POBB November 14, 2023

Pick of the Brown Bag

June 14, 2023

by

Ray Tate

This week, I take you on a mostly spoiler-free voyage of the latest Captain Marvel film: The Marvels.  

Truth be told.  I saw The Marvels in standard.

It's just a cool poster.

You may be thinking: well, The Marvels is not really a Captain Marvel film since it's also graced with Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan alias Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau...

...as well as a certain Samuel L. Jackson portraying you know who.

Yeah.  That means you really haven't been paying attention.  Else, you would know that this isn't really the second Captain Marvel film.  It's the third.

Avengers: Endgame

Marvel Comics films are frequently ensemble flicks because the Marvel cinematic multiverse...

Iron Man Two or Black Widow One.  You decide.

...is actually more cohesive than DC's cinematic multiverse.  That's ironic, if you read comic books. 

Superhero entanglement feeds into the reason for The Marvels assembly.  The theme also cuts a lot of needless padding.  For example, Nick Fury doesn't really need to explain how he knows where Kamala Khan lives.  He's Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD.

However, for those who came late to the multiverse, Marvels briefly covers Ms. Marvel's origins and oddly enough Captain Marvel's origins.  The latter in flashback.  

I would have thought it more likely that some might not know Monica Rambeau's power source.  She evolves in WandaVision.  

Parris summarizes what happened only in dialogue.  If you didn't watch WandaVision, you can be forgiven for not understanding the lip service.  On the other hand, you can also say to yourself.  Hey, it's a new super-powered lady and watch with no real dent in your enjoyment.  

Monica Rambeau comes into her own as a superhero in Marvels.  She has grown in depth since WandaVision.  Her relationship with her Aunt Carol and her deceased mother is what's important.

If you spent time with Disney stream series Secret Invasion and Ms. Marvel, you'll get more out of the film.  Not because of plot points.  You'll just better absorb the richness of character development in Nick Fury, Kamala Khan and her family.  

As established in Ms. Marvel, Kamala's grandmother gifted her a bracelet.  The bracelet triggered her abilities and allowed her to control them to a greater degree.  Kamala's powers mimic the hard light constructs of a Green Lantern's ring.

The bracelet and its mate serve as the catalyst for The Marvels.  They bring the band together.  They're greedily sought for by Kree villain Dar-Ben.  

The bracelets are the problem and the solution to most of the questions raised by a well-written science fiction plot.  They also cleverly allude to the nega-bands that allowed Rick Jones and the original Captain Mar-Vel to switch places.

With a few exceptions, the Kree are basically shitty versions of Superman.  Kree Warriors display remarkably homogenous superiority complexes because they possess a greater toughness, stamina and strength over ordinary aliens.  

The Lady Sif already bested one in Agents of SHIELD.  In that same episode human SHIELD agent Mockingbird fought the Kree invader to an impressive standstill.

Captain Marvel, of course, smacked down a whole slew of them.  The Kree rationalize that by ostracizing Carol Danvers, dismissing her and fearing her at the same time.  She's dubbed the Annihilator.  

No explanation for how the Kree get on with their lives after an Asgardian and a mere human humbled one of their agents.  Perhaps they don't speak of this humiliation.

In The Marvels, the planet of the Kree, Hala, is dying.  It's only that passing semblance to Kryptonians that saves the species from expiring with it.  Dar-Ben has a plan to save Hala and the Kree.  It's a half-assed plan.  One that makes perfect sense given the Kree mind-set.  

Dar-Ben also has an ulterior motive.  Her reasoning mirrors Darth Vader's petty revenge against Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.  She and Captain Marvel go back aways, from Dar-Ben's perspective.  

It seems that Carol unwittingly abased her.  Carol on the other hand doesn't really know who Dar-Ben is.  That slight is enough for Dar-Ben to attack all that Carol holds dear.  Dar-Ben however is a tragedy rather than a personal genuine threat.

Dar-Ben emerges as a wannabe grandiose villain, but she actually can't muster that kind of presence.  She only seems tough because Captain Marvel is holding back a helluva lot.  It's apparent through the movie.  

The fact is that Carol could have simply cut off Dar-Ben's hand or arm that holds the McGuffin of power, but Captain Marvel doesn't do that.  She's not that kind of person.  All three heroes wind up fighting Dar-Ben simultaneously. 

The fights presented in The Marvels are some of the best.  They're athletic and short, depending on wirework and the actresses' and/or stunt people's battle training more than CGI.  The minds behind the movie furthermore seamlessly blend in the switching of the combatants without losing the momentum of the skirmishes.  This was not an easy movie to make, and yet everybody behind it makes it look effortless.

That kind of natural flow can be seen in the performances of all involved.  This movie actually plays like episode seven or so in a Captain Marvel series starring Brie Larson.  The agency she imbues to the Captain, her interplay with Nick Fury, even her relationship with Goose the Flerkin, which happens to look like a cat, is so practiced that Larson persuades you to believe that Captain Marvel has been pursing a life ever since she left the stage of Avengers Endgame.  In other words, Carol's existence didn't stop when the movie ended.  Her life ran parallel to all the movies and stream series that came after.

The movie in fact explicitly states that Captain Marvel is a known quantity throughout the galaxy, perhaps beyond.  

Given my disdain for the particular genre the film dovetails into, I should despise these scenes.  

These moments clearly happened to be on whatever creator's checklist for making an alien species.  I should have really hated these instances, but I didn't.  

Larson as Captain Marvel is simply too convincing not to take everything in what should be a nauseating action at face value.

I'm aware of the online hate bubbling around The Marvels.  I suspect it's got more to do with a potent black Captain Marvel character and a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel joining Brie Larson.  All three powerful women portrayed by accomplished actresses.  With the Captain demonstrating once again why she may be the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.   Well, to the haters...

...I don't get you.  I never have.  The Marvels is a blast of fun.

POBB October 17, 2023

Pick of the Brown Bag

October 17, 2023

by

Ray Tate

Pick of the Brown Bag returns with an October treat for the fans of good comic book artwork... 

That expression on Andromeda's face kills me.

...comedy and those who loathe post-apocalyptic cinema.  Yes, yes.  There are exceptions.

Fury Road despite its superb execution and visual poetry nevertheless shared the same intrinsic flaws as other post-apocalyptic films.  

Simply far too many survivors roam the desert or the ruins. 

 

There's always technology that somehow works, and/or  primitive mechanics.  

Food though scarce is available, and there's enough water to keep people alive.  

The average human can only live three days without water.  

Aquaman even less so.

I suppose I would be able to swallow the premises of post-apocalyptic movies had I not seen the truth as a kid.

The Day After continues to be the most realistic depiction of nuclear holocaust.  The lucky ones get killed at ground zero.  The sort of lucky Louies are caught in the blast radius and die with maybe a flash of indescribable pain.  The most unlucky sods live on the outskirts of the bullseye.  They didn't even win the lottery to get smashed by the horrendous wind that's capable of shattering bone.  

The witnesses saw the mushroom cloud.  I don't know what's worse.  That they're under the impression they somehow managed to scrape out of the tragedy, or that they will die slowly from various cancers and the equivalent of AIDS.  Oh, yeah.  Nuclear War destroys the immune system.  Cheers.  

You mean, Fred Williamson lied to me?

You see.  If a thermonuclear holocaust occurs, it's the end of the human race.  We're all dead.  The smug bastards who built underground bunkers are dead.  The evil fucks that knocked over the dominoes are dead.  

Wait.  Wait.  Selby?

Selby's dead, Dave.  Everybody's dead, Dave.

Wonder Woman saved us all, and nobody got it.  Except apparently me.  Wonder Woman 1984 is an utterly chilling experience.  Of course, it's a fairy tale.  Nobody with a magic lasso is going to rescue us.  

Although...Gal Gadot does possess a black belt and is adept in multiple martial arts...so...possibly...she may be in a position...More and more, the world is turning into a James Bond nightmare.

Gadot began her career in The Fast and Furious franchise.  It's the kind of elevation Sonya Devereux can only lust for.

Sonya Devereux is a fictional actress in grade Z to B movies.  Each of her comic books is essentially a film strip of the latest cinematic feast.  Each issue is a number one.  The first of the series is available in trade paperback.

 

In this issue of Starring Sonya Devereaux, Sonya hosts her post-apocalyptic sequel Renegade Road Riders 3.

While I'm aware of lots of gatherings, a post-apocalyptic convention is new to me.  As it is to Sonya, but she quickly adapts.  Does such a thing actually exist? Just curious.

The most recent of Sonya's "movies" had me at page three.  The gag actually had nothing to do with the bomb. 

Ahhhh.  Such alliteration must be lauded.  All the narration on page three is like that.  Really, take a bow.  The joke indicates that we're dealing with a bunch of smart people that purposely make bad "movies."  

Renegade Road Riders' first swipes at the post-apocalypse check off all the boxes I mentioned.  The whole look of the book is shared by its subject of parody.  The visuals just have the feel of; let's go out in the desert and make cinema.  What kind of movie? If you were filmmakers in the fifties and sixties you would be making a western.  Eighties and nineties, post-apocalypse.  Seventies? Anything goes.  

Post-apocalyptic films and westerns share much in common.  More so than the landscape.  Artists/writers Brendan and Brian Fraim with some help from Todd Livingston and Nick Capetanakis are keen to demonstrate. 

This scene can appear in a western.  We're just missing a saloon backdrop and cowboy hats.

The difference lies in the cost.  I'm guessing westerns are probably a little more expensive to make.  You need to corral the anachronisms and require a lot of horses.  For post-apocalyptic cinema, you don't even really need effects.

Biker film? YMCA sequel? Break Dancing 3? No! 

It's the post-apocalyptic masterpiece 1990: Bronx Warriors.

To be fair, you can make more expensive post-apocalyptic movies with beautifully designed vehicles, guns, costumes.  Fury Road obviously.  It's just not absolutely necessary.

Dude's wearing a radio.  I wish that was the most absurd thing I saw in a post-apocalyptic flick.  I know.  If I hate this genre so much, why do I watch? My knowledge comes from late night television broadcasts.  I have never sat through a period post-apocalyptic movie in sequence, but I've seen a whole clutch of them in their entirety via staccato.  

Sonya Devereux in Renegade Road Riders 3 portrays Andromeda Zoom, leader of a group of bi-sexual...um...truth seekers? 

Don't expect any nudity or explicit scenes.  The lesbian aspect of the "film" is actually cute, warm and funny.  Not that these facets are mutually exclusive.  The sexual diversity however is an outlier with regard to the genre.  

Post-apocalyptic movies appear to be fueled by testosterone.  They generally eschew LGBTQ.  Sometimes you get an overtly gay flunky, but he's usually portrayed as perverted.  Nudity is also at the most a smidge of boobies.  

This genre of cinema gears more toward car fights, gunplay, flamethrowers and exotic weaponry.  Rather, weaponry that seems exotic but really consists of tricked out fake uzis, or something.  

If you could sex films, the lion's share of the post-apocalyptic would be decidedly male.  They tell the story of a male hero.  They give you the unflinching machismo perspective.  In a way they create a kind of wish fulfillment for certain bros.  The kind that think civilization and equality emasculates them.  Just give a man a gun, a beer and a car, and he can sort the whole business of nuclear aftermath unbound by law, money or those pesky liberal rights for women.  For these men nuclear war is the ultimate leveler, which makes Starring Sonya Devereux quite the surprise.  

Andromeda Zoom and her fellow Riders usurp the male focus of this genre while at the same time being extremely funny doing it.

Sonya's impromptu speeches are right up there with Maxwell Smart's expert spoofery.  The expressions of her fellow actresses and their interaction provide consistent amusement.  As does the running joke of suddenly empty water bottles.

This issue of Starring Sonya Devereux is actually a grade A Movie when compared to the actual animals.  The plot makes sense.  A fellow played by--Tim Reid?--visits the village.  He bears gifts.

All hell breaks loose over the water, depicting humanity's greed.  Zephryne--possibly a reference to Jethrine, Jethro's twin sister on The Beverly Hillbillies--who is not part of the village returns to the Renegade Road Riders with the news.

Even their title, Renegade Road Riders makes inherent sense.  They are loyal only to themselves not to the village.  This departure naturally makes them renegades.

Renegade Road Riders is decidedly feminist.  The majority of the characters are women.  Though the women date other males, they are sexually bound to each other, which creates a loyal sisterhood.  I know.  I know.  It's a send up, but what're you going to do? The depth is right there.  Throughout, this movie counters the typical period post-apocalypse.  It runs on estrogen.

The Renegades are looking for concrete survival: water.  I've seen some post-apocalyptic goofs that seek for all sorts of useless McGuffins or dubious enlightenment.  The writers know that a finite quantity of bottles of water cannot sustain a population, and that's why the conclusion is a good one.

While the car fights and the gunplay are just as ludicrous as some of the "serious" entries in the genre, Andromeda's toe-to-to against the Big Bad actually is brilliantly plausible, true to Andromeda's characterization and once again enforces the Renegades eponym.  

The creative team of Sonya Devereux distinguish Andromeda and the other ladies with unique personalities.  It's weird.  So many of these flicks' casts blend together, along with the minimal plots.   Renegade Road Riders stands out.  You can also see the blatant schism between actress Sonya Devereux and her character Andromeda Zoom.  So, there's a remarkable meta double-split within the book.  Andromeda is different from Zephryne and brunette Chevlee.  She's also definitely a role played by the fictional actress.  A meatier one to boot.

POBB October 3, 2023

Pick of the Brown Bag

October 3, 2023

by

Ray Tate

Hello, my name is Ray Tate.  I am the creator, writer and host of the Pick of the Brown Bag.  Simply put.  This is a review blog about comic books.  However, you'll get more than a thumbs up or thumbs down from me.  I also delve into the history and the currency of the subjects.  So dig into my look at Kelly Thompson's and Leonardo Romero's newest DC title Birds of Prey. 

The story actually begins years ago with the arrival of Supergirl.

Action Comics #252 (1959)

Batgirl and Supergirl became best friends.

From Superman Family #171 (1975)

Nowadays, Batgirl and Supergirl don't really know each other.  They're merely friendly acquaintances.  

Batgirl Annual #1 (2017)

Barbara Gordon's eyes are blue.  They're blue, baby.  Blue.

The schism is largely due to the original Supergirl's death in The Crisis on Infinite Earths.  

If ever you wanted proof that Supergirl is more powerful than Superman...there you go.

After the Crisis, a new universe Big Banged.  Supergirl returned as a clone of Superman's Smallville sweetheart Lana Lang.  No, no.  That's honestly true.  It's comic books.

Every version of Supergirl hence has been a variation on that clone, dubbed Matrix, created by John Byrne.

Matrix exemplifies Byrne's status as a world-building architect and the surprising longevity of comic book characters.  You expect to learn Batman and Superman existed for about eighty-five years.  It's surprising that a comparatively younger creation like Matrix made twenty.

Later, somebody decided...It had to be somebody on high...Screw it.  Let's reintroduce Superman's cousin.

That still didn't stop constant reinvention.

Without the stability of Supergirl's character history or any written consistency, Batgirl's historical friendship with Supergirl fell by the wayside. 

 "We'll still be together in the animated series."

Without a Supergirl in her life, Batgirl instead established a friendship with the Black Canary, whom in the previous multiverse she didn't know at all.  It's comic books.  

Writer Chuck Dixon and artist Gary Frank brought the two crimefighters together about twenty years ago.

I'm not sure you can argue Dixon and Frank created the Birds of Prey.  Dinah Lance alias the Black Canary existed since the 1940s.

Flash Comics #86 (1947)

Barbara Gordon alias Batgirl since the 1960s.

Detective Comics # 359 (1967)  

None the less, thanks to Dixon and future Birds of Prey scribe Gail Simone, Batgirl and the Canary have been inseparably bonded ever since.  

Indeed, Batgirl and Black Canary are currently best friends, a friendship that survived multiple DC Universe reboots.  

So what happens when an "unknown" party asks Dinah to reform the Birds of Prey without the 1960s Batgirl?  

We're about to find out.

One of the more interesting things about Birds of Prey is how Thompson and Romero depict the weight of betrayal the Black Canary feels she's dishing out to Barbara. 

How she desperately wants to inform Barbara but is forbidden to do so.  That exclusion is somewhat but not completely explained.  In any case, events force the Canary into a difficult place.

The creative team lift the weight somewhat when Dinah asks Cassandra Cain to join the new Birds of Prey.

It used to be very problematic for me to accept Cassandra Cain as an actual character.  That's partly due to my own prejudice.  I loathed all of the superfluous substitute Batgirls foisted into the comic book world.  The Powers That Were at DC could have simply healed Barbara's spine.  It's comic books.

Regardless of her Batgirl status, introducing Cassandra Cain as an illiterate mute doesn't really speak highly toward women.  Pun not intended.  So, I had even more reason to ignore her.

I won't reiterate my vitriol against the character.  Click on the link and see the succinct.  

My feelings toward Cassandra Cain began to thaw when Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner presented what she could be.

That this new version of Cassandra Cain didn't exist at the expense of Barbara's continued mobility also factored into my reconsideration of Cassandra Cain.  I started to enjoy her team-up with the Spoiler under Barbara Gordon's new comic book Batgirls.  

Cassandra Cain started to get some artistic respect.  Before she most often looked like a leathery bat-shaped sex toy.  

I have no idea why Harley is referring to her as such.  Cinnamon rolls are brown.

Artists such as Birds of Prey's Jordie Bellaire are starting to use contrasting colors against her "all-black" costume.  

There was really no excuse for her looking like somebody's pen had leaked.  After all, Cassandra Cain arrived after this gentlemen.

As you can see Romero follows suit with emphasis on shadow and light.  Colorist Jordie Bellaire takes advantage of the casting to give the costume some welcome grays and blues.  

I still prefer Connor's and Palmiotti's abandonment of the outfit, but at least the artists of today illustrate her better than those of yesterday.  They simply made her look like an oil smudge.

Connor and Palmiotti in the Birds of Prey mini-series adhered to Cassandra Cain being mute, but thankfully eschewed the illiteracy.  Thompson sticks with the literate but reticently vocal Cassandra Cain from Becky Cloonan's Batgirls.

And has no issue making fun of the taciturn bat.  

Black Canary sends Cassie to recruit the muscle for the team.  

Created by Jack Kirby, Big Barda is a New God from the planet Apokolips.  She was one of Granny Goodness' Female Furies before siding and falling in love with Scott Free known as Mister Miracle. 

Allow me to translate that paragraph for casual readers.  One of the all time great creators of comic book worlds gave us Big Barda.  Big Barda worked as a shock trooper for an evil flunky of a legendary Big Bad until siding and falling in love with an alien escape artist.   She also always talked liked a stranger in a strange land.  Kudos to Kelly Thompson for replicating her speech pattern and amusing patter.  The "small bat" kills me.

If Big Barda seems familiar to you, but you don't really count yourself a DC fan, you may have encountered her on Batman Beyond in the ranks of the future Justice League.

Though you may think the red outfit isn't accurate.   It is.  Barda wears the ensemble when relaxing.

I'm very surprised the Canary included Zealot on the team.

Impressive, isn't she? I'm mainly surprised because I keep forgetting that Zealot is part of the DC universe.  

Zealot is an alien and originally part of the Wild C.A.T.S.  A supergroup once published by Image Comics.  The team's       co-creator Jim Lee moved to DC to become part of the reconstruction for DC's New 52: the universal reboot that restored Barbara Gordon's spine and subsequently fixed everything else that was wrong in a supposedly optimistic superhero rife cosmos.  That's right.  The whole snafu begins and ends with leaving Babs crippled by the Joker's bullet.  Fix that and you fix everything.

The last member of the team Harley Quinn ironically needs the smallest introduction.  

Harley Quinn created for Batman the Animated Series by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and voice artist Arleen Sorkin as the Joker's henchwench.  She snowballed into an icon of feminism.

Harley Quinn became so powerful a pop culture figure that she became part of the DCU and to date reformed to become part of the Batman Family.  The battle she and Cassie fight in the flashback of Birds of Prey is in fact a case of oneupmanship rather than hero vs villain.

The first issue of Birds of Prey impresses through the gathering. Thompson did her homework.  When Cassie recruits Barda, she's in the midst of fighting the goons of an Apokoliptan nemesis.  She employs Canary's sonic scream in a judicious moment, and a surprising associate of the Batman family makes an appearance.  Leonardo Romero in turns makes this an exciting collection.  Hopefully the graphics I included whetted your appetite for a double page spread of Canary and Cassie battling Ninjas as well as the expertly choreographed four page comedic fight between Cassie and Harley.

Though we find out the whys of Birds of Prey's reformation throughout the premiere.  We don't get the details of it all until the second issue.

Dinah and the Birds of Prey intend to rescue Cynthia Lance (Sin) from the island of Themyscira.  That's Paradise Island for casual readers.  The home of Wonder Woman and the Amazons.  

How? We don't know.  I also do not know why Cynthia Lance is on Themyscira in the first place, how she got there, why the Amazons took her prisoner, etc.  In fact, I don't know how Dinah happens to have an adopted sister.  Fortunately, I don't need to know.  Thompson provides an example of their bond in a flashback.

I'm willing to gloss over a sudden, adopted sister.   Superheroes adopt kid sidekicks throughout all of comic book history.  

Two female superheroes of the past, the 1940s Black Cat and the 1950s Batwoman, followed suit.  So, there's precedent even if I discount males such as Robin and Bucky.  

The bond seems initially genuine enough.  We can thank Thompson's strong dialogue skills and Romero's ability to depict subtle emotions and intimacy.  Even Bellaire's odd color scheme enhances the mood.  If Sin lives through all of this, maybe we'll see the bond grow stronger.

Birds of Prey essentially is a heist.  I love a heist.  The team intends to get in, steal Sin and get out with no muss or no fuss.  

Of course, with any heist things are going to go wrong, and I'm impressed that the Canary knows this.  It shows she lives in a universe where heist movies play out.  

I'm further impressed that Kelly Thompson acknowledges the events going on in Wonder Woman and has the cheek to use Tom King's story as a plot point.  Speaking of Wonder Woman, Black Canary's former colleague on the now disbanded Justice League...

Ah.  Well, that's not a particularly good answer.  I really can't believe Wonder Woman would say no to the Black Canary.  Wonder Woman served as defense council for her former Nazi enemy Paula Von Gunther in a court of law.  I think she would be happy to defend Sin.  Likely succeeding as she did with Von Gunther.  

That being said.  There's a time travel implication that I'm willing to admit takes a big sledge hammer to reason.  

If history says Black Canary didn't ask Wonder Woman, in the same way that history says she didn't team up with Batgirl for this heist, then so be it.  She's stuck again.  It's either follow the breadcrumbs left by the time traveler or create a paradox that destroys the multiverse.  Damn butterflies.

The rest of issue two generates a split in the narrative.  On the flip side of the preparation for the heist, all of the Birds of Prey seem to require something at a magical emporium.  This bizarre twist threw me for a loop.  I also find it a little too convenient that everybody knows about this place.

Still, if you want to create the illusion of permanency, this is the way to do it.  Zealot in Gotham City.  You can't get more DC than that.

The trip to the bazaar also allows Thompson to recreate a Legends of Tomorrow feeling.

Though Constantine was more involved in...er...one way or the other with Sarah Lance, the White Canary, the Black Canary and John Constantine interaction is still valid.  

The convergence of Birds of Prey needless to say ends in another two page battle.  This time against stylish golems.

I'm afraid my scanner wasn't up to the task of capturing the full scope of the art, which remains stunning throughout.  The second issue of Birds of Prey is however a little more disjointed than I'd like to see.  It's a good issue but not a great issue like the premiere.  On the plus side, the team gel, and Sin gets a good introduction.  I have no idea whether or not this character existed before now.  On the minus side, the side trip isn't explained enough.  However, we may learn about its importance in a future issue.  As to the means in which the Birds intend to infiltrate the island, which I'll not spoil here, I'm ambivalent.  It's at once a little silly and a little sensible.