Category Spencer Irwin

May 13 2014

Moon Knight 3

moon knight 3Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Moon Knight 3, originally released May 7th, 2014.

Spencer: I’ve always struggled with ambiguity; as a child I was more concerned with knowing the “correct” answer or meaning of something than finding my own interpretations, and though I’ve mostly moved past this due to growing up, becoming (slightly) more emotionally stable, and especially due to my writing here, occasionally I still come across a piece of work that’s so ambiguous that I just have trouble dealing with it. Moon Knight is one of those books; it’s so opaque that any number of possible meanings could be applied to its story, leading me to wonder if there’s actually any meaning at all. Continue reading →

May 9 2014

Rat Queens 6

rat queens 6

Today, Spencer and Shelby are discussing Rat Queens 6, originally released May 7th, 2014.

Spencer: If you asked me to describe the members of Rat Queens, I’d probably start by calling them “young punk rock Golden Girls as D&D characters,” and while there’s certainly an element of humor to that, I think there’s also more than a little truth. How many of you have actually watched Golden Girls? The four leads were the best of friends, close as family, but they didn’t meet until they were all in their 50s or 60s, meaning that they were constantly hearing stories or meeting people from each other’s pasts that they had never heard of before. I was reminded of this while reading Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch’s Rat Queens 6; it’s obvious how close our adventurers are and how much they care about each other, but it’s just as clear that they know absolutely nothing about each other’s pasts. Continue reading →

May 7 2014

Free Comic Book Day 2014

FCBDFirst held in 2002 to capitalize on the anticipated release of the first Spider-Man film, Free Comic Book Day has grown into one of the most celebrated annual events in comics. For some comics shops, FCBD has turned into a comic con in miniature, complete with artist signing, cosplayers, and food vendors; for others, it’s more of a low-key excuse to come in on a Saturday (and hopefully put comics in some new readers’ hands). Living across the country, we of course had very different experiences this FCBD. Here are our thoughts.

slim-bannerSpencer: I remember being a little disappointed the very first time I attended Free Comic Book Day (nearly a decade ago!) and realized I couldn’t have any comic I wanted for free. Since then, though, I’ve come to appreciate how magical FCBD truly is — especially as done by my local comic shop, Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark, Delaware. FCBD is a Comic-Con in miniature, a chance to unite a community of nerds of all shapes and sizes, and a glimpse at the next generation of comic book readers as they begin to fall in love with the medium. I couldn’t have had a better time.

Continue reading →

May 6 2014

New Avengers 17

new avengers 17Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing New Avengers 17, originally released April 30th, 2014. 

slim-bannerSpencer:  On the surface, the Great Society and the Illuminati — the two teams at the center of Jonathan Hickman and Rags Morales’ New Avengers 17 — seem to be as different as day and night, but the more we dig into these groups, the more similarities emerge. They may handle the Incursions differently, but deep down, both teams seem to know that they’re only delaying the inevitable: it’s the way they face the end of the world that truly defines these heroes.

Continue reading →

May 1 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 1

amazing spider-man 1Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing The Amazing Spider-Man 1, originally released April 30th, 2014.

Patrick: If The Superior Spider-Man had us all asking what it means to be a hero (and, by extension, what it means to be a villain), then The Amazing Spider-Man seems poised to ask the question of what it means to be Spider-Man. It is a surprisingly wide question, with seemingly hundreds of discrete answers. What’s it mean to be Spider-Man? Kaine will tell you one thing, Miguel O’Hara will tell you another thing, Peter Parker will tell you something else, and Doc Ock (may he rest in peace) probably wouldn’t dignify the question with a response. Y’see, there are a lot of Spiders out there, and even more Spider-fans; what we want and what we expect from Spider-Man is so varied that even an issue designed to celebrate the hero can’t pick a tone and stick to it. It’s a fascinating, if uneven (and possibly even fascinatingly uneven), exploration of Spider-Man. Continue reading →

Apr 30 2014

Lazarus 8

lazarus 8Today, Shelby and Spencer are discussing Lazarus 8, originally released April 23rd, 2014.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Traditional

The nail which sticks out gets hammered down.

Japanese Proverb

Shelby: Two opposing ideas: one, that speaking up about problems is the only way to call attention to them and get them fixed, the other, that maybe standing out from the crowd and speaking out is more dangerous than it’s worth. I am firmly in the former camp; I believe dissent is the first, important step to affect change. After all, if no one knows there’s a problem, how’s it going to get solved? But maybe I only feel that way because I’ve had the luxury of never being in a situation where that would be the more dangerous approach.

Continue reading →

Apr 28 2014

Original Sin 0

original sin 0Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing Original Sin 0, originally released April 23rd, 2014.

Spencer: A few months ago Patrick and I covered Inhumanity 1, and while most of my complaints about that issue still stand, at the time I misunderstood its purpose; it wasn’t meant to be the beginning of a story, but instead to serve as a primer to catch new readers up on recent events in other titles. In a way, Mark Waid and Jim Cheung’s Original Sin 0 is almost the complete opposite of Inhumanity 1; I enjoyed the story much more, but it’s a story that looks to only have the vaguest of connections to the upcoming Original Sin miniseries.

Continue reading →

Apr 25 2014

Justice League United 0

justice league united 0

Today, Shelby and Spencer are discussing Justice League United 0, originally released April 23rd, 2014. 

Shelby: We’ve seen a few different ways to handle zero issues. Not, “I have no issues, and I don’t know how to handle it,” or “I have issues with the mathematical concept of null value,” but with comic book issues numbered 0. I’m a big fan of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti’s execution of the zero with Harley Quinn 0, which established the character and setting, but more importantly established the tone of the title. Heck, if you really want to explore the gamut of what a zero issue can do, check out our insanely full coverage of DC’s Zero Month two and a half years ago. A zero issue can be whatever the creative team wants to make of it, and Jeff Lemire and artist Mike McKone seem so eager to start this story they just want to dive right in.

Continue reading →

Apr 25 2014

Batman Eternal 3

batman eternal 3Today, Spencer leads a discussion on Batman Eternal 3, originally released April 23rd, 2014.

Spencer: I’m impressed by how quickly Batman Eternal is moving along. A year-long story with new chapters releasing every week could easily fall into the trap of being slowly paced, or even worse, of using filler to stretch out the story to fit into 52 issues, but if anything, the creative team of Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, and Jason Fabok seem to be speeding through the story at an alarming rate. I’m starting to think that “the end” teased back in issue one may come sooner than we think; at the speed they’re throwing out ideas, the end may very well be the beginning of the story. Continue reading →

Apr 23 2014

Winter Soldier: The Bitter March 3

winter soldier 3Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Winter Soldier: The Bitter March 3, originally released April 16th, 2014.

Spencer: Considering its Cold War setting, it’s no surprise that Rick Remender and Roland Boschi’s Winter Soldier: The Bitter March has been a story filled with pawns and masterminds, a story populated almost entirely by people who are being used and the people who are doing the using. What’s interesting about issue 3 is the way the players begin to transcend those labels. What happens when pawns tire of being pawns? And what role does Ran Shen play in all of this?

Continue reading →