Author Archives: Drew

Oct 5 2012

Green Lantern 13

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing the Green Lantern 13, originally released October 3rd, 2012. This issue is part of the Rise of the Third Army crossover event. Click here for complete Third Army coverage. 

Drew: Who does a fugitive turn to for help? It’s a question we’ve seen a million times, as characters keep getting wrongly accused and keep needing just one chance to clear their names. It’s a compelling story, but it isn’t exactly the most relatable reason to have a character reach out to someone. With Green Lantern 13, Geoff Johns avoids this issue by recasting the question as the much more relatable “who do you tell when something big happens in your life?” The result is a story that keeps the focus tight on Simon Baz, even as the action continues to balloon. Continue reading →

Oct 4 2012

Animal Man 13

Alternating Currents: Animal Man 13, Drew and Patrick ROTToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Animal Man 13, originally released October 3rd, 2012. This issue is part of the RotWorld crossover event. Click here for complete RotWorld coverage. 

Drew: Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder are confident that they can surprise readers. They have every right to be — Swamp Thing 12 (which they co-wrote) saw the shocking reveal that Rotworld is not a place but a time — and that confidence lends their writing an assured sense of purpose. Their ability to surprise has made both Animal Man and Swamp Thing thrilling reads in their first year, and has leant the crossover a sense that anything could happen. Sure enough, Animal Man 13 is rich in surprises, but it also paints Lemire into a difficult narrative corner — to such a degree that I can’t help but see it as a cocksure statement that he can write his way out of anything. It would be annoying if I didn’t have every bit of confidence that he can. Continue reading →

Oct 3 2012

Voodoo 0

Alternating Currents: Voodoo 0, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Voodoo 0, originally released September 26th, 2012. Voodoo 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: September marks the one year anniversary of the launch of the New 52, and, by extension, the anniversary of when I first decided to get into monthly comic books. My initial pull list was seven titles, and while this month has been exceptional, a typical month sees me following about 40 titles. Suffice it to say, I’m no longer daunted by the cost of admission to comics. A year ago, even a small crossover might have put me off for the time and money involved, but now my reaction to the likes of the Rise of the Third Army, Rotworld, and Death of the Family is one of excitement. And yet, this month has revealed that there are corners of DC’s universe that I still find daunting. The thought that there are titles that are bonding over Daemonites or secret government agencies in the same way titles I like are bonding over Owls or Rot makes me hesitant to step into those worlds. I know noting about those elements, and the fear of wanting to know all about them is pretty effective at keeping me away. Or is it that those elements just don’t interest me? Whatever the reason, Voodoo 0, fits right in that pocket, yet somehow manages to transcend the space opera trappings to deliver an intriguing origin that may just find a way of living on beyond the series. Continue reading →

Oct 2 2012

I, Vampire 0

Alternating Currents: I, Vampire 0, Drew and JennieToday, Drew and (guest writer) Jennie Seidewand are discussing I, Vampire 0, originally released September 26th, 2012. I, Vampire 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Vampires, for some reason, are considered sexy. Is it the paleness? The eternal youth? The element of danger? I’ve never really been sure. Frankly, I think the bizarre relationship modern vampires have to the Victorian society that created them — specifically notions of patriarchy and fears of disease — make vampires among the least sexy things I can imagine. It doesn’t really matter; I’m not the target audience for modern vampire stories. Exactly who is is still a bit of a mystery to me — True Blood seems a little adult for the teenybopper audience that’s made Twilight such a phenomenon — but I can’t deny that vampires are incredibly popular at the moment. The success of Twilight and True Blood have inspired a lot of slapdash imitators, a description which woefully fits I, Vampire. Continue reading →

Oct 2 2012

The Fury of Firestorm 0

Alternating Currents: Fury of Firestorm 0, Drew and ScottToday, Drew and (guest writer) Scott Baumgartner are discussing The Fury of Firestorm 0, originally released September 26th, 2012. The Fury of Firestorm 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: When I was in middle school, we didn’t have book reports. Instead, we were periodically asked to have conversations with parent volunteers about books we just read. You’d get called out into the hall, summarize the plot, and say what you liked and didn’t like about it. These conversations often fell far short of the twenty minutes prescribed by the school, prompting the volunteer to pad it out with some leading questions about still-vague notions of “mood” and “voice.” They were a pleasant alternative to writing the same information, but the conversation that stands out the most in my mind is when I attempted to summarize Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for a parent who had inexplicably never read it. Every detail needed to be explained, so I basically spent the entirety of the twenty minutes vomiting exposition. My goal was to convince this poor volunteer that they had been missing out, but I’m sure my rambling, stream-of-consciousness summary only served to confuse and intimidate. I couldn’t help but think of that volunteer as I read The Fury of Firestorm 0. Continue reading →

Oct 1 2012

Savage Hawkman 0

Alternating Currents: Savage Hawkman 0, Drew and MikeToday, Drew and (guest writer) Mike Logsdon are discussing Savage Hawkman 0, originally released September 26th, 2012. Savage Hawkman 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Patrick has mentioned recently (a couple of times, actually), that he has no patience for Kryptonian history. It’s a fair criticism — it has relatively limited dramatic potential in that we have no emotional investment in anyone on the planet, and that there don’t seem to be any rules governing what can and cannot happen there — so what happens when a story is set on a planet I care even less about? Hawkman 0 unintentionally answers that question by being so damn boring. Continue reading →

Sep 28 2012

Before Watchmen – Ozymandias 3

Alternating Currents: Ozymandias 3, Drew and Shelby B4WToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Ozymandias 3, originally released September 26th, 2012. Ozymandias is part of DC’s Before Watchmen prequel series. Click here for complete Before Watchmen coverage (including release dates).

Drew: Part of what made me so resistant to the idea of a Watchmen prequel series is my immense respect for the  original series. Not that it was a sacred cow — though, arguably, it is — but that anything that failed to meet that very high level of respect for the material would feel inherently disrespectful. I understood that maintaining that level of respect would be incredibly burdensome to creators, narrowing narrative possibilities to a knife’s edge. To my surprise, many titles have not only matched my respect for Watchmen, but have exceeded what I thought would be possible while doing so. Other titles have not fared as well, failing to justify their own existence, or — worse yet — failing to hold the source material in the proper esteem. Ozymandias has managed two issues without falling firmly into either category, and while issue 3 falters a bit, I’m still unsure if it is a success or a failure. Continue reading →

Sep 27 2012

Batman Incorporated 0

Alternating Currents: Batman, Inc 0, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batman Incorporated 0, originally released September 26th, 2012. Batman Incorporated 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Up until the relaunch of Batman Incorporated, I had read the entirety of Grant Morrison’s Batman Epic in trades. At the time, I lacked the resources of a comprehensive guide to the entire run, so I didn’t exactly read the whole thing in order. I’d start in the middle and work my way in either direction; I’d hop to another trade and need to close the gap between the two. That non-intuitive reading order only exacerbated Morrison’s famous obliqueness, leading to some incredibly disorienting reading experiences. Since then, I’ve re-read everything in proper order, allowing me to understand the current run with surprising ease. I was happy to be conversant in what Morrison was doing, but a little part of me missed that sense of suspended animation, waiting for things to click into place. I was a little happy, then, to find a few fleeting moments of that confusion in this issue, though I suspect not everyone will be.

Continue reading →

Sep 26 2012

Green Lantern: New Guardians 0

Alternating Currents: New Guardians 0, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Green Lantern: New Guardians 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Green Lantern: New Guardians 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Green Lantern subverted our expectations for zero month, delivering an origin story for a brand new Green Lantern, but one that cleverly fits within the overall narrative of the series. As DC’s Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns likely played a key role in determining if and when the event took place, so it’s understandable that he would come up with something that was largely an exception to the rule, both in terms of narrative elegance and the concept of a “before issue #1” story. What’s brilliant about Green Lantern 0 is that it really couldn’t have been any other story — Johns killed the hero in the previous issue, eliminating much narrative interest in returning to his past. Green Lantern: New Guardians 0 pulls a very similar trick, but as a team title, it doesn’t need to go through the trouble of “killing” the hero — simply dissolving the team will do just fine. Continue reading →

Sep 26 2012

Batwoman 0

Today, (guest writer) Jack Ehlers and Drew are discussing Batwoman 0, originally released September 19th, 2012. Batwoman 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Jack: I don’t much care for plot in fiction. There is enough cause-and-effect to parse out in real life, and I would rather just trust fiction-writers to operate within their own made-up rules and make all the numbers add up on their own. I want to stare out the window of the car and appreciate the landscape without worrying about whether we missed our exit, and Batwoman 0 allows me to do exactly that. Continue reading →