POBB November 21, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag

November 21, 2022

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  I'm Ray Tate, and this week I take a break from such books as Batgirls, Nightwing and The Human Target, which inadvertently became frequent subjects, to cast an eye at The New Golden Age and Star-Girl The Lost Children.  I promise to review some Marvel and indy books in the near future.

I would include #PickoftheBrownBag for Twitter users, but what with Elon Musk burning Twitter to dust, that doesn't seem logical.  I'm still sticking with Twitter for now and will post some short thoughts of the books under that hashtag, but you know....ah...well...c'est la vie.  Twitter had a good run.

So, for the current and future postings, I'm going to add something to the first paragraph just before the body of the review.

Pick up The New Golden Age and Star-Girl The Lost Children.  Even if you're not keen on the well-written stories, the art in both will wow you.  See? That was easy.  

The Golden Age boasts the pedigree of writer Geoff Johns, artists Jerry Ordway, Todd Nauck, Steve Lieber, Diego Olorteguei, J.P. Mayer, Scott Hanna, Scott Kollins, Viktor Bogdonovic, Brandon Peterson and Gary Frank.  

With color art by Nicolas Filardi, John Kalisz, Matt Herms, Jordan Boyd and Brad Anderson, Golden Age clocks in at forty-eight pages with no--repeat--no ads.  But is it worth the five dollar price tag?  Affirmative.

The story opens with young Helena Wayne enjoying a snowy day in Gotham City.  

Created in 1977 by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton, Helena Wayne is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.  Helena becomes the Huntress to avenge her mother's death.

For those not in the know, DC thrives on the concept of parallel earths and the multiverse.  Defined in the name.  

The above scenario occurred on earth two.  Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino who gave us The Flash of Two Worlds. conceived earth two for pure entertainment.  Other writers used the concept to explain character ages.

Historically Batman existed for eighty plus years.  He doesn't look like he's aged a stick.  It's a fictional conceit, but how to explain it in context?  The Powers That Be split Batman in two.  

The then modern Batman from the seventies' Bronze Age actually began his career in the nineteen sixties.  

The original led his life on earth two.  He started in 1939, married Catwoman, had a daughter and retired his cowl at the same time his counterpart built his considerable reputation.  More or less.

Writer Johns rationally points out that by now the earth two Batman would be dust.  So he takes the Batman Family on a new spin.  

Johns distinguishes this Batman and Catwoman duality in another way.  Catwoman and Batman plied their trades against the character backdrop of the Justice Society.  The 1940s group that started all superhero associations in comic books.

The story nevertheless focuses on Helena Wayne enjoying a snowy day in Gotham City.  What could be more innocent? Reading on, we discover Helena's being watched.

This is no child's nightmare.  

.  

The villain of the piece flits through this new earth two's history at will.  Past, present, future.  

His motive is suitably bizarre and it laces the proceedings with intense drama.  Furthermore, the figure appears to tie-in with Johns' other major work that's flying under the radar.  

The Star Girl Spring Break Special suggested that somebody or something kidnapped all the hero sidekicks from time and space.  The Golden Age introduces readers to those partners in heroism.

Johns even creates dummy Who's Who in the DC Universe entries for these new heroes and villains.  

So, yes, The Boom's entry states she first arrived in Flash Comics #10, but that's utter rubbish.  Flash Comics literally relates another, more innocuous story.

With the creation of Robin in 1940, Bob Kane and Bill Finger invented the kid sidekick.  The concept of the sidekick still didn't catch on until much later.  Most of the Justice Society did not have kid sidekicks.  

Johns cheekily contradicts that they did.  The heroes just don't remember them because some force abducted them from history.  

The New Golden Age closes on the death of Batman.  This moment which factors historically into a lot of JSA stories of the past becomes pivotal in kicking off a new mystery to be solved by the daughter of Catwoman and Batman, the new Huntress of earth two.

As previously stated, The Golden Age also reignites the mystery Star-Girl's been investigating with the Red Arrow, Emiko Queen, sister of the Green Arrow.  

You can be forgiven for not knowing who Emiko Queen is.  She's relatively new and partially the result of Willa Holland's wonderful portrayal of Oliver Queen's sister Thea on The Arrow.

To confuse matters more, Emiko actually did manifest in The Arrow during its final seasons.  Emiko played by Sea Shimooka.

The Lost Children begins with the obscure heroes TNT and Dan Dynamite engaging in a typical high speed chase in pursuit of garden variety bank robbers.  An indication of a more innocent time.

Though Johns created new sidekicks in The Golden Age, I'm here to tell you.  These guys actually are historical heroes from the comics.  They just didn't make it big.  

They're part of "...and others."

Of course TNT also represents Johns' double joke.  The original Star-Spangled Kid, the former sobriquet of Stargirl, naturally started in Star-Spangled Comics.   So, The Lost Children in a way continues the umbrella titled book from the 1940s.

Anyway.  Courtney's and Emiko's investigation takes them to the research of a now elderly Dan "Dynamite" Dunbar.

As you can see, Courtney's as in the dark about some of these sidekicks as we are...psst...that's because many never appeared in any comic book until now.

Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself though.  Maybe you don't even know who Star-Girl is.  

Geoff Johns and Lee Moder created a new Star-Spangled Kid, whom Johns based on his late sister Courtney.  

Make no mistake. For Johns, Star-Girl is real personal.  She's appeared in several iterations on television, including Smallville and Legends of Tomorrow, before gaining her own television series.  Its her current state that influences the story and background of The Lost Children the most.

Actress Amy Smart makes Coutney's mom the everyman, moral compass of the show.  Because of Smart's humanistic treatment of the character, Courtney's mom gains much more substance in the very first issue of this series.

Courtney's step-dad Pat Dugan is actually an old 1940s hero named Stripesy.  Nowadays he tools around in a big mechanical suit, known as STRIPE.  Johns transforms Pat.  He becomes more relaxed to match his essayer Luke Wilson.

The natural fusion between television series and comic book character combined with her multiple appearances forms a more interesting and richer superhero.  Stargirl still boasts the optimism that Johns wanted to preserve for his sister's memory, but Courtney is now more seasoned than before.  She's measured rather than headstrong.  That makes her an ideal partner for the Red Arrow as they investigate the mystery of The Lost Children.

While writing this entry for the POBB, Kevin Conroy died.  In every interview I saw, every appearance, I just knew.  This guy was one of the good ones.

The underrated Island City

His death hits hard, but Kevin lives on as Batman.  

Hopefully forever.