The Iron Age of Comics

The world’s greatest paranormal investigator is back for our Halloween episode with a real trick-or-treat grab bag of adventures. First, Hellboy finds himself caught in a war between two homunculi “brothers” with the life of Liz Sherman in the balance. Then, we investigate a dark fairytale romance in the English countryside on Christmas, battle yokai in 1967 Japan, and watch an occult ritual in Scotland attempt to force Hellboy to fulfill his dark destiny. But this episode also takes some unexpected detours into crossover territory: in Arcadia, Hellboy faces Comics’ Greatest World’s breakout character Ghost, and meets DC’s Batman and the Jack Knight Starman on a trip to Gotham City. We also talk a little horror fiction theory in honor of the season, including what Hellboy creator Mike Mignola takes from writers like H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James.

Discussed in this episode: Almost Colossus, Ghost/Hellboy Special, “A Christmas Underground” (Hellboy Christmas Special), “Drums of the Dead” and “Heads” (Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead), Batman/Hellboy/Starman, and Box Full of Evil (including “Abe Sapien vs. Science”)

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A lot of comics we think of as “Vertigo books”—including Sandman, Swamp Thing, and Hellblazer—started life under the DC Comics banner, but Sandman Mystery Theatre was the first ongoing series designed with the new mature-readers imprint in mind. We begin with a brief history of Vertigo and then segue into how Matt Wagner and Guy Davis piggybacked off the Sandman brand to create a sideways spinoff, influenced more by film noir and gritty pulp magazines than dark fantasy. Wagner and Davis reimagine the gasmask-wearing Golden Age avenger as a bookish young sleuth who’d rather sneak in and out of a crime scene than get into a fistfight. The series is uncompromising in depicting the brutality and injustice of a New York City caught between the Great Depression and World War II, but it’s also one of comics’ greatest love stories, depicting progressive intellectual Wesley Dodds’ evolving relationship with Dian Belmont, a young woman searching for an outlet for her growing social conscience.

Discussed in this episode: Sandman Mystery Theatre #1-16 (containing “The Tarantula,” “The Face,” “The Brute,” and “The Vamp”)

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Milestone Media reimagined the superhero team as a street gang, mutated as a result of secret human experimentation during a riot. But where so many media narratives in the 1990s painted gang members either as vicious criminals or as victims with no agency, Blood Syndicate gave its protagonists a complex combination of attitudes and motivations and allowed them to be capable of compassion and callousness in equal measure. Novice writer Ivan Velez Jr. expanded on and diversified Dwayne McDuffie’s initial concept so that the team reflected a unique range of ethnicities, cultures, sexualities, and gender expressions. But it’s also a real fun comic book with magical demons and talking rats! We make the case that Blood Syndicate, illustrated by the highly expressive ChrisCross, was the 1990s’ real successor to Chris Claremont’s approach to characterization on the X-Men titles. We also discuss team books in general and what makes them work!

Discussed in this episode: Blood Syndicate #1-12

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What if all the various radioactive spiders, gamma bomb detonations, and cosmic ray exposures in the origins of Marvel’s superheroes were not accidents, but rather the calculated machinations of a shadowy organization within the U.S. government? That’s the question asked by Conspiracy, a two-issue miniseries from 1998 written by Dan Abnett and painted by Igor Kordej. Is this comic sort of an “anti-Marvels”? Cameron Kunzelman of RangedTouch.com returns to the podcast (as he does from time to time as the Secret Third Co-Host) to make the case! We also discuss conspiracy theory thinking as a mode of storytelling and how its recurring narrative structures and devices affect both the real world and our beloved continuity-based superhero universes. Plus: Should we bother to read Frank Miller’s new memoir? Goethe vs. Marlowe! And the smoochability of Steve Rogers and Ben Grimm’s lips…

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(Or … “Knightfall - Part Three”!) Bruce Wayne is back in Gotham, but before he can challenge his successor, Azrael, for the mantle of the Batman, he’s got to recover his fighting edge. What could go wrong with asking the deadly assassin Lady Shiva to help him retrain? It all leads to a final, dramatic confrontation between Az-Bats and Bruce-Bats, and in the aftermath…the rise of Dick-Bats? Nightwing takes on the cowl in a coda to the entire storyline! We wrap up our look at the KnightSaga, offer our opinions about what works and what doesn’t, and ponder the connection of the Breaking of the Bat to the Death of Superman. Also: just how many ninjas is “Too Many Ninjas”?

Discussed in this episode: Batman #509-514, Detective Comics #676-681, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #62-63, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #29-34, Robin #8-9 and #11-13, and Catwoman #12-13, plus material from Showcase '94 #10

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(Or … “Knightfall - Part Two”!) There’s a new Batman in town, and his name is Jean-Paul Valley, a.k.a. Azrael. While Bruce Wayne is recuperating from a broken back and mounting an international rescue mission, Az-Bats kicks Robin out of the Batcave, alienates Commissioner Gordon, and replaces the cape and cowl with high-tech armor. But his more aggressive attitude has unexpected consequences for the innocent victim of the villain Abattoir. We’ll talk about the creators behind the titles involved and how their approaches to showing an out-of-control Batman differ, discuss the pervasive themes of mind control throughout the storyline, and speculate about why for many years DC seemed hesitant to reprint the story of how Bruce Wayne’s back actually gets healed.

Discussed in this episode: Batman #501-508, Detective Comics #667-675, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #19-20 and #24-28, Catwoman #6-7, Robin #7, plus material from Knightquest: The Search

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(Or ... "Knightfall - Part One"!) Now that we’ve discussed Superman’s literal death and rebirth, we come to Batman’s symbolic resurrection in the Iron Age: "Knightfall," a mega-epic so sprawling we’ll need three episodes to come to grips with it. We begin with the Breaking of the Bat, in which the super-steroid-fueled Bane comes to Gotham City to prove himself the Dark Knight’s superior. To do so, he’ll unleash all the inmates of Arkham Asylum and wear down a Batman who’s already physically and spiritually exhausted. With Bruce Wayne out of the picture, can his chosen successor, Azrael, defeat Bane without going too far? We’ll discuss the origins of this arc, spearheaded by editor and legendary writer Denny O’Neil as a way to tell fans of grim ‘n’ gritty superhero escalation to be careful what they wish for.

Discussed in this episode: Batman #491-500, Detective Comics #659-666, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-18, plus material from Showcase ‘93 #7-8

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Will the real Superman please stand up? The Man of Tomorrow (aka the Cyborg Superman), the Last Son of Krypton (aka the Eradicator), the Metropolis Kid (aka Superboy), and the Man of Steel (aka John Henry Irons, aka Steel) all lay claim to the name and role in one way or another. Through weekly issues of the Triangle Era Superman titles, these four will vie for the title before (spoiler alert) the true Superman returns from the grave with a new look for the ‘90s (though opinions vary whether he has long hair or an actual mullet). We’ll wrap up our look at the death and return of Superman and talk about the big issues: how did Superman pave the way for decades of deaths and resurrections in his wake, why does this story linger in the canon when so many other stunts have been forgotten, and why are superhero fans so obsessed with their favorite superheroes dying, anyway

Discussed in this episode: Action Comics #687-691, Adventures of Superman #500-505, Superman #78-82, Superman: The Man of Steel #22-26, and Green Lantern #46.

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In the early ‘90s, DC Comics, facing a changing comics market with the rise of Image Comics and the popularization of the grim ‘n’ gritty antihero, replaced the World’s Finest team of Superman Clark Kent and Batman Bruce Wayne with upstart newcomers before ultimately restoring the heroes to their original roles and reaffirming their importance. We’re spending the summer looking at these mega-epics, beginning with the “Death of Superman” arc. But once the senseless bloodbath is over and the Man of Steel and Doomsday are down for the count, we get to the real heart of the matter: “Funeral for a Friend,” in which superheroes, loved ones, and ordinary citizens of Metropolis alike must mourn the loss of their greatest hero and come to terms with living in a World Without a Superman. We’ll look at the first half of the death and return of Superman, share opinions about the Triangle Era of Superman comics, and discuss the real-world media frenzy that fueled sales of Superman #75 (and the lack of said frenzy that made Adventures of Superman #500 the common dollar-bin find it is today).

Discussed in this episode: Action Comics #684-686, Adventures of Superman #497-500, Superman #74-77, Superman: The Man of Steel #18-21, Justice League America #69, Superman: The Legacy #1, plus Newstime, an in-universe glossy magazine commemorating the event

In which Christine Spar and Brian Li Sung inherit the mantle of Grendel. Last time we covered Matt Wagner’s antihero Grendel, we did a chronological readthrough of the Hunter Rose stories, starting with material from the mid-1980s collected as Devil By the Deed and then skipping ahead to miniseries from 1998, 2002, and 2007. Now we’re going back to 1986 (and the future…which is probably our present…but looks like the past…with flying cars) to read the first actual Grendel ongoing series from Comico (although we’ll be looking at a two-issue miniseries from 1999 first). Sound confusing? Dark Horse’s omibuses make it easy, trust us! In these stories, we examine the seduction of violence and how quickly it can spiral out of control, even with the best of intentions. Can anybody come into contact with Grendel and survive? (Maybe, if you’re a cop with a cybernetic eye.)

Discussed in this episode: Grendel: Devil Child #1-2, Grendel #1-19 (aka Devil’s Legacy, The Devil Inside, and Devil Tales), collected as Grendel Omnibus Volume 2: Legacy from Dark Horse Comics

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