THE MISUNDERSTOOD BOB HANEY (PART 1)

While I was doing my daily homework, I found an old and established blog about comics which panned unmercifully the story from Metamorpho (Vol. 1) #4. The blog writer uses very rude words (in my opinion) to refer to the story's writer Bob Haney and even says that Mr. Haney perhaps was in drugs when wrote the plot for the mentioned comic-book (whether he was joking or really thinks that, it is something I cannot grasp).

For the sake of ethics I prefer not to mention the blog's name but perhaps if you try harder, will not have any problem to find it. But besides his discourteous references to the person of Bob Haney, the author of the post makes an acute analysis of the story and finds many what he calls inconsistencies and plot holes.

The story tells the pressure Sapphire Stagg puts on Rex Mason to marry her even before he finds a cure for his condition since Metamorpho is not willing to form a family with his beloved fiancee until he is a normal man again so the only solution Sapphire finds is to make Rex jealous by dating other guy. Before taking this decision, Sapphire is seen on his room and playing with a German toy (it is inferred it is German by the clothes the figures use), a toy which will play a pivotal role inside the story (more from that later).

Sapphire starts dating Cha, Cha, Chavez a multi-millionaire South American and soon they engage for marriage (even Simon Stagg treats him as his "future son-in-law"). Chavez invites Sapphire and company to a cruise to visit his country and announce his marriage among his relatives and friends.

This is where the blog poster finds the first anomaly in the story and it is: why did they go to Mexico via South Dakota by boat? Well this is part of the things Bob Haney perhaps did not have time to explain since he had only 25 pages to cram a story which in today's format could probably be told in three issues. 

Chavez took Sapphire and the rest of the family to South Dakota to show them a giant face sculpted below the president's faces on the Mount Rushmore, however Metamorpho soon obliterated it and the mount was reestablished to normality. When they were still in the helicopter Chavez makes the invitation to the cruise and next panel has the caption "so a short time later", that is why apparently they left United States from South Dakota by boat.

Haney was a human being and perhaps was not paying attention because he did not consider the long travel from South Dakota to the country's west coast when wrote that caption but the logic tells us they probably traveled to Los Angeles (one of the cities with Stagg Enterprises offices) and left the United States from there using a yacht towards South America. For it is curious that everyone thinks Metamorpho and his companions traveled to Mexico but they actually traveled to Argentina.

If you look for reviews of Metamorpho (Vol. 1) #4 on the web, most of them venture to state the adventure occurred in Mexico. The cover is perhaps to blame since all the elements there evoque Mexico, but no, all of them are actually from Argentina.

Next I list the arguments I have to assure the country in which the story occurred is Argentina:

1) The culinary mentions from the cover "tortilla" and "tamale" are not exclusive of Mexico, even though they are typical Mexican dishes, they are typical Argentinian dishes as well.

2) On page 8, panel 4, when Chavez invites the group to his ranch, Metamorpho says "What do you call your ranch, Argentina?" This a sarcastic form to ask "your ranch is all Argentina?" Implying with this, Metamorpho knew Chavez was from Argentina. 

3) On page 8, panel 5, we can see the words of the song a group of musicians is singing on the yacht's deck and they say "adios muchachos compañeros", this is the name of a well known song by Carlos Gardel called "Adios Muchachos Compañeros de la Vida", one of the most famous Argentinian tango singers in the history.

4) If you take a close look at the musicians over the yacht's deck, one is holding a "bombo" and other is holding a "charango", all of them Argentinian typical musical instruments.

 

5) Cha, Cha, Chavez is presented as "The Playboy of The Pampas", his garments are very similar to those used by the Argentinian "gauchos"and on the last panel from page 19 it mentions the "pampas breeze", there are not pampas in Mexico but the Argentinian pampas are well known all over the world.