Awesomed By Comics Podcast Episode #143

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the fact that you can pay Nick Spencer three bucks or some 80 year-old painter a lot more (we're assuming) for basically the same idea. Great week for some old-school avenging, some classic X-Mens bantering, some Harley bitchery, and goddamnit, why isn't Bruce Wayne building schools and funding fire departments and neighborhood watch organizations and whatnot? Also despite Marvel's promise that Prelude to Schism will make us "understand what leads to the Schism that is coming!" why does it do no such thing? Also why does Montreal hate Pokemon? Also who is "Safeword?" Also should we get the Ocarina of Time 3DS remake? Or should Evie play it on the Wii? OR should we go get the N64 from the basement? SO MANY QUESTIONS HALP!!

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ABC Podcast #132, plus niffles

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by the debut of what will likely be a Summer-long feature, in which Aaron recaps how 11 listeners, creators, and fellow podcasters will most likely do much, much better than Aaron at fantasy baseball. Victories abound for FF, DD, Mon Mon, The Mission, Magic Batman, Superlamb, and the niffles. Also, since Evie doesn't listen to the show, there's a bunch of stuff Chris from WRA and I have already covered, including Poker Face, the WW Costume, and last week's Unwritten. Oh, and also we're on WRA this week, you should listen to find out about zoos near you!

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Now, courtesy of our friend Joseph, here's Snorlaxtus, and the Silver Surfin' Pikachu!

ABC Podcast Episode #121, plus visual aids

Happy New Year, again! This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Stump the Music Critic, in which Aaron puts Evie to the test about music trivia and naturally cheats like it's his job. This week's awards have praise, gasps and tears for Sweet Tooth, cheers for Thanos Imperative: Devastation and Who is Jake Ellis?, as well as predictable love for X-Factor, even with its questionable jokes. We hand out some thank yous for year-end gifts, and there is some extra Pokemon talk if you need to fast forward.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Batman Beyond #1, cover by Ryan Sook and Ed Benes:


Aaron's pick, all the DC logo-centric covers like the one above.

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Sweet Tooth #17 by Jeff Lemire:

[REDACTED CUZ SPOILER]

Evie's pick, from Thanos Imperative: Devastation one-shot, but Abnett, Lanning and Miguel Sepulveda:

ABC Podcast Episode #112 and Visual Aids AND Last Week's NYCC Pictures

This episode of the Awesomed By Comics Podcast is brought to you by Evie's Birthday, with a special message from her mom! As usual, big wins for The Unwritten and Echo, Bruce Wayne's back before he's gotten back, Aaron can't understand why he doesn't hate Walkin' Supes as much as he probably should, and the new Knight and Squire knocks Evie base over apex and makes her want to shove madam palm and 'er five sisters in the map of tassie, innit? But the book's banging on about faff gives Aaron the habadabs.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and feel free to suggest your own winners for our categories.

Cover(s) of the Week: 

Evie's Pick, from Amazing Spider Man Presents: Black Cat #4, cover by Amanda Conner and Christina Strain

Aaron's Pick, from Justice League: Generation Lost #11, Cover by Cliff Chiang:

 Panel(s) of the Week: 

 Evie's Pick, from New Avengers #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen:

 Aaron's Pick, from Strange Tales 2 #1, by Nick Gurewitch

 NYCC leftovers are down here, under this thing.

ABC Podcast, Episode #97 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by, well, it's not a Hat through the Centuries, I'll tell you that much. We get really into the goings on in Generation Lost/Booster Gold, sign on with Marvel's teen invasion in Avengers Academy and Young Allies, and okay Batman, whatever you say. Secret Six, Unwritten and Echo continue their brilliance, and Thor gets borked. Note that we'll be on vacation next week but still plan to do a show--it just may be a day or so delayed. Also note that this recap is not very funny, but I had a little unplanned hospitalization this week so I appreciate your understanding.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Heralds #2, cover by Jelena Djurdjevic:


Aaron's pick, from Justice League: Generation Lost #3, cover by Tony Harris:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver:


Evie's picks, from Prince of Power #2 by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente and Reilly Brown:


And from Secret Six #22 by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore:

Rise of Arsenal

There's a fine line between the worst and best things:

ABC Podcast, Episode #84 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Sausage or Death Metal Band? Feel free to play along at home, Google probably won't help you. A wonderful last issue wraps up Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders' tragically abandoned S.W.O.R.D., Criminal finishes another tense arc, Pet Avengers starts a delightful new one, and the Unwritten and Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man continue to rule. Also, Bruce Wayne is not the effing Riddler. Note that Evie will be away for SXSW next week, so Aaron may or may not have special surprises planned in her absence. Stay tuned.

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TECHNICAL NOTE: I (Aaron) accidentally used my bass compressor on my voice while recording, so you will want to turn the bass WAAAAAAYY down on your player. (Either that or put your headphones in your pocket and enjoy.)

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from S.W.O.R.D. #5, cover by Mike Del Mundo:


Evie's pick, from Pet Avengers: Unleashed #1, variant cover by Roger Langridge and Jean-Francois Beaulieu:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Secret Six #19, by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore:



Aaron's pick, from the Mystic Hands of Dr. Strange #1, story and art by Ted McKeever:

ABC IS THANKFUL FOR YOU

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, from Awesomed By Comics.

ABC Podcast, Episode #53 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Internet Hornswagglers, crafty peddlers of Wildean wit and lucid dreams for all. Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1 makes a solid showing, General Zod shows some heart, and Warren Ellis proves that he will never run out of thoroughly effed-up ideas with the last panel of No Hero #6. We make ABC history with the first episode in which Evie's Book of the Week is Aaron's Crap of the Week. Or maybe it's happened before, we can't remember.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Red Robin #2, cover by Francis Manapul:


Evie's pick, from Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1, variant cover by Niko Henrichon:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Wednesday Comics #1: Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred:


Aaron's pick, from Batman #688 by Judd Winick and Mark Bagley (click to enlarge):

Great googly moogly

If this does anything even remotely approaching a re-creation of Batman's crooning "Am I Blue" in that fucking amazing episode of Justice League Unlimited, I will die a thousand tiny deaths. I haven't even seen Dr. Horrible (I know), but I have seen the "Once More, With Feeling" episode of Buffy (who hasn't), and really, the concept doesn't much get old, does it. (Don't think about that too hard.)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Heh heh, just kidding, like Bruce Wayne is actually dead for good, as fucking if.

(I was thinking of reviewing Final Crisis #6, but then I read Caleb's review here, which is pretty much exactly what I think. And of course we'll talk about it on the podcast this weekend, over the next 48 hours I'll practice not being excessively shrill).

Ho Ho Holy shit I have a lot of wrapping to do tonight

We'll be gallivanting around the Eastern seaboard for the next several days, but please be sure to download the two-part year-end podcast if you haven't already. Have an awesomed one everybody!!


(I almost went with this image, but then feared that anyone who hasn't been around here all that much might take it the wrong way.)

I never thought I could feel this way about anyone, Alfred

Recent Madonna ex Guy Ritchie's rich new girlfriend is supposedly named Jemima Khan, and is "the daughter of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the late financier Sir James Goldsmith. She was previously married to a Pakistani cricket player."

I say "supposedly" because this is clearly a secretly evil Bruce Wayne love interest, not a real person.

ABC Podcast, Episode #25 and visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by More Comic Book Knock-Knock Jokes, because INTERRUPTING INTERGALACTIC STARFISH. Evie and Aaron are a little bloaty and slow after Thanksgiving, but still manage to get a bolt of disdainful adrenaline out of Batman RIP (and think Grant Morrison could learn a lot from Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu). The conclusion to Hickman and Ringuet's excellent Transhuman series is Monkey-tastic, and this time we mean the kind without Peter Tork.

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Cover of the Week

Evie and Aaron's pick, from Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4, cover by Stjepan Sejic

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from JSA: The Kingdom by Geoff Johns, Alex Ross and Fernando Pasarin:

Aaron's pick, from Nova #19 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Wellinton Alves and Geraldo Borges:

So I just finished Batman RIP... (spoilers)

...


I'm trying to formulate a well-supported criticism of this supposedly mythos-defining storyline that surpasses the threshold of a mere "GUUUUHHHHHHHHH..."

I guess the lowest hanging fruit is the notion that in a year when Batman is the number-one franchise on the planet, and any multiple of thousands of people might have wanted to check out the source material, RIP was an epic failure of judgment in the pure positive outreach department. It's not just that Morrison leans on ultra-obscure references from 70 years of Batman history, or that the non-linear storyline was muddled further by strange art, or that characters with unexplained motivations come out of nowhere, or that the identity of nemesis Dr. Hurt isn't clearly revealed even though Morrison teased it as "shocking" (and the leading theories of the Devil, Thomas Wayne, or your garden-variety crazy are hack, convoluted and bland, respectively), or that it ended with a "ZOMG Batman fell to his death in a fireball!" that obviously did not happen.

No, the primary problem with this story was WHO ARE THE FRICKING EUROPEANS? Seriously--Tim Drake gets in a fight in the middle of the street, and some friendly folks with Continental speaking quirks pop up and are all "pip pip, let us help you monsieur, we will take care of things here while you go find Batman, jawohl!" And I think that moment is the defining microcosm of the RIP storytelling flaw. Sure, maybe I'm supposed to know who those chaps were from some story Grant Morrison wrote eight years ago, or eight months ago, and it's not his fault that I don't. But I would clearly not be alone by a long shot, particularly if new readers decided to join the party after the summer, and it throws you right out of the action to a distinct state of "WTF?" that loosens the justification for everything else.

The references I did get, to things like Nanda Parbat and the Thogal, yes, they added to my experience. I like that Morrison tied that piece of relatively recent Batman history to what was going on with Bruce's psyche now, because it's interesting and thought provoking. Bruce had subjected himself to the most intense of sensory deprivation meditations, that simulates death and drives out demons, and it turns out he'd done something similar many years prior as part of an experiment with Dr. Hurt, that the doctor was now supposedly using against him. Cool. That works. Now... take me down that road. Introduce some twists, some "wild cards" like the Joker to fuck up everyone's plans, some moments of confusion where the reader doesn't know if what they're seeing is happening to Bruce or only in his mind. But don't throw in a merry band of anonymous knights who had, for no discernible reason, "mounted their own investigations" and figured out what was going on somehow and then leave them as fast as you brought them in so I have one more reason to think I'm missing the entire point. When most probably I'm not, and the point is this: "ha ha ha ha BOO."

Anyway. According to all previews and leaked info, the upcoming Batman mini-series "Battle for the Cowl," and whatever else is going on until Bruce Wayne eventually comes back and everything is normal, will not be written by Grant Morrison. So maybe it will be good and maybe it will be bad, but at least I know that it will NOT have a bunch of random Frenchies that distract me from what I'm supposed to understand.

And as far as who will be the next Batman, it's safe to say that I'm on Team Dick. Although the distinct benefit of the Nightwing costume is that it doesn't have a fine-ass-obstructing cape. Hmm. What was I talking about? Happy Thanksgiving!

I stand corrected

While I haven't made much mention of the recent Detective Comics "Hush" (or whatever it's actually called) storyline here on the blog, I've talked about it several times on the podcast, including giving the closing issue a Last of the Week award this past week for the very sweet Bruce/Selina nub nub bit, as well as Selina's lovely turn of monetary revenge against Tommy "Hush" Elliot for being so very shitty to her. The primary criticism I've had against the story has, of course, been the absolutely preposterous bit about Hush holding Catwoman's actual beating heart hostage in a Dr. Freeze-created machine, while Mr. Terrific and Dr. Midnite improbably kept her alive elsewhere.

But apparently, this is not preposterous at all.

See, this actual young lady lived in such a predicament for FOUR MONTHS, and just went home this week. Of course, she didn't have her original heart kept alive and returned to her, but that's not really what was getting at me anyway. So color me humbled, and more edumacated. Yay science!

But I still think the energy signature thing is dubious.

Hobnobbing with crooks = Palling around with terrorists

If you missed Wednesday's debate, here it is pretty much word for word:

Suckers

To all the people who claim not to be at all confused by Batman RIP because obviously its an ingenious homage to 60 years of character history and a deeply calculated depiction of the toll Batman's life has taken on his psyche, I have a message from Grant Morrison:



(Panel from Batman #680)

ABC Podcast, Episode #11 and visual aid

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by knock-knock jokes, because we are in the pocket of Big Fun. Aaron and Evie actually agree on most of this week's winners, and Aaron accidentally gets some of Greg Land's e-mail, which explains a *lot*. Li'l Leaguers and Layla Miller win big.

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Cover and Panel (actually Page) of the Week, both from Superman Batman #51:

Have I Got a Rehash of a Story for You

Update: Apparently I'm an asshole, and the adaptation of a previous story has been plenty acknowledged in reviews and the bonus DVD itself, as Johanna points out in the comments. So read the post below if you like to snicker at ignorant, reactionary fan babble.

We've been Netflixing the pants off of Batman: The Animated Series for the past year or so, and got a new disc this week for the second half of the 1998-99 Season Four (or Season Two of The New Batman Adventures, whatever organizational rules you go by).

The first episode on this disc is called "Legends of the Dark Knight," and is about a group of Gotham kids who all claim to have some insider knowledge of what the Batman is really like, and try to one-up each other with stories of their own first- or second-hand amazing interactions with the Caped Crusader.

Sound familiar?

Not that I've scoured the internet for relevant discussions, but I've read quite a lot about the Batman: Gotham Knight anime film (in addition to watching it twice), and I've never seen a single person comment on the fact that Josh Olson's chapter, "Have I Got A Story For You," is a fairly direct rip-off of that 10 year-old BTAS episode. There are a variety of substantive differences of course, and Olson's story was one of my favorite on the DVD, but part of that had been my impression of its originality. I suppose it's an idea that multiple people could have independently, and stories are adapted from other stories all the time, but I'm still a little let down that there was no acknowledgment that one of the stories is just an update of an old show.

Anyway, I feel obnoxious for even mentioning it, but it kind of bummed me out, especially since I liked the anime so very much. I kind of feel like a teenage Fugees fan in 1996 who goes to college and hears Roberta Flack for the first time. Or whatever.