Jul 3 2015

Secret Wars Round-Up: Issues released 7/1/15

Today, Spencer, Patrick and Drew discuss Secret Wars 4, Red Skull 1, A-Force 2, Giant-Sized Little Marvel AvX 2, Ultimate End 3, Years of Future Past 2, and Secret Wars Journal 3.

Spencer: One thing that’s always bothered me about line-wide crossovers is when the tie-ins are forced to incorporate certain elements whether it makes sense or not. I can’t help but think of the earthquake in all 40 of the second issues of Convergence, or that month where every single DC comic released had to feature a fight with an OMAC — besides being creatively stifling, it makes all the books start to feel way too similar. With that in mind, what I’ve appreciated the most about Secret Wars is the sheer variety found in its tie-ins. All these books have in common is that they’re all set on Battleworld — other than that, they’re free to do whatever they please. This week’s offerings feature everything from the inner workings of Doom’s mind and Battleworld’s politics to zany childhood shenanigans — it’s a fun change of pace from the typical crossover, and in fact, the only real disappointments to be found may be the titles that don’t take enough advantage of their setting.
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Jul 2 2015

Princess Leia 5

Today, Patrick and Taylor are discussing Princess Leia 5, originally released July 1st, 2015.

Patrick: Love it or hate it, I’m a Wisconsin boy – born, raised, and educated. It’s a weird culture to grow up in, but it’s an even weirder culture to have to carry with you for the rest of your life. There are some awesome parts of being from Wisconsin, like an enthusiastic beer culture or an emphasis on education or the outdoors. Plus there’s the general air of friendliness that permeates my every visit to the homestead. But man, oh man, there are also a ton of drawbacks to that cultural identity: a meatheaded obsession with sports (specifically, the Green Bay Packers), unhealthy and frequently disgusting cuisine, and a bunch of casual institutionalized racism. And every person I meet is surprised that I’m not some backwoods, smalltown hick. Worse are the negative characteristics I actually take with me wherever I go, like juvenile appetite for dairy products and that irrepressible accent. Throughout the course of Princess Leia, Mark Waid and Terry and Rachel Dodson have presented us with Leia’s cultural identity, and with the final issue boldly declares that being Alderaanian is a powerful thing. Love it and hate it. Continue reading →

Jul 2 2015

Zero 18

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Zero 18, originally released July 1st, 2015.

Drew: I don’t love fetishizing endings. I resent the idea that the final moments of a work of art are somehow more important than all of the other moments that came before. I do, however, appreciate that it’s not until the end of a work that we can properly understand what it is. It’s not that the last piece of the narrative puzzle is necessarily more important than the rest, it just happens to be the last one added, which makes it the one that completes the image. True to that analogy, most endings are increasingly predictable as they approach — by that late in a narrative, we have a sense of likely conclusions. But then there are those narratives that aren’t so easily tied down. Zero started as a relatively straightforward spy series, but became increasingly postmodern, turning itself into a pointed commentary on the artificial division between “life” and “art.” Even with that trajectory in mind, issue 18 offers a conclusion of such bizarre beauty that nobody could have ever predicted. Continue reading →

Jul 1 2015

Green Lantern: The Lost Army 1

Today, Spencer and Mark are discussing Green Lantern: The Lost Army 1, originally released June 24th, 2015.

Spencer: I’ve always thought that Johns’ version of the emotional spectrum was a little limited. There’s no color that represents happiness or joy? Nothing for sadness? I realize that the reasoning behind choosing those seven emotions probably came down to which ones could most easily be turned into superpowers, but with stories like Blackest Night boiling every aspect of human emotion down to these seven colors, I still find myself frustrated at times. Questions about the spectrum kept popping into my head as I read Cullen Bunn and Jesus Saiz’s Green Lantern: The Lost Army 1 — the issue focuses on the emotions of will and rage, and specifically seems to be interested in the intersection of the two. Is this Bunn’s attempt to expand and clarify the emotional spectrum? Do will and rage combined make aggression, a quality which John Stewart spends much of the issue ruminating over? I suppose only time will tell, but if nothing else, this debut issue has got me interested in finding out. Continue reading →

Jul 1 2015

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 6/24/15

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, Patrick, Drew, Shane, and Michael discuss Kaptara 3, Southern Cross 4, Sons of the Devil 2, Jem and the Holograms 4, Effigy 6, Gotham by Midnight 6, We Are Robin 1, Flash 41, Superman 41, Howard the Duck 4, and The Black Hood 5.

Spencer: The sheer variety you’ll find among comic books today is just staggering. Just in this week’s offerings alone we’ve got sci-fi, horror and supernatural, gritty crime noir, superheroes, and a talking duck, just to name a few. Moreover, we’ve got new stories being launched, beloved stories wrapping up, stories taking off in surprising new directions, and stories sticking to what they’ve always done best. No matter who you are, I think you’ll find a book you’ll love being discussed in today’s Round-Up. Continue reading →

Jun 30 2015

Daredevil 16

Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing Daredevil 16, originally released June 24th, 2015.

Patrick: One of the base assumptions that I usually have to check when discussing a work of genre fiction is the assumption that the villain acts as an analogue to the creative forces behind the story. Heroes — be they superheroes or brave knights or swashbuckling adventurers — seldom get to trade in particularly complex or nuanced ideas. But villains! Villains get to have a much more human relationship to morality, often holding conflicting ideas in their heads. What’s more is that both the villains and the creators have the same job: make the hero suffer. This relationship gets even trickier when the characters are on-loan from elsewhere, as is so often the case with comic books. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee have made their mark on Daredevil, but the character does not belong to them in the strictest sense. Issue 16 sees the creators trying to reconcile their relationship to the titular hero, and in so doing, welcome a host of villains into their drama. Continue reading →

Jun 30 2015

Material 2

Today, Ryan and Michael are discussing Material 2, originally released June 24th, 2015.

Ryan: Have you ever sat down and read the entirety of James Joyce’s notoriously difficult Ulysses? As a pretentious, young undergraduate studying English, I snickered into my coffee when a friend asked me whether I would attempt to tackle the classically obtuse text with a reader’s companion or not. Having recently curbstomped arm-loads of 18^th Century British Lit. and avant-garde contemporary poetry, I thought, “How hard could it be? It’s only words. Making them make sense is what I do.” Ulysses quickly humbled me with the wall of metaphors, symbols, ambiguities, and overtones which allow it to remain one of the most critically-scrutinized novels of all time. While nowhere near the same “run away from the book right now” level as the aforementioned modernist masterpiece, Ales Kot and Will Tempest’s Material 2 struck me in a similar way – one which a comic book has never inspired in me. With the feeling that everything I read seemed fresh, dense, and that I barely scratched the surface on the first go-through, I recommended the two issues of the series thus far to a friend whose opinion I trust greatly, who simply thought that Material “had its head up its own ass.” So, which one of us is right? Continue reading →

Jun 26 2015

Secret Wars Round-Up: Issues released 6/24/15

Today, Patrick, Spencer and Drew discuss E is for Extinction 1, Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies 1, Infinity Gauntlet 2, Planet Hulk 2, M.O.D.O.K. Assassin 2, X-Men ’92 Infinite Comics 3, Black Widow 18 and Loki: Agent of Asgard 15

Patrick: How do you tell an alternate-reality version of a story? What elements of the original do you need to keep and which do you need to invert? How different is too different? How samey is too samey? Secret Wars is starting to show the full depth of its commitment playing with concepts that we’ve become so comfortable with over the years. Maybe now it’s cool to be a mutant. Maybe now M.O.D.O.K. stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Kissing. More than simple re-imaginings, Secret Wars gets to explore some truly re-invented and re-conceptualized worlds. Continue reading →

Jun 26 2015

Batgirl 41

Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Batgirl 41, originally released June 24th, 2015.

Spencer: One of the defining moments of my childhood was watching the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Over the Edge” in its initial broadcast. For any of you who aren’t familiar with the episode, it the one that ends its first act with Batgirl falling from a building to her death, proceeds to Jim Gordon, who feels betrayed that Batman never told him that Batgirl was his daughter Barbara, raiding the Batcave and capturing Alfred, and only gets more insane (and more violent — I never saw the episode reran) from there. The sheer spectacle of the episode captured my young heart, but it also garnered its fair share of detractors for its ending: the whole story was a nightmare of Barbara’s after being gassed by the Scarecrow.

The “it’s all a dream” ending never bothered me because, as exhilarating as the action was, the true heart of the story was Barbara’s fear of what would happen if she never told her father she was Batgirl. The conflict over Babs’ identity and Jim’s reaction to it is one I’ve seen rehashed in the comics numerous times since, but with diminishing returns. With Jim Gordon now taking the mantle of Batman, it seems inevitable that Batgirl 41 would again focus on this aspect of Jim and Barbara’s relationship, but I feel like I’ve seen this story a few too many times at this point. Continue reading →

Jun 25 2015

Grayson 9

Today, Michael and Patrick are discussing Grayson 9, originally released June 24th, 2015.

Michael: I think the majority of comic-book-dom would agree that Dick Grayson is awesome. I mean, I love Dick Grayson but some people loooooooove Dick Grayson. There is something inexplicable about certain corners of fandom and their obsession with the former boy wonder. There is the fact that he is the first (some would argue best) Robin, holding the role for over 40 years. But it’s not just that – Dick Grayson has become something of a sex symbol in the Bat-fan community. Dick Grayson fans are very vocal about this fact, using social media to express their interest to see more “butt shots” of Mr. Grayson to various writers including Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins and current Grayson writer Tom King. There is of course the easy/stupid pun involved in his name – which I will ignore – but fans of all genders and sexualities are all about Dick Grayson. With Grayson – issue 9 especially – Tom King has not been afraid to give the people what they want. Continue reading →

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