POBB September 14, 2016

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 14, 2016

by

Ray Tate

It’s another short week for the Pick of the Brown Bag, but we’ll add a review of Star Trek Into the Darkness to fill up the remainder of the pages.  This week I’ll be reviewing Batman and Steed and Peel, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Southern Cross and the new book from Amigo Sidney Hammer and the Wicker Wolf.  

The Cybernauts controlled by Michaela Gough follow the signal emitted from Steed’s pen to the Batcave.  Fortunately, the Cybernauts are unliving mechanical men, and Michaela could not possibly ferret out the way to the Batcave through Cybernaut VR viewing.  So Batman’s secret identity is safe.

The quartet of crimefighters must fight off an army of Cybernauts within the Batcave.  Fortunately, the Batcave even in the nineteen sixties is huge.  So there’s plenty of room to deploy various tricks to keep the Cybernauts at bay until Batman can arrange something more permanent and plausible.  This fairplay solution is the high point of the book.

With the Cybernauts defeated, Batman, Robin, Steed and Peel burn rubber straight into a trap, set by Gough and her partner Lord Ffogg.  

Ffogg provides the low point of the book.  It’s still fairplay, just preposterous.  Mind you.  The goofy setup pays homage to a rare sixties trope, the insect woman.

Joanna Frank The Outer Limits "Zzzz"

The loudest of buzzing could be heard between 1959’s Wasp Woman and ending with 1973's Invasion of the Bee-Girls,   Turning Emma into a defacto queen with excellent animation of the divine by Matthew Dow Smith is both silly and inspired.

Jason Todd alias the Red Hood meets a decidedly different Femme Fatale in his eponymous book The Outlaws.

Artemis is a product of the1990s created by William Messner-Loebs and Mike Deodato to replace Wonder Woman.  Artemis challenged Diana for the title in a restaged contest of Bullets and Bracelets and won or got suckered into it by Wonder Woman’s mother Hippolyte.  She’s a sometimes friend/rival/ally to Diana.

This is technically the first new 52 appearance of Artemis.  Brian Azzarello created an Artemis like figure for his reboot of Wonder Woman, but she was never named as such.

Scott Lobdell draws upon Artemis' original Egyptian origins to not just give the character more depth but also provide an explanation as to why she happens to be in the vicinity of the Red Hood.

Lobdell also creates the impression that Artemis is no naive babe in the woods.  She’s just a babe.

Seriously though.  Artemis speaks English.  She’s a master ancient tactician but also modern in her thinking.  She’s familiar with the Justice League and knows of Batman and Superman.  

Faithful readers are aware that I usually balk at the superhero slugfest, but Lobdell makes this battle absolutely hilarious with the bonus of comedic dialogue.  Artist Dexter Soy taps into that vibe and while keeping the designs realistic, just cuts loose with superhero action that would kill a normal person.

Oh, and technically, neither the Red Hood nor Artemis are superheroes.  The Red Hood is a deep cover agent amidst Black Mask’s ranks.  He however doesn’t work for an organization.  Just himself.  Artemis is an Amazon warrior, plain and simple.

Sidney Hammer and the Wicker Wolf is a delicious slice of cheesecake with a self-explanatory title.  All right.  Maybe not.  Sidney Hammer is our cover girl.  She with the big rack and the see-through stripes.

Writer/Creator Alejandro Miguel de Hoyos a.k.a. Massacre casts Sidney as a journalist who happens to be a bad penny. Think of a Kolchak the Night Stalker only in abbreviated shorts.

Now, it may seem like I’m complaining about the overt sexiness of our heroine, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  The fact is I applaud the unique, provocative artwork that serves up its dessert on a plate of sufficient action and cements a genuinely appealing character into a distinctive form.  We get to know Sidney not from her bra size—she’s not wearing one—but from the narrative.

Sidney is a self-aware, snarky figure who when trying to do a good deed ends up fighting a werewolf.  This is hardly a spoiler.  Though Sidney is accompanied on her journey by a cowardly dog, Scooby Doo, Sidney Hammer is not.

Sidney’s attempt at resolving he situation peacefully is a nice touch.  

Of course, it comes to no avail, and Sid ends up fighting a werewolf in a swathe of interesting, visceral choreography.  This bout however is not the be all, end all of the book.  De Hoyos has more in mind for the multilayered thriller.

Sidney Hammer comes in the form of an attractive no-ads magazine, which beautifully captures the scale of the artwork.  The paper stock is excellent, and added to the quality of the comedy/horror story and adult-oriented artwork, it’s certainly worth the typical comic book asking price of three-ninety-nine.

Southern Cross returns with a new mystery set against an industrial science fiction space opera.  The story starts out cute.

The vehicle looks like an Eji Tsubaraya model, which is a high compliment.  The craft searches for an escape pod from The Southern Cross lost in space through the events from the previous issues.  Kyril the no-good grifter survived the trip by ejecting before the encounter.  Now, he finds himself on Titan.  

The protective masks of the security detail quickly dispel the charm of the vehicle, and Belanger's art overall is appropriately threatening and gritty, not elegant, nor Utopian.

Investigators Carter and Hazel immediately question Kyril and discover a common thread in his story and a body they have in the morgue.  Things get worse from there.

In a way, the current issue of Southern Cross recapitulates the chapters and the look from previous issues.  For example, to express the scale and scope of The Romulus, Belanger presents the architecture in the same way he cutaway the Southern Cross.

The difference lies in the characters.  We don't care about Kyril the way we do about Alex and the Captain.  That changes the mood of the whole scene.  The Southern Cross appeared magnificent and welcoming despite its industrial in sync appearance.  The rig conveys animosity and a penal quality.  The structure encloses Kyril; he receives his just desserts for his actions on the Southern Cross.

When Carter and Hazel leave him in the capable hands of brutalizers, Cloonan evolves humor from the situation.  Kyril is a skunk.  He deserved a sound thrashing a long time ago.

The story all seems like setup an summary, particularly when Cloonan delves deep into Carter's history.  Then she pulls the rug out from under you, as a good mystery writer should.  The cliffhanger to the most recent issue of Southern Cross leaves you completely flabbergasted.  Cloonan gleefully breaks the rules.

Star Trek Into the Darkness begins with the running joke of Christopher Pine as Captain James T. Kirk running from an alien life form.  He'll repeat the gag in Star Trek Beyond, with even greater humorous effect, but Into the Darkness shoots for something more than just comedy.

The vivid reds of the foliage and the marvelous look and behavior of the aliens of Nibiru present a truly gorgeous alien world.  Kirk and the crew of the Starship...Enterprise lay in wait on Nibiru in order to grant Spock a moment to deal with a volcano that threatens to overcome the dominant lifeforms.

Spock intends to use a freeze bomb to eliminate the hazard.  Much nitpicking has been made about cold fusion not actually being cold and referring to the bomb as a cold fusion device was ham-fisted.  Uh-huh.  Why wouldn't somebody in the future nickname an icing bomb with an obsolete monicker from past technology?  I see no issue with it.

Anyway, Spock's heroic actions earn him a heroic death...if not for Kirk taking a spanner to the Prime Directive and saving his green-blooded ass.  This moment effervesces comedy from the aliens witnessing the superb manifestation of Enterprise.  If you didn't know who Kirk was before, you know him now.

The moment of revelation acts as the crux of the movie.  It triggers Kirk's demotion and gives older fans a taste of the consequences that never seemed to be in play for original universe Starfleet regulations.  William Shatner's Kirk always skirted the Prime Directive, but he never saw any blowback.  This version of Kirk becomes Christopher Pike's number one and loses his command.

The demotion leads to Kirk's first encounter with John Harrison an alias employed by none other than Khan Noonien Singh, masterfully essayed by Benedict Cumberbatch.  

The casting choice caused white washing waves, but frankly I don't care.  Ricardo Montelban wasn't an Indian either.  Both actors grant Khan memorable life.  Now, I'm not suggesting an Indian actor couldn't have done justice to Khan, but what we got was pretty damned good.

The way in which Kirk meets Khan one again depends upon the timeline creation of the first film.  Time doesn't flow as one expects.  Starfleet uncovered Khan's ship The Botany Bay much earlier than Kirk did.  Khan wants revenge not on Kirk, with whom he allies in a clever twist, but on Starfleet.

Starfleet's corruption may seem to be something strange, but this theme actually played out in the final film of the original Star Trek series and carried over to Deep Space Nine.  In the movie, Kirk and crew preclude the spread of this undercurrent in Starfleet thus preserving the themes throughout all three films.  Starfleet is not a military organization.  It's an exploratory body.

This second Star Trek movie wowed me even more than the first.  Its big ideas reflective of all the series in the original universe fascinate.  Its reworking of Khan and the timeline in a tight plot is worthy of "Space Seed" and Wrath of Khan.  I would however be remiss if not discussing what irked most viewers, namely the reverse death.

Kirk's death mirrors that of Spock, and for many that was just way too cutesy.  Let me see if I can counter that argument.  What we're seeing here is a jumbled timeline.  Events occur but in different order, sometimes with different people and different circumstances.  It makes sense that Kirk dies.  His final words make sense, and the foreshadowed, optimistic save makes sense and grants a grand finale in the Star Trek tradition.  

Despite inspiring the world to imagine the possibility of advanced human technology, Star Trek often depended on a fist fight to metaphorically or literally conclude the story.  Into the Darkness pits an alien superman Spock against a eugenic superman Khan at first just to express rage but then to create a dramatic dilemma and a surprisingly optimistic finale.

POBB September 7, 2016

Pick of the Brown Bag

September 7, 2016

by

Ray Tate

It’s a short DC week, with Aquaman, Batman, Harley Quinn and Supergirl being the subjects of my critical eye.  For those with no time in their schedule for my meaty reviews, the POBB is now on Twitter #PickoftheBrownBag.

So a funny thing happened on my walk home.  Nearly there, and I got caught in a downpour.  It came at me from all sides.  My messenger bag isn’t water proof.  Unfortunately, some of my comic books sustained water damage.  Chance favored Aquaman, Batman and Harley Quinn, but Supergirl took the brunt.  Normally, I’d replace the title next time I go to the Phantom of the Attic.  Free plug, guys.  I’m not.  Supergirl just wasn’t pleasant to read.  I had misgivings about the Rebirth Supergirl special, we’ll call it, but this “debut” has cemented those feelings.

Brian Ching’s expressive illustration and Michael Atiyeh’s vivid colors are Supergirl’s only assets.  Steve Orlando on the other hand through the voices of a multitude of characters just dumps on the Girl of Steel throughout the book.  

Bad enough, Kara’s got fake foster parents that reflect her real foster parents on the television series, but Orlando reverses Cat Grant’s favorable opinion about Supergirl and Girl Power to remake her into a bitchy pseudo Lex Luthor.

Cat’s not trying to kill Supergirl, at least, not yet, but she now shares Lex Luthor’s opinion that Kryptonians really aren’t needed to save the day and somehow undermine humanity.

Chase Cameron joins the chorus.  She chastises Supergirl for suiting up and preserving everybody’s life on the Metro.  Using faulty logic to do it.

Even if the Kryptonians were as Chase Cameron said.  You can’t just pigeonhole Supergirl in that same category just because she’s a Kryptonian.  

Now I can see the arguments raised against my criticism.  Oh, well, we’re trying to examine how real people would react if a Supergirl showed up to protect us.  Very well.  Let’s extend that reality to the guns being waved around on the train.

A gun in public view means that there’s a fifty/fifty chance of somebody getting shot.  

If somebody points a gun at you, there’s a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of being shot.  Guns are neither toys nor phasers.  They have no stun setting.  The woman on the train at a gut level knows she’s about to be saved.  She says the nicest thing about Supergirl, and it’s neutral.

Supergirl immediately takes out the guns.  She reduces the potential for gun violence to zero.  

Cameron's dumbass "where the bullets go next" argument doesn’t apply.

I don’t need this angsty rubbish version of Supergirl.  I have a superb Supergirl series to watch on television, for free, and I just bought the first season because I liked it so much.  Why would I want to pay for an inferior monthly comic book?

The cover says it all about Aquaman.  This is the one where Superman and Aquaman battle it out.  Normally, superhero slugfests depress me because seldom is there a reason for them to fight.  What makes the story in Aquaman different and worthy of your time is that this fight was inevitable, there's a point and it’s not actually the new 52 Superman waging the battle.  It’s the Superman from another universe making the call.  So, you’re not absolutely sure exactly how he’s going to interact with Aquaman.  Dan Abnett gives Superman the benefit of the doubt.  He in fact writes him as if he’s really Superman.

Naturally, this velvet glove doesn’t go anywhere.  Aquaman tried to operate by the rules of the surface world, even submitting himself to incarceration before Mera broke him out after determining that the U.S. just wasn’t going to listen to reason, and forget diplomacy.

Strangely the Government, especially Mr. Gantry sees this new Superman as an improvement on the old one, who really didn’t kowtow to politics.  This amenable Superman appears to serve their needs quite well, but he’s no puppet.

The art by Brad Walker stunningly evolves excitement from the fisticuffs.  Normally the artist is the most important person in these arrangements.  However, Abnett’s dialogue raises the battle beyond that of simple disagreement.  It feeds from the characterization of the cast and touches on the history of Aquaman.  Abnett furthermore reinforces the strength of former Aqualad girlfriend Tula and grants a reasonable explanation for Aquaman’s temporary stay of execution.

In a powerful epilogue to the Gotham and Gotham Girl saga, Batman tries to rescue Gotham Girl from her self-destructive survivor’s guilt and pain over a loved one’s death.

How often have you wished that a story went one way, the better way, only to end up disappointed by the author’s pedestrian conclusion? I started out thinking Batman was about the Watchmen attacking the Dark Knight and that Gotham and Gotham Girl may be Watchmen offspring.  Then I considered the possibility that Gotham and Gotham Girl were Legionnaires disguising themselves to protect Batman from the Watchmen’s machinations.  Both of these story ideas were good, but what Tom King conjectured was just as good if not better.

King didn’t go with continuity, even if continuity such as the return of Matches Malone encompassed the tale.  This last chapter after-note is no different.  King uses continuity to balance the drama and pathos of the main plot.  Gotham Girl during the worst night of her life runs into Batman rogue also-rans like Colonel Blimp, an obscure villain from the seventies whose roots date back to the 1940s.

That’s not important.  Although it does allow Ivan Reis, Marcelo Maiolo and an army of inkers to perform superhero calisthenics and evoke nostalgic moments such as a gay blade’s ruthless rooftop assault.

More important is how Batman touches others and conveys warmth and understanding. 

Though frequently accused of being no better than his enemies, Batman has always distinguished himself through empathy with the victims of crime.  My one dislike about this story is that Batman doesn't seek to bring Amanda Waller to justice.  She's the perpetrator that first pushed the snowball.  She should pay.

Harley Quinn reads like a quirky B-Story from Amazing Stories or any one of a number of science fiction pulps.  It’s got that classic feel of an astronomical comedy where the aliens know way more than we do, and our primitive ignorance actually exacerbates our own dilemmas.  

The story began with a plague of zombies.  The zombies stormed Coney Island, and that’s Harley Quinn’s territory.  A fight broke out with Quinn and the residents of the property she inherited way, way back in the debut defending themselves.  Poison Ivy, Harley’s on-again-off-again lover, showed up to the rescue.  I'm surmising this because I’ve got a real low tolerance for zombie anything, and I skipped the previous issue.  Fortunately, writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner humor my primitive ignorance.  They summarize without belaboring the point.

The layouts are by legendary action babe artist Brett Blevins, finished by Harley Quinn regulars Chad Hardin and John Timms.  Both Conner and Palmiotti are artists, and they also probably have an indelible influence on the final product.   They no doubt mandated that women must be bitchin’ and dangerous.

Because it’s a “horror movie” that’s why.  

Apologies however are unnecessary.  Even without the shower scene and the lesbian text between Harley and Ivy, this issue of Harley Quinn would be worth reading for the pure giddiness of a zombie plague dispelled in an instant; the goofy Deadpool sendup juxtaposed against the survivors’ simple search for food and the cast’s realization that they’re in a horror movie and they shouldn’t do what the fools in horror movies do.  An actual realistic conversation between Harley and Ivy about taking their relationship to the next level is perhaps the weirdest thing of all in the book.