Prez 1 for Awesome

Prez #5

Newly elected teen president Beth Ross embarks on an international “apology tour” — because, frankly, the U.S. has done a lot of unbelievably awful stuff to a lot of countries and has very few real allies. Unfortunately, Beth has just discontinued the abusive Sentry program, and she’ll have less protection from international enemies. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to leverage their treatments for the cat flu into big bucks, and the most advanced of the robotic Sentries is seeking to atone for his life by joining a church. Can Beth make friends around the world and still use a meat synthesizer to save her ambassador’s life?

Verdict: Thumbs up. More excellently clever political satire, combined with wonderful artwork and fantastic characterization, dialogue, cleverness — and even empathy.

Revival #34

Em Cypress has been revealed as a risen-from-the-dead reviver and imprisoned in a reviver prison for experimentation and eventual extermination. Her sister, Officer Dana Cypress helps comfort her father, Sheriff Wayne Cypress, who’s concerned because he’s shot a man who may be dying. And Dana reveals that she knows her father killed her mother while driving drunk — but she still expects him to help her learn who first murdered Em. A dying CIA agent leads Dana to some clues to the truth, but neither Dana nor Em realize that assassins have been ordered to eliminate them permanently.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This series often features people dancing around and barely missing the truth, uncovering new mysteries to add to the pile of old mysteries, and being helpless to stop death — hey, that’s the nature of noir stories. This issue is a bit unusual because more than one mystery is solved and several new plot points are revealed. It’s a nice way to start a new storyarc, and it’s not a bad place to start reading if you haven’t been checking it out before.