Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
Darwyn Cooke and Wonder Con made this show very late. Blame him and it. Certainly not Conor Kilpatrick and Josh Flanagan — it’s not their fault!
Running Time: 01:02:59
Pick of the Week:
00:01:48 – Black Science #13
Comics:
00:11:06 – Southern Bastards #8
00:15:51 – Uncanny Avengers #3
00:20:56 – War Stories #7
00:26:20 – The Dying and the Dead #2
00:32:23 – Convergence #0
00:36:40 – Uncanny Inhumans #1
00:40:18 – Batman: Eternal #52
Audience Questions:
00:43:36 – A.J. from Portland, OR is not happy with the recent diversity push in comics.
00:51:15 – Patrick from Washington, NC is curious about the different eras of iFanboy.
Music:
“I Left My Wallet in El Segundo”
A Tribe Called Quest
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Why can’t you create new character that represent diversity?
You can. They did.
Miles Morales and Ms. Marvel. They may have familiar hero names but they are both great and wholly original.
Why replace Steve Rogers?
They aren’t, they are replacing Captain America. Can you think of a stronger example of the white male persona of America?
Yes I think that might be a conscious choice to represent diversity.
The point is to say that anyone can be Captain ‘America’
Maybe but Steve Rogers is unique.
I think that this choice diminishes both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson.
I meant brand new characters not spin offs of current characters or titles. I love Miles Morales but what if he was a completely new character with all new powers not just Spidey’s replacement. I just want the big two to have more confidence in new characters instead of having to rely so heavily on their core by re imagining them as gender bent or of another enthicity.
Interesting discussion about diversity, guys, and a really fun episode all around. What I’d really be interested to know your thoughts on though, is the full-on race-changing of a character like Wally West. While I’m all for new “diverse” characters and I even think that a number of the legacy characters are indeed pretty great, there’s something really iffy about race-bending a well established character like the former Flash. Yes, I know, new continuity and blah blah blah but isn’t there something wrongheaded, if not outright offensive, about this lowest common denominator pandering?
I, for one, would be offended if they, say, changed John Stewart into a white guy so that he would be “more relateable” to white people like me because, hey, maybe just maybe I’m more than the colour of my skin. Isn’t this exactly the kind of demeaning, patronising message that they’re promoting through such a shallow and obvious tactic?
I know that Nu-Wally has bigger problems than just his race-change but on a wider level than just “hey, stop ruining my favourite character!” it does strike me as being the most problematic.
Would love to hear your or the Fanbase’s thoughts on this.
@Ilash I understand where you are coming from on this matter. I think changing the race of a well established character can be problematic as you said because the color of the skin isn’t what makes the characters great, it’s the writing. I think creating new and great characters with all sorts of diversity are key and have shown some success recently. It all comes down to the writing behind each individual character and I don’t feel as if just changing the skin tone of a character should be what makes them fresh and exciting for readers, but it obviously creates waves in public and media so at least there is attention being drawn, whether positive or negative.
It just seems silly that the companies use this for their only way of trying to generate new readers and audience, when they could use more creativity to try and do the same in other ways.
@ethanharrison: That’s precisely the point. They have gone for literally the most sensationalist and cheap ploy to, apparently, draw in new readers. Not only is it morally questionable at best, as far as I’m concerned, it also reeks of desperation and creative bankruptcy. And, best of all, it hasn’t worked at all as the sales on that title continue to sink.
This episode was a lot of fun and sounded like you guys had a good time being in the same room to do it. Lots of energy and funny banter. I also LOVED Black Science and Southern Bastards. Some of my favorite current lines and the wait each month is grueling for these great stories and art.
Convergence wise I am going to check out the question by Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner along with the imo can’t miss Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner Shazam. I might pass on the rest, will have to see what I hear is good.
I had a conversation with a Rick Remender hater at the shop this week and even he liked Black Science. That or Southern Bastards potw for sure.
All New all different Avengers, if it actually ends up being done by Waid and Asrar with probably turn out to be a great book. The other characters will either be available elsewhere or will be back soon. It is really super unknown exactly how Secret Wars will pan out, hopefully it leads to some great stories being told.
The only two Convergence books I pre-ordered were The Question and Shazam. Nothing else really jumped out at me either.
Thanks for choosing my question this week. My beef with this team is two-fold: First, with the age of half of this team, why not just do a new Young Avengers group? I’m not against diversity in characters. I love Kamala and Miles. I think they’re great characters. Having a more diverse cast is a good thing, the way they’ve gone about it isn’t.
Second, changing white characters into black and men into women shows that Marvel doesn’t have a lot of confidence in their existing minority and women characters. They should have retired Captain America and made Thor unworthy, and had characters like Black Panther and Captain Marvel step in to fill the void. Characters who actually represent the diversity they want to introduce. Also, those two characters are going to get their own movies so they could use that to push them into the limelight. If you look at the numbers Lady Thor is outselling Sam Cap by a substantial margin so it’s not necessarily the amazing effect of diversity that sells books but rather the stories being told.
A lot of details mentioned about Uncanny Inhumans is actually stuff that’s been previously elaborated on in books that I don’t think either of you read right now, like Hickman’s Avengers books. The Illuminati mention is actually about that and not about stuff from ages ago. The glowing hand is also a reference to the “incursions” that are causing universes to merge and destroy each other, leading to Secret Wars. It’s actually kind of old. lol
The new stuff is Kang’s involvement and the sudden revelation of Black Bolt and Medusa’s kid’s whereabouts.
Also, there are now two books: Inhuman and Uncanny Inhumans.
Hey, was really fun to listen to you guys go through all the different eras of ifanboy.
damn.
I remember the minis, great stuff. The video shows got me through high school. Thanks for all the great stuff.
Lets hear it for the two Jamokes era!!!!! BEST ONE YET, FIFTEEN MORE YEARS BYAAAAAAAAAAAA
As for A.J.’s question:
In most of these cases, this “diversity” stuff is SO hamfisted, or shoehorned in. It comes across as pandering, and honestly, insulting. In example, my wife and I were talking about the Flash and Arrow TV series the other day. Whatsername and Sarah’s relationship is written well and is comes across as natural, meanwhile, in Flash, police chief Singh being gay comes across like being slapped in the face with a frozen tuna. It just seems so fake. I was glad that Marvel created Miles Morales, if only to get out from under the weight of Peter Parker, but so many other things just seem so forced, just for the sake of having it out there for reasons of political correctness.
As for Sam Wilson Cap, I like the idea. I thought to myself “Eh, who else would take up the mantle?”. That said, I am super broke in recent months, so I haven’t read it yet.
Sequart published a artcile on the complex issues pertaining to diversity in comic books recently. I think it is worht a read.
Here is the link:
http://sequart.org/magazine/56401/the-good-and-bad-of-diversity-in-comics/
I believe in the aftermath of Steve Roger’s “Death” they offered the shield to Clint when he was in the Ronan persona. He turned it down. I specifically remember Tony or Fury saying something like “a dozen SHIELD officers tried to throw that thing and half of them ended up in the medical ward.” After Clint had a perfect thrown and return.
When you said that Gotham by Gaslight was 30 years old, I felt really old. Probably older than when you discussed the first Secret Wars, because I still kinda think of GBG as a new-sorta-idea…but it really isn’t.
So with this talk about the different eras of iFanboy I figured I’d ask a question, though I fear I know the answer. Currently episodes of the Murmur podcast are unavailable, do you guys have them archived somewhere, or has it suffered the same fate as Around Comics (R.I.P.)?
They are archived on our computers, I’m sure. I don’t believe they are available anywhere for download.
I remember that line from Fury.
That’s the thing other characters have tried to throw the shield and no one could before for two reasons- due to it’s unique properties and it takes practice to get to know it. But also to throw it properly you have to have some degree of super strength to make it work. So that’s why it made sense that Bucky could do it with the bionic arm.(Even though how the bionic arm doesn’t rip his chest apart- ok comic book science.
Maybe Sam’s Falcon harness gives him some kind of boost? Did I miss that setup in a story somewhere?
Just throw the Wonder Con stuff up on YouTube or Viemo or Tumblr. Don’t worry about editing- who cares. This isn’t the paid staff website era this is the two jamokes time.
Raw dawg it.