Podcasts about i justin

An interview with folk duo Stick in the Wheel about their recent album A Thousand Pokes, a kind of psychogeographic dig into London through folk song. Check out Stick in the Wheel at their website, including tour dates, and get A Thousand Pokes from Bandcamp. I (Justin) am doing my show The Great Satanic Swindle in April, with dates in Stockton-on-Tees and in Leeds. Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack. The Substack is free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram.   Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.   The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.  

You never know how close you are to a great story. I (Justin) learned that on my recent trip to Africa on my way to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro. Boarding my flight I met Caitlin James as she was on her way to climb the very same mountain. The more I heard from her, the more I realized I had come across a truly amazing story. Caitlin was paralyzed in a boating accident. Through surgery and rehab, she eventually regained the ability to walk. Walking was just the start though. She jokingly said if she could walk again she'd climb a mountain in a banana suit...and that's exactly what she did. That first mountain hooked her, and she has racked up an insanely impressive list of summits in just a couple of years. This story may not seem relevant to some for this show, but we thought it made perfect sense. Many people want to do something adventurous, travel, and spend their days outside instead of behind a computer. These reasons are what drive them to retire. But Caitlin isn't waiting for retirement to live out her dreams and pursue her passions. Instead, she is making her passions her career. Caitlin reinvented herself and her career. Check out her expeditions over the last couple of years: NORTH AMERICA DENALI Alaska 20,310 MT WHITNEY, California 14,505 MT RAINIER, Washington 14,411 MT HELEN, Washington 10,786 SOUTH AMERICA ACONCAGUA 22,837 (Normal route) Ojos del Salado 22,615 (Argentinian side) PERU Cordillera Blanca Range; Huascaran 22,205 Chacraraju 20,039 Salkantay 20,574 Ausangate Nevado trek; Machu Picchu 7,972 Huayna Picchu 8,835 Rainbow Mountain 17,060 Nevado Ausangate 20,945 Nevados Ojos del Salado 22,569 ECUADOR Chimborazo 20,549 EUROPE MONT BLANC 15,777 MATTERHORN 14,692 The EIGER 13,642 The ALPHUBEL 13,799 DOLOMITES 10,968 MONTE ROSA 15,203 BRITISH COLUMBIA MT LOGAN 19,551 MT FAIRWEATHER 15,325 MT ROBSON 9,281 FT AFRICA Kilimanjaro, 19,341 (3x in two years) Umbwe, Marangu, Machame Route Mt Meru 14,980 Cape Town 3,563 CHILE Torres Del Paine (Patagonia) JAPAN MT Fuji 12,388 MT Tsurugi 9,839 NEPAL EBC TREK 17,598 LOBUCHE 20,062 ISLAND PEAK 20,252 MANASLU C3 23,622 INDONESIA SUMATRA 12,484 AUSTRALIA MT KOSCIUSZKO 7,310 MT TOWNSEND 7,247 GREAT OCEAN WALK 240 Kilo/149miles We hope this inspires you to consider how you can chase your dreams now and not feel as though your life is chained up until retirement. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! Links from The Episode Caitlin on Instagram Caitlin's Website Caitlin on TikTok Caitlin on Facebook Join the Community We'd love to hear your comments and questions about this week's episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here 

Apologies in advance for the sound this week friends, we're recording on zoom because I (Justin) have Covid and don't want to infect Alicia. With that said, WOAH COMICS. Excellent ends to two of our favorite books in the Fall of X line. X-Men Red and the Genesis War comes to a close as Maddie takes control of the narrative in Dark X-Men. Speaking of controlling narratives, someone should check on Judas - or not because who cares. We talk X-Men Red #18, Dark X-Men #5 and X-Men Unlimited 01:28 News 17:21 General Questions 22:35 X-Men Unlimited 27:34 Dark X-Men 53:20 X-Men Red Thanks for listening to our twenty-first episode of Season 5! We're off into the Fall and damn it's not off to a great start for our merry mutants. Like, subscribe, follow, email, and @ us all over the internet at thexwifepodcast. If you enjoyed the episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and tell your friends!

In the first episode of Season 1, co-hosts Annie Liontas and Lito Velázquez speak with LitFriends Angela Flournoy & Justin Torres about their enduring friendship, writing in a precarious world, and chosen family. Links https://sites.libsyn.com/494238 www.annieliontas.com www.litovelazquez.com https://linktr.ee/litfriendspodcast https://www.instagram.com/litfriendspodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553436475678 https://justin-torres.com/ https://www.angelaflournoy.com/ https://www.asalisolomon.com/ Transcript Annie & Lito (00:01) Welcome to LitFriends! Hey LitFriends! Annie: Welcome to the show. Lito: Today we're speaking with the great writers and LitFriends, Justin Torres and Angela Flournoy. Annie: About chosen family, the dreaded second novel, and failure and success. Lito: So grab your bestie and— 
 Both: Get ready to get lit! Lito: That's so cute. Annie: It's cute. It's cute. We're cute! Lito: Cute, cute… So you had a question? Annie (00:29) I do. I have a question for you, Lito. Are you a cat or an ox? Lito: I mean, I would hope that the answer is so obvious that it almost bears not asking the question. I'm a cat. Annie: Okay, so Asali Solomon at The Claw asked us all, are you an ox or a cat? Lito: That's a great question. Annie: And as a writer... You know, the oxen are the people who work every day in the field, clock in, clock out, pay themselves a quarter an hour. I'm literally talking about me. The cats are people who are playful, exploratory, when the mood strikes them… Lito: Why are you looking at me when you say that? Annie Lito (01:26) So are you an ox or a cat? Lito: I'm a cat. I think anyone who's ever met me would say I'm a cat. Annie: How does that show up in your writing? Lito: Well, I mean, play is so important to me—she'll be on the  podcast in a couple of episodes, but when I first...was studying with Lucy, that was one of the first things that she spoke about in our class, and it kind of blew up my whole world. I had been writing for a long time already, but I hadn't thought of it as play, or there was some permission I needed or something. So the idea of play is really central to what I do and love. You wouldn't necessarily know that from the novel that I'm writing, which is sort of a dark book. Um, but it did start out with a lot of play and, I'm also, as you could probably just hear, my cat is coming into the room. Annie: Your cat is like, yes, Lito is us. RiffRaff is like, "Lito is cat." Lito: My cat Riff Raff, yes. Smarty pants. Um, he needed to join in on this conversation. Anyways, I'm a cat. I, I'm fickle when it comes to my work. Um. I don't want to work on my novel all the time, which is great because life has found so many ways to prevent it from happening. So in the new year, in 2024, it will be 7 years since I've started writing this book, and it's still, it's going to take a few more months at least. And what about you? Annie:  (03:09) I'm four oxen pulling a cart carrying all of my ancestors. I am very much the immigrant who says, get up, go do the work, come back, go do the work. And believe it or not, for me, there is a lot of joy in that. It's a... It allows, you know, it's Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, actually. So it doesn't feel like drudgery, usually. It does feel like joy. And I'm actually curious for all you LitFriends out there, if you're an ox or a cat. Lito: Yes, that's such a great idea. Please email us at litfriendspodcast@gmail.com, and tell us if you're a cat or an oxen or share on all your socials. Annie: Yeah, maybe we should poll them. That would be fun. Lito: That's a good idea. #LitFriendsPodcast. Annie: The reason I'm asking is because, of course, both Justin and Angela, who we speak with today in this episode, talk about what it's like to go for 10 years between books. "A banger a decade," is what Angela says. Lito: It's so funny. Annie: And you, you know, part of that, they have this very rich conversation about how, when you put everything into the first book, it takes a lot to get to the second book. But I think also there's a lot of play, right? And there's a lot of understanding that writing appears in different forms. And it might be the second novel, but it might be something else. Lito: For sure. I really like how they talk about— that the practice of writing is actually a practice of reading. And I think that any serious writer spends most of their time reading. And not just reading books, but texts of all kinds, in the world, at museums, as Justin points out, art, television, even the trashiest TV show has so much to offer. Annie: (05:12) And there's such a generosity to the way they think of themselves as artists, and also generosity in how they show up for one another as friends, and acknowledging when they fail one another as we as we see in this episode. And I remember my introduction to Justin when I was a grad student at Syracuse. I read We the Animals and fell in love with it, asked him to come do a reading at Syracuse, which was wonderful. And my wife who, at that time was my Bey-ancé, she was turning 30. We had no money. I couldn't buy her anything. Not in grad school. So I asked Justin if he would autograph his story, "Reverting to a Wild State," which is about a breakup in reverse, for Sara. Lito: Oh, I love that story. Annie: And he did, and he thought it was so beautiful, and I was like, "let me send it to you." He's like, "no, I've got it." He just shipped it to me. He didn't know me. We didn't know each other. Lito: He knew you because of books. He knew you because he loved literature. Annie: Yeah. And I remember that in it. I held on to it at a time when that act really mattered. Lito: One of the things I love about our interview with Justin and Angela is how much all of us talk about generosity, and how Justin and Angela display it in their conversation with each other and with us. And I'm just curious, how do you see that coming through also in Angela's work? Annie: (07:00) You know, I remember her talking about how the idea for the book began with this image of people moving around a house at night. This is The Turner House. And she says this image opens up a lot of questions. And one of the things that really stays with me about that book is how masterful she is at shifting perspective, particularly between siblings, which I find to be such a challenge for writers, right? Like your siblings are the people who are closest to you and sometimes also the farthest away. And she gets that so intimately on the page. And of course, in our conversation with Angela and Justin, one of the things they talk about is being family, essentially being siblings. And that's one of the most powerful echoes of the conversation. They talk about being a chosen family and having to choose again and again and again. And that spirit of consciousness and connection, I feel that very much in Angela's work, and of course in Justin's too. Lito: Oh Annie, I choose you again and again, I choose you. Annie: Oh, I choo-choo-choose you! Lito: So stupid. Annie: (08:05) After the break, we'll be back with Justin and Angela. Annie: (08:24) And we're back. Lito: I just wanted to mention, too, that we spoke with Angela and Justin in October during the writer's strike in Hollywood, and just before Justin's new book, Blackouts, was released. And just last week, as you're hearing this podcast. Annie: Just last week. Lito: Just last week! He won the National Book Award for a book that took him 10 years to write. Annie: Absolutely. Annie: Justin Torres is the author of Blackouts, a novel about queer histories that are hidden, erased and re-imagined. Blackouts won the 2023 National Book Award for fiction. His debut novel, We the Animals, has been translated into 15 languages and was adapted into a feature film. He was named National Book Foundation's Five Under 35. His work appears in the New Yorker, Harper's, Granta, Tin House, Best American Essays, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at UCLA. Lito: Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, won the VCU-Cabel First Novel Prize, and was also a finalist for both the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an NAACP Image Award. Angela is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. Angela is a faculty member in the low residency MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Lito: (10:36) I'm so grateful that you guys found time to meet with us today, and I've thought about you two as friends since I think this is like the first time you've done something like what you did in 2017, the "Proper Missive"—do you remember that—you published in Spook? And it stuck with me. I was like a big, nerding out, and I bought it and I have it still. And I thought about that. And Justin, you know that you're very personal— there's a personal connection with me because I found your book on my way to my first master's program. No one had said anything about it to me where I was coming from, and it was really great. And Angela, I first found your book. I was so amazed and moved by the talk you don't remember at Syracuse. Angela: I don't remember the lunch. I remember being at Syracuse, and there being a talk, yes. Lito: You inscribed your book, "Here's to Language," which I think is hilarious and also really sweet. And I think we must have said something about language at some point. But anyways, thank you so much both for being here. Justin: Thank you for having us. Angela: Very happy to be here. Lito: So let's start. Why don't you tell us about your friend in a few sentences? So Angela, you can go first. Tell us about Justin. Angela: (11:23) Justin is the first person that I met in Iowa City when I was visiting and deciding if I was going to go there, but was I really deciding no? I'll let you go there. But that I could like, deciding whether I would be miserable while I was there. And so Justin was the first person I met. And feel like Justin is five years older than me. It has to be said.  Justin: Does it? Angela: When I think about people, and I think about like mentors, I have other like amazing mentors, but like, I think that there's really something special about somebody who some people might think is your peer, but like, in a lot of ways you've been like looking up to them and, um, that has been me with Justin. I think of him as like a person who is not only, he's a Capricorn, and he has big Capricorn energy. I am an Aquarius. I do not want to be perceived— Justin: I don't agree with any of this. But I don't know. I don't follow any of this. Angela: But Justin is in the business of perceiving me and also gathering me up and helping me do better. My life is just always getting better because of it. I'm grateful for it. Annie: That is beautiful, all of that is beautiful. Justin, tell us about Angela. Justin: I can't follow that, that is so...  Angela: Acurate! Justin: You're so prepared! You're so sweet! I'm so touched! Angela: Only a Capricorn would be touched by somebody saying that you perceive them and gather them up and make them feel better. Ha ha ha! Justin: I like that, I do like that. Let's see, yeah. I mean, I think that when we met, I had already been in Iowa for a year, and within two seconds, I was like, oh, we're gonna be friends, and you don't know it yet. But I knew it intensely. And yeah, I think that one of the, I agree that I think we keep each other honest, I think. I think that one of the things that I just so appreciate about Angela is that, you know, yeah, you see my bullshit. You put up with it for like a certain amount of time, and then you're like, all right, we need to talk about the bullshit that you're pulling right now. And I love it, I love it, love it, love it, because I don't know, I think you really keep me grounded. I think that, yeah, it's been really (14:09) wonderful to have you in my life. And like, our lives really, really kind of pivoted towards one another. You know, like we've, it was not just like, oh, we were in grad school and then, you know, whatever, we have similar career paths, so we stayed friends or whatever. It's like, we became family. And, you know, every, every kind of major event in either of our lives is a major event, a shared major event, right? And that's like, yeah, I don't know. I can't imagine my life without you. I honestly can't. Angela: Likewise. I gave birth in Justin's home. Annie: Oh! Sweet! Justin: In my bathroom, over there. Right over there. Lito: Whoa, congratulations, and also scary(?)! Angela: It's in a book I'm writing, so I won't say so much about it, but it was a COVID home birth success story. And yeah, like family. Lito: Was that the plan or did that just happen? Angela: Well, It wasn't the plan and then it was the plan. Justin: Yeah, exactly. COVID wasn't the plan. Angela: No. Justin: The plan was Angela was gonna sublet my place with her husband and she was pregnant. And then, COVID happened Angela: There were a lot of pivots. But we did, it was like enough of a plan where we got his blessing to give birth in his home. Justin: It wasn't a surprise. Angela: It was a surprise that it was in the bathroom, but that's a different story. Annie: You blessed that bathroom is all I can say. Angela: Yeah. Lito: We'll be right back. Back to the show. Annie: (16:22) Well, I want to come back to what Lido was saying about proper missives. I love the intimacy. I mean, I know you weren't writing those to one another for kind of public consumption, but the intimacy and the connection, it's so moving. And I was thinking about, you know, Justin, you, you talk about Angela as kind of pointing the way to beauty and helping you see the world anew or differently. And Angela, you talked about how Justin encourages you to take up space as a political act. I'm just wondering what else you all have taught one another. What has your LitFriend taught you? Justin: Yeah, I mean, we did write that for public consumption. Angela: Yes, it was the editor-in-chief of Spook, Jason Parham. Spook is relaunching soon, so look out for it. He just told me that, like, the other day. And he's moving to L.A. So many things are happening. But he reached out to us and was really interested in—he's a big archives guy and like how—he thought it was valuable the way that writers of past generations, they have these documents of their letters to each other, to their editors, to their friends, to their enemies, and how this generation, because we're just texting through it, we don't really have that. And so that was really just the extent of the assignment, was to write letters to each other, which, of course, we still ended up using email to do. But we really tried to keep it in the spirit of a letter and not just something you kind of dash off. Justin: And we were not living in the same place at that time. Angela: No. Justin: So it was, it did feel kind of— Angela: I was in Provincetown, I think. Justin: Yeah, I remember I was on a train when I was, when I was doing— I can't remember where I was going or, but I remember a lot of it was— or a few of those correspondences— because it went over days, weeks. Lito: Yeah, you were going to Paris. Angela: Oh. Glamorous train. You were on the Eurostar. Justin: Wow. Annie: You basically said the same thing then, Angela. Call him out. Justin: (18:32) Yeah, and I think that what I was saying was that one of the things I loved about that was it really forced us to dive deeper, right? To kind of— Sometimes we can stay very much on the surface because we talk every day. And so it was really nice to see, not just what was kind of on your mind in the background, but also how you were processing it, how you kind of made language and meaning out of it. I was just like... I don't know, it's like, I know you're so deep, but then we also love to be shallow. And so it's so nice to be like, to connect from that deep place. Annie: One of the things that I'm so drawn to about both of your work is how you write about family, the way it shapes us, the way it wounds us, what it means to watch family members suffer. You talk about it as the question of the donut hole in "Proper Missive. Angela, I remember you were writing about your father. When you were writing about him, you talk about, "the assumption that a flawed person should be subject to anyone's definition." And Justin, I'm thinking quite broadly in terms of, you know, chosen or logical family. One of my favorite pieces that I teach in my creative non-fiction class is "Leashed," and you write there, "my friends, those tough women and queers were all too sharp and creative for their jobs. If I'm nostalgic, it's not because I was happy in those precarious years, but because I was deeply moved by our resourcefulness." I'm just wondering how you think about, you know, (20:09) family, logical family, and how your lit friendship fits into this? Justin: Who's going first? Angela: You. Justin: Let's see, I think that it's such a great question. I actually like, I use that little short kind of tiny little piece that you referenced. I use that in my book, in Blackouts, that's coming out. I think that, which is a book about chosen family as well, and lineages, and what do you do when you feel there's some kind of disruption, right? That like if you're estranged from your biological family or you know or you just need these connections, these kind of queer connections to and other ways of thinking about family that are not related to (21:06) bloodlines. Like we said earlier, we are family, and we've known that for quite a while. It was something that, I don't know. You know, it's like something that I don't think you ever really need to say. It's just you know who your people are. And I think that, and I think that it's a choice that you make and remake again and again and again. And that is something that is, I don't know, it's so exceptional, right? Compared to bloodlines and biological family, which can be hugely important and bring a lot of meaning to people. But that you're choosing this again and again. Like almost like the kind of past tense chosen family is like, it's like a little bit inaccurate, right? It's like the family you choose, and keep choosing, and you're choosing right now, you know? So I love that. Yeah. Angela: Just that the continuity of it, not in the sense that it's always going to be there, but that like you are, you're like an active, uh, engager like in it. In it, I just think about, I think about that, like, uh, at this point we know each other for 14 years. And the way that there's just necessarily we're not the same people but you have to keep, and you have to keep engaging, and you have to keep figuring out how to navigate different things and I think particularly as like LitFriends there's the huge thing you have to navigate which is especially if you're friends before that you're just like some kids who got into this program that people think are fancy, but you're just like, anything can happen, right? From there to being the capital— going from just like lowercase w, "writer," to capital A, "Author." And like what that, I mean, I've seen many a friendship where that is the rupture. And so particularly figuring out, like, how are you going to navigate that, and how are you going to still be in each other's lives. (23:16.33) Um, one thing I think about, as a person who thinks about family a lot is, with your family, sometimes you can like harm one another, and you'll just take some time off, or you'll just be like, that's how they are. But with the family that you continue to choose, you have to, ideally, you gotta do something about it. You have to actually have the engagement, and you have to figure out how to come out on the other side of it. And that is something that is harder and really in so many ways, all the more precious because of it. And it requires a kind of resilience and also just like a trust. And again, because Justin, you know, likes to gather me up, there's been a few times when I was like, "Oh, no, like, we've got beef, what's gonna happen?" And Justin is like, "we're family, what's gonna happen is we're gonna have to talk about this beef, and then move on." Justin: Yeah. And I think that I think that also you have, you're really good at reminding me to be responsible, right? That just because I've made this commitment, in my mind, right, Like we're committed forever. Like we're family. Like we can't, we can't break up, right? Like it's just like, that's just the way it is. It doesn't get me off the hook of showing up in other ways and being responsible and like, you know, that I can be quite flaky. Angela: I mean, that's just, you've been in L.A. long enough. It's just, you're just becoming native. Justin:  I think I always don't, I don't wanna disappoint you. I don't want you ever to feel like you were looking around for support, and I wasn't there. Angela: Do people cry on this podcast? Annie: We time it. Right at the half hour. Justin: There's been a few moments when I feel it, when I've felt (25:21) maybe that wasn't there enough, you know? And, you know, and if, you know, and like, I don't know, that's when you know it's the real stuff because it like keeps me up at night. You know, I'm just like, wow, you know, what does she need? What can I give? How can I be there? And yeah. Angela: Wow.  There you are. Justin: Here we are. Annie: Lito and I are also family, and it sort of feels never too late. But what you're saying about kind of the like renewing your vows, renewing your commitment over and over, it feels very, very true. Lito: Very true. Yeah yeah yeah. Annie: And life-saving, you know, like life affirming. Lito: It feels real. Justin: Yeah. Look at us. I'm proud of us. I'm proud of you guys too. Lito: It's a love fest over here. Angela: Thanks for having it. Annie: We'll be right back. Annie: (26:26) Welcome back. Angela: Also, particularly again, thinking about a lot of the friends that you have, they're not necessarily also sometimes colleagues. And I think that one thing that Justin really modeled, because I didn't have anything to be transparent about, was just transparency about things. Not just how much he's getting paid for things, but just like what was worth it, what's not worth it, like what is just the way something is and you can like take it or leave it. And I think that in the beginning it was more of me kind of taking that information because I didn't have anybody offering me anything. But now I feel like it's really an exchange of information. And I think that there are people who I love, like, in this industry, if you will, who that's just not our relationship. That doesn't mean we don't have great friendships, but like that is something that like if I'm broke, he knows I'm broke. I never feel the need to pretend and hide or like, you know, and likewise, like if he don't got it, I know he don't got it. It's not, it's just, it just, and I feel like that is something also that is a, it's, um, I think it's important. Especially because you write a book, you know, it does well. And then there are some years in between before you write another. Some of us in this room, maybe take a decade. All of us in this room, maybe take a decade. But yeah, so just really being able to be, to feel like you can still show up at any point in whatever you're doing creatively. Justin: (28:16) Because this is about literary friendships, I think that it's, yeah, there's those two sides, right? There's the business side, which can cause a lot of friction, especially if, you know, things go differently for different books and people have different trajectories. I mean, you're like, you know:  you've surpassed.  Angela: I don't know if that's true.  Justin: But there's that like business side of it. And then there's the literary side as well. And I think that sometimes if it just slides too much into talking about—it's like we could both be selling sprockets, right? There's so much minutiae. It's like we could talk about contracts and whatever and like gigs and da-da-da ad nauseam. And we have to remember to talk about literary side, the literature, the work, the sentences, what we're reading in order to kind of sustain the literary quality of a literary friendship, right?  Angela: One thing I remember you told me, I don't know, ages ago that I thought at the time like oh he's gassing me he's practicing things that he says his students tell me—but now I realize that it is also one of the reasons why our friendship has sustained is you were like ,you know, we can talk about whether a book is successful in 800 ways, but we have to try to remember to just be fans, to be fans of books, of literature, of people writing. And I think that is something that I not only try to practice, but that's something that I think is really foundational to relationship. Everyone can be a hater, and it can be fun sometimes, but like… (30:08) We really do like want to put each other on to the books that we're like excited about. Like I remember when you read or reread Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, and I hadn't read it before.  I mean, it's like a, it's a seminal or really a really famous African text, but I had never read it. Or like Maryse Condé, like I hadn't read it as like a real adult and being able to just like talk about that and know that there's a person who's, you know, you could be in polite conversation with somebody who you think is really smart and then you're like you know what I decided I wanted to reread—I don't know—something a person might wanna reread and they're like, Oh, what are you gonna do next? You gonna read a Moby Dick? And you're like, Oh damn, they just shamed me. You know, they just shamed me for being a nerd. But that's not gonna happen here. Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.  Annie: I do wanna go back to something you were alluding to. Angela, you were talking quite openly about it, too, which is shifting from writer to capital A author and the pressure that comes with that.  For the two of you, you had incredible well-deserved success early in your career, but I imagine that doesn't come without a lot of sleepless nights, right? I'm thinking about an interview I heard with Ta-Nehisi Coates where he talks about his friends not reaching out thinking, like, He's good, like, You blew up, you're good. And talking about actually what a lonely position that can be. I'm just wondering, you know, how you've both managed to take care of one another through those highs and lows, or being on that track alongside one another.  And even, you know, competition between lit friends. Justin: (32:13) Yeah, I mean, I think that we're just kind of, like our dispositions: we're very lucky in that I think we, before we met, it wasn't something that we like decided on. It was just before we met, I think we're just boosters, right. We're like, The people we love, their success is our success, right? And I think that's one of the reasons to where we are such good friends, it's because we share that, right? So that I think makes it slightly easier as far as like the competition side of things goes. I think that if it really does feel like you're a family and you're community and like you understand that this is a kind of shared win. I don't know, it's hard to talk about though because we both got really lucky.  Angela: Yeah.  Justin: You know, I mean, who wants to hear from people who got really lucky with their first books talking about how hard it is? You know what I mean?  We just, we didn't have, we didn't have any kind of that disparity between— Angela: Yeah, I'm sure, but—I would say even so—if we had different dispositions, we might be trying to split hairs about who got what. But I think for me—and Justin and I grew up very differently in some ways, but I think we grew up from a class background similarly, and we're both like, We're not supposed to be here, like, what can we get? Like, what can we get? And like, who has the information to help us get it? And so I've never been like, why is he in that room when I'm not in that room? I'm like, give me the intel about the room. That might be the closest I ever get to being in there, but I need to know like what's going on in there. And that has, I think, been the way that I just view any success of anybody that I know. that I feel like I can ask those questions to is like, not necessarily like, oh, can you put me on? Like now that you have something, can I have some of it? But just like, just information, just like, what's it like? And that to me is really useful. But also I think that one thing, when you have people, not just Justin, but like other friends and mentors of mine, when you have people who are honest and upfront about whatever kind of success they've had, you… you just realize that there's a lot of different ways to feel successful, right? Because I have friends who, to me, I'm like, they made it, but they're not convinced they have. And I have other friends that, like, to the outside world, they'd be like, wow, they have a little book, nobody cares. But they feel like they did it, you know? And so I realized it's so much about disposition also. Lito:   Do you feel that a lot about being each other's boosters? I mean, obviously it's about your personalities and who you are as people. I'm also curious how much of that, like Angela, you said you were a gatecrasher. You feel like a gatecrasher a lot. I don't know. What are your thoughts on intersectionality? How does it inform your work and your friendship? How does it affect how you boost each other? I'm also curious if there's something particular about lit friendships that intersect with intersectionality and those categories, especially for people who form intimate relationships with men.  Justin:   Wait, say more.  Like how do blowjobs come in?   Angela:  (36:01.171). I was like one thing we have in common is— Lito: More like, less blow jobs, more like having to deal with men and the various ways they, you know, respond to patriarchy.  Justin: Yeah, I think you kind of said it, right? I think that there's something about hustling and figuring out, like, how am I gonna find some stability in this world.  And I mean we have nominated each other for every single thing that there is. If either one of us gets a chance.  Angela: Till the end of time.  Justin:   Till the end of time, right? And it's just, and I think that, and we've shared all information about everything. There's no, and I think that that's kind of like that quote that you read before, right, about this nostalgia and feeling nostalgic, not for the precarity, but for the way that it bonds people, right? The way that the precarity, like you pull, you share resources, you pull resources, you come together and you talk shit and you don't let people get too down in the dumps and depressed. And you're like, no, we're going to do this. We're going to get ourselves out of this hole and we're going to pull each other up. And, and that I think is like, that's, that's the secret, I think.  Angela: Are you answering the question about men?  Justin:   Oh, men!  Angela: And dealing with men.  Justin: I love that I was just like, oh, you're talking about blow jobs. But no, you were talking about patriarchy.  Lito: Same thing, really.  Annie: In the room I'm in, we do not think there's a difference.  Justin: It's fascinating, right? Because when we were at Iowa together, I remember some of the critiques I got from some of the men, some of the straight men, some of the white straight men, was about a kind of provincialism to my writing, right? That what I was writing about was small and minor and just about particularities of identity and that it wasn't broad and expansive and it wasn't universal. That was expected. That was the kind of critique that was expected. The world has changed so much and so quickly in the last 15 years. It's hard for me to kind of wrap my mind around because that kind of thing, I wasn't, I didn't feel indignant. Maybe I felt a little.  Angela: Yeah, you just, but you just like knew you were going to ignore them. Like, you know, like, but no, but you didn't feel like you were going to, like it was worth, except there were some instances we're not going to get into details, but like, it didn't feel like it was worth spending, like unpacking it or trying to call them out. You just were like, Oh, boop, you're over here. Like, you're not.  Justin: Yeah, yeah. Like, I've been hearing this shit my whole life. Like, it wasn't like, there's no space for this kind of thing in the workshop. I was like, this is the world. This is unexpected. But now I don't think that would fly, right?  Angela:   No. I think maybe in like 70% of workshop spaces that I have been in. Well, I guess I've been running them. But like, I just don't, but like also just the disposition of the students is that they assume that somebody is going to like say something or push back on that. But also I guess maybe more broadly the idea of when you say intersectionality, what do you mean exactly? Lito: I think I wanted to keep it open on purpose. But I think I mean the ways that all of these different identities that we take up and that are imposed upon us, how they intersect with one another, race, class, et cetera. Yeah. Angela: I think one of the reasons why Justin and I gravitated toward each other probably in the beginning and why we ended up in Spook is because I think that—which maybe is also not happening 15 years from then—there is a way that back then, there was a way that even your identity could be flattened, right? Like you're Puerto Rican, which means that you are like a lot of things, right? One of those things like, one of it's like we're both diasporic people, right? But that's one of the things that I think a lot of people would not necessarily think is like a kinship between us, but like I've seen pictures of Justin's cousins. I know I'm giving Primo over here. Like I know what I'm doing. And like that's one way that I think that our relationship feels like, like we just felt like kin when we first met because of that. I think that there's just a lot of ways that in a lot of spaces in this country, you're just not allowed to like have all of those parts of you in the room because people just don't understand it or they do, but they just don't want you to be that also.  Justin: It's not convenient.  Angela: Right. Which is why I was like, of course, Jason would ask you and I to be in Spook, which is a magazine that's a black literary magazine. Cause Jason gets it. Shout out to Jason again.  Justin: I can't believe he's moving to L.A., that's so exciting.  Angela: Supposedly like any day now, he's just gonna arrive. There's just ways that when you find your people, you don't have to always separate these parts of you and you don't always have to keep reminding them also, they sort of understand. But also parts of you change obviously and the way that you feel about your identity changes and your people will embrace that and keep, you know, keep making space for that too. Justin: Making space.  Annie: We'll be back in a moment with Angela and Justin. Lito: (42:22) Hey Lit Fam, we hope you're enjoying our conversation with Justin and Angela. We are quite awed by their thoughtful discussion and moved by their deep love for each other and their art. If you love what we're doing, please take a moment now to follow, subscribe, rate, and review the LitFriends Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Just a few moments of your time will help us so much to continue bringing you great conversations like this week, after week. Thank you for listening. Annie: (42:59.178) Back to our interview with Justin Torres and Angela Flournoy.  Lito: Justin, you have your sophomore book. How do you feel about it? Are you going to write a sequel for We the Animals like you talked about at one point? Angela, same question. Are there sequels coming forth for you, Angela, to Turner House, or are you moving on to something else? Or you sort of briefly mentioned another book about, uh, I remember you mentioning at some point a book about friends, four female friends, if I remember correctly. Anyways, what's coming next?  Annie: Yeah, and I wanna know about the dreaded second novel because I feel like that's where I'm at. I feel like that's where a lot of writers get stuck. Jutin: Second novel's awful. I mean, you think the first one's bad. You think it takes everything that you have inside of you and then you're like, oh, I've gotta do it again. And yeah, I don't know. I really had a very hard time with it. And I mean, nobody knows better than Angela. I really, really didn't feel like I was up to the task. I knew that I wanted to do something different. I knew I wanted to kind of change the way I write and be a different kind of writer, but I just felt like I was falling on my face.  Even after it was done and out until like last week, I was just, I just felt anxiety about it, and I felt really neurotic and I was being really neurotic. And I remember the other night we were hanging out and drinking and maybe there was some mushroom chocolate involved. I was just, like I was just on my bullshit and Angela was just like stopped and she was just like, What is it gonna take to make you happy? Like what is it gonna take? Like look around. And it was like, it was a really good intervention. But then it also led to this conversation about happiness, right? And about like whether that is the goal, right? Like feeling kind of tortured and, and feeling like this gap between what you want for your book and your own capabilities. And that never goes away. You just live in this, in this torturous phase. And like, maybe it's about just coming to acceptance with that, rather than striving for happiness. I don't know. But it's still ringing in my ear. What is it gonna take?  Lito: It's a great question.  Angela:   Maybe some projection, I don't know, on my part.  I am still working on that novel. It's due at the end or at the beginning of next year. It's gonna come out in 2025. You know, God willing. And... similarly the second novel, I think it depends on your disposition, but I think both of us are very interested in and task ourselves with having real skin in the game with what we right. That means sometimes you got to figure out where you get that skin from.  Lito: There's only so much.  Angela: Like, if you played yourself for the first book, then it's gonna take a while. And when I think about, like, when I try to count for the years, I don't know I could have done it any quicker. Like, I just don't know. And I don't think that's gonna be the case for every book, but I do think between that first and that second, especially, were you 30? Where were you? I was 30, yeah. And then I was 30, too. I was 30 also when my book came out. You're just a baby.  You're just a baby.  Lito: Do you fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people? Well, they wrote a book in two years and I— Justin:  (47:07) Yeah, sure. I mean, I also like compare myself to people who took longer like that feels good. That feels good.  Angela: Listen, I'm like Deborah Eisenberg. Just a banger every decade. That's it. That's all I owe the world. A banger a decade. Lito: A banger a decade. I like that. I like comparing myself to Amy Clampitt, who wrote her first collection of poetry, like in her 70s or something and had some success.  Justin: I generally wish people would slow down. I mean, I get that sometimes there's just like an economic imperative, right? But if you're lucky enough that, I don't know, you get a teaching job and you can slow down, why not slow down, right? Like, I don't know, sometimes I feel like there are a lot of books in this world. And the books that somebody spent a lot of time over, whether or not they are my tastes—I'm just so appreciative of the thoughtfulness that went in.  You can feel it, right? That somebody was really considering what they're building versus dashing it off. They should slow down, if they can.  Angela: But I also feel like we need both kinds. There are people who I appreciate their books, their kind of time capsules of just like, this is the two years, this is where I was. I think of Yiyun. We need an Yiyun Li and we need an Edward P. Jones. Edward P. Jones, you're gonna get those books when you get the books. And Yiyun Li, every couple years, you're gonna get something that, to me, I still, they still feel like really good books, but they're also just like, this is where she is right here, and I respect it and I appreciate it. Everybody can't be one or the other, you know?  Justin: You're right, you're right, you're right. It's much fairer.  Annie: She's someone who, I mean, you know, seems to have changed so much even within that time period. And we had her on a couple of episodes ago and yeah, she's just on fire. She's amazing.  Justin: (49:06) And people speed up as well, right? Because her first couple of books, there were big gaps. And then same thing with like Marilynne Robinson, right? She had massive gaps between books. And then suddenly it starts to speed up. And they're coming out every year, every two years. Yeah. Annie: It's the mortality.  Lito: Well, and life, well, I think lifestyle too, right? Like what you do, how busy you are and what you do out in the world. Like going out and meeting people and being gay in the world, that takes up time.  Annie: And your work has had other lives too. I mean, I'm thinking about how We the Animals was adapted to film in that beautiful, intimate portrait. And I know, you know, Angela, you've been working with HBO and some projects as well. I'm just, just wondering if you want to talk about your work in these other media, how it's been, and even thinking about the strikes, right? Like the WGA-SAG strikes and how that has been on the ground too.  Angela:  Very happy that the strike is over. Solidarity to our SAG-AFTRA brothers and sisters still out there. I passed them on the way here on Sunset. I did honk, wish I was out there today. But I think that for me, it's just like a bonus. Like I, especially now, there's a way that right now writers will say things that are a little snobby like, Oh, I could never be in a writer's room, the group project, man. But like when now that I know so many TV writers living here and I've met so many over the past 146 days on the line, I realized that it is, you just have to be so nimble and agile and you have to also be so not precious about story. But no less smart. A lot of things might end up on TV dumb, but I don't want to blame the writers for that. Now that I really have a real understanding of just how the sausage is made and just how big of like a game of telephone it is—and how much you have to relinquish control because at the end of the day it's like you're making this text, it's literary, but it's also like an instruction manual. It's a completely different way to think about writing. And I don't know how long I live in LA or how many like of those kind of projects I will do but I'm really grateful. And one reason I'm really grateful is because doing those projects and having those years where people thought I wasn't doing anything, but I was actually writing so much and like doing so many revisions.  It helped me realize that there is a way that I blame MFAs for making us like feel very siloed. And like, if you're supposed to be a fiction writer, that's the only thing that you do that's like an output that anyone cares about. But it's so new—like, how many screenplays did Joan Didion write? Like James Baldwin wrote screenplays. Before, it was just like, you're writing, you're writing. Like it's all, it all is the job. And I think every time a poet friend of mine like puts out a novel, sends it to me, read, sends it for me to read—first off, they usually are very good. But then also I'm just like, yes, fiction writers, I think, I don't know who did it. I blame graduate programs, but they have put themselves in this small box. Justin: But yeah, I mean, it's like the MFA, a lot of them feel like teacher training programs and that the next step is teaching. But if you don't want to teach the old models, definitely like you just write for TV. Angela: You write for film, you write for magazines, newspapers, you just do the thing. And that has felt very freeing to me, to just see meet more people who are doing that and also to allow myself to do that. Justin (52:49) Yeah, I mean, I really enjoyed the process of having my film—the book made into a film. I think I had an unusual experience with that. Like a lot of times the author is cut out or, you know, is not deferred to in any way, or nobody's inviting you in. I think because it was such a low budget film, and the director is just a really wonderful person who is incredibly collaborative.  He wanted me involved in every single part of it, and so I loved that. I think, I don't know, I think I might wanna adapt Blackouts for a play. I've been thinking about it lately. Angela: You should. I mean, in so many ways, it is kind of like a two-hander. Yeah. I could see it. Yeah.  Justin: A two-hander. Look at you ready to lingo. No, that's some biz lingo.  Lito: That's going to be the title of this podcast. It's a two-hander. How has art shaped your friendship? And I mean, art, like other genres, we've talked about getting out of the box of fiction, but what movies or art or music do you love to talk about or do you just talk about everything or anything that you're watching and how have other genres affected your work? Like, do you listen to music? Are you influenced by visual art?  Angela: You wanna talk about things you watch on television? You ready to come out in that manner?  Justin: No.  Lito: You watch lots of TV? No. Are you a Housewives person?  You're a Housewives watcher, aren't you?  Justin: Housewives is too highbrow for me. I have like a…I have a secret fetish that is mine. Angela: You have to keep some things for yourself. Justin: Yes. But it's just like, that's how I turn my brain off when my brain needs to be turned off.  Annie: I will wait another decade for that story. Justin: I also like culture and high art as well. You write about art a lot. You do profiles. Angela: I do. I wish I did it more. It's just everything, you know, takes time. I think for me, like when I think about—I just am learning different ways to make a life out of, you know, out of your mind and out of art. And one thing that I've learned when I talk to, like visual artists, particularly, is this idea—I think poets also have this—but fiction writers, a friend of mine actually, a poet, recently asked me, like, how does a fiction writer get a practice, like a practice of writing? Practicing their craft in a way that like a visual artist, you know, they go to the studio practice or poet might have a practice. And I don't believe necessarily that sitting down to write every, you know, three hours every day is the same thing. Because like if you don't know what you're writing, but I really do think that practice is more grounded in reading.  Justin: And reading, I think reading literature for sure, but also reading the world, right? And that's what you do when you go to an exhibit or you go to a museum or you go to a concert or whatever, right, you're like reading, you know, and you're reading the experience, you're reading for other things.  Lito: Is there anything you're both fans of that you both talk about a lot? Any artists or musicians or movies? Justin (56:26) You know, I think that we have some lowbrow sharing tastes. But I think that our highbrow, I don't know. We don't talk a lot about our pursuant— I think I'm into a lot of, like when I was looking at, when I was putting together Blackouts, I was looking at a lot of archival photos and like the photos of Carl Van Vechten, I just, I'm obsessed with…  I've been spending a lot of time with them, thinking about him and his practice. I think that, you know, I like all kinds of stuff. I'm like a whatever, what's that horrible term? Culture vulture?  Angela: I don't think that's what you wanna say. But I know what you mean, yeah.  Justin: Yeah, I am democratic in my tastes. I'm just like, I like everything. We don't have a lot of shared tastes, I don't think.  Angela: Um... No?  Justine: No.  Annie:  I sort of love that. I mean, it, um, the friendship, belies, that, you know, it's only a bonus in that way. I think Lito and I also have very different tastes. There's something kind of lovely about that. Lito: I remember Annie making fun of me for not being hardcore enough in my taste in hip-hop. Annie:    I guess we're putting our dirt out there too.  Lito:   We'll be right back with the Lightning Round. Annie:   Ooh, Lightning Round. Annie: (58:12) Thank you both for talking with us today. This was really wonderful. We really feel the honesty and warmth in your friendship and we're so appreciative that you're sharing that with us today and with all of our LitFriends. We're excited for both your books and we're so grateful you spent the last hour with us.  Angela: That was a pleasure.  Justin: Thank you. Lito: All right, we're gonna we— wrap up the podcast with a Lightning Round, just a few questions. We will ask the question and then I guess we'll do it this way. When I ask the question, Angela, you can answer. And when Annie asks the question, Justin, you answer first. Sorry, first answer first. You're both going to answer the question. What is your first memory?  Angela:  My sister roller skating through sprinklers and falling and hitting her head. Justin: I literally have no idea. I, yeah, I don't know. It's a blackout.  Angela: How many times have you said that?  Lito:  Very on brand.  Angela: You've had a long book tour. Justin: I'm practicing.  Annie: Who or what broke your heart first?  Angela: Is it too deep to say my daddy? I know.  Justin: I was going to say my daddy.  Angela: That's why we're friends.  Justin: I know. It's so sad.  Angela: (59:37) Daddy issues.  Lito: Who would you want to be lit friends with from any time in history?  Angela: Toni Morrison.   Justin: Yeah, maybe Manuel Puig. He seemed really cap and hilarious. And also a brilliant genius.  Angela: I need Toni Morrison to tell me how to raise my child. And to still write books. Someone help me. Annie: What would you like to see your lit friend make or create next, maybe something collaborative or something different or a story they haven't told yet?  Justin: I mean, I think I would love to see you actually write something kind of ekphrastic. Like I'd love to see you write about art. I love when you write about art. I love your thoughts about art and art makers. So maybe, like, a collection of essays about culture. I'd love that. Angela: Besides this two-handed, this play, which I would love for you to write. Maybe there's more, I mean, there's more voices in the book than two, though. So it doesn't have to be. Justin is a poet. I have said this since the beginning. I'm ready for this collection.  Justin: Never occurred to me in my life. Angela:   That is not true.  Justin:   Well, writing a collection. Angela:   Okay, well, I would love for you to write a collection of poetry.  Justin:   Maybe I will. Maybe you just gave me permission, as the children say.  Angela:   Mm-hmm. I know.  Lito: If you could give any gift to your LitFriend without limitations, what would you give them?  Angela: I would give him a house with a yard and a pool.  Justin: That's what I want.  Angela: In a city he wants to live in. That's the key.  Lito: That's the hard part. Justin:  (01:01:35) Um, I would give Angela time to be with her thoughts and her craft. I guess what does that involve?  Angela:   This is because I call myself a busy mom all the time.  Justin: You are a busy mom. Angela: (01:02:08) Thank you, that's a nice gift. Time is the best.  Justin: I mean, it's not as good as a house with a pool.  Angela: I know, because I can use my time as wisely as possible and yet—no pool. Lito: Well, that's our show. Annie & Lito: Happy Friendsgiving! Annie: Thanks for joining us, Lit Fam. Lito:   We'll be back next week with our guests, Lucy Corin and Deb Olin Unferth. Annie: Find us on all your socials @LitFriendsPodcast. Annie: I'm Annie Liontas.  Lito:   And I'm Lito Velázquez.  Annie:   Thank you to our production squad. Our show is edited by Justin Hamilton. Lito:   Our logo was designed by Sam Schlenker.  Annie:   Lizette Saldaña is our marketing director.  Lito:   Our theme song was written and produced by Robert Maresca.  Annie:   And special thanks to our show producer, Toula Nuñez. This was LitFriends, Episode One.

Tulip Corpsepod the orc, Protects Gaulle the goblin, and Boom Pahpa the human male have stepped through a portal in an enchanted forest and now we shall see what awaits on the other side, what sort of shenanigans erupt, and who makes it out alive! There are some goof ups with the sound where I (Justin) am friend of by the background noise and I'm sorry about that. I'm still learning the secrets of adding sounding effects. Thanks for listening! Go to these places: funinstallersnetwork.com and ko-fi.com/funinstallers

Wow, we're back! and this time we have an intimate conversation with Olivia Klassen! Olivia is a Library Technician in Vancouver. You can hear her vocals on Jordan's track "Niko"! She is also Jordan's Indie Wife! We got her on the pod! Olivia is a real gem, and we're so glad she joined us for our silly podcast.  Jor, Olivia and I (Justin) sit down to talk about their first date at the Carrie and Lowell Live concert! 

This week we dive into the delightful world of communist Jesus. Also, what is up with straight white dudes? We would like to know.  Grab your favorite beverage because we are liberating the proletariat and taking names.  Also apologies for the late post I (Justin) am going through alot of personal stuff lately and its kinda taking it out of me. If you want to support the Justin and Tori deface Scalia's Grave fund you can do so here: Patreon.com/gohomebible This podcast is edited by Elizabeth Nordenholt from Podcat Audio: https://elizabethnordenholt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was SO fun! I (Justin) had a chance to sit down and chat with Miquel, the independent developer of "The Californication Game." It is a game based off The Red Hot Chili Peppers Music Video For "Californication." All in a quest to live his dream of being hired as a video game developer! The game is available to play RIGHT NOW... Check out his game's Twitter account @californigame, or follow him @comandogdev. The site for his game where you can download is: https://comandogdev.itch.io/califonication

Okay, I'm just going to go ahead an apologize for this episode

We finally cover the first portion of Enies Lobby, focusing heavily on Nico Robin's long-awaited backstory. Also, Jacob loves hating on CP9's Spandam, and so do I (Justin.) All my homies hate Spandam.

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

Hark! Lift Up Your Heads! The Michigan Episode For The Weary, The Broken, The Tired!  In this episode we learn that Jordan went to a Sufjan concert as a first date with his now wife (and bailed on a friend in the process) and I (Justin) make some pretty cringey observations about Sufjan's music that sounded profound in my mind but now make me feel embarrassed. But anyway, Holland really does remind me of dust particles floating in the air on a hot summer morning after sleeping in, so....  But, wow, is this a great Sufjan record. 

On this week's Stack podcast: The Other History of the DC Universe #1 DC Comics Story by John Ridley Layouts by Giuseppe Camuncoli Finishes by Andrea Cucchi Monstress: Talk Stories #1 Image Comics Written by Marjorie Liu Illustrated by Sina Takeda Power Pack #1 Marvel Written by Ryan North Art by Nico Leon The Department of Truth #3 Image Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Martin Simmonds Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs #1 DC Comics Written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Patton Oswalt, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, Saladin Ahmed, and Brandon Thomas Art by Juan Gedeon, Chad Hardin, Scot Eaton, and Thomas Mandrake Nailbiter Returns #7 Image Comics Written By Joshua Williamson Art by Mike Henderson Daredevil #24 Marvel Written by Chip Zdarsky Pencils by Mike Hawthorne Undiscovered Country #10 Image Comics Written by Scott Snyder & Charles Soule Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Leonardo Marcello Grassi An Unkindness of Ravens #3 BOOM! Studios Written by Dan Panosian Illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi The Last God #10 DC Comics Created and written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by Riccardo Federici Chu #5 Image Comics Written by John Layman Art by Dan Boultwood X-Men #15 Marvel Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mahmud Asrar Excalibur #15 Marvel Written by Tini Howard Art by Mahmud Asrar and Stefano Caselli X of Swords: Destruction #1 Marvel Written by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard Art by Pepe Larraz The Scumbag #2 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Andrew Robinson 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 at The Staff we talk about a bunch of comics that came out this week, and we're going to kick it off with a big one, The Other History Of The DC Universe #1 from DC Comics. Story by John Ridley, layouts by Giuseppe Cammuncoli, finishes by Andrea Cucchi. You could probably figure it out by the title here as well as the cover, but this is obviously an alternate look at the DC Universe mostly through the eyes of Black Lightning, at least in this first issue. We'll see where it goes in subsequent issues. Alex:                 As he slowly works through his career, sees himself and other characters of color kind of pushed to the side of the DC Universe in favor of other characters like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, learn something about himself, learn something about history. And mostly it's told through the images of course, but also told through prowess. Alex:                 I don't think there's really any dialogue whatsoever in this issue other than the what's told in the narration boxes. I thought this was pretty stunning, and almost across, this is probably too reductive, but across between a new frontier and the truth in a certain way. Justin:              Oh yeah. Alex:                 What did you guys think about this book? Pete:                I thought it was really touching, very powerful, moving, which was great. I really love the little Halloween thing, that was beautiful. Yeah, I was really happy to see this comic. I'm glad that this comic was made. It's a long time coming and I hope we get to see more of this. This is just great storytelling. Justin:              Yeah. I mean, just the format, the art is so nice. It feels like such a statement. It feels like such a … It sort of has this silver age vibe to it, which I think gives it this historical precedent. It just feels so like something that will be on the shelf and in the conversation for a long time. Justin:              And then like the otherness of it, like the way that Black Lightning story keeps getting told with the Justice League and the Glacier Heroes as a counterpoint, I think is really interesting. And like you said, Alex, the fact that he and just all the other black superheroes and black characters in this book get shoved to the side throughout, you really feel it throughout and feel that drive for what makes Black Lightning, Black Lightning. Alex:                 I cannot even imagine what it is like to read this book as a comic fan of color necessarily, obviously because I am white. But speaking as a white comic book reader, it is very hard to read from the perspective of Black Lightning looking at the other characters. And I don't know if you have this feeling, but I'm reading this and I'm like, “But Superman is not like that. That's not what Superman is like. That's not Batman.” I felt these walls kind of building in me of- Pete:                Whoa. Look at you, you felt attacked. Alex:                 … Well, not attacked. Attacked is absolutely the wrong word, but this feeling of trying to wrap your brain around how somebody else feels about these sort of things is hard to do, and that's I think part of the point of the book. Because by the end you do get Jefferson Pierce starting to understand a little bit more of the wider world, bring down some of those walls himself and accept these things while still understanding that his experience is ultimately going to be intrinsically different from a lot of other characters in this universe. Alex:                 So it really brings you in, in that way as well. And like you said, Pete, there are multiple times I got choked up, just almost hitched, like is the best word for it, when something just snuck up on you in the book, these moments of strong emotion throughout, which I was very surprised about. And then the other thing you were mentioning about the art, Justin, it feels almost Neal Adams-like to me without being exaggerated, which I thought was kind of neat. Justin:              Yeah, totally agree. It's a great book. And there I think there are what, four more issues? And this is coming up bimonthly, I want to say? Pete:                We can't wait. Alex:                 Yeah, I'm very curious. I haven't read ahead about it, but I'm very curious to see whether it follows Black Lightning story throughout, which would make sense. And it's essentially a Black Lightning book, or if it's going to switch perspectives in nature too. Justin:              I think it jumps around a little bit and touches on different characters. Another thing about this, the amount of continuity that is touched on here, and really owning it when it's like some of it is ridiculous, but really making it a part of this very real story I think is great. There's this Reagan pin with the Watchmen blood splatter on it, which I thought was very cool. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Great book. Definitely pick this one up. Next up, Monstress: Talk Stories #1 from Image Comics, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda. I'd admit I have not read Monstress in a while, even though I really enjoy this book. The art is consistently gorgeous. Plus it takes place at in a fantasy world with some half personas, I guess I would call them. Pete:                Yeah, nice. Alex:                 Yeah, absolutely. Pete:                Great use of that word, that just came up. That was really organic and natural. Alex:                 Thank you so much, Pete. I really appreciate it. Justin:              Tip of the tongue. Alex:                 In this book, we find a backstory on one of the characters. It's sweet, it's sad, it's harry. The character designs are great. I like this book quite a bit. What did you guys think? Justin:              I agree, I like this a lot. There's some fun cooking. The cooking is really used as a great moment in this story. And this reminded me, I mean, it's such a … When I was a kid, first, the sort of furry ears on a human head was in Super Mario Brothers 3. That was the first time I encountered that. And to know that, that's such a thing, I was like, “What an interesting thing.” And to know that such a thing in Manga and everything was a revelation. Alex:                 And now here we are, three guys sitting in our own Tanooki Suits recording a podcast. Pete:                Wow. Justin:              100%. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Metaphor. Pete:                Well, they bring up an interesting question. What's your favorite meal you've ever had? I mean, I think that's a great question to kind of put out there. And also I- Justin:              Yeah, I guess what garbage plate do you like the most? Pete:                … Also the art and the storytelling is really superb. It is very- Justin:              Art is great. Pete:                … complicated, kind of cool story that we're kind of thrown into here, and it's really cool. Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about Power Pack #1 from Marvel- Pete:                Okay, yeah. Very good. Alex:                 … written by Ryan North. Pete:                You can ignore my question, that's cool. Alex:                 Oh, you were asking about- Justin:              Favorite meal? Alex:                 … best meal we ever had? Pete:                Favorite meal you've ever had. Yeah. Alex:                 Favorite meal? Did you offer up your favorite meal or did Justin just say garbage plate and you're like, “Yeah, fuck you.”? Pete:                No, Justin just made a joke about garbage plates, but nobody's answered it yet. Alex:                 Oh, okay. Justin:              Do you want me to go? Alex:                 No, I can go. On my honeymoon, we went to- Justin:              Woohoo. Alex:                 … Yeah, on my honeymoon. We went to London and Paris. And particularly in Paris, we were like, “We're not going to look at any guidebooks, we're going to wing it. We're just going to like … We're not going to make any reservations, we're just going to wander around, we're going to find places.” And we consistently made the worst choices in terms of restaurants, just like absolutely … Just the tourist trap and just not good spots, and it was obvious- Pete:                The [inaudible 00:07:42] of Paris. Alex:                 … as soon as we sat there, we were like, “Oh, no, this is bad.” One of the last days- Justin:              I heard Paris TGI Friday's is actually one of the best ones. Alex:                 Yeah, they actually call it TGI Friday's. Justin:              Yeah, wow. Alex:                 I couldn't think of any other French words. Pete:                In other words, he wouldn't have done that. Alex:                 [inaudible 00:08:00] Friday's. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 Anyway, so yeah, we were having a great time, but eating not great food, which you would expect in Paris. And one of the last days, one of the things that we really liked to do was just get some lunch and sit down at the Lourve in the park outside, which is this beautiful park and just eat the lunch. And we stumbled across this place called Maison de la Truffe, which is a ridiculously expensive black truffle restaurant. Alex:                 And everything in there, insanely expensive. We could not afford to sit down and eat, but they had a to go thing outside. And the cheapest thing that they had was a baguette with some truffle butter and sausage on it, and then a tiny little thing of champagne, just like this big. Alex:                 And there was a sack of things which we called basically fancy combos, because they were essentially just little wafers with cheese inside. And we took those and sat at the Louvre, and had this meal, and it was the best meal I had in Paris hands down. But also one of the best meals I've ever had. Just everything was ridiculously delicious. There you go. Justin:              That's a great answer. I'm going to- Pete:                And you're still married to this day? Alex:                 No, we got divorced. That was my first wife. Pete:                Aw, my bad. Justin:              The French woman he married for lunch. Alex:                 Hey, people married for all sorts of reasons. Justin:              It's true. Alex:                 Lunch is- Justin:              Lunch is a good one. Alex:                 … Yeah. Justin:              Yeah. Your eyes are bigger than your stomach maritally. I'm going to give it up for my mom's taco dip. Very good. But just as- Alex:                 I'm also going to give it up for your mom's taco dip. Pete:                Oh my God, what just happened? Justin:              … Wow. Pete:                Oh my God. Justin:              But I'll go international as well as Alex. I was in Japan. I was traveling by myself, and I was hiking. I got off the Shinkansen bullet train right near Mount Fuji and just wandered around. It was January, it was very cold. I was not dressed appropriately. There was a guy who was selling some sort of soup at a stand, just like on this side road. Got that soup, ate it sitting on a rock, great meal. Alex:                 Nice. Pete:                Wow. Nice. Alex:                 Pete. Pete:                I'll share too a travel one, the regulation one. Justin:              Regulation. Pete:                There is this seafood place outside of Pawleys Island in South Carolina, and it's called Frank's. I don't think it's there any longer. And they named it Frank's because three chefs went in to create this restaurant, and one of the chefs name was Frank. And when it was time to sign the deal, this guy Frank completely disappeared and left them, but they started the restaurant anyway. Pete:                And they had this amazing blackened mahi mahi. And in the kind of bar area, where we were hanging out as a family, I played my dad for my dinner in this little ring game, it's like a giant ring attached to a fish line. And I won the game and I got to order anything I wanted off the menu. So it was pretty cool, and it was really delicious. I don't know if it was extra good because I won, but it was really quite good. Justin:              Yeah, I think the meal you had that day was victory. Pete:                Yes. But in Costa Rica, I had gone through a lot of crazy events where I was dating this person, or I wasn't dating, we were kind of there together on this trip. And then she got robbed, and then I went to go meet up with my other friends and we went on this kind of tour of the sanctuary, and these monkeys robbed this couple that I was with, and I had to … They were going to kind of pay for me for a little bit, because I was low on funds, I'd spent a lot of money early drinking. You know what that's like, Justin? Justin:              Yeah. Get the all inclusive. Pete:                Yeah. And so I was kind of just I had nothing to do, so I was just kind of walking around Costa Rica, and I stumbled across this place called the Sunset Hotel. And I walked around the corner, and there as the sun is setting is this Italian dude, and I was like … I walked around the corner and this guy goes, “Hey, how you doing?” and he made me a fresh pizza and it was phenomenal. Alex:                 Man, there were so many different places that story could have gone. I was not predicting the end of it. Justin:              Costa Rican pizza. Alex:                 There was a point where I thought maybe your thing was going to be you ate the monkeys for vengeance. Pete:                Oh, wow. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                I'm not [crosstalk 00:12:53] Justin:              The meal you had that day was vengeance. Pete:                Yes. Alex:                 I think that reviews that comic book. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Definitely. Alex:                 Next step, Power Pack #1 from Marvel, written by Ryan North, art by Nico Leon. This is how you get to the much bladed outlawed event where all the teen heroes in the Marvel Universe are not allowed to practice superheroism. But it's also bring back together Power Pack for the first time in a while, in their new iterations. Alex:                 I do think very smartly they age them down quite a bit in this book. They've been aged up to be like, “We're cool teens, and some of us are adults and it's a little unclear.” Bring them back to basics while not ignoring the continuity is very smart. And this Ryan North is very funny, it's fun, it feels like a old Power Pack. It's better and winky throughout. I enjoy this book quite a bit, but I'm also definitely in the tank for it. What was your guys' takes? Pete:                My favorite part is, “We interrupt this broadcast of jazz for middle-class dinner parties to bring you breaking news.” That was really funny. Justin:              Ryan North is a funny writer, it's great to see him on this book. I put him in the same bucket as Mark Russell. As like anytime you see them on the book, it's consistently funny, which is hard. Alex:                 Yeah. Yes. Justin:              Sorry I interrupted you, Pete. You can finish your view. Alex:                 No, that was the only positive thing Pete wanted to say. Justin, what did you think about this one? Justin:              No, I loved it. It was great, super fun. Power Pack kids are fun, especially with the comedic angle. The art is very good. I'm curious how this outline event is going to play out. It does feel super disjointed. And it's sort of the same thing over and over again where these teen heroes suddenly are arrested, so I feel like this will be a fun version of it. Alex:                 Yes, I agree. Next step, The Department of Truth #3 from Image Comics, written by James Tynion IV, art by Martin Simmonds. This issue we're continuing to follow our conspiracy fighters, is I guess what we can call them. Basically conspiracy theories aren't real, but if you believe hard enough, they will become real. In this one, they're tackling gun control and crisis actors, and false flags and things like that. And man, it's very well done, very hard to read at points. But just like the main characters find it themselves, there's a lot of conflicting emotions that go on here, I think. Justin:              I love this book so much. I agree with you completely, Alex. And this issue especially, there's so much reality in this comic. And the hard part is I don't know how many people who read this know about all these conspiracy theories, and the insanity that is spun around them. This one I happen to know a lot about, because I worked on a show called The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, which was about this … Justin:              Jordan was playing this conspiracy-driven host, and so we dealt a lot in this world. And Alex Jones who this book is, this issue is sort of like drawing upon, who's like a very bad grifter person. We had to do so much paying attention to him as he descended into this madness. So this was especially, I was like reliving all of the actual news stories that were happening back like three, four years ago. Pete:                Yeah, this is really cool. It's very interesting. Artistically, it's really, really impressive what they're doing here with the different art styles meshing. It is a little tough to kind of understand what is happening a little bit. But I didn't appreciate the kind of like, “Oh, I took improv classes, so I'm good at lying,” I thought that was a little heartbreaking, but- Alex:                 Just to clarify what's happening is, probably as far as we can tell in real life, this woman's son was killed in a school shooting. Then this organization, Black Hat, which we don't know why, but it's a tease that we're going to find out a lot more next issue, is trying to make conspiracy theories come to life. Alex:                 They drop off a film that whether it's a fabricated or it's real or whatever it is that seems to convince this woman that not only is her son alive, but she may actually be an actor who was an improv actor, so the entire thing was faked, and it starts to change the reality around her. She doesn't know what's real and she doesn't know what's fake. And what I think it does really nicely emotionally, particularly through the art, as you mentioned, is it plays on this idea of this fractured psyche that I imagine you're going through when you deal with unimaginable tragedy like the death of a child. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Yeah. And the fact that the premise of the book that this group is able to manifest these conspiracy theories when she gets this flash drive with these facts, these alternative facts on them. This book is so smart, it's so current, it's just one of my favorites on the stands right now. Alex:                 What happens when a robotic overlord in prisons a rant god and a humble narcissist, you get this week sponsor of comic book club, The Just Been Revoked Podcast. Join Chris G., Tom legacy 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. Alex:                 Looking for a film podcast that has fun and doesn't take things too seriously, then check them out at justbeenrevoked.com. Let's move on and talk about Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Multiverse Who Laughs #1 from DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Patton Oswalt, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, Saladin Ahmed and Brandon Thomas. Art by Juan Gedeon, Chad Hardin, Scott Eaton and Thomas Mandrake. Alex:                 This is anthology that Robin King is telling, basically saying, “Blah, blah, blah. You've heard all of these dark versions of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman before. How about a couple of other dark multiverses? What would you think about that?” So we get to see three of them in this book. What did you think about this comic? Pete:                Well, it's a collection of stories. Some of them are a little better than others, but it's fun. It's like The Coming King and all that kind of stuff. I thought that it's interesting enough. It's definitely turning it up, like the Dark Metal stuff has been doing, so Death Metal stuff has been doing. I thought this was kind of a cool a book to put out as far as like, “Hey, we're going to kind of let some other writers do some stuff on this,” and yeah. Justin:              Yeah, it's a good mix. I really liked the first bit, the Scott Snyder sort of just bucket of random worlds where bad things happen to our favorite heroes. And the Patton Oswalt story I thought was great. Fun sort of Mr. Zsasz, right, is he villain here? And what it's like for him trying to be the cool villain in Arkham, and the consequences of that was. It was cool. Alex:                 This is definitely in my mind one of the lesser books in this event, everything else feels so necessary and interconnected. I love the idea of having else worlds that follow not the big three, that follow just more side stories, and I'd love to see more of that. But overall, I thought this comic book was fine. I think to your point, I liked the Robin King stuff. I thought Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner of course put together a fun story. But just so you know- Pete:                They usually do. Alex:                 What? They usually do. Pete:                They usually do. Alex:                 But it does not feel like something you'd necessarily need to read to understand the main act. Justin:              It's a little bit of the lighter side. Pete:                Yeah, it's just a fun- Alex:                 Yes, exactly. Pete:                … Yeah, it's a fun collection of ideas and stories- Justin:              It's like a little Dave Barry novel. Alex:                 Great. That's what I'd say as well. Nailbiter Returns #7 from Image Comics, written by Joshua Williamson, art by Mike Henderson. Here were literally getting into the beat of the issue as they delve further into Buckaroo, into this game that's being played by the new Buckaroo Butchers. And we get a bunch of psychedelic stuff, a trip to the past, some revelations, some promise of future revelations. I'm really enjoying what they did with this series, and it feels entirely different from what they did with the previous one. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                Yeah, I agree. I think it's really creative, the art's fantastic. They do such a good job of pulling you into this world and kind of like with their storytelling, and I just was really impressed with this. It does a good enough job or moving the story enough where you know a little bit about what's happening to kind of follow along and not feel like, “I don't get it.” It walks that kind of crazy line really well. But man, just the art and the characters are just insane in all the right ways. The use of blood rain and then that skull who's just like puking blood on the pyramid is just insane. Justin:              Yeah, I love the sort of dream sequence aspect of this book, it feels so deliberate to become right now, sort of seeding out a bunch of wild ideas that then they can call upon going forward. The art's so good. I've been a huge fan of Birthright also by Joshua Williamson, and this feels like if you read that and haven't read Nailbiter, it's definitely worth getting in on Nailbiter. Pete:                Ah man, that's what I should've said for that lock and key question. Alex:                 On the live show? Pete:                Birthright would have been great. Yeah. Alex:                 Messed up, man. Messed up. Next step, this is what I put on the stack to make Pete feel a little bit better. Daredevil #24 from Marvel, written by Chip Zdarsky, pencils by Mike Hawthorne. Pete, you're not in your head. No. Do you not feel better after this comic book? Pete:                Well, this is a rough issue, man. I was so excited that we got Daredevil in our stack, but then of course it's a sad issue and I was like, “Oh, well, this is why his album put this in.” Alex:                 No, 100% not. Pete:                Foggy is fighting and- Alex:                 Foggy is bad at his job. What's different about the usual? It feels like pretty status quo for our man, Mr … Pete:                No, this is not status quo. Also there's too many people look like Daredevil. I don't know what the fuck- Alex:                 It's only one other than his twin. Pete:                … is going on. Alex:                 Sure. Daredevil is on trial for murder, something that he is willingly doing. We also get, which I thought was interesting and I want to get your beat on, a Kingpin shower scene in this issue. How did you feel about that? That's something fans have been asking for, for a long time. Pete:                A long time. Justin:              You got to truly see the Kingpin here. Pete:                Oh boy. I mean, they always do that in the comics with the well-placed steam or fog- Justin:              It's a little fancy. Alex:                 I do that in my shower. Pete:                … or whatever. I don't see any of the- Justin:              Yeah, in my shower, Foggy Nelson is standing in front of my genitals all the time. Pete:                That's smart. Alex:                 I thought this was really good and I loved where this ended up. Justin? Justin:              I agree. Chip Zdarsky is really bringing all of the Daredevil characters that sort of have the most emotional stakes here together. You've got your Typhoid Mary, your Kingpin. We don't see many other of Daredevil's love interests, but only because they're dead. But his current love interest, we see Elektra here, Foggy his, I guess, friend, frenemy in a lot of ways. Pete:                Fuck you. That's his friend [inaudible 00:24:52] Alex:                 I'm excited to see where this goes going forward, because it has the potential to really redefine the Marvel Universe. Justin:              How do you feel about Daredevil wearing a suit and his costume? Alex:                 That's pretty weird, right? Pete:                Yeah, that was weird, right? Alex:                 Just like when Nightwing wears a mask over his mask, and I'm like, “Choose one, buddy. It's fine.” Justin:              Unnecessary for both. The suit over the suit feels, in a very serious issue, it feels goofy. Pete:                Mm-hmm (affirmative). It does. Alex:                 Also, how much is he sweating? He's got to stink real bad. Pete:                Wow. Justin:              Yes. Pete:                Yeah. Well, I wonder if it's like a fake turtleneck situation where he doesn't have the full suit underneath. Justin:              Keep the suit, just that top part. Alex:                 I thought that, I thought he was just wearing the mask, but he's wearing the gloves as well. Pete:                Oh, wow. Alex:                 It's the full suit, man. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              It's the full suit. Alex:                 Yeah, double suit. Pete:                Double suit is a lot. Justin:              Slow down on the suits. Alex:                 Undiscovered Country- Pete:                No double suit. Alex:                 … #10 from Image Comics, written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. In this issue, we find out a whole lot more about UNITY, the second zone of America, as well as what happened to the past as things rapidly start to fall apart there. It was a pretty horrific reveal at the end of the issue. It makes a lot of sense. This is great. And I think we've been saying this a lot about this arc, but I finally feel kind of like I understand what's going out of this book and that makes me feel a lot better. Justin:              And it's interesting because I don't quite know … The story is just as complex. There's even more happening because our characters have split up a little bit. But what I think makes more sense is this arc is using more of like a metaphor in describing America. So I feel like that gives us a baseline to really understand how the different aspects are coming together. Alex:                 No, I mean, you're absolutely right. I didn't really think about it until you said it like that, but thinking about it was like, “What does Destiny, the first zone mean to me?” Well, join other men, ride on sharks. Versus here, the idea that everybody is joining together, finding unity through the shared belief in science. Yes, that works a lot better. It's a lot easier to hook into even if it's- Pete:                Yeah, but there's also giant whale sharks in here too. Alex:                 There's still giant whale sharks. Justin:              Yeah. That's what I'm saying, there's just as many crazy specifics- Alex:                 And also- Justin:              … but it's all under this one narrative line I feel like, it's a little cleaner. Pete:                Yeah, under one nation. I love the man-at-arms shout-out, a little He-Man love in there. That was just great. It was fun to see. Yeah, I do. With each issue, I become a little less confused, which is great. The art and the character designs are just phenomenal, great kind of like last page reveal. This continues to be a very interesting, very well done book. I'm just happy now that we're kind of getting a little bit more of a grasp on what's actually happening. Alex:                 I don't want to call you out, Pete, but I feel like you've been confused about every issue that we've talked about in The Stack this week. Was there any we talked about that you were not confused about? Pete:                Huh. Justin:              We should say you got hit on the head with an anvil right before you read The Stack, right? Alex:                 Right. Pete:                Oh, that's true. You think that affects? Justin:              You think that affects? Pete:                I wasn't affected by Chew. I was confused by Chew. Alex:                 Oh, okay. All right. Well, we'll get to that one in a moment then, that's good. An Unkindness of Ravens #3 from Boom! Studios, written by Dan Panosian and illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi. This is another one we're getting to kind of the meat of everything that's going on. We have a new kid- Pete:                You're really hungry. Alex:                 What? Pete:                You're really hungry. You keep talking about meat. Alex:                 Sweet, delicious, savory meat. Yeah. No, we're getting to the heart of the issue. How about that? Is that better? Justin:              I love eating hearts. Alex:                 There we go. Where we're finding out more [crosstalk 00:28:44] about this town that our main character has moved to, the warring factions, what's going on behind the scenes. I continue to really like this book. Justin:              I agree. I said this on the live show this week, but this feels like such a … If you're a fan of the Sabrina TV series on Netflix, which is not coming back for a little bit and you want something to fill the gap, this book is great. It also feels like a good, if you're a fan of Lock and Key, which we talk about a lot, this feels like a nice spiritual successor to that book. Justin:              It's just the characters are really fun, the art is great. There's this sense of dread hovering over everything. And I don't really know … It's hard to predict where their story's going. It's witchy in the right ways and sort of arty in the right ways as well. Pete:                Yeah. Art's great. It's really fun. It's kind of nice that we're getting into this world and what's going on. I think in a cool way that doesn't make me frustrated or confused about what's happening. But I think it's very cool with hinting at what happens and then the kind of reveal. The whole part where we're seeing these crows and then one is shot, and then we kind of get to see that. Really impressed with that. I think this is a very cool story. I'm excited to see how this is going to unfold, and whether or not it's going to be like a really great comic that will hold up, stands the test of time. Alex:                 Well see. Next up, Last God #10 from DC Comics, written and created, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Ricardo Federici. This issue, we find out some big revelations about what happened back in the day at the Black Stair. We find out more about what's happening in the present. And it looks like the bad things are coming for our heroes or maybe are already there. What did you think? Pete:                Yeah. I mean, this really starts off amazing. We got some great actions, some cool ass dragon shit. Justin:              Cool ass dragon shit. Pete:                And then there's a lot of talking, and then feelings and then stuff. But it starts off really good. I'm excited to see where this goes. I think this is a very creative cool book. Justin:              I like this book a lot. The art is so lush and just beautifully done. It feels like a classic fantasy story. You'd get like one little drawing on the cover or something. This feels like it's that full art and that same style for the whole story, which is great. And what I love about it it was really placed with the tropes of legacy and fantasy books where it's like the great heroes from the past, and now it's this generation's turn to fight. And this says, oh, maybe what if the first generation wasn't great, how does that influence everything? And it's just a smart take and a beautiful book. Alex:                 I agree. Next step, the books that did not confuse Pete. Chew #5 from Image Comics, written by John Layman and art by Dan Boultwood. This is the end of the first arc here as the two Chews are facing down, all of Saffron's crimes have been revealed. And things do not go necessarily how you might expect. Yes, Pete. Pete:                What's great is they picked up right where they left off last issue. This is not the worst than when you kind of build up to the standoff and then you cut away from it to have backstory or some shit. So this was really great- Alex:                 Was that you, Pete? Are the continuity police coming for you? Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Oh, shit. Book it. Justin:              Get out of [inaudible 00:32:20]. They're going to have a good questions that I think he might be confused about answering. Let me be honest. Alex:                 Oh, boy. Pete:                Yeah, I like this. This is great kind of standoff, brother, sister stuff. This is really cool. Art is fantastic. And it's nice because it still feels like in the two world- Alex:                 The Chew-universe. Pete:                … and it also feels a little different. Justin:              The Chew-universe. Good. Pete:                Yeah, the Chew-universe. Also, did you guys see the … It looked like a country monkey riding a smoking lizard walking by when she got out of jail? Alex:                 No, I missed that. Justin:              I think that was actually in your apartment beyond the edge of the comic book. Pete:                No, it's there. I had to double-check it. And also it looks like Sonic the Hedgehog was just shot outside the prison. It's really cool if you look at the background stuff. Justin:              RIP. Alex:                 Huh. Wow. Justin:              I like this book a lot. I was not a Chew reader of the original series, and this is … I'm not a Chewer. Pete:                Yeah, you weren't a Chew head. Justin:              I really like this though. It makes me want to go back and maybe read Chew, because this is very good, very fun. And I really like the character Saffron. The way that this story sort of positions the next move going forward, I think is great. Alex:                 I agree. Next up, we're going to get into it here. We're going to talk about our final X of Swords block as this big event. 22 part event is wrapped up here with three issues. Pete:                Can we … Alex:                 What Pete? Pete:                Can we just finish off this stack before we get into this giant argument here? Alex:                 Sure, we can jump ahead. I put the scumbag up last to space out the image comics, but let's talk about the Scumbag #2 by Image Comics, written by Rick Remender- Pete:                Okay, my bad. Alex:                 … art by Andrew Robinson. This is about the worst man of the world. He's the only one who could save the world. We find out more about him and his powers. He injected himself with some stuff so he can save the world here. This is very much positioning that there is no right way to go as we have a terrible guy, who needs to stop some potentially more terrible guys from doing some terrible stuff. It's just a fun book stuff. Just a fun book. Doing some light political commentary here. Justin:              Yes. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              So good. Rick Remender- Pete:                Oh, go ahead. Justin:              … writes people who fuck up better than anybody. This feels like a great successor to Fear Agent, one of Rick's first books that we loved way back in the day. And the art by Andrew Robinson is so good, it's so sort of 1970s animated, influenced, it feels like to me. And I think it's just a fun book that has some real, like a lot of Remender's book, has some real commentary underneath, a bunch of jokes and characters just screwing up. Pete:                Yeah. It's a lot of fun. The art is like gross, but also light. It's really interesting the way they kind of walk this line of like you hate this guy, but you're also rooting for him. Yeah, I think it's very well done, very creative. Rick Remender does a fun balance of tripped out, but also not too tripped out, where you kind of feel like that's all it's doing. I'm just really impressed with … There's a lot going on in this comic. There's a lot being kind of dealt with, and it does it seamlessly in a way that's fun and moving the story forward, and it doesn't feel rushed. Yeah, I mean, I'm impressed with this book. I'm excited to see how Rick Remender is going to break our hearts with some of these characters, because he always does. And yeah, it will be fun to talk to him about this next week. Justin:              Yes. Alex:                 Yeah, there you go. All right. For real now, we're going to wrap up with our X of Swords block. X-Men #15 from Marvel, written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Mahmud Asrar. Excalibur #15 written by Tini Howard, art by Mahmud Asrar and Stefano Caselli. And finally, X of Swords or 10 of swords: Destruction #10, written by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard, art by Pepe Larraz. Alex:                 Now, before we talk about this, we should really talk about how hard everybody worked and how we never want to put down the amount of work that people put into it. They drew this, they wrote this, there were editors who we really like who worked on this, assistant editors, people who printed it, the staples were very nice in the book and somebody had to put them in there. Pete:                Yeah, this came together fast, and they got it all done on time. There wasn't any delays. It's pretty impressive what they put together. Alex:                 There you go. And that's our review of X of Swords. I like this event. I thought it was fun and good, and I love where it turned up. We talked about this before, but a lot of this was Saturnyne in the background, manipulating the situation to get into a place where she got almost everything that she wanted as we find out about the end. Alex:                 And the one thing that hitches me up a little bit is I don't care about Otherworld that much, just as comics continuity and comic book fan. So having everything pivot on that, brought it down emotionally for me a little bit versus having a pivot on the X-Men themselves. Alex:                 But I do like the moves they made here. I like where Apocalypse ended up. I thought the big battles were good. The art was phenomenal, just like huge, big battle scenes, enormous monsters. The scale of it was great, and just individual characterizations. Both Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman write a great Ariana. I don't know who specifically was scripting her dialogue, but just super fun throughout this entire event. Just a really good event for her. And it's good stuff. Alex:                 I know Pete's going to disagree with this, but really good Cyclops stuff towards the end here. And I love the idea of holding Cyclops and Marvel Girl in reserve until the end and then be like, “No, fuck you. We're getting there. We're going to solve this problem.” And it really positions them in the place they should be at the lead of the X-Men. I enjoy this quite a bit. I don't think it was a perfect event by any means, but I had a lot of fun. I had a blast reading it. Justin, what did you think about it? Pete, we can get your haterade later in a second. Let's get adjusted first, a little more positive. Justin:              The hater goes later is what we've always said. I agree, I do like this event. Art across the board is great. But yeah, I mean, it's a weird event. It's so weird as the first big event to have it be so fantastical, have it be so sort of like goofy at points. I agree with you, the Cyclops and Jean Grey stuff, it really felt like their ascension at the end of this event is what's important here. Justin:              And to see them sort of outside of just the bureaucracy of the Quiet Council and maybe they can actually make some moves is exciting. Really establishing them as a family with Young Cable I think is very cool. Ariana also stepped up a lot. The Apocalypse fight, I don't know. I thought it was going to be a little bit more about Apocalypse and it felt like just a fight. Alex:                 Yeah, it was like, “What was that?” Justin:              I mean, we talked about this, we sort of predicted this, that, excuse me, Arakko would be coming through to Krakoa. And with it hundreds of mutans, I believe, from around- Alex:                 Millions, I think. Justin:              Millions? Alex:                 Millions. Justin:              Oh, wow. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              That's a lot of people hanging out on earth, which I think I'm curious how that will affect the continuity. It feels like a lot to add. A continuity that's already pretty wild. Alex:                 Well, I think the thing that, that adds, and maybe I'm wrong because who knows what is going on with the X-Men stuff? They can set up that Arakko is coming through and then not deal with it for 30 issues or something. But to me it feels like suddenly millions of mutants show up, you suddenly have a destabilized world situation that is already on the edge because of Krakoa. Alex:                 When you bring the mutant population up to potentially pre-Genosha levels, what does that do? What nations does that put on alert? And that puts the mutant state in a really, really bad place. As for Apocalypse, the thing that I did like is it ultimately got to this place, even though I feel like we didn't get enough fleshed out about the annihilation helmet, the idea that ultimately Apocalypse; A, is fundamentally changed by Krakoa enough that he can surrender, but also that it is Apocalypse's will that manages to win the day felt like a smart decision. Even if it wasn't maybe an action-wise satisfying decision. Pete, I know you're a champion of the bid here. Go ahead. Pete:                Okay. Yeah, please. All right. Explain this to me, okay? They had, “You got to get your sword, you got to get to the fight.” Okay? So then we learned that none of that matters because it's about this helmet that speaks to you and makes you annihilate everything. But once Apocalypse puts on the helmet, he realizes that he's not going to let a helmet control him, so he'll take a knee and then that solves everything. And then, oh, Apocalypse you won, and okay, I'm going to banish a whole Island of people. Great. Pete:                And then Scott Summers and Marvel Girl, who started this kind of whole thing with a bunch of weird meetings through time, decided this whole island that they helped create doesn't matter and fuck all you all because I got to go save my son, which I understand, that's cool, but they had like a whole Quiet Council meeting and it didn't matter. So it was kind of like this- Justin:              But- Pete:                … whole thing that we're trying to do, they threw it all- Justin:              If- Pete:                … out the window. Hey, I'm trying to finish here. Justin:              If Wolverine did that you would have loved, and just because it's Scott, you don't like it. Pete:                That's a bullshit thing to thing. Justin:              It's 100% true. Pete:                No, it's not. Justin:              Wolverine does that every time. Pete:                I'm trying to wrap my head around this whole detour of the X-Men world that we just took and why we did it, and the only thing I can come up with is giant alligators and dragons are cool, and fighting with swords would have been cool, but it didn't happen. We got drinking games and playing softball. And people will say that they will get married at the drop of a hat in the X-Men world. Alex:                 The Cyclops thing I do think a lot of this is about … A lot of this story so far has been about the X-Men … And we're not supposed to call them the X-Men, the mutants. They specifically state that in the book. They're like, “The mutants-“ Justin:              There's a whole big paragraph. Alex:                 There's several of that. I know. Pete:                Yeah, I don't read the paragraphs. Alex:                 You should read the paragraphs, they're kind of important. The mutants have made this big move to become one mutant state. And from the writing perspective, I think what they've done is how much stress can we put on that? How many things can we do to fracture that? And Saturnyne says by the end, “Two people have left the Quiet Council. They're going to have to replace it, it's going to be the non-ideal picks.” Alex:                 And now, not just Scott Summers is leaving with a small team to go save everybody, but everybody comes with him, which means, yes, it's the mutants united, but it also means as it states in those paragraphs, which I do think are really important. They've tried to ditch the X-Men name because it's something that's pre-Krakoa. It's an idea of like, it's a moniker taken by Charles Xavier. It's not an example of- Pete:                The Lollipop Man. Alex:                 Yes, Lollipop Man. It's not an example of the United Krarkoa State, but the fact that Scott Summers is reclaiming this and then everybody's like, “Yes, we're X-Men. Let's go. It's go time,” creates this friction there that's only going to get bigger. Once you suddenly have billions of mutants who have been slaves up to this point, who we've never met before suddenly showing up, so it means bad things for the outside world. It also means bad things for Krakoa and Arakko. And dramatically, that's a really good place to be putting everybody. Justin:              Yeah, I agree with that. This crossover feels a lot like Chris Claremont-esque. Like mid-Chris- Alex:                 I mean- Justin:              … Claremont run, where it's like epic stuff that involves things that are sort of far flung from actual X-Men and mutant world stuff. Like getting with Lilandra and all that stuff, where it's like continuity heavy, where it's like, “Wait, what was that about that?” I feel like this will hold a similar place to a lot of that Claremont stuff, especially the other worldness of it, which I agree with you, I don't love all that. Justin:              And this whole like captain … I know Excalibur was the second to last issue so that they'll have an outsize effect on it. But the Captain Britain Corp and all that, I was like, “I don't … ” This feels like such a side quest that so much of this event landing on that felt like, “Oh, I don't know about that.” Pete:                It was just a lot just so Cyclops could have a Jerry Maguire moment of like, “Who's coming with me? Who's coming with me?” Alex:                 What did you think about the part where Cyclops said, “Show me the money,” though? That was pretty cool. Pete:                Yeah, that was touching. It was sort of touching. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              And what about Wolverine played by Jonathan Lipnicki? I know. Pete:                Too tall. Justin:              He's too tall? He's very short. Pete:                I don't know about Jonathan Lipnicki so- Justin:              He's tiny. Alex:                 You just referenced Jerry Maguire. Justin:              He's the kid. Alex:                 He's the little kid that said, “Did you know the human head weighs eight pounds?” Pete:                Oh, he's the kids with the spiked hair? Alex:                 Yeah. Pete:                Oh, that's great. Yeah, he's a great [inaudible 00:46:41] Alex:                 Okay. What would you think about Renee Zellweger playing Jonathan Lipnicki, is what it was? Justin:              Renee playing Jonathan Lipnicki? Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Oh, interesting. Alex:                 Playing Wolverine. Justin:              Oh, wow. That's great. Alex:                 With the little lemon face. Justin:              Ooh yeah, just a pursed lip. Alex:                 She got the little lip. Suck on a lemon. Justin:              I'm the best there is at what I do, and what I do is this little face. She's a good actress. Yeah. Pete:                I don't know what you guys are doing. Alex:                 All right, that is it for The Stack. If you'd like to support the show and other shows we do at patreon.coms- Pete:                Wait. Alex:                 … What? Pete:                Do you guys think this whole thing was worth it for that ending? You guys didn't feel let down at all by the fact of like this fight wasn't a fight, it was just a, “Can we make Apocalypse kneel? And then having Cyclops just ditch everyone because he wanted to go somewhere else.”? Justin:              I liked it. Alex:                 Yeah, I liked it too. I think there were enough big moments particularly in these last couple of issues that I really just enjoyed from an artistic, from a big action perspective, literally using the S.W.O.R.D. Space Station as a sword to pierce a wormhole and attack these evil armies. Just the huge armies attacking everybody, the X-Men jumping through directly at the screen, the fairy soldiers or whatever it was jumping through. Justin:              The screen? Alex:                 Good stuff. Just a lot of people coming from the sky and heading straight towards camera was a lot of fun. Justin:              Yes, and it's surprising. A lot of Hickman big storytelling, you can't predict it. It's sometimes a little weird and wooly, but it's like in the end, it's really well thought out and smart, and very difficult to predict, which I like in storytelling in general, especially comic book storytelling. Alex:                 It's also something that relatively speaking felt like a complete story, which I don't think we've gotten in a really long time with events. It's usually by the latter half, it's all about setting up what's next. And certainly we get a fair amount of setup, but this started with the story of Otherworld, ended with the story of Otherworld, and that's what it was in between. It went on a bunch of side trips, but ultimately it all came together that way, and that is pleasing to me from a story perspective. Justin:              It was pleasing, we say. Alex:                 It was pleasing to be … If you'd like to support the show at patreon.com/comicbookclub. We also do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM. Podcast ahead on YouTube. We would love to talk to you about X of Swords, that's going to be our big topic of conversation. Over the next I would say- Pete:                It's 10 of swords, but there's going to be no fighting. Oh, you're going to love it. It's going to be smart. Alex:                 … There is a bunch of fighting. Pete:                There's going to be a lady who- Alex:                 Wolverine cutting a man's arm off. Really? Pete:                … you get confused with the ice queen the whole time. But then it's not her, even though it looks exactly like her, but ah, it's going to be great. Alex:                 Oh, I'm sorry. Are you being racist towards white, blonde women, Pete? Pete:                Yes, Karen. I am. Justin:              This took an odd turn at the end, just like the X of Swords. Alex:                 There you go. 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, checkout my mom's taco dip. The post The Stack: The Other History Of The DC Universe And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we talk about how we choose to be stressed in life. Sure, there are hard times but how we handle the situation is the key.I (Justin) cut out most news and stressful media for over a week. Instead, I listened to encouraging podcasts and youtube videos. Shawna noticed a big difference in that week of time. We refuse to allow stressed out to be the new normal in our life. We are replacing the words "busy and stressed" with "full and at peace".Email = woodfamily@lsfpodcast.comwww.lsfpodcast.com for our free morning planner for adults and kids.Facebook = Less Stress Family PodcastShawna = Instagram @shawnashereewoodArt Work: ShawnaIntro Voice: Hosanna, Asher, EzraIntro and Outro Music:Acoustic guitar - JustinBass - XavierElectric Guitar - EphraimDjembe drum - PerezShakes and Rattles - Shawna, Hosanna, Ezra

I (Justin) have fought routine and structure most of my life. I don't like to be told what to do with my time. But I keep finding that routines make my life and my family's life so much better. Just a couple of small changes in your life can really create a better flow for your entire day. We talk about how helpful routines allow you to go into auto-pilot and get so much stuff done in your day. Start your routine building with simple things that help you, help your spouse, and help your kids. Email = woodfamily@lsfpodcast.comwww.lsfpodcast.com for our free morning planner for adults and kids.Facebook = Less Stress Family PodcastShawna = Instagram @shawnashereewoodArt Work: ShawnaIntro Voice: Hosanna, Asher, EzraIntro and Outro Music:Acoustic guitar - JustinBass - XavierElectric Guitar - EphraimDjembe drum - PerezShakes and Rattles - Shawna, Hosanna, Ezra

On this week's Stack podcast, we've got reviews for: The Scumbag #1 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Lewis Larosa Fantastic Four #25 Marvel Written by Dan Slott Art by R.B. Silva, Paco Medina and Will Robson Madam Satan #1 Archie Comics Story by Eliot Rahal Art by Julius Ohta Iron Man #2 Marvel Written by Christopher Cantwell Art by Cafu Stillwater #2 Image Comics Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Ramón K. Perez Batman #101 DC Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Guillem March Black Magick #15 Image Comics Written by Greg Rucka Art by Nicola Scott Werewolf By Night #1 Marvel Written by Taboo & B. Earl Art by Scot Eaton Big Girls #3 Image Comics Story and art by Jason Howard Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn #1 DC Comics Story by Katana Collins and Sean Murphy Dune: House Atreides #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson Illustrated by Dev Pramanik Dark Nights: Death Metal Robin King 1 DC Comics Written by Peter J. Tomasi, Tony Patrick Art by Riley Rossmo, Daniel Sampere Something is Killing the Children #11 BOOM! Studios Written by James Tynion IV Illustrated by Werther Dell'edera Excalibur #13 Marvel Written by Tini Howard Art by R.B. Silva X-Men #13 Marvel Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mahmud Asrar Faithless II #5 BOOM! Studios Written by Brian Azzarello Art by Maria Llovet Nightwing #75 DC Comics Written by Dan Jurgens Art by Travis Moore and Ronan Cliquet 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 episode is sponsored by Helstrom, now on Hulu. Full Episode Transcript: Alex:                 What's up y'all? 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 books that have come out this week. Pete:                Do we? Alex:                 And we're going to kick it off … I think this is a big deal. This isn't normally the sort of thing that we would kick off the show with. Usually it's some Marvel or DC book or whatever, I mean, who even cares? Justin:              Okay, weird voice. Alex:                 Weird way to put it. But we're going to talk about The Scumbag number one from Image Comics written by Rick Remender, art by Lewis LaRosa. The reason I think that should go first is a new Rick Remender book is a big deal. We've been following his writing pretty much since the beginning and every book out is an event, so it's worth putting this right upfront at the top of the show. Reading this book I know this is something that Pete just loves a ton. He's very into, he's very excited about. The concept of the book though, before we get into Pete's feelings about it, I can see his head already nodding, yes, yes, give me more. Justin:              Yes, yes, I love this. Alex:                 Is what if the worst person in the world was responsible for the fate of the world. That's essentially what it is to the point where they essentially say that line at the end of the book. And in fact we do meet the worst person in the world who ends up in the situation. Pete:                That's the thing, they say the worst person in the world, it's just like kind of a slacker druggie guy. It's not like he's a fucking head of the KKK or fucking, you know what I mean? A murderer. He's like- Justin:              Yeah. I guess it's more, to say the worst, I understand what you're saying, but definitely the most down and out. Pete:                Right. But what- Justin:              He has full on diarrhea. Pete:                Sure. Yeah. Who doesn't? The thing is it's like brand new Rick Remender book. You ready to get your fucking heartbroken. This guy writes in such a way that pulls you in, gets you sucked into this amazing world, and then always breaks your fucking heart. I'm scared. I'm scared about this book. Justin:              But that's what I love, what I love about Rick Remender books. And it has been a long time since he launched a new one. We've been reading Low. We've been reading Black Science for a long time. And those books are- Alex:                 Deadly Class. Justin:              Deadly Class of course ongoing. Pete:                Yeah, Deadly Class. Justin:              But these other books are sort of wrapping up. Deadly Class feels like it's going to keep going for a bit longer. And to have a new book is sort of precious. And what I love about it is he takes extreme premises and pushes them. And what he always does is on the art side brings in truly evocative artists. And in this case, it is the same thing. When he says it's the worst person in the world, we see it in like, I would call this hyper realistic color and line. And it's great. It's great. It's really smart of him to not shy away from these truly disgusting things, if the point of the book is this person is at his lowest and he has to become a world changing person. Alex:                 Or maybe it won't, I don't know. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                Starting a book with a Charles Bukowski quote is just a fantastic way to start something that's this kind of mayhem, or it's just about a drunken dude who does a lot of drugs and shit, that's the perfect thing. But man, just seeing a guy doing drugs and shitting on the streets really makes me miss New York city, you know what I mean? Like back in the eighties and nineties, the real New York, you know what I'm talking about? Justin:              Yeah, you were the mayor of New York in the mid eighties. Pete:                Oh yeah, man. Just love doing drugs in the street, shitting anywhere you wanted, those were the days. Justin:              You were a very controversial mayor [crosstalk 00:03:59]. Alex:                 Yeah. Before Giuliani took it all away. I mean, come on. Where's that guy now? What's he doing? Justin:              Yeah, it is great. It is truly crazy to think of a time when everyone was like Giuliani, what a hero. And now truly, and not to get … it's not at all political, but he is looked upon as a legit Nosferatu style monster. There are so many Twitter memes of him being like, “Look, his hands dead.” Or look, here's [crosstalk 00:04:28]. Alex:                 He's such a sad sack. That's the thing that's such a bummer about it, is he went from I'm the guy that's going to clean up New York, this is very controversial too. He did some sort of figures like, I'm going to reveal information and he taped a video, and he opens up this folder and there's nothing in the folder. And he's just like, “Well, there's evidence that I have here,” and there's nothing in there, it's just sad. That's not the point of this book, let's get back to The Scumbag thing. The thing about- Justin:              Wait, let me just say one more thing on that. I do think this book spins out of the era we're in. I think it's about a person who is not ready to be elevated to a position of power who is in that position of power, which I feel like is it common on our time both Trump in and everything around our current political situation where it's like, oh, these people shouldn't be in charge of stuff like this. This book feels very timely to me. Alex:                 I agree. The thing that I wanted to get back to you though, that Pete was saying about the worst person in the world is it's not racist, murderer or anything like that. It's nails on chalkboard worst, which I think they make pretty clear through the writing, where it's the sort of guy who within seconds of meeting him you're like, “Oh God, fuck this guy. This is the worst. Oh God, no.” Pete:                The guy at the party's looking to steal beers that aren't being looked at. You know what I mean, like oh. Alex:                 That's great. The specificity going on there is so clear to the point where it builds to very graphicallY as we were talking about him shitting himself on the street, which is horrifying and gross. And mind you, not the first time Rick Remender has written a person on drugs diarrhea scene, that was way back in Deadly Class. Classic scene in deadly class. Pete:                Classic, he loves a good shitting story, you know what I mean? Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Let me throw this out as well to go back into early Remender, this book sort of reminds me a little bit of Fear Agent, and then it is a person who is super down and out having to maybe elevate themselves. Alex:                 What I'm really interested in is reading the second issue of this book, because if Rick Remender has showed us anything, it's he always has a very clear concept in the first issue that he blows it and save the out of proportion by the second issue. And I don't know how they're going to do that yet, but I'm excited to find out. Justin:              A 100% true. Alex:                 Yeah. But great to view. Justin:              Great to view. Pete:                It's fun to see a new book that he's working on. I'm very excited to see where this goes. Yeah, crazy first issue, fantastic art, definitely check it out. Alex:                 Moving on to Fantastic Four number 25 from Marvel written by Dan Slott with art by R.B. Silver, Paco Medina and Will Robson. This I believe is the beginning of the status quo change that Dan teased back when he was on the live show with us chatting about this book. This is kind of a big deal. There's a lot of stuff that goes down in this book as we celebrate this mini anniversary of the Fantastic Four. What'd you think about the issue? Pete:                46 pages. This to me is a great Fantastic Four story. You get this kind of shit goes down, only the Fantastic Four can save the day. Then what's nice about it is you've got Reed and Sue talking a little bit about the holes in their marriage about how they lied to each other a little bit. I'm hoping that moving forward, their relationship can get a little bit better because I'm sick of the classic, Sue Storm does so much more for the family than Reed does, and he's just constantly busy and can't be bothered. I think this was a really cool story, great use to the whole family. I'm very excited, even cool Watcher stuff, which you don't normally kind of get. Alex:                 Oh, no, people are always like, “That Watcher is very cool.” Pete:                No, but like also, just this whole thing of like, we're the Watcher and we've watched all these amazing events happen in Marvel whether it's through comics or TV or movies, but just these splash pages like, oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, that was cool. Hey, cosmic Ghost Rider got a shout out. Justin:              Well, see, I would take some issue with your statement Pete, because I think what Dan Slott is so great at and why he's such a great match for the Fantastic Four, is his whole thing is everything old is new again, or everything new is old again, either way [crosstalk 00:09:10]. Pete:                Which one us it? Justin:              It's sort of both, because what he does here is he's like, “Yes, Reed and Sue aren't getting along because Reed has a secret from Sue.” But what's great about this issue is Sue also has a secret from Reed, and she has her own life and she's doing her own thing. And so they get to meet on equal ground. Pete:                Great. Justin:              The thing is it's [inaudible 00:09:30] time. I'm going to be a wreck and shit, but then he's like, “Oh, I have actually a family at home I have to get back to at the same time.” Doctor Doom is still a villain, but he's actually the Doctor Doom, is the Doctor Doom read Richard's relationship from the very beginning of the comic where they're contemporaries. And even though they are wildly super-powered and they're meeting here as like, “Oh, you were keeping a little secret from me.” He's like, “Oh, well, yeah I was, figure it out.” And they're like, “Well, let's figure it out together.” It's just Dan Slott is just a tactician when it comes to picking a part with a fine tweezers, these Marvel legends and finding a new way to reconfigure the stories by just slightly tweaking little bits and pieces. Pete:                I did want to, while we're talking about Doom, Doom is one of my favorite villains and Dan Slott did a great job of the way Doom just acknowledges the fact that Sue Storm was in the room before she revealed herself was such a bad-ass Doom moment. Dan Slott is just killing it on this book. Alex:                 Yeah. This is a really fun issue, like you're talking about, bunch of fun teases for the future, a new setup of new status quo for the team, as well as certain members of the team, as well as the Watcher and other things, just a great package. I had a blast reading this issue. Moving on to Chilling- Justin:              Justin loves good packages. Alex:                 Moving onto Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Presents Madam Satan number one from Archie Comics story by Eliot Rahal, art by Julius Ohta. We talked about this on the live show a little bit, but this exists in a weird mix of continuity between the comic books and the TV show, not necessarily contradicting either, but not existing like this is between season one and season two of Sabrina, or part one and part two or part three and part four or anything like that. It just kind of is an about Madam Satan. The real standout of this issue to me is Julius Ohta's art, which does a great job of channeling Robert Hack from the original series, but finding a different way around it. What'd you think Pete? Pete:                Yeah. I mean, because when you think about it, the only person who would want to be a principal at a high school is somebody who is in hell, you know what I mean? Someone who wants to bring hell to the people. So to me, this made a lot of sense like, “Oh yeah, the queen of hell would love to be a principal at a high school. That's the perfect job for them.” And this is a real fun kind of set up. Madam Satan is glorious in the Sabrina TV show. And it's nice to see this character kind of thrive in this comic as well. Justin:              This does a good job of being sort of the TV show, but hearkening back to the comics, it originally inspired what went on to become the Sabrina TV show, like the afterlife with Archie and the Sabrina comic that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa then developed into the show. It's great. And to your point, Alex, the art is just amazing throughout. Alex:                 Good stuff. Very impressive. Next step, Iron Man number two from Marvel written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Cafu. When we talked about the first issue of this book, I think we were pleasantly surprised by the change in direction here as Iron Man is going back to basics. Here we get a little bit more on that, veering on the side of he cut us a death wish a little bit, or at least injure himself, which as he's trying to move back to be a hero. But I got to say, I'm loving this take. I just think it's so refreshing to see a Tony Stark who is just being a hero and going on fights and fighting people and being a human being for a change. It's great. Justin:              I agree. This felt like a comic that I would have read back when I was in high school. It is just iron man dealing with shit. Of course he's fighting Absorbing Man. The ultimate early run of a series villain is Absorbing Man. And I love the guest stars throughout and Ironman just sacrificing himself, like Cardiac shows up, another, it's a Spider-Man villain technically who is just sort of Iron Manny in a lot of ways. And this felt like just some good classic fun. Pete:                Yeah. It was fun to see Hellcat. Yeah, it's all right, it's okay. Justin:              Pete, you do not like in Iron Man? Pete:                No. I mean, this comic has gone through so much stuff and it's just crazy. Like, okay, great, it's back to Tony Stark, but I don't know, cool. Alex:                 Well, what do you want it to be then? Pete:                I want, it was just weird because it's like, oh, Tony Stark's not Iron Man anymore. Okay, cool. And there was this really cool character who's trying to take on the mantle, but then was like, “No, we're going to go back to Tony Stark.” And then it's like, “Okay, but why?” And then it's just like, “Oh, it's back to basic Tony Stark.” Alex:                 So you're upset that it's not Riri is what you're saying. Pete:                I liked Riri. I liked the possibility of new stories. I just think that Iron Man has done a lot of amazing things, so let's see something amazing. You know what I mean? Let's see why we're seeing Iron Man again instead of something new. Alex:                 All right. Fair enough. Next up, Stillwater number two from Image Comics written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Ramon K. Perez. We talked about the first issue of this as well, liked it quite a bit. A guy goes on a road trip, ends up in a town where nobody ever dies. His friend gets killed outside the town, and it turns out at the end of the first issue that he may actually be a natural born resident of the village. We find out many more F'd up things about the town in this issue. What did you think about this? And also given that it drew some comparisons to Revival- Pete:                Controversial. Alex:                 Controversial comparisons to Revival the Tim Seeley series that had kind of a similar premise, at least at the start. Do you feel like it's veering off enough at this point? Justin:              It's totally quite different, I would say. I don't want to get into like, is it wrong to have a book this close premise wise? Because I enjoyed reading this, the first and second issue. It feels like at the end of this issue, we're setting up sort of what the deal is going to be. This guy is the third person who's been invited into the town. Clearly we're going to meet these other two people and what that means, his relationship to his mother and how the town works. All of that is fun. I'm excited to get into that. Revival felt like very different tonally. It was about people who with established relationships and how they were sort of dealing with this new status quo. I think to me it's different enough to exist separately. Alex:                 Also they feel like different types of horror, right? As Tim Seeley is very good at, it's a little more slasher horror, it's a little more graphic horror, a little more fun horror. This is more aligned with The Wicker Man I think that sort of, or mid summer, that sort of thing. Justin:              Oh, that's a good comparison, yes. Alex:                 So yeah, I agree. I do think they're different. There's certainly a danger there that they're going to weave together too much. But right now I think they can both exist and that's okay. Pete:                I would just like to say, as someone who's lived in a big city for a really long time, this is why I don't like the small towns, they scare the shit out of me. I love this thing of playing with the creepiness of a small town and all these people know each other and you're the outsider kind of coming in. I think that's a great idea to start a story. And I think sometimes when writers are … we're all pulling from the same pool. Sometimes ideas might overlap. You'd like to give somebody the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it's not a rip off. But I do not know. Pete:                But as far as this is concerned, the little kid in the beginning was so fucking creepy with that wolf, I was scared shitless, and I'm interested to see where this goes. And it's really fun this idea of if people can die, then yeah, people would just kind of like loosey goosey shoot each other because there's going to be no damage. Justin:              Loosey goosey. Pete:                But it is kind of crazy right now to see a cop fucking just shooting first, and then talking later, it's kind of a hits and not fun chord right now. Justin:              Yeah. It's not crazy to see that, it happens a lot in this world. Pete, real quick, when you said you're scared shitless, could you give us just a sort of scale, a power ranking on the different types of scared you are, just so I know what you mean when you say that. Pete:                Well, they're scared like, oh, my stomach hurts a little bit, you know what I mean? And then there's like- Justin:              Your stomach hurts a little. Pete:                Yeah. And then there's like- Justin:              Like I ate too much candy. Pete:                Yeah. You got like- Justin:              So like you're scared candy. Let's call it that. Pete:                Okay. Yeah. And then scared shitless is like you're in real trouble. Alex:                 Oh, so there's two parts to the scale? Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Interesting. Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:18:58] and then I have no shit in me whatsoever. Pete:                Yeah, let's skip the [crosstalk 00:19:03]. Justin:              Let me just also ask, quick follow-Up on that. When you say you're scared shitless, that means you've shit everything out. You're fully [crosstalk 00:19:09]. Pete:                Yeah, empty on the streets side. Justin:              You're on the streets comeback style diarrhea. Pete:                Right. Justin:              Or is it, are you full of shit and you just can't get it out? Pete:                No, no. Yeah, you're the scumbag of the street who's empty [crosstalk 00:19:23]. Alex:                 But you're 100% clean at this point. You're just- Pete:                Yeah. I'm an empty vessel. Alex:                 You're an empty vessel. Justin:              So you read this comic and you fully just rooster tailed yourself. Pete:                Yeah, exactly. Justin:              While you're reading it. I got you. Okay, great. Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:19:39]. I've been going back to doing the transcripts of the episodes and I- Justin:              Don't do that- Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:19:44], so I'll try to pull our quotes from each of the episodes and put it out there. The hope of getting maybe some pull quotes or something like that on a book. I think we could say Stillwater, it'll clear the shit out of you. Justin:              Yeah, you'll go full rooster tail. Pete:                Pull your own quotes Zalbs. Justin:              You go full rooster tail for this book. Alex:                 Batman 101 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV, art by Guillem March. This is following right up on the Joker war as Batman grapples with the knowledge that Joker might've been right. And he has to in fact change, he's got to up his game. Justin:              Game. Pete:                Game. Alex:                 As he talks to Catwoman about it. Pete, I'm sure you have some feelings about this because spoiler, Catwoman and Batman decide to be on a break for a year. What'd you think about that? Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I liked the kiss. I thought the kiss gave us hope. But the old taking a break is just, it's a heartbreaking, don't a break guys, say yes to love. Justin:              Don't take a break. Pete:                Don't take a break from love. Justin:              Friends, in the TV show Friends, famous romantic comedy. Alex:                 We were on a break. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Alex, let me ask you, are you hyping up that phrase or are you doing a Ross impression? Alex:                 I think I'm doing- Pete:                Ross, it was Ross. Alex:                 No. Yeah, I mean I'm doing Ross, but I think it's one of the characters from Seinfeld being like Jerry. Justin:              You mean Jerry Seinfeld. Alex:                 Yeah. No, I think Jerry [crosstalk 00:21:19]. Jerry Seinfeld says like, “Jerry.” He's like a poker bot. Jerry. Justin:              It's hard for me to tell what you're talking about. I love Guillem March's art. Alex:                 Yes. Justin:              And especially in issues focusing on not just Batman, but the bat family, always great to see. I will say, and this is being picky, but Grifter still doesn't sit with me. Alex:                 What's deal is that? Pete:                You don't like a billowy mask? Justin:              I'm fine with the billowy mask. I mean I wear a cloth mask for when I go out and it does hang a little low in a Grifter. Alex:                 Can I, not to interrupt your flow here, but when you're wearing that mask out, do you take it and then pull it up to your forehead? Justin:              Yes, a 100%. Alex:                 Okay. Justin:              And it really, it blows with little wrinkles in it just like Grifters does. No, it's just something like I still, the Wildstorm universe of it all. I'm just like, “This guy doesn't quite fit with these characters to me.” Alex:                 I do, I agree with you on Grifter, never quite got him, don't like the mask. But I do like what James Tynion is setting up here with Batman vs Grifter, and this greater mystery of who Grifter works for. That seems like that's something that potentially is going to tie in going further forward, and that's a fun place for it to go. Batman versus the Wildstorm universe, great, all in on that. Justin:              Also wildcats. Pete:                Old school, that Clownhunter got a shout out in this book. Alex:                 You love that guy. [crosstalk 00:23:02]. Justin:              Alex, we talked about this on the live show, but as someone who's married to a clown, are you worried? Alex:                 Definitely. We added an extra lock to the door, because my wife has been doing that thing where she pulls the bed sheets up to her neck and says, “Oh, I'm scare, scare, scare, scared.” Justin:              Yes. Because as you know, your wife is modeled on Charlie's grandparents and [inaudible 00:23:27]. Alex:                 Yes, exactly. We sleep with another couple in our bed. All right. Black Magick number 15 from Image Comics written by Greg Rucka and art by Nicholas Scott. Oh, it's a great issue every single time. Here we're getting the fallout of the last couple of the issues as our main character deals with her new burgeoning relationship with a fellow cop. While in the background, I think for the first time we see hell or something like that. Justin:              Yeah. She's getting crazy in the background. Alex:                 Yes. Justin:              This comic was very sort of austere for so long about the witchyness of this of it. And now we're fully in witch world, which I love. Pete:                A lot of pointy kind of pyramid looking things in that aisle. Alex:                 Great. Thank you, Pete. We'll use that one for the pull quote for this issue. Nicholas Scott art as usual is the hero here. It's just absolutely gorgeous. But I love the sort of almost taking a break issue in a way, there's been so much harrowing, terrifying stuff. Every issue to take some time here and really deal with the relationships, the characters, if I was really nice. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And the art, it feels like it gets better. There's just something about, it's so detailed, but it keeps getting, I guess maybe cleaner is the right word. It's great. How do you feel about the French computer? You don't see French computers very often- Alex:                 No, not usually. Justin:              … except in France. Alex:                 No. Even in France, they still use English. Everybody's like, “I can not read this.” Pete:                I mean, I'm a little disappointed that she's not listening to her cat more. If you have a magical cat, I feel like you should pay attention and listen to it, especially when it knows more things than you. And that's always frustrating when a character isn't listening to people they should be listening to. Justin:              As a new cat owner, Pete, is your cat magical? And if so, what is that cat saying to you? Pete:                Well, I'll tell you what, she does have one of those mystical eye things like the Prince album over her left eye, which kind of freaks me out. And I do think that cats can see into different realms and stuff. So yeah, the cat freaks me the fuck out. Justin:              Nice. That sounds like a nightmare to deal with every day. Every day you wake up and you're like, you look at your cat and you're rooster tailing, because you're scared shitless. Pete:                That's right. That's how I start my day. Justin:              Wow. Alex:                 God. From day to night, let's talk about Werewolf by Night, number one for Marvel Comics written by Taboo and B. Earl, art by Scot Eaton. Pete:                Oh, king of the transition. Alex:                 Here is another character that I'd never quite gotten just based on the name. And they try very hard to explain it to this book, by the idea of like, I'm a werewolf, but by night. It's like, “Well, most werewolves are by night, I think.” Justin:              But I take it the other way, I think the name is sort of saying, “Not just a werewolf where it's once a month, that's a werewolf by all nights.” Because if the character was named like werewolf normal, werewolf monthly, that's less fun. Alex:                 It does come out monthly, so there is that. But on the other hand, he turns back into a human in this very first issue where he's like, “I'm a werewolf by night.” Well, I'm a human, it's still nighttime.” Justin:              I say a lot I'm a human by night. And they're like, “What do you mean?” Alex:                 I thought this book was okay. It was honestly frustrating to be that the part that was fun and exciting was the last page of the book, that to me without getting spoilers unless we want to, that to me felt like, okay, this is the part you needed to put at the front of the book instead of all the setup that I didn't necessarily care about personally. Justin:              Well, let me say, I like this I guess more than you it seems, because it feels like it's a Marvel Comics book, but it feels like this could be an Image Comics book. It establishes a world around this character that isn't relying on other superhero, other Marvel universe things. And I like the characters a lot. And we talked about this on the show with Colin Bond and whatnot, the horror infiltration into superhero comics I've been really enjoying. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I thought the reveal was fun, but I thought the more fun was with the granny pressuring those two to start a family, I thought that was really fun. Justin:              Your favorite part of this comic was the grandmother pressing them to have children? Pete:                Yeah. Come on, mommy's a werewolf, fuck it. But I think that also this was like- Alex:                 How's your relationship going, Pete? Pete:                Good man. It's going good. Thanks for asking. Alex:                 Welcome. Pete:                But I think that this book is kind of over the top, whatever. I just thought the kind of the real down to earth moments were kind of nice. And also you never know, man, the guy who cleans the toilets could be a werewolf, the person who collects the recycling, it could be a mummy. You got to be nice to people, because you don't know what their superpower is. Justin:              I think that every day. I'm like this- Alex:                 It would make sense if they switch jobs, honestly. Because I feel like the mummy could just take some of that wrapping and refill the toilet paper rolls. Pete:                Oh, wow. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Honestly, every time I … whenever I go out in New York city, I'm always like, “Are you a mummy?” Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about Big Girls number three from Image Comic story, and art by Jason Howard. I think we've got back and forth a little bit about these issues. Generally, Jason Howard's art is great. This takes place in a world where large women and large men are fighting. The men are monsters, are they? And the women are not monsters, or are they? And they're fighting and the ruins left to the world. Find out a lot more about it, this issue that really mixes things up. I thought an interesting way, definitely confuses the metaphor perhaps a little bit, but certainly makes the story that we're following more fascinating. What did you guys take away from it? Pete:                Oh, go ahead. Justin:              You go. Pete:                I completely agree. I'm very happy with this kind of new development in this issue where the men aren't just total D bags. I kind of like the reveal in this issue, gives things a little bit more complication. I'm very excited to see how this moves forward and what the kind of reveals are going to be. Yeah, the art's the real hero of this book, this is becoming a very interesting book and I'm getting into it more and more with each issue. Justin:              Yeah. This book feels like an episode of The Outer Limits. Did you guys ever watch that when you were younger? Where it was like, it took a premise, a sci-fi premise and it just played it up and then there's a twist and then you landed the ending. And so I definitely liked this progression. I think the art is really nice. It reminds me of Ryan Ollie in a lot of ways. Alex:                 Jason Howard did … what was the wolf thing that Robert Kirkman did? Right, I think. Justin:              Oh, yes. Alex:                 Science Wolf. Science Dog. Justin:              Science Wolf. Science Dog. Alex:                 I think Jason Howard did Science Dog. I've got to look that up while you're talking. Pete:                You should look that up. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Okay, great. So all we have to do while Alex is looking this up is talk. Pete:                Yeah. Let's just do a little soft shoe and kill some time. Justin:              It's not killing time, it's bringing more of our personal lives into the fall. Alex:                 How's your family, Justin? Justin:              Family, good, very good. They're right upstairs. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Yes. Several members of my family were doing laundry over the course of our tapings this evening. And every time washer and dryer finish, they each make a little celebration song. Alex:                 No, I'm sorry. They did Super Dinosaur together, there it is. Pete:                Okay. I thought maybe it was the shark one. Alex:                 How did everything go while I was looking that up? Justin:              Great. We had a totally normal friend conversation. Pete:                Yeah, turns out Justin's washer and dryer, because he's such a fucking big time rich guy, they play celebration songs. He probably had to pay extra for that. Justin:              No, it's definitely not. Pete:                Every time his washer and dryer finishes it's like [inaudible 00:32:15] bright, clean clothes, come out now. Justin:              That's great, that would be great. Alex:                 Man, you should sell that to Whirlpool. Pete:                Yes. Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn, number one from DC Comic story by Katana Collins and Sean Murphy. This is of course spinning off of the White Knight Universe of stories that Sean Murphy has been building up. It's a very different Harley Quinn who is out of the game. Batman is in jail. The Joker is dead. She's on her own. But she gets sucked back into it by a Joker want to be, or is it the Joker himself? What'd you guys think about this book? Pete:                Well, I mean, first off the art's amazeballs. This kind of a newer take, a fresh take on the old [inaudible 00:33:06]. You get a flashback to her and Jack meeting and I think it's interesting. I'm not upset at the changes. I think it's a fun last page. I kind of want to work alone and by alone, I mean, me and my two hyenas. I'm on board, I'm interested to see where this goes. I think we need more Harley Quinn. I don't think there's enough of Harley Quinn, we got to get more. Alex:                 I will say, before you get into anything, Justin, I think we already have our pull quote for this, it's I'm not upset at the changes. Justin:              Pete, when you say you need more Harley Quinn, what are you, in life, or in this [crosstalk 00:33:52] features a lot of Harley Quinn. Pete:                Harley Quinn is a very popular character. I don't think DC has caught on yet. They haven't put enough Harley Quinn in books yet. I barely see her, so it'd be nice if they started using her more. Justin:              Well, let me say the White Knights sub universe is interesting to me, because it's a little … I like this book and I like the Harley Quinn in this book. But I'm like, “Oh, we're so far away from the normal, the reality of the DC universe right now.” I'm like, that to me is … it takes me out of it because the book is so far removed from sort of the normal storytelling, the normal continuity I guess. But I have enjoyed these White Knight books, the art is truly amazing. Pete:                That's a real hero there. Justin:              Yeah. I'm curious how much longevity this pocket universe has in the DC universe. Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. Let's move on. Dune: House Atreides, number one written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, illustrated by Dev Pramanik. Oh, this is from Boom Studios, I believe, right? This is- Pete:                Yeah, it's Boom. Alex:                 Thank you. I forgot to write that down. Interestingly, I mean, as we were talking about with the Wonder Woman, 1984 book, a couple of weeks back. This is again a book that was clearly there to tee up the movie that was supposed to come out this year, instead is coming out a full year later. But at the same time, it is riffing off of the book, it's teeing up the movie, it's telling you a little bit more about Dune and the world. What did you think about this? Does this stand on its own, given that the movie is now not coming out for basically a full calendar year? Justin:              Well, I'm curious if some of the scenes here are from the movie. Is this bull fighting scene or space ball or whatever it's called. Is that a scene that we're going to see in this movie, because this made me want to see the movie? Pete:                Really? Justin:              Yes. It made me want to see sort of the more streamlined visually dynamic version of this comic. What this reminded me of though, as I was reading it, is like X of Swords, or 10 of Swords. It reminded me of a version of that where I'm like, “Wait, who are any of these characters?” Alex:                 It definitely, it's a very, it kept jumping around. I mean, granted the books are very expensive. There's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of mythology. I thought this looked very nice for what it is to have [inaudible 00:36:29] art is very pretty. And like you were mentioning the gladiator scenes or the bullfighting scenes were very nicely laid out. But I couldn't help but wish while I was reading this, that this was almost more in the European style, that this felt like the sort of thing, if you're going to going to do dune, get like a Mobius to do it, or Mobius light or something like that to give it that says, because it should be weird and off-putting not consistent with current comic books at all. Justin:              Right. Yeah. Especially when the movie is … I mean, we don't know this I guess. But is probably going to be visually stunning and purposefully so. The comic should reflect that a little bit. Alex:                 I agree. Let's move on to another one, Dark Nights: Death Metal, Robin King, number one from DC Comics written by Peter J. Tomasi and Tony Patrick, art by Riley Rossmo and Daniel Sampere. You cannot go wrong with Peter J. Tomasi and Riley Rossmo at all. I mean- Justin:              Great team. Alex:                 … I'm not the hugest fan of the idea of Robin King, who is basically a Bruce Wayne, who's an evil teen who's Robin, but man, this book is killer, just so good. What'd you guys think? Pete:                I mean, just this kind of like universe is just kind of cranking things up to 11 here. It seems like everybody's kind of having fun with the overtopness of it. And again, we get kind of a funeral thing here, but an interesting take where he hears Robin at the funeral that kind of draws him. I think it's … Robin King messing with Animal Man was really intense. Then the blue beetle getting eaten by beetles. I mean, this is just kind of crazy fun over the top shit. I think this kind of event is like a fun, like, “Hey, let's just crank this up and see what happens.” And every book has been kind of art-wise really funnily kind of driven towards these monsters and over the top villain, so why not? Justin:              Why not? I mean, to your point, Alex, this team is so good, and especially in a book where it's just all about hitting different aspects of the DC Universe, like Animal Man, Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, great to see all these characters, just like riding firestorm down and defeating him. Alex:                 Oh yeah, that was messed up. Justin:              It's all great. And I don't know, Robin King isn't someone who I'm like, “God, I can't wait to keep seeing more of this guy.” But I think he is one of the more memorable characters from this event. See of Bruce Wayne's, the Robin King definitely sticks out as one that is more threatening and more interesting. Alex:                 Yeah. I agree. Now from Children Who Are Killing Something to Something is Killing The Children number 11. Pete:                Oh, come on. [crosstalk 00:39:47]. He's been working on this for a week. Alex:                 Written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Werther Dell'Edera. We're really- Justin:              And just for you guys listening, the way we work is I actually hold up a cue card and Alex reads that down because we workshopped it. Alex:                 I hold it up a cue and Alex … Oh, I'm sorry, that's your line. Justin:              No, that's mine. We work in a classic SML model where it's all handwritten cue cards. Alex:                 Yeah. Fun fact, Justin really great at writing cue cards. Justin:              A 100% right. That's why I'm a line producer. Pete:                Yeah. One of the things that line producers do. Alex:                 In this issue we're continuing, like we talked about almost every issue, there's little bits of information that are eked out every issue, but it still feels so present and so terrifying as our main characters are trying to get away from these monsters who are attacking the town, who are killing the children. But at the same time, the organization she works for is mustering forces of their own, and it seems like we're heading towards a climactic showdown in the next issue, which is all very exciting. Every issue of this is great. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              And the amount of information we get is very controlled. Every issue of this feels like a scene or two scenes from a movie, as opposed to so many comics where it's so much happening. This feels very just like controlled pacing wise in a way that is very different from other comics. And visually it lets us really just chew these horror images up as we get to see them. Pete:                Yeah. This was intense. I was very happy with the kind of information we finally get about our kind of main character and her kind of relationship a little bit to this organization. Love the kind of dragon guy overseeing things. But it's also crazy in this comic how people are wearing masks, like how we're wearing masks. And so that's kind of freaking me the fuck out a little bit. But man, nothing creepier than a one eyed fucking Teddy bear, man. This book continues to be amazeballs. The art, the story- Justin:              Nothing creepier. Pete:                Nothing creepier. Alex:                 I'll tell you what, maybe they've already done this, but they should make masks based on something that's killing the children. I'd wear one of those, those would be fun. Justin:              That's a great idea. Pete, would you, now if a one eyed teddy bear is scary, what about a two eyed teddy bear? Alex:                 Oh, man. Pete:                One eyed is more scary, man. Alex:                 What about a no eyed teddy bear. Terror. Justin:              I mean a terror bear does sound scary. Alex:                 Let's move onto our X of Swords block Excalibur number 13, written by Tini Howard [crosstalk 00:42:40]. What? Pete:                I was hoping we would save that black for last, but all right, you've got this all- Justin:              No, I like the book we're saving for last, I think we made the right choice. Alex:                 Okay. Written by Tini Howard and art by R.B. Silva. And then we got an X-Men number 13 from Marvel written by Jonathan Hickman, and art by Mahmud Asrar. Unlike the previous months, we're only getting two … Previous weeks, excuse me, we're only getting two issues this week, they're not tied together, they're each their own stories. In Excalibur we find out what's going on with Captain Britain who is now Betsy Braddock, and her siblings as they go to other worlds and tango with other world. And in X-Men number 13, we find out the fate and backstory of apocalypse, two very different stories, but we're really starting to get to the halfway point of this event. What did you think about these, and what do you think about this event so far? Pete:                I really love the ways events started, but I just feel like we're taking too much time with the [inaudible 00:43:37] or getting the sword so they can join the battle. It's like, “Yeah, get your fucking sword so we can get this goddamn fight started.” I'm excited to see how this unfolds. I'm still very much on board, but I feel like they're taking their sweet ass fucking time with each person joining the goddamn fight. Justin:              I mean we got three swords in two issues, that's pretty … the ratio is right there. Alex:                 I will say I love the slow anticipation of building the swords, but every time they get to that scene where everybody is standing in the circle with their swords, it's cool. But I'm also like, how long have they been standing there? Have they been standing there not talking and staring at each other? Pete:                The first person was like, “Jeez, guys, cool sword.” Justin:              I do think, I mean, them all arriving there could have happened over the course of five minutes. It's just the way that comic pacings everyone is doing their own shit on the- Alex:                 No, this has taken weeks. I mean, weeks between comics. Justin:              Now, that's how you're reading it. But I do think everyone could have arrived there one after the other. Alex:                 Otherwise how … This is probably a good thing for our podcast to tackle. But how does the linear progression of time work? Justin:              Well, here's the thing, it moves forward second by second, minute by minute, unless you go timeout, and then time stops and you can do whatever you want for a brief amount of time. Alex:                 You can say what's going on. Pete:                I'm glad you're talking about timeouts. Justin:              And then time in and everything continues on. Pete:                No, but I think in comics Wednesdays are like our Mondays, you know what I mean? That's the start of the week. Justin:              Oh, interesting. Alex:                 I like [crosstalk 00:45:28]. Justin:              You have a calendar in your house is just Wednesday to Wednesdays just like- Pete:                Wednesday to Wednesday [crosstalk 00:45:33]. Justin:              Mondays and Tuesdays are just lost days for you. Alex:                 It's always Wednesday somewhere, you know what I'm talking about? Pete:                Oh yeah. Justin:              Timeout. Pete doesn't know what he's talking about. Timing. Pete:                Timing. Alex:                 I like these books quite a bit. I thought the other world stuff was really interesting- Pete:                What a surprise. Alex:                 … I really liked the Braddock family. I thought they're really fun in the way that Tini Howard wrote them, delineated them in an interesting way. It also throws in interesting power dynamic into everything that's going to other world, which if they're trying to defend to other world, but they hate other world, what's up with that? I guess we'll find out how that plays out. But the big one was X-Men 13 which gives completely red cons apocalypse, gives a entirely new motivation for everything that he has ever done, which is very, very classic, Jonathan Hickman, Marvel at this point. But I think it works. Justin:              I think it does work as well. And it is weird because it's like apocalypse who is like, he's been alive for millennia. But then you're like, “Wait, that dude was married?” Pete:                Yeah, right. Justin:              Like, oh, okay, he had a little life. Cool. Alex:                 Well, and then the other part of it for those who haven't read the book, this is a spoiler, but we find out the reason he's always been looking for the fittest and the strongest to survive is to master the forces to fight back the beings that are invading [inaudible 00:47:01] and therefore [inaudible 00:47:02] and eventually the earth. It's actually been this [inaudible 00:47:05] heroic motivation the entire time, which is kind of an amazing retcon to throw in there. Pete:                Yeah. Oh yeah. By the way, apocalypse has been not evil this whole time. Justin:              I don't know, I bought it like, as far as a cut scene to just drop in for us. I think that works. And despite the fact that he has been a villain this whole time, if he's trying to find the fittest so he can get back to be with the people he loves, that's enough of a motivation for me to be like, “Okay, maybe this person can now stand with our heroes.” Pete:                I agree. Alex:                 Pete, you disagree. Pete:                I would rather watch panels of him trying to put that sword together than to hear about his bullshit family. Alex:                 Man. Justin:              Wait, why would you rather watch see him put the sword together? Pete:                Because at least that's moving the fucking thing forward. Alex:                 All right. Well, we're getting to it. Pete:                I want to see a sword fight. I want to see a giant fucking sword fight. Alex:                 You're going to get it, you're going to get a big all sword fight. Pete:                And they're giving me all these goddamn backstory before what's going to hopefully be the greatest sword fight of all time. Justin:              What if instead of a sword fight they just talk it out. Pete:                If this is going to be a fucking kill bill situation, I'm going to lose my goddamn mind. Alex:                 What if it's like the sexual sword fight, Pete, what would you think about that? Pete:                That would also suck. Justin:              Speaking of that- Alex:                 It would in fact. Justin:              … let's jump into our next book. Alex:                 All right. Let's move from saying that you were a little conflicted about Pete, a title I know you love, Faithless Two, number five [inaudible 00:48:50]. Pete:                You can't even [inaudible 00:48:51], you're cracking yourself up. Oh yeah, I love it, ooh, what the fuck. Alex:                 Well, I was kind of cracking up because you couldn't stop yawning while I was introducing this. You made the biggest, most adorable lion yawn while I was doing that. Justin:              Yeah. You are just a little bit, you're a little baby by just waking up from a nap. Alex:                 I thought this was great- Justin:              And Alex is like scar, Alex's scar being like, “Hey kid, you want to see some porno?” That's what we're doing right now. Alex:                 Oh, Justin. I thought this issue Justin actually got to the heart of what you've been talking about for the past couple of the issues with this book, where we'd be like, “Okay, what's going on with this art? They're visiting many wonderful European countries. There's some fucked up shit going on. There's weird sex stuff going on. What are we getting through this title?” And this issue did it. This issue pulled the lid off, revealed what the title at least this part is about, and I like that quite a bit. How'd you feel about it? Justin:              Same way. This felt like, I mean, if we can talk about how, this book is very sexual, and mixing that with sort of the demonic and we find out like heaven and hell in this universe they're creating. Pete:                Heaven fucks too bro, you know what I mean, come on. Justin:              No doubt. Yeah, no, I know. Alex:                 Oh, that's a pull quote [crosstalk 00:50:15], thanks Pete, you're [crosstalk 00:50:16]. Justin:              Heaven fucks too. And this, I feel like it has been a lot of buildup, and finally this is sort of the release issue where the orgasm issue, where there's a ton of sex in this issue, and it's about coming to conclusion. Pete:                You don't have to say it like that. Justin:              But that's truly what I think- Alex:                 No, he's commenting on coming to conclusions. Justin:              Exactly. I think this is truly what it was written to be, and I respect that. Pete:                We can be honest on this podcast, right? There's a thing that happens in this issue where they're having a threesome, and I've never had a threesome, but I have to assume when it happens it's like in the book, where you start to meld into each other and turn into each other's sexual organs until you become one sort of like human centipede, centrifugal force type thing. Is that correct? You guys [crosstalk 00:51:14]. Justin:              That's been my experience. Alex:                 Yeah. Okay. Pete:                Especially when you do weird drugs and then have sex in the woods. Alex:                 Nice. I thought this issue was very good. Last one, we're going to talk about Night- Pete:                Wait. Alex:                 Yes. Pete:                While we're being honest, I just wanted to say, Justin, the next time we're stuck on a boat and drinking with Brian Azzarello, I'm going to have a lot of questions for him. Alex:                 First of all, how dare you? Justin:              The real question is, don't do those drugs, those weird drugs that we didn't like last time. Because we should say a lot of this book is based on our time on the comic book carnival cruise that we did. Alex:                 Yeah. The boat was called the USS Faithless, right? Justin:              That's a 100% right. The Faithless Two. Alex:                 Last but not least, Nightwing number 75 from DC Comics written by Dan Jurgens, art by Travis Moore and Ronan Cliquet. Finally, Nightwing is back to himself. He has his memory again. In this issue, KGBs is coming for him. He's trying to figure out what's going on with himself, both with his ex-girlfriend Barbara Gordon, as well as his new girlfriend. We haven't really been following this title, and I got to tell you, I like Nightwing stuff, but I really got off when he lost his memory. Jumping back into this, this was a pleasant surprise. Justin:              Yeah. Rick Grayson was the sort of like devil may care, like I'm bad character, that filled in after he lost his memory, and it just didn't work I feel like. It didn't feel at all organic to Nightwing. And so it is good to finally see him back, especially since Nightwing has had so many iterations that have worked in a surprising way, a lot of the Tom King stuff where he was a super spy. [crosstalk 00:53:09]. Yeah, with Tim Seeley working for checkmate and all of that, it was great and it was not Nightwing, but it still worked because he was still inherently himself. And the recreation stuff felt like such a departure that it didn't … it felt like a one-off issue thing where it was like a bummer, but let's get our guy back, and it just lasted for longer. To see him back here being in themself is exciting. Pete:                Yeah. I also liked the Alfred stuff, I thought that was very touching. I'm glad somebody is really dealing with the lost here. Alex:                 And I like the idea also of bringing back KGBs, the person who shot him originally where he lost his memory and building it up as this big, bad villain, foreign Nightwing. I think that's fun, it gives it emotional stakes, ties it into the previous art, but moves it forward in a very nice way. I enjoyed this book. I was very surprised, I'm glad we checked it out. And I think that's it for The Stack, if you'd like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub, also do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out, we would love to chat with you about comics at comic book live on Twitter, iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more, until next time, this is The Stack, signing off. The post The Stack: The Scumbag, Fantastic Four And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's 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

I (Justin) had a friend keep coming to mind. I prayed for him but I didn't really reach out to him for a couple of weeks. Turns out, he has been going through some difficult times with work and family. It made me realize that burn out is a very real problem that many of us face in 2020. We talk through the 5 stages of burnout.Then we discuss ways to recover from burnout (it isn't a quick fix).Again, this stuff is simple, but we need to be watching out for our own self and also the people that we love because stress is grinding away at people. Be alert and considerate when dealing with burn out. https://www.thisiscalmer.com/blog/5-stages-of-burnouthttps://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/burnout-recoveryEmail = woodfamily@lsfpodcast.comwww.lsfpodcast.com for our free morning planner for adults and kids.Facebook = Less Stress Family PodcastShawna = Instagram @shawnashereewoodArt Work: ShawnaIntro Voice: Hosanna, Asher, EzraIntro and Outro Music:Acoustic guitar - JustinBass - XavierElectric Guitar - EphraimDjembe drum - PerezShakes and Rattles - Shawna, Hosanna, Ezra

This discussion comes from James Clear's Atomic Habits and it started in episode 125 about how to start the 1% improvement lifestyle. I (Justin) removed the TV from our living room because of the happiness that I felt when measuring backwards. I realized how happy I felt when I could just sit in my chair and not turn on the chaos in the world. Such a peaceful place. James Clear points out that when we set goals and plan for the future, we often set ourselves up for failure because we don't consider what brought us to this point. When we don't consider our recent activities and achievements, we aim for a horizon that will never arrive. www.lsfpodcast.com for our free morning planner for adults and kids.Facebook = Less Stress Family PodcastShawna = Instagram @shawnashereewoodArt Work: ShawnaIntro Voice: Hosanna, Asher, EzraIntro and Outro Music:Acoustic guitar - JustinBass - XavierElectric Guitar - EphraimDjembe drum - PerezShakes and Rattles - Shawna, Hosanna, Ezra

How do you mark special moments? After my wife and I launched the CL Thomas Fellowship I wanted to honor the first class in a special way. We all have those special projects and aspirations, it doesn't even feel like work when we spend our time into that special ambition. Sometimes we can keep working away when we just need to pause and celebrate the progress made to date. In this episode, I (Justin) reflect on the last three years of the CL Thomas Fellowship and how we celebrate the moment may be different it is still worth doing. Enjoy this episode and I hope it prompts you to consider how to celebrate the work you have done on your own dreams and ambitions.

In this Part 2 = The enneagram is such a useful tool because it shows your blindspots (episodes 98, 99, 100) and it also shows your how you act in stress. I (Justin) was super blown away because the enneagram nailed my stress response tendencies.We have used these stress tendencies to become aware when we are stressing out or when our spouse is stressing out or when our kids are stressing out. We are able to give ourselves and our family members and our co-workers are lot more grace when we can see the stress patterns that the enneagram shows to us. Today we cover numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and how each number acts when under stress. https://www.enneasight.com/2011/07/enneagram-type-under-stress/www.enneagraminstitute.com

In this Part 1 = The enneagram is such a useful tool because it shows your blindspots (episodes 98, 99, 100) and it also shows your how you act in stress. I (Justin) was super blown away because the enneagram nailed my stress response tendencies.We have used these stress tendencies to become aware when we are stressing out or when our spouse is stressing out or when our kids are stressing out. We are able to give ourselves and our family members and our co-workers are lot more grace when we can see the stress patterns that the enneagram shows to us. Today we give an intro to the enneagram and movement in stress. We cover numbers 3,6,9 today because they make a nice little enclosed triangle in the enneagram structure.https://www.enneasight.com/2011/07/enneagram-type-under-stress/www.enneagraminstitute.com

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

This episode is really about being kind to yourself and kind to others.I (Justin) was pretty skeptical about talking about grieving and the state of the world, but we read about what expert David Kessler says about grief and the different kinds of grief. Also, I learned that the steps of grief aren't necessarily linear. You can jump around the grieving process. This episode is just a caution to look at your own life and your spouse and kids and friends. Give yourself and others some grace as we figure out the new normals of life. https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-griefhttps://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/02/21/everyone-around-you-is-grieving-go-easy/

We're going to drop the third person pretense for this episode description. This week, we're review "Elvis From Outer Space," which is dropping on digital distribution platforms like Amazon and Apple on July 7, 2020. We were very graciously granted access to a pre-release screener by the distribution company. If you want, you can check the film out as it launches the same day this podcast is released. As you will hear in this episode, we had very strong reactions to the film. First, we uncover that the film is a new version of an older film that had already been released a decade ago. Then, as we dig into the movie itself, I (Justin) am left speechless and offended. Gurdip is exasperated by the plot. This may actually be the worst Elvis-related movie we've ever watched. However, we take time to give credit where it's due to certain performers and aspects of the film, and to credit the filmmakers for the accomplishment of having made the film at all. We know getting an independently-produced film made is both hard, and personal. We sincerely thank the distribution company for the opportunity to view and review the film and genuinely wish everyone associated with the film the best of luck on their future endeavors. For Song of the Week, Justin wants to forget about this space-themed movie, so he picks "Let's Forget About the Stars" from 1968. Gurdip, on the other hand, goes all in on the theme of "Bad Elvis Movie" and highlights Elvis' performance of "So Close Yet So Far" from the 1965 film "Harum Scarum"... which in retrospect is quite an objectively enjoyable viewing experience.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this very special Father's Day roundtable conversation. Listen in Justin's conversation with 3 other fathers as we talk  about growing up in different eras, celebrating our fathers, and talking about the challenges of fatherhood today. Being a dad can be tough, and I (Justin) am so blessed […] The post Episode 081: Father's Day Roundtable | Jim, Luis, Trent & Justin appeared first on Legendary Marriage: Build a life, a love, and a legacy together..

This week on Day Ones, Antonio and I(Justin and the Honored None) are joined by Alexis Small, creator of the animated series “Judge Khalil” (6:04) for an enlightening episode in which we discuss the inspiration of childhood cartoons and the process of creating an animated show from scratch. Then, Alexis shares how listeners can get involved with the show (15:27), the real life connection to the show's characters, the structure of the series(19:07) and her future plans(27:09). We close by discussing current TV shows(33:15) and with Alexis giving love to her Day Ones(38:37). It’s another wonderful story that we hope you’ll be inspired by! This episode is sponsored by the money we saved last week. Contribute to “Judge Khalil” here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/judge-khalil-animated-series-entrepreneurship-vegan#/ Follow on IG: @judgekhalil Email us: thedayonespodcast@gmail.com

This week on Day Ones Podcast, Antonio(@storytellertone) and I (Justin and the Honored None) welcome hip hop producer Jackson Nakanishi to the show(2:27). We ask him about early inspiration, and the learning curve that comes with being self taught. Next, he drops some gems about creating in spite of the odds and developing his sound(7:09). We discuss his God Shammgod album(11:59), creating around a theme, and how film colors his production(14:56). We speak about the favorite songs he’s produced(17:57), including work with Illecism, Krondon, Denmark Vessey, and myself, and he breaks some news about what he’s working on currently. To close the show, we talk the NBA(22:54), movies(25:53)- including a bit of stanning over Paul Thomas Anderson, and more! It’s an ill episode that we hope you’ll enjoy! This episode is sponsored by Peter Quistgard: the unsung hero of music, and Wanderlust. Check out Jackson at: soundcloud.com/cityoftreesjackson Hit us up: Thedayonespodcast@gmail.com

This week on the first episode of Day Ones Podcast, Antonio(@storytellertone) and I (Justin and the Honored None), kick things off by discussing the journey of our friendship and how that led us to creating this show. We talk meeting in high school and the role black identity played in our experience(1:50). From there, we discuss how we decided on colleges/career paths, the pressure of being some of the first people to attend(12:01), our run ins with the cops together(23:40) and Antonio shares about the process of creating “In the Life of Tone”(26:18). The second half of the show has us talking about post college regrets, TUS, cocaine wielding nurses(30:41), and our creative processes in making films and music(38:12). This episode is sponsored by Unbeknownst(yea Antonio, you sponsoring this one lol) Hamburger Helper- “the classy struggle meal”, and my great grandma’s potato salad.

I (Justin) am back in town so I recorded a show with iHearIC co-host Carlos Cotallo Solares and our bass-playing pal Will Yager. We listened to some of their recordings and discussed improvisation, which seems to be a recurring subject on this show (check out the Christine Burke interview on episode 8). We talked about twitter a lot in this one, so be sure to follow us: @ihearic, @justinkcomer, @willyager. Tweet a bunch of hashtags that are too long at us.Here's the current plan for this season of concerts:February 23, 8PM at The High Ground CafeMarch 30, 8PM at The Java House (Downtown)April 20, 8PM at The High Ground CafeMay 5, time TBA, exact outdoor location TBAThis episode features music by:Carlos Cotallo Solares (https://soundcloud.com/carloscotallo)Will Yager(https://soundcloud.com/will-yager / https://twitter.com/willyager)Direct mp3 link: https://archive.org/download/20180204Ihearic10/2018-02-04%20ihearic%2010.mp3http://ihearic.comhttps://www.facebook.com/ihearichttps://twitter.com/ihearichttps://youtube.com/ihearichttps://www.gofundme.com/ihearichttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ihearic/id1332224527https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I72sphfyva37bupflw5xx7cc72ehttps://www.mixcloud.com/iHearIC/https://ihearic.blogspot.com/RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ihearic

We are officially back from winter break! This show is a recap of Friday night's concert at The Mill. I (Justin) was sadly not able to attend the concert due to my currently massive pile of conflicting commitments, so it was a real treat to edit the video and audio for this one.Speaking of video, here's a youtube playlist of everyone's full set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndbf5y2y3fI&list=PLGA6kZJDK6qRGjI0eaFw1QuGriqfiuNwYNo radio show next Sunday. I'll be performing with Jason Palamara at Butler University in an electronic music concert at 7:30pm, if you happen to be paying attention to this show from Indianapolis for whatever reason. Jason and his wife Lori are also in the process of having their fourth child as I type this! Welcome to the world, new Palamara!Carlos and I are finishing up the details for the rest of this season of concerts. Here's the current plan:February 23, 8PM at The High Ground CafeMarch 30, 8PM at The Java House (Downtown)April 20, 8PM at The High Ground CafeMay 5, time TBA, Iowa City Pedestrian Mall (more details soon...)Next radio show will be February 4th, hopefully with a new guest!Oh yeah, we're in iTunes and Google Play now, so subscribe there if you're into that.This show features music by:The High Water Mark (facebook)Jill AbruzzioToro/Cotallo Solares/Charles (Carlos Toro-Tobón / Carlos Cotallo Solares / Jean-François Charles):Non-Prophet (facebook)Chaircrusher (Kent Williams - website / soundcloud / bandcamp / youtube)Direct mp3 link: https://archive.org/download/20180121Ihearic9/2018-01-21%20ihearic%209.mp3http://ihearic.comhttps://www.facebook.com/ihearichttps://twitter.com/ihearichttps://youtube.com/ihearichttps://www.gofundme.com/ihearichttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ihearic/id1332224527https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I72sphfyva37bupflw5xx7cc72ehttps://www.mixcloud.com/iHearIC/https://ihearic.blogspot.com/RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ihearic

In this episode we talk about meeting each other for the first time, awkward dates and what I (Justin) would do if someone seduced me at work.We would love to hear from you guys! Please let us know what you think, ask us a question or send us a story about your week by emailing us at kindastilltalking@gmail.com!  Stompin At The Lough - The Underscore Orkestra by The Underscore Orkestra is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. 

Young and D.U.M.B is a podcast for the dedicated, up and coming, motivated and bold. It's for dreamers and innovators alike who want to make the world theirs. Our goal is to connect people to stories, people to people and people to opportunity. It's ordinary people like you and I who are capable of incredible things that are gonna change the world. Listen to the Young and D.U.M.B podcast to hear individuals who are well on their way. This week we interviewed Diogo Rodrigues on his journey traveling the world. He was born in Canada, raised in Portugal, and is now in the States for high school and college; if there is one thing he knows about is different perspectives in different parts of the world. In this weeks episode: * He talks about how he came to the United States as an immigrant in high school, using soccer to help and create life long friendships * Its how I (Justin) actually met Diogo, was playing soccer at the University of Tampa * Take a quick look at his father's lif

I (Justin) finally did it, I actually got Steve to play a thing I told him to. We can all maybe hold out hope he'll finally play Bayonetta someday.Aside from talking about Game Of The Year, UNDERTALE, we also watched Hellraiser and Justin talked about Trinity Blood because vampires.GO PLAY UNDERTALE.

Brandon recently selected Catherine as his personal game of the year for 2011 and Justin can’t resist picking his brain to find out just what was so special about this humorous and mature puzzle game. The Cursed Checkpoint is a topical video game podcast focused on discussions and interviews about a single video game, genre, news headline, or industry story. It features a rotating cast of up to 3 members of the Horrible Night writing staff and/or video game industry professionals. Good game or great game? Episode Background After Brandon’s glowing review of Catherine was followed up by him bestowing 2011 Game of the Year honors to the title on his personal Top 10 list, I (Justin) was more than a little intrigued having written the game off around its release. We dive into the details of Catherine’s story, puzzle mechanics, and make or break moments, thankfully, without spoiling it. This episode is recommended for anyone who has played or has had an interest in playing Catherine, puzzle game fans, anime fans, gamers who appreciate story, and those who have played and enjoyed any of the fine Japanese games that Atlus lovingly publishes for us. Show Notes Cast: Justin L, Brandon Runtime: 30:42 Games: Catherine Subscribe to The Cursed Checkpoint – Multiple episodes a month. RSS iTunes @HorribleShows – For Horrible Night Media Related posts: Borderlands 2: The Right to a Bazillion Guns – The Cursed Checkpoint #127 Should I Play The Walking Dead: Episode 1? – The Cursed Checkpoint #115 Mass Effect 3: The Reviewcast – The Cursed Checkpoint #112