Welcome back to Minding Mind MGMT, the monthly column focused on the Dark Horse series “Mind MGMT” from Matt Kindt. Why a special column instead of a regular review? Because each issue is crammed with story, requiring no less than two reads to fully absorb everything Kindt packs into it. Each month, we try to piece together the clues Kindt is hiding throughout the book, and speculate on what may happen next. This is a spoiler-heavy column, so turn back now if you don’t want major plot details revealed.
This month’s book features very little new material, but since this column never examined the digital freebies, I’m going to discuss it all like new material.
This month’s cover is a split image. The left is a worn, vintage-looking cover for “At War” featuring an immortal fighting in World War I. The image looks torn, revealing the first page of ‘Forever’, the -3 story featured later in the book. The right side features a much smoother-looking Meru. The two are making eye contact.
The Bear
This story is narrated in past tense as The Bear’s wife is interviewed by Meru. Bear was the top agent of the Russian Mind MGMT. He was undercover in West Berlin, mind-wiped so even he didn’t know his purpose. When he received the signal (“Mulligan Rock”), he killed the woman he was living with and everyone else on his way to East Berlin. He stormed the local Mind MGMT office on his way to kill Lyme, but wasn’t up to the task. Lyme made the Bear kill himself by jumping off the building, and the Bear’s last act was to transmit the story to his wife.
We’ve seen Bear before, on the second page of issue five. At the time, Bear said he had no kids, but he must’ve had one soon after. A photo of his wife and child floats out of his coat pocket after he’s dead, leaving one to wonder who he thought they were when his memories were wiped.
Perfect
The second prequel is about Meru’s first book and her previous encounter with Mind MGMT agents. Her narration reveals her tendency to notice things normally hidden by Mind MGMT. The murders which drew her attention were in different cities, different countries even, and the detectives involved saw no connection. What (or who) caused Meru to put together cases which were previously unrelated? The shadow following her in the library is wearing glasses. Lyme perhaps? The killer, Jason Corridor, has all the signs of being a former Mind MGMT agent who’s eliminating other agents. When he attacks her, Meru deftly disarms him and obtains his confession before developing amnesia and committing suicide. Meru writes her story, but doesn’t realize Corridor’s last words, “Mind Management,” get changed to “Mulligan Rock.”
The first body shown is sitting at a bus stop advertising “Mind Juice”, the chewing gum advertised on the back of issue one. Meru’s skill during her struggle with Corridor echos her skillful aiming when she shot the immortal in the eye in issue six. Lyme’s revelations about her past don’t explain her aggressive nature, and I look forward to finding out what kind of training she’s gone through. Corridor’s motives remain a mystery: was he an American agent or a foreign one? Whose orders was he acting on when he took out the other agents? Was his memory loss triggered by his confession, or done impromptu when he talked to Meru? The use of the same trigger words as Bear seem to indicate Corridor, or at least the agent over Meru’s agent’s shoulder, are foreign.
Finally, and probably the thing least worth mentioning, Meru’s narration boxes are the same yellow color as Lyme’s commentary, not the pink tinted ones she used in issues five and six. I suspect the color change was something Kindt decided on while actually crafting the later issues.
Forever
This final chapter acts as a follow-up of sorts to the Second Floor story in issue 3. Alberto, who went with and abandoned Sir Francis, is later taught by Francis to be an immortal. As punishment for leaving Francis behind, Alberto’s training results in his right arm being irreparably withered (though it looks healthy on page 21 – a prostetic?). After serving in World War I, Alberto and Francis are recruited by Leopold Lojka (from The Second Floor in issue one) to join Mind Management. After constructing secret bases in remote, remote locations, and blowing up the Hindenburg, Francis quit so he could try and prevent the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Alberto went on to become a monk at Shangri-La, where he relayed his story to Meru. She believed him, but chose not to tell anyone.
The Field Guide
There was none!
The Second Floor
The only original content for the issue covers the safe houses of Mind MGMT, called flux houses. Based on their description as restaurants which change owners frequently and I never visit, I believe at least six of them are active in Southern Indiana. Records date some of them back to the 1700s, which is especially interesting since Mind MGMT didn’t form until 1914. The cantina Meru stayed at in issue one was a flux house, and she was the first outsider to ever infiltrate one. Followed closely by CIA agents Bill and his partner, who were following her, I suppose. Perhaps Meru didn’t follow correct procedure after entering to re-disguise it? I went back to check issue one, but the sign never changed to the “Fantastico Lounge” as shown in this strip. That’s probably a good thing, because I’d’ve been really puzzled by that at the time.
The letter column
Amazing editor Brendan Wright gives this column a shout-out, which is probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in print. Thanks! He also reminds us about “Mind MGMT”‘s appearance in “Dark Horse Presents” #19 in December and shows us the cover for issue 7. The flag in the background is the old Betsy Ross design with some stars replaced by eyes. Is this Revolutionary-era pattern another hint at Mind MGMT being active in the 1700s? The covers to this series haven’t been too revealing about the contents, but it’s not hard to imagine an arc called “The Futurist” revealing some of the past, as well.
The back cover
No fake ad this month! Instead, we get a print version of an image regular readers of this column have already seen. Originally shown with other bonus features at http://Mattkindt.com/mind (password 7734), this picture of Meru and the massacre of Zanzibar features four hidden messages. The first is “LIVE”, seen to the left and below the distant, shadowed image of Lyme. The second, “DIE”, is to the right of Lyme and upside-down. The third, “Free”, is also upside-down and written in the flower petals under Meru’s sword. The fourth is a mystery, because I haven’t found it yet. Can anyone help me out?
Wikipedia
I don’t know why it took so long, but “Mind MGMT” finally has an entry on Wikipedia. It features lots of production notes, so check it out and contribute if you can.
Connect-the-Dots
I took a picture of the paper and connected the dots via MSPaint so I could see both images and to allow for mistakes. The main image can be seen at the right. Nevermind the color change, it’s just a relic from my efforts. It should look familiar – it’s a rough, early version of the picture on the back cover of this month’s issue. The two fellows punching each other in the middle left are a bit rough. You see the pink line in there? That’s where dot 445 connects to dot 456. 446-455 are missing. Considering the amount of effort which must’ve gone into making this massive dot map, I’m willing to let that error slide.
Overall this is a pretty neat extra, and I hope more things like it will be available in the future.
What’d I miss?
I know I didn’t catch anything, so if you spotted something I missed (like the fourth message on the back cover) or have different theories, please share them in the comments. “Mind MGMT” will be back next month in “Dark Horse Presents” #19.
Previously, on Minding MIND MGMT…
Issues: #0 #1 #3 #4 #5 #6 DHP #19 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 DHP #31 #18 #19 #20 #21 #21 #22 #23
Interviews: Matt Kindt Brendan Wright Matt Kindt (2)
Annotations: Volume one
