Pick of the Brown Bag
May 18, 2023
by
Ray Tate
The Pick of the Brown Bag returns! My name is Ray Tate, and I love comic books. The POBB is an erstwhile weekly review blog created, written and constructed by yours truly. I used to critique the entirety of the week's yield, but have now opted for more in depth reviews of just a few. This week I look at Gotham Academy Maps of Mystery.
Just gaze at the beauty of that old-school cover with the 1970s Batman logo! Peer at the eerie lettering promising mystery! Batman looks like Batman. Ear length proper. The delightful Maps Mizoguchi is clad in a Robin uniform. They're fighting Kappa. How could I not pick this up and consider it for my collection?
For the record, I had no idea what this book was about, other than, should the cover be true, Batman and girl-Robin fighting aquatic monsters. I didn't actually know these monsters were Kappa until identified by Maps.
I'm familiar with Gotham Academy through the series trade paperbacks. Gotham Academy is exactly what's in the title. However I didn't make the connection at first due to the much more overt Maps of Mystery monicker. Oh, yeah. Yeah, baby. Alliteration is back.
A flip-through indicated that number one, the cover didn't lie and b, the interior artwork by Karl Kerschl matched that depicted on the cover. Sold. I didn't even care what the other stories in the anthology had in store for me.
You see. From my perspective, the Batman books have become for the very first time hard to read. I left the world of Batman after Tom King and Mikel Janin departed. I liked about ninety-eight percent of what they did. Afterward, DC gave the green light to a Big Stupid Batman event, and it changed a lot of traditional Batman material.
Shaking up Batman's sphere may have suited some people, but not me. I simply grew more confused with every change. Contrarily, the tangential Batman books, Batgirls and Nightwing gelled and became more comprehensible. When Batman guested, he made sense.
Anyway, this one-shot collects previous Maps Mizoguchi back-up stories. So if you remember these covers...
...you've likely already got the stories. I do not. So, yay me. The first tale elegantly introduces the cast of Maps Mizoguchi's world.
Right on page one, Safi is named. She's either a chauffeur and/or bodyguard. The reader doesn't know for sure, but we can guess she's a caretaker of some kind.
From the very start. We get two proper character introductions and the indication of Maps' motivation in the entertaining narration. That's excellent writing and excellent artwork. I also want to point out the "warmth" in the lettering. Throughout, the lettering really pops. Doesn't look robotic.
On the next two pages, we meet Maps' parents. On page three, boom. It's Batman.
Does Batman dismiss Maps' outburst as childish enthusiasm. Not at all.
That look. The detective look.
Batman being a detective. That's what I'm searching for. Already, I love this book. I imagine treasuring it for years. Pulling it out when I've been punched in the face by a really bad story.
The one-shot even meets the famous Bechdel Test.
Two women. Having a discussion about something other than a man or the plot.
Before you know it, Maps is Nancy Drewing to mystery and discovering strange clues.
Her sleuthing drops her right in the sonar of Batman. See what I did there? Batman took her seriously. He's already investigating. He's Batman.
Batman also wants to protect Maps because he's the adult in the room. That's what adults are supposed to do. Protect children.
While attempting to shield Maps from harm, Batman gives her the thrill of a lifetime.
Soon, our monster makes itself known.
Do you realize we're on page eight? Page eight! The brevity and the pacing of this story presents utter perfection.
Meanwhile, Maps becomes very worried about Batman. Batman is a hero to the children of Gotham. This is consistent throughout the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and the Modern Age. Children in the context of the fiction love Batman as much as the children of our reality do.
More exciting Kappa fighting leads to discovery and though Batman kindly asks Maps to stay out of it for her own safety...well...you know what's going to happen. Kerschl conveys this update to Batman in a very unusual way.
Yet, this scene is neither off-putting nor confusing to even a marginal Batman fan. Let's call it refreshingly weird.
Somehow Clayface has a girl relative who attends Gotham Academy and befriended Maps enough to give a piece of her as a kind of watchful eye.
The story draws to a close with another terrific but brief fight, an explanation for why all of this happened now and reconciliation with Maps.
A very rare moment in comics where the raw emotion indicates that Maps is not just a highly intelligent girl detective but also a very frightened child. What's also impressive is that Karl Kerschl never resorts to cliche. Maps never inadvertently endangers Batman. She genuinely tries to obey him. She furthermore contributes greatly to the investigation and the story.
This short comes from a recent Black and White anthology. Its manga styled artwork merges with the motifs of Batman.
Because of the manga facet, you can consider this perhaps a Maps dream or an imaginary story. Still, I love it.
Once again, I need no primer to understand the plot or the character dynamic. Batman investigates a supernatural mystery.
Batman's debunking statement indicates that this is not a shared world tale. Batman takes the role as detective yet again. Finding the reality of seeming occult trappings at the very least goes all the way back to canonical Sherlock Holmes and "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire."
In theme, "The Davenport House" shares much with the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams spooky stand-alone stories that occasionally manifested between they crime dramas. The art again by Kerschl gives the tale a very modern polish.
I can't really say a lot about the mystery without spoiling it. Kerschl plots a detective short-story in which there's a genuine whodunnit. How we get there and watching Batman use the powers of observation and deduction is the fun part.
I'll just say that it's a predominantly Batman starring vehicle with Maps in tow just because. That just because however injects a certain something into the proceedings.
The second story is an all Maps and Gotham Academy tale written by Batgirls writer Becky Cloonan and Batgirl and Gotham Academy writer Brenden Fletcher. With Karl Kerscl on art duties.
Again there's an authorial/artist interest to introduce characters rather than assume you know who's who. Kyle for example is Maps' brother. The mean girl taking Olive Silverlock's place is Pomeline. They may have spotted a zombie.
The tale's a readable, quiet story, but it doesn't compare to the other two. It also creates a distinctive impression that Olive, the central character of Gotham Academy, she of the white-silver hair, is dead. I don't ever recall seeing her death, but it could have happened during the Joker War or whatever.
Maps of Mystery is six bucks which is pretty steep, yet I do feel if you're a Batman fan just looking for good--even great--Batman to read, it's well worth it. The first story clocks in at twenty four pages without ads. The third story runs eight pages also without out ads. The second tale, ten pages, again without ads.
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