Dueling Review

School is in session, and Maps, Olive, Matthew and Stephen check out Gotham Academy #1! NOTE: There is some strange noise on Stephen’s track this week. We have no idea how this happened, and we haven’t had it repeat. We apologize, and we hope it doesn’t happen again. GOTHAM ACADEMY #1 Writer: Cloonan, Becky Artist: Kerschl, Karl Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: $2.99 SOLICITATION: WELCOME TO GOTHAM ACADEMY! Gotham City’s most prestigious prep school is a very weird place. It’s got a spooky campus, oddball teachers, and rich benefactors always dropping by…like that weirdo Bruce Wayne. But nothing is as strange is the students! Like, what’s up with Olive Silverlock? Is she crazy or what? Where did she go last summer? And what’s the deal with her creepy mom? And how come that Freshman MAPS is always following her around? And is she still going out with Kyle? P.S. Did you hear the rumor about the ghost in the North Hall?! GOTHAM ACADEMY is a new, monthly teen drama set in the shadow of Batman and the craziness of Gotham City, with new characters and old plus a secret tie to Gotham’s past Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

Matthew and Stephen partake in the mystical, magical, mayhem and soak up the love in this week’s review of Lumberjanes #6 from BOOM! Studios. Lumberjanes #6 Writers: Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson Artist: Brooke Allen An intense game of Capture the Flag gets even crazier when mythical ancient beings get involved! Does Jo have magical powers? Is Diane totally cheating at this game? Can the girls save Ripley from the other team’s jail?! Questions are getting answered and flags are getting captured! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

This week, we read a comic, and talk about it... explicit tag turned on! #NSFW! ITTY BITTY BUNNIES IN RAINBOW PIXIE CANDYLAND: SAVE X-MAS Writer(s): Dean Rankine Artist Name(s): Dean Rankine Cover Artist(s): Dean Rankine Itty Bitty Bunnies creator and cartoonist extraordinaire Dean Rankine lives down under, where Christmas is celebrated in the summer, so it makes perfect sense for his depraved creations to go on a holiday adventure now stateside. It also makes sense to the Bunnies to cook up a big batch of meth to help fund their Yuletide activities! Also available in a “Tickle Me Tyrone gift” variant cover, limited to 1500 copies! 32 pgs/ FC/ Mature Readers $3.99 (reg.) / $4.99 (var.) * Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

Spider-Man Noir? Superior Spider-Man? 1939 New York? That can only mean one thing - Matthew and Stephen are reviewing Marvel’s Edge of Spider-Verse #1! EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE #1 Writer: Fabrice Sapolsky Artist: Richard Isanove SPIDER-MAN NOIR RETURNS! Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $3.99 The Peter Parker of the 1930’s finds himself not only up against Mysterio, but knee-deep in the Spider-Man event of 2014! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

The Names is a suspense thriller, which should be right up the alley of at least one of your hosts, right? THE NAMES #1 Writer: Peter Milligan Artist: Leonardo Fernandez Publisher: Vertigo Cover Price $2.99 New York City. Forty-year-old Kevin Walker is a successful trader. He’s incredibly rich. He has a young, sexy wife and a son he adores. He has everything. Until… The mysterious man known as the Surgeon walks into Kevin’s office. He takes a seat and tells Kevin to write a suicide note. Trembling but obedient, Kevin does what the Surgeon says. Then, at a word from this well-dressed figure, Kevin jumps out his window and falls fifty stories to his death. Thus begins THE NAMES, an 8-issue miniseries by writer Peter Milligan (HELLBLAZER, SKREEMER) and artist Leandro Fernandez (Wolverine, Punisher: Max). THE NAMES is a dark, contemporary thriller set in the world of Big Money: hedge funds, leveraged buyouts, market raids, flash crashes. High-end finance that can ruin entire economies, run by a cabal of the world’s richest (and sickest) people. Now, it’s up to Katya Walker – the beautiful and deadly wife of the late Kevin – to take on this hidden power structure and find out who killed her husband, and why. No matter what it takes. No matter who she has to kill. It’s The Wolf of Wall Street meets Kill Bill. And heaven help the 1%. Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

Got a hankering’ for some grilled ground beef between two buns? Matthew and Stephen discuss Bob’s Burgers #1, why network cartoons work or don’t work, and talk about Lois Lane (Fallout). BOB’S BURGERS #1 Rachel Hastings, Mike Olsen, Justin Hook, Jeff Drake (w) Frank Forte, Brad Rader, Bernard Derriman, Tony Gennaro, Liza Epps, Tyler Garrison, Kimball Shirley, Anthony Aguinaldo, Hector Reynoso (a) Devin Roth (c) FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Teen+ • A new series from the hit TV show “Bob’s Burgers,” created by Loren Bouchard! All right! The very first Bob’s Burgers comic book, a new series from the creator of the hit TV show, created by Loren Bouchard! Now you can read about the Belcher family (parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene and Louise) in brand-new in-canon stories created by the TV show’s producers, writers and animators creating all original stories appearing exclusively in this comics series. Each comic includes hilarious installments of: “Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries,” “Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction,” “A Gene Belcher Original Musical,” “Letters Written by Linda” and “Bob’s Burgers of the Day.” Bob’s Burgers is an American animated sitcom that airs on Fox television with other hits such as The Simpsons and Family Guy! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

Matthew and Stephen sit down this week and marvel at the wonderful work by Eric Shanower and Gabriel Rodriguez, in IDW Publishing’s Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland #1. Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland #1 Eric Shanower (w) • Gabriel Rodriguez (a & c) An all-new, all-ages series full of magic and whimsy from award-winning creators Eric Shanower (Adventures in Oz) and Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key)! Spinning out of Winsor McKay’s brilliant early 20th century strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland sees King Morpheus’ daughter, in the Royal Palace of Slumberland, select her next-playmate: Nemo! Only Nemo has no interest in being anyone’s playmate, dream or no dream! FC • 32 pages • $3.99 Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

The Explicit Tag Is On! Matthew and Stephen let it all hang out, as the duo take on Sex Criminals #7. SEX CRIMINALS #7 (MR) Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Chip Zdarsky Publisher: Image Comics Cover Price: $3.50 SOLICITATION: Jon breaks into Kegelface’s house and oh my golly what on EARTH do you think he finds there. Not only are our beloved Sex Criminals not alone…they’re not unwatched, either. And Suzie learns once and for all the fate of her precious library. Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

Matthew and Stephen return to Dueling Review to discuss the latest issue of Invincible from Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, and Image Comics. INVINCIBLE #113 Story By: Robert Kirkman Art By: Ryan Ottley Colored By: John Rauch Cover By: Ryan Ottley Price: $2.99 The massacre continues. Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!

This week, Matthew and Stephen are sniffing the glue that binds the pages of Groo vs. Conan #1, and you won’t believe what happens next! GROO VS. CONAN #1 Writer: Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragonés Artist: Sergio Aragonés, Thomas Yeates Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Cover Price: $3.50 SOLICITATION: It had to happen: The most heroic warrior in history meets the stupidest as Robert E. Howard’s immortal Conan the Barbarian crosses swords with Sergio Aragonés’s Groo the Wanderer inGroo vs. Conan #1. This four-issue miniseries was concocted by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés, aided by illustrator Thomas Yeates and colorist Tom Luth. Will Conan annihilate Groo? Will Groo turn out to be the man who can defeat Conan? We’ll see. http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/majorspoilers/DuelingReviewDevine2.mp3 Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers VIP. It will help ensure Dueling Reviews continues far into the future!