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...
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Episode 235: Tails of the Super-Pets
The Comics Canon
On this episode, we’re getting ready for the July 11 big-screen debut of Krypto the Super-Dog in James Gunn’s Superman with a look at the Silver Age origins of Krypto and his fellow members of the Legion of Super-Pets, as collected in Tails of the Super-Pets, published by DC Comics! First, Superboy is reacquainted with his childhood pet and uses him to gaslight Lana Lang in “The Super-Dog From Krypton!” Then, Superbaby, the Toddler of Steel, butts heads with another denizen of his former homeworld in “The Super Monkey From Krypton!” Not to be outdone, Supergirl gets in on the...
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Episode 234: Swamp Thing – Rite of Spring and Windfall
The Comics Canon
On this episode, we discuss a Swamp Thing story that we’re surprised didn’t qualify for our recently wrapped We’re With the Banned miniseries on banned and challenged comics -- Rite of Spring from Saga of the Swamp Thing #34, as well as its sequel, Windfall from Saga of the Swamp Thing #43, by Alan Moore and various artists, published by DC Comics! First up, Abigail Cable finally professes her love for our sentient vegetable man. And in lieu of sexytimes, he offers her communion via a bite of one of the tubers growing on his body, sending her on a consciousness-altering trip that shows...
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Episode 233: Ice Haven
The Comics Canon
We’re With the Banned, our miniseries on banned and challenged graphic novels, concludes (at least for now) with a stop at Daniel Clowes’ Ice Haven, a “narraglyphic picto-assemblage” published by Pantheon Books! A collection of comic strips covering a variety of styles and perspectives, this peek behind the curtain of suburban America introduces us to an absorbing cast of characters including bitter would-be poet Random Wilder, lovesick teen Violet Van Der Platz, her young stepbrother Charles, clueless detective Joe Ames, aspiring writer Vida Wentz, and … (ahem!) comic book critic...
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Hey, Where’s My New Comics Canon?
The Comics Canon
We’re afraid you’ll have to wait another week for our episode on Daniel Clowes’ Ice Haven. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait a whole week to hear Curt and Kevin talk at length about comics. In fact, you can hear them render judgment on some fun comic-book stories of yesteryear this very day! Confused? Kevin’s here to explain.
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Episode 232: Gender Queer
The Comics Canon
On 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....
info_outlineOn this episode, we’re getting ready for the July 11 big-screen debut of Krypto the Super-Dog in James Gunn’s Superman with a look at the Silver Age origins of Krypto and his fellow members of the Legion of Super-Pets, as collected in Tails of the Super-Pets, published by DC Comics!
First, Superboy is reacquainted with his childhood pet and uses him to gaslight Lana Lang in “The Super-Dog From Krypton!” Then, Superbaby, the Toddler of Steel, butts heads with another denizen of his former homeworld in “The Super Monkey From Krypton!”
Not to be outdone, Supergirl gets in on the act when she meets Streaky the Supercat in “Supergirl’s Super Pet” before embarking on the absolutely bonkers origin of Comet in “The Super-Steed of Steel” and “The Secret Origin of Supergirl’s Super-Horse!”
Will Krypto’s star turn usher in the SPCU – the Super-Pet Cinematic Universe? And are these Krypto bros ready for their close-up in that Amazing Zoo Crew known as … The Comics Canon?
In This Episode:
· The troubling male/female dynamic in Silver Age comics
· We have to talk about Superbaby
· Superman’s questionable marketing tactics
· Big Girls by Jason Howard
· The Secret Life of Bat-Hound
· Companion
Join us in two weeks as we discuss JLA: Tower of Babel (JLA #43-46) by Mark Waid, Howard Porter and Steve Scott!
Until then:
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