Podcast - Episode 31: Favourite (and Least Favourite) Marvel Characters

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Coming at you after a week off. We recorded when I was fresh off my trip to Toronto, which was better than any trip to Toronto in the dead of winter has a right to be. Highlights include, in no particular order:

  1. Seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (and sitting very close to the stage!);
  2. Watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier with J.Bone;
  3. Eating at Bahn Mi Boys more than once;
  4. Drinks and strippers with J.Bone;
  5. Not having any kids with me at all;
  6. $hopping!;
  7. Sleeping through the night in a dark, quiet room;
  8. Hanging out with (ECMA-nominated!) Sean "Wordburglar" Jordan, and recording an episode of his Weekend At Burgie's podcast;
  9. Did I mention no kids?;
  10. Meeting Owen Craig from Panel Culture finally;
  11. Just generally hanging out and talking to J.Bone, who I feel like I could talk to forever, honestly. So glad we finally got to hang out in person.

But, as The Boss says, you can't break the ties that bi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-ind, so now I am back in snowy Nova Scotia, and there is in fact a blizzard happening here as I write this. And both of my kids are home.

Also, a belated birthday shout-out to Dave, who turned, I dunno, a thousand last week? Oh shit! Don't invite me to a birthday roast! I will scorch that place!

So this week, since Dave and I were guestless for the first time in a few weeks, we decided to list our favourite (and least favourite) Marvel characters. We did the same with DC characters way back in our third episode.

Before we got to that we discussed some of the news from the past couple of weeks, first and foremost the announcement by DC of a new line of Hana-Barbara comics. And that line-up includes a batshit insane Scooby-Doo relaunch:

Where is the detective squad that will stop these monsters?!

I also talk about the Lego: Marvel's Avengers video game that was recently released, and how one of the levels is a PLAYABLE BUCKY'S DEATH SCENE! I put together some screengrabs in a Tumblr post:

Bucky!!!!!!

This week's episode sees the return of MITCHELL, who joins us to share some of his thoughts on Marvel characters. His segment has a slow start, but it pays off, I think.

We do not see the return of HILLARY this week, though. She feels bad, but she just couldn't condense her thoughts on these new X-Files episodes into a coherent segment. This is a very exciting time for her. I completely understand because, as you may recall, we needed to devote an entire podcast episode AND bring in a special guest to discuss the first Civil War TRAILER. So having a hard time gathering your thoughts about two whole episodes of your very favourite thing in the world is understandable.

What I'm saying is that the Civil War movie will probably require five episodes to cover.

I am not going to mention the new Civil War trailer in this blog post, even though it's all I'm thinking about, because we will be talking about it on next week's episode. Probably at great length.

Podcast - Episode 28: Great Writing/Bad Art & Great Art/Bad Writing

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This week we totally talk about actual comic books! We talk about books that had such great writing that we were (almost) able to overlook the not-so-great art. And then books that had art that was so great that we bought them even though the writing was just terrible. It gets kinda mean, not gonna lie.

And the panel at the top of this post is, of course, from JLA (great writing by Grant Morrison, just dreadful art by Howard Porter). Here are a few more of the comics we mention:

1. Animal Man with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Chas Truog:

2. Miracle Man with great writing by Alan Moore, not-so-great art by Chuck Beckum:

3. Godland with great art by Tom Scioli and not-so-great writing by Joe Casey:

4. Doom Patrol with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Richard Case:

5. Our favourite example: Superman/Batman with great art by Ed McGuinness, terrible writing by Jeph Loeb:

Hey, if you want to watch the entire Captain America: Civil War panel from Wizard World New Orleans, you can!!! Right here.

And if you want to see how extremely handsome and snugly Chris Evans looked while doing that panel, here's some visual reference:

I'll finish this with a picture of that Winter Soldier Dorbz toy that is coming out and is adorable. And some very funny fan art inspired by it.

Nah, I lied. I'm gonna end this with a selfie of Sebastian Stan in a tux on Golden Globes night:

This Week's Haul: Sinestro Gets Pwned

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No real excuse for being late this week. I was so overwhelmed by having nothing to do that I forgot that I actually had something to do: review comics.

Countdown Arena #2

There's really no reason to pay any attention to this comic, but there's a little thing that's bothering me about this issue that I just have to say something about.

Ok, so the double page spread that shows all the arena fighters and what Earths they are from? Full of mistakes.

Check it:

Ok, this Wonder Woman is from Earth-21, which is the New Frontier Earth. Fine. But below that panel we see that crazy monster thing made of beetles. He is also supposedly from Earth-21.

So my first thought was "that ain't right." Later in the comic we see him again, only now he is suddenly from Earth-26:

Ok...so that first one was a typo. Alright. It happens. I look up Earth-26 in that little guide they published in DC Nation a couple of weeks ago, and it lists Earth-26 as, wait for it...Captain Carrot's Earth.

I dunno...that just seems wrong to me...

And there was also this Firestorm guy, who is from Earth-37:

Earth-37, according to that guide, is the Thrillkiller Earth. That makes no sense. (Also...do we need a Thrillkiller Earth?!). Please correct me if I'm wrong about this. Maybe that guy was in Thrillkiller? I just don't see how.

Green Arrow/Black Canary #3

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Connor, you were too beautiful for this world.

Congratulations, Judd Winick. You've ruined Christmas.

Green Lantern #25

Not only was this worth the $4.99 cover price, each page is worth $4.99:

I swear, like every other page looks like that. It's amazing.

I love the rise of the seven lantern corps. That's going to be neat:

Oooo!! I hope the red corps and the green corps fight at Christmas time! It would be so pretty!

I loved Guy trying to fight while being infected with a viral member of the Sinestro Corps:

It was also great when he was injected with the GL Corps virus and the two viruses battled it out inside him. Craziness!

And Hal, Kyle and Sinestro all losing the power in their rings so they just start street fighting? Awesome!

I love that "The both of you." Hardcore.

Green Lantern Corps #19

The members of the Corps who survived the war finally get a little downtime to spend with their families and loved ones. It's nice.

And this page is awesome:

I love those two!

But the issue wasn't all hugs and kisses. It had a rad ending!

I love that "Yes. I believe I have." This is gonna be great!

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Ion

All that I really want to say about this issue is that it was pretty good. These things have been kinda hit-or-miss, but this one is definitely worth checking out.

Also, I liked Guy's sexy lady that feeds him marshmallows:

Especially her I Dream of Jeannie pose.

Booster Gold #5

Man, this was so good and so sad.

I figured that, y'know, Booster wouldn't actually stop the Joker from shooting Barbara. But the way he insisted on going back over and over again! Ohmygod. I am just so filled with love for Booster Gold right now.

And if that wasn't sad enough, Rip breaks the news that Ted's death is a fixed moment in time that cannot be undone.

Awwwwwwww. I can't stand it!

Wonder Woman #15

I can't believe how much happened in this one issue! And it was all awesome!

I have been having a hard time selling people on this relaunch (Can we call it a relaunch? I think it's a relaunch). Everyone is all "I was buying this series for awhile, but I didn't like it." And I'm like "But it's awesome now!" And they're all "Yeah...I dunno..."

But it is awesome now. Don't let the fact that it's been mostly kinda bad up to this point prevent you from checking it out now. I guarantee you'll love it.

Personally, I was really into the god that WW found to help her in this issue:

What religion worships him? I'm joining!

Superman Confidential #10

One thing I really like is when comics are both really good, and really smart strategic moves. The New Gods are playing a starring role in the current DCU, so it's not a bad idea to have a comic that introduces new readers to the Fourth World. And the fact that it's also a great read with nice art is just icing.

I love Superman just having no idea who any of these characters are:

I also like Superman's ripped costume.

Superman is totally awesome in this comic. He doesn't know who these New Gods are, but he wants them out of downtown Metropolis:

Word.

The Batman Strikes #40

This comic is consistently very funny and entertaining. This month's was written by Matthew K Manning and drawn by Adam Archer. I like this series because it frequently combines a wisecracking Robin with a humourless Batman:

Once you get past the fact that all of the villains in this series, like the cartoon its based on, look very messed up, it's a consistently fun read.

Nexus: The Origin

I've read this comic several times, and it never stops being awesome. This is a re-painted reprint of a 1992 comic which stands the test of time as one of the best single issues of any comic ever written, in my opinion. If you've never read Nexus, then obviously this is a great place to start.

*Sigh* I sentence YOU, Nexus...for stealing my heart.

All done! I'm gonna go watch TV until our power goes out from this storm. Any comments about these, or any other comic releases this week (Howard Porter doing the art on Countdown? Blech) are appreciated below.

PS - I would also highly recommend this week's Marvel Adventures The Hulk. It was great fun. Rick Jones calls Namor's army "Aqua Teen Excessive Force." Also...Spider-Man Family was excellent and featured some beautiful art by David Hahn. I'd kinda like him to draw all Marvel comics. Or at least all Spider-Man.

JLA: New World Order

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New World Order collects the first 4 issues of JLA. It was released in 1997 and boasts Grant Morrison as the writer and Howard Porter as the artist. It's a good book, and these issues launched a good series, no question. There are two major things that bother me about Porter's art: the way he draws hair, and the way he draws women.

Let's look at Wonder Woman:
This doesn't even make sense. What she is wearing is basically an inverted triangle. If this weren't an all-ages comic, we would be looking at labia. Her breasts are just sort of resting on that breastplate. Wouldn't they be falling out all the time while she's fighting and running and jumping?

And there's something gross about the tip of that lasso. Or at least it's placement.

This is also a good example of the bad hair drawing I was talking about. There is such a thing as giving too much detail to hair. And while we're on it, the shadowing is kind of way overdone too. Look at The Flash! It's the little things that can really ruin a comic for me.

Here's our girl fighting a female-looking alien character by straddling it. Again, breasts and junk all over the place. Just unprofessional, Wonder Woman.

Here's something I always hate: when a woman's eyes are drawn to be larger than her waist. Look at these!
One eye is the size of her entire mouth! Can you imagine seeing someone like that in real life?! It would be terrifying.

All of the JLA men are basically wearing turtlenecks. They have every part of their skin covered except what they need to breathe through (except Aquaman...but he does his own thing). Here's Wonder Woman hanging out with the boys:

Catch what if they fall, Superman? Wonder Woman's jugs?! They are precariously balanced! Look. Batman can't even look at her. He's just embarrassed for her.
Or maybe he's embarrassed for Superman's hair. I know I am. It's 1997 and Superman is just getting into line dancing.

As for Wonder Woman's costume, it gets worse:

Whoomp! And that's not even a joke that Green Lantern is making. He really is just talking about the view of planet Earth. But look at Wonder Woman, hands on her hips, daring anyone to stare at her ass. Actually it looks more like she's begging. It's just a terrible outfit. Thumbs down.