The English Student

This volume absolutely broke my heart. And then stomped on it.

Hazel is a toddler. Marko has Mysterious Bandages which no-one explains to us. Alana is working on the Open Circuit, a trashy entertainment channel/show/thing featuring high melodrama which sort of seems to be live-streamed? I'm not sure, because one of the characters says the transmissions have to be checked before they go out to the public. She's an actress, anyway, and the long hours she's doing to earn money for her family put her relationship with Marko under strain.

Meanwhile, Prince Robot IV is missing in action, his newborn is captured by a robot malcontent, and Gwendolyn and Sophie are looking for an elixir to save The Will.

So I loved the gender reversal in caring roles that goes on here: Alana is the one who goes out to work to provide for her family, with Marko as the househusband who stays at home all day with Hazel. Generally, the volume goes into depths of characterisation which weren't really present in the third volume, which I really liked as well.

And. The bit where Hazel says

That last panel, as well? AWESOME.

Possibly my favourite volume yet.