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Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: February 26, 2014
The intricate, involved, oh-so-many-pieces series gets its setup for a new story arc in this issue. Thankfully, creator/author/illustrator Matt Kindt opens this issue with “The Second Floor,†providing all the necessary information on Mind Management, the Immortals, all the central characters and what's happened to them all up to this point.
Former-MM agents are trying to recruit other “special†folks into their ranks, to fight against the new Mind Management team, led by The Eraser. These agents are in Paris, recruiting an illusionist who's hiding out, named Professor Agement, performing a popular magic act and generally trying to forget her old MM life and all the trouble it caused. Ex-agents Lyme and Duncan go in to the show to approach her about recruitment but their teammate Meru - whose ability is to cancel out others abilities - is nearby, keeping watch with her boyfriend Billy and the young musician, Dusty. Meru manages to ruin Agement's performance and - her illusions gone - she's unable to keep up the charade with her lover and she gets him to leave her, alone and now with nothing, thanks to (she thinks) MM interference.
Agement then decides to join the Eraser's side since “sides don't matter†and she had approached Agement first. The Eraser's team gather then, ready to break through and pounce on Meru's unsuspecting team as they all attempt to both find Agement and let her know the truth and also find themselves a new safe house to recruit from. But it's clear that the battle is just about to join yet again, in earnest…
A densely-layered narrative is laid out in exceptional fashion, balancing all the story elements and building them together expertly here. It's easy to see why this series is garnering so much positive critical attention as it may well be the best-written comic series out today.
