Speaker 1: Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for slight spoilers for a
Speaker 1: bunch of different Superman stories from the DC Comics canon,
Speaker 1: which Rosie and I enjoy, and some different Marvel comics
Speaker 1: center around Marvel Rivals characters such as the very cute
Speaker 1: Jeff the Lantrop be warning. Hello, my name is Jason
Speaker 1: Concepcion and I'm Rosday Night, and welcome back to x
Speaker 1: Ray Vision of the podcast where we dive DPD favor shows.
Speaker 2: Movies, colleagues of pop culture, comedy.
Speaker 1: From our podcast where we're bringing you three episodes a week,
Speaker 1: every Tuesday, every Thursday, and Wednesday, or maybe a different.
Speaker 3: Day, maybe a different day, who knows. Today's episode, we
Speaker 3: are kicking off our very first book club this month.
Speaker 3: For book Club, we wanted to start with some recommendations
Speaker 3: featuring two big properties that you've all been asking us about,
Speaker 3: the Man of Steel, Superman and comics inspired by the
Speaker 3: new smash hit Hero Shooter Marvel Rivals. And then we
Speaker 3: are going to introduce you to what our first ever
Speaker 3: interactive book club book will be for next month, giving
Speaker 3: you plenty of time to find a copy for yourself
Speaker 3: from your local library, local comic shop. Then you can
Speaker 3: be ready to discuss it with us then, but first
Speaker 3: we're going to do some Superman Rex. Get ready for
Speaker 3: the Year of Superman. We're going to do some Marvel
Speaker 3: Rivals Rex. What should you read if you love Luna
Speaker 3: Snow or Jeff de Landshark, We're going to be here
Speaker 3: to tell.
Speaker 1: You, Okay, twenty twenty five is going to be your
Speaker 1: Superman Rose it feels like it. The Superman trailer is
Speaker 1: currently the most watched trailer in Warner Brothers history. It
Speaker 1: is currently the movie when you look at the Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers slate specifically and then the movie slate in general
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five, it's kind of the movie that
Speaker 1: with the most riding on it. And I think the
Speaker 1: metrics we have right now, meaning the trailer, are pretty good.
Speaker 1: That said, a lot riding on this movie, and you
Speaker 1: might ask yourself coming into this. God, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I know Superman. I watched the I watched Man
Speaker 1: of Steel, I've watched the Justice League stuff, and I've
Speaker 1: maybe I've seen the eighties the Christa Reeves Superman things,
Speaker 1: and I know generally about Superman, but I kind of
Speaker 1: want to know a little bit more about Superman. I
Speaker 1: want to maybe hit up my comic shop and read
Speaker 1: some stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, we've got you you.
Speaker 1: Let's start with I think the pick that people who
Speaker 1: are fans of Superman, fans of comics would probably pick
Speaker 1: first when saying where do I start with Superman?
Speaker 2: And it is Grant Morrison and Frank.
Speaker 1: Quietly super creator duos All Star Superman from two thousand
Speaker 1: and five and the else world stories and not a
Speaker 1: canon story, but a wonderful exploration of Superman at his
Speaker 1: most good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think originally it was going to basically be the
Speaker 3: kind of launch pad for the All Star imprint, right,
Speaker 3: and it was the second one after All Star Batman
Speaker 3: and Robert They've done other ones, and the idea was, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was like, it's not a fully crazy else Worlds
Speaker 3: story like Batman, Dracula or whatever, but it is still
Speaker 3: unconfined by the ongoing continuity at the time. This is
Speaker 3: one of the books that James Gunn has directly said
Speaker 3: will be an influence. We've seen images of it in
Speaker 3: his production room, We've seen him post about it online.
Speaker 3: This is one of the books where when he posted
Speaker 3: about it, it ended up selling out off certain online
Speaker 3: order sites, which I just absolutely love when that happens.
Speaker 3: I think the reason that this is a very important
Speaker 3: influence on the story is not only is it kind
Speaker 3: of as the name may imply that it is, as
Speaker 3: always with Grant Morrison and Frank it is like a
Speaker 3: very sci fi space about this kind of aborted mission
Speaker 3: to the Sun that was kind of had some lex
Speaker 3: luthor fingers in the pie of why it might not
Speaker 3: have worked. And if you know where Superman's power comes from,
Speaker 3: you may understand that All Star Superman is kind of
Speaker 3: a pun on the idea of the sun and the
Speaker 3: yellow rays of the Sun that charged Superman. So it's
Speaker 3: a great sci fi story and it has a really
Speaker 3: cool high concept idea. But the real reason that people
Speaker 3: love this is that it is about Superman's humanity because
Speaker 3: he's put in a situation where he only has a
Speaker 3: certain amount of time left and he wants to spend
Speaker 3: time with Lois, so he has to reveal who he is,
Speaker 3: and he's very famously. I think the most famous page
Speaker 3: from this is Superman stopping a young teenager from jumping
Speaker 3: off the side of a building and kind of reassuring them,
Speaker 3: And I think that it's an unbelievable testament to Grant
Speaker 3: and Frank that that is what people take away from
Speaker 3: the book, because when you actually reread this book, as
Speaker 3: I was before this podcast, it's like bonkers.
Speaker 1: It is very insane. Here's the quick synopsis. Superman saves
Speaker 1: scientists who are on a mission to study the Sun.
Speaker 1: In the course of doing so, Superman has bombarded with
Speaker 1: the energy from the sun so that his powers go
Speaker 1: like fucking crazy. His strength already you know, beyond measure,
Speaker 1: becomes even more powerful. His powers grow to insane levels,
Speaker 1: but also his cells go into overdrive, and he's going
Speaker 1: to pass away.
Speaker 3: Essentially like what if Superman got cancer? Almost like what
Speaker 3: if he got some cancer? What if his and that
Speaker 3: kind of changes how he perceives.
Speaker 1: So he spends a lot of time saying goodbye to
Speaker 1: the people that he cares about and setting he hopes
Speaker 1: setting the world up to survive and thrive without his protection,
Speaker 1: and in doing so, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: crazy twists and turns. It is a Grant Morrison story,
Speaker 1: but like really, what it is is an exploration of
Speaker 1: the soul of Superman and why he is such a
Speaker 1: good what makes him so good? His sincere and unique
Speaker 1: goodness and will to do something really good. And the
Speaker 1: reason why I think this is a great story for
Speaker 1: people to read is.
Speaker 2: It's a great Lex Luthor story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. I think it's a I think the
Speaker 3: relationship between Lex and Superman here where Lex is a
Speaker 3: super scientist who wants to use his super science brain
Speaker 3: to take down Superman in this kind of extremely high
Speaker 3: concept way. But it also has moments of understanding and
Speaker 3: almost like awe from Luther towards Superman when he kind
Speaker 3: of sees what Superman's real vision for the world is.
Speaker 3: And also for me, this is very important because I
Speaker 3: have been theorizing this since well really since I went
Speaker 3: to the trailer launch and they kind of wouldn't really
Speaker 3: talk about Lois. I do think there is a world
Speaker 3: where Lois ends up with powers in this movie, because
Speaker 3: they're currently Lois is Superwoman. In this book, Lois takes
Speaker 3: a synthesized version of Superman's DNA and kind of becomes
Speaker 3: a superwoman, you know. So I think there's I think
Speaker 3: there's some interesting notes here. But yeah, it's a great
Speaker 3: Lex story too. It's interesting, I will say, and this
Speaker 3: is always what I say when I talk about this book.
Speaker 3: It's not my favorite art by Frank. Like Frank sometimes
Speaker 3: draws some of the stuff that I think is legitimately
Speaker 3: the best stuff you can get. The coloring on this
Speaker 3: one always kind of there's something about it that doesn't
Speaker 3: hit in the same way as some of his other
Speaker 3: work for me. But I do just think it's such
Speaker 3: a fantastic story, and I also think it's an incredible
Speaker 3: science fiction story. And I think sometimes we can forget
Speaker 3: that Superman at its heart is a story about an alien,
Speaker 3: a science fiction character. The end of this story is
Speaker 3: completely wild. I just yeah, I think this is such
Speaker 3: a great book.
Speaker 1: Next up is the classic two part story from the eighties,
Speaker 1: which appears in part one in Superman four to twenty
Speaker 1: three and then part two in Action Comics five eighty
Speaker 1: three called Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Give us the quick synopsis, Rosie.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean this is crazy because this is
Speaker 3: alan more with Julie Schwartz, who was like a classic
Speaker 3: Batman and Superman editor at DC, came up with a
Speaker 3: lot of the characters that we know and love, and
Speaker 3: essentially the idea of the book is what if Superman
Speaker 3: didn't exist, like what it's kind of got when you
Speaker 3: start to read it, it's got that feeling of like,
Speaker 3: why isn't this the universe that we know and love?
Speaker 3: And then you realize, well, Superman did exist, but he disappeared.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's a wonderful life.
Speaker 3: It's a wonderful life, but it's kind of like.
Speaker 2: With Suan in the main role, but he doesn't come.
Speaker 3: Back, but it's he's gone, and then you sort of wonder, well,
Speaker 3: where is he? And then you there's all these kind
Speaker 3: of wild, like kind of bizarre moments. You get some
Speaker 3: really great stuff about Clark Kent and why he gave
Speaker 3: up being a reporter. And this is just a really interesting,
Speaker 3: almost like puzzle box kind of story. And I think
Speaker 3: that it showcases Alan Moore often would do these weird
Speaker 3: small stories in the DC universe, like he did a
Speaker 3: really famous short Green Lantern run that was very much
Speaker 3: in this same space and really interesting kind of big
Speaker 3: reveals at the end that will stick with you. So
Speaker 3: this really does feel more like a classical Superman story.
Speaker 3: You're learning about how he stopped toy Man and a
Speaker 3: prankster and oh he got but he did he stop them,
Speaker 3: are they going to reveal his secret identity? And it
Speaker 3: kind of leads to this moment of oh wait, this
Speaker 3: is actually what the story's been about, because the whole
Speaker 3: setup of the story is Lowess being viewed by somebody
Speaker 3: from the Daily Planet about her husband, about her new
Speaker 3: life with her non superpowered husband, Jordan. But there's kind
Speaker 3: of a great reveal at the end. This is another
Speaker 3: one that James Gunn has kind of pointed to. It's
Speaker 3: a good short one if you just want a story
Speaker 3: that kind of throws you into the world of Superman
Speaker 3: and gives you a lot of the law that Superman has,
Speaker 3: including stuff like Bizarro Bizarro World, the Fortress of Solitude.
Speaker 3: You know, you've got Jimmy Olsen, You've got Perry White,
Speaker 3: You've got Superman still crypto who knows going to be
Speaker 3: really important. So I think even super Girl, I think
Speaker 3: this is a great kind of wild Alan Moore take.
Speaker 3: But that still, like most of the books we're going
Speaker 3: to recommend, has at its heart a romance between Lois
Speaker 3: and Clark and Lewis and Superman and why that matters
Speaker 3: so much and what Superman would do to protect that
Speaker 3: and be allowed to have that as part of his
Speaker 3: life as well as being you know, a super world
Speaker 3: saving alien and these This is one of those crazy
Speaker 3: books too, where you have someone like Julie Schwartz, who
Speaker 3: was in the era of Batman sixty six of some
Speaker 3: of the biggest Batman stuff, and you have Kurt Swan,
Speaker 3: who was an original Superman cover art it's very famous
Speaker 3: for being and he's still doing covers for this. So
Speaker 3: it's that kind of wild whole history of Superman that
Speaker 3: you could still get to the point of nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: six where you still had men who'd been working on
Speaker 3: the Silver Age and we're now here And it's basically
Speaker 3: in a way, it was Alan Moore's response to crisis
Speaker 3: getting rid of the Silver Age, right, kind of comics
Speaker 3: era before John Burn would do The Man of Steel.
Speaker 3: But yeah, this is a it's kind of wild. When
Speaker 3: I was rereading this, this really feels like you're just
Speaker 3: reading some comic issues, you know, it's not all star
Speaker 3: feels like a great novel when it's all put together,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the thing about a lot of the stories,
Speaker 1: both at Marvel and DC that are have become classics
Speaker 1: when you look back at them. It's like one or
Speaker 1: two issues, three issues over there. You know, it's these
Speaker 1: very encapsulated storylines. It's it's quite interesting to look back
Speaker 1: and see how self contained a lot of stories used
Speaker 1: to be, and how much they used to do in
Speaker 1: just one or two issues like over you know, back
Speaker 1: to back issues, either on one line or jumping across titles.
Speaker 3: It's really very different from a lot of what we
Speaker 3: especially are er Jason, But like even readers today, they
Speaker 3: do a lot of what's called trade waiting, where it's
Speaker 3: like you're waiting to read the trade paperback. And with
Speaker 3: massive books like Saga, right people would be reading, they'll
Speaker 3: be waiting for the trades, waiting for the trades. So
Speaker 3: sometimes that feeling of a singular issue being the experience, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it's boom boom boom, and you need the end
Speaker 3: to have a cliffhanger. And a lot of bigger books
Speaker 3: now you'll read a six issue trade and it doesn't
Speaker 3: necessarily have that cliffhanger feeling or that kind of tightly
Speaker 3: packed old school feeling that this has. And it's really
Speaker 3: just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: To miss that old school feeling me.
Speaker 3: Too, man. I will always respect and love a comic
Speaker 3: that make sure there's always a reason to read the
Speaker 3: next issue. That's why The Walking Dead was so popular.
Speaker 3: Every single week.
Speaker 2: I say, Days of Future Past, Days of Future Past.
Speaker 1: There's two issues of X mind blowing, and if that
Speaker 1: storyline had been pitched in the two thousands, they'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well let's make it a crossover and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But it's just two like Killer Killer Killer issues. Next
Speaker 1: up is the four issue mini series by Jeff Lob
Speaker 1: and Timson.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I love this book.
Speaker 1: It is great Superman for all seasons, with a really
Speaker 1: wonderful and original structure by which each season, like the
Speaker 1: seasons of the calendar Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer, are narrated
Speaker 1: by someone with a special relationship to Superman, so Jonathan Kent,
Speaker 1: his dad, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: like it's like a great coming of age story.
Speaker 2: It's just really good.
Speaker 3: I love this book. I have to say I was
Speaker 3: I was a late coming to this book. This book
Speaker 3: is from the nineties. I'm sure I did read it
Speaker 3: earlier than this, but a few years ago I got
Speaker 3: a hardcover version of this in the comic shop and
Speaker 3: was just totally blown away. It's got big Norman Rockwell vibes.
Speaker 1: Like it does, like this big vistas and like landscapes.
Speaker 3: It really feels like that corn fed Clark Kent Superman story. Also, interestingly,
Speaker 3: this was the book that Tim Sale and Jeff Lope
Speaker 3: did after Batman The Long Halloween, which we talked about
Speaker 3: a lot when it was with The Batman and also
Speaker 3: The Penguin, and this is just couldn't be more different.
Speaker 3: And I love that huge double page spreads with these
Speaker 3: kind of gorgeous massive skies Beyond Hanson was like the
Speaker 3: colorist and it was just unbelievable. And I loved the
Speaker 3: notion of what is it like to be in Superman's
Speaker 3: world rather than this story that's from the perspective of Superman.
Speaker 3: How does it feel to be Superman's dad? How does
Speaker 3: it feel to recall the first time that he flew
Speaker 3: and why it was and what does it mean to
Speaker 3: be the person who's in love with him? And the
Speaker 3: lowest and Clark stuff here is so great. Also talking
Speaker 3: about great Lex Luthor stories, the Lex Luthor segment is
Speaker 3: so good, and I love there's this moment where he
Speaker 3: talks about he's in control of Metropolis and he talks
Speaker 3: about it like a love story between a man and
Speaker 3: a city. I'm like, I feel like I could see
Speaker 3: that coming into the James Gunn space for me.
Speaker 1: Like with Lex in particular, he's such an iconic foil
Speaker 1: to Superman.
Speaker 2: But I also have, like.
Speaker 1: I have often felt reading silver Age stuff that, like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, why does he hate Superman so much? Like
Speaker 1: other than he's a megalomaniac. Yeah, Superman keeps fucking with
Speaker 1: his various schemes. But all the stories that we picked
Speaker 1: that have Lex in it, I think are really good.
Speaker 1: The Lex parts of it are great because it brings
Speaker 1: you into Lex's thinking.
Speaker 3: I'll start somethings like that.
Speaker 1: Red Sun is another one that's like that. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, like any great villain, any well written villain,
Speaker 1: you kind of understand where he's coming from. And I
Speaker 1: think this Lecks, even though he's piece of shit, you
Speaker 1: kind of understand where he's coming from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think that's the case, and I do
Speaker 3: think that's what makes like such an interesting villain. And
Speaker 3: you know, if you are a fan of the TV
Speaker 3: show Smallville, which all of the cast of James gun
Speaker 3: Superman are for David Cornsweapt for Nicholas Holt, both of them.
Speaker 3: Smallville was really one of their first interactions with Superman.
Speaker 3: And this book is the influence that created Smallville, because
Speaker 3: then Jeff Low went on to produce Smallville, and this
Speaker 3: was kind of that vibe of like small town boy
Speaker 3: growing up, what does that look like? And I always
Speaker 3: thought that Smallville for all its you know, WB channels,
Speaker 3: c W stylings and whatever that must mean to other people.
Speaker 3: The relationship between Clark and Luther in that is so good,
Speaker 3: and yeah, friendship turned enemy turned kind of occasional.
Speaker 2: Ally.
Speaker 3: I just think that there's so much interesting stuff there
Speaker 3: and I really hope At the trailer launch, James Gunn
Speaker 3: talked a lot about it being a movie about three characters,
Speaker 3: you know, Lois Lane, Clark, Kent and Lex Luthor and
Speaker 3: how they kind of interact with the world. And I
Speaker 3: would just I think a story like this has a
Speaker 3: great set up for that. And yeah, I just I
Speaker 3: love this book. I think it's really beautiful. I think
Speaker 3: it should be easy for you guys to find a
Speaker 3: copy of this book. It's in most libraries. I'm sure
Speaker 3: that they're probably reprinting every Superman book right now, and yeah,
Speaker 3: this is another This is another classic James gunpick. He
Speaker 3: loves this one. He's got a lot of images from
Speaker 3: this in his post production pre production rooms. And also
Speaker 3: lettered by the iconic Richard Starkings, who's won like so
Speaker 3: many Eisner's for lettering you can't even keep count. So
Speaker 3: it's just pure talent and skill. I love that book.
Speaker 1: Next up is Forever Evil. Forever Evil is a New
Speaker 1: fifty two Senior era crossover mostly written by Jeff John's
Speaker 1: with others. Artists include David Finch, who's the main artist
Speaker 1: for like the main storyline.
Speaker 3: Every fifty two arts like a very iconic look, and.
Speaker 1: This story does branch out into other titles, but you
Speaker 1: can just like read the main crossover event Forever Evil.
Speaker 1: The setup being an evil version of the Justice League
Speaker 1: invades a universe and they fucking take over and get
Speaker 1: all the super villains to basically work for them. Only
Speaker 1: thing is Lex Luthor of this world is like fuck that,
Speaker 1: I don't want to work for these guys, so he
Speaker 1: basically it becomes like the leader of the resistance against
Speaker 1: this evil gl JL.
Speaker 2: And what's cool about this is it's.
Speaker 1: Just a great Lex Luthor. It's a great Lex Luthor story.
Speaker 1: It's from his perspective most of the time. You really
Speaker 1: get into his head and understand, like what he's thinking.
Speaker 2: He wears the Power Suit.
Speaker 1: Which I was like when Lex, I love the power
Speaker 1: get real active where he also.
Speaker 3: Me his team is like the Injustice League, which I
Speaker 3: just think is so fun, Like I love that he
Speaker 3: does that. Also, I think you make a great point.
Speaker 3: This is a story about Lex almost like it's him
Speaker 3: protecting what he loves, but he would never put it
Speaker 3: that way, Like he comes at it from this egotistical
Speaker 3: place of like I don't want to be working for you,
Speaker 3: I don't want to work for the crime Syndica. But
Speaker 3: really we get to see Lex in this space of uh,
Speaker 3: you know, an anti hero or kind of on the
Speaker 3: right side.
Speaker 2: And I love the story.
Speaker 1: I do love stories where Lex and Superman have to
Speaker 1: kind of team up. But I think the thing that
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. The thing that's cool about this is,
Speaker 1: you know, to me, Lex at his most convincing is
Speaker 1: when he's like Superman is actually holding us back, like
Speaker 1: he's in Frutch, We're depending on it. He keeps saving
Speaker 1: our ass all the time, and we're not progressing, like
Speaker 1: as a society and as a species, we just depend
Speaker 1: on Superman to like do everything for us, and we're
Speaker 1: becoming infantalized by this guy. And in his way, he's
Speaker 1: like defending Earth, although he would not put it this way,
Speaker 1: he's like defending humanity from what he feels is like
Speaker 1: the uh, you know, this invasion of an alien force
Speaker 1: which is Superman and really in Forever Evil. That's he's
Speaker 1: just doing that a much more straightforward kind of way.
Speaker 1: Even though he's still a very bad guy and an
Speaker 1: evil guy, it's also just much more clear that the
Speaker 1: thing he's fighting against right now is bad, and so
Speaker 1: it's just an interesting story.
Speaker 3: This we also get, like soup, we also get Lex
Speaker 3: Luthor Batman team up in this, which I think is
Speaker 3: very quite under under explored under kind of exactly because
Speaker 3: they're very similar, Like if you actually very they're very
Speaker 3: very very similar. They're super smart, they're super rich, they're
Speaker 3: doing their own version of saving the world inverted commas,
Speaker 3: you know. So I think that I remember thinking that
Speaker 3: was like really cool. And if you also are just
Speaker 3: we've talked a lot about you know, emotion and and
Speaker 3: and these kind of coming of age stories and this
Speaker 3: kind of beautiful art and heartwarming moments, and we love
Speaker 3: all of that. But you know what, the New fifty
Speaker 3: two is really good for just crazy action and wild
Speaker 3: stories violent if you want to read a story that
Speaker 3: has like every kind of DC character in from Alman
Speaker 3: to Aquaman to you know, the Nation of Conduct, which
Speaker 3: is where Black Adam comes from, the Teen Titans, Firestorm,
Speaker 3: Dick Grayson, like everyone is in this book, Captain Cold.
Speaker 3: This is just a completely wild, classic kind of multiversal
Speaker 3: madness story which DC is so good at. And I
Speaker 3: would also say Forever even number one has like such
Speaker 3: a legendarily great cover with Lex kind of leading you
Speaker 3: know this team, and yeah, I mean there's a there's
Speaker 3: a lot of different people who worked on this book,
Speaker 3: but I think you really did showcase the best of them.
Speaker 3: So I think it's I think this is going to
Speaker 3: be a really fun read for for our readers, especially
Speaker 3: if you were not. It seems crazy now because this
Speaker 3: was you know, four eleven years ago or something, which
Speaker 3: does not it does not feel that long ago.
Speaker 1: Getting older by the second second, quick aside, what did
Speaker 1: your I think on balance? I New fifty two, Yes,
Speaker 1: it was the point where I got serious about reading DC.
Speaker 1: You know, I've I've read various trades of the important
Speaker 1: stories all throughout my comics reading life, but there was
Speaker 1: the time where I was like, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: up to I'm going to be up to the path.
Speaker 3: And it felt like you could because in case you
Speaker 3: didn't know what the New fifty two was, because you're
Speaker 3: not old like us. The New fifty two was a
Speaker 3: line wide relaunch by DC where they stripped everything down
Speaker 3: and they relaunched fifty two books. You know the book is,
Speaker 3: that's it, No. Two hundred five tiber. Everything's renumbered new
Speaker 3: origins for a lot of people. I remember their fifty
Speaker 3: two at the time in the comic shop very controversial.
Speaker 3: Were people like it? Did they not like it? I
Speaker 3: would say of all the relaunches in my you know,
Speaker 3: lived memory of being in the comic shop, I would
Speaker 3: say it's actually aged pretty well. People do love a
Speaker 3: lot of the stories.
Speaker 2: I think it was hit and miss, but I think
Speaker 2: they hits are pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I also I was also I was working in the
Speaker 3: comic shop when they did the next line wide relaunch, which,
Speaker 3: as you'll learn listening to us, is very common, which
Speaker 3: was Rebirth and actually same, I think when you're in
Speaker 3: the moment, there's always controversy about those kind of things,
Speaker 3: but there are actually great books from that era and
Speaker 3: this era. And I would also say as well, congrats
Speaker 3: to DC because actually they just did a new line
Speaker 3: wide relaunch with all In and they had the all
Speaker 3: In relaunch and the Absolute Universe are coming at the
Speaker 3: same time, and that actually has been widely accepted and
Speaker 3: seen as a great choice. So I think that it's
Speaker 3: interesting to see a relaunch that wasn't universally kind of
Speaker 3: hated and we haven't had to wait to see what
Speaker 3: comes out of it that's going to be kind of
Speaker 3: seen as a historical book or an important book because
Speaker 3: we've already seen that like Absolute Batman obviously biggest selling
Speaker 3: comic of the year alongside Ultimate Spider Man. So very interesting,
Speaker 3: and yeah, this is one of those great weird New
Speaker 3: fifty two books where the line wide relaunch allowed people
Speaker 3: to do stuff that was really really fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah uh.
Speaker 1: And then finally, as a from my perspective, a great
Speaker 1: Lex Luthor story also is Red Sun, the book what
Speaker 1: the three issue else World mini series by Mark malar
Speaker 1: In a variety of pencilers, including Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson,
Speaker 1: Walden Wall and Killian Plunkett. Is You probably know the
Speaker 1: synopsis if you've heard of Red Sun, but here it
Speaker 1: is Superman lands in the Soviet Union instead of America,
Speaker 1: and you know, becomes basically their symbol, their Superman and
Speaker 1: eventually kind of the leader of the communist world and the.
Speaker 2: World written large.
Speaker 1: What I like about this story other, you know, beside
Speaker 1: the fact that it's a really cool kind of what
Speaker 1: if kind of thing, is Superren is still the good
Speaker 1: person that he was when he landed in the US,
Speaker 1: but he has to fight against different kinds of bureaucracies
Speaker 1: and red tape and influences, although that goodness does eventually
Speaker 1: emerge at just the right time. But also, more specifically,
Speaker 1: I think this is a you know, Lex is America's superhero. Basically,
Speaker 1: he's America's Superman who is tasked with trying to keep
Speaker 1: America surviving in a world in which Superman is their enemy.
Speaker 1: And it brings you into the ambition, the drive, the
Speaker 1: talent of Lex Luthor in a really interesting way and
Speaker 1: makes you root for him in a story, you know,
Speaker 1: in a way that maybe you don't root for him
Speaker 1: almost in any other story that exists.
Speaker 3: Yeah, also as well anow the one. Like we said,
Speaker 3: it's like a three issue mini series. Now that Prestige issues,
Speaker 3: they're longer, but still this happened over a short period
Speaker 3: of time, you know. It's from two thousand and three.
Speaker 3: Was nominated in two thousand and four for the Eisner
Speaker 3: Award for Best Limited Series. Hilariously, this is also for
Speaker 3: a little bit of comic book drama here. So written
Speaker 3: by Mark Miller, you know, had a ton of artists
Speaker 3: on this, Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Walden one Killian Puckett,
Speaker 3: and but I will say this is some good controversial
Speaker 3: drama because.
Speaker 2: Mark millerk controversy, controversy. I know him.
Speaker 3: He was once friends with his fellow Scott Grant Morrison,
Speaker 3: who was also kind of his entry point into comics.
Speaker 3: And Grant has done interviews implying that some of the
Speaker 3: ideas in this book may have been ideas that he
Speaker 3: gave to Miller, And when you read the book you
Speaker 3: can definitely feel that. So I always love a little
Speaker 3: bit of comic book drama. But yeah, this is this
Speaker 3: is a legendary book for a reason it's a simple concept,
Speaker 3: but it also kind of has that it's kind of
Speaker 3: a throwback to that Frank Miller era Dark Knight, where
Speaker 3: you kind of have fictionalized versions of characters like Joseph
Speaker 3: Stalin and John F. Kennedy, And it's definitely interesting to see. Also,
Speaker 3: like the notions of how people think of Russia and
Speaker 3: how they think of.
Speaker 1: It makes you think of it, makes you think that
Speaker 1: way about geopolitics and propaganda, etc.
Speaker 3: Etc. Also, Superman, I mean Luther Batman, we get a
Speaker 3: little bit more of that in this. We get some
Speaker 3: really weird fun version of Batman. You get like Superman Robots,
Speaker 3: you get Green Lantern's, but Green Lantern's that crashed at Roswell.
Speaker 3: He's really fun, kind of old history and very cool
Speaker 3: version of Lewis that I think people will be very
Speaker 3: interested to see. And I also wonder if that aspect
Speaker 3: of the book will end up being something that we
Speaker 3: see brought into I hope so, because I love a
Speaker 3: little like the romantic triangle. But yeah, I think it
Speaker 3: will be really interesting to see how James Gunn, who
Speaker 3: clearly is a student of comics and loves comic books,
Speaker 3: how he even brings in influences from completely out their
Speaker 3: books like this, which I mean is such a popular
Speaker 3: book that they did a animated movie version of it recently,
Speaker 3: and I think is the kind of book that we
Speaker 3: could see get adapted at some point. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: very interested to see what he does. I mean, Wow,
Speaker 3: what a season of fun books we just recommended for you.
Speaker 3: There lots to read.
Speaker 1: We'll be back after a word from our sponsors to
Speaker 1: talk about some Marvel Rivals inspired books. Okay, Mack, Marvel
Speaker 1: Rivals the hit hero shooter free to play video game
Speaker 1: that recently hit I think four hundred thousand plus concurrent players, and.
Speaker 3: How levely you out on that game right now?
Speaker 1: I am a Platinum three. Thank you for asking competitive.
Speaker 1: I'm mostly maning Mantis, but I will play the Winter Soldier, Magneto,
Speaker 1: Doctor Strange, Luna, snow Cloakagger as needed.
Speaker 3: Groots as needed, as needed.
Speaker 1: That said, many people have been asking I love these characters,
Speaker 1: some of them that I you know, I'm not aware
Speaker 1: of where should I start? And I think the top
Speaker 1: of that list is this Jeff of the land Shark,
Speaker 1: the Little fagged QTKA two D Shark, who is a
Speaker 1: strategist in Marvel Rivals.
Speaker 2: He heals with his stream of.
Speaker 1: Water, and he also heals with little bubbles, and he
Speaker 1: also can do some pretty good damage. Good good pick,
Speaker 1: although players are getting better at countering his alts where
Speaker 1: he swallows everybody.
Speaker 2: Now the wonderall the Ledger.
Speaker 3: Jeff the land Shark was created by Kelly Thompson and
Speaker 3: Danielle Dinicuulo. Also, I would say You're a Hero is
Speaker 3: the person who's most well known for drawing him. I
Speaker 3: love that creative team. They're incredible. First appeared unnamed in
Speaker 3: West Coast Avengers volume three, issue six, yes was named
Speaker 3: in issue seven, and he was originally the pet kind
Speaker 3: of shark land Shark of Gwen Paul and Kate Bishop,
Speaker 3: and has also worked with Deadpool and Elsa Bloodstone, which
Speaker 3: I love. I would say for this one, the best
Speaker 3: option you have is Marvel do these comics called Infinity comics,
Speaker 3: and there is an Infinity comic called It's Jeff, which
Speaker 3: is You're a Hero and Kelly Thompson book, and it
Speaker 3: is wonderful and fun, and I think if you want
Speaker 3: to know about Jeff the babyland Shark, that's probably where
Speaker 3: to go. Though I will say that Kelly Thompson twenty eighteen,
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen West Coast Avengers book is great, So if
Speaker 3: you want to check that out, to go for it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, It's Jeff has won Eisner's for Best Humor Publications.
Speaker 3: It won, it was nominated for Best Digital Comic, and
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that it will be It's Jeff is probably
Speaker 3: going to be collected and released after the success of
Speaker 3: this movie, but you can read it online.
Speaker 1: The thing I love about It's Jeff is as a
Speaker 1: fan of superhero hangout scenes. I love, as we have
Speaker 1: talked about. I love when the X Men played baseball.
Speaker 1: I love when the Avengers are hanging up by the pool.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of that in it It's Jeff.
Speaker 2: Where Jeff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just like living with Kate Bishop, just like chilling,
Speaker 3: and he is the darling of a superhero pool party.
Speaker 3: Like who doesn't want to see that? That's like very
Speaker 3: very fun Gwen and great Gwen and Kate moments in
Speaker 3: the second part, So that one, I would say, is
Speaker 3: your easy go to And you can kind of understand
Speaker 3: how he became the fan favorite character that landed him
Speaker 3: in his position now as an unexpected rival fave.
Speaker 1: The next is Luna Snow, an other strategist healer from
Speaker 1: Marvel Rivals Great pick with a like basically a game
Speaker 1: shifting ultimate. She heels people all around her. She's very memorable,
Speaker 1: has a very interesting character creation paths exactly. That's why
Speaker 1: I was gonna say she's very unique.
Speaker 2: Tell us about it, Rosie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was essentially created for a game called Marvel
Speaker 3: Future Fight, which I believe was able game from twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: And then she debuted in the comics kind of Harlequin
Speaker 3: style in War of the Realms New Agents of Atlas,
Speaker 3: which was really cool because you had the new iteration
Speaker 3: of that famous team which is Asian American usually or
Speaker 3: globally Asian superhero team. And then she was also if
Speaker 3: you want to read something where you can just go
Speaker 3: and read a series where she is kind of a
Speaker 3: prime player is an Atlantis Attacks, which was in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: That series came out, And I think the thing that's
Speaker 3: really interesting about her is this is actually the first
Speaker 3: time that, especially in North America, most players are actually
Speaker 3: meeting her, and also most comic characters because they probably
Speaker 3: haven't come across this character before, they might not have
Speaker 3: realized she was a new character when they were reading
Speaker 3: her in the books that she was in, So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm very interested in this. I think it's very cool.
Speaker 3: And the Atlantis Attacks book is a Greg Park story,
Speaker 3: who's so fantastic, you know, we love him with the
Speaker 3: art by Ario and detO, and it's basically like Agents
Speaker 3: of Atlas versus name all the Samarana, so really interesting
Speaker 3: stuff there. And I think, my gut, says Jeff de
Speaker 3: land Shark already kind of a fan fave of character,
Speaker 3: He's going to be in that same cozy, cute space
Speaker 3: until someone does like a great Jeff the land Shark.
Speaker 1: But.
Speaker 2: Like, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.
Speaker 3: But but I feel like Luna snow in the way
Speaker 3: of who is going to now break out into the comics.
Speaker 3: I feel like she is the breakout character that we
Speaker 3: will probably see in more recent comics in a way
Speaker 3: that is less just like, hey, this is a synergy
Speaker 3: thing from this game to this. I think she is
Speaker 3: going to be someone who really comes out and kind
Speaker 3: of just makes people excited to see more of what
Speaker 3: she can do. On the pages of the Marvel comics
Speaker 3: were so many of these characters first debuted.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about some characters that have been around
Speaker 1: a while. First up Cloak and Dagger, Tandy Bowen and
Speaker 1: the two for one. Now, let me just say one
Speaker 1: thing about Cloak and Dagger, Tyrone Johnson and Tanny Bowen.
Speaker 1: This is the thing about comics sometimes where you're like,
Speaker 1: is this good? So let me get this straight. The
Speaker 1: black guy is scary and well the white girl is like,
Speaker 1: what is in bodies Light?
Speaker 3: Can you tell it was? Can you tell it was
Speaker 3: ran in like nineteen eighty two?
Speaker 2: Let me get this straight. That's said.
Speaker 1: You know, I think one of the things about comics
Speaker 1: is it's constantly reevaluating itself and being like, Okay, this sucks,
Speaker 1: but how do we make it better? And I do
Speaker 1: think that Cloak and Dagger is a character that they've
Speaker 1: they've significantly made it better from the original idea of it.
Speaker 2: What are some good Cloak and Dagger?
Speaker 3: I would I would say that interest definitely. If you
Speaker 3: are someone who's open to reading like an old comic,
Speaker 3: I would say the original Peter Parker issues Peter Parker
Speaker 3: Spectacular Spider Man sixty four when they first debuted nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty two. You gotta read them because it is really outrageous,
Speaker 3: like they aren't there like injected with synthetic heroin that
Speaker 3: gives them twins superpowers, you know, but it's a It
Speaker 3: is Bill Mantlowe, who's like a famous writer who created
Speaker 3: a lot of your favorite characters, and Ed Hannigan exactly,
Speaker 3: so like I would say, those are interesting. They also
Speaker 3: had their after that, They had a four issue limited
Speaker 3: series with the Create, which was Bill mantlow writing and
Speaker 3: Rick Leonardi who I love inked by Terry Austin obviously
Speaker 3: we love him X Men legend, and that was kind
Speaker 3: of where they would start getting more into the world
Speaker 3: of the X Men, who they're very regularly affiliated with.
Speaker 1: Although they are always saying it's it is true that
Speaker 1: definitionally they are not. No, that said, they're for my taste,
Speaker 1: and this does make it. This does strike me as
Speaker 1: like very I think this is actually good writing. They're
Speaker 1: a little too strident in there. Yeah yeah, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: a little man actually mutants.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's something there definitely, And interestingly there was ironically,
Speaker 3: speaking of that, there was a series called The Mute
Speaker 3: and Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger, which was very interesting
Speaker 3: because Dagger was actually rendered blind, like she was blinded
Speaker 3: in the first issue, and he and there was a
Speaker 3: lot of work with the American Foundation for the Blind
Speaker 3: to like try and do a story about blind superhero,
Speaker 3: which is very interesting. I don't know if there's like
Speaker 3: a definitive Cloak and Dagger story, but I would say
Speaker 3: if you go into your comic shop and you went
Speaker 3: into a and just said, hey, I would love to
Speaker 3: read some Cloak and Dagger, any collection is probably gonna
Speaker 3: give you a good selection of Spider Man issues, X
Speaker 3: Men issues, that first mini series. And I do think
Speaker 3: one of the things that I do really like about
Speaker 3: this is whatever the power dynamic, which is dodgy. The
Speaker 3: origin of Tyrone is actually like he is, he's got
Speaker 3: a stutter, like he's just a normal black kid who
Speaker 3: is essentially like horrified and seen when he sees like
Speaker 3: his friend get shot by the police. So there's like
Speaker 3: they're trying to do interesting stuff there, even if they
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily like or is that it also that they
Speaker 3: do have a lot of really funny stories from this
Speaker 3: era because for some reason they would always use them
Speaker 3: for like the PSA stories, So they have like a
Speaker 3: war on drug story where they're like killing they're like
Speaker 3: killing drug dealers.
Speaker 1: Team Titans was another one that like, I think generation
Speaker 1: of comics readers who first encountered various teams, I think
Speaker 1: Cloak and Dagglers like that. Yeah, via these say no
Speaker 1: to drugs type issues of that they would give away
Speaker 1: in school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, very very funny. So yeah, that was just a
Speaker 3: wild ride, Jason. We should definitely like deep dive because
Speaker 3: I was just like, Wow, that was crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Up next a character that actually made her debut in
Speaker 1: we seventies but then started getting more fleshed out in
Speaker 1: the eighties magics. So the sister of Peter Colossus of
Speaker 1: the X Men. She's a big player in a lot
Speaker 1: of really fun storylines that has a story and then
Speaker 1: basically there was an eighties late eighties crossover that is
Speaker 1: heavily that heavily features her. She is a really dangerous
Speaker 1: damage dealing character in Marvel Rivals. Tell us about magic
Speaker 1: and what are some good magic storylines?
Speaker 3: I would also I would say, like one, I think
Speaker 3: magic is like really notable because I love anime and
Speaker 3: I feel like she's like the Marvel character that we
Speaker 3: really saw get like a Berzarker sword, she got the
Speaker 3: bust A sword. She yeah character, yeah, like she was
Speaker 3: somebody was definitely looking there, but yeah, Illiana reputing Giant
Speaker 3: Size X Men number one one of the most important
Speaker 3: comics of all time, where Lemwin and Dave Cockrum where
Speaker 3: they introduced her as Iliana Resputina and she was kind
Speaker 3: of always just Colossus's little sister. But it would be
Speaker 3: in the Chris Klamont era where Cliffs come on and
Speaker 3: Sabashemma introduced her as Magic and we had I would say,
Speaker 3: the Magic Mini series, which is from nineteen eighty three
Speaker 3: in December. That's where we kind of learn about her
Speaker 3: history in Limbo and her origin story where she was
Speaker 3: stuck in Limbo, she had a battle in this space
Speaker 3: and survive and then she basically just imagine immediately joins
Speaker 3: the New Mutants, and I would say that that New
Speaker 3: Mutant's era, that's probably what she is still most known for.
Speaker 3: And obviously we love that era and some of the
Speaker 3: I have these the Magic Limited series issues and the
Speaker 3: covers are like so crazy. She's like in Limbo and she's.
Speaker 2: A bil shinkevto did us no.
Speaker 3: This was prior to that so I actually I don't
Speaker 3: even know who did the cover for the second one,
Speaker 3: but I remember that she is on the cover like
Speaker 3: levitating over a pentagram holding her sword. It's such a dynamic,
Speaker 3: strange cover. But obviously Sinkovic did the New Mutant stuff
Speaker 3: that she is.
Speaker 2: I think it's a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks so great and I I love this character. Again,
Speaker 3: you know, not always done the best way she was. Definitely,
Speaker 3: she was killed off by the most hated X Men storyline,
Speaker 3: the Legacy virus. You know, There's Luckily she comes back
Speaker 3: and it's okay, it's comics, no one ever really dies.
Speaker 3: But I would say that Original Magic limited series is
Speaker 3: really fun, and also obviously the Bil Synkovic New Mutant space. Definitely,
Speaker 3: but There's Magic is still very popular. Understandably, lots of
Speaker 3: creators like working with her. She's currently in the Blood
Speaker 3: Hunt series. I think she like killed a bunch of vampires,
Speaker 3: super badass. Love that for her. I really loved the
Speaker 3: weird ex of Sword storyline they did in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: where it's kind of like it's just like what if
Speaker 3: all the X Men had like a badass like like
Speaker 3: I love that, Like she was a bit in the
Speaker 3: krakoa eras she was there one of X. You know,
Speaker 3: I am just a big fan of this character. I
Speaker 3: do hope. Though the New Mutants movie was terrible, my
Speaker 3: dream is that Anna Taylor Joy will continue to play Magic.
Speaker 1: So she is fantastic as Magic, Yes, fantastic. And then finally,
Speaker 1: Penny Parker, Penny Parker is I love her, a bank
Speaker 1: our character, a very defensive tank. This is a young
Speaker 1: girl named Penny Parker in a spider mech from an
Speaker 1: alternate to mention tell us about Penny Parker.
Speaker 3: So Penny loves.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you.
Speaker 1: If you love my chemical romance, You're gonna love Penny Parker.
Speaker 3: Penny Parker is a wild character created by It's True
Speaker 3: Jerard Way with Jake Quiet and Ian Herring in Edge
Speaker 3: of the Spider Verse issue five, the first volume of
Speaker 3: those and she is in a cool ass mech suit,
Speaker 3: the Spider exosuit, which she's always been in. And she
Speaker 3: is I believe another daughter of Peter Parker from a
Speaker 3: different era. I believe that is her origin. Story is
Speaker 3: that she was if Peter Parker had been Yeah, Peter
Speaker 3: Parker was her father. But she is Japanese in an
Speaker 3: alternate universe, and that she had to carry on the
Speaker 3: work of her father, Peter Parker from when she was
Speaker 3: like nine. Uncle Ben and Aunt May were like, Bro,
Speaker 3: you're the only one who can keep doing it, Like Bill,
Speaker 3: You've got to be a nine year old genius building
Speaker 3: this this sick mech, which is I think a very
Speaker 3: irresponsible thing to do. Uncle Ben and aren't May, But
Speaker 3: I understand it, and that's how he got this call
Speaker 3: Baby with the big mech. I will say I would
Speaker 3: just go for that original volume of the Spider Verse
Speaker 3: because those are very fun stories and she has yet
Speaker 3: to have like a big breakout story of her own,
Speaker 3: but I do hope that changes after this because she
Speaker 3: is just a really cool character and she's very She's
Speaker 3: been in the Spider Army, you know, she's for Peter
Speaker 3: Porker and Ezekiel Sims, who you know, famous villain from
Speaker 3: the beloved movie Madam Webb. And yeah, so she's just
Speaker 3: a really cool character. I'm excited to see her hopefully
Speaker 3: get a little bit more shine, especially because with her
Speaker 3: Spider Mac she is very powerful. And also the suit
Speaker 3: is inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelian, which I love because
Speaker 3: I'm an RD and I'm excited to hopefully see her
Speaker 3: kind of break out in the same way as Luna
Speaker 3: Snow and get a few more of those kind of
Speaker 3: iconic books on her own after.
Speaker 1: This up next, we're going to take a break, and
Speaker 1: then it's time for book Club.
Speaker 2: And we're back, Rosie.
Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome all to our inaugural book club selection.
Speaker 2: Space, in which.
Speaker 1: We're going to be reading stuff that both we really
Speaker 1: enjoy but also that hopefully we'll be getting us ready
Speaker 1: for other things perhaps that are coming. And I think
Speaker 1: our first selection does that. It is nineteen eighty six
Speaker 1: is Daredevil Born Again by the incredible creative the very
Speaker 1: iconic and influential creative team of Frank Miller and David Massicelli.
Speaker 1: You know, see Batman Year one for more of their collaborations.
Speaker 3: Very a very influential team of creators walking together.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Born Again is a storyline that appeared just
Speaker 1: in the main run of The Daredevil, a title I
Speaker 1: think it was ten or twelve issues, maybe the year
Speaker 1: of issues for Daredevil.
Speaker 3: Hilariously not even it's like two twenty six to two
Speaker 3: thirty three. So it's another one of those where you're like, wow,
Speaker 3: this is just happening. Like they they put this as
Speaker 3: a weekly comic and they had no idea that it
Speaker 3: would go on to become this kind of legendary arc
Speaker 3: for Daredevil, especially for Karen Page. And I will say
Speaker 3: this is a controversial book that has.
Speaker 2: We'll get that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll talk about it, but just put it. Just
Speaker 3: have a little does agency is a see if this
Speaker 3: is a book pore ful, comfortable reading. But it is
Speaker 3: an important book because not only is it seen as
Speaker 3: one of the best Dead Level runs of all time
Speaker 3: and one of the most influential it and Mazakelli's art
Speaker 3: is so iconic that even in the you know, much
Speaker 3: maligned Daredevil movie, they were doing exact replicas of his
Speaker 3: pages from this book. Also, this is the namesake of
Speaker 3: the TV show which will be coming out on March fourth,
Speaker 3: so we know it's why we're just going to be
Speaker 3: taking a little bit from there. So this is going
Speaker 3: to be very interesting because we will essentially be looking
Speaker 3: at this book, reading this book, reading it along with
Speaker 3: you guys, and then we will as we revisit at
Speaker 3: the end of February, you guys will be able to
Speaker 3: send in questions like kind of tell us your feelings
Speaker 3: about the book, and then straight after we're going to
Speaker 3: get that March debut of Dead Evil. So it's going
Speaker 3: to be very interesting. This is also another This is
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six, right, so this is that dark era,
Speaker 3: gritty era of commedy.
Speaker 2: This is the beginning.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's the important thing to mention is
Speaker 1: in the eighties, the eighties was really kind of the
Speaker 1: death of the Silver Age, the death of a lot
Speaker 1: of the seventies kind of things. And what made it
Speaker 1: that was this kind of turn towards more street level,
Speaker 1: more violent, more personal kind of storytelling. And I think
Speaker 1: Frank was obviously spearhead a lot of that through his miniseries,
Speaker 1: He's Wolverine miniseries, through his work with Daredevil, his later
Speaker 1: work with Batman. And I think that this is one
Speaker 1: of those stories that kind of redefined for a while,
Speaker 1: Oh definitely, and not always for the better, not kind
Speaker 1: of stories could be told in comics. And so the
Speaker 1: brief synopsis to get you started is, you know Matt Murdoch,
Speaker 1: the Daredevil. He's been fighting crime in Hell's Kitchen for
Speaker 1: a long time and being mostly successful. Also, he's you know,
Speaker 1: got his secret identity where he is a lawyer for
Speaker 1: the community and takes on a lot of cases pro bono,
Speaker 1: but as a very active love life. All the while,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the kind of pillars of his
Speaker 1: life start to be taken out. He's being sued, his
Speaker 1: law office is under siege from these various cases. His
Speaker 1: people around him start to be kind these kind offarious
Speaker 1: falling apart different threats, and the one thing that he
Speaker 1: can do when he wants to kind of feel like
Speaker 1: he can take control of his life again, becoming daredevil,
Speaker 1: is also becoming much much more complicated, and it all
Speaker 1: comes to a head rather quickly, and he finds himself
Speaker 1: basically at the lowest point that he's ever been in
Speaker 1: his career. And what's behind this the kingpin? We think,
Speaker 1: maybe perhaps Matt becomes fixated on that idea right that
Speaker 1: it's the kingpin that is behind all of this, and
Speaker 1: that kind of journey to the bottom for Matt, and
Speaker 1: then that arduous climb up is the best parts of
Speaker 1: this and what makes it worthwhile.
Speaker 3: And I would say, if you've never read a Dead
Speaker 3: Levil book, you can still join us for this one,
Speaker 3: because this is the kind of story where when people say, hey,
Speaker 3: what comics should I read? This is one of those
Speaker 3: books where people will give you this book and say, hey,
Speaker 3: this is essentially a showcase of especially nineteen eighty six
Speaker 3: was a crazy year. You have Watchmen in thatrazy year,
Speaker 3: you know, you have this, You then have the Dark
Speaker 3: Knight returns, and you essentially end up in a situation
Speaker 3: where comics is turned on its head for the next
Speaker 3: twenty thirty For still now we're still feeling the ramifications
Speaker 3: of the grittiness, the massive success.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the beginning of the era that would
Speaker 1: give us like the Deaths of Superman, that kind of
Speaker 1: like this is the beginning to that movement, and so
Speaker 1: it's an important book from from that regard. Now, the
Speaker 1: current page stuff is bad.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hypotheta. Let's just put out there the treatment
Speaker 3: of women in this book not good. So if that's
Speaker 3: an issue for you, understand, but you know us, we
Speaker 3: will be talking about that honestly and thoughtfully throughout. So okay,
Speaker 3: so we are going to read the entirety of Born Again,
Speaker 3: and we will be revisiting it at the end of February,
Speaker 3: So be sure to get your copy and read this
Speaker 3: very iconic and very controversial story before then, so we
Speaker 3: can look back at it and chat about it together
Speaker 3: before the debut of the Disney Plus series.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of xtra Vision, we're diving into
Speaker 1: the finale Skeleton Crew and then we'll be visiting where
Speaker 1: it'll be Werewolf time, folks. The moon is rising.
Speaker 2: You've been bidden.
Speaker 1: Or scratched or otherwise impacted by a strange beast in
Speaker 1: the night, and what has occurred? You've turned into a werewolf.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about werewolves. That's it for this episode.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, by.
Speaker 4: Bye x ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenseepsion and
Speaker 4: Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our
Speaker 4: executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising
Speaker 4: producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent
Speaker 4: and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
Speaker 3: and Heidi A discoored moderata