Episode 245: The Alpha Flight Episode
The Comics Canon
All My Xs, our miniseries on Marvel Comics’ X-Men, takes a little detour to introduce the Canadian superteam Alpha Flight in 1979’s Uncanny X-Men #120-#121 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and 1983’s Alpha Flight #1 by John Byrne! First, the Canadian government wants Wolverine back – and if his friends in the X-Men get in the way, well, too bad for them! Next, Alpha Flight gets their own ongoing title, just in time to lose their government funding! And to make matters worse, they still have to deal with the gargantuan menace of Tundra! Can the X-Men stop a group of government...
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Episode 244: The Closet
The Comics Canon
Halloween is right around the corner, so we’re temporarily hitting pause on All My Xs (again) to revive our horror series Tomb of the Crypt and discuss The Closet, by James Tynion IV, Gavin Fullerton and Chris O’Halloran, published by Image Comics! Things aren’t going particularly well for Thom. He and his wife Maggie are packing for a cross-country, and his son Jamie keeps talking about a monster in his bedroom closet. If only the kid would give this monster thing a rest – they’re going to be in Portland in a week, and that closet will be a continent away! Problem solved, right?...
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Episode 243: New X-Men – E Is for Extinction
The Comics Canon
Superstar writer Grant Morrison updates the X-Men for the 21st century as All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel’s mega-popular mutant franchise, continues with a discussion of E Is for Extinction – specifically, New X-Men issues #114-117 and #121 – by Morrison, Frank Quitely and Ethan Van Sciver, published by Marvel Comics! It’s not a shock that the writer behind Vertigo’s The Invisibles would remake the X-Men into a cooler-than-thou team of leather-jacketed badasses. But what might come as a surprise is just how over-the-top dark and edgy this book gets – and...
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Episode 242: Weapon X
The Comics Canon
After , All My Xs, our decade-by-decade look at Marvel’s X-Men franchise, returns with 1991’s Weapon X, written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith! Originally serialized in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, this Wolverine story largely focuses on three members of the shadowy Weapon X program, which captures a scrappy loner named Logan, gives him an adamantium skeleton and claws, and turns him into a ruthless killing machine. Will the evil Professor, along with Dr. Cornelius and Carol Hines, suffer any consequences for what they’ve done? What’s the deal with that twist, anyway? And can...
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Episode 241: A Contract With God (With Elliott Kalan)
The Comics Canon
Content warning: Sexual assault, pedophilia On this episode, we welcome co-host, current Harley Quinn writer and former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart head writer Elliott Kalan for a discussion of the 1978 graphic novel A Contract With God, written and illustrated by Will Eisner! This collection of standalone stories, centered around a fictional tenement building in the Bronx, finds Eisner (perhaps best known as the creator of ) drawing on his own life to examine the relationship between man and God and the Jewish-American experience in 1930s New York. Can Frimme Hersh, filled with grief...
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Episode 240: X-Men – God Loves, Man Kills
The Comics Canon
Content warning: Gun violence, including against children Our decade-by-decade miniseries on the X-Men, All My Xs, reaches the 80s with a look at the 1982 standalone graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, published by Marvel Comics! The X-Men have faced evil mutants, sinister aliens and even a sentient island, but they may be up against their toughest opponent yet: a white-haired televangelist! The Reverend William Stryker doesn’t just preach hatred of mutants to his millions of followers – he also employs a paramilitary strike force known as the...
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Episode 239: X-Men – The Phoenix Saga
The Comics Canon
All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel’s merry mutant franchise, rolls into the 1970s with a look at The Phoenix Saga from X-Men #101, 104-105 and 107-108, published by Marvel Comics! Superstar writer Chris Claremont starts coming into his own in these issues, which introduce the Phoenix, reestablish Magneto as the X-Men’s primary big bad, and inject a healthy dose of space opera (and more than a few Star Trek shoutouts) into this once-moribund title! And if that weren’t enough, artist extraordinaire Dave Cockrum hands the book off to blockbuster artist John Byrne,...
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Episode 238: X-Men – The Sentinels Live! and In the Shadow of … Sauron!
The Comics Canon
In this episode, we kick off All My Xs, a decade-by-decade look at everyone’s favorite Marvel mutants, the X-Men! First up, it’s the swingin’ 60s – 1969, to be exact, and X-Men #57-61, by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, published by Marvel Comics! Adams’s creative and energetic artwork enlivens these issues, in which Scott Summers’ brother, Alex, gets a cool costume to go with his new codename, Havok, and Larry Trask revives his late father’s mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels! And before they can catch their breath, the X-Men find themselves facing off against the energy-draining...
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Episode 237: The Mighty Thor – And Now … Galactus!
The Comics Canon
Galactus makes his big-screen debut this week in Fantastic Four: First Steps*, which means it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss his second-ever comics appearances in The Mighty Thor – specifically, issues #160-162 and 168-169, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, published by Marvel Comics! (For his comics debut, we humbly direct you to ) First, it’s the war to settle the score, the brawl to end it all, as the Devourer of Worlds squares off against none other than Ego the Living Planet! And the Son of Odin and the Rigellian robot known as the Recorder are caught in the middle! It’s classic...
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Episode 236: JLA – Tower of Babel
The Comics Canon
On this episode, the upcoming Superman movie has us in a Justice League frame of mind, which is as good an excuse as any to discuss the classic Tower of Babel storyline, as collected in JLA #43-46 by Mark Waid, Howard Porter and Steve Scott, and JLA Secret Files #3, by Dan Curtis Johnson and Pablo Raimondi, published by DC Comics! Batman’s longtime nemesis Ra’s al Ghul unleashes a plan to cull the world’s population, and to ensure his success he proactively incapacitates the members of the Justice League! How does he do that? Funny you should ask! Turns out the Dark Knight Detective...
info_outlineOn this episode, We’re With the Banned, our miniseries on banned and challenged graphic novels, takes on the most banned book of the past several years – Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, published by Lion Forge Comics/Oni Press!
We discuss some fairly personal topics and fumble a bit (although not as much as we may have feared) with the author’s preferred pronouns (e, em, and eir) as we discuss Kobabe’s account of eir struggles with gender dysphoria and other issues on the road to identifying as nonbinary.
It’s an important work, especially in our current cultural moment. But is that enough to guarantee entry into that bastion of One Direction fandom known as … The Comics Canon?
In This Episode:
· The Spivak pronouns
· A brief discussion of Barbarian
· Bad news from the future
· How did we end up talking about typing class?
· Curt’s review of Thunderbolts*
· Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games
Join us in two weeks as We’re With the Banned continues with a discussion of Daniel Clowes’ Ice Haven!
Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!