Podcasts about last god

Last Sons of Krypton - A Superman Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2022 69:51

In this Fanbase Feature, The Fanbase Weekly co-host Bryant Dillon is joined by special guest Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer - Marvel Comics' Alien, DC's Action Comics, The Last God) to participate in an exciting discussion regarding the first two arcs of Marvel's Alien comic series, what readers can expect from the upcoming third arc, if Aliens vs. Predator lies in the future for Marvel, how Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and Alien 3 have inspired the current comic series, and much more. (Beware: SPOILERS for Marvel's Alien comic are present in this interview!)

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Issue #11 - The Human Target, Department of Truth, Last God, and The Batman Movie

2 Brown Dudes Comics

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2022 52:27

On this episode Eric and Kaushal share their thoughts on the current run of Human Target and Department of Truth, they also try out a new segment where Kaushal tries to convince Eric to read The Last God, and they discuss what they thought of The Batman Movie. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @2bdudescomics --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/2browndudescomics/support

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Episode 80: Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2021 79:35

Episode 80: Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson The Last Sons and Adam talk to a very special guest none other than Phillip Kennedy Johnson, writer of Superman in Action Comics, The Last God, and more! SHOW NOTES: Gotham City Villains Anniversary (Ra's story within) Phillip Kennedy Johnson Aspiring Kryptonians interview with Mr. Johnson The Last God Hardcover Kong Gods of Skull Island Adam Krypton Report Proud Member of The Collective The music for this episode contains excerpts from various songs and is copyrighted by Styzmask. The music used on Last Sons of Krypton - A Superman Podcast is licensed under an Attribution License;

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Align and Rise: The Cosmic Duo

Spiritual Dope

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2021 52:27

Catch up with Devon and Tamara of the Align and Rise Podcast: They are here to empower spiritual beings to tap into their fullest potential. They share memories & experiences to inspire and uplift you. Remember you are authentic, unique and there is only ONE YOU! They are two women who love to chat about all the in-depth experiences, opportunities, and growth that we have navigated our way through. They love life, and they love growing and they love hearing about other people‘s perspectives. Their conversations steam from their personal experiences, memories, and knowledge that they have gathered along the way. They are striving every day to be better than they were yesterday! Connect with Align & Rise on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/align_and_rise/ Unknown Speaker 0:00 Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you've questioned so much more than those around you. You've even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general appear so limited as Bob process? Rest assured, you are not alone, the world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can't quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the questions you never even knew to ask. But he's the answers to questions about you this world, the people in it? And most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don't have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another head of spiritual dub with your host, Brandon Handley. Let's get right into today's episode. Brandon Handley 0:40 One, hey, there's spiritual dope. I'm on here today with Devin and tomarrow of the Align and rise podcast. And they're here to empower spiritual beings to tap into their fullest potential. They share memories and experiences to inspire and uplift you. Remember you are authentic, unique, and there's only one you they are two women who love to chat about all the in depth experiences, opportunities and growth that you they have navigated throughout their way. They love life growing and they love to hear other people's perspective. They love to hear other people. So demonstra thanks for having being here Unknown Speaker 1:21 today. Thanks for having us. Unknown Speaker 1:24 We're super excited. Thank you. This is our very first interview. On another podcast. We're usually the ones doing the interviewing. So this is really exciting. Brandon Handley 1:34 Well, yeah, right. Yeah. Well, you had me on and that was part of the conversation. And I think that there was the jet. I said, Hey, how can I support you guys? Right? And you were like, Go big or go home? It wasn't exactly like that. I was like, You know what? Okay, probably was it says, you know, what, if we what if we were on your podcast? Like hell yeah. Right. So it's kind of a no brainer. So thanks for thanks for being on. This is actually my first one where I've interviewed two people simultaneously as a unit got alive and rise here. So I'd be interested to hear your response here. One of the ways that I look at this whole thing that we're doing right, we're sending an amplified communication out to the universe, as it were, and we ourselves are all vessels of creative source energy, whatever, right? We express that throughout whatever we're doing. And sometimes the answers and come conversation that we have, is going to be heard by somebody on the other end, it's just like, wow, I really needed that today, right? And my question to the both of you is, what is that message that's coming through you today that you need to share with the universe? Unknown Speaker 2:59 When we're both looking at each, usually, Unknown Speaker 3:03 let's talk first Unknown Speaker 3:08 just throws me in the spotlight. I think honestly, for us, like, we've had so many incredible opportunities come up on this journey of growth. And we could have thrown the towel in 100 times. But recognizing that we are here for something bigger, and we were created with a purpose, we've understood, throwing in the towel is not an option. We've learned that we are here to serve others. And we were given the opportunity to start podcasting and being able to serve others through that. And I think the biggest message is honestly just to hear what's on your heart, and understand that that is placed there specifically for you, as an individual, nobody else gets that dream that you have on your heart. And just to chase it, and to go after it with as much love and tenacity and enthusiasm as possible. And it's gonna feel hard and it's gonna feel tough, but you just have to keep going. Unknown Speaker 4:12 Mm hmm. Well, and sometimes like, I think that in that space as well, when you're going through stuff, it's sometimes it feels like the same stuff, kind of repeat it's like, term that I heard was rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And those are like lessons in life that we get to go through in order to get to the next place where you get to do something different another rinse and repeat until you learn from that and, and what I feel is that it's really nice to be able to, excuse me, get a cough in my throat is to have that with someone else where that person can Be there for you recognize things and very lovingly bring that to you. I just got like that frog in my throat like the worst time was like a tickle. I don't know why Brandon Handley 5:16 there's never a good time for a frog in the throat must be, let's be clear there so Unknown Speaker 5:20 well it's like literally it's like feels like it's going into my left eye right now. Anyways, that's a Crazy Frog. Ah, yes, anyways, so that's the other view here. Brandon Handley 5:30 Yeah, we're gonna be here to help you recover. That's gonna be the first thing we're here for. So I enjoy, you know, the idea that we're here for a bigger purpose, we can satisfy a number of our own personal needs, and even our family's needs. And still, it seems kind of like, we're not giving all that we've got right, we're not feeling as though we're contributing, I think that what you're talking about is the idea of contributing to the greater good and the whole. And, and in a way that you're doing doing it. That's being led by the heart. It's kind of what I'm getting from the both you and then the idea to that. Being able to do it with each other, the way that you two are and having that kind of support mechanism. And I think it was Devin, you were talking about, you know, being able to, you know, basically call somebody out on their bullshit but lovingly, or vice versa. Right, be like, Hey, how do we how do I, you know, I see that you're, you know, sometimes somebody doesn't respond to like, I see that you're struggling? How can I help? And sometimes it's got to be done in another way. But still from a place from the heart. And it sounds like that's what the two of you have found with each other. And you're working. You're scaling that by doing your podcast? Is that fair? Yeah. I love that. Like it's called heartland. Unknown Speaker 7:09 Yeah, absolutely. And we have realized, we tried one podcast having like, kind of a guideline and a script, I feel like it was a little bit of a disaster. And we have realized that intuitive, that that's us, we we just follow our heart and we listen to our gut. That's what we speak from. We don't have a script, we don't have questions. Even the interviews that we've done, have all just been intuitive and heartless, and that feels so good. And I think that's really helped our relationship where we've come together to have that peace to lean on one another, and to call each other out on those things. And it's honestly, like, I can't hide anything from Devin to try. It's like, okay, like, you're not doing this, tell me what's going on. It's like the floodgates open. And then we just have this like, yes, that's how I'm feeling. I couldn't put it into words, and you felt it and you figured it out. And just having this place of zero judgment of complete, just love. Just knowing that it doesn't matter what we're going through, we're always gonna get through it together. And it's been really cool to have this platform podcasting together, because we get to share those experiences with other people and serve them while we grow at the same time and then share that story of growth. And it's just really been the coolest experience. Brandon Handley 8:42 Sounds like yeah, I would call it like, acceptance and action. Right, and you to have found, you know, a friendship, a partnership, where it's, you know, you accept each other for who you are and what you're going through, and, and you're helping each other forward in a supportive manner towards towards your dreams, right, the two of you put this podcast together, you were talking, we were talking a little bit before we got going here. You know, how there's been some stumbling blocks in what it is that you're doing, which I want to get to. But what I wanted to really hit on first is like, right, you know, for me, this is my third podcast, right? My first one was on fatherhood, which was cool, no one diver. Second one was on, you know, prosperity, law of attraction type stuff, also great. But then I was like, fuck it, like I'm really just kind of hiding behind this curtain of, you know, like this, you know, Wizard of Oz style, where like, I'm not really talking about what's on my heart, which is spirituality and leaning into that. And since I've done that, it's been awesome. Right? So my question is, you know, what made you to decide spirituality was was was your, your kind of lean in and go forward thing and let's talk about how you found yourselves there. Unknown Speaker 9:58 That's going to be different quite like that's very, that's looks so different. I would like to I would like to leave this one tomorrow because I think this actually has to be love for you too. I think this actually like my, my spirituality and how I have found so much love and acceptance from Tamara. So like, to kind of give you the backstory, Tamara and I went to youth group together for years. And in high school. Here, as I say, like two I was only in Creston for two years when and started going to church and Tamara joined and she's younger than like a monk. Yeah, she's younger than me. And we were going and so we were like, very much like we got called, like Holy Rollers and stuff. We were part of the Pentecostal church, we were called a lot of things that we found like community, which was great. And then I got married really young at 21 had four kids ended up separating from my x, and I've been separated now for six years. Last God just completely dropped God in every way, don't talk to me about him, I'm never setting foot in another church, I felt very hurt, very betrayed from just like everything that went on in the relationship that I liked. And in that time, Tamara started reaching out to me through Beachbody. And we kind of started talking and then I joined eventually under her and so we started having more of a relationship and, and bringing up our friendship from the past. And what I had found was as I was journeying through like both of us, I would say, really, our spiritual journey both started is about six years ago, for both of us where there was like this. Right, like, like a hard line, like you were talking about line. And that's like your thing lately, tomorrow's like line in the sand. This was like a hard interval is very different places, but a hard line. And we started kind of growing, and probably two years without each other of just growth. And then we really started stepping into each other's life. What I had found was going from the state of like, I was very devout to church and everything for a long time, and then completely losing myself to all of it. Like I went down to the very bottom of the bottom with that, like, I felt very lost, I felt alone, didn't know what I was doing, knew that I wanted to I needed needed spirituality on some level. And I just didn't know what that was gonna look like, because I had lost all of my faith. And through all of everything that I have been through, Tamara has been there and held my hand, watched me cry, loved me, never judged me. She was going to church, he was going, she never judged me. There was not a single time that and maybe she maybe she did, but she let it go, right? If she did have any judgments, but she was there, she loved me. And that created open space. And gave me grace gave me forgiveness, to realize that tomorrow was like the example of what a person going to church should look like. And it led me Not that I'm going back to church, not that I'm stuck. Like, I'm not doing that, um, I found my own spirituality in just believing that God is or the universe or the source energy, whatever you want to call it is around us all the time. But it allowed me to get some forgiveness for myself, and for the people around me because of the scars that were there when I left my relationship. So for me, spirituality is more than just finding within yourself. It's like also the other people that are around you, they get to support you and love you and love like, Jesus love, right? Like, that's, that's what tomorrow. I mean, this is just tomorrow, right? This is one person I've had other people in my life who are very spiritual in different ways, and we're, we're just all connected. And that spirituality to me is like, there is spirituality doesn't see any hard lines of like your, you know, your Jehovah's Witness your Mormon, your Pentecostal your Catholic it, it should never see that it should just be like we are one we are connected. And we need to love each other period. Brandon Handley 14:39 Like it, you know, really sounds sounds like the six year journey for you. And kind of, you know, this just loss of spirituality. Which I kind of I do want to dig into that a little bit. I love how you guys correct me if I'm wrong, but Beachbody MLM yes or no Yeah, I love how you guys reconnected through like an MLM. Right? Like you always hear horror stories, but this sounds like a good one. And you know, so it was Unknown Speaker 15:09 really funny because I sent the worst messages back then. Brandon Handley 15:13 No doubt, no doubt, right? I mean, I think absolutely, that's right. That's part of the path. And trust me, again, I know, right? You're just like, you know, hey, this is what you're supposed to say. I'm sure I'll say this. Everybody's by my shit. You'd be a great salesperson anyways. You'd be great at this. So let's hear a little bit on your side. And then we can kind of unpack some of this stuff. Unknown Speaker 15:40 Yeah, absolutely. So as Devin was saying, we both grew up in the Pentecostal church, like I went to, I think it was called, like the school or something. It was like church before kindergarten, preschool, basically, but in a church. So like, my grandma grew up in the Pentecostal church, my aunts, uncles, on my mom's side of the family, all very, like spiritual. And that was there, we prayed, we all of the things that of course, like had my years through my teen years, where I struggled and all of the things. But really, the last six years for sure, coming up seven, so my youngest, after he was born, I struggled and hit rock bottom with postpartum, though worst depression and anxiety I've ever experienced in my whole entire life. And for me, I leaned in so hard to my faith and my relationship with God, I'm just becoming closer with him praying, really just leaning on family and reaching out to those family members who were, you know, Christian in my family, who believed in faith, who believed in prayer, who believed in coming together, and just like leaning on all of that. And so I just think it's really cool how, around the same time frame, Dev was literally falling apart and losing her faith. And I was leaning in hard, and like how we both came together to this place where we are now. So that was really where everything kind of started for me. But it turned into not so much just like that. God relationship, the heart relationship with my heavenly Father, it was like, I didn't know who I was. I had no idea what that even looked like, I was a mom, I had these kids, I was struggling, life sucked. I was literally surviving and just getting through my days. And I remember my son was 10 months old, and I was depressed, and I was binge eating. And I was doing all of these things that I thought happiness was somewhere in there. And I remember just like that line in the sand, there has to be more I need to feel more than this. Like this can't just be it for the rest of forever, where I just get up and I just survive through my days. And I raised my kids and I'm unhappy. And that was where I really started seeking more of a relationship inner of who I was. And I started doing that work inside that healing work that working through anxiety, working through the Depression, that I was feeling, letting go of those things. And really, opening up to this whole world of like, who I was, as an individual, I was a mum really young. And I lost that when I became a mom, I was just a mom and I was just a wife and I was just a whatever. And I didn't have this, I didn't know who I was. And so that was sort of my journey back into figuring out who I was letting go of those people pleasing tendencies of worrying about other people's opinions and really, truly just getting to the core of who I am. And that sort of got this direction that I moving in like and it feels so freeing and it feels so good. And just to realize everybody has their own spiritual journey, not one person doesn't look the same. And I've realized like I used to have this very narrow view of it's only the church it's only this is only one way it has to be God it has to be that I've realized like I love hearing like stories from Jay Shetty love Him the whole journey of a monk Buddhism like all everybody has this universal God that they serve. And that that that is love like like Devin said we're we're here to love people. And it doesn't matter where we find that love or what that looks like or feels like to each of us because it's different and different. is beautiful. Brandon Handley 19:53 I mean look right with without without without those differences, then then it's kind of kind of boring, right? You got this same show, one was going all the way back to the beginning when he talked about was it rinse and repeat same stuff, right, you're gonna see the same thing over and over again. There's no chance for revision or something else, right? I always think about the whole idea that to have like, if you know what tomorrow is gonna be like, it's gonna be kind of easy, right, kind of, like Groundhog's Day. You know, you do like, the great thing about like, knowing that tomorrow is gonna be the same as today, like, Okay, well, since, what, whatever it say it was like, I can make tomorrow better by eliminating some of the things that didn't work and doing more of the things that did. Right. And as for, you know, I kind of talk What I mean is that it's not fun, right? You found yourself in survival mode, like, you know, binge eating and things like that, and looking for happiness not and of course, like, sometimes you think you're happy when you're eating that ice cream, like cookies and cream it's in? I'm happy in this moment. But like you're crying at the same time, like, why is Unknown Speaker 21:05 your bag of chips at 3am. Brandon Handley 21:09 But it also it also, you know, sounds like you do, we're stuck in your identity, crisis of identity. You go from you go from you know, kind of school to being a parent, there's no time for you to discover who you are as a person. Right? Because you, you haven't spent that time as an individual. And then now you're giving all that you are and who you are, to like this family and and to your point, you're like, Hey, I'm just trying to find some Hi, how can I be happy? How can I be me? Outside of this cog in the system? Right. It sounds to me like that's kind of where you got caught, right? And then finding, leaning into your spiritual, I was kind of funny, you mentioned, you know, you you were leaning in, and you you were finding your religion in Devon was losing hers, right? It's kind of what was going on. But at the same time, you too, were, you know, able to grab hold of each other again, and just say, hey, you know, tomorrow for us, like, you know, the more I dig into this, the more I'm finding my face. And Devin for you, you're like, the further I get away from it, the more that I find that I need it, and finding you know what work for you. He has figured that out sounds like kind of together, right? And as you're talking tomorrow sounds to me also, like, it's liberating to be connected to spirit, right connected to whatever that looks like for you. And as you're saying, like, everybody's journey is gonna be a little different. I know that after I kind of went through my own awakening experience, like, this is how it's gonna be for you. And this is how it's gonna be. And then you're gonna go up against like, you know, your journey. And oh, and then when you tripped over this hole in the ground, this is where you're going to be I know exactly where you are. Right? And I don't, I can't, right, because your journey is gonna be like you said, 100% 100% your own. So you too. Yeah, lost it. Yeah, pulled it back together. And now like, you've kind of pulled it back together, you've got this platform, what's your intent with it now kind of going forward? And like, what are some of the what are some of the challenges that you're having? Unknown Speaker 23:34 To do you Unknown Speaker 23:39 I just feel like I wanted to touch on one more thing. And this basically led to it. So this whole like parenting thing. Devin is really helped me realize, like in that whole losing your identity and finding yourself and like, I still have these moments where I'm like, my kids need me all the time. And Devon's like, they're not gonna die when you're doing the things that you want to do. So, this has been, like a really good lesson for me, but we're a busy family, my kids are doing all the things and I'm running here, and I'm doing this and like, I feel like, this might not come out. Right, but like, they depend on me. It's already not coming out, right? Maybe I want them to depend on me more than they actually do. Maybe that's it, that feels really shitty to say. Brandon Handley 24:37 Look, I mean, I mean, and that's part of that's part of just saying all right, well, it's it's it's a work in progress, right? It's like identifying that me like, is that true? Right. That's just kind of one of those things that you can kind of go through as an exercise be like, you know, I don't know. Not for nothing to air, but nobody's knocked on your door and like a half hour. Unknown Speaker 24:58 I know. Right? This is they're fine. They're, they're thriving downstairs. So yeah, just like little thing was we were eating in a podcast today. And then my son needed me. And I was like, Deb, like, my kiddo needs me. And we were gonna meet up in podcasts. And I like, texted her and I was like, I'm like, feeling all the things and I'm sitting in it, and I'm just letting and letting it go. And she calls me she's like, okay, like, what's happening, and like, helped me unpack how I'm feeling. And it was like, I'm trying to cram all of these things in one day. And this is how I explained it. I was like, Wednesday's were, we're typically podcasting days, that's what we did. And then they turned into, like, my only day off. And now all of these other things are piling up, and I'm trying to balance it all and fit it into one day, which is affecting our podcasting. Because, obviously, I can't balance all the things that I was like, that fills my cup. Lately, Wednesday's feel like, you know, when you put a cup in the sink, and you crank the water on and like, the waters just splashing out of the cup, and none of it staying in there. Because it's like, full force, and then you shut the water off and the cups just empty. I pray for water fresh Alex basically. Brandon Handley 26:19 Yes, like that. I get it. So, you know, you're, it sounds like you're going through, you know, just kind of the growth mode, right, of how to make it all work and how to, you know, this is the thing that you want to be doing. And I think we talked a little bit at the beginning, like, you know, universe is gonna throw like little things that you'd be like, Are you sure that's what you want to do? And, you know, you've got to kind of work through that to show the universe that God however you want to look at it. Right that, yeah, this is the thing I want to be doing. So stop fussing with it. Unknown Speaker 26:51 Right. It's like the little squirrel on the tree, like throwing nuts. That's it? And you're like, where's this? Brandon Handley 26:58 So, you know, look, parent parenting, I think is one of those things where, again, yeah, we want them. We, it's a challenge. We want them to want us sometimes more than they actually need us. And even that's a challenge, right? As we're growing, because like, What do you mean, you don't need me anymore? So and again, that just caused you to kind of go back into the womb I identity questions, what am I attached to? Right, just another opportunity to look at your attachments of yourself and all that other. Egotistical shifted, I don't know how to talk to so all good there. But as so look, you got it, you guys are figuring it all out. Right? And you're working it through. So what's, you know, what's on the rise for a line and rise? What are you guys looking to do with this platform? Oh, Unknown Speaker 27:49 man, we Well, here's the thing. We, we I think that that the really cool thing about doing something that you don't know, is that you constantly get to learn. And so, I mean, we've taken so many pivots, we've turned so many times already, like, we don't know exactly where we're headed. But we we I mean, we, we have some ideas, we have some thoughts about where we're where we're going, but it feels like every time that we do something, you always have something else that's kind of up the ante and up the ante, you know, like, it's like, you know, when we first started the podcast, and, you know, we're learning all these things, and doing all these things and recording that we never knew how to do to begin with. So we do those things. And we're like, Okay, now we're good. And then we're like, we're not interviewing anybody, obviously, we're just gonna do and then now we started interviewing, and now we're being interviewed. And now we're starting to do tic TOCs. And now we're starting to Instagram lives. And so we don't really know. But that's the beauty of just having trust and faith that the universe has your back. And that when you believe that your intuition is always guiding you and that it's never wrong, then you open up freedom and space to constantly pivot and constantly move. And that's kind of I think, and Americans speak for, for herself in this point, that that's kind of where it feels like we're headed is just that we're constantly moving. And we're constantly like, this is one moment that, you know, with the block, shall we call it but it's not even really a block. It's just like, we're there together. We're pointing it out together. She's like, Yes, I see this clearly. Let's move through it. How can I and then so she's figuring out like, Hey, I just got to free up one more day for myself so I can get these things done. And then I can focus on this. Just podcasts on this day, because she wants it and so you know, you're talking about you know the universe saying Oh, do you wanted enough? Well, We want this it just happens that we are two people. And we're both affected. Because it's ours. It's I'm not just finding rise. I'm it's Tamara and Devin that is aligned in rise. So I feel like then a book that we're reading the 12 week year, he talks about accountability. But he said, accountability is never like someone else, you know, you don't get to blame someone else when you don't do something. Accountability is just so that that person can help you measure your goals and make sure that you're staying on track, but it's still yours. You know, we have this tainted view of like, accountability, that that part in this book, really, because I think a lot of times people are like, just keep me accountable. And then if you don't like if you're not like, Hey, did you work out? Hey, did you work out? They're like, Oh, you didn't keep me? No, no, no, no, no, you're accountable for you. I'm here to help you, I'm here to help, you know, guide you, but you still have to go push play, and you still have to lift the weights. And so that's, um, you know, how we're getting over any blocks that we come up, this isn't the first time like that, you know, we've headed over a block and and then we just take a turn, because maybe something may be slowing us down so that we could see this thing over here that we're really interested in. And that's kind of so we're really, I think, just focused on being guided by our own intuition. And, you know, call it spirituality call it whatever. Yeah, that's where tomorrow, I don't know if you have anything else to add. But Unknown Speaker 31:33 I just want to add that we, I think I started this, like, we had a little woman's conference with our book club a couple years ago. And I kind of started this, everything works out exactly as it's supposed to. And it didn't matter what it was, every time something would happen. We'd feel like there was like a little stone thrown in the way or like a blip in our plan. I would just say that. And I'm really leaning into that right now. Like all of the things that kind of feel tough and a little bit gray and a little bit like where are we going? It like Deb said it's honestly just leaning in trusting the process. And just really trusting that everything works out exactly as it's supposed to. Brandon Handley 32:18 Really, like Joseph Campbell, follow your bliss kind of thing. You guys are working. Is that what I'm hearing? Unknown Speaker 32:25 Yeah. We I've never heard of him, but it sounds great. Oh, Brandon Handley 32:32 that's terrible. I have to boot you know, Unknown Speaker 32:36 maybe just send me a link. Brandon Handley 32:39 I guess I could do that. That doesn't seem as aggressive or anything like that. Unknown Speaker 32:42 Does that make you nicer? Brandon Handley 32:46 No shock factor there. Unknown Speaker 32:50 So one thing I do want to add, though, is go ahead if that's okay. Yeah. In terms of like, where we're heading to is we're just like constantly pivoting and moving and what wherever we're supposed to be as where we're supposed to be one of our biggest part of our vision, I guess the biggest part of it. Yeah, our dream is to, again, we have no idea what it looks like. But we see ourselves like speaking on stages, we would love to host a conference, like a mindset conference, where we're focusing on, like, our health and wealth and spiritual, all of the things to do with like, this growth journey, and just sharing tips and tricks and coming together with other people that have things that they can offer to serve other people in creating something really big and fun out of it. Brandon Handley 33:46 Yeah, let me look, it's kind of like, um, before coming on this podcast, because sometimes speak that out loud, right? Because sometimes we hold these dreams and and we're like, Ah, I'm not gonna tell anybody. Just go eat, see what happens. Not gonna tell anybody this is what I want, though speaking it into a corner, but like, you know, speaking some of that stuff out loud to the people that you know, so they know, right? Like, you know what, I was talking to somebody else that would like to do something similar. How can I connect you guys, right? So I think that, you know, in terms of sharing that type of information, what is your vision? What does that look like for you? And for others that are tuning in? They can they might, you know, a hear your journey and be like, Hey, I would like to start a podcast with a friend and what's that look like? It looks like not knowing what you're doing and then going to do it. Right, which is, you know, that's the first step for a lot of anybody, right? Just make a decision to go ahead and do it. How do you feel, you know, a big part two of all this is now that you feel like you're connected spiritually. You know, how do you how do you feel like You're integrating that like every day sounds to me, like, you know, what was what was your mantra earlier tomorrow? Like, yeah, this is meant to be. Everything works out exactly. Unknown Speaker 35:11 Works out exactly as it's supposed to. Yeah. Brandon Handley 35:15 We know, one of the questions I've certainly gotten before is like he without, without, like, definite vision or a plan? Is anybody beating you up on that you know, Unknown Speaker 35:26 at all? About it having a vision or plan? Well, you know, it'd Brandon Handley 35:30 be like, what's your plan, you need to have a plan, you gotta have a plan. If you don't have anything that you don't have a target, where are you gonna go? You know, is that anybody? Anything that's come up in your conversations? Are you just again, you know, following following your face? Unknown Speaker 35:43 Hmm. Well, I remember having this conversation about not having expectations. And that's not like, we don't give a shit. No expectations. It's honestly, and Deb can touch more on this, because I love how she says it. But basically, like, if we have this narrow path of where we're going, there's so many things we're gonna miss out on. Because we're, we have our blinders on. And we're like, this is this one thing that we want. There's so many other things for us. And if we're just like, hey, no expectations, the world is our oyster. We have so many more opportunities to grow and pivot along the way, because we have we see see more opportunities. Mm hmm. Unknown Speaker 36:27 Yeah, I, we that was our beginning of our year that we started out with the no expectations, like I had done a week in the giant in Book Club. I think it was just me, and maybe one of the other girls, because it's like a massive book by Tony Robbins. And he even says in there, he talks about how so this like, actually ended up playing into our conversation when we started talking about it in January of last year, because I had read the book in November, December. And so it was like, he talks about how like, it's good to get like goals, like you can say I want to live in a house on the ocean. But he said, You don't have to be like, it has to be blue with yellow shutters. And it has to look exact, he's like, it doesn't have to be that specific. And then when you do that, it's like, so limited to like, it has to look exactly like this, or I am not accepting it. And what that just doesn't feel good. So like, we have decided that this like last year, for example, that our our plans are, what they are like we we have this plan to host a conference, our friend owns. She just bought a motel last year, and she's working on creating a retreat center. That's happening, her dreams, and ours are aligning. We've talked about it with her, we've discussed it, we've dreamt we've had these visions, and we've had visions separately, all three of us. And then we share them to each other. We're like, this is what I saw. And this is you know, like. And so there's this beautiful part, that makes me really excited that like, I can only dream up of mostly like what we create, unless we sit down very intentionally, to dream really, really big, which most of us do not do. We know what we know. And we're like, Well, I guess, you know, like, you could say, well, you know, you don't have a car, you're like, Well, I guess I could just like maybe maybe I could just get like a Honda Civic or something. But when you're required to dream big, you're like, you need to ask for like, you know, a McLaren or like a Lamborghini. Or like, it's, we're not. And I think that we get like, held down by that we get held down by the fact that we you know, it's just like just just down here. Just ask for the things down here. But in reality, the universe is like, what do you want, like, just open it up. And then that thing gets to look like however it wants to look. So if Tamara and I are walking on the path, and we see a window open, we can poke her head through, we don't have to commit to fully go in there. But we can like look in and see if it's something that we've won. And then if we don't we just keep going. But we we got to see, we got to see what we liked or what we didn't want or you know, whatever. Um, I think that's the beauty of like spiritual journey is the beauty of like, where our podcast is headed. To this we know that it's headed like this is practice for us. Like all of the stuff that we're doing all the podcasting being on your show, like this is all practice. There was a time when we first started we were so nervous. I'm sure you can relate to that feeling when you first start a podcast you're like, it's like a little jittery and now and I did not like being in front of cameras just asked me I like was not okay with it. And now it doesn't even faze me. You know. So you get used to these things and it's like Okay, so now we know this Now we get to level up again, what's the next step? And what's? So I think that's the part I'm most excited about is like, I don't know what I don't know. So like, as I level up, I get to see the next thing. And then I'm like, okay, like, this is exciting. And then we go through some more growth and it's painful. Yeah, exactly. You know, Brandon Handley 40:21 right, right now, like you're saying, you know, when you first start off, right, it's kind of scary. And it's also, we we ask for the things we think we can get right? Like, I'll take a Honda, pretty sure I can get a fucking Honda. Like, yeah, but you know, then you're like, but what I really like is a fleet of McLaren. So they can get one like, every different day and different colors and like, and so you know, but we don't we, we've been taught to, you know, kind of, just keep our heads down and, and work hard and flop. Blah, blah, there's no fun in that. There's, it's, it's hard to it's hard to imagine yourself being bigger if you're, you know, always grinding away, right, something along those lines, at any rate, what I like about sorry, that too, is like, you know, you're sharing your stories with the other friend who's gotten the hotel bill in the retreat centers. It's kind of like synchronicity, right. The things that's what's the whole the whole idea of like, you know, what you seek is seeking you type of thing. Yeah, totally. So look, man, I get it, right. No expectations, here's what we want to do. Here's how we want to feel why we do it. This is how we already feel while we're doing what we're doing. We're gonna keep doing it. We're doing something over here. Doesn't feel right. If it doesn't align, we can't rise. I'm gonna run with that. Right? And yes. So thanks for sharing that. Let me get to a part here that I like to get to. Unless there was anything else you wanted to tag on to that last part. Unknown Speaker 42:01 I'm good. Unknown Speaker 42:03 Actually, I do. I'm just like a little backstory on like Devin and me and our friend has the hotel. So the three of us actually started a book club together, before we even like, really stepped into this like, journey together. And so yeah, we just like had this little vision of like, oh, let's like start reading some books together. And now we're literally planning, mindset and spiritual retreats. World Brandon Handley 42:32 domination, that's Unknown Speaker 42:33 pretty cool. I got world money. Brandon Handley 42:38 I got that. It's great. And the thing that you're you're seeing is that you're all helping each other to grow. And more than just like a spiritual sense. And I think that's pretty cool. So this is a little part that I like to get to, in regards to do even just this whole podcast space, right? So somebody tuned into this podcast or to tune into your podcasts or on their spiritual journey. It's like a spiritual speed dating session, right? So like, I'm gonna tune in for like, one hour or 30 minutes or whatever, is that this podcast, you know, tickles my spiritual fancy, then I'll keep hanging out. So in that vein, I've actually got two bachelor's, this will be fun. So I'm going to ask a couple of questions related to spirituality. So let's see here. Doo doo doo doo. These aren't that great, but we'll run with them. Bachelot number one, if you're in a bad mood. Do you prefer to be left alone or have someone cheer you up? Unknown Speaker 43:42 Here's bachelor number one. Brandon Handley 43:43 Take a choice. Unknown Speaker 43:47 Your Bachelorette number one? Sure. Unknown Speaker 43:51 I need to be alone. Definitely alone, like doing some meditating doing some deep breathing. Going for a walk. Like Please don't talk to me. Because I might say something I regret Brandon Handley 44:07 Fair enough. Bachelot number two. Unknown Speaker 44:11 Oh, I get the same. Okay. I also, um, I I'm just trying to think here. I think that initially, I definitely need to be left alone, but I do enjoy like a hug after I've processed some things. So then I want someone who like rub my back and give me a hug. But first, yeah, like bath. It's like bath time. It's like bubble bath, Brandon Handley 44:37 or something. Yeah, no, if I'm here and leave me the hell alone. Yeah, I'm gonna have to process this. Yeah. Let's see. This would be the last one here to do to do tu tu tu. I like to always ask, you know, do you use feel like our current religion is serving us or not? It's rare that won't go to you. Unknown Speaker 45:07 Yep, she's, she's Bachelorette number one. Like our current religious. Brandon Handley 45:13 Like, like, you know, it's Christina. Oh, yeah, like, for example, like Christianity is Christianity is organized religion serving. So we're not Unknown Speaker 45:23 this is a good way. This is how I view juicy. This is how I view so I am not religious, I am Christian. And I feel like the difference is in religion, we are not given a choice. Myself, I view myself as like a Christian who has the choice, I get to choose whether I want to have a relationship with God, in our family growing up, we were never forced to go to church, we had the choice, we had the option if we wanted to, we could, we weren't put in this box of like, these are the rules. And if you do not follow them, like we're booting you out. And so my experience as a Christian has just been being accepted and loved for exactly who I am. In all of my rough moments, and my falling and my stumbling. And all of those things I've just been showed love and grace. And so I am showing that love and grace to other people. And Deb touched on that earlier when we were talking that, and I didn't know that you felt so strongly that love for me like I had no idea. And so clearly in hearing that from Deb, it is serving a purpose for me. Brandon Handley 46:48 I love it. I love it. Devin, what about you? You lost a religion? Yeah, found it. You found spirituality. So let's do it. Let's talk about what that look like for you. Unknown Speaker 46:58 So the question is, do I think that religion is what serves Brandon Handley 47:04 serving, serving, serving, you know, is religion serving like us? Well, Unknown Speaker 47:12 oh, this is such a hard one. Because I know I know people who are amazing, that are devout to whatever their faith is. Brandon Handley 47:24 This one's just yes for me. Unknown Speaker 47:25 Oh, I don't know how to do that without like, I just up my brain, the squirrels are running. And I just feel like I need to think about this for like every single person in the world. I myself, No, I do not think that religion is serving us to the highest purpose. I think that I think that how do I want to word this? We're humans. And we all are like I wrote this the other day in one of my posts that were just like all like balls of childhood trauma, just like walking around in life with these like tainted perceptions that have been delivered to us, religiously, politically, society, cultural, everything. And we carry that and then we think that we're right, and then so we take whatever scripture is. That speaks to us, or that were a part of whatever religious sect that we're a part of, or whatever. And we will sometimes use that to condone behavior or to totally alienate and discriminate behavior as well. And I you can call me maybe like a naive spiritualist. But I have used this so many times in different discussions when we have discussed things that were like push button topics like hot button topics. And I'm like, Can we all just get along? I'm like, if we were just balls of energy floating around in space or heaven, we would not be seeing all the things that we see here on this earth, we wouldn't see those things. We would just see light, and we would see energy. And it wouldn't be what we are framing everything to be around down here on Earth. Everything is framed around these different things. And we think that we're right. And I think when you think that you're right, and you don't leave any open doors to listen to other people. I think that's that is I don't I don't agree with it. I don't I don't like it. It doesn't make me feel good. And I have been in that space before Brandon Handley 49:57 you so you're saying religion is a bunch of clothes. Doors. I mean, that's what I'm hearing. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 50:04 I a bunch of closed doors. It can be, I think that it very much can be because people get very stuck. They're like, this is what it says. And I'm like, Yeah, but then you talk to someone else. Yes. Okay. And so like that has to do with us just being these balls of childhood trauma of loose like things happening. And we created these perceptions. And that's why we read it that way. Right? It doesn't make it true. It's just your truth. Brandon Handley 50:33 For sure. For sure. Not it's a course earlier this year. And terminologies was it's a truth, not the truth. Right. So the truth, of course, that Well, ladies, thank you so much. This has been a blast. I appreciate having you on today. Where can people go and find a little bit more, Tamara and Devin on the line and rise podcast? Unknown Speaker 51:03 Tomorrow, no, she can throw out? Unknown Speaker 51:08 Well, I'm waiting for you. So Unknown Speaker 51:12 I know, we kind of have everything grouped together on our Instagram page, which is a line underscore and underscore rise. And we have our podcast stuff linked there, so you can listen to us. And this is a really good reminder to me, I need to link our tic tock there because we just started some fun little tic TOCs. And our little highlight is like can we have three minutes of your time. And we just have three minute little videos on random topics that we're feeling that we just like, pour into and that is kind of like our thing. So that's where you can find this. Brandon Handley 51:51 Awesome. Awesome. Thanks for having us. Yeah, I Unknown Speaker 51:56 really hope you enjoyed this episode of the spiritual dough podcast. Stay connected with us directly through spiritual dove.co. You can also join the discussion on Facebook, spiritual dough, and Instagram at spiritual underscore Joe. If you would like to speak with us, send us an email through Brandon at spiritual dope CO and as always, thank you for cultivating your mindset and creating a better reality. This includes the most thought provoking part of your day. Don't forget to like and subscribe to stay fully up to date. Until next time, be kind to yourself and trust your intuition.

DC All Stars ep 72 Phillip Kennedy Johnson

DC All Stars podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2021 78:37

My buddy Phillip Kennedy Johnson returns to talk about his current run on Action Comics and Superman. Plus some teasers of whats to come in Superman's world. We also catch up on his Black Label series The Last God and the most recent arc of Alien over at Marvel. This podcast is part of the TaylorNetwork which is a home to many great podcasts all available on taylornetwork feed on Spotify, Itunes, Amazon Music, Stitcher radio and also google play

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DC All Stars ep 72 Phillip Kennedy Johnson

TaylorNetwork

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2021 78:37

My buddy Phillip Kennedy Johnson returns to talk about his current run on Action Comics and Superman. Plus some teasers of whats to come in Superman's world. We also catch up on his Black Label series The Last God and the most recent arc of Alien over at Marvel. This podcast is part of the TaylorNetwork which is a home to many great podcasts all available on taylornetwork feed on Spotify, Itunes, Amazon Music, Stitcher radio and also google play

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Talking Comics Podcast: Issue #510: Somewhere Over the Rainbow with David Pepose

Comic Book Podcast | Talking Comics

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2021 146:03

Fall in, Yellow Brick Road Warriors! We've got David Pepose on the podcast this week, and we're off to see the Wizard! After engaging in some Lightning Rounds, we go somewhere over the rainbow with David to talk about The O.Z. #2 and its amazing Kickstarter campaign. After that, there's some Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer talk and a tease for what's to come for the Talking Comics Patreon.The O.Z. #2 Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theozcomic/the-oz-2Comics talked this week: United States of Captain America #3, Wonder Woman: Black & Gold #3, Black Widow #10, M.O.M. #2, Superman: Son of Kal-El #2, Thor #16, Dark Blood #2, Strange Academy #12, Cable Reloaded #1, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1-4, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vol. 1, Primordial #1, Sensor Vol. 1, Nightwing #83, The Last God #1-4The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (www.talkingcomicbooks.com) The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, and John Burkle, who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Twitter handle is @TalkingComics and you can email us at podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com.

Rome at Last: God's Gracious Promise Fulfilled

Sermon Audio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2021

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Truths That Last-God is Glorified

First Baptist Church - Dickson, Tennessee Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2021 42:27

12 ...

truths glorified last god

Staubsauging Extreme mit Haartina Gassner

Geek-Sofa

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2021 92:46

Man kann nicht immer nur über Games und Filme und Serien und Comics sprechen, Ok?! Darum reden wir heute Mal über Martinas Kampf mit dem Staubsauger. Kleiner Tipp: Trichophobiker:innen sollten besser weghören! Ausserdem reden wir über Games und Filme und Serien und Comics! (00:00:00) Es lädt... (00:03:16) ...und es geht los! (00:06:06) Captain Obvious presents: Kinder nutzen Handy mehr im Lockdown (00:08:22) Epic ist jetzt fast $30 Milliarden wert (00:14:53) Sony will keine Fortsetzung von "Days Gone" (00:16:48) Roblox-Spieler schleicht sich ins White House Press Corps ein (00:23:16) Friend of the Show Katrin von Niederhäusern zeichnet "The Simpsons"-Couch-Gag (00:26:21) Netflix schliesst exklusiven Streaming-Deal mit Sony ab (00:32:34) Warner-CEO: Nächstes Jahr kommen Blockbuster wieder zuerst ins Kino (00:38:44) Deutscher Computerspielpreis 2021: Weniger cringe als auch schon (00:40:50) Game-Tipp No. 1: "Dorfromantik" (00:47:05) Comic-Tipp No. 1: "Invincible" (00:53:47) Game-Tipp No. 2: "It Takes Two" mit Nicht-Gamern spielen (01:05:23) Interlude: Martinas eklige Geschichte mit einem Staubsauger und vielen Haaren (01:12:01) Comic-Tipp No. 2: "BRZRKR" (01:16:36) Game-Tipp No. 3: "Blind Drive" (01:20:43) Comic-Tipp No. 3: "The Last God" (01:24:44) Game-Tipp No. 4: "Oddworld: Soulstorm" (01:26:36) Comic-Tipp No. 4: "The Department of Truth" (01:30:38) So ght es weiter: Martina macht einen "Hades"-Speedrun!

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SPECIAL EPISODE: An Interview with Superman Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson

The Front Row Network

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2021 88:54

Phillip Kennedy Johnson is the Eisner-nominated comic writer behind original comics like the popular The Last God series and Warlords of Appalachia. He has also worked on numerous super hero series such as Aquaman, Captain America, and Marvel Zombies Resurrection. Kennedy will be taking the lead on the King Daddy of super heroes with his run on Superman and Action Comics starting this month. He is also tasked with launching Marvel's upcoming comic run on the famed Alien series. Johnson is a soldier, a musician, a trainer of MMA, and most importantly a dad. Take a listen as we talk about his start in the industry and his approach to writing Superman. FEATURING: Jay Hoffman, Craig McFarland, and Bryan Dressel (After the Hype Network of podcasts) Don't forget to follow/reach us at: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/frontrownetwork Website: www.nprillinois.org/programs/front-row-network Twitter: @frontrowreviewz Email: thefrontrowmoviereviews@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefrontrownetwork/ Instagram: frontrownetwork Please enjoy this SPECIAL EPISODE and as always, we'll see you in the front row!

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Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Front Row Flashbacks

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2021

Phillip Kennedy Johnson is the Eisner-nominated comic writer behind original comics like the popular The Last God series and Warlords of Appalachia. He has also worked on numerous super hero series such as Aquaman, Captain America, and Marvel Zombies Resurrection. Kennedy will be taking the lead on the King Daddy of super heroes with his … Continue reading Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson →

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The Stack: BRZRKR, Stray Dogs And More

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2021 47:08

On this week's Stack podcast, we've got reviews for: BRZRKR #1 Boom! Studios Written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt Illustrated by Ron Garney Stray Dogs #1 Image Comics Written by Tony Fleecs Art by Trish Forstner The Amazing Spider-Man #60 Marvel Written by Nick Spencer Pencils by Mark Bagley Two Moons #1 Image Comics Written by John Arcudi Art by Valerie Giangiordano Future State: House of El #1 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by Scott Godlewski Future State: Aquaman #2 DC Comics Written by Brandon Thomas Art by Daniel Sampere Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #2 DC Comics Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Riley Rossmo Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #2 DC Comics Written by Mark Russell Art by Steve Pugh Future State: Suicide Squad #2 DC Comics Written by Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams Art by Javier Fernandez, Fernando Pasarin Future State: Dark Detective #4 DC Comics Written by Mariko Tamaki, Joshua Williamson Art by Dan Mora, Giannis Milonogiannis Future State: Batman/Superman #2 DC Comics Written by Gene Luen Yang Art by Scott McDaniel, Ben Oliver & Steven Segovia The Department of Truth #6 Image Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Elsa Charretier Faith #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Jeremy Lambert Illustrated by Eleonora Carlini X-Men #18 Marvel Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Mahmud Asrar Something is Killing the Children #15 BOOM! Studios Written by James Tynion IV Art by Werther Dell'edera Nailbiter Returns #10 Image Comics Written by Joshua Williamson Art by Mike Henderson Firefly #26 BOOM! Studios Written by Greg Pak Art by Pius Bak Crossover #4 Image Comics Written by Donny Cates Art by Geoff Shaw Skulldigger: Skeleton Boy #6 Dark Horse Comics Written by Jeff Lemire Art by Tonci Zonjic Ice Cream Man #23 Image Comics Written by W. Maxwell Prince Art by Martín Morazzo Crimson Flower #2 Dark Horse Comics Written by Matt Kindt Art by Matt Lesniewski Post Americana #3 Image Comics Story and Art by Steve Skroce You Look Like Death #6 Dark Horse Comics Written by Gerard Way Art by Shaun Simon The Scumbag #5 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Wes Craig Rain Like Hammers #2 Image Comics Written and art by Brandon Graham SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Full Episode Transcript Alex: What's up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin: I'm Justin. Pete: I'm Pete. Alex: And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week, or do we? Or do we? Justin: Way to create some intrigue. That's right. Alex: Because the first book that we're going to talk about is a book that doesn't come out until next week, but we're going to do a spoiler-free review of it. It is- Justin: A preview review. Alex: Preview review. It is Berserker #1 from BOOM! Studios, written by none other than Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt, illustrated by Ron Garney. Pete: Oh, no wonder. Justin: I've been following Keanu Reeves's comic book work for a long time, and it's great to see just a brand-new book with his name on it. Alex: Yeah. It was great. Pete: That was driving me fucking crazy. I did not notice that he wrote this. Alex: Wait. Really? Pete: That's hilarious. Yeah. I was like- Alex: You were like “Oh, it looks like Keanu Reeves in this book?” Pete: … “Why does the guy look so much like fucking Keanu Reeves?” Oh, that's hilarious. Alex: Well, I mean, I got to say, I mean, who knows how much he was sitting down at his typewriter being like “Scene one. Berserker. Open on me”? But a lot of times, I feel like there are these insert-style comics that just don't work. They're star vehicles. They're trying to set up a movie, and they just … They're not comics. They're pitch sheets, and that's pretty much it. That's not what this is at all. Not only do you have Ron Garney's phenomenal art throughout- Pete: Yeah. Justin: I love Ron Garney, and I feel like he hasn't been doing enough stuff lately. So it's great to see his work here. Alex: So that's great, but also you got Matt Kindt, who knows his way around an intrigue storyline, a sci-fi storyline. Again, we're going to skirt spoilers but not get into any here. But even though the main character is clearly Keanu Reeves, this is a really interesting sci-fi story. It's a great action story. A lot of times, they just step back and let Ron Garney do his thing. I was very surprised and very impressed by this book. Justin: Yeah. It's one of those books that when you're reading the first bit of it, it's like “I see what this is,” and then by the end you're like “I was completely wrong. It's totally different, and I am excited by where it landed.” Alex: Pete? Pete: Yeah. I mean, I've been reminded numerous times not to give away anything, but man, that ending. Am I right? Oh, shit. No, but yeah. The art and action is phenomenal. This is definitely in my wheelhouse, less dialogue, more action. Come on. Alex: It's really good stuff. I mean, this is already a huge selling comic book. I think they sold 600,000 copies, making it the best-selling original property comic book in like five years or a decade or something like that. I'm forgetting what the exact stat is. Pete: Wait. It hasn't come out yet. What are you even talking about? Alex: Well, the way comics book work, Pete, is that people pre-order them through their comic book shops in order to guarantee that they're going to be there. So that's what they've been doing. So they sold that many copies to comic book shops. So obviously, big deal. People are really excited. The thing that I think is not a happy accident, but happy surprise about it, is that they're going to get what they paid for. They're going to get a good, very cool comic book. So I'm excited for everybody to check it out when it hits stands next week. Justin: Exactly. Next week. If you love The Lake House, you're going to love Berserker. Alex: I'm sending that directly to BOOM! Studios. That's their pull quote. Justin: Two great Keanu [crosstalk 00:03:36]. Pete: I don't know if I've seen that, but okay. Justin: It's not a spoiler when I say the mail is in the mailbox with this comic. Alex: Hold on. Hold on. Let me try this. Pete: Oh, my god. Alex: If you love Always Be My Maybe, check out Berserker #1 from BOOM! Studios. Pete: Wow. Wow. Justin: The comic book club bump is coming for Berserker right now. Alex: Has he done any other movies, Keanu Reeves? Justin: Keanu Reeves? I can't think of any. Pete: A ton. A ton of movies. Justin: Well, there was Bill and Ted's Excellent Lake House. Pete: Right. Alex: Bill and Ted's Excellent Always Be My Maybe. Justin: Yep. There's that. I think that's the whole thing. Alex: I think that's it. Anyway, this book is great. Definitely pick it up if you haven't, or pre-order it if you haven't already. Next up, here's a book that's actually out this week, Stray Dogs #1 from Image Comics, written by Tony Fleecs, art by Trish Forstner. So this is about, as you can tell from the title, it's not like stray … I honestly thought, because it was an Image book and it was called Stray Dogs, and it's like “What's up? We're a bunch of criminals called the Stray Dogs.” No. It's literally stray dogs. There's still a crime element. There's still a mystery element, but I was surprised about this. I'm curious to hear what Pete thought in particular. Justin: Yes. Pete: All right. So first- Justin: Because he's a cat guy. He's a cat guy. So- Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. But I saw that cover, and I was like “Oh, this is going to fucking break my heart,” and it did. It's got some feels in this thing, and I was really impressed with the story. I thought maybe it was just going to be cute dogs, which would have been fine, but yeah. I thought it really ended well. It sets up this whole arc. I'm impressed with this, and I can't wait for more. I'm really on board here. Justin: This book also surprised me, and I did … The last third of it is so good. They assemble like an Avengers: Endgame level group of mid-period Disney dogs here. This is like your Fox and the Hounds, your 101 Dalmatians, your Lady and the Tramps. They're all here, and I don't think we want to spoil it, maybe, but I think there's going to be some bad dogs in here. There's going to be some good girls and some bad dogs. Pete: Oh, my god. Love it. Alex: Yeah. Good stuff. Again, a nice surprise. Let's move on with our next book, and I'm going to tell you what it is, and then I'm going to give you a little peek behind the curtain here. Okay? So our next book, before the shouting begins, is The Amazing Spider-Man #60. Pete: Oh, fuck you. Justin: Oh, no. Alex: Hold up. Written by Nick Spencer, pencils by Mark Bagley. Now, we've been talking a lot about Amazing Spider-Man, the Last Remains storyline, this whole thing about Kindred, this villain that turns out to be Harry Osborn, who's been [inaudible 00:06:18] Spider-Man in the background. Pete: But- Alex: Hold on. Let me just finish what I'm saying, and then I'm going to allow you to shout, Pete. But I think we kind of agreed that it sort of started to fizzle at a certain point. They're dragging out the Kindred reveal for too long. I've still been reading it. I've been reading each issue because I like Spider-Man and I enjoy reading it, but I haven't felt like … We don't need to talk about the same story [inaudible 00:06:43] again and again. So before I set down the stack for this week with the choices of issues, particularly Marvel, I was like “Well, let me just read and see what happens in Spider-Man,” because the cover of this is Mary Jane and Peter surrounded by the centipedes from Kindred, and I read this book, and I was like “Oh, we got to talk about this.” Justin: Yes. Alex: We have to talk about this, because I want to hear Pete shout. Go ahead, Pete. Pete: Okay. So first off, to kind of peek behind the curtain a little bit, Zalben has been pushing the envelope for how many fucking comics we talk about, and he sends out this ridiculous list that we have to read all these comics. Alex: Nobody is forcing you to do that. Pete: Hey. I love reading comics, but I got a full-time job. We got other stuff going on, and he keeps pushing the number. He said “Oh, we'll cap it at 20.” Alex: I never said that. Pete: Hasn't been capped at 20 in a long time. Alex: I never said that. Pete: So then he gives us this giant fucking list, and then goes “Oh, two more,” and guess what one of the fucking two is. Amazing Spider-Man, and I was like “You motherfucker. Always pushing.” Justin: This is not the shout I expected to hear, just FYI. Alex: Not at all. Justin: Imagine tiny- Alex: [crosstalk 00:07:50]. Justin: Imagine- Pete: I was saying that “Oh, there has to be a reason he pushed this,” like “Oh, just these two Marvel. No big deal. We're just going to just do two Marvel because we got so many other comics,” and I knew. I knew Spider-Man had to be a fucking doozy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have fucking pushed it through, and yeah, and here we go again. Here we fucking go again. You want to open a fucking wound and fucking relive some nightmares? Well, guess what. We got fucking Mephisto, and it's going to fucking relive some god damn nightmares. Justin: Here's the thing though, Pete. First off, let me say, imagine little Pete LePage, Petey, as we call him- Pete: No. Justin: … dreaming of his future as an adult, and your biggest complaint right now is that your friend is making you read too many comics? Little Petey LePage would drive his little big wheel right into a brick wall if he heard that. Alex: “You're telling me this is my job?” I mean, well, let's not go that far. Justin: Well, not technically a job, but it's like- Pete: You get paid to do a job, asshole. All right? Alex: That's what I'm saying. Pete: We're not … Yeah. So I do have a job where I work and get paid, and then we go this out of the love of our hearts, and then one person keeps fucking pushing the envelope by overloading us. Justin: I love comics. I would read more. Give me more. Alex: I agree, and to clarify, we said we would cap it at 50 to 75 books a week, tops. Justin: Let's talk about this Spider-Man book, because let me see- Alex: No. I don't think so. Can you also give us a peek behind the curtain, Justin? Justin: Yeah. Pete: Yeah. Give us a peek behind the curtain, Justin. Justin: Sorry. The only curtain I'm behind is a shower curtain, and it's sheer. It's invisible. I'm nude in front of you all, all the time. I'm [crosstalk 00:09:33]. Pete: Gross. Justin: Just a little imagery to preface this review. So this book though, Pete … It's got Peter and Mary Jane being as close as they've been in a decade. Pete: Yeah, and then it does the classic bullshit where Peter leaves and then Mary Jane's got some weird shit going on with the villain. Justin: Well, here's the thing. To your point, Alex, I actually didn't really like a lot of the lead up to the reveals here. I feel like Nick Spencer used to have a really good Spider-Man and a really good Peter Parker. It felt like it was back to the very core of the character, struggling to get by, has a bunch of roommates that he shouldn't be hanging out with, messing up all the time, and now it's like it's so sentimental. It's this sort of sanctimonious Peter Parker that we see a lot over the course of the years, but it's not the fun Peter Parker, and it's too melodramatic for me, and then by the end of it, I was excited about the reveal at the end of the book and even the stuff that Pete's talking about with the villain. At least that's interesting, because this Peter Parker's not a person I'm loving right now. Alex: Well, and that's the point of the book, right? I think they're taking a really long time to get around to it, but what is nice about this issue is it feels like one of those classic Ultimate Spider-Man issues that Brian Michael Bendis would do, where it's just a conversation, and in this case, it's Peter talking to Mary Jane. She's trying to help him through the stuff he's going through, and he says exactly what you're talking about, where he's like “Why is my life like this? Why am I still in this place that I'm in? What is going on here?” and by the end … Spoiler, but we've already spoiled it. The revelation is it's probably Mephisto all over again fucking with Peter Parker's life. Probably, there's no way around. If they don't loop back to One More Day at this point, I don't know what he's doing in this storyline, but that's fascinating to me, what direction they're going in. It's nerveracking, but it's fascinating. Pete: Yeah. Well, I'm not fascinated, but I did really like the part of MJ talking about this exercise that helps you kind of work through shit, and I thought that was very cool to have a superhero kind of do a therapy exercise and be like “Hey. Therapy's okay. It's okay to talk about your feelings in a safe space and get it out and see what it feels like to say these things out loud.” I thought that was very powerful and very cool, but then you got to fucking ruin it with Mephisto shit, and it's like, either we're moving on and that bullshit happened and somehow we have to live with it and move forward, or you better fucking undo that bullshit and then we can get back to our lives. Fucking make a choice, man, because I'm sick of this shit. Alex: All right. Well, let's move on to Two Moons #1 from Image Comics, written by John Arcudi, art by Valerio Giangiordano. This is set in the Civil War following a soldier who starts seeing some demons or something. We're not 100 percent sure what's going on, but the art in here is terrifying and scary. Pete: He sees the monster from Critters is what it looks like. Alex: But it's just somebody's head, to be clear. Justin: Yeah. He's got a critter on his head. Pete: Yeah. It's a critter head. Alex: Classic critter head. Yeah. Yeah. Justin: You guys both sort of felt like you were saying something that you shouldn't be saying, for a second. Alex: I mean, in my family, when I grew up, we were never supposed to say critter head. Justin: Yeah. Say it three times, and then you have yourself a critter head. I like this book as well. This was a good sort of scary story in a time we don't see very much, especially from this perspective. Pete: Yeah. I mean, the art's really unbelievable. This is a very interesting story. It's also the take about the nurse getting upset about the fact that when you run out of ammunition, they'll use whatever scraps of metals they can, and then kind of her reaction is very interesting and very intense. So I think this is a really kind of interesting, original idea set in a shitty time period. Alex: Sure. There you go. Couldn't disagree with that. Let's move on to our Future State block, as we've been doing all the past couple of weeks, talking about everything that's come out from Future State. I'll list the books, and then we'll talk about some of our highlights. We've got House of El #1, Aquaman #2, Legion of Superheroes #2, Superman vs. Imperious Lex #2, Suicide Squad #2, Dark Detective #4, and Batman/Superman #2, and to give you a little peek behind the curtain here, it's interesting that Pete was complaining about too many titles being in our stack, because at least the past two weeks we've talked about the Future State block, Pete has read extra titles from DC and then talked about them on the show. Justin: Yeah, and dropped them in. Alex: There you go. So Pete, any extra titles you want to talk about here? Pete: No. No, but if we would like to peek behind the curtain, I think you're a piece of shit. Alex: All right. That's fine. Justin: Again, here's me, nude behind a very crystal-clear sheer curtain. Alex: Pete, what jumped out at you? What did you like this week? Pete: All right. Well, I liked a lot of things, but the one book I didn't want to like, but then the sappy ending kind of got me in the feels, was the House of El #1. Sometimes we get in the house of stuff. I don't know. Justin: Yeah. You don't like houses. Pete: Yeah. I don't like houses. I don't like the kind of historical Superman shit where everybody is talking about their logos and all the weird shit. It doesn't get me excited, but I was really impressed with this book because I read it like “Harumph. I don't want to like you,” and then it won me over. I would say one of my favorites was Batman/Superman- Justin: Here. Wait. Can we talk about that real quick? Pete: Sure. Sure. Justin: Sorry. Sorry, but I loved this book. I know I feel like I've been on a Phillip Kennedy Johnson love fest, but man, this is another great book by him that is just a hundred percent fun. It's mixing a lot of the stuff he does in The Last God with a Superman-focused version of the Legion, and it reads like just a great Legion book with all these different version of Superman kin that are out there trying to just save the world and maintain their household and mix in with these sort of light fantasy elements. It's just a great book. Alex: Pete, what about you? You were about to call out Dark Detective, I believe. Pete: Well, I have been enjoying that, and yes, I did love Dark Detective #4. Very intense. I love this no more shadows, like “Oh, shit. What does that mean?” Also, great backup story. I thought this was a very intense, cool Batman book. I'm very excited to see where this goes. Anybody else want to jump in on this one? Alex: Yeah. Sure. Was that not the one you were going to call out? I thought that's what you started saying. Pete: No. It was Batman/Superman #2. Alex: Oh, okay. Sorry to put you on the spot there, but I do really like the backup. We talked about this last time, this Joshua Williamson and Giannis Milonogiannis, and they're doing basically Red Hood, but Akira, and it's super fun. I had a blast reading that. But you want to talk about Future State Batman/Superman #2? Justin: Real quick. Alex: Oh, yeah. Justin: It's very funny seeing the Red Hood hood on him, where it just goes right to the … It's just such a weird looking thing, but this has been one of the best version of Bruce Wayne that I feel like we've seen in Batman comics in a long time, this Dark Detective series. Pete: Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. But Batman/Superman #2, really unbelievable action. I really am loving the kind of mystery and the kind of who-done-it with this team up. I love it when Batman and Superman get along, but I also like it when they fight, and I feel like this was a really cool, great kind of fight between Superman and Batman, and I thought this was really cool. Alex: Yeah. It's a good book as well. For me, man, it's tough. Again, a very good week for books from Future State. All of this stuff has been really good. It's a little bit of a tie. There's one that eked it out a little bit more. Future State Superman vs. Imperious Lex #2 is kind of my number two here, written by Mark Russell, art by Steve Pugh. Super fun. Great Lois Lane in this book. As usual, just hilarious and pointed satire from Mark Russell. So really enjoyed that book, but the one for me that killed it was Aquaman #2. Justin: A hundred percent. That was mine. Pete: Yeah. That's what I was going to … Yeah. Alex: Everybody was leading up to that, written by Brandon Thomas, art by Daniel Sampere. Again, like I said with the first issue, I am not an Aquaman fan. I don't usually like an Aquaman story. This is god damn amazing, and if you didn't tune in to the first book, the first issue of the book, it was all about this confluence of oceans from the universe that former Aqualad, now Aquaman, and Aqualass, who by the end of the book, spoiler, is Aquawoman, have gotten trapped in. They get separated. Aquaman is imprisoned most of the last book and then finally finds out that Aqualass is alive at the end, and then we loop back and find out what happened with her. The action is so big. Everything that happens is so emotional and creative. I was blown away. Justin: I agree. This book was so good. Of all the books in Future State that I would want to replace the main title going forward, it's this. I want to see these characters going forward and seeing where they go next, because it's so good. Pete: The let go moment was so nice. Justin: Yeah. Pete: Yeah. I mean, I don't know how cool a water leg would be, but man, they really sold it in this book. Alex: It's a fish leg. It's not a water leg. It's a fish leg. Pete: Oh, okay. My bad. Justin: I mean, a fish leg would be much worse, because that shit … You've only got like two days max on that things. Pete: Before it starts smelling? Alex: Yeah. Justin: Yeah. Alex: Don't microwave it. Not in the office. That's all I'm saying. Justin: Oh, definitely. Alex: That would be gross. Justin: [crosstalk 00:19:49] case of scallop- Alex: All right. Let's move on and talk about some other books. Justin: One last thing I want to shout out. Alex: Oh, yeah. Please. Justin: We didn't talk about Legion of Superheroes #2. Want to shout out Riley Rossmo's art on this. I'd love to see a Legion book with Riley drawing it. Alex: Absolutely. Moving on, one of your favorites, Justin, The Department of Truth #6 from Image Comics, written by James Tynion IV, art by Elsa Charretier. Justin: Oh, what an accent. Alex: This is a switch up of artists for the book- Pete: Yeah. I was going to say. Alex: … and also a switch up of time periods, as we jump back in time and find out the origins of The Department of Truth. This is a awesome issue that continues, personally, to remind me of a vintage Vertigo book, where it'd be like five issues, take a break, show us some times passed thing, and then go forward with the ongoing story. So good. Justin: So good. This book is doing just such a great job of fleshing out the world of the series sort of slowly and really easing into it, and this book does a great job of sort of bringing into focus in the sort of micro with the flashback story. It's sort of a double flashback. We flashback to right after the Kennedy assassination, and then flashback to Doubting Thomas and sort of the origin of rewriting the world with a new truth, and this book is one of my favorites on the stand right now. If this were a religion, I would believe in it. Alex: Wow. Pete: Oh, shit. Wow. Justin: I'm not a religious guy, but this is the closest. I'm like “I could buy this. I could buy this fully across the board.” Pete: Wow. That is crazy. I think it's really impressive that this book can look so different from kind of book to book and still feel like a part of the same story. It's really impressive what they're pulling off here creatively, artistically. They're taking some big swings at some big ideas, and they are killing it. It's really impressive. Yeah. The paneling, the art, the way this story flows. This is a really, really impressive book that is tripping me the fuck out. Alex: This employs a technique that I usually hate in storytelling, but it completely works here, where they have a story in a story in a story. In this book, Lee Harvey Oswald, who in our current time is the head of The Department of Truth goes to his first day there, finds out the origin, so you have one … I think this is the reason it works is the art style changes with each level of the story, where it goes back in time, he's reading the origin of the story of The Department of Truth, and then one of the characters in the story starts telling the story to the other character, and then the art style changes again. It's just these multiple layers that feel very purposeful versus the usual accidental employment of that technique. Fantastic book. Definitely pick it up. Alex: Let's move on and talk about Faith #1 from BOOM! Studios, written by Jeremy Lambert, illustrated by Eleonora Carlini. This is a weird book that I was no expecting- Justin: This is a weird book. Alex: … that follows Faith as she's trapped in a movie theater, and there's some Watchers watching her, strange stuff going on. What'd you guys think of this one? Pete: Yeah. It's fantastic art. It was a little confusing because we kind of had this shadowy figure behind the main character. So I was having a hard time follow what's happening, because I was so worried about her present, in-the-movie-theater self. So it was hard to kind of let go of that and follow the story, but yeah. This is interesting. Unbelievable art. Some great action. I'm not quite sure what's happening though. Justin: Yeah. I mean, I agree. Really expressive art, I thought was … There were so many good little horror moments, and Faith's reactions throughout are great. I don't know much about Faith in the background. I don't have faith. Alex: You got to have faith. Justin: Yeah. That's the thing. Pete: The faith, the faith, the faith. Justin: But I believe in the comic book we just talked about before this one. So yeah. I didn't know much about the character, but it was a good read. Alex: Yeah. Moving on, X-Men #18 from Marvel, written by Johnathan Hickman, art by Mahmud Asrar. Give you a little peek behind the curtain. I felt like Pete would be pretty mad about Amazing Spider-Man. This one involves Laura, Wolverine, which Pete likes a lot. So I thought this would be kind of like a gimme, like balance the scales a little bit. So this is as three of the X-Men characters wander into a weird future place, as they usually do in this run of X-Men. What'd you think about this one? Justin: The Vault. Pete: Well, I'm curious about something. So why is she called Wolverine now? You know what I mean? I know Wolverine died for a little bit, and I know she was X-23, and that's cool, but then when they were referring to her as Wolverine, I was like “Why? What's-“ Justin: Well, because Wolverine doesn't … He's on the moon popping something else besides claws. So he's not really … Pete: You don't have to be an asshole when I ask a question. You could just answer it. Justin: I mean, I think there's some truth to that. Alex: There's more than on person named Pete. Justin: Wow. Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Justin: That's true. Pete: Got that, and there's also more than one person named Pete LePage, but what's your fucking point? Alex: My point is, when I search for Pete LePage, the other one comes up. Pete: Okay. So it's okay that she's called Wolverine is what you're saying? Alex: Yeah. It's fine. It's not a problem. Justin: I like it. I like her as a character. I like her as the Wolverine. I think Logan can just be Logan now, and he can go do all of his Logan stuff. Pete: That's cool. I just didn't know. I was like “Maybe I missed something,” like the passing of the Wolverine mantle or whatever. I love X-23. I have no problem with her being Wolverine. I was just like “Oh, they're straight just calling her Wolverine now.” Justin: Well, I think they're both called Wolverine. I think it's just like they're both Wolverines. There's no reason to differentiate. Pete: Then I was like “Is Wolverine a title of the fucking muscle when you going on …” I don't know. I was just wondering if maybe I'd missed something that you guys knew about, but usually, as usual, I ask you something and you just make fun of me. So all right. Alex: Oh, Pete. Justin: I'm not making fun of you. We're explaining an important plot point in the X-Men universe right now that Wolverine fucks in the moon. Pete: Cool. Cool. Alex: It did stand out to me too, to be totally- Justin: The gravity's only one-sixth. So he's floating a little bit. You know what I'm talking about? Alex: To be totally fair, it stood out to me too as son as they called her Wolverine, and then I was like “All right. They're calling her Wolverine,” and I kind of moved on from there rather than sticking with it. This is a good story. It's crazy that they introduce this whole villain team to eliminate them in one issue, but that's classic Johnathan Hickman at this point. Justin: Well, these guys have been around. The Vault was introduced a while ago. In fact, I feel like Hickman is oddly … He keeps sort of edging on the Vault. He's like “Look. The Vault. Watch out for them,” and then in this issue, they go in there and wreck shit. So it's weird what's happening here. I thought this issue was great. This issue reads like an annual standalone issue where they're just like “Let's have a fun mission,” and it's a great tactical mission. I love Darwin and Synch. Great. It's all so smartly done, but I think, in general, I'm like “What's the next move here with the X-Men?” and there are no clues. It's hard to read the tea leaves. Alex: No. It's definitely the sort of thing that I think we're going to look back at it in 15 to 30 years when Johnathan Hickman is done with this run and be like “Okay.” Pete: Yeah. “Oh.” Alex: “I get it it.” Pete: “I see now.” Yeah. Yeah, but- Justin: “Oh, The Vault.” Pete: The art's amazing, and the kind of thinking-man Sentinel thing was really awesome to kind of see as well. Yeah. I think it was really cool to kind of like “Oh, we're going to send you on this mission. You guys sweep the Vault,” and you're like “Okay. No big deal. How long will that take?” and then they realize a Vault is a whole fucking city. Pretty cool kind of “How are we going to do this?” moment. I don't know how any of this makes sense, but I thought it was a cool issue. Alex: I agree. I'm glad to hear that too, Pete, because you've been very down on the X-Men. Let's move on and talk about another James Tynion book, Something is Killing the Children #15 from BOOM! Studios, written by James Tynion IV, art by Werther Dell'Edera. Justin, I'm curious to hear from you because this is the end of the story that they've been telling for 15 issues at this point. They wrap things up. They leave things open for the next story, but that's kind of where we are, and you've been very back and forth about it. So how do you feel about this as a whole? Justin: James Tynion's a great storyteller, but I guess I still have the same feeling where I'm like “Oh, that was the whole story.” I thought there was going to be, I guess, more of a crescendo in here. I like all of the storytelling. The art in this book is fantastic. The eating of gummy worms has never been so gross. Pete: Oh, man. Yeah. Alex: Maybe you want some gummy worms, I'll tell you what. Pete: Yeah. You're so creepy, dude. Justin: Yeah, but you see regular worms, you're like “Yum, yum, gummy.” Alex: Put those in my mouth. Give me some of those sweet dirt dudes. That's what I call them. Justin: But yeah. That's my- Pete: I don't know. This felt like a ending that wasn't an ending. It felt like an ending that's like there is a bigger story to tell here- Justin: For sure. Pete: … and hopefully they will get to tell it, because this is a really great world. I've loved every single issue of this. Art's unbelievable. Love the character designs, and this cool … I feel like this is what our life is going to be like eventually. Since we're all going to be wearing masks, it's going to be just down to what does your mask say, and that's your gang affiliation or your kind of tribe, if you will. So I feel like this is a book of the future before we even know it. Alex: It's surprising to me because a lot of this specific issue was them talking about houses, which you've already got on record as not liking in this very podcast. Justin: Yeah. This guy hates houses. You want to see the apartment of El, the condo of El. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Nailbiter Returns #10 from Image Comics, written by Joshua Williamson, art by Mike Henderson, another surprising ending for a series here as we wrap up Nailbiter returning with some big revelations for the series. How'd you feel about this one? Pete: I loved it. I thought this was a cool kind of end but also tease to the to-be-continued thing at the end. That was pretty neat, but I mean, you guys have kids. So you tell me. When you guys sit around the fire to tell stories, do their faces go blank like that? Is that a normal thing that happens? Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pete: Oh, man. That's got to be tough. Alex: Every parent knows that. When you're about to have the kid in the hospital, they talk you through the birthing process. They also talk you through the fact that, hey, when you sit around a fire, kids are going to have no faces. Pete: Oh, wow. Well, I'm glad that you had the heads up on that, because as somebody who didn't know that, that was pretty scary. Justin: Well, that's because they're listening so hard, and so the rest of their features just fade away because the ears are really the focus. It's just using your resources. Alex: This book was fun. I had a blast reading it. It's definitely a big action movie versus the overall dark mystery that the first one was. Super fun, and I'm glad that they kept it to 10 issues and pretty much done, kept the story really focused. I had a good time. Pete: Yeah. Justin: I agree, and it really got into some dream logic dreaminess that I really appreciated throughout this whole series and in this issue as well. Pete: Also, it's great for people who collect eyeballs, you know? Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Justin: Yes, which I think we all do, and great nail biting. We got some biting of nails. Alex: Good stuff. Pete: Finally got some nail biting in this one. Yeah. Alex: Next up, Firefly #26 from BOOM! Studios, written by Greg Pak, art by Pius Bak. The last issue we called a fresh new start for Firefly. It was taking us after Serenity, the movie, moving us forward here. The cliffhanger at the end of the last issue was it looked like Wash was alive. Here, spoiler, not exactly. There's a good twist on it. I loved the twist with Wash, actually, and I think this is a great … Without spoiling exactly what happens, this is a great way of pushing the story forward, and it feels like a tried-and-true sci-fi idea that's going to pay really good dividends with the characters. I think it's neat. Justin: It's so- Pete: I'm going to go out … Oh, go ahead. Justin: You go. Pete: I was just going to say I'm going to out on a limb and just say Greg Pak is a fucking phenomenal writer. He makes great choices. I've just not yet read something from him and not been impressed by it. Even though we knew what kind of happened, the whole thing needed to be explained to us. I was really impressed. I thought this was a fun book. Amazing art. Really cool. Justin: How is it on that limb, Pete? Because I feel like you've been out on the Pak limb for years. Pete: Yeah. Yeah. It's just me out here. Loving the Pak. Justin: I think your parents conceived you out on the Pak limb, and you've just been birthed there. Your parents heard about the facelessness around the fire, out on the limb, and now here you are, still living on the limb. Pete: Nothing like limb living. Justin: Limb living. I think it's so smart that they did a long story in the past. It was great. Greg Pak really understands the characters and really put them out there, and then to jump forward in time where we get to sort of collect them again is super fun. Well done. Alex: Yeah. I agree. Next up, Crossover #4 from Image Comics, written by Donny Cates, art by Geoff Shaw. In this issue, we're picking up with our adventurers who met Madman, the character, from Mike Allred and Laura Allred, last issue. He is going to help them get inside the dome that has covered Denver, I believe, if I remember correctly, and locked in a bunch of comics characters. We again get a bunch of cameos and fun stuff in this issue. We also get some shout outs to Donny Cates and, I believe, Geoff Shaw's own work as well. This is great. This is a blast to read, and even Donny Cates self inserting himself here is super fun. Justin: I mean, it's great to see Madman in action. That guy can yo. Alex: Yeah. Yo, yo. Pete, you got to be happy. There is a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in this issue. Pete: Oh, yeah. You got to love that. I also impressed with the art here, because it has the kind of dot, kind of old-timey kind of comic book style, which is really interesting with Madman, with kind of more vibrant characters as well. It's just really cool to see them all standing in a room. So I'm glad we got that moment. The kind of torture shit freaked me out a little bit, but man, really great story. Fun stuff. Alex: Good stuff. Next up, Skulldigger Skeleton Boy #6 from Dark Horse Comics, written by Jeff Lemire, art by Tonci Zonjic. We've been talking about a lot of the Black Hammer books. We kind of missed this one in terms of reviewing. So I figured it was worth catching up with the last issue here. I'll tell you what. I … This is all me … forgot about Tonci Zonjic. Amazing artist. Justin: Yeah. Great art. Alex: I was so happy to read this again. I was like “Oh, my god. I'm sorry I forgot you. You're so good.” Pete: Yeah. Justin: Yeah. It's so dynamic. It almost has a little Darwyn Cooke to it, but a little bit of just great, I don't know, Greg Capullo style action. Really good, and the story was great. I feel like the Black Hammer universe is just prime time right now. Pete: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I agree. The panels, the layout, the way the action flows. Really, really fun and impressive, but also some really touching moments, like the look on the kid's face. They just keep just showing the kid's face, so different in each panel in the way that it's just kind of colored. Really impressive, the way they can kind of show emotion through this still panel here. Yeah. I was just really kind of moved by this. I thought it was a really solid issue. Justin: The last page, which is almost like an epilogue to the book, just a standalone splash page, was so emotional and great. Pete: Yeah. Alex: We're not really talking about the plot here, because we didn't read the previous five. This is the last issue, but the fact that they can get across enough of the emotion and story in one issue that is the last one to people who have not read the previous five is very impressive. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Next up, let's talk about it, Ice Cream Man #23- Pete: Oh, here we go. Alex: … from Image Comics, written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Martín Morazzo. I know Pete is scared of this one. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Yeah? Pete: Yeah. Alex: So another standalone issue of Ice Cream Man, as a lot of them are, mind you, but in this one, it's text pages interspersed with splash pages of essentially our main character, the Ice Cream Man, going on a talk show with a bunch of animals, until a snake bites the shit out of the talk show host's face. The thing that is so terrifying about this is the text pages takes place after it. So you're reading the story of the horrific things that happen to him, and you're like “Oh, we're going to see this. We're going to see this at some point. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming-“ Pete: I was like “Don't show me. Don't. You wrote about-“ Alex: “… It's coming. It's going to happen,” and the entire issue, and finally they pulled the lid off, and it's great. Another incredible one-shot issue of Ice Cream Man. Not enough good things to say about this book. Justin: I feel like W. Maxwell Prince is just sitting at home tactically trying to break down how to engineer scares in the paper and the printed medium. It's wild that he is able to continue to find new ways to stress us the fuck out. Pete: That's what's so impressive about this is each comic is so different but has that same tension, and they've done so many different creative ways to scare the shit out of us, and you think “All right. Well, how's this going to stack up? It can't be as great as the last issue.” It continues to deliver. Unbelievable, and I don't know. It seems like shots fired at Jimmy Fallon in these, but this is a crazy book that made me read, and I don't want to read, and it's still so well done I read and didn't hate it. Alex: It's good stuff. Moving on to Crimson Flower #2 from Dark Horse Comics, written by Matt Kindt, art by Matt Lesniewski. Pete, you seem to like this book. Pete: Oh, my god. Alex: This is about a bounty hunter, I guess, who is going crazy, something like that? Pete: Well, yeah. It's about a lot of things, but it's mainly about this person trying to get revenge, trying to find out who killed their father, I believe is what she's freaking out about, and just the fact of she's just driving angry, just chomping pills and half seeing reality, half seeing this tripped-out evil shit is really crazy but also very impressive what goes down, and then the whole fact of she's not going to do well but keeps kind of playing this trickery and then kind of reveals, throughout, she's telling a story within the story … I was just really impressed with this. Very creative. Very fun. Amazing art. Just really fun story. Justin: Yeah. I really liked this as well. It feels like fairy tale stories. She's like a Little Red Riding Hood but who grew up to become an- Pete: A badass. Justin: … assassin out for revenge, who crosses over with some other dudes who are sort of giants, maybe, but also just shit-head other assassins. It's really fun. Pete: What's awesome is it starts off and it kind of reminds me a little bit of Locke & Key, the paneling and just the different kind of character designs, but then just kind of goes off into its own completely different thing, and yeah. I just think it really worked on a lot of levels. Alex: Next- Justin: That art's sort of reminiscent of … Sorry … of Black Hole. Alex: Oh, yeah. I can see that. Justin: In a good way. Alex: Next up, Post Americana #3 from Image Comics, story and art by Steve Steve Skroce. As we've been talking about with the last couple of issues of this book, this is a satirical, post-apocalyptic tale about a guy who's kind of trying to save the world but mostly messing it up. Continues to be gross and funny in exactly the right way. I'm enjoying this book. I'm having a fun time reading it. How about you guys? Justin: I agree. The art, I feel like, really took a step up in this issue. We get a lot of close-ups on the characters, and it really … I think the earlier issues were a little wild, and it's like cannibals fucking around. So it was a little loose. Everything really tightens up in this issue. We get a lot of back story, and I think the art mirrors that in a way that I thought was just very smart. Pete: Yeah. I agree. I think the art is great. There's amazing action, and the story does tighten up, and things start to kind of make more sense, and we're able to kind of follow things a little bit easier, which is great, but the classic … When somebody comes to visit unannounced, you almost kill them. So you really got to be careful when you go to somebody's house, guys. Justin: Yeah. By the way, Pete, we're coming to your house at 4:04. So put your ax down when we stop by. Pete: Yeah. You might want to text me, because I just want to not accidentally ax you. Justin: Ax-identally. Alex: Ax-identally. Thanks for [crosstalk 00:42:27] audio podcast. Justin: It'll work in court. Pete: Yeah. No problem. Alex: You Look Like Death- Justin: Joke heard and acknowledged. Alex: You Look Like Death #6 from Dark Horse Comics, written by Garard Way- Pete: You look like death. Alex: … art by Shaun Simon. This is a tale from the Umbrella Academy. We are wrapping it up of Klaus's time in Hollywood. It wraps back to the beginning. You had to love this, Pete, another mention of relish, your favorite topping. Pete: Well, I don't know about that, but I do love the characters in this. Klaus is one of our favorites. So it's just very kind of interesting to kind of see it in this kind of art style, and I'm just so used to the show. It's almost weird to read the comic, but yeah. This is a really cool story, really fucked up. Spiders scare the fuck out of me. So this is kind of a nightmare, but yeah. This is just great Umbrella Academy fun. Justin: I love relish. I love- Pete: Really? Justin: Yeah. Relish is one of my favs. Pete: Have to have it on a hot dog? Or what's up? Justin: A hundo percent. Pete: Really? Justin: Yeah. I'm a mustard- Pete: Get that shit away from my dog, bro. Justin: Mustard, relish. I'll do sweet. I'll do dill. Pete: Oh, wow. Justin: If you pickle anything, JT's there. If you want me to pop by, pickle something, and this book is fun too. Alex: Yes. It's like the pickles of comic books. Moving on to the The Scumbag #5 from Image Comics, written by Rick Remender, art by Wes Craig. Get the old … Oh, my god … Deadly Class team back together again for this issue, so a switch up of the artist, but we're still following the same old Scumbag as maybe he finally grows a little bit of a heart this issue. This is super fun. I really liked seeing Wes Craig's take on this book in particular. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Yeah. This book is a blast. It's fun to read. Justin: It's very fun. The characters, our main characters … I love watching their relationship between the Scumbag, his handler, and the sex android who drives them around and refuses to have sex with him no matter how many times he asks. It's all very fun stuff in that sort of reverent Remender tone. Pete: Yeah. I think what's nice is I was getting a little tired of Scumbag being a scumbag. So it's nice to see the Scumbag evolve a little bit so we can have somebody to root for in this, but man, Remender, dude. Holy shit. You think you're like “Okay. I know what this is about.” Nah. He loves the twists and turns. He loves to keep you guessing, and then when you're not ready, he'll break your heart if you're not careful, but man, guys, don't listen to magical Christmas trees that smile way too much. All right? Alex: Very fun bit though. Justin: Good advice. Alex: Last but not least, Rain Like Hammers #2 from Image Comics, written and art by Brandon Graham. I'll tell you what. I was very surprised to find out this was an anthology with this issue. That's not what I was expecting. Justin: Well, I feel like a lot of Brandon Graham's stuff are loose anthologies where there's some connection, there's a lot of tonal overlap and everything. I definitely like sort of the rules of the world are the same. Man, I love this book. Of any issue this week, this was the most just transporting book that I read. It's so funny. It's beautifully drawn. It's so interesting. There's just a ton of ideas at play here all the time. Great, great book. Can't recommend this highly enough. Alex: That's it. If you can't recommend us highly enough, then hey, support us on patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. @comicbooklive on Twitter. Comicbooklive.com for this podcast and many more. Alex: Until next time, we'll see you at the virtual comic book shop. Justin: Just pull back the curtain, and we'll be right there, fully nude, as usual. The post The Stack: BRZRKR, Stray Dogs And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Stack: South Side Serpents, Captain Marvel And More

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2021 47:13

On this week's comic book review podcast: Riverdale Presents South Side Serpents #1 Archie Comics Story by David Barnett Art by Richard Ortiz Captain Marvel #25 Marvel Written by Kelly Thompson Art by Lee Garbett The Department of Truth #5 Image Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Martin Simmonds Firefly #25 BOOM! Studios Written by Greg Pak Art by Pius Bak Future State: Suicide Squad #1 DC Comics Written by Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams Art by Javier Fernandez, Fernando Pasarin Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #1 DC Comics Written by Mark Russell Art by Steve Pugh Future State: Dark Detective #2 DC Comics Written by Mariko Tamaki, Joshua Williamson Art by Dan Mora, Giannis Milonogiannis Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes #1 DC Comics Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by Riley Rossmo Future State: Aquaman #1 DC Comics Written by Brandon Thomas Art by Daniel Sampere Future State: Batman/Superman #1 DC Comics Written by Gene Luen Yang Art by Ben Oliver Post Americana #2 Image Comics Written and art by Dave Skroce Daredevil #26 Marvel Written by Chip Zdarsky Art by Marco Chechetto & Mike Hawthorne Monstress #31 Image Comics Written by Marjorie Liu Art by Nana Takeda The Other History of the DC Universe #2 DC Comics Written by John Ridley Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli Nailbiter Returns #9 Image Comics Written by Joshua Williamson Art by Mike Henderson X-Men #17 Marvel Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Brett Booth Spawn #314 Image Comics Written by Todd McFarlane Art by Carlo Barberi The Last God #12 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by Riccardo Federici Something is Killing the Children #14 BOOM! Studios Written by James Tynion IV Art by Werther Dell'edera Strange Adventures #8 DC Comics Written by Tom King Art by Mitch Gerards and Evan “Doc” Shaner An Unkindness of Ravens #5 BOOM! Studios Written by Dan Panosian Art by Marianna Ignazzi Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #4 Dark Horse Comics Written by Jeff Lemire Art by Tyler Crook 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: As Alex: What is up everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin: I'm Justin. Pete: I'm Pete. Alex: And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of comics that have come out this week, kicking it off with Riverdale Presents: South Side Serpents from Archie Comics, story by David Barnett, art by Richard Ortiz. This is part of a slate of comics that Archie has started releasing that aren't exactly in continuity with the shows, but they include the characters the way they appear on the show. They're kind of like halfway between the monthly comics and the shows themselves. This with a Madam Satan one-shot spinning off and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina that we talked about. This one of course is spinning off of Riverdale [crosstalk 00:00:46]. Pete: I wish I would've known that before I read it, because I read it and I was like, “Holy shit, everything's going to change.” Alex: Yeah. Well, no, it's out of continuity. Pete: They killed some people in this comic. Alex: They straight up killed some people. I got to tell you, I mean, to start there, I was surprised how hardcore this was. Justin: Me too. This book went hard from beginning to end and I will say, “I like this.” To me, I mean Archie Comics for a decade has been taking big swings with a lot of their choices, a lot of their … especially their one shots like this and they're limited series. But with this like putting it in between Riverdale featuring Toni Topaz here which was great. And then having both Hot Dog show up drawn like Hot Dog from the Double Digest. As well as a murder happening involving Hot Dog, I was like, “Okay, we're going for it here.” Alex: So the plot of this book if you haven't picked it up is that Jughead is tasked by FP to go rejuvenate the serpents, FP can see that they're getting older. He wants them to go out, get some young blood in there. Things go very, very wrong. The thing that I think this book did so well is the serpents are way too friendly on the TV show. They're supposed to be the most hardcore biker gang, but they was like, “We're hardcore, we're fucking helping out with community service. And now we're going to assist the police department. Look how hardcore we are.” Here they're an actual biker gag, and they're treated like an actual biker gang. And it works really well to the devastating end of the book. Pete: Yeah. Justin: Yeah, I agree. It was also nice to take you back to this time in Riverdale, we're all Riverdale fans, and to sort of position us sort of earlier, this was like season two Riverdale it felt like, was really fun as well. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Good stuff. Definitely check. Oh, go ahead. Justin: Wait, Pete's going to weigh in. Pete: I really liked this. I loved all the action, it moves really well. It feels like Riverdale, but it has its own kind of flavor, which is cool for the comic. And I thought the art was great and the storytelling was really impressive how well this moved. I had a great time. Justin: A lot of biker gangs have a crown that the head of the gang wears. Alex: This is true, like the hell's angels. Justin: Yeah, fairy famously, and some anarchy. Alex: [inaudible 00:03:17] biker gang that we can name which is, what is that, Justin? Justin: That biker game, there's the wheels, the wheelies. Pete: The Wheelers. Justin: The wheelers, that's it. Alex: Yes. Captain Marvel number 25 from Marvel written by Kelly Thompson, art by Lee Garbett. This is a title that we haven't talked about too much, but as it is hitting an anniversary issue, we do like Kelly Thompson in particular here on the show, I figured it was worth talking about. Captain Marvel is trapped in a post-apocalyptic future where the son of Namor and Amara has lead ways everything, using captain Marvel for his evil plan. As usual with Kelly Thompson book, I thought this is a lot of fun. I had a blast reading this. What about you guys? Pete: Yeah. I mean, as parents, you have to feel that if your son or daughter stabs a stuffed animal dolphin, you better address that early. Otherwise that's really going to get out of hand and lead you [crosstalk 00:04:14]. Justin: Well, the question is, at least in my household is it during stabbing practice or is it [inaudible 00:04:19]. Pete: Oh, oh, oh. Justin: Because if it's during stabbing practice it's good. Pete: It's fine. Alex: I'll tell you what, quarantine school has been weird. Justin: Yeah, they're doing a lot of real post-apocalyptic lessons are going around. Obviously Pete you're not a parent, but there is a lot of zombie preparation- Alex: Smart. Justin: … how to, like early cannibalism stuff. Pete: Is it like machete upkeep and stuff like that? Alex: [crosstalk 00:04:44] and the teacher on the Zoom was saying, “Okay first graders, are you distilling your pee properly so you can drink it?” Pete: Oh my God. That's so creepy. Justin: That's why it's really important to potty train them, so you don't lose that precious pee. Alex: What'd you think about this book, Pete? Pete: I loved it. Oh, that was gross. Justin: Precious Pete. Pete: Oh man, I don't want it. Yeah, I really liked this, a lot of over the top action, which I enjoyed. Fun kind of Namor a story, classic tale of raising somebody who is going to murder their father. It was just classic fun stuff. You guys have to be worried about that, getting murdered by your own kids. That's got to be something that waves on you. Alex: You keep throwing this back on us. Pete: I mean, that's something that you got to be worried a little bit about as a parent that you're raising the person who's going to kill you. Alex: I'm much more worried about you killing me Pete than I have my kids at this point. Justin: 100%. Pete: Oh well, that's smart. Justin: That's the real threat, keeps us up nights. Alex: Speaking of things that are … Oh, go ahead. Pete: But I love that art. I love the action. This is some great, yeah, the Thor was just fantastic and this is really fun. Justin: Yeah, Bridget. It's funny reading this alongside Future State over on the DC side of things, because it feels very much like a Future State book in the Marvel Universe. And it's fun, I like books that take us into alternate futures where shits fucked up. Alex: Well, let's go to an alternate present where shit is fucked up in The Department of Truth number five from Image Comics written by James Tynion IV, art by Martin Simmonds. This is a big one for anybody who's reading the series. It's about a department that is tasked with taking care of conspiracy theories here. Our main character is finding out a bunch more about the other side, Black Hat, and what's going on with them. Maybe this doesn't change everything, but it certainly comes close to it. How'd you feel about this issue? Justin: I've not been shy to say I love this series. I think this series is just so present, it's feels so real. It's about how if enough people believe in conspiracy theories, they become real. And like what truth is, it is something I think we as a nation, as a world grapple with literally every day. And so this book does such a good job between the art and the story of really just getting inside my brain. Pete: Yeah, this is really kind of crazy cool. The conspiracy stuff is one thing, but just the art and the storytelling, unlike how this all kind of unfolds for the main character that we're following here is tripped out in all the right ways. It's just really great kind of like conspiracy story telling that kind of feeds into fears and kind of deep thoughts in all the right ways. I think this is a really creative book that is really doing an amazing job. Alex: I feel like we've said this here on the show before, but it struck me with this issue in particular, this feels like a lost Vertigo book down to the art and the writing and everything, and it's awesome. Firefly … Oh, go ahead. Justin: I was going to say just an excellent Vertigo book. Alex: Yeah. A lost Vertigo book that should have stayed lost was what I was saying. Pete: Whoa. Alex: Should've stayed in Karen Berger's drawer. Pete: Oh, come on, what? You mean drawer? Alex: Come on. Pete: You saying drawer? Alex: Yeah, I was trying to say that. Pete: Okay. Alex: Firefly number 25 from BOOM! Studios written by Greg Pak- Pete: Greg Pak. Alex: … art by Pius Bak. We talked about the special, the end of The Blue Sun Rising, just being an awesome Firefly story. Here after all of this prequel stuff, we're moving beyond serenity. We're showing what happens years later. There's a big twists here. I thought this is great. As much as I like the stuff that went before, I'm very excited about this direction for the book. It tells a good story. If you have watched all the Firefly and Serenity, you can jump in right here, you don't have to read anything previous. And that is very exciting. Justin: Yeah. For Greg Pal to tell a great story that really nails all the characters, but it also feels like it's expanding the universe as a prequel, and then to jump into sort of where the story is continuing from any fan, whatever they've taken in for this show and movie is great, such a smart move, I love that he's guiding this ship. Pete: I wanted to read something, speaking of fans, a fan of our show reached out to me and was just wondering, we had Fred Van Lente on a bunch, but they're asking me when the fuck Greg Pak is going to be on, so I wanted to kind of turn that over to Alex and just be like, “Hey, when the fuck is Greg Pak going to be on the show so we can talk to him.” Justin: Let me throw this out to you Pete, are you the fan that reached out to you? Pete: No. Justin: Sounds a lot like you. Alex: We'll try to have him back on scene, we always love having him of the show. Thanks for writing in, Pete. Let's move over to our Future State block. Here's the issues that came out of Future State this week. Future State Suicide Squad number one, Future State Superman Versus Imperious Lex number one, Future State Dark Detective number two, Legion of Superheroes number one, Aquaman number one, Batman and Superman number one. Now, as we've been doing in the past couple of weeks, instead of talking about absolutely everything, I want to call out what our favorites were, and I'll turn to you Justin first. What was your favorite or favorites from these Future State titles this week? Justin: Once again, I liked a lot of these books. I feel like they'd been really crushing it, but my favorites were, let me throw it to Superman versus Imperious Lex. Alex: Oh, that's what I figured. I say that's what I figured because that was also my favorite. And that's a book, it's written by Mark Russell, who's one of our favorites here on the show, art by Steve Pugh. And it shows a Future State, a future society where Lex has taken over a planet, Superman and Lois come head to head with it. Ridiculous parodied, a lot of fun at the same time, Justin. Justin: And I do think Mark Russell has done such a good job. He's so good at bringing real issues into his comic book work, famously first on the Flintstones book that he did. And then a bunch of other things that he's done. And this to really weave big interesting ideas about how people, populaces are controlled by their leaders and economics, how economics drives people into a far Future Superman United Planets, Lex Luther story, I think was great. There's a bunch of humor here as well. It's just a book of ideas and I love that. Alex: Pete, what about you? What jumped out at you this week? Pete: I liked Future State Dark Detectives number two. I really liked this kind of like a gritty future Batman. And I also really liked the second story with a Rose, guessing Slade's daughter. But just- Alex: That's an in continuity character by the way. That's not just a Future State character. Pete: Oh, okay. Alex: Just for clarification. Pete: Thank you. Alex: But just to mention before you get too far into it, written by Mariko Tamaki and Joshua Williamson, art by Dan Mora, who you love from Once & Future, and Giannis Milonogiannis. And the first story is about Bruce Wayne after he's been “shot and killed” coming back and try to figure out what he is now. The second one is a Red Hood story, which is basically straight up Akira in a very fun way. Justin, what'd you think about this one? Justin: I like both of these stories. The Bruce Wayne story at the front of this is so good. The art, the Dan Mora art is excellent, and really I would love to see this as just an ongoing series of Bruce Wayne in a future where he has been killed, figuring out what he's going to do next and finding his way back is great. And then the backup story really felt a lot like Nightwing [inaudible 00:13:02] relationship, but put on with Red Hood and Rose, which I thought was a cool sort of mapping, and with the Akira stuff you're talking about as well. Alex: The one that I was completely surprised that I loved was Future State Aquaman number one, written by Brandon Thomas, art by Daniel Sampere. I don't usually like Aquaman stories at all, but this one is showing Aqualad all grown up training the daughter of Aquaman and Mera. They accidentally ended up in this conjoining of seas, I think it's called the conjunction or something like that, that travels across different planets. They get trapped, they get separated, Aqualad's been in prison for years. And finally, spoiler, but he gets some hope that the girl he's been in charge with maybe still alive somewhere. This was bad-ass, like we were talking about, this is something that I'm like, “I want to read this book.” And this is such a strong concept right here. I want to see where this goes. I want to see them go through all these seas, go through all these worlds, try to find each other. That's very exciting. And the art from Daniel Sampere- Pete: Oh my God. Alex: … is awesome as well, but fantastic. My jaw dropped, I was so surprised, I like this so much. Pete: Yeah. And I really liked the Black Manta stuff as well. It was like the right amount of beautiful tripped out colors for all these different kinds of worlds and stuff. I was really impressed by it. Justin: I also want to throw it out to the Suicide Squad Future State book. This was really great as well. Really surprising, well-written dark take, featuring a ton of characters that I didn't expect to really see together and just really smart observations of these characters. Pete: The second story, Black Adam really looks like The Rock, it's like holy shit, all right guys, we get it. Alex: Yeah, that was a weird one for me. But just to mention the writing team of that, written by Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams, art by Javier Fernandez, Fernando Pasarin. And real quick, before wrap up, here are the other ones, Future State Legion of Superheroes number one written by Brian Michael Bendis, gorgeous art as always by Riley Rossmo. And then there's also Batman Superman number one, which is interesting one. Pete: That's the one I wanted to talk about. Alex: Written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Ben Oliver. Because this actually isn't very Future State. This is, if Future State is 10, 15, 20, whatever years down the road, this is five years down the road with our Batman and Superman right before things go wrong, which is a fascinating tack to take, Pete, take it away. Pete: Yeah, I really thought this was, first off the banter back and forth between Superman and Batman was amazing. I also really liked this kind of false face thing. And then Superman realizing why masks are good was really cool. And I really liked this toad character that was introduced. Yeah, I was really impressed with this. Might not have been that far in the future, but man, this was a really cool book. I really liked it. And I'm trying to think, I also read the Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn, number four. And that was- Alex: Pete. Justin: Totally [inaudible 00:16:24]. Pete: I'm just putting it out there, we're doing a quick review thing here. Alex: No, no, no, but it's not Future State. Pete: Well, it is DC. Alex: You keep doing this. I send you a list of comics and you are like, I read these five other comics. Pete: Yeah. Alex: I just think that the story is really- Justin: I just love comics. Alex: Great. Pete, when we get to it, I read Amazing Spider-Man as well, so I just want to talk about that. Pete: Great. I'm just wanting to say real quick though, the Harley Quinn thing at first, the White Knight Presents, I didn't, but now it's really going well and I'm really impressed with it. And I thought it was a really great story and it's worth checking out. Justin: Really grabbing the mic. Alex: How was Usagi Yojimbo, Pete? Pete: I look forward to checking that out. Alex: Wow. Justin: Wow, shame. Alex: What a hater. Post Americana, oh. Justin: Hold up. One last thing about Future State. I think that DC should do this, pick a month every year, do this. It introduces so many interesting ideas. They could reflect whatever the ongoing stories are in the main titles in their Future State titles, introduce a bunch of new artists and writers into this world. Pete: I think that's what they're going to do. Justin: I don't think they're going to do that, but I wish they did. Pete: I think they are. Alex: That's a great idea. I mean it's clearly like it was originally there to give everybody space on the schedule and everything, at least in terms of the writers and artists, but this is great. I'm so happy with all of these books. Pete: I also wanted to say in the Future State Legion one, the amazing last page, that was a really fun issue. Alex: Sure. Justin: Yes. Alex: Post Americana number two from Image Comics written and art by Dave Skroce. This is a wild book, we talked about the first issue of this taking place in post-apocalyptic world. When we left off, our main characters have been captured by cannibals who wear human skin. That's where this issue picks up. Pete, you got to love that, picks up right where it left off basically. Pete: Huge fan. Alex: This book is fucked up at exactly the right way. It's like Crossed, but not as dark I guess, with a little bit more of a mission to it. Justin: I don't know. It feels a lot just like Crossed. I don't know where you're seeing the less darkness. There's less like coming on bullets before you shoot them at people. Alex: Sure, that's fair. Pete: I would say- Alex: But the main lady has no limbs, but she calls her robot limbs and then kicks the ass of the cannibals, so that's pretty fun. Pete: It's like Iron Man. I would say this is like a really dark version of Wall-E a little bit, like a real fucked up Wall-E. Justin: Oh, Wall-E, interesting. I don't get that. Alex: Well, there's a male character and there's a female character like Eva. Justin: Oh, interesting. None of them are robots. And there's a lot of other people there and many of them cannibals, which if I remember Wall-E correctly it's very light on cannibalism. Am I wrong there? Pete: Yeah, it is. Alex: Did you watch the director's cut? Pete: Yeah. Alex: It's on Disney plus. Pete: I was just talking about the people who are on vacation, looking at the news and kind of taking it all in. And that kind of little bit was very Wall-E. Justin: Oh, I see. Yes. I mean, to be fair, that is reminiscent of Wall-E. That was one panel. Pete: Still reminded me of Wall-E dickhead. Justin: You said this book is like a fucked up wall-E, and that is taking one panel and being like, this is … If I heard that description, I was like, “Oh, okay, fucked up Wall-E. I love Wall-E, I wish he was more fucked up. Let me read it.” And I was like, “What's that dude Pete talking about?” Pete: Because there's one panel that really reminds you of Wall-E. Justin: Okay, it's hard to argue with you. Alex: It's a fictional story like Wall-E. Pete: Yeah. Justin: My life's a lot like Wall-E in that I occasionally watch a silent film. Alex: This book is insanely over the top odd purpose, but I'm enjoying it two issues in- Pete: I am too. Alex: … and I'm excited to see where it goes. Let's move on to talk about Daredevil number 26 from Marvel written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Marco Checchetto and Meek Hawthorne, Mike Hawthorne. Excuse me, I don't know why it's spelled Meek, like the character for the Guardians of Galaxy, not Guardians of Galaxy, [inaudible 00:20:39], and World War Hulk. Justin: Yeah, we can just cut this part out of there. Pete: World War Hulk is right. Alex: Mike Hawthorne, this is taking Daredevil who was in prison, mixing it up with King in Black. It is, Ted's fucked up with an amazing last paddle. I'll tell you what, I am vehemently against venomizing everything in the Marvel Universe, yet I love this, and I'm not 100% sure why. Justin: Well, I think it's just really well handled. There's a sort of kid and parent venomization here that is legit scary. I love the Electra taking over from Daredevils in prison. I love Electra being the Daredevil on the street. That's such a fun story. To see them all having to handle the King in Black stuff is wild. And I loved that it didn't take over, all the characters get to shine still. And this last bit where we … spoiler, but Daredevil gets venomized and you get to be in his head. Pete: You love that. Justin: I loved it. I thought it was so smart. Pete: Yeah, I was really … There's a lot in this comic which is great. A lot of very interesting ideas in this comic, the whole prison scene, and where Daredevil's getting kind of lectured and talking about the difference between white and black. He can just take off the mask and be somebody else, really powerful stuff, really cool. It's very interesting to see Kingpin. I am not tired of this idea of Kingpin being a public figure. And we know him as this evil person and he's like, it's just very … I love this idea and I'm not sick of it. And I hope it continues around Daredevil. Alex: One thing that I really loved was getting to see the moment when the mayor of New York finds out that venom symbiotes have attacked the city. I feel like that's something that you'd never really get to see at all in a comic book crossover, because it's always focusing on The Avengers, focusing on the superheroes. You never get to see the government, except later on when captain America is like, “Can you send out the national guard?” And they're like, “Yeah, absolutely.” You never get to see that moment they're like, “Oh, aliens attacking again. You got to get out of here.” Justin: It's funny too because I feel like I've heard mayor de Blasio talk a lot about them, the venomization of New York. Alex: Oh yeah, he always talks about that. Pete: I'm sick. Justin: I mean, to be fair, he's often jumping to conclusions. Alex: Right. Well, you remember when those venom symbiotes attacked New York, he was like, “Alternate side of the street park [inaudible 00:23:18].” It's very niche content. Pete: Yeah, it is. Justin: It is very New York focused content. Alex: Great comic though. Let's move on and talk about Monstress number 31 from Image Comics written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda. Now we had talked about Monstress: Talk Stories, the two-part book that came out before this, after not talking about Monstress for a very long period of time. I thought those were awesome, so I thought it was worth checking out this book, the main book and seeing how it's going. I still love the art in this. This is such a weird wild world that is fascinating to jump in with, the mythology is so different and interesting to read. But what did you guys think about it? Justin: Yeah, I agree with you. This is very much to me, and I haven't read a lot of this book, but it's very much to me like all of the cut scenes from Final Fantasy game just sort of put together. And I love that, so I thought this was a fun read. Pete: The art is really impressive in this book and it's really a lot of fun, the different monsters and stuff and the different kind of animal people that we kind of see in this is very cool and worth checking out alone. But you guys, this has to be a dream of yours. Just sit down and have a father, daughter conversation as you sit on a pile of skulls and just kind of have a father daughter talk or a father son talk, that's got to be something that you guys look forward to as parents. Justin: Hmm, didn't go where I thought it was. Yeah, sure. I mean, after stabbing practice obviously we do sit on skulls after. Pete: Obviously after, yeah. Alex: Exactly. Let's move on and talk about The Other History of the DC Universe number two from DC Comics, written by John Ridley, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, where the first issue of this book focused on black lightning, here we're jumping over to the Teen Titans and looking to two characters there. I got to tell you, I mean, this issue was phenomenal as the first issue is phenomenal. Justin: It's so good. Alex: It's fascinating personally reading this for me because I am much more familiar with what happened with black lightning. And there's much more touchstones in that book than here, because I never read Teen Titans growing up. I had no idea what was going on there, the continuity. This is definitely, I understand this feels like the decades, but none of these stories, other than Titans Hunt which we talked about at a live show a couple of months ago, and some of the Deathstroke stuff, none of it really feels familiar with me. But at the same time I love this story and I love the idea of taking two characters who were in Teen Titans showing their diverse opinions, their diverse ideas, views of what was going on throughout the history of the DC Universe. This is such a cool project. It's very exciting. Justin: It's just so smart the way it takes two characters and really weaves their stories together with observations that … A lot of the things that happen in this from the original comics are ridiculous. But to then weave them into one story with actual commentary of what a real person would think, I think it just works so well, on top of that weaving in like real-world events and the perspective of these two African-American characters in a world where, which they talk about a lot where everyone else is white essentially, it's just really well done. This is necessary reading I think right there. Pete: Yeah. I didn't know how much I wanted this until it happened, just to have that kind of commentary on the stuff that we know from the years of reading comics is just so rich and great and such a cool idea. Art's amazing. I'm really impressed with the writing and storytelling. It's a must pick up. Alex: Great stuff. Let's move on and talk about Nailbiter Returns number nine from Image Comics written by Joshua Williamson, art by Mike Henderson, not Meek Henderson or anything like that. Justin: No, that would be [crosstalk 00:27:24]. Alex: That was so much fun. Justin: Well, I guess we'll have to cut this out too. Alex: Yes. In this book we're finally getting a lot of answers about what has been going on in Buckaroo with the butchers. We get the [inaudible 00:27:38] back on the villain of this series. Another just great issue, like the theology that they keep fleshing out here is so impressive and so much fun. Justin: And we finally get the eyeball licking that I think we've all been asking. Pete: Oh, man. Alex: Absolutely. I've been begging for it. I've been writing them every week. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Pete: Yeah. You guys are big eyeball lickers, this is right up your alley. This book has started at such a crazy place. And I think every issue like, oh, okay, now I understand. But it keeps getting more and more insane in such a great way. It heightens and makes things even better than you thought. I've been really impressed with the kind of unraveling of the stories, if you will. And man, this is so intense and gross and over the top in all the right ways, the arts fantastic. And man, eyeballs are gross. Justin: Yeah. But I agree and the amount of sort of dream logic that's been used in this book, I was really surprised by, but it's been great and it really keeps you guessing throughout. Alex: Next one, I'm very excited and I mean this earnestly to find out what Pete thought about this book, X-Men number 17 from Marvel Comics, written by Jonathan Hickman, art by Brett Booth. In this issue the X-Men in classic uniforms, X factor uniforms journey to Shi'ar space and have a classic nineties style fight to save [inaudible 00:29:18]. Pete. Justin: Save Xandra. Alex: Oh yes. Justin: This generation's [inaudible 00:29:24]. Alex: Yeah, sorry. Pete, if there is any issue of X-Men, it had to be this issue, right? Pete: Sure. I mean, it was very kind of like, it was a little nineties art that was a little bit like, holy crap, when does this take place in the timeline? But man, yeah, it was enjoyable. I mean the phone call was a little ridiculous. And there was still something that I was supposed to read that didn't in the middle of it. Alex: Oh my God, that was so much fun. [crosstalk 00:30:00] Bobby. Justin: It was very fun. Pete: I'll never know. Alex: Chilling out having a hilarious time. So funny. Pete: I mean, it's nineties excellent fun is what it is and all the right ways. And so that part is very cool. Justin: This to me was such a wild read. Coming off of X of Swords and everything that's been going on in the X-Men books, to read this sort of love letter to the Chris Claremont era of X-Men, drawn by Brett Booth with all this really goofy shit going on between Sunspot and Cannonball. Throughout the whole issue I was like this, it just feels like Jonathan Hickman is like, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. And this is what I want to do right now as a palette cleanser after X of Swords, and here it is. Alex: It's great. I could not believe where they had that splash page of Jean Gray and psych labs in the X-Force uniforms storm in her classic uniform, just walking out and like posing in [inaudible 00:31:03] field style. That's great. Justin: There's this panel on page nine or something with storms in the front and then behind you got like Cyclops and Jean just flirting in the background. I was just like, this is so … And I love seeing that. Alex: Me too. Justin: I was like, it's such a flashback. Alex: And the other thing that we get a tease of here is there's going to be an actual vote online to choose the new member of the X-Men, which is so fun. I just love the fact that they're having fun. Pete: You think that's fun? Alex: What? Pete: You think that's fun? Justin: I do think it's fun. Here, let's list the options here, and then let's hear who everybody thinks. We've got Banshee. Pete: Can we talk about the … in the middle of this giant epic fight, she calls home for help. And we got to listen to this douchebag talk about a fire sale and how he's making money off of it. Do you guys know what a fire sale is? Do you know what … I mean, this is like, it's very … Alex: It's for Sunspot. Justin: Yeah. Alex: That's what he does. Justin: Yeah. It was fun. It was weird and fun. That's what the point of it was. Pete: Cool. Alex: What is your problem with the X-Men vote, Pete? Is it that you have to use a computer, which you don't know how to use yet? Pete: Yeah, that's exactly it. Justin: Let me throw it down. Let me list the X-Men, Banshee, Polaris, Forge, Boom Boom, Tempo, hugely famous Tempo, Cannonball, Sunspot, Strong Guy, Mero, Armor. Pete: Armor. Justin: Who's your pick? Alex: I do like Armor. Pete: I go Armor. Alex: Wait, who is on it then? Who is already on the team? Because I don't know the list, obviously seen Cyclops, Jean Gray, Storm. Justin: Yeah, I mean, I don't know either. I think it's sort of up in the air maybe or maybe it's decided. Alex: Who's the first batch again? Justin: Banshee, Polaris, Forge, Boom Boom, Tempo. Alex: Ooh, I want to see if Storm is on the team. I want to see Forge on this team. Because I want to see that old nineties tension between them. That'd be fun. Justin: Yeah, they had a lot of tension. Alex: Yeah. Justin: I'm definitely going for Strong Guy. Pete: Really? Alex: Love it. Justin: I love Strong Guy. Alex: All right. Pete: No Boom Boom. Justin: Fun character. Funny character. A lot of pathos underneath his his powers, great, great character. Alex: I got to assume Wolverine is the other one, right? It's Wolverine and Storm, Cyclops, Jean Gray and whoever the fifth one is. Justin: It's a bunch of X-Men. I don't know. We don't know. Remember every other X-Men book has been like, look, a bunch of random experts. Alex: It's true. All right. Let's throw it out to Pete the page here with a [inaudible 00:33:49], Spawn number 314 from Image Comics, written by Todd McFarlane, art by Carlo Barberi. In this issue Spawn meets a larger Spawn. Pete: Yeah. And is immediately confused why this larger spawn would be attacking him. He's like, “Hey, wait, we look similar, we should be on the same size, giant spawn.” Alex: What I love about this giant spawn, having not read many issues of Spawn before this, is it is entirely possible this large spawn was introduced prior or this large spawn was just introduced this issue. But either way is fine. Justin: Let me just throw out there, he fights a larger spawn, is captured, and then that larger spawn is like, “It's time to meet my master, who is the large and even larger spawn.” Pete: And even larger spawn, because [crosstalk 00:34:39], well, you can't get larger in that spawn. And by the way our spawn is so small in comparison to the large spawn and then even larger one. But what's fun- Alex: Here's my question, why do they keep calling each other spawn? Because that's like their designation, right? It would be like, if we kept calling each other a human or something like that. Justin: Yes. Alex: It's weird. Pete: Well, human. Justin: It is weird. Yeah, they should have a short hand, because they're all in the spawn business together. Pete: I really liked this twist at the end where it's like, oh man, you giant spawns are going to get taken down by even smaller spawn. What a twist. Alex: Remember that he's not a spawn, I think he's sharp night guy. Pete: He's night spawn, that's [crosstalk 00:35:24]. Alex: Oh, he's night spawn, was that medieval spawn? Pete: It's medieval spawn. I don't know if it's medieval. It looks like a night spawn. Justin: I think, and it wasn't introduced in issue six or something crazy, way back in the day. Pete: What, medieval spawn? Justin: Yeah. Pete: That was- Alex: Before we move on here- Pete: No, no, that was a crossover event where medieval spawn was its own comic series for a little, dark ages spawn. Justin: Yeah, that's right. I'm starting to think this Todd McFarlane guy is trying to sell some action figures. Pete: Well, he is, he makes a lot of them, and it's smart. Because if I was a kid I would want all the spawns, but the dark ages spawn is where [crosstalk 00:36:01]. Alex: But as an adult you know better. Justin: As an adult you put away childish things. Pete: That's right. Justin: And you'd have no interest in having any of these action figures. Alex: Pete, before we move on, I just want to ask, did you like this comic book? Pete: Yeah, what's not to like? Alex: Your voice was very high. Justin: Wow, really high-pitched answer there, Pete. And let's just, for the listener, Pete, is sitting on a pile of spawn action figures as if they were skulls. Pete: Yes. Alex: The Last God number 12 from DC Comics written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Riccardo Federici. This is wrapping up the first maybe arc of this book. But it definitely wraps up the story that we have here as our friends to try to take down The Last God, I guess. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Big revelations here, some big deaths. What'd you think? How'd you think about this story as a whole over the course of 12 issues? Pete: Epic. I really love the storytelling, and [inaudible 00:36:58] is like we see them in action, but as the issues go on, we get little bits and pieces of their backstory, I think done so well, while telling a bigger story. The action and the lead-up of the ending of this was just really well done. And I wasn't the biggest fan of songs or whatever, but it really kind of fit. I loved all the back matter and the maps and stuff. This was just a fantastic epic story that I think really 12 issues of just gold. Justin: It's really beautifully drawn. The story's great. And the fact that it ends with this just great song where we see all the characters, it feels just like a montage at the end of a epic trilogy. I want to see this as a TV series more than I want to see The Lord of the Rings series that's in development at Amazon. Pete: Wow. Alex: Couldn't agree more. Let's move on and talk about Something Is Killing the Children number 14 from BOOM! Studios, art by James Tynion IV, art by Werther Dell'Edera. Here we're getting our hero finally fighting back against the monsters who are the ones killing the children. Justin, I know you've been, frustrated is probably too strong a word, but you've definitely felt like this title needs to get somewhere. Did you feel like it got there with this issue? Justin: Yes, it does feel like this is the issue that's sort of moving into what this arc is about. When so many of the issues in this arc were very much like we got to fight this stuff, we got to get out there and do this. And we were getting little tidbits. Let me start over, this arc felt like it was going to be this huge backstory arc, really getting us to the next phase. And then it didn't do that. And then this feels like it does it. Alex: What about you, Pete? How'd you feel about this issue? Pete: I disagree a little bit with Justin. I think this continues to be amazing. I didn't think- Alex: It's very good. The art is very good. The fight sequences are awesome in this book. Pete: Yeah. I've just been impressed with it from start to finish, but I think that we do kind of get to see the main girl kind of views her kind of veteran's styles to kind of work her kind of magic a little bit. I'm glad we got to finally see that. And I love the whole bit about her working out some anger issues, oh, that just spoke to me in ways that you can't believe. But I want to get one of those mass to walk around with the light that she has. I think that'd be really cool. But yeah, I can't say enough great things about this book. This is really glorious. Alex: It's good staff. Moving on to Strange Adventures number eight from DC Comics written by Tom King, art by Mitch Gerads and Evan Doc Shaner. In this issue the Pykkts finally attack earth. The whole Justice League is on the offensive, Adam Strange of course is caught in the middle. And in the backstory, finding out more about what's gotten with Adam Strange, and it is starting to feel like maybe he's the bad guy here. What do you guys think about what's going on? Justin: I mean there's … Go ahead. You go. Pete: Yeah, so I've been a little frustrated with this up until this issue, because I felt like we haven't really had enough information to really kind of piece together what's going on. In this we get a lot of information which is great and much needed. The very crazy cool touching stuff with the daughter here. Yeah, I felt like this finally started to click for me and I was like, “Oh my God. Okay. Now I'm understanding things a little bit more and I want to go back and read it from the beginning.” Justin: I mean, this book is so good. It's such a stressful read, like a lot of Tom King stuff. The tension in this book, it's just palpable throughout. And we have Adam Strange in the last couple of issues. We found out that he's been tortured basically for a million lifetimes, just absolutely brutalized. And in this issue, it just rephrases him. He's gone through so much trauma. He's like a fully broken person. And Doc Shaner's art like, he still has these perfectly clear blue eyes, but you just see the pain that he's in and how he is just not capable of being a hero. And that adds so much dread to the scenes with his daughter. And then meanwhile, you have Mr. Terrific and Batman trying to sort through with great sequences of Mr. Terrific answering trivia questions from one of his fears. I'm so excited to see where this is going. Alex: I am starting to feel despite what I said at the beginning, that this is more about perspectives on war and how nobody is right. That there isn't really a villain. I know I said maybe Adam Strange was the villain, but I think he committed atrocities, the Pykkts committed atrocities. That's what happens in war. We know that Tom King has been in wars. He was in the CIA. He knows how this works. And I think that's what he's writing about here is that from the perspective of your side, of course you're right, but that doesn't mean that you're right for the perspective of the other side. And I think that's what he's playing with here. Justin: There are no heroes. Alex: Exactly. Justin: It's very hard to have a hero when you're in a war where both sides are fighting to kill and fighting for their lives. And I think that's what we're going to get next issue. Alex: Yeah. Next up, An Unkindness of Ravens number five from Boom! Studios written by Dan Panosian, art by Marianna Ignazzi. This is the end of the first arc, first book, whatever you want to call it, of this title. We've had our main characters try to figure out what's going on in this weird small town here, spoiler, but she finds out her mother is alive. She had a twin sister who had some power maybe, but it turns out actually she didn't. It turns out she might have the power. She might be the one that is supposed to complete this coven of witches or whatever is going on here. We were big fans of this from when they started. How did you feel about how it wrapped up? Justin: I liked this so much. I think it's set up a good mystery. I really, the art is so approachable, it makes you really feel like you're right alongside the main characters. And this last couple of pages reveal is just so sweet. And it does such a good job, especially with the art of being very like Archie or comic books Sabrina. But having more mature themes and more sort of deeper storytelling than those original comics. Alex: Pete, what about you? Justin: I really like this, this continues to be a fantastic book. I've been really impressed with kind of how we're finding out the information as this story is going. And this whole thing about this kind of coven of witches called the ravens. And it's just very cool. And I really liked this kind of mother daughter interaction. I feel like it's very kind of like old timey versus now times. This kind of like, there's a bigger picture and then … But somebody just so caught up in their own shit, they can't kind of see the bigger things going on. I was really impressed with that. The art is glorious. I'm really into it and I'm excited to see how this kind of unfolds what choice she makes moving forward, what team she's going to choose. Alex: Good stuff. Last but not least, Colonel Weird: Cosmagog number four from Dark Horse Comics, excuse me, written by Jeff Lemire, art by Tyler Crook. This is also wrapping up this title exploring one of the members of Black Hammer. There's a big emotional catharsis that happens here as he moves forward in his history. I thought this title was awesome. Just Tyler Crooks art is phenomenal. Justin: So good. Alex: The writing is great. We've talked about this before. I've said this before, but it's like Slaughterhouse-Five in space. Good stuff. Justin: Centered on an Adam Strange type of character. I mean, we've talked a lot about eyeballs in this episode The Stack. Pete: Yeah, sure have. Justin: And in this comic like- Pete: Eyeball heavy stack. Justin: Yeah, eyeball heavy. I've been just licking these eyeballs, lapping them up. And this, you just see so much pain in the different versions of Colonel Weird throughout time, throughout this book. And it's just so good. It's such a well done story. Pete: I think the cover says so much. It's like The Little Prince and Outer Space, but sad. Alex: That cover is so good. Go ahead, Pete. Pete: Yeah, it's really unbelievable. I feel like I want to read it all again because it ended and I was like, “Wait, what?” I wasn't sure how great the ending is until I want to go back and read it all again. But it was really cool, very creative and the art's unbelievable. Alex: And that is it for The Stack. 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 at Comic Book Live on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast, and more iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen. Until next time, keep supporting Dim Comics. Justin: Time for stabbing rehearsal. The post The Stack: South Side Serpents, Captain Marvel And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Phillip Kennedy Johnson Talks His New Superman & Alien Books

The Comic Lounge Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2021 44:56

On today's episode , I (Ryan) chat with writer, Phillip Kennedy Johnson! Writer of books such as The Last God, Marvel Zombies Resurrection and much more. We talk about how he first got into comics, his upcoming Future State books, taking over Action Comics & Superman and what that means to him. He also talks about how he was the perfect guy to write the new Alien ongoing. All that and much more! You can follow Phillip on https://www.phillipkennedyjohnson.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phillip.kennedyjohnson Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillip_kennedy_johnson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhillipKJohnson You can follow The Comic Lounge on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thecomiclounge Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecomiclounge Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecomiclounge https://www.thecomiclounge.com Send us your feedback or comments to thecomicloungepod@gmail.com

books superman alien future state new super man phillip kennedy johnson last god

The Stack: Dark Nights Death Metal, King In Black And More

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2020 49:52

On this week's comic book review podcast: Dark Nights Death Metal: The Secret Origin #1 DC Comics Written by Scott Snyder and Geoff Johns Art by Jerry Ordway, Francis Manapul, Ryan Benjamin & Richard Friend, Paul Pelletier & Norm Rapmund King in Black #2 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ryan Stegman Firefly: Blue Sun Rising #1 BOOM! Studios Written by Greg Pak Art by Dan McDaid Ice Cream Man #22 Image Comics Written by W. Maxwell Prince Art by Martín Morazzo Labyrinth: Masquerade #1 Archaia Written by Lara Elena Donnelly Illustrated by Pius Bak, Samantha Dodge and French Carlomagno King-Size Conan #1 Marvel Written by Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, Chris Claremont, Kevin Eastman and Steven S. DeKnight Art by Steve McNiven, Pete Woods, Roberto de la Torre, Kevin Eastman and Jesús Saiz An Unkindess of Ravens #4 BOOM! Studios Written by Dan Panosian Illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi Sea of Sorrows #2 IDW Written by Rich Douek Art and Color by Alex Cormack The Last God #11 DC Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by Riccardo Federici The Department of Truth #4 Image Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Martin Simmonds The Comic Book History of Animation #2 IDW Written by Fred Van Lente Art & Letters by Ryan Dunlavey Doctor Doom #10 Marvel Written by Christopher Cantwell Art by Salvador Larroca Sea of Stars #8 Image Comics Written by Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum Art by Stephen Green Transformers/Back to the Future #2 IDW Written by Canan Scott Art by Juan Samu Action Comics #1028 DC Comics Written by Brian Michael Bendis Art by John Romita Jr. The Scumbag #3 Image Comics Written by Rick Remender Art by Eric Powell Scarenthood #3 IDW Story & Art by Nick Roche Color by Chris O'Halloran U.S.AGent #2 Marvel Written by Priest Art by Georges Jeanty Undiscovered Country #11 Image Comics Written by Scott Snyder & Charles Soule Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Leonardo Marcelo Grassi Something is Killing the Children #13 BOOM! Studios Written by James Tynion IV Art by Werther Dell'edera 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: Speaker 1: Three, two, one. Alex: What is up everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin: I'm Justin. Pete: I'm Pete. Alex: And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of Comics that have come out this week and woo boy, did a bunch of Comics come out this week. Justin: Oh, and we're going to talk about them all. It's like Pokemon, but for comics and talking instead of collecting and it's us instead of a kid named Ash. Alex: Yes, but- Pete: What? Alex: … we do still keep our comics inside of a ball. Starting with Dark Nights Death Metal The Secret Origin number one from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and Geoff Johns. Art by Jerry Ordway, Francis Manapul, Ryan Benjamin and Richard Fred, Paul Pelletier, and Norm Rapmund. This is not what I was expecting at all. Justin: Agree completely. Alex: But what it turns out to be is a deep dive into Superboy-Prime and in a weird way, the last ever Superboy-Prime story, it also I don't know if it spoils or shows us or jumps ahead of a huge moment in Dark Nights Death Metal, but this is not just a throw away one-shot, this is an important part of the overall story. I was very hesitant going into this, but completely won over by the end both by the emotion and the storytelling and the art throughout, I was very impressed. Did you guys feel the same? Justin: Yeah. I mean, this was written by Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder. A collab, a classic collab, and it really shows. I feel like this… You hear both of their voices in a nice synergy in this book. I've never been a huge Superboy-Prime guy, but this story I thought was really good. It takes the character and really humanizes him in a way that I didn't see coming and was just a great book, great little standalone story focusing on the character. I love where it ended. Pete: Yeah, the title was a little misleading. It is kind of a Prime story which I did not see coming. Yeah, I mean, it's Supeboy-Prime still being a dick, but then he kind of gets a little bit less annoying and it's amazing art and then of course dogs are awesome and dogs can make any asshole a better person. Justin: Wow. Alex: 100%. Couldn't agree more with that. Like you said, you got Geoff Johns who invented Superboy-Prime coming in, Scott Snyder who has been the maestro of Dark Nights Death Metal and they're working together. The thing… It is a huge spoiler, but the thing that surprised me that I could not believe happened in this book is Superboy-Prime beats the Batman who laughs and essentially wins in this issue, which is wild. Justin: It was wild, but- Pete: Is that it? I mean, is it going to happen in another book. Like it just seemed crazy that this was it. Alex: I don't know. Justin: It did feel weird that it would come down to this. There's has to be a ton more story to be told in the main book, but I do think like the Space Wolverine focused book who'd colloquially known- Pete: Fuck you. You don't know anything. Justin: He's known as the Lobo- Pete: Thank you. Tell people what you're talking about because that doesn't make sense. Justin: No, I think that's a perfect description. Pete: No. Justin: Like if I were to describe you, I would say regular bones Wolverine and I think that makes a lot of sense. I just see the world through Wolverine tinted glasses. Pete: That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Justin: Regular bones Wolverine? Pete: Yeah. Justin: But the Lobo book… I forget what it was called, but it really told the Lobo side of the story, but it all was a part of the main story, we just got to see this little fragment fully told in the side book. So I think this is real. This is part of it. Pete: [crosstalk 00:04:03], said frag. Alex: I mean, I'll tell you what. This is an event that really could have used a checklist in the back of every book, which seems like such a dumb thing but we're about to talk about King in Black in a second and a lot of those tie-ins kind of matter, but maybe not as much as the main King in Black book matters, but it's very handy to look through and go, okay, have I read that? Have I checked that off yet mentally in my mind yet or does that come after this other thing? There's so many different spinoffs and other things that it would be very easy to skip this issue and discount it as, Oh, it's just another tale of the dark multi-verse or something like that, which mind you those books have been good as well, but I think there would have been a better way of executing that instead DC seems very allergic to recap pages and ways of letting people know how to follow their events and I wish they would do that a little better because I think ultimately that would be even more rewarding for the constant fans. Justin: The constant fans. Pete: I mean, that's the thing though [crosstalk 00:05:02], by not kind of making anything about it, they're really rewarding the people who read every DC book. Alex: They just need to put a note be like, Hey, this one's important. Justin: [crosstalk 00:05:17], strategically fraud choice if I may. Alex: All right. Well, let's move on to another big event. King in Black, number two from Marvel written by Donny Cates and art by Ryan Stegman. This is picking up split seconds after the end of the last issue of Venom, which I know I said mostly King in Black is important, but we got to watch Venom falling down a building for 32 seconds in the last issue of Venom. That he's been tossed off by the King in Black by- Pete: [crosstalk 00:05:44], don't say he's been tossed off. That's not- Alex: What are you talking about? Justin: I mean, that's- Alex: What do you think that is? Justin: … exactly. Alex: [crosstalk 00:05:52], like. Justin: Is that degrading? Alex: You can't say you toss somebody off. That's not good. Justin: [crosstalk 00:06:00], he had his salad tossed off the building. Pete: Yeah. Alex: [crosstalk 00:06:06], Oh my God. Is that what you want me to say? Pete: No. Justin: Yeah. He got- Pete: No. I'm trying- Justin: Someone brocked his world. Pete: Somebody brocked his world. Alex: [crosstalk 00:06:18], is dealing with the fallout of the last issue where the world has been taken over by [crosstalk 00:06:24], or at least New York city. Some of the Avengers are trying to rally to get Venom, and unfortunately spoiler, by the end of the issue they fail at Eddie Brock dies. Oh, I couldn't believe that… I was like, Oh, this will cut and then [inaudible 00:06:41], will swoop in and save him. He's not going to hit the ground. Smash. Justin: It's about time somebody killed this maniacal Spider-Man villain. Pete: Oh my gosh. Alex: So where do you think this is going from here? Do you think Eddie Brock is actually dead? He's going to come back to life, is his son Dylan going to be the new Venom? What's the goal here, granted that we're only a couple of issues through the King in Black event at this point. Justin: I like this event a lot because it's going hard yet we're still getting the emotional bits. I think Donny Cates is very tactical. Like the issue of Eddie falling did feel like a sendoff and then to have him die in this issue feels like maybe he is dying, but I'm pretty confident he's going to come back. He'll become a full symbiote or some version of that will be where he goes. Pete: I hope so because I really got into the father son relationship here and it was weird that while he was going through all this… Like they just had his son playing video games in another room, I was just like… I feel like someone should have- Alex: [crosstalk 00:07:45], a son? Pete: Ooh. Wow. That's [crosstalk 00:07:51], like a jilted father. A jilted dad. Justin: No. Pete: Yeah. Jesus Christ. Justin: The other day Alex's son, it was bring your father to school day and he brought in his Xbox. That's true. Pete: He was like Master Chief is my dad. Alex: Great book. Next up let's move to the end of an event Firefly: Blue Sun Rising number one from Boom Studios. Written by Greg Pak. Art by Dan McDaid. This is as I just indicated wrapping up the Blue Sun Rising event where now Reynolds and the crew of Firefly are taking it to Blue Sun, the evil organization at the heart of a lot of things in the Firefly universe. Even if you haven't been reading this event religiously this is great. This is a good- Justin: So good. Pete: Fucking Greg Pak man. Alex: … chapter in the Firefly universe. Love this stuff. Justin: Yeah. I mean, Greg Pak has done a great job of really… Took the characters from Firefly and Serenity and put them in a very different place at the start of this run and then he's really brought them back. It really feels like a great episode of Firefly or even the sort of climax of the Serenity movie. Like really great action puts the characters in a situation where they know how to succeed by fucking everything up. Introduces these other characters that aren't part of the main crew, but still fit really well. I think this event is just such a great run on this book Pete: I've kind of been an outsider for this world, but this book did such a great job of bringing me in getting to care about these characters. This was an emotional ending. I thought it was really, really well done, and so well-written. This Greg Pak guy is unbelievable. I just really love that last panel and the let no one take the sky from you. Oh, just beautiful. Alex: Great stuff. Definitely pick that up. Moving on to another surprisingly emotional issue, Ice Cream Man number 22 from Image Comics written by W. Maxwell Prince. Art by Martine Morazzo. Now we've talked about every issue of this book. Pete: Every goddamn issue. Alex: Well, every goddamn issue because it's fantastic. The art is absolutely gorgeous. It's terrifying in exactly the right way. All these small or big heart tales that parse out may have a loose continuity with them, but this one is very different. This is a advent calendar focusing on a character who's trying to deal with the fact that she's pregnant, her parents are over religious, what should she do about it? And it ends up having kind of a sad, but very hopeful ending for Ice Cream Man. This was a very refreshing change of pace and I really liked this quite a bit. Pete: Well, that's the thing. Like I couldn't enjoy the refreshing because I was so worried about how this was ending. I was just like, “Oh God, what are we doing in this issue? Is the horror going to go too far? Like holy fucking shit.” But I was really impressed with the ending. I thought it was very touching and a nice turn. Justin: Yeah. I mean, this was so refreshing that you might as well call it Lemon Sorbet man, because- Pete: There we go. Justin: … it's such a nice bright change of pace. I do think that it's sort of fitting at the end of a long difficult year to have even one of the darkest comic books on the stands really have a bright ending, but still able to talk about really interesting stuff, bring us to the edge of that horror. It's great. This book is always great. Pete: I also really like how the house in the last panel, the way the windows are opened. It almost makes the house look like an advent calendar. It's just really, really impressive. If you haven't checked this out, please do. Like every panel it's just… They're really playing chess with this. It's just very impressive. Alex: Totally agree. Let's move on to one that I was pleasantly surprised by Labyrinth: Masquerade number one from Archaia. Written by Lara Elena Donnelly. Illustrated by Pius Bak, Samantha Dodge and French Carlomagno. What Pete is alluding to is Labyrinth is one of my favorite movies of all time. Pete: You're, goddamn right it is. Alex: But I've been kind of iffy on the whole idea of continuing Labyrinth at all. What I really liked about this book is I feel like it found a fresh angle on the whole thing. We're told a story that takes place semi in parallel to the movie, has some new things to say with some new characters. Has some good things to say about memory. Adds some stuff to the continuity, and just the whole mythology of it and the art is really good as well as the coloring. I like this quite a bit. Again, I know it seems like I should be in the tank for this, but I definitely came into it being wary and was won over by the end. What was your guys' take? Justin: I think that Alex is fucking tanked, is what I think. He's in the tank, he's on the tank. This guy has tanked for this book. Pete: He's under the tank. Justin: Yeah. He's swimming in the tank. He's Scrooge dunking ducking the tank. I remember Labyrinth not perhaps as much as you. I remember if someone peeing into a fountain because we watched that in school and [crosstalk 00:13:15], a very salacious moment in my life, but this played like a book. If you're not familiar with Labyrinth, but want to give it a shot, it's very much like an issue of the dreaming in the same end universe or even an issue of fables. It plays by those same rules, it's a great story and you get to just sort of explore this world following this character. I thought it was fun. Pete: Yeah. I mean the whole time I was just thinking about how much [inaudible 00:13:43], loves this. Justin: There you go. Pete: But yeah, it was impressive. It was a new take on something that we've seen a ton. So it was nice to kind of like… I was impressed that it was fresh and the art was different, but it felt like it fit in the world. Yeah, I wasn't really a huge fan of the Labyrinth, you know? I mean, I respect the Bowie and stuff like that, but I was really impressed with this take and with this story. Alex: All right. Let's move from a book that Pete was sure that I was all over to a book that I was sure Pete was all over. King-Size Conan number one from Marvel written by Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, Chris Claremont, Kevin Eastman and Steven S. DeKnight. Art by Steve McNiven, Pete Woods, Roberto de la Torre, Kevin Eastman, and Jesús Saiz. So this is a tribute to Conan. It is a bunch of short stories about different parts of Conan's life. As usual the short story collection, I think mileage may vary, but for my money I thought the last story by Steven S. DeKnight was awesome. I love that one. I thought that was great. The rest of them were like your standard hack and slash fair, but that was the one that I was really into personally. Pete: All right. You don't have to shit on the other ones [inaudible 00:15:06]. Alex: The other ones were pieces of shit. Pete: No. Justin: Wow. Alex: Is what I definitely think. They're not good art and good writing through out. Pete: Yeah, the Claremont one I enjoyed, but the Eastman one, it was like I got into a cozy sleeping bag from the '90s and just wrap myself self in nostalgia and was just so happy. It's just great to see his art. I mean, it's a little weird in color, but it's still just it's so grimy and fantastic in all the right ways and I think it fits with Conan. It's cool. Alex: Did you find any poggs at the bottom of your sleeping bag? Pete: No. Justin: Get out of that sleeping bag dude. Pete: I was never a pogger. Justin: Okay. Pete: Never into the poggs, but yeah, I think this is great. A lot of great stories. Yeah, and the last one was cool. Also the art themselves we're very different, but really worked. It was impressive. Justin: Yeah, I liked this a lot too. Conan's one of those characters that has these three iconic eras. Then I think if you haven't read Conan, Jason Aaron's run on Thor sort of echoed in a really good way, where it's like young Thor, young Conan, middle sort of Thor, that's confident and a great warrior and it sort of seeded all and then King-Conan who is sort of a little bit over it, and I like all these stories. The first one I thought it was really cool because it dovetails so nicely with the original publication of Marvel's Conan: The Barbarian, which that was a cool little note and then my favorite version of Conan the more recent books of the last decade or so are the ones when he's with Bêlit his pirate queen. So it was nice to see her again here. Alex: Yeah. Good stuff overall. Next up An Unkindness of Ravens number four from Boom Studios written by Dan Panosian and illustrated by Marina… Marianna, excuse me, Ignazzi. Here we're finally kind of getting some answers about what's been going on, but this book there is a teen witch not named Sabrina who has come to a small town, find some weird goings on. There seems to be two warring factions who were both gunning for her, and here a lot of the things that we have suspected since the first issue come out. I like that they aren't wasting a lot of time on this mysteries in this book and they're finally pulling the lid back on them so to speak. Justin: Agree. Though that I will say the beginning of each issue has some good mystery building stuff where we're getting a totally different sort of art style and some backstory stuff that I think is really cool. Dan Panosian who we had on the show is the writer of this book and he… The Panosh as he has never- Alex: [crosstalk 00:17:56], calls him that. Justin: As he's never been called in his life. He illustrates the beginning of each book, which I think is very cool and then the main story it's really good. The art style is sort of in that Archie world, but telling a story that sits right alongside Sabrina, if you're a fan of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Pete: Yeah, I agree. It's cool. It's almost like making fun of the Archie style in a way, where it's just like a little edgier. Also I think it works great. I'm impressed with this story. Also you shouldn't take old timey pills in a paper cup and then drink. You know that's just a bad combo. Justin: What are the oldest pills you think are safe to take? Are you talking about… Like when you say old timey, do you mean like… Because the oldest pills were just little pebbles that people would take. Pete: Oh, thanks man. Just the- Alex: Yeah. OG pills? Pete: OG pills- Justin: Yeah. Pete: Yeah. The original gangster of pills. Yeah, it looked like those old little paper cups that you see and he was just kind of tossing back some classic red and white pills there, and yeah. The art style is kind of like this Archie, but different, but the facial expressions are really great and especially in the main character. I think this is fun and different and cool. I like it. Alex: Next up Sea of Sorrows number two from IDW written by Rich Douek. Art and color by Alex Cormack. We had- Pete: [crosstalk 00:19:38], we had Rich on the show. Justin: Yes. Take it easy guys. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Yeah, not too rough. This is a story about a bunch of treasure hunters who encounter, or maybe some deadly mermaids. This is great. This is terrifying. This is the scariest issue I've read all week easily. Justin: Yeah, the tone of this book is just so good. The way they draw the depths of the water is scary. The way the art is from, it's so much… Like this is a very specific note, but it's like so much up and down like vertical when they're under water. Like when you read an issue of Aquaman or Namor. It's sort of a scene like you'd see on any other book except under water. With this I could see these real long angles of these people under water and just add so much tension to it. All the characters are sort of greedy, up to no good. It's great. Pete: Yeah, this is dark on top of dark and then scary as fuck, man. This is like a crazy book and it's intense to read because there is no hope, there's no chance. It's all going bad and the sea is a dark, dark place in this book and it's filled with things that are going to kill you. So this is intense and definitely worth picking up if you're into that type of shit my man, but get ready. Justin: Have you guys ever been in water before? Pete: Yeah. Justin: You guys are like really- Alex: Oh, man. No, I haven't tried it yet. Pete: Well, it was funny because Rich was talking about like… You know he's from New York City and he would go to the beach, but there's a real big difference. The first time I went into the ocean off of a boat where there's no land in sight, it's scary as fuck and I think this book kind of does a good job of really kind of grasping that. Alex: I panic when I get into the deep end of pools because I imagine there's a shark under me if I can't get to the bottom, so. Justin: Wow. Pete: Yeah. I'm ready to go to the ocean. Let's do this. Alex: No, man. You will- Justin: You really don't like the ocean? Alex: No, I really… Like I get an overactive imagination when the water is too deep and I can't see the bottom. We used to go snorkeling when I was a kid quite a bit and if we were on the low part, we're kind of swimming up to a reef or something like that. All good, but once we got past that where I couldn't touch the bottom with my feet, it really became like, “Okay, something is going to bite me. Something is going to eat me. What's coming? What's going to happen? Oh God.” And I would just get this spiraling panic until I got back to the shore. Justin: Oh, man. I can't wait for our triple Caribbean vacation. We're going to have a blast. Pete: No way, man. Alex: Good times. Let's talk about The Last God number 11 from DC comics written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Art by Riccardo Federici. Another guest that we had on the show this week. We had Phillip talking about this issue. This is the second to last issue of the first series in Felspire Chronicles. Yes. Pete, do you have a question or a statement? Pete: I have something I wanted to point out. Usually you do such a great job with your transitions, but I just feel like you really missed an opportunity from going from Seas of Star Wars to Sea of Stars. I just wanted to point that out real quick. Alex: You know what? I purposely separated them because I kept confusing them. Pete: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:22:58]. That makes sense. Alex: There you go you are absolutely correct. Later in the podcast, we're going to be talking about Sea of Stars number eight, but I kept them separate because I thought it was weird. All right. So let's talk about The Last God instead. This is a big dark issue where things go down. Justin: Holly shit. Alex: I don't think they're going to get out of this one. Pete: There's plucky kids. Justin: It doesn't look great. I mean, every time we talk about this book, it's all about there's just so much depth here of the fantasy, the mythology it's so well thought out. The art is amazing. It feels like the… Every page feels like the cover of a fantasy novel in the best way, and it does feel like a new take. It's like a ruined fellowship as Phillip said on the podcast and to get to be in that with them and still have it, it's not so stiff as it might come across. It's not like these people aren't saying we must continue. Like sometimes the sort of the token characters come across like they're still joking around, they're still like being real people and that's great to see. Pete: I got to tell you hearing PKG get worked up about this in how… And do it, he gets with just seeing the back matter in the songs and stuff in this issue really lets you know how deep this rabbit hole goes. Like you think you have an imagination of what you want to have happen. He has it worked out tenfold and it's really impressive. The art is just phenomenal. Each issue kind of takes you to this kind of creepy magic place. Yeah, this was a fantastic issue. Great ending. I really can't wait to see how this is all going to kind of go down. Yeah, man, the battle stuff is just glorious. Alex: Next let's talk about The Department of Truth number four from Image Comics written by James Tynion IV. Art by Martin Simmonds. Now earlier I said that Sea of Sorrows was the scariest thing that we read all week, I think I lied. I think this actually was. This book is incredible and this issue in particular is so expert at getting under your skin and making you feel uncomfortable. The writing is phenomenal. The art is phenomenal. If you haven't been reading this, this is about a organization, a part of the US government maybe devoted to not debunking conspiracy theories, but stopping conspiracy theories before they could become true based on everybody's belief. Here we get the belief that the characters of the organization is having challenged on their own as we find out more about Black Hat, the organization that's fighting against it and the stuff that they lay out here is so upsetting to read in exactly the right way. A fantastic book, but as I said very scary and very uncomfortable to read at the same time. Pete: I want to hear Justin take because he was saying this is his pick of the week. So I'm excited to hear what he's going to say. Justin: Yeah. I love this book. Like I'm a big news junkie and this book is like, Oh, this makes me feel so much better to have someone sort of digesting these things and making it make sense in a fictional context, but it actually is quite stressful to really feel these beliefs that real people in our world believe, and have it… The premise of the book is that if enough people believe in a very simple idea that is false, it still manifests in the real world and I think that is such a smart premise and scary and feels real to us. Like the book does this just great sort of loop-to-loop mentally for us as the reader, because the premise is about flies becoming real, but that's also happened in our world. It's such a smart book. Pete: That whole thing about Barack just blew my mind. I- Alex: And you believe it now, right? Pete: Yeah. It was just one of those things where they in this book were able to pull off kind of like a trope that we've seen in a lot of horror movies and spoiler, but the whole like “The room in the next room.” I was like, “Oh shit.” But like that's such a thing that I should have seen coming. It's just… Oh, man. It's intense. It uses real life that makes it scarier. Yeah, the art's phenomenal. This is a crazy read and it's really impressive. Alex: Two things that I wanted to mention about this book in particular. One, a couple of issues back they introduced these… Issue two actually I think, they introduced this star face man who are our main character that we are following who is new to The Department of Truth was maybe, or maybe not tortured by this being years back, wants to track him down and wants to stop him and it uses a lot of antisemitic tropes and as a Jewish man myself, I was very uncomfortable about it. Reading this issue the targets conspiracy theories around birtherism and Barack Obama made me realize in retrospect that, “Oh yes, of course they are trying to make me feel uncomfortable with this plot line. They're trying to make me feel this is upsetting.” And so to elicit that reaction, I think is the right thing. Alex: The other thing that I wanted to mention is the end of the book, and this is a big spoiler, but by the end of the issue our main character is told, okay, this Washington Post reporter and presumably his editor, you got to kill them. You got to just shut this down because even if they say they're not going to follow this up, at some point they're going to mention it and it's going to take on a life of its own and the Washington Post reporter I believe says something to the effect of, “Hey, you're one of the good guys, right?” And while he's crying, he says, “I think so.” And shoots them, and that in essence kind of defines and redefines the entire series because we realize, Oh, okay. We have a predilection to think that people we're following the heroes, maybe they're not. Justin: Yeah. And I think I had that same feeling of dread reading this about just controlling the truth is a slippery slope to be on. So that's a great tension for this book. One of the things I want to mention, there's an ad on the back of this book for the new Anthology series from W. Maxwell Prince, the writer of Ice Cream Man called HaHa, coming out in January. Very excited for that. Alex: Me too. Pete: I don't know if I'm ready for that. Alex: Neither am I. I feel like my wife, who is a clown is going to be hypercritical of it. We'll see what happens. Maybe we'll have her on the show. Next up [crosstalk 00:29:52], History of Animation number two from IDW written by Fred Van Lente and arts and letters by Ryan Dunlavey. Just a little note, we're going to have him on the show I believe next month or maybe February. Pete: Fred. Alex: Have a chat about this book, so that should be a lot of fun. This book is great. I know we talked about this the last time, but here we're finally getting to the point where Disney is ascended and Walt Disney at least in this world and probably in ours as well is a sociopath. Justin: Yes. Pete: Yeah. It's super crazy to read this. You know that Fred Van Lente just did all this off the top of his dome. Like this guy knows so much about Animation. Alex: He made it all up, right? Justin: Yeah. Alex: He made up all this shit? Pete: No, no. He just knows it- Alex: The Department of Truth. Pete: … because he lived it, man. He lived it all. Alex: Oh, God. That's crazy. Justin: He lived it. I love that little facts you learn every time you read any books that these guys do together, and this is so interesting. Like just one from the beginning here Marjorie Sullivan I think wife of the creator of Felix the Cat, notable drinker fell out of her window and died trying to hail her chauffeur while she was drunk. Just those little details, these little stories that are just so interesting, and then the way they incorporate imagery from the actual cartoons and animated projects they're talking about is really cool. Alex: And it's also funny. You know it could just be a history lesson that feel like reading Wikipedia, but they make it engaging, they make it fun as they have done with every comic they've done across the board. This is great. I'm very excited to keep reading this book and see how they get up to modern history. It's really fascinating so far. Next one Doctor Doom number 10 from Marvel written by Christopher Cantwell. Art by Salvador Larroca. This is the last issue of this title. I believe the last one we read was the first issue of this title. So I figured it was worth checking in. Part of the criticism I believe we had with the first issue was it seemed a little light and fun for a Doctor Doom book. This issue was not light and fun, [crosstalk 00:32:00], but definitely very dark in exactly the right way. I thought this was a great ending for the series. How'd you guys think? Justin: I agree like the first issue I think was called Pottersville last issue called Bedford Falls, I think those are two references to its wonderful life. My favorite movie at the holidays. So this felt very timely and it's just a great character study of Doctor Doom that we get to see played out here, cementing him as a straight up villain. He gets played a lot in Fantastic Four as sort of a little bit of a softie. He has a connection with Valerio thanks to Hickman's run, but I think this is the best Doctor Doom. He's a petty, very powerful super villain and we get to see that on display. Pete: Yeah. Just to me the way it ended was great. When it started, I was like what are we doing here? I don't want a different Doom, but just the way he's like never was, never will be good. Like that was just so bad-ass, such a great Doom kind of like ending. So I was really impressed with how this ended. Justin: You were like here comes the Doom? Pete: Yeah. “Here comes the Doom.” Alex: Well from Sea of Sorrows to Sea of Star number eight from the Image Comics written by Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum. Art by Steven Green. So we had Dennis Hallum on the show, live show a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was really fascinating frankly reading this now knowing that… Unless I got it wrong, Dennis writes the dad stuff and Jason Aaron writes the kids' stuff and knowing they kind of write on their own tracks, definitely redefined how I read this book, but still another good weird issue of the story of a dad and his son trying to find each other in the universe. Justin: Yeah. I mean, really knowing that about the book it definitely changes how you read it. This book reminds me so much of sort of last season late episodes of Adventure Time where it's like a little bit trippier it's a little bit like you don't quite know where the deeper underpinnings are blending with the fun mythology stuff and I'd love that. So I love this. Pete: Yeah. This continues to be just kind of like I'm worried about the kid and if they're going to find each other, but I'm also having such a great time with the amazing stuff that is happening and to see that the dad kind of get to have some fun in this issue was great. Before he was just kind of just scared shitless for his son and kind of panicking. This was I feel like a cool kind of turn where now both characters are kind of like looking for each other, but they're all both also kind of having fun out here in the Sea of Stars. Alex: Next up Transformers/Back to the Future number two from IDW written by Cavan Scott. Art by Juan Samu. I got to tell you I was fine with the first issue of this book. I thought it was fun, but okay. We get of course time travel story where the Decepticons take over the past of Hill Valley, turn it into a despotic future. Marty McFly has left there, but the reveal at the end that the DeLorean is a transformer was like, “Great. Now we're into it.” This issue paid off of that promise. It was a blast to read, super dumb and silly and fun in exactly the right way. Like I said, I had a blast reading this. I had a lot of fun. Pete, I'm sure you had fun as well. Pete: Yeah. This is just a ton of just kind of like mash up fun. You know like what's better than DeLorean being a transformer, spoiler also the goddamn skateboard is a transformer. Justin: Yes. Oh, you're not a fan of Skills. The transformer who's also a skate board. This makes me think like, can any wield object be a transformer? Pete: Yeah. Justin: Like- Pete: Well, also I got to say the ending was also a lot of fun. Doc Brown, looking like he's got the Mando gun going on and I tell you what, I don't know what future those ties are, but I can't wait to get there because that's a fun looking tie and I'm hoping to rock one, one day. Justin: Yeah, sort of the bandolier tie? Pete: Yeah, man. Justin: Here's what want to pitch given what I just said sort of an Amish wagon transformer series [crosstalk 00:36:46], wheelbarrow, there's a Turner, there's- Alex: My name is Rumspringer. I'm an auto bot. Pete: Rumspringer. Alex: Yes. There's more than meets the eye. Yeah, this is a blast read. It's very silly but it's very fun the right way. Next step action comics number 1028 from DC comics written by Brian Michael Bendis. Art by John Romita Jr. This is the last issue of Brian Michael Bendis's run on the title. He's wrapping everything up with the super family before he move on with Phillip Kennedy Johnson, who again we had on the live show talking about his new run so go check that out- Pete: [crosstalk 00:37:22], key guests. Justin: We're topical. Pete: Man. Alex: But what do you think about this issue? What do you think about Brian Michael Bendis's run on the super family as a whole? Pete: I thought you were going to be like, what do you think of this Brian Michael Bendis guy? Alex: Do you think he's going to do well? Pete: I thought this was very swing issue, cool ending, love the thank you notes by the desk cubicle, amazing art, touching story. I thought this was a great Superman comic. Justin: I mean, this is Bendis doing what he does best and Bendis writes great sum up issues for his runs, where he… Because his whole thing is like really bringing characters down to earth, having them having a take and really connecting with the other characters in their universe and that is what this is all about. We get to see this stuff from the Jimmy Olsen series where he has purchased The Daily Planet. Perry's very fun, we don't get a ton of time with actual Superman stuff happening here which I thought was interesting, but I love the family stuff. That's what I really liked about the run before Bendis took over so I'm glad we're sort of landing there because I hope that we'll play a lot in going forward and honestly, I don't feel as burnt by the Superman and Clark Kent revealing themselves to the world as I did initially. Alex: Yeah. I think that's a fair estimation of it and overall, this is a good fun issue. It doesn't feel particularly essential necessarily. It's been weird reading the sum-up issues before they move on to Future State where it's like well, see you later, is kind of what they feel like, but John Romita Jr art, it's good. He's drawn a good superman. It's a nice time. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Next up The Scumbag number three from Image Comics. Written by Rick Remender. Art by Eric Powell as considering the story of the worst guy on earth who can save the earth. Here, I think we kind of complete the first arc and move into the second arc or at least the second villain for our dirt bag hero naturally saves the world, but does some terrible things in the process. This book continues to be very timely in an interesting way and funny at the same time. Justin: Yeah. I mean, I agree. It's a classic Remender book where it's like a strong, good premise for a story. It's very funny, but there's always some stuff underneath. It's really like commenting on our world in a way that is really nice. Pete, give me your take on this 1978 Firebird trans in. Pete: Come on, man. I mean I was a little disappointed with the sex doll edition, but that is like, Woo-hoo, baby. Justin: Now that's a transformer, right? Pete: Yeah. it should be. Justin: I do like the last page that sets up our next field and as you said Alex, the sort of accolade looking people hundreds of them on laptops typing on the bright side of the moon with a mysterious villain watching over them is a great setup. Pete: I also like how there's this line with the scumbag, you know what I mean? Like okay, the scumbag gets to be a scumbag at different moments, but it's also like, “Hey man you can't be a piece of shit and have superpowers. That's not how it works, you know?” And that really kind of comes back to- Justin: Oh wait Pete. Actually, have you ever met villains? Have you ever met any supervillains? Pete: No, I haven't. Cause I'd probably be dead if I did, but thank you for asking? Justin: No. I mean, have you ever read about them, because those people are mostly assholes who have super powers. Pete: Oh, okay. Interesting take, but- Justin: And I'll also mentioned Eric Powells art, which is like what if Mad magazine, but super fucked up, which is fun to read. Alex: It's just a fun book across the board. Let's move to a slightly more serious one Scarenthood number three from IDW. Story and art by Nick Roche. Color by Chris O'Halloran. In this book we've been following a father and his friends, who have to deal with some weird going on in their town, around the school that their kids go to. Here a lot comes out about our main character that makes him I think in a really interesting way less palatable as well as we get the lid blown off when it comes to the supernatural storyline. It was definitely a big issue. Justin, you've been really liking this book in particular I think. Justin: I like this book a lot because of those swerves that it keeps taking. It's interesting we've spent the first two issues really in the head of our main character and then the perspective totally flipped. I love being inside people's heads except for the year that I was trapped inside Pete's head being John Malkovich style. That was a weird ride. Pete: Yeah. You almost didn't make it out, man. Justin: That's true, but boy I learned a lot about your schedule, what you do on your private time. Check out the upcoming memoir- Pete: Yeah. I think this is definitely what it's like to be a parent. Justin: … if I did it the page story. Pete: You know, like you've got your responsibilities to your kid and then you have a group of parents that you get together with and you solve crimes and ghost stories and stuff like that. So I feel it's nice to have a representation of what it's like to be a parent in this world. Alex: Yeah, I agree. Let's move on and talk about US Agent number two from Marvel written by Priest art by Georges Jeanty. This is continuing a story where US agent is dealing with a lot of things. I'll tell you what, I honestly had a little bit of trouble following this issue even though I remember what happened to the last issue which I think we all liked quite a bit, but the Georges Jeanty art still reliably very good. Justin: Yeah. I agree. It is. I don't quite know the full take of this story, but I do like it. I like the scenes, I like the issues we're touching on here and I just like US agent as a character. Like what if captain America was sort of a jerk, but really had an inferiority complex, but was always trying to do the right thing. So I like where this book is living. Pete: Yeah. I had a little bit of a hard time following what was happening, but it's cool. Alex: All right. Well, next stop then Undiscovered Country number 11 from Image Comics written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule. Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. In this issue we're starting to get into the, if not wrap up, at least the back half of the unity storyline. We are in the second ring of a closed off America that has all followed focused on tech, turns out it's terrible. They're powered by baby brains. There is a basically dead woman living in a giant vagina who runs everything and she wants our heroes brains to join them. Alex: Here's something that I thought was fascinating about this issue, and this is definitely a spoiler for the issue, but I certainly realized this and the characters realized in this book, they're given a challenge. There said Aurora, who's the person who runs America wants you to either choose a ring of America or keep moving to the next ring until you choose one, and by the end of the book they all realize they say, “Hey, you know what I think we need to do is we need to see all of these rings and get to Aurora and then bring what we've learned. That's the challenge here.” And that's certainly what I thought. I was like, “I'm ahead of this book. I know what's going on here.” But the fact that they said that out loud, that is 100% wrong, right? Pete: Yup. Justin: Yes. I think that was a classic bait and switch move that we get a little bit of a pay off right here. Pete: But also we're plug for the first-generation iPod in the middle of this. Alex: Still good man [crosstalk 00:45:23], click wheels are really good. [crosstalk 00:45:27], plus all crazy bass they had for songs on those things. Justin: You can listen to one whole U2 album on there, and that's the only thing. If I remember correctly, that's the only thing you can listen to on it. Yeah, I really liked this arc especially. Like we talked about it before, but it really focuses up a lot of the ideas and you have more of a sense of the characters coming out of the first arc. So it really moves in a nice way, and so many ideas. Pete: I think it's an interesting idea just like, Oh, you just got to give up your second born. Not your first born to be a floating brain just your second born, you know what I mean? No one really cares. Alex: I think I can do that. Justin? Justin: Yeah. Wait a second. Are you a first born or a second born? Because I think- Alex: [crosstalk 00:46:16], I'm a firstborn. Justin: I'm a first born. Pete, aren't you this younger brother? Pete: Nope. I'm a firstborn as well. Alex: Oh, great. Well this is all working out so well. The book is really good, definitely pick it up. Next up at last something… Oh yes. What's up Pete? Pete: I did want to say though that every time I think I have a handle on what's going on, they're like nope, not even close. Which is not really frustrating, but impressive that I could still be confused after this long, but man the art and the paneling it's just really impressive. Okay, sorry. Alex: No. It's all right. Last but not least Something is Killing the Children number 13 from Boom Studios written by James Tynion IV. Art by Werther Dell'Edera. We're finally getting an event that's been promised pretty much since the first issue where our main characters compatriots come to town and start killing everybody. She wants to shut down the monsters that are killing the children as quickly as possible. Every issue… I know I say this every issue, but so little happens but it's of such import to the characters, it still feels media at the same time and Werther Dell'Edera art is phenomenal. Another great issue of this book. Justin: Every single issue of this is just so great and the art is just… There's at least one or two panels where you're like fuck man I would love to have that. It's like a desktop background or a poster or something. It's just glorious. Alex: [crosstalk 00:47:49]. That would be so cool to have it as a desktop background. Pete: Yeah, because you get to stare at it every day you fucking dick. Alex: [crosstalk 00:47:57], a laptop. I don't want to brag or anything. Justin: Mr. Desktop over here. I would love to have it just as printed on my sheets. Alex: [crosstalk 00:48:05], to have it on my van. Justin: Yeah. The inside or the outside are both? Alex: Inside. I don't want other people to see. Justin: Nice. Alex: It's for me. Justin: That's for you. That's for daddy. Yeah, I like this book a lot. I will say the pace of this book is gotten, it's pretty… Not a ton of story happens each issue, and I'm curious if that will change. Because I think it needs to make some larger moves. So maybe- Pete: So you're saying this wildly popular book that is really impressive they should just change it? Justin: I think it could pace up a little bit. I feel like we've been in this narrative moment for quite some time. Pete: Yeah, but if you read in the trade then you're fucking fine, they don't have to change anything. Justin: Don't tell me what to do. Pete: Well, don't tell it what to do, enjoy it for what it is. Alex: Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to tell those of you listening what to do. If you'd like to support us patrion.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 is you are trying to subscribe and listen to the show @comicbooklive on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time we've been Comic Book Club, peace out. Justin: Oh, when I lived in your head Pete, I told you what to do all the time. (singing). The post The Stack: Dark Nights Death Metal, King In Black And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Phillip Kennedy Johnson - Writer, Musician, Soldier

(a)muse

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2020 71:44

Phillip Kennedy Johnson is an Eisner-nominated writer and musician living in the Washington, DC/Baltimore region. His comics work has been published by DC, Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Aftershock and Scout Comics. He is the creator of the comic series The Last God from DC Black Label, Last Sons of America, Warlords of Appalachia, Smoketown and more. Phillip is a full time soldier in the US Military and also a trumpet player, composer, arranger, and teacher. Links: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Official Website - https://www.phillipkennedyjohnson.com/ Episode Sponsors: Zeppelin Comics - https://zeppelincomics.com/ Strange Media - http://www.strangemedia.com About the host: Steffan Schulz is a producer/director located in the San Francisco Bay Area. His professional career as a filmmaker spans 30 years. His work has been honored with over 100 awards including a spot in A/V Magazine's Top 100 Producers. Steffan is an Adobe Premiere Certified Expert, FAA licensed commercial drone pilot, underwater cinematographer, as well as a published author, presenter, instructor and university lecturer. He is the owner of Strange Media, a full service media production company located in the San Francisco Bay Area. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/amuse/support

Fanbase Feature: An Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson on Writing ALIEN for Marvel Comics

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2020 26:40

In this Fanbase Feature, Fanbase Press co-founder Bryant Dillon and special guest Eisner-nominated comic writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer - The Last God, Warlords of Appalachia, Last Sons of America) discuss the announcement that he'll be writing the first Alien series coming from Marvel Comics, what he hopes to bring to the Alien mythology, why stories like this are important, and more.

america writing alien feature marvel comics appalachia fanbase eisner warlords phillip kennedy johnson fanbase press last sons last god bryant dillon

The Stack: The Other History Of The DC Universe And More

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2020 50:48

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.

america god spotify netflix history halloween art apple man japan french truth story marvel fun batman italian unity island south carolina superman boom android millions suck apocalypse stitcher costa rica wonder woman fuck xmen destruction justice league wolverines studios lock opposition lunch explain ravens rip regulation tip dc comics watchmen daredevil sonic the hedgehog manga stack mm swords attacked he man dc universe chew metaphor green lantern unnecessary marvel universe louvre birthright versus kingpin excalibur death metal hickman arkham jerry maguire cyclops aw image comics elektra patton oswalt black hat coming king nightwing black lightning space station claremont scumbags costa rican foggy saffron super mario brothers jean grey scott snyder tgi fridays jonathan hickman otherworld renee zellweger messed chris claremont typhoid mary neal adams charles soule nailbiter mark russell chip zdarsky mount fuji charles xavier truffe chews james tynion iv rick remender andrew robinson power pack ryan north dave barry buckaroo shinkansen krakoa john ridley joshua williamson jordan klepper brandon thomas jimmy palmiotti monstress artistically marjorie liu genosha scott summers saladin ahmed john layman comic book club pepe larraz amanda conner mike henderson phillip kennedy johnson jonathan lipnicki tini howard foggy nelson pawleys island sana takeda remender fear agent giuseppe camuncoli zsasz dan panosian jefferson pierce marvel girl stefano caselli lilandra mahmud asrar other history chad hardin martin simmonds last god chewer mike hawthorne quiet council lourve nico leon i justin arakko scott eaton sabrina tv

The Stack: The Last Ronin, X Of Swords And More

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2020 64:51

On this week's comic book review podcast: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 IDW Story by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird & Tom Waltz Script by Tom Waltz & Kevin Eastman Layouts by Kevin Eastman Pencils/Inks by Esua & Isaac Escorza X of Swords: Stasis #1 Marvel Written by Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman Art by Pepe Larraz and Mahmud Asrar Wynd #5 BOOM! Studios Written by James Tynion IV Art by Michael Dialynas Dark Nights: Death Metal – Rise of the New God #1 DC Comics Written by James Tynion IV, Bryan Hill Art by Jesus Merino, Nik Virella Sex Criminals #69 Image Comics By Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky Stranger Things: Science Camp #2 Dark Horse Comics Written by Jody Houser Pencils by Edgar Salazar The Immortal Hulk #39 Marvel Written by Al Ewing Art by Joe Bennett The Last God: Songs of Lost Children #1 DC Comics Created by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Written by Dan Watters Art by Steve Beach The Department of Truth #2 Image Comics Written by James Tynion IV Art by Martin Simmonds G.I. Joe #9 IDW Written by Paul Allor Art by Ryan Kelly Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #1 Dark Horse Comics Written by Jeff Lemire Art by Tyler Crook Chu #4 Image Comics Written by John Layman Art by Dan Boultwood Batman: Three Jokers #3 DC Comics Written by Geoff Johns Art by Jason Fabok Ascender #14 Image Comics Written by Jeff Lemire Art by Dustin Nguyen Shang-Chi #2 Marvel Written by Gene Luen Yang Art by Dike Ruan Undiscovered Country #9 Image Comics Written by Scott Snyder & Charles Soule Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Leonardo Marcello Grassi Batgirl #50 DC Comics Written by Cecil Castellucci Art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Marguerite Sauvage, Aneke Bliss #4 Image Comics Written by Sean Lewis Art by Caitlin Yarsky An Unkindness of Ravens #2 BOOM! Studios Written by Dan Panosian Art by Marianna Ignazzi A Man Among Ye #3 Image Comics Written by Stephanie Phillips Art by Craig Cermak 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. This episode is also sponsored by Alitu. Check out their guide on how to start a podcast, right now: https://www.ThePodcastHost.com/start Full Transcript: Alex: What is up you 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 ton of comics that came out this week. So many comics, so many big comics, but I want to kick it off with this one Pete. Pete, this goes out to you. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Once upon a time, there was a little boy who grew up in Rochester, loving four turtles. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Those four turtles lived in the sewer, they loved pizza and they were ninjas. They were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and this is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 dedicated to Pete LePage. Pete: From IDW comics story about 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. Now the whole thing behind this is, this is reportedly [crosstalk 00:02:18] Alex: Wait, wait. Allow me to just take it over. Allow me to just take it from here. Pete: Oh you want to take it over? Okay take it from here. Justin: It seems like a risk. Alex: Basically Eastman and Laird back in the day had this story and they just put it on the shelf because they stopped doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a while. And so they had this story planned a long time ago and just as a fan it's very exciting that they got the chance to do this. And the fact that just to see the names Eastman and Laird next to each other again, what a magical time, but I'm sorry [inaudible 00:02:55]. Go ahead. Justin: No, I have a question. Because they famously started getting along, right Pete? Pete: I don't know if it who… They split ways. They went their separate ways. I don't know why or whatever happened? I didn't really dig into that but. Justin: So is this them getting back together a little bit? Pete: Well, this is them at least dusting off something and being [crosstalk 00:03:21]. No it's Eastman dusting it off and working with IDW to move forward with a story probably without Laird or I mean, I don't know him but I assume him being like, “Whatever, do whatever you want.” Justin: You don't know Laird? Pete: I don't know Laird. Justin: Let me ask you, do you think they are going to do any alternate covers or anything for this book? Pete: I tell you what's funny about that is, because there's 60 of them. Alex: 71 alternate covers. Pete: But I just want to say, I was paging through them and I was like, “Wait a second, Last Ronin. Oh my God. The other turtles are dead.” And it took me to the 45th cover before I really put it together. I was like, “Oh no, this is going to be sad as fuck.” I'm not ready for this. Alex: That's the genius about it is it really does take you until the 45th cover to really get the plot of the book. Justin: Yeah, honestly when I was it's a little bit behind the curtain we get to review these, we get them as PDFs and I was already through it. I was, “Wait a second. Is this the comic? Am I just not putting this together?” And I was like, “No, these are covers.” After another 30 I was like, “Oh no, this has to be the comic, am I missing the story or maybe they link up.” And then finally I was, “No, I guess this is just covers.” And then one last time I was, “This is just a series of pinups or something.” Pete: It's an emotional roller coaster to page through for sure? Justin: Yeah. Pete: But then it's actually a story. It's basically Dark Knight Returns but with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that's pretty much it or old man [crosstalk 00:05:06] Teenage Mutant chip in the story. Alex: Hold on. Pete don't jump on me yet because I thought this was great. I'm saying, this as a reference point, it is very much one of the turtles heads back to the city to take down the descendant of Shredder, he's the only one left, he's old man turtle now and that's what it is. You know what the setup is but it really does feel there's old Eastman and Laird comic books down to the art, down to the piecing and everything and I thought it was awesome. I was very excited about reading this comic, even though I understood the comic, even though the concept, even though we've walked through this thing multiple times before it's fun to see the turtles in it or turtle. Pete: Or turtle. Justin: It's super sad. Pete: Yeah. Justin: It definitely has that very much like I dwell in darkness vibe throughout and that's why the reveal at the end is like the whoa moment. Alex: Yeah. That was really heartbreaking and I was not ready for. Justin: Let me say, there's a moment where our Last Ronin turtle falls out of a skyscraper and falls. He's like, “Oh no, I'm going to die.” And then he lands and he doesn't land on his shell. And I feel if he landed on his shell he would have been all right. Alex: Right [crosstalk 00:06:32]. Justin: I guess that's what [crosstalk 00:06:38] trouble. Pete: I think later the last couple of panels, explain why do you, if you put that together, but you know, okay. Justin: Wait, why does they explain why? Pete: Because of what happens later? Justin: No, it doesn't explain why he didn't land on the shell. Alex: No, that doesn't explain. Pete: I will say, one of the things that I also thought was great about this is one of the Hills I'll die on is I never liked the animated series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It made me actively angry. And one of the reason it made me angry is, I read the Eastman and Laird comics first and those are bloody, those are intense, they're emotional at times and then they turn them into these [inaudible 00:07:17] dude eating pizza guys and it was very frustrating for me that this was why everybody loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles versus the comics. That was definitely my first gatekeeping experience, I think. And getting back to these comics, it feels like getting back to reminding people, no, these comics were actually kind of hardcore. Alex: These turtles are miserable. They're not having fun with [inaudible 00:07:44], they're mad and sad. Though I will say you get your Baxter Stockman references here, you get your [inaudible 00:07:52] references here. And were those in the original comics or is that? Pete: Yeah. Justin: Yeah. Alex: Yeah. Justin: I all the time, and we've talked about this in the show before, but I all the time think about as a teen reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and being like, “Okay, they're going to beat Shredder in this first arc.” And they don't and Shredder destroys them and they run away and they spend an entire arc hiding at a farm and healing because they got beaten up so badly by Shredder and that needs such an impact on me. So same sort of thing here happening to our Last Ronin, I think it is very reminiscent of that. Starting it off at a place where they just don't win, they lose. It almost works against the idea of them being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at a certain way, where it is very serious and it is very bloody, but an intense action, but it's very good. Alex: They're teenagers, when you're a teen- Pete: You're going to lose. Alex: Yeah. You couldn't lose. Justin: You're going to lose. Speaking of people that are going to lose, let's move on and talk about- Pete: Wait, wait, wait, not moving on yet. Alex: Just wanted to say a couple of things here. First off, I was really hoping this was all going to be black and white. I was a little disappointed it was color. The original ones were black and white and really well done but the coloring is cool I guess. And I was really kind of heartbroken by this issue. This is very sad and depressing and I was really looking forward for this to pick me up and when it didn't and it made me sadder it was rough. I was really looking forward to this issue and the fact that I liked how dark and gritty it was, but the way it ended really hurt. But I do hope that Eastman and Laird can set aside whatever they have, because I would love for them to give me a little bit more TMNT. Justin: I don't think that's going to happen, but let's move on to another team. X Of Swords: Stasis #1 or 10 Of Swords: Stasis #1 from Marvel written by Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman, art by Pepe Larraz and a Mahmud Asrar. This is the mid point exactly I think. I think it's chapter- Alex: Of 22. Justin: Yeah of 22 of 10 Of Swords and we finally get the thing that you've been begging for Pete, that you've been asking for, we transition from everybody getting their swords to getting ready for the tournament. That's what happens in this issue. We finally have our sword bears. We meet the other side, we meet the villains and then they all get together in other worlds. Get ready for the final battle. This is great. Pete: So good. Justin: I loved the building of the villains. I love these villains. They're so smart and they're so interesting. And even if the reveal at the end is pretty obvious, I feel like you could have seen it going for the building beginning, it's still very emotionally satisfying. Pete: Yeah. I'm happy we got the fast forward button because I would have really been upset if we had to go through another 10 issues of everybody getting their swords on the villain side. So I was glad it was one issue and get it all done. I wish we could have had that with the other side but great. It's all out of the fucking way now, the next issue's got to have action. It's got to have a sword fighting, right? Alex: I actually don't think there's any sword fighting I think now that they have their swords all together they'll put them away and [crosstalk 00:11:35]. Pete: Wolverine [crosstalk 00:11:37], right? Alex: Yeah. Pete: That they're like metaphorical swords. Alex: Exactly. And he's also like, “You know what? Claws are just tiny sores. I don't need these either. I'll give these up as well.” Justin: He hands them to a poor [inaudible 00:11:50] kid on the street. He's like, “Here you go. Here's my claws.” Pete: [crosstalk 00:11:54] day is it sir? Christmas morning. Have my claws. Alex: I got to say though, this is an Epic cover. It's a really glorious cover to this book. Justin: I love all of this. I feel like with this issue, everything's cranky on all cylinders. The Arakko stuff is really starting to come together and the different corners of it, the different sort of monsters and mutants from their side coming together. We get the interstitial panels where we get to see all their swords. Very cool. Saturnine is setting up both a villain and sort of the unlike the person who's just not able to control the situation that she's created and then the tarot card bit at the end I thought was awesome. Alex: Yeah, this is all so good. The art by Pepe Larraz and Mahmud Asrar is seamless. Normally I'm not a fan of taking two artists and sticking them together though both of the artists are great but fantastic. There was no stoppage in the pace of the issue between their different pages. I think Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman are working on musically together. You can tell where Tini Howard is leading into jokes at Jonathan Hickman is leading into, “Here's some insane mythology.” But it still blends very seamlessly. Fantastic stuff. This is one of my favorite crossovers that has happened in a very, very long time. Alex: Let's move to a ending, at least for now with WYND #5 from BOOM! Studios written by James Tynion IV and wrote by Michael Dialynas, I got to get that right at some point. So this is as mentioned the end of the arc, they're going to be coming back next year at some point with this issue with this title. This [inaudible 00:13:45] fantasy world that hates weird things. We get some big revelations this issue about the villains, as well as our heroes, as well as the promise of more to come. There's a big show down. I thought this was a really good arc and I'd highly recommend if you didn't pick it up in individual issues, definitely pick this up and trade. Pete: Yeah. I think this really ended such a great place. It did such an amazing job of weaving the venture tail and such a cool way. And man, what a fantastic last issue that makes me very sad that it's ending. I want more, they really did a great job of setting up this world and I hope they get to play in it more because I would be excited to read it. Art's fantastic, writing's unbelievable. This is a great, great package. And speaking of great packages, Justin, what are your thoughts? Justin: Thanks Pete. I am a great package using your words as a description of me. I like this a lot too. I feel like it really is a small step into a huge world that I feel like James Tynion IV is ready to really walk us into. It's a world where everything is pretty contained and controlled but it's also like… Basically any fantastical thing can exist in this world. It's just been so restrained that it needs to be released perhaps by our hero. And that's just a nice spot to start this whole series or however long they run it for. Alex: Yeah. And just to mention off of what Pete was saying, it is coming back for WYND #6 next year. This is just the end of the first arc. There's just going to be a gap. I believe it's coming back in May. Pete: Sweet. Alex: So there you go. Moving on to another James Tynion IV book, Dark Nights: Death Metal Rise of The New God #1 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV and Bryan Hill, art by Jesus Merino and Nik Virella. This is picking up on the Dark Nights Death Metal event and showing us, this is kind of a big revelation, not just for this event but also for the mythology that Scott Snyder and company have built up. They have been promising that Perpetua, the mother of the multi-verse has been preparing the multi-verse for someone or something else. And we finally get a little taste of what that something or something else is here in a more dick watcher who shows up essentially to [inaudible 00:16:16] what's going on in DC Universe. Pete: [crosstalk 00:16:19], you were like more of the dick watcher. I was like, what? Like a watcher with more penises. Justin: I was like, man, if you want more dick, check out this new watcher. Pete: That is a note we get a lot is like, I love the watcher, but more dick. Alex: Yeah, but we meet new character called the Chronicler who is of course chronically the DC Universe. Things go interestingly from there as he resurrects a character who was recently killed. I'd like this issue though, this was not what I expected for the title and it's a key piece of the mythology and I'm happy that they're finally getting there. Pete: Yeah. This is just continues to be over the top fun. I enjoy it. The Chronicler is a cool new kind of like reveal. Also this Metron guy really misses his chair and I get it, man. If you're standing for a long time, especially out in space, that's got to be rough when you- Justin: It's actually very easy to stand in space. Pete: Well, he's complaining a lot for a guy who misses his space chair. Alex: Have you ever seen the movie Gravity? Sandra Bullock has a lot of lines about, “Wow, this is easy. I'm standing. This is so easy” Justin: And that big ending is where she's like, “It's even easier than I thought it was.” I like this issue a lot. This Chronicle, it's very [inaudible 00:17:51] this whole issue. Now at a point in the book, the Chronicle is showing off his his little book, his codex of the DC Universe to brainiac five and he reads it and barfs. Now what do you think would have to be in a book to make you instantly barf? Is there a comic book you've ever read where you got very close to barfing? Alex: I don't think so but if somebody had to be the next Game of Thrones book, I'd probably throw up excitement. Justin: Like a positive. Pete: Oh, a positive barf, I don't know. I was going to say, if they were graphically describing something that was grotesque and was very queasy I might throw up. If it was talking about maggots writhing in some kind of vomit or garbage. Alex: Like if you saw a picture of someone vomiting in a book, you'll be like, “Oh, here I go.” Pete: I'll be like, oh. Alex: Maybe that's what it was. Pete: I did. When I saw Brainiac 5 throw up that book I vomited too. Alex: Yeah. It's visceral. Pete: Sympathy vomit. Alex: Yeah. But good stuff. Moving on to Sex Criminals #69, you get it. Image comics by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. This is the last issue of Sex Criminals ever. They're done with the story. We kind of thought they were done with the story last issue but we zoom forward a bunch of years to catch up with the characters. Justin: I got to ask you a personal question here yourselves, you got to be really disappointed because dedicated to there's an Alex W not an Alex Z that is dedicated to, that had to really chop your buns. Alex: Yeah, I definitely read that, saw that and had a emotional reaction to that so thanks for catching that. Justin: I'm sorry man. Pete famously known for reading every dedication page in a comic book and giving us his take. I think this series finished really strong, a series that I thought wavered a bit at a point, and by their own admission, Matt Fraction was sort of like, “Yeah, we wandered for a little bit in there.” But I think really the last issue I thought was great and this issue had all the… It felt like those moments when you see someone that you used to date or used to be in love with or something and all of that, it just played so well in this from top to bottom. And then all of the sort of the sex stuff is treated as just a little side thing, which I think is a little bit the point of the series whereas it was always about the characters and their sex crimes, the Sex Criminals stuff was just the fun bit that got everyone [inaudible 00:20:53]. Pete: I love this. I wish the whole series was like this. I thought it was really focused on the love. Alex: Sure. You would prefer love criminals? Pete: Yeah. Alex: Oh, interesting. Pete: Or just sex relationshipers. Alex: Even if it wrapped up very nicely in the last issue with the main plot, this is a nice little coda, a nice little finishing bit on there. Yeah. I can make a lot of jokes but for Pete's sake, I will refrain from making all of them. Alex: Stranger Things: Science Camp #2 from Dark Horse Comics written by Jodie Houser, pencils by Edgar Salazar. This is a interesting comic that takes place between seasons two and three of Stranger Things as Dustin is at science camp meeting Susie, the girl of his dreams that we find out about it in season three. And it turns out there's maybe a stalker killer at the camp. And the weird thing to me, I like this book just fine but the weird thing to me about Stranger Things comic books is almost nothing strange should ideally happen in any books outside of the big continuity or stranger things, right? Pete: What? They can't have some side fun? Alex: No. Justin: I sort of felt the opposite. I felt like I wanted something to happen. This was very less strange. Pete: What are you talking about? The guy is killing kids. Alex: Is he though? Justin: This just feels like a totally unrelated book so I'm like, yeah, it's vaguely one of the stranger things kids here but it feels unrelated to the main series and so it's hard to get in on it. Pete: Focusing it on the star of the show. I love it. It's great. Alex: So you like this one? Pete: Yeah. I thought it was fun. I like the setup of this relationship. And I like the kind of, okay, some things are happening and I'm sure our hero we'll get to the bottom of it and save the day. Alex: Yeah. I guess we'll see what happens. I do think Jodie Houser does a good job with the writing, captures Dustin, Edgar Salazar's art is good as well. Yeah, it's just tough to wrap your mind around this book a little bit, at least from my perspective. Next step, here's an easy book to understand, one that you could just sink right into. The Immortal Hulk #39 from Marvel Comics written by Al Ewing and art by Joe Bennett. Oh my God. This issue was insane. As the leader continues to enact his plan working for the one below who controls this whole gamma hell, whatever is going on there and tried to take over the Hulk, we thought the leader was doubted out last issue, it turns out he was very much not, as usual he has a plan to get one over on all the Hulks and everybody as we slowly moved towards the end game of the series. This is as wild and gross as any issue of this title. Pete: Yes. This one, I felt like really brought a lot of this stuff to a head. The grossness, the viscera of the Hulk throat mouth coming out and eating Hulk's dad in the middle of this book and just like, I love it though. It's so good. The idea that the only way to defeat the Hulk is to get inside his brain, open the green door, inside his own mental state. And we see Hulk at his weakest tier where he's like, “I just want my dad to say I love you.” And he messes up, he fucks up because he it's his vulnerability and we'll have to watch it happen ending on this just horrifying image. Justin: Yeah. It keeps getting worse and worse for the Hulk and it gets creepier and more disgusting looking and, man this is a crazy fucking tale. I'm really interested to see how this all ends up. But amazing ride and this has been an amazing new take on the Hulk and it continues to crank forward in such a cool way. For someone who's read the Hawk for most of his life, this is unbelievable. Alex: Well to that end, and this is something I was thinking about reading this issue in particular, is the one below somebody we know, or is this a new character? Because it feels like Al Ewing has been mining so many different aspects of Hulk continuity throughout this run, from Bruce Banner's father to Bruce Banner, to all the Hulk's different personalities, to everything throughout his history, it feels like this should be some sort of new villain who's the ultimate villain who's controlling things, but is it somebody we know already? Is that possible? Pete: What could the possible options be? Thunderbolt Ross or Bruce Banner himself. Alex: Right. Pete: Right? Alex: I think that's it. Pete: What are the other possible the truly Epic Hulk villains? Alex: I don't know, Abomination? Pete: Yeah. Maybe, but I feel like, didn't we fight him already in the early part of [inaudible 00:27:39]? Alex: Well, and to your point, leader is the step up there, right? Leader is the big Hulk villain. And once you've gotten past Bruce Banner's father, the only place you can really go is Bruce Banner himself. So if there is some sort of the one below was Bruce Banner when he was separated by the gamma bomb or something like that, I could see that as a possibility, but I don't know. It was just something that occurred to me while I was reading this. Let's move on and talk about The Last God: Songs of Lost Children #1 from DC Comics created by Phillip Kennedy Johnson written by Dan Watters and art by Steve Beach. This is an interesting one because we've been loving reading The Last God, but this is not written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, this is somebody else, somebody else is playing in his world here which is pretty fascinating. How do you think it holds up and how do you think it works as a comic all on its own? Pete: This is a fucking freaky ass story. I think it's a nice kind of like it fits in this world, but kind of it's its own thing. I think it's a cool kind of like Halloween tale in the middle of this thing. It's just kind of like a fun, scary ass fucking creepy story with the kid that, oh my God, I'm a very scary monster. That freaked me the fuck out. That was really intense and very scary. This is a very cool book if you like horror books or Halloween kind of things, this is definitely a must pick up. Justin: I love that this is becoming a little corner of the universe. The Last God is such a fun, well thought out universe and story and the fact that we get sort of just another version of that, that is equally horrifying. Talk about body dysmorphia in the Hulk, we get a bunch of that here as well, which is gross and scary. I hope there's more, I hope this becomes a real thing. Alex: Yeah, I agree. Just a great one-shot. Even if you haven't been reading the main series, if you want to read a horror fantasy one shot, this is a real good. Steve Beach's art is great and horrifying. Dan Watters definitely captures the tone of the [inaudible 00:29:57] series. Just a very good book overall. Let's move to one that I know Justin was very excited about, The Department of Truth #2 from the Image Comics written once again by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmons. The set of this book is, what if every conspiracy theory is true? Or rather if you believes conspiracy theories are true, they become true in the real world and there's a governmental agency that is trying to take them down. We see all of this through a new recruit of the agency and in this issue, we find a big twist about his past the ties into the satanic panic of the 80s. What did you think about this one? Did it hold up to the lofty heights of the first issue? Justin: I love this series because it takes a real world issue and concept and doesn't play it for the politics of it or anything that is in the public eye, it plays it pretty straight. It is dangerous in our current world that so many people believe false things, believe conspiracy theories and it's causing problems in our culture. And so the fact that those people believe that is making it harder for us all to live normal lives. And this takes that one very small step further in that the amount of people that believe in a conspiracy theory make it actual reality. Justin: And if enough people believe in something, it will manifest. If enough people typically we hit a tipping point where more people believe that the earth is flat than not, the earth becomes flat and everything changes. It's such a smart real threading the needle premise. And to play that through the first issue and then the second issue, which is about the satanic panic and how it was something that wasn't believed and then the more and more people believed it meant it started to become real which is literally what happened in America. Pete: Satanic panic. Yeah, this is very creepy shit. It's really well done. The art is perfectly creepy in all the right waves and right ways. Yeah, I think it's just really cool, really well done. I'm completely all in, and I love the kind of reveal that we get in this issue about the main characters past and why he is where he is. So I'm very excited to see how this all unfolds. I've been really impressed with each issue. Alex: Martin Simmons art is great, James Tynion's writing is great as well. I am very nervous about this arc speaking as a Jewish person just because the character, the demon character, just a spoiler here, that is menacing our main character, which they referenced this way in the book is a anti-Semitic stereotype. Just to describe him, he is a guy who has a upside down pentagram on his face, he eats babies. This isn't exactly the thing. It's like one step removed, but there is an anti-Semitic stereotype, I don't know, not meme is the only word that I'm thinking of, but that Jews eat Christian babies. Justin: It's like a century's old conspiracy. Conspiracy theory stereotype, whatever you want to say like racist belief. Alex: Yes. So I think James Tynion is aware of this given that he references it in the book. Justin: Yeah, I think it's meant… But I also think that, it's good, you finish your point. Alex: No, no, no, all I was going to say is, it definitely makes my chest feel a little tight when I'm reading it because it gets be concerned about how all of this is going to turn out. I'm not too worried about it. He's a responsible writer, but it's something that puts me on edge when I'm reading it. Justin: Do you mean how reality is going to turn out? Alex: Yeah reality, that's what I'm talking about. Justin: I agree. I was like, whoa, that's a thing to put down is your villain here. But I also think he's manifesting something that is one of the longest held conspiracy theories in our world. So I feel like he's sort of, what I like about this book is it really looks hard at real shit and leans into the paranoia and anxiety through the main character here about what it means to believe in something no matter what it is. It's scary and good. Alex: Yeah. Justin: It feels like a vertigo book despite the fact that it's from Image Comics. The art feels very Dave McKean. It's really nice. Alex: Yeah. It feels like in a certain way, the air of [inaudible 00:34:46] which I know is a big thing the second issue is something, but it could to get there. G.I. Joe #9 from IDW written by Paul Allor and art by Ryan Kelly. We have been loving this book that is completely reinvented G.I. Joe for a modern context. In this issue we're focusing on Tunnel Rat I want to say who [crosstalk 00:35:09] in tunnels with rats and he's fighting some bats which are Cobra, robot soldiers and these tunnels and that's what's going on. Pete: It's funny because all I can think about when I read this now is you because when they're saying everybody's code name, you have no reference for that so you're just seeing a silly name and then it's like somebody died. But because- Justin: A lot of these are made. Pete: No they're actual G.I. Joe's so real people. Yeah. Justin: There's a guy whose name was [crosstalk 00:35:47]. Pete: Yeah, it was my favorite, well one of my favorite Joes is Shipwreck. Justin: But that's [crosstalk 00:35:53]. Yeah, Shipwreck Jones. But Pete that'd be like, if he was a good sailor, he wouldn't be named Shipwreck. Pete: Yeah, but he's a scrappy guy. It's a fun name. Justin: That'd be if one of us is named bad podcaster. Alex: My favorite G.I. Joe is fuck up. Jinx. There's a jinx. She was in G.I. Joe. She was great or is great. Justin: Great. Does she always like saying the same stuff at the same time? Alex: I didn't love this issue. This is after a run of fantastic issues. This was a little bit of a step down for me. I still think the art by Ryan Kelly was good but the story didn't feel quite as sharp as the last couple which were granted high water marks and excellence so I think that's an unfair judging point. But this is a good story of war. I like the whole overall arc of Cobra has one, G.I. Joe has to fight back. That's a smart place to put them. But I do think the last couple of issues were bad. Also it's kind of crazy to see G.I. Joe's use real guns because in the show it was always lasers, no one got hit. So it was crazy to see turn around and actually shoot someone and see blood. I was like, “Damn.” But yeah. Justin: Well and I think that's what this issue. I take your point Alex, the other ones really dealt, the previous issues dealt with really intense themes and this feels more like it's taking an episode of the G.I. Joe animated series and giving an actual stakes where a bunch of Joes died and Tunnel Rat is scraping by, getting away with this, by the skin of his teeth and escaping from this horrible situation. Alex: Spoiler. Justin: So in that way, it felt like giving, giving stakes to the goofy plots of so many of those G.I. Joe episodes, I wasn't allowed to watch it because they had guns is I think, cool. I like this issue. Alex: Agreed, and it's also kind of like naming Joes and then being like they died. So it's kind of sad. And if you don't really connect with it, I can understand what you're saying [inaudible 00:38:14]. Justin: Yeah. I can't believe [inaudible 00:38:18], my favorite child died in this. Alex: RIP. That is a sour note to end on. Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #1 from Dark Horse Comics written by Jeff Lemire and art by Tyler Crook. This is spinning off of the Black Hammer series following the, I guess he's best described as the Adam Strange of the Black Hammer universe who has gotten unstuck in time our Slaughterhouse-Five. This is following him as he was trying to piece together his history. As usual just great comics, great plotting, Tyler Crook's art is great. This is great. The end. Pete: It felt to me like a pitch for Adam Strange and I was like, “Oh, someone's already doing that. Okay, well I'll just put it over here.” And it's really great. Like you said, I felt the same way of the comparisons. Adam strange and Slaughterhouse-Five, two things I love. So with the fantastic art here is a great book to read. Justin: It's not the worst than when you go to grab a sodie pop and then you're stuck in time. It's just rough. But yeah, this is classic tripped out Jeff Lemire shit and I'm excited to see where this goes. The art is unbelievable in this kind of setup in this world. Yeah, I thought it was a solid first issue. Does a great job of getting you excited for more. I can't wait. Alex: Let's move on and talk about Chu #4 from Image Comics written by John Layman, art by Dan Boultwood. We're finally getting into it here as Chu and his sister are coming to head by the end of the issue. This series is really hitting its stride I think in terms of a heir to Chew C-H-E-W versus C-H-U. It took an issue or two to get there, but John Layman has hit his groove again in terms of the series. There's fun stuff, there's ridiculous stuff, there's dark stuff that's happening. I'm having a lot of fun reading this series. Justin: Me too and I'm not a Chu fan. I'm not a Chu head. I'm not a chow hound but I like this issue a lot. I like this series a lot. I don't know if it means I should go back and reread the original Chus. Take another, go back because I feel like I ate it and then I spit it out and I'll just eat it again. Okay. Pete: I'm a Chu head so I was going to like this, but yeah, I'm really impressed with this now, especially it feels like it's really got its rhythm and this is very exciting, fantastic ending. I'm excited to see what happened and who got shot. Alex: I think two fans are called chronic masticators. Is that true? Justin: Wow. Pete: I'm glad you Googled it. Justin: I think so. Alex: Didn't Google it, my brain did. My brain did right out. Justin: The original Google. Alex: Let's move on to one that I am concerned and nervous and interested to talk to you guys about, Batman: Three Jokers #3 from DC Comics written by Geoff Johns and art by Jason Fabook. Now I think we've been pretty complimentary of the first two issues. Jason Fabook's art has been great, Geoff Johns plotting as Batman and Red Hood and Batgirl have been tracking down the three jokers and trying to figure out. The mystery has been I think interesting and really driveling into the characters. I believe what I said with the last issue is this felt like what Geoff Johns was trying to do with Doomsday Clock but is actually now doing his Alan Moore riff on killing joke instead. I got to tell you though, I was real disappointed of this issue personally. I didn't love how it turned out, still like Jason Fabook's art, but I was unhappy with the turns for Red Hood, for Batgirl, for Batman, for Joker. Just none of it really sat with me the right way even though I respect the craft that was put into it. Pete: There was one. I thought the way they had that Joe chill interview run throughout the issue was cool. While different things were happening you got little clips of it. I thought that was very creative and cool and you kind of really felt that. Yeah, the reveal of what the deal is is the big thing on this and you're either like, “Oh cool.” Or you're like, “What?” And I was a little scratching my head. And it was also weird. There was a lot of infighting which I don't like. Batman losing it on Robin and a lot of fighting with Robin and Barbara. And it was just a lot of misconnects there. I wasn't excited. I think it was an interesting choice and the art is definitely worth checking it out. I did kind of like there was a Batman moment where he saved somebody and I thought that was powerful and cool, but yeah, I don't know, the reveal was a little kind of. Justin: For me, it's like, because I agree. I really like the art and I think that really shines through a lot of it. I haven't seen a comic really laid out this way with a sort of classic conflict paneling but very close up. You're very close up to a lot of the characters. But I think it's a little bit impenetrable as a read because you got “three jokers”, and then you've got these three characters in the bat family who are the most affected victims of Joker. It feels a little too directed or it's a little too on the nose in the way that the story unfolds. And then it feels like too much of threading together different continuity things. It feels like it's doing so much editorial work that I don't need it all to make sense. I feel like we've reconciled for the fact. Justin: We talk about this a lot that, yeah, the Joker's a sort of genius biochemist and a crazed psychopath who just shoots random people all the time. And it's like, well, that's just what people have chosen to take the character in different iterations of the character. To try to thread all that together is difficult and also a little bit unnecessary and I think it's difficult. I think this issue proves it's really hard. Pete: I also really liked how Alfred was alive in this and it was nice to see Batman talking to Alfred again. Alex: Sure. One of my problems with this is I think Scott Snyder already put in the work to explain this in his run, where he went through very meticulously and explained how the Joker reinvents himself all the time for various reasons but one of them to be to respond to Batman, to be the different antagonist that Batman needs because he loves Batman and he needs Batman and he wants to make a better Batman or whatever he wants to do at the current time. And Geoff Johns coming up with these three jokers, the ultimate conclusion here seems to reiterate that in a different way that already feels like it's been covered. Beyond that the two things that really kind of, this sounds too strong, but stuck in my craw, I didn't love how he characterized Barbara. I think she was too much like, “Oh boys, what are you doing?” Alex: There's a lot of conflicted looks from her and not a lot of action and she's a fantastic character who should have agency of her own that has nothing to do with the Red Hood's arc or Batman's arc. Well then the other thing, the big thing, and this is getting into the big spoiler for the issue so if you don't want to know, definitely turn away, but he pretty definitively chooses one of the three jokers from killing Joke to say, this is who the Joker is, this is his origin and I hate that. I hate that because he tries to have it both ways by saying it doesn't matter who the Joker is. It's not important. Also here's who he is and here's this origin and here's his family and why I don't say what his name is. And that to me is a very frustrating have your cake and eat it too type moment that I did not love at all. Justin: And it's also like what's the point of doing that in this non continuity book? It's just literally Geoff Johns putting his stamp on something but it doesn't really mean much for the larger world. And I think this book and so many books are like, I'm going to research so much of the continuity and carve out a tiny little thing that feels like there's an opening there. And I think as a comic book reader, I'm ready to move on from that as a philosophy of storytelling which I think we've done a lot in the last five, 10 years. Pete: I would like to say that I think sometimes when get an idea for maybe a character or something and you want to try it, I think, yeah, go for it, definitely. Well, I want to see Geoff Johns take on this three jokers idea. I was into it. I was like, yeah, let's do this. This could be crazy. This will be fun. Geoff Johns is amazing writer. Sometimes you're like, I tried something, great. I don't think he should not try it because maybe somebody else did something similar or whatever, he should be allowed to do it. He definitely tried and hey, sometimes it's like, “Oh my God, that's crazy.” And sometimes it's like, “What are you going to do?” Alex: I think he just needs to stop correcting for Alan Moore. Geoff Johns is his own writer. He's a fantastic writer. He's written some of the best DC Comic stories of all time. Doomsday Clock was his way of correcting the course from Watchman. This is clearly his way of correcting the chorus from killing Joke. He doesn't need to respond to him anymore. He's done it. I want to see him move on. I want to see him do his own stories, create his own stories, create his own continuity because the things that he's done have been so wonderful and he has so much craft and so much heart to his things and we need more of that. I don't know what that character is. Obviously he's doing Stargirl and I love that show that it's wonderful and there is so much heart put into that. But when and if he comes back to comics, I want to see more on that side than just saying no Alan Moore sent the DC Universe the wrong direction for 20 years, let's [crosstalk 00:49:32]. Pete: But maybe that's how we get Stargirl with so much heart because he's got to write something that's darker and more fucked up. Alex: Maybe. I'm not necessarily saying about that, I'm saying specifically about relating to Alan Moore, which is fine, those exist. Let's move on. Speaking of which let's move on to Ascender for #14 from Image Comics written by Jeff Lemire and art by Dustin Nguyen. This I think is my favorite book in the stack everyone. I think this is the bit that I [inaudible 00:50:07] about the things that happened to the book, and in this issue we continue to get so many characters coming together. Spoiler, three, two, one, but Tim 21 from Descender finally comes back of this issue and it is such a thrill. And this is the Epic space opera that we've been missing while saga has been gone and it is wonderful to read every month, month after month. Pete: Just every character really pops in this book in every issue and there's so many great moments like, the team on this book has just done the work to establish so much stuff in Descender. And the fact that they were able to from a writing with Jeff Lemire and the artist standpoint with Dustin Nguyen continue to just deliver these excellent stories, where we see driller in this and he's just being himself. He has one scene, but it's just great. And a great battle here near the end and then reveal of Tim 21 like Alex said is just so sweet it makes you cheer and it's so hard to do that. And the fact that they can do that with almost every issue in this series is amazing. Alex: Yeah. It's really impressive. There's one kind of character who's kind of like the reader a little bit who's like, “What? Oh, shit, look who it is.” And you're kind of like, “Oh.” It's just it's so well done and so impressive. And I can't stress this enough. The art is like a watercolor painting. It's so beautiful and so cool with what they're doing and I love the characters and this just continues to kick freaking ass every single issue and I can't wait for this to be collected Ascender, Descender because I want to go back and read it all again. Justin: Do you think they're going to do a third series like just Sender, return to sender? Alex: Come on, don't ruin it man. Pete: Return to sender. Alex: Don't ruin it. Justin: It will be, it's Descender and then Ascender and then just sitting there cold chilling. Alex: Next up. Shang-Chi #2 Shang cheek, number two from Marvel Comics written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Dike Ruan. We really enjoyed, I think the first issue of this book was found Shang-Chi returning to his roots, going up against his sister. Here, we meet his sister very briefly and a conflict arises as well as more of mythology. I really liked this issue. I just needed more of it. That's my one criticism. It was surprisingly short it felt like. Justin: Yeah, I feel that way in that a lot of the stuff that happens I'm like, I see this makes sense, everything total sense. And then later in the issue, we get some fun reveals and some great art transitions. Shang-Chi has a sort of vision at one point and that's where the issue really touched off for me and it was great. Pete: Yeah. I've been really impressed with this, also just the classic story. It sucks when your sibling gets split off from you to be raised in some kind of killer martial arts and you don't get to see them till later in life because you miss those golden years. But I think this is- Justin: Yeah Pete, how is Sam? Pete: Ah, man, he's good. He's on torture Island, still doing great, doing what he loves. But I think that this is just- Justin: Being tortured? Pete: No, he does the torturing. He's moved his way up in the island, worked from the bottom now he's [crosstalk 00:53:57]. Justin: We should have him on the podcast. Pete: I don't think that's a good idea. Justin: He actually has a much more controlled temper than you. Pete: Yeah, well it's all the training. Alex: I just think this is a great book. I hope people give it a chance and I'm excited to see where this goes. The art continues to be amazing. Next up, Undiscovered Country #9 from Image Comics written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. In this issue our heroes? Are in the second wrong of America as they continue to go deeper and deeper towards the middle. I find a lot more about the backstory of American, what happened after the closing of the walls around America? Also some very, very bad things happen to unity, courtesy of the destiny man. Just a really good every issue I enjoy. I'm really enjoying this arc in particular. It feels far more accessible than the previous arc. Pete: Yeah. Justin: Yes. I feel like with this issue specifically, I'm like I finally come to grips with not the stuff I don't know and the stuff I do know they're in balance in a way where I'm like, yes, now I can move through this story. Because I agree with you. I really like it. The arts were great. It's like peer discovery every issue and every panel that you're reading of this comic and now it feels like we know what the characters know and we can all move forward together. Pete: Yeah. I think it's really because it's us as the reader and this comic really line up because there a moment where a wall is gone and they start driving and it's like, “All right, here we go. Now we're rolling.” And I feel like there's so much craziness and us trying to figure out what's going on. And now we've gotten to a place where it's like, “All right, I kind of understand some things enough to really start enjoying the story.” And it's really taking off in a great way so I'm excited to see how this unfolds, but it's really rolling now and I'm very excited. Alex: Yeah. Great stuff. Move it on to an ending, Batgirl #50 from DC Comics written by Cecil Castellucci, art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Marguerite Sauvage and Aneke, and this is the last issue of Batgirl for now. Also kind of a big deal because it introduces Ryan Wilder aka, the new Batwoman on TV into DC Comics continuity, albeit very briefly. I got to tell you, I have not read Batgirl that much recently but I like this issue quite a bit versus my commentary on three jokers. I think Cecil Castellucci perfectly captures what Barbara is about. I like her status quo here working for a Congress candidate I want to say. And just the balance she finds throughout these three stories with both Batgirl and Barbara Gordon I thought it was very nice across the board. Justin: Yeah. I thought this was a lot of fun. The game night story was great. Bright fun stories. It was wasn't as dark and gritty. I like Batgirl and it's sad to see her go. Pete: I thought the art throughout this whole issue is just so good. It's so clean. I feel like Barbara just really pops the whole time. And yeah, to your point, Batgirl in this book really exists in her own pocket of the Bat family and the Gotham universe. And I think that's the way it should be. I too haven't read too much of this arc, but I love the Batgirl character and I love how each different writer gets to come in and really find a different avenue to explore with Batgirl. I'm going to go back and reread some of the earlier stuff. Alex: I think so too because I like this quite a bit and I like the status quo as well. I hadn't really read it since the Batgirl and [inaudible 00:58:10] stuff but this is a nice place to put Barbara. Pete: Yeah. Alex: Next up Bliss #4 for Image Comics written by Sean Lewis and art by Caitlin Yarsky. It was set in a world where people suck on a what? Pete: Cheese steak? I want to say cheese steak. Alex: Ballistic. Justin: Don't force it guys. Don't force it. Alex: There are beings who sell misery and suck out people's misery. There's a guy who works for them. He is going after his wife. We both catch up to that moment and catch up to the present here and finally move beyond it in this issue. There's just some epic action and emotional stuff here, and this title continues to be. Pete: Yeah, this is one of my favorite picks for the week. I was really impressed. It kind of builds to this moment in such a great way. This comic does a great job of like, okay, this is what it's about, but it all culminates in this issue, and a classic husband and wife showdown and then- Justin: Classic gunfight. We're all going to be there in a gunfight with our significant other,. Pete: And you got to be careful for crows because they can fly through people if they want to. So fun fact. Justin: Smart birds. Pete: But yeah, I thought this was a fantastic bad-ass issue. The father-son hug was such a cool moment that they lingered on a little bit, which I really liked. I had just been really impressed with where this comic started to where it is now. The art is unbelievable, but man what a cool story. Justin: Yeah, I agree. This to me feels like Dune meets Twin Peaks in a cool way. Later when we see the older version of one of our main characters, Bob from Twin Peaks which I think was very cool. Yeah, so I liked that blend. The art is fantastic. I agree. It's good. Alex: Next up, An Unkindness of Ravens #2 from BOOM! Studios written by Dan Panosian and art by Marianna Ignazzi. If you haven't listened to our live podcast with Dan Panosian you can go back just a week or so and listen to that in the comic book club feed. But the first issue was kind of like the craft meets Sabrina and meets a couple of other things as a girl moves to a new town, finds out she looks exactly like somebody who's missing and it gets pulled between the popular kids and the goth kids who turn out to be the witch kids. We find out a little bit more about this this issue. How do you think this held up from issue number one? Pete: I think it's great. It pushes both stories sort of down the line. When we talked to Dan, I said, I really love the transition of the first little bit at the top that sets the dark tone into the more Archie style art I think is so nice. It really lets the horrifying tone from the first couple of pages bleed over into the situation and you feel more paranoid reading it and it really puts you in the same mindset as the main character. I like [crosstalk 01:01:21]. Justin: I do too. I'm really impressed from where it started to where it goes. It's really, the more we kind of find out, the better the story gets. This is really interesting. The art's unbelievable and they're doing a great job with the art leading the story in such a way, like they really change panels in such a cool, magical way that really fits things. And yeah, you got to be careful when someone wants to write on your hand, you can't just be okay with that. You know what I mean? You got to be really wary when someone's like, “Hey, give me your hand.” That's not cool. Pete: Hey, you don't want to join the PEN15 club. Alex: I know what you're talking about. Last but not least, A Man Among Ye #3 for Image Comics written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Craig Cermak. We talked about the first two issues of this one as well. This is a female focused pirate tale. The place that they left off at the last issue felt like finally getting the crew together and I felt like that's where we pick up this issue. This is the one that I've enjoyed the most so far because I feel like we finally have the right mix of characters in this crew, even if they're not technically a crew yet. But lots of fun, and Craig Cermax's art is still great. Pete: Yeah, I agree. I felt like this is really picking up steam and all the right ways. It's very excited now that we kind of got the people all in the same place, how this is going to unfold. But yeah, just classic bad-ass pirate lady. I love it. This is really cool. I love the last page reveal. I think this is great and the art is fantastic. Justin: Yeah. It's all right. It reminds me of Captain Valiant, the Sunday comic. Pete: Hey, fuck you man. Justin: Where I was like, I'll read this at the end of the comic. Pete: Fuck you, man. Justin: Okay. Pete: This comic's better than that. Alex: Hey, I'll tell you what, I'm glad we ended with this one. If you like support our podcast patrion.com/comic book club, also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out. We 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 at comic book live on Twitter, comicbookclub.com, this podcast and many more. Until next time, what's up [inaudible 01:03:54]. Pete: Yeah, it's all right. Justin: What? I had a slightly non bang review and you're like, man. Pete: I think it's better than you're giving it. You're not giving it a chance. Justin: Okay, I can read it. Alex: Not to interrupt you guys, but the show is over. Pete: Okay. Justin: No, it's not over yet. Bye. I just have to take this call with the Marvel Comics action figure line for watcher with more dick and I think it's going really well. The post The Stack: The Last Ronin, X Of Swords And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Fanbase Feature: An Interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson on FUTURE STATE and More

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2020 21:07

In this Fanbase Feature, Fanbase Press co-founder Bryant Dillon and special guest Eisner-nominated comic writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer - The Last God, Warlords of Appalachia, Last Sons of America) discuss Johnson's work on the DC Comics' event known as Future State, his personal connection with Superman as a force of inspiration, how these stories relate to our current times, and more.

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The Stack: X Of Swords, Speed Metal And More

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2020 55:20

On today's packed comic book review podcast: X Of Swords: Creation #1, Dark Nights: Death Metal - Speed Metal #1, An Unkindness of Ravens #1, Spider-Man #4, The Last God #9, Voyage to the Stars #2, Wynd #4, Wicked Things #5, Low #25, Canto II: The Hollow Men #2, The Immortal She-Hulk #1, Undiscovered Country #8, MegaMan: Fully Charged #2, Juggernaut #1, Black Magick #14, Power Rangers: Drakkon - New Dawn #2, Maestro #2, The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3, Judge Dredd: False Witness #3, and Bliss #3. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

spotify stars spider man android ravens voyage maestro stack swords juggernaut undiscovered country black magick wynd speed metal immortal she hulk last god

The Stack: X Of Swords, Speed Metal And More

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2020 55:20

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

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The Stack: Locke & Key, Three Jokers And More

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2020 62:38

This week we've got reviews for: Locke & Key: … In Pale Battalions Go … #1, Batman: Three Jokers #1, Daredevil Annual #1, Nailbiter Returns #4, Canto II: The Hollow Men #1, The Last God #8, X-Men #11, Ghosted in L.A. #12, Black Magick #13, The Flash #760, Mega Man: Fully Charged #1, Iron Man 2020 #6, Bliss #2, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #4, Fantastic Four: Antithesis #1, Bomb Queen #1, Wonder Woman #761, Wynd #3, The Amazing Spider-Man #47, Chu #2, Justice League Dark #25, Wicked Things #4, X-Factor #2, and That Texas Blood #3. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Stack: Locke & Key, Three Jokers And More

The Nerdy Basement Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2020 62:38

This week we've got reviews for: Locke & Key: … In Pale Battalions Go … #1, Batman: Three Jokers #1, Daredevil Annual #1, Nailbiter Returns #4, Canto II: The Hollow Men #1, The Last God #8, X-Men #11, Ghosted in L.A. #12, Black Magick #13, The Flash #760, Mega Man: Fully Charged #1, Iron Man 2020 #6, Bliss #2, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #4, Fantastic Four: Antithesis #1, Bomb Queen #1, Wonder Woman #761, Wynd #3, The Amazing Spider-Man #47, Chu #2, Justice League Dark #25, Wicked Things #4, X-Factor #2, and That Texas Blood #3. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. The post The Stack: Locke & Key, Three Jokers And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TNB Presents: Comics In The Basement 020 - Quarantined Chronicles (Part 3)

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2020 89:00

Quarantine is still in effect. But that hasn't stopped the CITB boys from podding and catching up on comics. The boys are back, and in this episode, Comics in the Basement discuss some of the most recent comic book news, Red Hood and the Outlaws, The Last God, Batman and the Outsiders, Savage Avengers, GOTG and so much more!!! As per usual it's another jampacked episode chock full of comic book knowledge for your head tops! As always, thank you all for listening! Get a 30-day free trial of Audible by using our direct link: http://www.audibletrial.com/thenerdybasement Check out the official Nerdy Basement website: http://thenerdybasement.com Keep up with The Nerdy Basement: https://www.instagram.com/thenerdybasement/ https://twitter.com/nerdy_basement https://www.facebook.com/thenerdybasement/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2lHF3rulYJ186MkSb9PhPw https://www.twitch.tv/thenerdybasement https://www.patreon.com/thenerdybasement Keep up with Comics in the Basement: https://www.instagram.com/comicsinthebasement

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The Stack: X-O Manowar, Road to Empyre And More

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2020 43:22

On this week's comic book review stack: X-O Manowar #1, Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War #1, Lazarus Risen #4, The Last God #6, Once & Future #7, Hellions #1, Dying is Easy #4, Amethyst #2, Super Duck #1, Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler #1, On The Stump #2, Basketful of Heads #6, Judge Dredd: Flase Witness #1, Killing Red Sonja #1 and Sex Criminals #28. SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Stack: The Rise Of Kylo Ren, Batman And More

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2019 42:48

On today's comic review Stack: The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, Batman #85, Doomsday Clock #12, Guardians of the Galaxy #12, Suicide Squad #1, Heart Attack #2, 2099 Omega #1, The Low Low Woods #1, Folklords #2, Annihilation: Scourge Omega #1, The Last God #3, Rick And Morty #57, Legion of Super-Heroes #2, Once & Future #5, SFSX #4 and Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #1. Check out the website at comicbookclublive.com to find out how to watch the show live! And follow the show on Twitter: @comicbooklive, @azalben, @jtsizzle, and @realpetelepage Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Stack: Curse Words, X-Force And More

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2019 27:04

On today's Stack podcast, reviews for: Curse Words #25, X-Force #2, The Last God #2, Venom #20, Shazam #8, New Mutants #2, Cyborg USA #1 and Basketful of Heads #2. Check out the website at comicbookclublive.com to find out how to watch the show live! And follow the show on Twitter: @comicbooklive, @azalben, @jtsizzle, and @realpetelepage Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Comic Book Club: Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2019 57:20

Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson returns to the live show to chat about Marvel Zombies: Resurrection, The Last God and much more! Check out the website at comicbookclublive.com to find out how to watch the show live! And follow the show on Twitter: @comicbooklive, @azalben, @jtsizzle, and @realpetelepage Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Stack: The Last God, Excalibur And More

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 30, 2019 38:59

On today's Stack podcast, we're reviewing: The Last God #1, Excalibur #1, Roku #1, Silver Surfer Black #5, Giant Days: As Time Goes By #1, Dead Man Logan #12, Basketful of Heads #1, Fantastic Four: Grand Design #1, SFSX #2, Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1, Bloodshot #2 and Joker: Killer Smile #1 Check out the website at comicbookclublive.com to find out how to watch the show live! And follow the show on Twitter: @comicbooklive, @azalben, @jtsizzle, and @realpetelepage Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Fanbase Feature: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Interview on THE LAST GOD