POBB July 18, 2018

Pick of the Brown Bag

July 18, 2018

by

Ray Tate

It's high time for the Pick of the Brown Bag.  My name is Ray Tate, and in this blog I review the best and worst comic books.  This week I’ll discuss Athena Voltaire, Batman, Immortal Hulk, Infinity Countdown, Infinity 8, Iron Man, Justice League, Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, Stellar and Thor.  If you haven’t the time for the in-depth reviews, check me out on Twitter.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, there will be two weeks worth of tweets for the current--er--warble: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Steve Bryant's 1940s aviatrix returns from the Sorcerer Pope's catacombs to the real world of her patron Caine Foster.  A pun if I've ever heard a rosebud smelling just as sweet.  

Foster has a story to tell.  Thanks to artist Yusuf Idris, he also has the eyes of saucers to sell the madness of the whole enchilada.

Once again, Bryant plays with legitimate folklore and legends to hammer out an all new Athena Voltaire adventure.      This one based on Leonardo da Vinci.  I give Bryant extra props for not dog-padding in the same pond of Dan Brown and Christian myth.  That would have been mightily dull.

The idea Bryant exploits instead is an obscure one.  Its basis comes from the notion of Leonardo's mother being of Chinese descent.  Some argue that she was a Chinese slave girl, but that's just trying to revamp the sexy side of Orientalism.  

The truth is likely much more staid.  Every record places Leonardo in Italy for his whole life.  Occam's Razor demands that his mother be an Italian adolescent until somebody offers proof otherwise.  Of course, the power of the Vril and Shambhala are just as shaggy.  So, carry on.

Athena flies into the skies and taxis in Portugal. Intrigue immediately presents itself in the form of a dead contact.

The usual suspects turn up.  Athena's sometime romantic interest from British intelligence, Des returns as do the Nazis.  Because they're Nazis.  Seriously though, the Nazis combed the world for proof of an Aryan race to legitimize their claim. They found nothing by the way.

Athena's most interesting encounter occurs in the bowels of a temple.  There she almost tags a British double agent, introduced in previous adventures, and spotlit during the Sorcerer Pope.  To keep his cover, he must take drastic action against Athena without killing her.  

This proves to be painful indeed and leads to Athena's second most interesting meeting.  At the cliffhanger, Athena finds herself at the mercy of a character that's worked mainly on the outskirts of her adventures.  

Bryant and Idris also include a lovely sketchbook section and black and white wash pages.  These will appeal not only to a wide variety of fans but also artists in general.

Setup last issue Stellar is an enhanced humanoid that a group of aliens thought to use as a weapon for war.  Stellar rebelled.  Later, she became a bounty hunter to survive.  In her debut, we followed her amusing trek with her prisoner Melan.  The bounty’s value diminished, so Stellar took him to a sanctuary with war refugees.  This issue, her old team discovers her whereabouts.

As her former teammates batter her, Stellar’s mind reels back to her beginnings.  We see how the team was once innocent as she and how war corrupts that innocence.

Writer Joseph Keatinge’s story is as easy to comprehend as Blevins’ art is delicious to imbibe.  War is immoral.  If we don’t stop fighting and start talking, we become better at killing.  Our weapons become more powerful and we can murder more people.  

There are individuals who actually get off on that idea.  They’re represented by the warders of the camps that created Stellar.

Last issue Stellar demonstrated remarkable abilities that leveled her with Captain Marvel.  It’s a little startling to see her overwhelmed.

It’s also surprising to see Melan genuinely care about Stellar.  She was not gentle with him.  He however appears to be grateful to Stellar for his life.

Stellar is a straight forward space-set adventure with excellent artwork and a compelling female hero.  In addition, Keatinge and Blevins convey an underlying message about the futility of war.  That message imbues Stellar with the gravitas of experience and wisdom that belies her youth.

Hitler undressed by the eyes of the the Nazis that didn’t want to kill him committed suicide in a bunker after committing one last murder, Hitler’s old lady, Eva Braun.  Though seriously dead, Hitler rose to power again in movies and television.  Sometimes and surprisingly only rarely in the form of a head.     

Infinity 8 amusingly takes that head and runs with it, like crazed doctor Bill did in The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.

Far into a future teeming with life and mostly peaceful species interaction, the Nazis aren’t exactly how you remember them.

Presumably, after the dust settled from Trump’s nuclear winter,  alien archivists and archaeologists went down to the cinder and unearthed some surviving information.  As the Doctor stated, "I'm a time traveler.  I point and laugh at archaeologists."

The Hess clones exemplify the weird clash.  I’m sure Rudolf Hess did indeed feel that Nazism welcomes everybody and was elegant and joyful.  They just missed the part that everybody is defined as Aryan, and joyfulness and elegance comes in the form of murdering anybody else not Aryan.  Rudolf Hess by the way hanged his ass after being tried, convicted and imprisoned.  Fuck you, Nazi.

However, the presence of these Hesses show the separation between nurture and nature.  Cloned from the original material, the Hesses nevertheless grew up in an environment of tolerance and peaceful co-existence.  So, they are very different from the madman of the 1930s.

Infinity 8 is decidedly anti-Nazi.  Despite portraying the Nazis as a Bon Bon Box of Sergeant Schultzes at a time of armistice, writers Lewis Trondheim and Olivier Vatine don’t set the price of crazy and criminal just to the Nazi pfennig.

Practitioners of Haredi Judaism, what we call Ultraorthodox Judaism, are a million times better than Nazis.  They are still infamous for a history of harassment and violence against women.

The take-no-prisoners Agent Moonkicker, our star enforcer of this arc, is not intimidated by the alien orthodox, who amusingly refers to her as “succubus.”  She’s been assigned to provide security to the Nazi convention.  

In the opening chapter, artist/writer Olivier Vatine and Trondheim introduce readers to the highly dangerous Moonkicker as well as her robot partner who will become vital to the story later.  As you can see, Vatine supports the sci-fi pulp look introduced by Dominque Betrail in the premiere.  Albeit his artwork is more overtly humorous and burlesque.  

The alien Captain aboard the Infinity 8 calls Moonkicker for a new mission.  Another debris field presents itself, perhaps as a reminder that time resists change.

The Captain and his people can rewind time.  He did this during the last arc.  Agent Keren’s mission revealed untold bloodshed and problems beyond a simple ship malfunction.  By doing so, perhaps, he forced this new event.  A Nazi debris field which yields sour fruit.

The Neo-Nazi peaceniks and ship's complement have no idea what a repellent piece of shit Hitler was.  So, as with the finest of the bad movies, when you add neck juice, angels do no not follow.

Infinity 8 is at once thoughtful and cheesy.  Moonkicker is a winning new agent to cheer for.  The pulpy trappings and Hitler's head will please numerous readers of science fiction connoisseurs of bad movies.

Infinity Countdown begins with Hank Pym trapped in the Soul Gem with Gamora.  What's fascinating is that writer Gerry Dugan uses the reader's familiarity with science fiction as an antagonist.

We question the Soul Gem environment.  If Hank's trapped in the Soul Gem, how can he discover technology? Could he be trapped somewhere else?  Why is Gamora aging if preserved in the Soul Gem? Questions, questions.

Things look up when Hank appears to contact the Avengers.  Hank's brilliant.  So, it's possible, unless Hank is imprisoned in the Soul Gem.  So, he must be marooned somewhere else, but if so, why is Gamora there? 

Dugan cuts to the consuming drama of the Infinity Stones.  Black Widow, formerly dead but now healthy and whole, possess the stone for teleportation.  She does the smart thing and contacts the time stone custodian Dr. Strange.  

Dr. Strange visits Turk, hapless but mean Daredevil villain who also lucked into a stone and apparently watched Doctor Who a couple of times.

Dugan takes this opportunity to show Dr. Strange as a cut and dried hero, not just the vague protector of the earth from mystic threat.  Not counting the cinematic version, this is probably the best amass of characterization that benefited Dr. Strange.

From earth we bounce to a new corner of the universe.  The Guardians of the Galaxy hope to lose themselves and wager they'll meet nobody they know.

Wrong.  Good comedy timing on this leads to conflict between the new Adam Warlock and the new Gamora, as well as a surprise appearance from Kang.  Once again Drax makes the decisions.

Situations are getting heavier, but humor is still the mainstay of Infinity Countdown nee the All-New Guardians of the Galaxy.

Oooo.  This issue of Justice League vacillates between boring and stupid.  Boring comes in the form of Superman and the Martian Manhunter fighting animated statues while Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman battle White Martians sort-of under the sea.  Not a thing special about either fight. Lots of talk about the Still Force employed by ancient Flash villain The Turtle.

Then we have the moment when somebody actually breaks a Green Lantern ring.

The trouble is that it’s not tremendous at all.  It’s just more of the same.  Darkseid broke a Green Lantern ring just by crushing it.  The same with a popular villain from the early two thousands called Traitor.  Recently, the first Lantern Volthoom destroyed Simon Baz‘s ring.  

Bottom line, it’s a tough piece of jewelry, but it’s still just emerald bling.  It’s much more interesting when Batman takes the ring from a Green Lantern in the Justice League debut or Space Ghost kicks a Green Lantern’s ass.  It’s more dramatic when Jessica Cruz earns her Green Lantern status by overcoming a parasitic ring.  John Stewart’s ring breaks.  So what?

The stupid occurs in a Justice Leaguer’s body.  Ala Fantastic Voyage, Batman and Hawkgirl pilot microscopic vehicles engineered by Ray Palmer, more familiarly known as the Atom.  In Fantastic Voyage, a Russian spy infiltrated the crew before the voyage.  In Justice League, Lex Luthor tails the dynamic duo, and pellets the Joker into Hawkgirl’s craft.  Not the smarter of the two, but fine.

The Joker hits Hawkgirl with a chainsaw, and she goes down.  I don’t get it.  She’s wearing a helmet.  It’s part of her uniform.  Although, we don’t know exactly what Hawkgirl’s helmet is made of, it’s easy to guess.  

Football and motorcycle helmets trade traumatic safety for lightness.  Hawkgirl need not worry about lightness.  Historically, Hawkgirl wears a belt made of a magic metal that alleviates her weight and any weight in a field.  The field allows Hawkman and Hawkgirl to save people falling from heights and perform other aerial feats.  

The helmet could be made of Nth metal, in which case, its properties should be even superior to that of common and uncommon metals known to the twenty-first century.  Let’s however stick with what we know.

Soldiers now wear Kevlar helmets which can reduce the force of a bullet strike.  Kevlar serves as the body of Hawkgirl’s headpiece.  The crown is shiny.  That means its metal.  So, discounting sci-fi, I’m going to hazard that it’s made of steel, the choice for soldiers before Kevlar.  

Neither Kevlar nor steel can stop anything beyond the power of a handgun, but even steel can preclude injury from shrapnel.  So, with Kevlar and steel, Hawkgirl, should have double protection against the concussive blow of the chainsaw wielded by a human even with literally maniacal strength.

This problem could have been solved had the Joker used Smilex gas in the capsule.  We learn that Luthor forbade the Joker from killing her, yet.  So, the Joker could have used the diluted version to incapacitate Hawkgirl with uncontrollable laughter.  

Once subdued, he could take off her helmet and hit her with said chainsaw.  I mean yeah, that would kill a normal person, but the Nth Metal suffusing her body still affords her some protection.  Of course, were this the Justice League cartoon, we could simply say Shayera is an alien and tougher than most.

This whole chainsaw attack is oxymoronic.  Joker with a chainsaw fits Tom King’s revisionist characterization.  Luthor won’t let the Joker kill Hawkgirl.  What’s the point of bringing the Joker into the Legion of Doom if you’re not going to use him like the nutter that he is? I’m not saying I want to see Hawkgirl beheaded.  Far from it.  I like Hawkgirl.  I want to see the Joker actually try to do it and then get a mace in the face for the courtesy.  None of this scenario makes sense.  I’ve been saying this a lot with regard to the Justice League.

In a previous adventure only detailed in this issue, Batman deduced the solution of a mystery.  Three women killed.  The evidence indicated Mr. Freeze.

Writer Tom King presents the trial of Mr. Freeze and demonstrates the troubles of letting a vigilante dictate justice within the confines of the law.  They’re mutually exclusive.

When a vigilante explicitly works with law enforcement, most of the cases should be thrown out.   Even a piss-poor Perry Mason can argue for tainted evidence, lack of warrants and the violation of basic rights.

We readers are given a window into Batman’s world.  We know Batman’s right.  He always will be right.  He’s unmatched in forensics and criminology, despite lacking credentials.

Nevertheless, this is a fantasy.  Batman, the Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, you name it.  They all break the law, and not a single one of their cases an stand up in court.

The ideal occurs when the vigilante works without the law and simply notifies the police when all the work is done and wrapped in a bow.  The police then have a legal duty to follow a good tip.  The vigilante in the past provided excellent tips.  They would follow up on the vigilante’s work and discover further evidence of felony.

Batman however worked in concert with the law.  The key is that he lacked the court’s allowance to proceed.  Batman would require the same warrants that bind the police.

King complicates matters further when he calls Bruce Wayne to the jury box.  

If the legal precedents don’t set you afire, there’s still much to be recommend in Batman.  My first article appeared in 1993 in the zine Knotted.  I argued that the writers used Batman’s fall and Azrael’s assuming of Batman’s identity poorly.  

I proposed an alternative where Gordon immediately recognized Azrael as an imposter.  Gordon then would have pursued Azrael as a criminal and sought out the truth about his oldest friend.  The King and I are on the same vibe.  Yes, I am shameless.  Why do you ask?

King also may be suggesting that underneath the legal drama and the curiosity of Bruce Wayne pitting himself against his persona lies a simple mystery.  Why is that deliberation room so cold during the trial of Mr. Freeze?

In the Immortal Hulk intrepid reporter Jackie McGee interviews all the witnesses to the Hulk’s latest foray.  The story takes place in South Dakota, and the witnesses relate their perspective through different artists.

A police officer gives the reader a look at the threat via Leonardo Romero.

Romero recreates the look and feel of an old time comic book, complete with pixelated colors thanks to Paul Mounts.  The strange thing is that Al Ewing at this point departs from tradition.

The police officer is a fan of the Incredible Hulk.  Usually, when the Hulk appeared in the past, cops and military brought out the guns.

Gary Brown’s “Priest’s Story” ironically determines the reality of the situation.  Hotshot’s not a villain with a garish costume.  He’s a punk and a murderer.  His handiwork changes the tone of the story with simple twist.

Only an Aunt May type sees Hotshot as the misunderstood hero of the tale.  Hotshot doesn’t realize how lucky he is.  Had the Hulk known what Hotshot did to an innocent, he would have punished him far worse.

Last issue Thor, Tyr, Loki and Balder the Brave staged a daring raid on a Fire Goblin train pushing through the realm of the dead.  Turns out, the Odinsons were misinformed.  The Goblins captured Loki's children Hel and Fenris.  Hel and Fenris are not happy to be freed, especially by Thor.

Mixing in with the mayhem of family squabbles, Karnilla, Queen of the Norns, beloved to Balder finds herself overwhelmed.  Skurge, the Executioner takes notice.

Jason Aaron will only be happy if he's writing Thor.  Aaron infuses the traditions with modern touches like Karnilla's bazooka.  He demonstrates a playfulness in the punishments such as Loki's comeuppance for Tyr.  He turns Thor's goat and dog into major characters and displays a lightness in dialogue that reflects his enthusiasm in the material.

Iron Man doesn’t really have a main story unless you count the flimsy set-piece of Stark Technology being stolen by new comely villain Sunset Bain.

As you can see from the depiction of the buyers, this isn’t really a serious excursion.  It’s a bit of fluff that recalls  Tomorrow Never Dies' weapons bazar destroyed by Bond, James Bond.

Rather, Iron Man examines the lives of Stark International employees.  Jim Rhodes came back from the dead after Thanos punched him through the chest.

Moral of the story.  Don’t tackle Thanos unless you actually have superpowers, or you if you are Iron Man.  Sidekicks should not throw themselves at Thanos.

The outcome is that Rhodey is not happy with being War Machine.  He’s at heart a pilot, and that institutes Tony Stark ending the conflict against Sunset comparitively without that much violence.

Jocasta joined Iron Man’s team back in the nineties.  Writer Dan Slott brings her back to the fold as a Roboethicist.  Slott gives a peek into her home life, and it’s not what you expect.  She has a husband.

You’re probably like me.  Did she build herself a husband? Who is the lucky robot?  The issue of Iron Man ends in fact with the revelation of identity.  It’s a blast from the past, with a tiny tie-in to Iron Man.

This brings us to Friday.  Friday was Tony’s A.I. in the armor, but now, she’s free as another robotic form.  

Friday is even built hotter than Jocasta, and new employee Andy Bhang notices.  Unless we go far into the realms of imagination Friday is untouchable.  Andy will be disappointed, but that assumes that she's there for Andy.

Friday is much more complex than a walk-on.  She stands as an example of gender equality.  Friday looks amazing.  Beauty instills desire, and that's fine.  That's normal.  Even if Friday is a literal object, however, you cannot assume she wants to be touched.  Extend that.  No matter what a woman's not wearing unless invited don't assume she wants to be touched.

Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man went through numerous hoops to get to the conclusion of this most unexpected story.  The first issue of the relaunch of this older title started up with a super-villain network on the phone.  

It also introduced a new character called Mason, the brother to the Tinkerer, a classic Spider-Man foe/mad scientist.

Add the reappearance of Teresa Durand, who Spidey knew as his maybe sister.  A former CIA agent, she uncovered information about Gray Sword, a rogue SHIELD operation.  

Meaty enough.  In addition superheroes galore guest-starred and made Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man a de facto Marvel Team-Up.  Piling on the value in the process.

Twist after twist led naturally to The Tinkerer showing up.  He catalyzed an alien invasion.  The Vendomi intended to assimilate all the worthy a.i. and incinerate the humans.

Spidey time traveled sidewise to a world and timeline that mimicked their own.  This led to he, J.Jonah Jameson and Teresa encountering a younger version of Peter Parker.  Our intrepid team of time travelers after a few misfires secured the information they needed to fend off the Vendomi, but the robots already secured much of the earth.

With great power comes great responsibility, and Spidey exposes himself to an advanced technology to fight the Vendomi but at the cost of his own life, or so he thinks.

There are a lot of people pitching for him.  Newest ally Iron Heart for example and his maybe sister Teresa for sure.

What it all comes down to though is empathy.  Peter opens himself up to an enemy, and his enemy gains the insight to stop all of this from happening.  Easily one of the most beautiful Spider-Man stories written.