The fact that DC’s Robin War crossover and Marvel’s Secret Wars mega-event-crossover ended on the same day is one of those small ironies that people who write about stuff on the internet (i.e. me) really like. Whoa, these comics both had titles ending in “war” and they were both crossovers and they ended on the same day! That’s a perfect reason to compare them!
But it’s not the only reason to compare them. While these are similar in the surface level (in that they’re both crossover comic book events tying into multiple series in mainstream superhero comics), they could not be more different in approach, nor in effectiveness. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start this off with some quick metrics, because it’s 2016 and people love, like, analytics and numbers and math and stuff.
(I should also note that, while I keep everything generally spoiler-free as far as the finales go, the images here do imply and/or reveal some plot points from the earlier issues of Robin War, specifically the end of Robin: Son of Batman #7. So if you’re not caught up yet and don’t want to know what happens in the run-up to this finale … um … don’t look at the pictures, I guess.)
As if the teases of the end of Secret Wars and the start of Civil War II and oh, yeah, we have that Avengers: Standoff thing as well haven’t been enough to exhaust you when it comes to Marvel’s big event books, the House of Ideas released another random teaser this afternoon, with absolutely no information attached:
“Dead No More”? Is that some kind of Faith No More cover band with everyone dressed up in Deadpool masks or something? Because, when it comes to the current Marvel output, the idea of dead means dead is, at best, a malleable concept. Continue reading →
00:00-17:43: Greetings and Happy New Year from Graeme “I Didn’t Lose Consciousness, I Just Blacked Out” McMillan and Jeff “No, That Is Exactly What Happens When You Lose Consciousness: You BLACK OUT” Lester, who have a very extended non-comics opening session that involves the Snowpocalypse, bicycles, learning to ride bicycles, the delay some of us might’ve had in learning to ride bicycles, rude four year olds, growing up out in the middle of nowhere, and, yes, blacking out. 17:43-1:09:46: Okay, so yes comic books. Don’t worry, we remember! (Or…do we?) Following on the heels of his recent post here at the website, Graeme and I talk about DC’s Teen Titans. More specifically, DC’s comic book incarnation of the Teen Titans, and even more specifically, the revitalization of that title (which we could more honestly remove the “re-“ and call a vitalization) under Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, as well as what happened to it afterward. Graeme has read a huge ton of the material recently—including Teen Titans Omnibus1, 2, and 3, as well as the New 52 trades and the current Titans Hunt series by Dan Abnett, Paulo Siqueira, and Geraldo Borges—whereas Jeff has been out of the Titans loop for a very long time, but was a fan of the Wolfman/Pérez material back in the day. Discussed/referenced: The Beatles, Chris Claremont, the Uncanny X-Men, the Dark Phoenix storyline, The Judas Contract, that “annoying blond guy,” the second big Trigon storyline and the secret theory about it that Jeff never gets to utter because there’s too much gabbing going on.
(PODCAST BONUS: That theory? About a story Jeff never finished reading? The theory is that Raven was sexually abused by her demonic father and Wolfman thought he could make the icky subtextual link between icky sexual abuse and demonic evil into actual text in the direct market-only Baxter-approved book but then wasn’t able to for whatever reason and then had nowhere else to go…unless that is indeed what happened, in which case it’s just as well I didn’t mention it on-air anyway.)
Also discussed: Wolfman’s confession about his years-long creative block and subpar work; the importance of George Pérez as the detailed yang to Wolfman’s scattered yin; the gap between Paul Smith and John Romita, Jr., and between George Pérez and José Luis Garcia-Lopez; Bob McLeod, as penciller and inker; the artistic legacy of the New Mutants; Kurt Schaffenberger; Louise Simonson taking over New Mutants; Doug Ramsey as an example of the limitation of the superhero genre; slowly typing in those stupid programs onto the VIC-20 that never worked right; the movie War Games and The Hacker’s Handbook; Chris Claremont not being down with X-Factor; post-Tumblr DC; the three distinct eras of Teen Titans, including the Geoff Johns and Scott Lobdell’s eras; the Marvel template and the hot-headed feet of clay character; the above-referenced Titans Hunt by Dan Abnett, Paulo Siqueira, and Geraldo Borges (and Stephen Segovia); “racist” Aqualad; the return of Mr. Twister; how to avoid alienating new readers right after attacting them; and more.
1:09:46-1:23:59: FINALLY, we put the Titans to rest and move on to a new timecode as we segue from how Titans Hunt handles its approach to a reboot with the new nonboot from All New All Different Marvel. Discussed: Al Ewing’s work on the current incarnation of The Ultimates, and why he’d be the perfect writer for The Fantastic Four;Marvel winning truly new comic readers and then losing them with a reboot; the end of the first volume of Ms. Marvel;The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’s upcoming crossover with Howard The Duck; Chip Zdarsky on Howard The Duck vs. Chip Zdarsky on Jughead; what happens when sales targets are not met and how to measure those sales targets; and whether or not sales on Marvel’s Star Wars books are leveling or actually dropping.
1:23:59-1:37:59: And because Jeff has finally(!!) seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we move into moderate spoiler territory as we talk about the difficulty Marvel might have in doing Star Wars comics in The Force Awakens milieu, even though they absolutely should despite [SPOILERS] and [SPOILERS] and [SPOILERS]. Also discussed: the awkward comic book shenanigans caused by the end of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Stars Wars: The Road to the Force Awakens—Look Out, Here Comes The Force Awakens;iZombie, Lucifer, and the twelve recent Vertigo launches including by Slash And Burn by Si Spencer who is NOT Si Spurrier; and more.
1:37:59-1:46:39: And that “more” lets Jeff steer the convo over to High School Debut, his newest manga crush from Kazune Kawahara who is the writer of other current manga crush object, My Love Story!! High School Debut is Kawahara’s earlier project where she was both writer and artist, and Jeff may like it even more that MLS!! Discussed: a comparison of buying for the Kindle and reading on Comixology to smuggling cigarettes; the hook for High School Debut; and an eensy bit more.
1:46:39-1:50:58: “But let’s flip it back to you Graeme,” sez Jeff. “what have you been reading recently, apart from a shit-ton of Teen Titans?” Although Graeme insists at first he’s been reading nothing but Teen Titans, in fact he’s also been catching up with the Valiant titles, in part after reading the CBR list of the Best 100 comics of 2015. Find out the books that Graeme would pay money to keep reading and which books had potential and lost momentum.
1:50:58-2:12:30: Graeme has also been reading a lot of prose, including Elvis Costello’s Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Come for the book review, stay for Jeff’s encounter with Mr. C and, more importantly, something somone once said about the film classic Gregory’s Girl that he unconditionally believed for thirty years. And then…
2:12:30-end: *No* closing comments! That’s right, due to some miscommunication between Jeff and the wife lady, he has to leave Toot Sweet (which, no, does not mean he has his throat cut with a straight razor by Mickey Rourke). And so, we do not get a chance to extend on-air our special thanks to the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios for their continuing support of this podcast..as well as our special thanks to the Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy…and to all 113 of our supporters on Patreon who make our show possible.
Fortunately, Graeme does have the time before we go to check out the Gregory’s Girl story and disprove it, crushing a three decade long belief by Jeff. Right. Into. The. Fucking. Dirt. And maybe it’s just me, but Graeme seems actually pretty delighted to do so? I mean, Jeff was basically like this:
Anyway, look for us on Stitcher!Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr! And, of course, where, as of this count, 115 patrons make this whole thing possible!
Next week: episode 13 of Baxter Building! Read up on issues #103-112 of the Fantastic Four and join us for your monthly dose of semi-historical comic analyses. We’ll see you then!
Howdy, Whatnauts! Graeme and Matt came so strongly out of the gate with their posts—and unlike me, they didn’t even take any time off from posting at the end of the year—so I feel both the pull to do something different yet hopefully equally strong. For a while, it was going to be a post about the nature of heroism as reflected in the work of Kazune Kawahara, but a few crazy days of work kinda shattered my ability to type anything more insightful than “Kazune Kawahara’s work is really about the nature of heroism.”
So instead, join me after the jump for me talking about two books I didn’t get a chance to talk about on our first episode of the year (which should be dropping super-soon): SPIDEY #2 by Robbie Thompson, Nick Bradshaw and Jim Campbell, and SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL #1 by Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, and Jason Keith.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT’S 2016! Welcome to the future, everybody! Time for a fresh start! A new beginning! A time to leave behind last year’s super-normcore faves and come out guns a’blazin’ with a look at something sassy, inventive, obscure, and literary!
OR — and I’m just spitballing here — we could look at the fifth volume of a comic series based on a video game based on a shared comic book universe. ONE GUESS WHICH WAY I GO!
Yup. Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three Volume 1, coming right up after some thoughts on licensed comics in general.
Last month, at some point, I wondered aloud on Twitter why Marv Wolfman’s 15-and-a-bit year run as writer on New Teen Titans/New Titans hasn’t been given the same critical re-appraisal as Chris Claremont’s 16 years as X-Men writer. People responded with a number of suggestions, but having just spend a weekend reading New Teen Titans Omnibus Volumes 1-3, I think I’ve managed to pinpoint the problem: Titans peaked far, far too early. Continue reading →
I guess I should be happy that — around a day job and family stuff and writing stuff and whatever the else I do with my time (drinking?) — I managed to read enough comics this year that I literally cannot remember them without outside help. From a certain point of view, that seems like what Ten-Year-Old Me would chalk up as a complete and total success.
But it’s also kind of weird, a worrying sign that maybe I really AM old and the gray beard hairs and growing kids and what-not are for real, not some kind of elaborate prank. Like, they’re comics, many of which I enjoyed. Shouldn’t I be able to remember them?
Regardless of what I “should” do, I couldn’t. I wanted to join Jeff and Graeme’s retrospective fiesta from the last podcast and list some of my favorite books of the year, and I had NO GODDAMNED IDEA what I had read this year.
Part of this is the weird timelessness of modern media, which I’ve written about before. The mashup of books from the library and books showing up on Marvel Unlimited and books that I buy because they’re on sale digitally means that a whole bunch of stuff is “from 2015” as far as I’m concerned.
But part of it is just that I’m apparently losing my damned mind.
Fortunately for this post, we now live in a friendly surveillance state, so I can easily sort my digital purchases by date, I can go through my archives here and elsewhere, and I can generally gin up a list of books that I want to mention. So that’s what I did. Come along as I take a trip back through time and into the murky, vague recesses of my mind and emerge with some awards and superlatives for stuff I read this year, below!
Hey, Whatnauts! Welcome to our last episode of the year, a little holiday bonus thrown into your Christmas stocking: done in haste, sure, but also with love and appreciation. Thanks to all of you, we’ve had a tremendous year, and we are crazily grateful.
So, after the presents are opened and you’re through tinkering/eating the all-chocolate Star Wars: The Force Awakens playset, fire up your podcast player and spend a breezy half-hour with us as we talk about Graeme’s headcanon for the Legion of Super-Heroes, and what that crazy bunch of bell-bottomed future teens, like, really mean, man.
It’s short and, for us, pretty on topic all the way through (in part because it was pretty much a trimmed digression from something else) so no show notes are necessary…what is necessary are, again, our thanks to you, and our best wishes for your continuing and/or emergent good health and happiness in these last remaining days of 2015, and for all of the new year to come.
As I said, this really is our last episode of the year, but I believe maybe all three of us will be posting here through the end of the year (I may flake, we’ll see) so rest your ears but exercise your eyeballs right here at wait what podcast dot com.
And, of course: Happy Holidays! We will see you in 2o16!
I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens at 10:30 p.m. on the Thursday night it hit theaters. I would estimate that I have spent roughly 25 minutes out of EVERY HOUR SINCE wanting to talk about the movie. I tried to convince Jeff that we should do a Roundtable about it, but he is some sort of weird monk who, as of Tuesday this week, HADN’T EVEN SEEN IT YET???!?, which strikes me as the very definition of madness circa December 2015.
He suggested that I just go ahead and write about it myself, but I don’t really have much to add to the 739,000,000 words that have already been churned out about it and so was just going to let it drop (where by “let it drop” I mean “write about something else while reading theories about the new characters in a separate tab”), and then I read <b>JLA #6</b>, written and drawn by Bryan Hitch, and I found my way in.
PLEASE NOTE: There will be spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens after the jump. If you are part of Jeff’s weird monk sect and haven’t seen it yet, hold off clicking through for now. Come join us once you’ve caught up.
(There will also be spoilers for the JLA issue, but … really, no one’s staying off of Twitter to avoid hearing about JLA #6.)
We’re two issues into Dark Knight III: The Master Race by this point, and I’m even more at a loss about how I feel about the series. The second issue feels even less like a legitimate Dark Knight project than the first — and, at times, far more like a cover version; the interrogation scene on the second and third pages feels like someone processing a Miller influence than anything that Miller himself had any hand in, even the “consulting” credit he gives himself in interview — and, at times, far less like a Batman project, given the issue’s Atom subplot. And yet, I can’t quite shake the feeling that I’m appreciative of these shifts from expectation, and that I might even enjoy the strangeness that this series is more than I would a real third Miller Dark Knight.
I’m about to spoil the second issue for those who’re concerned about things, so look away now if you want to discover the twists for yourself. Continue reading →
Last month, at some point, I wondered aloud on Twitter why Marv Wolfman’s 15-and-a-bit year run as writer on New Teen Titans/New Titans hasn’t been given the same critical re-appraisal as Chris Claremont’s 16 years as X-Men writer. People responded with a number of suggestions, but having just spend a weekend reading New Teen Titans Omnibus Volumes 1-3, I think I’ve managed to pinpoint the problem: Titans peaked far, far too early. 
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