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Mind Mgmt #22

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    Nolando
    Senior Member

  • Mind Mgmt #22



    Released by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: May 28, 2014


    Matt Kindt keeps the action coming in this latest issue by focusing on Mind Mgmt's enemies and the role that entity played in creating those enemies.

    [SPOILER-ISH REVIEW FOLLOWS]

    The story opens discussing the first enemy, a painter named Dudley Murphy who created “mentally toxic” picture frames. This sets up the Magician to explain to Perrier (who's just shown up at the “Retirement Home” hideout of the bad guys) who and what Mind Mgmt is. To do so, she goes to the past, the old days, in Berlin during the 80's. She was part of an anarchist cell comprised of her, the Ad Man (propaganda), Fuega (hot-headed leadership), and The Pipe Kid (creepy & quiet).



    This group started out wanting to fight the current system and for social justice. They would use violence primarily although the Ad Man taught them how to use other, subtle ways to get their message across. But Fuega isn't impressed so they kidnap the head of a large bank and The Pipe Kid gets to show off her comprehensive brainwashing abilities. However, she's not mastered her gifts and they end up killing their captive. They go on the run, splitting up and going underground.



    Soon, though, Fuega has them reformed as the Kommune, producing insurrectionist instructional films, such as showing how to make molotov cocktails. The Magician and the Ad Man work so that anyone watching their films are pointed in the right direction of rebellion rather than anarchy. However, Fuega and The Pipe Kid start making their own far more disturbing shorts, drawing the attention of Mind Mgmt to shut them down as their influence was on a widespread number of “unwitting accomplices.” The Magician is able to convince them to make these as focused as possible and so they become the organization that Mind Mgmt wanted all along.



    The Magician then works with other elements from Mind Management, specifically around disguises and making things “vanish” from view. But she wants out and tries to quit, becoming The Magician, her deep-cover act, and finding her true love. Yet it's the recent appearance by Lyme and Meru that cause all that to unravel and, yet again thanks to Mind Mgmt, she's lost everything. And so she takes up the side of The Eraser, knowing that all she has left is revenge and Mind Mgmt. She poses that choice to Perrier, saying it's time to choose for herself… The issue wraps with another “report” on yet another Mind Mgmt safe house tour by Billy and Meru. This time, it's in St. Louis and was primarily used by Ad Men and illustrators. They created many influential pamphlets and documentation for events like the Civil Rights Movement here. But debates around the true value of their art and whether they themselves were manufacturing a false demand for it led to the house's demise.



    Kindt's series is magnificently layered, complex but still compelling, filled with tons of stories detailing the morally gray characters' motivations. And that focus on character is the core of the series, making it endlessly entertaining and engaging.
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