Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 48

Reasons to Love Agent Carter

This show, you guys, this show. On the Fangirl Happy Hour Episode 1, Ana and Renay talked recently about the terrible injustice that Agents of SHIELD got a whole season commissioned and didn’t start delving into proper character stuff for at least ten episodes, while Agent Carter is brilliant from the start, and it only gets eight episodes all up, and we all have to sit on tenterhooks waiting to find out if we ever get another season.

It’s true. But I wonder if the short run works in Agent Carter’s favour – 8 x 40 minutes a fantastic length in which to tell a crunchy, layered crime story, with plenty of room for character development and side plots but no excuse to have throwaway episodes or padding. Like, you know, most of US network television with its crazy long seasons.

Agent Carter hits the ground running and never stops. I’m five episodes in, and I was in love from the start. Here are some of the things that are great about this show:

1. Hayley Atwell. Her performance of Peggy in Captain America: The First Avenger was fantastic, and both she and the scripts so far have been uncompromising in allowing Peggy to be more interesting and substantial than “the love interest” or the “strong female character” in action movies generally gets to be. In Peggy Carter we have a woman who dresses in traditionally feminine ways (late 1940’s, so it’s all pin curls and stockings) and has taught herself to be an action heroine in very traditionally masculine environments.

Instead of the elegant martial arts usually used to explain how a Hollywood-petite woman can be lethal (eg. Black Widow, Melinda May), Peggy is a total bruiser. She punches, kicks, elbows and uses every dirty trick she has to hand. She also has a sense of humour and a full emotional range. She’s a genuine pleasure to watch on screen, whether she’s deflecting awkward work situations with quiet sarcasm, or punching the hell out of a pair of goons on the waterfront. Peggy, I love you, don’t ever leave me.

Oh and Hayley Atwell’s Twitter account is a thing of beauty, including livetweets of episodes (Howard, you dog!), ridiculawesome set pics, cake, and the documentation of the terrible damage she has inflicted upon her army of stuntmen.

2. No boyfriend. The really great thing about Agent Carter as a spin off show after the first Captain America movie is that as far as the narrative is concerned, Steve Rogers is literally the fridged damsel, and Peggy is the hero. This already turns comic and action hero traditions on its head, but also gives us the rather splendid option of a spy drama with a female protagonist without a love interest, because she’s still mourning the love of her life. I’m not saying that the show won’t give her a boy to kiss eventually (eyeing all the main suspects right now), but it’s really great that the show is focusing on other kinds of relationship instead. Her past relationship with Steve is used not only to show her being sad, wistful and extra inspired to do the job she was doing long before he came into her life, but it also shows the social fallout from being the woman that Captain America left behind. From the cheesy radio programme depicting Peggy as a fainting damsel constantly being rescued by the star-spangled man, to the assholes at work making snide comments about how no new dude can measure up to her super-powered DEAD WARHERO BOYFRIEND (yeah nice tact there, guys) it’s hardly surprising that she’s not in a mood to date again any time soon.

3. Trust issues. Peggy’s narrative arc through the show is about learning to let others in and build friendships – and that she deserves more respect that she is currently getting with the men she works with. She starts out as the classic lone wolf archetype who pushes everyone away because she doesn’t want them to be hurt through proximity to her – after several instances proving her paranoia right (including the “death” of Captain America and the casual murder of her roommate). This is so… not the usual arc of a female action hero. It’s usually the arc given to, like, Wolverine. PEGGY CARTER IS WOLVERINE AND SHE NEEDS TO LEARN TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE AND TRUST THOSE WHO ARE SQUISHIER THAN SHE IS. Sadly, many of the people she does start to trust aren’t completely worthy of her, and learning to trust those around her isn’t always going to pay off… there are still a few betrayals to come!

4. Jarvis. Peggy’s partnership with Jarvis is amazing on so many levels – not only because Howard Stark’s butler is dry and witty, giving us a show which is largely about two sarcastic, beautifully dressed English people taking on America (seriously, it’s like that other Avengers with the bowler hat and the cat suits) – but because it’s a gorgeous platonic friendship with a whole bunch of gender norm reversals. Seriously, every time she calls him into action for the first couple of episodes, he’s doing laundry or chores for his wife. Also, him being married (and completely committed to his wife) is super sweet, and there’s not a hint of romantic spark between he and Peggy – it’s respectful partnership all the way.

Jarvis is a useful chap to have around, with many skills honed from years of picking up after Howard Stark’s disasters, but he’s not as tough or as experienced or as frankly violent as Peggy herself. It reminds me a lot of early episodes of Fringe, where Olivia was the flinty-eyed, gun-toting FBI agent and Peter was the squishy civilian who dealt with problems via guile and unexpected language skills. I also like the realistic touch where Jarvis is more actively angry about the way the men at Peggy’s work treat her than she is – because she has to deal with it every day, and can’t always afford to let anger and resentment take over. It boggles his mind that Peggy continues to tough it out at the SSR under those conditions, and that she even defends her co-workers at times which goes to show that he doesn’t entirely get how normal it is to her, to be treated like crap.

5. Howard Stark. A clever twist of the show is that Howard Stark, weapon inventor and self-made millionaire, is central to the plot but not always central to the story – he is used sparingly, but constantly relevant. Peggy and Jarvis bond over how ridiculous he is with his wandering pants and his terrible life choices – but when he’s actually there in the show, he and Peggy are great together, all sharp-edged, siblingy banter and in his case, surprising depth under the charm and expensive suits. It’s a different vibe to the Peggy-Jarvis friendship, because Howard is obviously attracted to Peggy, but her complete lack of romantic interest in him means he has to learn how to talk to her like a person. It’s like he’s never had a woman stand up to him before, so he eyes her like a fascinating science experiment. And you know, Peggy gets to punch him when he deserves it, which is SO satisfying.

When you see Howard and Jarvis together, it makes sense – Howard has spent most of his life around people who fall over themselves to impress him and say ‘yes’ to whatever he wants, because of his money and influence. Both Jarvis and Peggy are willing to mock him, and/or call him on his bullshit, so he will do anything to keep them in his life, while also using them shamelessly. (yes, it completely mirrors the Pepper-Rhodey-Tony friendship in the Iron Man movies, I can’t believe that’s a coincidence)

Peggy asking Howard why his moustache is so sad is one of my favourite things in the history of things.

6. Angie and the women. Much like how Steve Rogers’ friendships with Natasha Romanov and Sam Wilson took the narrative space usually devoted to a romance in Captain America: Winter Soldier, Peggy Carter’s emotional arc in Agent Carter is about her learning to appreciate and invite civilian women into her life, so that her whole world isn’t just about struggling against the patriarchal work structures. Angie the waitress is a sweet character who genuinely wants to be Peggy’s friend, but Peggy is so used to lying about her job and her life that she doesn’t really know HOW to be friends with ordinary women. A big part of this story is about how she is a woman in a sea of double-breasted suits, and that’s important, but I like very much that the easy option of making her look special and awesome by not letting any other women get near her is not what’s happening here. Watching Peggy’s armour slowly fall away as she allows herself to have friends and to live among a community of other women is an interesting progression, especially when you realise that her automatic reflex is to under-estimate what those women are capable of in exactly the same way that the men at the SSR under-estimate Peggy.

I won’t talk about Dottie because spoiler spoilers, but oh, I love her storyline so much even though I have no idea where it’s going, and it makes me wonder how many of the women of the Griffith Hotel are hiding double lives. I kind of hope all of them. All of them would be good.

7. The Manly Men of the SSR. Oh boy, Peggy works with a bunch of jerks. To put this into context, I could not watch beyond the first episode of Mad Men because the whole historically accurate sexism thing made me feel sick to my stomach, and I knew I couldn’t sit through hours and hours of it. But watching Peggy at work, and the levels of casual disrespect she has to deal with every day, is inspiring as well as infuriating. I really like the balance here, and the way that they are acknowledging the real problems that happened with women in the workforce after the war, when desperation was no longer a good reason to ignore gender conventions. But while she does work with assholes who are constantly keeping her away from “real” work and getting her to fetch them sandwiches, there’s also some real progression here. Not all the guys who are appalling sexists are actually also bad at their jobs – and it’s worth noting that the one guy in the office who isn’t appallingly sexist, Daniel Sousa, is at the absolute lowest point of the pecking order (just above Peggy) because he is came back from the war missing a leg, and is also the new guy.

What I really like about this show is that they never lose sight of the fact that exploring gender politics is not only interesting, but has as much to say about masculinity as it does about femininity. Through Souza and Thompson, respectively the nicest and the jerkiest of Peggy’s colleagues, we see the harsh expectations on men of this era, especially the returning soldiers from the war, and how sexism RUINS EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE.

8. The Howling Commandos Do What Peggy Says. Apart from our civilians, Howard and Jarvis, the other interesting group of men are the Howling Commandoes, who feature in Episode 5 of the show, appropriately named The Iron Ceiling. When Peggy blags her way into an overseas mission, based entirely on her skill, experience and contacts, her two worlds collide. Jack Thompson, jerkiest asshole most sexist agent of all, finally gets to see the woman he constantly dismisses in her true element, working in the field with a unit held up as the most famous war heroes of all time – and not only does he see that Peggy is genuinely good, he also gets to see how deeply she is respected by the Howling Commandoes, who treat her as an equal.

There are hints of traditional chauvinism here – Dum Dum Dugan’s friendship with Peggy is gorgeous, but it’s clear some of the awe that he and the others hold Peggy in is because she was “Cap’s girl.” Still, that’s only part of it – they have also seen her in action, know what she’s capable of, and will always listen to her when she speaks. I won’t pretend that it wasn’t enormously satisfying to see Jack Thompson’s head explode as his code was rewritten with all this new information.

9. The fanfic. With a new show that’s developing its own fandom, I’m always interested to see which fanfic pairings rise and explode. In the case of Agent Carter, while there’s a bit of inevitable fannish glee around Peggy/Jarvis (ugh, what’s wrong with you people, he has a lovely wife at home) Peggy/Howard (HE WISHES) or Peggy/Souza (best of a bad bunch), for the most part the fanfic adoration is all about the femmeslash. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Cartinelli! Peggy’s friendship with Angie Martinelli has been rightly picked as the emotional heart of the show – and while it’s almost certainly not going to be romantic in the official narrative (though that would be amazing, let’s not rule that out, show), I always see a viable femmeslash following as a sign that there are credible connections between female characters in a story. Never mind the Bechdel Test, this is the Cass/Steph Test.

10. The Clothes, the Hats, the Cars. My friend Isabel, a longtime comics fan, is as much in love with Agent Carter as I am, but every time we discuss it, she has one true lament: WHERE IS THE PATTERN BOOK? She has had the same lament about the Miss Fisher Mysteries for years, now. Why can we not just order these clothes, or the patterns to make them? The gorgeous period style of this show is really enjoyable, and I like particularly the way that Peggy’s personality is expressed through her clothes. She won’t dress in dark tweed to fit in with her male colleagues – screw that, she wears gorgeous dresses in plum and violet and magenta because it’s not like she can hide that she’s a woman. The men’s hats are also stylish and wonderful and oh, the cars. The cars in this show. If only there were more historical superhero/espionage dramas in the world. Or, you know, I’d settle for more of this one.

I started writing this post a few episodes ago, and right from the start I had a wish list for where I wanted this show to go: I wanted Black Widow/Red Room, the Howling Commandos, a suspiciously exactly-the-same-age Nick Fury, Winter Soldier, more Howard Stark, and the weird typewriter subplot to mean that this is actually all taking place in the Fringe universe. SOME OF THESE THINGS CAME TRUE!

Truly, this is a great show. It’s not perfect thanks to one pretty glaring omission – pretty much every article I’ve read about the show flags that Agent Carter is surprisingly silent on the racism of the era, while having so many interesting things to say about gender politics, disability, class, etc. The cast is mostly white, and racial issues are barely even touched on even when we do get characters of colour, like with the Howling Commandos episode.

Which is weird, because the most interesting thing about the Howling Commandos is that this super legendary World War II squad of crack troops who went with Captain America and Bucky Barnes on all their missions, and are still honoured in a Hall of Fame seventy years later, were actually a mixed-race military unit at a time when American troops were still racially segregated. The MCU didn’t do much to highlight this in the first Captain America movie, apart a line about how Jim Morita was born in Fresno, but Agent Carter is exactly the kind of show that could explore the racial implications in more depth. Sadly, apart from establishing (I assume thanks to actor availability) that Gabe Jones and Jim Morita weren’t the only non-white members of the 107th, Agent Carter hasn’t done anything with this yet. THERE’S STILL TIME, SHOW!

Interesting thought: now that Gabe Jones is no longer the only canonically black member of the Howling Commandos, we now have another potential grandfather for Antoine Triplett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D in “Happy” Sam Sawyer. Though I don’t want people to stop writing “Peggy Carter was Trip’s Grandma” fiction, because that stuff is aces.

Agent Carter explores all kinds of social issues to do with history, oppressed minorities, and injustice, with sexism front and centre – these themes are deeply embedded in every episode, which makes the absence of important (or hell, background) characters of colour really weird and disorienting. It seems like a show that would tell stories about a realistically diverse 1940′s New York. So why haven’t they?

If women of colour are not welcome at the Griffith Hotel, for example, I think we should be told whether this is a deliberate policy of the management! Peggy Carter is, like Captain America, the kind of hero who would notice day-to-day social injustices and stand up to them, so let’s see her do it. Also, which of the sexist jerks that she works with are also racist jerks? We need all this information.

I’m keen to see the show follow up on Jarvis’ Jewish migrant wife, because their story is so interesting and it’s kind of weird the way we never see her. I want Anna to get to know Peggy, and I really want to see how she puts up with Howard. I like to think that in her spare time, she sponsors a mission specifically for finding good jobs, education and comfortable clothing for all of Howard’s discarded good-time-girls. We definitely need an episode where Jarvis is left at home with a broken leg, and Anna drives Peggy’s getaway car instead.

For all the things it could do better, and has yet to follow up on – I still LOVE AGENT CARTER SO MUCH. I’m sad that that the #saveagentcarter hashtag is apparently necessary because there are people in the world who are not watching this show like it’s made of chocolate-covered dolphins in adorable hats. I don’t want to even consider the possibility that we only get one season. There are so many angry lady spy stories in the post-war Marvel Universe still to be told!

Agent Carter Links (may contain spoilers):

Sleeps With Monsters: Agent Carter, I Think I’m in Love

Agent Carter: The Iron Ceiling

The Superficial Yet Satisfying Feminism of ‘Agent Carter’

“say it with me now. agent carter is failing on representation. not discussion.”

Galactic Suburbia 113 Show Notes

In which we’re back, baby, all cultured up from our summer holiday to tell you what’s good in books, shows, comics & more.

NEW EPISODE CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Thank our Patreons for the Alisa’s headphones which have greatly improved our sound quality!

Alisa is about to go to print on the Year’s Best YA.

Over the summer, as well as appearing on Galactic Suburbia’s sister-wife podcast Verity!, Tansy also guested on the Two Minute Time Lord talking about the Doctor Who Christmas special. Yes, Chip’s episodes are totally 2 minutes or less most of the time, but of course Tansy talked for longer than that, don’t be ridiculous! Tansy also wrote an article on Sex & Science Fiction over at Uncanny Magazine.

Alex has an exciting new announcement too, but you’ll have to listen to find out what it is. (cough, Tor.com, cough)

The Locus Recommended Reading List is out now, and features lots of Aussies.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Warehouse 13 Season 1; Twinmakers by Sean Williams; Crash by Sean Williams;

ODY-C #1 (Image); Federal Bureau of Physics Vol 1: The Paradigm Shift (Vertigo); Sex Criminals Vol 1 and Sex Criminals Issue 6 and 7; Julie Dillon’s Imagined Realms Book 1;Once Upon a Time Season 1 and 2; Serial

Tansy: The Fangirl Happy Hour podcast, Issue 1 reviews: Bitch Planet, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, SHIELD, Hawkeye, Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell, by Paul Dini; Agent Carter, Kameron Hurley on not quitting her dayjob.

Alex: Three Temeraire books, Naomi Novik; Haven season 4; The Female Factory, Lisa Hannett and Angela Slatter; Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch; A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge; Clariel, Garth Nix; Tam Lin, Pamela Dean. Abandoned: Orphans of Chaos and Hidden Empire;

ZEROES – New superhero YA book deal from Scott Westerfeld, Deborah Biancotti & Margo Lanagan – words do not describe how excited Galactic Suburbia is about this one!!!

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

ROBOTECH REWATCH 37: Prince Charming in a Red Bioroid

Robotech will be rewatched after these messages!

Dana follows correct military procedure for like two minutes in this episode, a personal best.

Episode 41 – Half Moon

Dana Sterling and Bowie Grant are on dirt bike patrol in a wasteland sector where no one has been for ages. I kind of love that whenever the 15th Squadron aren’t in their hover tanks, they are riding massive dirt bikes. Well, they call them hover bikes, but they don’t actually hover and kick up a bunch of dirt, so…

Dana spots that pesky red Bioroid that has been freaking her out in battle. A pretty human-looking boy with purple hair and a croaky voice steps out of it, and Dana suspects he is the leader of the whole Robotech Masters operation. Bowie scoffs at this.

Caught spying on the aliens, Dana and Bowie make a run for it and are pursued by hover tanks actively shooting at them. Bowie is captured and tries to be self-sacrificial, but Dana almost gets herself killed trying to get him back. It doesn’t work.

General Emerson is intrigued by Dana’s evidence about the Bioroid pilot, even if he doesn’t quite believe that the pretty boy is a human like Dana claims, but he refuses to let Dana mount a rescue mission for Bowie. He compliments her on following procedure on returning to base with the information. It must be the first time that Dana has actually done the correct military thing but don’t worry, she’s going to make up for that shortly!

Angelo Dante tries to give her a hard time for ditching the kid but Dana is too busy to let him bother her. She announce the whole squadron needs to “practice midnight manoeuvres”. For once, Angie is totally on board with her ridiculous plan. It’s almost like they’re getting the hang of each other.

Bowie is not having fun as a prisoner. He tries to challenge “Prince Charming” (the purple haired pop star Bioroid pilot) to a punch up, or possibly a dance off. Then he tries to escape his cell only to discover that his prison walls are electrocuted, so shoving a knife into them was a baaaad idea.

As night gives way to dawn, the 15th Squadron are still on the road. Angelo hints broadly that a debrief or maybe a plan would be super great, and Dana tells him to shut up because she’s still trying to come up with one.

Their brief moment of accord is sadly over.

Back in the office, Emerson is trying to come up with a plan of his own, and having about as much luck.

The show has, I’d like to point out, still not acknowledged that Dana and Bowie are Emerson’s foster kids, and that he basically raised them after their parents left the planet. It adds a certain amount of emotional resonance to the whole affair. I’m now wondering if this is ever a thing in the show or like Rick and Lisa’s booty calls, purely in the novelisations. I have a vague memory that Emerson being close to Bowie is cartoon canon, but him having that kind of paternal relationship with Dana is book-only. I guess we’ll find out!

Dana’s squadron camouflage themselves with leaves and wait to make their attack. Adorably, the boys start quoting poetry to pass the time. Dana is unimpressed by their impromptu Shakespeare festival. She has no soul.

“When do we attack, my proud beauty?”

“Undaunted, we advance, to serve the principles of freedom.”

“Forward, through shot and shell, into the mouth of hell.”

“Hey, stifle it! What do you think we’re on here, a manoeuver or a Shakespeare festival?”

Finally they make their move, drawing closer and attacking the Robotech base. Dana and Purple Haired Prince Charming gaze at each other a lot before leaping in to fight each other, Bioroid to Battloid.

Bowie finally wakes up from his electric shock, only to see Dana facing off against his jailor. I love that he always calls her Lieutenant, even though they are childhood friends. She, on the other hand, only calls him Private when she’s pissed off or teasing him.

Delighted to be reunited, they joke about Dana ending up in the blockade, and Bowie providing a character reference… for the prosecution. Truly they are the Lynda Day and Kenny of Robotech.

Emerson and the other top brass are shocked to learn about Dana’s secret mission. They use Nova Satori to let Dana know that the enemy are preparing for a second wave against Dana’s squadron but it’s okay because headquarters have sent her some reinforcements too. (really, is this within the job description of the military police?)

I wonder if we’re ever going to get an episode in which Dana doesn’t in some way go against formal orders… and get away with it? Because it seems like there are going to be no consequences for her taking off with the whole squadron, again.

As the smoke clears from the battle itself, a massive Robotech Masters motehrship rises from where it was half buried in the earth and takes off into space. The humans have won for now (or at least not lost), but it’s all pretty ominous – the Robotech Masters have powers that they ultimately can’t hope to match.

If I were Dana I’d be worrying about my romantic attraction to a bloke who is obviously an enemy to the entire human race, but I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually.

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, and especially to my paid patrons.

You can support Musketeer Space at Patreon.

Friday Links Are Hiding in Plain Sight

I love that people send me links to articles about Roman women turning out to be extraordinary! In this case, a scholar of Trajan’s Column is talking about the relevance of female figures on the relief sculpture, suggesting that women were more involved in military forts than previously thought.

Colleen McCullough, one of Australia’s bestselling authors, has died. Rather than link you to the meme that did the rounds after the shameful obituary that did the rounds, I’ll send you over to Hoyden About Town who wrote respectfully about McCullough’s life, work and attitude. She was basically awesome. And oh, thanks to those Masters of Rome books which I read at a critical point in my teens, she basically shaped my life.

Kameron Hurley has done that rare thing of publicly discussing her book advances, comparing them to actual day job income and also showing how her Hugo wins affected her financial bottom line: What I Get Paid For My Novels: Or, Why I’m Not Quitting My Day Job I also want to point writers (especially writers who have dayjobs) to her Life on 10,000 Words a Day: How I’m Hacking My Writing Process post, which shows that not all writing methods work for all writers, and one amazing writing day per week can be more effective than seven steady sensible days. I’m pretty sure Kameron’s current system would kill me, but I appreciated her showing it as an alternative to the accepted wisdom (ha) of ‘write every day’.

A lovely review of the first issue of Uncanny Magazine. Speaking of Uncanny, check out this piece on the history of cosplay in their new issue: The Future’s Been Here Since 1939: Female Fans, Cosplay, and Conventions by Erica McGillivray.

Myke Cole on being a man writing from a woman’s point of view and how sex changes everything.

Australia, We Need To Talk About Fairy Bread. My favourite thing about this article is how many commenters jumped in to correct the false idea that fairy bread is a substitute for birthday cake. Because that’s just crazysauce. But the rest of the article is basically true and if you never had fairy bread at your birthday parties then you totally missed out.

The big publishing announcement of the last fortnight is Zeroes, by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti. Obviously a Scott-and-Margo collaboration would in itself be exciting but for those of us who have been waiting for a Deb Biancotti novel for a long time, that’s the bit that is especially squeeful. DEBUT, BABY!

This lovely post shows (as do our dozens of comments every week) exactly why we do Verity! every week: because people genuinely need to listen to a bunch of women talking about Doctor Who on a regular basis. (I’m the identity and social analysis power ranger!)

Finally, it’s the 25th anniversary of Saved By the Bell. I make no apologies.

Kicking Holes in Reality with the Young Avengers (Vol. 2)

YOUNG AVENGERS VOL. 2

1 – Style > Substance

2 – Alternative Cultures

3 – Mic-drop at the Edge of Time and Space

I’m a bit of Young Avengers fangirl, or I thought I was – and despite collecting the trades of the Marvel Now relaunch of the series by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie when they were first released, I wanted to catch up on all the previous appearances of the gang before I got to the book that was already receiving so much buzz and acclaim.

So I taught myself How To Read the Young Avengers.

At the end of that journey, which took me several months of collecting, considering and critiquing, I inhaled all three trades of Vol. 2 of Young Avengers in a single afternoon like it was a bowl of ice-cream.

This actually worked really well, because Vol. 2 of Young Avengers isn’t so much a comic as it is a YA novel told over three illustrated editions (or 15 issues). It’s a single, epic story that completely reframes who the Young Avengers are and what they are about, with a plot that could only really be told about a teenage super team.

It’s funny, snarky, colourful and clever. Plus, hello teen diversity.

Only three of the previous team carry over as regulars in the story, which is a little disorienting – I was particularly surprised to see that Speed (Tommy Shepherd) barely featured in the story, as one of the most interesting relationships in the team is the uncomfortable alliance between him and his identical twin brother Wiccan (Billy Kaplan), who met for the first time when they were sixteen.

Even more surprising because it’s obvious the creative team really gets Tommy as a character – the single issue that did focus on him as well as introducing new character Prodigy (David Alleyne) was wonderful, delving into his personality and his speed powers through the writing as well as innovative visuals.

Perhaps I was extra irritated by this omission because new character Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr) was blond and always dressed in the same colour combinations as Tommy, but was about a tenth as interesting.

(I am being unfair, Noh-Varr is an entertaining character to have around, and I like that he makes fun of himself as well as the human preconceptions about aliens, but I see him largely as shirtless comic relief with a playlist rather than a protagonist with a rich internal life)

These are minor quibbles. Wiccan, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and Hulkling (Teddy Altman) are given plenty of good material to work with, and the other new characters Miss America and Kid Loki are fascinating additions to the gang. Patriot (Eli Bradley) seems to be gone for good, but his legacy remains with the team through a new mysterious figure wearing a costume a lot like his. Nice to see that the creative team brought in two new characters of colour after writing out one – and also that Miss America and Prodigy are both hugely different to Patriot as far as personality, powers and backgrounds go. (and whoa, America and Eli would hate each other so much, maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t make it back for this series)

Vol. 1 of Young Avengers often looked at the morally dubious idea of underage kids with superpowers setting themselves up as vigilantes, and the ethical discomfort that so many adults – the Avengers, the X-Men, reporter Jessica Jones and the all-important PARENTS – had with this team’s very existence. (Compare this to the Teen Titans who barely even mentioned the existence of their parents or parental figures except the one that was a scary demon) The new book sets up a major, intergalactic plot development which literally turns the parents (including um, the dead ones) of the Young Avengers into the main villains of the story, while magically insuring that no other adults can help them, or even notice that there is something wrong.

It’s the ultimate narrative extrapolation of ‘get the adults out of the way so the kids can have adventures’ with the added benefit that our kids have to literally leave the planet and go on an intergalactic, inter-dimensional road trip to deal with the problem. Also, the whole thing where Captain America, Scarlet Witch and the others keep solemnly handing the teens right over to the villains in the shape of their parents because it’s the right thing to do is both awful and hilarious at the same time.

In interviews, the creators of the series stated that the original Young Avengers is about 16, while this book is about being 18. This isn’t literally true (Kate, for example, is a hair’s breadth off turning 21) but definitely comes across in the content which explores themes such as sexual identity, informed consent, casual sex/serious relationships, gender fluidity and break ups along with the universe being in danger from Teddy’s inter-dimensional zombie mom, and Kid Loki’s murderous past. There are several bisexual or sexually questioning characters, which is pretty awesome to see in a story for an older teen audience, and in comics generally.

The art is fantastic and quite freaky at times, unafraid to be experimental in order to tell the story better and with greater style. I particularly love the panels showing the blank white dimension that remind me of something out of Yellow Submarine. The kids themselves are loveable and entertaining to spend time with, even when they are screwing up royally & treating each other like crap as only teenagers with massive cosmic powers, melodramatic back stories and breakfast food addictions really can.

But let me talk to you about America Chavez. Right from the start, she is positioned as a point of view character despite being something of a mystery to the readers as well as to her teammates.

Her only appearance in the Marvel universe previous to Young Avengers was in the Vengeance (2011) mini-series, which established “Miss America” as a Latina teenager with superpowers from another dimension. But it’s what isn’t known about her that is so tantalising through this story – America is cranky, sarcastic, violent and definitely a lone wolf. So why is she so determined to stick with this team of irritating kids, and what is her particular interest in Billy Kaplan? Loki certainly knows that Billy is America’s weak point, despite the fact that she has (apparently) never met any of them before.

And oh, watching Loki tease and attempt to manipulate America, only for her to regularly beat him up (he’s a god, he bounces) is deeply satisfying. Possibly that makes me a bad person.

I enjoy Jamie McKelvie’s visual portrayals of all the characters, but his art is never more exciting than when he is drawing America Chavez. She’s such a powerful figure, all muscular thighs and hips with attitude. Her anger, sarcasm and strength all shine out of her physical presence. It feels empowering to see a female superhero who fills the enforcer role, all brute strength with a protectiveness streak a mile long – though she has a sense of humour as well, and when America shifts into a playful mood with her new friends she is particularly arresting. You really believe that this woman can kick holes through reality with those big dumb combat boots of hers. (It’s not just about the art, she also gets all the best lines, but oh the art is magnificent)

America is a brilliant example of how you actually can present the story of a well-realised, interesting character without the reader knowing much about them. Every revelation of her powers and her past is unexpected and intriguing, from her two super-powered (and probably dead) mothers, to her ability to kick star-shaped holes through dimensions. She and Kate bounce beautifully off each other as complete opposites who get on each other’s nerves but like each other at the same time – and it’s pretty awesome to watch Kate finally realise that what is going on between them is a flirtation. Hardly surprising that these two are such a popular fanfic pairing! (“Princess, I’ve seen the way you look at me, you’re not that straight.”) It’s also a cute touch that America’s pre-Young Avengers relationship with a boy is dismissed here as “experimentation”.

This kind of reversal of common gender and sexuality tropes is a regular feature of the book. I particularly like the ongoing exploration of Billy’s dangerous reality-warping powers, which are so like those of his mother, the Scarlet Witch. Considering that the Marvel Universe and superhero comics in general have so many iconic narratives (Dark Phoenix, anyone?) about women who can’t be trusted with their out-of-control superpowers, it’s pretty great to see this story being told about a young man. Loki’s attempts to manipulate Billy and the people around him are one of the most compelling aspects of the story, especially because he’s so effective at it.

Billy’s depression at the end of The Children’s Crusade is not forgotten, which is so important, especially considering the pressures he is under in this story – which forces him into a corner where self-sacrifice seems like an obvious (and “easy”) option multiple times, until he is called on his suicidal tendencies by those who love him. Travelling through multiple dimensions takes on a deeply personal tinge as it reveals all kinds of horrible potential/inevitable futures for Billy and his crazy magical powers, and that’s enough to spike anyone’s mental health even without all the guilt and sorrow he’s dragging along with him. I’m glad this side of the story was handled sensitively, and that they were willing to portray how easily toxic teenage peers (hello again, Loki) can push kids into thinking there are genuinely no other options. A robust friendship group is your best defence against the world!

Poor Teddy is put through the ringer with all this too – first Billy’s attempts to bring back his boyfriend’s mother from the dead via dimensional travel leads to them all being attacked by evil versions of their parents (and Teddy is constantly reminded of his loss because the main antagonist wears his mother’s face), and then he is a victim of Loki’s mischief when the young Norse god whispers in his ear that maybe, just maybe, the amazingly perfect relationship that is Wiccan/Hulkling 4 Evah only happened in the first place because of those freaky dimension-warping powers that Billy doesn’t really know how to handle.

Oh, the angst. And to top it all off, Teddy’s general awesomeness (seriously, this boy is adorable) brings another love interest to the yard. Awkward! Still, it’s nice to know that the Billy/Teddy ship can take anything that horrid writers throw at it. ALWAYS AND FOREVER.

I actually really like the inclusion of Prodigy (David), a character I wasn’t aware of before this book. Yes, even though he’s one of many people who tries to come between our boys. He’s a former young X-Men/New Mutant who lost his powers on M-Day thanks to Billy and Tommy’s mother the Scarlet Witch (No More Mutants!) but is still dealing with the fallout, because his power was to absorb all the knowledge and skills of people he met, and while his power to absorb is gone, the knowledge and skills remained. He’s like the ultimate hacker, only all the hacking was done ahead of time, before the story even started.

The issue which introduces David via his friendship with Tommy, while they’re both trying to use their powers in office jobs, is one of my favourite of the run, because that whole ‘I got my first job and the workforce kind of sucks’ thing is also an essential late teen experience for many. It was a huge disappointment to me that we didn’t get to see more of this because Tommy is basically damsel’d for most of the story (though kudos, again, for going against gender type with the damseling). Still, David is useful (like Noh-Varr) for throwing a few difficult emotional curveballs at the main characters, and I though it was really interesting that they explored how his absorption of so many minds affected his sexual orientation. His sarcasm and smartass attitude helps undercut a lot of the melodrama and I think it’s appropriate that one of the big final moments of the epilogue belongs to him.

On the whole this is a great, thoroughly complete YA sci-fi road trip . It’s dark, funny, sexy, intelligent and chock full of breakfast food, flirting, melodrama and massive cosmic consequences. I want more, and I’m still sulking that Gillen and McKelvie decided to draw a line under the book where they did, even though it concludes in a thoroughly satisfying way – a spectacular action-packed climax featuring pretty much every teen character in the Marvel Universe, a proper epilogue and a massive afterparty with lots of making out and emotional resolution. What more could we want?

I don’t know what the future holds for the Young Avengers! I know that a few of the characters appear in the Original Sin anthology series, but I’m not overly impressed that they chose only the boys (Teddy, Noh-Varr and David) to play with, and the art looks horrible, so I might have to work up to that one.

The Marvel Universe itself is due for a major shake up with the rumoured reboot (aww no, universe) so it may be that we won’t properly see the kids again as a team until we’re on the other side of that.

But given that Stature (Cassie Lang) is back from the dead since the recent Axis storyline, there’s certainly the potential for a whole lot more in the way of Young Avengers feels, dramah and shenanigans. Hard to imagine their story getting any more epic than the Gillen/McKelvie run, though I hope very much that whoever takes up the team next is a little more enthusiastic about both of the Scarlet Witch’s sons…

If I get more America, Kate, (their fanfic shipping name is AmeriKate!) Billy and Teddy, Tommy, David and yes, even Noh-Varr and Loki (if we must) I will be a happy reader.

(and if the Marvel Cinematic Universe wants to get with the program and launch these kids in their own movies in a few years, I certainly won’t complain.)

Mostly I want more Miss America, and I never though that was a sentence I was going to have to type.

Musketeer Space Part 37: Concerning The Questionable Life Choices of Dana D’Artagnan

It’s Musketeer Day and also back to school day!

(now I’m imagining what Musketeer school would be like – omg imagine the Musketeer Breakfast Club, all grumpy because they were caught duelling in the halls, someone write me that)

As with last week, this one comes with a strong NSFW warning for those who are comfortable reading stories of Musketeers and spaceships at work, on the train etc., but less comfortable doing so when those characters start taking their clothes off.

Clothes are totally coming off!

Start reading Musketeer Space from Part 1

Missed the last installment? Track back to Part 36

Read a festive Musketeer Space prequel, “Seven Days of Joyeux.”

Main Page & Table of Contents

PREVIOUSLY IN MUSKETEER SPACE: Dana D’Artagnan has had a busy few months befriending Musketeers, training in space mecha, saving the Prince Consort from a terrible scandal, romancing a slightly married tailor (now kidnapped), drinking, duelling and generally getting into trouble. Meanwhile, aliens exploded half of the space station where she grew up and are hovering in Truth Space waiting for war.

Setting up a fake double romance with the mysterious political obsessive known as Milord De Winter might not be the worst thing Dana’s ever done… but that’s only because she doesn’t know the whole story yet.

NOW READ ON!

Chapter 37: Concerning The Questionable Life Choices of Dana D’Artagnan

For two days, “the Marquise de Wardes” did not reply to the bantering texts sent to her from Milord de Winter. Dana could not bring herself to put on that flirtatious persona like a coat, not when she knew for certain that Milord knew everything and considered her an enemy.

It had felt like a game until now. But now she knew that the only reason he had not attacked her outright was because, for some reason, the Cardinal wanted her to stay in one piece.

She felt sick to her stomach, not knowing where Conrad was. The mission with the diamonds was no longer a triumph, not with him lost because of it.

Meanwhile, the preparations for war continued. Aramis had fixed up the damage done to the Morningstar on their diamond mission, thanks to financial contributions from several of her former girlfriends who were obviously used to subsidising the military in this way.

A credit stud with a sarcastic message attached had even arrived from Madame (no longer Minister) Chevreuse, who was apparently working as a press secretary for the Daughters of Peace United Government. Aramis, relieved to know that Chevreuse was not living on Artemisia any more and so was a reasonably safe distance from the Siege of Truth, showed Dana the message. Dana could not help noticing that it mentioned nothing about the impending happy event that Chevreuse (and presumably, her husband) were expecting.

There was no tactful way to check if your friend knew her ex-girlfriend was heavily pregnant, and so Dana continued to say nothing on the topic.

“I suppose there are some benefits to staying friends with every woman you’ve ever slept with,” drawled Athos, who never explained how he had acquired his own war chest, despite outlaying more on the refurbishment of the Pistachio than it would have cost him to order a freshly printed ship.

“I only have affairs with patriotic women,” Aramis said loftily.

Porthos, meanwhile, preened over the brand new helm and harness that she turned up with one day, for Bonnie to install in the Hoyden. “A gift from Chef Coquenard,” she said, sounding pleased. “He felt a guilty about the whole leaving me stranded on Chantilly business.”

“You’re all so shameless,” Dana laughed.

Athos gave her a sharp look. “And your own flirtation with this dangerous politician you are running around with? You’re not using his credit to secretly outfit a ship, are you?”

“No!” said Dana, almost but not quite offended. “I’m after information, not profit.”

“Still,” said Porthos, giving the others a shifty look. “You might be down to pilot the troop transport for the Musketeers, but having a dart on hand for emergencies, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, would it?”

Dana was confused. “What are you talking about?”

“It was going to be a surprise,” said Athos, glaring at Porthos.

“Does that mean we can tell her now?” asked Aramis, bouncing on her heels.

There was no stopping them, after that. They called for Planchet and the other engineers to join them, and the whole gang dragged Dana across the yard to where a very familiar spaceship was docked and waiting for them.

It had been freshly painted, again, in exactly the same dreadful shade. Dana swayed on her feet, staring. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This was Papa’s old dart, the one he had so lovingly restored before sending her on her way to Paris.

(Nice ship. What do you call that colour?)

“We found her in the trading yard on Lunar Palais when we were hunting parts for the Pistachio,” said Planchet excitedly. “She was going to be broken down for scrap and molecules, and Bonnie thought there might be some useful parts, but then Grimaud said we’d probably be better off restoring her and selling her on, and we all figured out that maybe you could do with a ship…”

“You had one like this, didn’t you?” said Aramis, her eyes twinkling. It wasn’t like she, Athos and Porthos had not heard the story of Buttercup and Agent Ro a dozen or more times before. There was something about a third glass of wine that always brought Dana’s simmering resentment about the whole matter to the surface.

Dana had no idea what to say. It was all too much. Her hands shook.

“I have to go,” she said abruptly.

It was Athos who first realised there was something wrong, frowning at her. The others caught on fast.

“Dana, what is it?” Porthos asked.

Dana shook her head wildly. “It’s fine, it’s – I love it. It’s good. I just have to go.”

And before any of them could stop her, she turned and ran out of the engie dock.

Oh, Papa.

Her main thought was to get away, far away, because she couldn’t bear to break down and cry in front of any of them.

That was the other reason that she hadn’t been able to bring herself to play the Marquise de Wardes flirtation game for the last two days. A few hours after she had left Kitty and the Matagot, her thoughts churning, Dana had received a curt, too-brief call from one of her sisters. That was followed by a longer, but still emotionally restrained call from her Mama.

It seemed impossible in this day and age, that anyone could receive injuries that were not immediately reparable by medi-patch. But the power outages and regular equipment failures on Gascon Station had taken their toll, in the hospices most of all.

The death toll from the Sun-kissed attack kept rising, every day, without a further shot being fired. And Dana’s Papa had not been a young man. Half his skin had been regrafted a generation ago, before his retirement as a Musketeer engie. This time around, he had not been so lucky.

An aneurism, in the end. He had gone fast, though after weeks of pain management it didn’t feel especially merciful that it was quick.

Two days since she learned he was gone, and Dana had not cried. It had never worked for her, crying. Hitting things was easier, but finding casual sparring partners was difficult with her friends all wrapped up in the preparation of their ships.

She couldn’t tell them the truth, not yet. She had felt swamped enough by their kindness on the journey back from Valour, after the attacks on Gascon and the Regent’s declaration. More kindness at this point would grind her entirely into the dirt.

So Dana paced and she chattered and she made herself useful, and until her friends gave her the ridiculous, generous, beautiful gift of her Buttercup, she had managed to hide her grief even from herself.

She had to do something.

Not crying, not fencing. What was left?

Dana walked on, with no clear idea where she was going, except away from her friends, and anyone else who might show her kindness. She walked the streets of Paris Satellite, her head full of war and anger and frustration and explosions and skin grafts and…

She had not been there. She was not sure if she could ever forgive herself for not going home the second she heard that Papa had been injured. And yet, she had always meant to leave them, to escape the limited options at home. She had spent her entire teen years planning and working and learning to fly like a demon, with a single goal in mind. To come to Paris Satellite, and be a Musketeer.

If she had the helm of the Buttercup again, she still wouldn’t be a Musketeer. It might feel close to it, some days, but the truth was she had got here months ago, she had reached the mythical city far from home, and she was a washout. That was what she had left her family for. A failed, unreachable dream.

By the time Dana was on her second circuit of the Stellar Concourse, her anger had turned outward again. She wasn’t only furious with herself, she was furious with the solar system, with the unfairness of it all.

Her Mama had flown hundreds combat missions. How was it that Dana’s sweet, harmless engie Papa was the one to be killed in an act of war?

Without even realising she was doing it, Dana found herself heading towards the Luxembourg. But that was ridiculous. The last thing she needed was church – she had never been more likely to punch out a member of the clergy as she was today.

What she needed was a duel, and she wasn’t likely to get one at the Luxembourg without picking a fight first.

A fight, now there was an idea. Never mind swords and duels. Dana wanted to get her knuckles bloody. She wanted to headbutt someone in the face, and know they had deserved it almost as much as she did.

Not a friendly bout. She needed a brawl.

She swung around, away from the Luxembourg. Which bars had the highest number of irritable Red Guards? Athos probably kept a list somewhere on his person. She could call or text him on the comms, but that would involve talking, and he’d probably want to know why she was so upset… oh, wait, what was she thinking? It was Athos.

Dana stopped in the middle of a busy thoroughfare and sent Athos a text via comm stud, her fingers tapping the virtual keyboard on her arm.

Name three bars where I’m all but guaranteed a fist fight with a Red Guard or twelve.

There was barely even a pause before she received the following:

The Crimson Duck

Santa Antonia’s

The Bastille

Want company?

Not yet I’ll let you know, she sent back, and kept walking.

The Bastille was the only one of the three that she knew by sight, because it was the closest bar to the Armoury, and not especially far from Madame Su’s. At least she wouldn’t have too far to crawl home.

Dana strode in and went straight to the bar to order a drink. The room was full of red uniforms, and the back of her neck prickled in a promising way.

Sure enough, she hadn’t even got to order before she heard the words “Hey isn’t she that wannabe Musketeer who runs around with those three assholes?”

Dana gave a savage grin. Perfect.

“Dana?” His voice sounded far away. “Is that you?”

She opened her eyes, and regretted it. She was – in a corridor, curled against a white, blood-stained wall near a drainage vent, the closest thing to a gutter you could find on Paris Satellite. She closed her eyes again, moaning. Her face hurt. All of her head. And her ribs. And…

An arm reached around her waist, steady and reassuring. “Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

Her thoughts were jumbled and she wanted to throw up again, but there was something warm about the voice, something she trusted. “Okay,” she whispered, and it came out more like “Urgh.”

Steady arms drew her to her feet, and pain stabbed hard into her chest.

“Bleeding,” she choked.

“Actually,” said the warm and reassuring voice. “I don’t think that’s your blood.”

“Some of it is.”

Her saviour’s hand jarred against her thigh and the burst of pain sent blackness spiralling through her vision again. She dropped.

Dana dreamed of the Buttercup, of her father’s hands as he restored the old spacebucket from the inside out.

“Papa, yellow, really?” she complained.

“It’s a good colour, chicken. You’ll never mistake it for anyone else’s dart in a lineup. Also, I got it cheap and your Mama says I can’t use it in the kitchen.”

Dana dreamed of Conrad, of the look on his face when they made out on the couch in the Prince Consort’s room, and the odd sort of smile in his eyes when he realised she had arranged for espionage pastries as a distraction technique.

“This isn’t a seduction,” she snapped at him.

He shoved her. “Good, because you’re terrible at it!”

She dreamed of Rosnay Cho, who watched Dana through dark, sympathetic eyes. “If Milord has your boyfriend,” she said with surprising warmth. “I’m sorry, buttercup, but you’re not getting him back.”

Dana awoke, choking on air for a moment. She tasted blood in her mouth and then the pain flowed through her one jagged wave at a time. She took stock. Knuckles. Ribs. Face – jaw, especially. Nose, oh hell. She had lived nearly twenty one years without getting her nose broken, and here she was, thoroughly smashed up.

“Ugh,” she managed.

“That sounds about right,” said the voice she had followed, the one that had tapped directly into the part of her that responded to trust and reassurance. Her rescuer.

Dana’s eyes flew open. Holy hell in a handbasket. She found herself staring directly into the amused face of Milord Vaniel De Winter.

She took stock of her surroundings. Not the Matagot, she rather thought. The walls were too flat and straight – even the most decadently decorated rooms in that frivolous spaceship of his had curved lines somewhere. A hotel room? Dana was stretched out on a beautiful but not entirely comfortable sofa, while Milord had pulled up a chair near her. A tablet lay discarded on the coffee table within reach – had he been working while he waited for her to wake up?

That was either comforting or really creepy. She couldn’t figure out which until she was a lot more awake.

“Now you’re alert, perhaps we can see about medi-patches?” Milord suggested mildly. “I wasn’t sure what the priority was, once I fixed up the knife wound in your leg.”

“Face,” Dana muttered. “Ugh.”

“I didn’t like to assume.” He looked briefly hesitant, which seemed out of character. “There is a hospice on this block, perhaps I should have taken you there.”

“No,” she said, so quickly it made her head spin. “I’m fine, just – medi-patches?”

“In the bathroom. Do you need help?”

She frowned at her legs. There appeared to be nothing wrong with them, and the one with a medi-patch already glowing at her through the rip in her cargo pants actually felt better than it had in ages. Still, they weren’t responding as quickly as she would like. “To my feet. I can take it from there.”

Milord’s hands were warm in hers as he drew her up, and she resisted the urge to fold herself against his chest. It looked warm and inviting, but that might be the concussion talking.

The bathroom made it very clear that yes, she was in an extremely expensive hotel: The Antoine according to the dozens of tiny soaps and lotions with matching packaging.

Several medi-patches had been laid out for her near the sink, along with gauze and tape. Dana worked on her face first, placing the medi-patch along the underside of her jaw and breathing in and out as it had an immediate anaesthetic effect. She placed an urgent patch over her nose and yelled out as it set hard.

There was a knock at the door. “You all right?”

“Nose,” she managed, halfway between a grunt and a wail. “I’m fine.”

She didn’t do anything to the ribs or the hands. They were bruised, not broken, and the dull pain in both of them grounded her. There wasn’t a lot of point in throwing yourself into a brawl if you made all the marks go away instantly.

Dana picked up a sonic spray, slowly cleaning blood from her skin, until her face felt closer to human. She removed the medi-patch from her nose, leaving the one on her jaw because it was sending all kinds of good endorphins into her bloodstream.

A little dizzy, but in a pleasant way, she stepped out of the bathroom. Milord passed her a glass of what turned out to be cognac, and she took a sip, enjoying the heat of it in her mouth. “Thanks for the rescue.”

“Not exactly that,” he said, his voice thrumming with what had to be false concern. “I found you lying in a corridor, some distance from what I heard was an epic bar fight. You rescued yourself long before I happened along.”

“Well,” Dana said with a smile that didn’t hurt nearly as much as it might have five minutes ago, when her nose was still broken. “Thanks for scraping me off the floor, then.”

Milord leaned in, his glass grazing against her own with a quiet clink. “You’re not at all what I thought you were, when we met on that train.”

She wanted to laugh. Thanks to Kitty, sheknew how much he despised her, but he was good – so very good at this. He saw the opportunity for a seduction and here he was, playing that card in the hopes of what, drawing her further into his web?

And here was Dana, feeling self-destructive.

“Vaniel,” she said in a low, husky voice, drawing her glass back to taste more of the cognac.

Her enemy gazed back at her. In this light, his grey eyes seemed almost silver. “Dana,” he said, making her name a caress.

“Let’s stop pretending.” And she reached up, her hand grabbing the back of his collar, pulling him down to her.

His mouth found hers, and he still thought he was the seducer in this scenario, so he kissed her slow and sweetly, like a dance. That wasn’t what Dana wanted at all, and she told him that through nips and bites, increasing the pressure.

Milord’s hand brushed against a bruise she hadn’t even known that she wore on her hip, and she gasped into his mouth, taking him deeper.

They didn’t make it to the bedroom, the first time. She backed him against an antique desk, and he lifted her up on it, so as to more easily strip her of shirt and the soft sports bra she wore underneath. He licked his way down her ribs, tracing the darker patches of bruised skin with his tongue, and Dana sank her fingers into his hair, pulling hard.

His clothes came off far more elegantly than hers did, and she took the opportunity to shed her boots and blood-stained cargo pants. After only a moment’s hesitation, she shed her knickers as well, because it wasn’t like they were being romantic here.

“Implant?” he breathed into her mouth when he came back for another kiss.

Dana nodded and showed him the small medical tattoo on her unbruised hip. “You?”

Milord drew her hand forward to wrap around the base of his cock, which felt heavy in her hand. She found the barrier stud nestled there, against his pelvis, and scratched a nail thoughtfully across it. “Well then.”

They kissed again, mouths knocking roughly together. The journey they eventually made, from the edge of the desk to the bedroom at the far end of the suite, caused the following damage: one broken chair, a stubbed toe (hers), a bruised elbow (his), and a smashed lamp. It was a worthy sacrifice.

You have been reading Musketeer Space, by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Tune in next week for another chapter! Please comment, share and link. Musketeer Space is free to read, but if you’d like to support the project for as little as $1 per month, please visit my Patreon page. Pledges can earn rewards such as ebooks, extra content, dedications and the naming of spaceships. Milestones already unlocked include the Musketeer Media Monday posts, the Robotech Rewatch posts, and “Seven Days of Joyeux,” a special Christmas prequel novella which was released in December 2015. My next funding milestone ($300 a month) will unlock GORGEOUS COVER ART.

What I did in December/January

And the lesson I learned from putting these links together is that if I want to keep up this particular tradition, I can’t skip months!

Musketeer Space Updates:

29: The Husband of Athos

30: In the Cellar of the Gilded Lily

31: Musketeers at War

The Seven Days of Joyeux – a festive prequel novella in 7 parts.

32: Chasing Spaceships

33: The Hotel Coquenard Deluxe Bathroom Experience

34: The New Aristocrats

35: Is it Love or Just Paris?

36: Sexting the Enemy

Robotech Rewatch Updates:

28: Love is a Weapon

29: Azonia is a Sex Kitten Now

30: Dating Tips for the Apocalypse

31: Christmas is Sadness and Snow

32: It’s the End But the Moment Has Been Prepared For

33: Team Hovertank!

34: Death by Ditzy Teenager

35: Field Promotion is for Girls

36: Ground Troops in Outer Space

Musketeer Media Monday:

Musketeers in Technicolor (1948)

I can’t take my eyes off the costumes. Why are there no Musketeer conventions? This film needs to be cosplayed the hell out of. Oh, the swashing and the buckling and the leaping and the footwork in floppy boots.

Musketeer on Mars (2008 & 2012)

What follows is a surreal and weirdly gentle tale that mashes up Flash Gordon and The Princess of Mars, with other retro sci-fi elements thrown in for good measure.

Uncanny Magazine: “Does Sex Make Science Fiction Soft?”

How much kissing and flirting can a story take before it doesn’t deserve to be called science fiction any more?

Yes, that was a trick question.

Cora Buhlert responds to my Uncanny article: Of Hard SF & Messy Emotions

The brand new Fangirl Happy Hour podcast discusses both of our articles – Episode 2, Tales of Love and Romance.

Issue #1 Reviews:

Thor #1 (2014)

Spider-Woman #1 (2014)

All-New Captain America #1 (2014)

Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #1 (2014)

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (2014)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (2015)

Bitch Planet #1 (2014)

Secret Six #1

How to Read the Young Avengers:

So I embarked on a recent quest to go through the proper reading order of the Young Avengers, in preparation for reading the recent (and now-complete) Marvel Now relaunch of the series.

Galactic Suburbia:

Episode 112: 3 Dec 2014

In which we help you with your (possibly last minute) Christmas shopping with a ton of our favourite recommendations from the year, plus culture consumed.

Verity! Podcast:

Episode 63 – Tetchy Antagonistic Rascally Devious Intractable Spaceship

Episode 65 – I’m Dreaming of a Last Christmas

Episode 66 – Companions Who Never Were

Extra! In Defence of…

Two Minute Time Lord 368: The Last “Last Christmas” Panel (Time Dilation)

It’s still Christmas, darn it! And the Doctor Who series isn’t over yet! At least that’s what I’m trying to convince myself, by inviting National Public Radio’s Petra Mayer and Doctor Who: Verity!’s Tansy Rayner Roberts over to 2MTL to talk one last time about Last Christmas, Steven Moffat and Clara Oswald.

Servant of the Empire Reread on Tor.com:

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Aqueduct Press: the Pleasures of Reading, Viewing & Listening

Every now and then, our family finds a show that the adults genuinely love as much as the children (two girls, 5 and nearly-10) and we watch the hell out of it until we can’t squeeze it dry any longer. Past examples of this have been Horrible Histories, Yonderland and Futurama. This year, it’s Phineas and Ferb.

Check out my Patreon page to support the Musketeer Space project and my blog.

ROBOTECH REWATCH 36: Ground Troops in Outer Space

Robotech will be rewatched after these messages!

Always read the fine print before you volunteer for a mission outside your speciality…



40. Volunteers

United Earth Command has lost contact with Space Station Liberty, thanks to the attack by the Robotech Masters who have invaded their space. General Rolf Emerson asked for volunteers for a task force to reconnect communications but has received none except Marie Crystal and her flight team. Dana promptly volunteers her whole squad. No one mentions the fact that they are ground troops.

When she comes to the break room to announce the exciting new mission to the squad, they are pretty surprised. Dana says she will only need Sgt Angelo Dante and Private Bowie Grant for now with the others waiting around to be reinforcements. Angelo is less than impressed, going off on another one of his ‘this girl makes no sense to me’ rants. Aww, Angie.

The top brass (who I can’t help but refer to as the grown ups because Dana and her lot are quite obviously CHILDREN) discuss the team amongst themselves, admitting that both Marie and Dana are incredibly young for command. General Emerson passes this off on the grounds that “Sterling is a tactical genius and Crystal’s attitude is extremely positive.”

High praise indeed.

The next morning, Bowie comes to Dana in a panic to announce that their hovertanks are missing. She comes to investigate and other team members like Sean and Louis share their confusion. They suspect Angelo might have stolen them to screw with them because he’s not happy with the mission (Trust issues much?), but when Dana gets a call from Angelo asking why they’re not at the shuttle already she discovers that the hovertanks have been loaded on to the shuttle.

Dana is cranky at not being kept informed, and she and Bowie end up being late to the mission. Not one to show it when she’s caught off guard, she ends up acting extra nonchalant and bratty, squabbling with Marie Crystal and then trying to read a fashion magazine as they have lift-off into orbit along with a second shuttle captained by Lieutenant Borgnine.

The pressure is a bit of a surprise to Dana, who hasn’t spent a lot of time in space, and she doesn’t get much reading done! Marie laughs at her.

Shuttle 2 suffers a malfunction during the ascent, and ends up crashing and burning. Dana is so shocked at the death of Borgnine and the others that she freezes and can’t take command as she is supposed to.

She freaks out that it was a mistake to come, because she is so inexperienced in space and can’t handle it.

Marie Crystal takes over command and gives orders when they are attacked by the Robotech Masters, but when Dana can’t even break out of her panic fugue to even work her gun, Marie comes over and slaps some sense into her.

Down on Earth, Sean, Louis and Nova join the grown ups who are trying to monitor the operation but struggling because Marie and Dana’s shuttle is so close to the Robotech Masters vessel.

Then there’s lots of shooty explodey goodness (I think this series has a much higher battle to banter ratio). Marie goes outside the shuttle in her Robotech armour – a Veritech, perhaps? To engage the enemy directly while Dana tries to get a message through to the Space Station.

Marie comes under fire from a particularly red Bioroid, the same one that Dana fought down on the surface a few episodes ago, and is out of her depth.

Dana is almost relieved at the sight of the red Bioroid – she has no idea why she has such a strong fear-panic response to him, but she can now blame her combat-freeze on his proximity instead of her own psyche and that gives her confidence.

She goes out in her own hovertank to save Marie and the two of them are victorious in fighting off the troops of the Robotech Masters. Communications are re-established and the shuttle crew goes back to Earth flushed with victory.

But I’m pretty sure they haven’t seen the last of that red Bioroid…

This weekly rewatch of classic animated space opera Robotech is brought to you as bonus content for the Musketeer Space project.

Thanks to everyone who has linked, commented, and especially to my paid patrons.

You can support Musketeer Space at Patreon.

Musketeer Space 36: Sexting the Enemy

Musketeeeeeer Day.

This time next week, my youngest daughter is starting full time school. For the record, my answer to the near constant refrain of ‘What will you do with your time?” is “write Musketeer hijinks in outer space.”

We’re heading into a slightly NSFW batch of chapters starting this week. I kind of assumed everyone knew Musketeer Space wasn’t all that Safe For Work anyway because the language has never been especially mild, but for those of you who don’t want to be caught reading sexytimes on their computer, just to let you know, there’s some coming up.

Start reading Musketeer Space from Part 1

Missed the last installment? Track back to Part 35

Read a festive Musketeer Space prequel, “Seven Days of Joyeux.”

Main Page & Table of Contents

PREVIOUSLY IN MUSKETEER SPACE: Dana D’Artagnan is pretty sure that Milord kidnapped her squeeze Conrad, and her hottest lead is the clamshell tablet that Milord gave to his political crush, the Marquise De Wardes, and the Marquise promptly regifted to Dana. Also the Musketeers live in space and they’re about to ship out to war any day now, but Dana is too busy trying to seduce Milord via text message to worry about all that.

NOW READ ON.

This chapter is dedicated to new Patreon sponsor Jay Watson. Thanks for much for supporting Musketeer Space!

Chapter 36: Sexting the Enemy

“They look like teardrops,” Planchet observed at one point.

“Nothing so innocent,” Athos replied darkly.

No matter where you went on Paris Satellite, the vid-feeds were there to remind you about the Siege of Truth Space.

The Sun-kissed ships were grey-silver streaks of metal – teardrops was a poetic enough description for the shape of them, if it wasn’t for the implied lethal force within their shells. The first wave of Cardinal’s Sabres and Royal Musketeers had reached Truth Space already, positioning themselves around and between the silent Sun-kissed fleet.

No shots had been fired. No diplomatic exchange had been made. And, to the extreme frustration of those Sabres and Musketeers left out of the first wave, there was no word yet as to when reinforcements would be called to the front.

“The first war with the Sun-kissed started when we broke ranks and shot first,” Porthos said. “I’m not surprised that the Regent is holding back, this time around.”

“She can’t seriously think we can make peace with those monsters,” Athos replied with a chill to his voice.

“But wouldn’t it be nice if we could?” Aramis sighed.

Dana had heard similar conversations among her friends every day for the last week, and they were still no closer to being sent to the front than she had been at Bee’s party on the Matagot.

What she was doing, as they all awaited further orders, was dating Vaniel De Winter.

This had not been Dana’s plan. One dinner, she had thought, with perhaps drinks and dancing afterwards. Getting close to him made a lot of sense, because he did not know she had any particular interest in Conrad Su, and she needed to know if he was the one responsible for the kidnapping.

Also, it took her mind off the whole going to war thing, not to mention the awkward, unsatisfying subspace communications she had managed to exchange with her family on the beleaguered Gascon Station.

But somehow, one dinner had turned into another, and another. The location was always the same as wherever the Marquise de Wardes was dining, with friends or political allies or on one occasion a very attractive and muscular young man whose dinner suit had no sleeves.

If it wasn’t mildly terrifying, it would have been hilarious, because while Dana flirted awkwardly with Milord at these dinners, she also flirted with far greater enthusiasm with him via clamshell, still pretending to be the Marquise.

Luckily for her, he seemed to enjoy the game so much that he had not actually tried to speak with the Marquise in person again. Instead, he made conversation with Dana at the restaurant, coldly “ignored” the Marquise (who needed no prompting to likewise ignore him) and then spent hours afterwards typing flirtatious banter at the woman he believed to be her.

Did this mean that Dana was dating Milord twice over? She had an awful feeling that she was. It was exhausting, to be honest, but it was exhilarating as well, to have a secret like this and to be skirting the edge of danger so closely.

He was dangerous. She had to keep reminding herself that he was dangerous, because he was also clever and witty and occasionally so awkward that it made her want to mock him, and then kiss him, or possibly both at the same time.

Thanks to Athos and Grimaud’s exciting project of ‘let’s build a ship from random parts because life isn’t difficult enough’, Dana and the others now spent a lot of their downtime either scavenging the junk field and the shipyards, or hanging out in the maintenance workshop where the Pistachio was taking her final shape.

When asked, they referred to it as ‘helping.’

Today, Dana lay full length on a welding bench, pretending to be someone else while flirting via text message. So basically acting like she was fifteen.

She had quite enjoyed replying to:

What are you wearing?

with:

A welding mask and steel capped boots.

Though it had required quite a lot of explaining afterwards as to why the Marquise de Wardes might possibly have worn such an outfit. It was amazing how far the phrase ‘diplomatic tour of the city’ got you.

Dana had teased him with:

A fashion thing, you wouldn’t understand

before providing a genuine explanation, and then shifting into a far more enticing description of lingerie and where exactly she would like him to put his hands someday.

“You sexting your boyfriend again?” Porthos asked. Like Dana, she was “helping” the finishing work on Athos’ new ship by staying well away from the newly painted hull or any of the other essential jobs. Everyone knew that Porthos was prepared to accidentally break things in order to not be asked to perform certain tasks, and so Athos had not even tried.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” said Dana, barely looking up from the clamshell where the virtual flirting had definitely segued into something about five minutes away from cybersex. “I have a mission.”

“Still not entirely sure how you’re planning to rescue one fellow by hooking up with another,” said Athos, climbing out of the Pistachio specifically to move Porthos slightly further away from the tail fin of his new ship, which was about to have a new tattoo printed on to it by sonic wave. “Is it a ‘kids today’ situation?”

“Everything involving dating ever is a ‘kids today’ situation for you, Athos,” said Aramis, who had taken charge of the sonic wave, programming in the design for the spray. “No one wants your romantic advice.”

“I give excellent romantic advice,” said Athos, sounding genuinely hurt.

“All you ever tell me is that love is for idiots, pretty people aren’t to be trusted, and I should stop flirting with obvious villains,” volunteered Dana.

Athos tilted his head slightly at her. “Those are extremely wise words which all sound like things I might have said. What’s your point?”

“So this is fun,” said Dana, ignoring his question. “But it’s late enough in the day that we’re probably not going to be called out to the Siege of Truth Space, and I have a date tonight.”

“Wear something pretty,” advised Porthos.

“Dance like it’s your last night on Earth,” said Aramis.

“Don’t sleep with a man just because you think he might have kidnapped your boyfriend,” muttered Athos.

“I’m going to take your recommendations under consideration!” Dana said loudly, and left before they could say anything else.

The part Dana had not shared with them was that tonight’s date was not technically with Milord De Winter.

Actually it wasn’t at all with Milord De Winter.

Dana had been visiting the Matagot a lot this week, meeting with Vaniel before their dinner dates, as well as occasionally taking tea with Bee and her appalling New Aristocrat friends. Every visit, every excuse, was for a single purpose: continuing the illusion that Dana D’Artagnan had an innocent but genuine crush on the Valour Minister of the Interior.

And every time she stepped on board the ship, there was Kitty Columbina.

This was the part that Dana felt slightly bad about, but only slightly, because Kitty did after all work for someone who might possibly be a criminal mastermind.

But Kitty liked to flirt with Dana, quite a lot. And Dana had been flirting back.

So this evening, with Milord and his sister-in-law off at some Palace shindig (which did not, thank goodness, include the Marquise de Wardes as an invited guest, otherwise the jig would almost certainly be up), Dana visited the Matagot specifically to spend time with Kitty alone.

Kitty was oddly fascinating. She wass bubbly and warm and sarcastic, all qualities that Dana rather enjoyed. Tonight, she was wearing earrings shaped like strawberries, and a mini dress with flying ponies printed on it.

She also apparently hated her boss.

It wasn’t obvious at first, not with all the smiling and the banter and the public politeness. But Dana had discovered by process of elimination that the best way to make Kitty smile was to say something disparaging or sarcastic or downright mean about Milord De Winter.

This was useful, it had to be useful, but Dana didn’t really want to think about useful right this second, because that was going to make her feel really bad about the fact that she was kissing her way down Kitty’s neck, and making her giggle with the teasing trace of her fingertips.

If she was a good person, then she wouldn’t have planned to kiss Kitty at all. It would have been an accident when their friendly flirtation shifted into this, the slide of soft mouths together, and the shivery feeling of leaning so far into another person that you could share each other’s heat.

Dana D’Artagnan was not a good person. She was a Musketeer in her heart, and that didn’t always mean good. She has a job to do, and a man to rescue if it was still possible. She had rescued a lot of people one way or another, since setting foot on Paris Satellite. Why couldn’t she rescue Conrad Su, one last time?

Except for the inconvenient fact that she was going to be summoned to battle any day now. Dana was running out of time, and the fastest way to figure out what Milord is hiding might well be found in Kitty’s knickers.

An assistant who hated her boss was useful, it had a lot of potential. Dana needed to earn her trust fast, and this, she had convinced herself, was the best way to do it.

It didn’t hurt that Kitty was really, really good at kissing. She arched back against her desk, scattering tiny plush animals in all directions. “What was that you were saying before we got distracted?” she laughed.

Dana leaned in, kissing her nose and then her cheek, their eyelashes fluttering together. “I forget. I like your office.”

“Milord’s is nicer,” breaths Kitty, one hand squeezing Dana’s upper arm. “Wow, you’re strong. All those muscles.”

“I work out. Why is his office nicer?”

“Because he’s the boss, and he has more money than anyone needs, and he has a really nice couch.”

Dana grinned wickedly at that. “A couch, you say?”

Kitty squealed as Dana picked her up, and carried her into the office, which was conveniently unlocked. Because you know what? If she was going to fail at this mission, if there was a chance maybe she wouldn’t find Conrad, or he wass dead already, and it’s all Milord’s fault…

Then frankly, eating out a hot girl on the bastard’s couch was the least she could do.

“KITTY!” called a voice from the outer office some time later. Dana and Kitty stared at each other in dishevelled shock.

“He’s back early!” Kitty gasped.

They weren’t entirely naked, but there are several items of clothing that had to be reclaimed or adjusted before Kitty looked even slightly respectable, and even then, there was a wildness about her hair and a sleepy well-fucked expression on her face that wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Hopefully Milord wasn’t observant about these things.

“I’ll keep him out there,” Kitty whispered, straightening her clothes one last time, while Dana sacrificed all dignity to hide behind the couch, pulling her boots on as she did so. On impulse, she reached up and gave Kitty a last heated kiss, just to make her blush.

“What the hell are you doing in there?” snapped Milord, sounding irritable as Kitty burst through the doorway.

“Sorting out those meeting notes for tomorrow, like you asked me to, even though I haven’t had a night off in three weeks and some of us don’t get invited to gallivant around Palaces, eating caviar sandwiches and goosing Duchesses or whatever.” Kitty managed to sound bored, sarcastic and casual all at once. Dana wanted to applaud her.

“It’s not as much fun as it sounds,” said Milord, sounding amused. Obviously he enjoyed a little lack of respect in his employees. It was one of many odd facts that Dana had to mentally file about him.

“Whatever. Next time, bring me back a plate of gold-plated cupcakes.” There was a sound as Kitty smacked him in the chest with a tablet. “Here, all the prep work is done. You’re welcome. Get an early night or go chase after one of your smart ladyfriends. I’m going to watch the holo-soaps in your office, because you’ve got the biggest wall screen.”

“It’s your respectful attitude, Kitty, that’s what I appreciate most about you,” Milord drawled.

“Oh, sorry. I’m going to take full advantage of your giant wall screen, if that’s okay with you, SIR.” There was a pause, as Milord looked over the work Kitty had handed him. “No hot date tonight?” she asked archly.

“Not for me,” said Milord. “I did bump into the Marquise de Wardes at the Palace dinner -”

Dana held her breath, wondering if the two had spoken to each other and figured out what had happened with the stray clamshell.

“Oh, your adorable political crush,” Kitty laughed. “The way you mix work and pleasure is so messed up, it’s almost artistic.”

“I live for your amusement.”

“Did she swoon into your arms after all that sexting?”

“No, she pretended not to know me. It’s a very special connection that we have. These notes are adequate, thank you.”

“A compliment? I may swoon. You must be in a good mood. If it’s not the Marquise de Wardes putting that smile on your face, what is it?”

“Let’s just say, the Cardinal and I have come to an understanding.”

Kitty gave a squawk at that. “You’re not sleeping with her, are you?”

“Mind out of the gutter!”

“Just saying, she’s a bit old, and I wouldn’t have thought she was your type. Then again, I wouldn’t have thought Little Ms D’Artagnan was your type either, and you’ve been wining and dining her all week.”

Dana froze at the mention of her name. What was Kitty up to? Was this a trap?

“You’re such a gossip,” said Milord, sounding almost fond.

“There isn’t a lot else to do around here since I have to work the same stupid hours as my boss and that means I don’t get a life…”

“You know perfectly well that I’m not romancing D’Artagnan for the fun of it.”

“I guessed as much,” said Kitty, with half a yawn as if this wasn’t massively important information. “Keeping an eye on her for the Cardinal, then?”

“I’d rather have her within line of sight if she’s going to pull another stunt like that business with the diamond studs, yes.”

Dana almost stopped breathing. Milord knew? He knew she was the one who had foiled the plot with the diamonds. Did that mean that the Cardinal knew too? How much trouble was she in here?

“Her Eminence wants that mess hushed up, doesn’t she?” chimed in Kitty now. “So embarrassing for her.”

“For all of us,” Milord said sharply. “Believe me, if it wasn’t for the Cardinal insisting we not move against her, I would have had my revenge against that ridiculous D’Artagnan child already.”

“And instead you’re dating her.” Kitty laughed, utterly relaxed. Dana had never heard anyone lie so comfortably – it was impressive and kind of scary.

“There are many ways to enact vengeance,” said Milord. “The Cardinal needed me to take the Su tailor out of the equation – and if that works as a punishment for D’Artagnan as well, that’s a bonus.”

Rage burned through Dana. She wanted to burst through the doors and punch Milord in the face. But Kitty had given her this gift, and she did not want to waste it. So she waited and listened, anger settling cool and deep in her stomach.

“Go to bed, sir,” Kitty said now, all brisk like a meditech. “Go on, get out of here. I bet you haven’t slept in days, stupid man.”

“There’s that respect again, Kitty. It shines out of your pores like sunshine and rainbows.”

“I want to watch my stories, and I don’t want to have to peel you out of bed in the morning on no sleep. You don’t pay me enough for that. Speaking of which -”

“No, Kitty, no pay raise,” Milord said, and he did actually sound tired. “It’s all going to be worth it, you’ll see.”

“Yes, yes, nefarious plots, we love it when a plan comes together, whatever. Go away and be unconscious for a while.”

There was a shuffling sound, then a doors opening and closing. Dana stretched her legs out, leaning against the wall of Milord’s office.

Finally Kitty came back in, raising an eyebrow. “That’s the sort of thing you were after, I suppose.” She was all business now.

Dana stood up, feeling awkward and grateful. “Kitty, I don’t know what to say.”

The assistant frowned at her. “People always think I’m stupid. Because of the hair and the bling and the attitude. But it’s actually pretty hard to fool me.”

“Why?” Dana blurted out. “Why all this tonight, if you knew -?”

“That you were only spending time with me to get the dirt on Milord?” Kitty shrugged a shoulder, giving Dana a tiny smile. “You’re hot. And I wanted you. I’m not stupid. I work for someone who is kind of evil, but pays me really well. I’m not ditching him or this job. The occasional rebellion is how I sleep at nights.”

Dana leaned in and kissed her, meaning it entirely. Kitty kissed her back, but only for a moment before she pulled away. “Get out of here. I think there might actually be some torture devices along with the treadmills and Pilates machines in that gym of his. You don’t want to get caught.”

“Do you -” Dana hesitated. “I hate to ask any more of you.”

“No, I don’t know where he’s keeping that boy of yours,” Kitty said, her tone turning cold. “I don’t get let in on the super secret stuff, like where they keep high profile kidnapping victims.”

“If you find out, do you think you could get in touch?”

“I don’t know, Dana. That’s asking a lot.”

Dana reached out and took Kitty’s hand, grazing the backs of her knuckles with a kiss. “Okay. I won’t ask.” For now, she added silently.

What the hell was she going to do now?

You have been reading Musketeer Space, by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Tune in next week for another chapter! Please comment, share and link. Musketeer Space is free to read, but if you’d like to support the project for as little as $1 per month, please visit my Patreon page. Pledges can earn rewards such as ebooks, extra content, dedications and the naming of spaceships. Milestones already unlocked include the Musketeer Media Monday posts, the Robotech Rewatch posts, and “Seven Days of Joyeux,” a special Christmas prequel novella which was released in December 2015. My next funding milestone ($300 a month) will unlock GORGEOUS COVER ART.

Issue #1 Secret Six

Title: Secret Six #1

Writer: Gail Simone

Artist: Ken Lashley & Drew Garaci

The Buzz: Basically, Gail Simone tweeted that Secret Six was coming back, and let slip that Catman was in the new team, and that was ALL WE NEEDED. Her previous run of Secret Six are the kind of comics you thrust into the hands of friends on the condition that they read them fast and get them back to you because the trades are always half out of print, damn them all. Dark, funny and occasionally kinda filthy. So the promise of more of the same made the New 52 look a whole lot more interesting.

All You Need To Know: Secret Six happens when a bunch of amoral super-types, nutcases and criminals get together. I’m not even sure from this issue if they’re doing a Birds of Prey on us and pretending that the pre-New 52 Secret Six issues never happened, but I choose to believe they totally did happen. Still, you don’t need to know much except that Catman is the best and the worst, always.

Story: Thomas Blake, AKA Catman, is taken down in a grimy bar, and not in a good way. It’s kinda hot. He awakes in an impenetrable steel prison cell with a bunch of creeps, a corpse, a table full of individualised masks and a repeated question: WHAT IS THE SECRET? Oh, and they have to decide which of them is going to die first pretty soon, if they can’t answer the question.

Art: It’s a slightly too busy, sketchy sort of style but that suits the noir tones of the early scenes, and Lashley’s facial expressions are kind of gorgeous. Colours are muted and sultry. It’s an interesting looking book, and the art is very non-superhero which, fair enough really.

But What Did I Miss?: If you know who Black Alice and Catman are, you may be extra excited about this book, but it’s clearly a clean slate Issue 1.

Would Read Issue 2?: As long as Simone is writing it, I’m reading it.

PREVIOUS ISSUE #1 POSTS

Thor #1 (2014)

Spider-Woman #1 (2014)

All-New Captain America #1 (2014)

Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #1 (2014)

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (2014)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (2015)

Bitch Planet #1 (2014)