Monthly Archives: October 2014

Oct 17 2014

Daredevil 9

daredevil 9Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing Daredevil 9, originally released October 15th, 2014. 

Patrick: Have you ever watched a video of a baby eating a lemon for the first time? There are hundreds of these videos up on YouTube, and while it always strikes me as a little mean-spirited, it’s fascinating to see the purity of these babies’ reaction to the sourness of the lemon. There aren’t any videos of adults eating lemons, because: who cares? Adults have filters and modesty and the knowledge that they can make that sour taste stop. The baby, meanwhile, just has to stew in this unpleasant, unfamiliar experience. The same is true of emotions — adults have enough perspective to realize that their emotions are temporary or irrational or perhaps just resultant from a changeable attitude, but children are largely at the mercy of their emotions. Basically, adults can will themselves to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as far as a child knows, the tunnel is all there is. The Marvel villain the Purple Man is a scary presence, with his ability to impose his will on others, but the Purple Children introduced last issue are something much more terrifying: the entire slate of childhood emotion projected outward. Continue reading →

Oct 16 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 39

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 39, originally released October 15th, 2014. Taylor: Whenever we think about the 1950’s we inevitably think about the Cold War between Russia and the USA. The Space Race and a setting for alternate histories aside, the Cold War did little for either country. In the USA, fear of communism ran amok to such an extent that senators were able to persecute people on mere suspicion. In the USSR, money was spent so much on military and the like that the basic needs of many citizens were forgotten. In both cases there is a strong lesson to be learned: don’t let fear dominate your decision making. Despite these warnings, people continue to make this same mistake over and over again. In TMNT 38, we see that even the very wise and powerful are susceptible to the pull of fear. The question is, when they succumb to it, just what are the consequences? Continue reading →

Oct 15 2014

Sex Criminals 8

Rsex criminals 8Today, Greg and Ryan are discussing Sex Criminals 8, originally released October 8th, 2014.

Greg: Let’s have fun with oversimplifications: Life is messy. To distract us from this messiness, humans create and consume media. Some media is tidy, to help us escape. Some media is messy, to help us examine. The best media, like the latest issue of Sex Criminals, has a balance of both elements. Now, let’s have fun with overcomplications.

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Oct 15 2014

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 10/8/14

round upLook, there are a lot of comics out there. Too many. We can never hope to have in-depth conversations about all of them. But, we sure can round up some of the more noteworthy titles we didn’t get around to from the week. Today, Spencer and Drew discuss Justice League United 5, The Amazing Spider-Man 7, Rocket Raccoon 4, Sabrina 1, Hawkeye vs. Deadpool 1, and Superman/Wonder Woman 12.

slim-banner4Spencer: Justice League United is team that’s just chock-full of white blonde people — like, distractingly full of white blonde people. Thankfully, Issue 5 finally debuts Cree superhero Equinox, whose ties to the native tribes of Canada are something rather unique for superhero comics. Admittedly, the issue doesn’t give Miiyahbin’s origin much room to breathe, which means there’s a lot of telling and some rather familiar beats to her story, but it’s the added elements of Cree lore that make Equinox shine. Continue reading →

Oct 15 2014

The Manhattan Projects 24

manhattan 24Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Manhattan Projects 24, originally released October 8th, 2014.

“How did they build those pyramids?” They just threw human death and suffering at them until they were finished. “How did we traverse the nation with a railroad so quickly?” We just threw Chinese people in caves and blew ’em up and didn’t give a shit what happened to them. There’s no end to what you can do when you don’t give a fuck about particular people. You can do anything. That’s where human greatness comes from: that we’re shitty people and we fuck others over.

Louis CK

Drew: Has the phrase “you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs” ever been used for anything other than falsely justifying horrific acts? It’s so strongly associated with evil advisors, it’s a wonder that it could ever persuade a unsure advisee, but it also has the unfortunate quality of being true to our experience of the world. Few, it seems, ever reach the top without the boost of standing on someone else’s neck. It’s easy to become bitter about people being used as pawns, but it’s also the stuff of great dramas — to what lengths are people willing to go in order to attain power? Manhattan Projects obviously has more in common with those heightened fictions than reality, but issue 24 never minimizes the monstrosities its protagonists commit in order to hold on to power, focusing on one of the more traumatizing events in US History. Continue reading →

Oct 14 2014

Batman 35

batman 35Today, Suzanne and Taylor are discussing Batman 35 originally released on October 8, 2014.

Suzanne: As a reader, I’m constantly shifting my understanding of “realism” in comics. I try to be mindful of my relationship with suspension of disbelief, although the line between credible and ridiculous is a subjective thing. Some people look for flaws and inconsistencies in storytelling while others are just looking to be entertained. Superboy Prime’s punch through reality not withstanding, I usually am able to fully transport myself into the world of fantasy. This isn’t necessarily easy in a universe where a man can harness a ring of willpower and befriend a talking alien chipmunk in the same panel. Continue reading →

Oct 13 2014

Batman Eternal 27

batman eternal 27Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing on Batman Eternal 27, originally released October 8th, 2014.

Patrick: Comic books aren’t exactly a safe space for women. Like any medium with a long enough memory, comics carry some pretty ugly baggage when it comes to the depiction and treatment of female characters. It seems things are even rougher for residents of Gotham City, arguably the quintessential “comic book city” — not only are the police corruption and organized crime families stuck in the 1930s, but an awful lot of those gender politics linger there too. You needn’t look any further than the most recent Catwoman series to know what I’m talking about. A lot of the same specifics that plagued that series are present in Batman Eternal 27 — themes of sexual slavery, Selina’s dangerous naivety, gratuitous ass shots, even a cameo from Mr. Bone — but the issue manages to present these problems as a contrast to the world Batman Eternal seems hellbent on cultivating. Is the BE team’s Gotham a better place for female characters? Continue reading →

Oct 10 2014

Avengers 36

avengers 36Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Avengers 36, originally released October 8th, 2014. 

Spencer: Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers hasn’t exactly been a character-driven book; that’s not to say Hickman doesn’t have an excellent grasp on the various voices of his cast, but to say that this title is very much driven by the plot, with the characters often feeling like cogs in his Avengers machine. Starting with Avengers 35, though, the title skipped eight months into the future; catching us up to the activities of the various Avengers in this new setting has given Hickman a chance to refocus on his characters, as well as on some of the many plot points that have fallen to the wayside in the last nine months or so. Avengers can sometimes be a hard book to love, but issue 36 continues the return of the kind of storytelling that made me pick up this book in the first place.

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Oct 10 2014

Batgirl 35

Alternating Currents: Batgirl 35, Drew and SpencerToday, Drew and Spencer are discussing Batgirl 35, originally released October 8th, 2014. 

slim-bannerDrew: Referring to the setting of a story as a character has always irked me. Never mind that it’s a total cliche, but it’s almost invariably applied as a shorthand for a sense of place we all recognize that the story relies on as a crutch. In that way, I suppose settings are used as characters, but they’re stock characters, no more remarkable than, say, “high school jock” or “loose cannon cop.” The genericness of locations-as-characters only becomes more exaggerated in the fictional cities of comics, which have seen just as many interpretations over the years as the heroes that occupy them. When Gotham has been interpreted as everything from gothic to neo-gothic to art deco to just straight-up modern, and from post-apocalyptic to post-corruption, it’s impossible to generate any sense of setting without elaborating on this particular interpretation of the city. Fortunately, Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher do just that as they take the helm of Batgirl, lending specificity to their Gotham by, of all things, co-opting the stock character of Brooklyn. Continue reading →

Oct 9 2014

Wytches 1

Alternating Currents: Wytches 1, Taylor and DrewToday, Taylor and Drew are discussing Wytches 1, originally released October 8th, 2014.

Taylor: What with all the recent fanfare over vampires and the occasional werewolf, it’s easy to forget they are but a distant second to the most used Halloween costumes. While Frankenstein is always a crowd pleaser, I’m of course referring to witches. Yes, the pointed hatted women riding broomsticks with black cats are perhaps an even more iconic symbol of spookiness than any number of vampire fangs. So why aren’t they as popular as their Vampire counterparts? How come for every one book about witches there are ten about blood-suckers? With these questions in mind I dived into issue Scott Snyder’s new series, Wytches. While I didn’t necessarily have all of my questions answered, I did get enough to pique my interest. Continue reading →