Episode 80 - Follow Your Arrow

Explicit content warning

04/26/15 • 57 min

Comics Therapy

Comics Therapy. No Reviews. Just Analysis.

One comic from April 22, 2015. Yup, you read that right: just one.

Show Notes:

Welcome to A Very Special Episode of Comics Therapy. This week we’re looking at some of the themes of identity brought up in All New X-Men, as well as their implications for representation in comics as a whole. We've never deliberately spent an entire show discussing a single book, but sometimes things happen in the world that we can’t ignore, and the existing plan goes out the window. Consider this our Isaac & Ishmael, hopefully with slightly less pretension, but with many of the same intentions.

All New X-Men #40 16:30

Comics Therapy. No Reviews. Just Analysis.

One comic from April 22, 2015. Yup, you read that right: just one.

Show Notes:

All New X-Men #40 16:30

Previous Episode

Episode 79 - All He Left Us Was Alone

Comics Therapy. No Reviews. Just Analysis.

Two comics from April 8, 2015. Plus a Second Opinion, featuring questions answered by a different listener each week, with Roderick Ruth.

Show Notes:

This week we’re talking about the complex ties that bind us to our families, that drive us to the ends of the earth, galaxy, dimension, whatever. And how sometimes our memory of those once-close relationships is warped over the years we spend apart. Parent to child. Sibling to sibling. What we had isn’t always what we will have. But we keep on searching for it.

Birthright #6 25:02

Lies and deceit taint the opportunity to reclaim a lost family, which likely ceased to exist long ago. Plus: swords and axes and magic, which always makes reconciliation go more smoothly, right?

Saga #27 42:14

One family's emotional and physical separation is at the center of an epic war spanning across the galaxy. Not lying.

Next Episode

Episode 81 - It Takes Two (or More)

Comics Therapy. No Reviews. Just Analysis.

Three comics books from April 29, 2015. Plus a Second, Opinion, featuring questions answered by a different listener each week, with Ben Diederich.

Show Notes:

This week we’re talking about Avengers and New Avengers, the current runs of which will go down in history as the best large scale comic event ever. With issues #44 and #33 respectively, we end three years of complex build up of multiple storylines and infinite characters all leading to Secret Wars.

And in contrast, we’re also going to talk about Alex + Ada #14, which is about as different from an event comic as you can get. Understated, emotional growth between primarily two characters. Aaron suggested the theme be “there can be only one”, a tongue in cheek reference to a single Earth left in Avengers. But Andrea countered with “it takes two”, or three or four or twenty-seven. There’s plenty of room for all kinds of comics. Let’s dive into these polar opposites and see what we see.

Avengers #44 New Avengers #33 13:35

Alex + Ada #14 36:12