The Admirable Campaign, the other half of Xander’s plan from Operation Grizzly. The Venezuela situation has been simmering in the background for a while (as, tragically, it has been in real life). I’d originally thought to have both be full-team presses, but the more I mulled it over, the more I realized making them simultaneous efforts solved a lot of problems for the World’s Smartest Man. So that’s what he had in mind all along.

I’d also wanted the Fool to play a bigger on-camera part with her capture and humiliation of the dictator, but I ran into problems. Writing good comedy is hard, and that kind of roast doesn’t work well with my own sense of humor (though I totally appreciate it). The Fool needed to be in the same camp with the late Don Rickles, only with a shojo mallet. It also depends a lot on knowing the target, and the dictator is a cypher even to most of us in the real world. So her part got reduced to one page of stealing pants and an exploding cigar.

I had to cut some explanatory bits from this issue, for pacing; they’ll be in next issue. On the upside, they got replaced with more sex. The next few issues will be less action as the gang tries to stay out of sight. Some new characters, too. As always, let me know what you think.