Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
This week in comics, a beloved series ends as an event begins. But does anybody care? And what do the iFanboys have in common with Erik Larsen? The Pick of the Week show has Josh Flanagan, Conor Kilpatrick, and sundries.
Running Time: 00:58:01
Pick of the Week:
00:02:18 – DCeased: Hope at World’s End #5
Comics:
00:10:19 – Strange Adventures #3
00:16:04 – Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #12
00:22:13 – Empyre #1
00:30:59 – The Old Guard: Force Multiplied #5
00:35:03 – Spider-Woman #2
Patron Pick:
00:38:17 – Snake Eyes: Deadgame #1
Patron Thanks:
00:43:47 – Jack Reitz
00:45:25 – Jonathan Pickering
Audience Questions:
00:50:05 – Scott H. from Portland, OR might be making an ill-advised decision.
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Music:
“Dead”
Pixies
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I really don’t get how anyone reading the ‘Super’ books right now can say – yeah this makes sense this feels right.
From Clark revealing himself as Superman to the Bizarre choice to make Jimmy a secret billionaire that was somehow Never referenced in all of the character’s history and Now relative to Lex.
Just- Why?
These are pretty serious choices and or retcons that you really have to have a rather big payoff to justify.
And what has been the real benefit of these choices?
“On page ___ of your digital reader” is a great take a shot part of the IFanboy drinking game
I’m def not excited for this event. Marvel has ruined that kind of thing.
T-Challa def has the strategic skills for leadership – but I would posit that he has a top down style- King and decree and Cap has an ability to communicate with everyone that T’challa does not have as much.
Finally straight up commercials just appearing in the podcast is jarring. Not the iFanboy read copy but whatever that commercial was for that movie right after the Avengers recap.
Yeah, I really liked Jimmy Olsen until the tie-in where it makes me think less of the comic. Superman is in a terrible place creatively right now and Bendis said he is leaving soon. So many bad decisions have been made during this run and putting Bendis on the comics didn’t help with sales. It wasn’t justified. The Tomasi and Gleason run was significantly better where the difference in quality is large. The Truth storyline also happened during the New 52 so attempting it again was foolish. I’m not excited for Empyre and everyone just says it’s fun, but I want more depth. That was my probable with War of the Realms which was just fun and then finally had emotional depth in the final issue. Being fun isn’t good enough for an event where it feels like filler.
Problem, not probable, so many errors that day. . .
I don’t know anyone who is excited for Empyre and I had no idea it was even coming out when the Avengers #0 was released until it was mentioned on this podcast. Marvel has driven events into the ground where the last one that felt like it mattered with both companies and people anticipated it was Secret Wars. People did not anticipate Civil War 2 where it was clearly done because the movie was coming out. It was also not a good event with Carol coming across as a fascist with its version of Minority Report. It was not an event that was built to organically after Secret Wars where Secret Wars felt like the culmination of something important.
Every Marvel event afterwards just don’t feel authentic. I know that Hickman is the one in charge of X-Men, but I’m not looking forward to the Swords event either. I guess Death Metal would be the closest thing to a DC event since “it all matters,” but it certainly isn’t well written. Marvel has killed a lot of good will with the constant events and I remember the edifice after one of the recent ones saying events won’t be done for a while which was a lie. Then I’m not looking forward to the event with Knull starting in December. It is too much and it feels like the audience isn’t being treated with respect.
For some reason, editor auto corrected to “edifice” and I have no idea why. Knull with the King in Black crossover involving everyone certainly makes me nervous. I also just have a problem with the need to just explain everything with Knull and that is the character in Marvel that Donny Cates uses constantly where he is overexposed like the Batman Who Laughs where Death Metal continued this week which is very bad. I at least like Knull more than the Batman Who Laughs where I find the Batman Who Laughs to be a terrible character.
I mean also the art is a little suspect in places.
For example: https://imgur.com/aStc2kn
Who is this vagrant supposed to be??
Well it is apparently a balding Reed. That reminds me of the embarrassment that was Secret Empire where it couldn’t be a consistent artist on that event and was done to just get it out on time with alternating artists. I never saw that before and Marvel needs to have their creators put in more effort. It also makes me think of the iFanboy interview from 2008 with Darwyn Cooke who criticized creators for not putting the work in to get the work out on time. Look at Batman/Catwoman which still hasn’t been solicited after being announced on May 24th of last year. That is unbelievable and Clay Mann is a great artist, but DC is nervous about delays and Rorschach was already drawn which Tom King announced before it was officially revealed along with Three Jokers.
Then saying don’t instead of doesn’t in the initial comment bothers me.
I remembered an event since Secret Wars that I was really looking forward to which was War of the Realms. The problem was that it looked great, but the emotional weight was not there until the final issue. It was just fun and I expect a lot more out of events where the three issues of All-Father Thor before War of the Realms with Wolverine having the Phoenix and Doctor Doom as the villain felt like more of an event.
Jon Kent is also a great character and what Bendis has done with him was a big mistake. I know that Conor disagrees with the sons being around, but I grew up on the Expanded Universe with Star Wars. Characters aged and the main characters had children who were there to have the torch passed with the next generation while having a timeline everyone had to follow which gave more weight. I was not against 5G as a concept, but was against the idea of Luke Fox becoming the next Batman when Tim Drake is superior choice. Then the rumor of Captain Boomerang’s son as the next Flash sounded terrible. Tim Drake is also James Tynion’s favorite character so that makes sense as a transition if he was going to stay on where he is right now in light of 5G looking to be dead. That reminds me of Drake code name and costume being awful in Young Justice.
I like seeing characters evolve and change instead of just having the status quo where you can always go back with another initiative. It gives more depth to the universe where the Superman family was far better with the Tomasi run executed than the current Bendis run. I’m not a Damian fan, but Morrison, Tomasi, and Tom Taylor all write him well. I just hate seeing Tim be pushed aside while there are so many other members of the Bat Family that matter.
I remember it was one of those “big deals” publishing stunts, when Marvel post-bankrupcy and post-Heroes Reborn, as Steve Englehart was invited back to write an Avengers miniseries, using Mantis and his Celestial Madonna/Messiah. The whole thing was given the weight of “This is What He Always Meant To DO!” And (in my best Josh voice) “it was… fine.” Of course, with such a lead-up, something that was just “fine” felt like a let-down.
Anyway, that was when Quoi was first introduced. Mantis said his full name was Sequoia, but he was a whiny teenager that wanted everyone to call him “Quoi.” Which I guess means it’s supposed to be pronounced like “coy”?
Hey Ifanboy!
I’m not sure if you know about this, but Marvel put out a free “Previously in Marvel Comics” book that has one-page summaries of every book they’re currently putting out. I found that it was very helpful when I was trying to figure out what books I was still reading so I thought I’d mention it since you guys seemed to be having the same problem.
Here’s the Comixology link: https://www.comixology.com/Previously-In-Marvel-Comics-Recap-Guide-1/digital-comic/872855