The Classy Comics Podcast

Catwoman and Batman are engaged but they have to settle some old business and also a double date with Superman and Lois Lane.
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Transcript:
Graham:Batman and Catwoman go into the desert on a secret mission and then they go on a double date with Superman and Lois Lane. Find out more as we take a look at Batman Vol 5: Rules of Engagement, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Graham:Rules of Engagement is a really interesting Batman book about Tom King. It really doesn't hinge on the fight scenes or the big action sequences you saw, particularly during the first three volumes of Tom King’s run and, of course, a little bit in The War of Jokes and Riddles. This is much more a character-based book. It collects issues 33 to 37 of Batman along with Batman Annual #2.
The first part of the book is issues 33 to 35 and the story, Rules of Engagement, in which Batman and Catwoman are heading to Khadym, a restricted area that no one on earth is supposed to enter, especially superheroes. There's even agreement with the Justice League but Batman is violating the agreement because, as it eventually turns out, the woman who is responsible for the hundreds of murders that Catwoman has been accused of and is still wanted by law enforcement for is in Khadym but she's also there with the League of Assassins and Talia Al Ghul. So, with the help of Tiger a friend of Nightwing’s, i.e Dick Grayson, they make their entrance into Khadym. There Tahlia sends out the League of Assassins to weaken Batman before she can come out and finish the job and defeat him. However, Catwoman stands in her way and the two have the best fight in the whole book, which is essentially a book length sword fight. As can be expected with anything Tom King writes, there is a lot of dialogue in there but it is really a great dual and of course there's an explanation in the book because one thing you might wonder is why Batman is kind of down from the count, not able to do anything while Catwoman has the wind and strength to actually carry on the sword fight but the reason, as stated in the book, as Dick Grayson said, he always would take the brunt of any fight whenever he fights so. Catwoman has not received the level or severity of fight as the brunt of the battle came on Batman.
As they dialogue Talia Al Ghul essentially says that she views herself as the best and Batman as the only man who could possibly be her equal. Catwoman scoffs at that and challenges her and tells her how she views Batman. “The man is broken. All the way from the start, cracked. He's always going to put a vow, a vow he took as a 10-year-old, a vow to war on crime, whatever that is. He'll always take that vow over anyone”, and she goes on to say, “If you think of yourself as the best and you're looking for the best, whatever he is Talia, I swear he's not that. What he is, all he is, he's just the stupid man I stupidly love”. And it's a very honest statement but there's some sweetness in it too and I think this is one reason why the entire Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne marriage could work and I think, if nothing else, it does explain part of what he finds attractive. Selina doesn't love him as this mythic figure, this incomparable perfect a legend. I think that so many women in the D.C. Universe have had designs on Batman but really have just kind of have this very mythic view and put him on this huge pedestal and that's really uncomfortable for anyone but I think Selina's view is a lot more honest and accepting of who he is and it's something that he can live up to.
The book is also interesting because it does feature more of the Bat family finding out about this engagement,

Catwoman and Batman are engaged but they have to settle some old business and also a double date with Superman and Lois Lane.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: Batman and Catwoman go into the desert on a secret mission and then they go on a double date with Superman and Lois Lane. Find out more as we take a look at Batman Vol 5: Rules of Engagement, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Graham: Rules of Engagement is a really interesting Batman book about Tom King. It really doesn’t hinge on the fight scenes or the big action sequences you saw, particularly during the first three volumes of Tom King’s run and, of course, a little bit in The War of Jokes and Riddles. This is much more a character-based book. It collects issues 33 to 37 of Batman along with Batman Annual #2.

The first part of the book is issues 33 to 35 and the story, Rules of Engagement, in which Batman and Catwoman are heading to Khadym, a restricted area that no one on earth is supposed to enter, especially superheroes. There’s even agreement with the Justice League but Batman is violating the agreement because, as it eventually turns out, the woman who is responsible for the hundreds of murders that Catwoman has been accused of and is still wanted by law enforcement for is in Khadym but she’s also there with the League of Assassins and Talia Al Ghul. So, with the help of Tiger a friend of Nightwing’s, i.e Dick Grayson, they make their entrance into Khadym. There Tahlia sends out the League of Assassins to weaken Batman before she can come out and finish the job and defeat him. However, Catwoman stands in her way and the two have the best fight in the whole book, which is essentially a book length sword fight. As can be expected with anything Tom King writes, there is a lot of dialogue in there but it is really a great dual and of course there’s an explanation in the book because one thing you might wonder is why Batman is kind of down from the count, not able to do anything while Catwoman has the wind and strength to actually carry on the sword fight but the reason, as stated in the book, as Dick Grayson said, he always would take the brunt of any fight whenever he fights so. Catwoman has not received the level or severity of fight as the brunt of the battle came on Batman.

As they dialogue Talia Al Ghul essentially says that she views herself as the best and Batman as the only man who could possibly be her equal. Catwoman scoffs at that and challenges her and tells her how she views Batman. “The man is broken. All the way from the start, cracked. He’s always going to put a vow, a vow he took as a 10-year-old, a vow to war on crime, whatever that is. He’ll always take that vow over anyone”, and she goes on to say, “If you think of yourself as the best and you’re looking for the best, whatever he is Talia, I swear he’s not that. What he is, all he is, he’s just the stupid man I stupidly love”. And it’s a very honest statement but there’s some sweetness in it too and I think this is one reason why the entire Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne marriage could work and I think, if nothing else, it does explain part of what he finds attractive. Selina doesn’t love him as this mythic figure, this incomparable perfect a legend. I think that so many women in the D.C. Universe have had designs on Batman but really have just kind of have this very mythic view and put him on this huge pedestal and that’s really uncomfortable for anyone but I think Selina’s view is a lot more honest and accepting of who he is and it’s something that he can live up to.

The book is also interesting because it does feature more of the Bat family finding out about this engagement,

Superboy and Robin team up to train and then travel to an alternate universe, and then they get their own lair.
Affiliate link included
Transcript:
Graham:The Super Sons travel to another dimension and get a brand spanking new headquarters. Find out all about it as we take a look at Super Sons: Vol 2: Planet of the Capes, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Graham:The Super Sons, originally, they came up with a sort of imaginary stories idea back in the Bronze Age of comics where Superman and Batman had each had sons that fought crime together and did buddy things but generally as adult grown up sons but in the D.C. Rebirth world Batman and Superman have actual juvenile sons and so the Super Sons series follows their adventures together. The second volume collects issues 6 through 10 of the series.
First up is the four-part Planet of the Capes story. The Kents are slowly easing Jon into using his powers and developing his life as Superboy and his mom is checking to see if he has his cell phone and they're giving him a ten o'clock curfew and Jon objects to it. “Come on, it's Friday. Damian's dad lets him stay out all night”, and Clark says, “Damian’s dad dresses like a bat and gets hit in the head 28 times every night, so maybe not the best argument” and Jon replies, “Ok fair point, dad”.
I just love that. It's just a really funny bit and it sets the course for what's mostly, pretty light-hearted adventures. Jon goes out on patrol and he's joined by Damian for a good part of it, where Damian is being incredibly intense. He has a really, not so encounter, with a jaywalker, where he just gets really, almost dirty-harrish on the guy. Superboy just say, “You know, cross at the cross walk and be safe for your dog”, and much of their patrol is spent doing things like rescuing cats from trees and in a one particular scene, Jon helps Damian change a tire and then the Teen Titans show up for a mission.
Damian, of course, being the head of the Teen Titans and Damian has no interest in taking Jon along as Superboy is not a teen and therefore not eligible to join the Teen Titans. And I really do sympathize with Damian on that point but it might be a bit pedantic when the team needs help, which does turn out to be the case because they end up facing several little known super villains; Atom-Master and Chun Yull but it's Time Commander that confronts them and, in a way, too quickly in the battle uses his powers to age Damian seventy years, which leads to Titans turning to Jon for help and, of course, as Superboy, Jon is more than happy to go and help the Titans and it's a fun story as the Teen Titans encourage Jon in the course of this and it really seems to build his confidence and he really shows his strength as a secret weapon. Damian is really somewhat limited and it's, in a way, satisfying to see this character kind of to, because he can be so arrogant, to be kind of put in his place for just a little bit. We know he's going to get better. In fact, he gets better by the end of the story as the super villains end up melting into goo and it turns out that they were created by a character named Kraklow, who really was just a magician who's been performing at a lot of different shows and things for years. Just a minor low-key career magician who suddenly turned super villain creating monstrous, other super villains to do is bidding.
And the Teen Titans take Kraklow away but Jon and Damian stay behind with, now that the battles over, Damian delivering some putdowns and trying to make sure that Jon doesn't develop a big ego because there's only room for one of those on the Super Sons team. But before they can finish this somewhat senseless ...

Superboy and Robin team up to train and then travel to an alternate universe, and then they get their own lair.

Affiliate link included

Transcript:

Graham: The Super Sons travel to another dimension and get a brand spanking new headquarters. Find out all about it as we take a look at Super Sons: Vol 2: Planet of the Capes, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Graham: The Super Sons, originally, they came up with a sort of imaginary stories idea back in the Bronze Age of comics where Superman and Batman had each had sons that fought crime together and did buddy things but generally as adult grown up sons but in the D.C. Rebirth world Batman and Superman have actual juvenile sons and so the Super Sons series follows their adventures together. The second volume collects issues 6 through 10 of the series.

First up is the four-part Planet of the Capes story. The Kents are slowly easing Jon into using his powers and developing his life as Superboy and his mom is checking to see if he has his cell phone and they’re giving him a ten o’clock curfew and Jon objects to it. “Come on, it’s Friday. Damian’s dad lets him stay out all night”, and Clark says, “Damian’s dad dresses like a bat and gets hit in the head 28 times every night, so maybe not the best argument” and Jon replies, “Ok fair point, dad”.

I just love that. It’s just a really funny bit and it sets the course for what’s mostly, pretty light-hearted adventures. Jon goes out on patrol and he’s joined by Damian for a good part of it, where Damian is being incredibly intense. He has a really, not so encounter, with a jaywalker, where he just gets really, almost dirty-harrish on the guy. Superboy just say, “You know, cross at the cross walk and be safe for your dog”, and much of their patrol is spent doing things like rescuing cats from trees and in a one particular scene, Jon helps Damian change a tire and then the Teen Titans show up for a mission.

Damian, of course, being the head of the Teen Titans and Damian has no interest in taking Jon along as Superboy is not a teen and therefore not eligible to join the Teen Titans. And I really do sympathize with Damian on that point but it might be a bit pedantic when the team needs help, which does turn out to be the case because they end up facing several little known super villains; Atom-Master and Chun Yull but it’s Time Commander that confronts them and, in a way, too quickly in the battle uses his powers to age Damian seventy years, which leads to Titans turning to Jon for help and, of course, as Superboy, Jon is more than happy to go and help the Titans and it’s a fun story as the Teen Titans encourage Jon in the course of this and it really seems to build his confidence and he really shows his strength as a secret weapon. Damian is really somewhat limited and it’s, in a way, satisfying to see this character kind of to, because he can be so arrogant, to be kind of put in his place for just a little bit. We know he’s going to get better. In fact, he gets better by the end of the story as the super villains end up melting into goo and it turns out that they were created by a character named Kraklow, who really was just a magician who’s been performing at a lot of different shows and things for years. Just a minor low-key career magician who suddenly turned super villain creating monstrous, other super villains to do is bidding.

And the Teen Titans take Kraklow away but Jon and Damian stay behind with, now that the battles over, Damian delivering some putdowns and trying to make sure that Jon doesn’t develop a big ego because there’s only room for one of those on the Super Sons team.

The most forgettable member of the Silence returns in the conclusion of the Sapling saga.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:The doctor encounters a world with all the marks of Time Lord interference and then he and Alice have to have a final confrontation with the scream as the story of the sapling comes to an end as we take a look at Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor The Sapling Volume 3 – Branches, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Graham:This volume collects four issues of Titans 11th Doctor Comics issues 9 and 11 through 13 and there are two stories in it. The first is Strange Loops, which finds the Tardis arriving on the planet Zoline, which the last time the Doctor had been on this world, it was pre-industrial. A special mask is required in order to breathe the air. The Doctor is having some strange reactions and so he sets out to find out what's going on and there is a sense on this world with the massive increase in technology, that there may have been some Time Lord involvement perhaps during the Time War, where they, for some reason, move the development of this planet ahead but that actually turns out to not exactly be the case even though initially we see what appears to be a Time Lord but it's not actually a Time Lord at all it's a Time Lord weapon known as the Orphaned Hour. The Orphaned Hour was a weapon that the Time Lords conceived that would automatically, when it's deployed, roll back the enemy's technology and development by 30 years. So imagine if you are going to war and you attack the enemy with this and before the battle, they are thrown back to whatever technology they had in the 1980s. It's that sort of concept. However, those who are near the Orphaned Hour are actually protected from its effect. So, three people found it and they started using it. They sent people went 30 years. They used the Orphaned Hour sent everyone back 30 years but because they were close by the machine they were not affected and they also had all of the technological advances of the previous 30 years which they then introduced and pawned off as their own and by doing so repeatedly, they were credited as the planet's saviors and their great inventors. It's a clever concept for both a weapon and for con game but the Orphaned Hour did not want to be used that way and so the Doctor took it away but what the Tardis did with it led to a situation where the Tardis was going to crash and so the Doctor Sapling to take root and if you recall the nature of the sapling, is that it was meant to be planted on a planet and then would overrun all the life on the planet and then grow a new sapling to be sent elsewhere. This is a dangerous situation but it's in the Tardis. So, it's not like it's actually on the surface of the planet. So, it's a little different.
However, The Scream, the villain from Volume 1 of the Sapling, has been following them throughout this time and when the Sapling puts down roots, The Scream re-emerges inside the Tardis to take advantage of this situation and to now have the combined power of the Sapling and the Tardis. Of course, The Scream is part of the species, The Silence, and as such the Doctor doesn't remember all the details about him since that is the great talent of The Silence is if you look at them you see them but then you turn away and you don't remember them and this is particularly true of The Scream, which if you'll recall from Volume 1, The Scream was so forgettable that even other members of The Silence forgot about him. So, anyone who looked on him totally forgot about him immediately thereafter.
Now the Doctor in the finale of the series, finds himself in Hungry Thirsty Roots up against The S...

The most forgettable member of the Silence returns in the conclusion of the Sapling saga.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: The doctor encounters a world with all the marks of Time Lord interference and then he and Alice have to have a final confrontation with the scream as the story of the sapling comes to an end as we take a look at Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor The Sapling Volume 3 – Branches, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Graham: This volume collects four issues of Titans 11th Doctor Comics issues 9 and 11 through 13 and there are two stories in it. The first is Strange Loops, which finds the Tardis arriving on the planet Zoline, which the last time the Doctor had been on this world, it was pre-industrial. A special mask is required in order to breathe the air. The Doctor is having some strange reactions and so he sets out to find out what’s going on and there is a sense on this world with the massive increase in technology, that there may have been some Time Lord involvement perhaps during the Time War, where they, for some reason, move the development of this planet ahead but that actually turns out to not exactly be the case even though initially we see what appears to be a Time Lord but it’s not actually a Time Lord at all it’s a Time Lord weapon known as the Orphaned Hour. The Orphaned Hour was a weapon that the Time Lords conceived that would automatically, when it’s deployed, roll back the enemy’s technology and development by 30 years. So imagine if you are going to war and you attack the enemy with this and before the battle, they are thrown back to whatever technology they had in the 1980s. It’s that sort of concept. However, those who are near the Orphaned Hour are actually protected from its effect. So, three people found it and they started using it. They sent people went 30 years. They used the Orphaned Hour sent everyone back 30 years but because they were close by the machine they were not affected and they also had all of the technological advances of the previous 30 years which they then introduced and pawned off as their own and by doing so repeatedly, they were credited as the planet’s saviors and their great inventors. It’s a clever concept for both a weapon and for con game but the Orphaned Hour did not want to be used that way and so the Doctor took it away but what the Tardis did with it led to a situation where the Tardis was going to crash and so the Doctor Sapling to take root and if you recall the nature of the sapling, is that it was meant to be planted on a planet and then would overrun all the life on the planet and then grow a new sapling to be sent elsewhere. This is a dangerous situation but it’s in the Tardis. So, it’s not like it’s actually on the surface of the planet. So, it’s a little different.

However, The Scream, the villain from Volume 1 of the Sapling, has been following them throughout this time and when the Sapling puts down roots, The Scream re-emerges inside the Tardis to take advantage of this situation and to now have the combined power of the Sapling and the Tardis. Of course, The Scream is part of the species, The Silence, and as such the Doctor doesn’t remember all the details about him since that is the great talent of The Silence is if you look at them you see them but then you turn away and you don’t remember them and this is particularly true of The Scream, which if you’ll recall from Volume 1, The Scream was so forgettable that even other members of The Silence forgot about him. So, anyone who looked on him totally forgot about him immediately thereafter.

Now the Doctor in the finale of the series, finds himself in Hungry Thirsty Roots up against...

Supergirl battles a bunch of villains we don't care about, gets a new status quo, and then goes to Mongolia to have a trilingual adventure.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:Supergirl's powers surge out of control as she faces the Fatal Five as we look at Supergirl: The Girl of No Tomorrow, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Graham:This is the third volume of Supergirl stories under the D.C. Rebirth label and this has some callbacks to the previous volumes. Volume 2 ended on a cliffhanger with her seeming to be shot by Katherine Grant. However, she wasn't actually shot by Kat Grant. As Volume 3 starts, we found out that Kat was giving a speech elsewhere. The person who shot her and was pretending to be Miss Grant was none other than the sorceress Selena. However, what she did shoot Supergirl with, has caused her powers to rage out of control. Something that has not been uncommon in the D.C. Universe. If you'll recall our review of Flash Volume 5, negative the Flash also got hit with something, in this case the negative speed force, which caused his powers to rage out of control. So, there's a lot of that going around in the D.C. Universe.
However, the main focus of this story is on the battle between Supergirl and the so called Fatal Five, which is led by the Emerald Empress along with the aforementioned Selena, Indigo, Solomon Grundy and Magog. And at first glance this really does appear to be a bit of a motley crew. They're trying to stop Supergirl from doing major damage in the future. Why this is something Solomon Grundy would care about? I really don't know. I guess Grundy can just be relied upon to create menace, you know, doesn't really care much what the reason is and I think he and Magog, for that matter, kind of serve the same purpose in this. While the Emerald Empress, Indigo and Selena tend to monologue quite a bit in explaining their motives, in having conversations with Kat Grant. Some of it, I think particularly Indigo, comes off as just a bit sanctimonious. Emerald Empress has at least a believable motive for why she's doing what she's doing as she believes that Supergirl's going to cause the death of her father but their methods really make it hard to sympathize much with them.
Also as part of their plan. in order to undermine the public's trust in Supergirl, Indigo manages to have it exposed that the Cyborg Superman who she fought back in volume 1 was actually her father and that she and the D.E.O., the Department of Extra Normal Operations. are keeping him alive in a tank after all the mess that he created. She tries to explain that she's just showing him the same sort of compassion that people on earth had shown her and I think that's very true to her character. That's very true to who Supergirl is but it's not received well by folks in National City who feel lied to because she didn't reveal her relationship to the Cyborg Superman and I should say there are some one of two Cyborg Superman's. This should not be confused with the Cyborg Superman who was Hank Henshaw in a previous episode on Superman. That's another cyborg Superman. So yeah, D.C. continuity.
The story becomes really a pretty big melee with a lot of fighting and action. That's decent enough maybe a bit repetitive. It doesn't go on forever but for quite a while. In the course of it, Supergirl is able to have some surgery performed on her which stops her from literally exploding, which is what the massive increase in her powers was going to do at the start of the plot but she still doesn't have it under control and also Jeremiah and Eliza her adoptive parents get into the act and really ha...

Supergirl battles a bunch of villains we don’t care about, gets a new status quo, and then goes to Mongolia to have a trilingual adventure.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: Supergirl’s powers surge out of control as she faces the Fatal Five as we look at Supergirl: The Girl of No Tomorrow, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Graham: This is the third volume of Supergirl stories under the D.C. Rebirth label and this has some callbacks to the previous volumes. Volume 2 ended on a cliffhanger with her seeming to be shot by Katherine Grant. However, she wasn’t actually shot by Kat Grant. As Volume 3 starts, we found out that Kat was giving a speech elsewhere. The person who shot her and was pretending to be Miss Grant was none other than the sorceress Selena. However, what she did shoot Supergirl with, has caused her powers to rage out of control. Something that has not been uncommon in the D.C. Universe. If you’ll recall our review of Flash Volume 5, negative the Flash also got hit with something, in this case the negative speed force, which caused his powers to rage out of control. So, there’s a lot of that going around in the D.C. Universe.

However, the main focus of this story is on the battle between Supergirl and the so called Fatal Five, which is led by the Emerald Empress along with the aforementioned Selena, Indigo, Solomon Grundy and Magog. And at first glance this really does appear to be a bit of a motley crew. They’re trying to stop Supergirl from doing major damage in the future. Why this is something Solomon Grundy would care about? I really don’t know. I guess Grundy can just be relied upon to create menace, you know, doesn’t really care much what the reason is and I think he and Magog, for that matter, kind of serve the same purpose in this. While the Emerald Empress, Indigo and Selena tend to monologue quite a bit in explaining their motives, in having conversations with Kat Grant. Some of it, I think particularly Indigo, comes off as just a bit sanctimonious. Emerald Empress has at least a believable motive for why she’s doing what she’s doing as she believes that Supergirl’s going to cause the death of her father but their methods really make it hard to sympathize much with them.

Also as part of their plan. in order to undermine the public’s trust in Supergirl, Indigo manages to have it exposed that the Cyborg Superman who she fought back in volume 1 was actually her father and that she and the D.E.O., the Department of Extra Normal Operations. are keeping him alive in a tank after all the mess that he created. She tries to explain that she’s just showing him the same sort of compassion that people on earth had shown her and I think that’s very true to her character. That’s very true to who Supergirl is but it’s not received well by folks in National City who feel lied to because she didn’t reveal her relationship to the Cyborg Superman and I should say there are some one of two Cyborg Superman’s. This should not be confused with the Cyborg Superman who was Hank Henshaw in a previous episode on Superman. That’s another cyborg Superman. So yeah, D.C. continuity.

The story becomes really a pretty big melee with a lot of fighting and action. That’s decent enough maybe a bit repetitive. It doesn’t go on forever but for quite a while. In the course of it, Supergirl is able to have some surgery performed on her which stops her from literally exploding, which is what the massive increase in her powers was going to do at the start of the plot but she still doesn’t have it under control and also Jeremiah and Eliza her adoptive parents get into the act and rea...

The Torch is dead, but he's an android so how does that work? It's the best Mad Thinker story ever as Toro and the Torch return.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript below:
Graham: How can an android be dead? Get ready to flame on as we take a look at The Torch by Mike Carey, straight ahead.
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Host:Most people know Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four as the Human Torch. However, he was not the first character in Marvel Comics to bear that name. Actually, the original Human Torch, presented first on the front cover of Marvel Mystery Comics number 1, was an android. An android named Jim Hammond. During the Golden Age of comics, he fought crime in a wide variety of different Marvel magazines and he also made a brief comeback along with Namor and Captain America in the mid-1950s. The 1970 series, the invaders told of how Namor, Captain America, and the human torch along with other heroes, such as the Union Jack Nazis during World War Two. The torch came out of the Avengers Invaders mini-series which featured the death of the Human Torch. However, as the villain of this story, the Mad Thinker, points out how does an android die?
During the Golden Age, the Human Torch had a sidekick known as Toro and this is been fleshed out so his full name is Tom Raymond who also had flame powers and he joined forces with the Torch in his fight against evil. Tom Raymond died but when Bucky Barnes got control of the Cosmic Cube for a while, he undid that. Unfortunately for Toro, his wife had moved on and he has no place in the world as the story opens. Both Toro and the body of the Human Torch are set to be examined by the Mad Thinker who has been hired by Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) in order to build a weapon and his idea involves building a weapon involving flame and so he has the Torch’s body stolen and kidnaps Toro but he's got his own planes and mind.
I’ll go ahead and discuss this kind of in segments. The main characters of this, Toro is an old character. He's got a lot of reason to be sympathetic. He's kind of lost in this new world and doesn't really know his place in it with nowhere to go and just nothing to do. You do feel for the guy. At the same time, while his present is very uncertain, what he thought he knew about his past is challenged. He definitely goes on a journey and I think at the start of the story I didn't much like him but as the story goes on, we really get to know him better and also see the type of the impact he makes on the Torch. The Torch, is part of the experimentation by the Mad Thinker, has many of the emotions and values, sort of, thought centres in his programming neutralized and so he actually starts out when he awakens, being just really a machine and he has to really rediscover what it was that made him seem so human-like as the Human Torch. And as the book goes on, really the relationship between Toro and the Torch becomes a lot more interesting.
I also have to say I love the Mad Thinker in this. He is just a superb villain. I don't think I've ever seen him this well written. He's devious, he's got plans within plans and he even though he's at first in the early part of the book, he's hired by Advanced Ideas Mechanics and later on he is hired by a group of Nazis, who are running an underground city where the third rock continues to thrive, dominated by android citizens in New Berlin but the Mad Thinker really has his own agenda and there's an intelligence, a cunning and a ruthlessness about him that makes him formidable as a villain. I think he's almost written as practically Dr Octopus standards though not quite that over the top in the ego department but really he is just incredibly well written.

The Torch is dead, but he’s an android so how does that work? It’s the best Mad Thinker story ever as Toro and the Torch return.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript below:

Graham: How can an android be dead? Get ready to flame on as we take a look at The Torch by Mike Carey, straight ahead.

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Host: Most people know Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four as the Human Torch. However, he was not the first character in Marvel Comics to bear that name. Actually, the original Human Torch, presented first on the front cover of Marvel Mystery Comics number 1, was an android. An android named Jim Hammond. During the Golden Age of comics, he fought crime in a wide variety of different Marvel magazines and he also made a brief comeback along with Namor and Captain America in the mid-1950s. The 1970 series, the invaders told of how Namor, Captain America, and the human torch along with other heroes, such as the Union Jack Nazis during World War Two. The torch came out of the Avengers Invaders mini-series which featured the death of the Human Torch. However, as the villain of this story, the Mad Thinker, points out how does an android die?

During the Golden Age, the Human Torch had a sidekick known as Toro and this is been fleshed out so his full name is Tom Raymond who also had flame powers and he joined forces with the Torch in his fight against evil. Tom Raymond died but when Bucky Barnes got control of the Cosmic Cube for a while, he undid that. Unfortunately for Toro, his wife had moved on and he has no place in the world as the story opens. Both Toro and the body of the Human Torch are set to be examined by the Mad Thinker who has been hired by Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) in order to build a weapon and his idea involves building a weapon involving flame and so he has the Torch’s body stolen and kidnaps Toro but he’s got his own planes and mind.

I’ll go ahead and discuss this kind of in segments. The main characters of this, Toro is an old character. He’s got a lot of reason to be sympathetic. He’s kind of lost in this new world and doesn’t really know his place in it with nowhere to go and just nothing to do. You do feel for the guy. At the same time, while his present is very uncertain, what he thought he knew about his past is challenged. He definitely goes on a journey and I think at the start of the story I didn’t much like him but as the story goes on, we really get to know him better and also see the type of the impact he makes on the Torch. The Torch, is part of the experimentation by the Mad Thinker, has many of the emotions and values, sort of, thought centres in his programming neutralized and so he actually starts out when he awakens, being just really a machine and he has to really rediscover what it was that made him seem so human-like as the Human Torch. And as the book goes on, really the relationship between Toro and the Torch becomes a lot more interesting.

I also have to say I love the Mad Thinker in this. He is just a superb villain. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this well written. He’s devious, he’s got plans within plans and he even though he’s at first in the early part of the book, he’s hired by Advanced Ideas Mechanics and later on he is hired by a group of Nazis, who are running an underground city where the third rock continues to thrive, dominated by android citizens in New Berlin but the Mad Thinker really has his own agenda and there’s an intelligence, a cunning and a ruthlessness about him that makes him formidable as a villain. I think he’s almost written as practically Dr Octopus standards though not quite that over the top in the ego department but really he is just incredibly well written.