The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 4: The Tempest #1 (July 2018)

What am I doing?! I don't even get all the references on the cover? Is that Joan of Arc? Destiny's book? What's The Tempest even?!

I normally avoid commenting on comic books by writers so much smarter than me that I may as well never have even crawled out of the ocean. If I were a creature taking its first tentative steps on land, thinking, "Yeah, yeah. This might be nice. This could work!", and then I saw Alan Moore had already established himself in a nice little grove just over the sand dune, I'd think, "Fuck it. I'mma go get eaten by an octopus," and head back into the depths. I'm not even suggesting that Alan Moore's simply smarter than me; he's practically a different species. Do I even have a brain? Sometimes I use the brag that I read Moore's Jerusalem just to put me on the dusty floor underneath the row of shelves beneath the ceiling of the floor of the apartment that Alan Moore resides 80 stories above. But I only use that brag on practically everybody else who doesn't even get to live on the dusty floor and must squelch through their lives in the subterranean levels well below the basements and sub-basements of my metaphoric building. But let me be absolutely honest about even that: I have never actually finished Jerusalem! I keep meaning to! I've got a thread of blog posts here on Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea trying to ferret out the meaning of Chapter 3 of Book 3, "Round the Bend", which is written in Moore's attempt at a Finnegan's Wake style language. It's fucking genius and complicated and so satisfying to really sink your verbal teeth into. Even the name of the chapter, "Round the Bend", echoes the beginning of Finnegan's Wake and sets you on the course (like following a river around the bend) of understanding what Moore's attempting.

What I'm trying to say is this: "Der! Duh! Urf! Brain hurts!" I'm also requesting you don't call me an idiot in the comments when I miss some very obvious comic book references in the text because Alan Moore knows more facts about comic books than probably even actually exist. He is a mage, you know! So forgive me when I miss all the references to Golden Age and obscure comic books because that's just the tip of the iceberg on the stuff that will go right over my head. You think I'm going to understand his literature references? And his pulp references? And his references to famous actors and actresses from the 20th Century? Shit, the amount I don't know could power the world for centuries!

Did that make sense? I just mean if my ignorance were fuel, I'd be owned by Saudi Arabia.

Al and Kev begin the series on the inside front cover in a way that lets the reader know they aren't about to hold back on their rage and loathing of the comic book industry and its history of using and abusing those on whose creations the entire industry was built. They call the feature "Cheated Champions of Your Childhood" but — let's face it, Moore — "your" childhood was exceptionally different most of the people reading this, especially those members of the American audience.

Leo who? Hey! At least I was vaguely aware of The Beano!

I sound like Trump now! Just because I wasn't familiar with Leo Baxendale doesn't mean most readers also weren't. I already mentioned my ignorance earlier! I've never been a good fan of anything I enjoyed. I never did any deep dives on stuff I really loved (probably thanked to Tolkien and his wise words about digging too deep). I'm like one of the Pinis' Wolfriders stuck in the "Now" of wolf thought. I'm fucking blasting through the present obliterating everything with my joy and whimsy, no time for repeat viewings, no time for deeper research, fuck man, hardly any time to learn the names of the people in the band I can't fucking hear enough of!

Way to make it about yourself, Grunion Guy (or whatever my name is on this blog)! You probably didn't even retain any of that sad yet somehow inspiring information on the legend, Leo Whats-his-name! Just wait until you get to the Letters Pages where Al and Kev rip comic book fans four new assholes simply for being adult comic book readers (that's in addition to the new asshole they ripped us in this introductory feature)!

The issue begins with three women skinny dipping in the fountain of youth in Uganda.

The name "Orlando" has been carved on a nearby rock, Moore's cheeky suggestion that this was where Woolf's character got their immortality.

Other carvings on the rock, I have no guesses on. And perhaps this lady is Orlando? She has been here before, perhaps many, many times. I have only the vaguest of memories of having read this so you should assume that I'm reading it for the first time. Also, did you notice all of the nipples? Hee hee!

The second prologue takes place in the year 2996 in black and white. You would think the future would be in color but since the future is actually a representation of the past, we get it in black and white. A woman named Satin Astro sees her partner Burt Steele killed The Lord of Mars before she hops into a time bubble set to 1958. She also shows her nipples but through her clothing so it's not as exciting. No, no. I take that back. It's more exciting! I don't recognize any of these characters because they're British comic book characters from the '40s. Satin Astro was known as a kind of Robin Hood figure so expect some super duper anti "The Man" commentary from her! I think Burt was a Space Cop so she probably liked seeing him die.

The third prologue (how many prologues does this thing need? Will this first issue be all prologue? Didn't some band have a lyric in The Crusades I read recently that said something about all past being prologue? Wasn't that band Shakespeare?! Are all of these prologues supposed to be a reference of that singer who wrote The Tempest? Or is this because Moore just loves telling convoluted stories and to begin in the middle, he has to first tell us about the beginning!

Shit! I forgot I was in the middle of a parenthetical reference and never finished the thought outside the open parenthesis! Rectifying: The third prologue takes place in Vauxhall, London, in the year 2009. Hmm. That was boring. No wonder I forgot about it.

MI5 (unless it's 6) have some updates for James Bond about some strange phenomena which happened on the night that Ms. Night disappeared.

Oh, sorry! He's M, now. M. Just M.

The prologues over and done with, we get the title of Chapter One: "Farewell to Forever." The Logue begins with the three women from Prologue #1. They're no longer naked and bathing while naked and being naked. Now they're hiking in Egypt while all the statues and carvings are naked!

That's Ayesha, the God of Thighgaps.

They're in Kor, Uganda, which is where they were when they were bathing. So maybe this takes place just a few minutes after they put their clothes back on. Kor is also the home of Ayesha, or was before she was recently killed. Or killed a long time ago. Or killed all the times she was killed. The facts of her death are a little fuzzy. Ayesha's story was previously told in Sir H. Rider Haggard's series of books about Allan Quatermain, coincidentally a long time member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The three women drop a lot of names along with Ayesha's to either confuse the reader or show that they're deeply involved in this super secret world of mad geniuses, fictional characters who actually aren't, and immortals. But I still don't know who any of them are!

The League stories take place in a world where every story actually seems to have happened. So why not 30 Rock too?!

To the untrained eye, they might be confused by that last scan so let me explain: the scene has shifted to London and away from the women in Egypt. Satin Astro and a man with hypnotic powers are searching for Vull the Invisible Man and other members of their old superhero team, the Seven Stars. I think their team emblem is supposed to look like the number seven with a lightning bolt under it but it actually just looks like a huge yellow question mark. They find Vull's files, updated by a woman named Murray, that contain obituaries for two of their former teammates: Zom who was discorporated by Duke de Richleau in 1966; and David Gaunt, the Flash Avenger, who died of cancer in 1968. If they didn't know about these deaths, does that mean their team has been disbanded since the early '60s? Satin Astro only arrived on Earth in 1958, so it doesn't seem they lasted long. I'm sure Mina Murray, alias Vull the Invisible Man, used them to save the world and left them to rot after. But they're back and looking to figure out what happened which I hope they find out because I'm over here screaming, "What happened? What happened?! Is this what 'in media res' is all about?! I fucking hate it!"

Back to the three women who are fans of getting naked, it is revealed that the old woman who was youthinized was the leader of MI5. So she was M before that old jerk James Bond took over. I bet he had something to do with her ousting! He's probably the bad guy in this series, right? One of the other women must be Miranda since this is called The Tempest and they've already discussed Prospero and the island a bit. Although I just glanced at the page opposite the one I'm currently reading and saw one of the women shouting, "Lando! Don't!" so, you know, it's Orlando.

The pool they bathed in was Ayesha's pool which explains why she's supposedly died so many times. I wouldn't know because I've never read any of the Allan Quatermain stories because they're so fucking old. I mean, sure, I've read older! But it feels like picking up a Horatio Alger book and reading that. I don't know why. I bet I'd love the Allan Quatermain stuff! You know what? I'm going to read it all this year! Just like I planned to read all the Conan stories last year and got to about half of them!

How hard do you think Alan Moore's dick gets when he reads the stuff that entered the Public Domain each year?

I expect the next League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to be composed of Winnie the Pooh, Steamboat Willie, and Popeye.

I don't actually hate stories that being in media res! What I really hate and I have several thousand blog posts testifying to that hatred are when comic books act like they're going to begin in media res on the first page or two and then by the third page, the narrator is all, "Two weeks previously!" and they just start the entire story over from the beginning. So far, Moore's doing a great job dropping the reader into whatever's happening and giving hints and clues to what's what along the way.

You might notice that I'm loathe to insult Alan Moore! That's because I'm not smart enough to declare he's done something wrong or written something terrible! If I think something is out of whack in an Alan Moore story, I know it's my fault for not understanding it enough!

Alan Moore is an anagram for "O! More anal!"

Back to MI6 (unless it's 5), Moore and O'Neill tell a short story in four weekday comic strip installments.

My guess is the new M is Ian Fleming's 007 from the books, and the J-Series agents he's surrounded himself with are the movie versions.

Ms. Night, the woman missing from the agency whom Bond is looking for, is M, the woman with Orlando and Miranda. Except "Miranda" is actually Mina Murray. Which I should have noticed but when they were naked, I was looking for one of them to continues wearing a scarf (also, as Bond mentions, her hair is different. Colored red). What I should have been looking more closely for was this:

The scars!

That doesn't mean Mina wasn't Miranda from Prospero's island! She's also been the Invisible Man of the Seven Stars, remember?!

The Black Dossier which Night took with her on her trip with Mina and Orlando contained information on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But it was information that Bond didn't take seriously. Until now! They're off to Uganda. The chase is on!

Behave!

Satin and her psychic friend (his name is Garath. He was Marsman!) have tracked down one of the only two non-Mina members of the Seven Stars still alive: Carol, aka Electric Girl (now an old woman. That was her name in 1964, 45 years earlier!). Being the middle of a comic book that began in media res, the middle spread where Satin and Garath meet with Carol explains the beginnings of the story. Also, Carol is Electric Girl who can barely power down now, living in a Faraday Cage. She illuminates. So once the reader reaches the middle of the story, they have learned a good portion of what's going on and are ready to head out of the maze and toward the final page.

What was it we learned? Satin Astro came back in time to stop a great disaster that began in 2009 or 2010, reverberating for a thousand years so that her home in 2996 is an ecological disaster ruled by a fascist Martian warlord. She explains that she didn't know that's why she came back until about six months ago, having suffered from the convenient "Chrononaut Amnesia Syndrome," like in 12 Monkeys! When you time travel, it's either that, you lose all your clothes and arrive naked, or everybody at your destination winds up being apes or Morlocks. Time travel isn't as fun as most people think it would be.

Anyway, Satin and Garath need to find Vull but why Vull explicitly remains a secret. Carol doesn't know where Vull is but believes Jim, the other final member of the Seven Stars, can probably find Vull with his cosmic consciousness super powers. So the quest continues.

I'm not sure if I should remember Mina's asylum years. I should probably have re-read the first three volumes of this to start!

Mina, Orlando, and Emma Night are searching for Lincoln Island, Jack Nemo's last known location. Why? I don't know! But they make sure to explain how little they know about what's going on too so the readers don't get mad at them explicitly for not telling. That's all Moore's fault. Get mad at him, if you're brave enough! I wouldn't want to tempt him into casting a spell on me. I'd rather believe magic is real without actually finding out how real.

James Bond, the new M, is now only a half a world behind them as he lands in Kor, Uganda, with his movie versions. He forces the Woody Allen reserve J-series Agent to wheel him to the magic pool, undress him, and help him bathe. This part of the story continues to be told in daily comic strips. At one point, Agent Woody Allen comments on James Bond's non-shriveled old man penis but O'Neill doesn't draw it, the tease. He did draw Bond's nipples though because fair is fair. We didn't get to see the ladies' ring-a-ding-dings either.

Anyway, James gets young again, shoots Woody in the head, and blows up Queen Ayesha's Lazarus Pit!

The ladies enter a mysterious fog bank like the ones in all the literature where something weird needs to happen. They emerge on the other side in a land hidden from the modern world! Islands full of analogs of real-world shit. I get some of the jokes like Figlefia is full of naked people fucking and well, no, wait. I think that's the only one I understood. One island is called Coxuria which I'm sure has something to do with the inhabitants being cocksure but they're just well-dressed pygmies who ignore the women. They also visit a place called Aleofane full of islanders that look like old movie stars who speak through facial tics. Why? I don't know!

They also visit this island that's both a parody of Brexit and the rift among comic book fans!

They wind up coming in close to the island underwater when a huge strapping man holding his breath comes walking along the sea floor, picks up the sub, throws it over his shoulder, and marches back the way he came. I don't recognize him because, well, I didn't re-read any of the other volumes! Maybe he was in one of those!

The comic ends with the first of six parts from The Seven Stars #1. It's the comic Garath and Satin found in their old headquarters and it tells the tale of their last battle against . . . THE 'MASS!

We learn that Mina took the Inviso-helmet from the super villain Vull who tried to use it to ransom the world. But now she's using it for good while also not letting anybody know she's Mina Murray or a woman even. Garath actually is a Martian like Martian Manhunter. Except he looked human and not green so he was sent to Earth to spy in 1948. The team is backed by the United Nations and the British government doesn't like it. So they're actually the butthurt antagonists. They formed their own group to rival the Seven Stars but it mostly sucks. So they're going to launch a brand new super hero: The 'Mass! From everything I've read so far, I bet it goes swimmingly!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 4: The Tempest #1 Rating: A+. This shit is just so much fun.

They even have Who's Who entries on the back!

Justice League Quarterly #5 (Winter 1991)

80 pages?! Dear God in Heaven, why? WHY DID YOU LET ME BUY THIS 33 YEARS AGO?!

I should probably do a little research into where the Justice League were in the winter of 1991. Judging by the cover, Silver Sorceress was still alive. Or was she? I don't know. Does it matter? Aren't these quarterlies just any old Justice League tale that never got told but some editor somewhere thought, "That's good enough to gouge readers for another $2.95 every three months!" That's barely hyperbole! Look at the roster down the side. A General Glory story? Who gives a shit? The Global Guardians? Nobody fucking cares! Fire and Ice? Well, okay, I'm here for that one. And also it reminds me I need to read their Smallville series that came out not too long ago that my friend JT keeps punching me in the balls about. That means he keeps telling me I need to read it because I will fucking love it and I believe him but I just haven't made it a priority in my life yet! Maybe in 2025! Life's goal in 2025: read a very specific comic book. I think I can do that!

The first story is by Mark Waid so it can't be too bad, can it? Not that I've read enough by Mark Waid to really have any opinion on his writing but I've heard good things! Although, to be fair, I've also heard people say good things about Scott Lobdell's writing. So I either have to admit that sometimes bad writers write something decent, or maybe other people aren't trustworthy enough to have their own opinions. Having never read anything decent by Scott Lobdell, I'm suspecting the latter half of the previous statement is true. Y'all just don't know what you're fucking talking about. Guys, maybe just leave the observations about reality to me, an expert. I don't want to hear about how you remember some of Lobdell's X-men run fondly. You were probably a stupid kid with an incomplete brain and a hot mom. Just try to forget those obviously false memories and listen to your Uncle (or Aunt? I don't know) Tess. I'll tell you just how terrible Lobdell is. And also how hot your mom is. Does she have an email?

Who is this kid? Why should I care about him? He's a robot, isn't he?

That's how the story begins. The mailman is definitely a robot. I saw the other half of his face and it's like a broken toaster. The cool thing about a broken toaster is that it's like every other mechanical device you can think of: they don't make toast. But there's a downside there somewhere. Also, I could be wrong. Can a Cybertruck make toast? I mean on purpose?

I know everybody is different but I've never had a conversation this long with my mailman. The longest conversation was probably some years back when my good feline buddy Judas was still alive. I had gone two houses down to bring him in from the yard he decided he loved to hang out in as an old man. As I was walking past the neighbor's house between, the mailman was coming down the walk. He saw me carrying Judas lovingly, smiled, and said, "Oh! He hissed at me!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, he doesn't like people." Re-telling that story, I probably should have just hissed at the mailman too.

Something Twilight Zone-esque is taking place in this town as those guys in the suits and crew cuts on the cover go marching down the street to remove somebody from the town. But that's all we get! Time to learn our days of the week! Thanks, Mark Waid! I've been having some trouble with Blurtsday!

Even if I could figure out the memory trick Waid is using to remember the days of the week, how do I remember Thursday?!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all collapse, falling into a coma after an encounter with one of the crew cutted men in suits. That's okay though because even by 1991, nobody gave a shit about Geoforce, Valor, and Red Star. Sure, Valor was about to start his own ongoing book that would last for two years. But nobody gave a shit about it. Double sure, I bought it too. But I didn't care about Valor! I was just into buying new comic books! Okay, maybe my assessment of Valor's popularity was wrong. But even if Geoforce wasn't universally regarded as the most boring member of The Outsiders, Red Star was definitely a three hour trip to Snoozeville. Even in Wolfman's Titans, Red Star was more boring than Cyborg when Cyborg lost his personality and was left a broken toaster.

Hey! I know a cool fact about broken toasters!

Back to Thursday, it stars Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner reading DC's version of Weekly World News until they discover the weekday mnemonic for Thursday.

Thursday: Rebis.

No wait. I stand corrected. This is from the Weekly World News (see? It's teaching us about the week!) so I bet Rebis was Sunday. Thursday actually turns out to be Starman who nearly crashes on top of Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner which totally would have killed Blue Beetle. They take him to J'onn so he can examine him and see if he can get his dick hard. Hmm, well, he does examine Starman but he doesn't do the thing where he tries to get his dick hard. Isn't that a standard part in a physical examination?

Oh no. I think I just had a breakthrough.

J'onn believes the culprit behind heroes having their powers stolen is Professor Ivo, the jerk who built Amazo. He calls together a team to investigate: Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, Elongated Man, Silver Sorceress, Power Girl, Rocket Red, The Flash, Ice, and Metamorpho. So basically Justice League Europe, really. And Blue Beetle winds up being useless because the plan is to use their various super-powered members as bait to lure Amazo's power stealing, suit wearing robots.

Everybody partners up so that nobody gets taken unawares and poor Ice and Power Girl wind up with Guy Gardner. They walk right into one of Amazo's robots who instantly steals Power Girl's power. I guess he probably can't steal Guy's power since it comes from the ring and why would he want Ice's power?

You know what? I feel bad for saying that! One of the main themes of this story that I just skipped over because I thought it was Ice just feeling sorry for herself was how she's decided to head home because nobody respects her power. She's the Aquaman of the current League. J'onn tried to give her a pep talk that was actually a bit insulting because instead of saying, "No, no! Your powers are amazing!", he kept saying things like, "You give the League heart!" and "You give the League soul!" She's not the League's cheerleader, J'onn! I guess you can't expect a Martian to understand how to cheer up a human.

You definitely can't expect Guy Gardner to understand how to cheer up a human. What an asshole!

Ice is the only person on the League who can stand you, you stupid fucking ragehole! Treat her with respect! How the hell did I ever like this guy?! No, no. Don't say that, me! I know exactly why I liked him: because comic books are written by various writers and they all write the characters in slightly different ways. You can't expect every writer to write a character in the manner that you would like! Some writers see Guy Gardner and treat him with respect, trying to understand his anger issues and his brain trauma, like when Charles Soule wrote Guy in Red Lanterns. And some writers see Guy as the raging fucking monster he is and turn him into an abusive boyfriend who should have had his dick torn off by Batman instead of just punched in the face. Like, um, Mark Waid here! When Dan Vado was writing him (that's in the future as far as this issue is concerned!), I hated it because he just made Guy a major sex pest who wouldn't leave any of the women alone. Later, it turned out it was a Guy Gardner robot but I think editorial was all, "Dude. That's not the way Guy is an asshole. Yes, he acts like a womanizer. But he doesn't go around grabbing pussies and hinting that he can't wait to do anal to an Amazon." (I just made that last one up. Don't go looking for it. Although, hell, it might be in there somewhere!) But this might be the worst Guy's ever been Guy'd! The way he shits on Ice here is pure domestic abuse! It's awful! It's so extreme! If Guy's various attitudes were data sets to determine just how much of a dick he is, this one would have to be ignored as an outlier. I'm going to forget I ever read it even!

Guy gets smashed in the back of the head by a hunk of ice when the Amazo robot breaks out of the block. Maybe he'll be nice again when he gains consciousness!

The robot ignores Ice because, well, you know. We don't have to keep saying it. She already feels as bad as she can feel about her shitty powers. Instead of trying to follow the robot by making an ice slide because DC might get sued by Marvel, Ice decides to steal Guy's ring and become a Green Lantern for the day. She can't outright steal it but she does wish she could use it and Guy hears her wish as he passes out and passes the ring on to her. See? Guy's nice again!

This might sound sexist because it is but does Ice really need to be useful with an ass like that? Um, asking for my super sexist friend.

Using the ring when she could have used an ice slide, Ice follows Ivo's robot to an island far off the coast. There she discovers Ivo's home: an idyllic little village full of robots trying to be human and not making any toast at all. Being that Ice has no willpower because she's full of self-loathing exacerbated by people like Guy and Beetle and Booster and even Fire (who is often patronizing), she can't do anything to stop Ivo or his robots. She does manage to make the ring disappear so that Ivo doesn't take it but that's probably because that's kind of a self-loathing power. She winds up getting thrown in a cell and forgotten about.

Meanwhile, Guy Gardner points out that he can track his ring with his power battery which enables the League to follow Ice to Ivo's hideout. See? Ice is helpful! Plus she psychoanalyzes Ivo while the rest of the League bumble around the island.

Ivo wants to kill himself?! But there wasn't a self-harm warning on the cover!

I hope this story ends with J'onn J'onzz speaking directly to the reader and saying, "If you or anybody you know feels like eating a shotgun, please call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at the following number! Remember, it gets slightly better! Sometimes."

Basically, if the League hadn't gotten involved, Ivo's robots would simply kill him and nobody would have to worry about Ivo ever again. But I guess the world would lose Geoforce, Red Star, Valor, Rebis, Starman, and Power Girl as well. I'd like to say it's worth it but I can't accept the loss of Rebis. So I guess this story did need to be told and the League did need to get involved. So that Rebis can live! Also so that Ice can gain some self-confidence when she saves the day and everybody exclaims, "Yay! Ice's ass is super fantastic!"

The huge battle depicted on the cover finally breaks out which I almost praised as being a cover that didn't lie about the story inside. But I can't do that, can I, friends? Can you see where the cover artist made a mistake? Hmm? Can you? That's right. Guy has his ring on the cover and is using it! Shame on you, DC! Lying to your fans once again. I only purchased this comic book to see Guy use his ring like on the cover and he doesn't even have it.

During the battle, Silver Sorceress and Elongated Man share a joke that I actually enjoy. But then immediately following that humorous moment, Professor Ivo tells Ice all about how his mother died when he was in college and he never visited her because he was afraid of death and now he was so more afraid of death than the average everybody, he became immortal but now because he looks ugly and his organs hurt, he's not afraid of death anymore and he wants mommy. Who hurt you, Mark Waid? Was it your mother? When you were in college? And she died? And you became immortal?

That was my impression of a reader who doesn't understand how fiction writing works! Thank you, thank you! Instead of throwing roses, you can just send cash!

During the fight, Martian Manhunter takes the absolute piss out of Blue Beetle for no fucking reason at all.

Cut to Blue Beetle watching on a monitor in the Bug, tears silently filling up his goggles.

Why would Ivo's Man-in-Black Amazo want to go after Blue Beetle in particular? He has no powers to steal so why focus on him? Martian Manhunter going this hard on a ploy that shouldn't have actually worked just seems cruel. My guess is that Blue Beetle ate so many of J'onn's Oreos when Ted was fat that J'onn still resents him for it.

This story only has seven pages left so I'm going to assume that smashing Ivo's robot with a train destroyed it. Another one gets taken out in an even weaker way by Silver Sorceress, Elongated Man, and Guy Gardner.

Since when does Guy aim to please? Have I been reading the wrong Guy Gardner appearances?

Silver Sorceress could have sent the robot to her old homeworld but I guess she's trying to be more responsible about sending automata to different worlds. So she just teleports it a dozen meters away so that it crashes through a power line and, I guess, shorts out. That's two down! I hope the third one gets taken out by Blue Beetle scrunching up his face and hunching up his back and slicing his dick down the middle while yelling, "Look at me! I'm a Martian freak! Don't you want my power to beat everything except a Bic Lighter and a Toaster Oven!"

I'm assuming J'onn's Martian penis is bifurcated. I don't have any proof of it. It doesn't explicitly describe J'onn's penis in the Who's Who for some reason.

Meanwhile, Immortan Ivo continues his tale of woe to Ice. He explains that he's becoming a living statue and that scares him more than becoming a decaying corpse. Weird. Neither seems ideal but I think I'd try the statue thing for a few million years, see how it pans out.

Ivo jams a screwdriver into his urethra to prove he's hard as iron. Ice fails her Sanity saving throw and now she has a new kink.

Blue Beetle fails to stop a robot which isn't surprising and I'm not even sure why I mentioned it. At least he doesn't die. But I shouldn't be too hard on Beetle because, actually, everybody failed to stop the robots. Hitting them with a train didn't do it. Teleporting them into a power line didn't do it. Capturing them in a lead ball didn't do it. Screaming like a dying rabbit while one pushes a house on top of you didn't do it. They're as immortal as Professor Ivo!

Ivo decides he's had enough explaining why he wants to die and he orders the robots back to him to kill him. The Justice League have to watch them walk away because now they need to save the powerless Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner from the civilian robots about to slaughter them.

The doctors told his mother that? As she was killed by six super-powered robots?!

When somebody's dying of cancer, do people often glibly point out to them that nobody should have to die like that? It's true, I guess. But it presupposes there are ways that people should have to die. But wait! Hear me out! What if nobody ever had to die? Has anybody thought of that yet (aside from Professor Ivo and Victor Frankenstein)?! I bet death already has been cured but probably by racists. So they're all, "If we put this out on the market, we can't just sell it to white people! Every race will become immortal!" And all the racists were all, "We'd rather die." Jerks!

Ivo's plan doesn't work. The robots just wind up killing themselves while he still lives. Ice's prison is destroyed in the blast and she comes out to comfort the man. That's when she accidentally cures him of his immortality with the Green Lantern ring. She doesn't kill him! She just releases him from the pain of his organs hardening. Guy Gardner assures everybody that what she did was impossible and he's never been able to make his ring heal afflictions. Maybe he should let Ice keep the ring? The team needs a Green Lantern bashing heads far less than somebody who could constantly provide medical aid during a fight!

Professor Ivo gladly goes to prison where he'll probably die before getting out again. How is that better than living forever?! Ivo really is nuts. Although I am ignoring the massive amount of pain that he's constantly in. I hear that'll drive people to wish for death. It would drive me to wish for a way to stop feeling pain that also kept me alive though. Like Ice making a wish on a Green Lantern ring. Then I'd be all, "I didn't cause all the trouble! My robots did that on their own! See this community I made? It's gentle and loving and idyllic! Those stupid business robots went crazy the way business people do! I'm innocent!" Then J'onn would have read my mind and been all, "You're coming with me, you monster."

The next story is a Fire and Ice story and it looks like, um, it might be about suicide as well? What the fuck, Justice League Quarterly?!

Or misogynist incel murder. But that probably ends in suicide anyway.

This story asks the burning question of our time: can an old man become a spree killing incel? Bill Loebs seems to think the answer is "Of course! Who wouldn't go nuts with a pistol if Ice refused to fuck you?!"

This issue is really going hard on the idea that Ice has to support everybody emotionally. Stop trauma dumping on my girl!

In this story, we learn that Fire flames on when she orgasms.

I guess editor Brian Augustyn doesn't perform oral sex on women or he never would have let this joke through.

We also learn that Ice's main super power is stopping people from killing themselves.

Are the winter issues always this dark?

What we don't learn is that Ice is irritatingly nice because we already knew that. We aren't reminded that she has a great ass because she's wearing big old shorts the entire time.

Do I even need to mention the final two stories and what we learned from them? Does anybody even want to learn anything more about General Glory and the Global Guardians? Maybe I should just pretend that I read them and scan a few panels and bullshit my way through explaining them! No, no! That wouldn't be right. I'm certainly not going to do that at all.

The main conflict in the Global Guardians is Godiva's front wedgie.

Why would she shave her pubic hair and deny herself the extra fighting power?

After Tuatara helps Godiva pull out the front wedgie, disaster strikes!

A wild back wedgie appears!

Realizing she can't tackle this problem along, Godiva forms a group for Constant Wedgie Sufferers.

With the help of a woman in loose clothing and conversation bashing males, Godiva's wedgies are cured! The End!

I mean Godiva's problem is cured later! She's still suffering from wedgies at that first meeting depicted above.

Does anybody even care about the General Glory story? No? You all hate him too? Okay, good, because he was killed in this story.

Is there any reason I can't adopt "Heil Hitler, suckers!" as my new catch phrase when I cropdust somebody at a Con?

Justice League Quarterly #5 Rating: --. When I was younger, I loved getting an 80 page comic book! But now I pick one up and sigh. They're too long. They're usually some kind of collection of throwaway stories that don't matter at all to canon or the characters themselves. Often they're full of stories written or drawn by newbies to the company and it shows. And these quarterlies always feel they need to highlight characters that don't get as much attention in the pages of Justice League, or were just side characters in various stories that nobody needed a chance to catch up with. I guess they can be fun and these probably were fun the first time I read them when I was eager to read as much comic book shit as possible. But now I just want to pretend I don't have five more Quarterlies to go! I think I'll space them out so I don't completely burn out and stop reading, writing, thinking, and enjoying stuff for the next few years. It's happened before! Why do you think I barely wrote anything on and off for the last few years? I was burned out and also I got addicted to watching gambling streams on Twitch. I guess that's better than being addicted to gambling itself but thinking about the time I spent watching hurts my soul. Man, just mentioning them makes me want to go check some out! Maybe just for a few minutes!

Two-Step #3 (July 2004)

If this isn't the final issue, I'll be headed to Excalibur later.

I watched Furiosa last night and it left me with a burning question in the pit of my manhood: when did motherfucking stupid motherfucking male motherfuckers begin having problems with movies with women leads? Who was the king of the dipshits who was all, "Hey, fellas, it's gay to enjoy stories with women." I and the Non-Certified Spouse just finished re-watching the second season of The Mandalorian and she asked me, "Did all the nerd guys get upset about all the women protagonists in this?" And I was all, "If not for these online cucks who think they're alphas (who, also, are the only people who get upset if they're called cucks which is why they're the only people I call cucks (aside from Shakespearean characters, of course)), I wouldn't even notice." I didn't even think about it until the Non-Certified Spouse asked that question (although I was a bit disgusted by how many Twi'leks were in the series. Gross!)! My favorite book series in elementary school was The Wizard of Oz books followed by Beverly Cleary's Ramona books. I never once fucking thought, nor did anybody ever suggest, that I, a boy, shouldn't have been reading these books. I never thought, "Man, I can't identify with Dorothy or Ramona or Beezus. If only they had penises!" Fucking hell! I think my biggest anarchist anti-hero was Laura Ingalls! That bitch was a fucking hellion who was only kept in check by the power of Pa's grace and goodness! Who are these squareheaded dildos who have decided to cut themselves off from so much entertainment and storytelling because of some superficial fucking nonsense?! Read some books, motherfuckers. Any of them! No, wait. Not any of them. If they take me up on the offer, they'll just go get one of those books with "Alpha" or "Sigma" or "Business" in the title. Read a fiction book, man! And look! I'm not even suggesting you read some modern multicultural or feminist book! Just fucking read a book, man. How about Catch-22? That one has swears and prostitutes and death and loads and loads of male characters and jokes! It'll be right up your alley and you might fucking expand your narrow-minded view of the world a little bit.

Oh fuck. Who am I kidding?! I already know why they don't read. Because most literature offends and triggers them. The heroes never think the way they do. The antagonists are always shown as being despicable due to beliefs and actions that they identify with. And that's when they call it woke and virtue signaling. It's sad, really. The idea that somebody would have such shitty beliefs that they couldn't read a single work by Kurt Vonnegut without being absolutely triggered into a spray of blood and brains. Why would the people who claim to want free speech the most handicap their interests so drastically that they might as well be thrown in an oubliette with a tape recorder and one tape that simply repeats their small, narrow, simple set of beliefs? They're the type of people who have no joy but believe they're the ones who experience joy because they still laugh when somebody gets called retarded or a bully pushes some kid in a mud puddle. Their sense of humor is so shallow as to be non-existent. Most people contain multitudes, both good and bad. These chundernuts contain cotton candy and jelly fish. You can rip through them and barely even notice. They might as well be angry ghosts haunting an empty house.

What I was trying to say was this: "I hope this issue has as many ass shots of Rosi as the second issue!" This comic book has me so wildly horned up! Now I know how satyrs feel!

This issue begins with the rape of a Mini Cooper.

If any car in the Animal Kingdom were asking for it, it's definitely the Mini Cooper with those "Come hither" headlights and that cheeky fender smile. So slutty! Hmm, have I seen any Mini Coopers in my neighborhood? Um, I mean, this is so gross even when it's happening to a car! I'm totally disgusted by this and not intrigued in the slightest. Although I am curious about one thing: is fucking a car in the tailpipe the anal sex of cars? If so, what is vaginal intercourse with a car? The place where you stick the gas nozzle? Is that the car's vagina? Are all cars female? Are electric cars male or just female cars with strap-ons? How does a car perform oral on you? Sticking your dick where the oil goes? When you've sexualized a car, what position is it when you climb inside and jerk off? Do they call that the "Buffalo Bill"?

You know what? Never mind. You should never fuck a car, kids! No matter how much it's asking for it. Stay in school!

That guy fucking the car is Reg of the Quarry Gang's kid who has been tasked with fucking Rosi and Tony to death. When people here that they'll die while having sex, most of them think, "Cool! What a way to go!" That's because most people don't immediately think they're going to get pounded into jelly by a five hundred pound car fucking birth defect. What they should say when they hear they're going to die during sex is, "With an attractive partner while I'm coming on their face, I hope? Pretty please? Oh God let it be that."

Does this guy ejaculate nitroglycerin?

The panel before the above panel had another shot of Rosi's cute little caboose but I felt it was less interesting than a gigantic mutant monster demolitioning a Mini Cooper with its orgasm. This monster's handlers manage to shoot the tire on Rosi's scooter which enables them to capture the two miscreant protagonists. They're thrown in the back of a van with the car fucker. Luckily his libido is currently recovering so they're safe for the moment.

Oh cute! They're getting to know each other!

Instead of getting fucked to death, Rosi and Tony are dragged by to Reg's penthouse to get grilled about the location of Reg's massive musical penis. Tony's plan to escape is something like "let the water absorb them" or "eat the strawberry before the tiger eats you." I don't know, some Zen claptrap. I'm not familiar with being calm. I'm more of a Rage, Rage Against Not Just the Dying of the Light but Pretty Much Everything Else as Well Especially Ann Nocenti's Shit Writing. If I were in this situation, I'd probably trick Reg into saying, "Honk," and then he'd just get obliterated by Ron's explosive cum.

Reg gets tired of Rosi and Tony's flirtatious back and forth in the face of their final death fuck and gives the order for that final death fuck. Rosi realizes that Ron doesn't see people as people due to his gadgets and gizmos; he sees everybody as slutty cars asking for it. To save their lives and their exhaust pipes, Rosi hacks Ron the Carfucker.

Aww! He thinks she's beautiful!

This whole CGI rig thing that makes things look like other things didn't come out of nowhere for this save. Rosi's been talking about using it since the first comic book because she's become so bored with reality. But she kept getting pulled into Tony's mischief before she could implement it. But now she found a good reason for it! She makes it so Ron sees her butthole and pussy instead of her tailpipe and gas cap! Gross! Who would want to fuck a butthole or a pussy?! Make mine Mini!

Rosi also makes Reg and his righthand man look like cars via Ron's CGI unit. So he strips down and attempts to fuck them to death instead while Rosi and Tony make a run for it. They wind up in Ron's bedroom where they find an unfucked scooter behind a pile of destroyed cars. They hop on and Tony directs them to one of the windows of the penthouse. Remember how he kept reading that book, Zen Flight? And how he apparently flew in the first issue although we never saw it happen on panel. He just stepped off of a roof and then he wasn't dead later? Well, the readers, along with Rosi, are about to find out if he actually did fly.

I also just checked Mile High Comics' website to find out if this was the last issue of the series. It was. So, you know, Tony and Rosi could die after crashing through the window on a scooter and falling 80 floors to the street below! It's possible! I hope that doesn't happen though because they haven't fucked yet and that just doesn't seem right.

They manage to survive because it's a rocket scooter with only a front tire and a rocket on the back. They must have realized that and didn't just expect to defy the laws of comic book physics by driving down the front of a skyscraper and living when they hit the bottom. Obviously you can drive up them like Nightwing did in his comic book in The New 52. Duh! That's easy! But going down? And not splatting? So hard to pull off! But they pull it off! Because of, you know, the rocket.

At the top of the building, everybody blows up because they use some kind of anti-aircraft gun to shoot Ron off of his dad. Blowing up from the outside is probably a better way to go than blowing up from inside your butthole, I suppose.

The end! You'll have to imagine the fucking. I'm going to picture it like Ron fucking the Mini Cooper but with these two characters instead.

Two-Step #3 Rating: A+. How did I forget about this comic book? What's wrong with my brain? Are human brains even meant to retain the amount of information that flows through them in the 21st century? How does any of it work? Aren't our brains supposed to be set up to simply observe our environment, looking out for danger, food, and water? And maybe the occasional car to bang? We were never meant to be exposed to this much fucking information! Why shouldn't I forget a comic book I read in three separate installments over a six month period twenty years ago?! It would be weird if I did remember it better than I did! If I were one of those people to do repeat readings or viewings of things I liked, maybe I'd have retained more of the story. Or if I'd had another nerd who'd also been reading this at the time, we would have discussed it and it would have solidified the memory better. But just reading it once and probably jerking off to Rosi's ass once each issue wasn't enough for retention, I guess! Maybe next time I find a comic book adorable and sexy, I should jerk off to it more often! Maybe that's why I remember so much Sailor Moon! No, no! Wait! I didn't say that! Forget you read that! CUT! CUUUUUUT!

Two-Step #2 (March 2004)

New Idea for D&D: party must pass through a long hall during an iron golem orgy.

One of the first things I usually do when I read a novel is think about the title and what it could mean. I haven't thought about Two-Step at all other than a vague, "That's a weird title." Since the book seems to be about Rosi and Tony, I'll go out on a major limb and guess the title indicates the dance of their lives as they intertwine and parallel each other. They had a brief encounter last issue that ended with both of them admiring a singing willy but then left with nary a glance backward. I mean, they both glanced backwards once but neither one noticed and that's probably the definition of nary, right? Look, don't tell me in the comments. If it's not the correct definition, I don't want to have to realize how many times I used the word "nary" incorrectly in my life. It would be a real bugbear.

This issue begins in the hottest way possible.

My male gaze just jizzed itself.

If you were to tell me that the next panel begins without somebody's finger inside somebody else's backdoor orifice, I would put my fingers in my ears and yell, "Nyah nyah nyah I can't hear you!" Why are you trying to ruin my life by throwing the cold, icy waters of reality directly into my boner? Life does that to me on the regular just by time's inevitable march forward. Like when I was a little boy full of wonder and innocence and I was all, "Yay! Life is going to be so fucking awesome!" And then forty years later, I'm sitting in my pants (British definition) hoping that my obviously not-rated-X comic book is going to show butt finger fucking. The disappoints just come fast and furious until the ultimate disappoint smacks you in the face: another year of life! Look, by the time you're my age, death isn't the disappointing end to the story. It's the dessert! The sweet reward for choking down the rest of the shitty meal!

Now, let's turn the page and see some butthole finger banging!

Aw man. Amanda Conner owes me a very particular sketch!

I have nobody to blame for my severe disappointment but myself. Why am I always the cause of my own disappointment? Either I think things are going to work out in an overly fantastic way and they wind up mundane; or things don't work out in an overly fantastic way because I didn't take a chance to make them happen. Like that time I was fifteen and at that party in somebody's garage and I was sitting on a bench and this girl I barely knew named Dessa came over, lay down on the bench, and put her head in my lap. Why didn't I make a move? Hell, why didn't I fucking do anything at all?! She was basically the Jennifer Connelly of shitty urban freshman garage parties and I froze! No wonder I'm now an old man hoping comic book characters do weird shit to each other! I've never lost the utter horniness of that moment! I'm trapped in horny time!

That wasn't a plea for help; that was an exclamation of pure joy! How did I never realize this?! What a major breakthrough!

Tony continues to read his book, Zen Flight, as two giant robots fuck all around him. And then the adverts begin competing for my male gaze's time and energy.

What the fuck, WWE? Imagine this advert with two of your male wrestlers. Would you still print it? I mean, I think it would work! But I don't think you'd print it!

All that advert says to me is that the fighting is a stand-in for sex. So now I'm remembering all those times I watched Sgt. Slaughter fuck the Ultimate Warrior! Superfly Snooka from the top rope has all new imagery in my poor memory. Mr. Perfect making Hulk Hogan coming buckets by anally penetrating him in the ring and then turning to the camera, pointing, and saying, "Absolutely perfect!" Damn, wrestling was way better than I remembered! I should think about it incorrectly more often! Thanks, horny lesbian wrestlers!

Tony wanders into the London Frost Fair where I'm sure he'll run into Rosi with at least two fingers in her butthole. The first person he encounters at the Fair is a Not-a-Juggler.

You can't juggle two items with two hands! Unless he's got a third leg of turkey in a surprise orifice for the best opening juggling move of all time!

"But Tess! Why didn't you mention 'Beat the Freak'?!" "Because I have standards, you lowbrow cur of a reader!"

Rosi appears looking as adorable as ever and calling attention to both her arse and her tits in record time. Not like I hadn't noticed them immediately but then she was all, "Stuff is going up my arse!" and "Stuff is on my tits!" and I was all, "I'm in love with ink on paper!" But I've also been fooled by that before when Mahmud Asrar was drawing her and paper cuts on a penis take way longer to heal than you'd think. So I'm just going to keep reading this comic book as opposed to the stray horny thought that keeps insisting that it's the most crucial thought I'm having at the moment instead of the worst idea of the morning.

Rosi wound up at the Fair trying to find something exciting for her cam girl stuff. She runs directly into Tony like a good character in a romantic comedy.

No, brain! The paper cuts! Remember?!

Rosi explains to Tony that she's, once again, super bored. Tony, being all Zen and shit, tells her she's being ridiculous. Then he explains how to view life differently in a Zen way: just stand back and watch life wash into you. Like when Dessa put her head in my lap! Of course, I just sat there and let life wash Dessa's head right back out of my lap. So I think you're not supposed to simply watch. You're supposed to participate when something washes up on you that you're interested in! Why am I learning this lesson nearly four decades too late?!

Is the Get Pelted By Condoms booth a traditional Ren-Fair attraction?

While Rosi's enjoying the woman flinging condoms with her nipples exposed, a bunch of the Quarry gang appear and begin shooting at Tony. He drags her along with him as he flees, in the name of keeping her safe, I guess. Although shoving her in the opposite direction would probably make her safer. Unless the gang knows she's the one who stomped on Dreadlocks' face and took the massive musical dong from him. And since she did stream the entire event live on her web cam, it would seem reasonable that they're after her as well.

Tony gives Rosi a gun so she can protect herself and she immediately shoots one of their pursuers in the dick. Tony decides she isn't running away fast enough so he picks her up and runs.

Goddammit. I'm going to wind up with penile paper cuts, aren't I?

This review is way too horny. I need to tone it down. Hopefully somebody will die graphically on the next page and the horny level will decrease a slight bit.

Hmm. Didn't work. Now I'm just thinking about how his dick probably blew through his own butthole. That's hot.

The entire Fair takes place on the frozen Thames and the explosion causes a massive hole in the ice. Cracks begin to radiate out from the hole, threatening to dunk everybody at the event, especially the woman with her nipples exposed.

Tony and Rosi manage to make it to sure where Rosi's motor scooter waits to aid in their escape. It's at this moment that Tony finally realizes what's going on in Rosi's backyard.

The man with the oral fixation discovers the other main fixation.

The gang obsessed with penises give chase in a car shaped like a penis. But Tony shoots them all to hell and they crash into the famous British penis (stolen, of course), Cleopatra's Needle. It falls and crushes them, thus ending the chase with some penis on penis action. Rosi decides to take Tony back to her place. She says she needs to change but we all know you don't get chased by a penis car and then see it sandwiched by another penis and not want get in on the getting smashed by penis action.

We won't know if they actually fuck until next issue because this issue ends with Reg, the guy with the regular, non-musical, non-massive willy because Tony and Rosi stole it, letting his son out of his cage to go fuck Tony and Rosi to death. I thought Warren Ellis was writing this? That sounds more like a Garth Ennis plot point!

I am so glad I'm not a car.

Two-Step #2 Rating: A+. If you show me enough comic book tits and ass, especially drawn by Amanda Conner, I'm only going to have high praise for you. Now does anybody know a good ointment for paper cuts?

Two-Step #1 (December 2003)

What's the word I'm looking for here? Oh yeah! AWOOOOGA!

I remember absolutely nothing about this comic book except the art style. When I found it in the stack, I simply thought, "Oh yeah! I remember those tits!" Maybe it has something to do with a genie, I think? I don't even remember the Cliffhanger publishing imprint of Wildstorm but I suppose I should since they also published two other comic books I read: Crimson and Steampunk. This title doesn't even get a mention in the Cliffhanger Wikipedia entry! I normally wouldn't trust myself on how memorable a comic book is but if it wasn't even given a brief aside in a Wikipedia entry on a publishing imprint that didn't even publish that many titles over it's five or so year life, it can't be that great, right? I mean, I trust Warren Ellis to give me something interesting and Amanda Conner to make my eyes come. But what's Jimmy Palmiotti doing on this thing? Did he add the swears?

The story begins in an alternate London of 2001 that looks like it was reverse-colonized by India. What I mean by that is everything seems to be based on India instead of hodgepodge of Franco and Germanic and Nordic and Roman and Pagan influences as opposed to what I think the real idea of "reverse-colonizing" might be: where the colonizers seem surprised when their homeland becomes less "home" than they're used to because all the immigrants of the places you've colonized have also made it home and brought a lot of their culture from their homeland. It's one of the things that seems to piss off racists even though it's like, "Hey, buddy? Maybe be mad at your racist predecessors for going around trying to take control of every country in their line of sight! Nobody in the countries you colonized asked for you to water down their culture with prudish religious ideas and milquetoast cuisines. But by invading their countries, they practically begged them to come live in theirs as well. Share and share alike, you know?"

What I'm trying to say is, "This London looks like my kind of town!"

Would I genetically engineer my cat to be a smoker? Yes. Yes I would.

Everybody is dancing and singing in the streets like they've been cursed by a dancing demon. No, something isn't right there. Maybe witches?

Oh wait! This really might be a series about a genie! Maybe my memory didn't fail me and this was somebody's second wish! Their first wish was for an 8-inch pianist for some reason. Or I could just accept the casual world building introduced visually in the first few pages.

The main character from the cover (the one without the tits) has been learning to fly. Mostly he's been listening to Pink Floyd and reading Zen Flight. But he's now decided the only way to do it, is to do it. So he jumps off of the roof of a building directly over the other main character (the one without the no tits). Her name is Rosi Blades and she's a cam girl. Oh man! Remember cam girls! No wonder she's doing that "put your dick on my tongue" Only Fans face on the cover! Because Cam Girls are the grandmothers of Only Fans!

Oh no! Y'all better stop boring Rosi because I do not want her to lose those flesh potatoes!

"Fart blood." That must be the part Jimmy wrote. For not remembering this comic book until I saw it, I absolutely remembered "fart blood." But, again, only after I re-read it. Which seems, to me, a terrible way to say you've "remembered" something. Oh yeah! That thing I just read and looked at. I remember it now that I've once again seen it and read it! Good job, brain! That was sarcastic, in case you didn't notice, brain, because you don't seem to be that with it.

Rosi has a little floating web cam that follows here around as well as a camera on her left eye and her right tit. I bet it costs extra to watch the feed from her tit. Sort of a premium kink channel. "I've always wanted to know what it was like to be a boob! Look at all the eye contact I'm making with pervy men!" Not that all men who look at boobs are pervs. Looking at boobs is an art. You can't just stare at the boobs divorced from the sex object they're on. I mean the person! The woman they're on! You have to admire them with the entire package. Keep the eyes roving. Head back to the tits a few times, just to make sure your initial impression was accurate. The same rule applies to admiring tattoos. You want to glance and scan, glance and scan. Staring too hard gives the impression you're judging the person!

One time I was walking through an airport and a cute woman was walking toward me. I looked her in the face but she was looking away. Then I looked down at her tits and back up to her face to find she was making eye contact with me at that moment. She had caught me looking! But then she smiled and I was all, "Is this love?" But it wasn't love. It was just a butterfly on a stupid meme.

Later, Amanda draws two cats fucking.

Feed 3, the one not quite focused on the chicken running by (because her boob is jiggling. It's unfocused in some shots and not in others. Because of boob jiggle!), is from Rosie's boob. Apparently she's got a camera in her ass as well (ROSI POV 4). I'm just kidding. That's probably the thing on her shoulder. But I wish I wasn't kidding.

I'm sure this had nothing to do with Amanda's Harley Quinn gig but nobody would be surprised if this was the reason she got it.

Remember Jenny Cam? Just slowly blink at me if you do so you don't throw your old-ass neck out by nodding.

So current-day London isn't just a big Bollywood movie. That's just this neighborhood. It seems what everybody thought of as online living spaces where anything can happen is how living in the 2001 London of this alternate world is. And Rosi here is already bored by all of it.

Rosi's stuck in an existential rut brought on by the constant need over the course of the year to keep her viewers excited and engaged. She's got Twitch burnout.

Stop looking up the cat's butthole. Check out the dog with the anal beads tail!

The guy who jumped off the building earlier (and, I'm assuming, flew?) goes running past Rosi as she knocked over by the guy he's chasing: some white guy with dreadlocks in a puffy jacket. He seems to have stolen something from flyboy. Rosi doesn't give a shit what's going on because it's excitement! She chases after to give her viewers a thrill and/or to fuck the good-looking guy.

See? Plus more jiggle footage!

The bad guy (you know he's the bad guy not because he stole something from Zen Flyboy but because he is white with dreadlocks) hits Flyboy in the bollocks and runs off into a club called Avant-Spook. That gives Rosi time to introduce herself to her soon-to-be new boyfriend.

I've decided I quite like Rosi.

I also have decided that I quite like Zen Flyboy.

While also liking Rosi even more, especially when she pulls out her wedgie.

I hope this series only went three issues or else I'm going to have to track down the rest of it!

Zen Flyboy introduces himself, on camera, as Tony Ling. So if he was a secret Zen Assassin, he's now a not-so-secret Zen Assassin. Rosi and Tony chase Dreadlocks through a fetish club and out the other side where they feel each other out for a potential romantic encounter later on.

Tony's game could use a little improvement.

I'm having trouble deciding what not to scan while reading this comic book because Amanda knocked it out of all the ballparks for this. I mean, she always does. But I guess I adore Rosi so much that it feels like Amanda's doing more work than she normally might. Plus that jiggle in the boob cam? So fantastic.

Tony shoots Dreadlocks' kneecaps out and he collapses to the ground. He's about to pull a gun and shoot Tony in the face when Rosi jumps up and down on Dreadlocks' head. While doing so, her boob cam catches a shot that I can almost guarantee has never been in a comic book outside of maybe an R. Crumb book.

Cat with a used tampon! Cat with a used tampon! *guitar riff*

After helping Tony retrieve the trombone case, Rosi learns that he wasn't retrieving it at all. Tony was stealing it from Dreadlocks. Well, I mean, how could anybody have known?! If you don't want everybody immediately assuming you're a douchey prick, don't be a white guy with dreads!

Apparently the item in the trombone case was headed to Reg Quarry, the leader of the Quarry gang. Tony was hired to make sure the item never got to Reg. Somebody really didn't want him to have whatever was in the case.

Reg's wife must have hired Tony.

There's a button on the willy that Tony tells Rosi to touch. But she's all, "I'm not touching it. You touch it!" Can she get more adorable? Tony also refuses to touch it but he presses the button with his gun and the penis plays "Ride of the Valkyries".

Now that Tony has what he was paid to get, and Rosi had a fun stream, the two decide they never want to see each other again. But they betray that feeling by each looking back at the other as they walk away (although at different times). What is this? The most vulgar romantic comedy meet-cute ever written? I hope so because it is so fucking cute and adorable. I'm going to get this comic book pregnant now.

Two-Step #1 Rating: A+. How could I not remember this comic book?! What is wrong in my brain that it doesn't remember something that I find this adorable now? Did I not find it adorable when I first read it? I must have because my tastes really haven't changed much at all! Although when I first looked at the cover after pulling this stack of comics out of the short box they were in, my brain did scream like a little girl first discovering whatever it is little girl's really love. Other little girls, maybe? That sounds right.