Episode 137: Alderaan Truthers, or: Swipe Right on Lobot

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened this past weekend, and, if you’re any kind of regular listener to the show, you know that we’re from Generation X, and therefore addicted to Star Wars. And not only that, but everyone we know is from Generation X and feels the same way. And luckily, most of the people we know are professional stand-up comedians.

So this week, we’re joined not only by frequent guest, New York comedian Benari Poulten, but a long time friend, Boston comedian and original member of the Star Wars Fan Club Greg Boggis. And while we’re Star Wars fans all, we all had differing levels of enthusiasm for this movie, differing levels of advance knowledge about the flick, and certainly differences of opinion about what we wanted from the first live-action Star Wars movie that didn’t follow the main plot.

So we discuss the movie, how it fit into out own personal Star Wars canon, whether or not we’re sick of lightsabers, how to deal with Cutscene Tarkin and Realdoll Leia, and the hazards of living in a world of Stormtroopers in a stop and frisk world where walking while blue is a crime.

And, as always, the disclaimers:

• This show contains massive spoilers about Rogue One almost from the first minute, So if you don’t want to be spoiled about any plot points, well, clearly you accidentally Googled “comics podcasts” instead of “comics pornography.” Retry your search.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. No one ever got promoted when their boss heard a few northeastern comedians screaming about False Flag Rex Trailer. So, for your career’s sake, get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:46:50 — 104.0MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 136: I Am The One Who Yubs

“That’s what I love about these [Spider-Men], man… I get older, they stay the same age.” -Michael Keaton (unconfirmed) (probably made up) (I totally made this up)

So we’re on our third person playing Spider-Man since the last time we had a Glutton Bowl, which seems not only unfair, but kinda wasteful. However, this time we have a Spider-Man working within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by an actual (almost) teenager, and who seems able to tell a joke better than, “Hi! I am Tobey Maguire, and I am seventeen years old! Why are you looking at me like that?”

And since the first trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming were released last week, we spend a few minutes talking about some of the details, how some elements of Brian Michael Bendis’s Mile Morales seem to have been integrated into Peter Parker’s story, how cool it is to see Michael Keaton in a real superhero movie again, and how none of this gets around the truth about how hard it is to get excited about our third Peter Parker less than ten years.

But talking about a trailer does not a podcast make. So we also discuss:

• Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy #3, written by Dan Slott with art by Jim Cheung,
• Wonder Woman ’77 and The Bionic Woman, written by Andy Mangels with art by Judit Tondora,
• Batman #12, written by Tom King with art by Mikel Janin, and:
• Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Kev Walker and Salvador Larroca!

And, as always, the disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know who The Jackal offers to resurrect for Spider-Man, then you’re clearly not thinking about The Clone Conspiracy even a little bit, but still: consider yourself warned.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. If you think your mom might be disturbed to hear what its like to “pull a trailer for Lyle Waggoner,” then get yourself some earbuds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:38:10 — 83.2MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 135: I Like To Light Things On Fire

After a year of superheroes beating on each other in comic books and in not one, but two different cinematic universes, sometimes you just need a good, old-fashioned superhero team-up. You know, where the good guys fight each other at first because of a misunderstanding or mind control or something, then they come together to fight seemingly insurmountable odds, and finally defeat the bad guys.

Some comic publishers seem light on their ability to publish such stories recently (hi, Marvel!), but thankfully, the people in charge of the DC Arrowverse shows on The CW network have us covered. The Invasion! crossover between Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow took place this week, and gave us heroes from four shows and two Earths coming together to battle aliens, the government, and the after effects of time travel. Not to be confused with the after effects of physical travel; you might suffer Montezuma’s Revenge as a result of either, but only one involves a stone axe and your face.

So we discuss the crossover: what worked and what didn’t, what plot points were genius and which were purely for storytelling expediency, which characters and actors shared excellent chemistry, and who should be given more to do considering he once played Superman, for God’s sake.

We also discuss:

• The Totally Awesome Hulk #12, written by Greg Pak with art by Mahmud Asrar, and:
• Inhumans Vs. X-Men #0, written by Charles Soule with art by Kenneth Rocafort!

Alas, the disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to learn why the greatest weapon against an alien invasion might be just one damn pocket? Watch Invasion! before listening and consider yourself duly warned.
• We use adult, profane language, so therefore this show is not safe for work. You want your mom to hear us talk about the emotional resonance behind an X-Man trying to get themselves hard as fast as they can? Then get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:50:43 — 109.5MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 134: Ragegiving

Last week was Thanksgiving in the United States, a holiday where family members travel for hours and miles to share a table with family members and take a moment to express gratitude for the good things in their life. Then they follow that moment with hours of barely-suppressed acrimony, sarcasm-dipped references to long-buried grievances, and barbed rejoinders about the political beliefs of family. They then disperse to Black Friday sales around the map, taking their frustrations out on fellow shoppers and leading to those awesome fight clips on YouTube.

Rob and Amanda did not go to any Black Friday sales. They did, however, read Civil War II #7, and they do have a comics podcast.

Due to vagaries of comics publishing (and the fact that Civil War II has been late almost since it was solicited), this week we not only discovered the result of the battle between Captain Marvel and Iron Man, but we began to learn the price that certain characters will apparently pay for their roles in suspending the Constitution, ignoring the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, contributing to the deaths of at least three Avengers and arguably sending the Marvel Universe on the road to literal apocalypse.

And we found that price to be wanting.

So we spend a lot of time complaining bitterly about:

• Civil War II #7, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez and Andrea Sorrentino,
• Captain Marvel # 10, written by Ruth Fletcher Gage and Christos Gage with art by Thony Silas, and
• The Ultimates 2 #1, written by Al Ewing with art by Travel Foreman.

But, since we can’t be negative about everything, we also discuss:

• Deathstroke #7, written by Priest with art by Larry Hama and Carlo Pagulayan,
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 11 #1, written by Christos Gage with art by Rebekah Issacs, and:
• A. D.: After Death Book 1, written by Scott Snyder with art by Jeff Lemire!

And, the usual disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know what happens in Civil War II, just try to forget some of your biggest disappointments before reading it.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. If you said to your mom what we say about Civil War Ii over the Thanksgiving table, you’d be disowned. So get yourself some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:08 — 73.4MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 133: The Dirty Batusi

It has been a weird couple of weeks here in the United States. Any week where the honest-to-God news in your local newspaper is more contentious, rancorous and secret identity-obsessed than your average comic book is one where talking about what comic creators are skipping what conventions in which American states, and which writers are retiring from what social networks feels redundant at best and depressing at worst.

But the good news is that, here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, we learned long ago that’s it’s an unwise decision to publicly discuss religion, politics, or inappropriate self-love over Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. The bad news is that we forgot one of those truisms during this episode. The answer will (probably not) surprise you!

Either way, we decided this would be a good time to take the long view and just talk about this week’s comics. Well, about this week’s comics, about how very different stories can come from similar ideas, and about unreliable narrators. So we discuss:

• Spider-Man #9, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by NIco Leon,
• Batman #11, written by Tom King with art by Mikel Janin,
• Demonic #4, written by Christopher Sebela with art by Niko Walter, and:
• Kill or Be Killed #4, written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips!

And, the usual disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know if Dylan from Kill or Be Killed kills or is killed, then skip this show (and next month’s Image Comics solicitations).
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. Do you think your mom wants to know what happens to a Daisy Buchanan when she’s bitten by a radioactive Gatsby (Spoilers: she gets greedy and whiny)? Then get some headphones.

And please note: from here on out, we will be publishing the podcast on Mondays, rather than Sundays. Thanks for sticking with us!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:36:57 — 96.1MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Again!?

Yes, again. Life and work issues have made it impossible for us to compete an episode this week.

However, you have our word: Amanda and I have spent a lot of time over the past couple of days trying to figure out how we can prepare differently for the show to try to prevent these last-minute distractions from getting in the way. And we have come up with several ideas that should give us the slack that we need to produce the show, even in the face of ever-increasing real life commitments.

On of these ideas is pushing the release day of the show out to Mondays from Sundays. While we’ve prided ourselves on recording and releasing on Sundays to keep the show as fresh and weird as possible, it turns out that it can be hard to devote six to eight hours on a single day to the show when Rob’s phone might ring with new work requests at any moment.

We have a few other ideas on spreading our production out over the week, and we’re going to start implementing them, well, as soon as I’m done posting yet another mea culpa.

So thank you for bearing with us as we work it out. We will be back with you next week.

Episode 132: Coke : Pepsi :: Constantine : Doctor Strange

Sorry this week’s episode is late, but we had this thing, and we are late because of it. However! This past weekend, Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange opened in theaters, marking not only the latest film in Phase Three, but the first to have an opening credit production logo featuring almost no comic books.

So we discuss the movie, its similarities to Iron Man, how Benedict Cumberbatch’s American accent is the enemy of suspension of disbelief, whether Doctor Strange is actually history’s greatest villain, how to pronounce The Ancient One’s last name, whitewashing and cultural appropriation, and, of course, spotted dick.

We also discuss:

• Avengers #1, written by Mark Waid with art by Mike Del Mundo, and:
• Superman #1, written by Peter Tomasi with art by Patrick Gleason!

And, as always, the disclaimers:

• Due to strange circumstances, this episode was recorded live to tape with no editing. So while it might mean a looser show from us than you are used to, it also means that it should suffice as a legal request for political asylum (Happy Election Day, everyone!).
• This show contains spoilers. So if you don’t want to know how to pronounce “Chiwetel Ejiofor,” well… actually, you won’t learn how to pronounce that here.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. Trust me: you don’t want your mom to hear the way Rob tries to pronounce “Chiwetel Ejiofor.” Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:09 — 77.1MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 131: Gaijin Roll

This week, the paperback edition of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, was released. This book is a prequel to his 2012 sci-fi comic Get Jiro!, and like the original, it is steeped in modern foodie culture. Luckily, Amanda is also steeped in foodie culture.

So we talk about Get Jiro! and other foodie-related books (like Starve and Chew), and how some are good about catering to new culinary enthusiasts, while others depict a subculture where not knowing the unwritten insider foodie rules mean that you literally deserve to die… all while being part of a comics culture that is trying desperately to shed a long reputation of being hostile to outsiders. And if that all sounds heavy, fear not: there is also a story about Rob eating a pile of rock salt at a fine French restaurant that is just plain funny and dumb.

We also discuss Civil War II #6, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez!

And, the usual disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know if Jiro survives Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, well, you’re probably being willfully obtuse considering it’s a prequel, but consider yourself warned.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. We talk about C. B. Cebulski’s Lucky Peach. You want to risk your mom hearing about that? Then get some earbuds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:19 — 99.1MB)

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Thanks for listening suckers!

…Don’t Talk To Me About Life

Yes, we missed another episode. Rob’s brother was hospitalized on Thursday, making recording an episode this weekend impossible.

Assuming the situation improves, we will be back with a new episode next Sunday.

Thanks for your patience.

Episode 130: Skeeball Jesus

We’re back, after yet another interruption – this time, we left the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office to go to the American Classic Arcade Museum, where Amanda beat her personal best on Centipede, and Rob, after 30 years, finally learned the secret to escaping the building in Elevator Action (Take the elevator to the lobby and shoot everyone who gets in your way… which, to be honest, is a good strategy for getting out of any building, but what the hell? Rob is slow).

But we are back, and ready to discuss Marvel’s latest original Netflix series: Luke Cage. This is a series that touches on a variety of classic genre fiction, from pulp to blacksploitation to 70s cop TV to good old superhero comics, and provides us with a couple of deep, well-developed villains with sympathetic motivations and believable actions. And there is also Diamondback!

We also discuss:

• Power Man & Iron Fist #9, and:
• Glitterbomb #2!

With that said:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know why Luke Cage proves that Captain America is history’s greatest monster, consider yourself warned.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. If you don’t want to explain the definition of “rapscallion hobo” to your mom and / or employer, get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:09:03 — 127.4MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!