The Smark Avengers - Vol 3, Ep 6: The Smark Avengers Talk About Whatever They Want

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

It's not all movie analytics, killing costumed heroes, making lists of characters, and breaking down X-Men for the Smark Avengers. Sometimes it's important to just hang back and shoot the breeze! Join Corey, Dylan, and Jon as they discuss topics such as Armless Tiger Man's return, the upcoming changes to the X-Men titles, and the failed Generation-X television show!

There you go. Okay. Now we're recording. You know, the last time, yeah, oh, shit, it did it again. That thing where it looks like it had been recording for like four or five seconds and then stopped. It went back to zero and started again. Fucking weird. It seems like it's working now.

Yeah, no, like I said, did the exact same thing in the last episode. It worked out fine. Mm-hmm. Hi, everyone. I'm Corey. And with me is Dylan and John. And when you add the three of us together, you get the smart Avengers. a name that we've never explained

and I don't think we ever will. So last week on the show we killed the Flash and it mainly was just a conversation about how many weird fucking powers the Flash had. Yeah. And I think that was the closest

to like being burnt out. I've been in some time. Yeah. That wasn't fun. Yeah, you didn't even have to write any of the, you didn't have to come up with the ways to kill him. You just have to read off the ways that he can survive. Yeah. And we were like, how do we kill this uncillable beast?

This man who can vibrate his eyes and see other rays of light. Or make his brain go back into the past and remember things that he was forced to forget. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it felt like before we'd even had a chance to. to present Archaeus is every single step of the way, somebody who wrote for the flash had figured out what we were going to write

in order to kill him. I was like, no, that's not going to work. You know? Like every single bit, every idea that we had, they're like, oh, actually, I think you'll find that in issue 71, they already established that you can't shoot him in the head. Like, well, that's not fair, you know.

I should be able to shoot them in the head if I want to. If you want, yeah, I mean, this is America. For me, it's America. For you guys, it's something else. But if I was in America, I should have the right to be able to shoot the flash in the head. It's in the Constitution, I assume. It's probably near the back somewhere. Anyway, what's going on?

I heard something insane about Kate Middleton and some weird stuff going on over there. News about, like, the royal family. When it comes over here, I feels like it's like when you ever you play telephone as a kid and somebody says like, hey, we're having lunch at 12 and it gets the last person. It turned into like, hey, bananas aren't a fruit, you know? Yeah. Hey, we're going to kill the flash at 12. Okay. Well, I guess.

The point you can't do it. It's impossible. So because the last episode was so taxing mentally on us, which was so surprising to me, the Aquaman episode was so fun and goofy. because of how weird his powers got. And then that just, it felt it just got oppressive as it went on. Yeah, it just kept going. We looked at the time and we're like, we're already,

we're already all the way through the episode and we haven't finished talking about what his powers are yet. Yeah, I think that was the thing. It was like, it was like, 45 minutes had passed under the recording. And I was like,

we're still on the second one and there's two more to go. Holy hell. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, though. Because of that, we're going to be more of a, you know, laid back atmosphere on this one. We've talked about characters and we've talked about storylines and we even watched a couple episodes of Japanese Spider-Man, but it feels like we've not really talked about what we're

currently reading in comics. And that's not to say, like, I feel like of all of the podcasts I've seen about comics, we're definitely not negative. I feel like we're not negative people. I mean, we are just after relentlessly making fun of the flash. Yeah. Well, yeah, but I feel like it's not done in the same kind of ilk as people who like rage over stuff. Like we're picking fun at things.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I agree with that. So yeah, because we're kind of usually taking the piss out of stuff where they're talking about like, you know, weird super powers or bad villains or storylines that don't make any sense. I thought it'd be fun to like, hey, here's some stuff that we're actually reading at the moment. So, yeah, I guess that's the thing. I know I get a weekly poll, so I'm constantly getting something to read. I don't know if you guys have polls over there.

No. Well, like I've said before on the show, I tend to read the collected editions, the graphic novels, the like you know the big collections whenever they get released so yeah yeah don't what about you oh I don't know how to read oh that's fair yeah I mean I wanted to learn but it just seems like a lot of effort you know too many words that's exactly the problem if you're trying to learn how to read there's too many words to learn how to read. So I just don't learn how to read any of them.

Blissful ignorance all the way through. They do say ignorance is bliss. So I guess that works out for you. I don't know if that's entirely true. Do you feel your happy go lucky person? I don't know. No? I don't know, man.

I've been making the little. clips to put up on TikTok to they kind of help just show examples of what this show is like nine times out of ten they have been you cracking at something like I just posted the whole armless tiger man bit

not too long ago that I forgot about that bit but I also stand by my determination to bring armless tiger man closer to the the public's

perception. I was going to talk about Armist Tiger one for a long time. Well, I was going to talk about Aramus Tiger Man a little bit too, actually. Is he back? Is he in your house? No.

Go out for that. So I was looking, so when I made that TikTok, I was looking for panels of the comic so that people who would like watch the clip would have like an illustration of what we were looking at. And so not only did I find like panels of like his origin where he got his arms ripped off by a machine.

and that's why he hates machines. But fucking machines, man. He, uh, I found out that Greg Pack actually had brought armless tiger man back a few years ago and put him into, um, his Hercules run.

Like I saw panels of like modern day armless tiger man in Africa, like biting people's throats and letting them bleed. out looking the exact fucking same that he did in those panels that we showed. I really like the idea that he was like, right, I have a costume that fits. It's got no arms. This is perfect. I can't afford to get a new costume. I just, because everybody else since that every other person has like adapted or made a new

costume or how did you look or whatever. Armist Tiger Man is like, nope, this, this looks great on me. He can't take it off. He doesn't have any arms. Can't argue with the facts. Well, how did he get it on? You know what? In those panels that I found,

there's a panel of him, like, walking with this dude, and he, like, bites the guy's throat and then stomps him to death. And he's wearing a trench coat, shoes, and a hat. How did he? tie the shoes.

I like the idea that he was like, excuse me, can you help me tie my shoes? I don't have any arms. They're just somebody. And the guys are like,

of course, I will help you tie your shoes. You poor armless man. And then he does. And then armist Tiger Mine kills him. Yeah. He's like, you show weakness.

You know, fuck you. I got probably I don't know. Used machines. Yeah. Do you have a computer? Fuck you.

You know. I, dude, can we, all right. Can we make a pitch to Marvel where we get to write, um, arm this tiger man, bring a back and just have him just be like a total like fucking, like he hates everything, um, like any machines, any, anything mechanical. And like he sees people using their phones. He's like, what the fuck is this? He just starts karate kicking phones out of people's hands.

Yeah. And then like, like, like, he comes over to America and day. He's like, what the fuck is going on? Look at all this shit, you know? And then I just go spare. Like, this, this is a perfect storyline. Especially given, like, you know, these days, you always get these guys. There's like the old generation versus the new generation.

We're like, back of my day, we didn't have. phones, you know, a lot of shit. Those people who love complaining about stuff, like this is the perfect storyline for them. They are the armless tiger man of today, you know. It would work perfectly. I assume it would work

perfectly. Clip this bit instead of the Marvel. Can we tweet this from Marvel? Was it their editor-in-chief, C.B. Sebulki? I don't know who it is. Whatever your name is, tell me how to spell your name correctly so I can write it on a check. Because, obviously,

The only way to get a job of Marvel is to bribe somebody. But listen, it would be a really good story. Clearly, the three of us are very good at writing. We have never shown our ability to write that often on the show. But we're all very good writers. Take our word for it. We could write an armless tiger man story. I could do the artwork.

There you go. Maybe he gets... You have shown that you can draw Armless Tiger Man. He is in the thumbnail for that episode on weird superpower. Yeah, and he looked fine. Yeah, he looked great. Yeah. So maybe we should get somebody else to do the artwork, you know,

but I think it would, wouldn't it be a fun story to write? I think so. Well, and what gets me is like, you have Marvel and they're like sliding timescale thing where like we don't really talk about like Magneto being alive during World War II anymore, it seems. but Gustav Hertz got his arms

ripped off by a machine as a teenager or a young man working in a machine shop in Germany in like the 1930s and 40s and that kind of explains

like machines like that hadn't really been around super long so I like to just think that like in the sliding time scale of Marvel that happened

but it was like present day and like he was totally fine with machines beforehand. And that also like he feels betrayed by machines now. Yeah. I love. Beforehand.

That brings back memories. Yeah. That's what we had before the hands. What now the machine, it looked like it had like blades on it like a like a propeller. But if you had to write Arnold's Tiger Man losing his arms to a machine, what machine would you pick? Oh, something that, that, like a really trivial, completely

unnecessary. You know what I mean? Like something, something that like, it's very easily could have been avoided. You know? I was going to say a lawnmower. Oh shit. A lawnmower making machine. The machine that puts the

bleach into the lawnmower. Hold on one second, guys. I'll be right back. It's Armist Tiger Man knocking at the door of his feet. I heard you guys talking about me. He probably says it in an accent, though, because he's from... Where's he from Germany? Yeah, but he didn't look particularly German.

No. Pretty sure, didn't he look Asian? He did. Yeah, that's... There's so many mysteries about Armless Tiger Man. We could solve these mysteries. We could write them all down. We could make up our own history for Armless Tiger Man.

What if we just did this off the books? I didn't go to Marvel at all and just wrote our own Armless Tiger Man story, published our own comic, and as I'm sure they wouldn't mind. Do you think they've trademarked, Armistus Tiger Man? Nah. They probably have. They're all by Disney now.

They trademark everything. They've like rewritten copyright laws in America so many times. That might be the one that they haven't traded. Like they probably forgot. They're like, nobody's going to give a shit about Armist Time. Tiger Man. And then we come along and make the greatest selling comic book of the 21st century. Mm.

You know, and they're like, fuck, why didn't we think about it almost Tiger Man? That's the problem, man. People aren't thinking about him. He's so, it's just a classic character all around. Can I read you some of the modern Gustav Kurt's lore? This is in the Marvel database. This is like their version of Wikipedia. Shortly thereafter, Hertz was either freed or escaped from prison and returned to the Nazi cause.

It also seems that during his time, he developed a taste for human flesh becoming a cannibal and using his canine-like teeth to tear flesh from the bone. He was next recruited into a special superhuman task force, assembled by the red skull, and sent to Africa to infiltrate Wakanda in order to secure a supply of vibranium for the Nazi cause. During the assault on the Wakandan capital, Hertz assaulted the Black Panther's wife and two sons, threatening to kill to Chokka. At this time, he was shot in the middle of his forehead by howling commando, Gabe Jones, killing him instantly. Hertz's soul ended up in Hades, where in modern times, he was a member of Pluto's jury of the undead that were standing trial against Zeus. When Hercules attempted to attack the jury, Tiger Man was among its members who overpowered the demigod.

Later, when Pluto reneged on a promise to release those trapped in Hades, armless Tiger Man attacked Pluto, but was soundly defeated. At some point, he was able to leave Hades and attended the alley behind a house. closed down laundromat Comic-Con as an exhibitor. So he went from Hades to Comic-Con. Yep. Okay. So that's where our starting point is.

We have to start with Armless Tiger Man at the Comic-Con that he works at at the laundromat. What would he do? Why would he be a Comic-Con? Maybe he wants to, like, you know, get the special screenings of the Phase 5 films. What if it was a printing press that cut his arm off? Oh. The comic printing press.

And now he just doesn't hit machines, but he hits comics as well. These arms are already gone, though. Did they just remove more of what was left of them? No, but I mean, like if we were Oh, like doing the reboot? Yeah. If we were making a modern, we could say the machine he lost his arms to was like a

comics printing press thing. something to do with I don't know what comics are made but that's how he loses so then he goes to Comic-Con not to meet other people but to kill them because it also gave him

pre-ind damage I guess I don't know people are like that's a sweet armless tiger man costume and he'd be like oh thanks and then he'd kick him really hard and break their sternum yeah probably eat them afterwards

yeah he would eat them which is good because traditionally comic cons and stuff, it's like really hard to find food at those things because sometimes the conventions will have a little cafeterias, but considering there's thousands of people there, maybe being a cannibal at Comic Con

is like the best course of action. It's the best place to meet people that you want to eat. Yeah. You know, they're all in one room. It's perfect. They're easy targets. You know, they're probably not well-burst in hand-to-hand combat.

which is perfect for Armistager Mom because he's not doing arm combat either A lot of them might be in costume though You might have to struggle to get them out of the costume To eat them if you've got no arms But he must if he was like sent to the What if he was sent to the Comic-Con Because like Captain America was making a special appearance there

But there were so many people cosplay as Captain America He was just like Killing all of them And he could find an attorney to murder mystery like who's killing all these Captain Americas. Yeah, he's like, I better eat them all just to make sure. I like the idea of it being like a murder mystery. Like who is the one killing only's Captain Merg is?

Is it that crazy guy with no arms with blood all over his face who keeps karate kicking people and then eating them? Maybe. We need to do some more research. Or was it the butler? Yeah. It's always the butler. Yeah, they pulled his Scooby-Doo face off him, and it's like, that's all my weather.

He works at the construction site. He was like, no, I was just here cosplaying his Scooby-Doo. Yeah, he's like, what? It's clearly the fucking armless guy. How could he kill someone? He has no arms. But that time, he's long gone. Oh, yeah, he got away.

He gets away. It is playing that he flies with his feet. We have this single. Oh, but it's a machine. He hates machines. It's one, it's a pedal plane. Okay. Well, now that we've spent 15 minutes, that was our armless tiger man update.

So because Armless Tiger Man is a comic that we've not written yet, let's get back to what we are writing or what we are reading. John, what are you currently reading? well I just last week finished reading the latest daredevil and Electra run the Red Fist saga and it was all right it was it felt like they were trying to go pretty big in scope with what they wanted to do but the series might have been cut short because a lot of it just didn't really go anywhere and the big conclusion felt like it was

sort of rushed. Like this was a series which featured like the president of the United States getting assassinated, which made like zero ripples in the rest of the Marvel universe. Well, and that brings up a question as well. Like traditionally, I always thought that Marvel went with who the real life president was. So are you saying the MC, the Marvel cinematic,

not the Marvel cinematic, the Marvel comic universe, Joe Biden's been assassinated? I guess so. But it turned out it wasn't the real president. It was a hand imposter. Because there was like lots of hand impostors all over the world, like getting into trouble or something.

And that was part of the reason why Daredevil and Electoral, formed their new version of the fist to try and stop them. So it was kind of like a street-level version of secret invasion? Well, it wasn't even street-level. It was like Daredevil and Elektra had in the previous series stolen a shit-ton of money from like some bad guys, the strong winds, something like that. And then basically bought an island and recruited,

loads of mercenaries and like random bad guys to, you know, populate their little fist army. And then they, yeah, went around sort of trying to, yeah, stop the hand and bring them down. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They were going to run finding all these other, you know, you guys already know where this is going. They went right trying to fight other like the supervillains to join their mercenary

team of criminals to fight the hand Yeah they busted some some villains from prison I was slow I was slow to this and I just now realize what you're doing

And they And they didn't pick The greatest mercenary of all time He doesn't even have hands He gets really annoyed at the hand for call themselves a hand. He's like, how could you do this? They were looking for him, but they didn't check

Comic-Con, did they? They were the Comic-Con. Which Comic-Con is he at? He's working all of them. He's doing the circuit. Yeah. Oh, yeah, he's got to make that T-shirt money. Oh, he took over

for Virgil now that he's no longer with us. Yeah. I'm just saying the... Comic book superstar, Arnless Tiger Man. You know, that's... I'm just saying that they kind of missed a trick there. But who wrote that? It's a good question.

I think it might be, yeah, might be his last run with Daredevil. I can't remember now. He's having some mixed success on Batman currently as well. Some people I've been talking to about it, not been super crazy about what he's doing. You know how like the whole thing with Batman is he has like a contingency? plan for everybody.

Yeah. So Batman has a contingency plan for Batman. Basically, he was taught by Henry DuCard to create this personality for himself to help make him immune to brainwashing attempts.

And it was the Batman of Ziranaugh who it was like a reference that Grant Morrison made to like a silver rage story where Batman went to another planet and met the Batman on that planet. And that planet was called Zerana. So he's the Batman of Zerunah. So anyway,

Grant Morrison being the wonderful human being that they are and loving to keep anything and everything in continuity and continuity, he the grant decided that Batman of Zerunah was like a personality that Batman could flip into. So like Zadarski took that. And basically Batman surrendered himself to Zer and had Zer create the contingency plan for him in case like he ever went rogue. And all of this is like due to the penguin faking his death. So like so penguin faked his death and it was reported in the news that Batman killed the penguin and that activated the contingency plan, which was this robot that Zer built called fail safe.

that was like designed to think and act exactly as Batman would. And for like a couple of issues, it was just basically Batman getting his ass by this robot. And some stuff happened with the robot and Batman got sent to like another parallel earth. And there he got his hand cut off and it was replaced with a robot hand. So now Batman has a robot hand, but it's only in the Batman comic. Like it's not been referenced anywhere else that Batman appears.

and now Zer has put his personality inside of the robot because he convinced Batman that like he is the only he's the perfect Batman and that the only way to engage in the war on crime is for him to be in control all the time. So like Zer is in the fail safe body and is running Gotham and Batman has been put in this like abandoned prison along with like Joker and some other. like low level villains. And yeah, Zadarski, the Zazarski runs not been getting the most rave reviews. So that's my telling you that I'm currently reading Batman.

Well, I've just started reading this week. Red Goblin the series about Normie Osborne. Yeah. Being given the, well, not

specific symbionia. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which is a terrible name. but rascal yeah but yeah yeah

I actually a really weird one because like I swear normally in continuity should be what like five six years old at the absolute most but I think he's like nine or ten

in that run I read like the last I got onto the Red Goblin series towards the end of it so I read like the last like four or five issues of it so I actually do know a bit about what you're about what you're saying, but yeah, Normie is supposed to, I think they say he's like nine or ten. Which, I don't know, feels way too old considering.

Well, he has a little brother now too, right? Yeah, Stanley, who again was a baby, you know, like 10 years ago in terms of when it was released, but that's, I don't know how much time that would have been in the, the actual, like, sliding scale that you were talking about earlier. I don't know how much that equates, but he's basically like a toddler. Like he's more the sort of age that I would have thought Normie would have been at this point.

But yeah, I don't know. It kind of puts me off as well because a lot of it is sort of Normie doing narration, like the whole, you know, like yellow boxes kind of thing where he's talking to us, the reader. But he just sounds like an adult. Yeah. And it's really off-putting because it doesn't sound anything like a kid should sound like.

So that brings up an interesting topic for me because I kind of had that same feeling. Like writing a series where the main character is a child has to be really charing and kind of difficult. Because like I feel that it just I can't imagine doing that like writing as a child convinced. convincingly because you run into that problem where Normie's supposed to be 9 or 10, but the art makes him look like he's like maybe 12 or 13. And he speaks like an adult. And I remember in Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's Batman and Robin, Damien's 10, but Damien is also like was trained from birth to be an assassin

and is incredibly cold and mature for his age. So it kind of makes sense why Damien talks what he does and it add and he's supposed to be jarring So Normie's also kind of jarring because like and I don't know like how far you've gone into it But it's not it's not a secret that Normie's kind of fucked because of who his family is right you know His father's a pass for that right yeah he's like sees he's borderline psychotic and Um that's part of his relationship with rascal because rascal school is kind of an innocent symbiate and talks kind of like a child

too. Yeah, yeah. So you have this weird series where the main characters are these two children. I kind of dug it though, I'll be honest with you. So I mean, I'm curious when you finish it what you think, but I kind of did dig the Red Goblin run. I thought it was weird. I mean, shit like that though, like

I haven't read this too much of this new stuff, but you have this, the symbiate that you're like, oh, it's like a little kid. It's like a little, you know, benevolent symbiate. And I'm like, it's not really what symbiots supposed to be, dude. You know what you mean? That's really not what originally what they were supposed to be. This whole, I find a lot of the symbiate stuff for like, I don't know,

maybe the last like five or ten years to just be like not my covetee at all. So you didn't like the null storyline? with the symbiate like war thing or in Guardians of the Galaxy where they went to the symbiate

home planet I didn't read that but I didn't like obsolete carnage was it obsolete carnage yeah I think that was

brought all the symbiates together and he had all their codexes or whatever and you're like what is this jibberjabber

you know yeah it got really like and like I think that like the idea of null is is kind of good. Like there's good stuff there. But then it got like,

it got like really straight as like super quickly. Like then Venom became a dragon or whatever. You know, what are we doing? This is like symbiot bad, right? Let's do that. What is all this? It got really confusing.

I don't think you have to. To kind of go into what you're saying, like it feels like sometimes some writers feel like, I got to make my mark on the character. And it's like, I don't think people are wanting that, though. Right. I feel like that too. Like, I feel like a lot of comic stuff these days,

instead of just writing good stories, they're like, I got to make an epic spectacular. And I'm like, just write a good story people want to read. You know what you mean? If I may, draw avocles between comics and wrestling to tie a very thin bow on our podcast name. You know, some people who are wrestling, these days think you got to go out and do

everything got to make a big got to make it spectacular got to jump through glass for no reason to make this the most memorable match in the world and you're like right that's true that's kind of true but also people will remember your match way more if it's just a good

fucking match if it makes sense if it's sold right if it's built up right they'll remember it if it's good and you're good at what you do you don't have to literally kill yourself to make it a spectacular you can just be good at your job

and I feel like that's that's the way I felt about a lot of comics stuff these days is that it's all like everything is so big and so like earth shattering that you're like well now what are you going to do like to again to kind of talk about

how the the new X-Men run that's happening they've come off the the Krakawa era and all this stuff and now it seems like they're trying the new different teams. We were kind of like, well, it's, it's almost like a step backwards or whatever, where it seems a little bit more like low key or whatever, but that's, but what else, what the

fuck else could they have done? They went so hard and so fucking mantle in the Krakow thing. In like four years. And then they were like, reset it, do it again. Like we have to start all over. They kind of have to bring it back, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think that's kind of the thing.

We're talking about writers who. you know, feel like they need to make their epics. I do think Hickman is the one of the few that you let him do that, though. Yeah. Like, Hickman is good at what, at what they do. And a lot of what Hickman does is like world building. I can't think of another writer who goes as far in world building as he does. He invented a fucking language for the Krakowa era X-Men.

And the fact that it is a working language that they write stuff in that language that you have to fucking decode if you want to understand it. Like it's insane the level of detail that he puts in stuff. But I also think that like, you know, he got, he wanted to tell his story and into the way he did. But the Krakawa stuff did so well for Marvel. They didn't want him to do it. So that led to him leaving those books.

And like they're bringing him in now to tie it up if I'm not mistaken, right? I don't know. I didn't know if he was, uh, if he still had anything to do with it, to be honest. So, I mean, he is running. So one of the books I am reading currently is, is his book, Gods, which is sort of like him creating a pocket in like the magic side of Marvel that's outside of like Dr. Strange and Loki and Dr. Doom and stuff. And it's been utterly fascinating for that same reason. It's everything Hickman does is fascinating. He's invented these new characters that are super interesting and super not unlike anything else in, in Marvel.

They've created these organizations. he ties it into what's going on in Marvel, but it's not entirely dependent on it. It's what he does. But I can absolutely see why the second he left the Kerkoha X-Men and he let these other writers take in, it felt like a step backwards. And why they're going to like, all right,

it's gotten out of control now. We got to, we got to rail it back in and go back to basics. I'm not opposed to going back to basics on stuff. I'm very one of those few people in comics who seems to be that case. The word art gets thrown around really liberally, anymore. And I think that can be a problem. And I think there is a place in a time for art in comic books. I don't think it's the big two, though. Like, I think if you want to tell like your big office and art and show how creative you are, don't do it for Marvel or DC because you're not going to get to keep the rights to it. You're not going to make any money off of it. You basically are contributing your work for free. And then Disney gets to profit it when they decide they want to make a movie. And if you're lucky, they'll put your name in the credits.

You know, like, you know, like that, that's kind of that. But, you know, to kind of go back to what you were saying and the new X-Men going back to basics, I'm fine with that. I'm curious how they're going to approach it. Because, like, for those who do not know what we're talking about when we talk about the Kerkhoa era of the X-Men, um, basically in the span of 40s, years, the X-Men have established their own country. They have terraformed Mars and have their own planet for all intents and purposes.

They have figured out how to bring people back from the dead. So all of the hundreds of X-Men characters that have been killed over the years are all just back now. And if they get killed, they get resurrected again, no problem. And, you know, it's how do you, how do you go back from? that you know like how do you get back to you have the the team of mutants and they're you know hated and feared but they're still fighting for the betterment of of mankind and mutant relationships yeah it's sort of like how the MCU now is has got too big and too far away from where it started that like there is no going back now there's like a you know there's a

celestial apparently who's just sort of half sticking out of the ocean on the planet now. How do people sort of go about their daily lives when stuff like that is. When did that happen? That was in the Eternals. Yeah. Of course it was.

Oh, that's terrible. Oh, you think it sounds terrible? Watch the two and a half hour long film. They don't explain it in a satisfactory matter at all. And mind you, for those who do not know what the Sustios are, they're basically space. gods. Yeah.

Part of a space god, it just hanging out in the ocean. And they pretty much just ignored it since then as well. Like,

it's never come up again. Never talk about it. Jesus Christ. But didn't they do that in the Avengers? Like, wasn't Avengers minding like a fucking

Celestial as burn under the grind? Yeah. That was a weird run as well. But that was, that was in like the Arctic or Antarctic. So it wasn't like...

Yeah, it's not as obvious. Yeah. I will say that, that it's so funny to me that the Avengers are kind of like the quintessential MCU characters. But like I feel like since the early 2000s, there's not been a single decent Avengers run. Like I really do think like the last Avengers run that actually like was the Hickman run. Exactly.

Yeah. And that was like 2010s. Yeah. There's been a decade. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. because he was like running Avengers Avengers

Illuminati and Secret Avengers No, no, no. Secret Avengers was the Illuminaity run And he was doing Hickman stuff with it In a storyline that I'm still not You know, totally sure what was happening Which is another great calling card to Hickman I saw people saying like oh they should adapt that storyline for the MCU I don't know

Yeah I love it but I don't think it's Yeah, I don't think it's yeah I don't think you're putting that on the big screen. No, I mean, it'd be a lot. Because like, what was it? There was the two gods that they created, like X, Nilo and Abyss. Mm-hmm.

Then they went nowhere. And then he had like, there was so many weird characters he created for it. And they were enjoyable, but like at the end of the day, like, kind of forgettable. Yeah, yeah. None of them. Cannonball. Yeah, Cannibal got promoted for me. an X-Men to our new mutants

you remember the Avengers. And what I was coming to know. He got promoted to the Shia Imperial God as well, didn't he? Like, or he married someone in it. Yeah, yeah, his wife is Thrasher, I think. Yeah.

He has a kid with her. Mm-hmm. Do cannibals in Space Time? No, I think Cannibal got I think Cannibal got killed on Kirkcowa. Oh, so he just brought him back again. They haven't brought, I don't know if they brought him back yet. Oh, he's the one they fucking forgot about.

I thought Cannonball was an eternal anyway, so. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, I'm not that. But did they not? Was that one of those things like, yeah, Cannibal's eternal. And then later on, they're like, hmm, is he? I don't know. They seem like, that seems like something that got walked back.

Because that's a first I've heard of Catabol being an eternal. Who? Why would you want to be in Eternal? They're the most boring characters. They got it was like when they made that inhumans TV show that didn't went that didn't go anywhere like they just marvel just decided we're going to make a property out of this we better push them in the books even though there has been no statistics to say that the books and the movies have any correlation with each other. Well part of the problem with a humans TV show was that they were like we want to make an inhumus TV show but we don't want to spend any money. Don't want to spend a lot of money. That medusa hair was brutal. Yeah.

Can we make a TV show for free, please? And then they're like, turns out with all the CGI we use, no. Just to correct myself, it was an eternal, it was an external, that Cannonball was. Okay. I have no idea what that is.

Apparently, externals are a loose-knit group of nine, possibly 10 mutants, of an immortal subspecies of mutants that not only share immortality, but a connection to each other that separates them from other immortals. I love when people forget shit like that. Can I tell you two other instances of characters having these things that people just never acknowledge or like we'll speak about again? Go for it.

Chamber from Generation X is apparently related to Apocalypse. Really? Yeah, yeah. They did a story line where after he lost his powers and was basically on like life support all the time. because, you know, when he, his powers manifested, he blew his chest and his face off. Um, the clan Akaba, like cult found him and like did a blood transfusion with apocalypse. And there was a period of time where chamber was walking around with gray skin and blue lips like apocalypse. Like he, he got, uh, they got his face back and they made him like apocalypse.

And then guess what they did with that? Nothing. Nothing. They put him on this. They put him on the, uh, new. what were they called? New Warriors in the Dark Rain storyline

in a book that was inconsequential because the entire team lineup were mutant characters who had lost their powers and were fighting with gadgets. But like a storyline like that you feel like all this obviously this is going somewhere.

They're not going to turn somebody into apocalypse just for the fucking fun of it. Like there's gotta be. No, they were like, ah, here's apocalypse. Now it's cheaper. And they turned him back to normal in like a really weird way too.

So there was a this like kind of like an age of apocalypse esk period for the X-Men in the two 2010s as well. Where like there was like this alter alternate world that like took over the main world for a period of time. And when it reset, he was just he just had his powers back and he looked just like he did in the 90s. So he like gray skin and blue lips were gone. But he had his powers, aka constantly looking like he's on fire.

Yeah. Always an extreme amount of Pian. Yeah. Good deal on that one. And the second one is that Jamie Madrox isn't a mutant, that he's a changeling. Which was revealed in Peter David's X Factor run. Because like when it was like when they first introduced the character in like fucking Fantastic Four in the 60s, when Madricks was born when the doctors like smacked him on the ass, he duplicated. And mutant powers don't matter.

manifest until you're a teenager. So that was Peter David, like, bringing in that bit of lore from his introduction and going, like, well, you're not technically a mutant. You're not, you're something else. So that never went anywhere. Right. But also, like, what else can they do with that? I mean, they could have done some stuff with it, for God's sake.

I mean, like, he was on Krokoa. And the whole point of the Krakow and Gates were they only work if you're a mutant. Like, you should have had that Kitty pride problem where Kitty wasn't able to enter in the gates of Krakowar for the longest time. why couldn't she go in? It was like a mental block or something. I don't know. Yeah. I enjoyed the Marauders run, but I can't tell you too much about it.

It was one of those books that it was kind of like cotton candy where it's like, oh, this is fun, but I don't know if there's any substance here to enjoy, which is how I feel about many books that Jerry Duggan writes. Right. Which again, I'm not saying it needs to be a massive epic or anything. It just needs to be kind of memorable for one reason or another. Right. So with that in mind. there are like three new X-Men books coming out in the summer after the Kakoa stuff like resolves itself and it's their interesting lineups and creative teams and there's the promise of some more books coming out. Do you have the three main books in the lineups there?

So we've got the uncanny X-Men. We've got just the plain X-Men. men, I guess. And then... Regular X-Men. The exceptional X-Men. Imagine being just regular X-Men and then right beside you are the exceptional X-Men. Yeah, no.

It's a bit. Yeah. I want to be exceptional. It's not fair. All right. So the regular X-Men looks like it's the main book. And it's going to be written by Jed McKay and with Ryan Stegman. It comes out in July.

So this is the team of Cyclops. Beast, Magneto, Silok, Kid Omega, Temper, who used to be called Oia, Magic and Juggernaut. And they will be based out of Alaska. Of course. The other team... That hub of activity, Alaska. Yeah, famous X-Men Stronghold Alaska.

Yeah. It does seem like it's going to be a Cyclops-focused book, and that's why they went with Alaska. Yeah, it's just from his fucking house. the lineup's not bad it looks like Magneto is taking on more of an Xavier role in the art that they showed for it Silak looks like it's her old body still and she didn't go back into Kwanan's body I'm so thrown off whenever they throw juggernaut onto these mutant teams

considering he's not a mutant yeah he's a guy who has a magic crystal embedded in his chest like a troll but also like it's one of those things where I mean this could be a whole episode on its own but like Magneto and Juggernaut you're like why

why make them X-Men like I get the Magneto one you probably have better shout out for but like it's like why would you turn a guy like Juggernaut Fias like why would you do that it seems like what they're doing is

we can't get Colossus so here's juggernaut, you know. Yeah. It looks like it's mainly just based off the art of looking like Magneto, taking on that Xavier kind of role, it looks like this is the team that's going to be dealing with whatever happens to Xavier at the end of the Cohen art. I don't know if he's going to die or what, but it does seem like, you know, maybe juggernaut there to honor his former brother's, like, memory or something.

By fighting? fighting fighting for the mutant cause like his brother would have wanted but he's not a mutant no he's not he's just a dude with a crystal embedded in his chest right he's just some fucking guy you know he didn't like his brother no but then they

they they had that shared memory where it was revealed that Xavier was also abused by his dad oh that's fair enough then yeah and then they bonded over that um the next book that's going to be coming out in August is uncanny X-Men it'll be written by Gail Simone with art by David Marquez. And this team lineup is Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, and Wolverine.

And they'll be based out of New Orleans by looks of it. So, you know, some real Gambit shenanigans on that book. Yeah, they did this thing. Gambit had a solo run a couple of years ago, again in the 2010s, where he was named like the King of Thieves and is like over the Thieves Guild. I kind of wonder if they're going to go back to that. Or are they going to ignore it completely? Yeah, exactly.

I feel like being there would be a reason to do it. But again, Dylan, we talked about this outside of this. You have a more positive opinion about Gil Simone's work than I do necessarily. Yes, I do. Yeah, out of the books that were revealed, this one seemed the most interesting to me. Just because of how much Gil Simone does not like Gambit and now she's writing Gambit. Like, she's such a troll where she would, she would absolutely do a year, years and years, long campaign about hitting Gambit just to end up

brighten him. Like she would absolutely do that. You know? Yeah. Like I told you, be prepared for Gambit to look like the worst human being possible. Because that's that's all she treated green arrow because she also hated Green Arrow. But then again though, like Gambit

historically, you they turned him into a bit of a lovable scamp but like, you know, he is kind of a criminal. So I do love the lovable scamp aspect of him though. I have like these collections of like his mini series and stuff from the 90s. And I remember in one of them,

something got sent to Rogue. Like, it looked like it was, it was like, I think a video of him cheating on her. So he was like trying to sneak into her room to steal it back. And, um,

he was like coming across Emma Frost and he was like, uh, oh, she's going to read my mind and know what I'm up to. So he just started apparently thinking of like the lewdest things possible. And she called him disgusting and walked away. so he could like freely pass through the room. But if it works, it works.

It works. You know what you mean? I also like the lovable scamp aspect of Gambit. I have a feeling if they have Gambit and Rogue together, I feel like that's probably a good recipe. They are still married, I believe. Yeah. So I don't think they're going to go too, you know, too crazy with it.

I think they're still going to. I don't think, I don't think she's going to do too. badly with my boy gambit is what I want to say here. John, you have any thoughts on either of those X-Men books? I'm sort of hopeful for both of them. The one that sort of intrigues me the most is the one that the sort of plain X-Men book with Magneto and Juggernaut on the team because that team really kind of

reminds me of when we picked our own X-Men teams because like a lot of the characters in that feel like characters we probably would have picked. I do like that lineup. It's also a really good way to promote one of our older episodes. Indeed, yeah, go back and listen to that. You can't because that one never came out. Oh, no. Oh, we didn't come out.

You can just imagine how great our teams were then. We'll do it again. Yeah, maybe, okay, cut this for that there. Wait until we make it again. And then come back. Did there isn't edit it? Yes. We will make an episode in the future where we make our own X-Men teams and then come

back to listen to this one. And this episode will make so much more sense. I saw some people criticizing the uncanny X-Men lineup because they felt it was two 90s with Rogue Gambit, Jubilee, and Wolverine. on the same book and that X-Men 97 cartoon series coming out. But also, don't you think that maybe that's part of it? I am really kind of in love with the 90s nostalgia going on at the moment, so I'm not going to complain. No.

So the third book. I've been re-watching some of the old X-Men, you know, like episodes. Is it all that it's hilarious how cheesy it is. like a storm is constantly like by the power of the Arctic winds I command you to stop and stuff like this like oh my God it's hilarious and everyone's like starting Gene

like every five seconds Wolverine do what the two things I remember the most of that cartoon are two things I remember the most of number one every time Jean Grey used her powers her head hurt yes like every single time she did anything she would like collapse and hold her head

And then the other thing is, um, Bishop, like, falling backwards through like a wormhole. Like every time. Oh, and I also remember one episode where like a cable turned up. And he's like, I got to save my future from Apocalypse. So he turns up and does something and then goes back to his future. And it's even worse. And then that's how it ends. Yep. the third book for that this has been announced is exceptional X-Men which comes out in September. It's written by Eve Ewing with art by Carmen Carnaro. And this book is Kitty Pride, Emma Frost, with two new mutants, bronze, axo, and melee, who are going to be trained by Kitty and Emma. And this is based out of Kitty's hometown in Chicago.

and this is the book that seems the most likely to fail for me. Yeah. Why? What can it ever feel? Because they're not in Alaska? No, no. It's just, it's when more than 50% of the book are these unproven characters.

I think they're really leaning on people like who had fond feelings for the Emma Frost Kitty Pride pairing from the Marauders book that Jerry Duggan was writing. Right. Like you think maybe this is that I'm putting a lot of faith in these two characters who they're like, well, we can play off that good faith with these new

characters and hopefully nobody will notice. That kind of thing. Yeah. Well, and it's also like there are, every, it always feels silly when they introduce new, like young mutant characters considering how many generations of new

young mutant characters get introduced them and abandoned. Like literally new mutant. is the oldest one. And then you have, what, Generation X and New X-Men and Young X-Men? And they just, they introduce all of these characters

and nothing ever happens with them. I mean, we were literally talking about Chamber. Yeah. And what the fuck happened to Chamber? You know what I mean? Like, there were so many of these groups, Cannonball, like, fucking, who cares, right? They introduced new characters

like every five, 10 years. And then they use them for a little bit. and then out the door and then they come up with new characters. And I'm like, well, what about the old ones? Like, the thing about the Crocoen era was, to me, I thought the idea of like a lot of the comics continuity was

they can kill off characters they don't need to make room for new characters. And then in Cracoa, they were like, fuck it, bring them all back. Which is problematic because then they're all back. Then you either have to kill them again or just ignore.

them, like, that's a tricky thing to do. Then, now you have, like, a crazy surplus of characters. And to start introducing more new ones, then brings up the question, like, well, then why didn't you use this guy or why didn't you use that guy?

Like, I don't know what the, the two new X-Men are in this Emma Frost book. But then whatever part is they have, somebody would have, well, why didn't they use this, this guy who does the same thing, you know? Yeah.

Which seems problematic to me. Well, and so there are other books coming out, too. They just haven't announced the creative teams or who the lineup are for the team books. But the other books announced are Phoenix, X Factor, Storm, X Force, Wolverine. And I don't know if it's NYX or Nix. Oh, they did that before, didn't they? Yeah, I can't remember what it was. I remember if it was NYX or NICs.

the curse of it being a written thing and I don't get to hear someone actually say it. Yeah. If anybody knows how it's pronounced, please let us know. And we will definitely pay attention. Yep. But tell us how it's pronounced, but write it down.

So yeah, I know. So that's the new X-Men stuff coming out. It is, there are some characters that are, like, missing that a lot of people are pointing out. Like, Colossus has had a pretty big, important thing going on in the Krokoa era. And then you also have like X23 is nowhere to be seen here. And she's been a big character for the last like 10, 15, 20 years.

I'm curious like if they're going full like 90s kind of vibe for stuff, if we're going to get like that Peter David havoc, multiple man, strong guy, X factor team. And if we're going to get like cable warpath, Richter and stuff and X-Force. I mean, maybe the cable part. You know, I don't think anybody's clamoring for more cable or more rector at the moment, you know. Are they? No, no.

I understand what you're saying. I don't necessarily think a lot of characters are super high in demand at the moment. The X world is so weird because it always feels so disconnected from the rest of Marvel, like always. And anytime they bring them together, whether it was like eight, versus X or you know X-Men versus in humans or whatever it always

it just feels wrong but isn't this Jed McKay guy the current writer of Avengers as well so yeah maybe if he's writing both that and the yeah the plain X-Men book then I don't know room for a crossover I guess yeah I don't know if he's going to be continuing to write

the Avengers book because a lot of people are saying the Avengers book just feels inconsequential. And that's kind of what I was going back to you and I was saying like there doesn't feel like there has been a good Avengers run since Hickman because it feels like it's the book that Marvel is constantly playing it safe with.

And the lineups have always been garbage. It's always like the characters that you would expect, which I you know, I am a big fan of team books with really weird fucking lineups. I love it. I loved the 90s Avengers that had like Black Knight and Hercules and

Cersy and stuff. And I liked the Justice League international team for how weird it was. But I get that like when you have a team book for like Justice League or like the Avengers, you want the lineup to be like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, etc. That was the thing. Boring though.

Yeah, exactly. It's why I kind of always liked about X-Men is that X-Men lineups are always a little different and a little weird. Right. Like they would, you would have like some of your regulars and then they throw in somebody fucking weird like in this X-Men run that Judd McKay's doing Oh yeah who is a character from She was one of the

The rays of light from Hope Mm-hmm Yeah And she was one of the exiles in the Sabretooth mini-series Yeah she's deeply damaged psychologically Isn't she? And you know who's also missing from these X-Men lineups? Iceman

I wonder whether I'd use an ice man Because Oya can do ice powers and fire powers So there's no need It is quite telling That the last two years The character of Beast has been like one of the big villains Of the X-Men

And then now that they're relaunching the X-Men Bam straight away One of the You know on the Big Team it's Beast I know it's technically a different beast, but I'm like... Yeah, it's getting fixed.

But the idea of this guy who's been the big bad for so long has still got way more trust, and ability and storyline potential than Ice Man, who is still regulated to one of the most boring Ice Man.

You know what you mean? Like, it says, I think it says a lot. Yeah. Again, you look at all the guys that are being used. It's, it's Angel and Iceman that aren't anywhere. Yeah. Well, that's why I feel if they do an X-Force, you'll see Angels Archangel again.

Oh, good. That's what he needs. Yeah, exactly. Going back to that. Yeah. Maybe him and Chamber can team up. I'm a big Chamber fan, so. I'd like him to come because he was interesting, you know?

Yeah. He had weird powers. Yeah. It was like, I felt like there was stuff they could do with him, but they just didn't know what that stuff was. Yeah. Well, and the general. X-Book, in my opinion, is a gem. I mean, I loved that series.

I also like that. Yeah, it was great, you know, and you had, like, the whole thing of, like, being, oh, they're the, these are the students that are getting taught. And, like, you get Emma Frost, who at that point was still better known as a villain, and you get Banshee, who has always been, like, kind of criminally underused. Yeah. So it wasn't, like, you get Xavier and Magneto or Cyclops or Storm or whatever.

You, you have these new weird characters with characters you would not expect. as their mentors. What I liked about those guys was they were weird. Like they were, there was a lot of weird stuff going on. Well, yeah, you had skin who, who had like the Mr.

Fantastic Powers, but his skin was constantly sagging and gray. Yeah. And you had like the whole Monet thing. Yeah, the Monet and Penance. Yeah.

It's super interesting. You had Husk who was Cannonball's little sister and her powers are kind of gross because she rips her skin off to reveal new facts. hours. Yeah.

Like you said, this is, I love 90s nostalgia when it comes to comics. I think it's fucking fun. Where's their fucking TV show? They tried to make a Generation X TV show. Did they?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they did. Is there a pilot of that? Can we, can we do a watch a lot for that? Yeah, we should actually do a watch a long of the Generation X show.

There are some interesting stuff that happened in it. Oh, I bet interesting is the correct word. Chamber was not in it. because the special effects could not be used. They did not have the ability to have a guy whose torso and face was constantly this, like, plasma energy that looked like fire. The live action one.

Yeah. Do you remember John? I am pretty sure. I remember my dad taking us to the, like, local video shop. And I saw it was like Generation X and then it had some sort of like connection to the X-Men. I was like, oh, cool, yeah, let's get this then. Let's watch this. And it being really bad and we've been like, what the hell?

What the hell has this got to do with the X-Men? Yeah, Generation X, a pilot that aired on February 20th, 1996. I watched this when it aired. I remember sitting in my sister's room watching it. Yeah, Emma Frost, Banshee, Monet, Jubilee, Mondo, who I thought was a villain in the, in the Generation X comic skin and then these two characters they made up

because they couldn't they couldn't they didn't have the ability to do the special effects for husk and chamber so instead you get buff and refrax okay here's the deal let's for an eye let's not say anything more but this

in case we revisit this topic in the future which I think we might we'll keep the rest of the information about the Generation X television show pilot a secret for now. Yes. I will tell you that the villain is played by Matt Fruer, who is one of my

favorite character actors. Okay. What's he done? Max Headroom. He was Max Headroom. Oh, okay. So, yeah, that might be watch-alongworthy. I think it was a pilot for a show. I don't think it was that long. Yeah, like half an hour.

Let me see if it's on YouTube. It has to be. Running time, 87 minutes, apparently. me what hour 28 yeah oh dear oh i just saw the costumes they looked just as good as i'd hoped don't spoil it for yourself i'm not going to look up any of this i'm going to wait till we do this and um and and and see it all new for the first time yeah it's on it's on youtube it is an hour 28 long okay so this is this is a possibility yes oh we can watch a version that has the commercials included if you want to go that far with it I mean I don't want to make it too long how long is like about two hours clean on that point two hour long do you want to do a

two hour long show I mean here's the thing when we did Japanese Spider-Man it was the easiest editing I ever had to do because I didn't edit a goddamn thing just you just kind of let it run because we're just watching yeah because you're watching it but no no that's really funny to me I'm so glad we unlocked that memory of watching that and the John was also aware of it, so I'm not insane. Okay. And Dylan, you could critique Banshee's Irish accent. I don't know if the actor actually was Irish or not.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say no. Probably not. Probably not. I look forward to this. That's something for everybody else to look forward to as well. Anybody listen to this? It's like the Japanese Spider-Man episode was so much fun. Why can't they do another watch-along?

Well, you guys are in luck. Motherfuckers, you're about to get the generation acts. Pilate TV show. Yeah, where we critique it. You know. I, again, again, couldn't get Husk and Chamber. We got buff and refrax.

I don't even want to know what the fuck their superpowers are. Don't tell me. Underwhelmed. Don't tell me a goddamn thing. You know. Wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't dare to. So, so, yeah, that's, that's kind of what's going on in the X-Men world. But so, so.

John is the Red Goblin the only trade you picked up recently? Well, after this, I've got the most recent Carnage series as well lined up. Oh, interesting. Yeah. You don't sound like it's enthused. Well, I don't know.

There's been some carnage comics over the last 10 years or so, which have been pretty good. There's been some which have been pretty bad. So hopefully this falls into the the latter column, but we'll see, I guess. Fair enough.

So I have a poll, and I have it in front of me to tell you what series I've been reading. So I already mentioned Hickman's Gods, and I mentioned Batman. So the other books I'm reading are action comics, Batman and Superman World's Finest, Cable, Detective Comics, green arrow, kneeled before Zod, Nightwing, Superman, X-Force, Star Trek, and Star Trek Defiant. So when about these Star Trek books set then?

They tie into the the old series or? So these take place after Voyager because the crew on both books are sort of an amalgamation of old past characters. So in the Star Trek book, the captain is Captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine, but his chief engineer is Scotty from the classic Enterprise crew. But it's like, you know, he's an older man, obviously. He's like medical officers, Dr. Crusher, Tom Paris, this is pilot from Voyager.

So it's kind of a mix of everything. And then Spock is a part of the crew on Star Trek Defiant, which is warf as the captain. So those are from IDW and IDW is kind of like the the imprint the imprint for like tie-in or intellectual property books because they also for the longest time we're doing like GI Joe and Transformers and stuff. Didn't they do that He-Man mixed with like the DC universe as well? Yeah, they also did a yeah DC does a lot of those pairings. They did a DC and Teenage Mutinyi Ninja Turtles, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, yeah. Turtles. And currently there is a Godzilla versus King Kong and Justice League book that's been coming out. So yeah, they do, DC will do a lot of weird tie-ins. Oh, Godzilla versus King Kong and the Justice League? Yeah, I don't think the Justice League have a side per se. I think they're just like doing damage control. Plus, plus.

Oh, so Godzilla versus King Kong, brackets plus the justice thing will also be there closed brackets. Yeah, it's not, it's not like they've decided to form a team with King Kong. Yeah, right. Okay, because I'm like, God, Godzilla has to do this. Fight all of those guys himself? That's tough, man. Yeah.

How's he going to beat the Flash? That's true. How is he going to beat the Flash? Why didn't John, whenever we were coming up with, how did we kill the Flash? Why didn't we just write Godzilla eats him? Yeah. That would have been so much easier. I also have a couple of trades.

I have a lot of backlog on trades to read, but the two that are on the top of the backlog is Antioch, which is a series that was made by Patrick Kindlin and Marco Ferrari from Image Comics. And the epic collection ghostwriter Danny Ketch collection thing that was put together by Marvel, which is the 90s Howard Mackey run on Ghost Rider. I'm a big fan of the epic collections.

You're not or you are? I am. Yeah, yeah. I've collected an absolute shit ton of them. They're cheaper than the DC ones they put out because I feel like the DC ones are always like a hundred bucks. so these are these are the Marvel ones are cheaper I was going to ask because you read these collections

do you read like omnibus collections that are like the whole big thing not so much I only have like the the X-Men ones the first three of those but like I because I prefer having like the trade paperbacks rather than the hard covers

yeah I was going to ask because it's a bitch to read because they're so heavy. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot easier to do the trades. Although I guess probably more expensive in the long run. But hey-ho.

Yeah, exactly. That's the convenience tax. Yeah. I have the Starman omnibus. Like the, I think it's five or six. I can't remember. So that's been on the to do list to read. Because the longest time, I could not find the third one.

Because they did large printings of the first and the second one. And then they didn't do as many for three, four, and five. And I will tell you, it was expensive. Because when I found one, I had to pay a lot for it. Yeah. I just had something similar with the X-Men epic collection for Bishop's Crossing, where I just had to pay over the odds for it because it's like even though it came out like two years ago, it's already out of print and really hard to find.

So it's a bit of a bummer. But, you know, at least I've got it now. Yes. I'm curious to tell you. The third Starman Alibus cost me $250. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

It was literally, I've not seen one since. And it was in really good condition. And it was like, I either get this or I never finish reading this run. Well, hopefully it's worth every penny. I mean, it is one of those acclaimed series that, you know, we kind of talked about this previously that because of things like death of Superman and the other books in the 90s that people just bought hundreds and thousands of copies, of because they thought that like they're going to be worth something one day.

DC had the money to let James Robinson write Starman because it is one of those amazing books that to be frank, I'm kind of surprised it wasn't a vertigo book. Like that's just kind of the vibe it had. It was a superhero book, but it didn't feel connected or in the same environment as the other superhero books. So yeah, that's kind of what I've been reading. I will tell you, though, that I am so close to just dropping detective comics, which I found out is a very divisive thing to say. Really?

That storyline that they have has been going on forever. Yeah, you mentioned it before. Oh, my God, it's never ending. Batman's on a spirit quest in the fucking desert. The villain has already changed, I think, twice now. Gotham is a dystopia where no one remembers Batman but Batgirls still running around

and Catwoman still is pining for him because of the reality engine that's underground making people forget things I saw the solicitations for June and it is still referencing these villains I'm going to have to drop it and that breaks my heart I just can't keep reading it

talked about comics I haven't been reading Annapin recently I haven't had the money for it. I like buying the trade paperbacks like John does. I haven't had the money for anything. So maybe in a couple of weeks' time, I might have some money available for something to purchase. We'll see.

Maybe if anybody out there could recommend some good trade paperbacks for me to read that I could read and talk about in the show in the future, we could maybe do that. Who knows? Well, you are... So, Dylan, aren't you... you're saving money because you're coming to America soon, right?

Yes. Although by the time this episode goes out, will I be in America? It might be the week after you have gone to America if I'm doing the mental math correctly. Okay. I mean, you can put this one up while I'm away in America, right? Sure. It might go up when you come back. So like to let you know this week, Iceman comes out and next week,

And next week, the flash comes out. So it would be the week after that. So actually, yeah, no, I think this will come out while you're in America. Okay. Good. So nobody bother me while I'm there. Yes, that's why I'm saving money. But the reasons for why I'm in America will be kept secret for now.

Makes you sound like a drug smuggler. Look, I can neither confirm nor deny the smuggling abilities of my. myself and my cohorts that will also be going to America. But yes, basically, in a couple of weeks' time, I'll have some more money free and we'll hopefully be able to buy some. I haven't bought a new comics in a while, so I'd like to go and buy some soon. So, feel free to leave comments if you wish about comics you think I might like. And I'll ignore them and buy whatever I want. Because that's what I do. Yeah, if you're a listener from Poland, we want to hear what you think.

I only want to hear what the guy from Poland has to say. Yeah, only you. Yeah. If the person from Rio de Janeiro or Brussels or somebody else, there's someone else in a weird part of the world that would not expect. Holland, yes. If you want to chime in,

Dylan still won't listen to your recommendation, but... Probably not. You'll feel included. I actually kind of interested with the Rio de Janeiro one. Yeah, what's going on in Brazil? That's a maybe. If you want to write in, I'll maybe read that.

But yeah, no, if you're watching this on YouTube, look us up on Spotify or Samsung or there's some other places where we are. Just Google our name and you'll find us. And if you're listening to us on Spotify, watch us on YouTube. You know, listen to us twice. We need it. Yeah. Tell your friends.

Tell your friends. So next week, we're going to be doing. doing a kind of a classic thing. We've not done in this new edition where we're going to assemble a team, a team of characters, a team of villains as we put together. Go ahead. We're not going to assemble a team of Axeman like we threatened to do earlier on this show. But we'll be assembling a lineup of the Sinister 6 Spider-Man villains who are all about

ending the life and times of that friendly neighborhood spider man. So it'll be a good time. Something to look forward to. Specifically, I'm going to assemble a team that's designed to take down Japanese Spider-Man, though. You can't do it, though. He's... He's... He's too powerful.

He's too powerful. He's got the space robot? Yeah. He's got the... Leopardt on. How could you think space robot? Yeah, and he also climbs up and down that one particular building. That's his source of power is that one building.

Just stay away from that building. stay away from that building. But if the goal is to kill him, we got to get to that building because that's where he's going to be hiding. And then Godzilla eats him. I mean, that's the perfect enemy for Japanese Spider-Man. That's how you kill him. Just Godzilla eats everything.

Mm-hmm. And maybe King Kong and the Justice League will be there. They're just watching them. Yeah. Yeah. They're just taken in the sights. Yeah, it's really weird. But until next time, I'm Corey.

and this has been John and Dylan or Jolin if we want to combine your names. That's what we call ourselves on the streets. Yeah, on the streets. Your street to eat your street gang. That's our rap name when we make a rap album. I always hear muggings are very common in the UK.

Is that true? Do you guys get mugged a lot? Oh, dude, every day. That's why you form Jolin. Yeah, now we're the ones doing the mugging. Yeah. Give me $5. Very rarely, whenever we ask people for $5 in the UK, do they give us $5?

That's because you don't have guns. Or dollars. Or dollars. That's true. That's true. All right. This is my point, but whatever. Oh, well.

Goodbye, everyone. Thank you for listening. Bye. Tell Marvel about the Armist Tiger Man show as well, the way.