Category Scott Baumgartner

Jan 21 2014

Rat Queens 4

rat queens 4

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Rat Queens 4, originally released January 15th, 2014.

Scott: Rat Queens is a perfect title for a comic, or for anything really. It’s an awesome dichotomy, one word evoking such filth, the other such poise. It’s repulsive yet powerful. Grotesque yet graceful. It’s also an incredibly apt descriptor for the series’ four main characters. They’re pretty unconventional, even by the standards of female mercenary squads. They’ll go do mushrooms in the woods one day, then unravel a complex murder plot the next. And I appreciate that they’re “Rat Queens” and not “The Rat Queens.” It’s not a title for their team, it’s just who they are. Rat Queens. This is a young series, and writer Kutis J. Wiebe has done an impressive job of building characters who live up to the title.
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Jan 14 2014

Action Comics 27

action comics 27

Today, Scott and Mikyzptlk are discussing Action Comics 27, originally released January 8th, 2014.

It’s tempting to see your enemies as evil, but there’s good and evil on both sides in every war ever fought.

Jorah Mormont

Scott: That’s a line from this new Game of Thrones Season 4 trailer (Don’t click this if you aren’t caught up with the show, there are some possible spoilers). It brings up a good point about how irrational wartime mentalities tend to be, and about the importance of looking at things from a foe’s perspective. I think it holds true on a person to person basis as well. There are two sides to everyone, and no matter how prevalent the evil in an enemy seems to you, if you look harder you will see some good in them. Action Comics 27 is something of a study on this theory, as every seemingly ill-intentioned character is revealed to have at least some heart.
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Jan 9 2014

Swamp Thing 27

swamp thing 27

Today, Shelby and Scott are discussing Swamp Thing 27, originally released January 8th, 2014.

Shelby: In Robert Jordan’s series Wheel of Time, children often play a game called Snakes and Foxes. The player has to get their game piece from the center of the board to the edge, and back to the center without getting “killed” by a snake or a fox. They are represented by separate pieces that the player has to roll for and move at the same time he moves his own. It’s only played by children because once they get to a certain age, they realize the game is structured such that the only way to win is to cheat; if you follow the rules of the game, there’s no way to defeat the snakes and the foxes. In Swamp Thing 27, Alec finds himself in a similar pickle; he played the Parliament’s game by their rules, and he lost. Instead of quitting the game because it’s pointless, though, he decides it’s time to cheat.

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Jan 6 2014

The Flash 26

flash 26

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing The Flash 26, originally released December 31st, 2013.

Scott: I recently watched the first episode of BBC’s Sherlock. After just a few minutes it was clear that the show is awesome- compelling characters, great acting, cool editing, etc. Then, something strange happened: halfway through the episode, I lost interest. I couldn’t figure it out; I had enjoyed everything about the show so far, but I couldn’t keep my head in it. It dawned on me that the show wasn’t following a typical format. The 90-minute episode is the length of a feature film, but with the slowly developing characters and relationships you’d expect from a new TV series. There’s nothing bad about the episode, it just doesn’t fit with what I’ve been trained to expect from a TV show. The beats were coming in the wrong places. I had the same feeling about The Flash 26. A stand alone issue of Flash? Something doesn’t seem right.
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Jan 2 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy 10

guardians of the galaxy 10

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Guardians of the Galaxy 10, originally released December 31st, 2013.

Drew: We may lament the way crossover events tend to hijack otherwise enjoyable series, but it’s an unfortunate way of life for comics published by the big two. Once the crossover is over, the series can return to the conflicts and situations that defined the series up until that point. Usually. Guardians of the Galaxy 10 is committed to the fallout of it’s most recent events (still reverberating from Infinity, which saw the “living death” of Thanos, AND Age of Ultron, which saw the introduction of Angela to the Marvel Universe), which is great for legitimizing the stakes of those events, but may alienate fans who liked the series before all of that started. Continue reading →

Dec 23 2013

Animal Man 26

animal man 26

Today, Scott and Drew are discussing Animal Man 26, originally released December 18th, 2013. 

Scott: If you could board a space shuttle and take off on a one-way trip towards the other end of the universe, would you do it? Could you leave behind the life you know forever in exchange for a unique human experience, a first look at the beauty and wonder of the cosmos? It’s a question many people would at least consider. Now, instead, imagine you woke up tomorrow and you were already on that ship, zipping past the asteroid belt, never to return home. Would you feel the same way about the experience if you didn’t get to make the choice? Would it be easier or harder to accept that your life would never be the same? Buddy Baker now finds himself in a situation where his life will soon be completely and eternally changed, and by no choice of his own (it also happens to an outer-space-related change). It’s a crazy curveball from writer Jeff Lemire.
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Dec 20 2013

Deadpool 21

deadpool 21Today, Spencer and Scott are discussing Deadpool 21, originally released December 18th, 2013.

Spencer: Is Deadpool simply comic relief—a comic book Daffy Duck—or is he a deep, dark character, using jokes to mask his pain? We’ve had heated debates about this in our comment sections in the past, but the truth is that Deadpool is both, yet Deadpool is also neither; he exists on a spectrum that can slide anywhere between those two points. In their Deadpool run thus far Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan have explored both extremes, but now—after Wade’s all time low in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”—we find a Deadpool who has become much more tragic, yet still retains much of his typical humor. I’ve taken to calling him “Grumpy Old Man Deadpool.” Continue reading →

Dec 17 2013

A + X 15

a+x 15

Today, Ethan and Scott are discussing A + X 15, originally released December 11th, 2013.

Ethan: A + X revels in the chance to turn big name team-ups into superpowered Laurel & Hardy shorts, and A + X 15 follows suit. Along the way, we get a rehash on an age old question of metaphysics, a bio of a famous president, and the alien invasions of our fast-food franchises.

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Dec 12 2013

Batman 26

batman 26

Today, Scott and Patrick are discussing Batman 26, originally released December 11th, 2013

Scott: There’s real risk in presenting a story like Zero Year. Mostly, there’s a risk that there won’t be enough tension to keep the story interesting. One thing that makes a story exciting to read is that we don’t know what will happen to the characters, and there’s always the possibility of tragedy striking a character we love. Those possibilities are limited in Zero Year. Since it takes place in the past, we know a lot of things can’t happen. Bruce can’t die in Zero Year. Neither can Alfred, Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox, or any other character we saw in the first 20 issues of Batman. With that in mind, let’s take this opportunity to thank goodness that Scott Snyder knows how to exploit all of the things this type of story can do. Zero Year shows an evolution — one of strange people becoming the characters we’ve come to know — and it’s full of mystery. Seems like a risk worth taking.
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Dec 10 2013

Black Bat 7

black bat 7

Today, Scott and Taylor are discussing Black Bat 7, originally released December 4th, 2013.

Scott: I like failure. Wait, I should clarify that a little; I like it when superheroes fail. It sucks for them, sure, but at least it’s exciting. When you read a lot of comics, you get used to seeing the heroes being, well, heroic. It’s nice to see one screw the pooch once in a while. So I can’t think of a better place for us to dive into Brian Buccellato’s The Black Bat. You see, The Black Bat just messed up real bad. I’m talking scores-of-people-are-now-dead-because-of-him bad. It’s a tough situation for anyone to rebound from, but if this issue teaches us one thing, it’s that Black Bat bounces back from failure with a vengeance. And if it teaches us a second thing, it’s that Buccellato isn’t afraid to move through plot points quickly. A little too quickly, I’d go so far to say.
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