POBB December 18, 2017

Pick of the Brown Bag

December 13, 2017

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, I’m Ray Tate, and this week I conduct the reviews of All-New Wolverine, Bug, Monsters Unleashed, Supergirl, The Titans and the new book Monstro Mechanica.  If you haven’t the time for the regular reviews, check me out on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Best issue of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ever!  The return of Tigra to the Marvel Universe even if briefly skyrockets this good issue of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl to the heights of great.  Not only does scribe Ryan North mark the return, he wisely suggests that Tigra is the first hero Squirrel Girl consult.  Because she’s the most feline and the first of her kind.  Patsy Walker though debuting in the 1940s nevertheless didn’t wear Tigra’s old Cat suit until the late seventies.  Only three other feline heroes predate Tigra: Miss Fury, the original Black Cat and Catwoman, but they prowled around before most of the female superheroes anyway.  

Artist Erica Henderson and colorist Rico Renzi bestow agency to Tigra.  I’d like to think that for some, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, like Marvel Team-Up for me, is their first introduction to the love that is Tigra.  You would be like.  Whoa!  Marvel has a sexy cat woman that can probably kick a lot of ass.  I did not know that.  Damn straight they do.  Just do not buy any back issues with Brian Bendis writing for Tigra.  Bendis hates Tigra, and watch out for artist Ron Wimberly who draws Tigra to resemble a crack whore.

Okay.  So, Squirrel Girl is asking around the cat-themed super-hero community to discover who can talk to cats, namely her best friend Nancy’s cat.  The reason for this being somebody kidnaped Nancy and squirrel pal Tippy.  A familiar private eye suggests another avenue, which Squirrel Girl walks to find herself face to face with Marvel continuity.

Loki usurped Doctor Strange’s position in Strange’s eponymous book.  This coup ties into The Mighty Thor where Loki appears to be involved with Malekith’s war on the realms.  I stress appears because I’m not absolutely certain Loki is actually on the Dark Elf team.  I suspect he instead plays his own long game.  In any case, Loki actually likes Squirrel Girl, but he adores Nancy for reasons that are obvious.

Nancy unwittingly ridicules Odinson on a daily basis, and that makes Loki very happy.  

Despite Squirrel Girl being essentially a funny book, it’s not a funny book like Harley Quinn.  Unbeatable Squirrel Girl nestles in continuity.  North knows Marvel continuity, as evinced by his hilarious Deadpool villain identification cards.  Because of that acumen, North displays one of the more serious consequences of Loki being the Sorcerer Supreme.  Albeit for the sake of the humor, but still.  This twist characterizes Loki as typically biting off more than he can chew.

About now, you may be wondering what all of this has to do with the Silver Surfer and company on the cover.  The reason behind Nancy’s kidnapping is Galactus related even if no Power Cosmic fellow happens to be on deck.

The Orphans of X are a group of nutter racist survivors of mutant mayhem.  They previously kidnaped Daken, son of Wolverine, to lure Laura Kinney, naturally birthed female clone of Wolverine, in a bid to snip the X-Men’s claws. 

As a tactical move, it’s pretty slick, but how do you kill something with a healing factor that makes even zombie rules negligible? All-New Wolverine answers that question with a superbly worked in pun synonymous with deus ex machina.  These items of interest surprisingly seem to end the lives of three players in the Marvel Universe.  They’re not big, but notable in X-Men lore.  No, not Deadpool.  

Putting aside the lethal ramifications rounding up the cliffhanger.  Excepting the sure to kill messengers the Orphans of X send to the Wolverine Family.  Writer Tom Taylor still injects a lot of fun into his story.  For example, Taylor references Doctor Who in a sequence that mirrors the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness.  Taylor brings Gabby's quest for a code name to a close in a hilarious chain of panels.  Artist Juann Cabal produces the highly kinetic action as well as the expressive motions in this excellent issue of the recommended series.

Due to a publishing mishap, Monsters Unleashed had to be recalled.  Was it worth the wait? I’d say so.  Kei Kawade is Kid Kaiju.  Kaiju possesses the unique ability to call down monsters and giants that he draws in his sketchbook.  SHIELD and Damage Control see him as an asset.  So, the former hired famed monster hunting legacy Elsa Bloodstone to protect him.

Previously, the Kid experienced some horrible dreams that led to somnambulism.  In this trance, Kei began to draw.  He woke himself up and became horrified by the possibility that he could pull an abominable bestiary out of his imagination without knowing.  He consulted Elsa.  She used Mordu’s Gate to open a portal to the Savage Land.  Where else would  you take a kid enamored with monsters to center himself?

The trick works but not before Kei unwittingly draws an alternate incarnation of Fin Fang Foom to the earth.  There’s only one thing he can do to fix this problem after his own creatures fail to curb this reptilian menace.  He calls the original Fin Fang Foom to battle his more powerful pretender.

The ancient dragon falls before the other Fin Fang Foom’s might, but our Fin never was mere brawn.  His cunning mind frequently became the more dangerous of the two assets.  Fin Fang Foom connects with Kei and sees how the problem was crafted in the first place.

Kei Kawade isn’t out of control.  The teleportation wasn’t all his doing.  The doppelgänger used Kei’s ability to establish a breach.  He planted seeds of doubt in Kei’s mind.  He callously reinforced the deprecation to further his aims.  

Comics never gave kids an easy time of it.  Since the nineteen thirties, the medium presented children living with the stresses of the Great Depression.  This story by Cullen Bunn creates dramatic tensions and consequences in the life of Kid Kaiju.  It also grants Fin Fang Foom the dignity such a legendary Marvel character deserves.  You might not expect it, but Monsters Unleashed is a psychological exploration into the mind of a child and demonstrates how outward fragility can in fact sheath steel.

In the latest issue of Supergirl writers Jody Hauser and Steve Orlando bring Sharon Vance, known as Strange Visitor, back to the DCU.

Strange Visitor was an engaging after-effect of the silly Superman blue theme.  Superman inexplicably transformed into a being of pure blue energy.  Vance introduced as Clark Kent’s chum from Smallville becomes similarly empowered and crackles off and on through that volume of Superman’s adventures.  She dies poorly in one of the dumbest of DC’s Stupid Events Our Worlds at War, in which empty suits of armor somehow get the upper hand against the most powerful entities in the cosmos.  Fortunately, everybody gets a do-over with the New 52.  If Tigra were a DC character, we would have seen her sooner.

Strange Visitor’s return however isn’t heralded by rose petals and trumpets.  Arch-villain Director Bones of the D.E.O. uses her as bait to entice Supergirl out in the open. 

The Rebellion mug is a nice touch.

Houser and Orlando found a neat, dramatic reason for Supergirl and the Danvers to become a family, as in the television series, or at least series bible.  Introduced in Superman/Batman Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers added D.E.O. agents to their cvs.  Former DEO Director Cameron Chase set them up as Supergirl’s handlers and cover while Supergirl took the guise of Kara Danvers, student at Cat Grant’s scientific charter school.  Chase also became lover to Dr. Shay Veritas, Superman’s and Supergirl’s personal physician.  Both Chase and Shay erased Supergirl’s information from the D.E.O. database.  Bones wants that information to force Supergirl into divulging the secret identities of Superman and Batman.  That ain’t happening.

At first Bones’ plan only attracts a Guardian analogue, but Supergirl soon steps into the fray.  Finally getting through to Sharon.

However, the D.E.O. are everywhere.  This Nazi mentality instigates numerous moves from unexpected resources to keep Supergirl out of enemy hands.

Bones next amps his attack with Deceilia.  Deceilia is a new villain but with a decided whiff of Krypton, Daxam or Apokolips in her sinew and character.  This time through his careless actions Bones becomes responsible for the loss of lives on a cruise ship.

Kudos to artist Robson Rocha for this decidedly bellicose being, so lovingly designed in evil.

Bug's first story concludes.  Writers Lee and Mike Aldred reveal what's really been going on, the identity of Kuzuko and the talking teddy bear.  It's a little more charming than you may have guessed.  The finale explains the falling dominoes and the reasons why Forager is alive.  The way the New God sees through the lies plays fair with the reader, and the Allreds' handling of the Jack Kirby characters is an outstanding tribute.

Monstro Mechanica is the wooden robot created by historical genius Leonardo Da Vinci in the latest book from Aftershock.  Paul Allor's story posits and jibes with history that Leonardo’s much in demand.  The Vatican won’t stop for niceties.

At this point in the story, we meet one of Leonardo's fanciful creations.  

The robot is Leonardo’s bodyguard.  Believe it or not, though  most of Leonardo's notes were lost, this thing actually could have been been more fact than fiction.  Leonardo Da Vinci did plan to build a robot knight.  

As the tale continues, we meet the most outré element in the story, Leonardo’s apprentice Isabel.  The laissez-faire attitude toward same-sex relations also raises an eyebrow.  

Leonardo never had a female apprentice, and he was arrested for homosexual activity so its doubtful people of the time would immediately leap to the conclusion the dullard makes.   Mind you, Marco is a dullard.

Isabel is a spunky character with a winning curiosity.  As illustrated by Wynonna Earp's Chris Evenhaus, she comes off as a thoroughly modern young women stuck in a backward period, ironically the Renaissance.  If anything, Monstro Mechanica demonstrates that the era was hardly a Utopia just better than what came before it.

The story also scuffs the shine of Leonardo.  While yes, a genius and a beyond gifted painter he also built weapons of war.  He's also not above working for the highest bidder.  It's this humanism good and bad that adds a level of danger to the story.  Isabel harbors her own motives for disobeying her master's instructions and letting his automaton learn.  These indicate a very different kind of pragmatic partnership.

Double Donnas duke it out in The Titans as we discover that Wally West’s death is much more exaggerated than first reported.  All these factors negate the chance that Donna is in fact the Vader like Donna from the future.  Nothing heavy, and just philosophically and tactically sound enough to be a little more substantial than confectionary.