Episode 106: You Can’t Fridge That, or: In Defense of The Killing Joke

Last week, in Batgirl #49 – a comic with an apparent target demographic of Millennials – writer Cameron Stewart and artist Babs Tarr told a story that could be seen as retconning the events of Alan Moore’s and Brian Bolland’s 1988 one-shot, Batman: The Killing Joke.In the wake of that story, Stewart argued that his story could be seen as a retconning of The Killing Joke, or not, depending on how you interpret the story… as if the plot of a story that is intertwined in almost 30 years of DC history and countless dozens of titles and stories could be considered subjective to “your own personal truth.”

During that same week, another comics podcast – one hosted by Millennials – that we greatly respect did an episode calling The Killing Joke problematic due to its treatment of Barbara Gordon, and arguably overrated and unnecessary.

These attitudes toward The Killing Joke are somewhat understandable, given the concept of “women in refrigerators” that arose in comics fandom in 1999, and the fact that Moore chose to have Joker sexually assault Barbara Gordon in the story. Because of these elements, it’s easy to dismiss the story as dated and problematic… especially if you weren’t alive and actively reading comics in 1988.

Which we were. Which means that we remember that Barbara Gordon wasn’t Batgirl at the time of The Killing Joke. And that The Joker wasn’t really defined as a character at all after Crisis On Infinite Earths until The Killing Joke. And that comics fandom was, at the time, strongly against even Robin, let alone any character from the 1966 Batman television show.

So we decided to, at least up to a point, defend The Killing Joke. Not just from a historical standpoint, but from one of story, questioning whether Barbara was, in fact, fridged in the classic sense… while still agreeing that the sexual assault aspect of the story is completely unnecessary, and asking once question we’ve never seen asked: why didn’t Moore just have Joker kill Barbara?

We also discuss:

• Escape From New York #15, written by Christopher Sebela with art by Maxim Simic, and
• Doctor Strange #6, written by Jason Aaron with art by Chris Bachalo!

And, the disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warning ahead of time, be aware that we’re going to ruin the ending of a story written 28 years ago that has been referenced in literally hundreds of comic books since then.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. If you don’t want your significant other to learn why Alan Moore could have sold a million photocopies of his butt in 1988, get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02:49 — 114.2MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 73: And Now, The Hulk, For Chuck Norris Stretchy Action Pants

While it might not be the biggest comics-related news of the week, it was an item that particularly infuriated us: the confirmation that DC Comics would be running half-page ads on two comic pages in their June comics.

While the news isn’t as dire as the original rumor made things out to be, putting advertising on comic pages even for just a month is potentially a slippery slope. So we talk about not just being enraged by more and more intrusive advertising, but the effect that accepting half-page ads could have on comic storytelling, story length, creator compensation, the secondary comics art market, and worst of all: people thinking that Twix is an acceptable candy choice.

This week also brought us the end of DC’s Convergence event. Which, as promised, seems to have opened up the entirety of DC’s history to modern storytellers… but at what cost? We talk about Brainiac’s passive characterization at the end of the story, and more importantly, DC’s seeming off-camera utter nullification of one of the biggest and arguably most important comic stories of all time.

We also talk about:

• Fight Club 2 #1, written by Chuck Palahniuk with art by Cameron Stewart,
• Grindhouse #5: Lady Danger: Agent of B.O.O.T.I, written by Alex De Campi with art by Mulele Jarvis, and:
• Where Monsters Dwell #1, written by Garth Ennis with art by Russ Braun!

And now the standard disclaimers:

• We record this show live to tape, with minimal editing. While this might mean a looser comics podcast than you are used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like Rob’s discussion with beloved and abused parts of his anatomy.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, just assume that we are not following the first rule of Fight Club.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. You want your boss to hear about some slightly shadier (and made up) Twix products? Trust me, you do not. Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:09 — 96.9MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 60: Fluffy Plus Mosquito Plus Time Equals Tragedy

It has been, bar none, the crappiest week in comics news in recent memory – when the high point of the week’s news is that Larry Wilmore hosted a nationally televised round table discussion on how comics aren’t diverse enough (bookended by nerds-in-basement gags), it’s probably best to just pretend the whole thing just didn’t happen.

So that’s what we pretend. Instead, we took the occasion of the release of IDW’s The Fly: Outbreak #1, written by Brandon Seifert with art by Menton3, as an excuse to revisit one of our favorite movie franchises. Sure, The Fly might seem like simple Cronenberg body horror, but if you take a few steps back, what you really have is, starting with the original short story, a series of classic tales of science gone wrong, with unintended circumstances that imbue someone with extraordinary abilities in the face of terrible tragedy. Sure, it’s presented as horror… but if Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko had drawn it, we’d be arguing over which actor should be playing Seth Brundle right now.

We also discuss:

• The Amazing Spider-Man #16.1, written by Gerry Conway with art by Carlo Barberi, and:
• Batgirl #40, written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher, with art by Babs Tarr!

And now the disclaimers:

• We record this show live to tape. While this might mean a looser comics podcast than you’re used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like a discussion over why real superheroines know to avoid a stack overflow error (and why that isn’t a reference to a wardrobe malfunction).
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, be aware that we might ruin the ending of a 29-year-old horror movie (that’s based on a 57-year-old short story).
• This show used adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. You want your boss to know how many Godzilla wangs worth of snow we got this winter? Didn’t think so. Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:03:36 — 109.0MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

Episode 23: Her THAC0 Is Ridiculous

There has been another creative team change on Batgirl, by all reports due to editorial edict. So Amanda and I talk not only about the proposed new direction for the character, but we about the increasing influence over story and tone that editorial seems to have been gaining over creative teams as opposed to the early 2000s, when comics were doomed and writers and artists could seemingly do any damn thing they wanted if the sales numbers this month were higher than the ones from last month.

We are also just over a week away from San Diego Comic-Con 2014, so we talk about some of the scheduled panels, and how the wealth of content can make it infuriating, if not impossible, see everything you want at the show.

Finally, we discuss and review The Walking Dead #129, and Grayson #1!

And now the usual legalese:

• We record this show live to tape. While that might mean some parts are a little rough around the edges compared to your regular comics podcast, it also means that anything can happen.
• This show contains spoilers. We try to give a shout-out ahead of time, but we drink while recording. So tread lightly.
• This podcast contains adult, explicit language, and is not safe for work. If you don’t want your boss hearing us talk about how superhero costumes contain compartments for each boob, wear headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:02 — 90.7MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!