Funny Book Forensics 371 Bagels and Bugs

[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm always waiting for something. I clicked. [00:00:05] Speaker B: I clicked. [00:00:07] Speaker A: And I'm not referring to the Shawn Michaels triple h faction from the mid nineties. I'm not waiting for them to come back. [00:00:16] Speaker B: You're just waiting for the mouse click of Greg. That's super audible and loud, like the chair. [00:00:22] Speaker A: I think that the sad part is wrestling is just. I have no desire to watch it anymore. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a thing like the. I don't know. I. I don't even know who's who on the what what anymore. [00:00:38] Speaker A: I was watching some aew when it first started, but now it. But it got really terrible. I mean, just really bad. [00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah. You're like. Yeah, yeah. [00:00:49] Speaker A: It's not enjoyable. Well, Chris Jericho is all over the show and he's like 9000 years old. [00:00:56] Speaker B: He's, he's the, he's there like, you know, he's anchoring. Like, you know, he's holding it in. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he's not. The problem is he's not really holding it in. He's. His boobs bounce all over the place and I mean, his pecs. [00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:14] Speaker A: Are we gonna. Am I gonna get. Am I gonna get, like, censored for shaming now? I mean, look, I'm just gonna say it's wrestling, and so you do sort of have to be in shape to pull off the illusion. That's kind of the game. So if you're mad at me for saying that, then I am not. Sorry. [00:01:31] Speaker B: He's an aged wrestler. [00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he just shouldn't be. Maybe he should be like a manager or advising the wrestler or something. I don't want to see him like. Yeah. I just also, like, exactly, like, there's younger, more athletic people. It's time to, like, let them shine, move on. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's no fun. And then who can watch WWE now? I mean, it's. I. I'm sure they're doing some good things, but, man, you know, Vince McMahon's a really terrible dude and he's attached to that still somehow. I mean, he's not, but he is. [00:02:14] Speaker B: He'll always have some sort of attachment to it, and that's the tough part. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And the whole reason I borrowed up wrestling is because I was going to bring up project nerd. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And they have a pro wrestling podcast. [00:02:32] Speaker B: They do. [00:02:32] Speaker A: So maybe I could get excited about wrestling again and not worry about Chris Jericho's body. Chris Jericho, he's. Yeah, well, his body. Yeah. I mean, he is kind of like, you know, those, like, the house of wax. You know, the movie. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:02:51] Speaker A: And the amount them. It's kind of what his body is doing. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:02:58] Speaker A: You're not getting. You're not supporting any. [00:03:00] Speaker B: I'm just. I. [00:03:01] Speaker A: Far away from. [00:03:03] Speaker B: No, I haven't watched. I don't know. I can't. I can't make a. I can't make a comment either way. I'm just, you know, like, I'm just. [00:03:10] Speaker A: But I. Project nerd.com can help you catch back in because they have a podcast called spandex stand ups. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Okay. So they'll. They'll. They'll loop me back in, get me back into the squared circle, help me. [00:03:22] Speaker A: And the comments will be funnier than mine. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, maybe. Maybe not. We don't know how to give it a listen. You. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Maybe they're not so hung up on Chris Jericho's body. [00:03:32] Speaker B: They might not be. Maybe they think it's just fine. Maybe they're. They appreciate his. His aged wrestler body, and they're, like, rooting for him because he's. He's back in the. Back in the ring doing his thing. [00:03:44] Speaker A: He kind of looks like the bloated corpse of an aging rock star. [00:03:47] Speaker B: Well, I mean, have you seen. Yes, your comment. Yes, some. Some of. Some of the aging rock stars definitely did not age as well as their younger selves appeared. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not saying that I look so great for my age or anything. I'm not. But I'm also not putting myself on tv in Speedo. [00:04:11] Speaker B: That's true. That's true. Maybe. Maybe he needs encouragement. [00:04:19] Speaker A: And if he went to project Dash nerd.com, he would get that encouragement. [00:04:23] Speaker B: See? Excellent. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah. In fact, he would learn all about grapes. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Grapes. Yes. Got any grapes? [00:04:35] Speaker A: Well, they do. On project. [00:04:37] Speaker B: They do. [00:04:38] Speaker A: You can get the best grapes, actually, the best. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Just a whole thing of grapes. [00:04:43] Speaker A: I think, more importantly is you should actually go to project Dash nerd.com, and you should click on the post that mentions the four. [00:04:51] Speaker B: The four. [00:04:53] Speaker A: And you should click on it so it can tell you when it's gonna be on Kickstarter. [00:05:00] Speaker B: Okay. Is that a set of book? [00:05:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a comic book we talk about. [00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. [00:05:08] Speaker A: And. And Iggy at Project Dash nerd also made a comic. [00:05:12] Speaker B: What? He made a comic book. Oh, my goodness. I think we're gonna have to. Maybe. We'll have to get our hands on this. Our hot little hands on this comic book. [00:05:21] Speaker A: I don't know. I feel like you've already done subscript advisement on this. [00:05:24] Speaker B: I have not oh, I have not done anything. [00:05:28] Speaker A: Shows what I know. [00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I have done nothing. So it's all news to me. [00:05:35] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad we go to project Dash nerd.com. i am looking at my last few Facebook posts, which are few and far between. I post the podcast. I post a picture of the dogs in trouble. Yeah, the podcast. A picture of flying home when it was 118 degrees in August, and I posted a. Nope. Wyatt, 2024 post. [00:05:58] Speaker B: So many posts, Dan. So many posts. [00:06:01] Speaker A: I've posted five times since July. Since July 17, when I got back from Paris. I've posted five times. [00:06:11] Speaker B: You know, I think you don't need to. You post so much for. For us on funnybook forensics. That surely, surely takes precedence. [00:06:22] Speaker A: I don't need to post because I go to projectdoschner.com for everything I need to know. [00:06:26] Speaker B: There you go. You get all your news there, all your memes, all your fun new podcasts that will help you get back into the squared circle yourself. Well, maybe not you get back into it, but get back into watching the square circle. You know what I mean? [00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's. And that's how it goes, so. Yeah. And also, God, this podcast is just starting off really slow. [00:06:50] Speaker B: That's okay. [00:06:51] Speaker A: And that's okay, because we're gonna speed it up really quick here. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Oh, boy. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Because we. Like. Would you say the COVID has your favorite superhero? [00:07:03] Speaker B: I would say it has. It has one of. One of definitely my favorite superheroes. When I think superheroes, I think this guy, not because he's a super, not because he's the best hero, but because if I was a superhero, I'd probably be booster gold. I honestly, if it wasn't for Booster Gold and Batman 66, the show, I don't think I would have gotten through my back injury just reading booster gold issues and watching Batman 66. So those. They resonate deep in my heart as good stuff. So booster gold definitely has a good place in there. His antics and his goofiness. He is a ball of clumsy dumbness that I love. [00:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah, he is. You're talking about the 2007 to 2011 volume two. Booster gold, I believe, correct. Yeah. [00:08:02] Speaker B: That's when I was laid up just reading comics. [00:08:07] Speaker A: And. Well, no, is a fantastic series. I mean, you've got it just. It was really great. They took booster and they explained stuff. It was after countdown, right? Yeah. And they. They just. They. They built, you know, I think they did a good job. Geoff John started it and then handed off to Giffen. Right. [00:08:33] Speaker B: I think, like. And then. And Skeets got his own personality, a. [00:08:39] Speaker A: Better yet, his own personality with the jergish. [00:08:41] Speaker B: But I feel like the way that it. The interactions that skeets has are very, like, they just were zing, zing, zing on booster. Like more so. [00:08:57] Speaker A: Yep. [00:08:57] Speaker B: I was like, oh, man. [00:08:58] Speaker A: Kind of like. And he's gonna do it again here. And Giffen and Damattis got to take it over from Geoff Johns, too, which was really good. And there was one issue where he, toward the end, where he got dropped into the middle of Darkseid destroying Daxm in the great darkness saga, which we've read here, or he was dropped onto Dax and Wright, and then he realized what the date was, and he was like, oh, oh, oh, no. [00:09:27] Speaker B: Gotta go. Yeah. [00:09:32] Speaker A: Which I thought that was a great tie back for Giffen, too. Like, to bring his favorite into one of his favorites. Right. Bring one of his favorite characters into one of his most famous stories. I don't wanna say it's his favorite story. Cause I don't know that for sure. We definitely know that. And then Dan Juergens got to write it at the very end, too, so it went full circle. [00:09:55] Speaker B: See, and that's a fun way to do a whole entire series like that, where you get pockets of different perspective on the writing and a great way to lay it out and make the story a little bit fuller. [00:10:12] Speaker A: One in the full circle. Jeff Johns got booster back into the mainstream, then hands it off to the two creators that made him super famous, and then hand him off to the guy who created him. It's like backwards day. It's like reverse day. Well, we get some booster gold right here. We have a bright. What color is this? [00:10:35] Speaker B: It's like a. It's like a. Not like a baby blue, but like a. Almost like a tealy. [00:10:45] Speaker A: The hot. Are we looking at the same. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Sorry, I can't get it. [00:10:50] Speaker A: Are you on issue? [00:10:50] Speaker B: I am on issue three. I can't get it to go back, though. [00:10:52] Speaker A: I can't get it to go back. [00:10:54] Speaker B: I don't click a bunch of. [00:10:56] Speaker A: But, like, what are you looking at? [00:10:57] Speaker B: It's gonna. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Because we are. Well, here. You're good. [00:11:00] Speaker B: I know buttons, but it's not going back. [00:11:03] Speaker A: The. Well, we got, like, a hot pink cover. [00:11:07] Speaker B: Yes. [00:11:09] Speaker A: It almost hurts if you keep looking at it. So I wouldn't recommend it with, like, you think it's teal and lime green. Human target. And we've got booster gold eating a bagel with Christopher Chance inside of it. It's kind of weird. [00:11:26] Speaker B: It's not toasted pre toasted. Note that. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Hey, don't ruin the jokes. No, you're fine. [00:11:37] Speaker B: We're there. [00:11:39] Speaker A: We just want to ruin it. Now, booster. Booster in the story thinks that you should pre toast bake. [00:11:43] Speaker B: No, you shouldn't pre toast bagels or. [00:11:46] Speaker A: You should pre toast. No, he says they're not pre toasted. Do you pre toast your bagels? Do you buy them in the bag pre toasted? [00:11:53] Speaker B: I mean, you can. [00:11:56] Speaker A: I don't think you can do that. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Sure you can. [00:12:00] Speaker A: How do you, you buy pre toasted bagels? Do you go, are you talking about bagel chips? [00:12:04] Speaker B: I go, I go to the place. I have them cut the bagel slightly. Toast. [00:12:09] Speaker A: No, no, not at the place. I'm saying, like, do you go to. [00:12:12] Speaker B: The store and I have them pre toast? [00:12:13] Speaker A: Buy a bag of bagels that are pre toast? [00:12:15] Speaker B: I have them pre toasted and then I bring it home. And I know they pre toast it for me. I bring it home. I don't do anything with it at the store. I have them rebag it and then I bring it home. And then I, then I tell pre toast it's pre toasting for me because by the time I get it home, I'm ready to toast, man. I'm ready to toast. [00:12:34] Speaker A: So then, then why are you having them? [00:12:36] Speaker B: It's pre toasting. [00:12:37] Speaker A: They're pretty sense. Then it's just gonna be, no, no, it's pre toasting. [00:12:40] Speaker B: They're pre toasting the bagel for me. [00:12:43] Speaker A: But you said you were gonna toast it. [00:12:45] Speaker B: I know. It's retoast. I'm retoasting the pre toasting, though. [00:12:49] Speaker A: You're not. There is no such thing as pre toasting. Then they're toasting and you're retoasting. [00:12:54] Speaker B: There's no, it's pre to me because I didn't. I I didn't. I didn't. [00:12:57] Speaker A: Are you toasting it before you make the bagel? Like, what would pre toasting be? [00:13:01] Speaker B: Well, you raise a glass and you say, this bagel is delicious. I raise it. [00:13:07] Speaker A: That's a toast. That's not a pre toast. [00:13:08] Speaker B: And that's the pre, I think that's. [00:13:11] Speaker A: The point that skeets is making in this book. [00:13:15] Speaker B: I guess we'll have to get there. [00:13:17] Speaker A: Well, we'll have to get there. Well, Christopher Chance is sleeping. He's dreaming about hanging out with ice. The kind of dream where, oh, we don't want to talk about that. So that's why this book's rated mature. Yeah. Even though no one cusses in it. Well, it's not rated mature. Sorry. It's ages 17 plus. We got to get our ratings right. We've gotten rid of those labels. [00:13:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:40] Speaker A: And anyway, he's really thinking about ice. And we get to the bottom of the page. He's laying on his pillow, it says day three. And we hear from off panel, hey, chance. Hey, get up. And, oh, we get one of the coolest art scenes with, like, you know how, like, when you have the crappy blinds, like, the ones that are in front of me and you can see. Well, they can't see my face, but you can how the lights shining on so badly, right? Well, actually, it's not too bad right now, but it's lighting up my big bald head. Cause the lights come through the blind. And this right here, same thing. We've got guy Gardner sitting on the edge of the bed where you can see the light shining on him. And it says, human target, chapter three. That we are come, I think are gone. I can't tell. See, that's the only problem with this effect. [00:14:33] Speaker B: We are. I think it's. We are come. [00:14:36] Speaker A: And we get writing here through the blinds. That looks very. Like it's interlac. [00:14:40] Speaker B: Yes, it's. It is. Very, very much. [00:14:44] Speaker A: I think those G's are interlacing. [00:14:46] Speaker B: They might be. Oh, there's a lot of them come gone. I don't know. I can't tell. [00:14:53] Speaker A: I mean, you know what? I have the Internet, so we can confirm what the title of the story is. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Just gonna look it up. [00:14:59] Speaker A: I'll have to get off my booster gold page here. Okay, but, yeah, I mean, while I'm clickety clacking my keyboard to find that out. You know what? I don't want to hear it. The noises that come from your office are inhuman. [00:15:15] Speaker B: They're not inhuman. They're very normal noises. They're squeaky chairs, clickety clackety mouses, keyboards, all that stuff. That's just normal. Well, I guess they're not human noises. They're just normal, everyday noises. [00:15:31] Speaker A: I don't know what your noises are, but they're inhuman. That's what I was saying. [00:15:37] Speaker B: I suppose it's not the fan anymore, so. [00:15:43] Speaker A: Well, that's good. We don't hear the stupid fan. Well, the fan is. Anyway. We're going to stop discussing the noises that come from Greg and we'll tell you that we are come. [00:15:57] Speaker B: That's the title. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Yes. [00:15:58] Speaker B: That's what it looks like. [00:15:59] Speaker A: Yes. And Guy Gardner sitting at the bed and he said, I heard you were hanging around with my girl. What's your problem? Mandy saw this, and I was ill. Yeah. [00:16:12] Speaker B: Not his girl anymore. [00:16:13] Speaker A: I the way. [00:16:15] Speaker B: Not his girl anymore. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Well, also, like, it's just. I hate that's. So if we're going back to the Justice League international days, I did not like Guy Gardner. [00:16:27] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Until. Let's see. I wouldn't say I liked Guy Gardner, but I. Until major Glory shows up and starts just basically bossing him around and. Yeah, and basically, if you weren't reading Justice League, major Glory is basically Captain America. Captain Marvel, kind of. Right. But he says a word and he basically becomes like Captain America. Right. So it's kind of a combination of the two. It's kind of a combination of the two most popular superheroes, theoretically, besides Superman. Right. Of the forties. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:17:15] Speaker A: I'm stretching to say Captain America was the second 3rd most popular, but, you know, we'll go with it for just for the sake of argument. So you make a combination of those two characters, and you find out, like, that guy Gardner's haircut back in the day was based off of General Glory's sidekick. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Oh. [00:17:32] Speaker A: And anyway. But there was some. There was some. Some stuff in that run that wasn't real great. Like, his relationship with Ice, especially, was just something I probably never wanted to see in comics again. So we'll see how this goes. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:48] Speaker A: I was not super excited to see Guy Gardner at all, as I'm not generally excited to see Guy Gardner anywhere. I kind of wish the character probably should have been conveniently written away. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Disappeared. [00:18:04] Speaker A: But for some reason, people love their guy Gardner, and I don't know why. Maybe one of the listeners can explain why I should love Guy Gardner, but because from the pseudo abuse to the just the pseudo abuse and the relationship with Ice originally alone is enough for me to not ever want to see the character again. [00:18:22] Speaker B: Well, maybe with the new Superman movie, you might like him. [00:18:29] Speaker A: That is impossible. Based on who's playing. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Not a fan of Nathan. [00:18:38] Speaker A: You know, I'm gonna say it again, and I'm gonna get canceled by all of our fans. Firefly is not good. [00:18:47] Speaker B: Oh, man. He doesn't like space western. [00:18:51] Speaker A: There's a reason. There's a reason it ran one season. I understand why it has such a good following. I like Joss Whedon. I like some of the dialogue in Firefly. I don't like. I think the biggest problem with Firefly is I don't like the main character in Firefly. [00:19:14] Speaker B: What if he's not the main character? It's the ship. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Then that makes it post modernism, and I don't like that either. So it's. Yeah, we're taking me out. [00:19:31] Speaker B: I took you down a different road. I apologize. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Well, that's fine. I mean, we do have to go through two issues, but it's. Yeah, I mean, and of course we did. Guy Gardner's first appearance, created by John Broom and Gil Cain as a one off character. Right off, you know, it was just a one issue character, and then he gets brought back and gets hit by a bus. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Bam. [00:19:54] Speaker A: When Jon Stewart. And that's how Jon Stewart becomes the backup green lantern of Earth. And then eventually, we get rid of the whole backup green lanterns of earth. And we have all sorts of green lanterns of earth, but. And during crisis, we had John Stewart and Guy Gardner eventually in Green Lantern corpse. They just kind of rotate through the different characters. They've tried to redeem the Guy Gardner character recently by talking about, like, familial abuse or problems and. Yeah, I get it. And, you know, they've. Different writers do different things with Guy Gardner. He always seems to come around. But I'll tell you what, when he was sitting on the edge of the bed here, and he's like, you're hanging around with my girl. It just reminded me of every bad part of Guy Gardner. [00:20:44] Speaker B: Yeah. He's just. He's a jerk. [00:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And, I mean, some. And then the other piece of it. And they did, Giffen and Damattis sort of made a joke out of it. Right. Because he got hit and his personality went back to what it was before, when he was a nice teacher and everything. But, yeah, we're also, like, concussion stuff isn't as funny anymore because it has a. [00:21:10] Speaker B: There's a lot of bad things that can happen. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Right. And I get how, you know, they did the classic, like, cartoon joke and back, you know, and in the nineties, yeah, we kind of knew about concussions, but doing the classic hit in the head change personality joke was. Was okay. But now, I mean, you know, you've got the. Was it Chris Nowitzki, who? Former pro wrestler and football player running the whole concussion research stuff. You've got major figures. Like, I mean, you've got. Even Roseanne Barr, right, attributes her personality problems to being hit by a car. Right. And having a concussion, though, I feel like with Roseanne Barr, it might be an excuse, but probably. I don't know. Right. And see, I feel like it might be, but then I don't know if I believe anything she says anymore. [00:22:00] Speaker B: True. [00:22:00] Speaker A: But it's, you know, it's. It's you know, something. She's not the only one. But that's just. There's a great example of somebody who's, like, personality has shifted substantially during her career, multiple times, at least her public career. Right. I don't know what her private career was. [00:22:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Like, but I feel like she's a long way from the comedian that said, if you want me to vacuum, if they want women to vacuum like men mow the lawn, why don't they invent a writing vacuum cleaner? Which I thought was a great joke to what we have now. So, I mean, I don't know. That's the concussion thing. And writing it away and then giving. And then, of course, you have to give him some. At points, they gave him, like, a troubled family history, which I thought was, like, almost a cop out to justify some of these other things. It's sometimes, like, characters, they just. You have to either make them into, like, a farce of what they were to keep them around. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:55] Speaker A: Or get rid of. We've talked about a couple. Right. Like the Punisher. Right. And vigilante, the way they've handled those differently. Right. The vigilante becomes a joke in the peacemaker series. And you can't have a guy who's. I mean, because the vigilante was just a copy of the Punisher. Right. You know, family died. District attorney in this case, but different. So not a complete copy, but different. And then, you know, is going out and avenging against the criminals with his guns. Punisher's different origin story, but same idea. Right. With Frank Castle. And I don't. I don't think Frank Castle works anymore. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:32] Speaker A: And we're talking about, you know, at least sky gardener's out shooting people, so I don't have to think about the things that just happened in the news and then think about the character. So at least we're beyond that. Right. But characters that abuse women. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:51] Speaker A: I don't think that was okay at any point. And then, you know, if you're trying to build an adult book and have real life characters and different things, that's fine. But then that's a character you don't keep around. [00:24:02] Speaker B: Fair. Fair. Because it's kind of a garbage person. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you do keep them around, you constantly treat them as a garbage person. [00:24:13] Speaker B: I think. I think that's one of the things I like about the use of him in this book is that Christopher chance is, like, not putting up with them. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Yeah. He's like. He is a garbage person. [00:24:28] Speaker B: You're a garbage person, dude. Get the hell out of my. Get out of my room. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's what we can summarize the next couple pages. So Christopher chance. But I will say there's a part of the turn of the story later that. Well, anyway, I won't get into that. [00:24:44] Speaker B: We'll get there when we get there. [00:24:46] Speaker A: We'll get there. But it's chance basically is like, get out of my room. He's thinking about the poison and recounting. He's giving out a little recount of what happened, letting us know again that Lex Luthor had used overbasser to kill guys, now happily resurrected XDev and kind of giving us a recap. And then he tries to shoot Guy Gardner. And Guy Gardner uses the ring to deflect the bullet, or the ring does it automatically, which it is known to do. It does protect its wearer to an extent. You wouldn't know that if you read some of the Green Lanterns in the late two thousands where all the green Lanterns keep dying all the time. [00:25:30] Speaker B: But maybe the rings didn't like them. [00:25:34] Speaker A: Well, that hole in, like, the Sinestro force was like, sinestro ring. People were going out murdering everybody. Or the red Lantern anyway. We had all the different color lanterns, like the rainbow of lanterns. I have a bunch of lantern rings right over here. [00:25:46] Speaker B: I do. [00:25:47] Speaker A: But he shoots at him and he's like, you shouldn't have done that, Chance. And then guy starts to threaten him, and chances, again, not having any of it, including him saying he's with her girl, his girl. And chance is just like, look, it's not complicated. She makes her own choices. So that's the way it is. Walk away before you get hurt. And, you know, I do like that he's standing up to this bully who's controlling and, you know, trying to, anyway, protect his quote unquote girl. But then he just beats the hell out of Christopher Chance with the ring. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:29] Speaker A: And walks away. And I think the other problem with this, it's like we've gone through periods of the Green Lanterns where, like, the guardians would swoop in if something was going on like this, right. Or the ring wasn't allowed to hurt people or different things. And of course, we've gone now to a full circle with that, where now people can kill with the ring. And you've just got the different corpse. Like, you had the Sinestro corps and the red Lantern Corps and the star sapphires, the pink color lanterns. You've got, like, the Indigo Lanterns, which are a weird tribe. You've got, like, the blue Lanterns, which are the hope lanterns. You've got the yellow, the orange Lantern. That was Laura Freeze, your favorite, the one that hoarded everything on the planet. Also written by Giffen and Damattis, by the way, so. Or at least giffen. I forget if it was both of them, but, yeah. Anyway, we get this, and ice finds him all beaten up. [00:27:29] Speaker B: He's worked over. [00:27:32] Speaker A: And somebody says he's a bastard on the next page. I'm not really sure who. I presume ice, probably, and chance is trying to figure out. So he's lost most of his third day here by getting beat up by Gardner. Just shows up in his room, and he's like, I've got to get out of here. And the bottle is empty, and ice is reminding him with him, it's going to be a whole thing. So you flipped a page here, and they go out for a drive in. The car that's. The fronts of the car has looked better. This is Chance's car that's hit a tree, among other things. And a big car made with green energy shows up next to him, and Guy is basically challenging him. And again, looking like a giant idiot, Christopher Chance tricks him and speeds off through a red light, expecting him to follow, and he does, and he gets smashed into by a Yde semi, smashing up the whole green energy car, which that's also weird, too, because I would think, like, the semi might smash, but that's okay. That means guy's will is not strong. [00:28:59] Speaker B: His will is not strong. Oh, he was thinking about other things, you know, he wasn't thinking about. Right. His sweet ride. He was thinking about his and his lady and his anger for Christopher chance. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Well, it's. Oh, yeah. It's almost as if maybe he had something else on his mind and he was trying to play a role, perhaps. Perhaps. I don't know. Like, he's distracted somehow because his energy contract goes down, and ice is like, are you sure you know what you're doing? And he's like, yeah, I don't. He's like, all he's doing is driving. That's what he says. Well, they end up at Booster Gold's opening. Grand opening of boosters bagels. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Yay, booster. [00:29:44] Speaker A: In a strip mall next to a nail spa. Because just like jujitsu lawyer Paul Boudreau, who is jujitsu studio, is, of course, next to a nail spa. [00:29:58] Speaker B: Hey. [00:30:00] Speaker A: Which is quite convenient if I want to go from training right over and get the nice blue paint on my toenails. Yeah, and get the little massage like the little calf massage. And I actually feel bad. They kind of give me a stare when I, like, look at that. Like when we get to the little calf massage part because they're like, just kind of look at me like, really? But anyway, please, I wish, I wish. [00:30:23] Speaker B: To have this calf massage. I need this calf massage. It's gonna feel so good. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're like, yeah. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Do they have the little fish in the thing that you can put your feet in? They eat the, eat all the skin off your feet. [00:30:35] Speaker A: No, you just set your feet up on the whole thing. The little. Anyway, but they put the little scrubby stuff with the salt and everything. [00:30:42] Speaker B: It's really self care, man. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Anyway, it's good. Yeah, it's a, well, self care is inexpensive as healthcare now, so it's less expensive. Yeah. So boosters there, and he's got a giant crowd of which, of like five people. Yeah, that's one in a flash shirt. Pretty big one. Lady in a booster gold shirt. [00:31:05] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:31:07] Speaker A: I miss my booster gold shirt. Remember my shirt? Yeah. Just too bad that wore out. Get you a new one and you can't get them anymore. [00:31:18] Speaker B: Make one. [00:31:19] Speaker A: They don't sell them. The company that made them went out of business, so I'd have to go eBay hunting for it. Probably pay a pretty penny. So it's. And they were hard to keep clean. Cause they were white shirts, which is white shirts always great. [00:31:34] Speaker B: I have a white shirt rule. Just try to stay away from them. Cause I will stay away from them. [00:31:43] Speaker A: But they're watching Booster talk. Skeets is sighing and ice is like, well, I think we got this case solved. We had to kill Luther. We couldn't take the competition from Lex's life locks. And Booster, Booster goes to cut the ribbon and Skeets is telling him to use scissors. And he's like, I'm not going to use scissors. I have a laser. And Skeets is like, you're going to break something. He's like, no, I'm not. And skeets like, yes, you are. And we're getting that back and forth with skeets like you were talking about. Yeah, that came. And, yeah. And sure enough, booster gold doesn't hit, does hit the ribbon, but he also breaks the glass into booster's bagels. So there's now a big on opening day. And then we get a scene of chance and booster and ice sitting in booster's bagels with a big broken window behind Christopher Chance. [00:32:45] Speaker B: Yeah, classic, classic booster. [00:32:50] Speaker A: And him and ice get going really quickly on catching back up. And Booster is like, hey, you're Christopher chance, right? The human target master of disguise, right? And he says, right. And Booster's like, right. But if you are the master of disguise, dot, dot, dot, how do I know you're actually Christopher chance? [00:33:18] Speaker B: Boom. [00:33:23] Speaker A: And then chance is like, booster, did you try to poison Lex Luthor three days ago? And Booster's like, hmm, Alex Luthor. Hmm. No, no, no. I did nothing. And he's like, I can't tell you exactly where I was three days ago. And Skeets is like, we were in 19th century England trying to get Keats to help you write the bagel menu. And because, see, Booster is an idiot. And Skeets is like, I'm gonna make sure we aren't implicated in this murder. So Skeets is giving him all the information he needs because Skeets, yeah, I mean, Skeets runs Booster's life. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Booster's dumb. Skeets is smart. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, pretty much. And then we get a scene where Booster is going back in time to get all the ingredients for his bagels, running away from arrows and then running away from spears and then running away. [00:34:26] Speaker B: From axes to get all the best ingredients for the lowest prices free. [00:34:32] Speaker A: Or just ingredients for a lower price. Yeah. So he's basically stealing them from people in the past. They can't defend themselves. And he's like, yeah, the bagel business is quite cutthroat. You got to get an edge where you can take it. [00:34:48] Speaker B: Booster. [00:34:49] Speaker A: And skeets is like, it's highly likely we broke time. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Booster. Booster, booster. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah, they keep going on. There's some more banter and we get to a page, and then it's just chance's dialogue again. So you got a big picture of the Justice League international in the background. Him and ice are catching up. We get a handshake with chance and booster, and you get to see a very important thing on his finger. [00:35:20] Speaker B: Oh, looks like you have one, too. Legion flight ring. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I also have a legion flight ring. I have a lot of them. You could have one, too, if I liked you enough. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Oh, did you hear that? [00:35:32] Speaker A: But you don't have one, do you? Well, maybe if one of the listeners wants a legion flight ring, they can come chat with us and maybe I would part with one of these. [00:35:41] Speaker B: Oh, that's a very bad boys. They look very cool. They look very nice. [00:35:46] Speaker A: It's very cool. But so Booster and I have something in common. Booster's from the 25th century and he got his legion flight ring and a brainiac five force shield belt from a museum in the 25th century. I'm not sure how he got 30th century things from the 25th century, but he did. [00:36:06] Speaker B: He went into the future and stole them. [00:36:10] Speaker A: No, that he's from the future, Greg. Okay, so he went, he went back. Do you not know boost? [00:36:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, he, he stole stuff to become a superhero after he was a janitor, after he lost a football game because he bet on himself. And then he goes in, then he's like, he's like, oh man, I'm a wash up. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Then he becomes janitor. [00:36:32] Speaker B: And then he's like, I got this bright idea. I'm gonna steal the superhero stuff and go back in time and be a superhero. And then he tries to steal everybody's like, big wins, you know, cuz he's. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Got all the dates and it never, never works. [00:36:44] Speaker B: He's. Everybody's like, oh, thanks Superman. I'm not supermandeze. [00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, there's the mini sides of Booster. I'm Booster bold. [00:36:55] Speaker B: Can't make a name for himself. Doesn't work out until he meets Ted Kord. He's like, what you need? [00:37:02] Speaker A: And it doesn't really work out then either. [00:37:04] Speaker B: You need a best friend. [00:37:05] Speaker A: I believe they bankrupted Kord Industries at one point. [00:37:07] Speaker B: Probably schemes and scams. [00:37:10] Speaker A: Well, we get ice and chance leaving and ice is like, he had access. But yeah, Booster's a goof and he wouldn't kill anyone. And Chance is like, yeah, but somebody poisoned the coffee. And someone who used out of date hydrogen and oxygen to make a cocktail that could fool those scans. And Booster had those things. And ice is like, but wait, you think Booster knew how to do that? And Chance is like, you heard him. No one knows about his trade secret water except for him, skeets and the silent partner. [00:37:46] Speaker B: Oh. [00:37:49] Speaker A: So who's the silent partner? [00:37:51] Speaker B: I don't know. I guess we'll find out. [00:37:54] Speaker A: Because Christopher Chance and Iceman. Yeah, and Ice mentions, and Booster's best friend happens to be a billionaire scientist who also happens to be one of our suspects. Oh, good. And we're back. And Guy's back, thank God, is exactly what I wanted to see with more Guy Gardner. [00:38:12] Speaker B: Guy Gardner. [00:38:14] Speaker A: And he's destroyed for Christopher Chance's car. It's now been destroyed by Green Lantern. That'd be Guy Gardner, Green Lantern. And it's on Green Lantern blocks. And ice is like, what is the hell is wrong with you? And Christopher Chantz is like, maybe he doesn't drink enough. And ice and Guy Gardner start fighting over the cardinal and she starts to freeze everything. And Gardner's protecting himself in a giant green snot bubble. And Chance gives us a little dialogue about what's gone on with folks behind him. So he says, and kind of like, this dialogue is sort of like when you hear Greg's computers in the background giving you the windows, like windows 98 noise. And he's chances make like, I don't know everything, but I know a little about lanterns. He said, john Stewart and I used to swap war stories. He was a Marine. And he says, the thing about lanterns, why I wasn't worried about the car, is that their ring does a lot of the work for them. And Ice is telling him to put the car back together now. And chances, like the ring, it's the most powerful weapon in the universe without you even thinking it'll protect you from anything. The strength it'd take to overcome that defense is almost inconceivable as ice is freezing the bubble. Ice seems to have a bit of a power boost here. [00:39:56] Speaker B: Yeah, she's like pretty op. When it comes down to it, she's a lot more powerful than, I think, anybody because she's freezing up Green Lantern bubble, dude. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, our Tom King is definitely making her more powerful. I mean, I think it depends on the writer, so. But to continue on that chant after they're driving away and they're talking, and Chance says in his thought bubble, it was just a bluff to scare him. She wasn't going to hurt him. She's just what everyone says she is, sweet and kind. In the end, Ice is nice, and they were looking for dinner, and Ice is like anything but a bagel. And Chance says that's just the lie she'd tell. And they head back to Ice's house and. And Chance is thinking she's immeasurably powerful, she's got a temper, and she might have already killed you. And he keeps telling himself to not get out of the car, but they keep talking, and eventually both of them head into Ice's house. [00:41:14] Speaker B: Oh, Christopher Chance, what are you doing? [00:41:16] Speaker A: Or toured Ice's house. Yeah. And then he says, in a few hours later, I'm a few drinks in nine days left, and he's back in his hotel room. He's like, I'm gonna spend this day here. And guy Gardner's back. And he's like, chance, you're blanking through because we have to edit the cuss words out in a 17 book. And Gardner starts tearing up everything. He throws Christopher Chance outside. And as he's doing that, oh, hey, this is just what I was waiting for. Some regulation. Hal Jordan flies down wearing the ring, and he's like, what in the name of oa? Did you already call it oa or did you call it oa? [00:42:12] Speaker B: I think I call it oa. [00:42:15] Speaker A: I always called it oa. Well, anyway, Gardner and Gardner and Hal have a conversation, and Gardner's like, hal, Hal, you don't understand. He's a mean guy, and he's taking away my girlfriend, and it's not very there. And Hal just looks at him and says, your ring. Give it to me or I'll take it away forever. And we definitely see that guy is down the pecking order from Hal because he gives Hal the ring, and then chance turns around after he gives Hal the ring, and he punches him out. And Hal says, can I keep the ring? And he's not referring to the Green Lantern ring. They're referring to booster's legion flight ring, because that's what they used. That's what they used to fly. But. But we find out it's not Hal Jordan at all. In fact, it's Luigi. [00:43:15] Speaker B: Luigi wearing a Hal Jordan. [00:43:18] Speaker A: Take Luigi. Yeah. Yep. And. And they totally tricked Guy Gardner into giving up his ring so they could knock him out and chance to basically. Yeah, I don't care if you keep the Green Lantern ring. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Oh, snap. [00:43:39] Speaker A: And that's the end. So we've got. We had a whole issue where booster gold, we've ruled him out as the bad guy. [00:43:46] Speaker B: We think, not smart enough. He's not smart enough. [00:43:57] Speaker A: And. Yeah. So now we get to the next book. [00:44:01] Speaker B: Oh. [00:44:03] Speaker A: With the best cover ever. [00:44:04] Speaker B: It is pretty good. [00:44:07] Speaker A: So do you know who created Ted Cord? Do you remember from our blue Beetle episode? [00:44:13] Speaker B: It's back in the Charlton days. Right. [00:44:16] Speaker A: It was in the Charlton days. [00:44:17] Speaker B: So I don't. It's in here. It's in this. [00:44:23] Speaker A: It's inside this. I'll give you a hint. Since it's inside your brain, I'll give you a hint. He also created another bug. Well, not quite a bug. Eight armed bug. Arachnid superhero. [00:44:42] Speaker B: Does his name start with an SDhe? [00:44:45] Speaker A: It does start with an S. There aren't too many arachnids out there that are. [00:44:50] Speaker B: Oh, no. I was thinking the creator. Is it. Is it a Steve? [00:44:53] Speaker A: Oh, the creator does not. The first name starts with an S. Yes. [00:44:57] Speaker B: The first name starts with an S, and it's a Steve. And I'm thinking the last name is a Ditko. [00:45:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it is definitely a Steve. Ditko created Ted cord in captain atom number 83 in 1966, by the way. If you want to pick that up for me and deliver it to my house, I will happily take it. I did see one in Paris, of all places. [00:45:20] Speaker B: Really? [00:45:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:45:22] Speaker B: Wow, that's pretty cool. [00:45:24] Speaker A: It was. It was very. It was not priced to sell. Otherwise, I would have brought it home. [00:45:30] Speaker B: It was museum pricing. It was, hey, look at this cool thing that we have. You can look at it all you want. [00:45:35] Speaker A: Like, I. This shop, one of the shops I went to, had amazing silver and bronze age stuff. But, yeah, it was not cheap, and it was well kept. I mean, these were nice. These were like, these were high grade. They had a lot of high grade stuff. So it was pretty cool to go into the shop and talk to the owner, but it was not something I could. [00:45:55] Speaker B: Yeah, sometimes it's just a nice. A nice moment to see cool things and to say, wow, that's cool. [00:46:03] Speaker A: And to say, I can't afford it is different. I could choose to buy it. I just wouldn't ever get to go on vacation. [00:46:09] Speaker B: We make these choices for things that we do. We do. We want it. Do we want it that bad? [00:46:18] Speaker A: But I would have happily. Yeah. So if you have a Captain America, a Captain Adam. Sorry, number 83 sitting out there, I would happily discuss purchasing options with you, but. Or if you just want to send it to me, it'll be. [00:46:34] Speaker B: It'll come in a. It'll come wrapped up in a. Like, it'll be rolled with a rubber band around it to hold it tight in one of those mailing tubes. But it's smashed in there really good, so it doesn't move. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Why are you hurting? [00:46:48] Speaker B: Myself. I hate it when Kickstarter books come that way. Like, they just come poorly packed. [00:46:57] Speaker A: You got a Kickstarter book. [00:46:58] Speaker B: I've gotten Kickstarter books packed so poorly from people, and it's like, when. When. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah, me too. I got mine once in a. Just a not even thick cardboard mailer and. And had. It was called star. Star. [00:47:17] Speaker B: When you hire people. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Star. [00:47:19] Speaker B: When you hire people to do. Yes, I know. When you hire people to do certain things for you and they take the money and then they just go and ship things the cheapest way possible, that's the quickest way to get fired. But Starlight, was it. Issue four went out. Issue four or five went out very poorly to everybody because Travis outsourced the. The mailing, and it was a very bad option. [00:47:50] Speaker A: But. But however, this. This current issue, we weren't talking about comic book shipping. We're talking about this amazing cover that's a Batman 66 cover that has blue beetle on it instead of Batman. [00:48:03] Speaker B: It's, it's got so much, so much great sound effect in the COVID Yeah. [00:48:11] Speaker A: We'Ve got a bach, a fatang, a splow, a z buco, a spitie, a wap, a zap, I think. But you don't see the z, unfortunately. There are dollar bills. There's money flying everywhere. And blue Beetle's fighting people. And Christopher chance is just kind of looking from the side. Looks like he's got a vape. No, that's his alcohol. So we get an advertisement for Detective comics 1050, and then we jump into the story and we're at core industries. Yes. The much more successful industries. You know, if you're, if you're looking in DC Universe, right. And you're looking for the most successful billionaires in the DC universe, we've got, of course, we've got chord industries, the superior of all industries. And we've got some Wayne company. We've got some other company, like a Luther Corp. You think? They seem to be pretty impactful, but what clearly stands head and shoulders above them all is Kord Industries, right? [00:49:31] Speaker B: Ted Kord. Yeah, he's the man. [00:49:33] Speaker A: And we get a double homage here because we get Ted Cord coming in talking, and we get the balding Ted cord to make sure he looks like Nite Owl from Watchmen, which the night owl character is based off of blue Beetle, so of Ted Kord specifically. So good call. And for those of you that don't know, don't believe me, we've mentioned this on the podcast before. All of the Watchmen characters are based off the Charlton action heroes. So if you don't believe me, go look it up. [00:50:05] Speaker B: Classics. [00:50:08] Speaker A: And Ted Cord was a Charlton action hero. So anyway, they get in and Ted brings them up to the office, and they start talking and they talk and they talk. And then Ted's secretary mentions something is going down in Utah. And he's like, aha, I gotta go do something. And ice is like, it sounds like fun. And they all leave. And Christopher chance is, you know, when you were in high school and sometimes you would just, like, end up in the back of a car and end up in a different state. [00:50:44] Speaker B: End up in a different state. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Maybe college is a better answer. I think at high school that might be key. [00:50:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think in high school, end up in a town like four or 5 hours away. That happens in Washington. [00:50:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I think in college you just end up, like, in a different state. You're not sure what happened. But anyway. [00:51:06] Speaker B: In Idaho. [00:51:07] Speaker A: And you've spent the whole day, and you're not really sure why you did the day that way, but you just did. That's this entire time. [00:51:13] Speaker B: Oh, totally. Yeah. It's a day trip that just keeps going. [00:51:21] Speaker A: And Ted keeps talking as he goes into the beetle lair, and he's getting his costume put on. Christopher Chance gets to see backside of Ted. [00:51:34] Speaker B: He's like, no. [00:51:35] Speaker A: As all the machines dress him. And Ted Kord is still talking the entire time. And now he's going on about Lex Luthor. And at one point, he's like, how many people has he killed? I've seen them die. I'm sure you've talked to the guy about the overmaster. That's just the latest. Well, I'm sure you heard ice, and so, yeah, I'd kill him if it was the right thing to do. I do. In a half second, like slapping a bug on your arm. Just like, bam. I do it. But sadly, I think for the better. It's not the right thing. It's really wrong. You can't kill people. That's the rule. So I don't. So blue beetles, holding to the classic Batman rules or Superman rules. Right. Superheroes don't kill. Okay. The DC comics. The Silver Age. DC comics rules don't kill. [00:52:28] Speaker B: You just. You incapacitate them until police come. [00:52:31] Speaker A: No, and Batman doesn't kill. I mean, I saw the movie. All the people that the was getting shot by the car in Batman versus Superman. Yeah, or Superman versus Batman. When, whatever. What is that film? [00:52:43] Speaker B: It's one of those bad. [00:52:46] Speaker A: It's bad. [00:52:47] Speaker B: It's bad, man. It's bad, man. [00:52:50] Speaker A: Bat flag. Bat fleck. Yeah. God, it was. Anyway, so anyway, you know, some, somebody was mentioning to me yesterday, not to get distracted by that, but that I don't. I don't know anything about. Warhammer for 4k? Yes. [00:53:19] Speaker B: 40K. Warhammer. [00:53:21] Speaker A: Forty K. Forty K for 40? Yes. I don't know anything about it, except I did have a friend that would paint the little figures. I thought that was really cool. But apparently Amazon is making a Warhammer show or movie, and Henry Cavill was involved. And they were like, oh, because Henry Cavill is involved. You know, they really want to get the mythos right because he actually, like, played Warhammer and was into it. And I was like, I don't know that you can convince me that Henry Cavill being involved in a project is necessarily what I want at this point. I mean, why? [00:53:58] Speaker B: Because he. He's in projects and lease projects or oh, that. [00:54:02] Speaker A: That did happen. So there was that. What was that Netflix show, the. [00:54:07] Speaker B: The Witcher, which he was on, and then he left. [00:54:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. They did. For, like. Didn't he just do it? [00:54:13] Speaker B: He did maybe two seasons, and then they were. Then he was replaced by a different actor. I didn't. [00:54:20] Speaker A: I didn't watch it. I didn't. I heard that went well. And, you know. And him as Superman, what would. Not so great. [00:54:31] Speaker B: What are you talking about? He was fantastic. [00:54:35] Speaker A: No. And it was called Batman v. Superman, not Superman v Batman, because you got to put Batman first because Batman is, of course, the most. The best hero. [00:54:47] Speaker B: Of course. [00:54:50] Speaker A: I did like the Tudors, I guess. [00:54:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:55] Speaker B: Fair. [00:54:58] Speaker A: But I don't know. And I guess he was upset about the way the Batman thing went down. I mean, mean, we. I guess we'll never know. Right? Like. No, I was. I think I was right here. Wait. With the witcher, it's just one season. [00:55:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:12] Speaker A: It was. No, I get. No, it went. It went five. What? It went five seasons, says. Okay. [00:55:19] Speaker B: How many was he involved in, though? [00:55:20] Speaker A: Wow. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Just the one, I think. [00:55:23] Speaker A: I guess you. I don't know. I mean, I like the guy that went around singing songs. [00:55:31] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [00:55:35] Speaker A: But, yeah, I guess he went to two seasons. Well, anyway, I mean, Netflix had to keep making those episodes of passive cards after the main. The main character was disgraced. So. Yeah, that was also an. That was also a choice. [00:55:53] Speaker B: It was a choice. Not the right. [00:55:56] Speaker A: It was a choice. It was definitely a choice. And we get human target and we get a Batman 66 or Charlton action heroes page to this great stage of fools is the title. And it looks very. Yeah, it looks very silver age. It looks beautiful. I love it. [00:56:19] Speaker B: It's pretty cool. [00:56:20] Speaker A: Tom King, writer. Greg Smallwood, artist again, I guess we should credit the other folks. Clayton cows lettered this. Ben Abernethy edited it and. Yeah. And Greg Smallwood did all the things like coloring it and drawing it and stuff, so. [00:56:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, anyway, as we go, we still get Ted talking and talking to Christopher. Yeah. And he's flying back in the back of the bug, and the bug's flying them to Utah. And ice just passes out on Christopher Chance as he's thinking. And they get to the bank of Utah. Now, if this was the real bank of Utah, it would have a person with a. Holding a trumpet on the top, probably. I mean, it seems like everything in Utah has that, I would assume. [00:57:18] Speaker B: Yeah. You know. [00:57:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I said, seems not everything, but it seems that way. Yeah. There was like some South park episodes about it. And a major musical. Yeah. In fact, if you watch that musical, you can learn all about what I'm talking about. So that's. Anyway, ice is going to help blue beetle take out these bank robbers. And he's like, remember Pittsburgh? And she's like, yeah, that's perfect. Okay. And so ice waves her arm, and all of a sudden, bank robbers just come flying out. And we get lots of pows, bams, cracks, biffs, and cussing from the bank robbers. [00:58:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:08] Speaker A: And you flip the page, and you get an alien mask. Bank robber is frozen. A monkey man mask. Bank robber is frozen. A clown mask bank robber has been knocked out. And. Is that a Nixon? [00:58:22] Speaker B: It looks like a president of some sort. Perhaps. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Maybe a Richard Nixon. Bank robber is knocked out. So they've taken out the bank robbers, they've saved the hostages. And ice is like, maybe we should get them some blankets. And he's like, yeah, I've got these new cool solar wraps that I made with my company because I'm a billionaire. And chance is just thinking and thinking and thinking. But he does say, but there's something in it that bothers me. I tried to dismiss the thought. I don't need that kind of trouble. But it keeps coming back. [00:58:55] Speaker B: Uh oh. [00:58:55] Speaker A: What thought would that be? [00:58:59] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:59:02] Speaker A: And blue beetle gets another call from Nancy, his administrative assistant. And there's some sort of bear monster attacking in Wyoming. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:59:13] Speaker A: And so they go. They leave again, and they're off to fight bear monsters. And chance is, like, giving up. He's just like, okay, here we go again. And chance is thinking again. Because wanting something is admitting you don't have it. He said, the trick, he said, is to never want to win. Because wanting something is admitting you don't have it. Later, the two of us got ambushed on some sort of lost road in some lost country. As he died in my arms, I said he was a fool. He was right. He's referring to a war, by the way, because now all he wanted was to live. Okay, so, all right, well, here we go. Chances, he's being very morose. [01:00:01] Speaker B: Yes. He's just kind of. He's along for the ride. He's like, okay, whatever. Just going. [01:00:07] Speaker A: And we go back to Ted talking about Lex Luthor again. And Ted's doing the whole. I mean, I think we've mentioned it already, but he's doing the whole, like, princess bride thing all by. [01:00:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, totally. Like, it's. It's very. It's very much the. The whole entire, you know, you don't want to start landing more in asia. [01:00:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just we're still going so well. Anyway, then we get the big bear monster and ice and beetle take out the bear monster. And he says, just like. And chances watching, he says, just like you taught. I see what I don't want to see. The way she's fighting, the way he's fighting. I can't stop seeing it. And then they're all talking again. And Beatles talking to his executive assistant again. Are you sure? Samuroids? I don't. That sounds bad. That sounds like a bad. [01:01:10] Speaker B: It does this time. Oh, man. I got samurais. Is there something you could do, doc? How do I fix them? Well, yeah. [01:01:19] Speaker A: Well, first we got to get the little men with the swords from hitting you. [01:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:01:23] Speaker A: And then you got to sit on one of those pillows and take a sith back. [01:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Get everything nice and bad news to get rid of the Samurais. [01:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:37] Speaker B: Stop sitting on cold surface. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Samurais are bad news for long periods of time. We are. We're back, or back on the ship. And beetles going off more about everything. And ice and chance are sitting back. Ice goes back to sleep. And then now chance is back. He's like, a little later, we're in the cornfields of canvas, and the samurais are trying to cut down the food supply. There it is again. Then we went to the gulf of Mississippi, and there it was again. Some super kid had managed to get into the fleet computer and was sending submarines up to take potshots at people, which is kind of awesome, scary. I mean, not that they're taking potshots at people, but kind of funny. And then they're in Kentucky, and he sees it again and again. And then she's resting her hand closer and closer to important parts of the body, or non important parts, depending on your perspective. [01:02:43] Speaker B: Her hand was thigh then. [01:02:47] Speaker A: And then chances. Like everywhere we went, there was something else to go. Some other impossibility, declaring itself king of the world, ranting on until Beetle and ice showed up and put them in their proper place. It's endless, really. Always another call. No other person in, some other person in need. And there's forever. The two of them forming a plan, pushing the bad guy down, each one building the other strengths. They've done this so many times before, and it's all a lie. [01:03:14] Speaker B: A lie. It's a cake. It's a piece of cake because it's a lie. [01:03:18] Speaker A: Well, and it's. It's a lie. Well, it's. They end up in they end up in one of blue beetles hotels that he owns. [01:03:29] Speaker B: Ted Cord owns a lot of different things with court industries, you know, he has some nice hotels. [01:03:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Ice goes to bed, and Ted Cord and Christopher Chance go to get a drink. [01:03:43] Speaker B: Or ten. [01:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah, or ten. And Ted drinks, he gets two more, and he offers to double the man's salary if he'll break the law. So he does, because he's a mean old billionaire. [01:03:56] Speaker B: He's like, come on, just give me some more drinks. I own the place. [01:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're drinking, and chance is thinking, normally, you might drink a guy under to make him talk. I asked Ted one question 8 hours ago, and he still hasn't stopped talking. So tonight I drink to silence. He's like, maybe we can find some answers there. And then we get a disclosure about booster, and we find out that Ted wanted to help out booster, but he wouldn't help him with the bakel shop because he thought it was a terrible idea, and it was very nice. Christopher Chance tells him he's a really decent person, but we find out he got the money through a silent partner. Silent partner who happens to be John. Well, so I guess John Johns, the martian manhunter, asked booster for the money and then gave it to. Got it from. He asked Sarah, asked Ted for the money, and he gave it to booster. [01:05:02] Speaker B: We think, yeah, double silent partners. [01:05:06] Speaker A: And, well, chance goes back to his room, and he touches the door, the lock, and it's cold. He opens the door. There's ice right there with a. With whiskey. Exactly what he wants. Handing him a glass. And then we get the conclusion he said. But what I'd noticed all day, I couldn't help but see, was how she held herself back. Every bad guy she faced, she could have handed handled in seconds with a snap of her fingers. Instead, she let Ted have his fun. Instead, she took her time. Use the least of her power to get to the end of it. The truth is, she's not a superhero, either. She's a God. And all I can think to do is get down on my knees and pray. And we won't tell you what he's praying for. It's taking a turn. He's seeing things about super nice ice that he didn't expect to find out. [01:06:06] Speaker B: He's. He's. It's like. She's like an onion, you know? She's got layers, or maybe no layers at all. He's. He's seeing through. He's seeing through the icy. The icy fog, like in the morning. [01:06:22] Speaker A: Well, sure, it's an icy fog. That's. That's it. It's. You sink through the icy layers, the. The layers of ice. The. The. He's seeing through the. The, uh, the. I don't. I got nothing. [01:06:40] Speaker B: He's seeing through it. [01:06:42] Speaker A: He's seeing through the. The glass, the refraction. [01:06:47] Speaker B: And now the vision is clear. [01:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, super. But it's clear as ice. It's cold. [01:06:55] Speaker B: Yes. [01:06:55] Speaker A: Well, anyway, uh, he's. Yeah, he's seeing things for the first time. It's. But the art is amazing. It just rolls through the story, the ability of the two, the contrasting two stories to, I mean, the art style is the same, but he goes from smallwood, goes from the booster gold story, which is set in, like, today, basically, and then goes to the set today still, but goes to the whole feel of the 1960s Batmandeh and Charlton and just how it looks. [01:07:28] Speaker B: So, like the two books, I mean, they obviously go together, but they just different. Definitely feel different, which is really, really interesting and neat. And then. Yeah, like you said, this. This book has that. [01:07:42] Speaker A: That sixties era, and it helps you build the character. [01:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Characters. [01:07:48] Speaker A: Well, I think one of the fun things about this, too, is he gets the opportunity to dig into one character at a time. So you're learning the characters. You go, I mean, we have the interludes with guy. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:01] Speaker A: And I think it was good to bring guy into the booster book, too, simply because admittedly. Yeah. So Booster has some character built up, but we're going to ignore that for now, and we're just going to pay attention to the fact that booster can now time travel. So the only thing he really brings in for Booster that didn't exist before. Right. Obviously, Booster had time traveled. Tom King does play true to the Geoff Johns, Keith Giffen, and Damattis and Jergen series. Right, where Booster Gold is traveling through time all the time. He does play true to this in this book, so he doesn't just ignore that, but he minimizes it a little bit to just talk about, oh, he's going to do this for his own ends. So he ties back to the original Jergens character, which is cool. I don't think there's a lot of depth there that you necessarily need to cover. So I think that's the appropriate time to bring in another character and explore that character as well. With Ted, there was a little bit more depth, and we're also learning more about ice. So it made sense to focus on one character in that book and just really deep dive Ted and let Ted literally tell you how to, I find. [01:09:01] Speaker B: What you're saying is very, very interesting, too, because they do a very shallow take on Booster gold. And, you know, because it's like, it seems very much on the surface. We already know these things to be true if you know the character. And if not, then this is what we're going to tell you. And there you go. But then you also get this look at Ted, which also, for as deep as it is, it also shows very. With the talking aspect. And it's not an Edgeworth. Not an edgewise for any other character, for a lot of it. It's very shallow in that sense, too. So on the other side of shallow, right. Where it's just, I'm Teddy, I'm talking. Hear me? Let's go on this thing. And I feel like it's unintentional, right. But it's. It's him. Like, hey, I want to take you guys on this thing. [01:09:56] Speaker A: Yep. And I think it's also, like illustrating I'm. It's. He's updating it in the realm of how the world works now, too. Ted's this billionaire who's got an audience, and so he gets to talk and he's. [01:10:07] Speaker B: And he's. [01:10:08] Speaker A: It's like the billionaires of today doing this thing. [01:10:11] Speaker B: You're gonna go for this ride with me and I'll tell you what I think ad nauseam. And it's just gonna be what it is. I have a captive audience in the back of my little bug mobile, and you asked a question I'll answer to the best of my ability for hours on end. [01:10:32] Speaker A: And there we have it. [01:10:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:35] Speaker A: And that's. That's issue four. And we'll be on to issue five to find out more about chance ice and everything else soon. But that's the end for now. So do you have anything you'd like to plug that we haven't plugged already? Like the retro. [01:10:54] Speaker B: Retro emporium? You got the. You've got the spiel about it. And I can tell you what some of the things that are upcoming. [01:11:01] Speaker A: What? The retrorium where you relive your childhood. On Meeker street in Kent, Washington. [01:11:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the spot. [01:11:10] Speaker A: Smells like Froot loops every time you walk into the door. [01:11:12] Speaker B: It does. We have some, some live music coming up next month. So. Pretty excited about that. It's such a small space, but such big feels. We've done big rock. We've done music in the past. [01:11:29] Speaker A: This is like no kid rock. No, just no, thank God. [01:11:34] Speaker B: Various types of nineties inspired music, anime inspired music. Very. We've had emo rappers and other things. Yeah, the last. The last group that came through, we had some. Some rap group, a rap crew, if you will, from Portland. So there was the saddest rapper I. [01:12:00] Speaker A: See. [01:12:02] Speaker B: Like, very, like, just a very emo rapping, like huddles, but who's a. Like, an anime dude that just rapped about just life in general, but it was very, you know, just, like, down. And then there was the angriest rapper who was very angry, and. [01:12:21] Speaker A: And then we had, oh, would we get along? [01:12:23] Speaker B: Maybe you would. And then there was a dude that was doing everything that was, like, horror centric and stuff like that, so. [01:12:31] Speaker A: Wow. I mean, so this is really getting me excited about going to the store in the future. [01:12:35] Speaker B: No, the. That was. That was. That was the last show. And then there was also. There was no. See, there was. There was also. There was three other bands that were there, too, so. [01:12:45] Speaker A: Right, so that was in the past. But what are the bands going to be like in your future? [01:12:49] Speaker B: We've got. [01:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah, like, we're advertising. I'm saying not for the things we saw before you. So for the next thing, the past. [01:12:58] Speaker B: To give a taste. [01:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you don't need to go back to the past. If we're telling the listeners what to go to the retro emporium for in the future. [01:13:05] Speaker B: It's. It's. It's gonna be some great. Some. Some good metal music. Some good. Very nineties grunge. [01:13:15] Speaker A: Is that like the. The. [01:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah, just hit on the metal. They're gonna have. They're gonna have garbage can lids, and they're just gonna smash them and hulk smash and. Yeah, it's gonna be like that. Now there. There's, like, two metal bands coming, and then there's gonna be a very, very. [01:13:33] Speaker A: Nice band, and there we go. That sounds very exciting. [01:13:38] Speaker B: So should be interesting. Should be neat. [01:13:42] Speaker A: That sounds very exciting. That sounds more exciting than learning about what happened before that. [01:13:46] Speaker B: I'm so sorry I invited you, but you had other things to do that day. [01:13:50] Speaker A: You did. I was at a birthday party, so. I'm sorry. My fake nephew only turns 18. [01:13:56] Speaker B: Only once. I know. [01:14:00] Speaker A: We were playing some nuclear war during the classic. [01:14:04] Speaker B: Totally acceptable. Totally fine. [01:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah, so I'm sorry I missed the music, but nuclear war. And then I lost that game, too, so it happens. And you have a book or something? [01:14:18] Speaker B: Absolute Zero's camp launchpad. It's a fantastic book about a group of kids that go to space camp for the summer, and they learn. [01:14:29] Speaker A: And is that book written by you, Michael Tanner with art from Gabriel Gomez. What? [01:14:35] Speaker B: Excited to share. In November, it'll be part of the space race reading challenge. So it is. It's been picked up as a. As a steam reading challenge book. [01:14:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool. So your book was picked up for a challenge from, like, 1963. [01:14:53] Speaker B: Oh, it's been picked up for a 2024 steam. [01:14:57] Speaker A: So your book went back. [01:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Booster gold. [01:15:00] Speaker A: And is part of the space race. [01:15:01] Speaker B: Booster gold helped out. Now it is. It is all about getting kids interested in space so that they can learn about different things that excite them. [01:15:10] Speaker A: Oh, they could be really interested in space right now. There's these astronauts up in space for, like, months that can tell them all about it. [01:15:16] Speaker B: So, I mean, maybe. Maybe it's something that they can be excited about, learn about, and then, you know, it's. They can become. Maybe a book like this will help them become engineers and big thinkers who can figure out ways to get those astronauts off of the space station. And that's the kind of thing. That's the kind of thing that the steam reading challenge is all about, is opening minds and getting kids the right type of stories that help them expand their universe. [01:15:50] Speaker A: It's like science, technology, engineering, art. [01:15:55] Speaker B: Mathematics, art. That's what they. [01:15:59] Speaker A: Okay. Stem. We added art in. [01:16:01] Speaker B: That's what this. [01:16:02] Speaker A: Oh, it's so you and I can feel important with our degrees, too. [01:16:06] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:16:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Ah, that's very nice. We're not good at science, but we. [01:16:11] Speaker B: Are good with the arts. [01:16:15] Speaker A: Well, Greg is, and then. Yeah, that's cool. So that's very exciting. And then we'll go ahead and wrap up this episode on that note. But in the next episode, we're covering issues five and six. And if you're not reading these, start, please, because we're just ruining these for you. They're way better than we can give you. Them. And the small wood art, I mean, it won, like, an Eisner award or something, so you should kind of try it out. [01:16:43] Speaker B: Kind of. [01:16:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So. All right, well, let's wrap this one up. I'm gonna head us on out of here. So we will see you next time with more human target. So long for now. Bye.