Category Alternating Current

Cross-talks on individual issues.

Feb 16 2016

Ms. Marvel 4

ms marvel 4

Today, Taylor and Ryan M. are discussing the Ms. Marvel 4, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Taylor: The average high schooler is incredibly busy. Thinking back on my own time in high school I get exhausted for my past self when I consider all of the various activities I was committed to. There was band, homework, college applications, ACT/SATs, friends, boy scouts, and family which I had to somehow make time for. Looking back on it, it’s nothing short of a miracle that I was able to survive high school let alone be successful in any of these endeavors. But for all that activity, at least I wasn’t also trying to be a superhero. Kamala Khan, however, isn’t so lucky, and issue 4 of Ms. Marvel shows us how hard it is to be a teenager and a superhero at the same time. Continue reading →

Feb 16 2016

Batman 49

batman 49

Today, Spencer and Michael are discussing Batman 49, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Spencer: One of the concepts that’s made Batman such a popular hero for the past 75 years is the idea that anybody could become Batman. None of us are alien refugees or Amazon princesses, none of us can expect to be struck by Speed Force lightning or bitten by a radioactive spider (and survive, at least), but with the right training, resources, and determination, anyone could become Batman; and sure, most of us don’t have access to the seemingly unlimited wealth, technology, or training Bruce Wayne had, but they’re at least goals that someone living in our real world could feasibly aspire to achieve. In Batman 49, though, Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette make all those qualifications — and, indeed, the very possibility of anyone besides Bruce Wayne ever truly becoming Batman — moot. Being Batman is about more than gear or training or money. Becoming Batman requires great, tragic sacrifice; it involves dying, whether figuratively or literally. Continue reading →

Feb 16 2016

Injection 7

Alternating Currents: Injection 7, Ryan and Drew

Today, Ryan D. and Drew are discussing Injection 7, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Ryan D: The iconic novel Moby-Dick is peculiar in two specific ways. Firstly, for such an important example of turn-of-the-century literature which spawned many films based off of it and sits as a part of our literary lexicon, a surprising amount of people have not read it, which I attribute to its length (927 pages in the first edition, 635 in the US release) and the abundance of dry non-narrative chapters dedicated to things like an exhaustive cataloging of ships. Secondly, and more relevant to this review, is the idea that though the presence of the eponymous white whale is felt constantly, it does not actually appear until the last three chapters. I would hazard that the influence of this affects much of our modern media, happily adopted by horror films, especially; we never get a full view of the shark in Jaws until the climax, and the same can be said about the organism from Alien. This same feeling of looming danger and presence pervades Injection 7, and this feeling of tension makes this arc wonderful to read. Continue reading →

Feb 15 2016

Black Canary 8

black canary 8

Today, Mark and Spencer are discussing Black Canary 8, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Mark: One of the privileges of adulthood is the opportunity to choose your family. Even if you love your immediate family, the family that raised you, as you grow older and move away you build another sort of family — a family comprised of friends, romantic partners, mentors, work colleagues, and so forth. This new family is your social circle, the ones your rely on on a day-to-day basis as an adult. No matter your childhood, this chosen family is an essential part of being an adult, of being independent.

The great gift and the great tragedy of life is that people can flit in and out of our lives seemingly at a whim. I moved to LA with no job and no friends, but have lucked into the most wonderful circle of human beings imaginable. Still, some friends with whom I was once super close have become more like acquaintances, and through no fault of either party. What can you do? Life moves you in one direction, and your friend in another. So even in adulthood, as much as we choose our family, life still finds a way to intervene. Continue reading →

Feb 12 2016

Darth Vader 16

darth vader 16

Today, Michael and Taylor are describing Darth Vader 16, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Michael: I think that Darth Vader is the favorite among the other Star Wars titles (at least at Retcon Punch) because it is chock-full of dramatic moments and nuanced characters. The power struggles and political battles of Darth Vader are somewhat reminiscent to a show like House of Cards. Darth Vader 16 is kind of a lull in the ongoing narrative that focuses on the particulars of the power struggles that Vader encounters.

Continue reading →

Feb 11 2016

Descender 10

Alternating Currents: Descender 10, Drew and Spencer

Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing Descender 10, originally released February 10th, 2016.

Drew: While I can appreciate its visual wizardry, I’ve always been baffled at the morality of The Matrix. Never mind the half-baked philosophy of “there is no spoon” or the stoner profundity of wondering whether reality really is an illusion, it’s the vilification of the robots that really confuses me. Objectively, the humans are the bad guys, the fickle creators who try to destroy the sentient life they’ve created. The robots, on the other hand, keep the humans alive and comfortable, albeit in an oddly complex simulation. For all of the explicit Christ imagery surrounding Neo, he represents the robots’ Antichrist, a being sent by the creator(s) to end life as they know it. Can we blame the robots for wanting to avoid that?

Descender‘s inversion of the morality of The Matrix hooked me from the start. Instead of relying on our knee-jerk identification with the human characters, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen have intentionally played against our expectations. Tim-21’s humanity is the core of this series (even as they highlight how odd it is), while the humans are often depicted as racist, unscrupulous, or hapless beings driven by fear and distrust. This challenges our notions of humanity and morality in ways that The Matrix never bothers to. Of course, Lemire and Nguyen’s desire to thwart our expectations finds them reversing The Matrix yet again, as Tim-21 is revealed to be the robots’ own version of The One. Continue reading →

Feb 9 2016

Obi-Wan and Anakin 2

obi-wan anakin 2

Today, Spencer and Michael are discussing Obi-Wan and Anakin 2, originally released February 3rd, 2016.

Spencer: There’s nothing new under the sun. I don’t believe that’s a concrete truth — every once in a while somebody still trots out an idea that legitimately surprises me — but for the most part, it holds up, and I’m okay with that. A story doesn’t need to be wholly original to succeed. Sometimes they can rely on our previously established affection for the characters, and other times those familiar tropes can be told with new twists or different contexts or in support of deep themes that make them a joy to read regardless of originality. Sadly, I don’t think I can make that argument for Obi-Wan and Anakin 2. There’s nothing in this issue that gets me invested in its very familiar story. Continue reading →

Feb 9 2016

Spider-Man 1

Alternating Currents: Spider-Man 1, Ryan and Drew

Today, Ryan M. and Drew are discussing Spider-Man 1, originally released February 3rd, 2016.

Ryan: The danger of starting your story with a climactic image and then jumping back in time is that it can displace interest. At best, it builds anticipation. At worst, it feels like a bait and switch. It’s like when a friend starts a story with “Did I ever tell you about the time I made out with a mime in Vegas?” and then proceeds to tell you details about how she booked her hotel room. By getting me too invested in the end of the story, you’ve diminished my interest in the preamble. At that point, I’m just listening for mime specifics that indicate we’re getting to the good stuff. Continue reading →

Feb 8 2016

Velvet 13

Alternating Current: Velvet 13, Drew and Ryan

Today, Drew and Ryan D. are discussing Velvet 13, originally released February 3rd, 2016.

Drew: I wince whenever someone asks me if I can play chess. I certainly understand the rules of the game, but I feel like that makes me a chess player in as much as understanding the mechanics of applying paint to canvas makes me a painter. That is, the actual playing of chess lies not in my rudimentary grasp of what moves are allowable, but in the nuance of applying those moves towards a goal. Real chess players have so internalized those rules, they can plan several moves ahead, and the strategy ultimately revolves around forcing their opponent into moves they can anticipate. This is exactly the kind of game Velvet has been playing with ARC-7 for most of this series, and she’s damn good at it. But what if the rules she had internalized weren’t the rules of the game at all? That’s the situation she finds herself in this month, as Damian Lake proves to be even more of a wild card than she ever imagined. Continue reading →

Feb 8 2016

Midnighter 9

midnighter 9

Today, Spencer and Mark are discussing Midnighter 9, originally released February 3rd, 2016.

Spencer: Who is Midnighter? It’s clearly a question writer Steve Orlando wants to keep on his readers’ minds, as most issues of Midnighter feature its titular character explaining his life story to someone (this month, his documentarist Robert). Any conclusions we can draw about who Midnighter really is deep inside from that information, though, are complicated to say the least. Who is Midnighter? He’s a contradiction. Continue reading →