Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

* Part 6 of 6 of the Sinister storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6! In the previous installment, Silk goes crazy on Goblin Juice and, at the demands of the Goblin King, goes off to find Black Cat so she can dunk her head in the toilet. It doesn’t work though, because not only is Black Cat super strong but she also holds the Goblin Juice antidote! Black Cat shoves a syringe in Silk’s neck and brings her back to normal just in time to do more shenanigans – taking down the Goblin Nation once and for all!

Let the shenanigans ensue.


Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6 [May, 2016]
Written by: Robbie Thompson

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

Mockingbird has detained Silk in an interrogation room. She requests kindly that Silk talks about everything that happened while she was absent. Right down to the nittiest of the grittiest of details, please. Spare no trivial particulars. Get sexy if you can.

“You were infected with goblin serum. Black Cat gave you an antidote, which she made with all the tech she’s been stealing… then what happened?”

Silk looks down. Cindy went to work because she didn’t want to get fired for her no-call no-show. Her co-workers greeted her with hearty hugs and cat posters that say “HANG IN THERE, BABY!” They looked into Dr. Ajay Kapoor for her – he’s a physicist! That’s all they got. Sorry they’re not much help, they got totally shitty last night on bathtub gin and jugs of moonshine.

J. Jonah Jameson calls Cindy into his office angrily. As if Jameson had any other disposition.

“Am I in trouble, Mr. Jameson?”

“No.”

“Then why is the door closed?”

“’Cause I want everyone to think you’re in trouble.”

That’s very nice of him, isn’t it? Brings a tear to my eye. Jameson tells Cindy that he was worried about her. Actually worried! I didn’t know that JJJ had the capability to not be an asshole, but here we are! He graciously tells her she can have time off whenever she wants, she just has to ask for it!

Then he’s like “so what’s this big story you’ve been working on that you’ve been all sorts of absent as hell about?”

Cindy told him the story was a dead end. No story. Mockingbird knew this already; Dr. Ajay Kapoor went missing two years ago. “Maybe he’s with my parents,” Cindy jokes darkly. Half-jokes, actually. Maybe there’s something to that? I mean, Cindy’s mom was looking for a cure with him and some others on the team. Maybe they all accidentally fell into a volcano while collecting Volcano Dust for their experiments?

Anyway, Cindy keeps talking to Mockingbird. After her day job, she went to her night job of hangin’ with Black Cat.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

Brrt! No! I was… uh… in the closet. Metaphorically! I swear! It’s good to get that off my chest!

Black Cat shows Silk all the stolen tech that wasn’t just for Goblin Antidote Juice. There’s all sorts of stuff, like fancy CSI: Miami software and Salad Shooters that tell the time in Bulgaria. Black Cat doesn’t let the “locked away” thing go, and she presses Silk for more explanation on that. “It wasn’t jail, really,” she says. “I was locked away. For ten years. Alone. Like I said… long story.”

Black Cat apologizes for such a horrible thing. Silk is like “fuhgeddaboutit” and asks Black Cat what her story is…

Mockingbird stops Cindy at this point and reminds her Black Cat is not her friend. “I know,” replies Cindy. “But… she was a good guy once.”

Whatever, man. She’s bad now and she has no redemption arc. Except for the part where she and Silk burned Goblin Nation to the ground! That’s got to count for something, right?! Hello?

Black Cat and Silk had stormed into the underground lair with the intention to spray aerosol Goblin Antidote Juice into the vents and de-goblinify all the creepy crawly goblins. Black Cat takes this opportunity to ask if Silk would like to get promoted to “taking over the criminal underworld of New York City.” Silk sneers at this; asks if getting trapped underground with goblins was part of the “taking over the criminal underworld” plan.

Anyway, they get overrun by goblins, so they try to flee… until they encounter the Goblin King, who welcomes them both with open arms.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

Why, thank you! It comes from a bottle of 10-Years-in-a-Bunker.

Goblin King tells Black Cat to kneel. Black Cat is like “no you kneel, sir.” Then Goblin King cackles as if he heard the funniest joke ever from Jeff Dunham before coughing from Goblin Antidote Spray. It slowly takes over the whole room, and the rest of the goblins begin coughing as well. Cough City over here.

“You’ll always be sad, pathetic little Phil Urich,” says Black Cat as Goblin King slowly transforms into some gawky human. “Neither goblin, nor king.” Then she tells Silk to kill the fucker. Phil pisses his pants and starts bargaining. He’ll triple the amount of money Black Cat is paying her! Just please don’t twist his lower intestine into a giant pretzel!

Silk asks where Phil found all the kids. They were homeless and neglected! He was trying to make a better life for them, he swears! Please don’t pretzel up his bowels!

Silk’s eyes get fiery! This douche poisoned these kids! Corrupted them! Gave them too much unhealthy screen time! “Your plan is over, and so are you,” she says before throwing him off of Goblin Nation Castle to what I presume is his timely death.

“Did you know?” asks Mockingbird.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

That jerk is still alive? Fuck! I humped his “corpse”! How embarrassing…

Of course Silk knew that Urich would land safely or else she wouldn’t have done something so criminally awful. Who do you think she is? Some sort of Marvel Hero/Villain/Hero/Villain? Please.

Mockingbird has decided that Silk has gotten to close to this whole thing. She’s going to pull Silk from the field, but Silk’s eyes get fiery and she yells “NO!” Actually, she says “NO.” without the exclamation point, but hey. Technicalities.

She backs off after she sees Mockingbird’s hurt expression. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m close. I’ll give you Cat. Her whole organization. She’s up to more than just burning down Goblin Nation.” In return, keep looking for her family. Capisce? Bueno? Danke.

Later, in therapy, Cindy is asked how throwing a man off a roof made her feel. A man who hurt her. Hurt her brother. “Good,” she says in a low voice. The therapist looks concerned. Cindy looks a little giddy until she is told that she needs to work on her anger. “I’m not angry!” she says angrily. Then she apologizes for angrily saying she wasn’t angry and books it out of there embarrassed.

At work, Cindy gets called out by her coworker Lola for looking bored. It’s ok though! “First off: I’m bored too,” says Lola. “Second: It’s quittin’ time. Third? DJ Kidsparkle is spinning over at Mulligan’s. Come on.”

Oh boy, DJ Kidfucker? What a treat for the ages.

Mockingbird and Spider-Woman discuss Silk on their to way to check on Phil Urich, who is handcuffed in an armored car. Mockingbird is giving Silk another chance, but she doesn’t know where she went at the moment. Oh well!

Phil Urich vows revenge on Silk under his breath. Spider-Woman and Mockingbird think he’s a silly goose.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #6

Cindy Moon was found dead in a pile of 128 fl. oz. Slurpee cups. Her last words were “more please”.

Cindy Moon is having fun at Mulligan’s! She dances and prances! What a happy ending!

Final Thoughts

Yo go, gurl. You throw people who hurt your family off of roofs and you don’t feel bad about it ever! Why would you? Fuck this good guy/bad guy dichotemy. Throw a bitch off a roof. It’s good for you.

The Dragon Reborn (Book 3) – Chapter 53: “A Flow of the Spirit”

The Wheel of Time - Book 3 - The Dragon Reborn

After a long, sweaty day at the ol’ forge, a shirtless Perrin walks back with Zarine to the inn. Perrin gets all nervous around her, and he thinks perhaps it’s because this may still be the beautiful woman that Min warned him to stay away from. Well, too fucking late for that.

Moiraine and Lan are waiting at the inn. Rand is in Tear, and strange, spooky things are happening that may be the reason why the whole down looks like they’re one mean word away from slitting their wrists. Perrin admits that he has been dreaming about Rand (sexy), and so has Zarine, and so has the rest of the town. Shit is going down, as they say. Moiraine tells Perrin and Zarine and Loial to fuck off to Tar Valon until this all blows over while she and Lan deal with Be’lal. Perrin doesn’t wanna, but if he must then he must.

Perrin goes into the inn to find Loial and then hears a big thump behind him — the sound of Zarine collapsing to the floor. Moiraine tells Perrin not to touch her, and they notice that she was holding a small wooden hedgehog. Egads! A ter’angreal! She’s still alive, but barely. LOL! Not in her body any longer, if anything. Probably in that ter’aran’rhiod place where all your dreams come true!

Moiraine and Lan leave. Loial shows up and expresses discontent that Moiraine and Lan just left Zarine there like a lump. Perrin crosses the threshold of the room through the door and suddenly ends up in one of his wolf dreams. Hopper the Wolf appears and tells him to get the fuck out, fool. He’s here “too strongly”. Perrin is like “Do I look like I give a shit? Let’s save the falcon.”

And so they try. I wouldn’t if I were them, but that’s because I’m lazy and I don’t care about people! Ha!

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487 – “Box of Blood”

* Part 5 of 14 of the Batman: Prelude to Knightfall event *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487 – “Box of Blood”! In the previous installment of the Prelude to Knightfall story, a masked piece of shit named Metalhead horns in on the action and starts stabbing patrons of ugly, divey bars looking for Black Mask. In a startling coincidence (!), Batman is also looking for Black Mask! But while Batman wants to murder Black Mask via disembowelment and feeding him chili until he explodes, Metalhead wants to join Black Mask’s cult of arson and noogies.

So they fight to the death! And Batman barely wins, but he hasn’t eaten in 20 days and hasn’t slept in 45 days so he’s worse for wear. In this issue, I expect Bruce to be snuggly in his bed while Alfred dons the Batman uniform and actually gets some shit done. It’s like, come on. You all know he’d be way better at this.


Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487 [December, 1992]
Written by: Doug Moench
“Box of Blood”

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

lol, who’s this punkface on the cover art with the skull tattoos on his cheeks and my mother’s hoop earrings and the weird gun with the hexagon barrel? Tell him I hate him and I think he looks like he sucks melon rinds for a living.

Batman is so hurt that he can’t sleep and he’s so tired that he can’t scream. He’s wobbly. Alfred probably has a syringe full of fentanyl for the poor guy if he asks nicely enough. “Breathing is an effort. Dying is almost an option,” says the overdramatic narrator. Flat top Robin offers to help. Batman slaps the dick out of Robin’s hand and says he doesn’t need any DAMN help.

“He wishes for a wind strong enough to blow them both away.”

Everything about the cave is no comfort. Lights are bright! Shadows are dark! The echoes are too loud! The piles of poop are too smelly! The computers keep buzzing and bringing up their Blue Screens of Death. Did I mention the piles of poop yet?

Alfred looks like he’s about to cry, but Batman tells him to fuck off and that he’ll be fine. What’s with all the mothering, Alfred? Go home to your house lol you don’t even have a house, do you?

When Batman, of his own volition, claims that he’ll see a doctor tomorrow, both Alfred and Robin look at each other with their BUUUHHHH-WHHUUUUTT?? faces. This has never happened before!

The story shifts to one Mr. Morelli, a greasy, craggy so-and-so who is rotting away in prison. He has a visitor, Johnnie, a guy who agrees to hire a hitman to Hit a Man. Specifically, the Man who put Mr. Morelli in prison! *ALF theme song plays at 140 decibels*

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

I’ll rest juuuuuust after I finish jumping around all the build rooftops in town and doing nude jumping jacks in order to lure the Joker away from his secret lair.

A week later, Bruce Wayne gets his lab results back. Everything is negative! Herpes, syphilis, hepatitis, gonorrhea, mono, and strep throat. However, he has tested positive for PSYCHOSOMATIC MALAISE, though! Hypochondria! Hysteria! As in, it’s all in your head, you loony toon. Stress, exhaustion, fatigue, trauma about dead parents, that sort of thing. Bruce doesn’t like this answer one bit, but accepts (performatively, probably) that he needs to rest.

Johnnie is on top of a parking garage talking to one of his buddies about “Headhunter”, a guy who’s “dead” who whacks other guys dead. He don’t mind whacking guys dead ‘cause he, too, is dead, you see. Headhunter’s the dumb-looking guy on the cover. He also leaps on Johnnie and his friend out of nowhere and shoots the guns right out of their hands as self-defense! The real deal, this guy! And don’t you forget it!

“Relax, greaseballs. You’re hiring an assassin of honor — who prefers payment in full.”

Well, you’ll get your money only if you whack the biggest whack-job in town, so to speak! The hardest person to kill in all of Gotham! I’m speaking, of course, of Harrison Ford! So go get’em.

At Wayne Industries, a rather bandaged Lucius Fox is starting to relax about all the rampant arsons on the Wayne-owned buildings. Probably because there aren’t any buildings left to even worry about anymore! But seriously, folks.

“Bruce, are you… feeling all right?” Fox asks with ellipses in all the right places.

“We both went through Black Mask’s hell, Lucius, and we both survived… but maybe you’re… handling it better,” responds Bruce with his own barrage of ellipses. He offers Fox more money, but Fox declines like the biggest idiot in town and tells Bruce to get some fucking rest.

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

I’ve already got by gaudy green raincoat on, Sarah! Your shit is over!

Sarah Gordon, the eighth wife, wants Jim Gordon to stay in their house. Jim Gordon wants to burn the midnight oil and slams the door shut in Sara Gordon’s face behind him while she stands there forlornly in her underpants.

At Wayne Manor, Robin is eating a grilled cheese sandwich with the crusts cut off. They’re discussing Batman, so they fail the Batman Bechdel Test yet again. Bruce suddenly walks into the kitchen and chides Robin for wearing his Robin costume in a room full of windows. “You know the rules,” says Batman, bashing him in the head with a tire iron. Bruce frowns like the saddest man this side of the Gotham River!

Bruce admits he saw a doctor and everything’s fine, so he’s going to go out solo again while Robin does his algebra homework. Alfred is starting to get very worried about Bruce – even more worried than usual. And he’s always a little worried.

Jim Gordon drives out in the rain and arrives at a bar called “Nitro’s on Tap”. He opens the front door for six seconds and doesn’t see what he’s looking for, so he leaves and starts driving 45 minutes to the west side of town.

Speaking of rain, Batman skulks the city in the torrential downpour, preoccupied by his sheer exhaustion and pain. Frankly, I’m getting pretty fucking sick of hearing about it! It’s an effort to breathe, yada yada yada, the “freedom of his costume is suddenly a trap”, boo hoo hoo. He sees the Batsignal and springs into action!

Gordon is driving, internal monologue whirring about how he would have gone mad if he stayed in that house one more second!

The Batsignal was activated by Sarah Gordon because, as part of the marriage, she gets the codes to the Batsignal! It was in the contract. “He’s gone,” she says of Jim. “I tried to stop him, but he… walked out on me.” She says he hasn’t been the same since he put Vincent Morelli away in prison. (yikes!)

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

Preach, sister!

Sarah makes it very clear to Batman that she thinks he smells and is also nutso cuckoo in the brain. “You take down the weird ones! The freaks who wouldn’t even be here if not for you! You attract them – while he deals with the “normal” crime – the simple atrocities committed with guns and knives and baseball bats – all the dirty work that’s beneath you!”

Batman is like “please stop hurting my feelings”, but Sarah is on the verge of tears and wonders why her husband is out fighting crime alone. Batman doesn’t know what she’s talking about! She’s acting cuh-raaaazy! And why did she even signal him in the first place? Because she needs his help?!?! Ninja, please.

Well, she had nowhere else to turn to. Stop rubbing it in, ya bastard.

So, back up a bit, lady. He left for some other reason besides marital bullshit? Yes, Batman, you dingus whom Sarah despises with every fiber of her being. Her husband, James Lorelai Gordon, has a contract out on him. Vincent Morelli is seeking revenge. Some psycho took the contract, and Jim didn’t want to wait so he’s looking for him! Isn’t that fucked up?? That sounds like some Batman-levels of fucked up, right?? Now go find him. The psycho is named Headhunter, and he can’t be swayed by pussy. Money, though. Money’s the stuff.

Batman leaves Sarah in the rain on the cold roof. She expected to be whisked away to her snuggly warm bed! She’s so angry that she shoots the Batsignal with a gun, symbolizing her desire to murder a guy. Hopefully we’ll see this in fruition if for no other reason than it would be really, really funny.

So all this stress and exhaustion? There’s no time for that now when JIMMY JAM GORDON is in trouble! “There’s a neighborhood on the west side,” Batman thinks, knowing where to go instantaneously. “…used to be Headhunter’s turf…”

Sarah had booked it downstairs to the offices and is now trying to scream at Jim through the radio. He will not answer her distress calls. He’s too busy furrowing his brow and wiggling his mustache. Headhunter rides in what looks like Homer Simpson’s pink sedan and aims his scoped gun at Jim’s eyeglasses.

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

I hope you like ripe cantaloupe, Jim Gordon, because your head almost exploded like one.

Completely fucked by the near-miss (or near-hit, as it should be called), Jim runs off the road and smashes his car into a street sign. Headhunter laments his first miss ever and bounds to the scene. Jim is now returning Sarah’s call because he’s like “oh shit, if my brain gets splattered all over the pavement I’ll be in the doghouse for sure!”

Batman had watched Gordon smash into the pole and, too, bounds to the scene. Headhunter got there first: “You’re my first miss, Commissioner Gordon… the first to make my second shot meaningful.”

He makes his second shot “meaningful” by not killing him outright – instead, he shoots the gun out of Gordon’s hand. “And now it’ll have to be my third,” Headhunter says, wasting precious seconds for dramatic effect.

Batman shows up to throw Bat toys at the assailant. Headhunter shoots them down effortlessly. “…the Batarangs as a diversion… to cover his real move…” the narrator points out as Batman grapples Headhunter’s leg and drags him over. Now it’s knives out! Headhunter is miffed that he needs to kill some other guy now, one he’s not even getting paid to kill!

While Batman and Headhunter fight for 17 hours, Gordon slinks away back to the station.

Batman (Vol. 1), Issue #487

Did what? Drive into a fucking stop sign? You’re damn right I did. You’re welcome.

Sarah is grateful, but Jim tells her to thank Batman. He’s the one that saved the day! Sarah opens her eyes wide like “ugh, shit, fine.”

Batman wins the battle by throwing Headhunter down to the pavement, breaking his pearly whites.

EPILOGUE! The Batsignal looks cracked in the sky, symbolizing Batman’s hella decrepit state. But he got out alive, and with the bad guy subdued, and everything back to normal!

Batman answers the Batsignal and finds Sarah on the roof again. “It’s me again… thank you,” she concedes. “Now get lost and leave us alone.”

“How long, he wonders, before all the broken brittle pieces… are swept away?”

Final Thoughts

Quit while you’re ahead, sir! Your “best friend’s” shitty wife hates you? Who gives shit? Sounds like some broken brittle pieces you can just leave on the floor to me. They’re going to get divorced in about ten issues anyway, so go home and smack Robin around some more for humping the kitchen window while fully costumed.

Forever, Season 1 – The Afterlife is Boring

Through the Idiot Glass Disclaimer: There will be spoilers. If you’re even remotely interested in this show and you haven’t yet seen it, or if you’ll be mad if you accidentally read any possible spoilers about it, I’m going to chalk it up to “not my fucking problem”. You have been warned.
Discussion Subject: Forever, Season 1 (2018) (Amazon Prime)

Forever, Season 1
Placeholder


The Premise

Fred Armisen is/was Oscar Hoffman, and he died skiing into a tree like Sonny Bono. Maya Rudolph is/was June Hoffman, and she died choking on a nut on an airplane kind of sort of but not really like Mama Cass. These two were married for 12 years. Oscar was always happy, but June had started to get slightly restless and bored after many years of the same routine. June spent a year alive after Oscar died and, after quite a few months of grieving, she finally started picking herself up and moving on. After she died, she “woke up” in a boring neighborhood where Oscar had been living his afterlife (afterliving?) for the past year. He is thrilled to have her back. June is happy too, but conflicted. The two get back into their boring routine.

Forever, Season 1

Sitting like this will rush all the blood to your dead genitals.

A brash kid named Mark (Noah Robbins) has been there since the ’70s, and has had a very loose — very loose — friendship with Oscar since he showed up. A rebellious woman named Kase (Catherine Keener) shows up to the mysterious neighborhood of the dead a few months after June. Soon enough, Kase’s attitude toward living her afterlife like she doesn’t give a shit inspires June to assert herself about her true feelings about her situation, and about Oscar.


My Half-Baked Thoughts

This was a nice little eight-episode chunk of story. Very light, nothing particularly profound or thought-provoking even when it tried to be. There was more potential to flesh out the supernatural aspect of the afterlife, but they only touched upon this briefly, such as when Kase repeatedly tried to destroy the same piece of furniture or when they can all hang out at the bottom of the sea. The series was less focused on the mystery of the afterlife and more focused on June’s disengagement with her marriage and her finding the courage to break out of her cloistered shell, which I was fine with. It was a very slow burn for June to go from trying to make the best of the situation to actively pushing against it. And good for her! That Kase is just the rascal she needed!

Forever, Season 1

The cool thing about being dead is that you can travel to the bottom of the Marina’s Trench without worrying about those weird fish with the headlamps.

Fred Armisen is hard to take in large doses, so my only gripe with Forever is that there was a little, uh… too much of him. That’s an unfair assessment, because the whole point of his character was to be tiresome. If my wife had this constant wide-eyed optimism, I’d be heading for the hills too, tout suite! But he’s also the most exhausting part of Portlandia, so I’m used to his antics and various annoying dispositions. He’s good at it, that’s for sure. I think he’s funny, really I do! I just don’t like to see him all the time.

The existential dread that would come from being stuck in a place forever without any real direction is felt by June, and not by Oscar. They don’t really dwell on this too much since I think they wanted to make a palatable show without too much negativity and philosophical scariness. Kase makes a good point that they’re all dead and no one should be held back by anything anymore, which is a good lesson for life anyway. That’s the whole point of the show: to live life to the fullest because you’ll be dead someday. And if you happen to be dead someday and stuck somewhere, then try living life to the fullest anyway! It’s hard to do, though, because there’s stuff like capitalism that gets in the way of true happiness. Capitalism and stress and money. And if you’re single and lonely, that doesn’t help much either. And if you’re missing a limb or two, then good fucking luck.

Forever, Season 1

Welcome to the neighborhood. Would you like to hear the message of the Good News?

I can’t help but think that this isn’t the show I wanted it to be. The plot meandered in a big way, and that one side episode with the realtors that was meant to be poignant and meaningful was, while interesting, not as poignant and meaningful as it was supposed to be. Perhaps they built too much of it up to an ending that was more sad than anything else, especially the point it was trying to make (that it’s never too late to start a new life with your affair partner!) I spent the first two episodes a little bit lost as to what the driving force of the plot was going to be until it looked like it was going to be a show about June picking up her life without Oscar. I was expecting a double story of alive June and dead Oscar getting used to their unfortunate situations and never really ending up together. I think I would’ve preferred that instead of a show about an underwhelming afterlife. And maybe that was the double meaning: that the audience’s involvement felt just as underwhelming as the dead people’s situation. Don’t get me wrong, though, I totally binged through this show. I thought Forever was just the right amount of episodes and I don’t need another season. Would’ve been nice to see the direction that the show could have possibly gone in, but based on what I watched it would be just as likely that I would prefer some other direction instead.

Forever, Season 1

Fact: The kid there is like the wise old man of the story. Does he know the meaning of life? Watch to find out! (no)

Of note, I was a big fan of Noah Robbins’ performance as ’70s teenager Mark, even though he was about 28 years old at the time. Nevertheless, I like that he was a constant bitch toward Oscar — well-deserved — and betrayed a bit of genuine kindness at the end by reciprocating a hug when Oscar decided to leave the neighborhood to find June. Also, there was that one young kid who was supposedly in the neighborhood the longest. Did Mark call him a douchebag in suspenders? I cracked up!


Worth the Watch?

Yes, you’re looking at eight episodes of a funny, interesting, and low-key show that won’t take much time to get through at all and presents some interesting ideas about love, life, existential dread, seizing the day, and making the most out of a slightly shitty situation.

If you’re looking for something similar and more enjoyable, though, I recommend The Good Place and Upload as alternate options. But suck it up, man, it’s only eight episodes. You’ll probably like it.

Forever, Season 1

And have some fucking FUN once in a while. Life is short!

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5

* Part 5 of 6 of the Sinister storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5! In the previous installment, Silk spends quite a bit of time trying to fight off goblins in their secret Goblin Nation goblin lair while blowing off her coworkers, Mockingbird, and (accidentally; not her fault) Black Cat.

Eventually, the Goblin King shows up and says “ENOUGH, BITCHES!” He presents Silk with an opportunity to join the Goblin Nation to help vie for a perfect society, and when Silk refuses the goblins inject her with Goblin Juice and she becomes a dang goblin.

So, obviously, Silk will need help finding Goblin Antidote Juice and that mysterious electric hero that keeps showing up to save her will be just the guy to do it. And then it’ll be a celebration! TV dinners for all!


Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5 [April, 2016]
Written by: Robbie Thompson

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5

Flashback to eight months ago when Black Cat and Silk were fighting eachother upon a rooftop during a sultry, dusky evening.

“Fight back!” Black Cat says, kicking Silk in the face.

“No. I’m here to join you. Not fight you,” Silk responds, sliding 19 feet across the roof.

“Why the hell should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t.”

Well, that settles that! And – oh, there’s more.

“But you will.”

Oh snap, girlfriend! And it turns out Silk was right! Except for the part where she got dosed with goblin cum and now she’s one of them. That’s what we call “switching loyalties” in the business. The ice cream truck business.

Flashforward back to the present. Black Cat asks her faithful Shrike companion what may have happened to the girl. Was she infected? Shrike is like “Hell naw, dogg. She tried to sell me out to the Goblin King, guy!” and asks Black Cat what she even saw in Silk in the first place. Useless trash. Worse than useless trash! Useless piffle!

At the Fact Channel offices, Cindy’s coworkers grow concerned about the lack of communication and the lack of showing-up-to-work-at-all. They reiterate that the last thing Cindy told any of them was “Need background info on a Doctor Ajay Kapoor.”

“Where the hell is she? I’ve called twice. Twice! That’s two times too many.” Looks like J. Jonah Jameson needs his Cindy Moon! Her coworkers cover for her and Jameson leaves “satisfied”.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5

Take a shot every time you hate Cindy Moon!

Mockingbird unmasked! She’s Bobbi Morse, and she’s annoyed with Cindy. Bobbi is in a bar with Super-Woman unmasked! That’s Jessica Drew, and she’s annoyed with Cindy. “Our protocols call for 12-hour check-ins. She hasn’t missed one until now,” says Bobbi.

“She’s way too inexperienced for this,” says Bobbi some more. “I shouldn’t have let her go undercover.”

Jessica slaps her friend and then shakes her violently and then slaps her again. Then says “you’re right.”

Finally, we check in at the Goblin Nation where the Goblin Silk is upending tables for no discernible reason. “That’s the spirit,” says the Goblin King.

Ol’ Kingy has a task for the newly anointed Goblin Silk: go kill Black Cat, m’kay? Thanks, chief.

Goblin Silk zips around town. While searching for the Cat of Blackness, she realizes she’s being followed…

It’s that mysterious electric twerp, and he tells her that she needs to stop. She goes “Die!” and lunges at him, but she’s no match for his mysterious electricness. “You need help… Cindy…”

Hearing her name snaps her out of it for the merest of the splittest of seconds, but then she takes a swing at him and demands that he leave her alone. She continues swinging around town while he stands there forlornly on the roof going “I’m sorry…”

Goblin King’s henchmen take him down to the library where they found Silk. “What was she looking for…?” he asks himself as he thumbs through a book he picked up off the floor. “Or rather… who was she looking for…?”

SHE WAS LOOKING FOR AMELIA EARHARDT, BRO, WHO DO YOU THINK SHE WAS LOOKING FOR? HER PARENTS?? IDIOT!

Shrike is trying to convince Black Cat that he is all she needs and that he’ll do everything great and awesome. She isn’t buying it, and she sees Goblin Silk barrel her way to the window behind Shrike.

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5

Take the present for example. You’re about to get shredded by millions of shards of broken glass! Tee hee.

Goblin Silk crashes through the window and starts pummeling Shrike with ease. “You said you can do more for me…” Black Cat says, sipping her drink while Shrike gets beaten to death. “Now’s a good time to start.”

After a nice whuppin’, Black Cat declares that it’s been quite enough and then kicks Goblin Silk out of the now-broken window. “Now, I know Goblin Nation is tempting,” Black Cat says, hooking and throwing Goblin Silk back into the building with CRACK against the back wall. “But green just isn’t a good color on you, kid!”

Black Cat is really good at the not-getting-hurt part of fighting. She ensnares Goblin Silk in her whip. “But I think we can win you back. First and foremost… with our health care plan…” she draws a syringe full of Goblin Antidote Juice! I knew it! She jabs Goblin Silk in the arm. She starts wailing like a member of Bob Marley’s band! Get it?!

“There. That’s better, isn’t it?”

Silk has been ungoblinified, but she looks like warmed-over shit. While she recovers on the floor drunkenly, Black Cat ensnares Shirke in her whip and starts punching him right in his sensitive tummy over and over. “All the tech we’ve been stealing helped me create an antidote for the imitation-brand goblin formula Phil Urich and his pathetic Goblin Nation is peddling!

Black Cat kicks Shrike in the face. “I needed a guinea pig. And I had a feeling you weren’t to be trusted, so… two birds with one stone.”

Silk (Vol. 2), Issue #5

Throw him in the laundry brig.

Black Cat smiles at Silk. “Sorry about the last couple days, kid. But you did good. You’re in. You’re one of us now.”

Silk tries to stay standing, feeling like absolute dogshit. “I’m in? Great. So. Now what?”

Black Cat gives her best Elvis sneer. “Now? We burn Goblin Nation to the ground.”

Then they both have sex on the floor. The end.

Final Thoughts

So who am I supposed to be rooting for here? Black Cat or the Goblin Nation? Both are bad, right? Am I supposed to care one way or the other, or am I supposed to say “Oh geeeez, Cindy, you’re in quite a pickle either way, aren’t ya?!”

Well, I won’t say it! I won’t!