A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
Editor’s Note: In Part 1 of this series, Ritesh explored Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber and team’s DC Comics series Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, which led to an exploration of Fraction’s “American Fiction” trilogy released over the last few years. Today, the journey concludes with Adventureman, the Pulps, and circling back to the comedy of Jimmy Olsen!
[Read more…] about Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 2 of 2)
I made Casanova and I’m telling you, I could never match the psycho-sexual Jungian underpinnings of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen as presented by Mort Weisinger. By wife-beating, child-hater Mort Weisinger. – Matt Fraction
I must confess at this juncture:
I’ve never particularly been a Jimmy Olsen fan.
Now, now, put your pitchforks down, folks. I like the goofy ginger as much as the next person, always have. But he was never a character I was particularly obsessed with or enthralled by. You get me? He was fun. He was cute. He was charming. And you know what? That was enough. I didn’t think he necessarily needed to be more. [Read more…] about Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 1 of 2)
Editor’s Note: Tarot Readings are a major thematic and stylistic component of the 2020 X-Men comics event, X of Swords. Since it’s not a field I know, I’m excited to bring in a specialist to provide unique readings based in the Tarot connections of the story. We’ll be running these Tarot examinations following each of the event’s 22 parts. Enjoy!
As each of the 22 chapters in the X of Swords crossover relates to one of the 22 Major Arcana cards from tarot, is time to analyze X-Men #13
Editor’s Note: Tarot Readings are a major thematic and stylistic component of the 2020 X-Men comics event, X of Swords. Since it’s not a field I know, I’m excited to bring in a specialist to provide unique readings based in the Tarot connections of the story. We’ll be running these Tarot examinations following each of the event’s 22 parts. Enjoy!
Chapter 9 in X of Swords, Excalibur #13
There’s a darkness spreading out from the heart of America. A darkness that finds its roots in the past, but whose evils are a reminder of our present suffering. It’s a darkness that Swamp Thing will discover for himself, even as he learns truths that will reshape his entire world.
Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing from 1984 through 1987 redefined the title as a modern existential classic that touched everything from the nature of identity to the legacy of comic books. From the internal reformation of “The Anatomy Lesson” to the cosmic love of “Rite of Spring,” the first half of Moore’s Swamp Thing run is intensely focused on the creature who once thought himself to be Alec Holland gaining a greater understanding of his true self and finding love with longtime friend Abigail Arcane. It’s a series of stories that slowly push into the mystical nature of reality and consciousness, and it’s that mysticism that violently collides with modern societal issues in a 14-issue arc known as “American Gothic