Jan 10 2014

Black Widow 1

Today, Ethan and Shelby are discussing Black Widow 1, originally released January 8th, 2014.

Ethan: Adult life teaches you to juggle. Whether it’s as a stay-at-home parent, working a 9-to-5, or holding down more than one job at the same time, everything comes down to how well you can keep it all in the air. There’s the work-life balance, figuring out how to be in a serious relationship, managing different personalities in the office — there’s never a shortage of things to keep you on your toes. Natalia Romonova, aka Natasha, aka Black Widow knows a thing or two about this, though her version of finding balance is a bit more exotic and demanding than most. That is, unless YOUR average day involves infiltration and throwing people out of windows. Continue reading →

Jan 7 2014

New Avengers 13.INH

Today, Spencer and Ethan are discussing New Avengers 13, originally released December 31st, 2013.

Spencer: When you need to fight evil dictators or invading aliens, you call the Avengers, but when you find yourself facing threats a tad more existential, threats that can’t just be punched in the face, you call the Illuminati. Indeed, the Illuminati have spent most of writer Jonathan Hickman’s run on New Avengers trying to solve the Incursion problem, but in this month’s issue they find themselves faced with a threat much more tangible, yet just as overwhelmingly impossible as the Incursions themselves. As Doctor Strange says, the Black Priests are eviler than evil, “darker than dark.” Continue reading →

Jan 2 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy 10

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Guardians of the Galaxy 10, originally released December 31st, 2013.

Drew: We may lament the way crossover events tend to hijack otherwise enjoyable series, but it’s an unfortunate way of life for comics published by the big two. Once the crossover is over, the series can return to the conflicts and situations that defined the series up until that point. Usually. Guardians of the Galaxy 10 is committed to the fallout of it’s most recent events (still reverberating from Infinity, which saw the “living death” of Thanos, AND Age of Ultron, which saw the introduction of Angela to the Marvel Universe), which is great for legitimizing the stakes of those events, but may alienate fans who liked the series before all of that started. Continue reading →

Dec 31 2013

Best of 2013: Best Series

We all love a good one-off or anthology, but it’s the thrill of a series that keeps us coming back to our comic shop week-in, week-out. Whether it’s a decades-spanning ongoing or a short-run miniseries, serialized storytelling allows for bigger casts, bigger worlds, and bigger adventures. We were lucky to read a lot of great series over the past year, but it’s those that pushed the boundaries that we wanted to sing special praises of. These are our top 13 series of 2013.
Continue reading →

Dec 27 2013

Avengers 24

Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Avengers 24, originally released December 24th, 2013.

Spencer: Writer Jonathan Hickman has been playing with the metaphor of the Avengers being a machine throughout his entire run on Avengers. In theory it seems like a perfect idea, and Infinity has proven its efficiency in-universe, but there’s one little problem; it turns the various Avengers themselves, each an unique individual with their own skills and personalities, into little more than parts that can be moved around within the machine as needed. Hickman’s writing has often followed suit, using the Avengers to further his own grandiose mythology, but the most enjoyable part of Avengers 24 is the few pages where the machine grinds to a halt and the Avengers are allowed to just be themselves. Continue reading →

Dec 20 2013

Deadpool 21

Today, Spencer and Scott are discussing Deadpool 21, originally released December 18th, 2013.

Spencer: Is Deadpool simply comic relief—a comic book Daffy Duck—or is he a deep, dark character, using jokes to mask his pain? We’ve had heated debates about this in our comment sections in the past, but the truth is that Deadpool is both, yet Deadpool is also neither; he exists on a spectrum that can slide anywhere between those two points. In their Deadpool run thus far Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan have explored both extremes, but now—after Wade’s all time low in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”—we find a Deadpool who has become much more tragic, yet still retains much of his typical humor. I’ve taken to calling him “Grumpy Old Man Deadpool.” Continue reading →

Dec 20 2013

FF 15

Today, ~~Ethan~~ Patrick and Drew are discussing FF 15, originally released December 18th, 2013.

~~Ethan~~ Patrick: I guess it’s appropriate that I’m stepping up to bat for Ethan for this issue of FF. There are an awful lot of substitutes and avatars in play for the invasion of Latveria. The good guys are all either trying to be something they’re not or asserting something else as themselves. In some cases, the characters are two or three steps removed from the version of themselves that’s actually doing the action. Interestingly, Doom never falls victim to this same delusion — in fact, even though everyone expects him to either a) port his consciousness over to another body or b) merge with another body. We know it can’t last, but Doom wins a victory here by being the only one refusing to be anything but himself. Maybe the kids still have one more thing to learn before the Fantastic Four comes back to town.

Continue reading →

Dec 19 2013

Daredevil 34

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 34, originally released December 18th, 2013.

Drew: We tend to associate soapbox speeches with masturbatory lectures important only to the speaker — it’s an annoyance when someone gets on their soapbox — but at one time, soapbox speeches were actually considered a form of entertainment. I’m not entirely sure if the audiences tended to agree with the speeches, or if there was more of a morbid curiosity factor in play (the same type that might keep you up late watching youtube clips of The O’Rielly Factor), but the point is: there was a time when somebody would literally be on a soapbox, and people’s reaction wasn’t to just tell them to get of of their damn soapbox. I was reminded of this as I read Kirsten McDuffie’s soaring call for levelheadedness in Daredevil 34. Continue reading →

Dec 18 2013

Weekly Round-Up: Amazing Spider-Man 700.1-700.3

Look, 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, Patrick and Drew are discussing Amazing Spider-Man 700.1-700.3

HE’S DEAD!

Dan Slott, writer of Amazing Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man

Patrick: I loves me some Superior Spider-Man. For my money, it’s the most dangerous and courageous thing Marvel could do with their most popular franchise. It’s un-fucking-precedented and it explores amazingly complex themes and concepts. Morality, immorality and amorality, and the relativism of all three, are forefront without making the audience feel like they’re somehow culpable for some heinous crimes. We are allowed a certain distance from Otto because he’s Otto, but we’re also invited to empathize with him because he’s Spider-Man. I know that balance has caused a lot of people to tap out, and others to demand Peter Parker’s return. With no Parker in the Ultimate Universe either, Marvel’s trotting out these Amazing Spider-Man 700.whatever issues, as if to say “you want your Peter Parker stories? Here are your fucking Peter Parker stories.” Continue reading →

Dec 17 2013

A + X 15

Today, Ethan and Scott are discussing A + X 15, originally released December 11th, 2013.

Ethan: A + X revels in the chance to turn big name team-ups into superpowered Laurel & Hardy shorts, and A + X 15 follows suit. Along the way, we get a rehash on an age old question of metaphysics, a bio of a famous president, and the alien invasions of our fast-food franchises.