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Oct 25 2017

Clever Twists Make Bitch Planet: Triple Feature 5 a Standout

by Drew Baumgartner

Bitch Planet Triple Feature 5

This article will contain SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

As an anthology series, Bitch Planet: Triple Feature seems to offer a fairly open brief to its contributors: tell an eight-page story set somewhere in the world of Bitch Planet, examining how its entrenched gender and racial biases affect everyday life. But, of course, exactly how those biases manifest in the world of Bitch Planet often needs to be defined in the moment, as these short stories are often venturing into areas yet unexplored by the main series. For these, creators seem to have three primary approaches: 1) present the biases as they appear in the real world with little embellishment, 2) heighten or exaggerate the biases (or their enforcement) that we see in the real world, or 3) invert the biases that we’re familiar with, creating a bizarre reflection of the real world. Issue 5 features all of these approaches, and makes a strong case for each. Continue reading →

Oct 25 2017

Generation Gone 4: Discussion

by Ryan Desaulniers and Mark Mitchell

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Ryan D: In the premiere issue of this series, Mr. Akio uses the image of the ouroboros as the symbol for his Project Utopia during his pitch to General West. While this motif appears without much fanfare, it hasn’t been until issue four of Generation Gone that the significance of the serpent eating its own tail begins to fulfill its own inherent meanings. Originally seen as iconography from an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the ouroboros survived through medieval mysticism until finding its home in Renaissance alchemical texts and beyond. Throughout its tenure, it’s represented many things, with the common denominator being duality, and Ales Kot infuses this issue with a multitude of cyclicality and layered recurring through-lines. Continue reading →

Oct 25 2017

Tim-21 Goes Full Hero in Descender 25

by Spencer Irwin

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

I’ve come to love Descender for a number of reasons: the vast universe and mythology Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen have created, Nguyen’s lush, gorgeous backgrounds and designs, Lemire’s complex characters and intricate web of events. The very first thing that drew me to this series, though, was Tim-21 himself. The concept of a young robot on the run for his life, combined with Nguyen’s adorable design for Tim, immediately made me want to follow this series simply because I felt protective of Tim-21. As the series progressed it found Tim-21 slipping into the background, but Descender 25 serves not only as a grand spotlight for Tim-21, but a testament to what makes him great — and what he may be able to accomplish in the future. Continue reading →

Oct 24 2017

Shifting Motives in Kill Or Be Killed 13

By Drew Baumgartner

Kill or be Killed 13

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

This time, it’s personal.

Tagline, Jaws: The Revenge

It’s easy to deride “this time, it’s personal” — even without the association with the fourth Jaws movie, the sentiment has always carried with it a kind of self-parody. Or, I should say: that particular articulation of the sentiment has always felt that way. But the notion of a narrative escalating because of personal stakes is essential to virtually all drama (though, admittedly, not every drama has an impersonal/personal threshold that needs to be crossed). Which makes the implied sneer that goes with saying “this time, it’s personal” somewhat unfortunate — otherwise, it would be the perfect way to express Dylan’s newfound motivation for his war on the Russian Mafia. Continue reading →

Oct 23 2017

Pride Goeth in Curse Words 9

by Ryan Mogge

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Hubris is like the ultimate pair of shades. You think you look pretty fricking cool but meanwhile you are not quite seeing what’s in front of you. In Curse Words 9, both Wizord and Botchko are too self-absorbed to see the trouble looming. Charles Soule and Ryan Browne play straight with the audience, creating a layer of dramatic irony that makes the attitudes of Wizard and Botchko easier to endure.

Continue reading →

Oct 17 2017

The Futility of Action in The Wicked + The Divine 32

by Spencer Irwin

The Wicked + The Divine 32

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Something Amateratsu said way back in the first issue of The Wicked + The Divine has always stuck with me — she said that the Pantheon exist to inspire. This implies that their direct ability to change the world, for better or for worse, is limited; like most creators and performers, their true strength is (or at least should be) their ability to move others through their art. This seems an especially significant point to keep in mind while reading issue 32, which finds the futility in all of its characters’ attempts at grand gestures or plans — but especially Dionysus’. Continue reading →

Oct 11 2017

The Same World, but Two Different Realities in Paper Girls 16

By Spencer Irwin

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

One of my most vivid memories is a day in first grade when we had a substitute teacher. I opened a little tupperware container full of alphabet flash cards and it fell on the floor, scattering the cards all over. When I started to pick them up, the teacher came over and yelled at me for “crawling around on the floor,” wouldn’t listen to a word of my protest, and sent me to detention. The flash cards remained on the floor for the rest of the day.

When you’re young, it often feels like you and adults live in two different worlds, but that specific scenario was one where I quite literally felt like the teacher and I were seeing and experiencing two very different realities. That rift between generations is illustrated just as literally by Cliff Chiang, Brian K. Vaughan, and Matthew Wilson in Paper Girls 16. Continue reading →

Oct 10 2017

The Other Sickness in Cannibal 8

by Patrick Ehlers

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

I think we can all agree that cannibals are bad. Right? They feast on the flesh of human beings, their survival requires murder of innocent people — that’s pretty cut and dried. But there’s a second sickness that’s infested the town of Willow, Florida, and it’s proving just as deadly. Issue 8 of Cannibal focuses on those infected with affection for a cannibal. Symptoms include: viewing some people as “garbage people,” poor judgement, and prolonged cases of severe, obvious dishonesty. Continue reading →

Oct 3 2017

The Weight of Memories in Saga 47

by Ryan Mogge

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

We all experience millions of moments. Some are life-changing, some represent a larger theme in our lives, and some don’t seem to mean much of anything. If you could choose three of these moments to tell your story, it would be hard not to stick to the benchmarks: births, deaths, weddings, etc. In Saga 47, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples give us a few glimpses into The Will’s past and, by the nature of storytelling, we know that these are not random, but their selection tells a story of its own.
Continue reading →

Oct 3 2017

Introducing the Implied “Rock” in The Hard Place 2

By Drew Baumgartner

The Hard Place 2

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

The Hard Place is like a nested doll of hooks. “Former gangbanger tries to stay clean after prison” is a fine premise, but Doug Wagner and Nic Rummel pushed that a step further in their first issue, asking what happens when that gangbanger is forced back into the game at gunpoint. Issue 2 cleverly twists the knife further, making AJ’s co-hostage the daughter of his psychopathically violent boss, such that the presumption that AJ is complicit in the robbery doesn’t just pit him against the cops, but the entire criminal underworld. Continue reading →