Some of My Friends Read Comics: Recent Episodes
Some of My Friends Read Comics
SOME OF MY FRIENDS READ COMICS is a book-club format podcast about reading the great comic book stories for the first time. On each episode, your hosts will review a classic comic book story or run, examine how well it holds up, and figure out how it fits within the grand context of comics.
We decided it's time to try another comic book crossover and we think we may have finally picked a good one for once: Archie Meets Batman 66' by Jeff Parker and Michael Moreci.
It's campy, it's old timey, and it knows it's dumb as hell, so let's go for it.
Plus the art by Dan Parent and the covers by Mike Allred are perfectly primed to make middle-aged nerds weep.
Then we read Ultimates 10, which unfortunately also made us weep.
Next Time: Out of Alcatraz by Christopher Cantwell & Tyler Crook
This might be it. The worst comic we've ever read. Marville, a miniseries from 2002 written by Marvel's Editor in Chief at the time, Bill Jemas.
It's a fever dream of a comic that starts as a Smallville parody, but it becomes more. Oh it becomes so much more!
Please join us for this bizarre piece of garbage. Then we keep going with Ultimates in issue #9, where there's a fairly inconsequential fight!
Next Time: Archie Meets Batman '66!
We've never read a Supergirl comic and it's time to change that! We're taking a look at Tom King & Bilquis Evely's 8-issue miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which also serves as the inspiration behind her new movie.
But is it secretly a Coen Brothers movie in disguise???
Then we're continuing The Ultimates with issue #8 where we meet some new cast members!
Next Time: We celebrate April Fool's Day with Marvel's Smallville parody, Marville (2002)!
It's The Heroic Age! All the Marvel heroes are friends again and there are no villains! Or something like that, and the Avengers want to keep it that way. So they're training up a team of brand new recruits in Avengers Academy while also lying to them. Perfect.
We read an unprecedented NINE issues of this series, all so we get to Taskmaster and talk about him.
Then we continued Ultimates with #7, and it definitely had some pictures in it.
Next Time - Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
We're going back to the early 90s to another Robin miniseries where the Joker is wild. It's called Robin II: Joker's Wild, and Batman's not in this one, Robin's flying solo!
We get some interesting looks at how he interacts with Batman's supporting cast when he's not around. And we also meet some of Robin's own supporting cast. We didn't know he had friends.
Then we go onto Ultimates #6 where we distinguish the Ultimates from their 616 counterparts.
Next Time: Avengers Academy (2010) #1-9
Woop woop! X-Men alert! It's a double-sized grab bag of X-titles! First up, we're taking a look at Uncanny X-Men #200 where Magneto is on trial in Paris in front of the UN.
We get some weird twins and some space aliens. Then we finally get into the Age of Apocalypse finale with X-Men Omega.
And then we gotta keep going with Ultimates #5, in which we get meet the Incredible Inappropriate Hulk.
Next Time: Tim Drake fights the Joker for the first time, in "Robin 2: The Joker's Wild!"
Marvel and DC crossovers are back! This time they come to us in the form of two one-shots called Deadpool/Batman and Batman/Deadpool, with a few bonus short stories in each comic.
Are these two collabs better than the big events from years past? We'll find out, and then we'll jump into Ultimates #4, where we finally get a villain... almost.
Next Time: Magneto goes to United Nations in Uncanny X-Men #200 + we finally end the Age of Apocalypse in Age of Apocalypse: Omega!
It's the holiday season, so we're reading... oh it's not a holiday comic. That's ok, it's Grant Morrison's Animal Man!
We're taking a look at his first 5 issues from the early 90s, where we'll analyze cell reconstruction and Looney Tunes.
Then we continued our long read of the Ultimates with issue #3 in which... we still don't have a villain.
Next Time: Marvel & DC crossover for the first time in 20 years with 2025's Deadpool/Batman & Batman/Deadpool!
Surfs up, it's time for some Silver Surfer comics!
Many years ago, we read a single Eisner-nominated issue of Dan Slott and Mike Allred's run on the book, but now we're going back to read the first 5 issues from their reboot in 2014. We meet the Surfer's new companion, Dawn Greenwood, as she tries to teach the Silver Surfer some manners, and make friends with a bunch of aliens. Glorp!
Then we continue our long read of Ultimates with issue #2, in which we almost have all of the introductions out of the way.
Next Time: Animal Man by Grant Morrison #1-5
It's been a little while since we did a non-superhero indie comic, so we're reading about some cute animals living in a cute animal town where everyone knows everyone and they're all happy... until the murders start happening.
It's Patrick Horvath's Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, and it's simultaneously adorable and gruesome.
We're taking a look at the first volume to see how apt the Dexter comparisons are.
Then, we're starting a new long read with The Ultimates #1, in which our alternative universe Avengers team... is mostly absent.
Next Time: Silver Surfer (2014) #1-5 by Dan Slott & Mike Allred!
We're finally at the end of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing! When we last left him, he was stuck in space on an alien planet, making the best of his situation with whatever plants he could find.
Will he ever make it back to Earth to see Abigail? Or will he just putz around with Adam Strange and Hawkgirl for a while?
We'll find out in issues 57-64!
Next Time: We continue spooky season with "Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees" by Patrick Horvath! Plus we start our next long-read with "The Ultimates #1"
We loved Peter David's X-Factor so much last time, so we're going back in for more! Except this time we're taking a look at his 2005 reboot of the title, coming hot off the heels of House of M and Decimation.
We've still got Multiple Man struggling with controlling his dupes, but now we've got depowered mutants and an inexplicably omnipotent little girl to deal with.
Then we finish up our long read of Thunderbolts with #25, in which they take down 25 supervillains and we see who's behind the Crimson Cowl.
Next Time: We finish up Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run with Volume 6 (Issues 57-64)!
Today we're taking a look at Peter David's classic run on X-Factor! We get a spotlight focus on Jamie Madrox aka Multiple Man, we meet Strong Guy, and we get a nice new team of mutants to work with.
We're reading his first arc in issues #71-75 and then jumping forward to a fun therapy issue with #87.
It gets weird.
Then we're getting to the end of our long read of Thunderbolts with #24, where Citizen V stops being a dudette in the shadows!
Next Time: We check out Peter David's next run with X-Factor in X-Factor (2005) #1-6!
We've got Freaky Friday Fever and we're reading three body swap stories that are all over the map!
Daredevil and Doctor Doom swap places in Daredevil #37 & 38!
Emma Frost spends some time in Iceman's body in Uncanny X-Men #314!
High school-aged Peter Parker trades places with Wolverine in Ultimate Spider-Man #66 & 67!
And we're still continuing Thunderbolts with #23, featuring an unexpected cameo from U.S. Agent.
Next Time: Peter David's first X-Factor run with issues X-Factor 71-75 & 87!
Did you know Superman hates racism? It's true, he's been fighting against it for decades now!
We're taking a look at Superman Smashes the Klan from 2019 by Gene Luen Yang and art by Gurihiru, which is not just set in the 1940s, but also based on an old radio play from the 1940s.
As the Klan makes their presence known in Metropolis to scare away a new Chinese family, Clark learns more about embracing his alien origins.
Then we continue Thunderbolts with issue #22, where Hercules comes in to cause some chaos.
Next Time: Our Freakier Friday "Body Swap Special" * Ultimate Spider-Man #66-67 (Spider-Man & Wolverine) * Uncanny X-men #314 (Iceman & Emma Frost) * Daredevil #37 (Daredevil & Dr. Doom)
It's time for some Starman!
We're taking a look at James Robinson's 1995 reboot of the golden age character with art from Tony Harris, and we get to meet FIVE Starmen in this book!
He's not exactly a household name. I barely even knew there was one Starman. We learn all about them in issues 0-5.
Then we're continuing with Thunderbolts #21, where Hawkeye is offering to lead the team!
Next Time: Superman Smashes the Klan!
When you mix Chris Claremont with Frank Miller, you get Wolverine and ninjas. It's as simple as that.
We're taking a look at Wolverine's first self-titled comic, a 4-issue mini-series from 1982 where Logan goes to Japan and lots of people die.
Then the Thunderbolts start heading in a new direction with issue #20, where a surprise guest wants to join the team!
Next Time: Starman #0-6 by James Robinson & Tony Harris
When you mix Chris Claremont with Frank Miller, you get Wolverine and ninjas. It's as simple as that.
We're taking a look at Wolverine's first self-titled comic, a 4-issue mini-series from 1982 where Logan goes to Japan and lots of people die.
Then the Thunderbolts start heading in a new direction with issue #20, where a surprise guest wants to join the team!
Next Time: Starman #0-6 by James Robinson & Tony Harris
Hot on the heels of Kurt Busiek's take on a real-world(ish) Clark Kent, we're reading his Batman focused followup called Creature of the Night from 2017, with art by John Paul Leon.
We meet a young kid in a non-superhero world named Bruce Wainwright who's obsessed with Batman comics, and that doesn't really change after his parents get murdered by robbers.
So what's the deal with this Batman that starts showing up immediately?
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #19, featuring the winner of the Wizard Create-A-Villain contest!
Next Time: Wolverine (1982) by Chris Claremont & Frank Miller
We're double-dipping on Kurt Busiek today!
We're still continuing his run on Thunderbolts with #18 and the rudest French supervillain you'll ever meet, but first we're reading Superman: Secret Identity from 2004, with Stuart Immonen on art.
It's a story about a regular kid named Clark Kent in a regular universe where superheroes only exist in comics, who gets ridiculed constantly for his name. And then he gets powers. Whoa!
Join us as we follow this variant Clark Kent through a full lifetime, and we discuss the duality of Busiek.
Next Time: We check out the Secret Identity spiritual sequel, Batman: Creature of the Night!
It's only been about 10 years since we read the first 5 issues of Alan Moore and Gene Ha's Top Ten, but now we're finishing the full first season with issues 6 through 12.
As the precinct deals with criminals on multiple fronts, there's one question on everyone's lips: What's Sergeant Dog Cop up to?
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #17, which had a sword fight, an exploding castle, and a dude who can control gravity.
Next Time - Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen
We've never fully delved into the artistic stylings of Rob Liefeld, but it's finally time to take the plunge.
We look at his work on relaunching Captain America during Marvel's Heroes Reborn event in the 90s along with Jeph Loeb, and we find plenty of... interesting art choices to discuss.
We read the first 5-issue storyline as well as a 6th issue that perplexed us.
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #16 which brings up a new mystery!
Next Time: Celebrate the podcast's 10th anniversary with Top 10 #6-12!
We're finishing up the back half of Secret Wars II with issues #6-9. So far, we haven't been very impressed with The Beyonder and his antics on Earth, but will his cool new "Thriller" vest help matters at all?
Thankfully the Molecule Man takes center stage to give us something to latch on to.
Then, the Thunderbolts are back on Earth in issue #15, and they've gotta figure out how to live life on the run.
Next Time: Captain America (1996) #1-6 by Rob Liefeld
It's Secret Wars II, the sequel to Secret Wars... and it's very different! The Beyonder is on Earth and he's just a confused, lonely alien who wants love. It's only 9 issues, so we read the first 5 issues this time and try to understand why it exists.
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #14 where they make it back to Earth too!
Next time: Secret Wars II, Pt. 2 (Issues 6-9)
Apparently we haven't covered a Daredevil book since our very first episode. We've never even read the death of Elektra, an iconic moment from the middle of Frank Miller's run in the early 80s.
We're reading Daredevil #178-182 to see the big moment for ourselves, along with Daredevil using crutches because he got his leg caught in a bear trap. Oops!
Then we're still reading Thunderbolts with issue #13, in which we deal with some alien BS.
Next Time: Secret Wars 2, Pt. 1 (Issues 1-5)
For some reason, we've devoted two episodes to Batman: Hush.
Why did we do this to ourselves? For some payoff with The Riddler? The Riddler!?!?! Damnit, Loeb.
At least Thunderbolts #12 didn't disappoint with the big finale to their first story arc.
Next Time: The Death of Elektra in Daredevil #178-182
Hush up y'all, this week we're checking out one of the biggest Batman storylines of the 2000s with Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's Husssshhhhh [emphasis mine] from Batman #608-619.
We're reading the first 6 issues in which we learn that Batman had a best friend named Tommy who has somehow never been mentioned in any comic before this one.
There's also a mystery bad guy who barely shows up.
Cool.
Then, we're getting real close to the end of the first Thunderbolts storyline in issue #11, which features zappy mind control laser beams!
Next Time: We finish up Batman: Hush with Batman #614-619
We've finally reached the end of Ed Brubaker's classic run on Captain America in issues 37-42. Steve Rogers is dead, probably forever, but now we've got Bucky running around with the shield.
We also get some other clown who thinks he's Steve, and the Red Skull is trying to get his puppet elected as president while also doing some time travel shenanigans.
Then we get to the beginning of the end in Thunderbolts #10. The secret is out! But how???
Next time: Batman: Hush Pt. 1 (Batman #608-613)
Y'all ever heard of this Galactus guy? Always running around in red and green, throwing gas bombs at the Fantastic Four? Yeah, that's classic Galactus.
Dude does way more than just planet-eating.
We read all about it in his very first appearance in Fantastic Four #48-50.
The Silver Surfer makes his first appearance too, spending most of these issues talking to a blind sculptor. Classic Silver Surfer.
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #9, which was mostly an Avengers flashback. We spend a lot of time in the 60s this week!
Next Time: We conclude the Death of Captain America in Captain America (2004) #37-42!
John Constantine is a badass. He's such a badass that his series is called Hellblazer. He's such a badass that he smokes and gets lung cancer and then tricks demons into cure his lung cancer for him. Wow, what a badass.
We've only seen this guy in the pages of Swamp Thing, so we're reading Hellblazer #41-46 from 1991 when Garth Ennis took over writing duties.
Then we finally say goodbye to the Elements of Doom in Thunderbolts #8.
Next Time: The Fantastic Four meet Galactus for the first time in Fantastic Four 48-50.
Spooky season is swampy season here at SOMFRC and we're back to Swamp Thing! We're reading volume 5 of Alan Moore's run with issues #51-56.
Swamp Thing has no more world-ending catastrophes to worry about, but his girlfriend's being persecuted for being into plants! Nothing to do but take over Gotham, get into a fight with Batman, and then spend a cool time in space.
Then we move onto Thunderbolts #7, where the team disobeys a direct order from Baron Zemo!
Next Time: We check out Garth Ennis's time with John Constantine in Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (Hellblazer #41-46)
It occurs to us that we've never actually read an Iron Man comic, and with the recent dual-casting of Robert Downey Jr. as both Iron Man and Doctor Doom, we decided to take a look at Doomquest from Iron Man #149 & 150. The metal bros travel back in time to (friend of the show) the medieval era!
Doctor Doom rides a horse and that's enough reason to read this comic.
Then we move onto our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #6 which requires a periodic table to enjoy.
Next Time: The Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol. 5 by Alan Moore (Swamp Thing 51-56)
Whelp, we tried to will a Dazzler movie cameo into existence, but Deadpool & Wolverine was unfortunately Taylor Swift-less.
Nevertheless, we still press on to read Dazzler: The Movie, the 12th in Marvel's Graphic Novel line from the 80s, in which Dazzler meets a lot of terrible men who promise her a fast track to stardom.
Then we continue our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #5, which has a dude in the shadows! Classic!
Next Time: Iron Man and Dr. Doom meet in DOOMQUEST (Invincible Iron Man #149-150)
Watch out crooks, there's a new Captain America in town. And he's got a gun! Steve Rogers is dead and Bucky is taking over as we pick back up with Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America in issues #31-36.
Then we continue reading the Thunderbolts with an interlude in the Thunderbolts '97 Annual as we learn all about how the team came together.
Next Time: Dazzler: The Movie (Marvel Graphic Novel #12) (in four weeks)
We haven't read nearly enough Hulk on this show, so we're looking at a couple different stories by Peter David.
First up is the wedding of Rick Jones from issues #417-419, in which Captain America gets very bashful about a bachelor party.
Then we check out The Incredible Hulk: The End, a one shot about the last days of the Hulk's life. We'll tell you why it doesn't feel like a comic book!
And of course, we continue our long read of the Thunderbolts with issue #4 in which they accidentally gain a new member!
Next Time: The Death of Captain America Pt. 2 (Captain America 2004 #31-36)
We're reading some detective comics this week! No, not the Bat. We're reading a lesser known PI published by Renegade Comics in the 80s: Ms. Tree, written by Max Alan Collins with art by Terry Beatty.
We jump into the middle of the book and read issues #18-23 in which Ms. Tree deals with the death of her archnemesis... and kills a ton of people.
We were expecting a little more noir and a little less Punisher.
Then we continue Thunderbolts with issue #3 in which the former Masters of Evil meet the current Masters of Evil!
Next Time: Hulk 417-419 (Rick Jones' Bachelor Party) & Hulk: The End
It's another classic X-Men story! We're reading God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson from 1982, which served as the inspiration for the X-Men 2 film.
We get to know the evil reverend, Stryker, who has made some... questionable life choices. But why didn't they make him a reverend in the movie?
Then we continue our long read of Thunderbolts with issue #2, which contains the ugliest statue ever erected to honor a superhero.
Next Time - Ms. Tree: Heroine Withdrawal
It's time to go back to Fairyland! We loved the first volume of Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland when we read it back in 2020, so we thought we'd check out volume 2.
Will the art still manage to simultaneously be cute and grotesque? You know it!
Also, we begin our next long read with Thunderbolts #1 by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, with villains posing as heroes. How devious!
Next Time: X-Men - God Loves, Man Kills
April Fools! We're doing some weird comics today, because that feels like it makes sense.
We wanted to read Peter Porker and we only picked issue #16 because it had Baron Zebro in it.
Then we read Avengers #200 because it's said to be one of the worst issues of all time, and it definitely deserves that accolade.
And we finally end Earth X in issue #X, in which Spiders-Man wears a hard hat.
The best thing in all these comics is the cool dinosaur that attacked Avengers Mansion.
Next Time: I Hate Fairyland, Pt. 2
With the passing of Akira Toriyama, we wanted to take a look at his most famous work, and one of the most popular manga/anime series of all time, the Dragon Ball series.
We go back to the first volume from 1986 and it's not what we expected!
Then we continue Earth X with #12 in which... uhh... we can't remember anything that happened. Did anything happen? DID ANYTHING HAPPEN??
Next Time: April Fools Day where Carol Danvers marries her son in Avengers #200 + Spider-Ham meets Baron Zebro in Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #16 + the Earth X Finale!
It's time for us to visit the late 90s with Kurt Busiek and George Perez's relaunch of The Avengers! Who will be on the new roster? Will we remember any of the history that Busiek digs up?
And is it ever a good idea to relaunch a book with an alternate reality story?
Then we go onto Earth X #11 where we say farewell to the character with the best one-liners.
Next Time: Dragon Ball, Vol. 1
Superman's still a fascist and now his best friend, Lex Luthor, is here to help him change the world in the 2nd half of Injustice: Year One.
Will Superman kill again? He will; he'll do it a lot. It's true Superdickery.
Then we continue to Earth X #10 where the Skull continues to be a major asshole as Captain America and his forces attack.
Next Time: Avengers (1998) #1-6 by Kurt Busiek & George Perez
When the Mortal Kombat team makes a video game based on DC comic book characters and you need to write the prequel story, what do you do? You turn Superman into a fascist, of course.
We're reading the first half of Injustice: Year One from 2013, where Superman starts killing people, Wonder Woman supports him, and Batman don't like it.
Then we move onto Earth X #9 in which the Red Skull has a pretty good line.
Next Time: We finish Year One of Injustice (issues 7-12, or 19-36 digitally)
We've been building up to the Death of Captain America for a few years now, and it's finally time to read the most memorable moment from Ed Brubaker's run in issues #25-30!
Find out if Cap's supporting characters can sustain the book without him! Also learn a lot about how secret psychic activation codes work.
Then, we move on to Earth X #8, which continues to improve and also prominently features a werewolf astronaut. Coincidence?
Next Time: Injustice #1-6 (or digitally #1-18 - the first half of Year One)
Let's do some more Spider-Man. Why not?
It's The Owl-Octopus War from 1982 in Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79 by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom.
The Owl gets beat pretty badly, but we also have some great guests in the form of Black Cat, Boomerang, Biff Rifkin, Deb Whitman, Deb's terrible psychiatrist, Peter's weird professor, and Peter's decaying mental state as he falls passionately in love.
And then we move on to Earth X #7 in which stuff actually happens! Someone was secretly evil, and The Thing returns to his rightful place as the true star of this book.
Next Time: We finally get to The Death of Captain America with Captain America (2004) #25-30
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. We're reading Superior Foes of Spider-Man for this episode, but Spider-Man just isn't in this book.
is the star of this short-lived comedy series and he's got a new Sinister Six that he's formed with four other D-list villains (that's right - these five make up the Sinister Six.).
Join us as we follow the lives of these losers, and stay with us as we read Earth X #6 where Chewbacca joins the X-Men maybe!
Next Time: Spider-Man - The Owl/Octopus War (Spectacular Spider-Man #73-79)
It's been a while since we read something from the Marvel Graphic Novel series, so we're going back to read Emperor Doom, a story where Dr. Doom steals Purple Man's powers and takes over the world.
Doom actually does a pretty good job, until the Avengers screw everything up.
It's really all Wonder Man's fault that world hunger is still a thing.
Then we move onto Earth X #5 in which Uatu continues to be very mean to X-51.
Next Time: The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #1-6
We love our Spider-Comics here at SOMFRC, but we've somehow never covered Spider-Girl at all, so today we took a look at the birth of Marvel's alternate future MC2 universe to see what it's all about.
Little did we know, we would become Spider-Girl Mayday Parker ourselves, and we would truly feel the relationship between her and her parents, MJ & Peter.
Then we go back to our other alternate future storyline with Earth X #4. Hope you like vibranium!
Next Time: Emperor Doom
It's only been about 10 years, but the Captain Marvel redesign of Carol Danvers has already become the most iconic version of the character.
With a new movie on the way, we're looking at the first volume of Kelly Sue DeConnick's run where the new image was introduced, titled In Pursuit of Flight.
It's not what we expected.
At all!
Then we continue Earth X with issue #3 and... well... at least Spider-Man is in it.
Next Time: We got to the MC2 with Mayday Parker in What If #105 + Spider-Girl (1998) #1-5
Spooks! Haints! Evil twins! Shrek! They're all here (except Shrek) in the second volume of Harrow County.
We all enjoyed the first volume when we read it a few years ago, so we decided to jump back in to continue the story and see more of the excellently horrific art.
Then we continue Earth X with issue #2. Are we on board with this series yet? Will we ever be? Only time will tell.
Next Time: Captain Marvel (2012): In Pursuit of Flight
It's manga time!
Until now, we've only covered manga adaptations of video games, but we're jumping into our first long-form manga with the wildly popular One Piece by Eichiro Oda.
We read the first volume to figure out just who this straw hat kid is and why this book has spawned a whole media empire.
Then we get into the meat of Earth X with issue #1, in which we try to determine if Spider-Man is a cop now.
Next Time: Harrow County, Vol. 2: Twice Told
Swamp Thing! Do you still make our heart sing?
We return to Alan Moore's classic series with Volume 4: A Murder of Crows, which collects issues #43-50 where we get some nice redesigns of Swamp Thing's flora.
We also tie into the Crisis and meet lots of other heroes, plus we get some more insight into what John Constantine is like.
Then we move onto our next long read with Earth X #0, which is set in the future... we think. It's hard to tell after this introductory issue.
Next Time: One Piece Vol. 1: Romance Dawn
It's a time travel story!
This week on the show, we're reading some Fantastic Four from the early 90s in issues #350 & 352, written and drawn by the great Walt Simonson (don't worry about issue #351).
We dip our toe into the FF status quo from this era to see a new Thing?
And then another new Thing?!?!
Then we move onto the finale of Knightfall in Batman #500 where our new replacement Batman has his final fight against Bane.
Next Time: Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol. 4 by Alan Moore (Swamp Thing #43-50) + Earth X #0
The Eisner Awards have come again, so we thought we'd dip our toe into some modern comics with the winner of the best ongoing series, Nightwing by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo.
They're a few arcs into the book at this point, so we're starting with their first volume, Leaping into the Light, when the new creative team took over with issues #78-83.
In this episode, we will also reveal the secret to creating the perfect Eisner-award winning comic.
Then we near the end of Knightfall with chapter 18 in Detective Comics #666, in which we get a pretty great batprank on some goons.
Next Time: Fantastic Four #350-352 by Walt Simonson
Bongo Comics has been publishing Simpsons and Futurama comics for decades. With the release of the new season of Futurama, we take our first look at this corner of the comic book universe with the Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Crisis collection, compiling two different 2-issue crossover events from 2002 and 2005.
But how do these gag comics compare with some of the others that we've read? And will we be the next voice cast for the Groening-verse? Kia or Chris?
The answers lie within.
And of course, we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 17 in Batman #499, in which nobody bothers to tell Robin anything at all.
Next Time: The Eisner Award-winning Nightwing: Leaping Into the Light by Tom Taylor & Bruce Redondo!
It's been a long time, but we're finally getting back to some of Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America. We've been building up to the big death scene... it's gonna happen soon! We swear!
Just not in this episode.
We read issues #18-24 where Cap takes a trip to the UK and fights a giant robot with Bucky, and then the Civil War event breaks out and we spend some time with the ensemble cast.
After that, it's back to some more of Knightfall with Chapter 16 in Detective Comics 665, where Bruce Wayne learns he can't fight thugs quite as well while he's in a wheelchair.
Next Time: The Simpsons/Futurama - Crossover Crisis!
It's time to enter the Spider-Verse once again, as we revisit a world where Gwen Stacy became Spider-Woman. It's Spider-Gwen!
We already read the introductory issue back when we covered Edge of Spider-Verse, but now we dive into the first 5 issues of the ongoing series from 2015 (before it got relaunched with a new #1 later in 2015).
Then, we get back into the main story of Knightfall with Chapter 15 in Batman #498, where Bane takes over the city while Robin & Alfred tell lies and beat up cars.
Next Time: We're taking a short summer vacation, but we'll be back in 4 weeks to march toward the Death of Captain America with Captain America (2004) #18-24.
This show's been going for over 200 episodes and somehow we've never covered Days of Future Past? It's only two issues too, a nice little self-contained story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (but we talked about the whole trade which contains #138-143).
Then we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 14 in Showcase'93 #8, in which Two-Face holds a legally accurate mock trial.
Next Time: Spider-Gwen (2015) #1-5
It's noir time again as we revisit some Ed Brubaker! This time, we're covering his Catwoman run with artists Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred which starts in The Dark End of the Street, a collection that contains two whole stories!
The first is Slam Bradley on the hunt for Catwoman which originally ran as backups in Detective Comics 759-762, and then we jump into Catwoman #1-4 from 2002.
And then it's more Batman as we continue Knightfall Chapter 13 with a strange Two-Face tie-in from Showcase '93 #7.
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Don't forget, Chris & Nick will be doing a live recording of the Your Stupid Minds podcast at Comicpalooza in Houston, TX on Friday, May 26 at 4:30 PM central. They'll be covering the 2004 Catwoman movie!
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Next Time: X-Men - Days of Future Past (Uncanny X-Men 138-143)
Aliens! Predators! Robots! Androids! Monkeys! Asshole Businessmen! Nerds! Marines! They're all here as we revisit Dark Horse's AvP crossover universe with 1995's Aliens vs Predator: War by Randy Stradley.
We check in with Michiko again now that she's lived with the Predators for a year, and apparently she doesn't like it!
Then we see the fallout of Batman's broken back with Knightfall Chapter 12 in Detective Comics 664.
Next Time: Catwoman: Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker & Darwyn Cooke
Ok so Frank Castle (The Punisher) is imbued with the Spirit of Vengeance (Ghost Rider) and he goes back in time to kill Baby Thanos, but instead decides to kidnap and adopt him.
Also, Frank was the herald of Galactus for a bit, and THEY FIGHT SPACE SHARKS. Hell of a premise in 2018's Cosmic Ghost Rider by Donny Cates and Dylan Burnett.
After that, we finally get to the famous bat-back-breaking issue in Knightfall, when Bane scores a big victory in Batman #497.
Next Time - Alien vs Predator: War (1995)
It's time.
Time to revisit one of the worst comics we've ever read on the show... Frank Miller's All Star Batman & Robin, the famously crass and unfinished alternate universe version of "The Goddamn Batman."
Our friend Nick (from the Your Stupid Minds podcast) joined us back when we read the first 6 issues, so of course we had to invite him back to talk about issues 7-10.
We were all desperate for some classic Batman after that, so Nick also joined us as we continued our long read of Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 10 in Detective Comics #663.
Next Time: Cosmic Ghost Rider (2018) + Knightfall #11 (The Breaking of the Batman)
April is nearly upon us, and that means we're about to hit our favorite holiday, April Fools Day, when the world famously decides to all read bad comics together.
For our first bad comic this season, we're reading Secret Invasion, the 2008 Marvel event by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu. Which heroes are really Skrulls? Does it matter? Is this comic as bad as we remember?
After answering those questions, we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 9 in Batman #496.
Next Time: All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder Pt. 2 (Issues #7-10)
It's been a long time since we read any Alex Ross but today we decided to take a look at his newest book, Fantastic Four: Full Circle, a story exploring some of the FF's past with the Negative Zone.
Alex Ross abandons his painterly for something a little different, and he also wrote this book too!
Then we continue our long read of Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 8 in Detective Comics 662, a story that focuses on The Riddler while Batman hangs out with a monkey.
Next Time: Secret Invasion #1-8
It's our 200th episode!
And we're celebrating by reading an unfinished comic that can't be purchased anywhere, Alan Moore's 1963 -- A 6-issue Image comic from 1993 that is one big homage to the silver age of comics, with art from frequent Moore collaborators Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette, and Dave Gibbons.
We meet a bunch of brand new heroes who miiiiight tie back into the present day somehow.
Then we move onto Chapter 7 of Knightfall with Batman #495 where Poison Ivy tries to kiss a bunch of rich people!
Next Time: Fantastic Four: Full Circle by Alex Ross
It's time for the 2nd half of our Young Avengers two-parter! We dive into issues #7-12 and learn more about Teddy's birthright while also speed-running the secret of Billy's speedster twin brother (because they gotta wrap this series up ASAP).
Then we continue Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 6 in Detective Comics #661, where we learn to NEVER mess with the firefighter's union.
Next Time: Our 200th Episode Celebration with Alan Moore's 1963.
We're jumping back to mid-2000s Marvel with a 2-part look at Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's Young Avengers, a brand new teen superhero team starring Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, and some other friends from the MCU!
We also get to spend plenty of time with Jessica Jones, Captain America, and Iron Man as they try to figure out just who the Young Avengers are and why Kang is involved.
Then the Joker hires a Scarecrow-knockoff in Chapter 5 of Knightfall in Batman #494.
Next Time: We finish Young Avengers with issues 7-12!
Can Wolverine run a school? That's the premise of Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo's "Wolverine and the X-Men" from 2011.
There's more to it than that: A new Hellfire Club is attacking. The Department of Education is inspecting. One of the students should probably be in jail.
We read the first 4 issues to see how Wolverine survives. Then we continue Knightfall with Chapter 4 in Detective Comics #660.
Next Time: Young Avengers (2005) #1-6
As one of Japan's most popular characters, of course Mario would have his own manga. It's been running for 30 years but somehow it just got its first English translation in 2020 with a greatest hits compilation called Super Mario Manga Mania.
And you can't get a digital copy anywhere. This is the comic that finally broke the show. Nevertheless we persevere.
And of course we also read the next chapter of the Knightfall saga in Batman #493 in which Zsasz threatens to slice up a bunch of people, and Batman is just plain tired.
Next Time: Wolverine and the X-Men #1-4 by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo
Website: allmyfriendsarerighthere.com (go check it out, Vince paid $18 for the domain)
Ho ho ho ho, it's time for another holiday special!
This year we take a look at the DCU Infinite Holiday Special from 2006 featuring stories about Green Lantern, Supergirl, Batwoman, Shadowpact, Flash, Superman, and... Shazam? Let's just say the card is subject to change.
Then we continue the Knightfall storyline in Detective Comics #659 where the Ventriloquist tries a bunch of new hand puppets!
Next Time: Super Mario Manga Mania
Instead of reading comics, we thought we'd put a focus on watching cartoons for this episode so that we could look back at some of Kevin Conroy's best work as the voice of Batman in some of his favorite episodes.
First, we cover an episode titled "Perchance to Dream" from Batman the Animated Series where Bruce Wayne dreams of a life with his parents still alive. Then "This Little Piggy" from Justice League Unlimited, where wonder Woman gets turned into a pig and Batman has to save her.
Then we jump into Knightfall proper with the first episode of the Broken Bat Saga in Batman #492 where lots of villains have just been freed from Arkham!
Next Time: DCU Infinite Holiday Special (2006)
It's been a while but we finally revisit the Age of Apocalypse with the next miniseries on our list, X-Calibre, which is basically the Nightcrawler and Mystique show.
It's got pirates and senseless murder and piles and piles of dead bodies. Cool.
Then we start our longread of Batman: Knightfall with a special Vengeance of Bane one-shot that tells us about how Bane was sentenced to prison as a baby. Wait, that can't be right...
Next Time: We break format to remember Kevin Conroy with a pair of animated TV episodes
- Batman: The Animated Series - "Perchance to Dream"
- Justice League Unlimited - "This Little Piggy"
Plus we start Batman: Knightfall properly with Batman #492
With Namor appearing in the movies soon for the first time in Black Panther, we go waaaaay back in the past to 1939 to read the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Comics #1, published back when they were called Timely Comics.
Then we read the Namor stories from Marvel Mystery Comics #7-10 to see him attack New York and fight the Human Torch and basically be the biggest a-hole of all time. It's very entertaining!
Then we finish our tour through the life of Earth-2's Batman with Brave and the Bold #197, in which Batman recalls the way he and Catwoman fell in love.
Next Time:
- We go back to the Age of Apocalypse with X-Calibre
- We start our next long-read, Batman: Knightfall, with Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1
With Namor appearing in the movies soon for the first time in Black Panther, we go waaaaay back in the past to 1939 to read the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Comics #1, published back when they were called Timely Comics.
Then we read the Namor stories from Marvel Mystery Comics #7-10 to see him attack New York and fight the Human Torch and basically be the biggest a-hole of all time. It's very entertaining!
Then we finish our tour through the life of Earth-2's Batman with Brave and the Bold #197, in which Batman recalls the way he and Catwoman fell in love.
Next Time:
- We go back to the Age of Apocalypse with X-Calibre
- We start our next long-read, Batman: Knightfall, with Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1
As the spooky season nears its end, we take a look at some various scarious one-offs.
First up is Spider-Man: The Short Halloween, a comedy one-shot by SNL's Bill Hader & Seth Meyers.
Then we go back to some classic 80's X-Men when Storm turned into a vampire in issue #159, and then again when Dracula returns in X-Men Annual #6.
Then we continue our trip to Earth-2 with The Brave and The Bold #182 where Earth-1 Batman teams up with Earth-2 Robin!
Next Time: Namor's Origins with Marvel Comics #1 + Marvel Mystery Comics #7-9 + Brave & the Bold #197
The spooky season creepiness continues as we revisit Locke and Key with Volume 3: Crown of Shadows. We've got ghosts, dead bodies, and weird teenagers trying to go to a Muse concert. Scary stuff!
Then we continue our trip through Earth-2 with Adventure Comics #462 where we see the death of Earth-2 Batman to one of the most infamous villains of all time.
Next Time: Spider-Man: The Short Halloween + Storm Turns Into a Vampire (Uncanny X-Men #159 & Annual #6)
The spookiest of seasons is upon us, so we decide to take a look at one of Marvel's spookiest comics: Tomb of Dracula! We know this character's not very well known, so we read issues #10-15 which include the first appearance of Blade, a much more popular character.
Plus we get Dracula doing all of his trademark moves like steering a boat and calling his enemies up on the phone.
Then we continue our Earth-2 journey with JLA #160 which features a panel where The Atom is lying on a giant hospital bed. That's all I remember about it. And dinosaurs.
Next Time: Locke & Key, Vol. 3: Crown of Shadows
The spookiest of seasons is upon us, so we decide to take a look at one of Marvel's spookiest comics: Tomb of Dracula! We know this character's not very well known, so we read issues #10-15 which include the first appearance of Blade, a much more popular character.
Plus we get Dracula doing all of his trademark moves like steering a boat and calling his enemies up on the phone.
Then we continue our Earth-2 journey with JLA #160 which features a panel where The Atom is lying on a giant hospital bed. That's all I remember about it. And dinosaurs.
Next Time: Locke & Key, Vol. 3: Crown of Shadows
She-Hulk has her own show! And it seems to take a lot of inspiration from the Dan Slott run that we visited a while back.
We dive back into it with Volume 3: Time Trials, which collects #1-5 from the 2005 She-Hulk series. There's cowboys, jealousy, and time cops: the three perfect ingredients in any story.
Then we read our next Earth-2 book with a JLA/JSA team-up in Justice League of America #159.
Next Time: Blade's Origins with Tomb of Dracula #10-15 + Justice League of America #160
She-Hulk has her own show! And it seems to take a lot of inspiration from the Dan Slott run that we visited a while back.
We dive back into it with Volume 3: Time Trials, which collects #1-5 from the 2005 She-Hulk series. There's cowboys, jealousy, and time cops: the three perfect ingredients in any story.
Then we read our next Earth-2 book with a JLA/JSA team-up in Justice League of America #159.
Next Time: Blade's Origins with Tomb of Dracula #10-15 + Justice League of America #160
We haven't quite hit spooky season yet but we really wanted to get back into some Swamp Thing, so we're diving back into Alan Moore's run from the 80's with the 3rd collected volume which covers issues #35-42.
The series takes on a bit of a different form with the first appearance of Constantine as he sends Swamp Thing on freak-of-the-week adventures around the US.
Then we get into some multiverse shenanigans as we start a scattered new long-read focused on Earth-2 heroes. First up is DC Super-Stars #17, featuring the origin of Batman and Catwoman's daughter: Huntress!
Next Time: She-Hulk (2005) #1-5 (Time Trials) and Justice League of America #159
With the recent passing of Alan Grant, we take a look back at some of the 80's Batman he wrote alongside John Wagner in Detective Comics #583-586, which feature the first appearances of Scarface & The Ventriloquist in the first story and then The Ratcatcher in the next.
They're two quick, fun Batman stories that go down smooth, with nice art by Norm Breyfogle too!
Then we finish our read of Superman For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale with issue #4: Winter! Superman gets his groove back by making a snow angel and stopping a classic winter flood.
Next Time: Saga of the Swamp Thing #35-42 by Alan Moore & Stephen Bissette
It's been a while since we read a Vertigo book, so with today's episode we take our first foray into Jason Aaron and R. M. Guera's Scalped, a Native American noir book with lots of rich history to play off of.
It's a book filled with a bunch of assholes who all hate each other. Classic!
Then we continue our read of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman For All Seasons with issue #3, the Fall issue, which takes a slightly different approach than the first two issues did.
Next Time: We remember comics writer Alan Grant with Detective Comics #583-586.
We've got Turtle Fever! The new TMNT game reminded us how great the Ninja Turtles are, so we go back to Eastman and Laird's original series to read the now classic Return to New York story from issues 19-21. Why is it so classic? There's a worm-filled Shredder. Nuff said.
We then continue our long-read of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman for All Seasons with issue #2, the Summer issue. It's hot outside too! How topical!
Next Time - Scalped: Indian Country by Jason Aaron & R.M. Guera
A couple years ago we read the Ocarina of Time manga, so we thought we'd revisit the Zelda series with the sequel, Majora's Mask.
Zelda's not even in this story and Link might be dead, or maybe dreaming, or maybe he just fell in a big hole. We're not sure, but we know there are monkeys and that's cool.
We also start our next long-read: the 4-part Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, in which we get a nice little retelling of Superman's origin.
Next Time: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Return to New York (#19-21)
Our streak of non-superhero comics continues with one of the newest comics we've ever covered on the show: Neil Gaiman's Chivalry which was released just two months ago!
Well, technically it's a short story he wrote in the 90's, but it was just adapted to comics by Colleen Doran and it's a real beauty. Plus it makes us fumble our way through Arthurian mythology, what's not to love?
Then we move onto the finale of the Korvac Saga in Avengers 177 in which waaaaay too many Avengers get killed.
Next Time: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask manga by Akira Himekawa and Superman: For All Seasons #1
We're reading a bit of a different superhero team today with the first volume of Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neil's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which brings together British literary figures from the late 1800s. It's better than the movie! We promise!
We're also very near the end of the Korvac Saga as the Avengers take a bus out to see him in Avengers #176.
Next Time: Neil Gaiman's Chivalry
We're getting a little burned out on superheroes, so to change things up we're reading an adaptation of a crime novel written by a prolific novelist under one of his many pseudonyms.
That's right, it can only be Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground by Darwyn Cooke! Cooke adapted 4 of these stories and we're reading the final one where our protagonist uses an abandoned amusement park setting to elude some evil mobsters.
Then we continue The Korvac Saga with Avengers #175 in which nobody is really sure what to do!
Next Time: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
It's time to take our first trip to Marvel's 2099 universe and meet Miguel O'Hara aka Spider-Man 2099. He's ruder than OG Spider-Man and he has a drug addiction problem to boot (technically not his fault).
We read the first 6 issues of this series from 1992 before continuing our Korvac Saga long read with Avengers 174. Korvac actually shows up! And he explodes Benicio del Toro!!!
Next Time: Slayground by Richard Stark adapted by Darwyn Cooke
We're back in the Age of Apocalypse! This time we're reading the 4-issue Factor X miniseries that heavily focuses on Scott & Alex Summers, aka Cyclops and Havok.
Turns out Havok is a real jerk who wants to kill his brother. Rude!
We also get to know the evil mad scientist version of Beast who just wants to run genetic experiments on everything. Major creep.
Then we continued the Korvac Saga with Avengers #173. Michael Korvac actually makes an appearance in this one!
Next Time: Spider-Man 2099 (1992) #1-6
For today's episode, we're diving into one of the most poorly received Batman comics of all time from the "All-Star" creative team of Frank Miller and Jim Lee. We had a good time reading All-Star Superman a while back, so how bad could this be? Embarrassingly bad? Offensively bad? Incomprehensibly bad? Maybe all of the above. It's so bad that we needed our friend Nick from the Your Stupid Minds podcast to help us wade through it. Join us as we read All-Star Batman & Robin #1-6, and then continue our long read of the Korvac Saga with Avengers #172. Next Time: We return to the Age of Apocalypse with Factor X #1-4!
We're getting into April and we had the idea that we would read some... not great comics this month. Because April Fools Day or something. It's gonna be the worst tradition ever.
We're starting with Fear Itself, a Marvel event from 2011 which is basically Thor vs a snake. We have issues with it.
We then continue our read of the Korvac Ultron Saga with Avengers #171.
Next Time: All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #1-6 by Frank Miller & Jim Lee
For today's episode, we're entering one of the most lore-heavy comic book universes out there... a world we've never delved into before... Sonic the Hedgehog.
We're specifically reading the Endgame storyline from issues #47-50 in the original Archie Comics run so that we can get a nice little taste of everything the universe has to offer. It's a lot.
We then continue our read of the Korvac Saga with Avengers #170, in which it doesn't feel like the Korvac Saga has really started yet because we're busy dealing with Ultron.
Next Time: Fear Itself by Matt Fraction & Stuart Immonen
In this week's episode, we check out the origin of Batman's famous sidekick, Dick Grayson aka the first Robin!
Wait, I thought we were reading the 2nd half of Batman: Dark Victory... this episode was supposed to be issues 7-13. We were gonna find out who the Hangman Holiday killer was and how it relates to Batman, Two-Face, and all the Gotham mob families.
Oh, that all happens too, I see.
We also continue the Korvac Saga with Avengers #168 in which Captain America acts like a major asshole.
Next Time: Sonic the Hedgehog: Endgame (Sonic (1993) #47-50) + The Korvac Saga #4 (Avengers #170)
Remember about 6 years ago when we read Batman: The Long Halloween about a serial killer who strikes on major holidays?
Well it's time for the sequel, Batman: Dark Victory, which is about a serial killer... who strikes on major holidays. Cool. It's a 13-issue series, technically 14 since there's a little prequel issue, but we start off by just reading #0-6.
Then we go onto The Korvac Saga in Avengers #167, which includes a fashion show! Fun!
Next Time: We finish up Dark Victory!
It's time to dive into our first Age of Apocalypse miniseries with the Astonishing X-Men! We meet Blink, Morph, a Sabretooth that acts a lot like Wolverine, a Rogue that's married to Magneto, and Apocalypse's first horseman. We also start our long read of the Korvac Saga with a little bit of backstory from Thor Annual #6 where we jump into the 30th century and meet the original Guardians of the Galaxy. You'll probably recognize Yondu, he's there. And the villains have a cute blob you might like too. Next Time: Batman - Dark Victory #0-6
It's been quite a while since we caught up with Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America. Last time around we discovered that the Winter Soldier is Bucky. And this week we read the next part of that run in Captain America #15-17 and then the Captain America 65th Anniversary Special. There's a big cool robot in it.
And then it's finally time for the last chapter of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck where Huey, Dewey, and Louie finally get to meet their great uncle!
Next Time: We return to the Age of Apocalypse with Astonishing X-Men (1995) #1-4
We haven't read nearly enough Hulk for this show, so we thought we'd read Future Imperfect by Peter David and George Perez. The Hulk has to stop an evil old version of himself from ruining the future. In just 2 issues, The Maestro manages to make a strong name for himself as a serious villain. Afterwards, we continue The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck with part 11 in which Scrooge unfortunately also establishes himself as a serious villain. Next Time: Captain America by Ed Brubaker Pt. 3: Red Menace Pt. 1 (Captain America (2004) #15-17, Captain America 65th Anniversary Special)
We don't get around to the X-Men often enough, so we're gonna make a commitment to jump in more often by exploring one of their biggest events, the Age of Apocalypse.
We're starting with the prelude in the 4-part Legion Quest storyline where Professor X's son goes back in time to kill Magneto, and then we get introduced to an alternate reality in X-Men: Alpha #1.
We also continue The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck with chapter 10 in which Scrooge settles down in Duckburg.
Next Time: Hulk - Future Imperfect
It's raining Spider-Mans!!!
For today's episode we read Edge of Spider-Verse, a collection of 5 different Spider-Character introductions that led directly into Spider-Verse itself.
We've got Noir, Spider-Gwen, a monstrous Peter Parker, a little girl named Peni Parker, and a guy named Aaron Aikman from Tokyo or maybe Dallas. One of these things was not like the other.
And then we continue The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck #9, in which our Scrooge is now finally rich!
Next Time: We start the Age of Apocalypse with Legion Quest (Uncanny X-Men 320 & 321, X-Men 40 & 41) + X-Men: Alpha #1.
Hawkeye is one of those poor characters who also seems to be the butt of jokes for his lack of powers. The Matt Fraction & David Aja series from 2012 is widely regarded as one of Hawkeye's best, so we thought we'd see what it had to offer.
But wait... Clint Barton and Kate Bishop are BOTH Hawkeye around this time. Is that okay? (It's fine.)
There's a bonus Young Avengers story in this volume too, which we read before jumping over to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck #8, which gave us a taste of that classic DUCK RAGE.
Next Time: Edge of Spider-Verse
What is an Eternal?
They got a whole movie but we have no idea. We decided the Neil Gaiman & John Romita, Jr. 6-issue miniseries from 2006 would be a decent place to start. Apparently it was so good they gave it a 7th issue! Wow, good job Eternals.
And of course, we continued our read of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck with issue #7.
The number 7 is all over this episode. Numerology nerds take note.
Next Time - Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction & David Aja (Hawkeye (2012) #1-5 + Young Avengers Presents #6)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is back after a massive hiatus! What???? Is this real life? Yes, it's really happening. We read the first 5 issues forever ago and now it's time to finally read issues #6-8.
At the time of this posting, a 9th issue has also been published.
For real.
Like for real for real.
We're also officially halfway through The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, with issue 6 to round out his full rogues gallery.
Next Time: The Eternals (2006) by Neil Gaiman & John Romita, Jr.
Swamp Thing made someone's heart sing!!! He's in love! It's so sweet!
But we have to go through some really creepy horror stuff first like BUGS. Eww, gross.
In Alan Moore's 2nd volume of Swamp Thing (issues #28-34 & Annual #2), he gave us a little bit of everything, including a fun little trip to hell.
And then we kept reading The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck with Chapter 5. Spoiler alert: Scrooge dies.
Next Time: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #6-8
This Jimmy Olsen story has too many characters we've never heard of, but now that we've read the back half of Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber's 12-issue Eisner winning maxiseries, we kind of love them all.
We also continued reading through The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck with Chapter 4!
Next Time: We return to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (first time since Episode 45 back in January 2017) with Saga of the Swamp Thing #28-34 + Annual #2.
Jimmy Olsen?!??! It's easy to forget that Superman's Pal used to have his own long-running series filled with adventures, but now he's back and winning Eisner Awards thanks to Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber!
We read the first half of the 2019 maxi-series which is all about the murder of Jimmy Olsen's fake body double.
Then we continued The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck with Chapter 3!
Next Time: We finish up Jimmy Olsen with issues #7-12!
Shang-Chi! CM Punk! It's a double-topical episode! Shang-Chi is finally getting a movie and we admittedly knew absolutely nothing about him, so we went back to his beginnings in Special Marvel Edition #15 & #16 which was then renamed to Master of Kung Fu and the story continued with #17-19.
But we didn't stop there! We also read Master of Kung Fu #126 written by the Best in the World himself, CM Punk.
Then we continued our long-read of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck with #2. So much content!!!
Next Time: 2021 Eisner Award Winner for "Best Limited Series" - Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #1-6 by Matt Fraction & Steve Lieber
Some of my friends... WATCH WRESTLING?!?!? We delved into the squared circle with this episode by reading a biography of the biggest man in the industry, Andre the Giant: Life and Legend by Brian Box Brown.
Chris and Kia did their best to teach Vince all about this weird world but really we all learned how big of an asshole Andre was.
Then we moved onto our next long read: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa. That's right, the ducks are back baby!!!!!!!
Next Time: Shang-Chi Origins (Master of Kung Fu #15-19, 126)
Agents of Atlas is a superhero team with a monkey AND a robot. Wow, it really doesn't get any better than this folks. We've been talking about Jimmy Woo and his weirdly thrown together team for ages and now it's finally time for us to see what it's all about.
We read their first appearance as a team back in What If #9 when they saved President Eisenhower, and then we read their first substantial miniseries from 2006 by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk.
Then over in Amazing Spider-Man, we finally finish a full year of this book with #12 in which Peter gets unmasked! Like for real!
Next Time: Andre the Giant: Life and Legend by Brian "Box" Brown and the beginning of our next long read: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck #1 by Don Rosa!
With everybody talking about the lore of Metroid these days, and the release of Metroid: Dread on the horizon, we took a look back at some Super Metroid comics from Nintendo Power 57-61 so that we could learn about Samus Aran and her weird bird blood.
And we did it with a guest! Mike from the podcast "Games My Mom Found" joins us and he even read Amazing Spider-Man #11 with us too.
What a swell guy!
Next Time: Agents of Atlas (2006) 1-6 + What If #9
Just like in the movies, Black Widow spent most of her time in the comics as a side character until she finally got to stand in the spotlight on her own.
We took a look at a couple of these stories from the 80's in a collection called Black Widow: Web of Intrigue, both written by Ralph Macchio.
First up is a George Perez story from Marvel Fanfare #10-13 and then a black & white one-shot in Bizarre Adventures #25 with art by Paul Gulacy.
And of course, we continued Amazing Spider-Man with issue #10 and the least memorable villains of all time.
Next Time: Super Metroid (from Nintendo Power 57-61)
It's a busy episode! We're reading Volume 2 of Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier run on Captain America where we see those dastardly Russians fill Bucky's brain with lies!
There's also a House of M tie-in issue in the middle which we went ahead and red as well.
Then we end things with the debut of Electro in Amazing Spider-Man #9. Thankfully, J. Jonah Jameson also returns to the series after taking a month off.
Next Time: Black Widow: Web of Intrigue (Marvel Fanfare #10-13, Bizarre Adventures #25)
Loki is everybody's favorite trickster god and in 2004 he finally got his own 4 issue mini-series by Robert Rodi with painted art by Esad Ribic.
It starts with a victorious Loki, which means he doesn't have to use any of his fun trademark trickery throughout the book. Hooray!
After reading that, we move onto Amazing Spider-Man #8 in which we see the least likable version of Peter Parker there has ever been.
Next Time: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Vol. 2 (Captain American 2004 #8-14)
Created by Dwayne McDuffie & John Paul Leon in 1993, Static Shock went from being a small project on DC's Milestone imprint to getting his own cartoon and becoming part of the DC Universe proper.
We read the 2000 miniseries Rebirth of the Cool in which we got our first glimpse at the Milestone Universe and then moved onto Amazing Spider-Man #7 with our first return villain: The Vulture!
Next Time: Loki (2004) by Rob Rodi & Esad Ribic
M.O.D.O.K. is easily one of the most bizarre Marvel creations of all time. A big head with tiny baby limbs who flies around in a little machine. Beautiful.
To celebrate his new series, we took a look at his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #94 (the Captain America half of the issue). Then we read Super-Villain Team-Up: Modok's 11 because we thought we would get lots of Modok (we didn't).
Then we read Amazing Spider-Man #6 and it's crazy that after 5 issues in NYC, Spidey ran out of things to do so he went down to Florida to fight The Lizard.
Next Time: Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool
It's time to revisit our favorite super fascists in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe, a one-shot from the Marvel Graphic Novel line that came out 5 years after the original series.
Turns out this takes place A WEEK after the original series. We'll see the team realize the error of their ways and... fight a giant hand from outer space?
Then we moved onto Amazing Spider-Man #5 where Doctor Doom really botches a kidnapping.
Next Time: Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11 + MODOK's first appearance in Tales of Suspense #94
Before Big Hero 6 was a movie, it was a Marvel superhero team based out of Japan that got two largely forgotten miniseries.
We're reading their 5-issue mini from 2008 written by classic X-Men scribe Chris Claremont and drawn by David Nakayama.
Unfortunately these issues may have been better off remaining forgotten, because Big Hero 6 might be the Balan Wonderworld of comics. We try to figure out just what the heck went wrong and how they avoided these disasters with the movie.
We had a much better time reading Amazing Spider-Man #4 and seeing Spidey throw sand in the air.
Next Time: Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe
As part of our ongoing quest to return to some of the series we've previously covered, we're revisiting Locke & Key with Volume 2: Head Games which has everybody opening up their dang heads. Gnarly stuff.
Then, we move on to Amazing Spider-Man #3, our first full-length Spidey story! Peter Parker is still kind of lame and he gives up almost immediately after meeting Doc Ock. What a nerd.
Next Time: We celebrate the sixth anniversary of this podcast with the Big Hero 6 (2008)
When you think about it, Batman and the Ninja Turtles have a lot in common. They're orphans, they're well-trained in martial arts, they thrive in darkness. I think they're all aliens too but I could be wrong about that. We read their DC/IDW co-published 6-issue crossover from 2016. Then, Peter Parker starts making that money in Amazing Spider-Man #2 Next Time: Locke & Key, Vol. 2 - Head Games
We're starting a couple of classics today from very different eras! First up it's Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier run on Captain America, which provided the inspiration for the second Captain America film. We're planning to read the whole thing eventually, but for today we're just doing the first volume.
Then we're starting our long-read of the first year of Amazing Spider-Man. That's right, all the way from the beginning. If it's any good, maybe we'll read the next 60 years worth as well.
Next Time: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-6
How many of the Captain Marvels have we talked about? We've talked about Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers, but Monica Rambeau hasn't really come up that often, at least not as Captain Marvel.
With her being featured recently in WandaVision, we thought we'd take a look at her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 and then the Captain Marvel one-shot from 1989.
And then it's finally time for Squadron Supreme #12! Final issue! Big fight! Lots of deaths!
Next Time: Captain America: The Winter Solider (Captain America 2004 #1-7)
Wedding bells are in the air!
We're going back to the mid-90's when Lois and Clark got married in the comics as well as on TV! We read Superman: The Wedding Album, a one-shot from 1996 which tells the whole story in a pretty self-contained issue.
We also get to some more questionable moral choices in Squadron Supreme #11 as we get really close to the end!
Next Time: Monica Rambeau's origins in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 and Captain Marvel (1989) #1
Babyhands. This dude has babies for hands. I know this was supposed to be about Wanda and Vision and their weird magic babies or whatever, but as soon as this guy came on the scene he stole the whole damn show like he stole those babies. BABYHANDS.
This was from West Coast Avengers 50-52 and 56-57, which was a strange selection of issues.
Over in Squadron Supreme #10, we get some spies on the team!
Next Time: Superman & Lois Lane tie the knot in Superman: The Wedding Album (1996)
Somehow, we'd never read The Death of Gwen Stacy for the show, so we rectified that by reading Amazing Spider-Man #121 & 122.
We also read "What If Spider-Man Had Rescued Gwen Stacy?" from What If #24. Special thanks to Uatu who hooked us up with this story, it's good to know that Peter Parker makes dumb decisions no matter what happens.
We also continued with Squadron Supreme #9 in which a member of the team dies!
Next Time: Scarlet Witch & Vision find out the truth about their children in West Coast Avengers #50-52/56-57
It's still December, we've been told, which means we're legally obligated to continue covering Christmas comics. But we broke the rules and did a cartoon too! Take that!
We went with Paul Dini's "Slayride" in Detective Comics #826 as well as the "Christmas with the Joker" episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
And then we continued Squadron Supreme with issue #8, in which we get an actual honest to goodness superhero fight.
Next Time: The Death of Gwen Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #121-122) and What If Spider-Man Had Rescued Gwen Stacy (What If? #24)
Anytime the holidays roll around, you know we're gonna get Santa plastered all over a ton of comics. DC's Christmas With the Superheroes 1988 collects 6 different stories from throughout the years and we tried to guess how many would contain the real Santa. Or as real as a comic book Santa can get. And then we got another shocking twist in Squadron Supreme #7. Next Time: A double-dose of Paul Dini Holiday Fun with Batman: Slayride (Detective Comics #826) and Christmas with the Joker (Batman: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 2)
We forgive you if you haven't heard of Dog Man, he's not exactly a super hero. He's half cop / half dog, stitched together after a terrible accident, but not in like a gross way.
It's cute, we promise. It's a spinoff of that kids book, Captain Underpants and it's published by Scholastic.
We jumped right into Dog Man Volume 3: A Tale of Two Kitties and then went on to Squadron Supreme #6, where we get some bigtime shakeups in the team roster.
Next Time: DC's Christmas with the Superheroes (1988)
Spooky month continues with a highly praised modern horror comic called Harrow County. It's a witch book by Cullen Bunn with watercolor finished art by Tyler Crook, so we just had to try it!
The first volume, Countless Haints, was only 4 issues and the haints were honestly pretty countable.
Then we moved on to Squadron Supreme #5 where the entire team gets mind controlled AGAIN.
Next Time: Dog Man 3: A Tale of Two Kitties
We wanted to read some classic horror to celebrate the spookyseason so we dug up some of the original Tales From The Crypt comics from 1950.
Actually, we read the first issues (#17-19) called Crypt Of Terror before they changed the name. It was some weird crime stuff before that, I know it's confusing, just listen to the episode and everything will be okay.
Until we continue our read of Squadron Supreme with #4 in which everything is definitely NOT okay.
Next Time: Harrow County: Countless Haints by Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook
What's that Doctor Doom scamp trying to steal this time? Oh, it's all the vibranium in Wakanda. Yikes. We read DoomWar from 2010 in which he succeeds?!?!?! Oh no.
And wait until you see which Deadpool character named Deadpool shows up to help the Black Panther out, it's a real shocker.
We also read Squadron Supreme #3 and got some pretty unacceptable behavior from one of them old boys.
Next Time: Tales from the Crypt #17-19 (found in the Tales from the Crypt: The EC Archives Vol 1)
The Boys is a show. It seems to be a pretty popular one, so we read the comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson that inspired it. This was an unwise decision. The levels of sex and gore in these pages had us questioning if we had become our own moms.
We moved onto Squadron Supreme #2 as quickly as we could.
Next Time: Black Panther: Doomwar
They're not rats and they're technically not queens, they're Rat Queens! A band of D&D-esque adventurers in a D&D-esque world just starting fights everywhere they go. We read the first volume of this Image title.
And then we begin our long read of Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme from 1984, which is some nice escapist fiction about fixing our broken brainwashed government.
Next Time: The Boys: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
Madness! Chaos! Anything goes! It’s Assistant Editors’ Month at Marvel!
Back in 1984, when all the head editors were off at conventions, they handed the reigns over to their assistants who had a lot of fun with their freedom.
We read Thing #7, Defenders #127, Avengers #239, Dazzler #30, and the infamous takedown of Galactus by Aunt May and Franklin Richards in Marvel Team-Up #137.
We also finished out JLA/Avengers #4!
Don't say we didn't warn you!
Next Time: Rat Queens: Sass & Sorcery + Squadron Supreme #1
It's a scientific fact that stories about maniacal ax-wielding children are always entertaining. I Hate Fairyland is no exception, although I guess technically it's about a woman who just looks like a kid because she's spent 27 years stuck in a sugary wonderland.
We read the first 5 issues of writer/artist Skottie Young's recent Image series and then we continued JLA/Avengers with issue #3.
Next Time: Marvel Assistant Editor's Month 1984 (Avengers #239, Dazzler #30, Defenders #127, Marvel Team-Up #137, Thing #7)
In 1989, long before the AVP movies, Dark Horse published a few short stories that brought the Alien and Predator franchises into the same universe.
In 1990, they kicked off a full miniseries of Aliens vs Predator. Now, with the news that Dark Horse is losing their rights to the licenses, we take a look back at that original miniseries that forever intertwined these two foes.
We also continue JLA/Avengers with issue #2.
Next Time: I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After by Skottie Young
This week on the show, we remember Dennis O’Neil with a look back at his run with Neal Adams on Green Lantern from 1970, in which he explored a few topics that superheroes didn’t often tackle.
Green Lantern shared the spotlight with Green Arrow to start their “Hard Travelin’ Heroes” Era, and we read issues 76-81. After that we jumped into another DC/Marvel team-up with the first issue of JLA/Avengers from 2003.
Next Time: Aliens vs. Predator (1990)
For the last few episodes, we’ve been reading Marvel vs DC, about two universes pitted against each other. But just before the final issue, they merged and Amalgam Comics was born!
We take a look at a handful of those special one-shot issues that all arrived before the event’s finale which we also read! Join us as we explore Amazon, Dark Claw, Super Soldier, Spider-Boy, Doctor Strangefate and the JLX.
Next Time: We remember the late great Denny O'Neil with Green Lantern & Green Arrow: Hard-Traveling Heroes (Issues 76-81) + We start our next long-read with JLA/Avengers #1 (from 2003).
Teenage. Mutant. Ninja. Turtles. Four words that instantly belong together. We go back to where it all started in Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s original comics from the mid 80’s.
We read the first 7 issues and saw the turtles fight robots, travel to outer space and murder Shredder(?!). Unfortunately, there were no Cowabungas.
Then we read Marvel vs DC part 3 aka the one with all the fights!
Next Time: We wrap up DC vs. Marvel, but not before reading a few comics from the Amalgam Universe!
There aren’t main writer/artist pairs in comics who work together as consistently as Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, and yet we’ve never covered their work!
We finally rectify that by reading a spin-off of their long standing Criminal series called Bad Weekend, in which we learn about all kinds of shady practices behind the scenes of the comic book industry.
And then we keep diving deeper into Marvel vs DC with issue #2.
Next Time: The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird!
It’s the exciting conclusion to the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga with Volume 2! Will Link ever be a little kid again? Will this mysterious Sheik be friend or foe? And how much does this thing line up with the video game?
After that, we begin our long read of Marvel vs DC, featuring the most famous comic book character of all time: Lobo!
Next Time: Criminal: Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Some of My Friends Read… Manga?!?!? And Play Video Games?!?!?!
After 5 years, we finally delve into some content from Japan: The Ocarina of Time manga adaptation from the Legend of Zelda series. Did we get confused reading right to left? Were we able to switch back for the Marvels Epilogue? (Yes, it was fine.)
Next Time: We close out The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with Volume 2 + we start reading DC vs. Marvel issue by issue.
Marvel’s had plenty of titles dedicated to the “next generation” of X-Men, but New Mutants was the first.
We jumped into the Demon Bear Saga and read issues 18-21 written by Chris Claremont in his prime and with the wIcKeD art of Bill Sienkiewicz.
Then we finished up Marvels: Eye of the Camera with the unexpectedly moving issue 6.
Next Time: After 5 years, we finally decide to dip our toe into manga with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Vol. 1 by Akira Himekawa
Remember that time Colonel Sanders defeated the evil Colonel Sunder from Earth-3 by taking down his knock-off fried chicken franchise with the help of Green Lantern and Flash?
Well you’re remembering it wrong, Colonel Sanders doesn’t need nobody’s help.
We read a 3-pack of KFC/DC crossover comics from 2015-2017 and then we experienced an actually intriguing story beat in Marvels: Eye of the Camera #5.
Next Time: New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga (New Mutants 18-21)
It’s high time we read some Sandman for this show. No, not the the literal sand guy from Spider-Man. It’s the Neil Gaiman series that made Vertigo Comics famous.
We jumped straight into Volume 4: Season of Mists, which seems to be less about seasons and more about land ownership rights.
Then we keep reading Marvels: Eye of the Camera and we regret every second of it.
Next Time: April Fools' Day with the KFC Colonel Sanders Trilogy: The Colonel of Two Worlds (2015), Colonel Corps (2016), Green Lantern/Colonel Sanders: Across the Universe (2017)
It’s finally time for us to cover one of Batman’s greatest villains: a leopard! (Actually, it’s Ra’s al Ghul, but the fight with the leopard looked cooler).
We take a look at Old Ghoulie’s first appearance in Batman 232 and then his first rise from a Lazarus Pit in issues 243 and 244. All by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams.
And do we have to keep mentioning Marvels: Eye of the Camera? We’re on issue 3.
Next Time: Sandman Vol 4: Seasons of Mist (Issues 21-28)
(Apologies for the first 27 minutes, where Vince's sound is wrong)
On today’s episode, we explore the rare Non-Gritty Reboot. I assure you, they exist. At the very least, one example exists: Archie. In 2015, Mark Waid and Fiona Staples brought Archie back to mainstream comics. And it’s nothing like Riverdale.
We checked out the first six issues and then continued our read of Marvels: Eye of the Camera with issue #2.
Next Time: The Origins of Batman villain Ra's Al Ghul with Batman 232, 243, and 244!
In my headcanon, Birds of Prey was always 3 members: Oracle, Black Canary, and Huntress. Turns out Huntress didn’t even join the team until Gail Simone took over in 2003. Turns out Harley Quinn was definitely not on the team.
We read the first few issues of Simone’s run from #56-61 and then we continued our read of Marvels with the 1st issue of the followup miniseries, Marvels: Eye of the Camera.
Next Time: Archie gets rebooted in 2015 by Mark Waid & Fiona Staples!
We've got more Moore than you can handle, as we take a double dose of Alan Moore's Superman from the 1980s!
First up, Alan Moore teams up with his future Watchmen collaborator Dave Gibbons with 1985's "For the Man Who Has Everything", where Batman & Wonder Woman try their darndest to find a good birthday present for Superman, while Superman imagines a world where Krypton did not explode and he never came to Earth.
Then, we check out the final story of the pre-Crisis Superman with Alan Moore and Curt Swan's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" As Bill Hader's Stephon would say, this book has everything: Krypto the Superdog, superbabies turning coal into diamonds, Jimmy Olsen & Lana Lang getting superpowers, and Superman defending his friends against all his foes. It's a classic story you don't want to miss!
And finally, we conclude Phil Sheldon's journey through the early days of the Marvel Universe with Kurt Busiek & Alex Ross's "Marvels #4"! (That's not really true, we start the sequel "Marvels: Eye of the Camera" next episode.)
Next Time: Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds by Gail Simone (Birds of Prey #56-61) + Marvels: Eye of the Camera #1
Way back in episode 19, we read our first Thanos comic when he returned from death in 1990 and started collected the Infinity Gems. Now, exactly 100 episodes later, we decided we’d take a look at how he actually died in the first place.
It was surprisingly earlier in 1977’s Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, written and drawn by Jim Starlin (because who else would it be?).
And then we relive the terror of Galactus in Marvels #3!
Next Time: Superman & Alan Moore times two with "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and "Superman: For the Man Who Has Everything"
The holidays are upon us and you know what that means: Ducks. Specifically Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. We take a look at the very 1st appearance of Scrooge McDuck in “Christmas on Bear Mountain” from way back in 1947 and then “A Christmas for Shacktown” in 1951, both written and drawn by “the good duck artist,” Carl Barks.
And the it’s on to the mutant scare in Marvels #2!
Next Time: The (Original) Death of Thanos from Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 (1977)
It’s time to continue Marvel 1602! In the last 4 issues of the miniseries, we make our way to America and find out how this universe connects to our regular 616 universe.
But will Gaiman’s 1602 survive? (Spoiler alert: nothing ever dies).
And we also get our long read of Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross really rolling with issue #1.
Next Time: Donald Duck in "Christmas on Bear Mountain" (Scrooge McDuck's first appearance) and "A Christmas for Shacktown"
Back in the 1600s, there were apparently superheroes in England. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but I will take Neil Gaiman’s word for it.
He wrote about Marvel 1602 in an 8-issue miniseries that very strangely seems to parallel the Marvel Universe we are already familiar with. We read the first 4 issues and then we started our long read of Marvels with issue #0, which takes place in the 40s.
So much history! My head hurts.
Next Time: Marvel 1602 #5-8 + Marvels #1
It’s (after) Halloween! And we continue our tradition of releasing a late episode about late, spooky comics with Jughead: The Hunger!
We read the first volume to see if this is another clever take on classic comics like Sabrina was or just an excuse to tell a werewolf story with Archie characters.
And we also finish off All Star Superman with issue #12!
Next Time: Marvel 1602 Pt. 1 (#1-4) and Marvels #0
What’s up, spooks? Time for some scary comics for the spookiest month of the year. First up is Locke & Key by Joe Hill who for some reason reminds us all of Stephen King. Hmm, wonder why that is.
Anyways, it’s a book about the scariest thing in existence: KEYS. We read the 1st volume: Welcome to Lovecraft.
And we’re so, so close to the end of All Star Superman with issue #11.
Next Time: Jughead: The Hunger, Vol. 1
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! We’re celebrating our neighbors our neighbors up north by reading about their premiere superhero team, Alpha Flight!
We checked out their 1st appearance in Uncanny X-Men #120 and then read issues 1-4 of their ongoing series written and drawn by John Byrne.
Listen as we try to figure out how Vindicator / Guardian / Captain Canada is an even more milquetoast version of Cyclops. And then Clark Kent gets the scoop of a lifetime in All Star Superman #10!
Next Time: Locke & Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
There's a spy in the Teen Titans... and she works for Deathstroke! Dick Grayson drops the Robin mantle to debut Nightwing! There's a new team member named Jericho, a sweet little mute boy!
It's the Judas Contract from Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Teen Titans Annual #3.
And over in All Star Superman #9, Clark deals with some real assholes!
Next Time: We celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with Alpha Flight (Uncanny X-Men #120 + Alpha Flight #1-4)
Whoa, Carnage is so Maximum it’s taking us two episodes to get through it. Spider-Man seems to be having a tough time getting through Maximum Carnage as well, because in parts 8-14 he really just can’t deal anymore.
All Star Superman also rolls on with issue 8. Booooooo!!!!! (Don’t worry, that’s a Bizarro Boo.)
Next Time: The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44, Annual #3)
Can you believe this is the 25th anniversary of the Maximum Carnage video game? A classic that has such accolades as being A Game and being Based On A Comic Book. At least we know it was a memorable comic book 14-parter that ran through the Spider-Man comics of 1993.
Actually, was it memorable? We know Carnage goes Maximum, but… what else? Let’s start finding out with parts 1-7.
We also don’t continue No Moon Superman with issue #7.
Next Time: Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage #8-14
It may seem hard to believe, but there used to be a time when we knew little to nothing about Wolverine's origins. The Weapon X story from 1991 by Barry Windsor-Smith began to fill in some gaps.
Originally told in small chunks appearing in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, it's become one of the classic Wolverine stories in his history.
Plus, we continue All-Star Superman with issue 6.
Next Time: Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, Pt. 1
- Spider-Man Unlimited #1
- Web of Spider-Man #101
- The Amazing Spider-Man #378
- Spider-Man #35
- The Spectacular Spider-Man #201
- Web of Spider-Man #102
- The Amazing Spider-Man #379
Animal Man has never exactly been one of DC’s biggest heroes, but he got a reboot in 2011 for the New 52 written by Jeff Lemire with some gruesome, horrific art by Travel Foreman.
We read the first volume which saw him re-discover his origin, find out that his daughter can turn human arms into chicken arms, and start making his way toward the Swamp Thing.
And then in All Star Superman #5, Clark Kent interview Lex Luthor in prison!
Next Time: Wolverine: Weapon X (1991) from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84
If the modern stone age family wasn’t modern enough for you, then we’ve got good news: it’s a reboot, baby! Mark Russell and Steve Pugh re-imagined The Flintstones in this 2016 series filled with cave puns, science “facts,” and hot takes on society.
We also finally learn the origin of Yabba Dabba Doo, a secret that hardcore Flintstones fans have been dying to learn, probably.
Plus All Star Superman #4!
Next Time: Animal Man (2011) #1-6
Jean Grey’s lost it.
Mastermind’s been making her think she’s in the past, she’s been smooching dudes she shouldn’t be smooching, and now the Phoenix Force has moved in and I don’t think she can handle it.
All this while the X-Men fight fancy folks and aliens in the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga from Uncanny X-Men #133-137.
And in All Star Superman #3, we meet some jerks!
Next Time: The Flintstones #1-6
The first appearances of Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, AND Emma Frost? The Dark Phoenix Saga is a story so big, we wouldn’t dream of trying to contain it in one episode.
We read the first half in Uncanny X-Men #129-132 and watched as Scott Summers couldn’t handle Jean’s smoochin’ ways.
And in All-Star Superman #2, what’s hidden in Superman’s secret room?!?!?!
Next Time: We finish the Dark Phoenix Saga with Uncanny X-Men #133-137 (with an option for #138)!
It’s time for Endgame! No, not Avengers… it’s Batman: Endgame from 2015, the culmination of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman.
We also start our next long-read tile: All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely! What a time to be alive.
Next Time: We begin a new 2-parter with The Dark Phoenix Saga Pt.1 (Uncanny X-Men 129-132)
It’s the 2nd part of our Avengers: Forever read! This time it’s less about time travel and more about pulling in Avengers from every timeline. See also: The Kree Supreme Intelligence, Rick Jones, and Kang all pile into a car and drive/fly through space together.
We also unpack Secret Wars a bit more by reading Uncanny X-Men 138. An epilogue issue where Colossus, Wolverine and Nightcrawler talk about their feelings at a bar.
Next Time: We spoil Endgame with Batman: Endgame (Batman (2011) #35-40)
Have you ever heard of the Avengers? Well they’re FOREVER. They fought dinosaurs in the wild west and they tried to stop Skrull Nixon in the ‘50s.
Kurt Busiek chronicles their foreverventures in Avengers: Forever, a 12-issue limited series from the late ’90s.
As far as I can tell, it’s about 2 Hank Pyms stopping 3 Kangs, or something like that. We read the first 6 issues of Forever + the finale of Secret Wars with issue 12! We’ll miss that floating suburb of Denver!
Next Time: Avengers Forever 7-12 + Uncanny X-Men 183 (Secret Wars epilogue)
Detective Comics just released their milestone 1000th issue, so of course we had to read it! But of course we had to take a look back in time and visit the first appears of Batman aka “The Bat-Man” in Detective Comics #27 as well.
Did Detective Comics #1000 do better or worse than Action Comics #1000?
Then we approach the end of Secret Wars with issue #11.
Next Time: Avengers Forever (1998) 1-6 + Secret Wars Finale!
It’s our 100th episode!
And as we do with every anniversary, we celebrate with Batman! This time it’s Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, a story that takes place in 2039...aka Batman's 100th year.
Then we continue our read of Secret Wars with issue 10. Galactus may be defeated, but Doom's about to Doom.
We also marked this momentous occasion the only way three nerds know how: by talking about more nerdy things. Here’s to 100 more!
Next Time: Batman reaches his own anniversary with Detective Comics 1000 (out on store shelves today!) and we read the first appearance of Batman in Detective Comics 27 (May 1939)
We continue our last episode by finishing off the Kree Skrull War from Avengers 94-97.
We’re not entirely sure when the war started, but we do know that a fake senator (alien in disguise!) is trying to take down the Avengers by making the public scared of aliens. Bad move, dude.
And then the Inhumans show up?
We're also nearing the end of Secret Wars with issue 9.
Next Time: We celebrate our 100th episode with Batman: Year 100!
We’ve been talking about a lot of “Event” comics recently, and this week we’re going back to what could arguable be called the first big Marvel event, the Kree-Skrull War from Avengers 89-97.
We’re splitting it up into two parts, reading issues 89-93 this time, plus the continuation of our Secret Wars read with issue 8.
Two different Marvel events in one episode?
They said it couldn't be done.
Next Time: Kree-Skrull War Conclusion! (Avengers 94-97)
For Valentine’s Day, we wanted to cover a comic book couple that we haven’t spent much time with: Dick Grayson & Barbara Gordon. Turns out Nightwing: Year One didn’t have quite as much Batgirl in it as we thought it would, but don’t worry…
Smooching.
Does.
Happen.
Join us for Nightwing 101-106 and Secret Wars 7.
Next Time: We get ready for Captain Marvel by checking out the Kree-Skrull War Part 1 (Avengers 89-93)
We tried to read Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff, but I think we must have picked up the wrong comic.
DeWolff, Spider-Man’s long-time friend in the NYPD, was barely in it!
We did get a little story about Daredevil and some villain named Sin-Eater?
And then we talked about politics even though we promised we wouldn’t. Plus Secret Wars rolls on with issue 6!
Next Time: Nightwing: Year One (Nightwing 101-106)
We don't want to spoil how Death of Superman ends, so we'll keep this brief. Let's just say that a certain "Superman" meets his "death" because he gets "punched many times in the face."
Join us for this milestone event from the early 90s as well as our continuation of Secret Wars with issue #5.
Next Time: The Death of Jean DeWolff in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man 107-110.
In 1988, DC Comics urged the American people to exercise their right to vote by calling a 900 number and deciding the fate of Robin #2, Jason Todd.
The people were not kind to Jason.
We read “Batman: A Death in the Family” from issues 426-429 by Jim “Infinity” Starlin. Does anybody actually call him that? Anyways, this book doesn’t get very cosmic, but we do get the Joker/Ayatollah team-up we didn’t know we needed.
All this, plus Secret Wars #4!
Next Time: The Death of Superman!
With the passing of Stan Lee, we took a look back at some of his classic origin stories in Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15 and Avengers #1.
We celebrated this legend’s life the only way we knew how: debating what credit he should actually receive and how much should go to Ditko & Kirby.
Then we continued Secret Wars with issue 3 in which lots of stuff maybe happened. Blink and you’ll miss it!
Next Time: Batman: A Death in the Family (Batman 426-429)
We’re back! After a little break, we’re picking up right where we left off with a Halloween episode in December.
We read Volume 1 of Afterlife With Archie, which of course led us to some discussion about Netflix's "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" and the CW's "Riverdale" TV series.
We also continue reading Secret Wars with issue 2 and Vince fills us in on how his personal Justice League is coming along.
Next Time: We remember Stan Lee with Amazing Fantasy 15, Fantastic Four #1, and Avengers #1!
We’ve reached the final issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths!
And as our first long-read book ends, we jump right into our next one and begin Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (yes, that’s the full title).
We look back at the entirety of DC’s first event and what it meant for comics as a whole before reading Secret Wars #1 to see what direction Marvel took for their first event.
And we’ll keep reading an issue of Secret Wars every episode to see how the story progresses!
Next Time: Afterlife with Archie
You want teeth? Venom’s got teeth!
As his first movie approaches release, we thought we’d read his first titular miniseries, Venom: Lethal Protector from 1993.
Venom travels through time*, fights five different versions of his own symbiote spawn, and deals with three different dudes in suits.
And we’ve got a special no-prize going out to the first listener to count all the teeth in these issues!
PLUS! We read the penultimate issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths...and it's good?
Next Time: We wrap up Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue #12 andstart our next long reading project, Secret Wars (1984) #1!
*Venom does not travel through time.
When Batman is dead, who gets to take over Detective Comics? Batwoman!
With issue 854, Kate Kane became the star of the title and creators Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III made sure she stepped up to the plate.
It’s not often that we get to talk about werewolves and lesbian tuxedo meet-cutes in the same episode, but here we are. Join us for Batwoman: Elegy.
Also, we near the homestretch of Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue 10, as our characters abandon the issue's plot halfway through to do something way more interesting. And Wildcat once again is nowhere to be seen.
Next Time: Venom: Lethal Protector!
Even the undead fear… The Goon! But who is The Goon? We take a look at Eric Powell’s strange pulpy horror adventure crime comic series about a tough guy who beats up spiders and zombies and elves and cows and anyone else who needs a beating.
We’re looking at 4 issues (and a color special) that were self published by Eric Powell, but that Dark Horse later released as Volume 1 of the Goon.
We’re also getting close to the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue #9 of our continuing series.
Next Time: Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & JH Williams III
It’s Eisner season again! This year we took a look at the winner for best single issue, Hellboy: Krampusnacht.
But of course one issue’s not enough for us. We thought we’d also visit our old friends (and previous Eisner winners) Beasts of Burden in their team-up with Hellboy called Sacrifice before moving on to our continuing read of Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue #8. We’re two-thirds of the way through!
Next Time: The Goon
In this episode, we honor Steve Ditko's memory by reading one of his rare solo creations as both writer and penciller with Charloton Comics' Blue Beetle #1-5 from 1967.
These issues also featured backup stories with The Question, so we take the time to talk about some of these early Charlton characters before they made their way to the DC Universe.
Also: Crisis on Infinite Earths heats up with the double-sized Issue #7! We finally get a backstory, stakes, a villain with an understandable motive, and emotional payoff! Spoiler-alert for what happens on the cover: Supergirl dies!
Next Time: The 2018 Eisner Award winner for Best Single Issue "Hellboy: Krampusnacht"! And we'll revisit the Beasts of Burden when they crossed over with Hellboy in 2010's "Beasts of Burden/Hellboy: Sacrifice".
Now that Cable and Domino have appeared on the big screen in Deadpool 2, the team of X-Force is all the more well-known.
We take a look at one of the best eras of X-Force with issues 70-75, when some of the other characters spread their wings and leave Cable behind.
And stick around afterwards for our continued read of Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue #6. Halfway there!
Next Time: We remember Steve Ditko with Blue Beetle (1967) 1-5
Happy 4th of July!
Last year we talked about Prez, the 1st teen president, so this year we decided to celebrate America’s upcoming reboot by reading the Prez reboot from 2015.
This time it’s a teenager named Beth Ross in the year 2036 who takes on robots, cat flu, and evil corporations like Pharmaduke.
Join us to find out if Transylvania sends any vampires again.
Plus, we continue our look into Crisis on Infinite Earths! Things are finally starting to get good!
Next Time: We get into some classic 90s X-Men with X-Force 70-75!
We continue our tradition of celebrating Marvel movies by looking at the time that hero took over the Fantastic Four. This time, it's Scott Lang's turn!
The Fantastic Four have gone away for a bit and they've left some other heroes in charge of the Future Foundation to look after all those smart kids.
Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa, and Miss Thing do their best in issues 4-8 of FF (the 2013 reboot) by Fraction and Allred.
The trade collection will confuse you by calling itself FF Vol 1: Fantastic Faux.
Also, we continue our look at Crisis on Infinite Earths, with Issue 4, in which...the plot continues...?
Next Time: Prez (2015)!
Doctor Doom loves to steal powers!
After touching on it in our last episode, we wanted to see more of his crazy schemes, so we went back to Fantastic Four 57-60 from the mid 1960s to watch him steal the Silver Surfer’s cosmic powers.
Ol’ Stan and Jack really had a good time with this one.
We also continued our read of Crisis on Infinite Earths with issue #3 which is getting slightly easier to understand. Slightly.
Next Time: FF (2012) #4-8 - "Fantastic Faux"
Infinity War "The Comic" is a little different from Infinity War "The Movie." There are lots of evil doppelgangers, Adam Warlock is the most important character, and the infinity gems aren't working together (due to a previously established court ruling). Galactus also shows up long enough to make a real boneheaded move. Nice going, Galactus. Next Time: Dr. Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers in Fantastic Four 57-60, by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby!
It’s a major milestone for the Man of Steel as we read the newly released Action Comics #1000, filled with stories honoring Superman as well as Brian Michael Bendis’ first story after his move from Marvel to DC.
And since we’re reading something so modern, we figured we’d take a look at various offerings from this year’s Free Comic Book Day.
AND on top of all that we’re starting our deep dive into the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths by reading the first issue. That’s a lot of stuff!
Next Time: Infinity War and Crisis on Infinite Earths #2
Time to head back to outer space!
After the events of Annihilation, Marvel’s reinvigorated galactic universe gets taken over by robots. Sequel time!
Annihilation: Conquest brings back Nova, Quasar, Moondragon, Star-Lord and a whole slew of outer space favorites.
Rocket and Groot make their modern debuts too. We say modern because Groot’s 1st appearance was back in Tales to Astonish #13 from 1960. But he was a little… different. If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that trees will always be popular in comic books.
Next Time: Action Comics #1000, Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, Free Comic Book Day 2018 selections!
It’s our 3-year anniversary, so we had to continue the tradition by reading Batman: Year 3 from 1989 by Marv Wolfman with art by Pat Broderick.
No really, we had to, we’re thankful there’s no Year Four.
Originally from issues 436-439, it appears to be a story retelling Robin’s origin. And then they pasted the “Year Three” title on it. Then they changed “Three” to a "3" for some reason. Look, we don’t know.
Next Time - Annihilation: Conquest
Has anyone even heard of Moon Knight?
We read the first 6 issues from his ongoing series in 1980 and we’ve learned that he might be crazy or he might be dead.
Or both.
And he has multiple personalities.
He also might have werewolf blood.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Join us while we try!
Next Time: Batman: Year Three (Batman 436-439)
The burning question on everyone’s lips: Would Batman have been able to solve the Jack the Ripper murders?
Duh, obviously yeah.
Gotham by Gaslight, an Elseworlds tale from 1989, covers the whole story with art by pre-Hellboy Mike Mignola.
They even just made an animated movie out of it, which is different in A LOT of ways.
Next Time: Moon Knight (1980) #1-6
We heard that Black Panther was kind of a big deal (btw, check out last week's spoilercast about the movie), so this week we're looking at his short-lived stint as the leader of the Fantastic Four.
Written in 2007 by Dwayne McDuffie (Damage Control, Static Shock, much of the DC Animated Universe), Fantastic Four 544-550 finds the the titular team in disarray after Civil War. Reed and Sue take a break from the team, so the newly-married T'Challa and Storm join up with Johnny and Ben to fight classic foes like the Silver Surfer and the Frightful Four.
Doctor Strange, the Watchers, and Klaw also make guest appearances!
Next Time: Gotham by Gaslight
Spoilers spoilers spoilers!
We have a very special episode to talk about the biggest movie in the world, Black Panther! Was Killmonger right? How good of a performance did young Forest Whitaker give? Are the Oscars for Costume Design and Original Song already locked up
Special guest Marselles from The Blurred Nerds and Pixl Gods podcasts joins special guest Kimberly on this episode. Bruce also chimes in with his favorite moments from Thor: Ragnarok
Next week, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming covering Fantastic Four 544-550 (Black Panther & Storm join the Fantastic Four)!
Happy Valentine’s Day! We’re celebrating in the traditional way, which is to doubt all love right before your wedding, but go through with it anyways.
At least that’s what’s Spider-Man did, yeesh. Don’t let that loser get you down though, there are some fun Marvel Weddings to be had!
We read three of them: Reed Richard & Sue Storm (Fantastic Four Annual 3), Peter Parker & MJ (Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21), and Scott Summers & Jean Grey (X-Men 30).
Next Time: Fantastic Four 544-550 (Black Panther & Storm join the Fantastic Four)
Anyone else ever been in a court room, representing a ghost or maybe Spider-Man, and just dying to change into She-Hulk?
But you can’t because your boss really wants you to stay regular old Jennifer Walters? But then he screws up by letting a bunch of miniaturized super-villains escape from a high-tech prison? Yeah, me neither.
Join us as we read She-Hulk 1-6 from 2004!
Next Time: Marvel Weddings (Fantastic Four Annual #3, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, X-Men #30)
Aunt May. It’s really a miracle that she lived as long as she did. The woman was in her 70’s for about 30 years, always on the verge of death from some disease or another.
In 1995, writer J. M. DeMatteis agreed and finally killed her off in Amazing Spider-Man #400.
There were also a bunch of Spider-Clones running around. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about that. Of course we'll talk about that.
Next Time: She-Hulk (2004) #1-6 by Dan Slott
Does it count as a spoiler if it’s in the title? Jim Starlin don’t care, he does what he wants.
He and Marvel changed up their regular comic book format with The Death of Captain Marvel in 1982, the beginning of a line of original graphic novels intended to be richer stories for a more mature audience and published like traditional books.
But what kills him?!?!?! Sorry, no spoilers.
Next Time: Amazing Spider-Man #400: The Death of Aunt May
Happy Holidays! We’re embracing the spirit of togetherness by reading seasonal comics by both DC AND Marvel!
For DC, we’re covering Gotham Central #12-15 about a murderous rampage from the Joker just days before Christmas.
For Marvel, it's Uncanny X-Men #143 featuring Kitty Pryde alone at the X-Mansion while everyone is away on vacation.
Join us and see if you can figure out who secretly got drunk on eggnog while we recorded.
Next Time: The Death of Captain Marvel
In the mid-90s, Lucasfilm decided to fill in the Star Wars gap between episodes 5 and 6 with Shadows of the Empire.
There was a game, a book, a soundtrack, a junior novelization… pretty much everything except a movie.
There was even a comic book! And we read it! All 6 issues!
What’s gonna happen?
Is Luke gonna die?! (no) Is Boba Fett gonna die?! (no) Is Han gonna get delivered to Jabba?! (yeah) Is Leia going to be the victim of sexual assault?! (omg, what the hell did we just read).
Geoff Johns has been one of the important modern writers for DC, so it’s about time we talked about him.
Before becoming one of the main architects of their universe, he made a name for himself by writing The Flash in the early 2000’s. He capped off his first year of that run with a one-shot called Iron Heights, drawn by Ethan Van Sciver, set in the prison where The Flash’s rogues’ gallery is kept.
We heard it was great, but did we hear correctly? Join us to find out!
Next Time: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire!
Justice League’s almost out, but we had the brilliant idea of reading about the FUTURE JLA from Alex Ross and Mark Waid’s Kingdom Come in 1996. A beautifully painted miniseries where the only characters that matter are Superman and Batman.
Turns out it’s barely about the Justice League. Whoops! But hey, at least it’s pretty.
Next time: The Flash: Iron Heights by Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver
If we’ve learned anything from this show, the best way to make a cool Thor comic is to take a non-human character and put Thor clothes on it. It worked with Frog Thor and it totally works with Beta Ray Bill.
We read his 1st appearance at the beginning of Walt Simonson’s classic run from the mid 80s in issues 337-343.
Thor also fights a dragon and changes his secret identity situation from unnecessary to still unnecessary.
Next Time: Kingdom Come
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, once a beloved TGIF star, has finally received a reboot. And believe it or not, it’s one of the best horror comics we’ve ever read.
Sure, her aunts Zelda and Hilda are still there, but they quite enjoy eating people and making sure that Sabrina completes her satanic rituals. Salem the talking cat is there too, along with a host of other animal familiars.
And blood.
Lots of blood.
Join our coven as we read Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1-5.
Next Time: The Mighty Thor #337-343 by Walt Simonson, starring Beta Ray Bill!
Marvel goes back to space! After several decades of neglecting some of their outer space properties, they decided to bring it all back to the spotlight with a big cosmic event in 2006 called Annihilation.
There were a lot of aliens we hadn’t met before, but a few familiar faces (even if Star-Lord did have a weird cybernetic eye).
We read the main event in issues 1-6, but we’ll also discuss all the other event comics that went along with it so we can try to sort through this gigantic cast of characters.
Next Time: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1-6
For this episode, we’re reading Marvel’s comic about all their street-level heroes teaming up, The Defenders! … wait…no, Marvel Knights!
It’s like the Defenders TV show except all the characters are different. Well that’s not totally true, Daredevil is there.
And The Punisher fights a weird giant spider-person.
Just listen to the episode, it’ll all make sense.
Not sure what to read? There’s always more Moore! We continue our tour of Alan Moore’s ABC imprint with Promethea, his take on a female warrior goddess hero.
But if you’re expecting Wonder Woman, think again.
In classic Moore fashion, we end up with a story that pushes the boundaries of the imagination with artwork by J.H. Williams III bringing that vision to life.
Join us as we read Promethea #1-6.
Next time: Marvel Knights 1-6
The Tick has had one heck of a ride. From black and white indie comics, to Saturday morning cartoon, to prime time sitcom, to a new streaming series on Amazon.
We thought we’d check out how it all started with Ben Edlund’s first 6 issues from 1988. Little did we expect to find parodies of Superman and Elektra, wise-cracking minions, and French bread.
Next Time: Promethea by Alan Moore
It’s a tale as old as time. Or the 60’s, really.
Spider-Man’s villains all team up to fight him. They call themselves the Sinister Six because it sounds cool (alliteration is ALWAYS cool). Then they have a million reunions because Spider-Man’s not dead yet and why not?
We read the first two incarnations of the SS in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 and then in issues #334-339.
Come for the rogues’ gallery, stay for Aunt May and Doc Ock flirting.
Next time: The Tick!
The television adaptation of Preacher just started its 2nd season, so we decided to read the first couple of stories from the classic Vertigo comic.
But does it hold up? Or is it yet another gore-fest from writer Garth Ennis?
Special guest Rob Robinson joins us to talk about angels, demons, aliens, vampires and arse-faces as we read issues 1-7 of Preacher.
Next Time: Spider-Man and the Sinister Six! [Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964) and Amazing Spider-Man #334-339]
His name is Prez. He was the first teenage president of the USA.
Unfortunately he only got 4 issues from DC back in 1973.
He sure made the most of them though, defeating some Russians, a bunch of gun nuts, and even Dracula and the Wolf Man.
Since poor Prez deserved a decent send-off, we also read Sandman #54 to see Neil Gaiman’s take on the same character 20 years later!
Next Time: Preacher #1-7
Spider-Man villains sure do love teasing their arrival before their full first appearances. “Dudes in Shadows” we like to call them.
This time around it’s Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #298-300. Join us as Peter tries to deal with his evil former costume while juggling his romantic troubles.
Specifically how his supermodel wife makes more money than him and wants a bigger apartment. And we feel so, sooooooo sorry for Peter. Really.
Next Time: Prez (1973) - The story of America's first teenage president!
We’re heading back out to space!
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps building towards Infinity War, we’re doing the same with all of Jim Starlin’s Infinity books and this time it’s the Infinity Gauntlet, a 6-issue miniseries and one of Marvel’s best event comics of all time.
Spoiler Alert: Thanos kills everybody.
There’s a Wonder Woman movie coming out, so we read some Wonder Woman comics because that’s how these things work.
We decided on George Perez’s 1987 reboot, filled to the tippy top with Greek gods, evil body doubles, and really creepy banshee lady.
Join us for Wonder Woman #1-6!
The Story of the Year comes to a close! It’s the second half of our first two-parter as we read issues 49-52 of Alan Moore’s Supreme.
Who will be Supreme’s undoing? Will Supreme ever find love? Will that mouse find enough superheroes to fill out the roster for his 50’s baseball team?
The answers to all those questions and more can be found within!
The comics industry is full of Superman knock-offs. Every creator wants to be able to tell their own version of the story, but they’ve got to change all the details if they want to avoid lawsuits from DC.
Supreme is one such knock-off who probably would have fallen into obscurity if Alan Moore hadn’t taken over the series to write a story so epic we had to split it up into our first two-part episode!
Join us as we get this story going with Supreme #41-48.
It’s our 2nd year anniversary! So of course we had to keep the tradition alive and read Batman: Year Two from the late 80s, a shameless excuse to capitalize on Frank Miller’s iconic Year One.
Miller wasn’t even involved, but you’ll still see Todd McFarlane first work for DC! That’s… something.
We’ll also try to figure out why Batman would team up with the killer of his parents and why Jim Gordon has turned into a complete idiot.
It’s become a little April Fools tradition of ours to do a silly comic, but we learned that Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers (a 4-issue mini from 2009) is surprisingly faithful to the Marvel canon.
MVP for best character goes to Frog Thor aka Throg and that doesn’t make you want to read this then I don’t want to know you.
Iron Fist is finally getting his own TV show and we’re not entirely sure who’s excited about that. We went back to the mid-70’s to read his first solo series in hopes of finding out where his appeal came from… and we came up short.
The good news is that literally every other character is way more interesting than Danny Rand himself, so there’s still plenty of fun stuff to talk about.
Join us for our 50th Episode Super Kung-Fu Podstravagaza Special which is secretly hosted by skeletons wearing our clothes.
Old Man Hawkeye. I mean… wait… Old Man Logan, a comic book about Venom-Dinos, Dumb Hulks, and the Red Skull doing creepy Captain America cosplay. And Wolverine was kind of in it too.
It’s a goofball buddy comedy road trip for the ages!
For being one of DC's most important heroes, we sure haven't given the Flash much attention.
We tried to remedy that by reading a classic Mark Waid story from the early 90s called The Return of Barry Allen, a story that manages to encompass every generation of the Flash.
You'll get the modern Flash, Wally West. You’ll get the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. And, of course, you'll get the return of the titular Silver Age Flash… unless there's a plot twist of some sort… but don't worry, I'm sure that won't happen…
Can you believe the Black Panther is getting his own movie? Twenty years ago, most people had never even heard of him and now everyone’s going crazy for him!
To see where his rise began, we're reading the late 90s reboot that put him on the map, written by Christopher Priest with beautiful painted art by Mark Texeira who is NOT the 1st baseman for the Texas Rangers.
Join us as we check out the first five issues!
Ducks! Ducks! Ducks! If you ever loved Duck Tales as a kid, then you owe it all to Carl Barks, creator of Scrooge McDuck and the city of Duckburg in the pages of his comics in the 1940s.
We look back at his most well loved story, Lost in the Andes, starring Donald Duck with his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. (Warning: We may or may not solve mysteries / rewrite histories.)
It’s been way too long since we read some Alan Moore, so it’s time to remedy that with his run on Swamp Thing from the early 80’s.
It’s dark, twisted stuff that turned the concept of Swamp Thing on its head and reinvigorated the franchise and influenced to many other comics to this day.
And that terrific horrific art by Steven Bissette…. treat yourself.
It’s the mid-2000’s revival that nobody asked for! But hot damn was it amazing. It’s Squirrel Girl! And she joined the Great Lakes Avengers in a little miniseries called GLA: Misassembled.
But then they became the GLX (because X-Men, duh) and so then there was a GLX-Mas one-shot special and we just went ahead and read the whole damn thing.
There’s a death in every single issue, surely that will put you in the holiday spirit!
Batman's not the only hero to get a Year One.
This time around, the gang reads Robin: Year One to see how it compares to the Frank Miller classic.
We'll discuss how easy it is to mix up all the Robins, the merits of attacking random little boys on the street, and whether or not Two-Face has a law degree.
Nextwave! A little Marvel series you’ve maybe never heard of that’s generated quite a bit of a cult following. Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen take us on a wild ride that manages to both celebrate and parody everything we love about superhero comics.
We read the first 6 issues, join us to find out if we exploded!
What happens when a bunch of Avengers villains band together to form The Masters of Evil? They take over Avengers Mansion of course! We take a look at a classic storyline by Roger Stern and John Buscema from the mid 80’s called Under Siege that ran in issues 270-277 (with a little underwater break in 272).
We’ll meet a bunch of our favorite B, C, and D-list villains and see if ol’ sock-head Baron Zemo can lead them to victory!
Doctor Strange is almost here! If the trailers are to be believed, Marvel’s next movie is going to have us unwrapping our minds, opening them up to new possibilities.
We figured we’d better get some practice with that, so we read a Doctor Strange miniseries from 2007 called The Oath written by frenemy of the show, Brian K. Vaughan, and drawn by Marcos Martin.
Join us to find out which otherworldly horror we’re getting tattoos of!
This week we read another fairly recent comic, All-New Ghost Rider 1-5 from 2014, because it introduced a new version of the Ghost Rider character that they've been using for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show this season.
No more flaming skeleton on a bike, now he’s a flaming skeleton in a hot rod! Cooooool. So what's so great about this new Robbie Rodriguez Ghost Rider? Join us as we try to figure it out!
Sweet Christmas! Luke Cage is coming to Netflix!
We're pretty familiar with his modern adventures, but hadn't read any of his older stuff like Power Man. We thought it'd be fun to check out the first time he met his BFF Iron Fist in Power Man 48-50, and then Power Man & Iron Fist 59-60.
Join us if you want to learn what a samovar is!
This week, we go back to the late 1980s -- a time when most comics were trying to imitate that Frank Miller & Alan Moore were bringing with Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Cue JUSTICE LEAGE INTERNATIONAL!
Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis attempt to re-form DC's flagship book as a humorous, light-hearted funny book. Is it successful? Help us decide as we read JLI 7-13!
It's about time we did another non-superhero book. This time we jump to the Crossgen universe (yes, they had a universe!) to read Ruse by one of our favorites writers, Mark Waid.
It's a Sherlock Holmes story, but if it focused more on a female Watson who uses time-stop magic that Sherlock doesn't know about.
Don’t worry, it'll all make sense. Join us for Ruse 1-5!
Nobody ever thinks about the little guys, the ones who have to clean up after all the superheroes. Nobody but Dwayne McDuffie, that is!
He wrote a few miniseries for Marvel called Damage Control with artist Ernie Colon and together they tackled the comedic world of work orders and bureaucracy.
Join us as we read the 2nd Damage Control miniseries "Acts of Vengeance" from 1989!
And the Eisner for Best New Series goes to… PAPER GIRLS by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang!
We took a look at the first story arc in issues 1-5 and tried to piece together what we could from this bizarre time travel story. The room was pretty split as we tried to make the case for and against their Eisner win.
#SquirrelGirlForever #NotMyEisners
It’s our 2016 Eisner Pre-Show Spectacular! As we gear up for the awards, we take a look at three past winners of the “Best Single Issue” award. Astro City #4 from 1996, Tom Strong #1 from 2000, and Hawkeye #11 from 2014.
We also read one of this year’s nominees, Silver Surfer #11, and we would have read them all but indie comics can be hard to find sometimes!
We talk about all four of these very different stories and decide if they were indeed worthy of the coveted Eisner award. And we don’t agree!
Dogs and cats! Cats and dogs! Ghosts and zombies and witches and frogs!
Instead of our typical superhero fare, today we stray away from the pack (get it?) and read the first volume of Beasts of Burden, a collection of eight short stories about pets encountering the supernatural.
Evan Dorkin’s scary and sentimental writing combined with Jill Thompson’s beautiful artwork makes this a series that’s not to be missed!
Doom Patrol! A name some of us have heard far too often, but do we really know what it means?
To find out, we travel back to the late ‘80s to read the start of one of Grant Morrison’s first runs with DC comics in Doom Patrol 19-22.
We’ve got Surrealism, Dadaism, and the straight up bizarre in spades as we deal with a humans trapped in a robot body, multiple personality (and multiple super-power!) disorder, and a wheelchair bound asshole.
To celebrate his big screen arrival, we took a look at the weirdest Apocalypse miniseries we could find, and that was X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula!
Sounds cool, doesn’t it? We thought so too, but instead we just got a bunch of British dudes showing off their tattoos. Listen as we try to figure out why this comic exists and what would have made a much more interesting story.
Next Episode: Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, issues 19-22
Darwyn Cooke, one of our favorite comic book creators, passed away last week at the age of 53. To honor him, we decided to cover his magnum opus, DC: The New Frontier, which takes a look at the Dawn of DC’s new superheroes and the birth of the Justice League in the 1950’s.
It’s an oversized 6-issue miniseries completely written and drawn by Cooke himself and it’s an absolute must-read for fans of the genre, young and old.
How was there not a Power Pack cartoon in the ‘80s? How is there not one NOW?!?
We took a look at issues 1-4 of this 1984 Marvel superteam created by debut writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman.
We really let it transport us to a land of sugary cereals on Saturday morning and fake unicorn grandparents that you love more than your actual family (yes, really).
We also try to figure out why someone named Alex Power would choose the much lamer “Gee” as a codename. Get it together, Alex. You’re an embarrassment to the Power Pack.
Next week, the Marvel Cinematic Universe tears itself apart in Captain America: Civil War, based on the best-selling Marvel comic CIVIL WAR!
We go back 10 years ago to read the original CIVIL WAR, where Captain America and Iron Man broke up, Spider-Man told the world he was Peter Parker, and everybody's best friend (who hadn't been in a comic in over decade) died!
This one's for Cody!
It’s our one year anniversary special! And what better way to celebrate a full year of comics than with the definitive Batman origin story, Year One!
And even better, it’s by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, the same creators from our very first episode. Full circle, whoaaaaa!
Join us as we talk about our some of our favorite moments from Batman’s first year in action as well our own first year in action!
And did you know Bryan Cranston once played Jim Gordon? Well he did and it was great! And why isn’t Vince as good as LeBron James?
Join us for all the answers!
It's April Fools Day and Chris played one hell of an unintentional prank on us by choosing Not Brand Echh for this week's episode.
We read the first three issues of Stan Lee’s 1967 attempt to make a Marvel comedy magazine and, to be honest, we had a pretty great time ripping this thing to shreds while searching for any jokes.
It also gave us a great chance to talk about a bunch of other funny comics that are actually worth reading! All that and more on today's Bum Of My Bends Bead Bomics!
Who says a podcast has to be good??
Ladies and gentlemen and aliens, tonight's heavyweight qualifier match is coming to you LIVE from the planet Bodace and will determine the fate of our galaxy.
In the red corner, from the planet Krypton, weighing in at 235 lbs, it’s Superman! And in the blue corner, from the planet Earth, weighing in at 236 lbs, Muhammad Ali! (Really Google? Superman weighs less than Ali?)
Michael joins us at ringside to fill in our gaps of sports knowledge as we read Superman vs Muhammad Ali from 1978!
Let’s get ready to ruuuuuummmmble!
Before we recorded our Thanos episode a couple months back, we knew we were gonna eventually head back to outer space to cover the Infinity Guantlet.
But we had so much fun reading Thanos Quest and were so impressed with the writing and art of Jim Starlin that we decided to head back even sooner!
This time we took a look at Adam Warlock, a character that Vince and Kia knew absolutely NOTHING about, other than that he appeared in the background of Guardians of the Galaxy and was eventually gonna be pretty important.
Luckily, Chris is here as usual to clarify exactly what the heck is going on. Join us as we read Strange Tales 178-181 and Warlock 9-11!
Everybody’s got Deadpool-mania! His new film just broke box office records for an R-rated release… unprecedented for a comic book character less than 30 years old!
To find out how the wise-crackin’, fourth-wall-breakin’, merc-with-a-mouth got to be so popular, we went back to the first time he broke the mold.
In Deadpool #10 & #11 from 1997, good old Wade Wilson goes back in time to 1967 and invades Amazing Spider-Man #47, taking the place of that goody two shoes Peter Parker.
There’s also this picture of Deadpool as Forrest Gump, and we can’t figure out why! It’s pop-culture references galore in this week’s episode of SOMFRC!
All around me are the Batman’s cases: Joker chases, makeup faces.
Harley Quinn just wants the Joker’s embraces. Plays her Aces, schemes take places.
And this comic’s kinda funny, this comic’s kinda sad.
The panels where she’s dreaming are the best I’ve ever had.
We liked Paul Dini’s writing. And Bruce Timm’s art was great.
Like the animated series, it’s a very very… Mad Love.
When it comes to classic superteams, one of the first names that comes up is the Teen Titans.
It started out as kid versions of DC’s big guns, but when Marv Wolfman and George Perez reinvented the series with The New Teen Titans, they became one of the most popular teams of the 80’s.
Join us as we check out issues 1-6 from 1980!
Thanos! He’s a big purple dude that keeps showing up in the Marvel movies… but why is everyone always freaking out about him?
Since he’s gonna be the big bad in the next Avengers movie, we figured we’d get some backstory by reading the 1990 comics where he became a major player. And it all started with his resurrection in Silver Surver 34-38, followed by his hunt for the Infinity Gems in Thanos Quest 1-2.
Writer Jim Starlin takes us into the world of Marvel’s cosmic galaxy that he helped form, and artist Ron Lim gives us some breath-taking psychedelic images.
What a team!
Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!
Few things go together better than The Punisher and Christmas (maybe peanut butter & jelly, spaghetti & meatballs, or lamb & tuna fish).
Get into the holiday spirit with Marvel's foremost vigilante - The Punisher - as he murders a bunch of bad guys on Christmas!
In this episode, we look at the Punisher Christmas Specials from 2004, 2005, and 2006, and the gang is more divided than ever! Listen as we fail to agree on the Punisher AT ALL.
A long time ago in a continuity far, far away… Dark Horse Comics made a TON of Star Wars comics, more than 500 of 'em. And they kicked the whole thing off with Dark Empire, a story where Luke turns to the Dark Side.
Apparently, this thing was so important that all the Star Wars novels from the 90's kept referencing it, so we decided to read it and see what all the fuss was about. Join us as we ask the questions: Is Leia a trucker? Is the Emperor a vampire? Is Boba Fett good at anything?
Marvel owns the rights to all these comics now, what with Disney owning everything in the world these days, so if you’d like to read them just head on over to Marvel Unlimited.
The majority of Spider-Man's most memorable villains have been around since the early days when he was still under the care of Stan Lee, but one of the few mainstays he didn't create was the Hobgoblin.
In this episode, we take a look at Roger Stern's run with Spidey to see what makes Ol' Hobby so much more special than just the Green Goblin with a new paint job.
We also get to witness Peter "THE ANIMAL" Parker in his most ridiculous wardrobe ever. And you can too if you head on over to allmyfriendsarerighthere.com!
Jessica Jones is almost on Netflix! We’re pumped but we didn’t want to accidentally spoil anything, so we read a story from her debut series, Alias, that definitely won’t have anything to do with the show.
In issues 16-21, Jessica runs around looking for Spider-Woman (Women?), she sleeps with Ant-Man (Paul Rudd?), and she’s gotta deal with that idiot, Speedball, and his dumb balls bouncing all over the place (????).
Not only that, but we throw in b-b-b-bonus issue #10 where she scams J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle. Classic Jessica.
Batman embarks on a search for the mysterious “Holiday” Killer who, starting on Halloween, kills mobsters on major holidays until Batman finally catches Holiday a year later…
Wait, a year?!?! Better improve those detective skills, Bruce.
To be fair, he gets distracted by every single member of his rogues gallery and on top of all that he has to watch Harvey Dent go crazy and turn into Two-Face.
Join us as we read The Long Halloween and disagree completely on just about every aspect of this story!
Kids run away for lots of reasons, but most of the time it’s because they find out their parents are supervillains, right? Right?!
Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) brings us one of Marvel’s most original superhero teams since the 60’s and one of the greatest entry points for any reader into the wonderful world of comic books.
In the Criminal Justice System, the super-people gotta deal with two separate, yet equally important groups. The Top Ten precinct and their dog-boss who investigate the super-crimes and the shark-people who do a terrible job of trying to defend them. This is Alan Moore's story.
DUN DUN.
Boy, America sure did luck out when Superman landed here, right? This friggin’ alien could have landed ANYWHERE ELSE on Earth! How much would that have sucked? Especially if he had landed in the hands of one of our enemies... like stupid Communist Russia. Imagine how terrible that would have been!
Actually, don’t imagine it, just read Superman: Red Son to see how it would’ve gone down (with 100% historical accuracy.)
We finally read about the mutant menace as our friends, Scott and Richard, join us to discuss Giant-Size X-Men #1 from 1975, one of the most important X-issues ever!
Not only was it the first new X-Men story in 5 years, but it also marked Wolverine’s 1st time with the X-Men as well as the 1st appearances of fan favorites Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus.
We’ll also meet Sunfire and Thunderbird and figure out why nobody remembers them (and no, it’s not just because they’re huge jerks.)
Also, Banshee is there but nobody cares about Banshee.
And, if you'd like to get a jump on next episode, we'll be reading Superman: Red Son!
If you've ever heard of The Clone Saga before, you probably know that it’s one of the most controversial storylines in Spider-Man’s history, and with good reason.
Originally planned to be a year-long event in the 90’s, it got muddled with so many loose plot threads among different writers that it ended up as a 3-year, 174-issue story that’s generally recognized as a stain on Marvel’s history.
In this week's episode, the gang takes a look at 2009’s The Real Clone Saga which attempted to distill the story to the key points and tell it in the way it was originally meant to be told. But is it any good? Well we're obviously not gonna tell you here, listen to the dang episode!!
Time travel & alternate universes, robot Josef Stalins, and triceratopses -- all the silly staples of any good Fantastic Four story.
On today's SOMFRC, the gang reads Fantastic Four #343-346 - written and drawn by the great Walt Simonson (Thor, Detective Comics). But is this story as fantastic as our eponymous foursome??
Find out on SOME OF MY FRIENDS READ COMICS!!
75 years ago, if you had told us that a guy who runs around in clown makeup stealing jewels would one day become the most iconic supervillain in comics, then we're afraid we wouldn't have heard you because we weren't born yet.
In this very special episode all about The Joker, we take a look back at his first appearance in Batman #1 and then read what has been called the greatest Joker story of all time, Alan Moore's controversial The Killing Joke. Join us, won't you?
The Scientist, The Criminal, and The Sexist Douchebag! Primetime sitcom? Nope! It’s the three different guys that have been Ant-Man. In this episode, we sort through them and discuss cue dramatic music THE MANY ORIGINS OF ANT-MAN!
Ready for some trippy 60's comic book art? We sure are, and you can bet your American flag that Steve Rogers is too! For only three issues in 1969, Jim Steranko infused Captain America with a dose of Salvador Dali and delivered some of the coolest, most surreal, early Marvel issues we've ever seen.
Join us as we talk about the (first) time Cap faked his own death in Captain America 110, 111, and 113.
In 1997, frustrated with struggling sales, DC cancelled all four of their Justice League titles and brought the original "Big 7" back to the team for the first time in a decade. But that wasn’t enough, they also brought on superstar writer Grant Morrison to turn the reboot into a huge bestseller.
In this episode of SOMFRC, Vince, Chris, and Kia take a look at JLA #1-4 to see what the hype was all about, compare the JLA to the Avengers, and explore Morrison’s jump from writing counter-cultural indie comics to superhero icons.
Remember that time in the 70’s when Godzilla was shrunken down by Ant-Man, fought the Fantastic Four and the Avengers as he grew large again, traveled through time twice, and even had his photo snapped by good ol’ Spider-Man? You don’t?!?! Well it’s true! Not only did Godzilla have his very own 24-issue Marvel comic, but it’s ALL in continuity.
So come join Vince, Chris, and Kia as they relive the finale of this insane series and see just how our big green dino-friend fit himself into the Marvel Universe.
There’s more than one way to skin an evil murderous robot. Vince, Chris, and Kia took a look back at a couple of classic Ultron stories written 30 years apart to see just how things have changed in the comic book world.
LISTEN in amazement as they discuss differences between the movies and the comics and try to wrap their heads around exactly what the heck is going on with the Avengers.
This episode: Avengers Vol. 1 #66-68 [1969], Avengers Vol. 3 #19-22 (Ultron Unlimited) [1999]
Next episode: Marvel's Godzilla: King of the Monsters #20-24 [1979]
Big bad nurses, stabby Santas, and bowling balls to the head. It’s all right here in Born Again, a classic Daredevil story by the master of superhero noir himself, Frank Miller.
We follow Matt Murdock as he gets more paranoid than we’ve ever seen him before and falls into a deep pit of depression. But hey, can you blame the guy? You’d be a wreck too if the Kingpin discovered your secret identity and dismantled your entire life.
Chris, Vince, and Kia go through this story and discuss classic villain tropes, comparisons to Batman, and decide once and for all whether it really deserves to be called a classic. All without giving away any spoilers for the new Netflix series, we promise!