(From Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane)
First things first, make sure you don’t miss out Matt talking about that Logan movie right below this very entry, y’hear?
Good stuff, right? And now, some show notes:
0:00-3:47: Greetings! This week’s opening illustrates that turnabout is fair play. (Or does it?)
3:47-17:12: And then, in another stunning reversal, we actually open the podcast, not closing it, by talking about the comics we’ve read recently, so we can dig into our books a little bit more than our dashed off lists at the end. We open with Jeff exhorting people with Marvel Unlimited to go read Son of Satan #8 by Bill Mantlo and Russ Heath, and then talking about his recent reads and purchases. Also discussed (briefly or not): Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane (via Comixology Unlimited); vol. 5 of Girl’s Manga Nozaki-Kun; vol. 1 of Murcielago (thanks, Paul Spence!); Suicide Squad #13 Gwenpool #13; Platinum End Chapter 17; and the most recent issue (or should we say ‘the last issue’?) of Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye.
17:12-43:50: Jeff picked up two digital trades of STEVE FUCKING ENGLEHART’s West Coast Avengers. But before we get there, Graeme, as it turns out, has been reading almost the entire run of Green Lantern Corps by none other than…STEVE FUCKING ENGLEHART! Unsurprisingly, what follows is a very extensive discussion on STEVE FUCKING ENGLEHART and, maybe more surprisingly STEVE ENGLEHART’s take on FUCKING.
43:50-50:58: Jeff has also been reading Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored, and hoo boy what a read that is turning out to be!
50:58-1:07:27: Next, we set our sights on Amazing Spider-Man #25, a $9.99 comic that Graeme and I both plunked down hard cash on because that’s how much we dig Hannah Blumenreich’s work. Before we get to that, though, Jeff has some questions about Dan Slott’s Spider-Man. Like, a lot of questions.
1:07:27-1:12:21: (In case you’re wondering where we rave about Hannah Blumenreich’s “Mutts Ado About Nothing” from that issue, this is pretty much where we do it.)
1:12:21-1:23:32: From there, Graeme pivots to cover some of the other stuff he’s been reading, in particular the last six issues (and more) of the two Captain America titles, but also taking in comics like the current run on Flash, the Fraction/Aja/and co. version of Hawkeye and more.
1:23:32-1:32:23: But! Graeme is really enjoying All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Ig Guara, and others.
1:32:23-1:52:08: Since we’re talking about Marvel books, Jeff wanted to talk about/overanalyze a lovely tweet from Al Kennedy that asked: “Here’s a game: You’re Marvel. Your distribution deal collapses back to the 1960s, so you’re only allowed to publish 8 books. What are they?” We talk about Graeme’s answer, and why Jeff is being a weirdo and why he can’t answer.
1:52:08-2:05:14: And to pivot from there: when is a Marvel book not a Marvel book? Boy, does Graeme have a very weird answer to that cheesy question.
2:05:14-2:28:33: Closing comments? Or…last minute digression to talk about the little bit of Iron Fist we’ve seen on Netflix? (I should flesh this out a little bit more but I don’t think you’re going to get more from me than a link to Graeme’s glorious tweet).
2:28:33-end: Closing Comments! Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr, and on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios and Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for their continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Another Wait, What?!? Hell, yes!
Cutting? Pasting? Of course!
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat220.mp3
Spider-Man… sigh.
Poor Spidey. No one gets him right. We’re a million miles from the core of the character. I made myself stop reading his titles, even for free on Unlimited. It’s a real bummer for me. I’ve been following this character since I was a lad of 6, but no more.
I don’t get it. To me, the core is very simple and as relatable as ever. Jeff, you made a point in the podcast about the unrealistic-ness of skilled STEM majors having to take bad jobs to scrape by. This is wrong (and will worsen under the current administration). The job market for myself and fellow math PhDs has been anything but kind. Someone like Peter Parker, who never got his advanced degree, would be in even worse shape unless he had good connections in the field, WHICH HE WOULDN’T because Peter Parker burns all his bridges.
The idea of Peter as the head of a multi-national corporation is laughably out of character. Let me know when he meets with Donald Trump to deregulate Parker Industries, so I can torch my entire collection.
ATTN: GRAEME MCMILLAN
Apropos of nothing, have you read Jeff Parker’s Thunderbolts? I binged it on MU last week. What a ride. You will love these comics. The art is by Kev Walker (a strong 2000 AD guy) and Declan Shalvey (before working with Ellis on Moon Knight). Of course, Marvel fucks it up with double shipping and inserting the Dark Avengers, but Parker/Walker/Shalvey get a run from 144 to 174 that’s just a rollicking good time.
(See look, I tied it back to bitching about Marvel, so it’s not completely off topic).
That run is fantastic for quite a while, though they definitely fumble the ending what with losing the Parker and Shalvey, and the forced insertion of the totally boring Dark Avengers. Still, most of that stuff is gold, especially the pre-Dark Avengers time travel stuff.
My memory may be failing me, but I swear Graeme & Jeff were reading Parker’s Thunderbolts when it was coming out. Our pee-slinging gentlemen were all about the Boss Cage, as was I, IIRC.
Pea-slinging*
“Pee-slinging” is what a certain President of the United States does.
To me, I’ve always thought Marvel’s strength and weakness is it doesn’t really have the high upper echelon of characters like DC. But it does have much stronger secondary characters. I’d much rather have Daredevil, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, etc. over Spider-Man any day.
I have to say, I’m a comic fan and Hip Hop aficionado. I have no interest in the Black Eyed Peas thing – except maybe in a morbid fascination. It’s very much a KISS Saves Santa kind of way. So I’m guessing this sadly won’t be on Marvel Unlimited?
On Iron Fist, it gets better. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong, but it gets better. The first episode may have been the weakest episode of the season (or of television I’ve seen in a long time).
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I feel like you guys are being unfairly harsh on Slott’s Spidey. I’ve been reading superhero comics for 30 years and tried and failed repeatedly to get into Spider-Man. The only exception was Ultimate Spider-Man which I really dug. Slott’s run on Spidey was the first time I actually stuck with the title month-to-month. He’s been around too long and has too much in-continuity history for me to accept as wacky next-door neighbor fuckup Spidey. He’s a Marvel icon, possibly the biggest. He’s always inventing industry-changing technology like his webbing and freaking joy-inducing guns (yes, I sadly bought Maximum Carnage). Having a STEM background may not guarantee success, but Peter has demonstrated success time and time again in the comics. Telling successful grownup Peter stories doesn’t come across as #notmyspiderman but rather as a natural evolution and something different to do with the character. I’d rather see Batman Inc with Spidey than the umpteenth Green Goblin battle with zero stakes and zero consequence.
I think I’m also able to accept it because it isn’t something Peter freely accomplished. Doc Ock did it all, and Peter inherited it. So now we get to see him slowly mess up his adulthood. In stories that are much more coherent and fun than anything else in the last 20 years.
I’m not sure what else you’d have Marvel do with the character. Outside of hitting the reset button every month and featuring Scooby-Doo-esque episodic antics of his villain-of-the-month.
Granted, all that said, I’m no longer buying the book. I refuse to pay $10 for a new number 1 every year when I can just read it on Marvel Unlimited.
Dream Marvel line-up:
Spider-Man and Friends by Hannah Blumenreich
X-Men by Dennis Hopeless and Colleen Coover
Ms. Marvel and the Defenders by G. Willow Wilson and Brittany Williams
Squirrel Girl Forest Pals by Ryan North and Erica Henderson
Star Wars: Galaxy Tales by Claudia Gray and Mark Brooks
Leia and Han by Marjorie Liu and Walter Simonson
New Mutants by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Dodsons
Deadpool by Gail Simone and Evan Dorkin
Nice picks all around, Bill, but I really appreciated the cleverness of your Deadpool team. That’s a deep cut right there!
I dig those combos – but “New Mutants by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Dodsons.” That would be one hell of a weird combo of turgid political maneuvering and cheesecake.
After the second or third time he mansplained something, I got it. Iron Fist is a show about Danny Rand, neckbeard and douchebag. Once I figured that out, the whole thing clicked for me.
I’m really glad you liked Nozaki-kun! (sorry I never commented after the episode!) It’s one I really feel has great comedy. I spent a lot of years reading trashy girls manga growing up its one of my guilty pleasures (especially the bad ones). I do have another recommendation that’s a little different but the art and narration is extremely well done. It’s called Otoyomegatari (A Bride’s Tale) by Kaoru Mori – also published by Yen press but with no digital edition. I’d recommend a library loan at the very least to check it out!
Graeme and Jeff, when I was listening to the last Baxter Building I grabbed my Byrne FFs and you have NOTHING to apologize for re: that art.
Are neither of you reading Ultimates by Ewing and Foreman?
It is an incredible book and the most excited anything Marvel has put has made me in I can’t remember how long and is all deep pulling for the secret best Grant Morrison comic (Marvel Boy)