Pick of the Week Podcast

Pick of the Week #373 – Batman #17

Show Notes

In an unusual week of comic books, Paul Montgomery chooses an under-the-radar release as his very first Pick of the Week. He then joins Josh Flanagan and Conor Kilpatrick in discussing the highlights from rest of this week’s comics as well as pianos, classic comic strips, and the marketing virtues of vandalism.

Running Time: 00:55:43

Pick of the Week:
00:01:12 – Batman #17

Batman_17_FullComics:
00:14:47 – Uncanny X-Men #1
00:19:24 – Battlefields: The Fall and Rise of Anna Kharkova #1
00:21:33 – Fury MAX #9
00:22:57 – Star Wars #2
00:28:34 – Katana #1
00:30:26 – Avengers Arena #4
00:31:50 – The Manhattan Projects #9
00:34:16 – B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth #104 – The Abyss of Time #2

User Reviews:
00:35:28 – The Top Five Community Picks of the Week.
00:36:28 – ghostmann reviews Batman and Robin #17.
00:37:50 – kennyg reviews Bedlam #4.

E-Mail:
00:39:05 – Isaac wants to swap The New 52 and Vertigo characters.
00:41:45 – Sean wants to swap comic book and comic strip creators.

Voicemail:
00:45:36 – Alex from Woodlands, CA asks about the best superhero names.

Music:
“Cat’s in the Cradle”
Harry Chapin

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Comments

  1. Coolest superhero name has to go to Hate Face, deceased member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

  2. Just threw an old laptop (with windows 98 OS and your site on the old IE browser) through my neighbor’s window. He f*cking hates me. But to my surprise is a new fan of iFanboy. Ok… did my part. Got to go. The police are at my door.

  3. Great show as always, guys!

    But, I did wish y’all would’ve talked about the recent issue of Peter Panzerfaust. Fantastic stuff!

  4. Modesty Blaise comic strip to comic written and drawn by David Lapham.
    Dark Hawk for cool superhero name…lol…

  5. I love Bachalo’s art. I don’t get the hate for him at all. Okay, I kind of do, but I don’t have a problem with it at all.

  6. Fun episode guys!

    And nice work to whoever picked Harry Chapin. My parents played his stuff all the time while I was growing up, but in the last couple of years I’ve really come to appreciate what an incredible singer/songwriter he was. Dude could really tell a moving story in a song, right? I highly recommend everyone give a listen to “Sniper” and “Stranger With The Melodies.”

  7. coda [ˈkəʊdə]
    n
    1. (Music / Classical Music) Music the final, sometimes inessential, part of a musical structure
    2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a concluding part of a literary work, esp a summary at the end of a novel of further developments in the lives of the characters

    I read Batman & Robin #17 right after reading Batman #17 and I to me it worked as a great coda to The Death of the Family story. Sure the obvious connection to Snyder’s epic was Alfred’s Joker dream, but take another look at Bruce and Damian’s:

    (and bare in mind I read this RIGHT after Batman 17)

    SPOILERS AHEAD

    Damian’s dream (nightmare) begins with him looking at members of his “Family” chained underwater, including The Joker. Then another Damian shows up and they start a conversion about their Father showing both sides of himself (something that just happened in TDOTF). Then Alfred floats by, banging on the window for Damian to save him – sounds familiar. The “other” Damian asks the question, “What are we afraid of? There is nothing more any of them can teach us.” referring to the family members chained underwater. Damian screams “Alfred!” And the question is answered – Damian is afraid of losing Alfred.

    Bruce’s dream starts with his Mothers pearls falling through the sewer grate and him making that boat that he and Damian set sail in the sewers back in issue 1 of this series. Bruce desperately wants to rid his life of the darkness, but with enemies like The Joker, he has to know it is a exercise in futilely. The darkness will always be there and now, as a result of The Death in the Family story, it has spread to those he has always tried to protect from it.

    On Page 15 – Panel 1 you can see the faces of Damian, Dick (Nightwing) in the rushing water. Those faces turn into skulls in the next panel. Panel 4 Bruce’s mother screams, “The light is so bright!” Panel 5 we see that “The light” is the Bat-Signal. I love the allegory that Tomasi delivers here – the light at the end of the tunnel is a train so to speak.

    Then Bruce’s boat is swallowed by a white (Joker) whale – and I’m pretty sure we all get the significance of that.

    Bruce is saved from this nightmare by Damian reaching out his hand. Bruce awakes and goes to check on his son like any good father would do.

    Then we travel back into Damian’s dream where he and his father do what they do best – battling the darkness. They sit on the edge of a church steeple and watch the sun rise. Bruce says, “Son, you do know this a dream right?” Damian replies, “Yes Father, and one I finally don’t want to wake up from.”

    Because when he does wake up events like The Death of the Family will engulf him.

    The perfect coda.

  8. Great episode, guys.

    As for cool names, I gotta go with “Doom Patrol.”

  9. Are there Batman spoilers in the opening segment?

  10. Great episode guys. I had to stifle my laughter several times during the podcast since I’m at the office. Keep up the great work.

  11. “Just by looking at the handle, I think it’s possible” – Conor

    Talking about whether or not Katana had sex with her sword hahahahaha

  12. Nice capper for Paul week. Good show, gentlemen.

  13. Thanks for reading my email on the podcast! It was a real pick me up after a pretty bummer day.

  14. At the end of the day Morrison is the only modern writer who seems to be given the keys to the Batman universe and can do whatever the hell he wants with it.

  15. Finally got around to listening to this episode. Who was the creator bleeped out of the podcast? Was it “He Who Shall Not be Named” doing Garfield? Kind of a ‘Field on ‘Field?

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