Category New 52

Jun 26 2012

Birds of Prey 10


Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Birds of Prey 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Patrick: In a lot of ways, the New 52 incarnation of Birds of Prey acts as as one of only a few blank canvasses in DC’s library. The two founding members of the group are a brand new character — as in Starling — and one reformed in such a way as to be unrecognizable as the Black Canary of old. The rest of the team is rounded out by characters either not normally associated with the Birds of Prey or (in Barbara’s case) aggressively altered by the new continuity. My first dip into this world was so fresh and new and exciting, that I started to feel a little let down as writer Duane Swierczynski wrapped up one story arc, vamped for time, and then paid lip-service to Snyder’s Night of the Owls crossover event. I’m not going so far as to claim that those three issues (7, 8 and 9) were wasted, but now that Birds of Prey seems firmly set its own two feet again, it’s apparent that this series is at its strongest when its free to develop on its own terms. Continue reading →

Jun 26 2012

Green Lantern Corps 10

Today, Peter and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Peter: John Stewart is guilty: guilty of murdering a fellow Green Lantern who was about to give away the access codes to the Oan defense network. He stood his ground in an unfair trial and lost. He is about to be sentenced by the Alpha Lanterns, in front of the entire Corps and the Guardians of the Universe. We have been building towards this very moment for months, and it is all about to come to a head. How will it affect the future of the Corps? What are those nefarious little Smurfs planning?

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Jun 26 2012

Batwoman 10


Today, Patrick and (guest-writer) Jack Ehlers are discussing Batwoman 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Patrick: This whole arc has been about the power of belief. The monsters of Medusa’s army are all terrors from the zeitgeist, and while there’s a fair amount of straight-up magic that brings these creatures into play, Maro states time and again that she can only spawn these monsters is because the citizens of Gotham believe in them. Their belief makes the impossible possible. But people don’t just believe in ghosts and hook-handed men and sewer creatures – even in a city as dark as Gotham, they believe in each other and abstract Bat-ideal of justice.

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Jun 25 2012

Nightwing 10

Today, Drew and Peter are discussing Nightwing 10, originally released June 13th, 2012.

Drew: Watching his parents fall to their deaths; training to be a crimefighter; falling out with his mentor; becoming Batman; relinquishing the Batman mantle once his mentor returned. To put it lightly, Dick Grayson has had a turbulent life. Tension and tragedy are somewhat par for the course in the superheroing world, but coming of age in costume has amplified those difficulties. At the start of the relaunch, Dick had reasserted his identity as Nightwing, and he seemed to have the agency all former sidekicks long for. Soon enough, however, he was being roped into all kinds of identity crises, as his personal and family histories made claims on his future. He emerged from those events with a stronger sense of self, and issue 10 finds him acting with that hard-earned agency, even as a corrupt cop tries to redefine Nightwing in the public eye. Continue reading →

Jun 22 2012

Wonder Woman 10

Today, Drew and (special guest writer) Siri Hellerman are discussing Wonder Woman 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Drew: Fantasy is always going to have an exposition problem. It’s hard enough establishing who everyone is and what their motivations are elegantly without having to explain the rules of various magics or the politics between various races. This is especially true of myths, where the stories are often distilled down to their essence, such that any details (which could otherwise be written off as just adding color) bears obvious narrative significance, as if Chekov himself were pointing them out for you. Brian Azzarello manages to side-step this issue both by relying on pre-esstablished myths (voiding any need for exposition), and by mirthfully keeping us in the dark regarding much of those telling details. Continue reading →

Jun 21 2012

Red Hood and the Outlaws 10

Today, Patrick and Peter are discussing Red Hood and the Outlaws 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.

Patrick: Red Hood and the Outlaws is a kitchen sink sort of series. There are aliens, there are mist-women, there are secret races of warrior people – and at the heart of it is a trio of heroes that don’t really make sense in each other’s worlds. Whenever the series teeters on the edge of a metaphysical discovery of the ancient mystical world, a spaceship flies in, or some classic Batman villain makes an appearance. So much of the series’ appeal comes from the way our core group of heroes interacts and adapts to these insanely diverse (diversely insane?) scenarios.

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Jun 18 2012

Batman and Robin 10

Today, Drew and Peter are discussing Batman and Robin 10, originally released June 13th 2012.

Drew: What defines us? Is it our best qualities, our successes and moments of pride; or is it our worst qualities, our failures and our weaknesses? It’s a question that plagues all of us at one time or another, and one that is front and center in Peter Tomasi’s run on Batman and Robin. Damian is a character who seems to have nearly infinite capacity for both good and evil, but how exactly he’ll chose to use that capacity remains in question. What defines Damian has been a driving question of this title, and in this issue, Damian reflects the question outward, delivering what promises to be an affecting character study on all of the former Robins (sorry Stephanie Brown fans — it seems her stint as Robin has been written out of the canon for sure). Continue reading →

Jun 18 2012

Deathstroke 10

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Deathstroke 10, originally released June 13th, 2012.

Patrick: Writer and artist Rob Liefeld is an interesting dude. He’s been a huge figure in american comic books since the 1990s, was one of the founding members of Image Comics, and currently writes and/or draws more comic series than the average person is reading. He’s a prodigious talent, and even when he’s mired by controversies about misogyny, late work or even plagiarism, the man sells a ton of comic books. There’s a legion of critics that absolutely loathe his contributions to the medium, but the legion of fans that support his efforts far outweigh the nay-sayers. For all the content the guy produces, he somehow manages to keep up a very active, incredibly aggressive public persona (the man’s twitter appetite is insatiable). He’s boastful, and likes to remind critics that no matter what they say, he’s always going to be successful. Besides, Liefeld frequently asserts, he’s not writing for the critics he’s writing for the fans. So if the artist is so interesting, why is his art so boring?

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Jun 15 2012

Green Lantern 10

Today, Patrick and Peter are discussing Green Lantern 10, originally released June 13th, 2012.

Patrick: Before the relaunch, Blackest Night and Brightest Day cast a enormous shadows over the entire DC Universe. While much of that shadow receded in September, with most of the lingering vestigages hanging around the Green Lantern books. Understanding the existence of any non-green, non-yellow lantern corps requires knowledge of the Night and Day but writers have been cagey to reveal how much of that old mythology remained canon. With the events of Green Lantern 10, it would appear that we’re heading for a big exploration of those events as the universe makes the same mistakes over and over again.

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Jun 14 2012

Batgirl 10

Today, Peter and Drew are discussing Batgirl 8, originally released June 13th 2012.

Peter: We are now out of the Night of the Owls. Babs is back in action fighting crime in Gotham. We get a new storyline and tons of new possibilities from here on out. Babara is an incredibly dynamic character so far. Gail Simone has been writing this character for a long time, from Oracle to Batgirl, and has done an incredible job getting Barbara back on her feet. The amount of time and detail that is going into this story is continuously setting it apart from many of the other books in DC’s current line-up.

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