Crisis On Infinite Midlives

June 13, 2017 by Rob

We are in a genre entertainment lull. A week after Wonder Woman debuted in theaters, three weeks before Spider-Man: Homecoming opens, and with all the geek TV shows on summer hiatus, there’s not a lot to talk about except the comic books.

So we stick with comics this week, and we are thankful that we don’t have to deal with a week of DC Comics trying to shoehorn classic comics from the 80s into modern continuity. Instead, we weep that we have to deal with DC Comics trying to shoehorn classic comics from the 80s into some weird Elseworlds continuity they probably hope they can sell to people who remember Frank Miller without thinking of Holy Terror.

So we discuss:

DK III: The Master Race #9, written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello, with art by Andy Kubert and Klaus Janson,
Wonder Woman Steve Trevor Special #1, written by Tim Seeley with art by Christian Duce,
Batman #24, written by Tom King with art by David Finch, and:
The Walking Dead #168, written by Robert Kirkman with art by Charlie Adlard!

And, the normal disclaimers:

This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know who Steve Trevor is sleeping with, you are clearly not thinking things through. But don’t pretend we didn’t warn you.
This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. We don’t talk about Batman’s dance belt because of his waistline. Listen with some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:19 — 78.2MB)

Thanks for listening, suckers!

January 2, 2017 by Rob

It is the holiday season, and while that means things like delayed flights, family political battles and regifting, it also means the annual Doctor Who Christmas Special. And this year’s, The Return of Doctor Mysterio, was a double whammy: not only was it the first Doctor Who story in almost a year, but it was about an American superhero.

So we discuss the story, both on a Doctor Who and a superhero story level. And while we don’t want to spoil anything, we learn that there’s a reason why it’s maybe not a good idea for a British television writer to tackle an American superhero story. We’re guessing it’s the same reason it wouldn’t be a good idea for the guy who created The Cape to write an episode of Doctor Who.

We also discuss:

Civil War II #8 written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez, and:
DK III: The Master Race #7, written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello, with art by Adam Kubert, Klaus Janson and Frank Miller!

And, the usual disclaimers:

This show contains spoilers. So if you don’t want to know who loses at the end of Civil War II, you should avoid this show. And probably mirrors.
This show contains adult, profane language, and this therefore not safe for work. Unless you think your mom wants to know what Marti Noxon might do with Naked Batman, maybe use your holiday Airpods.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:37:20 — 97.0MB)

Happy New Year, suckers!

August 21, 2016 by Rob

It’s been a week since the conclusion of Boston Comic Con 2016, and we’re still coming to terms with the fact that we saw Frank Miller speak live.

We have a complicated relationship with Frank Miller here at Crisis On Infinite MIdlives. We will always love him for what he did with Daredevil and Batman in the 1980s, helping to bring comics into adulthood at the same time we were moving through our own adolescence. We will always respect him for doing cool stuff like Give Me Liberty and Robocop Vs. Terminator in the mid-1990s. And we will always be concerned about him due to his public statements about Islam, and there will never be a force on Earth that will make us really like Holy Terror.

But no matter what, the man is a legend in comics, and we were not only there to see him, but to record him. So we’re psyched to be able to bring you panel audio of Miller himself, talking about his Dark Knight trilogy, Sin City, Daredevil and what it was like to be at the forefront of comics during the 1980s.

We also discuss:

Civil War II: The Fallen #1, written by Greg Pak with art by Mark Bagley, and:
Demonic #1, written by Christopher Sebela with art by Niko Walter!

And, as always, the disclaimers:

This show contains spoilers. If you’re not aware which Gamma-irradiated founding Avenger was shot in the brain by Hawkeye, well, then you’re not reading Marvel Comics anyway, and you won’t care.
This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. One of our possible titles involved Amanda using the convolutedly-spelled word “sidebewb”. You should probably use headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:11:20 — 126.8MB)

Thanks for listening, suckers!

December 27, 2015 by Rob

While we originally planned to list our 2015 Crises awards for the best and worst of the year this week, we were stymied by a combination of holiday travel for Rob, and a crippling cold (and cold medicine high) by Amanda.

So after spending some time talking about what we got for Christmas, and best Christmas memories from childhood (spoiler: none of Amanda’s childhood memories are anything but heartbreaking and hilarious), we talk about the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Husbands of River Song. We talk about the episode’s weird mix of farce and heartstring plucking, how it might mean some solid writing on showrunner Steven Moffat’s part to tie River’s character closely to her first appearance, and how it paints the Doctor as a remorseless and opportunistic genocidal monster. Really.

We also discuss:

DK III #2, written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello, with pencils by Andy Kubert and inks by Klaus Janson,
Teen Titans #15, written by Scott Lobdell and Will Pfeifer with art by Ian Churchill and Miguel Mendonca, and:
Darth Vader #14, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Salvador Larroca!

And, the usual 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 the tragic tale of a girl, pseudoephedrine and a busted Etch-A-Sketch.
This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, just assume that we will explain, in detail, why The Doctor is history’s greatest monster.
This show contains adult, profane language and is therefore not safe for work. You want your employer to know what it means when things go “testacularly”? Then get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42:59 — 93.7MB)

Thanks for listening, suckers!

November 29, 2015 by Rob

While we are still in the throes of The Neverending Move, and therefore somewhat distractible (Hi, Fallout 4! Let me spend hours up in you, trying to find our new Home Office!), it would take more than a month living out of boxes to keep us from noticing the first trailer for Captain America: Civil War, or as we like to call it, Avengers 2.5.

We spent a good chunk of time watching, and rewatching, and rewatching the trailer, and spend some time discussing how it not only already looks better than the comic from which it came, by dint of the fact that Tony Stark isn’t suddenly acting like an amoral fascist just to advance a plot (Hi, Mark Millar!), but how it seems like a weird time to mess up the MCU superhero status quo given that their next Earth-level superhero flick is more than a year after Civil War. We also speculate which side everyone will land on, and discuss why, if the Russo Brothers don’t use Mike Colter’s Luke Cage the way Brian Michael Bendis used Cage in Civil War, they are Goddamned fools.

We also discuss:

DK III #1, written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello, with pencils by Andy Kubert and inks by Klaus Janson,
Jacked #1, written by Eric Kripke with art by John Higgins, and:
Who would win in a drinking contest: Demon In A Bottle Tony Stark, or Alias‘s Jessica Jones (Yes, this was a weird show)!

And now, the 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 learning why Starfox could outdrink Rocket Raccoon (It’s not why you think! It’s filthy!)
This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, just be aware you will learn the secret origin of Phil Coulson’s Vanity Vehicle.
This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. Seriously: the whole Starfox / Rocket Raccoon thing is just awful. Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:12 — 83.1MB)

Thanks for listening, suckers!

April 25, 2015 by Rob

We are in Chicago, attending and reporting from C2E2 after years of having San Diego Comic-Con be our main convention. The first day is concluded, and it is a very different experience from SDCC… starting with the fact that I’ve never eaten anything in San Diego that made me spend several hours shivering and vomiting on a marble bathroom floor.

As such, we don’t have as much day one news as we’d like, but we spend some time discussing how Friday at C2E2 is a day where you can actually walk the floor without having to stutter walk around people like you’re trying to avoid calling a sandworm. You can actually meet and interact with creators without having to elbow crowds out of the way (with some exceptions – hi, Scott Snyder and the 500 people waiting to meet you!), and still get some big comic news.

This is just a quick recap show covering the first day; we’ll have a second quick show to briefly cover Saturday going up on Sunday night, with a complete recap show, including panel audio, coming on Monday or Tuesday.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:26 — 31.1MB)

Thanks for listening, suckers!

August 31, 2014 by Rob

It is the middle of Labor Day weekend, which means that things are slow in the world of comics news, and fast in the world of drinking whiskey to forget you still have a job to go to on Tuesday.

So Amanda and I use this lull to idly speculate who might be a good casting choice for Doctor Strange in the upcoming Phase 3 Marvel movie. And not only that, but we got ourselves out to see the currently-in-theaters Sin City: A Dame To Kill For adaptation of Frank Miller’s hard boiled crime comics… and we had remarkably different reactions to the flick. Specifically regarding Eva Green’s casting as Ava Lord, Eva Green’s ability to portray Ava Lord, and Eva Green’s qualifications as an actress beyond the ability of some of her bodily appendages to defy constant gravitational forces. We also talk about the other parts of the movie.

We also discuss:

All-Star Western #34, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, with art by Darwyn Cooke, and
Silver Surfer #5, written by Dan Slott with pencils by Mike Allred!

And now the disclaimers:

We record this show live to tape. While this might mean a somewhat looser comics podcast than you are used to, it also means anything can happen. Like discussions about new supervillain Whistle Pig.
This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings before spilling secrets, be on notice that spoilers can happen at any time.
Amanda and I use explicit, adult language, and therefore this show is not safe for work. Before listening without headphones, please see the earlier note about the discussion vis a vis Eva Green’s bodily appendages. Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:06 — 60.6MB)

Enjoy the show, suckers!

metsbnl · 2014-06-11T17:06:37+00:00

Frank Miller was behind a computer keyboard yesterday. Someone made a terrible, terrible mistake.

Here’s what I’m talking about: the last time Frank sat down specifically to publish something he thought on the Internet, it was to post a diatribe about the Occupy Wall Street kids who were, at the time, camping out in public parks around the United States. Frank spent a few hundred words and a couple of amateurish “bowel movement” jokes comparing these neo-rich-kid-hippies with Al-Queda, which not only sounded like unnecessary histrionics, but really kinda ridiculous. After all, most world-class terrorist organizations ask their collaborators to have a useful skill. You know, beyond drum circles. But I digress.

Anyway, Frank’s public presence since 2011 has been comprised of that blog post and his original graphic novel Holy Terror, which was a Batman story that DC Comics refused to publish. You know, the same DC Comics that published Kevin Smith’s The Widening Gyre, where Smith retconned Batman to have pissed his pants during his first confrontation with the mob in Batman: Year One, written by… some guy who I can’t remember. I remember he was a good writer at the time, though.

So this is the first time in almost three years Frank has put himself out for Internet scrutiny, and I have to give him credit for doing it in a Reddit Ask Me Anything, where Miller has to boldly face questions like:

[–]metsbnl 133 points 1 day ago

What do you think of DC’s decision to reject publishing Holy Terror?

[–]Izawwlgood 348 points 1 day ago

May 20, 2014 by Rob

So recently, Batman Vs. Superman director Zack Snyder tweeted a photo of Ben Affleck in the Batman suit for the upcoming movie. And while some of us who are actual comics fans might have seen some similarities in the suit to some other earlier comics works, there were just as many people who said, “Meh; it’s just another one-color Batman suit, just like in the Christopher Nolan flicks. And the Tim Burton movies. And the ones by what’s-his-face, that nipple-obsessed pederast.”

And certainly, that single photo that most of us have seen points toward that kind of design… but most of us have only seen the one photo posted to the public Internets by Snyder, who is known to like fucking around with visuals, whether or not it’s actually a good idea.

But there is one man not involved with the actual production who has seen a photo of the costume: Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks, host of podcast Fatman on Batman, and the guy who cast Affleck in Chasing Amy, which led Hollywood producers to see him as something other than his character in Dazed And Confused, i.e.: a paddle-obsessed pederast (I’m detecting a common theme here).

Smith has been saying for months that he’s seen the Batman suit, and based on his descriptions, we weren’t expecting another one-color Batman costume. Well, Smith has made a few more comments about the costume he saw on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast (transcribed by ComicBook.com), and in doing so, confirmed some things that many long-time comic fans already suspected from the first black and white photo.

March 6, 2014 by Rob

Making a movie adaptation of a comic book is tricky business, because there’s always the question as to how slavish a remake you should go with. You go too far off the reservation, you wind up with a Muppet threatening to “chuck the duck” to Marty McFly’s mom, and you set back the cause of comics-based movies about a half a decade. You hew too close to the source material, and you might find yourself publicly arguing that you saved the original comics property from being ruined in adaptation… not six months after defending yourself from charges that you ruined another original comics property in adaptation.

But the one thing most people agree on is that there needs to be at least some modifications to bring a comic book to the screen. Most people, that is, except for Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, whose Sin City movie in 2005 mirrored the original The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill and That Yellow Bastard series so closely that I was able to literally sit down in front of a bootleg DVD of the flick and follow along with the trade paperbacks, like I was listening to the world’s most expensive Power Record.

And yet somehow, it worked for that movie, which I liked enough to have owned in bootleg DVD, original release DVD, special edition DVD and Blu-Ray formats. And we are coming up fast on the release of the sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which not only looks to follow the same the-comic-is-the-storyboard format of the original flick, but features the return of Bruce Willis as Hartigan, Jessica Alba as Nancy, and Mickey Rourke as Violent Marv. And it also has Lady Gaga for some reason!

The movie drops on August 22nd, and with only five months to go, it means the first trailer should drop any time. By which I mean it has just come out. And you can check it out after the jump.