Tag Archives: Snow

Mar 13 2018

Shortcomings of the Lone Wolf in Black Bolt 11

By Patrick Ehlers

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

It might be sorta odd to cast one of the founding members of a famous superhero team as a loner. You’re always going to have your Raphaels, or your Wolverines, characters that bristle at the thought of getting too chummy with their teammates, but always end up affirming the value of teamwork before the issue is through. Black Bolt is a different animal entirely; separated from his people by the nobility of his birth and his inability to communicate, he may genuinely be more content to walk the world alone. Black Bolt 11 teases an origin for this misanthropic streak while also testing its strength. Continue reading →

Feb 13 2018

Snow as Setting and Tone in Black Bolt 10

By Patrick Ehlers

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

Not only is it cliche to say that setting of a story becomes its own character, it’s also inaccurate. I don’t care how much you think New York City is a character in [whatever movie you’re talking about], characters have wants, desires, arcs — characters can change and be changed by the story. A location cannot. A good setting can be incredibly additive, coloring in emotional information and setting an appropriate tone, but, y’know — isn’t a character. In Black Bolt 10, writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Christian Ward use the ancient Inhuman city of Orollan, nestled away in Greenland, to emphasize the cold lonely journey Black Bolt has been on since issue 1. Continue reading →

May 24 2017

American Monster 6

Today, Patrick and Michael are discussing American Monster 6, originally released May 17, 2017. As always, this article containers SPOILERS. Maybe-not-as-always this article contains some NSFW images.

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Patrick: Do you remember that day in elementary school when they split the class between boys and girls and tried to teach sex ed? I want to say it was 4th or 5th grade. It was a cursory look at the subject, content to cover some of the basic vocabulary and just get the kids past the point where they would giggle at every mention of the word penis. At the time, I thought it was a worthless exercise, but I’m starting to think it may have been counter-productive. By separating the genders, the teachers were sending the message that all this sex and body talk was somehow secretive. The boys weren’t being taught how to talk to girls about what was happening in their bodies, and whatever was happening in the girls’ bodies remained a total mystery to the boys. And vice versa. Sex is complicated, and it can have huge, everlasting effects on someone’s life, but we insist on a prudish secrecy around it nonetheless. American Monster 6 pushes its characters around on a carousel of sexual ignorance, misunderstanding and shame. Continue reading →