I'm kind of impressed that the payoff to the first scene came 24 issues later. That requires the sort of planning (and series longevity) that you don't get a lot of these days. Or so it seems, given the way creative teams change or books get rebooted.

Only 2 million dollars for a telepathic earpiece? (or was that per component and the full cost is even more?) I'm sure he could still find someone willing to back the cost for a bunch of them... unless it was also a case of rare components as well.