Balloon’s gettin’ the business from the Grim Reaper Cowboy.

One week later, Death catches word from his and Xiaolian’s one-way walkie-talkie. Xiaolian’s army is going to march off to war, or what’s left of it. Death drops to his knees. “Your mother… she’s in peril.”

“…We should help her, Dad.”

“Don’t worry, son. Nothin’ in this world… And nothin’ from any other could stop me from doin’ that.”

Death gets that famous angry grimace of his back on his mug.

“It’s time for you to see what your old man is made of.”

Final Thoughts

This was a real bottle episode, for sure. Not much more progresses in the relationship between Death and Babylon besides “kid’s weird”.

And now Death is going to fight the good fight. Or the bad fight. Or whatever. Gray areas and all that!