THE MISUNDERSTOOD BOB HANEY (PART 2)

Resuming my attempt in attenuating the panning from fellow blogger towards Bob Haney due to the story from Metamorpho (Vol. 1) #4, I will now try to explain other of the complex aspects of the story which are misunderstood for the lack of space Mr. Haney had to develop things better.

As I told you in my previous post, there is a panel by the beginning of the story showing Sapphire playing with a mechanic toy, this toy will play a pivotal role in the adventure.  After she engages to Cha, Cha, Chavez, she accepts his new fiancee's invitation to travel by yacht towards Argentina and in the middle of the travel the vessel is attacked by a submarine's torpedo, Metamorpho repels the attack and although Chavez claims not to know the reason of the attack, Rex deduces there is something shady on him.

Moved for this hunch, the Element Man starts searching the boat as an invisible gas and then discovers the boat is filled with weapons, then goes to Sapphire's cabin and he sees how one of Chavez's henchmen took a small paper away from a hidden slot in the above mentioned toy.

Metamorpho was to investigate this when a second attack falls over the yacht, this time via an airplane, the second attack was repeled by Metamorpho and although his suspicions are increasing, he just waits to see what happens. 

When finally they get to their destination, Chavez organized a party to announce his marriage with Sapphire when suddenly a group or armed men enter the party and kidnap Simon Stagg and Java. 

This armed group was a rebel army that fights the dictator of the country "El Lupo" and since Chavez is the one who provides him with weapons then Simon and Java are considered his accomplices and must die. Metamorpho goes to their rescue and manages to save them before they are executed by firearms and after all explanations are given, the Element Man teams up with the rebels to stop El Lupo and rescue Sapphire from the hands of Chavez.

Shortly after, Metamorpho, Stagg, Java and the rebels disguised as regular people, attend to a bullfight in which El Lupo and Chavez will be present as well. In Argentina there have not been a single bullfight since 1899 so the only "bullfight" could refer the story is the Jujuy bullfight held on August 15th every year, gathering about 4500 people from Argentina and even other countries. This is a bullfight where the animals are neither hurt nor killed, this is only a group of men trying to snatch some metal pieces attached to bull's horn and Jujuy is coincidentally located on the Pampas.

Before they enter the arena, they read a poster on the door which tells any rebel bringing disturbances to the party will provoke all the arena to blow up with an explosive called the Von Glockenspiel's Revenge. Simon Stagg explains Heinrich Von Glockenspiel was an ancient chemist and clock-maker who created a powerful explosive and hid the recipe inside one of the gadgets he created. Then Simon recalls Sapphire's toy was made by Von Glockenspiel and all the pieces of the puzzles come together as they realize the paper Chavez's henchman took from Sapphire's toy was the formula for the explosive and from the beginning Chavez was using Sapphire to get to the toy.

This is where the detractor of Haney finds no sense since it is illogical for him the dictator booby-trapped the whole arena in which he and his associates are. And hiding the explosive inside one of the bull's horn does not exactly helps to give realism.

There are some words I want to tell in the defense of Mr. Haney, starting for he did not have enough space to tell this tale properly. This story was told in 24 pages, which is too little for such a plot. Let's consider that this story written in today's standards is worth a 3-issue story-arc:

First issue: Tells the story of Heinrich Von Glockenspiel, how he created the explosive, how he hid the recipe into one of his toys and how the toy arrived to Simon Stagg's hands. The issue's cliffhanger could be Sapphire introducing Chavez to Rex as his new fiancee. 

Second issue: From the incident in Mount Rushmore until the capturing of Simon and Java by the rebels. Adding to the facts we know, Chavez's recap about how his boss El Lupo found out the whereabouts of Glockenspiel's revenge recipe and how he and Chavez plotted to use Sapphire Stagg to ge to the recipe. The cliffhanger could be the moment previous to Simon and Java's execution.

Third issue: Metamorpho joins the rebels and attack Chavez's lair. Chavez kidnap Sapphire. All pieces come together, El Lupo is stopped and Sapphire rescued.

Haney's plot is great, very deep and elaborated, but lacked space to be developed effectively. He had to cram a 64-page story into a single comic-book and the forfeit the story had to pay was to be considered dull and irrational.

Other things to be considered is the fact the nature of the explosive is never revealed nor The Lupo's plan. Does it explode in a certain range? Did the dictator have the intention to send the bull towards the outside multitude? Did he have a prepared plan to leave the arena before the explosion? Was the bull deliberately prepared to kill Metamorpho?

Finally, although I do not know whether Mr. Haney knew all the facts I have cited above about bullfighting in Argentina, the idea of fitting the explosive inside the bull's horn and leaving a metallic bottom as the detonator makes me think whether Bob Haney got this idea from the tradition of Jujuy's bullfight in which metal pieces are attached to the bull's horn for the bullfighters to snatch.