Mar 19 2013

Thor: God of Thunder 6

Alternating Currents: Thor 6, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Thor: God of Thunder 6, originally released March 13th, 2013.

Drew:  As a child, it seemed impossibly unfair to me that we’re more or less born into our religious beliefs — if there was one right way, how could so many people be consigned to hell simply by luck of birth? As a precocious skeptic, this just confirmed that religion was nothing more than an arbitrary (but comforting) tradition, practiced differently by everyone — like the way your family prepares stuffing on Thanksgiving, or the particular Monopoly house rules you grew up with. Of course, the wrinkle in that attitude comes when somebody does reject their parents’ religious beliefs (or stuffing recipes, house rules, political practices, etc), actively replacing them with something they deem superior. That wrinkle gets even wrinklier when that generation has their own kids — do the parents teach their beliefs as gospel, or foster the sense of skepticism that led to them changing their beliefs in the first place? It’s a daunting, complex subject, but it’s exactly where Jason Aaron sets his sights as he explores Gorr’s origin in Thor 6. Continue reading →

Mar 18 2013

Fantastic Four 5

fantastic four 5

Today, Mikyzptlk and Jack are discussing Fantastic Four 5, originally released March 13th, 2013.

Mikyzptlk: Ah families, they come is all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common. At the end of the day, they’ll always have your back. The Fantastic Four have always been Marvel’s First Family. Series writer, Matt Fraction, makes sure to keep that in mind as we go into issue 5. But how exactly does a family of space faring superheroes interact with one another and work out their problems? As it turns out, the same way that everyone else does.

Continue reading →

Mar 18 2013

Green Lantern Corps 18

green lantern corps 18 wrath

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Green Lantern 18, originally released March 13th, 2013. This issue is part of the Wrath of the First Lantern crossover event. Click here for our First Lantern coverage. 

Shelby: To think about all the various paths one’s life can take boggles the mind. What if I hadn’t moved to Chicago 5 years ago? Picked a different major in college? Gone to a different college all together? Focused on sports instead of the arts in high school? Told Nathaniel I thought he was super cute in first grade? And those are just a handful of big choices (except maybe that last one); if every choice I make has the potential to create a completely new life path, I can’t begin to comprehend the sheer number of lives I could have lived. Going down any of these infinite paths, would I still retain that core “me-ness” that identifies who I am? It’s a fascinating question that was raised with Wrath of the First Lantern last month, and that is rehashed again here.  Continue reading →

Mar 15 2013

Batgirl 18

batgirl 18

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

Patrick: You know how NBC does a week of environmentally themed shows for the week of Earth Day? (Maybe they even call it Earth Week, who knows?) It’s a network-wide mandate and there’s a persistent green peacock in the lower right corner of the screen to remind us of this fact. How individual shows deal with this mandate is sorta flexible — The Office will relegate their green message to the cold open, and 30 Rock will have Al Gore on again. Everybody tows the line because to not do it would be monstrous. You don’t want to be the only sitcom that doesn’t care about global warming, right? Batgirl 18 finds itself in a similar predicament: how to participate in this REQUIEM without derailing the series’ forward momentum. Ray Fawkes eschews convention by trading in themes rather than plot points. The results are mixed.   Continue reading →

Mar 15 2013

Age of Ultron 2

age of ultron 2

Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Age of Ultron 2, originally released March 13th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

ultron-div

Ethan: In recent years, after the financial markets fell screaming into their perennial nosedive, the city of Detroit hasn’t done so well. Workers who had spent their lives with a company were laid off, branches were closed, businesses died, buildings were abandoned. Over time, the violence of the changes and departures faded as the temperatures, wind, and microorganisms went to work. Materials that we associate with longevity — brick, stone, even plastics — took on a distinctly alien appearance of decay. The effect even got a name — “ruin porn” — and photographers from across the country flocked to capture the scenes. Reading through the second issue of Age of Ultron evokes the same mix of wonder and horror, albeit the decay is in much fresher stage, and the characters are fictional. Bryan Hitch continues to deliver impressive vistas of metropolis in its death throes, and writer Brian Michael Bendis fills these images with sparks of life as the heroes try to find their place in the new world.

Continue reading →

Mar 14 2013

Age of Ultron 5 PREVIEW

age of ultron preview

Age of Ultron 5 comes out on April 10th, 2013 and is written by Brian Michael Bendis with Art by Bryan Hitch. Click here for our complete Age of Ultron coverage.

If you’ve ever found yourself asking “hey, what’s the emergency broadcast system going to look like during the robot apocalypse?” THEN LOOK NO FURTHER. It does look like we’re going to get more bits and pieces of how the world came to be this way. I won’t lie, it might be a little bit disconcerting that the Avengers et. al still appear to be holed up in the helicarrier in issue 5. But hey, the cover promises Wolverine’s claws! I bet he ends up calling someone ‘bub’ too!

Preview a couple pages after the jump. Continue reading →

Mar 14 2013

Batman and Robin 18

Alternating Currents: Batman and Robin 18, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Batman and Robin 18, originally released March 13th 2013.

Drew: I could have told you that summarizing and analyzing a dialogue-free comic would be hard — pictures are worth a thousand words, but the words in comics direct our attention, and provide context for those images. Strictly speaking, sequential art doesn’t require words, but they’re so common (especially in superhero comics) that to eschew them altogether feels downright radical. This isn’t meant as a value judgement — I’ve read many great dialogue-free comics — just to say that it’s a little outside my wheelhouse. By all rights Batman and Robin 18 should be hard to talk about because of it’s lack of dialogue, but instead, it’s hard to talk about because it’s so fucking sad. Continue reading →

Mar 14 2013

Batman 18

batman 18Today, Mikyzptlk and Scott are discussing Batman 18, originally released March 13th, 2013.

Mikyzptlk: The death of a loved one is something that is incredible hard to face. It’s also got to be something incredibly hard to write about, especially when you have to do so in a superhero comic where action and adventure is normally the name of the game. With the recent death of Robin The Boy Wonder, the Bat-writers have been tasked to deal with his death in their own way. Scott Snyder manages not only to continue the story of his new character Harper Row, but seamlessly and organically ties her story into the death of young Damian Wayne.

Continue reading →

Mar 13 2013

A + X 5

Alternating Currents: A + X 5, Michael and Drew

Today, Michael and Drew are discussing A + X 5, originally released March 6th, 2013.

Michael: Superhero comics tend to take themselves very seriously. They have to. Crime, justice, the duality of man — these are big themes that require sober moments. This might have something to do with the marketability and general popularity of dark graphic novels that differ starkly from older stories that have some ingrained silliness. These short team-ups are a perfect palate cleanser — especially since as of late, I’ve been reading comics that bite off more than they can chew, philosophically. A+X #5 gives us an unabashedly ridiculous story followed by an ostensibly serious story packed with lame jokes. While I enjoyed the first attempt with Iron Fist + Droop, the second with Loki + Mr. Sinister missed the enjoyability boat on both the comedic and dramatic front.

Continue reading →

Mar 13 2013

The Superior Spider-Man 5

superior spider-man 5

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Superior Spider-Man 5, originally released March 6th, 2013.

Shelby: For a super-villain, murder is often the most efficient way to do business. Unless you need hostages or information, civilians are at best in your way, and at worst witnesses to your nefarious deeds. Also, there’s no more efficient way to be feared and considered dangerous than by ganking a few innocent bystanders. It’s why so many heroes have pretty strict “no kill” rules; not only does it make the hero the diametric opposite of the villain, there are also times when not killing is the harder choice. Doing the hard thing (like saving the life of a cold-blooded murderer) because it’s the right thing is a core tenet of hero-ness. When faced with a choice between what’s right and what’s efficient, I think we all know which option Otto will choose.  Continue reading →