Jun 20 2013

Wonder Woman 21

wonder woman 21

Today, Shelby and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 21, originally released June 19th, 2013. Check out Drew’s exclusive interview with Brian Azzarello here!

Shelby: I recently bought PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a button-masher fighting game that’s a whole lot of fun. It’s basically Super Smash Brothers, but with characters like Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, Kratos, etc. I think this game is great because it’s all about mindless smashy smashing; you pick your character and then try to punch the other characters as much as possible. Loads of fun, but nothing much in the story department. I also recently played through Heavy Rain, an interactive-drama game where you play through a series of quicktime events to find the killer before he strikes again. Not a lot of action, mostly “press triangle to ask a question, press square to sit at the table” sort of stuff, but the story and character development is breathtaking. It had me on the edge of my seat, and the ending totally caught me by surprise. I like both of these games, and I’d recommend either of them, but they take very different approaches to entertainment: one mindless and awesome fighting, the other slower paced, but with incredible character moments. Brian Azzarello is not one to be content with one or the other; Wonder Woman 21 manages to give us both big action and quiet character development, and is wholly satisfying on both counts.
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Jun 19 2013

Creator Interview: Brian Azzarello

interview brian azzarello

Brian Azzarello and Eduaro Risso’s 100 Bullets is back with a new 8-issue mini-series about Brother Lono. To celebrate, Azzarello sat down with Drew to discuss the new mini, the first issue of which is out today. We also ask him about Wonder Woman 21 (also out today) and his contributions to Before Watchmen. Spoilers for all issues discussed below. Continue reading →

Jun 19 2013

Batgirl 21

batgirl 21Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Batgirl 18, originally released March 13th, 2013.

Patrick: I used to live in an apartment in Uptown Chicago with Taylor and our friend Andrew. This is right out of college and none of us really knew what we were doing in that town – just that we had some friends in the area and where else were we going to find jobs? The later part of that equation proved more taxing that we had originally expected (hooray for economic downturns!), and living there eventually became an endurance match against the city. You’d spend the morning sleeping, the afternoon looking for jobs, the evenings trying to figure out what the fuck you’re doing with your life, and the nights drinking. It’s a vicious little cycle, and every phone call to your folks to ask for a couple bucks so you could cover rent, every email from faraway friends, piled up into this feeling of helplessness – like you were stuck in a make-believe life that bore to similarities to the life you knew before. Oddly, it was getting jobs that we all hated that grounded us – provided structure to our lives. It’s just when Batgirl feels that her old life has totally slipped away from her that regains her structure the old fashioned way: doing her job and punching a villain in the face. Continue reading →

Jun 19 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 9

thor 9

Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 9, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Shelby: Religion, mythology, and fantasy: all three have slightly different connotations. Religion refers to a set of beliefs about where we came from and where we’ll end up, generally involving some sort of god(s) and a moral code. My rural Wisconsin, Lutheran upbringing means I tend to default to the Christian God, Three in One, etc., etc. Mythology is more folkloric, a collection stories about heroes and gods: the stories that fuel all religions, but a term often ascribed to the religion of the other. As in, “my beliefs are religion, yours are merely myths.” Fantasy is the imagination that fuels the myths, the crazy daydream that dreamed up the stories in the first place. Personally, I believe it’s the myth, the story, that ties these three together: the imagination creates the story, and the story fosters belief. No where is the connections between religion, mythology, and fantasy more apparent than in Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder.

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Jun 18 2013

Manhattan Projects 12

Alternating Currents: Manhattan Projects 12, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Manhattan Projects 12, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Oh my God. Oh my God! Oh my God! The whole time? The whole time, you were – THE WHOLE TIME?!

-Sally Field as Miranda Hillard
Mrs. Doubtfire

Drew: I love a good twist. Nothing is better than being surprised by a narrative — especially with something that fundamentally shifts the paradigm of the story. Of course, it’s possible to go too big with a twist — if you change the foundation too much, you run the risk of invalidating the emotional connections based on that foundation. Obviously, it’s difficult to bring up examples without spoiling some big twists, which hopefully explains the epigraph — by the climax of Mrs. Doubtfire Sally Field’s character is basically the only person that doesn’t know Robin Williams is her nanny, but that doesn’t negate her growing sense of betrayal as she realizes that this was the case THE WHOLE TIME. I had a similar reaction as Manhattan Projects 12 reveals that Fermi isn’t the character we think he is. When Harry reveals that he knows Fermi is an alien at the end of Manhattan Projects 11, Patrick and I were touched — we saw their friendship as the sweet story of two outsiders who found each other. In issue 12, Jonathan Hickman rips that still-beating heart out through our eye-holes, and lets us know that it was all a lie, anyway. Continue reading →

Jun 18 2013

Green Lantern Corps 21

green lantern corps 21

Today, Patrick and Mikyzptlk are discussing Green Lantern Corps 21, originally released June 11th, 2013.

Patrick: Any comic series you’re going to read from the Big Two publishers is going to be something of a Frankenstein monster. In an editor-driven system, even the most auteur creators have to construct their stories by committee. And that’s great: there’s no way a single mind would have the time or patience to construct all these stories on their own. Plus, collaboration yields kick-ass art, and the one-man comic creation is the incredibly rare exception. The latest incarnation of Green Lantern Corps has a tall family tree, with prestigious branches like Peter Tomasi and Alan Moore, but it also has a confusing mishmash of fathers — after Josh Fialkov walked off the series, Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti (he’s credited as “co-pilot”) constructed a story  for which Van Jensen wrote the script. It’s no wonder that first issue for the new creative team is a jumble of interesting ideas and characters, impossibly focused on both embracing and escaping the past. It’s a mess, but sort of a charming one. Continue reading →

Jun 18 2013

Chat Cave: Man of Steel

chat-cave-header

Between the commercial success of a near-constant stream of Marvel Studios Avengers movies and the critical success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, there are impossible expectations for Man of Steel. Expectations like reigniting the public’s love for Superman; expectations like launching a blockbuster film franchise; expectations like being any good in its own right. Zach Snyder’s Superman slug-fest has a lot to accomplish. Does it achieve any of that? Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Drew: Like many comics fans, I was incredibly excited by the teaser trailer for this movie. In spite of the trailer’s own prominent reminder that Zach Snyder directed both Watchmen and 300, it felt like this movie got Superman. Indeed, the trailer trades in Snyder’s standard embarrassing music cues and slow-motion punches for meditative statements about Superman’s power as a symbol. Between story credits by Dark Knight Trilogy scribe David S. Goyer and director  Christopher Nolan, I dared hope that Man of Steel might be to Superman what The Dark Knight films were to Batman: an operatic drama that understands the defining nature of the hero.

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Jun 17 2013

Nightwing 21

nightwing 21

Today, Scott and Spencer are discussing Nightwing 21, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Scott: Obsession can be a very dangerous thing. For Superheroes, letting emotions dictate the decisions they make often muddles the line between justice and personal satisfaction. Dick Grayson is obsessed with Tony Zucco, a man he rightly feels deserves punishment for murdering Dick’s parents. But Dick has shown that he will go to any lengths to get to Tony, even if it means compromising many of the things Nightwing stands for. Nightwing 21 finds Dick Grayson venturing further into the realm of moral ambiguity, with implications as fascinating as they are frightening.
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Jun 17 2013

Deadpool 11

deadpool 11

Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Deadpool 11, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Ethan: Stories have to follow a lot of formulas — rising action, tension, struggle, resolution. Comics are often even more constrained — extraordinary people, powers, and villains combine to make extraordinarily predictable outcomes. Familiarity sells. But while you could say a lot of horrible things about Deadpool — and they’d all be true — if there’s one thing that he is NOT, it’s conventional. Maybe it’s because his superpower has more to do with the basic act of survival rather than leaping a building in a single bound; maybe it’s because he’s just a bastard of a guy who lucked out with the world’s most impressive healing factor. Maybe it’s because he’s Canadian. I dunno. Either way, he’s up to his eyeballs in demonic intrigue right now, so perhaps the standard operating procedures wouldn’t be the best fit anyway. As he continues his contract with Vetis, hunting and killing superpowered humans who sold their souls for their abilities, writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan continue to entertain while Wade Wilson continues to backstab his way to freedom.

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Jun 14 2013

Suicide Squad 21

suicide squad 21

Today, Mikyzptlk and Shelby are discussing Suicide Squad 21, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Mikyzptlk: Ales Kot completely blew me away with issue 20 of Suicide Squad, giving fans of the original series a taste of what made it so great, while completely reinvigorating the New 52 version of the book. With issue 21, Mr. Kot has blown me away again (along with a few security guards) and has delivered another absolutely thrilling entry. Best of all, Kot manages to continue his course correction of the character Harley Quinn by brilliantly using her to fix yet another troubled character of the New 52: Amanda Waller.

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