Jennifer Blood Book 1: A Woman's Work Is Never Done (#1-6) NSFW

NSFW:  Full frontal male nudity, beware the Penis!  Also sex happens.

"What we do in life.  Echoes in eternity" - Jennifer Blood

After a career writing male protagonists, with this series Garth Ennis decided to try his hand at writing a female one.  Now he's written a lot of interesting and varied women characters in his books before like Tulip in Preacher and Tiegel in Hitman, but they've tended to be subordinate to the male lead.  Here we see him explore the idea of a character that is as proficient at meting out death and destruction as The Punisher but who also lives an entirely normal family life with a gentle husband and two young kids and how she balances the two sides of her life inside herself as she embarks on a week of bloody revenge against the family members who had wronged her.  The book is very heavy with textual narration via Jennifer's diary in which she records her exploits and thoughts on her mission as well as how she takes such care not to let the violence spill over into her ordinary life.  It goes without saying that the gun fetishism is turned up to the maximum as is the violence and sexual explicitness.  So if spilled guts and naked penises aren't something you want to see, don't read on.  Artists are Adriano Batisa, Marcos Mars and Kewber Baal, doing two issues each consecutively.

We begin with Jennifer recording all sorts of mundane things in her diary.  How her husband Andrew is so sweet and a dilemma over washing up liquid.  But it takes a Garth Ennis turn when she says she was reading "Guns And Ammo" in the nailbar.  She wonders why there are so many articles about 9mm guns:

Jennifer: "What on earth is the point of having twice as many bullets if you have to use three times as many to put someone down?"

Her husband picks up the kids to get in her good books so he can go bird watching at the weekend which she happily accedes too.  While she does her domestic chores, she thinks about earlier when she took her car in for a service (she could repair it herself but what would the neighbours think?) and the mechanic leered and pawed at her. "Eventually I made one of my mental notes".

Jennifer Blood.

Later, after spiking their cocoa her drugged husband and children have been put to bed and she gets dressed up in a leather outfit, black wig and tooled up, in the armoury she secretly added to the basement while her husband was away seeing his parents.

She has a bit of a twinge about the kids, but ignores it and drives on out to the docks where her target is.  She collects the MP5 machine gun she stashed in a car their earlier and "Before I knew it, I'd struck a pose".  She stops that immediately and carries on surveilling the docks.

Boosted cars are being brought there for sale overseas.  She waits for them all to be loaded, twice as many as usual today then when the men are clustered together to be paid she chucks a grenade at them and machine guns the survivors.  But she hadn't realised double the cargo, double the security.

Boobs, the ultimate weapons.

Two men get out of a car behind her and point guns at her but are distracted by her "boobies" long enough for her to shoot them.  Another jumps her and they engage in hand-to-hand combat.  She pulls out her knife which is stashed on her back and stabs her assailant then slices him up, "how much blood can one man have in him?"

She leaves her calling card.

She hears the police sirens and starts to leave when she sees one of the men on the ground dying recognises her, "it can't be."  She suffocates him and says "go back to sleep uncle Mike".  Then she writes Jennifer Blood in blood on one of the containers and makes her getaway.

Jennifer: "And that was the end of my first night out."

Back home she showers and gets the smell of blood and cordite out of her hair.  She has another twinge about coming home to a happy family after causing such carnage.  Then, bone-tired, she slips into bed.  Sadly her husband is feeling randy, so she has sex with him. "Nice to do something boring just to bring youself down off that massive adrenaline high".  Then she notices a damp patch on the ceiling, she is annoyed, "just what I needed.  Honestly".

Romantic!

The next day we get the charming image of uncle Steve having sex with his wife Renee on the prow of their yacht.  Jennifer is at the docks doing some recognaissance.  She mulls over how you can't get a large calibre sniper rifle that is easy to conceal.

Jennifer: "You'd think someone would have come up with something by now, wouldn't you?  Honestly".

Back home the family meet their new neightbours, Jack and Laura and their baby.  Jennifer realises Jack is going to be trouble from the way he looks at her. Jack says he is going to throw a housewarming barbeque and they are invited.  Jennifer chats to Laura about schools, "my mind wanders.  I'm talking schools, but I'm thinking of fields of fire.  I should possibly try to stop that." Later she drugs the family, but forgot to get them into bed first and has to carry everyone up thinking truly, "a woman's work is never done".

The uncles discuss their little problem.

Onboard Steve's yacht the Uncles discuss Mike's death.  All the cars were left so it doesn't look like a rival outfit, who are all either happy or too chickenshit to do anything like this.  One of them wonders if it is someone from the old country. 

Steve says are they implying someone is back from the grave?  Another one says no, there was no faking that day.  The name "Jennifer Blood" is bugging Pete, it has made him think of family, "but they say the family's done, Pete.  I mean we are it" says another uncle.

They realise they can't do anything "which means the ball's in this maniac's court.  All we can do is brace for impact, an' wait on what the crazy fucker does next".  Jennifer meanwhile has wired lots of explosives under the yacht, enough to rip it open.

Boom! Headshot!

Then she uses a sniper rifle to kill the three guards/drivers of the three uncles who travelled there.  Then she puts the dead bodies in the cars as psychological warfare.  The three uncles leave a displeased Steve who starts saying they don't respect him, then he tells Renee to suck his dick.

Jennifer boards the yacht and takes out all the men aboard with a gun that has a supressor attached.  She walks out on deck and reveals herself to uncle Steve.  He immediately starts begging saying he can make things right. 

She just handcuffs him and Renee to the prow of the boat.  She leaves the yacht and just as the other uncles discover the corpses in their cars, Jennifer blows up the ship and watches Steve and Renee slowly drown as it sinks, the pair cursing each other the whole way down.

My heart won't go on.

As the rest of the uncles regard the drowned pair, they see the boat's flag has "Jennifer Blood" written on it in blood.

Jennifer: "Yo-ho me hearties.  Yo-ho.  And so to bed.  You won't believe what tommorrow will bring".

The next chapter starts with her regarding neighbour Jack's penis as he has cornered her in the bathroom and dropped his trousers.  "God, I hate being right" she thinks.  She tells him she is not interested in extra-marital stupidity, "I don't betray my husband at all" she says.

He tells her he thinks she's playing hard to get.  She wonders how to get out of it, she could poke his eyes out, strike his throat, and grab his balls and throw him out of the window before slamming his head into the barbeque, but that might be hard to explain to the party guests. 

Imaginary revenge.

So she screams at the top of her voice, and Jack hurridly pulls his trousers back up as everyone comes in to see what the matter is.  She says she saw a mouse:

Jennifer: "It was so small and skinny and pink and disgusting.  Like a tiny little worm".

With the "mouse" now gone, everyone goes back outside.  A woman comes up to her and says that she saw a mouse too, and she kneed it in the balls.  Jennifer thinks if she could have a friend, Emily Eastwood would be ideal.  They'd gossip about the neighbours and skewer them with their wit and generally rebel against the suburban existence.

Jennifer: "But that's not me.  I can't risk clever friends.  I can't do irony. Woe is me".

The remaining three uncles are at the office of Marcus their lawyer who Pete calls a dramatic Jew.  Marcus shows them CCTV footage from the police of "Jennifer Blood".  One of them thinks he recognises her, and other tells him to leave the fairy stories in the mountains. They are definitely being fucked with.

Marcus: "Whoever's doing the fucking, knows things that should not be known outside this room".

They discuss the probability one of them is responsible but discard that theory quickly.  Pete says the police who provided the information should be killed so they can't be traced back to them.

The uncles are still none the wiser.

Marcus says whoever he hires to deal with her, will know about them.  Pete says they'll be killed as well when they have done the job.  He says he wants the bitch dead, "and her bones ground to powder".  He wants her gone from this world.

We return to Jennifer's surveillance on uncle Nick.  She realises he is the weak link who would choose to flee rather than stick around and risk death.  He goes home, grabs some cash and drives off, leaving his wife and kids behind.

He takes the back roads luckily for her and she is able to shove his car off the road using her souped up S.U.V.  She hangs him upside down from a tree and gets out a knife.  He comes too and says to her that while he was partly responsible for the death of her dad, what came after was all Pete.

She says she knew he'd break.  Then she cuts into his stomach and pulls out his intestines. When they get too slippery for her to handle, she uses the car to pull them further out and spells out "J.B." with them as Nick bleeds to death.

Another uncle bites the dust.

Marcus is called up and told Nick has disappeared.  Marcus says he may have found a solution to the problem and on his PC screen is a page advertising the "Ninjettes".

Marcus is interviewing the Ninjettes who are teenage girls with masks on.  They speak pidgin English and random Japanese words.  They are evidently not Japanese.  Marcus says they come with recommendations from top men in the business.

He then tells them they are going to be part of a trap.  They are going to lure the target to an old nightclub where they will be waiting.  There will be perimeter security as well. They are going to make the lure so attractive the target will definitely come.

At Jennifer's home she is mixing the sleeping pills in with the cocoa for her family.  She wonders how drugging your family rates:

Jennifer: "On a scale of one to ten, when ten is gutting your uncle and using his viscera to spell your initials?  Barely even a two if you ask me."

There is dissension in the ranks of the Ninjettes, actual three trust fund kids called Kelly, Skyler and Chelsea.  Kelly thinks the racial charicaturing is demeaning.  Skyler says it's about building a brand and being memorable.

The Ninjettes.

Skyler and Kelly argue about each other's respective families and Skyler asks why Kelly can't get into character like Chelsea who is dancing happily behind them.  Kelly says she's always in character.  They'll do the job, get cash before their trustfunds open up and not have to rely on allowances from parents and "ninja up and get through this".

Jennifer isn't fooled by the trap she is being led into. She has been surveilling the family for months and months.  She follows uncles Jimmy and Pete, such tempting targets as they travel to the old nightclub.

She waits for them to leave then climbs into the van that holds the extra security personel and tells the chief to call the operation off, she has a gun to his head so he obliges, getting them back into the van.  They drive round the block ten times, then Jennifer kills them all.

She decides to face her potential killers, and climbs onto the nightclub roof and drops a smoke grenade.  In the confusion, she shoots Chelsea and Skyler, leaving Kelly alive for questioning.  She tells her to drop the katana and did she realise how much strength would be needed to cut someones head off with it?

So much for the Ninjettes.

She asks who hired them, and is told it was Marcus Goldhaven.  Jennifer says they were way out of their depth, how did they get on the ciruit?  Kelly admits they slept with the men who recommended them.  Jennifer says she can go if she has her "solemn promise" not to say anything.  Kelly enthusiastically agrees and turns to leave and Jennifer cuts her head off with the katana, fancy that, "still a very silly toy to bring to a party".

She arrives at Marcus's office and he recognises her as Jennifer Blute.  Isn't she supposed to be dead, fell off a boat during spring break?  She says yes, but then she started swimming.  Marcus tries to bargain for his life, but when he realises he's going to die he starts talking about that instead.

He says  he'd quite like to be machine-gunned and fall out the windown onto the pavement.  She says it would attract too much attention.  What about blasting his head off like in a clint Eastwood film?  She says she doesn't have the right kind of gun.  He says he just wants a memorable death.  Taking out an orange she says he will and he is hanged from the light fitting in ladies undies and the orange stuffed in his mouth.

Based on the real life death of a Tory MP.

Late that night, weary she returns home.  But she is being watched through a telescope by Jack.  He catches a glimpse of her leather suit and jumps to the conclusion she is into BDSM and goes out every night with a bag full of dildos to get some action her hubby can't provide. "I was right, I was right. Fuck yeah!" he says gleefully.

Jennifer has a nice day playing with the kids.  She relaxes and catches up with some sleep. She dreams about being at home with her mum and dad as a kid herself.  And how much her father loved them.  She thinks of her mother:

Jennifer: "She was the only human who could reach him.  Who knew how to melt that stony heart".

She recalls how the Blute Boys took over the organised crime in the city.  A campaign of sustained and horrific violence until there was no one left to oppose them.

Jennifer: "In one long week they made the city theirs.  Nick, Steve, Mike, Jimmy and Sam.  My dad behind it all.  His plan.  His resolve.  His hands steeped in so much blood the others looked like innocents.  Sam Blute was steel and ice and lead and stone.  But with Jennifer he was something else".

Jennifer's happy childhood.

Her next target is uncle Jimmy. She is unsure of how to deal with him, he "was good at getting into peoples heads".  He is attending a dogfight which suits her as the barn is a long way in the middle of nowhere.

Using a flamethrower she torches the barn killing everyone bar Jimmy who jumped into the dog fighting pit to escape.  She shoots the half dead dog down there saying that's the one death she'll regret.  She asks Jimmy if it was his idea to kill her father up close and personal rather than get an outsider to do it.  He is silent for a moment then he says, yes, "because I wanted to feel the blades go in."

The others made excuses for doing it that way, but he wanted to feel the skin splitting, his guts bursts and his blood spray on his face.  "I wanted to feel steel against bone" says Jimmy.  He asks how she knows they killed him, "Pete talks in his sleep" says Jennifer.

Jennifer's dad betrayed.

Her father had to go for many jealous reasons, but mainly because of his wife.  Pete "wanted her like nothing on earth". After Sam's death he made sure she was hollowed out with pills, until she ended up turning to Pete like he wanted all along.

Jennifer had been packed off to boarding school.  Her mum sent her a letter one day blowing the lid off what her family were like, she included some useful numbers like that of a bank account in the Bahamas.  The letter said when she dies, "they'll get you too".  A year later her mother committed suicide.

"Fuck her" says Jimmy.  She knew the score, where all the money was coming from.  He baits Jennifer into coming down to face him.  "I think I'm going to stop writing in my diary now" she writes as we see her chopping Jimmy to bits with an axe.

Hands on revenge time.

She returns home exhausted.  The watching Jack is dressed in a leather fetish suit, he rips the trousers off and says, "tommorrow night. You won't even know what's hit you."

The last chapter begins with Jennifer injecting a drug into a stricken uncle Pete to keep him alive while he dies from a bullet in the gut.  She says she expected him to be harder work as she contemplates all the dead bodies strewn about the house.  Now it is time for her to talk.

She tells him about the letter her mum sent, that revealed the true face of the Blute family.  When she committed suicide, Jennifer jumped off a ship during spring break, made it to a bank and all of her dad's money, "Jenny Bell of nothing nowhere was all set to go".

Uncle Pete, the worst of the lot.

But she couldn't stop thinking of the family.  "What are we, Uncle Pete?" she asks.  Hugarian or Romanian, or border trash feeding on the bones of war.  And that continued when the brothers came to America.  She couldn't stop thinking of her murdered dad and what Pete has done to her mum.

Jennifer: "You see whatever we are is in me too.  That urge to kill.  To live by the feud.  I guess you could say it's in my blood."

She used her father's contacts to learn to use guns and fight hand-to-hand.  Learned surveillance and industrial espionage.  She has "an entire criminal network to teach me everything I needed".  And if one got suspicious of her true identity she'd kill them without qualms. 

One day while learning broken bottle fighting, she realised she was prevaricating, "but a funny thing happened on the way to the unspeakably violent showdown".  Then she hears a noise and goes to investigate.  Jack jumps out at her, ripping off his trousers.

Oops, heh heh heh.

She puts a gun in his face and he starts pissing in fear.  She realises what he thought she was up to, and shows him all the corpses.  Then she drugs him and tells him if he says anything she'll release surveillance of this place showing he was here.  She also warns him not to ever try and force sex from her again.  And he burbles off home in a terrified daze.

She returns to Pete and picks up the story.  She'd taken a class in accounting with a half arsed idea she could take down the Blutes financially.  Andrew was the lecturer.  She fell in love with him, "he was the exact opposite of every man I'd ever known".  She says the Blutes would call him weak, but "he's the kind of man that makes society work instead of preying on it."

She can't fight her true nature.

She says her family life was almost enough for her to forget thoughts of revenge.  But seeing the Blutes escape justice one too many times sparked the desire again.  She tells him her dad's money went nowhere near her family.

Jennifer: "That's my revenge on you uncle Pete.  I have a life. A proper one.  Not some travesty snared in filth and darkness."

She says she can give him two more hours as his bowels leak into his guts, "then I have got to go home and make a start on breakfast".

And she wins.... for now.

An solid experiment by Garth Ennis this, gender flipping his usual manly man military killer into a tooled up housewife makes for fascinating reading in the context of his wider body of work.  I'm not sure he totally pulls it off, I'd hope for more about how Jennifer functions switching between two very different lives, she is in fact a sociopath with how she can carpentalise the gruesome deaths which don't affect seem to her greatly (although the mask slips once, when she stops writing about uncle Jimmy's horrific death for a moment) and herlove for her family.  There is an interesting possibility that arises from her actions, she seems to feel more alive and more like her "real self" when she is killing, whereas when she is trying to fit into suburban mundanity she feels like she is playing a role, and that explains why her "housewife" persona is such a stereotype, she is totally deluding herself along with everyone else who knows her. I know Ennis hasn't written the books that come after, they are written by Al Ewing and seem to be better regarded than Ennis's original work creating the character.  I haven't read the rest of the series, it's on my list of things to check out.  The book does suffer somewhat from weak art, that just doesn't fit the darkness of the subject matter, with three sub-par artists on the arc artwise it's a real disappointment in that respect.  I'm not sure this is prime Ennis, while it borrows from his amazing Punisher MAX run quite heavily in places, it in no way matches up to them and the Ninjette chapter falls flat for me in every possible way, either as comedy or drama.  But he has at least given comics an interesting female anti-hero who's gone on to have a possibly richer life beyond his pen.  Worth a look for the Garth Ennis completist.

Lazarus Book 2: Lift (#5-9)

"This is how you represent my family?  I should take your heads and see each of your families sent down" - Eve Carlyle

This is the second volume of writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark's series about a dystopian future where the USA is carved up between financially powerful families who currently have an uneasy truce between them.  The population is either lucky enough to be in their direct employ and called "Serfs" who have a higher standard of living. Otherwise they are regarded as "Waste" who are given a subsistence level of life, heavily exploited and pretty much left to rot.  The main character is Forever "Eve" Carlyle, the nineteen year old titular "Lazarus", a genetically engineered human able to recover quickly from horrendous injury and even death and acts as head enforcer for the Carlyle family.  She is the youngest of the five children of family head Malcolm Carlyle, at the end of book one she received a mysterious email saying "He is not your father.  They are not your family".  In book one, one of her brothers, Jonah and her sister Johanna tried to provoke a war with a rival family and attempted to kill Eve in the process.  They failed, Johanna managed to frame Jonah and he fled, as she was successful in deflecting suspicion from herself onto him. In this volume we learn a little about Eve's childhood and upbringing as well as what it is like to be considered Waste and the desperation that drives them to try and become Serfs as Rucka and Lark start filling in more of the background to their story.

Each chapter starts with a flashback to Eve's childhood.  On this occasion her father has come to see her.  She runs up excitedly to him, but he scolds her saying that is no way to greet him.  She becomes more formal, "Yes sir. Sorry sir." He shows her the family sword and says she needs to prove herself worthy of carrying it by beating her tutor Marisol in a duel with wooden swords.  They fight and Eve loses.  Malcolm says to her that if she doesn't prove herself worthy next time he visist, "you'll no longer be permitted to call yourself my daughter."

Young Eve, her dad and Marisol.

In the present, Eve is apologising to the daughter of the man she executed in book one, who admitted to spying even though he was innocent to protect his family.  The woman thanks Eve saying it means a lot to her that she said sorry. 

Eve then travels out to the wreckage of a helicopter/plane hybrid called a "Dragon" which Jonah had used to escape in.  He'd ditched it on their side of the river bordering the territory of Bittner-Hock.  Some soldiers have gathered on the opposite banks and are cat calling them.

One of them shoots Eve in the back.  Unruffled, she says that if the person who did that did it under orders then "that means the armistice is broken and we are now at war."  If however the rogue soldier acted alone, and is punished, honour would be satisfied.  The soldiers turn on their comrade and despite his protestations kill him to avoid sparking a war.

War is averted

Elsewhere in the Carlyle territory a flood is on its way.  A husband, wife and two adult kids - Waste - are trying to call for help in protecting their home, but the service they require is unavaliable and they realise they are going to lose everything when the river breaks its banks.

In South Central LA, Johanna is overseeing the construction of a temporary facility to test Waste to see who has potential to become Serfs, or "The Lift" as it is known.  The line waiting to be seen is already about a mile long.  Eve reports in about Jonah, Johanna thinks he hasn't gone over to Bittner-Hock.  "It's how it looks" responds Eve thoughtfully.

Johanna says that Eve is there at the behest of their father, babysitting her because he doesn't trust her over the Jonah plot and subsequent fleeing.  Eve mutters darkly, "Father doesn't tell me his thoughts, Jo."  Later that night she restlessly broods over the mystery email.

But what does it mean?

Back with the Waste family, the flood has levelled their entire house.  Everything is gone, just a mound of rubble left and a communications terminal informing the item they needed to save the house is now availiable to them.

Another flashback.  We see Eve exercising, training and being checked over as Marisol and James talk in voiceover.  Marisol says Eve really believes her father would disown her, "that's never going to happen" she insists.  James says Malcolm is just pushing Eve's buttons.  "It's no way to raise a child" says Marisol before retiring to bed. 

James is left contemplating a room with the light still on opposite.  He goes and finds Eve doing press-ups while conjugating Latin verbs.  Jason puts her to bed, and Eve asks why she can't remember her mother and why do her siblings, bar Bethany, never visit.  James says managing the territory is a huge responsibility, one that she'll be shouldering to when she is older.

In the present, Eve takes her daily dose of tablets and looks at the mysterious email again.  At the headquarters of The Lift a news crew is covering the setup.  The reporter asks if Eve will appear as well, but Johanna says their father doesn't allow Eve to appear on TV or in pictures.  Eve goes for a check round the perimeter and once outside her brow furrows in deep thought.

Joe and Bobbie, left homeless.

The Waste families left with nothing after the flood are trying to figure out what to do.  They can be given the materials to rebuild but at enormous cost, their children would still be paying the debt years in the future.  The Waste family who we shall be following is made up of parents Joe and Bobbie, daughter Leigh and son Mike. 

The grandaughter of another Waste called Casey flirts with Mike and Leigh has to encourage him to go talk to her in private.  As the adults discuss the terms they have been offered, Leigh notices the message on the terminal about The Lift and calls their attention to it.

Night time at The Lift headquarters, a pretty woman offers herself up to two guards.  While she keeps them distracted, three miscreants sneak past and steal some supplies.  Watching all this from above is Eve.  She lets the theives get away for now and goes and breaks up the sexual congress going on.

She tells the guards they are already facing charges of dereliction of duty, so they shouldn't make things worse with excuses.  Eve tells the woman she knows who stole the stuff and what they stole, but she is "going to tell me where they took it and what they plan to do with it".
The Waste family have come to a decision.  They are going to travel the five hundred miles to try for The Lift in the nearest city.  Casey's grandfather rides up and says he wants Casey to go with them, that way maybe "she's got a future."  They are on foot and on horseback, it is projected to take them fifteen days.  "Time to get started" says Joe, and they all set off.

Travelling to The Lift.

Back in Eve's past Marisol tells her about the "Dissolution War" she fought in.  When Eve asks if she was scared, Marisol says:

Marisol: "Before the fighting I was scared.  Always.  And maybe surprisingly sometimes after. But never during."

They meditate and Eve says she is scared.  But Marisol says she is a warrior for her family, "pain will always be part of your life."  Overcoming that pain will make her great. Then Marisol beats her with a cane. Eve then asks if she should kill Marisol if her father orders it, Marisol says, "you do as your father orders."  Would Marisol kill Eve if ordered?  She says yes.  "Don't tell him I cried" says Eve, tears running down her cheeks.  Marisol comforts her saying she won't.

In the present, the woman who was using sex as a lure, named Emma, is in a holding cell in the Twin Palisades residence.  She has no chip in her, so no identity.  Eve goes in to talk to her and says the lack of chip means she is either an illega; immigrant or she had her chip wiped deliberately.  Which means she is a spy and/or a terrorist.

Emma is unhelpful.

Emma snarls that she did nothing wrong, but Eve says the material stolen during her extraction is part of the components to build a powerful IED (bomb).  Emma shuts down saying she has nothing to lose, Eve's family has already taken everything from her.

The Waste family make camp one night.  Joe tells Casey she can call him "father" if she wants, he promised her grandfather he'd treat her like one of the family.  Then he sends her off to help Mike.  Bobbie laughs at his match-making.  Later Casey, Mike and Leigh are sat in a tent together.  Sick of the lovey dovey talk, Leigh goes to check on the horses.  Unfortunately at the same time bandits attack and she is shot in the back, dying in her fathers arms after they repel the attackers.

Leigh is killed by bandits.

Eve promotes the commander of Harvest One to head of security at the L.A. garrison.  She wants him to do two things, first root out corruption in the ranks and secondly find the terrorist cell.  Johanna thinks she might be able to reach Emma and goes in to see her.  She flatters her, and calls her beautiful and maybe she could be an actress.  Of course she'd have to be lifted to Serfdom as well as her family.  So, does she have anything to trade for this new life?

The Waste family trudge on in the rain, towards their goal in Denver.  They crest a hill and bear witness to a huge long line of Waste all making their way to the same place, all hoping to be elevated to Serf class.

Another flashback to Eve's tenth birthday.  She is running a simulation where she chops her way through a gauntlet of enemies.  Watching her is Marisol and her father.  He wants to know if Eve can beat Marisol in a fight yet.  Marisol says no.  Malcolm then departs saying he was never here but leaves a gift for Eve.

Malcolm: "I'll be back in thirty days.  She that she's ready by then."

Eve enjoys her birthday cake and unwraps her gift from her dad, it is a copy of "The Once And Future King".

Storming the terror cell.

In the present, Emma gave up the cell's location.  However Angel isn't there nor is the bomb as the soldiers discover when they storm the place and immobilise the terrorists.  Eve comes in and tells them Emma talked, now it's their turn.

Four days from The Lift, Mike's first aid skills are bringing him some attention.  As well as tending to his father's shotgun wound, he has been dealing with cuts and bruises and even resetting bones.  Casey is running messages up and down the line in return for fresh water.

Mike's talents bring him to the attention of the convoy's official healers, the nuns.  They offer Mike a place with them and will allow his family to ride with them where it is safe.  Mike agrees on one condition - he gets a decent pair of spectacles.

Mike and the high tech nuns.

That night Eve is standing by the pool holding her sword, deep in thought.  Johanna comes up and asks her what's on her mind.  Eve is concerned the IED and Angel are still out there.  They interrogated the two terrorists, one didn't speak, the other broke hard and that has thrown Eve a bit off balance. 

She has discovered that the target is The Lift in Denver.  She wants the lift called off, as over one hundred thousand people will be there.  She tries to reason with her father who refuses to cancel.  She's the head of security so it's her job to sort it out with minimum fuss.

Malcolm: "This sounds remarkably like excuses for failure.  Are you now telling me you intend to fail?"

He sends her off to Denver to check things out and not to contact him until the terrorist is dead.  Mike has settled into his new role with the nuns quickly.  Casey is still running messages up and down the line, occasionally getting into a shouting match with the driver of the pimp mobile.  She bumps into a man and knocks his briefcase to the floor. She apologises profusely and picks up the case which the man snatches back.  She introduces herself to him as Casey.  He tells her his name is Angel.

Young Eve defeats Marisol.

One last trip to the past.  Malcolm arrives at the bunker and orders Eve and Marisol to fight.  With real swords this time as well.  They clash with Marisol saying encouraging things to her as they fight.  Finally Eve dodges a swing and slashes Marisol across the back of her leg disabling her.  "Why didn't you kill her?" asks Malcolm.  Eve says she did as she was told and defeated Marisol. She wasn't told to kill her.  Malcolm accepts this and presents her with the family sword.

In the present day, Eve oversees the surveillance cameras trying to identify Angel via facial recognition, though he has most likely used mud or paint to disguise himself.  At the Denver family home, two aides are trying to convince Stephen not to attend The Lift, but he is determined.  He says "you and Forever overstate my importance".  This is his domain and he ha a job to do.  Eve assigns a Dagger team to protect him which he agrees to.

At the camp in Denver things are very chaotic.  The nuns take Mike and Casey and his mum to priority selection, his dad stays with the horses and their things.  They get to jump to the front of the queue and through a door marked "A".  The nuns admit they work as talent spotters for Carlyle although they can't influence if they pass the tests or not.

Casey and Mike step closer to Serfdom.

Selection involves a physical exam screening out potential for disease later in life.  Some with "bad genes" are still allowed through if they have a greater potential to be useful.  Then the candidates brains are tested, although promising candidates who are illiterate aren't automatically kicked out either.

They run a battery of tests against the clock, after these many people are dismissed from the process as not up to scratch.  The remaining ones get examined some more, with dismissal hanging over them for any reason at any time.  Stephen meanwhile, gives his speech to the gathered masses while Eve prowls the crowds. Casey runs into her absolutely furious that she has been rejected from The Lift for having the potential to develop breast cancer later in life.

After giving Eve an earful she stomps off and into a side alley where she bumps into Angel. She sees the bomb round his body but before she can warn anyone he stabs her and leaves her for dead.  Mike finishes another round of tests and goes through a door into a room with "Congratulations" written on the wall.  He has done it, he is now a Serf in the service of the Carlyle family.  Talking with Stephen he says he is hoping to go into something in the medical field.  They send people out to find his family who can join him.

When Angel appears in the middle of the crowd he starts stuttering out a speech, but Eve jumps on him and they tussle with Eve trying not to set the bomb off.  Then a badly injured Casey comes up behind him and stabs him before collapsing herself.  She wakes up in hospital to the news that her heroism has seen her elevated to Serfdom on merit.  Mike is sat with her and tells her, "we work for the family now."  End book two.

Casey saves the day.

Another winner from Rucka and Lark.  By expanding the view of the world from the haves of the Carlyle family to the have nots of the Waste trying for one desperate shot at a better standard of living, the world in which they live is painted in greater detail.  Eve's childhood under the care of Marisol and her desperate need to feel love from a father who seems to have a hard time expressing it are fascinating glimpses into what has made her the efficient and loyal soldier she is for the family now.  Some tantalising hints are dropped as to what caused this world to become the way it is now that I would like to see elaborated upon in books to come and the new characters introduced in this book - bookish Mike and firey Casey look like they'll drive some interesting stories in the future.  The existence of a resistance movement dedicated to protesting the status quo is an inevitable side effect of such an unequal society and Eve is ruthless in dealing with them which almost makes you feel you're identifying with the bad guys.  It goes without saying that it looks fantastic, Lark's moody and gritty art complements the dystopian feel beautifully.  If you're interested in sci-fi with a more realistic bent than that of say Saga, this is definitely worth checking out.

Gotham By Midnight Book 1: We Do Not Sleep (#1-5)

"This is a bad one.  Bigger than it seems.  I've got a feeling" - Jim Corrigan

Well at least this is a series I can't complain about being cancelled in the upcoming DC Rebirth... because DC cancelled it months ago, hah take that DC!  Oh wait. Damn.  Because this is really good quality stuff and once again proof that the office within DC doing the best and most consistently good work is the Bat-family office.  Like Black Canary which I picked up on the strength of the art, I impulse bought this in Forbidden Planet because I really like Ben Templesmith's artwork, he's best known for his vampire tale "30 Days Of Night" but I have covered his work on the excellent "Dead Space" mini-series on this blog.  Luckily the writing by Ray Fawkes matches the brooding quality of the artwork as we are introduced to the "Midnight Shift" of the Gotham City Police Department, a group of misfits who deal with the paranormal assaults on the city.  Cleverly this first arc introduces a "Scully" to the "Mulders" of the unit in the form of a man auditing them, through him we get to see the Unit at work as they take on a powerful and frightening force that just might be too much for them to handle.  All the characters are new bar one, Jim Corrigan, the human vessel for The Spectre.  The Spectre is basically the Wrath of God given angelic form and bound to a dead human, and Corrigan's struggles to hold the Spectre at bay become central to this arc as it unfolds.

The story begins with our skeptic, a sergeant Rook, arriving at the headquarters of Precinct Thirteen, the Midnight Shift. He's from Internal Affairs, who is querying their very existence, they have two officers and two consultants on the payroll working under Lieutenant Weaver.

Rook: "I hear crazy rumours about weirdo supernatural investigations, crazy stuff.  Smells like accounting fraud to me.  I'm going to ask you outright, what exactly is it you do?"

Weaver introduces their consultants, forensic specialist Doctor Szandor and Sister Justine, "expert uh.. in things".  Rook says his investigation is just a formality, he's going to shut them down no matter what.

Weaver, Rook, Szandor and Justine

Elsewhere Detective Corrigan is meeting with Batman.  He hands him some paperwork saying he can't send stuff digitally because electronics "react poorly to my touch.  Spirit images burnt into the screen".

Batman asks if Corrigan's colleagues know about The Spectre.  Corrigan replies, "it's complicated".  Then Detective Drake pulls up in a car, she calls Corrigan over saying I.A. are sniffing round the Precinct so he leaves with her. In the car they chat about what they wanted to be as kids.  Corrigan says he wanted to be a firetruck. Drake says she always wanted to be a cop, ever since she saw one save a kid from drowning and thought "how good it was.  How pure."

Back at Precinct Thirteen, Rook is still dismissing what they do, even after being shown a person who turned into salt.  Sister Justine says to him:

Justine: "Look closely sergeant.  The truth is here.  We have nothing to hide.  It's you people who deny what you see."

Then Corrigan and Drake arrive at the Precinct saying they've got a case.  A kidnapping of kids from Gotham Heights.  Rook says that case is closed, the kids were runaways who returned home a week ago.  Corrigan invites Rook to ride along with him, "I bet you change your mind in one night".

Corrigan, Drake and Rook go to Gotham Heights and note "some kind of ritual mark" on the porch wall.  Inside are the worried parents of the girls who came back wrong.  They are speaking a language no one understands.  Corrigan asks if they still have the clothes the girls disappeared in.  They do, they kept everything as they were.

Corrigan investigates the girls.

Corrigan examines the clothes while Drake checks the girls over.  Corrigan then tells her to bring Sister Justine over and record everything the girls say.  Corrigan asks for reports of missing kid in the past few days and is told fourteen have gone missing from Gotham Heights since yesterday.

Corrigan tells Rook the ritual mark was "black flowers from Slaughter Swamp".  It was a sign.  He and Rook drive out to Slaughter Swamp to investigate, Rook tells him he is "this close to citing you all for misappropriation of funds and recommending psychiatruic evaluation".  Corrigan says that in their own way the Midnight shift are "serving and protecting when nobody else can.  When nobody else knows."

They arrive at the Swamp and get out of the car.  Corrigan says this can't be the worst place Rook has visited.  Rook says the worst he saw was a wine cellar with a multiple homicide in it.  They see black flowers.  Corrigan says he has a way of reading the world of the dead, and asks if Rook is a religious man.  Rook dodges the question but Corrigan says:

Corrigan: "You feel that?  In your gut?  That's your soul saying... uh oh"

And they stumble upon a large wooden shack.  At Gotham Heights, Sister Justine arrives and the girls start screaming.  Corrigan and Rook venture into the wooden shack and they find a school room with the missing kids in it and headed up by a monstrous figure dressed as a nun.  "...it's a hell of a job" says Corrigan to Rook upon making this discovery.

The evil nun.

The monster nun attacks Corrigan and Rook. Corrigan yells to the freaked out Rook to get the kids out of ther while he deals with the creature.  He starts to glow green with Spectre power, but holds it in for now.

Corrigan: "I'm the expert here.  I can handle her.  I have to handle her or we're in more trouble than we know."

Rook starts getting the kids out, meanwhile at Gotham Heights, Justine leaves the apartment where the girls are hysterically freaking out at her.  She sits in the car and has a flashback to when she discovered something weird going on at the seminary.  She spotted altar boys drooling green goo into a sleeping man, so she reports this to the Father in charge.

The Father asks if she went to confession that day, then he turns into a monster and says he'll have to "initiate her earlier than expected".  The nun with him says Gotham is sick "this city is a dirty place.  A mad place.  It needs us as well".

Spectre power is go!

In the present, Corrigan has unleashed some Spectre power at the monster and blown its head apart.  It lifts him up and speaks the same strange language as the girls were.  Back in Justine's past, Corrigan arrives on the scene just as the monster Father is about to do something to her.  He says, "this is no garden variety possession.  Sorry I didn't get here sooner."  He tells Justine he hopes she did go to confession today,"It's about to get biblical in here." And he disintegrates the monster Father and nun.

In the present, Rook has got all the kids out of the building.  He is understandably scared by what he has seen, "I'm not equipped to deal with this" he says to Corrigan.  Corrigan says he did want to see what they do.  Then he uses his phone to play the bells for the end of the school day and the monster nun blows apart permanently.

Corrigan: "Ghosts.  You won't get anywhere fighting them.  Sometimes you have to tell them time's up."

In Justine's past, Corrigan says she is safe now but everyone else in the building is dead. She is OK because she is a "bona fide pure soul".  He asks her not to tell anyone about seeing The Spectre, and offers her a job as he thinks she can be of help to him.

Wanna job?

In the present Corrigan calls her and orders a bus to come collect the children, who are all speaking the same weird language.  He and Rook talk about what happened, Rook says he isn't exactly sure what he saw.  Corrigan invites him for a drink and they drive back to the precinct.

There, Doctor Szandor and Sister Justine are examining the recordings of the language the kidnapped girls were speaking. Justine recognises some of it as what she heard when she first met Corrigan.  Corrigan says this was just part of a heavy case, the kids need to be quarantined.

Corrigan: "Everyone on this, gang.  Something big and bad is moving into Gotham.  Something that has either got five names, five bodies or both."

Drake and Corrigan go to the hospital having been invited there by a Doctor Patel. They have a girl in an isolation ward.  He tells them to look at her shadow wich appears to be moving independantly of her.  Also she has smallpox, despite having been vaccinated against it. 

Drake undercover.

We flashback to Drakes past, she was working undercover for narcotics.  She is pretending to be high as she is driven to a meeting with some dealers with a male companion.  They have a job they want her companion to do, they have Corrigan bound and gagged in the boot of a car and they want him killed.

Back in the present, Szandor and Justine are working on decoding the mystery language while Rook checks through their records.  Corrigan calls them up and summons Szandor to the hospital:

Corrigan: "Over here we've got an autonomous human shadow with an articulated heart tha looks like it's made of fungus or mold or something.  The heart might be sentient."

Szandor rushes off. At the hospital, Drake and Patel are suited up in protective gear and go in to examine the girl more closely.  Patel approaches her but the shadow rears up and attacks him through his suit, killing him immediately with the smallpox type disease.  Then it escaped through the door and starts killing staff close by.  Drake confirms Patel is dead and that the disease isn't smallpox it just looks like it.

The killer shadow.

In Drake's past, she pulls a gun and reveals she is an undercover agent.  But one of the gang members sneaks up behind her and puts a gun to her head.  She lets out a blood curdling shriek that knocks her attacker down.  And then she shoots the dealers.

In the present, Szandor has arrived.  Drake asks the girl if she can control the shadow which is still attached to her, but she can't.  Szandor speaks some of the mystery language to it, and it pauses in it's killing spree and talks back to him.  Corrigan says to Szandor to keep it busy while he thinks of how to deal with it.  Drake decides to try shining a light directly on it, but has no idea if it'll work.

In her past, she frees Corrigan and asks him not to tell anyone what he saw her do here today.  He asks if she knows what she is, why she screams the way she does before someone dies.  She wants to know, having lived with it all her life.  He says he is setting up a taskforce and could use a partner.

Drake deals with the shadow monster.

We return to the present and the light separates the shadow from the girl.  They realise they are all going to have to go into quarantine because they are surrounded by diseased bodies.  Szandor says the shadow says it's name was "Ikkt".

Szandor: "Gotham is under attack.  And after seeing what this one alone almost did.. I shudder to think what's next."

Corrigan and Rook are in a Gotham bar getting drunk.  Corrigan comments that this is the oldest bar in Gotham, dating back to eighteen-twenty-something.  Rook makes to leave saying he knows that, his ancestors lived in the first Gotham town.  Corrigan says stay, he knows Rook wants to bring them up and charges and thiks they are all nuts, "it can't mean we can't be friends".  Rook disagrees, they are both pretty wasted by now.  Then a tentacle monster attacks them both.

Monsters are such buzzkills.

Drake and Szandor are driving through Gotham and come across several dead bodies.  Szandor says he wants to tell Corrigan something chemically weird is going on in Slaughter Swamp and that he thinks the monsters they have been dealing with come from there.  They examine the bodies, "bluish cast to the skin.  Smells of alcohol", and there are leech like things on them.  Then the leeches suddenly grow into huge tentacle creatures and Drake and Sazandor dive back in the car.  In the bar, Corrigan grabs one of the tentacles, and the creature says it is "Amodr".

Corrigan: "What did you come covering for me?  After I took care of your buddies? Ovovo in the swamp and Ikkt in the hospital?"

Szandor gets through to him and Corrigan holds out the phone so he can hear what Amodr is "saying".  Szandor confirms it is the "ghost langauge".  Corrigan says Amodr is trying to poison them with alcohol.  Outside the tentacles all start lashing out and killing everyone around them.  Drake puts her foot down and drives her and Szandor through them.  But Corrigan has other problems, Amodr has triggered the summoning of The Spectre, "judgement" is coming as he manifests himself in the bar.

Meet The Spectre.

The Spectre: "Foul creature.  Hellspawn.  You shall find no purchase here.  I am The Spectre.  I am Heaven's Blade.  Behold, the Whirldwind of the Lord goes forth in Wrath.  Swirling down upon the heads of the wicked.  I am the Storm and you... Abomination."

And he destroys Amodr.  However outside Gotham, the blackness of Slaughter Swamp has risen up and is advancing on the city.  Szandor is trying to speak to Corrigan over the phone still, saying he knows enough of the ghost language now to know that the creature was asking him if he knew what Gotham was?

Ikkondrid manifests.

He believes the creatures want judgement.  He has realised that it all makes sense now, stealing children and returning them speaking a different language from their parents, infecting people with smallpox and now poisoning them with alchohol.  These are all the things the founders of Gotham did to the indigenous tribe that originally lived there.

Szandor: "These things are the progeny of their great sins.  The psychic remnants of genocide... They want Gotham City to be judged!"

Drake is overwhelmed by premonitions of death and lets out her banshee scream.  As a now huge Spectre walks through the streets of Gotham to confront the living swamp, Weaver and Justine set off to find Corrigan.  Szandor still trying to reach Corrigan begs him to call the Spectre off, "what if we are judged and found wanting?"  And the Spectre and the swamp monster clash epically as Batman arrives on the scene in his plane.

We then get a two page spread of the Spectre holding the Swamp creature at bay, "while he decides whether he agrees with it.  While he decides whether we all live or die."  Drake and Szandor find Corrigan in the bar, he is slumped unconcious with heavenly light streaming from his eyes, nose and mouth.  Rook is there as well, his heart stops, but they shock him back to life.

Corrigan while The Spectre is manifest.

Corrigan narrates that when The Spectre manifests he doesn't mentally pass out.  He leaves his body and goes with him, "and then I have to watch".  The Swamp tells The Spectre who and what it is:

Ikkondrid: "I am Ikkondrid the Corpse.  I am Gotham's caul, torn from the city at the moment of it's first breath.  Betrayed.  Murdered.  Cast into the swamps.  I am not from the Unnatural Order.  I am the village tha once was and is now forgotten.  My children and I have summoned you that you might hear our plea".

Weaver and Justine arrive at where Corrigan, Drake, Rook and Szandor are.  Weaver is about to shoot Corrigan believing it to be the only way of stopping The Spectre.  Drake lets out another banshee scream which stops him cold.

Drake's banshee scream.

Batman fires missiles at Ikkondrid which have no effect.  His plane is showered with black flowers which cause the plane to crash.  Drake takes Weaver's gun away from him saying he won't shoot Corrigan, "he's my damn partner."  Weaver starts to beg the insensible Corrigan to regain control saying the city is "riddled with sin".  Outside by the crashed Batplane, Sister Justine makes her appeal directly to God.

Justine: "Please Lord.  If I am a pure soul, as Corrigan says.. though I don't believe I am... please spare this city".

Ikkondrid and The Spectre are still grappling with each other.  Ikkondrid says the village were fooled by words of friendship, their children taken and had the langauge of the ancestors beaten out of them, they were poisoned by disease and poison, and the founders of Gotham "folded their crime into the shape of a city".  And The Spectre stops fighting it, and turns to regard the city...

Uh oh...

While Weaver keeps begging Corrigan, Justine says to God that the people of Gotham are worth saving "will you take me in their place?"  And The Spectre is called off by the Voice of God.

Corrigan: "I don't understand.  Maybe one of us got through somehow.  Maybe one of us was heard.  Ikkondrid turns to the swamp.  I don't know why.  The Spectre knows, but it's somehow too big and nothing was forgiven here... this doesn't make sense to me..."

He catches a thought just before The Spectre vanishes, "something about remembering the innocents sacrificed for us.  Something about paying respect."  And Corrigan comes too finding the others and Batman standing round the body of Sister Justine.  It was her death Drake predicted.  Corrigan tells Batman they are safe for now.

Corrigan: "...but we paid.  It's not over. And damn, we paid."

Awww no..

Considering all the mad stuff that goes down in Gotham daily, having a unit of the Gotham PD dealing with the supernatural stuff feels like an idea that is so obvious it's amazing it hasn't been done before.  Fawkes and Templesmith bring us a team of likeable characters with two cool female ones, the brash banshee Drake and the meekly devout Sister Justine.  I was a little sad Sister Justine died, because although she died saving the whole city by offering up her soul in return for it, I felt like she still had more to offer as a character.  Still she went out a massive hero proving superheroes come in all guises, even only the Midnight Shift know about her sacrifice.  Corrigan and The Spectre fit beautifully into this set-up and this incarnation of The Spectre is definitely the most awesome and frighteningly judgemental I've seen since his appearance in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run.  The fact the haunted past of Gotham CIty given form actually wanted The Spectre to manifest itself because it knew The Spectre would judge Gotham and find it wanting was a clever twist, and it was a humble nun that saved the day, not Batman in his Batplane with his Bat-missiles. The incidents leading up to the climax are also creepily effective, especially the haunted smallpox shadow. Templesmith excels at horror, his frantic line work and splashed inks imbuing everything with a sense of chaotic menace and he gives us a very impressive take on The Spectre as well, towering above the city shining with Divine Radiance, and we truly we get to see how The Spectre embodies the whole Good Is Not Nice trope here, only instead of going after petty evil doers, he's been manipulated into nearly destroying a whole city.  Unfortunately I believe Templesmith is gone from this series for the next (and final) volume, but the characters and concept are so appealing I shall be picking it up regardless and you can expect coverage of it on here when I do.