POBB September 20, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 20, 2021

by

Ray Tate


Hello! If you've just discovered the blog, welcome.  If you're a faithful fan, greetings again.  My name is Ray Tate, and I review comic books.  For this latest September volume of the Pick of the Brown Bag, I look at the current issue of Good Agent as well as the premiere of Harley Quinn The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour.  If you haven't time for the blog, seek out the reviews on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Manny Guerrera is the Good Agent in Dan Membiella's online comic book series of the same name.  Killed by corrupt cops, a dose of science fiction brought Manny back to life as a super-hero.  

In the first four issues, the Good Agent squashed a group of racists who worshipped a cross between Odin and Cthulhu.

 

Membiella then revealed the Good Agent's origin and followed up with the introduction of a Moon Knight styled vigilante.  

Issue seven is the first part in an arc, but it's also a very good stand-alone story.  Manny and his confidant, Officer Fatima Chamber, take a road trip with police dog Lincoln and end up in a lawless town. 

That's bad news for the gang of wannabe crime lords.  The Good Agent was just itching for a means to postpone a confrontation with a ghost from his dead past.  Kicking some ass fits the bill.

Membiella intercuts the action packed sequence with more theatrical moments.

Membiella uses the comic book media to his advantage.  Bifurcating a story into two periods of closely related time but visually simplifying the two different narratives.

Illustration by Membiella offers an exemplary use of the black and white medium.  The stark shadows and sunlit areas contrast in a pleasing, polished manner.

Membiella's fight choreography is well thought, and the villains despite being suited up and covered by helmets exhibit a visual personality that characterizes them as mean idiots.  

The more straightforward stage section of the piece intrigues as well.  The drama directly ties in with issue five, and new readers may not feel the weight of the reveal.  Although they will get the gist.

Available at comixology for a buck, the Good Agent is a bargain.

Harley Quinn’s and Poison Ivy’s romance began with the subtext presented in the groundbreaking Xena Warrior Princess.  Oh, lesbian romances between two apparent straight girls/women sparked before Xena.  

From 1931

However, dramatic same-sex relationships didn’t reach geek consciousness until Xena and Gabrielle became an item in the mind, then soulmates on screen.   

Poison Ivy began her comic book existence as a 1960s femme fatale who brainwashed men with poison-laced lipstick.  In the Bronze Age she expanded to plant facilitated crimes using science fiction gimmicky.  

It may surprise people to learn that throughout her tenure, Ivy became sexually obsessed with Batman.  Neither her eventual super-powers nor her larcenous nature earned her a place in Arkham Asylum.  Her pathological feelings toward Batman fit her for a straitjacket.

In Batman the Animated Series, Harley Quinn started simply, as the Joker’s henchwench.  Her creators turned her into the Joker's would-be love interest.  All well and good until, Mad Love.  

First a graphic novel then one of the darkest episodes of The Animated Series.  Mad Love depicts Harley’s devolution from Arkham psychiatrist to the Joker’s horribly abused pawn.  After Mad Love, people wanted Harley to be with somebody else, anybody else.  Poison Ivy was an obvious choice.

The forces behind The Animated Series reimagined Poison Ivy as a self-confident eco-terrorist who only saw Batman as an obstacle, certainly not a love interest.  

Harley first teams up with Poison Ivy in “Harley and Ivy.”  At this point, very little of their relationship can be construed as anything but a common sisterhood.  

Subsequent episodes, Gotham Girls nor Justice League suggest otherwise.  The spin-off comic book series Batman Gotham Adventures planted the seeds and treated the inferred subtext of their relationship dramatically.  Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti in their off tangent universe Harley Quinn presented Harley and Ivy as a couple.  These extrapolations agreed with the LGBT imagery in the mind of the audience.  So, as with Xena and Gabrielle, Harley and Ivy became intrinsically linked as lovers.

Now, some may say that this is a sexist idea borne from the male gaze.  Men cannot imagine women being together except as a sexual fantasy.  Possible, but if you examine the history of these characters, you can see that a rethink of their sexual orientation is quite positive.  

Harley obsessed with the Joker.  Ivy obsessed with Batman, at least historically.  Both in need of a fresh start.  Both in need of independence from their pasts.  Finding a healthier love, not a psychological condition, on the way shouldn't be considered a detriment.

Based on the new Harley Quinn animated series on HBO Max, Harley’s and Ivy’s relationship is one of the two best things about The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour.  

That's the sort of heat you expect to radiate from a fan's art page, not a certified Harley Quinn book.

You can argue these images exist for the sake of the male gaze.  I disagree.  

Harley and Ivy are not doing anything that different from a male and female couple in a 1970s PG film.  The consummation of Harley's and Ivy's scene even occurs between pages and panels.  Just like that hypothetical movie may have been staged with a segue of time passing.. 

Traditionally such heterosexual suggestiveness appeals to men and women.  Not saying that's a fact, Jack.  This is the standard conclusion based on statistics.  

Maybe those statistics are skewed.  Maybe on an instinctive level, we're drawn to sexual imagery.  Any sexual imagery.  Maybe the attraction or lack is selectively based on the individual's personal taste.  I don't think that matters.  What matters is cerebral.  How does the scene effect the story and the characters.

Harley's and Ivy's closeness and sexual expression dramatically represent love, which is far more powerful than an exploitative dalliance.  Even Harley's dialogue comes from a selfless place.  You cannot deny that Harley and Ivy love each other.  The way Harley's love manifests differs from the behavior she exhibited toward the Joker.  Harley isn't afraid of Ivy.  You cannot be in love with a person you fear.

Tied for best thing about The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour.  The art.  This is the best straight-up cartooning I’ve ever seen for these two characters. 

Eschewing the styled Art Deco motifs of Bruce Timm, Max Sarin opts for a cross between Chuck Jones.... 

....and John Kricfalusi of Mighty Mouse, Ren and Stimpy fame. 

The detail, the expressions, the colors by Marissa Louise all merge to breathe rambunctious life into Harley and Ivy.  

The illustration looks this amazing on the paper stock of the floppy comic book.  I have no idea if it will look better or worse in a trade paperback with a shinier medium.  My advice.  Get the series now.  Don't wait.

Other moments in Harley Quinn stand out.  Their mercy.

Harley's saner alter-ego Dr. Harleen Quinzel speaking to Harley is an inspired touch.

The attempts at comedy however fail.  I am not and never have been ga-ga about Harley Quinn.  I like the character.  I love Arleen Sorkin’s hilarious voice acting for the cartoon, but I don’t have an affinity for Harley Quinn as is.  I'm more prone to pick up a guest-starring Catwoman book than a guest-starring Harley Quinn book.

Likewise for Poison Ivy.  I’ve never been a Poison Ivy fan until Batman The Animated Series.    

I never sought out or watched Harley Quinn on HBO Max.  I therefore do not know how accurate the comedy styling in the comic book may be when compared to the series.  

What I know.  I don’t like the overall attempts at humor in The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour.

I don't like Commissioner Gordon being turned into a vainglorious buffoon.  Neither am I keen on Gotham reporter Summer Gleason's replacement, nor the slapstick violence.  

I'm not opposed to slapstick violence.  I happen to love classic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck tomfoolery.  As well as the Stooges.  I just cannot enjoy the material presented in Harley Quinn.  

Why is this scene supposed to be funny? Is it a punchline? Is the pun intended? It just seems uncharacteristically mean to me.  The police officer did nothing to Harley and didn't deserve a punch in the jaw that dislodged a tooth.  When Wile E. Coyote hits dirt, it's usually a comeuppance of his own making.  

I approached The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour with an unbiased mindset.  Having never seen the cartoon series, I think I came to a different conclusion than most will.  Harley Quinn works as a surreal dramatic romance.  The elements many will see as comedy such as the dialogue and conflict within the car chase incorporate into the personalities of the stars and the odd situation in which they find themselves.