Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
This time, it’s Ron Richards who is out there somewhere, as Conor Kilpatrick and Josh Flanagan do the Jamoke double, and cover what was a fine week of comic book product, with many potential picks available.
Running Time: 01:06:51
Pick of the Week:
00:01:42 – The Vision #7
Comics:
00:14:30 – Batman #52
00:17:58 – The Fix #2
00:22:00 – Jupiter’s Circle, Vol. 2 #6
00:25:54 – Southern Bastards #14
00:30:22 – Archie #8
00:33:36 – Action Comics #52
00:35:17 – The Uncanny Inhumans #8
00:36:38 – Starfire #12
00:37:49 – Black Panther #2
Audience Questions:
00:41:32 – Mike D. thinks we, and specifically Ron, are wrong about Batman vs. Superman.
00:48:27 – Nick thinks we are wrong about Captain America: Civil War.
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Music:
“Watch the Corners”
Dinosaur Jr.
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Have not listened to the episode yet, but looking forward to it.
I’m guessing the news of Darwyn Cooke’s passing followed the current episode, but I wanted to express my condolences to you gentlemen as your friendship with the man seemed genuinely affectionate.
My bookcase holds mostly books by the coolest authors I can think of: Raymond Chandler, Donald Westlake, Elmore Leonard, etc. Mr. Cooke is being added this week.
Certainly the coolest of the cool. He will be sorely missed. I am truly sorry for your loss.
Ron was 100% right in his BvS review. It was a hot pile of garbage.
I found Civil War to be great and I noticed some problems but I try not to pick things apart anymore. I enjoyed parts of BvS but there was big problems, overall I don’t regret seeing it. However I found Ron’s reaction to it hard to listen to, it didn’t deserve that kind of unmitigated rage, to each their own though.
Is anyone else reading House of Penance by Ian Bertram and Peter Tomasi, it is pretty trippy stuff that is awesome to look at.
Conor I agree on Elsa, she is great. It looks like next she might be doing some Harley and a bombshells annual next. Last year I got a full color Kitty Pryde commission from her figuring I’d never get anything by Darwyn, was very happy with it.
Sorry about Darwyn, I never got to meet him but consider him one of the all time greats.
Man, I still just can’t believe Darwyn is gone. What an absolutely singular personality, there’s definitely a huge hole in comics that I don’t see anyone filling for a very, very long time.
If anyone hasn’t read it there’s a lengthy interview that Darwyn asked to do with The Comics Journal back in 2007 that is fantastic.
http://www.tcj.com/the-darwyn-cooke-interview-by-markisan-naso
I went back to reread it and this line really got me:
“NASO: In the Wizard article, your friend Jimmy Palmiotti said when people hang out with you, you are a madman, but your work is calm. Why do you think you embody such extremes?
COOKE: I’m a typical romantic who has been beaten down to a hard, flat and cynical composite. The real world is a heartbreaking bitch, but my romantic heart still tries to put it out there in my work. My partner back at the ad agency said I was “burnt on one side and raw on the other.””
@TheLastBaron
Thanks for sharing. That is a great a quote! I’ll have to pass it on. Darwyn’s passing is a loss to the art form. Thanks to Connor, Ron, and Josh for turning me on to his work oh so long ago.
I am critical of work that I think needs to be critiqued. For me that is mostly dramas. I’m not saying that you can’t critique any movie because of course you can and I do as well. But I have different measuring bars for different types of movies. For action and comic movies I don’t look for plot holes because I don’t care. The only determining factor for the success of a movie in my book is, “did I like it?” Marvel movies are fun and I honestly haven’t graded a single one lower than a C-.
My friend was disappointed with Prometheus when he saw it and had built it up to be the second coming of Christ in his mind before seeing it. I had two criteria for that movie. Did it make me feel isolated and claustrophobic like the original Alien? Yes. Did I enjoy the shit out of it? Yes. Some people prefer movies one way and others have different means of measurement. For me, action movies are fun or not fun. That’s pretty much it for my end.
Minor nitpick that I really don’t care about, but I figured I’d mention because someone is bound to: Pepper didn’t break-up Tony at the end of Iron Man III. In fact, in Age of Ultron, he and Thor were in bragging competition who had the best (absent) girlfriend. Plus, I got the impression that the breakup was pretty recent as she was scheduled to be at the MIT presentation and then seeing her name on the teleprompter really threw off Tony. Ok, nitpick over.
Anyways, what I wanted to say, was I have to admit, Ron’s review of BvS bothered me a little, not because I disagreed with him, I think the movie was pretty bad for the most part, but yelling the same thing over and over again felt kind of beneath you guys. It felt like a reading a Youtube comments section rather than a review. I realize that the more Ron said the more it was becoming a joke that he was saying to get a reaction, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. That said… as someone who’s done a review or two himself in the past, I never understood the reaction of “Your subjective opinion is wrong, let me explain why it is.” I might try to say “I disagree, and this is what I got out of it.” But I think there are people who genuinely liked BvS or hated Civil War and feel put off when it seem the rest of the world disagrees. Which leads to some kind of wild accusations/conspiracy theories like Disney paying off reviewers to trash non MCU superhero films which is just kind of silly.
It was jarring, but I dismissed it as “Ron is Ron”. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. I just mean I don’t agree with Ron on a great deal of comic, music and movie related topics. Although I didn’t like how he handled BvS, when they released their podcast on First Class, which he loved, I would’ve said “It was absolute garbage!” as well. Regardless, iFanboy is not the same without him. But you’re right, it could’ve been handled better.
I also thought Ron was over the top during the BvS review, and very much agree with Jd’s first few sentences of paragraph 2 above. I also think Josh’s comments about this topic gently saying he might not have gone about the same way were spot on. It was neither Ron’s nor IFanboy’s best moment and was noticeable because all three of you have repeated numerous times in the past that “That sucked” is not the sort of constructive reviewing you do.
I’m giving Ron a mulligan, and I’m guessing Ron might have heard from Conor or Josh post recording, and maybe even Ron himself has second thoughts.
I didn’t like BvS either fwiw.
Also, regarding CA: Civil War, I think the 5 points Mike D. brought up were somewhat addressed during the CA: Civil War podcast? No one gave the movie an A+, it was all A-‘s as I remember, and I think the slow start, weak villain were some of the main reasons why it wasn’t A+ for the reviewers.
I just realized I contradicted myself. What I mean is I can relate to his angst over a “bad movie”. But there is a bar of expectations in the quality of a critique and his assessment was below that bar.
Ron should take a page from Brian Wilson and prerecord himself saying “Jessica,” “Vader down” and “hot pile of garbage” and only play those in response to Josh and Conor for an episode.
Re: the “garbage” backlash, I’m guessing Ron was expressing himself sincerely while also doing a bit and channeling Radtke’s Star Wars Minute (Star Waaaars Minute) week-long freak out. For me, Ron’s take was 50 percent funny, 50 percent obnoxious, 100 percent entertaining. “Garbage” was the take-away, but in reality he had a lot to say about the movie besides that.
Thanks for being pros and giving us a good episode despite fucking horrible circumstances. Being able to relax and escape an hour every week does a lot of people a lot of good, so just…thanks for that.
“Re: the “garbage” backlash, I’m guessing Ron was expressing himself sincerely while also doing a bit and channeling Radtke’s Star Wars Minute (Star Waaaars Minute) week-long freak out. For me, Ron’s take was 50 percent funny, 50 percent obnoxious, 100 percent entertaining. “Garbage” was the take-away, but in reality he had a lot to say about the movie besides that.”
Agreed.
I agree with Ron’s evaluation of Batman v Superman. That movie bummed me out so much I found his comments rather funny.
Say… did you guys ever notice that The Visions and Coach Boss have the same address? 616. check southern bastards no. 4. I just (finally) read Vision no. 1 and I have to say I am amazed, I might practice some self restraint and wait for a hardcover edition.
I hope you are guys are doing okay. Sorry to hear about your losses. I really liked when Timmy would appear on the show, he had a real eagerness and earnestness and it just made him very nice to listen to.
Conor, in the Vision flashbak figh scene it wasn’t Cap who was shirtless it was Wonder Man, Cap gave him his sheild after he got hurt, see Avengers 166
Regarding the BvS podcast: I can’t speak for the guys obviously, but I’ve always assumed their aim was entertainment first, criticism second. Which is not to say they aren’t excellent critics (they are!), but in this case, it made for a very fun podcast episode! As someone who also hated BvS, I’d even say it was cathartic in a way, a nice release of energy.
And to the iFanboys themselves: Thank you for introducing me to Darwyn’s work many years ago. It’s been important to me since. Hope you guys are doing okay.
Absolutely agree with the cathartic aspect of HOT GARBAGE>
B/c it was objectively that bad. This isn’t some indie film that earnest film makers put their heart and souls into.
It was aggressively bad and so far off the mark it was insulting.
Can someone like the movie- Sure.
But don’t say it’s good and when it is as egregiously bad as this movie was it Invites that level of response.
Sometimes you have to speak your mind- Ron was violated – he spoke out. Good for him.
Maybe if enough people do loudly enough the next one won’t be such a cock up.
Thank you guys for your resilient professionalism. I know it must’ve been really tough focusing on the podcast while your dear friend was in such an awful place – and then editing/distributing the podcast after he’d just passed. Your love for comics, for the iFanboy community, and for those closest to you is touching and inspiring.
Well said.
Sooo, am I the only one bothered that Batman’s origin now features him lugging around a stupid text-book-sized notebook around to all his worldly ninja training? He literally jumps out of a plain with no parachute, but he made sure to bring he shitty notebook just in case he forgets what step #52 is?
plane*
Hi guys, first of all, I am sorry about Darwyn. Whenever you speak about him it is easy to appreciate how much you admired him, even beyond his wonderful artwork and storytelling.
Secondly, thanks for responding to my Civil War question despite its length. [But no Ron on the show where I relate the time I spent thinking to my commute on 280?!]
I agree, they weren’t really “plot holes,” but for me something like the greatest assassin of the century not taking out a video camera before a double murder did take me out of it. Then again, I may have been taken out of it more easily since I was in a theatre serving food, which is not my usual comic book movie venue of choice. The IPA was delightful, but the distraction from the servers may be bigger than I initially appreciated. Also, you are absolutely right about not needing to see a demented Peggy slipping away and your point about comic book weird sex stuff being a thing is well taken (especially as a reader of any and every X-men comic).
Thanks again, especially for going through it point-by-point. Your podcast is a commuting life saver and beyond that fills a huge void as none of my friends read comics anymore.
Count me on #TeamHotGarbage. BvS was awful. People need to chill out and get over themselves and let Ron say what he feels. Same for the other guys.
Great Pick, Josh. The Vision continues to be great.
RIP Darwyn.