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.

Aug 27 2012

The Flash 12

Alternating Currents: Flash 12, Drew and Patrick

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing the Flash 12, originally released August 22nd, 2012.

Patrick: Bad guys don’t make for the best teams.  Hell, superheroes seldom make functional teams. 90% of team stories center around just how hard it is to put individual egos on hold and actually work as a team. Sometimes the group gels to confront a common, insurmountable enemy; sometimes they’re extorted into working together; and sometimes they seem to be the only people in the whole universe going through the same trials. But bad guys only get together for one reason: take down the hero. Right? Well, The Flash #12 has something to say about that. Continue reading →

Aug 23 2012

Before Watchmen – Dr. Manhattan 1

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Dr. Manhattan 1, originally released August 22nd, 2012. Dr. Manhattan is part of DC’s Before Watchmen prequel series. Click here for complete Before Watchmen coverage (including release dates).

Shelby: Dr. Manhattan is a tricky character to deal with. He is all powerful; he can control any matter in any way, can see all time, and knows how everything will happen. That’s difficult to even really comprehend as a reader, let alone to understand it enough to write about. Once you get over the hurdle of writing about an infinitely powerful being with seemingly no weaknesses, there’s the fact that you’re writing a prequel story that the readers already know. Dr. Manhattan gets the most detailed origin story in Watchmen, so how do you write more about a story that we already know without completely derailing the character? I will admit, I was doubtful J. Michael Straczynski would pull it off, solely based on my disappointment in Nite Owl so far. I was surprised and immensely pleased to find this title is very, very good.
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Aug 23 2012

Batman Incorporated 3

Alternating Currents: Batman Incorporated 3, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batman, Inc 3, originally released August 22, 2012.

Drew: After catching up on the entirety of Grant Morrison’s “Batman Epic,” I’d gotten the impression that I knew Morrison as a writer, or at least as a writer of Batman stories. His every tic had become familiar to me, from his penchant for mind-bendingly baroque symbolism, spouted by even the most unlikely characters, to his general assumption that everybody knows what the fuck he is talking about. His work with Batman has largely served to place Bruce in an ever-deepening universe where everything is connected, and discovering how is essential to his survival. As the Epic draws to a close, however, and the connections become more apparent, Morrison changes his strategy, delivering a straightforward, nearly Platonic Batman story, complete with disguises, masked goons, and a double-crossing dame.

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Aug 22 2012

DC Universe Presents 12: Kid Flash

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing DC Universe Presents 12: Kid Flash, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Patrick: There’s always a risk when you pick up a new title. You never really know if the characters or the creative teams are going to meet your expectations. DC Universe Presents frequently shifts its focus, filling in gaps in the line-up and employing various creatives. I sort of have a hard time imagining that this title has a regular readership. I assume readers drift over to it when they see one of their favorite characters on the cover. Drew and I are enormous fans of the current run of The Flash and we’ve bemoaned the fact that there really aren’t other Flash books for us to read. So as this anthology series offers us a Kid Flash story, did we get what we wanted?
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Aug 22 2012

Chat Cave: New Sandman Story

At San Diego Comic Con this year, Vertigo made the surprising announcement that Neil Gaiman will be writing a new Sandman story arc, with Retcon Punch  favorite  J. H. Williams, III. Even though we don’t currently cover any Vertigo titles, Gaiman’s return to this game-changing, original, and incredibly unique title is definitely worthy of a discussion. What have been the fan reactions? What does DC’s current preponderance of prequels reflect of the current state of the industry? Are you incredibly excited for this dynamic artistic team-up? Retcon Punchers sound off: Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Shelby: I am stupid excited for a new Sandman story. When Patrick first started talking to me about working on this site, my response was, “DC Comics are great, when will we talk about Sandman?” The universe Gaiman created is unlike any other I have ever experienced, except maybe in other Gaiman books. He has a great way of blending multiple cultures’ mythologies; I never would have guessed stories featuring the Muses of the Greeks could exist next to stories of Odin and Thor, and that it would all work. What really intrigues me, though, is the comparison of fan reactions between this prequel (super positive) and the Before Watchman prequels (often negative).

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Aug 21 2012

Red Hood and the Outlaws 12

Alternating Currents: Red Hood 12, Drew and PeterToday, Drew and Peter are discussing Red Hood and the Outlaws 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Drew: We tend to talk a lot about writers here at Retcon Punch. We certainly pay attention to the art, and have often found rewarding things to discuss when doing so, but we always seem to come back to the writer. Writers have so much control, particularly over the kinds of things we like to talk about here — character development, voice, plotting — but forgetting how much influence the artist has over the final product is a mistake. It’s like valuing a film or playwright’s input over that of the director or actors’; sure, it make sense in theory, but you don’t have to see too many community theater productions of Shakespeare to know that even the best scripts can be muddled in the wrong hands.  It’s unfortunate that it often takes examples like the community theater to emphasize the importance of the other collaborators, and it is also unfortunate that this issue is one such example. Continue reading →

Aug 21 2012

Birds of Prey 12

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Birds of Prey 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Shelby: Why do we form teams? Is it to seek the support of others? Is it to accomplish big tasks more quickly? Is it to bring together different skill sets in order to solve more kinds of problems? These have to be at least some of the reasons why Black Canary decided to form a team to do some good in Gotham, but she has obviously made some mistakes in choosing her roster. You know that guy in the group who just won’t play ball with the plan and forces everyone to do things his way? Well, imagine that guy is an eco-terrorist metahuman holding you and the rest of the world hostage to do what he wants, and you can begin to see the dilemma Black Canary has on her hands.
Continue reading →

Aug 17 2012

Batwoman 12

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Batwoman 12, originally released August 15th 2012.

Shelby: Oh, the life of a superhero, balancing personal relationships by day and caped ass-whupin’ by night. I have a hard enough time balancing office drone by day, nerd by night, so I don’t know how Kate Kane manages. She is beginning to fall into the classic (and seemingly inevitable) trap all heroes face: your loved ones assume you are sneaky and selfish, going out every night and keeping secrets, when in fact you are working harder than anyone to keep your loved ones safe. Kate starts on this downward slope as J.H. Williams and W. Haden Blackman begin a new arc, again with stories nestled within each other. At least this time it looks like everything is happening in the same chronological order.
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Aug 16 2012

Before Watchmen – Rorschach 1

Before WatchmenToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Rorschach 1, originally released August 15th, 2012. Rorschach is part of DC’s Before Watchmen prequel series. Click here for complete Before Watchmen coverage (including release dates).

Drew: Before Watchmen has a uphill battle to climb as far as justifying its existence. We’ve already gone over our reactions the the idea, but I feel compelled to reiterate my main objection: Watchmen is a singular and self-contained book, and treating it like a universe where cool stories happen or one of a series of adventures this particular group of characters had is missing the point. That said, I do like these characters, and their universe, but it’s incredibly difficult for me to tell if that means I want to spend more time with them, or if I’m simply drawn to them because of their allegorical significance. The successes of Before Watchmen have side-stepped this issue by delivering stories so outside — or even contrary to — our expectations, they really stand on their own (allowing me to ignore any potential desecrations). I was particularly impressed with Brian Azzarello’s work on Comedian 2, where he managed to find enough unclaimed space within the strictures of the character’s history to tell (or at least set-up) a compelling story, which gave me high hopes for his work here. Unfortunately, Rorschach 1 finds less room to breathe, yielding decidedly mixed results. Continue reading →

Aug 10 2012

Batman 12

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Batman 12, originally released August 8th, 2012.

Patrick: Scott Snyder’s run on Batman has been fantastic. The 11-issue Court of Owls story-line is going to go down in history as one of the best Batman stories ever, and there are precious few titles in the New 52 that can claim the same level of quality. So, I approached this first post-Owls issue tentatively: would I discover that I was enamored with Snyder’s Owls, and not Snyder’s Batman? What we have in issue 12 is about as radical a departure as we could have asked for – the story is self-contained; the scope of the story is small; and Batman himself doesn’t make an appearance until page 14. But in this gear-shift, Snyder asserts that he’s in it for the long haul, and committed to delivering excellence in Batman, no matter what story he wants to tell in Gotham City.
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