Category New 52

Sep 25 2012

Wonder Woman 0

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 0, Drew and TaylorToday, Drew and (guest writer) Taylor Anderson are discussing Wonder Woman 0, originally released September 19th, 2012. Wonder Woman 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: There’s a lot we take for granted in art. We accept the two-dimensionality of the canvas or the artificiality of a omniscient narrator as givens. It often takes an artist commenting on the arbitrariness of those boundaries for us to notice them at all, but that in itself has become almost expected. In comics, those expectations manifest in creative layouts and narrative devices, but it’s rarer that a creative team might challenge the arbitrariness of their tone. In Wonder Woman 0, writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chaing set out to do just that, delivering a brilliant deconstruction of modern comics via an apparent deconstruction of the Silver Age. Continue reading →

Sep 24 2012

Birds of Prey 0

Today, Shelby and (special guest writer) Lindsey Peterson are discussing Birds of Prey 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Birds of Prey 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Shelby: A difficult aspect of writing a comic book has got to be maintaining the balance between new and old readers: specifically, keeping both sides happy. You want to keep the long-timers happy; without their readership, you wouldn’t have been successful in the first place. But, you need to keep your books at least a little bit attainable to attract new readers; if your readership doesn’t grow, you won’t continue to be successful. With half of zero month behind us, we’ve seen examples of origins that bore us with nothing new and origins that confound us with no background knowledge given. Then we have my favorites, those titles which have struck that delicate balance between old-hat origin and current story arc connections. Birds of Prey is definitely in that last camp.  Continue reading →

Sep 24 2012

Red Hood and the Outlaws 0

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Red Hood and the Outlaws 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Red Hood and the Outlaws 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Back when we started reading this title, Patrick and I couldn’t believe how much we liked it. We were wary of this title, famous for it’s leering depiction of Starfire, but Scott Lobdell’s charming characters and Kenneth Rocafort’s distinctive art won us over. The title was a blast, and we couldn’t understand all the ire that was directed at Lobdell — he seemed like a great writer to us. Our love affair started to wane a bit as Rocafort left, and branching out into Lobdell’s other titles left us unimpressed, leading us to question Lobdell’s prowess as a writer (perhaps unfairly). Is Lobdell the clever writer we thought, or the hack so many were making him out to be? In Red Hood and the Outlaws 0, Lobdell seems to address that question head-on, counting on our writing him off as pedestrian in order to better shock us with a earth-shifting twist in the epilogue. Continue reading →

Sep 24 2012

Supergirl 0

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Siri Hellerman are discussing Supergirl 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Supergirl 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Patrick: We’re going to do a little something different here today with Supergirl 0. Siri (while a fabulous writer in her own right) is a working actress in New York City. If you’ve ever listened to one of our Cram Session videos, then you’ve heard her acting chops at work. So when Siri suggested to me that we have a less of a stuffy, academic, boring conversation, and more of a fun, lively free-form conversation, I said “hey, that hurts my feelings.” Then we reached a compromise: recap the issue (as usual), then make a list of discussion points and film our conversation. Well, let the great experiment begin.

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Sep 24 2012

Legion of Superheroes 0

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Sarah Singer are discussing Legion of Superheroes 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Legion of Superheroes 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Patrick: Comics – especially superheros comics – have an awful lot of bullshit working against them. For 90% of the comics I read, I reach a point where I just swallow hard and accept the fact that this is the kind of story I’m reading. It’s an extra-special form of suspension of disbelief. And more often than not, my faith in the storytellers is rewarded; comics are all the more satisfying when you have to go out on a limb and trust that the ride you’re on is worth taking. But sometimes the cost of admission is too high, even for good-humored nerds like me. When such nonsense is supported by 20 pages of awkward dialogue and interchangeably bland characters, the result is disastrous. I’ve read a lot of comics I don’t like, but I so seldom read anything this pointless and obtuse. Zero month is about sampling everything – I’m going to spit this one into my napkin, and try another bite of the Batman.

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Sep 21 2012

Captain Atom 0

Alternating Currents: Captain Atom 0, Peter and DrewToday, Peter and Drew are discussing Captain Atom 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Captain Atom 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Peter: The New 52 has made Captain Atom into a tragic hero; he cannot have real contact with anyone around him, but his powerset is astronomical. Originally I was worried that it would be too Dr. Manahttan. Now it has evolved into something completely different. It has become something best described as an amalgamation of Dr. Manhattan and Top Gun. Nathaniel is a man who must adjust to severe detachment from the world, and the potential loss of humanity. Unfortunately, this first/last issue has some pitfalls, but helps bring the previous twelve issues full circle.

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Sep 20 2012

Nightwing 0

Alternating Currents: Nightwing 0, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Nightwing 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Nightwing 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: The past is complicated. Or rather, our relationship with the past is complicated. Time has a way of changing our opinions of events, placing even our emotional attachment to our own memories in flux. That shifting relationship to the past is made exponentially more complicated in the comics world, where the actual events of the past are open to revisions, reboots, and retellings every few years or so. While those changes are often jarring for the characters, they’re particularly difficult for the audience, who may be attached to previous iterations of the story (not to mention the fact that they may be particularly anal about continuity). Like I said; shit’s complicated. It’s impressive, then, that Nightwing 0 isn’t just a successful retelling of Dick’s origin, but a compelling essay on the value of such retellings. Continue reading →

Sep 20 2012

Justice League 0

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Justice League 0, originally released September 19, 2012. Justice League 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Shelby: What makes a superhero so heroic? I’m not talking about the enhanced DNA/gadgets/magic powers, it’s easy to see where that comes from. It might not make a ton of sense (really, a different color sun?), but it’s easy to see the source. No, I want to know what makes a hero, what are the inherent traits that would make someone suddenly imbued with immense power decide to fight the good fight and try to save the world? The same question can be asked of the super villains our heroes fight. Are our heroes filled with a sense of responsibility to do what’s right? Do our villains feel they deserve more than they’ve got? Is it as simple as heroes are good people, and villains are bad? Well, what if you try to be good, but are also a smartass 15-year-old who thinks you know best and is kind of a dick? Where does that put you on the hero/villain scale?

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Sep 19 2012

Legion Lost 0

Today, Peter and (special guest writer) Nikki Royce are discussing Legion Lost 0, originally released September 12, 2012. Legion Lost 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Peter: The Legion of Superheroes is something I never really got into. The concept is there, but it was so far removed from the DC characters that know and grew up with that it never jived. The closest I ever got was if any of those characters made appearances in the present time, such as the JLA/JSA crossover The Lightning Saga. I was confused even then. I think it probably boils down to there simply being too many heroes, or too few major members, and too many minor characters. Regardless, The New 52 provided me with a chance to try again on the Legion, and yet, here we are again, lost in the limbo of not really caring too much about them.

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Sep 19 2012

Suicide Squad 0

Alternating Currents: Suicide Squad 0, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Suicide Squad 0, originally released September 12, 2012. Suicide Squad 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Drew: Patrick and I like to pitch terrible television shows to each other. Imagining episodes of “Jewish Sopranos” or “Time Cheers” is hilarious (though I maintain that “Time Cheers” would be a great sitcom), but the funniest thing to me about the game is that it’s actually how shows are often pitched to networks. Being able to convey the ideas as quickly and concisely as possible is necessary when you’re competing for attention, but it also addresses the realities of people watching random episodes — the easier the concept is to introduce, the easier you can get new viewers up to speed. Comics operate in largely the same way, relying on snappy synopses of the origin story to orient new readers. Returning to that origin can be tricky, running equal risks of overcomplicating the story with new twists or boringly rehashing the same information. Unfortunately, Suicide Squad 0 falls firmly in the latter category.

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