Our continued deep dive into the comic book that defined the Iron Age begins with a lengthy appreciation of Dave Gibbons’ art and storytelling, then gets into the weeds talking about the novel’s themes, worldbuilding, and its legacy of superhero deconstructionism. We’ll also discuss the ownership dispute over the rights to Watchmen, and the various adaptations, sequels, and prequels that exist today because of that ownership dispute. Unorthodox opinions abound, and your hosts may have to resolve their disagreements with pistols at dawn before it’s all over!

What’s left to say about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ novel Watchmen? Plenty, as it turns out! In our first of two episodes on the subject, we talk about the changes in the larger comics industry that needed to be in place for Watchmen to exist, consider the degree to which the series relies (or doesn’t) on the Charlton Action Heroes for inspiration, and finally do a deep dive on the major characters and what drives them. Jim and Justin may disagree about how well Watchmen holds up today, but several assumptions about this book will be challenged in any event!

This fifth Wednesday, the Iron Age boys throw a bit of a curveball by taking a look at an obscure fantasy series from the early 1980s! Designed to serve what was perceived as an untapped audience for Marvel and entice toy manufacturers to create a line of licensed tie-in action figures, The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior throws a few curveballs of its own with a somewhat conceptually abstract central conflict and an antagonist who's more of a victim of circumstance than your standard unambiguous bad guy. We discuss the comic, the toys, and the Marvel Universe guest stars (who never again mentioned their adventures on Crystar's planet)!

Artist Mike Mignola made his first foray into creator-owned work with Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, a 1994 miniseries for Dark Horse’s Legend imprint. In time, Mignola would be responsible for every aspect of Hellboy’s adventures, turning him and the B.R.P.D into a miniature comic book industry, but for this initial story, Mignola turned to Iron Age stalwart John Byrne to help with the scripting. We’ll talk about Mignola and his cohorts in the Legend imprint, the horror and pulp influences that went into this series, and the historical Rasputin before discussing how Hellboy took Hollywood.

When up-and-coming writer Joe Kelly got the keys to Deadpool’s first solo series, he subverted fan expectations by downplaying the character’s connections to the larger X-franchise. Similarly, he decided to fulfill the constant requests for the Merc with a Mouth to team-up with Spider-Man in a way nobody expected. We take a look at the innovative, Forrest Gump-inspired techniques used to insert a time-traveling Deadpool into a semi-obscure issue of Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. and discuss whether this oversized issue’s jokes about Norman Osborn’s weird hair and Gwen Stacy hold up today.

Forget whatever you think you know about Hawkman! Tim Truman’s 1989 prestige format miniseries Hawkworld drew from inspirations including cop shows, Vietnam War movies, and The Count of Monte Cristo to update the winged warrior’s Silver Age origin for a grittier, more grounded era. The result is a science fiction adventure offering a critique of imperialism and class inequality that resonates just as strongly today. We’ll also dig into the confusing tangle of Hawkman’s post-Crisis continuity, but rest assured that Hawkworld itself won’t require you to be an expert in Thanagarian lore before or since.

With the Avengers and Fantastic Four temporarily outsourced to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee in 1997, Marvel touted the ostensibly brand-new heroes of the Thunderbolts as the next big thing to a somewhat skeptical comics readership. The legendary twist ending to the first issue made the book into an overnight success but sometimes overshadows the work Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley did on the rest of the series, making this comic worth a re-examination. We’ll discuss the origins of the concept, the first year of the series, and how the creators refreshed Silver and Bronze Age superhero tropes while developing a bunch of C-list villains into vibrant, interesting characters.

The first issue of the web-slinger's quarterly fifth-week title kicked off the 1993 14-part crossover "Maximum Carnage," but Spider-Man Unlimited #1's supersized page count left room for two whole backup stories as well. We talk plenty about the main feature's giant fang monsters and unconvincing serial killers, but also dig into the very nature of the anthology superhero comic and ponder what it could be capable of.