Author Archives: shelbykpeterson

Jun 26 2013

A + X 9

a+x 9

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing A + X 9, originally released June 19th, 2013.

Shelby: I grew up watching TGIF on ABC every Friday night. Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World, the Peterson household was all over it. So too I am quite familiar with the family sitcom format that delivers a bite-sized portion of morals every episode. I gobbled that up as a kid, but now the 20-minutes-from-conflict-to-lesson-learned setup generally isn’t enough for me. I want more complexity in my story-telling. That lighter fare can still certainly be fun, but lay on the morals to thick, and it becomes a lesson you’re trying to force down my throat instead of fun and mindless entertainment. A+X usually falls on the “fun and mindless” end of the spectrum, but this issues seems to be trying to teach me a lesson, and it’s bogging things down.

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Jun 25 2013

Batwoman 21

batwoman 21

Today, Shelby and guest writer Suzanne are discussing Batwoman 21, originally released June 19th, 2013.

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Shelby: Story breaks are a tricky thing to manage when you’re dealing with a serialized form of media. In the case of comic books, the writer already has to contend with a month of time passing between story points; I like to think I’m a pretty attentive reader, and there are times I have to go back and skim over last month’s issue to remember what all we’re dealing with. But to interrupt your own on-going story with a mini-story takes a lot of confidence in both your on-going work and your interlude. J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman have that confidence for good reason, as they interrupt out regularly scheduled Batwoman programming for a touching look at Gotham’s scaliest villain.

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Jun 20 2013

Wonder Woman 21

wonder woman 21

Today, Shelby and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 21, originally released June 19th, 2013. Check out Drew’s exclusive interview with Brian Azzarello here!

Shelby: I recently bought PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a button-masher fighting game that’s a whole lot of fun. It’s basically Super Smash Brothers, but with characters like Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, Kratos, etc. I think this game is great because it’s all about mindless smashy smashing; you pick your character and then try to punch the other characters as much as possible. Loads of fun, but nothing much in the story department. I also recently played through Heavy Rain, an interactive-drama game where you play through a series of quicktime events to find the killer before he strikes again. Not a lot of action, mostly “press triangle to ask a question, press square to sit at the table” sort of stuff, but the story and character development is breathtaking. It had me on the edge of my seat, and the ending totally caught me by surprise. I like both of these games, and I’d recommend either of them, but they take very different approaches to entertainment: one mindless and awesome fighting, the other slower paced, but with incredible character moments. Brian Azzarello is not one to be content with one or the other; Wonder Woman 21 manages to give us both big action and quiet character development, and is wholly satisfying on both counts.
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Jun 19 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 9

thor 9

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 9, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Shelby: Religion, mythology, and fantasy: all three have slightly different connotations. Religion refers to a set of beliefs about where we came from and where we’ll end up, generally involving some sort of god(s) and a moral code. My rural Wisconsin, Lutheran upbringing means I tend to default to the Christian God, Three in One, etc., etc. Mythology is more folkloric, a collection stories about heroes and gods: the stories that fuel all religions, but a term often ascribed to the religion of the other. As in, “my beliefs are religion, yours are merely myths.” Fantasy is the imagination that fuels the myths, the crazy daydream that dreamed up the stories in the first place. Personally, I believe it’s the myth, the story, that ties these three together: the imagination creates the story, and the story fosters belief. No where is the connections between religion, mythology, and fantasy more apparent than in Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder.

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Jun 13 2013

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

guardians of the galaxy 3

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Guardians of the Galaxy 3, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Shelby:  I AM GROOT!
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Jun 10 2013

Iron Man 11

iron man 11

Today, Shelby and guest writer Pete Pfarr are discussing Iron Man 11, originally released June 5th, 2013.

Shelby: What makes us the people we are? Is it our environment, our peers, our experiences that shape us, or is our “personness” innate, something coded into our very genes? It’s pretty safe to say that who we are is influenced by both internal and external factors; we’re such complicated creatures that there’s no way to point to one factor, internally or externally, and claim that’s what made us. Unless you’re Tony Stark of course: unsurprisingly, he has a robot to thank/blame for everything that makes him the man he is.
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Jun 7 2013

All-New X-Men 12

all new x-men 12

Today,  Shelby and Mikyzptlk are discussing All-New X-Men 12, originally released June 5th, 2013.

Shelby: Making a mistake is a simple matter. Whether it’s your fault or not, when you make a mistake you acknowledge the error, fix it as best you can, and apologize. Provided you’re not a total asshole, of course. Nothing is ever so simple in ComicBookWorldLand, though; when you can be suddenly possessed by some sort of malevolent cosmic entity, that adds a lot of layers to the idea of mistakes and culpability. Things can get really complicated really quickly, and if there’s anyone who isn’t going to understand a nuanced situation, it’s going to be a bunch of teenagers.

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Jun 5 2013

Aquaman 20

aquaman 20

Today, Shelby and Mikyzptlk are discussing Aquaman 20, originally released May 29th, 2013.

Shelby: An interlude is a mini bit of music, inserted in the middle of a larger musical composition. Like an intermission, except you don’t get to go to the lobby to stretch your legs and stand in the bathroom line for 15 minutes. If we’re talking a theatrical interlude, it’s a little play squished between acts of a bigger play; why we wouldn’t just keep watching the regular play, I couldn’t tell you. I may not see the necessity of an interlude as a member of the audience, but sometimes the entertainers just need a 15 minute breather, and I guess providing some sort of filler entertainment is considerate. But if you’re going to stop the action for something completely different that isn’t especially good, don’t be surprised if I walk out before the second act.
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Jun 3 2013

Talon 7-8

talon 7-8

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Talon 7-8, originally released April 24th and May 22nd, 2013. 

Shelby: We need to remember that the Talons are bad guys. I know, we’ve got Calvin here fighting the good fight against the Court, and we’ve got Mary working with the rest of the Birds; that makes it easy to forget that we first met the Talons as a sweeping wave of indestructible killing machines, hellbent on assassinating whomever they were pointed at. This title started out with Calvin’s unique position of being a Talon on the lam, a man with all the training needed, but unable to go through with the final process that would truly transform him into the Talon he was meant to be. In issues 7 and 8, all that is going to change; hold on to your butts, because things are getting complicated. 
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Jun 3 2013

Young Avengers 5

young avengers 5

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

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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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