Podcast appearances and mentions of brandon easton

"Iyanu", based on a graphic novel series, is a new animated series premiering this Saturday April 5th at 9am on Cartoon Network, and Sunday April 6th on Max. It's about a special girl who discovers divine powers. Joining me for a quick but deep dive into the show are series writers Kerri Grant and Brandon Easton, supervising director Vincent Edwards and voice director Paula Gammon Wilson.

Have you ever thought about Animation and how it works for screenwriters? In this episode, Hilliard chopped it up with Head Writer's BEAU DEMAYO (MARVEL'S X-MEN 97) and BRANDON EASTON (TRANSFORMERS: WFC-SIEGE), going in deep about working in Animation, the ups-and-downs, staffing a writers' rooms, writing for historic comic book characters, working with your line producer and execs, dealing with notes (good and bad), being a POC in a leading position in Hollywood and soooooo much more! Our Motto: "We keep it GAME all day!"NEW WEBSITE:www.screenwritersrantroom.com For information, merch (T-SHIRTS/HOODIES), and all things Rant Room! Follow, subscribe, like, share & 5-star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Hilliard Guess on all social media IG: @ScreenwritersRantRoom Guests: @Beaudemayo @BrandonEaston WE ARE NOW OPEN TO SPONSORSHIPS AND BRANDING OPPORTUNITIES⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We invest countless hours per week to deliver the actionable content that goes into this podcast. We appreciate your support! SCREENWRITER NETWORKS:OBSwriter.comBTFC.org Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/screenwriters-rant-room/support⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PODCASTS WE SUPPORT: 2 Writers Talkin Shit: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2-writers-talking-shit/id1671253747 Hollywood Confessional: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hollywood-confessional/id1628848064?i=1000630276175 The Qube & Queer News: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/queer-news/id1595777135 A Conversation With Floyd Marshall Jr: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-conversation-with-host-floyd-marshall-jr/id1544499834 THEME SONG: Jack Spade WEBSITE: Abigail Bloom & Laura Huie Tyler Musikanth, Brooke Baltimore LOGOS: Rachel Musikanth RANT ROOM TEAM:Richard Scott - Creative Producer Tyler Musikanth - Associate Producer Brooke Baltimore - Marketing Togo - MarketingJade Hunter Alessandria - BTS --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/screenwriters-rant-room/support

Co-hosts Alex Simmons and Chris Ryan are joined by a remarkable guest, writer Brandon Easton. Brandon's path from New York City's classrooms to Hollywood's creative hubs is a powerful testament to perseverance and passion. Raised in Baltimore, Brandon shares his experiences—from the harsh realities of teaching in the Bronx to his insights on the significant underrepresentation of people of color in the entertainment industry. His work includes writing for comics, TV, animation, and his documentary "Brave New Soul."  This conversation delves deep into the importance of resilience, authenticity, and the unyielding pursuit of one's dreams, no matter the obstacles. Where to find more on Brandon Easton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_M._Easton https://brandonverse.com/ https://x.com/brandoneaston Have any questions or comments? Then please leave them in the Comments Section. Write: TTDSOnAir@gmail.com And follow us on ... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Tell The Damn Story⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.Facebook.com/Tell The Damn Story⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube.com/ Tell The Damn Story⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you're enjoying these episodes, take a moment to help wet our whistle and just... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Me A Coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Comic Reviews: DC Batman and Robin Annual 2024 by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Rain Beredo Batman/Superman: World's Finest Annual 2024 by Mark Waid, Cullen Bunn, Edwin Galmon, Lee Loughridge; Dennis Culver, Travis Mercer, Andrew Dalhouse; Stephanie Williams, Rosi Kampe, Jordie Bellaire; Christopher Cantwell, Jorge Fornes, Lee Loughridge DC Power 2024 by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell; Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Asiah Fulmore, Ruth Redmond; Lamar Giles, Sean Damien Hill, Anthony Fowler Jr., DJ Chavis; John Ridley, Edwin Galmon; Deron Bennett, Denys Cowan, John Stanisci, Christopher Cantwell; Shawn Martinbrough, Tony Akins, Moritat; Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales, Romulo Fajardo Jr.; Jarrett Williams, Domo Stanton, Andrew Dalhouse; Greg Burnham, Jahnoy Lindsay; Brandon Thomas, Khary Randolph, Serg Acuña Power Girl Uncovered Titans: Beast World 6 by Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis, Lucas Meyer, Eduardo Pansica, Danny Miki, Julio Ferreira, Brad Anderson, Romulo Fajardo Jr. Trinity Special by Tom King, Daniel Sampere, Tomeu Morey Marvel Dead X-Men 1 by Steve Foxe, Bernard Chang, Jonas Scharf, Vincenzo Carratu, Frank Martin Marvel's Voices: Legends by David Walker, Eder Messias, Jonas Trindade, Andrew Dalhouse; Justina Ireland, Karen Darboe, Carlos Lopez; Ezra Claytan Daniels, Sean Damien Hill, Oren Junior, Espen Grundetjern; Sheree Renee Thomas, Julian Shaw, Carlos Lopez Marvel Unlimited Alligator Loki 34 by Alyssa Wong, Robert Quinn Image Moon Man 1 by Kyle Higgins, Scott Mescudi, Marco Locati, Igor Monti Boom Power Rangers Unlimited: The Morphin Masters 1 by Ryan Parrott, Rachel Wagner, Daniel Bayliss, Arthus Hesli Dynamite Lilo and Stitch 1 by Greg Pak, Giulia Giacomino Titan Dark Souls: The Willow King by George Mann, Mann House Oni Jill and the Killers 1 by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, Roberto Ingranata, Rebecca Nalty OGNs Shook! A Black Horror Anthology by Shawn Alleyne, Alverne Ball, Rodney Barnes, Brandon Easton, Bradley Golden, Kevin Grevioux, John Jennings, Evan Parke, Marcus Roberts, David Walker, David Brame, Roberto Castro, Flavio Cortes, Daniel Gorman, Charlie Goubile, Alessio Nocerino, Adam Seats, Jamal Williams Jr., Jermel Williams, Phillip Williams Jr., Beezzz Studio, Bruce Cherin, Mickey Clausen, Oladayo Kemi, Iwan Joko Triyono Adventures of Invisible Boy by Doogie Horner Alterations by Ray Xu Spirited: Day of the Living Liv by Liv Livingston, Glass House Graphics Additional Reviews: Giant Days, Hazbin Hotel, Star Trek Defiant Annual, Flight Attendant s1, Orion and the Dark, Self, surprise review News: Alyssa Wong leaving Dr. Aphra, Suicide Squad vs. Justice League choices, Kristen Ritter confirmed for Sonic 3, Ahsoka comic adaptation coming, final Canto chapter announced, Omninews, new Image anthology from Sabir Pirzada Comics Countdown (30 Jan 2024): 1.     Alan Scott: Green Lantern 4 by Tim Sheridan, Cian Tormey, Jordi Tarragona, John Livesay 2.     Dark Ride 10 by Joshua Williamson, Andrei Bressan, Adriano Lucas 3.     w0rldtr33 7 by James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire 4.     Titans: Beast World 6 by Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis, Lucas Meyer, Eduardo Pansica, Danny Miki, Julio Ferreira, Brad Anderson, Romulo Fajardo Jr. 5.     Batman: Off-World 3 by Jason Aaron, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron 6.     Avengers, Inc 5 by Al Ewing, Leonard Kirk, Alex Sinclair 7.     Avengers: Twilight 2 by Chip Zdarsky, Daniel Acuna 8.     Local Man 9 by Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs, Felipe Sobreiro, Brad Simpson 9.     Spider-Boy 3 by Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Erick Arciniega, Ty Templeton, Dee Cunniffe 10.  Doctor Aphra 40 by Alyssa Wong, Minkyu Jung, Rachelle Rosenberg

Comic Reviews: DC Knight Terrors: Batman 2 by Joshua Williamson, Guillem March, Tomeu Morey, Trevor Hairsine, Antonio Fabela Knight Terrors: Black Adam 2 by Jeremy Haun, Nick Filardi, Rex Lokus Knight Terrors: Poison Ivy 2 by G. Willow Wilson, Atagun Ilhan, Mark Morales, Arif Prianto Knight Terrors: Ravager 2 by Ed Brisson, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini Knight Terrors: Joker 2 by Matthew Rosenberg, Stefano Raffaele, Romulo Fajardo Jr Sandman Universe Special: Thessaly by James Tynion IV, Maria Llovet Young Alfred: Pain in the Butler GN by Michael Northrop, Sam Lotfi, Kendall Goode Marvel Amazing Spider-Man 2023 Annual by Erica Schultz, Julian Shaw, Andrew Dalhouse, Celeste Bronfman, David Lopez, KJ Diaz Astonishing Iceman 1 by Steve Orlando, Vincenzo Carratu, Javier Tartaglia Death of the Venomverse 1 by Cullen Bunn, Gerardo Sandoval, Jim Campbell Magneto 1 by J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Nauck, Rachelle Rosenberg Star Wars: Dark Droids 1 by Charles Soule, Luke Ross, Alex Sinclair Strange Academy: Miles Morales by Carlos Hernandez, Juann Cabal, Alvaro Lopez, Edgar Delgado What If…? Dark – Venom by Stephanie Phillips, Jethro Morales, Israel Silva Marvel Unlimited Marvel Meow 14 by Nao Fuji Image Quest 1 by Jonathan Luna, Crystal Wood Sacrificers 1 by Rick Remender, Max Fiumara, Dave McCaig Dynamite Fire and Ice 1 by Bill Willingham, Leonardo Manco Dark Horse Hellboy and the BPRD: 1957 – From Below by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Mike Norton, Dave Stewart Boom Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer 1 by Casey Gilly, Oriol Roid, Gloria Martinelli Titan Conan the Barbarian 1 by Jim Zub, Roberto De La Torre, Jose Villarrubia Robotech: Rick Hunter 1 by Brandon Easton, Simone Ragazzoni Mad Cave Project Riese 1 by Zac Thompson, Jeff McComsey, Paul Little Scout Thanks! Romina 1 by Giulie Speziani, S.E. Case OGNs Cla$$war by Rob Williams, Trevor Hairsine Prismstalker: The Weeping Star by Sloane Leong Cartooon Show by Derek Ballard Soggy Landing by Ian Densford, Brothers McGovern Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song by Austin Paramore, Sarah Bollinger, Marika Cresta Stars in their Eyes by Jessica Walton, Aska Saving Chupie by Amparo Ortiz, Ronnie Garcia Dragon Prince: Puzzle House by Peter Wartman, Felia Hanakata Anna and the Mystery of the Mountains by Random  House Disney Additional Reviews: Slumber Party, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Meg 2, Devil's Cut from DSTLRY, Miraculous Ladybug, Outcast, Agency Files Declassified, My Adventures With Superman News: Animated Disney Princess crossover from Lego, Donny Cates update, Reed Richards and Johnny Storm rumors, Omninews Trailers: Migration, I Am Groot s2 Comics Countdown (01 Aug 2023): 1.      Love Everlasting 10 by Tom King, Elsa Charratier, Matt Hollingsworth 2.      Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song GN by Austin Paramore, Sarah Bollinger, Marika Cresta 3.      Young Alfred: Pain in the Butler GN by Michael Northrop, Sam Lotfi, Kendall Goode 4.      Batman: Knight Terrors 2 by Joshua Williamson, Guillem March, Tomeu Morey, Trevor Hairsine, Antonio Fabela 5.      Doctor Strange 6 by Jed MacKay, Juan Gedeon, Kike Diaz 6.      Saving Chupie GN by Amparo Ortiz, Ronnie Garcia 7.      Magneto 1 by J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Nauck, Rachelle Rosenberg 8.      Grim 12 by Stephanie Phillips, Flaviano Armentaro, Rico Renzi 9.      Fantastic Four 10 by Ryan North, Leandro Fernandez, Jesus Aburtov 10.  Justice Society of America 5 by Geoff Johns, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire, Jerry Ordway, John Kalisz

This is Rated R due to language Who is Brandon Easton? Writer of many geeky things including the Thundercats reboot of 2011, Shadowlaw, Marvel's Agent Carter, Vampire Hunter D(the TV Series) stuff for Marvel & DC, OVERWATCH 2 and HEARTHSTONE for Blizzard Entertainment and so much more. So we talked about the following: 1. The Thudercats Reboot from 2011 2. The Wrestling comic books that he has written: ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN - https://www.amazon.com/Andre-Giant-Closer-Brandon-Easton/dp/1941302149/ JIM CORNETTE PRESENTS: TRUE WRESTLING STORIES - https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Cornette-Presents-Curtain-Wrestling/dp/1684054923/ 3. The trip to Wrestlemania, Favorite Match, least Favorite Match and so much more. 4. There is a bit of social commentary as well that comes up as we also talk Jonathan Majors vs Ezra Miller Support the Show just by buying geeky stuff at these links. Do you need Geeky T-shirts, Posters, Socks and other Geeky  Collectables? Come get your Nerd Kung Fu on! This is another way to  support the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.nerdkungfu.com/?rfsn=6636221.30ef1b Kids, Adults and Kids at Heart can join forces with a brave Jedi from Star Wars: The Mandalorian, the future Ahsoka series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars with this cool Ahsoka Tano Key Chain. It features an Ahsoka Tano LEGO® minifigure attached to a durable metal chain and ring. A cute gift idea for any LEGO Star Wars" fan aged 6 and up, it is easy to connect to keys or a backpack. https://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=kQk0ra4V2Bg&offerid=1182088.854186&type=2&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lego.com%2Fen-us%2Fproduct%2Fahsoka-tano-key-chain-854186 From Gamestop- Super Mario Bros.Movie Mini World Van Playset- It's a van, it's a playset! The Super Mario Bros. plumbing van has rolling wheels for vehicle play and comes with a mini 1. 25" Mario figure. The van opens up to reveal movie moment as the brothers go from the Brooklyn sewers in New York to the Warp Zone universe. The playset features the green pipe, the magical warp zone, and multiple warp tubes to imaginatively enter and exit different worlds. https://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=kQk0ra4V2Bg&offerid=1270124.24348335132&type=2&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamestop.com%2Ftoys-games%2Fplaysets%2Fproducts%2Fjakks-pacific-super-mario-bros.-movie-mini-world-van-playset%2F335132.html --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/conversationsabout/support

Comic Reviews: DC Dark Crisis: The Dark Army by Mark Waid, Delilah Dawson, Dennis Culver, Freddie Williams II, Jack Herbert, Adriano Lucas Marvel Amazing Spider-Man 14 by Zeb Wells, Ryan Stegman, Michael Dowling, Terry Dodson, Kyle Hotz, Tim Townsend, Rachel Dodson, JP Mayer, Matt Hollingsworth, Dan Brown, Richard Isanove, Marcio Menyz Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise 1 by Tradd Moore, Heather Moore Star Wars Revelations 1 by Marc Guggenheim, Salvador Larroca, Guru eFX, Pere Perez, Dono Sanchez-Almara, Emma Kubert, Wayne Faucher, Justin Mason, Paul Fry Star Wars Yoda 1 by Cavan Scott, Nico Leon, Dono Sanchez-Almara Infinity Comics Aligator Loki by Alyssa Wong, Bob Quinn Love Unlimited: Wiccan and Hulkling by Josh Trujillo, Tokitokoro Boom Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World 1 by Jason Aaron, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Lee Loughridge, Nick Dragotta, Rico Renzi AfterShock Fear of a Red Planet 1 by Mark Sable, Andrea Olimpieri Black Mask Rogue State 1 by Matteo Pizzolo, Carlos Granda, Brad Simpson Titan Kamen Rider Zero-One 1 by Brandon Easton, Hendry Prasetya, In-Hyuk Lee AAM Markosia Cosmic Debris 1 by Stu Perrins, John E. Murphy OGN The Court Charade by Flore Vesco, Kerascoet Ray's OGN Corner: Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol Additional Reviews: Disenchanted, Plunge by Joe Hill, Exorsisters vol 1, Cyclops Road, Andor ep12, Wednesday, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Strange World, Santa Clauses, Dexter New Blood News: Kaleidoscope, return of Superman's secret identity, Ottley's Hulk ending with issue 13, Goncharov, Omni news, FCBD lineup, new Hellcat series Star Trek: TNG Kelvin-verse casting Thoughts on the state of the Disney animated library Comics Countdown: Human Target 9 by Tom King, Greg Smallwood Eight Billion Genies 6 by Charles Soule, Ryan Browne, Kevin Knipstein The Court Charade OGN by Flore Vesco, Kerascoet Action Comics 1049 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, David Lapham, Mike Perkins, Trish Mulvihill, Lee Loughridge Department of Truth 22 by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds Dark Spaces: Wildfire 5 by Scott Snyder, Hayden Sherman, Ronda Pattison Daredevil 5 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Matt Wilson Defenders Beyond 5 by Al Ewing, Javier Rodriguez Once Upon A Time At The End of the World 1 by Jason Aaron, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Lee Loughridge, Nick Dragotta, Rico Renzi Avengers Forever 11 by Jason Aaron, Jim Towe, Frank Martin  

Brandon Easton, writer of the upcoming Kamen Rider: Zero One comic, as well Transformers: War for Cybertron, Overwatch 2, and Iyanu: Child of Wonder joins us to discuss his extensive work in comics as well as his love of Kamen Rider. We of course couldn't miss the opportunity to pick his brain on everything from Star Trek, to unadapted Transformers anime, and even Hamilton gets a mention! Be on the lookout for Kamen Rider: Zero One #1 from Titan Comics this November, and follow Brandon on Twitter @BrandonEaston

This new Brick Moon story actually was one of the first Brick Moon stories. From our anthology called The Inheritance, this story from Brandon Easton follows […]

Welcome back! It's a light comic book week! These are the comic books Keenan and LZ discuss and review: 7:00 Batman/Superman #1: Authority Special - Philip Kennedy Johnson, Trevor Hairsine, Jonathan Glapion, Scott Hanna, Rain Beredo 15:09 Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom #6 - Brandon Easton and Fico Ossio 19:04 Winter Guard #3 - Ryan Cady and Jen Balzadua Another Panel: Switching Villains! There are some great villains out there but what if they went after different heroes? Instead of creating new villains, what if they went after a different hero? Keenan and LZ discuss which villains would work as a threat to different heroes! Do you have any ideas on villains who should go after different villains? Let us know! [25:05] Another Rewatch: Eternals! The latest installment in the MCU is here and Keenan and LZ have thoughts! *SPOILER ALERT* Lots of spoilers in this chat so be warned! Thanks for listening! We really appreciate all the support! Leave us a comment and subscribe to the youtube channel! Feel free to contact us! Twitter - Another Relaunch - Keenan -LZ or via email anotherrelaunch@gmail.com

Comic Reviews: Are You Afraid of Darkseid? by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, Kenny Porter, Max Dunbar, Luis Guerrero, Calvin Kasulke, Rob Guillory, Dave Wielgosz, Pablo Collar, Wil Quintana, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Jesus Hervas, Eva De La Cruz, Ed Brisson, Christopher Mitten, ToWe Hny Avina, Terry Blas, Garry Brown, Marissa Louise, Jeremy Haun, Tony Akins, Moritat Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary 100-age Super Spectacular by Michael Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Jim Cheung, Marcelo Maiolo, Jordie Bellaire, Paulina Ganucheau, Kendall Goode, Amy Reeder, Marissa Louise, Mark Waid, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Tom King, Doc Shaner, Vita Ayala, Isaac Goodhart, Jeremy Lawson, Steve Orlando, Laura Braga, Romulo Fajardo Jr, Stephanie Phillips, Marcio Takara, G. Willow Wilson, Meghan Hetrick Arkham City: Order of the World 1 by Dan Watters, Dani, Dave Stewart DC Horror Presents: Soul Plumber 1 by Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, PJ Holden, John McCrea, Mike Spicer Amazing Spider-Man 75 by Zeb Wells, Patrick Gleason, Marcio Menyz, Kelly Thompson, Travel Foreman, Jim Campbell, Ivan Fiorelli, Edgar Delgado Eternals Celestia by Kieron Gillen, Kei Zama, Matthew Wilson Ghost Rider Kushala Infinity Comic 1 by Taboo, Guillermo Sanna, Jordie Bellaire We Have Demons 1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, Dave McCaig Righteous Thirst For Vengeance 1 by Rick Remender, Andre Lima Araujo, Chris O'Halloran Cruel Biology by Christopher Sebela, Brian Churilla Jennifer Blood 1 by Fred Van Lente, Vincenzo Federici Chicken Devil 1 by Brian Buccellato, Hayden Sherman, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Out 1 by Rob Williams, Will Conrad, Marco Lesko Dirtbag Rapture 1 by Christopher Sebela, Kendall Goode, Gab Contreras Party & Prey GN by Steve Orlando, Steve Foxe, Alex Sanchez, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Squad GN by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Lisa Sterle Primordial GN by Bruce Zick Stars, Hide Your Fires GN by Kel McDonald, Jose Pimienta Minnie Mouse: Big Dreams GN by Brooke Vitale, Artful Doodlers Additional Reviews: Star Wars Terrifying Tales, Bodyguard, Snowman, Basketful of Heads, Unfinished Corner, Muppets Haunted Mansion Longbox of Horror: Spider-Man Disassembled by Paul Jenkins, Humberto Ramos, Paco Medina, Michael Ryan News: ND Stevenson transition and substack, Bunn brings back Dragonring through Kickstarter, Flanagan does House of Usher, Letitia Wright nonsense, Bat Family Webtoon gets YouTube live action adaptation, Agatha Harkness TV show, Pinhead cast for Hulu series, Bat/Cat special delayed, Astro City/Autumnlands/Arrowsmith and new series from Kurt Busiek at Image, Cillian Murphy stars in next Nolan movie as Oppenheimer, Saga returns in January, Kiernan Shipka bringing Sabrina to Riverdale, Who returns on Halloween, more Tom Taylor nonsense, Jon Kent, Disney gets a new Chief Creative Officer, Devil's Reign Tie-Ins, NYCC thoughts, Gamergate show Halloween Question Trailers: Game of Thrones prequel, Peacemaker, Hypnotic, Resident Evil, Robin Robin Comics Countdown: Nice House On The Lake 5 by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno The Me You Love In The Dark 3 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu We Have Demons 1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, Dave McCaig Bountiful Garden 2 by Ivy Noelle Weir, Kelly Williams, Giorgio Spalleta Star Trek: Year Five 25 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jody Houser, Brandon Easton, Jim McCann, Paul Cornell, Angel Hernandez, Silvia Califano, Stephen Thompson Arkham City: Order of the World 1 by Dan Watters, Dani, Dave Stewart Dark Ages 2 by Tom Taylor, Iban Coello, Brian Reber Fire Power 16 by Robert Kirkman, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson Savage Avengers 25 by Gerry Duggan, Patrick Zircher, Javier Tartaglia Crush and Lobo 5 by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain

Welcome back! Lot's of action packed comic books this week! Keenan and LZ review and discuss: 4:51 Robin #5 - Joshua Williamson and Glebe Melnikov 9:46 Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom #4 - Brandon Easton and Fico Ossio 13:27 Action Comics #1034 - Philip Kennedy Johnson and Daniel Sampere 18:31 Winter Guard #1 - Ryan Cady and Jan Bazaldua 24:19 Black Widow #10 - Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande and Rafael De La Torre Another Panel: Darkstar! Laynia Petrovna aka Darkstar is a mutant who can control and manipulate dark force energy. She's a member of the Winter Guard and it's time to give her a spotlight! Are you a Darkstar fan? Let us know! Another Relaunch! Wow! 2 in a row?? Keenan and LZ relaunch some characters and try to give them new ideas! Did you agree? Thanks for listening! We really appreciate all the support! Leave us a comment and subscribe to the youtube channel! Feel free to contact us! Twitter - Another Relaunch - Keenan -LZ or via email anotherrelaunch@gmail.com

Chers contributeurs, Voici le 8ème épisode de la saison pour votre podcast BD préféré. ^^ Pas d'invité encore une fois mais une partie actu assez chargée et de belles recommandations lecture: - Ours, de Ben Queen et Joe Todd-Stanton chez Kinaye - Snapdragon, de Kat Leyh chez Kinaye - Mask de Brandon Easton, Tony Vargas et Juan Samu chez Vestron - Imbattable t3, de Pascal Jousselin chez Dupuis - les amants d'Hérouville, de Yann Le Quellec et Romain Ronzeau chez Delcourt - Les bonhommes de pluie, de François Duprat aux éditions de la Gouttière - Wanted Lucky Luke, de Mathieu Bonhomme chez Dargaud Bonne écoute et rendez-vous en juin pour le dernier épisode de la saison ! Yigaël Crédits Génériques et Jingles : Hynnner - @hant1s3 Musiques: - Mask (générique) par Noam Kaniel, Nick Carr - Fantomas (thème) par Michel Magne

Original broadcast date October 8, 2015. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2015/10/binary-system-podcast-13-wtnv-episode-75-through-the-narrow-place/ Oo, the 13th episode of BSP falling on the first week of October! That's so appropriately creepy, you'd almost think we planned it that way. Fall is here, and so is the Night Vale annual charity marathon: twenty-six miles through the Narrow Place. And like so many other events in Night Vale, the marathon is expected to be lots of fun, most likely fatal, and mandatory. For everyone. Strap on your running shoes and get ready for the starting pistol (we don't miss twice) as the twins recap the latest WTNV episode and fangirl about Return of the Jedi, Danger Mouse, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, and Andre the Giant. Welcome To Night Vale's main website is here: https://www.welcometonightvale.com/ The cool tumblr animation that Kathryn listened to during this week's weather is by misterrickletheficklepickle and you can see it here. The review of Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven and the interview with Brandon Easton is here. Prefer your podcasts in youtube form? You're in luck! https://youtu.be/gmLD2jPSZFI

DC August solicitations Comic Reviews: Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom 1 by Brandon Easton, Fico Ossio, Rico Renzi Stargirl Spring Break Special 1 by Geoff Johns, Bryan Hitch, Todd Nauck, Alex Sinclair, Hi-Fi Batman: Black and White 6 by Scott Snyder, John Arcudi, Brandon Thomas, Pierrick Colinet, Nick Derington, Elsa Charretier, Khary Randolph, James Harren, Klaus Janson, John Romita Jr Heroes Reborn: Magneto and the Mutant Force by Steve Orlando, Bernard Chang, David Curiel Heroes Reborn: Siege Society by Cody Zigler, Paco Medina, Pete Pantazis Heroes Reborn: Young Squadron by Jim Zub, Steve Cummings, Erick Arciniega Heroes Reborn 4 by Jason Aaron, James Stokoe, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Matt Wilson Reptil 1 by Terry Blas, Enid Balam, Victor Olazaba, Carlos Lopez Made in Korea 1 by Jeremy Holt, George Schall Star Wars Adventures: The Weapon of a Jedi 1 by Alec Worley, Jason Fry, Ruairi Coleman Witcher: Witch's Lament 1 by Bartosz Sztybor, Vanesa Del Rey, Jordie Bellaire Down River People by Adam Smith, Matthew Fox Onion Skin by Edgar Camacho Nook by Caleb Thusat, Marcelo Biott Redshift 1 by H.S> Tak, Brent David McKee, Sebastian Cheng Misadventurers 1 by Joseph Michael, Nicolas Touris Monstrous: Heartbreak and Blood Loss 1 by Gregory Wright, Rachel Young, Sharpe Blue Flame 1 by Christopher Cantwell, Adam Gorham, Kurt Michael Russell 99 Cent Theatre CHC One Shot: Will Aliens Do My Homework? by David Whalen Into the Wilderness 0 by Gabe Cheng, Elisa Menghel Mister Johnson 1 by Adrian Jules Tales From the Dispatch Vol 1 by  Orphan King 1 by Tyler Chin-Tanner, James Boyle Kickstarter: The Game Additional Reviews: Hannibal, Calls s1, Kominsky Method s3, Big Little Lies s2, Men in Black 4, God of War News: McFarlane TV deals, Naomi greenlit as series, next Arrow-verse crossover, Amazon buys MGM, Sandman casting, final round of Round Robin, Inferno event coming soon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Young Kraven, sequel to GL: Legacy coming soon, Flash ending with season 8, Joker sequel, Okoye series in development for Disney+, ultimate movie crossover Trailers: Eternals, Last Night in Soho, Gunpowder Milkshake Am It Glenn?  Comics Countdown: Ascender 15 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen Strange Adventures 10 by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, Evan Shaner Department of Truth 9 by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds, Aditya Bidikar Batman: Black and White 6 by Scott Snyder, John Arcudi, Brandon Thomas, Pierrick Colinet, Nick Derington, Elsa Charretier, Khary Randolph, James Harren, Klaus Janson, John Romita Jr Something is Killing the Children 16 by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'edera, Miquel Muerto Down River People by Adam Smith, Matthew Fox Beta Ray Bill 3 by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer Money Shot 11 by Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie, Caroline Leigh Layne, Kurt Michael Russell TMNT: The Last Ronin 3 by Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Ben Bishop, Esau Escorza, Isaac Escorza, Luis Antonio Delgado HaHa 5 by W. Maxwell Prince, Gabriel Walta

Hello and welcome to Episode #9 of The Aspiring Kryptonians Podcast!First of all I would like to apologise for the sound quality on this episode. I am absolutely devastated, but bad weather interfered with the internet and the recording has sadly been affected.In this episode we welcome a very special guest, the one and only Brandon Easton! Brandon has written several Superman stories, the first featured in Superman: Red & Blue #1, and the second was Truth & Justice #2.Join us as we talk all things Superman, his career, what got him into comic books, where his inspiration for these stories came from and what we can expect to see from him in the future.Please note, there may be spoilers if you aren't up to date with the comic issues mentioned above.Again thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our podcast, it really does mean the world to us! And a huge thank you to Brandon Easton for taking the time to chat all things Superman with us!

DC Comics is relaunching Legends of the Dark Knight. The story seems to follow along the familiar plotlines of most Batman stories. He uses his superior detective skills to track down a trouble maker in Gotham. I certainly hope they do something in future issues to make the story fresh. Publisher Description (W/A/CA) Darick Robertson The iconic series Legends of the Dark Knight is back! Comics icons and rising stars alike will tell digital-first stories across the Batman mythos, beginning with comics legend and co-creator of The Boys Darick Robertson writing and drawing an epic three-issue super-villain crime drama! A new player has arrived on the scene in Gotham City and is selling deadly chemicals to the worst villains in town: Mr. Freeze, the Penguin, and even The Joker! It’s up to Batman to stop the villains, track down the supplier, and save Gotham City once more! And in upcoming issues, look stories and art by Stephanie Phillips, Brandon Thomas, Becky Cloonan, Matt Rosenberg, Brandon Easton, Cian Tormey, Giannis Milonogiannis, Karl Mostert, and many more! SUBSCRIBE to watch more videos like this one! LET'S CONNECT! -- Talk Nerdy to Me Facebook -- Zia Comics Facebook -- Zia Comics Twitter -- Zia Comics Instagram -- Talk Nerdy to Me website -- Zia Comics website LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST! - iTunes - RSS Feed - Stitcher - Google Play - Podbean - Spotify - Tune In/Alexa - Pandora #ziacomics #dccomics #legendsofthedarkknight #darkknight #batman #gasmaskkiller

June 2021 Solicitations Comic Reviews: Justice League 59 by Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, Tamra Bonvillain Nightwing 78 by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas Superman: Red and Blue 1 by John Ridley, Clayton Henry, Jordie Bellaire, Brandon Easton, Steve Lieber, Ron Chan, Wes Craig, Dan Watters, Dani, Marguerite Bennett, Jill Thompson Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade 1 by Si Spurrier, Sergio Davila, Sean Parsons, Arif Prianto King in Black: Spider-Man by Jed MacKay, Michele Bandini, Elisabetta D'Amico, Erick Arciniega, Alberto Alburquerque, Rachelle Rosenberg Captain America Anniversary Tribute Trials of Ultraman 1 by Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom, Francesco Manna, Espen Grundetjern Ultramega by James Harren Orphan and the Five Beasts 1 by James Stokoe Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Tricksters 1 BeQuest 1 by Tim Seeley, Freddie E. Williams II, Jeremy Colwell Eros/Psyche 1 by Maria Llovet Count GN by Ibrahim Moustafa, Brad Simpson Martian Ghost Centaur GN by Mat Heagerty, Stephanie Mided Midnight Western Theater 1 by Louis Southard, David Hahn, Ryan Cody, Buddy Beaudoin 99 Cent Theatre Border Post 0 by Sergey Lukianenko, Abylai Kusainov 2020 1 by Nicolas Brondo Crow Creek 1 by John Terrell Freeman, Michael Yakutis Gunbreed: Dead Draw 1 by Angel Fuentes, Nahuel SB Hunt Leviathans 1 by Angel Fuentes, Ivonne Falcon, Daniel Irizarri, Guillermo Martinez, AC Osorio Kyu Shin 1 by Mitch Hyman, Ivonna Falcon, AC Osorio Little Sally 1 by Joshua Len Estes Supercult by NUGHOST Azure 1 by Samuel Pettit Renegade Rule by Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein, Sam Beck Additional Reviews: Falcon and Winter Soldier ep1, Coming 2 America, House of Secrets Omni vol 2, Snyder cut, It's a Sin News: The Oscars, Ahoy and Scout move away from Diamond, Immortal Hulk spin-off, FCBD, Omninews, Image acquires Lady Mechanika, Liefeld reboots The Shield for Archie, Naomi casting, EVS, Boys spinoff casting, Batwoman spoilers, Zatanna movie screenwriter announced, Coates finishing run on Cap, Echo series in development at Disney+ Comics Countdown: Ultramega 1 by James Harren Snow Angels 2 by Jeff Lemire, Jock Thor 13 by Donny Cates, Nic Klain, Matt Wilson Superman: Red and Blue 1 by John Ridley, Clayton Henry, Jordie Bellaire, Brandon Easton, Steve Lieber, Ron Chan, Wes Craig, Dan Watters, Dani, Marguerite Bennett, Jill Thompson Martian Ghost Centaur by Mat Heagerty, Stephanie Mided Radiant Black 2 by Kyle Higgins, Marcelo Costa, Becca Carey Nightwing 78 by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas Head Lopper 15 by Andrew MacLean, Jordie Bellaire Captain Marvel 27 by Kelly Thompson, David Lopez, Triona Farrell S.W.O.R.D. 4 by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia

On this week's comic book review podcast: GI Joe: Castle Fall IDW Written by Paul Allor Art by Chris Evenhuis Snow Angels #1 ComiXology Written by Jeff Lemire Art by Jock The Immortal Hulk: Flatline #1 Marvel Written and Art by Declan Shalvey HAHA #2 Image Comics Written by W. Maxwell Prince Art by Zoe Thorogood King in Black #4 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ryan Stegman Batman/Catwoman #3 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Clay Mann Savage #1 Valiant Comics Written by Max Bemis Art by Nathan Stockman Guardians of the Galaxy #11 Marvel Written by Al Ewing Art by Juann Cabal Stillwater #6 Image Comics Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Ramón K. Perez Future State: Superman Worlds of War #2 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Easton, Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad, Jeremy Adams Art by Mikel Janin, Valentin de Landro, Michael Avon Oeming, Siya Oum Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #2 DC Comics Written by Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad, L.L. McKinney Art by Jen Bartel, Alitha Martinez Future State: The Next Batman #4 DC Comics Written by John Ridley, Vita Ayala, Paula Seven Bergen Art by Laura Braga, Aneke, Emanuela Luppachino Future State: Catwoman #2 DC Comics Written by Ram V Art by Otto Schmidt Future State: Nightwing #2 DC Comics Written by Andrew Constant Art by Nicola Scott Future State: Shazam #2 DC Comics Written by Tim Sheridan Art by Eduardo Panic Thor #12 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Nic Klein Excellence #10 Image Comics Written by Brandon Thomas Art by Khary Randolph Once & Future #16 BOOM! Studios Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Dan Mora X-Men Legends #1 Marvel Written by Fabian Nicieza Art by Brett Booth Aria: Heavenly Creatures Image Comics Written by Brian Holguin Art by Jay Anacleto with Brian Haberlin The Last Ronin #2 IDW Story by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Tom Waltz Script by Tom Waltz & Kevin Eastman Layouts by Kevin Eastman Pencils & Inks by Esau & Isaac Escort, Ben Bishop and Kevin Eastman Black Widow #5 Marvel Written by Kelly Thompson Art by Elena Casagrande w/ Rafael De Latorre Sabrina: The Teenage Witch #5 Archie Comics Written by Kelly Thompson Art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Full Episode Transcript Alex:                 What's up, everybody. Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Pete:                I'm Pete. Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week. Let's kick it off, because we got a packed stack. Justin:              Oh, yes. Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:00:19] G.I. Joe: Castle Fall from IDW, written by Paul Allor, art by Chris Evenhuis. I got to tell you, never in a million years would I have expected that a G.I. Joe book would be at the top of my personal stack, but that's where we are. This book is what a lot of what this book has been leading up to. Cobra has taken over the entire world. Finally, G.I. Joe gets an in to fight back. It doesn't go exactly how you think it's going to go. There's a big twist there. This book is great. Justin:              I got to say, I mean, I was not allowed to watch G.I. Joe as a child because they had guns in their hands. Pete:                Here we go. Jesus Christ. Can we talk about G.I. Joe one time without you dropping that? Justin:              What? I'm just saying. It was just sort of an introduction to say that I also love this book. I also wasn't allowed sugary cereals, which led me to enjoy a lot of Grape Nuts. Pete:                And you also had to drink well water, and your teeth are falling out. Alex:                 Don't spoil. The next book we're talking about is Grape Nuts #1, which is also very good. Justin:              That's going to be good. It's going to be good. Just put a little honey on it. No. This book is so good, and what I love about it is they've been building up to it over the course of all these smaller issues and books to get here, and each one, for the most part, has been excellent, and the fact that they're building this whole little universe around G.I. Joe is something that … Again, I don't know if I said. I never watched as a kid. Pete:                Oh, my god. Fuck, I hate you. I mean, this is great. I mean, you get to see Roadblock fucking pick up a fucking giant cannon of a gun and just fucking shoot. It was great. Yeah. The art's really good. The storytelling, the plot's impressive. It's a lot better than a lot of the cartoon's plot, but I thought this was- Alex:                 Not all of it. I would say like 50 percent of the cartoon's plots. Most of the cartoon's plots were very good, as we all know. Pete:                Sure. Sure. Because we all watched them as kids. Alex:                 I never watched it. Justin:              It must have been fun for you, Pete, to see your favorite Joes, like soup can, hub cap. Pete:                So far you haven't named one. Justin:              Dance party. Pete:                Nope. Justin:              Hat hair. Hat hair is so good in this issue. Pete:                No. Justin:              He's so good because he's like [crosstalk 00:02:30]- Pete:                Did you see? My favorite scene in the issue is when load-bearing beam really brings the hurt down. Justin:              That guy is so tough. Pete:                [crosstalk 00:02:39]. Justin:              He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pete:                I'm the only one who knows the names, and you guys are still doing bits. It's just ridiculous. Alex:                 Well, what I love about this is I, again, I have no interest in G.I. Joe particularly because of the names, because they're so silly and over the top, but every character is so distinct, from the art, to the writing, to their motivations here, including the villains as well. The way that they fleshed out Cobra here and made them interesting rather than just going “I'm a serpent name, and I have a mask, and I'm evil,” and that's pretty much my whole impression of Cobra Commander. I think there's two of them, right? Pete:                Oh, my god. Justin:              No. There's more. You need 20 minutes. Alex:                 There's Destro and also Cobra Commander? I don't know how this works. Pete:                Okay. All right. Destro does not talk like that. Alex:                 Everyone's shit. Pete:                There's Serpentor. Alex:                 I'm Destro. Pete:                Oh, my god. All right. You are killing me. Alex:                 I'm the Baroness. Pete:                Okay. All right. First off, let's back up the truck. If you're going to do bits about their names, know the show, because one of the funniest things is they would do PSAs after the show, and there would be a character whose name is Barbecue, and he has a flamethrower on his back, and then he's like “Hey, kids. If you have a house fire, you should run away,” and it's like “Hey, Barbecue. How did that house fire start? You have a flamethrower, and you're standing next to a fire. This isn't cool, man. You shouldn't set people's houses on fire and then teach kids about fires.” Justin:              It's very funny to me that you were like “Justin, you're making fun of this by saying the names you said. If you said the name Barbecue,” who's the hero you like's name, because when I said hub cap, you were like “That's stupid,” but you said Barbecue, and you were like “That's good. Hub cap is bad, but Barbecue-“ Pete:                I mean, Snow Job's a real … That's a real name. Justin:              What about tippy toe? I really like tippy toe. Pete:                Oh, my god. Alex:                 This book is fantastic. Definitely pick it up, even if you don't know anything about G.I. Joe. Alex:                 Moving on to Snow Angels #1 from ComiXology, written by Jeff Lemire, art by Jock. I said this on the live show, but I'll stick with it. That team is on a book, and you're in no matter what, but thankfully this book is great and weird anyway. It's about a world, maybe a world, that has been covered in ice. All that exists is this snow trench. There's a family, a father, and two daughters who are skating through the trench for one theirs 12th birthday, and things get weirder and deadlier and more dangerous from there. This feels like the perfect gelling of these two creators' tastes. Pete:                It seems like it's Snowpiercer 2, where after the train's gone, now they're just living on the tracks. You know what I mean? And that's where this takes place. Justin:              Withering criticism from Pete LePage. Alex:                 But you say that about anything that involves snow. You said that when you saw the Michael Keaton vehicle Jack Frost as well. Justin:              Yeah. No. Pete:                The Michael Keaton vehicle. Justin:              When the Weather Report came out, Pete screamed at the TV. It's like “Snowpiercer. Get out of here.” I like this book a lot. You said it best, Alex. It's such a great combination of these two creators' work. A lot of great blood splatters on this, and very few snow angels, and ice skating is hard, and these characters do it constantly. Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. I mean, growing up in upstate New York, you needed to kind of … You might as well put skates on, because you're walking around so much ice, but I did really … All joking aside, I really love the last-page reveal. The art's unbelievable. This is a very unique, cool kind of world that we're kind of thrown into here. I thought it was an amazing first issue of getting you established with what's going on and then kind of raising the stakes. I thought this was really fantastic book. Alex:                 Next up, the Immortal Hulk: Flatline #1 from Marvel, written and art by Declan Shalvey. This is another, as you can probably tell from the title, spinoff of the Immortal Hulk doing one-shot stories about him here. Bruce Banner meets one of his old teachers. Things don't go that well over the course of the issue. How do you think this held up to the high standard of Immortal Hulk? Justin:              I like this a lot. Declan Shalvey has been talking about this book a lot online. There's a lot of pride and just love for this book coming from the creator. So I really appreciate that, and it's a great story. It feels like a classic Hulk story that we haven't seen in a while, because the main book has been so focused on just straight-up horrifying imagery. So this takes it back a little bit and really says “Hey. Be nice to your teachers, because they might come at you from some gamma-irradiated vision and really fuck up your life if you're not careful.” Pete:                Yeah. Teachers will haunt you for the rest of your life, man. You got to be careful. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 Totally agree. Haha #2 from Image Comics, written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Zoe Thorogood. This is the second issue, of course, from the creator of Ice Cream Man. It is an anthology about clowns. Here, we're getting to meet a character who … It's not revealed until the end of the issue exactly what she's doing, but as a child, she ran away with her mom, who had a bit of a psychotic break and thought she was a clown, wanted to go away to a fun time happy land. Things do not end up fun time or happy. How'd you feel about this one? Justin:              So good. Haunting. We love W. Maxwell Prince's work on Ice Cream Man, and to see it sort of grounded in a weird way … I didn't expect this series ostensibly focusing on clowns to be the more grounded version of his storytelling, but it really is. It's sort of real-world stories of people going off the map a little bit with their choices, with clown imagery, and there's such a melancholy to all of this work, and I really like that. Alex:                 Pete? Pete:                Yeah. This is so haunting and messed up in ways that I wasn't ready for. This mother-and-child-like relationship was very scary to me, and I kept waiting there to be kind of fun moments, and so far it's just a fucking nightmare, and I'm scared to keep reading this comic, because it was like … I feel like Ice Cream Man kind of encouraged this, and I'm a little worried about what the payoff is going to be. Justin:              Encouraged it. Alex:                 I don't think there's going to be a payoff. I think it's just an anthology of stories. Pete:                I think maybe the people reading it will slowly start to go insane and then paint their faces like clowns and then die horribly. Justin:              I guess the payoff is when you show up to do the show in full clown, which honestly I think we're pretty close to. Alex:                 What if all of these people in this book joined together in some sort of book, all of these crazy people who are clowns forming a group together. It would be some sort of insane clown posse. I mean, just to throw something out there, I feel like that's maybe how it could work at the last issue. Justin:              Huh. That'd be quite a league of extraordinary clowns. As long as they aren't fueled by some sort of small-market soda, I think we'll be fine. Alex:                 King in Black #4 from Marvel, written by Donny Cates, art by Ryan Stegman. This is a big issue here where once again Donny Cates redefines the Marvel universe, does a little bit of the old retcon action to come up with an explanation for something that has not made a lot of sense. Eddie Brock is lying dying. Dylan Brock, his son, has been trapped by Knull, the King in Black. All of the heroes are trying to fight back, and they finally get a foothold here as we enter the endgame of this title. What'd you think about all the twists and turns? Justin:              I love the reveal at the end of the issue. When I first started reading comics, and I will spoil this sort of twist at the end right now, but Captain Universe was what was on the stands right then. Spider-Man had just had the Captain Universe powers, and he was recovering form that, being sort of de-powered. I think the first Spider-Man issue I ever read, he was shooting upwards into space, having just lost the Captain Universe powers, and trying to web himself to a passing airplane, and so to have that make sense and maybe join the Marvel universe with Eddie Brock at the helm I thought was great. It was crazy to see the heroes turn it around so hard in this issue. Pete:                Yeah. I really thought this was great. Lot of cool reveals in this issue. The good guys are getting their butts kicked for a long time now. It's nice to see what kind of cards we're going to play here. So I was really, really impressed with this issue, a lot of cool stuff, and I can't wait to see how this whole thing unfolds. I went from being like “What is this?” to really I'm bored with this kind of event. So I feel like it was really cool, and then the backup story, the Demon Days, was also really cool as well. Alex:                 That was very fun. That seems to be a title that we're going to see going forward that is a Japanese, I would say, art-style-inflected X-Men tale, which I thought was kind of neat. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Next up, Batman / Catwoman #3 from DC Comics, written by Tom King, art by Clay Mann. We're continuing this time-hopping story of Batman and Catwoman as they fight a war on three different fronts. I like this one. I felt like I had a better handle on what's going on in this issue than I did necessarily in the first two issues. How'd you guys feel about it? Pete:                I love this. I thought this was really amazing. I love the kind of tone that's even set up in the beginning with the double play, the double-spread title page of Bat and Cat. I think this is such a cool area to explore. If the Bat and Cat are together, how do they exist? You know what I mean? Is Catwoman have to be more good? Does Batman have to try to be more bad? How do they exist? Pete:                I think this is a very interesting position to put Batman and Catwoman, and the kind of reveal of Joker in the money suit … I lost it. I thought that was so funny and hysterical, and that whole “Paul Fleischman is dead. Oh, god. No. Who's Paul Fleischman?” … I'm really having a lot of fun with this book. I'm very, very impressed with it. Yeah. I can't say enough nice things about the art and everything that's going on. Justin:              Yeah. The art is so stylized. It's so composed in such a specific way, especially a story that moves around so much. It's so nice to see the art really reflecting a meticulous design style, but yeah. This reminds me of, oddly, the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the jumping between- Alex:                 Oh, okay. I can see that. Justin:              … jumping between different eras, telling one story, because it almost feels like in this comic that the characters are aware of the time jumps. I don't think they actually are, but it feels like they're very complicit in telling the story in this particular way, and I think that's what allows it to hang together so well as opposed to … Because it's jarring, jumping between the different time frames in this. There's very little visual direction, but there's just so much emotional direction where we're seeing so much happen at once, and at the same time, we're introducing Mask of the Phantasm here, which is a horrifying character [crosstalk 00:14:58]. Alex:                 I got to say that's the one thing for me that is not quite working about this book is I really like the Phantasm. It just right now feels like this element that I don't quite get how it fits in and how it's part of the story. Pete:                Just wait for it. All right? Don't- Alex:                 I'm sure. Yes. I know. It will pan out, and it's fine, but the Joker stuff in both the past and the present seems to connect. I get that the Phantasm is this outside thing, but it's such an out-sized presence, perhaps given because of its real-world weight of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm being the best Batman movie, that I felt like “Oh. This is its own story. What is going on with the Phantasm? Why are we not telling this story? Why is this only one third of the book?” Pete:                Yeah, but- Justin:              I think that is that exterior pressure, because to me, and I'm someone that didn't … I didn't watch that when I was younger. So it's not something I revere maybe as much. So just seeing the imagery that's there to be scary as opposed to being like “Look. I'm this character you know,” … I think it's working. Alex:                 All right. Fair enough. Pete:                Yeah. I agree. Just because something was amazing, don't let it hurt this story before we get what it's about, but I understand what you're saying and it makes sense. I'm just so happy we're getting this story, because we got little teases of it, and then DC was like “No. We're kind of doing something else.” So I'm so glad that, in this Black Label thing, we get this story that we were kind of given a little bit and then taken away. So I'm just so happy right now with what's going on in this book. Alex:                 Next up, Savage #1 from Valiant Comics, written by Max Bemis, art by Nathan Stockman. In this, we are picking up with Savage, a wild little boy who was left in a dinosaur land and came to the present. Now he's a social media star. Don't worry. There's still dinosaur battles in this book. I thought this was a lot of fun. What did you guys think? Pete:                Yeah. I- Justin:              Yeah. This … Pete:                Go ahead. Justin:              This is a lot fun. It reminds me of back in the day, the Ultraverse line of comics. This feels like strong pitch, strong concept, mixing a classic sort of comic book trope with a modern spin on it, and then the story's just really fun. Pete:                Yeah. I agree. It's fun to see kind of Savage exist now and how that would kind of look a little bit, but I'm glad that we still get to kind of see Savage do what Savage enjoys doing- Justin:              What Savage do. Pete:                … and it was … Yeah. The art's unbelievable. This is a very visually pleasing book, and it really delivers. Justin:              Oh, pleasing. So pleasing. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Pete's not having any of it tonight. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 All right. Let's move on, talk about- Justin:              He's displeased. Pete:                Also, I'm very excited. We talked to Cullen Bunn about Shadowman, and we get a little peak of this in this. So I'm very excited about what that's going to be like. Alex:                 There you go. Guardians of the Galaxy #11 from Marvel, written by Al Ewing, art by Juan Cabal. In this issue, this is the second-to-lat issue, I believe, of this run on Guardians of the Galaxy. They are facing down dark olympian gods. Star Lord has been through some very weird stuff that's affecting him here. I know we haven't really can keeping up with this book. So what'd you think about this issue? Justin:              I feel like the Guardians of the Galaxy are the most emotional team in comic books. They're an emotion-first team, and this book is it. All the characters are just wide open talking about what they're going through, and they're like “We have to fight, but I really want to talk about this,” and I appreciate that. They're fully therapeutic. They're getting it out there. They're telling it like it is, and the art's wonderful. It really is a ragtag group of characters. Just it's used very well. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete? Pete:                Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of fun. Art's unbelievable. Yeah. Alex:                 Great. Great stuff. Stillwater #6 from Image Comics, written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Ramón K. Pérez. This is a big flashback issue kicking off of the cliffhanger from the last issue where a bunch of military dudes were right outside the town where nobody dies. In this issue, we find out how they got there, what's going on with it. As we talked to Chip Zdarsky about on the live show, the danger and the action ramps up in a big way in this book really quickly, which I continue to find very impressive. Justin:              Yeah. He's really done a good job of setting up a very explosive environment, the politics of Stillwater. Now we have these military guys on the outside of town. Our main character sort of doesn't want to be there, is unsettled. That combined with Ramón Pérez's very pastoral art, I think, makes for just a nice juxtaposition, and I like this book a lot. Pete:                Yeah. I agree. Just when you think “Okay. This is what's going,” it really amps it up even more. Art is unbelievable, and the kind of going between times, the adjustments it makes there, but also just in its storytelling and its panel movement … I cannot believe “Okay. Oh, sure. Yeah. Nobody dies. Okay. Oh, yeah, but now we're going to deal with this thing.” It's like “Wait. What?” It just keeps kind of keeping the action going, and it's crazy in all the right ways. Alex:                 All right. Now it is time for our Future State block as we have been doing the past couple of weeks. We've read through every single issue that came out from DC in Future State this week. We're not going to talk about all of them, but we're going to talk about some highlights, but if you're wondering what came out, we got Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #2, Immortal Wonder Woman #2, The Next Batman #4, Catwoman #2, Nightwing #2, and Shazam #2. So let's call some stuff out. Pete just dropped something on the floor. I don't know what's going on. Pete:                Yeah. I just accidentally dropped a pencil. I- Justin:              A pencil? Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Oh, no. Alex:                 Were you writing on your phone with a pencil? Pete:                No. Justin:              But Pete, what about your sketching? Pete:                [inaudible 00:21:27]. Alex:                 Not a lot of people know this, actually, but Pete does these very funny caricatures of us during taping The Stack, and it's a delight. Justin:              You got to release those, Pete, because honestly, you're like the Colossus, famously a painter, of the podcast. Pete:                Sure. Sure. Anyways, so I really liked The Next Batman #4. I mean, having a black Batman is a great idea, but the part where Batman's just like “Listen. I'm going to be real with you guys,” I was like “Oh, this is so much fun,” but I really like how this is different. You know what I mean? Because Batman in this book has parents and is willing to maybe stab his mom to get what he needs to get done and keep Gotham safe, and I don't know if our Batman would do that. Pete:                So it's nice to see this Batman really stepping it up and be like “Sorry, ma. Sometimes you got to stab somebody for your beliefs,” and I don't know. I just think this is … The Future State here, I'm still having a lot of fun with the choices that they're making with these heroes, and this, The Next Batman, I'm having a great time with. Justin:              Well, it wasn't my favorite of the week, but I want to throw it to Nightwing #2, just piggybacking on Pete's comment, because Nightwing #2 features of this new Batman and Nightwing, and I love the dynamic that's created here, where our new Batman is sort of deferential to Nightwing. He's like “I'm just sort of figuring this out right now,” and Nightwing's like “I get it,” but our new Batman refuses to leave his side despite the fac that Nightwing … It's a great flip of the dynamic of Batman usually being in the leadership role and Nightwing being more of a sidekick. I just hadn't seen that before, and it really caught me off guard in a good way. Alex:                 So what was your favorite of the week then, Justin? Justin:              Superman: Worlds of War #2. This story- Pete:                Oh, yeah. Can we talk about it? Justin:              This story by Phillip Kennedy Johnson at the front end of this book is so fucking good. He just boils down Superman and Clark Kent to just … I'll tell you about what happened if you haven't read it. There are these two kids are sort of in Smallville exploring the area. They walk to the original Kent farm. In this world, obviously Superman's revealed that he's Clark Kent. Justin:              So they're trying to find the original Kent farm, because everybody knows he's Superman, and the main girl is recounting an article she read that Clark Kent wrote about the town, and it's so good, so interesting, about a soldier that went to war and how it affected his life, juxtaposed with images of Superman on Warworld just fighting, sacrificing everything to free some people who have been captured on Warworld against Mongul, and it's just … It's beautiful. It's drawn beautifully. It's so smartly written. It's so good. Pete:                I want to take a moment just to talk about the art alone. I mean, unbelievable, just absolutely. The character designs, Mongul and Superman, their faces … Just it fits so well with the story in such a great way. The paneling, the art flow … It's really, really well done. I was really impressed with this book. Alex:                 I'm surprised, Pete, that you didn't call out Michael Avon Oeming's art on the Midnighter story towards the back of this book, because we get kind of a little Midnighter going through time, and that seems exactly your jam. Pete:                Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. If we can talk about that for a little bit, I mean- Justin:              No. I'm so sorry. We just ran out of time [inaudible 00:25:19]. We don't have time to talk about it. Pete:                Yeah. I thought that was unbelievable. Obviously, I'm a huge Midnighter fan, but just what a cool concept, and Oeming … His art is just fantastic. Justin:              I particularly like the old and young Midnighter versions that Oeming draws here. Alex:                 Super fun. It was really hard for me to choose, this week. I think, again, this is a very strong week for the Future State books. I kind of want to go for Immortal Wonder Woman #2 just because- Justin:              Another great book. Alex:                 … I think it was a gorgeous story, Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad, art by Jen Bartel, of Wonder Woman being the, I guess, second-to-last person in the universe, and it's just, like a lot of these things, a mission statement on Wonder Woman and what she means, but the one that I kind of left until the end and that I was like “Oh, right,” … The first issue of this was awesome, Shazam #2- Justin:              I knew you were going to say it. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 … by Tim Sheridan and Eduardo Pansica. Fucking great. So good. Justin:              Dark. Dark take. Alex:                 Oh, so dark. This is like the darkest Shazam story I've ever read in my life, but I love it, and I love the cliffhanger that it ends off up on, the way that the characters are drawn, just terrifying throughout, of Shazam and Billy Batson being split apart, where it leaves off, where it's leading into this Future State Black Adam book. Just put it in my veins. I'm having a blast reading it. Justin:              I agree. I liked that too, and I know we weren't going to talk about all of them, but I got to throw it out to Future State Catwoman #2 as well- Alex:                 Great. Justin:              … because it's a great story. It's a train robbery. We get to see Batman, Bruce Wayne, show up. Everyone thought he was dead. Catwoman reunites with him, such a great moment, great action. Onomatopoeias there for some reason, but it's very cool. It was just great. Alex:                 Yeah. I've been reading this book. The fact that it's all set on a train, did you feel like it was more of a Snowpiercer kind of book? Justin:              Oh, yes. That's what. I was like “Where's all the snow? They should be just piercing each flake?” Pete:                I did want to ask. In Immortal Wonder Woman, the art is so amazing, and I was like “What is this reminding me of.” It reminds me a little bit of She-Ra: Princess of Power on Netflix. The way the art kind of jumps off the page is really impressive, and I really liked it. Alex:                 Good stuff. Justin:              It reminded me a little bit of the Green Lantern book that we love so much, Far Sector. Pete:                Oh, yeah. Alex:                 All right. Let's move on, because we have a lot of other books to talk about. Thor #12 from Marvel, written by Donny Cates, art by Nic Klein, another one of my favorite books of the month, because you got Throg and Lockjaw in a huge fight with Donald Blake, who has [crosstalk 00:28:03]. So much fun just fighting through dimensions, just a blast to read, also so dark, but great. Pete:                The art and the way Throg is drawn … Some of the action stuff is just so phenomenal, like him catching the hammer. I had so much fun with this book. I didn't know it would be this great. I was really, really impressed. This was such a great comic. Justin:              I mean, time to redo your frog power rankings- Pete:                Yeah. Dude, are you kidding me? Justin:              … because Throg's rise, overtaking the WB frog, Kermit the, really just jumping in here with a big hammer swing. Alex:                 I want to give a particular shout out though to the first double-page … I think it's a double-page [inaudible 00:28:48], or maybe it's a single page, which shows a dissected, cut-open frog- Pete:                Oh, no. Justin:              Yeah. It's the first page of the issue. Alex:                 … with Throg's narration, and it's talking about the legacy of Throg and all the things that he's done and how he'll always be remembered, and you're reading that, and you're like “No. What happened? What did I miss? This is terrible,” and then if you flip to the next page, it's like “But he will not die today,” and you're like “Oh, you son of a bitch, Donny Cates.” Great, just a great, fun little feint right there at the top of the book, just delightful to read. Justin:              Well, it's very fun to have Throg be such a badass but also Throg get his little tail-less ass kicked in the middle of the issue, but Donny Cates is having so much fun in all of his work, really, but this issue particularly, and then the last panel I thought- Pete:                Oh, man. Justin:              I thought it was so cool, and this is a shout out to anybody, I don't know, for maybe one person who listens to this podcast, but Odin at the end of this issue looks like Key lime pie Steve, who drinks in B61 back in the day, a bar I used to bartend at, so much that it took me out of the issue for a hot sec. Pete:                Wow. Alex:                 That's amazing. Let's move on to another book then, Excellence #10 from Image Comics, written by Brandon Thomas, art by Khary Randolph. We've been loving this book, which is a very different, very spectacular take on magic. In this book, our main character is still on the run, still in bigger trouble every single issue. As we talked about with the last couple, they not exactly stepped away from this, but sort of layered this in without explicitly saying how much this book was about race and racism, and now they're starting to hit it hard, and it is so good. Pete:                This is phenomenal. I mean, the art and the paneling and the storytelling is great, the action sequences. I mean, there's this one page where someone gets just Street Fighter punched and is like “Fuck what you thought.” I've wanted to do that to somebody for so long. It's just so great, so much fun. Justin:              Sonic boom. You want to sonic boom someone. Pete:                Oh, man, do I. Justin:              Yes. I mean, I agree. The way this comic approaches race is so smart, so good, but I don't want to lose the other side of it. The way this comic approaches magic is also just a philosophizing about it and really going deep on all of the subjects that are sort of on the table in this comic. It really just is such a smartly written book and beautifully drawn. One of my favorites. Alex:                 Next up, Once & Future #16 from Boom! Studios, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Dan Mora. Pete, there's a badass grandma in this one. You want to talk about this book? Pete:                I mean, if you're not- Alex:                 You love grannies. Pete:                If you're not reading this book- Alex:                 You've got a real grandma fetish, one might say. Go ahead. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                If you're not reading this book at this point, I don't know what's wrong with you. This book is just magic. Every time, every issue, unbelievable art, unbelievable storytelling, action packed, twisting and turning stories that you know and love in different ways. Yeah. I cannot wait for this to be a movie or a TV show. I need more Once & Future in my life. Justin:              “If you're not dating a badass grandma at this point, what are you doing with your life,” Pete says and wonders. This is maybe the most consistent comic book on the stands right now, and I mean that in a good way. Alex:                 Yeah. I agree. This issue continues to be great, unfolding the mythology of the book. Super, super fun. Alex:                 Let's move on to one I'm very excited to chat with both of you about for very different reasons, X-Men Legends #1 from Marvel, written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Brett Booth. Here's what this book is. First of all, this is a new book that Marvel is launching which finishes or continues stories that are in continuity. This is an in-continuity X-Men story that Fabian Nicieza began almost 30 years ago and never got to finish about the third Summers brother, which, spoiler, we get confirmation here is in fact Adam X the X-Treme. Justin:              Finally. Alex:                 Finally. So the thing that I'm very curious about is this felt like the perfect synthesis of things that the two of you like about X-Men. Pete, it's a bunch of X-Men killing each other and fighting each other in classic style. Justin, Adam X the X-Treme is in it. What'd you guys think about this book? Justin:              I will not rest until Adam X the X-Treme is hanging out on Krakoa, because this guy's going to be the number-one get on fuck island. Alex:                 Didn't you like him? Am I wrong about that? Justin:              No. I mean, it's a very '90s character. He's a backwards- Pete:                It's Justin turned up to 11 is what it is. He's got his hat backwards. He's doing hand stands, wearing tight T-shirts. This is all Justin. Justin:              That's very funny, Pete, and maybe makes me rethink a lot of my self worth, but yeah. I mean, I do like the character. I liked the introduction of this character back in the day, and so I appreciate that they're going back and making it real, and also this comic looks like it happened already. This looks like it's straight out of the '90s. Pete:                Yeah. That's what I thought. Justin:              [crosstalk 00:34:20]. Alex:                 I got to tell you. When I was putting together the stack and sending stuff to you guys, I looked this is, and I was like “Is this a reprint? What's happening? Is this a reprint? What's going on?”- Pete:                Yeah. That's what I thought. Alex:                 … and I did way too much research for just sending you guys a comic to be like “I got to make 100 percent sure this is actually a new book and not something that came out 30 years ago.” Justin:              But let me say the meticulous dedication to the poses that Cyclops is in are straight out of the '90s. Cable shows up here for sort of no reason. The Starjammers are in this, and it's like “Oh, of course. Why not?” They're just hanging around. It's perfect. It's a perfect version of what it is. Pete:                I thought this was a reprint, and then I scrolled down. I was like “Oh. Jordan D. White. This is real. Let's go.” Alex:                 What'd you think, Pete? Pete:                This was just '90s, over-the-top stuff, and I was just like “You know, it's a fun blast from the past,” like “Oh, I remember when comics-“ Alex:                 What do you want, Pete? What do you want out of an X-Men book? Justin:              What makes you happy? Alex:                 I don't even understand at this point. Pete:                You know, I was like “Yeah, but we've evolved from this. Why would you go back here?” Justin:              What? Just because hub cap and tippy toe and the other Joes aren't in this, can't you enjoy this for what it is? Pete:                First off, G.I. Joe and X-Men are completely different. How dare you? Alex:                 Are they? They both have very stupid names. Pete:                Sure. Sure. That doesn't mean that they are stupid though. Justin:              That's true. The thing is, all the X-Men are named non-compound words, and all the G.I. Joes are named compound words. Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. Alex:                 Great. I'm glad we settled that. Let's move on and talk about Aria: Heavenly Creatures from Image Comics- Pete:                Oh, here we go. Alex:                 … written by Brian Holguin, art by Jay Anacleto and Brian Haberlin. This is a very Top Cow book. Pete:                What is this? What did you make us do here? Alex:                 It's a very Top Cow book. It's about- Justin:              Perhaps the most Top Cow book. Alex:                 Yes. It's a fairy teaming up kind of with a witchblade, but not exactly a witchblade, in Victorian times, and it's a little bit sexy, but not too sexy. So you can feel okay reading it but be like- Pete:                No. You shouldn't. Alex:                 … “Oh, this is sexy.” Pete:                You shouldn't feel okay reading it. Alex:                 I don't know. I enjoyed reading this. I was surprised how much by the end I was like “Yeah. This is silly, but I'm having a fun time.” Justin:              Alex has been missing watching soft core pornography, apparently- Pete:                Yeah. I think so. Justin:              … because that's very- Pete:                This is just fucking boob comics. Justin:              Alex, because you put this in the stack, you should have to go read this on the Subway right now. Pete:                Yeah. You should. Yeah. You should- Justin:              You should have to go ride the Subway and read this. Pete:                … [crosstalk 00:36:54] up and down the line. Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah. Watching a little Skinemax on my phone while I'm doing it. Justin:              Just listening. Just listening to the Skinemax. That's all you need. Alex:                 Yeah. Okay. Pete:                Yeah. Watching USA Up All Night. Alex:                 Great. Justin:              Pete. Alex:                 Thanks for the review, guys. Justin:              No. I mean, the heart of this book … This book is … It has such a vibe. Pete:                It's just boobs. Justin:              Well, but there is a lot of that, but it has such a vibe, which I recognize that, and the art is so specific to what it is. I liked reading it. I'm not shitting on it, but it's very funny that you're like “This is good,” because there's a lot of poses where people be showing off their bodies. Alex:                 Me? No. I'm not saying it's good, necessarily. I'm just saying I had fun reading it. Justin:              This is the- Alex:                 There's a big Victorian werewolf who eats people. What? Justin:              Yeah. That part's cool. This is the OnlyFans of comic books, if you want to get in on that. Alex:                 The Last Ronin #2 from IDW, story by- Pete:                Here we go. Alex:                 … Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Tom Waltz, script by Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman, layouts by Kevin Eastman, pencils and inks by Esau and Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, and Kevin Eastman. This is, of course, continuing the story of the last turtle left alive. We got a cliffhanger in the last issue that April O'Neil is also alive, and we find out a lot more about that here. Pete, over to you. Pete:                All right. So first off, you can't have enough varying covers. You need varying covers. you need tons of them, and you need like 20 pages of it. No. I'm just so happy that Eastman and Laird have teamed back up to give us another turtle book. I could give a shit if it's any good or not. This is good. I'm loving every single moment of it, and it goes back to the black-and-white stuff. I am just in heaven, and it's just so great. I feel like I'm back in time and a little kid reading this in my bed. So it's just glorious, and I don't care if anybody doesn't like it or not. This is just my jam. Justin:              It's very funny that you say you feel like you're a little kid reading this, because this book is about being old, the images of Michelangelo, no longer a party dude, where he's just super wrinkly, he's all wrinkles, and they're just like “Remember? Oh, it's so great to be alive. Now we're old. I have a robot hand.” It's a wild read, but it's good. Alex:                 Yeah. I like this a lot. Definitely when it got to the flashback portion and the old-school turtles title, I was like “Oh, Pete's going to like this.” Pete:                Oh, my god. It was so great. Alex:                 But it's good. Like you're saying, there's a lot of danger there. There's a lot of nostalgia there. It's definitely way better than it could have been for a story that they had sitting on the shelf for decades at this point, but a lot of fun. Alex:                 Let's move on, talk about Black Widow #5 from Marvel, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Elena Casagrande with Rafael de Latorre. This, hands down, these fives issues, is one of the best Black Widow stories I have ever read in my entire life. Justin:              A hundred percent. I have loved this series so much. My favorite issue of the week. The way that this took Black Widow, who has sort of really tread this ground of “Well, someone captured her and erased her memories and reset her in a way that is difficult for her to come to grips with,” took that premise, and just emotionally elevated it to a point where you really feel for these characters, all of them. Even we have Hawkeye in here, who is straight up killing people, which I didn't know he did all the time. Maybe that was a special. Alex:                 Do you think he just kind of tapped people with his arrows? Pete:                Yeah. How did you- Justin:              Well, he usually hits them in the shoulder or the knee. In this, he's just like “Sorry, dude. Right in your frigging eye.” But you get to see him- Alex:                 Your good eye too. Justin:              Your good eye, your shooting eye. You get to see him be emotional here. You get to see Winter Soldier, which I love the Black Widow Winter, Soldier relationship. I look back fondly on the Ed Brubaker days of that, and to have it be sort of touched on here is super sad, but really, Black Widow … You're just feeling so much for her. I love the setup of the multiple Black Widows going forward. Truly, pick up this series. Alex:                 Pete? Pete:                Yeah. I mean, it's really great. The art's unbelievable. Amazing story, very touching. I really hope the movie is exactly like this run, and I will be very happy. Also- Justin:              Pete, that movie came out last year. Did you not watch it? Pete:                I didn't. I didn't. I was- Alex:                 Oh, really? It perfectly set up Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which also came out last year. Pete:                Huh. I guess I just was born today then, I guess. Alex:                 I guess so. Justin:              That's true. Alex:                 Anyway, before we- Pete:                I just want to point out though, they're on a carousel for one panel here, and there's a cat with this fish in his mouth, and I was just on a carousel with a cat and a fish in his mouth, and I didn't know that was a thing. So that was weird seeing that it's a real thing. Did you know that was a thing? Alex:                 What? Justin:              I don't know that what you just said is a thing. I don't know the words you said is a sentence. Pete:                Well, usually when you go on a carousel, they got horses, you got different animals you can ride, but I was like “Why the fuck is there a cat with a fish in its mouth that you can ride? This is crazy.” I've never seen it before, and then I went from riding that cat with a fish in his mouth to then seeing it in this comic book, and I was like “Life is weird.” Alex:                 Why were you at a carousel in the middle of a pandemic? Justin:              That's the real question. Pete:                Valentine's Day, and we had the carousel to ourselves, motherfuckers. Justin:              I bet you took- Alex:                 Oh, that is very romantic. Justin:              Yes. I bet you took a lot of carouselfies. Alex:                 Nice. Before we wrap up here, let's finish up with an accidental Kelly Thompson block. Sara the Teenage … Sara. Justin:              Sara. Pete:                Sara. Alex:                 Goodnight. Goodnight. Justin:              Sara the Teenage Human. Alex:                 Sabrina the Teenage Witch #2 from Archie Comics, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish. This is finishing up the Something Wicked arc. Pete, you are showing us pictures of this cat and fish, but we cannot see them. They are too bright. Justin:              Yeah. Pete- Pete:                Okay. Well- Justin:              … I don't want to see all these Valentine's Day pictures. I know you have an active love and sex life. Please keep it to yourself. Alex:                 This is a good wrap-up to this book. I've really enjoyed it. I think, like we've talked about before, it's the perfect fusion of the Archie Comics style and the TV show style. It hits the nice middle ground there, and that continues with this issue. There's also a nice cliffhanger here that made me very poignant for the end of the Netflix series. Pete:                Yeah. I love this. This is really great, and to me, sometimes when you have these characters that are way in over their heads and fighting these battles they don't really belong in, Sabrina really pulls it off in a way that you can get behind and don't think it's like “Oh, this is just weird.” I'm really impressed with the way that they do Sabrina, not only in this comic, but in this run. So great. The art's unbelievable. Really fun storytelling, and makes me miss the TV show. Justin:              Yeah. Talking cat, but still good. Pete:                Oh, yeah. The talking cat was great. That line was really funny. Alex:                 If you'd like to support our show, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out. We would love to chat with you about comics. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show, @comicbooklive on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Alex:                 Until next time, we'll see you at the virtual comic book shop. Justin:              Hub cap. The post The Stack: GI Joe, Snow Angels And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today’s ALL NEW Nerdtastically Newsworthy episode of #NerdORama; Mo’Kelly & Tawala break down the latest nerd news including the ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ trailer, Brandon Easton’s “Mister Miracle” miniseries and more…PLUS – Hannibal Tabu breaks down what’s on comic book shop shelves in a brand new edition of ‘The Buy Pile’!!!

NEWSThe Old Guard gets a star-studded anthology sequel in Tales Through Time - Kelly Sue DeConnick, Brian Michael Bendis, and more lend their services to a new 6-issue seriesMichael Walsh, Kelly Thompson, Chip Zdarsky, Ed Brisson working on...SOMETHING and IGN had the scoopImage/Top Cow coming out with Helm Greycastle, Lighthouse, and Home.BOOM! Studios First Look: The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1DC Comics replaces DC Universe with DC Universe Infinite comics reading appMarvel Solicits April 2021 are hereTa-Nehisi Coates’ ‘Black Panther’ run comes to an end with ‘Black Panther’ #25‘Venom’ #200 is ‘final’ chapter for Donny Cates and Ryan StegmanSpider’s Shadow coming soon‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ #13 kicks off Marvel’s new space age“Worlds Least Sober hero” coming from Dark Horse in AprilMarvel Comics launching ‘Heroes Reborn’ in 20211.25 Million copies of Dog Man Grime and Punishment sold in 4 monthsOur Top Books of the WeekDave:Future State: Superman - Worlds Of War #1 (Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Brandon Easton, Valentine de Landro, Becky Cloonan Michael Conrad, Gleb Melnikov)Future State: Catwoman #1 (W: Ram V. A: Otto Schmidt)Forrest:I Breathed A Body #1 (W: Zac Thompson, A: Andy Macdonald)King in Black #3 (W: Donny Cates, A: Ryan Stegman)TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEKDave: The Department Of Truth #5 (W: James Tynion IV, A: Martin Simmonds)Forrest: Spawn #314 (W: Todd McFarlane, A: Carlo Barberi)JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.Dave: Daredevil #26 variant RahzzaForrest: Department of Truth #5 (Dani, Bonvillain)Segment - One thing Forrest is looking forward to in 2021Segment: Interview - Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo on Afterlift Eisner Winner February 2ndCongratulations on your Eisner win! Afterlift is going to have a reincarnation of sorts in February when Dark Horse teams up with Comixology to send this to print, but the journey started before the first issue came out in October 2019. Was the series originally being set for digital-only a pro or a con in your mind?Aferlift takes readers to many...realms of the afterlife. Can you speak to any inspirations for these realms like Hell and Heaven that influenced this work?Comixology head of content Chip Mosher was on this show last May and he’s a super guy, I was curious how Afterlift ended up at Comixology or if it was always a project set up there?I love the naming in Afterlift, “Gornaux the grievous, slayer of all of grenroveria” or the demon Zeniakra, how do you come up with these so they sound right but then are also completely original?Have either of you played Rocket League? You should get a deal to write a comic about that game, the ability to flip cars is taken to the max in Afterlift!It’s funny, but it almost seems like the Fast and the Furious series has owned car chase and car stunt movies for too long. That said, would you ever be open to a Fast and the Furious crossover?Janice Chen talks about her father joining a “weird christian church” as someone who grew up with a born again christian father, I was curious if that detail was from your personal lives something you added for a specific reason?The book ends on an interesting cliffhanger of sorts, is a sequel in the cards for Afterlift?After there any other projects in 2021 you’d like to discuss?Off topic Top Shelf: Jason Loo: Building furniture for Star Wars diaromas Chip Zdarsky: Novels and comics for work, post Afterlift learning to drive

April Solicits Comic Reviews: Batman/Catwoman 2 & Rorschach 4 Future State: Catwoman 1 by Ram V, Otto Schmidt Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman 1 by Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Jen Bartel, L.L. McKinney, Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales, Emilio Lopez Future State: Nightwing 1 by Andrew Constant, Nicola Scott, Ivan Plascencia Future State: Shazam 1 by Tim Sheridan, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Marcelo Maiolo Future State: Superman: Worlds of War 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire, Brandon Easton, Valentine De Landro, Marissa Louise, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Gleb Melnikov, Jordie Bellaire Future State: The Next Batman 2 by John Ridley, Laura Braga, Nick Derington, Arif Prianto, Vita Ayala, Aneke, Trish Mulvihill, Paula Sevenbergen, Rob Hayes, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger, John Kalisz Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon 1 by Larry Hama, David Wachter, Neeraj Menon King in Black 3 by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin Maestro: War and Pax 1 by Peter David, Javier Pina, Jesus Aburtov Rain Like Hammers 1 by Brandon Graham Crimson Flower 1 by Matt Kindt, Matt Lesniewski, Bill Crabtree Abbott 1973 1 by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivela, Mattia Iacono I Breathed a Body 1 by Zac Thompson, Andy MacDonald, Triona Farrell Lemonade Code OGN by Jarod Pratt, Jey Odin Additional Reviews: Little Fires Everywhere, Clown in a Cornfield, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous s2, Carmen Sandiego final season, Batman by BKV, The Victim, WandaVision ep3 News: BTAS sequel on HBO Max, Heroes Reborn from Marvel, Black Widow delayed, delays for Bond and Morbius, Nolan leaves WB, Aquaman: Earth One cancelled, Dusk movie announced Trailers: Superman and Lois Comics Countdown: Rorschach 4 by Tom King, Jorge Fornes, Dave Stewart Barbalien: Red Planet 3 by Tate Brombal, Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Walta, Jordie Bellaire Stillwater 5 by Chip Zdarsky, Ramon Perez, Mike Spicer Once & Future 15 by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain Batman/Catwoman 2 by Tom King, Clay Mann, Tomeu Morey King in Black 3 by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin Seven to Eternity 16 by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Matt Hollingsworth Future State: Superman: Worlds of War 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire, Brandon Easton, Valentine De Landro, Marissa Louise, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Gleb Melnikov, Jordie Bellaire DCeased: Dead Planet 7 by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Gigi Baldasini, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo Avengers 41 by Jason Aaron, Javier Garron, David Curiel

On this week's comic book review show: King in Black #3 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ryan Stegman Future State: The Next Batman #2 DC Comics Written by John Ridley, Vita Ayala, Paula Sevenbergen Art by Laura Braga, Aneke, Rob Haynes Future State: Superman Worlds of War #1 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Easton, Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad, Jeremy Adams Art by Mikel Janín, Valentine de Landro, Gleb Mlenikov, Siya Oum Future State: Catwoman #1 DC Comics Written by Ram V Art by Otto Schmidt Future State: Shazam #1 DC Comics Written by Tim Sheridan Art by Eduardo Pansica Future State: Nightwing #1 DC Comics Written by Andrew Constant Art by Nicola Scott Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #1 DC Comics Written by Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad, LL McKinney Art by Jen Bartel, Alitha Martinez Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #1 Marvel Written by Larry Hama Art by David Wachter Rain Like Hammers #1 Image Comics Created by Brandom Graham Rorschach #4 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Jorge Fornés Abbott 1973 #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Saladin Ahmed Art by Sami Kivelä Black Cat: King in Black #2 Marvel Written by Jed MacKay Art by C.F. Villa Batman/Catwoman #2 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Clay Mann The Scumbag #4 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Eric Powell Once & Future #15 BOOM! Studios Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Dan Mora Maestro: War & Pax #1 Marvel Written by Peter David Art by Javier Pina Stillwater #5 Image Comics Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Ramón K Perez Seven to Eternity #16 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Jerome Opeña SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's comic book review show: King in Black #3 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ryan Stegman Future State: The Next Batman #2 DC Comics Written by John Ridley, Vita Ayala, Paula Sevenbergen Art by Laura Braga, Aneke, Rob Haynes Future State: Superman Worlds of War #1 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Easton, Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad, Jeremy Adams Art by Mikel Janín, Valentine de Landro, Gleb Mlenikov, Siya Oum Future State: Catwoman #1 DC Comics Written by Ram V Art by Otto Schmidt Future State: Shazam #1 DC Comics Written by Tim Sheridan Art by Eduardo Pansica Future State: Nightwing #1 DC Comics Written by Andrew Constant Art by Nicola Scott Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman #1 DC Comics Written by Becky Cloonan & Michael W. Conrad, LL McKinney Art by Jen Bartel, Alitha Martinez Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #1 Marvel Written by Larry Hama Art by David Wachter Rain Like Hammers #1 Image Comics Created by Brandom Graham Rorschach #4 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Jorge Fornés Abbott 1973 #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Saladin Ahmed Art by Sami Kivelä Black Cat: King in Black #2 Marvel Written by Jed MacKay Art by C.F. Villa Batman/Catwoman #2 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Clay Mann The Scumbag #4 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Eric Powell Once & Future #15 BOOM! Studios Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Dan Mora Maestro: War & Pax #1 Marvel Written by Peter David Art by Javier Pina Stillwater #5 Image Comics Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Ramón K Perez Seven to Eternity #16 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Jerome Opeña SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Full Episode Transcript: Alex:                 What is up y'all, welcome to The Stack, I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Pete:                I'm Pete. We're The Stack. What is up? Justin:              Oh, he wants a little editorial time at the beginning. Alex:                 Pete, do your what's up section, go for it? Pete:                Hey, everybody, what is up? Alex:                 [inaudible 00:00:30]. Justin:              What a fun way to Kick it up? You sound like [inaudible 00:00:38]. Pete:                He's my guy. Alex:                 We're going to talk about a bunch of comics that came out this very week. We're going to review them, we're going to talk about them, we're going to offer up our unfiltered opinions. We're going to kick it off with King in Black number three from Marvel written by Donny Cates and art by Ryan Stegman. This issue spoilers Venom is dead. And what remains to the Marvel heroes are going right up against Knull, that includes Venom's son, but also includes Thor, who is finally come back to take on Knull. There's some brutal stuff that happens in this issue. We're almost through this event, I think at this point. We're definitely at the halfway point. What do you think about it so far? Would you been thinking about this issue in particular? Justin:              What I really like about this event is, it has a unique structure. I feel like so many events are built around the idea of heroes having normal lives, problem emerges, everything gets bad, heroes rally, they win. And in this, it was for everything is bad immediately out of the gate. And then now we're seeing some things getting worse. We're seeing little pops of different hero moments. And in this issue we get Thor popping, and it's really good. I love the last page reveal, the arts fantastic in this issue. And it's also funny how little knull, knull it's just sort of hovering at the center of it, but we haven't seen a lot of Knull doing stuff. Alex:                 Yeah, I mean, this issue it definitely mixes it up though. I think this is just a lot of fun, a really a great kind of event. I've been really happy with the action and this, it keeps things getting worse, but there's little glimmers of hope. I've been very much enjoying the over the top action adventure and fun that they're having on this. This is just a really cool, very bad shit going on here, giant dragons and flaming monsters, and the last page reveal is just bad-ass. This might be the goop on the Chrysler building, but this is starting to remind me a lot of Inferno, the crossover from back in the day when demons took over New York. Partially… Pete:                Wait, was that Ghostbusters II reference with ooze on the… What do you mean the- Alex:                 100% absolutely not. It was a reference to the X-Men: Crossover Inferno. We just had… well, it's very iconic thing of the Empire State Building to be taken over by the demons from LeBeau, and it just got bigger and bigger over time, and people would be like, hey, that's weird. The Empire State Building is bigger than I remember it is. This reminds me a lot of that, but it also reminds me a lot of that because you have these disparate elements from these other mini-series and other things going on, and kind of starting to come together in this issue, different threads. Alex:                 Justin, you mentioned this couple of issues back, but I think that one thing that Donny Cates is doing very well, is giving the spotlight to other characters. Like there's a great Iron Man moments of this issue. Thor knocking Knull's jaw off is very bad ass. It's high octane thriller in the same way that Dark Nights: Death Metal was. And I think that's fun. It's fun to read right now. Justin:              Agree. Donny Cates is a big used the whole Buffalo writer and he does it here. With a lot of the stuff he's been setting up across all the titles he's been working on, and just stuff that goes on with the other characters in the Marvel universe. Pete:                Justin, I appreciate your Buffalo reference and go bills. Justin:              That's right. I've said use the whole Buffalo bills. Alex:                 Now, as we were doing for the past two weeks, on to week three, let's talk about Future State over at DC Comics.[crosstalk 00:04:33]. This is an interesting week because we bought a bunch of number one Future State issues, but we're also getting our first number two with Future State, the next Batman number two. There's also a lot of developing story at some big points that we start to get about what's going on in this future world. As we have been doing, why don't you guys call out the things that you particularly liked, that you thought were interesting? Pete, let's start with you, at all offer up the writing to you as we go through. Pete:                Alright, great. I really liked the next Batman. I think this is kind of a fun Batman in the future with tack and kind of shit that he's up against. I'm enjoying this. Alex:                 Well, let's talk about that one first, because that is as mentioned the first number two of this Future State slate. This is written by John Ridley, Vita Ayala, and Paula Sevenbergen, art by Laura Braga, Aneke and Rob Haynes. Pete, what did you like about this one in particular? Pete:                Well, I like where we're kind of picking up here. This feels like a Batman book, kind of in the middle of things picking apart who's doing what to whom, we've got some bad guys kind of closing in on Batman, and yeah, I also, Batman's hurt. It's nice to see it's not this Batman that has no flaws, or can't be hurt with the tech armor that he's got on. So it feels like a Batman book. It's a new kind of take on Batman. So I'm excited about it. I think it's I'm enjoying it. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I mean, I like this a lot. It definitely, just the voice is different with Batman throughout here, and that's just great to see. And it really feels like it's paying off the promise of Future State. Like we're doing new versions of these characters and let's see. And then I also thought [inaudible 00:06:29] is it Gotham city sirens at the end which plays like a… The art is almost like Dan Parent Archie Comics, which I thought was really fun and just a different sort of vibe to the whole thing. Alex:                 Is that, we read a lot of these, so forgive me if I got this wrong. Was that's the one was Spoiler and Cassandra [Canaan 00:06:52] in jail, right? Justin:              Yes. Alex:                 That was great. Justin:              I love that. Alex:                 That was one of my favorite things this week. I thought that was really fascinating. That picks up on some of the threads that we've gotten on some of the other books with Spoiler in particular. And just this idea that the magistrate, whoever the magistrate is, who is running Gotham City now, is throwing good guys and bad guys in jail, just because of his zero-tolerance policy. I think it was a really fun idea. I mean, I don't know if I completely buy this, but I'll just throw something out to you that was my impression halfway through reading all these Future State books, I almost wish DC had gone for it and said, “This is the DC universe now, this is what we're doing going forward.” Like to be- Pete:                That would be too big of a shakeup, that would be- Alex:                 It would be huge. I understand why they did it, but if you remember back in the day, there was the one year later stuff, I believe after 52, where there's apocalyptic event that jumped forward a year, and then they kind of filled it and stuff later. The idea of doing that and just jumping forward in unseen unspecified amount of time later, I kind of loved that. Particularly because, well, a lot of what we got this week, was the idea that we're told in week one Batman is gone, Superman is gone, Wonder Woman is gone. They're not gone, they're just in kind of different status quos at this point. So instead, it does feel like the DC universe just, there are some holes to fill it at this point. Pete:                What I like about this event is, I feel like they are shaking things up. They're getting different people on different projects, and you're getting new takes on it. And it feels like a fresh take, which is great. I think they're doing it smart. If things start to do well, maybe it takes over the regular title. I think that's a smart way to do this. Alex:                 They are continuing next Batman. I mean, that's clearly seems like the one that they're all in on, they have John Ridley on it, that's a big deal. They're continuing that title that you've heard of the universe. So to your point Pete, I think there's a couple of others that could roll off of. Before we get two other leads here though Justin, any other titles that jumped out at you? Justin:              I'm going to give it up for Superman – Worlds of War. Alex:                 Yeah, gladiator Superman. Justin:              Which yeah. And I really like this because it takes Superman, to your point you mentioned before, about how the main trinity are sort of off the board. Here we get to find out where Superman is. And he's on war world, and there's a bunch of bad shit happening there. And I thought- Alex:                 It's… Let me just interrupt with the creative team for this one, written by Philip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon M. Easton, Becky Clinton, and Michael W. Conrad, Jeremy Adams, art by Miquel Janine, Valentine Delondra, Glib and Melnikov and [inaudible 00:09:47]. Take it away Justin. Pete:                I would, Justin, if I could interrupt you for a moment. I'm really hoping it's going to be like planet Hulk, and Superman comes back and he is so pissed, and blows up New York. Justin:              Yeah, that's a solid guess. I really liked the Phillip Kennedy Johnson story that kicks it off is so great. Focusing on Smallville, he talked about this a little bit when he was on our show a few weeks ago, and just a great sort of retrospective about what Superman is, what he does, it's so good. Alex:                 I also really liked the Midnighters story in this book. This is great and very key to everything that's going on in Future State, because unless I misinterpreted it, and this is a spoiler here, but we find out the identity of Trojan, the person who's been running Metropolis in Superman's absence, and it is none other than Apollo. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 What do you think about that Pete? You love Apollo and Midnighter, so what was your take on this twist? Pete:                I was very a gasped, I clutch my pearls, I wasn't ready for it. Justin:              Those pearls look lovely by the way. You look gorgeous. Pete:                Thank you. [crosstalk 00:10:55] Justin:              They really accentuate your neck. Pete:                You guys. Justin:              Beautiful neck. Pete:                Becky Cloonan is writing the crap out of this, this is… I really want more of this. This is a very, very cool kind of story that we have here in this book. Justin:              I like this quite a bit as well. Like you said there, a bunch of them they're really good. I like…What's up Pete? Pete:                I was just going to say the art across the board has been really impressive. It's because for me, DC seems very certain style of art, and I've been really impressed with how they're pushing that out a little bit. They're not as cookie cutter as they normally are. So I'm really impressed with that. Alex:                 I thought a mortal Wonder Woman was the one that I was really looking forward to, and art wise and in particular, I thought it was really gorgeous, Justin:              Really nice art. Alex:                 I like the stories quite a bit, written by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, L.L. McKinney, art by Jenny Bartelle and Alitha Martinez. You have two stories, one about Wonder Woman kind of an end of time Wonder Woman thing going on, and then another one about Nubia, who is Wonder Woman's twin sister. I thought this was a really solid book, particularly on the Wonder Woman story, which was really fascinating though I liked a Nubia as well. But the other one that a lot of call out that I was very surprised by it.[crosstalk 00:12:20] Pete:                Justin before you say anything, I thought this was going to be your pick, because you were inside the head of Wonder Woman at the start of that, and you love that shit. Justin:              I love being inside people's heads. I'm still trying to crack my way into that [inaudible 00:12:39]. Pete:                [inaudible 00:12:39] this. Justin:              I feel like in this story, it's sort of positioning Wonder Woman, almost like Superman. Almost like Jor-El on Krypton in the last days trying to save it, while everyone's like, “Nope, we got to do this other stuff.” And I thought that was an interesting sort of blending of Wonder Woman and Superman's [inaudible 00:12:58]. Pete:                The ghost Batman moment with Wonder Woman was very touching. I thought that was very nice. Justin:              Yeah. So good stuff but the other one I [inaudible 00:13:09] call was Future State Shazam number one written by Tim Sheridan, art by Eduardo Pansica. This is the one that really drove home for me. What I was saying earlier about feeling like, oh, they just could have done this. This doesn't need to be Future State because there's going to be a thing. This is what we get here is Neron, has separated Shazam and Billy Batson. Billy Batson is, big spoilers, but Billy Batson has been chained to the Rock of Eternity, to lock in some prisoner we don't find out what it is, but it's very bad. And Shazam has left on his own and basically spiraling out and becoming a merciless killer of villains. And this just feels like such a clear Shazam idea at a very different way. It's something that's like, you don't need to do this 40, 50 day years down the road. This is just a good dark Shazamm idea, that I like quite a lot. Yeah, I also really liked Legion. I thought that was… Alex:                 Legion? Justin:              Yeah, Legion number 12. Was that not part of the Future State? Alex:                 No, [crosstalk 00:14:18]. Pete:                No, but great that you're reading. Justin:              Yeah, sorry about that. Alex:                 That's all good. Justin:              But I liked the end, the reveal and Catwoman, I thought they also had great art and I liked the last page reveal very much. Alex:                 That was super fun as well. That was written by Ram V, art by Otto Schmidt and that is just Catwoman going on a great train robbery in this magistrate run Gotham City, super fun. Justin:              I agree, I really liked the Catwoman one. It was a good use of genre to really tell an interesting story. And the other one we haven't talked about yet is the Nightwing, which I also thought was cool as well. A lot of different takes. Alex:                 Yeah, written by Andrew constant, art by Nicola Scott, and this finds Nightwing kind of getting fed up with the status quo of Gotham City and decided to make a big move there. I'm more excited for the second issue of this one. I think that the first issue, but very solid done the less. Justin:              Yeah, I really, I thought all of these books from Future State this week really had something to really enjoy in them. And that was exciting. Alex:                 Yeah, I think what they're trying to do is cool, it's fun to mix things up. Pete:                I'm definitely at the point and I know I'll change my mind in a couple of weeks, but I'm definitely at the point where I'm like, I kind of don't want to go back to whatever the status quo is. Alex:                 Oh, wow. Pete:                I'm enjoying it, I'm having a fun time. Justin:              Maybe there's no status quo ever again, in the world. Alex:                 There's no status quo baby. Let's move on to shock one that I think is probably a gimme for Pete Iron Fist, heart of the dragon number one from Marvel written by Larry Hama, written by David Wachter, Pete, what'd you think about this? Pete:                First off, the Hamas writing this book is really fantastic. Touches my heart in all the right ways. Hama, who famously writes a ton of G.I. Joe, this makes a lot of sense, putting him on this book. And this the issue was just glorious. Really a lot of fun, some cool characters. I loved it. Plus anytime you got Luke Cage and Iron Fist together, I'm a happy camper. Art's unbelievable. This is just a really cool bad-ass story, and I want more. Justin:              I mean, is there any more G.I. Joe type story than this with guys named Iron Fist, Taskmaster? It's right over the gate. If we're going to get snow jabbing here, I think we have a full set. Alex:                 Yeah, this is fine. This is Taskmaster is stealing a bunch of dragon hearts and messing up the seven kingdoms. So Iron Fist has to go after him. There's a bunch of other things- Pete:                Heart of the dragon. Alex:                 Yes. Lady Bullseye is in there, like you mentioned, Luke Cage, yeah, it's fun. Justin:              Yeah, and I will say it did take some fun turns. I liked seeing Luke Cage in here really getting up and doing some fighting here. Pete:                Yeah. Also daddy Luke Cage, he starts off so lovable, but he's not scared to throw down, you know what I mean? Alex:                 Exactly. Justin, let's move on to one of I believe your favorites of the week, Rain Like Hammers, number one for, which comics created by Brandon Graham. This is a, I don't even know if it takes place in the future. It's definitely a sci-fi book but… Justin:              This is present day. Alex:                 It follows a guy… its present day. Follows a guy who works, he watches TV, he eats, then things go terribly wrong. Justin:              This is the prequel to Wally, is what this is. Alex:                 This book is gorgeous, but Justin, you go ahead. You talk about it. Justin:              I love Brandon Graham's art and storytelling. They'll… One of the books that really first turned me on is, he was doing the art on profit, the image book that it used to be just like a Rob Liefeld, like a knife and pouch situation, and then took on this trippy Sci-fi space take in the latter issues. And this sort of feels very much in line with that. This could be a stand-alone issue. And what's the other book that Brandon Graham did, is it Warheads? Something Warhead? Also very good, but this, in the back batter, he talks about this was inspired by him sort of being at home and feeling a little like just in a rut. Pete:                Yeah, bro. Justin:              So it's, in the end talking about healing Manga, a processing comic and how this sort of is- Alex:                 Yeah, multiple Warheads. Justin:              Multiple Warheads. This comic is a little bit about processing the stuff that he was going through when he was writing it, and I love that. To be able to take something you're going through and really make a beautiful piece of art out of it is great. Alex:                 It reminds me a little bit, it's almost like sad idiocrasy in a way. It's not funny, it's just sort of people sitting, ingesting TV, eating things, honestly things have pretty good that the guy's eating, but he's just living his life- Justin:              They did sound good. Alex:                 Right? And being a drone and kind of going through it, but gorgeous, gorgeous book. Highly recommend picking it up. Yes Pete? Pete:                The art alone is worth it. It's just the way it starts off, and like sets this tone, and the paneling of just this kind of vast thing that he's on, is really just, it's very moving and powerful. Alex:                 There's a panel towards the end of the book where the main character is standing outside finally at the place that he's living in, there's sort of a massive tank or whatever it is. It's double page spread, and it's so sad and awesome, and just so many things at the same time. It's wonderful to see, definitely pick up this book. Next up, Rorschach number four- Pete:                It's just like a cruise ship that has elephant legs on it. Alex:                 Sure. Rorschach number four, from DC Comics written by Tom King, art by Hore Fortes. In this issue, we're getting a bit more of the origin of the kid. And if anything, this used to be pivoting to be less about Rorschach, and more about the kid, this kind of cowboy character that we met over the course of it. In here we find a man that she- Pete:                Muscle man. Alex:                 I mean, it's arguable, I think. But tricked into thinking he was the reincarnated soul of Rorschach after Dr. Manhattan destroyed him, a lot of what we were dealing with in this title and also here, is about conspiracy theories, which I think really gets to the theme of what Tom King is doing. Another fantastic issue, I don't know what the thrust of this title is, and I don't think we will know until the last issue, but man, every issue individually is so impeccably done. Justin:              You go ahead Pete. Pete:                I was just going to say, if Tom King wasn't a good writer, I'd be so pissed. Because I have no fucking idea what is happening, but I'm still having a great time. And part of me is like maybe muscle man was, I mean, how do we know? Justin:              I think that's part of the take here, and what my… I've really loved reading this series and really love sort of thinking about it after I finished each issue. And with this one, it feels like Tom King is taking some of the Rorschach stuff that's happened since Watchmen ended, where Rorschach is sort of being put in as like, oh, he was a precursor to a lot of the way people are feeling now politically. Like isolated, believing conspiracy theories, and just chasing them up all that kind of stuff. Justin:              And so to take that sort of version of Rorschach and then remix it again for our age where she makes this guy believe that he is Rorschach, believes this sort of fake news, this conspiracy stuff, and then he acts on it. I mean, it feels so prescient given the politics that have been happening in the last couple of weeks with the January 6, insurrection and all that. This feels like it's all speaking to these same issues and to be able to write something that feels that topical when it comes out, is amazing to me. Alex:                 Pete? Pete:                Yeah, I just think that, I kind of said how I feel about it as far as it's impressive, but it's also confusing. But the way that the kid is portrayed is very, very interesting. And I think it's really great kind of personification of somebody in this way, but also as I was kind of reading it, I wrote down in my notes. I think I'm crazier now after I've read this book. Justin:              Yeah, you're next. I mean, the kid is like a charismatic sociopath who believes in this stuff and convinces other people to believe in it. Alex:                 And it's funny too, because there's a line in here where it's like, What's the kid's name?” And it's like, “I don't know, we call him the kid.” And I have a friend like that, if they knew that I didn't know his actual name, we just call him the kid. He'd be pretty upset. I will say, and I don't know if I can completely believe this premise, but I do feel like there's a certain hesitance on King's part to touch Watchmen. And I say that fully knowing there is a scene in here, that shows the characters and Watchmen interacting in a new way. But there's something about it that feels like you have a book called Rorschach. You're not actually focusing on Rorschach. What exactly is going on? Pete:                Is it all about Rorschach? Justin:              See, I disagree. I think what this book does, it takes the ideas of Rorschach, and really puts them on the table, and looks at them with a modern eye, in a way that I think gets deeper than just having Rorschach be like, hey, what's up? Hey, what's up blue guy? Alex:                 Classic Rorschach line. What's up dudes? Pete:                What's up? It's me the Rorschach, [crosstalk 00:24:25]. Alex:                 I'm hanging 10 in here with you. Pete:                Yeah, I just think it's like a classic inkblot scenario. We're all bringing our own things to the story and it's just reflecting our own bullshit. Alex:                 I don't know how that connects it anyway to what we're talking about. Justin:              Yeah, exactly. What is that in relation to? Alex:                 What are you even talking about Pete? Justin:              Are you trying to test us? Alex:                 [inaudible 00:24:53]. 1973, number one for Boom! Studios written by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivela. This is pick it up, of course, on previous series of Abbott. She is an investigator, She's got some supernatural powers. I feel like I've only read one or two issues of Abbott, but this was a good jumping on point anyway. And I felt like as a pulpy, 1970s, supernaturally inflected mystery, it was very enjoyable to read. Pete:                Abbott. Justin:              Abbott. I agree. I mean, we don't get much of the supernatural side of it. Just little gestures to it until the very end, but I really love the table setting in this issue and the sort of, just the vibe, it's got a good sort of irreverent vibe throughout. Pete:                Abbott. Yeah, I think that first off give a nod to, this is the year [inaudible 00:25:56] was born. So just want to give a shout out to that there. Justin:              Not true. Pete:                I know, I'm just messing with you [crosstalk 00:26:02]. Justin:              Pete loves telling lies about us. That's what his bit for quite some time. Alex:                 Pete was born in 1942. Yeah, that's right. Sailed the ocean blue. But what I do… What's nice is it's an interesting way to deal with this kind of the creepy feeling of someone. I liked the Reveal at the end, and it kind of made sense with the things that happened. It's one of those things where you're like, you read it and you're like, oh, okay. So I'm enjoying it. It's weird, but I like it. Let's move on to talk about Black Cat, King In Black, number two from Marvel, written by Jed McKay art by CF Villa. Of course, we had Jed McKay on our live show this week. So definitely- Pete:                We did? Alex:                 We did Pete, you were there and everything. So Black Cat is been tasked with stealing Dr. Strange from Knull, the king in Black, we get to see that heist this issue, this is so much fun. Justin:              So much fun. I've said this, I said this a lot on the live show. I love this book. This book is so smartly done. It's rare for me to see a character where she has multiple sides. So many superhero characters are… It's like they do their one thing and we just see it a bunch of different ways. But the Black Cat really gets to be different things to different people, she gets to feel things, be very serious, be a little bit more lighthearted. And then just the heist of it all, is just so well done. Throwing on an antivenom suit to dive into the goop is such a smart idea, and it's dramatic, it's tense, there's some spider immobile stuff. Pete:                Really plugging the hell a lot of goop on the show. Yeah, I really… There's also a lot of fun nerd stuff in here. Like the fact that she gets to fly on the goblin glider, and then the spider-buggy later. This is just… They have a lot of fun with this character, which is great to see. I love the baby bjorn with the Ghost Dog. I mean, this is just good shit. And it's cool to kind of see this. I'm not a huge Black Cat fan, but I'm having a lot of fun. Justin:              You love cats. Pete:                It's true, it's a good point. Alex:                 Speaking of which, let's move on and talk about Batman/Catwoman number two from DC comics, written by Tom King, art by Clay Mann, and this issue, we're jumping through multiple timelines here. We're getting to see Batman and Catwoman do some stuff where the tracking down the Phantasm, I believe, who is killing the edge man of the Joker. In the future timeline, Cat woman has come to kill the old Joker. And maybe there's another timeline in there. I got to be honest with you. Clay Mann's art, gorgeous. Tom King's write, good. I like reading this book. I am having a very hard time following what is happening in these issues. Justin:              Well, it's only the second issue. So, because I do sort of agree with you. It's hard to connect the plots as it's going. Pete:                No, it's too early. I don't try to do that, this is Tom King guys. Just let's lay off a little bit, enjoy the ride. Alex:                 The thing is like, there's not enough of an artistic or textual indicator for the timelines right now where, I understand part of the idea is that all of this mashed together. It's all happening at the same time. It all connects to each other. But just from a reader perspective, there are some pages where it's jumping between three timelines, and it takes me a second or two to realize, oh, okay, this is taking place at the middle timeline. This is duplicate of the first timeline. And that takes me out of the story a little bit. Justin:              Well a second or two, you don't have that kind of time to spare [crosstalk 00:29:58]. You were born in 1973. Pete:                Easy speed reader. You don't have to just plow through everything. Sometimes you got to stop and think about what's happening a little bit. Alex:                 I was a child of the love generation man. Justin:              It's true. Conceived in wood stack, born in the back of the Crosby Stills Nash and Young van. Pete:                [inaudible 00:30:21] with all due respect, I disagree. I'm having a lot of fun on this book because I miss that Catwoman/Batman relationship. Alex:                 This is a bizarre mirror world that we're in, but go ahead, Pete. Pete:                Yes. And so also I thought it was touching the way Joker wish Catwoman a Merry Christmas. I thought that was very nice. But yeah, we're getting a lot of different worlds and different timelines mashed up. We've been getting an old villain from Batman, the animated series. But Tom King does an amazing job on Batman, and I'm going to let this breathe a little bit before I start getting to what timeline are we in. I'm just enjoying the ride, and the artwork and man is it great? Justin:              Clay Mann, is he great? I do think part of it was, I think this book was, the expectations for this book were fun romance between Batman and Catwoman. It's just not that, it's like a whole new storyline and- Pete:                No, but they're dealing with stuff though. You can tell the [crosstalk 00:31:26] back and forth. Justin:              Of course I think they are… Pete:                Well, if you make it, it's not always sunny, beaches, you know what I mean? Sometimes relationships get real. You got to have tough conversations man. Justin:              I've never had a difficult conversation with anyone. Its all smooth sailing for old JT. No, my point is, you're walking into this book and it's just a different, it's a whole different thing. There're multiple timelines. There actually is very little romance in this. It's about the Joker pretty exclusively so far, and the introduction of the Phantasm. Justin:              But what I do think is amazing about this, it feels like Tom King is really writing toward Clay Mann. Every panel in this book feels like it's so specific, it's so curated. And it is just something to behold. Even the small panels are just perfect. There's this section where the… It's a close-up on the Joker with a candy cane, everything is so deliberate. And I think it's great. Pete:                Now I don't know about you guys, but the part where the subway scene and getting a little spoilers, someone dies in the subway. I was like, oh man, that is the worst. You finally get a subway car all to yourself, and someone murders you, oh man, classic New York. Justin:              You sound almost nostalgic for it, Pete. But I actually don't think you live, you're a new Yorker anymore, so you get that name out of your mouth. Alex:                 The Scumbag, speaking of Pete, number four, [inaudible 00:33:02]. Its written by Ric Remender, art by Eric Powel. In this issue, our main Scumbag is heading on a discreet mission to eyes wide shut style orgy that is going on, things go predictably wrong. We had Remender on the show last week where we talked about this title. So it was fun to get his input, but what'd you think about this issue? Pete:                Yeah, this is just insanity. But I do like how everybody's skeeved out by The Scumbag, and that's kind of funny how he can't get himself into the one place he wants to be. But yeah, this continues to be amazing storytelling, fantastic art, creepy ass fucking dude that I don't know why we're rooting for, but we are. And just kind of this scenario keeps getting more and more intense. Justin:              Yeah, I mean, I think the Pete bag is sort of one of Remender's real good another great book from him. The art is fantastic and the way that he is just, you could tell, he's having such a great time writing The Scumbag, for who he is. And I think Ric Remender with this, and another book we need to be talking about very soon, Seven To Eternity, it's really playing with, why does the protagonist have to be good? And why is the villain bad? Maybe we can mix those. And I think he just does that really well. And same thing here. This guy's a scumbag, but we still root for him. But he does a bunch of bad stuff, but he seems inherently good. And the bad guys seem like they're just trying to do what everyone's doing, getting by as best they can. It's interesting storytelling. Alex:                 Once & Future number 15 from Boom! Studios written by Kieron Gillen. Pete:                Sorry, Justin. Alex:                 Sorry Justin? Pete:                Yeah, he was clearly teeing up Seven To Eternity, but you were like fuck that, we're going Once & Future. Alex:                 So I said out a list. Pete:                Here we go, behind the scenes. You can't stray from the list. If something comes up organically, we got to stick to the list here. Justin:              Looking back, I don't think we should have given Pete that much power at the beginning to have his little what's up corner, because I think it's really gone to his head. Pete:                Yeah, I think the vodka is what- Alex:                 You wanted to talk about Once & Future, I'm sure Pete, because the grabba is in this a lot. In this issue we find out about Lancelot, we also find out more about the backstory of what was going on, a great issue, fun as always, high octane drama and action, with some terrifying things going on as usual. Just another good issue of Once & Future. Pete:                Good is an understatement man, this is great. The art's unbelievable, the action is over the top, this continues to be one of the must pick ups of the week. Every time there's an issue of Once & Future, it's just continues to be phenomenal. The drama keeps getting more and more bad-ass, and we get to kind of see the other half, the why we're kind of in this mess, in this issue. And I also really love the, I'm going to tell you a story, you're going to tell me a story moment, and that first story is fucking really powerful, especially when you reveal scars. Justin:              Yeah, I do… I like that we're getting to really learn the rules of this comic as it's going on. And this is your especially where, it's a story about stories. But in this it's about sort of who's taking power, and who's the storyteller, and which story are they telling? It feels like that's the hat that everyone continues to pass over. Like, wait, who are you? Who are you in this story? Oh, I'm this? I started telling this story. I think that refreshes that sort of trope of a story about stories in a fun way. And the artists fantastic. Lancelot screaming in French, I mean, I'm here for it. Alex:                 Yeah, absolutely. Let's move on, talk about Maestro: War and Pax, number one from Marvel written by Peter David and Javier Pina. This picking up on the first Maestro mini-series here, the Hulk finally fully as the Maestro, but he hasn't consolidated all of his power as of yet. So he's going past the remnants of the Marvel universe. I think we talked about the first issue of the Maestro mini-series previously. So I thought it was worth checking in with this one. How do you think it's holding up? Pete:                Well, it's kind of upsetting to see kind of a evil Hulk. So, Justin:              Really? Pete:                Usually I'm on the green guy's side, so this is, it's a little tough to see how this guy goes about business. Justin:              Wow, heartbreaker. I like this a lot. I really like seeing the Pantheon from Peter David's run way back in the day, characters that no one else has really touched since. And I like them. I also liked that the Hulk and… The Maestro and his squad just jump onto the Staten Island Ferry, and drive down to DC to go confront them, which is just a fun visual choice. And it's great to see that the Maestro sort of messes up. You expect him to just dominate and it's about him sort of not doing so had. Alex:                 Yeah, I mean, Peter David is a baster of the comic book form. Just everything is perfectly paced out. His jokes work, everything works. The action works. It's always a joy to read one of his books because they're just, they're firing on all cylinders every single time, even decades into his career as is at this point, and it's great. Let's move on talk about StillWater number five from Image Comics written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Ramón K. Perez. Pete:                He's really going to make you wait, Justin. Sorry buddy. Justin:              I'm fine, I wasn't [inaudible 00:39:14]. Alex:                 Oh my God. I mean, for those of you listened to the podcast, Justin is furious right now. You can see it just like flames coming out of his head. StillWater number five from Image Comics, this is a big issue here, as our main character has taken residence in StillWater, the town where nobody dies. Everybody has taken this as an opportunity to let the judge, the guy who rules the town know that, hey, they want to change things. They want to leave, they want to let the outside world know about stuff. Things go terribly wrong, and then they get more wrong from there. Then even then there were five issues in, it feels like this is whipping through story at this point. Justin:              Yeah, but I think it's really coming into its own. It's starting to remind me a little bit of Southern Bastards. [crosstalk 00:40:12]. I think the judge has some coach boss vibe to him, and I just think the energy has that Southern Bastards is a great book by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour from years ago, that to sort of think was left open-ended, that I just wish we could see more of. But this is fun, it really is like, I don't know what's going to happen. It's feels like bad stuff is happening all around in this town that [inaudible 00:40:37]. Pete:                Yeah, it's unfortunate that at this town, there's a kind of a power hungry judge who's not willing to hear the people. I think that this book continues to, with the twists and turns. We're kind of finally getting everything all out on the page here in this issue. So we kind of know where everybody stands and what the kind of moving forward is going to look like. But man, even with all that, the kind of twists and turns that happen in this comic, we're still pretty powerful and pretty crazy. Alex:                 Yeah, last and definitely least. Pete:                Sorry, Justin. Alex:                 Seven To Eternity number 16, from Image Comics written by Rick Remender art by Jerome Opena. This is the second to last, I believe issue of this title as we talk to Rick Remender about. Here, we're starting to wrap things up at an enormous battle way. This feels to me, I mean, they're obviously very different stories, but it feels to me very much like the end of low, where we're just getting these insane over the top battle scenes with all of our characters as he starts to wrap things up. But it's great. I mean, in particular Jerome [inaudible 00:41:53] art is stunning on every page. Justin:              Very good. And he's managed to tell a story, like following up on what I was saying, honestly so long ago, but to flip the hero and the villain here and still surprise us. And at the same time telling like an epic Avengers or justice league style, like cosmic stakes battle with all original characters, it's just really excellent comic making. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I can't stop paging through the art. I mean the splash pages with the kind of waterfall, fallen giants thing is just, it's really unbelievable. The monsters, it's just really, really impressive. Yeah, the twists that happened, man, what a great book. I cannot wait to see how this wraps up. This is really, really great comic book, right here where we get to read. Alex:                 Well, and I'll tell you how The Stack is going to wrap up. It's going to wrap up right now. If you'd like to support us patrion.com/comic book club. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube, come hang out. We'd love to chat with you about comic books. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice, just subscribe and listen to the show at Comic Book Live on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and more, until next time, we'll see you at the Digital Cottage Book Shop. Pete:                What's up? The post The Stack: King In Black, Future State, Iron Fist And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s comic book review show: King in Black #3MarvelWritten by Donny CatesArt by Ryan Stegman Future State: The Next Batman #2DC ComicsWritten by John Ridley, Vita Ayala, Paula SevenbergenArt by Laura Braga, Aneke, Rob Haynes Future State: Superman Worlds of War #1DC ComicsWritten by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Easton, Becky Cloonan and Michael […] The post The Stack: King In Black, Future State, Iron Fist And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

Visit our Patreon page to see the various tiers you can sign up for today to get in on the ground floor of AIPT Patreon. We hope to see you chatting with us in our Discord soon!Forrest NewsNEWSRejected cover breaks world record for comic book artAdult graphic novel sales figures reveal nearly 30% sales jump in 2020Marvel pre-solicits!Spider-Man Clone Saga on the wayMarvel Comics launching ‘The Mighty Valkyries’ #1 April 2021Champions gets a new creative team with issue #6Marvel launching ‘Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus’ Vol. 2 to Earth in August 2021Marvel to celebrate Darkhawk’s 30th anniversary with anthology one-shotDC solicits!DC Comics launching Damian Wayne led series 'Robin'DC Comics sets ‘Green Lantern’ for Geoffrey Thorne and Dexter SoyDC Comics launching digital first series ‘The Next Batman: Second Son’Flash Facts curated by Mayim BialikBatman gets new villains and allies in ‘Batman: The Dark Knight’ April 13thSixth Annual Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics finalists namedOur Top Books of the WeekDave:Home Sick Pilots #2 (W: Dan Watters, A: Caspar Wijngaard)Seven Secrets #6 (W: Tom Taylor, A: Daniele Di Nicuolo)Forrest:Home Sick Pilots #2 (W: Dan Watters, A: Caspar Wijngaard)Haha #1 (W: W. Maxwell Prince, A: Vanesa Del Rey)TOP BOOKS FOR NEXT WEEKDave: Future State: Superman - Worlds Of War #1 (Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Mikel Janin, Brandon Easton, Valentine de Landro, Becky Cloonan Michael Conrad, Gleb Melnikov)Forrest: Crimson Flower #1 (W: Matt Kindt, A: Matt Lesniewski)JUDGING BY THE COVER JR.Dave: Future State: Superman - Worlds Of War #1 (Mikel Janin)Forrest: Pulp TP (Sean Phillips)Segment: Interview - Jordan Blum on M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games Head Games (first two issues out)Modok Head Games has been fun, funny, and action-packed. What is your scripting process like with Patton Oswalt?Do you think MODOK is a relatable character?What does every MODOK story need?Scott Hepburn has been extraordinary in making the book funny and fun, when it comes to comedic timing how do you approach the scripting for the comic?On the reverse side, how do you approach comedic timing and comedy when writing the upcoming Hulu show?Is there a chance we could get more MODOK comics?I have to ask...if MODOK has a family, does that mean MODOK has the ability to make babies? Have you guys thought about that aspect?After MODOK, what is your #1 series you’d like to write (with or without Oswalt)SUPERFIGHT: Modok vs. DazzlerOff topic Top Shelf: Hill House, Kobra Kai

Comics Reviews: Dark Nights: Death Metal 7 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Yanick Paquette, Bryan Hitch, Jonathan Glapion, Alex Sinclair, Nathan Fairbairn, FCO Plascencia Generations Shattered by Dan Jurgens, Robert Venditti, Andy Schmidt, Oclair Albert, Paul Pelletier, Danny Miki, Bernard Chang, Yanick Paquette, Matt Ryan, Aaron Lopresti, Scott Hanna, Klaus Janson, John Romita Jr, Fernando Pasarin, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger, Sandra Hope, Mike Perkins, Kevin Nowlan, Doug Braithwaite, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Hi-Fi Future State: The Next Batman 1 by John Ridley, Nick Derington, Tamra Bonvillain, Brandon Thomas, Sumit Kumar, Raul Fernandez, Jordie Bellaire, Paul Jenkins, Jack Herbert, Gabe Eltaeb Future State: Superman of Metropolis 1 by Sean Lewis, John TImms, Gabe Eltaeb, Brandon Easton, Valentine de Landro, Marissa Louise, Cully Hamner, Michael Avon Oeming, Laura Martin Future State: Wonder Woman 1 by Joelle Jones, Jordie Bellaire Future State: Harley Quinn 1 by Stephanie Phillips, Simone DiMeo, Tamra Bonvillain Future State: Swamp Thing 1 by Ram V, Mike Perkins, June Chung Future State: The Flash 1 by Brandon Vietti, Dale Eaglesham, Mike Atiyeh House of El: Book One: The Shadow Threat by Claudia Gray, Eric Zawadzki, Dee Cunniffe Sensational Wonder Woman 1 by Stephanie Phillips, Meghan Hetrick, Marissa Louise Truth and Justice 1 by Geoffrey Thorne, ChrisCross, Jordi Tarragona, Wil Quintana Eternals 1 by Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribic, Matthew Wilson King in Black: Return of the Valkyries 1 by Jason Aaron, Torunn Grondekk, Nina Vakueva, Tamra Bonvillain Star Wars: The High Republic 1 by Cavan Scott, Ario Anindito, Mark Morales, Annalisa Leoni Scout's Honor 1 by David Pepose, Luca Casalanguida, Matt Milla The Last Witch 1 by Conor McCreery, V.V. Glass, Natalia Nesterenko Avatar: The Last Shadow 1 by Jeremy Barlow, Josh Hood, Wes Dzioba Resistance: Reborns 1 by J. Michael Straczynski, C.P. Smith, Snakebite Cortez Wrong Earth: Night and Day 1 by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle, Juan Castro, Andy Troy Stake 1 by David Byrne, Francesca Fantini Soulstream 1 by Saida Woolf Loot 1 by Don Handfield, Richard Rayner, K Lynn Smith Sweet Downfall 1 by Stefano Cardoselli, Panta Rea Sengi And Tembo 1 by Guiseppe Falco Unthinkables 1 by Paul Hanley, Ian Richardson, Julien Hugonnard-Bert, Simon Gough, Thomas Mauer Thrae: The Heroes Odyssey 0 by Garry Price Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable, Stephanie Yue Additional Reviews: Miles Spider-Man game, Dollhouse Family, Wolfwalkers, The Institute, Batman/TMNT, Star Wars: Captain Phasma, Recipe for Seduction News: Omninews, Bizarre DCEU rumors, Ascender ending with 18, other Lemire news, Project Patron from Aftershock, Punisher in modern comics, Justice Society animated movie, no Black Canary spinoff show, Way of X by Spurrier/Quinn Tribute to Michael Apted Bold 2021 Comic Book Industry Predictions Am It Glenn? Comics Countdown: Dark Nights: Death Metal 7 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Yanick Paquette, Bryan Hitch, Jonathan Glapion, Alex Sinclair, Nathan Fairbairn, FCO Plascencia Crossover 3 by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe Thor 11 by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson Katie the Cat Sitter OGN by Colleen AF Venable, Stephanie Yue Guardians of the Galaxy 10 by Al Ewing, Juann Cabal, Federico Blee Future State: Harley Quinn 1 by Stephanie Phillips, Simone DiMeo, Tamra Bonvillain Venom 32 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Jesus Aburtov Stranger Things and Dungeon and Dragons 3 by Jody Houser, Jim Zub, Diego Galindo, Msassyk Last Witch 1 by Conor McCreery, V.V. Glass, Natalia Nesterenko Wrong Earth: Night and Day 1 by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle, Juan Castro, Andy Troy

It's a big review Stack podcast this week as we discuss: Star Wars: The High Republic #1 Marvel Written by Cavan Scott Art by Ario Anindito Dark Nights Death Metal #7 DC Comics Written by Scott Snyder Art by Greg Capullo With Yanick Paquette and Bryan Hitch Crossover #3 Image Comics Written by Donny Cates Art by Geoff Shaw Eternals #1 Marvel Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Esad Ribić Future State: The Next Batman #1 DC Comics Written by John Ridley, Brandon Thomas, Paul Jenkins Art by Nick Derington, Sumit Kumar, Jack Herbert Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 DC Comics Written by Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton Art by John Timms, Valentine de Landro, Cully Hamner, Michael Avon Oeming Future State: Swamp Thing #1 DC Comics Written by Ram V Art by Mike Perkins Future State: The Flash #1 DC Comics Written by Brandon Vietti Art by Dale Eaglesham Future State: Wonder Woman #1 DC Comics Written and art by Jöelle Jones Colors by Jordie Bellaire Future State: Harley Quinn #1 DC Comics Written by Stephanie Phillips Art by Simone Dimeo The Amazing Spider-Man #56 Marvel Written by Nick Spencer Art by Mark Bagley The Last Witch #1 BOOM! Box Written by Conor McCreery Illustrated by V.V. Glass Generations Shattered #1 DC Comics Written by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt and Robert Venditti Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Scott Hanna, Ferbabdo Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Aaron Lopestri, Matt Ryan, Emanuela Luppacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger, Bernard Chang, Yanick Paquette, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Paul Pelletier, Sandra Hope, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Doug Braithwaite, Rags Morales and Mike Perkins Backtrack #10 Oni Press Written by Brian Joines Illustrated by Jack Elphick Return of the Valkyries #1 Marvel Written by Jason Aaron & Torunn Grønbekk Art by Nina Vakueva Getting It Together #4 Image Comics Co-written by Sina Grace & Omar Spahi Art by Jenny D. Fine & Sina Grace The Vain #4 Oni Press Written by Eliot Rahal Illustrated by Emily Pearson Venom #32 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ivan Coello Inkblot #5 Image Comics Created by Emma Kubert & Rusty Gladd SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. This week's episode is sponsored by Shape & Foster. Visit www.shapeandfoster.com for your free 14-day trial. Full Episode Transcript: Alex:                 What is up everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Pete:                I'm Pete. What it is. Justin:              What it is, he says. Alex:                 What it is. Justin:              T I Z. Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of comics that have come out this week. Lots of big stuff here. We're going to have a big chunk in the middle to hold that all we'll get to in a moment, but first, let's talk a bit… A big kickoff that happened this week. Star Wars: The High Republic #1 from Marvel, written by Cavan Scott, art by Ariel Anandito. This is a comic, but this is also a megastory that is going to be told over comics, books, games, probably TV shows. I don't know what else, but it's all set at the height of the Jedi. They're facing down a new threat. This is the first salvo hero. I believe the first two things that were released were this comic book today and, yesterday, Charles Sol, comic book writer, wrote a book called Star Wars: Light of the Jedi that touches on a lot of the same plot lines. Alex:                 This is a big deal. This is [crosstalk 00:02:08] part of it again. Pete:                He also writes really good novels, okay? He's not just a comic book writer, okay? Alex:                 No, this is a novel that he wrote, that I was mentioning, Pete. Pete:                Yeah. Oh. I thought you tried to just pigeon-hole him as only a comic book writer. Alex:                 No, I'm just trying to pigeon-hole him as a lawyer. Justin:              Pete hates pigeons, and he hates the holes that they live in. Pete:                You're god damned right, I do. Justin:              He's coming for you. Alex:                 The thing that I'm curious about with this book is, does it work, first of all, as its own comic book, as its own thing? What do you think about it as part of this Star Wars: The High Republic megastory? Pete:                I just have a question real quick. The lizard guy with one arm, that's not the guy from the bar who loses an arm? Justin:              No. Pete:                Okay. Just making sure. Justin:              That would be a crazy coincidence. Pete:                Well, that's the thing. It's a lizard guy with one arm. I mean, I don't know. Justin:              This takes place before that. Alex:                 No, this takes place, yeah, hundreds of years before, I believe. Pete:                Oh, okay. All right. Just checking. Just making sure. Justin:              Let me throw out, I love just seeing the timeline infographic they did for the cover. Alex:                 Oh, yeah. Justin:              That's just fun. It's just fun to see all those things and be like, “Oh, look at all the good stuff, and then look at all the bad stuff,” all on one page. Alex:                 I stopped reading there, so I think we can move on to the next title. No, I actually like this. I was a little trepidatious, frankly, going into here. I think, sometimes, it's a mixed bag with Star Wars books, particularly when you're not focusing on the main characters that have an established voice, but I think this new character that we're following, this young Jedi, this Padawan, who goes on a mission, gets elevated, spoiler, to the level of Jedi knight, gives you a really good setup for the stakes and everything that's going on. There's clearly some danger coming her way, but I enjoyed it. I thought it was a fun Star Wars book, independently of anything else that's going on. Pete:                Plus the double-sided sabers. That's always badass. Justin:              Yes, always badass. Never not successful. Justin:              I like this, too. My favorite parts were where I felt like there was some new ground broken. I feel like these new characters, it feels a little [Star Treky 00:04:20], a bit. Alex:                 Yes. Pete:                Whoa! Alex:                 I think very much so Justin:              Which I think makes a lot of sense in that the height of the Jedi would be a much more organized society, like Star Trek is. I thought that was cool. Justin:              The parts that I don't like are when they're just referencing shit that we've already seen, like, there's a lot of splash pages later on where the only species we see are species we've seen in Star Wars. I'm like, “I see why you did that, but throw some other people in there. I want to see some new stuff. I'd like to see the Force used in a different way,” was my takeaway here. Alex:                 What'd you think about hot Yoda? Because we kind of get a hot, younger Yoda here, like a little more ripped. Justin:              He's sort of a teen, like an angsty teen. This Yoda fucks, and I love that. Pete:                Yeah, but he's still- Alex:                 Yoda's the kind of guy, Yoda, you'd want to grab an IPA with, like plug his mind, find out what's going on there. What are his ideas? Pete:                Well, first off, he's still got- Justin:              Yoda, put away that joint! We can't get high now. We have a big council meeting. Pete:                Yoda's got a walking stick, so he's not that young. Alex:                 Smoke, you will. Justin:              Relax, we must. Alex:                 Meeting dot 420 minutes, it is. Pete:                Oh my god. Nice. Nice. I mean, I can't believe I'm not in on these bits, but really impressive, Alv. That's the smartest 420 bit I've ever heard. Justin:              Wow. Pete:                Yoda's still got a walking stick, guys, all right? He's not that- Justin:              But he's not using it. He's not leaning on it. It's sort of more of a fun stick. Pete:                No, he's not. Yeah. Justin:              That's [crosstalk 00:05:53] a bowl. Alex:                 It's a pimp stick. Justin:              It's a bowl. Alex:                 That's a pimp stick. Justin:              It's a very long bowl that he smokes out of. Pete:                It's a bowl. Yeah. Pete:                Yeah, it's cool. It's nice to see him. I also am more interested in the horned Chewbacca character next to him, like Justin said, that it's like, “Oh, this is interesting. This is new.” Yeah, I think, with all the Star Wars, I agree. It would be nice to be like, “Let's just go away from what we know for a little bit and really just kind of get lost in some new shit,” but I enjoyed this. I very much enjoyed this. The fun timeline with all the symbols in the beginning was great. Love the action. This is just some good stuff. I feel like it's a great setup for this world to get into. Alex:                 I'm not laughing at you. I'm actually laughing at us, the fact that we were like, “Love that timeline.” Justin:              We do. Alex:                 First few pages. You open it up. Timeline. Close it back up. Justin:              Yeah. All I want, just the context. I love context. Pete:                Exactly. Just give me… Where are we? Alex:                 Yeah, I also did love the timeline, though. Pete:                What are we doing? Justin:              Yeah, exactly. As I say, everybody loves a timeline. Pete:                [crosstalk 00:06:59] disagree with you. Wording wasn't like- Justin:              I think what Pete's saying is, he wants more of his comics, like the X-Men specifically, with pages in the middle, where they just have information. Pete:                Fuck you. Justin:              Especially symbols. Pete:                Fuck you. Alex:                 Don't worry. We'll get there. We'll talk about another Marvel book that has that, but first, from the beginning to an ending, let's talk about Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 from DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder, art by Greg Capullo with Yonic Bucat and Brian Hitch. This is wrapping up this mega, wild saga of the DC Universe versus the Being, the Batman, I don't know what you call him, who laughs. Here, as has been not wildly rumored but put out there, the entire DC Universe, the cosmology of it, gets completely redefined at the end, really characterizing this, in case you weren't clear, as the level of a crisis in terms of redefining the universe, which is, I think, a big deal. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 What'd you think about how this book wrapped up as a whole but also where it leaves the DC universe? Nobody say anything, please. Justin:              No, Pete, I thought that was yours. There was a perfect lane for you. Alex:                 Yeah, you sort of bent back as if you were winding up for like, “Here it comes.” Justin:              A real haul-off. I thought a haul-off was coming. Pete:                It got kind of crazy in a way that I was like, “What is happening?” but I'm the first guy to get lost in stuff. The Wonder Woman mirror thing was a little weird. It got kind of meta. It was cool, the way it kind of started with Skeleton Head Rock, and then we got to see kind of like a young Sergeant Rock that was cool. Pete:                I think this event overall was a lot of fun. I wasn't like, “Oh, shit! DC Universe is completely changed!” You did a thing about a hand that kind of shows up. It got weird in spots, but I thought this was fun. I like the Batman talking shit, calling somebody a punk. Yeah, this was a fun event. Justin:              What I love about this, and I thought this ended really strongly here. There were a lot of titles throughout Death Metal that felt like, if you were reading everything, it was like, “Wait. Where are we? We were off the main plot here.” This book really landed all of the planes together in a great way. It was funny, while at the same… Every character was really playing their character game, the thing that make their essence at a high potential the entire time. I love that the focus never shifted from Wonder Woman. I thought for sure it was going to shift back to Batman at some point in this, because it's such a Batman-focused event, and I love that they didn't. Batman and Superman had their fights, and they were sort of off, but it was all about Wonder Woman. I appreciated that so hard, because the themes of this crossover are her themes. It's like truth, ultimate justice, be direct and simple to your truth. That's where we end up. Wonder Woman wins by not knowing the consequences but still just doing what she thinks is the right thing. The fact that that paid off, I thought was great. Justin:              The philosophy at the end of this, where the DC Universe is landing, where it's like, “Let's bring these characters back to their cores but, at the same time, let everything go wild. Let's push this universe into any direction we want.” I just love that creative potential. The event, from the premise to the endpoint, that was the idea. I love that it's taking over the whole line now. Alex:                 Yeah. I completely agree with you. My only two tiny, little quibbles that I don't even completely agree with but I'll say out loud anyway, one of them is that it felt like this was leading up to a point where Wonder Woman was going to die, right? Justin:              Mm-hmm (affirmative). Alex:                 I appreciate the fact that they didn't kill her off, which is why this is a dumb thing to bring up, because that would have been very frustrating, but it felt like they did the thing that they did with Tony Stark over in Civil War 2, where it was like, “Well, story-wise, we have to kill off Iron Man. That is the only option here. Instead, let's come up with this weird middle point where he doesn't die so we can keep him around, so we don't just rely on, ‘Oh, and then we're going to bring him back anyway.'” They do the same thing with Wonder Woman here, where it's like, she should have died. That was the natural ending point of this thing. It would have been a huge bummer and frustrating, so instead, they did this weird middle point that's going to lead to something else. A lot of that depends on whatever story they're about to tell with Wonder Woman going forward, I guess. Alex:                 The other part is just the idea that everything matters, which is the same as, I think, the Hyper Time idea that they tried a little while ago, that is confusing to think about. I think the way to approach it and the way that I'm approaching is, don't worry about it too much. We've been reading comics for years. None of it makes any sense when you lay it out linearly, so just allow yourself to remember the stories you like and ignore the things that don't necessarily make it cohesive. That's fine. That's how I'm getting past it, but there's certainly times when I'm reading this book where I felt like, I don't know how everything can matter. That just doesn't jive up in any sort of way. What does Superman remember that happened right now? What was his life like in a linear fashion? You know? Justin:              I think that what I like about this is, that's the problem anyway. Continuity is a fluid thing. You believe enough parts of it so you're like, “This is the story,” but every specific detail isn't important, because they start to conflict. Then you're left with mush, so I like the idea that they were able to play a little bit faster and looser with it, where it's like, “Yes, he was married. He has this kid. The kid was aged up in the future. All those things are true. Then, now, we're shifting into Future State, where we're really exploring extrapolations on those themes. Then we'll see where the main stories land,” but the fact that there are lanes where new stories can be told are great. Justin:              I just want to say to your point, Pete, how did you feel…? I thought Alfred looked great in this comic. Pete:                Fuck you, you fucking fuck, bud. Justin:              I think he looks better. Pete:                This comic brings up an interesting point. I'm wondering if you guys have thought about this at all. If you see a different version of yourself, the mirror version of yourself, do you just assume that it's you, because it looks similar? Do you kind of quiz yourself to make sure it's you? How do you react to seeing kind of like a different version of you in the mirror there? Justin:              You can always tell with a kiss. Pete:                You're going to kiss yourself? Alex:                 I agree. I agree. Pete:                You're going to kiss yourself? Alex:                 Exactly what I was going to say. Pete:                Why would it…? How would…? Kissing yourself, you would know it's you? How would that…? That's… Justin:              It is intimacy. You just know. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Sometimes, you just know with a kiss. Pete:                What? Oh my god. Alex:                 You can just feel what's in the other's heart. Pete:                Oh my god. All right. Alex:                 Let's move on to another crossover, [inaudible 00:14:11] Crossover #3 from Image Comics. [crosstalk 00:14:12] Shaw. Pete:                Oh, I see what you did there. I see what you did. Alex:                 In this issue, a lot of the story threads are starting to come together as our main characters are trying to bring a comic book character back to the dome that is over Denver. They run into some trouble along the way. We get a reveal at the end of a character they've been teasing that is a big deal at the end of this issue. I thought the reveal was great. I cackled out loud when I got to it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know if we want to spoil it necessarily, but what did you think about this issue and the story as a whole? Pete:                We shouldn't. I thought this was great. I really love the reveal. I thought it made a lot of sense. You kind of get a hint of stuff along the way, which is cool. Yeah, I'm really impressed with the writing and the creativity on this book. It's very interesting. It's really cool to see how things are going to unfold. I love the kind of action stuff that happens here. I think I'm completely on board. This has been a lot of fun. Justin:              Yeah, I like it, too. It's amazing how meta and comic book [insidery 00:15:27] this book is, but it doesn't bother me. It's just a book for a very specific audience, and that's because- Pete:                Your review is, this book doesn't bother you. That's what you're saying? Justin:              I guess what I'm saying is, my expectation was that, if someone was like, “Hey, we're going to do this book where we reference all this very insidery things and sort of call a character Dr. Strange in a very winky way and then back off of that idea, I would be like, “I don't know if I would like that,” but I thought it's really handled in a very smart way. The reveal on the last page, I thought, was very fun. A couple characters, the guy's dad is the male love interest, is drawn like John Goodman from The Righteous Gemstones, like so hard. Alex:                 Yes, 100%. Justin:              Which I thought was fun. Alex:                 Mm-hmm (affirmative). Justin:              It's good. It's really striding a line that I think is difficult to stride. Pete:                I just don't understand, if you have a comic book, why you wouldn't put John Goodman in it. You know what I mean? Alex:                 Exactly. I completely agree. I think he was in Dark Nights: Death Metal somewhere. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 I also like the fact that Donny works in, I think it's The Paybacks, which is a book that he wrote back in the day, that he very cheekily is like, “Well, nobody read it, but it was very good,” which I thought was a fun, little detail. Again, you get that character at the end that I think is definitely a swerve but is perfectly- Pete:                Did it bother you, though? Alex:                 Should we just talk about it? Pete:                No, no. I just want to know if it bothered you at all. Alex:                 What bothered me? Pete:                Some things didn't bother Justin. I just want to know if you wanted to say, anything didn't bother you. Alex:                 What? No, nothing bothered me. Justin:              Yeah, do you want to talk about the reveal at this point? Alex:                 Yeah, sure. Let's talk about the reveal. Spoiler if you haven't read it already, but Mad Man shows up at the end. We got this tease in the first issue. The character drew somebody who has been taking people, helping get in and out of the dome. It looks like it's a picture of Superman, so the implication is, “Holy shit, did they somehow get Superman?” No, they did not get Superman as of yet, but it turns out, it's actually Mad Man, Mike Allred's creation. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 That is just a perfect character for this sort of dimension-hopping weirdness sort of thing. That's the thing that I really liked about the reveal, is it's not the biggest swerve you can think of from Superman, but it's certainly something you're like, “I never would have predicted that character would be coming here, but it makes perfect sense for the story they're telling.” It definitely doubles down on, “Okay, we're going for this. Here's the crossover. This is not just original characters that we're doing here.” Justin:              That's what I think. It really served the crossover premise so strong. Pete:                Yeah. I think my big takeaway is, this comic doesn't bother me. Justin:              Good. Go ahead and throw that on the cover. Alex:                 Let's move on- Justin:              One quick thing in the credits. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Mark Wade worked on this book, as a… It says, “Story edits.” Alex:                 Ooh. Justin:              Yeah, interesting that he's there, helping craft the final book here. Alex:                 That is very interesting. Alex:                 Let's move on to one that may or may not have bothered Pete. Eternals #1 from Marvel, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Esad Ribic. As Justin mentioned on the live show, we talked to Kieron about this on our podcast a couple of months back. He teased this. I still think, even based on his teases, I didn't know what we were getting into here. This is a wild ride. This seems very clearly influenced or perhaps just parallel to what Jonathan Hickman has been doing over on X-Men in this book. There's a lot of back matter and integrated matter. We've certainly talked about how that works sometimes with the X-Men books, sometimes does not. Here, in my mind, it definitely does. I thought this book was great. Again, great last page reveal. I loved it. Justin:              Yeah. Great. I mean, the art by Esad Ribic is just stunning. It really… I think it serves sort of the tone of this book, which feels very postmodern superhero book that's owning, like a lot of books we've talked about, about continuity. This owns all this continuity. It feels like these characters, these Eternals, have been alive forever. They have done everything. They're a little bit cold about everything. It's still the world. Iron Man shows up here. It feels like a comic book reader. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of stories. Where's the new ground? It feels like we're going to get there. It's sort of like the, “God is dead at the end of the world. Who did it?” I love that. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I've never really been a big Eternals fan, and I'm wondering if this movie's going to be any good or not, but- Alex:                 Did you say, “Eternals,” or, “A-turtles?” Never been a big a-turtles fan, huh? Pete:                No, Eternals. Alex:                 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They love the pizza. Pete:                I don't know what's going on, but you know I'm a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, so I wouldn't say that. Alex:                 Oh, okay. Pete:                Yeah, I have a hard time where the characters are eternal. They live forever. They're these all-impotent beings that have lived life forever, whatever whatever. Nothing's new for them. They get bored and do stupid shit. Pete:                I was impressed with the head butt. I thought that was glorious, calling your shot, which was great, but other than that, the art's fantastic. There were some weird pages of symbols that I didn't check out on purpose, but we'll see how this wraps up. Alex:                 Interesting. Pete:                Last page, saw that coming a mile away. Alex:                 Wow. Justin:              What? No way. Pete:                Yeah, dude! Justin:              Wow. Okay. Pete:                Get to the planet, and it's basically his name. I mean, what the fuck? Justin:              Wow. Alex:                 All right. Justin:              Okay. Alex:                 One of the things, just to- Justin:              Why did you call the ending of the second issue, then? Pete:                What's that? Alex:                 Yeah, Pete. If you know it so well, what's happening at the end of the second issue. Pete:                He gets the fucking gauntlet. I don't know. I don't fucking know what that's going to happen in the next one. Justin:              All right. The thing with Pete is, it probably will happen. Pete:                I mean, they dropped him. [crosstalk 00:21:36]. Alex:                 One thing that I wanted to respond to, that I think Kieron Gillen does so well here, is deal with the idea that these are Eternals. These are immortals. They think they have this purpose, and they found out their purpose is not necessarily wrong but just doesn't mean anything, so what do they do next if they're never going to die but their lives don't mean anything? What does that mean for the lives they continue living? To me, he almost treats it like office worker drones, right? Like you're going into work every single day. You're doing the same thing. What is the end result? For them, there is no end result. There's nothing, so what is their purpose? I think that's the setup here. We're going to find out, do they have a purpose? Who has a purpose? What do their lives mean going forward? I think that's a very exciting and interesting and very esoteric, mind you, thing to talk about. Alex:                 The other thing that I really loved about this book was the description of Deviants. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 That really popped for me, because there's this setup at the beginning of, the Celestials came down. They created 100 Eternals. They created 100 Deviants. They left. Then there's a little shruggie emoji beneath that. That's the perfect setup for the book. What he talks about with the Deviants in there, there's this comparison of like, yeah, not all Deviants are bad. Some of them just go bad, but they look at human beings as like, “Well, some of you are serial killers.” You know? I thought that was just such a good sequence of dialogue, aligning us with Deviants when the rest of the book is aligning us with Eternals. Just great writing, great art across the board. I really like this book quite a bit. Justin:              Now, one follow-up I know we talked about. Do you think, if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lives under, in the sewers of other cities, they would like different stuff? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah, sure. Justin:              Like if they lived in the sewers of Seattle, would they just be like coffee drinkers? Alex:                 Yeah. They live under St. Petersburg, and they're like, “I love being a turtle, and I love borscht.” Justin:              Yeah. “Borscht time!” Alex:                 If they lived in Rochester, they would love garbage plates. Pete:                There you go. Justin:              Wow. If they lived under Philadelphia, they'd be sucking on a cheese stick. Pete:                Ah man. Alex:                 Wrong podcast. Alex:                 Let's get into our Future State block here with a ton of books that were released off of the end of Dark Nights Battle from DC this week. Pete:                Here we go! Alex:                 They all take place in an indeterminate future of the DC Universe. However, as we found out when we were talking to Phillip Kennedy Johnson on our live show, they're all interconnected in some way, and they all do matter in some way as well. They're going to take elements and work them back, so this isn't just Elseworlds. This isn't just like what if or anything like that. It's something else. We don't know fully yet, but I figured the best way of approaching this, I'm just going to read through the titles. We don't need to talk about each of them individually, but I'm curious to hear you guys shout out. Then I'll read off the creative teams as well. Alex:                 We've got Next Batman, Superman of Metropolis, Swamp Thing, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn. Justin, you were super into the Swamp Thing one, which was written by Ram V, art by Mike Perkins. You want to talk about that? Justin:              Yeah. This one is sort of post-apocalyptic Earth. Swamp things are the only things alive, at least at the beginning of the issue. Pete:                I like what you did there. I like what you did there. That was nice. Justin:              Yeah. It's just really nice. It's an issue about, oddly, like being a parent here. Swamp Thing intermittently walks us through the construction of a body of his children, basically, as he's going. Then bad things start to happen. This is the kind of story that I hope DC does more of with Future State and beyond, where it does feel like an Elseworlds that matters. Alex:                 Pete? Pete:                The art's glorious. I thought it was okay. Justin:              Great. You weren't bothered by it? Pete:                Yeah, it didn't bother me. I think there were other ones in the stack that I really like more, but you know. I'm not a parent, so I didn't really- Alex:                 I will say, reading these in the order of Next Batman, Superman of Metropolis, Swamp Thing; Next Batman brings up this new villain for Gotham city. Superman of Metropolis brings up a new villain for Metropolis, so I started to feel like, “Okay, we're getting kind of this interconnected thing.” Swamp Thing, I could not figure out how that gelled with that, so it took me a little while to get into it because of that, but I agree with you, Justin. I thought this was really nice storytelling and very interesting and weird. It reminded me a little bit of a Jeff Lemire take on Swamp Thing, almost like Sweet Tooth in a certain way. Justin:              For sure, yeah. Alex:                 I like this one quite a bit. Justin:              Swamp Tooth. Alex:                 Swamp Tooth. If you weren't into this one, what was your jam? What did you like of the Future State books? Pete:                I thought The Dreaming was cool. Batman was great. Alex:                 We're not talking about The Dreaming. Let's talk about Next Batman, though, written by John Ridley. Pete:                The backups were great as well. Alex:                 Hold on. Let me just say the writing staff on Next Batman. Pete:                Okay. Alex:                 You got John Ridley, Brandon Thomas, Paul Jenkins, art by Nick Derington, Sumit Kumar, and Jack Herbert. This is the big deal. This is like their shout across the bow, because this is a black Batman. This is Luke Fox, I think? Lucius Fox's son who was taking over, I think. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Am I wrong about that? Justin:              I think you're wrong about that, because Luke Fox- Alex:                 Maybe it's his brother? Justin:              Yeah, Luke Fox was the other Batman family character. Alex:                 Okay. All right. I think it's part of the Fox family. Justin:              Definitely that, yes. Pete:                Yeah. Agreed. Alex:                 It's probably like the Simpsons. Justin:              Oh, no, you're right. It is Luke. It's Luke. It's Luke. It's Luke. Alex:                 It's Luke Fox. Okay. This is a big deal. We get a couple of backups to show us other things that are going on in the world of Gotham City as it's under this tyrannical rule, this fascist rule. Pete, what did you like about this book? Pete:                Well, first off, the villain that kind of gets attacked has some sweet knives. You don't see the combination of like brass knuckle and knife very much anymore, so that was great, to see that again. Some good action sequences. Then also liked the kind of like bubble that we got inside Batman's head a little bit, and Justin really likes that. Then we kind of got a little of the Fox residence. Then there's this kind of interesting thing about masks and putting on masks in Gotham, which is cool. Yeah, there was some really cool ideas going around here, so it got me very excited to see where this is going to go. I really like the design of Batman. The action of Batman in this comic was really great. This had a real cool feel to it, and I liked it very much. Alex:                 Yeah, I thought Nick Derington's art in particular was very good here. It feels like a classic Batman tale, which is probably transgressive in and of itself, that it's not a Batman who is black first and foremost, but it is a Batman first and foremost. Then it has these other layers to it. I think it was very purposeful on John Ridley's part and works really well. Alex:                 The one that jumped out to me, Future State: Wonder Woman #1. Pete:                Yes. Alex:                 This was written and art by Joëlle Jones, colors by Jordie Bellaire. Pete:                Wait. Alex:                 Yes? Pete:                Before we move on, we should talk a little bit about the backups in the Batman issue. Alex:                 Sure. Go ahead. Pete:                Okay. Katana was great. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete:                The design was really awesome. Sometimes, Katana is done not too well. This was really great. I really appreciated all that we got from this character. I'm very excited to get more. I hope these cool backups continue. Then we kind of got these team-up stuff as well. We got the Outsiders stuff in there. That was done well. I'm very excited to see, in this future state, how the Batman team is going to work, so I feel like they did a great job of getting us excited in this Next Batman Future State issue for the, not only Arkham Knights but the Outsiders as well. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I hope this is the format of these books, where we get to see little snippets of the other characters. Great take on Outsiders and just really great across the board. Pete:                Yes. Sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to cut you off there. Alex:                 No, that's fine. Back to Wonder Woman. This Joëlle Jones art alone, to heat it up a little bit, on this book is so phenomenal. Justin:              Yes. Yes. [crosstalk 00:30:42] alone! Alex:                 This is a book that… I definitely went into it with preconceptions, only because it isn't out yet. It's already in develop by the CW as a TV show, so I was like, “All right. How is this going to work? What is this TV show about?” That was the critical lens I was looking through it. I still have no idea, having read the book, but once I was able to get past that, this is the boldest reinvention of the Wonder Woman mythology since Cliff Chiang and Brian Azzarello, and I love it. Love it. So good. It's a completely a different character. It feels consistent with the name Wonder Woman as she goes down to the underworld on a mission. We get to see different aspects of it. It's funny. It's weird at points. There's interesting mythology that's mixing different mythologies than just the Olympic mythology that we're used to, with Diana. This is so good. I think it is, actually, but this is one that I hope is ongoing, beyond the two to three issues that they're going to be doing over the course of these months. Justin:              Yeah, I mean, I agree. Pete:                Yeah, this… Oh, go ahead. Justin:              It's a young, brash Wonder Woman. Just comparing this Wonder Woman to the Wonder Woman from Wonder Woman 1984 is just like… This is so much more exciting. This is just all in one issue. Pete:                Yeah. This is just a great version of Wonder Woman, who is very action-forward, which is great. The kind of villains and the cool characters along the way doesn't feel like Wonder Woman, but it works in such a nice way that it makes it feel fresh. Yeah, I was like, “Okay, what's this going to be?” and then didn't want to leave this world. I loved the last splash page at the end. This is very exciting stuff. Alex:                 Let's touch on some of the other ones real quick, sort of do little capsule reviews of them. We got Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 from DC Comics, written by Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton, art by John Timms, Valentine De Landro, Cully Hamner, Michael Avon Oeming. One thing that I really liked about this one is how weird it was. Justin:              It was very weird. Pete:                It was super weird. Alex:                 Yeah, this is weird, sci-fi Superman tales, something that I don't think we've seen in a very long time, and I appreciated that. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. It was almost a little too… I wanted more of like, “Oh, I see what this story is, and I see where it's going.” It was very grim also. It felt like I was… I'm not confident things are going to work out, which is an odd tone for a Superman book. It's funny. In the Batman book, I thought the first story was the strongest, and in order, that's how I liked them. In this, I feel like it was the reversed order. Pete:                Yes. Justin:              I liked the Guardian story at the end the best. Pete:                Yes! Justin:              Then, second, the Mr. Miracle, and third, the Superman [crosstalk 00:33:51]. Pete:                Exactly, man! The Guardian was badass! It was really great! I was surprised how much I loved that. Yeah, Superman was all right, but what are we doing with Superman? You know what I mean? Are we changing things up, or is this just like anime Superman? What are we doing? Alex:                 I don't know. I can't get too mad at a ball of teeth. That's a pretty weird, cool villain. Alex:                 Let's talk about Future State: The Flash #1, written by Brandon Vietti, art by Dale Eaglesham. Love Dale Eaglesham's art, one of my favorite artists ever, so great to see him draw the Flash family. Justin:              Yeah. Dark take. Alex, are you saying you don't love this? Alex:                 I didn't love this. Justin:              Because it's so dark. Pete:                Whoo! Justin:              Flash, mostly a bright- Alex:                 No, I don't know. There was something a little stilted about the language, to be honest. Just the writing, the dialogue was a little weird to me. It didn't feel like as bold of a swing as some of the other books that we read in some of the Future State stuff. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 It felt like, if the assignment was what happens in 40, 50 years down the road in the DC Universe, this was what happens two, three storylines down the road. Justin:              Interesting. Pete:                [inaudible 00:35:09]. Alex:                 You know what I mean? Justin:              Mmm. Alex:                 I wanted something bigger and weirder with the Flash, and that's not what we got here. Pete:                I read this- Justin:              Interesting, because- Pete:                Oh, go ahead. Justin:              Go ahead. Pete:                I was just going to say real quick, I read this one. I was like, “Well, I hope that Alvin liked this.” Justin:              I read it, and I was like, “Oh, I think Alex won't like this,” because I do think it's a bold swing, because it's a very not… The Flash is so bright and shiny and, “I'll fix this by running.” This is the opposite of that. Pete:                That's his move. Justin:              I think you also don't like it, Alex, because Wally's the bad guy. Alex:                 It makes no sense. Pete:                Shots fired! Alex:                 He's the good guy. Come on! Pete:                Shots fired. Justin:              He's the bad guy in this one, Alex. I want to pick up the next one, because I really was surprised by the tone and the vibe of this. I like the way that the heroes change. Heroes die, and the heroes change their tactic in the middle of this book. I thought that was interesting. Alex:                 Last- Pete:                I think one of the things I realized reading this is like, I've tried doing the Flash philosophy, just run harder, and it doesn't always solve your problems. Alex:                 Oh, go ahead. Oh, really? Pete:                Yeah. I think this book kind of falls short. Justin:              Pete, maybe you need to run a little harder. Pete:                I've tried. I've tried that. Alex:                 Okay, but run even harder. Pete:                Yeah, I- Alex:                 Last, we're going to talk about Future State: Harley Quinn #1, written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Simone Di Meo. This one, to me, almost had the clearest setup of a book. The rest of them felt like they were cutting in in the middle, but here we get, Harley is captured. Scarecrow is basically working as her Charlie-style, from Charlie's Angles, style handler, sending her off on missions to take down other villains in Gotham City. I thought this was a fun setup. I liked it. In particular, I thought Simone Di Meo's art was very good on the book. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I like the setup here. It is the most… I see what this book is, and we're going to see more of this style story. Pete:                Yeah, that's what I liked about it, was like, “Okay, this is what it's going to be.” It gets you excited for what's going to happen next, so I feel like it does a good job of, “All right. Here's our take on Harley Quinn. This is her new look.” Cool, great. Awesome. I don't hate this at all, but I felt like I wanted a little bit more, but I feel like I'm excited to see where this could go, because it has a lot of possibilities. Alex:                 Let's move on to talk about some non-Future-State books, starting with The Amazing Spider-Man #56 from Marvel, written by Nick Spencer, art by Mark Bagley. Somehow, we're done with the Last Remains storyline and have moved on. We see here how the Kingpin and Norman Osbourne captured Harry Osbourne, AKA Kindred, and what starts to happen next. Alex:                 I know we talked about this with the last issue. Mark Bagley's are always good. He's always a good Spider-Man writer. I am starting to lose my patience with this storyline, to be perfectly honest with you. Justin:              Interesting. Alex:                 I always hesitate to say things like this, but we need to get to it. What is Kindred's deal? He can't stand in the corner and be like, “You know what you did,” for another 15 issues, because I am going to go insane. Justin:              It's funny you say that, because I think the story is sort of moving on. There's a ton of setup in this book for what the next things that are going to be happening. I will say, I liked the little moment where Kindred has little tears running down his weird eyes, his empty, pumpkin head eyes, but I think I've shifted… The coin, I think, is just part of this. We're getting some story. I think what the issue is for me now is, Spider-Man is not the main character in this book, and we're not in Spider-Man's head. Spider-Man is a side character. We're just observing him. It's about the Osbournes, Kingpin. We're in all these other heads. We need Spider-Man to be the center here. The Sin Eater story was about Spider-Man and Sin Eater and what was happening there, and I feel like we've been on Kindred's side of it, and I hope we're going to flip back as we go forward. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Also, sorry Pete. The one thing I was going to say about the Sin Eater thing is, so much of this issue is consumed with talking about how cool the Sin Eater storyline and how interesting it was and the fallout of that, to the point where I'm like, that was more interesting. I like that. That was fascinating, and that really brought Spider-man to the brink, in the way that I just don't understand what Kindred means to him, even though he's a character that we've known for decades at this point. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                I kind of, as Alvin said, might be a little bit nicer. When you've got a character talking about cool shit that happened before, that's not a good comic book. You're not in the moment in a way that's exciting. You're like, “Man, you know what was really cool? Couple issues ago. That's when shit was exciting. I don't know what's happening here, but I'm going to monologue as I walk circles around this cubed villain. Cool.” Yeah, I didn't like this at all. I want Nick Spencer to be off this book so I can go back to enjoying fucking Spider-Man. Justin:              Not necessary. Alex:                 No, you don't want to take somebody off of a job. That's mean, Pete. Alex:                 Let's move on, though, talk about The Last Witch #1 from BOOM! Box, written by Connor McKeery, illustrated by Vivi Glass. In this book, we meet a young girl who is very interested in sneaking up on, maybe, a witch's castle on her birthday. She is stymied because of a couple of different things. Alex:                 Really like the art here. There's some good all-ages stuff. I wanted a little more in the plot, and we finally get there by the end, so I am excited enough to read issue two. Justin:              Yeah, I thought this was a sock-fixing book for a good portion of it. Pete:                Oh man. Justin:              Like, “Yeah, fix these socks.” Pete:                You can't have your fun until you've fixed some socks, Justin. Everybody knows that. Justin:              Darn those socks. Darn, darn those socks. Justin:              I will say, I liked this. I think the dread that is set up throughout the story is good. It really pays off at the back end. It feels very Blair Witch, if I may reference an old movie. Alex:                 No. Justin:              Okay. Alex:                 The movie we talk about on this podcast is Blair Witch: Book of Shadows. Justin:              Retracted. Pete:                Wow. Justin:              Yeah. That's the bummer. We refuse to mention any movie but the current sequel that's out there. It really makes a lot of our movie conversations horrible. Alex:                 What's more current than Book of Shadows? Justin:              Yeah. Justin:              I thought this was good. Definitely going to pick up the next issue. Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah. Good stuff. Pete:                I agree that I thought this was a lot of fun. The art's fantastic. You got a badass grandma who's smoking a cigar. That's good times. Justin:              Is there anything you like more, Pete, than grandmas? Pete:                Nope. Justin:              All you talk about is grandmas on this podcast. Pete:                Plus you got a little kid, uses gap tooth well. I'm excited to see where this goes. There was a lot of kind of walking in place, if you will, a little bit, but I'm glad we got to see the tower and what's going to… I'm excited to see what happens after that. Alex:                 Yeah. I agree with you. There were a lot of points where they weren't focusing on the grandma, but then, there were a couple of pages where they focused on the grandma. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Yes. That's what Pete's interest… Really, Pete? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about one more DC book here, Generations Shattered #1 from DC Comics, written by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt, and Robert Venditti, art by… Are you ready? Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Scott Hanna, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade van Grawbadger, Bernard Chang… I like that you're both taking drinks of your beer. Yanick Paquette, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Paul Pelletier, Sandra Hope, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Doug Braithwaite, Rags Morales, and Mike Perkins. Alex:                 This is a book that I included here on the stack, because it certainly seems like, okay, you go Dark Nights: Death Metal. You go Generations Shattered. Then we're into Future State. It even says on the cover, “Spinning out of the pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal.” It doesn't have anything to do with that. Justin:              No. This book is a bit of a fever dream. Alex:                 Oh, yes. I didn't mind it once I got past realizing, “Wait, this has nothing to do with anything else going on in the DC Universe,” because there's just a fun thing about Kamandi building a team to take down another time-threatening villain. There's some good, fun art in it. There's a weird team that he puts together, has Dan Jurgens leading into his Booster Gold stuff, which… Justin:              Loves Booster Gold. Alex:                 That's cool. Loves Booster Gold. Justin:              I know people love Kamandi. I've always just been like, his only thing is he's the last boy. It's sort of like, “Well, he's just the last one.” Alex:                 No, man, he has long, blonde hair. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 He wears cut off jean shorts and no shirt. Justin:              I feel like he's cold. He's traveling through time with no shirt on. It's got to be cold. Alex:                 Yeah. Put on a shirt. Justin:              Yeah. Put on a shirt, Kamandi. Justin:              I do like Wave Rider. I like a lot of these weird characters that they pulled together for this. There's a lot of fun, weird… Like fighting Hector Hammond's big head in this middle bit, the young Booster Gold versus old Booster Gold. Alex:                 I think the problem is the timing of how this comes out more than anything. This feels like there's this weird, other event that's been going on during the big event, that is trying to do a lot of the same things that Dark Nights: Death Metal is doing but in a more conventional way. It's fun to read but confusing to read this week. Justin:              I think that's fair. Pete:                I really love the Remuter Jr. bit. That was enjoyable, but the other shit was really kind of fucked up. Justin:              The other shit was fucked up. The woman's doll in the fridge, I was like, “Is that…? Are you recalling out fridging here?” Pete:                Ooh. Alex:                 Oh, I don't even remember that. I think I missed that entirely. Pete:                Oh, yeah. Batman, yeah. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. Justin:              It was a weird thing. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Then the very end, I liked the last couple pages, but I don't know what it means. Alex:                 The black and white? Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah. Who even knows? No idea. Alex:                 Next up, Backtrack #10 from Oni Press, written by Brian Joines and illustrated by Jake Elphick. We've been following this title all along. This is the last issue, I believe, of this death race through time- Justin:              Yes, for now. Alex:                 For now, death race through time book. It ends on a little bit of a question mark note, but how'd you feel about how it wrapped up? Pete:                I really liked the emotional choices that were made in this. It's really interesting how great the relationships are. There's this insane race going on, but then as the story goes on, we get little pieces of people's lives in such an interesting way. I thought this was a great somebody sacrificing their wish for somebody else, a classic thing but done really well, kind of in the backdrop of Fast and the Furious. I think this is a great book from start to finish. I was really impressed with this insanity, but it was done in a way where you could follow. Justin:              Fun art. Cars. If there was one of us on this podcast that loves cars, you know it's JT Sizzle who is really always checking what's under the hood and kicking the tires. Alex:                 What?! Yeah, you're a real gearhead, man. Justin:              That's exactly right. This guy gets cars. That's why I mentioned a Ford truck earlier tonight on another podcast. Alex:                 Cool. Justin:              I agree. This is a fun… I did like the emotional- Alex:                 Do you just want to flex about how you do other podcasts, too? Justin:              With you. It's not a… It's with you. It's not a flex to say that. Justin:              I like the emotional turnaround we got at the end of this. It's fun. Alex:                 Yeah, good stuff. This is one that I think is going to read really well in trade in particular. Justin:              Yes. Alex:                 Moving on, Return of the Valkyries #1 from Marvel, written by Jason Aaron and Torunn Gronbekk, art by Nina Vekueva. As the title implies, this is Jane Foster, slowly, potentially building the Valkyries back up. In this case, she is ferrying the sentry to the Underworld after the events of King in Black and runs into some trouble. We start to bring in a character that is not exactly but very similar to Tess Thompson in the MCU and hook back up with her. As usual, they just do a great job of the Jane Foster book. This is more of the same. If you like that, you're going to like this. Justin:              Agree. I love the sentry stuff. There's so much nice, down-to-earth stuff where his life flashes before his eyes with the good parts. He remembers a good joke with his wife. Really good stuff. Pete:                Yeah, there's nothing like a good bit. You know? I think this is a lot of fun. A lot of cool stuff going on. Art's fantastic. Some good storytelling. Yeah, I think this is solid. Justin:              I really hope, when my life flashes before my eyes, it goes back to this moment, when I said that Yoda fucks. Alex:                 Getting It Together #4 from Image Comics, cowritten by Sina Grace and Omar Spahi, art by Jenny D. Fine and Sina Grace. This is also the last issue of this, at least for now. This issue, we get to watch one of our main characters travel out to LA, find her solo music career. Alex:                 I got to say, I like this last issue in the story. They told quite a bit, but I was bummed that it only included one of the main characters for the most part. Pete:                Agreed. Alex:                 Bless you, Pete. Pete:                Agreed. Yes, was very cool that we got this, but you did miss the rest of the band. You know? You did want to know what was going on with them. I think this is a great book, a cool take on what it's like to be in a band, where all these people with different ideas and what they want to do and how you manage that, but I think the art and the storytelling in this is just really nice. Justin:              I hear your criticism, Alex, but what I liked about this book in general is that it's about a time in your life ending or a time in these characters' lives ending. When that happens, especially when it's a group, when you're young and you have a group of friends, and everyone just sort of splits off and goes in their own separate way, I felt like it was spot-on to only follow one character, because that's what happens. Everyone falls away, and you then go on with your life. For this book, we ended up just following her as she went to LA and sort of sorted out her solo music career. I appreciate it, but I do agree. I wish there was more. It felt like it ended right when I wanted to just hear her just go. I hope they do more of this, because I really love the tone and the setting of this book and the humor, the way the characters are built. It's really good. Alex:                 I agree. Next up, The Vain #4 from Oni Press, written by Elliot Rahal, illustrated by Emily Pearson. In this issue, we're in the '60s with our vampire criminals. They are building up a cult. Some of them are on board with it. Some of them are not. Alex:                 It is wild to me how much this book jumps forward every single issue, time-wise. Justin:              Yeah. Yeah, it jumps around in a wild fashion. It's funny. I feel like we compared it to American Vampire a lot. It's just such a different-type book. The pacing's wildly different. I still like it. I like the way vampires are rising, then they're falling, then they're all killed. The story is just innovative takes on what being a vampire is. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete, what do you think about this one? Pete:                I'm not sure. It's okay. Alex:                 Thanks, Pete. Pete:                I liked other issues more than this one. I don't know what to tell you, man. Alex:                 Great. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Alex:                 Venom #32 from Marvel, written by Donny Cates, art by Iban Cuello. Here, we get to see what happens after Eddie Brock hits a car and dies. Turns out, Eddie Brock, his body is dead, mind not quite dead because he's part of the hive mind that has been created by Knull, the god of the Symbiotes, starts to fight back here in a certain way. What do you think about this? Pete:                I love the message here. When you're falling to your death, you

Today Casey is joined with the incredible writer Brandon Easton to talk about his Future State Mister Miracle and his

The game is afoot! Watson & Holmes is 2013’s urban re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson - as contemporary Black men in Harlem (this one ain’t about Benedict Cumberbatch & Lucy Liu). The series was created by writer Karl Bollers with art by Rick Leonardi, and crowdfunded initially on Kickstarter. Book One, “A Study in Black” - features the eponymous Dr. Watson - an Afghanistan war vet - a former army medic now working as a surgeon in an inner-city clinic, and of course - Holmes is a peculiarly observant “consulting detective” to NY’s finest. As you can imagine, fate brings this unlikely duo together to team up, bump egos, and bust some heads - in a labyrinth of drugs, guns, gangs and conspiracy. Beyond some interesting takes on technology, race, and modern crime - It’s worth noting that the series decides to put Dr. Watson at the forefront, with Holmes as a strong supporting character. The series was critically acclaimed for it’s unique take on a classic - and nominated for multiple awards including the Eisner and the Glyph. But it wasn’t until it’s SECOND book - where the characters were handed over to a bevy of creators like Brandon Easton, Lyndsay Faye, and Steven Grant. Issue #6 actually WON an Eisner for a single issue…that was focused on the issue of sex-trafficking. Joining us to talk about BOTH books is a new friend of the pod, Chris Walker - experienced comic book artist, colorist, marketer, and founder of Urbanime. Whatever remains must be the truth?

On today's packed comic book review podcast: X Of Swords: Creation #1, Dark Nights: Death Metal – Speed Metal #1, An Unkindness of Ravens #1, Spider-Man #4, The Last God #9, Voyage to the Stars #2, Wynd #4, Wicked Things #5, Low #25, Canto II: The Hollow Men #2, The Immortal She-Hulk #1, Undiscovered Country #8, MegaMan: Fully Charged #2, Juggernaut #1, Black Magick #14, Power Rangers: Drakkon – New Dawn #2, Maestro #2, The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3, Judge Dredd: False Witness #3, and Bliss #3. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Full Transcript: Alex:                 What is up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Pete:                I'm Pete. Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out today. Oh boy, we have a packed stack for you today. This is a- Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Too many. Too many books, Pete. Pete:                Yeah. What's the deal here, buddy? Alex:                 Why did you do this, Pete? Pete:                Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alex:                 Why did you do this? Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. Alex:                 This is your fault. No, I really didn't mean to do this. I feel like I looked through what was coming out. Every email was like, “Oh, here's three or four from IDW. Here's five from Image. Oh, no.” I didn't realize what a snowball it'd become until the end when we were finally getting ready for it. I'm sorry, Pete. We read a lot of books, but we got to get into it. Pete:                We do. Alex:                 This is important. People come to us as a resource. Pete:                I don't know about that, but- Alex:                 Let's kick it off. Pete:                … we'll do what we can. Alex:                 This is a biggie. From Marvel Comics, X of Swords: Creation #1 from Marvel. Written by- Pete:                X of Swords for $7. Alex:                 For $7. By Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard. That's $350 each if you don't give any money to the arts by Pepe Larraz, which would be rude. I wish you would give it to somebody. Pete:                That's very rude, but it's a part of either- Alex:                 This is a monster, one of 22 right on the cover. One of 22, 68 pages long, huge story. Pete:                First, I just want to say, if we weren't doing this show and this was life before COVID, I would walk into a comic book shop, say, “Fuck you” and walk out, because $7 part one of 22, what the fuck are you doing? Alex:                 Think about it. When you buy a book, right? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 You know it's a certain amount of chapters. You're paying about $7 per chapter, usually, for a book, if you think about it. Pete:                No. No, it's like four bucks bro. Alex:                 No, man. No, absolutely not. Yeah, it's- Pete:                22 pages. Alex:                 It's $154 per book for a 22-chapter book. That's how much I pay. Pete:                Wow. You're getting ripped off and maybe. It's a lot, man. It's a fucking lot. Alex:                 It is a lot. Here- Pete:                I was hoping like, “Okay, if we're going to pay this much money, hopefully, this will settle down. We'll be able to deal with all the madness it has been having with X-Men.” No, it just takes it to an even crazier place because Hickman doesn't like to deal with things. He just keeps building towards the sky. Alex:                 Yeah. That is a fair way of poking it. I don't disagree with you, but what I was so surprised about with this particular book, and I think we can get into spoilers here, so if you don't want to hear them, obviously, turn away, is that for most of the beginning, it was definitely that a Hickman dense this, talking about Otherworld and Arakko and the original Four Horsemen and them tacking Otherworld, and laying out all this like, “Here's the different level of Otherworld. Here's a map of what the Citadel looks like,” and all these things. Wild terror readings and everything, but once it had all of the setup out of the way, I was stunned about how relatively straightforward and fun it was. That the plot of this crossover is, basically, Apocalypses' even more evil children and grandchild are like, “Fuck you for joining the X-Men. We're going to kill you. We're going to destroy your island. We're going to destroy the X-Men. Here we come.” Alex:                 The only thing that is stopping them is the leader of Other world saying, “Hey, instead of doing that, why don't you go find X of Swords and then beat the shit out of them?” If that's the plot of the thing, that's great. I felt such a weight lift off of me by the end of this issue that it was just like a good old fashion brawl to the death story. Obviously, there's a couple more insane Hickmmanian flourishes on it, but that's awesome. I went from being cautiously interested to the book to totally onboard by the end. Pete:                No. Alex:                 No? I tell you what, I was happy that it did kind of be like, “Okay, this event is about this kind of showdown of who's more evil with the evil people of the evil worlds,” but it, also, was this kind of like weird like, “Hey guys, this whole portal thing, I've got a bunch of people invading. They're going to probably kill some people.” I think I sit around and it's a meeting. It's like, “Well, why don't we just shut the portal?” Well, you can't do that. Well, why can't you?” You know what I mean? That part grinded to a halt of like, “I don't want my comic books to turn into my work where I got to explain to some asshole in marketing while there's a fucking attack coming through a portal. You know what I mean? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Like, “Where do you work?” Pete:                I work in a startup, okay? It's not- Alex:                 No, I'm just saying that like attacks are coming through portals all the time. That's not a normal thing, Pete. Pete:                Yeah. Well, you know- Alex:                 Nobody can relate to that. Pete:                When you have an online job, things get weird. Alex:                 Got it. Pete:                I just think that like, that part was a little kind of like, “All right,” but I did really like the island stance. I was happy that they were kind of like listening to the island, but I felt like Magneto the whole time where he's bored out of his fucking skull just staring on this cool helmet being like, “When do we get to fucking fight?” Alex:                 Yeah. Pete:                I do like this match up coming of like, “Hey.” It's a little weird though when she was like, “Yeah, in three days, we'll fight you.” I'm like, “Oh, something is going to happen before three days, but all right.” Alex:                 No, that's to give them time to find the sword. It's just wild to me, at least, in terms of the setup. I was this good old fashion split into teams, find these secret things, come back together, fight some bad guys in a fight to the death. There's going to be twist. Pete:                It's just Apocalypse's kids, so why does everybody have to fight his family's bullshit? That will be weird if you called me like, “Hey, listen, my son wants to kill me. Do you mind like helping” … Alex:                 Well, but also on a textual level because I know you've talked about this a lot, Pete. I appreciated the fact that they're dealing with the fact that Apocalypse is there on Krakoa. That, to me, is the thrust of this crossover, at least, now. This idea that his children being like, “Yo, you're not Apocalypse. You're just hanging out with the X-Men. What are you doing?” That the X-Men are like, “Apocalypse, what are you doing?” It's almost this fan conversation in a way that is bleeding through into the comic books. It feels so smart to me. It's not just Apocalypse is on the team. It's, why is he on the team? Why is he here? Why is he doing this? What does it mean that he's here? Do we defend that he's here? How do the X-Men, who have taken the stance of mutant stumper want always forever, deal with the idea of, “Do we defend the guy that is trying to kill us multiple times and take over the world, to destroy the world? How do we do that?” Again, that is a thrust for a big crossover idea. It seems so smart to me. Pete:                All right. Well, I'm glad you're having fun, man. Alex:                 I'm having a good time. Pepe Larraz's art, just great superhero art, really fun, really clear stuff. Just good time. The horrible moments throughout big moments, Rockslide getting chopped in half, oh my God. Pete:                What a great panel, but man, that is heartbreaking. I did not like seeing that, but it was really well done. Alex:                 Just to mention, the last page of the issue. Such a dumb, obvious, but smart move to have Cyclops, Jean Grey and Cable go off and be like, “Okay, the key to solving this and saving everybody is, we got to activate this thing. What's this thing?” They go in. They activate the thing. They're like, “Oh, good. We turned on the sword.” Of course, its sword, the organization, and they've turned on the gigantic space station that they used to operate in and it's exactly the sort of thing like, “Oh, of course, you're going to work in sword.” That's so smart. Pete:                X of Swords. I get it. Alex:                 X of Swords. There you go. Great stuff. I enjoyed it a lot. I just thought it was so much more fun than I thought it was going to be. I had a good time. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Let's move to another one, another big event, Dark Nights: Death Metal-Speed Metal #1 from DC Comics written by Joshua Williamson, art by Eddy Barrows. We talked about this one a little bit on live show. Pete, you're usually down on the Flash, but you seem super into this one. Pete:                Well, slow your fucking roles elves. Alex:                 Right. Pete:                First of- Alex:                 This is your favorite comic of the week is what I'm hearing. Pete:                No. No. First of, great title, Speed Metal. Hilarious. Love it. I love this idea of over the top Death Metal kind of fun things. Just amazing art, over the top characters. It's fun to go back to this. Well, to see what they're doing. What hurts about this issue a little bit is, you get all this amazing art, this cool concept to new characters and then this is a bunch of fucking Flash is talking about their life and their fucking trials and who gives a shit. That part really dragged into a slow stop for me, but overall, the art is amazing. I love the concept. I'm excited for more. Alex:                 Yeah. I had a good time reading this book as well. I think there were some diggy things that happened as you mentioned. There was a lot of like, “Okay, there's a whole army outside. Let's just hang around and walk through the Flash Museum,” which Joshua Williams was going for. As usual, he is just very nostalgic about the Flash. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think, doesn't is probably too strong, but having them walk around the Flash Museum was like, “Okay, I get it. I get what you're going for.” Pete:                There were some funny bits. Alex:                 On the other hand of such a sucker, seeing Wally West run and get himself back into the red costume, I lost it. I loved it. Pete:                Wow. Really? Alex:                 He's getting his whole history back and seeing his whole family. I love Wally West. Pete:                You do. Alex:                 I love his family and I love that arrow, The Flash. That really got me emotionally when that happened. I think it really does come down to, what are you into? What are you excited about with the Flash because he just … Josh, again, just digs into that nostalgia factor. Then there's that great moment where he's sitting on the Mobius Chair and sees the darkest night coming towards him and just gives him the finger, great. Pete:                That was unbelievable. Alex:                 I laughed out loud. Pete:                “Yeah, black label. Here we go. Yes, let's do it.” Alex:                 Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. It's surprising and weird that everybody is looking for chairs in this series of our … because that's also happening over in Justice League, but good, solid issue. I'm excited to see how to entice it. Pete:                If you're going to have a black label, that's what I want to see. I want to see super real straw on the bird around like, really having some fun. Alex:                 Well, let's talk about birds then and talk about what are the biggest surprises of the week for me. Unkindness of Ravens #1 from Boom Studios, written by Dan Panosian and illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi. This is about a girl who moves to small town, finds out that there is a girl missing who looks exactly like her, except with glasses. Pete:                Oh, man. That's so creepy. Alex:                 Finds out even weirder stuff is going out in the town. If you are a fan of the craft, very specifically, you are going to love this book. Pete:                Yeah. I also think it's more than that. This, I was really impressed with this book. The art is unbelievable. I love the storytelling. We kind of, “Okay, here's the story of this girl and did whatever, whatever. Okay, go to new town and start a new high school,” but just like they give us little magic, they give us little teen drama, the karate moment was badass. I'm very excited for this book moving forward. Love the last page. I think this is going to be a really good book and I'm very excited about it. Boom Studios put together a great- Alex:                 Yeah. This feels like exactly … If you're a fan of the modern Sabrina books, in particular, I think this fits right into that niche as well, but this feels like one of those ones that just got to bubble below the surface and maybe explode, because it really is that good. It feels like it had such a mythology setup to it. Also, Marianna Ignazzi's art is great in this book. The characters are so good. The designs are so good. It's something, and this is necessarily the only thing she's been before, but if I was a Netflix executive, I would be snapping this up in a second for a TV show. Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. Alex:                 Great stuff. Let's move on to a belated comic book, Spider-Man #4 from Marvel. Surprising, it's only had four comic books so far given that it's such a popular character, but it happens. Written by J.J. Abrams and Henry Abrams, art by Sara Pichelli. This is continuing the Abrams father and son story of the young, new Spider-Man fighting a guy named, Cadaverous in the future. After Peter Parker, Spider-Man, has been broken. I will tell you, I continue to really like Sara Pichelli's art because Sara Pichelli is amazing at art. Pete:                Unbelievable. Alex:                 This is, maybe, suffering from the slow release time, which isn't entirely their fault. By the time I read this, it felt like just such a small snippet of the story. I needed more. What do you think, Pete? Pete:                Yeah. The art is the real hero in this book. It's really fantastic and worth it just for the sprawling pages alone and the creepy spiders, but especially like the first couple of opening panels, holy shit. Anyways, yeah, I think this is interesting Spider-Man story. I'm excited to see where this goes. The problem is, so long in between, like you said, I just got back into it and now it's over. It's a little tough, but I'm excited to see what this father and son is going to do with such a legendary character like Spider-Man. I'm trying not to judge it yet until we kind of get more into it. Alex:                 Yeah. It doesn't really feel like they've got into their mission statement yet. Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. Alex:                 Like the thing they want to say about Spider-Man. Pete:                They're just moving pieces and getting things setup. Alex:                 Exactly. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 It does feel like it's getting to that and we're towards the end here. We'll see what happens. Next up, The Last God #9 from DC Comics. Written by Philip Kennedy Johnson and art by Riccardo Federici. Man, every issue of this book is good. The end. It just really is. In this issue, again, they're heading through their, I guess, Helm's Deep. I don't know. I'm forgetting my Lord of the Rings references, but they're heading through the underworlds in the past and present, different things are happening. There's a big cliffhanger at the end, but as usual, even with a smaller character driven issue like this, it's still a very, very good book. Pete:                The art is really worth picking it up alone, all right? I tell you- Alex:                 I just drank. I just drank, Pete. Pete:                Good. Speaking of cliffhangers and that kind of stuff, there is a fun, really kind of cliff moment that says a lot about the characters. I just think that the storytelling and the art is so at a next level in this book. It's very interesting what they're doing and yeah, I can't wait for more. Alex:                 Yeah. Great stuff. Next up, Voyage to the Stars #2 from IDW. Story by Ryan Copple and James Asmus, art by Connie Daidone. Now, we talk about the first issue of this book, which is based on the podcast, I believe, with the same name. That is fun, enjoyed it. I figured we check in on the second issue and see how it's doing. Pete, what's your take? Pete:                Yeah. This is the old weekend to burn this issue. This is cool. It's very creative characters, fun, a lot of nice bits and comedy stuff in here with the classic proponent dead guy up trying to get away with some stuff, but yeah, I think this is an interesting book. The characters' voices push this thing through. Yeah, I'm enjoying this. I think it's definitely worth picking up. They seem to be having a lot of fun with it and that comes through in the comic. Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. As we mentioned the last time, James Asmus knew how to do bits. They're just well-paced out here, whether it's him or the artist or collaboration of the booth. It's just fun. It's dumb, fun, stupid, purposely stupid space jokes. It just works out really well. I like this issue much more than the first one even. I felt like I want to follow this. Maybe I'll listen to the podcast. Who knows. Pete:                Whoo. Alex:                 Yeah, I know. That's the next step in a relationship. First step is the comic book step and then when you get really serious, you'll listen to their podcast. Pete:                Yeah, it's serious stuff. Alex:                 Then third step, you move into a house with them in Philly. Pete:                Yeah, the source. Alex:                 Next up, WYND #4 from Image Comics. Written by James Tynion IV, art by Michael Dialynas. Dialynas. Dialynas? Dialynas? I don't know. I'm sorry. Pete:                Dialynas. I don't know. Alex:                 Dialynas. Maybe. There we go. Well, regardless, this book is very good. Another fantasy book. This is a mildly all ages book. A kid who think he is weird. He's traveling out of town with the prince he has always had a crush on. Some bad things happened to this issue, but also, some wonderful things. I love the fact that, finally, it feels like widening open the world of this book, finding out more about the outside world, about what's really going on. Great stuff. This is the issue that I have been waiting for. Pete:                Yeah. This book keeps getting better with every single issue; the art, the storytelling. It's next level. This world that they created really feels like its own very unique kind of thing. It's just great. There's a lot of heartfelt stuff. It's action. It's adventure. There's just so much stuff kind of all wrapped up. They're really killing it. This book, really, is one of those ones that stays with me and then when we kind of look at it the next time around, it keeps getting more and more built up and more and more exciting. Camera come out and it's enough. This is a lot of fun. Alex:                 Next up, let's talk about one of my favorite books currently running. Wicked Things #5 from Boom Box. Created and written by John Allison, art by Max Sarin. I got to tell you, I was super bub to find out the next issue is the last issue of the book. Pete:                What? Because I know. It should be concluded at the end. Alex:                 No. I know, man. It's such a blast with it. This is about a teen detective, frame for murder, ends up teaming up with the police department after she is arrested. It is- Pete:                They have so much more they can do. Alex:                 Just so much fun. Every issue. Max Sarin's art is so great. Everybody is so charming. This is a compliment. It's almost the opposite of Voyage to the Stars where it's like, it's not even bits. It's more character situations that are causing the comedy throughout. It's great. It's just, I enjoy. I want to read these adventures forever. I want to just read an odd-going detective series with these characters. Pete:                Yeah. It's such a fun character. I feel like I'm just, now, really getting into it and understanding the voice and cadence of everything. It's really clicking for me and I'm sorry to see that it's going to be wrapping up because I feel like there's so many different places we can go. I love this world so much. I feel like we can kind of put this on a lot of different situations, but man, yeah, they're really killing it right now or hitting the stride, that's next level. It's just fun. It's coming from such an earnest kind of cool place. The main character is kind of starry-eyed, but still, there's a lot of greatness to her. I really enjoy it. Alex:                 The mysteries are fun too. This issue, there's a bunch of casino robberies happening throughout London. She ultimately figures it out in absolutely ridiculous way, but in a way that proves that she is the smartest one in the room, anyway. It's fun. Pickup this book. Definitely check it out. Great, great stuff. Next up, another penultimate issue, Low #25, from Image Comics. Pete:                Oh, man, too bad Justin is not here. Alex:                 Written by Rick Remender, art by Greg Tocchini. Yeah, I must have put this in here because I want to talk to Justin about it because I know how into this book he is. This is the second to the last issues of the book. Huge battle issue as everybody is fighting for the future of the human race. The phenomenal thing about the pace of this book is the entire issue. People are just being blasted apart by this helm suit. We don't see it the entire time until the very last paddle. It's the pacing of that, just is this jaws pacing almost where the monster is off screen the entire time until the very end is great. This issue is one of my favorite issues of Low in a very long time. Pete:                Yeah. I can't agree with you more. It's such a unique, weird, creative book. It's so intense. The reveal is so insane. Remender is just killing it. Justin knew it early and called it, but yeah, I didn't really figure it out until the last couple of issues, so how crazy good this was. Really impressive. Makes me want to go back and start over again. Alex:                 It's good stuff. Next up, Canto II- Pete:                The art. Come on. Alex:                 The art. Pick it up for the art alone. Canto II: The Hollow Men #2 from IDW. Story by David M. Booher, art by Drew Zucker. It was continuing the adventures of little Clockwork Man as he tries to save the entire world. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 I like this issue quite a bit. I think this is a very engaging character. It's a weird, pretty dark world, but good stuff. Pete, what do you think about this one? Pete:                Yeah. I really like the art and the storytelling in this. It's very imaginative. These like little, fun creatures that were following around. It's interesting the way they battle and the way they go about things. It's definitely unique and stuff like that, whole town of scarecrows was so crazy. They do a great job of not only storytelling through action, but also giving you a lot of the creativity behind different character designs and ideas. It's a nonstop thrill ride with a little bit of heart and fun because they're so small and cute. Alex:                 Yeah. That's a nice way of putting it. Let's turn to something I'm sure we're going to definitely agree on. The Immortal She-Hulk #1 from Marvel Comics. Written by Al Ewing and art by John Davis-Hunt. Man, this issue is so good. I love this issue so much. Pete, I'm sure you agree with me, but this is showing what has been going on in the She-Hulk side of things as she, like the He-Hulk I believe it is called, has come back to life and discovered that he is immortal with the whole thing with the green door and he who lives below and all of these horror elements. What happens with She-Hulk? She's come back to life a couple of times as well. That's when this one shot deals with and it's as creepy and as alarming and as upsetting as anything Al Ewing has been doing in the main title, except with her fave Jen Walters. I love that this comes off of Empyre, where she died, yet, again. I love the pacing of the story. Alex:                 Particularly, if you've been reading Immortal Hulk, you'd be wondering what's going on there. This really pulls the veil back quite a bit and shows you a lot more information about what's going on. I thought it was great. Pete, of course, you agree, but I'll turn to you anyway and take a big sip of this beer that I'm drinking for when you agree. Here we go. Pete:                Yeah. This is completely insane and then falls down of a whole of insanity through a green door. Then we get a very- Alex:                 What? Pete:                … unlikely conversation with Wolverine, which I didn't appreciate. Later, we get Thor stuff, which I felt like it was a little bit better character voice-wise, but the reveal at the end, again, is hitting home. The leader is really fucking shit up as he is an immortal hulk right now. It was really cool to see that tie in, but man, alive, this is just so crazy and creepy. Like, “Oh yeah, you think hell is easy. We're below that.” I don't want to know that. I don't want to know what gets worse than hell. Alex:                 Yeah, there's a hell below hell. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 It's all good. Pete:                Great. Alex:                 I think it's- Pete:                Wait. What are you going to say? Alex:                 I think this is insane and a little too scary for me, and I'm looking forward to, maybe, trying to get things back to normal. Pete:                Like a happier Hulk but- Alex:                 Yeah. Like just someone gives me a little hope Hulk. Pete:                The happy Hulk? Alex:                 The happiest Hulk. Yeah, we'll see that pretty soon. Undiscovered Country #8 from Image Comics. Written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. I don't even want to say heroes of this book, but characters in this book have made it to the second ring of the walled-off America, called it Unity. They have discovered in this issue that it is a tech wonderland, seemingly, but of course, not everything is how it seems. I love how much this new arc has changed things up. It's great. It's exciting. It feels weird and nerve-racking. We had Scott Snyder on our live show a couple of weeks ago. He talked pretty heavily, not just about this book, but about how they're adapting it for the movies, which I think revealed a lot of information about how this book is going to go. It's fascinating to read this book through that lens. Pete:                Yeah. I also think that, now, this book is really cooking in a way that I can follow or before, I was very much confused to how this all works, but now, it's like, we've got more of a sense of this world and where they are in it and how they're trying to navigate. Yeah, I really like that whole coin bit. I really liked the introduction in some of the newer characters in this arc. I think this is very, very interesting. It's been a while since I've been excited about a writer's take on an idea, and this take of America and what it is and what it is in this very interesting, especially in this post Apocalyptic world. Alex:                 I also can't believe that we're eight issues in and they're still coming up with new America jokes. Pete:                Yeah. It's very impressive. Alex:                 Very impressive. Yeah. Next up, Mega Man: Fully Charged #2, from Boom Studios. Story by A.J. Marchisello and Marcus Rinehart. Written by Marcus Rinehart. Illustrated by Stefano Simeone. I think you like this issue a bit more than I did, the first issue of the series, Pete. I figured, again, let's check in with issue #2 here. This is a darker, more modern take on Mega Man that gives it more of serial overtone. What do you think about this issue? Pete:                Yeah, I very much liked it. It's like this idea of, okay, Mega Man, how do we deal with this in technology? What's too much? Who has control? That kind of thing. I feel like it's dealt with, in this issue, in a cool, unique way or really inside Mega Man's head as Justin likes to get inside character's heads. We get a lot of what they're thinking about, why they're doing what we're doing. We're meeting all the players as we move forward in an interesting way. I think it's cool. I'm very much enjoying this great, kind of like last page hype up for next issue. This is just fun. To me, Boom is just taking something that's cool and spitting it out in a way that's fun. Alex:                 I like this as well. I like this a little bit more than the first issue, but I still, as somebody who is not totally into Mega Man, I'm a little lost in some of the continuity stuff. The things that I liked or the things where Mega Man is out of costume and himself, it made me feel like not to backseat write it, but it made me feel like I would love to see a Mega Man ultimate Spider-Man type of reorigin of him. Pete:                Whoo. Alex:                 That feels like they're skirting up against, but they're also leading into what fans know. That's the part where it confuses me a little bit. I like the parts when he's out of costume and he's finding out more about this world. That's very interesting. The other parts are a little too deep divy for me, personally. Pete:                All right. Alex:                 Still, the art, very good in here. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Let's move on to one of the big surprises for me in The Stack. Juggernaut #1 from Marvel Comics, written by Fabian Nicieza and art by Ron Garney. I thought this was great. I was completely surprised. This is Juggernaut working for damage control. Some stuff has happened to him in the past where he lost his powers. He's regained them again. We're slowly getting information about that. He is mixing it up with who he thinks is a new mutant named D-Cell. This is just so good. I should've known, but like Ron Garney, of course, amazing on art. Fabian Nicieza knows his way around the story, but this character with the issue of Juggernaut is so interesting to me. I was fascinated in the entire issue. Pete:                Okay. Nonstop action, like the cover looks insane. All right, let's do this, and then it gets into this touching story about Juggernaut and what he goes through and what he has to deal with. It's very interesting. Also, the introduction of D-Cell, very cool. I like this. I'm very impressed by this #1. I also just got to say, the red on Juggernaut's- Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. Pete:                … uniform is tops and Garney is killing it with this black and white with the splashing of red. Alex:                 Right? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 It's a very good redesign- Pete:                Yeah. It's like a little Sin City. Alex:                 … for the coloring on this book. I should've- Pete:                Having a black and white and then popping with colors, but man, it really works great. Alex:                 Yeah. Again, I was very surprised about this book. There's something about reading a scene of the Juggernaut in a hospital and a nurse being like, “Okay, Juggernaut, you could go now.” I was like, “What? What am I reading? What's happening here?” It totally fits. It makes sense for the character and the way that Fabian sets him up. This is a very good issue and the cliffhanger at the end is super fun. It's a good setup. I'm excited about this book. I just sort or randomly threw it on here because it was #1, but I'm real glad we did because I loved reading it. Alex:                 Next up, I know this is one of your top picks, Pete. Black Magic #14 from Image Comics. Written by Greg Rucka and art by Nicola Scott. Picking up out of that cliffhanger for the last issue where one of our main witches is driving through a creepy little girl while the other main witch is sleeping with a girl in her house and thinks a little bit- Pete:                Okay. Well, all right. Well, first of- Alex:                 What do you think, Pete? Pete:                Don't put extra creep on things, all right? Yeah. Sleeping with a aged person, it's not a little girl that she's sleeping with as well. It's not some kind of weird- Alex:                 A woman. It was two beautiful responsible women. Pete:                Okay. All right. You just sound so creepy. All right. First of, yeah, we got the car driving- Alex:                 Some lovely ladies. Pete:                Why? Why are you so creepy? Alex:                 Lovely ladies. Pete:                Stop being creepy. Yeah. We have … the art is the real hero of this book. These ghost kind of Ghoul, creepy kid things are unbelievable. Just the way it's like they're drawing the ghost and the shading, it's just next level art in such a cool way. I was so scared of this girl in the car accident even though it's a comic book. When she twisted doll's leg and then the lady's leg twist like that, oh, that is so creepy. Alex:                 Yeah. This book is very good. Like you were saying, Nicola Scott's art and the way things are drawn throughout this book are the real hero. Greg Rucka, always good, but Nicola Scott's just designs of everything, a very creepy and exactly the right way. Pete:                That cover is so creepy in all the right ways too. Yeah. I also really love a black cat in this book. Really cool. I like that it's a character. I'm really hoping it stays a character in the book. Every once in a while, we get a little bit more from that. It's a nice little side thing that keeps happening. Alex:                 Next up, Power Rangers: Drakkon New Dawn #2, from Boom Studios. Written by Anthony Burch, illustrated by Simone Ragazzoni. We have talked about the last couple of Power Rangers books, which takes places in this apocalyptic future where everything has been destroyed and the Power Ranger's last hope to save everybody. I've been pretty open. I have been hiding the fact that I don't care about Power Rangers at all, whereas, I didn't love two issues back the one shot. I did like the first issue of New Dawn. I was curious to check out the second issue. I liked it even more. This is good. This is a good, dark, adult's reinvention of the Power Rangers. I really enjoyed it. I'm onboard and I'm very surprised. Pete:                I'm also very surprised because I liked Power Rangers and this is not like Power Rangers … I haven't really read a lot of the comics, but the TV show. I'm very impressed that how much I'm onboard with the story and what's going on. The writing is doing such an amazing job of sucking you into this world and giving you these characters in such a great way that's such a compelling kind of thing that gets you very excited for this kind of big fight that's coming up. Yeah, I'm very impressed with this book. Alex:                 It's basically like stripping all the things from them that make them Power Rangers and finding out what make them tick as heroes, right? I feel like, most of the time, you watch a Power Rangers episode and the deal is, should we use our swords? Yeah. All right. Let's use our swords. We did it. We won. That's the main conflict of Power Rangers versus this, they're dealing with actual real human issues, there are actual conflicts, there are actual problems they need to deal with and big overwhelming things, but they're not losing the sense of humor at the same time. It's just so much more fun to read. This is great. I'm very excited about this even if it's … I'm actually going to get back to the status quo. I think this is very good and I'm very surprised that I'm saying so. Alex:                 On the other hand, I do want to talk about an issue that I'm a little disappointed in for very specific, very stupid reasons. Maestro #2 from Marvel. Written by Peter David and art by German Peralta. This is the origin of the Maestro, the Dark Hulk by Peter David. Love the first issue of this book. Pete:                Yeah. You're going nuts. Alex:                 I thought it was great. Yeah, this issue- Pete:                Really? Alex:                 … I had some problems with, honestly. Pete:                I love this. Alex:                 Yeah. Here's my problem, and I'm going to spoil some of the plot stuff, but Peter David's writing, good as always. German Peralta's art, great. The idea and- Pete:                You got problems with colors? Alex:                 Here's what happens. Pete:                What are you … what's your- Alex:                 Last issue, Hulk wakes up, finds the world has been destroyed. It's like, “You know what, I've given up on humanity.” They're like, “Ooh, this is good. We're going to go on a slow progression to finding out how it became the Maestro.” What happened her? How did he build up a civilization? What is going to happen? Then in this issue, he finds the civilization and Hercules is the Maestro and it's already happened. Pete:                Dude, that's a fucking last page reveal you just did. Alex:                 No, I know. I said I was going to talk about spoilers, but my point is that it's like I waitlisted to the fact that he became the Maestro because somebody else was the Maestro and he took over that stuff versus the Hulk going in his descent to the darkness. I'm still going to read this. I like the art. I like the Maestro. I like Peter David, but it was a real bummer of an issue. Pete:                Your problem was, you have a better idea than what the comic did. That's what your problem is. Alex:                 No, I don't have a better idea. It just felt like it was going in a different direction after the first issue than what happened in the second issue. It felt like we skipped all of the work. Pete:                I think you got to wait for it, man. I think you're judging it too fast. Alex:                 What do you think then, Pete? Pete:                I think I should like it. Alex:                 Do you like it? Pete:                I like the idea of sad Hulk in the wastelands talking about humanity. He took some fair shots, man. You know what I mean? He's not lying. Poor animals. Alex:                 I like all of that stuff. I think that's good. Pete:                It's like, “Okay, he stumbles across people” and now, it's like, “Okay, what's going to happen? Can he go see this Maestro.” Okay and then Maestro isn't who you think it is. Great reveal. Classic comic. Boom. I don't know why you're mad. I think it's interesting to see how this is going. I think this is a solid second issue of ramping up the story. I'm sorry, you had a better idea. I would like to just quickly, while we're talking about our Marvel book, the rest and power, Chadwick Boseman kind of things at the top of the comics. I think we're really classy and well-done. I'm happy that they did that because it's fucking really nice. Alex:                 Yeah. Me too. I agree. Man, it is very hard to read Marvel books with Black Panther right now, which I know is such a weird thing and I keep checking myself of the emotional reaction there because it's not like he wasn't actually Black Panther. The Black Panther in comics is a different thing than Black Panther in the movies, but whenever Black Panther comes into a comic book panel into a comic book story, it's crushing because it feels like it's Chadwick Boseman coming into the scene. I know it's not. Intellectually, I know it's not, but emotionally, it feels that way. I agree with you. It is nice to have that acknowledgement on the front cover. It's so sad. Let's very diligently transition into talking about The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3 from Image Comics. Written by Jason Aaron and art by R.M. Guera. This is continuing the story line of two versions we're trying to escape from. Not where angels have their way with him. It's horrifying. Alex:                 Pete loves this book. Cannot stop talking about it. We get off camera and off the podcast and Pete is like, “Let's talk about The Goddamned” in an open voice. It's very impressive, but another great issue of this book, R.M. Guera draws the crap out of it as our girls continue to escape for the mountain and find out things are not quite as they seem, of course, but it's so dark and it's so sad. It just brings you further and further down every issue. Pete:                Yeah. This is really impressive. What's nice is, and this issue we're not really dealing with the angels raping. We can move past that a little bit, which is good. We've got these two heroines fighting for their lives as they're trying to make it out of this mountain range, but the reveal at the end is a little crushing. Man, it can say enough about the art. Just the whole part where you thought, maybe, she was going to die and they later rest and then like, it's the action, the storytelling. This is really a great story even though a lot of the story makes me uncomfortable. I'm still very much impressed with the product that they're putting out. Alex:                 Yeah. That's Jason Aaron writing about faith, writing about religion and making it dark, making it realistic but not throwing it away entirely. He's not like, “Fuck you. You're stupid for believing this stuff.” It's more about what do we believe in if the things we believe in are evil. That's a great thing to drill into right now and he's doing such a good job with it. All right. Let's move on then. Judge Dredd False Witness #3 from IDW. Story by Brandon Easton, art by Kei Zama. Oh my gosh, I really mess this one up, but we finally get what we've been asking for with this series. We got a meeting between our two main characters between a guy on the run for a murder he didn't commit and Judge Dredd who is tracking him down. This title continues to over perform in my mind. It's a good Judge Dredd story. There are some really good, interesting class and race stuff that's played with right here. It's very smart and well done while, still, being a good action thriller. Pete:                Yeah. It's just hard. I don't want a Judge Dredd Comic right now. I don't want a story about cops fucking all powerful cops that are judged, jury and executioner right now. I didn't really feel it as much with the other issues, but right now, I was just like, “Fuck this, man.” Alex:                 I see what you're saying. Not to interject and to cut you out, but I do think … I guess, we'll see where it goes, but it does feel like the story is doing the opposite thing. The story is presenting Judge Dredd with a case that is not cotton dry. I could be wrong with the coloring, but we get a case of a black dude getting plastic surgery to look like a white dude and become basically like a proponent of the rich. There's that thing going on. He gets murdered. His former friend is framed for it. Judge Dredd is tracking him down. I think we're getting a story here where Judge Dredd having to confront the idea that things are not cotton dry, that I cannot be judged jury and executioner right now. If that is the way the story is going, that's an incredibly timely thing to happen. Pete:                Yeah. I hear you. It's just a little painful to just see … Just the panels where they're so imposing over people, the judges. When they walk by and there's all these people lined up in attention and it's very, very intimidating. It's heading me in a different way right now that, normally, it can be like, “Okay, this is comic book. This is fun. Judge Dredd is great. I love Judge Dredd,” but it's just like, right now, it's just a little bit … I agree with you that it is trying to do that. It's hard to see the uniform and not flinch a little bit. Alex:                 All right. Last one we're going to talk about is Bliss #3 from Image Comics. Written by Sean Lewis and art by Caitlin Yarsky. We love every issue of this title, but this is pulling off some big things, some very big things. Specifically picking up the cliffhanger where a kid has been telling the whole history of his dad. We find out that his dad is not as clean and doing much worse things than we thought he was. Also, welcome to Justin who popped in the last time of the podcast. Pete:                Hey. Justin:              You got to choose your angles. I think, just really, Bliss is the comic that I really wanted to weigh in on. Because I've actually been here the whole time. Really great reviews. Alex:                 Oh, wow. Justin:              I didn't want to chime in because you guys, I think, really covered the basis, especially the X and sword stuff. Pete:                Oh. Well, thanks yeah. Alex:                 I'll tell you what, actually. We talked about a lot of books on The Stack today. I think, it would be worth before we finish up talking about Bliss. Why don't you just give a thumbs up or thumbs down, like a yay or nay to all the titles. I'll read through all the titles, okay? Justin:              Great. Yeah. Alex:                 Here we go. X of swords: Creation #1. Justin:              Perfect. No notes. Pete:                Wow. Alex:                 Dark Night: Speed Metal #1. Justin:              Fast as I wanted it to be. Alex:                 Wow, and Unkindness of Ravens, number one. Justin:              More ravens. Alex:                 Spider-Man #4. Justin:              You know how I feel about this. This guy should be making more quips. Alex:                 The Last God #9. Justin:              Good fight. Alex:                 Voyage to the Stars #2. Justin:              Yeah, get off earth. Earth sucks. Alex:                 WYND #4. Justin:              Good. Not enough wind. It's very still. Alex:                 More wind. Wicked Things #5. Justin:              Chilling. Alex:                 Low #25. Justin:              Oh, no. Fun. It was fun. Alex:                 Yeah. That was fun. Wait. Okay. Low #25. Can we actually stop for a second? I know we're very much versed in the podcast, but the whole reason I put that in The Stack was to get your take on it, Justin. Low #25, penUltimate issue of the series. What do you think? Justin:              We look at this as a whole. My review of the last issue was, I can't believe he's willing to take us here and I bought it and then it was like, “Oh, no. Rug-pull everything is terrible.” I don't know where we're going to go with this at the end of the day. Pete:                How about that reveal though? That was fucking bananas. Justin:              Everything about this book is bananas. They push everything in every direction all the time. That's why the series is one of the richest series we've reviewed in this. Maybe top Remender. Maybe top Remender. Alex:                 Yeah. This has really blown me away as for what Remender is doing in this comic. I didn't really, really appreciate it until this second to the last issue, like everything that he's doing. Justin:              Yeah, 100%. Alex:                 It's making me feel like we should probably do a separate podcast about Top Remender. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                We just got to determine like break it down, top 10. Justin:              The remaining Remenders. The Remenders that remain. Pete:                Right. Yeah. Alex:                 Getting back to the list, Canto II: The Hollow Men #2. Justin:              Really, Canto? Can? No. Alex:                 The Immortal She-Hulk #1. Justin:              Legit. Love this book. I can't believe they're making She-Hulk terrifying now too. Alex:                 Yeah. Yeah. Undiscovered Country, number- Justin:              I'm worried that this is going to become my job from here on now. Don't say anything and then just give us the one liner nonsense thing. Alex:                 Yeah. We're almost through it. There's a lot of titles though. Undiscovered Country, number eight. Justin:              Perfectly clear of what's happening all the time. Alex:                 Mega Man: Fully Charged #2. Justin:              Playing the video game, except my fingers are not sore. Alex:                 Nice. Yeah. Juggernaut, number one. Justin:              This guy is unstoppable. Alex:                 Yeah. Black Magic #14. Justin:              Somebody stop him. Alex:                 I'm definitely getting the impression that you've read all this book. Justin:              100%. Alex:                 Black Magic #14. Justin:              Great to see this book back. I've missed this book. Alex:                 Yeah. Power Rangers: Drakkon New Dawn #2. Justin:              Once again, surprisingly into the Power Rangers. Time to do a rewatch. Alex:                 Great. That was my reaction too. Pete:                Go, go Power Rangers. Justin:              I [crosstalk 00:51:58]. Alex:                 Maestro #2. Justin:              This guy, I wanted more music. I feel like he's not doing any conducting. Alex:                 The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3. Justin:              This book really makes you want to get back into the bible. Alex:                 Judge Dredd False Witness #3. Justin:              I'm not prepared to be judged. Alex:                 Okay. Justin:              This book was judging me. Alex:                 Great. Finally, that brings us to Bliss #3. Once again, this is a great issue of this book. This really flips the premise in a certain way. We spent the first two issues knowing and loving this dad. In this third issue, we find out he is not all, he's cracked up to be. It's real dark, real sad, but I thought real good. Pete, what was you takeaway from this one? Pete:                Yeah. I was really impressed with this issue. A lot of things click into place in this issue. We get a lot of forward movement and a way we can all follow, which is great. Yeah, it went from being like tripped out stone or what's going on to like, “Oh, shit. There's a lot of evil fucked up shit going on in a way that is very much pointed at this family.” I think that really grounds it in the son-mom stuff was just so touching and powerful. The panels of the mom's face are just unbelievable. Justin:              Yeah. The art on this book, I think, really crushes. It adds some air, this air of tension in fantastical remorse and just loss throughout the book. It reminds me of like the dark crystal a little bit or- Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              … especially with the non-human creatures. Even Neil Gaiman's Coraline a little bit. It feels like a more adult version of it. The scenes at the end where the dad reveals what he's capable of are just tough. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              The coloring as well throughout is just beautiful. Pete:                Yeah. It's really intense. Alex:                 Great. Great book. Definitely pick it up. That is it for The Stack. If you like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. to Crowdcast and YouTube. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher or the app of your choice. To subscribe and listen to the show, did I say pateron.com/comicbookclub to support the show? Pete:                You did now. Alex:                 Okay. There we go. At Comic Book Live on Twitter. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. We'll see you next time on The Stack. The post The Stack: X Of Swords, Speed Metal And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re excited to welcome writer Brandon Easton back to TransMissions! He’s living the dream of many Transformers fans, having written three episodes of the new War For Cybertron Siege Netflix show, and writing a new Ultra Magnus story coming soon in the Transformers: Galaxies comic series. We can’t wait to see what else he’s got in store for us. All this and much, much more on this special episode of TransMissions Alt Mode! Order our TransMissions Exclusive Cover Variant of IDW’s Transformers Till All Are One #1! Want some TransMissions swag? Check out our online shop, powered by TeePublic! Like what we’re doing and want to help make our podcast even better? If you already support us, thank you! Show Notes: Brandon Easton on Twitter and Instagram Ultra Magnus Story in Transformers Galaxies #10-12 (Coming soon) Marvel Action Spider-Man [ Issue 1 | Issue 2 | Issue 3 ] Judge Dredd:… Continue reading The post Alt Mode Special 15 – Interview with Netflix War For Cybertron Siege Writer Brandon Easton appeared first on TransMissions Podcast Network.

We’re excited to welcome writer Brandon Easton back to TransMissions! He’s living the dream of many Transformers fans, having written three episodes of the new War For Cybertron Siege Netflix show, and writing a new Ultra Magnus story coming soon in the Transformers: Galaxies comic series. We can’t wait to see what else he’s got in store for us. All this and much, much more on this special episode of TransMissions Alt Mode! Order our TransMissions Exclusive Cover Variant of IDW’s Transformers Till All Are One #1! Want some TransMissions swag? Check out our online shop, powered by TeePublic! Like what we’re doing and want to help make our podcast even better? If you already support us, thank you! Show Notes: Brandon Easton on Twitter and Instagram Ultra Magnus Story in Transformers Galaxies #10-12 (Coming soon) Marvel Action Spider-Man [ Issue 1 | Issue 2 | Issue 3 ] Judge Dredd:… Continue reading The post Alt Mode Special 15 – Interview with Netflix War For Cybertron Siege Writer Brandon Easton appeared first on TransMissions Podcast Network.

On this week's Stack podcast, check out reviews for: Seven Secrets #1, Dark Nights Death Metal #3, Something is Killing the Children #9, Empyre #5, The Flash #759, Adventureman #3, Marauders #11, Judge Dredd: False Witness #2, Wonder Woman #760, Big Girls #1, The Immortal Hulk #36, Stealth #4, The Amazing Spider-Man #46, Transformers: Galaxies #8 and Excellence #9. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. TRANSCRIPT: Alex:         What's up, you all? Welcome to The Stack, I'm Alex. Justin:       I'm Justin. Pete:         I'm Pete. Alex:         And on The Stack, we're talking about a bunch of books that have come out this very week. Kicking it off with a big new book from BOOM! Studios, Seven Secrets #1, written by Tom Taylor and illustrated by Daniele Di Nicuolo. Pete, I want to go to you first, because I was very surprised to hear, I think this was your favorite book of the week. Is that right? Pete:         It really was. Justin:       Yes. Pete:         It is. It's a great book, I love the art. It's a very interesting idea, that there are seven secrets and they are highly guarded secrets. And people kind of like dedicate their lives to them. There's this kind of like societies built around, protecting the secrets. I think it's just a very creative idea, and fun, amazing art. A lot of action right out of the box. So, yeah, I think this is a great book. I'm very excited for more. Justin:       Yeah, I agree. This is really fun. It reminded me a lot of the Iron Fist run, that I want to say, Matt Fraction did which dealt with the… Alex:         I think it was Fraction and (Ed) Brubaker, right? Justin:       Yes, yes, that is accurate. Which got into all the different sort of fighting squads in doing battle throughout all of time. It has that same sort of dynamic art style, and feels like it's very numerical, you're chasing very specific things. So, I really like this. Alex:         Yeah, I thought this is great as well. I mean Tom Taylor is such, such a reliable writer and Daniele Di Nicuolo almost has like this Proto, Manga style in a way, where feels more detailed than that in terms of the fight, but the propulsive nature of the action suggests that a little bit. There's also a really good emotional underpinning, that I won't spoil for any or somebody who's planning on reading of the book. My only little quibbled with it… Pete:         Hey, watch yourself. Alex:         All that… It reminded me a little bit in pacing of Wynd from BOOM! Studios, another book we really liked a lot. But both of them felt like… Just to take like a very broad view, back in the day, you had these ‘done in one issue', right? People still do aim for done in one issue, then you had (Brian Michael) Bendis came along with Ultimate Spider-Man and this whole decompression, and aiming for the trade thing. Both Wynd and Seven Secrets which I both like a lot, seem almost different in a way where it's not decompression for the trade, so much as here are the first 20 pages of the story. Where they ended places, where it's like not even the of a chapter, exactly, so much is it almost feels in the middle of a chapter. and I need to read the second issue to understand more of what's going on. I don't know if you guys got that same feeling for that. Justin:       No, I hear you. Especially in Wynd. Pete:         That's a very weird thing to say, but, okay. Justin:       No, but I get it from a storytelling perspective, it's like we've talked about writing for the trade for almost the entire run of our podcast, and this is taking it to the next level. It's like literally writing the trade, and then chopping it up with like a butcher's knife, and here's the first issue. Alex:         Yeah, which is, it's a good first issue, and I highly recommend picking it up. But it just, it needs more, for me. Pete:         I don't… Yeah, I disagree. I think the ending was a fucking crazy ending and it's a kind of fun place to leave it off until next time. Alex:         It's good. It's a good book. Definitely pick it up. That's why we wanted to lead with it. Next up, Dark Nights: Death Metal #3 from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and art by Greg Capullo. Talk about wild. This is a wild ride to through the DC Universe. The heroes of the DC Universe are being completely beaten down by the Batman Who Laughs, who now is the Dark Knight, I think he's called. Justin:       The Darkest Knight. Alex:         Yeah, there we go… Because he has Doctor Manhattan powers. They're trying to stave off the death of the Multiverse as usual, as you do. And so, they've invaded Apocalypse to go and rescue Superman in this issue. Some other things happen. How'd did you feel about this? Pete:         Now this is just a fun comic. Like by the title it's like, Dark Nights: Death Metal. Like let's take this, what we know and love, and just turn it to 11. You got para Robins; you've got like insane crazy ideas. Everything is fun and over the top about this. You've got Superman with like knuckle-dusters on. I mean this is just crazy fun that like you know, just makes the young kid inside of you excited about what you're seeing on the page. [00:05:00] Justin:       The way you even structure your review, Pete, reminds me of Stefon on SNL, which is actually sort of a good description of this book. But it's like you want to go to the craziest night club in the DC Universe. [laughter] Pete:         Yeah. Justin:       You've got Batman a dinosaurs, you've got a dwarf riding another Batman. And that's literally what this is, it's like a million ideas jammed up in a blender and spread out over a crisis style storyline line. And I like it as well. It's like they took a hammer to the Elseworld's annual crossover from like the late ‘90s, smashed up all those bits, jammed them together, and we're like, “This is an event we're actually going to spend some time in.” And this issue, especially, I thought was super fun. All the Superman stuff was great. The Mister Miracle escape, all that. I… Pete:         Yeah. The use of Mister Miracle is amazing. The dark side of Batman was crazy. Like seeing Wonder Woman with like a metal ass chainsaw. It was just so badass. Justin:       I could do with a few less Batman, let me just say that. Alex:         Yes, it is… We're reaching critical mass with Batman, and I think they would kind of realized that to the point where Harley Quinn is like, “Man, he's really good with branding”, and just calling that out. And I think like that's the sort of cheeky self-awareness that makes this work, because it's Scott Snyder realizing how ludicrously over the top it is. Everything that's going on and leaning into that, versus saying, “No, no, no. This is serious stuff here. Okay, there's a lot of Batman.” It doesn't feel… The stakes are high, but it doesn't feel serious at any point, and I think that's good. Like that gets into you. One of my favorite characters from Scott Snyder's run, we get Jarro the pint-sized Starro [overlap talk] who think Batman is his dad. Pete:         Come on. Alex:         It's great. It's super fun, and cute. Justin:       It's so funny. Alex:         That's enjoyable. I do want to ask you guys… Pete:         The all hands in moment was fun. Alex:         Super fun. I did feel like this issue was a little more expository than I would've liked. There was a lot of standing around and be like, “Okay, real quick, here's what we need to do, and here's what's going on. This is complicated. I'm just going to bring you up to speed”, in between the fun moments. But there was a hint that there's something else going on with both Batman and Superman, where they turn to each other in the middle, after they freed Superman. And I think it's Superman says, “Does Diana know about you?” And Batman says, “No. Does she know about you?” So, what do you think's going on with them? What is the deal? Justin:       I don't know, that moment it stressed me out little bit because it… To me, not to be the Pete in the situation… Pete:         Yeah. Justin:       But it made me feel like it's going to be like, “Did you tell her that this is all a simulation that's happening?”  “No, I didn't tell her. Did you?” It felt like a ‘too cool for school secret' that I don't want to disrupt the flow just when I'm really getting into the flow of the book. Pete:         Yeah, yeah. Alex:         Yeah. I could see something like that. I mean my big thought is that Batman is already dead. That he died, that's why he's running around with the Black Lantern Ring. That's why he was able to escape the omega beams, that hit him from the Dark Side Batman. I don't know what Superman's secret is, but to me that feels like the most reasonable thing that could happen to him, and that would be sad for Diana because they essentially have already lost. Pete:         Well, but like this is, it sort of exists in the dark Multiverse. So, it's the flip flop of everything. So, maybe that's the win, the fact that they're already dead or there's something, where it's going to be something with emotional resonance, like them being dead, but that is actually the victory they find or the loophole they escape through. Alex:         I mean, I think you kind of just said this, but what if the whole thing is in the Dark Multiverse? What if they're not in the Real Multiverse at all but this is just where the heroes have lost already, and this the flip side of the story to show them the way that things could've have gone horribly wrong. Justin:       Yeah, I mean that to me… Because all this hype about like this is the real continuity. I'm like, “I don't need that.” This is just as good a story if it takes place in a Dark Multiverse, but I think what emerges from that I guess is what the lesson is. It's are we going to get this Superman in the world or some version of these characters. Alex:         Good fun stuff. Moving on, Something is Killing the Children #9 from BOOM! Studios written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Werther Dell'Edera. If you happen to read this book Something is Killing the Children, it's a bunch of monsters. They like to eat children. And there's one woman who may or may not be able to stop them. In this issue, she trying to appeal to a young boy who has previously been attacked by the monsters to try and act as bait for them. Man, this book is so good. So, well drawn, so well written. This is almost the opposite of what I was saying with Seven Secrets where it's like not a lot happens every issue but it feels so weighted every single time. [00:10:06] Justin:       Yeah, there's just a creeping dread all the time, and we get little dribs and drabs of backstory each time. It's really interesting, and also really horrifying, the stuff that happens. The adults feel like they're crippled and stuck in place the entire time. There's a whole section about like, “I'm just handing out beers, because I don't know what else to do.” While the kids are either being murdered or trying to act against these monsters. And the sort of reveal, at the end, is interesting and maybe spins the story in a different direction. Pete:         Yeah, I mean this is a very interesting comic. Each issue has been a fun surprise of like, what's kind of in store. In this one, we kind of get her back story, the main hunter's backstory and it's very cool the way it's told. I really love the paneling and the art of this book. It's just very unique and cool. And I think this is one of my favorites in this stack. It's really great every time we get to read this. Alex:         I agree. Let's move back to Marvel for Empyre#5 story by Dan Slott and Al Ewing, written by Al Ewing, art by Valerio Schiti. And when I say move back to Marvel, this is the first time we're talking about Marvel in The Stack. I thought here's another on… [chuckle] So, this is the second to the last issue of Empyre, Marvel's big events, which is plants versus zombies. In this, the Cotati, a plant race, has been attacking Earth. They want to take over the Earth and the entire universe. The Kree and Skrull are trying to stop them. But in the middle of all of that whole Hulkling has been leading the Kree and the Skrull army, except not really. There's actually somebody masquerading as him, Wiccan who secretly married him. Figured that out the last issue. That's where they pick up this issue, with both that, and the fact, that She-Hulk, who has been taken over by one of these plant creatures, and is supposedly dead is attacking the Thing. So, lots of stuff going on here. As we round up this event, how are you feeling about it? Pete:         Well this issue, I'm like, “All right now, things are happening.” Like things are really cooking now. I feel like I'm just starting to get into this event. But this was a great issue; a lot happened. It's sad though we didn't address the She-Hulk stuff yet, but I feel like this had a great amount of kind of like story mixed with action and the weight of everything happening. I really like this issue. Justin:       I like this issue too. It really is… I'm so surprised it's ending already. It does feel like it's just ramping up. It feels so short to go right into the final movement right here. I really like that they folded in the wedding between Hulkling and Wiccan, as sort of a main story point. Like that feels really good. But I feel like I need two more issues to really elevate the stakes. And if the She-Hulk death is like the whole thing here, it's like… I don't know, it feels a little disjointed. Alex:         It's… Pete:         I… Oh, I'm sorry… Alex:         All I was going to say is, this struck me over the past couple of issues but it really started to hit me with this one. And I know this isn't a TV show, so it's the wrong term, but there's not enough sets in this book. Like it takes place… Pete:         Ha… Weird. Alex:         It takes place on the alien ship mostly, where they really haven't left the throne room that Hulkling is in. And then there's a couple of glimpses of other places that they go to that mostly seem motivated by what's happening in the spin offs side stories. So, we get a bunch of stuff at Wakanda, but it's more like here's an overview of what's happening in other places, and then Tony Stark and Reed Richards are just hanging out in Avengers Mountain and putting together a suit. So, like you guys are saying every issue of this is good and fun. Dan Slott and Al Ewing know what they're doing. Valero Schiti's art is very good superhero art, but there's not a lot going on, which is surprising. Pete:         Yeah… So first of, I want to say I'm sorry Wakanda is not enough for you. Secondly, I love… Alex:         Hey, what can you, Wakanda do about that? Pete:         Ahhhhhh… Justin:       Oh, boy. Alex:         Giddy-up… [chuckles] Pete:         Anyways… I really love The Thing stuff in here like this. Like when you're talking about a classic fight and this whole thing about giving up. I thought that was a perfect kind of monologue for The Thing to have. I really thought it was a cool bad ass moment. Alex:         Yeah, I agree The Thing stuff is good, the character stuff is good, like I was saying it's well written, it's well drawn. I just want a little more out of a big cosmic event. Justin:       Yeah, of course, the small moments are great and you would expect that out of these writers, but like when you think about the great epic crossovers like Infinity Gauntlet, every issue a massive event happened, and you really felt the movement of the book. [00:15:00] And to your point Alex, there aren't a lot of sets; the movement has been very small. And you want those big sweeping moments like remember that… I want to say fifth issue of Infinity Gauntlet, when all of the beings of the universe showed up and it was like, “holy shit”. It felt huge, and this feels small. Alex:         Maybe part of it is the name. They've been selling it as this big event. They've been building up for a while. They called it Empyre, and so far, the Cotati haven't done anything. Like they're trying to take over Earth, but we don't get to actually see them really taking over Earth. Not to armchair write this but I want to see them take over Earth in issue one, and then expand outward from that like what happens next how what happens when they start to actually take over the universe make this a big thing and it just I don't know it feels small. Next up, Dryad #4 from Oni Press, written by Curtis Wiebe and illustrated by Justin Osterling. We launched this in a live show, but we are setting up an interview with the creative team. So, check for that in your local Comic Book Club feed. But this book is great and wild, every issue. We talked about it as the heir to Saga very purposely. I think, in the promotional materials, they call it the Saga Continues for the next issues. But if you haven't been reading, it started off as a fantasy story. It's about two parents, take their kids, hide out in a fantasy style town. Turns out, it's not really a fantasy world; it's actually a tech world with some fantasy looking creatures. Magic has disappeared, except the dad actually has magic. And last issue, they got picked up by a mercenary team, and taken back to the city that they've fled from, that's where they had this issue. Things go terribly wrong for there. I just don't know what this book is, from issue to issue, and I love it. I love it. [chuckle] Justin:       Yeah, it's mixing up a lot of stuff in a good way though it's moving through it very specifically in a smart way. I'm totally on board with it. The Saga comparison is great. I that we've made that… I think it also reminds me of Ascender and Descender as well; the image book. Because it is blending that science and magic worlds. Pete:         Yeah, I just think it's very interesting the way each issue is so different. This one is very action packed and a lot of crazy stuff going on. So, it's very cool when you pick up a book and you think you're like you have an understanding of it and it still surprises you. Justin:       Yep. Alex:         Good stuff. Let's move on to The Flash #759, from DC Comics, written by Joshua Williamson art by Rafa Sandoval and Scott Kolins. This kicking off finish line, which is technically Joshua Williamson's, I believe, last arc on The Flash. Something he teased way back when he was on our live show. So, this is something he's been building to for a really long time. Reverse Flash, Professor Zoom, has taken over Barry Allen's body, stranded him in the Speed Force, and meanwhile, he's trying to turn all of his friends against him. I know you guys aren't really into the speedsters. I, of course, enjoyed this issue because I love the speedsters. Love Bart Allen, like seeing him interacting with Barry and everybody else. What'd you guys feel about this one? Pete:         Well, I felt like we had, the art's unbelievable. And then, we had like an evil Flash messing with a younger big haired Flash, and then all old timey Flash was like, “Leave them damn kids alone.” Alex:         Oh, it was great, what a great cliff-hanger. Justin:       Yep, what a great summary of the book. Almost like a live reading of it. [chuckles] Alex as such a fan of the speedsters, does this make you like do wind sprints or does this make you sort of speed up in your own life. Alex:         I never stop moving when I read this book. Pete:         Wow. Alex:         Like I'm just, I'm going, going, going, the entire time. Justin:       Always on your treadmill that doesn't travel through time. Your very terrestrial… Alex:         My comic treadmill. [overlap talk] Justin:       Ah, that's good stuff. Pete:         Oh, boy. Justin:       I like this. I love Impulse, one of my favorite characters in the original comic, way back in the day. So, it's great to see him here and sort of getting a little bit of an emotional moment, which I think is something that's been missing from the character of Bart Allen for a while. It's sad to see Barry Allen being such a jerk. Alex:         Yep. There you go… Next up, Adventureman #3 from Image Comics written by Matt Fraction, pencils and colors by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson. This about a woman who discovers that the old timey pulp hero, she loves and obsessed with, was actually real. She becomes the heir to his power and his mysteries and everything else. In this issue, she's dealing with that in some very weird ways. [00:20:01] As it turns out, she's just getting real buff and larger. And getting information that is powered by the pulp stories that powered Adventureman. This is great. I love seeing Matt Fraction just having fun and also clearly just leaning into letting the Dodson's do their stuff. Pete:         Yeah, yeah. This is what, I mean if you're going to say… The art is worth picking this up alone. I mean this is definitely… Alex:         If I was going say that Pete? Pete:         If anybody was going to say it. I'm just saying… Justin:       If any one of the three of us were to hypothetically say that… [chuckle] Let's call it a catch phrase. Pete:         Yeah. I feel like… This story is good, but really, it's just fantastic art, and it's so weird the way we're kind jumping between worlds and stuff. But I'm very interested in the story. I think it moves really well. We're kind of finding things out with the main character, which is cool. But yeah, it's interesting. I'm curious to see how this kind of unfolds. Justin:       The main character grows 15 inches in her time. What would happen with you guys if one of you or both of you grew 15 inches Alex:         Whew. I would probably scratch against the ceiling, first of all, in this basement where I'm taping right now. Justin:       [chuckle] That's right, because you're already six two, right? Alex:         Yeah, I'm very tall, as you guys know. [chuckes] Justin:       Yeah. Pete:         Yep. Justin:       Maybe you have grown this much. We don't even know. Alex:         That'll probably hurt a lot, right? Justin, you probably know this, but when my kids grow, they go crazy, like literally, insane. Justin:       Yeah… When children grow, they scream the entire time, right? Alex:         Yup, pretty much. Justin:       That's what happening with my kids… Pete, if you grew, you'd be mad, though, because you like to be Wolverine sized. Pete:         Yeah, I like to be short. But I would say if I would've have grown 15 inches maybe like during high school, that would've been glorious. Really could've changed my volleyball career. Alex:         Too many inches… Too many inches, I don't like it. Justin:       Also, I'd like a longer definition of volleyball career, eventually, but that's cool… It's cool for now. I like this comic a lot. I think we've given sort of the crown of cleanest comic to a TV or movie adaptation to Kieron Gillen's Once and Future. I think we can share that crown with this book. It feels like very much writing it for the eventual TV show or movie that this would become. Alex:         Yeah, and Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick have that TV production arm, Neutral Milk Hotel or whatever it's called… Justin:       [chuckle] Whoa… Hipster slam… Pete:         Hipster slam… Alex:         Yuhhh… Got you guys, know I love you. I think you're amazing. We're happy over your house, once. It was very nice. Marauders #11 from Marvel Comics, written by Gerry Duggan and art by Stefano Caselli. Pete:         The Duggs! Alex:         This is… Man, this cover, so nervous with this cover. You know I love the Kate Pryde, man. I was really nervous, man, Pete:         Yeah, man. Alex:         I was really freaking out, it was tweaking here. Justin:       It's game over man. Alex:         Game over, Red. So, Kate Pryde was killed off a couple of issues back, by Sebastian Shaw on a boat. She wasn't coming back. She wasn't allowed to Krakoa. They couldn't reincarnate her in a new body. That's what this issue is dealing with. I'll spoil it right here… Three, two, one… Kate Pryde comes back! They figure out how to get her back. It turns out that she wasn't able to phase through their eggs, and all that Emma needs to do is pull her through. I'll tell you what, I love that Gerry Duggan is pushing the ‘frenemy-ship' or whatever you want to call it between Emma Frost and Kate Pryde. So much fun, I'm glad she's back. I know there's more mysteries to figure out but this a good book. I enjoyed it. Pete:         I got some questions. Alex:         Yeah, what up, Pete? Pete:         So, we get kind of, she has like a Viking funeral, do they purposely kind of make her look like Michael Jackson… In the boat? Or is that just me… Justin:       Let me ask you, Pete… Pete:         Like it was a weird choice, for she has like the kind of red jacket, and then the quarters over eyes or half dollars… Alex:         Oh yeah, like how Michael Jackson always had half dollars over his eyes? Pete:         No, but I mean it looks like a Michael Jackson outfit. Justin:       Like Captain Eel? Pete:         Yeah, I'm just… Maybe it's just me… Alex:         Okay. Pete:         But anyways… Justin:       Let me argue… Maybe say, Pete… I feel like maybe you're looking… If you guys have an X-Men book, you're maybe looking for something to… I believe it's called nit-pick? Pete:         Oh, interesting. Justin:       Or Pete-pick? Pete:         You know, I don't… Yeah, I mean, so we see a funeral, and then it's like me really like, “No, no… “ It was just the we didn't figure out the eggs part, right? Which, “Okay, cool, cool”  but then there was this weird moment where it was like, “Yeah, it took 18 eggs.”… “Oh, so she's 18 now?” Like that was a weird pervy moment. Alex:         Hold on. First of all, A) definitely misinterpreting that. But I did want to ask about that moment just because it's Nightcrawler calls out that they tried to resurrection her 18 times. I did a quick search for that because it seemed to me that was like some sort of religious thing that I wasn't picking up on. I couldn't find anything on it. I don't know if you guys know if there's anything from non-Judaism? I want to say Christianity or Catholicism… But something that is about 18 resurrections? Is there anything about that? Pete:         No. Not that I know… That's just why I thought it was something about her age or something because she's always been younger. Alex:         No, it's not about the age. It's definitely about like the 18 resurrections. So, I don't know if it means that there's like 18 Kate Pryde bodies out there that Nightcrawler's going to find, or if that is a specific reference to something. It was definitely a weird moment, but it was not a creepy age moment. Pete:         Okay, well it's definitely a weird moment that stuck out to me. Justin:       I would say we're not the most theological podcast hosts, when it comes to doing a deep dive on a religious reference. Alex:         Sure… Pizza priest though. Justin:       Pizza priest… No, pizza, pizza priest. Alex:         Yehey, pizza priest. Pete:         Yeah… Have a pizza priest. I'm not a regular priest. Justin:       Nice… I don't know the reference. I did like this book. I liked the position Kate Pryde had in the X-Men world where she was sort of ‘outsided' and not allowed. It's a good mystery. I don't know if that's over now, or what the deal is going forward. But I think this book is a fun sort of side book to the X-Men universe right now. Alex:         Yeah, I agree. Stefano Caselli's art is always good. Let's move on to Judge Dredd: False Witness #2 from IDW, story by Brandon Easton, art by Zei Kama, excuse me, Kei Zama. I think we have some pretty nice things to say about this book last time, which is why I thought it would be interesting to revisit. This is somebody on the outskirts, who lives in the wastelands outside of Mega-City One, comes into the city finds out that him and other people like him are being harvested. And that's where we pick up this issue. He continues to run very parallel to the storyline with Judge Dredd. But I like this book. I think, I'm surprised how much I like this book because I'm not the usual Judge Dredd fan. But I think it's doing a good job of channeling social commentary storytelling character along the way, even though you do have these two characters that really have not met yet at all. Justin:       I feel like a lot a book we'll talk about in a little bit, Transformers book, and a lot of like books that have been around for a long time that maybe need a little reinvention. I think there's been a lot of smart takes, and this feels like right in that line where it's like, “Let's look at these characters from a different angle and find a new story here.” I don't know what… so I like this. It remind me of a show called Exosquad… You guys ever watch Exosquad back in the day? Alex:         No… I've heard the name. Justin:       Pete, no? Pete:         Nothing. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking… Justin:       Cartoon… Very cool. Pete:         What's it about? Help me out. Justin:       It's a lot like, sort of pilots of these mech-suits. They have cool haircut. There's a lot of good relationships in it. It's fun. Pete:         Cool. Justin:       It's in the world in the sort of the style of Starcom, you ever watch that? Pete:         No. No. Justin:       I guess maybe I grew up in a different Multiverse. [chuckles] Alex:         Yeah. Pete:         Yeah. I guess so. Alex:         This does feel like stuff that is right across to play for you, Pete. I'm surprised you don't know it. Pete:         Yeah, yeah. I mean you can't watch every cartoon, I guess. Justin:       That's true. Pete:         Yeah, I would like to try, I would like to try, yeah. I just want this to kind of get going. I thought this was really cool comic I do like this, but I wanted the main characters to kind of come together a little bit it. It seemed a little too side story, but I really think it's very cool. Art's great. Alex:         Let's move on to something that was a huge surprise for me in a very pleasant way. Wonder Woman #760 from DC Comics, written by Mariko Tamaki, art by Mikel Janin. So, Wonder Woman is, at least initially, going up against Maxwell Lord, thinks Maxwell Lord is brain washing a bunch of people in the city. By the end, things seem to be going at a very different direction. Mariko Tamaki is… On such a roll. Justin:       Yeah. Alex:         Just with writing, with her storytelling, with every that's going on. This is one of the better Wonder Woman arcs I think I've read in a very long time. [00:30:04] I love that it's not mining the Greek Gods stuff anymore, or anything like that. But it still feels very emotionally grounded. And man, Mikel Janin's art is gorgeous. Pete:         So good. Justin:       Yeah, the art is so good in this. How about that cute rabbit… I mean damn. Alex:         Yes. Justin:       Yeah, Melanie the Rabbit, I believe is the name. Alex:         Yeah… I also want to call out the cover, which is one of the best covers I've seen in a really long time. Pete:         Yeah, I just Wonder Woman, like kind of talking shit to robots. I loved it. Justin:       Well what I liked about this and a lot of Mariko Tamaki's work is, rather than… I feel there's such a trend in trying to scoop up every aspect of the characters and trying to like mash it up and be like, “This is what it all means.” and I think that's just, it's so much work when this is just a great story that is like scoping up some aspects, and being like, “Here are the things about Wonder Woman I want to talk about,” and then telling that story. And I think this is great. If you're a fan of Alias, the (Brian Michael) Bendis book from back in the day, the Jessica Jones character…  I think feel like there's a connection point there, especially with the Purple Man stuff, in this book. Pete:         Yeah, yeah. You got the creepy mind control guy. But yeah, I really think the art is great. We get the pair of demons, there's a lot of fun stuff going on. But yeah, the writing is the real hero. This is very interesting. I'm excited to see where this goes. Alex:         Let's roll out to a new book from Image Comics, Big Girls #1, story and art by Jason Howard. This is about a world where some children are growing to gigantic size, men grow into monsters, women usually grow into gigantic helpful people… There's one… [chuckles] Justin:       That's such a true statement. Alex:         Yeah. A gigantic helpful woman who is trying to hold back the monsters. And that's basically what you get in the first issue, as well as some moral quandaries. I overall like this, but had some concerns about it. Curious to hear what you guys think though. Pete:         Yeah, there was a kind of a real fucked up moment in the book. Justin:       Yes. Pete:         That I was like, “Yeah, I don't know if you can come back from that.” But it's a fun premise. It's cool. The art's great. I'm excited to see where this goes but it's an interesting enough story that I'm definitely going to pick up the next issue. Justin:       Yeah, I agree that. It felt like, of all the comics we read and cite, it's so hard to have a premise that feels super fresh, and then executing it in a way that invites you in with the characters. And I think this book does a good job of that and it's a fun surprising idea, and it's such a visual idea that I think is well done. And the emotional hit that… I guess we're not spoiling… It was sort of harsh. Pete:         Yeah… It was very harsh Justin:       Especially, the way the story was told where that harsh moment happened, and then the reason why it happened came after, which I think was smart from a storytelling perspective, but a little more difficult to read. Pete:         Yeah. It was tough on the reader. Alex:         I'm curious to see where they go with this one, because my big concern about it was, I love the idea that men grow up to be monsters, women are the only people who could protect us… Like there's so much metaphor that you can mine there, and I think it hasn't quite gotten there yet and it also muddies the ground a lot with the reveal at the end of the issue, which again, I won't spoil here. So, it's going to be interesting to see what Jason Howard has to say with this comic, and how he says it. Particularly, because he is a man saying something about misogyny, so I don't know. There's a lot of opportunity with this book, and I'm very excited to see where it goes. Jason Howards aren't always very good, but again, I'm a little concerned/nervous about what direction it might head in. Justin:       I really thought earlier on, that you're going to say, “Oh, it's like men are from Mars and women, they're from Venus.” [chuckles] Alex:         Yeah. Have you thought about that?… Have you thought about it? Immortal Hulk #36 from Marvel, written by Al Ewing and art by Joe Bennett. Man, this book is fucked up bad. Oh my god. Justin:       Yeah. Alex:         It's fucked up… Hulk is now, Dumb Hulk, and Rick is evil, and turned into to a horrible monster. Absorbing Man is getting ripped into pieces. Horrible things are happening all the time. Pete:         I can't take this anymore… I'm tapping out. I want my Hulk back. I can't… This was cool for a little while, guys. But it's getting weird now. [chuckles] It's getting really weird now, guys. Justin:       I still love this book. I'm very excited for the story line coming with a leader; I feel like we're leading up to. [00:35:03] Pete:         Yeah. Justin:       But… Alex:         Well, I think the leader is inside of Rick, right? Justin:       Yeah, but it's like… Well the trap hasn't been fully sprung; I feel like. Alex:         Okay. Justin:       But I also think another title for this book would be, Everybody's Clay Face…? Pete:         Yeah. Justin:       In a lot of ways… And to Pete's point, how does Hulk come back from this and go back to being just a regular old dude? Pete:         I just… Yeah… I can't anymore. Alex:         I feel like they're already doing it though, right? Like there was no way they were going to keep Hulk out of crossovers and showing up in other books. I wish they had. I wish they could've kept it in this own pocket thing. But they've already had him show up, and be like, “Yeah, I'm the Asshole Hulk, let me help you.” [chuckles] It just doesn't quite work at all. But to your point, Justin… Like particularly, Joe Bennett's art is… Shade. The splash page towards the beginning that reveals the twisted monstrous Rick… Pete:         No… no… Alex:         Is nightmarish like literally out of a nightmare and it's… amazing. It's great stuff. Justin:       Yeah. Pete:         It's too much. Alex:         Stealth #4 from Image Comics. Pete:         They've gone too far. Alex:         [chuckle] Stealth #4 from Image Comics written by Mike Costa and art by Nate Bellegarde… I don't know why I can't pronounce that name. So, this is starting to wrap up. This story about a man who has this powerful like Dark Hawk-esk armor, the stealth armor. He is suffering for dementia. It may be because of the armor, maybe not. His son is trying to track him down and save him/help him/slash stop him Meanwhile, there's a two-faced… Half-faced, I guess, gangster… Pete:         Half a face. Alex:         Half a face, who's trying to kill him. This book is so good. And particularly, Nate Bellegarde's pacing… Pete:         Yeah. Justin:       Yeah. Alex:         That's between like amazing action and hilarious moments. Particularly in this issue, that are wonderful. Justin:       And just, there's a couple of panels… This guy gets shot, sort of halfway, maybe in the two thirds away through the book. And it's just… It's so surprisingly done that it really sticks with you. A lot of the angles that that he chooses to draw the characters from are so good. It's just a great book. Pete:         Yeah, it's really awesome. There's some real cool fight sequence stuff like this one guy gets his leg kicked in, that was really brutal. But also, what's tough for me is to see a sweet white Lincoln get destroyed. And that was that was tough. That was tough to watch. But this is a great book. Fun design on the villain, it keeps getting more and more interesting, and yeah, I'm very, very much enjoying this book. Alex:         Great stuff… Amazing Spider-Man #46 from Marvel written by Nick Spencer, and art by Marcelo Ferreira. It's continuing with the Sins Rising storyline where the Sin-Eater is back. Turns out the Sin-Eater is maybe not exactly what you think he is, and he is attacking villains. And in this issue, maybe be making them better, maybe making them worse, not entirely clear. Justin, you were very excited about this issue talk about it a little bit. Justin:       I can't believe the turn that Nick Spencer's taken this book on. After doing such a light hearted Spider-Man, and then now the Sin-Eater story, the set-up issues, and then getting here, it's like so much more topical, so much more like satirical. And it's just, these panels where Sin-Eater kills this villain and then we get this moment where the crowd starts clapping… It was devastating, and it felt like it just, it activated all of my stress about our world in a way. And Pete, to you, I don't know what you think about this. But it feels like an indictment of the Punisher, and that whole… His whole world… Pete:         Yeah, yeah. I mean they're like basically booing people who clap at violence. You know what I mean? But it's also tough because it's like there's violence in comics, and there's real life. But this is supposedly real life and they're saying that like people would enjoy killing in real life, which I don't think, if you like the Punisher that's not what you're saying in life. I mean there might be people out there like that. But I think it's nice to have a person like the Punisher fighting a good fight, instead of like going through things in normal way. It's a creative outlet for things and your anger, or this is saying people are too dark… [00:40:01] People are too fucked up, the world is too fucked up. And this is very depressing. I'm very surprised that you like this issue. This is my least favorite. You got Spider-Man kind of shaken to his core being like, “I can't believe everybody clapped. What kind of world this is? I don't feel like the quippy self, happy go lucky Spider-Man.” And it's kind of like the darkness of the world is affecting Spider-Man here. Justin:       I love that though. I think that is what… It feels like Nick Spencer is channeling the world around him, and being like, “This world feels darker than I ever thought it was.” And Spider-Man doesn't have a place in that world, in this world. And he's showing that in the story, and using this Sin-Eater as a way of talking about that, I think, is just so smart. I really love this story. Alex:         It's definitely very surprising and going in different directions. Let's move on and talk about Transformers Galaxies #8 from IDW, written by Sam Maggs, art by Beth McGuire-Smith and Umi Miyao. This is something that I think we were very surprised about the last issue. This is about a young Transformer on a ship that is escaping from Cybertron, turns out things are not exactly what they seem. This issue where he… He? She? I don't know, bro?… Yep… Pete:         It's a robot. Alex:         A robot has met up with Arcee and Greenlight to the Transformers, who revealed the truth about what's going on. And course, everybody is being brainwashed, they're trying to… they're the baddies, and yeah, that's kind what it follows. Another really good issue of this title just because it grounds the emotion of the Transformers which I am very impressed by. Justin:       Yeah, I agree. I love this. This feels like a Twilight Zone or a Black Mirror version of a Transformers story. It's tense. It's sort of stressful. It gets into like philosophy, religion, and it's just really well done. Pete:         Yeah, it's very interesting. It's cool, this kind of series, characters kind of find this information struggle within stuff. I think this as, it's hard because I keep wanting there to be more Transformers that I know, you know what I mean? They talk about Cybertron, and all that kind of stuff, and Primus… But like I keep wanting to see like a different Transformers that I know from the ‘80s, and from the cartoons, and stuff like that… But the fact that they're telling this kind of more original story is very cool. Justin:       You want them to turn into cars. Pete:         No, I just want like Laserbeak to be in the background, spying on them or you know something else. Justin:       Would you say there's more than meets the eye here? Pete:         Oh yeah, there is more. Justin:       One more question… Alex:         The thing I… Justin:       Oh, go ahead… You go ahead… Alex:         No, no, please I want to I hear your question. Justin:       No, it's just definitely unrelated [chuckle]. Alex:         My question is also unrelated, so you go ahead. Justin:       Okay, great. Well then, let me ask you… Pete, as a pizza priest, are you marrying slices back together or how does that work? Are you a priest, two slices of pizza? Or are you bringing the good word of pizza to the people? Pete:         I'm doing both. I am bringing slices together. I'm am also, trying to make sure that people know about the good pizza, are partaking in some good pizza. Alex:         Do you ever take two slices of pizza, and hold one on each hand, and say, “I now pronounce you”, and then slapped them together and say, “Calzone!” [chuckles] Pete:         No no, I wouldn't do that. That's sacrilege. Alex:         Got you… Back to the Transformer book, the main thing that I was thinking about the entire issue, do Transformers kiss? And when they kiss does it sound terrible? Like because they're two like… Justin:       Metal on metal. Alex:         Yeah, like two cars smashing into each other. Pete:         Yeah, but it doesn't sound bad to them. Alex:         Right, but would it sound bad to us humans? Pete:         Yes. Yeah, sure. Justin:       Like when cars kiss, we call it an accident. [chuckle] Pete:         Yeah, it's loud. Alex:         That's true. Last book we're talking about Excellence #9 from Image Comics created and written by Brandon Thomas, created in art by Khary Randolph. I know we have talked about every issue of this book. But every issue of this book is absolutely insane. Pete:         Phenomenal. Alex:         Oh my god, so good. Justin:       So, good. Alex:         This issue we have our main character who's been trying to start a magic revolution. Travels to a library to gather information, and finds out he is way out of his depth.  He is doing this way to soon, but now it is too late because he has already started the revolution. God, I love how direct every issue is in terms of the story it's telling. [00:45:03] And also, of course, Khary Randolph's art is out of control. Justin:       Yeah. Pete:         It's bananas. The character designs are fantastic. It's got like an old-school hip hop vibe to it. It's glorious. The panel work is… This is just such a fun book. Justin:       Yeah. This book… We talk about it so much, please check this book out it is… I'm trying to think of… Because the art isn't like reminiscent of a particular other style, it just encapsulates so much of just great comic book art from very still, emotional panels to super dynamic action panels. It's just a real textbook book on great comic book art, as on the writing and art side. Alex:         There's a thing that happens… I will now spoil something that happens in the issue, but as he comes into the library, he sees a bunch of grannies who were looking at him, and he's like, “That's weird they never looked at me before.” When he messes up, they all pop up and they're like, “Oh, that's it. You fucked up. We're taking you down son.” And there's a panel where there's just all three of them floating in the air about to attack him that I think I shouted, “Oh, shit!”, out loud when I was reading it. [chuckle] It's great. The action in this book is great. It's so tense. It's so creative. Definitely picking up. And that's it for The Stack. If you like to support us, Patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come, hangout, and chat about comic books with us… iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher or the app of your choice, to subscribe and listen to the show. ComicBookClubLive.com for this podcast or at Comic Book Live on Twitter. Come chat with us. And that's it. We'll see you next time at the Virtual Comic Book Shop. Pete:         I now pronounce you, pepperoni and mushrooms. [chuckles] It's a good combo. [00:47:02] The post The Stack: Seven Secrets, Dark Nights Death Metal And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we recap the best virtual con of the year, The Rent Party. It was a joint effort from NERDSoul, 133Art, and Legends Press. Michael Young II, aka NERDSoul, joins us to break down this great event which featured such black creatives as The Blerdgurl, Brandon Easton, David Walker, Ninja Yoyo, Hannibal Tabu, Jason Reeves, John Jennings, NERDSoul, Quinn McGowan, Sebastian Jones, Solar Greye, Takeia Marie, Victor Dandridge and us as well. Check our commercial for it right here. This episode is also the start of Season 4 of the Blerd-ish podcast! We are celebrating all of June as we do each year. Check out the website, feel to drop some positive comments, and of course feel grab any something from our affiliates. The June Sale is coming up soon. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Thanks For Stopping By And Welcome to The Rent Party! Brought To You By 133Art, Legends Press & NERDSoul. In this panel "Being Independent" we are joined by Hannibal Tabu, Takeia Marie, Dedren Snead, Victor Dandridge, Gamma Rae Cosplay & Sebastian Jones! The Rent Party Operating During The Quarantine Panel: #RentParty #RentParty2020 | NERDSoul Covering:#NERDSoul #RentParty #RentParty2020 Panel: Operating during the QuarantineMalcom Barret: https://twitter.com/malcolmbarrettBrandon Easton: https://twitter.com/BrandonEastonSolar Greye: https://twitch.tv/bid_pJohn Jennings: https://facebook.com/john.jennings.9659Ninja Yoyo: https://instagram.com/theninjayoyoBlerdgurl: https://twitter.com/theblerdgurlChuck Collins: https://twitter.com/BOUNCE_COMIC Organizers133art (Jason Reeves)http://133art.comhttps://facebook.com/133arthttps://twitter.com/133arthttps://instagram.com/133art NERDSoulhttp://facebook.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://twitter.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://instagram.com/ThatNERDSoul Quinn McGowanhttps://twitter.com/memphisquinnhttps://instagram.com/q324http://operative.net/projectwildfire.html Sound ProvidersARCKATRONhttp://arckatron.comhttps://Facebook.com/arckatronhttps://Instagram.com/arckatronhttps://Twitter.com/ARCKATRON Paragon AssassinParagon.Assassin@gmail.com SP The Soul Prophethttps://instagram.com/SPTheSoulProphet Also:Rent Party, The Rent Party, Rent Party 2020, 133Art, Legends Press, The Blerdgurl, Brandon Easton, David Walker, Ninja Yoyo, Hannibal Tabu, Jason Reeves, John Jennings, NERDSoul, Quinn McGowan, Sebastian Jones, Solar Greye, Takeia Marie, Victor Dandridge, ARCKATRON, Paragon Assassin, SP The Soul Prophet, Black Comix, Hip Hop, Comics, Dope Folks, StreetGeek, ThatNERDSoul, NERDSoul, OneYoungsta, KURO Brandhttp://KUROBrand.com NERDSoulLe Ill Kid @OneYoungstaNERDSoul Online - http://ThatNERDSoul.comPodcast - http://NERDSoul.Podbean.comOn Twitch TV - https://Twitch.tv/ThatNERDSoulMerch - http://Shop.ThatNERDSoul.comContact - Hello@ThatNERDSoul.com Become a NERDSoul Patron!Patreon - https://patreon.com/ThatNERDSoul ABOUT NERDSoul:NERDSoul, by Le Ill Kid @OneYoungsta, is that intangible fresh--that 70's soul mixed with comics, some sci-fi fantasy, movie geekery, topped off with the Golden Era of Hip Hop. I've developed NERDSoul over the years as a StreetGEEK, unknowingly by loving Wu-Tang, Justice League, Star Wars, Stevie Wonder and playing D&D after school. NERDSoul comes from that StreetGEEK that can chop it up with the best, while being up on game around the block and Pop Culture. NERDSoul is created by Executive Entrepreneur Michael Young IIA/V Production by: A Full Tang Design http://afulltang.design Rest in Power Ali Thievez & Kleph Dollaz. Much Love My Brothas.

Thanks For Stopping By And Welcome to The Rent Party! Brought To You By 133Art, Legends Press & NERDSoul. In this panel "Bitter Root" we are joined by Sanford Greene & David Walker! The Rent Party Bitter Root Panel: Sanford Greene & David Walker #RentParty #RentParty2020 | NERDSoul Covering:#NERDSoul #RentParty #RentParty2020 Panel: Storytime w/ Bitter RootDavid Walker: https://twitter.com/DavidWalker1201Sanford Greene: https://twitter.com/sanfordgreene Organizers133art (Jason Reeves)http://133art.comhttps://facebook.com/133arthttps://twitter.com/133arthttps://instagram.com/133art NERDSoulhttp://facebook.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://twitter.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://instagram.com/ThatNERDSoul Quinn McGowanhttps://twitter.com/memphisquinnhttps://instagram.com/q324http://operative.net/projectwildfire.html Sound ProvidersARCKATRONhttp://arckatron.comhttps://Facebook.com/arckatronhttps://Instagram.com/arckatronhttps://Twitter.com/ARCKATRON Paragon AssassinParagon.Assassin@gmail.com SP The Soul Prophethttps://instagram.com/SPTheSoulProphet Also:Rent Party, The Rent Party, Rent Party 2020, 133Art, Legends Press, The Blerdgurl, Brandon Easton, David Walker, Ninja Yoyo, Hannibal Tabu, Jason Reeves, John Jennings, NERDSoul, Quinn McGowan, Sebastian Jones, Solar Greye, Takeia Marie, Victor Dandridge, ARCKATRON, Paragon Assassin, SP The Soul Prophet, Black Comix, Hip Hop, Comics, Dope Folks, StreetGeek, ThatNERDSoul, NERDSoul, OneYoungsta, KURO Brandhttp://KUROBrand.com NERDSoulLe Ill Kid @OneYoungstaNERDSoul Online - http://ThatNERDSoul.comPodcast - http://NERDSoul.Podbean.comOn Twitch TV - https://Twitch.tv/ThatNERDSoulMerch - http://Shop.ThatNERDSoul.comContact - Hello@ThatNERDSoul.com Become a NERDSoul Patron!Patreon - https://patreon.com/ThatNERDSoul ABOUT NERDSoul:NERDSoul, by Le Ill Kid @OneYoungsta, is that intangible fresh--that 70's soul mixed with comics, some sci-fi fantasy, movie geekery, topped off with the Golden Era of Hip Hop. I've developed NERDSoul over the years as a StreetGEEK, unknowingly by loving Wu-Tang, Justice League, Star Wars, Stevie Wonder and playing D&D after school. NERDSoul comes from that StreetGEEK that can chop it up with the best, while being up on game around the block and Pop Culture. NERDSoul is created by Executive Entrepreneur Michael Young IIA/V Production by: A Full Tang Design http://afulltang.design Rest in Power Ali Thievez & Kleph Dollaz. Much Love My Brothas.

Thanks For Stopping By And Welcome to The Rent Party! Brought To You By 133Art, Legends Press & NERDSoul. In this panel "Being Independent" we are joined by Hannibal Tabu, Takeia Marie, Dedren Snead, Victor Dandridge, Gamma Rae Cosplay & Sebastian Jones! The Rent Party: Being Independent Panel #RentParty #RentParty2020 | NERDSoul Covering:#NERDSoul #RentParty #RentParty2020 Panel: Being IndependentHannibal Tabu: https://twitter.com/hannibaltabuTakeia Marie: https://instagram.com/takeiamarie/Dedren Snead: https://facebook.com/sorghumandspearVictor Dandridge: https://facebook.com/VantageInhouse/Gamma Rae: https://instagram.com/gammaraecosplaySebastian Jones: http://strangercomics.com Organizers133art (Jason Reeves)http://133art.comhttps://facebook.com/133arthttps://twitter.com/133arthttps://instagram.com/133art NERDSoulhttp://facebook.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://twitter.com/ThatNERDSoulhttp://instagram.com/ThatNERDSoul Quinn McGowanhttps://twitter.com/memphisquinnhttps://instagram.com/q324http://operative.net/projectwildfire.html Sound ProvidersARCKATRONhttp://arckatron.comhttps://Facebook.com/arckatronhttps://Instagram.com/arckatronhttps://Twitter.com/ARCKATRON Paragon AssassinParagon.Assassin@gmail.com SP The Soul Prophethttps://instagram.com/SPTheSoulProphet Also:Rent Party, The Rent Party, Rent Party 2020, 133Art, Legends Press, The Blerdgurl, Brandon Easton, David Walker, Ninja Yoyo, Hannibal Tabu, Jason Reeves, John Jennings, NERDSoul, Quinn McGowan, Sebastian Jones, Solar Greye, Takeia Marie, Victor Dandridge, ARCKATRON, Paragon Assassin, SP The Soul Prophet, Black Comix, Hip Hop, Comics, Dope Folks, StreetGeek, ThatNERDSoul, NERDSoul, OneYoungsta, KURO Brandhttp://KUROBrand.com NERDSoulLe Ill Kid @OneYoungstaNERDSoul Online - http://ThatNERDSoul.comPodcast - http://NERDSoul.Podbean.comOn Twitch TV - https://Twitch.tv/ThatNERDSoulMerch - http://Shop.ThatNERDSoul.comContact - Hello@ThatNERDSoul.com Become a NERDSoul Patron!Patreon - https://patreon.com/ThatNERDSoul ABOUT NERDSoul:NERDSoul, by Le Ill Kid @OneYoungsta, is that intangible fresh--that 70's soul mixed with comics, some sci-fi fantasy, movie geekery, topped off with the Golden Era of Hip Hop. I've developed NERDSoul over the years as a StreetGEEK, unknowingly by loving Wu-Tang, Justice League, Star Wars, Stevie Wonder and playing D&D after school. NERDSoul comes from that StreetGEEK that can chop it up with the best, while being up on game around the block and Pop Culture. NERDSoul is created by Executive Entrepreneur Michael Young IIA/V Production by: A Full Tang Design http://afulltang.design Rest in Power Ali Thievez & Kleph Dollaz. Much Love My Brothas.

We look at Judge Dredd: FalseWitness from IDW and writer Brandon Easton. IDW has been criticized for their mishandling of Dredd in the past. Let's see how this new iteration of Dredd is looking.

Sup ya'll! We got some Dope Folks to meet! Brandon Easton of Agent Carter, Transformers War For Cybertron drops MAD

The Two Brandons return with another frank conversation about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Disney Plus, The Mandalorian, and the seductive pull of nostalgia and the memories that power it... NOTE: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND MINOR AUDIO DISTORTION THAT FADES AROUND THE 10:00 MARK

On Today’s ALL NEW Nerdtastically Newsworthy episode of #NerdORama we welcome award winning writer Brandon Easton who shares news on his latest projects including work on the IDW's TRANSFORMERS: GALAXIES series, the 2020 Netflix series TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON series, the STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE graphic novel series and MORE!!!

Brandon Easton is a writer, screenwriter, and educator based in Los Angeles who has written for Agent Carter’s second season, and the Thundercats and Transformers Rescue Bots animated series. He’s also an Eisner-nominated comic writer, penning Catalyst Prime: Incidentals and Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven for Lion Forge, then most recently Star Trek: Year Five and Transformers Galaxies for IDW. He discusses his journey from passion to profession throughout his career, and the progress he’s made on his quest to ultimately fill the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ of his favorite franchises to which he’s contributed. Brandon takes us through the differences in writing for various forms of media and licensed properties from page to screen. He also stresses the importance of inclusion when discussing diversity in creating comic books or television, and how it lends an authenticity for a wider audience. Where to find Brandon: Website: https://brandonverse.com/ Twitter: @BrandonEaston Instagram: @brandoneastonwriter Writing for Rookies podcast: https://writingforrookies.podcastpeople.com/ The Two Brandons podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/10132

Shawn interviews Eisner-nominated writer/filmmaker Brandon Easton (Watson and Holmes, Thundercats, Transformers Rescue Bots, Brave New Souls, Andre The Giant) about his career, race in the comics industry and the dangers of Black Geek Stockholm Syndrome.

Brandon Thomas and Brandon Easton dive into the first batch of listener submitted questions!

Brandon Easton and Brandon Thomas discuss movies we loved and hated during the bloated summer of 2013.

Brandon Easton wonders if geeks in the 21st century have become too spoiled and therefore ungrateful about all the wonderful movies, TV shows and books currently available? Have we lost the ability to enjoy anything?

Join comic book creators Brandon Easton and Brandon Thomas as they discuss the developments with COMIXOLOGY and indie distribution and their thoughts on STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, THE WALKING DEAD and ARROW.

Comic book creators Brandon Easton and Brandon Thomas discuss their favorite comic book series and what they look for when checking out new, unknown indie titles.

Comic book writers Brandon Easton and Brandon Thomas discuss their past, present and future thoughts about the video game industry. Things they hate (Easton hates Sony) and games they can't stop buying (Thomas loves Madden). See if you agree or not!