Funny Book Forensics 282 F#$@ing Midnighter

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Well, it's happening. We're here, and there's a crossbow on. [00:00:11] Speaker B: The COVID We're back with a crossbow. [00:00:14] Speaker A: On the COVID which means we're getting the huntress. Right? [00:00:18] Speaker B: Yes. I can't believe we've changed books. We are moving forward. We are out of the midnighter, and we are jumping into. [00:00:26] Speaker A: We're on to the huntress. Right? [00:00:27] Speaker B: Yes. Excellent. She has a. [00:00:32] Speaker A: I believe it's Helena Bertinelli. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Yes. You wanted to read something different this week. [00:00:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I did. Or Helena Wayne. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Huntress, the original. [00:00:41] Speaker B: But it could be either one of. [00:00:43] Speaker A: And you would be happy. Yeah. Like Birds of prey, or should I say harlequin in the birds of Prey? Because Harlequin's been in the birds of Prey so often in the comics. [00:00:55] Speaker B: Yes. And in the movie. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Right. Well, that's why it was Harlequin and the Birds of Prey, not the birds of Prey. Including Harlequin. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Okay, just clarify that there. I see. Wow. You are coming through hot on this mic, and I am coming through quiet. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Am I really? [00:01:12] Speaker A: I don't know what's going on there. [00:01:14] Speaker B: I told you, this audio thing is just jacked up. [00:01:19] Speaker A: Well, that's okay. I'll level eight you later. [00:01:22] Speaker B: Levelate me later. [00:01:24] Speaker A: John from the mothership, who has failed to join us yet again. This. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Wait, he's not here? [00:01:29] Speaker A: No. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Son of a donkey. [00:01:31] Speaker A: He's never here. [00:01:32] Speaker B: He said he was coming. [00:01:35] Speaker A: He. He said Cthulhu has its tentacles in all forms of social media. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Well, damn it, Ricky Bobby. [00:01:44] Speaker A: Except funny book forensics. [00:01:47] Speaker B: Wait, is Kenrick around? [00:01:49] Speaker A: Is Kenrick around? When did we invite Kenrick? [00:01:52] Speaker B: Never. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Okay, well, for those of you that don't know, John and Kenrick are the co hosts and producers for Greg the Spoiler verse or spoiler country? Spoiler country has many, many. You know, the funny thing about John and Kenrick is if we're looking at the spoiler, it's. It's interesting because I don't know. I mean, I'm just getting into spoiler verse. Let's jump into SCPod. Net right here. Yeah, it's SCPoD. ScPod. Net. ScPod. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Net. [00:02:32] Speaker A: But if you just look for spoiler verse online, you're going to get know. It's really interesting if we look at the mean. If we're really getting into it. I think wE're getting second fiddle stars because let's face, like, Casey Allen is the know star of Spoiler. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Who's Casey Allen? [00:02:59] Speaker A: You know, the one that does all the interviews with all the comic book people. [00:03:03] Speaker B: I don't listen. [00:03:07] Speaker A: What? [00:03:10] Speaker B: That was the best real response. Like, that was not even planned or canned. Dan was like, wait, what? You don't. I know who. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Well, I mean, so Kenrick and John chew up Casey's work, and then Casey delivers, and then, like, any, know, project manager or corporate boss, Kenrick and John come back at the end and take all the credit for know. It's pretty amazing. [00:03:36] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. But there's just your real time take. Like, it was like a. What? Wait, you don't know who this person is? Yes, I do. [00:03:43] Speaker A: Well, the good news is, know now we've really encouraged John and Casey and Kenrick to all come on our show. John, you wanted an advertisement for the spoiler Verse, my friend. Here it is. Casey Allen does amazing interviews. It is true. [00:04:00] Speaker B: 100% true. On the spoiler verse, Casey. [00:04:03] Speaker A: On the spoiler verse, Casey Allen is Cthulhu Unchained? [00:04:10] Speaker B: I don't even know. Could Cthulhu be held down into the ocean with chains? I don't even know if a sea captain. [00:04:20] Speaker A: That sounds very DC Comics, and we're on to DC Comics today. Like, Cthulhu Unchained. [00:04:26] Speaker B: Well, like, I'm like. I'm just thinking, if I was a sea captain and the only thing I had to do to fight Cthulhu, if Cthulhu was rising out of the, like, I would drop anchor and I would give it three, four, five shots off the. Like, I would let all the line out right on Cthulhu, and that would be the whole entire thing. There would be no more chain. [00:04:46] Speaker A: And the title of that book would be Infinite Crisis. Cthulhu Unchained, the cry for Justice. And that would be the ultimate DC title. [00:04:54] Speaker B: Oh, that would actually be pretty epic. Oh, man. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I just combined every random DC title I could think of. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Like, I love know, you know who the best captain of the boat would be if there was a captain? No. Midnighter. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's fair. I guess. You're going to force me to. Well, no, you're listening to Funny book forensics. You should be listening to all the great interviews on the spoiler verse. See how I queued you up there? It was amazing. [00:05:31] Speaker B: Did I say it right? Did I say it right? [00:05:33] Speaker A: This is how we advertise, my friend. That was the best plug ever. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:05:40] Speaker A: I can't think of a better way to plug. [00:05:41] Speaker B: I can't either. And if that just doesn't get you where the feelings are and you like something a little darker, go on. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Oh, jeez. Yeah, we can plug your stuff at the end. Let's get into the topic. Fine. Okay, fine. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Wow. [00:06:01] Speaker A: We spent the whole, like. Yeah, okay, so we'll plug your stuff at the end. None of this nerds from the crypt stuff up front. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Okay. I was so nice during our meeting yesterday to let everyone talk instead of myself, right? And this is the thanks I get. [00:06:20] Speaker A: And I just took over. So here's midnighter. We've got Helena Wayne Bertinelli, Huntress, Spiral Agent Queen. What was she, spiral number 26 or something like that? Spiral number 130. [00:06:37] Speaker B: I don't know, but she's got the. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Cross on her shirt, like the old huntress costume from the. Make sure to drive home that you've fucked up one of my favorite characters once again. Well, it's just factual. Sorry. I've now ruined our family friendly podcast. But he said words like, how many times can. I mean, the crisis messed up the huntress, right? Because then they couldn't have Earth two Batman anymore, and then you couldn't have Helena Wayne, and then you got Helena Bertinelli, and then that was cool. And birds of prey and all that. And now you get whatever the hell this is. [00:07:19] Speaker B: Well, this whatever it is, right? It looks epic. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Sure. We do get. Oh, Orlando, Messina, Carlucci and Fahardo Jr. So we don't get AcO. We have another backup artist. Yeah, and Spiral takes aim. So we got a whole bunch of lasers focused on the Midnighter. Did he get his magic powers of seeing everything around him back last time? [00:07:49] Speaker B: Yes. I don't think they were gone. I think he just got. [00:07:53] Speaker A: Just temporary. Temporarily while he's thought Prometheus. His ex. Yeah, his catfish lover ex. Okay, well, this is great. Is he in an aquarium? Like, what's going on? [00:08:05] Speaker B: It looks like it. It looks like. Are those fishy fishes? [00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, if they were fishy, there's a. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Shark up there very pissed. [00:08:13] Speaker A: If one of those fishies got hurt. [00:08:15] Speaker B: Oh, man, there's a shark up there and everything. Whoa. That's cool. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Do you know about Lobo and his fishies? [00:08:21] Speaker B: Do tell. [00:08:23] Speaker A: Well, Lobo has some space dolphins he takes care of, and if somebody kills his fishies, he gets very upset and goes and takes them out. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Oh, man. That's like that episode of SpongeBob where they're looking and there's some, like, they go into interdimensional galaxy and, like, oh, maybe that's in the movie. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Well, let's turn the page. [00:08:43] Speaker B: Well, no, no, but there's, like, Space dolphins. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there are space dolphins. And I think we should turn the page, because we get the Dark Knight returns the Last Crusade by Frank Miller. Who's that? [00:08:54] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Has he written things? [00:08:56] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:08:58] Speaker A: How about Brian Azarello? Has he written things? [00:09:00] Speaker B: Maybe. Sounds familiar. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Unpopular opinion. Brian Azzarello. Better than Miller. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Oh, for shame. [00:09:09] Speaker A: And we get some my favorite, John Romita Jr. [00:09:12] Speaker B: I don't know who that guy is. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they got Bill Sinkowicz to ink over him. And that's the only reason this art is tolerable. Okay, before I insult all the creators on Dark Knight Returns last Crusade, let's turn the page. [00:09:28] Speaker B: You're so cruel. [00:09:29] Speaker A: I am fired up today. Greg. We are into midnighter. I can't be anything but excited about this. Rochester, New York, beneath the flower city and all of the subways in Rochester, New York, because Rochester, New York is known for their underground trains and subways. [00:09:46] Speaker B: That's right. It's where things happen. [00:09:49] Speaker A: We have a. Looks like a gorilla grod with rhinoceros horns. [00:09:55] Speaker B: Oh, man, that is something you don't want to mess with. [00:09:58] Speaker A: No, but he gets shot really quick. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Bang. Right in the head. That sucks. [00:10:03] Speaker A: How? Right in the. Oh, wow. Pronouncing this the whole episode is going to be fun. Welcome to M. Dawe. [00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a mdaway. [00:10:23] Speaker A: For those of you that don't know, Dominic M. Dawe is also known as Freedom BeaSt. During his country's apartheid regime, Dominic was arrested for taking pictures of racially motivated acts of violence being committed by white, African or policemen, which we learn nothing about here. He was rescued by animal man and Bonabeast. Now, if Bonabeast showed up here, too, that would be pretty freaking amazing. [00:10:54] Speaker B: It would be pretty cool, but it's probably not going to happen. [00:10:57] Speaker A: He was created by Grant Morrison, but like in Animal man number 13 in 1989. And that would have been great, but, well, anyway, okay. By the way, according to this wiki, he dies in 2009, a good seven years before this book. In Justice League, cry for justice number one. See, I told you. If you just combine Cris Infinite cry for justice and put a name in there, you have the name of every DC spinoff short miniseries. [00:11:37] Speaker B: That is. That is pretty wild. We're going to take that one to the bank someday. [00:11:43] Speaker A: And he was killed by Prometheus. [00:11:46] Speaker B: What? And now he's back alive again after Prometheus is dead. Whoa. One must die so the other can walk the earth. [00:11:56] Speaker A: There can only be one Greg Highlander. Well, it's. [00:12:03] Speaker B: I love those cars. They're pretty cool. [00:12:05] Speaker A: I don't want to get too distracted. But I can just imagine your co host from a certain show listening to this podcast and just hating every freaking minute of it. [00:12:16] Speaker B: What are you talking about? [00:12:18] Speaker A: Exactly. So now let's go secret. Let's see. So who is midnighter? No secret. I'm a fighter. I'm always on the clock. Sounds like a lot. I was experimented on as a kid. My God, how many times does he have to retell that? You know what? The only thing I know about the freaking characters in this comic is that midnighter fights and he was experimented on as a kid. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:49] Speaker A: Have we learned anything? And, oh, by the way, on page two of the comic, they're going to tell me again about his blind enhancements from last issue. Recap. Recap. All right. Are we to the castle yet? [00:13:06] Speaker B: I will tell you, honestly, I think it's mainly for those who don't know anything about the character as opposed to those of us who are following along with Every issue, but those who are just, like, picking up an issue every week. That's for the one off readers. But, yeah, it is something that when I am writing issues of things, I dislike the recapping, everything I tend to nuke, but, well, and we get to. [00:13:44] Speaker A: The next page, and he's talking about killing Prometheus again, but he doesn't mention Prometheus, so if we were really building up the previous story, that might be a good mention. Yeah, but he says he punched the guy's face through his brain or something. Like, know, always starting out well. [00:14:00] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Punched his brain. Face, brain. [00:14:09] Speaker A: And now we're introduced to Robert's roommate, Will. Okay, cool. What do we learn about Will and Robert? We know Robert's making a documentary on Midnighter. Still, nothing's changed. Yeah, and Will's his roommate. Cool. Do I care about any of these people? [00:14:32] Speaker B: There's nothing to be invested in outside of the fact that they're just there talking to Midnighter. [00:14:40] Speaker A: Awesome. So we have some characters. [00:14:44] Speaker B: He could be at the bar hanging out with any of those folks, talking to them. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Well, he probably was. I mean, let's be realistic. [00:14:54] Speaker B: And then they had to add in other characters. [00:14:58] Speaker A: Yep. Well, we got Midnighter writer Steve Orlando, Dave Messina, penciler. There's our guest, Gertin Gaetan, Carlucci inks. Rob Mulo, Fahardo Jr. Colors, Tom Napolitano, Letters, AcO, and Fahardo Jr. On the COVID Brittany Holzer, assistant editor. Chris Conroy and Alex Anton, editors. This comic was so badly written and needed two editors. I mean, Mark Doyle, group editor, we've changed up some editorial staff here going into issue number eight. [00:15:37] Speaker B: I mean, in some situations, in some ways, from my own experience, when you're writing for, I want to say, like one storyline, but trying to put in different properties that mash together. You have editorial that works on those other properties, so they try to work with those things to make sure everything lines up. So maybe that's what they're trying to do. Maybe making sure that everything kind of is cohesive and fits together. ThIs is my benefit of the doubt. Right. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Okay. Well, this story was so impactful that they didn't bother to update Dominic Mdongwe's DC database page with. [00:16:20] Speaker B: There's not even a Wikipedia. I'm going to go in and do it myself. [00:16:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we should probably update that. His last appearance was not in Justice League Cry for Justice. Justice League cry for Justice. [00:16:33] Speaker B: Number one, he was in an issue, a one off issue of Midnighter. [00:16:40] Speaker A: He seems very killable as a character. [00:16:42] Speaker B: That's unfortunate. [00:16:45] Speaker A: Well, Rochester, seconds before. Don't worry, we're going to hunt some more. All right, this is fun. Is this like a Spider man issue, right? [00:16:57] Speaker B: It felt like it, yeah, like, hey. [00:16:59] Speaker A: We'Ve got this guy that hunts animals. Who's that character again? [00:17:05] Speaker B: The. Wait, the guy that hunts things? [00:17:11] Speaker A: The Raven. The Raven. Then it kill Raven. [00:17:17] Speaker B: Kill Raven. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Like the Raven. [00:17:22] Speaker B: Nevermore. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Quoth yeah, I would love to see, in fact, this comic book made better by a drunken high 90s wrestler hunting things. [00:17:36] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Wait, what if it was just Mickey Rourke? [00:17:50] Speaker A: Well, on that note, giant Sabertooth Tiger thing appears and being all the characters, rides a motorcycle toward it and throws an engine at it. Because Midnighter's first response to everything is to kill it. [00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's already seen the fight. He knows how it's going to end. He has to kill it. [00:18:17] Speaker A: And then there's some people trapped under a 18 wheeler. And then Dominic, who, we don't know who he is, but he's got a. I guess we don't know who he is yet. Oh, we did because. Well, we don't because he's masked now, but I can assume he's the guy that came off the plane with spectacular abs and a very large package. [00:18:39] Speaker B: It's true. He does have. [00:18:44] Speaker A: So, Greg Fox, if you're listening, this looks like one of your artistic pieces. Shout out to you. Don't worry, I don't own one. And put your phones away. Okay, so he rescues the guy, and he stops midnighter from fighting the giant beast. Okay, this is fun. And oh, hey. On the next page, we find out he's connected to the red. And I only know that because we get the same red background that always shows up in animal man. And so he takes these animals apart and converts them back. We've got a leopard and an efflent. [00:19:30] Speaker B: He takes them apart and puts them back together again. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and he explains in some exposition that he's Dominic M. Dalway and that these animals are created by an illegal hunt club. The sportsman's ambition. Sounds fascinating. I feel like the sportsman's ambition probably was. Was that the name of the Russians at the Olympic this year? Because, you know, they were banned, right? So they had to go by another name. So do you think they were just called the Sportsman's ambition? [00:20:02] Speaker B: Maybe. [00:20:04] Speaker A: I kind of like it. That's better than the ROC. [00:20:10] Speaker B: Perhaps. [00:20:11] Speaker A: So, the sportsman's ambition, I kind of like it. I mean, they would totally be led by their gracious country leader, right? Shirtless riding bears through the woods. [00:20:22] Speaker B: We are the sportsman's ambition. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Well, anyway, we have more things happen and more fighting happens. Looks like we're going to have a nice story. I thought that spiral was on the front. Why is this all about, like. Yeah, I don't know. [00:20:39] Speaker B: It's all about. Well, that's how these stories start, man. If I've learned anything from reading these Midnighter books, it starts out with one thing and then curveball. There is a twist. It goes into a different direction completely. [00:20:53] Speaker A: Great. It starts with an earthquake. [00:20:57] Speaker B: It does birds, snakes and mean, if that's what you're mean. It could be exactly that. [00:21:07] Speaker A: What if we just took lyrics from REM Songs and then themed every midnighter book off of them? [00:21:15] Speaker B: I don't think that's going to work the way you want it to as much as you want it to. [00:21:23] Speaker A: As you can tell, I'm very interested by this book. Oh, now we get a spider. I love spiders. It looks like a spider. [00:21:30] Speaker B: Just like, kill it. Kill it. Kill it with fire. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Please kill it. This is fun. And Midnighter is going to fight a giant spider. And then Midnighter is going to get shot by a guy who looks like angry white guy who kills things. [00:21:51] Speaker B: He'S getting into a fight with. [00:21:56] Speaker A: Midnighter's chatting with him while he's got a gun to his head. Did you think he could sneak up on me? This guy's pretty dumb because he hasn't shot in midnighter yet. Yeah, but midnighter points out that his bones are carbon fiber and his muscles are supercharged. I can hit you faster than the eye can see. That means I can hit you before you pull the trigger. Get ready to go to school. So now Midnighter has as many superpowers as Martian Manhunter. [00:22:25] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:22:30] Speaker A: All right, well, he takes this guy out, and he's ready to go, and then he throws the guy away and. Yeah, it's just exciting. [00:22:42] Speaker B: Oh, man, it gets rough. [00:22:47] Speaker A: He gets a hold of Dominic, and Dominic changes the bad guy into a mosquito guy. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Oh, dude. [00:22:58] Speaker A: And then Midnighter kills him. [00:23:03] Speaker B: No, he doesn't. That's the twist. [00:23:07] Speaker A: Oh, he doesn't? Midnight or no, it's over. Let nature rule from here. Let the mosquito go. Okay. And then a bat kills the mosquito. So that makes it. [00:23:17] Speaker B: Okay? [00:23:17] Speaker A: That makes it better. If you want to kill somebody, but you don't do it. But then you put them into a situation where they die. That means you're absolved of all guilt. [00:23:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Circle of life, right? [00:23:32] Speaker A: So, like, if I wanted to kill my puppy dog, I could just take her and abandon her in a den of lions, and then I would not have killed her. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Why would you even do that? [00:23:43] Speaker A: Well, I'm just relating it to what's happening in the story. I'm not saying I would do that. She's happily sleeping on the bed over here. [00:23:49] Speaker B: That was messed up analogy. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Well, I mean, it's what it is. And they're so happy about it. At the end, they just murdered someone. [00:23:59] Speaker B: It's true. Yeah, I know. They're having a big old pow wow, like, camp out, and they're like, yeah, well. [00:24:04] Speaker A: And it just seems out of Dominic. I don't know, a lot of the Dominic history. I'd have to go back and reread some animal man back in the day. But those were good books back then, those late 80s, early 90s. Animal man were really good. But the motivation here of the character, he's about freedom and opposing apartheid and supporting the animal kingdom, and yet he's murdering people and smiling about. [00:24:33] Speaker B: I mean, seems weird he turned the man into a mosquito and then sent him on his way. He didn't really murder him. I mean, nature did. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Nature did it. Yeah. Well, we get to the next page, and Marina Lucas is getting out of. [00:24:52] Speaker B: How many issues? How many issues? [00:24:53] Speaker A: How many mean, she's, like, technically, was it like issue three or issue two? [00:24:58] Speaker B: Okay, issue two. So, I mean, she's been there, kind of on the fringe, and now she's there. [00:25:07] Speaker A: Oh, he's still stalking her. And he's there in a Trans Am from the 70s. [00:25:13] Speaker B: He's like her big bro picking up. [00:25:19] Speaker A: He's looking a lot like Nathan Fillian if he had a black duster. [00:25:24] Speaker B: A black Duster. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Nathan Fillian starring as midnighter. [00:25:32] Speaker B: Are you trying to make a pitch? [00:25:35] Speaker A: I think I am. [00:25:37] Speaker B: I would say if Nathan Fillian was like, if they had pitched us back in the 90s, right after Firefly, 100%. [00:25:46] Speaker A: Nathan Fillion in a black duster. Nathan Fillian, the wise cracking superhero. Nathan Fillion telling you that he has a computer for a brain. [00:25:58] Speaker B: I think he could have been midnighter back, like, right after Firefly. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Nathan Fillian having hot gay sex with. [00:26:11] Speaker B: Any dude. [00:26:13] Speaker A: He comes across blonde actor playing Apollo there. [00:26:19] Speaker B: You. [00:26:23] Speaker A: Gotta. I gotta think about this now. [00:26:25] Speaker B: You're like, I want to see. [00:26:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, what would it be? [00:26:31] Speaker B: Who would it be? [00:26:35] Speaker A: Nathan Fillion. Let's see. I think I have an idea. [00:26:41] Speaker B: Okay. [00:26:42] Speaker A: I think I have an idea. Nathan Fillian, Liam Hemsworth, Midnighter and Apollo. [00:26:51] Speaker B: I still think Nathan Fillian is too old now for the Midnighter role. [00:26:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:27:00] Speaker B: I think we need a younger midnighter. [00:27:04] Speaker A: How do you know that Midnighter is not a silver daddy? [00:27:08] Speaker B: I mean, maybe there's a lot of. [00:27:10] Speaker A: Leather going on there. [00:27:11] Speaker B: There's a lot of leather. There is a lot of leather. [00:27:15] Speaker A: Well, on that note, we'll move on. He leaves, he introduces her, gives her a car, goes away. And now he does have healing powers too. [00:27:27] Speaker B: I didn't think about this. You're right. I mean, he could totally be a silver daddy. [00:27:31] Speaker A: It's possible. [00:27:33] Speaker B: You opened my eyes to something new today. [00:27:35] Speaker A: This is upsetting. It's your playbook, Midnighter. Agent 37 in front of me. Think I'd forget? Oh, great, they're back. I love spiral. We're getting them at the enD. Spiral is my favorite. Especially Spiral with Huntress. [00:27:54] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:58] Speaker A: Well, they say he's gotten native. And they're probably right. He's been trying to hook up with everybody at the bar. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yes. [00:28:09] Speaker A: Oh, hey, look, we have a weapon. The British pistol. The latest potential disaster across my desk. Is one of yours. One of your first cases after you walked out on the gardener. You brought it in. Someone took it from me. It's in the open. I want it back. So off panel. He brought something to them. They lost it. They want it back. Awesome. Cool. [00:28:36] Speaker B: Okay. [00:28:37] Speaker A: Spiral seems pretty fucking incompetent. [00:28:40] Speaker B: They do. They don't sound like they're the most together group of folks. They sound like they've made some mistakes here and there. [00:28:52] Speaker A: Well, anyway, he has targets and they flip the page and we see Parasite, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Harley Quinn. Which mean, with Boomerang, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn in the group together that he's going to fight. [00:29:06] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Is it the Suicide Squad? [00:29:11] Speaker A: Oh, damn it. I thought it was the. [00:29:16] Speaker B: I. That's who I really thought it was. And I should have said it. I should have said that. [00:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, Injustice Society. [00:29:29] Speaker B: The Injustice Society. [00:29:31] Speaker A: It could be it. Well, this is exciting. I cannot wait to get to the next issue. We have another advertisement for Dark Knight Three, Master Race with Frank Miller and Brian Azarello. Yeah. [00:29:47] Speaker B: Excellent. [00:29:49] Speaker A: Then we get Green Lantern, Corpse, Edge of oblivion in an advertisement. That's cool. Okay. And now we're on to Midnighter number nine. How are you feeling? [00:30:06] Speaker B: I'm feeling good. I'm feeling excited. We're walking in and talking about something relevant. Midnighter cover is badass. It is pretty badass. He's taken on the Suicide Squad, who I hear have another movie in their franchise. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we have a whole episode about previewing that movie, sort of, and being really disappointed in what we found out. [00:30:32] Speaker B: Everybody keeps asking if I've seen it, and I have not. [00:30:35] Speaker A: Well, you'll see it eventually. Eventually. There's Harlequin. I'll give you a hint. One of these characters is in the movie, and one of them's not. [00:30:43] Speaker B: Wait, what? [00:30:44] Speaker A: I can't imagine why will Smith wouldn't have come. No, because they're so creative over at Warner Brothers, and we've got the greatest movie director ever and writer helping out with that movie, who's so insightful that he creates a character called Bloodsport, who has. Wait. Bloodsport's daughter is in trouble, and he has to be on the Suicide squad to help his daughter. It doesn't sound anything like the. Yeah. [00:31:25] Speaker B: No, not at all. [00:31:28] Speaker A: You know, it. It's. [00:31:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it doesn't sound familiar. [00:31:34] Speaker A: No, not at all. [00:31:36] Speaker B: Never heard this story before. [00:31:38] Speaker A: Well, anyway, we flip the page, and we get an advertisement for DCL Access, which. Great, because they've changed that service, like, 18 times, so we'll move on from there. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Wait, are they on a different service now? How am I supposed to get my books? [00:31:53] Speaker A: Jason Inman. Seriously? Oh, wow. Okay, well, anyway, let's turn the page. Midnighter. You're not too comfortable in there, Midnighter. You're enjoying your new position of power. Marina? Yep. And she's the spiral handler. Okay, so the roles have flipped. I see. Marina was in jail, and now Marina is in charge of midnighter. So what was the explanation? Can you explain to me what, the backstory buildup to get Marina into spiral. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Was there was no backstory build up to get her into spiral. [00:32:37] Speaker A: What, like Kalina didn't go visit her in jail on some panels? [00:32:42] Speaker B: I'm sure there was a discussion. [00:32:43] Speaker A: Grayson didn't go see her. [00:32:47] Speaker B: I'm sure there was. But they never gave any exposition as to any of that. [00:32:54] Speaker A: But I definitely know Midnighter has a fight computer. [00:32:57] Speaker B: Yeah, there was definitely like, hey, I know this person. She went to jail because of. She had some stuff going on in her family, and she wanted great, but I think she's a great fit for what we're doing. So come on, bring her onto the team. [00:33:22] Speaker A: Okay. [00:33:23] Speaker B: That's all we know. [00:33:26] Speaker A: The perdition pistol. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Oh, crap. [00:33:28] Speaker A: Intel names the crows nest as the most likely holding site. It's an orbiting vault. Research and development locked down. Okay, so they fire midnighter at it in a giant bullet. So he can't just use one of his fucking doors to go there? [00:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good question. Okay. When I was reading this, I was like, wait, he can't just jump through a door and get there. He has to jump into a non pilotable capsule and get shot up into space? Yeah. [00:34:02] Speaker A: And how does he plan to get. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Back through a door? [00:34:10] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Well, he makes it through. He's in and he's ready to fight. And he's got a crowbar. Writer Steve Orlando, AcO. Pages eleven one through eleven and 16 through 20. Hugo Patriots. Pages twelve through 15. Farardo Jr. On colors. Tom Napolitano, letters and ACO and Fahardo on the COVID It looks like they are inking themselves in this issue, so that's cool. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Okay, one thing I have to say, and I'm just going out on a limb, but he's being shot into space on a big, giant space bullet, essentially into a space station. In space. In space. [00:34:54] Speaker A: Well, he has carbon fiber bones. Yeah. [00:34:56] Speaker B: But I've been watching a lot of stuff that has to deal with the whole space stuff and why things work the way they do and why they don't work the way they don't and why they're having to postpone things because things are a little off and just trajectory of having a giant drone space bullet being shot into space to go connect to the ISS. And if the trajectory is just off by too much because something's out of whack, it might not work correctly. If you shoot a giant space bullet into the sky and you shoot it into a flying space station, I'm pretty sure something bad is going to happen. And it's not just going to be midnight. Or jumping out a door hatch with a crowbar. I'm imagining depressurization and the whole entire space station collapsing on itself. But I'm not a physicist or a person that. Not physicist, like, somebody that does physics and stuff like that. I don't know how all that stuff works. Just somebody that's just, like, watching a lot of stuff on CNN and wherever they do these space launches on the YouTubes and stuff like that after they do it. And I'm like, this just doesn't seem to add up. [00:36:21] Speaker A: But, hey, that's just so you know. We get to Task Force X, Blackside, the Arctic, and there's Amanda Waller. One of my least favorite iterations of Amanda Waller, observing that midnighter brought a crowbar onto her station. And she's talking to a character named. And let me read you why I hate this version of Amanda Waller. [00:36:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:36:54] Speaker A: Let me read you her original origin. Amanda Blake grew up in a crime ridden Cabrini Green area of Chicago. At age 18, she married 20 year old Joseph Waller, and they quickly had a large family together. Her first child was Joe Jr. Then DeMita, then the twins, Martin and Jesse, and her youngest child, Coretta. Their lives were a financial struggle and they relied on social programs, but they were happy. Joe Jr. Was set to go to college on a basketball scholarship. Deli is killed and a mugging gone wrong. DeMita was raped and murdered in an alleyway on her way home from church. They knew who was responsible, but the police could not get a conviction and had no witnesses. Her husband, Joseph Waller, set out to kill the rapist, Candyman, whose name is Candyman, and both men were shot each other dead. Amanda swore that the streets would take no more of her family. And she worked hard to put all of her children through college. Then she put herself through college and earned a political science degree. Amanda decided to go into politics and she was approached by Democratic congressional candidate Marvin Collins to become his campaign director. Collins was elected thanks to her efforts, and he took her to Washington as his aide. Amanda discovered the old task Force X Files while searching through old bills and asked to revive the Suicide squad under her direction. That was the original origin. So Amanda Waller is a fucking badass, right? And also not young. Yeah, she's lived an entire life, right? [00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah, she's lived some stuff. [00:38:23] Speaker A: And she's a badass, right? That's why when supervillains come up to her and threaten her, she's like, Fuck you. My kid was murdered. My daughter was raped. My husband was fucking murdered. Fuck off. ThEre's literally nothing you can do to me in life that can harm me. That's why she's a badass. What is this I'm looking at? From an artistic standpoint? [00:38:48] Speaker B: You're looking at a young Amanda Waller. [00:38:52] Speaker A: This is not the wall, right? [00:38:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:57] Speaker A: It's just not. Right. It was one of those reboot things or whatever. New 52, new DC, whatever relaunch it was in, it's just like, yeah, it didn't work. [00:39:14] Speaker B: What's really weird to me, and when I'm reading this and reading this book, this issue, and you get the task Force X stuff and you've got the spiral stuff going on, it's almost like two teams that you would expect to be on the same team fighting against each other. [00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you had a book called Spiral X, that would have been an amazing miniseries in late 1990s Marvel Comics. So we've got the fake Amanda Waller, which I'm going to say, this is not the, you know, the other thing that pisses me off about this too. Just a side note, when they launched, and this happened in Suicide Squad too, so it's not unique to hear. So this is not one I'm blaming on Orlando. He's just adapting the characters into his book. Right. So this is not on Orlando at all. I just want to make this very clear. But the uniqueness of the, you know, the Wall is a middle aged woman who's large. Right. And she's unique in comics. Right. And then they transform her into every other generic comic book character ever. So you take what's unique visually and emotionally and physically about the character. Right. And then eliminate it. It's just insulting to the reader, in my opinion. Right. And also people that supported the character over time because that was the coolness of the character. Right. Yeah. [00:40:57] Speaker B: Well, I mean, because you have a character that doesn't quite fit the, I don't know what you want to call. [00:41:03] Speaker A: It, the stereotypical comic norms. [00:41:05] Speaker B: Right? Yeah, exactly. And it's definitely something that is unique. And for a reader that is reading these books, there's something about that that also draws your attention to it, that gives it a, there's a sense of gravitas to that character being who she is as that character. You take that character and you revamp them as a younger person. It takes that down a bit. [00:41:40] Speaker A: Yes. Well, and she was, like, government bureaucrat too. Right. Well, anyway, okay, let's move on from the wall. The fake wall. [00:41:52] Speaker B: The fake wall. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Now we get back to the station, and Midnighter is just walking through murdering. [00:41:58] Speaker B: People because that's what he does, just wreck shop. All these poor, poor folks. [00:42:04] Speaker A: He's going to go get the Perdition gun. I know all these contractors on the. [00:42:08] Speaker B: Death Star, they had no clue. They were working a little overtime thinking they would go spend a weekend at Disney World. [00:42:19] Speaker A: I just introduced somebody to clerks for the first time. The only thing that they thought was funny in the whole movie was the discussion of Return of the Jedi and the contractors working to build the Death Star. [00:42:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's it. [00:42:32] Speaker A: That's all they. [00:42:35] Speaker B: About. What about? [00:42:37] Speaker A: No, nothing. [00:42:38] Speaker B: They didn't even like that. [00:42:40] Speaker A: No, man, they're the kind of person. [00:42:41] Speaker B: That rents Navy SEALs. Ever try it? Only once. I couldn't get there. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Yeah? Was it happy? Scrappy. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Jesus. [00:43:02] Speaker A: Well, anyway, now we've got a guy in a vest coming to attack Midnighter. [00:43:15] Speaker B: This poor, poor bastard. [00:43:17] Speaker A: But until I die, I'm the fastest killer alive. Okay, yeah, well, don't think he's going to do well, that's what suicide happens, right? Yeah, it's called the Suicide Squad. And then we get a whole panel. Actually, this is really cool art. I'm not going to lie. This page with all the squares in the background. [00:43:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks really neat. It's very pop art, kind of just like. [00:43:42] Speaker A: And of course, we get the whole monologue of Midnighter once again explaining all of his powers. And now he's faster than the Flash, apparently. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:56] Speaker A: Anyway, he murders this guy. [00:43:58] Speaker B: He just needs 1 second, dude. That's all he needs. [00:44:04] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, I'm cool. One more murder, next page. [00:44:12] Speaker B: Boom. It is a really cool panel layout all the way down. [00:44:19] Speaker A: And maybe it's just now I'm already sick of the Midnighter character, right? So maybe we've gone from, I don't like the writing to I'm just like, if this is the midnighter character, then I'm pretty. [00:44:35] Speaker B: I don't know. There's something to be said about the sound effects being used, because in any comic book, there's no soundtrack to go with it, unless you find one that has a soundtrack, but generally there's not. And you're only queued up by the sound effects that are on the page, that drive that in your head. So what they've done here with the artistic direction and choice that they've made for these sound effects and for the look and the feel and layout of these panels, it draws the eye. It's a very nice experience, I think, for the schlick and then for the electrical buzzing sound that you get in those three panels at the bottom, it's kind of. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Just. Yeah, I mean, the art is. And, you know, you can tell when AcO is back on the book, right? Because every time AcO is back on the book, we're like, this art's really effing. [00:45:38] Speaker B: There's, there is definitely no doubt ACO's. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Art, like out of the get, uh, we get a look into Henry Bendix. Apparently down at the bottom of the gets, he sees like a genetic makeup of this guy. Okay, cool. This is an old stormwatch character. We don't learn a lot about the character right here. [00:46:07] Speaker B: So what we're going to have to do, I think, from what I'm understanding, what you just said, is we don't know very much about this character and we don't know who this character is. So what we need to do after we finish this run is go back to Old Stormwatch. Dig into those boxes. [00:46:22] Speaker A: Oh, God. We're going back to Stormwatch number one, like from 1990. [00:46:27] Speaker B: It's either that or you. [00:46:31] Speaker A: Okay, well, we could do that anyway. [00:46:41] Speaker B: You tell us what you want. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. All one of you. Yeah, it's here. And I think this is a good time for some advertising right now. Pause point. Yeah, we've got Henry Bendix, we've got a reference, and Midnighter's about to do something. What do you feel like advertising right now? [00:47:02] Speaker B: What do I feel like advertising right now? Well, there's a plethora of things that we can advertise. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Well, you know what? I know that whatever we're advertising doesn'T murder people through using double helixes. [00:47:17] Speaker B: This is true. It doesn't. [00:47:20] Speaker A: In fact, I would argue they don't even murder people by using a computer brain. [00:47:27] Speaker B: Do they murder people at all? [00:47:30] Speaker A: I think they may not murder people at. [00:47:32] Speaker B: Oh, well, that's good to know. [00:47:35] Speaker A: What do they do? Standard we hold our advertisers to. [00:47:40] Speaker B: What do they do, Dan? [00:47:42] Speaker A: I don't know. What do they do? [00:47:44] Speaker B: Well, you were building it up as. They're not murderers. They don't murder people with double helixes. They don't murder at all. So I thought you knew who they were. [00:47:55] Speaker A: Oh, well, I was thinking of the Retro Emporium in Washington. [00:47:59] Speaker B: Oh, well, yeah, that's true. They don't. They just kill you with kindness if that's the thing that you can do. [00:48:06] Speaker A: And where can you find the Retro Emporium online, Craig? [00:48:09] Speaker B: You could find it at Facebook, at the Retro Emporium in Kent, or on Instagram. Retro Emporium Kent. Or on Twitter. Retro Emporium Kent. [00:48:19] Speaker A: So you should go to the Retro Emporium in Kent and buy things. [00:48:23] Speaker B: Check it out. [00:48:24] Speaker A: Because at the Retro Emporium in Kent, they don't murder people. [00:48:27] Speaker B: This is true. We do bring back your memories, though. Kind of unlike midnighter, who can't remember anything. We bring back your memories in your childhood. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Well, he found his childhood and he gave it to Apollo. Do you do the same? [00:48:43] Speaker B: I mean, if Apollo came in and wanted to have some childhood memories, then we would do that. [00:48:49] Speaker A: If Apollo came in, you should call me and I'll come to the store. [00:48:52] Speaker B: That's deal. [00:48:55] Speaker A: Okay, well, shout out to the Retro Emporium in Kent, Washington. And now we're back to our regular scheduled comic. Well, we're here and he's talking to Marina and he says, this just got interesting. And then he takes stuff and destroys the perdition gun and throws it outside. And then the matron, Helena, gets upset, calls him a jackass, and we're back to normal. Like he's fighting with Spiral now, even though he works for him. And he comes back to Spiral through a door. [00:49:28] Speaker B: Yep. I told you that's what he was going to do. Duh. [00:49:32] Speaker A: This is so dumb. [00:49:35] Speaker B: Sometimes the easiest way to do it is the way you would normally do it. Yes. He's going to blow up their space station, throw the gun out. They're going to be mad. Nobody gets the gun. It's the gift of the Magi. [00:49:55] Speaker A: Well, the good news is Henry Bendix, he says the Suicide Squad is working with him. And he says the suicide task Force X or Suicide Squad, whatever. He says Task Force X is working with a bad man. Does he understand the people that make up the Suicide Squad? [00:50:12] Speaker B: That they're bad people? [00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah, they're all villains, usually. Right. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Are they really, though, or are they just rogues? [00:50:20] Speaker A: Are they rogues or just, you know. [00:50:23] Speaker B: I mean, what's the mean? [00:50:24] Speaker A: When he admitted about it, Captain Boomerang was in the Flash's rogues gallery. So he could be a mean. [00:50:34] Speaker B: Are they just misunderstood? Could they be? [00:50:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's very like they were misunderstood. Right. Like we know in every movie. I could spoil the Suicide Squad movie for you right now, but I'm not going to. So we'll move on from squads I've seen. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Number one, I know that they're good guys. [00:50:53] Speaker A: Right, because people that murder people are always good guys. [00:50:57] Speaker B: I mean, no. [00:51:01] Speaker A: Well, we've already set a standard that we don't employ advertisers. That. So this is to. Well, Waller dug him up. She's backing him to complete a project says Bertinelli he abandoned after it went beyond his control. The unified military killer fueled by a Kryptonian DA and a fight computer like mine. I won't allow them to achieve this. Oh, it's midnighter saying this. Neither will you. Kryptonian says, bring me his head, midnighter. Okay, well, there we go. So now they're friends again. And after all of that, they're back at Massey's. Sorry? [00:51:38] Speaker B: I said Al's. Massey. [00:51:41] Speaker A: Al's. This is great. And they're eating chicken wings. [00:51:44] Speaker B: Not the best time. It says it's not the best time, so I don't know. [00:51:50] Speaker A: Okay, well, anyway, they're talking about making their own decisions and being with people, and he's trying to get rid of Robert again. [00:52:00] Speaker B: Well, I mean, of, you know, as. [00:52:05] Speaker A: He does soon after. Like, do these people bother, you know, midnighter is your identity all the time. This is part of your lIfe, so it's part of my work. And they are all chatting in the public, and he sends him through a door. It's exciting. [00:52:26] Speaker B: Okay, get in the door. [00:52:29] Speaker A: Oh, there we go. And then we get a spiral in the background. [00:52:33] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:52:34] Speaker A: So something's about to happen. [00:52:35] Speaker B: And a fap. [00:52:38] Speaker A: And something's coming through. And it's the Harlequin. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Oh, man, she's no good. [00:52:46] Speaker A: And the dead shot. Oh, no, that's not dead shot. Who is that? [00:52:51] Speaker B: No, that's somebody else. [00:52:54] Speaker A: That is some. It's not savant, is it? No, it's not who the wall was talking to. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Maybe. [00:53:27] Speaker A: I'm going to be really professional and look this up. Well, anyway. [00:53:33] Speaker B: He puts Robert. [00:53:34] Speaker A: We'll figure it out. The character was clearly so important that they felt the need to introduce him. [00:53:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:44] Speaker A: Well, he gets stabbed anyway, right? [00:53:47] Speaker B: He gets stabbed and blown up. [00:53:49] Speaker A: Take Robert away. He leaves, and explosions happen. Crack up. Flume. I love that. Yeah, that's nice. You're right. The explosion noises in this book are great. [00:54:01] Speaker B: They are really awesome. [00:54:03] Speaker A: And now we have the Suicide Squad. You broke into Crow's Nest? Property of Suicide Squad. Did you really think you wouldn't find it? You know what? I'll say it. I like you this way. Leatherman can't stand it when someone's undercooked, according to the Harlequin. And he's like, how? I fought this fight a million times instantly. How did you dodge my strike? And whoever this guy who has not been introduced to us says, doesn't matter how many times you run our fight in your head. My brain is infused with Chrono. Experimental science. A quantum window to a reality 5 seconds ahead of yours every moment I've seen 5 seconds into the future. So no matter what you make, move you make, I'll always know what it's going to be. I'm afterthought. Afterthought, midnighter. And once I'm done with you, you'll be, oh, that's so clever. [00:55:07] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:55:09] Speaker A: And Deadshot's just hanging out in the background. Good. Okay. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he's just like hanging out. [00:55:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think afterthought's probably dying. What do you think? [00:55:24] Speaker B: Dead. Deadshot's going to die? [00:55:26] Speaker A: I don't think Deadshot's going to die. [00:55:28] Speaker B: No. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Well, anyway, afterthought beats the shit out of midnighter and leaves him the street with blood and stuff. Very proud of himself. And he's laying in Robert's arms and they're like, tell you what, this is the end. And that's the end of issue nine. And that means the next issue is hitting a wall. And we'll pick up with the next issue, number ten. Not right now. Which means, just like that, I've committed us to doing one more Midnighter episode. [00:56:04] Speaker B: No, we have to read them all, man. There's only two more books. [00:56:10] Speaker A: All right, we'll do them all in the next episode. [00:56:13] Speaker B: All right. Everything that's left, everything that's left, we'll do them all. [00:56:17] Speaker A: Before I commit to that, let me see how many are left. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Before I say yes. [00:56:24] Speaker A: It's like, can I handle, like at this point, how much Midnighter can I handle? You can handle it all sitting. It's not that much, but it's so fantastic. Well, Greg, I just want, on that note, tell me, explain to me why I hate this so much. [00:56:47] Speaker B: Why do you hate it so much? Because it's all over the place and it doesn't make any sense. That's why it's damn frustrating. And there's a lot of things that could be done differently. [00:57:01] Speaker A: Okay, so there are three more issues. So we can hit 1011 and twelve in our next go round. We do actually get the regular artist for all the episode. [00:57:09] Speaker B: See, that makes it even better. [00:57:11] Speaker A: And we land. There's an endpoint to your point. There's twelve issues. So there's going to be an endpoint. [00:57:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:17] Speaker A: And yeah, it's all over the place. I wanted to like this book so much. [00:57:26] Speaker B: I think it's also because it has so many different, it's like things are shoehorned into this story. It could have been one straight up Midnighter story that goes into the DC universe. It makes sense and fits within the realms of whatever certain things get introduced. But they don't have to necessarily get shoehorned into a Grayson book, a spiral book and a suicide squad book. And they did. They did. [00:58:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:09] Speaker B: Orlando has to. If he was like, pitched a great story and was like, this is what I want to do with Midnighter. I really want to bring midnighter into mean, this is just me, you know, in the pitch meeting. And they're like, sounds great. Write us up a quick outline and then we got some notes for you. And the notes are, add this, add this, add this. And he's like, okay, I guess I can. And poor Orlando is just chipping away at some of the ideas that he had to make certain things fit in. [00:58:50] Speaker A: Knock knock, knocking. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:52] Speaker A: Rap, rap, rapping. [00:58:53] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. And this is what you end up with. [00:58:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not great. [00:59:00] Speaker B: I will say it has kept my interest and I wanted to read the whole thing from beginning to end for multiple. [00:59:13] Speaker A: Would you have bought it? [00:59:16] Speaker B: I think if I had been reading this back in the day when it was back in the, all of a sudden I heard, oh, Midnighter is back and it's on DC. And did you know I bought all twelve? I probably would have and been just excited to like, oh, what are they going to do? What are they going to do and how's it going to get better? And I think I would have been waiting on bated breath for it to. [00:59:43] Speaker A: Get better and better and it just never does. I'm going to tell you. Well, we don't know that yet. [00:59:49] Speaker B: We don't know that. We don't know that. But I feel like the young boy with a crush that just keeps wanting the return note on top of the desk that never comes. I feel like that's where we're at. [01:00:13] Speaker A: Well, the good news is if you pick up this issue, boy, am I going to be releasing a blitz of podcasts soon because we have a backlog because of some website delays and the website being down as John works to improve it. And I just do want to say this in all seriousness, we were joking earlier, but Kenrick and Johnny work very hard on the site and John has purchased a template to have the whole site redone. And so it was down for a little bit. They were rebuilding the database to make sure you have access to all your favorite podcasts and you're going to get a new site very soon and it's going to look phenomenal. It's going to be know big shout out to Kenrick and John for letting us be on their network, to be blunt, and giving you access to all this different content so we can present it to you. And even when it's not our favorite book, we're still going to do it because that's the point, right? Not every book is good and we're not going to go cherry pick every great book. [01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah. You're not going to go out and find, like you're going to go out to the comic book store and you're going to play comic book roulette. You don't know which book is going to be your favorite and which one is going to be your least favorite when you go and you find new books on the shelf. And let us help you if you're digging through a box. But this might be your jam. You might actually be interested in this book series. This might actually spur you to go and read it. So if you do, more power to you. It's not necessarily bad from a writings perspective. It has a lot of good stuff to learn from. There's a lot of things that you can glean from. So. And there's a lot of really good art. So if you like art, just seeing the different art styles that are in, that's all. That's all good. But like Dan was saying, john and Kenrick, they're doing an awesome job at rebuilding the website. They are doing an awesome job at pulling together some really fantastic podcast podcasters, YouTube people and other things that will make our overarching network better as we move forward. And I think we're getting to a point where we're very fortunate to be part of this. And this is awesome. [01:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think spoiler country, too, and their whole groups of podcasts, but they just have some amazing stuff and you get a lot of. And again, I was joking about Casey being the best. That's mostly because Casey does the comic book interviews and I love. Right. Like, I think they're great. And so that doesn't mean the other stuff's not know. I think that it just illustrates that I can listen to what I enjoy, but there's all sorts of pop culture stuff from across the board for everybody to listen to. Well, I'm going to obviously gravitate toward comic book creators. Others are going to gravitate toward the actors and producers and Writers that show up. And so it's just tons of great content out there. So John Kenrick, I believe we've plugged the things. So I would like to get our bonus. [01:03:41] Speaker B: You're like you're plugging Casey and John and Kenrick. I can say without a doubt solo puts 100% into nursing the crypt and making sure that you're going to get information about your favorite or not so favorite horror movies, anthologies, Kickstarter comics, ongoing comic books, and even video games and other things of that. Like sometimes we get a chance to talk to the new and upcoming creators, some of the people who are making the comics, some of the people who are making the movies, and some of the people who are doing from the director's seat, from the producer seat, and even from the actor seat. So it's been pretty cool to be part of that and talking to some fine folks who have been involved in all those things from some of our favorite movies and TV shows and comic books. So it's pretty cool to be a part of that, too, and have that as part of what you get from the spoiler verse. [01:04:43] Speaker A: Yes. And you also get us. [01:04:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, this fine podcast right here. Two friends talking about comics and life and stuff. [01:04:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So on that note, probably going to close it down here today, but we will be back soon with another edition and this one will be out soon enough. And when it shows up, you won't know that it was delayed or anything like that because it really wasn't. But I think we're going to have some sweet content out for you all in a row. So if you're getting this, you're probably at the tail end of me releasing a bunch of content at once. [01:05:23] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. It's going to be like the floodgates have opened. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Yes. [01:05:28] Speaker B: It'll be crazy. [01:05:29] Speaker A: So we'll be on to the next issues. That'll be 1011 and twelve in our next episode, and that'll wipe out midnighter, and then we'll be on to something new. I just don't know what that new thing is yet. [01:05:41] Speaker B: I have a feeling I know what it is. [01:05:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you think you know, and then that would involve me letting you make decisions. [01:05:50] Speaker B: Wolfpack. [01:05:52] Speaker A: Wolfpack. [01:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Who wouldn't want to read a fantastic Larry Hammer book? [01:05:59] Speaker A: That's not what I thought you were going to say. [01:06:21] Speaker B: I know it's not. I can't say us one every single time. [01:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it's the best here, too. I'm filling out a backer survey right now. [01:06:35] Speaker B: Oh, are? [01:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:06:40] Speaker B: What are you backing? [01:06:42] Speaker A: The Sparrow, where mythology meets superheroes. [01:06:45] Speaker B: Sweet. Sounds pretty. [01:06:46] Speaker A: Micah Welch. I mean, campaign's over. So sort of silly. Yeah. As I'm filling out the backer request. [01:06:57] Speaker B: Well, I'm sure that. Who is the creator? [01:07:01] Speaker A: Michael Welch. [01:07:03] Speaker B: So I'm sure Michael Welch will have ch. I'm sure that they will have other creative endeavors in the future. So people should go and check them. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Yep. So. Well, there we go. Yeah. This is the second thing I've ordered from. [01:07:25] Speaker B: Micah. Is it Micah? [01:07:27] Speaker A: Micah, yeah. [01:07:28] Speaker B: Okay. I said Michael, what bit Micah? [01:07:31] Speaker A: Micah. So? Well, I'm not sure you'd be interested in these comic books, but I like them. [01:07:40] Speaker B: Well, if you like them, that is what matters. [01:07:43] Speaker A: Yes, I'm sure. There we go. [01:07:47] Speaker B: Better than midnighter. [01:07:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, notice how distracted I get when we talk about midnighter? Because I'm like a midnighter. [01:07:55] Speaker B: Only three more to go. [01:07:56] Speaker A: On that note, my friend, we've done our plugs, we've done advertising. We are on Facebook and Twitter. I can't wait to find our funny book forensics. On Facebook, you can find funny book four N six on Twitter and Instagram. And with that said, join in. We need you. [01:08:17] Speaker B: Yes, we do. So follow us, find us, and be friends with us and listen. [01:08:23] Speaker A: And other than that, like us. Or just listen. You don't even have to be friends. [01:08:28] Speaker B: Just listen. [01:08:30] Speaker A: Someday we'll be friends with you. We'll go back to real life. And no, COViD, we can be friends again. [01:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Wow. Well, I've decided what I'm doing in my new life. [01:08:44] Speaker B: What's that? You're going to have friends? [01:08:46] Speaker A: Yes. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Cool. [01:08:49] Speaker A: You wouldn't let me move, so now I have to have friends. [01:08:52] Speaker B: I wouldn't let you move, so now you have to have friends. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:56] Speaker B: I'm sorry. I know. I'm sorry. My fault. [01:09:01] Speaker A: We're doing it. All right, well, on that note, let's end this thing. All right, so for Greg and Dan, funny book Forensics, we.