On today’s Stack podcast: Iron Man #1, You Look Like Death: Tales From The Umbrella Academy #1, Batman #99, Thor #7, Stillwater #1, Detective Comics #1027, Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp #1, Giant-Size X-Men: Storm #1, Big Girls #2, Justice League #53, Seven Secrets #2, The Immortal Hulk #37, Dryad #5, Catwoman #25, Once & Future #11, X-Men #12, Faithless II #4, The Amazing Spider-Man: The Sins of Norman Osborn #1, and Head Lopper #13.

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Full Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up y’all? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Justin:              I’m Justin.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of comics that have come out today.

Pete:                Sure do.

Alex:                 We review them, unless they’re DC comics, those rap scallions, they come out on Tuesdays. They go out for 24 hours. You already know about them.

Justin:              Yes, but you can read them today. You can read comics whenever you want. That’s the freedom of the comic book industry.

Alex:                 Right. And if you break into writer’s brain, you can read comics that haven’t even been made yet, man. You know what I’m talking about?

Justin:              Yes. I know what you mean by breaking into a writer’s brain too. You talk about with like a hammer?

Alex:                 Yeah, man. But six feet away, keep your safe distance. Let’s get into this because I don’t know where I was going.

Pete:                Wait, what? Yeah, what the fuck.

Alex:                 I don’t know where I was going with this, Pete. Iron Man, number one from Marvel written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Cafu. This is, as you can imagine, another new start for Iron Man, a back-to-basic start after the big robot war. And this book spends quite a bit of time with Tony Stark, the man, before it puts him in a classic Iron Man costume, throws him up against a new, old threat. What’d you think about this book? How’d you feel about this versus the last couple of years in Tony’s life?

Justin:              I don’t know if I’d call it an Iron Man costume, but other than that I think this is a fun book. I feel like Tony Stark is popping a little bit more here. He feels a little bit on his own, less tied up in a sort of the galaxy brain, worried about everything, stuff that he’s mostly been in for the last few years and more just like the guy who puts on the suit.

Pete:                It’s nice to see him not being a robot or a dead version of himself or whatever it is. It’s nice to see Tony being Tony, but there’s a lot of interesting things in this comic. I didn’t really get past the sad girl playing her violin outside of an Apple store and then asked to leave where she was crying and walking away, that was fucking heartbreaking, man. That was cold as ice. But I’m interested to see what happens. The problem is what I didn’t like was there was this moment where it was just like the movie where Tony Stark’s like, “Oh yeah.” And then someone comes out to him at a party and was like, “Hey Tony, I got this thing to pitch you.” And he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, later.” And then that person becomes the villain. And that was like we saw that in this comic as well. And I was like, “Well, it’s kind of played out, but all right, I’ll see what’s up.”

Alex:                 But it plays out differently, right? Because he turns around to the guy-

Pete:                A little differently.

Alex:                 I mean, that’s a classic Iron Man, Tony stark scenario. What I liked about this book is I spent most of the running time thinking we were going to be running out of time that I was like, “Jesus, why are they spending so much time on Tony Stark out of armor? Get to it already, you’re going to run out of the page length here. But this was well paced. It was well thought out and they clearly gave it a little bit of extra time to breathe. You could spend time with Tony Stark before putting him in an action scenario. I don’t know if it’s going to pay out with the page length every issue necessarily like that, but it’s refreshing and nice. Like you were saying Justin, to see him on a back-to-basics level, Tony stark, because we haven’t really seen that in a very, very long time.

Justin:              Yeah. Reading this I was like, “Oh yeah, he used to be sort of a dude who dealt with his own stuff. And now he’s been trapped in the Neanderthal age in a cave for a while.” Also a couple more details I love, Terrax as a villain. One of my favorite villain characters, cosmic villains, who you don’t see hardly ever, like cool acts, cool look, cool looking dude. And I love the triangle shield in the first couple of pages and the Iron Man armor.

Alex:                 I agree. Good stuff. Art by Cafu as well, yes.

Pete:                Yeah. The art was great. The moment where he, spoiler alert, flies through a helicopter blade was pretty bad ass.

Alex:                 Yeah. All very cool stuff. Let’s move on and talk about You Look Like Death: Tales from the Umbrella Academy, number one, from Dark Horse Comics, story by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, art and colors by I.N.J. Culbard. This of course does not have the regular artists Gabriel Ba on Umbrella Academy. And that’s because-

Pete:                Yeah, what the fuck.

Alex:                 Hold on. You can probably tell from the title, this is a spinoff. This is a side story focusing on Klaus as he gets kicked out of the Umbrella Academy and heads off to Hollywood. Man, there’s just a lot of fun. You got to love this, Klaus high on drugs.

Justin:              You know Alex is going to love this. The original Klaus head.

Alex:                 I love Klaus. I also love going back to the Umbrella Academy after being so deep into the show with Umbrella Podcademy our Umbrella Academy podcast, to revisit the characters in the original format. It’s like, “Oh right, Kraken’s actually a badass and not just a sad sack. That’s nice to see, that’s fun.”

Justin:              Yeah. What’s your favorite type of hero, bad-ass or sad sack?

Alex:                 Great question. It’s very much a toss up. Pete, you got to love the vampire buggy, right?

Pete:                Yeah. [crosstalk 00:05:44]. That was really fun. First of, [crosstalk 00:05:47].

Justin:              Wait, hold up, Why’d you go to Pete for the vampire monkey?

Alex:                 Because I was reading the book and I was like, “Pete’s going to hate this, but he’s going to like the vampire monkey.”

Justin:              Is that true?

Pete:                Well, I didn’t hate it. I mean, what’s upsetting is the father just kills me in this, just how cold this fucking dad is, it’s hard to get past and it’s just hammered all the time during the book, so it’s tough. If this father had any compassion, these kids would have such a better chance in life, and it is just heartbreaking.

Justin:              Pete shitting on fatherhood, going after the whole enterprise.

Pete:                That’s right. Just you guys better fucking get your shit together and fucking [crosstalk 00:06:33].

Alex:                 I just kicked out my son. I told him he was cut off.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 He headed to Hollywood. He got crazy high.

Justin:              Nice. He’s going to love it out there.

Pete:                Yeah. Anyways, Klaus is fun. It’s nice to revisit this a little bit, but I like Gabriel Ba.

Justin:              Are you crying, Pete? I love, the art really pops in this, especially once the story moves out to the West coast, I feel like the scenes are really great, really fun. Great all around.

Alex:                 Yeah. Let’s move on then to Batman number 99 from DC Comics written by James Tynion IV and art by Jorge Jimenez. This is the I think penultimate chapter of the Joker war storyline-

Justin:              It seems that way.

Alex:                 … this is the Joker has basically destroyed Gotham city, taken over Bruce Wayne’s fortune. Finally Batman and the crew are fighting bad Batman by appealing to his family saying, “I messed up, get back together with me all. Let’s take this town.” Catwoman meanwhile is attacking financially trying to get the funds back. Man, this is the stuff that happens in this issue. And I almost don’t want to spoil it, but particularly towards the end made me exclaim out loud. There are two moments towards the edge of the issue that I went, “Haha,” just like that, out loud. What’d you guys think about it?

Pete:                Well, I was really … This is a lot of fun. This book is great. Part of me does really want to kind of get back to the bat and cat stuff, that was kind of set up before this. So seeing them kind of a part is driving me crazy a little bit. But man, the whole start of this, like Joker rolling in his fucking limo, this is really insane to kind of see where things are right now. And it really does get you kind of like hyped for that and in such a great way. I mean the panels where Batman just kind of lands in front of the spot where he’s supposed to be, so epic, so well done. I love this kind of show down kind of atmosphere that is being set up. And the reveal at the end was holy fucking shit.

Justin:              Yeah. James Tynion is such a tactical writer. He comes at the full story and the individual scenes with different angles than we’ve seen before. We get to spend more time with the Joker than I feel like we get to see normally. Normally the Joker is just cackling and plotting against Batman. In this we get to see a little bit more of him doing the logistical bits of his plan, and then executing in the way leading up to that last page reveal. And that stuff is fun and smart and makes this story seem fresh despite the fact that we’ve been … I want to say drowning in Joker for the past couple of years.

Alex:                 Yeah. Well that, and also that it is another Gotham city is in flames story, but it’s still … which we’ve seen a million times. I don’t know why anybody lives there, but to your point, it’s still feels dangerous. It still feels like it could go either way at the end of the day. Great, great stuff.

Pete:                Just before we move on, we were talking about some oh shit moments towards the end. But also some touching stuff that happens in this too just before Batman kind of gives his speech or right after it, someone gets a gift, very touching.

Alex:                 You’re talking about the Nightwing costume, right?

Pete:                Yeah, I am. I’m trying not to spoil it you fuck, but cool.

Alex:                 Well, I mean, I think that’s okay. We’ve already seen him in the costume several times because of the publishing schedule. But yeah, it’s good bad family staff, James Tynion gets it. It works really well. This is a great issue. We went on to another one, Thor number seven from Marvel Comics written by Donny Cates and art by Aaron Kuder. This is pick it up after the death of Galactus last issue. And Thor’s big vision, that some bad things are coming not just his way, but the Marvel universe’s way. And he is throwing [inaudible 00:10:52] down on Broxton once again, because he feels like he is not worthy to pick it up. Turns out more people might be worthy to pick it up. As usual Donny Cates just find some fun, unique angles on his characters. And I love Aaron Kuder’s art so much, just I love it. Every time it’s just a pleasure to see his name.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s very enjoyable. The art is fantastic. Sorry, Justin, I didn’t mean to cut you off.

Justin:              No, please, it’s your time to shine.

Pete:                Well, this is such a fun back and forth between Tony and Thor that I love very much. Yeah, this is what a cool kind of setup for this new kind of arc. Very excited to see where this goes. A little kind of twist on the unworthy. But I’m very much on board and it’s also great to see the kind of blanking on his name there [crosstalk 00:11:55]. Yeah, thank you. I’m just going to say horse Thor.

Justin:              Speaking of Beta Ray Bill, when he takes his helmet off that dude’s fucked.

Alex:                 It’s weird. Scary. Very weird. Yeah. I don’t like it. He looks much less like a horse without his helmet.

Justin:              Yeah. And much more like a nightmare that I’m going to have tonight. I mean, this book reminded me of a conversation we’ve had a lot about Batman. Thor is a character that is often pretty serious. Like God dealing with God level things speaking in very heightened language, yet Donny Cates finds a way to make this fun. There’s a lot of humor here and that Thor can play around, something we’ve been talking about a lot lately with Batman is like, why does it always have to be doom and gloom, there’s room in our ability as fans to take two sides of a character, someone who takes their job seriously, but also likes to play around a little bit with his friends. And this book does a great job of keeping the action fun, the stakes high, I mean two issues ago, everything was hell. And now here we are where we’re having fun with words on [inaudible 00:13:04].

Pete:                Yeah, just leave words on the hammer, man.

Alex:                 Words on the hammer, that’s what I always say. Moving on to one that I know Justin is super psyched about, Stillwater number one from Image Comics written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Ramon K. Perez. Now this is a bit of a spoiler because they only eventually get around to it in the second half of the book, but it is the concept of the book is about a guy who loses his job, gets an inheritance or so he thinks, that brings him to the small town of Stillwater. And it turns out in the small town of Silverwater, nobody ever dies. Things get darker from there. Justin, talk about this book a little bit.

Justin:              I mean the art by Ramon K. Perez is so good. I love his work on everything that he does. I think the first book that really caught my eye he did was I think called Tale of Sand, I want to say, based on a Jim Henson script. And great book and this just art really shines. The story itself reminded me a lot of Lovecraft Country actually, the first two episodes of that, except with none of the race elements and it’s just sort of spoiled white dudes doing the … going on a similar journey. But the way the story ends is exciting and curious what the next move is, if that make sense.

Pete:                Yeah, this is the new like, hey, I’m a prince, and if you send me money I’ll send you money tenfold. When you get the letter that somebody died and there’s inheritance, you don’t fall for that. All right. That’s a trap. It’s clear. If you didn’t know that person-

Alex:                 Wait, sorry. Pete, did you just say somebody died and left me money? Let me know where I need to go to pick it up.

Pete:                Oh, okay, well you got to go to Stillwater.

Justin:              And let me say on the other side, Pete, your rich great uncle did die and you have to go get that money. You can’t just leave that hanging there just because you’re scared.

Pete:                I’m not going to fall for that, all right. It’s some creepy town where-

Alex:                 No, I back up what Justin is saying, this is true and accurate. And if you give us $50 right now, we’ll tell you where to go.

Pete:                Oh, okay. All right. Well, I’ll just Venmo you guys then.

Alex:                 Yeah, that sounds great. Actually, you know what might be easier is if you gave us your credit card number.

Pete:                Oh okay, sure. Yeah, why don’t I give it to you right over here?

Alex:                 All right, go ahead.

Pete:                Five, five, five, five, five.

Justin:              It is weird it’s all fives. It is crazy.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Wait, actually I had a question just to step back. Thor, I didn’t try this yet. The phone number he puts down on me on [inaudible 00:15:52] for Tony, that’s just like a regular two on two number, right? That’s pretty weird.

Justin:              Yeah, let me, I guess you’re right here. Two, one, two, nine, seven, zero, four, one, three, three.

Alex:                 Ooh, I don’t get any phone service down here. You want to give it a call?

Justin:              Yeah, I’ll give it a call.

Alex:                 Okay. That sounds great.

Pete:                Oh man, that’s exciting.

Alex:                 Yes. Meanwhile, I’ll talk about Stillwater. This reminded me a little bit of Revival, the Tim Seeley book, just in terms of concept, which is a great book that everybody should check out. It does feel a little more [inaudible 00:16:26] and a little more focused on this character. I’m also sure Chip Zdarsky is aware of revival and trying to do something different in that. But I’m curious to see how it delineates itself from that going on, just in terms of the pure people coming back to life. You’re about to call the number Justin?

Justin:              Yes. We have not planned this, so we truly have no idea what’s going to come up here.

Alex:                 There’s going to be an old lady that’s going to be like, “Hello.”

Speaker 4:        Yes, this is Iron Man. However, due to some big blonde jerk, I no longer use this number. But hey, nice try anyway. For all things Tony stark, please visit www.tonystarkironman.com, and try and stay safe out there, yeah. I’m busy enough as it is.

Alex:                 Ah, that’s fun.

Justin:              Is that Downey?

Alex:                 That’s cool. Maybe.

Justin:              It could be, it sounds like him.

Alex:                 Yeah. Fun stuff. Good [inaudible 00:17:22] comic books. Pickup Stillwater number one, moving on to, this is going to be a mouthful, are you ready? Detective Comics number 1027 from DC Comics. This isn’t an anniversary issue, so it’s a bunch of stories. It is written by Peter J. Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka, James Tynion IV, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marv Wolfman, Grant Morrison, Tom King, Scott Snyder, Dan Jurgens and Mariko Tamaki. And the art is by Brad Walker, David Marquez, Chip Zdarsky, Eduardo Risso, Riley Rossmo, John Romita Jr., Emanuela Luppachino, Chris Burnham, Walter Simonson, Ivan Reis, Kevin Nowlan and Dan Mora.

Justin:              You read so fast, it sounded like you said Snot Snyder.

Pete:                It did sound like Snot Snyder.

Alex:                 Oh man, thank you for picking on the thing that I screwed up out of 20 names.

Justin:              Alex, I just wanted to say, you really nailed it when you said Peter J. Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Greg Rucka and the rest.

Alex:                 I like this package. I know we talk a lot about short story [inaudible 00:18:30], this is like-

Pete:                Justin loves talking about nice packages.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 This is a good set of Batman stories. I was fully prepared to be like, “Yeah, I don’t know, I like this one.” But I like most of them.

Justin:              Yeah. No, it was hard to pick a favorite as well. I really liked the masterclass story was a good use of the bat family where everyone really got to pop for a second. The Grant Morrison detective number 26 story was like-

Alex:                 So funny.

Justin:              So fun. And I was like, “Oh, Grant Morrison. Yes. I haven’t seen that Grant Morrison in quite a while.” Where it’s just like finds a little fun bit and just needles it into a story.

Alex:                 I mean, I’ll mention with the idea of the story is as you can figure out, it’s the guy who came to the issue before Batman and he’s already to be the next big vigilante. He’s going to be the silver ghost. He has the whole plan. He has his origin story. He has his motivation, everything. And then he goes out of his first mission and he sees Batman and he’s like, “Ah, shit.”

Justin:              This guy’s got good branding, good ears.

Alex:                 To your point it’s great, I want more of that out of Grant Morrison. I don’t need crazy musical notes from Superman saving the universe anymore, just give me that fun stuff. He did that on Klaus as well at least at the beginning where it’s just the simple idea of what if Santa was battle Santa. That’s great, more of that fun stuff. Pete, which ones did you like? What are you into?

Pete:                I really loved the fraction happy returns, the Rocco rookie story was really great that we’ve had an eye on you was a awesome moment.

Justin:              That was cool.

Pete:                Love the shout-out to the old costume and generations fractured and the Dan Mora art and the gift, yes please, just fantastic.

Alex:                 Yeah. Just such a good package across the board.

Pete:                It really is. It’s one of those ones where you’re like, “All right, a collection,” but then you’re like, “Holy shit, this is worth it.”

Alex:                 Yeah, pretty much every story is good. The art is great, definitely pick this up. Next step, Goosebumps: Secrets of the Swamp, number one from IDW written by Marieke Nijkamp, and art by Yasmin Flores Montanez. This is a new story, I guess, set in the Goosebumps universe. This is honestly something that is very much out of my wheelhouse. I never read Goosebumps as a kid or anything like that. But it’s about a kid who is a gamer. She has one prosthetic arm, so clearly she feels uncomfortable about going outside. But she meets another friend who’s a prominent gamer and they begin exploring their town that has some spooky monsters in it. What’d you think about this book?

Pete:                Well, yeah, I’m not really a big Goosebumps head, but I really like the start of this. This is a solid first issue. Does a great job of introducing interesting characters and then throwing into a shit show. And I understand like you look up to some hero, somebody you admire and they’re like, “Oh yeah, kid, you want to roll with me? Guess what? We’re going out into the nightmare that is this world.”

Alex:                 And I appreciate you explaining all ages, mostly kids book as throwing them into a shit show.

Pete:                Well, what would you call that fucking swamp land that they live in?

Justin:              There’s nothing wrong with swamp.

Pete:                I’m not saying that, but the swamp with monsters-

Justin:              What’s so scary about a swamp, Pete? Because it feels it’s moist.

Pete:                No, they have straight up monsters in their fucking swamp.

Justin:              But you seemed like hung up on the swamp.

Pete:                You’re the one hung up [crosstalk 00:22:03].

Alex:                 Fill the swamp, fill the swamp.

Justin:              That is what you always cheer. Even your time cheerleading at Cornell University, you were a huge fill the swamp.

Alex:                 See you, go big red.

Pete:                Oh my God.

Justin:              Just building out some of our background on the show. I liked this a lot, I also didn’t read Goosebumps, so I don’t know what Goosebumps brings to this story. It’s just like a creepy story I guess, the branding on it, because this story of these people coming together sort of through gaming and then the gaming becoming real. And then they go on the swamp to face a monster, could stand on its own in a fun way.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s a fun-

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:22:51] a story, like you said, I like the character, so I wanted a little more out of the story. But I feel like obviously we’re going to get that in the second issue.

Pete:                Issue two is a good spot to look for that.

Justin:              Yeah. Wait for it.

Alex:                 There you go. Let’s move on to another one, Giant-Size X-Men: Storm, number one from Marvel, written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Russell Dauterman. Now we have talked incessantly, but these Giant-Size X-Men books about what is going on here, these seem like half finished stories. What is happening? Well, [inaudible 00:23:21] as one might say.

Pete:                Nope.

Alex:                 No, but I would not say that. This issue-

Pete:                I also wanted to say though that this Jordan D. White said that this issue would change things for Storm forever. So there was a lot of hype going into this issue.

Justin:              Well, and can you pinpoint what that is?

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              What?

Pete:                Turns out Storm is sick and she’s got some things going on, and it makes me very sad.

Justin:              Well, but she-

Alex:                 No.

Justin:              But she’s cured by the end, spoiler.

Pete:                Yeah. Is she though? Because it seems like that demon they pulled out of her is just going to grow.

Alex:                 The only thing that I was going to say, just to kind of finish up the thing that I was saying that we can turn over to the rest of it, is this is finally bringing together some threads specifically from the Giant-Size X-Men issues. We get the Nightcrawler one, which focused a little bit on Cypher. We get the Storm one obviously which, or I guess it was the Jean Grey one maybe-

Justin:              I think so.

Alex:                 I honestly don’t remember. Whatever it was, it was a Storm story and they’re finally picking up on that. And we also get the [inaudible 00:24:31] one picking up with that as well and started to loop all of these disparate threads together. Justin, what did you think about this? Because you’ve been very, critical is probably the wrong word, but I would say dubious at least about [crosstalk 00:24:44].

Justin:              Yeah, surprised just in general that these have been sort of off the main character standalone stories or seemingly standalone stories. But to your point where you were just saying, I do think this amounts to a lot, it feels like, I don’t know if maybe it’s faded in our minds because of how much has happened in the X universe since the Dawn of X. But so much of those first issues were about sort of the artificial intelligence that will eventually destroy not only the mutants but the humans and be the real enemy. If humans and mutants can get over their shit and face AI.

Justin:              And it feels like maybe this is the moment where it starts. That being in the world which the whole premise of the world is that it accelerates time, it accelerates evolution. They pull this techno organic virus that Storm picked up in a recent issue where they went into … what is the place they went into?

Alex:                 The orcas, I think.

Justin:              Yeah. Orcas and The Children of the Vault is what I was trying to think of. And she pulls this techno organic virus, The Children of the Vault also a hyper evolving hyper time place, and takes it to this other even more pocket dimension where the time extends, it happens even faster. And I think that is the AI evolution that will eventually lead to some of the real monsters that the X-Men face in the Dawn of X issues. And the people we have at the end of this issue, sort of being there are Phantom X, Phantom X’s sort of twin, I guess. And then a random dude from AIM.

Alex:                 Yeah. And the other thing that’s kind of messed up about it, particularly as of a fan of the character is Cypher and Warlock seem to know what’s going on and seem to be kind of cool with it, which is not great. There’s definitely been some weird, potentially dangerous stuff going on with Cypher and Warlock over the course of this entire run. And that certainly seems to be the clearest tip of the hat to what’s happening here. So yeah, I 100% agree with you, Justin. This is like, I think the important thing, it’s surprising you said Storm, because I think the important thing is to the overall plot of what is happening with the X-Men line since the very beginning, versus necessarily Storm.

Justin:              Yeah. It feels like a bigger thing. That’s why I always say, “Don’t trust the guy that speaks all the languages.” He’s up at the bar, he’s talking to the bartender, ordering you a weird drink because he knows too much.

Alex:                 But yeah, good issue. Particularly if you’ve been reading these Giant-Size X-Men books, if you’ve read House of X and Powers of X, you really like those. I think this is a good thing to pick up on to kind of get potentially the ongoing story. Let’s move out to Big Girls Number two from Image Comic story and art by Jason Howard. I think we were pretty into but a little reserved on the first issue of this book, takes place in a post apocalyptic world where women grow to gigantic size, men also grow to gigantic size, but become monsters and are attacking one of the last remaining cities. We’ve been following one of the so-called Big Girls who was fighting back against them. We get more fleshed out about the world, this issue. I like this issue a lot more personally, because of the details and the nuance that it added. How’d you guys feel?

Pete:                Yeah, this is good because it’s like, all right, now we’re kind of really getting understanding of who’s who, where’s what type of situation.

Justin:              Who’s big, who’s little.

Pete:                Yeah. Men are monsters, women are saving the world, it’s great. I do think though that the kind of reveal at the end is really what’s going to kind of take this concept and kind of push it. But the art’s great, the action’s phenomenal. It’s a interesting world, so I’m excited for more. But I’m glad that and agree with Zalben that issue too kind of like solidify things a little bit better.

Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I mean, it’s nice to sort of, like you’re saying, Pete, see the sides of where everyone is. We have our main character who’s a little bit dubious about the status quo. And then we have this sort of rebel faction in the back half that is maybe-

Pete:                Also I was a little worried about how slow that one main character was to pull the trigger to save that other person’s life there. I was like, thought that would be a bigger issue and might come back.

Alex:                 We’ll have to see what happens.

Justin:              I love the double page spread in the middle of the book of our main Big Girl being operated on, and sort of repaired like really-

Pete:                Oh yeah, that was fun, some of the like-

Justin:              Cowgirl as she’s known.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Very Gulliver in that moment.

Pete:                Yeah, Gulliver, and I was going to say like, Fraggle Rock reminded me of the dozers a little bit.

Alex:                 Yeah. [crosstalk 00:29:49].

Justin:              You say Fraggle Rock a lot, just in general.

Pete:                Down at Fraggle Rock. Down at Fraggle Rock.

Alex:                 Down at Fraggle Rock.

Justin:              That’s not a criticism, that’s just an open ended statement.

Pete:                Every time I walk by a construction society, I want to take a bite out of it, what?

Justin:              Every time I walk past a pile of garbage, I want to talk to you.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              You walk past a construction site and you’re like, “What up dozers?” And they’re like, “Get the fuck out of here.”

Alex:                 We’re trying to build radishes here, come on. Justice League number 53 for DC Comics written by Joshua Williamson and art by Xermanico. This is tying into Dark Nights: Death Metal. This arc is called Doom Metal, and focuses on one mission of … I think it’s fair to call them sub Justice League members, slash-

Justin:              Woo, spicy.

Alex:                 Yeah, I’m sorry. [crosstalk 00:30:43].

Justin:              Shots fired.

Alex:                 It’s Detective Chimp. It’s hot girl. She’s a member of the Justice League. But they are going after Perpetua’s throne. Pete, you raised your hand, what would you like to say?

Pete:                I would say cute start, what a touching adorable start. Little Robin trying to sneak up on Batman [inaudible 00:31:05].

Justin:              Great. I guess I agree with Pete technically. But I do like-

Pete:                I mean the POV angles, it really was a kid looking up at these heroes. I thought that was such great attention to detail that really gives-

Alex:                 This really is not helping my theory that you don’t read beyond the first page or two, Pete.

Pete:                Okay, fine.

Justin:              That’s one conspiracy theory I can get behind.

Pete:                How about they born on a Doomsday panel that was later your dick, that was awesome.

Alex:                 I mean that was page four.

Justin:              Oh, he’s flipping through the book right now.

Alex:                 How about this thing at the last page that I just looked at.

Justin:              Yeah. You see this UPC code on the back cover? Woo, did not see that coming. That’s how you buy the book, they scan it.

Alex:                 What were you going to say, Justin?

Justin:              Ah, yes. I thought Pete was going to have a slight rebuttal.

Pete:                No, I’m just enjoying how much you guys enjoy shooting holes in everything I’m trying to do.

Justin:              Trying to do?

Alex:                 Oh man.

Justin:              What are you going to do?

Pete:                I don’t know, give my opinion, but apparently it’s not good enough because it only is stuff that happens in the beginning.

Alex:                 It’s a very good opinion. It’s a very good opinion. I’m just doing a classic comic book club La Zalben.

Justin:              That’s why they call him Alex La Zalben. I agree with Pete. There’s a lot of fun of this book. I love this sort of … it feels like a side quest in a fantasy game or a fantasy series in a fun way. I could read a lot of this Death Metal stuff for maybe a long time. It’s fun. [crosstalk 00:32:48].

Alex:                 It’s surprising, right?

Justin:              Yeah.

Alex:                 Because it’s silly. Pete, you did bring up the born on a Doomsday, [inaudible 00:32:56] who are also Doomsdays, it’s the sort of thing where you get to this point you’re like, “This is so stupid, but it works at the same time.” It’s just mashing your toys together, that’s all it is. But they’re having such a good time with it. It’s fun to read.

Justin:              Aaron and Garney arm falls off, you put a Doomsday on.

Alex:                 Exactly. All right. Let’s move on to Seven Secrets number two from Boom! Studios written by Tom Taylor and art by Daniele di Nicuolo. We really like the first issue of this though. I think there’s a little criticism from some of us about the end perhaps being a little confusing or not sure where it was going necessarily. But it is about a world where there’s a secret society. They hold seven secrets. We’re focusing on one character who’s part of that, who is the son of two of the characters who hold two of those secrets. At least one of those characters dies in the last issue. And that there’s a big villain who’s trying to take them all down. We flash back this issue and get an origin. I thought not only was this issue great, but the cliffhanger was superb. One of the best that I’ve read in a really long time, the last sentence of the book, and made me even way more into this book than I was before.

Pete:                Wow. I read that like last part and was like, “Oh man, that’s more heartbreaking than we need. You didn’t need to do that at the end.” But I agree, this is information that we needed and it’s important. Moving forward I’m glad they kind of took a breath to give us this kind of flashback type of thing. Yeah, I’m really into this book now. This issue got me more hyped about it.

Justin:              Yeah. Especially in an issue that felt like he was laying a lot of groundwork, it felt like sort of an exposition issue. A lot of like sort of drama in the King’s court style drama. And then to end on that emotional, just build up to that last panel was really well done.

Pete:                I can’t even look at … I’m sorry.

Alex:                 No. All I was going to say was that I’d be really fascinated to hear how Tom Taylor structured this, because it almost feels like you have this very Harry Potter sort of training section that potentially would come first. Then you go out to the inciting incident, which is the thing where the society gets messed up. And then you follow through from there, but he flipped it. He went from first issue, the second issue and he reversed the order of them and it works so well, it’s very, very smart.

Justin:              Yeah. The words I was trying to come up with earlier were palace intrigue. This issue is so much palace intrigue, and ending on a real strong emotional beat.

Pete:                I was just going to say that I can’t look at a gold little ducky without getting choked up anymore.

Alex:                 Oh man, sad stuff. Let’s move on to something that probably creeps you the fuck out, Pete, the Immortal Hulk number 37 from Marvel-

Pete:                Oh, Jesus Christ.

Alex:                 … written by Al Ewing Alan and art by Joe Bennett. The door is finally open. We finally know who the big villain of this book is. It’s the leader of course.

Pete:                Yeah, of course it is.

Alex:                 Or maybe it is. There might be something behind that. But the leader is looking to manipulate the green door the way that the Hulk and other gamma radiated heroes have been resurrected constantly, hence the Immortal Hulk of the title. While the Hulk is outside fighting in the real world, the leader is inside this hellscape or whatever is going on there. He has taken over Rick Jones. He has taken over … who’s the second one he’s taken over? I don’t remember. Oh, he’s taken over the irradiated guy, whatever the irradiated guy from the early on the run.

Pete:                Yeah, from the [crosstalk 00:36:57].

Alex:                 And there’s nobody else that he’s taken over as well that he hits at, we don’t know who that is yet. But, oh God, I cannot say enough about how terrifying it is to read every issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah, it’s too much, man. It’s too much. It’s gone too far. It’s gone too far.

Justin:              I love this book and the way, the sense of dread that’s been building from issue one and it just keeps extending to end, not only with the writing, but the art, despite all of the body, just disaster that’s happening on all these pages. You still get references too older Hulk artists. The last page feels like right out of the Hulk history, and so much of it, it feels just so big, every issue big and horrifying, just like I want everything to be.

Alex:                 This is a very meta way of looking at it, but it is very exciting to be reading an all timer. You don’t get that often when you’re reading a book, but you read this book and you’re like, “This is a Hulk run that people are going to talk about for decades.” This is going to be talked about in the same breath as Peter David’s run, as the original run, as all these other classic runs of a Hulk and other characters. And I don’t know how this is going to add up, I don’t know where this could go. But being in the middle there between Al Ewing’s writing and Joe Bennet’s art, which is like Cronenberg-esque in exactly the right way. It’s very exciting to read every issue of this book.

Pete:                Yeah, 100%.

Alex:                 Great. Thanks. Glad you agree, Pete. Just [inaudible 00:38:50], no thanks.

Pete:                Well, I mean, I’m glad you guys are having fun.

Alex:                 That’s nice.

Justin:              Pete’s scared.

Pete:                This is a horror book with one of my favorite characters, so you guys enjoy your time, I’ll wait until we get Hulk.

Justin:              Is there another book you could read where the Hulk does something like, I don’t know, like smash.

Pete:                No, I don’t think there is. [crosstalk 00:39:13].

Alex:                 Dryad number five from Oni Press written by Kurtis Wiebe illustrated by Justin Osterling. I’ll give a little pluggy plug here. Go check out our bonus episode where we talk to the team behind this book in the comic book club feed, it was a blast and a pleasure to talk to them about the last issue of the book, as well as the run. But Dryad number five, we have our main characters now in the city, they are battling folks, they are trying to figure out what’s going on, the kids have no idea. There’s a big twist as usual towards the end of this issue. What’d you think about this one?

Justin:              This book continues to go its own way. You cannot predict the storytelling here and it’s fully into sci-fi, big sci-fi, Blade Runner-esque, corporate intrigue. And did not see that coming, curious with some still fantasy elements popping through. But it’s one of the few books I feel like we read where it’s like, “I have no idea where we’re headed.”

Pete:                Yeah. It’s very interesting. Each issue is kind of like its own thing, and what’s great is you don’t know what you’re going to get when you pick up this book, but it continues to tell a story just somehow more creatively in different ways. It’s impressive to kind of see this thing move forward. I continue to be impressed by the art and the storytelling. This one, we get a lot more action. And then some of the stuff that Zalben likes at the end, but like it’s …

Alex:                 What does that mean?

Pete:                You know what I’m talking about, that hot tub shit at the end, got a little weird that you’re into.

Alex:                 What? No, come on, Pete. I mean, that was pretty hot.

Justin:              I mean, I love a hot tub. I wish there was another book you were talking about [crosstalk 00:41:07].

Alex:                 You know what’s best about that is the hot tub scene. The hot tub scene being cut between the guy who had his legs blasted off, I was like, “Fuck yeah. Give me more of that, inject that into my veins.” No, it was good, that was fine. That was a good Ted scene and fleshed out more about the world, but I’m way more into what’s going on with the kids and what’s happening at the end. Great, great stuff.

Alex:                 Catwoman number 25 from DC Comics written by Ram V, an art by Fernando Blanco. This is a bunch of different things. This is tying into the Joker War. Almost an essential chapter of it, as we find out what Catwoman does with Bruce Wayne’s money. But also setting up a new classic status quo for Catwoman that I thought was great. I like this book across the board. I had a little burp there at the end, I’m sorry.

Justin:              How dare you.

Pete:                Okay. I really love the amazing flashback sequences with the kind of tiger stuff that was almost like this orangest type painting kind of thing, that was really cool. Plus the way they kind of drew the action with Catwoman was really a lot of fun, where you’re kind of on the same page, you see her kind of doing different moves. To me that’s kind of like old school comic book style and I really enjoyed that.

Justin:              We talked about this a little-

Pete:                I also burped at the end, that was weird.

Justin:              That is weird you guys, gas management, gas management bros.

Alex:                 Justin has covered for you.

Justin:              No, I am fully in charge.

Pete:                Oh God.

Justin:              I think we talked about this a little bit earlier when we were talking about the Batman books. But I want some resolution on the Batman Catwoman relationship, because it feels like we’ve been in this space because of whatever happened with changing up the creative teams when they did. We’re in this place where it’s like, wait, she’s just moving his money around and sort of not hanging out, what’s the deal? Want to know about their relationship. But aside from that sort of unrelated bother, this was an essential chapter I think. Seeing Catwoman doing this makes you understand the main story a lot more for the Joker War.

Alex:                 Yeah, I agree. All right. Let’s move into a little part of the show. And this is the end of the show here, which I like to call the Pete sandwich. And the reason I call it the Pete Sandwich is because we got a book Pete really wants to talk about, three books Pete does not want to talk about, and then a book Pete wants to talk about.

Pete:                Yeah, sandwich.

Alex:                 Pull back the curtain a little bit. But let’s get to it.

Justin:              And the best way to eat a sandwich is you start with the piece of bread that you really like, then you eat the middle, and then you get to the other piece of bread, which is the other thing you really like.

Pete:                Bread’s nice, man. Sometimes nice, fresh bread makes everything better.

Justin:              You just mash the sandwich bread first into your face and chew your way up.

Alex:                 Whenever I go to a deli, I’m like, “Hey, I’ll have a Italian Hero. Then take the Salami and the pepperoni and the Capocollo, you throw that out, [inaudible 00:44:20] you throw that out.”

Justin:              Capocollo, I love it.

Alex:                 You get rid of it. [crosstalk 00:44:24].

Justin:              Just some slightly oily bread.

Alex:                 [crosstalk 00:44:28], no, you put it out there and you throw it out. I don’t like it. Oil and vinegar, you throw it out. Once & Future number 11 from Booms! Studios written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Dan Mora. Holy shit, the end of this issue is fucking insane, not to curse too much. But they have been fighting Grendel of the Beowulf myth, they took care of Beowulf. This issue, they fight, they take care of Grendel. You can kind of see where this is going. You know where this is going. But the way Dan Mora draws this is so horrific and so perfect. This issue is great. I like this series anyway, but this is one of my favorite issues in a while.

Pete:                Yeah. This is really just kind of back to what started this thing and made us love it so much, just unbelievable action. This amazing grandmother in the heart of it. I can’t, I mean, if you don’t like this book, I don’t know what to tell you. This to me is great comics, unbelievable art, unbelievable storytelling. The action and violence is mwah, chef’s kiss, just fantastic. I’m having so much goddamn fun with this book.

Justin:              Yeah. Shout-out to our interview with Kieron Gillen, where we talked about this book a lot. Because it really informs a lot of the process and it makes it so much richer to read this book, hearing him talk about it. Because you get to see in this issue the story that they’re sort of caught up in and fighting catch up with them simultaneously. It feels like they’ve been sort of alongside the story or ahead of the story a little bit. And this last panel, last couple of panels or pages, you really see the story come up and be like, you’re done, we got you here. And that’s really satisfying to see on top of the fact that it’s just a great action story and sequence and wildly bloody in a fun way.

Alex:                 Yeah. So good. This is just great. Let’s move on to the … sorry, I got a little sick there even thinking about a Capocollo of the stack. X-Men number 12 from Marvel Comics written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Leinil Francis Yu. In this issue-

Pete:                What the fuck? What the fuck is going on?

Justin:              Uh-oh. He’s in [crosstalk 00:46:58].

Alex:                 This is a classic.

Pete:                No, no, no, no, no, this, okay, all right, fine. You’re going to have fuck island, you’re going to … you can’t keep adding crazier shit on top of crazier shit.

Alex:                 No, man. This is classic-

Pete:                You have to deal with it, you can’t keep just fucking adding crazy shit.

Justin:              Can’t you?

Pete:                How did Hickman say … how did he pitch [inaudible 00:47:22]. Okay guys, I’m going to change X-Men forever. And just when you think it can’t get crazier, I’m going to keep adding crazier … I’m not going to deal with that, I’m just going to keep going to crazy town and then walk away.

Alex:                 The reason I said this was the Capocollo is because it has the surprising, sliced peppercorns in the middle where you’re like, “Whoa, where did that come from?”

Justin:              Woo, spicy.

Alex:                 Yeah, classic X-Men book. As we all know, Apocalypse originally came from the dimension of our Rocco separate Island next door to-

Pete:                What the fuck.

Alex:                 That has since had sex with and enjoyed with [inaudible 00:47:59]. His grandchildren have kept on his legacy. There is the opposite of apocalypse, the evil apocalypse, because as we all know, the apocalypse is good now.

Justin:              Famously heroic.

Pete:                What is happening?

Alex:                 I don’t know.

Pete:                This doesn’t make any sense.

Alex:                 This is definitely like, it’s funny to read this after the past couple of the issues where Jonathan Hickman was like, “I don’t know, [inaudible 00:48:26] is killing shit out of the moon or whatever,” I don’t know what’s going on. This is fun. They’re just killing some plants. We’re having a good time, isn’t this fun?

Pete:                Is he throwing darts at a board?

Alex:                 Yeah, this is fun [crosstalk 00:48:35]. He’s like, “Did you forget that I’m Jonathan Hickman?” [crosstalk 00:48:43].

Justin:              I think I can shout out everyone’s favorite panel from this issue, for everyone’s favorite page, excuse me. The info page sort of two thirds the way through where we list the [inaudible 00:48:54]. And it’s an infographic where we find out about the summoners from the school of [inaudible 00:49:01], this world that we just invented and arrived at, and how you can either be a shitty summoner, a decent summoner or a kick ass summoner. And can summon Pete, this [inaudible 00:49:12] is fun. You can summon our hoard of elementals, and up to three major [inaudible 00:49:17].

Alex:                 It is wild that at the course of one issue Jonathan Hickman is like, “Oh yeah, Apocalypse had a wife and also a evil opposite Apocalypse who is going to kick off his Ten of Swords type thing or whatever, because there’s all these powerful swords. It’s not big deal. Anyway, let’s go into a hole, it’s all good.” And then it picked up this random game that he introduced and that got away from in the last issue is insane.

Justin:              Yeah. And he’s like, “Oh, don’t worry. In case you’re of worry this isn’t an X-men book focused on the heroic X-Men, don’t worry because we got Banshee and Unus the Untouchable coming along for the ride.”

Alex:                 Also they’re all mutants and one of their powers is to never lose, which is crazy.

Justin:              That’s a hell of a thing to say.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean, this is saying a lot. This was the most Jonathan Hickman issue of X-Men so far.

Justin:              I mean, it’s a full on fantasy story at this point. That’s why I think this issue is a real, is pointing us to what Ten of Swords is going to be, and it’s going to be this. It’s going to be epic grand scale battles with people and places that we don’t know too much about and may never.”

Alex:                 But that’s okay. Well, all I’m going to say is, I’ve been enjoying this enough and this has been crazy enough that I’m willing to follow them down this rabbit hole into your insaneville that I don’t understand.

Justin:              100%.

Alex:                 But I also think … Hold on. Pete, I do want to hear what you have to say, but the only thing that I want to say is you think back to nineties, two thousands, X-Men they were like, “Oh yeah, there’s a mega level mutants. Oh yeah, now there’s externals.” All of these things that we 20, 30 years down the road are like, yes, yes, that’s part of canon and I get that and I understand that. That’s what they’re doing right now. That’s what he is doing is he’s adding in these insane details to the X-Men Mythos that decades down the road we’re going to be like, “Yes, I remember that. That is Arakko. That’s what happens there.”

Justin:              Alex, what are you crazy? Immortal mutants that don’t know they’re immortal that’s normal. Ten Swords, that’s insane. Can you imagine Ten Swords?

Alex:                 You’re right. I’m sorry. That’s too bad. I apologize.

Pete:                I just want to start by saying I’m not willing to follow them into this crystal anus that they’re walking into. All right. This is too insane. It’s not an X-Men book. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on anymore.

Justin:              I guess I’m changing your birthday plans, Pete, because it’s very similar to that.

Pete:                Okay. Well, I have no idea what the fuck is happening, who fuck is doing what. Cool. I’m glad people are having fun, but wake me when the X-Men show up.

Alex:                 I don’t usually like to talk about further episodes of The Stack, but next week we’re going to be reading Dawn of X of Swords, Enter the Crystal Anus number one. And I hope you’re going to read it, Pete.

Justin:              I have a feeling you’re going to love it. I feel bad because the Crystal Anus is on my favorite bars in Brooklyn and it closed because of COVID.

Pete:                Oh, it’s too bad.

Alex:                 All right, let’s move on to the … let’s say salami of this particular Stack. Faithless number two, number four-

Pete:                Here we go.

Alex:                 … from a Boom! Studios written by Brian Azarello and art by Maria Llovet. I feel like we were a little down on the last issue of Faithless. Justin, I’m talking specifically to you because Pete doesn’t want to talk about this at all. This issue I thought was very good. This is, Faith finally shows off her art. She goes on a tour of Turin I believe, with maybe a demon or a fallen angel or something like that. Very weird, very dark. What were you going to say?

Justin:              I was going to say, I feel like what we’ve been talking about is it feels like this book has been spinning its wheels for a couple of issues where it’s like, “We get it. She’s an artist.” There’s all these like dark clouds gathering around her with demonic intentions. But I think this issue, especially the back half for the back third, we get sort of what the book is about a little bit. And it’s about her being this conduit through sex to connect with ghosts and sort of use them in her art. And that feels, knowing that is great, is helpful to maybe giving her a power in the story to guide it as opposed to just be this innocent washed up in all this chaos.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean it’s interesting because it’s kind of a battle for her soul type thing, right? They’ve been pretty clear about that, it’s [inaudible 00:54:12] et cetera. But you have this master artist who is coming in, who is encouraging to go further in the darkness, versus she has this guy who comes out of the devil’s door, but he’s good in a way, he inspires her to be better. But it’s fascinating, this is … Pete, you must’ve loved this issue, right?

Justin:              The devil’s door was actually the back entrance to the Crystal Anus and again it closed forever.

Pete:                Yeah. I mean, what sucks is I thought we were going to kind of get away from all the madness a little bit and then it’s like, “Oh, this is a nice date.” But then it’s like, “Oh yeah, of course the dead person with an open head wound is going to still get some, because this is a fucking weird ass book.”

Alex:                 It gives you hope though, right? If you ever [inaudible 00:55:03].

Pete:                Yeah. I had a little hope and then the douchebag showed up at the end again.

Alex:                 No, I mean if you ever get a head wound, you might still be on the market.

Pete:                Yeah, still bangable. Yeah, it’s true. Just because you got an open head wound doesn’t mean you still can’t get some I guess is the moral-

Justin:              That’s the spirit.

Alex:                 That’s what it says on my Tinder profile.

Justin:              Alex, you’ve been married for so long, you got to shut that Tinder profile down.

Alex:                 I did actually not to veer into a true story. I don’t think we’re married yet, but we’re definitely for like-

Pete:                How the fuck.

Alex:                 No, I had a Nerve profile and four years into dating my wife right before I proposed to her I was featured on nerve as a single. And I was like, “Oh shit, oh no.”

Pete:                That’s hilarious.

Justin:              Bummer, metal pocket the ring for a couple of weeks.

Alex:                 Yeah. I honestly went on only like three or four dates before I shut it down off of that. But yeah, then we got married.

Justin:              That’s a beautiful story and was a great toast at your wedding by the way.

Alex:                 Thank you. All right. Let’s move on to the serrano ham of The Stack. The Amazing Spider Man-

Justin:              Oh, this is a high-Class sub.

Alex:                 It’s a good sub. It’s a brooklyn style sub. The Amazing Spider-Man, Sins of Norman Osborn number one from Marvel Comics written by Nick Spencer and art by Federico Vicentini. This is another essential chapter of the storyline it feels like, that I don’t understand why it’s a one shot other than them trying to maybe hit the timing right for anniversary issues or something. But Spider-Man is trying to save Norman Osborn. The spider family is trying to decide whether to stop him or not from the Sin-Eater. I thought this was very good. I’ve been liking this storyline quite a bit.

Justin:              I mean, I agree. I’ve been loving the Sin-Eater stuff, like such a departure from what Nick Spencer was doing before. This storyline is wild. There’s so much happening here touching on a ton of continuity-

Alex:                 So much stuff.

Justin:              The fact that the Sin-Eater kills negative man, and then adapts his powers, it’s like, oh, you have to know, you have to have been reading Spider-Man for a long time to know what the fuck is happening.

Pete:                Yeah. Also it’s just so much like stuff that you’re like, oh, that could have been an ending, oh, that could have been an ending. And then the whole juggernaut thing is just such a couple panels that could have been such a huge thing. I was just really surprised at how much shit is jam packed in this issue and what the actual like oh shit reveal at the end is. There’s just so much stuff packed in here, it’s kind of surprising a little bit.

Alex:                 Yeah. But it’s a good issue, particularly if you’ve been reading Amazing Spider-Man, definitely pick this one up. Last one, back to the bread as we expected. Head Lopper number 13 from Image Comics story and art by Andrew Maclean. Pete, I got to say, there is no head lopping of this book. And in fact, he has a chance to lop ahead and he says, “No, I didn’t want to lop it.” I thought this book was garbage.

Pete:                Oh my God.

Justin:              Wow.

Alex:                 First off-

Pete:                Didn’t live up to the title.

Alex:                 I expect a little more head lopping for my head lopping, that’s all I’m saying.

Pete:                Okay. Well, if you don’t like it, you be quiet and me and Justin will talk about that. Okay. First off, because we all know talking about the first page is the most important thing, love the map stuff, I love where you kind of give us a map of the world, setting things up. Really gray, kind of starts off with some deep quotes to kind of get you in this mindset for something that isn’t just violence and action. There’s more to it if you can kind of look past it if you will. But man, this comic just delivers nonstop. It’s a fun action story with some heart, with some just amazing creative team behind. I love it. It keeps getting better and better. And I don’t think I’ll ever … it seems like a simple concept, but it goes so far beyond that. I’m very happy with the team that they’re traveling with now is very cool. And the art continues to be badass.

Justin:              Let me throw this out to you, Pete. And tell me if this is something you like or something you hate. This book is-

Pete:                Oh, wait. I know what you’re going to say. Yeah, I would prefer a prosciutto instead of ham on my Italian.

Justin:              Yeah. All right. How many [crosstalk 00:59:43].

Alex:                 I chose serrano ham based on Norman Osborn who seems a little more like a ham to me.

Pete:                Oh, okay, all right.

Alex:                 Right. And the salami for Faithless I think you can figure out.

Pete:                Yeah, definitely.

Justin:              Definitely. Love it.

Alex:                 What were you going to say?

Justin:              What I will say is this book is Usagi Yojimbo meets the Legend of Zelda. [crosstalk 01:00:07].

Pete:                It’s such a sweet spot.

Justin:              That’s what I’m saying. That’s that sweet peat.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 The art of this book is great to be totally serious about it. It’s so good. It is fun at fantasy stuff. It’s funny. I think there’s a little bit of a crossover in terms of the pacing and the story with Murder Falcon in a certain way. They’re totally different stories, but in terms of very similar looking character, it’s just like these short, stocky, angry dudes who chop up things. I don’t know why you like that specifically, Pete, but that seems to be in your wheelhouse. But it’s a good book. Definitely pick it up.

Pete:                It’s a great book.

Alex:                 All right. If you like to support us patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also we do a live show every Tuesday at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and…

Pete:                Sure do.

Alex:                 … YouTube. Thanks Pete. iTunes, Android Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show at comic book live on Twitter, comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and more. We’ll see you next week at the virtual comic book shop.

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