Retcon Punch is on Summer Hours, which means we’re going to be writing fewer in-depth pieces for the month of August. But we’re addicts at this point, so we need a place for our thoughts on all those comics we can’t stop reading. Today, we’re discussing Ms. Marvel 17, Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows 3, Civil War 2, Infinity Gauntlet 3, Giant Sized Little Marvel AvX 3, and Red Skull 2
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, Drew, Spencer, and Patrick discuss Daredevil 17, Jem and the Holograms 5, Universe! 3, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 4, and Material 3.
Drew: What do people think of when you tell them you read comics? Do they assume you’re reading about Spider-Man and his friends? Do they think you mean “serious” graphic novels? Do they ever ask about newspaper strips? The point is, in spite of what genres we may chose to pigeonhole them in, comics are insanely diverse right now. Case in point: this week’s round-up. We’ve got superhero action, for sure, but we also have everything from irreverent comedy to twisted horror. More importantly, this week finds all of these series at different points in their narrative lives, from beginnings to ends to everything rolled up in one. That may mean that not everything on this list will appeal to everyone, but it also makes it likely that everyone will find at least one thing to like in this week’s comics. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Michael are discussing Sex Criminals 11, originally released June 29th, 2015.
Drew: I’ve played the “what superpower would you want” game enough to know that most people will settle for “flight” or “invisibility.” Does that predictability speak to the overwhelming awesomeness of those powers, or some failure of those individuals to be creative? I think it might actually speak to how we think about superpowers: they’re so arbitrary as to be kind of meaningless. Indeed, there are relatively few characters whose powersets are actually limited to just “flight” or “invisibility,” giving even those most popular choices the air of not quite being enough. Which is why Sex Criminals is such a revelation. “A series about a couple with the ability to stop time” doesn’t get nearly the reaction as “A series about a couple with the ability to stop time when they orgasm.” Part of the charm is the novelty, sure, but the premise requires that sexuality play a central role in the series. That makes it unique beyond its superpowers, as issue 11 takes us into the private lives of virtually every character via their sex lives. Continue reading
Today, Patrick, Drew, and Spencer discuss Thors 2, M.O.D.O.K. Assassin 3, Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars 3, and Black Widow 20.
Patrick: It’s kind of a goofy week for Secret Wars: between Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars — which may have just delivered its own punchline — and M.O.D.O.K. Assassin — which is nothing but punchlines — and the deadpan homage to cop shows that is Thors, there’s a lot to make us smile. It’s not all shits and giggles: perhaps it’s fitting that series stuck telling stories of heroes’ Last Days would skew so dark, and issues like Black Widow 20 provide a necessary tonal balance when looking at the week in aggregate.
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Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Manhattan Projects: The Sun Beyond the Stars 2, originally released July 29th, 2015.
Patrick: The original The Manhattan Projects series built its mystique by taking figures and events from history and slightly distorting, exaggerating and recontextualizing them into a bizarrely compelling science fiction story. It’s a masterclass in having fun with the concept of an alternate history, and writer Jonathan Hickman seemed singularly focused on what was fun about his alternate history. Occasionally, dates and lifespans and discoveries wouldn’t exactly line up, but the series really didn’t need petty adherence to logic: the loose framework provided by those historical figures was enough to ground some absolutely bonkers storytelling. Now that we’re Beyond the Stars, that framework has morphed from historical figures to science fiction conventions, and even still, Hickman is as unpredictable and unprecious as ever. Continue reading
Today, Ryan and Drew are discussing Wolf 1, originally released July 22nd, 2015.
Ryan: Stop me if you have read this comic before: a dark, supernatural noir following a seemingly immortal protagonist and featuring Lovecraftian — oh, yes, that’s Ed Brubaker’s Fatale. Or this one, then: a hard-nosed paranormal detective named Wolf tries to right wrongs in a major American city populated by folkloric — yup, you got it, that is Fables. The first issue of Wolf strides over well-trodden territory — really, we have seen this all before. So why, then, does it work so well? Better yet, what is it that Ales Kot is doing better than everyone else? 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, Spencer, Drew, Patrick and Michael discuss Spider-Woman 9, Kanan: The Last Padawan 4, All-New Hawkeye 4, Sons of the Devil 3, Archie vs. Predator 4, Archie vs. Sharknado 1, Effigy 7, and The Infinite Loop 4.
Spencer: With more and more great books hitting the stands each week, we’ve recently taken to splitting our Weekly Round-Up into several installments so as to make each one easier to digest. Now that we have Round-Ups specifically covering DC and Secret Wars, it could be tempting to think of the books we cover in this Round-Up to be the leftovers. I just want to emphasize to you all that this is absolutely not the case. Every book we cover this week features unique concepts, or even unique takes on familiar ones, and almost all of them are high quality to boot. It’s an eclectic line-up of comics, but one that’s just as worth your attention as anything else we’ve written about this week. Continue reading
Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing C.O.W.L. 11, originally released July 22nd, 2015.
Spencer: One of my favorite expressions is “would I do it all again?” Usually it’s only uttered after a long string of consequences (“So I ended up breaking both legs…but would I do it all again?”), and it’s never an actual question — if you’re asking “would I do it all again,” you’re basically admitting that yes, you would. No matter what consequences you faced, it was worth it. This phrase has an opposite as well — “Was it worth it?” Just like “would I do it all again,” “was it worth it” is rarely a question — it’s almost always an admission that no, whatever you did was not worth the consequences. It’s a phrase uttered by Geoffrey Warner in the final moments of Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel, and Rod Reis’ C.O.W.L., leaving the readers with the impression that even Warner knows that the actions he took to keep C.O.W.L. in business aren’t justified. No matter what C.O.W.L. goes on to accomplish in the future, Warner’s actions will forever be hanging over the organization like a dark cloud. Continue reading
Today, Patrick, Drew, Mark and Michael discuss Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde 1, Weirdworld 2, Old Man Logan 3, E is for Extinction 2, Loki, Agent of Asgard 16 and Marvel Zombies 2.
Patrick: We can argue about the merits of “Battleworld” as an engine for compelling narratives until we are blue in the collective face. (I assume we keep that face on Reddit, and its has seen some shit.) This week’s crop demonstrates that, no matter what stories are coming out of Marvel these days, the pages themselves are looking absolutely gorgeous. Andrea Sorrentino, Ramon Villalobos, Michael del Mundo, Kev Walker and Lee Garbett all in one week? Plus, relative new-comer Alti Firmansyah rounds out a beautiful line-up. Maybe there’s something about the freedom that Secret Wars offers that attracts this kind of amazing talent.
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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, Patrick, Spencer, and Drew discuss Godzilla in Hell 1, Dead Drop 3, Silver Surfer 13, and Astro City 25.
“It can do two things! Why shouldn’t it?”
Professor Farnsworth, Futurama
Patrick: In the season four episode of Futurama, “Leela’s Homeworld,” the script originally called for two separate sci-fi machines – one to instigate a problem and the other to solve a problem. According to the DVD commentary track, the writers eventually just made the same machine capable of performing two tasks, and put their rationale in the mouth of the grumpiest character in the cast. And they’re totally right: for storytelling purposes, who cares if the magical machines are the same or different. But stories themselves are often strongest when sticking to a single focus. We find ourselves this week with a short round up, one where every issue is single-minded, and as a result, all are wonderfully clear and successful. Continue reading
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