Friday means many things to many people. For some, Friday means it’s the last work day before a well deserved weekend. For others, Friday is the day you bring a briefcase full of cash to the Greek diner.
At iFanboy, Friday means it’s letter column time.
You write. We answer. Very simple.
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Now that football season is getting closer, which college football team would your favorite comic book hero support? There are some references in the comics about this (Citizen Steel played for The Ohio State University, and I think I read in Booster Gold that Guy Gardner went to University of Michigan). I think Batman would be a New York Rutgers fan, Superman would be a Kansas Jayhawks fan.
GO BUCKEYES!
Football? Um, college football? That starts this weekend, right? Maybe? I dunno.
I have to admit, we’re kind of at a loss as none of the three of us are college football fans, although I think Gordon is.
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really see Batman as much of a sports fan. He might, for Bruce Wayne’s appearances sake show up at a big Gotham sports event but I can’t imagine that he would care much about the game itself. Now, Superman on the other hand — he totally would. Depending on which version of his origin you want to believe he was either a big time football guy in high school or he wanted to be. Regardless, I am pretty sure he would be a big fan of his alma mater, Metropolis University. He’s loyal like that.
Conor Kilpatrick
I’m curious about which now-defunct books you guys would bring back from the dead. Not necessarily books with proper endings like Y: The Last Man, but stuff like Barry Ween or Top Ten which stopped seemingly in the middle of the story because the writer moved on to what they thought were greener pastures (ARRGHH Winick!!!).
Justin
I realize that we pretty much did a question with the same answer on a recent show. But, I thought your two examples were so good that I wanted to highlight them, because it’s very likely I’d have said them if I’d thought about it.
When you read comics in a committed long term fashion like we do, you get numb to books coming and going all the time. I imagine it’s a little like being on the front in Europe during World War II, as comrades fall and are replaced. But then, someone with sense smacks me on the head and says “you giant moron, are you really comparing the death of soldiers to comic book series cancellations?!” At that point I would reply that it’s probably a joke in poor taste and move.
Moving on, I mentioned Ed Brubaker’s Deadenders and Joe Casey’s Wildcats as the two series I really felt the loss of. I’m sure there are folks out there who think Rick Remender’s Strange Girl didn’t get its day in the sun as well. But I guess those are all cancellations, rather than people just moving on.
In that case, The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius is very likely better than anything I could ever have come up with, because there’s no real reason Judd Winick couldn’t do it if he didn’t want to. He’s got places that will publish it, sure. I bet he can still draw, but for whatever reason, he isn’t doing it. I miss that book, and it’s easily one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It was smart and disgusting all at the same time, and it had more passion in it than most of the work he’s doing today.
Top Ten was supposed to come out in seasons of 12 issues and we really only got the one, plus some specials. It was a perfect melding of art and story and humor and skill. I miss that book a great deal, and I suppose all the tumult between DC and Alan Moore, along with the Wildstorm sale just did it in. I hear there’s plans for Zander Cannon to try and resurrect it, but you and I both know that there’s a big man missing from that dinner table.
I guess the other series that just sort of halted (or at least slowed WAY down) was Astro City. It comes out now and then, yes, and Kurt Busiek has said many times over the years that things will pick up and there’s a plan, but I’ve been down this road with him enough times to know not to hold my breath. Again, I’m sure there are many valid reasons for the book not coming out, but it doesn’t make me miss it any less. And since the issues are so few and far between, it’s much harder to enjoy them, because you spend most of the time wondering where you were when you left off. But when it was good, it was the best.
Josh Flanagan
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I don’t know much about college football either, but didn’t Bludhaven have a football team?
This is probably the wrong crowd to ask to get pumped about NCAA Football. Not that I fault you for it, but you skipped NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, in that order, and go straight for college football. Im guessing here, but probably a tough sell.. I keed! I Keed!
And Guy is SO much a Michigan fan that in the Sinestro Corps War he manifested WOLVERINES with his ring! (Even tho he used a Red Dawn reference when doing so.)
Ha! Guy also has a Michigan sticker on his lantern.
Ahhhh u beat me to it Patio! I was just looking thru the books to find where I saw it! Well done!
I agree Batman is too busy to follow sports. And Superman would totally be a football guy, he’s the all-american hero and football is America’s favorite sport. Plus, did’nt he play quarterback in high school or was that a ‘Smallville’ tv show thing.
I talked to Superman last night and he said Washington State University Cougars ( WSU ) is one of his favorite teams. He said Pullman reminds him of Smallville ( substitute corn for wheat fields ) and drunk hot chicks/Lana.
When you guys mentioned Deadenders on the podcast, I whooped in my car. I loved that series. I also liked "Chase" — I can’t even remember the writer/artist, but it was a lot of fun.
Top 10 is coming back with a different writer but with Gene Ha on art. I might give it a try. This was my favorite series a few years ago.
Umm, it’s the Rutgers Scarlet Knights from NJ, dude.
Well, apparently now i can never be a fan of Guy Gardner.
Go Bucks!
If you think waiting for Astro City in issues is hard try reading it in Trades. It’s one of my favorite series and I just now get another trade after waiting I don’t know how long.
So, Guy supports a school that stole not one, but two – TWO – coaches from West Virginia in 2007.
Yet another reason to hate that bastard.
I always saw Bats as into polo or lacrosse or something like that. He wouldn’t follow it as much as remember it as fun from when he was growing up.
p.s.- really excited for the college season finally starting, go Louisville Cards!
I think Hal Jordan was a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, so I could see him being a USC fan…
Maybe Batman would stick with an Ivy League College like Stanford? And I don’t know why, but I could see Wonder Woman being a down home girl… for Alabama….
Go Bucks!
What is a, um *sport*?
It’s like a *chum* I think. I’ve also heard *scout* or *mistake*.
I like to think of John Byrne’s Man of Steel mini-series as the "real" origin of Superman, making him a football player. Also, I can definitely imagine him using a DVR to record Metropolis University games and watching them between world saving adventures.
I can see Wally West rooting for whatever the college team from Keystone would be, also. He’s sych an "everyman" that I bet he would love to just kick back on the couch with a beer and watch the game.
Over in the Marvel U, the Thing would root for his old school, Empire State University. I bet he even dragged Reed to see him play in a few, and while Reed was originally reluctant to go, his analytical mind probably got to appreciate the various strategies and tactics that go into plays, and he problem keeps tabs on how the school is doing. He might eve bring Franklin to a game sometime.
Banshee roots for Notre Dame. Tony Stark would root for his alma mater, was it USC? I don’t think too many of the other characters would be big on sports. I know Peter Parker is clueless about sports, as has been shown in the past (although he was a Mets fan because of his Uncle Ben.) But too many jocks picked on him as a kid, sports probably leave a bad taste in his mouth.
@buckeye I suppose I should feel better about watching Southern Call kick my alma mater’s ass ATM by thinking that in some universe this is making Hal happy. Now, I really want to read a comic set at Warriors during the Michigan/USC game.
@JohnVFerrigno — I’m pretty sure Tony went to MIT; he did in the movie, anyway, and I think that’s comics canon. I have no idea if they play football or not. Tony seems much more like a baseball fan, anyway. If anybody was born rooting for the Yankees, it’s that guy.
Come to think of it, it seems like baseball is the sport of choice for most comic book characters, if they have one. I don’t know if there’s any deeper meaning to that.
@conor – It’s fun to watch you move through The Wire week by week via the letters column. Marlowe is a plucky fella aint’ he?
@ohCaroline
In "Extremis", didn’t Tony meet Sal at USC? I do think you’re right though, that he attended MIT. Did he maybe go to more than one school? He has more than one degree, and he was in college as a teenager, it’s possible he got different degrees at different schools. Now I need to look into this…..
@JohnVFerrigno I’m pretty sure Sal taught at Berkeley (ie, Cal for football purposes). I think they met at an academic conference, and Tony ended up working on research with him. But I think he was a graduate student by that point. People tend to follow their sports loyalties from undergraduate schools, but there are exceptions — and I can see Tony being enough of an MIT/Cal guy to hate Stanford, because that’s always fun.
Where did Dr.Midnight get his Medical Degree?
Aaaaaaah Barry Ween, how I miss thee…
I don’t think Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne could have any sports loyalties. Same goes for Reed Richards. How could you when you’re smart enough to be able to predict the outcome of a season. I’m sure Bruce would make a great coach though, for any team sport. So would Cap.
@Actual But sports doesn’t work that way. I think Reed may be the guy who refuses to follow sports because the statistical means of predicting outcomes don’t work the way they’re supposed to. Like, Sue picks the Giants to win the Super Bowl because she thinks Eli Manning is tired of his brother and Tom Brady getting all the attention. And it WORKS, and it drives Reed crazy. But Tony, being a futurist, probably enjoys sports because of all the chaos and the X-factors involved. It’s much more of a social science than a pure one.
I may have given this too much thought.