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Review: Barbalien Red Planet #2

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BARBALIEN RED PLANET #2

In Barbalien: Red Planet #2, writers Tate Brombal and Jeff Lemire, artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta, colorist Jordie Bellaire, and letterer Aditya Bidikar use the Black Hammer Universe sandbox to show the danger, tension, and yes, joy of being a queer man in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis. The first half of the comic is an homage to ball culture as Miguel, the young Latinx gay activist that Barbalien saved last issue, shows Mark Markz (Disguised a closeted, blond gay man named Luke) around an underground gay club until it is raided by the police. The dark, yet welcoming colors from Bellaire create a vibrant space that is interrupted by the jarring reds of the homophobic cops, their night sticks, and slurs. These are Markz’s colleagues on the force, and throughout the comic, he grapples with his different identities and roles in society: Martian, gay man, and police officer and tries to reconcile them while using abilities to be different things to different people.

Barbalien: Red Planet has done an excellent job of showing how difficult life was for my queer elders. Nowadays, I can go on Yelp and find a decent gay bar or queer-friendly space. Coming out was personally difficult, but being queer is something that is mostly tolerated by members of American society unless you’re a piece-of-shit Republican or Trumper. Rainbow capitalism is a thing, cops show up at Pride, well-meaning, yet tone-deaf corporate grocery stores think that “ally” is part of the LGBTQIA spectrum, and Ru Paul is a fracker. There is an assimilationist streak going on in the queer community (i.e. Lesbian couples throwing gender reveal parties.) where folks try to fit in with our late-capitalist, neoliberal, and fuck it, white supremacist kryriarchal society instead of resisting it. They applaud a racially profiling medium town mayor for being the first LGBTQ cabinet member in the administration of a right of center groper and a gender essentialist TERF and amuse themselves by watching annoying, heterosexual late-night TV hosts act out queer male stereotypes before a bloviating audience. (Aka fuck Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, James Corden, and Prom.)

However, Barbalien: Red Planet #2 doesn’t do any of this and centers on the BIPOC who were critical in the struggle for LGBTQ rights and trying to get the U.S. government to acknowledge the AIDS crisis. In Barbalien: Red Planet #2, Brombal, Lemire, and Walta introduce readers to the Black drag queen, Knight Klub, who is drawn, colored, and even lettered in a larger than life manner. She is an inspiration to queer men like Miguel, who spins stories of her being at Stonewall and assaulting a police officer at the White Night Riots. And Knight Klub lives up to the hype in the comic as she reads one of the raid cops and gives Miguel and Luke a chance to run away into the Spiral City night. The tension between direct action and trying to lay low continues towards the end of the book when Miguel’s friend Rafael channels his inner Marsha P. Johnson and throws a brick into a police station where the cops are planning to “shut down homosexual spaces”. He is angry that the police grabbed his partner Devon, who is HIV positive, and was inspired by Miguel hanging up a Pride flag at the courthouse. However, this is also just plain dangerous even with Markz mediating and trying to make none of his new friends are arrested or hurt. Because I live in an ostensibly more tolerant society, I can’t 100% relate to what happens in this comic, but I definitely have decided to not publicly come out as nonbinary because of pushback and constantly dealing with being misgendered. (I’m using he/they pronouns for now, but really prefer they/them.)

Barbalien: Red Planet #2

These atmosphere of activism and the characterization that Tate Brombal gives to Miguel, Rafael, and Devon are like the velvet to the emotional diamond that is Luke’s coming out story. This is technically his second coming out because Barbalien was exiled from Mars for being gay, sympathetic toward humans, and a peaceful man in a warlike society as shown in his previous stories. Luke is new to being around people like him, being called slurs, and even dancing and definitely comes across like a deer in headlights. However, to Miguel, it looks like he is giving off mixed signals, and Walta does a wonderful job of showing his frustration when Luke shrinks away from a kiss. He is exploring his identity during a volatile time, but there are some peaceful moments like Barbalien hanging out next to a Pride flag in Spiral City’s gay village.

These are the moments to savor between cop raids/attacks, and the most typical superhero/sci-fi part of this comic, which is a basically smartphone-wielding Martian bounty hunter tracking Barbalien down to make him pay for his “crimes” against Mars. The bounty hunter is a fairly straightforward protagonist, but Bombral, Lemire, and Walta draw some ghastly parallels between how he treats human beings and the police treat queer men and don’t pull any punches. They’ll kick down the doors just like the bounty hunter will blast them away with a similar intense color palette from Jordie Bellaire, who does a wonderful job gauging the emotion of each panel from peace to awkwardness and even sadness in a silent sequence where Luke looks at the sleeping Miguel, pictures of him with his partner, and then looks down at his police badge as he tries to reconcile his desire for peace and to do good with his true identity as a gay alien.

Two issues in, and Tate Brombal, Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Walta, Jordie Bellaire, and Aditya Bidikar’s Barbalien: Red Planet is easily my favorite story set in the Black Hammer universe (Black Hammer ’45 is fantastic too.). It’s the one I’ve been able to personally connect to. It’s a soul-searing character study for Barbalien/Mark Markz/Luke, and how he struggles with his identity and place on Earth/Spiral City while also centering the role of BIPOC in LGBTQ+ activism during the 1980s and telling their stories as well. And it does all of this with a superhero secret identity/shapeshifting twist.

Script: Tate Brombal Story: Jeff Lemire and Tate Brombal
 Art: Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Colors: Jordie Bellaire Letters: Aditya Bidikar
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.4 Overall: 9.2 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: comiXology – Amazon – Kindle – Zeus Comics

Review: Shikari Force: Hunters #2

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Shikari Force: Hunters #2

There is something powerful about Firefly. Though a short run, the television show, and movie, is a cult classic. Every year the show gets discovered by someone new and the fanfare gets a boost. The mythology that got injected into this universe more than romanticizes the Old West but showed where it can go when infused with sci-fi. As it took the idealism of the Wild West, imparted the battle scars veterans carry like from the Civil War and put in a dystopian setting like Star Wars, and you get Firefly.

One of the best parts of the story is Summer Glau’s portrayal of River Tam. We find out after a few episodes her and her brother Simon are no mere passengers. Every law enforcer in the galaxy is looking for them, especially River. The way Glau portrayed the character and how underscored the prominence of her abilities is what makes her storyline so special. In the second issue of Shikari Force: Hunters, our crew finds a River Tam of their won, one that causes as much as complications as the Firefly crew undertook.

The leader of the Nagas has discovered the Shikari Force has found the Dakini. Naga implores Krait, leader of his armed forces Nest 13, to hunt down their vessel. We also find the crew dealing with the aftermath of the Dakini’s considerable powers. She has ecimated their lab. We’re also taken to the Old City on Varanasi where the Dakini finds refuge with an elderly woman. Nil and Meena eventually find the Dakini but so has the Nagas. By issue’s end, a firefight breaks out between Nil and Meena and the Nagas,  but Krait finds a way to Jimi’s lair, which may leave our heroes doomed.

Overall, another stirring issue which pushes the limit of action-packed sci fi epics. The story by Sarwat Chadda is well developed and intelligent. The art by the creative team is beautiful. Altogether, a story that gets the reader on the edge of their seat hoping the heroes will come out of it triumphant despite the odds.

Story: Sarwat Chadda Art: Arjuna Susini and Aditya Bidikar
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Review: Shikari Force: Hunters #1

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Shikari Force: Hunters #1

As a child of 1980s, I grew up watching a ton of television shows. Some that my parents liked and others only me and my cousins liked. Many of the shows sought to tell stories that aren’t often seen on television now. An example is the cool exteriors, complex storylines and suspense of Sting Ray, a television show which only lasted two seasons, but showed many writers that you can blend genres without sacrificing what makes each type so interesting.

Another show that captivated audiences was V, a story that would be remade in 2011, and circled around an alien race who visits Earth, as harmless visitors but ends up revealing to the audience that they are ruthless conquerors. The show painted a world where we should be cautious of strangers, and though it seemed as though the good guys were seeing daylight in their battles with the aliens, you never felt that they were quite a match. As I had pondered a few times in my childhood flights of fancy, only if the humans were as powerful as the aliens. In the first issue of Shikari Force: Hunters, we find a motley crew whose abilities make them perfect to stop a new alien threat.

We meet Nil, an assassin and demon hunter, whose work finds him on a spaceship flying right above the Indian Ocean, where he finds a beautiful woman asleep in a capsule. Meanwhile, on Earth, we also meet Jimi, a brilliant scientist, whose company’s work is on the forefront and Meena, his girlfriend, who just so happens to be a daughter of a demon, who senses something is not quite right. We are also taken to the Himalayas, where an army of aliens, are amassing weapons and soldiers to take over the world, as they quietly set a trap for our heroes. Jimi’s obsession with work gives Meena concern, a distraction that Nil would love to give her an escape from. By issue’s end, Jimi wakes up to nightmares one that draws him back to the capsule, where the woman in the capsule has risen, who just so happens to be a renegade goddess.

Overall, an excellent first issue that introduces us to team much like the Watchmen. It’s just as complex and even more intriguing. The story by Sarwat Chadda is smart, even-paced, and exciting. The art by the creative team complements the story well. Altogether, an action-packed debut that does more than impress.

Story: Sarwat Chadda
Art: Arjuna Susini and Aditya Bidkar
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy