Author: ComicsJim

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 247 – Birds of Prey (2020)

Is it okay if I refer to the movie as Birds of Prey? Okay, for the rest of this post, the movie will be known as Birds of Prey.

If you don’t know, Birds of Prey has been going through an identity crisis over the last week since it has been released. Prior to February 7th, 2020, the movie was known as…

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation on One Harley Quinn

Here are some of the posters that were released for the movie…

After February 7th, I guess there was a group of people that did not know that Harley Quinn was in the movie. I can totally understand this. I mean, just look at those posters – they barely have Harley Quinn in any of them.

So the marketing geniuses at Warner Bros. Pictures decided to remame the movie…

Harley Quinn: The Birds of Prey

That is a perfect and succinct description in a title so there is no doubt that all your favorite characters from the DCEU are in this movie.

Now if this fails to draw the people into the theaters, then they are going with their 3rd revision of the title…

Batman and The Outsiders

Anyway, whatever you are calling this movie by the time of this post – we recommend that you run out and see this movie! It is a funny, fast paced, colorful crime heist that features some lesser know characters from the DC Universe (like Harley Quinn).

Jon and I review the movie – spoiler alert: WE BOTH LIKE IT ALOT! We talk about the original comic and the comic book versions of the characters and who well they translated to the movie. We give credit to Ewan McGregor for playing the not so well known, Black Mask and making it his own. We then reveal the Guardians of the Galaxy/Birds of Prey connection that you did not know existed until now and we end on the “nontroversy” of why its okay to have an all female cast of stars in a superhero movie.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 247

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 246 – Locke & Key TV Show on Netflix (2020)

Back in 2016, we had been creating podcasts for over a year and we decided to cover the comic series Locke & Key that was created by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Here is the Lock & Key podcast (sorry about the audio. We were still understanding how mics worked.)

Since that time, Locke & Key – the TV show has been in production hell. Even before we recorded that podcast – the story has been created, cast, shot and cancelled by multiple movie studios and networks that I did not think it would ever get created.

Now, it is February 2020 and Netflix has released the first season of Locke & Key the TV Show! Here is the trailer…

If this trailer does not intrigue you, then don’t bother watching the show! It looks fantastic. Since it stated this past Friday 2/7, Jon and I have only been able to watch 3 of the 10 episode season.

In this weeks podcast, we talk about what we watched, the casting of the characters and if there was any changes between the comic and the show – for better or worse. Overall, we both liked these initial shows and we will be doing a follow up podcast on the first season in 2 weeks.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 246

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 245 – The One (1985)

We’re back with another podcast covering comics and this week, we will be talking about a favorite of mine. A 6 issue miniseries called The One written and art by Rick Veitch.

The One was published under Marvel’s imprint called Epic Comics. Epic Comics was a creator owned comic that had the publishing support of Marvel Comics. We did a 2 part podcast on Epic Comics – they were known for telling mature, thought provoking stories that were different than the main stream superhero comics.

Here are some of the covers to The One…

I was a teenage in 1985 and I remember seeing the cover for issue #1 of the One (It’s a Tide parody) and wanting to know what this comic was all about.

Jon and I are reviewing the trade paperback that was self published through Rick Veitch under his imprint King Hell Publishing. The trade is in black and white but the original Epic Comics were in color.

The One is full of commentary on superhero comics, politics and religion. It was published before Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and I think most of Miracle Man. Rick explored what would our world really be like if governments really created superheroes. It is a fun story that Jon and I only scratch the surf of reviewing.

If you are interested in reading this comic, you can buy it digitally here through IDW Publishing. We highly recommend checking it out.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 245

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 244 – New Comic Review

It has been awhile since our last new comic review and there have been plenty of new comics released in the past few months so we wanted to talk about 4 that we think are exceptional!

You know the format that Jon and I use:

  • We review the 1st issue of a new comic.
  • This comic has been release within the last 3 months.
  • We keep the reviews to just the first issue so not to spoil too much.
  • We want you to check out all 4 books because we think they are worth your time.

I do the first review and then Jon does the second. We switch off until we get through all 4 books. So enough of the explanations! Let’s me show you the comics we talk about in podcast…

Review #1 – A Jim Review

Iron Man 2020 #1

Writers: Dan Slott and Christos Gage

Artist: Peter M. Woods

Publisher: Marvel

Review #2 – A Jon Review

Punisher: Soviet #1

Writer: Garth Ennis

Artist: Jacen Burrows

Publisher: Marvel Max

Review #3 – A Jim Review

Far Sector #1

Writer: N. K. Jemisin

Artist: Jamal Campbell

Publisher: DC under Young Animals imprint

Review #4 – A Jon Review

Strayed #1

Writer: Carlos Giffoni

Artist: Juan Doe

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

These are the 4 new series you should be reading, if you are not already. All have great creators with stories that will keep you interested.

Also, as a bit of bonus content. Here is a comparison of the 1984 Iron Man 2020 vs the Peter Woods’ Iron Man 2020. Which do you think is the the better design? I share my thoughts in the podcast.

That’s all for this week. See you in 7.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 244

ComicsJim

CM Podcast – Crisis on Infinite Earths CW Crossover Conclusion (2019 – 2020)

If you listened to our CW Crisis podcast, you know that we were only able to watch the first 3 parts of this crossover because the shows went on a mini-hiatus. You can listen to that podcast here.

Well, that hiatus is over and the final 2 parts have air. We are here to talk about Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover and look back at all 5 parts.

the 5 part crossover goes as follows:

Supergirl Part 1, Batwoman Part 2, The Flash Part 3, The Arrow Part 4 and finally, Legends of Tomorrow Part 5.

The final 2 parts explain the origins of The Anti-Matter Wave and how the Anti-Monitor came into existence. The remaining Paragons (our heroes) must make a final stand against the Anti-Monitor or face oblivion. Ultimately the heroes win…but at a cost!

One of these people will not show up for the following season.

Jon was disappointed at how episode 4 ended and he explains why but he feels there was a part in episode 5 that made up for it. I also explained to him why the thing he did not like was necessary and it made sense in the overall story arc.

We talk about the show and the many homages it pays to the original Crisis on Infinite Earth comic mini-series. The show even has Marv Wolfman in it – the guy who wrote the comic!

Crisis on Infinite Earths is not perfect but it is more than we both expected. In fact, we never would believe that we would be watching a TV show based on the Crisis comic. We salute you Marc Guggenheim and your writes for putting out some great shows and creating this miniseries.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 243

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 242 – Sentient (2019)

Welcome back to part 2 of our exploration of TKO Studios and their comics. Last week we reviewed Sara and this week we decided to give another of their comics a shot – Sentient.

Sentient is written by Jeff Lemire with all the art done by Gabriel Walta. These two creators go together like peanut butter and jelly. The result is a very tasty Sci Fi story that will have you burning through the issues to see how it ends.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast, TKO Studios has a very different business model when it comes to comics. They give you the entire story in one shot either with a Trade Paperback or 6 issues packaged together. You are expected to binge the comic. Jon and I enjoyed the book especially with art like this…

Gabriel Walta’s character and ship design are incredibly detailed. You can tell this was a real labor of love putting this together. Lemire’s plotting really matches Walta’s pacing.

In the podcast, we go over the story but keep it mostly spoiler free! We talk about what we liked and debate over other aspects. We also talk about other great Sci Fi stories that we thought about as we read it.

We highly recommend pick this book up as well as checking out other comics from TKO Studios. They are trying something different and it is working.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 242

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 241 – Sara (2018)

It’s the first podcast of the new decade! Happy 2020 everyone!

We will be covering a comic this week and it is a very interesting one – in both story and format.

The comic is called Sara – it is the tale of a Russian sniper during WW II. It is written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Epting and coloring by Elizabeth Breitweiser. It is published by TKO Studios.

The format of this comic is very interesting to me. TKO Studios has a very unique business model. They only release 6 issue stories and they release the issues all at once. You can purchase them in a trade paperback or in 6 issues in a collectors case. Their model is binge reading. Here are some of Steve Epting and Elizabeth Breitweiser’s work on the covers:

the Trade cover is on the left and one of the individual comic covers is on the right.

As I mentioned, the story is great – a well paced story with moments of quiet introspection juxtaposed with pages of violent action. Here is an example of the interior art work. Garth’s words and Epting/Breitweiser’s interiors make this book a pleasure to read.

one of the less bloody pages in the comic.

Jon and I highly recommend picking up this book. We talk about the pros and cons of TKO’s business models and does it make us want to purchase more of their products? (spoilers – it does).

Listen to the podcast for more,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 241

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 240 – 5th Annual Hazie Awards

We have reached the end of 2019. It has been another great year for comics. There were plenty of great comic books, comic related shows and movies that we covered here at Comics Misremembered.

Traditionally at the end of the year, most comic podcasts would do a review show of the best of the best comic related books, shows and movies but that’s not what we do here at the Comics Misremembered Podcast.

We like to cover comic related stories that happened through out the year that we thought were funny to us. The topics we cover are either a storyline, a story about a creator or comic company or any comic related tale that we want you to remember again. We called the award show The Hazies – because our memory is a little hazy.

I even went out and bought an actual award. I am not mailing it out to the winners (Sorry). I have been meaning to get one so here it is…

Listen to the podcast to find out who or what won this Hazie for these categories…

Dick Move Hazie

Killing Me Softly With His Love Hazie

Fear of a Female Planet Hazie

I Take My Coffee Black Like My Worldview Hazie

He Put The ‘No’ in Nostalgia Hazie

All these and many, many more were given out so tune in and have a laugh with us.

PS – Thanks to Emperor Palpatine to take some time out of his busy schedule promoting Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker to help us with our Hazie Award intro.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 240 – 5th Annual Hazie Awards

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 239 – JLA Earth 2 (2000)

Over the last few weeks, we have talked about DC’s 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries and how it retconned their multiverse into a single universe.

DC’s new single Earth universe would remain this way through several crossover events and one more crisis, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. It will not be until the year 2000 when writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely would introduce the concept of multiple Earths again with the stand alone comic, JLA Earth 2

These are the 2 covers of the initial release of JLA Earth 2 back in 2000.

I just want to talk about these covers for a second. Frank Quitely is a fantastic artist and he creates some amazing perspectives. I love how he literally has the mirror image of the JLA and CSA on these covers. The interiors are great too.

In this comic, we are reintroduced to The Crime Syndicate of Amerika who are now on the anti-matter world of Earth 2. Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, these villains were known as The Crime Syndicate of America and they resided on Earth 3.

The 2000 CSA (left) vs The 1960s CSA (right)

As I mentioned in the podcast, the 1960 Earth 3 Owlman looks dumb. He looks like a man wearing a owl hat. How is anyone supposed to be intimidated by that? But the 2000 update by Morrison and Quitely is as scary as the original Batman!

Corny 1960 Owlman (left) vs Terrifying 2000 Owlman (right)

Besides the amazing updates to all the costumes, Morrison and Quitely weave a compelling tale about what happens when a team that believes in truth and justice cross over to a world of pure evil. They explore Good vs Evil and show that these 2 concepts aren’t always black and white.

We also go over some of the real world events that happened back in 2000 and some of the history for the Justice League of America from 1985 – 2000.

Comics Misremembered Podcast 239

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 238 – Crisis on Infinite Earths CW Crossover (2019 – 2020)

A TV Event years in the making. First there was Invasion!, then Crisis on Earth-X and that lead into The Elseworlds Crossover and finally…

Jon and I were psyched a year ago when it announced that Crisis on Infinite Earths would be the next crossover event for the 5 CW Superhero shows.

Supergirl Part 1, Batwoman Part 2, The Flash Part 3, Legends of Tomorrow Part 4 and finally, The Arrow Part 5.

We have seen Parts 1 – 3. Parts 4 – 5 will not air until mid-January so we decided to review the parts that we saw, what we liked about them and how well did they capture the essence of the original comic miniseries.

Our Heroes

Also, below is the clip off YouTube that I was describing at the start of the podcast. This clip aired at the end of Supergirl Episode 8 2018 – the episode prior to the Elseworld Crossover. It is not mentioned much in other episodes but it is a very mysterious clip…

Why, Monitor?

Overall, Jon and I both like the show and what it is trying to do. We go into more detail on the podcast and we are looking forward to the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths!

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 238

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 237 – New Comic Review

It’s time for Jon and myself to do another round up of 4 new comics that have come out in the last month that we think you should go out and pick up at your local comic shop or online.

The 4 books we are reviewing are as follows:

The Last God #1 (of 12) (Jim Review 1)

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Pencils: Riccardo Federici

Colorists: Sunny Gho with Dean White

Publisher: DC Black Label

Folklords #1 (Jon Review 2)

Writer: Matt Kindt

Artist: Matt Smith

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

The Doll House Family #1 (of 5) (Jim Review 3)

Writer: Mike Carey

Artists: Peter Gross (layouts) and Vince Locke (finishes)

Publisher: DC Black Label – Joe Hill Comic Imprint

Undiscovered Country #1 (Jon Review 4)

Writers: Scott Snyder and Charles Soule

Artists: Daniele Orlandini and Giuseppe Camuncoli

Publisher: Image Comics

2 of the comics are fantasy, sword and sorcery comics and 2 are modern horror comics. All 4 are amazing reads and you should have them on your pull lists! Listen to the podcast for details on why we like the comics.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 237

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 236 – The Walking Dead Season 10 Mid-Season Finale

It’s the Walking Dead Season 10 Mid-Season Finale, where Jim and Jon review what they saw so far in the season and reveal if the show was spoiled with Jim’s patented Season Spoilers!

In this discussion we focus on the characters of Negan and Lydia. Both are outcasts living in a community that fears and hates them. They are draw together as kindred spirits but have separate destinies.

Negan gets put back in jail for having saved Lydia (but accidentally killed someone). He is sprung from the slammer by hero worshiper, Brandon. Brandon believes in the tall tales that his father used to tell him about Negan and the saviors. Negan wants to past to remain in the past but sometimes that past has a habit of catching up with you.

We discuss Negan’s character arc so far in Season 10 and guess at how he will handle his new alliance with the Whisperers.

Lydia finds out that Carol was only keeping her around to be bait to get Alpha to slip up so Carol can take her down. Lydia runs away and now Carol and her team must try to find her for fear of what reprisals Alpha will bring down if Lydia shows up in the Whisperers camp.

We go over the different scenarios of what will happen if Lydia is found by Alpha or Carol first.

We discuss Dante, Siddiq and Father Gabriel and their fates at the mid-season final. Does it fit with each character at how their roles played out?

Finally, I review the comic book spoilers and how accurate I was to the show.

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 236

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 235 – Crisis on Infinite Earths Pt. 2 (comic 1985)

Hello and welcome back to the 2nd and final part of our discussion on the epic miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths that came out in 1985.

The series was written by Marv Wolfman with art by George Perez (pencils) and Jerry Ordway (inks). It was originally published by DC.

We do a quick recap and then get right back into the discussion of the story. Issue #7 is perhaps the most important issue of the series. It is where we get the origin story of Monitor, Anti-Monitor and Pariah. It is also has the death of an important member of the DC Universe – Supergirl.

You knew something bad was going to happen just by looking at the cover to issue #7…

Look at the way Kara looks in Superman’s arms and the way that Superman is crying. Those are tear of pain. Everyone thought “Supergirl must get hurt pretty bad in this one.” No one expected a death! That was unheard of for a popular character to die in comics but DC and Marv were rewriting all the rules, baby!

I mentioned that this cover is also one of the most parodied covers in all of comicdom. I did a quick google search and her are some the the “homage” covers that I found…

There are many, many more that exist out there. It just goes to show you how influential this series and George Perez’s art was this this time.

There is another death too in issue #8. An even bigger death! Listen to the podcast to find out who!

At the end of the podcast, Jon and myself reflect on the series and give you the answer on “Would you recommend the series?” Our answers may shock you.

Jim

(in the podcast I mention we are recording in 2017. This is a misremebrance. We actually recorded this on 11/24/2019)

Comics Misremembered Podcast 235

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 234 – Crisis on Infinite Earths (comic 1985)

Last year the CW shows (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and Heroes of Tomorrow) did a crossover event – Elseworlds. At the end of the crossover, they teased their next crossover with this static image:

We were like “Are they actually going to do this? This story? On the CW shows?!!”

wrap around cover by Alex Ross for the 30th anniversary collection of ‘Crisis’

The original, seminal comic miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths came out in 1985 and it was one of the first “maxiseries – anything over 6 issues”. It was an epic tale and was a huge undertaking for the writer and artist. In this case:

Writer – Marv Wolfman

Artist – George Perez

Not only did these 2 creators tell a tale that spans dozens of worlds, with hundreds of characters over millions of years but it also served a purpose of realigning the DC universe to streamline it for new readers without alienation long time fans. It accomplishes both by the twelfth issue.

Here are some of the covers of the original miniseries:

In this week’s podcast, Jon and I go over the history of why Crisis on Infinite Earths was necessary to clean up continuity. We talk about our own histories on how we discovered the comic. We talk about the story and characters.

We can’t really say there are spoilers since this story is 35 years old and the basis on future Crisis events like Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. In fact, all the plot twist that happened in this series have pretty much been retconned 3 or 4 times now.

Join us next week for the conclusion of our discussion on Crisis on Infinite Earths!

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 234

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 233 – The Immortal Hulk (# 6 – 10)

Welcome back to Comics Misremembered Podcast. We are continuing our discussion on The Immortal Hulk. We are going over the 2nd story arc (issues 6 – 10) which is called “The Green Door“.

Let’s reintroduce the creators of this grand tale:

Writer: Al Ewing

Artists: Jon Bennet, Lee Garbett, Martin Simmons

Inkers: Ruy Jose, Le Beau Underwood & Rafael Fonteriz

Colorist: Paul Mounts

We start with the Hulk still at large and now being pursued by The Avengers for all the destruction he has caused since his resurrection. The Avengers confront Bruce Banner…

A fight ensues and the Hulk almost gets away but Tony Stark pulls out his Ace in the Hole – The Helios Weapon and knocks the Immortal Hulk out.

The Hulk is turned over to the United States Hulk Operations AKA Shadow Base. This is a military organization run by the General Reginald “Reggie” Fortean – the premiere hulk hunter. He has plans for Bruce Banner and The Immortal Hulk but I don’t think Bruce or the Hulk will cooperate willingly with those plans…

We continue the story and review of The Immortal Hulk in the podcast.

***Warning – There are spoilers in the podcast!!***

Jon and I both agree that this is will ultimately be an epic story run and will have a profound impact on Hulk lore for years to come. We highly recommend that you pick up the 2 trades we reviewed and continue on with the story.

Also, I referenced A Tell-Tale Heart on the podcast specifically mentioning a animated short from the 1950s that was narrated by James Mason. I found the clip on YouTube! Here it is:

Thanks for listening,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 233