One Comic Podcast

By many accounts, one of the few high points of the low point extravaganza that is Batman vs Superman, is the introduction of Wonder Woman to the DC Cinematic Universe. So to mark that, we've declared episode 32 The All Wonder Woman, All The Time Show. One of Diana's most famous reworkings was the post-Crisis version generally know as the [George] Perez Era, so we've jumped back to the mid-80s to look at the very first issue of that famous run. Does it stand up, thirty years later? What's good, what's bad, and what's unexpected? The Crisis wiped Diana's slate clean, so as a fresh start, how does this work out?

And what's this? More Wonder Woman? Well of course, what did you expect?. Jon's got a 3&1 of Wonder Woman eras, and at one point when he shows the others a particular cover, this is the one he means - no peeking ahead of time though.

So, what do you do if you're a famously an infamously sexy vampire heroine with a werewolf boyfriend and a snooty butler looking to make a fresh start?You move to Los Angeles, rent an enormous gothic mansion via an ad on Craig's List and get yourself a whole new wardrobe. That;s the starting point for a new series of Vampirella, and the biggest change is the most obvious - the classic Trina Robbins-designed costume, famous from the walls of comic shops the world over, is gone, at least as far as Vampi's public face is concerned. As our heroine gets settled in to her new life and deals with unexpected intruders and internet infamy we also begin to discover a monstrous threat looming over a group of unsuspecting movie extras. The plot, as they say, thickens...

And on the subject of vampires in comics, it's time for one of Jon's 3&1 segments on that very subject.

We each came to this issue of Bitch Planet with a different level of familiarity with the series, so we viewed is as everything from the latest in the run to a first peek into the world of Non-Compliance - so how this one-off story works from all our perspectives was an interesting starting point. Bitch Planet was almost one of the first titles we ever reviewed, so it's good finally to get under its skin. It's a series that's developed a substantial reputation, based only partly on its actual story; the additional material in each issue as well as the ways its fans have embraced the Non-Compliant identity are all part of what Bitch Planet is. Are we ready to get the NC tattoo too? Listen and find out.

No 3&1 this show, but it'll be back next time.

Yes, we know it's February, but we still say Happy 2016 at the start of this, our first show of the year. We're somehow managing the trick of getting all retro with a brand new comic in this one, as we take a look at the return of Swamp Thing's original writer in issue one of the new Swamp Thing limited series. Given the wealth of different takes and additions to the mythology that have some along since Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson first created the Thing in the Swamp, what's it like having Wein back?And given the unquestionable impact of Alan Moore's retcon of Swampy's origin, Jon takes a swing at a 3&1 of Retconned Origins. If you know his favourite ranting subjects at all, you'll probably know what's his Worst One Ever.

Yes, we know it's February, but we still say Happy 2016 at the start of this, our first show of the year. We're somehow managing the trick of getting all retro with a brand new comic in this one, as we take a look at the return of Swamp Thing's original writer in issue one of the new Swamp Thing limited series. Given the wealth of different takes and additions to the mythology that have some along since Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson first created the Thing in the Swamp, what's it like having Wein back?
And given the unquestionable impact of Alan Moore's retcon of Swampy's origin, Jon takes a swing at a 3&1 of Retconned Origins. If you know his favourite ranting subjects at all, you'll probably know what's his Worst One Ever.

Seeing out the old year and welcoming the new, we’ve succumbed to the lure of nostalgia and done a review show of all the One Comics to date. Which of the series we said we’d stick with did we follow? Have we changed our minds on anything with hindsight or the benefit of more issues? What is the secret to the perfect One Comic? Based on this view it’s a combination of smut, Bex and Jared sniping at each other and a healthy disregard for received wisdom. About *anything*.

Also to note that with apologies, the technical challenges that plagued us at the end of the year affected the sound quality of the new parts of this. We’re hoping to have resolved this for our next session. Thanks for listening - Happy 2016!

Season's Greetings! Feliz Navidad! Nadolig Llawen! Spoiler! There is No Comic in this One Comic. Instead, as the first of our two festive specials, we're giving full rein to our comic creator fantasies and doing a mass Three And One (which technically is therefore a Nine And Three) on the comic series or characters we'd most like to be given control of and what we'd do with them. And of course because the point is that it's our Top Three and Worst One Ever, we also talk about the character we'd each least like to take on and what we'd do with them if it was the price of getting our hands on our favourite.Not to give anything away, these lists go to some strange places, including Bex taking over from two of the biggest names in comics history, Jared creating a new teen soap and to no one's greater shock than his own, Jon not claiming Legion of Super-Heroes. Maybe next time.

This is a long one, and partly that's due to Jared's idea of "three and one" going even more off-piste than usual into his "nonagon of naughtiness'; the "nine stage trail of fail" as he looks at the various levels of intersection between comicbook reality and, well, reality.The comic that led him there is the long-delayed Warren Ellis/Phil Jimenez/Andy Lanning Hellblazer story Shoot. Originally intended for publication in the late 90s but withheld due to its school shooting subject matter and the Columbine attack which happened before it was published, Vertigo finally released it twelve years later as a one-shot packaged with some other Hellblazer stories.Loving a bit of controversy as we do, we thought it was a perfect subject for us to take on. So come with us, listeners, to a dark place with some difficult subjects to navigate. And that's just Jared's stuff.

We may as well get this out of the way up front: this is that rare show where we all agree with each other. A lot. But bear with it - it’s not as dull as it sounds, honest. It’s issue one of Clean Room, out this week from Vertigo, created by Gail Simone with art by Jon Davis-Hunt. We won’t give anything away here except to say that the last time we reviewed a Gail Simone book it was Red Sonja, and you may remember we raved about that, so we went into this story with high hopes. This is Vertigo back in creepy horror mode, so there’s that heritage to play for too.

And in the spirit of the occasion, (our) Jon does a 3&1 on Vertigo limited series. Turns out that not everything you think of as Vertigo was actually Vertigo. And he’d like to point out that he remembered The Witching Hour five minutes too late to make this a 4&1, which it absolutely would have been. Also, there is too much comics trivia in this man's head.

This one's a bit of a puzzler. When you tell the story of a sexy woman super-agent set against a backdrop of the California porn industry, featuring lots of prominent cleavage and a very male gazey perspective, even if it's meant to be ironic, is it actually still just a bit sexist? And more importantly, is it actually any good? These and others are the questions we face in reviewing issue one of Red One from Image Comics, by Xavier Dorison, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson.And as Red One is above all else a Soviet sexy super-agent and it's Jared's turn at Top Three/Worst One Ever, he's making his pick of Soviet/Russian super-characters. Astonishingly, he doesn't pick Colossus. Or, to Jon's annoyance, Darkstar.