We recorded this episode right before our first episode of Gotch Watch, mainly as a means of getting Salt more acclimated to the state of modern Kamen Rider is. Thus, we set out to watch the first episode of four seasons of the show and give our thoughts on them: Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider Fourze, and Kamen Rider Zero-One. This is essentially a 2-hour-long Episode 0 to our Gotch Watch series.

"Fascism is the application of colonial violence to the imperial core" - Robert Paxton

If you've heard or read Strange Adventures by King, Gerads, and Shaner, you might be asking, what does this book have to do with 9/11 or the War on Terror? Our guest this week, True Outlaw of Comics Ramon Villalobos also asked this question. Is this story the condemnation of colonialist selfishness King purports it to be, is it a brazen justification for war crimes as some critics claim, or is it something else entirely? Join us as we attempt to answer what, if any connection Strange Adventures has to American imperialism.

Are you a real sicko? Head on over to the MGA Patreon to hear the sickos cut, a longer, sicker version of this episode.

This is the end (for now) of our Infinite Justice series! Thanks for listening along. We'll be back to our regular schedule next week.

Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrapplerAnimals⁠

"What does this mean?" "It should mean something"

We had a pretty varied run with the first three episodes of this series, but as we begin our descent towards the finale, we go back to the core thesis of this series. What better way to do that than to look at the work of Tom King, the eminent emperor of post-War on Terror comics? This week brings you the first of our two-part Infinite Justice finale with a look at Sheriff of Babylon, the Vertigo collaboration between Tom King and Mitch Gerads. Does this book have anything to say about King's time in the CIA, or is it just another boring murder mystery story with an Iraqi coat of paint?

Over on the patreon feed, we have the finale of Infinite Justice, as we take a look at Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Doc Shaner's Strange Adventures.

"This was once revealed to me in a dream" - Nicolas Berdyaev

Last time we looked at comics that came out in the aftermath of 9/11, but this time we're looking at a book that came out in a far more immediate aftermath than any of those other books: the day after 9/11. On 9/12/2001, the first issue of U.S. War Machine came out, written and illustrated by Chuck Austen. We sat down with Austen for a deep dive interview looking at the book's creation, its messages, and what it was like to launch a book of its nature so close to 9/11 itself.

Next we'll be diving into the first half of our two-part finale, starting with Tom King and Mitch Gerads' Sheriff of Babylon. If you thought things were wild already, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrapplerAnimals⁠

"Arousing deadly hatred simply because they were close to the business of capitalism...of making money...and enjoying freedom." - Jo Duffy

The aftermath of 9/11 brought comics creators together to reconcile with what had happened, united by taking their pens to paper. Some bought into nationalism, others questioned the possible jingoism that was going around at the time. In this episode of Infinite Justice, we took a look at four books that were created with 9/11 in mind to get a feel for what the creative talent of America were thinking. First we look at In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman, before moving onto 9/11 charity comics 9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember and A Moment of Silence, before finishing with the one comic that comes to mind when people think "9/11 comics", Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #36.

Next episode we'll be talking to Chuck Austen about his book U.S War Machine, and what it was like making comics in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Resources mentioned in this episode:

"Basically, I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man." - Barack Obama

9/11/01 rocked the United States, and the world was never the same since. 20 years later, and the MGA Department of Defense is ready to launch a counter attack on the comics that were borne of 9/11: Infinite Justice has commenced. And in true Midnight Grappler Animals fashion, when we dive deep, we need to make a multi-part series. So join us in our first installment of Infinite Justice, where first we'll learn a little about the true meaning of 'Infinite Justice'. Then we'll kick off the series with a pretty breezy topic: Rich Johnston's Iron Muslim. This is a comic that pokes fun at the war on terror, and its associated spectacle in pop culture, but just how much did writer and comics uh, journalist Rich Johnston really have to say? While Johnston's twitter paints an image of someone who (correctly) identified the War on Terror as wrong; Iron Muslim goes in an entirely different direction: celebrity satire.

Over on the patreon feed we're tackling a huge assortment of 9/11 comics, and analyzing the creative teams' varying responses to the attacks that changed America and its media.

For an extended preview of other books we'll be covering during Infinite Justice, check out our series trailer:

https://youtu.be/atjl2LA2zMM

Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them: https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrapplerAnimals

Lan and Salt head over to Precinct 10 this week for another bonus

Lan's Alan Moore video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjnatRyjRiM

For access to the complete episode and all our premium episodes subscribe to our patreon: ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals⁠⁠

Join us on Discord: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/YnHTnNd3mS⁠⁠⁠

If you liked this episode, please give us a good review!

Our best laid plans got eaten by some mice, some very bad mice!!! Lan suggested we watch Chef (2014), a movie Salt ended up liking, and Lan liked even more. As we analyze the story and themes of Chef, we also end up looking back at Favreau's recent career achievements, as we seek to understand how we can continue to find joy in the stuff we make. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon, we got a banger patreon bonus coming up next week (with material selected by patron request!), and after that we have our next mini-series we're excited to share with you. So kick back, watch Chef if you haven't already, get yourself a delcious Cubano sandwich, then listen to the episode.

Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them: https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrapplerAnimals

We start our new "Water Cooler" series with perhaps our most

For access to the complete episode and all our premium episodes subscribe to our patreon: ⁠www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals⁠

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If you liked this episode, please give us a good review!

It's been a while but we're back with the third part to our Road to Radiant Black series, covering volume 6 of Boom! Studios' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the big crossover event between it and Go Go Power Rangers: Shattered Grid! We discuss taking licensed comics into the realm of event comics, and the lessons these books learned from Big 2 direct market comics.

This event marks the end of Kyle Higgins' tenure on Power Ranger comics, and with that we'll be moving onto his non-Power Rangers books in the next part, so stay tuned for that!

Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them: https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrapplerAnimals

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Follow Lan on twitter: @LanTweets

Follow both Salt and Lan on Bluesky: @saltmbank.bsky.social, @lanskeets.bsky.social

Join us on Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/YnHTnNd3mS⁠

If you liked this episode, please give us a good review!