0:01-10:36: Greetings from Graeme “Derry Girls” McMillan and Jeff “New Mic, Old Mac” Lester! We hope you like our occasional forays into non-comic book talk, because that is definitely how we start out episode 276! Like the smoothest of stones, we skip from Keyser Soze to Derry Girls to Hobbs & Shaw to one of your hosts moving to artisanal cobwebs in under two minutes.
10:36-22:26: But, hey, we do swerve back to comic news before too long, as we discuss a pretty interesting tidbit recently come to light: Rob Liefeld doesn’t own the rights to Youngblood! Weird, right? And yet somehow true? Also discussed: buying Comico, licensing Amazing Heroes, and more.
22:26-25:01: Back to Hobbs & Shaw! Did you know Drew Pearce, who wrote No Heroics and Iron Man 3, also wrote H&S? That’s pretty cool right?
25:01-1:03:59: But since neither of us have seen Hobbs & Shaw, Jeff goes on to talk about Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood. No spoilers, sorta? (Depending on how well you know Tarantino films, we probably give away by what you can infer from our discussion.) We talk about this problematic movie from this problematic auteur and Jeff’s thoughts and feelings about the movie being (surprise!) troubled (and probably problematic). Also discussed: Tarantino movies; feet; ER and X-Files; Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Joss Whedon’s new series, The Nevers; and Neil Gaiman’s work for Marvel.
1:03:59-1:18:49: Speaking of which, guess what Graeme just reread this last week? No joke, it’s The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr.! As you know, bagging on Neil Gaiman is like catnip for Jeff, but Graeme manages to get some good points in there. Discussed; the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and where The Eternals might help or hinder that; and more.
1:18:49-1:22:39: Hey, that Powers of X #1 came out this week from Jonathan Hickman and R. B. Silva and it sure was something, wasn’t it? We talk about how ambitious and crazy and impressive it was, and what ends up exciting comics readers, Paul O’Brien doing annotations for House of X and Powers of X (yay!!!); and more.
1:22:39-1:29:26: Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is out and Jeff is digging on it. But is he reading Justice League? And if not, why?
1:29:26-1:44:51: Two hits and then a stunning miss: The Green Lantern Annual #1 by Grant Morrison and Giuseppe Camuncoli. It’s not our cup of tea, in no small part because it’s terrible.
1:44:51-1:52:28: We circle back to Powers of X #1 because, as we were saying earlier, it sure was something! We talk more about what that something is, and we debate whether or not we can really talk full-on spoilers or not? Graeme talks a few things that may or may not be spoilers, depending on how things turn out. We kick in with this at theory at 1:49:01 and it only lasts for a few minutes and is really just spoilery theories, I guess?
1:52:28-1:56:46: Also impossible to spoil is Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san, a very goofy little book by Shingo Honda about the trials and tribulations of working in the manga section of a Japanese bookstore and dealing with, among other things, westerners needing help finding their disquieting manga selections?
1:56:46-2:03:37: One of the ongoing joys of DC Universe for Jeff is that more often than not every week they upload an issue of Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #9, featuring Pat Boone.
2:03:37-2:07:44: Speaking of DCUniverse, Jeff has *finally* checked out Doom Patrol right? Well, wrong. Here more about his self-defeating TV choices. We also have a fast update about Graeme’s read of The Boys and how it reflects on the TV show.
2:07:44-end: Closing comments! Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr, and on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast. (Also, don’t forget about Spotify!)
Next week: STEVE ENGLEHART
And for those of you who cut, and those of you who paste:
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts3/WaitWhat276.mp3
Well, that was fun. I don’t suppose we could persuade you to put Drokk on hiatus for a rundown of Lois Lane issues, How Ironic >choke< ? I think I’m the only Brit comics fan who’s not fussed about Judge Dredd.
Re: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I saw it twice. The first audience was at one of the local arthouse/rep theaters, and ate up the Bruce Lee scene, seeming to take it in the spirit that (I think) it was intended. The second audience was a matinee at a multiplex, and the audience laughed AT Lee. The stark contrast convinced me that the best take on the scene was Walter Chaw’s at Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/on-bruce-lees-character-in-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood.html
Thanks for the link Matt. I had a similar reaction to Chaw in that it seemed like what was at stake was the caricature of Lee’s “invincible image” that had to service (or “job to”) Booth’s emergent lethality which was consummated in the Manson Family scene.
That’s not to say that I don’t understand and empathize with how the caretakers/dependents of Lee’s memory would be hurt by this portrayal.
The best I could do with Google: an old Comics Alliance article suggests that “weaponized AIDS” was from the Pamela Anderson movie Barb Wire.
Definitely excited for the interview. When you mentioned someone, my immediate thought was Englehart would be great. Honestly, it’s because of you guys that I’m a fan of his work. I don’t think I would have appreciated him nearly as much if it weren’t for your Avengers and FF read-throughs.
Graeme: nobody’s going to buy a ticking clock extinction gimmick in a shared universe
Graeme literally 1 minute later: Powers of X is awesome!
You know, Inhumans didn’t *have* to be terrible.
It was generally well cast, and it confronted the limits of its budget by framing Inhuman society as being under terrifying resource constraints, (which, given that they were living on the Moon, made a lot of sense). It dispensed with the Alpha Primitives so that the single most “Hang on, aren’t Black Bolt & co. the bad guys?” element in Kirby’s original conception was mercifully absent.
There was, in other words, potential there for it to be quite reasonable on the level of overall set-up. It’s just that the execution in detail was terrible. So many bad choices once the story actually began.
As for the Eternals, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Jeff Lester is correct, and the solution to the fact that they’re basically their own standalone epic is to make them the McGuffin around which everything revolves, replacing Thanos. One thought that I’ve read there is that “came to help humanity evolve” lends itself to being a way for the MCU to solve its mutant problem.
A Graeme-run Amazing Heroes is something the world needs. I do know that the rights were sold to Personality/Spoof/Triumphant Comics in the 90’s and a couple Swimsuit issues were published as a result. It was the thing to do at the time. Not sure who owns the title these days.
Can’t wait for the Englehart interview!
Instead of “Amazing Heroes” the new line is just called “You Guys!”
I liked Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2 much more than #1. I found myself thinking I probably wouldn’t have bought it, if it hadn’t been a fairly light 5th week. Does anyone know if some books get scheduled to take advantage of a ‘screw it’ factor?
I’m pretty sure I’m repeating myself, but everytime someone says The Eternals is influenced by Von Daniken without mentioning ‘The Great Stone Face’ by Simon & Kirby from 1957, I have to speak up. That’s the story where an indigenous tribe in Africa are maintaining a hidden spaceport for a giant, sleeping space alien. Kirby clearly looked at the pictures in Chariots of the Gods and decided to use them, but he was using those ideas years before Eric Von D.
I think it’s not unlikely that the popularity of Von Daniken’s book was part of why Kirby thought that this might be a sensible story to launch at that particular moment. But the basic ideaI is reasonably common in the kind of early SF story that Kirby drew on extensively. Lovecraft is the most obvious instance.
Like a lot of familiar SF tropes, it has connections to an an older and unfortunate colonialist trope – the white man (it is pretty much always a man…) who visits some “primitive” people and is worshipped as a god because of his advanced technology.
Which is, incidentally, why I wish people would stop treating that Arthur C. Clarke “law” about advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic with such absurd reverence. There are things for which Clarke deserves to be admired. Repeating a thinly disguised racist trope is not one of them.
It shows my privilege that it was a long time after the absurdity of the ‘ancient aliens’ and ‘Atlantis’ type stories were clear to me that the racism built into them was explained to me. Once explained there’s that moment of understanding that being the recipient of a corrupting payoff is the only real explanation of not having seen the obvious truth before.
Concerning the Eternals as a story, I have no notion where Kirby was going, as it’s hard to imagine him sticking with a theme of submission.
I’m someone who almost never watches Tarantino and to be honest “This movie is him portraying metoo as overreactionary and dangerous” with “this movie has him make the actresses act out his fetish MORE THAN EVER” sounds like an absolutely awful combo
“No spoilers, sorta?”
Yeah but nah boys, you spoiled it – at first I wasn’t sure, but then you went back and doubled down so we had no doubt you’d spoiled it! One week till it comes out here!
I’d have skipped ahead as soon as you started talking but 1) I was driving, and 2) Graeme lulled me into a false sense of comfort out by opening with complaining about having it spoiled for him.
Don’t feel bad to for me though, feels like Karmic payback for the time I drunkenly spoiled the only other film Tarantino gave a twist at the end to a friend who had just said “no spoilers please”.
Yet another X-Men comic about dystopian futures, yawn. Also I find it absolutely ridiculous that anyone would trust Mr Sinister, so suspension of disbelief broken.
House of X #2 this week revealed how they are going to go from the House/Power setup to the ongoing X-titles, a bit early to spill the beans IMO.
Sigh.
WRONG! Green Lantern Annual was a hilariously irreverent delight, and Morrison’s Green Lantern in general is delicious fun.
WRONG! John Romita Jr. is the Keanu Reeves of comic book illustration – so devoid of discernible talent that his flourishing career is an unfathomable mystery.
WRONG! Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane is an example of why so many Silver Age comics are now embarrassing to read. I’ve never read it, but I know this from your description.
To be fair, things you got right:
Hickman’s X-reboot is exciting so far.
Batman: Last Knight on Earth is a hoot.
My comment on your previous episode was the best comment you’ve ever gotten.
So, you did better than last time.