Xtinction Agenda

Bore of a gun wide fires metal through bone and flesh, leaving hanging bits of red and white. Down in the green they die. Or in the mud. He does this so that John can go up close and pull Sarah to the safety of the pathway home. Away from this bitter war. Toward peace and the valley.

"That we're like animals! It's in the blood! It's natural! Peace? That's an accident! It's what is!"

Splatters of black, flowing and bubbling over rich red, floating islands where the only law is all against all. We have to keep this from getting out.

Razor edge filaments tendril 'round wrists, slithering upwards and under your eyes into your mind. We have to keep this from getting in.

Contain it before it contaminates us. Contain it, if we can.

"I'm chaos Mistah Kurtz, chaos--and the rest of the world won't admit that it's just like me."

Panels beckoned him,

Black boarders of potential,

Now blank, silent, white.

Ed Piskor (1982-2024)

"You're all familiar with the Z'nox scenario?"

Dollarama is the source of all cheap comics. But Dollarama is primarily owned by Bain Capital. So is it that Mitt Romney put Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 2 in our hands? Do we have the Republican establishment to thank for bringing Dennis O'Neil deeper into our lives? Would that establishment take kindly to the message broadcast through these weird tales of sublimated sexual confusion and desire? No one can answer these questions. We know only the bounty of Dollarama and give thanks to Bain Capital for its blessings.

"Meanwhile, the two Supermen have battled each other, first to a standstill-- and then, to a lie-still!"

What pleasure is there in waging war against the world's evils? Indeed, what pleasure is there to be found in pleasure itself? We stand impatiently or we strive, waiting for the moment of elation, hopeful that this time, just this one time, time will simultaneously cease and last forever. The high without the low. Or, even better, without the medium in between, where life is without passion.

Doctors say it is good for us to drain the sack daily. Let life be the judge of that.

"You spend every second with somebody, and there's still this part that's a mystery. . . . It's kind of sexy."

Rambo won. There isn't anything more to say, is there? Rambo won. Single handed, he symbolized the fall of the communist bloc and the end of history. But, if this is so (and it is), what follows? Does it follow that Rambo is also the spectre that skewered the New Deal order? That Rambo crept into the administrations of Bill Clinton and Dubyah? That Rambo was the force pushing social services away from a 'kremlin mentality' towards the so-called free market? Yes.

Rambo won and we all lost.

"I wish to take you back alive! This is your last warning! The choice is yours!"

The teef be lookin' to steal somethin' sweet, mon cher. A soft kiss or golden portrait. Nothin' compare to your beauty 'do. You be the sweetest 'ting Gambit ever see.

Perhaps you discuss with Gambit over candle light?

And silk sheets...

Next week: Rambo III

Doom resurrects the fallen herald of an alien god, setting him loose upon his enemies, the Curious Quartet!

Wait, that isn't right... Let's try that again.

...his enemies, the Heroic Household!

Wait, that isn't it either...

Hold on, it'll come to me in a minute....

"How else can I plead but... guilty!"

Before the fantastic arrives like a bird on our shoulder, the world is all matter and atoms and coincidence. But then the little bird sings to us, in that space between the uncanny and the marvelous, a sweet song of 'what if?' and 'just maybe'. And we doubt.

Anna learned this one day, years after the death of her beloved Sean, when a copy of him emerged from the dead, seemingly intact, tantalizingly incomplete. She says that she was not responsible for what then occurred.

Couple audio glitches in the episode. What fools these mortals be.

"It's just sea sickness, sir."

These atomic powers and super suits are like guns, maaaan. And those super science types, they're, like, working for the government, dude. So we gotta stop them from taking our powers and make sure that we're free to save lives and serve justice, you know what I mean? They take our powers from us and we're lookin' down the barrel of a freakin' police state! I mean, whose side are you even on?!

"Somebody said we should go on strike if they mess with us like this. Does anybody else think that's a good idea?"