Tag Archives: Iron Man

Apr 1 2013

Superior Spider-Man 6AU

superior spider-man 6AU AU

Today, Ethan and Patrick are discussing Superior Spider-Man 6AU, originally released March 27th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

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Ethan: Familiarity is a funny thing. The exposure we have to a thing or activity, the more hard-wiring space our brains devote to it. That’s great when you need to do something quickly — like recognize and react to a baseball flying at your head — or when you do something the same way over and over — like driving a route to work every day. That hard-wiring can save you from injury, or save on processing power that could be put to other use. Automatic responses aren’t always helpful though; sometimes your conditioning assigns a label and to situation too quickly and funnels you into a course of action that almost always works, but not this time. In the Age of Ultron crossover Superior Spider-Man #6, writer Christos Gage and artist Dexter Soy demonstrate the folly of this kind of snap judgement as Otto Octavius (in the body of Spider-Man Peter Parker) faces off against the malicious artificial intelligence. Continue reading →

Mar 29 2013

Age of Ultron 3

age of ultron 3 AU

Today, Mikyzptlk and Drew are discussing Age of Ultron 3, originally released March 27th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

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Mikyzptlk: In any post-apocalyptic scenario, you can either give in to the destruction that surrounds you or you can find that one last sliver of hope to hang on to. The first two issues of this event have mostly centered on a group of defeated heroes who are on the verge of giving up hope. The resistance, if you could even call it that, was rudderless and quickly losing its steam. It was all quite depressing, if not in a fascinating kind of way. The latest issue of Age of Ultron reveals that perhaps not all hope is lost and, armed with a shiny new plan, our heroes start on a path that can hopefully lead them to victory.

Continue reading →

Mar 22 2013

Age of Ultron 6 PREVIEW

age of ultron preview

Age of Ultron 6 comes out on April 17th, 2013 and is written by Brian Michael Bendis with Art by Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco. Click here for our complete Age of Ultron coverage.

The superheroes live up to their end of the foreign exchange program by sending the Avengers to Ultron City. I expect most of the issue will involve Iron Man getting black-out drunk and hooking up with an Australian chick in a hostel and Captain America calling home to ask for more money. Also Hulk smashing, because: obviously.

Preview a couple pages after the jump. Continue reading →

Mar 20 2013

Uncanny X-Men 1-3

uncanny x-men 1-3Today, Patrick and Ethan are discussing Uncanny X-Men 1-3, originally released February 13th, February 27th, and March 13th 2012, respectively.

Patrick: The X-Men are the perpetual outsiders. They’re different — that’s their whole shtick. Sometimes the X-Men don’t even get along with the X-Men. With Uncanny X-Men, Brian Michael Bendis doubles down on this outsiderness, pitting Cyclops’ band of merry mutants against every one — the government, the Avengers, the rest of the X-Men. It’s the rumblings of a truly unnerving mutant revolution.

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.

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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 7 2013

Age of Ultron 1

age of ultron 1AU

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Age of Ultron 1, originally released March 6th, 2013. This issue is part of the Age of Ultron crossover event. Click here for complete AU coverage.

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Patrick: Y’all remember Battlestar Galactica? Until the show’s premise became too complicated to be expressed in a few simple sentence fragments, each episode would begin with the following titles projected across the screen:

The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

It’s exactly enough information to tease the world of the series. Yeah, there’s a lot more to it than that — this description makes no mention of the last scraps of humanity drifting through space in outdated battleships, or God or gods or Starbuck or Frak. It doesn’t have to: the purity of the threat represented by Cylons is so elemental and to render the rest beautiful, beautiful set-dressing to this central conflict. Battlestar would go on to tell a hundred compelling stories based of that clean slug-line, replete with rich themes and psychologically complex characters. Brian Michael Bendis’ Age of Ultron looks like it will have a great deal in common with BSG, the first such indication is a straightforward and agonizingly clean premise: “Hank Pym of the Avengers created an artificial intelligence known as Ultron. It hates humanity… and it has returned.” Game on.

Continue reading →

Jan 21 2013

Indestructible Hulk 1-3

hulk 1-3

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Indestructible Hulk 1-3, originally released November 21st, 2012, December 19th, 2012, and January 16, 2013.

Shelby: The Hulk is not a complex character. He exists as rage incarnate, smashing his way through everything in his path, and basically unstoppable once he gets started. There’s no ulterior motive, no hidden agenda, no personality, just smashsmashsmash. He makes for some sweet action sequences, but that’s about it. The Hulk gets interesting when you consider his relationship with Bruce Banner. Because Banner can basically turn into a nuclear bomb at any moment, he doesn’t exactly get invited to a lot of backyard barbecues; his life has been spent in isolation, desperately seeking a cure for his chronic Hulk-itis. Mark Waid has decided enough is enough for sad science Banner, and is pointing both Banner and the Hulk in a whole new direction.
Continue reading →

Dec 4 2012

A + X 2

a+x2

Today, Shelby and (guest writer) James D’Amato are discussing A + X 2, originally released November 28th, 2012.

Shelby: I like fluff. Sure, it’s fun to read something that is very intelligently written and cleverly drawn, and analyze the holy hell out of it. Turns out, that’s kind of our bread and butter here at Retcon Punch. But for every Fight Club, there’s a Zoolander: a vacuous, fluffy bit of nothing that is just dumb fun. A+X is just that fluffy bit of nothing; it pairs up Avengers with X-Men, with no regards to continuity, logic, etc. The whole point of the title is to watch a couple of superheroes kick the crap out of some bad guys, and I don’t have any problems with that at all. The two stories in this issue are a great demonstration of the fact that just because I’m looking for some dumb fun doesn’t mean I want to have my intelligence insulted; there is, after all, such a thing as too dumb.

Continue reading →

Oct 17 2012

Readers Assemble!

Readers Assemble!Just over a year ago, we began reading monthly comics in earnest when DC relaunched its entire publication line. The New 52 afforded a great opportunity for uninitiated readers to get into ongoing titles. While a great discussion could be had on the differences and similarities between the New 52 and Marvel’s new Marvel NOW! relaunch, the latter seems clearly designed to emulate the successes of the former. With that in mind, we thought we might take this opportunity to expand our horizons into Marvel’s publications. Marvel NOW! affords us a unique chance to get into a title at the ground level, following new creative teams as they embark on new arcs with classic characters. We intend to capitalize on this opportunity, but we need your help. Continue reading →

May 2 2012

Chat Cave: A DC Team Movie

In 2008, Marvel Studios introduced Tony Stark to the big screen in “Iron Man.” 4 years, one sequel, and new Thor and Captain America franchises later, we are a week away from “The Avengers.” This is the first time a studio has created separate movies for each team member, leading into a full-fledged, comic book team movie. Will it work? More important, could it be done for a DC team? What would it take for a full-fledged Justice League movie? Retcon Punchers sound off.  Welcome to the Chat Cave.

Patrick: Oh, it’ll work. I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind that The Avengers is going to work. It’s release geniusly coincides with the weekend of Free Comic Book Day, so fans of the movie may find themselves wandering into their local comic shop. Once inside, they’ll inevitably stumble on Marvel’s big cross-over series: Avengers vs. X-men. We laugh at the corporate buzz-word “synergy,” but this is some impressive fucking synergy.

Continue reading →