Tag Archives: Matthew Wilson

Nov 18 2015

The Wicked + The Divine 16

wicked and divine 16Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing The Wicked + The Divine 16, originally released November 11th, 2015.

Spencer: Back in 2012 I was supposed to go to the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games with a group of friends, but I ended up getting tickets to a different theater by accident. Rather than go by myself, I roped a friend who wasn’t a fan of franchise into going with me by playing up the movie’s violence and making it sound like something it wasn’t. He wasn’t happy with the movie, and I knew up front he wouldn’t be, but at the time I didn’t care — I just wanted him to come with me. I couldn’t help but to remember that anecdote while reading The Wicked + The Divine 16; The Morrigan’s inviting Baphomet into the Pantheon is equally selfish, if much more destructive in the long run than my boneheaded move.

(For the record, I did apologize, and he’s made me watch much worse)
Continue reading →

Nov 6 2015

Paper Girls 2

paper girls 2

Today, Drew and Ryan M. are discussing Paper Girls 2, originally released November 4th, 2015.

Drew: How early in a narrative can you usually predict the ending? Usually, when we describe a narrative as “predictable” we mean that derisively, but most stories have prescribed endings — oftentimes, the genre of the story is enough to hint at the ending: how does a romantic comedy end? How about a murder mystery? What about a sports movie? There are obviously countless examples that subvert those expectations, but those play by the same rules — the ending can be flipped, sure, but the potential endings are still reduced down to a small handful of options. Unless, of course, that story “defies genre,” evading any of the pigeonholes that would dictate its ending (or at least evading them long enough for you to get sucked in). That’s exactly the case with Paper Girls 2, where the deepening mystery thwarts any expectations about what might happen next. Continue reading →

Oct 12 2015

Paper Girls 1

paper girls 1Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing Paper Girls 1, originally released October 7th, 2015.

We all see what we want to see. Coffey looks and he sees Russians. He sees hate and fear. You have to look with better eyes than that.

Lindsey Brigman, The Abyss (1989)

Patrick: When The Abyss came out in 1989, the Cold War was still very much a part of the American Zeitgeist. So much so, that a James Cameron movie about underwater aliens necessarily had to address political tensions between the US and the Soviets and the fear of nuclear annihilation. Those themes are more clearly expressed in the lumpier director’s cut of the film, but even the theatrical release is colored with assumptions and anxieties specific to that period in time. I love The Abyss, but I probably didn’t see it until I was 11 or 12 (1994 sounds right), which means I was able to take it in from the other side of the Berlin Wall, and none of those relics of Cold War paranoia rang true to my personal experience. But rather than being alienating, those details tap into an existing international psychology, and create a world that is instantly recognizable as real, honest, and not so far outside the world we know. Paper Girls pulls a similar trick, filling the pages with 1988 details that don’t so much tell a story as set the scene for a story. Continue reading →

Sep 17 2015

Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 2

phonogram 2Today, Spencer and Shane are discussing Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 2, originally released September 9th, 2015.

Spencer: Quite a few people who know me in real life think that I’m very quiet and shy. I suppose that’s closer to the truth than I’d like to admit, but the reality is that if you get me talking about the right subject, I’ll never shut up. Sometimes, it actually scares me how I can only seem to relate to people if we can chat about comics or music or pop culture — especially as I grow older and my friends and family turn their attention more and more to falling in love and raising families. I have to wonder if there’s something wrong with me, if my hyper-intense focus on my hobbies makes me a lesser, “two-dimensional” person. The cast of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl seem to be dealing with the same kind of worries in issue 2, even if they’re not quite self-aware enough to articulate them yet. Continue reading →

Sep 8 2015

Daredevil 18

Alternating Currents: Daredevil 18, Drew and Spencer

Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing Daredevil 18, originally released September 2nd, 2015. 

Act three: The climax occurs as well as the dénouement, a brief period of calm at the end of a film where a state of equilibrium returns. In other words, it is simply the resolution.

Wikipedia, Act (drama)

Drew: It might be reductive to call the final act of a story the most important, but it certainly defines what kind of story it is; is it a tragic or optimistic? Is it about how people and things change or about how they stay the same? Is it about satisfying resolutions for the characters, or satisfying resolutions for the plot? I’ve presented some obviously false dichotomies there, but the point is, the exact nature of a story, from its ultimate message to its storytelling sensibilities, can’t be defined until that final act. That puts a lot of pressure on the final act — a pressure that is doubly true in comics, where the final issue may make up a tiny fraction of the series’ run. Of course, it’s under pressure that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s Daredevil has always had its highest moments, from moving Matt and company across the country to gracefully integrating into whatever crossovers Marvel cooked up to simply resolving the daring cliffhangers they came up with the month before. Daredevil 18, their final issue, is no different, which is exactly why it’s such a remarkable ending. Continue reading →

Aug 18 2015

Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 1

phonogram 1Today, Shane and Spencer are discussing Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 1, originally released August 12th, 2015.

Shane: It’s entirely possible that I’m among the worst choices to review this comic. I haven’t bought a physical comic in years. That’s not to say that I haven’t purchased comics — after all, we live in a world that has embraced the digital age — but nothing in hard copy, and certainly not by single issue. And yet, on Wednesday I found myself headed to my first comic book shop in years (walking seventy blocks to get there like a madman), all to purchase a single four dollar comic. I bought this comic knowing that I was going to love it, and I’m hardly the only one to show this sort of devotion towards Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl — scores of fans have shown off tattoos, or traveled great distances to cons, or created fanzines, or gone to see Kieron Gillen DJ at a random show due to how well it ties into the Phonogram narrative. It’s not uncommon for media to evoke such passion, of course…but consider, if you will, that prior to this week, Phonogram existed soley as two poorly selling limited series by creators who were, at that time, almost entirely unknown. This wasn’t even the work that built their careers — Gillen and Jamie McKelvie remained struggling artists until their breakout work at Marvel Comics — but it wouldn’t surprise me if this series, more than even Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine, will be the comic they’re most linked to in the long run. Continue reading →

Jul 7 2015

The Wicked + The Divine 12

wicked and divine 12Today, Spencer and Patrick are discussing The Wicked + The Divine 12, originally released July 1st, 2015.

Spencer: In superhero comics, readers get used to seeing characters interpreted in myriads of ways. Everyone from Bill Finger to Frank Miller to Jim Lee has had their hands on Batman, and as a result, we’re able to accept Batman’s characterization in almost any incarnation, no matter how drastic the change. That’s great for accessibility, but much worse for consistency, especially when a character gets saddled with a less-than-stellar creative team. Indie books, on the other hand, allow for finite stories told by a single creative team, with some books (such as Saga) even deviating from a monthly release schedule in order to ensure that no fill-in artists will be needed. Throughout its first 11 issues The Wicked + The Divine stuck with a consistent team (Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matthew Wilson, and Clayton Cowles), but issue 12 features Kate Brown as the series’ first fill-in artist. This artistic switch-up comes in the aftermath of the series’ most turbulent moment, and it’s the perfect way to illustrate how shaken-up the cast still is after last month’s sudden, tragic turn. Continue reading →

Jun 8 2015

The Wicked + The Divine 11

Alternating Currents: The Wicked + The Divine 11, Drew and Spencer

Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing The Wicked + The Divine 11, originally released June 3rd, 2015.

Mr. Ross: Firestorm, that’s a hell of a picture. Remember when they had the helicopter land on top of that car —
Frank Costanza: Hey! I haven’t seen it yet!
Mr. Ross: It has nothing to do with the plot!
Frank Costanza: Still, I like to go in fresh!

Seinfeld, “The Rye”

Drew: I wouldn’t say my girlfriend has a lot in common with Frank Costanza, but she also prefers to “go in fresh” to narratives. For her, any information beyond the barest gist of the genre and mood constitutes a spoiler. Of course, I’ve always been on the opposite end of the spoiler spectrum — because I’m most interested in how the story is told, knowing plot points ahead of time can’t “spoil” the experience. Every so often though, I’ll encounter a twist so shocking that I have to admit I’m glad I didn’t know it was coming. Which is to say, when I say that you should only read on if you’ve already read The Wicked + The Divine 11, I really mean it. Seriously: spoilers after the jump. Continue reading →

May 14 2015

Thor 8

thor 8

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Thor 8, originally released May 13th, 2015.

Taylor: Motion is an important thing to people. Most of us don’t like to be stagnant for any set amount of time whether it be an hour, a month, or a year. We visualize our lives as having a narrative that is always moving forward. Likewise, as a society, we like to think that we are also making a steady motion forward. In other words, we like to think of our society as making progress. And while most of the country can get behind progress (just look at how rapidly gay marriage became acceptable) there are always going to be those who oppose it. Thor 8 recognizes this dichotomy and in doing so makes a strong statement about the need for acceptance of progress and just how hard that can be for those who don’t want to see things change. Continue reading →

May 8 2015

The Wicked + The Divine 10

wicked and divine 10

Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing The Wicked + The Divine 10, originally released May 6th, 2015.

You know what hope is?
Hope is a bastard.
Hope is a liar, a cheat and a tease.
Hope comes near you?
Kick its backside:
Got no place in times like these.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, “Picture Window”

Patrick: The world of The Wicked + The Divine posits that everyone wants something just beyond their reach. Fans just want to connect with the gods, the gods just want to live a little bit longer. Their goals always seem tenable, but for the simple fact that they aren’t. This extends directly to the reader — ten issues in and we should be able to speak more definitively about whether Lucifer killed that judge, but we can’t. This issue explores the gulf created by what the characters want, and only sheepishly celebrates what they have. Continue reading →