It’s that time of year again: where we suck up all of our grumblings about art being unquantifiable and compile our best-of lists. Today, we’re looking at our favorite single issues. Love or hate the subjectivity of this list, at the very least, it serves as a great reminder of all of the fantastic comics we’ve read over the past year. We’re sure your list will be different (and welcome your thoughts in the comments), but here are our top 13 issues of 2013. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 34, originally released December 18th, 2013.
Drew: We tend to associate soapbox speeches with masturbatory lectures important only to the speaker — it’s an annoyance when someone gets on their soapbox — but at one time, soapbox speeches were actually considered a form of entertainment. I’m not entirely sure if the audiences tended to agree with the speeches, or if there was more of a morbid curiosity factor in play (the same type that might keep you up late watching youtube clips of The O’Rielly Factor), but the point is: there was a time when somebody would literally be on a soapbox, and people’s reaction wasn’t to just tell them to get of of their damn soapbox. I was reminded of this as I read Kirsten McDuffie’s soaring call for levelheadedness in Daredevil 34. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 33, originally released November 22nd, 2013.
Drew: “The man without fear” is kind of a strange title for a superhero — between absurd power levels and unmatchable competence, most superheroes have nothing to fear in the first place. Heck, the Avengers just repelled an unstoppable force of universal destruction and one of them just shoots arrows. This prompts supervillain inflation, where each bad guy needs to be bigger than the last in order to draw any drama from the situation — at least, that’s usually the solution for most writers. Mark Waid, on the other hand, has taken Matt Murdock’s title to heart, and has set out to explore the kinds of horrors that have nothing to do with the size of the guy Daredevil has to punch. The result is incredibly relatable and human, but also extremely rare in modern comics. Continue reading
Today, Shelby and Spencer are discussing Indestructible Hulk 15, originally released November 20th, 2013.
Shelby: Games have rules for a reason. Everyone has to know how to play (and how to win), and rules lay that out. A game without rules is chaos, which for a game like Calvinball is precisely the point. The only rule of Calvinball is you can’t play the game the same way twice: essentially, the only rule is whatever rules are made are to be broken. When there are no rules, you can do whatever you want. Worried about consequences? Why bother, there’s no rule that says there will be any! While it might be kind of freeing to play a game with no rules, when you’re dealing with time, history, and your very existence, rules are pretty damn important. So when Bruce Banner finds himself facing his own past, an irradiated Hulk, a potentially Hulk-less future, and a timestream so broken it can be shaped like clay, he knows he needs to act fast before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.
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Today, Drew and Ethan are discussing The Rocketeer & The Spirit: Pulp Friction 3, originally released November 13th, 2013.
“It’s the moment, when the movie … becomes an entirely different movie.”
DJ McCarthey
Drew: I’ve said it before (and I’m sure I’ll say it again): I love thinking about form. It’s one of the most fundamental elements of storytelling, and I believe that studying a narrative’s form informs us more about our own experience reading it than even the best plot or character analyses. I’m always looking for new perspectives on form, and was happy to see John Roger’s post on 3-Point Plotting on Mark Waid’s own Thrillbent. It’s a fairly straightforward introduction to the standard three act structure, but I had never seen it broken down so succinctly into “disruption, reversal, and conclusion.” I was particularly intrigued by Roger’s discussion on the reversal — which he defines using that McCarthey quote — as it explains the all-too familiar experience of a narrative changing direction abruptly after I’m already invested in what was going to happen. What happens when you liked what a story was more than the story it becomes? Continue reading
Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Daredevil 32, originally released October 23rd, 2013.
Ethan: There have been a couple of times now that I’ve wondered aloud about whether this or that character in Daredevil is about to die. Sometimes with tongue in cheek, like when we saw the crooked judge take a pot shot at Matt in the courthouse, or with a little more concern like at the end of the last issue, where we saw something that looked like Foggy hanging from the neck in a darkened room. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence or a concerted effort by Mark Waid to always seem like he’s killing off one of his characters, but guess what: in Daredevil 32, I think he’s really done it. He’s gone and punched Matt Murdock’s ticket.
Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Daredevil 31, originally released September 18th, 2013.
Ethan: The latest issue of Daredevil delivers a some shocking moments. A respected lawyer calls for blood in the streets after an unfavorable verdict, Daredevil pistol-whips a policeman, a swarm of ants controls the weather… and the final panel delivers a heart-dropping twist. To those of you who haven’t picked up this issue yet, here thar be Spoilers. Seriously, no joke, don’t read this if you plan to read this issue but haven’t gotten the chance yet. A revelation at the climax of issue has the potential to shake Matt Murdock — and we the readers — to his core. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Ethan are discussing Indestructible Hulk 13, originally released September 11th, 2013.
Drew: Hulk is indestructible. It’s a fact so indisputable, Marvel went ahead and put it right in the title of the series. That is to say, there isn’t much tension to be garnered from the question of whether something might destroy him. Like Gloria Gaynor, Hulk will survive. He’ll also likely smash whatever tries to destroy him. There aren’t really going to be any surprises on his part, so much of the interest in the failed attempt to destroy/successful attempt to get smashed must come from the other side of the equation — the one attempting to harm the Hulk. Fortunately, writer Mark Waid is no slouch when it comes to coming up with interesting villains for Hulk to face. Continue reading
Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 30, originally released August 21st, 2013.
“You know, I always wanted to pop you one. Maybe this is my lucky day.”
“You disgust me. I hate you.”
“Are you as turned on as I am?”
“More.”
Sam Malone and Diane Chambers, Cheers
Drew: What is it about unlikely couples that makes us root for them? Antagonism is great fodder for will they/won’t they story lines, but why are audiences so interested in seeing these love-hate relationships? I ask, because while I can’t fully explain it, I’m an absolute sucker for these stories. Of course, that means I’ve been pulling for Kirsten McDuffie since she showed up, guns out, in Daredevil 1. We haven’t seen her since Matt awkwardly interrupted her date in issue 24, but she’s back in all of her fiery glory here, as writer Mark Waid takes full advantage of a one-off team-up to ramp up the will they/won’t they of their relationship. Continue reading
Today, Shelby and Ethan are discussing Indestructible Hulk 12, originally released August 21st, 2013.
Shelby: “Whatever happened, happened.”
“Save the clocktower!”
“Dust. Wind. Dude.”
Time travel in stories can be heavy, paradox-laden stuff. When I first saw the episode of LOST with the [SPOILER ALERT] photo of Jack and Hurley on the island in the seventies, my brain imploded; the “it happened this way because it always happened this way” approach to time travel is somehow both the easiest and hardest explanation to understand. You can also go back in time to change the future, though as a real-world solution it is far too dangerous. Who knows the web of effects your actions will have? Just ask anyone in the Marvel universe, they’ll tell you. Or, time travel can be utterly meaningless: no paradox, no consequences, just “we traveled in time and it was neat!” Mark Waid’s Indestructible Hulk takes a slightly different approach; Hulk and Banner-bot have gone back in time to save the present, but not from things that did happen in history, from things that didn’t happen in history. And when the time stream is as broken as it is, a little more time travel can’t really make things any worse.
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Retcon Punch 