Episode 174: The Shemp of Superman

It’s a bit of a mixed bag this week, as we discuss, first of all, that we’re not dead (but thanks for asking!).

We then talk about the ongoing process of getting ready to attend San Diego Comic-Con, which, once upon a time, was something that could be achieved in an afternoon if you had a reasonable cash flow or credit card limit, but which is now a months-long slog that is generally more than likely to leave you frustrated, confused, and somewhere that isn’t downtown San Diego in the third week of July. Hotel sales through the convention ended last week, having moved from a first-come, first-served basis you had at least a modicum of control over, to yet another process where you’re at the mercy of another random number generator. For some, it means getting to stay in the Wino Suite of the Hard Rock Hotel for a pittance, while for others, it means spraying for bedbugs on the outskirts of town for five bills a night – guess where on the spectrum we are!

Finally, it’s almost official: Brian Michael Bendis is nearly ready to take over DC’s Superman franchise, with his first story appearing in this week’s Action Comics #1,000. So we certainly discuss that, but we also talk about the other creative teams that took over Big Blue from the beginning of DC’s Rebirth, taking the character from a blogger in poorly-explained Kryptonian nano-armor who was being smothered to death by editorial edict during The New 52, to one of the more enjoyable, back-to-basics characters in DC’s stable, despite adding a child to his backstory.

But then, yes, we talk about Bendis’s story in Action #1,000, and how we always get apprehensive when a new writer decides that everything you’ve ever thought about a character is wrong!

So, for the record, this week’s books are:

• Superman #45, written by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, with art by Gleason, and:
• Action Comics #1,000, written by Brian Michael Bendis (and everyone else), with art by Jim Lee (and everyone who was left)!

This show was recorded live to tape, with almost no editing. So if you’re looking for a comics podcast with hosts willing to admit on the public Internets to owning the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern Blu-Ray, well, welcome aboard!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:55 — 78.0MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 148: Home Movies in the Man Cave, or: Neglecting the Button

As we ease into convention season, the comics news starts to slow down so publishers have something to discuss in panels. You know, other than garbage news items about the dangers of trying to be funny in 140 characters or less.

So we briefly discuss the next step in the million-mile march toward San Diego Comic-Con: hotel sales, which happened last Wednesday. We also talk about a superhero movie that we missed in 2016: X-Men: Apocalypse, which didn’t really interest us at the time – seeing Oscar Issac painted blue is only a gimme draw if you’re in his fraternity – but which really impressed us now that it’s on cable.

We also talk about some of this week’s books:

• The Flash #21, written by Joshua Williamson with art by Howard Porter,
• Action Comics #978, written by Dan Jurgens with art by Carlo Barberi,
• Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1, written by Peter David with art by Mark Bagley, and:
• Detective Comics #955, written by James Tynion IV with art by Marcio Takara!

What’s that? You want disclaimers?

• This show contains spoilers. While we try to give warnings ahead of time, if you don’t want to find out why Angel is a terrible character in X-Men: Apocalypse, I don’t know why you’re listening, since you’ve clearly never read a comic book before.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. During this episode, Amanda says, “Touch the fishy.” Your boss won’t want to know why. So get some headphones.

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 145: Stick Figures With Boobs

Yes, we’re a day late again, but after a weekend of pulling, cleaning and replacing every connection on the board, at least, unlike last week, this episode doesn’t sound like we’re talking through a bowl of Rice Krispies.

This weekend, the first full trailer for DC Films’ Wonder Woman dropped, and as big DC Comics fans, we desperately want this one to be known forever as “The First Really Good DC Comics Flick.” So we spend a little time talking about the trailer and the movie. We specifically talk about how by using World War I they’re simultaneously covering historical ground that existed before even comic books, while also forcing comics fans to say, “Yeah: Captain America: The First Avenger, only older and crustier.” We also touch on the fact that the average American public school graduate would could only identify a major “bad guy” of WWI if spotted an hour, Google, and their family members as hostage in the event they failed.

We also discuss:

• Man-Thing #1, written by R. L. Stine with art by German Peralta and Daniel Johnson,
• Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys: The Big Lie #1, written by Anthony Del Col with art by Werther Dell’ Edera, and:
• Action Comics #975, written by Dan Jurgens and Paul Dini with art by Doug Mahnke and Ian Churchill!

And, the usual disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know Clark Kent’s secret identity (this actually is a trick question), then get consider yourself warned.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. You think your significant other wants to hear jokes about Squirrel Girl pulling nuts out of the Giant-Sized Man-Thing? Get some ear buds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:46 — 76.5MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Historical Anomalies: Batman Zero Year Crossovers

DC Comics just wrapped up an event called the DC Retailer Roadshow in New York, which is not an event to which I was invited, due to the fact that I am not a comics retailer, and thanks to ugly rumors spread by the owner of my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me to stop including the word “taser” in sentences that also include the phrase, “If I ever get face-to-face with Dan DiDio.”

A gentleman named Roderick Ruth, however, was there, and filed a report on the proceedings. Which included the normal stuff you would expect from a meeting with retailers – hype about the upcoming Trinity War event, addressing concerns that DC isn’t giving retailers enough information to appropriately order high-demand books like the one where Robin died, what have you – but it also included an interesting tidbit about Scott Snyder’s Batman origin story Zero Year, which just started last week.

That tidbit being that there will be crossover stories with Zero Year appearing not only in some of the Bat titles, but also in Action Comics, Flash, Green Arrow and Green Lantern Corps.

Wait, what?

Doog Yrev Ton: Action Comics #18 Review

Grant Morrison is done with Action Comics now. And I am okay with that.

I am okay with that because, with the benefit of  hindsight over the entire run, his story was meant for Superman fans. By which I mean, real, hardcore, longtime Superman fans. The kind of Superman fan who thinks Superman will never look right again now that Curt Swan is dead. The kind of Superman fan who knows, without consulting Wikipedia, that Silver Kryptonite makes Superman PCP-level paranoid, while Red Kryptonite makes him grow four dicks in each armpit. The kind of Superman fan who calls his penis “Beppo.”

Morrison’s run started with Superman fighting corrupt businessmen, as he did in the early issues of the original Action Comics, and ended with a battle with Mr. Mxyzpltk, effectively “modernizing” Superman for the New 52 by bringing him from 1938 all the way to 1965, via a mescaline bender. Sure, there was the odd stop to examine what Superman might mean to the modern world, but all in all, this series started out, and ended, as a celebration of the earlier, more out-there elements of the Superman mythos.

So, as I’ve said in other reviews of Morrison’s Action Comics issues, how you feel about Action Comics #18 will largely depend on how nostalgic you are for Fifth Dimensional imps, multi-colored Kryptonite, super-powered animals, the Legion of Super Heroes, and yet another bold statement about how important Superman is to the DC Universe and to America. You know, bold statements like Morrison made in All-Star Superman and DC One Million.

Personally? I can take them or leave them.

Ensign Wesley Crusher Blues: Action Comics #14 Review

Editor’s Note: Well, I certainly hope this little incident hasn’t put you off spoilers, miss. Statistically speaking, of course, it’s still the safest way to review.

Before I forget: there’s one astronaut in Action Comics #14 who is the primary candidate to be that astronaut who’s pulled over by the state police with a bottle of pharmaceutical amphetamines, a box of Depends, a roll of duct tape and a switchblade. See if you can guess which one! But that’s not important right now.

Action Comics #14 is going to work for you, or not work, depending on how you feel about Silver Age Superman stories, because this is one. From unlikely astronauts on a truly improbable mission that has never been mentioned before (and probably never will be again) to unlikely pseudoscience that can only be accomplished because Superman’s there to accomplish it, to a familiar yet faintly ridiculous antagonist, to a Fifth-Dimensional Imp, the only difference between this and any Superman comic book from, say, 1965 is the actual danger the astronauts are put in an the big, goofy Curt Swan Superman smile… which artist Rags Morales actually apes in one panel.

So this is a tough issue to be objective about because it is ridiculous… but it is kinda supposed to be ridiculous. It features people in distress who can only be saved by Superman – including a kid who clearly idolizes Superman – even though it requires you to believe that these pussies (and children!) are the hardy sort who would be the first to terraform another planet. It needs you to be okay with the idea that ten thousand Christian angels would have a hard-on to tear Mars a new asshole, and that a human distress call from the surface of Mars would attract less attention from the citizens of Earth than the landing of a remote controlled Tonka truck that made this dude the jack fantasy for every female XKCD reader in the English speaking world.

So this story has some logical issue, but the logical issues seem to be there on purpose. So the overriding question is: does it work?

Guess The Change In My Pocket Wasn’t Enough: Action Comics #9 Review

Editor’s Note: This is Lex Luthor. Only one thing alive with less than four legs can hear this spoiler, Superman, and it’s you.

Grant Morrison doesn’t do anything by half measures, but he outdoes even himself in Action Comics #9. In 20 short pages, he manages to level searing indictments against comic fans, comic publishers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, possibly Zack Snyder, and definitely almost anyone who’s written Superman between 1986 and 2011.

At best, this book might – just might – be Morrison’s comment on the upcoming Before Watchmen series. However, at worst it is, for all intents and purposes, a giant and ringing “fuck you” to just about any human being anywhere who might touch it, with the possible exception of Morrison himself. But that’s okay, because that gives me something to do.

Look At What’s Happened To Me: Action Comics #7 Review

EDITOR’S NOTE: Well Lois, we stand for spoilers, ruined story beats, and The American Way. Actually, those first two kind of are The American Way. Either way, you have been warned. Plus, your underpants are pink.

Action Comics #7 is, in many ways, a standard and classic Grant Morrison issue: a bunch of Big Ideas wrapped in one of the oldest ideas in the Superman mythos: fight Brainiac, and choose between his Earth and Kryptonian heritage. It is, in its own way, a perfect amalgam of what Morrison does best: turning old, hoary Silver Age story ideas that most of us laughed at during the Dark Age into something majestic and galactic in scope, all while perserving the humanity of the characters involved (It’s that last part Morrison sometimes punts on, but not here). In general, this is a good comic book.

And then there’s the fucking suit. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

The Man of Tomorrow, Tomorrow: Action Comics #3 Review

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, it’s Superman! Strange visitor from another planet! With spoilers and ruined story notes far beyond those of mortal men!

I was initially skeptical about Grant Morrison’s take on the new early days of Superman in Action Comics – the only attractive thing about an urban hipster blogger with a mad-on for corporations and a Justin Beiber haircut is that when he’s also Superman you won’t do any time if you hit him in his John Lennon glasses with a fucking pipe.

And truthfully, the concept of a Superman who takes on slumlords and capitalists is a wonderful idea, provided it’s 1939 and nobody’s invented Brainiac yet. Even a partially-depowered Superman against, say, a CEO is like deploying a fuel-air bomb against Cookie Monster. As a power fantasy for the unemployed it might be fun, but from a storytelling standpoint, it presents the same problems as a 12 to 2 Red Sox / Brewers blowout: fun, but sure as hell not exciting. Particularly when you stop for a second and realize that you can kill your average American CEO by putting a plate of prime rib at the top of a flight of stairs.

It turns out that Morrison seems to realize this, so in just a couple of issues, we’ve transitioned from Superman as hippie anarchist to Superman as fuckup.

Down At The End of Lonely Street

It is Wednesday, as occurs every week, and as with every other Wednesday, this…

…means the end of our broadcast day.

And if I were you, I might complain, but if you’re a regular reader of Crisis On Infinite Midlives, you too went to the comic store, and therefore also have a new issue of The Goon! Plus Action Comics #3, and The Goon! And the first issue of the rebooted (But Marvel doesn’t reboot! Or publish The Goon!) Uncanny X-Men, not to mention The Goon! Plus a parody of Fear Itself! And the Red Lantern blood shower girl, underneath The Goon! Not to mention new The Goon!

Hard to say what we’re looking most forward to reading, but we must take the time to read them so we can review them for you, and – holy shit! Is that a new issue of The Goon?

See you tomorrow, suckers!