Back in ages past...

Though I already had some awareness of Ricky Jay, it wasn't until his appearances on Mythbusters and Deadwood that I really got interested in him. I've since read his Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, Jay's Journal of Anomalies, Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck, and (thanks to the internet) Cards As Weapons.

It's the last one that brings me to Peter David's Madrox #3. In this particular issue of that excellent miniseries, Madrox is handcuffed and locked in a supply closet. Because a copy would still have the handcuffs on (thus spawning the Jamie Madrox Handcuff Duplication Corporation), he has to escape by other means. Fortunately:


So he gets out of the handcuffs. Now, Ricky Jay isn't an escape artist, so I thought there must be some reason to mention him. After Madrox manages to spawn a copy on the other side of the door, he gets into an argument with the copy. The thug-guards down the hall, who had been playing cards, overhear them and come to investigate, one of them still holding the deck of cards:


That's where my brain went all, "Oh no he di-int!" The thugs hear Jamie still in the closet, and the one with the cards opens the door. Jamie knocks him down, knocking the cards free:


He catches a card:


And:


Fuck yeah!

Okay, he killed a guy, but he wasn't terribly thrilled about it, so he's not about to turn into The Punisher With Some Cards.

Thank you, Peter David, for your gentle stroking of my (if you will) Jay-Spot.


(The title of this entry was taken from the Crash Test Dummies' Sonnet 2 (And Back in Ages Past) which coincidentally enough also includes the line, "The brutal rampaged on their bloody way." Godspeed, fair Rampage.)