Tag Archives: Fernando Pasarin

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 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 →

May 14 2013

Green Lantern Corps 20

green lantern corps 20 wrath

Today, Patrick and Mikyzptlk are discussing Green Lantern Corps 20, originally released May 8th, 2013. This issue is part of the Wrath of the First Lantern crossover event. Click here for our First Lantern coverage. 

Patrick: It might be pure, dumb circumstance that this issue of Green Lantern Corps came out a full two weeks before this epic run of Green Lantern stories comes to a close. The cover of this issue brashly proclaims that the story within is an “epilogue.” And it is – in the strictest sense, everything that happens in this issue takes place immediately after the crossover has been resolved. Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin’s preemptive coda challenges the very idea that a Green Lantern story could end and explores a deeper truth about what we want, what we need and what we expect from serialized storytelling. Continue reading →

Apr 15 2013

Green Lantern Corps 19

green lantern corps 19 wrath

Today, Patrick and Mikyzptlk are discussing Green Lantern 19, originally released April 10th, 2013. This issue is part of the Wrath of the First Lantern crossover event. Click here for our First Lantern coverage. 

Patrick: It’s hard not to see Volthoom as an author surrogate. This is a creature who feasts off the emotional turmoil of the Green Lantern characters and can alter their pasts with a snap of his glowing, iridescent fingers. So why is he the bad guy? Comic book fans are very quick to turn on creative or editorial teams when it seems like the choices they’re making threatens what the fans hold dear. Scott Lobdell mentions that Tim Drake was never Robin? “Oh fuck that guy.” Dan DiDio says the Crises never happened? “Well, he’s an idiot anyway.” Fans harbor such ire for creative missteps that it (unfortunately) makes sense to make the character who re-writes history the bad guy. But what about the writers we love – where are they represented? There are writers that live and die with these characters, why should they be solely represented by a universe-stomping big-bad? Green Lantern Corps 19 provides the antidote for just that.

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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 →

Feb 25 2013

Green Lantern Corps 17

Alternating Currents: Green Lantern Corps 17, Drew and Patrick

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Green Lantern 17, originally released February 20th, 2013. This issue is part of the Wrath of the First Lantern crossover event. Click here for our First Lantern coverage. 

Drew: Retcons. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re sure to be a part of the kinds of never-ending narratives comics take part in. Our own relationship with reality predisposes us to being suspicious of revisions as cheap or unrealistic, but in a world where everything is made up anyway, what’s really the difference? Conversely, in a superhero comic world, where even the very laws of physics can be defied, continuity may serve as the only “reality,” offering the only sense of what is and is not possible. It’s a touchy subject (which is why so many fans are still so upset by DC’s relaunch), but one that the Wrath of the First Lantern event seems poised to address directly. Indeed, with Green Lantern Corps 17, Peter Tomasi has tackled the very notion of retcons with surprising thoroughness and maturity, seemingly reflecting the audience’s own reactions to its events.

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Nov 20 2012

Green Lantern Corps 14

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing the Green Lantern Corps 14, originally released October 10th, 2012. This issue is part of the Rise of the Third Army crossover event. Click here for complete Third Army coverage. 

Shelby:  Big crossover events are fun. We like to see various creative teams working together on one story, and large-scale epic stories are an exciting change of pace. A major downside of an epic crossover, however, is having to get your characters to where they need to be. This shuffling of players is necessary, and can be handled in a way that’s still interesting and engaging. Peter Tomasi has got players moving into place and even gives us some major plot pieces in the process, but the end result still falls a little flat.  Continue reading →

Sep 18 2012

Green Lantern Corps 0

Today, Peter and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 0, originally released September 12, 2012. Green Lantern Corps 0 is part of the line-wide Zero Month.

Peter: What I’ve appreciated thus far from the zero issues is they’ve avoided retelling the same old origin stories you’ve heard a dozen times before.  There’s no point seeing Batman’s parents getting shot again, Superman arriving on Earth in a rocket again, the Flash cooking in lightning and chemicals again, or Green Lantern coming upon a dying alien with a ring…again.  If anyone’s origins are ripe for revisiting, it would be those of the “other” Green Lanterns in the DCU; I mean, they all began their careers playing second fiddle to Hal Jordon. Tomasi takes a fresh look at Guy and his family life, and it really turns out quite well.

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Aug 20 2012

Green Lantern Corps 12

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 11, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Patrick: “Don’t trust the authority.” It’s a theme that runs rich through the Green Lanterns mythos. And it’s not just the Guardians you can’t trust. Your mentors (Sinestro, to a lesser extent Abin Sur), your peace keeping force (the Alphas), even your greatest heroes (“Halallax” – which is what Shelby and I like to call Hal when he was infected with the yellow): everyone’s out to get you. For a series with such anarchist underpinnings, Green Lantern Corps has an unshakable belief in the fundamental goodness of their group. This issue kicks both of these conflicting ideas into high-gear.

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Jul 23 2012

Green Lantern Corps 11

Today, Shelby and Peter are discussing Green Lantern Corps 11, originally released July 18th, 2012.

Shelby: The current run of the Green Lantern Corps is largely about dissension. It’s a powerful force that any dissenter will tell you is necessary, usually to achieve freedom from oppressors. But it’s also a tool which can be wielded against the oppressed to scatter their forces and further cement the power of the oppressors. So far, the dissent Guy and John sparked has played into the hands of the Guardians, aiding them in their plans to destroy the Corps to make way for the Third Army. This issue might mark the turning point when things finally spiral out of their controlling, blue hands.
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