POBB May 8, 2019 Part Three

Pick of the Brown Bag

May 8, 2019 Part Three

by

Ray Tate

In the third and final Pick of the Brown Bag installment for May 8, 2019, I take on Agents of Atlas, Doctor Who, Supergirl, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and The Unstoppable Wasp.  Tomorrow a whopping huge twitter critique of all the books: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Jody Houser’s last stories in Doctor Who offered a fresh take on Roger Corman’s Z Grade Mystery Science Theater target Attack of the Giant Leeches. 

In this case the Leeches are actually known as the Stilean Flesh Eaters.  Normally they’re scavengers, but they’ve become bolder, leading to one biting the Doctor.  

The Doctor hasn’t encountered them by chance.  She’s being led through time and space by her curiosity over a historical podcast that’s undermining her thunder.  

The podcast informed the Doctor’s companions Ryan, Graham and Yaz about obscure corners in history.  I know what you’re thinking.  The Doctor thought of it as well.  The Doctor of the future is not the podcaster.  

Last issue, The Doctor’s latest investigation into Stilean behavior wound up crossing against the Time Agency.  The Time Agency debuted in the television series with the arrival of Captain Jack Harkness.  The Agency is a human-based time traveling police corps that apparently comprise a Fixed Point in history.  Else the Doctor’s people the Time Lords would have prevented the formation. 

The Doctor's reunion with Perkins and Schultz isn't all that happy.  With each regeneration the Doctor become increasingly anti-militaristic.  She counts the Time Agents as soldiers.  So, she sends Schultz and Perkins on a merry chase while she tracks down the Stilean Flesh-Eaters who have changed considerably.

In many ways, nothing happens in this issue of Doctor Who.  It’s a still point in a larger story, yet within that inertia, Houser entertains the reader with a dead-on characterization of the Doctor expressed in dialogue and action.  Houser’s instincts also give a good showing for the Doctor’s companions who have even less to do, but do it with comedy.  She also employs a judicious discussion about continuity, which makes the book feel even more authentic.

Artist Roberta Ingranata aids Houser with apropos body language and understated facial expression.  Ingranata is a bit more cartoony than Rachael Stott, and as such her Doctor is more flexible while still resembling Jodie Whittaker.

Now that Supergirl discovered the secret behind and head of the cabal demanding the destruction of Krypton and the continued genocide against her surviving people, all that remains is to beat the crap out of the subject.  Because of the species’ abilities, that makes artist Kevin Maguire’s return that more welcome.

No bones to other artists, but the beatdown plays to his abilities of rendering intricate detail and depicting emotion.  Intricate? Says you? Maguire’s really not known for that.  He’s actually more reputable for his simplification of the human form.

We get that as well, but mostly Maguire displays every one of Kara’s powers in exhilarating fashion.  Honestly, I don’t really know why the Rogol Zaar needed to exist, but Marc Andreyko and the Supergirl artists made it with no exception enjoyable.

The way Andreyko handled the beast was more of a reflection of how does Kara react to this bad thing thrust upon her.  The villain of the piece isn’t really anything.  That is to say a name from Superman’s or Supergirl’s past.  The antagonist’s construction at least makes sense, and it was great to see Kara cut loose on somebody that’s definitely not cardboard.

In addition, Andreyko and Maguire give Krypto his due.  Superman gifted Krypto to Kara so she wouldn’t lose herself to revenge.  Krypto makes good on the pledge.  Saving Kara from her rage at a critical moment.    

I’d really like to see Jeremy Whitley, Alti Firmansyah and Espen Grundetjern tackle X-Men continuity.  Maybe then I have a chance understanding it.  It’s Nadia’s, the Unstoppable Wasp’s, birthday party.  The creative team invited every character even marginally associated Hank and Nadia Pym.  Here however is the clever part.  The team include Viv Vision as your guide presenting a clear and concise explanation to every relationship present.

Damn it.  Get her to Charles Xavier’s mansion immediately.  The story begins with Wasp, Scott and Cassie Lang, meeting Nadia for the first time.  Cassie and Nadia hit it off immediately, and she ushers her in for the whole hullabaloo. 

No, your eyes do not deceive.  That is Tigra, looking amazing.  Yes, that is the proper Tigra tail.  Tigra is love.  Her presence did not add to the theoretical score of The Unstoppable Wasp.  Though her inclusion certainly didn’t hurt.  Not one bit.

The issue is mainly a lot of meet and greet character moments with suffused in comedy provided from an overall boisterous atmosphere.  Hercules for example.

I know what you’re thinking.  Is the Winter Soldier vs Nadia cover a cheat?  No.  Though Mockingbird invited him as her plus one out of coincidence, Winter Soldier does have a connection with Nadia and Ying.  

However, this is not the drag-out fight between the Wasp and Winter Solider you’re looking for, nor is it the superhero misunderstanding trope.

The party ends up at a specific club where Nadia gets a spectacular gift from Cassie.  For anybody else the gift just may be insane.  Although for young superheroes who haven’t yet felt the burdens some adult heroes suffer through, it may be the perfect.  

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl teams up with the straight from actual Norse myth Ratatoskr.  The Asgardian Squirrel Chaos God.  They’ve met before.

Usually Squirrel Girl is astonishingly open-minded.  She talked the Rhino down from committing a crime and attempted to reform Kraven the Hunter.  No such leeway for Ratatoskr.  However, she’s actually on Squirrel Girl’s side.

Ryan North’s reasoning for the shifting alliances makes perfect sense given Ratatoskr’s argument, and this leads to some terrific comedy and action involving the duo's battle against two Frost Giants, also in love.  Normally, Squirrel Girl could get behind that love, but not this time. 

Derek Charm’s artwork does an amazing job of blunting any threat posed.  Ratatoskr resembles Bugs Bunny more than her nightmarish countenance of the past, and gains more comedic expression.  The Frost Giants are the spine-headed Klingons of Star Trek and watching their defeat, Ratatoskr’s antics and her attempts to convince Squirrel Girl to trust her amuses to no end.

When the duo put the kibosh on the Frost Giants, Ratatoskr takes on a human form in an outrageous one page multi-panel catwalk—squirrel walk that’s gut-busting.  She finally settles on this unobtrusive number.

Squirrel Girl outstandingly approves, which is weird because Ratatoskr sticks out like a proverbial thumb, especially in the frozen Canadian North.  So far Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the best excuse for the War of the Realms to take place.

Agents of Atlas or Asians of Atlas is a very dull affair with a combination of new Asian characters and old ones led by former SHIELD agent and Agents of Atlas alum Jimmy Woo.  The story starts off with a mystery in the Pacific that leads two of the new to investigate.

With Pak’s cookie-cutter approach there’s not a lot of room for characterization.  We’ve got an All-Star Squadron knock off of DC’s Tsunami and another coincidentally elemental figure.

Whatever.  The story cuts to Jimmy Woo’s Atlas Academy where Ms. Marvel, Amadeus Cho, Silk and Shang-Chi share pears in a pedantic moment that’s so risible I could actually hear Mike Nelson, Crow and Tom Servo ridiculing it in my head.

It’s during this instance I realized that I’m being bored to death by the Ultimate version of Shang-Chi.  I briefly experienced this version of Shang-Chi in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up.  

This is the younger, hipper incarnation that’s Fu-Manchu free.  The original Shang-Chi is a product of Marvel licensing the Sax Rohmer Fu-Manchu characters back in the seventies.  

The traditional Shang-Chi is the son of Fu-Manchu.  Dr. Fu-Manchu is a would be world dominator that also happens to be Chinese and unfortunately part of the Yellow Peril phenomena, even though that was never Rohmer’s intent.

I won’t diverge into verbose details, but Rohmer had been inspired by a real Chinese man he spotted by chance.  He made up the bulk of Fu-Manchu on the spot.  Fu-Manchu is a doctor of medicine and attended some of the best universities of the time.  I don’t believe Sax Rohmer was a racist in the classical sense.  He was instead an orientalist that just wanted to tell a ripping yarn and make money at it.  You should really look at Fu-Manchu as a classier Chinese Fantomas, a master maniacal criminal created almost a century earlier.

Without a Fu-Manchu background, Shang-Chi is absolutely useless.  Oh, he’s a master of martial arts.  So is Black Widow, two of the White Tigers, Iron fist, Colleen Wing and so many others with and without complementary super powers.  Shang-Chi is only interesting because of his connection to Fu-Manchu.  Without, he’s just a dude with bracelets.

Anyway, as the story continues, Malekith and his Eight Realm Army invades Midgard.  The Agents go to meet this new threat.  Unfortunately they brought Amadeus Cho with them.  

Cho is extremely hard to take in even low doses.  An entirely subjective pronouncement I know, but there it is.  He sucks, and I feel that Pak could have chosen a different Asian jackass for the team: Sunfire immediately comes to mind, a new Golden Girl or anybody else other than the ineffective blundering idiot Amadeus Cho.  

In fact had Pak bothered to put the amount of time and effort in say the White Fox who, ala Puma Man, flies like a real White Fox we might have had at least a half-way decent comic book.  Perhaps she's named White Fox because of the white hair and actually is a Foooooxxxx.  No? Too sexist? Well you got me, because as "god as my witness" I didn't think foxes could fly.