Category Alternating Current

Cross-talks on individual issues.

Jun 27 2013

Batman/Superman 1

Alternating Currents: Batman/Superman 1, Drew and ScottToday, Drew and Scott are discussing Batman/Superman 1, originally released June 26th, 2013. 

Drew: Paper or plastic? Beatles or Stones? Smooth or crunchy? We love our false dichotomies, and while Marvel vs. DC may be the most obvious example in the world of comics, Batman vs. Superman is a close second. They’re presented as polar opposites enough to make it feel like a given, but are they really so different? Superman may draw his power from the sun, and Batman may draw his power from the shadows, but move beyond their color palettes and you’ll find that both fight for justice, both refuse to kill, and both have a penchant for wearing their underwear on the outside of their clothes. Of course, if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that their reasons differ on a fundamental level, growing out of their profoundly different psyches. It’s those differences, rather than the light/dark dichotomy, that Greg Pak sets to explore in Batman/Superman 1, and the result is a surprisingly fresh take on the pairing. Continue reading →

Jun 27 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 23

tmnt 23

Today, Patrick and Taylor are discussing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 23, originally released June 26th, 2013.

Patrick: One of the most beautiful things about IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is the relationship it has with the franchise’s past. And that’s an insane past. TMNT have been rebooted and re-imagined so many times in their 30-year history, there’s really no such thing as a definitive take on the characters. You’ll never be able to get two TMNT fans to agree on what constitutes canon for them – there are just too many movies, video games, comics, television shows and elaborately staged action-figure set-pieces played out on my bedroom floor. More than Superman, more than Wolverine, who these characters are at their core is left to the individual reader. The second issue of CityFall takes that concept of subjective history and makes it arrestingly explicit as Leonardo is forced to recontextualize the adventures we’ve been reading for the last two years. Continue reading →

Jun 26 2013

Anti-Hero 1

anti-hero 1Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing Anti-Hero 1, originally released June 26th, 2013. 

Spencer: Superhero comics have been around for over 70 years now. In that time, they’ve amassed quite a pile of tropes that writers return to time after time. One thing I’ve always admired about Jay Faerber’s writing is the way he takes these tropes and plays with them, using our intimate knowledge of them as a kind of shorthand to effortlessly familiarize us with a situation or character. In Faerber’s new series, Anti-Hero, he combines superhero and crime tropes to create a world that shares the best—and worst—of both genres, all while creating a hero who might just be lost in either world.

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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 26 2013

New Avengers 7

new avengers 7

Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing New Avengers 7, originally released June 19th, 2013. 

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Spencer: The more responsibility you have, the harder it is to find time to yourself. I consider myself fortunate to have a job that I can ignore completely on my days off, but if I was, say, a CEO or the president, I just wouldn’t have that luxury; there are no days off when you’re that important. As the self-appointed protectors of our universe, the Illuminati fall firmly into that camp. Even as the threat of the Incursions recedes for the moment, they’ve still got more than their fair share of life-or-death, morally gray decisions to make.

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Jun 26 2013

Animal Man 21

animal man 21

Today, Scott and Drew are discussing Animal Man 21, originally released June 19th, 2013. 

Scott: We’ve reached a historic lowpoint for privacy. Every phone call, email, text message you send can and will be recorded and filed away in some classified government database. It’s ironic, I think, that the harshest condemnations of the NSA I’ve come across have been voiced on Facebook and Twitter, forums infamous for their users’ public over-sharing of thoughts better kept private. The rise of social media has made privacy invasion a daily risk for nearly everyone; most of us can only take solace in knowing our every thought is of little interest to anyone but our inner circles. But it’s enough to make you feel bad for celebrities, who must pay for their time in the spotlight by never being able to truly leave it — their privacy always at the mercy of any bystander with a smartphone. Animal Man 21 explores the potential dangers social media poses for newfound celebrity Buddy Baker and his fans.

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Jun 26 2013

Batman and Batgirl 21

batman and batgirl 21

Today, Drew and guest writer Gino Killiko are discussing Batman and Batgirl 21, originally released June 19th, 2013.

Drew: I have to admit, as a stage of grief, bargaining never made all that much sense to me — especially not as the third stage. I can accept that somebody might make an impassioned plea to whatever powers exist at the time of a loved one’s death, but I’m just not sure who people are bargaining with long after a loved one has died. It turns out, that is because the whole Kübler-Ross model that the “five stages of grief” are based on is actually adapted from the stages associated with an impending death, which kind of supports the notion that bargaining after the fact doesn’t necessarily make any sense. That might explain why Batman and Batgirl 21, which is meant to focus on the third stage of grief, doesn’t quite work. Continue reading →

Jun 25 2013

The Superior Spider-Man 12

superior spider-man 12

Today, Ethan and Shelby are discussing The Superior Spider-Man 12, originally released June 19th, 2013.

Ethan: When I sit down to write about an issue, I tend to start by flipping through my digital copy to grab the panels I want to include in the post. As I was looking through Superior Spider-Man #11, I ended up with about 10 separate images. That obviously won’t fit into a single post, but it’s a credit to writers Dan Slott & Christos Gage and artist Camuncoli that so much of the issue struck a note with me. A flashback to the worst day of J.Jonah Jameson’s life, further insights into Otto’s and Smythe’s psyches, a surprise cameo – there’s no time to waste!

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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 25 2013

Birds of Prey 20-21

birds of prey 20-21

Today, Patrick and Mikyzptlk are discussing Birds of Prey 20-21, originally released May 15th and June 19th, 2013.

Patrick: Fun fact: when Family Matters debuted in 1989, Jaleel White had not been cast on the show. Instead of being the adventures of Steve Urkel and the neighbors he loved to annoy, the show was a simple spin-off of Perfect Strangers – the story of a middle class working family in Chicago. But Steve Urkel made his appearance in the twelfth episode and was so well-received that it changed the DNA of the series forever. For better or for worse Steve Urkel had taken over Family Matters, and suddenly he was the only thing mattered. As Birds of Prey struggles to find it’s own audience and its own direction, it receives an Urkel of its own: The Court of Owls. Continue reading →