SPOILERS!!
Things are really heating up among the Minutemen. We now have 3 distinct groups:
1) Graves, Burns and Remi. Burns seems to be very loyal to Graves. Remi is a bit crazy and seems more like a hired gun.
2) Wylie and Dizzy. Wylie was the “field leader”, he’s smarter and the others would listen to him. But he’s also conflicted about what happened with Rose. Dizzy is still mourning Shepherd.
3) Lono with Loop, Victor and Jack. Lono has his own agenda, as explained by Victor: Lono wanted Megan to be shot but not dead, so that he could blame Graves and solidify his own position. Victor is clearly keeping an eye on Lono for Graves. Jack is just going with the flow, after being waken up.
In Punch Line (#76-79) these three groups cross paths: Victor goes to Wylie by himself. Wylie goes to see Graves by himself, but is mistakenly killed by Remi. Graves is not happy about this. Victor takes Branch and Dizzy, Benito is killed by Branch. Lono gets there too late, and only sees Benito.
There is also an extended flashback to Atlantic City, where Graves kills Roland Dietrich. Also, Graves tells Wylie that a man of the Trust was responsible for Rose’s move against the Medici.
The epilogue (#80) is puzzling. First of all, Benito is not dead. So Wylie’s plan was to fake his death so that Benito would live and tell Augustus about what he knows. I’m not sure I understand Branch’s position: Victor kept him alive because of Victor, why? Now Cole has to deal with him because he didn’t go to find Echo, is he going to kill him? He clearly developed a friendship with Branch, which is why Victor is sorry for Cole.
The other puzzling explanation is from Graves: both Shepherd and Wylie tried to keep Dizzy apart from him to protect Graves. Why is she dangerous to Graves? Why would Shepherd and Wylie even want to protect Graves?
The final arc of the volume sees Ronnie in Italy trying to retrieve the painting from Echo. Last time we saw her she was arrested, but I guess she got out of that one (maybe extradition?) and she still has the painting. After many double crosses and sexual encounters, “Roonie” gets the painting and is with Echo. The story ends ambivalently: did Echo shoot Ronnie?
The other story of the arc is about Shepherd’s past. Graves tells Dizzy how he met Shepherd. It was nice to see both Curtis and Shepherd in their young age. A shame that Curtis was discriminated by the Trust. Shepherd was already very smart then.