Tag Archives: Charles Soule

Sep 24 2013

Action Comics 23.3: Lex Luthor

lex luthor 23.3Today, Shelby and guest writer Dad — er, Pete, are discussing Action Comics 23.3: Lex Luthor, originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Villain’s Month event. Click here for our Villains Month coverage.

villain divShelby: If there’s ever been a character defined by ego, it’s Lex Luthor. He’s the classic evil genius; unimaginably intelligent and selfish to the bone. Lex Luthor’s primary concern is Lex Luthor, and there’s no moral code he won’t break to get his way. He’s the perfect nemesis for Superman because they are complete opposites. Superman uses the power he has to give, Luthor uses it to take. Writer Charles Soule, in the guise of a “day-in-the-life-of” piece gives us a glimpse of what the world would be like without a Superman to provide balance against Luthor. The results are grim and rather brilliant.

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Sep 23 2013

Green Lantern 23.3: Black Hand

black hand 23.3

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Mark are discussing Green Lantern 23.3: Black Hand originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Villain’s Month event. Click here for our Villains Month coverage.

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Patrick: Look, we all know we’ve reached a point of over-saturation when it comes to zombie stories. World War Z was the surprise anti-flop of the summer; The Last of Us taught us that video games know how to make us feel; AMC announced that we’re going to be getting a spin-off to The Walking Dead. If we look back into the recent past, the examples are basically everywhere: Dead Rising, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, and every conceivable adaptation of The Walking Dead. Zombies have some kind of inherent draw, but, like… aren’t you kinda getting sick of them? Continue reading →

Sep 20 2013

Thunderbolts 15

thunderbolts 15 infinity

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Thunderbolts 15, originally released September 18th, 2013. This issue is part of the Infinity crossover event. Click here for complete Infinity coverage.

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Shelby: I’ve got a big project at work right now that is causing my team some major headaches. Half the guys do their own thing, causing the other half no small amount of frustration. I feel I don’t have the time to do my portion as well as I would like, which leaves me extra frustrated as well. It’s easy to forget that we’re all on the same team, with the same goal: finish this project so we don’t have to work on it anymore. It’s even trickier for the Thunderbolts, in that they aren’t actually on the same team, they don’t actually have the same goal. Also, they’ve got a little alien problem.

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Aug 9 2013

Swamp Thing 23

swamp thing 23

Today, Patrick and Scott are discussing Swamp Thing 23, originally released August 7th, 2013.

Patrick: Alcohol is weird. It’s dulls our senses, it shortens our lives, it gets us into trouble – and yet we engage with it time and time (and time) again. Why? Because it’s fun. Because when we dial back our inhibitions a little bit, we find the casual courage to do something we’ve always wanted to do. All of that freedom is great, until you cross that line. YOU KNOW THE ONE I MEAN. The moment in the evening where you don’t make decisions with your complete mental faculty. I’ve always had people tell me that drinking brings out who someone really is, but that’s faulty. If anything, booze dulls the prowess of the super-ego, allowing the baser urges of ego and id to take priority. But the id isn’t a person’s “true self” – the psyche isn’t a list of three psychic apparatuses, but the relationship between the three. What you are can more accurately be defined by how you deny the more destructive urges deep in your Freudian well. That’s the kind of thematic material Charles Soule mines in his story about a magician, a plant-man and a booze-tree. Continue reading →

Jul 10 2013

Swamp Thing 22

swamp thing 22

Today, Scott and Shelby are discussing Swamp Thing 22, originally released July 3rd, 2013.

Scott: There are certain people you just can’t rely on, and you know it. In a sense, it’s better to be aware that someone is a liar, or a flake, or a selfish prick, because then you can’t be caught off guard by it. At the same time, it’s tough, because if you give that person the benefit of the doubt too many times, you make yourself into a fool. This is Alec’s Holland’s relationship with John Constantine- he knows Constantine’s a liar, but still convinces himself that Constantine might be able to help him. It’s also quickly becoming my relationship with Charles Soule, the writer of Swamp Thing. I can’t count on him. Just when I think he’s going to give me some answers, just when I think he’s going to reveal something about this so called “Seeder”, he goes and writes an issue about…John Constantine? It’s so crazy, it actually works really well.
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Jun 12 2013

Chat Cave: September is Villains Month

DC has staked their claim on the month of September. Two years ago saw the relaunch of the entire publishing line, and last year saw special “zero” issues for every series. This year, DC is releasing 52 issues featuring villains, old and new, from the DC Universe. There’s no one-for-one correspondence to existing series, and DC hasn’t been the most forthcoming with information about what exactly they’re putting out. There’s a lot to sort through here and no easy answers for what’s going to be worth our time and money. Welcome to the Chat Cave.
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Jun 7 2013

Swamp Thing 21

swamp thing 21

Today, Scott and Drew are discussing Swamp Thing 21, originally released June 5th, 2013.

Scott: Most Superheroes are afforded the luxury, and often the burden, of maintaining a semblance of normal human life — an alter ego. Swamp Thing is not. Alec Holland is Swamp Thing all the time — he doesn’t have a day job. In that sense, Swamp Thing isn’t about a man keeping his two identities distinct, but a man forced to allow his two identities to merge. Because of this, his character is constantly evolving, transitioning from something familiar to something unknown. He has spent his entire life as Alec Holland, but there’s an entire history of the Green that he knows very little about. In Swamp Thing 21, Charles Soule makes it clear that he is more interested in exploring the unknown. Continue reading →

May 3 2013

Swamp Thing 20

swamp thing 20

Today, Patrick and Scott are discussing Swamp Thing 20 originally released May 1st, 2013.

Patrick: What’s your greatest fear? It’s something that could happen to you, right? Your worst fear isn’t that you’re living the life you’re living right now. But that’s the case for Alec Holland – everything he had to lose, he lost. Can you imagine what a bummer it’d be to realize your worst fear was that you’d live your life as you had? Christ, that’s depressing. It’s regret at its most primal level, and it’s exactly what we’re dealing with in Swamp Thing 20. Continue reading →

Apr 4 2013

Swamp Thing 19

Alternating Current: Swamp Thing 19, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Swamp Thing 19 originally released April 3rd, 2013.

Drew: Taking over a title from a much-loved creative team must be an intimidating task — especially after an epic story arc like Rotworld. First issues necessarily inspire less awe than story conclusions, which means the most salient points of comparison can only be unflattering. Mercifully (or perhaps diabolically), Snyder and Paquette had a bit of a fire-sale with characters, effectively setting the series back to zero in terms of interpersonal relationships. Those changes hinted at a very different status quo for Swamp Thing moving forward, one that new creative team Charles Soule and Kano not only pick up on, but assert with a strong sense of purpose. Continue reading →