Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
We celebrate the arrival of Baby Flanagan with an extra long show! And sitting in for the new dad is infamous recluse Tom Katers! With Conor Kilpatrick having had a few celebratory cocktails and Tom hopped up on pain pills for a bad back, this episode started out with one foot in the danger zone!
Running Time: 01:18:21
News:
00:03:12 – iFanboy has been acquired by Graphic.ly!
Pick of the Week:
00:05:52 – Blackest Night: The Flash #3 was Josh’s Pick of the Week and… he’s not here.
Comics:
00:12:26 – The art was the true star of Green Lantern #51.
00:17:32 – Ron says that Uncanny X-Men #521 was the best issue in forever!
00:20:00 – With Joe the Barbarian #2, Conor and Tom wish they had waited for the trade.
00:22:23 – Everyone likes Justice League of America #42!
00:30:10 – Michael Lark nails The Amazing Spider-Man #621.
00:31:44 – Incorruptible #3 is the best issue yet!
00:33:50 – Conor says G.I. Joe: Cobra II #2 was the best of the week.
00:34:58 – Ron was really bored with Spider-Woman #6.
00:37:57 – Battlefields: Happy Valley #3 kicked Tom in the balls of his heart.
User Reviews
00:39:52 – RoiVampire loved Dark Avengers #14!
00:42:05 – odare77 loved The Punisher #14!
Email
00:45:57 – Shane from Adelaide, Australia has a question about a really bad Justice League TV show.
00:48:58 – Bobby from Seattle, WA is crushing on a comic book-loving girl.
Voicemail
00:54:26 – Mike from Phoenix, AZ thinks Marvel has done too many events.
00:57:10 – Jeff R. from Dayton, OH asks about the Golden Age.
01:01:01 – PSEarle wants to know what gets the iFanboys diving into the back issue bin.
GIVEAWAY
• William Pillsbury wins a big stack of Top Cow books.
• February is another giveaway month and only iFanboy Members are eligible to win iFanboy Giveaways! If you’re not a member, sign up to win!
Etc.:
• Do like Rick Remender says and buy a limited edition FEAR AGENT Shirt!
• Go subscribe to iFanboy: Don’t Miss to hear a preview of a book coming out this week.
• If you’re in New York City this Friday, come to the Choker launch party at Bergen Street Comics!
• Check out Tom Katers’ Tom vs. The Flash show!
Brought to You By:
• C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo comes to Chicago this April 16th through the 18th. Special guests for this year’s show include Alex Ross, Jeff Smith, Geoff Johns, Mike Mignola, Ethan Van Sciver and hundreds more of your favorite creators. Tickets are only $25 for a one day pass, and $50 for the entire weekend! For a full list of guests, events and to purchase tickets, visit C2E2.com. C2E2 & iFanboy are giving you a chance to win tickets and exclusive C2E2 merchandise before the big weekend. We’ll be giving away 1 amazing VIP package, 3 weekend passes, 5 exclusive C2E2 posters signed by creator & Guest of Honor Alex Ross and 15 limited edition C2E2 t-shirts and the grand prize is lunch with an editor from Marvel! Just visit www.c2e2.com/ifanboy and enter your name and e-mail. We’ll be drawing winners from all the entries on March 19th.
• In Stock Trades – Save up to 37% on trade paperbacks, hardcovers and collected editions. With over 9,000 titles in stock and available to order, orders ship within 48 hours. Go to www.instocktrades.com and make your order today.
• And mark your calendars for the Summit City Comic Con on May 22 in Fort Wayne Indiana – www.summitcitycomiccon.com.
• Audible.com – Home of over 60,000 audio books, Audible has something for you – get a FREE audiobook download and 14 day trial at audiblepodcast.com/ifanboy
Music:
“Oh My God”
Ida Maria
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Aww man, I was kind of looking forward to having Josh on the show.
Also the 2nd time Josh wasn’t on the show when he chose a Flash related book. (Yay for Josh!)
Keep the discussion to the podcast and comics this week please. Thanks.
Damn, I passed on JLA. I paused and kept on walking. I’ll have to grab it this week.
Tom Katers talking about a Flash, Green Lantern, and JLA comic?
*plays hallejuah*
I mentioned this is the pick of the week thread but I’m kind of surprised by your takes on Blackest Night. While it has been OK, I think it has been a totally unfocused mess – to the point that I honestly feel like the whole event is made up of supporting issues with no main title where the primary storyline is supposed to take place.
Green Lantern 51 was indeed worth it entirely for the art, which was phenomenal but the whole storyline over the last couple of issues has felt like an unnecessary detour but, like I said, the whole of Blackest Night feels like that. Also, I have to say, I just don’t see Nekron as much of a threat because I have no freaking clue who he is or why I’m supposed to be interested in him.
Blackest Night: Flash didn’t fair much better. I’m sorry but where was the story in this mini? The live Rogues fought the old Rogues – and they were written well as per usual – but seemingly to no real end except for getting rid of one of the new Rogues that no one seems to care about anyway.
As for the Flash part of the series, Geoff Johns has yet to write an interesting version of Barry Allen, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve loved Barry in his past appearances in the years since his death, especially as written by Mark Waid or Darwyn Cooke but here he’s just painfully dull. In fact, the entire Flash section of the book really added up to nothing at all, as they spent three issues running around not doing very much else.
Though, yes, again, the book was saved by some stellar Flash art by Scott Kollins.
@Ron- Yes Mt. Tamalpias is real, only reason I know for sure is we used to scrimmage their high school football team back in the day and whip up on them pretty good. Before playing them I had never heard of it either
I will need to pick up the JLA next time!
Good show, guys. (Just to let Josh know that the show can go on without him–It can go on very easily and very smoothly without him! HEHEHEH) Thanks to Ron for giving Uncanny some love. I really think that series is getting on track and have been happy with it for like four issues running. Up till now, Fraction’s X-Men has been very hit and miss with me–high highs and low lows–but I think he’s starting to really hit his stride. The characterizations have been on target, the story developments with Magneto and Namor’s crew have been interesting, and the threats to mutantkind have felt interesting and "earned".
@llash: Your problem is that you’re actually looking for a real story that develops, and actually expecting Johns to EARN your praise instead of giving it to him unconditionally since he’s the current IT-guy. For a better experience with comic books (and entertainment) of this sort, you should just totally turn your brain off (kinda like a…a zombie!), bask in the glow of nostalgia and soak up all the ultraviolence. And–what’s this?–You don’t like Johns’ Barry Allen?? Haven’t you heard that a year ago it was decreed that he is instantly one of the greatest characters ever, and you’re supposed to worship him now even though he is a very bland and generic hero? The best thing he ever did was die.
Being completely serious, though, I enjoy the core Blackest Night series. I think all six issues so far have been 3.5-star affairs, and I’m a bastard grader, so I’m completely happy with that. I also used to really love Johns’ Green Lantern. But I think it’s just totally succumbing to the hype (and neat-o art) at this point to pretend that these are anything close to GREAT comics. They’re big overblown slugfests with amorphous plots and little depth. The BN-related stuff is cool for what it is, but what it is isn’t anything too meaningful. Just my perspective. Again, I’m liking BN and am happy with it. But the parade of 5-star ratings for comics that are so routine gets a little old. I’m saying this in general, not to the iFanboys in particular. I’m fine with Blackest Night and Johns praise–I like ’em too!–but lately across the internet it’s gone a bit overboard.
@ron look at you regulatin’. Not used to that;)
Great show as usual…
What that last page of Uncanny really needed was a space bullet wall covered in hash marks and tic tac toe boards.
@Booby From Seattle: Ron’s right. Make a move. If it doesn’t work, things will be awkward from a while. But hey, shit happens.
Stellar music choice, this week 🙂
Shit, I still never finished listening to last week’s POTW podcast because I kept falling asleep!! Now there is another one!! SHIT
My favorite comic quote this week came from Incorruptible #3: "Joke’s on YOU! I’m a diabetic!"
Great show, guys.
Fantastic episode!
Yes, Ron, that is a real mountain in the north bay.
@Ron or anyone else with loads of X-knowledge- is there any reason for Magneto wanting to bring back Kitty. have those two characters had any noteworthy interactions?
@Ron and the X-Fans
Next issue of Uncanny is solicited with Whilce Portacio on art, then Dodson for the foreseeable future.
@birdseye – Yes. Mags and Kitty bonded when he was running Xavier’s school and they visited the Holocaust Museum together. I think it may have been UXM #200
oooh, excellent
@Ron – You forgot High Fidelity!
My favorite quote this week came from ASM – "When you can do whatever a MAN can, call me." Hilarious.
Hmmm, I just dropped JLA (The issue before this one was the last I purchased), may have to pick it back up, or at least scim it in my store and decided if it’s worth getting back into.
On the topic of back issue diving, it’s funny. I have been heavily into comics for about seven years now, only this last year have I begun back issue diving. Just picking up whatever looks interesting or doesn’t’ cost to much. I just purchased all of Peter David’s Aquaman, The entire West Coast Avengers, Avengers Spotlight, and some sporadic Chuck Dixon batman work that hasn’t been traded. It’s alot of fun to read this stuff (it’s also rather cost effective compared to the prices of trades, and the fact this stuff isn’t traded).
I have to agree about Greg Land. He’s actually been tolerable recently, somehow.
Thanks for taking my voicemail, guys. When you realize that the golden age comics writers and artists were basically making up the formula as they went, it does make the era more interesting. If any of you do stumble across any way to read Jack Cole’s Plastic Man stories from the ’40s, I highly recommend picked them up. I really enjoyed reading them when I found them at my old library about 4 years ago.
@flapjaxx: I don’t know why anybody expects anything more from a superhero ‘event stories. You can have something profound say but in the end the good guy must punch the bad guy and all must revert to status quo. Some stories do it very well, a la Blackest Night, and some do it very badly, like Final Crisis. that’s it, that is where the difference end. The only problem I see with Blackest Night is that it is written for trade, and will read better when the TPB finally slips out from the wormhole, so around 2013.
Listening right now–what was the other mini-series besides BN:F starring Barry that ended before Rebirth? I don’t remember there being any other mini except maybe BN proper that’s heavily starring Barry.
@DarkKnightJared: There isn’t one. We said that BLACKEST NIGHT: THE FLASH was the second Barry Allen mini-series and that it ended before the first, THE FLASHL REBIRTH.
Oooooooh. Okay. I thought you said it was the second mini to end before Rebirth ended. My bad.
Ok. other than the Josh doing Jaws episode a year ago, this past episode was the most fun I have had in ages with the podcast!
And congrats on the merge! As per your page, it doesn’t mean that you are now rich, it means that you guys are even richer! When does the iFanjet get purchased?
@Ron
Kitty Pryde’s return is going to be drawn by Whilce Portacio
@comicBOOKchris: Already noted above. Please make sure you read all the comments before commenting.
Thats what I get for skimming at a break neck pace through the comments…
I’m glad that hell wasn’t brought down on Land’s art though, and Ron described it well: not atrocious, just really safe.
You’re crazy, Ron. This was probably one of the worst issues in Fraction’s entire run of Uncanny.
"Kicked in the nuts of my heart"
I love Tom.
Gotta agree with drake, this issue of uncanny was laughable and pretty representative of Fraction’s run since Utopia started.
I totally agree with you, Ron, on everything about this issue of Uncanny X-Men except about Land’s art being less offensive. There was pose of Wolverine that I swear I have seen a dozen times.
Bullshit theory of the week: The space bullet is moving at relatavistic speed, so Kitty’s only experienced a few days passage of time.
Portacio gets Kitty’s return? Boy, I dunno…
I miss josh and his story analysis already…tear…..but congratz to him having a baby.
Just listening to this now…
Ah, Ron, time to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, pal… 😉 (looks like some folks already set you straight, though).
And I’m actually in COMPLETE agreement with Conor’s take on the new JLA issue. The art doesn’t seem to fit, and it kinda bothers me, but I’m actually seeing some real bits of awesome poking out through the gloom. I think once Robinson gets rolling, this book is gonna really be worthwhile. I hope so, anyway. Fingers crossed.
I’ve sworn off Robinson’s work after being disappointed with most everything he has put out in recent memory, but I’m really hoping JLA starts getting good again. I would pick it up in a heartbeat of I hear it’s a good read again.
@drakedangerz — i think it’s showing promising signs. I started to see some interesting bits as this new oddly balance group comes together. Moments of awesome, but it’s just not there yet. I’ll let ya know if it gets there…
But it’s worth noting: the last two issues have had little snippets of heroes in other time periods, as well as a brief bit with The Shade, and it’s amazing to me that this is exactly when Robinson is at his best. He really needs to do another DCU period piece — I think he’d excel at that.
Don’t mislead Bobby from Seattle with your anti-Sandman bias! When I was in high school, that was the only comic I read, but I would have killed for a sweet boyfriend to give me recommendations and take me to the comic shop the first time
(Go for it, Bobby!)
@conor I was intrigued to hear about the idea of a socialist Superman from the golden age. Where would I look to read about that?
Always love it when you guys start with the relationship advice. had me burst into laughter when conor mentioned he likes women who are into booze, risky sex and baseball.
missed josh, but katers is always fun to have around. although i gotta correct him: katers, your name doesn’t mean cat in german. kater is german for male cat. katers would be a wrong plural for male cats(actually the plural is also kater^^). sorry to be a smart ass about it, but couldn’t help it. german born and bred.;)
Finally listened to the podcast. "Aquaman had a Blu-ray player…"
@kenzaburo Apologies for slaughtering the German language. I was going off what my waiter at the Ehtiopian restaurant told me. I only speak American.
@Pompster – There are a number of ways to check out the earliest Superman comics, where he did things like destroy slums in order to make the government create new, low income housing (ACTION COMICS #8). These early Superman stories can be found in the SUPERMAN CHRONICLES series of paperbacks, most of which are available on Amazon. For some reason, I couldn’t find volume 1 though. There are also the SUPERMAN ARCHIVES and SUPERMAN: THE ACTION COMICS ARCHIVES, but those are hardcover, much more expensive, and may be harder to find. Finally, there’s a paperback called SUPERMAN IN THE FORTIES, which isn’t going to have the very earlier stuff in it, but it is going to have other golden age tales.
Hope this helps your hunt!
@Pompster- Also check the library, find my library has a TON of DC Chronicles or Archive stuff.
Was JeffR’s voicemail saved for Tom Katers? By the way, I want a torrent or zip/rar link of TK vs JLA, especially the ones covering the first 2 showcase volumes. Please! Pretty please!
@daccampo-Much appreciated!
@JeffR and Jurassicalien Thank you. I;ve never been much into older comics but I am intrigued by the idea of Superman as a socialist. I will try and track down some chronicles at the library.
@Pompster – You’re welcome. Jurassicalien was right. The library’s a good call. They may be able to interlibrary loan items that they don’t own themselves too. Be sure to check with them about that service.
@muddi900 – Nope. I left the voicemail on either Tuesday or Wednesday and they used it that week.
Great show! Always love having Tom as guest host, and best wishes to Josh and family.
I do feel compelled to point out that it is possible to have an irrational hatred for Morrison’s X-Men run *and* to objectively feel that Fantomex is a terrible character. I mean, I think so, anyway, but it’s not like I can be objective.
@thomaskaters: no worries, i was rather surprised to hear you mention it at all. but what’s really confusing is: the waiter at your ETHOPIAN restaurant is teaching you about german? what the hell?
and as long as it is funny, please slaughter ahead. 🙂 your comment about the kick in the balls of your heart was right on.^
HA! And Tom also means male cat.