I can't have an actual swear jar, I'd have to direct deposit my paychecks into it.

Either the comic shop should have this, or I should: every time I buy a comic I know full well I have already somewhere, throw something in the jar! We can't do it as a drinking game anymore, I can hear my liver grinding now. From 1994, the Night Man #5, "Alone" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Kyle Hotz, inks by Jason Minor.

This was the conclusion of a two-parter introducing Night Man's primary female villain, Rhiannon, although he maybe doesn't know that yet: previously, he had saved two women from having their organs harvested by a cloaked, hooded figure, who escaped. At a crime scene, with a body that was almost completely cracked open; Night Man tries to share info with the cops, which pretty much just turns into an argument: "Ooh, yeah, like the cops are all trustworthy" is a legit point in 1994, or now, but won't make you many friends on the force.

Still, the round left eye on his mask wasn't just "for effect," it also recorded video! Ah, VHS. Miss you, old friend. (I don't think Night Man lugged even a miniature VHS recorder on him all the time, but maybe just swapped it in as needed.)

Night Man works the clues, back to Rhiannon's fake fiance, a dupe who's still smitten with her, and Johnny knows how the guy feels. He wonders why he was doing the superhero thing, instead of his far more enjoyable life as a jazz musician; but since he could 'hear' evil, he didn't feel like he had a choice. Remembering the end of Vertigo, Night Man catches up to Rhiannon near the Golden Gate Bridge, but she's set an elaborate, somewhat Looney Tunes trap with a rope net and a cannon. She admits, she felt the attraction between them too, but a 4700-year-old woman has to be a little picky: either he proves himself by escaping, or dies and she uses his organs to keep herself alive for another six-year cycle. You can tell she's pulling for him, but isn't so sentimental that she wouldn't eat him or whatever if he failed.

The Night Man escapes, but can't get past the fact that she had killed hundreds--thousands, Rhiannon corrects him--of people over the course of her life. Rhiannon counters, hey, girl's gotta eat: she didn't ask for that, and god forbid a woman have hobbies. She shoves him, and he goes over the side, barely clinging to a wire: Rhiannon tries to save him, even though she has no intention of not murdering people. Instead, Night Man zaps her with the taser in his glove, and she goes into the bay. Feeling like he had chosen to be alone, he goes home to his pirate radio station--shades of Pump Up the Volume! I think he usually used it for emergency contact purposes, not just to play the blues. I also don't know enough sax music: personally, I hear the riff from "Baker Street" every time he gets that thing out.

The letters page mentions, it would be tough to replace Darick Robertson and Gene Ha, but Kyle Hotz would be the regular artist for a bit. He's great! I think he would go on to Ghost Rider 2099 later, another book that had just a murderers' row of great artists yet didn't have a particularly long run.

Bonus: I have enough magnets on my fridge to give myself an MRI every morning, but it was annoying the crap out of me that I couldn't find my the Green Slime movie poster magnet! So, I ordered a new one, along with this Russian-looking poster for the Night Man on VHS!