POBB August 23, 2017

Pick of the Brown Bag

August 23, 2017

by

Ray Tate

Hello.  My name is Ray Tate, and each week I review the current batch of comic books in my Brown Bag.  Today I examine Action Comics, Batgirl, Blue Beetle, Harley Quinn, Heathen, Red Sonja, Scooby-Doo Team-up and Shirtless Bear Fighter.  As always if you haven’t time for the in depth reviews, you can check me out on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.  

Though Lex Luthor will become Superman’s arch-nemesis in all media.  He did not appear in Superman’s titles until Action Comics #23.  

The Luthor you see looks and acts little like the more familiar model.  Don’t worry.  Luthor exchanges his Ming the Merciless pajamas for a business suit in Superman #4 printed a month later.  

Luthor returns inexplicably bald in Superman #10.  He’s not exactly the ideal Luthor, but he’s getting there.  

For the better part of seventy years, Lex Luthor pitted his intelligence against Kal-El’s gamut of alien power in the quest for world domination.  Because that’s what you did if you were nuts and smart.  The trouble is that as real history progressed, Luthor’s original motives became passé.  Luthor started losing a rationale to kill Superman.  The powers that be tried real hard to find one.  

I intend to become the wealthiest man on earth. Only Superman stands in my way.  Superman caused my hair loss and must die! I hate the earth and all its people.  It must die!  Clark Kent possesses a secret that I must know even if it drives me mad! Mad, I tell you! That Big Red S is the one obstacle that impedes my total economic success in dealing arms and other lethal devices to world powers.  Wait.  Maybe Luthor’s a Xenophobe.  Yeah, that’s it.  

The Powers That Be finally had to admit.  If Luthor is really, really intelligent, he could not help reaching an epiphany.  The world sure as hell needs a Superman.  Humans are as tiny as Precambrian lifeforms and the dinosaurs.  Luthor may hate Superman for whatever reason, but he’s sharp enough to go beyond personal feeling and realize that “this is a job for Superman!”  

The new 52 came along and kicked over the nostalgic house of cards.  The writers imbued Lex with more depth.  Arguably a reflection of Michael Rosenbaum’s meaningful portrayal of Lex as Clark's friend on Smallville.  

With his criminal history essentially erased, Luthor could no longer be the villain in Superman’s titles.  The logic of the this age-old battle no longer stood up to even minor scrutiny.  Luthor would instead save Superman from certain death even take pity on his former enemy.  

He would join the Justice League, and despite nobody but Wonder Woman trusting him, he would go on to contribute to the side of good.  

That’s where we are now.  Luthor’s suit of armor bearing the S symbol is a mistaken gift from Apokolips.  He wears the symbol not to honor Superman but to mock him.  However, Lex is sincere in his want to help, or is he?

The latest issue of Action Comics finishes the two part Superman and Lex Luthor team-up against modern villain the Machinist.  This is a reinforcement book, in a way, and signified by the return to classic numbering.  Is this a return to classic Lex?  Hmmn.

Remember what I said.  Lex has no motive to kill Superman, and the Rebirth event that split Superman in two and fused him back together again altered time and space.  In significant and minor ways.  For example, Lex is now back to attending school with Lana Lang and Clark Kent in Smallville, according to history, but they were never friends.  The restoration however precludes most of the post-Crisis.  As I am want to say.  Good riddance.  The lion's share of the new 52 history between Lex and Superman is bedrock.  Still, old habits die hard, or do they?

Rob Williams’ Action Comics is many things.  It’s an exciting adventure.  It’s a strong double-act.  It’s smartly written.  Williams runs through the entire history of Lex in one-issue.  Think about it.  The Machinist's mechanical tick, drives Lex mad.  He wants to kill Superman.  In this state, Lex thinks his intellect makes him superior to the Man of Steel.  His Xenophobia comes back.  His use of advanced weapons technology refers back to the businessman/arms dealer persona.  Williams however doesn't go back on Superman's history, and that's what makes the story work.  Superman never gives up on Lex.  He never keeps hoping that his greatest enemy will snap out of it and be good.  As a result, Williams' story is one of the most optimistic.  You root for Lex and Superman.  

Who growing up in the Bronze Age of comics would have ever imagined that these old enemies would be sitting together side by side, enjoying the view?  Find out what made that happen in Action Comics.

Batman drops in on the Blue Beetle, and perhaps the most startling thing about the story is how writer Keith Giffin and J.M. DeMatteis without hesitation discard the Bat's and Bug's history from their run of Justice League.

The Giffin, DeMatteis, Maguire Justice League was an outlier in the post-Crisis.  It was funny, charming and at times the purest of super-hero titles.  You never had to wonder about Batman being human--hard ass sure, but human, or the Black Canary being an effective fighter.  You never needed to worry about whether or not the Bat and the Canary had a history.  She's known him for years.  Blue Beetle and Booster Gold perpetually pursued get-rich quick schemes and Maxwell Lord, the League's human manager, would blow numerous gaskets over them.  Justice League was comfort food and well-written comedy/drama.  So why on earth would Giffin and DeMatteis voluntarily get rid of the Super-Buddies? Simple.  They were gone the moment some idiot singled out Maxwell Lord as a mind-controlling arch-villain that shoots his friend, his friend, Blue Beetle in the head.  You see, in the post-Crisis, you were forbidden to be happy.

So, yeah, in the new 52-Rebirth Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle never joined the Justice League.  Still, Giffin and DeMatteis couldn't resist establishing that the Bat and the Bug know each other.  Therein lies the cornerstone of the underlying comedy in Blue Beetle.  The funny is reminiscent of the Justice League, but it's not entirely the same feeling.  

DeMatteis and Giffin transported their Justice League 3000 characters to Blue Beetle's time.  Terri Magnus just divulged future information that she shouldn't have to Batman.  DeMatteis and Giffin are underrated Batman writers, what with them writing on the funny book.  However, their version of Batman was frequently more valid than whatever the hell metastasized in the Batman titles of the time.  Batman just digested that little morsel Terri gave him.  He's not going to forget it.  Given his encounter with an alternate universe Batman during his team up with the Flash, the gears are turning.  That little titbit could in fact factor into the battle against the Watchmen that DC keeps teasing.

Though making apt dramatic appearances, Batman stays in the background for most of this adventure and watches new Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes go to work.  His work involves the new villain Ghostfire, sort of introduced last issue.  This is Ghostfire's first official encounter with the Blue Beetle. 

The beetle that Jaime "wears" is sentient, and last issue, the scarab and Jaime agreed to work together for the sake of mutualism.  So, Jaime doesn't go into battle anymore with Ted yelling in his ear.  Instead, the dialogue shifts to the scarab, and it creates a more interesting, smoother dynamic.  Killing some of the friction between old-new that was a little trite.

In addition, the Beetle-Scarab union allows for some interesting twists, and it's these twists that impress Batman enough to see that Jaime is a good Beetle.  Ghostfire isn't an ordinary bank robbing out to rule the world villain.  The scarab sees into his soul, and Jaime takes a different tactic that's humanistic and more in keeping with both the themes of the new 52 and Giffin and DeMatteis Justice League.

For reasons I cannot fathom, a number of fans want Robin and Batgirl to be a couple.  As far as I can tell this shipping desire developed in the post-Crisis.  Where else.  The desire was largely due to Batgirl’s age reduction in flashback.

Originally, Batgirl was older than Robin.  Midpoint in her career, she became a Congresswoman.  In order to serve in Congress, you must at least be twenty-five.  Robin was still in college seeking his bachelor’s degree.  He could not have been more than eighteen, or older and extremely stupid.  The idea of May-December romances was not widely accepted back in the day.  So, if you grew up watching Batman or reading comics in the Bronze Age, you probably scoff at the very idea of Batgirl and Robin being together. 

Any time I see Nightwing and Batgirl in either one’s book I just cringe and prepare myself to be punched in the mouth.  You see.  The shipping wasn't an inference.  The post-Crisis writers implied an eventual relationship and retroactively planted chemistry between the two.  Another factor in this star-crossed disaster is Batgirl’s crippling.  It seemed the more adult Robin was a sort of consolation prize for the now less adult Barbara Gordon.  Like Turtle Wax.  They were a match.  Everybody demanded so.  She could no longer actively fight crime, save as an information broker.  Dick needed somebody that could understand his needs as a crime fighter.  It’s so nauseatingly simple, and sexist, and let’s leave it at that.  I could write a book on the subject.  Suffice to say, if Dick Grayson ended up in wheels, the story would have drastically changed.

The Batgirl/Nightwing dichotomy resurfaced in the new 52, but surprisingly, Gail Simone and Kyle Higgins, the writers of the characters' respective series wanted none of it.  Simone was intent to show Batgirl's worth, and Kyle Higgins did something I thought impossible.  He turned Dick Grayson from whiney little bitch into a good man.  Dick's and Barbara's relationship?  Only friendship.  Now, it's Hope Larson's and Chris Wildgoose's turn, and they impressed me with this issue of Batgirl.  Despite the hype in house ads, they downplay the non-romance for a sturdily constructed mystery with roots in Nightwing's and Batgirl's past.

Because of the new 52, Batgirl's and Nightwing's history is fertile ground.  Simone restored Batgirl to Commissioner Gordon's direct bloodline.   Barbara's mother left the family because of a fruitcake son threatening to kill his sister Barbara if she didn't.  

Barbara became Batgirl during a criminal assault on a police precinct.  She had a taste of crimefighting.  Batman seemed to approve.  So she continued and helped Batman on numerous cases. In the current issue of Batgirl, her crimefighting life has just begun.  Like most stories of this ilk, the creative team switch back and forth between two different periods.  The segues are seamless, and the back and forth interesting.  The new character of Ainsley is full of life, and because we know something will happen to her there's a palpable sense of foreboding every time she appears, despite exhibiting normal and pleasant behavior.  In the present day, all roads lead to the Mad Hatter.  Larson and Wildgoose engage the reader with a smartly staged encounter between Dynamic Duo and the Mad Hatter's former goons.

The use of Pork Pie is particularly inventive.  It's a rare hat, and the nickname is a neat little callback to the nineteen thirties and forties.  During this skirmish, we see Batgirl is still indeed Barbara Gordon's book.  Nightwing has a meaty guest appearance, but Batgirl is the star, saving his sorry ass.

Nighting is for the most part acceptable, but he’s less mature than portrayed by Higgins, and this scene is just creepy.

You might have a thing for Batgirl, but you don’t play with her hair unless she asks.  That’s just plain wrong.  Incidentally, Grayson is on the rebound.  So the longing ain't going nowhere.  When Batgirl and Nightwing track down the Mad Hatter, they’re in for a shock, but it’s not the kind you expect.  As to the orchestrator of this little chess match, she’s a new take on Batman villain.

Harley Quinn zanily and bloodily concludes her battle against the Unconquerable 25, which sounds like a bad retitling of a Japanese samurai film.  Points.  The Mayor’s aide hired the assassins to off Harley during an impromptu birthday party.  Not only must they contend with a mad as a hornet’s nest Harley Quinn, they must deal with Poison Ivy and Catwoman.

Harley though is a one woman wrecking ball, and the Unconquerable start paying attention to what new crazy they’re dealing with.

I’m not a huge fan of wholesale slaughter, but this is a case of self-defense.  It’s a whole kit and caboodle of self-defense that Harley enjoys immensely, but it’s fair and remarkably over the top.  Furthermore, the Unconquerable 25 cannot be loved since they intended to kill all the noncombatants attending Harley’s party.  They also comported themselves as if it were their right to murder innocent people.  So, there’s really no excuse, and I cannot feel any sympathy toward these clucks.

Writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti add Harley Sinn to the mix.  I encountered Sinn in a previous issue of Harley Quinn.  She didn't make that much of an impression.  Harley Sinn intended to kill Harley awhile back but only ended up captured and locked in the basement.  Sinn in this issue throws in with the clown and fights back against the Unconquerable.  As a result, I had a warmer feeling toward her.

The leader of the Unconquerable demonstrates stones but not sense.  He’s in the thick of it, and he woefully underestimates his target.  The kibosh on this polished assassin who smugly believes he has the upper hand is a particularly satisfying slapstick moment.  Even more so thanks to Harley Quinn artist John Timms. 

You would think that the majority of the credit in this kind of kinetic bombast should go to Timms, but the dialogue courtesy of Palmiotti and Conner is amazing as well.  Because of the subject, Harley cracks wise with gusto as she puts down the Unconquerable.  The dissing of the opponents is matched by a much deeper story involving this man.

The mover and shaker listening to Harley’s tale of the Unconquerable’s assassination attempt sets the stage for a new story arc and contrasts the visceral with a refined political attack.

Red Sonja opens with the She-Devil learning the ins and outs of gunplay.  Sonja doesn’t really get the hang of it, but she does find something that does strike her fancy.

I should point out that this version of Sonja comes from a time that never existed.  Robert E. Howard's Hyborea was more or less based upon a fusion of the medieval and barbarians.  Crossbows existed forever.  However, they were big things that fired bolts and required muscle to pull back the bowstring.  The lighter weight, accuracy and different ammo of the modern crossbow would appeal to Sonja.  By the by, that is artist Caesar Gomez handing out sweets.  This issue exemplifies however that he’s more than just a babe artist.  Check out this illustration of Sonja’s friend Holly’s father.

That is a beautiful representation of an old, heavy set fatherly type.  It’s furthermore unique.  I’ve never quite seen a face like that, and Gomez's comedic expression is astounding.  However, before we get to why Sonja, Holly and Spike wind up in jail, we must go back a day or two to the continuation of the trio’s road trip, ostensibly to find the fate of Sir Max.  The police officer who got shot back through to Sonja’s time.

Writer Amy Chu keeps things breezy and humorous, but Red Sonja is definitely not kids stuff.  Sonja declared war on the dope dealing biker gang Las Aranhas on the behalf of a grieving mother, who hired her seek revenge.  The FBI picked up the pieces.  Literally.

Chu never lets the reader forget that Sonja comes from a different time.  She’s a sword for hire and doesn’t care about the niceties of our modern society.  Although Max reasonably tempered her pragmatism.  The bikers receive no such courtesy.  

This issue includes a quick bout against more bikers, which indeed sends the trio to the pokey and the felons to the hospital.  Holly comes from rich blood leading to an easy out and a trip he stately manor of Holly’s parents.  There, Chu reinstates the idea that Sonja might not want to go back to the Hyborean Age in comedic fashion.  Gomez’s timing for this skit is perfect.  Like I said more than a babe artist, but what a babe artist, and Amy Chu has become my favorite Red Sonja writer.

Viking girl Aydis discovered she liked girls.  So her village demanded that she marry a man of their choice to cure her of her problem or that her father kill her.  Also, a cure.  Her father instead chose to free her.  So, Aydis set out to rescue Brynhilde, she of Norse myth and Wagner's Ring cycle.  There's a catch.  Odin is always watching, and in this issue of Heathen writer/artist/creator Nicole Altieri elegantly explains why.  So, Aydis now sets her sights on Odin's eye.  Pun intended.

Many myths and folklore are based upon the hero traveling and meeting up with strange denizens.  In that respect Heathen is no different.  Its lesbian gaze however modernizes the stories of old.  Altieri also invents a likable protagonist in Aydis, who though willing to fight would rather barter and bargain.  Aydis' first stop on her journey is to meet up with the Captain of a ship who might make her trek easier.

The Captain's concern for the safety of her crew seems to impede Aydis' progress.  So she continues to amble and runs into her old friend Ruadan the fox.  It seems that pesky mermaids stole Ruadan's cloak of shape shifting, and in sweet and hilarious artwork, Aydis notes that he's stuck in the form of a fox.  Highly bemused by the mighty Ruadan's plight, she goes to see the mermaids, very differently portrayed than legend, to see if she can't work out some kind of a deal.

A bargain is struck very cleverly and this gives Aydis the idea for a return visit to the Captain.  The brisk chapter is filled with richly characterized players and clever writing.  A treat for the faithful and a good point for newcomers to start.

Captured by a toilet paper manufacturing company CEO and his own Brother Bear, Shirtless Bear-Fighter wallows in self-pity and experiences his form of kryptonite.  As the bizarre story continues, a traitor reveals himself and we learn exactly what happened to Clementine, Shirtless Bear-Fighter's great love.

Although the story is a laugh out loud funny monstrosity, the creative team grant much dignity to the fate of Clementine.  Yes, you can argue that it's a spoof of every loss suffered by every driven crimefighter, but it's also heartfelt.  The character of Clementine is too well drawn to dismiss as a mere joke.

Though Shirtless is a Bear Fighter, for reasons explained here, he's also the protector of the forest, and in that respect he meets the criteria of the Wild Man archetype.  The whole thing is preposterous of course, but most Wild Men myths are once you get down to it.  From Tarzan to Bigfoot.  It's the execution that counts.  Because of Clementine, because of Shirtless' feelings for her, because of his growing attraction to another character and the overwhelming odds, the book becomes not just a comedy but valid in the drama department as well.

Scooby-Doo Team-Up presents one of the funniest mashes thus far.  Top Cat was a cartoon series from the 1960s.  It capitalized on The Phil Silvers Show which you may, may, remember as Sgt. Bilko.  Silvers portrayed Bilko as a con man, gambler and scrounger in the army with a group of like-minded privates trying to make a dishonest buck.  Top Cat was essentially an anthropomorphized version.  Though Top Cat fostered its own style and because of cartoon physics operated in a more absurd theater.

Scooby-Doo starts innocently enough with Top Cat hosting an illegal card game.  Never you mind about the idea of cat poker being against the law.  You've obviously leaped over the idea of cats with sufficient enough intelligence and dexterity to play cards.  The floating game attracts the attention of Top Cat's friendly nemesis Officer Dibble, and this forces Top Cat into drastic action, which forces Dibble to counter T.C.'s move with one of his own.

The dominoes fall, and Top Cat throughout tries to use his silver tongue in outrageously funny bits to convince Scooby and the Gang to go home.  He's actually dumbfounded that the ghost breakers manage to see through his "clever" ruse, which left me almost in tears.

As various parties trade the ghost back and forth, you realize that Sholly Fisch is actually applying the classic con three card monte to the narrative, and that is just perfect for Top Cat.

In addition to the main scheme, Fisch plays with the idea of the T.C.'s crew being feline but not true cats.  This is particularly true when Fancy Fancy sets his sights on Daphne.  Her reaction is priceless.  The addition of well known participants in Scooby-Doo adventures creates a striking metafiction quality to the whole affair, and Dave Alzarez makes Top Cat and Crew far more animated than they ever were in the limited production of Hanna-Barbera.