POBB July 24, 2019

Pick of the Brown Bag

July 24, 2019

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  I’m Ray Tate, and I review comic books.  The best and the worst all have a place here.  I may also have a few words to say about the otherwise mediocre.  No medium cool books for the week of July 24, 2019.  This includes Detective Comics, Batgirl, Chandra and Scooby-Doo Team-Up.  Double dose of Twitter reviews will be up before the blog: #PickoftheBrownBag.

This issue of Detective Comics is Peter J. Tomasi’s tribute to Batman the Animated Series.  It’s just a really good defacto episode of that show with a different look thanks to artists Doug Mankhe, Jamie Mendoza and Dave Baron.

Let me expand on that.  The Joker used to be a Batman villain.  Not the Batman villain.  

After DC incorporated Barbara Gordon’s crippling into continuity proper.  After the Joker beat Jason Todd to death with a crowbar.  Joker stopped being just a Batman villain.  

His crimes against the Batman Family granted the Joker more gravitas.  Writers tended to accommodate stories to him.  As if the Joker deserved something truly epic before dancing onto the scene again. 

This done in one Detective Comics is a throwback to a simpler paradigm.  The plot’s timeless.  The story nevertheless occurs in the present day.

The stuff about Lex and the Legion of Doom is pure lip service to current events.  I don’t know about it.  I don’t care about it, and it’s not pertinent to the gist of the story.

The Joker takes over a carnival.  Everybody’s invited except the police.  That doesn’t exclude Batman.  In fact, the Joker is delighted when Batman shows up.

The tete-a-tete is just so refreshing.  Part of the feeling is due to the fact that we can laugh at this version of the Joker’s dark humor again.  

The Joker went into a grim hole for awhile, but Batgirl is kicking villains in the face again while Jason is doing somersaults as the Red Hood.  So, his success short-lived.  

The Joker in fact really seems like himself in this story.  He’s a serial killer indeed.  However, a rationale underlines his murders.  The Joker’s not crazy.  He’s evil.

The Joker holds all the people at the carnival hostage.  Batman must deduce a way to save them, thwart the Joker’s plan which involves leaving a grin on each corpse.    Batman of course succeeds, and the Joker fails.  When the Joker fails, he tries to make a getaway. 

That’s been missing a helluva long time.  The Joker has no contingency plan to make Batman suffer.  There’s no discussion about frogs and scorpions.  There’s no retribution from fate or nature.  He just runs. 

Best of all, the way Batman finally fells the Joker is spectacular.  Even the Joker is impressed by Batman’s wry tactic.

Cecil Castellucci pissed me off when she wrote Female Furies.   I probably would not have given her a second chance if not for my unwavering support of Batgirl.  Batgirl is on my pull list.  Just because Castellucci took over the writing duties didn’t mean I would drop Batgirl.  So, long as she’s healed.  I will give DC my coin.  Castellucci’s first issue of Batgirl is actually good.  

Like she did with Female Furies she goes back in time.  Unlike her technique in Female Furies, she doesn’t rewrite her predecessors.  In fact, this is a restoration.  Killer Moth is Batgirl’s first foe.  He forgot about harassing Batman and became her arch enemy.  Half of this story is nothing more than Batgirl renewing an old animosity.  Killer Moth underestimates Batgirl but Batgirl does the same.  Castellucci upgrades Killer Moth with Black Panther armor, a “mothball” gun, heatseeking devices and much more.  In addition the repartee between Batgirl and Killer Moth speaks of a mutual disrespect that’s amusing and historical.

The other half of the book interested me less, but it was still written well.  The Terrific Trio show up yet again.  Personally, I feel this second appearance is too soon.  Especially given that Batgirl captured two of them in the last issue.  

I realize that the Legal System in this county is severely broken, but c’mon.  These guys should be in custody.  They’re a flight risk.  Their bond should have been exorbitant.  They already lost a ton of capital in the fire at Fox’s Den.

As to the third member, Castellucci at least explains his surprising presence as a second in the line yet a linked variation.  The Trio attempt to resurrect something that I also don’t care about.  

I love Metamorpho.  It all began with millionaire and definitely not philanthropist Simon Stagg.  

He married and produced a daughter named Sapphire.  Stagg is way overprotective of his daughter.  

Sometime during Sapphire’s growth into a young woman, Stagg discovered a still living Neanderthal Man whom he de-iced.  Simon educated that man and christened him Java.  Java became his loyal servant and fell in love with Sapphire.

Sapphire though is in love with Rex Mason, a former race car driver and adventurer now in the employ of Simon Stagg.  At first Simon expresses no issue with Sapphire dating and intending to marry Rex.  That all changes when he sends Rex to fetch the Orb of Ra.

The handsome Rex Mason becomes Metamorpho.  Surprisingly and winningly, Sapphire doesn’t care.  

That’s the original Metamorpho series in a nutshell.  Much of which as you can see is recouped in Scooby-Doo Team-Up.

Before I begin complimenting Sholly Fisch’s story, I have to say that Metamorpho hasn’t looked this good since Jim Aparo drew him in the Bronze Age The Brave and the Bold.  Metamorpho started out cartoony thanks to Ramona Fradon and in my opinion he should have stayed that way.  Dario Brizuela is perfect for this character and his kooky exaggerated cast mates.

Fisch’s story hits all the right beats.  In the Scooby-Doo arena, Simon Stagg calls upon Mystery Inc. to sleuth the hell out of a manifesting monster.  Shaggy and Scooby naturally overreact upon seeing Metamorpho and Java, but they get over their fear finding a stronger source in the monster.

The gags are good.  The mystery solid and solvable if you pay attention to the narrative.  

For Metamorpho’s Periodic Table he gets that Stagg is an antagonist and not the diabolical villain he would later become.  He plays up the love triangle between Metamorpho, Java and Sapphire, and he also makes good use of The Orb of Ra.

Chandra is a fire-wielding female superhero but she protects a fantasy-based multiverse, with ties to the game Magic: The Gathering.  Now, I know beans about Magic.  That hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Chandra.

Anybody that enjoys superheroes, vivid artwork and a diverse, “alien” cast will enjoy Chandra.  In terms of plotting, Chandra has been a series of short stories threaded together by her ability to cross the realms at will.

Last issue writer Vita Ayala and artist Harvey Tolibao introduced Chandra’s arch-nemesis Tibalt a sort of fear-mongering devil type in haute couture.  His psychic attack sent Chandra into a bad place, literally and figuratively.

Chandra addresses her damaged psyche by revisiting her first losses.  Though a Necropolis, Chandra soon discovers Amonkhet is far from uninhabited.

Hence a superb fire-based fight imaginatively ignites and helps Chandra work out her problems.  When she returns to her friend—a big white tiger man named Ajani—for healing, she finds a more workable solution.  Just in time for Tibalt to make his next move for the cliffhanger.