If she had the old blue mask, I'd have been onboard day one.

So the other day, from the quarter bins I got the first six issues of Image's Void Rivals and one issue of new Transformers series. I don't remember if the former was a stealth TF relaunch, or if it was announced as such: it's basically a longer-form Enemy Mine with a bit of Moonlighting's will-they/won't they. Jetfire appears in the first issue, but only long enough to be "oh crap, how long was I asleep!?" and take off. For a buck an issue? Not bad, but I didn't run to the store for more yet either. Transformers #5 was mid-stream, but interesting: I feel like Optimus taking Megatron's cannon should be a moment like Cap picking up Thor's hammer, but I also kinda feel like Optimus shouldn't be able to transform with that thing on him. (They maybe cheat and it appears as one of Optimus's stacks!) Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of Kirkman or his banner, but like I've said before, I lost most of my Transformers continuity two, three reboots back and would have a hard time getting back in. Which I was kind of expecting to be the case with this issue!

From 2005, Manhunter #11, "Manhunted Part 2: Chasing the Dragon" Written by Marc Andreyko, pencils by Javier Pina and Diego Olmos, inks by Fernando Blanco and Bob Petrecca.

Was this the most recent Manhunter book from DC? It's a title they've trotted out more than once, but this issue maybe goes a ways towards making it more of a legacy than it had been in the past. Well, she was was a legacy too, but that would come out later! The current Manhunter was Kate Spencer, a prosecutor who stole impounded super-tech to use it to murder villains who beat charges. Feels like a few conflicts of interest there, but okay. This issue, her old friend Cameron Chase of the DEO (and her own short-lived series!) was getting involved, since two of the previous four Manhunters had recently been killed: the elderly All-Star Dan Richards, and musician Chase Lawler. Meanwhile, Mark Shaw was driving across Nevada, intent on warning the "new girl" since the other, clone Kirk DePaul of the Power Company, wouldn't take his call. DePaul does get a warning from the DEO, but scoffs at the idea of needing help: he was a professional.

DePaul probably should've listened, though: his girl gets shot as they leave a fancy restaurant, but the shooter lets himself be seen, wanting to be chased. Despite having a full stomach (and probably a few drinks in him) DePaul does give chase, facing Shaw's old foe, Dumas. Dumas gives him his bigass daggers, and does get stabbed, but that was just so he could inject DePaul...not with poison, but an air bubble, to cause a massive stroke. (The odds of hitting a vein just so, in the middle of a fight like that, seem long.) Dumas's mask had been knocked off, and DePaul recognizes him before being decapitated. Two to go, but spoilers after the break! Since this was, crap, twenty years ago! You might already know: this was a retcon, and Shaw was also Dumas, and apparently always had been. He had been shot full of nanites, to give him that ever-popular healing factor, but also to imprint "Dumas" on him as a means of control: Shaw could chase "Dumas" forever, while Dumas was useful for murders and such. I didn't care for this retconning the Ostrander/Rice series I liked, or killing the clone from Power Company: a little too much breaking of other people's toys, but Kate seems cool, and Chase should be in way more books.