Wait, What? Ep. 106: You Are Number Six.

At Graeme's Behest: the cover to Colder #1

Yeah, that's a pleasant way to get your Tuesday rolling, eh?

Anyhoo, very truncated version of things this time around, I'm afraid but after the jump...show notes!

So yeah, I've got a trip that I'll be on for a few days which means I'm trying to write this AND pack AND panic AND forget the one thing I'm not going to remember until I've been the road for two hours.  But am I letting any of that get in the way of bringing you this podcast?  I say thee: nay!  (Though, verily, I shall admit to assing it by half...)

Oh, and I got a big upgrade on the recording end of things but unfortunately it may be why there's a bit of crackle in the opening of the podcast.  Sorry about that--I hope to have that figured out by next episode...

0:00-41:19:  Greetings!  The small talk is eensy-sized this time around as we get right into the topic of the news that day--the pending cancellation of Hellblazer at Vertigo and the launch of Constantine over at the DCU. Graeme brings the facts; Jeff brings the wild conspiratorial speculation.  (Also, Jeff was a little behind the curve this week, so feel free to create a quick & easy drinking game where you take a drink every time Graeme informs him of something of which he was unaware. You will be feeling no pain in absolutely no time at all.)  Is Vertigo effed in the ay?  Maybe. Is that as bad for the marketplace as it would've been ten years ago?  Maybe not.  Somewhat tangentially related: whatever happened to the NuMarvel generation of creators? Why does Aardvark Books in San Francisco have the used graphic novel section that it does?  And other questions lead us into…

41:19-41:54: Intermission 1!

41:54-1:08:21:  For an early birthday present, Jeff picked up a digital subscription to 2000AD and Graeme has been keeping up with it lately, and so much discussion ensues over issues #1806-1808. Spoilers ahoy (especially for #1808). Want to hear us talk Judge Dredd by Al Ewing and Henry Flint; ABC Warriors by Pat Mills and Clint Langley; Brass Sun by Ian Edgington and I.N.J. Culbard; Low Life by Rob Williams and D'Israeli; and The Simping Detective by Simon Spurrier and Simon Coleby?  Then this is the thirty-seven minutes for you! ( Oh, and if you've never seen the original Prisoner--spoilers! at 1:00:36-1:01:36.)

1:08:21-1:11:19: Then, at the very tail end of things, Graeme discusses Action Comics #14 by Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch, Rags Morales and Chris Sprouse.  Because he just couldn't bring himself to wait until after...

1:11:19-1:11:42:  Intermission 2!

1:11:42-end:  Since Graeme has been to the store (and Jeff hasn't), he leads with reviews, in alphabetical order, no less, of Colder by Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra; Earth 2 #6 by James Robinson and Nicola Scott; Iron Man #1 by Kieron Gillen and Greg Land (and also AvX: Consequences); Stumptown v2 #3 by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth; Willow Wonderland #1 by Jeff Parker and Brian Ching; and, outside of alphabetical order (and our natural laws of time, space, and arguably taste), the X-Men: Iceman hardcover collecting the miniseries by J.M. DeMatteis and Alan Kupperberg from 1984.

Jeff, by contrast, is utterly flummoxed by the digital comic Batman: Li'l Gotham by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs and happily shares the flum with everyone.  And while we're on the flum tip, Jeff also explains his preparations for reading Marvel comics in a legit non-piratey way as well as his first current Marvel comic in a long time: Captain America #19 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.  Also, the book that really knocked him off his chair: the third issue of Ethan Rilly's Pope Hats:  a stunningly strong piece of cartooning and storytelling that is completely worth your time and cash.

[Stealth bonus #1: we also talk about Sean Howe's amazing Marvel Comics: The Untold Story a bit more toward the end.]

[Stealth bonus #2:  Rather than edit out that bit about my Skype pic, here it is in it's teeny-tiny glory:]

[Stealth bonus #3:  You'll know it when you hear it…]

Again, apologies the show notes are so sparse this time around.  To make up for it, I put this up into the ether a little early so you may have already seen the podcast already on iTunes.  But if not,  you are certainly encouraged to have at it below:

Wait, What? Ep. 106: You Are Number Six.

As always, we hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

Steamroller of content: Hibbs' 10/10

Yes, yes, let's keep this week's Steamroller of Content rolling along, with me doing This Week's Comics actually, y'know, THIS week...!

BATMAN #13: I thought this was very very effective, full of mood and tension and anxiety and evil clowns and, yeah, just everything you might want in a modern comic. To a certain extent, I think the vigor as a commercial product that BATMAN has shown since its relaunch might possibly single-handedly make "the new 52" have been worth it. Clearly America's #1 superhero comic book of the moment, I thought this was frankly EXCELLENT.

BATGIRL #13: this one, on the other hand? Not so much. I mean, the main story was perfectly adequate attempt at making  grrrrr/gritty nemesis for Babs (who, let's remember, until now has primarily be associated with Killer Moth) -- but it feels to me like... dunno, trying to hard or something? I was pretty insulted by the "tie-in" to the Batman storyline, with its wraparound cover and instant sell-out, but only being, yuck, 2 pages  of anything, and that thing was pretty much no-thing, anyway. So, yeah, I thought it was pretty EH.

AvX: CONSEQUENCES #1: I think that personally, my favorite "consequence" of this issue is that Cap apparently went squirrelly, and decided that the best time to go shopping for new clothes was in the narrow space between AvX #12 and this... and that no one is willing to say anything to his face about it. "Cap, seriously, you look like a penis now." or "Nice look, did NFL Superpro have a sale?". Anyway, the plot of this is mostly "Cyke's in jail, doesn't care"... I don't know, where can he possibly go as a character from here? He was always the most boring of the X-Men original or giant-sized or uncanny or new, and this isn't doing him any favors. He's just as dull watching mope around a prison cell. Hope is also told she can go be a normal kid first, but someone is going to have to take her hand and take her clothing shopping first, because she looks distinctly unnormal standing around in that combat suit talking like that. Just, god, please don't let it be Cap taking her to the store -- his fashion sense sucks! That comic was extremely EH.

UNCANNY AVENGERS #1: I really wanted to like this, but man I have such a hard time with the things they're trying to get us to believe about how the world perceives the mutants, etc. I sure don't believe when Captain America comes along and says that *Alex Summers* is the last, best hope to lead mutantkind to their new Avengery-destiny. Dude, Alex Summers is a damp squib of a character. Just about the only thing he's got going for him is that cool costume. But past that? Name one actual human-personality trait he's ever shown in some 40 years of existence? No, you can't, because he's never exhibited one either.

I mean, honestly! You want the even duller brother of the world's most tedious mutant to lead an Avengers team, really?

The main thing UNCANNY AVENGERS has going for it is John Cassaday, who is, of course, a very fine artist. My problem is that this isn't a gathering of characters that I want to see him draw, and the situation he is drawing is fairly uninteresting to me. This was OK.

HALLOWEEN EVE: This is one big Amy Reeder showcase, and, yeah, she's an artist to watch, with a wicked sense of style and verve in her drawing. I'm less enthused about her lettering and coloring -- the former looking entirely computer done with too large baloons, the latter being too bright in too many places, and without a good balance between background and foreground. But who cares, the art itself is so pretty! The story, on the other hand -- pretty much just "A Christmas Carol", except set during Halloween -- I've read worse, I'm sure, but it was pretty average stuff. So what to rate it what to rate it... Oh, hell, I'll go with a low GOOD.

POINT OF IMPACT #1:  Jay Faerber's new ongoing black & white crime book, and while part of me thinks that maybe it veers towards the wannabe TV Pilot that Abhay was discussing earlier (at least partially pushed along by the ode to Boomtown in the text page), I thought it was a zippy enough first issue to say something about it. Artist Koray Kuranel is new (or at least "new to me"), and he's still got some awkward drawings to get out of his (?) system -- look at that hand in the next to last panel of the last page and tell me that doesn't look like that weird SNL character with the tiny hands? But I was more struck through a lot of the issue that the art kind of looked like Ian Gibson. Haven't seen his art is years -- still working in the UK?

Anyway, this is a noble effort that looks like it has a certain amount of potential. I'll also call it a low GOOD.

RED SHE-HULK #58: Or, what would, in any other universe, be called #1. I'm very much not the audience for this, I don't think, because in my brain, making Betty Ross a hulk (let alone the very idea of multiple, colored hulks!) seems about as wise as having, say, Jean Loring become Eclipso after killing Sue Dibney.  But, even if I didn't think that, I'd want to see some characterization or personality or motivation, all of which seem to be 100% absent in this comic book. Is it too much to want the titular hero of a book to be a protagonist... well, or at least a motivating factor in things that happen? Yeah, this ain't for me. AWFUL.

PHANTOM STRANGER #1: I can't believe that I'm going to say this, but maybe this was even worse than #0.  If only because it didn't have the deeply wrong Judas backstory, yet was, in effect, exactly the same story as issue #1 -- someone wants PS to help them (in this case, it is Raven, once [but no longer] of the Teen Titans), PS betrays them because God tells him to, PS levels up (he's down to 28 pieces of Silver now, woo!) -- exactly and precisely the story of #0, where it was the Spectre then. Douchebag Monthly! This is going to sell and sell and sell!

I lie, there is ONE more thing that's slightly different, something which pushes this issue truly into howler territory -- at the end of this it sure looks as though the Phantom Stranger goes home to his wife and loving children. Yep, not only have the entirely missed the point of being a "stranger", they now seem to be saying that Judas has changed his name to "Phil", and is living The American Dream in what looks to be a suburb.

I'll just let that idea sink in for a moment.

I kind of now need to give this comic just one more issue to determine if it is merely criminally insane, or Bob Haney-style brilliant. I know which way I'm leaning, but I have to leave the possibility of brilliance open, don't I?  So, while I want to say "CRAP", I'm barely, and perversely going to call it as "INCOMPLETE".

AME-COMI GIRLS #1: Well, even shrunk and reformatted, I'll stare at Amanda Conner art all day long. And, boo, that she only does about 2/3rds of the comic, but it still looks nice in those bits. Plotwise the comics is a bit sex-n-gore-y, but if you're looking for an anime-style version of Wonder Woman, with nice cheescake art, there are certainly worse directions this comic could have gone.  So, that's, what? OK, I guess?

OK, enough from me... what did YOU think?

-B