Category Drew Baumgartner

Drew Baumgartner, Co-Editor-In-Chief
drew@retcon-punch.com

Location: Milwaukee

History With Comics: Drew grew up with Superman pajamas. His best days were when he never had to change out of them. He fell in love with Batman the Animated Series when he was 5. He had never read a comic in his life, but started reading Batman trades when he was in high school. He continued to pick up trades and one-offs throughout the 00’s, but never got into the monthly swing. After almost a decade of being an outsider looking in, Drew seized upon DC’s relaunch to start picking up monthlies.

Feb 4 2014

Batman and Robin Annual 2

batman and robin annual 2

Today, Greg and Mikyzptlk are discussing Batman and Robin Annual 2, originally released January 29th 2014.

Greg: My friends often make fun of me for liking everything, and they have a good point. If one of them asks me for a movie recommendation, I’ll give twenty, and get at least one “I heard that was terrible” in response. If someone rags on the recently cancelled and critically reviled Sean Saves The World, I’ll pipe in and counter that it was actually one of the best new comedies of the season, prematurely put down. The new Paramore album? On repeat, in my car stereo, no apologies. Sometimes I’ve been criticized as not having enough cultural taste or filtration. My counterargument is that the consumption of media and storytelling fundamentally stems from love and positivity. It behooves a consumer to like things, because of the positive feelings you get. So, whenever I do genuinely, fully, through-and-through dislike something, not only do I mean it, but it pains me to say it out loud. It blots out my blinding sun of naive media love. I’ll put it frankly, no matter how much it hurts me to say: Batman and Robin deserve better than this issue.
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Feb 3 2014

East of West 9

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing East of West 9, originally released January 29th, 2013.

Taylor: When successfully writing a story about a fictional world, there is one thing the author must do if they want their work to be believable. It’s not necessarily high-flown concepts or a strong thesis, though those certainly help. Instead, it’s important for the author to create a world that follows its own rules and mythologies. The author must not break away from these or else the world he or she so deliberately built will come crashing down. In the land of comics where fantasy worlds become reality on a regular basis, Jonathan Hickman has established himself as a skilled observer of this rule with such titles as The Manhattan Project and of course East of West. In the latter, Hickman has created a bleak landscape where death roams the world, both literally and figuratively. The world Death inhabits, along with its inhabitants, is fascinating and dark, and learning more about it is part of the joy of reading East of West. Issue 9, like issue 8 before it, indulges the reader with world building which is both a delight and a little frustrating at the same time. Continue reading →

Jan 31 2014

Saga 18

saga 18

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Saga 18, originally released January 29th, 2014.

Patrick: In the Season 2 episode of Community “Cooperative Calligraphy,” the group voluntarily sequesters itself in the study room until they can determine who stole Annie’s pen. Jeff eventually brings about peace by saying that he would rather believe the impossible — in this case, that a ghost stole it — than believe that one of his friends would subject the rest of them to this kind of psychological and emotional torture. It’s a play on the idea that we make ourselves believe all kinds of things that aren’t true in the name of love. We believe our friends and family to be capable of so much, exaggerating their talents or intelligence or compassion in our minds. Brian K Vaughan’s world has been punishing Marko and Alana for their love, but this issue tangibly rewards them for their blind faith in one another. It’s the metaphorical made real, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Continue reading →

Jan 30 2014

The Flash 27

Alternating Currents: The Flash 27, Drew and Scott

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing The Flash 27, originally released January 29th, 2014.

Drew: As a society, we emphasize “truth” above all else — even as we often acknowledge the necessity (or at least convenience) of small lies. We tell lies to beg off of social invitations, or to save face after doing something stupid — I once even made a fake email account just to avoid having to explain a too-complicated truth. These lies are generally pretty transparent, but we feel compelled to maintain the facade because “actually, your band sounded terrible,” just feels cruel. Of course, all of those lies flying around make it possible for people to get a false sense of themselves (or at least a false sense of how interested coworkers are in looking at pictures of their cats), that is, those little lies can become a bigger truth, upon which someones own sense of self might be based. Its those kinds of truths that seem to be in play in The Flash 27, as Barry begins to chip at the finish of his candy-colored world. Continue reading →

Jan 29 2014

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 1/22/14

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, Drew and Patrick discuss Batwoman 27, Batman and Two-Face 27, Justice League 27, Avengers 25, Indestructible Hulk 18.INH, George Romero’s Empire of the Dead Act One 1, and All-New Invaders 1.

slim-banner4Drew: History is complicated. That’s not exactly the message of Mark Andreyko’s Batwoman 27, but it might as well be. His run, with it’s abrupt start after an aborted arc by the previous writers, was always going to have a complex relationship with the series, which he sets to address directly in this issue. Only, he addresses it in a dream sequence, so not only is it not clear what is memory and what is dream, but he doesn’t do much besides show it to us. We see Bane reciting lines from that previous arc, but it comes alongside talking rabbit skeletons. More distressingly, we see Colonel Kane expressing profound shame in Kate (“I wish it had been you who was killed”), which flies in direct opposition to Greg Rucka’s version of her coming out story. Is that a nightmare fantasy, or an accurate memory (or somewhere in between)? This series has never truly addressed its pre-New 52 history (which we might have assumed meant it hadn’t changed), but this at least suggests that we might not actually know anything about Kate’s past. Continue reading →

Jan 28 2014

FF 16

ff 16

Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing FF 16, originally released January 22nd, 2013.

Ethan: With the arrival of FF 16 Scott Lang’s campaign to end Doom is itself at an end. Even though Doom was the cause of the crusade, it’s always been more about Scott — this finale is no different. As Scott confronts the mortal enemy of the Fantastic Four and the man who killed his daughter, there’s never going to be a better time to prove who or what the latest incarnation of Ant-Man has become. Unsurprisingly, Matt Fraction and Lee Allred do not disappoint.

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Jan 27 2014

Cram Session: Hawkeye 1-13

It can be hard to keep up with all the comics you love. But it’s damn near impossible to keep up with all the comics you’re interested in.

Retcon Punch got you covered.

Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, became the greatest sharpshooter known to man, then he became an Avenger – this is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger. He lives! He loves! He loses! We wrap up the first 13 issues of Hawkeye and explain why Kate Bishop left and why Clint’s so damn sad all the time.

Jan 27 2014

Pretty Deadly 4

Alternating Currents: Pretty Deadly 4, Drew and Greg

Today, Drew and Greg are discussing Pretty Deadly 4, originally released January 22nd, 2013.

Drew: One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever received was from our very own Patrick Ehlers: exposition doesn’t feel like exposition if the audience wants that information. He may not have been the first writer to observe that, but I certainly wasn’t the last who needed to hear it. Narratives should draw us in, not simply parade across our consciousness. One of the most direct ways to make the audience curious is to pose a question — it can be as central to the story as wanting to know who killed Laura Palmer, or as inconsequential as wanting to know who’s supposed to call whom Ishmael. Of course, it’s possible to overdo it with the questions — if there are too many the story stops being mysteriously alluring and starts becoming frustratingly confusing. Pretty Deadly has spent a significant time in that latter category, and while issue 4 may not fully succeed in changing that, it certainly takes some steps in the right direction. Continue reading →

Jan 24 2014

Batman 27

batman 27

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Batman 27, originally released January 22nd, 2014.

Shelby: We all know why Bruce Wayne became Batman: parents killed, city corrupted, a cowardly and superstitious lot, etc. We get it, we get Batman. But that has never been enough for Scott Snyder. Throughout his run on Batman, Snyder has forced Bruce to recognize his allies, and nearly lose them. In Night of the Owls, the very city of Gotham seemed to turn on Batman, and Death of the Family saw Bruce realize how important the Bat-family is to him just in time to nearly lose it (or actually lose it, the family certainly hasn’t been the same since). While on its surface, Zero Year is another retelling of the Batman origin, Snyder actually gives us a much closer look at Bruce’s motivations, and the beginnings of those relationships he grew to value so dearly.
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Jan 23 2014

Animal Man 27

Alternating Currents: Animal Man 27, Drew and Scott

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Animal Man 27, originally released January 22nd, 2014. 

But as a Go game progresses, the possibilities become smaller and smaller. The board does take on order. Soon, all moves are predictable.

Maximillian Cohen, Pi

Drew: Do you ever find yourself wondering exactly how apt an analogy is? Or that it might be more apt than we realize. One of my favorite moments from Darren Aronofsky’s Pi finds Sol positing that the unlimited possibilities of a game of Go reflects the chaos of life, and Max not quite refuting his point with the quote above. Maybe life simply becomes more predictable as we move through it. That’s certainly true of narratives — what starts as a completely open field often falls into a well-worn pattern as it winds to a close. Take Animal Man: as a series, it has been as original and unpredictable as they come, but as Jeff Lemire sets up his endgame in issue 27, some of the beats feel a bit more familiar. In fact, this issue seems to employ just about every tension-goosing tool in the box, building to what promises to be a pretty spectacular two-part finale.  Continue reading →