Pick of the Brown Bag
August 1, 2018
by
Ray Tate
Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, the weekly blog of comic book goodness which includes Astonishing X-Men, Batman, The Futurama Annual, The Immortal Hulk, Justice League, Nightwing, Project Superpowers and Red Sonja. If you haven’t time for the lengthier critiques, check me out on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.
Both tales in the Futurama Annual are hilarious displays of creative talent. In the first, Cubert, clone of Professor Farnsworth, and Dwight, natural son of Hermes and LaBarbara tease Fry about his age.
Philip J. Fry is actually the oldest human in the universe, as far as we know. Accidentally frozen in the twentieth century, Fry woke up in the future. The boys’ harassment naturally pushes Fry to drastic action. Futurama runs on drastic action. In this case, Dr. Amy Wong's unusual outfit catalyzes events.
Mom is the despotic C.E.O. responsible for the creation and spread of Futurama robots. Robots don't really make future denizens' lives any better. All possess free will. None are slaves. It's therefore strange that anybody would celebrate Mom. Boothby provides an explanation. Before that, the spoof on the very real Burning Man Festival unfolds.
Burning Man is itself a partially benign homage to Mad Max. So it’s no surprise that Fry suddenly finds himself in a desert race with all the usual suspects.
Any racing pop culture reference and any story that takes place in the desert serves as writer Ian Boothby's fodder. For example, Turanga Leela finds herself dealing with a classic Star Trek problem.
The tale winds down to an appearance of Mom, herself, up to no good, of course. Fry must convince Mom to abandon her sinister plans for the hapless celebrants. Mom has a soft spot for the Farnsworth line. Fry is the great-great-grand nephew of her paramour Professor Farnsworth who is also the father of her son Igner.
In the second fable Fry tells the kids from Leela’s orphanage the story of Pinocchio. This narrative opens the door for a splendid parody where our Futurama cast takes the place of the familiar storybook characters.
Bender substitutes for the puppet-turned-boy, and we follow him through an altered flexible reality where nobody learns a thing, since conscience isn't a virtue.
Even if not enamored by the jokes, although that's really unlikely, you will be entranced by the level of detail on display in vibrant color.
Dynamite’s ongoing superhero series is Project Superpowers. So far Dynamite produced two maxi-series, one mini-series and several spin-offs including but not limited to The Black Terror, The Owl and Masquerade. I’ve recommended the majority of the books. They feature good to excellent illustration. The stories are compelling, and the characters evolve.
The superpowers in question belong to public domain superheroes of the 1940s. Any company, or you gentle reader, can create a world populated by such stalwarts as The Flame, the original Daredevil or the Fighting Yank. They belong to the world literally. That’s because publishing companies such as Holyoke went out of business and/or never renewed the trademarks. However, you must create your world whole cloth. Each version of the public domain heroes belongs to each person or company that recreate them.
If you came in late to Project Superpowers or you stupidly said no to a ten cent taste, not to worry writer Rob Williams has got you covered.
Williams employs Diana Adams’ inner monologue to not just summarize but criticize the state of the world. Her newfound abilities make her the perfect conduit to see people as they truly are.
In a bit of meta, Diana is the author of Project Superpowers, the collected version being shown.
By turning Project Superpowers into a book, Williams can start fresh. The Project Superpowers you read in the past may not be gospel.
You shouldn’t however assume this device to be a means of deconstruction or reconstruction. Williams does not entirely dismiss what occurred, nor does he eschew Diana’s crimefighting career.
Shades of Doctor Who, somebody’s messing with the planes all over the world. The Superpowers go into action.
The Green Lama isn’t just stopping one plane. He’s taking care of all of them. It’s no surprise that the feat overtaxes the protector of reality. Making him an easy target for a bewitched Death Defying Devil.
Fortunately, the Lama has allies to pick up the slack, and if the American Spirit has any say in the matter there will be another.
One one level, Project Superpowers is pure superhero fun, with planes falling out of the sky and the heroes stopping them. On another level, Project Superpowers is a book of contrasts. The heroes all veterans of World War II look askance at our modern times, and who can blame them?
Matthew Rosenberg and Greg Land in Astonishing X-Men continue to collect mutants for a new team of X-Men. This issue, they’ve come for Dazzler.
Make that Forge. Needless to say, Dazzler isn’t too pleased with Alex’s decision-making.
The X-Men are fictional characters, and you can have a “sausage party” with no problem. I mean. I wouldn’t buy it, but there’s a He-Man-Woman-Haters Club for that book. Nevertheless it’s meta-comedic that fictional Alison Blaire objects to the exclusion.
Alison is another traditionally reluctant super-hero. Alison didn’t even know that she was a mutant when Cyclops and Phoenix first encountered her in Uncanny X-Men. She politely declined their invitation to join the X-Men and learn more about her powers. In truth, she already had a good handle on them.
Alison’s appearance may trouble some hoping to see the traditional Dazzler. Not to worry.
Dazzler also appears in her new uniform seen on the cover when she displays her awesome power. Dazzler for those who scoff transforms sound into lasers. She can also list Galactus in her references. Temp job.
What do non-Dazzler fans—shame on you—get out of Astonishing X-Men? Rosenberg’s sense of humor rebounds through the issue. The wannabe leader of the new X-Men Alex Summers hasn't made a single good decision.
Colossus, a wreck since Kitty left him at the altar, joins up. Charles Xavier’s heir Kitty leads the bona fide X-Men. She told Alex to go home, but she sends Warpath, John Proudstar from The Gifted to watch over the formation of Alex's new team. Oh, and Banshee’s back.
Maybe.
Here’s the shortest review of the week.
Told from the perspective of the villains, “Legion of Doom” details the assembly of the evil group and leads up to current events in the Justice League. I don’t care.
Tom King on the other hand pulls another one of his customary sleights of hand in Batman. We thought that this story was about Batman going off his nut after events from the Wedding.
That’s only part of it. We thought that this story might focus on the split between Batman and Bruce Wayne. King really doesn’t see Batman and Bruce Wayne as two different people.
After determining evidence from three different victims, Batman deduced that Mr. Freeze committed the crimes and tore into him.
Batman unaware that he had succumbed to anger and depression missed something the first time around. He made a mistake. A costly one.
We all did. It turns out that this is one of King’s fair play Batman mysteries.
You see. It’s like the purloined letter, staring we armchair detectives right in the face. King takes advantage of our belief in the fiction.
Batman is the world’s greatest detective. Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow recognized Batman as their worthy successor. Batman doesn’t make mistakes.
Batman is a fictional character. King demonstrates that Batman isn’t a machine. He can experience emotional drift. Batman can make mistakes. To Batman’s credit, he figures it out.
Bruce Wayne must now convince his fellow jurors that Mr, Freeze is innocent of these crimes. He must convince the jurors that Batman is capable of error.
He must essentially undermine the jurors’ faith in Batman which is as a strong as the the reader’s faith in Batman.
King reveals that Batman fosters a weakness. A weakness exploited humorously in The Lego Batman Movie. Hubris.
When Batman first returned to Gotham, he found a tangle of corruption that extended from the ground up, but Batman made a difference in less obvious ways.
Some of the finest officers in the country comprise the Gotham City Police Force. All the way up from the beat officer to the detective bureau, the sharpest most dedicated law enforcer came to Gotham because Batman killed the weed. Some even wanted to live up to Batman’s or Commissioner Gordon’s example. Batman forgot that.
There’s a trope in mysteries. The amateur sleuth, the private investigator or even the professional detective like Columbo discovers something that the regular cops miss. We expect that even more from a detective like Batman.
He couldn’t accept and we couldn't accept that the coroner is on the top of his/her game. He and we dismissed that idea out of hand.
Last issue, nano-machines attempted to link with Nightwing in order to steal his memories. Benjamin Percy sagely identifies Nightwing as a “keystone” species in the superhero ecosystem.
Though this is but one panel, it details the menu available to a greedy brain sucking monster.
Batgirl intervened in the villain’s hijacking of thoughts. Subsequently, Percy contrasted Nightwing’s and Batgirl’s crimefighting methods. Nightwing is an old school detective. Batgirl embraces the new.
The memory theft is an adjunct to murder. An Agatha Christie styled mystery lies in the center of the cyberpunk and Weird Tales horror. The murders all connect, and though you may think you have it doped out. Don’t be so sure.
The Terminals fighting Nightwing are essentially the boss’ goons. However as emphasized by artists Chris Mooneyham, Klaus Janson and Nick Filardi these aren’t ordinary plug-uglies. They can create illusions on a grand scale and therefore hide in plain sight or make one mad with fear. Once you see them you can deal with them physically. Another courtesy from Batgirl.
This second issue of Nightwing’s Batgirl/Nightwing team-up is a satisfying mix of genres in the art and the writing. This is easily the best pairing of Batgirl and Nightwing in a long history of soapy will-they-won’t-they travesties. An element not broached here.
Last issue Red Sonja’s companion in travel Lera promised Sandak, the current owner of the Skath’s estates, that they could take care of his villager problem. Let’s see what happens next.
Lera though gifted with the silver tongue of Gabrielle isn’t going to be around for much longer. Oh, and by the way. A lot prepubescent boys and girls just found this comic book and became a fan of female wrestling. Damn, Carlos Gomez. Damn.
Red Sonja is not the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants. Sonja is basically tolerating their company. The ladies investigate the village, and Sonja glibly points out the wonders of Cimmeria.
After vanquishing pesky cult fans of Khulan Gath, last seen extra crispy, Sonja decides her only option is to head for a bar. This is not a good day for Sonja.
Lera attempts to make amends for her past transgressions against the She-Devil. Let’s see how that works out.
This issue is high in comedy content. It plays out as the antithesis of Xena: Warrior Princess. Lera gets on Sonja’s nerves in a huge way. Taya attempts to reason with Lera, but Lera sees fortune in her future. Sonja on the other hand looks to be rid of this whole endeavor, and writers Amy Chu and Erik Burnham emphasize that she won’t take any job. There must be honor in the task. At least, there’s mead.
Al Ewing briefly reintroduced Walter Lankowski last issue. Created by John Byrne, Lankowski is the founding member of Alpha Flight better known as Sasquatch.
Sasquatch appeared to be a gamma-induced superhero that Lannkowski fully controlled. Byrne quickly changed that. He became the host of Northern demon known as Tanaraq.
Byrne didn't really describe this possession adequately, or perhaps at the time I was too young to comprehend it. Ewing explains the link between Sasquatch and Tanaraq far better. Byrne brought Sasquatch back equally messily, and frankly Alpha Flight was really too complicated for its own good. Anyway, Lankowski is back and he’s talking with Jackie McGee, intrepid Arizona Herald reporter.
Artist Joe Bennett singles Walter Lankowski out for a very strange look and too-wide a smile. He foreshadows something bad happening. He and Ewing deliver. During Jackie's and Lankowski's investigation into Bruce Banner sightings, a hothead stabs the hirsute Canuck.
Rushed to the hospital, Jackie finally meets her quarry, and he’s got some bad news to share.
I’ve always liked the visuals of Sasquatch, but I never liked the man behind the creature. He always seemed to have too much. He was a successful football player. He learned physics. He staged what appeared to be a successful metamorphosis, and he also banged Aurora, the elfin mutant hottie. Yeah, that's a lot. At the same time, I thought Tanaraq’s takeover and Snowbird literally ripping out his heart was too much of tragedy in his life.
Ewing’s revamping of the gamma radiation afflicted suits me just fine. Walter’s creation of a “manageable” Hulk in Sasquatch, is his comeuppance.
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