Feb 28 2014

Thunderbolts 22

thunderbolts 22Today, Shelby and Spencer are discussing Thunderbolts 22, originally released February 26th, 2014.

Shelby: Kids love “…and they lived happily ever after.” It’s an uncomplicated and rewarding end to a story; the good guys are rewarded, the bad guys punished, the boy gets the girl, and the plucky sidekicks probably got some action as well. It’s not until you get older that the everything-worked-in-the-end approach grows stale. It’s too neat and clean; we want our stories to reflect the complexities of every day life, not tie everything up in a nicely resolved bow. Personally, I find a too-happy ending where everything works out to be insincere and frankly a little boring. It might be surprising, then, that I love Charles Soule’s latest issue of Thunderbolts. Leave it to Soule to deliver an end to the recent Thunderbolts arc that gives the “good” guys exactly what they want and leaves the bad (by comparison) guy with a mess to deal with, without once appearing insincere.

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Feb 28 2014

The Flash 28

flash 28Today, Scott and Drew are discussing The Flash 28, originally released February 26th, 2014.

Scott: As a kid, I didn’t enjoy ghost stories very much. I did my best to avoid them, but sometimes, late at night at a slumber party or around a campfire, it was impossible. I endured; listening wasn’t the hard part. In the moment, whatever shock or gore the stories contained didn’t affect me much. It was the aftermath, the lingering psychological torment — the fear, however irrational, that maybe the deranged killers they told these stories about might actually exist. In The Flash 28, Barry Allen is confronted with my greatest fear: the murderous monster from his childhood ghost story is real. A ghost story combined with a detective story, this issue is as fun as you can imagine, even though all of the elements don’t mix together quite right.
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Feb 27 2014

100 Bullets: Brother Lono 8

Alternating Currents: 100 Bullets 8, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing 100 Bullets: Brother Lono 8, originally released February 26th, 2014.

We are what he made us to be. To try and be something else…is the greatest sin of all.

Lono

Drew: I didn’t know religion growing up. My parents never took me to church, and somehow, none of my childhood friends ever went, either. It wasn’t until I entered middle school that I made friends with people of any kind of faith — run of the mill midwest Lutheranism, but they might as well have been the pope in my sheltered mind. Being both 13 and an asshole (I know that seems redundant, but I only grew out of one of those), I enjoyed picking fights with them over simple religious tenants. The simplest — why do bad things happen to good people? — was most commonly answered with the wimpy cop-out of “God works in mysterious ways.” That seems like a simple enough “we’ll never know” (and was probably only ever invoked to get me off their backs), but as with most religious answers, that simplicity masks a world infinitely more complex than the question itself. Is everything that ever happens part of God’s “mysterious” workings? If “bad” things can be part of God’s plan, doesn’t that throw the whole notion of morality out the window? These questions lie at the heart of Brother Lono 8, though the answers Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso come up with may not be what anyone suspected. Continue reading →

Feb 26 2014

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 2/19/14

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, Spencer, Patrick, and Drew discuss New Warriors 1, Avengers World 3, A+X 17, Amazing X-Men 4, Batwoman 28, Batman and Two-Face 28, and Justice League 28. 

slim-banner4Spencer: Due to my fondness for young superheroes, a rapidly growing appreciation for Nova, and a long-standing love of Marcus To’s art, I decided to check out this week’s New Warriors 1 by Christopher Yost and Marcus To. The issue introduces us to all but one of the members portrayed on the cover — Nova, Speedball, Justice, Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, and Faira Sar Namora — as each group faces down the forces of the High Evolutionary. While it didn’t necessarily blow me away, this is still a solid issue. Continue reading →

Feb 26 2014

Uncanny X-Men 17

Alternating Currents: Uncanny X-Men 17, Drew and TaylorToday,  Drew and Taylor are discussing Uncanny X-Men 17, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Drew: What would you do if you found yourself lost in the wilderness? It’s the kind of thought experiment that captured my mind as a child. I’m sure the survival skills I cobbled together from movies and second-hand stories from friends wouldn’t have gotten me very far, but I liked to imagine that I would be cool and in control. I still find myself mentally preparing for similarly absurd hypotheticals (where would I go if there was a zombie apocalypse?), but experience has made it clear that decision-making tends to be impaired by the heat of the moment. That is, you may know you’re supposed to turn into the skid, but there’s a pretty big gap between what you know and what you’re actually capable of when in a state of panic. The only way to practice working under pressure is to actually be under pressure, which is exactly what Uncanny X-Men 17 is all about. Continue reading →

Feb 25 2014

Nova 13

nova 13Today, Spencer and Scott are discussing Nova 13, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Spencer: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: two heroes meet, but a misunderstanding causes them to fight for a while before they inevitably team-up. Wait, why didn’t you stop me? You’ve all heard this one before; TV Tropes calls it “Let’s You and Him Fight”, and it’s easily one of the best-known tropes in comics. Nova 13 is one large “Let’s You and Him Fight” scene between Sam and Beta Ray Bill, and while there’s definitely a lot of fun to be had with the fight, ultimately Gerry Duggan and Paco Medina don’t do anything interesting enough to justify devoting so much time to such a tired concept. Continue reading →

Feb 25 2014

Fables 138

Alternating Currents: Fables 138, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Fables 138, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Drew: I know this cements me as a twenty-something white-boy nerd, but I love it when stories get meta. Fiction is full of characters and situations we can relate to, but few themes are as unifying as the love of storytelling itself. Fables has long been a celebration of the power of storytelling — the way it inspires us, challenges us, and teaches us — but in the wrong hands, that power can be dangerous. After all, what is a lie if not a story? It would be easy to ignore the dark side of fiction, but Fables 138 boldly turns away from Rose Red’s Camelot to detail the deceit Geppetto has hidden behind as he works in secret to rebuild his empire.

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Feb 25 2014

The Unwritten Apocalypse 2

unwritten apocalypse 2Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Ryan are discussing The Unwritten Apocalypse 2, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Do you find me sadistic? You know, I bet I could fry an egg on your head if I wanted to right now. No, Kiddo, I’d like to believe that you’re aware enough, even now, to know there’s nothing sadistic about my actions. Maybe toward those other jokers — but not you. No Kiddo. This moment? This is me at my most masochistic.

Bill, Kill Bill

Patrick: People often accuse storytellers of being sadistic. How else could they put the characters we love through such torment over and over again? That’s a weirdly archaic question — one that you’d think readers would be over by now, but not caring about characters is a charge that’s still leveled against writers on a nearly constant basis. George R. R. Martin gets an absolute mountain shit for so liberally (and gruesomely) torturing and killing his characters, and Dan Slott spent the last year receiving death threats and fielding questions like “why does Marvel hate Spider-Man?” The not-so-secret secret is that Martin and Slott actually love their characters, and putting them through the wringer probably hurts the author more than the reader could possibly imagine. It’s a sacrifice to behead the noble lord you’ve invented, it’s a sacrifice to override a hero’s good essential nature when you’ve worked so hard to cultivate it. In the world of The Unwritten, where fictions are made reality (or… maybe the other way ’round…), that sadomasochist is right there in the narrative, and he refuses to let the suffering end.

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Feb 24 2014

Animal Man 28

Animal man 28

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Animal Man 28, originally released February 19, 2014. 

I’m sorry I was late, baby. I had to go to space.

Buddy Baker, Animal Man 28

Shelby: I feel like this quote from the latest issue of Animal Man perfectly sums up my experience with Buddy Baker in the hands of Jeff Lemire. Buddy’s defining characteristic has, for me, always been his connection to his family. Nowhere else have we seen someone forced to balance a spouse and family with being a superhero, occasionally having to go to space, etc. Mostly, Buddy’s balancing act has brought a lot of suffering to the Baker clan, so it’s nice to see our favorite family man finally get a real win.

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Feb 24 2014

X-Files Conspiracy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Today, Taylor and (guest writer) Aaron are discussing X-Files Conspiracy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Taylor: The crossover is deadly move in basketball. The quick change in direction shakes up the defender and often creates unique scoring opportunities for whoever employs it. Outside of the basketball court, however, the crossover enjoys a more dubious reputation. Countless times have two entertainment franchises created a crossover event to help generate buzz for each property, and countless times has this resulted in a complete and utter mess. I can’t blame publishers and studios for doing this though; it seems like a logical thing to do at first glance. Just take two things people like and mash ‘em together to create double interest! However, jamming two distinct franchises together is actually pretty hard, especially when each has its own distinct universe set up. That being said: what in the world can we expect from a crossover between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the X-Files?

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