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.