Over the Lazy Dog

Lately, I've been reading more trade paperbacks and graphic novels than I used to- largely because my nearest comic shop is in Aberdeen, a 90 minute train ride away. However, we have Waterstones branches in Elgin and Iverness which stock the collections, or I use online retailers, so that's become a bit of a default reading setting for me.

Today, I'm going to look at the collected adventures of two vulpine but virtuous characters.

I came to Vixen: Return of the Lion for several reasons. First, the Flash tv show, repeats of which I've seen and enjoyed on Sky, has generated an animated spin-off featuring Vixen: 

Secondly, I've always liked the character since she joined the largely-unloved 80s Detroit Justice League. And finally, over the last year, I've really enjoyed G.Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel series and its teenage Muslim protagonist.

However, I found this quite a humourless, bloody and grim tale. Vixen travels to Zambesi, investigating her mother's death and undergoes an ordeal on the African plains. Meanwhile, her League teammates discover Intergang's Whisper A'Daire harvesting voodoo toxins and supporting a local warlord.

While it took too long to establish, I quite liked Brad Meltzer's short-lived Justice League- I always prefer a mix of urban, street-level characters with the icons; I suppose it's the Bendis Avengers-model- so I was pleased to see Superman, Black Lightning, Black Canary and Red Arrow. But this collection, while pretty, was a bit too worthy and dark for me; that was a complaint I could level at most DC comics between Identity Crisis and the New 52.

I remember blogging once that Vixen would be a better member of the DC Trinity than the kitschy Wonder Woman. This was clearly a confused and misplaced statement- obviously I meant Batgirl.
But, joking apart, Vixen should be a conspicuous DC character- she's their answer to Storm: an independent black heroine with roots in the Bronze Age. Vixen was created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oskner but failed to launch thanks to the DC Implosion of 1978. I hope the animated series raises her profile again and I would much rather she replaced Cyborg in the Justice League; he is and always was a Teen Titan.

 
I came to The Fox: Freak Magnet via the Free Comic Book Day giveaway and Mark Waid's Daredevil series. I've been buying MWOM for the last couple of years for my classroom and DD has been a consistently intelligent and entertaining read.

Photojournalist Paul Patton Jr. is a legacy hero- the son of the original Fox and the father of Fly Girl- which is a nice twist on this DC trope. As a midlife crisis hero, Fox is still fun and kinetic but the stories here are too tongue in cheek for me. The tone that works for me in Batman '66 flops here: there are too many Forties-style ghouls, aliens and monsters  and the other guest heroes, Inferno and Bob Phantom, are laughable. J.M. DeMatteis concludes the story with tiresome, consciousness-raising mysticism ripping off Jim Starlin, which would have seemed risible even in the 80s.

The last incarnation of the Fox that I remember was a lycanthrope in the early 90s !mpact Comics line. Similarly, the first time I saw Fly Girl was probably in an Alan Class comic. This modernised Fox has a memorable design although his symbol is a little too abstract to recognise as a fox's snout (or is it muzzle?). It's an amusing, all-ages hipster comic but it's a little too silly for my tastes.

Coming soon: Batman; Hawkeye; Doctor Who Series Nine

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