Pick of the Brown Bag
September 18, 2019
by
Ray Tate
Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, a weekly review column, where I--Ray Tate--critique the best and the worst of the comic book continuum.
Today I look at Aquaman, Batman, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Red Sonja Birth of the She-Devil, Supergirl, Vampirella and Wonder Woman Come Back to Me.
I’ll also examine the latest reinvention of Inferior 5, the J.J. Abrams Spider-Man and Steeple a brand new book from Dark Horse. As always, if you haven't the time to delve into the blog, I'm accessible on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.
Christopher Priest makes quite an impressive effort to combine the conflicting origins of Vampirella. Vampirella began in the 1960s as an alien “vampire.”
The origin took some turns into biblical myth. Then, somebody suggested that Drukulon, the planet where Vampirella purportedly came from might be a principality of hell. Vampirella thus became occult.
These refits fail to explain why Vampirella is a sun bather and habitually defers from human blood. Nor is she contagious. Vampirella cannot sire vampires.
Most of what we know of vampires comes from Hollywood. The folklore vampire is quite different. Vampirella neither fulfills any folklore criteria. It’s somewhat silly to say, but Vampirella’s alien origin fits her the best.
Vampirella always seems to be fighting occult creatures on earth. She’s a science fiction denizen battling magical things. Ironically satisfying the needs of a vampire hunter such as Dr. Van Helsing.
Priest’s take on the subject will be discussed more in The Spoiler Section.
The amalgamation becomes threaded in some extremely cool supernatural shenanigans from Vampirella’s immediate past. These open a door for Priest to discuss the differing Vampirella plots based on the love/hate for V from the Catholic Church.
Priest demonstrates the hypocrisy of the institution through the voice of Lilith, Vampirella's mother. One may argue that lust for Vampirella is a step up from raping children. Being a student of history, I have no love for the Catholic Church. Being an atheist I am ambivalent toward the faithful’s attempts to reform the foundation.
The current issue of Vampirella is also the perfect jump-on point. Priest seeks to reshape a definitive origin for Vampirella. The extraordinary illustration by Ergun Gunduz recapitulates the mature tone of the Warren magazine and simply exemplifies good girl art and otherwise.
Rather like Kelly Sue DeConnick on Aquaman, Marc Andreyko did his own thing in Supergirl, or the very best with the dictate of the Brian Bendis/Superman editors.
Andreyko’s Supergirl sought revenge for Krypton against the new villain Rogol Zaar. An interstellar hit man who targeted planets.
Superman though refused to allow Supergirl to lose herself to her seething emotions. He gifted Krypto to her, and Krypto in turn kept Supergirl on an even keel.
Before Andreyko, Steve Orlando held the reins of Supergirl. He established Kara’s relative newness through a unique syntax in her speech, her working with Cameron Chase of the DEO, a like/love interest in Ben Rubel, and a pair of Danvers that were married DEO agents as surrogate parents to better her brunette disguise of Kara Danvers. I didn’t like all of Steve Orlando’s setup, but most of it grew on me. A rare occurrence.
Andreyko concluded Kara’s and Krypto’s space odyssey in the last issue. At the finale, he returned them to earth.
Surprisingly, rather than start fresh, Andreyko goes back to the Orlando framework. Right from the first pages, we get a glimpse at Ben Rubel—last seen working with Dan Abnett’s Titans.
Through Supergirl, Orlando brought Dr. Shay Veritas back to the Superman Family cast, and it’s here where the Supergirl portion of the story begins.
Supergirl seeks to determine the whereabouts of the Danvers. So she locates Shay Veritas, hiding from Leviathan.
I don’t however think Andreyko meant it. If you’re a fan like I am of Shay Veritas, you’ll immediately realize that she behaves more like her girlfriend Cameron Chase.
Doctors have been known to smoke, despite the mountain of evidence that demonstrates slow death, but as far as I remember Shay doesn’t smoke. Chase is a chain smoker trying to quit. I also can’t see Shay drinking an unhealthy energy drink. Shay also never met Batman as far as I know. Chase tried to discover his secret identity.
In later scenes, Shay refers to herself proprietarily belonging to a government agency. Shay never liked working for the DEO. That was a means to an end, until she became involved with Chase.
Andreyko shortens Eliza’s arm to a bionic hand. I’m not going to quibble over that, but Supergirl believes Shay implanted a tracker in Eliza’s hand.
I wasn’t aware that Shay’s the one behind the arm/hand. In fact, I really never considered Shay to be that kind of doctor. She’s a biologist and physician not an engineer.
On the flip side, I can see the DEO then an analogue for SHIELD giving Eliza the hand/arm. I can also see Chase planting a tracker in it.
If you read the dialogue, Shay sounds drunk, unless of course this never was meant to be Shay, and the artist, ever superb Eduaro Pansica, was told to draw Shay instead of Chase at the deadline hour. Possibly, the Powers That Be at DC have plans for Chase, or they’re keeping her open to be a possible Leviathan identity.
The Leviathan section of Supergirl works quite well because there’s nothing ground-breaking about the Leviathan knights, or whatever they call themselves.
Arrogant dumb-clucks who think they’re a match for Kryptonians. Sure they have kryptonite and some kind of gravity netting. Blah. Blah. Blah. They’re still just Intergang with funky, black outfits knocking-off the Ray’s fashion sense.
Their presence allows Pansica the opportunity to cut loose in the action-oriented artwork. Always a plus.
Totally gratuitous, but I know what I like. Seeing Supergirl and Krypto kick ass.
Also working surprisingly well, “The Year of the Villain” stuff. Andreyko reintroduces a robotic Brainiac to the Superman universe.
Because of a bizarrely written Shay Veritas, this is not the best issue of Supergirl but Eduardo Pansica’s, Julio Ferrara’s and Eco Plascencia’s illustration make Supergirl a keeper.
Still stuck on the strange island in the Bermuda Triangle, which is the traditional position of Paradise Island, just as an aside, Wonder Woman and Jonah Hex battle giant insects and feathered dinosaurs to save a marooned Steve Trevor and company.
For unknown reasons the Cheetah shows up and steals Wonder Woman’s golden lasso, which is kind of part of her shtick.
Not counting Nazis, the Cheetah is arguably Wonder Woman’s arch enemy through time. There’s no really good explanation for this perpetuity.
The original Cheetah’s psychosis overtly identified Wonder Woman’s creator as a psychiatrist. That Cheetah was translated pretty decently in the Challenge of the Super-Friends. A second Cheetah arose in the Bronze Age, and another in the post-Crisis. The last Cheetah has undergone the most reworking. As a result, the Cheetah’s motives are really hazy. Hopefully, the new Wonder Woman film will help solidify what makes Cheetah tick.
From 1940 to the present day, Wonder Woman comic books have mostly been serious affairs. Any comedy you might find in her annals was usually unwitting or due to dated circumstances.
In any case, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti inject humor in this third issue of the Wonder Woman Come Back to Me. With artists Tom Derenick, Trevor Scott and vivid Alex Sinclair, the creative team perform these gags without losing Wonder Woman’s resonance.
Luke Lieberman, Sergio Davila and Ulises Arreola end Red Sonja Birth of the She-Devil in unapologetic gore.
This is how an early Red Sonja adventure should end, especially given the plot.
The Big Bad Raka embraced the teachings of a Chaos God named Bel. He developed a poison that turned men into berserkers. Kidnapping Sonja’s childhood friend Shashana proved to be Raka’s undoing.
This split her from her foster father Ozzyus. She vowed to bring Shashana back and kill Raka in the process. Her Trek earned her a reputation that involved slaying numerous corrupt rulers of the lands and cutting down men that got in her way.
Birth of the She-Devil takes place during the cusp of Sonja's reunion with Shashana and her final battle against Raka. Ozzyus re-entered her life to atone for the sins he feels he made against Sonja, and new allies prove their worth in bloody, beautiful battle scenes.
Birth of the She-Devil however isn’t just a barbarous tale. Lieberman gives the narration over to Ozzyus to characterize him as a flawed but progressive man who changed due to Sonja’s influence. In a pivotal moment Sonja forgives him.
No, I’m not spoiling anything. The outcome of the story isn’t predictable. You cannot deduce who will die, how they will die, live or be turned by Raka’s poison. The strong, cohesive unfolding is feminist in nature, and gives the new Red Sonja reader an idea of why this version of Red Sonja lasted so long in comic books.
The Inferior 5 were originally a group of misfit superheroes. One of whom Dumb Bunny shares her code name as a nickname with one of the characters.
As far as I can tell, that’s the only resemblance you’ll find in what is essentially Keith Giffin’s elseworld. What if Giffin’s favorite alien-baddie The Dominators won Invasion! back in the nineties?
Pretty glum, chum. This is a bizarre story. The tale opens on what may be a murder with a horror story freakshow.
The story segues to the everyday trials of Justin and his Mom. Survivors of whatever happened to Metropolis. A tragedy in Metropolis just hammers in the nail.
We get a hint in the comic book retelling. The comic book being read by Lisa in the store owned by a strange man named Vlad.
Obviously Vlad could be a vampire, or he could just be a radiation induced cancer victim cruelly dubbed Vlad.
The previously mentioned Dumb Bunny, christened Theresa, finds unwanted affection and strikes a blow for feminism.
The purposely dreadful environment and forlorn characters gets a bit of relief from a teleporter with aquirky speech pattern. She’s Lisa’s friend.
All in all, I have zero ideas about what’s going on, but the story interests with its seemingly unconnected vignettes, and I’ll likely take a look at the second issue.
The back up piece focuses on Peacemaker. Peacemaker is a transposed Charlton character with a whacky taste in headgear.
Fan favorite Jeff Lemire scribes and draws the piece. It's not stand-alone. Peacemaker finds a Dominator, and mentions the Invasion! The Suicide Squad appears to be one of the few groups left. They seem to be the heroes of the dystopia, which is just depressing when you think about it.
Steeple by John Allison, Sarah Stern and Jim Campbell combines the vicarage, Wales, the Church of Satan and odd monsters. This is a lot of fun with inviting artwork.
The story opens on another day of demon fighting from Reverend Penrose. The help the diocese promises to send him turns out to be Billie Barker.
Fear not, for the goodly Maggie Warren offers Billie a ride.
Maggie takes a shine to Billie and offers her a tour of the village. Allison fills his dialogue with wry humor and peppers the speech with Welsh verbiage. When Maggie reaches the rectory, they don’t exactly welcome her with open arms.
To assuage the snubbing, Billie takes Maggie up on her offer and pops into the Victoria Pub. More amusement and shenanigans occur but nothing in comparison to what’s to come.
The deep always has been the mother of monsters, from seafaring folklore to H.P. Lovecraft. In the last issue of Aquaman, Arthur was moving in his friend the Calliach and a group of aquatic gods confined to mortal form. Also, Black Manta’s son, the new Aqualad sought out a new partnership with Aquaman. All seemed to be going swimmingly. Oh, yeah. That’s right. Swimmingly.
Then a giant monster showed up. This issue of Aquaman is a Robson Rocha tour-de-force in which Aquaman fights a creature that will not respond to his telepathic commands.
DeConnick in turn keeps things moving in the dialogue with Aqualad and Aquaman synching as a team and setting up a strong finale that recalls something that you probably dismissed as inconsequential. I certainly did.
Batman and Catwoman now cemented relationship-wise begin some warm-up exercises on a beautiful island paradise.
Hilarious for so many reasons. What follows is a montage of Batman and Catwoman kicking ass, solving crimes and rescuing innocent victims.
Sex and violence is the rest and recuperation therapy. As well, the Cat and the Bat argue over when and where they first met. Surprisingly they come to a happy medium at the conclusion.
The island is more than their spa. It serves as a key point in Bane’s Venom supply chain.
Venom for those not in the know is a drug Denny O’Neil created in Legends of the Dark Knight. Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan incorporated that drug in their character Bane. Venom pumps Bane up literally.
In a surprise turn of events, Bane employs Magpie as the overseer of the operation.
I was a little surprised to see Magpie in the story. Created by John Byrne for Man of Steel, the series that reintroduced Superman and Batman to the post-Crisis, Magpie is genuinely certifiable.
In other words, Byrne may have looked up her condition in the American Psychiatry Association’s DSM. In Man of Steel, she suffers from kleptomania. Kleptomania is not the cutesy psychosis seen in countless 1940s mysteries but a true tortuous psychological disorder.
King unfortunately doesn’t take the time to present Magpie in-depth. The implication of theft is all you get. This undermines the resonance of the character.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is almost perfect Spider-Man. The story begins with Peter escorting Aunt May to her doctor’s appointment.
May unfortunately developed cancer, but honestly, I’ve never been much of an Aunt May fan. Live. Die. Can’t say that I care.
Aunt May feared and loathed her nephew’s alter-ego since day one. Why should I like this character if she hates Spider-Man?
The writers and plotters always dealt with J. Jonah Jameson’s hatred of Spider-Man humorously, but May’s animosity lacked dimension. Furthermore, they characterized May as stereotypically old.
It wasn’t until Marvel refit May and dropped her attitude that I could accept her as a positive part of Peter Parker’s life. Still not worth dissolving his marriage with Mary Jane, but at least palatable.
Speaking of which, thanks to the dumbass deal, the reader must wonder if Mephisto is behind anything bad happening to May as a consequence of Peter becoming too close to Mary Jane. Thanks a lot Marvel.
Once the Aunt May bit is over with, Spidey gets down to business. Saving lives on a flaming boat and misunderstanding irony.
The miscreant who torched the boat turns out to still be hiding aboard, and things look bad for Spidey.
Like Mark Twain, Spider-Man’s death is greatly exaggerated, but that doesn’t mean he must shirk the responsibility for the reportage.
He calls first his police contact. A new character to me, but I’m already liking her. Then off to see Mary Jane.
She gives him a really good pep talk, and Spidey uses his death to suss out the bad guys before connecting with some old friends, also happy and hugging to see him alive. They’ll be guest-starring next issue. So spoiler free until then.
J.J. Abrams teams with his son to relate a brand new Spider-Man miniseries. So I’m putting most of the review in the Spoiler Section. On the whole this was a pretty good Spider-Man story with Aunt May actually becoming the most important character in the book.
The Spoiler Section
If that imagery in Vampirella looks familiar to you, then you’re likely a student of science fiction, art and/or skepticism.
The New York Sun ran a series of articles that would later be labled the Great Moon Hoax of the1800s. The articles reported that famous astronomer Sir John Herschel’s latest observations of the moon uncovered a race of Bat-People.
Here demonstrated in an lithograph. You’ll note that some are nude bat-winged women. These images have been reprinted over and over again in dozens of books.
The story retold through this artwork. Linking Vampirella with this early meme is utterly magnificent. Somebody should have done this ages ago. Vampirella does not come from the moon. Priest harbors some different ideas.
The way I'm reading this is that Drakulon is a Quantum World. Vampirella arises from the Quantum Realm. This would still make her an alien. Indeed, Lilith, her mother corroborates Vampirella's story.
Priest furthermore erases the wanton bloodlust Vampirella slakes in her very first Warren piece. Instead, Vampirella remains wholly good.
Spider-Man takes place in an alternate universe where Spidey and Mary Jane stayed together and had a son, Ben Parker.
The boy is actually the star of Spider-Man. He begins to exhibit the powers of a spider and Aunt May becomes his patron.
A Short History of the Invasion!
So, if you've not been paying attention. This is the third time a Dominator showed up in the New 52. Once in Supergirl, again in Superman Up In the Sky and now Inferior 5.
Introduced in The Legion of Super-Heroes, the Dominators quickly became a signature alien of DC Comics' post-Crisis era. The Dominators and the Khunds each represented the opposite ends of the Star Trek analogue spectrum. That gamut also took part in Invasion!
The Dominators incapacitate the lion’s share of the heroes with a genetic bomb, leaving a small contingent to battle the hordes. That contingent includes Superman. So, problem actually solved.
Mon-El’s people show up. At first the Daxamites ally with the Dominators, but they turn when Superman saves their sorry asses from lead poisoning. Touched by the Kryptonian angel, they throw in with the heroes and soundly trounce the invaders.
This action also fills the gap left when John Byrne eliminated Superboy from Superman's time line. The Daxamites Valor and Andromeda replaced Supeboy and Kara in the Legion of Super-Heroes.
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