Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
Ron Richards is gallivanting about the Europe, or Ohio, or somewhere. We forget, but in his stead, staff writer Mike Romo fills in, and it’s important to note that we, the producers of iFanboy and its related affiliates take no responsibility for Mike’s words or opinions, even if you really like the books he’s talking about. Plus, there’s fun with the mute button! All on this week’s iFanb–
Running Time: 01:02:15
Pick of the Week:
00:01:34 – The Pick of the Week for Josh is G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1, and G.I. Joe: Cobra Special #1 is, for Josh, the Pick of the Week.
Comics:
00:11:08 – Despite the complete lack of Hans Gruber (fingers crossed!!!) Die Hard: Year One #1 was the surprise of the week.
00:16:59 – There’s the title, and then there’s what Marvel Divas #3 actually is. The latter is better.
00:20:24 – Sure, Green Lantern #46 was good, but was it good?
00:27:26 – Conor’s boat is swinging around for Justice Society of America #31.
00:30:54 – Desperate for JLA content, Conor had to check out Justice League of America 80 Page Giant.
00:32:40 – Brent Anderson’s misunderstanding of what young people actually look like is hilarious in Astro City Special Astra #1.
User Reviews:
00:37:28 – JimBilly4 says there ain’t nothin’ bad about Bad Dog #3.
00:40:50 – JesTr really loved Thor #603. So did Mike. This issue anyway.
Email:
00:48:58 – Q wants to know what characters click with the right artists.
00:52:01 – Mudassir doesn’t think Watchmen was very influential.
Voicemail:
00:55:35 – Jeff asks what unknown characters we’d love to have built up.
Etc:
00:58:18 – Have you seen the member giveaways for October?!
00:58:51 – Look out for our Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Special Edition.
Brought to You By:
• InStockTrades – Save up to 37% of cover prices on trades and hardcovers, with low shipping costs and discounts on all major publishers.
Music:
“Got Nuffin”
Spoon
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I shamefully missed out on the mini series but I picked this up and loved it, unfortunately I picked up Origins at one point and wasnt liking it so i dropped it. What else should I read? Is this creative going to continue doing GI Joe or is there another GI Joe book out there right now thats worth picking up?
Is Mike Romo the Kayne West of this website?
Let’s find out!
i don’t get it
I love Mike Romo.
My theory of: "Ifanboy secretly loving JMS’s run on Thor" is coming out. Cause this is about the 5th, or 6th time someone has ranted about this series. Seriously, you treat the man like he’s Chuck Austen or another really bad writer.
If you don’t like his work, then stop reading his stuff. It’s what I’ve done with Bendis and I’m a happier man for it. But no let’s go on the podcast again and rant about how much we ‘hate’ him. That’s refreshing.
They’ve already revealed in previews who the big bad behind the Black Lanterns is
@Heroville: Yep, and those of us who don’t like to be spoiled and want the story to unfold on the page don’t read PREVIEWS for that very reason.
@conor The mystery is still there more or less but anyone who’s really followed Green Lantern and a has a very thorough understanding of the villians could figure out who it is
@Heroville: Sure, but that’s part of the reading experience. I don’t want to know what’s going to happen in three months, I only want to know what’s happening now.
Johns himself spoiled the ‘big bad’ for me based off how he answered a 13yr old asked at a con. Stupid ‘con reports.
The word ‘question’ is supposed to be in that first sentence.
Hey Conor, you mentioned in the podcast that the last Die Hard was the one with Sam Jackson, but actually the last movie was Live Free or Die Hard with Justin Long.
Okay, back to the show for me. I thought I would post this comment before finishing.
Good show so far.
Sam Jackson was in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. No biggie, just thought I would mention it.
@powerdad-conor refuses to acknowledge the 4th Die Hard as existing. Which isn’t the worst course of action.
@powerdad: As far as I know the last DIE HARD movie involved a mad bomber in NYC and a scene that took place across the street from Gray’s Papaya.
@MisterJ, LOL!
@Conor, Hahahahaha!!! Well played my good man, well played!! I stand "CORRECTED".
It was good, but was it better than watchmen?
In reality, after listening to his comments twice about Thor, I’m not mad at Romo.
I should also apologize to josh, cause I was way to much of an angry internet nerd about the whole topic.
If you don’t like the book then you don’t like it. I can’t change that nor can I provide any material to suddenly make you gasp like seeing the Ark of the Covenant. But I do have a serious question to ask to you two and that is this:
Why? Why do you continue on reading this if you don’t like it?
Maybe that could be a whole different article but with this title I am really curious on it. With josh I am curious why he decided to go try the series again if he was indifferent about the first trade. On Romo I just don’t understand why he didn’t drop it if he hated this run all together. If you like the little things with Warriors 3 or Bill from Oklahoma then I can understand. But on a whole you didn’t like this Thor take by JMS; why not just drop the series?
You could ask me the same thing about; why I didn’t drop Secret Invasion when it was getting bad, or why I put myself threw so much pain with Old Man Logan. Maybe there is no answer. But listening to this and respecting your opinions on his work it’s the only question I ask. Why?
I didn’t try it again. I never said I did.
But if I did, it’s because I accept the possibilities that my feelings can change on a subject, and I’m open-minded.
I don’t know…I agree with a lot of what you guys said about Green Lantern in that the impact just isn’t there for me regarding certain developments, but if you don’t know who certain characters are, then that’s just your failing as a reader. Arin Sur was introduced in the previous issue! Personally, I don’t put myself above such failings–I’m not a Green Lantern expert, and to me many of the space-names are gobbledy gook. But I accept that and in a sense take the blame for being a less-than-sageous GL reader. On the other hand, if for whatever reason (maybe you didn’t pay enough attention, maybe you’re busy reading 4,938 other comics) you don’t remember what the writer set up in the previous issue…that’s the reader’s fault, not the writer’s. In some instances I *DO* feel like Johns hasn’t set things up perfectly for maximum reader impact, but you can’t retain basic facts like who the characters are after Johns has told you, then you sort of prevent yourself from even possibly getting getting very much out of your reading experience.
Otherwise, great show, guys. Romo was a good replacement.
@josh: You did tried it again. It took you a couple of years but then you read issue #601 after a long period of reading the first trade.
I stand proudly with Romo on this one. Every issue of JMS’ run on Thor I read (all of them), I was like Milhouse watching Pootchie’s debut.
"WHEN ARE THEY GETTING TO THE FIREWORKS FACTORY?!"
Great show as always, guys. It’s always fun when the other staffers pop in.
Hey guys!
For me, I will pick up a comic in the hopes of it "Getting good" or to stay on until I "get" why everyone else is getting it. To be fair, while I have been kind of on the "ho hum" tip for the STORY in Thor, I really quite liked the art and I wanted to give the story a chance. Like, everyone’s always talking about Thor and I don’t really have a history with the character, so I figured I would try it out. Then it got on my pull list at my shop and I kept getting it because, maybe this time, the magic of Thor would come out. I don’t think it was a waste of time or money–I understand the character a bit more and I have had a chance to enjoy so great art–but as far as the story goes, it never grabbed me. But so what, really? Now at least I can talk about Thor with some experience and, better yet, check in with the new creators to see what they bring to the mix. Thor seems to be a pretty fantastic and woefully under-used character. I like the character and I wanna check it out. And, lastly, if I am gong to participate as a writer for the website, I honestly feel like it’s my responsibility to read as many books as I can afford, particularly the ones that seem to galvanize the our audience.
It was fun podcast to record–I really didn’t know what I was stepping into when I admitted my feelings about the book…but I did say I liked aspects of it!
Glad you guys liked the show, it is always a pleasure and an honor to get a chance to be on it.
have a good rest of the day, all!
-mike
@mikeromo: Completely agree on what you just said. That is a factor that isn’t talked about much in the Thor series, is the art. Coipel and Mark D (can’t spell his name to save my life) have been killing on this whole run.
Everything else about defending your stance is fine with me. Although I have to ask: Did you type that up really quickly, or ahead of time? It certainly feels like a press release or something. lol
(wow, excuse all those typos in my last post. I can’t multitask at all I guess)
@TNC–I just type fast!! And, you know, I wanted to explain myself as quickly as possible…
@mikeromo: Like a politican, sure.
*mumbles* World War III starting with Iran….*mumbles* Good night folks!
🙂
Yeah, it’s not at all odd that other people remember what I read more than I do.
@josh: ZING!
@josh: You put your life on audio and video. You can relive your life.
By the way, Loki is a guy again because of Sif returning to her natural form. It’s some weird magic thing that even I’ll admit, was a bit contrive to understand fully. But he only just turned into a guy in JMS’s run just recently. I know there was a bit of a confusing cause someone else used Loki as a guy months ago.
@TNC (or anyone with the answer to this)
Did that happen in the JMS Thor (Loki’s re-man-ification)? If not, where did it happen? I’m curious because my friend and his dad are getting this series in trades, and they tend to go to me for anything from the outside Marvel U that affects the few books they stay in touch with (namely Thor and Hulk), so if Loki decided to man up in another book, I don’t want to just shrug at them when they ask what happened there. I could Wiki it, but I don’t want to spoil anything for myself because I borrow their trades when they get ’em (they just lent me the 2nd vol. of the JMS run. I liked the 1st a good deal, perhaps in part because I didn’t expect much based on their tastes; I also borrowed from them World War Hulk and Our Worlds At War at the same time… yeesh).
@cptbastard: Loki re-maned a little while after issue #600. It all happened in the main title.
@captbastrd: It does happen in Thor #602 so you don’t have to worry about it suddenly happening. It’s a major storyline where Thor has found everyone after Ragnarok except for Sif. I won’t go into details but apparently Loki is hiding Sif and has good reason to be a female through out most of JMS’s run. Again, it’s all magic stuff and if it’s one weakness for me in comics it’s magic.
It just got confusing to a lot of people because other writers/artists were making Loki a male when he wasn’t suppose to be. But that’s probably because the book was late and JMS probably didn’t have indepth conversations with Marvel editorial about his ideas.
Thanks, comicBOOKchris; you’ve done your good deed of the day. Feel free to engage in debauchery for the next 4 hours.
I wasn’t that into the first six issues of Thor. It was slow and I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of Asgard in Idaho (or wherever) and some of the real world political context.
It wasn’t until I read issues #7 and #8 the two part "Father Issues" story that I thought something great was being done. (Could have been issues #8 and #9 don’t remember)
I recommend that 2 issue story for anyone thinking about trying the new Thor. It feels like classic Thor.
You are an odd duck, Mr. Romo. I found this issue of Thor to be one of the weakest of JMS’ run. S’all good though, different strokes. 🙂
Good show guys.
Hey Mudassir here!
Thanks for answering my question, even though it was horribly written in the haze of my insomnia. I mostly wanted to read more books like Fell, with similar treatment of time, where everything is locked down into a single "frame" throughout the story, giving it a certain ‘rythm’ and as you guys said, having microscopic detail on each aspect. It doesn’t have to be a 9-panel grid. Time is the hardest to portray in comics and these types of books really do it the best.
I love what Bryan Hitch did in the Ultimates or What JH Williams is doing in Detective, but there aren’t nearly enough stories like Fell or Watchmen.
PS: Its pronounced Moo-as in "the cow goes…", Das-as in "Das Kapital" and Sir or Se’er-both are correct. Just remove any inflections the sylables have.
Great show, it’s cool to hear Mike’s input.
Re: muddi’s question (and clarifying comment), ‘Criminal’ comes to mind as a book that uses a gridded layout (though not strictly 9 panels) to show the passage of time. Even as the number of panels varies, it keeps the sense of the structure beneath it, I think. A very different book than Watchmen, obviously, but the first one that comes to mind as far as what I think Muddi’s getting at.
I thought the ‘Marvel Divas’ discussion was interesting; I didn’t get past the first issue but I am kind of puzzled by the disconnect between the marketing and the content. There’s nothing wrong with doing a story about cancer; it’s just not necessarily what I want in a superhero book, particularly one about characters I have no prior investment in, and it’s certainly a weird bait and switch in the marketing.
@ohcaroline: Especially misleading with the covers that Marvel Diva’s has.
@TheNextChampion I’m curious whether it’s a deliberate bait-and-switch, whether the series got changed from what it was originally supposed to be, or whether nobody in marketing bothered to read it.
@ohcaroline: I would have to go with ‘nobody in marketing bothered to read it’ category. 🙂
They were probably like: "Duh we got this new mini about four of our hot female characters. We should get Scott Campbell to do the first couple of covers cause he does purty ladies."
I’m sorry….I just shuddered in digust all of a sudden…
@ohcaroline — hah, you beat me to it (as usual). Listening to the guys discuss Divas, I had to jump on here to mention that. What on earth is "Diva" about this story? It’s so bizarre to me. I mean, I GET that they’re going for the Sex and the City vibe, but Marvel Divas is a terrible name to start, and the disconnect between the title/marketing and content makes it seem even worse…
Oh, and to Josh — the big deal about the bodies in the Lantern was that they were NOT the bodies of the two that had recently died. They were the bodies of the Ancient Egyptian counterparts of said characters (so they have been there a long time). Which I initially thought may have been a big deal, but it was pointed out to me that if the black rings just allow something/someone else is "wearing" the bodies, then the fact that there are two sets of bodies is not a big deal.
(and overall I agree with the assessment of GL and the miniseries overall.)
iFanboy didn’t like Thor? It’s like a broken record. A terrible broken record.
On Thor–I loved the art! Loved it! Also– I think I liked this issue because of the Bill story. I dunno, I am a sloppy romantic, I guess. But I did like the dialogue, I thought it was really quite nice.
I must add I liked the Thor oneshots a lot!
and I am looking forward to the new creative team!
On Divas – totally crazy how bad the title is with the book. DC’s Sirens is much more what one would expect and so far, it’s pretty good–I think I like the art more than anything else about the book. But you are right, this is definitley not what I thought it was…though it kinda started like the "Marvel’s ‘Sex and the City’ miniseries"
anyway…Monday beckons and it’s not looking like a fun one.
Lot of comments and I’ll admit I didn’t read them all but Loki became a guy when Thor found out that he was using Sif’s body (that’s why he was a girl) and freed her like he did for the others. She(Sif) was in that old lady in the hospital
@KickAss-Oh the irony in your comment.
I kind of agree with Mudassir about how Watchmen isn’t as influential as one would think it would be. Alan Moore himself has said how surprised he is that nothing quite as ambitious has been attempted in comics since Watchmen. I believe he is commenting on the unique structure and recurring imagery that is so ingrained in the work. It definitely inspired the "grim and gritty" movement of comics, but, as Moore and Gibbons have stated, that was not really the main thrust of the work. The plot and tone were secondary to the structure.
@katang: WATCHMEN influences every super hero comic book you read. Whether or not it influcence those books in the ways that Moore and Gibbons would want is irrelevant.
I’ve gotta say that I’m happy that Mike did this podcast. Amongst the iFanboy staff, I feel like I "know" Mike the least. Glad to hear your voice! As always, enjoyable podcast, everyone.
@katang: I think he’s just saying that because of the Watchmen film coming out. Also, it seems like after 10-20 years of something coming out from him; he fondly remembers not liking it as much. Just like with ‘Batman: Killing Joke’.
@TheNextChampion: I admit Alan Moore can definitely have a little bit of selective memory, but I believe he said this waaayyy before the movie hit. Also, I don’t mean to argue the fact that Watchmen is probably the single most influential work in comics in the last 20 years. That seems pretty obvious.
RE: Green Lantern #46: My excitement about the reveal that the two lovers powering the Star Sapphires were previous incarnations of the Hawks had nothing to do with the death of the two Hawks in BN#1. It was the idea that they had always been the two lovers and that there is a very interesting story waiting to be told (probably by Johns) to address this massive retcon. I love the way he takes multiple dangling threads from all these classic stories and ties them together in a perfect little bow. So much potential is created every time he does it.
I enjoyed the Mongul/Sinestro fight, not because I was excited to see Sinestro win or because he deserves anything, but because I enjoyed seeing Mongul get the shit beat out of him. This is a individual who has enslaved, tortured, and corrupted an entire planet of sentient beings. Regardless of how bad Sinestro is, I just wanted to see Mongul get what he deserved.
@Mike – Very well done. I enjoyed your input.
You guys are mispronouncing Magog purely out of spite, aren’t you?*
*I posted this in the wrong thread earlier because I am stupid.
@mikeromo: I agree with your comment about Thor being more about the supporting cast and less about Thor. However, the story is still good and that’s why I gave it such a high rating. Plus the art has been badass for the entire run. I’m anxious to see what new creative team on Thor will bring to the title. Maybe it will be more Thor focused. I’m more worried about Tan on art and wonder where Copiel and Djurdjvic will end up.
@katang: Well if he said it before the film was being released then I don’t know what’s up with him. Then again that previous sentence describes the man in full.
Magog is pretty useless in the grand scheme of things. I liked him in Kingdom Come, but his appearence during Geoff John’s run on JSA just seemed off. Before you say, ‘Well he did stand up to Gog and was able to let the JSA defeat him’, to me. Anyone could’ve done that because it was that easy in my eyes.
@TNC: I remember both Gibbons and Moore said it around the 90’s XXXXXXTREEEEEME boom, with companies like Image putting out mature comics, except their view of maturity is gratuitious violence and sex. The real reason Alan Moore, and Brian Bolland, dislike The Killing Joke is the same reason, because it was gratuitiously violent and was made canon by DC regardless. And if you compare it to today’s comics, it’s not anything special, besides the beautiful art by Brian Bolland.
I am not saying I agree with him, but its not something he just said he dislikes because he thinks that would be cool. He’s been saying that for years.
You know, one of these days, I gotta check out this Thor book. I read the first issue and thought it was nothing special and didn’t go back to it again.
Boy that Q sure knows what kind of questions to ask.
Hurm… I loved the GI Joe Cobra Special but why didn’t you talk about that double page spread in the Astro City book? Was it unimpressive or unappealing to you? I bought it for that page and I feel completely satisfied, that page is everything I loved about Kirby’s generation.
Quick question.. who is in charge of picking the shitty music for the intros?
Because they deserve a raise or something… for being so good at picking music.
Good show though.