How to Wear a Nerd Shirt

So nerd shirts are pretty in fashion right now. So much so that it’s been a while since Hot Topic decided geek franchises are at least as profitable as music, if not more so.  So nerd shirts, everyone wears the latest popular whatever emblazoned across their breasts, and you’ll definitely buy it because hey, it’s that thing you like.

Which is pretty critical; I like nerd shirts. Some nerd shirts. I own quite a few, if I’m being honest. And while nerd shirts are simply one small part of the relatively new phenomenon of truly fashionable nerd fashion, they’re probably the most common part of it you’ll see. They’re half of Hot Topic, they’re the whole of We Love Fine, they’re on Think Geek, and they’re in your department stores. Not like you haven’t noticed.

But cutting to the chase, there are good nerd shirts, and there are bad nerd shirts. And disclaimer, there are totally people fashionable enough to make a bad nerd shirt fashionable, but it takes skill. Also disclaimer, buy whatever you want, nobody can tell you what to wear. (Although there are laws that can tell you that you have to wear something.)

What makes a bad nerd shirt? Well going to the absolute extreme on the negative spectrum, it’s like taking the words “DOCTOR WHO” and just planting it onto a black shirt.

go home

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Reviewicide Squad: Suicide Squad Issue #10

This issue, I decided that the only character I like is King Shark. Mostly because he only gets two words per issue, and they only have to do with eating things/people.

The cover this time around is mostly inoffensive, but absolutely atrocious. Every inch of his body is rippling with muscles, probably in an attempt to stop him from falling over backwards in an attempt to keep that ridiculous pose.
It also kind of looks like the Squad is falling from the moon for whatever reason.

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Bandette #1 Review

Bandette

By Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover
Review by Arielle Sorkin

Bandette is cute. Cute, fun, and really leaving me in need of more issues. The story (so far) is simple enough: Bandette is an honorable thief for justice! The story takes place in modern France, and Colleen Coover’s loose brushwork set a perfectly Parisian tone.

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Lady Action Stars on the Rise

Woah, woooah, did you guys know that The Avengers came out this last weekend? Of course you did. Which is why writing about anything that doesn’t involve the film wouldn’t be topical.

But I refuse to actually talk about the film, so let’s talk about Black Widow instead, and what her role means in the trending of female action heroes on the silver screen.

No wait, hear me out.

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At Least She Existed At All

So Helena Bertinelli died this week. You know, Huntress? (Of course you do.) World’s Finest issue #1 came out today, formally introducing us to Earth-2’s Helena Wayne, our current Huntress, and her buddy, Power Girl (who I’ll probably talk about next week). You can read the preview pages here.

Helena Wayne isn’t a new character by any stretch of the imagination, but steamrolling the beloved Ms.Bertinelli is upsetting, problematic, and yet understandable all rolled into one big mess of ugly, sniffley emotions.

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Show and Tell

One of the really cool things about comic books is that they’re a ~*visual storytelling medium*~. They’re really special! On the other hand, they still have to follow a lot of basic storytelling conventions, and sometimes…… Well sometimes there is a lack of communication or trust between a writer and his artist, and I get so frustrated by how obvious that is that I want to write “SHUT THE FUCK UP” all over that comic in red sharpie. I wouldn’t even be obstructing any art because it’s all covered by inner monolog thought boxes.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me preface this with some context:
One of the comic book stores I go to has a back room that sells Dollar Comics (essentially old single back issues that they sell for a dollar each; they’ve got all kinds of stuff, from old Liefeld junk to the 2009 Power Girl). I go back there practically every week to dig through all the 90’s junk, and sometimes I come up with things I actually want to read. (Sometimes I come away with thirty issues of Harley Quinn what happENED TO SELF CONTROL.) A week or so ago, I got two issues of Batgirl, issue #28 from the original Cass Cain run by Kelley Puckett, and issue #1 of the relaunched Cass Cain run by Adam Beechen. That information is important.

Keep in mind that I have no experience reading Cass Cain in print: what I know about her and her personality, I know from snippets of pages on the internet and lovingly written fan analysis. And that’s all good for drumming up interest, but I never felt possessed to find a trade. Her fans really seem to fall over themselves for Cass though, so when I had a chance to find out why, I took it.
So I own two issues of Batgirl. I read both in chronological succession and… Well, I had some thoughts on them.

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Suicide Squad Issue #8 Review

If this is very confusing for you, you can find previous issues of recounted misery here.

I skipped issue seven, so here’s a basic recap:

Glass further desecrated Harley’s origin story, Savant sounded like an idiot in every piece of dialog, and Lime dies for basically the stupidest reason.
No I mean really, she gets grazed by a bullet, and instead of running away, she gives herself up to the cops…. And then, despite multiple warnings by Waller, she starts telling the cops about Task Force X. So Waller makes her head explode.

most inconsequential death ever

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