Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #5 Review
Writer, Artist, Colorist & Letterer: Matt Kindt
Cover Artists: Matt Kindt & Mike del Mundo
Editors: Sierra Hahn & Joelena Despard
Designer: Winston Gambro
Production: Melanie Ujimori
Flux House Production: Ella Kindt
Publisher: Oni Press
Issue Description: 32 Pages, Full Color
Price: $4.99 US
Release Date: November 4, 2026
The future has never looked bleaker. Every day brings new
opportunities for society to go off the rails. To stave off Humanity’s
extinction, Mind Mgmt agents work to prevent bad actors from igniting the spark
that will detonate the world.
The secret government agency trained Jon Swon to see with
his nose. By mixing custom scents, he can focus witnesses’ memories or pacify
criminals. His partner, Gemini Delphi, has mastered the world’s most lethal
martial arts. Yet she’d rather employ her abilities to calm suspects. After
arresting the world’s luckiest assassin, what case will the existential
detectives tackle next? And why doesn’t Jon’s boss want him to remember more of
his past? Let’s leap into Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #5 and see!
Story
The Mind Mgmt Agency used to train its agents to work in
pairs. By organizing agents into small cells, the leaders believed they could
insulate their organization against corruption. But after a shakeup, one woman
runs the government agency. Eraser tests her people until they break. She mixes
truth with lies until they crack. Then she congratulates herself on finding
weaknesses in her organization.
As Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #5, another agent seeks to
escape from Eraser's manipulation. He tells a police detective about his
experiences. Under questioning, the man repeats his story and explains how his
superiors controlled him. He wonders what happened to the other agents he
trained with.
After apprehending Ayush, Jon Swon and Gemini Delphi began
another investigation. But rather than picking up where the previous issue left
off, Matt Kindt rewinds the clock to reveal how and why their quarry went
missing. The story follows different characters as Gemini Delphi's mission
statement changes.
Once again, Jon and Gemini's lives circle back to their
boss's insatiable need to test her agents. The world may constantly perch on
the edge of disaster. Yet, like the Duplo Brothers' Sleep Deep podcast, the
truth is whatever Eraser needs to manipulate her agents in Mind Mgmt: New &
Improved #5.
Art
Like literature's greatest consulting detective, when Jon
tried to remember elusive facts, smoking multiple cigarettes aided his
cognitive abilities. Now, the man in the interview room smokes multiple
cigarettes simultaneously. Outside the room, a police officer at a desk watches
rows of monitors as a man walks behind him. Taking a seat, the visitor watches
over the officer’s shoulder. He recreates what he sees inside pre-drawn panel
outlines. When the artist leaves the police station, a blond man with hunched
shoulders follows. A lightbulb becomes a symbol of enlightenment, while layers
of secreted equipment reveal the science of perception.
A blue tint covers the questioning as cigarette smoke
surrounds the frightened agent’s head like a calming collar. Pink accompanies
the people privy to secret knowledge who prevent the world from falling apart.
The man with hunched shoulders wears a yellow jacket, but the moisture
trickling down his face isn’t from a recent storm. Most of the watercolors on
the white and tan pages follow the agency’s reporting format. One black-outlined
page, adorned with another medium, reveals scenes from a non-agent's
perspective. Yet blue and pink converge in a location that bridges a frightened
man's past and future in Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #5.
The frightened agent’s confession fills white boxes with
typed letters. Dialogue appears in white, beige, and blue-tinged balloons.
Off-camera dialogue and characters’ thoughts fill colored and black narrative
boxes. Yet despite all the action and violence in a seemingly tranquil city,
sound effects accompany a book that captures what paper, cameras, and
microphones never can. Thanks to Oni Press and Superfan Promotions for
providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
While Jon Swon helps Gemini Delphi search for another rogue
agent, he sees more examples of Eraser’s mismanagement. The Human costs of
training agents may seem unnecessary to Jon. But as the government agency
charged with maintaining world peace goes to war against itself, Jon glimpses
more memories Eraser doesn’t want him to remember in Mind Mgmt: New &
Improved #5.
Rating 9/10
For all the collectible covers see Mind Mgmt: New &
Improved #5 Cover Preview.
For how Agent Ayush killed an Immortal, see Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #4 Review.
For how Agents Swon and Delphi escape a death cult in Arizona, see Mind Mgmt: New & Improved #3 Review.
