Mystery Analysts: Coast City

If Green Lantern's Coast City is to have its own franchise of The Mystery Analysts (tm), it's probably not going to have a lot of famous mystery writers or even police detectives, because we never see any of those in GL comics.  Coast City's best known industries are aviation and film, after all.  

Fortunately, we really only need a handful of people smarter than Hal Jordan, for which we could probably just pick people randomly from a phone book.

I mean, even HAL knows Hal's stupid.

Speaking of phone books, how we got through the entire Silver Age and Bronze Age without seeing Hal hit in the head with the Yellow Pages I will never know.

But in the spirit of the original Mystery Analysts, we will try to select a varied group who are thematically appropriate.

Tawny Young

Tawny Young is one of what I call DC's cockroach characters. It's not meant to be an insult; it's a comment on a character's resilience in spite of odds and obscurity. Usually these characters persist not because they are special but precisely because they are NOT and can plugged into any mythos that contains their particular ecoliterary niche.  Tawny Young; you probably recognize the name as being a DCU character but know next to nothing about her.

She deduced that John Stewart was Green Lantern. Not the most challenging"intensive investigation", mind you, but at least she was willing to do the legwork of, you know, asking his MOM.
Or perhaps just Tyler Perry PLAYING John's mom.

Tawny Young was originally a TV reporter known mostly for revealing John Stewart's identity as Green Lantern on television.

I should think not wearing a mask would have done that already, but apparently writers and readers of that time must have assumed black characters were harder to individuate. Ahem.

But she has been used repeatedly since in other contexts, such as the Teen Titans.  I really shouldn't call her "nothing special" because after all how many reporters can take a hit from Kilowog?

"Analyze THIS mystery, ya poozer!"

In any case, Coast City is not exactly awash in detectives like Gotham City or in investigative journalists like Metropolis, so its only named investigative journalist definitely merits a spot in the Mystery Analysts of Coast City.

Hop Harrigan

You've probably never heard of Hop Harrigan, America's Ace of the Airways, before.

But he used to be quite famous.  He was not just a cover hero in comic books, but radio programs and film serials. 

"What's Van Johnson got that I haven't got?"
Hm.  A running tab at every gay bar in town?

He was (originally) the teen son of a famous aerialist (who disappeared or was killed, as the parents of heroes are wont to do).  Hop was the dreamy pin-up boy of the flying set.

I will make no comment about this cheesecake depiction of teen ace Hop Harrigan,
lest I wind up on some list of People Your Mother Warned You About.

An updated and more adult version of Hop would be a logical aeronautical addition to the Mystery Analysts of Coast City, since the town has lots of aviation-related crime.  I mean, sure, airborne adventure Hop Harrigan wasn't exactly Sherlock Holmes, but literally we are just looking for appropriate non-super crime-fighters who are better detectives than HAL JORDAN, so the bar is pretty low.

Wing Brady

Wing Brad is WAY more obscure than Hop Harrigan. Whereas Hop was a high-flying adventurer, Wing was a hard-edged bad-ass solider and spy.  He was an American pilot in the French Foreign Legion (no, I don't know how that works), but then later he was a spy.  He also did time, but that's another story.

Wing Brady is not to be confused with Brady Wing, even thought it is VERY easy to do.

A former pilot, convict, and spy is enough on his resume to qualify as someone who could help Hal Jordan think his way out of a phone booth.

He will also unhesitatingly kill the CRAP out of you if you get in his way.

Kari Limbo

Yes; Kari Limbo. Look, if I am desperate enough to dig up Hop Harrigan and Wing Brady, I'm not going to get all squeamish about Kari Limbo.

"♬ I'll never stop saying...
♬ Kari Limbo!"

Although not too squeamish to engage her, I do lack the fortitude to go over her backstory at length.  She was a psychic who lived in Coast City.   She was a "Gypsy" (because of course she was). She was Guy Gardner's ex-girlfriend. She and Hal almost got married.

She also talked funny and dressed like Extraño.

Virtually no one remembers her; she's no Lois Lane. But a psychic (fake OR real) helping Hal as part of his Mystery Analysts is, well, it's just what Hal deserves, don't you think?

She really DOES look a lot like Extraño, doesn't she?

Clive Sigerson

A one-shot character from "The Joker" comic in the '70s?! This is the depths of desperation, people.  But hear me out.

So far we have no one associated with the entertainment industry side of Coast City.  Clive Sigerson, however, is a stage actor.

Whom The Joker sokked in the head while he was portraying Sherlock Holmes and then actually THOUGHT he was Sherlock Holmes, because that's a thing that happens.

Clive Sigerson, now THINKING he was Sherlock Holmes, took on and DEFEATED the Joker. 

The Joker really is a good sport, you have to give him that.

There is no way that wouldn't make him very famous overnight.  I can easily imagine him becoming a film star after that, probably portraying some Sherlock-like detective.  

He's theatrical but supremely confident, kind of like Hal. And besides

...his origin is LITERALLY "head injury".

It's a reach, but I think Clive Sigerson would be perfect for the Mystery Analysts of Coast City.

I was hoping to find a sixth member, but I couldn't think of anyone appropriate. Do any of you have ideas...?

Mystery Analysts: Apex City

So, if we are going to postulate sets of Mystery Analysts to support heroes OTHER than Batman, let's start with another hero who is already a detective and shouldn't need any help at all: J'onn J'onzz , the Martian Manhunter. 

Here are my top picks.

Captain Harding

Look, I know that Diane Meade is the obvious choice from the ACPD to be among the Mystery Analysts of Apex, because she is a SHARP detective. But it's just too on the nose.  Besides, if Diane were one of them, you'd wonder why John Jones WASN'T.  

And I mean SHARP.  Diane sniffed out the Martian Manhunter in nothing flat.  I guess if both the Gotham D.A. and Commissioner Gordon can be in the Mystery Analysts of Gotham, both Captain Harding and Diane Meade can be in the Mystery Analysts of Apex.

So instead I pick their BOSS, Captain Harding. Now, that may seen counter-intuitive to those who are familiar with his past appearances on this blog.

In Harding's defense, Detective Jones is quite handsome, if you like the square-jawed type.

My rationale goes as follows.  Captain Harding doesn't look like he got his position by being an outstanding beat cop.

That position specifically being "sitting behind a desk".

So I figure Captain Harding must in fact be an "arm-chair" detective, that is, one who specializes in the analysis of evidence and situations presented to him, rather than one who goes out and, you know, DETECTS things. 

It would help explain why he never gets up from his chair.

If I were feeling bold, I would suggest an older, retired version of Heavyweight Harding, who is perhaps now CONFINED to a wheelchair, like a modern Ironside.

Newspaper editor Jim Wade

An investigative journalist is always a ripe choice for a Mystery Analyst, and Apex City's best (and only) known journalist is Jim Wade, editor of the daily newspaper,  The Clarion.

Jim is clearly portrayed as thorough reporter on the results of long-term investigations, rather than a "scoop-getter".  

The very IDEA of a "scoop" seems to baffle him.

Jim wouldn't be flashy, but he'd be the kind of guy who'd do all the tedious background research involved in any case (that one of the other Mystery Analysts would then use to figure out the mystery).

Detective Chimp

I would also consider Bobo appropriate for the Mystery Analysts of Central City, because he was created by Flash artist Carmine Infantino and because simians in general go well with the Flash.

I have two principal reasons for including Bobo among the possible Mystery Analysts of Apex City. First, Detective Chimp is weird and J'onn is the weirdest of DC's Iconic Eight.  

I was going to make a point here about how originally Bobo was much more normal than nowadays, when he can talk and wears clothes and is an expert on the outré.  I was going to talk about bizarrely overpowered he has become (I have one friend whose sole fear is facing off against Detective Chimp's Heroclix figure), and how that was part of larger contemporary phenomenon, in which DCU Characters We Used To Deride As Goofy have been reinterpreted by modern writers and readers as Actually Awesome and Fearsome.  Detective Chimp, Cat-Man, Plastic Man, heck, even Aquaman, really.

Ralph Dibny, however, remains, by general consensus, a total goober.

I was going to do that. But then I checked his first story again.

In which he makes a homemade bathysphere. In a week. In secret.
Rex, The Wonder Dog #4 (Aug. 1952).

Yeah, current Detective Chimp may be verbal and a great detective, but there is no way he could build a bathysphere. Heck, most chimpanzees can't even SPELL "bathysphere".

So, yeah; Detective Chimp is weird and always has been. But there is a SECOND reason I would include him in the Mystery Analysts of Apex.

Quite simply, Bobo lives in Florida, which is where Apex City is.

Roy Raymond, TV Detective

Roy Raymond, TV Detective! It's one of those comic book names that always gets said in total. It sounds weird to just say "Roy Raymond".  I've already theoretically associated him with the Martian Manhunter, so he's an obvious choice.

I was going to comment how Rick Veitch did Roy Raymond dirty during his Swamp Thing run. But I've read the original stories of Roy Raymond, TV Detective, because they appear in the same comics that classic Martian Manhunter stories were in.  And, frankly, Roy was rather a ****.  

He was consistently a jerk to his delightful assistant, Karen Duncan

Roy had a son, Roy Raymond Junior (because there is no way Roy would name after anyone but himself), who was actually an unpleasant Flash character at one point.  So if RRJr goes in any Mystery Analyst franchise, if would have to be Central City's.

Fortunately, DC has already established that Roy Raymond also has an eponymous grandson, who'd be a logical member of the Mystery Analysts of Apex.  

He seems annoying, but nowhere the **** his grandfather and father were.

Not only was the original version a comic book co-habitant of the Martian Manhunter's, but you know DARNED well that J'onn would have been GLUED to the set every week watching "Roy Raymond, TV Detective". 

Mysto, Magician Detective

Mysto, like J'onn, used to be one of the back-up features in Detective Comics.  He was a stage illusionist who also solved crimes.

I mean, you don't get to BE in Detective if you don't solve crimes.

As a stage magician, he certainly brings a unique flair to the table, as opposed to just another generic private investigator.

Besides, Sholly Fisch already made him a Mystery Analyst, and whatever Sholly Fisch does is right.