POBB May 8, 2019 Part Three

Pick of the Brown Bag

May 8, 2019 Part Three

by

Ray Tate

In the third and final Pick of the Brown Bag installment for May 8, 2019, I take on Agents of Atlas, Doctor Who, Supergirl, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and The Unstoppable Wasp.  Tomorrow a whopping huge twitter critique of all the books: #PickoftheBrownBag.

Jody Houser’s last stories in Doctor Who offered a fresh take on Roger Corman’s Z Grade Mystery Science Theater target Attack of the Giant Leeches. 

In this case the Leeches are actually known as the Stilean Flesh Eaters.  Normally they’re scavengers, but they’ve become bolder, leading to one biting the Doctor.  

The Doctor hasn’t encountered them by chance.  She’s being led through time and space by her curiosity over a historical podcast that’s undermining her thunder.  

The podcast informed the Doctor’s companions Ryan, Graham and Yaz about obscure corners in history.  I know what you’re thinking.  The Doctor thought of it as well.  The Doctor of the future is not the podcaster.  

Last issue, The Doctor’s latest investigation into Stilean behavior wound up crossing against the Time Agency.  The Time Agency debuted in the television series with the arrival of Captain Jack Harkness.  The Agency is a human-based time traveling police corps that apparently comprise a Fixed Point in history.  Else the Doctor’s people the Time Lords would have prevented the formation. 

The Doctor's reunion with Perkins and Schultz isn't all that happy.  With each regeneration the Doctor become increasingly anti-militaristic.  She counts the Time Agents as soldiers.  So, she sends Schultz and Perkins on a merry chase while she tracks down the Stilean Flesh-Eaters who have changed considerably.

In many ways, nothing happens in this issue of Doctor Who.  It’s a still point in a larger story, yet within that inertia, Houser entertains the reader with a dead-on characterization of the Doctor expressed in dialogue and action.  Houser’s instincts also give a good showing for the Doctor’s companions who have even less to do, but do it with comedy.  She also employs a judicious discussion about continuity, which makes the book feel even more authentic.

Artist Roberta Ingranata aids Houser with apropos body language and understated facial expression.  Ingranata is a bit more cartoony than Rachael Stott, and as such her Doctor is more flexible while still resembling Jodie Whittaker.

Now that Supergirl discovered the secret behind and head of the cabal demanding the destruction of Krypton and the continued genocide against her surviving people, all that remains is to beat the crap out of the subject.  Because of the species’ abilities, that makes artist Kevin Maguire’s return that more welcome.

No bones to other artists, but the beatdown plays to his abilities of rendering intricate detail and depicting emotion.  Intricate? Says you? Maguire’s really not known for that.  He’s actually more reputable for his simplification of the human form.

We get that as well, but mostly Maguire displays every one of Kara’s powers in exhilarating fashion.  Honestly, I don’t really know why the Rogol Zaar needed to exist, but Marc Andreyko and the Supergirl artists made it with no exception enjoyable.

The way Andreyko handled the beast was more of a reflection of how does Kara react to this bad thing thrust upon her.  The villain of the piece isn’t really anything.  That is to say a name from Superman’s or Supergirl’s past.  The antagonist’s construction at least makes sense, and it was great to see Kara cut loose on somebody that’s definitely not cardboard.

In addition, Andreyko and Maguire give Krypto his due.  Superman gifted Krypto to Kara so she wouldn’t lose herself to revenge.  Krypto makes good on the pledge.  Saving Kara from her rage at a critical moment.    

I’d really like to see Jeremy Whitley, Alti Firmansyah and Espen Grundetjern tackle X-Men continuity.  Maybe then I have a chance understanding it.  It’s Nadia’s, the Unstoppable Wasp’s, birthday party.  The creative team invited every character even marginally associated Hank and Nadia Pym.  Here however is the clever part.  The team include Viv Vision as your guide presenting a clear and concise explanation to every relationship present.

Damn it.  Get her to Charles Xavier’s mansion immediately.  The story begins with Wasp, Scott and Cassie Lang, meeting Nadia for the first time.  Cassie and Nadia hit it off immediately, and she ushers her in for the whole hullabaloo. 

No, your eyes do not deceive.  That is Tigra, looking amazing.  Yes, that is the proper Tigra tail.  Tigra is love.  Her presence did not add to the theoretical score of The Unstoppable Wasp.  Though her inclusion certainly didn’t hurt.  Not one bit.

The issue is mainly a lot of meet and greet character moments with suffused in comedy provided from an overall boisterous atmosphere.  Hercules for example.

I know what you’re thinking.  Is the Winter Soldier vs Nadia cover a cheat?  No.  Though Mockingbird invited him as her plus one out of coincidence, Winter Soldier does have a connection with Nadia and Ying.  

However, this is not the drag-out fight between the Wasp and Winter Solider you’re looking for, nor is it the superhero misunderstanding trope.

The party ends up at a specific club where Nadia gets a spectacular gift from Cassie.  For anybody else the gift just may be insane.  Although for young superheroes who haven’t yet felt the burdens some adult heroes suffer through, it may be the perfect.  

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl teams up with the straight from actual Norse myth Ratatoskr.  The Asgardian Squirrel Chaos God.  They’ve met before.

Usually Squirrel Girl is astonishingly open-minded.  She talked the Rhino down from committing a crime and attempted to reform Kraven the Hunter.  No such leeway for Ratatoskr.  However, she’s actually on Squirrel Girl’s side.

Ryan North’s reasoning for the shifting alliances makes perfect sense given Ratatoskr’s argument, and this leads to some terrific comedy and action involving the duo's battle against two Frost Giants, also in love.  Normally, Squirrel Girl could get behind that love, but not this time. 

Derek Charm’s artwork does an amazing job of blunting any threat posed.  Ratatoskr resembles Bugs Bunny more than her nightmarish countenance of the past, and gains more comedic expression.  The Frost Giants are the spine-headed Klingons of Star Trek and watching their defeat, Ratatoskr’s antics and her attempts to convince Squirrel Girl to trust her amuses to no end.

When the duo put the kibosh on the Frost Giants, Ratatoskr takes on a human form in an outrageous one page multi-panel catwalk—squirrel walk that’s gut-busting.  She finally settles on this unobtrusive number.

Squirrel Girl outstandingly approves, which is weird because Ratatoskr sticks out like a proverbial thumb, especially in the frozen Canadian North.  So far Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the best excuse for the War of the Realms to take place.

Agents of Atlas or Asians of Atlas is a very dull affair with a combination of new Asian characters and old ones led by former SHIELD agent and Agents of Atlas alum Jimmy Woo.  The story starts off with a mystery in the Pacific that leads two of the new to investigate.

With Pak’s cookie-cutter approach there’s not a lot of room for characterization.  We’ve got an All-Star Squadron knock off of DC’s Tsunami and another coincidentally elemental figure.

Whatever.  The story cuts to Jimmy Woo’s Atlas Academy where Ms. Marvel, Amadeus Cho, Silk and Shang-Chi share pears in a pedantic moment that’s so risible I could actually hear Mike Nelson, Crow and Tom Servo ridiculing it in my head.

It’s during this instance I realized that I’m being bored to death by the Ultimate version of Shang-Chi.  I briefly experienced this version of Shang-Chi in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up.  

This is the younger, hipper incarnation that’s Fu-Manchu free.  The original Shang-Chi is a product of Marvel licensing the Sax Rohmer Fu-Manchu characters back in the seventies.  

The traditional Shang-Chi is the son of Fu-Manchu.  Dr. Fu-Manchu is a would be world dominator that also happens to be Chinese and unfortunately part of the Yellow Peril phenomena, even though that was never Rohmer’s intent.

I won’t diverge into verbose details, but Rohmer had been inspired by a real Chinese man he spotted by chance.  He made up the bulk of Fu-Manchu on the spot.  Fu-Manchu is a doctor of medicine and attended some of the best universities of the time.  I don’t believe Sax Rohmer was a racist in the classical sense.  He was instead an orientalist that just wanted to tell a ripping yarn and make money at it.  You should really look at Fu-Manchu as a classier Chinese Fantomas, a master maniacal criminal created almost a century earlier.

Without a Fu-Manchu background, Shang-Chi is absolutely useless.  Oh, he’s a master of martial arts.  So is Black Widow, two of the White Tigers, Iron fist, Colleen Wing and so many others with and without complementary super powers.  Shang-Chi is only interesting because of his connection to Fu-Manchu.  Without, he’s just a dude with bracelets.

Anyway, as the story continues, Malekith and his Eight Realm Army invades Midgard.  The Agents go to meet this new threat.  Unfortunately they brought Amadeus Cho with them.  

Cho is extremely hard to take in even low doses.  An entirely subjective pronouncement I know, but there it is.  He sucks, and I feel that Pak could have chosen a different Asian jackass for the team: Sunfire immediately comes to mind, a new Golden Girl or anybody else other than the ineffective blundering idiot Amadeus Cho.  

In fact had Pak bothered to put the amount of time and effort in say the White Fox who, ala Puma Man, flies like a real White Fox we might have had at least a half-way decent comic book.  Perhaps she's named White Fox because of the white hair and actually is a Foooooxxxx.  No? Too sexist? Well you got me, because as "god as my witness" I didn't think foxes could fly.

POBB October 21, 2015

Pick of the Brown Bag

October 21, 2015

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  This week I review Agents of Atlas, Doctor Who, Justice League, Reyn, new book The Shield and the Uncanny Inhumans.  I'll also look at Emily Blunt's new film Sicario.  

The Time War comes into play as it did in Christopher Eccleston's Doctor Who Series One.  The warring species the Doctor met in previous issues reveal much more going on than a battle between alien races.

The Centaur People known as the Unon attempt to recruit the Doctor to help them in their ostensible altruism, and yes, reader you should doubt their word.  They too easily reflect the history of the Time Lords, and they possess Time Lord artifacts   The Doctor however has only one goal.

The other alien species The Lect captured Rose, and they reveal themselves to her in an uncomfortably Dalek fashion.  Are they however the enemy?

Writer Cavan Scott intrigues with dead-on characterization.  The scribe matches a superb translation of cast likeness into comic book art by Blair Shedd   This particular incarnation of the Doctor is most apropos for the comics.  Christopher Eccleston's avatar of the Time Lord rarely remained still.  Adherence to that peccadillo converts into a strong, action packed story.  Worth buying in chapter-play form.

Geoff Johns forges the new New Gods.

With Darkseid apparently slain in battle by Mobius, history seems to fill the vacuum with familiar faces.

Mainly a setup issue with striking Francis Manapul visuals, the story-so-far feeling changes when the spotlight turns to Lex Luthor.

The corruption of Superman leaves Lex no choice but to improvise survival and substitute himself in an ancient prophecy.  Of course, that just may prove hazardous, but every Pantheon needs its trickster deity.

There's of course much more going on here than meets the eye.  Writer Johns possesses vast knowledge of obscure DC continuity.   Adora the woman Lex Luthor meets in Apokolips is named after his wife from another continuity.

At the same time, Johns mixes Adora's identity with the Darkseid follower Amazing Grace from the early modern age Superman books.  What this means for Lex Luthor's future is anybody's guess, but Johns' nod to the past imbues Apokoliptan Adora with instantaneous resonance.  It's a neat trick, but I wonder if it's objective or subjective?  In other words does this technique impact the same way for new readers?  Johns sees this character as Adora wife of Lex Luthor.  So perhaps the identity allows him to confidently write her in a way that permits the perception to transcend novelty and/or unfamiliarity.

Agents of Atlas unfortunately is a Battle World book.  So none of what happens counts in the story.  As such, it's a supplementary purchase.  Tom Taylor does have a good handle on the Agents of Atlas, and if Jeff Parker’s no longer available to regale readers with more tales of this infectious group of 1950s heroes, then Taylor will do just fine.

The story takes place on an earth where Baron Zemo conquered.  The people are basically slaves geared to produce weapons for Battle World.  Hydra took over SHIELD of course, and we can presume Zemo killed any resistance.

In this Dystopia, only one group answers the call of the people.  The Agents of Atlas who are for those not in the know, Jimmy Woo, Namora, Venus, The Human Robot, Gorilla Man and Marvel Boy, also known as the Uranian.

The story is a classic in which Baron Zemo captures Jimmy Woo while the Agents of Atlas attempt to free slaves deemed unsalvageable.  In Nazi tradition, they’re sent via train to Zemo’s experimentation camps.

It’s this scenario that clues Zemo in on Venus.  Also in Nazi tradition Zemo intends to mate with her to produce ubermensch.

Venus as established in the previous Agents of Atlas is not actually the goddess Venus.  She is instead a siren.  That makeup will be important later in the story.

Taylor understands the team as much as artist Steve Pugh, doing straight drawing rather than painting, comprehends the group's body language.   So, yes.  This Agents of Atlas special means nothing to the canon, but it’s a  fun, done-in-one with great artwork and a potent narrative.

The Uncanny Inhumans has a beginning, a middle and an end.  Of the three choices, I liked the middle.  Medusa leads a team of young Inhumans in New York to battle Marvel movie villain, the Chitauri.

Yeah, more of this.

The beginning I’m guessing ties into Battle World.  Black Bolt, Triton and some other guy called Reader, seek Black Bolt’s missing heir.  

I don’t know who Reader is, and I don’t care.  I care even less about Black Bolt’s son.  Furthermore, why did Black Bolt take Triton with him?  He’s not Aquaman who’s a heavy-weight on land or sea.  Triton needs water.  Oh, and what’s Kang’s part in this? Never mind.  I don’t really care about that either.

The end in which Medusa admits to finding somebody else to love needs to go away.  I mean far away.  I don’t ever want to think about this ending ever again.  I’d like this disturbance in the force to go the route of Clandestine in which Alan Davis dismisses the brief abhorrent post-Alan Davis Clandestine as a nightmare produced from a bad burrito.  Yeah, the ending in The Inhumans is the deal breaker.

Last we have an inconsequential epilogue.  It clues the reader into Gorgon’s condition, which is frankly hilarious given the technology of the Inhumans.  It’s Batgirl all over again, but more hirsute.  No.  I'm not going to institute a boycott like I did for Batgirl.  Gorgon is a third tier character at best.  Besides, this is the new, shiny Marvel.  He's likely to be crippled for a few months, tops.  

The younger Inhumans are blank slates to me, and the only question I have about Inhuman SHIELD agent Frank McGee is whether or not he’s related to Jack McGee.

The Shield returns to comics, and this time I think Archie has got something.  Originally The Shield and Captain America were conceived with similar origins at about the same time. 

The second Shield from the 1950s was a tongue-in-cheek character crafted by Simon and Kirby.  He was a combination of Doc Savage and Superman.  Although his adopted farmers were more like the Kettles rather than the Kents.

With the newest version, authors Adam Christopher and Chuck Wendig opt for a serious tone.  They portray the Shield as an immortal female named Victoria Adams; thus breaking the tradition of all male Shields.

Christopher and Wendig grant their character a complement of powers that make Victoria a street-level Supergirl.

Unlike Kara, the Shield is not invulnerable.  She has died many times, and she feels pain when directly assaulted.  Not however when she performs feats of strength.

The means in which her powers work may in fact reflect the name.  A shield after all can be dented in battle but not break.  It can be reworked until whole and continue to protect the wielder.  A shield can be shattered, but the pieces re-forged.

All well and good, but what makes The Shield different is the way in which Christopher and Wendig relate a dramatic presentation that few would associate to Archie Comics.

Victoria manifests in modern day Washington D.C.  I make the distinction because we don't exactly know how she arrived or if she had always been there.

However, we don't actually find out about the Washington booking until a few pages after a memory of being the Shield in different periods and dying in those same eras.  

The simultaneous nature of the onset establishes this new series as something different.  If The Shield were a novel, the memories would have unfolded in chapter one.  The booking would occur in chapter two.  The comic book format however allows for a flow of continuous narrative; thus observing that the memories happen at the same time as the physical questioning.  It's unique, and demonstrates the authors' understanding of the medium's strengths.

Drew Johnson weaves the visual, and he never stops arresting the eye.

As the story continues, the writers inject further novelty to the framework of the tale.  While you may predict that D.C. detective Simmons will be our point of view figure.  Learning about the new superhero at the pace of the reader.  In fact, she knows more about The Shield than Victoria.  Victoria is the reader's companion.  We learn about her the same moment she learns about herself.  This is an unusual way to relate a comic book, and if the writers continue to surprise with these twists to protocol, and a nonlinear narrative, The Shield will be a welcome addition to the picks of the brown bag.

The ninth issue of Reyn continues to explore the strange feudal world that actually decayed from an advanced technological universe.  

Previously, the alien lords known as the Venn kidnapped Reyn's companion Seph, a Techno-Witch.  Now, they demand a piece of their ship that Reyn stole.

The way I'm describing the story seems pretty straightforward.  At least to any science fiction fan.  Writer Kel Symons however enlivens the plot with riveting dialogue between the Venn and Seph and plots an exciting lead to an unforgettable cliffhanger.  Don't even look for a spoiler.

Artist Nate Stockman and colorist Paul Little fill the in-between with more of the same type of visceral action that attracted me to Reyn in the first place.

These scenes are sauce for the goose, and it's a very plump bird indeed.

The Emily Blunt Film Review

The Emily Blunt Film Review section of the POBB is brought to you by Fox and Friends.  Fox and Friends, proud purveyors of shit since 1998.

Sicario is a thriller that exposes corruption associated with the war on drugs.  Now, I have no idea if this is what American agencies do in real life.  Sicario is a movie not a documentary or a docudrama.  It’s a movie however that convinces you that the war on drugs is a cancer that doesn’t just exterminate human lives but also erodes human dignity.  Neither is that war black and white.  It’s mud.

Emily Blunt stars as Kate Macer an FBI special agent that’s an expert in missing person cases.  When she and her partner Reggie discover unexpected terror during an FBI raid, Kate’s invited to be part of a task force meant to net the criminals responsible.  What she gets is an eye-opening look at intra-agency operating procedure.  It’s a horrible and often surreal vision that offers the audience excruciating moments of suspense.  You frequently feel that any character can die at any moment.  Including the stars.

The cast is phenomenal.  The acting is so natural and matter-of-fact that you really forget who is taking part in the film.  Thus, Emily Blunt easily assumes the skin of Kate Macer, an all-too mortal female agent authentic in every move.  Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Torro, Daniel Kaluuya, Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan and badass Jack Bristow himself Victor Garber barely register as themselves and just become their parts.  It’s doubly amazing when these roles are so antithetical to most of the characters they played in the past.  Well worth seeing on the big screen.