Nov 11 2016

Namesake 1

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Today, Mark and Patrick are discussing Namesake 1, originally released November 9th, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Mark: I come from a large, mixed-race family. All of my siblings are adults now, and as everyone has scattered across the country to forge their own paths, one thing that hasn’t changed is our fierce loyalty to each other. When a family member needs help, the Mitchells circle the wagons. That’s the power of family.

The idea of fealty to family is central Steve Orlando and Jakub Rebelka’s Namesake 1. In the future, once every seven years Earth and Ektae overlap for a week of bacchanal. Humans and Sidhan mingle, party, and, of course, bone (luckily, Sidhan venereal diseases are only active during the alignment). Sidhan are humanoids with strange runes on their bodies and some of them have The Blood (the ability to wield the Typhic Force—magic on our world). Continue reading →

Nov 10 2016

DC Round-Up: Comics Released 11/9/16

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How many Batman books is too many Batman books? Depending on who you ask there ain’t no such thing! We try to stay up on what’s going on at DC, but we can’t always dig deep into every issue. The solution? Our weekly round-up of titles coming out of DC Comics. Today, we’re discussing Action Comics 967, Detective Comics 944, The Flash 10, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps 8, New Super-Man 5 and Wonder Woman 10.  Also, we’ll be discussing All-Star Batman 4 on Monday, Mother Panic 1 on Tuesday, and Gotham Academy Second Semester 3 on Wednesday, so come back for those! As always, this article containers SPOILERS!

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Nov 10 2016

Invincible Iron Man 1

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Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Invincible Iron-Man 1, originally released November 9th, 2016. As always, this article containers SPOILERS!

Taylor: For many, it is a dark time. The forces of prejudice, greed, misunderstanding, and hate have conspired to elect a man of questionable values to the highest office in the United States. Unlike a lot of bad situations, many people are finding it difficult to find any sort of silver-lining to this circumstance. When the nation so emphatically states that they would rather choose a man who would divide us rather than a woman who promises unity, it’s hard not to see the logic in this thinking. But there are still wonderful things in the world. Just because ugliness triumphs for a day, it doesn’t mean that the beauty society has created thus far has been destroyed. Maybe that’s hyperbole, but on a day like today, Invincible Iron Man reminds me that all is not lost. Continue reading →

Nov 9 2016

Spider-Woman 13

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Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing Spider-Woman 13, originally released November 2nd, 2016. As always, this article containers SPOILERS!

Patrick: “It takes a village” is perhaps a imprecise idiom about what it takes to raise a child. After all, it’s not just that it takes volume of people to effectively care for a tiny, helpless human being and mold it into a functioning member of society. It takes the emotional investment of that village, not just in the child, but in each other, to raise a child. That’s how friends, strangers, and even enemies, become family. As Spider-Woman transitions into the next chapter of Jessica Drew’s life as a new mom, writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Veronica Fish examine that interdependence, and the huge emotional cost that comes with it.

Also, f’real: spoilers ahead.

Continue reading →

Nov 8 2016

Occupy Avengers

Today, Ryan M. and Taylor are discussing Occupy Avengers 1, originally released November 2nd, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Ryan M: We are at the end of a very trying election season. Many elements of the political climate have built to this, but perhaps the most powerful is the competing narratives. Each presidential candidate has been reduced to a nearly binary status. In previous elections, the term “lesser of two evils” was a shorthand to say that neither candidate was perfect. This fall, both sides actively see their opponent as a force for evil. There is a political expediency to this. It’s an easy story to tell yourself and a great reason to go to the polls. What’s lost in the simplicity of the good/evil dictotomy is the true nature of humanity. When a person is reduced to an idea, we lose the ability to connect or help them.  In Occupy Avengers 1, writer David F Walker shows the contrast between the simple stories we tell about each other and the true complexity within. Continue reading →

Nov 8 2016

Batman 10

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Today, Spencer and Mark are discussing Batman 10, originally released November 2nd, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Spencer: Most writers have certain tics and styles that come to define their work: Brian Michael Bendis, for example, is famous (infamous?) for his unique style of dialogue and pacing. Tom King has made quite a name for himself over the past two years with his critically acclaimed titles (such as Omega Men, The Vision, and Sheriff of Babylon), all of which, as different as they are, share many of the same themes, tones, and idiosyncrasies. King’s run on Batman was never meant to be part of that “Trilogy of Best Intentions,” but it’s still strange to me that Batman 10 is his first issue that really feels like a Tom King comic. Unfortunately, that’s not always a good thing — turns out that King’s techniques without his usual depth of story can sometimes end up feeling more like a parody of a Tom King comic. Continue reading →

Nov 7 2016

The Wicked + The Divine 23

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Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing The Wicked + The Divine 23, originally released November 2nd, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Drew: The epistolary novel — a novel told as a series of documents (letters, newspaper clippings, etc) — presents an intriguing contradiction of allure. The thought of holding “real” evidence of a story brings it closer to us, while their existence distances us from the immediacy of the events they describe. That tradeoff can be mitigated when only a portion of the narrative is epistolary; in presenting both a traditional narrative and physical evidence of that narrative, storytellers can have their cake and eat it too. This is a tactic that is remarkably common in comics, where text and image already freely mix to create illusions of reality in a way that simply isn’t true of prose. Watchmen is obviously the most well-known example of augmenting a traditional comic with epistolary documents, but countless series have employed the technique since. I would argue, however, that none of those examples — including Watchmen — justify the existence of those documents quite as elegantly as The Wicked + The Divine 23. Continue reading →

Nov 7 2016

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 11/2/16

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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, we discuss The Woods 27, Bitch Planet 9, and Faith 5. Also, today we discussed The Wicked + The Divine 23, and Wednesday we’ll be discussing Mayday 1, so check those out! As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Continue reading →

Nov 4 2016

DC Round-Up: Comics Released 11/2/16

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How many Batman books is too many Batman books? Depending on who you ask there ain’t no such thing! We try to stay up on what’s going on at DC, but we can’t always dig deep into every issue. The solution? Our weekly round-up of titles coming out of DC Comics. Today, we’re discussing Green Arrow 10, Midnighter and Apollo 2, Nightwing 8, Shade the Changing Girl 2, and Superman 10. Also, we discussed Green Lanterns 10 on Thursday, and will be discussing Batman 10 on Tuesday, so come back for those! As always, this article containers SPOILERS.

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Nov 4 2016

The Unworthy Thor 1

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Today, Taylor and Spencer are discussing The Unworthy Thor 1, originally released November 2nd, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Taylor: What makes someone worthy to wield Mjolnir?  Is it their inherent goodness? Their capacity to do good? Or is it something else? Ever sense the Odinson had a terrible secret whispered into his ear this has been the question on everyone’s mind, for if a god isn’t good enough to be Thor, then who is? By now we know that Jane Foster is, but the reasons for her being chosen by the hammer are only now beginning to reveal themselves and even then mystery still abounds when it comes to the universe’s most powerful hammer. The Unworthy Thor, as its name suggests, follows the man who was once worthy of Mjolnir but no longer is. Could it be that in following this outcast, the answer to one of comic’s most tantalizing questions will be answered?

Continue reading →