The Comics Canon

In this monsterrific episode, Curt and Kevin embark on their most spine-tingling, bone-chilling installment yet, as they investigate not one but two monster tales from comicdom's king of creepy-crawly creatures, Jack Kirby!

First, it's a trip to Anytown, USA, where a mild-mannered biologist must match wits with an interplanetary tyrant of the trees (and future Guardian of the Galaxy) in "I Challenged … Groot! The Monster From Planet X!" from Tales to Astonish #13, published by Marvel Comics!

Then it's off to the mysterious Wild Area, as the Man of Steel and his best buddy go toe-to-toe with a Four-Armed Terror and a very familiar-looking green giant in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, #133-138, published by DC Comics!

Will this lord of lumber and a pair of irradiated uglies find themselves treat-less on destiny's doorstep? Or by some terrible trick, can they fright their way into that howl of fang-tastic tales known as … The Comics Canon?

Things Discussed in This Episode:

• Jack Kirby, King of Monsters

• Groot, overlord of all the timber in the galaxy!

• So … why Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen?

• Appealing to the hip young counterculture of 1970

• "The Whiz Wagon"? Really?

• Jimmy Olsen vs. Superman

• The Mountain of Judgment: Not ideal for keeping on the D.L.

• So … why clone Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen?

• "It Is One Minute to Blow-Up!"

Join us in next week for a special election season one-shot as we debate Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin travel from war-torn Latveria to Civil War-torn Manhattan as they tackle not one but two stories starring Marvel Comics' invulnerable sentinel of the streets, Luke Cage, in anticipation of the Netflix series of the same name. First, it's a fantastic voyage to the swingin' 70s, as the hot-headed hero of Harlem jets halfway across the globe to join a robot rebellion and collect a debt from a stingy supervillain in Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #8-9! Then we move ahead to the 2000s for a moving confrontation between Cage and his wife Jessica Jones in New Avengers #38. Will domestic drama and a penny-pinching Doctor Doom leave our indestructible do-gooder destitute? Or can our harried hero for hire earn his way into that executive suite known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: • "Thanks, Evil Racist Prison Guard!" • Soul Train • Check your white European privilege, Doctor Doom! • Victor von Doom: cheapskate? • Reed Richards is pretty generous with his rockets • "Where's my money, honey?" • The one flaw in Doctor Doom's armor • Brian Michael Bendis and his detractors Join us in two weeks to discover the mysterious link between "I Challenged Groot! The Monster From Planet X" (Tales to Astonish #13) and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133-138! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin must brave a foreign world of influence, intrigue and insurrection as they discuss Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, collecting the first four issues of the new Marvel Comics title by MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze. The once-invincible African nation of Wakanda has fallen on hard times, and so has its superhero king, T'Challa, the Black Panther. A rebel group led by a mysterious duo has fueled a violent uprising, taking many Wakandan lives. And to make matters worse, two of T'Challa's elite bodyguards have launched a rebellion of their own! Will our melancholy monarch watch helplessly as his beloved country falls to the forces of terrorism and political unrest? Or can this plagued and pestered panther persevere against his opponents and ascend to that hallowed throne of comic book stories known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: -The Black Panther as a DC Comics character -New Avengers, Infinity, and Avengers vs. X-Men -Black Panther: The Man Without Fear -Is rain yoga a thing? -Henry Dumas' "Root Song" -The Black Panther as Hamlet -We unveil a new segment! -Two universes enter—one universe leaves! Join us in two weeks as we get ready for Netflix's Luke Cage series with a discussion of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #8-9 and New Avengers #38! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin set off in search of the Rocketship Forest, tiptoe past the gunpowder fields and try to evade the withering gaze of Lying Cat as they discuss Saga, Vol. 1, collecting the first six issues of the hit Image Comics title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Newlyweds Alana and Marko are on the run, desperate to escape an ongoing interstellar war and raise their newborn baby girl in peace. But their respective homeworlds have other ideas, dispatching a lovesick bounty hunter and an aristocratic robot to the planet Cleave find the happy couple—and terminate them with extreme prejudice! Is the chronicle of these star-crossed lovebirds doomed to end before it even has a chance to begin? Or can these crazy kids and their new ghostly babysitter escape this wretched mudball and ensure that their narrative lives on in that fabled tome of immortal epics known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: • Eric Stephenson's coordination is on point • The challenges of discussing Saga on a "clean" podcast • Chekhov's magic sword • Divisive Issues • Linoleum Knife • Susanna Ives • The Tick • Blank Check with Griffin & David Join us in two weeks as we venture to the troubled land of Wakanda to discuss Ta-Nehisi Coates' comics debut, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin drift off to that eternal, amorphous realm of the subconscious known as The Dreaming (with a brief stopover in Hell) as they try to interpret the fantastical goings-on in The Sandman: Season of Mists, collecting issues 21-28 of the DC/Vertigo title The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and various artists. Morpheus, the lord of Dreams, pays a long-overdue visit to Hell to right a past wrong, only to find the place empty. Turns out Lucifer, the first of the fallen, no longer wants to be warden of the wicked, and hands Morpheus the key to his domain of the damned. Will the dumbstruck dream king fall prey to the scheming gods, demons and otherworldly entities who've converged on the Dreaming with devious designs on Hell? Or can he rid himself of this bestial burden and close on a dream home in that fanciful realm of imagination known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: • We go off the rails in record time • A Brief History of The Sandman • What does Destiny actually do? • The curriculum vitae of Sandman supporting characters • Fashion choices of the Endless • Morpheus as Anthony Weiner • The Headmaster Ritual Join us in two weeks as we rocket to the farthest reaches of space to explore the star-spanning epic Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin visit a seemingly idyllic Washington, D.C. suburb to pull back the curtain and expose the insecurities and instability corrupting the source code of one modern American family as they run some diagnostic tests on The Vision: Little Worse Than a Man, collecting issues 1-6 of Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's acclaimed Marvel comic, The Vision. In his ongoing quest to be human, the android Avenger has created his own version of a perfect suburban family unit. But when a supervillain with ties to the Vision's past drops by unannounced, he sets off a sequence of events that threatens not just this humanoid household, but the entire world! Will the Vision hit the "delete" button to protect his computerized clan from a world that mistrusts and fears them? Or can everyone's favorite synthezoid sentinel save the day and gain acceptance into that exclusive gated community known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: -Superstar comics editor Wil Moss -Star Trek: Voyager -The Vision is guilty of android-splaining -The first supervillain ever killed with a cookie sheet -A possibly gratuitous Hamilton reference -Hot take! Is Tom King "better" than Alan Moore? -Steamy synthezoid-on-synthezoid action! -Kevin mangles the titles of Dark Reign and The Sheriff of Babylon!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin return to Gotham City and put on their Dark Knight Detective caps to sift through labored puns, fun-house felonies and other offenses as they consider the strange case of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's highly acclaimed 1998 DC Comics graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke! But first, they take a quick detour to the black-and-white days of 1951 for a very different look at the origin of Killing Joke antagonist the Joker! Listen to our heroes match wits with the Caped Crusader and his Boy Wonder as they try to crack the conundrum of The Man Behind the Red Hood! Will our dynamic duo sentence the Joker to rot behind the imposing gates of Arkham Asylum? Or will the Clown Prince of Crime find himself laughing all the way to that big score known as ... The Comics Canon?

In this episode, Curt and Kevin put aside their capes and cowls to discuss a different kind of comic book story: Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In sketching a portrait of her life growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, Bechdel examines her complicated relationship with her father, Bruce, a funeral home director and high school teacher whose passion for restoring the family's Victorian-era home underscores his emotional distance from his wife and children. When Alison comes out to her parents as a lesbian, she soon comes to learn of her father's own homosexuality, which lands him in legal trouble and perhaps even contributes to his sudden death at the age of 44, which Bechdel considers to be a suicide. Can Alison come to terms with her father's death, his past, and his detached relationship with her? And can her award-winning memoir make its own way in the world, to that obsessively decorated "fun home" known as … The Comics Canon? Things Discussed in This Episode: Fun Home: the Broadway musical The Mighty Hercules and The Addams Family From Hell Thinking about your parents having sex Timely references to both sports and politics Does this podcast pass The Bechdel Test? Join us in two weeks as we don our superhero tights once again and return to Gotham City to discuss Batman: The Killing Joke! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin take a break from talking about comic book stories, and instead talk about … TV and movie adaptations of comic book stories from the first half of 2016! How did these series and films reflect their source material? And more importantly—were they any good? Things discussed in this non-canonical, somewhat spoiler-y installment include Deadpool's skewering of superhero movie tropes, the lighthearted romp that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the evolutionary dead end that was X-Men: Apocalypse, and the rock -'em sock-'em bonanza that was Captain America: Civil War. But wait! There's more! We also weigh in on the disappointing second season of Agent Carter and the surprisingly entertaining third season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the best things about the second season of Daredevil, the charms of DC's burgeoning TV empire (The Flash, Supergirl, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow), the long-awaited arrival of Negan on The Walking Dead and the debut of AMC's Preacher. Meanwhile, join us in two weeks as we turn our attention back to the printed page with a look at Alison Bechdel's award-winning graphic memoir Fun Home! Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, Curt and Kevin pay tribute to the late Darwyn Cooke, whose death from cancer on May 14, 2016, shocked and saddened the comics community, with an in-depth discussion of his award-winning 2004 masterwork, DC: The New Frontier. Cooke's six-volume saga, spanning the 15-year period from the end of World War II to the dawn of the 1960s, finds DC heroes old and new coming to terms with a rapidly changing world, touching on topics as varied as McCarthyism, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the civil rights movement, the space race and the Cold War. When a menace surfaces unlike any they've ever faced, can Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and other heroes from DC's Golden and Silver Ages rise to challenge the unknown, usher in a new era of optimism, and conquer that final frontier known as … The Comics Canon?