The iconic photographer stronga href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081013/ap_en_mu/obit_claxton_1"William Claxton has died/a/strong at the age of 80. His unforgettable shots of a href="http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0103/claxton_intro.htm"strongMiles Davis, Steve McQueen/strong/a,a href="http://www.thereeler.com/features/lost_once_more.php"Chet Baker/a (the book of his Baker photos a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/388814860X/metafilter-20"here/a), a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-08-28-bob-dylan_x.htm"Bob Dylan/a, Charlie Parker, stronga href="http://www.faheykleingallery.com/featured_artists/claxton/claxton_frames.htm"Ray Charles/a/strong, stronga href="http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/claxton/images/photo07.jpg"John Coltrane,/a/strong Billie Holiday, stronga href="http://www.faheykleingallery.com/images/photographs/claxton_b/claxton_106_bg.jpg"Bill Evans/a/strong, stronga href="http://www.faheykleingallery.com/featured_artists/claxton/claxton_111.htm"Lenny Bruce/a/strong, stronga href="http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/claxton/images/13.jpg"Frank Sinatra/a/strong and so many others are legend. His books stronga href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3836508680/metafilter-20"quot;Jazz Lifequot; /a/strongand stronga href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Photographic-Memory/William-Claxton/e/9781576870853"quot;Photographic Memoryquot;/a/strong are great collections, but stronga href="http://www.williamclaxton.com/movie.html"his official site/a/strong is probably the best way to appreciate the amazing legacy of work he left behind. br /

Suicide car bombers struck twice in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=zEuMm"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=zEuMm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=RzohM"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=RzohM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=CxFIm"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=CxFIm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=YR9Bm"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=YR9Bm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=jMksM"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=jMksM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=ob49M"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=ob49M" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~4/419155712" height="1" width="1"/

div style="FLOAT: right"img title="Nokia Working On New Touch Screen Phones" alt="Nokia Working On New Touch Screen Phones" hspace="5" src="http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/10/nokia-touchscreen.jpg" vspace="5" border="0" //div pGood news to all touch screen enthusiasts as Nokia isn't going to stop at just the a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/nokia_5800_xpressmusic_priced.html"XpressMusic 5800/a where touch screen-based handsets are concerned. They are working on an N-Series touch screen device and will make an official announcement in due time. While there is no deadline attached to the announcement date, it isn't too far off the mark to expect the device to hit worldwide markets early next year, which means Nokia will miss out on the lucrative holiday shopping season. Hopefully there will be lower end touch screen devices from Nokia as well, since not everyone can fork out more than $500 for a handset./p pa href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/nokia_working_on_new_touch_screen_phones.html#comments"Add a comment/a | From: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/nokia_working_on_new_touch_screen_phones.html"Nokia Working On New Touch Screen Phones/a | Visit a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com"Ubergizmo/a | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a/p pmap name="google_ad_map_081012192303" area shape="rect" href="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/imgclick/081012192303?pos=0" coords="1,2,367,28"/ area shape="rect" href="http://services.google.com/feedback/abg" coords="384,10,453,23"//map img usemap="#google_ad_map_081012192303" border="0" src="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/ads?format=468x30_aff_imgamp;client=ca-pub-7335032025195922amp;channel=9684588219amp;output=pngamp;cuid=081012192303amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubergizmo.com%2F15%2Farchives%2F2008%2F10%2Fnokia_working_on_new_touch_screen_phones.html"//p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/3a4PiUDFsMcWVZPn7ZfCj0vARRk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/3a4PiUDFsMcWVZPn7ZfCj0vARRk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=xUSg9uFE"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=TzhuweL1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=TzhuweL1" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=dc6UiTBQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=oTQl9cb5"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=oTQl9cb5" border="0"/img/a /div

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea may reward North Korea for reaching a compromise to save a crumbling nuclear disarmament deal by sending a delayed shipment of steel aid to its destitute neighbor, a government official indicated on Monday. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/a9WFx2GkhhzCyIdkYYYIhPJwo4A/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/a9WFx2GkhhzCyIdkYYYIhPJwo4A/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=CbFO2nAV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=iiMfT4WR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=iiMfT4WR" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=RvYLkPCN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=RvYLkPCN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/QRlStqu9R0g" height="1" width="1"/

div style="FLOAT: right"img title="Apple Confirms MacBook Pro Rumors" alt="Apple Confirms MacBook Pro Rumors" hspace="5" src="http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/10/apple-macbook-rumor-confirmed.jpg" vspace="5" border="0" //div pApple has more or less confirmed word that a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/07/apple_macbook_touch_rumor.html"new MacBook Pros/a will be rolling out, after accidentally publishing a support document in PDF format on its site which was specifically meant for the "MacBook/MacBook Pro (Late 2008)" models. There is no word on what the document is about, although chances are it is a service document when replacing the display on the new MacBooks. Ah well, all the agony of waiting will be over come October 14th as Apple dishes out the official mumbo jumbo for all and sundry to drool over./p pa href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/apple_confirms_macbook_pro_rumors.html#comments"Add a comment/a | From: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/apple_confirms_macbook_pro_rumors.html"Apple Confirms MacBook Pro Rumors/a | Visit a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com"Ubergizmo/a | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a/p pmap name="google_ad_map_081012185313" area shape="rect" href="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/imgclick/081012185313?pos=0" coords="1,2,367,28"/ area shape="rect" href="http://services.google.com/feedback/abg" coords="384,10,453,23"//map img usemap="#google_ad_map_081012185313" border="0" src="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/ads?format=468x30_aff_imgamp;client=ca-pub-7335032025195922amp;channel=9684588219amp;output=pngamp;cuid=081012185313amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubergizmo.com%2F15%2Farchives%2F2008%2F10%2Fapple_confirms_macbook_pro_rumors.html"//p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/1iO6GMf7WEA-dO264BEI_3W8Ukc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/1iO6GMf7WEA-dO264BEI_3W8Ukc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=EnAvXr16"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=v8DyP508"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=v8DyP508" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=qEbXme1p"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=hZp1xDM8"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=hZp1xDM8" border="0"/img/a /div

Outspoken billionaire investor George Soros on Sunday criticized U.S. and European officials for taking too long to effectively address the financial crisis. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?a=nvym24"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?i=nvym24" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/419049991" height="1" width="1"/

Homicide car bombers struck twice Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.

iDevelopmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists, Vol. 237, No. 10. (October 2008), pp. 2755-2768./ibr /br /Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been linked to metastatic propensity. The 4T1 tumor is a clinically relevant model of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis. Here we characterize 4T1-derived cell lines for EMT, in vitro invasiveness and in vivo metastatic ability. Contrary to expectations, 67NR cells, which form primary tumors but fail to metastasize, express vimentin and N-cadherin, but not E-cadherin. 4T1 cells express E-cadherin and ZO-1, but are migratory, invasive, and metastasize to multiple sites. 66cl4 cells form lung metastases and display a mixed phenotype, but are not as migratory or invasive as 67NR cells. These findings demonstrate that the metastatic ability of breast cancer cells does not strictly correlate with genotypic and phenotypic properties of EMT per se, and suggest that other processes may govern metastatic capability. Gene expression analysis of primary tumors did not identify differences in EMT markers, but did reveal candidate genes that may influence metastatic ability. Developmental Dynamics 237:2755-2768, 2008. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Far from leaving the south of the country to Iraqi forces, the Americans are planning to fill any gap created by a British pullout of all its troops, top US officials say.

Reunited progressive thrashers TOXIK have posted a five-and-a-half-minute teaser trailer (see below) for This is Toxik, the official documentary shot and produced by Marabella Productions in New York City.

Music Video.

Author: Celinephile Keywords: celine dion to love you more music video japan official Added: October 12, 2008

A close family member of Jamie Lynn Spears has confirmed to The National Enquirer that the pregnancy rumors are true. The denials "are simply buying the Spears family time until they decide what to do." (Read: Secret Mexican abortion.) The family member also revealed how the news is affecting the family: On Lynne's reaction: “Jamie Lynn’s mom is furious about the pregnancy. And she’s livid the news leaked out, especially during her book tour. Lynne and Jamie Lynn have been arguing nonstop by phone.” On Jamie Lynn's choice: “Jamie Lynn is being pressured by people very close to her to abort. But no decision has been made yet. Casey is furious. Jamie Lynn hadn’t told him about the pregnancy. He learned about it in the media and then confronted her and she told him it was true." On the inevitable Spears' family maneuver: "If Jamie Lynn has this baby, you can be sure they will try to sell the official confirmation of the pregnancy to a magazine, as well as the baby photos." I really wasn't sure myself if the rumors were true until I saw these pictures of Jamie Lynn wearing a "Yoga Makes Me Flexible" T-shirt to Wal-Mart yesterday. At that point, an ultrasound seems kind of redundant, doesn't it?

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Photos: INFdaily.com

pFiled under: a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/analysisopinion/" rel="tag"Analysis / Opinion/a, a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/cult-of-mac/" rel="tag"Cult of Mac/a, a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/apple-financial/" rel="tag"Apple Financial/a/pa href="http://flickr.com/photos/etchasketchist/465295618/"img width="225" vspace="8" hspace="8" height="183" border="1" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2008/10/pc-vs.-mac-on-flickr---photo-sharing%21cb7912837.jpg" //a"Hi, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC." -- You've probably heard those words more than a few times. Apple has been airing the "a href="http://www.apple.com/getamac/"Get a Mac/a" commercials for a few years, and from the looks of it, the ads have been a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/21/apple-q3-2008-results-liveblog-5-pm-edt/"fairly successful/a. But has it emreally/em helped spread the word that Mac is better?br /br /a href="http://www.iphonesavior.com/2008/10/university-study-confirms-43-of-women-prefer-mac-over-pc.html"iPhone Savior/a recently surveyed seven college women at a school in British Columbia (Canada) and found that almost half of them said they preferred a Mac over a PC. They note that their research on the subject was ended early due to "several unfriendly encounters with campus security."br /br /Numbers don't lie ... and Apple has the numbers (a href="http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/"quite literally/a) on their side. Recently, Apple's market share a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/02/despite-slow-economy-mac-market-share-booms/"jumped/a to almost 8.2% for notebook users. That's just amazing (especially for such difficult economical times).br /br /emPlease note:/em The iPhone Savior survey is very limited in statistical terms of population, and because of this, the data is probably skewed slightly. We should also note that before you take a poll on a college campus, make sure you're a student or have clearance from the proper school officials. That being said, feel free to take part in our own poll on this issue.br /br /br /pa href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/12/study-shows-43-of-college-women-prefer-macs/#poll20789"View Poll/a/ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.iphonesavior.com/2008/10/university-study-confirms-43-of-women-prefer-mac-over-pc.htmlRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/12/study-shows-43-of-college-women-prefer-macs/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.tuaw.com/forward/1336395/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/12/study-shows-43-of-college-women-prefer-macs/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/abr /br /pmap name="google_ad_map_16-1336395"area shape="rect" href="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/imgclick/16-1336395?pos=0" coords="1,2,367,28" /area shape="rect" href="http://services.google.com/feedback/abg" coords="384,10,453,23" //mapimg usemap="#google_ad_map_16-1336395" border="0" src="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/ads?format=468x30_aff_imgamp;client=ca-pub-3546992251556849amp;channel=21amp;output=pngamp;cuid=16-1336395amp;url=http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/12/study-shows-43-of-college-women-prefer-macs/" //p pa href="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~a/weblogsinc/tuaw?a=csk1L4"img src="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~a/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=csk1L4" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~f/weblogsinc/tuaw?a=kjchm"img src="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~f/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=kjchm" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~f/weblogsinc/tuaw?a=3P3tm"img src="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~f/weblogsinc/tuaw?i=3P3tm" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.tuaw.com/~r/weblogsinc/tuaw/~4/418878234" height="1" width="1"/

Turkey launched another round of airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, an Iraqi official said. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition?a=uQEV1l"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition?i=uQEV1l" border="0"/img/a/p

Turkey launched another round of airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, an Iraqi official said. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_world?a=lrUEQe"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_world?i=lrUEQe" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=gSwgM"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=gSwgM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=q4c8M"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=q4c8M" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=25m2m"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=25m2m" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=GuOWM"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=GuOWM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=s7fhm"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=s7fhm" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/418951137" height="1" width="1"/

Turkey launched another round of airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, an Iraqi official said. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_topstories?a=CzhHHa"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/cnn_topstories?i=CzhHHa" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=GRHYM"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=GRHYM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=6BjmM"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=6BjmM" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=K2bom"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=K2bom" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=1Xz8M"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=1Xz8M" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=zMIYm"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=zMIYm" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~4/418948552" height="1" width="1"/

Turkey launched another round of airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, an Iraqi official said. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition_world?a=LjSGor"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/edition_world?i=LjSGor" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/418957547" height="1" width="1"/

TWO Indonesian men were tricked into getting their faces tattooed by a bogus official offering government jobs, News.com.au reports.

We just added our official review of Sony Screen Gems' Quarantine, which took the number 2 spot at the box office ($14,200,000) behind that damn Chihuahua. Tex writes, "This years THE RING or THE GRUDGE... As a visceral screamfest, QUARANTINE seems unequaled in 2008 for its sheer audacity in propelling the audience directly into the story. Its the closest a film has come to the total immersion of role-playing video games." Click the title for the full review and don't forget to write your own review of the remake, which is now in theaters everywhere.

Security forces clashed with militants in two northwest Pakistani tribal regions, killing more than 50 alleged insurgents, a paramilitary statement and a government official said Sunday.

A hot chick wearing armor fighting religious dudes? Sounds like a Top Cow book!

Ground rules? Of course there are ground rules!

The Magdalena vol. 2 #2 by Brian Holguin (writer), Eric Basaldua (penciler), Batt (inker - “with Rick Basaldua, Sal Regla, Joe Weems, Billy Tan, and Tom Bar-or” - seriously, that’s what the credits say!), Beth Sotelo (colorist - with Matt Milla), and Robin Spehar and Dennis Heisler (letterers). Published by Image/Top Cow, September 2003.

This comic is pretty bad, but it’s not quite as cringe-worthy a comic as Cyberforce #1 or Demonslayer #2 or Objective Five #3 or the true paragon of craptitude in this series, Untamed #1. If only it had a little more turgid narration!

Let’s crack this sucker open and bask in its glory. The handy recap on the inside cover reads, “For 2000 years, the famed Knights of Malta have trained one special woman in each generation to be the Magdalena - the official warrior/protector of the Catholic Church. For 2000 years, the Magdalenas have battled in secret, protecting humanity from supernatural menaces of all types.”

Okay, I have to stop. There’s so much wrong with that introduction that I must interject. The Knights of Malta, by the way, are real (here’s their web site!), even though they were probably more famous when they were called the Hospitallers. So that’s fine. They have been in existence (yes, technically they’re still around) for slightly more than 1000 years, so the intro is only off by a millennium. 2000 years is stretching it a bit, given that the Catholic Church didn’t actually exist until, at the very earliest, AD 200 (and that’s pushing it). And given the Church’s attitude toward women for most of those centuries, the idea that a religious order closely affiliated with the Papacy would train a woman to be the “official warrior/protector” of said Church is laughable. I know that the only reason it’s a woman is so our heroine can run around in skimpy outfits, but if you’re going to try to inject “realism” into this kind of comic, at least try to make it “realistic.”

But let’s get back to the recap! We learn that Patience, “a young beauty,” has run away from a convent where she was raised. In New York, she meets a “wild woman” named Rowan. A Shepherd of the Knights of Malta named Kristof (don’t you love the portentous names?) comes to “retrieve” Patience because the Knights believe she is the next Magdalena. Rowan is kidnapped, a “pagan menace marshals its forces,” and Kristof takes Patience to Malta, where she comes across the Magdalena’s traditional weapon, the Spear of Destiny, which has been shattered. So you’re up to speed! Are you ready to move on?

On the first page we see a woman and a man, each holding a spear, divided on the page by another spear. The woman is obviously a Magdalena, although it’s not clear if it’s Patience or not (as this is a Top Cow book, all the women look alike except for the fact that some of them have long hair and some have short, and this woman and Patience have long hair, so it’s impossible to tell). She represents the story of Longinus and the Spear of Destiny. As everyone has read DC comics in the past 20 years, I’m going to assume you know about the Spear of Destiny. It can only be wielded by a “maiden of the rarest pedigree,” by the way. That’s a handy way for the creators of this book to keep their heroine “pure” while allowing her to dress like a slut. The spear the man holds is the Spear of Lugh, who was king of the “golden race,” “slayer of one-eyed Balor” (Lugh slew Balor with a slingshot, apparently, but when you’re talking about myths, you get a bit of leeway). It would never miss its mark once thrown, and it had to be cooled in a cauldron when not in use. It was a “thing of strength and vitality, of power used wisely, it is the light that drives away the darkness.” When the “old gods retreated,” the spear was left behind, and one day it would reopen the “golden door” and bring the world to a “shining new dawn.” Phew! Interestingly enough, this story is never again mentioned in the issue. I imagine it comes up in subsequent issues, but it’s strange to start the issue this way when it has no relevance to this particular issue. Oh well. I do like that even when drawing Jesus on the cross, Basaldua can’t escape the Top Cow directive to make everyone sexy:

Sorry if that seems blasphemous to you, but I didn’t draw it!

Moving on, we’re in Malta, in some kind of bunker. Kristof stands in the background, worried about Patience, who’s undergoing some kind of ritual. He’s speaking to someone named Mathias, who counsels, well, patience when dealing with Patience. In the foreground are worker drones wearing outlandish cybernetic outfits that always look ridiculous in comic books. Don’t believe me? Have a gander:

But we’ve no time for mocking the worker drones! Our heroine makes an appearance! You know, when you’re the warrior/protector of the Catholic Church and you fight supernatural menaces, I would imagine you’d want better armor than this:

If you’re mesmerized by the silliness of that outfit, well, you’re not alone. Patience herself comments on it later. Why doesn’t she change into a more sensible suit of armor? Are you kidding? With those killer abs? You people are crazy! Anyway, she’s narrating. This is where the book could have been gloriously awful, but it only approaches it. Think of Untamed #1 as the asymptote of glorious awfulness, while this is only the curve that is asymptotic to it (I love the word “asymptote,” by the way). Patience muses that she wishes she had never left the convent. Then her only friend who wasn’t a nun was kidnapped. Kristof promised to help get Rowan back if she would come to Malta, so she did. She picks up the spearhead (that’s the Spear of Destiny lying shattered in front of her in the picture above) and pricks her finger (through her glove, I should add, because that spear is sharp!). “Suddenly,” she narrates, “it all becomes clear.” Outside, the monitors go blank, and Mathias says they should wait to go in, because what’s happening might be for Patience alone. So let’s see what she’s experiencing!

“It is as if the scales have been lifted from my eyes,” our heroine narrates, as she appears to be transported someplace mystical. She can see how “it all fits together,” like “notes on a scale” which “chime and ring out in unbelievable harmony.” According to Patience, it’s the most glorious sound she’s ever heard and makes her want to cry. As she’s experiencing this rapture, the Spear is flying around her, reconstituting itself. That’s not what she’s talking about, is it? That would be weird if she’s simply describing a bunch of wood turning back into a shaft. Anyway, the doors to the chamber open, and Patience steps out and tells Kristof and Mathias, “Yeah. Um … I think I fixed it.”

Note the knife holster on the boot. That’s practical! Note also the thong. Yes, there will be buttcheeks in this comic. Because protectors of the Catholic Church are all about buttcheeks!

Patience says she’s never felt better, and Mathias tells her she’s feeling the same way the other Magdalenas have felt. But when he tries to take the Spear, Patience tells him it belongs to her now. Kristof tells her that “power held jealously leads only to corruption,” but Patience tells him she’s not turning something so powerful over to someone she doesn’t know. She demands that Mathias tell her, and he acquiesces. They take a stroll through the garden and Mathias tells her that things exist in the world that “defy explanation” and are “truly evil.” Like Twinkies! The Knights of Malta were formed “to combat the greatest dangers to the welfare of mankind.” Well, actually, they were formed to provide care for pilgrims at the hospital in Jerusalem and later to provide an armed escorts for those same pilgrims who were visiting Jerusalem, but whatever. Let Mathias have his little fantasy. He goes on to tell her that “a great power” is “on the move,” “which threatens to unmake the very world.” Well, that sucks. He tells her that the Spear has the gift of foresight, and if she gives it to him, they can have all the answers. She says she’ll do, and just like that, she’s able to see the future! What does she see?

Well, that’s clear. Mathias expresses his surprise and tells her that the Bright Hand is a “radical neo-pagan group.” Man, I hate those guys! And they’re not into “new age foolishness about communing with nature of finding your ‘inner child.’ ” Apparently, they’re “dedicated to restoring old gods to the world.” Patience wants to know what “old gods” means, but before she can react, Mathias takes the Spear and kisses her on the cheek. Then he orders the guards to arrest them because they are in league with the enemy. So he’s the Judas in the garden she prophesied the page before! Man, usually prophecies aren’t so quickly realized or so specific. That’s some good prophesying!

Those are some weird fingers on Mathias. I’m just sayin’.

The guards (that’s them on the cover of the comic, by the way) attempt to arrest Patience and Kristof, but luckily they both have long sticks to fight with. Actually, it appears Patience still has the Spear. Wait a minute, what? Here’s where it looks like when Mathias “takes” it:

I guess that’s not Mathias’ arm in the second panel, but what’s going on in the panel then? Later, it does not look like Patience has the Spear, but then, when she fights, she has it back. But why would Mathias reveal that he’s evil unless he already had the Spear? Shouldn’t he have tried to get it by subterfuge before showing his hand? That doesn’t seem smart. But I guess he didn’t get the Spear, leaving it with Patience so she can fight with it. Maybe he’s playing fair?

The fight means we get more narration! The “world slows down” for Patience, and “fear swells in her throat,” but she chokes it back. Good for her! As she fights, she narrates something odd. “I trained since I was a child to be strong,” she narrates. Okay. “To be discipli