POBB June 6, 2018

Pick of the Brown Bag

June 6, 2018

by

Ray Tate

The Pick of the Brown Bag welcomes you to a big week of comic book reviews.  Today I look at Astonishing X-Men, Batman, Dazzler, Immortal Hulk, Infinity Countdown, Justice League, Red Sonja and new title from Vault Comics Vagrant Queen.  I’ll also dissect the first two issues of The Formidables from Red Anvil.  As always should you not be able to check out the blog, you can peek at the teensy capsules on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.  First, a few words about Solo.

Man, did critics sharpen their knives for Solo.  They seem so delighted that it didn’t make a gazillion dollars.  So happy that the Disney-Marvel-Star Wars juggernaut seems to have stumbled for once.

I had a rollicking good time.  Solo did everything I wanted.  It presented all of Han Solo’s touchstones: from when he meets the Wookie to the Kessel Run.  It gave me two good heists.  Very good heists.  The acting was throughout amazing, and it made me wish for a prequel involving the crew that Han Solo joins.  Solo actually works without the Star Wars universe.  It’s overall a superb science fiction actioner.  So, screw you critics.  Oh, and if you’re the same people that lauded Blade Runner 2049, screw you again. 

The Formidables takes place in the waning years of the 1950s where writer/artist Chris Malgrain presents the stark contrast between White America and Black America.  The history lesson doesn’t just serve as background.  It foreshadows what’s to come.

The lunatic Storm Fighter doesn’t give a rat’s behind about white supremacy.  He’s a Cold War communist using the Ku Klux Klan as scapegoats.  Not to worry.  Malgrain isn't some whack job Fox News apologist.  He depicts that the KKK are worthless skin bags. 

Storm Fighter’s abominable actions seek to attract Frank Foster, scientist and engineer.  

Frank leads the Formidables.  The signal goes out, and our heroes introduce themselves.  The inventively named Stalagmite is a Thing stand-in.

Teenage sweethearts Alex and Janelle sport snazzy powers which include atomic manipulation ala Firestorm and your standard blasting ability.  There's a shrinking guy who lacks Ant-Man's and Wasp's technology to control insects.  This proves a problem when facing a swarm of hornets that take an interest in him.

The Formidables go to town on Storm Fighter, but things sour quickly.  I don't really know Janelle, but her plight looks damn painful.  Malgrain emphasizes the hurt she feels when the team finally forces the bastard to release her.  You cannot help but sympathize given the depiction.

In Round Two, our heroes get the better of the goofball with the shrinker’s harassing proving to be the Soviet Agent’s bane.  This leads to a very striking moment when Malgrain differentiates his title from the comics of the past.

Formidables is a good book that also opens a love letter to John Byrne in the illustration.  The Communism angle is a little overplayed, but the diversity theme works in the The Formidables' favor.

Jean Grey returned from the dead with a desire to make the world a better place for all species.  She realizes that she cannot selfishly impose her ideal.  

Instead, she turns to poets, philosophers and scientists.  She conducts a telepathic survey to find out what will work to broker a peace between mutants and humans.  

Backed by Namor and the Black Panther, she speaks at the United Nations and seems to be laying the groundwork for meaningful change.  Then a murderous spoilsport from the X-Men’s past literally assassinates Jean Grey's hopes.  

Now, framed for a crime she didn't commit, Jean is on the run with a group of X-Men.  The team includes Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Honey Badger and two newer mutants Trinary and Gentle.  Together they combat the hate fomented in part by a new type of Sentinel.

X-Men Red acts on three fronts.  First it’s a good X-Men book that doesn’t rely on the intricacies of convoluted X-Men continuity.  So, you’re brain shan't seize up while reading the story.  Second it’s an excellent superhero story.  Third, it’s a potent metaphor.  

The man in the bed is a gunman who killed an unarmed woman.  Unlike the real world, it wasn't an act of hate.  Nightcrawler teleports the father to see his son.  There’s a tearful reunion.  

None of this happens in real life.  An old enemy telepathically whispers in the ear, uses the Sentinels to turn even X-Men against each other.  It’s a problem, but it can be defeated.  

Trinary simply excises the Sentinel.  How wonderful to do that in reality.  Like the surgical/psychiatric marvels that Doc Savage performed years prior in his Crime College.  In our frame of reference the gunman is guilty.  The hate in gunmen festers.  They don’t get better.  They never will.  They become estranged from the people that love them and humanity.  Something happened to turn them in the past, and without a time machine or more advanced psychiatric medicine than we possess, that something will always stay with them.  They always will be a threat.

Writer Tom Taylor expands the metaphor to reflect the isolationism and jingoism spreading throughout nations, including the United States.

X-Men Red begins in Poland where the enemy turns a world leader against mutantkind.  This forces a mass exodus, but that’s not good enough.  Going against history, for of course the Nazis first took Poland, the Polish government intends to exterminate the mutants fleeing their own country via the Baltic Sea.  

Jean and her team protect the refugees and in the most non lethal way possible.  The method makes Jean one of the most successful of the X-Men.  She’s living up to Xavier's original aim.  She's showing humanity that mutants can be a positive force, one that deters violence rather than adds to it.  

So much happens in an economy of pages, and for that reason, X-Men Red is one of the best books you can add to your subscription list.  Thanks to Supergirl's Mahmud Asrar it also looks just as damn good as the layered story.

In the vein of X-Men Red, Alison Blake stage name Dazzler seeks to use her music to bring mutants and Inhumans closer together. 

It seems that mutants are not immune to harboring the same prejudicial hate some humans foster for them.  They furthermore do not require a Sentinel to set them off.

Some groups of mutants do not see Inhumans as anything but humans that traditionally sought their demise.  That’s untrue.  The Terragen Mists catalyze innate genes possessed by some humans.  They transform into Inhumans.  Others die.

The mutant hate groups try to prove their point in a variety of ways, but Dazzler as written by Magdalene Visaggio will fight for across the board equality.

Even if you’re not a Dazzler fan, you will be by the end of the book.  Visaggio’s Dazzler is a sharp, experienced take no bullshit singer who though still leery about super-heroics won’t shirk a sense of duty.  Laura Braga and Rachelle Rosenberg make the book as attractive as Dazzler's message.  

Astonishing X-Men started out intriguing and realistic.  It leveled out to mediocre quickly, and maybe that’s because writer Charles Soule kept the seat warm for the another writer who will be forming a new X-Men team.  So, maybe he didn’t really contribute his A game except for those first few issues.  

For whatever reason, Astonishing X-Men didn’t live up to the potential.  Soule seemed to be creating an arena for protagonists, not necessarily heroes, looking for redemption.  After defeating the Shadow King, the plump be-fezzed fellow from the Claremont/Byrne Uncanny X-Men, the Astonishing X-Men contended against the Claremont/Byrne antagonist Proteus.

One cast member Fantomex bargained with Charles Xavier.  Somewhere down the line Xavier got himself killed, his mind trapped in the Astral Plane.  Fantomex we learn is a sham of the Weapon X program.  His entire annoying personality is a creation of the program.  He never felt he had any freedom.  So, in a clever turn, he sends a raspberry to his forgers and gives up his form to Charles while his mind occupies the Astral Plane.  Charles is not inhabiting Fantomex's body.  Rather he made a new body out of Fantomex's mass.  

Charles or X as he calls himself ends the book by reinforcing his message of X-Men positivity and furthermore granting his troubled X-Men gifts that he bestows telepathically.  You can start the argument about whether or not he had the right to monkey around with the X-Men's minds even if benevolently, but this version of Astonishing X-Men ends.  So, the debate is moot at best.

A goofy subplot in Guardians of the Galaxy gained more substance in Infinity Countdown.  Ultron at some juncture fused with Hank Pym to become even nuttier than before.  Ultron now comes off like a low-rent Borg, but this works for the fruitcake robot.  He assimilates populaces across the cosmos.  He had the Power Cosmic in mind when he captured the Silver Surfer, but recently resurrected Adam Warlock interfered.  Ultron is a pestilence, and the Surfer does what nobody expected.

The big man himself straight from The Ultimates, Galactus the Lifebringer steps onto the stage.  The cost of what the Surfer asks is a little too pat for me.  I also think that he should have been able to end Ultron's reign by giving life to a dead world.  So, I'm not sure the plot twist is actually necessary.  Fortunately, there's a bit more in The Infinity Countdown to recommend.  It's still after all The Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Guardians just secured the Power Stone from the clutches of the Chitarri who were going to wrest it from the Nova Corps led by formerly pregnant Nova Eve Bakian.  Gamora raises a salient point backed by Rocket.  However, Drax makes all of this discussion unnecessary.

Though perhaps not as outright funny as previous Guardians of the Galaxy issues, this chapter is not without its charms.  For example, Ultron-Hank specifically misidentifies a real threat that's based on a Guardians of the Galaxy scheme.  Nova exhibits the seasoning one expects from an experienced hero.  These lessons come to the fore when Gamora tries to trick Richard from pursing his current course of action, and the Elders of the Universe show up to nettle Peter Quill.  Simultaneously, still more cosmic players check in just to be bitchy.  One of their redesigns by Adam Kuder and Matt Hawthorne is utterly beautiful.  The other one traditionally haughty.  That's your only clue to the identities.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Loki and Ultimates writer Al Ewing takes another look at the all-too-real psychopathic gunman scenario in Immortal Hulk. Unlike X-Men Red, Ewing isn't interested in metaphor.  He identifies who's responsible and sicks the Hulk on them.

Along the way he nods to The Incredible Hulk television series and justifies the title The Immortal Hulk.  The story begins in a gas station where our players meet.

His deal is that he's Dr. Bruce Banner hiding out from the authorities and superheroes alike.  I don't actually know a lot about the Hulk after the seventies.  I furthermore adhere to the cinematic Hulk as the real deal.  I'm vaguely aware of the changes made to the Hulk, but these changes didn't interest me.  They seemed to stray too far from what defines the Hulk.  

In the gas station, Bruce does not Hulk Out and threaten the girl, if that's what you're thinking.  Instead, a more realistic hazard changes the girl's fate.

One may say that the girl is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That individual is incorrect.  That person is blaming the victim while siding with the predator.  Ewing unlike some of the reportage doesn't ask you to sympathize with the callous individual.  Even if he appears to feel bad.  He doesn't feel bad for the girl.  He feels bad for himself. 

The story's dark turn alleviates somewhat with the introduction of the new Jack McGee, who I hope will be a continuing cast member.  If not, it was nice to see the shout out.  Ewing balances the mood of the story from bleak to hopeful to cynical to superhero to black comedy.  A lot of the latter can be attributed to Joe Bennett's wonderful interpretation of the Hulk.

With the glowing green eyes emphasized by Paul Mounts, he's very Hyde like in expression.  This attitude hearkens back to the original Hulk.  The original Hulk as envisioned by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wasn't evil nor good.  He represented Bruce Banner's unbridled desires.  Banner didn't like working for the military.  Soldiers kept calling him a milksop.  Hulk smash.  Banner didn't like bullies of any kind.  Hulk smash.  When Banner actually encountered gentle beings like animals, Hulk subsided.  In this story, Banner hears all the facts.  The Hulk comes out.  Hulk smash.  It's cathartic to watch the Hulk scare the hell out of these bastards before delivering just desserts.  That said, it's too early to say whether or not Al Ewing's direction for the Hulk is a good one.  This issue however is a keeper.

Batman writer Tom King gave readers a taste of his version of the Joker in The War of Jokes and Riddles, but that story he set in Batman’s past.  This story is contemporary Batman.  There’s a reason to be excited.  

King’s Joker is a remarkable blend of a disorganized and an organized serial killer, as defined by the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit.

The disorganized portion of the Joker’s personality arises in the way he relates a narrative or attempts to carry on a conversation.  He misplaces time for example and seems almost in a dissociative state.

Simultaneously, the Joker exhibits the tactics of an organized personality.  Even if all the killings in the church are mistakes. they factor in the orchestration of a grand scheme to gain the upper hand against Batman.  

Perhaps King’s greatest achievement is to simply force the reader to admit.  There’s no way to simply classify the Joker.  You have no idea what he’s planning.

Is the Joker depending on his blueprint to succeed no matter how many mistakes he makes? Is each homicidal error in fact a calculated effort?

You can also see this split in the letter balloons.  The more warped the Joker sounds, the more the distortion.  The moments of sane talk and insight he exhibits squares the balloons.

Kudos furthermore go to Mikel Janin who goes all the way back to the beginning in order to re-imagine the Joker.  Bill Finger and Bob Kane based the original Joker on Conrad Veidt’s performance as Gwynplaine from an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs.  

The artists drew the Joker as a real person not an exaggerated caricature.  For this reason, the Joker becomes a master of disguise.

It’s perhaps surprising that King eschews the Joker’s original and best known method of execution.  The Joker debuts as a killer jewel thief.  In his introduction he threatens his victims on the radio before murdering them with the infamous Joker gas that leaves signature rictus grins on lifeless faces.

The Joker doesn’t leave anybody laughing in Batman.  He just makes them dead.  Perhaps, King felt that the Joker’s signature was too well known.  King a student of Batman may have noted that the Joker kills in a variety of ways.  He furthermore does not need to leave behind a calling card, literally or figuratively, and when a writer and artist attempt to re-inject the Joker back into the mythos, they tend to lean on that ghoulish motif.  King just may be challenging himself.

Batman plays a prominent role in the relaunch of Justice League.  Basically, this is the team from the animated series with the additions of Cyborg and Aquaman.  

How else can you explain the inclusion of Hawkgirl?  The New 52 introduced Kendra Saunders as an earth two wonder.  This Hawkgirl also Kendra is from earth one.  The Martian Manhunter you expect.  When he’s not on the Justice League roster, it’s strange, but the only people that demand Hawkgirl are fans of the series.

There’s furthermore an element of Justice League Unlimited, in that the core group works with other heroes of the DCU.  Make no mistake though.  This isn’t a rehash.  Writer Scott Snyder is firing on all cylinders.

The Hall of Justice stood in Justice League Unlimited, but it first indeed glowed in the dark in The Super-Friends.  These observations transformed into plot detail distinguish Snyder’s work and make the Justice League a rich, pleasurable reading experience.  Despite this new premiere being regular length, it reads thicker, meatier.

The story depicts the Justice League fighting Neanderthals, and they immediately come to the logical conclusion.  Vandal Savage is back in town.  So however is Lex Luthor.

We don’t know Doomsday Clock’s fate for Lex Luthor, nor do we know whether it pertains to anything in the DCU.  However, I mentioned before.  Lex Luthor through the years lost a motive to kill Superman.  Geoff Johns in fact inducted him into the Justice League, and while he apparently intended for another shoe to drop against Lex, he interrupted that scenario.  Instead, choosing to continue presenting Lex as a good guy.  Snyder embraces Lex Luthor’s former Justice League adventures while suggesting that something darkened in Lex.

Snyder integrates various incarnations of the Justice League for his auspicious debut.  Their camaraderie is easily the best thing about the book.  The sense of history next.  In addition, Snyder lays easter eggs some referencing Doctor Who in the story that are delights to discover.  Add all these assets to the art of Jim Cheung, Mark Morales and Tomeu Morey, and you end up with a book deserving to be called Justice League.

With Erik Burnham Amy Chu concludes her first successful Red Sonja story arc.  Seventeen issues, because of the zeroth, and not a single clunker.

Chu began her story in the past where the Meruvians hired Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword to rid their village of Khulan Gath.  A hated enemy.  

Gath cast a spell that sent himself forward in time, but what he didn't know is that he also pulled Sonja forward.  In our present, exhibiting remarkable intelligence and adapting quickly, Sonja fought the organization Gath built and in the process allied with Max, a police officer, Spike, a bartender and Holly a Hyborean expert.  After ending a gang of biker drug dealers, Sonja met Professor Wallace, a mage from Meruvia.  At an atomic collider, Sonja returned to the past to fight Khulan Gath one last time.  Herein begins our final chapter.

What makes this story different is that Gath gets outmaneuvered by his own evil.  Sonja faced Gath before.  She ends him temporarily.  She cuts off his head, and that only proves to be a flesh wound.  So Chu and Burnham wisely come up with an element in the story at the very beginning powerful enough to finally end Gath.

Spoilers and everything, but honestly, nobody buys Gath being permanently dead.  Sure.  If Chu and Burnham stay on Sonja, they can keep him dead.  Any new writer will go to that troth again.  

Until then marvel at the freaking amazing good girl art of Carlos Gomez, artist of the book since its zeroth conception, who has made Sonja his signature character.  That feeling by the way is healthy lust and awe.

Vagrant Queen is a good space adventure featuring a roguish woman protagonist going head to head against an evil empire that's taking baby steps to domination.

Our heroine is wanted for a variety of reasons.  The empire intends to kill her because she's the daughter of an exiled queen.  Another scoundrel knows where the queen hides.  So, begins the adventure.

By no means as deep as Vagrant Queen creator's Dazzler.  Magdalene Visaggio's creation is a straight forward space swashbuckler with plenty of action and attractive artwork by co-creator Jason Smith.