On this week’s comic book review podcast:

Captain America #25MarvelBy Ta-Nehesi Coates & Leonard KirkBack-up by Anthony Falcone and Michael Cho

Rorschach #2DC ComicsWritten by Tom KingArt by Jorge Fornés

Sea of Sorrows #1IDW PublishingWritten by Rich DouekArt and colors by Alex Cormack

Marvel Indigenous Voices #1MarvelBy Jeffrey Verge, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger, Stephen Graham Jones, Taboo & B. Earl, Weshoyot Alvitre, Kyle Charles, and David Cutler

Barbalien: Red Planet #1Dark Horse ComicsScript by Tate BrombalStory by Jeff Lemire and Tate BrombalArt by Gabriel Hernández Walta

Commanders in Crisis #2Image ComicsWritten by Steve OrlandoArt by Davide Tinto

The Amazing Spider-Man #53MarvelWritten by Nick SpencerArt by Mark Bagley

Dark Nights: Death Metal #5DC ComicsWritten by Scott SnyderArt by Greg Capullo

Seven to Eternity #14Image ComicsWritten by Rick RemenderDrawn by Jerome Opeña

Venom #30MarvelWritten by Donny CatesArt by Luke Ross

Usagi Yojimbo #14IDW PublishingWritten, art and letters by Stan Sakai

Batman #103DC ComicsWritten by James Tynion IVArt by Carlo Pagulayan & Danny Miki and Guillem March

Black Magick #16Image ComicsWritten by Greg RuckaArt by Nicola Scott

Juggernaut #3MarvelWritten by Fabian NiciezaArt by Ron Garney

You Look Like Death: Tales From The Umbrella Academy #3Dark Horse ComicsStory by Gerard Way and Shaun SimonArt & Colors by I.N.J. Culbard

Stillwater #3Image ComicsWritten by Chip ZdarskyArt by Ramón K. Perez

The Immortal Hulk #40MarvelWritten by Al EwingArt by Joe Bennett

Big Girls #4Image ComicsStory & Art by Json Howard

Widowmakers #1Story by Devin GraysonPencils and Inks by Michele Bandini

Ice Cream Man #21Image ComicsWritten by W. Maxwell PrinceArt by Martín Morazzo

X-Force #14MarvelWritten by Benjamin Percy and Gerry DugganArt by Joshua Cassara

Hellions #6MarvelWritten by Zeb WellsArt by Carmen Carnero

Cable #6MarvelWritten by Gerry DugganArt by Phil Noto

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Full Episode Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up, everybody. Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete

Alex:                 And we have the pack stack for you today. We’ve got so many comics to talk about.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:00:19] that there is a lot of comics on Stack’s before this. This is a whole another level of Stack.

Justin:              This is serious.

Alex:                 I got a timer going, we’re going to do 25 seconds per comic. 100%. Definitely, no fat on this show is what I like to say [crosstalk 00:00:35]. Let’s cut all the X-Men book if you’re cutting fat. Come on.

Justin:              Those are nice and leam. Those are very fun. Yeah. They’re right in the right length. We will not do any sort of deviation, no tangents, for God’s sakes.

Alex:                 No bits.

Justin:              No bits.

Pete:                Wow.

Justin:              Who’s got time for those.

Alex:                 Nobody has time for bits. Speaking of bits, have you guys ever tried alphabets? Because that’s a good series, surprisingly.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:01:02].

Justin:              Yes. What I do is I start the day with alphabets, jump right into some alphabet soup for lunch, and then I have a dinner of my own choosing.

Pete:                Wow. That really fall off there at the end.

Alex:                 Man. You’re on Alpha Watchers, right?

Justin:              That’s right [inaudible 00:01:19].

Alex:                 Let’s talk about, speaking of letters, specifically the letter A and whether it stands for France or not. Let’s talk about Captain America, number 25 for Marvel by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leonard Kirk, backup by Anthony Falcone and Michael Cho. It was a big anniversary issue for captain America. So I figured it was worth talking about, but this is right in the middle of a huge arc that they’ve been doing for this title for a while now, as captain America is basically fighting against all of his villains along with the daughters of Liberty, is that what the group is called?

Justin:              That is correct.

Alex:                 Big things go down on this issue. I got to tell you, I liked the main story. I thought it was fine as part of the continuing story, but I thought the backup was real good.

Justin:              Yes. That’s when I was reading this, despite the fact that it is a number 25, the first story, I was like, “This is pretty good. This is just Ta-Nehisi Coates as both this Captain America and Black Panther is always writing sort of one uber story and so each arc is the next piece of that. I’ve been really enjoying this story and Captain America. But the backup story, I was like, “Yes, this is the real… It’s such a good… Just comment on what America is. It’s captain America speaking at a funeral for a guy he met in Red Hook at a diner and it’s just a great… It’s like a speech and it’s really-

Pete:                I got choked up during this comic. It was really great and really well done. I was really impressed.

Alex:                 The art is very good. It’s very reminiscent of Darwin Cook in particular, I think-

Justin:              Yes.

Alex:                 From Michael Cho and the story spans the history of Captain America. So if you’re looking for something anniversary-wise again, the first story, very good. It’s a good story. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good writer. We know that.

Justin:              Great writer.

Alex:                 Leonard Kirk is a great artist as well. So there’s good stuff going on there. But the backup is definitely where it’s at. Let’s move to another run, Rorschach, number two from DC Comics written by Tom King art by Ori Fornace. I think it’s fair to say we’re two issues in, and I still don’t know exactly what to expect personally from this title. I thought the story was fascinating, well laid out. The art is really good. I have no idea how any of this connects to anything yet, but I’m definitely on board for the ride.

Justin:              This felt almost like a standalone issue, which I think is odd as a second issue. So it’s a detective trying to track down this attempted assassination. In this issue, it’s the characters that we think are sort of the Rorschach and are the main characters of the subjects at least of this book are just sort of side characters in this. It’s about the mystery of a murder that happened in this building. I don’t know, I really liked it, but I agree with you, Alex. I felt it was an odd place to put an issue like this.

Pete:                I disagree, I think this a very interesting kind of like, who done it, I’m really liking how this is unfolding in a classic Kings fashion where we’re getting a little bit, each issue a little bit, trying to put together this bigger picture. Art’s unbelievable. Storytelling is really great. I really liked the voiceover stuff at the beginning and I think Rorschach is one of my favorite characters. So this is very interesting to kind of like, you get this story and to see how this is going to unfold.

Alex:                 This is something that even while I’m reading it, I feel like my antenna is on wrong for it because I read it and I try not to do this when I’m reading it, because the story is good, the art is good, but I keep reading it as, okay, how does this connect to Watchman? How does this connect to Watchman the TV series? How does this connect-?

Pete:                Wow, that’s weird.

Alex:                 Well, and it does Tom King said on Twitter, that it is in “the same universe”, because of course they’re seeing the same universe, but it’s not in the doomsday clock universe necessarily. It’s taking place in the same universe as the TV show. So I feel like I’m focusing on that too much [crosstalk 00:05:34].

Pete:                Yeah. Why are you [crosstalk 00:05:36] harder on yourself.

Alex:                 Well, this is what I’m saying, I am owning the fact that I’m reading this incorrectly, and it’s something that I feel like I’m going to have to read through and then go back and read again to really read it the right way once it’s a complete story personally.

Justin:              That’s fair. Alex, honestly, when it comes to antennas, you need to upgrade to a mental wirelessness so you can just not have to have this.

Pete:                Get the WiFi bro.

Justin:              Get the WiFi dude.

Alex:                 It keeps going down though. I don’t know what’s going on. Let’s move on to another title. Sea of Sorrows number one from IDW Publishing written by Rich Douek, art and colors by Alex Cormack. Man, I loved this book. I thought this was so good. This is about a bunch of treasure hunters exploring a sunken sub. There is some weird stuff going on there. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler because it’s on the cover or one of the covers, but there’s a weird bunch of stuff coming on there with potentially some mermaids. It flashes back in time to previous time-

Justin:              Just potentially some mermaids, just a high mermaid potential on this book. Let me just say, no spoilers, but the potentiality of mermaid-ness is high here.

Alex:                 Yeah. Certainly our mermaid antenna was like [inaudible 00:06:41].

Justin:              Was blazing.

Pete:                Yeah. I wouldn’t say this is splash two, but there’s definitely some mermaid action.

Justin:              Yes.

Alex:                 Sure. Most people with that in fact say this was splash two, but there is some really good, like dark horror crime fantasy stuff going on. We’ve had Rich Douek at our live show before talking about previous book he’s done and I think Rich is just a really smart, precise writer. I was very surprised how much I enjoyed this, both from the art and the writing perspective.

Justin:              Yeah. I think it’s a nice, like sort of everyone’s out to get everyone situation and then they encounter something horrifying. The art I think is really, really great. The undersea stuff is drawn. So with such darkness to it, and then the surprise of the potential mermaid that we’ve discussed and giving some-

Alex:                 I don’t want to say is a mermaid, I’m just saying it’s a potential mermaid.

Justin:              It’s a potential mermaid. It’s an undersea maid, I guess we could say.

Pete:                I think this does a great job as a first issue, is setting up this fucked up world, putting all the pieces in place to get you excited for the bigger story. I think this is a really solid first issue. I can’t wait for more. I’m all in.

Alex:                 It’s very reminiscent of the way of the Hill house Comics that came out of DC, just in terms of seeing like a contained horror story. But I like it quite a bit. Definitely pick this one up. Next up, Marvel Indigenous Voices, number 1 from of course, Marvel Comics by, here’s a long list, Jeffrey Veregge, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger, Stephen Graham Jones, Taboo and B. Earl, Weshoyot Alvitre, Kyle Charles and David Cutler.As you could probably figure out from the title, this is a bunch of short stories that focus on Marvel’s Indigenous characters. I thought this was nice theology and I’d like to see more of this. What did you guys think?

Pete:                I agree. This was really cool, very creative. I liked the way this set up with the watcher in the beginning. Just setting things up as like, we’re going to get a bunch of stories here. Yeah. I’m completely on board. I want more, I think this is a great idea and I’m glad Marvel is doing this.

Justin:              I love, I think this is such a great variety of stories here. The first story focuses on Echo and great character from Daredevil back in the day.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              I miss seeing more of Echo, and it’s sort of a straight up action adventures. She takes on the [inaudible 00:09:17], Loki shows up. Then we get a Dani Moonstar, Rahne Sinclair, story, which is good, very classic. X-Men short. Then the last story is this super interesting silver fox story that really fits into Wolverine history and is so dark and disturbing. But it was great. That was my favorite of the three and it really popped for me that last one.

Alex:                 Yeah, I definitely agree. I think, we talk a lot about how anthologies are hit and miss, of course, because you’re getting a lot of stories, but this is an issue that I think is well worth picking up based on the three stories in it.

Justin:              Before you move on real quick, there is in the sort of back matter here, there’s a note at the bottom, look for an exhilarating new series from Taboo and B. Earl in 2021. The Apache Warrior, [Kashiwa 00:10:12] the Sorcerer Supreme and the Ghost Rider of the mid-1800s berms her way into the future and brings disaster with her. I read that and I was like, “Shit, this looks awesome.”

Pete:                Hell yeah. Yes.

Justin:              I can’t wait to check that out.

Alex:                 Good stuff. Let’s move on then to Barbalien, Red Planet, number one from Dark Horse Comic Script by Tate Brombal, story by Jeff Lemire and Tate Brombal, art by Gabriel Hemandez Walta. This is continuing to flesh out the Black Hammer Universe, which it is wild. How many books are coming out of this and how exciting all of them are. But this one is focusing on the world’s Martian Manhunter Amalgam.

Alex:                 The main thing that frankly, makes him different is he is gay and here he is dealing with a big situation on Mars where he’s been sentenced to death. While back in time, he is discovering his sexuality at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 80s. This is great. Just another fantastic Black Hammer book.

Pete:                Yeah. I was really impressed with this. Art is fantastic. Lot of heart, great storytelling, very interesting. I was really impressed by this and there is literally like an, oh shit, moment here, where you think maybe someone’s going to die. I was really impressed by this.

Justin:              Yeah. The Black Hammer Universe is so smart, the way it… This is a little bit cheap to say, but it brings like an indie sensibility to the Justice League characters or Justice League analogs, I think is so great. But what really does is flesh out these characters, make them more interesting and take the tropes of the top tier heroes like that and make the ground them, give them like a context and a historical place. It’s just makes for rich storytelling. It’s really good.

Alex:                 Totally agree. It’s just crazy that this is essentially a Martian Manhunter story, but with some tropes changed around, but it works completely and it shouldn’t work outside of Jeff Lemire writing it. But it absolutely does. He’s clearly guiding this whole universe. It feels like the best new superhero universe or new type of universe that Dark Horse has done since BPRD and Hellboy. They’re doing such a good job with it across the board.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Moving on to another big new one, Commanders in Crisis, number two, from Image Comics written by Steve Orlando, art by David Tinto, as we found out in the first issue, empathy is dead and not only that, but one superhero from the remaining universe has taken a bunch of presidents from a bunch of other universes, save them, given them super powers, brought them here. They’re all working together as a team. There are so many insane Steve Orlando ideas that are all working at the same time. We really liked the first issue. How do you think it held up on second take?

Pete:                I think this is very cool. I love the ending. Yeah. This is Steve Orlando, just have a lot of fun kicking butt. This is very cool. Although there are a lot of ideas you can still follow what’s happening. Art’s great, ton of action, a lot of fun moments. Yeah, I’ve been really impressed with this book. He’s taking big swings with this and I’ve been impressed with it.

Justin:              Yeah. We just talked about sort of taking, coming at Justice League style storytelling in a different way and I think Steve Orlando here does it in an even different way. It’s like fully idea and concept driven where you’re getting into these multi-versal, true this and finding a way to have these heroes being heroes while at the same time combating an idea. It’s good. It feels topical. It feels like it’s also has good super hero action. I like it as well.

Alex:                 The second issue spent a little more time with the individual characters, which I thought was really nice as we get to know them, because they’re all new, they’re all fresh, they’ve got different powers. So it’s interesting stuff. Next up, The Amazing Spider-Man, number 53, from Marvel written by Nick Spencer, art by Mark Bagley. This is picking up on the cliffhanger of the last issue where Spider-Man died. He was killed by the character Kindred, who we know is Harry Osborne, but Spider-Man doesn’t know that. This issue is coming around to the big surprise that Kindred is Harry Osborne, is the reveal at the end.

Justin:              Yes.

Alex:                 What did you think about this? Because I’ve been very on board with this storyline, but felt a little mixed about this issue, personally.

Pete:                What I really liked about this issue was, in the past issues, there’s been so much happening at once. It seemed like a little bit of overload. I liked how the slow down a little bit to deliver who this is and the got you kind of moment at the end was cool. I thought it was earned. I’ve been a little like, “I haven’t been enjoying myself on this book.” But at least I enjoyed the pacing a lot more on this and it felt like, “Okay, we’re now on the same page.” We can move back to crazy time with Nick Spencer for this. What’s going to happen next?

Justin:              As always, I agree with Pete completely with nine caveats.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Because I agree with you. I think this issue was paced really nicely and Mark Bagley’s aren’t… I feel like I first came to reading Spider-Man comics when Mark Bagley was drawing Spider-Man and Peter Parker and so seeing him, I’m like, “Yes, I really like this. I recognize this.” If we hadn’t known that Harry Osborne was underneath the bandages, this would have been a great reveal.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              But the fact that we know it, meant this was weird. Now it makes me be like, “Is this the reveal?”

Pete:                It’s got to be.

Justin:              We were doubting it before, but now it feels like it is, but it also feels like, why do it twice?

Pete:                Right.

Alex:                 Why reveal that in advice.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:16:29].

Alex:                 It’s just a strange choice. It completely undercut that last page for me when he looks and says, “Got you.” Because it’s not a got you, because we already knew that and Spider-Man [crosstalk 00:16:39].

Pete:                Yeah. But Spider-man doesn’t know it’s a, got you. It was [inaudible 00:16:42].

Alex:                 Nobody did. He’s like, “No, you can’t be Harry Osborne.” Then he takes off his mask and says, “Got you.” But it’s not. It’s also another and a long line of Marvel masks that were definitely not masks until they took them off.

Pete:                Right.

Alex:                 Like Kindred, Taskmaster. It’s like, “Come on, you’re not wearing mask. Taskmaster, you’ve got a skull face.”

Justin:              Another mask under that where it’s going to be the next issue, he’s like, “Got you.”

Pete:                I’m Uncle Ben. I’m Peter Parker.

Justin:              You should eat my rice.

Pete:                Yes. That’s what I meant, is that Uncle Ben from the rice brand.

Alex:                 Of course, very controversial lately as they’ve taken that mask off. But thank you, Pete, for bringing that up.

Pete:                Anytime. I like to make it weird.

Justin:              At the end of the day we’re journalists and that’s the big reveal.

Alex:                 Stop saying that. Cool. Dark Nights, Death Metal, number five, from DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder and art by Greg Capullo. In this issue, I don’t know, a lot of stuff goes on.

Pete:                Yeah, it does.

Justin:              Yes, that is correct.

Alex:                 I’ll tell you in the middle of everything while this is like Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have their wildest really channeling The Justice League run where it’s like, “We’ve got to use this nth metal to fight back against the dark multi-verse and take the positive anti-crisis matter. Just all of this insane thing, all of this insane mythology that they’re putting in there. But my main takeaway is it has the single funniest penguin panel I’ve ever seen in the history of comics.

Justin:              That’s 100% fair.

Alex:                 So good. Everybody is lined up, everybody’s ready to fight the dark multi-verse.

Justin:              The villains.

Alex:                 They have all the villains. They have all the heavy hitters there, everybody’s ready and it feels to be like, Greg Capullo drew the penguin in there and then Scott Snyder wrote a line for later because the line is, “I have a sharp rock.”

Justin:              Yes. To be fair. He says, “I have a very sharp rock.” So pretty [crosstalk 00:18:40].

Alex:                 “I have a very sharp rock.” Which made me laugh out loud.

Pete:                I really enjoyed the army of Lobo’s, yeah, this is just fun. The touching moment between Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman here, yeah, I think it’s just, I’ve said this before, I’m going to say it again, it continues to be a lot of fun and really over the top and all metal doubt and why not? Why not have a little fun?

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. It is fun. It’s why they fight Castle Bats, they lose to a giant Gotham City basically, which was cool. Really finally proving that Gotham City really is a character in this Comic.

Alex:                 Finally proving it.

Justin:              Now here’s my question for you. Lex Luther in this issue sort of comes through and rescues our heroes and is sort of the person who comes together with the plan at the end here, is he fully doing this for good? Or is he going to betray them in that [crosstalk 00:19:45].

Alex:                 Man, I don’t know. The way Greg Capullo draws him, he seems pretty ernest, but it would not be true to Lex Luther if he didn’t have a plan on top of a plan.

Justin:              hat’s what I’m saying. The way we sort of quickly move past the fact that it’s Lex Luther who is the architect of their plan, makes me think that he will eventually become the true villain at the end of this once the Batman who laughs, despite the near infinite power he has, is defeated. But I love the getting all the heroes together. It feels like they’re finally coming together to do their business.

Pete:                Yeah. To get a business.

Alex:                 I’m glad they finally got down to business. I agree.

Justin:              Well, it does feel that way. They’ve been fucking around too much.

Alex:                 Yes, they have. This is great. Like Pete said, every issue of this is just a blast to read because it’s so purposely dumb and fun and over the top, every single choice. Does it make sense that Lobo could create an infinite army of Lobo’s out of his own blood? Probably not. I hope they never follow up on that in any way, but it’s fun to see. So that’s fine.

Justin:              Do you think one of them is actually Wolverine?

Pete:                Stop. Just stop with that old [crosstalk 00:21:01] you do every time we talk about Lobo.

Justin:              Eventually, one of them is like, “Hey guys, have you guys looked at us? I feel like we’re just a Wolverine in space. Anybody else seeing that?”

Pete:                That’s just so dumb.

Justin:              “Does anybody else…?” “Hey, Lobos, let’s have a little Lobo huddle. Anybody else think we’re Wolverine in space?”

Pete:                Wolverine doesn’t talk about himself in the third person and have a whole different language. It’s not…

Alex:                 Wolverine is constantly talking about himself in the third person.

Justin:              No, he’s not.

Justin:              Yeah. If you can point out a couple other differences between Wolverine and Lobo, I’d love to hear it.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:21:38] talk about Seven to Eternity, number 14, from Image Comics, written by Rick Remender and drawn by Jerome Opena. So excited. This title is back. This takes place in a fantasy world where a dude who is dying has teamed up with the big villain who basically destroyed his world and is now tracking down eternal life. This issue, we get a very classic Rick Remender scaring of Disney world and Disney Land and things like that as they get to the place where eternal life is granted. As usual with Rick Remender book, things get real dark real quick. But it’s really Jerome Opena’s, character designs that carry this book in how wild and how creative they are throughout the book.

Pete:                I would like to say, you got to pick this up for the art alone. It’s worth it.

Justin:              Nice, great, quote, from quoting yourself, Pete page. Yeah, to that point, I am the asker section from the back half of the book is really cool. But Rick Remender talks about this a little bit in the back matter on this book, he’s like, “Hey, we took a real long time to get this done.” But I think his focus on quality of his comic book work is amazing. He made a choice years ago now to stop doing Marvel and DC work and focus on all of his creator owned books and he takes so much care with every issue to make them, in his mind, perfect.

Justin:              He does such a good job of just making high quality comics that really everything is super unique, super creative from the writing to the art, to the character design all the way through it’s dark, like all of his work, it definitely has his point of view, but it comes at you in such a different way.

Pete:                I had to read this twice just because I didn’t want to miss anything in the panels. It’s just so detailed and so amazing. You can read this comic and then you can just page through it and be amazed at the paneling.

Alex:                 It’s great stuff. Let’s move on to talk about Venom, number 30 from Marvel written by Donny Cates and art by Luke Ross. This is the final issue of Venom before the Big King in black crossover kicks off. This is the end of the Venom beyond storyline as they are in an alternate universe where Venom sun has gone bad, become a bad guy called the Codex, lots of Venom, lots of symbiotes stuff happening here. What’d you think about this, both as a issue and as a lead in to this big event?

Pete:                Well, I… Go ahead.

Justin:              I would say it’s wild. It is like the way that Donny Cates has taken, a sort of one-off at least at the beginning Spider-Man villain. Now this is so far from being related to Spider-Man. It’s such a, like expanded mythology where you’ve got Eddie Brock and his son going into this different dimension meeting his ex who is has the son from this multi-verse. They all have their own symbiontes. They are all the different symbiontes, have different languages and controlling which ones are which, and all building toward… I got to read Richard’s who has googly eyes? He’s got googly eyes.

Alex:                 Yeah, he does. He has a paste it on.

Justin:              Yeah. What’s the deal with this guy? He’s got googly eyes. He’s a little bit. He’s not as smart and he’s got googly eyes.

Pete:                Well, he can move and he’s very flexible and bendy, and we were just going to have googly eyes every once in a while. Why is that weird?

Justin:              No, I think he’s just a little off. He’s lost a little bit here, and you can tell that because of googly-

Pete:                Okay. I’m just-

Justin:              The google in his eyes.

Pete:                You can Google his eyes?

Justin:              You can Google his eyes and then setting up this next thing, it comes out of nowhere and it’s fine.

Pete:                I agree with Justin and I have a lot of caveats. I think that it is fun. It’s really fun. The art and the characters designs are a lot of fun. There’s some great action sequences where you’re like, “This is really bad-ass.” But also what I really like about it is the heart. There’s a lot of heart in this book, which I really appreciate. If you’re going to go into all this action, it’s nice to know what the thoughts and the feelings are before all this goes down. I’m excited to see this next big arc. I like where this left off. I feel like Donnie Cates did a good job of wrapping this up and getting it ready for the next thing. I think this was a really good issue.

Alex:                 I agree. Let’s move on to a give me for Pete, Usagi Yojimbo, number 14 from IDW publishing, written art and letters by Stan Sakai. In this issue, our Bunny Warrior does some bunny warrior stuff. Pete, take it away.

Pete:                Okay. First off is [inaudible 00:26:36] sent the bunny warrior bullshit. Okay. Don’t try to make him more cutesy. This is an action oriented book, about a serious ronin samurai who travels the land and helping people. So don’t put that fucking bunny shit on there. All right?

Alex:                 Okay. So would you call him a whittle, whittle rabbit, samurai?

Pete:                You’re the worst.

Alex:                 Would you call him a adorable squish [inaudible 00:27:01]?

Pete:                No. Did you just turn into your son for a second? I like this. I love all the characters.

Alex:                 Don’t you slam my son out of entirely separate podcasts.

Pete:                I’ll slam them. He needs to get some fucking musical talent is what he needs to do.

Alex:                 Jesus Christ.

Justin:              Wow, unnecessary Pete.

Pete:                Don’t ask from the hit if you don’t want it.

Justin:              Don’t ask for the Pete hit if you don’t want it. Anyway, get back to reviewing your peep Samurai book.

Alex:                 Hey, can you name the three comic book writers who are female to your girlfriend, Pete?

Pete:                No. That’s why we had to do it on the show. All right.

Justin:              This is unnecessary.

Pete:                But I never get tired of this. These are all very similar stories about a traveling ronin, but I love his heart of gold and how he always is doing the right thing. This is just in a fucked up world, it’s nice to have staples like this book that you can always depend on. You always know Usagi is going to do the right thing. He’s going to try to save the day. It’s just fantastic. I love all these stories. I love all the action. Even though that people are getting like cotton stabbed, they don’t really show the blood and guts.

Pete:                They focus more on the action, what happens than the blood and the gore. Yeah, I just think it’s really cool, and this one, we see a lot of focus on family, which is nice and also poignant and sad. But I liked the old black and white version. I know people like color for some reason, but if this sells more comics and gets it in more hands, then I’m all for it.

Justin:              Pete, are you threatened? Do you think that the even smaller cuter rabbit warrior with a bow and arrow is going to be a threat to Usagi, the cute, the sword bunny?

Pete:                Well, hopefully the older Usagi will have somebody to hand over his swords to, you know what I mean, just to continue the story.

Justin:              He does seem to love his swords. Just which one of these is the Easter Bunny?

Pete:                I fucking hate you.

Justin:              A very fun book.

Alex:                 Yeah. Delightful. I would love to see this fluffy wuffy eat some carrots [crosstalk 00:29:20]. Batman, number 103 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV, art by Carlo Pagulayan and Danny Miki and Guillem March. In this issue, Ghost-Maker is having it in for Batman. Ghost-Maker is a old frenemy of Batman from back in the day, they both trained the exact same way, constantly fought throughout history and now has come to Gotham City to make things right, because he thinks Batman is doing a bad job. In this issue, he is trying to kill Clown Hunter who is trying to kill Harley Quinn.

Alex:                 So things get really messed up. I really like this. I think this is, again, just a really good story from James Tynion. He clearly likes Harley Quinn a lot in particular, and I love having her in here. He writes really good Harley Quinn. It’s good stuff. He’s building his own Batman mythology rather than just picking up on what got left off on whatever happened with Tom King’s run. That’s great. I’m excited to see what’s going forward.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s nice because he does a good job of giving us a little bit of Batman’s past with some humor. Like the fact that we see Batman in the desert and Ghost-Maker rolls up on him and he’s like, “Not tonight, man.” They’re kind of back and forth, the way that Ghost-Maker and Batman kind of go back and forth, the repartee is very enjoyable. I really like it. Yeah. Seeing Poison Ivy… Not Poison Ivy. Seeing Harley Quinn talking to Poison Ivy made my skin crawl, because she’s like kissing the plant and I’m highly allergic. But I think that, I liked the outer monologue of it. It felt very Harley Quinn.

Pete:                I think they do a great job of capturing her voice and I like their characterization of her. Also this Clown Hunter thing is very interesting the way that this is still sticking around. I’m very curious about what the end game of this character. I’m not sick of Clown Hunter, I’m just wondering what the bigger game is. Yeah. I also liked how this Ghost-Maker is more of a psychopath than Batman and thinks that the recent Batman is doing a bad job with Gotham is because he cares too much, which is an interesting psychopathic thing to say and I can relate to it.

Justin:              Lots of information there. Really love Guillem Marches art here in the back half of the book. I agree with you, Alex, Harley is a really well used here. Ghost-Maker reminds me a lot of Azrael taking over for Batman after Bain broke his back. So I’m curious what sort of hole this character will fill down the line, because as of now I think Clown Hunter really stands out a little bit more as the unique Jame’s creation. So I’m curious to see how that unfolds.

Alex:                 I agree. Let’s move on and talk about Black Magick, number 16 from Image Comics written by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott. This is the last issue of Black Magick, I believe for a little while now. But it ends on a big… Cliffhanger isn’t exactly the right word, but our main character is presented with an impossible choice. Is she going to seem one of the two people in her life that she truly loves, spoiler, she ends up saving both of them, which is actually a very bad decision in terms of things that are going forward. The thing that is fascinating to me about this book is relatively speaking, so little happens in every issue, but it has such import, it feels weighty anyway.

Justin:              Yeah. I agree and the art is just beautiful. The way that the villains eyes are drawn is really haunting and it’s such a simple thing giving each of the sort of demon characters, this yellow, black energy to them. Really great. Yeah, and in the back matter, we see that the next issue of Black Magick won’t be until late summer 2021.

Pete:                Yeah. That’s tough. That’s a long time to wait, but I’ve really liked the characterization of like, it’s not something that you’ve seen before where it’s like, “I’m a cop, but I also do magic.” The back and forth that we learn about this character and what she stands for and with her background and how she goes about her day is very interesting. I like the dilemma and the choices that she makes shows how much he cares.

Pete:                So I think this is a very interesting book. I’ve been really enjoying it and I agree with Justin, the art is phenomenal. They pay a lot attention to details to make things extra spooky. When you’re reading something and you’re scared, it really says a lot about the art and how well they can draw you into the story.

Alex:                 When you say that thing where, “I’m a cop, but I can do magic.” That we’ve seen before. Where have you seen that before Pete?

Pete:                There’s just been many stories where somebody struggling with their day job and their identity, which they would rather be doing, like, “I’m this, but I’m also that.” “I’m Bruce Wayne, but I’m also Batman.” The secret kind of identity thing is where I was going at.

Alex:                 Sure. You don’t need to go beyond Bruce Wayne and Batman, the most relatable of situations. I get what you’re talking about. Juggernaut, number three from Marvel Comics, written by Fabian Nacieza, art by-

Pete:                Don’t ask me questions if you’re not going to like my fucking response dick.

Justin:              Yeah. It all comes back to Batman.

Alex:                 Written by Fabian Nacieza, art by Ron Garney. We were very complimentary of this title for the first two issues and had Fabian on the show to talk about it. So check out the live show with him. We get some big answers here. What happened to Juggernaut? How did he get into his new costume? What’s going on with him? I love this take on Juggernaut. This is nothing I would’ve ever expected or asked for, but I think it’s so smart and so well done and of course, Ron Garney’s art is impeccable throughout this.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Great title. Just a blast to read.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. The Ron Garney is such a great artist. I wish he was doing more books on a regular basis and yeah, it’s such a unique story that really both explores the backstory of Juggernaut and also drives it forward at the same time, which is hard to do. Then just tells a fun action adventure going on in the present day.

Pete:                Yeah. I also like how they were also making fun of the fact in the book that he’s fighting sand. They’re making fun of itself as it’s going on. Yeah, I’ve been really-

Justin:              Every time I go to the beach, I feel like I’m fighting sand.

Pete:                Man, I tell you, when you’re done going to the beach, you’re still fighting sand, finding it all over the place.

Justin:              I’m fighting sand.

Pete:                This is such a great surprise. This book as Alex was saying, and also just like the art is so bad-ass. Ron Garney is such a bad-ass. We’ve seen Juggernaut in a lot of different ways, but like see him power up with this suit, with all the red, it was just so cool. Yeah, I’ve never been more impressed with Juggernaut.

Justin:              You can’t stop this.

Pete:                You can’t.

Alex:                 It’s fun to see him do the Superman thing, opening up his shirt and turning on his costume. It’s just a fun riff that I’m really enjoying. Let’s move on and talk about, You Look Like Death, tales from the Umbrella Academy, number three, Dark Horse Comics, story by Gerard way and Shaun Simon, art and colors by I.N.J Culbard. As you can probably guess from the title, this is focusing on Klaus from the Umbrella Academy. His adventurous in Hollywood got mixed up with a bunch of shady characters, including a vampire monkey and some other folks. Pete, you have a question right off [crosstalk 00:37:30].

Pete:                Yeah. I just wanted to ask Justin something because he’s a classically trained actor. When you go on auditions and when you’re being aligned producer, you have to see this a lot, right? A lot of people channeling demons and stuff like that. That’s got to be a nightmare for Hollywood to comb through all of this all the time, right?

Justin:              There’s a famous actor manual called an actor prepares by, Uta Hagen, I believe. A lot of the technique focuses on channeling a demon into your body before you step out into the audition room or onto the audition stage. So it’s really great to see this play down person and of course, Pete, always a grasp of my career and personal life that I am often auditioning to be aligned producer.

Alex:                 Right. This is a fun book. One of the things that I really like about it in particular is the push and pull between Klaus doesn’t care about anything, just wants to get high, just wants to get drug and actually being forced into situations where he is going to have to cause something to happen. It’s just this enjoyable push and pull as the action coalesces and spirals around him getting him to a point where he’s going to have to do something eventually, but he’s not quite there yet. Right now he’s just eating relish out of a jar and having a good time.

Justin:              Relish is good. It just slides right down your throat.

Pete:                The art in this is just fantastic. They do an amazing job. This is a really fun story and worth checking out for sure.

Justin:              I love the little section where this writer who died, but hasn’t moved on is sort of reckoning with his life, is really fun and it’s just a little side bit of the story.

Alex:                 That’s good stuff. Stillwater, number three, from Image Comics, written by Chip Zdarksy, art by Ramon K. Perez. This title focuses on a small town where nobody ever dies. They can get hurt. They have to recover from that, but they never die and there’s a man who has found out that he was actually the son of one of the women from that town. He is now trapped there. His mother is buried near the gazebo at the center of the town and he’s trying to figure out a way out as he slowly works himself in the way of the society.

Alex:                 This is really good and it doing a good job of slowly building up the mythology of this book. I like this issue in particular, just because it sets up the dangers going forward, but also explains a little bit more about the, how the concept works. Just smart writing across the board, I think.

Pete:                Yeah. This is my favorite issue so far. In this issue, they do a good job of really spelling out everything that we’ve learned as we move forward. Yeah, I’m really impressed with the artwork. This is a cool idea and it’s one of the reasons a lot of people are scared of small towns.

Justin:              Yeah. Most people are scared of small towns because they’ll have to live forever there and never get sick. Yeah, I think this issue really sets the level for what the series will be, I think in a good way and Ramon Perez’s art is so good.

Alex:                 Let’s move on and talk about the Immortal Hulk, number 40 from Marvel, written by Al Ewing and art by Joe Bennett. After spending the last couple of issues with the leader, fighting the Hulk inside of his own head, potentially inside of hell, potentially a lot of stuff going on and that was absolutely horrifying to witness. We finally move outside there and things really move forward as Alpha Flight finds out what’s going on. They figure out what’s happening to the leader. Thanks to… My gosh, what’s his name? I heard it’s the body of Walter Langkowski.

Pete:                Sasquatch, Joe Fixit, who are you talking about?

Justin:              Abomination?

Alex:                 No. The strong guy, Samson?

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:41:31]. That was the body Sasquatch and fills them in on everything that’s going on. In the meantime, Joe Fixit, make some moves of his own. There’s still plenty of gross stuff that happens to the comic.

Pete:                Sure is.

Alex:                 But I love how much we’re moving forward here and that last page, not just in terms of the writing, but also in terms of the way Joe Bennett draws it, is perfection.

Justin:              Yeah, it’s really good. I’m sort of bummed because I had a long standing pitch at Marvel where I was like, I wanted the Hulk to give birth to a mustachioed version of himself and they did it in this issue. So I guess [crosstalk 00:42:10] back to the drawing book.

Pete:                Yeah. Salvin I couldn’t agree more of that last panel was just such a classic comic last panel that gets you really excited. This is horrifying and amazing and all sorts of everything in between. This ride has been fantastic. When this thing is finally collected, this is going to be one of those ones that stands the test of time. It’s really impressive.

Alex:                 I wanted to ask you, Pete, because you were really against this for a while, you kept asking for your Hulk to come back. You wanted your Hulk back. What turns you? Because you now see him 100% fully on board with this.

Justin:              You were like, “I want my Hulk back.”

Pete:                No. I still feel that way, guys. I still want my Hulk back, but this is an interesting time out take on characters that’s been around for a while. It’s a very fresh, very new take on it. So you’ve got to respect something that’s great. But yeah, I can’t wait for my Hulk to come back and I can enjoy Hulk books more. This is a scarier version of something that I love and it’s a little bit over my head, a little too smart, but I respect the fact of what it’s doing.

Alex:                 Right. It’s like ginger beer instead of ginger ale.

Pete:                Right. Yeah. Why would you… I don’t sure.

Alex:                 It’s like, “This is too spicy on my tongue, no thanks. Give me some Schweppes, please.”

Justin:              It’s hard to feel where you’re landing in here Alex. Are you landing on ginger ale? Because I think you’re positioning yourself as a ginger beer.

Alex:                 No, I love ginger beer. I’m just talking about from Pete’s perspective. He wants ginger ale, but he’s getting ginger beer.

Justin:              I think this is your mistake. He wants Mountain Dew.

Pete:                This is true.

Justin:              I don’t know what all this ginger ale [crosstalk 00:43:58].

Pete:                Do you know, Mountain Dew came out with a cookbook. Glorious.

Justin:              Yep. You’ve mentioned to us a lot and I look forward to your potluck dish that you’ll be providing to our next meetup. What do you think next issue when the Hulk just totally murders the thing?

Pete:                Man, that’s going to be crazy.

Justin:              Yeah, that’ll be fun when he just rips the bricks off of him until he’s [crosstalk 00:44:20].

Pete:                I don’t know because Joe Fixit doesn’t look like he’s in good shape. I don’t know if he can take on the thing.

Justin:              He’s going to rip the bricks off. Alex said it.

Alex:                 We’ll see what happens. Next up, Big Girls, number four from Image Comics, story and art by Jason Howard. This is a book about a world where girls are gigantic and boys are monsters. AKA the [crosstalk 00:44:43].

Pete:                Sorry.

Alex:                 Wait, what? What are you sorry about?

Pete:                Sorry for all the damage that dudes has done to this world.

Alex:                 Thank you for apologizing for a millennia misogyny. I appreciate it, Pete. I think your statement here at our comic book podcast, solitary.

Pete:                Thanks man. Do what you can, you know.

Justin:              This book keeps moving forward. I liked the story. The girls just keep getting bigger.

Alex:                 Yeah. That’s what I love about big girls, man, they keep getting bigger [crosstalk 00:45:16].

Pete:                No, but we’re slowly getting more and more of what this mutation is and how they’re going to stop it and a little bit more about this evil mastermind behind this. I think Jason Howard is doing a good job of giving us just a little bit more information each issue surrounded by a ton of action. I appreciate the storytelling, I think this is a classically great Image book.

Alex:                 Next up, I know this is one that Justin, you were super excited about. Widowmakers, number one, story by that Devin Grayson, pencils and inks by Michele Bandini. This is clearly setting up the Black Widow movie that’ll come out at some point, maybe, we’ll see what happens. But you got Yelena Belova, teaming up with Red Guardian. Justin, why don’t you like this book so much?

Pete:                Yeah, Justin?

Justin:              It has-

Alex:                 What’s your fucking problem?

Justin:              I’ve got a big problem with how great this book is because this book has no business being this good. It’s a standalone issue featuring characters-

Pete:                Don’t say that.

Justin:              People aren’t crazy in love for. Well, I mean that as a compliment. It’s such a, we follow mostly Yelena Belova, former Black Widow, who is technically a villain in a Black Widow arc and she’s been on her own. What’s great about it is, it’s her being contracted by this rich dick to go do something for him and it ends up going wrong and she’s just meant to test these facilities and then be murdered by these people. It’s a great action book throughout the whole issue, but the internal monologue going on in Yelena’s head is so good about her life, her place in the world, Russia’s place in the world, what it means to be a citizen of the world and from a nation and freedom.

Justin:              There’s just so many great ideas here, but it really tracks with this character. It puts you really in her point of view. Then she meets Red Guardian later on in the issue and he has a very different point of view and we get to sort of just take that in without having them jam some sort of idea down our throats. I just thought it was one the smartest issues I’ve read in a long time. This is my favorite book of the week. I really liked it.

Pete:                Yeah, it is really great. The art is fantastic. Also this is the best versions of these characters that I’ve seen. Yeah, it was really impressive to see when somebody tastes and has a great idea for some characters, what they can do.

Justin:              I love it at the end, the idea of how she gets the villain in the end, I thought was truly [crosstalk 00:48:03].

Pete:                Yeah. That was glorious.

Justin:              It was great.

Alex:                 Awesome. Just to mention, it seems like they’re teeing up that this ties into the Black Widow series that is currently running, which is great as well from Kelly Thompson. So definitely check that out. Let’s move on to Ice Cream Man, number 21 from Image Comics, written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Martin Morazzo. I got to tell you, coming into this book, I was like, “Okay, I get it. They’re doing their [inaudible 00:48:29]. That’s not what it was at all. This is straight up a Watchman riff that they are doing this issue, which was so surprising and so shocking and as dark and messed up, as you would expect from Ice Cream Man. What’d you think about this issue?

Justin:              When I looked at the cover, I was like, “That’s a funny cover idea.” Like a Watchman take Ice Cream Man. Then I was like, “Shit, that’s the whole thing.” Which I was really surprised by. Then the way it ends is… Because it plays sort of a slight spoiler, like the very rare, more positive ending for any sort of character in Ice Cream Man. I thought that is a interesting subversion of what Watchman is, but it left me thinking like, “I need to read this a couple more times and really get into what’s happening here because it’s so good.” But I’m almost being fooled by the positive ending, I feel like.

Pete:                Yeah. Because the Ice Cream Man has been so dark and horrifying throughout. This issue was just me going, “Shit.” I was like, “Why is this so familiar?” Then slowly getting it and it was the coloring and the panels. I’m like, “I know why this is so familiar.” Then the upside down frowny face was just the nail that kind of put in the coffin where I was like, “This is amazing.” I immediately went back, like Justin said and reread it to be like, “How did I not get this earlier?”

Pete:                But every issue I’m so nervous before I read it, because I’m like, I don’t know if it can keep going at such a high level of creativity and constantly amazing me and torturing my mind with what is happening. We still really don’t know what’s going on with Ice Cream Man and every issue we find out a little bit more, but it’s just still such a crazy, interesting book that is… I cannot wait for it to finish so I can go back and reread it all again and enjoy it all again, because it’s just really impressive.

Alex:                 Well, feels like they did a similar sort of thing with All-star Superman, a couple of issues back. We had W. Maxwell Prince on our live show. He talked about how it’s not necessarily connecting the story. Maybe there’s an Ice Cream Man multi-verse, this feels like one of those tales out in the multi-verse that rifts on or reverberates off of what’s going on with Ice Cream Man, because I read most of it thinking, okay, we’re getting some real answers in terms of mythology here. That’s not what happens at all necessarily. It’s more just like, there are echoes of what’s going on in the book usually, but it’s still, Martin Morazzo’s art is so gorgeous and so well laid out. The watcher risks are fun. It’s weird to do a positive Watchman to your point, Justin, but I think if you’re going to do anything that ends happy, that you’re parodying, sure, do it Watchman, have a happy ending for Watchma. Why not.

Justin:              Well, and the ultimate way to subvert Watchman is to have the Rorschach character go live a happy life and make his world better. That’s what I think the point is, is like, “Hey, let’s just take small steps to make our lives better.” That’s what I think the last page with the end is near with [inaudible 00:52:14] crossed out on the dude’s sign. I think it’s like, “Hey, it’d be a little easier if we just had it be near.” He does. So it’s like, “Let’s all make small steps to have a better life.” Which that would solve Watchman as well.

Justin:              Watchman’s all about tricking the humanity to be nicer to each other by creating a squared that is threatening the planet. It’s like, “Okay, now you don’t have to kill each other because there’s another enemy.” This book is maybe saying, “No, we could also just be nicer to each other on a day-to-day basis.” I think that’s a very cool idea. If that’s what the intention was, this is very good.

Pete:                Yeah. I also liked the idea of, instead of having a character go down a dark path and be like, “I’m too wrapped up in this.” Having the character stop and realize like, “I need to be a better partner.” It’s doable. It’s “If I put some time and energy into this, I can save this fucking thing. I can turn it around.” It was really great and the midst of all this craziness of this Ice Cream Man world, it was very surprising and goal.

Alex:                 Lastly, we’re going to move on to our X of Swords block, which Pete is very into it, very excited about.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:53:32].

Alex:                 Hold on, buddy.

Justin:              That’s why we do it at the end because you log off.

Alex:                 Yeah, we save it right for the end here. But this is the second to last week of extra service. We’re going to be wrapping it up all next week. Okay. Calm down, buddy. But we got X-Force number 14, written by Benjamin Percy and [Jerry Dougan 00:53:50], art by Joshua Cassara. [inaudible 00:53:52] number six, written by Seb Wells and art by Carmen Carnero. Cable, number six written by Jerry Dukin and Phil Neto. Here we are very much into the tournament of [Arocco versus Kakoa 00:54:02]. They are fighting battles, often not with swords, but with other beings throughout this.

Justin:              Eating contests.

Alex:                 We get a bunch of them fleshed out. Some of them happen shorter than others, but by the end of it, we move on to the main event. Spoiler is you could have predicted this even call out that you could predict it. It’s apocalypse versus annihilation as Arocco and Kakoa are tie. That’s what this has been leading all up towards. Pete, I know you’re against this. I know you’re not loving this. Justin, let’s go to you first. what’d you think about these issues?

Justin:              Well, it’s funny to Pete’s point of being frustrated by it. It’s there is a little bit of a trick here with this whole event where they set it up to be this Epic sort of age of apocalypse style crossover. When what it really is, is like X-Men playing baseball on a grand event scale. It’s very playful. It’s very light and fun. Despite the fact that the X-Men are losing, which is, I think stressful in general, but it’s these fun lighthearted events punctuated by horrible murder. The back half of the X-Force issue where we see the Storm, the stuff that-

Pete:                The storm fight is glorious.

Justin:              The drink that Storm and Wolverine were drinking, the Blight Swill is actually a pretty strong poison, like a soul poisoning and then Storm still beats her dude, and then lets him get slaughtered. That was bad-ass.

Pete:                Yeah it was.

Alex:                 Well, in the Hellions issue, it takes a little bit of a side trip. Early in the event we found out that Mr. Sinister was leading his team to try to get the swords of Arocco before they could use them. Turns out as usual, Mr. Sinister is being an evil fuck and-

Pete:                Surprise.

Alex:                 He tricked his entire team in order to get genetic information from the mutants of Arocco, that’s all he really wanted to do. His entire team dies in absolutely horrible ways. It’s a little unclear which one of them are going to come back or not because if you die in other worlds, your personality dies, but you might be pulled from another personality. So may getting some new rifts out a bunch of these characters.

Justin:              Well, I feel like we got Havoc and Quantum survive in that may be it.

Alex:                 Yeah. I think Empath also makes it through, right? He gets stabbed, but he crawls his way through. So maybe he’s coming back.

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 But that’s super dark. The rest of it is, like both of you guys are saying, there’s a point to the fact that it’s frustrating that they’re never getting to the sword fights. You’re watching it and you’re reading it, you’re like, “They’re doing a puzzle fight. That’s insane.” It is insane that Iliana is doing puzzles right now to try to beat these people. But I think, Justin, you said it last week, we were talking about these issues, this is [inaudible 00:57:07] setting up fairy magic to trick Arocco in order to win.

Alex:                 There’s even a point in one of these issues where they’re like, what is she doing right now? What side is she on? What is the game that she’s playing? But it ultimately comes clear when Gorgon ends up fighting and ties up the score, so it gets to annihilation versus apocalypse. That was the whole point of what [inaudible 00:57:31] was doing. She was getting it to this point of whatever is next to even up the score. I am still very much on board with this. I understand the frustration with the lack of sword fights that are happening in X of Swords, but we got three issues left here. I think the story has been so fascinating audits own both from a writing and an art perspective that I’m still very much enjoying it, personally.

Justin:              Yeah. The Cable issue that we didn’t talk about, the art’s great and there’s some great emotional moments here with Cable and then later Gorgon that are super sad. I thought really well done across the board.

Pete:                Okay. So, first off I wanted to start with some positives. The X-Force cover with Wolverine is just absolutely gorgeous, fantastic, really cool and well done. Also Iliana is just really great in this first thing, where she’s fighting, which is good. I don’t want to see her solving puzzles. I want to see her fighting and the douche action noise. I really appreciated. Sums up how I feel about this whole thing.

Pete:                But what we’re all thinking happens at the end of this, where it’s like, yes, this is all leading to these exes fighting each other, but it was also very upsetting to see these characters we know are better lose these battles that are set up, so they are going to lose. It’s very, very frustrating. The whole sit down with Thanos and Wolverine and in front of a mirror being like whoever blinks, loses. I was really fucking pissed that Wolverine lost that.

Alex:                 I loved that.

Pete:                But also moved-

Alex:                 Wait, hold on. Can I just mention what happens to this moment that I felt was-

Pete:                Can I just finish what I’m saying, I had like two more words left.

Alex:                 Go ahead, finish your two words.

Pete:                I was moved that he lost, but also pissed and it was just so beautiful the way they drew it. So go ahead.

Alex:                 Yes. That was more than two words, but [crosstalk 00:59:55]. Well, I agree with you. I think that we’re getting moments like that in the middle where Wolverine and his enemy had to look at the matter, a mirror and see everybody they’ve ever killed and Wolverine holds steady, but cries and loses. Great. Just individual moments in here are so good.

Justin:              Real quick though. Was that Wolverine or was that Lobo who’s sitting there crying?

Pete:                You’re such a douche. You’re awful.

Justin:              Maybe Wolverine is crying as he is seeing a pic-

Pete:                You’re an awful human being.

Justin:              He was seeing a picture of a Lobo comic. He was like, “What the fuck is this guy? He’s looks just like me.” But he’s in space.

Pete:                Also [crosstalk 01:00:32] just so fantastic in this book.

Alex:                 Great Storm, great Storm event, great Iliana event, Wolverine. They basically been throwing the Wind Shipper every issue, which I understand is probably part of the reason that you haven’t loved this, seeing Wolverine lose a fascia battle is very funny, but I understand for a fad, that’s not a big thing. I’m really curious and excited to see what’s going to happen next week, particularly because the last issue was called X of Swords Destruction and we’ve gone from, what is it?

Alex:                 The first one was Genesis, the middle one was Stacey’s and the last one is Destruction. That doesn’t spell good things for what’s going to happen to the X-Men going forward. We knew that Jean Grey and Scott are about to get into the mix here because they’re going after Cable. This is great. I’m excited about it, even if you are not cool.

Justin:              CooI. I too am excited. Even if you are not, to Pete.

Pete:                Great.

Alex:                 If you’d like to support a podcast, patrion.com/comic book club. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night to Crowdcast and YouTube, Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, come back out. We would love to chat with you about comic books. I to saturate Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Leave us a comment on iTunes in particular. We love those little comments. They’re always fun to hear, particularly if they’re positive comments, we like those a little better, I’m just going to say. Comic Book live on Twitter, comicbooklive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time, we’ll see you at the virtual comic book chat.

Justin:              Stay virtual baby.

The post The Stack: Captain America, Rorschach And More appeared first on Comic Book Club.

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