Be prepared for one of my patent pending “walls of text”… but I’ll try and do it in a bullet format for you guys.

- Even though One More Day changed things, it didn’t entirely ELIMINATE what happened in the past. All of that stuff DEFINITELY happened and Peter hasn’t de-aged or traveled back in time or anything. So, a lot of that stuff has still happened and can’t be considered a “cleaning of the slate”, which is a damn shame because we STILL have to live with that whole “Norman Osborn’s Spider-Babies with Gwen Stacy” fiasco, which is just upsetting to me since it really tarnished the image of Gwen Stacy and is STILL a giant plothole/continuity mess with them being in existence. I would have MUCH preferred if they were Spidey’s kids and not Norman’s. In fact, they made mention of the Stacy Twins numerous times throughout Brand New Day, and Norman even had a test subject for the American Son project labeled as “G. Stacy” which I would assume is Gabriel… or maybe HOPEFULLY a Gwen Clone. Then Norman states he only has one son and that it’s Harry, and… ugh… it’s so ambiguous, I wish they’d just write it out of continuity even JMS admitted he hated the concept and is pissed off they haven’t retconned with One More Day (which was apparently his intention.) Anyways… enough of that particular event though (and Evil Uncle Ben from an alternate universe…) I think the cool thing about keeping Aunt May alive is that they didn’t just sit on it (although they made her forget his identity too.) They actually PROGRESSED the story of Aunt May to one of the workers/organizers at F.E.A.S.T. and then they went and got her MARRIED again which was a real surprise. I’m impressed by the great efforts they went to in order to at least justify Aunt May still being alive.

- Collecting comics for continuity sake SUCKS. I hate it. I’m in the same boat as you DanG. I just have to resist with all my heart and just put my foot down Walking Dead style. I recently just dropped a handful of titles I was following, and I just got way too fed up with the lack of development or the crappy stories. I’ve even dropped a few comics in the MIDDLE of an arc and I feel it just eating away at me. I just need to get those comics out of my collection somehow, haha.

- Green Lantern’s reboot sounded believable enough to me. I think making Hal Jordan a bad guy was a horrible decision to begin with, it was like… one part cool if you were a younger kid and anti-heros were all the rage and what not, but as an adult I look at that and go “What the hell were they thinking? Why not just kill him off?” Thankfully Geoff Johns saved the guy, but I wish he didn’t have such a hard on for Hal Jordan, it feels like he’s going to be the “be all and end all badass that saves the day” in Blackest Night and/or anything Johns writes.

- Jason Todd was such a problem to explain to my Fiancee when she asked about him while reading Batman & Robin. I was just like “Okay, so… everybody hated Jason Todd, he was the 2nd Robin, Joker beat him to death with a crowbar by popular demand of the fans, and then… I dunno… he just came back somehow. I can’t even properly explain it.” Sometimes I just feel like some sort of stupid jackass when I try to explain comic book continuity/stories to people who aren’t used to comic book stories… y’know? I mean… I can’t even BEGIN to explain what the hell happened to Batman in Final Crisis except that it happened.

- Deadpool #900 was very interesting. I felt it was pretty slow and stupid at times. There were a few stories that I felt were interesting, like when Deadpool was ACTUALLY getting serious with himself when he was naked and in front of the mirror and discussing what it’s like being like him, etc. A lot of the other stuff I could kind of do without though.

I will say you SHOULD go back and read the reprint as it’s probably one of the BETTER stories in the entire book, which is amusing since it’s a reprint. It’s a “spoof wolverine’s backstory” issue, where it explains Wade Wilson’s time prior to Deadpool where he was sent to kill a famous sumo wrestler with connections to the underground. Wade eventually becomes a part of this family and feels accepted and even falls in love with the man’s daughter. It’s a very interesting concept and not entirely stupid, and it might be one of the few times you ever see Deadpool’s past. The whole “baby Deadpool” is them spoofing the “clone stories” that were popular at the time by making that Deadpool a failed clone project of Deadpool or something like that, which was pretty funny.

I could easily see Rob Liefield mocking himself with that, especially since it IS Deadpool and it’s a humor/breaking the 4th wall sort of comic. Although if that was the case I’d imagine Deadpool would have pointed it out or something to the audience.

With Deadpool’s 4th wall… it’s sort of like his Super Power so to speak. The PIVOTAL 4th wall moment is actually because of Loki, he actually came to Deadpool and revealed to him that he was a comic book character. Ever since then, he’s been pretty chatty with the audience and throwing out random jokes/mentions about comic events/artists/writers/arcs/etc. Which is totally fine by me as long as they don’t overkill it. What’s surprising ME more and more is Spider-Man and even The Incredible Hulk breaking the 4th wall at times. I think that’s something that should be specifically directed at Deadpool and not so much shared amongst the rest of the Marvel Universe, because it’s definitely getting abused lately. Some Deadpool issues and/or writers LOVE to break the 4th wall or get over the top stupid funny with Deadpool, and other times people know exactly how to write Deadpool by keeping it funny, toilet humor to a minimum, action equal to the comedy, and overall GOOD.

It’s a shame this didn’t turn out to be as awesome as I expected it to be. As you said, there were a lot of interesting concepts but some of them were just way too short. The cover is DEFINITELY awesome but like… yeah, the inside is not nearly as awesome. So, yeah, as a Deadpool fan/reader, this wasn’t exactly the best thing ever, especially for the price. Deadpool Team-Up is probably the best thing to come out of #900 since they spoofed all the stuff that happened up to issue #900 and now they’re backtracking issues to #899, etc. That’s actually pretty good even though it just started. The first Team-Up issue featured ARCADE of all people, and I was totally ecstatic about that, haha.

I think the best Deadpool comic so far is his MAIN On-Going series. I’m definitely getting sick of the Deadpool saturation though. I really feel like he’s being abused Punisher ’90s style and people are just eating this shit up left and right at the moment. His 3 ongoing stories have definitely been good though, Merc with the Mouth feels very… “old school” Deadpool from back in the ’90s. Deadpool & Deadpool Team-Up are pretty similar in tone, and the Team-Ups feel like good little “one-shot” stories for Deadpool.

- Enough about Deadpool let’s talk about ASM… oh wait… nevermind… he’s in that too! NOTHING happened in ASM. The plot was very simply, Kraven Family hires Deadpool to prevent Spider-Man from meeting certain people he was supposed to meet that day which would have thwarted their entire evil plan. In short, Deadpool was hired to prevent the future, a future in which the Kraven Family got beat down by Spidey because of these people he was supposed to encounter IE. Anti-Venom, Spider-Woman, etc. The actual issue itself was totally pointless Deadpool & Spidey hyjinks.

The cover was TOTALLY awesome though, I loved how they drew Spidey & Deadpool’s feet EXTRA TINY in honor of Liefield, that just made me laugh forever. Duke please come back to Spidey! The Gauntlet seems EXTRA awesome and enjoyable. The previous storyline was half decent but it was like “Why the fuck are we bringing up the Clone Saga again?”

- I’d say that Barbara Gordan was the Batgirl of the Bruce Wayne Era and the Assassin Batgirl was just the Batgirl of the “modern edgey era”.

- Vengeance of Moon Knight has been my “Comic of the Week” every week it’s been out practically. It is just CONSTANTLY impressing me and I’m sort of POed that my two co-hosts just won’t give it the time of day (probably due to money constraints.) I will say though that the cover for Vengeance of Moon Knight #2 was horrid, haha.

- The current Punisher 616 continuity run is AWESOME. This whole “Frankencastle” concept is also really neat and I’m anxious to see where they go with it. I’ve been blown away during the final arc up to The List, and I really hope they don’t drop the ball with this Monster Island plot.

- Surprised you guys dropped Batman. I’m really excited because they’re tying Long Halloween into this and revisiting the Falcones and what not. I’m interested to see where this goes, but it’s sort of funny that “Batman & Robin” is really the MAIN Batman book in a lot of peoples eyes and that the book titled “Batman” is really just sort of a complimentary comic right now, I don’t even think Blackest Night is crossing over into that series but instead into B&R.

- I dropped Zombies that Ate the World after Issue #1, I thought it was a cool concept, but I really didn’t feel like pursuing the rest of the series since I was trying to conserve money. I don’t feel as guilty now for pulling out early, haha.

- I am going to track down Stumptown now. That sounds awesome. I hope Phantom still has it on the racks.

- I really have to scout out the Toonseum ASAP.

- Congrats to Mario, I enjoyed his stuff and I’m glad he’s coming back!

Welcome back!

The JMS Gwen Stacey retcon left a sour taste in my mouth. I dropped that book quicker than a hot potato. It took me awhile to trust JMS after that one. I loved his Thor and the new Brave & the Bold is pretty good. I just can’t understand his logic behind the Gwen Stacey thing.

I really can’t stand current Greg Land art. I love Matt Fraction but I can’t bring myself to read the X-Men because of Land. I remember liking his stuff a few years ago when he was doing Birds of Prey and Nightwing. His technique has changed.

Stumptown was a great book. My only nitpick with Rucka is that he seems to write the same female character in a lot of his books. It’s not bad, but I would like to see a twist.

Media age. Good moniker. You better copyright it. That’s a perfect way to describe the current comic trend. Ten years from now we will fondly remember when comics were paper.

Thanks for another enjoyable show. Take care! Happy Thanksgiving!

Duke & DanG, that whole “choose your own adventure comic” would be totally bad ass. You could have polls or something between two branches in the plot… sort of like killing Jason Todd… you can even change the plot back to the way you want it by having a global multiverse world merging crisis!

Really cool show. I’m bummed I missed out on podcast, the mixer sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to meet people out there. Feel free to keep me in the know about future cool podcaster related public events.

Thanks for posting this!

- The main story of Old Man Logan was AMAZING. I seem to be the only hater (that I’ve heard of) for the Giant Sized issue. It feels like such a let down in terms of action/plot compared to the Red Skull fight. It’s a cool payoff, but Banner’s reasoning… even if he was psychotic… was sort of well… dumb. I mean it really boiled down to the Hulk being bored and wanting to pick a fight with Wolverine because he missed their old epic battles. It just seemed so… half-assed sounding. I was just like “WHAT?! THAT’S IT? That’s why you killed his family?” I dunno… I think I would’ve liked it more if there was just less banter (and banner) during the fight and more Hulk vs. Wolverine.

I think Old Man Logan is already spinning off into a sequel. It HAS to! Well… maybe not, but it definitely didn’t set anything in stone with that ending, and I’m assuming Marvel would want their money’s worth. The giant sized issue definitely ran short… or at least it felt short. So I inevitably was upset with the price point due to how quickly I went through that giant sized issue. Speaking of money though… I’m curious if this Giant Size issue was planned in the original 8 part story or if they extended/modified the script along the way to cash in on things by changing the plot up to make room for a Giant Sized issue. The only reason I say this is because of the delays in the final part and then another big delay in the giant sized issue, y’know?

As Beeslo mentioned on our show, it would’ve been nice to reprint the Hulk vs. Wolverine issue in the back instead of using the sketches.

Also, amazon.com is already taking pre-orders for the hardcover edition of Old Man Logan. I may actually purchase it in trade simply because I did enjoy the overall story so dang much. Who knows.

PS. Maybe I’ll try to come to Time Tunnel and check stuff out for giggles if I can make it out there.

PPS. Maybe I’ll see you at the Podcamp.

PPPS. Your interview is now up on thegameheroes.com site itself.

As for my comments to your comments:

- Dark Avengers is simply the comic that you follow that ties into all the major events of the ark. There was “Civil War” and “Secret Invasion”, well… Dark Reign doesn’t have a title, so instead they have Dark Avengers. I too am curious if this will turn into anything else. A large chunk of these characters were part of the Thunderbolts, and then evolved into this new comic. I’d be very surprised if they broke apart this “A-List Villain” team they’ve been forming over the years. But… what if Norman doesn’t ultimately lose in this arc like everyone is expecting? What if Dark Reign and everything is just a crossover that’s setting the stage for how the universe is going to be for a lot longer. I mean… Dark X-Men… I find it hard to accept that a team like that is going to be formed, all this crossover hype, and then just washed away a few months after doing so. It would just be weird to do so.

- It would be great to have NEW New Mutants. The only problem is House of M seems to have gunked that all up, although there seems to be plenty of “newbie” mutants that could’ve filled the ranks for a NEW New Mutants group that is taught by the OLD New Mutants.

- Babies and any sort of “small thing that walks on two legs” is pretty much the scariest thing ever. They don’t necessarily have to be zombies or undead, sometimes just children by themselves are creepy.

- Apparently all you need to know about Solomon Grundy is that he’s a Black Lantern now. The end.

- My fiancee mentioned that this series (Gotham City Sirens) may crossover into Detective Comics due to the whole Hush + Harley plot that seems to be occurring right now. Which would be surprising to have a crossover this early, but that subplot does seem to be intertwined with some of the other new bat books right now, so maybe this was just a lead in to that?

I enjoyed this book immensely, and it’s probably because The Riddler is by and far one of my favorite villains. Just the narcissistic attitude, I’ve got a real soft spot for narcissists in fiction, they’re always SO out there that they are hilarious (speaking of Riddler in the Arkham Asylum game is awesome.)

I know in Gotham Underground “Battle for the Cowl” one-shot they did, which leads into Sirens, Riddler was also a key component in that story as well. It leads me to thinking that MAYBE Sirens is going to be a little bit of Charlie’s Angels and Riddler is going to play the role of Bosley or something. Just a thought. It’s too early to really tell, and it seems to be suffering some of the issues of Dark Avengers, where they just formed the team, and all of a sudden, it already seems mired into previous events and/or ongoing events in the rest of the universe. The team hasn’t even had a chance to BE a team yet. Hopefully this will happen soon.

- *SPIDEY SPOILER* I find it extremely interesting that MJ “knows” certain things. Perhaps that’s the result of the infamous “whisper” in Mephisto’s ear?

- That Fantastic Four “idea room” was a key part of the story in the Dark Reign limited series. It was essentially just Reed looking into thousands of alternate realities to figure out if he could’ve prevented the Civil War and/or Skrull Invasion and/or Dark Reign in some “perfect” scenario, and for the most part it was never possible without like… martial law or killing Rogers or Stark, etc.

He also came to the conclusion that the only times these things were even partially “fine” was when he became personally involved in the situation, like Civil War and stepping in and pushing Tony Stark to the side. If you’re a sucker for alternate dimension stuff, you should check out the limited, it was definitely a cool story. This definitely sounds like it’s following up on that concept which is awesome.

- DanG, you need to turn Blue Wraith into an animated comic, and then you can sell Blue Wraith in Bluray! BA-DUM-TCH!

- I’ll be sure to say hey to you guys whenever I break free from the “line of infinite length” which is my pre-emptive nickname for the Stan Lee line.

Additionally… I hailed the call to Photoshop. It’s not great, but still amusing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v17/Laughing-Man/archieOsborn.jpg

- Link

- Archie was a total copout. I’m not an Archie person, but… still… c’mon guys, alternative realities are lame.

- Batgirl was a solid. I’m excited about it.

- I seriously need to get Power Girl. Too many people are loving it for me to NOT get it. I hope I can find the back issues with some ease AKA pay store price for them.

- Daredevil was awesome. I think that “The List” preview was a nice feature to show you where the Daredevil series is going to be headed. I have a feeling it’s going to be part of the main Daredevil series and just have a header up top that says “Dark Reign: The List” like they did with Dark X-Men Utopia. My understanding is that it’s the precursor mini-series/event that leads us into Iron Patriot Acts which culminates the events of Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Dark Reign. Hopefully the payoff will be worth all this and there’ll be even larger repercussions in the Marvel universe after it’s all over.

Ultimate Avengers… I don’t even know what to say about this series. Hawkeye’s costume was pretty awesome, that was definitely a highlight for me. I could also jump right into this and grasp the concept even without ever touching AN Ultimates comic. I also liked that this comic started off without having to “getting the band back together” sort of stuff they do in the first issue of EVERY team comic.

So… how about Ultimate Spider-Man… my co-hosts reamed me for enjoying it (were you listening to YIBR when someone was ragging on the art? haha.) But, I was also horribly confused going in (not having finished Ultimate Spider-Man, I need to read 2 or 3 trades.) But it seemed the whole world was upside down, what with Gwen Stacy being back, etc. I was very confused. The art put a lot of people off, my only complaint about the art is simply that Spidey’s head is very… round, almost a perfect circle… sort of weird. Also, the mysterman is NOT who you thought it was, it’s a character named “Shroud”. In normal Marvel he wears all WHITE but for some reason they gave him Red. It was sort of cool… and at first I thought he threw Kingpin out the window and I thought “MAN! How cool would it be to paraphrase the current Marvel Universe in the Ultimate Universe by having Ultimate Hood appear and just kill/replace Ultimate Kingpin. That would’ve been neat, but unfortunately wasn’t the case at all.

Either way, It was disappointing going into this under the impression that this was going to be a relaunch/breath of fresh air for Ultimate Spider-Man, despite the renumbering, it seemed way too bogged down with continuity issues. ‘eh. I’ll be getting this in trade either way as I have with all Ultimate Spidey.

Glad all the rage is gone. I don’t even remember where the rage started or when it ended. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.

Blackest Night: Batman is very exciting. I can only imagine how cool the other two issues are going to be. The other Batman was pretty cool too, I enjoy how all the new Batbooks have an intertwining story and aren’t just stand alone stories.

As I mentioned on Twitter… since you ARE getting all the Blackest Night books, you’re going to have to let me know how Solomon Grundy #7 is. I think that has the potential to be a cool concept, considering Grundy is also one of those “dead but not dead” characters.

- Link

I hesitated buying the Marvels Project, but I leafed through Link’s copy and saw Namor kicking Nazi butt and made the purchase. I initially hesitated because this story seems to have already been told, but after reading the book I was pleasantly pleased. Yes, it was a re-telling of a few common stories but I enjoyed the Two-Gun Kid appearance and the above mentioned Namor kicking Nazi butt.

I did pick up the Ultimates books because they were deeply discounted through DCBS, however I haven’t read them yet. I leafed through the Spidey book and to be honest I don’t think I will read it. I’m disappointed. I miss Immonen and Bagley. I will read the Avengers book, I like Millar action and Pacheco is an artist I’ve always liked (did he pencil Avengers Forever?).

I read the first two or three issues of Destroyer. It was meh and given your review of the finale I’m glad I skipped out. It’s unusual for me not to finish a limited series (a little obsessive compulsive) but the story didn’t justify the expense. Also, this book got very little PR. Nobody was talking about it. I sort of forgot about it.

Thanks for another enjoyable show!