Funny Book Forensics 349 Its Cold Outside There's No...

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, we're back again. [00:00:02] Speaker B: Hey, we're back on funny book forensics now on the project nerd.com podcasting network. [00:00:11] Speaker A: That's wild. It's a whole new thing. [00:00:14] Speaker B: All right. We talked about it. We don't have to ever talk about it again. Cool. So we are off. [00:00:19] Speaker A: We talked about it once. For all you listeners out there, we just keep. You know, we're just. We're jumping around. We're doing our. [00:00:26] Speaker B: We appreciate that, Iggy. Thank you. Okay, that's our obligatory plug for the episode. And we are off. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Oh, man. Where's our t shirts? [00:00:39] Speaker B: You know I don't have a t shirt. That's fair. Yeah, it's a good point. [00:00:42] Speaker A: I don't have one either. I've been providing memes and writing things for years now. [00:00:48] Speaker B: Well, all I do is provide content, so I'm not really worth a t shirt. [00:00:55] Speaker A: You host panels at convention? [00:00:56] Speaker B: I did host panels for me, I guess, for them. Well, I got to meet 80% of the people I hosted panels for were amazing. [00:01:09] Speaker A: There you go. See, that's great. [00:01:11] Speaker B: And 20%, that'd be one, was not so amazing. [00:01:15] Speaker A: That's okay, though. I mean, we move on well, or. [00:01:19] Speaker B: We punch people in the face, but it's all good. So if I had punched that guy in the face, though, he might have died. [00:01:26] Speaker A: He might have been terrible. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been a tragedy, but tragedy, not so much. Not so much would have been a tragedy for 80s cartoons. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Would it have been, though? A lot of people? I mean, anyways, it's suspect whether or. [00:01:43] Speaker B: Not those 80s cartoons. And by the way, welcome to the project Nerd podcasting network, us. And this is how we start our show, letting the listener know just enough not to know anything about what we're talking about, which is a theme for the show. So if you're new to listening to us, you might as well just get used to this. And a lot of good things. Well, I do think it's appropriate to start this way, though, because. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Totally. [00:02:09] Speaker B: We are looking at Legion of superheroes number two eightyn, and we've got a big cover shot that says a cold and lonely corner of hell on it. [00:02:18] Speaker A: It's kind of like our lives. [00:02:19] Speaker B: I was just going to say that was the theme for the podcast, but you took it way darker. Jeez, next thing I know, you're going to be sending out government secrets on a discord server or something. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Oh, don't say that. Okay, so, I mean, in all fairness, I am on a podcast, and we were on a list for, God knows, like a year, probably because of one of our guests, and that guest disappeared. [00:02:45] Speaker B: Well, that's probably for the best. Probably for that. [00:02:50] Speaker A: We, Saul and I were on a list. [00:02:53] Speaker B: That would be Saul, the host of. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Nerds from the crypt. So, yeah. Imagine getting on a plane and then having somebody pull you aside and say, Mr. Smith, we need to talk to you about stuff. [00:03:06] Speaker B: I don't like that at all. [00:03:07] Speaker A: It's not cool. [00:03:08] Speaker B: I don't think I would enjoy that. [00:03:10] Speaker A: It happened for a. [00:03:14] Speaker B: I mean, we will talk about this comic because it's a really good story. I would just like to say, number one. [00:03:21] Speaker A: Yes. [00:03:21] Speaker B: If you are online anywhere and you post the following, Dave Cochrane's run on X Men was really good and groundbreaking. [00:03:29] Speaker A: It was. [00:03:30] Speaker B: But he only paved the way for John Byrne, who was even better. Yeah, you're dumb. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Me? [00:03:37] Speaker B: Why would anybody. No, not you. Not you. [00:03:39] Speaker A: I thought it was. [00:03:40] Speaker B: You're dumb for drinking whole. I have four. You're dumb for drinking during the podcast for one. But that's fine. No, I'm just saying, if you cannot see corner of hell, if you think John Byrne's art defined the X Men, you're wrong. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Yes. Because it was Dave Cochrane. [00:04:00] Speaker B: You're just fundamentally like. Yes. I mean, what are some of the great questions John Byrne gave us? Mohawk Storm. [00:04:09] Speaker A: I mean, cool. Very cool. [00:04:12] Speaker B: That was edgy. It's punk storm. Punk storm wasn't even punk storm. She just got really mad. Actually, you know what? I've read the hell out of that book, actually, because for some reason, I got that one as a three pack as a kid. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:25] Speaker B: So it's the one where she comes in and all the plants are dead and Kitty pride finds her and she shaved her head, and Kitty pride's all wigged out. I've actually read that book, a, so. [00:04:37] Speaker A: I believe that's where they end up in that run. Don't they end up meeting the. What are they, the cast offs that live in the underground? [00:04:46] Speaker B: I think that was that Morlocks. I think that was right after she defeated Callisto. I think that. Think that. So I had no context for. Right, like, so I just had this issue where Storm has shaved her head as a kid, and I had no idea what was happening. [00:05:01] Speaker A: What's going. [00:05:05] Speaker B: I think. Anyway, I bring it up just to say, john Byrne, you're fine. If I saw John Byrne today, I would shake his hand and compliment him on everything he gave to comics. So I hope everybody understands. It's all I don't want to say. Just, I mean, I really do believe that Dave Cochrane's art set the tone for the X Men. That's true. And I do think John Byrne is overrated based on those contributions. And when I look at John Byrne's whole career, I think he's overrated because when he went to DC, he didn't deliver. It's kind of like. [00:05:40] Speaker A: Wow, Dan is, Dan is on a tear right now. [00:05:44] Speaker B: I don't get, now I'm in real trouble because you're friends with lots of people that are friends with. [00:05:54] Speaker A: I am on the cusp of people who know these people. So you go ahead and say what you want. [00:06:01] Speaker B: I mean, your artist knows, so Brett knows him. But anyway, I do think, though. Okay, so are John Byrne and Brian Michael Bendis both important people in the history of comics that have contributed a lot? [00:06:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:24] Speaker B: Yes. Do I need to look at their whole career and evaluate that whole career and not just snippets of it to see how good they actually are? I think that's, think it's, I think it's fair to say, yeah, John Byrne had a really good run on X Men when he had base level art to work with and then he did define some of it and he had a consistent writer for the whole time. And then when he went off to DC and was asked to redefine the Superman universe, he failed at it. Brian Bendis did a lot of different things, had some good things for Marvel, had some bad things, and then went to DC and tried to redefine Superman and failed at was, you know, away from DC very quickly after a great. But. Or is Superman the problem? [00:07:17] Speaker A: That's a good. Superman's a tough one to nail down because it's such a throw out the term evergreen. Superman's an evergreen type story. Right. It's something that's been there for so long. It's a mythos that has been there and to try to put spins on it and other things, it's hard to change people's ideas and feels for things. I mean, it's been done. [00:07:50] Speaker B: I definitely like more of the things that came out of sort of the Bendis run, but I think those were teed up for him a little bit, too, because John Kent was actually teed up for him and then he evolved. John Kent. But yeah, some of those things were there existing pieces he played with. So I don't know. I actually am bringing this up for a reason because we are at Legion of superheroes 289. We're not quite to mild Stet and giffen yet with still Bruce Patterson and Keith Giffen. But a lot of people. The annual. We'll read next, which is the annual number one. And this book, a lot of people will say. Some people argue that it starts with Levitt's, but this book right here, I don't think it's the karate kid book that we watch. The karate kid and projector book that we read last time, that's still, to me, sort of a Bronze age story, right? [00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:48] Speaker B: This is the story that a lot of Legion fans will say took the legion of superheroes from the Bronze Age to the modern age. This single story that we're reading, and then the next one, this one right. [00:08:59] Speaker A: Here, where everything kind of. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that happens. [00:09:07] Speaker B: There's more adult themes in here than there have been previously. It's not a few issues ago we had kids playing volleyball on a space asteroid. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Very arches. [00:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And this is not. [00:09:23] Speaker A: This is very tense. There's a lot of tension. There's a lot of things that, thematically, if you've been reading this story, run. If you've been reading these stories in the past, this is like a very grow up moment. And for me, jumping into this and my knowledge of legion of superheroes has been, I mean, spoon fed by you over the years, and it's like, oh, this is not what I was expecting. And this is like, wow, okay, cool. This is where we're at. This is what's going on. [00:09:59] Speaker B: Well, and I think, obviously, we're heading into the great darkness saga. Saga. But these are the stories leading up to it. And I think we do take a turn, too. Right. It goes from a very bright book, and it's slowly eroding. Right. So we're looking at the COVID and we've got this long shot of the COVID So, basically, we have starboy's uniform on the COVID That would be a big field of stars in the background. We've got these big ICE monolith things, like folding over the heroes, and they're all on their wrecked spacecraft, the one that colossal boy flew. And just remember, if Colossal boy flies a ship, we're in trouble. And the rescue ship they brought, we've got Chameleon boy and shrinking Violet and Timberwolf, who went on the mission to fight Carlak. Well, ended up fighting carlak of the kuns, which you would have seen two episodes ago. And there's Saturn girl and Colossal boy, who came to rescue them. And they've got a fire burning in the middle and looks pretty ominous. The one thing I will point out on the COVID is Saturn girl's original costume is back. No bikini. [00:11:17] Speaker A: No bikini. [00:11:18] Speaker B: And that's also one of the more the changes we get from the Cochrane Bronze age to now you start to see a mix of some of the Silver Age costumes. As we get into this, though, they're foreshadowing it. And I'll just tell you, it's going to happen, right, like Chameleon boy is going to jail. Chameleon Boy just violated treaties and made an assault on another planet. Right. And to be rebellious against his dad. We are now getting more established but very serious themes. And I don't think the jail thing is too much of a spoiler. I think you probably figure out something's going to happen to Chameleon Boy after this. It's pretty serious. [00:12:03] Speaker A: He's done some things that have not fit into what they uphold as legionnaires. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yes. One, we've seen Lightning lad as the leader just losing his mind over the fact that the heroes aren't acting like the Archie heroes that he thought he was leading. And he literally can't handle being the leader when it's shifted. Right. To this more adult theme. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Right. Everybody's doing things based off of feelings and personal interest. [00:12:47] Speaker B: It's not just a situation where, it's not just a situation where two, you can tell the legionnaire is based off the color of their hair from the artist, right. Each one has, they've been working over these few issues to develop very distinct personalities. Some of those personalities are still evolving, like block seems, his personality seems to evolve every issue and trying to establish some characters that really didn't have a personality in the past. And this single issue, as we'll get into it, I promise to quit talking about the COVID and the themes here. But this is the issue where we get some pretty serious personality insights on five different characters across a span of an issue. And I just get to say it before we get to the end. I'll get your opinion at the end and you can disagree with me when you get to the end, but we're going to read one next week too. But this is one of my favorite standalone issues of a comic. Now we did work up to it. It is part of the storyline, but I think you could read this as a standalone. And it's one of my favorite standalone issues of all time that I've ever read. And in this legion run, you get this is 289. The annual which comes out right around this time is also one of my favorite standalone issues of all time. And issue 300. So just eleven issues is also one of my favorite standalone issues of all time. And I don't just mean Legion issues, I mean comic book issues. Yeah, and 300 is which we won't get to on the podcast. But 300 is Giffin and Levitt's take a story from the Silver Age and resolve it and basically say, we are here very much in the modern age of comics. Right. They take a story that sort of exists out there that predicts what the future for the Legion should be, and Giffen co plotting it, and Levitt's basically established, no, that's a possible future, but we're going to write our own path in the story. And that's just another issue that really cements right the path of the book. And they're tied to the past and they acknowledge it and they respect it, but they're not going to necessarily be beholden to what John Fort or Jim Shooter wrote in the 60s. [00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah, they're not going to say, okay, this is what it is. We just have to stick with it. And that's the word. [00:15:18] Speaker B: But they very much acknowledge it. And that's one of the things I like, too. And I love, like for this, I didn't know this the first time I read this book that the transition, because I started with number 306 as a kid, I had to go back and get these from back issue bins. So as I was reading through, I didn't know the significance of the time of Saturn girl's costume going from the cocker bikini back to her Silver age costume with a little bit more then, you know, too, like more of a grown up thing. Hey, we're not kids playing on the beach. Like, I'm somebody to be reckoned with and taken seriously. And they would do an amazing job developing Saturn girl from here all the way to, gosh, all the way to once this series ends, I think in like 313 ish, and then they restart numbering and they carried the Saturn girl development all the way through, like, issue 34 of the next book. So it was continual. Yeah, and a small. And a miniseries, too. Well, they did a legionnaires three. They did a founders miniseries with Saturn Girl, Lightning lad, and cosmic boy. Okay, we should talk about it because I'm gushing all over it, but I think the COVID is really interesting. It's one of those giffen covers that draws that makes it very ominous. It doesn't make the legion the focal point. It makes the void the focal point. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, they're lost. They're out there, and it doesn't look good. It hasn't looked good for them. For an issue or two. [00:17:05] Speaker B: Or two? Yeah. I mean, we got the interlude with karate kid and projectora. Right. But we knew this was going on in the background. And an issue before that, they're out invading a planet with three people. For some, it was. It didn't look good. Well, here we get. We flip to the page, and we get legion of superheroes, a cold and lonely corner of hell, and we have Paul Levitt's writer, Keith Giffin and Bruce Patterson, artist John Costanza on letters, Carl Gafford coloring and editing, and. Yeah, I mean, I guess the only thing I probably would have wanted here was the maldstat inks, but I honestly think Patterson does it. There's only a few issues with Patterson inking giffin, and they're kind of growing on me, I guess. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's growing on you slowly. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Well, it's just I'm so used to the other combination because there's just so many more issues of it. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:59] Speaker B: But this combination. Yeah, it's good. [00:18:02] Speaker A: It's good for me. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Well, we get a bunch of annoyed legionnaires. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. They're not happy. [00:18:12] Speaker B: And, yeah, colossal boy is like, well, I crashed us on a good asteroid. And shrieking. Violet's probably the most rational. She's like, nobody picked this. We're stuck here. And then Chameleon boy is all remorseful and angry. Like, I picked this stupid mission. What was I doing? I was mad at my dad. I took us on a suicide mission. He doesn't say the mad at his dad part, but if you've been reading along, you know why. And we've got Timberwolf, and he's just chewing on Chameleon boy. And we have Saturn girl, who we found out last time they found a nice new uniform for her, so she's not wearing the bikini out in the cold, which is probably like. And I love cockroam's costumes, but her updated silver age costume is just a way better costume. [00:19:03] Speaker A: It is. [00:19:04] Speaker B: It's got all the right parts, right? Like, it's got good contrast. It's just a good costume. [00:19:09] Speaker A: It's a good costume. [00:19:10] Speaker B: And basically, we get a famous Keith Giffen nine panel grid on the next wonder, you know, if Keith was still alive, I would love to ask him if he liked the nine panel grids, because that's how he liked to be as a creator, because he was verbose when he wrote as well, or if he liked the nine panel grids because Paul Levittz wrote so much that he had to get everything in. In the nine panel grid just pop, pop, pop. [00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, nine fits on a page really nicely. [00:19:44] Speaker B: I also love how Giffen will use the nine panel grids to progress the story very quickly. And there's so much more here, right. Like, often you read a book like this here, and you were expecting, I know, something very different. I mean, I think this single book would have taken, like, four books. [00:20:07] Speaker A: A lot. Like I said, there's a lot going on in this book. When we've talked before, too. It's like, there's a lot going on in this book, and it has so much packed into it that. Yeah. In any other setting, I think with any other team putting this together, it probably would have taken more. Any other editorial team probably would have had it spread out over a couple of other books just because, well, we have to tell more of the story or explain or give more action or whatever. But they do such a good job at keeping it moving and keeping it tight in this book that you don't ever feel like it's too much or you don't feel like you're missing anything. It just flows and fits really nicely. So I was like, wow. When it was done, I was like, this was a heavy book. [00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, also, it's interesting because they're wrapping up the previous storylines, right, to get to a four story arc and an annual. So they had a lot going on that they were getting out. So the first nine panel grid we get in the book, we get a little bit of a summary, right? Saturn girls opining that lightning lads probably got everybody searching for them, which we know is true. We've got Timberwolf recapping the fact that the flight rings are useless because of the frozen crystals that are getting into them. And Saturn girls recapping that it's cold, right? And there's something unusual about the cold. They don't know exactly what it is, and I don't even know if they get to in the book, but we know something's weird about it. Chameleon Boy is recapping the fact that he brought them to the cunned world, right, to get them in a fight. And we get reminded that colossal boy and shrinking violet are suddenly in love, and shrinking Violet is opining that this might be their last time to hang out together, which is weird, because this kind of came out of nowhere, too, right? Like, they were just all of a. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Sudden they were friendly, and now they are really friendly. [00:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that progressed quickly. Well, we get to the next page and we end up on the planet of Yucatan seven, a jungle, presumably in the Yuccatan peninsula. And we're going to have a dog barking in a second. Just listeners, if you don't know, it'll be my dog this time and not Greg's. Not Greg. [00:22:44] Speaker A: My dogs will be barking in about ten minutes. [00:22:47] Speaker B: Well, we get the strange pairing of sunboy and block out looking for stuff. Block is looking strangely like a famous DC villain, is he not? [00:23:02] Speaker A: Yeah, he is. He has a look to him. [00:23:05] Speaker B: Grimbor gave him some chains. So he's got some chains going around him. And he's this rocky figure with a skirt like uniform. Now, this is 1982. I don't know if we've seen a character that looks like this in a while. [00:23:22] Speaker A: No. [00:23:25] Speaker B: I don't recall. Do you recall? [00:23:27] Speaker A: I don't recall. [00:23:28] Speaker B: Okay, well, this rocky esque figure anyway. These weird green toothy monsters come at them. [00:23:36] Speaker A: Oh, no. Toothy monsters. Yeah, they look scary. Grimbor puts a herd on Grimbor and Grimbor. [00:23:43] Speaker B: It's not Grimbor. [00:23:44] Speaker A: That's block. Grim block. [00:23:47] Speaker B: This is not a Jim shooter book. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Yeah, block just drops one. Welcome. [00:23:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I like how block just kind of drops them, too. He's just like, sunken them. [00:23:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:00] Speaker B: And then they find out that they invaded their weding parties. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Yeah. They were the people they were there to save. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:08] Speaker A: They were sent to this place to go save some people and. Oh, those are the people we're supposed to. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Honestly, if you're lightning light and you send Sunboy and block out on a mission together, this is probably going to be your result. Sunboy is not known for his mental acuity necessarily. And he is known for liking the ladies a little too much and being gross. And Block, also, as we've seen in the last few issues, he seemed to be a reasoned thinker. He's not one to make quick decisions. He likes to review the holovids and things. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Yeah, they rolled a nat one on this. [00:24:58] Speaker B: Well, let's just say that the duo of Sunboy and Block did not find the missing legionnaires. [00:25:04] Speaker A: No, they didn't find the missing Legionnaires. [00:25:06] Speaker B: We are back at Legion headquarters and Lightning Lad has sequestered himself off to his quarters and he's getting bugged. Now, I'm trying to figure out, because they were helping karate kid and projectora. So we've got two of the most powerful legionnaires not out searching because they were already out helping everybody else. And we find out that lightning lads pretty much broken down at this point, and he goes through all the teams he sent out, and dream girl steps up and criticizes him, asks him if he's making it worse. Boy, that dream girl sure has gotten some. Boy, she solved the whole thing in the last issue, and now she's attacking the current Legion leader. [00:25:55] Speaker A: She's a little brazen. [00:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Almost like she's trying to position herself to be a leader. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. It is almost like that. I don't know. [00:26:06] Speaker A: Well, I like it. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Lightning lads. Pretty much like, he's crying, man. [00:26:13] Speaker A: He's a broken dude. [00:26:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, his wife is lost, and he thinks she's dying. The pressure of the team. This is a really interesting. Well, and there was a rule that married legionnaires. You couldn't be a legionnaire if you were married. That was a silver age thing that was in the constitution. [00:26:33] Speaker A: So he broke that rule, man. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Well, they let them back in. So they got married and left, and then they came back, and then they let duo damsel and bouncing boy come back. But then as soon as. Remember, they got rid of them in the first issue. They're like, yeah, let's reinstate that rule. We'll send them off. I kind of like what they do with bouncing boy and duo damsel later, though. They make them like, the leaders of the Legion academy, like the head teachers. That's cool, because they're like, I guess the theory is bouncing boy theoretically has, I would say, the weakest power, but kind of the weakest power, but he learned to use it. So he'll then teach other people how to use their powers effectively, which I like that. I think that's cool. [00:27:16] Speaker A: That's good. Yeah. Those who can't do, can teach. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Hey, now. Wow. [00:27:23] Speaker A: I'm sorry. [00:27:24] Speaker B: All right, well, now we get the team of Dawnstar and Lightlast. Talk about great powers. Lightlass making things super lightweight. I'm sure she'll be very useful on this mission of finding people. But Dawnstar, who tracks people in outer space. Now, that's a good fit. That one makes sense. [00:27:45] Speaker A: It's a good fit. [00:27:46] Speaker B: And we've got a whole bunch of crackle. [00:27:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. [00:27:50] Speaker B: I love Kirby crackle space. But we can sum up these couple pages basically. Like, Donsar is just swearing that she's going to find them for light. Uh, but then a solar beamer up, some kirby crackle comes in and blows up their ship. Yeah, that's no good. [00:28:09] Speaker A: No, it's not good. [00:28:10] Speaker B: And then she rescues lightlass, and she's like, just find Timberwolf, just find my man. [00:28:17] Speaker A: Find him. [00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. That's weird. [00:28:23] Speaker A: It's a cool. [00:28:23] Speaker B: She's, like, very controlling. Know, we're talking about the adult themes. Like, she made him go to the doctor and change his appearance and wasn't. [00:28:32] Speaker A: Sure she liked him after the fact. And now she's like, I can't live without them. Find. [00:28:37] Speaker B: Almost like. It's almost like she's trying to find. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Maybe. Maybe she's lost. Doesn't know. [00:28:45] Speaker B: I don't know. It's very weird. Well, anyway, we go back to the frozen asteroid, and Saturn girl and Timberwolf are out talking to each other, and we get a very serious adult conversation. She looks at Timberwolf and says, I love Garth. That's lightning, lad. Deeply, but not that deeply. And referring to how much he loves lightlass. And lately, with all his problems, I'm not sure he cares at all. I had to save the man who made Garth'sister feel love. And that's why she came to save them. And he's looking at her and says, I don't know. And then they get interrupted by colossal boy and shrinking violet. And they say they found Chameleon boy. Found something in the wreckage. Or we found something in the wreckage that chameleon boy overlooked. My bad. Chameleon boy not winning on this. [00:29:36] Speaker A: No, not at all. [00:29:39] Speaker B: But they find basically a communicator, right? So they're trying to use. [00:29:46] Speaker A: They need to communicate. [00:29:47] Speaker B: I'm going to try. Well, it's like a flare. [00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:50] Speaker B: Well, then we get to the bottom of the page and we go back to that strange, barren world that we saw before. In that part where that guy was laughing at the end. [00:30:01] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:30:01] Speaker B: And it says, and that life is death incarnate. He stands there, almost regal on his dark throne, stretching his rippling muscles once again. I don't know. Is this Grimbor? [00:30:12] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:30:14] Speaker B: Is Grimbor the secret bad guy? [00:30:16] Speaker A: I don't know. There's a lot going on in this place, man. [00:30:19] Speaker B: I mean, stretchling, ripping muscles, chains, perhaps. [00:30:23] Speaker A: It looks like. I mean, there's a lot going on. [00:30:26] Speaker B: Oh, wait. I don't think it's Grimbor. Almost recovered from their centuries long rest. I think we saw Grimbor a few issues. So he gazes out at five pods hanging from a ceiling cave. Like slimy molds dripping from above. Oh, I hate slime molds. Man, those things are annoying when you're in the cave. [00:30:46] Speaker A: Yeah. You're like, oh, so much slime. [00:30:48] Speaker B: And you never know what it's going to be either. It's going to be like something that melts your armor that you just worked for, like, a year to build or something. [00:30:55] Speaker A: Why is it dripping on me? [00:30:57] Speaker B: It's always something. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Sometimes it tastes like a rocket pop or something like that. Like an icicle. [00:31:03] Speaker B: Well, we get a lot. We get one small panel that is just entirely kirby crackle and a know, you know, I'm not saying this has anything to do with Jack Kirby, but there sure is a lot of kirby crackle around this particular character with the power and lot a lot. Well, he sends out the things from the pods, he calls them his misshapen ones, to do the master's bidding, and he sends about the universe to do mischief. [00:31:32] Speaker A: Mischief. [00:31:34] Speaker B: And now we're back, and we've got Starboy and phantom girl out there. Know, Starboy and Phantom Girl had sure thrown some barbs at each other over the last few issues, and now it just proves how lightning lad sort of lost his leader. This is who he puts together as a team. Seems makes sense. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Let's put you two together. You guys are going to work together just fine. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah. There's one issue way later, and it was like, way after this, way after Giffin and Levitt's. I think it was a legion of three worlds. I'm trying to even remember what it was, but the writer just. I don't remember who wrote it. I think it might have been Jeff Johns, but he just has brainiac five. Look at it was a different version of Light last, but he looks at Starboy and light last, and he's like, you both control gravity. That's really powerful. Like, you two have no idea how powerful you are. [00:32:29] Speaker A: And they're like, oh, are we? [00:32:33] Speaker B: Well, and later on, too, that cool uniform that starboy is wearing, by the way, we don't have a vneck anymore, which. This is the cool starboy uniform. [00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:42] Speaker B: And they say that that's a map of the multiverse. Okay, but that's a way retcon from way later. Like, way later. [00:32:52] Speaker A: Way later. [00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah, but still cool. That uniform is bomb. I fell in love with that uniform as a kid. [00:32:59] Speaker A: That's so cool. [00:33:00] Speaker B: Still love it. I love the fact that you just can't draw it the same way every time either. [00:33:05] Speaker A: I can't imagine you could. [00:33:07] Speaker B: I think that would be impossible. [00:33:08] Speaker A: It would be impossible. [00:33:11] Speaker B: It must be a really cool future fabric. [00:33:15] Speaker A: You should cosplay as it and then get yourself, like, the. [00:33:19] Speaker B: I'm not in good enough shape to cosplay as that. He doesn't have his beard yet, but an issue from now, he's going to have a beard. I can't pull that off. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Just get some fake beard stuff and then glue it on your face. [00:33:33] Speaker B: Why go with the whole hood like he was in JSA and kingdom come? So I could go with the whole face mask and everything. That'd be really hot. But we could do it. Yeah. I don't know. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Do that. [00:33:45] Speaker B: You know what, listeners? Right? Like, I'll keep getting in better shape. If you want to make me a Starboy costume to wear next con I'm at, I will happily, happily wear a starboy costume. [00:33:56] Speaker A: Do you hear that, people? Make Dan a Starboy costume. Make Dan Starboy. [00:34:00] Speaker B: I would love it. [00:34:02] Speaker A: I'm 100% behind this. [00:34:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but Starboy and Starboy kind of talks like Dan, too. So Starboy is like, I don't know what's going on, but our buddies are goners for sure. That's what logic would tell you. It sounds like something I would say out on trip. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Right? [00:34:17] Speaker B: And this time, instead of throwing a bar back at him, phantom girl just thinks about what he's saying and just says, yeah, be quiet, please. Because she doesn't want to think about the fact that her friends are probably dead somewhere in space, right? So we get back to the asteroid, and it looks like Chameleon boy is forming some sort of shape. It's interesting, depending on who's writing Chameleon boy, he has sort of different powers in general. He's supposed to just have the power to mimic things, but he's not supposed to get their powers, but he gets. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Their characteristics to just form up a thing. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Right. So if he was like a lightning beast of corbal, for example, the lightning beast of corball. Everybody knows. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Everybody knows about the lightning beast of coral. Lightning beast. But he doesn't have. [00:35:05] Speaker B: He couldn't have the lightning. Yeah. So like the lightning beast of corbal, by the way, that's how lightning lasts. Now, lightlass and lightning lad got their powers along with their brother, lightning Lord. See, there's a lot of lightning. You didn't know about the lightning beast of corbal. How did you not? [00:35:26] Speaker A: I missed that part. I'm not going to pass the test. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, you're not. Well, he also could become like some sort of bird that throws fire, but he couldn't. He'd just fly. But he couldn't. He could fly fire. Right, I see. Theoretically. I don't know what he's forming here. It looks like Keith just had him looks like he's formed something cool, making. [00:35:50] Speaker A: An unwritten check that can't be cashed. [00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know what animal he is right here. He's the original animorph, not morph. How'd you get morph into this discussion? I haven't started watching X Men 97 yet. [00:36:07] Speaker A: You're welcome. [00:36:08] Speaker B: So now I should go downstairs and watch that tonight, basically. [00:36:12] Speaker A: Tell me how it is. [00:36:15] Speaker B: Well, now we've got. They launch off their thing, right? And then some anti photons. That doesn't sound too good. [00:36:32] Speaker A: No. [00:36:33] Speaker B: Are reacting with what's left of the cruiser, and it blows up. We get a really cool picture of fossil boy pulling chameleon boy and everybody running away. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:49] Speaker B: And they're like, okay, well, there goes our food supplies. Oh, my gosh. [00:36:54] Speaker A: It's just bad news, dude. It just keeps getting worse. [00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Timberwolf sums it up by saying, blast that orange skinned idiot for getting us into the six. I mean, he doesn't have to be, you know, I think he's delivering the. He's. He's Timberwolf. [00:37:14] Speaker A: He's Timberwolf. [00:37:15] Speaker B: Well, we find out easy. Saturn girl tries to calm him down, and she's complimenting him. She says, but if you do tell her she's got my envy and a very special guy referring to seeing light last again. Wow. It's like, I hope I get to deliver the message. And then they're standing there, and in flies lightlass and Dawnstar. They found them. And lightlass is very upset about, oh, yeah. Seeing Timberwolf and Saturn girl comforting each other. [00:37:58] Speaker A: She's like. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Now, are we getting a kiss or not? Like, at the bottom of 16 in that nine panel grid. I don't think we are. [00:38:07] Speaker A: I think we're just getting two people that think all hope is lost and that they're just holding each other and that things are going. They went from bad to worse. And this might be like, we should just be comforting each other. It looks like they're just. He's giving her a hug. And when lightlast sees them, she catches them in this embrace, and that's what she sees. And she doesn't know how to read it, if that makes sense. Right? [00:38:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just like she's so jealous and she's so controlling that she sees this and she's now forgotten the fact that she thought Timberwolf was dead, basically, and is now, like, pouting, and Dawnstar is now shaming saturn girl on the page. And Timberwolf's like, I'm so glad to see you again. Literally, after just saying he would give anything to see her again, and she's, like, bawling, saying, are you really? And, yeah, this is just a, like, it's different, right? [00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like I said, it's very heavy because it's hard because Don star and lightlass get there, and they have no context to what they're seeing, except for them in Saturn Girl and Timberwolf in an embrace, and they don't know that. They're literally giving up all hope at this point that this is the end of their run. Right. When they do see them or when Timberwolf insider girl see them, they're like, oh, my gosh, you found like, I'm so glad to see you're. [00:40:04] Speaker B: I do feel like they'd established this with her so it didn't just come out of nowhere. Right. Like, they'd established the controlling nature she had. Right. They established the jealousy. And even in the shots in earlier issues with her and Saturn girl. Right. Like, when she told Saturn Girl to go find them, and then she does, and then she's so jealous, and I think it's giving her some character for the first time. And I'll just say this version of light last I don't like. But then what they do with her later is really good, and I don't think I'm supposed to like her. Right. [00:40:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you don't like her because of what they've been building her up to at this point. You're like, oh, wow. That's the tough part, is they're essentially teenagers. They're going through those hard emotions of the first love, all this stuff, and. [00:41:07] Speaker B: Coming to, and I'll say young adults at this. [00:41:12] Speaker A: If it's, even if it's second or third love or whatever you want to call it, they're coming to those terms of like, oh, my gosh, my heart is breaking because I don't know what's going on. [00:41:23] Speaker B: Yeah. They're more buffy than Dawson's creek, right? [00:41:26] Speaker A: Yeah. You put yourself into those situations in your own life, and you're like, it sucks, right? You're like, I remember when I was in a situation like that where I misread the room, so to speak, and I didn't know what was going on, and I overreacted or underreacted to a situation. [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And again, too, this is going to develop over time, and it's one of those Paul Levitt slow builds. I mean, it builds over two years, two and a half years with this character. And Levitt's and Giffin really build the character and do take a character, too, like lightlass, who didn't have a lot of characterization at all and really build a character here. And we're just getting the beginning of it. And of course, Timberwolf seems like. Absolutely. [00:42:25] Speaker A: He's a. [00:42:26] Speaker B: He's a typical dude, I will say. I think probably one thing I don't like about it is the fact that they sort of put the onus on the women to be the responsible parties in the relationship. That's kind of weird. A little bit. [00:42:45] Speaker A: Well, I think it's more like, maybe not the responsible parties, but more the mature. They're more mature. And that's just in general, I feel that women, they mature faster than guys do. [00:43:02] Speaker B: Well, statistically. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Statistically. So it makes more sense that they would act in a way that's more mature, more thoughtful. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Also, that is her sister in law, right. [00:43:15] Speaker A: Yeah. She'd probably feel a little. Have concerns or a little earned or whatever. And Timberwolf is just. I mean, we know Timberwolf. Timberwolf is not. He doesn't read stuff like other people either. There's my dogs who are barking. [00:43:38] Speaker B: And we get this all in. 117 page story. Yeah, we have a backup story, which we will talk about. The backup story. Yeah, I know. Well, we have to. The writing is fine. [00:43:54] Speaker A: We are on the same page. [00:43:56] Speaker B: Yeah, but we got the preview here. While waiting in the wings, we get at the bottom, chameleon boy in chain. So let him know he was going to jail, was not far off. And some little creature thing, and it says, and the servant shall be a sign begins the most monumental battle epic the Legion of the Legion annals have ever recorded. Watch for it in May 20. Meanwhile, don't miss our first ever Legion of superheroes annual, a 41 page spectacular by Levitts and Giffen, on sale May 13. So we're getting lots of stories, and we're going to read it before May 13. So you got it early. See? Yay. We'll be covering the annual next, and we'll be covering Legion 290 the week after. So I do want to get into this backup story, though, because it's historically interesting. Yeah, art's awful. [00:44:53] Speaker A: I mean, it's not awful. It's just like. [00:44:56] Speaker B: It is awful. [00:44:56] Speaker A: No, I'm going to say if you've been following along and you've been delighted by the previous art changes and everything that you've seen up to this point, you're like, wow. And then this is like Silver age. What happened? It's not bad. Your expectations have just been. [00:45:22] Speaker B: Well, if you were expecting Carmine infantino, flash art from the 60s, you're not getting that here. But weirdly, in a backup story, and it's another wrap up story. So it's another slide in backup story wrapping up a previous storyline from other writers from way back. And I'm pretty sure it's from Jerry Conway stuff. And we get a backup story called once upon insanity with lettering that looks like Christmas. That font. It looks like Christmas doesn't. [00:45:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's kind of a Christmassy kind of font. [00:45:58] Speaker B: So we get bulletin missing legionnaires found stranded but well on asteroid near Kendra space. So we know that's an legionnaire is known to be converging on a planet for reunion. And then we get brainiac five and element lad going out to take care of something. I do like the touch here of letting us know that this story takes place after they were rescued and not at the same time. So you have some consistency to. And we find out that, obviously, element lad letting us know he's acting leader of the team. He's going to let everybody know. Yeah, always. And we get a story by Paul Levitz. Larry Malstett is inking, and the guest penciler is Carmine Infantino. What? So at this point, Carmine had left, been fired by DC a long time ago and was back. From what I've read about Carmine is this was not a good time in his life. He felt very humbled that he was no longer, like, the editor of comics and art director. And he's now back sitting at his desk, drawing again. And this was, from what I've read in the interviews with him, a humbling experience for the man. [00:47:18] Speaker A: I see. To do this backup story. [00:47:21] Speaker B: Well, not just this backup story, but just actually be at the, you know, he went from being high level person. Right, of comics to just an artist again. And this didn't really sit well with, like I'm going to say this. I don't think Malstat's inking is a good match for Infantino. [00:47:40] Speaker A: I can agree with that. [00:47:42] Speaker B: I think Malstat's inking is a great match for giffen and even the dots and things in the background and Malstat sort of, like, inks everything, right? [00:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, going through this, I don't know what I felt looking at it. [00:48:03] Speaker B: I like the first story so much that I forget this story is in this book. Like, I will look at this book and have no idea that this backup story is here. I know, this backup story resolves something, because I know what happens to matter Eater lad, Tenzel Chem later in the I. And I know he gets healed at some point, but I forget this story is even here. Well, we get some wrap up. Actually, I think this might have been a Levitt story with Omega. Okay, so Levitt's is cleaning up some of his mess, and I think maybe Conway cleaned it up. I don't remember exactly. Heck, I can look it up really quick on this. Legion 252, 51. But, yeah, I mean, we're cleaning up an old story. Basically, in a nutshell, they fight this creature, Omega, that was created because brainiac five went insane. [00:48:58] Speaker A: No. [00:48:59] Speaker B: Yes. So Brainiac five went insane, and he created a creature that could basically destroy the universe that was unstoppable. Think of the Moriarty data episode. Right. Create something that. Thanks, Dr. Pulaski. Create something that can defeat data. Right. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Right. [00:49:19] Speaker B: And that's basically what happens. So he creates, basically an undefeatable creature. And then with that said, with creating that undefeatable creature, they have no way to stop that undefeatable creature. And it's coming to take something called the miracle machine. [00:49:37] Speaker A: No. [00:49:38] Speaker B: Which is basically this machine that was given them to them by the controllers. You're like, who are all these people? The controller. There was a bad controller. They thought he was like the time trapper. And basically, in a nutshell, it was 251 was. Oh, yeah. It was Jim Starlin and Paul Levitt's on that one. It was Paul Levitt's last issue of his run. So I can see why he wanted to go back and clean up the story, because remember, he said in his interviews he didn't like that first run. And Jim Starlin, I think this might have been a Steve Apollo book, too. I don't think Jim Starlin put his name on that one. [00:50:16] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:50:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:19] Speaker A: An Apollo book. [00:50:20] Speaker B: Yeah. There's some books that the storyline took so long to wrap up that Jim Starlin wouldn't put his name on it anymore, so they had him put Steve Apollo. [00:50:29] Speaker A: Steve Apollo? [00:50:30] Speaker B: Yeah. That famous artist, Steve Apollo. You've heard of him, right? [00:50:34] Speaker A: Yes. [00:50:35] Speaker B: I think I mentioned on an earlier Legion podcast that I had Jim Starlin sign one of the Steve Apollo books. [00:50:42] Speaker A: As Steve Apollo? [00:50:44] Speaker B: No, as Jim Starlin. [00:50:45] Speaker A: Oh, that's funny. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:47] Speaker A: Put your real name on this, please. Thank you. [00:50:50] Speaker B: I'm not going to spend a lot of time here. Basically, in the story, they're trying to cure matter Eater lad because he is incurable, because he ate this thing called the miracle machine. Apparently, matter eater lad can eat anything, but if you eat something that creates wishes out of nowhere for somebody, that apparently makes you go insane, which does make sense, we find out that there's a doctor there that's been after brainiac five because brainiac five cost him his job after he was cured from insanity. [00:51:21] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:51:23] Speaker B: Yeah, because he reported that he was a bad guy. So think nurse Ratchet type stuff here. [00:51:28] Speaker A: Bad doctor, not the good doctor, but the bad doctor. [00:51:32] Speaker B: And he basically, he tries to kill everybody. And they rescue Tenzel, chem matter eater lad from the insane asylum. The bad guy goes to jail, we get a lot of really terrible art, and they release him to their custody so he can take him back to Legion headquarters and try to cure him. So we get in the first annual. That's how we're setting up for the annual. He's going to try to restore matter eater lad's mind. We're going to find out why the earth might get destroyed, who the newest Legionnaire will be, and I think matter Eater lad is often on the list of the stupid CBR. Here's the ten worst superpowers ever. Let's pick every bad character from the Silver Age. Look how cool I am. I'm going to write my comic book story now. This pissed me off so much. It's like, yeah, okay, so matter eater lad, right? He comes from the planet bismal, which is hilarious. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Pepto. [00:52:36] Speaker B: Anybody on his planet can eat any form of matter. He eats the miracle machine. Giffin would actually play this back much later. And after writing Jli, I guess they was writing at the same time, basically. But the Legion in 1989, he brings Mattergillack back about after the first few issues. So it wasn't the very beginning. I think it was about twelve issues, 13 issues in. It's not overt, but having the powers of the miracle machine sort of in him, he tends to just sort of goes through life and just good things keep happening for him. [00:53:15] Speaker A: Oh, really? Yeah, because miracles happen, right? [00:53:18] Speaker B: So he'll just go the original way they got rid of him the first time. Levitt's got rid of him by having him drafted into, I think it was Levitt's. It might have been Kerry Bates, but got rid of him by having him drafted into politics on his home planet. So he had to leave. So that's how they got rid of him the first time. Then he came back and he ate the miracle machine. But then he would just go through life and do things, anything he wanted, and things just always seemed to work out like he had reality TV shows like Tenzel for the defense where he defended polar boy on. Yeah, no, you would have loved. Gotta. I've got to get one of these issues to you because this is right up Greg writing alley like it is. So I love what they do with the character later. And one of the things I really like about the Levitt's giffin run in a lot of ways and then the giffin run later is that they will call back to a lot of these things that are here. They don't let them sit. They'll let them sit even for a couple years. But then it's like, okay, hey, let's bring back this character and play with it and see what we can do. [00:54:20] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:54:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I like it. We got some letters. [00:54:26] Speaker A: All right, let's see what we got. [00:54:29] Speaker B: Well, Dominic Ramirez Romano from 68 Langor Terrace in Toronto, Ontario says he loves Broderick and Tangal's cover in 285. We liked it too. At night never falls at Knollport, he said Broderick handled the horse character well. There we go. Remember our horse character? He was trading all the ships. Yeah, right. That was good. Now we get another one from Neil Alquist from 1315 Madison Street, Nebraska, though Minneapolis, Minnesota. He sees what we've been seeing. He says Paul Levitz has always made the best use of dream girl's powers in his legion stories. But after the forgotten future, I'm even more of a dream girl fan. She couldn't have better summarized the pace of the story on her own brave attitudes replacing her powers when she said, the absence of something formally present is as much a change as the presence of something formally absent. I don't know what that means. I guess I said it in the story. [00:55:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:29] Speaker B: Anyway. But he likes Paul's expertise with superheroines and I was just know. It's almost like Paul Levitz was setting dream girl up for something the readers were going to make him do. [00:55:41] Speaker A: I think so. [00:55:42] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Are we sure he's guiding their hands? [00:55:46] Speaker B: It's almost like the readers were pushing him to use dream girl. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Perhaps so. [00:55:51] Speaker B: Perhaps so. Well, it's a good issue. And then we have the backup story. So maybe I should take it off my list of single best. Maybe I should not say single best issues, but I should say single best stories. [00:56:02] Speaker A: The backup story is not bad and I don't like, I'm not going to say the art is bad. I am jarred me because it didn't meet up to what expectations of the other art. [00:56:18] Speaker B: Well, we get a silver age artist in a modern age Bronze Age book. Right. Yeah. The faces are not consistent. Actually, it's interesting. He draws the villain, the doctor, with the six arms, I think, almost better than he does the faces here. [00:56:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:41] Speaker B: And again, at this point in Carmine Infantino's career, I was talking about judging people on their whole career earlier in the, uh. But I think in Carmine's, in this case, I probably want to judge somebody on the bulk of their career, like, when they were at their peak, as. [00:57:05] Speaker A: Opposed to this one story. [00:57:07] Speaker B: I probably want to remember those flash issues, like the one with the flash running down one side and the golden age flash running down the other, more than I want to remember this. [00:57:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:16] Speaker B: But it's almost like a throwback, too, when, if you look at the art, I think, why? It's so jarring to me, besides the inconsistency of the faces. Right. Remember a lot of people's criticism of Kurt swan on the legion, as you could only tell who the legion hairs were based on their skin color and hair color. This is absolutely the case here. Fair, right. You put them next to each other. This panel on page three, because there's page numbers with brainiac five and element lads faces next to each other, and there's no difference. It's just skin color and hair color. Yeah. [00:57:53] Speaker A: Brainiac is green. And I was like, what's going on? But they look good. They just don't look right. [00:58:02] Speaker B: And maybe if this book was put out in 1966, we might be praising the art, saying how wonderful it was. [00:58:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:09] Speaker B: The science police officer on page eight looks pretty ripped there. [00:58:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Put it on the stand next to a Batman book or something like that at the same time. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:19] Speaker A: I'd be like, this is. [00:58:22] Speaker B: Can't. You just can't put this next to Giffin's art or even Broderick's. Right. [00:58:27] Speaker A: Who we just transitioned out. It is apples and oranges. [00:58:33] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just a very weird placement. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Two different things. [00:58:37] Speaker B: And honestly, too, Levitz. Levitt's was probably like, I get to work with Carmine Infantino. [00:58:43] Speaker A: Cool. [00:58:43] Speaker B: I mean, he'd worked with him in the offices. Right. But here he is. I mean, that's probably a huge honor to him. [00:58:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's just one of those things where you're like, okay, cool, let's do this. Let's do a story. Let's knock this out. It's a good story. [00:59:01] Speaker B: It's kind of like when Ron Randall talks about having Murphy Anderson ink. Like, it's like his favorite moment in comics. [00:59:11] Speaker A: One of those. [00:59:17] Speaker B: It almost makes me sad because the first story is so good. I also almost wish, like, the backup story wasn't here and we could have just had. [00:59:27] Speaker A: The backup story was just part of something else. [00:59:29] Speaker B: I want seven more pages of the other story. [00:59:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Write a letter. [00:59:34] Speaker B: I should. I should write a letter. [00:59:36] Speaker A: Write a story. [00:59:36] Speaker B: I wonder what they're going to say about this art in future letters. We're going to find out. Yeah. Because I almost feel like this could have been a one page summary to set in the annual. [00:59:46] Speaker A: There you go. You know what you should do, Dan? You should make a podcast and talk. [00:59:50] Speaker B: About it about comics. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Or what I hate about that art general. Oh, my gosh. Wait, you're doing it. Holy crap. [00:59:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I thought the story is here. Good. We're setting up for another big story. So next week, you're going to get monster in a little girl's mind, where we're going to get another Silver age villain brought back with a twist of lime. A twist of polar lime lemon. Hopefully better than that. [01:00:21] Speaker A: It's got a twist of raspberry and pink lemonade. [01:00:25] Speaker B: We do have a couple of other things to talk about. I understand that you have a book on the stands right now. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Right now, yes. Absolute zeros camp launchpad, Michael Tanner, myself, and art by. [01:00:37] Speaker B: Saw that. I saw in that book that you, being a famous author, also noted in your bio that you were on a podcast. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Did I? [01:00:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Did I say I was on a podcast? [01:00:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:53] Speaker A: Is it funny book forensics? [01:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, hey, I did another podcast, too. Well, it's not on Project nerd, so I don't know if we should talk about it. [01:01:05] Speaker A: Oh, come on now. [01:01:09] Speaker B: Well, it's not there yet. I mean, it could be. It could be right now. It's on the funny book forensics podcasting network. Sort of. [01:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:17] Speaker B: There's a lot of networks going around, but that's okay. Yeah. So you have a book. I read it already. [01:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah. We'll have to talk about it sometime. [01:01:27] Speaker B: We'll have to do a podcast about it. Look at you. Just, like, slide that out of there. You're like, I'm done for the day. No, we're not talking about that book right now. [01:01:35] Speaker A: No. I'm going to say it's very surreal, because I'll say this every time somebody brings it up, because we started working, like, 2017, 2018, and it's 2024 now when we're recording this podcast, and I couldn't talk about the book for years, and then all of a sudden, like, literally two months ago. The publisher is like, go ahead, talk about it. And I'm like, okay, when is it coming out? They're like, oh, in two months. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Well, I wasn't allowed to talk about it because as an esteemed member of the media, I could not get an advanced copy. [01:02:14] Speaker A: That's true. [01:02:17] Speaker B: Well, I also want to report, too, that I'm highly disappointed with the book, not the book itself. I enjoyed reading the book. [01:02:24] Speaker A: Okay, what were you. [01:02:25] Speaker B: However, my copy. Amazon sent my hardcover without an MxpxPD. [01:02:34] Speaker A: Oh, I'm so sorry. [01:02:35] Speaker B: I want to know how you're going to rectify this. Well, I understand Jason in North Kakalaki. North Kakalaki also did not get an MXPx CD. [01:02:45] Speaker A: Yes, he did not. He messaged me with a photo. Sad face. No, mxpxcd. I also got another couple other messages from people saying, no, MxpxCD. [01:02:56] Speaker B: I mean, I've been promising this for months. [01:02:58] Speaker A: Yes, sorry. Dear listeners out there of the funny book forensics, you should never listen to anything that Dan says and hold it to the truth in the sense that. [01:03:11] Speaker B: Wow, okay, when I tell you that. [01:03:15] Speaker A: It'S not with an Mxpx CD, and he says over and over that it is, and I tell you, no, it's not, you should listen to the guy whose book it is. [01:03:26] Speaker B: I'm also highly disappointed because it did not smell like vanilla. [01:03:31] Speaker A: You know. Again, I am sorry. It was a wish that you had that it would come with an. [01:03:38] Speaker B: It was just. It was to honor the strawberry shortcake lady and Steve Gerber. [01:03:45] Speaker A: What I can do for you to rectify this is if you want, I will go through my collection of CDs, and if I can't find you an Mxpx CD, I will gift you something else. Probably like a karaoke CD. [01:04:02] Speaker B: I'm not sure what I would do with an MxPx CD. [01:04:05] Speaker A: Exactly. [01:04:06] Speaker B: I can play it in my car because I still have a CD player. Yeah. [01:04:13] Speaker A: This still in the plastic Trippin soundtrack. Motion picture trippin music from the motion picture trippin. I will sign it for you if you want. It's got music from all your favorite jams and amazing music from this great movie from the 90s. As you can see, it's still in this plastic. Hasn't been opened yet. But from me to you, Dan. And if you're going to pass on that, then I could probably give that to somebody else. [01:04:46] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you're tripping if you think I want that. [01:04:50] Speaker A: It's got a song on there called Seven Mile. Wow. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Like eight mile. [01:04:55] Speaker A: But shorter, 1 mile less. [01:04:58] Speaker B: There was only half a spaghetti. [01:05:01] Speaker A: His hands were not sweaty. [01:05:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:07] Speaker A: He couldn't get himself a Stanley cup because he already had a yeti. [01:05:11] Speaker B: Oh, God. Okay, well, I'll leave the cordyceps out of this today, then, because you're now taking it away from me. But that's okay. It's fine. No, I'm good. I said I wasn't bringing them up today. Well, the important thing is in the CD moving forward. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Yes. [01:05:35] Speaker B: You, of course, can always find [email protected]. When I update the page, you can find us on YouTube. It's just not us on video, but you can listen to the podcast there. You can listen to it on YouTube music. You can listen to it in anywhere you get podcasts with the RSS feed. We always put a link to the podcast in the shown in our Facebook posts and our Twitter posts and our Instagram posts. But you can now also find us where on Project nerd.com. [01:06:07] Speaker A: Whoa. [01:06:08] Speaker B: Well, you mostly. I think you'll be able to find us. Last time I looked, there was just a picture of our podcast, but there was no, like, podcasts. [01:06:15] Speaker A: Well, maybe in the future soon, or. [01:06:18] Speaker B: The future of now, too. Then when this is being broadcast, then likely in the future. Short past, future, yes. Next month, hopefully before the 30th century or 31st century. In a short jump, we will be on Project nerd. Also, did you know that there's other podcasts on Project nerd? [01:06:38] Speaker A: No, I did not. [01:06:39] Speaker B: Well, I did. That's normal because you don't actually listen to anything that's on the networks that you. [01:06:44] Speaker A: I do, too. How dare. [01:06:47] Speaker B: I don't think that's true. [01:06:49] Speaker A: Okay, well, I subscribe to all of them, and I might not listen to them all because my day is short. [01:06:55] Speaker B: Wow. Okay, well, soon we'll tell you about a whole bunch of them because we're going to be on one, but I don't know when. So I'm not going to announce it right now. [01:07:03] Speaker A: It's going to be awesome. I can't wait. [01:07:05] Speaker B: Actually. I will announce it. We're going to be on press play to listen. I just don't know when. [01:07:09] Speaker A: And then people should press play to listen to that once we're on it. [01:07:14] Speaker B: Right? And then never press play again. [01:07:16] Speaker A: No, they should. They should continue to press play, and then they should tell them that they want us to come back as guests again. [01:07:24] Speaker B: Isn't that how that works? You mean we collaborate with other people? [01:07:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:30] Speaker B: I'm not very good at collaboration, but. [01:07:34] Speaker A: That'S how you get the growth. [01:07:36] Speaker B: What? That's how you get growths. You just say, like, by collaborating, you get growth. Yeah, I've heard about that. [01:07:42] Speaker A: No, you get the growth. [01:07:43] Speaker B: That's like the sexually transmitted diseases and stuff. No, you're talking about warts and things. That's not okay. [01:07:51] Speaker A: No, you get the. [01:07:51] Speaker B: By collaborating together, you get. [01:07:58] Speaker A: Dan, you've taken it to the dark. [01:08:02] Speaker B: Really? I feel like you said it very clearly. No, it's exactly like where Saturn girl and Timberwolf were going. [01:08:09] Speaker A: Exactly. They're going to the corner of Hill. That's how we expand our reach. [01:08:15] Speaker B: Oh, we have a reach. [01:08:17] Speaker A: We will have a reach when people press play to. [01:08:21] Speaker B: Ah, that's it on project nerd.com. [01:08:24] Speaker A: That's right. That's what I'm saying. [01:08:26] Speaker B: You can also find Project nerd on Facebook and Instagram. [01:08:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Wow. Don't you create the memes for them? [01:08:37] Speaker A: Sometimes I contribute to the memes. Yes. It's always fun to see people share memes that I've contributed, and then it's like a bunch of people that I know that follow them that share their memes, and it's like I was in my meme bucket. [01:08:56] Speaker B: I don't really know how memes work, so it's okay. [01:09:00] Speaker A: Do you look at memes and they make you laugh? Did they give you the. [01:09:02] Speaker B: Not really. No, not really. Most of the time. No. I would also say if you've seen the art for our podcast, you could know I'm not really good at it, either. I just kind of find something in the comic that I think I like and then put it in the COVID art. [01:09:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a thing. It's a gift. [01:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah. You are gifted. That's for sure. [01:09:23] Speaker A: It's true. And talented. [01:09:25] Speaker B: Yes. [01:09:25] Speaker A: That's what the class was called. [01:09:27] Speaker B: Oh, that's where the short bus was going. Okay, well, exactly. [01:09:30] Speaker A: Thanks a lot. [01:09:31] Speaker B: Good. [01:09:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:32] Speaker B: Well, I guess we should wrap this thing up before you go into someplace and knock over a whole bunch of astronaut statues. [01:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, now, spoilers, dude. [01:09:43] Speaker B: Hey, if you want to know, if. [01:09:45] Speaker A: You want to know, breed absolute zeros. [01:09:48] Speaker B: Camp launch pad. [01:09:49] Speaker A: Launch pad. Camp launch pad. And then you can reach for the stars. [01:09:54] Speaker B: Oh, one more thing. There was announcement about starlight. [01:09:58] Speaker A: Oh, yeah? What did? Sort of Travis Dune announcement. [01:10:03] Speaker B: Oh, wow. You don't even know. Okay, well, you know what? We'll hold it off till next week, then we'll talk about announcement. You wrote the announcement, but that's. [01:10:15] Speaker A: It. [01:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Greg posted an announcement. We'll give you more next week there's news coming about Starlight. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah, we're getting done. Okay. I know, he just. [01:10:25] Speaker B: News coming soon. News coming soon. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Yes, we're perfect. Getting close to. Yes, getting close. [01:10:31] Speaker B: News coming soon. Okay. News coming soon about the issue seven launch. [01:10:35] Speaker A: Issue seven launch. [01:10:36] Speaker B: And we should have six very soon. [01:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And Ringo awards are open for nominations. So if you like Starlight and you like what Bret has done and you like his art and his coloring and you like the amazing lettering that Tom has done on issue five, and if you like the story and stuff like that, Ringo Star. Ringo awards, you can go and nominate Starlight for any of those things. [01:11:04] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't know. Is that like a campaign or something? [01:11:08] Speaker A: It's an awards thing. [01:11:11] Speaker B: Like the Eisner Awards. [01:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like that kind of. [01:11:14] Speaker B: Yes, but for Ringo star. [01:11:17] Speaker A: No, not for Ringo star. It's trying to get starlight. Thanks, Dan. There's a link. [01:11:22] Speaker B: You're welcome. [01:11:23] Speaker A: There's a link. I posted a link. [01:11:26] Speaker B: You said the Ringo awards and you expected me to be serious. [01:11:29] Speaker A: I did. I thought you were just getting Starlight and Ringo. You were doing a thing. Yes. [01:11:37] Speaker B: Well, it's all good. Okay. We will also provide a link to the Ringo awards. I'll make a new special Tyl link or whatever they're called. I'll make a short link you there. [01:11:51] Speaker A: And link it there. And yeah, go vote for us. I know there's a lot of other books out there, but we would like to be one of those books as well. [01:12:00] Speaker B: Basically, I've heard nobody's going to vote for you unless we do an issue of Cap wolf. [01:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. We have to do an issue of Cap Wolf. [01:12:08] Speaker B: Well, we got to finish up some legion issues first. [01:12:11] Speaker A: I know. You're the holdout. [01:12:12] Speaker B: Wow. [01:12:14] Speaker A: You told me yesterday on the phone. [01:12:16] Speaker B: Oh man. Well, we've got a big lineup coming up. We've got four legion superheroes issues left. We got to do those. Actually five. It's going to take us up to May ish and then we're gonna through May. We probably have to do some absolute zero camp launch pad thing. We're probably gonna have to do a starlight issue six. That seems to take us through like July. [01:12:39] Speaker A: Oh boy. And then Cap wolf. [01:12:42] Speaker B: Oh boy. [01:12:44] Speaker A: Here to hear, folks. We're going to get to Cap wolf. [01:12:46] Speaker B: You know, if we end up at a certain comic Con again, comic convention again, I think a live cap wolf seems appropriate. [01:12:54] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. Make it happen. [01:12:56] Speaker B: Catwalf seems like one of those things that goes in front of the live audience. However, if we're doing something in front of a live audience, I'm going to need the actual book. [01:13:04] Speaker A: We'll need the actual book. And if we end up at that particular show, we might have to. And I'll just say it right now, we might just have to have maybe potentially a Tracy back. Tracy on the show with us. Yes. [01:13:19] Speaker B: Okay. Well, if we're doing think, I mean, we'll probably do two. We'll have to do a couple issues of wolf. I mean, you're going to have to get it to me, too. And I'm sure a cap wolf can't be found in a dollar bin anywhere, so I'm sure it's a very expensive. [01:13:34] Speaker A: To. We'll have to have. Someone will have to love us. But, yeah, we'll need Tracy to be on the show to talk about the should knows a lot more about Cap Wolf than we do. [01:13:49] Speaker B: We should probably stop talking because we talked for a long time and I think the listeners are probably. [01:13:57] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you all are tired of this. This has been a very long show. [01:14:01] Speaker B: But Project nerd. [01:14:03] Speaker A: Project nerd. Yeah. We've now mentioned them so much that. [01:14:07] Speaker B: We need funny book forensics. [01:14:08] Speaker A: Yes. [01:14:10] Speaker B: And by absolute zero, Camp blackpad. And that's it. We're done. So we're out of here. I hope you enjoyed this episode and come back for more when we review a monster in a little girl's mind. [01:14:26] Speaker A: Sounds weird. [01:14:27] Speaker B: It's good. [01:14:29] Speaker A: Are we doing monsters, Inc. No. Is this going to be all about that one dude that. That steals kids and then makes them scream into a jar? [01:14:37] Speaker B: Oh, goodbye, everyone. That was a great edition of funny book forensics. Bye, Greg. [01:14:42] Speaker A: Bye, Dan. Are we hitting the button now? Are we hitting the button? You're telling me to wrap it up. Okay, I get it.