The Delight that was Tony Daniels' Detective Comics. From issue #1.

THANKSGIVING! CHRISTMAS! NEW YEAR'S! THE TERROR NEVER ENDS!

Actually, it's not really that bad, but all these holidays and holiday related get-togethers are keeping us very, very busy. So! After the show notes, please join us for two hours of desperate comics blabbity-blab and the show notes dedicated to same!

So...right, then. Where were we? Ah, yes...

00:00-16:29: We are off and running, with a weirdo greeting, an equally weirdo response about the news of the death of Nelson Mandela, before moving on to discuss the Wonder Woman casting, so recently announced: what did we think? Our answers will surprise you! Unless you figured our answers were gong to be a rambling, incomplete personal anecdote from Jeff and a disagreement between Jeff and Graeme about box office earnings, in which case you can pick up your winnings at Window Seven. (One day, I'll tire of the "people gambling about when Jeff and Graeme bring up a specific topic they seem obsessed on" joke, but that day is, I fear, a long, long way off.) 16:29-20:26: Graeme has been rereading the Villains Month issues to supplement his reading of Forever Evil, and schools Jeff on DC’s event. 20:26-45:42: A transition from the DC event to the Comixology Cyber-Monday sale of New 52 trades: what first volumes trades of the New 52 would Graeme have bought? Which ones did Jeff buy? Why did Jeff use “what” for one of those questions and “which” for the other? Why so many rhetorical questions? Whyyyyy? Also discussed in this segment: a ton of Batman talk, and a long, shameful admission from Jeff about his love for Tony Daniel’s Detective Comics, the tragedy that is Hawkman, whether the awful is preferable to the competent, Jeff’s comics capriciousness this week, Rogues Rebellion by Brian Bucellato and Scott Hepburn, Suicide Squad by Matt Kindt and Patrick Zircher, and more! 45:42-1:12:14: From there we get to Letter 44 from Charles Soule by Alberto Alburquerque, Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma, the Lost school of storytelling, epic stories vs. small stories, the awesome Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart. Also discussed: Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern, what’s going on with the upcoming Inhumans series?, and more! (About Forever Evil.) 1:12:14-1:34:24: And this actually leads us quite nicely into a discussion of the Hunger Games movies—the first two films, the books by Suzanne Collins, storytelling, how they tie into Marvel movies exposition, this terrific review by Peter Rosenthal, and more. 1:34:24-1:57:11: The Spider-Man 2 trailer: worth talking about briefly? We think so? The draw of Marvel characters as cinematic, as opposed to comic book, characters, the secret of Crocodile Dundee 2, and a very funny throwaway joke from Flight of the Conchords (Season One, of course!). Also, Jeff finally talks about the Wonder Woman casting, there is a surprisingly robust squabble where we end up yelling about the Hemsworth brothers, not letting the Internet cast movies, and... 1:57:11-end: Closing comments! A reminder that we will be off, yet again, next week…so remember to listen to Graeme and I argue about the Hemsworth brothers at least twice more!

Pretty snazzy, am I right? Over two hours of comic book podcasting insanity -- actually, I don't think it's cool to talk about insanity as a value-added bonus, so maybe we should say "over two hours of comic book podcasting neuroses"...and really it's less than a minute and a half more than two hours, so... I kinda feel like maybe I should just leave it at snazzy, I guess.

Nonetheless! It's on iTunes, and it is here for you as well:

Wait, What? Ep. 141: Tomorrow's Controversies Today!

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

Sorry, this is so late, but lots of stuff going on this week. Under the jump for four new #1s, and something that shouldn't even have been printed!

(Really, that was a pretty shitty week for comics -- I kept most of what shipped LAST week up on the shelf too, just to fill in room....)

AGE OF ULTRON #8 (OF 10): So, I'm reading this and I'm literally thinking, "Why am I reading this? This doesn't count, this story didn't happen being the inner-level alternate reality of an alternate-reality-driven comic. The last page when, dunno, something huge drops on New York, and the city goes up in hellfire and destruction? I'm thinking "Yeah, and...?" I mean, it didn't happen, and it's all just time-travel, alternate-reality nonsense, and there's eight and one half minutes of my life that I desperately wish I had back. Wake me when the Angel-girl shows up to unthread this.... AWFUL.

AVENGERS ENEMY WITHIN #1: This is the first part of the CAPTAIN MARVEL / AVENGERS ASSEMBLE crossover, conveniently not attached to either series. I don't know, this is pretty drama-free to me, because, just like AGE OF ULTRON above, I'm fairly confident that Kelly Sue DeConnick isn't going to murder Carol, so "the enemy within" of her comic-book illness isn't really much of anything at all, now is it? This also wasn't really written with a new reader in mind -- I felt like it thought that I knew what was going on when I opened page 1, and I really don't, especially. And, more importantly, nothing on display here warmed me to Carol or Captain Marvel, or made me want to read or learn more about any of it. Foo! Also? The art was really bad, I thought -- Scott Hepburn doesn't seem to have basic control of anatomy or human proportions. I also have to give this one an AWFUL, though that's more a limitation of the SavCrit scale... "Very EH" might be slightly more accurate...

DOOMSDAY.1 #1 (OF 4): John Byrne has been killing it with these sci-fi books now -- I thought this was very much a airport best-seller from the 70s or something, and that's not even slightly a complaint: there is an easy level of craft and professionalism on display here, with many dramatically distinct characters. This isn't saying a LOT, since, like I said "shitty week of comics", but I thought that this was easily the best thing that I read this week. VERY GOOD (and available on our digital store, he said fruitlessly)

DREAM MERCHANT #1 (OF 6) : One of two named "Dream" books, and the one I couldn't really follow very well. The art by Konstantin Novosadov has some nice ethreal qualities, but it gets colored far too dark in too many places, and he kind of bobbles the faces again and again. The writing I thought was too self-indulgent, and should have covered twice the ground in half the space. WHAT IS THE ACTUAL PREMISE OF THIS COMIC? It's really not in issue #1. A very very low OK. (You could also get this at our digital store... and the coloring might be tuned to a screen, for all I know)

DREAM THIEF #1 (OF 5): Our other "Dream" comic is much easier to follow as Jai Nitz gives you a reason to care for the protagonist, and set out a controlling mystery very effectively. And I thought the art by Greg Smallwood was extremely effective in the flashback-to-dreams sections. The story is kind of Little Nemo in Slumberland meets The Spectre, and while I found the mystery compelling, I'm not sure that the body count produced makes the book really my cup of tea. Still, this is a very very solid GOOD, maybe even a bit higher.

That's what I thought at least, what did YOU think?

-B