Tag Archives: Nick Pitarra

Sep 12 2018

The Mercenary Gamers of Leviathan 2

by Michael DeLaney

Leviathan 2

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

There is a not-so-subtle “might makes right” mentality that is associated with America. Our overprotectiveness of the Second Amendment, the immense firepower of our military, and just the general “America Fuck Yeah” of it all often makes us look arrogant and overconfident. In John Layman and Nick Pitarra’s Leviathan 2, we see that arrogance and overconfidence of the American military-industrial complex in action. Continue reading →

Jan 19 2017

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe 6

tmnt-universe-6

Today, Taylor and Patrick are discussing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe 6, originally released January 18th, 2017. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Taylor: It must be a pretty good time for creative types who were born in the late 70s and early 80s. While many of us bemoan yet another Transformers movie, those who grew up watching the original cartoon and who also ended up working on the set have to be pretty jazzed. After all, how often do people actually get to publish publish stories about the icons and toys they grew up with? The chance to work on a such a series must be exhilarating and this is apparent in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe 6, when artist and writer Nick Pittara and John Lees write a story that could just as easily been written by professional comic book artists or a kid playing with their action figures at home.

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Jan 4 2017

Best of 2016: Best Covers

best-covers-2016

You know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that doesn’t mean you can’t judge the cover on its own merit. Some covers are so excellent that they pack all the drama, excitement and emotion of the whole issue into one succinct image. Sometimes they end up being their own surreal experience. And other times, we’re just exciting to see our favorite heroes kicking ass one more time. These are our top 10 covers of 2016. Continue reading →

Jul 30 2015

The Manhattan Projects: The Sun Beyond the Stars 2

sun beyond the stars 2

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Manhattan Projects: The Sun Beyond the Stars 2, originally released July 29th, 2015.

Patrick: The original The Manhattan Projects series built its mystique by taking figures and events from history and slightly distorting, exaggerating and recontextualizing them into a bizarrely compelling science fiction story. It’s a masterclass in having fun with the concept of an alternate history, and writer Jonathan Hickman seemed singularly focused on what was fun about his alternate history. Occasionally, dates and lifespans and discoveries wouldn’t exactly line up, but the series really didn’t need petty adherence to logic: the loose framework provided by those historical figures was enough to ground some absolutely bonkers storytelling. Now that we’re Beyond the Stars, that framework has morphed from historical figures to science fiction conventions, and even still, Hickman is as unpredictable and unprecious as ever. Continue reading →

Oct 15 2014

The Manhattan Projects 24

manhattan 24Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Manhattan Projects 24, originally released October 8th, 2014.

“How did they build those pyramids?” They just threw human death and suffering at them until they were finished. “How did we traverse the nation with a railroad so quickly?” We just threw Chinese people in caves and blew ’em up and didn’t give a shit what happened to them. There’s no end to what you can do when you don’t give a fuck about particular people. You can do anything. That’s where human greatness comes from: that we’re shitty people and we fuck others over.

Louis CK

Drew: Has the phrase “you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs” ever been used for anything other than falsely justifying horrific acts? It’s so strongly associated with evil advisors, it’s a wonder that it could ever persuade a unsure advisee, but it also has the unfortunate quality of being true to our experience of the world. Few, it seems, ever reach the top without the boost of standing on someone else’s neck. It’s easy to become bitter about people being used as pawns, but it’s also the stuff of great dramas — to what lengths are people willing to go in order to attain power? Manhattan Projects obviously has more in common with those heightened fictions than reality, but issue 24 never minimizes the monstrosities its protagonists commit in order to hold on to power, focusing on one of the more traumatizing events in US History. Continue reading →

Apr 30 2014

The Manhattan Projects 20

manhattan projects 20Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Manhattan Projects 20, originally released April 23, 2014.

“Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.”

Robert Oppenheimer, actual American History

Patrick: J. Robert Oppenheimer repeated this phrase, which he had read in the Bhadavad Gita, when we witnessed the first test of the atomic bomb. This is recorded in actual history text books, and widely believed to be true, but what exactly he meant by invoking the passage remains up to interpretation. Is he calmly asserting his own will over the strength of human life? Is he mourning his eternal loss of innocence? The odd syntax and the double verb make it an ungainly sentence, and speaking it aloud feels just as strange as the realization itself. Manhattan Projects has long been a series about an alternate American History, but this is the first issue to make a point of a similarity between all universes: Robert Oppenheimer is the face of evil.

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Jan 6 2014

The Manhattan Projects 17

manhattan projects 17

Today, Taylor and Patrick are discussing The Manhattan Projects 17, originally released January 1st, 2014.

Taylor:  One of the more amazing things about evolution is its ability to create creatures that are perfectly adapted to their environment. For example, take the Great White Shark. It can smell a single drop of blood in Olympic sized swimming pool. It re-grows a tooth whenever one falls out.  And it can also propel its massive body above water in order to capture cute little seals. The animal is basically a killing machine that can’t be stopped by any natural force.  By comparison, you have to wonder if humans have been given the same treatment by nature. We make a lot of mistakes, we fart, and even though our brains are amazing, you have to wonder sometimes if they couldn’t be better. In Manhattan Projects 17, Einstein asks these same questions and the result is a creation made not by evolution, but science. The question is, is it as perfect as its creators hoped it would be? Continue reading →

Nov 15 2013

The Manhattan Projects 16

Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing The Manhattan Projects 16, originally released November 13th, 2013.

Taylor:  You know that one picture of Einstein, the one where he’s looking at the camera and playfully sticking his tongue out at the camera? Of course you do — of all the hundreds of pictures of Einstein that exist, that particular portrait sticks out in our collective consciousness. There are probably several reasons for that, but perhaps one of the most powerful is that the picture portrays the author of the general theory of relativity in the way we would like to think he existed. With his frizzy white hair and iconic mustache, Einstein cuts a figure that is both endearing and intelligent. We like to think of Einstein, the grand scientist, as having a playful and childlike streak because it makes him lovable and human, rather than untouchable and superhuman. In this way, we all liken ourselves to Einstein. If that zany dude can revolutionize the world, why not me?  However, this disregards the real Einstein, who was often angry and frustrated with himself and the science he devoted his life to. But which of these pictures of Einstein is more accurate and, more importantly, does it matter?

Continue reading →

Oct 15 2013

Manhattan Projects 15

manhattan projects 15

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Manhattan Projects 15, originally released October 9th, 2013.

Patrick: Manhattan Projects is a series of many conceits. Writer Jonathan Hickman is a master at this sort of thing, distorting history and reality in a way that only he could. Every warped fact and twisted historical personage is filtered through his unique perspective. The very first issue of this series introduced the weirdest of all Manhattan Projects conceits — the devouring of Robert Oppenheimer by his brother Joseph. Any time we deal with that information, such as in the “part one” of the Finite Oppenheimers story back in April, that perspective gets EVEN WEIRDER. The whole of reality is reduced to the consciousness of one psychotic cannibal in the midst of a cognitive civil war. It’s exactly as crazy as it sounds. Continue reading →

Sep 17 2013

Manhattan Projects 14

Alternating Currents: Manhattan Projects 14, Patrick and Drew

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Manhattan Projects 14, originally released September 11th, 2013.

Patrick: Lately, it feels like we’re in the business of reading big dumb crossover events. One of the benefits of these things is that it allows for a smattering of characters from all across the universe (and all throughout the history of said universe) to interact. Say what you will about the various contrivances that jam these characters together — there’s something super compelling about watching them interact. Jonathan Hickman manages the same feat with Manhattan Projects, pulling his cast from the history books. There are similar logical inconsistencies, but if you just accept that he wanted these characters to interact as badly as Geoff Johns wanted John Constantine to match wits with Batman, then it totally works. Issue 14 of Manhattan Projects serves as a real-world Crisis on Infinite 1960s. Continue reading →