We try to stay up on what’s going on at Marvel, but we can’t always dig deep into every issue. The solution? Our weekly round-up of titles coming out of Marvel Comics. Today, we’re discussing Daredevil 7, Deadpool 12, Doctor Strange 8, Hyperion 3, Mockingbird 3, Mighty Thor 7, Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat 6, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 8, Uncanny Inhumans 9, Weirdworld 6.
Today, Mark and Drew are discussing Batgirl 52, originally released May 25th, 2016.
Mark: What is the best way to portray a female superhero?
The first sizzle reel revealed for CBS’s (now CW’s) Supergirl television series was met with a healthy dose of skepticism and derision since it included a number of moments where Kara is shown doing stereotypical “girlie” things and its The Devil Wears Prada-esque setting. Some compared it to SNL’s satirical trailer for a Marvel Black Widow movie that aired just a little bit before the Supergirl first look was released. The fact that Kara worried about boys at all or worked at a fashion magazine meant that she wasn’t a strong female character. I haven’t watched Supergirl at all outside of the pilot, but the general consensus of her portrayal now that the first season has concluded seems to be overall positive.
Likewise, Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart’s Batgirl of Burnside, making Barbara Gordon more pop and significantly less intense than the Gail Simone run that preceded it, has been met with similar criticism. I’m not a woman, but I am gay and it is through that lens that I approach the desire for people like me to be represented in media by strong characters. In that way, I can understand the eye-rolling at a social media obsessed Batgirl just like I sometimes get annoyed at what I perceive as grossly flamboyant gay characters in movies and TV shows. Continue reading
Look, 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, we discuss Aloha, Hawaiian Dick 2, East of West 26 and Tokyo Ghost 7. Continue reading
Evidently, DC Comics published something other than the tonal reset that is DC Universe Rebirth 1. Here’s our weekly survey of what else is going on in the DC Universe. Today, we’re discussing The Flash 52, Grayson 20, Justice League 50, and Superman 52.
Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Ms. Marvel 7, originally released May 25th, 2016.
Patrick: Y’know, for being one of them-there “Inhumans,” Kamala Kahn is not particularly well-suited for large-scale comic book crossovers. Her problems tend to be grounded in something so much more closely resembling reality than someone like Carol Danvers or Tony Stark or even Peter Parker. She’s not going into space, and if she is fighting some kind of superpowered evil, it’s more of a strain on her maxed-out high school schedule than it is a threat to her life. So I was a little taken aback when I saw that this issue was designated a “The Road to Civil War II” story, with all that self-serious branding on the cover. Luckily — and obviously, when you take a second to think about it — G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona understand what works about Ms. Marvel. Instead of delivering twenty pages of set-up, they craft a narrative that plays out — and subverts — the themes of Civil War in a friendly, emotionally honest way that’s true to their characters. Continue reading
Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Spider-Woman 7, originally released May 18th, 2016.
Michael: “What comes before anything? What have we always said is the most important thing?”
George Michael: “Breakfast?”
Michael: “Family.”Arrested Development
Spencer: Family is a common theme in most works of fiction, but that makes sense — everybody has a family, and for better or for worse, they tend to become inextricably intertwined with our personalities and our view of the world. “Family” has been a major theme of the “Spider-Women” crossover as well, and not just because Jessica Drew’s a new mother. Every single Spider-Woman here — as well as our one kinda-sorta “Spider-Man” — is defined and driven, in one way or another, by their relationship with their family. Continue reading
Look, 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, we discuss Robin Son of Batman 12, Citizen Jack 6, Jughead 6, Lumberjanes 26, and Scarlet 9. Continue reading
We try to stay up on what’s going on at Marvel, but we can’t always dig deep into every issue. The solution? Our weekly round-up of titles coming out of Marvel Comics. Today, we’re discussing All-New Wolverine 8, Civil War II 0, Deadpool Last Days of Magic 1, International Iron Man 3, Karnak 4, Old Man Logan 6, Silver Surfer 4 and Spider-Man 4.
Today, Drew and Ryan M. are discussing The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 5, originally released May 18, 2016.
…he says that it was a spree, you know? A drifter or “gang of drifters.” You know, like it’s 1942. Like, uh, drifters are a national threat…
Deputy Molly Solverson, Fargo
Drew: That quote isn’t going to make a ton of sense to folks who haven’t seen season 1 of Fargo, but for me, it perfectly illustrates the tension between genre and setting that I’ve come to absolutely love about that series. David Lynch is the undisputed master of this kind of tension, exploiting it to idiosynchratic heights in Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, but for me, Fargo twists the knife a little further by making the characters explicitly aware of this incongruity. It’s not just about the seedy crime underworld of the seemingly innocent midwest, it’s about how nobody within that setting could conceive of something so dark happening there — they basically believe they’re living in a caricature of 1942.
Archie Comics is notorious for representing a similar caricature of mid-20th-century high-school, which is exactly what writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has played against in Archie’s horror line. That tension carries Afterlife With Archie, which largely plays its genre straight, but is complicated much more in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which freely mixes its 1960s teen comic setting with its modern horror sensibilities, playing those elements off each other in unexpected ways. It’s both genres and neither of those genres, giving it an unpredictability that may just be more vital than anything Lynch or the Coen brothers could cook up. Continue reading
Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Astonishing Ant-Man 8, originally released May 18th, 2016.
Taylor: Recently, the Music Box Theater in Chicago hosted an event called Is It Still Funny? The purpose of this event was to determine why various movies of the past and present are or aren’t funny anymore. Regardless of what people came away thinking, the very idea behind the event is an intriguing one. Humor is such a contemporary thing; what was funny last year is stale today. Creating something funny that stands the test of time is incredibly difficult, but you wouldn’t guess that when reading Astonishing Ant-Man. Writer Nick Spencer makes this humor look criminally easy. After all, it takes talent to return to what is essentially the same joke issue after issue but continue to spin it in a way that is both entertaining and funny.
Retcon Punch 