Podcast appearances and mentions of paul allor

Comic Reviews: DC Absolute Green Lantern 1 by Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma 1 by Ram V, Anand Rk, Jackson Guice, Mike Spicer Marvel All-New Venom 5 by Al Ewing, Carlos Gomez, Frank D'Armata Concert of Champions 1 by Jason Loo, Rafael Loureiro, Ruairi Coleman, Yen Nitro, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell 1 by Charles Soule, Steve McNiven Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time 1 by Cullen Bunn, Dalibor Talajic, Lee Loughridge Ironheart: Bad Chemistry 1 by John Jennings, Jethro Morales, Andrew Dalhouse Marvel Rivals 1 by Paul Allor, Luca Claretti, Dee Cunniffe Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 10th Anniversary Special by Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos, Luis Guerrero; Justina Ireland, Luca Claretti, Andrew Dalhouse Marvel Unlimited It's Jeff 45 by Kelly Thompson, Gurihiru AWA Polis 1 by Mark Russell, Vladimir Krstic-Laci IDW Star Trek: Lore War 1 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Christopher Cantwell, Davide Tinto Monster High: Bull's Eye by Heather Nuhfer, Kellee Riley Image Black Ritual: The Book of Nyx 1 by Thomas Healy, Nat Jones G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Beach Head 1 by Phil Hester, Travis Hymel, Lee Loughridge I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer 1 by Doug Wagner, Daniel Hillyard, Michelle Madsen Mad Cave Past Time 1 by Joe Harris, Russell Olson Oni Plague House 1 by Michael Conrad, Dave Chisholm OGN Countdown Sib Squad by Steve Breen Rebis Born and Reborn by Irene Marchesini, Carlotta Dicataldo Jimmy Olsen's Supercyclopedia by Gabe Soria, Sandy Jarrell Around the Spider-Verse by Pablo Leon, Justin Reynolds, Roseanne Brown, Penelope Rivera Gaylord, Maca Gil Coven by Jennifer Dugan, Kit Seaton Magda, Intergalactic Chef Vol 1: The Big Tournament by Nicolas Wouters, Mathilde Van Gheluwe, Ann Marie Boulanger Squeak Chatter Bark: An Eco Mystery by Ali Fitzgerald Golem of Venice Beach Vol 2 by Chanan Beizer, Vanessa Cardinali, Jae Lee, David Mack, and Friends Maxwell Dark Nightmare Hunter by Brady Smith Cartoonist's Club by Raina Telgemeier, Scott McCloud Renegade Girls by Nora Neus, Julie Robine Additional Reviews: Gamma Flight Heathen Blue Harvest Daredevil: Born Again ep7 A Minecraft Movie News: Val Kilmer, Spider-Man 4 title and Spider-Verse 3 release date, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood sequel, Fox animated sitcoms renewed for four more years, Tim Seeley Godzilla ongoing, live action HTTYD2 announced, Tangled remake on hold, Love Everlasting film in development, AI controversy at AWA, Amphibia graphic novel series announced, Peacemaker air date, Death Standing movie announced, Diamond bankruptcy issues, Seven Sisters Trailers: Tales From the Underworld, Megan 2.0, Naked Gun, Superman, Tron: Ares, Five Nights at Freddies 2, Zipped Up Comics Countdown Countdown (Most Appearances in CC) Jeff Lemire (347) James Tynion IV (294) Tom King (228) Scott Snyder (181) Chip Zdarsky (169) Joshua Williamson (158) Tom Taylor (133) Donny Cates (121) Al Ewing (100) Rick Remender (97) Jonathan Hickman (83) Geoff Johns (76) Kelly Thompson (71) Cullen Bunn (70) Kieron Gillen (65) Charles Soule (64) Skottie Young (62) Dan Slott (59) Christopher Priest (55) Kyle Higgins, Ed Brubaker Comics Countdown (02 April 2025): Absolute Superman 6 by Jason Aaron, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ulises Arreola Absolute Green Lantern 1 by Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay Two-Face 5 by Christian Ward, Fabio Veras, Ivan Plascencia Daredevil: Cold Day in Hell 1 by Charles Soule, Steve McNiven Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma 1 by Ram V, Anand Rk, Jackson Guice, Mike Spicer Hyde Street 5 by Geoff Johns, Francis Portela, Brad Anderson Batgirl 6 by Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mike Spicer Immortal Thor 22 by Al Ewing, Jan Bazaldua, Matt Hollingsworth Let This One Be A Devil 2 by James Tynion IV, Steve Foxe, Piotr Kowalski, Brad Simpson; Steve Orlando, Levi Hastings Hornsby and Halo 5 by Peter Tomasi, Peter Snejbjerg, John Kalisz

March 2025 Solicits Comic Reviews: DC Challengers of the Unknown 1 by Christopher Cantwell, Sean Izaakse, Romulo Fajardo Jr. Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World's Finest Special by Jeremy Adams, Lucas Meyer, Marcelo Maiolo New Gods 1 by Ram V, Evan Cagle, Jorge Fornes, Francesco Segala Marvel Alligator Loki Holiday Special by Alyssa Wong, Rob Quinn, Pete Pantazis Hellverine 1 by Benjamin Percy, Raffaele Ienco, Bryan Valenza TVA 1 by Katharyn Blair, Pere Perez, Guru eFX Marvel Unlimited It's Jeff 40 by Kelly Thompson, GuriHiru Marvel Rivals 1 by Paul Allor, Luca Claretti, Dee Cunniffe Dark Horse Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Wedding Spectacular by Daniel Jose Older, Harvey Tolibao, Caio Filipe, Andy Duggan, Jo Migyeong, Toni Bruno, Megan Huang, Nick Brokenshire, Elisa Romboli, Michael Atiyeh, Vladimir Popov, Dan Jackson, Nicola Righi Dynamite Gargoyles Winter Special by Greg Weisman, Nate Cosby, George Kambadais, JP Jordan Image Horizon Experiment: Motherfuckin' Monsters 1 by J. Holtham, Michael Lee Harris Deadly Tales of Gunslinger Spawn 1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Patric Reynolds, Luis Nct Freddie the Fix 1 by Garth Ennis, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer, Andy Troy Mad Cave Missing on the Moon 1 by Cory Crater, Damian Couceiro, Patricio Delpeche OGN Countdown Planeta by Ana Oncina Visitations by Corey Egbert Yellow by Jay Martin Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan Additional Reviews: Lonesome Hunters by Tyler Crook Bandette by Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover Sonic 3 Mufasa Skeleton Crew ep4 Creature Commandos ep4 Digital Circus ep4 Simpsons Disney+ Special: O C'Mon All Ye Faithful News: new Deadpool vs. Marvel mini from Bunn, Spider-Verse vs. Venom-Verse showrun by Massiverse crew, Hush 2 release update, new Amazing Spider-Man team, King's Wonder Woman may end with #19?, Omninews, Odyssey from Christopher Nolan Trailers: Superman Comics Countdown (18 December 2024): Spectregraph 4 by James Tynion IV, Christian Ward Wonder Woman 16 by Tom King, Bruno Redondo, Caio Filipe, Adriano Lucas Absolute Batman 3 by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin Ultimate Spider-Man 12 by Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, Matt Wilson New Gods 1 by Ram V, Evan Cagle, Jorge Fornes, Francesco Segala Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre 2 by Tom Scioli, Black Hammer: Spiral City 2 by Jeff Lemire, Teddy Kristiansen Fantastic Four 27 by Ryan North, Steven Cummings, Jesus Aburtov Groo: Minstrel Melodies 4 by Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones, Carrie Strachan Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 5 by Jason Aaron, Darick Robertson, Norm Rapmund, Tony Avina

Comic Reviews: DC Boy Wonder 1 by Juni Ba, Chris O'Halloran Marvel Blood Hunters 1 by Mark Russell, Bob Quinn, Matt Milla; Christos Gage, Javier Garon, Morry Hollowell; Erica Schultz, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo Dracula: Blood Hunt 1 by Danny Lore, Vincenzo Carratu, David Curiel Giant-Size X-Men by Ann Nocenti, Lee Ferguson, KJ Diaz Strange Academy: Blood Hunt 1 by Daniel Jose Older, Luidi Zagaria, Edgar Delgado, Eric Gapstur, Scott Hanna, Erick Arciniega Marvel Unlimited Infinity Paws 6 by Jason Loo, Nao Fuji Dark Horse Witcher: Corvo Bianco 1 by Bartosz Sztybor, Corrado Mastantuono, Matteo Vattani Image Ain't No Grave 1 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu Energon Universe 2024 Special by Daniel Warren Johnson, Ryan Ottley, Annalisa Leoni; Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, Matheus Lopes; Joshua Williamson, Jason Howard, Mike Spicer Boom Amory Wars: Good Apollo, I'm Burning - No World For Tomorrow 1 by Crocodile Black 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Som, Patricio Delpeche IDW TMNT: Black, White, and Green 1 by Declan Shalvey; Dave Baker, Jesse Lonergan; Gigi Dutreix, Lorenzo Hall; Paulina Ganucheau Mad Cave Mugshots 1 by Jordan Thomas, Chris Matthews Valiant Faith Returns 1 by Jody Houser, Aleta Vidal, Ludwig Olimba Valiants 1 by Ryan Cady, Al Barrionuevo, Nobi OGN Countdown Punk Mambo: Punk Witch Project by Peter Milligan, Andres Ponce Tryouts by Sarah Sax Nomads: The Sky Kingdom Vol 1 by Captain Juuter Devour by Jazmine Joyner, Anthony Pugh Sunhead by Alex Assan Hotelitor by Josh Hicks Curve Ball by Pablo Cartaya, Miguel Diaz Rivas Mulan and the Palace of Secrets Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen Karate Prom by Kyle Starks Singularity by Mat Groom, Bear McCreary, Rod Reis, Eleonora Carlini, Ramon Perez, Matias Bergara, Danilo Beyruth, John Pearson Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol FCBD 2024 Ablaze: Gannibal by Masaaki Ninomiya, Alex Kon Dark Horse: Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures/Plants vs. Zombies by Daniel Jose Older, Andy Duggan, Dan Jackson, Paul Tobin, Luisa Russo, Heather Breckel Dark Horse: Hellboy/Stranger Things by Mike Mignola, Mark Laszlo, Dave Stewart; Derek Fridolfs, Jonathan Case DC: Absolute Power by Mark Waid, Mikel Janin, Trish Mulvihill DC: Barda by Ngozi Ukazu DC: Barkham Asylum by Yehudi Mercado IDW: Monster High by Jacque Aye, Siobhan Keenan IDW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Juni Ba, Fero Pe, Luis Antonio Delgado; Paul Allor, Andy Kuhn, Ronda Pattison Mad Cave: Flash Gordon by Jeremy Adams, Will Conrad, Lee Loughridge Mad Cave: Gatchaman 1 by Cullen Bunn, Chris Batista, Carlos Lopez; Tommy Lee Edwards, Daniel Hansen; Steve Orlando, Katherine Lobo Marvel: Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe by Zeb Wells, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Sonia Oback; Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee; Al Ewing, Iban Coello, Frank D'Armata Marvel: Marvel's Voices by Nikesh Shukla, Tadam Gyadu, Neeraj Menon Titan: Conan – Battle of the Black Stone by Jim Zub, Jonas Scharf, Joao Canola Valiant: The Valiants by Ryan Cady, Al Barrionuevo, Nobi; AJ Ampadu, Emiliano Correa Additional Reviews: Monsters at Work s2, Doctor Who ep 1 & 2, May the 12th Be With You, Black Panther by Priest vol 1, X-Men '97 ep 8 & 9 Glenn found an animated series (House on the Outlands) News: Gollum movie, Batman Caped Crusader release date, Gotham City Sirens miniseries, Esposito and Malkovich joining the MCU, Revival adaptation, Galactus cast, Heir of Apocalypse roster, Dazzler ongoing series Comics Countdown (08 May 2024): 1.     Ain't No Grave 1 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu 2.     Deviant 5 by James Tynion IV, Josh Hixson 3.     Birds of Prey 9 by Kelly Thompson, Jonathan Case, Gavin Guidry, Jordie Bellaire 4.     Crocodile Black 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Som, Patricio Delpeche 5.     Batman 147 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeo Morey 6.     Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees 6 by Patrick Horvath 7.     Devil That Wears My Face 6 by David Pepose, Alex Cormack 8.     Geiger 2 by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson 9.     Fantastic Four 20 by Ryan North, Carlos Gomez, Fernando Sifuentes, Jesus Aburtov 10.  Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin 2 by J.M. DeMatteis, Michael Sta. Maria, Chris Sotomayor

In this episode, Brian VanHooker interviews Paul Allor, a prolific writer for IDW comics. In addition to writing several stories in the main IDW TMNT continuity, they are the writer for the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Street Fighter series, which featured a number of epic fights between the main characters in each franchise. Allor also discusses some of the original characters they've helped develop, like Pepperoni and Zodi. Sound Engineering by Ian Williams

December 2023 Solicits (Remaining) Comic Reviews: DC Green Lantern: War Journal 1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Montos, Adriano Lucas Catwoman 57 by Tini Howard, Nico Leon, Veronica Gandini Harley Quinn: Black White and Redder 3 by Gail Simone, David Baldeon, Chris Condon, Jacob Phillips, Aditya Bidikar, Juni Ba Wonder Woman 1 by Tom King, Daniel Sampere, Tomeu Morey Marvel Captain America 1 by J. Michael Straczynski, Jesus Saiz, Matt Hollingsworth Predator vs. Wolverine 1 by Benjamin Percy, Greg Land, Ken Lashley, Andrea Di Vito, Jay Leisten, Frank D'Armata, Juan Fernandez Star Wars: Dark Droids – D-Squad 1 by Marc Guggenheim, Salvador Espin, Israel Silva, David Messina Strange Academy: Moon Knight by Carlos Hernandez, Julian Shaw, Edgar Delgado Uncanny Spider-Man 1 by Si Spurrier, Lee Garbett, Matt Milla What If?... Dark: Carnage by Larry Hama, John McCrea, Mike Spicer X-Men Annual 2023 by Paul Allor, Alessandro Miracolo, Annalisa Leoni, Stephanie Phillips, Stefano Landini, Raul Angulo Marvel Unlimited I Am Groot by Chiya Image Hexagon Bridge 1 by Richard Blake Jack Kirby's Starr Warriors: The Adventures of Adam Starr and the Solar Legion by Jack Kirby, Tom Scioli Junior Baker: The Righteous Faker 1 by Joe Casey, Ryan Quackenbush Dark Horse Witcher: Wild Animals 1 by Bartosz Sztybor, Natalia Rerekina, Patricio Delpeche Boom Rare Flavours 1 by Ram V, Filipe Andrade AWA Rumpus Room 1 by Mark Russell, Ramon Rosanas, Ive Svorcina Archie Chilling Adventures Presents: Madam Satan – Hell on Earth by Elliot Rahal, Vincenzo Federici, Ellie Wright Scout Benigno! by Davy Lee, Luis Santamarine OGNs Love Kills by Danilo Beyruth Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for the Pumpkin King by DJ Milky, Shaun McLaughlin, Dan Conner, Deborah Allo Match Point by Maddie Gallegos Bean the Stretchy Dragon by Ari Stocrate Tig and Lilly: Party Animals by Dan Thompson Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel, Christopher Steininger Additional Reviews: Ahsoka ep6, Black Mirror s6, Carl's Date, Gotham City: Year One, Witness by J.M. DeMatteis, Haunting in Venice News: Remender goes Image exclusive, Avengers: Twilight by Zdarsky and Acuna, Al Ewing brings Magneto back, Ultimate Spider-Man by Hickman and Checchetto, bizarre 90s cartoon gets a comic book update from Mad Cave, Scarlet Witch relaunch, end of the Writer's strike Trailers: Percy Jackson, Squid Game reality show Comics Countdown (19 Sep 2023) Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement 4 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart Rare Flavours 1 by Ram V, Filipe Andrade Wonder Woman 1 by Tom King, Daniel Sampere, Tomeu Morey Nocterra 16 by Scott Snyder, Tony Daniel, Marcelo Maiolo Superman 6 by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, Alejandro Sanchez Nightwing 106 by Tom Taylor, Stephen Byrne, Adriano Lucas Traveling to Mars 8 by Mark Russell, Roberto Meli Something is Killing the Children 33 by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Edera, Miquel Muerto Guardians of the Galaxy 6 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Alex Lins, Kike Diaz Grim 13 by Stephanie Phillips, Flaviano, Rico Renzi

The writer of Pink Midnight Presents: Barber Psychic joins us this week to talk about whether the series really is a horror anthology, never playing D&D, "Yes and," movies about barbers, and much more!NOTE: Just to be clear, Paul uses they/them pronouns, despite some others used in the episode. Apologies!

Jace chats with writer Paul Allor about the first issue of his self-published anthology series, Pink Midnight: Barber Psychic, the second installment covers 85 years in the life of a barber who can see the future as he cuts people hair, this psychological horror story is beautifully illustrated in black and white by Juan Romera.

Hellboy in Love by Christopher Golden, Matt Smith, and Chris O'Halloran from Dark Horse, XINO #2 from Oni Press featuring David and Maria Lapham, Zander Cannon, Artyrom Trakhanov, and company, TMNT Vs. Street Fighter #2 by Paul Allor, Axel Medel, and Sarah Myer from IDW, The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold Your Childhood by Box Brown from :01 First Second, World's Finest: Teen Titans #1 by Mark Waid, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Jordie Bellaire, Milk Maid by Jasper Jubenvill, The Big Game #1 by Mark Millar, Pepe Larraz, and Giovanna Niro from Image, Crazy Food Truck Volume 3 by Rokurou Ogaki from Viz, Dandadan, Scrapper #1 by Cliff Bleszinski, Alex de Campi, and Sandy Jarrell from Image, True Crime Funnies by Jim Rugg, Weapon Brown: Aftershock by Jason Yungbluth, plus a whole mess more!

Comic Reviews: DC Flash 800 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Matt Herms, Mark Waid, Todd Nauck, Joshua Williamson, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ivan Plascencia, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, Si Spurrier, Mike Deodato Jr., Trish Mulvihill Joker Uncovered by various New Talent Showcase: Milestone Initiative 1 by Ashley Allen, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Jarred A. Lujan, Greg Burnham, Jarod Rhys Pratt, Zipporah Smith, Julio Anta, Morgan Hampton, Jerome Rhett, Nathan Cayanan, Jordan Clark, Dorado Quick, Yasmin Flores Montanez/Walden Wong, Atagun Ilhan/Wade Von Grawbadger, Kameron White/Le Beau Underwood, Marcus Smith/Roberto Poggi, Daimon Hampton/Anthony Fowler Jr., Lucas Silveira/John Livesay, Andrea Rosales/Scott Hanna, Jose Marzan Jr., Petterson Oliveira/Wade Von Grawbadger, Gregory Maldonado/Anthony Fowler Jr, Miguel C. Hernandez/Jose Marzan Jr., Charles Stewart III/Dexter Vines, Bryan Valenza, Luis Guerrero, Hi-Fi, Alex Guimaraes, Andrew Dalhouse, Chris Sotomayor, Michael Atiyeh, Nick Filardi Steelworks 1 by Michael Dorn, Sami Basri, Andrew Dalhouse Fann Club: Batman SquadJim Benton Marvel Deadpool: Badder Blood 1 by Rob Liefeld, Chad Bowers, Shelby Robertson, Jay David Ramos Loki 1 by Dan Watters, German Perlata, Mike Spicer Spider-Man 9 by Dan Slott, Mark Bagley, John Dell, Edgar Delgado Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – The Empire by Jody Houser, Jethro Morales, Dee Cunniffe X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike by Steve Orlando, Valentina Pinti, Frank William Infinity Comics Li'L Rocket 3 by Stephanie Williams, Jay Fosgitt Image In Hell We Fight 1 by John Layman, Jok, Mey IDW TMNT vs. Street Fighter 1 by Paul Allor, Ariel Medel, Sarah Myer Boom Fence: Redemption 1 by C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad Dynamite Bettie Page 1 by Mirka Andolfo, Luca Blengino, Elisa Ferrari AWA Sins of the Salton Sea 1 by Ed Brisson, CP Smith Mad Cave You've Been Cancelled 1 by Curt Pires, Kevin Castaniero, Jason Wordie OGNs Northranger by Rey Terciero, Bre Indigo Additional Reviews: Vigil (BBC), Hailey's On It News: Birds of Prey roster (Cass Cain, Big Barda, Zealot, Harley, Black Canary), Aquaman series announced, some DC webcomics ending, Image controversy, El Muerto may be cancelled, Mario greenlit for two additional movies (and maybe also Zelda), Predator vs. Wolverine, Omninews, big Image news, new secondary Avengers series starring Janet by Al Ewing, Tenoch Huerta allegations, Gotham Knights tries Trailers: Twisted Metal Comics Countdown (06 Jun 2023): Daredevil 12 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Matt Wilson Flash 800 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Matt Herms, Mark Waid, Todd Nauck, Joshua Williamson, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ivan Plascencia, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, Si Spurrier, Mike Deodato Jr., Trish Mulvihill Fantastic Four 8 by Ryan North, Ivan Fiorelli, Jesus Aburtov Phantom Road 4 by Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Walta, Jordie Bellaire Northranger OGN by Rey Terciero, Bre Indigo Batman 136 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Corona, Belen Ortega, Tomeu Morey, Ivan Plascencia Lamentation 2 by Cullen Bunn, Arjuna Susini, Hilary Jenkins Nocterra 15 by Scott Snyder, Tony Daniel, Marcelo Maiolo Hairball 3 by Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins I Hate This Place 9 by Kyle Starks, Artyom Topilin, Lee Loughridge  

This week the gang look once again at the Zine and Small Press scene with the great folks of Colossive Press! Theres talk of creativity, personal stories, zine creation, collaborating through cartography and even more. Plus there's talk about the upcoming episode 400 and tons of recommendations! Great stuff to check out this week - Colossive Press, Croydon Spaceport, Things My Dad Saw (But Never Bothered Mentioning), Colossive Cartographies, Vince, The Colossive Manifesto, Bungalow World, Fractures, Tony the Comics TShirt, Madeline KS, Lawless Comic Con, James Blundell, Predators, Bullet Adventures 1-3, The Gentlemen Ghouls, Matt Strott, The Harrower, Zoop, Paul Allor, The Butterfly House, Kia Wordsmith, Time Bomb Comics, Ian Ashcroft, Grant Richards, Spanned Ex, The Uniques, Noir Burlesque, Enrico Marini, Europe Comics Click here to buy comics from the creators of the Awesome Comics Podcast! Let us know what you think! Email: awesomecomicspod@gmail.com  Join the discussion today at our facebook group Awesome Comics Talk Check out the folks who sponsor this lil show - the mighty folks at Comichaus!

Today we have the opportunity to sit down with Paul Allor to break down The Butterfly House + their experience creating #indiecomics! Be sure to check the links below to stay in touch with their future works! "Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House is the first in a planned series of weird, one-shot comic books from writer Paul Allor, artist Juan Romera, and editor Claire Napier, all presented in Juan's stunning black-and-white art. This first issue is a silent descent into one person's nightmare, as our protagonist enters the titular Butterfly House -- and soon discovers they may never be able to leave. This is a deeply personal story for Paul, part existential horror story, a part allegory for Paul's own discovery of their gender identity. The Butterfly House will take you places you will not expect, and leave you pondering its implications long after you've reached the last page." ZOOP - Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twitter - https://twitter.com/PaulAllor --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To stay up to date with my content creation as well as my day-to-day thoughts, feel free to follow my Twitter - https://twitter.com/keepingitgeekly For single-issue breakdowns and more be sure to visit my TikTok over at https://tiktok.com/keepingitgeekly Be sure to drop by my Twitch channel where I live stream every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 11 PM EST https://twitch.tv/job_for_a_cody My personal Discord -https://discord.gg/vg9zEyKt Intro Music - https://twitter.com/PersyThePianist | http://linktr.ee/PersyNotes Background Music - [FREE] Kota The Friend Type Beat - "Laid Back" - Kota https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIY19VZa3FY&t=83s --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/keepingitgeekly/support

This week's guest on the hypothetical Island is Paul Allor, talented writer of G.I. Joe, TMNT and the currently crowdfunding Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House. Listen as they join Reilly and George and talk about writing wordless comics, whether male kangaroos have pouches, their favorite turtles,  Manhattan real estate and Paul confesses to being a furry. 

Episode #572 features Wayne's interview with Paul Allor from Pink Midnight Presents The Butterfly House this week! Paul is best known for their work on properties including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (they developed the Death Ranger, a non-binary villain in the Power Ranger universe). We discuss Paul's newest book, which is being crowdfunded at Zoop.gg, and is something very special! It's described this way: “The Butterfly House will take you places you will not expect, and leave you pondering its implications long after you've reached the last page.” We delve into this deeply personal story for Paul, which is part existential horror story and part allegory for Paul's own discovery of their gender identity. It's an engaging comic that will take the reader in a silent descent into one person's nightmare! Be sure to support it today!

Jace chats with writer Paul Allor about the first issue of his self-published anthology series, Pink Midnight: The Butterfly House. A silent issue full of weirdness and emotion, this horror story is beautifully illustrated in black and white by Juan Romera.

Comic Reviews: DC DC's Saved by the Belle-Reve by Peter Tomasi, Brandon Thomas, Becky Cloonan, Tim Seeley, Franco Aureliani, Brenden Fletcher, Dave Wielgosz, Dan Watters, Andrew Aydin, Art Baltazar, Scott Kolins, Nelson Daniel, Craig Cermak, Karl Kerschl, Mike Norton, Juan Ferreyra, Max Raynor, Hi-Fi, Adriano Lucas, Allan Passalaqua, Msassyk, Dee Cunniffe, Michelle Assarasakorn, John Kausz Flash Annual 2022 by Jeremy Adams, Serg Acuna, Matt Herms Harley Quinn Annual 2022 by Stephanie Phillips, Georges Duarte, David Baldeon, Simone Buonfantino, Antonio Fabela, Romulo Fajardo Jr Harley Quinn: Animated Series – The Real Sidekicks of New Gotham Special by Superman: Warworld Apocalypse by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Will Conrad, Brandon Peterson, Miguel Mendonca, Max Raynor, Lee Loughridge Wonder Girl Annual 2022 by Douglas Marques, Joelle Jones, Adriano Melo, Emi Lenox, Benjamin Dewey, Sweeney Boo, Jordie Bellaire Batman's Mystery Casebook by Sholly Fisch, Christopher Uminga Marvel Thunderbolts 1 by Jim Zub, Sean Izaakse, Javier Tartaglia Marvel Infinity Love Unlimited – Millie the Spy by Stephanie Phillips, Nick Roche ComiXology Black Ghost Vol 2 by Alex Segura, Monica Gallagher, George Kambadais, Ellie Wright Blood Oath 1 by Alex Segura, Rob Hart, Joe Eisma, Hilary Jenkins Boom Firefly 20th Anniversary Special by Jorge Corona, Josh Gordon, Jordi Perez, Fabiana Mascolo Power Rangers Unlimited: The Death Ranger 1 by Paul Allor, Katherine Lobo, Anna Kekovsky Chandra, Sara Antonellini, Fabi Marques, Sharon Marino IDW Star Trek Picard – Stargazer 1 by Mike Johnson, Kirsten Beyer, Angel Hernandez, JD Mettler Behemoth Until My Knuckles Bleed: One Deadly Shot by Victor Santos Scout Forever Forward 1 by Zack Kaplan, Arjuna Susini, Brad Simpson OGN Neverlanders by Tom Taylor, Jon Sommariva Wrassle Castle Vol 3 by Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover, Galaad, Rebecca Horner Astro City Metrobook Vol 2 by Kurt Busiek, Europe School for Little Monsters by Bob Beka Masks: The Mask Without a Face by Kid Toussaint, Joel Jurion Behind the Curtain by Sara Del Giudice Empty Eyes by Diego Agrimbau, Juan Manuel Tumburus Ray's OGN Corner: Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo Additional Reviews: Frankenstein by Junji Ito, Ed Gein OGN, Reckless: Friend of the Devil, Okay Witch 2, Conan by Jason Aaron, LotR: The Rings of Power, She-Hulk ep3, Shock Shop News: Trevor Slattery returning in Wonder Man, new vampire comic by Tim Seeley from Marvel, DC Kyle Rayner cover, Lemire and Substack, Paramount+ merging with Showtime, Harley renewed, Flash goes biweekly Trailers: Winnie the Pooh – Blood and Honey Comics Countdown: Over My Dead Body by Sweeney Boo Wrassle Castle Vol 3 by Colleen Coover, Paul Robin, Galaad, Rebecca Horner Superman: Warworld Apocalypse by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Will Conrad, Brandon Peterson, Miguel Mendonca, Max Raynor, Lee Loughridge Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country 5 by James Tynion IV, Lisandro Estherren, Aaron Campbell, Jordie Bellaire, Patricio Delpeche Barnstormers 2 by Scott Snyder, Tula Lotay, Dee Cunniffe Ant-Man 2 by Al Ewing, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire Neverlanders by Tom Taylor, Jon Sommariva Flash Annual 2022 by Jeremy Adams, Serg Acuna, Matt Herms Variants 4 by Gail Simone, Phil Noto Power Rangers Unlimited: Death Ranger 1 by Paul Allor, Katherine Lobo, Anna Spider-Man 2099 Exodus Omega

We're back after an unexpectedly long hiatus, but we have been reading comics and it's time we we finally talked about them along with some of the cool shows we've been watching/becoming obsessed with! (As well as what comics we think Eddie Munson would read) We won't be going into quite as much plot details about the books we cover so we're only giving a warning for ** LIGHT SPOILERS **. Nothing major, just broad plot stuff. The 2 main books we'll be covering are - Past the Last Mountain by Paul Allor and Louie Joyce, Published by CEX Publishing Heartstopper! By Alice Oseman, published by Graphix at Scholastic. We also briefly cover these titles in the latter half of the show: - Flavor Girls #1 by Loic Locatelli-Kournwsky with colors by Eros de Santiago. Out now! - The Last Session volume 01 by Jasmine Wells, Dozerdraws, and Micah Meyers. Out now! - The Ocean Will Take Us by Rich Douek and Carlos Olivares. 3 issues out, volume 01 out October 26th! - Poison Ivy by G Willow Wilson & Marcio Takara (AMAZING B COVERS - #1 Warren Louw #2 Jenny Frison). 2 issues out. - Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. 3 issues out. - She-Hulk by Rainbow Rowell, Roge Antonio and Luca Maresca (with incredible Jen Bartel Covers). 4 issues out, volume 01 out October 5th. Music by Louie Zong (https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/) Recorded on July 13, 2022

Comic Reviews: DC Action Comics 2022 Annual by Simon Spurrier, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Dale Eaglesham, Ian Churchill, Lee Loughridge Batman 2022 Annual by Ed Brisson, John Timms, Rex Lokus Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis 1 by Brandon Thomas, Joshua Williamson, Chuck Brown, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Stephanie Phillips, Jeremy Adams, Clayton Henry, Dan Jurgens, Emanuela Lupacchino, Leila Del Duca, Fico Ossio, Rosi Kampe, Norm Rapmund, Marcelo Maiolo, Jordie Bellaire, Hi-Fi, Matt Herms, Sebastian Cheng Shadow War Omega by Joshua Williamson, Stephen Segovia, Howard Porter, Mike Henderson, Hi-Fi Marvel Ms. Marvel: Bottled Up 1 by Samira Ahmed, Ramon Bachs, Dee Cunniffe Marvel's Voices Iceman 1 by Luciano Vecchio Image Closet 1 by James Tynion IV, Gavin Fullerton, Chris O'Halloran Phalanx 1 by Jonathan Luna Super Freaks 1 Dark Horse Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout 1 by Bartosz Sztybor, Roberto Ricci, Faviana Mascolo Scout Misfitz Clubhouse 1 by Stephanie Cannon, Matt Knowles, Rahil Moshin Comics Experience Past the Last Mountain 1 by Paul Allor, Louie Joyce AAM Markosia Dinosaur Warrior 1 by Bek Ata Daniyal, Rodney Hounshell, Julia Pozharischenskaya AWA New Think 1 by Gregg Hurwitz, Mike Deodato Substack Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos 1 by James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodhart, K Michael Russell Additional Reviews: Wonder Woman Year One, Top Gun Maverick, Obi Wan ep3, CW thoughts, The Adam Project, Guardians of the Galaxy by Donny Cates, Fantastic Beasts, Stranger Things s4.1 News: Yoda solo comic, Zdarsky using the Three Jokers, Joe Q leaves Marvel, ComiXology gets worse, more Dark Crisis one-shots, CBC adapting Essex County, two new all-ages Batman OGNs, FF director, Jemas leaves AWA to start another company, Dreamer OGN by Nicole Maines, Rachel Zegler in Hunger Games prequel, I Am Groot debuting August 10th, Netflix things, Dark Knights of Steel spinoff, Obi-Wan Season Two Morbin' Time The absolute worst take? Trailers: Pinocchio, Gotham Knights, Strange World Comics Countdown: Nice House On The Lake 9 by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire Action Comics Annual 2022 by Simon Spurrier, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Dale Eaglesham, Ian Churchill, Lee Loughridge King Conan 5 by Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matt Wilson Little Monsters 4 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen What's the Furthest Place From Here 6 by Matthew Rosenberg, Tyler Boss Shadow War Omega by Joshua Williamson, Stephen Segovia, Howard Porter, Mike Henderson, Hi-Fi Captain Marvel 38 by Kelly Thompson, Juan Frigeri, Alvaro Lopez, Jordie Bellaire Once and Future 26 by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain Closet 1 by James Tynion IV, Gavin Fullerton, Chris O'Halloran Avengers Forever 6 by Jason Aaron, Jim Towe, Guru eFX

Comic Reviews: Green Arrow 80th Anniversary Special by Jeff Lemire, Tom Taylor, Brandon Thomas, Devin Grayson, Christopher Mitten, Ben Percy, Mariko Tamaki, Vita Ayala, Ram V, Stephanie Phillips, Larry O'Neil, Phil Hester, Mike Grell, Andrea Sorrentino, Nicola Scott, Chris Mooneyham, Jorge Corona, Laura Braga, Jorge Fornes, Javier Rodriquez, Max Fiumara, Otto Schmidt, Ane Parks, Dave Stewart, Trish Mulvihill, Jordie Bellaire, Lovern Kindzierski, Adriano Lucas, Ivan Plascencia, Mat Lopes, Annette Kwok, Mike Spicer Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook by Tim Sheridan, Darko Lafuente, Rafa Sandoval, Marco Santucci, Jordi Tarragona, Michael Atiyeh Catwoman 2021 Annual Ram V, Fernando Blanco, Juan Ferreyra, Kyle Hotz, David Baron Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel by Ryan North, Derek Charm Infinite Frontier Secret Files by Joshua Williamson, Brandon Thomas, Dan Watters, Stephanie Phillips, Valentine De Landro, Inaki Miranda, Stephen Byrne, Marissa Louise, Triona Farrell United States of Captain America 1 by Christopher Cantwell, Josh Trujillo, Jan Bazaldua, Dale Eaglesham Giant Size Spider-Man: The Chameleon Conspiracy by Nick Spencer, Carlos Gomez Black Cat Annual 1 by Jed MacKay, Joey Vazquez Kane and Able OGN by Shaky Kane, Krent Able Parasomnia 1 by Cullen Bunn, Andrea Mutti Barbaric 1 by Michael Moreci, Nathan Gooden, Addison Duke Mighty Crusaders: The Shield by David Gallagher, Rob Liefeld Godzilla Rivals vs. Hedorah by Paul Allor, EJ Su Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tea Time by Mirka Andolfo, Siya Oum Power Rangers Unlimited Edge of Darkness by Frank Gogol, Simone Ragazzoni Usagi Yojimbo: Dragon Bellow Conspiracy 1 by Stan Sakai, Ronda Pattison Attack of the Heebie Chibis OGN by Julie Sakai, Stan Sakai Alansbeeville by Tristan Radke Broken Gargoyles:  Sin and Virtue 1 by Bob Salley, Christina Blanch, Mike Lilly, Stan Yak Darling 1 by Michael Fleizach, Todd Hunt, David Mims Overdrive 1 by Walter Junior 99 Cent Theater: Villains 1 & 2 by Alberto Veloso, Crystal Pandita Demonio 1 by Juan Ramon Lapaix, Joel Vazquez Worst Possible World 1 by Denis Languerand, Jorge Hermosilla Roofstompers by Alex Paknadel, Ian Macewan, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou River of Sin by Kelly Williams, Chas Pangburn Glenn asks a question Additional Reviews: Last Book You'll Ever Read, Loki ep4, Owl House s2e4, Succession s1, Fear Street part 1, Girl on the Third Floor, Boss Baby 2 News: Omninews, Amazing Spider-Man Beyond artists, Phoenix Echo mini Trailer: Many Saints of Newark, Clifford Comics Countdown: Crossover 7 by Chip Zdarsky, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Dee Cunniffe Department of Truth 10 by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds Daredevil 31 by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Di Benedetto Specter Inspectors 5 by Bowen McCurdy, Kaitlyn Musto Canto and the City of Giants 3 by David Booher, Sebastian Piriz Beta Ray Bill 4 by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer Usagi Yojimbo: Dragon Bellow Conspiracy 1 by Stan Sakai We Only Find Them When They're Dead 7 by Al Ewing, Simone Di Meo Barbaric 1 by Michael Moreci, Nathan Gooden, Addison Duke Black Widow 8 by Kelly Thompson, Elena Casagrande, Rafael de Latorre, Elisabetta D'Amico, Jordie Bellaire  

Gary explores, comics, classified, and the LCV in this episode. Starting with IDW's current ARAH series, thoughts on Sherlock, before discussing Paul Allor's recently "completed" run. After the castle falls it's time to talk Cobra Commander as he's represented in the Classified line. Closing out the episode is a look back on the LCV and why it may mark a turning point in the original A Real American Hero toy line.

This episode is the audio for a YouTube TeamStream that initially ran on April 16, 2021.  TeamStreams run every Friday at 9 pm on the WOJM YouTube channel, barring unforeseen circumstances or holidays. In this episode, Paul Allor returns to talk about the conclusion of the first part of his epic GI Joe run, collected in the GI Joe: World On Fire trade paperback (available NOW from IDW)!  Paul hasn't received word if his series will continue, so if you're a fan, please take the time to let IDW know how much you want to see more!  Plus a run through the Postsac and dogs galore!   You can watch this episode at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldAMzHvOunk

On this week’s live broadcast, we’re welcoming guests Paul Allor (“GI Joe”) + Ibrahim Moustafa (“Count”)! 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 Comic Book Club: Paul Allor And Ibrahim Moustafa appeared first on Comic Book Club.

RACK TIME IS... still going?!?  YES!  It took IDW a while to push out a few issues, but Rob returns to review Snake Eyes: Deadgame's (by Rob Liefeld and Chad Bowers) slow creak into its final stretch, another installment of ARAH one-off stories from Larry Hama and Dan Schoening, and the superior Castle Fall to close Act One of Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis'  saga!  BE HERE! Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://youtube.com/c/WOJMWhatsOnJoeMind

We're rounding-up February's comics! We're focusing on Luna #1 by Maria Llovett from Boom! Studios, Radiant Black by Kyle Higgins & Marcelo Costa from Image Comics, Savage by Max Bemis & Nathan Stockman from Valiant, and Hollow Heart by Paul Allor & Paul Tucker from Vault! There's also a good helping of weird tangents and a news segment that's really just us talking about the announcement of Todd McFarlane's Spawn shared universe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Paul Allor (Hollow Heart, G.I. Joe) talks about writing solicitations for your comic, including what stage of the process to write, thinking about solicitations for different issues, and the overall planning in working with a publisher and their marketing.

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

May 2021 Solicits Comics Reviews: Young Hellboy 1 by Mike Mignola, Thomas Sniegoski, Craig Rousseau, Dave Stewart Avatar: Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy by Faith Erin Hicks, Peter Wartman, Adele Matera Marvel Action: Origins 1 by Chris Eliopoulos, Lanna Souvanny Aria: Heavenly Creatures by Brian Holguin, Jay Anacleto, Brian Haberlin, Drew Posada, Raymund Lee Immortal Hulk: Flatline by Declan Shalvey King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes 2 by Marc Bernardin, Kyle Hotz, Rachelle Rosenberg, Geoffrey Thorne, Jan Bazaldua X-Men Legends 1 by Fabian Nicieza, Brett Booth, Adelso Corona, Guru eFX Snow Angels 1 by Jeff Lemire, Jock GI Joe Castle Fall by Paul Allor, Chris Evenhuis, Brittany Peer Black Cotton 1 by Patrick Foreman, Brian Hawkins, Marco Perugini Black Friday 1 by Jon Clark, Travis Williamson Mapmaker 1 by Francesca Carita, Ben Slabak By the Horns 1 by Markisan Naso, Jason Muhr White Ash Presents: Glarien 1 by Charlie Stickney, Conor Hughes, Romina Moranelli, Yishan Li, Fin Cramb Recount 1 and 2 by Jonathan Hedrick, Gabriel Ibarra Nunez Hollow Heart 1 by Paul Allor, Paul Tucker Savage 1 by Max Bemis, Nathan Stockman, Triona Farrell Shadow Doctor 1 by Peter Calloway, Georges Jeanty, Juancho! Father of All Things by Sebastian Girner, Baldemar Rivas Not Forgotten Anthology by Jeff Leeds, Omar Morales, Joel Cotejar, Marco Maccagni, Paula Goulart Forever Home GN by Jenna Ayoub Girl Haven OGN by Lilah Sturges, Meaghan Carter, Joamette Gil Additional Reviews: WandaVision ep7, Drowned Earth, Class Action Park, Cecil Hotel documentary, Surviving Joe Exotic documentary News: DC buy-out madness, War of the Bounty Hunters (Star Wars crossover), Superman '78 and Batman '89 comics announced, Infinity Train renewal, Wednesday Addams: Teen Detective from Tim Burton, Constantine reboot from HBO Max, Die ending with #20, Spawnverse expansion, Supergirl cast for Flash movie, Netflix Marvel shows back to Marvel Studios, ATLA reboot catastrophe, DC teases, Falcon/Winter Soldier casting rumors, Department of Truth optioned as TV series, Palmiotti/Conner take over Red Sonja Trailers: Cruella, Mortal Kombat, Invincible Comics Countdown: Girl Haven by Lilah Sturges, Meaghan Carter, Joamette Gil Barbalien: Red Planet 4 by Jeff Lemire, Tate Brombal, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire Snow Angels 1 by Jeff Lemire, Jock Batman/Catwoman 3 by Tom King, Clay Mann, Tomeu Morey Stillwater 6 by Chip Zdarsky, Ramon K Perez, Mike Spicer Thor 12 by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson TMNT: The Last Ronin 2 by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz, Esau, Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado Haha 2 by W. Maxwell Prince, Zoe Thorogood, Chris O'Halloran Once and Future 16 by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons 4 by Jody Houser, Jim Zub, Diego Galindo, Msassyk

In addition to all the other geek news of the week, we tackle (get it?) the trailers shown during the Superb Owl. News from: Z2 Comics and Valiant Entertainment Reviews: "I Walk With Monsters" (Vault) by Paul Cornell and Sally Cantirino "Hollow Heart" (Vault) by Paul Allor and Paul Tucker "Girl Haven" (Oni Press) by Lilah Sturges and Meghan Carter Follow us: Facebook Twitter Instagram

On this week's comic book review podcast, we're chatting: Punchline #1 DC Comics Written by James Tynion IV and Sam Johns Art by Mirka Andolfo Taskmaster #1 Marvel Comics Written by Jed MacKay Art by Alessandro Vitti Kick-Ass vs. Hit-Girl #1 Image Comics Written by Steve Niles Art by Marcelo Frusin Resident Alien: Your Ride's Here #1 Dark Horse Comics Written by Peter Hogan Art by Steve Parkhouse American Vampire 1976 #2 DC Comics Written by Scott Snyder Art by Rafael Albuquerque The Amazing Spider-Man #52 Marvel Comics Written by Nick Spencer Art by Patrick Gleason Scarenthood #1 IDW By Nick Roche & Chris O'Halloran G.I. Joe #10 IDW Written by Paul Allor Art by Chris Evenhuis Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hour Exxxtreme! #1 DC Comics Written by Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, Sam Humphries Art by Tyler Kirkham, Rags Morales, Denys Cowan Marvel Zombies Resurrection #4 Marvel Comics Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by Leonard Kirk The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem #2 Dark Horse Comics Story by Gerard Way & Shaun Simon Art by Leonardo Romero Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp #2 IDW Written by Marieke Nijikamp Art by Yasmin Florez Montanez Getting It Together #2 Image Comics Co-creators and Co-Writers Sina Grace & Omar Spahi Art by Jenny D. Fine Marauders #15 Marvel Comics Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy Art by Stefano Caselli Excalibur #14 Marvel Comics Written by Tini Howard Art by Phil Noto Wolverine #7 Marvel Comics Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan Art by Joshua Cassara SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. Full Episode Transcript: Alex:                 What is up everybody, welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Pete:                I'm Pete, and I'm not looking forward to talking about the Marvel stuff today. Alex:                 Oh, wow. Really? Justin:              Wow. What a way to plant a flag, Pete. Alex:                 Interesting. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Well, that's okay, because we're going to kick it off with a DC comic first, Punchline, number one, written by James Tynion IV and Sam Jones, no relation I think. Art by Mirka Andolfo. This is, as you could probably guess from the title, focusing on Punchline, new girlfriend to the Joker who is brought to the forefront during the Joker war, finally getting her own one-shot. Should we get your own series? I think starting next year at some point. Justin:              It certainly feels that way, yes. Alex:                 Yeah, but this is picking up. She is in prison. And in this issue, we get one of James Tynion's pet projects. Harper Row shows up again with her brother tracking down Punchline, is clearly setting her up as an adversary to her. We find out a lot more about her origin. I'll tell you what, I personally have been feeling very much like Punchline is the Pucci of the Batman side of the universe. Pete:                Oh, what? What the- Alex:                 Hold on, let me finish. But this issue went a long way to selling me on understanding what their take on her is personally. Pete, you're all in on Punchline, that is clear. Pete:                Yes. I think this is a interesting kind of way to come at this character. What I don't like is she's like, “Oh man, don't trust people of a podcast, they turn out to be psychos,” which, that's fair. Justin:              Truth. Pete:                That's fair. But I do think that this is an interesting villain. It's one of those things where like, she was kind of forced in the situation, almost helped “the Joker” and then kind of Batman interrupted them and then felt like, oh man, I was so close to being a part of something bigger, and this is kind of her pursuit of that. It's interesting. I feel like as a first issue, they do a good job of being like, okay, here's this character, here's a little bit of her backstory and what she's about. And I think it does a good job of getting you intrigued for more to see how this is all going to unfold and to see if she does claim her kind of like all the bad stuff that she does or tries to hide. Justin:              Yeah. First off, the art on this was great by Mirka Andolfo, really good stuff, and sort of had some flavor to it as opposed to just sort of getting it done which I thought was nice. But I think this issue made crystal clear what the whole idea here is, jumping off what you said, Alex. The whole thing with Harley Quinn was it always felt a little wild that Harley Quinn was the Joker's psychiatrist. And then suddenly she became his partner or his just fully onboard. And in this issue we get to see- Pete:                Wait, can I? Justin:              Yes, sure. Pete:                I just wanted to ask you, have you ever just really hated your day job before? Justin:              No, I've never. What is work? Because when you love your job, it's like you never work a day in your life. Pete:                Wow. Justin:              So don't know what you're talking about. Alex:                 If you teach a man to fish, you never work a day in your life. That's what I always say. Justin:              That's right. I'd rather be fishing says the seat of my jeans. What I like about this though, is it's sort of, we see the progression and it very much mirrors how many people go from being a regular person on the internet to being radicalized in our modern world, through social media. And I think this does a really good job of using that very real issue in our country slash world. And putting it into the comic book world and bringing us a character that we believe, I believe the way this story is told and having Punchline land where she does, I'm on board. I think this is a really good issue for getting us to like the character. Pete:                Yeah. I hope those punches do land, because it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Alex:                 Yeah. Like you said, very smart, very well done. Particularly if you've been on the fence about the character like I have, I recommend reading this issue. Let's move to another one that I know Pete is excited about, even though it's a Marvel comic, Taskmaster number one written by Jed Mackay. Pete:                I should have been more specific and said the X-Men stuff. Alex:                 God. Art by Alessandro Vitti. This is a new take on Taskmaster. He is just chilling out on a golf course, in one the [crosstalk 00:05:05]. Pete:                Yeah, just like everybody else. Alex:                 Ends up getting framed for a murder. I won't spoil who gets murdered, but ends up on the run for that murder as usual. Particularly given that we revisited Fred [Valenti's 00:05:18] excellent Taskmaster series just a few months ago here on this very show. What'd you think about this one? What'd you think about this new take here? Pete:                I thought this was a lot of fun, having bulls-eyeing him in this kind of celebrity golf tournaments, I just didn't expect this. I was really impressed with, just from reading comics and knowing this character like, okay, I know how this is going to go. But I was pleasantly surprised by the start of this and how different it felt from what I expected. And I think it was kind of a very cool story and also very interesting team up. I think this did a really great job of setting up this kind of new take on Taskmaster a little bit, and then kind of this arc of where this is going, and kind of laid out all the characters that are going to be involved. I think this did a great job of getting me wanting more and excited for this world. Justin:              Taskmaster has this weird spot in the Marvel universe where sometimes it's a little bit Deadpoolesque. But sometimes he's meant to be a scary villain who is very hard to beat. And in this he's sort of goofy dude who was fucking around. And that's why I feel like Fred Valenti's take we love so much because it really found the middle ground between those two. He's someone with a tragic backstory where he can't retain his long-term memory and because his brain is full of these fighting techniques that have overtaken his short-term memory. It's a little … I don't quite know where this book is going. Because I like the story and I like sort of the task that I hope he masters by the end of it. But the golf stuff felt a little, I was like, “Wait, what?” Pete:                No, but that was fun. Justin:              And I will say I loved that it was Black Widow. My guess was that it was Black Widow who was hunting [inaudible 00:07:24] and I love that it actually was by the end of the issue. Alex:                 Yeah. I mean, this seems like a pretty clear tee up for the Black Widow movie, right. I don't know when this was originally supposed to come out, but given that Taskmaster is going to show out there, Black Widow is going to show up there obviously. It seems like this is tying into that in a certain way, or at least going to be one of those things where, hey, now there's a trade on the stands. The other thing, I'll get into spoilers here. Alex:                 I don't love the idea of being ahead of a book, but I sincerely hope this is where this twist is heading. Because, again, spoilers, the thing is that Taskmaster is framed from the death of Maria Hill. And it feels like killing Maria Hill off screen is a very bad, very weird move. But what I think is going on here is Nick Fury Jr. recruits him to find the real killer of Maria Hill so he can get Black Widow off his back. It seems to be that it's probably Nick Fury Jr. is not who he says he is. It is in fact somebody else, has lied to Taskmaster the entire time. And that's the twist coming down the road. This is something that I felt very uncomfortable and sort of hated when they brought out, oh, Maria Hill is dead. When they get to that twist, say four issues down the road, I think I'm going to feel a lot better about this book. But as it is, Alessandro Vitti's art is really solid and fun and there's some funny bits in here. Jed Mackay, I think wrote the Black Cat book- Justin:              I love that book. Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:09:01] coming out, which is super fun. So he does comedy, so it's good stuff. If you're looking for a fun, silly one, this might be one to check out. Pete:                Yeah. I just wanted to go back and touch on something Justin said, yes, Fred Valenti definitely did an amazing job. But I think other people should be allowed to do their takes, just because Fred did something that was so iconic. Justin:              No, one take and one take only I say, leave me. Pete:                I think there's room for other kind of take some people. But I think- Justin:              Pete, when you're making a movie, you only do one take, they just turn the camera on and everything rolls. That's how it works. Pete:                Justin, you know better than that, come on. Justin:              Then they just move the camera to different locations. The camera's rolling, the whole time it's traveling from Atlanta- Pete:                Every film is filmed live, right? Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                Great. Justin:              It's why it's really hard, actors really have to run very quickly to different places. Alex:                 Kick-Ass versus Hit-Girl number one from Image Comics written by Steve Niles, art by Marcelo Frusin. This is following the new Kick-Ass who is in with some drug dealers and gangs. By the end of the book Hit-Girl is maybe coming for her. I got to tell you, I like Steve Niles. Though this art was very good, the violence was brutal. We were talking about this other live show a little bit, the idea that some number one issues don't leave it off on the table that they sort of just like get to it at the end. Frankly, this is the issue that I was thinking of when we were talking about it, because not enough happens here in this first issue necessarily to make it work for me. But I'm curious to hear what you guys think. Pete:                Well, I'm kind of like, you see it in movies and comics all the time, the person who killed somebody then goes to the funeral and that's just so insane to me that you would go to somebody's funeral that you murdered. Alex:                 Pete, you're going to come to my funeral, right though? Pete:                Sure, I am buddy. Alex:                 Okay. Pete:                Yeah. Can't wait to piss on your grave, it's going to be great. I just think that- Justin:              You don't have to piss on the grave at the funeral, the graves' going to be there, give it a day, come back. Alex:                 The [inaudible 00:11:17] says that, right. If I'd [inaudible 00:11:19] I would like to piss on the grave. Pete:                That's right. Justin:              Speak now or forever hold it in your bladder, hold it. You don't want to be caught holding it. Pete:                Well, yeah, I mean because we know these characters so well, so I feel like this isn't a … new telling is just kind of like, these are where these characters are and pretty soon they're going to clash. But it's always tough when it's Kick-Ass versus Hit-Girl issue one, but they don't ever meet in the comic yet, so that's a little like, meh. Justin:              I have a feeling they will down the line. Pete:                Oh, okay. So that's it's just setting it up. I do think the art here is great. Marcelo Frusin really takes on the Jr. vibe, but gives it its own sort of flavor in a nice way. That was cool. A lot of heads being cut off in perfect hot dog sections, which I was like, “Okay.” Justin:              Well, if you've got a really sharp sword like that, it's going to cut right through it. Pete:                So easy to cut through the spine. Alex:                 Well, that's actually how they make hot dogs. Justin:              Yep, a 100%. And I won't tell you what body parts of what animals are doing that. But otherwise it was a real quick read. Alex:                 Yes, I agree. Resident Alien Your Ride's Here, number one from Dark Horse Comics written by Peter Hogan- Pete:                Oh, my rides here. Alex:                 … and art by Steve Parkhouse. I have not been a religious Resident Alien reader, but as far as I can gather from this issue, it's about an alley that just kind of hangs out with people and I love- Justin:              He's a resident. Alex:                 Yeah. I kind of [crosstalk 00:13:05] casual it is. I thought there would be more alien stuff in this book, there's not. He's just going to hang it out. Justin:              It's very chill. No one even talks about how he's an alien. Pete:                No, guys, we've read this before. This is a thing where he doesn't look like that to other people. He kind of wears the disguise, but he revealed himself to that girl that's getting the haircut in the book. This had previous arcs before, and this is a really kind of cool thing. Justin:              Yeah, I know. Pete:                Okay. All right. Justin:              This reminded me, and I think this is perhaps why you like it, Pete, remind me a little bit of Concrete. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              The old series back in the day. And it is fun. It is almost too like Slice of Life for the first two thirds of it. I like the vision quest stuff at the end. And I would be curious sort of where this opens up to, but man, this issue ends with sort of like, oh, that's just it. Alex:                 It is funny though. I mean, even if you're not totally familiar with the series, and like Pete said, we've read a couple of issues here and there, but just kind of picking this up and not necessarily having a media reader call of what we talked about before. There's still good solid jokes characterization here that make this very engaging. I enjoyed it even if most of the time I felt like, I don't know what they're talking about. Pete:                Yeah. I'm very into this comic. I really am invested in this relationship. And yeah, I'm excited for more. This is kind of an interesting new arc. I'm hoping that the alien and this lady can work it out. Justin:              How invested in the relationship are you, Pete? Pete:                I'm very, very invested. Justin:              Heavy? Alex:                 10K, he put 10K on it. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              I like those odds. Alex:                 American Vampire 1976 number two from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder, art by Raphael Albuquerque. As you could probably figure out from the title, this is picking up on the first issue set in 1976 as Skinner Sweet and his gang were trying to take over a train that holds all of the relics of America, feels almost like a little bit of a leftover from Scott Snyder's undiscovered country's ideas in a certain way. But Skinner Sweet is forced to team up with his brother who he thought was dead. We get a little bit of flashback that explains that here. Man, it is so good to have this book back. I am loving every issue of it so far. Pete:                I really like the start of it. The fun recap of like, gather round kids, uncle Skinner's going to catch you up. I thought that was great. I really appreciated kind of the walkthrough, their history there. I mean, you can't really say enough about the art, it's really unbelievable. And I love the Butch Cassidy and Sundance reference. Justin:              See, Skinner Sweet is such a great character. It's just great to be able to read new stories where we can follow him around. I like these series as a culmination point of a lot of the American Vampire dangling threads and the tongue is gross and the tongues that we see in this book are gross and it's great. It's a truly daunting villain for a title that's been able to maintain such quality over the years. Alex:                 Great stuff, definitely pick it up. Next up, The Amazing Spider-Man number 52 from Marvel Comics written by Nick Spencer and art by Patrick Gleason. Finally Spider-Man is facing down Kindred, the villain who has been taunting him pretty much all of Nick Spencer's run. We have gotten the reveal of who Kindred is, or at least who we think Kindred is. Personally I have some doubts there that the reveal is actually what we think it is. But in this issue, Spider-Man gives up, surrenders to Kindred to save all of his friends, all the men and the rest of the spider family. And it ends in a moment that I felt like such a sucker because I know this is not going to be permitted, but I legitimately gasped out loud at the end of this issue. I thought this was great. Pete is nodding his head. Yes, yes, yes, I can see him. [crosstalk 00:17:31]. Justin:              Yes, give me more. Alex:                 He loves it. Give me more. Justin, let's go to you first. What did you think about this? Justin:              We have never been closer to finding out how Kindred is than we are with this issue. And yeah, you could have said that for many issues in this run of 52. I really want to know now. Alex:                 Well, they've revealed that Kindred is Harry Osborn. That's been the thing that they've come out and said. Justin:              Yes. And was that the last issue or? Yeah, it was. Alex:                 There was two issues back, yeah. Justin:              And that feels, it feels weird to me. Alex:                 It feels wrong. It feels like a fate. Justin:              And I think you had the theory that it's Peter Parker from the future, like a dead Peter Parker or something who is very bitter about his life perhaps. And I think this issue I was thinking about theory a lot because it feels that Kindred is sort of like, you've wasted your life fighting for these people. And that's sort of the point. And I think that's a nice counterpoint for Peter, our present day Peter, to fight back and say, “It is worth it. You just took the wrong path or whatever.” My theory was that it was the robber who kills uncle Ben, the thief. That would be cool too, but I sort of like your theory a little bit better at this point, feels more on track with what the story they're telling. Because I don't know what Harry Osborn, while he is a big part of Spider-Man [inaudible 00:19:00], Norman overshadows him so much. And I don't know what the point of having Harry there does. Alex:                 I'll tell you also on that note, there's a big scene in here that is very reminiscent of what Scott Snyder did in death, not death in the family, Death of the Family. Justin:              Death of the Family. Alex:                 Joker, Hulk, where he gathered the Joker, gathered everybody around the dinner table. In this instance, what Kindred does is he digs up the skeletons of everybody who Spider-Man has let die and gathers some around. And the moment, it's so well paced and so horrifying because it goes around and it's like, here's captain Gwen Stacy, here's Jean DeWolff. Here's, what is it? Marla Jameson. Then he gets to Gwen- Justin:              Flash. Alex:                 … and Spider-Man and he's like, “Oh no, Gwen.” And then Flash, the last one was uncle Ben. And it's so upsetting to see that happen. Very well done in exactly the way that it should feel. I thought, Pete, again, nodding his head, yes, yes, yes, could not agree more it seems like. And Pete- Justin:              Before we go to Pete, who's opinion will no doubt really crown this review of the book. I want to give a shout-out to Patrick Gleason's art, it's so perfect for this run. To your point, we're seeing how horrifying this dinner scene is, Patrick Gleason's art is the perfect companion to this story. Pete:                I just can't wait for Nick Spencer to get the fuck off this book. It's just, he writes these fucked up twisted things and really fucks with you as a fan, who's loved something for many years and then makes you question that. I mean, to dig up these people and have their corpses sitting at a table, fuck you. And then have Spider-Man be like, “Fucking, I give up, kill me.” Fuck you, I'm sick of this shit. This just over the top fucking just bullshit to … It's grotesque. Justin:              I hear you Pete. Pete:                It's all ridiculous. Give me a fucking Spider-Man story, man. This is bullshit. Justin:              I want to see Spider-Man do something important, like catch a pulse snatcher. Has he done that? Has he stopped a purse snatching at any point? Alex:                 I think this is good. I'll also mention I know we did include this in The Stack. Pete:                You were like, when that moment happened, I yelled boo, and I closed my laptop and I was just like, I had to walk away for a little bit. Justin:              Boo. Good day. Alex:                 They're also releasing these 52.LR books, which I know I didn't send over for The Stack. But they're kind of taking place between the stories and focusing on the characters that are on Spider-Man. Also really good, really dark, this one focuses on Norman Osborn teaming up with Mary Jane, which is wild, and she hates it. Pete, don't worry, she does not want to work with him at all. But really good stuff. It just a very dark, it definitely feels like- Pete:                Spider-Man shouldn't be this dark. Alex:                 What is almost unequivocally the best Spider-Man story of all time, Pete? Pete:                I don't know. Alex:                 Kraven's Last Hunt. I think- Pete:                That's your opinion. I don't think- Alex:                 No. Justin:              What's your? Alex:                 I think if you ask almost anybody, if you asked what is the best- Pete:                I like a couple of Rhino stories, that are great. Alex:                 Sure. There's great Spider-Man stories, but the best one of all time is probably, obviously arguably Kraven's Last Hunt. Spider-Man dies, he's buried in that, Kraven takes over. He's covered in spiders, it's dark. And I think that's what Nick Spencer is going for here, and I think he's [crosstalk 00:22:49]. Pete:                Nick Spencer is just doing shock value shit. Justin:              I don't think so. And also like Spider-Man's origin is dark. His uncle dies and he lets him go. It's like guilt. Pete:                He doesn't know that at the time though. Justin:              Yeah, I know. Alex:                 Sorry. Justin, are you familiar with Spider-Man's origin story? Justin:              Yeah, he was there as a thief and he was like, “Should I stop this guy?” And then the guy was like, I'm going to go kill your uncle. And he's like, “Go ahead.” Pete:                Go ahead. Justin:              Get out of here you scum. Alex:                 As long as Caterpillar man finds my uncles corpse later, I'm good with it. [crosstalk 00:23:28]. Justin:              I'm just saying there's been a darkness to Spider-Man from the jump. I think this is well within the range to tell this. Pete:                No. Alex:                 Let's move on then to something that is perfectly purposely dark, Scarenthood number one from IDW by Nick Roche and Chris O'Halloran. We had Nick Roche on our live show this week. Let's be honest here. Let's be true to ourselves. What do we really think about Scarenthood? I'll come out and I've got to say it, this is the truth. I like this book. Justin:              Nice, bold. I mean, I raved about the book on the live show. But to boil it down, I really like how this book feels very like Slice of Life. It's about a father in Ireland, and I don't know what town it is, but in Ireland, he struggles with just the stress of being a dad, tries to connect with the parents. It's really funny. And then there's … we slowly get peppered in a couple of details about how the school is maybe a little haunted and it builds and builds and builds to a legit scary moment that combines the fear of the supernatural with the regular fears of being a parent in a way that I thought was a real great step forward. I'm very excited for more of this. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, this is more in you guys' sweet spot a little bit, because I was like, “I get it. You're a real dad in real life.” Okay. All right. Justin:              But Pete you're a cat dad. Think about it if it's a cat. Alex:                 Yeah. Your Twitter bio says cat daddy, right? Pete:                Yeah. That's exactly what it says. Justin:              I believe it's catty daddy if I remember correctly. Pete:                Oh my God. Anyways, I'm really- Justin:              The original catty daddy. Pete:                All that aside, I really liked the kind of horror ghost story elements. I thought it was really cool. I very much enjoyed this book, even though I'm not a parent and don't know the struggles that you guys deal with. But I thought it was really well done and interesting. And I'm very excited to read more. I think this is kind of like a cool team on this book. I think it's rich enough that I really want to kind of delve into it more. Justin:              Pete, being a parent is like your life, but with fewer cheesesteaks and fewer romantic comedies. Pete:                Boo, that doesn't sound fun. Alex:                 I really like this as well. The pitch that I didn't give on the show. Justin:              Wow. Pete:                Oh my goodness. I thought that was part of the pitch. Justin:              Oh, okay. You seem to be allergic to the pitch. Alex:                 Yeah. That was not part of the pitch. I just sneezed. This is like single parents meet stranger things is the way that I'd put it. Pete:                Oh, wow. Alex:                 We talked about this live show a little bit, but I was really impressed, particularly given we read a lot of first issues with how packed this was with details, and the fact that things slowly build to the supernatural, but it isn't the last page reveal. It's about halfway two thirds of the way through the issue that we get some weird supernatural stuff. We get even weirder supernatural stuff as it goes. And the character signs are really terrifying in the right way. This is a great debut. I was very happy to read this and I was glad that we got to chat with Nick for so long about it. Pete:                I agree. Alex:                 Let's move on to another title that we've been enjoying quite a bit. GI Joe number 10 from IDW written Paul Allor, art by Chris Evenhuis. Pete- Pete:                Yo Joe. Alex:                 … you got to like this one, because there's a bareness appearance in this one. But for the most part, this is about a secret lab that is trying to create half human half robot cyborg bats for a cobra- Pete:                Classic. Alex:                 … and how they end up taking it down. After being- Pete:                Classic Dr. Mindbender stuff, I mean- Alex:                 Classic Dr. Mindbender stuff. Justin:              Dr. Mindbender. Alex:                 After not being so crazy about the last issue, I was glad to personally just see this return to form for this issue. What'd you guys think about this one? Pete:                Yeah. I'm enjoying this. I'm having a lot of fun. Also kind of a crazy reveal because I'm used to … I'm sure you guys are the same. Lady Jaye, she used to roll with Flint or Snake Eyes. Alex:                 You don't need to tell us. Justin:              Yeah, we're right there. [crosstalk 00:27:56]. She used to roll [inaudible 00:27:58] with Flint or even Snake Eyes. Pete:                Yeah. Right. But then to see her with this new guy, and I know he's new because I was like, I'm not wrong in this. I went to the Hasbro website to look this up. Alex:                 We all did, you don't need to tell us. We all headed to the Hasbro website. Justin:              It's where I get my news. Pete:                Because I was like, wait a second, I wasn't … I don't remember [inaudible 00:28:19]. Alex:                 First stop, OAN. Second stop, [inaudible 00:28:22]. Third stop, Hasbro website. That's where I get my news. Justin:              Exactly. Especially if I'm like, what's my brother doing? I'm like Hasbro. Pete:                But yeah, I continue to have a lot of fun with this book. Some interesting stuff. Great art. I think they do a good job of sometimes doing fun stuff with names, sometimes holding it back a little bit more. Justin:              Yeah. I mean, I think I've said in the past, I was never a G.I. Joe kid. Pete:                Yeah. You weren't allowed to watch as a kid, and we feel bad for you. Justin:              We're not allowed to watch because they used guns, yes. But these stories I like, I like the way they're sort of one-offs story of the weeks with different tones. This one sort of has more of the action figure animated show feel, I think. But they treat the characters in a realistic way and I appreciate it. Alex:                 It also feels like with this issue that this is starting to build towards something, even though we've been focusing in on these individual characters, maybe I'm wrong, but issue- Justin:              Castle fall. Alex:                 What? Justin:              I think there's something called castle fall coming up. Alex:                 Yeah, that's coming up. And that certainly seems to be a tease that we're just going to start getting all these individual plot points mixing together in some way. And that's exciting. I mean, if they're really doing, focusing in on one, two characters every issue and that it's building something bigger, that's very cool storytelling. I'm excited to see where it goes. Next up, another one that I'm sure was in Pete's wheelhouse, Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hour Exxxtreme, with so many Xs, number one from DC Comics, written by thank Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, Sam Humphries, and of course, Lobo. Art by Tyler Kirkham, Rags Morales, Denys Cowan, and again, Lobo. As you can guess, this is what Lobo's been doing during Dark Nights, Death Metal, what's been going on with him. It kicks off with a very Frank Tieri story. Pete:                Yeah, Frank, come on. I mean, this is the guy- Justin:              Perhaps the most Frank Tieri stuff. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, this is the guy you want on this book. You want this kind of goon squad guy to tell a story about one of the biggest goons there is, Lobo. And let's not forget we should make a Lobo Batman. And yeah, I think this was- Alex:                 The Batman man. Pete:                Yeah. The bat, who frags. Yeah, I think this continues to just be a ton of over the top fun, just taking the DC Universe and being like, let's throw a bunch of Xs on it, say it's extreme, death metal, yeah, turn it up to 11. And the whole headbutt joke was hysterical, it was just great. Bat Grundy, I mean, what more do you want? Justin:              Let me just say it was probably a lot to read three back-to-back Lobo stories. It's like getting just a bowl of a hot fudge sundae after the hot fudge sundae served in a bowl that's also made out of hot fudge sundae. And so it's not as … I didn't need that much Lobo. Pete:                Come on man. Justin:              I will say I liked the back-end of the second story. The other heroes being Lobofied. Pete:                Superman Lobo or are you talking about Wonder Woman Lobo or? Justin:              All of them. I thought those were funny. Pete:                Okay. Alex:                 Lobo gets his hands on some death metal and remakes the universe to reimagine everybody's origin stories as all being Lobo. I think that was the Sam Humphreys, Dennis Cowan section, I could be wrong. Justin:              It's hard to tell, it's the one that's called, it says it's by Lobo. I can't tell if it's the second story or the beginning of the third story, sort of flows. And then I'm curious, it does feel like Lobo is going to play a large part in the resolution of Death Metal, which I find- Pete:                Well, he has been popping up. [crosstalk 00:32:24]. Alex:                 Go ahead, Pete. Pete:                No, no. Alex:                 All I was going to say is he's been popping up almost every issue of Dark Nights Death Metal doing something in the background. And this is to explain what he has been doing. Pete:                And also if you're going to do a Death Metal book and not talk about Lobo, I mean, you're not really talking about Death Metal then. Justin:              If you're going to have a Wolverine who just has a longer cigar and shorter claws, then yeah, have him be in this space I guess. Pete:                This is not Wolverine. Alex:                 Okay. Justin:              No? Pete:                No. Justin:              What are some of the big differences? Pete:                All right. First off- Justin:              The healing factor? Pete:                … Wolverine doesn't talk this much. And Wolverine isn't as in love with himself as Lobo is. Justin:              Wolverine doesn't talk as much, got it. Pete:                You're just a [inaudible 00:33:09]. Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about Marvel Zombies: Resurrection number four from Marvel Comics written by Philip Kennedy Johnson, art by Leonard Kirk. This book has been, I say surprisingly great. Except Philip Kennedy Johnson has been consistently delivering excellent stuff across the board. Here, the main thing that I've talked up to multiple people who are like, “Ah, I don't want to read a Marvel Zombies book,” was the twist last issue, or at least the plot reveal last issue, that the excuse, the reasoning for the zombies is that it's a bunch of brood who have infested Galactus. So you get the reason they're infesting superheroes is they're the brood. The reason they have a cosmic hugger is because of Galactus. And here our heroes led by Spider-Man with the two Richard children and a bunch of other random folks are attacking the Galactus hive in limbo. It all ends here or does it? I really like this resolution quite a bit. What'd you guys think? Pete:                Yeah. This was just really unbelievable. Continually impressed with the twists and turns that this is taking. I didn't see any of this coming the way it is. Just action galore, some great story, a really impressive balance of story and action. And the art is just phenomenal. This book is one of those ones that I look forward to when I see it's on our kind of pool list, and it continues to impress. Justin:              Yeah. I mean, I agree. There's a lot of smart choices in this story, like smart, creative uses of different Marvel characters. And Pete, you must have loved how this is a fun Spider-Man. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, well, he gets emotional and it's nice. But also love the magic stuff and the Wolverine blade stuff. I don't want to spoil stuff for people. Man, just really cool. Justin:              I was being sarcastic because Spider-Man is just so sad the entire time, he's not having any fun. [crosstalk 00:35:23]. But I love the end as well. Alex:                 And I really enjoy the fact that we're getting both DCs from Tom Taylor and Marvel Zombies: Resurrection from Phillip Kennedy Johnson. They're both smart reinventions of zombie mythos. We're not just getting the zombies in the Marvel Universe, zombies in the DC Universe. They're coming up with canonical reasons for why they exist based on what the specific universes could bring to the table. And that's great, they're both very different stories as well. They're not just zombie stories. And I look forward to hopefully more to come. I was surprised, it seemed like it was tying into whatever that Thanos story that Donny Cates had been teasing is. But I guess we'll see down the road. Alex:                 Next up, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem number two from Dark Horse comics, story by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, art by Leonardo Romero. This is picking up obviously on the first issue. But as everybody is slowly regaining their mojo and fighting against the live type characters who are infesting the world specifically through the lens of cops who have been taken over by whatever is going out in this world. What'd you think about this one? I think we're really complimentary of the first issue. How'd you feel about the second? Justin:              I love the art on this book. It has such a good tone and vibe for the whole thing. And I mean, it's a little, like with a lot of Gerard Way stuff, you're not a 100% sure with what's happening. But it has a very musical vibe. This feels like a music montage from The Umbrella Academy TV show or something like that, very much like the action feels like there's a lot happening underneath it. Pete:                Yeah. I think the art is the real hero here. It's very stylized and kind of switches back and forth, which is really impressive and still feels about the same story. But yeah, this is … we don't know exactly, but we've got enough to kind of follow. It's interesting, action packed. You can kind of understand why the people are doing what they're doing. Yeah, I've been really impressed with this and I'm going to continue to keep reading it. I think it's great. Alex:                 Particularly with this issue, it feels like it's sort of thing that if you have acab in your Twitter bio, this is the comic for you. Let's move on and talk about Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp number two from IDW, written by Marieke Nijkamp, art by Yasmin Florez Montanez. You two in particular were particularly complimentary of this. This is a werewolf tale for the Goosebumps universe, I guess. You liked the first issue quite a bit as two girls teamed up to try to track down some werewolves. What'd you think about the second one? Pete:                Yeah, I was really impressed with the way this relationship kind of moved, because what I was worried about in the first issue is you have two characters who kind of force into this crazy scenario. And I was worried they were going to just fight the whole time and not be able to kind of move throughout the story and kind of take care of business. And I think they handled that in such a good way. I've been really impressed with the Goosebumps. This is a fun story. Art is unbelievable. I liked these depiction of werewolves and I thought it was endurable how that one werewolf just kind of curled up. I think this is very cool and interesting story. I'm excited to read more. Justin:              I have a feeling these werewolves are going to be people eventually. Pete:                What? Justin:              Not a ton habits in this issue as far as driving the story forward. It's mostly like we're scared in the swamp. But yeah, I'm curious to see, it feels like another shoe will drop next issue. Alex:                 Yeah. I still feel like it's not quite bringing all the elements together. The essential idea of two girls who are super into fantasy role-play games, tracking down real werewolves in the woods is a really smart idea, but it's not necessarily paying off with that premise. I hope we see more of that the next issue. Though, I do like the art. I think the characters designs are very nice. And I'm enjoying reading it. It's a nice light read. Next step, Getting it Together number two from Image Comics, co-creators and co-writers Sina Grace and Omar Spahi, art by Jenny D. Fine. We had Sina Grace and Omar Spahi on the live show a couple of weeks back talk about the first issue, which we like quite a bit. This is like Friends, but set in San Francisco and real. This second issue is picking up on that. As things only get more complicated for everybody's relationships. What'd you think? How did it pick up from the well-received premier issue of the title? Pete:                Yeah, I like this. I think being in a band is hard, there's a lot of moving pieces. I like how they're kind of diving into that a little bit, but mainly focusing on the relationships. The art's fantastic. You care enough about the characters to care about this story. It's relatable. I think it's very cool. I liked how they kind of handle it, going back and forth between the different people and their kind of sizes and stuff. I also thought it was very cool the way the art kind of pulls out and pulls in. Sometimes you see wider shots and other things going on and sometimes it's very close up. I think that's very cool storytelling. I also really liked the drinking that was going on there. I can relate to that as well. Justin:              I agree. I think this is a great second issue. First off, just reading this comic from a pandemic point of view, it is like reading science fiction. I'm so jealous of these characters. Pete:                Yeah. Oh my God. Imagine being able to go into a bar and just get a drink. Justin:              Oh, I know. That scene at the bar was like, yes, please, tell me more. How was it? What was it like? What did the bar smell like? Pete:                I even drove by like [inaudible 00:41:55] I was like, “Oh my God. I want to go in.” Justin:              I've never fallen that far. But outside of that, the relationships are really well done in this. And I want to say there are so many great standalone panels where you really see like a perfect encapsulation of a real human action in the moment. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 I like this titles willingness to make the main characters unlikable, which is not an easy thing- Justin:              I like that about us as well. Pete:                Shut up. Alex:                 No, I think that's really good. I mean, you have this main relationship that's broken apart. And the fact that you read both of these characters as they're talking about the relationship, they try to be friends. It just doesn't work. They're both really not very good at it. And there's always this temptation to make those sorts of characters come to some sort of resolution or one character to be better than the other, but it feels like a real relationship right at the middle of this where nobody's right, they just broke up. They are both assholes to each other. They shouldn't have been together. Things went horribly wrong and they continue to go horribly wrong. It feels very realistic in terms of the characterization. And I think that's very nice to see. Let's get to- Pete:                Also fun little story in the back as well. Alex:                 Absolutely. Last bit to talk about, let's get to our extra storage, [inaudible 00:43:27], which I know Pete has been eagerly awaiting. We're just talking about three issues this week. Marauders number 15 from Marvel Comics, written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy, art by Stefano Caselli. Excalibur number 14 written by Tini Howard and art by Phil Noto. Wolverine number seven written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan and art by Joshua Cassara. In the first issue, we get a resolution of what happened with the Wolverline after she stabbed. Let me just run through the plot here then you could complain to [inaudible 00:43:56]. Hold on. Alex:                 We get a resolution of the cliffhanger last week was that Wolverine decided to shut down the conflict between Arakko and Krakoa with other worlds stuck in the middle, by stabbing Saturnyne to death, we get [inaudible 00:44:11] to that, turns out she knows what was going on. She shuts it down. We could see the rest of the dinner party as everybody kind of feels each other out and figures out what the straights are. Excalibur 14, we finally get the first of the fights, and spoilers here, I'll go through these, but just to give you the rundown of the fights, the first one, Betsy Braddock, Captain Britain gets beaten up immediately. Pete has taken off his headphones, he is done, he is out of here. Betsy Braddock gets beaten immediately, then I believe the second fight is Doug Ramsey, which he is terrified about. Turns out the fight is to get married at [inaudible 00:44:51]. Justin:              The ultimate fight. Alex:                 The ultimate fight. The third one is a wrestling match between [inaudible 00:44:58] I believe, she loses that, which totally makes sense. At the beginning, drinking contest between Storm and Wolverine. That's a little bit of a tie over there. But then Wolverine gets sucked into a fight, a three-way fight. Pete, put on of your headphones, put on your headphones, Pete, you can hear what we're saying. Come on. Pete:                Can I rant now? Can I please? Justin:              Listen to what we're saying. Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:45:21]. Why are avoiding spoilers? You got to at least hear what I'm saying. Pete:                I can't relive this bullshit again, that you're telling me and not react to it. It's so fucking painful the state here, and you recount the shitty fucking story. Justin:              You love sword fights. Alex:                 Here's what I think is phenomenal about this. I was going into this. Pete is taking off his headphones again. What I think is great about this, that I was not blown away by is probably too strong, but really impressed by, is I was going into this expecting, okay, then we're going to go through 10 sword fights, right? They start off with a sword fight that ends almost immediately. I was like, what the fuck is happening here? Why are we not getting a sword fight? This is, honestly, Pete put back the headphones. Put back on the headphones, Pete. I want you to hear this part. Pete:                Can I rant now please? Alex:                 No, I want you to hear this part that I'm talking about because my feeling when I was reading this, when Betsy Braddock immediately loses it like two pages, I was furious. I was like, “What is happening here?” And then when the second fight was marriage, it was like, where are the sword fights? I was promised sword fights. But by the time they get to the third fight and the fourth fight, I was starting to get really impressed by the structure of the storytelling here. Pete:                Oh, fuck you. Alex:                 Hold on. I was impressed by the structure of the storytelling here, because it's a total swerve. They're going for like, what are your expectations? It's going to be this gauntlet of Ted fights. Instead, we're coming up with different ways of hitting this, definitely getting into spoilers here, but it becomes clear through the storytelling what Saturnyne is doing. But our whole plan is not to have Krakoa beat Arakko, but to have Arakko realize, wait, we are the same as Krakoa and we need to join together. And we're not quite there yet, but that's such a fascinating, interesting, different swerve for the storytelling. I am very excited for where this is going, going forward. Pete, go ahead. Pete:                All right. Well, first off to address what you're saying. If you're going to do that, fucking do a fun issue where they're playing fucking volleyball or whatever, or having a barbecue and they can fucking get along or whatever. But you set up for fucking 14 issues, there's going to be this epic fucking battle. And the first epic battle is shit. The second battle is a marriage. What the fuck are you talking about? The third, fourth, fifth, they're not even fights, they're bullshit fucking side things that don't make any sense. People who won don't get points. Other people are getting random points. What the fuck is going on? You've teed this up for fucking, there's going to be 22 issues of this bullshit, and you've done nothing but rob us of good story with this bullshit where there's actual story that could be happening, but you're not addressing, not just sitting across from each other going, “Oh, you're doing well raising our children.” Fuck you. Pete:                If you're going to get into it, get into it, don't just fucking give us one piece of something to walk away. I'm so frustrated on so many levels with this fucking story. I've had it up to here. I was so pissed. Captain Britain, that whole thing … It's very upsetting when you build us something and then don't come close to even delivering it. You fucking piss in my face when it comes to the delivery and then walk away and go, “Yeah, this shit doesn't even matter.” Justin:              Pete, spoiler, the next issue is the two X men each other's faces for the- Pete:                Yeah, might as well. Justin:              That's the X. Alex:                 Pissing contest. Justin:              Oh, Pete, I feel like you might need to catch your breath for a second. Pete:                The art is very enjoyable. Justin:              Oh, nice. That's great. Pete:                Took a lot for me to say that. Justin:              I agree with Alex. This was such a surprise, but reading these three issues in particular, it really felt like, oh, they're doing like … even though it's not explicitly this, it feels like the fairy realm where nothing is what you expect. And so of course the battle is not going to be just a bunch of random sword fights. Everyone is being tricked. But I think what's smart about that is the Arakko. Pete:                We the reader are being tricked. Justin:              But in the same way that the best stories surprise you. Pete:                Out of our money. Justin:              You're not being tricked out of money. But let me say- Alex:                 Can I pull that [crosstalk 00:50:14] for a second. Justin:              The handful- Alex:                 You're getting these issues for free. Pete:                Yeah. I'm just saying, I'm talking about for the people who pay money for comic books, don't fucking shell out money for this book. You're going to be fucking pissed because- Alex:                 Hold on. Because this is … Obviously I have not read the issues beyond this week, but this is a build, right. And what we're building up to and I could be wrong is we're going to get a actually epic sword fight between apocalypse and annihilation, his wife. But if there were nine issues of sword fights before that, it wouldn't hit as hard when you finally get to that. Pete:                Well, then give me story and then just give me that last fight. Don't fucking promise me great battles along the way, and then fucking be like, no, two people are randomly going to get married for no fucking reason. And all of a sudden, a guy who all he does is talk to things can't talk. And that's the reason he falls in love with her. Are you fucking kidding me? Justin:              Here's what I was trying to say before. Pete:                Sorry Justin. Justin:              It is much more interesting to feel, to have these stories be surprising and interesting, especially at the beginning when like … especially Doug Ramsey, he goes in, either he's going to be straight up murdered or he's going to win randomly. Instead, it's something completely unexpected and I appreciate that. And it also like, as we've met the Arakko warriors, they're so intense, there's so much more, they've been raised in, they fought their entire lives for millennium. One of them has legit never lost a thing. The odds are stacked against the X-Men. And I think the X-Men, they're in one of these issues, they talk about this. They have had a happier world, a happier life. I think they can sort of figure out these games and win this without it being just a brute battle between different people that we've seen a hundred times in a hundred different comics. I think this is actually makes for some better storytelling. The fact that Wolverine issue, where he wins and also loses is fun. It's funny. Wolverine is outplayed twice in these issues. Alex:                 I love the Storm Wolverine drinking battle. That's great. Justin:              Did you see Storm leans in for a kiss? Alex:                 She does. There's so much … who did the art for that one? That was Joshua Cassara. The way that is laid out in that issue and it slowly builds until Wolverine disappears as they're about to kiss because they're completely wasted and they're going to hook up. That's great. I love the tension and inherited that scene. And the fact that Wolverine ends up in this three-way battle where he's just plastered the entire time is so much fun. It's good. Pete, you're upset. Pete:                Yes. I'm very upset because who the fuck … I don't understand why Wolverine is not acting like Wolverine. Wolverine, you know you can't just drink in the middle of a sword battle. You know you're going to have to fight. And also why are you trying to cheat beforehand? I have [crosstalk 00:53:34]. Justin:              They say that it's a drinking game is the battle, so he does it. Pete:                Listen, yeah, you know you can't smell, you're going to get fucked on that. I saw that coming a mile away. Justin:              I've never been fucked during a drinking game or I guess afterwards. Pete:                I don't know. Anyways, I just think that, hey, if you want to tell stories, great, but don't promise me one thing and then deliver another thing. I like a swerve, I like interesting stories. Yes, the marriage is surprising, whatever, great, great for you guys. But when you put me through these fucking origin stories of getting a sword and, oh, man, I got the baddest sword I can get. And now I'm going to go into a battle, the fight for my fuck island. Oh my God, and then you don't do that. You don't even come close to a battle. We haven't gotten one good one yet. And the scoring is all wrong. Justin:              You're really concerned with the score. Alex:                 Yeah, this is- Pete:                If you're fighting to the death and that- Alex:                 The title of the event is called X of arm wrestling. I don't understand what the problem is. Pete:                Fucking arm wrestling. Justin:              It's called ten of marriage. Alex:                 Well, clearly we have a disagreement here, and I think that's a great- Justin:              Two to one, we win. Later. Alex:                 There you go, Arakko wins. That's it for The Stack. [crosstalk 00:55:04]. Arakko, sorry, Justin. That's it for The Stack podcast. If you really like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. I choose Android and Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show at comic book live on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time, keep getting married everybody. Justin:              Get out there, the ultimate sword fight. The post The Stack: Punchline, Taskmaster And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week's comic book review 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.

This episode is the audio for a YouTube TeamStream that initially ran on August 20, 2020.  TeamStreams run every Thursday at 9 pm on the WOJM YouTube channel, barring unforeseen circumstances or holidays. In this episode, the WOJM Team (complete with Joe in her Serpentor headgear) welcomes special guest Paul Allor, the writer for IDW's GI Joe, to discuss the first six issues of his run, as well as what to expect next! You can watch this episode at: https://youtu.be/L_4K7zSoFEQ

RACK TIME IS SIDETRACK TIME!  Rob returns from a busy stretch of teaching the young'uns and doubles up with reviews from the most recent issues of both ongoing GI Joe comics!  In ARAH, Larry Hama's ten-part Snake Hunt prepares for its explosive finale, while Paul Allor's title diverts to a somewhat quieter part of his GI Joe universe.  It's just in time for your Wednesday trip to the comic book store - download and listen today!   Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://youtube.com/c/WOJMWhatsOnJoeMind

On this week's review Stack, we're talking: Bill & Ted Are Doomed #1, Dark Nights Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1, Empyre Aftermath: Avengers #1, Empyre Fallout: Fantastic Four #1, Stealth #5, Something is Killing the Children #10, Superman #25, Ultraman: The Rise of Ultraman #1, Ice Cream Man Presents Quarantine Comix Special #1, Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #5, Web of Venom: Wraith #1, G.I. Joe #8, Reaver #11 and Blackwood: The Mourning After #4. 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's up y'all, welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Alex:                 And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of comics that come out today. A little bit of a slower week after Labor Day. [crosstalk 00:00:23] chill. Justin:              Never. Alex:                 Never? Justin:              Never. Every week when comics come out… Come on, we just had a… We walked through the great desert of comic drought and here we are back, every week's exciting. There's a lot of fun stuff. Alex:                 I will tell you that in my mind, this is less comics than usual, but just because we did probably 36 comics last week and are doing a little less this week, so there you go. Justin:              I think that may be what it is. We're doing just a slightly less number of them. Alex:                 Yes. We talked for, I don't know, like an hour last week. That was a very long episode of The Stack. But hey, let's see what we get here. Two hours for this one. Justin:              Yeah. Let's extend it. Let's offer our thoughts on everything. Alex:                 And one little business note. Pete is off because he has poison ivy. Now let's get into it. First off, Bill and Ted are Doomed #1 from Dark Horse Comics written by Evan Dorkin and art by Roger Langridge. This is the official prequel to the film Bill and Ted Face the Music. I think it suffered a little bit by switching around of the release schedule of Bill and Ted 3, unfortunately it's coming out afterwards. I talked about this on the live show a little bit. I would just be excited about anything that Evan Dorkin and Roger Langridge are doing together because they're so good. And in my mind, this doesn't disappoint. But how'd you feel? Justin:              Yeah, it was fun. I haven't seen the new Bill and Ted movie. I'm not a die hard Bill and Ted guy. I've seen the first two, but I got to say this played almost like Bill and Ted in an Archie comic, in a fun way. It felt just like a fun, almost episodic, touchstone on all the different characters that are in the universe. Yeah, I'm excited to see where it goes next. Alex:                 It feels like the two dudes who created this are such bit dudes, so they're a perfect field for it. And you get verbal bits, you get little graphic bits from Roger Langridge in the background of things. It definitely, if you haven't seen the third movie, it plays off a lot of the storylines there and sets up those things. So I would highly recommend watching the movie first and then go and read this, because it's not that it ruins bits necessarily for the movie, but it certainly sets up a lot of the plot points there. But this is fun in its own, right. It's Bill and Ted going on a world tour, dealing with the bummer that is their not paying off on the promise of their big concert at the end of Bogus Journey. It's fun stuff. I really enjoyed this issue a lot, particularly for it being like… You could phone in a prequel for a comic like this, but there clearly is a lot of love that went out here. Justin:              Yeah, exactly. And like I said, it does that smart thing that a lot of tie-in books do, where it takes one thing about the characters and it just plays on it, as opposed to getting deep into the mythology of a certain thing or just trying to do something new. It's like, here, let's just touch all these things and then push them down the field a little bit, and it does a good job of that. Alex:                 Next up Dark Nights Death Metal Trinity Crisis #1 from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and art by Francis Manapul. Now I will say this plays like just another spinoff of Dark Nights Death Metal. This is an essential chapter of the book, I feel like? Justin:              100%. Alex:                 Which is crazy, but you get Francis Manapul art, you get Scott Snyder doing wild writing. It's great. I mean, we had Scott on the live show two weeks ago or a week and a half ago at this point, and he talked quite a bit about the Dark Nights event. It's just fun to see all of those wild ideas at play here. I liked this issue quite a bit, like I've been liking this series, I think. Justin:              I do too. And this is a good distillation of all the characters, as opposed to the main book, which is really grinding the plot forward and having to touch on so many things. This takes the pace down a little bit, I think, and really lets each character give you a little bit of status quo with them. And after hearing from Scott, it was really cool to see all the different, especially the Trinity characters, and the rest of the characters, to see them and look at them through his eyes. Alex:                 Yeah. I'm curious to see how it plays out in the next issue because there's a big cliffhanger at the end here that feels what he is trying to do with the main series. This is an essential issue, but also with the main series, he's just throwing you into the middle of things. Things have already happened. Between the month that the comics have been released or two weeks or three weeks or whatever, other things have gone on and same thing as here, but here we're getting a glimpse of it and everything is great. Let's move from the middle of an event to the end of an event. I want to talk about these together. We got the very alliterative Empyre Aftermath Avengers #1 from Marvel written by Al Ewing, art by Valerio Schiti, Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four #1 from Marvel written by Dan Slott and art by Sean Izaakse, or Izaakse, I guess. Alex:                 We were a little mixed, I think, about the Empyre event. This had the Kree-Skrull armada fighting the Cotati, some plant people, bunch of other stuff going on. But here as the title says, it's not as clean as Avengers and Fantastic Four, it's a little mixed together. But the Avengers issue is dealing a lot with Emperor Hulkling, the Fantastic Four issue is dealing a little more firmly with Fantastic Four, as well as some other things and both of them and big teases for the future of the Marvel universe. Given how mixed I was about the Empyre event, I was surprised how much I liked both of these issues. Justin:              Yeah, I think these books did a good job of giving us the context that we felt we were lacking with the main event. I feel like with the main event, we were like… The storytelling felt like, “Oh, this is exciting, this is building up to something big.” And then it just was actually sort of a smaller event than we thought. It was a hang out event. Not a lot of characters died and not a lot of status quo stuff was changed. It was like, there's this issue, and now we've resolved this issue. And these give us like, “Well, here's what is different,” a little bit. Justin:              And honestly, it's not a ton. But there are great scenes in here. I love this stuff in the Al Ewing written book, Empire Aftermath, where we get the Brand versus versus Captain Marvel stuff. That stuff was really cool. Just seeing the Avengers hanging out and talking. There's a great scene between Captain America and Tony Stark. “I wish we trained them. Registered them. Just kidding. Let's not go there.” That was fun. There were some good moments in here. Alex:                 The other thing that I really liked about that book in particular is framing Hulkling as a different type of king in the Marvel universe, because we've got Black Panther, we've got Doctor Doom, we've got all of these characters who are very regal and serious and are very “We do what we need to do.” “We do what is best for Wakanda.” “I do what is best for Latveria.” And they frame it as Hulkling is at the beginning of this journey, so he may get to that point. Certainly a lot of people warn him that you're going to get to a point where these choices are going to be impossible, and if you want to be emperor, you need to choose the people that you're representing. Alex:                 But right now he is an emperor that doesn't necessarily hold back when things need to be done, but he is trying to be more benevolent for that. And that to me, that is a fascinating character to follow going forward, particularly the idea that Wiccan is going to be with him, and it's the sort of thing, I don't know if there's plans for this. I honestly have just not paid much attention to what's coming forward in comics. But if there was a Emperor Hulkling comic, that would be a great character thing to follow. Just the idea of how do you rule two races that have hated each other for millennia and try to do it the right way with your husband by your side? That's great. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And being able to… They're the characters that emerged from this as the most interesting. I like the tags at the end of both of these books, but they are the ones… I would definitely like to see them on a day to day basis, what they're up to, because otherwise most of the characters in this book are characters we know and already like and they're just being themselves. Thor and She-Hulk are officially dating, which I thought was a fun revelation here. Alex:                 Also, I think this was in this one, I'm kind of mixing them up now, but I love the line after the unofficial Kree-Skrull wedding where the rabbi says, “This is the first outer space same-sex Jewish wedding that I've ever officiated.” But just fun. Just fun stuff. Good times. And the Fantastic Four issue I thought it was very good as well, and also in terms of delineating itself from the Avengers issue, focusing on the history of the blue area of the moon, which has been very key to Marvel universe continuity, working in the unknown that weird Nick Fury robot dude who took over for the Watcher and coming up with a new status quo for him as well. Just a good stuff. It's very clearly following off of Dan Slott's run on Fantastic Four, and it feels of a piece of that, but his run has been good. His run has been funny. He has a good handle of the characters, so this feels fun as well. Justin:              Yeah. Agreed. What I also want to just real quick want to say, it was nice that each separate issue, they came out the same week, and really reflected the different writers who have shepherded this project, their tones a little bit differently, and they were able to have their own wrap up. Because Dan Slott I feel was so Fantastic Four focused and got to have the humor of a Spider-Man hanging out and Wolverine talking shop and all that. That was a very Dan Slott thing to do. Alex:                 Yeah. So good stuff. Even if you were on the fence about Empyre, maybe pick up these two issues so you can have a sense of the new status quo in the Marvel universe. Let's move on to another one. Stealth #5 from Image Comics, written by Mike Costa and art by Nate Bellegarde. Man, I love this book. We've been talking about every issue of this book. This is about a old dark horse, Darkhawk, excuse me, esque superhero, who is suffering from dementia. His son is investigating mysteries that are tied with it. There is an old villain of his who is tied to his origin who is coming after him. This is the issue before the end, so it definitely feels like, even though some big things happened, there's a little bit of a pause there, but particularly with the villain, with Dead Hand, it's so well written and he's so calculated and terrifying at the same time. It's very impressive to read. Justin:              Yeah, I was going to say this comic… We've raved about it so much. Its main characters are so well done. And then they take the time and this issue to really establish… The most fun character in this issue is the villain and we get a little bit of origin snuck into the back half of the book, but it was just another great book. Great action. Really well drawn. Everyone's on the same plane. I don't know what's going to happen in this last issue. Alex:                 I'm very excited to go and get to the end of it. Let's move on to another one that's been great the entire run, Something is Killing the Children #10 from Boom! Studios, written by James Tynion IV, art by Werther Dell'Edera. This is continuing the storyline of a bunch of invisible monsters killing some children. It's fascinating to me that so little and so much happens in every issue of this book. I don't know if you get that feeling as well. Justin:              100%. I get the exact same feeling of like… I'm always like, “Ooh…” This is such a tonal book. It's something that you read where you're just like… You want the taste of it. It's not about a million things happening because the dread they create each issue and those moments of horror and every day… I'm always reminded reading this of the issue where the cop is like, “Hey, I have a bunch of beer in my bag if you want to grab one.” When they're in the impromptu morgue they made in the high school gym, a couple of issues back. And every issue just has those great little details, and then also just a bunch of horrifying action. And this issue has maybe more action than we've seen for a couple. Alex:                 I have a question for you. When there is a monster comes out and kills one of the children, in your head are you like, “That's the thing that's killing the children.” Justin:              No, because I'm constantly, “Is that the thing killing the children?” Because I don't believe… There's something… The mystery they've created here leaves a little bit of like, “Maybe that's not what's killing the children.” Alex:                 Another great issue of this book, and Werther Dell'Edera's art is so gorgeous. I also love the layouts of this book. I mean, this might be part of getting it digitally, but the fact that they have these huge spreads that are multi panels long, it just feels and reads different from every other comic that I'm reading today. Real good stuff. Moving on to Superman #25 from DC Comics written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Ivan Reis. This is introducing another new villain for Superman, or maybe ally, we'll see what happens, but it is a race of aliens that we've never met before who are aware of the destruction of Krypton, become concerned about Superman, and then proceed to follow him throughout history. Alex:                 So we get a parallel, for this anniversary issue, of Superman's entire history through this alien's perspective as well as through Superman's perspective and his relationship with Lana Lang, which we're reestablishing here. I like this issue. I'm cautiously optimistic after big guy with weird lip that I'm forgetting of the name, [Roeger Thargar 00:15:49] or whatever, the other villain that he introduced. There's a lot of returning to the destruction of Krypton and mining that, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Justin:              Reading this issue, maybe you want to take a mental check in on Bendis's run in general. What do you think? Because this felt a hard reset and sort of like, “Ah, I don't know, let's start over,” in some ways. And I this issue. It made me really think Superman is going to get with Lana Lang, oddly. In a sort of stressful way of. Alex:                 That would be fucked up if that would happen. Justin:              Agreed. But what do you think this means for Bendis's run in general, or what do you think of Bendis's run in general, reading this? Alex:                 I appreciate the fact that he's added a lot of new characters to the Superman continuity. That's certainly something that's needed, but this is the absolute worst way of saying this. A lot of reading his run feels like a chore. Like, “I got to read this because he's going to be adding this new thing that people are going to pick up on later on and it's going to affect the rest of DC continuity so I got to know what's going on.” I don't know, it doesn't feel exactly the right fit for Bendis at the same time. Justin:              I agree. It feels homeworky, where a lot of it is just so much of laying the groundwork, when it's just like, “What is the story you're telling?” So much of the stuff that came before him, I love so much with Superman, the real Superman family living in Smallville and it was a real family unit, and I was like, “I see what the story is here. It's a family unit rallying around their father/husband who is Superman and what he has to do.” And everyone got to do their own thing. In this it feels like Lois and Superman are always in different places, very busy. John Kent is with the Legionnaires now. It feels like everyone's working so hard and I don't know what's happening. Alex:                 There seems to be a loss of the core values of Superman in a certain way. And I think it's funny, because that's something that he is trying to hit constantly and trying to work around and trying to reemphasize. And he does get around to it sometimes in his run, like the fight with the Injustice League in Metropolis, which I honestly do not remember whether that was in Superman or Action Comics, was very good and very tense and very dangerous, but then it was interrupted by Leviathan coming in to be like, “Let's stop this fighting.” It feels watching a chess game in a certain way, to get to your point about laying the groundwork. Justin:              And that's everyone's favorite activity, is just tucking in and watching some fucking chess. Alex:                 Yeah. Bobby what's his name. Justin:              Yes. Searching for Bobby chess fish. Alex:                 Moving on to another setup thing though, Ultraman, The Rise of Ultraman #1 for Marvel Comics, written by Kyle Higgins and Matt Groom, art by Francesco Manna, Michael Cho, Gurihiru, Ed McGuinness, and Espen Grundetjern. This is the classic Ultraman hero. We get a front story and a bunch of backup stories. I'll tell you what, I wasn't totally sold on the lead story because I felt it actually did kind of a Bendis thing of deconstructing and decompressing the origin of Ultraman, and by the end of the issue, I was like, “Great, that was the thing that I was curious to see you get to at the beginning of this issue, because I don't know any of these characters or what's going on.” But I really liked the back matter a lot. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. It was weird. This story had that confidence of “You know what we're doing here. Look at these characters, they're hanging out, they're screwing around.” And then it sort of ended with “Oh, I don't actually know these characters. I don't know what's happening.” And then I'm like, “Oh, I see. Maybe there's an Ultraman happening here.” But the back matter really set it up, set up the whole thing. The Ultra Q I think was the name of the one that really set up what the deal was and how the Kaiju organization came together. And then they had the fun interspersion of the funnies version of Ultraman. Alex:                 Yeah, I like that stuff quite a bit. It's certainly a big package in terms of there's a lot of stuff going on in the comic, so I think it's worth picking up potentially for that. Particularly if you're a fan of Ultraman. I don't have a connection to the franchise or anything, so I was a little lost to the lead story, but I'm definitely curious to pick up the second issue and see how that continues because clearly Marvel has put a lot of faith of this. This is a big priority for them. So I'm curious to see where it goes, particularly because it gets to the point you want it to get to at the end of that first issue. Alex:                 Let's move on to another one, I'm very curious to talk to you about this one, Ice Cream Man Presents: Quarantine Comix Special #1 from Image Comics written by W Maxwell Prince, art by Martin Morazzo, but also by Declan Shalvey and Chris O'Halloran, Deniz Camp, and Artyom Poplin, with Aditya Bidikar, A Ewing, Al Ewing I guess, and PJ Holden, Christopher Cantwell, and Eoin Marron with Chris O'Halloran. So this is a collection of, as the title says, short comics that the Ice Cream Man team published while in quarantine. There are, I believe, four tales of their own, and then four guests tales that go along with it. What'd you think about this book in total and then any particular stories you want to call out? Justin:              I mean, this felt like such a good ice cream. Obviously we love… We talk about this book nonstop. It's something that is just a scary comic book that does so much with its stories to create dread, but also there are moments of humor and really make a point. And this felt like a great book that really digested what we're going through right now and recontextualized our own everyday horror and put it in these different storylines in a way that I thought was great, really great. Alex:                 Yeah. I really like this a lot too. The thing that I was most curious about reading this book is how other people would handle the idea of Ice Cream Man. And of course the lead stories, they capture it perfectly, they're great. They feel exactly Ice Cream Man because it's the team that's doing it. But the one for me that worked perfectly that I could not believe it was the main team not doing it, that was the one by Deniz Camp and Artyom Poplin with Aditya Bidikar. That was the one, if you haven't read it this is obviously spoilers, but it's basically a girl who is looking out through window at the outside world as it's falling apart, whether it's through coronavirus or something worse, like zombie plague, it's not entirely clear. And in the background it certainly seems like her family is falling apart and breaking apart. Alex:                 And at the same time, she's drawing little pictures on the windows to add things into the landscape and what's going on. And of course, things become more horrible, the drawings take on a life of their own. To me, that was like… This is an Ice Cream Man story. This is exactly what it feels like, particularly in the early days of quarantine, to look outside of the window and see those empty streets. Perfect. Justin:              Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Being able to really artistically bring that into the comic book form, I thought this whole book just gives that off in a way that I haven't seen anyone do that. How'd you feel about the Animal Crossing? Alex:                 It was all right. I thought that was okay. I haven't really played Animal Crossing necessarily, but it was like… It's a funny story, but it was too jokey for Ice Cream Man for me, if that tracks? Justin:              Yeah, totally. Alex:                 But yeah, this is a great package. And to your point about the quarantine stuff, I've kind of rankled against anything that talks about quarantine, TV shows that are like, “It's set during quarantine. We filmed it during quarantine. Everybody filmed it on their Zoom cameras,” makes me annoyed and I could care less because I'm living that right now. But this is something that worked for me. Justin:              And I think the real smart thing they did is really interpret it as opposed to presented it, and that's what I love about it. I got to give a shout out to the first story, because it's got my man Shakespeare in it. Alex:                 There you go. Love Shake CW. Justin:              Shakes CW. That's how I think. Scholars refer to him in that way. Alex:                 Back in time. Yeah, great stuff though. Definitely pick that up. Next up Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #5, excuse me, from DC Comics, written by Kami Garcia, art by Mico Suayan and Jason Badower. We've also talked about almost every issue of this one. This is a more realistic take on Joker and Harley. Joker is a serial killer, Harley is the psychiatrist working with the Gotham PD trying to track him down. This issue, Joker is in her house and she confronts him. This is very well written, but to me, the art is definitely the standout, and it's just gorgeous to look at across the board. Justin:              Agreed. The use of color in this is so smart. The different passages we get in black and white with Joker affectation, and then the other sections that come through. But vivid detail in the black and white. And then later we get the sort of the more comic booky feeling normal coloring passages. It's great. And the way they are positioning Joker and Harley here is something that I haven't really seen in a while, and it was great to see joker with a straightforward origin. There's not a ton of like, “He's a ghost from the future,” or whatever. It was nice to see that. Alex:                 Good book. Definitely pick it up. For adults only. Next up, Web of Venom: Wraith #1 from Marvel written by Donny Cates, art by Guiu Villanova. This is another issue teeing up the big King In Black event that's coming very, very soon. Here we get Wraith, who is in Donny Cates's Guardians of the Galaxy run, dealing with his own symbiote, [Arjun 00:27:03]. Big stuff happens here. This is as tense and big and crazy as usual as we have come to expect from Donnie Cates's Venom run. Good stuff. Justin:              This book doesn't… I'm not super familiar with Wraith, but it didn't have any business being this good and interesting and exciting. It's great. It had the vibe of a great Western story, but bringing in all the symbiote continuity, I guess is the way… It's amazing, just in general, that Venom has become this universe spanning continuity. Alex:                 I don't want to make this one person versus another, but I was struck reading this book, which is something that Donny Cates has already done, where Brian Michael Bendis was like, “Where did the symbiotes come from? The planet Klyntar. That's where they're from.” And the fact that Donny was like, “Yeah, yeah, but also they're the prison for this god Knull. It's not actually their planet or where they come from. It's this other thing,” is in my mind… It's funny that it's a responsible retcon of a retcon, if you know what I mean. Justin:              It's funny to be calling out Bendis so hard in this episode of The Stack, [crosstalk 00:28:23], who we like. Alex:                 Don't come for us, man. Justin:              Don't come for us, man. I also want to call out in this book, the art feels like… The pacing of it, the ramping up and coming down. This feels something that could have been a standalone, Western short story, just with this great Marvel universe stuff laid over top of it. Alex:                 Yeah, it's very good. All of these Web of Venom event things have been very good. Let's move on to another surprisingly good comic, GI Joe #8 from IDW written by Paul Allor and art by Emma Vieceli. I got to say, I went from not caring about GI Joe at all to this being top of my stack every month. This book is great. Justin:              We keep talking about it. Pete's not even here and here we are talking about GI Joe comics, because the depth of the world building they're doing here is just so good. Alex:                 I think my main impression of GI Joe is the 80s cartoon where you have Cobra Commander and it's all very silly and everybody's like, “My name is Ice Cube and shoot ices.” That's pretty much all it is. Justin:              Most of the communication is just the them shouting their names, and their names are also what they do. It's a very Pokemon thing for them to do. Alex:                 And the fact that not only is this team taking the idea of GI Joe seriously, but actually plumbing into their character deaths and making these often excruciating to read character studies about the choices that people need to make in the middle of war, is bonkers. This issue, we get a character who is… Well, the whole setup is Cobra has taken over the world, GI Joe is the underground fighting back, and here we get one of the characters, I'm honestly forgetting which stupid name she has, but she is the Canadian ambassador. She's behind enemy lines. She's starting to fall in love with one of the people from Cobra- Justin:              Are you talking about Bombstrike? Alex:                 Yes. There we go. And the choices that she needs to make across the board where it's like… It's hard to watch. It's hard to read on both sides, when she makes the right choices, when she makes the wrong choices, but that comes down to the writing. The art is good. I really am shocked how great this book is. Justin:              Yeah, and continues to impress. It's not just a flash in the pan one story was good. Continues to be great across the board. Alex:                 Mainly it feels like, and I don't say this to deride the writer or anything, but this feels like if Tom King decided to write GI Joe, what would happen. Justin:              That's good. That's a compliment. Alex:                 Next up, Reaver #11 from Image Comics written by Justin Jordan and art by Niko Henrichon. This follows our fantasy world extreme characters attacking some dudes on a boat. I got to tell you, we've talked about a bunch of issues in this book. It feels like Justin Jordan has finally figured out which characters work, which characters pop, and is just focusing on them, and that in my mind is such a smart decision. Justin:              It's really funny in the page, the author page or the artist page, after the cover, we see all the characters who are initially wandering through the wilderness, and I was like, “Oh yeah, remember all those people?” And now it's just gotten down to these few characters that are just kicking ass. Alex:                 And it's great. I mean, it works. I'm glad they pivoted the book to that. If you have an enormous dude who is impossible to kill and is a crazy murderous barbarian, and a tiny girl with a ghost face and sharp teeth who likes to bite people, focus on them. That's all good. Get rid of the other characters and it's all fine. Justin:              Bring out the bitey girl. Alex:                 But it's good. In terms of being extreme fantasy, I think this is a fun issue. Justin:              Agreed. Alex:                 Last one to talk about, another Evan Dorkin book from Dark Horse Comics Blackwood: The Mourning After #4, art by Veronica and Andy Fish. I'll admit, I haven't really read Blackwood or The Mourning After, but I like this issue quite a bit. This is bunch of people from seemingly a magical school or a magical library who are fighting against somebody. There's some evil masks. The character designs are great. The magic is great. Even knowing nothing about this, I think part of it is that Evan Dorkin is good at plot, Veronica and Andy Fish are great at art, so the issue works even if you don't know anything about it. Justin:              The way that the masked person kills people in this is unbelievable. It's horrifying. Every time I was just like, “Huh.” You see their corpse, it's great. Alex:                 It's kind of amazing reading these two Evan Dorkin Dark Horse books back to back, which I did, Bill and Ted are Doomed and The Morning After #4, because you have one that's like, “Fun times, Bill and Ted, woo.” And the other one's, people's flesh being ripped off their bones. Good stuff. Just very talented guy. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And to be able to work in those two different tones is very cool. Alex:                 There you go. All right, that is it for The Stack. If you'd like to support our podcast, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do a live show every Tuesday 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 to follow us socially. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. We'll see you at the virtual comic book shop. Justin:              Live large. Get out of that poison Ivy patch, baby. The post The Stack: Bill & Ted Are Doomed, Dark Nights Death Metal And More appeared first on Comic Book Club. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RACK TIME IS FINALLY BACK TIME!  Rob returns with a deluxe, two-review episode for Larry Hama's GI Joe: A Real American Hero 273 and Paul Allor's critically-acclaimed GI Joe 7, both from IDW Publishing!  Plus, Rob fills you in on why reprinting classic GI Joe comics is always a good thing, even if you've read them before! GI Joe 7 is available to download for free this month, as part of National Suicide Prevention Month. Read the issue here: http://idw.pub/GIJOE7 Check out the WOJM's TeamStream broadcast with Paul Allor here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_4K7zSoFEQ   Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind

November Solicits Comic Reviews: Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook by Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, James Tynion IV, Christopher Priest, Chip Zdarsky, Vita Ayala, Becky Cloonan, Doug Mahnke, Khary Randolph, Dan Panosian, Eduardo Risso, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, Emilio Lopez, Tamra Bonvillain, Luis Guerrero Lords of Empyre: Swordsman by Alex Paknadel, Thomas Nachlik, Menyz Maestro 1 by Peter David, German Peralta, Jesus Aburtov, Dale Keown, Jason Keith Voyage to the Stars 1 by James Asmus, Connie Daidone, Graham Power Rangers Drakkon New Dawn 1 by Anthony Burch, Simone Ragazzoni, Raul Angulo Shadow Service 1 by Cavan Scott, Corin Howell, Triona Farrell Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy by Sina Grace, Egle Bartolini, Nicoletta Baldari, Valentina Pinto Gutter Magic: Smoke and Mirrors 1 by Rich Douek, Fei Chen Backfired 1 by Dave Pantano, Diego Toro, Kote Carvajal Remnant by Michael Roslen, Karly Engracia Additional Reviews: Glitch Techs s2, Astonishing X-Men, Lovecraft Country pilot News: Nocturnal from Snyder and Tony Daniel, Marvel rips off DC, Omninews, Sweet Tooth casting, Affleck Batman is back, Protector changes name, Fortnite comic from Marvel, Adora and ADHD, return of Milestone, Suicide Squad cast, Static movie, JSA in Black Adam movie Trailers: Death on the Nile, Wonder Woman 84, Snyder League, Gotham Knights, The Batman, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Comics Countdown: Empyre: X-Men 4 by Jonathan Hickman, Jorge Molina, Werneck, Di Benedetto, Woodard, Rosenberg Gideon Falls 24 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart Batman 97 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey Thor 6 by Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson Avengers 35 by Jason Aaron, Javier Garron, Jason Keith Red Sonja 18 by Mark Russell, Bob Q Harley Quinn 75 by Sam Humphries, Riley Rossmo, Ray McCarthy, Joe Quinones, Nicola Scott, Sami Basri, Emanuela Lupacchino, Ramon Villalobos, Ngozi Ukazu, Hi-Fi, Ivan Plascencia, Annette Kwok, Tamra Bonvillain GI Joe 7 by Paul Allor, Brittany Peer, Chris Evenhuis Once & Future 10 by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain Skylin 3 by Fred Packard, Josh Valliere, Kyle Petchock, Young

Andy Schmidt and Paul Allor talk about writing both creator-owned and work-for-hire comics, the similarities between the two, and the differences. Andy shares his perspective from the editorial side of publishing and what companies look for when hiring new talent.

Virtual JoeCon powers onward with a new panel, led by Arune Singh, Vice President of Marketing for BOOM! Studios!  Arune gets to the core of GI Joe fandom with Mike Irizarry, "The Honcho" Mark Weber, cosplayer extraordinaire Sara Detrick, and IDW G.I. Joe scribe Paul Allor, piecing together what makes their individual Skystrikers fly.  It's a fun discussion with a lot of heart! Virtual JoeCon is a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen!  If you can, please visit our Virtual JoeCon fundraising page and spare a few dollars to help those who are helping feed the people most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: https://donate.wck.org/whatsonjoemind The WOJM Virtual JoeCon is sponsored by Kokomo Toys and ROMA Collectibles!  If you're in the market for toys of any kind, remember to hit up their stores on eBay! Be sure to be back tomorrow for another panel!

On April 25, 2011, WOJM launched launched its first episode, and nine years later, we're still chugging along!  Mike, Joe, and Mark are on hand to spread the news during a curiously low-key anniversary fandango... ... that's actually the launch of the WHAT'S ON JOE MIND? VIRTUAL JOECON!   Starting today, we're throwing open the gates on the charitable part of the project - WOJM is raising money for World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides meals to first responders and displaced victims from all manner of tragedies that's been busting it double-time in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic!  We'll be collecting donations through May 10... let's team up and obliterate our $2000 goal!  Here's the link: https://donate.wck.org/whatsonjoemind Your donations are going STRAIGHT TO WCK!  You're not sending anything to WOJM.  If you're in a place where you can send a donation, please help us - and any number of first responders, displaced medical personnel, hungry would-be schoolchildren, or any number of folks who need a hot meal during these trying times!THEN... VIRTUAL JOECON BEGINS!  From Monday, May 4, through Saturday, May 10, you'll be getting one star-studded panel per day!  Guests will include: Paul Allor, writer on IDW's GI Joe Sara Detrick, cosplayer extraordinaire Terry Dizard, administrator of Yojoe.com Curtis Herod, host of GI Joburg Joe Holp, host of The File Card Podcast Arune Singh, VP of Marketing for BOOM! Studios Joe Slepski, host of Joe On Joe Podcast PLUS Mike Irizarry, Joe Colton, "The Honcho" Mark Weber, and Rack Time Rob Irizarry! PLUS members of the cast of Marvel/Sunbow's GI Joe: A Real American Hero! PLUS Prizes, courtesy of Kokomo Toys and ROMA Collectibles! It'll be a six-day event you won't want to miss! As always, admission to The WOJM Virtual JoeCon is ABSOLUTELY FREE. So let's get together, have some laughs, raise some funds for a great cause and do some good while we're all stuck inside!  STAY POSITIVE AND YO JOE!

Join Joe, Scottie & Matt as they take a look at the Paul Allor's 2019 graphic novel published by Boom! Studios, "Power Rangers: The Psycho Path".

The writer of G.I. Joe, Paul Allor, joins us this week to talk about bringing a real-world feel to the series, how he'd fix Serpentor, his own appearance in the book, whether he'll do a silent issue, working with Hasbro, and a whole lot more! Plus, Matt and Chris choose how they'd become Captain Britain!

Top 500, June Solicits Comics Reviews: Robin 80th Anniversary Special by Marv Wolfman, Tom Grummett, Scott Hanno, Adriano Lucas, Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel, Rob Hunter, Protobunker, Devin Grayson, Dan JUrgens, Norm Rapmund, Hi-Fi, Tim Seeley, Tom King, Mikel Janin, Jeromy Cox, Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen, John Kalisz, Adam Beechen, Freddie Williams II, Jeremy Colwell, James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, David Baron, Brad Anderson, Amy Wolfram, Damion Scott, Peter Tomasi, Robbie Thompson, Ramon Villalobos, Ramra Bonvillain, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez Titans Giant 1 by Phil Hester, Scott Koblish, Tom Grummett, John Kalisz, et al 2020 Iron Age 1 by Tom DeFalco, Christopher Cantwell, Fonda Lee, Damian Couceiro, Nick Roche, Matt Horak, Sobreiro, Ramos, Farrell Marvel's Avengers: Captain America by Paul Allor, Georges Jeanty, Deering, Andy Troy Outlawed 1 by Eve Ewing, Kim Jacinto, Espen Grundetjern Spider-Woman 1 by Karla Pacheco, Pere Perez, Frank D'Armata, Paulo Siqueira, Oren Junior Starship Down 1 by Justin Giampaoli, Andrea Mutti, Vladimir Popov X-Ray Robot 1 by Mike Allred, Laura Allred Jia and the Nian Monster by Mike Richardson, Megan Huang Archangel 8 1 by Michael Moreci, CP Smith, Snakebite Cortez Artemis and the Assassin 1 by Stephanie Phillips, Meghan Hetrick, Francesca Fantini, Lauren Affe Hexagon 1 by Michael Moreci, Don Diablo, Jheremy Raapack, Lee Dragon Whisperer 1 by Alex Deluca, Glen Fernandez,  Hotell 1 by John Lees, Dalibor Talajic, Lee Loughridge Legends of Log 1 by Ski Suharski, Bob Berry, Trey Baldwin, Ian Miller, Wes Locher Red Border 1 by Jason Starr, Will Conrad, Ivan Nunes Resistance 1 by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin Wicked Things 1 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar Additional Reviews: 2nd Dan Jurgens' Thor Omnibus News: new Vault book Engineward by George Mann and Joe Eisma, Trolls release, She-Ra final season coming May 15, Snowflake and Safe Space, Harley Quinn & Birds pushed, Spider-Man pushed, Aspen and Vault shut-down, Diamond shuts down???? Comics Countdown: Ascender 10 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen X-Ray Robot 1 by Mike Allred, Laura Allred Runaways 31 by Rainbow Rowell, Andres Genolet, Dee Cunniffe DCeased: Unkillables 2 by Tom Taylor, Karl Mostert, Trevor Scott, Edwards, Lokus Wicked Things 1 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar Usagi Yojimbo 9 by Stan Sakai Undiscovered Country 5 by Charles Soule, Scott Snyder, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Grassi, Matt Wilson Middlewest 16 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu Guardians of the Galaxy 3 by Al Ewing, Juann Cabal, Belen Ortega, Chris Sprouse, Nina Vakueva, Karl Story, Federico Blee Something is Killing the Children 6 by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Edera, Miquel Muerto

Paul Allor (GI Joe, The Avengers: Captain America) talks about pitching for work for hire (WFH) comics. Paul talks about working with editors and license holders, some common elements across pitches and more!

Rack Time charges up with Double Shock Power as Rob reviews both GI Joe ARAH 270 (by Larry Hama and Netho Diaz) and GI Joe 5 (by Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis), both from IDW.  ARAH's fifth installment of the ten-part Snake Hunt spins it wheels, but the relaunched series draws high praise again, as Stalker and Jinx visit Indianapolis to find the Zartan and the Dreadnoks.  We're tired of saying "if you're not picking up the new GI Joe, you're missing a great comic," so JUST GO BUY IT ALREADY!   Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

RACK TIME IS BACK-TO-BACK TIME!  IDW pushed out GI Joe comics in consecutive weeks, so Rob recaps both in this special double episode!  First up is GI Joe 4 by Paul Allor and guest penciller Niko Walter - Major Bludd takes center stage as more of the command structure of COBRA is revealed.  Then, in GI Joe: A Real American Hero 269, tensions mount as the Dreadnoks, Oktober Guard, and GI Joe team prepare to invade Springfield!  It's a bargain at twice the price!  It's Double Trouble!  It's twice as nice!  It's... okay, you got it, fine. Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

RACK TIME IS GINGERBREAD SHACK TIME!  (Okay, that's more than a little bit of a stretch.)  Rob returns to recap IDW's GI Joe 3 by Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis.  Roadblock takes center stage as we see the Joes on a full-on field mission for the first time!  Plus, Rob gives his expert comic recommendations to expand your pull list with titles from DC, Marvel, and BOOM! Studios.  Enjoy!   Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

Comic Reviews: John Constantine: Hellblazer 1 by Si Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, Jordie Bellaire Supergirl Annual 2 by Robert Venditti, Laura Braga, Chris Sotomayor Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis by James Tynion IV, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Romulo Fajardo Jr. Conan 2099 by Gerry Duggan, Roge Antonio, Erick Arciniega FF: Negative Zone by Mike Carey, Stefano Caselli, Erick Arciniega, Ryan North, Steve Uy Scream: Curse of Carnage 1 by Clay McLeod Chapman, Chris Mooneyham, Rain Beredo Punisher 2099 by Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson, Matt Horak, Eoin Marron, Rachelle Rosenberg Star Trek: Picard - Countdown 1 by Kirsten Beyer, Mike Johnson, Angel Hernandez, Joana Lafuente Killadelphia 1 by Rodney Barnes, Jason Shawn Alexander, Luis Nct Goth Young Lovers at War by Paul Allor, Seth Adams Last Stop 1 by Trey Walker, Hoyt Silva, Micah Myers Ogres 1 by Bob Salley, Shawn Daley Misplaced 1 by Chris Callahan Touching Evil 1 by Dan Dougherty Sentient by Jeff Lemire, Gabriel Walta Additional Reviews: Glenn leftovers, Frozen II, Harley Quinn pilot review, President is Missing, Steph Brown Batgirl, Likely Stories, How to Talk to Girls At Parties, A Teacher's Life, Behind the Curtain, Be Prepared News: 2nd ongoing Spidey title, Melissa Benoist, Frozen III pitched, Teen Titans creative shift, Pulp by Brubaker/Phillips, Wolverine 7.99 Trailers: Doctor Who s12 Comics Countdown, 27 Nov: Criminal 10 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jacob Phillips Batman: Creature of the Night 4 by Kurt Busiek, John Paul Leon Ascender 7 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen Martian Manhunter 10 by Steve Orlando, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia Venom 20 by Donny Cates, Iban Coello, Ze Carlos, Rain Beredo Books of Magic 14 by Si Spurrier, Kat Howard, Tom Fowler, Craig Taillefer, Jordan Boyd New Mutants 2 by Jonathan Hickman, Rod Reis Ether: The Disappearance of Violet Bell 3 by Matt Kindt, David Rubin Curse Words 25 by Charles Soule, Ryan Browne, Addison Duke Justice League Dark 17 by James Tynion IV, Javi Fernandez, John Kalisz

This week, writer Paul Allor joins us to talk about reenvisioning G.I. Joe for the modern era, as well as his upcoming Source Point Press project “Goth,” a series of one-shots that purports to examine different types of goths throughout history, from Visi to mall. Plus you’ll learn why Paul’s dog Short Round may be Dan's favorite creator pet to date.

RACK TIME IS SMACK TIME!  Rob recaps IDW's GI Joe 2 by Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis.  The Joes are recouping from the dramatic events of the premier issue, and new characters and new alliances are introduced.  If you're interested in this series, you'd better get out and snag the first two issues while you can - they're getting to be tough to find! Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

117: Just Another Fanboy - G.I. Joe #1 (2019) This is the episode in which I talk about G.I. Joe #1 by Paul Allor, Chris Evenhuis, Brittany Peer, Neil Uyetake, and Bobby Curnow. This issue was published by IDW on September 18, 2019.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . More stuff:The theme song used in each episode is Night Drive by The Oldfield Victory. Find them and their music at theoldfieldvictory.bandcamp.comWant to help support the show? You can do that in a number of ways:First, just spread the word. Tell a friend, tell two friends, tell your father, mother, sister, brother, neighbor, coworker, plumber, and even the guy or girl who cuts your hair.Beyond that you can support Steeven and the show for as little as a dollar a month on Patreon: www.patreon.com/steevenrorrOr, if the idea of a monthly payment doesn't appeal to you and you just want to throw the show a one time payment, visit ko-fi.com/steevenrorr and buy Steeven and the show a coffee for as little as $3, but as high as you want to go.Here is the address to complain to: feedback@steevenorrelse.comCheck out Steeven's blog at steevenrorr.comJust Another Fanboy is a proud member of the Comics Podcast Network. Find it and more great comic book podcasts at comicspodcasts.com

Episode Notes This is the episode in which I talk about G.I. Joe #1 by Paul Allor, Chris Evenhuis, Brittany Peer, Neil Uyetake, and Bobby Curnow. This issue was published by IDW on September 18, 2019.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . More stuff:The theme song used in each episode is Night Drive by The Oldfield Victory. Find them and their music at theoldfieldvictory.bandcamp.comWant to help support the show? You can do that in a number of ways:First, just spread the word. Tell a friend, tell two friends, tell your father, mother, sister, brother, neighbor, coworker, plumber, and even the guy or girl who cuts your hair.Beyond that you can support Steeven and the show for as little as a dollar a month on Patreon: www.patreon.com/steevenrorrOr, if the idea of a monthly payment doesn't appeal to you and you just want to throw the show a one time payment, visit ko-fi.com/steevenrorr and buy Steeven and the show a coffee for as little as $3, but as high as you want to go.Here is the address to complain to: feedback@steevenorrelse.comCheck out Steeven's blog at steevenrorr.comJust Another Fanboy is a proud member of the Comics Podcast Network. Find it and more great comic book podcasts at comicspodcasts.com

Rack Time Rob is back (time) to take you through GI Joe 1 from Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis, which premiered a few weeks ago from IDW.  We wanted to leave some time in between the release of the book and its corresponding Rack Time to allow for everyone to get a chance to read it - but all the same, we'll put a SPOILER WARNING on this one if you haven't.  Enjoy the fantastic all-new GI Joe, and give Paul (@PaulAllor) and Chris (@ChrisEvenhuis) some love on Twitter! Contact WOJM: Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

COBRA has taken over! What will G.I. JOE do to free America? You won't believe what happens in the first five pages of the issue! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patron at patreon.com/MajorSpoilers. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future! Join our Discord server and chat with fellow Spoilerites! (https://discord.gg/jWF9BbF) G.I. JOE #1 Writer: Paul Allor Artist: Chris Evenhuis Publisher: IDW Publisher Cover Price: $3.99 Release Date: September 18, 2019 Tyranny is on the rise as Cobra topples governments and spreads its ruthless power across the globe. In these trying times, desperate measures are taken. The new G.I. Joe program recruits civilian spies and saboteurs: ordinary people, living in occupied territories, who will put their lives on the line to strike back through clandestine but high-impact missions. Join these new recruits as they resist Cobra control, fight to make a better world for all, and find out just what they are capable of.

COBRA has taken over! What will G.I. JOE do to free America? You won't believe what happens in the first five pages of the issue! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patron at patreon.com/MajorSpoilers. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future! Join our Discord server and chat with fellow Spoilerites! (https://discord.gg/jWF9BbF) G.I. JOE #1 Writer: Paul Allor Artist: Chris Evenhuis Publisher: IDW Publisher Cover Price: $3.99 Release Date: September 18, 2019 Tyranny is on the rise as Cobra topples governments and spreads its ruthless power across the globe. In these trying times, desperate measures are taken. The new G.I. Joe program recruits civilian spies and saboteurs: ordinary people, living in occupied territories, who will put their lives on the line to strike back through clandestine but high-impact missions. Join these new recruits as they resist Cobra control, fight to make a better world for all, and find out just what they are capable of.

Rack Time is Snack Time!  Rob returns to prepare the palate for the main course of "Snake Hunt" in GI Joe: A Real American Hero with this quick synopsis of the first part of Larry Hama's current ten-part epic. Remember that Paul Allor's new GI Joe #1 hits the racks tomorrow!  Be sure to catch our interview with Paul here: https://whatsonjoemind.podbean.com/e/special-edition-63-an-interview-with-paul-allor/ Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

It's new comic day, so celebrate with Mike, Rack Time Rob (in his main-roster hosting debut) and new GI Joe scribe Paul Allor!  It's a half-hour of talking about the new IDW title "GI Joe," on sale September 18!  Mike fights to hold on to his voice (which may make this the most popular episode in a long while) but Rob's comics pedigree shows up in force.  Congratulations and good luck on a long run for Paul!  Be sure to get GI Joe (with not adjectives or superlatives) added to your pull list TODAY! WOJM is now also available on Spotify!  Add us to your favorites to stream at work, at the gym, at home, or anywhere! Email- whatsonjoemind@gmail.com Voicemail- 262-515-9656 Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/whatsonjoemind Twitter- @wojmpodcast Instagram- @whatsonjoemind YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSMX6aDD5X4nqYmFJLNyjQ Etsy- https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

He's the man penning the new GI Joe book from IDW... What GI Joe toy does Paul Allor have on his writing desk?   We get a handle on the world and characters from his new Joe continuity, due in September and currently available for pre-order... 

With GI Joe ARAH #265 due tomorrow, Rob would be remiss if Rack Time didn't get you caught up with the big events of #264 in advance (SPOILERS)!  Plus, Rob takes you through the retailer-incentive, ashcan-covered GI Joe #1 preview by Paul Allor and Chris Evenhuis! Remember that all WOJM merchandise is 10% off with the checkout code HCC788 for a limited time!  Visit What's On Joe Mall today! https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatsOnJoeMall

Top 500, Batman Who Laughs 2, Superman 7, TMNT: Shredder in Hell, TMNT 2020, Black Widow, Invaders, Marvel Comics Presents, Star Wars: Age of Republic Special, Avatar: Tsu’tey’s Path, Scrimshaw, Adventure Time: Marcy and Simon   Reviews: Bandersnatch, Nancy Drew trailer, Far From Home trailer, Carmen Sandiego   News: New Star Trek series, Ghostbusters deboot, Steve Carrell space force, new Evans/Holland netflix show, Venom fill-in, Squirrel Girl vs. Frost Giants, new Wal-Mart books, Witches remake, Major X, new PAD Spidey book, Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage by Tieri, George Perez retires, New Mutants   Comics Details: TMNT 2020 by Paul Allor, Nelson Daniel TMNT: Shredder in Hell by Mateus Santolouco, Marcello Costa Black Widow 1 by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska, Flaviano, Vero Gandini Invaders 1 by Chip Zdarsky, Jackson Guice, Carlos Magno, Alex Guim Marvel Comics Presents 1 by Charles Soule, Paulo Siquiera, Oren Junior, Frank D’Armata, Greg Pak, Tomm Coker, Michael Garland, Ann Nocenti, Greg Land, Jay Leisten Star Wars: Age of Republic Special by Ethan Sacks, Paolo Villanelli, Erick Arciniega, Jody Houser, Carlos Gomez, Dono Sanchez-Almara, Marc Guggenheim, Caspar Wijngard, Cris Peter Adventure Time: Marcy and Simon 1 by Olivia Olson, Slimm Fabert, SJ Miller Avatar: Tsu’tey’s Path 1 by Sherri Smith, Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons, Wes Dzioba   Comics Countdown, 16 Jan 2019: Gideon Falls 10 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart Batman Who Laughs 2 by Scott Snyder, Jock, David Baron Justice League Dark 7 by James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson Outpost Zero 6 by Sean McKeever, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Jean-Francois Beaulieu Middlewest 3 by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu Deadly Class 36 by Rick Remender, Wes Craig, Jordan Boyd Invaders 1 by Chip Zdarsky, Jackson Guice, Carlos Magno, Alex Guim Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive 3 by Lee Allred, Mike Allred, Rich Tommaso, Laura Allred Hawkman 8 by Robert Venditti, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Andy Owens, Jeremiah Skipper Conan the Barbarian 2 by Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matt Wilson

WW/JLD: Witching Hour, Nightwing 50, Green Arrow 45, Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker, Shatterstar, Superior Octopus, Typhoid Fever: Spider-Man, What If: Spider-Man, What If: X-Men, X-Men Black - Magneto, Death Orb 1, Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion, Battlestar Galactica Classic 0, Lone Ranger, Rainbow Brite, Batman/The Maxx, SW: Adventures - Tales from Vader’s Castle 1, TMNT: Donatello, Blackbird, Dead Rabbit, Errand Boys, Jook Joint, Troll Hunters, William the Last, Lollipop Kids, Sparrowhawk   Reviews: Tynion’s Detective Comics, Lemire Moon Knight, Doctor Who, Venom   News: Ice Cream Man TV series, Captain Marvel relaunch from Kelly Thompson and Carmen Carnero, Spider-Verse trailer, WIR2 trailer, Good Omens, Sabrina, and the Boys trailers, Fight Club 3, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt from Kieron Gillen and Dynamite, Netflix and Chronicles of Narnia, Archie stuff!, Outcast canceled, Young Justice by Bendis, Harley Quinn animated series, Star Wars show, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Tom Taylor, Ben Percy to Marvel, NYCC   Comics Details: Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour by James Tynion IV, Jesus Merino, Romulo Fajardo Jr Nightwing 50 by Ben Percy, Klaus Janson, Chris Mooneyham, Travis Moore, Tamra Bonvillain, Nick Filardi, John Kalisz Green Arrow 45 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Javi Fernandez, John Kalisz Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams 1 by Sam Kieth, John Layman, Ronda Pattison Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker 1 by Chad Bowers, Chris Sims, Todd Nauck, Rachelle Rosenberg Shatterstar 1 by Tim Seeley, Gerardo Sandoval, Carlos Villa, Juan Vlasco, Carlos Lopez Superior Octopus 1 by Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire Typhoid Fever: Spider-Man 1 by Clay Chapman, Stefano Landini, Rachelle Rosenberg What If Flash Thompson Became Spider-Man by Gerry Conway, Diego Olortegui, Walden Wong, Chris O’Halloran What If: X-Men 1 by Bryan Hill, Neil Edwards, Giannis Milonogiannis, Rachelle Rosenberg X-Men Black - Magneto by Chris Claremont, Dalibor Talajic, Belardino Brabo, Roberto Poggi, Dono Sanchez-Almara, Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson, Geraldo Borges Death Orb 1 by Ryan Ferrier, Alejandro Aragon, Chris O’Halloran Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion 1 by Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba, Nick Filardi Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle 1 by Cavan Scott, Derek Charm, Chris Fenoglio TMNT Macro-Series: Donatello 1 by Paul Allor, Brahm Revel, Cris Peter Lollipop Kids 1 by Adam Glass, Diego Yapur, DC Alonso, Aidan Glass Sparrowhawk 1 by Delilah Dawson, Matias Basla Blackbird 1 by Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel Dead Rabbit 1 by Gerry Duggan, John McCrea, Michael Spicer Errand Boys 1 by DJ Kirkbride, Nikos Koutsis Jook Joint 1 by Tee Franklin, Alitha Martinez, Shari Chankhamma Troll Hunters: Tales of Arcadia - The Felled by Richard Hamilton, Timothy Green, Joe Silver, Omar Lozano, Edgar Delgado, Wes Dzioba Battlestar Galactica Classic 0 by John Jackson Miller, Daniel HDR Lone Ranger 1 by Mark Russell, Bob Q Rainbow Brite 1 by Jeremy Whitley, Brittney Williams, Valentina Pinto William the Last 1 by Brian Shearer   Comics Countdown, 03 Oct 2018: Cosmic Ghost Rider 4 by Donny Cates, Dylan Burnett, Antonio Fabela Deathstroke 36 by Christopher Priest, Ed Benes, Fernando Pasarin, Richard Friend, Jason Paz, Wade von Grawbadger, Jeromy Cox Paper Girls 25 by Brian K Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Dee Cunniffe, Matt Wilson The Dreaming 2 by Si Spurrier, Bilquis Everly, Mat Lopes Blackbird 1 by Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel Tony Stark: Iron Man 4 by Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Edgar Delgado Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour by James Tynion IV, Jesus Merino, Romulo Fajardo Jr Superior Octopus 1 by Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire James Bond: Origin 2 by Jeff Parker, Bob Q Batman 56 by Tom King, Tony Daniel, Danny Miki, Tomeu Morey  

Man of Steel 1, Doomsday Clock 5, Justice League: No Justice 4, Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Robin vs. Ra’s Al Ghul, Aquaman/Jabberjaw, Black Lightning/Hong Kong Phooey, Super Sons/Dynomutt, Flash/Speed Buggy, Green Lanterns Annual 1, Green Arrow Annual 2, X-Men Red Annual 1, Amazing Spidey 800, Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel, Star Wars: Lando - Double or Nothing 1, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows 19, Last Siege 1, Blackwood 1, We Are The Danger 1, Kong of Skull Island Special, Harbinger Wars II 1, Valiant High 1, Quantum & Woody 6, Reviews (Splank!, Harrow County Vol 2, Chrononauts, Good Girl, Black Mirror: Hang the DJ, Action Point), News (NYCC controversy, Comixology Comics, Jamie Foxx = Spawn, Zack Snyder directs Fountainhead?, Stuart Immonen retires?)   Comics Details: Man of Steel 1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Jason Fabok, Joe Prado, Alex Sinclair Doomsday Clock 5 by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson Justice League: No Justice 4 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Francis Manapul, Hi-Fi Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Robin vs. Ra’s Al Ghul by Tim Seeley, Brad Walker, Otto Schmidt, Mick Gray, Andrew Hennessy, Jordie Bellaire Aquaman/Jabberjaw by Dan Abnett, Paul Pelletier, Andrew Hennessy, Rain Beredo, Jeff Parker, Scott Kolins, Dave McCaig Black Lighting/Hong Kong Phooey by Bryan Hill, Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jeromy Cox, Jeff Parker, Scott Kolins, Tony Avina Super Sons/Dynomutt by Peter Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Gabe Eltaeb Flash/Speed Buggy by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth, Batt, Marc Deering, Mark Irwin, John Livesay, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhous, Pete Pantazis Green Lanterns Annual 1 by Andy Diggle, Mike Perkins, Andy Troy Green Arrow Annual 2 by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Carmen Carnero, Trish Mulvihill X-Men Red Annual 1 by Tom Taylor, Pascal Alixe, Chris Sotomayor Amazing Spider-Man 800 by Dan Slott, Nick Bradshaw, Stuart Immonen, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Marcos Martin, Mike Hawthorne, JP Mayer, Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire, Edgar Delgado, Marte Gracia, Java Tartaglia, Muntsa Vicente Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel by Jim McCann, Diego Olortegui, Erick Arciniega Star Wars: Lando - Double of Nothing 1 by Rodney Barnes, Paolo Villanelli, Andres Mossa Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows 19 by Jody Houser, Scott Koblish, Ruth Redmond Last Siege 1 by Landry Q Walker, Justin Greenwood, Eric Jones Blackwood 1 by Evan Dorkin, Veronica Fish, Andy Fish We Are The Danger 1 by Fabian Lelay, Claudia Aguirre Kong of Skull Island Special by Paul Allor, Dan McDaid Harbinger Wars II 1 by Matt Kindt, Tomas Giorello, Diego Rodriguez Valiant High 1 by Daniel Kibblesmith, Derek Charm, David Baron   Comics Countdown 30 May 2018: Kill or Be Killed 19 by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Bettie Breitweiser Descender 30 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen Harrow County 31 by Cullen Bunn, Tyler Crook Doomsday Clock 5 by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson Lazarus 28 by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Tyler Boss, Santiago Arcas Amazing Spider-Man 800 by Dan Slott, Nick Bradshaw, Stuart Immonen, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Marcos Martin, Mike Hawthorne, JP Mayer, Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Wade Von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire, Edgar Delgado, Marte Gracia, Java Tartaglia, Muntsa Vicente Harbinger Wars II 1 by Matt Kindt, Tomas Giorello, Diego Rodriguez Green Lanterns Annual 1 by Andy Diggle, Mike Perkins, Andy Troy Helm 2 by Jehanzeb Hasam, Mauricio Caballero, Hopkins Quantum & Woody 6 by Eliot James Rahal, Francis Portela, Andrew Dalhouse