The Stack

On this week’s comic book review podcast:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1

X of Swords: Stasis #1

Wynd #5

Dark Nights: Death Metal – Rise of the New God #1

Sex Criminals #69

Stranger Things: Science Camp #2

The Immortal Hulk #39

The Last God: Songs of Lost Children #1

The Department of Truth #2

G.I. Joe #9

Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #1

Chu #4

Batman: Three Jokers #3

Ascender #14

Shang-Chi #2

Undiscovered Country #9

Batgirl #50

Bliss #4

An Unkindness of Ravens #2

A Man Among Ye #3

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up you all? Welcome to the stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on the stack we talk about a ton of comics that came out this week. So many comics, so many big comics, but I want to kick it off with this one Pete. Pete, this goes out to you.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Once upon a time, there was a little boy who grew up in Rochester, loving four turtles.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Those four turtles lived in the sewer, they loved pizza and they were ninjas. They were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and this is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 dedicated to Pete LePage.

Pete:                From IDW comics story about Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Tom Waltz script by Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman. Layouts by Kevin Eastman, Pencils and Inks by Esau and Isaac Escorza. Now the whole thing behind this is, this is reportedly [crosstalk 00:02:18]

Alex:                 Wait, wait. Allow me to just take it over. Allow me to just take it from here.

Pete:                Oh you want to take it over? Okay take it from here.

Justin:              It seems like a risk.

Alex:                 Basically Eastman and Laird back in the day had this story and they just put it on the shelf because they stopped doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a while. And so they had this story planned a long time ago and just as a fan it’s very exciting that they got the chance to do this. And the fact that just to see the names Eastman and Laird next to each other again, what a magical time, but I’m sorry [inaudible 00:02:55]. Go ahead.

Justin:              No, I have a question. Because they famously started getting along, right Pete?

Pete:                I don’t know if it who… They split ways. They went their separate ways. I don’t know why or whatever happened? I didn’t really dig into that but.

Justin:              So is this them getting back together a little bit?

Pete:                Well, this is them at least dusting off something and being [crosstalk 00:03:21]. No it’s Eastman dusting it off and working with IDW to move forward with a story probably without Laird or I mean, I don’t know him but I assume him being like, “Whatever, do whatever you want.”

Justin:              You don’t know Laird?

Pete:                I don’t know Laird.

Justin:              Let me ask you, do you think they are going to do any alternate covers or anything for this book?

Pete:                I tell you what’s funny about that is, because there’s 60 of them.

Alex:                 71 alternate covers.

Pete:                But I just want to say, I was paging through them and I was like, “Wait a second, Last Ronin. Oh my God. The other turtles are dead.” And it took me to the 45th cover before I really put it together. I was like, “Oh no, this is going to be sad as fuck.” I’m not ready for this.

Alex:                 That’s the genius about it is it really does take you until the 45th cover to really get the plot of the book.

Justin:              Yeah, honestly when I was it’s a little bit behind the curtain we get to review these, we get them as PDFs and I was already through it. I was, “Wait a second. Is this the comic? Am I just not putting this together?” And I was like, “No, these are covers.” After another 30 I was like, “Oh no, this has to be the comic, am I missing the story or maybe they link up.” And then finally I was, “No, I guess this is just covers.” And then one last time I was, “This is just a series of pinups or something.”

Pete:                It’s an emotional roller coaster to page through for sure?

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                But then it’s actually a story. It’s basically Dark Knight Returns but with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that’s pretty much it or old man [crosstalk 00:05:06] Teenage Mutant chip in the story.

Alex:                 Hold on. Pete don’t jump on me yet because I thought this was great. I’m saying, this as a reference point, it is very much one of the turtles heads back to the city to take down the descendant of Shredder, he’s the only one left, he’s old man turtle now and that’s what it is. You know what the setup is but it really does feel there’s old Eastman and Laird comic books down to the art, down to the piecing and everything and I thought it was awesome. I was very excited about reading this comic, even though I understood the comic, even though the concept, even though we’ve walked through this thing multiple times before it’s fun to see the turtles in it or turtle.

Pete:                Or turtle.

Justin:              It’s super sad.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              It definitely has that very much like I dwell in darkness vibe throughout and that’s why the reveal at the end is like the whoa moment.

Alex:                 Yeah. That was really heartbreaking and I was not ready for.

Justin:              Let me say, there’s a moment where our Last Ronin turtle falls out of a skyscraper and falls. He’s like, “Oh no, I’m going to die.” And then he lands and he doesn’t land on his shell. And I feel if he landed on his shell he would have been all right.

Alex:                 Right [crosstalk 00:06:32].

Justin:              I guess that’s what [crosstalk 00:06:38] trouble.

Pete:                I think later the last couple of panels, explain why do you, if you put that together, but you know, okay.

Justin:              Wait, why does they explain why?

Pete:                Because of what happens later?

Justin:              No, it doesn’t explain why he didn’t land on the shell.

Alex:                 No, that doesn’t explain.

Pete:                I will say, one of the things that I also thought was great about this is one of the Hills I’ll die on is I never liked the animated series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It made me actively angry. And one of the reason it made me angry is, I read the Eastman and Laird comics first and those are bloody, those are intense, they’re emotional at times and then they turn them into these [inaudible 00:07:17] dude eating pizza guys and it was very frustrating for me that this was why everybody loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles versus the comics. That was definitely my first gatekeeping experience, I think. And getting back to these comics, it feels like getting back to reminding people, no, these comics were actually kind of hardcore.

Alex:                 These turtles are miserable. They’re not having fun with [inaudible 00:07:44], they’re mad and sad. Though I will say you get your Baxter Stockman references here, you get your [inaudible 00:07:52] references here. And were those in the original comics or is that?

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              I all the time, and we’ve talked about this in the show before, but I all the time think about as a teen reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and being like, “Okay, they’re going to beat Shredder in this first arc.” And they don’t and Shredder destroys them and they run away and they spend an entire arc hiding at a farm and healing because they got beaten up so badly by Shredder and that needs such an impact on me. So same sort of thing here happening to our Last Ronin, I think it is very reminiscent of that. Starting it off at a place where they just don’t win, they lose. It almost works against the idea of them being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at a certain way, where it is very serious and it is very bloody, but an intense action, but it’s very good.

Alex:                 They’re teenagers, when you’re a teen-

Pete:                You’re going to lose.

Alex:                 Yeah. You couldn’t lose.

Justin:              You’re going to lose. Speaking of people that are going to lose, let’s move on and talk about-

Pete:                Wait, wait, wait, not moving on yet.

Alex:                 Just wanted to say a couple of things here. First off, I was really hoping this was all going to be black and white. I was a little disappointed it was color. The original ones were black and white and really well done but the coloring is cool I guess. And I was really kind of heartbroken by this issue. This is very sad and depressing and I was really looking forward for this to pick me up and when it didn’t and it made me sadder it was rough. I was really looking forward to this issue and the fact that I liked how dark and gritty it was, but the way it ended really hurt. But I do hope that Eastman and Laird can set aside whatever they have, because I would love for them to give me a little bit more TMNT.

Justin:              I don’t think that’s going to happen, but let’s move on to another team. X Of Swords: Stasis #1 or 10 Of Swords: Stasis #1 from Marvel written by Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman, art by Pepe Larraz and a Mahmud Asrar. This is the mid point exactly I think. I think it’s chapter-

Alex:                 Of 22.

Justin:              Yeah of 22 of 10 Of Swords and we finally get the thing that you’ve been begging for Pete, that you’ve been asking for, we transition from everybody getting their swords to getting ready for the tournament. That’s what happens in this issue. We finally have our sword bears. We meet the other side, we meet the villains and then they all get together in other worlds. Get ready for the final battle. This is great.

Pete:                So good.

Justin:              I loved the building of the villains. I love these villains. They’re so smart and they’re so interesting. And even if the reveal at the end is pretty obvious, I feel like you could have seen it going for the building beginning, it’s still very emotionally satisfying.

Pete:                Yeah. I’m happy we got the fast forward button because I would have really been upset if we had to go through another 10 issues of everybody getting their swords on the villain side. So I was glad it was one issue and get it all done. I wish we could have had that with the other side but great. It’s all out of the fucking way now, the next issue’s got to have action. It’s got to have a sword fighting, right?

Alex:                 I actually don’t think there’s any sword fighting I think now that they have their swords all together they’ll put them away and [crosstalk 00:11:35].

Pete:                Wolverine [crosstalk 00:11:37], right?

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                That they’re like metaphorical swords.

Alex:                 Exactly. And he’s also like, “You know what? Claws are just tiny sores. I don’t need these either. I’ll give these up as well.”

Justin:              He hands them to a poor [inaudible 00:11:50] kid on the street. He’s like, “Here you go. Here’s my claws.”

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:11:54] day is it sir? Christmas morning. Have my claws.

Alex:                 I got to say though, this is an Epic cover. It’s a really glorious cover to this book.

Justin:              I love all of this. I feel like with this issue, everything’s cranky on all cylinders. The Arakko stuff is really starting to come together and the different corners of it, the different sort of monsters and mutants from their side coming together. We get the interstitial panels where we get to see all their swords. Very cool. Saturnine is setting up both a villain and sort of the unlike the person who’s just not able to control the situation that she’s created and then the tarot card bit at the end I thought was awesome.

Alex:                 Yeah, this is all so good. The art by Pepe Larraz and Mahmud Asrar is seamless. Normally I’m not a fan of taking two artists and sticking them together though both of the artists are great but fantastic. There was no stoppage in the pace of the issue between their different pages. I think Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman are working on musically together. You can tell where Tini Howard is leading into jokes at Jonathan Hickman is leading into, “Here’s some insane mythology.” But it still blends very seamlessly. Fantastic stuff. This is one of my favorite crossovers that has happened in a very, very long time.

Alex:                 Let’s move to a ending, at least for now with WYND #5 from BOOM! Studios written by James Tynion IV and wrote by Michael Dialynas, I got to get that right at some point. So this is as mentioned the end of the arc, they’re going to be coming back next year at some point with this issue with this title. This [inaudible 00:13:45] fantasy world that hates weird things. We get some big revelations this issue about the villains, as well as our heroes, as well as the promise of more to come. There’s a big show down. I thought this was a really good arc and I’d highly recommend if you didn’t pick it up in individual issues, definitely pick this up and trade.

Pete:                Yeah. I think this really ended such a great place. It did such an amazing job of weaving the venture tail and such a cool way. And man, what a fantastic last issue that makes me very sad that it’s ending. I want more, they really did a great job of setting up this world and I hope they get to play in it more because I would be excited to read it. Art’s fantastic, writing’s unbelievable. This is a great, great package. And speaking of great packages, Justin, what are your thoughts?

Justin:              Thanks Pete. I am a great package using your words as a description of me. I like this a lot too. I feel like it really is a small step into a huge world that I feel like James Tynion IV is ready to really walk us into. It’s a world where everything is pretty contained and controlled but it’s also like… Basically any fantastical thing can exist in this world. It’s just been so restrained that it needs to be released perhaps by our hero. And that’s just a nice spot to start this whole series or however long they run it for.

Alex:                 Yeah. And just to mention off of what Pete was saying, it is coming back for WYND #6 next year. This is just the end of the first arc. There’s just going to be a gap. I believe it’s coming back in May.

Pete:                Sweet.

Alex:                 So there you go. Moving on to another James Tynion IV book, Dark Nights: Death Metal Rise of The New God #1 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV and Bryan Hill, art by Jesus Merino and Nik Virella. This is picking up on the Dark Nights Death Metal event and showing us, this is kind of a big revelation, not just for this event but also for the mythology that Scott Snyder and company have built up. They have been promising that Perpetua, the mother of the multi-verse has been preparing the multi-verse for someone or something else. And we finally get a little taste of what that something or something else is here in a more dick watcher who shows up essentially to [inaudible 00:16:16] what’s going on in DC Universe.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:16:19], you were like more of the dick watcher. I was like, what? Like a watcher with more penises.

Justin:              I was like, man, if you want more dick, check out this new watcher.

Pete:                That is a note we get a lot is like, I love the watcher, but more dick.

Alex:                 Yeah, but we meet new character called the Chronicler who is of course chronically the DC Universe. Things go interestingly from there as he resurrects a character who was recently killed. I’d like this issue though, this was not what I expected for the title and it’s a key piece of the mythology and I’m happy that they’re finally getting there.

Pete:                Yeah. This is just continues to be over the top fun. I enjoy it. The Chronicler is a cool new kind of like reveal. Also this Metron guy really misses his chair and I get it, man. If you’re standing for a long time, especially out in space, that’s got to be rough when you-

Justin:              It’s actually very easy to stand in space.

Pete:                Well, he’s complaining a lot for a guy who misses his space chair.

Alex:                 Have you ever seen the movie Gravity? Sandra Bullock has a lot of lines about, “Wow, this is easy. I’m standing. This is so easy”

Justin:              And that big ending is where she’s like, “It’s even easier than I thought it was.” I like this issue a lot. This Chronicle, it’s very [inaudible 00:17:51] this whole issue. Now at a point in the book, the Chronicle is showing off his his little book, his codex of the DC Universe to brainiac five and he reads it and barfs. Now what do you think would have to be in a book to make you instantly barf? Is there a comic book you’ve ever read where you got very close to barfing?

Alex:                 I don’t think so but if somebody had to be the next Game of Thrones book, I’d probably throw up excitement.

Justin:              Like a positive.

Pete:                Oh, a positive barf, I don’t know. I was going to say, if they were graphically describing something that was grotesque and was very queasy I might throw up. If it was talking about maggots writhing in some kind of vomit or garbage.

Alex:                 Like if you saw a picture of someone vomiting in a book, you’ll be like, “Oh, here I go.”

Pete:                I’ll be like, oh.

Alex:                 Maybe that’s what it was.

Pete:                I did. When I saw Brainiac 5 throw up that book I vomited too.

Alex:                 Yeah. It’s visceral.

Pete:                Sympathy vomit.

Alex:                 Yeah. But good stuff. Moving on to Sex Criminals #69, you get it. Image comics by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. This is the last issue of Sex Criminals ever. They’re done with the story. We kind of thought they were done with the story last issue but we zoom forward a bunch of years to catch up with the characters.

Justin:              I got to ask you a personal question here yourselves, you got to be really disappointed because dedicated to there’s an Alex W not an Alex Z that is dedicated to, that had to really chop your buns.

Alex:                 Yeah, I definitely read that, saw that and had a emotional reaction to that so thanks for catching that.

Justin:              I’m sorry man. Pete famously known for reading every dedication page in a comic book and giving us his take. I think this series finished really strong, a series that I thought wavered a bit at a point, and by their own admission, Matt Fraction was sort of like, “Yeah, we wandered for a little bit in there.” But I think really the last issue I thought was great and this issue had all the… It felt like those moments when you see someone that you used to date or used to be in love with or something and all of that, it just played so well in this from top to bottom. And then all of the sort of the sex stuff is treated as just a little side thing, which I think is a little bit the point of the series whereas it was always about the characters and their sex crimes, the Sex Criminals stuff was just the fun bit that got everyone [inaudible 00:20:53].

Pete:                I love this. I wish the whole series was like this. I thought it was really focused on the love.

Alex:                 Sure. You would prefer love criminals?

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Oh, interesting.

Pete:                Or just sex relationshipers.

Alex:                 Even if it wrapped up very nicely in the last issue with the main plot, this is a nice little coda, a nice little finishing bit on there. Yeah. I can make a lot of jokes but for Pete’s sake, I will refrain from making all of them.

Alex:                 Stranger Things: Science Camp #2 from Dark Horse Comics written by Jodie Houser, pencils by Edgar Salazar. This is a interesting comic that takes place between seasons two and three of Stranger Things as Dustin is at science camp meeting Susie, the girl of his dreams that we find out about it in season three. And it turns out there’s maybe a stalker killer at the camp. And the weird thing to me, I like this book just fine but the weird thing to me about Stranger Things comic books is almost nothing strange should ideally happen in any books outside of the big continuity or stranger things, right?

Pete:                What? They can’t have some side fun?

Alex:                 No.

Justin:              I sort of felt the opposite. I felt like I wanted something to happen. This was very less strange.

Pete:                What are you talking about? The guy is killing kids.

Alex:                 Is he though?

Justin:              This just feels like a totally unrelated book so I’m like, yeah, it’s vaguely one of the stranger things kids here but it feels unrelated to the main series and so it’s hard to get in on it.

Pete:                Focusing it on the star of the show. I love it. It’s great.

Alex:                 So you like this one?

Pete:                Yeah. I thought it was fun. I like the setup of this relationship. And I like the kind of, okay, some things are happening and I’m sure our hero we’ll get to the bottom of it and save the day.

Alex:                 Yeah. I guess we’ll see what happens. I do think Jodie Houser does a good job with the writing, captures Dustin, Edgar Salazar’s art is good as well. Yeah, it’s just tough to wrap your mind around this book a little bit, at least from my perspective. Next step, here’s an easy book to understand, one that you could just sink right into. The Immortal Hulk #39 from Marvel Comics written by Al Ewing and art by Joe Bennett. Oh my God. This issue was insane. As the leader continues to enact his plan working for the one below who controls this whole gamma hell, whatever is going on there and tried to take over the Hulk, we thought the leader was doubted out last issue, it turns out he was very much not, as usual he has a plan to get one over on all the Hulks and everybody as we slowly moved towards the end game of the series. This is as wild and gross as any issue of this title.

Pete:                Yes. This one, I felt like really brought a lot of this stuff to a head. The grossness, the viscera of the Hulk throat mouth coming out and eating Hulk’s dad in the middle of this book and just like, I love it though. It’s so good. The idea that the only way to defeat the Hulk is to get inside his brain, open the green door, inside his own mental state. And we see Hulk at his weakest tier where he’s like, “I just want my dad to say I love you.” And he messes up, he fucks up because he it’s his vulnerability and we’ll have to watch it happen ending on this just horrifying image.

Justin:              Yeah. It keeps getting worse and worse for the Hulk and it gets creepier and more disgusting looking and, man this is a crazy fucking tale. I’m really interested to see how this all ends up. But amazing ride and this has been an amazing new take on the Hulk and it continues to crank forward in such a cool way. For someone who’s read the Hawk for most of his life, this is unbelievable.

Alex:                 Well to that end, and this is something I was thinking about reading this issue in particular, is the one below somebody we know, or is this a new character? Because it feels like Al Ewing has been mining so many different aspects of Hulk continuity throughout this run, from Bruce Banner’s father to Bruce Banner, to all the Hulk’s different personalities, to everything throughout his history, it feels like this should be some sort of new villain who’s the ultimate villain who’s controlling things, but is it somebody we know already? Is that possible?

Pete:                What could the possible options be? Thunderbolt Ross or Bruce Banner himself.

Alex:                 Right.

Pete:                Right?

Alex:                 I think that’s it.

Pete:                What are the other possible the truly Epic Hulk villains?

Alex:                 I don’t know, Abomination?

Pete:                Yeah. Maybe, but I feel like, didn’t we fight him already in the early part of [inaudible 00:27:39]?

Alex:                 Well, and to your point, leader is the step up there, right? Leader is the big Hulk villain. And once you’ve gotten past Bruce Banner’s father, the only place you can really go is Bruce Banner himself. So if there is some sort of the one below was Bruce Banner when he was separated by the gamma bomb or something like that, I could see that as a possibility, but I don’t know. It was just something that occurred to me while I was reading this. Let’s move on and talk about The Last God: Songs of Lost Children #1 from DC Comics created by Phillip Kennedy Johnson written by Dan Watters and art by Steve Beach. This is an interesting one because we’ve been loving reading The Last God, but this is not written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, this is somebody else, somebody else is playing in his world here which is pretty fascinating. How do you think it holds up and how do you think it works as a comic all on its own?

Pete:                This is a fucking freaky ass story. I think it’s a nice kind of like it fits in this world, but kind of it’s its own thing. I think it’s a cool kind of like Halloween tale in the middle of this thing. It’s just kind of like a fun, scary ass fucking creepy story with the kid that, oh my God, I’m a very scary monster. That freaked me the fuck out. That was really intense and very scary. This is a very cool book if you like horror books or Halloween kind of things, this is definitely a must pick up.

Justin:              I love that this is becoming a little corner of the universe. The Last God is such a fun, well thought out universe and story and the fact that we get sort of just another version of that, that is equally horrifying. Talk about body dysmorphia in the Hulk, we get a bunch of that here as well, which is gross and scary. I hope there’s more, I hope this becomes a real thing.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. Just a great one-shot. Even if you haven’t been reading the main series, if you want to read a horror fantasy one shot, this is a real good. Steve Beach’s art is great and horrifying. Dan Watters definitely captures the tone of the [inaudible 00:29:57] series. Just a very good book overall. Let’s move to one that I know Justin was very excited about, The Department of Truth #2 from the Image Comics written once again by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmons. The set of this book is, what if every conspiracy theory is true? Or rather if you believes conspiracy theories are true, they become true in the real world and there’s a governmental agency that is trying to take them down. We see all of this through a new recruit of the agency and in this issue, we find a big twist about his past the ties into the satanic panic of the 80s. What did you think about this one? Did it hold up to the lofty heights of the first issue?

Justin:              I love this series because it takes a real world issue and concept and doesn’t play it for the politics of it or anything that is in the public eye, it plays it pretty straight. It is dangerous in our current world that so many people believe false things, believe conspiracy theories and it’s causing problems in our culture. And so the fact that those people believe that is making it harder for us all to live normal lives. And this takes that one very small step further in that the amount of people that believe in a conspiracy theory make it actual reality.

Justin:              And if enough people believe in something, it will manifest. If enough people typically we hit a tipping point where more people believe that the earth is flat than not, the earth becomes flat and everything changes. It’s such a smart real threading the needle premise. And to play that through the first issue and then the second issue, which is about the satanic panic and how it was something that wasn’t believed and then the more and more people believed it meant it started to become real which is literally what happened in America.

Pete:                Satanic panic. Yeah, this is very creepy shit. It’s really well done. The art is perfectly creepy in all the right waves and right ways. Yeah, I think it’s just really cool, really well done. I’m completely all in, and I love the kind of reveal that we get in this issue about the main characters past and why he is where he is. So I’m very excited to see how this all unfolds. I’ve been really impressed with each issue.

Alex:                 Martin Simmons art is great, James Tynion’s writing is great as well. I am very nervous about this arc speaking as a Jewish person just because the character, the demon character, just a spoiler here, that is menacing our main character, which they referenced this way in the book is a anti-Semitic stereotype. Just to describe him, he is a guy who has a upside down pentagram on his face, he eats babies. This isn’t exactly the thing. It’s like one step removed, but there is an anti-Semitic stereotype, I don’t know, not meme is the only word that I’m thinking of, but that Jews eat Christian babies.

Justin:              It’s like a century’s old conspiracy. Conspiracy theory stereotype, whatever you want to say like racist belief.

Alex:                 Yes. So I think James Tynion is aware of this given that he references it in the book.

Justin:              Yeah, I think it’s meant… But I also think that, it’s good, you finish your point.

Alex:                 No, no, no, all I was going to say is, it definitely makes my chest feel a little tight when I’m reading it because it gets be concerned about how all of this is going to turn out. I’m not too worried about it. He’s a responsible writer, but it’s something that puts me on edge when I’m reading it.

Justin:              Do you mean how reality is going to turn out?

Alex:                 Yeah reality, that’s what I’m talking about.

Justin:              I agree. I was like, whoa, that’s a thing to put down is your villain here. But I also think he’s manifesting something that is one of the longest held conspiracy theories in our world. So I feel like he’s sort of, what I like about this book is it really looks hard at real shit and leans into the paranoia and anxiety through the main character here about what it means to believe in something no matter what it is. It’s scary and good.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              It feels like a vertigo book despite the fact that it’s from Image Comics. The art feels very Dave McKean. It’s really nice.

Alex:                 Yeah. It feels like in a certain way, the air of [inaudible 00:34:46] which I know is a big thing the second issue is something, but it could to get there. G.I. Joe #9 from IDW written by Paul Allor and art by Ryan Kelly. We have been loving this book that is completely reinvented G.I. Joe for a modern context. In this issue we’re focusing on Tunnel Rat I want to say who [crosstalk 00:35:09] in tunnels with rats and he’s fighting some bats which are Cobra, robot soldiers and these tunnels and that’s what’s going on.

Pete:                It’s funny because all I can think about when I read this now is you because when they’re saying everybody’s code name, you have no reference for that so you’re just seeing a silly name and then it’s like somebody died. But because-

Justin:              A lot of these are made.

Pete:                No they’re actual G.I. Joe’s so real people. Yeah.

Justin:              There’s a guy whose name was [crosstalk 00:35:47].

Pete:                Yeah, it was my favorite, well one of my favorite Joes is Shipwreck.

Justin:              But that’s [crosstalk 00:35:53]. Yeah, Shipwreck Jones. But Pete that’d be like, if he was a good sailor, he wouldn’t be named Shipwreck.

Pete:                Yeah, but he’s a scrappy guy. It’s a fun name.

Justin:              That’d be if one of us is named bad podcaster.

Alex:                 My favorite G.I. Joe is fuck up. Jinx. There’s a jinx. She was in G.I. Joe. She was great or is great.

Justin:              Great. Does she always like saying the same stuff at the same time?

Alex:                 I didn’t love this issue. This is after a run of fantastic issues. This was a little bit of a step down for me. I still think the art by Ryan Kelly was good but the story didn’t feel quite as sharp as the last couple which were granted high water marks and excellence so I think that’s an unfair judging point. But this is a good story of war. I like the whole overall arc of Cobra has one, G.I. Joe has to fight back. That’s a smart place to put them. But I do think the last couple of issues were bad. Also it’s kind of crazy to see G.I. Joe’s use real guns because in the show it was always lasers, no one got hit. So it was crazy to see turn around and actually shoot someone and see blood. I was like, “Damn.” But yeah.

Justin:              Well and I think that’s what this issue. I take your point Alex, the other ones really dealt, the previous issues dealt with really intense themes and this feels more like it’s taking an episode of the G.I. Joe animated series and giving an actual stakes where a bunch of Joes died and Tunnel Rat is scraping by, getting away with this, by the skin of his teeth and escaping from this horrible situation.

Alex:                 Spoiler.

Justin:              So in that way, it felt like giving, giving stakes to the goofy plots of so many of those G.I. Joe episodes, I wasn’t allowed to watch it because they had guns is I think, cool. I like this issue.

Alex:                 Agreed, and it’s also kind of like naming Joes and then being like they died. So it’s kind of sad. And if you don’t really connect with it, I can understand what you’re saying [inaudible 00:38:14].

Justin:              Yeah. I can’t believe [inaudible 00:38:18], my favorite child died in this.

Alex:                 RIP. That is a sour note to end on. Colonel Weird: Cosmagog #1 from Dark Horse Comics written by Jeff Lemire and art by Tyler Crook. This is spinning off of the Black Hammer series following the, I guess he’s best described as the Adam Strange of the Black Hammer universe who has gotten unstuck in time our Slaughterhouse-Five. This is following him as he was trying to piece together his history. As usual just great comics, great plotting, Tyler Crook’s art is great. This is great. The end.

Pete:                It felt to me like a pitch for Adam Strange and I was like, “Oh, someone’s already doing that. Okay, well I’ll just put it over here.” And it’s really great. Like you said, I felt the same way of the comparisons. Adam strange and Slaughterhouse-Five, two things I love. So with the fantastic art here is a great book to read.

Justin:              It’s not the worst than when you go to grab a sodie pop and then you’re stuck in time. It’s just rough. But yeah, this is classic tripped out Jeff Lemire shit and I’m excited to see where this goes. The art is unbelievable in this kind of setup in this world. Yeah, I thought it was a solid first issue. Does a great job of getting you excited for more. I can’t wait.

Alex:                 Let’s move on and talk about Chu #4 from Image Comics written by John Layman, art by Dan Boultwood. We’re finally getting into it here as Chu and his sister are coming to head by the end of the issue. This series is really hitting its stride I think in terms of a heir to Chew C-H-E-W versus C-H-U. It took an issue or two to get there, but John Layman has hit his groove again in terms of the series. There’s fun stuff, there’s ridiculous stuff, there’s dark stuff that’s happening. I’m having a lot of fun reading this series.

Justin:              Me too and I’m not a Chu fan. I’m not a Chu head. I’m not a chow hound but I like this issue a lot. I like this series a lot. I don’t know if it means I should go back and reread the original Chus. Take another, go back because I feel like I ate it and then I spit it out and I’ll just eat it again. Okay.

Pete:                I’m a Chu head so I was going to like this, but yeah, I’m really impressed with this now, especially it feels like it’s really got its rhythm and this is very exciting, fantastic ending. I’m excited to see what happened and who got shot.

Alex:                 I think two fans are called chronic masticators. Is that true?

Justin:              Wow.

Pete:                I’m glad you Googled it.

Justin:              I think so.

Alex:                 Didn’t Google it, my brain did. My brain did right out.

Justin:              The original Google.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to one that I am concerned and nervous and interested to talk to you guys about, Batman: Three Jokers #3 from DC Comics written by Geoff Johns and art by Jason Fabook. Now I think we’ve been pretty complimentary of the first two issues. Jason Fabook’s art has been great, Geoff Johns plotting as Batman and Red Hood and Batgirl have been tracking down the three jokers and trying to figure out. The mystery has been I think interesting and really driveling into the characters. I believe what I said with the last issue is this felt like what Geoff Johns was trying to do with Doomsday Clock but is actually now doing his Alan Moore riff on killing joke instead. I got to tell you though, I was real disappointed of this issue personally. I didn’t love how it turned out, still like Jason Fabook’s art, but I was unhappy with the turns for Red Hood, for Batgirl, for Batman, for Joker. Just none of it really sat with me the right way even though I respect the craft that was put into it.

Pete:                There was one. I thought the way they had that Joe chill interview run throughout the issue was cool. While different things were happening you got little clips of it. I thought that was very creative and cool and you kind of really felt that. Yeah, the reveal of what the deal is is the big thing on this and you’re either like, “Oh cool.” Or you’re like, “What?” And I was a little scratching my head. And it was also weird. There was a lot of infighting which I don’t like. Batman losing it on Robin and a lot of fighting with Robin and Barbara. And it was just a lot of misconnects there. I wasn’t excited. I think it was an interesting choice and the art is definitely worth checking it out. I did kind of like there was a Batman moment where he saved somebody and I thought that was powerful and cool, but yeah, I don’t know, the reveal was a little kind of.

Justin:              For me, it’s like, because I agree. I really like the art and I think that really shines through a lot of it. I haven’t seen a comic really laid out this way with a sort of classic conflict paneling but very close up. You’re very close up to a lot of the characters. But I think it’s a little bit impenetrable as a read because you got “three jokers”, and then you’ve got these three characters in the bat family who are the most affected victims of Joker. It feels a little too directed or it’s a little too on the nose in the way that the story unfolds. And then it feels like too much of threading together different continuity things. It feels like it’s doing so much editorial work that I don’t need it all to make sense. I feel like we’ve reconciled for the fact.

Justin:              We talk about this a lot that, yeah, the Joker’s a sort of genius biochemist and a crazed psychopath who just shoots random people all the time. And it’s like, well, that’s just what people have chosen to take the character in different iterations of the character. To try to thread all that together is difficult and also a little bit unnecessary and I think it’s difficult. I think this issue proves it’s really hard.

Pete:                I also really liked how Alfred was alive in this and it was nice to see Batman talking to Alfred again.

Alex:                 Sure. One of my problems with this is I think Scott Snyder already put in the work to explain this in his run, where he went through very meticulously and explained how the Joker reinvents himself all the time for various reasons but one of them to be to respond to Batman, to be the different antagonist that Batman needs because he loves Batman and he needs Batman and he wants to make a better Batman or whatever he wants to do at the current time. And Geoff Johns coming up with these three jokers, the ultimate conclusion here seems to reiterate that in a different way that already feels like it’s been covered. Beyond that the two things that really kind of, this sounds too strong, but stuck in my craw, I didn’t love how he characterized Barbara. I think she was too much like, “Oh boys, what are you doing?”

Alex:                 There’s a lot of conflicted looks from her and not a lot of action and she’s a fantastic character who should have agency of her own that has nothing to do with the Red Hood’s arc or Batman’s arc. Well then the other thing, the big thing, and this is getting into the big spoiler for the issue so if you don’t want to know, definitely turn away, but he pretty definitively chooses one of the three jokers from killing Joke to say, this is who the Joker is, this is his origin and I hate that. I hate that because he tries to have it both ways by saying it doesn’t matter who the Joker is. It’s not important. Also here’s who he is and here’s this origin and here’s his family and why I don’t say what his name is. And that to me is a very frustrating have your cake and eat it too type moment that I did not love at all.

Justin:              And it’s also like what’s the point of doing that in this non continuity book? It’s just literally Geoff Johns putting his stamp on something but it doesn’t really mean much for the larger world. And I think this book and so many books are like, I’m going to research so much of the continuity and carve out a tiny little thing that feels like there’s an opening there. And I think as a comic book reader, I’m ready to move on from that as a philosophy of storytelling which I think we’ve done a lot in the last five, 10 years.

Pete:                I would like to say that I think sometimes when get an idea for maybe a character or something and you want to try it, I think, yeah, go for it, definitely. Well, I want to see Geoff Johns take on this three jokers idea. I was into it. I was like, yeah, let’s do this. This could be crazy. This will be fun. Geoff Johns is amazing writer. Sometimes you’re like, I tried something, great. I don’t think he should not try it because maybe somebody else did something similar or whatever, he should be allowed to do it. He definitely tried and hey, sometimes it’s like, “Oh my God, that’s crazy.” And sometimes it’s like, “What are you going to do?”

Alex:                 I think he just needs to stop correcting for Alan Moore. Geoff Johns is his own writer. He’s a fantastic writer. He’s written some of the best DC Comic stories of all time. Doomsday Clock was his way of correcting the course from Watchman. This is clearly his way of correcting the chorus from killing Joke. He doesn’t need to respond to him anymore. He’s done it. I want to see him move on. I want to see him do his own stories, create his own stories, create his own continuity because the things that he’s done have been so wonderful and he has so much craft and so much heart to his things and we need more of that. I don’t know what that character is. Obviously he’s doing Stargirl and I love that show that it’s wonderful and there is so much heart put into that. But when and if he comes back to comics, I want to see more on that side than just saying no Alan Moore sent the DC Universe the wrong direction for 20 years, let’s [crosstalk 00:49:32].

Pete:                But maybe that’s how we get Stargirl with so much heart because he’s got to write something that’s darker and more fucked up.

Alex:                 Maybe. I’m not necessarily saying about that, I’m saying specifically about relating to Alan Moore, which is fine, those exist. Let’s move on. Speaking of which let’s move on to Ascender for #14 from Image Comics written by Jeff Lemire and art by Dustin Nguyen. This I think is my favorite book in the stack everyone. I think this is the bit that I [inaudible 00:50:07] about the things that happened to the book, and in this issue we continue to get so many characters coming together. Spoiler, three, two, one, but Tim 21 from Descender finally comes back of this issue and it is such a thrill. And this is the Epic space opera that we’ve been missing while saga has been gone and it is wonderful to read every month, month after month.

Pete:                Just every character really pops in this book in every issue and there’s so many great moments like, the team on this book has just done the work to establish so much stuff in Descender. And the fact that they were able to from a writing with Jeff Lemire and the artist standpoint with Dustin Nguyen continue to just deliver these excellent stories, where we see driller in this and he’s just being himself. He has one scene, but it’s just great. And a great battle here near the end and then reveal of Tim 21 like Alex said is just so sweet it makes you cheer and it’s so hard to do that. And the fact that they can do that with almost every issue in this series is amazing.

Alex:                 Yeah. It’s really impressive. There’s one kind of character who’s kind of like the reader a little bit who’s like, “What? Oh, shit, look who it is.” And you’re kind of like, “Oh.” It’s just it’s so well done and so impressive. And I can’t stress this enough. The art is like a watercolor painting. It’s so beautiful and so cool with what they’re doing and I love the characters and this just continues to kick freaking ass every single issue and I can’t wait for this to be collected Ascender, Descender because I want to go back and read it all again.

Justin:              Do you think they’re going to do a third series like just Sender, return to sender?

Alex:                 Come on, don’t ruin it man.

Pete:                Return to sender.

Alex:                 Don’t ruin it.

Justin:              It will be, it’s Descender and then Ascender and then just sitting there cold chilling.

Alex:                 Next up. Shang-Chi #2 Shang cheek, number two from Marvel Comics written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Dike Ruan. We really enjoyed, I think the first issue of this book was found Shang-Chi returning to his roots, going up against his sister. Here, we meet his sister very briefly and a conflict arises as well as more of mythology. I really liked this issue. I just needed more of it. That’s my one criticism. It was surprisingly short it felt like.

Justin:              Yeah, I feel that way in that a lot of the stuff that happens I’m like, I see this makes sense, everything total sense. And then later in the issue, we get some fun reveals and some great art transitions. Shang-Chi has a sort of vision at one point and that’s where the issue really touched off for me and it was great.

Pete:                Yeah. I’ve been really impressed with this, also just the classic story. It sucks when your sibling gets split off from you to be raised in some kind of killer martial arts and you don’t get to see them till later in life because you miss those golden years. But I think this is-

Justin:              Yeah Pete, how is Sam?

Pete:                Ah, man, he’s good. He’s on torture Island, still doing great, doing what he loves. But I think that this is just-

Justin:              Being tortured?

Pete:                No, he does the torturing. He’s moved his way up in the island, worked from the bottom now he’s [crosstalk 00:53:57].

Justin:              We should have him on the podcast.

Pete:                I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Justin:              He actually has a much more controlled temper than you.

Pete:                Yeah, well it’s all the training.

Alex:                 I just think this is a great book. I hope people give it a chance and I’m excited to see where this goes. The art continues to be amazing. Next up, Undiscovered Country #9 from Image Comics written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. In this issue our heroes? Are in the second wrong of America as they continue to go deeper and deeper towards the middle. I find a lot more about the backstory of American, what happened after the closing of the walls around America? Also some very, very bad things happen to unity, courtesy of the destiny man. Just a really good every issue I enjoy. I’m really enjoying this arc in particular. It feels far more accessible than the previous arc.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Yes. I feel like with this issue specifically, I’m like I finally come to grips with not the stuff I don’t know and the stuff I do know they’re in balance in a way where I’m like, yes, now I can move through this story. Because I agree with you. I really like it. The arts were great. It’s like peer discovery every issue and every panel that you’re reading of this comic and now it feels like we know what the characters know and we can all move forward together.

Pete:                Yeah. I think it’s really because it’s us as the reader and this comic really line up because there a moment where a wall is gone and they start driving and it’s like, “All right, here we go. Now we’re rolling.” And I feel like there’s so much craziness and us trying to figure out what’s going on. And now we’ve gotten to a place where it’s like, “All right, I kind of understand some things enough to really start enjoying the story.” And it’s really taking off in a great way so I’m excited to see how this unfolds, but it’s really rolling now and I’m very excited.

Alex:                 Yeah. Great stuff. Move it on to an ending, Batgirl #50 from DC Comics written by Cecil Castellucci, art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Marguerite Sauvage and Aneke, and this is the last issue of Batgirl for now. Also kind of a big deal because it introduces Ryan Wilder aka, the new Batwoman on TV into DC Comics continuity, albeit very briefly. I got to tell you, I have not read Batgirl that much recently but I like this issue quite a bit versus my commentary on three jokers. I think Cecil Castellucci perfectly captures what Barbara is about. I like her status quo here working for a Congress candidate I want to say. And just the balance she finds throughout these three stories with both Batgirl and Barbara Gordon I thought it was very nice across the board.

Justin:              Yeah. I thought this was a lot of fun. The game night story was great. Bright fun stories. It was wasn’t as dark and gritty. I like Batgirl and it’s sad to see her go.

Pete:                I thought the art throughout this whole issue is just so good. It’s so clean. I feel like Barbara just really pops the whole time. And yeah, to your point, Batgirl in this book really exists in her own pocket of the Bat family and the Gotham universe. And I think that’s the way it should be. I too haven’t read too much of this arc, but I love the Batgirl character and I love how each different writer gets to come in and really find a different avenue to explore with Batgirl. I’m going to go back and reread some of the earlier stuff.

Alex:                 I think so too because I like this quite a bit and I like the status quo as well. I hadn’t really read it since the Batgirl and [inaudible 00:58:10] stuff but this is a nice place to put Barbara.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Next up Bliss #4 for Image Comics written by Sean Lewis and art by Caitlin Yarsky. It was set in a world where people suck on a what?

Pete:                Cheese steak? I want to say cheese steak.

Alex:                 Ballistic.

Justin:              Don’t force it guys. Don’t force it.

Alex:                 There are beings who sell misery and suck out people’s misery. There’s a guy who works for them. He is going after his wife. We both catch up to that moment and catch up to the present here and finally move beyond it in this issue. There’s just some epic action and emotional stuff here, and this title continues to be.

Pete:                Yeah, this is one of my favorite picks for the week. I was really impressed. It kind of builds to this moment in such a great way. This comic does a great job of like, okay, this is what it’s about, but it all culminates in this issue, and a classic husband and wife showdown and then-

Justin:              Classic gunfight. We’re all going to be there in a gunfight with our significant other,.

Pete:                And you got to be careful for crows because they can fly through people if they want to. So fun fact.

Justin:              Smart birds.

Pete:                But yeah, I thought this was a fantastic bad-ass issue. The father-son hug was such a cool moment that they lingered on a little bit, which I really liked. I had just been really impressed with where this comic started to where it is now. The art is unbelievable, but man what a cool story.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. This to me feels like Dune meets Twin Peaks in a cool way. Later when we see the older version of one of our main characters, Bob from Twin Peaks which I think was very cool. Yeah, so I liked that blend. The art is fantastic. I agree. It’s good.

Alex:                 Next up, An Unkindness of Ravens #2 from BOOM! Studios written by Dan Panosian and art by Marianna Ignazzi. If you haven’t listened to our live podcast with Dan Panosian you can go back just a week or so and listen to that in the comic book club feed. But the first issue was kind of like the craft meets Sabrina and meets a couple of other things as a girl moves to a new town, finds out she looks exactly like somebody who’s missing and it gets pulled between the popular kids and the goth kids who turn out to be the witch kids. We find out a little bit more about this this issue. How do you think this held up from issue number one?

Pete:                I think it’s great. It pushes both stories sort of down the line. When we talked to Dan, I said, I really love the transition of the first little bit at the top that sets the dark tone into the more Archie style art I think is so nice. It really lets the horrifying tone from the first couple of pages bleed over into the situation and you feel more paranoid reading it and it really puts you in the same mindset as the main character. I like [crosstalk 01:01:21].

Justin:              I do too. I’m really impressed from where it started to where it goes. It’s really, the more we kind of find out, the better the story gets. This is really interesting. The art’s unbelievable and they’re doing a great job with the art leading the story in such a way, like they really change panels in such a cool, magical way that really fits things. And yeah, you got to be careful when someone wants to write on your hand, you can’t just be okay with that. You know what I mean? You got to be really wary when someone’s like, “Hey, give me your hand.” That’s not cool.

Pete:                Hey, you don’t want to join the PEN15 club.

Alex:                 I know what you’re talking about. Last but not least, A Man Among Ye #3 for Image Comics written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Craig Cermak. We talked about the first two issues of this one as well. This is a female focused pirate tale. The place that they left off at the last issue felt like finally getting the crew together and I felt like that’s where we pick up this issue. This is the one that I’ve enjoyed the most so far because I feel like we finally have the right mix of characters in this crew, even if they’re not technically a crew yet. But lots of fun, and Craig Cermax’s art is still great.

Pete:                Yeah, I agree. I felt like this is really picking up steam and all the right ways. It’s very excited now that we kind of got the people all in the same place, how this is going to unfold. But yeah, just classic bad-ass pirate lady. I love it. This is really cool. I love the last page reveal. I think this is great and the art is fantastic.

Justin:              Yeah. It’s all right. It reminds me of Captain Valiant, the Sunday comic.

Pete:                Hey, fuck you man.

Justin:              Where I was like, I’ll read this at the end of the comic.

Pete:                Fuck you, man.

Justin:              Okay.

Pete:                This comic’s better than that.

Alex:                 Hey, I’ll tell you what, I’m glad we ended with this one. If you like support our podcast patrion.com/comic book club, also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out. We would love to chat with you about comics, iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show at comic book live on Twitter, comicbookclub.com, this podcast and many more. Until next time, what’s up [inaudible 01:03:54].

Pete:                Yeah, it’s all right.

Justin:              What? I had a slightly non bang review and you’re like, man.

Pete:                I think it’s better than you’re giving it. You’re not giving it a chance.

Justin:              Okay, I can read it.

Alex:                 Not to interrupt you guys, but the show is over.

Pete:                Okay.

Justin:              No, it’s not over yet. Bye. I just have to take this call with the Marvel Comics action figure line for watcher with more dick and I think it’s going really well.

The post The Stack: The Last Ronin, X Of Swords And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub

On this week’s Stack podcast, we’ve got reviews for:

The Scumbag #1

Fantastic Four #25

Madam Satan #1

Iron Man #2

Stillwater #2

Batman #101

Black Magick #15

Werewolf By Night #1

Big Girls #3

Dune: House Atreides #1

Dark Nights: Death Metal Robin King 1

Something is Killing the Children #11

Excalibur #13

X-Men #13

Faithless II #5

Nightwing #75

SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON.

This episode is sponsored by Helstrom, now on Hulu.

Full Episode Transcript:

Alex:                 What’s up y’all? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week.

Pete:                Do we?

Alex:                 And we’re going to kick it off … I think this is a big deal. This isn’t normally the sort of thing that we would kick off the show with. Usually it’s some Marvel or DC book or whatever, I mean, who even cares?

Justin:              Okay, weird voice.

Alex:                 Weird way to put it. But we’re going to talk about The Scumbag number one from Image Comics written by Rick Remender, art by Lewis LaRosa. The reason I think that should go first is a new Rick Remender book is a big deal. We’ve been following his writing pretty much since the beginning and every book out is an event, so it’s worth putting this right upfront at the top of the show. Reading this book I know this is something that Pete just loves a ton. He’s very into, he’s very excited about. The concept of the book though, before we get into Pete’s feelings about it, I can see his head already nodding, yes, yes, give me more.

Justin:              Yes, yes, I love this.

Alex:                 Is what if the worst person in the world was responsible for the fate of the world. That’s essentially what it is to the point where they essentially say that line at the end of the book. And in fact we do meet the worst person in the world who ends up in the situation.

Pete:                That’s the thing, they say the worst person in the world, it’s just like kind of a slacker druggie guy. It’s not like he’s a fucking head of the KKK or fucking, you know what I mean? A murderer. He’s like-

Justin:              Yeah. I guess it’s more, to say the worst, I understand what you’re saying, but definitely the most down and out.

Pete:                Right. But what-

Justin:              He has full on diarrhea.

Pete:                Sure. Yeah. Who doesn’t? The thing is it’s like brand new Rick Remender book. You ready to get your fucking heartbroken. This guy writes in such a way that pulls you in, gets you sucked into this amazing world, and then always breaks your fucking heart. I’m scared. I’m scared about this book.

Justin:              But that’s what I love, what I love about Rick Remender books. And it has been a long time since he launched a new one. We’ve been reading Low. We’ve been reading Black Science for a long time. And those books are-

Alex:                 Deadly Class.

Justin:              Deadly Class of course ongoing.

Pete:                Yeah, Deadly Class.

Justin:              But these other books are sort of wrapping up. Deadly Class feels like it’s going to keep going for a bit longer. And to have a new book is sort of precious. And what I love about it is he takes extreme premises and pushes them. And what he always does is on the art side brings in truly evocative artists. And in this case, it is the same thing. When he says it’s the worst person in the world, we see it in like, I would call this hyper realistic color and line. And it’s great. It’s great. It’s really smart of him to not shy away from these truly disgusting things, if the point of the book is this person is at his lowest and he has to become a world changing person.

Alex:                 Or maybe it won’t, I don’t know.

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                Starting a book with a Charles Bukowski quote is just a fantastic way to start something that’s this kind of mayhem, or it’s just about a drunken dude who does a lot of drugs and shit, that’s the perfect thing. But man, just seeing a guy doing drugs and shitting on the streets really makes me miss New York city, you know what I mean? Like back in the eighties and nineties, the real New York, you know what I’m talking about?

Justin:              Yeah, you were the mayor of New York in the mid eighties.

Pete:                Oh yeah, man. Just love doing drugs in the street, shitting anywhere you wanted, those were the days.

Justin:              You were a very controversial mayor [crosstalk 00:03:59].

Alex:                 Yeah. Before Giuliani took it all away. I mean, come on. Where’s that guy now? What’s he doing?

Justin:              Yeah, it is great. It is truly crazy to think of a time when everyone was like Giuliani, what a hero. And now truly, and not to get … it’s not at all political, but he is looked upon as a legit Nosferatu style monster. There are so many Twitter memes of him being like, “Look, his hands dead.” Or look, here’s [crosstalk 00:04:28].

Alex:                 He’s such a sad sack. That’s the thing that’s such a bummer about it, is he went from I’m the guy that’s going to clean up New York, this is very controversial too. He did some sort of figures like, I’m going to reveal information and he taped a video, and he opens up this folder and there’s nothing in the folder. And he’s just like, “Well, there’s evidence that I have here,” and there’s nothing in there, it’s just sad. That’s not the point of this book, let’s get back to The Scumbag thing. The thing about-

Justin:              Wait, let me just say one more thing on that. I do think this book spins out of the era we’re in. I think it’s about a person who is not ready to be elevated to a position of power who is in that position of power, which I feel like is it common on our time both Trump in and everything around our current political situation where it’s like, oh, these people shouldn’t be in charge of stuff like this. This book feels very timely to me.

Alex:                 I agree. The thing that I wanted to get back to you though, that Pete was saying about the worst person in the world is it’s not racist, murderer or anything like that. It’s nails on chalkboard worst, which I think they make pretty clear through the writing, where it’s the sort of guy who within seconds of meeting him you’re like, “Oh God, fuck this guy. This is the worst. Oh God, no.”

Pete:                The guy at the party’s looking to steal beers that aren’t being looked at. You know what I mean, like oh.

Alex:                 That’s great. The specificity going on there is so clear to the point where it builds to very graphicallY as we were talking about him shitting himself on the street, which is horrifying and gross. And mind you, not the first time Rick Remender has written a person on drugs diarrhea scene, that was way back in Deadly Class. Classic scene in deadly class.

Pete:                Classic, he loves a good shitting story, you know what I mean?

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              Let me throw this out as well to go back into early Remender, this book sort of reminds me a little bit of Fear Agent, and then it is a person who is super down and out having to maybe elevate themselves.

Alex:                 What I’m really interested in is reading the second issue of this book, because if Rick Remender has showed us anything, it’s he always has a very clear concept in the first issue that he blows it and save the out of proportion by the second issue. And I don’t know how they’re going to do that yet, but I’m excited to find out.

Justin:              A 100% true.

Alex:                 Yeah. But great to view.

Justin:              Great to view.

Pete:                It’s fun to see a new book that he’s working on. I’m very excited to see where this goes. Yeah, crazy first issue, fantastic art, definitely check it out.

Alex:                 Moving on to Fantastic Four number 25 from Marvel written by Dan Slott with art by R.B. Silver, Paco Medina and Will Robson. This I believe is the beginning of the status quo change that Dan teased back when he was on the live show with us chatting about this book. This is kind of a big deal. There’s a lot of stuff that goes down in this book as we celebrate this mini anniversary of the Fantastic Four. What’d you think about the issue?

Pete:                46 pages. This to me is a great Fantastic Four story. You get this kind of shit goes down, only the Fantastic Four can save the day. Then what’s nice about it is you’ve got Reed and Sue talking a little bit about the holes in their marriage about how they lied to each other a little bit. I’m hoping that moving forward, their relationship can get a little bit better because I’m sick of the classic, Sue Storm does so much more for the family than Reed does, and he’s just constantly busy and can’t be bothered. I think this was a really cool story, great use to the whole family. I’m very excited, even cool Watcher stuff, which you don’t normally kind of get.

Alex:                 Oh, no, people are always like, “That Watcher is very cool.”

Pete:                No, but like also, just this whole thing of like, we’re the Watcher and we’ve watched all these amazing events happen in Marvel whether it’s through comics or TV or movies, but just these splash pages like, oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, that was cool. Hey, cosmic Ghost Rider got a shout out.

Justin:              Well, see, I would take some issue with your statement Pete, because I think what Dan Slott is so great at and why he’s such a great match for the Fantastic Four, is his whole thing is everything old is new again, or everything new is old again, either way [crosstalk 00:09:10].

Pete:                Which one us it?

Justin:              It’s sort of both, because what he does here is he’s like, “Yes, Reed and Sue aren’t getting along because Reed has a secret from Sue.” But what’s great about this issue is Sue also has a secret from Reed, and she has her own life and she’s doing her own thing. And so they get to meet on equal ground.

Pete:                Great.

Justin:              The thing is it’s [inaudible 00:09:30] time. I’m going to be a wreck and shit, but then he’s like, “Oh, I have actually a family at home I have to get back to at the same time.” Doctor Doom is still a villain, but he’s actually the Doctor Doom, is the Doctor Doom read Richard’s relationship from the very beginning of the comic where they’re contemporaries. And even though they are wildly super-powered and they’re meeting here as like, “Oh, you were keeping a little secret from me.” He’s like, “Oh, well, yeah I was, figure it out.” And they’re like, “Well, let’s figure it out together.” It’s just Dan Slott is just a tactician when it comes to picking a part with a fine tweezers, these Marvel legends and finding a new way to reconfigure the stories by just slightly tweaking little bits and pieces.

Pete:                I did want to, while we’re talking about Doom, Doom is one of my favorite villains and Dan Slott did a great job of the way Doom just acknowledges the fact that Sue Storm was in the room before she revealed herself was such a bad-ass Doom moment. Dan Slott is just killing it on this book.

Alex:                 Yeah. This is a really fun issue, like you’re talking about, bunch of fun teases for the future, a new setup of new status quo for the team, as well as certain members of the team, as well as the Watcher and other things, just a great package. I had a blast reading this issue. Moving on to Chilling-

Justin:              Justin loves good packages.

Alex:                 Moving onto Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Presents Madam Satan number one from Archie Comics story by Eliot Rahal, art by Julius Ohta. We talked about this on the live show a little bit, but this exists in a weird mix of continuity between the comic books and the TV show, not necessarily contradicting either, but not existing like this is between season one and season two of Sabrina, or part one and part two or part three and part four or anything like that. It just kind of is an about Madam Satan. The real standout of this issue to me is Julius Ohta’s art, which does a great job of channeling Robert Hack from the original series, but finding a different way around it. What’d you think Pete?

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, because when you think about it, the only person who would want to be a principal at a high school is somebody who is in hell, you know what I mean? Someone who wants to bring hell to the people. So to me, this made a lot of sense like, “Oh yeah, the queen of hell would love to be a principal at a high school. That’s the perfect job for them.” And this is a real fun kind of set up. Madam Satan is glorious in the Sabrina TV show. And it’s nice to see this character kind of thrive in this comic as well.

Justin:              This does a good job of being sort of the TV show, but hearkening back to the comics, it originally inspired what went on to become the Sabrina TV show, like the afterlife with Archie and the Sabrina comic that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa then developed into the show. It’s great. And to your point, Alex, the art is just amazing throughout.

Alex:                 Good stuff. Very impressive. Next step, Iron Man number two from Marvel written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Cafu. When we talked about the first issue of this book, I think we were pleasantly surprised by the change in direction here as Iron Man is going back to basics. Here we get a little bit more on that, veering on the side of he cut us a death wish a little bit, or at least injure himself, which as he’s trying to move back to be a hero. But I got to say, I’m loving this take. I just think it’s so refreshing to see a Tony Stark who is just being a hero and going on fights and fighting people and being a human being for a change. It’s great.

Justin:              I agree. This felt like a comic that I would have read back when I was in high school. It is just iron man dealing with shit. Of course he’s fighting Absorbing Man. The ultimate early run of a series villain is Absorbing Man. And I love the guest stars throughout and Ironman just sacrificing himself, like Cardiac shows up, another, it’s a Spider-Man villain technically who is just sort of Iron Manny in a lot of ways. And this felt like just some good classic fun.

Pete:                Yeah. It was fun to see Hellcat. Yeah, it’s all right, it’s okay.

Justin:              Pete, you do not like in Iron Man?

Pete:                No. I mean, this comic has gone through so much stuff and it’s just crazy. Like, okay, great, it’s back to Tony Stark, but I don’t know, cool.

Alex:                 Well, what do you want it to be then?

Pete:                I want, it was just weird because it’s like, oh, Tony Stark’s not Iron Man anymore. Okay, cool. And there was this really cool character who’s trying to take on the mantle, but then was like, “No, we’re going to go back to Tony Stark.” And then it’s like, “Okay, but why?” And then it’s just like, “Oh, it’s back to basic Tony Stark.”

Alex:                 So you’re upset that it’s not Riri is what you’re saying.

Pete:                I liked Riri. I liked the possibility of new stories. I just think that Iron Man has done a lot of amazing things, so let’s see something amazing. You know what I mean? Let’s see why we’re seeing Iron Man again instead of something new.

Alex:                 All right. Fair enough. Next up, Stillwater number two from Image Comics written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Ramon K. Perez. We talked about the first issue of this as well, liked it quite a bit. A guy goes on a road trip, ends up in a town where nobody ever dies. His friend gets killed outside the town, and it turns out at the end of the first issue that he may actually be a natural born resident of the village. We find out many more F’d up things about the town in this issue. What did you think about this? And also given that it drew some comparisons to Revival-

Pete:                Controversial.

Alex:                 Controversial comparisons to Revival the Tim Seeley series that had kind of a similar premise, at least at the start. Do you feel like it’s veering off enough at this point?

Justin:              It’s totally quite different, I would say. I don’t want to get into like, is it wrong to have a book this close premise wise? Because I enjoyed reading this, the first and second issue. It feels like at the end of this issue, we’re setting up sort of what the deal is going to be. This guy is the third person who’s been invited into the town. Clearly we’re going to meet these other two people and what that means, his relationship to his mother and how the town works. All of that is fun. I’m excited to get into that. Revival felt like very different tonally. It was about people who with established relationships and how they were sort of dealing with this new status quo. I think to me it’s different enough to exist separately.

Alex:                 Also they feel like different types of horror, right? As Tim Seeley is very good at, it’s a little more slasher horror, it’s a little more graphic horror, a little more fun horror. This is more aligned with The Wicker Man I think that sort of, or mid summer, that sort of thing.

Justin:              Oh, that’s a good comparison, yes.

Alex:                 So yeah, I agree. I do think they’re different. There’s certainly a danger there that they’re going to weave together too much. But right now I think they can both exist and that’s okay.

Pete:                I would just like to say, as someone who’s lived in a big city for a really long time, this is why I don’t like the small towns, they scare the shit out of me. I love this thing of playing with the creepiness of a small town and all these people know each other and you’re the outsider kind of coming in. I think that’s a great idea to start a story. And I think sometimes when writers are … we’re all pulling from the same pool. Sometimes ideas might overlap. You’d like to give somebody the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it’s not a rip off. But I do not know.

Pete:                But as far as this is concerned, the little kid in the beginning was so fucking creepy with that wolf, I was scared shitless, and I’m interested to see where this goes. And it’s really fun this idea of if people can die, then yeah, people would just kind of like loosey goosey shoot each other because there’s going to be no damage.

Justin:              Loosey goosey.

Pete:                But it is kind of crazy right now to see a cop fucking just shooting first, and then talking later, it’s kind of a hits and not fun chord right now.

Justin:              Yeah. It’s not crazy to see that, it happens a lot in this world. Pete, real quick, when you said you’re scared shitless, could you give us just a sort of scale, a power ranking on the different types of scared you are, just so I know what you mean when you say that.

Pete:                Well, they’re scared like, oh, my stomach hurts a little bit, you know what I mean? And then there’s like-

Justin:              Your stomach hurts a little.

Pete:                Yeah. And then there’s like-

Justin:              Like I ate too much candy.

Pete:                Yeah. You got like-

Justin:              So like you’re scared candy. Let’s call it that.

Pete:                Okay. Yeah. And then scared shitless is like you’re in real trouble.

Alex:                 Oh, so there’s two parts to the scale?

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Interesting.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:18:58] and then I have no shit in me whatsoever.

Pete:                Yeah, let’s skip the [crosstalk 00:19:03].

Justin:              Let me just also ask, quick follow-Up on that. When you say you’re scared shitless, that means you’ve shit everything out. You’re fully [crosstalk 00:19:09].

Pete:                Yeah, empty on the streets side.

Justin:              You’re on the streets comeback style diarrhea.

Pete:                Right.

Justin:              Or is it, are you full of shit and you just can’t get it out?

Pete:                No, no. Yeah, you’re the scumbag of the street who’s empty [crosstalk 00:19:23].

Alex:                 But you’re 100% clean at this point. You’re just-

Pete:                Yeah. I’m an empty vessel.

Alex:                 You’re an empty vessel.

Justin:              So you read this comic and you fully just rooster tailed yourself.

Pete:                Yeah, exactly.

Justin:              While you’re reading it. I got you. Okay, great.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:19:39]. I’ve been going back to doing the transcripts of the episodes and I-

Justin:              Don’t do that-

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:19:44], so I’ll try to pull our quotes from each of the episodes and put it out there. The hope of getting maybe some pull quotes or something like that on a book. I think we could say Stillwater, it’ll clear the shit out of you.

Justin:              Yeah, you’ll go full rooster tail.

Pete:                Pull your own quotes Zalbs.

Justin:              You go full rooster tail for this book.

Alex:                 Batman 101 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV, art by Guillem March. This is following right up on the Joker war as Batman grapples with the knowledge that Joker might’ve been right. And he has to in fact change, he’s got to up his game.

Justin:              Game.

Pete:                Game.

Alex:                 As he talks to Catwoman about it. Pete, I’m sure you have some feelings about this because spoiler, Catwoman and Batman decide to be on a break for a year. What’d you think about that?

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I liked the kiss. I thought the kiss gave us hope. But the old taking a break is just, it’s a heartbreaking, don’t a break guys, say yes to love.

Justin:              Don’t take a break.

Pete:                Don’t take a break from love.

Justin:              Friends, in the TV show Friends, famous romantic comedy.

Alex:                 We were on a break.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Alex, let me ask you, are you hyping up that phrase or are you doing a Ross impression?

Alex:                 I think I’m doing-

Pete:                Ross, it was Ross.

Alex:                 No. Yeah, I mean I’m doing Ross, but I think it’s one of the characters from Seinfeld being like Jerry.

Justin:              You mean Jerry Seinfeld.

Alex:                 Yeah. No, I think Jerry [crosstalk 00:21:19]. Jerry Seinfeld says like, “Jerry.” He’s like a poker bot. Jerry.

Justin:              It’s hard for me to tell what you’re talking about. I love Guillem March’s art.

Alex:                 Yes.

Justin:              And especially in issues focusing on not just Batman, but the bat family, always great to see. I will say, and this is being picky, but Grifter still doesn’t sit with me.

Alex:                 What’s deal is that?

Pete:                You don’t like a billowy mask?

Justin:              I’m fine with the billowy mask. I mean I wear a cloth mask for when I go out and it does hang a little low in a Grifter.

Alex:                 Can I, not to interrupt your flow here, but when you’re wearing that mask out, do you take it and then pull it up to your forehead?

Justin:              Yes, a 100%.

Alex:                 Okay.

Justin:              And it really, it blows with little wrinkles in it just like Grifters does. No, it’s just something like I still, the Wildstorm universe of it all. I’m just like, “This guy doesn’t quite fit with these characters to me.”

Alex:                 I do, I agree with you on Grifter, never quite got him, don’t like the mask. But I do like what James Tynion is setting up here with Batman vs Grifter, and this greater mystery of who Grifter works for. That seems like that’s something that potentially is going to tie in going further forward, and that’s a fun place for it to go. Batman versus the Wildstorm universe, great, all in on that.

Justin:              Also wildcats.

Pete:                Old school, that Clownhunter got a shout out in this book.

Alex:                 You love that guy. [crosstalk 00:23:02].

Justin:              Alex, we talked about this on the live show, but as someone who’s married to a clown, are you worried?

Alex:                 Definitely. We added an extra lock to the door, because my wife has been doing that thing where she pulls the bed sheets up to her neck and says, “Oh, I’m scare, scare, scare, scared.”

Justin:              Yes. Because as you know, your wife is modeled on Charlie’s grandparents and [inaudible 00:23:27].

Alex:                 Yes, exactly. We sleep with another couple in our bed. All right. Black Magick number 15 from Image Comics written by Greg Rucka and art by Nicholas Scott. Oh, it’s a great issue every single time. Here we’re getting the fallout of the last couple of the issues as our main character deals with her new burgeoning relationship with a fellow cop. While in the background, I think for the first time we see hell or something like that.

Justin:              Yeah. She’s getting crazy in the background.

Alex:                 Yes.

Justin:              This comic was very sort of austere for so long about the witchyness of this of it. And now we’re fully in witch world, which I love.

Pete:                A lot of pointy kind of pyramid looking things in that aisle.

Alex:                 Great. Thank you, Pete. We’ll use that one for the pull quote for this issue. Nicholas Scott art as usual is the hero here. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. But I love the sort of almost taking a break issue in a way, there’s been so much harrowing, terrifying stuff. Every issue to take some time here and really deal with the relationships, the characters, if I was really nice.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. And the art, it feels like it gets better. There’s just something about, it’s so detailed, but it keeps getting, I guess maybe cleaner is the right word. It’s great. How do you feel about the French computer? You don’t see French computers very often-

Alex:                 No, not usually.

Justin:              … except in France.

Alex:                 No. Even in France, they still use English. Everybody’s like, “I can not read this.”

Pete:                I mean, I’m a little disappointed that she’s not listening to her cat more. If you have a magical cat, I feel like you should pay attention and listen to it, especially when it knows more things than you. And that’s always frustrating when a character isn’t listening to people they should be listening to.

Justin:              As a new cat owner, Pete, is your cat magical? And if so, what is that cat saying to you?

Pete:                Well, I’ll tell you what, she does have one of those mystical eye things like the Prince album over her left eye, which kind of freaks me out. And I do think that cats can see into different realms and stuff. So yeah, the cat freaks me the fuck out.

Justin:              Nice. That sounds like a nightmare to deal with every day. Every day you wake up and you’re like, you look at your cat and you’re rooster tailing, because you’re scared shitless.

Pete:                That’s right. That’s how I start my day.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 God. From day to night, let’s talk about Werewolf by Night, number one for Marvel Comics written by Taboo and B. Earl, art by Scot Eaton.

Pete:                Oh, king of the transition.

Alex:                 Here is another character that I’d never quite gotten just based on the name. And they try very hard to explain it to this book, by the idea of like, I’m a werewolf, but by night. It’s like, “Well, most werewolves are by night, I think.”

Justin:              But I take it the other way, I think the name is sort of saying, “Not just a werewolf where it’s once a month, that’s a werewolf by all nights.” Because if the character was named like werewolf normal, werewolf monthly, that’s less fun.

Alex:                 It does come out monthly, so there is that. But on the other hand, he turns back into a human in this very first issue where he’s like, “I’m a werewolf by night.” Well, I’m a human, it’s still nighttime.”

Justin:              I say a lot I’m a human by night. And they’re like, “What do you mean?”

Alex:                 I thought this book was okay. It was honestly frustrating to be that the part that was fun and exciting was the last page of the book, that to me without getting spoilers unless we want to, that to me felt like, okay, this is the part you needed to put at the front of the book instead of all the setup that I didn’t necessarily care about personally.

Justin:              Well, let me say, I like this I guess more than you it seems, because it feels like it’s a Marvel Comics book, but it feels like this could be an Image Comics book. It establishes a world around this character that isn’t relying on other superhero, other Marvel universe things. And I like the characters a lot. And we talked about this on the show with Colin Bond and whatnot, the horror infiltration into superhero comics I’ve been really enjoying.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I thought the reveal was fun, but I thought the more fun was with the granny pressuring those two to start a family, I thought that was really fun.

Justin:              Your favorite part of this comic was the grandmother pressing them to have children?

Pete:                Yeah. Come on, mommy’s a werewolf, fuck it. But I think that also this was like-

Alex:                 How’s your relationship going, Pete?

Pete:                Good man. It’s going good. Thanks for asking.

Alex:                 Welcome.

Pete:                But I think that this book is kind of over the top, whatever. I just thought the kind of the real down to earth moments were kind of nice. And also you never know, man, the guy who cleans the toilets could be a werewolf, the person who collects the recycling, it could be a mummy. You got to be nice to people, because you don’t know what their superpower is.

Justin:              I think that every day. I’m like this-

Alex:                 It would make sense if they switch jobs, honestly. Because I feel like the mummy could just take some of that wrapping and refill the toilet paper rolls.

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              Honestly, every time I … whenever I go out in New York city, I’m always like, “Are you a mummy?”

Alex:                 Let’s move on and talk about Big Girls number three from Image Comic story, and art by Jason Howard. I think we’ve got back and forth a little bit about these issues. Generally, Jason Howard’s art is great. This takes place in a world where large women and large men are fighting. The men are monsters, are they? And the women are not monsters, or are they? And they’re fighting and the ruins left to the world. Find out a lot more about it, this issue that really mixes things up. I thought an interesting way, definitely confuses the metaphor perhaps a little bit, but certainly makes the story that we’re following more fascinating. What did you guys take away from it?

Pete:                Oh, go ahead.

Justin:              You go.

Pete:                I completely agree. I’m very happy with this kind of new development in this issue where the men aren’t just total D bags. I kind of like the reveal in this issue, gives things a little bit more complication. I’m very excited to see how this moves forward and what the kind of reveals are going to be. Yeah, the art’s the real hero of this book, this is becoming a very interesting book and I’m getting into it more and more with each issue.

Justin:              Yeah. This book feels like an episode of The Outer Limits. Did you guys ever watch that when you were younger? Where it was like, it took a premise, a sci-fi premise and it just played it up and then there’s a twist and then you landed the ending. And so I definitely liked this progression. I think the art is really nice. It reminds me of Ryan Ollie in a lot of ways.

Alex:                 Jason Howard did … what was the wolf thing that Robert Kirkman did? Right, I think.

Justin:              Oh, yes.

Alex:                 Science Wolf. Science Dog.

Justin:              Science Wolf. Science Dog.

Alex:                 I think Jason Howard did Science Dog. I’ve got to look that up while you’re talking.

Pete:                You should look that up.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              Okay, great. So all we have to do while Alex is looking this up is talk.

Pete:                Yeah. Let’s just do a little soft shoe and kill some time.

Justin:              It’s not killing time, it’s bringing more of our personal lives into the fall.

Alex:                 How’s your family, Justin?

Justin:              Family, good, very good. They’re right upstairs.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              Yes. Several members of my family were doing laundry over the course of our tapings this evening. And every time washer and dryer finish, they each make a little celebration song.

Alex:                 No, I’m sorry. They did Super Dinosaur together, there it is.

Pete:                Okay. I thought maybe it was the shark one.

Alex:                 How did everything go while I was looking that up?

Justin:              Great. We had a totally normal friend conversation.

Pete:                Yeah, turns out Justin’s washer and dryer, because he’s such a fucking big time rich guy, they play celebration songs. He probably had to pay extra for that.

Justin:              No, it’s definitely not.

Pete:                Every time his washer and dryer finishes it’s like [inaudible 00:32:15] bright, clean clothes, come out now.

Justin:              That’s great, that would be great.

Alex:                 Man, you should sell that to Whirlpool.

Pete:                Yes.

Alex:                 Let’s move on and talk about Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn, number one from DC Comic story by Katana Collins and Sean Murphy. This is of course spinning off of the White Knight Universe of stories that Sean Murphy has been building up. It’s a very different Harley Quinn who is out of the game. Batman is in jail. The Joker is dead. She’s on her own. But she gets sucked back into it by a Joker want to be, or is it the Joker himself? What’d you guys think about this book?

Pete:                Well, I mean, first off the art’s amazeballs. This kind of a newer take, a fresh take on the old [inaudible 00:33:06]. You get a flashback to her and Jack meeting and I think it’s interesting. I’m not upset at the changes. I think it’s a fun last page. I kind of want to work alone and by alone, I mean, me and my two hyenas. I’m on board, I’m interested to see where this goes. I think we need more Harley Quinn. I don’t think there’s enough of Harley Quinn, we got to get more.

Alex:                 I will say, before you get into anything, Justin, I think we already have our pull quote for this, it’s I’m not upset at the changes.

Justin:              Pete, when you say you need more Harley Quinn, what are you, in life, or in this [crosstalk 00:33:52] features a lot of Harley Quinn.

Pete:                Harley Quinn is a very popular character. I don’t think DC has caught on yet. They haven’t put enough Harley Quinn in books yet. I barely see her, so it’d be nice if they started using her more.

Justin:              Well, let me say the White Knights sub universe is interesting to me, because it’s a little … I like this book and I like the Harley Quinn in this book. But I’m like, “Oh, we’re so far away from the normal, the reality of the DC universe right now.” I’m like, that to me is … it takes me out of it because the book is so far removed from sort of the normal storytelling, the normal continuity I guess. But I have enjoyed these White Knight books, the art is truly amazing.

Pete:                That’s a real hero there.

Justin:              Yeah. I’m curious how much longevity this pocket universe has in the DC universe.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. Let’s move on. Dune: House Atreides, number one written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, illustrated by Dev Pramanik. Oh, this is from Boom Studios, I believe, right? This is-

Pete:                Yeah, it’s Boom.

Alex:                 Thank you. I forgot to write that down. Interestingly, I mean, as we were talking about with the Wonder Woman, 1984 book, a couple of weeks back. This is again a book that was clearly there to tee up the movie that was supposed to come out this year, instead is coming out a full year later. But at the same time, it is riffing off of the book, it’s teeing up the movie, it’s telling you a little bit more about Dune and the world. What did you think about this? Does this stand on its own, given that the movie is now not coming out for basically a full calendar year?

Justin:              Well, I’m curious if some of the scenes here are from the movie. Is this bull fighting scene or space ball or whatever it’s called. Is that a scene that we’re going to see in this movie, because this made me want to see the movie?

Pete:                Really?

Justin:              Yes. It made me want to see sort of the more streamlined visually dynamic version of this comic. What this reminded me of though, as I was reading it, is like X of Swords, or 10 of Swords. It reminded me of a version of that where I’m like, “Wait, who are any of these characters?”

Alex:                 It definitely, it’s a very, it kept jumping around. I mean, granted the books are very expensive. There’s a lot of stuff going on. There’s a lot of mythology. I thought this looked very nice for what it is to have [inaudible 00:36:29] art is very pretty. And like you were mentioning the gladiator scenes or the bullfighting scenes were very nicely laid out. But I couldn’t help but wish while I was reading this, that this was almost more in the European style, that this felt like the sort of thing, if you’re going to going to do dune, get like a Mobius to do it, or Mobius light or something like that to give it that says, because it should be weird and off-putting not consistent with current comic books at all.

Justin:              Right. Yeah. Especially when the movie is … I mean, we don’t know this I guess. But is probably going to be visually stunning and purposefully so. The comic should reflect that a little bit.

Alex:                 I agree. Let’s move on to another one, Dark Nights: Death Metal, Robin King, number one from DC Comics written by Peter J. Tomasi and Tony Patrick, art by Riley Rossmo and Daniel Sampere. You cannot go wrong with Peter J. Tomasi and Riley Rossmo at all. I mean-

Justin:              Great team.

Alex:                 … I’m not the hugest fan of the idea of Robin King, who is basically a Bruce Wayne, who’s an evil teen who’s Robin, but man, this book is killer, just so good. What’d you guys think?

Pete:                I mean, just this kind of like universe is just kind of cranking things up to 11 here. It seems like everybody’s kind of having fun with the overtopness of it. And again, we get kind of a funeral thing here, but an interesting take where he hears Robin at the funeral that kind of draws him. I think it’s … Robin King messing with Animal Man was really intense. Then the blue beetle getting eaten by beetles. I mean, this is just kind of crazy fun over the top shit. I think this kind of event is like a fun, like, “Hey, let’s just crank this up and see what happens.” And every book has been kind of art-wise really funnily kind of driven towards these monsters and over the top villain, so why not?

Justin:              Why not? I mean, to your point, Alex, this team is so good, and especially in a book where it’s just all about hitting different aspects of the DC Universe, like Animal Man, Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, great to see all these characters, just like riding firestorm down and defeating him.

Alex:                 Oh yeah, that was messed up.

Justin:              It’s all great. And I don’t know, Robin King isn’t someone who I’m like, “God, I can’t wait to keep seeing more of this guy.” But I think he is one of the more memorable characters from this event. See of Bruce Wayne’s, the Robin King definitely sticks out as one that is more threatening and more interesting.

Alex:                 Yeah. I agree. Now from Children Who Are Killing Something to Something is Killing The Children number 11.

Pete:                Oh, come on. [crosstalk 00:39:47]. He’s been working on this for a week.

Alex:                 Written by James Tynion IV, illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera. We’re really-

Justin:              And just for you guys listening, the way we work is I actually hold up a cue card and Alex reads that down because we workshopped it.

Alex:                 I hold it up a cue and Alex … Oh, I’m sorry, that’s your line.

Justin:              No, that’s mine. We work in a classic SML model where it’s all handwritten cue cards.

Alex:                 Yeah. Fun fact, Justin really great at writing cue cards.

Justin:              A 100% right. That’s why I’m a line producer.

Pete:                Yeah. One of the things that line producers do.

Alex:                 In this issue we’re continuing, like we talked about almost every issue, there’s little bits of information that are eked out every issue, but it still feels so present and so terrifying as our main characters are trying to get away from these monsters who are attacking the town, who are killing the children. But at the same time, the organization she works for is mustering forces of their own, and it seems like we’re heading towards a climactic showdown in the next issue, which is all very exciting. Every issue of this is great.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              And the amount of information we get is very controlled. Every issue of this feels like a scene or two scenes from a movie, as opposed to so many comics where it’s so much happening. This feels very just like controlled pacing wise in a way that is very different from other comics. And visually it lets us really just chew these horror images up as we get to see them.

Pete:                Yeah. This was intense. I was very happy with the kind of information we finally get about our kind of main character and her kind of relationship a little bit to this organization. Love the kind of dragon guy overseeing things. But it’s also crazy in this comic how people are wearing masks, like how we’re wearing masks. And so that’s kind of freaking me the fuck out a little bit. But man, nothing creepier than a one eyed fucking Teddy bear, man. This book continues to be amazeballs. The art, the story-

Justin:              Nothing creepier.

Pete:                Nothing creepier.

Alex:                 I’ll tell you what, maybe they’ve already done this, but they should make masks based on something that’s killing the children. I’d wear one of those, those would be fun.

Justin:              That’s a great idea. Pete, would you, now if a one eyed teddy bear is scary, what about a two eyed teddy bear?

Alex:                 Oh, man.

Pete:                One eyed is more scary, man.

Alex:                 What about a no eyed teddy bear. Terror.

Justin:              I mean a terror bear does sound scary.

Alex:                 Let’s move onto our X of Swords block Excalibur number 13, written by Tini Howard [crosstalk 00:42:40]. What?

Pete:                I was hoping we would save that black for last, but all right, you’ve got this all-

Justin:              No, I like the book we’re saving for last, I think we made the right choice.

Alex:                 Okay. Written by Tini Howard and art by R.B. Silva. And then we got an X-Men number 13 from Marvel written by Jonathan Hickman, and art by Mahmud Asrar. Unlike the previous months, we’re only getting two … Previous weeks, excuse me, we’re only getting two issues this week, they’re not tied together, they’re each their own stories. In Excalibur we find out what’s going on with Captain Britain who is now Betsy Braddock, and her siblings as they go to other worlds and tango with other world. And in X-Men number 13, we find out the fate and backstory of apocalypse, two very different stories, but we’re really starting to get to the halfway point of this event. What did you think about these, and what do you think about this event so far?

Pete:                I really love the ways events started, but I just feel like we’re taking too much time with the [inaudible 00:43:37] or getting the sword so they can join the battle. It’s like, “Yeah, get your fucking sword so we can get this goddamn fight started.” I’m excited to see how this unfolds. I’m still very much on board, but I feel like they’re taking their sweet ass fucking time with each person joining the goddamn fight.

Justin:              I mean we got three swords in two issues, that’s pretty … the ratio is right there.

Alex:                 I will say I love the slow anticipation of building the swords, but every time they get to that scene where everybody is standing in the circle with their swords, it’s cool. But I’m also like, how long have they been standing there? Have they been standing there not talking and staring at each other?

Pete:                The first person was like, “Jeez, guys, cool sword.”

Justin:              I do think, I mean, them all arriving there could have happened over the course of five minutes. It’s just the way that comic pacings everyone is doing their own shit on the-

Alex:                 No, this has taken weeks. I mean, weeks between comics.

Justin:              Now, that’s how you’re reading it. But I do think everyone could have arrived there one after the other.

Alex:                 Otherwise how … This is probably a good thing for our podcast to tackle. But how does the linear progression of time work?

Justin:              Well, here’s the thing, it moves forward second by second, minute by minute, unless you go timeout, and then time stops and you can do whatever you want for a brief amount of time.

Alex:                 You can say what’s going on.

Pete:                I’m glad you’re talking about timeouts.

Justin:              And then time in and everything continues on.

Pete:                No, but I think in comics Wednesdays are like our Mondays, you know what I mean? That’s the start of the week.

Justin:              Oh, interesting.

Alex:                 I like [crosstalk 00:45:28].

Justin:              You have a calendar in your house is just Wednesday to Wednesdays just like-

Pete:                Wednesday to Wednesday [crosstalk 00:45:33].

Justin:              Mondays and Tuesdays are just lost days for you.

Alex:                 It’s always Wednesday somewhere, you know what I’m talking about?

Pete:                Oh yeah.

Justin:              Timeout. Pete doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Timing.

Pete:                Timing.

Alex:                 I like these books quite a bit. I thought the other world stuff was really interesting-

Pete:                What a surprise.

Alex:                 … I really liked the Braddock family. I thought they’re really fun in the way that Tini Howard wrote them, delineated them in an interesting way. It also throws in interesting power dynamic into everything that’s going to other world, which if they’re trying to defend to other world, but they hate other world, what’s up with that? I guess we’ll find out how that plays out. But the big one was X-Men 13 which gives completely red cons apocalypse, gives a entirely new motivation for everything that he has ever done, which is very, very classic, Jonathan Hickman, Marvel at this point. But I think it works.

Justin:              I think it does work as well. And it is weird because it’s like apocalypse who is like, he’s been alive for millennia. But then you’re like, “Wait, that dude was married?”

Pete:                Yeah, right.

Justin:              Like, oh, okay, he had a little life. Cool.

Alex:                 Well, and then the other part of it for those who haven’t read the book, this is a spoiler, but we find out the reason he’s always been looking for the fittest and the strongest to survive is to master the forces to fight back the beings that are invading [inaudible 00:47:01] and therefore [inaudible 00:47:02] and eventually the earth. It’s actually been this [inaudible 00:47:05] heroic motivation the entire time, which is kind of an amazing retcon to throw in there.

Pete:                Yeah. Oh yeah. By the way, apocalypse has been not evil this whole time.

Justin:              I don’t know, I bought it like, as far as a cut scene to just drop in for us. I think that works. And despite the fact that he has been a villain this whole time, if he’s trying to find the fittest so he can get back to be with the people he loves, that’s enough of a motivation for me to be like, “Okay, maybe this person can now stand with our heroes.”

Pete:                I agree.

Alex:                 Pete, you disagree.

Pete:                I would rather watch panels of him trying to put that sword together than to hear about his bullshit family.

Alex:                 Man.

Justin:              Wait, why would you rather watch see him put the sword together?

Pete:                Because at least that’s moving the fucking thing forward.

Alex:                 All right. Well, we’re getting to it.

Pete:                I want to see a sword fight. I want to see a giant fucking sword fight.

Alex:                 You’re going to get it, you’re going to get a big all sword fight.

Pete:                And they’re giving me all these goddamn backstory before what’s going to hopefully be the greatest sword fight of all time.

Justin:              What if instead of a sword fight they just talk it out.

Pete:                If this is going to be a fucking kill bill situation, I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.

Alex:                 What if it’s like the sexual sword fight, Pete, what would you think about that?

Pete:                That would also suck.

Justin:              Speaking of that-

Alex:                 It would in fact.

Justin:              … let’s jump into our next book.

Alex:                 All right. Let’s move from saying that you were a little conflicted about Pete, a title I know you love, Faithless Two, number five [inaudible 00:48:50].

Pete:                You can’t even [inaudible 00:48:51], you’re cracking yourself up. Oh yeah, I love it, ooh, what the fuck.

Alex:                 Well, I was kind of cracking up because you couldn’t stop yawning while I was introducing this. You made the biggest, most adorable lion yawn while I was doing that.

Justin:              Yeah. You are just a little bit, you’re a little baby by just waking up from a nap.

Alex:                 I thought this was great-

Justin:              And Alex is like scar, Alex’s scar being like, “Hey kid, you want to see some porno?” That’s what we’re doing right now.

Alex:                 Oh, Justin. I thought this issue Justin actually got to the heart of what you’ve been talking about for the past couple of the issues with this book, where we’d be like, “Okay, what’s going on with this art? They’re visiting many wonderful European countries. There’s some fucked up shit going on. There’s weird sex stuff going on. What are we getting through this title?” And this issue did it. This issue pulled the lid off, revealed what the title at least this part is about, and I like that quite a bit. How’d you feel about it?

Justin:              Same way. This felt like, I mean, if we can talk about how, this book is very sexual, and mixing that with sort of the demonic and we find out like heaven and hell in this universe they’re creating.

Pete:                Heaven fucks too bro, you know what I mean, come on.

Justin:              No doubt. Yeah, no, I know.

Alex:                 Oh, that’s a pull quote [crosstalk 00:50:15], thanks Pete, you’re [crosstalk 00:50:16].

Justin:              Heaven fucks too. And this, I feel like it has been a lot of buildup, and finally this is sort of the release issue where the orgasm issue, where there’s a ton of sex in this issue, and it’s about coming to conclusion.

Pete:                You don’t have to say it like that.

Justin:              But that’s truly what I think-

Alex:                 No, he’s commenting on coming to conclusions.

Justin:              Exactly. I think this is truly what it was written to be, and I respect that.

Pete:                We can be honest on this podcast, right? There’s a thing that happens in this issue where they’re having a threesome, and I’ve never had a threesome, but I have to assume when it happens it’s like in the book, where you start to meld into each other and turn into each other’s sexual organs until you become one sort of like human centipede, centrifugal force type thing. Is that correct? You guys [crosstalk 00:51:14].

Justin:              That’s been my experience.

Alex:                 Yeah. Okay.

Pete:                Especially when you do weird drugs and then have sex in the woods.

Alex:                 Nice. I thought this issue was very good. Last one, we’re going to talk about Night-

Pete:                Wait.

Alex:                 Yes.

Pete:                While we’re being honest, I just wanted to say, Justin, the next time we’re stuck on a boat and drinking with Brian Azzarello, I’m going to have a lot of questions for him.

Alex:                 First of all, how dare you?

Justin:              The real question is, don’t do those drugs, those weird drugs that we didn’t like last time. Because we should say a lot of this book is based on our time on the comic book carnival cruise that we did.

Alex:                 Yeah. The boat was called the USS Faithless, right?

Justin:              That’s a 100% right. The Faithless Two.

Alex:                 Last but not least, Nightwing number 75 from DC Comics written by Dan Jurgens, art by Travis Moore and Ronan Cliquet. Finally, Nightwing is back to himself. He has his memory again. In this issue, KGBs is coming for him. He’s trying to figure out what’s going on with himself, both with his ex-girlfriend Barbara Gordon, as well as his new girlfriend. We haven’t really been following this title, and I got to tell you, I like Nightwing stuff, but I really got off when he lost his memory. Jumping back into this, this was a pleasant surprise.

Justin:              Yeah. Rick Grayson was the sort of like devil may care, like I’m bad character, that filled in after he lost his memory, and it just didn’t work I feel like. It didn’t feel at all organic to Nightwing. And so it is good to finally see him back, especially since Nightwing has had so many iterations that have worked in a surprising way, a lot of the Tom King stuff where he was a super spy. [crosstalk 00:53:09]. Yeah, with Tim Seeley working for checkmate and all of that, it was great and it was not Nightwing, but it still worked because he was still inherently himself. And the recreation stuff felt like such a departure that it didn’t … it felt like a one-off issue thing where it was like a bummer, but let’s get our guy back, and it just lasted for longer. To see him back here being in themself is exciting.

Pete:                Yeah. I also liked the Alfred stuff, I thought that was very touching. I’m glad somebody is really dealing with the lost here.

Alex:                 And I like the idea also of bringing back KGBs, the person who shot him originally where he lost his memory and building it up as this big, bad villain, foreign Nightwing. I think that’s fun, it gives it emotional stakes, ties it into the previous art, but moves it forward in a very nice way. I enjoyed this book. I was very surprised, I’m glad we checked it out. And I think that’s it for The Stack, if you’d like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub, also do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out, we would love to chat with you about comics at comic book live on Twitter, iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more, until next time, this is The Stack, signing off.

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On this week’s comic book review podcast:

Rorschach #1
DC Comics
Written by Tom King
Art by Jorge Fornés

Commanders in Crisis #1
Image Comics
Written by Steve Orlando
Art by Davids Tinto

The Immortal Hulk #38
Marvel
Written by Al Ewing
Art by Joe Bennett

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem #1
Dark Horse Comics
Story by Gerard Way & Shaun Simon
Art by Leonardo Romero

Dark Nights: Death Metal #4
DC Comics
Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Greg Capullo

Stealth #6
Image Comics
Written by Mike Costa
Art by Nate Bellegarde

The Vain #1
Oni Press
Written by Eliot Rahal
Illustrated by Emily Pearson

The Avengers #37
Marvel
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Javier Garrón

Once & Future #12
BOOM! Studios
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Dan Mora
DC The Doomed and the Damned #1
DC Comics
Written by John Arcudi, Saladin Ahmed, Kenny Porter, Amanda Deibert, Marc Wolfman, Amedeo Turturro, Alyssa Wong, Brandon Thomas, Travis Moore and Garth Ennis
Art by Mike Perkins, Leonardo Manco, Riley Rossmo, Daniel Sampere, Tom Mandrake, Max Fiumara, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Baldemar Rivas, Travis Moore and PJ Holden

Redneck #28
Image Comics
Written by Donny Cates
Art by Lisandro Estherren

Amazing Spider-Man #50
Marvel
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Patrick Gleason

Strange Adventures #6
DC Comics
Written by Tom King
Art by Mitch Gerards and Evan “Doc” Shaner

Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #3
Marvel
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art by Leonard Kirk

Seven Secrets #3
BOOM! Studios
Written by Tom Taylor
Illustrated by Daniele Di Nicuolo

Hellions #5
Marvel
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero

New Mutants #13
Marvel
Written by Ed Brisson
Art by Rod Reis

Cable #5
Marvel
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

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Full Episode Transcript:

Alex:                 What’s up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Pete:                What’s up? I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And we are talking about comics. What? What?

Pete:                It just sounds like you’re barely making it, man, you’re like “What’s up everybody, this is the fucking Stack?”

Alex:                 “Oh, God, week 52 of our comic book review.” We actually have a ton of titles queued up for you today, kicking it off with a big one from DC Comics. Rorschach #1 written by Tom King and art by Jorge Fornes. This is a highly anticipated slash, highly dreaded, I think, comic book because it is-

Pete:                Highly dreaded?

Alex:                 Highly dreaded, it’s following up on Watchmen which is always a dicey proposition.

Pete:                Okay, I see what you’re saying now.

Alex:                 In this book we get introduced to a very Manchurian Candidate type scenario. As a Rorschach, I don’t want to say the Rorschach, but a Rorschach and somebody else try to assassinate a presidential candidate, maybe. There’s an investigator who’s looking into it. And by the end, spoiler, three, two, one, but it seems like this assassin may be none other than Walter Kovacs, AKA Rorschach himself. That out of the way, what do you think about this book, Pete? What was your takeaway? What were your thoughts?

Pete:                Well, I think it did a great job of grabbing the reader. It starts off with Rorschach kind of getting murdered, which is interesting jumping on point. And then you kind of… It’s the classic kind of Tom King storytelling where you’re getting little pieces of information as you go along. But he does it so well. And yeah, I mean, I think it’s… It’s weird to say I’m a fan of Rorschach. But there are aspects of Rorschach that I like, and I love the “Where’s your gun moment?” I thought that was really awesome. I mean, it’s great art, interesting story. I think it’s just kind of the election balloons and the stuff with everything that’s happening right now. I think it’s a very well timed book. And I’m on board. But I was going to be on board when you had a Rorschach #1, so I’m not upset about it. I’m very much enjoying it. I’m looking forward to more.

Alex:                 Jorge Fornes’s art, and I believe it’s Steve Stewart’s colors are great throughout the book. Just very, very good across the board. Clearly delineate what’s happening in the past versus what happens in the present. There are a couple of things that I think are kind of fascinating about this book. The biggest one is that Tom King has so clearly been influenced by Watchmen and Alan Moore, down to his panel grids. The way that he lays them out. But he purposefully avoids the nine panel grid here in this book, to the point where there’s one page that I think is like a 12 panel grid, or maybe a 15 panel grid or something like that.

Alex:                 But he never goes into that basic Watchmen breakdown of the page at any point, which almost seems like a no brainer for somebody who has built a lot of their career on building his work off of what Alan Moore did. So that’s curious to me, the other thing that’s curious to me, is the choice of setting. Because it very purposely feels like The Manchurian Candidate meets All the Presidents bad down to the feathered hair that everybody has, and the fashion they’re wearing. It seems like it said in the 70s. But Watchmen itself was set in the 1980s. So, when is it set is my question. This is supposed to be now, but have fashions come around to the 70s? Again, what’s going on? Are they only doing it because it’s supposed to feel like a 70s conspiracy thriller? There’s something about that and the lack of clarity there in the world, though I’m sure King, because he’s meticulous writer, has thought through it. And we’ll find out eventually. I’m just not quite sure with this first issue, there’s a wall there for me in terms of where it’s at.

Pete:                Okay, well, it’s a weird thing to get hung up on, but I understand what you’re saying. But it’s just weird to me, because Tom King is kind of famous for, “You’re going to have to keep reading to figure out the story.”

Alex:                 Sure. But I think that’s important because we’re dealing with Watchmen and we’re dealing with an ongoing world and we know this is continuing. There are things that are teased here and thrown into the background, whether it’s through billboards or advertisements or other things that let us know, “Okay, this is kind of where the world got to from 1985 to here.” And interestingly, some of the things whether it’s quite sensitive Not dovetail with Watchmen the TV series.

Alex:                 So that only raises further questions in my mind of is this in continuity with the comic book? Is it going to continue with the TV show? Is it in continuity with the both? Is it’s own continuity? And I know that’s not the only thing I should be thinking about, I know I should be concentrating on the story which taken on its own, totally divorced from Watchmen is a good conspiracy thriller story. But those are the sort of things that I do think are important to understand, in some sense, when you’re saying here, “This is a continuation of Watchmen.”

Pete:                Yeah, just you kind of sound like me when we were talking about Tom King’s Vision. I was hung up on one little thing, and you guys were like, “Hey, get over it.”

Alex:                 I think this is a big thing, though. I think this is a big important thing. It is a big thing.

Pete:                That will be explained. Sure, but it will be explained. Tom King is piecemealing-

Alex:                 It’s a gorgeous comic book, like the best of Before Watchmen, which was a dicey project to begin with, but still had some good comics come out of it. Yeah, this is a dicey project that still seems like a good comic. So I’m happy to follow it along. But I have questions.

Pete:                My question is, do you know if this is monthly or weekly? Because the election’s coming up? And I need to know.

Alex:                 I assume it’s monthly.

Pete:                Oh man, we’re in trouble.

Alex:                 All right, let’s move on then to the second comic, we’re going to talk about, Commanders in Crisis #1 from Image Comics written by Steve Orlando. Art by David Tinto. We talked to Steve about this on the live show a couple of weeks back. And it is basically him doing a Crisis comic book, but with totally original characters. What do you think? Did it pay off on the premise that he sold us on, on the pitch, Pete?

Pete:                I think it did. I think, I’m in. This is very interesting. This is a cool team. It’s fun to kind of see his take on a big crossover event like this. It’s fantastic art. I like the team that is kind of in this thing. And there’s like a cool kind of like superhero moment where we had the kiss. That was great. Yeah, I’m on board. I think these characters are interesting enough that even if I don’t… It’s not like a Avengers crossover event where I know every single person, I got enough here to go by. And yeah, I’m excited to see where this goes, it seems like he did a good job of selling it and I’m in.

Alex:                 What’s really fascinating about this, to me, is that it avoids any of the archetypes. I expected going in with it, we’d get a Superman, a Wonder Woman, a Batman etc. We don’t get any of that these are completely as far as I can tell original characters. There’s no analogues from any particular universe. And that only makes Steve Orlando’s job harder going into this. But it does make it more interesting to read because their powers are so weird and so interesting. And the hook of it, which he talked about on the show, this is the reveal at the end of the issue. So if you don’t want to know turned away, but I still think it’s fair to talk about because he mentioned to us is the death of Empathy, which is going to be an interesting thing to see going forward. The other detail that is so weird, but such an interesting specific thing is all the members of the team in the book are from different parallel universes where they were all presidents.

Pete:                President.

Alex:                 Which is very weird.

Pete:                Commander in Crisis. Yeah.

Alex:                 Commanders in crisis, they are commanders. They were all like the first Latinx president, the first woman president, the first, etc. resident. But it’s a bunch of presidents with superpowers fighting a crisis, which is such a bizarre detail, but it makes so much sense for the title. And yeah, I’m definitely on board. I think like he’s set up a weird, interesting, very different world here.

Pete:                Yeah. And it’s even like when you get the kind of splash page introduction of the superheroes it’s like “Prizefighter, as strong as the crowd hopes he is.” I was like, “What?” And then it’s like “Sawbones, Action Surgeon.” I’ve never seen those two words next to each other, action surgeon. What is that? Yeah so it’s very interesting.

Alex:                 It’s intriguing.

Pete:                Yeah, it really does a good job of like, kind of sucking you in. And then there’s the fun kind of like, oh these minions aren’t very smart. They have their brains in a backpack. Okay, this is crazy. It’s doing a great job. And I think this really ought to be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Alex:                 I agree. Let’s move on. Talking about the Immortal Hulk # 38 from Marvel written by Al Ewing art by Joey Bennett. In this issue, the Leader is dominating the Hulk and all of his allies. He is in the Hulk’s mind-scape and controlling things from outside when a rogue element comes in and turns around the balance of power. Pete, I know you’ve been down on this book, but this issue by the end like in the right way, personally, I was like, “What the fuck is happening here?” Oh my God.

Pete:                Yeah, this is great. This is really great. You got a lot of the kind of horror aspects that’s been happening, but this like really gets into kind of the story and action. I’m very happy with this issue. It’s really impressive. Very cool. It’s got a lot of twists and reveals but man, it’s glorious. It really is a great issue of comic book.

Alex:                 Yeah, it’s still horrifying, everything that’s going on and the visuals that Joe Bennett draws. But everything that Al Ewing has been building up over the past 38 issues is really finally coming to crest here. It feels like the Leader is probably the sub-villain that we need to deal with in this run. But it’s still such a good Leader story. And it’s such a good Hulk family story that it feels dangerous in the right way. Just great. Gross.

Pete:                It’s really impressive how this book has grown and changed and done so many different things. It’s really… I can’t imagine the pitch meeting for this fucking thing.

Alex:                 “Okay, so get this. Rick is very long.”

Pete:                It’s a horror hulk.

Alex:                 Yeah, Rick is long, and he kind of bends in a weird way. And that’s the pitch.

Pete:                Has the grossest neck you’ve ever seen.

Alex:                 Just it’s horrible. It’s absolutely horrible. Yeah, a great book. Moving on to the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, National Anthem #1, from Dark Horse comic, story by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, art by Leonardo Romero. If you’ve never read this book, this is basically about a bunch of folks. It’s sort of like an extrapolation of, what was the movie? Them. The Kurt Russell movie where he puts on this… No, Rowdy Roddy Piper, puts on the sun glasses, and could see the truth about the world. It’s essentially that, but in comic book form, and here, they’ve beaten the bad guys, they have one as far as they know. And then things start to go horribly wrong from there. Really good book. I like this, it’s esoteric and strange, as most of Gerard Way stuff is. If you read Doom Patrol, if you read Umbrella Academy, but it still feels very prescient and timely in terms of the storytelling, which I like quite a bit.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s really impressive. The art and the storytelling is gorgeous and fantastic, and really moves the story very… It moves through this kind of crazy world. And you’re kind of really piecing it together. But it’s very unique. And just when you think you’ve got a handle on it just kind of surprises you again. And I love all the different groups that they kind of break down in the middle of it. Yeah, I think this is a great issue that really kind of gets you excited for more in this world, it really sets things up and gets you wanting more. I think it’s a great first issue.

Alex:                 And I think you could understand it even if you haven’t read the first series, you could jump right in here and go ahead with it. Obviously you’re going to have a richer experience, but it’s good stuff regardless. Next up, this is what we talked about in the live show a little bit, Dark Knights Death Metal #4 from DC Comics. Written by Scott Snyder art by Greg Capullo, wild stuff happening in this issue. This is bringing together a bunch of the one shots and miniseries that have been running along. We find out what’s been going out with the Flash Team, we find out what’s been going on with Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman as they sink deeper into the Crisis Dark multi verses, and things-

Pete:                And-

Alex:                 Yeah, Pete.

Pete:                It still starts with Uncle Rock in this one. But, you know.

Alex:                 Sergeant Rock.

Pete:                Sarge Rock.

Alex:                 You call him Uncle Rock.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:14:48]. Yeah, I call him uncle Rock. That’s what he calls himself in this, which is a funny moment.

Alex:                 He married your aunt.

Pete:                Yeah that’s how that technically works. You’re right. But yeah, I mean, this is just amazing art, over the top fun. Darkseid in that chair is unbelievable. It’s like Green Lantern’s ring chair. So that means the Green Lantern has to sit there and keep thinking about the size and weight of that chair. That’s a very intense little thing that doesn’t get much attention. It’s just they’re killing this. This is just so much fun. Each one of these books is really fun to see what mashups of characters they’re going to use, and how crazy it’s going to look, and it hasn’t disappointed yet.

Alex:                 This entire book feels like the dialogue break in a metal song. When somebody’s like, “And then Superman is sunk into a pit of fire as Darkseid watched.” The whole thing. Just it’s absolutely, really ludicrous. The whole thing is crazy. We talked about it on the show, but it ends with the Darkest Knight aka Batman who laughs winning, turning the universe into the Last 52, a bunch of dark multiverses, it’s only going to go from there. Who knows how they’re going to win. But it’s funny for the insanely highest stakes, that is, honestly just fun the entire time.

Pete:                It really is.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to something that’s a little bit grimmer but in the right way, Stealth #6 from Image Comics, written by Mike Costa and art by Nate Bellegarde. We’ve been loving this series on the show.

Pete:                It’s too bad Justin didn’t want to talk about this book.

Alex:                 He got out of here, was like “No thanks. Don’t want to talk about Stealth.”

Pete:                Yeah, he was like, “Listen, guys, I love Stealth. I said it was my pick. But I’d rather watch a football game right now. So fuck all, y’all.”

Alex:                 I don’t think that’s what’s happening. But the other Stealth, if you haven’t been reading the book, it’s about a guy who’s in sort of a all powerful armor [inaudible 00:17:01], who also may or may not have dementia. He’s been fighting against a guy called the Dead Hand who can kill people by touching them with his hand. Everything is revealed in this issue. They loop everything back. We finish it up. This is the end of the miniseries. What did you think about the conclusion, Pete?

Pete:                I was really impressed with this. Like this kind of started and it was like, “Wait, what’s happening?” I love the story. I love the action, the art’s unbelievable. But I was kind of like, “But man, does this all come together in such an amazing way.” It’s one of those books where you read it. And at the end, you’re like “God, I want to go back and read it all over again.” It’s really great. Really impressive. And I can’t compliment the art enough.

Alex:                 In a surprising way too, it’s nothing that I think you could have predicted from the first five issues, but it makes total sense at the same time when it’s explained, which is a difficult feat to go through. Pass off, whatever the word is.

Pete:                Yeah, especially us, we’ve read so many comics, it’s hard to surprise us. And this really did a great job of that.

Alex:                 This is a great miniseries, definitely pick it up when it’s in trade or individual issues. Next up The Vain, #1 from Oni Press, written by Eliot Rahal, illustrated by Emily Pearson. This is about a bunch of vampires around the turn of World War II who are robbing blood banks. Get it?

Pete:                You see what they’re doing?

Alex:                 And when war breaks out with the Nazis, and then everything changes. I was very surprised and impressed by this book. I thought this is a really fun concept. The characters were good. I liked how the world was laid out. And there’s a good nice twist at the end. How’d you feel Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was very cool. Kind of like bank heist, but they’re robbing a blood bank. And also like, fun kind of like, the way the vampires kind of handled the crowd and fuck with them a little bit, very enjoyable. And what’s also nice is even the undead are like “You know what’s really fucked up? Nazis, man. Racism is awful. I’m a fucking undead vampire. But I know this is wrong. So let’s go end this.” That was great.

Alex:                 It’s a little shaggy in terms of that because it feels like okay, the concept is bank robbing vampires. I get it. And then next issue it’s going to be like, okay, it’s vampires fighting Nazis, I get it. So I’m wondering if it’s going to change every single issue and that’s going to be the rhythm of the book. Or if it is something else. Whatever it is, I’m definitely onboard. I had a fun time reading this. I think it’s a fun take on vampires. Like I said the characters are good. So definitely willing to follow it. And Emily Pearson’s character designs are very good as well.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Next up the Avengers #37 from Marvel written by Jason Aaron, art by Javier Garron. This is kicking off the end of the Age of Khonshu.

Pete:                Yes, the Age of Khonshu. And this is the finale.

Alex:                 This is the finale. So Khonshu, who is the God of Moon Knight has taken the powers of the rest of the Avengers. This issue they’re fighting back as well as Moon Knight who now the Phoenix Power is fighting back. This is playing with toys in the best sense of the phrase.

Pete:                Well yeah, and that’s a great way to put it. Because you do have like a super baby here who is like, “Yo, give me back my toys.” So that was kind of well put there. But yeah, this is a fantastic art. And it kind of reminds me of Snyder’s just over the top fun, where a lot of different characters are getting to play with different powers and stuff like that. And I think this is a great kind of finale. And it’s cool to kind of see somebody get powered up like this, and then kind of like spoiler, but de-powered, and where those powers go. So it’s, again, a writer and artist, having a lot of fun with the different kind of powers and different perspectives. So yeah, I really enjoyed this. I thought it wasn’t a huge kind of event. It was just kind of big enough. And I thought it was great.

Alex:                 Yeah, it’s playground rules. It feels like every page, and I say this in the best sense, because it’s fun to read. But it’s the sort of thing where somebody is like, “Oh you’re going to attack my pyramid. Well, my wolf men and my mummies are going to attack you.” And they’re like, “Fine. Well, now I have the Iron Fist…” That’s great. Like, there’s not enough of that in comics, where it just feels like people playing and having fun. It all has to mean something. It all has to lead to the next thing. This is the sort of thing where it’s like, and I’m probably mis-remembering this, where She Hulk can very briefly get the Iron Fist, and it has no bearing on anything whatsoever, other than a fun splash page that they draw. And that’s fine. It’s refreshing to read something like that.

Alex:                 Here’s another thing that is almost the opposite, where it’s fun, but everything means something. Once and Future #12 from Boom Studios by Kieron Gillen, art by Dan Mora. Pete I know you love this series. This is wrapping up the Beowulf arc. Listen, I think textually pretty big revelations for the mythology of the book, as teased to us by Kieron Gillen when we chatted with him a couple of weeks back. How’d you feel about this one?

Pete:                This just continues to be one of my favorite things on the stands. Art is unbelievable. You have these unbelievable monsters these great kind of stories and fables intertwined here, and then you just got one badass grandma who’s not going to take shit from nobody. And this is just such a glorious comic book that is worth your time and money. And it’s entertaining, it’s smart, it’s touching. It’s stories that you’ve kind of know, that kind of are told in this new kind of messed up way and it’s very, very enjoyable.

Alex:                 Yeah, Dan Mora’s art and character designs and monster designs in particular are so good across the board. But this issue is Kieron Gillen doing his Kieron Gillen thing and wrapping stories together, figuring out how they fit together, figuring out how the mythology of England as an entity fits together. And it’s fascinating to read, but it’s nowhere near as dense as say Die, for example, but just good, good stuff and so much fun to read.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to an anthology DC the Doomed and the Damned #1 from DC Comics, written by John Arcudi, Saladin Ahmed, Kenny Porter, Amanda Deibert, Marv Wolfman, Amedeo Turturro, Alyssa Wong, Brandon Thomas, Travis Moore and Garth Ennis. Art by Mike Perkins, Leonardo Manco, Riley Rossmo, Daniel Sampere, Tom Mandrake, Max Fiumara, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Baldemar Rivas, Travis Moore and PJ Holden. As you can probably guess, from how I introduced it, as well as the lineup this is a series of short stories teaming up DC Comics characters in spooky situations. As usual, how’d you feel about this one, Pete? And were there any stories that jumped out to you?

Pete:                Yeah, this was a really nice collection. I had a lot of fun with this. I mean, the Batman versus the kind of monster in the mirrors is great. This is what I want Halloween comics to be like. I want to see heroes taking on the kind of monsters. And this is the classic like if you say a name in the mirror three times, so it was cool to see that. The Raven Wonder Woman story was great. I’m a sucker for a Grundy story. I love the look of Superman in that one store. I thought like he really looked fantastic with the Swamp Thing. It was just super fun. I think there was a lot of cool stuff and even the Green Lantern team up I enjoyed.

Alex:                 Yeah, I like this as well. I mean, if you can’t tell from the title this is riff on Brave and the Bold but Doom and [inaudible 00:25:31] instead. So it’s a team up book-

Pete:                Oh, I just put it together.

Alex:                 Which it gives it a very different flavor from other anthologies. I think it gives it more focus, particularly because you usually get a non-supernatural character teaming up with a supernatural character. The best one for me, which you mentioned, is Saladin Ahmed’s story, which I just… I love Batman dealing with the supernatural because he does it all the time. But he never believes it. He’s always like, “Scientific explanation for this. I got to figure this one out.” And it’s great here. He deals with essentially like a Candyman, Beetlejuice type figure, except in Gotham City. And it’s a lot of fun. But this is a good collection if you want to pick it up. Next up Redneck #28 from Image Comics written by Donny Cates, art by Lisandro Estherren. This is a title we have not checked out that much, I think, right, Pete?

Pete:                Well, so this is weird because I saw Redneck and I thought it was Jason Aaron’s book called Redneck and it’s not. This is a different kind of redneck, not what you think because it’s about vampires.

Alex:                 No, Jason Aaron wrote another book. I don’t remember what it’s called. But it’s not Redneck.

Pete:                Okay.

Alex:                 No, he’s, what is it? Southern Bastards. That’s what he wrote.

Pete:                Oh. Right, right, right. Yeah. I thought… But anyways, so this is a very kind of… The art is really fantastic. I love the way they kind of draw the action. And a very interesting, kind of like tale throughout time here that we’re dealing with. And I love the way it kind of ended on this cliffhanger for more. I think this is very interesting book, very kind of unique and creative. And I didn’t know what I was getting into. And I was pleasantly surprised.

Alex:                 So Donny talks about this in the end matter a little bit, but it is wild reading the first couple of issues of this books, which I think I read the first couple and I just got away from it for no particular reason. But it was what the title said, it was about a bunch of swamp folks dealing with vampires. I was like, “Okay, I get it. Rednecks cool. I’m on it, I get the concepts of this book.” To here where we’re like Dracula war, which is a very different sort of thing.

Alex:                 But Lisandro’s art in particular is epic throughout the book. As you mentioned, it spans through different time periods. I enjoyed this quite a bit. And it’s certainly the sort of thing that makes me want to be like, “Okay, I read the first collection, I read this issue. Now I actually need to read what happened in between, because clearly, I missed a lot.”

Alex:                 Next up Amazing Spider-Man #50 from Marvel, written by Nick Spencer, art by Patrick Gleason. This is picking up right on the last issue, but kicking off a new storyline, where we finally learn the identity of Kindred as well as why he has it out for Spider-Man. Why he has it out for Norman Osborn, what happens to the Sin Eater? Big things happened in this issue. Spider Man is a very dire straits. We’re definitely going to get into spoilers here. So Pete, as you feel about this reveal, what do you think about this?

Pete:                Cool. I mean, when I saw the tombstone reveal, I was like, “All right.”

Alex:                 But so let’s walk through this and this is spoiler time. But Kindred pulls up the tombstone, you’re supposed to think as a reader, “Oh, okay is he Captain Stacy?” Gwen Stacy’s dad. But he’s not. Instead, what Kindred has done is he’s pulled up the corpses of Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy, and put them at a dinner table for Spider-Man, classic villain behavior. But it turns out the Kindred is none other than Harry Osborn.

Pete:                Yeah, at the end there’s another twist, where you think, “Okay, we don’t know, here’s the reveal of the tombstone. That’s who he is.” But then at the end, it’s like, “He’s my son.” And then you’re like twist again.

Alex:                 I don’t love that. I feel like we’re going to have to do a lot of explanation to get why Harry Osborn is this.

Pete:                Especially when Spider-Man sits down to that dinner and he sees the two dead people. And then he’s like, “Wait, but what’s this got to do with Harry Osborn?” You know what I mean?

Alex:                 Yeah, I mean, first of all, indoor dining very dangerous right now. Second of all, if you ever get in that situation, just be like, “Check, please.”

Pete:                Yeah, also, you got to put masks on those corpses, you know what I mean? You can’t just [crosstalk 00:30:16].

Alex:                 I mean come on. Absolutely. They could spread disease.

Pete:                They’re inside.

Alex:                 Yes. Think of the servers.

Pete:                Yeah, exactly.

Alex:                 This is a good issue. Nick Spencer is doing an intriguing job of the storyline. But like I said, I think though this fills in a lot of holes in what’s been going on I need to get to how this happened, which I assume is going to happen soon. This seems to be a big storyline. But why is Harry Osborn Kindred? What does that mean? How did he become Kindred? Are all big open questions here but we’re just at the beginning of this storyline right now.

Alex:                 Next up, another Tom King book Strange Adventures #6 from DC Comics written by surprise Tom King art by Mitch Garads and Evan ‘Doc’ Shaner. In this issue, as usual, we’re jumping back and forth between the planet Ron and what’s happening on Earth, as Mr. Terrific investigates the death of Adam Strange and Alanna’s daughter. In this issue Mr. Terrific Alanna kind of go on a date a little bit, and parry and check each other out and sort of probe each other’s weaknesses. Ends in a very different, very interesting place. I like this issue quite a bit, particularly, because it made me doubt Alanna being the bad guy of this series. How’d you feel about it Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, yeah. Also, we had a little Seth Meyers sighting. Little talk show clip here. And as we all know, Seth Meyers came on Comic Book Club, big fan of the show. So it’s nice to see that.

Alex:                 It was nice to see it finally pay off for him.

Pete:                Yeah, yeah. Really nice to see Seth Meyers get his due, poor guy, he works really hard. But yeah, I mean, this is just waiting, each Tom King book, you get a little bit more information, a little bit more information. You’re trying to piece together this whole story. So it’s unbelievable, Tom King, kills it as a writer. And I’m excited to see how this unfolds, and we get a little bit more. And I love the Terrific stuff in this. So yeah, I can’t wait until the final kind of domino falls, I can kind of look back and see what we’ve done here.

Alex:                 I agree. This is definitely a mystery book. It’s going to make you reevaluate everything when we finally get to the end there. But every issue just gorgeous to read and gut wrenching and heartbreaking across the board. Another one, very sad Marvel Zombies Resurrection #3 from Marvel written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson art by Leonard Kirk. Spider-Man is taking Franklin and Valeria to the Galactus hive to try to find a cure for the zombie virus that has afflicted the Marvel Universe. Things go predictably, very, very wrong, including a favorite of Pete’s, who gets caught in the struggle. I love the twist that Philip gives to the whole Marvel Zombies thing here. It’s so smart. So well done. I’m a little hesitant to spoil it. But every issue of this is so dangerous, so harrowing. And it’s amazing that he has found a totally different twist on the zombie mythology in the Marvel Universe. How’d you feel Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, this was really crazy and intense to kind of like, have these kind of reveals of kind of like how this all unfolded. Love the Galactus stuff. Magic stuff is really cool. The character that we’re not talking about I was like… All right, but-

Alex:                 We can talk about him. We can spoil it.

Pete:                I think it’s-

Alex:                 We spoiled so much this podcast.

Pete:                This continues to be a really fun book and if you would have said-

Alex:                 It’s Wolverine.

Pete:                Wolverines. Wolverine. But yeah, I mean, you would think like okay, Marvel Zombies all right, how long we doing this, but this really is a fresh take on it. And it’s very enjoyable.

Alex:                 I agree. I’m very nervous, concerned about what will happen at the last issue when we get to that. Moving on to Seven Secrets #3 from Boom Studios written by Tom Taylor illustrated by Daniela De Nicolo. This issue we’re following who we still think is our main character but we’re not 100% sure, as they go on a mission to become the new secret keeper for this organization. Still don’t know what the secrets are, still don’t know what’s going on.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 We just know somebody evil is gunning straight for them. Another great issue of this book as Tom and company continued to build out the mythology. How’d you feel Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, I liked this. Again, we kind of don’t know. I mean, if I’m risking my life over a briefcase, I might take a peek. But I think that this is very creative in the way that it kind of tells his story as it unfolds and the touching like 15 gifts from the father for the 15 years he wasn’t there. That got me, that got me a little bit. That was pretty awesome. I’ve been really impressed with the characters in the book and their story and kind of how this is all moving forward. A lot of great action. Yeah, this continues to impress.

Alex:                 Yeah, great book and Daniela De Nicolo’s art is also real good, it’s very anime… Excuse me, manga inspired. Yeah, but it feels like the halfway point way point.

Pete:                The mustache guy reminds me of the guy from Voltron. The new Voltron [crosstalk 00:36:07]-

Alex:                 Interesting. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I appreciate it regardless. Before we wrap up here, let’s do it. Let’s get into the X/10 of Swords block. Three issues out this week. Hellions #5, written by Zeb wells and art by Carmen Carnero. New Mutants #13 written by Ed Price and art by Rob Price. Cable #5 written by Jerry Duggan and art by Phil Noto. Versus last week, where we got a little more of an overarching story each one of these is very much its own thing.

Alex:                 In Hellions we get that team heading off into other world to basically cheat the whole sword contest that’s going on by stealing Arakko’s swords. In New Mutant’s we find out how Cypher is dealing with fact that he’s supposed to be a sword bearer. Answer is not very well. And in cable, he is dealing with a sword of his own. When the last we left him, he was with Cyclops and Jean Grey on Sword, the actual space station the people, we find out what happened to them, and what happens next. This is great. I was a little worried that this crossover was going to be just one thing after another just following up on it. But I love that each one of these individual interweaving stories, and I thought each of these issues was a ton of fun all on its own. Pete I know you liked last week’s issues. How’d you feel about this one?

Pete:                I did. I really liked the break from the stacking insane idea on top of insane idea and like here we’re just going to have like a showdown you bring your best, we’ll bring our best, bring a sword, let’s settle this. But this gets a little derailed by the Lollipop Guild where they sit around a table and makes insane decisions like “Hey, we’re going to do this big battle to the death, but why don’t we cheat? Right? Because we’re on our own island by playing by the rules so fuck it let’s just cheat, and just throw a wrench in the whole fucking thing.”

Alex:                 So this is in Hellions by the way just to clarify what’s going on here. I love this issue. Zeb Wells writes the crap out of these characters. His Empath is such a horrible asshole in a hilarious way. Mr. Sinister is great.

Pete:                The cape bit is just glorious. It’s really fun.

Alex:                 Oh my god. So funny. Just, it’s a funny book. And I appreciate that in the middle of this like… Particularly coming off of, I think, the last issue was Storm being like, “I need to potentially destroy a relationship with my husband because it’s the head of the world and I need to invade Wakanda.” And then this issue, Mr. Sinister’s like wrestling with a horse most of the issue is great. That you could have these different tones of this world is so much fun.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s all right.

Alex:                 And then of course, there’s New Mutants, which is I think one of the greatest issues of all time that really just really digs in on Cypher as a character. One of the greatest characters of all time. Gives him his due in the sun, shows up what was going on with Warlock, trains with Krakoa, plays on his insecurities, but in the right way, and fleshes out his relationship with Krakoa, just a great issue across the board. And I know I’m using a sarcastic voice, but I also actually think that.

Pete:                The art in this book is glorious. The Krakoa, trying to stop him and talk to them but like “If something happens to you I won’t be able to…” I thought that was great. But at this point, I’m like, “Okay, guys, a lot of build up to the sword fight. Can we get to this goddamn sword fight.” Like, do I got to sit there and see everybody’s origin story to how they got their sword.

Alex:                 There’s 10 swords. They’re not even halfway through. They’ll get halfway through, they’ll have all the swords and then they’ll have a bunch of fights.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Come on.

Pete:                Now hopefully I make a [crosstalk 00:40:12]-

Alex:                 And Cable, also fun with like some terrifying weird alien enemies, that was super fun as well. Just a fun month across the board. Right Pete?

Pete:                Sure. Yeah. What a month. What a year. Everybody’s having a blast. Good times.

Alex:                 Yeah, I just ordered a shirt online, actually, they said “2020 having a blast.”

Pete:                Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, I’ll look forward to hopefully getting to the fight. Just, I don’t know, I think the last month with the three titles or last week, whatever it was, I thought was better, getting me hyped for this thing, but after this week, I’m kind of like, “All right, get me there already.” But hey, people like reading stuff in between their comic books pages, apparently, because man, they’re doubling the fuck down on that.

Alex:                 Oh my gosh.

Pete:                And at this point I’m just to do it.

Alex:                 Well, I liked these quite a bit. I had a fun time this week. And I’m glad to read all three of them.

Pete:                Did you like reading about the sword instead of seeing it? Just reading about how much it weighs and that kind of stuff?

Alex:                 You know what they say, do you bring an essay to a sword fight?

Pete:                Ah right, right.

Alex:                 If you’d like to support this podcast, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM.

Pete:                We sure do.

Alex:                 We do Crowdcast and YouTube, come hang out and check it out. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. At Comic Book live for this pod. You can, I don’t know, socially or whatever. ComicBookClublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time, we’ll see you at the virtual comic book shop.

The post The Stack: Rorschach, Commanders In Crisis And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub

On this week’s Stack podcast: Batman #100, Locke & Key: …In Pale Battalions Go… #2, Amazing Spider-Man #850, Transformers/Back to the Future #1, American Vampire 1976 #1, Getting It Together #1, Wolverine #6, X-Force #13, Marauders #13, Sonic The Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #2, Far Sector #8, Adventureman #4, Backtrack #7, Black Widow #2, Exosisters #10, DCeased: Dead Planet #4, Inkblot #2, Champions #1, and Decorum #5.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up? You’re all welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete. And on The Stack, we’ve got it packed…

Alex:                 … stack for you today. We’ve got [crosstalk 00:00:17], use.

Justin:              It’s a packed stack.

Alex:                 Big issues is coming out, so let’s jump right into it. Talking about Batman number 100, from DC Comics run by James Tynion IV, art by Jorge Jimenez, Carlo Pagulayan and Guillem March. This is the culmination of the Joker world.

Justin:              Culmination.

Alex:                 It’s all been coming down to this. Big stuff happens here as the Batman takes on Joker [Mono-e-Mono 00:00:44], for all [crosstalk 00:00:49], translators. For all the [inaudible 00:00:52], there’s some twists, there’s some turns here, there’s backup stories. What [inaudible 00:00:56]… Oh God.

Pete:                Oh no, Alex.

Justin:              Oh, wow. Don’t die. [crosstalk 00:01:01].

Alex:                 That’s a [inaudible 00:01:01], Joker guest.

Justin:              Joker mist.

Alex:                 Joker mist.

Pete:                Oh, man.

Alex:                 Yeah, I’m a joker mystique myself.

Pete:                Smart.

Justin:              Oh, nice. Just to clear up your throat?

Alex:                 Mm-hmm (affirmative). No, you got to build up a tolerance, so that way… exactly.

Justin:              Yeah, that’s smart.

Pete:                Oh, yeah.

Alex:                 What do you guys think about this issue and what do you think about the storyline as a whole?

Justin:              I liked it. Especially the battle, the Joker, bat uniform and that Joker becoming Batman, I thought was a nice thing here. There’s some funny lines in here of Alfred’s Corp saying he wishes he was the [crosstalk 00:01:40], butler. Had it up for [crosstalk 00:01:42].

Alex:                 That’s not funny.

Justin:              No, man.

Alex:                 That was painful.

Justin:              An underwater butler, so fun. How do you make tea? All the waters. It’s all water.

Pete:                Yeah, I felt like, first off the art’s fantastic. I feel like the landing didn’t stick as hard as I would have liked it. Normally, when we have these big buildups, these huge fights. The wrap-up is great, but there was a lot of weird stuff that happened. I felt like there was this epic showdown and then it wasn’t between the Joker and Batman because Harley Quinn showed up and then made it be like, “Yo, one of us are going to die tonight,” which is holy shit, raising the stakes, but it wasn’t like the classic showdown. It was a real switch of status of Joker trying to be Batman. I did like the things that Joker was saying during the fight. I thought that was classic cool Joker shit.

Pete:                But the stuff I was a little disappointed with was the wrap-up and the Batman talking to the Clown Hunter, I felt like that could have been a little bit better. I had a weird feeling after that was over. Also, it was crazy to me that Catwoman seemed to be making moves, but then there was just a shot of her watching fights, which was weird to me. But I really think that overall, this was a really cool arc, very awesome twists and turns, a lot of fun. The Alfred shit to me was a little too rough, too soon. Seeing the corpse shit was really hard, but I-

Justin:              I was going to say, it’s great to see Alfred back in his good shape, in perfect form. This is the Alfred I want to see.

Pete:                The Nightwing shit was bad-ass. Nightwing got a lot to do a lot of respect in this. So that was cool.

Alex:                 I love the Oracle stuff. It was so much fun having Barbara back as Oracle. That was great. It just really shows the deep well of love that James Tynan has for DC Comics history that really came out on this issue. I agree with you that the execution of the ending felt a little asterisky, particularly given how big everything is built over the past couple of issues. But James Tynan came out on Twitter and said, “This was supposed to be as ending.” This was supposed to be his last issue of Batman, and then when he found out he would be ongoing on it, he had to scramble and change his plans and changes all outline to serve some other masters and serve some other storylines that are happening.

Alex:                 So I think it’s not purposeful, but that is a victim of circumstances, more than anything that rather than making it this big exclamation point, it became the dot, dot, dot in the middle of the ongoing Batman story. And I do like the place that he finds Batman at the end of this, I actually did really like Clown Hunter story. The idea that he-

Pete:                I like Clown Hunter story, for sure. I felt like Batman just lectured Clown Hunter in a weird way.

Alex:                 What I think was different about this, this almost pivots off of what Jeff Johns is doing over in three Jokers, is this idea that Batman keeps bringing in these orphans, breaking them, ruining their lives, and then being like, “Well, time for new orphan,” that he’s doing something different here, which is similar to what they did with the signal as well. Is I think smart, and it’s a progression of the character that personally I like. Yeah.

Justin:              I mean, I agree. I also think despite the change in plan for James Tynion, I feel like his point was rather than have Batman play Joker’s game the entire time in the end of this is like I haven’t been… I’m not going to take the bait. And I thought that was a nice… Batman’s usual tactic or at least for the past few years is he takes the bait and then suffers horrible consequences, but he endures because he’s Batman and I actually liked-

Alex:                 He got stabbed in the back-up bunch. That’s suffering.

Justin:              I know, but rather than be like, “All right, I’m going to give it all up for the corpse of my butler,” he’s like, “You know what? I’m not going to do that.” And I liked the different take on that for one. I agree the Clown Hunter stuff, I thought what was actually good. I agree with you, Alex. It’s nice if we’re going to walk away with this new character, I think that’s cool. Clown Hunter is a cool character. It’s like if Damian Wayne took the other path and didn’t become a Robin, it feels like. The one thing with the Joker little epilogue at the end, Joker, he’s become this chemist. Why is he such a chemist? I don’t know why that makes sense. It’s like [crosstalk 00:06:31]-

Alex:                 I appreciate your-

Justin:              … gas that perfectly turns you into a Joker so much so that no one will be able to tell the difference in my body versus your body.

Pete:                But also he’s really into newspapers and likes to get his news, old timey, just sitting down, stacking newspapers, go through each one, see that headlines, soak it all in. So it’s this mix of, he’s up to date on all the latest chemical stuff, but likes to get his news old school.

Alex:                 It’s crazy. It’s crazy stuff is what I tell you, but [crosstalk 00:07:06]-

Justin:              Yeah. A lot of fans are definitely going to identify with Pete’s point he just made the with the newspapers.

Alex:                 This is a very good issue though. And I think this whole arc was good. Definitely pick it up in trade or individually if you like.

Alex:                 Next up, Locke and Key in Pale Battalions, going number two from IDW storytellers, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. This is continuing a story of back in the day from Locke and Key as we follow John Locke. But a different John Locke, the last, as he goes to fight in the war, he has aged himself. Yup. He’s using one of the magical keys. And this issue, we see things from the German perspective of the war as they are tagged.

Justin:              Creating a way to put that.

Alex:                 But again, we talk about this every time. There were two different World Wars. One of them was the World War, the second one with Nazis. This is the first World War, which was also with the Germans, but it’s not creepy in exactly the same way. Pete [crosstalk 00:08:04]. Oh my God.

Pete:                Different Wars.

Justin:              DC, Wolverine one, Pete. The Balkans were powder gig. And then all of a sudden the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand really set off a series of chain of events within tangling alliances that led all of these different countries to declare war on each other. And then of course, a further countries guy, eventually entangled. And here we are with John Locke, [AGM 00:08:26], self up to take part.

Alex:                 There you go. So this comes from the German perspective, which is not a creepy thing to say. And we see John [crosstalk 00:08:33]-

Pete:                It’s a creepy thing to say.

Alex:                 Stop it. John Locke is attacking them. Just again as with the first issue, a bunch of classic Gabriel Rodriguez pages in here, this page with… and this is getting into spoilers, but there’s a page where he uses the crown of shadows to attack that is just terrifying in exactly the right way. The twist at the end, which I won’t spoil, it’s so smart, so well done and clearly points to not just where they’re going with this series, but also with Helen Gun, which is the Sandman Crossover. So I love seeing that path there. Pete, what do you think about this one?

Pete:                It’s really fantastic. I mean, the art is unbelievable. It’s crazy storytelling. I mean, the fact that I’m caring about these fucked up soldiers is way back to the days. It’s really impressive to the art and the storytelling. But this is really interesting what happens at the end and how it makes sense to why we are seeing this in such a cool way. I’m very impressed with this comic. It’s just so excited when there’s a new Locke and Key comic, because you’re like, “What the fuck is going to happen? How scared or freaked out am I going to get?” And it constantly delivers.

Justin:              And the fact that they were able to just tell a legit war story, I mean, this is a straight up war comic. There’s not a lot of Locke and Key bells and whistles to it. We get a little bit of that, but it really is just a war story being told from the Locke and Key perspective, and obviously the German perspective, which I think we all find totally normal. And it’s just a really good issue and the way they do find another, especially the art finds another angle on horror, war horror is so smart.

Pete:                And it’s interesting that, it seems like in this issue, we got to shout out to the TV show with that fire key that I don’t think was from the book. I think it was from the TV show, right?

Alex:                 Yeah. The matchstick key. I can’t remember honestly the continuity there. I think it was something they came up with, but didn’t use, that they ended up using on the TV show first, versus in the comic book itself. I could be wrong about that. But yeah, that is interesting to see. And it’s great, it’s just good stuff. Always-

Justin:              It’s great stuff.

Alex:                 … an incredible issue out of the gate every single time. Next up, one I’m very excited to talk about, Amazing Spider-Man number 858 AK number 49, from Marvel written by Nick Spencer, Kurt Busiek, Tradd Moore and Saladin Ahmed, art by Ryan Ottley, Humberto Ramos and Mark Bagley, Chris

Justin:              Bachalo, Tradd Moore and Aaron Kuder. So this is a conclusion of the Sin Eaters storyline, The Return of the Green Goblin and also a couple of backups stories. Justin, I’m curious to hear from you. You seem to really like the Sin Eater storyline in particular, but what’s your take on the ending here?

Justin:              It got a little muddled with the Green Goblin stuff. I thought the first couple issues of the Sin Eater Arc I thought were so good, so smart, felt very timely and responding to the world. It was such a total change from Nick Spencer jokey Spider-Man into this like very serious Sin Eater storyline. So it felt like a hard right turn into Peter Parker dealing with the Green Goblin stuff and so much more historical and it felt far less present to the modern world. And weird the way that he becomes like a juggernaut but with no… like a [crosstalk 00:12:24], hair.

Alex:                 Could you talk about that for a second? So the-

Justin:              Just a raged out, no neck dude.

Alex:                 Well, the weird thing is, so the Sin Eater, when he shoots people, now he gains their powers, right? So he shoots the juggernaut and then I liked generally speaking, just the voice of anything, the design of this, because he gets this juggernaut-

Justin:              Sorry to hear you [crosstalk 00:12:45]-

Alex:                 … Vini head, which is pretty gross. But the juggernaut doesn’t have a head like that. He has a normal head and he just wears a helmet. So what was going on there?

Justin:              I like the idea that maybe juggernaut just smooshed a little bit into his old-

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              The clothes fit the man.

Pete:                I think that how he starts to… your body forms to the helmet after a little while, and then it’s like, you take a turtle and it looks like you still are wearing it a little bit. And I think that’s what happened here.

Justin:              Pete, at this point, your feet have taken on the shape of your punisher’s slippers, right?

Pete:                Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah.

Alex:                 I did like the Green Goblin’s stuff in this issue. I think Nick Spencer did a good job of driving up the, and I’m using this word appropriately here, creepiness of the character.

Justin:              Especially once all the other spider family characters were there, I was like, “Woof.”

Alex:                 Oh yeah. That whole Gwen stuff was crazy.

Justin:              Gross [crosstalk 00:13:40].

Alex:                 The exact right way though. The way that Norman Osborn is gross that I don’t think we’ve seen him this way in a very long time, but it’s weird. I’m curious to see what happens to the next issue, because it seems like we’re finally getting into all of the kindred stuff, which is this villain that he’s been building up over the course of all the issues.

Justin:              But I got to say the fact that the reveal wasn’t an issue. I was like, “Come on, man.”

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              It really felt like now is the time to do it and it feels like we’ve missed our shot to finally get the reveal.

Alex:                 Particularly the way the end… sorry, Pete. I was just going to add that particularly the way the ending is paced and obviously the spoiler for the ending, but in the mix, everything that’s happening with Spider-Man, with the Green Goblin, with everybody, with Kindred walking towards this grave and walking up. And it definitely felt like this is the point where we see kindred walking, looking at a grave and now we know who Kindred is, and instead we still have no idea. What were you going to say, Pete?

Pete:                Oh, I was just going to say, yeah, there’s nothing like the old, “Hanging out next to a grave. You don’t know who I am, moment,” that everybody loves. Yeah, it’s a little frustrated. We don’t have more information, especially after all we’ve been through, but I also really liked the backup stories. I’m a sucker for Chris Bachalo’s art and also-

Justin:              [inaudible 00:15:06], wars are also very good.

Pete:                Yeah. The Ford shoes store with that art is so glorious and fantastic.

Alex:                 Pete, Doug Wizard. Do you love a good Doug Wizard?

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, come on, dogs and wizards together. What’s not to love?

Alex:                 No way. Could I throw out at you before we talk too much about the backup stories? Theories about the identity of kindred. Pete?

Pete:                I’m trying to think of… What was the care bear with the little cloud on it? That’s who I think it is.

Alex:                 Okay, great. Great. Justin, do you have any theories?

Justin:              I mean, what are the third rails we’re going to touch here? It’s been built up so much, it has to be a big character. Is it the dude who killed uncle Ben?

Alex:                 Hmm. I guess I can do that. I’ll throw out one. This is not my theory. I read this today. What?

Pete:                I think it’s Doc Cock.

Alex:                 Doc Cock? Joe Chill. It’s Joe Chill. I love this theory. I read this, I think it was on Nerdist or something today. They had a bunch of theories of who [crosstalk 00:16:22].

Justin:              I’ve heard of that.

Alex:                 The theory was, Pete, you are going to 100%, absolutely hate this theory, but I’m so excited about it. The theory is, it’s Peter Parker, but it’s Peter Parker from the pre one more day continuity because they fucked up the Mafesto curse by Maryy Jane and Peter Parker getting back together. So it split up the reality, and so Peter Parker who made that deal is now kindred tried to get it back.

Pete:                Wow.

Justin:              If we can finally undo that bullshit-

Pete:                That would be glorious.

Justin:              That feels so arch and unnecessary.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:17:09]. But I love the idea. I love the idea of it being Peter Parker, baby. I think that would be interesting.

Pete:                Or Peter Porker.

Justin:              Ooh, interesting. But here’s the thing. So much of Kindred is like, “I was buried. I was under the ground.” It has to feel like it has to be a dead character come back to life.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 And it sounds graves.

Justin:              Maybe it’s their marriage. It’s like-

Alex:                 Yeah, there you go. The physical representation. As we all know, marriage is covered in giant centipedes.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to another title. Transformer is back to the future, number one from IDW, written by Ken and Scott, art by Juan Semeru. So this is exactly what you’d expect from the title. This is the Transformers, muck it up the back to the future continuity. And I’ll get into a huge spoiler here, but I was getting very worried that they wouldn’t do the thing that they do on the last page for most of the issue, but when they did, I was like, “Ah, thank you.”

Pete:                Yeah, glorious. Glorious last page reveal. This was fun. This was cool. I liked how they took the things that we know. We got different perspectives, a little POV and the mall scene. I thought that was really fun, and great use of clashing these two worlds together in a way that made sense.

Justin:              Yeah. I think this makes perfect sense. No one would ever be like, “This is an unnatural blending of two different properties.”

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing [crosstalk 00:18:45]-

Alex:                 Oh, go ahead.

Justin:              No, as they say in the famous line, “One point 21 megatrons.”

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 I do [crosstalk 00:18:54], think we’re doing a good job here. I think when they finally get to it, to spoil a little bit of the book, but they do a back to the future too, with the transformers weaving their way through back to the future continuity saying, “Ooh, we could use some time travel to really take down the autobots,” and then of course, they finally do. We get the classic view of Hill Valley Square, except transformers have taken over the entire world. Beef Tatton, of course, is working for them. And Marty has tried to get away. It’s just silly fun stuff. I had a much better time once they finally got to it, in the second half of the issue versus the first half of the issue-

Pete:                Don’t fucking do that. Don’t break it up [crosstalk 00:19:35].

Alex:                 But I do.

Justin:              It definitely felt like mashing up your toys when you’re a kid in a fun way.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 I agree. Next up, American Vampire 1976 number one, from DC Comics written by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque. And we talked to Scott Snyder about this when he was at our live show a couple of weeks ago. So definitely go and listen to that podcast. But this is, as you could imagine for the title continuing and finishing the saga of American Vampire now in the ’70s, there’s disco, there’s big Afros, everything that you’d expect going out on the title. This is also, I will say as much as I love this, and as much as I love Rafael Albuquerque’s art in particular, this is definitely a deep dive into my subconscious to be like, “Who’s that character from American Vampire?” I haven’t read this in a while. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, personally.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, speaking of the Albuquerque’s art. I mean, it’s just so nice to be back in his warm embrace. I mean, this art is glorious. They’re having fun. The classic, killing vampires with disco. I mean, you don’t get tired of that, that’s just fun stuff. Yeah, I think this was a cool wrap up. There’s a lot of tie ins that I didn’t remember, like you were saying solves, but I still enjoyed them. And yeah, I think it’s a great saying that comes out of this book, “Fuck history, shred it and forget it.” You know what I mean?

Justin:              Yeah. And that’s how you failed social studies, right?

Pete:                Hard, failed hard.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I mean, seeing this altogether, the team back together that is, is so nice. Skinner is such an iconic character, even though he’s not really in American Vampire anymore. It’s just great to have this book back. There are so many great shots, the moment where Travis Kid is looking over his shoulder, it’s just such a good blend, Scott and Rafiel working together, you don’t get anywhere else. Yeah.

Alex:                 Yeah. It’s great. Yeah, they’re really getting it together. And so is our next book, Getting it Together, number one from [crosstalk 00:21:59].

Justin:              How did you come up with that? Wow.

Alex:                 I mean, it was just up here. It was just up here in my brain and it came out of my mouth co-created and written by Sina Grace and Omar Spahi, art by Jenny Define and Sina Grace. We of course had Sina Grace and Omar Spahi on our live show.

Justin:              Oh, when?

Alex:                 Just this very week.

Justin:              Oh, weird.

Alex:                 So go back to this [inaudible 00:22:20], interview, despite the unfortunate tech problems. But I really enjoyed this book. If you did miss our live show, it’s basically a more modern friend set in San Francisco. That’s a little sexier and a little more inclusive, both from a cultural and sexual standpoint. And I thought it was fun. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. What do you guys think about it?

Justin:              I agree [inaudible 00:22:46], a lot. I talked about this my comparison on the podcast of, Being a Bit Like Scott Pilgrim, a more modern and more, I guess, real, version of Scott Pilgrim where the characters are fun and interesting. They’re making jokes and they’re dealing with their mistakes in their lives. And I liked it a lot.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, unlike Friends, this is a little bit more, less shiny and more real, they get into things. So it’s enjoyable. It’s nice to just see a great image comic that focuses on relationships and the ebbs and flows of life and how we’d put up with each other’s shit or don’t and yeah, I think it’s really well done. You got some interesting characters, some really fun, cool moments. Yeah, it’s a solid book.

Justin:              And who’s your favorite friend? Real quick.

Pete:                Oh, yeah.

Alex:                 Good question.

Pete:                Favorite friend on the TV show [crosstalk 00:23:49]-

Alex:                 Go with Joey on this.

Pete:                I’m going to say Alex.

Alex:                 Gunther?

Pete:                Nice.

Alex:                 Wow.

Justin:              Again, makes sense. You’re the Gunther of this podcast. I got to say Pete was right. It’s Joey. Joey is the best friend. [crosstalk 00:24:00]. Also, the seasons, he’s the only one that isn’t deeply unlikable by the end.

Pete:                Well, I do like the Power of a Good Hug here. It’s a nice thing that’s in this book here, and [crosstalk 00:24:15]-

Alex:                 I mean, I just want to follow up though what Justin said, that’s why Joey was the perfect spinoff and works so well.

Justin:              Yes. I can’t believe it’s still going strong, 15 seasons later.

Alex:                 Incredible. Just a quick shout out before we move on. Jenny Define’s art is great. In particular character designs are very good in this book. They’re very unique, they’re very different. They seem more realistic than your typical character designs and I think she does a good job here.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to our 10 of Swords Block. Three books came out today. We are going to talk about them as a little bit of a block, because this is an interesting event. And Justin, you haven’t really been here to talk about this too much yet.

Pete:                Wait-

Alex:                 Yes, Pete, what’s up?

Pete:                Wait, I just wanted to point out, it’s important that you read these in order. I fucked up the order [crosstalk 00:25:00].

Justin:              Like a lot of things, it’s important you do them in the correct order, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, putting-

Pete:                No, you can have breakfast any time, mother fucker. Don’t pull that shit.

Justin:              Okay.

Alex:                 Matter of life, death?

Justin:              That birth, life, death.

Alex:                 Yeah. Man, I’m very excited to hear what order you read these in. But just to read off all three titles right now. Wolverine number six written by Benjamin Percy and art by Viktor Bogdanovic. X-Force number three, also written by Benjamin Percy and art by Viktor Bogdanovic. Marauders, number 13 written by Vita Ayala and art by Matteo Lolli. So as you can probably tell here, the first two issues are basically one story. They’re showing how Wolverine gets his sword. He’s going after the Muramasa blade, which of course is the only thing that can kill him, as we learned from that very weird storyline, where he comes back from hell all the time. But that’s sword he needs to go and battle for other worlds. And then Marauders 13 is a little more of a one-shot as it’s showing how Storm gets her sword from Wakanda, which of course is a very personal mission for her. What do you think about the storyline so far? How’d you feel about these issues in particular? And Pete, what order did you read the bid?

Pete:                Well, I’m just noticing now there’s the part three of 22, part [crosstalk 00:26:20]. If I would have taken the time, I could have paid attention and then not read it, but I read it.

Justin:              You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can read the cover to know what you’re doing.

Pete:                Yeah. I read part five first. I did the Marauders and then I did Wolverine and then I did Acts of Swords.

Justin:              So that’s all right. [crosstalk 00:26:44]-

Alex:                 Not as bad as it could have been. You could have read Marauders in the middle or X-Force first and then Wolverine.

Justin:              The Last page of Marauders gives it away a little bit for Wolverine and then you [crosstalk 00:26:56].

Justin:              Yes. Wolverine, it does get it together. See, I read the fifth panel on the sixth page of Marauders and I jumped over to X-Force and read the seventh panel on. [crosstalk 00:27:05]. Yeah, I know.

Alex:                 Now, wait. Do you want to hear from Pete because you’ve been pretty dead on the exponent general and down on that storyline for the first two parts? Well, I think pretty positive about everything so far. I’ve been really enjoying this storyline. But you like these issues, right, Pete?

Pete:                Yeah. So yeah, I guess what you wanted to talk about how you’re a more positive person than me and you can see the sunshine.

Alex:                 Yeah, I’m like ray of sunshine and you’re not.

Pete:                Yeah. I got a clouded like a ping pang thing going on. So yeah, what I like about this is, it’s not 80 different fucking things happening at once. It’s not fuck Island and you can’t kill anybody anymore and golden eggs of humans, as well as the fact that you’re no longer a part of everything. You give humans drugs on the side. It’s just dealing with this 10 of Swords, like, “Okay, there’s a showdown coming up, you’ve got to go get your weapon of choice and go get in your spot so that when it’s go time, you’re ready to go.” So it’s like, “Great, this is what I want. I don’t want this.” There’s so much shit happening in X-Men right now we can just deal with this side story. And I was so happy, we just got three stories that make sense, that kind of like, okay, it’s each person’s journey to get to their place, so the raid to try to save the world.

Justin:              It’s like a prequel to the Choose Your Fighter screen on Street Fighter II.

Pete:                Exactly. You’re choosing what weapon and why. [crosstalk 00:28:49]. Yeah, I love it.

Alex:                 I liked that you refer to this Wolverine story as nice and simple and straightforward where it’s just classic Wolverine goes to Japan, goes down to hell, burns all of the flash off of his skeleton, meets a guy from other worlds who killed people who were the children of apocalypse. And has come back to getr an immortal blade that contains a person’s soul that is also wanted by the beast who runs the hand, who wants to give them as wedding gifts, except the beast also hates Wolverine and Muramasa, so wants to eat their souls. Just classic which is very simple [crosstalk 00:29:31].

Pete:                Yeah, give me straightforward story that I can fucking follow, man.

Alex:                 Totally. All you need to do is read every expert book and every Daredevil book, and you got it.

Pete:                But if you don’t know that Wolverine, when he dies, goes to hell and have to be reborn every time. I like the fact that they were picking up on that and playing with it a little bit here and… yeah, it sounds insane, but with Hickman’s, all the stuff that he’s changed, it’s nice to just have a simple and say [crosstalk 00:30:02]-

Alex:                 Go back to basics. Yeah.

Justin:              Let me ask you, how many of the text pages did you read?

Pete:                None.

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                Not a fucking one.

Justin:              I actually liked a lot of the text pages, especially in the Marauders book, which feels like a good way for them to keep the more fantastical aspects of the Hickman, X-Men world in these books. These much more straightforward titles where we are just assembling the Circle of Swords characters back on Krakola. And yeah, it’s like these are two shot in a one shot where fun stuff happens.

Alex:                 I enjoyed these. I had fun. I still like this crossover. My only little qualms-

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 … with the Wolverine one-

Justin:              Of course, I like something you fucking [crosstalk 00:30:55].

Alex:                 No. I mean, here’s the thing. Is that, I don’t like the Wolverine Goes to Hell thing at all. I do not like that as a part of Wolverine mythology.

Justin:              I don’t like that he can be-

Pete:                I also don’t like that Spider-Man made a deal with the fucking devil. [crosstalk 00:31:09]-

Alex:                 Hold on. Wait, Justin, are you to call out the skeleton thing?

Justin:              Yes. I don’t like that either.

Alex:                 What is that?

Justin:              He can’t just go back to skeleton and grow back. He’s not Lobo, another Wolverine.

Pete:                You don’t know, that’s not true.

Alex:                 Yeah. That bothers me as well. I think Benjamin Percy, a great writer, the art is great.

Justin:              I’m sorry about this [crosstalk 00:31:27]-

Alex:                 I love having this new, a [oracco 00:31:32], opposite to Wolverine. This person, new has adamantium skin or armor or whatever is going on there.

Justin:              Let’s just say it’s a microfiber.

Alex:                 It’s a great Wolverine villa. It’s just a really good setup there. But those little things are just like, “Oh, this is so annoying to be,” but I pushed past them. Anyway, the Storm story I thought was very good. It’s such a very smart thing to have her be like, “Goddammit, I got to go back to Wakanda with my ex-husband and ask for a sword somehow.” Vita Ayala puts great history of Storm in there. The art is excellent to the change of [inaudible 00:32:07], styles are great. I thought this was a very, very good issue in particular. So overall I’m a big fan of this storyline so far.

Pete:                Yeah, me too. Yeah, and-

Alex:                 Moving on… Oh, go ahead, Pete.

Pete:                It was really cool to find out about the sword and the way they gave us the story. And yeah, and it was also tough because we’re in Wakanda, rest in peace, Chadwick, Bozeman. There was that still, the amazing tribute thing. And then he didn’t show up till later was cool and well placed and just caught her red-handed in the worst possible moment. But the conversation they had was great, and then the ending of the book with the other two waiting there was really fantastic, really setting things up and again it’s excited for this 10 Swords event. I’m very excited for this and I hope this event can propel the X-Men into a place that is, I don’t know, a little cleaner and less insane.

Alex:                 I 100% guarantee you they’re going to celebrate winning the 10 of Swords challenge with a big old fuck party at both ends.

Justin:              Yes. And oracco fuck party is wow.

Alex:                 That’s fucked up.

Justin:              I just hope they’re not bringing 10 knives to 10 different gunfights.

Alex:                 Oh man. That’d be bad. Son of a Hedgehog Bad Guy is number one from ITW story by Ian Flynn and art by Jack Lawrence. This is well outside of my wheelhouse.

Justin:              What do you mean Alex?

Alex:                 What I mean is Son of the Hedgehog is one of those characters, I was like, “What is he doing? He’s running fast and spitting rings out of his body. This is dumb, and I hate this game. I’m not going to play.”

Justin:              You don’t like… because were an Nintendo person?

Alex:                 Yeah, I was a Nintendo guy.

Justin:              See, I was Nintendo too, and I feel the same way, because I was like, “He’s just so fast.” Mario is not fast. He jumps, that’s his whole thing.

Pete:                First off, I was a Nintendo guy as well, but Sonic was fun. It was crazy, but it was a fun game. You all are [crosstalk 00:34:18]-

Justin:              Alex and I are like Sonic, too fast, slow down. [crosstalk 00:34:22]. Why are you obsessed with rings? Be happy with the simple life, be happy with the simple life Sonic. [inaudible 00:34:29], all these golden rings,

Pete:                All that aside, I felt like this was a very clean, fun idea of like, “All right, let’s set up some villains. Let’s set things up in a way that makes sense and moves things forward.” And I thought it was cool to see this team come together.

Alex:                 Yeah. Ian Flynn knows what he’s doing with these licensed properties. And like you said, taking a bunch of bad guys, even if I don’t know a lot about them, he writes them well, he delineates them. Jack Lawrence’s art is cartoony in front of the right way.

Pete:                Perfectly, yeah.

Alex:                 I’m just getting fun, all ages title. Even if I don’t personally feel a connection with Son of the Hedgehog.

Justin:              Now, Pete, how do you like this hedgehog when he’s basically the flash with spikes?

Pete:                No, he’s nothing like that. There’s no bullshit speed force or a fucking one of the treadmills-

Alex:                 The screen force is like a bunch of rings that he spits out when he’s hit. It’s the same thing.

Pete:                No, it’s not true.

Alex:                 Same concept.

Pete:                No.

Alex:                 Okay.

Pete:                Yeah. I have no problem with Sonic, unlike you guys. I think this is a fun book, really well drawn. It’s cool.

Alex:                 We don’t have a problem with it. It’s a problem with you, Pete.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 We Only Find Them When They’re Dead. Number two from Boom! Studios, written by Al Ewing and illustrated by Simone Di Meo. This is continuing the story of a bunch of salvagers who fly around the universe, carving meat off of gods. They want to find a live god, they only find dead gods. I got to say that carving meat thing is probably my favorite part of the book right now, just in terms of how weird and gross it is. How are you guys feeling about it, two issues in?

Pete:                Well, I’m definitely going to change my will. And I want people to carve meat out of me and eat it.

Justin:              Oh yeah. I can’t wait for a filly Pete steak.

Pete:                It’s going to be fun.

Justin:              Suck it up at Pete steak.

Pete:                Oh boy.

Justin:              Suck it up on Pete Steak.

Pete:                Yeah. The art is fantastic in this book, it’s very interesting as we piece together what’s going on and this world where they live off dead gods. Yeah, this is very interesting different fun, space book, cool characters, good relationships. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes, but I’m on board. I think this is a fun book.

Justin:              Pete, when we do eventually eat you because you asked in your will, would you mind if I use regular cheese instead of cheez whiz?

Pete:                No. You got use whiz. Also, I’ll have a specific condiment, like the old country suite, [inaudible 00:37:20], dipping sauce, you know what I mean?

Justin:              And that’ll be made from your hair or something?

Pete:                No, from the country [crosstalk 00:37:28]-

Alex:                 No, of course, you’re going to be a French dip. You got the [foreign language 00:37:30]

Pete:                Oh, yeah.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Nothing like the good old you.

Justin:              This reminds me, I’ve been watching the show, Raised by Wolves. [crosstalk 00:37:41]-

Pete:                God, how many times are you going to talk about [crosstalk 00:37:44]? What the fuck?

Alex:                 No, keep bringing it up, I want to talk about it every time. Let’s do it.

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:37:46]. I haven’t quite finished it yet. Very excited. Two episodes left. This reminded me of that in a good way, a nice-

Pete:                Save it for a weekend geek, you asshole.

Justin:              Okay. But anyway, this is very similar. Totally, I think.

Alex:                 Yeah, this is good stuff. This is just a big, hard Sci-Fi and I’m very impressed with this new world here. It’s sometimes difficult to get through exactly what’s happening, but I’m always intrigued to find out what’s next.

Alex:                 Talking about another hard Sci-Fi book, Far Sector, number eight from DC comics written by new MacArthur, genius grant recipients, N.K. Jemisin, art and color by Jamal Campbell. Yeah, take that other DC comics writers. This is tying up the storyline, but opening up some new mysteries. We have Green Lantern on this planet. She is fighting some digital beings. Finally, shuts them down, but as mentioned, it opens up new histories here. Every issue is just very good. How do you guys feel about this one?

Pete:                Yeah. I mean the art is amaze balls. Every issue is very impressive. I love the aliens reference, little George Carlin quote. I mean this book continues to impress. The main character is fantastic. You root for the whole time. This is a fun mystery, who done it thing, that’s slowly unraveling. I just constantly impressed with how different this is from Green Lantern books and how much more I like it than Green Lantern books.

Justin:              Yeah. I think, in this issue, it occurred to me just the sense of place and characters is so unique in this book. You really feel like this city is difficult for the characters to understand or the main character to understand. That’s as much of a part of the mystery as anything else. And I think it’s very rare for a comic book to give that off.

Alex:                 Yeah. Particularly when you have a Green Lantern comic book where they’re usually flitting from planet to planet or going to [OA 00:39:54], and they’re going somewhere else and then back to OA and then over to earth, that we’re sitting here and living in this place is I think very smart and very good. This is a don’t miss book every month.

Alex:                 Next up, this is what I know you were excited about Justin, Adventure Man, number four from Image Comics. Script by Matt Fraction, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson. In this issue, we’re having our new adventure man, is dealing with the fact that she is much larger than she was previously.

Justin:              And denser.

Alex:                 And denser.

Pete:                Denser.

Alex:                 And we find out a lot more about the history of what went on with the previous Adventure Man. How’d you feel about this one?

Justin:              I like this book a lot. Obviously, the art by the Dodsons is fantastic. And the way the story really takes its time, I said this on the main podcast as well, it really takes its time-

Alex:                 You sure did.

Justin:              … and we get to really explore the powers and origin of the character that so many books have to blow pass in one issue. And with this series, we get to really be like, to her discovering her powers. It reminds me of the first couple of Spider-Man movies and really like languishing in the origin and enjoying it, which is something that I’ve missed in a lot of new comic books.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean, some people might just say, “Get to it already,” but I see what you say.

Justin:              I hear you on that. But with this, it feels like we get to see the characters really enjoying the world that they’re in and enjoying this. This is moment of discovery of-

Alex:                 Enjoying the journey.

Justin:              Yeah. And enjoying the beginning of the journey. As for this character, I think it’s cool.

Alex:                 I agree.

Pete:                The arts, fantastic. You’ve got some great action, some fun storytelling, great character development. This is a really pro comic that is just taking it’s time and being confident in the art and the storytelling.

Alex:                 Well, and it’s also, I don’t know if it’s going to pan out this way, but it’s a really good all ages comic book at the same time. This is something that you could read with kids and have no problem. It’s a little complex, but it’s fun stuff. It gets a little dark, but good book across the board. Next up, Backtrack, number seven from Oni Press written by Brian Joines, art by Jake Elphick. We had Brian Joines on the live show a couple of weeks back. [crosstalk 00:42:20]-

Justin:              Wait, did you did you say Backtrack or Backstack?

Alex:                 Backtrack.

Pete:                Okay, [inaudible 00:42:25].

Justin:              Backtstack.

Alex:                 So this is a car race through time. And in this issue, they find their [inaudible 00:42:30], cells not back in time, but forward in time, in the future, dealing with some big stuff here. I really like this issue a lot. This is a big mythology issue, building out exactly what’s been going out of the background while they were doing this race. And I enjoyed finally getting to that stuff, as well as this glimpse of this future timeline. How did you two feel about it?

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, this is just over the top fun, the art is unbelievable and it’s nice to see even in the future, you can just cocky robots, you just shoot them down. You know what I mean? Don’t let those robots talk shit to you. Just shoot them in the face until they fall down. It’s good stuff.

Justin:              Wow. Bad attitude when it comes to [inaudible 00:43:18]. You’re the kind of guy that would shoot up C-3PO in Empire Strikes Back.

Pete:                No, come on. Oh, well 3CPO, yeah. [crosstalk 00:43:26].

Alex:                 As will Smith said in the classic movie, I, Robot, “Oh, hell no.”

Justin:              Yeah. That’s what we were all thinking. Thanks for saying it, Alex.

Alex:                 Anytime.

Justin:              When we had Brian on the show, we talked a lot about how the racing, the balance between the racing and the other side of the story is really well handled. And even in this issue, where there’s so much about the mythology and just developing the world around these characters, we still have a lot of time for the energy of the race. And I think that the momentum behind the book is really part of that and I appreciate that.

Alex:                 Yeah, they do-

Justin:              The colors in this book are also really exciting.

Alex:                 Yeah, they do a great job of bouncing my story and action and it keep things grounded, even though it’s such a chronic crazy over the top idea.

Justin:              It makes me, just when I’m driving my kids to school in the morning, I just feel the same way. I’m just going crazy. Pulling to a stop at a red light and slowly, getting in traffic and then stopping again.

Alex:                 Oh, man. That’s really cool. You should try going through time. Next up, let’s talk about one of my favorite Marvel books that is rapidly going to the top of my stack, Black Widow, number two from Marvel, read by Kelly Thompson, art by Elena Casagrande. We’ve got a little hint of what’s been going on with Black Widow in the last issue as something happened to her. And now she’s being manipulated by Arcade. This issue Hawkeye, and with the soldier tracking her down. They find out she’s living a happy family life, but of course, Black Widow still got a Black Widow with some hero stuff. This is great. This is such a great twist on Black Widow. This is such a different story for her, and I’m very excited to see where this goes.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. Our expectations that we talked about at the first issue where it’s like, “Oh, it’s not the Black Widow book. Oh, she’s dealing with her past, she’s being taken advantage of. She’s going to kill people to get back on top,” and to find that new spin on it like this. And I love the perspective shift, switching to Hawkeye and Bucky, Winter Soldier, just like trying to figure this out. And I do hope they get to the Winter Soldier Black Widow over relationship that was such a great relationship back in the Edward Baker run, and was just untimely dispatched with at the end of that run. And I would love to see that become a thing again, despite the fact that she has no memory at all.

Pete:                What do you guys think? This is the kind of the question. Do they interfere here or do they literally let her live this happy life that she seemed so pleasant and content with?

Alex:                 Well, since she’s being manipulated by Arcade and the Kabbalah villains, I would say they probably should get her out, but they don’t know that part yet.

Pete:                They don’t. I just wanted to go on record here and say if you guys see me living a brainwashed life, please don’t hesitate to pull me out of that.

Alex:                 Oh, I thought you’re going to say let you stay in it.

Pete:                No.

Justin:              Do you think some of the younger henchmen that deal with Arcade are like, “What are you named after, dude?”

Pete:                Yeah, definitely.

Justin:              What is it? Core quarters? You put quarters in the machine?

Alex:                 Apple Arcade. Come on, that’s a thing. Everybody loves Apple Arcade. We are all subscribers.

Justin:              That’s 100% true.

Alex:                 Yeah. What’s your favorite game on Apple Arcade? Real quick. Don’t even look it up. Just mention one.

Justin:              Sorry. I’m just running through my favorite quippy shows. Let me just list those.

Alex:                 Exorsisters, number 10 from Image Comics written by Ian Boothby and art by Gisèle Lagacé. This is the culmination of illustration [crosstalk 00:47:18], of the firsthand issues. We talked about this series on and off. This is about two sisters, as you probably figured out from the title. One of them is real, one of them is not. And they’re battling forces of heaven and hell. Great climax in this issue. I thought just like a big, fun battle that didn’t lose the sense of humor that it has throughout. I enjoyed this title quite a bit. How do you guys feel?

Justin:              Yeah, I feel the same way. The art has the classic Betty and Veronica, Archie vibe to it, well dealing with these big demonic characters, heaven and hell coming together around these sisters, these not technically sisters, sisters. It’s very fun.

Alex:                 Yeah, it’s fun. Even in the middle of the fight, she’s like, “Do you want to tag in?” It’s just, they’re having a good time, even though there’s big stakes and things happening and I really liked the sister’s relationship. Yeah, I think this is really a fun book that makes an interesting turn at the end. But yeah, this is well done, well drawn. You can run those ones when you look at the cover, you’re like, “Oh, I get what this is.” And then you’re pleasantly rewarded for that.

Alex:                 Next up, Deceased, Dead Planet, number four from TC Comics written by Tom Taylor, art by Trevor Harrison. If you haven’t been following along, we’ve been loving this title. This takes place in a world ravaged by the anti-life equation. They have found out that cyborg holds maybe the cure to the virus that it has going around. So this issue they’re tracking down, Metron trying to get information from him to put it all together. Another great issue of this title. What’d you guys think about it?

Pete:                I mean, this comic is insane. This is so much fun. It’s nonstop action and fun moments between heroes, great kiss. Some bad-ass reveal at the end, last page. Tom Taylor is killing this book.

Justin:              Yeah, I really liked the way the Superman and Batman are done in this storyline. It’s one of the rare Elle swirled these storylines where I really think the heroes stand on their own. I could see these characters continuing on outside of this comic or just really living in this deceased world for a long time.

Alex:                 That’s great. I agree. Next up, Inkblot, number two from Image Comics written by Emma Kubert and art by Rusty Gladdest. Pete, you’re a big fan of this one.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 It’s a fantasy book with a tiny little black cat. This issue takes a very different bed. Introduces subdue characters, keeps the same cat. How do you feel about this?

Pete:                This is fun book. I don’t know what it is about this adorable cat, but-

Alex:                 Is some of the cat is very… I can’t stop looking at it.

Pete:                I don’t know if it’s the eyes or the cuteness or just the way it’s drawn.

Alex:                 It’s probably the eyes, because the eyes are the only distinguishing features.

Pete:                But I really love it. I know it’s ridiculous, but just seeing this guy who just says ‘Meow,” is just great and saves the day. Guys, just because dragons are big and scary doesn’t mean they have big and scary problems. Sometimes you just have a small problem kike your old rat stuck in the nose.

Alex:                 You worshiped the cat? The weight of the cat.

Pete:                Let’s weigh the cat guys.

Alex:                 You’re a cat guy though, Pete. That’s the thing. That’s a secret that nobody knows.

Pete:                Well, I was a dog person my whole life, but now I have a cat. And so it’s just me and Inkblot living the dream.

Alex:                 I like this issue. I just want to know what’s going on with this book, because as far as I can tell the second issue wasn’t really connected to the first issue, [crosstalk 00:51:24]-

Pete:                Yeah, one and done type of scenarios.

Alex:                 Yeah. But the first issue ended in a cliff hanger where they were going to continue the story. So I’d love to get back to that. No, that’d be cool. I think the art is very good. I like the world. There’s a glorious picture of a bunch of [ellis 00:51:42], standing in front of this, I don’t know if it’s a portal or what it is in these tree branches that is gorgeous. So I want to know more about this world, but I feel like we’re two issues in, and it’s not quite giving me enough information at this point.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Well, I don’t know what more you need. You got adorable cat who’s solving crimes and helping people out. I mean, what the fuck else you want, man?

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:52:08]. Getting that rat.

Pete:                Got to get that rat.

Justin:              Got to get that rat. That’s what I said to my coffee mug in the morning, I drink my cup of coffee and I’m like, “Ah, time to get that rat.” Champions, number one written by Eve L. Ewing, art by Simone Di Meo. This is picking up on the champions outlawed storyline that I think began 35 years ago. I’m not 100% sure, but the champions have been… they’re not allowed to be superheroes anymore. Kids aren’t allowed to be super heroes and being a little mean, but this is obviously a victim of the pandemic where things have gotten very, very delayed.

Justin:              Finally, we are picking up on this though. What do you think about this take on Marvel’s Young Heroes?

Pete:                I mean, it just sucks that they’re no longer allowed to be heroes and they’re trying to be… there’s sting operations to get them. I mean, it’s heartbreaking stuff, you know what I mean? They earn their stripes, they should be a part of the team.

Justin:              Exactly. If I were in living in this world, I would want to [crosstalk 00:53:14]-

Pete:                You are living in this world.

Justin:              … 11, 12 year olds running around, shooting stuff through lasers.

Alex:                 Yeah, being in charge of things, making big time decisions. I love it.

Justin:              Once the team comes together and this book starts moving, I like this a lot. I’m the Van [Astervicks 00:53:32], formerly Marvel boy, former new warrior. The fact that he’s the bad guy here, now he’s called Justice. I don’t know if he’s just this way now. That was interesting. And I guess, I’m not super familiar with the dynamics of this team. I like the way the reveal at the end, and I’m curious how, if this book does have that same vibe of the new warriors that I liked back in the ’90s.

Alex:                 Yeah. It’s not quite there yet. It feels like the middle of whatever happened previously, whatever’s coming next, but once it comes together, I am interested to read it as well.

Alex:                 Last but not least, Decorum, number five written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Mike Huddleston. This might be my favorite issue of Decorum, so far personally.

Justin:              100%. I like how we always save this book for last.

Alex:                 All right, so at this book, who knows what really is going on? But in this issue, we are following our former courier character was now training at a school for assassins. And we follow her as she trains at that school over the course of many, many years. Man, this issue was great. Just a ton of fun, perfectly relayed out by Mike Huddleston phenomenal. Like I do, it’s taken us a while to get here, but just a joy to read from beginning to end.

Justin:              Yeah. I agree. I think Hickman, especially on his non big to work really pops when there’s a very clear format to the story so that he can live in that format and tell the wildest stories he can think of. I like to imagine that right after Krakola finishes, making love to a neighboring Island, Krakola falls asleep and dreams the comic book, Decorum.

Alex:                 Wow.

Justin:              Hmm, wow.

Alex:                 There’s some-

Justin:              Delilah will be here all night, listening to your heartbreaking story.

Pete:                There’s some amazing art, some amazing coloring and shading in this book. Really beautiful stuff, but it’s also repetitive and it’s also like you’re getting these symbols, the graphics, the [crosstalk 00:55:56]-

Justin:              There’s some amazing shading. There’s some amazing shading right there for people to pick.

Pete:                I get it, man. You like symbols now, and now every book has to have these little pages, in between pages that don’t have much, but have a little bit whatever-

Justin:              Dude, dude, dude, it is not now. He’s been doing that same shit for years.

Alex:                 Yes.

Pete:                Okay, cool. I guess I’m just catching on to it, but I don’t know. I guess if you like it and it’s in every book, you get used to it or grow to expect it. But I think the art is glorious, especially with… even though it’s repetitive of the same shit, the kind of goriness of it is fantastic. And then you get the, okay, she finally steps up and what that means and the aftermath. So interesting, cool storytelling, but really took its time and art’s great.

Alex:                 Alright, there you go. No better place to wrap up than that. If you would like to support this podcast, patrion.com/comic book club, also do a live show every Tuesday night at-

Justin:              We sure do.

Alex:                 … 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Please come check that out. Hang out, tell Pete he’s wrong about Decorum or whatever you want. I mean, and whenever you want to talk about this, it’s absolutely fine. I choose Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show @comicbooklive on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast, and many more. Until next time, we’ll see you at the virtual comic bookshop.

Justin:              Dreams, sweet dreams. You beautiful little islands. (singing).

The post The Stack: Batman, Locke & Key And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub

On this week’s Stack podcast: The Department of Truth #1, Shang-Chi #1, That Texas Blood #4, Batman: Three Jokers #2, Chu #3, X-Factor #2, Nailbiter Returns #5, WW84 #1, Sea of Stars #7, Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #2, Ascender #13, Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey #3, Rogue Planet #5, The Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1 and X-Ray Robot #2.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Pete:                I’m Pete. And-

Alex:                 And I’m… What? What?

Pete:                Real quick.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                You still have the two owls fucking up behind you. They’re still fucking each other behind you, in between shows, you could have taken one down or separated them.

Alex:                 Listen Pete, you do not know that the same people who watch our live show are also listening to our Stack podcasts. Don’t assume that there’s a continuity there. Just to explain to everybody just listening to this podcast.

Pete:                I am listening.

Alex:                 There are two owls who may or may not be fucking behind me. It’s unclear, and nobody knows. All right?

Pete:                Okay.

Alex:                 But I will say one of them has a very deep hole and the other one does not.

Pete:                Stop saying that. Please stop.

Alex:                 It’s a puppet. It’s a puppet. So you can put your hand in it. That’s what I’m saying. He’ll wear you like a puppet, Pete. Let’s talk about The Stack. There’s a bunch of books that came out.

Pete:                So many books.

Alex:                 So many books for us to chat about, and some big books as well. Kicking it off with The Department of Truth. Number one, print image comic…

Pete:                Oh, you want to start with your favorite?

Alex:                 I want to start with my favorite. There’s also a ton of hype on this book, so I’m excited to chat about it. Written by James Tynion IV, art by Martin Simmonds. James Tynion IV, as we talked about a lot on all of our podcasts, has been on a roll lately. And in particular, I think like… This is not an insult, but Wind, maybe a little less so, even though I really enjoy that book, but there’s something about-

Pete:                Wow. Fuck you. Don’t.

Alex:                 Something is Killing the Children came out and there was an insane amount of hype on it, and then it delivered. The Department of Truth seems sort of to think like such a clear title, you know what this book is on going in, and then it completely delivers in the first issue. I’m almost reticent to spoil it because it is one of those books, in my mind, it feels like a Brian Kay von book, where you read it and you’re like, “Yes. Okay. This last page, this got me.”

Pete:                Oh my God. The last page though.

Alex:                 Yes.

Pete:                But that’s the thing, you said you read it and you know what’s going on, I did not. It took me a while to kind of piece it all together, but man, by that last page you are hyped.

Alex:                 Yes.

Pete:                You are so hyped and ready for the next issue. It’s unbelievable. But the art is are really cool. It really fits the tone of what they’re trying to do in such a great way.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                And man, is the book good.

Alex:                 I know we’re bouncing around and not actually mentioning the plot here, and part of it is by design.

Pete:                That’s how I like to talk.

Alex:                 Well, I don’t want to tell the people what the plot are, because I read the book, not actually knowing what it was, then read, went to Image Comics’ website and looked at their blurb, it gives away too much. I didn’t want to know any of that stuff going in.

Alex:                 So, go in totally clean, know that it is a thing. You could probably tell us from the title, but it’s a thing about kind of conspiracy theories and the government. I think that’s all you need to know.

Pete:                Don’t spoil it. You fucking ass.

Alex:                 That’s all I’m going to say. The art, the writing, everything, it feels to me, it feels like a vintage vertigo book. Like a book that like would come out at the same time as Sandman and everything else where you’d be like, “Oh shit, this is going to change the industry.”

Alex:                 And now it’s another in a line of amazing books from Image Comics, but it is great. And to your point, Martin Simmonds art, it feels a little… Ah, who’s the guy who did 30 days of Night? Is it Ben Templesmith?

Pete:                Yes.

Alex:                 It feels a little like Ben Templesmith on the art, but it’s different enough. James Tynion is on a fire here, and it is a book that feels insanely current, like insanely current.

Pete:                It’s really well done. It’s just so good. I wonder if the people at Image are just high fiving themselves like, “We’re fucking killing it right now. You can’t touch us.”

Alex:                 Well, the thing that is, I think, so great about this book, and again, this is not spoilers, this is just kind of skirting what it’s about, is that it is about our current moment in time and our current political moment in time, but it’s fun to read at the same time. It’s still scary at points. It’s fun at points. There’s good action. There’s good adventure. There’s good weirdness. Great, great book. Do not miss this one.

Pete:                Really great book.

Alex:                 Don’t miss it.

Alex:                 Next up, another book that I’m going to say don’t mix, Shang-Chi, number one from Marvel, written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Dike Ruan. This is another one that I wasn’t sure about going in, but as usual, Gene Luen Yang killed it.

Alex:                 We get Shang-Chi, turns out he’s part of a dynasty of five weapons. It’s very similar on the surface to what happened with Iron Fist, where there were those seven immortal cities, but it goes in a very different direction by the ed. Super fun. Great last page. I’m 100% on board with the character, and it’s a very different take on Shang-Chi.

Alex:                 It’s clearly calculated to have something that has a trade or multiple trades on the shelves by the time the movie hits, but you will not regret picking up this comic book.

Pete:                I’m so happy with the team behind this book. So happy for this new relaunch of Shang-Chi. One of my favorite characters as a kid, also get a little Fin Fang Foom, which I was totally pumped to see. This is a great book, great art, fun storytelling, and it picks up and you think like, “Okay.” But then you’re like… It just does such a great job of unveiling the story in such a way that kind of is a little different than what we’re used to, but still has all the action and stuff that you want.

Pete:                I’m very impressed with this book. I’m very excited to see how this is going to move forward. And also this was the first Marvel book that I read with the Brian Starfreeze-

Alex:                 Stelfreeze?

Pete:                Stelfreeze, sorry. Stelfreeze tribute to Chadwick Bozeman, and it’s very fucking moving and an amazing art and so powerful. And I’m so happy that Marvel is doing this.

Alex:                 Man, they really went all out for that. I mean, just to talk about that for a moment. A lot of last weeks books had the Chadwick Bozeman tribute [crosstalk 00:06:51] rest in power branding on it. But this week, there’s a whole testimonial from Ta-Nehisi Coates. There was the art, as you mentioned. And yeah, it’s really powerful stuff.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s really moving.

Alex:                 But yeah, that’s all said about Shang-Chi. One of the things that I love about it is Yang does such a great job of sneaking humor in out of nowhere. The rhythm of his humor, it almost sneaks in from the side in a certain way where it’s in the middle of an action sequence and suddenly there’s a joke.

Alex:                 It completely throws me in the right way where I’m like, “Wait, wait, hold up, this was a serious scene, what’s going on? That’s funny, that thing that you’re doing.” It just makes it really fun to read, even as he’s setting up these good characters, this good mythology.

Alex:                 Getting back to the Iron Fist thing, it almost feels like a rejoinder to Iron Fist, which is very good, mind you, but to the whole conversation surrounding Iron Fist, the TV show, where people are like, “Dude, cast an Asian person, person of Asian descent as Iron Fist, or just do Shang-Chi. What are you doing?”

Alex:                 And this comic series is very specifically to be like, “Here you go.”

Pete:                Thank you. Yes, please.

Alex:                 Great stuff. Can’t wait to read the second issue of that. Let’s move on to one of our favorites here on the show, that Texas blood number four Image Comics, by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips. We had Chris Condon on the live show a couple of weeks ago, and that was super fun to talk to him about this book.

Alex:                 This issue, we’re continuing the storyline of this brother who’s come back to Texas. He’s discovered some bad doings around his brother who was killed. This is very much a middle of the arc issue, but there’s still such good character stuff here. And there’s such a good emotionally based character twist that happens as well. Every issue of this is great. I’m really enjoying it.

Pete:                Yeah. The storytelling, the pacing, the art, it’s really, really well done. It’s very interesting. They do a great job issue to issue, giving you more information on this bigger thing in such a cool way that you’re just you’re in and you want more and more and more. They’re killing it on this book. Just the paneling, it’s just really impressive package.

Alex:                 Yeah. There’s a great scene in here with our sheriff character, who we haven’t seen a lot of since the first issue. Where he’s sitting down with his wife and his wife is talking to him and his… If you haven’t been reading the book, he has this verbal tick where he just says, “Well.” And that’s pretty much it all the time.

Alex:                 The way that the lettering plays out in particular, it reads so well as a scene where she’s just-

Pete:                So well.

Alex:                 Yeah. Yes. Where she’s just kind of like needling him a little bit. And he’s like, “Well.” And she’s like, “Well?”

Alex:                 It’s great. Just the rhythm of that scene is so good. And just those little character moments are so nice. Definitely pick up this book.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Next one up, I’m very curious to get your take on this, Pete. Batman: Three Jokers, number two from DC Comics written by Jeff Johns and Jason Fabok. This is continuing with the storyline, as you can tell from the title of, there are actually three Jokers. There’s the original Joker, the criminal, there’s the comedian, and there’s the performer. I’m forgetting what the third one is. Whatever it is. He’s dead this issue.

Pete:                The criminal, the comedian, and the clown.

Alex:                 The clown, there we go. And the clown was killed by Red Hood last issue. There’s serious repercussions for this issue. I got to tell you, I am so stressed out reading this book, I can’t quite explain it.

Alex:                 Jason Fabok’s art is phenomenal, but the feeling and the tension that Jeff Johns is putting in this through the characters is everything that should have been present to Doomsday Clock but wasn’t, but is here. It’s very hard to read, but it feels like that is part of the point. What’s your take on it?

Pete:                Yeah. That’s the thing. It is very hard to read. What sucks is it reopens a wound of… We get Jason Todd again, fucked up by the Joker in a way that’s not cool and way out of bounds. And you have this hard conversation with Batman and Barbara and it’s like, I’m reading this going, “Hey, Jeff Johns, what are you fucking doing to me over here, man? Well, I already lived this and had to live with this already. And then you’re making us redo it.” It’s very painful and I’m just wondering why. Why?

Alex:                 Well, it’s interesting to pair this with Doomsday Clock, I think, because Doomsday Clock, for all its faults, was Jeff John’s mission statement on what Alan Moore had to say through Watchman, what Alan Moore had to say about superhero comics and what he had to say about the universe.

Alex:                 It’s certainly, at the very least in this issue, particularly given the last page, feels like this is-

Pete:                That last page was awesome though.

Alex:                 Well, it’s Jeff Johns’ mission statement on killing Joke versus Watchman, which is not unimpeachable, but it’s still a masterpiece of the forum, as we talked about at length on our Watchman watch podcast. Killing Joke has not aged well. Killing Joke-

Pete:                Well, that’s also the thing, is the killing joke recently had a movie done that was awful. Just garbage in a way that was unnecessary and very painful. I went to the movie theater very excited about what I was going to see and got kicked in the nuts repeatedly. And now Jeff John’s like, “Oh, guess what? I’m not done kicking you in the fucking nuts yet.”

Alex:                 Here’s your problem, you got to stop going to 4D Movie theaters, and then you won’t get kicked in the nuts repeatedly. You pay extra for the shit, right?

Pete:                Don’t bring up 4D, man. That shit is awful.

Alex:                 Jason Fabok started [crosstalk 00:13:23]

Pete:                I think 4D is the reason we’re in this fucking pandemic, because there’s spraying in the seats and that’s where the COVID started.

Alex:                 Oh man. Pete, by the way, I love your podcast that you do out of Alex Ross’s network. It’s very good. Batman: Three jokers is also, I think, very well done. Makes me uncomfortable. I’m not quite sure where it’s going. And I’m certainly nervous on the places it going to leave the Joker and Batman in continuity, when eventually things link up. But it’s a nicely put together package, I would say.

Pete:                It’s too bad Justin is not here.

Alex:                 Yeah. He loves the tight little package. Next up Chew Number Three from Image Comics, written and lettered by John Layman, art and colors by Dan Boultwood. This is continuing the story of the Breaking Bad and the Chew universe as Chew’s sister. Goes darker and darker. Now they’re just good fun issue of this book. I’m really enjoying a lot and I’m enjoying revisiting the Chew universe through this time.

Pete:                Oh, see what you did there?

Alex:                 Yes, I do.

Pete:                Yeah, I agree. This is just a fun extension of something we already love. Very interesting to kind of have these two kind of like sisters. It’s very cool to see where this goes. I think it’s just a great continuation of something, and the art and writing, it feels spot on to what we love and it’s just great.

Alex:                 Yeah. It took a little while. I enjoyed the first two issues, but this is the first issue that really feels humor-wise on the same level as Chew, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m very happy about the series.

Alex:                 Let’s move on to one I’m sure we’re going to agree on, X-Factor Number Two from Marvel, written by Leah Williams and art by Carlos Gomez. This is the second part of 10 of Swords. I know I loved the first issue of this. I thought this is great.

Alex:                 The second issue is a little more of a business issue as the team recovers from the disaster that happened in other worlds. Now, they need to find 10 swords to battle apocalypses, evil children. That’s what’s going on. Here though, they’re dealing with the fact that Rockslide died, Apocalypse got killed, Richter almost got killed. And what happens after that.

Alex:                 And we once again get a realignment of how death works in the X-Men part of the universe, that I though was very smart and ups the stakes of everything that happens. I’m really enjoying this crossover. Pete, I’m sure you feel the same. Over to you.

Pete:                This fucking sucks, man. This is such fucking bullshit. What the fuck is even happening? There is so much shit happening that it is just insane. There is too much to deal with. And then in between that, they’re making us read these fucking briefing statements-

Alex:                 Love it.

Pete:                … wherever the fuck they are. The signed affidavit bullshit. I’m so happy that Charles Xavier finally lost his lollipop head. I’m very excited in that.

Alex:                 Can we talk about that moment? I know you don’t like this, but the very fact that everybody, this entire time, since House of Acts and Powers of 10 launched, has been talking about, “Wait, the X-Men could just resurrect themselves whenever they want, what does it matter if they die? The moment when, and this is a big spoiler for the issue, but they try to resurrect Rockslide and it goes horribly wrong to the point where Xavier’s helmet shorts out, and we get to see every other helmet short out.

Alex:                 I screamed, is probably too strong, but I definitely was gassed at that moment, because it was like, “This is all over.” It turns out that’s not exactly what’s going on, but that the stakes are that high for this thing, I thought was great.

Pete:                Yeah. You said this thing, because you don’t even know what the fuck is going on.

Alex:                 I know what’s going on.

Pete:                Your shit is too confusing. And it’s weird because it’s like, okay, here’s a shot of Xavier’s helmet in a root bath, overlooking something. And then, oh, here’s a shot of Xavier’s helmet in a root bath that’s in space, in a root bath that’s somewhere else under a sun and then water.

Alex:                 Hold on. This is the most-

Pete:                What is happening in this book?

Alex:                 This is the most excited I’ve been about the X-Men in decades.

Pete:                Congratulations. You should-

Alex:                 Thank you.

Pete:                … read X-Men more. I think that it’s just sanity stacked on insanity, stacked on insanity. We have to deal with the first thing you did before we can move on. We’re barely dealing with the fact that all the X-Men said, “Hey, fuck you to the rest of the world.” Okay. Now you’re on your own private Island, you’re fucking each other, great. Then it’s just one insane thing after another insane thing, and then this insane council that like oversees everything. It is just so much insanity I keep hoping like, “All right, eventually this is going to calm down so we can catch up to all the madness.” And it just stays on the gas pedal, and I’m really having a hard time keeping up and dealing with it.

Alex:                 I mean, I get what you’re saying. I do think though that this crossover is more accessible than the stuff that has come before. I love the fact that, again, spoiler for the issue, but Polaris is some sort of seer, she’s been given-

Pete:                Poor Polaris, is really falling apart here.

Alex:                 She is falling apart because she let down her team, she let down everybody, but she has the information to where these 10 swords are going to be so that they can battle Apocalypse’s evil children.

Alex:                 I love the fact that she does this prophecy and the folks at Marvel, no, we’re going to pick it apart, we’re going to figure it out very quickly. So instead, at the end of the issue, they have Cipher being like, “Okay, here’s what I think they’re talking about on the prophecy. Here’s the characters. They’re going to go get swords.”

Alex:                 And some of them are going to be wrong, but I love the idea that they’re sending us on a wrong path in some places, while on the right path in others, like of course, Wolverine’s going to have a sword. We already know Illyana is one of the people who has the sword.

Pete:                The Illyana part was great.

Alex:                 That was great, so much fun. I am having a blast so far with the storyline and I’m excited to see what happens

Pete:                I would like to be enjoying it, but there’s just too much madness going on with portals opening and closing, and then the White Queen’s being mean. It’s just it’s too much.

Alex:                 Excuse me.

Pete:                Well timed cough there, buddy.

Alex:                 No problem.

Pete:                What are you trying to say?

Alex:                 Nothing. Nailbiter returns number five from Image Comic. Story and art by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson. This is picking up the storyline. There’s a contest going on in Buckaroo with a bunch of copycat serial killers, or are they? In this issue, there’s a big twist. And we find there’s another Nailbiter who looks exactly like the original Nailbiter. Some big action goes down.

Alex:                 We had Joshua Williamson on the show a couple of months ago and he talked about the storyline. I love that he’s just following through on it. This is a big fun action. Every single issue, out of the gate. I’m having a blast reading this one too.

Pete:                It’s unbelievable. It’s really a lot of fun. It’s fast paced. It’s action oriented. But also the art is amazeballs. You’ve got a lot of fun, double spread stuff. Great characters. Great action. This is just really, really fun book.

Alex:                 Yeah. Next up WW84 Number One, which of course is World War 84. We skipped a couple in there, but that’s all right. Number one. Just kidding. It’s Wonder Woman 84, Number one. This is-

Pete:                Story.

Alex:                 Yes. Hold on. A story by Anna Obropta and Louise Simonson art by Brett Blevins. I’m going to say two things about this.

Pete:                Well, wait, wait, wait.

Alex:                 Yeah. Yeah.

Pete:                First off, it’s a tie into the movie.

Alex:                 Yes.

Pete:                Which I am so excited for this movie, but obviously let’s push it back until we can all go see it in theaters or whatever we need to do. So excited for this movie. And then was so excited for this comic book because it’s a tie in and I’m like, “Okay, maybe it’ll match the tone of what’s going on.” But then I got really disappointed and was like, “God, I hope the movie is nothing like this, because there is some really just lame character stuff. I mean, one of them is called Jazz and is just like chill Jazz, grownups never listen, who wrote this? Like what are you-

Alex:                 Anna Obropta and Louise Simonson.

Pete:                Yeah, I know. But like really over the top kind of like, I’m being a kid right now and parents are lame. And then the accents of the robbers like, “The stairs. Tor the roof. Over that way.” I’m like, wow. No, [crosstalk 00:22:49] but let’s tone this down a little bit. Make it a little bit more like not… It seems a joke to me.

Alex:                 Wow. I didn’t realize you’d be so negative about this. I thought this was just fine. I thought that was fine as like a movie tie-in comic. The big blubber to me was this idea that like… It’s very clear that this machine is running, but certain parts of it are not working well. And what I mean by that is, as you mentioned, the movie was supposed to come out months ago, then it was supposed to come out in, I want to say, October.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 And now it’s being pushed to December. It’ll probably be pushed back again. Let’s be honest. But this weekend I actually went to Target, which was a harrowing experience.

Pete:                Why would you do that?

Alex:                 It was actually fine. We needed to get my kids shoes and there was barely anybody there, so it was totally okay.

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Alex:                 Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I was very nervous about it. But walking through the toy aisle, they had Legos for Wonder Woman in 1984, and I was like, “Man, this is not coming out for months now and you have the Legos already on the shelf.” And it’s the same thing with the comic. And it’s a real bummer to be like, they couldn’t stop it. The comic still needed to come out, the Legos still needed to come out, even though the movie has been pushed way, way back. And that made me weirdly sad.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 That’s all. But that said, I thought the comic is fine. It is the sort of thing that if the movie was out or the movie was coming out next week, I think we’d read it and be like, “Yeah, this is cute. This is fine. I can’t wait to see the movie.” As is, as the only thing we’re getting for months and months, there’s a lot more pressure on it.

Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I do like this idea of putting Wonder Woman in a museum where she can tell stories about like-

Alex:                 She belongs in a museum.

Pete:                Fuck you. Telling stories about bad-ass females throughout history, that’s awesome. I fucking love that. Premise, I don’t want stereotypical weird kind of characters.

Alex:                 We named Need the dog Diana.

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                Well, I hope you got your kids wonderful Wonder Woman shoes while you were at Target.

Alex:                 No, they didn’t want that. Next up, Sea of stars, Number seven from Image Comics written by Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum, art by Steven Green. Another really just good solid issue of this book as a dad chases his son through the universe. In this issue, the son finds out that his dad is alive. There’s some mix-ups there and some great action set pieces involving space. Well, what’d you think, Pete?

Pete:                This is just continues to be amazing. The art is really still in the show. And the characters, these are so fun and creative characters and really well drawn. It’s just kind of the scary thing of, you think losing your kid in a store is bad, try losing your kid in space. Unbelievable scenario and just really over the top fun. Every issue has just been a real treat and it continues, continues to get better.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. Let’s move on to Marvel Zombies Resurrection, Number two, from Marvel. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Leonard Kirk. We’ve really been enjoying this book or at least the first issue and the preview, zero issue, whatever you want to call it. The issue that came before. As Spiderman takes Franklin and Valarie Richards to try to stop the zombie plague that has affected their universe.

Alex:                 It was a great twist in this issue involving the Phalynx and the robots of the Marvel universe that I thought was so smart and so well done and added some of the danger in a really nice way. There’s also a wonderful and sad scene with Viv Vision’s daughter. Another just very good solid issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, the Punisher [crosstalk 00:26:56] before-

Alex:                 Yeah, what did you think about that, Pete?

Pete:                I mean, come on. Fucking come on. But this comic is great, even though I was like, “Oh man.” But the Viv thing was just so heartbreaking.

Alex:                 No, you can do it. Come for him. Come for Phillip Kennedy Johnson. We’ve had him on the show a couple of times. Come for him. You tell him what he did to your boy, the Punisher.

Pete:                He made a choice. He made a choice. It wasn’t as upsetting as Frankie Castle. It’s an interesting choice.

Alex:                 Filings Castle?

Pete:                Yeah, I don’t know about-

Alex:                 Yeah. It doesn’t quite work as well. It doesn’t roll off the tongue. Really good book, excited to see how this potentially ties into the bigger story in the Marvel universe that’s being told. That should be very cool.

Alex:                 Next up, Ascender, Number 13 from Image Comics written by Jeff Lemire and art by Dustin Nguyen. I don’t know. Every issue. This is good. The end.

Pete:                I mean, it’s hard because it’s like… It really is. Every issue is just like a painted, just unbelievable artistic feet that is like water color and beautiful and amazing.

Pete:                The action, the storytelling, the connecting, these Ascender, Descender worlds, it’s really impressive how big the story It’s great that Jeff Lemire has got to tell this giant story. And he has an amazing artist who bring it to life.

Alex:                 I cannot believe how much it is tying into Descender at this point. I really thought it was going to be its own thing, but nope, it’s basically the same story at this point. And every old character that we get back again is so exciting. Another one happens at the end of this issue, the cover of the next one promises a huge one is coming back. This is great. This is just a thrilling fantasy Sci-fi mashup that I can’t wait to read every month.

Pete:                Yeah. And also, I just wanted to say the Driller playing hide and seek was just so nice.

Alex:                 Great stuff. Love Driller.

Pete:                In the middle of all this madness.

Alex:                 So good. Next up, one that I’m sure you liked, Pete. Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey, Number Three, from DC Comics, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, art by Amanda Conner.

Alex:                 As we talked about with the two previous issues, this is just classic. Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner on a Harley Quinn, except as raunchy as they want to be. And they want to be very raunchy as usual.

Alex:                 Harley Quinn has gotten one over the Joker, stolen the collective treasure of all the criminals in Gotham City, and they’re coming for her this issue. The Birds of Prey of course, kind of hate her, but are kind of having her back at the same time. This is just so much fun to read. This is one of my favorite things coming out from Black Label.

Pete:                It’s great. And it’s also nice to see Alfred alive. And the Alfred, Batman conversation about Harley Quinn being at the Wayne Manor is hysterical and really fun. It just feels like an extension of the animated series. And I hear the voices of the characters from that. Especially Clay Face. And the hole riddled with nails joke was hysterical. I mean, those two are just a powerhouse couple and they’re killing it.

Alex:                 It’s just so much fun. Amanda Conner’s art is so great, and so enjoyable. So funny to read every time. Just the way that they mine jokes, like the Beaver jokes, over and over and over again. But at the same time, they’re still funny and stupid in the right way. Every single issue. And not just every single issue of this book, but their entire run of Harley Quinn books. It’s wild that it still works this far down the road, but it absolutely does.

Pete:                I just want to say, while we’re still in the DC world. I did check out some of that, wasn’t on the list, and I wanted to quickly talk. Batman, Joker or War zone, Number one. A lot of people are wondering about the Clown Hunter, and you do get the reveal of who the Clown Hunter is in that issue.

Pete:                That was driving me crazy. If that was something that you wanted to go check out, you do get to the bottom of that in that issue.

Alex:                 Who is it? Who’s Clown Hunter, Pete?

Pete:                Well, that’s the fun thing is it’s not like, oh my God, it’s, you know what I mean? It’s a kid who grew up in Gotham who says Batman could have saved his parents. And I was like, “Great. That’s good enough for me. That makes sense.”

Alex:                 He figured out who Batman is?

Pete:                Well, he just sees Batman as Batman.

Alex:                 Oh, okay, I see what you’re saying. All right. Fun stuff. Thanks for the surprise pick. Moving onto Rogue planet, Number five, from Oni press, written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Andy McDonald. We talked about every issue of this wild space horror book.

Alex:                 I believe this is the last one, which I was kind of surprised by. But we get some very, I thought, satisfying answers to all the bizarre, horrific weirdness that’s been going on to this planet.

Pete:                That’s the thing. I was like, “How are they going to tie in all this madness?” Because it seemed like every issue was just, “Look at this crazier thing that’s going on on this planet. Oh, you thought that was crazy, check this out.” And it just keep tightening. And then they really delivered on this issue. Such a cool explanation. So moving. Very, very cool and interesting. This book is worth it. Check this out, get it collected, whatever you want to do. You’ll be happy you did. Rogue Planet is not only artistically amazing, but it’s a great story.

Alex:                 Yeah. And a little pluggy plug, we’re actually going to have Cullen Bunn on our live show next month, ostensibly, to talk about varying comic stuff, but I’m sure we will bring up Rogue Planet as well.

Alex:                 But as Pete mentioned, it’s coming out in Trade, definitely pick it up there. It’s worth it. Ties up really nicely. I was very happy and very surprised at how concretely everything made sense by the end.

Pete:                Yeah, it was really impressive.

Alex:                 There you go. Let’s talk about another horror book, The Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place, Number one, from Marvel. Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Mike Del Mundo. This is, I believe, one of the first time somebody other than Al Ewing has written specifically an Immortal Hulk tale. We’ve had the Hulk pop-up in other books at this point in the Immortal Hulk form, but this is a one-off horror story set in this universe. And I love it.

Alex:                 I wish they would do this forever. It feels like the main book, and Pete, maybe this is part of what you’ve responded to. I know you haven’t loved the horror Hulk in general. But it really started off as these done in one, almost tales from the crypt episodes, but starring the Hulk. And we very much got away from this, for this Uber story that Al Ewing has built, which is wild and insane. And I’ve been loving it a very different way.

Alex:                 But this story gets back to basics here, where it’s almost like the Hulk series, but through the lens of Immortal Hulk, where Bruce Banner is traveling around, he finds a weird gamma mystery. It’s very dark. It’s very sad. Mike Del Mundo’s art is very evocative, and Americana, while also not shying away from the horror elements, just a really good one-shot across the board.

Pete:                I was really, really, really impressed with this book. Jeff Lemire killed this. This was a very moving book, still in this world of Al Ewing’s kind of horror version, but just there was a lot of beauty and heart in this. Whereas I feel like if you’re telling a Hulk story, it’s got to kind of have those things of what are we really doing here, what’s really important? And the Hulk kind of helping these people and really saving this kid was so beautiful. And the whole fact of like, at least you’re not alone kid, you have your father, was just very touching, really well done.

Pete:                I’m so happy Jeff Lemire got to tell this one shot, and it still worked in the kind of bigger picture of what Al is doing. I was really impressed by this book. Very moved by it.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. I know I kind of said this before, but I could read a million of these. I hope that they just keep releasing Immortal Hulk one shots from different perspectives with different writer, artists, teams. I don’t know if they will, but that would be so much fun. So we’ll see what happens.

Alex:                 Last but not least. X-ray Robot, Number Two, from Dark Horse Comics. Story and art by Michael Allred, color art by Laura Allred. If you see the names of the cover, you know exactly what you’re getting into.

Alex:                 It’s a bunch of Sci-fi psychedelic weirdness involving a robot who is sucking people through multiple dimensions. There’s some really goofy shit that happens in this book that is just bits, and exactly the right way, involving portals. It’s much more slapstick, I think, than their usual books, but I had a fun time reading this. How’d you feel about it, Pete?

Pete:                Portal bits, I love it. Yeah. This was a lot of fun. It’s this classic kind of like art for kind of tripped out world. I just think it’s really kind of in their sweet spot and it’s a really great book. If you’ve enjoyed any of their stuff, you will really love this book. It’s definitely, really cool and really well done.

Alex:                 I agree. And that is it for the Stack. If you’d like to support us patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out. We would love to chat with you about your favorite comic books. Socially @comicbooklive, iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next week, that’s it for the Stack.

The post The Stack: The Department Of Truth, Shang-Chi And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclub

On today’s packed comic book review podcast: X Of Swords: Creation #1, Dark Nights: Death Metal – Speed Metal #1, An Unkindness of Ravens #1, Spider-Man #4, The Last God #9, Voyage to the Stars #2, Wynd #4, Wicked Things #5, Low #25, Canto II: The Hollow Men #2, The Immortal She-Hulk #1, Undiscovered Country #8, MegaMan: Fully Charged #2, Juggernaut #1, Black Magick #14, Power Rangers: Drakkon – New Dawn #2, Maestro #2, The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3, Judge Dredd: False Witness #3, and Bliss #3.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up, everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of books that have come out today. Oh boy, we have a packed stack for you today. This is a-

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Too many. Too many books, Pete.

Pete:                Yeah. What’s the deal here, buddy?

Alex:                 Why did you do this, Pete?

Pete:                Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex:                 Why did you do this?

Pete:                Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:                 This is your fault. No, I really didn’t mean to do this. I feel like I looked through what was coming out. Every email was like, “Oh, here’s three or four from IDW. Here’s five from Image. Oh, no.” I didn’t realize what a snowball it’d become until the end when we were finally getting ready for it. I’m sorry, Pete. We read a lot of books, but we got to get into it.

Pete:                We do.

Alex:                 This is important. People come to us as a resource.

Pete:                I don’t know about that, but-

Alex:                 Let’s kick it off.

Pete:                … we’ll do what we can.

Alex:                 This is a biggie. From Marvel Comics, X of Swords: Creation #1 from Marvel. Written by-

Pete:                X of Swords for $7.

Alex:                 For $7. By Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard. That’s $350 each if you don’t give any money to the arts by Pepe Larraz, which would be rude. I wish you would give it to somebody.

Pete:                That’s very rude, but it’s a part of either-

Alex:                 This is a monster, one of 22 right on the cover. One of 22, 68 pages long, huge story.

Pete:                First, I just want to say, if we weren’t doing this show and this was life before COVID, I would walk into a comic book shop, say, “Fuck you” and walk out, because $7 part one of 22, what the fuck are you doing?

Alex:                 Think about it. When you buy a book, right?

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 You know it’s a certain amount of chapters. You’re paying about $7 per chapter, usually, for a book, if you think about it.

Pete:                No. No, it’s like four bucks bro.

Alex:                 No, man. No, absolutely not. Yeah, it’s-

Pete:                22 pages.

Alex:                 It’s $154 per book for a 22-chapter book. That’s how much I pay.

Pete:                Wow. You’re getting ripped off and maybe. It’s a lot, man. It’s a fucking lot.

Alex:                 It is a lot. Here-

Pete:                I was hoping like, “Okay, if we’re going to pay this much money, hopefully, this will settle down. We’ll be able to deal with all the madness it has been having with X-Men.” No, it just takes it to an even crazier place because Hickman doesn’t like to deal with things. He just keeps building towards the sky.

Alex:                 Yeah. That is a fair way of poking it. I don’t disagree with you, but what I was so surprised about with this particular book, and I think we can get into spoilers here, so if you don’t want to hear them, obviously, turn away, is that for most of the beginning, it was definitely that a Hickman dense this, talking about Otherworld and Arakko and the original Four Horsemen and them tacking Otherworld, and laying out all this like, “Here’s the different level of Otherworld. Here’s a map of what the Citadel looks like,” and all these things. Wild terror readings and everything, but once it had all of the setup out of the way, I was stunned about how relatively straightforward and fun it was. That the plot of this crossover is, basically, Apocalypses’ even more evil children and grandchild are like, “Fuck you for joining the X-Men. We’re going to kill you. We’re going to destroy your island. We’re going to destroy the X-Men. Here we come.”

Alex:                 The only thing that is stopping them is the leader of Other world saying, “Hey, instead of doing that, why don’t you go find X of Swords and then beat the shit out of them?” If that’s the plot of the thing, that’s great. I felt such a weight lift off of me by the end of this issue that it was just like a good old fashion brawl to the death story. Obviously, there’s a couple more insane Hickmmanian flourishes on it, but that’s awesome. I went from being cautiously interested to the book to totally onboard by the end.

Pete:                No.

Alex:                 No? I tell you what, I was happy that it did kind of be like, “Okay, this event is about this kind of showdown of who’s more evil with the evil people of the evil worlds,” but it, also, was this kind of like weird like, “Hey guys, this whole portal thing, I’ve got a bunch of people invading. They’re going to probably kill some people.” I think I sit around and it’s a meeting. It’s like, “Well, why don’t we just shut the portal?” Well, you can’t do that. Well, why can’t you?” You know what I mean? That part grinded to a halt of like, “I don’t want my comic books to turn into my work where I got to explain to some asshole in marketing while there’s a fucking attack coming through a portal. You know what I mean?

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Like, “Where do you work?”

Pete:                I work in a startup, okay? It’s not-

Alex:                 No, I’m just saying that like attacks are coming through portals all the time. That’s not a normal thing, Pete.

Pete:                Yeah. Well, you know-

Alex:                 Nobody can relate to that.

Pete:                When you have an online job, things get weird.

Alex:                 Got it.

Pete:                I just think that like, that part was a little kind of like, “All right,” but I did really like the island stance. I was happy that they were kind of like listening to the island, but I felt like Magneto the whole time where he’s bored out of his fucking skull just staring on this cool helmet being like, “When do we get to fucking fight?”

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                I do like this match up coming of like, “Hey.” It’s a little weird though when she was like, “Yeah, in three days, we’ll fight you.” I’m like, “Oh, something is going to happen before three days, but all right.”

Alex:                 No, that’s to give them time to find the sword. It’s just wild to me, at least, in terms of the setup. I was this good old fashion split into teams, find these secret things, come back together, fight some bad guys in a fight to the death. There’s going to be twist.

Pete:                It’s just Apocalypse’s kids, so why does everybody have to fight his family’s bullshit? That will be weird if you called me like, “Hey, listen, my son wants to kill me. Do you mind like helping” …

Alex:                 Well, but also on a textual level because I know you’ve talked about this a lot, Pete. I appreciated the fact that they’re dealing with the fact that Apocalypse is there on Krakoa. That, to me, is the thrust of this crossover, at least, now. This idea that his children being like, “Yo, you’re not Apocalypse. You’re just hanging out with the X-Men. What are you doing?” That the X-Men are like, “Apocalypse, what are you doing?” It’s almost this fan conversation in a way that is bleeding through into the comic books. It feels so smart to me. It’s not just Apocalypse is on the team. It’s, why is he on the team? Why is he here? Why is he doing this? What does it mean that he’s here? Do we defend that he’s here? How do the X-Men, who have taken the stance of mutant stumper want always forever, deal with the idea of, “Do we defend the guy that is trying to kill us multiple times and take over the world, to destroy the world? How do we do that?” Again, that is a thrust for a big crossover idea. It seems so smart to me.

Pete:                All right. Well, I’m glad you’re having fun, man.

Alex:                 I’m having a good time. Pepe Larraz’s art, just great superhero art, really fun, really clear stuff. Just good time. The horrible moments throughout big moments, Rockslide getting chopped in half, oh my God.

Pete:                What a great panel, but man, that is heartbreaking. I did not like seeing that, but it was really well done.

Alex:                 Just to mention, the last page of the issue. Such a dumb, obvious, but smart move to have Cyclops, Jean Grey and Cable go off and be like, “Okay, the key to solving this and saving everybody is, we got to activate this thing. What’s this thing?” They go in. They activate the thing. They’re like, “Oh, good. We turned on the sword.” Of course, its sword, the organization, and they’ve turned on the gigantic space station that they used to operate in and it’s exactly the sort of thing like, “Oh, of course, you’re going to work in sword.” That’s so smart.

Pete:                X of Swords. I get it.

Alex:                 X of Swords. There you go. Great stuff. I enjoyed it a lot. I just thought it was so much more fun than I thought it was going to be. I had a good time.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Let’s move to another one, another big event, Dark Nights: Death Metal-Speed Metal #1 from DC Comics written by Joshua Williamson, art by Eddy Barrows. We talked about this one a little bit on live show. Pete, you’re usually down on the Flash, but you seem super into this one.

Pete:                Well, slow your fucking roles elves.

Alex:                 Right.

Pete:                First of-

Alex:                 This is your favorite comic of the week is what I’m hearing.

Pete:                No. No. First of, great title, Speed Metal. Hilarious. Love it. I love this idea of over the top Death Metal kind of fun things. Just amazing art, over the top characters. It’s fun to go back to this. Well, to see what they’re doing. What hurts about this issue a little bit is, you get all this amazing art, this cool concept to new characters and then this is a bunch of fucking Flash is talking about their life and their fucking trials and who gives a shit. That part really dragged into a slow stop for me, but overall, the art is amazing. I love the concept. I’m excited for more.

Alex:                 Yeah. I had a good time reading this book as well. I think there were some diggy things that happened as you mentioned. There was a lot of like, “Okay, there’s a whole army outside. Let’s just hang around and walk through the Flash Museum,” which Joshua Williams was going for. As usual, he is just very nostalgic about the Flash. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think, doesn’t is probably too strong, but having them walk around the Flash Museum was like, “Okay, I get it. I get what you’re going for.”

Pete:                There were some funny bits.

Alex:                 On the other hand of such a sucker, seeing Wally West run and get himself back into the red costume, I lost it. I loved it.

Pete:                Wow. Really?

Alex:                 He’s getting his whole history back and seeing his whole family. I love Wally West.

Pete:                You do.

Alex:                 I love his family and I love that arrow, The Flash. That really got me emotionally when that happened. I think it really does come down to, what are you into? What are you excited about with the Flash because he just … Josh, again, just digs into that nostalgia factor. Then there’s that great moment where he’s sitting on the Mobius Chair and sees the darkest night coming towards him and just gives him the finger, great.

Pete:                That was unbelievable.

Alex:                 I laughed out loud.

Pete:                “Yeah, black label. Here we go. Yes, let’s do it.”

Alex:                 Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. It’s surprising and weird that everybody is looking for chairs in this series of our … because that’s also happening over in Justice League, but good, solid issue. I’m excited to see how to entice it.

Pete:                If you’re going to have a black label, that’s what I want to see. I want to see super real straw on the bird around like, really having some fun.

Alex:                 Well, let’s talk about birds then and talk about what are the biggest surprises of the week for me. Unkindness of Ravens #1 from Boom Studios, written by Dan Panosian and illustrated by Marianna Ignazzi. This is about a girl who moves to small town, finds out that there is a girl missing who looks exactly like her, except with glasses.

Pete:                Oh, man. That’s so creepy.

Alex:                 Finds out even weirder stuff is going out in the town. If you are a fan of the craft, very specifically, you are going to love this book.

Pete:                Yeah. I also think it’s more than that. This, I was really impressed with this book. The art is unbelievable. I love the storytelling. We kind of, “Okay, here’s the story of this girl and did whatever, whatever. Okay, go to new town and start a new high school,” but just like they give us little magic, they give us little teen drama, the karate moment was badass. I’m very excited for this book moving forward. Love the last page. I think this is going to be a really good book and I’m very excited about it. Boom Studios put together a great-

Alex:                 Yeah. This feels like exactly … If you’re a fan of the modern Sabrina books, in particular, I think this fits right into that niche as well, but this feels like one of those ones that just got to bubble below the surface and maybe explode, because it really is that good. It feels like it had such a mythology setup to it. Also, Marianna Ignazzi’s art is great in this book. The characters are so good. The designs are so good. It’s something, and this is necessarily the only thing she’s been before, but if I was a Netflix executive, I would be snapping this up in a second for a TV show.

Pete:                Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:                 Great stuff. Let’s move on to a belated comic book, Spider-Man #4 from Marvel. Surprising, it’s only had four comic books so far given that it’s such a popular character, but it happens. Written by J.J. Abrams and Henry Abrams, art by Sara Pichelli. This is continuing the Abrams father and son story of the young, new Spider-Man fighting a guy named, Cadaverous in the future. After Peter Parker, Spider-Man, has been broken. I will tell you, I continue to really like Sara Pichelli’s art because Sara Pichelli is amazing at art.

Pete:                Unbelievable.

Alex:                 This is, maybe, suffering from the slow release time, which isn’t entirely their fault. By the time I read this, it felt like just such a small snippet of the story. I needed more. What do you think, Pete?

Pete:                Yeah. The art is the real hero in this book. It’s really fantastic and worth it just for the sprawling pages alone and the creepy spiders, but especially like the first couple of opening panels, holy shit. Anyways, yeah, I think this is interesting Spider-Man story. I’m excited to see where this goes. The problem is, so long in between, like you said, I just got back into it and now it’s over. It’s a little tough, but I’m excited to see what this father and son is going to do with such a legendary character like Spider-Man. I’m trying not to judge it yet until we kind of get more into it.

Alex:                 Yeah. It doesn’t really feel like they’ve got into their mission statement yet.

Pete:                Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:                 Like the thing they want to say about Spider-Man.

Pete:                They’re just moving pieces and getting things setup.

Alex:                 Exactly.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 It does feel like it’s getting to that and we’re towards the end here. We’ll see what happens. Next up, The Last God #9 from DC Comics. Written by Philip Kennedy Johnson and art by Riccardo Federici. Man, every issue of this book is good. The end. It just really is. In this issue, again, they’re heading through their, I guess, Helm’s Deep. I don’t know. I’m forgetting my Lord of the Rings references, but they’re heading through the underworlds in the past and present, different things are happening. There’s a big cliffhanger at the end, but as usual, even with a smaller character driven issue like this, it’s still a very, very good book.

Pete:                The art is really worth picking it up alone, all right? I tell you-

Alex:                 I just drank. I just drank, Pete.

Pete:                Good. Speaking of cliffhangers and that kind of stuff, there is a fun, really kind of cliff moment that says a lot about the characters. I just think that the storytelling and the art is so at a next level in this book. It’s very interesting what they’re doing and yeah, I can’t wait for more.

Alex:                 Yeah. Great stuff. Next up, Voyage to the Stars #2 from IDW. Story by Ryan Copple and James Asmus, art by Connie Daidone. Now, we talk about the first issue of this book, which is based on the podcast, I believe, with the same name. That is fun, enjoyed it. I figured we check in on the second issue and see how it’s doing. Pete, what’s your take?

Pete:                Yeah. This is the old weekend to burn this issue. This is cool. It’s very creative characters, fun, a lot of nice bits and comedy stuff in here with the classic proponent dead guy up trying to get away with some stuff, but yeah, I think this is an interesting book. The characters’ voices push this thing through. Yeah, I’m enjoying this. I think it’s definitely worth picking up. They seem to be having a lot of fun with it and that comes through in the comic.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. As we mentioned the last time, James Asmus knew how to do bits. They’re just well-paced out here, whether it’s him or the artist or collaboration of the booth. It’s just fun. It’s dumb, fun, stupid, purposely stupid space jokes. It just works out really well. I like this issue much more than the first one even. I felt like I want to follow this. Maybe I’ll listen to the podcast. Who knows.

Pete:                Whoo.

Alex:                 Yeah, I know. That’s the next step in a relationship. First step is the comic book step and then when you get really serious, you’ll listen to their podcast.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s serious stuff.

Alex:                 Then third step, you move into a house with them in Philly.

Pete:                Yeah, the source.

Alex:                 Next up, WYND #4 from Image Comics. Written by James Tynion IV, art by Michael Dialynas. Dialynas. Dialynas? Dialynas? I don’t know. I’m sorry.

Pete:                Dialynas. I don’t know.

Alex:                 Dialynas. Maybe. There we go. Well, regardless, this book is very good. Another fantasy book. This is a mildly all ages book. A kid who think he is weird. He’s traveling out of town with the prince he has always had a crush on. Some bad things happened to this issue, but also, some wonderful things. I love the fact that, finally, it feels like widening open the world of this book, finding out more about the outside world, about what’s really going on. Great stuff. This is the issue that I have been waiting for.

Pete:                Yeah. This book keeps getting better with every single issue; the art, the storytelling. It’s next level. This world that they created really feels like its own very unique kind of thing. It’s just great. There’s a lot of heartfelt stuff. It’s action. It’s adventure. There’s just so much stuff kind of all wrapped up. They’re really killing it. This book, really, is one of those ones that stays with me and then when we kind of look at it the next time around, it keeps getting more and more built up and more and more exciting. Camera come out and it’s enough. This is a lot of fun.

Alex:                 Next up, let’s talk about one of my favorite books currently running. Wicked Things #5 from Boom Box. Created and written by John Allison, art by Max Sarin. I got to tell you, I was super bub to find out the next issue is the last issue of the book.

Pete:                What? Because I know. It should be concluded at the end.

Alex:                 No. I know, man. It’s such a blast with it. This is about a teen detective, frame for murder, ends up teaming up with the police department after she is arrested. It is-

Pete:                They have so much more they can do.

Alex:                 Just so much fun. Every issue. Max Sarin’s art is so great. Everybody is so charming. This is a compliment. It’s almost the opposite of Voyage to the Stars where it’s like, it’s not even bits. It’s more character situations that are causing the comedy throughout. It’s great. It’s just, I enjoy. I want to read these adventures forever. I want to just read an odd-going detective series with these characters.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s such a fun character. I feel like I’m just, now, really getting into it and understanding the voice and cadence of everything. It’s really clicking for me and I’m sorry to see that it’s going to be wrapping up because I feel like there’s so many different places we can go. I love this world so much. I feel like we can kind of put this on a lot of different situations, but man, yeah, they’re really killing it right now or hitting the stride, that’s next level. It’s just fun. It’s coming from such an earnest kind of cool place. The main character is kind of starry-eyed, but still, there’s a lot of greatness to her. I really enjoy it.

Alex:                 The mysteries are fun too. This issue, there’s a bunch of casino robberies happening throughout London. She ultimately figures it out in absolutely ridiculous way, but in a way that proves that she is the smartest one in the room, anyway. It’s fun. Pickup this book. Definitely check it out. Great, great stuff. Next up, another penultimate issue, Low #25, from Image Comics.

Pete:                Oh, man, too bad Justin is not here.

Alex:                 Written by Rick Remender, art by Greg Tocchini. Yeah, I must have put this in here because I want to talk to Justin about it because I know how into this book he is. This is the second to the last issues of the book. Huge battle issue as everybody is fighting for the future of the human race. The phenomenal thing about the pace of this book is the entire issue. People are just being blasted apart by this helm suit. We don’t see it the entire time until the very last paddle. It’s the pacing of that, just is this jaws pacing almost where the monster is off screen the entire time until the very end is great. This issue is one of my favorite issues of Low in a very long time.

Pete:                Yeah. I can’t agree with you more. It’s such a unique, weird, creative book. It’s so intense. The reveal is so insane. Remender is just killing it. Justin knew it early and called it, but yeah, I didn’t really figure it out until the last couple of issues, so how crazy good this was. Really impressive. Makes me want to go back and start over again.

Alex:                 It’s good stuff. Next up, Canto II-

Pete:                The art. Come on.

Alex:                 The art. Pick it up for the art alone. Canto II: The Hollow Men #2 from IDW. Story by David M. Booher, art by Drew Zucker. It was continuing the adventures of little Clockwork Man as he tries to save the entire world.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 I like this issue quite a bit. I think this is a very engaging character. It’s a weird, pretty dark world, but good stuff. Pete, what do you think about this one?

Pete:                Yeah. I really like the art and the storytelling in this. It’s very imaginative. These like little, fun creatures that were following around. It’s interesting the way they battle and the way they go about things. It’s definitely unique and stuff like that, whole town of scarecrows was so crazy. They do a great job of not only storytelling through action, but also giving you a lot of the creativity behind different character designs and ideas. It’s a nonstop thrill ride with a little bit of heart and fun because they’re so small and cute.

Alex:                 Yeah. That’s a nice way of putting it. Let’s turn to something I’m sure we’re going to definitely agree on. The Immortal She-Hulk #1 from Marvel Comics. Written by Al Ewing and art by John Davis-Hunt. Man, this issue is so good. I love this issue so much. Pete, I’m sure you agree with me, but this is showing what has been going on in the She-Hulk side of things as she, like the He-Hulk I believe it is called, has come back to life and discovered that he is immortal with the whole thing with the green door and he who lives below and all of these horror elements. What happens with She-Hulk? She’s come back to life a couple of times as well. That’s when this one shot deals with and it’s as creepy and as alarming and as upsetting as anything Al Ewing has been doing in the main title, except with her fave Jen Walters. I love that this comes off of Empyre, where she died, yet, again. I love the pacing of the story.

Alex:                 Particularly, if you’ve been reading Immortal Hulk, you’d be wondering what’s going on there. This really pulls the veil back quite a bit and shows you a lot more information about what’s going on. I thought it was great. Pete, of course, you agree, but I’ll turn to you anyway and take a big sip of this beer that I’m drinking for when you agree. Here we go.

Pete:                Yeah. This is completely insane and then falls down of a whole of insanity through a green door. Then we get a very-

Alex:                 What?

Pete:                … unlikely conversation with Wolverine, which I didn’t appreciate. Later, we get Thor stuff, which I felt like it was a little bit better character voice-wise, but the reveal at the end, again, is hitting home. The leader is really fucking shit up as he is an immortal hulk right now. It was really cool to see that tie in, but man, alive, this is just so crazy and creepy. Like, “Oh yeah, you think hell is easy. We’re below that.” I don’t want to know that. I don’t want to know what gets worse than hell.

Alex:                 Yeah, there’s a hell below hell.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 It’s all good.

Pete:                Great.

Alex:                 I think it’s-

Pete:                Wait. What are you going to say?

Alex:                 I think this is insane and a little too scary for me, and I’m looking forward to, maybe, trying to get things back to normal.

Pete:                Like a happier Hulk but-

Alex:                 Yeah. Like just someone gives me a little hope Hulk.

Pete:                The happy Hulk?

Alex:                 The happiest Hulk. Yeah, we’ll see that pretty soon. Undiscovered Country #8 from Image Comics. Written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Leonardo Marcello Grassi. I don’t even want to say heroes of this book, but characters in this book have made it to the second ring of the walled-off America, called it Unity. They have discovered in this issue that it is a tech wonderland, seemingly, but of course, not everything is how it seems. I love how much this new arc has changed things up. It’s great. It’s exciting. It feels weird and nerve-racking. We had Scott Snyder on our live show a couple of weeks ago. He talked pretty heavily, not just about this book, but about how they’re adapting it for the movies, which I think revealed a lot of information about how this book is going to go. It’s fascinating to read this book through that lens.

Pete:                Yeah. I also think that, now, this book is really cooking in a way that I can follow or before, I was very much confused to how this all works, but now, it’s like, we’ve got more of a sense of this world and where they are in it and how they’re trying to navigate. Yeah, I really like that whole coin bit. I really liked the introduction in some of the newer characters in this arc. I think this is very, very interesting. It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about a writer’s take on an idea, and this take of America and what it is and what it is in this very interesting, especially in this post Apocalyptic world.

Alex:                 I also can’t believe that we’re eight issues in and they’re still coming up with new America jokes.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s very impressive.

Alex:                 Very impressive. Yeah. Next up, Mega Man: Fully Charged #2, from Boom Studios. Story by A.J. Marchisello and Marcus Rinehart. Written by Marcus Rinehart. Illustrated by Stefano Simeone. I think you like this issue a bit more than I did, the first issue of the series, Pete. I figured, again, let’s check in with issue #2 here. This is a darker, more modern take on Mega Man that gives it more of serial overtone. What do you think about this issue?

Pete:                Yeah, I very much liked it. It’s like this idea of, okay, Mega Man, how do we deal with this in technology? What’s too much? Who has control? That kind of thing. I feel like it’s dealt with, in this issue, in a cool, unique way or really inside Mega Man’s head as Justin likes to get inside character’s heads. We get a lot of what they’re thinking about, why they’re doing what we’re doing. We’re meeting all the players as we move forward in an interesting way. I think it’s cool. I’m very much enjoying this great, kind of like last page hype up for next issue. This is just fun. To me, Boom is just taking something that’s cool and spitting it out in a way that’s fun.

Alex:                 I like this as well. I like this a little bit more than the first issue, but I still, as somebody who is not totally into Mega Man, I’m a little lost in some of the continuity stuff. The things that I liked or the things where Mega Man is out of costume and himself, it made me feel like not to backseat write it, but it made me feel like I would love to see a Mega Man ultimate Spider-Man type of reorigin of him.

Pete:                Whoo.

Alex:                 That feels like they’re skirting up against, but they’re also leading into what fans know. That’s the part where it confuses me a little bit. I like the parts when he’s out of costume and he’s finding out more about this world. That’s very interesting. The other parts are a little too deep divy for me, personally.

Pete:                All right.

Alex:                 Still, the art, very good in here. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Let’s move on to one of the big surprises for me in The Stack. Juggernaut #1 from Marvel Comics, written by Fabian Nicieza and art by Ron Garney. I thought this was great. I was completely surprised. This is Juggernaut working for damage control. Some stuff has happened to him in the past where he lost his powers. He’s regained them again. We’re slowly getting information about that. He is mixing it up with who he thinks is a new mutant named D-Cell. This is just so good. I should’ve known, but like Ron Garney, of course, amazing on art. Fabian Nicieza knows his way around the story, but this character with the issue of Juggernaut is so interesting to me. I was fascinated in the entire issue.

Pete:                Okay. Nonstop action, like the cover looks insane. All right, let’s do this, and then it gets into this touching story about Juggernaut and what he goes through and what he has to deal with. It’s very interesting. Also, the introduction of D-Cell, very cool. I like this. I’m very impressed by this #1. I also just got to say, the red on Juggernaut’s-

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree.

Pete:                … uniform is tops and Garney is killing it with this black and white with the splashing of red.

Alex:                 Right?

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 It’s a very good redesign-

Pete:                Yeah. It’s like a little Sin City.

Alex:                 … for the coloring on this book. I should’ve-

Pete:                Having a black and white and then popping with colors, but man, it really works great.

Alex:                 Yeah. Again, I was very surprised about this book. There’s something about reading a scene of the Juggernaut in a hospital and a nurse being like, “Okay, Juggernaut, you could go now.” I was like, “What? What am I reading? What’s happening here?” It totally fits. It makes sense for the character and the way that Fabian sets him up. This is a very good issue and the cliffhanger at the end is super fun. It’s a good setup. I’m excited about this book. I just sort or randomly threw it on here because it was #1, but I’m real glad we did because I loved reading it.

Alex:                 Next up, I know this is one of your top picks, Pete. Black Magic #14 from Image Comics. Written by Greg Rucka and art by Nicola Scott. Picking up out of that cliffhanger for the last issue where one of our main witches is driving through a creepy little girl while the other main witch is sleeping with a girl in her house and thinks a little bit-

Pete:                Okay. Well, all right. Well, first of-

Alex:                 What do you think, Pete?

Pete:                Don’t put extra creep on things, all right? Yeah. Sleeping with a aged person, it’s not a little girl that she’s sleeping with as well. It’s not some kind of weird-

Alex:                 A woman. It was two beautiful responsible women.

Pete:                Okay. All right. You just sound so creepy. All right. First of, yeah, we got the car driving-

Alex:                 Some lovely ladies.

Pete:                Why? Why are you so creepy?

Alex:                 Lovely ladies.

Pete:                Stop being creepy. Yeah. We have … the art is the real hero of this book. These ghost kind of Ghoul, creepy kid things are unbelievable. Just the way it’s like they’re drawing the ghost and the shading, it’s just next level art in such a cool way. I was so scared of this girl in the car accident even though it’s a comic book. When she twisted doll’s leg and then the lady’s leg twist like that, oh, that is so creepy.

Alex:                 Yeah. This book is very good. Like you were saying, Nicola Scott’s art and the way things are drawn throughout this book are the real hero. Greg Rucka, always good, but Nicola Scott’s just designs of everything, a very creepy and exactly the right way.

Pete:                That cover is so creepy in all the right ways too. Yeah. I also really love a black cat in this book. Really cool. I like that it’s a character. I’m really hoping it stays a character in the book. Every once in a while, we get a little bit more from that. It’s a nice little side thing that keeps happening.

Alex:                 Next up, Power Rangers: Drakkon New Dawn #2, from Boom Studios. Written by Anthony Burch, illustrated by Simone Ragazzoni. We have talked about the last couple of Power Rangers books, which takes places in this apocalyptic future where everything has been destroyed and the Power Ranger’s last hope to save everybody. I’ve been pretty open. I have been hiding the fact that I don’t care about Power Rangers at all, whereas, I didn’t love two issues back the one shot. I did like the first issue of New Dawn. I was curious to check out the second issue. I liked it even more. This is good. This is a good, dark, adult’s reinvention of the Power Rangers. I really enjoyed it. I’m onboard and I’m very surprised.

Pete:                I’m also very surprised because I liked Power Rangers and this is not like Power Rangers … I haven’t really read a lot of the comics, but the TV show. I’m very impressed that how much I’m onboard with the story and what’s going on. The writing is doing such an amazing job of sucking you into this world and giving you these characters in such a great way that’s such a compelling kind of thing that gets you very excited for this kind of big fight that’s coming up. Yeah, I’m very impressed with this book.

Alex:                 It’s basically like stripping all the things from them that make them Power Rangers and finding out what make them tick as heroes, right? I feel like, most of the time, you watch a Power Rangers episode and the deal is, should we use our swords? Yeah. All right. Let’s use our swords. We did it. We won. That’s the main conflict of Power Rangers versus this, they’re dealing with actual real human issues, there are actual conflicts, there are actual problems they need to deal with and big overwhelming things, but they’re not losing the sense of humor at the same time. It’s just so much more fun to read. This is great. I’m very excited about this even if it’s … I’m actually going to get back to the status quo. I think this is very good and I’m very surprised that I’m saying so.

Alex:                 On the other hand, I do want to talk about an issue that I’m a little disappointed in for very specific, very stupid reasons. Maestro #2 from Marvel. Written by Peter David and art by German Peralta. This is the origin of the Maestro, the Dark Hulk by Peter David. Love the first issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah. You’re going nuts.

Alex:                 I thought it was great. Yeah, this issue-

Pete:                Really?

Alex:                 … I had some problems with, honestly.

Pete:                I love this.

Alex:                 Yeah. Here’s my problem, and I’m going to spoil some of the plot stuff, but Peter David’s writing, good as always. German Peralta’s art, great. The idea and-

Pete:                You got problems with colors?

Alex:                 Here’s what happens.

Pete:                What are you … what’s your-

Alex:                 Last issue, Hulk wakes up, finds the world has been destroyed. It’s like, “You know what, I’ve given up on humanity.” They’re like, “Ooh, this is good. We’re going to go on a slow progression to finding out how it became the Maestro.” What happened her? How did he build up a civilization? What is going to happen? Then in this issue, he finds the civilization and Hercules is the Maestro and it’s already happened.

Pete:                Dude, that’s a fucking last page reveal you just did.

Alex:                 No, I know. I said I was going to talk about spoilers, but my point is that it’s like I waitlisted to the fact that he became the Maestro because somebody else was the Maestro and he took over that stuff versus the Hulk going in his descent to the darkness. I’m still going to read this. I like the art. I like the Maestro. I like Peter David, but it was a real bummer of an issue.

Pete:                Your problem was, you have a better idea than what the comic did. That’s what your problem is.

Alex:                 No, I don’t have a better idea. It just felt like it was going in a different direction after the first issue than what happened in the second issue. It felt like we skipped all of the work.

Pete:                I think you got to wait for it, man. I think you’re judging it too fast.

Alex:                 What do you think then, Pete?

Pete:                I think I should like it.

Alex:                 Do you like it?

Pete:                I like the idea of sad Hulk in the wastelands talking about humanity. He took some fair shots, man. You know what I mean? He’s not lying. Poor animals.

Alex:                 I like all of that stuff. I think that’s good.

Pete:                It’s like, “Okay, he stumbles across people” and now, it’s like, “Okay, what’s going to happen? Can he go see this Maestro.” Okay and then Maestro isn’t who you think it is. Great reveal. Classic comic. Boom. I don’t know why you’re mad. I think it’s interesting to see how this is going. I think this is a solid second issue of ramping up the story. I’m sorry, you had a better idea. I would like to just quickly, while we’re talking about our Marvel book, the rest and power, Chadwick Boseman kind of things at the top of the comics. I think we’re really classy and well-done. I’m happy that they did that because it’s fucking really nice.

Alex:                 Yeah. Me too. I agree. Man, it is very hard to read Marvel books with Black Panther right now, which I know is such a weird thing and I keep checking myself of the emotional reaction there because it’s not like he wasn’t actually Black Panther. The Black Panther in comics is a different thing than Black Panther in the movies, but whenever Black Panther comes into a comic book panel into a comic book story, it’s crushing because it feels like it’s Chadwick Boseman coming into the scene. I know it’s not. Intellectually, I know it’s not, but emotionally, it feels that way. I agree with you. It is nice to have that acknowledgement on the front cover. It’s so sad. Let’s very diligently transition into talking about The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3 from Image Comics. Written by Jason Aaron and art by R.M. Guera. This is continuing the story line of two versions we’re trying to escape from. Not where angels have their way with him. It’s horrifying.

Alex:                 Pete loves this book. Cannot stop talking about it. We get off camera and off the podcast and Pete is like, “Let’s talk about The Goddamned” in an open voice. It’s very impressive, but another great issue of this book, R.M. Guera draws the crap out of it as our girls continue to escape for the mountain and find out things are not quite as they seem, of course, but it’s so dark and it’s so sad. It just brings you further and further down every issue.

Pete:                Yeah. This is really impressive. What’s nice is, and this issue we’re not really dealing with the angels raping. We can move past that a little bit, which is good. We’ve got these two heroines fighting for their lives as they’re trying to make it out of this mountain range, but the reveal at the end is a little crushing. Man, it can say enough about the art. Just the whole part where you thought, maybe, she was going to die and they later rest and then like, it’s the action, the storytelling. This is really a great story even though a lot of the story makes me uncomfortable. I’m still very much impressed with the product that they’re putting out.

Alex:                 Yeah. That’s Jason Aaron writing about faith, writing about religion and making it dark, making it realistic but not throwing it away entirely. He’s not like, “Fuck you. You’re stupid for believing this stuff.” It’s more about what do we believe in if the things we believe in are evil. That’s a great thing to drill into right now and he’s doing such a good job with it. All right. Let’s move on then. Judge Dredd False Witness #3 from IDW. Story by Brandon Easton, art by Kei Zama. Oh my gosh, I really mess this one up, but we finally get what we’ve been asking for with this series. We got a meeting between our two main characters between a guy on the run for a murder he didn’t commit and Judge Dredd who is tracking him down. This title continues to over perform in my mind. It’s a good Judge Dredd story. There are some really good, interesting class and race stuff that’s played with right here. It’s very smart and well done while, still, being a good action thriller.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s just hard. I don’t want a Judge Dredd Comic right now. I don’t want a story about cops fucking all powerful cops that are judged, jury and executioner right now. I didn’t really feel it as much with the other issues, but right now, I was just like, “Fuck this, man.”

Alex:                 I see what you’re saying. Not to interject and to cut you out, but I do think … I guess, we’ll see where it goes, but it does feel like the story is doing the opposite thing. The story is presenting Judge Dredd with a case that is not cotton dry. I could be wrong with the coloring, but we get a case of a black dude getting plastic surgery to look like a white dude and become basically like a proponent of the rich. There’s that thing going on. He gets murdered. His former friend is framed for it. Judge Dredd is tracking him down. I think we’re getting a story here where Judge Dredd having to confront the idea that things are not cotton dry, that I cannot be judged jury and executioner right now. If that is the way the story is going, that’s an incredibly timely thing to happen.

Pete:                Yeah. I hear you. It’s just a little painful to just see … Just the panels where they’re so imposing over people, the judges. When they walk by and there’s all these people lined up in attention and it’s very, very intimidating. It’s heading me in a different way right now that, normally, it can be like, “Okay, this is comic book. This is fun. Judge Dredd is great. I love Judge Dredd,” but it’s just like, right now, it’s just a little bit … I agree with you that it is trying to do that. It’s hard to see the uniform and not flinch a little bit.

Alex:                 All right. Last one we’re going to talk about is Bliss #3 from Image Comics. Written by Sean Lewis and art by Caitlin Yarsky. We love every issue of this title, but this is pulling off some big things, some very big things. Specifically picking up the cliffhanger where a kid has been telling the whole history of his dad. We find out that his dad is not as clean and doing much worse things than we thought he was. Also, welcome to Justin who popped in the last time of the podcast.

Pete:                Hey.

Justin:              You got to choose your angles. I think, just really, Bliss is the comic that I really wanted to weigh in on. Because I’ve actually been here the whole time. Really great reviews.

Alex:                 Oh, wow.

Justin:              I didn’t want to chime in because you guys, I think, really covered the basis, especially the X and sword stuff.

Pete:                Oh. Well, thanks yeah.

Alex:                 I’ll tell you what, actually. We talked about a lot of books on The Stack today. I think, it would be worth before we finish up talking about Bliss. Why don’t you just give a thumbs up or thumbs down, like a yay or nay to all the titles. I’ll read through all the titles, okay?

Justin:              Great. Yeah.

Alex:                 Here we go. X of swords: Creation #1.

Justin:              Perfect. No notes.

Pete:                Wow.

Alex:                 Dark Night: Speed Metal #1.

Justin:              Fast as I wanted it to be.

Alex:                 Wow, and Unkindness of Ravens, number one.

Justin:              More ravens.

Alex:                 Spider-Man #4.

Justin:              You know how I feel about this. This guy should be making more quips.

Alex:                 The Last God #9.

Justin:              Good fight.

Alex:                 Voyage to the Stars #2.

Justin:              Yeah, get off earth. Earth sucks.

Alex:                 WYND #4.

Justin:              Good. Not enough wind. It’s very still.

Alex:                 More wind. Wicked Things #5.

Justin:              Chilling.

Alex:                 Low #25.

Justin:              Oh, no. Fun. It was fun.

Alex:                 Yeah. That was fun. Wait. Okay. Low #25. Can we actually stop for a second? I know we’re very much versed in the podcast, but the whole reason I put that in The Stack was to get your take on it, Justin. Low #25, penUltimate issue of the series. What do you think?

Justin:              We look at this as a whole. My review of the last issue was, I can’t believe he’s willing to take us here and I bought it and then it was like, “Oh, no. Rug-pull everything is terrible.” I don’t know where we’re going to go with this at the end of the day.

Pete:                How about that reveal though? That was fucking bananas.

Justin:              Everything about this book is bananas. They push everything in every direction all the time. That’s why the series is one of the richest series we’ve reviewed in this. Maybe top Remender. Maybe top Remender.

Alex:                 Yeah. This has really blown me away as for what Remender is doing in this comic. I didn’t really, really appreciate it until this second to the last issue, like everything that he’s doing.

Justin:              Yeah, 100%.

Alex:                 It’s making me feel like we should probably do a separate podcast about Top Remender.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                We just got to determine like break it down, top 10.

Justin:              The remaining Remenders. The Remenders that remain.

Pete:                Right. Yeah.

Alex:                 Getting back to the list, Canto II: The Hollow Men #2.

Justin:              Really, Canto? Can? No.

Alex:                 The Immortal She-Hulk #1.

Justin:              Legit. Love this book. I can’t believe they’re making She-Hulk terrifying now too.

Alex:                 Yeah. Yeah. Undiscovered Country, number-

Justin:              I’m worried that this is going to become my job from here on now. Don’t say anything and then just give us the one liner nonsense thing.

Alex:                 Yeah. We’re almost through it. There’s a lot of titles though. Undiscovered Country, number eight.

Justin:              Perfectly clear of what’s happening all the time.

Alex:                 Mega Man: Fully Charged #2.

Justin:              Playing the video game, except my fingers are not sore.

Alex:                 Nice. Yeah. Juggernaut, number one.

Justin:              This guy is unstoppable.

Alex:                 Yeah. Black Magic #14.

Justin:              Somebody stop him.

Alex:                 I’m definitely getting the impression that you’ve read all this book.

Justin:              100%.

Alex:                 Black Magic #14.

Justin:              Great to see this book back. I’ve missed this book.

Alex:                 Yeah. Power Rangers: Drakkon New Dawn #2.

Justin:              Once again, surprisingly into the Power Rangers. Time to do a rewatch.

Alex:                 Great. That was my reaction too.

Pete:                Go, go Power Rangers.

Justin:              I [crosstalk 00:51:58].

Alex:                 Maestro #2.

Justin:              This guy, I wanted more music. I feel like he’s not doing any conducting.

Alex:                 The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #3.

Justin:              This book really makes you want to get back into the bible.

Alex:                 Judge Dredd False Witness #3.

Justin:              I’m not prepared to be judged.

Alex:                 Okay.

Justin:              This book was judging me.

Alex:                 Great. Finally, that brings us to Bliss #3. Once again, this is a great issue of this book. This really flips the premise in a certain way. We spent the first two issues knowing and loving this dad. In this third issue, we find out he is not all, he’s cracked up to be. It’s real dark, real sad, but I thought real good. Pete, what was you takeaway from this one?

Pete:                Yeah. I was really impressed with this issue. A lot of things click into place in this issue. We get a lot of forward movement and a way we can all follow, which is great. Yeah, it went from being like tripped out stone or what’s going on to like, “Oh, shit. There’s a lot of evil fucked up shit going on in a way that is very much pointed at this family.” I think that really grounds it in the son-mom stuff was just so touching and powerful. The panels of the mom’s face are just unbelievable.

Justin:              Yeah. The art on this book, I think, really crushes. It adds some air, this air of tension in fantastical remorse and just loss throughout the book. It reminds me of like the dark crystal a little bit or-

Alex:                 Yeah.

Justin:              … especially with the non-human creatures. Even Neil Gaiman’s Coraline a little bit. It feels like a more adult version of it. The scenes at the end where the dad reveals what he’s capable of are just tough.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              The coloring as well throughout is just beautiful.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s really intense.

Alex:                 Great. Great book. Definitely pick it up. That is it for The Stack. If you like to support us, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. to Crowdcast and YouTube. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher or the app of your choice. To subscribe and listen to the show, did I say pateron.com/comicbookclub to support the show?

Pete:                You did now.

Alex:                 Okay. There we go. At Comic Book Live on Twitter. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. We’ll see you next time on The Stack.

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On today’s Stack podcast: Iron Man #1, You Look Like Death: Tales From The Umbrella Academy #1, Batman #99, Thor #7, Stillwater #1, Detective Comics #1027, Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp #1, Giant-Size X-Men: Storm #1, Big Girls #2, Justice League #53, Seven Secrets #2, The Immortal Hulk #37, Dryad #5, Catwoman #25, Once & Future #11, X-Men #12, Faithless II #4, The Amazing Spider-Man: The Sins of Norman Osborn #1, and Head Lopper #13.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up y’all? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of comics that have come out today.

Pete:                Sure do.

Alex:                 We review them, unless they’re DC comics, those rap scallions, they come out on Tuesdays. They go out for 24 hours. You already know about them.

Justin:              Yes, but you can read them today. You can read comics whenever you want. That’s the freedom of the comic book industry.

Alex:                 Right. And if you break into writer’s brain, you can read comics that haven’t even been made yet, man. You know what I’m talking about?

Justin:              Yes. I know what you mean by breaking into a writer’s brain too. You talk about with like a hammer?

Alex:                 Yeah, man. But six feet away, keep your safe distance. Let’s get into this because I don’t know where I was going.

Pete:                Wait, what? Yeah, what the fuck.

Alex:                 I don’t know where I was going with this, Pete. Iron Man, number one from Marvel written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Cafu. This is, as you can imagine, another new start for Iron Man, a back-to-basic start after the big robot war. And this book spends quite a bit of time with Tony Stark, the man, before it puts him in a classic Iron Man costume, throws him up against a new, old threat. What’d you think about this book? How’d you feel about this versus the last couple of years in Tony’s life?

Justin:              I don’t know if I’d call it an Iron Man costume, but other than that I think this is a fun book. I feel like Tony Stark is popping a little bit more here. He feels a little bit on his own, less tied up in a sort of the galaxy brain, worried about everything, stuff that he’s mostly been in for the last few years and more just like the guy who puts on the suit.

Pete:                It’s nice to see him not being a robot or a dead version of himself or whatever it is. It’s nice to see Tony being Tony, but there’s a lot of interesting things in this comic. I didn’t really get past the sad girl playing her violin outside of an Apple store and then asked to leave where she was crying and walking away, that was fucking heartbreaking, man. That was cold as ice. But I’m interested to see what happens. The problem is what I didn’t like was there was this moment where it was just like the movie where Tony Stark’s like, “Oh yeah.” And then someone comes out to him at a party and was like, “Hey Tony, I got this thing to pitch you.” And he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, later.” And then that person becomes the villain. And that was like we saw that in this comic as well. And I was like, “Well, it’s kind of played out, but all right, I’ll see what’s up.”

Alex:                 But it plays out differently, right? Because he turns around to the guy-

Pete:                A little differently.

Alex:                 I mean, that’s a classic Iron Man, Tony stark scenario. What I liked about this book is I spent most of the running time thinking we were going to be running out of time that I was like, “Jesus, why are they spending so much time on Tony Stark out of armor? Get to it already, you’re going to run out of the page length here. But this was well paced. It was well thought out and they clearly gave it a little bit of extra time to breathe. You could spend time with Tony Stark before putting him in an action scenario. I don’t know if it’s going to pay out with the page length every issue necessarily like that, but it’s refreshing and nice. Like you were saying Justin, to see him on a back-to-basics level, Tony stark, because we haven’t really seen that in a very, very long time.

Justin:              Yeah. Reading this I was like, “Oh yeah, he used to be sort of a dude who dealt with his own stuff. And now he’s been trapped in the Neanderthal age in a cave for a while.” Also a couple more details I love, Terrax as a villain. One of my favorite villain characters, cosmic villains, who you don’t see hardly ever, like cool acts, cool look, cool looking dude. And I love the triangle shield in the first couple of pages and the Iron Man armor.

Alex:                 I agree. Good stuff. Art by Cafu as well, yes.

Pete:                Yeah. The art was great. The moment where he, spoiler alert, flies through a helicopter blade was pretty bad ass.

Alex:                 Yeah. All very cool stuff. Let’s move on and talk about You Look Like Death: Tales from the Umbrella Academy, number one, from Dark Horse Comics, story by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, art and colors by I.N.J. Culbard. This of course does not have the regular artists Gabriel Ba on Umbrella Academy. And that’s because-

Pete:                Yeah, what the fuck.

Alex:                 Hold on. You can probably tell from the title, this is a spinoff. This is a side story focusing on Klaus as he gets kicked out of the Umbrella Academy and heads off to Hollywood. Man, there’s just a lot of fun. You got to love this, Klaus high on drugs.

Justin:              You know Alex is going to love this. The original Klaus head.

Alex:                 I love Klaus. I also love going back to the Umbrella Academy after being so deep into the show with Umbrella Podcademy our Umbrella Academy podcast, to revisit the characters in the original format. It’s like, “Oh right, Kraken’s actually a badass and not just a sad sack. That’s nice to see, that’s fun.”

Justin:              Yeah. What’s your favorite type of hero, bad-ass or sad sack?

Alex:                 Great question. It’s very much a toss up. Pete, you got to love the vampire buggy, right?

Pete:                Yeah. [crosstalk 00:05:44]. That was really fun. First of, [crosstalk 00:05:47].

Justin:              Wait, hold up, Why’d you go to Pete for the vampire monkey?

Alex:                 Because I was reading the book and I was like, “Pete’s going to hate this, but he’s going to like the vampire monkey.”

Justin:              Is that true?

Pete:                Well, I didn’t hate it. I mean, what’s upsetting is the father just kills me in this, just how cold this fucking dad is, it’s hard to get past and it’s just hammered all the time during the book, so it’s tough. If this father had any compassion, these kids would have such a better chance in life, and it is just heartbreaking.

Justin:              Pete shitting on fatherhood, going after the whole enterprise.

Pete:                That’s right. Just you guys better fucking get your shit together and fucking [crosstalk 00:06:33].

Alex:                 I just kicked out my son. I told him he was cut off.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 He headed to Hollywood. He got crazy high.

Justin:              Nice. He’s going to love it out there.

Pete:                Yeah. Anyways, Klaus is fun. It’s nice to revisit this a little bit, but I like Gabriel Ba.

Justin:              Are you crying, Pete? I love, the art really pops in this, especially once the story moves out to the West coast, I feel like the scenes are really great, really fun. Great all around.

Alex:                 Yeah. Let’s move on then to Batman number 99 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV and art by Jorge Jimenez. This is the I think penultimate chapter of the Joker war storyline-

Justin:              It seems that way.

Alex:                 … this is the Joker has basically destroyed Gotham city, taken over Bruce Wayne’s fortune. Finally Batman and the crew are fighting bad Batman by appealing to his family saying, “I messed up, get back together with me all. Let’s take this town.” Catwoman meanwhile is attacking financially trying to get the funds back. Man, this is the stuff that happens in this issue. And I almost don’t want to spoil it, but particularly towards the end made me exclaim out loud. There are two moments towards the edge of the issue that I went, “Haha,” just like that, out loud. What’d you guys think about it?

Pete:                Well, I was really … This is a lot of fun. This book is great. Part of me does really want to kind of get back to the bat and cat stuff, that was kind of set up before this. So seeing them kind of a part is driving me crazy a little bit. But man, the whole start of this, like Joker rolling in his fucking limo, this is really insane to kind of see where things are right now. And it really does get you kind of like hyped for that and in such a great way. I mean the panels where Batman just kind of lands in front of the spot where he’s supposed to be, so epic, so well done. I love this kind of show down kind of atmosphere that is being set up. And the reveal at the end was holy fucking shit.

Justin:              Yeah. James Tynion is such a tactical writer. He comes at the full story and the individual scenes with different angles than we’ve seen before. We get to spend more time with the Joker than I feel like we get to see normally. Normally the Joker is just cackling and plotting against Batman. In this we get to see a little bit more of him doing the logistical bits of his plan, and then executing in the way leading up to that last page reveal. And that stuff is fun and smart and makes this story seem fresh despite the fact that we’ve been … I want to say drowning in Joker for the past couple of years.

Alex:                 Yeah. Well that, and also that it is another Gotham city is in flames story, but it’s still … which we’ve seen a million times. I don’t know why anybody lives there, but to your point, it’s still feels dangerous. It still feels like it could go either way at the end of the day. Great, great stuff.

Pete:                Just before we move on, we were talking about some oh shit moments towards the end. But also some touching stuff that happens in this too just before Batman kind of gives his speech or right after it, someone gets a gift, very touching.

Alex:                 You’re talking about the Nightwing costume, right?

Pete:                Yeah, I am. I’m trying not to spoil it you fuck, but cool.

Alex:                 Well, I mean, I think that’s okay. We’ve already seen him in the costume several times because of the publishing schedule. But yeah, it’s good bad family staff, James Tynion gets it. It works really well. This is a great issue. We went on to another one, Thor number seven from Marvel Comics written by Donny Cates and art by Aaron Kuder. This is pick it up after the death of Galactus last issue. And Thor’s big vision, that some bad things are coming not just his way, but the Marvel universe’s way. And he is throwing [inaudible 00:10:52] down on Broxton once again, because he feels like he is not worthy to pick it up. Turns out more people might be worthy to pick it up. As usual Donny Cates just find some fun, unique angles on his characters. And I love Aaron Kuder’s art so much, just I love it. Every time it’s just a pleasure to see his name.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s very enjoyable. The art is fantastic. Sorry, Justin, I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Justin:              No, please, it’s your time to shine.

Pete:                Well, this is such a fun back and forth between Tony and Thor that I love very much. Yeah, this is what a cool kind of setup for this new kind of arc. Very excited to see where this goes. A little kind of twist on the unworthy. But I’m very much on board and it’s also great to see the kind of blanking on his name there [crosstalk 00:11:55]. Yeah, thank you. I’m just going to say horse Thor.

Justin:              Speaking of Beta Ray Bill, when he takes his helmet off that dude’s fucked.

Alex:                 It’s weird. Scary. Very weird. Yeah. I don’t like it. He looks much less like a horse without his helmet.

Justin:              Yeah. And much more like a nightmare that I’m going to have tonight. I mean, this book reminded me of a conversation we’ve had a lot about Batman. Thor is a character that is often pretty serious. Like God dealing with God level things speaking in very heightened language, yet Donny Cates finds a way to make this fun. There’s a lot of humor here and that Thor can play around, something we’ve been talking about a lot lately with Batman is like, why does it always have to be doom and gloom, there’s room in our ability as fans to take two sides of a character, someone who takes their job seriously, but also likes to play around a little bit with his friends. And this book does a great job of keeping the action fun, the stakes high, I mean two issues ago, everything was hell. And now here we are where we’re having fun with words on [inaudible 00:13:04].

Pete:                Yeah, just leave words on the hammer, man.

Alex:                 Words on the hammer, that’s what I always say. Moving on to one that I know Justin is super psyched about, Stillwater number one from Image Comics written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Ramon K. Perez. Now this is a bit of a spoiler because they only eventually get around to it in the second half of the book, but it is the concept of the book is about a guy who loses his job, gets an inheritance or so he thinks, that brings him to the small town of Stillwater. And it turns out in the small town of Silverwater, nobody ever dies. Things get darker from there. Justin, talk about this book a little bit.

Justin:              I mean the art by Ramon K. Perez is so good. I love his work on everything that he does. I think the first book that really caught my eye he did was I think called Tale of Sand, I want to say, based on a Jim Henson script. And great book and this just art really shines. The story itself reminded me a lot of Lovecraft Country actually, the first two episodes of that, except with none of the race elements and it’s just sort of spoiled white dudes doing the … going on a similar journey. But the way the story ends is exciting and curious what the next move is, if that make sense.

Pete:                Yeah, this is the new like, hey, I’m a prince, and if you send me money I’ll send you money tenfold. When you get the letter that somebody died and there’s inheritance, you don’t fall for that. All right. That’s a trap. It’s clear. If you didn’t know that person-

Alex:                 Wait, sorry. Pete, did you just say somebody died and left me money? Let me know where I need to go to pick it up.

Pete:                Oh, okay, well you got to go to Stillwater.

Justin:              And let me say on the other side, Pete, your rich great uncle did die and you have to go get that money. You can’t just leave that hanging there just because you’re scared.

Pete:                I’m not going to fall for that, all right. It’s some creepy town where-

Alex:                 No, I back up what Justin is saying, this is true and accurate. And if you give us $50 right now, we’ll tell you where to go.

Pete:                Oh, okay. All right. Well, I’ll just Venmo you guys then.

Alex:                 Yeah, that sounds great. Actually, you know what might be easier is if you gave us your credit card number.

Pete:                Oh okay, sure. Yeah, why don’t I give it to you right over here?

Alex:                 All right, go ahead.

Pete:                Five, five, five, five, five.

Justin:              It is weird it’s all fives. It is crazy.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Wait, actually I had a question just to step back. Thor, I didn’t try this yet. The phone number he puts down on me on [inaudible 00:15:52] for Tony, that’s just like a regular two on two number, right? That’s pretty weird.

Justin:              Yeah, let me, I guess you’re right here. Two, one, two, nine, seven, zero, four, one, three, three.

Alex:                 Ooh, I don’t get any phone service down here. You want to give it a call?

Justin:              Yeah, I’ll give it a call.

Alex:                 Okay. That sounds great.

Pete:                Oh man, that’s exciting.

Alex:                 Yes. Meanwhile, I’ll talk about Stillwater. This reminded me a little bit of Revival, the Tim Seeley book, just in terms of concept, which is a great book that everybody should check out. It does feel a little more [inaudible 00:16:26] and a little more focused on this character. I’m also sure Chip Zdarsky is aware of revival and trying to do something different in that. But I’m curious to see how it delineates itself from that going on, just in terms of the pure people coming back to life. You’re about to call the number Justin?

Justin:              Yes. We have not planned this, so we truly have no idea what’s going to come up here.

Alex:                 There’s going to be an old lady that’s going to be like, “Hello.”

Speaker 4:        Yes, this is Iron Man. However, due to some big blonde jerk, I no longer use this number. But hey, nice try anyway. For all things Tony stark, please visit www.tonystarkironman.com, and try and stay safe out there, yeah. I’m busy enough as it is.

Alex:                 Ah, that’s fun.

Justin:              Is that Downey?

Alex:                 That’s cool. Maybe.

Justin:              It could be, it sounds like him.

Alex:                 Yeah. Fun stuff. Good [inaudible 00:17:22] comic books. Pickup Stillwater number one, moving on to, this is going to be a mouthful, are you ready? Detective Comics number 1027 from DC Comics. This isn’t an anniversary issue, so it’s a bunch of stories. It is written by Peter J. Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka, James Tynion IV, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marv Wolfman, Grant Morrison, Tom King, Scott Snyder, Dan Jurgens and Mariko Tamaki. And the art is by Brad Walker, David Marquez, Chip Zdarsky, Eduardo Risso, Riley Rossmo, John Romita Jr., Emanuela Luppachino, Chris Burnham, Walter Simonson, Ivan Reis, Kevin Nowlan and Dan Mora.

Justin:              You read so fast, it sounded like you said Snot Snyder.

Pete:                It did sound like Snot Snyder.

Alex:                 Oh man, thank you for picking on the thing that I screwed up out of 20 names.

Justin:              Alex, I just wanted to say, you really nailed it when you said Peter J. Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka and the rest.

Alex:                 I like this package. I know we talk a lot about short story [inaudible 00:18:30], this is like-

Pete:                Justin loves talking about nice packages.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 This is a good set of Batman stories. I was fully prepared to be like, “Yeah, I don’t know, I like this one.” But I like most of them.

Justin:              Yeah. No, it was hard to pick a favorite as well. I really liked the masterclass story was a good use of the bat family where everyone really got to pop for a second. The Grant Morrison detective number 26 story was like-

Alex:                 So funny.

Justin:              So fun. And I was like, “Oh, Grant Morrison. Yes. I haven’t seen that Grant Morrison in quite a while.” Where it’s just like finds a little fun bit and just needles it into a story.

Alex:                 I mean, I’ll mention with the idea of the story is as you can figure out, it’s the guy who came to the issue before Batman and he’s already to be the next big vigilante. He’s going to be the silver ghost. He has the whole plan. He has his origin story. He has his motivation, everything. And then he goes out of his first mission and he sees Batman and he’s like, “Ah, shit.”

Justin:              This guy’s got good branding, good ears.

Alex:                 To your point it’s great, I want more of that out of Grant Morrison. I don’t need crazy musical notes from Superman saving the universe anymore, just give me that fun stuff. He did that on Klaus as well at least at the beginning where it’s just the simple idea of what if Santa was battle Santa. That’s great, more of that fun stuff. Pete, which ones did you like? What are you into?

Pete:                I really loved the fraction happy returns, the Rocco rookie story was really great that we’ve had an eye on you was a awesome moment.

Justin:              That was cool.

Pete:                Love the shout-out to the old costume and generations fractured and the Dan Mora art and the gift, yes please, just fantastic.

Alex:                 Yeah. Just such a good package across the board.

Pete:                It really is. It’s one of those ones where you’re like, “All right, a collection,” but then you’re like, “Holy shit, this is worth it.”

Alex:                 Yeah, pretty much every story is good. The art is great, definitely pick this up. Next step, Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp, number one from IDW written by Marieke Nijkamp, and art by Yasmin Flores Montanez. This is a new story, I guess, set in the Goosebumps universe. This is honestly something that is very much out of my wheelhouse. I never read Goosebumps as a kid or anything like that. But it’s about a kid who is a gamer. She has one prosthetic arm, so clearly she feels uncomfortable about going outside. But she meets another friend who’s a prominent gamer and they begin exploring their town that has some spooky monsters in it. What’d you think about this book?

Pete:                Well, yeah, I’m not really a big Goosebumps head, but I really like the start of this. This is a solid first issue. Does a great job of introducing interesting characters and then throwing into a shit show. And I understand like you look up to some hero, somebody you admire and they’re like, “Oh yeah, kid, you want to roll with me? Guess what? We’re going out into the nightmare that is this world.”

Alex:                 And I appreciate you explaining all ages, mostly kids book as throwing them into a shit show.

Pete:                Well, what would you call that fucking swamp land that they live in?

Justin:              There’s nothing wrong with swamp.

Pete:                I’m not saying that, but the swamp with monsters-

Justin:              What’s so scary about a swamp, Pete? Because it feels it’s moist.

Pete:                No, they have straight up monsters in their fucking swamp.

Justin:              But you seemed like hung up on the swamp.

Pete:                You’re the one hung up [crosstalk 00:22:03].

Alex:                 Fill the swamp, fill the swamp.

Justin:              That is what you always cheer. Even your time cheerleading at Cornell University, you were a huge fill the swamp.

Alex:                 See you, go big red.

Pete:                Oh my God.

Justin:              Just building out some of our background on the show. I liked this a lot, I also didn’t read Goosebumps, so I don’t know what Goosebumps brings to this story. It’s just like a creepy story I guess, the branding on it, because this story of these people coming together sort of through gaming and then the gaming becoming real. And then they go on the swamp to face a monster, could stand on its own in a fun way.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s a fun-

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:22:51] a story, like you said, I like the character, so I wanted a little more out of the story. But I feel like obviously we’re going to get that in the second issue.

Pete:                Issue two is a good spot to look for that.

Justin:              Yeah. Wait for it.

Alex:                 There you go. Let’s move on to another one, Giant-Size X-Men: Storm, number one from Marvel, written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Russell Dauterman. Now we have talked incessantly, but these Giant-Size X-Men books about what is going on here, these seem like half finished stories. What is happening? Well, [inaudible 00:23:21] as one might say.

Pete:                Nope.

Alex:                 No, but I would not say that. This issue-

Pete:                I also wanted to say though that this Jordan D. White said that this issue would change things for Storm forever. So there was a lot of hype going into this issue.

Justin:              Well, and can you pinpoint what that is?

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              What?

Pete:                Turns out Storm is sick and she’s got some things going on, and it makes me very sad.

Justin:              Well, but she-

Alex:                 No.

Justin:              But she’s cured by the end, spoiler.

Pete:                Yeah. Is she though? Because it seems like that demon they pulled out of her is just going to grow.

Alex:                 The only thing that I was going to say, just to kind of finish up the thing that I was saying that we can turn over to the rest of it, is this is finally bringing together some threads specifically from the Giant-Size X-Men issues. We get the Nightcrawler one, which focused a little bit on Cypher. We get the Storm one obviously which, or I guess it was the Jean Grey one maybe-

Justin:              I think so.

Alex:                 I honestly don’t remember. Whatever it was, it was a Storm story and they’re finally picking up on that. And we also get the [inaudible 00:24:31] one picking up with that as well and started to loop all of these disparate threads together. Justin, what did you think about this? Because you’ve been very, critical is probably the wrong word, but I would say dubious at least about [crosstalk 00:24:44].

Justin:              Yeah, surprised just in general that these have been sort of off the main character standalone stories or seemingly standalone stories. But to your point where you were just saying, I do think this amounts to a lot, it feels like, I don’t know if maybe it’s faded in our minds because of how much has happened in the X universe since the Dawn of X. But so much of those first issues were about sort of the artificial intelligence that will eventually destroy not only the mutants but the humans and be the real enemy. If humans and mutants can get over their shit and face AI.

Justin:              And it feels like maybe this is the moment where it starts. That being in the world which the whole premise of the world is that it accelerates time, it accelerates evolution. They pull this techno organic virus that Storm picked up in a recent issue where they went into … what is the place they went into?

Alex:                 The orcas, I think.

Justin:              Yeah. Orcas and The Children of the Vault is what I was trying to think of. And she pulls this techno organic virus, The Children of the Vault also a hyper evolving hyper time place, and takes it to this other even more pocket dimension where the time extends, it happens even faster. And I think that is the AI evolution that will eventually lead to some of the real monsters that the X-Men face in the Dawn of X issues. And the people we have at the end of this issue, sort of being there are Phantom X, Phantom X’s sort of twin, I guess. And then a random dude from AIM.

Alex:                 Yeah. And the other thing that’s kind of messed up about it, particularly as of a fan of the character is Cypher and Warlock seem to know what’s going on and seem to be kind of cool with it, which is not great. There’s definitely been some weird, potentially dangerous stuff going on with Cypher and Warlock over the course of this entire run. And that certainly seems to be the clearest tip of the hat to what’s happening here. So yeah, I 100% agree with you, Justin. This is like, I think the important thing, it’s surprising you said Storm, because I think the important thing is to the overall plot of what is happening with the X-Men line since the very beginning, versus necessarily Storm.

Justin:              Yeah. It feels like a bigger thing. That’s why I always say, “Don’t trust the guy that speaks all the languages.” He’s up at the bar, he’s talking to the bartender, ordering you a weird drink because he knows too much.

Alex:                 But yeah, good issue. Particularly if you’ve been reading these Giant-Size X-Men books, if you’ve read House of X and Powers of X, you really like those. I think this is a good thing to pick up on to kind of get potentially the ongoing story. Let’s move out to Big Girls Number two from Image Comic story and art by Jason Howard. I think we were pretty into but a little reserved on the first issue of this book, takes place in a post apocalyptic world where women grow to gigantic size, men also grow to gigantic size, but become monsters and are attacking one of the last remaining cities. We’ve been following one of the so-called Big Girls who was fighting back against them. We get more fleshed out about the world, this issue. I like this issue a lot more personally, because of the details and the nuance that it added. How’d you guys feel?

Pete:                Yeah, this is good because it’s like, all right, now we’re kind of really getting understanding of who’s who, where’s what type of situation.

Justin:              Who’s big, who’s little.

Pete:                Yeah. Men are monsters, women are saving the world, it’s great. I do think though that the kind of reveal at the end is really what’s going to kind of take this concept and kind of push it. But the art’s great, the action’s phenomenal. It’s a interesting world, so I’m excited for more. But I’m glad that and agree with Zalben that issue too kind of like solidify things a little bit better.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I mean, it’s nice to sort of, like you’re saying, Pete, see the sides of where everyone is. We have our main character who’s a little bit dubious about the status quo. And then we have this sort of rebel faction in the back half that is maybe-

Pete:                Also I was a little worried about how slow that one main character was to pull the trigger to save that other person’s life there. I was like, thought that would be a bigger issue and might come back.

Alex:                 We’ll have to see what happens.

Justin:              I love the double page spread in the middle of the book of our main Big Girl being operated on, and sort of repaired like really-

Pete:                Oh yeah, that was fun, some of the like-

Justin:              Cowgirl as she’s known.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Very Gulliver in that moment.

Pete:                Yeah, Gulliver, and I was going to say like, Fraggle Rock reminded me of the dozers a little bit.

Alex:                 Yeah. [crosstalk 00:29:49].

Justin:              You say Fraggle Rock a lot, just in general.

Pete:                Down at Fraggle Rock. Down at Fraggle Rock.

Alex:                 Down at Fraggle Rock.

Justin:              That’s not a criticism, that’s just an open ended statement.

Pete:                Every time I walk by a construction society, I want to take a bite out of it, what?

Justin:              Every time I walk past a pile of garbage, I want to talk to you.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              You walk past a construction site and you’re like, “What up dozers?” And they’re like, “Get the fuck out of here.”

Alex:                 We’re trying to build radishes here, come on. Justice League number 53 for DC Comics written by Joshua Williamson and art by Xermanico. This is tying into Dark Nights: Death Metal. This arc is called Doom Metal, and focuses on one mission of … I think it’s fair to call them sub Justice League members, slash-

Justin:              Woo, spicy.

Alex:                 Yeah, I’m sorry. [crosstalk 00:30:43].

Justin:              Shots fired.

Alex:                 It’s Detective Chimp. It’s hot girl. She’s a member of the Justice League. But they are going after Perpetua’s throne. Pete, you raised your hand, what would you like to say?

Pete:                I would say cute start, what a touching adorable start. Little Robin trying to sneak up on Batman [inaudible 00:31:05].

Justin:              Great. I guess I agree with Pete technically. But I do like-

Pete:                I mean the POV angles, it really was a kid looking up at these heroes. I thought that was such great attention to detail that really gives-

Alex:                 This really is not helping my theory that you don’t read beyond the first page or two, Pete.

Pete:                Okay, fine.

Justin:              That’s one conspiracy theory I can get behind.

Pete:                How about they born on a Doomsday panel that was later your dick, that was awesome.

Alex:                 I mean that was page four.

Justin:              Oh, he’s flipping through the book right now.

Alex:                 How about this thing at the last page that I just looked at.

Justin:              Yeah. You see this UPC code on the back cover? Woo, did not see that coming. That’s how you buy the book, they scan it.

Alex:                 What were you going to say, Justin?

Justin:              Ah, yes. I thought Pete was going to have a slight rebuttal.

Pete:                No, I’m just enjoying how much you guys enjoy shooting holes in everything I’m trying to do.

Justin:              Trying to do?

Alex:                 Oh man.

Justin:              What are you going to do?

Pete:                I don’t know, give my opinion, but apparently it’s not good enough because it only is stuff that happens in the beginning.

Alex:                 It’s a very good opinion. It’s a very good opinion. I’m just doing a classic comic book club La Zalben.

Justin:              That’s why they call him Alex La Zalben. I agree with Pete. There’s a lot of fun of this book. I love this sort of … it feels like a side quest in a fantasy game or a fantasy series in a fun way. I could read a lot of this Death Metal stuff for maybe a long time. It’s fun. [crosstalk 00:32:48].

Alex:                 It’s surprising, right?

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Because it’s silly. Pete, you did bring up the born on a Doomsday, [inaudible 00:32:56] who are also Doomsdays, it’s the sort of thing where you get to this point you’re like, “This is so stupid, but it works at the same time.” It’s just mashing your toys together, that’s all it is. But they’re having such a good time with it. It’s fun to read.

Justin:              Aaron and Garney arm falls off, you put a Doomsday on.

Alex:                 Exactly. All right. Let’s move on to Seven Secrets number two from Boom! Studios written by Tom Taylor and art by Daniele di Nicuolo. We really like the first issue of this though. I think there’s a little criticism from some of us about the end perhaps being a little confusing or not sure where it was going necessarily. But it is about a world where there’s a secret society. They hold seven secrets. We’re focusing on one character who’s part of that, who is the son of two of the characters who hold two of those secrets. At least one of those characters dies in the last issue. And that there’s a big villain who’s trying to take them all down. We flash back this issue and get an origin. I thought not only was this issue great, but the cliffhanger was superb. One of the best that I’ve read in a really long time, the last sentence of the book, and made me even way more into this book than I was before.

Pete:                Wow. I read that like last part and was like, “Oh man, that’s more heartbreaking than we need. You didn’t need to do that at the end.” But I agree, this is information that we needed and it’s important. Moving forward I’m glad they kind of took a breath to give us this kind of flashback type of thing. Yeah, I’m really into this book now. This issue got me more hyped about it.

Justin:              Yeah. Especially in an issue that felt like he was laying a lot of groundwork, it felt like sort of an exposition issue. A lot of like sort of drama in the King’s court style drama. And then to end on that emotional, just build up to that last panel was really well done.

Pete:                I can’t even look at … I’m sorry.

Alex:                 No. All I was going to say was that I’d be really fascinated to hear how Tom Taylor structured this, because it almost feels like you have this very Harry Potter sort of training section that potentially would come first. Then you go out to the inciting incident, which is the thing where the society gets messed up. And then you follow through from there, but he flipped it. He went from first issue, the second issue and he reversed the order of them and it works so well, it’s very, very smart.

Justin:              Yeah. The words I was trying to come up with earlier were palace intrigue. This issue is so much palace intrigue, and ending on a real strong emotional beat.

Pete:                I was just going to say that I can’t look at a gold little ducky without getting choked up anymore.

Alex:                 Oh man, sad stuff. Let’s move on to something that probably creeps you the fuck out, Pete, the Immortal Hulk number 37 from Marvel-

Pete:                Oh, Jesus Christ.

Alex:                 … written by Al Ewing Alan and art by Joe Bennett. The door is finally open. We finally know who the big villain of this book is. It’s the leader of course.

Pete:                Yeah, of course it is.

Alex:                 Or maybe it is. There might be something behind that. But the leader is looking to manipulate the green door the way that the Hulk and other gamma radiated heroes have been resurrected constantly, hence the Immortal Hulk of the title. While the Hulk is outside fighting in the real world, the leader is inside this hellscape or whatever is going on there. He has taken over Rick Jones. He has taken over … who’s the second one he’s taken over? I don’t remember. Oh, he’s taken over the irradiated guy, whatever the irradiated guy from the early on the run.

Pete:                Yeah, from the [crosstalk 00:36:57].

Alex:                 And there’s nobody else that he’s taken over as well that he hits at, we don’t know who that is yet. But, oh God, I cannot say enough about how terrifying it is to read every issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s too much, man. It’s too much. It’s gone too far. It’s gone too far.

Justin:              I love this book and the way, the sense of dread that’s been building from issue one and it just keeps extending to end, not only with the writing, but the art, despite all of the body, just disaster that’s happening on all these pages. You still get references too older Hulk artists. The last page feels like right out of the Hulk history, and so much of it, it feels just so big, every issue big and horrifying, just like I want everything to be.

Alex:                 This is a very meta way of looking at it, but it is very exciting to be reading an all timer. You don’t get that often when you’re reading a book, but you read this book and you’re like, “This is a Hulk run that people are going to talk about for decades.” This is going to be talked about in the same breath as Peter David’s run, as the original run, as all these other classic runs of a Hulk and other characters. And I don’t know how this is going to add up, I don’t know where this could go. But being in the middle there between Al Ewing’s writing and Joe Bennet’s art, which is like Cronenberg-esque in exactly the right way. It’s very exciting to read every issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah, 100%.

Alex:                 Great. Thanks. Glad you agree, Pete. Just [inaudible 00:38:50], no thanks.

Pete:                Well, I mean, I’m glad you guys are having fun.

Alex:                 That’s nice.

Justin:              Pete’s scared.

Pete:                This is a horror book with one of my favorite characters, so you guys enjoy your time, I’ll wait until we get Hulk.

Justin:              Is there another book you could read where the Hulk does something like, I don’t know, like smash.

Pete:                No, I don’t think there is. [crosstalk 00:39:13].

Alex:                 Dryad number five from Oni Press written by Kurtis Wiebe illustrated by Justin Osterling. I’ll give a little pluggy plug here. Go check out our bonus episode where we talk to the team behind this book in the comic book club feed, it was a blast and a pleasure to talk to them about the last issue of the book, as well as the run. But Dryad number five, we have our main characters now in the city, they are battling folks, they are trying to figure out what’s going on, the kids have no idea. There’s a big twist as usual towards the end of this issue. What’d you think about this one?

Justin:              This book continues to go its own way. You cannot predict the storytelling here and it’s fully into sci-fi, big sci-fi, Blade Runner-esque, corporate intrigue. And did not see that coming, curious with some still fantasy elements popping through. But it’s one of the few books I feel like we read where it’s like, “I have no idea where we’re headed.”

Pete:                Yeah. It’s very interesting. Each issue is kind of like its own thing, and what’s great is you don’t know what you’re going to get when you pick up this book, but it continues to tell a story just somehow more creatively in different ways. It’s impressive to kind of see this thing move forward. I continue to be impressed by the art and the storytelling. This one, we get a lot more action. And then some of the stuff that Zalben likes at the end, but like it’s …

Alex:                 What does that mean?

Pete:                You know what I’m talking about, that hot tub shit at the end, got a little weird that you’re into.

Alex:                 What? No, come on, Pete. I mean, that was pretty hot.

Justin:              I mean, I love a hot tub. I wish there was another book you were talking about [crosstalk 00:41:07].

Alex:                 You know what’s best about that is the hot tub scene. The hot tub scene being cut between the guy who had his legs blasted off, I was like, “Fuck yeah. Give me more of that, inject that into my veins.” No, it was good, that was fine. That was a good Ted scene and fleshed out more about the world, but I’m way more into what’s going on with the kids and what’s happening at the end. Great, great stuff.

Alex:                 Catwoman number 25 from DC Comics written by Ram V, an art by Fernando Blanco. This is a bunch of different things. This is tying into the Joker War. Almost an essential chapter of it, as we find out what Catwoman does with Bruce Wayne’s money. But also setting up a new classic status quo for Catwoman that I thought was great. I like this book across the board. I had a little burp there at the end, I’m sorry.

Justin:              How dare you.

Pete:                Okay. I really love the amazing flashback sequences with the kind of tiger stuff that was almost like this orangest type painting kind of thing, that was really cool. Plus the way they kind of drew the action with Catwoman was really a lot of fun, where you’re kind of on the same page, you see her kind of doing different moves. To me that’s kind of like old school comic book style and I really enjoyed that.

Justin:              We talked about this a little-

Pete:                I also burped at the end, that was weird.

Justin:              That is weird you guys, gas management, gas management bros.

Alex:                 Justin has covered for you.

Justin:              No, I am fully in charge.

Pete:                Oh God.

Justin:              I think we talked about this a little bit earlier when we were talking about the Batman books. But I want some resolution on the Batman Catwoman relationship, because it feels like we’ve been in this space because of whatever happened with changing up the creative teams when they did. We’re in this place where it’s like, wait, she’s just moving his money around and sort of not hanging out, what’s the deal? Want to know about their relationship. But aside from that sort of unrelated bother, this was an essential chapter I think. Seeing Catwoman doing this makes you understand the main story a lot more for the Joker War.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. All right. Let’s move into a little part of the show. And this is the end of the show here, which I like to call the Pete sandwich. And the reason I call it the Pete Sandwich is because we got a book Pete really wants to talk about, three books Pete does not want to talk about, and then a book Pete wants to talk about.

Pete:                Yeah, sandwich.

Alex:                 Pull back the curtain a little bit. But let’s get to it.

Justin:              And the best way to eat a sandwich is you start with the piece of bread that you really like, then you eat the middle, and then you get to the other piece of bread, which is the other thing you really like.

Pete:                Bread’s nice, man. Sometimes nice, fresh bread makes everything better.

Justin:              You just mash the sandwich bread first into your face and chew your way up.

Alex:                 Whenever I go to a deli, I’m like, “Hey, I’ll have a Italian Hero. Then take the Salami and the pepperoni and the Capocollo, you throw that out, [inaudible 00:44:20] you throw that out.”

Justin:              Capocollo, I love it.

Alex:                 You get rid of it. [crosstalk 00:44:24].

Justin:              Just some slightly oily bread.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:44:28], no, you put it out there and you throw it out. I don’t like it. Oil and vinegar, you throw it out. Once & Future number 11 from Booms! Studios written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Dan Mora. Holy shit, the end of this issue is fucking insane, not to curse too much. But they have been fighting Grendel of the Beowulf myth, they took care of Beowulf. This issue, they fight, they take care of Grendel. You can kind of see where this is going. You know where this is going. But the way Dan Mora draws this is so horrific and so perfect. This issue is great. I like this series anyway, but this is one of my favorite issues in a while.

Pete:                Yeah. This is really just kind of back to what started this thing and made us love it so much, just unbelievable action. This amazing grandmother in the heart of it. I can’t, I mean, if you don’t like this book, I don’t know what to tell you. This to me is great comics, unbelievable art, unbelievable storytelling. The action and violence is mwah, chef’s kiss, just fantastic. I’m having so much goddamn fun with this book.

Justin:              Yeah. Shout-out to our interview with Kieron Gillen, where we talked about this book a lot. Because it really informs a lot of the process and it makes it so much richer to read this book, hearing him talk about it. Because you get to see in this issue the story that they’re sort of caught up in and fighting catch up with them simultaneously. It feels like they’ve been sort of alongside the story or ahead of the story a little bit. And this last panel, last couple of panels or pages, you really see the story come up and be like, you’re done, we got you here. And that’s really satisfying to see on top of the fact that it’s just a great action story and sequence and wildly bloody in a fun way.

Alex:                 Yeah. So good. This is just great. Let’s move on to the … sorry, I got a little sick there even thinking about a Capocollo of the stack. X-Men number 12 from Marvel Comics written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Leinil Francis Yu. In this issue-

Pete:                What the fuck? What the fuck is going on?

Justin:              Uh-oh. He’s in [crosstalk 00:46:58].

Alex:                 This is a classic.

Pete:                No, no, no, no, no, this, okay, all right, fine. You’re going to have fuck island, you’re going to … you can’t keep adding crazier shit on top of crazier shit.

Alex:                 No, man. This is classic-

Pete:                You have to deal with it, you can’t keep just fucking adding crazy shit.

Justin:              Can’t you?

Pete:                How did Hickman say … how did he pitch [inaudible 00:47:22]. Okay guys, I’m going to change X-Men forever. And just when you think it can’t get crazier, I’m going to keep adding crazier … I’m not going to deal with that, I’m just going to keep going to crazy town and then walk away.

Alex:                 The reason I said this was the Capocollo is because it has the surprising, sliced peppercorns in the middle where you’re like, “Whoa, where did that come from?”

Justin:              Woo, spicy.

Alex:                 Yeah, classic X-Men book. As we all know, Apocalypse originally came from the dimension of our Rocco separate Island next door to-

Pete:                What the fuck.

Alex:                 That has since had sex with and enjoyed with [inaudible 00:47:59]. His grandchildren have kept on his legacy. There is the opposite of apocalypse, the evil apocalypse, because as we all know, the apocalypse is good now.

Justin:              Famously heroic.

Pete:                What is happening?

Alex:                 I don’t know.

Pete:                This doesn’t make any sense.

Alex:                 This is definitely like, it’s funny to read this after the past couple of the issues where Jonathan Hickman was like, “I don’t know, [inaudible 00:48:26] is killing shit out of the moon or whatever,” I don’t know what’s going on. This is fun. They’re just killing some plants. We’re having a good time, isn’t this fun?

Pete:                Is he throwing darts at a board?

Alex:                 Yeah, this is fun [crosstalk 00:48:35]. He’s like, “Did you forget that I’m Jonathan Hickman?” [crosstalk 00:48:43].

Justin:              I think I can shout out everyone’s favorite panel from this issue, for everyone’s favorite page, excuse me. The info page sort of two thirds the way through where we list the [inaudible 00:48:54]. And it’s an infographic where we find out about the summoners from the school of [inaudible 00:49:01], this world that we just invented and arrived at, and how you can either be a shitty summoner, a decent summoner or a kick ass summoner. And can summon Pete, this [inaudible 00:49:12] is fun. You can summon our hoard of elementals, and up to three major [inaudible 00:49:17].

Alex:                 It is wild that at the course of one issue Jonathan Hickman is like, “Oh yeah, Apocalypse had a wife and also a evil opposite Apocalypse who is going to kick off his Ten of Swords type thing or whatever, because there’s all these powerful swords. It’s not big deal. Anyway, let’s go into a hole, it’s all good.” And then it picked up this random game that he introduced and that got away from in the last issue is insane.

Justin:              Yeah. And he’s like, “Oh, don’t worry. In case you’re of worry this isn’t an X-men book focused on the heroic X-Men, don’t worry because we got Banshee and Unus the Untouchable coming along for the ride.”

Alex:                 Also they’re all mutants and one of their powers is to never lose, which is crazy.

Justin:              That’s a hell of a thing to say.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean, this is saying a lot. This was the most Jonathan Hickman issue of X-Men so far.

Justin:              I mean, it’s a full on fantasy story at this point. That’s why I think this issue is a real, is pointing us to what Ten of Swords is going to be, and it’s going to be this. It’s going to be epic grand scale battles with people and places that we don’t know too much about and may never.”

Alex:                 But that’s okay. Well, all I’m going to say is, I’ve been enjoying this enough and this has been crazy enough that I’m willing to follow them down this rabbit hole into your insaneville that I don’t understand.

Justin:              100%.

Alex:                 But I also think … Hold on. Pete, I do want to hear what you have to say, but the only thing that I want to say is you think back to nineties, two thousands, X-Men they were like, “Oh yeah, there’s a mega level mutants. Oh yeah, now there’s externals.” All of these things that we 20, 30 years down the road are like, yes, yes, that’s part of canon and I get that and I understand that. That’s what they’re doing right now. That’s what he is doing is he’s adding in these insane details to the X-Men Mythos that decades down the road we’re going to be like, “Yes, I remember that. That is Arakko. That’s what happens there.”

Justin:              Alex, what are you crazy? Immortal mutants that don’t know they’re immortal that’s normal. Ten Swords, that’s insane. Can you imagine Ten Swords?

Alex:                 You’re right. I’m sorry. That’s too bad. I apologize.

Pete:                I just want to start by saying I’m not willing to follow them into this crystal anus that they’re walking into. All right. This is too insane. It’s not an X-Men book. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on anymore.

Justin:              I guess I’m changing your birthday plans, Pete, because it’s very similar to that.

Pete:                Okay. Well, I have no idea what the fuck is happening, who fuck is doing what. Cool. I’m glad people are having fun, but wake me when the X-Men show up.

Alex:                 I don’t usually like to talk about further episodes of The Stack, but next week we’re going to be reading Dawn of X of Swords, Enter the Crystal Anus number one. And I hope you’re going to read it, Pete.

Justin:              I have a feeling you’re going to love it. I feel bad because the Crystal Anus is on my favorite bars in Brooklyn and it closed because of COVID.

Pete:                Oh, it’s too bad.

Alex:                 All right, let’s move on to the … let’s say salami of this particular Stack. Faithless number two, number four-

Pete:                Here we go.

Alex:                 … from a Boom! Studios written by Brian Azarello and art by Maria Llovet. I feel like we were a little down on the last issue of Faithless. Justin, I’m talking specifically to you because Pete doesn’t want to talk about this at all. This issue I thought was very good. This is, Faith finally shows off her art. She goes on a tour of Turin I believe, with maybe a demon or a fallen angel or something like that. Very weird, very dark. What were you going to say?

Justin:              I was going to say, I feel like what we’ve been talking about is it feels like this book has been spinning its wheels for a couple of issues where it’s like, “We get it. She’s an artist.” There’s all these like dark clouds gathering around her with demonic intentions. But I think this issue, especially the back half for the back third, we get sort of what the book is about a little bit. And it’s about her being this conduit through sex to connect with ghosts and sort of use them in her art. And that feels, knowing that is great, is helpful to maybe giving her a power in the story to guide it as opposed to just be this innocent washed up in all this chaos.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean it’s interesting because it’s kind of a battle for her soul type thing, right? They’ve been pretty clear about that, it’s [inaudible 00:54:12] et cetera. But you have this master artist who is coming in, who is encouraging to go further in the darkness, versus she has this guy who comes out of the devil’s door, but he’s good in a way, he inspires her to be better. But it’s fascinating, this is … Pete, you must’ve loved this issue, right?

Justin:              The devil’s door was actually the back entrance to the Crystal Anus and again it closed forever.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, what sucks is I thought we were going to kind of get away from all the madness a little bit and then it’s like, “Oh, this is a nice date.” But then it’s like, “Oh yeah, of course the dead person with an open head wound is going to still get some, because this is a fucking weird ass book.”

Alex:                 It gives you hope though, right? If you ever [inaudible 00:55:03].

Pete:                Yeah. I had a little hope and then the douchebag showed up at the end again.

Alex:                 No, I mean if you ever get a head wound, you might still be on the market.

Pete:                Yeah, still bangable. Yeah, it’s true. Just because you got an open head wound doesn’t mean you still can’t get some I guess is the moral-

Justin:              That’s the spirit.

Alex:                 That’s what it says on my Tinder profile.

Justin:              Alex, you’ve been married for so long, you got to shut that Tinder profile down.

Alex:                 I did actually not to veer into a true story. I don’t think we’re married yet, but we’re definitely for like-

Pete:                How the fuck.

Alex:                 No, I had a Nerve profile and four years into dating my wife right before I proposed to her I was featured on nerve as a single. And I was like, “Oh shit, oh no.”

Pete:                That’s hilarious.

Justin:              Bummer, metal pocket the ring for a couple of weeks.

Alex:                 Yeah. I honestly went on only like three or four dates before I shut it down off of that. But yeah, then we got married.

Justin:              That’s a beautiful story and was a great toast at your wedding by the way.

Alex:                 Thank you. All right. Let’s move on to the serrano ham of The Stack. The Amazing Spider Man-

Justin:              Oh, this is a high-Class sub.

Alex:                 It’s a good sub. It’s a brooklyn style sub. The Amazing Spider-Man, Sins of Norman Osborn number one from Marvel Comics written by Nick Spencer and art by Federico Vicentini. This is another essential chapter of the storyline it feels like, that I don’t understand why it’s a one shot other than them trying to maybe hit the timing right for anniversary issues or something. But Spider-Man is trying to save Norman Osborn. The spider family is trying to decide whether to stop him or not from the Sin-Eater. I thought this was very good. I’ve been liking this storyline quite a bit.

Justin:              I mean, I agree. I’ve been loving the Sin-Eater stuff, like such a departure from what Nick Spencer was doing before. This storyline is wild. There’s so much happening here touching on a ton of continuity-

Alex:                 So much stuff.

Justin:              The fact that the Sin-Eater kills negative man, and then adapts his powers, it’s like, oh, you have to know, you have to have been reading Spider-Man for a long time to know what the fuck is happening.

Pete:                Yeah. Also it’s just so much like stuff that you’re like, oh, that could have been an ending, oh, that could have been an ending. And then the whole juggernaut thing is just such a couple panels that could have been such a huge thing. I was just really surprised at how much shit is jam packed in this issue and what the actual like oh shit reveal at the end is. There’s just so much stuff packed in here, it’s kind of surprising a little bit.

Alex:                 Yeah. But it’s a good issue, particularly if you’ve been reading Amazing Spider-Man, definitely pick this one up. Last one, back to the bread as we expected. Head Lopper number 13 from Image Comics story and art by Andrew Maclean. Pete, I got to say, there is no head lopping of this book. And in fact, he has a chance to lop ahead and he says, “No, I didn’t want to lop it.” I thought this book was garbage.

Pete:                Oh my God.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 First off-

Pete:                Didn’t live up to the title.

Alex:                 I expect a little more head lopping for my head lopping, that’s all I’m saying.

Pete:                Okay. Well, if you don’t like it, you be quiet and me and Justin will talk about that. Okay. First off, because we all know talking about the first page is the most important thing, love the map stuff, I love where you kind of give us a map of the world, setting things up. Really gray, kind of starts off with some deep quotes to kind of get you in this mindset for something that isn’t just violence and action. There’s more to it if you can kind of look past it if you will. But man, this comic just delivers nonstop. It’s a fun action story with some heart, with some just amazing creative team behind. I love it. It keeps getting better and better. And I don’t think I’ll ever … it seems like a simple concept, but it goes so far beyond that. I’m very happy with the team that they’re traveling with now is very cool. And the art continues to be badass.

Justin:              Let me throw this out to you, Pete. And tell me if this is something you like or something you hate. This book is-

Pete:                Oh, wait. I know what you’re going to say. Yeah, I would prefer a prosciutto instead of ham on my Italian.

Justin:              Yeah. All right. How many [crosstalk 00:59:43].

Alex:                 I chose serrano ham based on Norman Osborn who seems a little more like a ham to me.

Pete:                Oh, okay, all right.

Alex:                 Right. And the salami for Faithless I think you can figure out.

Pete:                Yeah, definitely.

Justin:              Definitely. Love it.

Alex:                 What were you going to say?

Justin:              What I will say is this book is Usagi Yojimbo meets the Legend of Zelda. [crosstalk 01:00:07].

Pete:                It’s such a sweet spot.

Justin:              That’s what I’m saying. That’s that sweet peat.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 The art of this book is great to be totally serious about it. It’s so good. It is fun at fantasy stuff. It’s funny. I think there’s a little bit of a crossover in terms of the pacing and the story with Murder Falcon in a certain way. They’re totally different stories, but in terms of very similar looking character, it’s just like these short, stocky, angry dudes who chop up things. I don’t know why you like that specifically, Pete, but that seems to be in your wheelhouse. But it’s a good book. Definitely pick it up.

Pete:                It’s a great book.

Alex:                 All right. If you like to support us patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do a live show every Tuesday at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and…

Pete:                Sure do.

Alex:                 … YouTube. Thanks Pete. iTunes, Android Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show at comic book live on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and more. We’ll see you next week at the virtual comic book shop.

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