POBB August 31, 2019

Pick of the Brown Bag

August 31, 2019

by

Ray Tate

The Pick of the Brown Bag welcomes you with reviews of Batgirl, Betty and Veronica Meet Red Sonja and Vampirella, Detective Comics, Marvel Team-Up, Red Hood and the Outlaws, the She-Hulk Annual and the new book Tommy Gun Wizards.  Check me out on Twitter should you not have time for the full blog: #PickoftheBrownBag.

The damn fine Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica continues with Vampirella cooling her high heels in the Riverdale Police Department’s jail.  Caught red-handed at the blood bank, I'm afraid.  Like Supergirl, Vampirella could easily break out if she wanted.

She has a point.  Vampirella never actually expressed a reason for helping humans.  After her first story, she builds an unblemished history of altruism toward humanity.  Red Sonja is in fact historically less of a hero than Vampirella.

V doesn’t actually need to bend bars.  Love the hair flip from artist Maria Laura Sanapo.  Veronica Lodge takes advantage of the goofy legal system, and V is out walking again.  In the daylight mind you.  Being an alien rather than undead possesses advantages.

Lying low, at the Lodge estate, Vampirella clues Sonja in about blood types.  This is actually a clue to the crimes occurring in Riverdale, and writer Amy Chu very cleverly brings up, situates and best times the revelation of the clue.

The mention of blood type draws our heroes to another Riverdale staple.  Josie and the Pussycats.  If you know, Josie from the Archie digests, the film or the cartoon, you may be a little surprised to see the new Josie.

I'm of one mind about this appeal to diversity.  I like it.  The costume’s been updated, but it’s still basically the spotted cat outfit with the little ears.  Gotta have the little ears.  Josie’s the second hottie with thigh-high boots.  So, bonus, and yeah, she’s black.  I’m partial to red heads, but so what? The white Josie had a good run.  Let black Josie have her fun.  

At the concert, things come to a head, as the Cult of Chaos, perhaps, causes trouble, though not as much as V behind the wheel of one of the Lodge’s sports cars.

Marvel Team-Up really irritates me.  Part of the problem lies with the schism between cinematic Captain Marvel and comic book Captain Marvel.  The other part of the problem fumes from an unreliable narrator named Walter Lawson.

The original Captain Marvel.  Real name Mar-Vell.  White-skinned Kree sent to earth to observe its potential level of threat.  He assumed the name Walter Lawson as a secret identity.  Lawson was already dead when Mar-Vell took the name, and he had nothing to do with his death.

The retro-fitted continuity rubbish eats up too much of the story.  If I accept Lawson's insidious gobbledygook, then his revelation undermines Captain Mar-Vell’s entire existence, most of spent defending the human race.  It also turns Carol into a dupe.  

She and Mar-Vell were closer than friends, but that relationship never really fruited into anything more.  Nevertheless, it would mean Carol also exhibited a poor choice in would-be-lovers for lack of a better term.  That’s some trite female characterization.  Until I know any better, I’m calling Lawson a Skrull with a Perception Filter that shields him from Carol’s detection.

Thank you Marvel for The Acts of Evil Annuals.  This is the second that I’ve read, and it’s even better than the Ms. Marvel Annual, which pretty much impressed the hell out of me, despite my not being a fan of Kamala Khan.  I am however a huge fan of the She-Hulk.  Since her very beginning.  Marvel reintroduced the character weirdly.  Acts of Evil shifts her back to back to normal.  

Even if during the opening chapter, she doesn't start that way.  Still, it’s a testament to writer Alexandra Petri that her dialogue singles out the figure as Jennifer Walters; although she doesn’t look the part.

The tale begins when Petri trots out an old whack-job villain I last saw in Captain America.  His appearance feeds into what’s going on with A.I. in Iron Man.  

The antagonist wants to retrieve his dog from an unsympathetic new owner,  He goes to Jennifer Walters.  She’s just about as impressed.

Somehow—but in a way that makes sense—this all leads to Daredevil villain Bullseye trying to scam a fortune from a dying billionaire who sounds a lot like Andrew Carnegie for the modern age.  The scheme is all about Mind-Swapping and what constitutes identity.  The execution is whacky and veers off into territory you do not expect, aided by  remarkable art from Andy McDonald.

Barbara Gordon’s return to a proper costume is the very best thing in Batgirl.

Full cowl.  Check.  Bat-like cape.  Check.  Blue-Eyes.  Ah, well.  Can't win them all.  The rest of Batgirl is mediocre, but I’ll admit.  I’m biased.  I don’t give a rat’s behind about Oracle Two, Electric Boogaloo.

I will give Batgirl this much.  It actually is a Year of the Villain tie-in.  More’s the pity.  

So where did this poor man’s Danger come from? I have no idea.  If I encountered Oracle Two Electric Boogaloo before, I have no knowledge of it now.

Cecil Castellucci’s introduction-maybe of a new Oracle excuses an effusive love of the good old days when Barbara Gordon couldn’t move a toe.  

When so many lovely people believed Babs was better off crippled by the Joker’s bullet in an imaginary story and confined to a wheelchair for about twenty-five years in the post-Crisis.  Go fuck yourselves.

Detective Comics reveals the Big Bad from last issue.  So, let’s say the name all together now.  Deadshot.

If you’re only a comic book dabbler, you probably only know Deadshot as Will Smith.

Deadshot was a marksman in tux and tails given new life by Detective Comics legends Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers.  

The more complicated costume stuck something fierce.  

Last issue, a lightning strike planted Deadshot and his targets on an island.  Batman as Bruce Wayne saved as many people as possible as the plane plummeted.  Upon crashing, Batman conveniently ended up separated.  He finds himself in a surprising chestnut situation.

Righto.  So if these guys lied about their ages and enlisted in their respective armies during World War II, each would be to be generous ninety-five.  Ninety-five.  I’m sorry.  My suspension of disbelief doesn’t stretch that far.

Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort reunite for perhaps the weirdest onset of Red Hood adventures.  Lobdell and Rocafort didn’t create Jason Todd, Speedy nor Starfire.  They did however unite them into a team.  

Rocafort’s style, nuanced with French sensibilities unwittingly generated controversy with his depiction of Starfire.  

Lobdell courted the same when he implied Starfire slept with Jason Todd and Speedy. Not at the same time, which neither would be wrong.  So, what’s the big hoopla? 

If you answered a double-standard that demands women only fall in love but men can be dogs, you are correct.

Red Hood and the Outlaws is easily the best Year of the Villain tie-in thus far.  Lex Luthor approached Red Hood with a typical offer from the devil.  

Jason, who like the Green Hornet only pretends to be a villain, accepted.  That’s how he winds up teaching the next generation of villainy.  It’s like the antithesis of the Super-Friends, and it’s as entertaining and funny as practically every Red Hood and the Outlaws issue I’ve read.

Lobdell and Rocafort also provided their talents for a New 52 Superman run.  They debuted a fascinating character named Dr. Shay Veritas, last seen canoodling with Cameron Chase in Supergirl.

She returns in Red Hood with continuity intact and a neat little explanation of why she shouldn’t be considered a hero.

As to the recruits, well.  This is a truly bizarre group of wannabe nasties.  A kind of Substitute Legion of Super-Villains or clutch of X-Men rejects, but that’s how Red Hood operates.  Lobdell takes the unloved, polishes them up and presents them to be loved.

I bought Tommy Gun Wizards on a whim.  It was a new book, a number one.  I’m always eager to try new things, even if they usually disappoint me.  The fact is that I gravitate toward super-heroes.  Always have.  Always will.

So, yeah, I didn’t expect to like Tommy Gun Wizards, but I’m adding it to my subscription list.  I had no idea that there would be heroes in the story.  I had no idea that those heroes would be Eliot Ness and the Untouchables.

Eliot Ness is a bona fide, honest to goodness historical champion. He and the Untouchables struck out against Al Capone and organized crime during Prohibition.  Though the mob tried to bribe them, Eliot and his men could not be bought.  Hence the name Untouchables.

Writer Christian Ward swaps booze for magic, and amusingly refers to the imbibers as lickers.  Get it? There’s a lot of jokiness like that in the book.  Ward knows exactly what he’s writing.  He benefits from embracing the outlandish while simultaneously granting justified dignity to Eliot Ness.  These Untouchables however are not the ones from time memorial.  They're more in the vein of 1940s film archetypes with a few curveballs added for diversity.  Still an entertaining bunch.