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.

Apr 19 2012

Batman 8

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batman 8, originally released April 18th, 2012. This issue is part of the Night of the Owls crossover event. Click here for complete NotO coverage.

Drew: Batman 8 begins with a tight shot on a Gotham City manhole cover. As the camera pulls up and out, revealing the city around it, Bruce’s voiceover questions whether his attention to detail has prevented him from seeing the bigger picture. This attention to detail explains why Bruce could have  been unaware of the presence of the Court of Owls in what he thought was his city, but it also acts as a cutting interrogation of our own experiences with Batman (and superheroes in general). I’ve long lamented the favoring of point-by-point plot details over “bigger picture” concepts like character and theme, but writer Scott Snyder seems to suggest that the devotion to the minutia may actually prevent us from truly understanding what is going on. It’s a bold suggestion, and one that would risk alienating fanboys if it weren’t so deftly handled. Continue reading →

Apr 17 2012

The Vault – Batman Logo Best Friend Pendant

The Retcon Punchers spend an awful lot of time looking for ways to celebrate our nerdy obsessions. This means a lot of time sunk into scouring Etsy, Deviant Art, Think Geek or whatever. Sometimes we see things so great we just have to share them… and then clutch them fiercely to our collective chest. Throw it in The Vault.Batman Logo Best Friend PendantWebsite: Etsy

Who Would Love This: Best friends, duh.

Price: $15.00

Have you ever liked someone as much as you like Batman, but been at a loss for the best way to represent your feelings in jewelry form? Well, look no further. This pendant riffs on the classic broken heart pendant, but rather then completing the universal symbol of love, friends and couples sharing the pieces of this pendant can form the universal symbol of badassery. Everyone will think you love bucktoothed Pac-Men, but only you and your best friend will know the truth. All joking aside, I can think of no greater compliment than “you complete my Batman.”

Apr 17 2012

Batgirl 8

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batgirl 8, originally released April 11th 2012.

Check out Shelby’s exclusive Gail Simone interview here!

Drew: “Closure” is a word we hear with increasing frequency in modern narratives. Characters reunite with long lost lovers or otherwise return to their pasts in order to move on to the future. This can be a compelling motivation, but it often reduces those characters down to some defining moment or relationship, keeping them rather one-dimensional. Real life problems are much more complicated, forcing us to settle for smaller comforts over the kind of profound sense of closure promised in movies. Batgirl 8 illustrates that point beautifully, providing a return to The Killing Joke that only addresses some of Barbara’s baggage. Continue reading →

Apr 13 2012

Batwoman 8

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Batwoman 8, originally released April 11th 2012.

Patrick: Every time I pick up an issue from this arc of Batwoman, I have to retrain my brain on how to read this thing. The defining characteristic of this story has been a fractured chronology that essentially demands to be re-read over and over again until the pieces fit. Whenever I assemble the pieces and take a step back, more connections become apparent and the complexity of the narrative grows.
Continue reading →

Apr 12 2012

Green Lantern 8

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern 7, originally released March 14, 2012.

Drew: Saying that Geoff Johns has a command over modern Green Lantern mythology goes without saying; the events (and many of the characters) that have shaped the Green Lantern universe over the past several years are his babies. It was his skill with not just the architecture, but the execution of these stories that had us so excited about all things Geoff Johns in the New 52. One might consider that excitement was misplaced, given the hit-or-miss nature of Justice League and Aquaman’s perennial status as our Retcon Punch-ing bag (until Detective Comics rightfully unseated it), but Green Lantern reveals Johns to be as commanding as ever of both the large- and small-scale details of his stories. Continue reading →

Apr 11 2012

Chat Cave: Monthlies vs. Trades

In May, DC will begin releasing the first (and in some cases, only) arcs of each of the New 52 titles compiled as graphic novels. Trade paperback collections have a short but venerable history, and often act as gateways for curious newcomers. Monthlies have a much longer and equally venerable history, and the cost of entry is in most cases only $2.99. Fans have their own (occasionally adamant) opinions on the “Monthlies vs. Trades” debate, but how do the Retcon Punchers feel? Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Drew: I must admit, part of what got me thinking about this was a recent piece I read by the AV Club’s Todd VanDerWerff decrying the habit of watching entire seasons of TV in marathon viewing sessions. His main argument centers on allowing yourself time to savor episodes on their own, a philosophy that is easily  applied to this topic. This idea has been resonating with me, as I’ve burned through Brian K Vaughan’s Y: the Last Man at a clip of about two trades a week. That series is particularly good at ending with teasing cliffhangers, which makes demonstrating self-control particularly difficult. Continue reading →

Apr 10 2012

Detective Comics 8


Today, Peter and Drew are discussing Detective Comics 8, originally released April 4th, 2012.

Peter:  If there is one thing I can’t do it’s throw in the towel. I’m a bit of a completionist. Sometimes, it’s really easy for me to finish something because it’s really good. Sometimes it’s really easy for me to finish something because despite it being impossibly hard, I enjoy doing it, and at the end, I feel extremely satisfied, even if completing it was stupidly hard and I probably will never be able to do it again. (Battletoads, I’m looking at you!) But I will say that continuing to read Detective Comics is putting me to the test.
Continue reading →

Apr 9 2012

Batwing 8


Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Batwing 8, originally released April 4th, 2012.

Patrick: At its outset, Batwing was something incredibly new for the DC Universe. David Zavimbe is the first to open a Batman Inc. franchise and his is the first series to take place in Africa. The early issues explored dark dark dark themes, toeing the line of exploitation, but this gave these early issues a relevant, almost dangerous feel to them. With two whole issues in Gotham and in the presence of Batman, Nightwing, Robin and Batgirl, Batwing loses its identity, becoming a bland, by-the-numbers comic book adventure. Continue reading →

Apr 5 2012

Swamp Thing 8

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Swamp Thing 8, originally released April 4th, 2012.

Drew: Swamp Thing is all about details. Plot-wise, this issue may be even lighter than the previous one — Swamp Thing brings the fight to Sethe’s doorstep, prompting Sethe to play his ace in the whole: a Rot-ified Abby Arcane — but the creative team continues to emphasize and elucidate themes in ways that are both exciting and rewarding. Both the narration and the art are packed with subtle detail that amplify, refract, and subvert the story in surprising ways. Continue reading →

Apr 4 2012

Chat Cave: Back-Ups

As the DCnU continues to develop, many series will feature regular back-up stories that tie into — and act as supplemental material to — the main action. Does this effect the value of these titles? Is the DC Universe richer or simply more cluttered for it? What do back-ups give the audience that can’t be achieved otherwise? Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Peter: I want to get right in front of this; I am excited about back-up stories. I’ve been reading All-Star Western – which has had back-ups since issue 1 – and I love those stories just as much as the main storyline. It has allowed Jimmy Palmotti and Justin Gray to introduce new characters, (Barbury Ghost) and old characters (El Diablo) for future use, as well as tell back stories of current characters (Nighthawk and Cinnamon) without detracting from their main story. Hell, sometimes I read the back-up story first.

Continue reading →