Sure, our weekly comic book review podcast The Stack is an audio podcast – but what if it wasn’t? To provide better service to our listeners, here’s a transcript of the latest episode, featuring reviews for: Punisher Kill Krew #1, Once and Future #1, Event Leviathan #3, White Trees #1, Silver Surfer Black #3, Archie #707 (out 9/4), Ghosted in LA #2, Powers of X #2, Everything #1 (out 9/4) and Reaver #2.
If you like this, please let us know and we’ll aim to do it more frequently!
Alex: What is up everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.
Justin: I’m Justin.
Pete: I’m Pete.
Alex: And on The Stack, we talk about a bunch of comic books that come out Wednesday. We review them. We slam down our opinions.
Justin: Oh wow.
Alex: Yeah. It’s a reel, and you show them if you got them.
Justin: Ooh.
Pete: Ooh.
Justin: What? What does that mean?
Alex: Show them if you got them?
Justin: Yeah, I mean-
Alex: It’s like a cards. It’s gambling.
Justin: Oh, okay.
Alex: It’s like poker.
Justin: Oh, okay.
Alex: Know what I’m talking about.
Justin: Got it.
Alex: What are you thinking?
Justin: Listen, you got a slab, a stack, and show them if you got them. That’s what I’m talking about. Yeah.
Alex: Pete, what’s your catch phrase?
Pete: Eat a hoagie.
Alex: Oh. Okay.
Pete: That’s more of a recommendation than anything.
Alex: Or, an order really.
Justin: Yeah.
Pete: Eat a hoagie.
Alex: Before we get into the reviews though, I did want to give it two notes on updates of The Stack. This is our business portion. We always like to open with a bunch of business right at the top. That’s always fun.
Pete: Right at the top.
Alex: We’re all business.
Pete: People love business.
Alex: Now, one thing that we’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks that I believe we are going to keep doing is we’ve been rolling out a transcript of The Stack show on our website ComicBookClubLive.com. This is, of course, for any listeners or perspective listeners who are hearing impaired. You can go to the transcript. You can check that out there. So that is available to you. And also sometimes the person who transcribes it does some funny, weird stuff.
Justin: It’s funny stuff.
Alex: It’s fun.
Justin: Funny stuff.
Alex: Just like fun little riffs.
Justin: We also say weird words. So it’s hard to nail them all the time.
Pete: Yeah, like hoagies.
Alex: Yeah, exactly. That one’s pretty easy.
Pete: Yeah. Or [bisquerquack 00:01:35].
Alex: Yeah. Or omniscient.
Justin: Oh, that’s a real word.
Pete: Come on, don’t make the poor transcribing person-
Alex: No, but they’re difficult words.
Justin: Right.
Pete: But don’t make it harder for the person transcribing this right now.
Alex: Here, go right, say the weirdest, the hardest to transcribe word you could think of.
Pete: Why? What are you doing?
Alex: Just think-
Alex: I’ll go.
Justin: Okay, great.
Alex: I’ll go. Floccinaucinihilipilification.
Justin: That’s a good one.
Alex: Pete?
Pete: What the fuck was that from?
Alex: Floccinaucinihilipilification is one of the longest words in the English language, it’s the estimation of something as useless.
Pete: Just like I was having this conversation. All of podcasting.
Alex: There you go.
Pete: I’m going to say hare, but a rabbit.
Alex: That is hard to transcribe.
Pete: Good luck buddy. Or lady. I’m too nice to do that.
Alex: Oh yeah, you’re the nice one on the podcast.
Pete: Hell yeah.
Alex: The second item I wanted to mention, this is a request from one of our listeners. A couple of weeks back, we were reading comments on our iTunes podcast feed, and a guy named Logan said, “Hey, why is the Stack podcast on the same feed as the Comic Book Club podcast?” And it occurred to me it’s pretty easy actually to split them off. So, as of today, the Comic Book Club live feed is going to have both the live show and the Stack podcast, but we have also broken out the Stack podcast into its own feed. So if you want just the non-live show, you can check out the Stack as of this recording. It’s not on iTunes, but it should be up there soon. But otherwise the RSS is live on the website. It’s live everywhere. You can break that out separately or you know what? You can subscribe to them both. Listen to the Stack twice.
Justin: That’s the way to do it. Because the second pass, you really get to hear the nuance. The subtle stuff, like how Pete’s the nice guy.
Alex: It becomes less floccinaucinihilipilification, and more like a hare.
Justin: Yeah. More like eat a hoagie, really.
Alex: Should we get into the reviews, guys?
Pete: Sure.
Justin: Also we have a new website, new logo, we’re busy.
Alex: So many things going on. Let’s kick it off with the Marvel comics Punisher Kill Krew number one. This is-
Pete: Wow, we’re starting here?
Alex: Yeah, man. I wanted to give you a gift. You love the Punisher.
Justin: Nowhere to go but up.
Alex: Yes. This is spinning out of War of the Realms. The Punisher is picking up the pieces. There’s some demons leftover in Midguard, and he’s the only man for the job to take them down. Pete, Punisher fan number one, what’d you think about this?
Pete: Well, this is like a lighter Punisher, he’s dealing with kids, and more kind of like mystical creatures. I wouldn’t say this is like Punisher, Punisher. You know what I mean?
Alex: Same guy.
Pete: This is like Punisher light, a little bit more kid-friendly. He’s taking food orders.
Justin: So, does that bother you, or are you like-?
Pete: It’s not my favorite, but I tell you what, I love the fact that if there was a bunch of monsters let loose, the Punisher would track them all down until they’re all dead. I love that aspect of it. Also, I liked the idea of this book and it’s a great team. They’ve done a lot of amazing stuff, so I’m excited to see where this goes.
Alex: I want to see a little bit more of his krew with a K going on and this issue, we only got to see Punisher and the kids as you mentioned, but he doesn’t have the Krew other than the goat that he gets at the end of Nation.
Justin: The kids don’t seem like they’re part of the Krew. The kids are drawing the targets, which I think is fun.
Pete: Yes. He keeps in his back pocket, a picture that a kid did of the bad guy he’s looking to murder.
Justin: I love it. Honestly, this is my favorite type of Punisher story.
Alex: Really?
Justin: Punisher, he’s killed enough people, give it a break. Him going off and killing a bunch of mystical things, a bunch of like anything but people. I want the Punisher killing everything, I wanted him to kill the concept of evil, as opposed to just putting bullets in regular stuff. It’s more interesting.
Alex: This is another Gerry Duggan book. Gerry Duggan wrote this, I’m forgetting the name of it, Not Infinity Gauntlet, the one with the Infinity Gauntlet, but Wolverine’s claws are coming out of it.
Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alex: Infinity Krew, or whatever it’s called.
Justin: Infinity watch?
Alex: Infinity watch probably. Yeah. This had a very similar feel where it’s just him leading it to like, what’s ridiculous, what’s fun to see in a comic book? And it’s fun to see the Punisher kill a tree that’s eating people in central park. That’s enjoyable.
Pete: It is. It is fun.
Alex: It’s a little more of a lark. It’s not as serious.
Pete: Lets have some fun.
Alex: That’s okay.
Pete: Lets have some fun.
Alex: He does a great job on like Deadpool and stuff like that. So it’s fun to see his take on it.
Pete: Yeah
Alex: I want to see the Punisher turn into the Funisher.
Pete: Oh, wow.
Justin: That’s good. I’m glad you took some time to say that. Dramatic…
Alex: Yeah, no problem.
Justin: Dramatic/comedic pause?
Alex: I’ll tell you what, I had to figure out what I was going to say.
Justin: You know what, a lot of people talk about the dramatic pause, but you took a comedic pause, and it’s just as useful.
Alex: Thank you. All right, we’re going to move on to another comic book. This is from BOOM! Studios, big release out of them, Once and future number one. This is by Kieron Gillen. This is a book about… I don’t even know how to describe it necessarily, but the legacy of King Arthur ends up a little twisted, turned.
Alex: We meet some new characters that get embroiled with his potential return. This to me does not, and I don’t even mean this in a bad way. This does not feel like a Kieron Gillen book. It feels like straight up a Warren Ellis book.
Justin: It does feel very Warren Ellis. That’s what I was thinking as well. But it also though it does feel a little bit like Kieron Gillen sort of newer stuff where it’s like sort of premise based, like just good comics.
Alex: Well, it’s very different than say Wicked and Divine, which we’ve talked about a lot on the show feels like music. It feels like riffing. There’s deeper, heavier themes going on there. This feels a lot more like, here’s my pitch.
Justin: Yeah, like Die.
Pete: I fucking-
Alex: Well Die though, I think, even gets a little more deeper than this does. It feels like a big action movie and that’s fun.
Pete: This is my favorite of the week.
Justin: Really?
Alex: Wow.
Pete: It’s unbelievable. I love this setup. What a cool thing. I love the, just the kind of like the way this unfolds. It was such a cool way to tell this story and the grandmother was fantastic. I, Oh my God, this book is, I can not wait for more. What a cool, cool way to tell the story. The art’s fantastic. Storytelling is great. I’ve always wanted to have a just a hidden thing in the middle of the woods that has like unbelievable treasures and weapons in it.
Justin: Oh nice.
Alex: Ah, by treasures you mean hoagies. Just a bunch of hoagies in the middle of the woods.
Pete: Oh, just a sick amount of hoagies.
Justin: You want to live like this grandma?
Pete: Yep.
Justin: Cool. That’s the dream. Yeah, I really liked this as well. It’s fun. It’s a simple clean premise. We’re going to see what happens with this scabbard.
Pete: The art is great.
Justin: Art’s very good. That guy blew his date. You think we’re gonna see her again?
Alex: Probably. I think so.
Pete: You’d have a nice relationship going on.
Justin: She had enough of a character that’d be like, she could be back-
Alex: Do you know what, I actually like that scene quite a bit.
Justin: Yeah, me too.
Alex: So there’s this dude, he’s on a date. His grandmother who is fighting evil forces calls, sucks him back into that world. Normally in that sort of scene, you would see the girl and be like, well, I never in throw some water at his face and leave, but they go to a different way in this. She’s like, take care of your grandmother. It’s fine. This is already a bad date. It’s all good. Let’s just end it. Let’s move forward. And I loved having that little more mature tweak on it. I thought that was a nice way of playing that scene.
Justin: Yeah agreed, it was great.
Alex: Yeah. Great book. Definitely pick that up. Moving to a DC comic book, Event Leviathan number three. We are delving into the identity of Leviathan, the villain who’s destroyed all the spy organizations in the DC universe. Where we left off, the last issue is everybody thought it was Jason Todd.
Pete: Yep.
Alex: This issue. Maybe it’s Jason Tod.
Justin: Yeah, maybe, but also maybe not.
Alex: Right.
Justin: That’s the thing is this issue felt very much like we know all this going in and we know it all coming out.
Alex: I talked about this a little bit with the last issue, but to me where this event is heading now is much more interesting to me than where it is and what I mean by that is the mystery is good. I’ve certainly tried to think around it. Okay. Who could Leviathan possibly be at this point, but that’s not my favorite storytelling mode. Instead, the big move that happened right at the beginning, taking out all the Spire organizations, I want to see what happens next. Yeah. That’s what I’m excited about at this point.
Justin: Yeah.
Pete: Also, it’s just fun to see the kind of twist of the people trying to piece it together and then kind of talking about it is very interesting. And then the fact that nothing happens how you think it’s going to happen. We had on the last issue reveal, we think it’s you. Oh crap. It ends with all the probably gonna get them. No, they all lose and they’re still piecing it together. It was, I just think it’s very interesting and a really fun event that each comic kind of twists and turns and then gets you more excited by the end. The last page on this was such a, the last panel was so powerful and amazing. I think this story just keeps building and building and I’m getting more and more excited about each issue.
Justin: I really like Lois Lane’s role in this. She definitely feels like she’s actually sort of being the typical Batman role being the investigator, so that’s cool. But like who is-
Alex & Pete: The Leivathan?
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: I don’t know.
Justin: You don’t know?
Alex: I don’t know, Dick Grayson I guess?
Pete: You guys didn’t think that last panel was so bad ass?
Justin: What? What?
Alex: With Amanda Waller?
Pete: Yeah, where Superman’s like, “Are these people bothering you?” that was so bad ass!
Justin: but that doesn’t answer who you think it is.
Pete: I don’t care. That was such a cool panel.
Justin: It’s a cool panel.
Pete: What the fuck, man, you’re so fucking, you’re a curmudgeon now you can enjoy a cool panel anymore?
Justin: You calling me a curmudgeon is crazy. That’s crazy.
Pete: You’re so calloused.
Alex: You said you’d like to have a pit of the woods full of hoagies.
Pete: Yup.
Alex: That’s curmudgen behavior right there.
Justin: Exactly. Stockpiling sandwiches. I’m not being a curmudgeon like it’s all fun, but it just feels like we’re sitting in this story that was, like Alex was saying, this idea that was introduced at the beginning of the first issue. This issue three. It’s like give us some moves. I want to see moves!
Pete: Dude there’s tons of moves going on!
Alex: It’s doing… Who is blank is a much easier story mode than the entire world has changed. Like the setup here is we have completely changed the way spy organization’s structure in the DC universe. The major players had been taken out. Something has happened to them. We don’t know what it is yet. Imagine if every major intelligence agency in the world disappeared overnight, it would be global chaos. Instead, what we’re seeing is very well written, very well drawn scenes of detectives in the DC universe standing around trying to figure out a mystery of who one person is. And to me, that minimizes the action of what’s going on rather than maximizes it.
Pete: Yeah. This reminds me of that big Batman event where it was taking place in this insane world where Joker and Riddler were fighting and they stopped to talk about Kite Man, and you guys fucking loved it. And I was like, there’s a bigger story going on. Why are we dealing with this? And that was driving me nuts. And now you guys are getting a taste of it.
Alex: No this is a different thing.
Justin: It’s a very different thing. But kite man’s cool.
Alex: Yeah.
Pete: Nope.
Alex: It’s a different thing because the thing we were talking about was cool and this isn’t Pete.
Pete: Then fuck you.
Justin: Sort of a hoagie thing. I am curious… I’m just going with Damien.
Alex: Damien, you’re going to stick with Damien?
Justin: I’m going to stick with Damien.
Alex: Because he’s framing Jason Todd?
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: Okay. What about, what about Dick Grayson? We haven’t seen him around.
Justin: I mean the way that Leviathan talks, I can sort of… a little quippy?
Alex: I don’t knnow.
Justin: There’s like little weird quirks.
Alex: There could be like… he got hit in the head a while ago. Right? Like he got a head scar, and shaved his head.
Justin: Yeah, he’s different now.
Alex: Yeah. It changed his personality. Now he’s Rick Grayson.
Justin: Yeah. That’s how you know, when someone changes their first name. Yeah
Alex: I will know… we haven’t seen Leviathan’s butt yet. So we don’t know if Leviathan has like a very well toned butt so we don’t know if it’s Dick Grayson.
Justin: Yeah, that’s a great point.
Alex: Thank you. We’ll be looking for his butt next issue.
Justin: Like what if Alex was that calm? “I’m Zander now.” We’d be like, this guy’s crazy. This guy’s losing it.
Alex: Yeah. He is ruining all the hoagie shops in the area. White Trees, number one. One of Pete’s favorite of the week. I could tell from reading this already. This is by Chip Zdarsky. This is picking up, it is a Blacksand series?
Justin: Yep, in the Blacksand universe.
Alex: Which I’ll be perfectly honest, I haven’t read before. So I had no idea what we were getting into here. This is a fantasy universe. Becomes highly sexual, very quickly.
Justin: Very sexy fantasy.
Alex: About halfway through the book. Pete, what was your favorite part of the second half of the book?
Pete: Well, the first half was a fun set up of where the story is going and then they took an orgy break. So, whatever.
Alex: As most things do, that happened in Event Leviathan as well. You just didn’t notice it.
Justin: Yeah exactly. Everyone’s putting their clothes back on.
Alex: So this is a bunch of folks who fought in a war. They’re sucked back into a mystery when some of their kids are taken by the opposing side-
Pete: It’s funny that you said “sucked back”.
Alex: Because-
Justin: Okay, okay.
Alex: Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I mean it is pretty funny though.
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: And then about halfway through, they’re stopped in this grove and they get attacked by, I dunno, succubuses something like that.
Justin: Yeah. Sex ghosts, fuck faries, could be any number of things.
Alex: I will say I was pretty shocked how graphic the sexual content was.
Pete: You loved it.
Alex: No, but it’s, I like the story. I like the way the characters were written and overall the art was really gorgeous. The… What? The sucking and fucking scenes Pete, that’s what I’m talking about. Like the ripped, like erect penises were very well drawn.
Pete: Cool.
Justin: Yeah. Kris Anka on art. Very great stuff.
Alex: Yes. What did you think about this book?
Justin: I liked it. I thought it was a fun story, putting us in this fantasy world and just taking it into a direction we did not anticipate at all. You didn’t like the dark character who’s just like brooding the whole time?
Pete: Yeah, that part was cool.
Justin: There you go.
Alex: Stop being so American Pete, that’s what happens.
Justin: Stay out of the woods and Pete, you don’t want to get fondled
Alex: Yes. This is a very good book. Even if you haven’t read any of the Blacksand stuff, you could jump right into this. But it is, as we mentioned for adults only. Moving on to another Marvel comic book. Silver Surfer Black number three, this continuing at the Silver Surfer’s journey back in time. He has been fighting Knull, the God of the symbiotes. His arm is hurt. That’s pretty bad. And last issue, he happened on a very young Ego, the living planet, that’s where we pick up this issue. I know I say this every issue of this book, but the real star here is Tradd Moore, the artist-
Pete: Artist is unbelieveable.
Alex: Who is channeling Jack Kirby in the absolute best way.
Justin: I liked this book top to bottom. It’s so good.
Alex: The inks, the… Yeah, it’s really good art.
Justin: Everything is good. It’s sort of-
Pete: As opposed to White Trees, which you like bottom to top.
Justin: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I’m more of a bottom on White Trees, but I’m a real top when it comes to Silver Surfer Black. And I know truly like this-
Alex: By the way, for those of you listening at home, I’m looking at his face. He’s really enjoying this bit.
Justin: Yeah, definitely loves it.
Alex: He’s loving it.
Justin: He gets it.
Pete: Eat a hoagie.
Justin: Okay. That’s a sexual statement. This is like… The Silver Surfer I feel like a lot of people like Dan Slott’s run. I thought it was good, but very different than the Silver Surfer that I like. I like sort of the distant creature that doesn’t quite understand humanity, this it feels a little bit more in line with that. Like we said, the art’s amazing. Sort of the 70’s 5 to it and I love where this ends up. Great book top to bottom.
Pete: Yeah. I really also like how the issues kind of ended at such an interesting place. That does a great job of getting you excited for more and this does not let you down. What a cool reveal.
Alex: Yeah. Donny Cates, who’s writing this is giving it almost like a Brian K. Vaughan saga kind of structure where he’s opening up a big splash page at the beginning. Obviously that’s Tradd Moore on art, but I think the way that he’s writing it, is he’s sucking you in immediately with a big image. Then running you through the issue with lots of twists and turns and ending with a big twist, full page splash at the end, and that’s been true of every issue so far. It works very, very well.
Justin: Yes.
Pete: Yup.
Alex: Cool stuff. Moving on to one that’s coming out September 4th from Archie Comics. This is Archie number 707. Now Archie and Sabrina have started dating and now we finally find out how they got together. Pete, this is the moment that you’ve been waiting for!
Pete: Exactly I-
Alex: How’d you feel about this issue?
Pete: Great. Loved it.
Justin: Really?
Alex: Yeah. Wow.
Pete: It was really sweet the way it happened. Very nice. Very classic Archie. Just to stumble into something like this.
Justin: He’s a stumbler.
Pete: And I-
Alex: Would you say it was magical Pete?
Pete: I would stop a little short of that, but I really like-
Alex: No because Sabrina the teenage witch is a magical being.
Pete: Yeah I’m well aware.
Alex: That was my-
Pete: Yeah, I know.
Alex: What I was getting at.
Pete: Yeah, that was a good goof.
Alex: What I was trying to…
Pete: But, I also liked the part-
Justin: Good luck transcribing that.
Pete: I also really like the part where Sabrina questioned it, you know? I thought that was also very mature and kind of a fun, updated version instead of just, okay, cool we had a moment. Now we’re just gonna barrel into this relationship. The fact that she kind of really questioned it and talked it over with her aunties. I thought it was really cool.
Justin: Yeah. The Sabrina Archie relationship, it’s the best. It’s the best relationship.
Alex: The best one?
Justin: The best one.
Alex: Better than Betty and Veronica?
Justin: Betty and/or Veronica.
Alex: That’s what I bet.
Justin: Yeah. Yeah. I like this the best.
Alex: Really?
Justin: Their chemistry is sharp. It’s fun.
Alex: Oh that’s so interesting.
Justin: But, it doesn’t have the just inherent dichotomy of Archie being like “which one this time?”.
Alex: Yeah. Do you kind of feel though that Sabrina is too good for Archie?
Pete: Yes, but also-
Justin: Yeah but she’s a loner.
Alex: She is a loner. I think that’s why she is glomming onto Archie, also he’s a nice fun guy, but he’s going to fuck it up at some point.
Pete: Oh yeah.
Justin: Cause he’s going to fall into a paint bucket.
Alex: Probably.
Justin: The ultimate breakup?
Alex: Classic, classic fuck up in a relationship.
Justin: So many relationships have been me falling into a paint bucket and they’re like, “Justin, it’s over. Also, you cheated on me.”.
Pete: I also really liked how the art was doing such a great job telling the story.
Justin: Archie?
Pete: The art-
Alex: Chie?
Pete: Because it was like, we’re just gonna enjoy the summer while we can, and then they showed that one single leaf of fall falling into frame. There was really nice.
Justin: Shit’s happening. Seasons changing.
Alex: Oh man.
Justin: The wheel in the sky keeps on turning brother.
Alex: So definitely check this out if you’re a fan of the characters, fun book. Moving over to-
Pete: Art’s great.
Alex: What?
Pete: Art’s Great.
Alex: Art’s great too. BOOM! Studios, Ghosted in LA number two. We talked about the first issue of this. I thought we should check in with the second one particularly because the general feeling was while fun, It felt like it was just getting started at the end when our main character ends up at an apartment complex full of ghosts. Essentially Melrose Place was supernatural.
Justin: After she is ghosted by her boyfriend.
Alex: Yes. It’s a metaphor, you see. This picks up there. We get to see more of the world, get more information about the ghost as well as our main character. How did you feel about this issue?
Pete: Yeah, I like this. This is a kind of unique idea of a main character kind of stumbling upon ghosts, and you get to see the ghost story a little bit. I’m excited for more information about why they’re all there and what’s going on. But, then there’s a classic asshole male.
Alex: I don’t know if he’s a classic asshole male, he’s like an Uber asshole male. To the max.
Pete: Yeah, he’s a complete douche. But I liked where it ended and yeah, I think this is a cool book. The art is fantastic and yeah.
Justin: This book, I liked this book a lot. It was stressful how long she was on the date with the asshole.
Pete: Oh my god, Right?
Alex: Oh my god, yes.
Justin: I was like ditch this guy!
Pete: What is going on?
Alex: I don’t know. Is that a thing that happens?
Justin: I guess, but this was… It’s a good story. Great art. But that one thing kept me sort of stressed out the whole read.
Alex: Yeah, just a little leave. Go out on a date. Anyway, ladies, are we right?
Justin: Yeah.
Alex: Are we right ladies?
Justin: That’s good.
Alex: Get out of that date, ladies!
Justin: That’s that’s what people are here for. Our staunch dating advice, our mid podcast dating advice.
Alex: Yep. Moving over to another Marvel comic book that I’m sure we’ll all agree on because we’ve been agreeing on these the entire time. It’s Powers of X number two for Marvel comics, also known as Powers of the X number two.
Justin: Nice.
Alex: Pete-
Justin: Pete’s going… This is the one that’s going to get Pete,
Alex: This is going to get Pete, ah man. This series, both of these series Powers of X, Powers of 10 excuse me, and House of X, so good. And every issue I have liked it more and more because we talked about this a little bit with the last issue of House of X, I think? I’m forgetting which order and went to now, but with House of X with the more McTaggart issue, it occurred to me that each issue here, Jonathan Hickman is dealing with a different aspect of the X men and rejiggering it in a way that makes it work for the whole Uber story and in this issue, spoilers, but it is dealing with the whole robot revolution robot oppression thing that’s been running in the background and works it in. And I don’t know why this never occurred to me, but works it in with the Phalanx and the [Maggis 00:23:37] and the Technarchy and all of that. It’s awesome.
Justin: Yeah. The way that he is repositioning the whole battle between… Reading this, I was like, it is weird that the X-Men is always just mutants fighting mutants. With the undertone of like humans hate us and to align the mutants together, Magneto, Professor X, everybody’s in the same boat, and it’s versus the humans who’ve created these artificial intelligences who then like feed into this huge extended system throughout the universe involving Technarchs. We love Technarchs.
Alex: Nope.
Justin: Okay. And all the stuff you were saying like it’s such an interesting take and he got takes it to the nth degree. Like Jonathan Hickman does with everything. So cool.
Pete: It seems like they’re working really hard to make Nimrod cool and it is not working.
Alex: Did you read… You read Uncanny X Men back in the day when Nimrod was first introduced, right?
Pete: Yeah.
Alex: It was fucked up. Even though he is a pink and white robot called Nimrod-
Pete: I can’t take him seriously.
Alex: No, no, seriously. But like the way that he… I think about him tearing through the Hellfire Club all the time.
Pete: Yeah.
Alex: That was one of the first things that I remember so clearly reading a comic book and, I’m forgetting the name, it’s the guy with the beard. He was a little chubby who was one of the Hellfire Club Kings. Where he gets completely vaporized by Nimrod when he shows up. Horrifying. I think about that all the time. And like to take that character and figure out, well, there was always this promise that he was the ultimate version of a Sentinel from the future, came back in time and that’s when we had him here and he was unstoppable. To figure out who he is and what he is and what he wants is brilliant I think.
Justin: Yeah, and he’s sort of goofy a little bit in this.
Alex: Yeah he has a sense of humor.
Pete: It’s just hard to take somebody seriously, whose name is Nimrod. They’re just working really hard to be like, this guy’s so bad ass, look how smart he is. It’s like really smart and he is like the most bad ass dude. But his fucking name is Nimrod?
Alex: No, I don’t know.
Pete: So I don’t give a shit.
Alex: I think they’re leading into it, right? Like there’s the whole explanation of why-
Pete: Yeah they worked really hard to explain why someone would be named Nimrod.
Alex: Right? He is like this very… The way the dialogue is written for Nimrod, the way that Hickman is writing it, it’s this very magnanimous ruler. Like, Oh, I’m doing this for you. I’m vaporizing you for you. You’re welcome. Which to me leans into the whole silliness of his particular look and his name and everything while making him all the more terrifying.
Justin: Yeah, but I mean Pete you think Nimrod is stupid, but one of your best friends is Apple watch.
Alex: That is true.
Justin: One of your best friends is Apple watch.
Pete: That is not true. This is not a friend.
Alex: I don’t know then Why do you keep checking in with it?
Justin: You’re always looking at it. You look at that more than you look at us, your human friends.
Pete: You jealous?
Justin: Who’s the Nimrod now?
Pete: You are.
Alex: Now the other aspect of this issue that I almost-
Pete: Do you want to talk about the fact how it goes back and forth between being a comic book and then a regular book with all the fucking words.
Alex: No, I definitely don’t want to talk about that.
Pete: Make up your fucking mind. You either write a comic book or write a book.
Justin: Nobody wants to hear that.
Alex: So I think we were talking about this. We may have been talking about this on the last show. I honestly do not remember in all the conversations that I’ve had about Powers of X and House of X at this point, but Jonathan-
Pete: You mean Powers of 10.
Alex: Powers of 10, god damn.
Justin: Hawks of Box.
Alex: Hawks box, Jonathan Hickman came up with this in order to disrupt the way that you read a comic book, right? Like it generally speaking, I don’t know about you guys, but it takes like five minutes to read a comic book. So here the real-
Justin: You read them at speed and a half, right?
Alex: Yeah. Yeah. I just, I clicked the little button in the corner-
Pete: Takes me a little bit longer-
Alex: But it doesn’t take that long to read most comic books, most comic books have the same rhythms to them. And his point there is, I’m going to break up those rhythms. I’ve got to put these text portions in these graphical portions in a way where it disrupts the way you’re reading it. So you actually spend more time and concentrate on the pages with art as well.
Pete: But he’s not the first person to do this bullshit.
Alex: No, he’s not. I’m not saying he… I didn’t say he changed the game. I’m saying that is his purpose there.
Justin: Because there’s so much information here, so you have to sort of take more time. You can’t just buzz through and be like, “cool fight.”
Pete: Yeah, because he really info dumps his ideas.
Alex: But I think also knowing-
Pete: Yeah that’s what words are.
Alex: Now that we’re four issues into this, knowing that I set myself up mentally before I read issue. I’m like, alright, here it goes. This is going to be… This isn’t something I could just flip, flip, flip through read quickly. I’ve got to use all my mental concentration. I’m going to read everything. I’ve got to take all the time it takes. I’m going to look back and check stuff as I’m reading it.
Justin: It’s a Thanksgiving dinner.
Alex: And I love that. I love getting that amount of value out of a comic book. I think that’s great.
Justin: Yeah. Take a short nap afterwards.
Alex: Pete, you have a question? You’re raising your hand.
Pete: Yes. Do we know-
Alex: Is it what is a phalanx? Because it’s answered in the back of the book.
Pete: Yeah, I know. Do we know who the weird blow pop X men is? Yeah.
Alex: Blow pop X men?
Pete: Yeah. The guy with the big helmet head with the X on it.
Alex & Justin: Xavier? Charles Xavier.
Pete: Is it? We know that?
Alex: No we don’t know, know.
Justin: We don’t know it, for sure. Blow pop is a crazy way of calling him, I like that.
Alex: I do-
Justin: Hey, who’s Blow pop?
Pete: Who’s Blow pop?
Justin: Who’s Blow pop? #WhosBlowpop
Alex: I love talking about this book, but I kind of hate speculating about it just because it’s slowly been unfolding as an onion and adding information as it goes. So I know those answers are coming like I’m not too worried about it in terms of-
Justin: Yeah I hate when an onion unfolds right in front of me especially when I’m cooking.
Alex: Yeah it’s the worst and I’m trying to cook the onion and it’s-
Pete: That’s a blooming onion. It unfolds right there for you.
Alex: Yeah it opens up and it’s like, what was Moira’s six lifetime? And I’m like, shut the fuck up onion I don’t care.
Justin: I’m speculating, you blooming onion. Get out of the Outback Steak house.
Alex: Wait, hold on. I have something that I want to ask you guys anyway, because this is my main question coming out of the issue, is we have this meeting towards the beginning, which was teased in the last issue between Xavier, Magneto, and Moira. Now that she’s broken the rules in her 10th timeline where she’s came, she’s completely revealed everything that’s happened to Charles. Charles clearly goes to Magneto at the beginning of his career, right when they have split and they do the same thing and reveal everything to Magneto and they decide to do this long multiyear plan. So again, I’m sure we’re going to find this out, but the thing that was breaking my brain a little bit, was like, does that mean a, this entire time they’ve known about all of this stuff and everything that’s gonna happen while we have been reading X Men comic books or are the X Men comic books we’ve been reading actually in a different timeline than the one we’re reading in Hawks Box?
Justin: That was my conclusion from this issue. I think it’s a different timeline. I think at the end of Hawks Box we’re going to come back to our continuity and that will be Moira’s 11th life or something.
Alex: Interesting.
Justin: She’s our hook for the whole series. I think that’s where we’re gonna come back to.
Alex: Pete?
Pete: Does the time jumping piss you guys off or just me?
Alex: No, I love it.
Justin: Probably just you.
Alex: Just you.
Pete: All right. I just-
Justin: You’re talking about my personal time jumping or the comic book?
Pete: The comic book. Not your-
Alex: And by the way, have we just specified that the Justin is the evil leaper?
Justin: Yeah. I am the evil leaper from Quantum Leap. I’m just trying to… I gotta find Scott Bakula.
Pete: Oh man, good luck.
Justin: I gotta bust that shit up.
Pete: Good luck. I think you have to go back more.
Justin: I’m hoping so. I just want to hear someone say, Oh boy, and that’s going to be my big clue.
Alex: That’s your cue.
Pete: I’m just, let’s pick a fucking timeline because-
Justin: It’s not like he can’t pick one. It’s not like these, like which I don’t know which one it should be, I’ll just write all of them down.
Alex: No, I love the timeline thing and the reason I love it is because particularly in this issue, you get each of the timelines fleshing out more information about what’s happening in the previous timeline. So they’re all complimenting each other.
Justin: Tell one story.
Alex: And as we go, everything that’s going on is getting more and more clear. It’s so well structured across the board.
Pete: It just pisses me off to see Wolverine in one of the timelines.
Alex: What does that mean?
Justin: Why?
Pete: Because he shouldn’t be on this fucking evil fucking stupid thing that we’re doing.
Justin: No, he… Evil?
Pete: He’s above this.
Justin: Wolverine?
Pete: Yeah.
Alex: It’s also a hundred years later, so it’s probably not Wolverine. It’s probably Daken.
Pete: Oh, don’t fucking, don’t even.
Justin: Oh that’s definitely who it is.
Alex: And you love it.
Justin: It’s been Daken the whole time.
Alex: Yeah. They’re all Daken. It’s Dakens all the way down in Hawks box.
Pete: Can’t wait for this shit to be over.
Justin: It’s going to be a long time.
Alex: Let’s move on to, yeah, it’s going to be forever. It’s going to be the rest of your life.
Pete: Cool.
Alex: Speaking of which, Everything, number one out September 4th from Dark Horse comics. This is a new title that I would be hard pressed to describe exactly what was going on. This is like reading a fever dream though, I really liked the art a lot and I’m curious enough about what’s actually going on in this book to maybe read a little bit.
Justin: I love this.
Alex: Really?
Justin: Yeah.
Pete: This is like an evil Walmart.
Justin: Yeah. A Walmart type store opens in this town called Everything, and we meet a bunch of characters in the town and start to see how it’s maybe going to affect their lives or something’s up with this place. This tonal-
Pete: Be weary of Walmart is what this comic is saying.
Justin: Or all big box stores. I feel like this totally reminds me of Ice Cream Man, a series we talk about a ton on this podcas.
Pete: Don’t… Ice Cream Man is amazing. Don’t fucking, you know what I mean?
Justin: This has similar art style and similar sort of like absolute horror, looming over it all.
Alex: To Pete’s point, don’t say you like something and then compare it to something else you like.
Justin: That would be crazy.
Pete: Yeah, please. Yeah, it’s separate.
Alex: Keep things separate!.
Justin: Keep everything separate. Yeah.
Alex: Everything is different.
Justin: Everything is different. The book, Everything is what I’m talking about. Which I love.
Alex: What’d you think about this Pete?
Pete: I was like, I don’t know what the fuck is going on. It’s super creepy. It does a good job of establishing a like, Hey, this is what this is like, this is this world. This is this creepy Walmart, but I’m just-
Alex: I’d argue that all Walmarts are creepy.
Pete: Every single one of them?
Alex: They’re just too big, the ceiling’s too high.
Pete: Wow.
Justin: Too many DVDs.
Alex: I mean, what’s that about?
Justin: Go digital.
Pete: Wow, dude.
Justin: Come on. Apple watch.
Pete: You want them to just sell thumb drives instead of DVDs in the Walmart?
Justin: Yeah move on, tell them to move on.
Alex: Thumb drives?
Pete: Well, I’m just saying ways to keep movies on something that they could sell you-
Justin: No that’s the most current technologies, the thumb drive.
Alex: Floppies, floppies just put it on a floppy disc, you know, 3.5 you know what I’m talking about COD.
Pete: Yeah, sadly do. Yeah.
Justin: That’s the last floppy disc.
Alex: Alright. Last issue that we’re going to talk about from Image Comics or Reaver number two. This is another one that I believe we really liked the first issue of, figured we could bring it back and talk about this one.
Pete: Now this is a nice story where it doesn’t take a turn into orgy world. It’s like-
Justin: It’s a fantasy world. Less orgy.
Pete: Yeah. Less orgy.
Alex: Slightly less orgies in this one, but this is about a ragtag team that’s put together to go on a mission. Some of them are magical, some of them are killers. Some of them are just Regular Joes and this issue, they encounter a bunch of barbarians in the woods. Funnily enough, this is by Justin Jordan who worked with Tradd Moore on Luther Strode. Even though they’re broken apart, they’re still together in our stack.
Justin: Oh, that’s a nice message to them.
Alex: I still like this book quite a bit. I think the characters are fun. I think they’re well drawn, both art wise and in terms of their character structure as well. The issue is pretty straightforward in terms of going through the woods. They run into trouble, but I like the world that they’re setting up here. I think it’s neat.
Justin: Yeah, I agree. I read the Backmatter talks about how so many fantasy stories are set in like a medieval Europe and this is very purposefully set in sort of a post Revolutionary War or pre and post Revolutionary War America, and sort of using that type of situation with a bunch of Indigenous people and all the other people fighting for control of different territory, making alliances, losing alliances. That was really cool and that really makes this story feel different.
Pete: Yeah and I also really liked the creepy little hairy, short person.
Alex: Yeah. The lady Wolverine if you will.
Pete: Yes.
Justin: That’s a good way to say it. I really like it.
Alex: Okay, great. Before we wrap things up, we’re going to read a comment from iTunes on our podcast. If you would like to leave us a comment on iTunes, we’ll read it on this podcast as well, but here we go. This is from Hartford88: Subscribe. What are you waiting for? Five stars. I love this already.
Justin: This is good.
Alex: Very in to it. Love this podcast. The Stack helps me out to stay updated on what’s going on in all the comic book universes. Definitely helps what issue to check out. Also, Alex, Justin and Pete might be the hardest working podcasters out there too. I’m a stay at home dad and I could barely get through an issue a week. These guys work full time, have families and run 90% of the podcasting network. Keep it going, your friend in time, Dan. Now Dan, we run 100% of the podcasting network.
Justin: That’s right. That’s a funny. Who do you think else is out there pulling the levers? So take that, Sarah Kanik.
Pete: Okay.
Alex: Oh wait. Oh, she produces 10% of our podcasts.
Justin: No, I’m just saying we said we’re the hardest working podcasters in the game, so take that Serial.
Alex: Yeah, I think she’s going to shut down honestly. Really though we appreciate the comment. Thank you for leaving it again. If you would like to leave one, we’ll regularly read those on the podcas. if you’d like to support this podcast and the other podcast we do. patreon.com/comicbookclub really helps us out because we’re also a full time dads, some of us and things like that. I think I, we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it.
Pete: Yeah. Most of us are full time dads.
Alex: Most of us, but-
Justin: Pull the levers Pete, pull the levers Pete.
Alex: We also do a live show every Tuesday night at 8:00 PM at the People’s Improv Theater Loft in New York. Come on by we’ll chat with you about comic books. Pete, What do you want to plug?
Pete: Friend us on Facebook so you get to know about the amazing guests we have in our live show.
Justin: Follow us on Twitter @comicbooklive.
Alex: Check us out at comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and more. You could subscribe on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, Spotify, or the app of your choice and we’ll see you at the hoagie pit.
Pete: Yeah. Hoagies for everyone.
Justin: I’ll Get you Apple watch.
