POBB January 9, 2019

Pick of the Brown Bag

January 9, 2019

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to a brand-spanking new issue of The Pick of the Brown Bag.  My name is Ray Tate, and I’m the guy that reviews the best and worst of the comic books of the week.  For this installment, I look at Batman, Bitter Root, Captain Marvel, Doctor Who, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Ghost Spider, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Outer Darkness, Red Sonja, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, The Wrong Earth and X-23. No time for the meatier reviews? Check out Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Putin's Spy in the White House

I can't say that I knew Trump was a spy before the FBI.  I did know before the media took hold of the FBI report.  

All you need do is watch Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror to see the improbable becoming the truth.  

Putin is a tactical genius.  He knew that in addition to his own forces, such as the well publicized hacks, a cadre of greedy, hateful baboon asses would protect Trump, embrace his racism, stupidity and outright lying.

Let's hope February is the month we resect the orange tumor.  Let's hope his cabinet is dissolved and his Not-So-Friendly Ghost of a Vice President is expunged along with this entire era of Authoritarian boondoggles.

The occult and/or super-science infiltrates the 1920s.  These forces overwhelm the police.  The law seeks something solid to hit.  Although some officers ally with a family of black supernatural troubleshooters, the Sangereyes, racism and overall human fear of the unknown prevail.

This is not a historical Harlem race riot.  It’s far too early.  Three riots occurred in Harlem history.  One in the thirties, another in the forties and the third in the sixties.  So, while Bitter Root uses history in its narrative, not all is factual.  Nevertheless, creators David Walker, Chuck Brown and Sanford Greene weave truth into the fiction.

For example, everybody knows the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black folk throughout time.  Periodically, they become an epidemic and in the 1920s, their resurgence led to serial murder.  Walker, Brown and Greene introduce the Shaft inspired Ford Sangerye to Mississippi and suddenly the tables turn.  The creators at this point meld their Jinoo mythology to the hate group.  When reading that issue, I considered artistic license a mistake.  Dismissing the Klan as creatures rather than abhorrent men is a cop out.  

Ford in this current chapter defines what constitutes a Jinoo, when he encounters something rare and ugly exotic  in the poor white trash community.

So racism acts as a catalyst for the Jinoo "curse."  Thus, the metaphor becomes: a human's inhumanity to other humans corrupts and creates Jinoo.  

Previously, Cullen and Berg encounter two unusual Jinoo that revert back to man and woman.  The duo however are ordinary people, not racists, certainly not supporters of the Klan.  

A mad scientist appears to have upset the balance.  He’s using formula to create or facilitate Jinoo metamorphosis.  That's where the metaphor breaks down.  The formula is pure science fiction.  Humans can be transformed through artifice.  No racism needed.  Alternately, the Jinoo can be cured by Etta Sangereye's knowledge of herbal medicine.

Unfortunately for Berg, of the Sangerye family, the new strain of Jinoo is contagious in the sense of lycanthropy. 

After saving the pair, Berg and Cullen met something even fiercer and weirder  That creature infected Berg, and even Etta, the wise woman, cannot seem to make any headway.  

This calls for drastic action.  Cullen seeks out an estranged member of his kin.  Enter Uncle Enoch.  The reacquaintance provides more humor and more stylish artistry.

Good stuff throughout, Bitter Root benefits from three converging narrative branches and subtle exposition reduced even farther by its positioning.  Thus a complex world is dissected and easier to digest, while the illustration entertains the eyes.

Easily the strangest issue of Outer Darkness.  Writer John Layman distinguishes a purely science fiction run universe from a cosmos also dipped in magic.

A straightforward away mission to retrieve a valuable cargo goes horribly wrong.  The odd thing is that it wasn't preordained.

Scrying is a classic device in occult literature.  The author will usually cheat.  He'll let the fortune teller speak in riddles.  She'll dialogue with loopholes large enough for a starship to fly through.  The crone's forecast however was clear and simple.  

Nothing however is in The Outer Darkness.  I look askance at magic.  It's all made up without a scintilla of physical reality.  It's a rule based system, but those rules can be absurd.  

In The Outer Darkness the measures seem even more plausible because of the science fiction grounding.

The beast possessed shielding from the crone's sight.  That's neat.  It's like a Klingon Cloaking Device only the "circuitry" is writ in a spell on stone.  I can swallow that a lot easier than say spell of concocted out of gobbledygook and a potion consisting of eye of newt.

With their cargo secured, the crew of the Charon speed off to their rendezvous.  Captain Briggs does not forget about his men.  His reasoning remains morally gray, which cuts him from a different cloth than Federation.  Briggs tasks his team to merge science and supernatural in clever credible ways to assuage the moment.

These Amy Chu done-in-one Red Sonja’s may be space burners until the next writer comes along, but you can still dig them.  Chu’s narrative is strong and unerring.  Illustrator Carlos Gomez returns with his fervor for Red Sonja.

A lot of girls and boys experienced puberty with that depiction.

A tale of unusual musical caliber, Chu begins with Sonja finally catching that hare from last issue.

Sonja intervenes in the murder of musicians.  The brigands prove to be no match for the She-Devil.  The brevity allows more room for characterization and culture.

After offering the hospitality of her meal and fire, Sonja finds employment through Tariq the survivor who wishes to travel to Kambuja.  

Sonja accompanies the musician who disparages Sonja’s apparent callous taking of human life, and they debate the  power of the sword versus the power of the flute.

Damn, Carlos

The discussion comes to a head when Sonja and her charge reach shore and a ship that might convey them to their destination.  Chu cuts Sonja away from the wanton barbarian killers in this moment.

Even after dispatching two of the foolish pirates, she’s still willing to parlay and pay to avoid bloodshed.  She's still willing to give the pirates the benefit of the doubt.  Alas, the universe is not a kind place.  Once again, the them of music comes to the fore in a most surprising way.

The introduction to the newest Spider-Man story is a save that turns into a display of differing opinions on Spider-Man.  One comes from the little girl.

Dad on the other hand likes Spider-Man and tries to thank him for the rescue.  Tempting, but Spidey does the right thing and redirects the money to a pair of homeless individuals known to his alter-ego Peter Parker.

The tale segues to Pete going back to his apartment and encountering his neighbors.  One has an apple fetish and asks for him to look in on…

Is this is a setup date?

No, it’s a little stranger than that.

I enjoyed Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine and his DC work more than Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The main story is adequate.  The back up tale, which presents Pete and M.J. on a date in Spider suits is much more fun.

The thing is that almost all of the caveats I have aren’t really Taylor’s fault.  He’s just saddled with Spider-Man continuity that basically sucks. 

Boomerang is Spider-Man’s roommate.  Yeah, I don’t care.  I frankly don’t see any merit in the idea.  Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple this isn’t, and I’ve seen the whole borrowing garments thing before.

In the back up short, Aunt May reveals she has a new medical condition.  This is problematic for a number of reasons.  Aunt May is the former queen of heart attacks, which was one of the factors that interested me the least in Amazing Spider-Man.  

Because Peter and M.J. are getting closer, you cannot help but think Aunt May’s condition is connected.  You shouldn’t.  There should be no connection, but long ago, in the stupidest move Spider-Man associates ever made, Peter Parker made a deal with Mephisto.  

Aunt May stays healthy as long as Peter and M.J. don’t get together and be happy.  That’s the contract, and I imagine that it’s intact no matter what upheaval occurs since Mephisto is a cosmic being and likely immune to reboot phenomena.

Ghost Spider manages to escape the pull of confusion by being heartfelt and well-written.  This is all about how Spider-Geddon, a Big Stupid Event I didn't care about, ended.  I'm familiar with the Spiderverse through early issues of Spider-Gwen.  Into the Spiderverse also helped a lot when figuring out Spider-Man Noir and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham.  This is a strange issue where the Web-Warriors say goodbye to fallen comrades.  Some I never heard of.  Some vaguely connect to the Marvel Universe in general.  Others surprise, but the interaction between Spider-People seems genuine, and you cannot help feel a little sad that so-and-so died, even if you never read a single issue in which he starred.

Nightwing is another book that continues to reward.  Remember, I have no personal investment in Dick Grayson.  I never hated Robin, and I preferred him over the post-Crisis Nightwing.  I just didn't particularly care if Robin or Nightwing happened to be on the case.

The Scarecrow sought out Robin in a heretofore unknown feud.  As revealed in flashbacks, Robin felt no fear.  Scarecrow figured out Robin grew into Nightwing.  So, he came to Bludhaven for unfinished business.

His timing couldn't be worse.  Dick Grayson suffered trauma that altered his thinking.  He knows that at one point he was Robin and Nightwing, but there's no emotional connection to either identity.  Instead, Dick forged a new persona.  Dubbed Rick Grayson.  Cab driver and all around scrounger.

Ric set fire to his old spiffy digs recently introduced in Nightwing before Tom King went and knocked Nightwing off his perch.  There's a very good chance former Nightwing writer Benjamin Percy wasn't in the loop.  

He seemed to be staking out different territory in his run of Nightwing.  Reestablishing a platonic friendship between Nightwing and Batgirl.  She gifting him a mobile headquarters.  Possibly introducing a flirtatious relationship with Vicki Vale.  Creating a new villain that Batgirl recently inherited and dealt with.  Giving him acknowledgement from with a Celtic god.  Ah, well.

What we have now is equally impressive.  When Detective Sapienza investigated the fire, he discovered Nightwing's equipment and costumes intact.  He recruited some like-minded friends and became the leader of a Nightwing squad.

This is the team-up between Nightwings and Ric Grayson against the schemes of the Scarecrow, and it's better than you expect it could be or should be.  Nightwing fans will probably get even more of a kick out of the book than I did.  Even if Ric isn't in the skin-tights, he still hashes out right from wrong and jury-rigs a system that demonstrates the acumen honed by the Bat buried deep beneath the scare tissue.

It's difficult for me to get a handle on Harley Quinn.  On the on hand this book is still tangental to continuity.  Therefore none of it matters.  On the other hand, it's not the sweet comedy that Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner fostered.

In the main story Batman investigates a murder.  The clues seem to point to Harley Quinn, but there's more to this case than meets the eye.  When Batman goes to Coney Island to confront Harley she violently denies everything.

The tone differs strongly from say the time Poison Ivy asked Batman to intervene on Harley's behalf.  Batman seemed to tolerate Harley Quinn in the original run.  No longer.  Writer Sam Humphries penetrates the frivolity with a cutting dramatic moment.

It's also a perfect illustration from John Timms.  The trouble is that it doesn't actually belong here.  This isn't Batman: The Animated Series, nor is it Detective Comics.  So, how can there be actual consequences for Harley Quinn's crimes?  If this is a detective story, then why doesn't Batman behave like a detective? Harley Quinn states she hasn't visited Gotham in quite some time.  She establishes an alibi.  It's easy for Batman to check it out.

Before Batman shows up, Harley meets an emissary from the Lords of Order and Chaos who seeks to ordain Harley as the Galactic Angel of Retribution.  

This is a bizarre sequence of events.  For one thing, I can't for the life of me figure out why the Lords now operate through a herald.  That said, I can't fault the adorable, anachronistic choice.

Batman didn't do it for me.  Maybe it's because Professor Pyg is too new of a villain.  Maybe it's the nature of the beast, but this is one of the rare misfires from Tom King.  That said, I do like his using Bruce Timm as a springboard to find an old escapologist in the DCU teaching his trade to Batman.  We don't see him, but Batman mentions the showman.

When Dragonfly tracked down crazed villain Number One, he freed a captive named Jordan.  A victim of abuse, Jordan's story reveals a more complex relationship. Indeed a twisted mirror image to the way sidekicks sometimes find their way to the wing of the hero of the story.

Cool Car

Number One escaped through a mirror at the same point his campy counterpart did.  The Dragonflies pursued their nemesis, and suddenly they found themselves on The Wrong Earth.

The story develops from the perspectives of differing comic book histories.  The sixties styled Dragonflyman persists on the darker earth while the edgier Dragonfly tries to put up with an earth that doesn't make sense.

LooC raC 

The puzzlement leads to real world dangers.  Number One threatens Dragonfly's sidekick Stinger, but fortunately, the lad has two defenders.

Dragonfly's version of Stinger committed suicide, and it's his death that grants the fallen hero his depth.  At heart, neither Dragonfly wants to see the innocent hurt.  

What's fascinating about this whole situation is that taken outside of his dark milieu, Number One increasingly looks and behaves bizarrely.  He has no redeeming qualities.  Nobody's afraid of him.  He stands out as a kind of embarrassment.  He just does not belong anywhere.  

There's no pat solution for the Dragonflies.  Each one simply adapts to the other's earth.  Dark Dragonfly sees a second chance to save Chip.  He tempers his bloodlust and lies for the kid's sake.  Dragonflyman finds renewed hope in Jordan and the potential to change Dragonfly's crime ridden earth.

Wrong Earth could have just been a silly one-one shot or just a study between two very different eras of Batman.  Instead, writer Tom Peter and artist Jamal Igle treat the Dragonflies with great respect and singularity.  They don't sacrifice comedy or drama and strike a balance.

Igle's Dragonflyman isn't a fat parody of his counterpart.  For the record neither was Adam West a plump man.  His stunt man bore the natural padding.  When first coming aboard set, he told Yvonne Craig to let her know if he blocked her in the shot.  Craig dismissed the courtesy as actor's ego until she first saw him in full costume.  Trim, tall with big shoulders that the costume emphasized.  Igle gives Dragonflyman the same sort of physicality.  Writer Tom Peyer in turn gives him good lines to counter the preposterousness accoutrements of his gig.

Alternately, the traditionally comic book designed Dragonfly while being dark looks equally good.  The basic costume and color scheme create a strong aesthetic that carries through the book.  Peyer tempers his single-minded pursuit of Number One that resulted in some fiercely extreme actions with a sense of fear.  Not for himself but for this innocent world and his erstwhile partner Stinger.

Wrong Earth rounds up with a Dragonfly backup by Paul Constant and Gary Erskine that corroborates the validity of Dragonfly's status as a hero.  Here, he tries to talk down rather than kill his foe.

The rewarding glimpse into Dragonfly's former life nevertheless draws on parody with the introduction of a typically badass female character.

Cracker though a symbol of the era isn't by any means new. Female characters contributed much badassery to pulp novels long before resurfacing.  If anything, the absence and demotion in storytelling says more about patriarchal society and predominantly male writers of so-called mature fiction and motion pictures.  Comic book writers though sometimes chauvinistic still presented female defenders throughout comic book history.

In Doctor Who the Doctor rescued a human time traveler, who promptly turned on her.

It looks bad for the Doctor, except the neophyte time traveler Perkins forgot about several things.  He’s aboard the TARDIS which exists in a state of “temporal grace.”  When working properly, the TARDIS nullifies weaponry of all kind.  This was established during the fourth Doctor’s era.  Furthermore, Perkins' heart’s not really in it.  The Doctor senses the lad needs help and listens to how the whole kit and caboodle started.

The Doctor decides to help and takes the gang to the alien planet where her lash up of the Time/Space Vortex Manipulator detects the missing Dr. Schultz.

This Doctorish adventure written by Jody Houser easily replicates the repartee between the cast.  Doctor Who also benefits from the extraordinary artwork of Rachael Stott.  She in addition to recreating the actors’ portraitures and body movements also keeps the adventure humming with action.  

Kelly Thompson takes a crack at Captain Marvel.  The story begins with a renewal of friendship between Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman.  Spider-Woman saved Carol from being thrown to her death off the Golden Gate Bridge by the villainous Rogue and forever cemented their bond.

It’s genuinely a treat to see Jessica and Carol interact in a buddy-buddy monster movie, and the fight allows artist Carmen Carnero to stretch his imagination and his fingers.

Clean up comes in the form of Iron Man who’s anxious to use Captain Marvel’s celebrity status as well as to aid the latest Avengers Academy graduate to show up in Marvel Comics.

In addition, Thompson and Carnero bring real heat to the relationship between Carol and Jim Rhodes.  

I cannot really speak highly enough about their scenes together because its very easy for a strong male figure to undermine a strong female figure.  This does not happen.  Instead, Thompson and Carnero show plausibly how Jim Rhodes can sweep Carol off her feet, and quite frankly I never gave a damn about Jim Rhodes except as as Tony Stark's wingman.  Thanks to Thompson, you can easily see how Carol can fall for a good guy like Jim Rhodes.

Unfortunately, the main plot of the book introducing the new big bad doesn't hold a candle to these opening scenes and this film strip of Carol's life.  Some idiot named The Nuclear Man, no relation to Firestorm,  shows up to wreak male chauvinist havoc on Manhattan.   

This is where I lost interest.  I know dumb asses  like this piss-poor Marvel villain exist in small pockets of human males, but these ill-mannered dopes make for boring threats.

X-23 is a compact thriller with Laura and Gabby beating on Alchemex corporate contractors seeking out the cyborg that Laura rescued/claimed.

Gabby created by Laura’s former writer Tom Taylor could have become an author's darling or Mary Sue if you prefer, but new writer Mariko Tamika appears to have taken as much of a shine to the infectious Gabby.  The clone sisters aren’t exactly a double act.  Rather, Tamika demonstrates Laura’s cynical experience… 

…vs. Gabby’s optimism.  In addition to this characterization contrast, Tamika makes good use of guest star Hank McCoy, and she takes a moment to look in on some particularly smart villains and a not necessarily canny mad scientist.

Ryan North in Squirrel Girl delves into Skrull society for this funny yet sweet and even uplifting story of a Skull renegade who just wanted to stay on earth in whatever form made sense.

G'illian remains a lamp post for months on end if not years.  She finally decides to branch out as a squirrel, until finally becoming a human girl.

Hereafter, Squirrel Girl becomes a delicate parallel for immigration.  Without the proper papers, G'illian finds her existence on earth kind of sucky.

The isolation forces G'illian to keep tabs on her homeward, which though no great picnic at least let her work and gave her a sense of self-worth.  I know.  Skrulls.

Upon intercepting one transmission, G'illian learns that the Skulls are coming for her.  Defection is forbidden.  So, G'illian hatches a plan to convince the Skulls of her death.

The intelligence behind the plan demonstrates G'illian demonstrates the guile of a Skrull soldier, but her benevolent aims are all her.  Thus, North and Derek Charm bestow individuality to a race of traditional Marvel nasties without creating friction between their former portrayals.

When Squirrel Girl hears G'illian's story, she must now combat the will of Tony Stark.  Can she can convince Tony to give a Skrull, his kidnaper another chance?