Category Taylor Anderson

Dec 23 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 29

Today, Taylor and Patrick are discussing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 29, originally released December 18th, 2013.

Taylor: Despite its dubious reputation, the 1990 live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is actually a pretty good movie. While some see it simply as a cash cow (which, it also certainly was), it also has a good amount of heart and depth. Midway through the movie, the turtles get pretty beat up by the Foot Clan and Master Splinter is captured. The turtles retreat to April’s farmhouse and while there, they heal and experience a spiritual and meaningful growth. They learn to function better as a team and dig into the depths of their beings and find what it is that makes them special. This is the climax of the movie. These scenes are where the turtles come into their own and turn the corner and realize they must and can defeat Shredder. With this in mind, it’s exciting to see the TMNT series move its focus to April’s farm. In the wake of City Fall, what can the turtles learn? What must they learn in order to survive as a force for good and family? Continue reading →

Dec 20 2013

East of West 8

east of west 8

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing East of West 8, originally released December18th, 2013.

Shelby: The occasionally tempestuous relationship between the church and the state has a longer relationship than one might realize. In ancient times, being a ruler often came with the title of deity; your word was law because it was divine. Martin Luther was one of the first to begin to call for a separation of the two, and by the time the First Amendment of the United States was drawn up, Thomas Jefferson was speaking of “a wall of separation between the church and state,” in order to guarantee religious freedom. Personally, I believe very strongly in the idea of the separation of the two, namely because there are many religions in the world, and I see no point in a government forcing someone to follow a set of beliefs. That is not genuine worship. In East of West, however, Jonathan Hickman presents a trickier situation; there is no religion, there is no government, there is only The Message, and if the Message demands political leaders keep the populace dumb and under control to prep them for the four horseman of the apocalypse, the politicians hasten to obey.

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Dec 16 2013

Uncanny X-Men 15.INH

uncanny x-men 15 INH

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Uncanny X-Men 15.INH, originally released December 11th,  2013.

Taylor: The wonderful thing about monthly comics is that you get to spend a lot of time with the characters you love. When you think about it, these characters become part of your life for months and sometimes even years. The massive amount of space and time allotted to authors to bring these characters to life is full of potential and can pay off in unexpected ways. By not being constricted with set schedules and the need to develop a plot quickly, authors have the chance to tell us stories with characters that are as real as the people we meet in everyday life. In Uncanny X-Men 15.INH Brian Michael Bendis shows us the limitless possibility of character development in comics as well as some of its pitfalls. It’s a fascinating read — and fun to boot.

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Dec 13 2013

Superman/Wonder Woman 3

Today, Taylor and Mikyzptlk are discussing Superman/Wonder Woman 3, originally released December 11th, 2013.

Taylor: The holidays are a strenuous time. For all of the good that comes with them (family, friends, food, secret trips to the store for booze) there’s a lot of hard work that comes with them too. Travel is difficult, parents ask awkward questions, and for a lot of people choosing gifts for those they care about is especially difficult. How will you know they’ll like it? Are you spending too much (or  too little)? Does this gift sum up our relationship? You would think that for superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman these daily worries of the common man would be of no concern. However, in the third issue of the series this proves untrue, as Wonder Woman and Superman continue to develop their relationship in a way that’s recognizably human. Oh, and they have to deal with a crossover from the Phantom Zone who possesses the power to kill Superman and enslave Earth. Just your average holiday gathering.

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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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Dec 6 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Microseries 8: Shredder

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Microseries 8: Shredder, originally released December 4th, 2013. Taylor: For many things, the magic is in the mystery. Not knowing how a magician sawed that lady in half makes the trick something more than it really is. We all know that the magician isn’t actually cutting a living person in two and putting them back together again. However, we don’t know exactly how they created that illusion and are left to wonder how exactly the trick (or illusion) was pulled off.  This blurs the line between reality and perception and lets the imagination fill in the gaps. Anything is possible in this space and therein lies the beauty of a magic show. Just so, the circumstances surrounding Oroku Saki’s death and rebirth have, up to this point, been shrouded in mystery. It’s been fun speculating just how the turtle’s age old enemy has defied death, but in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Microseries 8: Shredder, we get some definite answers. With the illusion of his rebirth dispelled, it seems that the TMNT universe has lost a little magic of its own.

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Dec 4 2013

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 11/27/13

round upLook, 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, Taylor and Spencer are discussing All New X-Men 19, Talon 13, Superior Spider-Man 22, All-Star Western 25, Wolverine and the X-Men Annual 1, Aquaman 25, and Indestructible Hulk 16.

slim-banner4Taylor: It’s always a little jarring when you pop open one of your favorite monthlies and are suddenly confronted with the work of a new artist. Even though you may have already known about the artist change from reading the cover or by giving the cover more than a simple glance, it’s strange to see the characters in a new light. The thing is, even if the new artist is just as good as the previous, sometimes we find ourselves rejecting the new. Humans just aren’t good with change I guess. So when I read All New X-Men 19 this past week it took me a bit to cope with the change of artist on this title. Making things more difficult is my love of Stuart Immonen’s work on this title. I feel like his art the perfect balance of photo realism and cartoonism for this title as it reflects the tone Brian Michael Bendis’ writing quite well. Continue reading →

Nov 29 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 28

tmnt 28

Today, Drew and Taylor are discussing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 28, originally released November 27th, 2013.

Don’t it always seem to go/that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?

-Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

Drew: It’s easy to take things for granted. In our never-ending quest for the better, we often overlook the value of what we already have — especially if we’ve always had it. “Youth is wasted on the young,” as they say, which I’ve always taken to mean that you can only truly appreciate a carefree existence once you’ve lived a careful existence. Because kids have never lived in a world where their parents weren’t always there for them, they can’t really understand what it is their parents do for them in the first place. I’ve long felt the same way about Leonardo. He’s the leader because he’s always been the leader — I’ve never really understood what it is he brings to that role on the team (you know, besides having any of the more distinctive quirks of his brothers). City Fall has long featured some exploration of what life without Leo looks like, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 28 shows just how well the turtles work without him. Continue reading →

Nov 26 2013

Red Sonja 5

Alternating Currents: Red Sonja 5, Drew and Taylor

Today, Drew and Taylor are discussing Red Sonja 5, originally released November 20th, 2013.

Time makes fools of us all.

-Eric Temple Bell

Drew: I’ve seen this E.T. Bell quote thrown around quite a bit, but it becomes less alluring with its often-omitted second half: “Our only comfort is that greater shall come after us.” It’s clear that Bell is taking a historical perspective — our ideas and actions will someday be looked upon with the same bemusement that we have for the Salem witch trials — but I’ve always been more intrigued by how this plays out in my own lifetime. Time has a history of making us eat our own words, whether it’s doing something we swore we’d never do, giving up something we swore we’d always love, or just making us embarrassed about the people we used to be. A recent piece in the New York Times explained that we’re terrible at anticipating those kinds of changes — we simply can’t fathom that we’ll ever change, even though we always do. I found myself thinking about this quite a bit as I read Red Sonja 5, which finds two former friends battling on the very grounds they swore they would never return to. Continue reading →

Nov 22 2013

Zero 3

zero 3

Today, Taylor and Scott are discussing Zero 3, originally released November 20th, 2013.

Taylor: Tell you what, reading a Cormac McCarthy novel is a chore. This is by no means a criticism, merely an observation. I think anyone who has read any book by McCarthy would agree with me – the guy writes some pretty bleak stuff. Despite that, his writing is some of the most important to grace the written page in the past fifty years. He’s a master at his craft and his style and voice are so unique that one could argue they have become iconic. Still, reading the likes of Blood Meridian or The Road is far from a pleasant way to pass the time. These books are beautiful in their own way, but they are equally violent and incredibly depressing. Given this, it seems fitting that the afterward of Zero 3 quotes a passage from Blood Meridian. Like McCarthy’s work, Zero is bloody and disturbing, but also like McCarthy’s work it is thought provoking and occasionally beautiful.

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