Tag Archives: Zola

Mar 21 2013

Wonder Woman 18

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 18, Drew and Scott

Today, Drew and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 18, originally released March 20th, 2013.

Drew: Wonder Woman is a hard title to pin down, which makes sense, given that its hero is equally slippery. Detractors might cite Diana’s unknowability as weak characterization, but as we saw in issue 9, that distance may be the sharpest weapon in writer Brian Azzarello’s arsenal. Azzarello seems to relish ambiguity, focusing on heroes that are anything but predictable. Issue 18 multiplies this effect, capitalizing on his large cast of equally oblique characters to produce a staggering parade of surprises.

Continue reading →

Feb 26 2013

Captain America 4

captain america 4

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Captain America 4, originally released February 20th, 2013.

Shelby: I’m a big fan of juxtaposition of conflicting styles. Heavy metal guitar paired with female vocals? Yes please, Nightwish! Ice cream with sweet chocolate and salty peanuts and pretzel bites? I’ve got two pints of Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby in my freezer right now. The old adage may be that “opposites attract,” but I prefer to think of it as “opposites compliment.” That is definitely the rule of Rick Remender’s take on Captain America, as straight-laced Cap is paired with sci-fi weirdness and the problems of being a dad are compounded by having your nemesis implanted in your chest, talking to you all day and all night. And yes, if you were wondering, I did have to get up and get one of those pints of Chubby Hubby out of the freezer.  Continue reading →

Feb 25 2013

Wonder Woman 17

wonder woman 17

Today, Scott and Taylor are discussing Wonder Woman 16, originally released February 20th, 2013.

Scott: Early on in Wonder Woman 17, Lennox calls Diana out for the ever-expanding “motley crew” she surrounds herself with. It’s a moment of self-awareness on the part of Brian Azzarello, who gets a lot of attention for his habit of constantly incorporating new characters into the Wonder Woman universe. It’s something that can be off-putting for readers who are not immersed in the universe, and it’s a daring move in a medium that published monthly. I’m sure some casual readers flipped through this issue and found it thoroughly confusing and, save for the giant shark attack, kind of boring. But for readers who have kept up with the series, this issue did not have a dull moment.

Continue reading →

Jan 28 2013

Wonder Woman 16

wonder woman 16

Today, Shelby and guest writer James D’Amato are discussing Wonder Woman 16, originally released January 23rd, 2012.

Shelby: Gods, gods everywhere. Brian Azzarello does not take a “less is more” approach when it comes to the pantheon; we’ve got old gods, older gods, demigods, new gods, and non-gods. Not to mention ice giants and cyborg women. If it all sounds a little confusing, well, it is; Azzarello is juggling a lot of chainsaws with Wonder Woman. On top of it all, we’ve still got the $64,000 question that everyone seems to have forgotten about: where is Zeus?
Continue reading →

Jan 21 2013

Captain America 1-3

captain america 1-3

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Captain America 1-3, originally released November 21th, December 19th, 2012 and January 16th, 2013.

Patrick: Captain America is a character defined by his time. Other characters may be products of the time during which their creators were writing them – Superman, Wolverine, Deadpool, Hal Jordan – all of these guys bear the stamps of the decades they were introduced. But that Captain America concept is frozen in time, locked in place by a character-defining opportunity to kick Nazi-ass. So how does one update the intentionally old-fashioned? It’s not even like you can just drop Steve Rogers into a modern American military conflict and watch the action play out: we’re not exactly storming beaches anymore. So where’s an old soldier supposed to feel at home? Why, a dangerous, barren wasteland that ignores the laws of physics, of course!

Continue reading →

Dec 20 2012

Wonder Woman 15

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 15. Drew and ScottToday, Drew and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 15, originally released December 19th, 2012.

Drew: We’ve said it before, and I’m sure we’ll say it again: comic books are modern mythology. This is an idea Brian Azzarello has devoted Wonder Woman to exploring. I always like when art self-reflects in this way, but Azzarello never does anything so simply. The intersection of ancient mythology and comics mythology has proven to be fertile ground for essays on the nature of myth, but has tied the discussion to the world of fiction. In Wonder Woman 15, Azzarello confronts us with mythologized characters from reality, opening up the whole world of art-imitating-life-imitating-art discussions. It’s a strange, complicated arena of thought, but with Azzarello at the helm, I’m sure it will be a satisfying one. Continue reading →

Nov 23 2012

Wonder Woman 14

Today, Scott and Taylor are discussing Wonder Woman 14, originally released November 21st, 2012.

Scott: ‘Tis the season for excess. We eat too much, spend too much, we eat too much again and, when things start feeling a little hectic, we tend to think too much. So, as I sit here debating whether to have more stuffing or more mashed potatoes, I can’t help but wonder if Wonder Woman is biting off more than it can chew. Of course, that’s silly; this comic has proven time and time again that it is one of the most clever and well thought-out series around. So the fact that this issue followed four separate storylines in four distant locations shouldn’t worry me, right? But if Wonder Woman is going to turn into the great meal I know it can be, at some point all of these different ingredients are going to have to come together on one plate, so to speak (I don’t know if I’m trying too hard to make this into a Thanksgiving analogy, or not hard enough).

Continue reading →

Oct 23 2012

Wonder Woman 13

Alternating Currents: Wonder Woman 13, Taylor and Scott

Today, Taylor and Scott are discussing Wonder Woman 13, originally released October 17th, 2012.

Taylor: Continuity is a something I appreciate. I enjoy waking up in the morning having a fairly good sense of who I am, where I am, what I’ve been doing and what I need to do during the coming day. I also appreciate continuity in its more mundane and nuanced forms; I appreciate the fact that I can expect my coffee to taste a certain way and even that I can expect the people I know to behave and think in a similar to fashion to that of the day before. Most days I can appreciate the regularity of the subway that takes me to work every morning, but as happens every so often (or more often than not lately), that continuity and expectation of service is broken. Whether it’s an equipment malfunction, signal failures, or a sick passenger, the Red Line of the CTA has a knack for failing to deliver on its promised, regular service that drives me to absolute madness. Maybe I appreciate regularity more than the normal person, but I think most people can appreciate a certain amount of continuity in their life, whether it’s in their daily commute or their comic books. Wonder Woman is a title that garners a fair amount of its strength from consistency, which by no means is a bad thing.

Continue reading →

Aug 17 2012

Wonder Woman 12

Today, Patrick and Peter are discussing Wonder Woman 12, originally released August 15th, 2012.

Patrick: One of the biggest strengths of Brain Azzarello’s Wonder Woman is the richness of its details. The gods are reinvented for comics and the resultant designs are full of specifics that delight by their own virtue. It’s not uncommon in this series to meet a new character or a new creature just because it’s going to be really really really cool. I took Demeter’s introduction last month to be one of those knock-me-down detail-fests that I love so much, but that was shortsighted of me. In any other narrative, introducing a character at this stage in the game would automatically foreshadow that character’s involvement in the conclusion of the story. It turns out that was the case here, but I was too suckered by the writing to see the authorial gears grinding away behind it. That’s awesome.

Continue reading →

Jul 20 2012

Wonder Woman 11

Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Wonder Woman 11, originally released July 18th, 2012.

Patrick: Drew! It has been ages since you and I wrote about this series together. Last month, we had help from guest-writer (and voice of our Cram Sessions), Siri Hellerman. Otherwise, Shelby usually gets in on writing about Wonder Woman, and we’re thrilled to get that female perspective. It’s by pure random chance that you and I selected the butchest issue of Wonder Woman yet to review. Thankfully, the more action-heavy tone didn’t overpower the series’ usual style, cleverness and depth.
Continue reading →