Tuesday, November 22, 2022

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.








 


Tuesday, October 18, 2022

POBB October 17, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag
October 17, 2022
by
Ray Tate 

Greetings.  Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  If you'e new to the blog, allow me to introduce myself.  I'm Ray Tate and I review comic books.   This week, in favor of the upcoming spooky holiday, I bob for Neal Adams' Monsters.


Should you haven't the time for the deep dive on the blog, you can also find me on Twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag. 

Neal Adams died April of this year.  I met him once at my comic book shop, the Phantom of the Attic.  Neal struck me as relatively young, seemingly a little older than me.  Full of life, interesting to talk to and quite honorable.  


Neal left an enviable legacy.  He'll especially be remembered for the balletic definitive Batman of the seventies; the ghost aerialist Deadman and the partnership of the Green Arrow and Green Lantern.  

Neal furthermore christened and co-created the first African American Lantern.  Through the fifty-two plus episodes of The Justice League John Stewart is probably more indelible than any other in the Green Lantern Corps.  


Neal updated the X-Men for Marvel by dint of his realistic dynamism and also co-produced the Avengers opus The Kree/Skrull War.

When Neal decided to do his own thing it could be very inventive indeed.  Neal Adams founded Continuity Comics.  It's here he published Echo of Futurepast, a mature magazine in the vein of Heavy Metal.  


In several issues of the magazine, Neal pitted Dracula against the Frankenstein Monster and the "Wolf Man."  Vanguard Publishing now collects the story and some horror-related bonus material into a handsome seventy-two page oversized hardback.

Though Neal's art often spoke louder than words, he was not renowned for his writing.  Monsters is a complete Neal Adams production.  In other words, he wrote it.  He drew it.  He colored it.  

Neal was a big proponent of expanding the color palette in comic books and pushed companies back in the seventies to go beyond primary hues.  

Like he did for his highly-recommended Batman collections and using the latest technologies, Neal recolored the meticulously scanned original artwork.  So this hardback is in essence the blu-ray of the serial.


Torch wielding villagers chase the latest in the line of Victor Frankenstein and his fiancee Ericka out of the castle.


In keeping with the tradition of Universal films, the heir is loathe to commit to his family's history.  The villagers take no chances.  The only good Frankenstein is a dead one.

The chase leads Victor and Ericka to Romania, and this is where the book begins.  Wolves turn Victor and Ericka to the domain of Count Vlad Dracul.  Though he refers to himself as Prince Vlad.


As you can see, Neal took some very unusual diversions from the traditional blood-suckers portrayed by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.  He also changed Dracula's outfit of black dress to colorful period wear.



Dracula soon impels Victor to create a new monster.  In keeping with Universal Pictures, the creature departs from the novel and adheres to the sympathetic portrayal of Boris Karloff.  Albeit with a different past.

Now that we have Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster, all that's needed is the Wolf Man.  Neal Adams provides.


It's with this lycanthrope depiction that Neal departs drastically from the expectedmuch to the reader's delight.  Dracula's hubris in fact catalyzes the only thing predictable in the story.


I mean.  You did want them to fight.  Right?  Monster slugfests are always welcome in my book, and if there's a rationale behind them, all the better.  Dracula's privileged nature inevitably conflicts with the creature's want for total freedom.  Other emotions motivate the werewolf.  


In terms of artistry, Neal draws upon his auteur.  When it comes to creating Man-Bats, Neal is second to none.  In addition, because this serial leaned toward a more mature audience, the incendiary finale seldom holds back and would have given nightmares to the best special effects artist of the time.  The rampant skill is so evident that even those masters with access to today's best techniques would have difficulty in matching Neal Adams' grotesque vision.

Monsters: ISBN 978-1-8875-9156-0 is only about twenty-five bucks.  Check with your local comic book shop.  If you come up dry, even through Amazon or Barnes and Noble, click on the link to Vanguard Publishing above.

Friday, October 7, 2022

POBB October 5, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag
October 5, 2022
by 
Ray Tate

Welcome to another Pick of the Brown Bag.  Things have been rather hectic for me, so I'm instituting a new protocol to freshen the blog and keep a foot in the reviewing pool.  I will be critiquing single issues of comic books that I've just read.  For future posts, I'll also be looking at graphic novels that will be ideal for Halloween spooking.  Anyway, that's the plan.  Let's see how well I stick to it.  You can find me on Twitter as well, just in case you need a quick thumbs up or thumbs down decision: #PickoftheBrownBag.


Christopher Chance is a private investigator/body guard nicknamed The Human Target.  A Bronze Age creation, Christopher disguises himself as an intended victim and takes the intended's place until he deals with the threat.  

In this new series by Tom King and artist Greg Smallwood, Christopher substituted for Lex Luthor.


Though he survived the shooting, he wound up poisoned for his troubles.  

A walking dead man, that cannot be helped even through science fiction or magical means,,,


...Christopher now seeks to find out which of the Justice League attempted to murder Lex Luthor and inadvertently nailed his coffin shut.

Tom King bases the story on a very obscure pair of Justice League books that occurred outside of the bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha era but still used the bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha line up.  


You may vaguely remember the time Lex Luthor teamed up with a dude named Overlord...


...er...Overmaster to kill Superman.

He wound up killing Ice instead.

She got better.



Way better.


Anyway, the history places the League on Christopher's suspect list.  Some Leaguer wanted to off Luthor to avenge Ice.  Each issue, Christopher questions members of the Justice League.


I purposely did not review the last chapter of The Human Target because I couldn't think of a way to talk about it without spoiling the entirety.  

The spoilers had nothing to do with the mystery.  They instead presented a monumental event that could only happen in a DC book set outside of continuity proper.  Black Label fits the bill; after Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner redeemed the line from the stench of Batman Damned.


Originally, DC intended Black Label to present classy HBO styled mature material that nevertheless featured DC characters.  Think of Westworld only with capes and cowls.  DC dropped the whole idea of explicit intentions after the depiction of Batman's shadowy penis sent shockwaves through the internet.  

If you're imagining a bat-cowled penis shouting, "I'm the god damned Batman's penis!" you're welcome.

The Human Target though not shying away from sexuality, isn't explicit.  In fact there's nothing in this title that would disturb a teenager, regardless of gender.


See?  The most disturbing thing that occurred in Human Target had nothing to do with sex, and it's the kind of perturbation to the mind that makes you think.  

Issue seven of The Human Target presents Christopher's interrogation of the prime suspect: Beatriz da Costa alias Fire.  Ice in fact joined Christopher on his hunt to convince him of Fire's innocence.  She also wants to persuade him that none of the Justice League could have done the deed either, but primarily her concern is for Fire.


That gorgeous illustration by Greg Smallwood that should be turned into tee-shirts and posters sums up the entirety of the chapter.  Fire is a dangerously sexy woman, the classic film noir bad girl, but the question is: did she do it?


The answer she gives may surprise some readers who thought the worst of the first half of the team Fire and Ice.  


My money is still on G'nort unwittingly radiating the water used in the coffee pot that poisoned Christopher Chance.


Since returning my attention back to Pick of the Brown Bag, I also read The Human Target special Tales of the Human Target
 

While these short stories are fine in themselves and fun, they bear little connection to the series.  Nor, does the series mention anything in the anthology.


In fact I think some if not all the shorts contradict the series.  It seems to me that Christopher Chance throughout The Human Target is meeting the Justice League roster for the first time.  

I also find it implausible that Chance meets each member of the League who also are his best suspects in separate episodes in his life before he's poisoned.  Just too many coincidences.


If this special is collected in the trade paperback, fine.  You're not out anything.  However, if you're reading The Human Target as it's being produced, then you really don't need the special, nor should you go out of your way to get it.


On the other hand if you're ga-ga over artists Kevin Maguire, Mikel Janin and/or Rafael Albuquerque, you may want to add this book to your brown bag.  Greg Smallwood provides the wraparound narrative that grasps straws when trying to knit the prequel to the series.