Tag Archives: Brian Azzarello

Aug 28 2013

Wonder Woman 23

wonder woman 23

Today, Shelby and guest writer Nate are discussing Wonder Woman 23, originally released August 21st, 2013.

Shelby: Remember 22 issues ago, when Brian Azzarello relaunched Wonder Woman with the question: where is Zeus? We are no closer to answering that question, but honestly I don’t care in the least. Azz has flawlessly incorporated the Greek pantheon into this contemporary story, and has along the way crafted complex, believable, interesting characters. This issue feels like the cumulation of all that character work. We have the death of one god and the birth of another, and who knows what the repercussions will be for these characters we’ve grown so very fond of.

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Aug 26 2013

100 Bullets: Brother Lono 3

Alternating Current: 100 Bullets: Brother Lono 3, Patrick and Drew

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing 100 Bullets: Brother Lono 3, originally released August 21st, 2013.

Patrick: For a couple of months in Chicago, I worked as a barista at Argo Tea. It’s basically a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, with its priorities reversed. As a barista, you don’t have a lot of room to make any substantive decisions during the day — in fact, most of the time you’re just trying to keep up with orders and not fuck up all the drinks. Occasionally, drinks do get fucked up and customers get mad. If you’re lucky, the customer just asks you to fix the drink and that’s that. But if they’re feeling particularly entitled or vengeful, they can contact corporate to complain. That’s when the avalanche starts, as the complaint trickles down from corporate to the store manager to the shift leader and back to you, the lowly barista. With each level of authority the complaint is filtered through, there’s more and more residual anger and blame built up until a simple mistake suddenly appears to be a blight, symptomatic of complete institutional incompetence. That’s an incredibly low-stakes example of what Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso explore in issue 3 of Brother Lono.
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Jul 22 2013

100 Bullets: Brother Lono 2

100 bullets 2

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing 100 Bullets: Brother Lono 2, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Drew: What is it that defines us? Is it our thoughts or our actions? Can moral men have immoral thoughts? This is the stuff of middle-school philosophy debates, but it becomes a bit more practical when we talk about self-improvement. What does it mean to change? Is it our thoughts or our actions that change? Is the past we’re coming from a set of actions, or something more fundamental to our being? When I interviewed Brian Azzarello last month, he said that Brother Lono is “the story of a man trying to not be himself,” and issue 2 begins exploring exactly what that might mean. Continue reading →

Jul 18 2013

Wonder Woman 22

wonder woman 22Today, Taylor and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 22, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Taylor: Brian Azzarello certainly has a way of making us do a double take while reading Wonder Woman. The man has a talent for bending his plots in unlikely directions while also making us second guess everyone’s motivations with almost every new issue. It’s likely that when Wonder Woman was rebooted, some were similarly thrown for a loop when Azzarello depicted the gods as being petty, mean, and downright hostile to just about everyone but themselves. While anyone who has ever read a Greek myth recognizes the dickish mentality of the Greek pantheon, it seems likely that others might have been surprised. The popular conception of heaven and god(s) in today’s culture takes a much more touchy-feely approach with our deities. Instead of being something to be feared, we like to think of deities as being righteous, compassionate, and selfless. Azzarello seems to understand how these two forces are at odds and in issue 22 of Wonder Woman he asks us to compare the Greek gods with their New God alternates. The question is, are they the same or are they different?

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Jun 21 2013

100 Bullets: Brother Lono 1

100 bullets 1

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing 100 Bullets: Brother Lono 1, originally released June 19th, 2013. Check out Drew’s interview with Brian Azzarello here!

Patrick: Revenge narratives are tough — in order to properly motivate a hero to undertake an immoral quest, the character needs to be severely wronged. We place so much moral capital on someone’s ability to turn the other cheek, that even when the protagonist is pushed to their limits, it feels a little icky to see the bad guy get what’s coming to ’em. I mean, they have to maintain the high ground somehow, right? But no matter how masterfully crafted, these stories are always ugly, always petty, and even in their moments of triumph, always revolting. Brian Azzarello and Eduaro Risso built a compelling story engine on the framework of revenge in 100 Bullets, and their new mini-series may have dropped many of the central conceits of the original, but that intensely repulsive element remains. I cannot wait to see the bad guys get what’s coming to ’em in this series. Continue reading →

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 →

May 16 2013

Wonder Woman 20

wonder woman 20

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 20, originally released May 15th, 2013.

I said, war, huh
Good God, y’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

— Edwin Starr

Drew: War is ugly. There’s death, there’s destruction, there’s misery, but I think the ugliest thing about war is that we’ll never be free of it — it’s in our nature. Things quickly escalate from the desire to protect the people and things we care about, to a “the best defense is a good offense” mentality, to tit-for-tat reciprocity. It’s all too easy to see how vast groups of people — motivated only to do what is right for their loved ones — could be compelled to all-out war. In his Wonder Woman run, Brian Azzarello has traced this trajectory with grim fascination, simmering the tension along as the situation slowly escalates. This month finds that tension boiling over with three factions engaged in war — with the added complication that War itself is also a character.  Continue reading →

Apr 25 2013

Before Watchmen – Comedian 6

Alternating Currents: Before Watchmen - Comedian 6, Patrick and Drew

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Comedian 6, originally released April 24th, 2013. Comedian is part of DC’s Before Watchmen prequel series. Click here for complete Before Watchmen coverage (including release dates).

Patrick: Before Watchmen: Comedian is so dense with historical and cultural references that it often comes off as clinical. It’s only upon peeling back the layers that the reader is rewarded with emotionally effective storytelling. The finale is no exception, so let’s cut the bullshit and unpack what just happened.

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Apr 18 2013

Wonder Woman 19

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 19, Drew and Scott

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 19, originally released April 17th, 2013.

Drew: Wonder Woman 18 ended on an atypically happy note — Zola was reunited with her baby, Diana and Ares seemed to have patched things up, Hera had found a bottle of wine — but the end of those good times is lurking around every corner. Unfortunately, Diana and friends may be caught unawares, mistaking their recent battles for the coming war. Indeed, when wagering on the outcome of that war, Poseidon discounts Diana, suggesting that he “always bet[s] against a player who doesn’t know they’re in the game.” Poseidon has made the mistake of underestimating Diana before, but he may have a point: while her adversaries are arming themselves, Diana seems to be distracted by more basic team maintenance. Continue reading →