Jun 3 2013

Young Avengers 5

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Young Avengers 5, originally released May 29th, 2013.

Shelby: I’ve read a few team books, some which have worked and some which haven’t. Personally, I think a team book fails when the author focuses establishing the team as a character before establishing the individuals which make up that team. If the members of the team can’t stand alone as characters, how can they form a cohesive group? Kieron Gillen so effectively establishes the characters in Young Avengers, it didn’t even occur to me until five issues in that he’s been secretly building a team this whole time.

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May 8 2013

Hawkeye 10

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Hawkeye 10, originally released May 1st, 2013.

Shelby: There are two sides to every story, even stories wherein our favorite, loveable auxiliary character is shot in the head by a new bad guy for seemingly no reason. Even though we’re all still a little sad about the loss of Grills last issue (Matt Fraction included, as indicated on the title page of this month’s issue), we have to remember it was a man who pulled the trigger, a man with his own story to tell. Continue reading →

May 1 2013

Young Avengers 4

Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing Young Avengers 4, originally released April 24th, 2013.

Spencer: Tricksters are a common archetype in most works. They spread chaos, disregard authority, and cheat, con, and lie in whatever ways they can to get what they want. We all feel like we know better than to trust them, and so do our protagonists, but the best tricksters find a way to get past our defenses and bend us to their whims anyway. Kieron Gillen knows exactly how to write an effective trickster, and his Loki — one of the oldest and greatest — somehow manages to keep surprising both the Young Avengers and the readers; he might just be proving himself a greater threat than even that pesky interdimensional parasite.

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Apr 16 2013

Hawkeye 9

Today, Courtney and Shelby are discussing Hawkeye 9, originally released April 10, 2013.

Courtney: Oh, poor, dear boy, Clint, what will we do with you? Getting mixed up with shady ladies, pissing off cops and criminals alike, dirtying the name of the Avengers by living in the morally gray, breaking hearts, and, always, always getting hit in the face. Continue reading →

Apr 2 2013

Young Avengers 1-3

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Young Avengers 1-3, originally released January 23rd, 2013, February 27th, 2013, and March 27th, 2013.

Shelby: My sister used to work at Barnes and Noble, in the Young Adult section. It’s been a long time since I was what the publishing world considers a “young adult” so I didn’t have super high hopes when she told me I absolutely had to read The Hunger Games. Like Harry Potter before it, however, Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy transcended the age of the “intended” audience to deliver strong and sympathetic characters and an engrossing plot line. I feel similarly about Young Avengers. It may not be billed as a book for teens, but Kieron Gillen has taken the concept of “teen versions of characters you already know” and crafted something much more meaningful than I initially expected. Continue reading →

Mar 5 2013

Hawkeye 8

Today, Courtney and Drew are discussing Hawkeye 8, originally released February 27th, 2013.

Courtney: Once, in high school, I attempted to make an 800-mile cross-country road trip in secret over spring break, not because I really wanted to, exactly, but because a girl I really liked had demanded it, and at seventeen, that was enough to get me to agree to what I knew was perfectly stupid. (I was saved, incidentally, by the sage intervention of my less-stupid, less-seventeen brother, who later went on to found Retcon Punch.) I like to think we all grow out of that by the time we start making regular car payments, but this month’s Hawkeye raises some unsettling questions. Continue reading →

Feb 1 2013

Hawkeye 7

Today, Patrick and Courtney are discussing Hawkeye 7, originally released January 30th, 2012.

Patrick: Last time we were hanging out in fuzzy pants as discussing Hawkeye, we were reflecting on the Christmas issue (complete with Clint in a Santa hat). This month, we’ve got in our hands another Very Special Issue of Hawkeye, one that should feel a little less celebratory. Yes, it’s the end of October 2012 on the eastern seaboard, and the subject of our latest Hawkeye adventure is Super Storm Sandy. Never one to rest on a gimmick, Matt Fraction builds two tales for two Hawkeyes, one fun and the other touching, while staying emotionally and factually true to the event that inspired him. Clint and Katie are always easy to identify with, and their reactions to the storm echo our own in a dazzling display of artistic empathy.

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Dec 31 2012

Hawkeye 6

hawkeye 6

Today, Courtney and Shelby are discussing Hawkeye 6, originally released December 19th, 2012.

Courtney: Do you remember the moment you realized that Kill Bill: Volume 2 had only one fight scene? I think I watched it at least three times before I realized that it was about 80% less violent than its famously gory predecessor, because somehow the two films were so beautifully of a set. In some way like that, Hawkeye 6 features almost no action at all, yet it is decidedly cut from the same cloth as every issue in which Clint crashes out of a tenth-story window. The difference, though, is that in this case, the order is flipped. It is the mundane, domestic story of Clint trying to learn how to take a few days off and enjoy the holidays which more nakedly exposes the question that all of the smash-smash-punch episodes have been driving at, ie, “What if this super-hero really were just a pretty cool person?” Continue reading →

Dec 10 2012

Hawkeye 5

Today, Courtney and Shelby are discussing Hawkeye 5, originally released December 5th, 2012.

Courtney: Not for the first time, we begin an issue of Hawkeye with Clint Barton falling headlong out of a freshly smashed umpteenth-story window, privately conceding that this situation is, perhaps, suboptimal.

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Nov 28 2012

Hawkeye 4

Today, Drew and Courtney are discussing Hawkeye 4, originally released November 21st, 2012.

Drew: Back in issue 2, Clint assured us that “work’s work.” The very notion of considering the Avengers a day job says a lot about his character, but the notion that he could separate his personal life from his professional one is laughable. Hell, my mom can’t even do that, and her job doesn’t involve killing people, saving the world, or supervillains bent on exacting revenge (at least, I don’t think her job involves those things). The first three issues of Hawkeye have brilliantly explored what a guy like Clint might get up to when he has nothing better to do — fighting local crime and righting small wrongs just for the hell of it — but issue 4 brings reality back to Clint’s doorstep. It just so happens that, for Clint, reality comes in the form of a floating aircraft-carrier filled with superheroes. Continue reading →