Because each issue of Matt Kindt’s monthly series is overflowing with interwoven narratives, a standard review just doesn’t cut it. This column will provide in-depth analysis and help you navigate the overlapping plots.
As Meru races toward the Eraser, even the logo fades to white!
The Main Story + Field Guide
Because the interplay between the main story and the guide text is especially strong this month, they’re going to be analyzed at the same time instead of separately.
At the tail end of last issue, Meru had hit a dead end in her search for Lyme and Duncan in Berlin, so she flew to Ireland to find Anthers Kindle, the dream walker. After sending her message to the Eraser, Meru apparently decided to go back to Berlin. She pretends to resume looking for Lyme and Duncan at the local police precinct, where agency-trained cops are waiting for her. It may seem convenient for them to all be with the Eraser at first, but then we learn they’re holding Jardin. It makes sense for MIND MGMT to have a place to hold rogue and enemy agents, and that jail would obviously be staffed by mind-trained guards. And where is this jail located? Berlin, which would have been one of the borders between MIND MGMT and Zero territories during the cold war.
Meru followed part of Guide 29.1 and had a distraction device prepared ahead of time. At the same time, she violated Guide 29.5, which discourages explosives. She frees Jardin, the artist first introduced in the second floor of #14. The Mulligan Rock phrase dates back to the second chapter of the zero issue, where it replaces the words mind management in Meru’s book, “Premeditated”. For the hardcover readers who didn’t see the second floor short, Jardin’s abilities are quickly recapped on page 8.
Meru continues to flaunt the guide as the story continues. Her attempt to use the activation code on Jardin was a violation of 29.8, and her use of his papers to travel is prohibited by 29.9.
It’s not made explicit by the text, but Meru’s flight takes her back to Hong Kong. This is where the Eraser is, working to rebuild the agency. The location is all but confirmed when Dusty’s Army arrives to help Meru toward the end of the conflict. Coming back here is a risk for Meru because the Hong Kong police are still hunting her for the murder of Bill and Dusty.
On page 12, the Eraser explains the hidden motive behind Meru and Bill’s travels around to various safe houses in the memos of issues 19 through 23. Meru doesn’t respond to the Eraser’s comment, which could be taken as implicit acknowledgment. An alternate interpretation is that Meru was destroying them on accident, since those visits occurred before she had a good grasp of her abilities. Her silence on the issue may have been a refusal to commit to a yes or no, since the Eraser could be bluffing to distract Meru.
The next few pages are best understood through the field guide. 29.12 begins to say there is no defense against Eraser agents (note the plural – it’s not talking specifically about The Eraser), but then it’s overwritten by Meru’s internal monologue. This has happened once before, way back in issue 5. Then, someone was trying to communicate with Meru before Lyme could wipe her memory again. Given Francis’ description of the guide and the triconscience, it makes sense for Meru’s narration to be in the guide instead of in regular narration boxes. The guide is a shared awareness between all agents, so Meru is able to push her memories onto the Eraser by overwhelming it.
In 29.19, Meru mentions her interview with the Eraser, which is one of the biggest puzzles of the series. We know Meru talked with Julienne in prison (#10p22). We also know Duncan’s first assignment was to bust the Eraser out of prison (#11p5). Since Duncan became an agent long before Meru wrote her book, things don’t seem to be adding up. Throw in the love triangle between the Eraser, Bill, and Meru from the memos of the second arc, and things get even more tangled. Here’s hoping next issue clears some of this up!
Continued belowThe fight scenes across pages 14 and 15 are all taking place on the mental plane. They’re told with an elemental aspect that doubles as convenient color coding: Meru is blue water, and the Eraser is red fire. Meru seems to win the fight by using the memory of the Eraser’s dead husband, PK Verve, only to be caught off guard by Links and the immortal woman who hide behind the disguise of the Eraser’s kids.
Speaking of her kids, this is another element that will hopefully be cleared up next issue: how many kids does the Eraser have? Two are shown here, and Meru’s book said she had two as well. When we got a look inside the Eraser’s past in #16 though, she only had one son. Oversight? Or vital clue?
Dusty’s Army shows up in time to save Meru on page 19, but this will probably be their last hurrah given the brutal way Links dispatches them. The Eraser wanders off with a potentially fatal wound and collapses in an alley.
Mind Memo
Duncan and Perrier return for the first time since #23p6, appealing to Senator Idris to stop seeking funding for Mind MGMT. In an odd moment, Duncan seems surprised when Idris tells him the funding is already secure. Either Idris is trained to block Duncan’s mind reading, or Duncan’s slipping.
The Second Floor
This month sees a return to the Magic Studies section of the agency. It was first shown in the second floor of #6. The tension between the magic users and the science-based agents may be directly related to the explosion that destroyed the east wing of Shangri-la in 1976.
The Letter Column
I would read the L-Men. That is all.
The Back Cover
On the southeast Asia portion of the map, we see three points of interest: Old Shangri-la, the new headquarters, and the Indian artist who was first seen in #24p5. There, one of his posters was for “Ghost Agent”, as opposed to the “Ghost Initiative” shown here.
And that’s all for this month
If you spotted something I missed, or if you had a different interpretation of events, please share your thoughts in the comments!
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 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28
Interviews: Matt Kindt Brendan Wright Matt Kindt (2)
Annotations: Volume one
