Crisis On Infinite Midlives

After a year of superheroes beating on each other in comic books and in not one, but two different cinematic universes, sometimes you just need a good, old-fashioned superhero team-up. You know, where the good guys fight each other at first because of a misunderstanding or mind control or something, then they come together to fight seemingly insurmountable odds, and finally defeat the bad guys.

Some comic publishers seem light on their ability to publish such stories recently (hi, Marvel!), but thankfully, the people in charge of the DC Arrowverse shows on The CW network have us covered. The Invasion! crossover between Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow took place this week, and gave us heroes from four shows and two Earths coming together to battle aliens, the government, and the after effects of time travel. Not to be confused with the after effects of physical travel; you might suffer Montezuma's Revenge as a result of either, but only one involves a stone axe and your face.

So we discuss the crossover: what worked and what didn't, what plot points were genius and which were purely for storytelling expediency, which characters and actors shared excellent chemistry, and who should be given more to do considering he once played Superman, for God's sake.

We also discuss The Totally Awesome Hulk #12, written by Greg Pak with art by Mahmud Asrar, and Inhumans Vs. X-Men #0, written by Charles Soule with art by Kenneth Rocafort!

Due to vagaries of comics publishing (and the fact that Civil War II has been late almost since it was solicited), this week we not only discovered the result of the battle between Captain Marvel and Iron Man, but we began to learn the price that certain characters will apparently pay for their roles in suspending the Constitution, ignoring the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, contributing to the deaths of at least three Avengers and arguably sending the Marvel Universe on the road to literal apocalypse.

And we found that price to be wanting.

So we spend a lot of time complaining bitterly about Civil War II #7, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez and Andrea Sorrentino, Captain Marvel # 10, written by Ruth Fletcher Gage and Christos Gage with art by Thony Silas, and The Ultimates 2 #1, written by Al Ewing with art by Travel Foreman.

But, since we can't be negative about everything, we also discuss Deathstroke #10, written by Priest with art by Larry Hama and Carlo Pagulayan, Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 11 #1, written by Christos Gage with art by Rebekah Issacs, and A. D.: After Death Book 1, written by Scott Snyder with art by Jeff Lemire!

It has been a weird couple of weeks here in the United States. Any week where the honest-to-God news in your local newspaper is more contentious, rancorous and secret identity-obsessed than your average comic book is one where talking about what comic creators are skipping what conventions in which American states, and which writers are retiring from what social networks feels redundant at best and depressing at worst.

But the good news is that, here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, we learned long ago that's it's an unwise decision to publicly discuss religion, politics, or inappropriate self-love over Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. The bad news is that we forgot one of those truisms during this episode. The answer will (probably not) surprise you!

Either way, we decided this would be a good time to take the long view and just talk about this week's comics. Well, about this week's comics, about how very different stories can come from similar ideas, and about unreliable narrators. So we discuss Spider-Man #9, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by NIco Leon, Batman #11, written by Tom King with art by Mikel Janin, Demonic #4, written by Christopher Sebela with art by Niko Walter, and Kill or Be Killed #4, written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips!

This past weekend, Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange opened in theaters, marking not only the latest film in Phase Three, but the first to have an opening credit production logo featuring almost no comic books.

So we discuss the movie, its similarities to Iron Man, how Benedict Cumberbatch's American accent is the enemy of suspension of disbelief, whether Doctor Strange is actually history's greatest villain, how to pronounce The Ancient One's last name, whitewashing and cultural appropriation, and, of course, spotted dick.

We also discuss Avengers #1, written by Mark Waid with art by Mike Del Mundo, and Superman #1, written by Peter Tomasi with art by Patrick Gleason!

This week, the paperback edition of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, was released. This book is a prequel to his 2012 sci-fi comic Get Jiro!, and like the original, it is steeped in modern foodie culture. Luckily, Amanda is also steeped in foodie culture. So we talk about Get […]

We discuss Marvel's latest original Netflix series: Luke Cage. This is a series that touches on a variety of classic genre fiction, from pulp to blacksploitation to 70s cop TV to good old superhero comics, and provides us with a couple of deep, well-developed villains with sympathetic motivations and believable actions. And there is also Diamondback!

We also discuss Power Man & Iron Fist #9, and Glitterbomb #2!

We are more than halfway through Marvel’s Civil War II summer event, which, like most Marvel summer events, has dragged into the fall with no end before the darkest days of winter in sight. And while we previously have idly wondered how Marvel intends to deal with characters who are on the side of profiling […]

After yet another cripplingly busy week at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office (and, to be honest, after about a quart of single malt scotch and a few belts of mescal), we only had the time to discuss a few of the comics of the week. But that turns out to have been a […]

It is the Labor Day long weekend here in the United States, and considering there was little comics news this week, we strongly considered taking a pass on a show this week. However! A quick peek at our Web site archives reminded us that today, September 4th, is the fifth anniversary of Crisis On Infinite Midlives on the Internet.

And we couldn't let the occasion pass by unmarked. So we did a very brief show (at least a brief show for us) to reminisce about where and how we started, and how we wound up where we are.

And since that story isn't a long and involved epic tale that will ring down through the ages to eventually become a three-hour Charlton Heston movie, we also talk a little bit about some Spider-Man: Homecoming casting news, The Attack of The Mushroom People (for some reason), and some of this week's comics: Suicide Squad Special: War Crimes, written by John Ostrander with art by Gus Vasquez, Thunderbolts #4, written by Jim Zub with art by Jon Malin, and Uncanny Avengers #13, written by Gerry Duggan with art by Ryan Stegman!

We're not gonna apologize here: we love The Tick. During the 1980s Rob was a regular customer of the Brockton, MA New England Comics retail store where The Tick was born, Amanda was a fan of the 1990s Fox cartoon that brought the character to national prominence, and we both enjoyed the Patrick Warburton live action show from back in the day when your live action TV superhero choices were The Tick, Smallville or (God help us) Black Scorpion.

So we were excited when Amazon Prime video announced that part of their 2016 comedy pilot season would be a new, live action version of The Tick. And as fans of the character from the days he was a Daredevil parody through his more silly Saturday morning cartoon adventures, we were excited to see the character back in live action... but we really weren't expecting what we got from the show. It's a much darker, more psychological take on the character than we've seen maybe since the first few Ben Edlund issues of the comic book, and yet still pretty funny. And we had a lot of fun talking about it, on its own merits and in comparison with earlier versions of the character.

We also discuss Kingsway West #1, written by Greg Pak with art by Mirko Colak, Civil War II: Ulysses #1, written by Al Ewing with art by Karl Kesel, and Detective Comics #939, written by James Tynion IV with art by Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira!