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:

Jul 24 2013

Animal Man 22

animal man 22

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Animal Man 22, originally released July 17th, 2013. 

Scott: I recently watched a birth. I wasn’t in the room, I just saw footage that’s going to be used in a documentary, but trust me, it was enough. As anyone who has ever witnessed a birth can surely tell you, it’s not recommended for those with weak stomachs. At the same time, and probably for the same reason, it’s impossible to look away. It’s human nature; when you’re faced with something you don’t really want to see, you just have to look. It’s why, when you cover your eyes during a scary scene in a movie, you still peek through the cracks of your fingers. The same thing happened to me while reading Animal Man 22. Writer Jeff Lemire and artist Steve Pugh have crafted an issue full of things I never wanted to see, thus ensuring I wouldn’t look away. Those clever bastards…

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Jul 23 2013

A + X 10

a+x 10

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing A + X 10, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Shelby: I don’t expect a lot when I read A + X. I figure stupid fun at best, and just stupid at worst. Usually I’m dead on the money, but sometimes these stories give me a little more than I expect. It doesn’t happen every time, and it almost never happens twice in one issue, but I’m always pleasantly surprised when it does.

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Jul 23 2013

Green Lantern: New Guardians 22

new guardians 22

Today, Mikyzptlk and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern: New Guardians 22, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Mikyzptlk: As you know, all of the GL books have recently begun new directions with new creators. Kyle Rayner’s new direction involves babysitting the “New Guardians” and he’s recently run into some trouble. Sure, there’s Relic, but while I’m enjoying much of this book, the real trouble that Kyle has run into is that his book has been hijacked (again) by the main events of another book. Continue reading →

Jul 23 2013

FF 9

FF 9

Today, Patrick and Ethan are discussing FF 9, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Patrick: We recently decided to ax our coverage of the FF‘s sister series, Fantastic Four. Partially, we did this because Reed Richards is an insufferable asshole, but the series also suffered from its own apparent non-importance. The idea of the Fantastic Four’s totally episodic adventures through time and space sounded like an awful lot of fun, but they started to feel trivial pretty quickly. When you account for the Magic School Bus level of coincidence involved in some of their stories (“hey look kids, it’s Julius Cesar!”), it became clear that the story wasn’t for us. Or was it? FF’s stories have been pretty insubstantial too, but there’s something about the cast and the sense of humor we just liked more. With this issue, Fraction reveals that none of his stories have been irrelevant, and all of these threads are woven together into a single tapestry, telling personal, interested and interesting stories about the people touched by the Fantastic Four. Plus: POOL PARTY!

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Jul 19 2013

Red Sonja 1

red sonja 1

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Red Sonja 1, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Shelby: I love fantasy novels. I’m about half-way through re-reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series in preparation for the final book, and I’m loving every minute of it. Jordan had some interesting ideas about men and women, most of them boiling down to the fact that men and women are actually just all people, and very similar in many ways. It seems like a pretty straight-forward idea, but it’s pretty unique for a genre that may have a worse reputation than comics for its depictions of women. So a fantasy comic book with a female lead known for the least beach-appropriate swimwear in the history of bathing suits seems a risky venture in this day and age, one more likely to appear as the worst kind of dated than anything else. Luckily for us all, Red Sonja is in the ridiculously talented hands of Gail Simone, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.
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Jul 17 2013

Indestructible Hulk 10

hulk 10

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Indestructible Hulk 10, originally released July 10th, 2013.

Shelby: It’s really easy to look back at a situation after the fact, and see the obvious solution to the problem, what with hindsight being 20/20 and all that. I know it sounds like I’m making some sort of mean joke, talking about vision in an issue of Indestructible Hulk that features Matt Murdoch, aka Daredevil, the blindest lawyer/masked vigilante around, but stick with me. For Bruce Banner, great big chunks of his life are lived with only hindsight to guide him. When he turns into the Hulk, he loses his control; all he can do is look back when it’s all over and try to assess what happened, maybe even learn something useful about the Hulk for next time. Banner moves forward as himself by constantly looking back to when he was the Hulk. It’s not ideal, but I guess hindsight is better than no sight, am I right Matt? Ok, one mean joke…
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Jul 17 2013

Green Lantern Corps 22

green lantern corps 22

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 22, originally released July 10th, 2013.

Patrick: My little sister studied in Ecuador for a semester in college. She spent a couple weeks tromping around the rain forest and camping on a beach on the Galapogos and dropping her new camera into a river – y’know: normal stuff when you’re studying the biodiversity of one of the coolest places on the planet. Naturally, she came back with new perspectives on birds and insects and had a few anecdotes about hilariously adorable seal pups on the beach. But the part of the experience that she ends up talking about — and I trust the part of the experience that stayed with her the most — is just about the friends that she made while hiking the Forest in the Clouds. When I asked her about that, she shrugged and said “It turns out human beings are the most fascinating mega-fauna on Earth.” She was being flippant (as flippant as one can be while still using words like “mega-fauna”), but it’s an oddly profound statement: for all the wonders of the world, people are going to be the most interesting thing you encounter. DC’s galaxies are vast, and jam-packed with strange and wonderful things. Issue 22 of Green Lantern Corps features a lot of these wonders, but all without losing sight of the of the most interesting mega-fauna at the heart of it: John Stewart and Fatality.
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Jul 16 2013

Nightwing 22

nightwing 22

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Nightwing 22, originally released July 10th, 2013.

Scott: Some things just feel right. Like Dick Grayson, I once moved to Chicago seeking answers. For me, it was during college, and after growing restless at school in my home state of Michigan, I transferred to Northwestern University in northern Chicago. Knowing no one, I was able to shed a lot of the inhibitions that followed through my life and grow in ways I probably couldn’t have if I’d stayed closer to home. It’s a common story- a change of scenery leads to a rejuvenation- and it’s impressive that something so simple could inject such new life into Nightwing. In Nightwing 22, the title feels less restrained than ever. As Dick’s involvement in Chicago expands and the characters around him grow more complex, Kyle Higgins may have to find excuses to keep Dick in Chicago longer. Nightwing feels right at home.
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Jul 12 2013

Justice League 22

Today, Taylor and Shelby are discussing Justice League 22 originally released July 10th, 2013. This issue is part of the Trinity War crossover event. Click here for our complete Trinity War coverage.

trinity war divTaylor: The Flash has been living up to his abilities and making himself appear nearly everywhere with his insane speed. He popped up in Dial H a couple months ago and he’s currently enjoying a run (pun definitely intended) in Justice League Dark. The character has fit in remarkably well in both of these titles and in Justice League Dark, Barry even goes so far as to say he feels more comfortable working with the JLD than he does with his regular teammates. That Barry would say such a thing is interesting both for its narrative consequences and for what it means about his crossover events in general. It’s not always an easy thing to integrate a hero, with his or her own mythology and personality, into a different title that has its tone and voice. So what happens when you try to integrate not just one hero, but an entire league of them into a different title? Can that be done? Issue 22 of the Justice League, which marks the beginning of the Trinity War crossover event, makes it seem that such a thing is not only possible, but that it can done well too.

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Jul 11 2013

Batman 22

batman 22

Today, Shelby and Scott are discussing Batman 22, originally released July 10th, 2013.

Shelby: There’s a special kind of arrogance that comes with being in your early twenties. We all knew that one guy, fresh out of school, who was convinced he knew it all, that his way was THE way and if you didn’t agree than you were wrong. It comes in part from being freshly educated. You’ve got all this new knowledge, this new way of viewing the world around you; you think you have finally figured everything out when actually you’re just beginning to figure out how to think. It also comes from the new-found independence of college life. Whether you enjoyed the pseudo-independence of the dormitory lifestyle, or had more pressing concerns like rent and the electric bill in an apartment, it’s probably the first time you’ve been solely in charge of yourself. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, I didn’t know that guy…” then there’s a chance you were that guy. Fear not! Bruce Wayne’s behavior this issue of Batman shows us you’re in good company.

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