8FOLD: Daylighters # 5 (Annotations)

[Tom Russell]

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              |___/     |___/  ANNOTATIONS

      # 5 -


[1] the Lydia situation

This is Lydia Black, Claire's lover and boss at The Company from over
in MANCERS. Lydia broke Claire's nose in MANCERS # 7. Claire will be
framing Lydia for assisting in Maile Akaka's escape, resulting in
Lydia's rapturous demise in MANCERS # 8, and she'll be promoted to
Lydia's vacated position as head of Human Resources.

[2] the mind-wipe

When Kate stumbled upon the existence of The Company in DARKHORSE # 7,
Claire wiped Kate's memory of the event. As we saw in the previous
issue of DAYLIGHTERS, as well as in DARKHORSE # 9, Kate knows that
something's not quite right, and is more distrustful of Claire than
usual. As to the mind-wipe not taking - Claire is a metamancer who
"borrows" the mystical talents of others. As is first made explicit
here, she was borrowing the memory-altering abilities of her brother,
David Collins. David was "between bodies" at that time (it's a long
story, but see MANCERS # 7-8) so that might have affected the potency
of the magic Claire was borrowing.

[3] Thirteen

Claire's umbrella is in fact the sword Thirteen in disguise, first
seen in the possession of Quasha, one of the Daughters of Mars.
According to Claire in MANCERS # 8, Quasha used the sword against one
of the Venusian elder gods. In that issue, she will entrust the blade
to David Collins. But, hey, now she has another one due to timey-wimey
stuff. Take that, rain!

[4] Headsman

The Headsman does exactly what it says on the tin: he has access to a
series of detachable heads, each with its own special power. It's an
intentional horrific and bizarre premise that was meant to evoke a
very particular kind of Golden Age character, and a trio of stories
set in World War II were published in MIGHTY MEDLEY # 15, 20, and 35 -
the latter revealing that he was a founding member of the Seven
Wonders. There was also a Headsman origin story set in the English
Civil War in MIGHTY MEDLEY # 24. Whether or not these four stories
featured the same Headsman, and whether or not the Headsman that
appears here is the same, has not been revealed.

[5] Cascade

This is, of course, the same Cascade who we met in issues 2 and 3, who
is not quite yet the Queen of Lemuria (nuptials are imminent). "Terry"
is of course the newly-crowned King Terak, whom Darkhorse was
romantically involved with in a casual way. Though we haven't seek
Bethany and Terry meet, given Bethany's relatively close friendship
with Darkhorse, it's likely they met before.

[6] the woman

The mystery woman is Trinity "Trini" Tran. Before Lacy Trimmer was
overseeing American superheroes on the federal level and pushing the
Daylighters as a replacement for the Seven Wonders, she was doing it
locally in Jolt City (and JOLT CITY); Trini worked in Trimmer's office
while attending medical school.

Trini worked briefly as a doctor, but this came to an end when her
abilities as a mancer - in this case, volatile blood magic -
manifested, resulting in some kind of horrific incident, likely
resulting in multiple fatalities. Trini became a fugitive, and is
working for The Company in exchange for their protection. Rainshade
personally recruited her, and would later use her as a spy to keep
tabs on Claire's brother, David Collins, whom Trini was dating and
living with.

It's hinted in the MANCERS series that Claire knew Trini from before
her powers manifested, and this makes sense; Rainshade was active as a
superhero in the nearby Chicago area and may have had contacts with
Trimmer's office. Certainly, she and Derek had to have met somehow.