Brass Falcon: a webcomic review

Written by Craig Sardone with art by Alex Williamson, Brass Falcon is set in fictional Sun City. Though the site indicates there are two full issues available, in reality, Issue #1 is just an expansion of the #0 issue.

The lone story available, opens on a dock scene wherein General Nimbosa (of the fictional African country, Nobinia) is on hand to purchase a bioweapon--a plague engineered to specifically target the general's tribal enemies, the Bejarra--from Sun City mobster Vincent "Vinny" Toretta.

Shortly after the villains inject their captive Bejarran guinea pig, the titular hero comes crashing through a skylight in dramatic fashion.

As it turns out, this is also the last full color page of the comic.

In the ensuing fight, Brass Falcon demonstrates standard Superman-esque powers:  flight, super-speed, some degree of invulnerability, energy-projection, and super-strength. Toretta quickly flees the scene, leaving General Nimbosa and the majority of his hapless minions to get trounced.

Nimbosa taunts Brass Falcon, claiming that his "diplomatic status" makes him effectively untouchable under any legal jurisdiction. Before Falcon can really respond, his attention is diverted by the poor Bejarran's real-time desiccation.

Furious at both Nimbosa's inhumanity (and, one suspects, his own helplessness) Brass Falcon destroys the remaining stock of plague with an energy blast, then leaves the general tied to a barrel or something for pick up by the Sun City PD.  Nimbosa issues standard bluster about "see[ing] you dead for this indignity," blah blah blah.

Is it just me, or does this panel look like BF is threatening to "hold" Nimbosa with a water-cooler jug?  I don't what understand the art is supposed to be telling me.

In the aftermath, police descend on the flaming warehouse en masse.  This provides an introduction to Joe and Jimmy Valentine--brothers who are both detectives with the Sun City PD, extending a family tradition of law enforcement service.  That, it appears, is the extent of their similarities.

Jimmy comes across as the clean-shaven rule-following super-cop.  (If Steve Rogers were a police detective, his name would be Jimmy Valentine.)  Joe, in contrast, is the quintessential guy you love to hate--a chauvinist, dirty cop on the take from the mob.

The story picks up the following morning with each Valentine brother discussing the previous evening's events over breakfast.  Joe's father invites his son to drop by the house for a home-cooked meal, and encourages him to work through whatever issues have opened the rift between himself and his brother.  After leaving the diner, Joe reverts to his dark side as he and his partner head out in their unofficial capacity as enforcers for Vinny Toretta to shake down a rival gang of drug dealers.

Meanwhile, across town, Jimmy is chowing down with his grandfather who warns the young detective against the perils of taking a "whatever means necessary" approach to police work.

When Jimmy returns to the police station, he is greeted by of flowers from yet another grateful citizen who secured justice thanks to his efforts.

Sadly, this moment of reverie is shattered by the image of the hulking General Nimbosa arrogantly striding out of the station.  When Jimmy tells the would-be genocidal maniac that he "will not get away with this," Nimbosa responds much as he did to Brass Falcon in the warehouse.  He. is. untouchable.  As if to underscore just how "above the law" Nimbosa soars, Williamson & Sardone treat us to the following panel.

While we leave Jimmy to stew in the juices of his righteous indignation, the story cuts back to Joe and his partner who have apparently been summoned to a warehouse meeting with Vinny Toretta.  There they find not only Sun City's worst, but apparently Nimbosa's as well.

Still stinging from his humiliation by the Brass Falcon, Nimbosa has agreed to supply his own elite soldiers and military-grade weapons in order to execute the heroic ultra.  Joe announces that he has an idea of how they might lure the Falcon into their trap without simultaneously calling in every cop in Sun City as well...though he admits skepticism as to whether even Nimbosa's arms will be enough to do the job. The final panel struck me as oddly anticlimactic. The close-up of Toretta is clearly intended to heighten the dramatic tension, but for me it just seemed a little to...predictable?

Unfortunately--and to the eternal chagrin of Paul Harvey--it looks like we won't get the chance to hear "the rest of the story."  The last posting to the Brass Falcon Blog was in August 2012.  Maybe all Brass Falcon needs to be rejuvenated is a cool theme song. 

Maybe the Beastie Boys are available....monkeys...falcons...they're all the same, right?

Kenner's Inexplicable Choice of Tyr for the Super Powers Collection

My first memory of DC's cosmic warlord Tyr was his appearance as an action figure in Kenner's third series (1986) of Super Powers action figures.

Under the influence of toy lines like Masters of the Universe, I just assumed his name should be something like Laser-Arm. 

Three decades later, it remains a mystery to me why Tyr was chosen for the Super Powers line.  According to Jake Rossen, following the wind down in popularity of Star Wars figures, Kenner was looking for the next big thing.

They thought they'd found it in the deep bench of DC super characters; and the first two series of figures seemed to vindicate that belief.  Anchored by cultural icons like Batman and Superman, and tying in directly with the Super Friends cartoon--which had been airing under one name or another since the 70s--most of the figures were familiar, at least to Saturday morning cartoon junkies like me.  

And then came the third round.  I always enjoyed seeing new action figures...but it really frustrated me when they never made their way into the cartoons.  Eventually, even a naive kid like me was bound to start suspecting the producers were more interested in making a quick buck than in making high quality art/entertainment.

As I later learned, Tyr had always a Legion of Superheroes foe. This made his inclusion in the Super Powers Collection even more baffling.  All the other villains were classic enemies either of the Super Friends as a group (e.g., Darkseid), or individual members of the team (e.g., Penguin, Mr. Freeze).  What was the point of randomly including a villain from faaaaaar in the future who never fought any of these guys?

One might hypothesize that this was a first volley in some strategy to expand further into the DC canon. Yet even if this were the case, the Tyr decision still doesn't make sense. If they wanted to enter the world of the Legion, it would have made way more sense to start with some heroes (e.g., maybe the original three--Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl).

Furthermore, even if--in some bizarre drunken stupor--a Kenner exec actually convinced himself that starting an expansion with a villain would be a great idea, why the heck Tyr?!  Wouldn't a higher-profile LSH foe like the Time Trapper or the Fatal Five have been a far more solid choice?

[I refer you, dear reader, to the following two videos on the topics of "greatest villains of the Legion of Superheroes."  Wanna guess who doesn't get mentioned in either of them?]

 

 

So what do you say?  Can someone with either more insight into the DC universe, or an insider perspective on the action figure biz, provide a rationale for this decision?

Sure ya will, buddy...just keep swingin' for the fences.

Mathemanic: Marvel's answer to Chemical King

In the early 90s, I was a committed Marvelite.  At that time, my primary comic of interest was the New Warriors.

I was super-excited by the cover of New Warriors #4 (Oct 1990).  Given my love for big battles between teams of super-villains and super-heroes, the debut of the oddly-named Psionex against my favorite group of teen / young adult heroes was all it took.

There were a number of characters in Psionex that appealed to me.  One of the most memorable was Mathemanic. (Who, incidentally, I spent most of the last 20 years incorrectly referring to as Mathemaniac...so I guess you can either question the sincerity of my passion, or my attention to detail.)

In case you aren't up on your Psionex trivia, Mathemanic's powers were described as "arithmetic telepathy."  Okaaaay....sounds cool, but what does it really mean?  Comicvine describes it thusly:

Mathemanic attacks opponents with a telepathic burst of mathematical information that usually overloads the opponent['s] brain and causes them extreme pain. This can also confuse an opponent.

Apart from these superpowers, Mathemanic is also a genius-level mathematician. Mathemanic's powers are based on telepathic and psionic projection. Mathemanic has also developed a new power which is to realize any mathematical concepts or formulas that he can think of. This power broadens his abilities because by mastering mathematical concepts and theories, Mathemanic can have control over the fundamental forces of the universe like gravity and chemical reactions.

In some ways, Mathemanic strikes me as the Marvel's version of Chemical King:  a character with a cool sounding power-set, but one which most writers either didn't understand well enough to utilize, OR which they understood but lacked the creativity to imagine sufficiently challenging obstacles for the character.  Once you start describing a character's power set as including "control over the fundamental forces of the universe," there's suddenly a lot fewer legitmate threats you can put into any storyline.  (cf. Thanos-with-the-Infinity-Gauntlet v. Everyone-else-in-Creation)

Unfortunately for Mathemanic, where Chemical King at least had a cool look...no such sartorial flair was provided for Thomas Sorenson.  First, he sported that most-chilling of early 90s hair cuts...the mullet.

While this did afford a golden opportunity to provide acting work for Richard Dean Anderson or Billy Ray Cyrus, sadly no one produced a New Warriors movie...and another moment pregnant for American cultural uplift was allowed to slip away.😒

Cyrus' heart was reportedly, "achy-broken" at the lost opportunity to play Mathemanic in a major motion picture.

As I look back on Mathemanic now, it strikes me he might've been effectively used to introduce autism into the Marvel superhuman community.  Being the father of an autistic son, and having several friends who are on the spectrum, I can attest his overall "look" is right.  His power set could've lent itself very well to some interesting stories along those lines.
An autistic angle would have been one way to insert some authentic challenges as well.  Despite his default advantage in raw power, this would've opened many possibilities for exploring the struggle in negotiating interpersonal dynamics.

What say you, dear reader?  Is there anyone else out there who thought Mathemanic had a lot of unrealized potential?  Would you add to, or critique my assessment of him in some way?  Let me know in the comments!

FNF (Championship Bout)

Championship Bout

Jesse Black Crow should be the poster-child for the concept of "home field advantage."  Based on reader feedback, Marvel's mystic Navajo hero comes out the tournament champion.  Honestly, I don't see why this should be the case.

In the specified story (Daredevil #225), Black Crow really doesn't demonstrate much in the way of fighting prowess.  As a matter of fact, he doesn't fight at all!!  He doesn't do anything really except watch Daredevil fight the Vulture and then talk to a rock. 

The Voice, meanwhile, single-handedly takes down a gang of insurrectionists (and a building to boot!), and what's he get?  Bupkis.  It's a tragedy, I tell ya...but it is what it is.  Congratulations, Black Crow.  You are the final champion!

Introducing the MOST Irritating Character in Midnight Lore--Sniffer Snoop: pt 2 (Smash Comics #42)

Smash Comics # 42 (April 1943)

Midnight feature (Presenting Midnight the World's Greatest Detective! And the Second Best...Sniffer Snoop!)

Last week, we introduced Quality Comics' literary equivalent of the Black Death into the Midnight storyline.  (Of course I'm referring to Sniffer Snoop--whose only real contribution is to provide occasion for developing the Christian virtue of forbearance.) As our last post ended, Sniffer had broken into the Big City Natural History Museum (as part of a hare-brained scheme to embarrass Midnight) and stumbled across a dead body!

Rather than exit the museum and call the cops, Sniffer decides the smart move will be for him to solve the murder and "let Midnight read about it in the morning papers."

Unfortunately, while the world's most-clueless detective is busy investigating the body he fails to notice the figure emerging from the shadows to throttle the investigative interloper.

Despite Hotfoot's best ankle-biting efforts, the mystery figures succeeds in choking Sniffer into unconsciousness before fleeing the scene.

When Snoop eventually comes to, he announces--to no one in particular--that "I'll get him!"  This utterance is immediately followed by three blasts of Snoop's long gun through the walls and door of the office before the sharpest mind of the century realizes his attacker has long since fled.

Then...what, exactly, were you firing at Mr. Snoop?

Suddenly shaken by the reality that he can't swim and has jumped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a bowling ball strapped to his back, Sniffer calls Midnight.

After Midnight arrives--Sniffer's ego having resumed its previously immense proportions--Big City's sentinel is informed that he was only called-in  for his "brawn--not brains!"  This elicits a regrettably rare--but nonetheless satisfying--barb by the Fedora-ed Fighter:

The note ends up having the suspiciously targeted message, "Midnight: whoever dares solve this murder will die before morning!"  No sooner does Midnight finishing reading the note than he announces, "If I'm not too wrong, I've solved this case."

Unless you're Sniffer Snoop, the very speed of this announcement ought to make you suspicious.  If that's not enough, we have Gabby announcing out of the blue that he smells iodine.

Just about this time, our .500 murderer returns and Sniffer naturally wets his pants.

Midnight rushes the shrouded figure threatening that this time, "you'll be the victim...and it won't be murder!"

For the inexplicably slow amongst us (and Sniffer, of course) it is then revealed that the "murderer" was, in fact, Doc Wackey.   Angered by Sniffer's petulant behavior--we feel ya there, Doc--our beloved inventor decided to teach Snoop a lesson.  (I regret to inform you, Doctor, that that particular objective is the proverbial fool's errand.)

The last four panels are devoted to:

(1) constructing an insanely convoluted explanation for how Midnight figured out the "murderer's" identity in about .03 seconds

Wow Midnight!  Your ability to spot Doc's finger prints on a note without even a fingerprinting kit AND your (apparent) memorization of what Doc's fingerprints look like is pretty impressive.😐

Is anyone else a little disturbed about the nonchalance with which Midnight responds to the theft of a corpse?!  I mean, that's kind of a big deal, right?😒

...and (2) laying out what was probably intended to be innocent fun in 1943, but comes across odd and a bit uncomfortable to witness in 2018.

😕