POBB November 19, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

November 19, 2021

by

Ray Tate

SPOILER FREE ZONE

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a direct sequel to the first Ghostbusters film.  The oft neglected Ghostbusters II, which I have a certain fondness for, tackled a new spectral problem. 

Afterlife goes back to the structure of the original's plot to find its menace.  It furthermore serves as a genuine loving tribute to the late Harold Ramis.  

Afterlife cleverly answers the questions why now, why here and who are you going to call?  After a startling, scary prologue, the film properly begins as a light, contemporary drama about single mom Callie being forced to move out of her home to an old farm she inherits.  The farm isn't exactly a boon and exemplifies the word ramshackle quite nicely.  

Callie is kind of a mess, and not the typical mom.  Callie's daughter Phoebe is a genius.  

Her son Trevor not so much.  At least not the scientific kind.  Trevor exhibits manual dexterity and automotive skills that far surpass his age.  

All of them bear an authenticity that belies the genre they're operating in.  You could meet these people in a very good indie film that has nothing to do with spooky encounters.

The town to which they move used to be an old mining town, and it is here where the supernatural activity starts to muster.  The pacing of Afterlife grants a lot of room for the characters to breathe and grow.  The filmmakers make the wise choice of hinting at eerie things and a seething cauldron about to boil.  This isn't a spectacle film.  It builds its threat before releasing the true stakes in the final act.

Phoebe, along with her new friend Podcast, and ally, teacher Mr. Grooberson begin to discover strange-goings on.  Mr. Grooberson in fact has been tracking a curiosity that interests Phoebe and allows them to bond over science.  

The conclusion unnatural coincides with the discovery of Ghostbusters equipment.  It's not a coincidence or contrivance.  There's a good reason for this equipment being in the town.  The discovery directed.  Phoebe, Podcast, her brother Trevor and another soon find themselves forced to become a next generation of Ghostbusters.

Though the original cast lends their talent to the movie, the story centers on the younger casts' becoming.  The formation of this new team is awash with genuine sweet moments, subtle comedy and relationships that lack a hint of saccharine.  The love story can be found in the brother, sister and mother which holds the tale together.  The like stories between other cast members form quite naturally and believably.  What's more.  Nobody in the supporting cast exhibits venom.  They're all either nice, normal and/or credulous.  A refreshing change.

In technical terms, the filmmakers wisely went back to the basics of Ghostbusters.  While some if not all the ghostly figures are computer graphics, they nevertheless echo the skillful charm of the original creatures.  The cast is uniformly extraordinary and McKenna Grace who portrays Phoebe is the riveting star.

SPOILER FREE ZONE ENDS

No, you know what, no spoilers.  Go see the movie.

POBB November 11, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

November 11, 2021

by

Ray Tate

Tigra returns in Moon Knight number four.  That addition to the series should be enough incentive for anybody to warrant a purchase.  Let me sweeten the deal.  

Steve McNiven and Frank D'Armata are the cover artists, but we all know the adage about judging a book.

Interior illustrator Alessandro Cappuccio details Tigra with care, bestowing to her the dignity she well deserves.  

New Moon Knight writer Jed MacKay may enjoy Tigra as much as I do.  For me, Tigra is love.  She's my favorite Marvel character.  However, for those who only like Tigra, never fear. Her guest-star status is quite apropos.

Tigra and Moon Knight share numerous aspects, in their biographies and their histories.

Both heroes appeared in Marvel magazines.  Moon Knight starred in a backup feature for The Rampaging Hulk.  An issue of Monsters Unleashed turned the spotlight on Tigra.

Moon Knight, like Tigra, is a designated protector.  A fact reiterated in issue one when Moon Knight attacks a clutch of vampires.

This is also how Moon Knight acquires his vampire assistant Reese.

Reese is the kind of unexpected twist I've come to associate with Moon Knight's new writer Jed MacKay.  

MacKay impressed me so much with The Black Cat, that I added Moon Knight to my subscription list before I knew Tigra would join the cast.

But back to the comparison.

Villains mortally wound the past incarnations of Tigra and Moon Knight.  To escape death, both undergo metamorphosis.  

Tigra for those not in the know is a seventies creation formerly known as The Cat, an alias for Greer Grant Nelson.  She is the result of a somewhat successful super-soldier recreation.  

Unfortunately, a HYDRA agent waylays the Cat.  Through magic and science, a feline-humanoid species transforms Greer into their protector Tigra.

When a villain known as the Bushman murders Marc Spector, he falls under the shadow of Khonshu, a mythological figure from the Egyptian pantheon.  It appears that Khonshu resurrects Marc Spector.  Though co-creator Doug Moench is never explicit.

Moench never originally developed Moon Knight as a priest for Khonshu. He instead turned Moon Knight into a reflection of the Shadow.  Moon Knight juggled three different personae: his base Spector, depicted above, correlates with the Shadow's true identity Kent Allard.  

Steven Grant, name-checked in the current issue, agrees with the Shadow's assumed identity Lamont Cranston.  His third personality cabdriver Jake Lockley alluded to the Shadow's cabbie operative Shrevvy.

These identities fell by the wayside when Moench left the series.  Other writers including Tigra-hater Brian Bendis gave Moon Knight a whole slew of new/old faces.  

Warren Ellis and Delclan Shalvey straightened a lot of this conflicting history out in a recent volume of Moon Knight.  

Ellis/Shalvey for example created Mr. Knight.  A more relatable detective.  A kind of masked Amos Burke who interacts nicely with the police.  MacKay uses this facet to be the welcoming, civil guise of Moon Knight.

MacKay explicitly states that Mr. Knight is "the High Priest of Khonshu," and that the travelers of the night are his congregation.  These tourists fall under Moon Knight's aegis, even vampires.

At the same time, MacKay pokes fun at the idea of Moon Knight being a Priest of Khonshu.  Marc's dead serious about the designation, but he approaches the role with a lighter touch.

Certainly, incantations are not necessary, neither is worship.  Rather, Moon Knight serves those who inhabit the evening.  It's not the other way around.  In a way, MacKay slyly uses Moon Knight to skewer religious hubris.  For example, lots of "good" Christians hate the LGBT community.  No really good Biblical reason.  They just exploit religion to pardon their hate.  

Moon Knight does not distinguish the traditional monster from those he protects.  I wouldn't be surprised if MacKay chose vampires not for just practical reasons but also for their LGB symbolism.  Before anybody asks, sure you can have trans-vampires.  I suppose since vampires originate in Transylvania, you must.  

I just haven't seen any examples of such in pop culture.  It would be easy.  A vampire just needs to take a bite out of a trans-person.  Boom.  Trans-vampire, or Transpire.  

Maybe you're concerned Moon Knight, with his clunky history, will be a little too involved for you to appreciate.  MacKay employs several techniques that allow for smooth reads.  MacKay doesn't ignore any of Moon Knight's history.  He just chooses to follow what makes sense.  The other portions he pays lip service to, or he creatively uses them as elements in his story.  

Each issue of MacKay's comic books has a beginning, middle and an end.  The tales are in general stand-alone, occasionally two-parters, but they don't on average go beyond that.  

In issue one Moon Knight encounters the vampires as well as some other creatures of the night.  In issue two, he deals with somebody that controls minds.  In issue three, Moon Knight faces his opposite number.  In four, Tigra pops in and together they fight a simple crook who has delusions of grandeur.  MacKay carries over themes within the stories: the vampire angle, Marc Spector's therapy sessions, Moon Knight's status as a High Priest.

I hesitate to say its continuity, for in comic books, that takes on a new meaning.  Rather, MacKay recreates the consistency of a comic strip and he explains things cleverly without needless exposition for that issue.  He furthermore doesn't repeat himself.  He finds new ways to introduce the same information.  So, if you start with the current issue of Moon Knight, you'll understand why Reese is a vampire and Mr. Knight's assistant.  If you read the rest of the series, you'll receive story elements under a deeper context.

POBB November 1, 2021

Pick of the Brown Bag

November 1, 2021

by

Ray Tate

Welcome! Hope everybody had a Happy Halloween.  I was pleased to see many kids partake and adults dress up with their kids.  The lot of them left me candy broke.  So good on them.  If you haven't checked out the new season of Doctor Who, do so.  It's a killer.  Onward to the premiere of the November Pick of the Brown Bag.  

Ah.  Black Label.  We meet again.  Catwoman Lonely City is probably what the Powers That Be at DC originally had in mind for Black Label, before Batman Damned left behind the stink of a subpar porno theater from the seventies.  Adult-oriented Elseworld, or What If should you make yours Marvel.  Neither titilating or exploitive, definitely not fun, but mature subject matter.  Alas, Cliff Chiang's Lonely City reads like a parody of dystopia.  At least it looks pretty.  

A bomb blows up Batman and Jim Gordon dead in flashback on page forty-two, about.  

Another bomb takes out some cops who blame Catwoman for the boom-boom.  No idea why.  Bombs have never been part of her m.o.  Whatever.  It's not the universe proper anyway.

This episode sends her to jail where she stews ten years presumably in a deep funk.  She's released from jail on page four.  For anybody keeping track this makes her 45 at the incident.  

Also on page four, we find Harvey Dent is the Mayor.  This isn't the first time a Batman rogue became mayor.  So, no real shock that Harvey got involved in politics.  

Lonely Place shows that Gotham City actually thrived without Batman and Catwoman.  So much for heroism.  This version of Gotham City is so financially secure, they managed to purchase the Statue of Liberty....

...and the Arc of Triomphe.  

Remember when Trump wanted to buy Greenland? He seriously intended to buy another country.  Anyhow.  The presence of these well known landmarks in Gotham City isn't quite as preposterous as reality. 

You think I'm going to harp about Barbara Gordon's wheelchair and the postmodern shitty green eyes.  Nope.  Flashpoint never occurred in this universe.  The Flash never went back in time to stop his doppelgänger from injuring history.  Batman never found the technology to address the Killing Joke.  Babs is as she was in the post-Crisis, may it rot in hell.  

I'll be completely honest.  Had I known the crippled incarnation of Barbara Gordon would be in this book, I never would have touched it.  Cliff Chiang art or no.  That's a dealbreaker.  However, the wheelchair fits with the morose tone. 

What makes Barbara's appearance hilarious in a bad movie kind of way is the hair.  It's just too much.  Batgirl's signatures are her bright blue eyes and crimson hair, flashing as she fights.  She's like bubbly fire as Batgirl.

So, naturally she sheared off her hair in this dour universe.  Cause, excitement, sex appeal and escapism is outlawed in Lonely City.  These juvenile feel-good aspects have no place in a dreary book for adults.  

Lonely City is the Merchant Ivory film of Black Label.  A montage where Barbara actually cuts her hair perhaps accompanied by a histrionic speech in the vein of "I'm tired of being treated as a Bat Kewpie Doll!" is the only thing that would have made this any more ridiculous.

So, Gotham City is looking pretty good.  Fresh out of prison, Catwoman is doing okay if not spectacular.  She's been morning Batman for ten years, but she took advantage of the prison exercise facilities.  

Babs is crippled, but Catwoman never liked Batgirl.  So, what's the problem.  

The Batman/Darth Vader styled police force developing in Gotham City behave poorly on page three, but these first three pages are there to sucker you into a long ride to nowheresville.  The Bat Cops have a perfectly good reason for their actions, albeit a little quick on the trigger.  Catwoman just broke into the police evidence room.

There's nothing special about these cops.  They're not cyborgs.  They're not drug-addicted soldiers or the like.  They're just ordinary dudes in funky outfits.  The one on page six even acts fairly personable toward Catwoman.

According to Harvey, the Bat-Cop-Vaders are tributes.

It's the full face mask that puzzles me.  Why are they wearing a full face mask, when Batman did not? Harvey could have just redesigned the helmets.  The tubes are also head scratchers.  They don't lead anywhere.  

So, they're not providing oxygen.  The Darth-Man cops also wouldn't need oxygen since the air isn't toxic in Gotham City.  Still, if these accoutrements were--No, no.  It would still bug the crap out of me.  As does this...

...Wait, what? Did the government topple on this earth?  Is Gotham City the only democracy around?  Is it in a bubble? I'm totally dumbfounded by this development.  The Federal Government produces money.  A city can't just produce its own monetary system.

Surely some fun must be available in this book.

Nope.  Sorry to say.  Lonely City is the dullest, prettiest thing I've  ever experienced.  Not counting Blade Runner 2049, which at least had nudity.

Wait objects you.  What about Ma Hunkel?

How can a book with Ma Hunkel in it be so terrible? 

She exists to create an illusion that Lonely City isn't all that dismal.  She is a blatant reminder of innocent times and the promise of action where there isn't any, as is Killer Croc.

Concussion.  Really? Okay.  That's just so incredibly sad, and fits right in with everything else going on.  I mean when Catwoman states this...

...We should hear some kind of big-boffo musical sting and cut to some other moment where Selina is preparing for the heist.  Instead, Chiang kills the potential for mood by continuing the scene.  Damn.  The pace of Lonely City moves with the speed of a congested snail.

Those such as myself expecting a dynamite action filled Catwoman adventure will be highly disappointed.  I just felt horribly tired after reading Lonely City.