Category Shelby Peterson

Shelby Peterson, Editor, Designer
shelby@retcon-punch.com

Location: Chicago

History With Comics: While the X-Men will always hold a special place in her heart, Shelby’s first love was Batman. Between Michael Keaton and Kevin Conroy, she fell hard. Like many, her first graphic novel was The Watchmen in college, followed by a handful of the Batman must-reads. Fast forward to last year: Shelby discovered the awesomeness of the DC universe through Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern Rebirth and Blackest Night. She once again fell in love with a comic book character, but this time it was Neil Gaiman’s Morpheus from his Sandman series, and now all her thoughts are translated into 8 or 9 panels per page with the occasional 2-page spread.

New 52 Favorites: Batgirl, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batman

Other Favorite Comics:

Sep 30 2013

Nova 8

Alternating Currents: Nova 8, Drew and Shelby

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Nova 8, originally released September 25th, 2013. This issue is part of the Infinity crossover event. Click here for complete Infinity coverage.

infinity divider

Drew: Teenage superheroes are tricky. Part of what makes them appealing is their adult-like agency, but if you give them too much, they cease to resemble actual teens — writers must maintain a careful balance between escapism and realism. One of the most common tools used by writers to keep their teen heroes grounded is to surround them with other teen superheroes, and maybe even have them fight teen villains. This effectively scales their world back, giving them a comfortable niche between regular, mortal adolescence, and full-on adult superheroics. In Nova 8, writer Zeb Wells starts building that teen cast, giving Sam a stake in the events of Infinity that are fully unique. Continue reading →

Sep 30 2013

FF 12

Alternating Currents: FF 12, Shelby and Drew

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing FF 12, originally released September 25th, 2013.

Shelby: Destiny takes on a whole new meaning in ComicBookLand. To us regular folk, destiny is the idea that the natural order of the universe has predetermined our future. In comic books, it generally means a version of yourself from the future has arrived who knows what happens next because they’ve already lived it. It makes it a lot harder to argue your future is your own when faced with someone who knows what you’re going to do next, and the consequences of those actions. Unless, of course, you’re in Matt Fraction’s FF; no matter how many intellects from the future drop by, you never actually know what will happen next.

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Sep 27 2013

Saga 14

saga 14

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Saga 13, originally released September 25th, 2013.

Shelby: One of the big parts of growing up is learning that you can’t always have what you want. As a kid, when your parents tell you that you can’t have something, you pitch a fit in the middle of the Jewel-Osco, but as you grow up you learn to more appropriately deal with disappointment. It’s a process that never stops, because we constantly have things we want taken away from us. Sometimes we have to choose between two things we want, knowing that we’ll always be a little disappointed for the option we didn’t take. Sometimes we have to face the hard truth that we can never again have what was lost, no matter how badly we want it.

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Sep 26 2013

The Wake 4

wake 4

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing The Wake 4, originally released September 25th, 2013.

Shelby:  Like any good nerd, I love me some board games. I like the strategy games a lot, but I’m not great at them. I played the Game of Thrones board game at my LCS recently, and I lost miserably. But, like anytime I find myself at the losing end of a game, I refused to give up until the bitter end. Whether it’s high-level strategy or something as simple as Plants vs. Zombies, I will play it out until it’s over. There’s some small hope that I might miraculously win, sure, but mostly it’s because I refuse to go down without a fight. I will make it as difficult and painful as possible for those around me until I have truly lost. I don’t know if this makes me admirably defiant in the face of certain doom, or just no fun to play games with, but it is how I roll. Lee Archer and the (very few) surviving crew members of the ghost rig find themselves in a similar “give up or go down fighting” sort of situation, but for them the stakes are a lot higher than comic shop bragging rights.
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Sep 25 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 13

thor 13

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 13, originally released September 18th, 2013.

Drew: A reviled leader returns, shocking a land that had long ago moved on. OR A beloved leader returns, rescuing a land that had long ago lost its way. Depending on your political ideology (and location) those statements could equally describe Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin, Newt Gingrich, or Hillary Clinton. The point is, nobody is the villain in their own story, though they may widely be seen as such by others. It can be hard for people to understand how their political savior is seen by others as pure evil, and it’s exactly that kind of superlative exaggeration that has devolved modern politics into tribal chest-thumping matches. Thor: God of Thunder 13 isn’t quite even-handed enough to confuse anyone about who the villain is, but it does provide a thrilling introduction that has us rooting for that villain…at least until he starts killing babies. Continue reading →

Sep 24 2013

Action Comics 23.3: Lex Luthor

lex luthor 23.3Today, Shelby and guest writer Dad — er, Pete, are discussing Action Comics 23.3: Lex Luthor, originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Villain’s Month event. Click here for our Villains Month coverage.

villain divShelby: If there’s ever been a character defined by ego, it’s Lex Luthor. He’s the classic evil genius; unimaginably intelligent and selfish to the bone. Lex Luthor’s primary concern is Lex Luthor, and there’s no moral code he won’t break to get his way. He’s the perfect nemesis for Superman because they are complete opposites. Superman uses the power he has to give, Luthor uses it to take. Writer Charles Soule, in the guise of a “day-in-the-life-of” piece gives us a glimpse of what the world would be like without a Superman to provide balance against Luthor. The results are grim and rather brilliant.

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Sep 24 2013

The Superior Spider-Man 18

superior spider-man 18

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing The Superior Spider-Man 18, originally released September 11th, 2013.

Shelby: I think Otto Octavius would be a terrible scientist. I know he’s brilliant, but he’s so arrogant he thinks he’s always right. He’s got no curiosity about anything because he believes he already has the right answer. He doesn’t ask questions or believe he can learn anything from anyone else. It’s a classic villain’s trait, really: the inability to think of the myriad of ways your latest scheme will fail because you are so convinced that you have all the answers. It looks like Otto is finally going to pay the price for his hubris, as his actions today could both kill him and all his friends (or, Peter’s friends, anyway), as well as destroy the future.

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Sep 20 2013

Thunderbolts 15

thunderbolts 15 infinity

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Thunderbolts 15, originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Infinity crossover event. Click here for complete Infinity coverage.

infinity divider

Shelby: I’ve got a big project at work right now that is causing my team some major headaches. Half the guys do their own thing, causing the other half no small amount of frustration. I feel I don’t have the time to do my portion as well as I would like, which leaves me extra frustrated as well. It’s easy to forget that we’re all on the same team, with the same goal: finish this project so we don’t have to work on it anymore. It’s even trickier for the Thunderbolts, in that they aren’t actually on the same team, they don’t actually have the same goal. Also, they’ve got a little alien problem.

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Sep 19 2013

Uncanny X-Men 12

Alternating Currents: Uncanny X-Men 12, Drew and ShelbyToday,  Drew and Shelby are discussing Uncanny X-Men 12 originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Battle of the Atom event. Click here for our complete coverage of Battle of the Atom.

atom dividerDrew: I’ve always loved the hypothetical question: “if your friend/family member/significant other committed a crime, would you hide them from the police?” It pits our relationships against our morals, or, more elegantly, our loyalty to people against our loyalty to ideas. What do you value more? Obviously, there are a number of mitigating factors, including the relationship to the given person, and the severity of the crime in question, but the point of the exercise is to think about where those factors start to matter — is this love truly unconditional, or are there conditions that trump it? Some situations are harder to call than others, but Uncanny X-Men 12 might mark the first narrative I’ve ever read where a man is conflicted with the idea of aiding and abetting himself. Continue reading →

Sep 18 2013

Teen Titans 23.1: Trigon

trigon 23.1

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Teen Titans 23.1: Trigon, originally released September 11th, 2013. This issue is part of the Villain’s Month event. Click here for our Villains Month coverage.

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Shelby: Demons, am I right? They are pretty much the most concentrated form of evil out there, short of Satan himself. There are a few demons floating around the DCU, so it’s no surprise one of them would get an issue this month. The only thing I knew about Trigon going into this issue was that he fathered Raven, and I was intrigued by what his origin would be. Would he be something along the Christian lines of Hell and minions of Satan, or would it be a more galactic demonic force sort of situation? Whatever it was, I knew it would be unsavory, in a dark magic sort of way, which is usually right up my alley. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for just how unsavory it would turn out to be.
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