Jun 13 2014

Batman Eternal 10

batman eternal 10

Today, Shelby leads a discussion on Batman Eternal 10, originally released June 11th, 2014.

Shelby: I have some friends who are legitimate circus performers, one a pole dancer and the other a trapeze artist, and so I naturally have attended a cabaret-style circus performance held in an old warehouse. It was exactly as awesome as it sounds, with acrobats of every flavor, a hoop dancer, clowns, and a juggler. This guy was incredible, he used a rainbow array of balls that lit up, and they shut off all the lights in the place so all we could see were the glowing orbs and the trails they left behind. Comic books aren’t totally dissimilar; we don’t see the creators specifically, just the art they leave for us. Also, sometimes it feels like a team is juggling waaaaaaay too many ideas, and it’s only a matter of time before things fall apart. Continue reading →

Jun 13 2014

Deadpool 30

deadpool 30Today, Patrick and Greg are discussing Deadpool 30, originally released June 11th, 2014.

Patrick: As I get older, I realize that I have to consciously fight my growing instincts to make Dad Jokes. My father, who we called by his first name, Lyle, was quite the connoisseur of these terrible, punny, embarrassing jokes. Nine times out of ten, not even Lyle thought they were funny, but his mugging for laughs at laughless lines elevated the experience to pure anti-comedy bliss. To give all Dad Jokes — and by extension, my baser humor instincts — the benefit of the doubt, their intent is never to be revolutionary or make you think or anything quite so sophisticated. Where a good joke relies on subverting our expectations, a Dad Joke plays into out expectations so hard that the refusal to be subversive is, in a way, subversive. But forget all of that: the Dad Joke is comforting because Dad is saying it. Deadpool 30 leverages our comfort with these kinds of jokes to distract us while getting to the real subversive business — developing, ironically enough, the identity of Deadpool’s daughter. Continue reading →

Jun 13 2014

Secret Avengers 4

secret avengers 4Today, Spencer and Drew are discussing Secret Avengers 4, originally released June 11th, 2014. 

Spencer: I’m a big proponent of comics being goofy, and due to my embracing the sillier aspects of comic books, I’ve been a big fan of Secret Avengers thus far. Still, it’s way too easy for “silly” to cross some sort of line, becoming corny or cringe-worthy or sometimes just tonally jarring. I liked last month’s issue a lot more than Drew and Shelby did, but I still have to agree with them that some of the issue’s more bizarre jokes felt out of place amongst the drama of the story itself. That’s not a problem in issue four, though. Gone are the random (if funny) throwaway gags; instead, Ales Kot and Michael Walsh embrace the inherent ridiculousness of their cast and the world they live in without ever betraying the high stakes of the mission itself. Continue reading →

Jun 12 2014

Detective Comics 32

Alternating Currents: Detective Comics 32, Drew and ScottToday, Drew and Scott are discussing Detective Comics 32, originally released June 11th, 2014.

Drew: Last month, Shelby compared Detective Comics to a well-executed magic trick. Specifically, she was referring to the way Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul wield misdirection, but I think the similarities between magic and art are manifold. Both rely on deceptively simple techniques to create effects that are greater than the sum of their parts. For me, the only real difference is how we value being “fooled” by those effects. If we see the strings, a magic trick is ruined, but understanding exactly how a scene was painted or filmed or carved can enhance our appreciation of a work of art. I personally enjoy knowing how a magic trick is performed, too — I think it gives me a deeper appreciation for exactly how skillful the magician is — but then again, I’ve always liked knowing how the sausage is made. Many folks would rather never know how the lady gets sawed in half, or how a painter simulates sunlight peaking through the clouds, or how a composer strings harmonies into a coherent musical idea. It’s an attitude I can’t fully support, but I do understand it: a little magic is lost when you can spot every palmed card. Manapul and Buccellato have long been a team that rewards digging beneath those effects, but this issue found me wishing that I wasn’t so aware of what they were doing. Continue reading →

Jun 12 2014

All-New X-Men 28

Today, Taylor and Patrick are discussing All-New X-Men 28, originally released June 11th, 2014.

Taylor: Madness fills an interesting role in our imagination. Just enough madness and you’re considered a genius. A little too much madness and you’re considered a nut. We tend to think of someone as being “mad” if they have any of a number of mental defects but retain enough of their personality to still be somewhat coherent. Perhaps the most well known madman of all time is Ahab. His singular quest to destroy the white whale consumed his entire life, even if he did retain the vestiges of a sane man. And that’s perhaps what makes him such a disturbing character. Despite (or perhaps because of ) his madness, he is charismatic. We forget that he’s insane sometimes and actually feel that his quest against Moby Dick is justified. Xavier is similarly hell-bent on killing the X-Men of the past, and similarly might have good reasons for wanting to do so. All-New X-Men 28 has me wondering if this quest is the errand of a madman or the product of love gone awry.

Continue reading →

Jun 11 2014

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 6/4/14

round upLook, 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, Drew and Patrick discuss Green Lantern 32, Green Arrow 32, Batman Eternal 9, Punisher 6, Magneto 5, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 3, Loki: Agent of Asgard 5, and Miles Morales The Ultimate Spider-Man 2.

slim-banner4Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, EH?

Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Strangelove

Drew: “Honor amongst thieves” is a noble concept, but in practice, the deceitful behavior that qualifies someone as a “thief” tends to make them a shitty partner. I mean, if they’re willing to throw over some of the most sacred tenants of our society for their own gain, what chance do personal agreements have? This notion comes to the fore in Green Lanterns 32, as the Khund and the Clann finally turn on the Durlans. Or is it the other way around? The Durlans blow up the entire fleets of both races, but it’s not quite retaliation, and without any forewarning that such an attack was possible, it couldn’t have been used as a deterrent. Instead, it seemed to be part of the plan to kill them all along. Honor amongst thieves indeed. Continue reading →

Jun 11 2014

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12

Today, Taylor and Spencer are discussing The Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12, originally released June 4th, 2014.

Taylor: The excellent blog kottke.org recently brought to my attention a video on visual comedy. In this short feature, Tony Zhou makes a strong case for the lack of visual comedy in your typical comedic film. He also highlights a lot of movies, like Hot Fuzz, which make excellent use of visual comedy. It got me to thinking about how difficult it is to pull off visual comedy in film, much less in comics. Like in writing, something about pulling off a comedic still frame is surprisingly difficult. As with movies, I think we often aren’t treated to great visual comedy. However, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12 bucks this trend and shows just how funny a comic can be based almost entirely on its visual elements alone.

Continue reading →

Jun 10 2014

Cyclops 2

cyclops 2Today, Patrick and Suzanne are discussing Cyclops 2, originally released June 4th, 2014.

Patrick: When we were in third grade, by buddy Jeff was severely burned by hot coffee. He had accompanied his father to a meeting of some kind, and a giant carafe with boiling hot liquid spilled all over him, giving him second degree burns on his chest and stomach and third degree burns on his arm. Earlier that same evening, I was hoping to have Jeff come over to play video games, but I didn’t get around to calling until he and his dad were just out the door. It’s one of those bizarre “what if”s: what if I had called five minutes earlier? Would Jeff have been spared those burns? How would his life be different if he never experienced that? Obviously, we’ll never know, and this formative experience will always have formed his identity in some way. Greg Rucka and Russel Dauterman’s Cyclops is perfectly positioned to ask those questions of Scott Summers, exploring what forms when one’s formative experiences are entirely different. Scott Summers has always been a principled kid — how could he not be with a mentor like Charles Xavier? — but how does that change when the guiding figure in his life is a drug addicted gentleman pirate? Continue reading →

Jun 10 2014

Swamp Thing 32

swamp thing 32

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Swamp Thing 32, originally released June 4th, 2014. 

slim-bannerScott: We all want to feel like we’re in control. It’s a big part of growing up. We move out, get our own place, buy a car, pay bills, decide what we eat and when we sleep. But we can only control things to a certain extent. As resolute as we may want to be, we still can’t really know what to do the first time we carve a turkey, or get in a car accident, or find out we’re pregnant. In our rush to take control of our lives, we fail to realize just how much we don’t know, and in doing so we become a huge liability to ourselves. Fortunately, life is pretty forgiving, allowing us to acquire wisdom through a system of trial and error. Like the rest of us, Alec Holland has a lot to learn, in his case about being the Avatar of the Green. Swamp Thing 32 finds him fighting for control against an obstacle he brought on himself but never saw coming.

Continue reading →

Jun 10 2014

Original Sin 3

original sin 3

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Original Sin 3, originally released June 4th, 2014.

Someone shot and killed…a planet. I’m gonna need a minute to process that.

Moon Knight

Drew: The last time we talked about this series, I couldn’t get over how over-the-top comic book-y it is. And I mean that quite specifically: it’s not just epic or violent (as so many summer crossover events tend to be), it’s also whole-heartedly absurd, embracing all of the silliness that makes comics so much fun in the first place. Or, at least I thought that’s what this series was. Immediately after building to the line highlighted in the epigraph, this issue takes a sudden turn into the gory. The abruptness of the shift in tone makes it utterly shocking, but it may also rob this series of the frivolity that distinguished it from the likes of DC’s joyless gore-fests. Continue reading →