While I continue to try and separate art from artist very specifically when it comes to Mike Baron and Nexus, the writer either punches back by being part of Richard Meyers’ Jawbreakers, or delivers satisfying, fun, true-to-the-character flashes like the OGN Nefarious, and now the two-issue Scourge, for indie imprint Alien Books.

Nefarious was written as an isolated romp; Scourge admittedly could’ve used some more space to build up its planet-gobbling virus, as the suddenness with which it’s discovered, considered, and ultimately – spoiler – conquered doesn’t exactly undermine it, as speedrunning massive events is a Nexus norm, and Baron excels at pseudo-sciencing and dialogue-snapping his way through, more just that there’s some character work to savor here that gets short shrift and also would’ve also been classic Nexus – sifting through the political rumbles as the scourge threat bubbles out to all worlds. Instead of taking this time, Clonezone gets stuffed into the intros and outros, and there’s the sense that maybe Baron did all of this just to capitalize on a joke with a golf club, but that’s where we circle back to how fun the book can be with Mike driving: the offhand goofiness is, again, another familiar and appreciated tic. (It’d be nice to get the more serious tics to show their faces as well, though.)

Artist Kelsey Shannon is an incredibly appreciated addition to the team, clearly working from Steve Rude’s slick, swoopy template, but allowing for an indie looseness as well. While Shannon doesn’t really assist in selling the scourge beyond Baron’s script – it’s a black mass that’s honestly not clearly what we’re supposed to be worried about when it’s shown – the acting is great, and Kelsey nails those little dialogue beats that Rude did so well. Not sure how I feel about Shannon’s Clonezone take, but who knows how we feel about Clonezone anyway.