500 Miles, Hellfire 2: Parts 1-5 Reviewed

Happy New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Apocalypse! (Not that I actually believe in that, mind)

Sorry... couldn't resist the Pinkie Pie...

But anyway, welcome to 2012, and hopefully a full year of blogs from me. To start us off this year, I have another 500 Miles review! It's the first 5 chapter of Hellfire 2. And yes, I am trying to cut down on the summary... which tends to get super-detailed. So... here we go!

500 Miles - Hellfire 2, Parts 1-5  by Princess Alexandria

     We pick up with Raven's story immediately after Demise has left Raven's body. It's slightly disconcerting that Raven doesn't trust Mystique at this point, because Demise clearly did. However, it does make all sorts of sense considering what Raven has been through. Raven starts her "witness protection" thing as a bartender in New Orleans, Louisiana. Doesn't last too long, only the first chapter. And it was probably a good thing Raven ran into Logan on her way out of town instead of one of the other X-Men who came with him. He understands her need to be away from the X-Men without much explanation on her part and lets her go on her way.

     I really love Mystique's more careful interaction with Raven this next time around as Raven's switching identities. This chunk of chapters reveals that this Marvel Universe is crossed-over with the CSI universe... which I didn't notice the first time through.

     We meet Lois, who runs the Kitten Ranch borthel Raven now works in; and Drahke and Jewel, two of the prostitutes that Raven interact with on a regular basis. Personally, I love Drahke. She kind of reminds me of Mystique... confortable and teasing Mystique... and we find out that Drahke is a Mutant who can breathe fire. There's also some interaction with a teenaged boy named Terrance, who lives near Raven. His father's an asshole and mistreats his son... mostly because Terrance is gay.

     It's revealed that Drahke works for Lady Heather (of CSI fame) at her BDSM club. Raven gets some lessons in what the Dom-Sub relationship should be like over the course of her painting both Drahke and Lady Heather.

     Timeline-wise, we're around the time Mystique is working for X-Factor, which we find out on a hint from Irene. Also, Men in Black apparently just opened in theaters. This puts us around 1997, if we're following our world's timeline. Did you notice I have an obsession with timelines?

     The chunk of chapters ends with Raven leaving town, taking a newly Mutated Terrance with her. there's some time that's gone by between their original move to California and the end of the chapter... Raven had a little bout with alcohol and drugs... and a suicide attempt around a Christmas somewhere in there. Irene has passed away by the end of this chapter, which made me cry. And Raven has followed Mystique, with help from Irene, onto a cruise ship in order to comfort the grieving shifter.

Character Spolight: Lady Heather!

     Didn't think I'd be doing another of these, did ya? Well, Lady Heather is possibly my favorite recurring character from CSI so... yeah...

     Lady Heather is a professional dominatrix who runs an S&M club. She originally appears in Season 2 of CSI (the Las Vegas one) when a murder occured at the club. She and Grissom are attracted to each other and she and Catherine have a talk about their daughters. Heather later appears in Seasons 3, 6, 7, 9, and 11. Her character evolves over these time periods, moving in response to her daughter, Zoe, and later, her granddaughter, Allison.

     Somewhere along the line, Heather gives up her club and ends up as a sex therapist. And... that's all they wrote. Delving too much into her character would spoil things, so I'm not going there. Suffice to say, in 500 Miles, Heather helps Raven in several ways, least of which coming to terms with what happened to her in the Hellfire Club and getting herself back.

Housekeeping

As usual, the links to various important sources are in the section headers. Links to previous chapter reviews are on the "Reviewed" page accessed through the header. For those reading this on the Blogger site, this header is on the main website... or you can attempt to use the link bubble-rotating-thingy in the sidebar. I highly roccomend that you read 500 Miles and everything else I've reviewed or am reviewing. Alexandria has some new chapters to Adrift in a Room of Mirrors up and new Twilight fanfiction called Tossing Stones up.

Over the break, I've been busy watching lots of Stargate, Dollhouse, and cross-stitching ornaments... which didn't get done... I've also done some art that will have shown up on my DeviantArt page. I hope to return to regular posts now that the holidays are over.

Love ya, Jessie.