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.
The cover
The theme for this five issue arc is magazine cover parodies featuring a wholesome looking (but slightly wrong) around-the-home scene with a list of articles you’ll find inside. This one is fairly straight forward, but for the sake of being thorough, a “honey trap” is when a woman uses her…assets…to snare a man and make him do what she wants. A Molotov cocktail is a flammable fluid (usually gasoline) put in a glass bottle, stuffed with a burning rag, then tossed onto whatever the tosser wants to burn.
The Second Floor
Like issue seven, this issue features a very brief recap of the story so far. It does include a few previously unknown tidbits.
The first panel talks about the monk at Shangri-la. When the monks were first introduced in #5’s Mind Memo, it said all the monks were at Shangri-la. Either they split up after MIND MGMT disbanded, or the Mind Memos aren’t always correct. Since the Monks predate the modern MIND MGMT agency, the latter option is certainly a possibility.
Later, it says Dusty is a Palestinian. According to the lyrics found in #8, p 22, he was born in Beirut, a city in Lebanon. Lebanon’s population of Palestinian Arabs is just under 10%.
Panel eighteen clarifies something we had to speculate on last month – Neither Lyme nor the Eraser want Meru involved in the fight at all. They probably have different motives for this. The Eraser doesn’t want her (and tried to kill her in #7) because Meru’s ability to turn off the abilities of others is a potential liability. Lyme originally tried to recruit her in #7, but now wants to avoid her at all costs because she has her memory back. Enough of it, at least.
Finally, there’s a major reveal about the Eraser. She’s been targeting Monks to create strategic holes in history. Without the monks’ record, the Eraser can change or remove memories and never be disputed. With this in mind, do you remember Meru asking the disguised Eraser if some of the books around her history were missing? That easy-to-forget detail will probably come back in a big way by the end of the series.
This retelling is framed as being the dead monk’s history up to his death, but most of the ending came after his death. Either Matt is taking liberties for the sake of recap, or the monk in the library was only mostly dead when we saw him.
The Main Story
This issue is the first one to be told in chapters. It opens on Doug and Shannon talking about a missing antique watch and an upcoming block party. The TV in the background is airing the “wake up” commercial aired by Lyme and Duncan. In the first of several cinematic moves in this issue, the camera pans out their window, across the street, and into another house where another couple, Darren and Amie, are talking about the same party and Darren’s missing movie prop. It’s probably important both missing items are from the same time period (World War II / 1941), and may be important they both belonged to the husbands in the group, not the wives.
The next couple is Clive and Megan. Megan was previously seen in #6, p9 as one of the “Housewife Five.” Given how Lyme and the Eraser are after her, she’s probably the Homemaker who was on the list of agents Lyme lifted from Shangri-la in #12, p 13. Megan’s concern about her friends forgetting she’s there is almost certainly a side effect of her training. The call Clive gets is from Bill, the neighbor who’s putting in a bomb shelter.
Continued belowAt the block party, the guests talk about the goings on in the neighborhood, including the two men (Lyme and Duncan) moving into a cabin and the RV (containing Eraser and Links) parked outside the Johnston’s house. The conversation turns to the missing watch and falcon, and then the party’s over. After another cinematic pan over the mess from the party to Megan and Clive’s post-party love, Megan sees another “wake up” commercial and reveals she was woken a month ago. More on that below.
Chapter two picks up two weeks later. Megan’s neighbors are showing signs of paranoia, with Doug and Amie suspecting affairs and Darren kidnapping Shannon. The two are watching a fictional noir film, Triple Indemnity. According to the poster, it stars Jo Capa Cotton. The large clock on it is set at 11:11, a very important time in Matt’s previous book “Revolver”. Since “Revolver” and “MIND MGMT” are set in the same universe, it stands to reason this is an important number here, too. The movie and its scarcity are probably connected to MIND MGMT somehow, and the other two prints will probably pop up somewhere in the future.
According to IMDB, a movie called Triple Indemnity exists, and was made in 1999, but that’s about all I could find on it. I do not think it’s the movie being shown here. The phrase means a life insurance policy pays three times its face value, and it’s used for accidental deaths. There was a 1944 noir film called Double Indemnity this is likely parodying.
Chapter Three picks up two minutes after Aime kills Darren and Shannon. As Megan walks through the neighborhood with some grocery bags, all of her neighbors seem to have snapped and the scene is like Zanzibar in slow motion. One is pouring gas on his house. Bill’s bomb shelter is being installed. Another neighbor is being arrested for murdering his daughter, and another still is boarding up his house. Megan has a monologue over all of this, comparing her awakening to seeing color for the first time. She sounds very bitter about being forgotten. As the block falls apart, the Eraser tells Links it’s time. As Clive finishes killing Darren, he seems to come to his senses some and realizes everyone is losing control. Megan goes out to her garden and digs up a trunk, revealing her to be the thief who kicked off the paranoia. The thefts were designed as distractions to protect her (see below), but may have additional significance. As mentioned earlier, both items are about the same age. Perhaps they were originally hers, distributed to those around her when she went under cover?
Her sideways glare on the final page seems to indicate she’s aware of Lyme and the Eraser, and isn’t happy about their proximity. Duncan says they’re late as he and Lyme leave the cabin. Earlier dialogue hinted it was just the two of them in the cabin, but Lyme’s uses of the plural indicates they’re not alone.
There were several things in this issue which seem inconsequential now, but will probably obtain more significance by #17. The bomb shelter received several mentions, for instance, or the train and owl on page 5. Matt doesn’t have a habit of wasting panels or dialogue, and this issue will certainly benefit from multiple reads as the rest of the arc comes out. The others will probably run at least partly parallel to this story, similar to his recent graphic novel “Red Handed”. If you haven’t read that yet, buy it and and love it.
The Matryoshkas Field Guide
“Matryoshkas” is the proper name for Russian nesting dolls. This is a very apt name for a guide telling Russian Agents how to hide among the enemy (more on that below). This guide, more than others in the past, helps to illuminate some of the more subtle motives behind Megan’s actions.
The first few items helps explain why Megan stole the watch and falcon: to take advange of thier materialism and sow discord. Guide 13.3 mentions trust being of utmost importance, and you’ll notice that with all the paranoia throughout the issue, no one is ever suspicious of Megan.
Continued belowGuide 13.5 says parties are an ideal venue for chemical tactics, and it gives a very sinister overtone to Megan’s comment on page 3 about it being a block party no one will ever forget. She could’ve doped the punch, and then used her enhanced listening techniques (guide 13.6) to mention a bandit to everyone at just the right moment.
Guide 13.8 suggests waiting 30 days for full memory recovery, and Megan tells the reader she’s been awake for a month. When the story opens, she’s already fully aware.
The Matryoshkas guide helps explain why the chapter divides are where they are: Each one is a particular Nest procedure. Nest 2 began after full memory restoration, which coincided with the block party. It involves setting surrounding people against each other while the agent maintains a low profile.
The box Megan had hidden in her garden was her exfiltration cache. The watch and falcon were new additions, but the money, gun, and other items have been in there for some time (13.20). Unfortunately for Lyme and the Eraser, the gun is for them (13.22).
The bottom story
The first few pages of this month’s issue feature a mini story along the bottom pages. This was last seen in #7. Perhaps this is how Matt gets around the Second Floor being devoted to recap instead of world building.
It’s a straightforward history of the creation of the wake up video used throughout the issue. On page 6, it’s put on a shelf with other wake up and sleep videos. It sits there for sometime before Duncan finds it and pays to have it aired for a month. Depending on the timing of the events, it’s possible Megan was woken by the first airing, and the one she saw on page 8 was the last one.
Mind Memo
In the first look at enemy agents since the Bear in #0, this 1989 memo introduces the Ice Men. The dial on the tank they’re submerged in is most likely in Celsius, which means the water is ~14 degrees Fahrenheit – well below the freezing point. This isn’t a mistake though! Liquid water can be chilled below freezing in certain conditions, such as being salty, under pressure, or in motion.
The little girl who wants to help her mother is probably Megan, 24 years younger. It would certainly explain the Russian field guide she’s following.
The letter column
The credits at the very top of this month’s letter column are slightly different from previous credits. First, the title of the issue – “Homemaker” – isn’t followed by a chapter number. Since these are supposed to be stand-alone stories, each one will probably have a unique name. Let the guesses on the subtitle of the third collection begin! Second, Matt’s wife Sharlene is now listed with him and Adam Grano under Design. If you’re following “MIND MGMT” on Facebook, you should already know Sharlene and how nice of a woman she is.
Brendan’s comments at the start of the letters contain some pretty exciting information. First, he lets us know the stars of the next three issues: Meru, Lyme, and the Eraser. After that, issue 17 will have an extra eight pages!
Next, do you remember the board game ad on the back of #11? It asked anyone who could read it to mail it to the Dark Horse offices in Oregon. I did to see what, if anything, would happen. Eighteen other people did the same, and that’s how our names got listed as newly activated agents in this issue.
He goes on to say there will be more opportunities to join in the future, including “MIND MGMT” ads appearing in other Dark Horse books soon with similar instructions, and an enlistment form available on the Facebook page. He mentions a prize, and I emailed him to find out if it would be a widely-available prize, like a small piece of merchandise, or a grand prize requiring some competition. Turns out it’ll be a random drawing-type contest, and the grand prize is a doozy: The winner will be drawn into the big battle in issue 17, and will probably be killed! How cool is that? He went on to say there is no smaller prize planned at the moment, but that it hasn’t been ruled out. If you’re not already a fan on Facebook, what on Earth are you waiting for?
Continued below
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Cory MacDonald’s letter mentions Bolaño, a Chilean writer, and his book 2666, which was published in 2004, the year after Bolaño’s death. It’s set in Santa Teresa – the same city Meru found all the pots. In response, Brendan gives another shout out to this column, which goes to show just how cool of a guy he is. Thanks, Brendan!
Tony Zitto’s letter contains the message “Save them” hidden in bold letters.
The back cover
In a big change up from previous issues, this month’s back cover features multiple ads, and only some of them are fake. Between some fun ads for various MIND MGMT services are ads for real shops and websites.
Challengers Comics + Conversation is a shop recognized for its top quality and focus on things other than superheroes. I’ve never been to their store, but I have stopped at their convention booth at C2E2 a few times. They’re great people, and I’m always happy to give them money.
Meru must have taken the book with her history with her from Shangri-la, then dropped it somewhere. Matt Kindt found it took out a ‘Found’ ad to return it – after stealing the ideas and adapting them into a comic, apparently.
This Good Robot is a rock band who made a music video and song around one of the chapters in Matt’s book “Super Spy”.
Illuminati is a game created in 1982 which is based around conspiracies.
Comics Experience is a site run by Andy Schmidt, the editor of (among other things) Marvel’s “Annihilation” event and writer of the IDW book “5 Days to Die”. This page is for people interested in creating their own books.
The latest hidden code is partly tucked in the Schizophrenia Research study. It’s part one of five, and the new link is www.mattkindt.com/this. That page is currently a 404 error, and I don’t see anything in the ad which could be part of the code. Maybe it’ll become more clear as more issues come out, or maybe I’m just missing it. Let me know in the comments if you see something.
There a coupon for free popcorn at a Triple Indemnity showing. Considering there are only three prints in existence, and one of them is in Darrin’s basement. Anyone who passes up the chance to see this is missing a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Other books you may enjoy…
Matt has another book coming out this month that isn’t “MIND MGMT”. He wrote “Bloodshot” #0 for Valiant with art by Chris Cross. This is an origin issue, and should be ok as a jump on point. Matt also did a variant cover for the issue if you can get it.
And that’s all
If you caught something I didn’t from this issue or prior ones, please mention it in the comments. I know I’m not catching everything. Thanks for reading!
Previously, on Minding MIND MGMT…
Issues: #0 #1 #3 #4 #5 #6 DHP #19 #7 #8 #9 #10
Interviews: Matt Kindt Brendan Wright Matt Kindt (2)
Annotations: Volume one
