Category New 52

Aug 9 2013

Dial H 15

dial h 15Today, Ethan and Taylor are discussing Dial H 15, originally released August 7th, 2013.

Ethan: The week leading up to graduation from college can be a manic blur. You try to squeeze in all those conversations you never made time for before, you cram for those final exams, you put the finishing touches on that thesis paper hours before it needs to be bound and turned in, you book that flight home. Maybe your four-or-so years on campus jaded you a bit – the ceremony’s just going to be a fancier version of its high school equivalent; I’m going to have to smile at everyone’s parents; this place has grabbed me and changed me and turned me into someone new, but… I’m ready to leave. And then the day comes. You hear your name, you walk the walk, you manage to remember to shake with the right and take with the left, and then you wade into the sea of chaos as everyone tries to make that last connection before you never see each other ever again. The prospect of leaving China Mieville’s run of Dial H elicits a lot of the same emotions for me. There were highs and lows, and to be honest, I thought I was ready to set it down and move on, but the final issue goes out with a “shhhkaBOOM” and I’m wishing we didn’t have to say good-bye.

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Aug 9 2013

Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger 11

phantom stranger 11 trinity

Today, Mikyzptlk and Shelby are discussing Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger 11, originally released August 7th, 2013. This issue is part of the Trinity War crossover event. Click here for our complete Trinity War coverage.

Mikyzptlk: When Patrick covered issue 10 of this title, he brought up the movie What Dreams May Come. Okay, I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, but you’ve got to admit that it has it’s moments. I’m a fan of the movie myself, especially early on when we are first introduced to the concept of Heaven and its inner workings. Essentially, when you die you create your own Heaven. We get a similar description of Heaven’s mechanics in Phantom Stranger 11, which gives us a chance to peek into some of our character’s innermost desires. What happens, though, when all that is left for your main character to desire flies in the face of a Heavenly decree? Nothing good, surprisingly enough.  Continue reading →

Aug 9 2013

Swamp Thing 23

swamp thing 23

Today, Patrick and Scott are discussing Swamp Thing 23, originally released August 7th, 2013.

Patrick: Alcohol is weird. It’s dulls our senses, it shortens our lives, it gets us into trouble – and yet we engage with it time and time (and time) again. Why? Because it’s fun. Because when we dial back our inhibitions a little bit, we find the casual courage to do something we’ve always wanted to do. All of that freedom is great, until you cross that line. YOU KNOW THE ONE I MEAN. The moment in the evening where you don’t make decisions with your complete mental faculty. I’ve always had people tell me that drinking brings out who someone really is, but that’s faulty. If anything, booze dulls the prowess of the super-ego, allowing the baser urges of ego and id to take priority. But the id isn’t a person’s “true self” – the psyche isn’t a list of three psychic apparatuses, but the relationship between the three. What you are can more accurately be defined by how you deny the more destructive urges deep in your Freudian well. That’s the kind of thematic material Charles Soule mines in his story about a magician, a plant-man and a booze-tree. Continue reading →

Aug 7 2013

Animal Man Annual 2

animal man annual 2Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Animal Man Annual 2, originally released July 31st, 2013. 

Scott: Nothing is more universal than a parent wanting to provide a safe place for his or her children. And I’m sure nothing is more frightening to a parent than the prospect of failing to provide that safety. For many species- let’s say, spiders, for example- that safety comes at a premium, and many who are born fail to make it to adulthood. That fear has become a reality for Buddy Baker, as he has seen his son Cliff die and been forced to wonder how he could have better protected his child. Animal Man Annual 2 thrusts Buddy’s grieving to the forefront, as writer Jeff Lemire explores a particularly touching and incredibly frightening experience Buddy and Cliff once shared.

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Aug 6 2013

The Flash Annual 2

flash annual 2Today, Spencer and Mikyzptlk are discussing the Flash Annual 2, originally released July 31st, 2013.

Spencer: Way back at the beginning of the New 52 initiative, Justice League turned the clock back five years to show us how DC’s most iconic heroes first met. Yet, even at this early stage, two of these heroes had already met and formed one of DC’s most enduring friendships: The Flash and the Green Lantern. Now, nearly two years later, The Flash Annual 2 has arrived to finally show us their momentous first team-up. It may not be a necessary story or even the most original one, but thanks to Barry Allen and Hal Jordan’s infectiously fun relationship, it’s well worth reading.

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Aug 5 2013

Trinity of Sin: Pandora 2

pandora 2 trinityToday, Taylor and Mikyzptlk are discussing Trinity of Sin: Pandora 2 originally released July 31st, 2013. This issue is part of the Trinity War crossover event. Click here for our complete Trinity War coverage.

trinity war divTaylor: We like to think of our world as being made up of opposites. There is always a yin to a yang, there is always a cat to a dog. It’s a convenient way of looking at the world and it helps us make sense of a lot of what we see in our everyday lives. But as we grow older we come to realize that maybe the world isn’t so black and white. Maybe there isn’t an absolute good and maybe there isn’t an absolute evil. Despite this, we tend to think of comic book characters as falling in either the spectrum of evil or good. However, when Superman, supposedly a hero of pure heart, opened Pandora’s Box we realized that not even the best of our heroes is totally without a certain darkness in his heart. But if we flip the tables, is it possible we’ll find a super villain who is totally evil of heart? Pandora wants to find out and in the second issue of her stand alone series, we see that the Trinity War is becoming even more complicated than we thought.

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Aug 5 2013

Creator Interview: Scott Snyder

Creator Interview: Scott SnyderIt’s a great time to be a Scott Snyder fan. Between the continued success of his run on Batman, his well-received new series Superman Unchained and The Wake, and the hotly anticipated American Vampire Anthology, there has never been more Snyder on the shelves. Drew caught up with him at the Boston Comic Con to discuss all of his current projects.
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Aug 2 2013

Batman Incorporated 13

Alternating Currents: Batman Incorporated 13, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batman Incorporated 13, originally released July 31st, 2013.

It never ends. It probably never will.

-Jim Gordon

Drew: What does it mean to end a run writing Batman? How do you “end” a story featuring a character that has been published in perpetuity for over 70 years with no signs of slowing down? Sure, Grant Morrison “killed” Bruce Wayne, but that was back at the close of his epic’s second act. No, the ending here had to be something much grander, something much truer to the unrelenting nature of Batman. The sheer scope of Morrison’s epic is deserving of the same pomp and circumstance of “the definitive end” of Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern, but Morrison manages to approach that same grandiosity with modest deference, keeping in mind that, while the he may be done, Batman will keep on going. That simple nod turns his elaborate love letter to Batman’s past into an equally impassioned love letter to Batman’s future, and gracefully shifts Morrison from center stage to the audience. Continue reading →

Aug 1 2013

Batman Annual 2

batman annual 2

Today, Mikyzptlk and Scott are discussing Batman Annual 2, originally released July 31st, 2013.

Mikyzptlk: In what seems like a parallel universe now, I was once a Psychology student. I learned a lot about how the body and mind interact, and how Psychology impacts our lives every day without us ever even realizing it. One of the lessons that stuck with me was about a study conducted by a group of very brave Psychologists. They wanted to check to see how patients in mental hospitals were treated, so they decided to commit themselves voluntarily to find out first hand. What they discovered truly saddened me. It seems that, for the most part, the patients were completely ignored by hospital staff. Well, the quiet patients anyway. The Psychologists learned that if patients wished to get any attention at all from hospital staff, they would need to learn to start acting up. In other words, they’d need to dial up the “crazy.” I’m not sure if the writers of this Batman Annual are aware of that story, but it seems they have just given voice to a controversy that surrounds mental hospitals to this day. Continue reading →

Jul 31 2013

The Flash 22

flash 22

Today, Scott and Spencer are discussing The Flash 22, originally released July 24th, 2013.

Scott: I imagine being the fastest man on Earth could be pretty frustrating at times. It has its obvious advantages — you’re never late for work, no car insurance, no travel expenses, etc. — but there’s one major annoyance: the rest of the world isn’t moving at your pace. This would be doubly frustrating for a police officer trying to solve a complex murder mystery, which takes a long time to piece together regardless of how fast your body moves. This is the predicament Barry Allen has found himself in over the past several issues of The Flash, and co-writers/artists Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato seem to enjoy taking the slow road with a fast character. The Flash 22 finds them leading Barry to the killer he’s been looking for, but still withholding crucial information about his identity. It’s a spectacular looking issue, and one that feels more focused than this title has in a few months.

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