The Smark Avengers - Vol 3, Ep 47: The Smark Avengers (Minus Two) Talk About Non Superhero Comics

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

What happens when your two cohosts are unable to record? Well, thankfully for Corey he already hosts one podcast on his own and he has the perfect topic to discuss without Dylan and Jon - the world of non-superhero comic books! That's right! No X-Men... No Spider-Man... and no Batman! Join the Smark Avengers Minus Two as Corey talks about Image's Universal Studios Monsters Frankenstein, IDW's Star Trek and Star Trek Defiant, and Mad Cave Studio's Dick Tracy!

Hello and welcome to the Smart Avengers. My name is Corey and with me is no one. This is the very first Smart Avengers minus two because John is still visiting his very, very criminally insane children. You know, God bless the mental homes or the institutions over in the United Kingdom. They seem to be such so swept up in the holiday spirit that they are even honoring, you know, New Year's Day well into the middle of January. So John, I hope sweet Sarah, sassy Sarah, Tiny Tommy. I hope they're doing well. I hope you're doing well. I hope they're eating all of their fish heads out of their respective buckets and they're not rolling around on the floor too much.

So that's where John is. as for Dylan, well, as many of you may know if he followed Dylan on social media, Dylan's username there is Captain Explodie. That is actually a not a joke name. Dylan is in fact a captain, and he was called into service with His Majesty's Royal Navy, and Dylan is currently sailing a tugboat somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean as the United Kingdom Repair for War against Italy. So with that being said, it is just you and me. And this is going to be very unique. Thankfully, I'm not uncomfortable talking to myself with myself because I have another

podcast, which I shall at the end of every episode called Large Old Cup. And Large Old Cup is just me for 29 minutes, usually just chatting about whatever's in my mind. So this is not large whole cup This is Smart Avengers, aka Smart Avenger Minus 2. And because of that, we're going to talk about comic books. Thankfully with John and Dylan both being gone, this is a very rare opportunity for the show because it's going to make editing a fucking breeze

because I have to really worry about people talking over each other or having to set up a burnt counter for Dylan. Instead, what we can do is instead talking about broad open topics like Spider-Man villains or X-Men stuff or movies or whatever. We can actually, we can talk about some of the monthly release comics that come out. Because John's a trade guy, Dylan kind of reads whatever he gets his hands on, it gets his hands on, but I am a weekly reader. I have a comic book shop up the street a couple miles called The Laughing Oger here in Columbus, Ohio. It has been my shop now for over a decade.

the people who work there are wonderful and marvelous people. And yeah, this is kind of my opportunity to kind of go over some of the stuff I've been reading. So as many of you may know, John and Dylan are very Marvel-based guys. They love Spider-Man. They love the X-Men. Those are kind of their bread and butter. And I've always been the DC guy, kind of a lone DC guy. So I'm always in a place of educating John and Dylan about what's going on in Batman or Superman or Green Arrow or Nightwing or any of those comics that are coming out there.

Now, mind you, I am not actually going to talk about superhero comics for the most part today. I absolutely could. I think there's been some really interesting stuff coming out. DC just launched a new Back Girl comic that's about two months in that stars Cassandra Kane, who, who is my favorite back girl. There is also a two-face comic that I read the first issue of and that's fucking insane to think there's a two-face comic out there.

So like I said, I could go in and talk about what's going on in the world of D.C. And maybe even go over the raid on Gray Malkin that is going on in the X-Men books between uncanny X-Men and the regular X-Men book. But we're not going to do that. We're not an X-Men podcast, despite a lot of our episodes being X-Men-centric.

What I'm going to focus on today, though, are comic books that are based off of other properties that are of different genres, aside from the traditional superhero comic. So I've got four books in front of me that I am going to kind of bring out and educate to you and kind of go over what I think makes them very interesting. So without much further ado, the first book we were going to start out comes from Image Comics. Image has the property rights to make comic books based off of the Universal Monsters. And as a child of the 90s, the Universal Monsters were kind of big then.

Like Pepsi and Doritos and stuff had like whole ad campaigns with like the Boris Carlos style Frankenstein and the Bella Lagosie style Dracula and the mummy and the Wolfman and the bride. So I love the Universal Monsters. I absolutely adore them. I'm a very big monster person. Not sure if you can see very well. That is the tattoo of Frankenstein.

I love Frankenstein. And as such, the first comic we're going to talk about today is Universal Monsters Frankenstein. That is by Matthew Walsh being put out through Image Comics. So I picked this up because I was super interested in the idea of a new Frankenstein comic that is based off of the movies. And the question kind of came about, like, what are they going to do? Is this going to be like the further adventures of Frankenstein? Or is this going to be just a retelling of the Frankenstein story in the world of comics, which has been done to death because, you know, Frankenstein, the modern-day Prometheus,

has been adapted many, many, many times over the years since, you know, Mary Shelley put it out herself. That being said, Matthew Walsh does a very cool thing with this book. The Frankenstein monster is not the main character. Dr. Frankenstein is not the main character. Instead, we are following this little boy around throughout the whole story. And we are treated to glimpses of these past lives that are happening in the comic. And the past lives are the people whose body parts were harvested to create the monster. So, for example, the reason we meet the boy is the boy's mourning, his recently passed away father, and he witnesses Victor and Igor dig up his grave, and they take his hands.

And so we see this boy's connection to the monster through his father's hands. We get the heart from somebody who was secretly in love with Dr. Frankenstein's bride. we get the eyes of someone who was publicly executed. You know, and meanwhile, while we're getting these glimpses into these past lives of these people whose body parts were harvested and we're put together and sewn together to create the monster that we all know and love, we are getting glimpses of the Frankenstein story. It's not a direct retelling. We are, we're just getting flashes of it. We see it in waves and parts. So, you know, you see the part in the story where the monster meets the little girl who's throwing flowers into the lake to show that they can float.

And the monster being sort of confused by this picks up the little girl and throws her in the lake to see if she can float. And of course, she doesn't. She drowns. Which, by the way, such a controversial scene back in the 1930s when that movie started, child death, not really, you know, smiled upon in the golden age of Hollywood. So this book was only, it only ran for four issues. This is the final issue. The art, I think, is amazing. If I can show you just a little glance of it.

I'm not sure. I can't see, but I imagine that it looks, I'm going to say that looks really good, even though I can't see a single thing about this. Beautiful art, very unique approach to telling the Frankenstein story. Like you said, it is a story that we all know. We all know in love. And Matthew, or not Matthew, Michael,

Walsh, I say Matthew Walsh, I'm so sorry. That man is terrible. Michael Walsh, who did the art and the writing for this, I believe, did such a great job. This is going to come out in trade in March. So if you are a trade person like John and you don't want to go to the comic book store and find the individual issues, wait until March, pick up the trade. Image comics are really good about making affordable trades. That is kind of like their calling card. The first trade is always cheaper than the sequential ones because their hope is to hope. you on the story. So this is not the only universal monster comic they put out. There is a creature of the Black Lagoon. I believe there is a wolfman, and I believe they are putting out a

Dracula next. I hope this is not the end of Frankenstein. As those of you who know, the Frankenstein monster comes back multiple times throughout the golden age of monster movies. So maybe Michael Walsh will get to move on and tell stories about the bride. We'll see. So that's Frankenstein. The next, we're going to jump into, so that's a little segue into horror. Let's get into science fiction proper. Now, science fiction is a very interesting genre because the whole point of it is to show a future where technology has become advanced. It's why I do not consider Star Wars to be science fiction.

Even though there is advanced technology in Star Wars, Star Wars, the tropes that those stories follow are more fantasy-based. I mean, think about it, secret religion, laser sword fights, you know, princesses that need to be rescued. It's a fantasy story. You know, lovable rogue, the young man who finds out he's the chosen one and goes on this journey of self-discovery and growth. It's a fantasy story. So that's why I've always been amused over the years when there's been those debates about, are you a Star Wars fan? Are you a Star Trek fan? When I was a young child, I was a Star Wars fan, and as a young adult, I became a Star Trek fan.

Because Star Trek is as proper science fiction. So this is the Star Trek comic that is coming out through IDW. It has been brilliant. As you can see, this is issue 27. I've been reading since issue one. There have been some major storylines. They have been coming out like Day of Blood. They have a new event coming up called Lore War,

which if you're familiar with Star Trek the next generation, you're familiar that lore is Data's brother, who is an android who has a personality that is warped and broken. But anyway, I was talking to John about, this couple of months ago about like the Star Trek comics and whatnot so what makes this interesting in the Star Trek comics is that it is not just the next generation it's not just Deep Space 9 it's not just the original series it's not just Voyager these books these comics have taken characters and bits from

the multiple different Star Trek series that have been on the air for years and years and years and they are combining them in such a fun way so for example The captain of the USS Theseus in this book is Benjamin Sisko, who is the captain from Deep Space Nine. His medical officer is Dr. Beverly Crusher from Next Generation. The pilot of the ship is Tom Paris from Voyager. The engineer is Scotty from the original series. They introduced some new characters. There was a period of time where one of the characters from the Lower Decks,

which is the animated kind of comedy series, he was a character in the book for a period of of time. These books have not been afraid of embracing everything about Star Trek. It is, it's been a very fun read to see characters you would not normally see interact, interact with each other. So, um, this book has mainly been about Benjamin Cisco. If you're not familiar with Benjamin Cisco, a very large plot point is he is considered an emissary for the prophets, which are these sort of space gods for the pejoran people. It was a major plot line of the, uh, the entirety of Duke Space Nine. So he is still very much tied to the prophets. The prophets are still, you know, being very cryptic with him, leading him in directions, not giving him the whole truth.

And, you know, he's just trying to do Star Trek stuff, you know. He's trying to save worlds. He's trying to save people. He's trying to act with diplomacy. He's trying to navigate tricky situations with creative problem solving. And it's been very enjoyable. There have been some there have been some very interesting original characters that have been introduced. They follow up on some previous old plot lines. And like you said, there's a big event comic coming up, you know, big event coming up in this book and the next book we're going to talk about that is very much based on around lore, who has basically ascended to godhood and has been rewriting history. As such in this issue,

Captain Sisko and the crew of the USS Theseus actually interact with the JJ Abrams Star Trek crew through temporal placements and alternate dimensions and whatnot. So, you know, you get to see the Chris Pine, Captain Kirk, you know, interact with Cisco. And it's very, it's been very enjoyable. So, yes, I would recommend this book. It's great. The writing team is Colin Kelly and Jackson Lansing. very, very enjoyable. If you're into science fiction, if you're into Star Trek, definitely check this off from IDW.

They've been really hitting it out of the park with this one. So this book does have a sibling. It has a companion book. And that is Star Trek Defiant. So Star Trek Defiant has been a book that is very much in the same vein. It's taking characters from the different series, putting them in a brand new situation. Star Trek Defiant, the main cast of this book, has centered around Worf from the Next Generation in Deep Space Nine and Spock from the original series.

And it's been such a unique approach because this is the book that experiments with the Star Trek world. So essentially, you know, Worf and his crew of the Defiant have been basically decommissioned by Starfleet. basically publicly shamed so that they can act in a black ops sort of manner to do the dirty work that the that star fleet does not one publicly known so this this you know they have been interacting with tons of old characters you know old enemies from the books they had this really long storyline about basically what like what if like star trek interacted with the xenomarps essentially there has been this very long-running political war plotline with the Romulan Empire, especially due to the ties of Commander Sela, who is a character from the next generation

and the relationship with Spock and the Vulcans, been very great as well. So this book, I believe, is also going to be tying into lore war. Like I said, they are sibling books. And this book is by Christopher Cantwell, also through IDW. you. So my recommendation for Star Trek Defiant is going to be very much the same manner of if you like science fiction, if you like Star Trek, by all means, give this a shot. Also, if you want to see someone do very non-traditional Star Trek things with the world of Star Trek, definitely give this a shot. This book has definitely been more morally gray. Worf has had to

make hard decisions. He's had to make strange bedfellows. It also, saw the return of Hugh the Borg. Who doesn't, I mean, who doesn't love Hugh the Borg? He's great. We all love him. He's fantastic. And additionally, in this book, Chief Miles O'Brien from D-Space-9 and Dr. Julian Bashir popped up recently. So like I said, you know, the rest of the crew, you know, you have Baylana from Voyager. There have been some interesting characters that were brought in.

LOR was actually a member of this team when the book first launched. I've also been reading this one since issue one as well. So it's on issue 21 now. Yeah, I can't get enough of it. I think IDW is doing fantastic things with the Star Trek property. And, you know, you have the very traditional book with very big stakes. And then you have this book, which is experimenting with the Star Trek world in ways that I don't think we've ever really seen before. So that's my recommendation for IDW.

Definitely check out the Star Trek books. IDW is a fantastic publisher. They get to deal more with intellectual property than other books do. So, you know, they put out G.I. Joe comics. They put out Transformers comics. I think they put out like a My Little Pony comic. Pretty much if it's a toy line or an old TV series or something like that, IDW is going to have the rights to make comics.

And even if you think that those books wouldn't be good because they're intellectual property, like from TV and movies, it's actually been fantastic. So I've read some Transformers books from there, not really a Transformers guy, so I didn't stick with them very much. But again, I think what they've been doing with Star Trek has been fantastic. And if you're a Star Wars person, I'll go ahead and direct you to Marvel, because Marvel Comics has the rights to Star Wars via their acquisition of the Fox properties. Marvel puts out Star Wars comics all the time. There have been books starring Darth Vader and original characters like Dr. Afra. There have been Boba Fett books.

There have been Manderloryan books. There have been, I think recently they announced a Kylo Ren book for all intents and purposes. So Marvel's been doing great with that. Marvel also has the rights to the alien properties and to the predator properties. I was reading some of the alien books they were putting out because I love the alien movies. with the xenomorphs. They've been pretty good. They're very, very dark.

And I guess that's what I kind of like about the fact that Marvel's putting these out because I wouldn't necessarily say that Marvel does a ton of really dark stuff. But if you're familiar with watching the alien movies, you get familiar with the sense of dread and hopelessness because a lot of these are no-win situations that the main characters will find themselves in. You know, you're stranded surrounding by these perfect biomech killing machines, you know, like, and you're just trying to survive and not everyone's going to make it. So like you said, I think those books were very fun and very good.

So in the realm of science fiction, in horror, you have a lot of options to pick if you want to go with these sort of pre-established properties with characters and situations and plot points you're familiar with. Now the last one I'm going to bring up is I'm going to this one was a I took a gamble on this one. This one started out way back when it was a comic strip. Way way way back when it was a comic strip. But I am from a generation that is familiar with a certain movie that was made starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. Of course, I am talking about Dick. Tracy. So we're going to go with, you know, we went with horror, we've gone science fiction, and now we're going to go with crime, essentially. So for those of you who are familiar

with the Dick Tracy movie, you would know that it is considered not good for the most part and kind of weird to look at. Because one of the big things about Dick Tracy was, you know, was a comic strip. A lot of the characters were drawn in these really over-the-top manners that had to do with like their criminal name. So like, you know, like wrinkle, like, was it wrinkle face or big lips or mumbles or flat top or big boy caprice or baby face?

You know, like these are all characters that looked really almost comedic. And then when they adapted this into this live action movie, the prosthetics that were used were fucking horrific for some of these. Like these look like living, breathing. monsters. It's such a unique film to look at, though, because the colors are so bright and so bold. And, I mean, also, you also have Madonna as Breathless Mahoney, which, A, love that name, Breathless Mahoney. Great name for a lounge singer. But I was thinking this was going to be a super campy book like that movie was. I was incredibly wrong. Dick Tracy, this is by Mad Cave Comics.

and it is written by Alex Segura and Michael Moretti. This comic is, it's got a body count. There are some major deaths in this book. I mean, I think the first issue, you know, and that's it. You know, this is on issue six now. They had their first big storyline and then they took a couple of months off where they started their next storyline, which issue six is the beginning of. But issue one, like I said, I'm going and thinking this is going to be a really campy over

the top comic with like goofy cartoonish mobster characters. It starts with a mass shooting where like several innocent people get mowed down by Tommy Gunfire in a diner. And it's like, oh, okay, they set the pace on that one. You know, like that was a very purposeful opening scene in this comic to be like, hey, if you remember the movie from the early 90s or late 80s, whenever it came out, this is not going to be like that. Dick Tracy is also a returning war hero in the comic, and he is coming back to the city and going into being a detective, and there have been some like PTSD-esque flashbacks, and he definitely comes across as hardened a little bit.

I mean, he's still somebody who believes in justice, in truth and doing the right thing, but, like, he's a little fatalistic. So it is almost like they took the cartoonish, vibrant world of Dick Tracy, and then they mixed it with the noir film genre that a lot of movies were made using the same sort of backdrop and cast of characters. And if you're familiar with the noir genre, you know that these are all characters that are going to have shades of gray, and they're very seldom as a very happy ending. Sometimes it's just surviving is the happy ending. So Dick Tracy has been very entertaining. It's been very interesting because of, again, my expectations were completely subverted. I was not anticipating a hard crime book where named characters are getting killed. Like, you know, Mumbles, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie, he gets killed, I think, in the same comic he gets interested.

produced in. I'm like, oh, shit, that is surprising to say the least. Yeah. So what I will say is Mad Cave is a comic publisher I'm not terribly familiar with. I'm not sure what their other offerings are. But I will tell you that them having the rights to make a Dick Tracy comic and the changes and shifts they made and telling it were so unexpected and so damn cool that I'm, I've kind of bought into this series. and kind of seeing where it goes and where these characters are leading us. Plus, they just introduced Breathless Mahoney and the Blank in this story. And if you're familiar with the movie, you know what the twist is. I'm kind of curious if they're going to follow through with that in the comic or if they're going to take their own spin on it.

Maybe they will, maybe they won't. We will find out. So this will likely be a very short episode of the Smart Avengers. Like I said, it's just me talking. and I'm so used to doing this for Large Old Cup. I don't want to go on these long rants and tangents, but I did want to offer something that was a little different and a little unique, and that is, you know, coming to you with some comic recommendations

that aren't superheroes, and they're not necessarily Marvel or DC, but, you know, these other publishers out there that put out great books that you may not know about because, you know, when people think comic books, they think Marvel and they think DC. They think Batman and they think Spider-Man. They think Superman and they think Captain America. And it's worth taking the risk every now and then on finding something interesting and weird. For example, there's some fucking fantastic comics out there that are really goofy and silly and have these wild plot lines that pull in your heartstrings.

Dylan and I have talked about them before. eight billion genies. A great series. The whole concept is one day, every person on earth gets their own genie and they get one wish. And the whole comic is, how does this play out? Like,

how does the world shift and change and how do the people adapt and survive with this, again, this world where everybody has a genie and they can do something impossible or something mundane if they choose to.

There's also God Hates Astronaut, which is by the same, God Hates Astronauts, which is by the very same creative team. God Hates Astronauts is one of the most chaotic and bizarre comedy books I've ever read my entire life. Dylan and I chatted about it. We were both very big fans of it. So if you're looking for really fun and creative ideas, check out 8 billion genies or God Hates astronauts. There is a, like I said, there's a whole world out there of comic books that are not superhero-based. take a swing on him, find something that looks unique. I mean, I love covers.

Covers will tell you what the story of the book's going to be about. Sometimes the covers are incredibly misleading. Like, I think there was a period of time where it seemed like every Green Lantern comic, it seemed like Hal Jordan was going to die because he was always in some manner of peril. But, yeah, if I can leave you with some parting words, we'll go with that. John, of course, is not here to give you an update on his movie watching. We are well within 2025 now. So he's probably at like 500 at this point.

But I look forward to John bouncing back or coming back from visiting his criminally insane children and letting us know just how many movies they're watching together because family movie night is important. And in addition to that, you know, Dylan is out there with Exploity Plays, his YouTube channel. There's been talk of, you know, putting out a music channel as well that I hope he does and that I get an opportunity to contribute to. Additionally, Dylan has a book of short stories you could find on Amazon, which I believe is called the World of Captain Explode. Probably got the, you know, probably got the title wrong, but remember, this is a veteran. He is serving in his majesty's Royal Navy. So, you know, respect the troops and the sailors and the people manning

those tugboats. As for me, I've named dropped it a couple of times. Definitely check out Large Old Cup. It's a stream of consciousness podcast. It's very similar to this. It's just me talking at you for 29-ish minutes about something that I find interesting or something that has happened in my life recently. There's no video component, so you can't see the enthusiasm on my face. But I assure you it's usually there. Of course, you're watching the video version of this on YouTube or you're listening to the audio version of this on Spotify. If you're curious what the other ones like, swap them around. Because, yeah, I would love to see us in the year 2025 really reach out and get some new

followers and expose ourselves to the world so they can kind of see the bizarre, interesting, weird takes that three lifelong friends have had over 20 years of friendship. and our strange dynamics of interacting. So we're going to end this just like large old cup, because Dylan is not here and John is not here to give us the regular witty banner, aka them growing. I'm going to tell you all that. I hope you're being recklessly brave.

I hope you're being delusional confident. And I hope you're doing for yourself out there and enjoying yourself. So until next time, I hope you just enjoy yourselves. read some comics have fun get out there do stuff it's you only get to live for a short period of time it's a microcosm enjoy it goodbye