Tuesday, October 1, 2024

POBB September 30, 2024

Pick of the Brown Bag
September 30, 2024
by
Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  My name is Raymond Tate.  I review comic books.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  This week I look at a book that comes as a complete surprise. 


Who knew? Right? The Zero Hour is a mostly forgotten DC crossover.  The series attempted to repair some of the blunders that evolved from convoluted writing from the previous comic book era.  The one-shot doesn’t actually go into any of these details and neither shall I.  Most such fixes are so old that they lack even a scent of pertinence.


Books in the vein of this one-shot usually operate under the conceit that they are retrofitted chapters or actual sequels.  The 30th Anniversary Special doesn’t follow the same game.  Plain and simple, this is a guest-packed Green Lantern adventure. 



I’ve always found Kyle Rayner to be one of the better earth Lanterns.  He was never smug about wielding the ring.  He always considered it a gas and/or a privilege.


Kyle is a nineties creation by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks.  These creators combine forces once again to bring Kyle to life.  The result is throughly enjoyable.



On the whole, I found most of the Zero Hour one-shot a rewarding experience.  Especially when not thinking too hard about multiverses, plural, and the implications of the same.  You’ll also be better off if you actually know the characters, but it’s not an absolute necessity.  



Most of the time the writers spotlight the most familiar players from pop culture such as our star Green Lantern, a slightly altered Batgirl, Supergirl, Donna Troy and Fatal Five classic.


The artwork from the Zero Hour 30th is uniformly pleasing.  Even fashion whipping boy Azrael wears his least alarming costume.



The story begins in New 52 continuity proper.   


Relocated from earth, Kyle Rayner is surprised when his historical old pal and Justice League colleague Wally West shows up.



 Even more surprising, Wally doesn’t know him.


Kyle investigates the conflict, and he finds himself smack-dab in a bubble universe created by Parallax, who escaped the original multiverse-trimming Zero Hour.



You may consider this a spoiler, but it really isn’t.  On the other hand you may be asking yourself what’s a Parallax.


Parallax is the ultimate evil version of Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan.  He shouldn’t really pertain to the start-from-scratch New 52 universe.  Yeah.  Comic book terminology can be complicated.  


The Big Bad reveal isn’t one because Parallax is a copy of a copy of a copy.  


Kyle suggests that in the New 52 Hal Jordan briefly became a version of Parallax, but not this one.  Much of  Parallax’s written history, like Hal Jordan’s, simply could not survive the transition of multiverses.  


That’s because all the heroes returned younger.  One of the necessities of DC’s multiverse.  Batman and the Batman Family can only age a certain amount.  Superman is an alien.  Wonder Woman an immortal.  You can fudge a certain amount of aging through science fiction or magic, but Batman is supposed to be a mortal man.  Tied to him are Batgirl, who must at least be five years younger than Batman and all the Robins.


As I said, better not to think too hard about it.  I used this phrase as my mantra while reading the Zero Hour one-shot.  Stressing the comic book part.  


Anyway.  Parallax is the Big Bad.  He created a bubble universe, presumably somewhere and when in the interim between multiverse generation.  This area is also a locus in time and space that’s navigable.  Yep.  Just don’t go there.  


The Fatal Five also managed to escape the multiverse-trimming Zero Hour.  


Parallax quickly found a use for them.  Unfortunately for Kyle.



The Fatal Five, created in the Silver Age of comic book history, became so powerful an idea that the band of villains withstood transition mostly intact to the Bronze and Platinum eras of comic books.  The Emerald Empress furthermore faced off against the modern age Supergirl.   So, the Fatal Five concept is still very much alive in the New 52.



Kyle soon realizes that he’s not in Kansas anymore.  This realization catalyzes the introduction of the alternate versions of the nevertheless familiar co-stars.  Batgirl comes onto the scene first.



As familiar readers of the POBB may expect, her presence predicated my buying the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special in the first place.  Blue eyes a bonus.



Batgirl was still crippled during the Zero Hour.  In Hal Jordan’s Bubble Universe, she apparently never had been.  Batman on the other hand never recovered from the damage done by Bane.  So Batgirl took over the family business.  




After meeting Batgirl, Kyle reacquaints with Supergirl.



The original Supergirl sacrificed herself to save Superman and the multiverse during The Crisis on Infinite Earths.   


As she died, she ripped the Anti-Monitor a new one.  



Supergirl was more powerful than her more delicate cousin Superman. 

Supergirl fans such as myself laugh at naysayers.

The Zero Hour version of Supergirl appears to be based on the classic model.  Parallax shouldn’t be aware of her.  During the Zero Hour, Supergirl was the last survivor of another bubble universe created by the Legion of Super-Heroes’ villain the Time Trapper via comic book architect John Byrne. 


By now, you must be scratching your heads.  Given these question marks regarding origins, given this shaky multiverse piling, you may be wondering why on earth I’m recommending the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special.  Why am, I once considered one of the harshest critics on the Internet, why am I willing to forgive?


It’s the art.  It’s the characterization.  It’s the fun of the whole exercise independent of the multiverse musings.  It’s the surprises that actually make sense.  These facets give the book wind for the sails.


Green Lantern and the Flash met during the Grant Morrison era of the Justice League.  I don’t know if that era exists in the New 52.  The friendship between Wally and Kyle survives, and Kyle would race into the unknown for his friend.



It’s a kick to see Batgirl and Supergirl deck Kyle.  As I said I like all three of them, but the duet of the World’s Finest overcoming the Green Lantern ring’s defenses and surprising Kyle is pretty damn hilarious.


The one-shot doesn’t explain what happened to Wonder Woman.  Numerous possibilities given her nineties run of comics.  Suffice to say, it makes perfect sense that Donna Troy would be next in line to bear the Magic Lasso.  It’s power to force anyone bound to speak the truth is the most logical means to end the fight.  



What impresses me most is that the writers make Donna’s and Kyle’s history together more than just a tactic and/or plot device.  Instead their interaction a combination of dialogue and beautifully expressed, subtle emotion genuinely touched me.



Then there’s the authenticity in these analogues.  Their conviction makes them more than mere ciphers.




Sincerity in heroism is one of the main reasons why I read comic books.  




When you winnow away the ultimately superficial multiverse facade, the book becomes an entertaining treatise on what it means to be a super hero.  That’s why this book should be in everybody’s collection.











Wednesday, July 31, 2024

POBB July 28, 2024

Pick of the Brown Bag
July 28, 2024
by
Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag, a review blog becoming more frequent every week.

 ...Sigh...


What is it about the X-Men that's so friggin hard!  
Gah! Gah! Gah!


Anyhow, that's the emotional part of the review.  Now, let's get to the subjective and objective criticisms of NYX.  First, what I liked.



The art by Francesco Mortarino is fantastic.  I have zero complaint about the art.  


The colors by Raul Angulo tend to shift from warm and natural for day scenes to nightclub purple and mutant green.  

All of it aesthetically pleasing.  So, yeah all the illustration is welcoming to the eyes.  

Sophie Cuckoo, nope that's apparently her real name, has a winning comment about Ms. Marvel's sobriquet that I'll not spoil here.  



In fact I liked Sophie's and Kamala's developing friendship throughout.  Why couldn't this aspect be in a story that I actually cared about?

It's also nice to see Kamala Khan's brother worrying about her.  He incidentally doesn't know or only suspects that his sister is Ms. Marvel.

Now for the rest...Something happened to Krakoa, the Mutant Paradise Island.  Mutants scatter across the mutant-hating globe without teleports to an idyllic refuge.

Some of these mutants include Prodigy, the aforementioned Sophie one of the Stepford Cuckoos and X-23 who is back to being Wolverine.

I realize that some reading this believe I just had an aneurysm and for my last act typed out some gibberish.  I understand.  So, let me explain.

Prodigy is exactly what his name implies.  He's a really intelligent mutant character.  Though kind of a priggish sphincter.

The Stepford Cuckoos combine the names of two science fiction novels that spawned popular movies: The Stepford Wives and The Midwich Cuckoos.  The latter gave us this...


X-23 is a female clone of Wolverine.  Real name Laura Kinney, she possesses all the powers of Wolverine and a similar personality, but her different experiences make her a different person.

Now, you may be wondering how I’m aware any of this.  Faithful POBB readers know.  I gave up on the X-Men very quickly; soon after the Tigra team-up from Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.  Mostly for good when artist Paul Smith left the book.  

However, all of the characters I mentioned appeared somewhere else.  I am a fan of X-23.  Ever since Avengers Academy.   Tom Taylor wrote her in her own Wolverine book, and I was happy as a squirrel in a tree full of nuts.  As to, Ms. Marvel…

I like Ms. Marvel.  I believed her center presence on the cover indicated NYX wouldn't be a mutant war book and just something fun to read.  I didn't know Ms. Marvel was a mutant.  I thought she was an Inhuman.


Sure.  That explains it, but was it necessary? Was it necessary to make Ms. Marvel a mutant and an Inhuman? Does it make this character any more fun.  I'm going to say no.  In fact, it takes an already fun character and makes her damn annoying.


I mean if I were to take a shot of whiskey every time Ms. Marvel insinuates or outright mentions her newfound mutanthood I'd be smashed out of my mind.  


None of this mutant-pride flag-waving was necessary because it defies the writing precept of showing not telling.  

The fact is that scribes Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly could have simply had Kamala state, "They have a new curriculum I'm eager to try."  There's no reason to go full blown mutant technobabble since on page eight we get this exposition dump.


One or the other not both.  They could have also eased my troubled mind and foreshadowed Prodigy's blah-blah had Ms. Marvel stated to Bruno, "They have a new curriculum I'm eager to try.  STEM, a mutant inclusive history course, Bohemian architecture.  So many things to learn."  What exactly do editors do nowadays?

Kamala literally bumps into Sophie Cuckoo in the next scene.  They hit it off.  Sophie divulges that she's attending class for a specific reason.


After a discourse between Sophie and Prodigy we do not see, Sophie takes Kamala to a club.  There we meet Anole.  He's named after a harmless lizard.  Does that keep him out of trouble.  Nope.

A fight ensues, and the bouncer is accidentally hurt, which leads to ejection.  

During the fight, Kamala learns of something going down at a subway station.  She tries to engage Prodigy, who's uninterested.  

Calling the police would have been the best idea:

"Officer, this is Ms. Marvel.  I've got wind that something bad is going down on Rocket Number Nine.  Maybe send a bomb squad.  I'll meet you down there."

She only knows that the mutant racist group are planning something.  She doesn't actually know superpowers will be involved.  The police and perhaps Iron Man and Spider-Man would be best suited for helping her look for trouble.

It's at this moment that Wolverine inexplicably makes an appearance.


Despite having hyped up sensory powers, I can't for the life of me think why she manifests at the moment Kamala doesn't need her.  

Oh, and Wolverine would have been perfect mutant kumbaya back-up to look for the hate group's shenanigans, but apparently despite what she says, Wolverine doesn't do heroism anymore.

Wolverine's non-participation warning doesn't deter Kamala who goes off looking for problems on her own.  Unfortunately for her and everyone involved, including the reader, mutant racists are not the cause for consternation.


Another fucking mutant looney with a bucket on his damn head.  Why? Because these stupid helmets are supposed to block out telepaths.  It's canonical.  Fuck me.

We do get a reveal.  Who is the dashing young lad in the bucket?  Got me.  They do a dramatic dum-dum-dum.  I still got nothing. 

In fact the whole team of Evil Mutants, can't tell if they're a brotherhood, gets a dramatic dum-dum-dum.  Except for "one," I got nothing.  I also got nothing out NYX.  No fun.  No good Wolverine moments.  Just mutant wtf.