Podcast appearances and mentions of brian joines

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2021 56:28

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

god tv love spotify black art earth man moving spoilers olympic games star wars story marvel philadelphia seattle fun batman dc holy spider man strange heroes dark force superman android boom couple iron man cars guardian star trek civil war shape flash mcu shadows stitcher smoke wonder woman relax fuck xmen foster spider dreaming crossover jedi timeline bless simpsons venom shaw cw shots outsiders rochester dc comics gotham eternals teenage mutant ninja turtles yoda swamp stack mm spinning harley quinn kissing underworld petersburg vain ipa dc universe celestial payback amazing spider man continuity matt ryan metropolis tony stark angles madman chewbacca swamp thing scarecrows kingpin gotham city sweet tooth kindred blair witch death metal mmm image comics darn john goodman agreed roadrunner deviants high republic katana scott snyder whoo future state arkham knights jeff lemire jonathan hickman elseworlds padawan jane foster jason aaron backtrack booster gold valkyries wording kieron gillen donny cates kieron eddie brock john romita jr osbournes oni press paul jenkins greg capullo nick spencer star wars the high republic alv borscht cavan scott john ridley ram v brandon thomas dan jurgens brian azzarello cliff chiang mark bagley sean lewis american vampire sin eater knull crowdcast mike allred stephanie phillips getting it together symbiotes jordie bellaire waverider kamandi klaus janson dark nights death metal mike perkins esad ribic lucius fox comic book club inkblot luke fox ivan reis sina grace phillip kennedy johnson mark wade michael avon oeming robert venditti next batman paul pelletier rags morales andy schmidt yanick paquette landro scott hanna dale eaglesham emily pearson valentine de landro joe prado bernard chang brandon easton kevin nowlan brandon vietti doug braithwaite omar spahi aaron lopresti jenny d chrysler lebaron emanuela lupacchino nick derington tess thompson future state wonder woman brian hitch sergeant rock brian joines norman osbourne danny miki future state superman

The Stack: King In Black, Batman/Catwoman, And More

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2020 47:20

On this week's Stack we've got reviews for: King in Black #1 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ryan Stegman Batman/Catwoman #1 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Clay Mann Lumberjanes: End of Summer #1 BOOM! Box Written by Shannon Waters & Kat Leyh Layouts by Brooklyn Allen Illustrated by Alexa Bosy & Kanesha C. Bryant The Union #1 Marvel Written by Paul Grist Pencils by Andrea Di Via w/Paul Grist Justice League: Endless Winter #1 DC Comics Written by Andy Lanning & Ron Marz Art by Howard Porter That Texas Blood #6 Image Comics By Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips Fantastic Four: Road Trip #1 Marvel Written by Christopher Cantwell Art by Filipe Andrade Unearth #8 Image Comics Story by Cullen Bunn and Kyle Strahm Art by Baldemar Rivas Batman #104 DC Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Ryan Benjamin & Danny Miki, Bengal & Guillem March Backtrack #9 Oni Press Written by Brian Joines Art by Jake Elphick M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #1 Marvel Written by Jordan Blum & Patton Oswalt Art by Scott Hepburn Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20 BOOM! Studios Written by Jordie Bellaire & Jeremy Lambert Illustrated by Ramon Bachs Far Sector #9 DC Comics Written by N.K. Jemisen Art by Jamal Campbell Dryad #7 Oni Press Written by Kurtis Wiebe Illustrated by Justin Barcelo Black Widow #4 Marvel Written by Kelly Thompson Art by Elena Casagrande and Jordie Bellaire Strange Adventures #7 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Mitch Gerards and Evan “Doc” Shaner Inkblot #4 Image Comics Created by Emma Kubert & Rusty Gladd Daredevil #25 Marvel Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Marco Checchetto The Boys: Dear Becky #7 Dynamite Written by Garth Ennis Illustrated by Russ Braun 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 show is sponsored by the Just Been Revoked podcast. Full Episode Transcript: Alex: What is up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin: I'm Justin. Pete: I'm Pete. Alex: And in The Stack we talk about a bunch of big comic books that have come out right here at the beginning of December. Very exciting times to be alive in. Everybody is very happy, excited, doing a great job. Justin: We're all doing a great job. Let's take a second and chill. Pete: I don't know. Let's not pat ourselves on the back. Alex: Pete, you're doing a great job. Pete: No, don't patronize me, all right? Fuck you. Alex: No. Man, you are. Justin: Don't patronize him. Alex: Do you know who else is doing a great job? The King in Black. He's really just really putting himself out there in the Marvel Universe, really inventing a bunch of stuff with his wet dragons, I like to call them. Justin: They are moist dragons. Pete: He's not doing anything moist during- Alex: King in Black#1 from Marvel written by Donny Cates, art by Ryan Stegman. This of course is the … I don't know if it's the final storyline, but it's certainly the peak of everything that they've been building up over the past couple of years, through Venom and other storylines. Pete: … Venom. Alex: As the King in Black, Knull, the god of the symbiotes invades earth. And man, it goes basically about as bad as things could go. And I don't know that I have read a kickoff to an event where the heroes lose so thoroughly as they do in this issue, which in my mind was very impressive. Justin: Yeah, I agree. The way they go hard here. The Donny Cates goes hard with this story. It's a ton of big emotional beats and then heroes just losing, every plan failing instantly. And setting up Knull as this like truly terrifying villain, despite the fact that he's fighting with wet dragons. Pete: Yeah, what an entrance the King made here. I think it was a great start with the nicest building and everything that's been going on. And then the twist where you think, “All right, he's after Venom,” and it's like, “No Venom's kid,” and it's like, “Oh, shit.” Justin: Oh, shit. Pete you're riding with the King, is what you're saying? You love the King and- Pete: Yeah, I'm riding with King. Alex: Yeah, I got to be honest. Even though I've really enjoyed what Donny and Ryan had been doing on this title, I was a little trepidatious about this event just because Knull to be the design of it, it was like, “Ah, he was very big teeth.” I don't like that. And the whole Venom thing I always feel reticent about in general just because Venom is not my favorite character, but I should have known better. Pete: Venom. Alex: Venom. Justin: … You like a drier character like Sandman. Alex: Yeah, like a nice dry character. Like a Sandman is more my style. Justin: Yes. Alex: But I should have known better, because they'd been, like you said, Justin, they've been doing emotionally based work on this title throughout the entire time. This is based on Eddie Brock's relationship with his son, that is the emotional crux of the issue, even though there's a good Tony Stark stuff in here, there's some good other character stuff in here. But it's great. I am also fascinated to see what happens over the course of five issues because this is, like we said, as bad as it can get, and it seems like there's four more issues where it's only going to get worse. Justin: Yeah. What Donny Cates does a great job at is really including a bunch of other aspects of the Marvel Universe, like you were saying, Alex, and they feel very real. It feels very current. We get some X-Men in here and it feels like they just stepped out- Pete: Oh yeah, that was fun. Justin: … of the current X-Men books. It's really good. And touching on continuity where all the characters know about what's going on in their universe, which I think is rare in comics to have a real deep understanding of continuity for something that is a standalone event like this. Pete: I'm glad you brought that up, Justin, because I was very excited when I saw the X-Men show up and still be kind of like heroes. They're not just island fucking. You know what I mean? They're not just trading swords and half-assing a bunch of games, they're actually still stepping up and being heroes. Justin: It would have been great if there was just a cutaway in this to a bunch of X-Men having sex on an island. I would have loved where they were like, “Wait, what did you say?” Pete: I would have lost it. Alex: It's weird that they saw that much black goo and do nothing. This is prime fucking material. Justin: “This is fucking material,” says Alex. A couple of follow-up questions I'm going to ask off-mike. Before we go too much further, I do think the fact that Pete and I are agreeing so hard on this book, there will be one book later on I predict where Pete and I will have a subtle disagreement. Pete: … Yeah, it will be very hard to tell. Justin: See if you can spot it. Pete: Yeah, it will be tough to tell. Alex: Let's wait and see. Next up, Batman/Catwoman #1 from DC Comics written by Tom King, art by Clay Mann. This is the continuation of Tom King's abbreviated run on Batman, now focusing or continuing to focus on the Batman/Catwoman relationship. It's a little hard to tell whether this is a direct continuation or they rejiggered it in any way to make a new title. But regardless, we're jumping around in time periods here. Spoilers, we're introducing the Phantasm from Mask of the Phantasm into the main Batman continuity. Pete: Yes. Alex: That's big stuff happens here. We talked about this a little on live show. I got to tell you, it took me a little while to hook into this because I could not remember the rhythm of the Batman book the way they did it. But there is a point, and this is a big spoiler, but the page, the reveal of the Joker about halfway, three quarters of the way through the issue was such a classic Clay Mann page. So terrifying that it immediately sucked me back in emotionally. And that was the point- Pete: You're talking about- Alex: … where I started to feel like, “Okay, I'm really on board with this book again.” Pete: … Yeah, but it wasn't just regular Joker, that was Miami Vice Joker. Did you see the way the wind was taking his shirt and he had the over the kind of shoulder holsters rocking? Come on, that was like- Alex: He could feel it coming in the air tonight, that's all I'm saying. Pete: … Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. People talking about three Jokers, there's a fourth one and that's Miami Vice Joker and he's the best one. Justin: See, I would consider him more Miami-Dade County Retirement Home Joker. Sure. Pete: Oh wow, shots fired. Alex: Trump voter Joker. Justin: Exactly, this dude votes Trump. Clay Mann's art in this issue is so, so good. All of Tom King's work I feel like is so writer-driven, but man, he works with such great artists, and this one, and this issue specifically I feel like is so, so good. And I love the pace and the way that he's telling the story is really rooted in the romance. Justin: There's so many big romantic splash panels in this, and it's great, and it's still setting up a bunch of mystery elements and great action. Just so much going on in a great way. And it's romance, it's sexy, it's horrifying. And then the Phantasm reveal, it's like … I feel like this book is just doing everything all at once in the best way. Pete: Yeah, I agree. I'm really just happy to have T King back on Batman. Justin: T King. Pete: I'm excited to see how this story unfolds. And I also was really impressed at how much was in this first issue. There was so much going on. But it was also cool the way kind of Nightwing gave us, instead of it being like flashbacks to see somebody's story, to see kind of Nightwing telling the story of the Ghost-Maker was really kind of a cool discovery. Alex: Ragnarok. Pete: Oh, my bad. Alex: That's Batman, this is Batman/Catwoman. Pete: Ah, my fault. Alex: It's okay. Pete: I'll wait for it. Justin: Good idea. Pete: We talked a lot about the art. Just that first title page, really setting up the different cadence, the different kind of art that really focuses the story, I think it's very interesting. And I'm very excited for Mask of the Phantasm, my favorite Batman movie of all times, so I'm very excited about this. Alex: Not Batman Forever? Pete: No. Alex: Hmm. All right. Let's move on and talk about Lumberjanes: End of Summer #1 for Boom! Box, written by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh, art layouts by Brooklyn Allen, illustrated by Alexa Bosy and Kanesha C. Bryant. I figured this was really worth talking about because of the last issue of Lumberjanes, a book that we've only sporadically reviewed, and I've always appreciated, but always personally had a little bit of a hard time hooking into. What did you think about this issue, and how do you think about it as a wrap-up to the Lumberjanes saga? Pete: I was really impressed with this issue. I thought they really did a great job of wrapping things up. But also we see so many different ways of characters struggling with the, “I don't want to kill. This person should die, but why is it on me?” I felt like this was kind of handled in an interesting way. And the art does a great job of really telling this story. The art is so good. There's a ton of action, but it's a little cartoony to give it that heart that the kind of story has. Pete: I just really impressed with the characterizations. And it's a lot of over the top fun, but also it's got a lot of deeper meaning stuff going on. And yeah, I mean, just, it goes back and forth between these absolutely hideous, evil looking things and these adorable characters, and they all fit into the same realm. Lumberjanes is a great read, it's really creative. I feel like there's something for everybody. This is a good book. Justin: Yeah, it's very fun. It dips into some wild sort of fantasy realms in a series of different ways. And I'm sort of in the Alexa's boat where I'm like, “Oh, right. Oh, yes. Okay.” And then the way it's sort of, to Pete's point, is sort of everything at once. Sometimes it's a little flashy, but it is also very fun and a great read. Alex: I agree. And I appreciate the fact that it exists, even if I don't quite get it all the time, because I know so many people who love this book so much. I believe it's also being adapted into an animated series by Noelle Stevenson who also did the She-Ra series that was phenomenal, so I'm very excited to see that. Even if I don't quite get the comic, I'm glad it exists, and I'm excited that it wrapped up on its own terms. Alex: Next up, The Union #1 from Marvel, written by Paul Grist, pencils by Andrea Di Vito with Paul Grist. This is a bunch of British superheroes getting together and then ultimately crashing straight into the King in Black event. This reminded me a lot or felt a lot to me like a Garth Ennis book that was not written by Garth Ennis. And I made that complimentarily. What did you guys think about this one? Justin: Yeah, this reminded me of, and I feel like maybe I made this comparison already recently, of the Ultraverse book, The Exiles. Do you remember that back in the day, where a team of superheroes gets just straight up murdered in the first issue and then reforms in a sort of different way? And this has that same vibe of like a doomed team. And the fact that it's crashing into a big event makes me wonder what this book actually means. It's a fun book that's a good story. I like the characters. Union Jack is very cool. And there's a little bit of a mystery here. I was surprised by how much I liked this in relation to what kind of book it is. Pete: Yeah, I agree with Justin, this is a fun book. Some great action, some cool stuff is happening and it ties in. Not like a must read for everything that's going on, but very cool kind of dealing with stuff kind of from the fallout of the X of Swords or 10 of Swords. Alex: Wait, what? How is this a fallout of 10 of Swords? Pete: Because of the Britain, the choosing of the kind of who's going to be the next kind of- Alex: It's a different character. It's a different character, Pete. Pete: … Cool. Justin: You're killing his vibes. Pete: I'm killing it today. Alex: You're doing a great job. Yeah, it is interesting that it ties in, particularly given we had Dennis Hallum on the live show last week, I think at this point. And he was talking about how Spider-Woman was stuck in the Spider-Verse event, and I couldn't help but think about this the entire time where I was like, “You're launching a book, but it ties into King of Black, kind of, but not really.” Alex: But it was cheeky enough and sort of skewering of superheroes enough that I'm intrigued to check out a second issue of this. Next one, Justice League: Endless Winter #1 from DC Comics written by Andy Lanning and Ron Marz, art by Howard Porter. Alex: A bunch of seasoned vets getting together for a Justice League event, where as you could probably tell from the title they fight a frost giant and the entire world is plunged into non-stop winter. I liked this kickoff a lot more than I thought I would, and I think that is all to the fact that Andy Lanning, Ron Marz and Howard Porter all know what they're doing around a superhero event. Justin: Yeah, I agree completely. There's a bunch of stuff in here where they're like, “How do you really manage your work-life balance?” Alex: Yeah, that was weird where the flashing Green Lantern and like, “Work-life balance is a hard thing, right?” In the middle of this event, we got time to talk about it. Justin: But I appreciated it. It felt like a Marvel book featuring DC heroes in a good way. And I got to the end and I was like, “Oh, this is an event. Right. Where is this going to go?” Because to me it felt a little bit like a one-shot, like a classic DC one-shot for the holiday season. And I do think that DC goes to the whole the earth is freezing a lot, where the sun gets extinguished, was a few years ago, so I was like, “Oh yeah.” But it was a good read for this again. Alex: I mean, I don't want to jump on your spot and everything, but the whole sun gets extinguish thing was several decades ago. Justin: That was a long time ago, but I feel like there was another thing after that. There was like- Pete: Stop not flexing on us. Jesus Christ. Alex: Yeah, that's true. Let's … Oh, go ahead, Pete. Pete: I was just going to say I really loved the last page. I think this does a good job of really getting you excited for more. And yeah, the kind of reveals of who else is in this is very exciting. Alex: Also fun stuff with like Secret Six types super villains that could feel disposable in terms of like they could have brought in the Royal Flush Gang and just have them do their thing where they get beat up in the Justice League, but more fun that. I had a good time reading this comic book, much more fun than I thought I would have. What happens when a robotic overlord imprisons a rant god and a humble narcissist? Alex: You get this week's sponsor of the Comic Book Club, The Just Been Revoked Podcast. Join Chris G, Tom Legaci and Mr. Rhace as they discuss the origins, the ends and everything in between of all things film. Episodes are released weekly on Apple, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms. Looking for a film podcast that has fun and doesn't take things too seriously, then check them out at justbeenrevoked.com. Alex: Next up, That Texas Blood, excuse me, #6 from Image Comics, by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips. This is the end of the first arc. It is as bloody and as sad as you might expect. I really liked how this tied up. How did you guys feel? Pete: I've really been loving this book, but they've been giving us like little bits. It was crazy to get so much in this issue. I almost felt like, “Whoa, this is too much information,” because it's been so little, but now we really kind of get the who done it kind of stuff behind it. So it was a little bit of a shell shock for that. But you can't say enough about the art and writing, this continues to be a really great series. I'm excited to see where it goes. Justin: … Yeah, I agree. This is good. It feels very … I mean, there's a bunch of sort of mentions of this in the back matter. It feels very of the place of Texas where the story takes place. It's right in the title. And it's just a series of sort of tragic mistakes by so many different people. A lot of the characters feel very real, there's some nice emotional moments here. It's a great first start. Alex: Very good stuff. Either pick up the individual issues or pick up the collection when it comes out. And it should be back next year. I'm very excited and intrigued to see how they continue it, particularly given Chris Condon told us this was initially a movie script that now he is doing into, not an ongoing, but at least continuing it for a little while, so that will be curious to see. Next up, let's talk about my favorite book of the week, Pete. Fantastic Four: Road Trip #1- Pete: Come on. Justin: Yes. Pete: You are not serious. Alex: … from Marvel. I'm 100% serious. Pete: This was- Alex: Written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Filipe Andrade. This is a one-shot that shows the immortal Hulkazation, I think, of … Hulkamania if you will- Justin: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:18:01] Alex: … of the Marvel Universe, as we get a absolutely horrific story involving the Fantastic Four taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon of the [crosstalk 00:18:09] title gone horribly wrong. They literally start falling apart. Love the metaphor here, love the art. I screamed out loud several times reading this book, it was so horrific, but great. Just fun to read, horror story involving with Fantastic Four like nothing that I had read before. So exciting. Justin: This was also one of my favorite books of the week. Agree with everything you're saying, like we get to see all of the tropes of the Fantastic Four used against them in the best way, especially Read. The art was fantastic. It's truly I was worried for the gang here. The cover I- Alex: This is- Justin: … was like, “Oh, that's a fun sort of horror cover.” And then you read the book and it's like, “Holy shit, this is way more horrifying than you ever saw it before.” It was great. Pete: … This is everything I hate about the Fantastic Four all in one issue. The things that happen to our characters are just awful to watch. Justin: No, they really come together as a family to save the day. Pete: They literally like glue together, and it's creepy. I don't want to see two kids melting into each other, that's so creepy on so many levels. Alex: … My kids do that all the time. You don't have kids, you don't understand. Pete: Nobody asked you about your goddamn kids, all right? Alex: They do that, and I respect them and their choices. Pete: Wow. That's good for you. Justin: All right, unmelt, it's time for bed. You sleep in separate beds. Pete: Now, and then it's just Reed Richards is being a fucking awful father, an awful husband, the shit is just ridiculous. At one point even as soon as like, “Yeah, you're a horrible person. I'm going to go do the good things in life while you sit there by yourself just ignoring your family and making something worse.” Just, ah, this issue drove me nuts because the art amplified how much I don't like this family in the way they're kind of put together in all the wrong ways. And it was just not only a stressful read, but horrifying. Don't pick up this book. Don't encourage this shit. Justin: You hate how this family is put together? Pete: I hate the fact that you have- Justin: They're the first family of the Marvel Universe. Pete: … you have someone who's very smart, but then treats his family like shit. And then you've got a beautiful person in Sue Storm, who's ignored mostly by her husband and post aside. And then you've got- Alex: Okay. I see where this is coming from. You think you could be a better husband to Sue Storm than Reed Richards. Pete: No, I'm not trying to- Alex: And you want to marry Sue Storm. Justin: Exactly. Pete: … No, that's not … Don't try to shrink me you fucking piece of shit. Justin: Don't shrink me. Let me say this, Pete, let me put it in this perspective. Don't you think that to your cat you're the Reed Richards who's too busy recording his podcasts to spend time with the cat, and maybe the cat needs a little bit more attention? How does it feel to be the Reed Richards of your cat? Alex: It is kind of interesting not to backup Justin's point, but your goopy arm is in a bucket right now, Pete. What do you have to say about that? Pete: I think you guys are assholes and I can't believe I've done a show with you for this many years. That's what I have to say there. Justin: We're the first family of the Comic Book Club Universe. Alex: I'm the Valeria. Justin: Oh, interesting choice. Pete: Wow. Alex: Great book, definitely pick it up. Next up, Unearth #8 from Image Comics, story by Cullen and Kyle Strahm, art by Baldemar Rivas. I think we talked about the first issue of this which was like, “Ooh, going into cave and other monsters of the cave,” it's evolved since then. Justin: Yes. There's a lot of different things happening in this book, really like the art. It's just like a series of vignettes from a horror TV show or like an outer limits type TV show. Alex: Yeah, it feels very like Clive Barker Books of Blood to me. Justin: Yeah. But it's good, I'm into it. Pete: Yeah, it's scary. The arts, the real hero, very cool issue, kind of sets things up. I thought it was solid. Alex: All right. Let's move on to a book with the thing that happened that Pete mentioned earlier, Batman 104 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV, art by Ryan Benjamin and Danny Miki, Bengal and Guillem March. This is the book where Nightwing fills in Bad Girl about everything that's been going on with Ghost-Maker. Pete, what did you think about this one? Pete: Yes, thank you. Sorry about earlier, but I thought it was- Alex: No, it's all good. It's funny we talked about in the live show, how do you keep all the books straight, sometimes it's hard. Justin: Sometimes we don't. Pete: … Sometimes we don't. Yeah. Sometimes you think you're talking about one book, but you're actually talking about another. But yeah, like I had mentioned, I thought it was really cool the way we kind of got Ghost-Makers backstory from the perspective of Nightwing. Also really cool, kind of scary moment where Batman wakes up in Arkham. Pete: And I love the kind of like moment where they're like, “The plants told us …” I loved that. I love the Bad Girl's joke. Yeah, and I also liked this kind of trap. Our heroes get stuck in the trap and you're like, “Ergh,” but this is very interesting to see how this is going to work between Clownhunter and Harley Quinn, and how this is all going to kind of go down. But yeah, great issue of Batman, amazing art. This whole kind of Ghost-Maker thing is very interesting. Justin: I have a question for you, Pete. There are so many different artists in this issue, does that bother you? That often bothers you when a single issue has multiple artists. Pete: Yeah, but when they're woven into the story in a way where it's like if you're kind of showing something that's back in time or whatever, I think it can work if it's done well and it doesn't feel too jarring. Justin: I agree with you. And it's done really well here, because I do think it works. And when I read the number of artists on the page, on the title page, I was like, “Huh.” And then it really flowed nicely, which is weird because these artists are pretty distinct when stylistically. But I thought it really worked. And I agree, this book is fun. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Good stuff. Next up, Backtrack #9 from Oni Press, written by Brian Joines, art by Jake Elphick. We're getting towards the end here, I believe this is the penal explanation of the book. If you haven't been picking it up, it is a car race through time here. We're leaving pirate times and finally getting some answers about what's been going on in the back. Definitely a exposition issue, but I think it was well done and tied into the characters. I continue to enjoy this book. This is going very well in my mind. How did you guys feel? Pete: Yeah, I really am impressed because a lot of times, sometimes I feel like when characters are standing around talking about their feelings and past and stuff, it can get a little not enjoyable, but this has done really well. And I really liked where we have a character kind of talk about the stuff that she's going through and she's like, “You know what? I'm going to stay here. I'm going to live the life that I want to lead.” And I thought that was really cool, and I thought this issue ended really well. I'm very excited to see how this all wraps up. So far this has been a really fun book. Justin: Yeah. I mean, every issue of this, I feel like this feels like a movie, it feels like sort of a sci-fi Fast & the Furious just ready to be made and- Pete: Too fast. Justin: … Too fast. Pete: [inaudible 00:25:59] Justin: Oh, interesting. Jump right to the sequel. That's the move, it's to make the sequel first. Pete: First. Yeah, exactly. Justin: But yeah, this feels ready-made for that. Alex: I 100% agree. Let's move on to something that is going to be a TV show, kind of. M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #1 for Marvel, written by Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt. Pete: Head Games. Alex: Art by Scott Hepburn. This is very clearly setting up the new M.O.D.O.K. show that's going to be coming to Hulu with Patton Oswalt doing the voice of M.O.D.O.K. I don't know how much it ties into that necessarily, but this is a fun lack with MODOK. He's having some weird memories that are popping up in him, and he is fighting with the rest of A.I.M. As the same time as I say it's a fun lack, much more serious than I expected personally. Justin: Yeah, I liked that M.O.D.O.K. is really given some emotional underpinnings in this, and he's … The sort of premises that he's struggling with some memories, because he has a bunch of different memories from all the different lives that he's had because he's a genetically engineered being. And there's this one where he seemed to be a happy family man, and I'm curious where that's going to go. I really liked that sort of heartfelt background to this, and it feels like M.O.D.O.K., you have sympathy for him and he's trying to just his shit figure out. Pete: Yeah. I mean, first off the title made me think there was going to be maybe some Locke & Key tie in, but that didn't happen so I was a little disappointed. But I thought this was fun. I really liked the kind of M.O.D.O.K. falling into an armory where he gets to kind of play with all the cool, that was really fun. But because we see Patton Oswalt's name on it, I wanted it to be funnier, I wanted it to be heavier on the jokes. It was a good story, so maybe I kind of put that on that too much. But yeah, I thought it was good. Alex: I bet Patton Oswalt listens to this podcast and says, “I wish Pete was funnier and more on jokes.” Pete: He could say that and that would be fair. That man is a professional comedian. Justin: But you would say, “I'm a journalist and I don't … I'm not some sort of clown.” Pete: No, I would never, never say that. Justin: Huh. Alex: You write an editorial every week for the New York Times, Pete. What are you talking about? Pete: It still doesn't count. Alex: All right, fair enough. Justin: Yeah, when people write a letter to the editor of the New York Times, Pete's the one that reads it. Alex: Buffy the vampire Slayer from Boom! Studios, written by Jordie Bellaire and Jeremy Lambert, illustrated by Ramon Bachs. I just realized I didn't mention the number of the issue here. Pete: 20. Justin: 20. Alex: 20. Thank you very much. There you go. But in this issue, the Scooby Gang is dealing with multiple new slayers, Xander who is a vampire and lots of other things going on. We've checked in on this book now and again. Justin, I know you've been a little back and forth on it. So what do you think about this one and where we are at now? Justin: I do think I'm sort of on the downside of it a little bit. I like when they get away from the sort of continuity a little bit in a deliberate way, and this feels a little like all over the place to me. But again, I'm not a crazy Buffy head that is like, “I got to know what happens,” I just want to read a fun story and this feels like it's a little lost in the middle. Pete: Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure if it's in between seasons or trying to touch on something and be its own thing. I kind of was hoping we'd be past this little bit, but I feel like it's interfering with the storytelling and I just kind of want to get this thing off and running. It feels like a lot of standing around talking and then people kiss, and I'm like, “Who are these people? What is happening?” Yeah. Alex: It sounds like I liked it a little bit more than you guys. Particularly I think what they're doing with Xander is interesting, turning him into a vampire. The emotional step between him and Willow is really nice. Also the twist at the end is cool, there's a new villain that I don't think we've seen before. That's pretty interesting, given a motivation that is very different than we've seen on the TV show, which is good. Alex: The one downside to your point is there are a lot of slayers going on at this point, which potentially needs to downsize. But maybe they're being set up as cannon fodder, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. Next up, Far Sector #9 from DC Comics, written by N.K. Jemisin and art by Jamal Campbell, AKA the best Green Lantern title going on. Pete: Hell, yeah. Alex: We have kind of wrapped up the first mystery of the book or at least part of it and are moving on to a new mystery evolving the digital world that our Green Lantern is finding out more about. Pete, what's going on? Pete: Well, I just wanted to say I love this book, but one of the negative things I have to say about this is I was really grossed out by this digital food. If this is what's going to happen in the future where people are eating food digitally and not real food, I'm not going to fucking do it. All right? I'm not going to be a part of your fucking evil future with your fucking robots running shit. Go fuck yourself. That was really upsetting to watch that happen. Other than that though- Justin: Oh, sorry, Pete. We're actually we're downloading lunch today. If you're not going to have any, then I guess you just won't get to eat anything. Pete: … Yeah, because you're- Alex: Yeah, I downloaded you a cobb. Pete: … Yeah, well, you can fuck your cobb salad. Alex: All right. Justin: Actually don't worry too hard about it, Pete, because I feel like subway meatball sandwiches will be one of the last downloaded foods. Alex: I will say I loved the joke that they've created downloadable food that feels like food and stimulates your taste and so it tastes like food. Pete: Awful. Alex: But it tastes terrible because it's made by robots that don't know what things taste like. So fun. Pete: No, it's not fun. This is where we're headed and it's awful. Justin: Well, we're a couple of beats away from that, I think, as a culture, as a people. But I think that example is so indicative of just how imaginative the series is, and how there's so many great details, and the world itself is so fully understood by the writer and the artist that it makes for just such a great read. Especially, this issue goes off on a totally new place that we don't- Pete: Yeah, it's a new read, it's very exciting, a crazy last page. I can't say enough about the art, it's the real hero of this. And the story just keeps getting better. It doesn't kind of set in a pattern and stay there, it keeps exploring it, it's as creative as it looks. I'm just constantly impressed by this. It was great. Justin: … It reminds me a little bit of the comic book Die, the Kieron Gillen book in a good way. So if you're a fan of that book and aren't reading this, which seems crazy, you should come check it out. Pete: Yeah, read more comics. Alex: Let's move on to another fantasy sci-fi book, Dryad #7 from Oni Press, written by Kurtis Wiebe, illustrated by Justin Barcelo. This is dealing with the massive twist from the last issue, turn away if you don't want to know, that the kids that we've been following the entire time are in fact adopted, is to put it lightly. Basically they were discovered in tubes by their parents and then speared away from there. They're dealing with that ramification. The parents are dealing with the fallout as well. In particular what I loved about this issue is the kids finally embracing and moving on with their lives and finding a fun time in the cyberpunk city. I thought- Justin: Finding other teens. Alex: … And finding other teens. Just a fun montage sequence that I enjoyed quite a bit. Pete: Yeah. I mean, it's tough to find out you're a tube kid, that's got to be tough. I felt like they handled it well. But yeah, this continues to be like every time you get an issue of this book, you have no idea where it's going to go, what it's going to do, it's very creative. The storytelling is very interesting and fresh. Yeah, this continues to surprise in a good way. Justin: Yeah, I liked this book a lot too. It's a common, it's almost a cliche at this point that, oh, science and magic, they're the same thing, man, just different energies man. And- Pete: Yeah, everybody knows that, man. Justin: … I feel like it's all tubes, man. Everything is a tube. Your body is a tube. Pete: Sweeping tubes earlier, man? Justin: A sub is just a tube. A beer can is a tube with beer in it that you open on one end and drink out of the inner tube of the outer tube. Pete: What? Justin: So anyway, what was I talking about? No. Pete: Dryad #7. Justin: Yes. No, this book really walks the walk of science and magic being the same thing in a way that other books sort of tell, but don't show. And this book really feels like one of the first books I've read where science and magic are the same thing, and these characters are trying to use them and control those two, those singular forms of energy and failing a lot. Alex: Yeah. Great stuff, definitely pick up this book. Next up, Black Widow #4 from Marvel, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Elena Casagrande and Jordie Bellaire. This title has been phenomenal from the get-go. Justin: So good. Alex: … As Black Widow had her memory wiped, we finally find out exactly what happened in the past in this issue. She's been captured by Arcade working for shadowy cabal of Black Widow's enemies, given a husband, given a baby. And this issue she's finally trying to take it all back. As usual, Kelly Thompson's book equal mounts of characterization and absolute heartbreak by the end. This has been a Banner run on Black Widow and I cannot get enough. Justin: It's a Bruce Banner run and I- Alex: Yes. Pete: Come on. Justin: … I agree, this is my other favorite book of the week. So good. The art's fantastic. The covers by Adam Hughes, both the cover of this issue and the next issue cover, I was blown away by. And yeah, the story is just excellent. It's- Pete: I mean, this is just- Justin: … You really feel for the characters. Pete: … It's just Marvel being smart, like, “Okay, we got Black Widow movie coming out, let's put some great talent on the Black Widow book and get people excited.” It's just a phenomenal story. The art's unbelievable, storytelling is fantastic. It's really great. Alex: Such a good book. Next up, Strange Adventures #7 from DC Comics, written by Tom King, art by Mitch Gerads and Evan ‘Doc' Shaner. In this issue, we're dealing with a little bit of the fallout that it turns out that Adam Strange's wife might not actually be the bad guy of the story as we have suspected for most of this time. It turns out it might actually be Adam Strange himself. Alex: And in this issue, we get the usual dual timelines for the book. We see Adam Strange being tortured by an agent of the Pykkts. And in the present he reveals that he's made some mistakes, but maybe doesn't reveal all his mistakes. Man, again, such a great issue, gorgeous art throughout, but it really changes a lot what I personally thought about what was going on in this series. And like a lot of Tom King's stuff, it makes me feel like, “Okay, I've got to have to read this and then go back and read the entire thing again to really get what has been going on.” Pete: You got- Justin: Yeah, this is my other favorite book, I think. I feel like this issue really sort of pops the cork on the series, I think. In a way, Tom King is often … You don't quite know what sort of emotional or psychological area he's exploring for a bit, it's like, “Oh, this person is dealing with some sort of trauma.” This gets compared to Mister Miracle a lot, where Mister Miracle was sort of depressed, but his adventures gave him the next emotional truth that he needed. Justin: And it feels like this is almost the opposite where Adam Strange has been so hardened by his adventures that he may have become a villain. And I think it's about trauma, it's about what it's like to actually be in war. This feels like it takes some of the themes from Heroes in Crisis and maybe uses them in an easier to deploy way, a more clean way as opposed to that book which a lot of people criticized for being a little obvious, I guess. Pete: … Yeah. I mean, a lot of crazy things happen in this issue. You want to talk about the tubes, this gets real trippy in this issue. And- Alex: I would love to talk about tubes. Yeah, let's do it. Pete: … Well, make sure they're milky. If you're going to do it, make it a milky tube. But yeah, the Batman, I don't care, the tyranny line was unbelievable. Justin: Are you talking about an ice cream cone? The milky tube? Pete: No, I'm not talking about an ice cream cone. Justin: Rocket pop. Pete: No. And I'm not talking about Choco Taco either, just to cut you off there. Justin: But yeah- Pete: Are you talking about Choco Taco … Oh, yeah. Got you. Justin: … But yeah, there's a lot of snapping necks in this issue, which I appreciated, a lot of action that we finally kind of get some information that really turns the story on its head, if you will. That's a snap a neck joke. This continues to be weird in all the right ways and keeps you wanting more, that freaking T. King, I tell you. Alex: T. King. “Spill your tea, King,” that's what I always say. Next up, Inkblot #4 from Image Comics, created by Emma Kubert and Rusty Gladd. I got to say, I've been warming to this book after not initially liking it that much. Love the art. Thought that the character design of the cat was great. But understanding that each issue is kind of its own adventure involving the cat has made me appreciate the book more. And in this one, a bunch of dudes are fighting as fags, I guess. But it's fun. It has a nice, weird light tone throughout. And I know it took me four issues to come around, but I'm enjoying quite a bit more. Pete: Wow, that's funny because it's like the reveal on this was kind of almost a letdown for me because it was like, we kind of got a little bit more of what the cat stealer is in this issue. And I liked it kind of being its own thing, so I was almost a little disappointed when it made a little sense, so that's funny that it got better for you. But yeah, the art is unbelievable. The cat is just super cute and fun to watch go on adventures. Justin: Pete, do you think, and I'm theorizing about your cat a lot, but do you think that this is what … When you're ignoring your cat and being like a bad cat husband- Pete: First off, how dare you? I am a fantastic cat husband. Justin: … No, you're being the Reed Richards. Your cat looks over at you and is like, “Oh, there he goes again with his podcasting experiments, trying to solve the podcasting mysteries.” Alex: His goopy arm is in a bucket, as usual. Justin: His arm in a bucket. And then your cat travels through time and encounters different adventures of their own. Pete: It would be quite amazing. I mean, it would explain why my cat is so tired all the time. Justin: There you go. I like this book as well. Alex: Great. Moving on to Daredevil #25 from Marvel, written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Marco Checchetto. Daredevil is in prison and Elektra is not happy about it. We're kicking off the next arc here as Elektra has a plan of her own of course as to what she needs Daredevil for. Big stuff goes down here. Pete, I know you were a little mixed about the last issue, how did you feel about this one? Pete: I like this. I really like getting the kind of Elektra Natchios side of things and like … Sometimes when she's written, it feels like it's not a real person, but I kind of liked this perspective in her trying to be Daredevil for Daredevil. I thought that a was very cool take. I mean, of course the art's unbelievable, but I'm really getting into Daredevil more, and I'm hoping Chip does Foggy right. Justin: Foggy seems to be losing his spot, and I think the sun is finally coming up and drying up the fog, which I'm fine with. Pete: No. Justin: Marco Checchetto's art is excellent. You got that wild Elektra hair. This lady's hair is going every which way. Pete: Yeah. Justin: She's got zero-G hair. It's a lot of flyaways, which she needs some Pantene Pro V. This podcast, as always, is brought to you by Pantene Pro V. Alex: By Pantene Pro V. Pete: Wow, dude. Alex: You got flyaways, Pantene Pro V. Justin: What I give Chip Zdarsky credit for with the writing of this book is moving past the parts we've sort of done a bunch before. Like Daredevil putting himself in jail and going into court and all that, we've seen that a lot in the past couple 15 years say. So he sort of moves past it and Daredevil is in jail, leaving Elektra on the streets to become sort of a new Daredevil, and setting up this new sort of hand mystery, getting back with Stick. There's a [crosstalk 00:43:47] Pete: Yeah, the Stick comeback. Justin: This is a lot of fun. Great pivots, and a book I've really been enjoying lately. Alex: Last but not least let's talk about The Boys: Dear Becky #7 from Dynamite, written by Garth Ennis, illustrated by Russ Braun. This is the last issue of this new The Boys series focusing on Wee Hughie as he finds out an unknown tale of Butcher's past, specifically the death of Becky, his wife, as you could probably figure it out, and how he dealt with that and how he became the Butcher that we know when The Boy starts. What did you think about this wrap up here? Pete: It's an interesting take on Thanksgiving. Justin: Yeah. Pete: Really kind of like I know I'm not the only one who's kind of felt that way of like you just wish you could take an axe to a table full of people you don't like. But I think The Boys does a great job of giving you a little bit of heart and then fucking around and being insane. And Garth Ennis is twisted in all the right ways, and this is kind of a crazy fun read. Justin: That's a life motto I think we all stick by, a little bit of heart and fucking around. All right, Pete? It was very chatty. I was surprised by how much of this book was about exploring the backstory of Butcher in a way that didn't feel … Maybe watching the TV show has sort of tried this territory already that we're covering here. Not necessarily in the content, but in the performances and the way they sort of play these roles, that I wasn't surprised by but I love the information in it. I wanted a little bit more out of just the storytelling in general, I wanted more to happen. Alex: Yeah, I could see that. I think as usual with Garth Edison stuff, he writes great dialogue, he does good characters. I don't think this takes away from The Boys in any way. It's not one of those sequels, prequels, whatever that feels like, “Ah, why did you go back to the [inaudible 00:45:53]?” It's something that if I read through The Boys I would be happy to read this volume as well. Alex: And in fact, it might read better as a complete story verses in the individual issues. And Russ Braun's art is very good, it fits in well with Derek Robinson's art. So that was nice to see. All in all I think this was a solid series. To your point, not 100% necessary with The Boys, but it doesn't take away from it either. Justin: Indeed. Pete: Agreed. Alex: All right. We're all- Justin: Agreed. Indeed. Agreed, agreed, indeed. Alex: … Agreed. Indeed. Agreed, agreed, indeed. And if you want to hear more of this song that we're singing- Pete: No. Alex: … patreon.com/comicbookclub- Pete: Don't. Alex: … to support the show and other shows we do. We also do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM at Crowdcast in YouTube. Come hang out, we'll chat with you about comic books. 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. Until next time, this has been Comic Book Club, goodbye. The post The Stack: King In Black, Batman/Catwoman, And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

tv love jesus christ spotify texas black thanksgiving art donald trump apple man work moving spoilers hell british new york times marvel boys blood batman dc holy union britain jump joker android boom mask hulu boy stitcher chip fuck xmen justice league studios aka black widow venom rocket spider verse dc comics daredevil butcher awful sandman grand canyon stack banner dynamite fantastic four arcade harley quinn swords locke buffy the vampire slayer spill exiles green lantern marvel universe tony stark ragnarok sweeping phantasm bengal arkham image comics elektra jokers patton oswalt agreed she ra unearth nightwing tom king foggy spider woman garth ennis bruce banner modok bad girl jemisin backtrack reed richards hulkamania union jack chip zdarsky kieron gillen donny cates mister miracle choco taco eddie brock heroes in crisis kelly thompson head games strange adventures james tynion iv cullen bunn oni press sue storm lumberjanes dryad scooby gang noelle stevenson batman catwoman knull secret six crowdcast adam strange ron marz mitch gerads jacob phillips shaner adam hughes jordie bellaire christopher cantwell ryan stegman inkblot comic book club howard porter that texas blood king in black chris condon andy lanning marco checchetto clay mann ultraverse filipe andrade jeremy lambert derek robinson elena casagrande shannon waters kurtis wiebe paul grist shannon watters mitch gerards kyle strahm elektra natchios russ braun baldemar rivas brian joines danny miki

The Stack: Crossover, Sweet Tooth And More

Major Spoilers Comic Book Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2020 56:36

On this week's comic book review podcast: Crossover #1 Image Comics Story by Donny Cates Art by Geoff Shaw Sweet Tooth: The Return #1 DC Comics Creator, writer, artist Jeff Lemire Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #1 Marvel Comics Written by Gerry Duggan, Matthew Rosenberg and Declan Shalvey Art by Adam Kubert, Joshua Cassara and Declan Shalvey Origins #1 BOOM! Studios Created by Arash Amel, Lee Krieger and Joseph Oxford Script by Clay McLeod Chapman Art by Jakub Rebelka Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons #1 Dark Horse Comics/IDW Written by Jody Houser & Jim Zub Line art by Diego Galindo Backtrack #8 Oni Press Written by Brian Jones Art by Jake Elphick U.S.Agent #1 Marvel Comics Written by Priest Art by Georges Jeanty That Texas Blood #5 Image Comics By Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips Mighty Morphin' #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Ryan Parrott Illustrated by Marco Renna Spy Island #3 Dark Horse Comics Written bye Chelsea Cain Art by Lea Mitternique Web of Venom: Empyre's End #1 Marvel Comics Written by Clay McLeod Chapman Art by Guiu Villanova Batman #102 DC Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Carlo Pagulayan Dryad #6 Oni Press Written by Kurtis Wiebe Illustrated by Justin Barcelo The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #4 Image Comics Written by Jason Aaron Art by r.m. Guéra Thor #9 Marvel Comics Written by Donny Cates Art by Nic Klein Wicked Things #6 BOOM! Box Created and written by John Allison Art by Max Sarin DCeased: Dead Planet #5 DC Comics Written by Tom Taylor Art by Trevor Hairsine Inkblot #3 Image Comics Written by Emma Kubert Art by Rusty Gladd X-Men #14 Marvel Comics Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mahmud Asrar and Leinil Yu Marauders #14 Marvel Comics Written by Gerry Duggan Art by Stefano Caselli 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: And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of comic books that have come out this week. Pete: We sure do. Justin: Yeah. Alex: This is the main thing people are concerned about right now is new comics. That's what we're all talking about on this Wednesday morning. So let's get into it. Let's talk about new comics. Let's just chill out and have a good time and not stress about absolutely anything else going on in the world. Kick it off with Crossover #1 from Image Comics, story by Donny Cates, art by Jeff Shaw. This is a highly anticipated comic. And I got to say, I feel like it was worth the wait. If you didn't pick it up, mild spoilers here. But the idea of the book is it takes place in a world where a comic book crossover suddenly pops up in the real world, in Colorado, essentially changing the entire world. And a bunch of things reverberate off of there years later, as we meet various characters who have been affected by this comic book crossover. What did guys think about this book? Pete: Well, from the cover, I really wanted to get blasted in the face with a rainbow. And I'm glad that they took the time to make sure that happened in the comic, so- Justin: So you felt like you got blasted in the face? Pete: Yeah, yeah. I felt like they did a good job of getting that across. Justin: I like this book a lot as well. It's one of those like, bang bang premise books where it's just like, this is it. And then it's like you slowly then start to meet the characters. And I do think in this book specifically, you don't really get too much of a sense of the characters by the end of the first issue. But the premise is such a sort of satisfying idea that I think it sells it on that alone. Pete: Can I just be the guy who says the thing we're all thinking? That little girl in the comic, shitty artist, she's probably not going to be able to get any work. Justin: Wow. Because she's got dots. Alex: No, no she draws- Pete: No, because of her artist skills. Alex: Yeah, she draws a not so great drawing by the end of the book. Justin: I see, I see, I got you. Oh at the end, yes. Alex: What I really appreciate about this, like you're saying Justin is, there's so many things that are nicely set up in this book beyond the central concept of the book. It's such, as usual, smart writings from Donny Cates. It also really stretches Jeff Shaw, in terms of multiple comic book styles. The promise here is that Donnie and Jeff have gotten characters that we know. This isn't just them, creating a world whole cloth. This is also them bringing in characters from Image from other comic book companies, that this is legitimately a actual comic book crossover. And we haven't quite gotten there yet. Because most of it, we're spending outside of Colorado and the ground zero zone where it all goes down. Alex: But the promise is, we're going to get there soon. And I would be shocked if we don't get things like Rick Grimes walking in front of a comic book store, Savage Dragon popping through. At least all of these Image Comics characters, and potentially some DC and Marvel characters through as well. As long as it stays grounded in those characters, the main characters of the book, I think it's going to be a wild ride to take. Justin: Yeah, and the revelation at the end of the first issue was like, “Oh, shit, can they do this?” And I think that's a great feeling to have at the end of an issue. Like, can they pull this off? And feeling like, “Well, this issue is good.” So yeah, they probably can. Alex: Yeah. Pete: It'll be interesting. I think it does a good job of being like, “Here is something that… We all know what a crossover means. Like, here's the title that's going to grab you and then kind of try to put a twist on it.” And it is that will they be able to pull this off? And that's very exciting for a first issue. Alex: Let's talk about another book that probably shouldn't work. But I think of course totally does. Sweet Tooth: The Return #1 from DC Comics creator, writer and artist, Jeff Lemire. As you can figure out from the title, this is Jeff Lemire, returning to a almost perfect comic book series, Sweet Tooth years later, that was about a young animal boy that pairs up with an old man journeys through a post apocalyptic world try to find Safe harbor. They eventually kind of found it. And this picks up as happens in the first panel of the first issue, 300 years later, except things are happening again. As they say in old Twin Peaks, it is happening again. And that's definitely a lot of the vibe that I think we get here. Man, I loved this book and the audacity of it and the fact that I have no idea where it's going to go. Particularly by the end, how'd you guys feel? Justin: I agree with you like the idea of setting the premise like, oh, the story is starting over and we're hitting very similar beats, but in a totally different world, means they're going to just like totally throw that out of whack. Like very quickly, I think. And I love Sweet Tooth. It's such a distinct book, and to be able to see it back on the shelves in a limited series though. Right. So that's a totally different thing. Alex: Yes. Pete What do you think about this one? You're a big Sweet Tooth fan. Pete: Yeah, this was- Justin: You got a real sweet tooth. Pete: Yeah, it just… Don't get me started, I eat so much fucking candy. Alex: Hey Pete you got the sweetest teeth I've ever seen. Justin: Hey it's Sweet Pete. Who's here? It's Sweetie Petey. Looking for his little sugar lick. Alex: Sweet Pete you want one of your meat treats? Pete: When you guys are done. Alex: Never. Justin: Never done. Pete: So Black Label's putting this, which is interesting. It means they can kind of get a little crazier. So it'll be interesting to see how much they push on that side. But I thought like the art was great. It really felt like Sweet Tooth. I thought it was very kind of weird world that he kind of woke up in. This inside, but kind of outside world. So I think they did a good job being like, “Hey, remember everything you love still here? New-ish kind of scenario. Come along for this ride.” And I think yeah, it does a great job of getting you excited for another story, with this team with this kind of gang that we know and love. So I think they did a great job of kind of returning to the well on this. Alex: Yeah, I agree. Let's move on to another one that I'm sure you like Pete. Wolverine Black, White and Blood #1 from Marvel Comics written by Gerry Duggan, Matthew Rosenberg, Declan Shalvey, art by Adam Kubert, Joshua Cassara and Declan Shalvey. As you could probably figure out from the title, I think this is an anthology all about Wolverine that uses black, white, and blood and that's pretty much it. So- Justin: Actual blood. Alex: Yeah. Justin: Human blood is what it's printed in this book. Pete: So, this is just the story that I need right now. With all the insane shit going on I just want a Wolverine story. Okay, I don't want to have to think about Fuck Island or how many swords, whatever, who's got and read a bunch of fucking menus or articles or whatever the fuck in between panels. Just give me a fucking comic book about Wolverine. Thank you. Yes, this is my favorite pick from the week. I loved it. Great use of red, and then the black and white coloring. This is just a lot of fun and good times. Justin: Exactly. Pete, you're right. It's so simple. The first story is just a simple story about a man from the 19th century who is born a mutant, has a healing factor he falls in love with the red haired woman. Later he is absorbed into a Weapon X program which is run by a secret government organization. He's experimented on, adamantium is added to his claws for some reason, in his skeletal system. He is then trained to fight using magnets, fight other monsters, that are built in this thing, and that people eventually feel pity for him because he does have some sort of conscience. It's a simple story. Pete: Yeah it's simple. Just give me a Wolverine story. All right. Alex: Classic. It's like Dick and Jane, basically. Justin: Yes. Exactly, you're talking about of course, the Jim Carrey movie. Alex: As usual with this sort of thing I think. Gerry Dugan and Matthew Rosenberg, Declan Shalvey, all good storytellers. Pete: The Dugs. Alex: The Dugs. So they're all solid stories. For my money, the Declan Shalvey- Pete: Rosenberg's great. Alex: … The third story is easily the best one. And I think part of that is that Declan Shalvey, as both the writer and the artist understands the challenge here and creates a story that plays to the strengths of the panels. It's simpler, it's more straightforward. It plays to those splashes, the small splashes both of blood but also the splash of the paddles. And I like that one quite a bit. Personally. Justin: Interesting. I really like the Weapon X story from Gerry Dugan. Pete: I loved the Rosenberg story the most. The Wolverine and a baby, I don't need to see that. But [Zaubs 00:09:40] you do you. But what's nice is three stories. If you pick this book up, probably like one of them. I thought this was great. You what you're getting and it delivers. Justin: One of my favorite movies was Three Claws and a Little Baby. So I get it. Pete: I thought you were going to say and a little lady, but you didn't. Justin: No, I preferred baby. Alex: That's the sequel. Justin: The sequel, yeah. Alex: Origins- Justin: One claw's played by Steve Gutenberg, one claw's played by Ted Danson… Pete: Come on, The Gute- Alex: What do you prefer? Do you prefer Three Claws and a Baby or Claws Academy? Justin: That's though, or the Santa Claws? We're getting to that season. Alex: Origins #1 from Boom Studios created by Arash Amel, Lee Krieger and Joseph Oxford, script by Clay McLeod Chapman and art by Jacob Rebelka . I got to tell you I probably should have done some research here because I was very confused about the credits. Is this a video game or was this a previous property Why are there so many creators and a different script writer? What's going on? But as it is the hero here I think is Jacob Rebelka's art which is weird, set in a post-apocalyptic world, there's a bunch of people wandering through. It seems very close to the Museum of Natural History but clearly isn't. They pick up those strawberries but the strawberries are very bad for you. I needed more information personally in this first issue, but I still like the art quite a bit. Justin: The strawberries are just filled with worms. It's not like they're… Alex: Oh, okay. Gotcha. So normal strawberries. Justin: A normal strawberry. Alex: Yes. Justin: I agree with you, the art in this book is amazing. I'm very intrigued by the story. I don't know exactly what's happening. It feels like there's a some sort of clone baby, but they talk about the baby, who is then later somewhat more of an adult, is named David. But they make it seem like he's famous somehow. Is there a David that you think it is, like David Beckham? Alex: Copperfield? Justin: Oh, yes. When I was five, David Copperfield made me disappear. Pete: Yeah, you've told us that story. Alex: Yeah, we know. Justin: Have I told you that story? Yeah, well, just letting me know, it's available- Alex: Not to interrupt but when I was five, David Beckham made me disappear. Pete: Wow. Justin: He bent you out of reality. Alex: Pete, what do you think about this one? Pete: I think the art's are unbelievable. I love the kind of like, seeing the subway entrance in the middle of the grass was kind of really cool. Justin: It's lush. Pete: Yeah, it's very creative. It's a cool story. I'm excited to see where this goes. But as of now, it's like, there's this baby named David. And so it's like, is this… Justin: Oh, David Schwimmer. Pete: Oh, it's a friend's reference. Because David Schwimmer did have that scene where he got it on in the museum. Justin: Yes, he worked in a museum and it's in New York. Pete: Yeah. So that's it, right there. Justin: And if you're going to need to clone a human to restart the population. You're going to want a Schwimmer. You're going to want to get a Schwimmer. Pete: Yeah, you're going to want a Schwimmer. Alex: You got to yell “Get me the pall bearer.” Justin: Yes, definitely. Iconic film. Alex: Stranger Things Dungeons and Dragons #1 from Dark Horse Comics and [crosstalk 00:13:16]- Pete: Yeah. Alex: Written by Jody Houser and Jim Zub. Line art by Diego Galindo. This is something that Jim Zub plugged on our live show many, many weeks ago at this point. I still kind of didn't know what to expect going in this. But I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. There are less of the Stranger Things and more as an homage, a loving tribute to the history of Dungeons and Dragons is what kind of comes through here. And that's kind of nice. Pete: Yeah, that's what the Zub-hub was talking about. Like he was really talking about how this really is a love letter to D&D, and kind of really gets into it. And I thought that was a cool kind of way to come at it. You can tell from this, the passion kind of just comes through in the pages. At first when he was telling us on the show, I was like, “Okay.” But this really works in this comic, I thought this was a lot of fun. And I love the kind of little pages at the end where you can kind of start your own. I thought this was great. I thought this was a lot of fun. Justin: It felt like regular things. It felt like, just things. They were just going about their business as kids. That's not a criticism per se it's just I think this is a hard prequel to the TV show Stranger Things. Bringing in how they got into D&D, which is very cool. And I like this book a lot better than the other Stranger Things book that we read, I think last week, because it feels a little more true to the characters and it feels like in line with the story of the TV show. Pete: It's going to get strange. All right, they're just kind of starting things out first. Alex: Yeah, they've started with Dungeons and Dragons. They're going to move to Advanced Dungeons and Dragon and that's when things are going to get real fucked up. Pete: Real strange. Justin: That's crazy. Alex: Let's move on to Backtrack #8 from Oni Press written by Brian Joines and are by Jake Elphick. This is, as we've plugged in many, many times, about a Cannonball Run style race but through time. Here mysteries are slowly starting to unfold about the racers who are all tied to the race in different ways. They also end back in pirate times, which is a fun era to put them in. I, as usual, had quite a blast reading this issue. How'd you guys feel about this one? Justin: It's fun. We're getting into a lot of like, specific character, small moves. And I feel like we're building up towards sort of some big revelations here pretty soon. And yeah, I like them being in pirate times. It's a fun, iconic place for them to be. Pete: Yeah, it's interesting, because it's like this crazy race throughout time. So you're like, “Oh, Fast and Furious meets Back to the Future.” But like, what's great is we're getting as we're in this insane race, we're getting little kind of windows into people's backstory, why they're here, why they are the way that they are. And it's nicely layered, like some comics issues are more focused on the race. This one's a little bit more focused on the kind of story, which is good. This comic continues to be really great, the art is fantastic. And it really adjusts to what time period it's in such a great way. Alex: I also like that we've finally gotten to a point with this book where it feels like Well, you can't eliminate any of these characters. But of course, they're going to and that's going to make it hurt that much more. We're not quite there yet, but in the next couple of issues, it feels like that's coming. And that's a good emotional place for the book to be in. Still a blast to read. If you haven't read it, definitely pick it up. Alex: Next up US Agent #1 from Marvel Comics written by Priest, art by George Jeanty. I was very excited personally to see George Jeanty on this book. I've really liked his art a lot since he was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other things. He's good stuff. Of course priest, always reliable. And this is a bonkers book about the asshole Captain America going through the heartland, fighting who even knows why. But I really really enjoyed this quite a bit just for how best up it was. How'd you guys feel about it? Justin: Yeah, if you're looking for sort of a Hawkeye style comic. I feel like this has some strong like Hawkeye vibes back when he was living in Brooklyn with the Russian tracksuit dudes. That whole thing feels very much in line with what this book is. Except he's a little bit more of a shit head. Sort of in the Scott Lane Ant Man style and constantly being mistaken for Captain America which that's going to burn. Pete: Yeah, I was really happy when that one pizza delivery guy kicked the shit out of them. That was great. Justin: It is a weird… Like the story, like USA Agent. There's a pizza delivery man who becomes his sort of sidekick. He's keeping all these other pizza delivery people in the basement. Like I don't quite know what the whole thing, the whole deal is here. But it's fun. And it's super unique, I feel like. Alex: Yeah, that feels like typical Priest stuff to be where it's just these details thrown in. Where you're like, “What I can't quite get a handle on this, but it's still fascinating at the same time.” Let's move into a very dark turn for a book that we've been enjoying quite a bit. That Texas Blood #5, from Image Comics by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips. Again, when we had Chris Condon on the show a couple of weeks back, he promised that things were going to get real bad real soon, and oh, boy, they got real bad as our main character is losing his mind down in Texas doing some very dark stuff. In the name of his brother being killed. This is definitely the most brutal issue of this yet. I would say. Justin: Yeah, I like this book a lot. I feel like the art in this issue specifically is so good. Some hard boiled crime I'm sure this book gets compared to Criminal a ton. And if you're a fan of that, like this is right in line. I do think it's strange that they use the same interior monologue lettering as a Criminal. And Jacob Philips is Sean Phillips' son. I would move away from that because I think this book really stands alone on its own right. It doesn't need to feel like it's drafting off of Criminal's success. Alex: How do you feel about Pete? Pete: Yeah, I think the art's unbelievable. This is some real great storytelling, very intense. This book moves at a very interesting pace. It's sometimes very fast, sometimes it seems like slow. But this is a really kind of great storytelling. Great character stuff. I'm very much enjoying myself. Alex: Let's move on then and talk about Mighty Morphin #1 from Boom Studios, written by Ryan Parrott, illustrated by Marco Renna like that Texas blood This is a brutal issue for the Power Rangers. Just devastating, it's a lot of blood. Justin: Devastating. Oh, Power Rangers. That makes sense, now. They must have left the other two words off the title. Alex: Yeah, well, that's how you know they're being serious. Unlike the other actually very dark Power Rangers books that we've been reading recently. This is a return to form. This is like classic Power Rangers. The Green Ranger is evil is he not? We don't even know who he is. Doesn't matter. You got all the villains here. You got all the Power Rangers. But with a slightly more modern style. How did you people feel about this one, particularly given that we've been quite enjoying the other Power Rangers books that have been coming out from Boom. Justin: This book felt like when you're at a party, when we used to go to parties, and you end up talking to someone you don't really know. And they tell you a very long story and you're like, “I don't know you. Why are you telling me this crazy involved story about your life? Like where are we going with this?” It felt like, “Oh yeah, I guess I see how that relates. Oh, the mighty Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Yeah. Oh, I see like we're dealing with Zed and all this stuff.” But I will say I enjoyed reading. Despite the fact that it's definitely feels like not my wheelhouse. Pete, how did you feel? Got to shoot your Bulk and Skull? Pete: Yeah, I mean, this is great. This is just fun. This, to me was like a animated version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers kind of like the new update of Voltron. I very much had a lot of fun. We got some great fighting, some badass panda stuff. It was fun to see them talk about making the villains and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I thought the reveal at the end was great. I think this was just fun, Mighty Morphin comic stuff. Justin: It checks out. That's the title and he said stuff at the end. So that's what it is. Alex: I did like the reveal at the end. I think what I have been responding to and the other Mighty Morphin books that have been set in this post apocalyptic world where the Power Rangers mostly lost in the villains that are trying to just kind of hold on to what they have, is this idea of playing with the continuity. Which the shows could never do because they're mostly working off of what the Japanese versions, right? Of Power Rangers then remixing them. So they're all very kiddy and very silly and badly dubbed on purpose and all of these things. That just I never liked, this splits the difference between those two things. So to your point Justin, I also actually had a fun time reading this even if it is not quite my thing. But definitely more of my thing is those other books I would personally lean towards those. Justin: I agree and obviously I've always been a Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. But it's especially funny the way that… I was surprised by how all their animals, the animal machines they ride are like saber toothed tiger and all that. I was like, “They all look exactly the same, but they're all different.” The mythology of the Power Rangers is so weird and convoluted. Alex: Yeah, I just can't get a handle on it. Pete: Yeah, if that stuff made sense to you won't be pulled out of the story like that I think. Alex: I'll tell you, not to pull back the curtain too much but at my day job I got offered this exclusive clip for I want to say Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Dino Thunder or something like that. Pete: Oh, wow. Alex: Yeah, I know. And they sent it to me. And it was the casts from like four different Power Rangers shows all getting together. So clearly we've done enough stuff that I could watch it I was like, “Okay, this is like Avengers: Endgame for Power Rangers.” But it was such a deep dive to understand what they were talking about at any point in that clip. Normally a clip I'm like, all right, I could write this up and half an hour tops. That's it. But this one I was like opening up wikis and looking at casts, and debut dates and everything. I was like “What is happening here? This is weird.” But there you go. Deep dives. Alex: Let's move on to another one. Which is a one of my favorite books that is coming out right now, Spy Island #3 from Dark Horse Comics written by Chelsea Kane art by Lia Miternique. So this is set on an island in the Bermuda Triangle that is filled with spies of different types. In this issue our mean spy is starting to figure out that her father, who is also on the island hiding out as a mime may have a bigger plan at work. We also find out more about what happened to the first two issues in terms of what she laid down. This book is fantastic. In my mind, it is like a perfect mix between Mind Management and Superior Foes of Spiderman with a flavor of his own. And I am loving every single issue of it. How are you guys feeling? Justin: Pete? Pete: Well, I was waiting for you to go. This is really kind of crazy, but it's also a lot of fun. I also like the kind of art. The way the art changes throughout the book. The whole like a series where she's dating different dudes and the kind of like the way the father sees the dudes, very interesting. Yeah, I think this is a very creative, cool book and the art matches it perfectly in such a cool way. Yeah, I'm not always understanding what's happening, but it's very interesting and very creative. So yeah, I think this is a great book. Justin: Yeah, I agree. It's really funny. It reminds me a bit of Mark Russell's Flintstones, I guess all of Mark Russell's stuff. If you're a fan of that, like this book is like legitimately funny, it has sort of an irreverent tone. The way they do full page sort of jokes, visual jokes is really awesome. But it's still has like some… I'm very interested in the story as well. Like, these characters are fun. Like I don't quite know what's happening with the mystery itself. But it's just a smart world and universe this book creates in every issue. Alex: Yeah. I just wanted to reiterate what you said Pete about Lia Miternique's art which collages in so many different styles throughout the book, it's so impressive. Pete: Very impressive. They're straight flexing. It's unbelievable in this. Alex: It's great. Yes, straight flexing is actually a really good way to put it. It's definitely a book to be like, “Here's what we could do. Here's what we can show off.” It's awesome. Definitely pick it up. Next up Web of Venom: Empyres End #1 for Marvel Comics, written by Clay McCloud Chapman, art by Guiu Villanova. This is as you can probably tell from the title, following up on the End of Empyre as a bunch of the Skrull and Cree leave Earth at run directly into the King in Black, the next event, and have literally like a crossover, while one of them is heading one way the other is heading the other. And ends up like aliens on a Skrull ship. I like this, I was a little hesitant, just because it wasn't Donny Cates ready to get and he's been such a mastermind behind this event. But I thought this was a very good, scary book. Justin: That's such a funny way to put it, Alex. Because it really does feel like it's we're backstage at Marvel and one event is like, “Hey, we finished our performance. Thank you so much.” And another event is like, “Oh, we're up next. We're going to… Sorry. Oh, did we sorry, we bumped into you and made a big mess with all of our symbiont juice. So sorry.” Because it is like, when I saw this I was like, “Empyre. No way.” But it is actually a great story and it does have that sort of Aliens. Like it's game over man for everybody in this issue. And the King in Black is terrifying. Like I'm excited to see this event the more I see of sort of the insanity. Reminds me of the insane Adam Warlock from back in Infinity Gauntlet days, as the villain here. And it's a good read even though it feels unessential from the title. It's worth picking up. Pete: Yeah, I mean, they got some space vampire bats in here. This is just some crazy, fun stuff that's going on. Yeah, I mean, it's just kind of like alright, space aliens. Cool. There's not too much more going on but it's definitely a cool comic and worth checking out. Alex: Next up Batman 102 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV in art by Carlo Pagulayan. This is the intro of Ghost-Maker who of course, is the guy who builds ghosts. We all know that in the DC Universe. Justin: Yes. Pete: No, no, because when he makes ghost by killing you and then you're a ghost. That's how that's… Justin: Oh no, I think he makes the ghost in the original Pac Man game. He made Inky, Blinky, Dot. Pete: And also just in case you're wondering he doesn't like crochet little ghosts either makes them. No. Okay, he kills people turning them into ghosts. Justin: I guess we have different takes. Alex: So this introduces that character. And Ghost-Maker, well, he got introduced before, but this is his official introduction. He is going directly for Clownhunter. So we got two new additions to the Batman mythos, going head to head with Batman, of course stuck in the middle. As it turns out, though, Ghost-Maker has a deep tie to Batman's origin. Pete you got to like this right? There was a lot of fighting. Pete: Yeah, this was a great issue. I love the action. Also fun reveal. Well, all right, let me back up the truck a little bit. Love the Batman like punch entrance. Nice when you can like make your entrance and punch someone in the face. I mean, that's like- Justin: Yes. I've seen you walk into a lot of weddings. Pete: Yeah, anyways. But I think this was a ton of action, which is great. But also the way they kind of knew each other, the way it was like, “Ghost-Maker.” “Batman.” And like right into it. It was really cool. Also very interesting how Clownhunter is still hanging on like still a thing. I thought Clownhunter would have kind of like faded away after Batman gave him his talking to. But not the case. And now we're also dealing with Grinners which is interesting. Talking to Oracle on the old earpiece there “Okay, that's cool.” But I think that they also had some funny moments like when Knife Guy was like, “I hate teenagers.” That was hilarious. Justin: Because you hate teenagers? Pete: No, no, I just think that it was like a funny line, where he's like, “Teenagers.” But yeah, I think there's some interesting stuff happening in this. And instead of kind of like a cool down from such a big event that we just had. The fact that they kind of ramped it right back up into that it's very kind of interesting. And also cool name, Ghost Stories part one. Justin: I feel like James Tynion got sort of his first big story out of the way. And now he can really settle in and create his bat universe. And I think Clownhunter, Ghost-Maker are a big part of that. Really leaving his mark on Batman as a character and the whole world there. And I like that. I'm excited that we're sort of in that point in his arc here. Pete: And it's also interesting to have a villain that's like, “Yo, Batman, do your fucking job. Gotham is a shit show. It's constantly on fire. Like What's your deal?” That's an interesting way to come at it. Alex: A lot of the discussion in this book is about what Gotham is now that the Joker War is done and what it's going to become next. I'm excited for what's going to become next. And I trust James Tynion enough to bring it there. But to your point, Justin, he thought he was only going to be on until Issue 100 and he's continuing from there. So in my mind definitely feels like “Oh, okay, I'm going to keep going. Alright, I'm going to set up the next 15, 20, 30 issues, however long I'm on for.” Versus what I was doing before, which was my definitive Batman story. Alex: So I'm curious to see what this sets up and where it goes. Because again, I trust James Tynion's storytelling, he has certainly proved himself more than capable. Let's move on to Dryad #6 from Oni Press written by Kurtis Wiebe, and illustrated by Justin [Barcello 00:33:49]. This issue our main family is still hanging out in cyberpunk Tech City, trying to figure out what's going on. Trying to figure out if they should help the kids who are currently in a coma. Turns out they don't need help, they do wake up by the end. We find out another huge revelation about our family. I got to tell you, I was not totally into the cyberpunk stuff in this issue. But I definitely turned around by the end. Love the twist there. I thought that was so great for the series going forward. What was your guys take on it? Justin: I agree. I love the way the story is unfolding. I think the way they're able to capitalize on this two pronged like fantasy side of the story and the technological side of the story. In a way that it's a tough trick to pull off. And I think it is working on both fronts. I like the sort of Blade Runner vibe to the front end of the book. And then when we shift generations to the kids for the back end, I like all these characters. I'm curious to hear… It feels like this is sort of like a mission went bad a long time ago and we're dealing with the fallout is what this series is actually about. So I want to know What that is. I feel like that was a reveal in this issue that we didn't really know from before. Pete: This book continues to be very, very creative. Each issue kind of comes at things a little differently. It's fun to see what you're going to get with every issue. Yeah, and we keep getting deeper into the story. They're doing a good job of kind of piecemealing information while still giving us a lot of action. Fun reveal at the end. I think this is very interesting. And also it's cool the way they kind of swap around styles. So I continued to be impressed by this book. Alex: Cool. Next up The Goddamned: the Virgin Brides from Image Comics written by Jason Aaron and art by R.M. Guera. Pete, I know what you're going to say it's creepy. So Justin, what did you think about this button? Justin: This is a book you want to leave out for your grandparents, they're going to love the fighting, they're going to love the very short tops that expose all of your breasts. It's a good stuff for the older generation. But I like this book a lot. The R.M. Guera art is unbelievable. It's so detailed. It feels like it's in the style of Prince Valiant, but with a exciting, much more irreverent story. And the twists and turns, it's also written from the point of view where like, I don't know… We have our protagonists who are on the run. They're virgin brides who are supposed to mate with this like monster basically, that is the god here. And they escaped, we're on the run. And then things aren't going well, basically. And I feel like this book could be very harsh with its character, so I really don't know what's going to happen next. Alex: Yeah, I agree. That's one of the biggest things about the book is it's very dark, and it's a super gritty, I hesitate to say realistic but that probably gives the best sense of it take on the Bible and biblical mythology. But if you look at the Bible, lots of people dying all the time, or almost dying or horrible things happening to them almost constantly. So it's actually very- Justin: Not a fun read. Not a fun read. Alex: Yeah. Not a beach… I don't usually take the Bible to the beach, to be honest, like to read it, to just chill out. But like you said, R.M. Guera's art is fantastic. This is very dark. I don't know what's going to happen in the next issue at all. But there's a crazy cliffhanger that happens that was awesome. Good stuff. Let's move on to talk about Thor #9. Pete: I just wanted to say. Alex: Yeah, yeah. Pete: I agree with you. The ending was really kind of amazing. Justin: You do like it, you love it. Pete: No, it's creeptastic in all the wrong ways. Justin: But do you like the art Pete? Because this is R.M. Guera, same artist on Scalped? Which you like. Pete: Yeah, amazing artist. Alex: Would you say it's worth it for the art alone? Pete: Nope. Justin: Wow. Alex: You're very wrong. Justin: Can't get past it. Alex: Yeah. Thor #9 from Marvel Comics written by Donny Cates art by Nick Klein. So this is kicking off a new crazy story arc. Donny Cates doing his Donny Cates Marvel thing as he goes back to an old part of Marvel continuity, lifts it up again and makes it as fucked up as possible. In this case, we're exploring what happens to Donald Blake when Thor comes out. Something that we haven't touched out in years. Where does he go? And it ends up being pretty messed up. But I love where the storyline is going. And Nick Klein's art of this book is phenomenal. So good. What did you guys think? Justin: Totally agree. Like I love… This is my favorite book of the week, the way that finding this little bit of Thor mythology that has been just legitimately ignored. Dr. Blake was the character that was Thor's human form and he would tap his walking stick and become Thor. And Thor just hasn't transformed out of him. It's like Bruce Banner has been the Hulk for so long that like what's Bruce Banner up to? And we get to explore that side of that here. And it is fucked up. And it's super smart the way we get there and to have Donald Blake become this new aspect of the Thor mythology I think is super exciting. Pete: I don't know man. Like this is to me, it's like, it's okay if we're out of ideas, guys, we can just maybe… Justin: Jesus. Alex: Wow. Justin: Harsh take. Pete: What it's like, “Hey, remember how I turn into this guy? Well, when I turn into him, he just kind of walks the earth. What if he got angry about that?” And it's like “Wait, what is happening? What are we doing right now?” Alex: That's what's happening, you just described what's happening. Pete: Yeah, I know, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Justin: It's fun though. It's like when Wolverine when he died he had to fight a sword dude. Like that was cool. Pete: Okay. Alex: Was it? Pete: Yeah, I don't know if it was. Justin: I liked the fighting this sword dude. I didn't like the fact that he came back from just a little speck of blood Lobo-style. Alex: I do love… I don't know, just I love the visual of what happens when Donald Blake finally comes out of his reverie, the way that Nick Klein draws him. I don't know if Nick Klein specifically designed him Pete: The art's unbelievable. Alex: What? Pete: The art's unbelievable. Alex: Yeah, it's great. It's worth it for the art alone, I would say. Pete: Wow. Justin: Wow. Alex: The that Nick Klein designs the new Dr. Donald Blake is great. Justin: What a cool turn of phrase. Alex: It's a great new villain for the Marvel Universe. Spoiler, obviously, but I think in the same way that Donny introduced Cosmic Ghost Rider. And it immediately became like, “Oh, it's this thing. Like that exists. That's fun. That is a fun thing to look at.” Yeah, it's the same thing with whatever Dr. Donald Blake has become. It's a fun clear visual and I love it. And I'm excited to see what this means, it ties into the overall mythology that he's building for Thor, with what's happening with Mjolnir. It just feels very smart across the board. Justin: 100%. Alex: Next up, Wicked Things #6 from Boombox created written by John Allison and art by Max Sarin. We've been very complimentary of this book, which follows a teen detective who is framed, probably for murder, as she ends up teaming up with the police department in I believe London. Not 100% sure, but I'm going to say yes. And she is pretty much smarter than him. This is a weird ending for this book I got to say. It feels like there were supposed to be more issues. And then it got cut short, personally, which is disappointing, even though I enjoyed this issue as well. Justin: Well, that may be true. It does feel… It could also just be a cliffhanger that they're really pushing. I think the last page makes it feel like there was truly like a page ripped out of the back of the book. And I was like, “Wait, what?” I wanted to know how this conversation ends. But in general, it's fun. This main character is such a fun… I love her energy. I like the world this is in which is like this detective, 14 to 16 years old, the best detective in the world. And there's a moment where she's being held hostage and you expect her to like elbow the guy and get away. But it doesn't happen because she's just a regular teen detective. And I think that's fun that they're really keeping within the storyline. Pete: Just a regular teen detective? Justin: Yeah, like a… Pete: Like a normal teen detective. Justin: Because like, surely you were a teen… You solved some crimes in your small town, right Pete? Pete: Oh definitely. Definitely did. Yeah, I agree. This is a ton of fun. Alex: Sorry, Pete, what did they call you? They called you Thesaurus LePage? Pete: No they didn't. Justin: He was really good with saying other words that were like words. Pete: Yeah. Justin: He didn't solve a lot of mysteries but he was like, “Oh, I think you mean sweaty.” Alex: Yeah. Pete: Yeah, I think it did feel a little rushed. Every issue up until this issue didn't feel that way. But man, this is still a great story. Really creative, fun, main character. I could definitely see a lot more with her. I hope they keep going in some iteration or whatever. But yeah, this has been a lot of fun and I hope this doesn't end. Alex: I agree with definitely worth picking up in trade whenever it's collected and hopefully we'll get a second series of it. Moving on to DCeased: Dead Planet #5 from DC Comics, written by Tom Taylor and art by Trevor Hairsine. In this issue John Constantine is launching a desperate mission to fight back against the anti life plague. And it's predictably dark but with moments of real humanity and humor, everything that we've come to expect from this series I think so far. Justin: This book has really migrated to the top of my stack like I love reading a book. It's a good book. The characters are fun. The Damian Wayne Batman is great. Constantine still a dick. Just a straight up dick. Pete: Oh man. Justin: There's some fun jokes here. Pete: Constantine is great in this book, this book continues to impress. And I think this was a really great Constantine, hilariously messing with Dr. Fate and Swamp Thing even getting in on the joke. Batman doing father jokes, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that. But Batman getting a punch in at the end, liked that. That was good. But yeah, this continues to be a very creative, very funny, well done comic that does like a lot of cool things. The Shazaam moment in this is so badass. That was so cool. Yeah, I thought this was a great, great issue. Justin: And there's a lot of dread here still where like any character could die and everything could go wrong at any moment. And I believe on the last page at the bottom they say things get worse. Alex: There we go. Next up Inkblot #3 from Image Comics written by Emma Kubert, art by Rusty Gladd. I got to tell you I keep throwing this book in the stack because I can't wait to figure it out. Like what's going on here. There's a little bit more of a hint in terms of this is a cat that can jump through universes? Pete: That's the thing. Alex: I guess that's the idea of the book that they establish at the beginning here. Pete, you've been enjoying this book. What did you think about this issue? Pete: Yeah, I don't know what it is. It's just the two eyes are so adorable. It gets me. Justin: You're a cat guy. Pete: I'm a cat guy now. So like I get it, cats are very mysterious. They have a lot of things going on that they don't share with us. And yeah, I think that this makes sense of how the Loch Ness Monster came into fruition. I think this is just a crazy kind of creative book. And the art is phenomenal, some adorable storytelling. This is just fun. Alex: I just wanted to mention Justin before you get into your comments if you are a cat who would like to share something with us. Please email us at ComicBookClublive@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. Justin over to you. Justin: Yes. I always pick up after the cat call out. Pete: After the cat plug. Justin: Cat plug. We're looking to meet some single cats. There's something about this book. The art is really cool. And I think changing gears a little bit with this issue, for the few issues it was like what's the big story here? But I think reading this issue it was like, oh maybe it's just like fun little romps with this cat. Alex: Yeah, yeah I think so too. I felt a lot better about this one that I did for the first two because I was trying to figure it out. But I had the same sense as you did Justin. I reserve the right to be robbed with issue #4. But the art is so good and it is a fun little pirate adventure with a cat and the Loch Ness Monster, enjoyable stuff. Justin: I reserve the right to be wrong. Alex: Last thing here we're going to end with our X of Swords, X of Swords block, talking about two issues that came out from Marvel. We got X-men #14, written by Jonathan Hickman art by Mahmud Asrar and Leinil Yu. Marauders #14 written by Gerry Dugan and art by Stefano Caselli, two very different issues. So I do think actually, if anything, we kind of need to talk about them differently. But so far, the champions of Arakko and the champions of Krakoa and they gathered in Otherworld for a dinner. In the first issue and X-men we find out about Apocalypse and his wife, what went on there we find out about her secret history. Pete's got to love that one because there was a lot of text and confusing things that happened. Alex: And then in Marauders everybody gets together for dinner and things go predictably badly. Would you think about these chapters of X of Sword? And Pete I know you're upset they're not fighting with swords yet. That aside, how'd you feel about these books? Pete: Alright, so first off you know what's better than having a huge battle that we've been building to taking the time out to have a dinner first. Alex: Agreed, agreed. Pete: And let's just talk at the dinner table. Justin: When you're hungry. Pete: And really just kind of talk things out and have a walk? “Hey, Apocalypse, why don't we hold hands and talk about the past and not fight. And get into a giant action sequence like maybe some people would enjoy?” Justin: Well, let me give you a quick breakdown of the way the story. They teleport to this strange dimension. Dinner, dinner, sleep, midnight snack, brunch, coffee, sword sharpening and shining. Alex: You're forgetting something in the middle there Justin, there's several times when they get handed cards. Pete: What's not to love. Justin: That's right. Let's not forget about the… Pete: [crosstalk 00:49:38]. Justin: So I feel like there's some like magic happening, some light table magic. I think someone's going to eventually have a yo-yo and other like juggling tricks. It's just a fun day out. Anyway, where was I? Okay, then it's going to be lunch. And then they're going to have like a baseball game. Pete: Don't forget to show the menu. They're going to show the menu a couple times. Alex: The menu was fun. It was a fun menu. Justin: The menu was very fun. Well, let me say so Pete's criticisms aside, and let's put them far, far aside. I love this. I think that the X-Men issue by Jonathan Hickman is a full take down of Apocalypse. It's like a subtle takedown of Apocalypse. Apocalypse went to earth and he like had these like piddling battles with the X-Men, claiming that he was like survival of the fittest. We need to all be better. The mutants must rise. Justin: Meanwhile, the world he left behind had everyone literally fighting for their lives, constantly. They became the fittest and he has to come back hat in hand, sword in hand with this woman that he left behind that he maybe still loves and be like, “Oh, you've been literally becoming the best fighters in the universe while I have been shitting the bed on Earth. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Let's go have a little day off.” And then the Marauders issue I feel like is a little bit more focused on the Wolverine side of it, but I do think this series- Pete: Had time for a nice dance. Did you like the dance? Justin: Some dancing. Wolverine likes to get fucked up. And I think he feels like he really gets to drink in this issue, which he never really… He's always like, I drink. But then the healing factor eradicates everything. Pete: Yeah, Wolverine gets real fucked up in this issue. Justin: Yeah. But I do think a lot of this arc, this whole storyline is about repositioning Apocalypse and I'm curious what the landing point of that is. And I do feel like the Marauders issue definitely had that sense of dread. Like an Agatha Christie story where you're like, “Fuck, some of these people are going to die.” Alex: Yeah, it really does feel like… And this is something that was a big point of conversation when the X-men introduced resurrection. It feels like these people are a danger. It feels like all of these characters are not actually going to make it out of this or at least in the same way at the end of the day. And that's great that they went in what has it been, a year, something like that. From everybody being like the exploiter just come back to life whenever, to positioning them into a place where they are in actual danger. And bad things may happen to them maybe for the first time at a really long time. That's super smart. Alex: And the Marauders issue in particular plays with that with Storm dancing with the literal personification of death, and mentioning “Hey, you've never actually died. You're one of the few X-men that has not died and come back. So let's talk about that. Isn't that interesting?” I thought there was such smart character work in the Marauders thing, the X-men issue as well. Both with Apocalypse and Annihilation I love as usual the insane world building. I do know where he pulls it out from with Jonathan Hickman there. Alex: I do think there are touches of East of West going on with the apocalypse, Annihilation stuff. Particularly in the relationship that's popping up there. But that's fine. That's a great book. So I'm okay to skim some of those ideas a little bit. And of course, the art. Mahmud Asrar, Leinil Yu, Stefano Caselli. Awesome. I know I said this the last time. But this is one of, not just with Marvel, but one of the best crossovers I've read in years. At this point. Pete: Oh shut up. That's just… Shut up. Alex: Years. Pete: Awful, just awful. Alex: Years. Decades. Pete: First off- Alex: Millennia. Justin: Lifetimes. Pete: … X of Swords, are we even going to get 10 individual issues, like we got to see how they fought… If we don't get to see like 10 issues of fighting after all this fucking lead up. Oh, if we get no… I'm worried, we're getting close. We're past halfway, we still don't have any fighting yet. Justin: Would you be disappointed Pete if we only got this fighting from the source perspective? Like it was just like metal banging another metal. Pete: Just clang clang? Justin: Clang, clang. Alex: And you don't actually get to see it. It's just the interior monologue of the swords. “Wow this hurts.” Pete: I got to say in the Marauders ep, seeing magic like sizing everybody up. That was pretty cool. Justin: She's a badass. Alex: Super fun. Justin: You mentioned it before, but the menu at the top of the Marauders issue was super fun. Like I love that, the detail there was great. Pete: Waste of a page. Justin: I'd eat that shit. Alex: Pogg Ur-Pogg, very fun character. I'm just- Justin: Marinated in urine. I'm here for it. Alex: Yeah, all of the Arakko characters also, I think are great and super fun. They're just… I don't know, I don't know if it's Jonathan Hickman in conversation with other people. I don't know if he's necessarily driving the rest of the X-Men team to this but it's just he comes in just and he's like, “Here's these new additions to Marvel continuity. They totally make sense. You love them know.” They are just these perfect things that absolutely work. And the greater part about all of these new additions from Arokko is only one or two of them are completely black and white, which I think is very cool. And a way of Jonathan Hickman really stretching himself as a creator. Justin: Yeah. Wow, what a blistering takedown. That's the harshest I've ever heard you speak, Alex. Alex: These issues are great at that same for The Stack. If you'd like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do the 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 at Comic Book Live on Twitter, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Also leave us comments on iTunes. Those help out quite a bit. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast more. Until next time, we'll see you at the virtual comic book shop. Justin: And remember the door is always open for any stray cat looking to wander in. The post The Stack: Crossover, Sweet Tooth And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

tv love jesus christ new york spotify texas black babies earth bible man moving spoilers real west deep colorado marvel blood russian fun japanese batman dc safe spider man east aliens dragon human web android boom museum origins dinner cat kick stitcher stranger things apocalypse criminals fate thor sword fuck waste xmen teenagers dungeons and dragons back to the future priest sort classic crossover oracle avengers endgame wolverines personally dungeons iconic captain america hulk shut decades blade runner fast and furious ghost stories dc comics hawkeyes power rangers gotham jim carrey awful skull stack marvel comics twin peaks swords agatha christie buffy the vampire slayer harsh annihilation lobo pac man devastating dc universe cree rosenberg marvel universe david beckham versus bermuda triangle natural history swamp thing reminds bulk loch ness monster flintstones sweet tooth voltron image comics gotcha david copperfield agreed mighty morphin power rangers zed dark horse comics marauders bruce banner infinity gauntlet jeff lemire jonathan hickman lifetimes boombox otherworld cannonball run david schwimmer tom taylor mighty morphin john constantine skrull adam warlock jason aaron backtrack mjolnir rick grimes donny cates mark russell inky boom studios weapon x schwimmer little baby james tynion iv green ranger oni press sean phillips millennia mind management krakoa empyre shazaam savage dragon scalped dryad jim zub blinky clang matthew rosenberg copperfield cosmic ghost rider gerry duggan john allison jacob phillips declan shalvey marinated santa claws inkblot advanced dungeons comic book club goddamned ryan parrott jeff shaw zub joker war that texas blood prince valiant jody houser adam kubert superior foes james tynion chris condon mystic knights guera tech city tir na nog dceased dead planet steve gutenberg stefano caselli mahmud asrar sweet pete nick klein kurtis wiebe carlo pagulayan dugs donald blake leinil yu arakko chelsea kane brian joines

Wayne’s Comics Podcast #456: Interviews with Ron Randall and Brian Joines

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2020 95:57

comics podcast ron randall brian joines

Wayne’s Comics Podcast #456: Interviews with Ron Randall and Brian Joines

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2020 95:56

Two more great interviews are here this week in Episode 456--Ron Randall and Brian Joines! First up is the return of Ron Randall from Trekker: Hunter’s Moon, which you can support by going to this link: trekkerkickstarter.com. It’s the latest in the terrific series of graphic novels and other stories about Mercy St. Clair, a Trekker (bounty hunter) who’s a strong character as well as a great female lead! Ron and I talk about how he puts together these high-octane books, what we can expect from Mercy and Molly in this story and the future, and what you can get in this latest Kickstarter project so very worthy of your support! For more, go to this link! Then everything wraps up with the return of Brian Joines from Backtrack, his terrific new series from Oni Press. Here’s how it's described: “If you had a chance to fix a mistake from your past, would you take it? Alyson Levy would. Guilt weighs heavy on former criminal ‘wheelman,’ Alyson, who led an illicit life that left her shattered into pieces that would never fit together the right way again. That's when she started hearing about it…a massive cross-country car race that grants the winner a chance to correct a single mistake in their life.” We discuss how this series came to be, who the various characters are, and what we can look forward to as the first 10 issues wrap up this engaging story. The first trade is coming soon, so be sure to let your local comics shop know you want it! Highly recommended! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patreon member. It will help ensure Wayne's Comics Podcast continues far into the future!

moon guilt kickstarter backtrack major spoilers trekkers oni press comics podcast ron randall brian joines

The Stack: Batman, Locke & Key And More

Longbox Review Comic Book Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2020 58:08

On this week's Stack podcast: Batman #100, Locke & Key: …In Pale Battalions Go… #2, Amazing Spider-Man #850, Transformers/Back to the Future #1, American Vampire 1976 #1, Getting It Together #1, Wolverine #6, X-Force #13, Marauders #13, Sonic The Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1, We Only Find Them When They're Dead #2, Far Sector #8, Adventureman #4, Backtrack #7, Black Widow #2, Exosisters #10, DCeased: Dead Planet #4, Inkblot #2, Champions #1, and Decorum #5. 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? You're all welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin: I'm Justin. Pete: I'm Pete. And on The Stack, we've got it packed… Alex: … stack for you today. We've got [crosstalk 00:00:17], use. Justin: It's a packed stack. Alex: Big issues is coming out, so let's jump right into it. Talking about Batman number 100, from DC Comics run by James Tynion IV, art by Jorge Jimenez, Carlo Pagulayan and Guillem March. This is the culmination of the Joker world. Justin: Culmination. Alex: It's all been coming down to this. Big stuff happens here as the Batman takes on Joker [Mono-e-Mono 00:00:44], for all [crosstalk 00:00:49], translators. For all the [inaudible 00:00:52], there's some twists, there's some turns here, there's backup stories. What [inaudible 00:00:56]… Oh God. Pete: Oh no, Alex. Justin: Oh, wow. Don't die. [crosstalk 00:01:01]. Alex: That's a [inaudible 00:01:01], Joker guest. Justin: Joker mist. Alex: Joker mist. Pete: Oh, man. Alex: Yeah, I'm a joker mystique myself. Pete: Smart. Justin: Oh, nice. Just to clear up your throat? Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). No, you got to build up a tolerance, so that way… exactly. Justin: Yeah, that's smart. Pete: Oh, yeah. Alex: What do you guys think about this issue and what do you think about the storyline as a whole? Justin: I liked it. Especially the battle, the Joker, bat uniform and that Joker becoming Batman, I thought was a nice thing here. There's some funny lines in here of Alfred's Corp saying he wishes he was the [crosstalk 00:01:40], butler. Had it up for [crosstalk 00:01:42]. Alex: That's not funny. Justin: No, man. Alex: That was painful. Justin: An underwater butler, so fun. How do you make tea? All the waters. It's all water. Pete: Yeah, I felt like, first off the art's fantastic. I feel like the landing didn't stick as hard as I would have liked it. Normally, when we have these big buildups, these huge fights. The wrap-up is great, but there was a lot of weird stuff that happened. I felt like there was this epic showdown and then it wasn't between the Joker and Batman because Harley Quinn showed up and then made it be like, “Yo, one of us are going to die tonight,” which is holy shit, raising the stakes, but it wasn't like the classic showdown. It was a real switch of status of Joker trying to be Batman. I did like the things that Joker was saying during the fight. I thought that was classic cool Joker shit. Pete: But the stuff I was a little disappointed with was the wrap-up and the Batman talking to the Clown Hunter, I felt like that could have been a little bit better. I had a weird feeling after that was over. Also, it was crazy to me that Catwoman seemed to be making moves, but then there was just a shot of her watching fights, which was weird to me. But I really think that overall, this was a really cool arc, very awesome twists and turns, a lot of fun. The Alfred shit to me was a little too rough, too soon. Seeing the corpse shit was really hard, but I- Justin: I was going to say, it's great to see Alfred back in his good shape, in perfect form. This is the Alfred I want to see. Pete: The Nightwing shit was bad-ass. Nightwing got a lot to do a lot of respect in this. So that was cool. Alex: I love the Oracle stuff. It was so much fun having Barbara back as Oracle. That was great. It just really shows the deep well of love that James Tynan has for DC Comics history that really came out on this issue. I agree with you that the execution of the ending felt a little asterisky, particularly given how big everything is built over the past couple of issues. But James Tynan came out on Twitter and said, “This was supposed to be as ending.” This was supposed to be his last issue of Batman, and then when he found out he would be ongoing on it, he had to scramble and change his plans and changes all outline to serve some other masters and serve some other storylines that are happening. Alex: So I think it's not purposeful, but that is a victim of circumstances, more than anything that rather than making it this big exclamation point, it became the dot, dot, dot in the middle of the ongoing Batman story. And I do like the place that he finds Batman at the end of this, I actually did really like Clown Hunter story. The idea that he- Pete: I like Clown Hunter story, for sure. I felt like Batman just lectured Clown Hunter in a weird way. Alex: What I think was different about this, this almost pivots off of what Jeff Johns is doing over in three Jokers, is this idea that Batman keeps bringing in these orphans, breaking them, ruining their lives, and then being like, “Well, time for new orphan,” that he's doing something different here, which is similar to what they did with the signal as well. Is I think smart, and it's a progression of the character that personally I like. Yeah. Justin: I mean, I agree. I also think despite the change in plan for James Tynion, I feel like his point was rather than have Batman play Joker's game the entire time in the end of this is like I haven't been… I'm not going to take the bait. And I thought that was a nice… Batman's usual tactic or at least for the past few years is he takes the bait and then suffers horrible consequences, but he endures because he's Batman and I actually liked- Alex: He got stabbed in the back-up bunch. That's suffering. Justin: I know, but rather than be like, “All right, I'm going to give it all up for the corpse of my butler,” he's like, “You know what? I'm not going to do that.” And I liked the different take on that for one. I agree the Clown Hunter stuff, I thought what was actually good. I agree with you, Alex. It's nice if we're going to walk away with this new character, I think that's cool. Clown Hunter is a cool character. It's like if Damian Wayne took the other path and didn't become a Robin, it feels like. The one thing with the Joker little epilogue at the end, Joker, he's become this chemist. Why is he such a chemist? I don't know why that makes sense. It's like [crosstalk 00:06:31]- Alex: I appreciate your- Justin: … gas that perfectly turns you into a Joker so much so that no one will be able to tell the difference in my body versus your body. Pete: But also he's really into newspapers and likes to get his news, old timey, just sitting down, stacking newspapers, go through each one, see that headlines, soak it all in. So it's this mix of, he's up to date on all the latest chemical stuff, but likes to get his news old school. Alex: It's crazy. It's crazy stuff is what I tell you, but [crosstalk 00:07:06]- Justin: Yeah. A lot of fans are definitely going to identify with Pete's point he just made the with the newspapers. Alex: This is a very good issue though. And I think this whole arc was good. Definitely pick it up in trade or individually if you like. Alex: Next up, Locke and Key in Pale Battalions, going number two from IDW storytellers, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. This is continuing a story of back in the day from Locke and Key as we follow John Locke. But a different John Locke, the last, as he goes to fight in the war, he has aged himself. Yup. He's using one of the magical keys. And this issue, we see things from the German perspective of the war as they are tagged. Justin: Creating a way to put that. Alex: But again, we talk about this every time. There were two different World Wars. One of them was the World War, the second one with Nazis. This is the first World War, which was also with the Germans, but it's not creepy in exactly the same way. Pete [crosstalk 00:08:04]. Oh my God. Pete: Different Wars. Justin: DC, Wolverine one, Pete. The Balkans were powder gig. And then all of a sudden the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand really set off a series of chain of events within tangling alliances that led all of these different countries to declare war on each other. And then of course, a further countries guy, eventually entangled. And here we are with John Locke, [AGM 00:08:26], self up to take part. Alex: There you go. So this comes from the German perspective, which is not a creepy thing to say. And we see John [crosstalk 00:08:33]- Pete: It's a creepy thing to say. Alex: Stop it. John Locke is attacking them. Just again as with the first issue, a bunch of classic Gabriel Rodriguez pages in here, this page with… and this is getting into spoilers, but there's a page where he uses the crown of shadows to attack that is just terrifying in exactly the right way. The twist at the end, which I won't spoil, it's so smart, so well done and clearly points to not just where they're going with this series, but also with Helen Gun, which is the Sandman Crossover. So I love seeing that path there. Pete, what do you think about this one? Pete: It's really fantastic. I mean, the art is unbelievable. It's crazy storytelling. I mean, the fact that I'm caring about these fucked up soldiers is way back to the days. It's really impressive to the art and the storytelling. But this is really interesting what happens at the end and how it makes sense to why we are seeing this in such a cool way. I'm very impressed with this comic. It's just so excited when there's a new Locke and Key comic, because you're like, “What the fuck is going to happen? How scared or freaked out am I going to get?” And it constantly delivers. Justin: And the fact that they were able to just tell a legit war story, I mean, this is a straight up war comic. There's not a lot of Locke and Key bells and whistles to it. We get a little bit of that, but it really is just a war story being told from the Locke and Key perspective, and obviously the German perspective, which I think we all find totally normal. And it's just a really good issue and the way they do find another, especially the art finds another angle on horror, war horror is so smart. Pete: And it's interesting that, it seems like in this issue, we got to shout out to the TV show with that fire key that I don't think was from the book. I think it was from the TV show, right? Alex: Yeah. The matchstick key. I can't remember honestly the continuity there. I think it was something they came up with, but didn't use, that they ended up using on the TV show first, versus in the comic book itself. I could be wrong about that. But yeah, that is interesting to see. And it's great, it's just good stuff. Always- Justin: It's great stuff. Alex: … an incredible issue out of the gate every single time. Next up, one I'm very excited to talk about, Amazing Spider-Man number 858 AK number 49, from Marvel written by Nick Spencer, Kurt Busiek, Tradd Moore and Saladin Ahmed, art by Ryan Ottley, Humberto Ramos and Mark Bagley, Chris Justin: Bachalo, Tradd Moore and Aaron Kuder. So this is a conclusion of the Sin Eaters storyline, The Return of the Green Goblin and also a couple of backups stories. Justin, I'm curious to hear from you. You seem to really like the Sin Eater storyline in particular, but what's your take on the ending here? Justin: It got a little muddled with the Green Goblin stuff. I thought the first couple issues of the Sin Eater Arc I thought were so good, so smart, felt very timely and responding to the world. It was such a total change from Nick Spencer jokey Spider-Man into this like very serious Sin Eater storyline. So it felt like a hard right turn into Peter Parker dealing with the Green Goblin stuff and so much more historical and it felt far less present to the modern world. And weird the way that he becomes like a juggernaut but with no… like a [crosstalk 00:12:24], hair. Alex: Could you talk about that for a second? So the- Justin: Just a raged out, no neck dude. Alex: Well, the weird thing is, so the Sin Eater, when he shoots people, now he gains their powers, right? So he shoots the juggernaut and then I liked generally speaking, just the voice of anything, the design of this, because he gets this juggernaut- Justin: Sorry to hear you [crosstalk 00:12:45]- Alex: … Vini head, which is pretty gross. But the juggernaut doesn't have a head like that. He has a normal head and he just wears a helmet. So what was going on there? Justin: I like the idea that maybe juggernaut just smooshed a little bit into his old- Alex: Yeah. Justin: The clothes fit the man. Pete: I think that how he starts to… your body forms to the helmet after a little while, and then it's like, you take a turtle and it looks like you still are wearing it a little bit. And I think that's what happened here. Justin: Pete, at this point, your feet have taken on the shape of your punisher's slippers, right? Pete: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah. Alex: I did like the Green Goblin's stuff in this issue. I think Nick Spencer did a good job of driving up the, and I'm using this word appropriately here, creepiness of the character. Justin: Especially once all the other spider family characters were there, I was like, “Woof.” Alex: Oh yeah. That whole Gwen stuff was crazy. Justin: Gross [crosstalk 00:13:40]. Alex: The exact right way though. The way that Norman Osborn is gross that I don't think we've seen him this way in a very long time, but it's weird. I'm curious to see what happens to the next issue, because it seems like we're finally getting into all of the kindred stuff, which is this villain that he's been building up over the course of all the issues. Justin: But I got to say the fact that the reveal wasn't an issue. I was like, “Come on, man.” Alex: Yeah. Justin: It really felt like now is the time to do it and it feels like we've missed our shot to finally get the reveal. Alex: Particularly the way the end… sorry, Pete. I was just going to add that particularly the way the ending is paced and obviously the spoiler for the ending, but in the mix, everything that's happening with Spider-Man, with the Green Goblin, with everybody, with Kindred walking towards this grave and walking up. And it definitely felt like this is the point where we see kindred walking, looking at a grave and now we know who Kindred is, and instead we still have no idea. What were you going to say, Pete? Pete: Oh, I was just going to say, yeah, there's nothing like the old, “Hanging out next to a grave. You don't know who I am, moment,” that everybody loves. Yeah, it's a little frustrated. We don't have more information, especially after all we've been through, but I also really liked the backup stories. I'm a sucker for Chris Bachalo's art and also- Justin: [inaudible 00:15:06], wars are also very good. Pete: Yeah. The Ford shoes store with that art is so glorious and fantastic. Alex: Pete, Doug Wizard. Do you love a good Doug Wizard? Pete: Yeah. I mean, come on, dogs and wizards together. What's not to love? Alex: No way. Could I throw out at you before we talk too much about the backup stories? Theories about the identity of kindred. Pete? Pete: I'm trying to think of… What was the care bear with the little cloud on it? That's who I think it is. Alex: Okay, great. Great. Justin, do you have any theories? Justin: I mean, what are the third rails we're going to touch here? It's been built up so much, it has to be a big character. Is it the dude who killed uncle Ben? Alex: Hmm. I guess I can do that. I'll throw out one. This is not my theory. I read this today. What? Pete: I think it's Doc Cock. Alex: Doc Cock? Joe Chill. It's Joe Chill. I love this theory. I read this, I think it was on Nerdist or something today. They had a bunch of theories of who [crosstalk 00:16:22]. Justin: I've heard of that. Alex: The theory was, Pete, you are going to 100%, absolutely hate this theory, but I'm so excited about it. The theory is, it's Peter Parker, but it's Peter Parker from the pre one more day continuity because they fucked up the Mafesto curse by Maryy Jane and Peter Parker getting back together. So it split up the reality, and so Peter Parker who made that deal is now kindred tried to get it back. Pete: Wow. Justin: If we can finally undo that bullshit- Pete: That would be glorious. Justin: That feels so arch and unnecessary. Pete: Yeah. Alex: [crosstalk 00:17:09]. But I love the idea. I love the idea of it being Peter Parker, baby. I think that would be interesting. Pete: Or Peter Porker. Justin: Ooh, interesting. But here's the thing. So much of Kindred is like, “I was buried. I was under the ground.” It has to feel like it has to be a dead character come back to life. Pete: Yeah. Alex: And it sounds graves. Justin: Maybe it's their marriage. It's like- Alex: Yeah, there you go. The physical representation. As we all know, marriage is covered in giant centipedes. Alex: Let's move on to another title. Transformer is back to the future, number one from IDW, written by Ken and Scott, art by Juan Semeru. So this is exactly what you'd expect from the title. This is the Transformers, muck it up the back to the future continuity. And I'll get into a huge spoiler here, but I was getting very worried that they wouldn't do the thing that they do on the last page for most of the issue, but when they did, I was like, “Ah, thank you.” Pete: Yeah, glorious. Glorious last page reveal. This was fun. This was cool. I liked how they took the things that we know. We got different perspectives, a little POV and the mall scene. I thought that was really fun, and great use of clashing these two worlds together in a way that made sense. Justin: Yeah. I think this makes perfect sense. No one would ever be like, “This is an unnatural blending of two different properties.” Pete: Yeah. I mean, who doesn't love seeing [crosstalk 00:18:45]- Alex: Oh, go ahead. Justin: No, as they say in the famous line, “One point 21 megatrons.” Pete: Yeah. Alex: I do [crosstalk 00:18:54], think we're doing a good job here. I think when they finally get to it, to spoil a little bit of the book, but they do a back to the future too, with the transformers weaving their way through back to the future continuity saying, “Ooh, we could use some time travel to really take down the autobots,” and then of course, they finally do. We get the classic view of Hill Valley Square, except transformers have taken over the entire world. Beef Tatton, of course, is working for them. And Marty has tried to get away. It's just silly fun stuff. I had a much better time once they finally got to it, in the second half of the issue versus the first half of the issue- Pete: Don't fucking do that. Don't break it up [crosstalk 00:19:35]. Alex: But I do. Justin: It definitely felt like mashing up your toys when you're a kid in a fun way. Pete: Yeah. Alex: I agree. Next up, American Vampire 1976 number one, from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque. And we talked to Scott Snyder about this when he was at our live show a couple of weeks ago. So definitely go and listen to that podcast. But this is, as you could imagine for the title continuing and finishing the saga of American Vampire now in the '70s, there's disco, there's big Afros, everything that you'd expect going out on the title. This is also, I will say as much as I love this, and as much as I love Rafael Albuquerque's art in particular, this is definitely a deep dive into my subconscious to be like, “Who's that character from American Vampire?” I haven't read this in a while. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, personally. Pete: Yeah. I mean, speaking of the Albuquerque's art. I mean, it's just so nice to be back in his warm embrace. I mean, this art is glorious. They're having fun. The classic, killing vampires with disco. I mean, you don't get tired of that, that's just fun stuff. Yeah, I think this was a cool wrap up. There's a lot of tie ins that I didn't remember, like you were saying solves, but I still enjoyed them. And yeah, I think it's a great saying that comes out of this book, “Fuck history, shred it and forget it.” You know what I mean? Justin: Yeah. And that's how you failed social studies, right? Pete: Hard, failed hard. Justin: Yeah, I agree. I mean, seeing this altogether, the team back together that is, is so nice. Skinner is such an iconic character, even though he's not really in American Vampire anymore. It's just great to have this book back. There are so many great shots, the moment where Travis Kid is looking over his shoulder, it's just such a good blend, Scott and Rafiel working together, you don't get anywhere else. Yeah. Alex: Yeah. It's great. Yeah, they're really getting it together. And so is our next book, Getting it Together, number one from [crosstalk 00:21:59]. Justin: How did you come up with that? Wow. Alex: I mean, it was just up here. It was just up here in my brain and it came out of my mouth co-created and written by Sina Grace and Omar Spahi, art by Jenny Define and Sina Grace. We of course had Sina Grace and Omar Spahi on our live show. Justin: Oh, when? Alex: Just this very week. Justin: Oh, weird. Alex: So go back to this [inaudible 00:22:20], interview, despite the unfortunate tech problems. But I really enjoyed this book. If you did miss our live show, it's basically a more modern friend set in San Francisco. That's a little sexier and a little more inclusive, both from a cultural and sexual standpoint. And I thought it was fun. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. What do you guys think about it? Justin: I agree [inaudible 00:22:46], a lot. I talked about this my comparison on the podcast of, Being a Bit Like Scott Pilgrim, a more modern and more, I guess, real, version of Scott Pilgrim where the characters are fun and interesting. They're making jokes and they're dealing with their mistakes in their lives. And I liked it a lot. Pete: Yeah. I mean, unlike Friends, this is a little bit more, less shiny and more real, they get into things. So it's enjoyable. It's nice to just see a great image comic that focuses on relationships and the ebbs and flows of life and how we'd put up with each other's shit or don't and yeah, I think it's really well done. You got some interesting characters, some really fun, cool moments. Yeah, it's a solid book. Justin: And who's your favorite friend? Real quick. Pete: Oh, yeah. Alex: Good question. Pete: Favorite friend on the TV show [crosstalk 00:23:49]- Alex: Go with Joey on this. Pete: I'm going to say Alex. Alex: Gunther? Pete: Nice. Alex: Wow. Justin: Again, makes sense. You're the Gunther of this podcast. I got to say Pete was right. It's Joey. Joey is the best friend. [crosstalk 00:24:00]. Also, the seasons, he's the only one that isn't deeply unlikable by the end. Pete: Well, I do like the Power of a Good Hug here. It's a nice thing that's in this book here, and [crosstalk 00:24:15]- Alex: I mean, I just want to follow up though what Justin said, that's why Joey was the perfect spinoff and works so well. Justin: Yes. I can't believe it's still going strong, 15 seasons later. Alex: Incredible. Just a quick shout out before we move on. Jenny Define's art is great. In particular character designs are very good in this book. They're very unique, they're very different. They seem more realistic than your typical character designs and I think she does a good job here. Alex: Let's move on to our 10 of Swords Block. Three books came out today. We are going to talk about them as a little bit of a block, because this is an interesting event. And Justin, you haven't really been here to talk about this too much yet. Pete: Wait- Alex: Yes, Pete, what's up? Pete: Wait, I just wanted to point out, it's important that you read these in order. I fucked up the order [crosstalk 00:25:00]. Justin: Like a lot of things, it's important you do them in the correct order, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, putting- Pete: No, you can have breakfast any time, mother fucker. Don't pull that shit. Justin: Okay. Alex: Matter of life, death? Justin: That birth, life, death. Alex: Yeah. Man, I'm very excited to hear what order you read these in. But just to read off all three titles right now. Wolverine number six written by Benjamin Percy and art by Viktor Bogdanovic. X-Force number three, also written by Benjamin Percy and art by Viktor Bogdanovic. Marauders, number 13 written by Vita Ayala and art by Matteo Lolli. So as you can probably tell here, the first two issues are basically one story. They're showing how Wolverine gets his sword. He's going after the Muramasa blade, which of course is the only thing that can kill him, as we learned from that very weird storyline, where he comes back from hell all the time. But that's sword he needs to go and battle for other worlds. And then Marauders 13 is a little more of a one-shot as it's showing how Storm gets her sword from Wakanda, which of course is a very personal mission for her. What do you think about the storyline so far? How'd you feel about these issues in particular? And Pete, what order did you read the bid? Pete: Well, I'm just noticing now there's the part three of 22, part [crosstalk 00:26:20]. If I would have taken the time, I could have paid attention and then not read it, but I read it. Justin: You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can read the cover to know what you're doing. Pete: Yeah. I read part five first. I did the Marauders and then I did Wolverine and then I did Acts of Swords. Justin: So that's all right. [crosstalk 00:26:44]- Alex: Not as bad as it could have been. You could have read Marauders in the middle or X-Force first and then Wolverine. Justin: The Last page of Marauders gives it away a little bit for Wolverine and then you [crosstalk 00:26:56]. Justin: Yes. Wolverine, it does get it together. See, I read the fifth panel on the sixth page of Marauders and I jumped over to X-Force and read the seventh panel on. [crosstalk 00:27:05]. Yeah, I know. Alex: Now, wait. Do you want to hear from Pete because you've been pretty dead on the exponent general and down on that storyline for the first two parts? Well, I think pretty positive about everything so far. I've been really enjoying this storyline. But you like these issues, right, Pete? Pete: Yeah. So yeah, I guess what you wanted to talk about how you're a more positive person than me and you can see the sunshine. Alex: Yeah, I'm like ray of sunshine and you're not. Pete: Yeah. I got a clouded like a ping pang thing going on. So yeah, what I like about this is, it's not 80 different fucking things happening at once. It's not fuck Island and you can't kill anybody anymore and golden eggs of humans, as well as the fact that you're no longer a part of everything. You give humans drugs on the side. It's just dealing with this 10 of Swords, like, “Okay, there's a showdown coming up, you've got to go get your weapon of choice and go get in your spot so that when it's go time, you're ready to go.” So it's like, “Great, this is what I want. I don't want this.” There's so much shit happening in X-Men right now we can just deal with this side story. And I was so happy, we just got three stories that make sense, that kind of like, okay, it's each person's journey to get to their place, so the raid to try to save the world. Justin: It's like a prequel to the Choose Your Fighter screen on Street Fighter II. Pete: Exactly. You're choosing what weapon and why. [crosstalk 00:28:49]. Yeah, I love it. Alex: I liked that you refer to this Wolverine story as nice and simple and straightforward where it's just classic Wolverine goes to Japan, goes down to hell, burns all of the flash off of his skeleton, meets a guy from other worlds who killed people who were the children of apocalypse. And has come back to getr an immortal blade that contains a person's soul that is also wanted by the beast who runs the hand, who wants to give them as wedding gifts, except the beast also hates Wolverine and Muramasa, so wants to eat their souls. Just classic which is very simple [crosstalk 00:29:31]. Pete: Yeah, give me straightforward story that I can fucking follow, man. Alex: Totally. All you need to do is read every expert book and every Daredevil book, and you got it. Pete: But if you don't know that Wolverine, when he dies, goes to hell and have to be reborn every time. I like the fact that they were picking up on that and playing with it a little bit here and… yeah, it sounds insane, but with Hickman's, all the stuff that he's changed, it's nice to just have a simple and say [crosstalk 00:30:02]- Alex: Go back to basics. Yeah. Justin: Let me ask you, how many of the text pages did you read? Pete: None. Justin: Yeah. Pete: Not a fucking one. Justin: I actually liked a lot of the text pages, especially in the Marauders book, which feels like a good way for them to keep the more fantastical aspects of the Hickman, X-Men world in these books. These much more straightforward titles where we are just assembling the Circle of Swords characters back on Krakola. And yeah, it's like these are two shot in a one shot where fun stuff happens. Alex: I enjoyed these. I had fun. I still like this crossover. My only little qualms- Justin: Wow. Alex: … with the Wolverine one- Justin: Of course, I like something you fucking [crosstalk 00:30:55]. Alex: No. I mean, here's the thing. Is that, I don't like the Wolverine Goes to Hell thing at all. I do not like that as a part of Wolverine mythology. Justin: I don't like that he can be- Pete: I also don't like that Spider-Man made a deal with the fucking devil. [crosstalk 00:31:09]- Alex: Hold on. Wait, Justin, are you to call out the skeleton thing? Justin: Yes. I don't like that either. Alex: What is that? Justin: He can't just go back to skeleton and grow back. He's not Lobo, another Wolverine. Pete: You don't know, that's not true. Alex: Yeah. That bothers me as well. I think Benjamin Percy, a great writer, the art is great. Justin: I'm sorry about this [crosstalk 00:31:27]- Alex: I love having this new, a [oracco 00:31:32], opposite to Wolverine. This person, new has adamantium skin or armor or whatever is going on there. Justin: Let's just say it's a microfiber. Alex: It's a great Wolverine villa. It's just a really good setup there. But those little things are just like, “Oh, this is so annoying to be,” but I pushed past them. Anyway, the Storm story I thought was very good. It's such a very smart thing to have her be like, “Goddammit, I got to go back to Wakanda with my ex-husband and ask for a sword somehow.” Vita Ayala puts great history of Storm in there. The art is excellent to the change of [inaudible 00:32:07], styles are great. I thought this was a very, very good issue in particular. So overall I'm a big fan of this storyline so far. Pete: Yeah, me too. Yeah, and- Alex: Moving on… Oh, go ahead, Pete. Pete: It was really cool to find out about the sword and the way they gave us the story. And yeah, and it was also tough because we're in Wakanda, rest in peace, Chadwick, Bozeman. There was that still, the amazing tribute thing. And then he didn't show up till later was cool and well placed and just caught her red-handed in the worst possible moment. But the conversation they had was great, and then the ending of the book with the other two waiting there was really fantastic, really setting things up and again it's excited for this 10 Swords event. I'm very excited for this and I hope this event can propel the X-Men into a place that is, I don't know, a little cleaner and less insane. Alex: I 100% guarantee you they're going to celebrate winning the 10 of Swords challenge with a big old fuck party at both ends. Justin: Yes. And oracco fuck party is wow. Alex: That's fucked up. Justin: I just hope they're not bringing 10 knives to 10 different gunfights. Alex: Oh man. That'd be bad. Son of a Hedgehog Bad Guy is number one from ITW story by Ian Flynn and art by Jack Lawrence. This is well outside of my wheelhouse. Justin: What do you mean Alex? Alex: What I mean is Son of the Hedgehog is one of those characters, I was like, “What is he doing? He's running fast and spitting rings out of his body. This is dumb, and I hate this game. I'm not going to play.” Justin: You don't like… because were an Nintendo person? Alex: Yeah, I was a Nintendo guy. Justin: See, I was Nintendo too, and I feel the same way, because I was like, “He's just so fast.” Mario is not fast. He jumps, that's his whole thing. Pete: First off, I was a Nintendo guy as well, but Sonic was fun. It was crazy, but it was a fun game. You all are [crosstalk 00:34:18]- Justin: Alex and I are like Sonic, too fast, slow down. [crosstalk 00:34:22]. Why are you obsessed with rings? Be happy with the simple life, be happy with the simple life Sonic. [inaudible 00:34:29], all these golden rings, Pete: All that aside, I felt like this was a very clean, fun idea of like, “All right, let's set up some villains. Let's set things up in a way that makes sense and moves things forward.” And I thought it was cool to see this team come together. Alex: Yeah. Ian Flynn knows what he's doing with these licensed properties. And like you said, taking a bunch of bad guys, even if I don't know a lot about them, he writes them well, he delineates them. Jack Lawrence's art is cartoony in front of the right way. Pete: Perfectly, yeah. Alex: I'm just getting fun, all ages title. Even if I don't personally feel a connection with Son of the Hedgehog. Justin: Now, Pete, how do you like this hedgehog when he's basically the flash with spikes? Pete: No, he's nothing like that. There's no bullshit speed force or a fucking one of the treadmills- Alex: The screen force is like a bunch of rings that he spits out when he's hit. It's the same thing. Pete: No, it's not true. Alex: Same concept. Pete: No. Alex: Okay. Pete: Yeah. I have no problem with Sonic, unlike you guys. I think this is a fun book, really well drawn. It's cool. Alex: We don't have a problem with it. It's a problem with you, Pete. Justin: Yeah. Alex: We Only Find Them When They're Dead. Number two from Boom! Studios, written by Al Ewing and illustrated by Simone Di Meo. This is continuing the story of a bunch of salvagers who fly around the universe, carving meat off of gods. They want to find a live god, they only find dead gods. I got to say that carving meat thing is probably my favorite part of the book right now, just in terms of how weird and gross it is. How are you guys feeling about it, two issues in? Pete: Well, I'm definitely going to change my will. And I want people to carve meat out of me and eat it. Justin: Oh yeah. I can't wait for a filly Pete steak. Pete: It's going to be fun. Justin: Suck it up at Pete steak. Pete: Oh boy. Justin: Suck it up on Pete Steak. Pete: Yeah. The art is fantastic in this book, it's very interesting as we piece together what's going on and this world where they live off dead gods. Yeah, this is very interesting different fun, space book, cool characters, good relationships. It'll be interesting to see how this goes, but I'm on board. I think this is a fun book. Justin: Pete, when we do eventually eat you because you asked in your will, would you mind if I use regular cheese instead of cheez whiz? Pete: No. You got use whiz. Also, I'll have a specific condiment, like the old country suite, [inaudible 00:37:20], dipping sauce, you know what I mean? Justin: And that'll be made from your hair or something? Pete: No, from the country [crosstalk 00:37:28]- Alex: No, of course, you're going to be a French dip. You got the [foreign language 00:37:30] Pete: Oh, yeah. Justin: Yeah. Alex: Nothing like the good old you. Justin: This reminds me, I've been watching the show, Raised by Wolves. [crosstalk 00:37:41]- Pete: God, how many times are you going to talk about [crosstalk 00:37:44]? What the fuck? Alex: No, keep bringing it up, I want to talk about it every time. Let's do it. Justin: [crosstalk 00:37:46]. I haven't quite finished it yet. Very excited. Two episodes left. This reminded me of that in a good way, a nice- Pete: Save it for a weekend geek, you asshole. Justin: Okay. But anyway, this is very similar. Totally, I think. Alex: Yeah, this is good stuff. This is just a big, hard Sci-Fi and I'm very impressed with this new world here. It's sometimes difficult to get through exactly what's happening, but I'm always intrigued to find out what's next. Alex: Talking about another hard Sci-Fi book, Far Sector, number eight from DC comics written by new MacArthur, genius grant recipients, N.K. Jemisin, art and color by Jamal Campbell. Yeah, take that other DC comics writers. This is tying up the storyline, but opening up some new mysteries. We have Green Lantern on this planet. She is fighting some digital beings. Finally, shuts them down, but as mentioned, it opens up new histories here. Every issue is just very good. How do you guys feel about this one? Pete: Yeah. I mean the art is amaze balls. Every issue is very impressive. I love the aliens reference, little George Carlin quote. I mean this book continues to impress. The main character is fantastic. You root for the whole time. This is a fun mystery, who done it thing, that's slowly unraveling. I just constantly impressed with how different this is from Green Lantern books and how much more I like it than Green Lantern books. Justin: Yeah. I think, in this issue, it occurred to me just the sense of place and characters is so unique in this book. You really feel like this city is difficult for the characters to understand or the main character to understand. That's as much of a part of the mystery as anything else. And I think it's very rare for a comic book to give that off. Alex: Yeah. Particularly when you have a Green Lantern comic book where they're usually flitting from planet to planet or going to [OA 00:39:54], and they're going somewhere else and then back to OA and then over to earth, that we're sitting here and living in this place is I think very smart and very good. This is a don't miss book every month. Alex: Next up, this is what I know you were excited about Justin, Adventure Man, number four from Image Comics. Script by Matt Fraction, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson. In this issue, we're having our new adventure man, is dealing with the fact that she is much larger than she was previously. Justin: And denser. Alex: And denser. Pete: Denser. Alex: And we find out a lot more about the history of what went on with the previous Adventure Man. How'd you feel about this one? Justin: I like this book a lot. Obviously, the art by the Dodsons is fantastic. And the way the story really takes its time, I said this on the main podcast as well, it really takes its time- Alex: You sure did. Justin: … and we get to really explore the powers and origin of the character that so many books have to blow pass in one issue. And with this series, we get to really be like, to her discovering her powers. It reminds me of the first couple of Spider-Man movies and really like languishing in the origin and enjoying it, which is something that I've missed in a lot of new comic books. Alex: Yeah. I mean, some people might just say, “Get to it already,” but I see what you say. Justin: I hear you on that. But with this, it feels like we get to see the characters really enjoying the world that they're in and enjoying this. This is moment of discovery of- Alex: Enjoying the journey. Justin: Yeah. And enjoying the beginning of the journey. As for this character, I think it's cool. Alex: I agree. Pete: The arts, fantastic. You've got some great action, some fun storytelling, great character development. This is a really pro comic that is just taking it's time and being confident in the art and the storytelling. Alex: Well, and it's also, I don't know if it's going to pan out this way, but it's a really good all ages comic book at the same time. This is something that you could read with kids and have no problem. It's a little complex, but it's fun stuff. It gets a little dark, but good book across the board. Next up, Backtrack, number seven from Oni Press written by Brian Joines, art by Jake Elphick. We had Brian Joines on the live show a couple of weeks back. [crosstalk 00:42:20]- Justin: Wait, did you did you say Backtrack or Backstack? Alex: Backtrack. Pete: Okay, [inaudible 00:42:25]. Justin: Backtstack. Alex: So this is a car race through time. And in this issue, they find their [inaudible 00:42:30], cells not back in time, but forward in time, in the future, dealing with some big stuff here. I really like this issue a lot. This is a big mythology issue, building out exactly what's been going out of the background while they were doing this race. And I enjoyed finally getting to that stuff, as well as this glimpse of this future timeline. How did you two feel about it? Pete: Yeah. I mean, this is just over the top fun, the art is unbelievable and it's nice to see even in the future, you can just cocky robots, you just shoot them down. You know what I mean? Don't let those robots talk shit to you. Just shoot them in the face until they fall down. It's good stuff. Justin: Wow. Bad attitude when it comes to [inaudible 00:43:18]. You're the kind of guy that would shoot up C-3PO in Empire Strikes Back. Pete: No, come on. Oh, well 3CPO, yeah. [crosstalk 00:43:26]. Alex: As will Smith said in the classic movie, I, Robot, “Oh, hell no.” Justin: Yeah. That's what we were all thinking. Thanks for saying it, Alex. Alex: Anytime. Justin: When we had Brian on the show, we talked a lot about how the racing, the balance between the racing and the other side of the story is really well handled. And even in this issue, where there's so much about the mythology and just developing the world around these characters, we still have a lot of time for the energy of the race. And I think that the momentum behind the book is really part of that and I appreciate that. Alex: Yeah, they do- Justin: The colors in this book are also really exciting. Alex: Yeah, they do a great job of bouncing my story and action and it keep things grounded, even though it's such a chronic crazy over the top idea. Justin: It makes me, just when I'm driving my kids to school in the morning, I just feel the same way. I'm just going crazy. Pulling to a stop at a red light and slowly, getting in traffic and then stopping again. Alex: Oh, man. That's really cool. You should try going through time. Next up, let's talk about one of my favorite Marvel books that is rapidly going to the top of my stack, Black Widow, number two from Marvel, read by Kelly Thompson, art by Elena Casagrande. We've got a little hint of what's been going on with Black Widow in the last issue as something happened to her. And now she's being manipulated by Arcade. This issue Hawkeye, and with the soldier tracking her down. They find out she's living a happy family life, but of course, Black Widow still got a Black Widow with some hero stuff. This is great. This is such a great twist on Black Widow. This is such a different story for her, and I'm very excited to see where this goes. Justin: Yeah, I agree. Our expectations that we talked about at the first issue where it's like, “Oh, it's not the Black Widow book. Oh, she's dealing with her past, she's being taken advantage of. She's going to kill people to get back on top,” and to find that new spin on it like this. And I love the perspective shift, switching to Hawkeye and Bucky, Winter Soldier, just like trying to figure this out. And I do hope they get to the Winter Soldier Black Widow over relationship that was such a great relationship back in the Edward Baker run, and was just untimely dispatched with at the end of that run. And I would love to see that become a thing again, despite the fact that she has no memory at all. Pete: What do you guys think? This is the kind of the question. Do they interfere here or do they literally let her live this happy life that she seemed so pleasant and content with? Alex: Well, since she's being manipulated by Arcade and the Kabbalah villains, I would say they probably should get her out, but they don't know that part yet. Pete: They don't. I just wanted to go on record here and say if you guys see me living a brainwashed life, please don't hesitate to pull me out of that. Alex: Oh, I thought you're going to say let you stay in it. Pete: No. Justin: Do you think some of the younger henchmen that deal with Arcade are like, “What are you named after, dude?” Pete: Yeah, definitely. Justin: What is it? Core quarters? You put quarters in the machine? Alex: Apple Arcade. Come on, that's a thing. Everybody loves Apple Arcade. We are all subscribers. Justin: That's 100% true. Alex: Yeah. What's your favorite game on Apple Arcade? Real quick. Don't even look it up. Just mention one. Justin: Sorry. I'm just running through my favorite quippy shows. Let me just list those. Alex: Exorsisters, number 10 from Image Comics written by Ian Boothby and art by Gisèle Lagacé. This is the culmination of illustration [crosstalk 00:47:18], of the firsthand issues. We talked about this series on and off. This is about two sisters, as you probably figured out from the title. One of them is real, one of them is not. And they're battling forces of heaven and hell. Great climax in this issue. I thought just like a big, fun battle that didn't lose the sense of humor that it has throughout. I enjoyed this title quite a bit. How do you guys feel? Justin: Yeah, I feel the same way. The art has the classic Betty and Veronica, Archie vibe to it, well dealing with these big demonic characters, heaven and hell coming together around these sisters, these not technically sisters, sisters. It's very fun. Alex: Yeah, it's fun. Even in the middle of the fight, she's like, “Do you want to tag in?” It's just, they're having a good time, even though there's big stakes and things happening and I really liked the sister's relationship. Yeah, I think this is really a fun book that makes an interesting turn at the end. But yeah, this is well done, well drawn. You can run those ones when you look at the cover, you're like, “Oh, I get what this is.” And then you're pleasantly rewarded for that. Alex: Next up, Deceased, Dead Planet, number four from TC Comics written by Tom Taylor, art by Trevor Harrison. If you haven't been following along, we've been loving this title. This takes place in a world ravaged by the anti-life equation. They have found out that cyborg holds maybe the cure to the virus that it has going around. So this issue they're tracking down, Metron trying to get information from him to put it all together. Another great issue of this title. What'd you guys think about it? Pete: I mean, this comic is insane. This is so much fun. It's nonstop action and fun moments between heroes, great kiss. Some bad-ass reveal at the end, last page. Tom Taylor is killing this book. Justin: Yeah, I really liked the way the Superman and Batman are done in this storyline. It's one of the rare Elle swirled these storylines where I really think the heroes stand on their own. I could see these characters continuing on outside of this comic or just really living in this deceased world for a long time. Alex: That's great. I agree. Next up, Inkblot, number two from Image Comics written by Emma Kubert and art by Rusty Gladdest. Pete, you're a big fan of this one. Pete: Yeah. Alex: It's a fantasy book with a tiny little black cat. This issue takes a very different bed. Introduces subdue characters, keeps the same cat. How do you feel about this? Pete: This is fun book. I don't know what it is about this adorable cat, but- Alex: Is some of the cat is very… I can't stop looking at it. Pete: I don't know if it's the eyes or the cuteness or just the way it's drawn. Alex: It's probably the eyes, because the eyes are the only distinguishing features. Pete: But I really love it. I know it's ridiculous, but just seeing this guy who just says ‘Meow,” is just great and saves the day. Guys, just because dragons are big and scary doesn't mean they have big and scary problems. Sometimes you just have a small problem kike your old rat stuck in the nose. Alex: You worshiped the cat? The weight of the cat. Pete: Let's weigh the cat guys. Alex: You're a cat guy though, Pete. That's the thing. That's a secret that nobody knows. Pete: Well, I was a dog person my whole life, but now I have a cat. And so it's just me and Inkblot living the dream. Alex: I like this issue. I just want to know what's going on with this book, because as far as I can tell the second issue wasn't really connected to the first issue, [crosstalk 00:51:24]- Pete: Yeah, one and done type of scenarios. Alex: Yeah. But the first issue ended in a cliff hanger where they were going to continue the story. So I'd love to get back to that. No, that'd be cool. I think the art is very good. I like the world. There's a glorious picture of a bunch of [ellis 00:51:42], standing in front of this, I don't know if it's a portal or what it is in these tree branches that is gorgeous. So I want to know more about this world, but I feel like we're two issues in, and it's not quite giving me enough information at this point. Justin: Yeah. Alex: Well, I don't know what more you need. You got adorable cat who's solving crimes and helping people out. I mean, what the fuck else you want, man? Justin: [crosstalk 00:52:08]. Getting that rat. Pete: Got to get that rat. Justin: Got to get that rat. That's what I said to my coffee mug in the morning, I drink my cup of coffee and I'm like, “Ah, time to get that rat.” Champions, number one written by Eve L. Ewing, art by Simone Di Meo. This is picking up on the champions outlawed storyline that I think began 35 years ago. I'm not 100% sure, but the champions have been… they're not allowed to be superheroes anymore. Kids aren't allowed to be super heroes and being a little mean, but this is obviously a victim of the pandemic where things have gotten very, very delayed. Justin: Finally, we are picking up on this though. What do you think about this take on Marvel's Young Heroes? Pete: I mean, it just sucks that they're no longer allowed to be heroes and they're trying to be… there's sting operations to get them. I mean, it's heartbreaking stuff, you know what I mean? They earn their stripes, they should be a part of the team. Justin: Exactly. If I were in living in this world, I would want to [crosstalk 00:53:14]- Pete: You are living in this world. Justin: … 11, 12 year olds running around, shooting stuff through lasers. Alex: Yeah, being in charge of things, making big time decisions. I love it. Justin: Once the team comes together and this book starts moving, I like this a lot. I'm the Van [Astervicks 00:53:32], formerly Marvel boy, former new warrior. The fact that he's the bad guy here, now he's called Justice. I don't know if he's just this way now. That was interesting. And I guess, I'm not super familiar with the dynamics of this team. I like the way the reveal at the end, and I'm curious how, if this book does have that same vibe of the new warriors that I liked back in the '90s. Alex: Yeah. It's not quite there yet. It feels like the middle of whatever happened previously, whatever's coming next, but once it comes together, I am interested to read it as well. Alex: Last but not least, Decorum, number five written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Mike Huddleston. This might be my favorite issue of Decorum, so far personally. Justin: 100%. I like how we always save this book for last. Alex: All right, so at this book, who knows what really is going on? But in this issue, we are following our former courier character was now training at a school for assassins. And we follow her as she trains at that school over the course of many, many years. Man, this issue was great. Just a ton of fun, perfectly relayed out by Mike Huddleston phenomenal. Like I do, it's taken us a while to get here, but just a joy to read from beginning to end. Justin: Yeah. I agree. I think Hickman, especially on his non big to work really pops when there's a very clear format to the story so that he can live in that format and tell the wildest stories he can think of. I like to imagine that right after Krakola finishes, making love to a neighboring Island, Krakola falls asleep and dreams the comic book, Decorum. Alex: Wow. Justin: Hmm, wow. Alex: There's some- Justin: Delilah will be here all night, listening to your heartbreaking story. Pete: There's some amazing art, some amazing coloring and shading in this book. Really beautiful stuff, but it's also repetitive and it's also like you're getting these symbols, the graphics, the [crosstalk 00:55:56]- Justin: There's some amazing shading. There's some amazing shading right there for people to pick. Pete: I get it, man. You like symbols now, and now every book has to have these little pages, in between pages that don't have much, but have a little bit whatever- Justin: Dude, dude, dude, it is not now. He's been doing that same shit for years. Alex: Yes. Pete: Okay, cool. I guess I'm just catching on to it, but I don't know. I guess if you like it and it's in every book, you get used to it or grow to expect it. But I think the art is glorious, especially with… even though it's repetitive of the same shit, the kind of goriness of it is fantastic. And then you get the, okay, she finally steps up and what that means and the aftermath. So interesting, cool storytelling, but really took its time and art's great. Alex: Alright, there you go. No better place to wrap up than that. If you would like to support this podcast, patrion.com/comic book club, also do a live show every Tuesday ni

god tv spotify friends power kids man japan moving hell dreams real french san francisco marvel german batman dc acts smart dead robots spider man island nazis champions superman joker android boom circle nintendo hang incredible suck raised stitcher sci fi fuck wolves guys xmen sonic back to the future oracle studios wolverines hanging black widow glorious gross pulling transformers script world war theories rest in peace dc comics winter soldier hawkeyes daredevil albuquerque pov stack ak mm wakanda arcade harley quinn balkans swords locke hedgehog empire strikes back lobo mono corp skinner transformer catwoman green lantern peter parker scott pilgrim amazing spider man chadwick george carlin kabbalah bucky gis kindred oa gunther macarthur meow ewing oh god woof hickman image comics apple arcade bozeman idw jokers nightwing deceased joe hill c 3po agm world wars vini john locke nerdist green goblin x force marauders scott snyder jonathan hickman culmination jemisin street fighter ii decorum tom taylor backtrack matt fraction mura masa kelly thompson kurt busiek james tynion iv oni press al ewing nick spencer afros itw damian wayne archduke franz ferdinand norman osborn mark bagley gabriel rodriguez american vampire sin eater crowdcast benjamin percy getting it together ryan ottley saladin ahmed vita ayala choose your fighter comic book club inkblot humberto ramos sina grace jorge jimenez rafael albuquerque chris bachalo metron james tynion young heroes terry dodson eve l ewing lagac sin eaters jack lawrence tradd moore dceased dead planet exorsisters joe chill ian flynn aaron kuder we only find them when they're dead elena casagrande ian boothby omar spahi carlo pagulayan mike huddleston i justin bachalo brian joines

Comic Book Club: Scott Snyder And Brian Joines

Comic Book Club

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2020 116:08

On this week's live show Scott Snyder discusses his Kickstarter for "Nocterra," the future of "American Vampire," behind the scenes of "Dark Nights Death Metal," the "Undiscovered Country" movie and much more! Plus, we're also welcoming writer Brian Joines talking one of our favorite current books, Oni Press' "Backtrack". 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.

spotify android kickstarter comic books scott snyder undiscovered country backtrack oni press american vampire dark nights death metal comic book club nocterra brian joines

Comic Book Club: Scott Snyder And Brian Joines

Comic Book Club

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2020 116:08

On this week’s live show Scott Snyder discusses his Kickstarter for “Nocterra,” the future of “American Vampire,” behind the scenes of “Dark Nights Death Metal,” the “Undiscovered Country” movie and much more! Plus, we’re also welcoming writer Brian Joines talking one of our favorite current books, Oni Press’ “Backtrack”. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, […] The post Comic Book Club: Scott Snyder And Brian Joines appeared first on Comic Book Club.

spotify android kickstarter comic books scott snyder undiscovered country american vampire dark nights death metal comic book club brian joines

Episode 233

Rabbitt Stew Comics

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2020 125:22

Comics Reviews: Incredibles 2: Slow Burn by Christos Gage, Jean-Claudio Vinci, Dan Jackson Legends of Korra: Ruins of the Empire part 3 by Michael Dante DiMartino, Michelle Wong, Killian Ng, Adele Matera DC Crimes of Passion by Steve Orlando, Greg Smallwood, Stephanie Phillips, Riley Rossmo, Jordie Bellaire, Sam Johns, James Tynion IV, Gleb Melnikov, Luis Guerrero, Jordie Bellaire, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Paul Fry, Mark Farmer, Jeromy Cox, Sina Grace, Mike Norton, Hi-Fi, Jordan Clark, Kieran McKeown, Dexter Vines, Adriano Lucas, Mat Groom, Anthony Spay, Jason Paz, Wade Von Grawbadger, Arif Prianto, Jay Baruchel, Andie Tong, Steve Oliff, Liz Erickson, Abel, John Kalisz, Ram V, John Paul Leon Justice League 40 by Robert Venditti, Doug Mahnke, Richard Friend Batman Tales: Once Upon a Crime by Derek Fridolfs, Dustin Nguyen After Realm Quarterly 1 by Michael Avon Oeming, Taki Soma Ant-Man 1 by Zeb Wells, Dylan Burnett, Mike Spicer Captain America: The End by Erik Larsen, Domo Sanchez-Almara Conan: Battle For Serpent Crown 1 by Saladin Ahmed, Luke Ross, Woodard Dark Agnes 1 by Becky Cloonan, Luca Pizzari, Ramos Immortal Hulk: Great Power by Tom Taylor, Jorge Molina, Adriano Di Benedetto, Roberto Poggi, David Curiel Marvel Avengers: Hulk by Jim Zub, Ariel Olivetti, Andy Troy Savage Avengers 0 by Gerry Duggan, Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr., Dan Green, Greg Smallwood Star Wars: Darth Vader 1 by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Menon X-Men/Fantastic Four 1 by Chip Zdarsky, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Laura Martin Adler 1 by Lavie Tidhar, Paul McCaffrey Aggretsuko 1 by Daniel Barnes, DJ Kirkland, Sarah Stern Backtrack 1 by Brian Joines, Jake Elphick, Doug Garbark The Man Who Effed Up Time 1 by John Layman, Karl Mostert, Dee Cunniffe Tart 1 by Kevin Joseph, Ludovic Salle She-Ra: Legend of the Fire Princess by Gigi D.G., Paulina Ganucheau Almost American Girl by Robin Ha Additional Reviews: Zomcon 1, Birds of Prey, new Who, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made News: Generation Zero, Sam Raimi on Dr Strange 2, Juggernaut ongoing, Busiek news, FCBD details Trailers: Minions, Spiral Comics Countdown: After Realm Quarterly 1 by Michael Avon Oeming, Taki Soma Gideon Falls 21 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart Martian Manhunter 12 by Steve Orlando, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia X-Men/Fantastic Four 1 by Chip Zdarsky, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Laura Martin Usagi Yojimbo 8 by Stan Sakai, Tom Luth Daredevil 17 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Fornes, Woodard Birthright 41 by Joshua Williamson, Andrei Bressan Money Shot 4 by Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie, Rebekah Isaacs0 Young Justice 13 by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming, David Walker, John Timms, Mike Grell, Gabe Eltaeb Batman 88 by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, Morey

tv movies passion arts crime strange empire birds hobbies comics pop culture prey sam raimi juggernaut hi fi slow burn morey brian michael bendis jeff lemire chris claremont david walker tom taylor chip zdarsky jay baruchel james tynion iv john romita jr fcbd tim seeley ram v jim zub joshua williamson erik larsen greg pak steve orlando jordan clark dan green gerry duggan mike norton stephanie phillips becky cloonan jordie bellaire john layman zeb wells saladin ahmed jorge molina andrea sorrentino gigi d stan sakai mike grell michelle wong sina grace phillip kennedy johnson michael avon oeming greg smallwood robert venditti doug mahnke christos gage terry dodson riley rossmo busiek michael dante dimartino kevin joseph lavie tidhar mark farmer daniel barnes jorge fornes luke ross luis guerrero mat groom ariel olivetti dexter vines dylan burnett brian joines raffaele ienco john kalisz derek fridolfs arif prianto jeromy cox

124: Secret Identities #1-7

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2017 124:19

Peter Rios (of The Daily Rios podcast) joins me to discuss the Image Comics series Secret Identities. We discuss in depth this wonderful superhero series by Brian Joines, Jay Faerber, Ilias Kyriazis, et al. Please send your comments to longboxreview@gmail.com, chat with me @longboxreview on Twitter, or visit longboxreview.com. Please subscribe, rate, and review the show via Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening!

image comics secret identities jay faerber peter rios brian joines

012: "His House Is Totally Made Of Bear Pelts"

Ace Comicals

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2017 70:09

The three of us are back. A full team! In this Episode: Greg goes Psychedelic with weird Grind-house Sci-Fi book Space Riders: Galaxy Of Brutality (http://blackmaskstudios.com/space-riders/) and goes on tour with the Wyld Stallyns!! in Bill And Ted Save The Universe (https://shop.boom-studios.com/series/detail/621/bill-ted-save-the-universe). Greg and Leon join the War on Bearror with Shirtless Bear Fighter (https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/shirtless-bear-fighter-1-of-5). Rahul and Greg check in with the one and only friendly neighbourhood web-slinger in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-man (https://comicstore.marvel.com/Peter-Parker-The-Spectacular-Spider-Man-2017-1/digital-comic/44990). The three of us discuss the witchcraft of the Americana infused horror book Winnebago Graveyard (https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/winnebago-graveyard-1-of-4). Leon and Rahul give us their thoughts on the second issue of Victor LaValle's Destroyer (https://shop.boom-studios.com/comics/detail/7704/victor-lavalle-destroyer-2) and Rahul gets body swapped with Crosswind (https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/crosswind-1)! All this and a whole host more from the stack packed in for your listening pleasure! Remember to get in touch at (mailto:acecomicals@gmail.com) acecomicals@gmail.com. also please subscribe (http://www.acecomicals.com/subscribe)!! Ace Comicals, over and out!

war washington dc bear comics sci fi psychedelics grind comic books americana rahul bill and ted chip zdarsky boom studios wyld stallyns pelts bill & ted adam kubert black mask studios crosswind shirtless bear fighter bachan peter parker the spectacular spider man alison sampson cat staggs alexis ziritt brian joines victor lavalle's destroyer winnebago graveyard

Episode 096

Rabbitt Stew Comics

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2017 158:18

Top 300 May sales, September solicitations, Wonder Woman/Tasmanian Devil, Lobo/Road Runner, Batman 25, Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man 1, Secret Empire: Underground 1, Weapons of Mutant Destruction Alpha, Poe Dameron Annual, Crosswind 1, Shirtless Bear Fighter 1, September Mourning 1, SwordQuest 1, Bill & Ted Save the Universe 1, Lumberjanes Special: Fair and Square, Chair 1, Archie "death", Marvel Legacy "announcements", Watchmen on HBO, Dracula TV series, Doctor Who Episode 10 (Eaters of Light) and 11 (World Enough and Time). Details: Wonder Woman/Tasmanian Devil by Tony Bedard, Barry Kitson, John Floyd, Ben Caldwell; Lobo/Road Runner by Bill Morrison, Kelley Jones; Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man 1 by Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, Jordie Bellaire, Goran Parlov; Secret Empire: Underground 1 by Jeremy Whitely, Eric Koda; Weapons of Mutant Destruction: Alpha by Greg Pak, Mahmud Asrar, Nolan Woodard; Poe Dameron Annual 1 by Robbie Thompson, Nik Virella, Jordan Boyd; Crosswind 1 by Gail Simone, Cat Staggs; Shirtless Bear Fighter 1 by Sebastian Girner, Jody LeHeup, Michael Spicer; September Mourning 1 by Mariah McCourt, Emily Lazar, Sumeyye Kesqin; SwordQuest 1 by Chad Bowers, Chris Sims, Ghostwriter X; Bill & Ted Save the Universe 1 by Brian Joines, Sebastian Carrillo; Lumberjanes: Faire and Square by Holly Black, Marina Julia, Gabby Rivera, Gaby Epstein; Chair 1 by Peter Simeti, Kevin Christensen 21 June Comics Countdown: 11. Plastic 3 by Doug Wagner, Daniel Hillyard, Laura Martin 10. I Hate Fairyland 13 by Skottie Young, Dean Rankine, Jean-Francois Beaulieu 9. All-Star Batman 11 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Jordie Bellaire 8. Royal City 4 by Jeff Lemire 7. Three O'Clock Club 4 by Butch Hartman, Erez Zadok 6. Head Lopper 6 by Andrew MacLean, Jordie Bellaire 5. Shirtless Bear-Fighter 1 by Sebastian Girner, Jody LeHeup, Michael Spicer 4. Mighty Thor 20 by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Valerio Schiti, Matt Wilson 3. Black Hammer 10 by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart 2. Batman 25 by Tom King, Mikel Janin 1. God Country 6 by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe, Jason Wordie

time batman arts universe hbo hobbies weapons comics pop culture square plastic watchmen eaters tom king scott snyder dave stewart jeff lemire matt wilson mighty thor jason aaron chip zdarsky donny cates gail simone black hammer holly black laura martin god country skottie young greg pak marvel legacy chris sims world enough jordie bellaire all star batman royal city butch hartman i hate fairyland bill morrison kelley jones rafael albuquerque gabby rivera jordan boyd adam kubert head lopper geoff shaw crosswind shirtless bear fighter russell dauterman robbie thompson andrew maclean doug wagner peter parker the spectacular spider man dean ormston september mourning swordquest mikel janin ben caldwell mahmud asrar emily lazar barry kitson tony bedard chad bowers sebastian girner jody leheup jason wordie peter simeti dean rankine peter parker spectacular spider man dee cunniffe cat staggs brian joines jeremy whitely poe dameron annual

104: Rose City Comic Con 2016

Longbox Review Comic Book Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2016 82:56

I went to Portland, OR, to attend the 2016 Rose City Comic Con. After the con, I got together with Damian (guest host on episodes 88-91 and 102) and Matt (guest host on episode 80 and host on https://youtu.be/L1s2vj0f1cY) at a Portland pub to discuss this fantastic con! We discuss the wonderful cosplay, the shopping, the state of RCCC, and specific panels. Please send your comments to longboxreview@gmail.com, chat with me @longboxreview on Twitter, or visit longboxreview.com. Please subscribe, rate, and review the show via iTunes. Thanks for listening! Links: Damian's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/sleepyreader666 Matt's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/agent42q/ Brian Joines: https://twitter.com/brianmjoines Ron Randall: http://trekkercomic.com/ Terry Moore: http://www.terrymooreart.com/ Bryan Fyffe: http://www.bryanfyffe.com/ Amelia Davis: http://www.ameliaddraws.com/ Helen Mask: http://www.helenmask.com/

portland terry moore rose city comic con ron randall rccc brian joines

Major Spoilers Podcast #652: The Most Excellent Interview with Brian Joines

Major Spoilers Comic Book Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2015 84:56

Call the Major Spoilers Hotline - 785-727-1939 Share your thoughts about this episode http://wp.me/p8YAd-1v5i Support our efforts to make more entertainment for you - https://members.majorspoilers.com This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast: Brian Joines talks Bill and Ted Go To Hell, Seduction of the Innocent #1, Ghostbusters Annual 2015, and Pretty Deadly #6 get reviewed, plus YOU tell us what to review next. Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK NEWS Wonder Woman is officially in production http://majorspoilers.com/2015/11/21/movies-take-another-look-at-gal-gadot-at-wonder-woman/ REVIEWS STEPHEN Ghostbusters Annual 2015 Erik Burnham (w) • Dan Schoening (a & c) After the firehouse suffers severe damage in the wake of a supernatural attack, the Ghostbusters find themselves thinking about their past while cleaning up. But their nostalgia may not be innocent, and who knows what they may find at the end of their trip down memory lane…? Join Ray, Peter, Winston, and Egon in their “Daydreams and Nightmares!” FC • 48 pages • $7.99 [rating:4/5] MATTHEW ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN Pretty Deadly #6 Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick Artist: Emma Ríos NEW ARC: “THE BEAR” KELLY SUE DeCONNICK (BITCH PLANET, Captain Marvel) & EMMA RÍOS (ISLAND, Dr. Strange) reunite for the continuing story of Deathface Ginny, Fox, and Sissy. The survivors of the battle against Death enter a new century, where they face fresh violence and the horrors of war. [rating:4.5/5] RODRIGO Seduction of the Innocent #1 Writer: Ande Parks Art: Esteve Polls San Francisco, 1953. FBI Agent Thomas Jennings has just arrived in the city, fresh-faced and ready to tackle crime in the big city... he thinks. In fact, Jennings is not nearly prepared for what he's about to encounter. The city's crime lords are being systematically murdered, and the killers waiting to fill the void are the pure stuff of Jennings' nightmares. Jennings will be forced to question every belief he holds dear to protect his wife and unborn child from the madness. Gritty, sometimes depraved crime fiction in the tradition of James Elroy, Jim Thompson and EC-era crime and horror comics, from the team that brought you The Death of Zorro and The Lone Ranger. [rating:3.5/5] ASHLEY THE AUTUMNLANDS #7 Writer: Kurt Busiek Artist: Benjamin Dewey Publisher: Image Comics The second arc begins. Wounded and lost, our heroes seek safety, but find...something bizarre. [rating:4/5] MAJOR SPOILERS POLL OF THE WEEK It’s time once again for you to pick the trade paperback your humble hosts of the Major Spoilers Podcast will review for you! Pick Our Next Trade Paperback Review Bill and Teds Triumphant Return Criminal D&D Fell’s Five http://majorspoilers.com/2015/11/24/major-spoilers-poll-of-the-week-you-pick-the-trade-for-december-2015/ If you want to suggest a trade paperback, you need to send an email to podcast@majorspoilers.com. That suggestion will go into the hopper and at least once a month, we’ll pick a number of suggestions for you to vote on, and at the end of the polling period, the book with the most votes will get the Major Spoilers Podcast treatment. DISCUSSION: INTERVIEW: Brian Joines, writer of Bill and Ted Go To Hell from BOOM! Studios. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends! [signoff predefined="PayPal Donation"][/signoff]

death strange boom ghostbusters studios nightmares innocent wounded jennings seduction gritty ec daydream zorro lone ranger egon jim thompson pretty deadly paypal donations erik burnham dan schoening brian joines major spoilers podcast major spoilers hotline major spoilers store p8yad

Major Spoilers Podcast #652: The Most Excellent Interview with Brian Joines

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2015 84:55

Call the Major Spoilers Hotline - 785-727-1939 Share your thoughts about this episode http://wp.me/p8YAd-1v5i Support our efforts to make more entertainment for you - https://members.majorspoilers.com This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast: Brian Joines talks Bill and Ted Go To Hell, Seduction of the Innocent #1, Ghostbusters Annual 2015, and Pretty Deadly #6 get reviewed, plus YOU tell us what to review next. Get involved with the Major Spoilers Podcast Network LINK NEWS Wonder Woman is officially in production http://majorspoilers.com/2015/11/21/movies-take-another-look-at-gal-gadot-at-wonder-woman/ REVIEWS STEPHEN Ghostbusters Annual 2015 Erik Burnham (w) • Dan Schoening (a & c) After the firehouse suffers severe damage in the wake of a supernatural attack, the Ghostbusters find themselves thinking about their past while cleaning up. But their nostalgia may not be innocent, and who knows what they may find at the end of their trip down memory lane…? Join Ray, Peter, Winston, and Egon in their “Daydreams and Nightmares!” FC • 48 pages • $7.99 [rating:4/5] MATTHEW ANDRE THE GIANT: CLOSER TO HEAVEN Pretty Deadly #6 Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick Artist: Emma Ríos NEW ARC: “THE BEAR” KELLY SUE DeCONNICK (BITCH PLANET, Captain Marvel) & EMMA RÍOS (ISLAND, Dr. Strange) reunite for the continuing story of Deathface Ginny, Fox, and Sissy. The survivors of the battle against Death enter a new century, where they face fresh violence and the horrors of war. [rating:4.5/5] RODRIGO Seduction of the Innocent #1 Writer: Ande Parks Art: Esteve Polls San Francisco, 1953. FBI Agent Thomas Jennings has just arrived in the city, fresh-faced and ready to tackle crime in the big city... he thinks. In fact, Jennings is not nearly prepared for what he's about to encounter. The city's crime lords are being systematically murdered, and the killers waiting to fill the void are the pure stuff of Jennings' nightmares. Jennings will be forced to question every belief he holds dear to protect his wife and unborn child from the madness. Gritty, sometimes depraved crime fiction in the tradition of James Elroy, Jim Thompson and EC-era crime and horror comics, from the team that brought you The Death of Zorro and The Lone Ranger. [rating:3.5/5] ASHLEY THE AUTUMNLANDS #7 Writer: Kurt Busiek Artist: Benjamin Dewey Publisher: Image Comics The second arc begins. Wounded and lost, our heroes seek safety, but find...something bizarre. [rating:4/5] MAJOR SPOILERS POLL OF THE WEEK It’s time once again for you to pick the trade paperback your humble hosts of the Major Spoilers Podcast will review for you! Pick Our Next Trade Paperback Review Bill and Teds Triumphant Return Criminal D&D Fell’s Five http://majorspoilers.com/2015/11/24/major-spoilers-poll-of-the-week-you-pick-the-trade-for-december-2015/ If you want to suggest a trade paperback, you need to send an email to podcast@majorspoilers.com. That suggestion will go into the hopper and at least once a month, we’ll pick a number of suggestions for you to vote on, and at the end of the polling period, the book with the most votes will get the Major Spoilers Podcast treatment. DISCUSSION: INTERVIEW: Brian Joines, writer of Bill and Ted Go To Hell from BOOM! Studios. Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. The Major Spoilers Store is located at majorspoilers.bigcartel.com A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends! [signoff predefined="PayPal Donation"][/signoff]

death strange boom ghostbusters studios captain marvel nightmares innocent wounded jennings seduction gritty ec daydream zorro lone ranger egon jim thompson pretty deadly paypal donations dan schoening brian joines major spoilers podcast major spoilers hotline major spoilers store

Entre Cómics 110

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2015 54:12

- Fury #1. (50 years of SHIELD). David F. Walker y Lee Ferguson. (Marvel). - Power Cube #1. Aaron Lopresti. (Dark Horse). - Deadpool vs Thanos #2. Tim Seeley y Elmo Bondoc. (Marvel). - Negative Space #2. Ryan K. Lindsay y Owen Gieni. (Dark Horse). - Secret Identities #7. (Final). Brian Joines, Jay Faerber y Ilias Kyriazis. (Image).

marvel deadpool fury shield thanos dark horse mics secret identities negative space tim seeley david f walker ryan k jay faerber aaron lopresti lee ferguson brian joines owen gieni

Entre Cómics 110

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2015 54:12

- Fury #1. (50 years of SHIELD). David F. Walker y Lee Ferguson. (Marvel). - Power Cube #1. Aaron Lopresti. (Dark Horse). - Deadpool vs Thanos #2. Tim Seeley y Elmo Bondoc. (Marvel). - Negative Space #2. Ryan K. Lindsay y Owen Gieni. (Dark Horse). - Secret Identities #7. (Final). Brian Joines, Jay Faerber y Ilias Kyriazis. (Image).

marvel deadpool fury shield thanos dark horse mics secret identities negative space tim seeley david f walker ryan k jay faerber aaron lopresti lee ferguson brian joines owen gieni

Entre Cómics 086

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2015 41:28

- Chrononauts #1. Mark Millar y Sean Murphy. (Image). - Invisible Republic #1. Corinna Bechko y Gabriel Hardman (también artista). (Image). - Red One #1. Xavier Dorison y Terry Dodson. (Image). - Divinity #2. Matt Kindt y Trevor Hairsine. (Valiant). - Princess Leia #2. Mark Waid y Terry Dodson. (Marvel). - Secret Identities #2. Jay Faerber, Brian Joines e Ilias Kyriziakis. (Image).

marvel divinity mics valiant princess leia mark millar mark waid sean murphy red one secret identities matt kindt chrononauts terry dodson gabriel hardman jay faerber xavier dorison corinna bechko invisible republic brian joines

Entre Cómics 086

Big Planet Comics Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2015 41:28

- Chrononauts #1. Mark Millar y Sean Murphy. (Image). - Invisible Republic #1. Corinna Bechko y Gabriel Hardman (también artista). (Image). - Red One #1. Xavier Dorison y Terry Dodson. (Image). - Divinity #2. Matt Kindt y Trevor Hairsine. (Valiant). - Princess Leia #2. Mark Waid y Terry Dodson. (Marvel). - Secret Identities #2. Jay Faerber, Brian Joines e Ilias Kyriziakis. (Image).

marvel divinity mics valiant princess leia mark millar mark waid sean murphy red one secret identities matt kindt chrononauts terry dodson gabriel hardman jay faerber xavier dorison corinna bechko invisible republic brian joines

Podcast #132

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2015

We cover Fraction & DeConnick TV, Takashi Miike Terraformars, and Marvel Secret Wars. Reviews of: Curb Stomp #1 - Ryan Ferrier, Devaki Neogi D4VE #1 - Ryan Ferrier, Valentin Ramon Ei8ht #1 - Rafael Albuquerque, Mike Johnson Plunder #1 - Swifty Lang, Skuds McKinley Secret Identities #1 - Jay Faerber, Brian Joines, Ilias Kyriazis Silk #1 - Robbie Thompson, Stacey Lee Sparks Nevada Marshal on Mars #1 - Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, J. Bone Spider-Gwen #1 - Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez Suiciders #1 - Lee Bermejo

mars fraction ben blacker lee bermejo rafael albuquerque ben acker curb stomp robbie thompson jason latour jay faerber marvel secret wars ryan ferrier brian joines

Episode 124 - Reviews of 10 Different Number One Issues

The Comics Alternative

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2015 114:38

On this week's podcast, the Two Guys with PhDs take on a gargantuan task: they review ten different #1 issues from a variety of publishers. First they look at several debuts from Image Comics, including Bryan Hill, Matt Hawkins, and Isaac Goodhart's Postal; Jimmie Robinson's The Empty; Brian Joines, Jay Faerber, and Ilias Kyriazis's Secret Identities; and Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, and J. Bone's Sparks Nevada: Marshall on Mars. After those they discuss three new titles from Dark Horse Comics, such as Richard Corben's Rat God, Rafael Albuquerque and Mike Johnson's Ei8ht, and Dean Motter's Mister X: Razed. And then they wrap up with two #1 issues from BOOM! Studios/Archaia — Swifty Lang and Skuds McKinley's Plunder, and Ed Brisson and Damian Couceiro's Cluster — and finally Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon's D4ve from IDW Publishing. Almost all of these new titles are worth checking out, with enthusiastic recommendations going to Cluster, Secret Identities, and especially the clever and comedic D4ve (perhaps the best of the bunch). And while Derek and Andy W. try to focus on the positive, they aren't overly enamored of Sparks Nevada, a miniseries based off of a Thrilling Adventure Hour performance. In fact, some of the comedy in this first issue seems to rely — and, at times, confusingly so — on sounds, a strategy that doesn't translate as effectively in comics. But outside of this little bump, this episode presents a smooth and enjoyable trip down the road of recent comicsdom. There's a lot to digest in the extra-long podcast, so just sit back, relax, listen up, and let the Two Guys do the driving.

god culture art secret books phd mars pop boom independent nevada comics empty indie bone comic sparks number one rat mister graphic identities cluster mike johnson postal image comics two guys dark horse comics plunder secret identities idw publishing matt hawkins wolverton thrilling adventure hour ed brisson ben blacker richard corben razed rafael albuquerque ben acker bryan hill ei8ht jay faerber ryan ferrier sparks nevada kunka jimmie robinson d4ve dean motter brian joines valentin ramon

51: Manifest Destiny #13; Wayward, Vol 1; Jim Zub Interview

Under the Comic Covers

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2015 141:19

This week, Under the Comic Covers returns to the wild frontier with Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts' Manifest Destiny #13 as they begin a new arc, and introduce a new book to our roster with Jim Zub and Steve Cummings' Wayward, Vol 1: String Theory... and as an added bonus, we share our interview with Jim Zub and get that much more in depth with this fantastic title from Image Comics. As always, we answer your letters, and discuss a couple of new titles in our Top of the Stack segment. Mr. Blahg talks about The Empty by Jimmie Robinson and Grace brings out Secret Identities by Jay Faerber and Brian Joines. Chapters Intro (0:00) UtCC News of the Week (3:42) Manifest Destiny #13 (14:11) Manifest Letters (36:16) Jim Zub Interview (39:42) Wayward, Vol 1: String Theory (1:32:04) Wayward Letters (2:00:21) Top of the Stack: The Empty; Secret Identities (2:05:47) End (2:18:50) Any questions, comments, or cute girls made of cats can be sent to feedback@utccovers.com You can also leave us a voicemail at (678) 796-UTCC, that's (678) 796-8822 Download and subscribe to this podcast in iTunes here We can also be found on the Stitcher Radio app for both iPhone and Android users. Look for us on Facebook at facebook.com/underthecomiccovers Follow us on Twitter @UtCCovers And visit our newly updated Tumblr page underthecomiccovers.com

iphone android empty vol tumblr stack wayward image comics manifest destiny string theory secret identities jim zub jay faerber comic covers jimmie robinson chris dingess brian joines utcc

Behind The Panels Issue 122 – Christmas Special: Krampus

Behind The Panels - A Comic Book Show by GeekActually.com

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2014 54:35

In this issue, we celebrate Christmas while DC cancels chunk of their books. All welcome to the Newish 32! ALSO Archie gets rebooted in 2015 with the artist from Saga. We can’t wait until Betty and Veronica take a trip to Sextillion. THEN Grant Morrison’s Multiversity gets Thunder-ous, Image gets into a Rumble, Flash Gordon … Continue reading

christmas podcasts washington dc saga thunder christmas special rumble dc comics krampus convergence flash gordon image comics mark waid multiversity fiona staples comic podcasts newish harry and the hendersons brian joines dean kotz behind the panels

Wayne's Comics #123: Brian Joines

Major Spoilers Comic Book Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2014 44:35

comics brian joines

Wayne's Comics #123: Brian Joines

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2014

You’ll enjoy this week’s fun interview with Brian Joines, the comics creator of such wonderful books as Imagine Agents and Krampus!, about the holiday legend sweeping the U.S. Brian talks about how the Krampus! comic came to be and what we might see in the future featuring this character from Image Comics! Everything wraps up with two news stories I think you’re going to want to know about! Be back next week as we get closer to episode 125! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Wayne's Comics Podcast continues far into the future!

comics krampus image comics major spoilers brian joines imagine agents major spoilers vip

Wayne's Comics #122: Eric Shanower