Tag Archives: Luke Cage

Jun 7 2016

Deadpool 13

deadpool 13

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Deadpool 13, originally released June 1, 2016 

slim-banner

Patrick: Hey, do you think we’re too comfortable with Deadpool? We know he’s a bastard that plays fast and loose with the value of human life, but there’s a jeu de vivre to the character that makes him immanently lovable. But what do readers and fans stand to gain from looking past Wade’s uglier qualities? He’s supposed to be chaotic, he’s supposed to be subversive — those are the Deadpool qualities that we celebrate. But readers sorta need to employ their own fan-canon in order to reconcile that chaos, with the often-adorable, infinitely accepting, ultimately heroic Deadpool we have in our minds. It’s that second version of Deadpool that writer Gerry Duggan has tapped for the better part of the last three years to build up Deadpool’s cast of friends, employees and even family. Recent issues have seen those relationships strained, or even destroyed, leaving Wade Wilson to be reflected upon and defined by people outside his inner circle in issue 13. Cleverly, issue 13 is also kind of an issue of Daredevil and kind of an issue of Power Man & Iron Fist, meaning the opinions we’re getting aren’t just from characters outside of Deadpool, but creators outside of Deadpool. The consensus? Wade Wilson kinda sucks.

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May 24 2016

Power Man and Iron Fist 4

power man iron fist 4

Today, Spencer and Taylor are discussing Power Man and Iron Fist 4, originally released May 18th, 2016.

Spencer: The beating heart at the center of David Walker, Sanford Greene, and Lee Loughridge’s Power Man and Iron Fist is the friendship between its titular heroes. It should’ve been obvious, then, that the primary theme of this series would be “the power of friendship,” but that’s actually an idea that didn’t come fully into focus until this month’s issue four, the finale of the series’ first storyline. Even more interestingly, the true strength of friendship (and its advantages over other kinds of power) isn’t driven home by Luke and Danny, but by the villains, Jennie Royce and Black Mariah. In fact, it’s their friendship that makes Danny and especially Luke reprioritize their own friendship. Continue reading →

Dec 2 2013

Deadpool Annual 2013

deadpool annual

Today, Patrick and Scott are discussing Deadpool Annual 2013, originally released November 27th, 2013.

Homer: Next, I’ll tell you the origin of Maggie’s pacifier.

Marge: What origin? We get ’em for $1.95 down at the Safeway.

The Simpsons, “Lisa’s Sax”

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Nov 13 2013

Chat Cave: Marvel + Netflix = Defenders

Last week, Marvel Studios announced that it would be producing four original, live-action series for Netflix — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist — and a Defenders mini-series that would theoretically tie them all together. Marvel Studios proved they were capable of conquering the well-established medium of feature-length films, and Agents of S.H.IE.L.D. is already a monster hit for ABC, can they accomplish the same in the untested waters of the Netflix Originals market? What’s in it for them? What’s in it for us? Hell, do  you even have room in your heart to love FIVE NEW SERIES? Welcome to the Chat Cave.
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Nov 12 2013

Mighty Avengers 3

Alternating Currents: Mighty Avengers 3, Drew and ShelbyToday, Drew and Shelby are discussing Mighty Avengers 3, originally released November 6th, 2013. 

infinity divider…and this whole justice league — Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman. You mean to tell me Superman can’t cover everything? For crying out loud, he’s Superman!

Jerry Seinfeld

Drew: It’s hard to resist the synergy of a superhero team-up. Batman and Superman have megawatt star-power alone, but combine them, and you can draw an even bigger audience. As easy as it is to justify those team-ups from a business perspective, it can actually be quite difficult to justify them narratively. Writers often resort to improbably massive threats or absurd contrivances to bring their heroes together, but the biggest problem with team-ups is much more fundamental than plotting. The appeal of superheroes — the appeal of the idea of The Hero in general — is that they alone bear the power to succeed in their journey. If you put several of them in a story together, their narrative purposes are at odds, dividing any victories between them in a way that is ultimately less satisfying. But what if a team isn’t made up of such heavy-hitters? What if they were presented with a problem that the members couldn’t possibly cover on their own? Mighty Avengers 3 zeroes in on exactly what strength can be found, as its team becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Continue reading →

Oct 4 2013

Mighty Avengers 2

mighty avengers 2 infinity

Today, Ethan and Shelby are discussing Mighty Avengers 2, originally released October 2nd, 2013. 

infinity divider

Ethan: Push the envelope. Stand on the shoulders of giants. Rules are made to be broken. Going boldly where no one has gone before. Put 110% of your effort towards your goals. Ours goes to eleven. Etc etc. Our culture has gotten a pretty good handle on this concept, as evidenced by how many ways we’ve come up with codifying it into our tropes – the idea of taking everything that came before, acknowledging it, and then moving past it. Comic books – and fiction at large – LOVE this concept. Mighty Avengers #2 is no exception, and the one-upping writer Al Ewing packs into this issue is fun, if also a little bit silly by the end. Continue reading →

Sep 17 2013

Mighty Avengers 1

mighty avengers 1 infinity

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Mighty Avengers 1, originally released September 11th, 2013. 

infinity divider

Patrick: My older sister has two children: a son who turned one in April and a daughter who turned four this summer. They live on the other side of the country, so I don’t see them very often. One thing that I discovered upon welcoming tiny, helpless people into our lives in that you suddenly become aware of the reality you’re introducing them to – the house, the town, the world, their relatives. Suddenly, your decisions feel weightier, like you no longer exist in a vacuum, but as a functioning cog in a machine and all you want that machine to do is not disappoint this kid. I started working out. I starting writing seriously. I moved out to LA to make good on my long-held threat to actively chase my dreams. Essentially, I became an active participant in my own life, determined to show my niece that her uncle has some kind of agency and the world he’s contributing to is something of merit. Mighty Avengers casts Luke Cage in that role — the man who realizes he has to do something of merit — in one of the more honest getting-the-team-together stories I’ve ever read. Continue reading →

Aug 16 2013

Deadpool 14

deadpool 14

Today, Scott and Ethan are discussing Deadpool 14, originally released August 14th, 2013.

Scott: Nothing is more satisfying to me than making a good joke. As an aspiring writer/comedian, sometimes it’s impossible for me to get out of “joke mode”. Ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you, it gets annoying. For every good laugh I provide, there are many groaners and bad puns to endure. For me, it’s worth it, as long as I get some good hearty chuckles. I’m thinking Deadpool writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan are after something similar. Like me, they seem willing to sacrifice introspection for a witty one-liner, deep thoughts for goofy non sequiturs. They tend to have a lot more hits than misses, so it’s easy to forgive any shortcomings in their writing, but Deadpool 14, more than maybe any other issue, begs the question: is it worth reading a comic that exists solely for the purpose of humor? In an issue where the plot rehashes points that have already been made, the jokes are just about the only things making it feel fresh.

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Jul 22 2013

Deadpool 13

deadpool 13

Today, Ethan and Patrick are discussing Deadpool 13, originally released July 17th, 2013.

Ethan: Back in issue #7 of Deadpool, the writers and artists took us on a timewarp with a faux, never-before-printed “inventory special”. The issue was allegedly produced in the late 70s/early 80s giving the team an excuse to indulge in 10 times the saturation of pop culture references in the already saturated title. It was an entertaining  issue in its own right and a nice break after the Zombie Presidents arc. Now that Vetis is taken care of, writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn and artists Scott Koblish and Val Staples are back to their tricks with another trip back to the era of disco. And if you think the bell bottoms and dated catch-phrases were flying thick and fast last time, you might want to sit down and hold onto something before you open #13. The hair is longer, the polyester is louder, and the racism is, if far from accurately depicted, at least touched on.

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Jun 17 2013

Deadpool 11

deadpool 11

Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Deadpool 11, originally released June 12th, 2013.

Ethan: Stories have to follow a lot of formulas — rising action, tension, struggle, resolution. Comics are often even more constrained — extraordinary people, powers, and villains combine to make extraordinarily predictable outcomes. Familiarity sells. But while you could say a lot of horrible things about Deadpool — and they’d all be true — if there’s one thing that he is NOT, it’s conventional. Maybe it’s because his superpower has more to do with the basic act of survival rather than leaping a building in a single bound; maybe it’s because he’s just a bastard of a guy who lucked out with the world’s most impressive healing factor. Maybe it’s because he’s Canadian. I dunno. Either way, he’s up to his eyeballs in demonic intrigue right now, so perhaps the standard operating procedures wouldn’t be the best fit anyway. As he continues his contract with Vetis, hunting and killing superpowered humans who sold their souls for their abilities, writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan continue to entertain while Wade Wilson continues to backstab his way to freedom.

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