Episode 35: Do The Brokeback

Between the new female Thor, Falcon taking over as Captain America, and this week’s rumors that X-23 will take over as Wolverine (after Sabretooth takes over as Wolverine), Amanda and I talk about succession in superhero comics in general. We start with the idea that DC is all about succession while Marvel never has been, the kinds of stories that could work as new people put on the old costumes, what probably couldn’t work, and what ulterior motives Marvel could have for such recent character churn.

We also discuss:

• Batwoman: Futures’ End One Shot, written by Marc Andreyko with art by Jason Masters, and:
• Edge of Spider-Verse: Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman, written by Jason LaTour with art by Robbi Rodriguez!

And now the legalese:

• We record this show live to tape. Which might mean a looser show that you are used to from other comics podcasts, but it also means anything can happen. Like ruminations over the flat affect of people rescued by Superman in 1970s Hostess Fruit Pie ads.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out a warning ahead of time, consider this a master, blanket warning.
• This show contains adult, explicit language, and is not safe for work. You no longer need to sell Grit subscriptions to get headphones, so go out and do so.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:21:59 — 64.2MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

Episode 24: You Have Nice Line Work

Since we are less than 36 hours away from leaving for San Diego Comic-Con 2014, and therefore are fully engaged in preparing for the trip, we are a little fried today. So this is a shorter than usual episode (not the end of the world, considering we plan to podcast direct from the convention at least a couple of times), but a full one, where Amanda and I discuss:

• The changes of Thor to a woman and Captain America to Sam Wilson that were announced on TV this week (if only there were a major convention to make these kinds of announcements!),
• Since Amanda and I have attended nine straight San Diego Comic-Cons, we share a few tips on how to survive the whole experience (and avoid an extinction level digestive event), and:
• Harley Quinn Invades Comic-Con International / San Diego #1, by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and a bunch of guest artists!

And now the legally-required disclaimers:

• This show is recorded live to tape. This means there might be a few more pregnant pauses than you are used to in a comics podcast, but it also means that anything can happen.
• There are spoilers in this show. We try to warn you ahead of time, but if you don’t know the kind of treatment you’ll get at a place called “Dick’s Last Resort,” you might deserve what you get.
• This show contains adult, explicit language, and is not safe for work. I bought earbuds at a gas station for $12 today. What’s your excuse?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:15 — 60.7MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers! And don’t forget to tune in for episodes live(ish) from SDCC later this week!

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!

Episode 20: Ally McBealing Around The City

In this week’s episode, Amanda and I discuss:

• DC Entertainment’s / Warner Bros.’s rumored slate of movie released, from Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 to a rumored new Batman movie in 2019, whether DC is overextending, which ones we’re most looking forward to, how Sandman could work as a movie, and who should play Shazam,
• The recently announced Quentin Tarantino / Matt Wagner crossover of Django Unchained and Zorro, why we’re not as excited as we might have been 15 years ago, and what Django crossovers we’d rather see,
• Sex Criminals #6, written by Matt Fraction with art by Chip Zdarsky,
• Thunderbolts #27, written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, with art by Carlo Barberi, and:
• How World Cup soccer is enough to put an American – even a baseball-loving American – right to sleep.

But some disclaimers:

• This show is recorded live to tape, like a live radio show. While this might mean some dead air and dead ends, it also means that anything can happen.
• This show contains spoilers. We try to drop a warning ahead of time, but tread lightly.
• This show contains profanity and adult language, and is not safe for work. If it was translated into sign language, it would be only a middle finger. Wear headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:33 — 79.3MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

Ill Communication: DC Comics Looking For Readers To Take Survey

So didja ever wish you could make your opinions about what’s happening at a major comic book publisher known without having to go to the onerous lengths of writing a strongly worded letter, tazing Dan DiDio at a comic convention, or starting and maintaining a comics Web site for nearly three years?

Well, here’s your chance. DC Comics is asking readers to complete a survey (the first one we’ve heard about since just after the New 52 reboot in 2011) addressing, among other things, whether they like to read stories about smart heroes versus superpowered heroes, well-known characters versus more obscure characters, and who your favorite superhero is.

Of course, they will also ask you whether you like to buy reproductions of superhero costumes, and if you like buying ancillary merchandise related to particular superheroes. So clearly the comics aren’t the only research priority for this survey.

But with that said, I am going to recommend that you complete it anyway. Because if you do, you will be eligible for some freebies and discounts, including a free comics digital download, a digital skin for the Infinite Crisis video game, or most enticing (if you are the type to be interested in the superhero merchandise questions of the survey): a 10% off coupon code for purchases at the DC Entertainment shopping site that’s good until the end of the year.

Further, if we do this survey right, we will soon be able to buy an official Wild Dog replica jock strap. Which will mean that I will have won an under bet that I placed in my high school lunch room in 1988.

So help DC, help comics, help yourself… and help me make Paul from Drama Club have to wear a dress at Boston’s First Night New Year’s Eve festival while shouting, “I am the night! I am upside down! I am suppurating with herpes! I am… Bat Wang!”

Take the survey. Make your – and Paul’s – voice heard.

Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast Episode 13: The Fist Of Rhino

Yes, we know, it’s been a couple of weeks since our last podcast, but we have a good excuse: we were drunk we were busy catching up on the latest in pop culture and comics after a weekend pretending we were still young reintroducing ourselves to classic video games!

So we are tan, rested and ready to talk about the biggest comics and geek events of the past week! Including:

• A discussion of a weekend spent playing video games at the American Classic Arcade Museum at the Funspot Arcade in Laconia, NH
• A talk about the highs (Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man) and lows (Jamie Foxx as Electro) of The Amazing Spider-Man 2
• A dissection of the upcoming death of Wolverine, why it feels empty and corporate, why most recent comic book death stories feel the same, and a few comic book death stories that break that mold (and why)
• A review of Jason Aaron’s and Jason Latour’s Southern Bastards, how it feels like a modern High Noon, and how it plays into (and stymies) views of the South from a couple of inveterate yankees
• Quick discussion of DC’s Futures End Free Comic Book Day release, and Batman: Eternal #4

And, as usual, here are the disclaimers:

• This episode was recorded live to tape, which means that there may be more dead air, ill-advised language, and “ummmms” than you are used to in your standard comics / pop culture podcast
• This show uses explicit and profane language, and is not safe for work. If you have the choice between listening to this show on speakers and being reprimanded for faking a disability for wearing an earplug to listen to this show? Take the write-up. Sure, your hearing-impaired co-workers will give you the stinkeye tomorrow, but at least you’ll still be employed to see it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:48 — 66.7MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

Spy Wanted; Must Have Experience With Death Traps: DC To Make Grayson A Secret Agent Comic

So DC Comics’s current Forever Evil event is famous for a few things, and not just for being an irritating “ending” to prior crossover Trinity War, for putting almost the entire stable of major DC superheroes off the playing field for about five straight months (except in those characters’ home titles, where they are wisely generally pretending that Forever Evil isn’t a thing that is happening), and for making even Marvel’s Fear Itself seem like a fully-baked idea.

Beyond those things, it is known for being the storyline where The Crime Syndicate exposes Dick Grayson’s identity as Nightwing to the world at large. Which has, since that even occurred in the first issue, begged the question as to how that event would be handled once the event ended (assuming it does. Considering Forever Evil spun right out of Trinity War, there is a part of me that thinks there might be another event spinning out of Forever Evil. With another event spinning out of that one. Ad infinitum. Keeping the Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman on the sidelines, and making Justice League into an anthology title where Geoff Johns can reintroduce whichever Silver Age second stringers he has a fancy for. But I digress). Would Grayson go back to being Nightwing, with perhaps an crossover appearance by Mephisto to make a deal for everyone to forget his identity?  Obtain some kind of neural backup to restore an earlier personality? Or one of the myriad other trick Marvel has somehow successfully used to retcon their terrible continuity mistakes?

Nah. They’re going full James Bond and making him a super secret agent.

Full Frontal Flash – Full Look At The New Flash Costume

A couple weeks back, we shared with you Geoff Johns’s tweet about the costume for the new Flash on the WB spinoff show of the same name. Well, DC Comics and the WB have now released a full length look at the new costume, as modeled by Grant Gustin:

Hermetically sealed for a woman’s pleasure.

More information after the jump.

Batman Beneath: Batwing #29 Review

So I haven’t written about Batwing for a while. Even though it has remained on my pull list, I had kinda tuned out of Batwing for a while. It survived my first cut of books from the initial New 52, unlike real stinkers like Hawk & Dove and The Savage Hawkman, and it never really got bad, but the whole former child soldier of African warlords angle never clicked all that well with me. Not because it was badly executed, but because it always reminded me of Joshua Dysart’s The Unknown Soldier, and that was a comparison that, when it comes to harrowing drama, a book about a guy in a Bat suit was going to lose.

Since writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti took the book over, those issues have vanished. We’ve got a different guy in the Batwing suit, a Batwing suit that is basically the Batman Beyond suit, and we’re back in Gotham City, giving us a little distance from the whole Batman Incorporated conceit that almost forced the international feel. And what we wind up with is a version of Batman Beyond, with a young, brash guy being mentored by Batman in the most dangerous city in the world. And that works for me; I don’t have an original Bruce Timm Batman Beyond sketch and the Batman Beyond Black And White statue on my mantle because I don’t like that kind of story.

And in Batwing #29, Gray and Palmiotti put together a mix of tones that is a little weird, but generally pretty fun. There is urban horror and real terrible stakes to what’s happening to Luke Fox and his family, horror befitting a modern Batman family comic. And yet it is tempered with big, silly comic book-y ideas, like an unknown underground city beneath Gotham, populated with homeless geeks in Egyptian costumes and giant monsters. It’s a weird mix, but it generally worked for me, and I found it really pretty entertaining.

Provided I turned some parts of my brain off.

Rob Liefeld Loses Shit For No Good Reason; Day Ends In “Y”: DiDio And Giffen NOT Doing Kamandi Reboot

Twitter is a strange and terrible beast at times. Sometimes it allows people to feel close to celebrities, luminaries and people one might otherwise be unable to interact with. Other times, it is a direct pipeline from your subconscious to the outside world, laying your darkest impulses and secret opinions bare to a cold and misunderstanding populace. This is why, every Saturday morning, the first thing I do after waking up on the couch where I passed out is check my own outgoing feed to see if it is safe for me to venture out my own front door, or if it is time for me to finally implement Project Miguel Sanchez. But I don’t want to make this about me.

Instead, lets start with a case of the first use of Twitter. Yesterday, DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio Tweeted this:

@MDesaad @nathanfairbairn @DocShaner Keith and I are about to come at you with an old cult favorite. Hope it meets you're expectations.

— dan didio (@dandidio1) March 2, 2014

At first glance, this is good news to me. Sure, DiDio isn’t the best comic writer in the world, but he and Giffen really captured lightning in a bottle with O.M.A.C. at the start of the New 52 reboot, so I am actually very interesting in seeing new work on an obscure-ish cult favorite to see if they can do it a second time.

Of course, a teaser like this begs for speculation, and Bleeding Cool, apparently based on the fact that DiDio’s and Giffen’s last work was on a Jack Kirby creation for DC, speculated today that the book would be a reboot of Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. Okay, fine. Why not?

Because Rob Liefeld, that’s why not!