Do you have a show or YouTube channel, podcast, or relevant product that you want to promote at the top of the Elspers Exchange? Well, not your chance, man. For 50 bucks, you'll get a month's worth of plugs at the audio version right here of the Elspers Exchange. Right at the top of the show, first thing you'll hear, no, it'll probably still be my voice, but you'll write up a short one-minute plug, we'll record it and toss it to the front of the show.
Or, alternatively, for 20 bucks, you can get a month's worth of plugs at the end of the show. Right after you hear us sign off, same deal, one minute script to plug for your stuff. How do you take advantage of this incredible opportunity? Just go to thereelcomicpop.com, hit the contact button at the top and fill everything out and working out through PayPal.
We do reserve the right to reject or accept based on our own personal tastes. I'm not going to plug your Nazi podcast, man. I'm sorry. You know what?
I'm not sorry about that. But you're not going to do it anyway. So go to thereelcomicpop.com, hit the contact button at the top of the page, fill everything out and we'll work it out. All right, let's get on with the show now.
Waiting down upon the underworld to smash gang men, come, a friend of the unfortunate enemy of criminal. In a serious, all powerful, character, a problem to the police, but a crusade of Allah. Hey everybody, welcome to Elspers Exchange, I'm Sal. I'm Joel.
So we're going to talk about some of the biggest comic book events that came out of the year 2018. It's a wrap up party. Talk about what came from January 2018 to basically now December of 2018, which is rough for comics sometimes because you'll have a story start in one year and not until the next or some that end in 2018, but they started 2017. We're going to talk about those two a little bit.
It's like what year did these belong to? Exactly. Before we do that, though, I want to mention that we got a couple of neat things here in the comp of studios. Do you remember those Marvel hip hop variant covers that came out?
Well, apparently they also took those covers and made them into covers of the hip hop albums that they came out. Yes. And so as a result, we've got like this face sent LP of the event. Pretty slim.
Which is actually really pretty. Yeah. And we've also got this awesome lenticular LL Cool J LP. What's your favorite LL Cool J song, Sal?
Ooh, that's a great question for another time. Also we have this great contest of champions lenticular cover for Genius and the Wu Tang Clan. Nice. They ain't nothing to fuck with.
That's right. Yeah. I figured you of all people would appreciate these fine vinyl covers. Oh, yeah.
I'd also do the lenticular do dad. Naturally. They're pretty. If you even if you're not necessarily a huge fan of the music like me, you will also find that they are like beautiful conversation pieces.
Thank you, mama said, knock you out. Thank you. That's a really good one. And don't call it a comeback.
Don't call it a comeback because I never left. But yeah, these covers are pretty dope. And I really like them. And maybe one of these days in the future will make it so that like you can win one of them or something.
If you like them enough or you like the music enough or you want to display them because my like Michaels makes like LP frames. So you just slip it right into the frame and put it up. If you like these so much you want to get one yourself, check this video and go over there and pick them up yourself because they are for sale. I want to check those out.
And I also wonder, do they ever do what DC did with famous movie posters where it's like Batgirl and Purple Rain and everything. Yeah, right. Those were super cool. I would totally decorate my house with those just to confuse people.
Hey, but what the hell? This guy loves movies, but also really likes comics. Like did Punisher drop a sick diss track? Like what is this all about?
But check them out. They're really cool. And I dig them. So even if I'm not like a big fan of the music.
I mean Punisher has a long history with rap music. He of course is teamed up with Eminem on several occasions. Are they several? Or was that one occasion?
It felt like several occasions. Pretty rough. But anyway, check those out in the description below the video if you want to partake. So leading off our huge mega events that took place in 2018, you asked if this was a thing.
I don't think it is, but we'll talk about it now on the show. Marvel 2-in-1, the thing in the Human Torch from Chips and Arsuki dropped at the beginning of last year. Yes. Maybe one of my favorite things that Marvel, it might have been my favorite Marvel book of the year.
It was certainly for me one of the most Marvel comics at Marvel Comics. Nothing felt like it. No, nothing else felt like it. And yet it felt familiar.
Like you had read it a thousand times before, but in that kind of like, this is one of my favorite comics I want to read it every year. And yet it was also fresh and new and interesting. Of course, the first issue started off with Jim Chung's art before he jumped ship and moved over to DC. Some great stuff in that series.
And also wound up being better than the return of Fantastic Four. Yeah, which is kind of, I bet they didn't think that would happen. I am certain they were not expecting that. And better than the first four issues of Dance Lots Run on Fantastic Four.
And I've enjoyed Dance Lots Run, but I've not enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed reading Marvel 2-in-1. I've enjoyed the Fantastic Four series as well. I just haven't liked it the way I liked 2-in-1. There was something strangely special about it.
It was a buddy story. It was a road story. It was, you know, talking about overcoming grief and acceptance, which ironically the next couple issues would do, but 2-in-1 did it better. Exactly.
And he was the same characters to do so. Right? Somehow makes it work. I don't know.
That's a Darski, man. He's awesome. Even though I know that you've loved Buns, Daredevil Run? Or is it Soul?
Soul. Sorry. I have to be Colin Bunn and Charles Soul mixed up into the line. But even though I know you love Soul's Run on Daredevil, I can't wait for Zadarski's take.
Me too. And it's like, as much as I did truly love Soul, he had his time and the thing about Daredevil that's so wonderful about Daredevil is he has one of the greatest successions of writers of all time. And while you're sad to see a writer go, it's like Doctor Who is sad to see them go, but you're really excited because you have no idea what the future could hold and what direction they could take it in. It's true.
No, you're absolutely right. And it's funny because like the Run's on Daredevil have been seminal, but also like, you are just eager to find out what's going to happen next to this poor son of a bitch. It's what's your favorite era? You know, what's your favorite storyline?
I wonder what Zadarski's going to bring to it because Zadarski, much like Nick Spencer, has this ability to shine a light on lovable schlub heroes and guys who are down on their lock. I guess Daredevil is constantly doing it all in one way or another, but he's never shown to be like pathetic. Like bad stuff always happens to Matt Murdock, but he always gets his shit back together and he's always in nice suits and everything most of the time. Well, he's always like don't feel bad for me.
You never like, but you always like, you put you do because you're like this poor bastard who can never catch a break. It's like not in the same way I feel bad for Spider-Man or I felt bad for Johnny Stormer, even when he was writing his Star Lord, when Star Lord was grounded on Earth and everything and being a schlub, it's like you poor son of a bitch. Yeah, absolutely. So while I don't really count them, I still say it was worth mentioning the Marvel 2-1 was great.
Likewise with Batman, White Knight, not an event, an Elle's World Story, now a black label imprint, but goddamn was a good, it was probably my favorite Batman story of the Earth, especially because Tom King is writing Batman and good Batman stories were hard to find this year. Yeah, that's true. The cream really rose to the top. That being said, got two really good Batman stories just recently with Detective Comics and Batman who laughs.
We had like a surplus of bat centric stuff this week that came out. I wish we could talk about it if we can't, but if you want to see at least me and Titty talk about it, you can always watch our episode of The Rack or we do talk about at least three of those great issues. You should. In terms of...
I've taken a watch that show when I cook dinner because you go live just as I'm putting on dinner and I need something to watch. Oh, thank you. So in terms of events straight up like major stories that were part of its own contiguous series, one series that ended basically in 2018 at the start of 2018 I should say is Spider-Men 2. Did it really?
Yeah. Oh shit, yeah, you're right. Wow. Oh wow.
I deleted Spider-Men 2 from my memory completely, but you're right. It came out like God. It started in 2017 I guess and it came out basically, I think like at the tail end, like if it came out on the 27th of December it came out on the first. You know, it was that kind of thing.
It was like when at the tail end of the year. Then instantly forgotten. Oh, and for good reason. What a great moment.
With extreme prejudice. Was this series forgotten? That was the last little wet part for Ben is like, I'm gone. I'm working for the other team now.
Yeah. I'm actually wondering if he like deliberately tanked it or if he didn't even know how to do this series. Like we talked about it a little bit actually because we talked about Spider-Men the main series which is great, the first one which came out of course five years before 2012 was when Spider-Men came out. And it's clear that like Ben has had no idea what to do with 16 Miles Morales and then like it's funny because you know like as the writing was on the wall for like how they were going to bring Miles into the main universe, Ben is his interest completely waned.
Oh yeah. Oh well if Miles is the 16 Miles and who cares? I'm sure around the same time too he started Percolating Ideas for Riri and being like fine you don't like my reinvention of Spider-Man or you won't let me do it my way. I'll reinvent Iron Man.
Yeah, that's true. Which ironically Riri's getting some of her best reviewed books ever and all the tokens for Ben just to not be writing her anymore. Right. It's actually kind of amazing to hear like the the severe pushback of genuine joy that people have been getting from Riri's new series.
And I can tell you like I don't like the new suit. I think it looks kind of like weak. But at least it's her own. But it's hers and the first few page preview of her new series or her new takeover.
I loved it. She's really good in champions too. Zab is doing great stuff with her. She was the focus of the big Dungeons and Dragons arc that we just finished off.
Yeah, which is cool. Which is really cool. Yes. So is of course, Jim Zab's a notable huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons anyway.
Oh yeah. Incidentally, another event that kind of started around the end of 2017. But more or less like I think I remember saying one year ago from issue eight, doomsday clock. Yeah, and we're still living with it today.
I think the series will always be around. So we can I mean, I mean, I mean, I wouldn't. I mean, the fact is DC can just like rest on their laurels and constantly benefit from like lazy writing or poor editorial just by saying the fans will blame document Hatton. And as long as we never deliver on it, they can always say the document Hatton was a thing that happened.
Plus, I mean, the book came out amongst, you know, major shuffling of the power structure of DC. So I'm not going to be in charge now. He's not anymore now. It's Di doe and Lee, but maybe not.
Maybe no one's in charge. We don't know. Right? Who knows?
Maybe it feels like the story pivots about in the halfway point. Huh? And then it got pushed back. Are they rewriting this one on the fly?
Maybe I feel like they're rewriting it on the fly. Who knows? I felt a real push for this series when Jeff Johns was in charge and then suddenly sanctuary was referenced in it. Oh, and it's like, oh, it feels like, because it felt like a timeless series.
It felt like it was supposed to be like, just completely separate. I remember people were speculating about Batman's costume. You know, they're like, oh, what does it mean? Anything.
It means they want you to be able to read this book off the shelf for years from now and not worry about it. But then they referenced the King of owls or what are the judge of owls? The judge, yeah. And everything else.
And you're like, oh, you're making it like timed. Like it's now cemented in this period and it can never not be part of it. What a cold fish slap in the face. That was.
Yeah. What have you done? Yeah. Did doomsday clock live up to the hype?
I don't even know that's a fair question since it's not over. It's not. I will say in, you know, at moments it does and moments I really enjoy it. But until it's done, I guess we won't be able to talk about it in like more more more educational terms or whatever.
But I mean, just the fact that it's taking so I didn't, didn't they delay it again? Has it issued an I been delayed by another month? Yes, it has. This book is like the most, it's not the most delayed series.
In fact, watchmen itself was delayed. Yeah. But it was watchmen, not a sequel to watchmen. You see, that's the thing.
We really want to capture the feel of watchmen. We're going to have this series be incredibly delayed. Yeah. And why not?
Right. I mean, like we said, I think the series actually has more impact being a thing that will one day finish as opposed to a thing that is complete and you can read any time you want. The saddest thing about Doomsday Clock to me is that they pitched it as the reward for keeping up with the DC re-breath. It's like, yeah, we brought back all the characters you liked.
We resurrected all these relationships and everything feels good and nice again. It feels like the DC universe you remember. It's whole. We fixed so many of the new 52 problems.
And also there's watchmen. Hey, you know, if you keep following this to the end, there's watchmen at the end of this. Then you get the book and then it's like, yeah, there are kind of watchmen, but kind of not. Yeah.
No, well, I mean, it's, you know, you are getting a literal sequel to watchmen, but you're also getting some new characters, like new Rorschach and all kinds of new stuff. Yeah. But you are right about it being a like, even if they didn't outright say, no, no, this is like DC rebirth number two. Yeah.
They didn't outright say this is like a reward for being into rebirth, but it absolutely built completely off the hype of rebirth. And I don't know if you were there at New York Comic Con when Doomsday Clock was dropped and announced they were touting it as the big as the next big thing. Oh, yeah. From the DC universe rebirth number one to the button to this.
It was. And in fact, I think the button was a stop gap. I think it was supposed to come out when the button was supposed to come out. Like the button was created as manufactured to just continue the steam roll of hype for Doomsday Clock.
And I thought do take I was actually going to be like another chapter that like something else was coming like the DC number two was coming after there was like the button do take a clock, but then then rebirth is really going to take shape in this world rebirth has become a footnote and ignored by quite a bit of what's happening in DC. So I mean, do stick lock was all it's going to be. Yeah, I fear that too. And I think there's no better example of how the universe pivoted and how mines changed and people in charge changed than the fate of Wally West hate spoilers for the new I heroes in crisis.
Hey, Wally West, he's back. He's ushering in this great new era of DC rebirth where we respect the past and everything you fans want us coming back. Oh, what happened to him in the new heroes in crisis? Oh, right.
How could I ever forget you, Wally? Okay. Let's have a war and then, you know, how could I forget you? Wally turns out very easily.
Very easily. How could I let you die? So moving on before we transition to the next event, I wanted to get into the super chat, which is how we pay a lot of our bills here. Comment up and we want to thank everybody for participating and helping us and being part of the show bitter taste.
No surrender's definitely up there for me. Extermination fine was really good, but what they did with Rachel was a disgrace. I love extermination. I like it too.
That and astonishing were my two favorite X-Men things. For me, seriously, extermination might be my favorite X-Men book of the last few years. I would agree with that too, because not only do I really like it, but I feel like I could also tag out at exterminations like, hey, we got so much more fucking X-Men coming your way. We got this weekly series.
We got new exports. We got age of X-Men. I'm like, guys, guys, you're suffocating me with X-Men here. I was happy to read it again, but this is too much.
Fill your fucking mouth with X-Men, Joel. This is an angry gauntlet of X-Men. Yep. That's true.
But I'm also really loved. No surrender. We'll get to no surrender in a minute. Comic Goblin, happy holidays to both your amazing gentlemen.
Thank you very much. Comic Goblin, happy holidays to you as well. Got to say, comics wise, Captain America and Mr. America were the highlights for me.
Captain America is a great series, not technically an event. We're not going to talk about Cap right now. Mr. Miracle, mini-series, I wouldn't call an event.
No, but it was a thing that happened. It was a thing that happened, especially at the end. Mr. Roboto, old man Logan count.
Old man Logan was a mini-series when it first came out. Yeah. And when you had the ongoing series, I still wouldn't call an event. Logan does have an event.
Multiple events, we'll talk about those. Yeah. And Logan did DC have some good ones. I would argue, yes, they did.
And we'll get to those as well. And Logan Babcock, hey guys, love the show. Starting next summer, I'll be in, oh, Azerbaijan for a year in school. Did you guys know anywhere I can get comics and other language like Turkish?
No, but that's a good question. I would hope that digital versions would be your friend. Yeah. They would make it easier.
They can just change the text and they don't have to print the book. That's a really good topic there. What is it like reading comics and other languages? How much do you lose in translation or what do you gain in translation?
Exactly. I would love to know more about that. So if you do wind up finding out, please let us know. I wish I was smarter and less of a boring white guy on that one because that sounds like a very fascinating topic that no one's exploring.
That's true. I completely agree with you, man. But thank you very much for the super chat and good luck in your journeys. Also, oral force, happy holidays to you too.
Thanks for your entertainment. Yeah, whole year has gone by of more else worlds. God damn. Happy to be able to catch an else world's live.
Oh, we're happy you're here, man. So yeah, I guess we talk about no surrender because that was a big thing that happened. It was an amazing, strolling event. What a trife, not just for the Avengers, but also that, hey, you had a really good weekly series which as we're seeing with Uncanny X-Men is harder than it looks.
God damn, Lutely. Avengers No Surrender is doing events right. It's figuring out what works, who you need to get, and how you need to put it out. Not a single tie-in, weekly series, no delays, solid art, fun writing, no status quo upheaval.
And yet it just all worked. Amazing. Also, organically bringing to a close all the other Avengers books you had at the time. You bring Uncanny to a close, you bring USA Avengers to a close, you resurrect the Hulk in a really meaningful and cool ass way.
Right? No, that was another thing. You do the retcons and the fixes and the continuity things that you come to expect from an event but manage to make them work, make sense, and declutter. I love when it's when you got a clean desk.
And when it came to the Avengers, you know, like we were living in a world where they were like, it's all Avengers all the time. The movies can't make X-Men movies, so let's just make it all Avengers. And it worked for a little while. We all had a time with the US Avengers and with Occupy Avengers and whatnot.
And Uncanny Avengers was the best X-Men book forever because it had Deadpool and Cable and Rogue on it. It was easily just an X-Men book that they could call Avengers and not have to give Fox any money. And it was just like, okay, you know what? Like, it was a good time.
We all enjoyed it, but now it's time to say goodnight. And so they just closed it all up. And I think it worked out beautifully. It really did.
And again, as we said, got to give the spotlight to characters that don't normally get it. Lightning got to be the coolest goddamn dude for a minute. Holy crap. Yeah, no, I loved that.
Like they were like, let's make it a love letter to the Avengers while also highlighting some second stringers. And yet we still get all the cool stuff with the Avengers you know and love or want to see. Yeah, if you have not checked it out, the trailer back came out I think this week, if not next week. That's a Christmas gift right there.
It's a great Christmas gift for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, treat yourself. That was another Jim's sub joint too.
He had a hand to that one as well. It's true. This was the Europe sub 2018. He did a lot of stuff with it.
It's the Darski man. Those Z's are crushing it. No surrender, beautiful stuff. Similarly with when it came to the X-Men, people forget about this event, if you can call it that.
I think it was. It was the Phoenix Resurrection. Oh yeah, that was Rosenberg's book. It was also got his hands in X-Men currently.
Five issue mini series, Phoenix Resurrection, bringing back Jean Grey, dealing with the Phoenix for the umpteenth time. I own it, but I haven't read it yet. I got to tell you, man, I really enjoyed it. And I was kind of cautiously optimistic about the X-Men after this.
It was a really fun trip down memory lane while also generating a genuine threat. Weaving in the Phoenix thing, acknowledging a couple of things for Cyclops, it was pretty cool. And I really kind of enjoyed it. If you haven't already read it, it makes absolutely no bearing on anything at all, except to know Jean Grey's book.
Wow. How? Read Phoenix Resurrection. That's literally all you need.
I think I should now. It's pretty cool. It's just a fun, nice, neat story. I don't want to spend too much time talking about it, but like it came out on time.
The art was consistent, again, no tie-ins, and it accomplished its goal. It had a goal, and it actually managed to deliver. Rosenburg has a unique way with X-Men. I'll be interested to see what he does on on Canyas he takes over as the Soul Rider.
He also did astonishing X-Men, which I genuinely love because it was funny. It was like the Secret Six of X-Men books. I wish that could have continued in some form. Well, I mean, like the Secret Six of X-Men, I mean like X-Force, like an idea of a covert squad or a reformed X-Men, like that pays for itself.
You should have to. But then they're also funny is the thing and they're kind of pathetic because that was the team would have it and Dazzler and Banshee and all these characters who were like, wow, we have been fucked. They actually make that part of the story where it's like we used to be cool, but we're not cool anymore. What can we do to be cool?
It's a really great idea, especially with the X-Men who, I'd say the bedrock of any modern enjoyment of X-Men started with a lot of the 90s stuff and a lot of the 90s stuff ultimately came from cool-looking visuals. Yeah. By the way, good stuff, fun stories. I'm just saying that it came from stunt creations, like Shatterstar and Cable and Domino and Deadpool and while they went up being fan favorite characters, they were also just kind of like splashes, like Flash of the Pan, kind of like, oh, look at this cool visual, look at this cool character.
And what happens when the 90s end and you're still at left with these characters? Then comes the hard work of writers actually hammering out personalities. And you have making a team of like, you know, I want to miss a Toys for X-Men is a great idea. Yeah.
And I loved it and it was gone too soon, but it was only gone because Rosenberg got called up to the right of the main team. Yeah. Mr. Roboto's saying, bring back static on the Titans.
Jolie, you want to take this one? Apparently they can't and apparently they won't because apparently there's all kinds of legal disputes happening behind the scenes. I have been, I've been taking up a little spyglass and I've been doing some detective work on this one, talking to people who were there. I mean, the news is not good.
The news is one person. No one's saying who it is, but one person is holding it up for everyone, not over money out of spite, which means we'll probably never see it until they die or pass the rights on whoever that person might be. Yeah, whoever they might be. We're not going to get into it.
But we did have a great question from two mics one take who said, I loved DC Metal. He had crazy art interests. The Batman who laughs and led to three great Justice League titles, New Justice, Jail Dark and Jail Odyssey. Did Dark lead to that or was it the other one?
No Justice that led to that. No Justice. Well, Dark Knight's metal leads to no justice. It's a real trilogy he did.
It's true. So I figured we should talk about metal. Right. Which by the way is called Dark Knight's metal.
Really? They changed it. No, it's been called Dark Knight's metal. It's just that everyone calls it DC metal because Dark Knight's is an awkward title to say.
Little bit. Also, apparently it was supposed to be called Dark Crisis. Yes, it was. But a knight or a cupulot fought really hard to keep the name because they were like no, because when we do a crisis, people are going to have expectations.
It's going to completely change and disrupt what we're trying to do. It should mean something when we say crisis. Exactly. So Dark Knight's metal or Dark Crisis became Dark Knight's metal, which everybody calls DC Metal.
I think people would be more prone to calling it Dark Knight's metal if they actually use the KNIGHT instead. It's knights. It's talking about Dark Knight's like eternal Knight from the actual Sun. Dark Knight of the Soul, man.
Yeah. And it's not even referring to the Dark Knight's KNIGHT. No, where their own entities. Where their own entities and where that came from.
Dark Knight's metal was very cool looking. Had some cool concepts and big ideas that Snyder's work always does. Snyder will not do something unless it means something to him or moves in some way. Oh, yeah.
And so he is absolutely like, hey, listen, I'm going to make this about whatever it is about. That's the thing. By the end, I think it started as one thing and by the end it's like, well, we got to have it open ended because we got to go to no surrender and then to my Justice League run. Exactly.
It is very cool. I think it tried a little too hard to be cool. If we're being honest with some hindsight, I think it was like, isn't it cool? The cover is the horns get it?
Yes. I do get it. But let's move on from this. I mean, hey, it's no Brian Azorello's damned if we want to talk about trying too hard.
Oh my God. Not technically an event. We're not going to do it. No, we talked about the Black Labels so much in this channel.
Let's leave it alone for a minute. This channel has been doing more to actually promote Black Label than DC Comics. That's everything. That's very true.
But ultimately Dark Knight's Metal was a cool idea that I think successfully executed what they set out to do despite some confusing visuals and some like ultimately hokey stuff. It launched a brand new villain in the Batman who laughs, which that doesn't happen very often, although calling him a new villain feels a little awkward because he's just a combination of two existing characters. Right. And I think that he will suffer from the fact that only one person his creator can write them.
Yeah. But he's really cool. And I liked the bit with the Joker in the basement of the Batcave trying to solve the riddles of the universe, but then that kind of gets dropped as does Duke with light powers. A lot of stuff gets dropped.
But it does. It does succeed. Yeah. And it's cool.
And it does dovetail nicely into a mini series which is technically an event called Justice of No Justice. Yes. Which was cool. Introduces the idea of like pillars of the universe and trees and really really trying to rewrite the DC cosmology kind of like trying to have it make some sense.
Exactly. Oddly enough, Dark Knight's Metal could have been just like every other major DC event since Flashpoint could have been the thing that fixes the DC Universe chronology and also the whole like what timeline is it technically everybody here is their new 52 counterpart. It's like technically the user still that we're still in the new 52 here, but you're referencing course stuff that is decidedly and demonstrably not in the 52. How does any of this work?
And the answer I got basically from our interview with Snyder was who cares? I don't. Also the ghost quadrant. I like that as a concept.
Here's a big piece of space we uncorked. Right. And of course the breaking of the source wall and everything that spills out of it. What could what could possibly all the endless possibilities the source was breaking of course is a representation of the endless possibilities we've now explored and opened up.
We've opened Pandora's box and in doomsday or in DC with killed Pandora entirely. But let's say we've opened the door and no justice was a cool exploration of the new DC cosmology as you said. Yeah. And he got to shake up the team so you got some interesting character dynamics that you didn't get anywhere else.
Right. One of the things that Snyder is definitely hell bent on is giving you things that he's never done and you've never seen. Which I appreciate about his work. Absolutely.
You can say what you will. But like fact is some of the stuff may seem familiar but it's not necessarily anything you've ever seen before. He's always trying to do something. Which I appreciate.
Or like that is another thing but at least you can't say he was like lazy about it. It's true. And his stories usually always have a beginning, middle and end which I appreciate. And they almost always involve his characters and protagonists holding hands and shooting hope at it.
Which I'm fine with. I grew up watching Care Bears. That's how you defeat evil shit. You shoot hope and love at it.
Right. You just hit it in the face with hope and love. That's how I live my life every day. I am going to love and hope the shit out of you.
That's right. Mr. So sal quit Avengers Joel you still on alpha flight? Yes I'm still on team alpha flight.
Yes. You are the third most powerful member of alpha flight. Yes. And I have no actual I have a strong social media presence.
That's my power. That beats puck. Yeah. There you go.
Chase Eichler wasn't there a venom event this year seems like it came and went a little. I don't remember even anyone hearing anyone talk about it. You guys are the best. Thank you very much.
Venomized. Yeah. Was it Tiff reading venomized? She read venom verse and she loved it.
But you know why Colin Friggin bun wrote it. It's true. I like bun two. Although I haven't read any new stuff for him in a long time.
No. I think it's called venomized which did happen because I guess Marvel and Sony worked out a deal where like if Fox makes an X-man movie will cancel the X-man but if Sony makes a venom movie let's make 16 venom events. He needs to be everywhere at once which I'm like okay I hate this because I didn't like what cost it was doing with venom at the time. No Donnie Kates is writing venom and it's one of my favorite books.
It's unprecedented how genuinely cool this is. I know it's shocking what the difference of one writer can do to completely turn a character around. Oh yeah. Especially when they like inorganically brought back Eddie Brock and everyone collectively went oh really.
They're not flash tops. Yeah and then it turns out it was kind of awesome. Yeah and to also make that part of the story where like friggin Kates in the back of his mind and even in the story has characters telling Eddie you're not the best venom ever. I wanted the other guy but I guess I'll deal with you.
And making Eddie into kind of a sympathetic underdog because of that because he needs to live up to the memory of flash tops and try and rise to that level. It's true. It was actually a really great development of Eddie's character. Yeah I kind of give a shit about him now where before I didn't because again another great line from that comic is rekstrictly saying Eddie Brock Jesus Christ you're the man of a million second chances.
You always fuck it up. You always get a second chance. Why should I feel bad for you? It's true.
This time it explains why. He's died from self-inflicted wounds. He's had cancer. He's quit.
He's become anti-venomist. It's a million second chances. Became a religious fundamentalist for a little bit who went around hunting all the extras and be hits. Right.
Now I assume you were a big fan of the series. Flash War. See I did not actually read Flash War because I've not been keeping up with Flash. My co-host Matt loved it to pieces and went on to know end about it.
I am so far behind on Flash. I read some of Flash War and appreciated what they were doing. Ultimately, because it was an exploration of Wally West is like I remember my family and I want it back. Yeah.
And Barry being like no you'll create another Flashpoint. And this is one of those examples of what I was talking about where it's like here's another example of how we can probably put things back. We can undo Flashpoint. We can bring it back.
Nope. We're not going to do that. Fine. We'll go right up to the edge where it will tease you then we won't do it.
Yeah. I think ultimately it was like cool that they did a Flash event that was within the Flash title. Yeah, because you rarely get that. Didn't get delayed.
Didn't have a million tie-ins and told a comprehensive Flash story that did what they wanted to do which is make Wally West look unhinged. But oh what a service that ended up leaving. But that's all I can really say about it. I will say that because Williamson wrote it it's probably it is quite good.
I love Williamson and I feel so bad I'm not reading his Flashbook because apparently he's killing it on that. He killed on that Justice League versus Suicide Squad story and I loved his nail-bier. Yeah, you would love it. I should have heard it.
Red Samurai says Batman Metal was meh. See? Again Dark Knight's Metal, DC Metal, Batman Metal. Why don't we all just call it?
Meh. Meh. Meh. I would have loved a street level event by one writer and an artist starring Batman Nightwing Red Hood birds the prey in the question.
Isn't that called Batman Eternal? Yeah I was going to say it. And didn't they do a sequel to that? They did which was better than the original because it was like half as long and focused on the sidekicks.
So I mean like there you have it. You don't need to complain about Dark Knight's Metal. You have it already. Just go read Batman and Robin Eternal although some people have their knives out Harper Rose in this and I don't like it.
Yeah but it's her last story though. It's like actually having her arc reach it ends. And no one liked her or cared about her or gave her anything anyway. It was just a silly one.
I liked her. Well she was a generator from just like this what are we going to do? Like Dennis Metter really sweet girl who he created a character for. Bluebirds or whatever.
That was her name. Cute idea and kind of dope costume. Very dope costume. That's what hurts me.
I'm like earlier. I don't like this on the show. I mean like honestly the costume can sit in the cave until people are ready to use her again. She fought with giant tasers because she was an electrician.
Right which is basically just like isn't that just injustice? Nightwing? Oh yeah. I like that too.
But yeah so that's what you're looking for. Oh it was Andrew Coliver can't catch you guys live. Sorry man thank you very much for joining us. But you keep me up on my drive home at 4am.
That's right because I listened to the show on audio going to kompopop.com or on iTunes under the Elsworld exchange banner. Happy holidays and happy boxing day Joel. Oh I thank you. Yes I understand according to Canadian lore boxing day not Halloween.
It's the scariest day of the year and for some reason is around this time period. Yes yes it is. It came from the day when you know Prime Minister Tim Horton got into a boxing match up with the Queen of course which was over the syrup rights. This was the thing that happened in Canadian history.
I remember reading a little bit about it. It was like a shoe horned like it was a holiday themed event that took place during our modern European history lecture. Yes yes you you missed it. Yeah don't dispute him.
He knows. No don't look it up either. Yeah especially not do that. And also was it Logan Babcock, Harbinger Wars 2.
Anybody read or care about this? No. No valiant. Yeah.
Was that near the end of the Valley and I feel like this was the year we lost a valiant. We lost a valiant. Yeah. Right poor one out on the curve for a valiant.
And silver click cricket weddings so many weddings two third of which didn't happen. Oh yeah that's true. I know. At least we got Rogue and Gambit out of it which is a pretty great series.
So I've heard you know you and Tiff have been singing that one's praises. Yeah good art good writing love it. Is that Colin Blan? No it's um God I don't remember her name.
Kelly Thompson. Yeah I think it's Kelly Thompson. Right because she's part of the ex-family now because she's also writing on Can You Too. Yep you were corrected as Kelly Thompson.
I get things right sometimes. You hear that commenters? And also I kind of my sorry for any question opinions on the watch movie. It's unrelated to what we're talking about but because we're in the super chat here.
I liked it a lot. I liked it too. I especially liked the super extra long cut that puts tails of the black freighter in. See I could take her leave the black freighter but like I appreciate that it exists.
And I also really like the super director's cut that doesn't have the black freighter but still has everything else in it. Yeah again we could argue Jay and I was like was it a good adaptation of the comic? It's not your had his own ideas but it's a cool movie. It's a cool movie and I like it and I don't even mind the changes to be honest.
And I would show it to someone and be like hey if you like that read the book. Right exactly. It's a good way to get people in to be like hey you know this is actually kind of different. Let's read this have a book club and have a discussion about how authorial intent was different.
Seriously. Incidentally another event began during this time and it wouldn't I think it would officially kick off during this year but it started right around the beginning of this year which was Infinity Wars. Yes which felt like it took forever to get started and forever to end it just ended now. And it just finally stopped.
Yeah man I tell you what this is probably one of the only times I'll ever say this. I liked the prelude to infinity more than I actually liked infinity once it got rolling. Because it's like it hit a point where it's like okay well this is just Doug and ending his guardians yes so they'll be the main characters. No.
Okay well Gamora is the villain. Yeah but not really. Right. But there's Loki the main character who am I supposed to follow here?
Loki. One of his main characters. I love how Gamora is revealed to be Requiem in the first issue she's debuting. Yes.
Requiem is like I'm Requiem and Requiem is Gamora so you really don't need to call me Requiem at all actually. Although maybe there's multiple Requiem's throughout the universe but we never got to meet them. We were only told about them. Yeah and we'll never see them again but hey if you want to visit the Marvel equivalent of the amalgam universe we can.
Now you could feel Doug and kind of like you know die a little bit when they're like hey and put these non amalgam's in your story too. But that's not what I'm talking about. Yeah we'll do it. Yeah well that's rough.
Sorry for you. Yeah. There's another event. I guess it was more of a story arc but I think people are going to treat it like an event and that was the Spider-Man story go down swinging.
Oh yeah is that where he got split in half? No that was the red goblin. Oh right. That was the carnage goblin.
Dance Lots Big Finale. Dance Lots One Song and his final curtain on his Spider-Man run. Kale Splash Thompson and makes a neat looking bad guy that ultimately is way more powerful than the previous incarnation of the main guy the Denslot wanted to write about. He's like I want to do a story where it's Peter versus the goblin but I also want to sell a ton of books.
Books so what do I do? Carnage Goblin. What do I do? Carnage Goblin.
I love how everybody I think ourselves included thought it might be Mephisto. Yeah I wouldn't have had that been fun. And they were like no but we do know that you think that if it was Mephisto it might return the marriage but hey how about this? We bring it back anyway.
It's just as good. Right? But yeah I don't know if you haven't called an event but it was a neat little story that like had some genuine emotive moments. It's true.
I was a big fan that by the end Peter wasn't afraid to call all his other Spider-Friends for help like silk and like miles and like Flash. Yeah no I completely agree with that. That was a good idea. Can all my Spider-Friends please come and help me?
Yeah I have the... You all begged me to help you fight stupid energy vampires. Yeah you owe me one. You owe me one and his Red Goblin keeps whipping my ass all over the place.
We also need to establish that like what's his name? The Peter Parker is awesome and has to be the only one who can win. Yeah. What was it?
There were a couple more... Nah there's a lot more actually. You know what else launched that was Spider-Scentrick? We talked a little bit about it with Spider-Gibbon.
I read the Spider-Punk tie in which was like the first of the tie in and then I read nothing else afterwards. Yeah as I understand it we missed nothing by skipping. That's what I hear. But man Spider-Punk was cool though.
Yeah he's a cool video game costume. Boy yeah he's got a cool world too where everything's all sex-pissed. I agree with that. Yeah and making Hobie into him is cool.
Yeah I hope he makes it into that next into the Spider-Purse movie. I bet he does. There's no way he won't. There were a bunch of Wolverine stories that part of an event called the Hunt for Wolverine.