POBB May 18, 2023

Pick of the Brown Bag

May 18, 2023

by

Ray Tate

The Pick of the Brown Bag returns! My name is Ray Tate, and I love comic books.  The POBB is an erstwhile weekly review blog created, written and constructed by yours truly.  I used to critique the entirety of the week's yield, but have now opted for more in depth reviews of just a few.  This week I look at Gotham Academy Maps of Mystery.

Just gaze at the beauty of that old-school cover with the 1970s Batman logo! Peer at the eerie lettering promising mystery!  Batman looks like Batman.  Ear length proper.  The delightful Maps Mizoguchi is clad in a Robin uniform.  They're fighting Kappa.  How could I not pick this up and consider it for my collection?

For the record, I had no idea what this book was about, other than, should the cover be true, Batman and girl-Robin fighting aquatic monsters.  I didn't actually know these monsters were Kappa until identified by Maps.

I'm familiar with Gotham Academy through the series trade paperbacks.  Gotham Academy is exactly what's in the title. However I didn't make the connection at first due to the much more overt Maps of Mystery monicker.  Oh, yeah.  Yeah, baby.  Alliteration is back.

A flip-through indicated that number one, the cover didn't lie and b, the interior artwork by Karl Kerschl matched that depicted on the cover.  Sold.  I didn't even care what the other stories in the anthology had in store for me.

You see.  From my perspective, the Batman books have become for the very first time hard to read.  I left the world of Batman after Tom King and Mikel Janin departed.  I liked about ninety-eight percent of what they did.  Afterward, DC gave the green light to a Big Stupid Batman event, and it changed a lot of traditional Batman material.  

Shaking up Batman's sphere may have suited some people, but not me.  I simply grew more confused with every change.  Contrarily, the tangential Batman books, Batgirls and Nightwing gelled and became more comprehensible.  When Batman guested, he made sense.  

Anyway, this one-shot collects previous Maps Mizoguchi back-up stories.  So if you remember these covers...

...you've likely already got the stories.  I do not.  So, yay me.  The first tale elegantly introduces the cast of Maps Mizoguchi's world. 

Right on page one, Safi is named.  She's either a chauffeur and/or bodyguard.  The reader doesn't know for sure, but we can guess she's a caretaker of some kind.  

From the very start.  We get two proper character introductions and the indication of Maps' motivation in the entertaining narration.  That's excellent writing and excellent artwork.  I also want to point out the "warmth" in the lettering.  Throughout, the lettering really pops.  Doesn't look robotic.

On the next two pages, we meet Maps' parents.  On page three, boom.  It's Batman.

Does Batman dismiss Maps' outburst as childish enthusiasm.  Not at all.

That look.  The detective look.

Batman being a detective.  That's what I'm searching for.  Already, I love this book.  I imagine treasuring it for years.  Pulling it out when I've been punched in the face by a really bad story.

The one-shot even meets the famous Bechdel Test.

Two women.  Having a discussion about something other than a man or the plot.

Before you know it, Maps is Nancy Drewing to mystery and discovering strange clues.

Her sleuthing drops her right in the sonar of Batman.  See what I did there?  Batman took her seriously.  He's already investigating.  He's Batman.

Batman also wants to protect Maps because he's the adult in the room.  That's what adults are supposed to do.  Protect children.

While attempting to shield Maps from harm, Batman gives her the thrill of a lifetime.

Soon, our monster makes itself known.  

Do you realize we're on page eight?  Page eight!  The brevity and the pacing of this story presents utter perfection.  

Meanwhile, Maps becomes very worried about Batman.  Batman is a hero to the children of Gotham.  This is consistent throughout the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and the Modern Age.  Children in the context of the fiction love Batman as much as the children of our reality do.

More exciting Kappa fighting leads to discovery and though Batman kindly asks Maps to stay out of it for her own safety...well...you know what's going to happen.  Kerschl conveys this update to Batman in a very unusual way.

Yet, this scene is neither off-putting nor confusing to even a marginal Batman fan.  Let's call it refreshingly weird.  

Somehow Clayface has a girl relative who attends Gotham Academy and befriended Maps enough to give a piece of her as a kind of watchful eye.

The story draws to a close with another terrific but brief fight, an explanation for why all of this happened now and reconciliation with Maps.  

A very rare moment in comics where the raw emotion indicates that Maps is not just a highly intelligent girl detective but also a very frightened child.  What's also impressive is that Karl Kerschl never resorts to cliche.  Maps never inadvertently endangers Batman.  She genuinely tries to obey him.  She furthermore contributes greatly to the investigation and the story.

The third tale is more free-wheeling in its continuity.  Nevertheless a traditional Batman story featuring Maps now elevated to Robin.  

This short comes from a recent Black and White anthology.  Its manga styled artwork merges with the motifs of Batman.  

Because of the manga facet, you can consider this perhaps a Maps dream or an imaginary story.  Still, I love it.

Once again, I need no primer to understand the plot or the character dynamic.  Batman investigates a supernatural mystery.

Batman's debunking statement indicates that this is not a shared world tale.   Batman takes the role as detective yet again.  Finding the reality of seeming occult trappings at the very least goes all the way back to canonical Sherlock Holmes and "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire."  

In theme, "The Davenport House" shares much with the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams spooky stand-alone stories that occasionally manifested between they crime dramas.  The art again by Kerschl gives the tale a very modern polish.  

I can't really say a lot about the mystery without spoiling it.  Kerschl plots a detective short-story in which there's a genuine whodunnit.  How we get there and watching Batman use the powers of observation and deduction is the fun part.  

I'll just say that it's a predominantly Batman starring vehicle with Maps in tow just because.  That just because however injects a certain something into the proceedings.

The second story is an all Maps and Gotham Academy tale written by Batgirls writer Becky Cloonan and Batgirl and Gotham Academy writer Brenden Fletcher.  With Karl Kerscl on art duties.

Again there's an authorial/artist interest to introduce characters rather than assume you know who's who.  Kyle for example is Maps' brother.  The mean girl taking Olive Silverlock's place is Pomeline.  They may have spotted a zombie.

The tale's a readable, quiet story, but it doesn't compare to the other two.  It also creates a distinctive impression that Olive, the central character of Gotham Academy, she of the white-silver hair, is dead.  I don't ever recall seeing her death, but it could have happened during the Joker War or whatever.

Maps of Mystery is six bucks which is pretty steep, yet I do feel if you're a Batman fan just looking for good--even great--Batman to read, it's well worth it.  The first story clocks in at twenty four pages without ads.  The third story runs eight pages also without out ads.  The second tale, ten pages, again without ads.

POBB July 26, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag

July 26, 2022

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  In this column, I review comic books, good and bad, independent and mainstream.  

For this and the next posting it's a deep dive into the written work of Becky Cloonan, Mike Conrad and Tom Taylor.  I'm also looking at renditions of artists Robbi Rodriguez, Rico Renzi, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, Cian Tormey and the rest of the creative teams behind Batgirls, Nightwing and Superman Son of Kal-El.

This blowout isn't a quick decision kind of thing, but you can still find my snappier judgements on twitter: #PickoftheBrownBag.  

If you haven't been paying attention, all of the aforementioned titles crossover to create a unique, optimistic shared world that's within the DC Universe proper.  Perhaps, one may even say that Batgirls, Nightwing and Superman Son of Kal-El now comprise the DCU proper.

Not through plotting although there are examples in that area, but with regard to the characters.  This phenomena will become apparent as you read on.

The most improved book award goes to Batgirls. 

Finally somebody listened. 

The fine tradition continues in current issue of Batgirls number eight.

As well as the restoration of Babs' blue eyes, Batgirls is overall well-written, gorgeously illustrated in a singular style and Babs is suited up more often than not within the book, not just the cover.  

That's really all I'm looking for in a skillfully scribed bona fide Batgirl book.  Blue eyes and a Batgirl uniform.  I mean, honestly you give me those three things in a so-so comic, I'll probably buy it.

These two issues of Batgirls still unfortunately deal with the leftovers from the last Big Batman Stupid Event; for that reason, you should probably read them after Nightwing eight-six but before Nightwing eighty-nine.

The seeds of that Big Stupid Event sprouted from the soft reboot Infinite Frontier introducing nobody villain Simon Saint.

Simple Simon, I refuse to refer to him as Saint, since there are two gentlemen who have rightful claim to that name, damaged Gotham by lighting it up with flying saucers...

...and attempting to eliminate the Bat population with dudes in low-rent Gundam suits.  

Stormtroopers would have been more successful.  Anyway.  The aftermath of this whole shindig results in Batgirl and her entourage trying to fend off the lethal advances of nineties post-apocalyptic patterned dudes like Tarsus up there.  Tarsus by the way may sound familiar to you if you took an anatomy class.  Once you realize what Tarsus is you should have known this bucket-headed menace was doomed to fail.  You might say that he has an Achilles heel.  See what I did there?

These two issues of Batgirls despite dealing with the remains of the Big Stupid Event, also deliver a tale with a beginning, middle and end.  So you actually get something of traditional worth.

Beginning, the bad guy kidnaps a girl.  

Yikes.  I haven't seen this much inappropriate man-on-man love since Devin Nunes wanted to have Trump's baby.  Oh, so it's not misconstrued, I support LGBT.  Just not the Trump/Devin Nunes tryst, nor the monstrous baby they may have conceived.

The middle, Batgirl and her team investigate.  

You see? I'm perfectly aware Batgirls features somebody other than Barbara Gordon.  I'm also willing to talk about and spotlight Spoiler and Cassandra Cain.  I've got nothing against them.  They just never should have been substitute Batgirls when Barbara's spine could have been healed at any time.  

Cass looks much better with a face.  Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner proved that in Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey.  Rodriguez classes her up in Batgirls.

Rodriguez demonstrates how a real artist should draw Cassandra Cain when wearing her classic costume.  He generates lit contrasts, so you can see the detail.  Was this really so hard?  Rodriguez's partner colorist Rico Renzi further enhances the differences in texture and hue.  Thus, the design doesn't look like somebody spilled a bottle of ink on the page and as an afterthought decided to finger out the shape of a bat with little bat boobs.

The end, rescue or defeat.  I'm not saying which. 

It just so happens that the girl in question is another leftover from the Big Stupid Event debacle.  So you may not care about the actual character, but you should care in general because she is just a girl and deserves to be saved.  Unless, you're thinking like this waste of skin.

Disbarment and defamation lawsuit coming soon 

to a courtroom near you.

Of course if you're that waste of skin, you're probably not reading this blog anyhow.  Cause you're likely not that much of a reader.

Batgirl calls in Nightwing to help her infiltrate the Iceberg Lounge, where Tarsus stashed the girl.  The Iceberg Lounge is owned of course by the Penguin.   Rodriguez and Renzi contribute a delightfully grotesque depiction.  The Penguin is wearing the hat.

Some good old school fisticuffs against villains you may not know...

...villains you do know as well as villains that work for villains you know ensue.  

This is pretty much a perfect comic book. The art and writing do justice to the stars, who have been around for ten to forty or so years.  The other characters' longevity is irrelevant since they're just here to be punched and disposed of cleverly, and for those of you that want it, there's a love story going on behind the scenes.

The creative team behind Batgirls and Nightwing are very Dick Grayson and Babs Gordon pro-romance.

I have never been a Batgirl/Robin shipper.  I never thought they should hook up because Batgirl originally was five to seven years older than Robin.  

She was at least twenty-five since she was a Congresswoman.  Though I clocked her older.  Estimating twenty-seven.  Robin wasn't even in his senior year of college.  This made Robin about nineteen at the most.  Twenty if you want to be really generous. 

Given my comic book youth I never even considered May/December romances as a thing that actually happened outside of movies.  So it never occurred to me that Robin actually had a shot with Batgirl should she choose.  I had heard but dismissed as a myth about the older woman making a man out of a boy.  Batgirl didn't seem the type, and Robin seemed too immature to be a man.  

All of what I knew changed during the post-Crisis.

DC incorporated The Killing Joke into proper continuity.  Never should have been done given how all the magic and science fiction once available in the pre-Crisis resurfaced in the post-Crisis.  To add insult to injury, DC also de-aged Barbara so that she would be within Robin's--Now Nightwing's--reach.  This made me furious.  

Rather than de-age Babs and heal her spine.  They just de-aged her to create a fantasy where Nightiwng and Barbara could have sex in a different world kind of bullshit.  They took away one obstacle to create a wet dream that benefitted Nightwing, who in the post-Crisis was a sphincter.

Oh, Kindly Shut Up.

That jerk didn't deserve Batgirl.  In fact he didn't deserve sex, which made his horn dog successes with women even more irritating.  

With the birth of the New 52, the Powers That Be, specifically writer Kyle Higgins, restored the humanity in Nightwing.  He was no longer Night-Whiner.  

Dick Grayson actually became a decent guy.  Other writers like Scott Snyder and "show-runner" editors decided that Batman didn't need to be a hateful machine to be fucking cool.  In fact, he's way cooler now than he was in the post-Crisis.  Possibly even the pre-Crisis.

They restored Batman's relationships with Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon and even Jason Todd, truly resurrected after ambivalently being resurrected, maybe.  

So now, after twenty or so years of teasing shippers, Nightwing seems to be headed into a permanent relationship with Barbara Gordon, courtesy of Cloonan, Conrad and Tom Taylor.  How do I feel about it?  I'm good.  I never considered Barbara Gordon as some kind of nerd girlfriend.  She's not real.  

Yvonne Craig was real and my first crush.

I just wanted Babs to have somebody that deserved her.  Man or woman, despite my never once imagining her to be gay.  Would have been totally fine if Supergirl and Batgirl picked each other.  Would have been fine if she never thought about sex again.  Nightwing however finally does deserve Barbara Gordon.  

The relationship develops slowly and humorously throughout the run of Nightwing where in fact Babs first returns as Batgirl.

Fuck yeah! 

That is her current, awesome costume designed by Robbi Rodriguez and Adriano Lucas.  Batgirl's return occurs in Nightwing eighty-four which is still part of the Fear State business with Simple Simon.

In the next issue, Babs and Dick under the influence of the Scarecrow's fear gas, employed by Simple Simon battle each other until...

Yeah.  So, they're an almost item now, but Tom Taylor isn't making them a typical couple.

In the next Pick of the Brown Bag I look at the Nightwing and Superman Son of Kal-El duality and how Tom Taylor incorporates/sneaks much of the DCU in the two titles.

POBB June 8, 2022

Pick of the Brown Bag

June 8, 2022

by

Ray Tate 

Welcome to another brand spanking new Pick of the Brown Bag.  I'm Ray Tate, and I review comic books, prose novels and movies.  You however know the gist of the blog.  If not, stick around, and you'll find out.  This week, I'm looking at a doublet: Batgirls and X-Men.

One of the things I look for in a good comic book is whether or not you can just dive right into the story with little to no exposition.  Both of these books meet that criteria.  Somewhat.

Given my history with Batgirl, Batgirls is a book you may think I would be reading regularly.  Truth is.  I got a sample of it in Batman or Detective Comics and really didn't care for the style of art, which also emphasized Barbara Gordon's newfound green eyes.

They look like green marbles.  For somebody who knows better, they're blue, baby, blue, that's a lot of exposure to erroneous visuals.

They're Blue, Baby, Blue

Though, in general, I like the Spoiler, I never cared about Cassandra Cain.  The exception being when Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner took her out of that awful black formless costume and put her into something awesome.

They're Blue, Baby, Blue

There's only one tag for Cassie Cain, just to emphasize my loathing, but I'll make it easy for you.  Click here to see my review of Conner and Palmiotti's superb Birds of Prey and also glimpse the gorgeous costume they designed.

They're Blue, Baby, Blue

What's interesting is that artists Jorge Corona and Sarah Stern are really beneficial to Cassie Cain's traditional ink upchuck gear.

As you can see they create a number of striking contrasts that highlight the black and the shape of the figure.  Very few artists ever did that with Cassie Cain.  She always just looked like a thumbprint smudge somebody shaped into a sort of bat as an afterthought.

Primarily I bought this issue of Batgirls for the emphasis on the one and only Batgirl.  

Barbara Gordon in modern costume with a bat cowl and not the Linda Turner Black Cat styled mask.  Furthermore, since the modern costume opts for slits covering her eyes, I don't have to worry about the green ones.

It's through Corona's and Stern's depiction of the genuine Batgirl  I started to see just how good they are.  And baby, she's all over this.  She's in action as Batgirl for seven pages.  As Barbara Gordon only two.

It's those green eyes.  Really.  I hate them.  I'm ecstatic that the New 52 granted Babs mobility, but the green eyes, which appeared after the modern Batgirl of Burnside run, repel me.  

They're Blue, Baby, Blue

Not real green eyes.  Let me emphasize.  I have no issue with a person that has green eyes.

However, the biologist in me says you can't just magically change somebody's eye color on a whim.  That said I'm willing to put up with the offense, if she's Batgirl, not Oracle.  There's a difference.  A huge difference.  

Having good experiences with Becky Cloonan's writing in the Southern Cross, I suspected this would be well-written and Batgirl positive.  I was not disappointed.

Cloonan teams up with Michael Conrad to relate an action-based story that turns Gotham City into a 90s post-apocalyptic hellhole complete with robo-hitmen hired by Simon Saint.

You may be asking.  Who's Simon Saint?  

Nope.  Not him.  Not even close.  Although I'm sure somebody thought Simon Saint was a good alliterative villain's name because of the infamous Simon Templar.  

You can just see the thought process.  

"Simon.  Simon Samuels.  Simon Sophie.  No! Simon Saint!"  

"That sounds amazing!"

"I know.  It just hit me!"

"Sink me, you're a poet!"

Simon Saint is the Big Bad that nobody cared about in the Batman titles.  Some creator, with a poor memory, introduced him somewhere at sometime during the Infinite Frontier era of DC Comics.  Not exactly a reboot of Rebirth or the New 52, but not exactly a harmless redefinition either.  

That's all right though.  Even if you're not quite sure what's going on, and you're really not likely to during the second half, Babs is tearing through garbage on her motorcycle and demonstrating just how smart she is.

That's really all I look for in a Batgirl book.  That and blue eyes.  Alas.  Two out of three.

The other book I want to draw your attention to is X-Men number 10.  If you'e an All-New Wolverine Laura Kinney fan, this book is for you.  

Seriously.  WTF?

Now, if you haven't been keeping up with the many, many         X-Men titles, that's all right.  You know as well as I do, no X-Men book will ever make any sense to somebody that hasn't been along for that ride since the very beginning.  And I don't mean either the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby originals, the Thomas/Neal Adams run, nor the Byrne/Claremont era.  If anything, the X-Men have gotten weirder, and not in a good way.

The X-Men books started to go off the rails when Storm shaved her head and started wearing tight leather.  Coincidental redhead, Madeline Pryor showed up.  Scott Summers who grieved to all hell for the doomed Jean Grey fell for her, and he wasn't a dick for doing that.  However, you still could read The Uncanny X-Men with little threat of brain damage.  

So, I advise you to skip the first page.  That's just X-Men type nonsense.  Simply accept that something mutant-like brought Laura Kinney back from the dead and everything's good now.

"Wait? Laura died? When did she die?" 

Not even important.  At some point, she died.

"Okay, but even if she's a clone of a clone, she shouldn't have the memories of--"

Shhh...It's just a comic book.  Relax.

Rogue on the second page may convince you to read it, I don't advise that.  Skip the confusing dialogue and narration.  Just enjoy the beautiful rendition of Rogue by Javier Pina and Marte Garcia.  She's not here for just eye candy.  She becomes a crucial player later in the story with a nostalgic move that paints her as a hero.

The main plot begins on page five.  That's when you see Laura suiting up to go investigate adamantium on the Big Bad's base.

"Wait.  Who is the Big Bad?"

 

No idea.  Some red guy.

This guy's identity is immaterial to Laura attempting to discover the mystery of the adamantium/mutant signal.

The rest of the story spotlights Laura as Wolverine doing what she does best.

We see her tracking.

We see her stealthy. 

We see her clawing to where she hopes her cloned sister Gabrielle Kinney alias Honey Badger lies imprisoned.

It's not Honey Badger.  

I'll not spoil the surprise because the infused adamantium identity of the occupant in the box is a classic X-Men character that you could have encountered multiple ways, even outside the higgledy-piggledy of X-Men continuity.  

No, it's not Logan.

In addition to all of this Laura Kinney goodness ably choreographed by Pina as if X-Men were a Mission Impossible episode, we have a philosophical conflict.

Laura is a clone of Logan the original Wolverine.  Logan as many can point out was a Canadian intelligence officer who was turned into an adamantium-clawed killing machine code-named Weapon X.  I know.  Canada seems so nice.  In the Marvel Universe, they are real bastards.  

The fact is that even though Wolverine is really good at killing with those claws of his, he grew extremely dissatisfied.  He left Canadian Intelligence, became a hero in the X-Men and eventually stopped murdering everything in his longer reach.  Mostly.  

Laura was Weapon X-23.  Another Canadian import.  I know.  They seem so nice.  She realized her ethical dilemma much earlier than Wolverine.  And has since sworn off killing with a much more reliable track record than her genetic stock.  That doesn't stop Pina beautifully beating out a fight sequence where Laura also makes use of her super cool foot claws.  

So, if you're a fan of Laura Kinney.  This one is the exception that proves the rule.