Pick of the Brown Bag
June 8, 2022
by
Ray Tate
Welcome to another brand spanking new Pick of the Brown Bag. I'm Ray Tate, and I review comic books, prose novels and movies. You however know the gist of the blog. If not, stick around, and you'll find out. This week, I'm looking at a doublet: Batgirls and X-Men.
One of the things I look for in a good comic book is whether or not you can just dive right into the story with little to no exposition. Both of these books meet that criteria. Somewhat.
Given my history with Batgirl, Batgirls is a book you may think I would be reading regularly. Truth is. I got a sample of it in Batman or Detective Comics and really didn't care for the style of art, which also emphasized Barbara Gordon's newfound green eyes.
They look like green marbles. For somebody who knows better, they're blue, baby, blue, that's a lot of exposure to erroneous visuals.
They're Blue, Baby, Blue
Though, in general, I like the Spoiler, I never cared about Cassandra Cain. The exception being when Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner took her out of that awful black formless costume and put her into something awesome.
They're Blue, Baby, Blue
There's only one tag for Cassie Cain, just to emphasize my loathing, but I'll make it easy for you. Click here to see my review of Conner and Palmiotti's superb Birds of Prey and also glimpse the gorgeous costume they designed.
They're Blue, Baby, Blue
What's interesting is that artists Jorge Corona and Sarah Stern are really beneficial to Cassie Cain's traditional ink upchuck gear.
As you can see they create a number of striking contrasts that highlight the black and the shape of the figure. Very few artists ever did that with Cassie Cain. She always just looked like a thumbprint smudge somebody shaped into a sort of bat as an afterthought.
Primarily I bought this issue of Batgirls for the emphasis on the one and only Batgirl.
Barbara Gordon in modern costume with a bat cowl and not the Linda Turner Black Cat styled mask. Furthermore, since the modern costume opts for slits covering her eyes, I don't have to worry about the green ones.
It's through Corona's and Stern's depiction of the genuine Batgirl I started to see just how good they are. And baby, she's all over this. She's in action as Batgirl for seven pages. As Barbara Gordon only two.
It's those green eyes. Really. I hate them. I'm ecstatic that the New 52 granted Babs mobility, but the green eyes, which appeared after the modern Batgirl of Burnside run, repel me.
They're Blue, Baby, Blue
Not real green eyes. Let me emphasize. I have no issue with a person that has green eyes.
However, the biologist in me says you can't just magically change somebody's eye color on a whim. That said I'm willing to put up with the offense, if she's Batgirl, not Oracle. There's a difference. A huge difference.
Having good experiences with Becky Cloonan's writing in the Southern Cross, I suspected this would be well-written and Batgirl positive. I was not disappointed.
Cloonan teams up with Michael Conrad to relate an action-based story that turns Gotham City into a 90s post-apocalyptic hellhole complete with robo-hitmen hired by Simon Saint.
You may be asking. Who's Simon Saint?
Nope. Not him. Not even close. Although I'm sure somebody thought Simon Saint was a good alliterative villain's name because of the infamous Simon Templar.
You can just see the thought process.
"Simon. Simon Samuels. Simon Sophie. No! Simon Saint!"
"That sounds amazing!"
"I know. It just hit me!"
"Sink me, you're a poet!"
Simon Saint is the Big Bad that nobody cared about in the Batman titles. Some creator, with a poor memory, introduced him somewhere at sometime during the Infinite Frontier era of DC Comics. Not exactly a reboot of Rebirth or the New 52, but not exactly a harmless redefinition either.
That's all right though. Even if you're not quite sure what's going on, and you're really not likely to during the second half, Babs is tearing through garbage on her motorcycle and demonstrating just how smart she is.
That's really all I look for in a Batgirl book. That and blue eyes. Alas. Two out of three.
The other book I want to draw your attention to is X-Men number 10. If you'e an All-New Wolverine Laura Kinney fan, this book is for you.
Seriously. WTF?
Now, if you haven't been keeping up with the many, many X-Men titles, that's all right. You know as well as I do, no X-Men book will ever make any sense to somebody that hasn't been along for that ride since the very beginning. And I don't mean either the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby originals, the Thomas/Neal Adams run, nor the Byrne/Claremont era. If anything, the X-Men have gotten weirder, and not in a good way.
The X-Men books started to go off the rails when Storm shaved her head and started wearing tight leather. Coincidental redhead, Madeline Pryor showed up. Scott Summers who grieved to all hell for the doomed Jean Grey fell for her, and he wasn't a dick for doing that. However, you still could read The Uncanny X-Men with little threat of brain damage.
So, I advise you to skip the first page. That's just X-Men type nonsense. Simply accept that something mutant-like brought Laura Kinney back from the dead and everything's good now.
"Wait? Laura died? When did she die?"
Not even important. At some point, she died.
"Okay, but even if she's a clone of a clone, she shouldn't have the memories of--"
Shhh...It's just a comic book. Relax.
Rogue on the second page may convince you to read it, I don't advise that. Skip the confusing dialogue and narration. Just enjoy the beautiful rendition of Rogue by Javier Pina and Marte Garcia. She's not here for just eye candy. She becomes a crucial player later in the story with a nostalgic move that paints her as a hero.
The main plot begins on page five. That's when you see Laura suiting up to go investigate adamantium on the Big Bad's base.
"Wait. Who is the Big Bad?"
No idea. Some red guy.
This guy's identity is immaterial to Laura attempting to discover the mystery of the adamantium/mutant signal.
The rest of the story spotlights Laura as Wolverine doing what she does best.
We see her tracking.
We see her stealthy.
We see her clawing to where she hopes her cloned sister Gabrielle Kinney alias Honey Badger lies imprisoned.
It's not Honey Badger.
I'll not spoil the surprise because the infused adamantium identity of the occupant in the box is a classic X-Men character that you could have encountered multiple ways, even outside the higgledy-piggledy of X-Men continuity.
No, it's not Logan.
In addition to all of this Laura Kinney goodness ably choreographed by Pina as if X-Men were a Mission Impossible episode, we have a philosophical conflict.
Laura is a clone of Logan the original Wolverine. Logan as many can point out was a Canadian intelligence officer who was turned into an adamantium-clawed killing machine code-named Weapon X. I know. Canada seems so nice. In the Marvel Universe, they are real bastards.
The fact is that even though Wolverine is really good at killing with those claws of his, he grew extremely dissatisfied. He left Canadian Intelligence, became a hero in the X-Men and eventually stopped murdering everything in his longer reach. Mostly.
Laura was Weapon X-23. Another Canadian import. I know. They seem so nice. She realized her ethical dilemma much earlier than Wolverine. And has since sworn off killing with a much more reliable track record than her genetic stock. That doesn't stop Pina beautifully beating out a fight sequence where Laura also makes use of her super cool foot claws.
So, if you're a fan of Laura Kinney. This one is the exception that proves the rule.
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