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Episode 712 - Jurgies Into Mystery #14: The Reigning Begins
929 Plays2 days ago
On this week's show, we're back to the Dan Jurgens run on Thor! We're finishing up the Spiral storyline and starting The Reigning, and the question persists: Did Thor do anything wrong?
Covering Thor (1998) #63-68.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Show
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster, or you want to be a podcaster, and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster. They also have hosting options, and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes, or in the episode description, and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
Hosts' Introduction and Favorite Gifs Discussion
00:00:53
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the Internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast, and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. And Matt, we got a question on the listener questions channel in our Discord that I liked so much that I wanted to steal it from for this bit from number one, I Heart School Crusher fan, ah Riley.
00:01:20
Speaker
who says, y'all got a favorite gif? Now, do you have an immediate answer to your favorite gif? When I deleted everything from the old ISB, I did make sure to go in and save Road Rage Venom, because I made that one. Road Rage Venom is also great. Which is just Venom driving a truck and honking on a horn, on a loop. Mm-hmm.
00:01:48
Speaker
which did happen in an episode of the Spider-Man Fox animated series. Yes, it is it it is from Spider-Man 94. I like ah the one that I've sent several times of Goku giving a thumbs up, but that's more of a that's more of you know just a utilitarian concern that keeps that in rotation. I don't think there's anything wrong with a gift having utility, like a gift being your most used gift and thus being your favorite. I'll say the one I end up probably using the most is the one of Stone Cold Steve Austin toasting the two beers he has in each hand together.
00:02:34
Speaker
i I like the one of him holding up the championship belt and toasting the the beer against the championship belt. That's good. Steve Austin, extremely gif-able dude.
Appreciation and Metaphorical Fixers
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. i Actually, now that I think about it, I think my most used and favorite gif is the one of Stone Cold Steve Austin from the Royal Rumble. Whatever year that was. It might've been 98. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's 98.
00:03:01
Speaker
it's him looking down at the watch that's not on his wrist. Yeah, that's from 98. That's a good one. Yeah. yeah
00:03:12
Speaker
That's a gift I've sent in a lot of text messages. Yeah. Uh, thank you Riley for asking that question. That was, that's a good one to start the show off with because Matt, you're a gift. A gift to me. Your friendship is a gift. That's so sweet. Your presence is a present.
00:03:31
Speaker
right back at you, buddy. um Let's appreciate the ah each other in this difficult time. You know what I would appreciate in this difficult time is someone showing up to fix everything. That would be great. And I bet people would be chill about it and not be huge jerks to him for no reason, even though he's 100% right. If it's not clear, I am talking about Thor, the God of Thunder.
00:03:57
Speaker
Right, ah Lord of Earth, as he becomes known in the issues of the Dan Jergens run of Thor that we read for this week's show. Yes, it is Jergy's time. We are getting surprisingly close to the end of Jergy's. We are going to finish the storyline, the eight-part storyline called Spiral.
00:04:23
Speaker
on this week's episode, and we are going to read the prologue of The Raining. So that is issues 63 to 68. Spoiler warning for this story arc, Thor does nothing wrong. Thor does absolutely nothing at all wrong in this story. Well, he makes a mistake, but we'll talk about it. He he doesn't do anything wrong on purpose, at least.
00:04:53
Speaker
I'm not even sure he makes a mistake. Anyway, we'll get to it. We'll get also, also one of the most perplexing things I have ever seen in a comic book happens. And I know we're going to be talking about that for a while. Yeah. And that's right at the beginning of these issues. So we will get to that in a bit.
Patreon and Support Options
00:05:11
Speaker
But before that, Chris, ah we do need to take so care of some business. The first piece of business is thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt.
00:05:22
Speaker
These are the people who, in times past, they would have to get a check, a money order, maybe even cash, and put it in an envelope, put a rubber band around it, and drive it all the way down to 712 Gimmick Street. And of course, you know what's there. What's funny is ah ah that what's at 712 Gimmick Street is a Sheets. A Wama was at 7-Eleven.
00:05:47
Speaker
sheets right across the street. and Yeah. What can people do if they go to the sheets? Well, when you're on your way to that sheets down at 712 Gimmick Street, you have to choose. You know, one side of the streets, that wall wall, the other sides of that sheets. But both of them do have a ah mailbox. And both of them, this is crucial, offer free Wi-Fi. And you can get on that Wi-Fi on the device that you're using to listen to this very podcast.
00:06:12
Speaker
and head to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax, where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month. And most importantly, pay those gimmicks that you send in the mail call bills. Chris, I regret to inform you that we had a lot of names to read out last week on the show. This week we have none. Oh, okay. But we remain at 402.
00:06:42
Speaker
paid supporters on Patreon. If we get 18 more, as we have been promising, and get to the funny weed number of paid backers, we will take an edible and do some BOCO, which I think is an incredible selling point for becoming a paid backer on the Patreon. We have 141
00:07:10
Speaker
unpaid Subscribers on the patreon. So if just 18 of those Bumped it up to a buck per month We would do that boko I Think that's that's more than worth it Matt. I agree. So Please do that because not only would you help make that boko happen? You could also get a every episode of every show that we do totally ad-free. That means this show every week. That means Comics Catch Up monthly. We did Sword of Azrael for Comics Catch Up this month. A surprisingly great six-issue series from DC Comics from 2022. Every Story Ever Specials monthly.
00:08:01
Speaker
and movie fighters in the snack situation, I have suggested, Chris, you haven't answered yet, but I have suggested that we watch the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie for February. Here's the thing, that was that was unreleased. I don't know if it if it fits our remit map. Well, the the other option I was thinking of was one of those other Fantastic Four movies. Well, here's here's what I was thinking of. What if we just watched Sonic the Hedgehog 3?
00:08:29
Speaker
Having skipped to having skipped to and personally not remembering anything about Sonic 1 That's we could keep that in mind i we could do that. but Let's ah let's consider listeners head down to 712 gimmick Street To the voting booth inside the sheets We only we only watch odd number sonic movies that's yeah exactly so
00:09:00
Speaker
All of the shows that we do are made possible by your support on Patreon and you get all of them completely ad-free at any level of being a patron. You get your own feed of ad-free episodes of all of our shows. At the $5 level you get bonus content which will include that Edible Boco we keep promising. And all the bonus content we've ever done before, which is quite a bit, I've put outtakes from the shows.
00:09:32
Speaker
that I cut out over there on on Patreon, Patreon exclusive. Sometimes we record things just for Patreon. ah There's writing from both of us over there on Patreon, a lot more of Chris's than mine. So it is absolutely worth that five bucks a month to go get the bonus content. You can also get line stepping privileges for currently every story ever and for whatever new Segment we start after we finish thursday night raw and then at levels beyond that there's physical rewards including t-shirts so. I think that sounds pretty good so head over to patreon if you agree.
00:10:14
Speaker
If you cannot help us monetarily, which we understand that that can be the case. Sometimes you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five star review on the podcasting app that you use. Five stars would help get us in front of more folks and get some more listeners to the show. Word of mouth is also a great way to spread the word about the show. So tell your friends and family.
00:10:38
Speaker
about War Rocket Ajax and how they should listen to it. And then maybe your friends and family will back our Patreon and we can do that edible boko.
Games, Parties, and Media Suggestions
00:10:49
Speaker
Chris, with that, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? I think we should do it, man.
00:10:56
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Matt, this is going to be a a little bit of a wreck along with a check, but I've been doing something lately that I've been having a ton of fun with. ah This year for Christmas, I got a C who loves the train-themed Eurogame Ticket to Ride, the legacy version of Ticket to Ride.
00:11:18
Speaker
A legacy game, for those of you who may not know, I know we've talked about them a couple times before, but a legacy game is a board game that you make permanent changes to as you play it. So the board can expand, you can add stickers or destroy cards or elements of the game, it permanent changes that occasionally you are left with ah a a game that you are all done with, having played a dozen times, or you get a game that is like fully customized that you can continue playing.
00:11:48
Speaker
This is called Ticket to Riot Legends of the West. If you've played Ticket to Riot, it's very fun, you you make trains. The thing is, a legacy game needs to have a story, because you're playing through a campaign. So, you gotta do something a little different. And in my experience, the legacy games that I've played always have some kind of plot twist,
00:12:15
Speaker
And Matt, I'm not gonna spoil anything about Ticket to Ride Legacy because this is stuff that you can see as soon as you open up the box. But it's Legends of the West, so you start on the East Coast. The initial map is only about as far west as the Mississippi River. And then you add, they're basically like giant puzzle pieces. You can add Florida, you can add the the Midwest, the Great Plains.
00:12:43
Speaker
We were playing that first game and I was like, oh man, haha, this is Ticket to Ride. It's a game about trains for nerds. I can't wait till there's like some kind of plot twist and some weird supernatural stuff happens. And then I looked over at the box and saw that one of the regions that is yet to be unlocked is in fact the Haunted Wastes.
00:13:09
Speaker
ah So I'm like, let's fucking go. I am so excited to get to the part of this game that starts with you being about like building a train track from Atlanta to New York or whatever, and and there being a vague villain named Mama O'Connell, who's an evil railroad robber baron. Not like you, you're a good railroad robber baron. I can't wait for the ghost to show up. I'm so excited.
00:13:36
Speaker
ah That's been a thing that AC and I and some other folks have been playing probably every other weekend or so. Boy, there's gonna be ghosts, Matt. There's gonna be ghosts. That sounds like a blast. Yeah. Again, not a spoiler. You can see that box ah right there when you open up the box.
00:13:54
Speaker
I will say there is something that you do get that is a little bit of a spoiler because it was hidden from us at the start of the game that is purely delightful. And maybe I'll tell you about that off mic, but definitely I've been having a lot of fun with Ticket to Ride Legacy. Matt, what have you been up to this past week? Well, Chris, this past Saturday, for me, for listeners, it would have been about a week and a half ago.
00:14:23
Speaker
was my wife Marlene's birthday. and Marlene and her friend Mallory decided that they were going to have a joint birthday party because they have birthdays around the same time. and They chose to make it David Lynch themed. and They picked this incredible place to have it.
00:14:51
Speaker
an incredibly lynching location that is like an art studio for metal workers and people who do art with concrete and stuff like that. Like really like heavy sculpture kind of stuff. And on the side of the building, it's this old warehouse on the side of the building in spray paint, it says apocalypse parlor. And it's it's got like a stage ah that looks like a stage from Mulholland Drive and these like theater seats in there. It's so like perfectly lynchy, but also like for the party, people decided to dress up. like so We had a couple of Agent Coopers. We had one David Lynch that was really good. There was a Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic. There was a dude from a racer head.
00:15:50
Speaker
there Nobody from Dune, nobody wanted to put in the money to have like one of those ah David Lynch Dune costumes. or to Disrespectful, honestly. Or to dress as Sting. It'd basically be like a Speedo. As Sting's version of Fade Raltha. I decided that I was going to go as Bob, the killer demon from Twin Peaks.
00:16:19
Speaker
and I had all that. And Matt, I hope you are not insulted when I say fucking fucking dead on. I had the clothes already. I had the Canadian tuxedo ready to go. You know, blue jeans, jean jacket, denim shirt. That was all set. But I did not have a wig for it. So I ended up ordering a wig.
00:16:47
Speaker
That was, I talked about this on friends till the end too, a little bit. So you might be hearing this twice, but I ordered a wig that was about 30 bucks and it came in like a little bag with hair pins and all kinds of like ah tools.
00:17:08
Speaker
because it's like a good wig. It's a wig that you that you might buy like like a stage company might buy for costuming for a play or something. And now I just have this. And so like, I'm like, what am I gonna use this Bob wig for in the future?
00:17:29
Speaker
It's wild that what separates Bob, a scary monster from Twin Peaks and Orange Cassidy is a wig and a pair of sunglasses. Yes. Orange Cassidy has the, the jean jacket and jeans, but not the jean shirt. Right. Like you wear, you, you're wearing a t-shirt for Orange Cassidy. You're wearing a denim shirt for Bob, but it is a shockingly similar costume. Oh, another thing, cause I wanted to maintain the aura of Bob. I spent most of the party not wearing my glasses. So people would come in and
00:18:08
Speaker
I could not identify them. ah So I would have to like wait for them to get closer, like really close, or um just have them tell me who they were. ah Because i i was I basically told everybody that came in like, hey, I don't have my glasses on, so I can't see and any faces right now. So please forgive me, but who are you?
00:18:34
Speaker
ah Later in the party, I finally put my glasses on, but I was trying to maintain my bop-ness for as long as I could. Chris, let's make some recommendations. What do you have to recommend? I recently caught up on a television show that I found absolutely delightful. I do think that I am pretty late to the party on this one, but I really enjoyed watching all of my adventures with Superman. ah This is the ah the Superman cartoon that is ah currently streaming on Maxwell, ah if you would like to give it a watch yourself. And it was either our friend Charlotte or our friend Annie, um maybe both of them, who said that this is a Superman show clearly made by people who liked anime in 2008. That is so accurate.
00:19:31
Speaker
what like The episode that introduces John Henry Irons, that introduces Steel, is called Full Metal Scientist. Which honestly is an amazing ah episode title. There's one with Monsieur Mala in the brain that's called Kiss Kiss Fallen Portal, which ah real heads know that one. That's that's for heads only. I think one of the more important things is that it finally does answer the question, what if Superman was Dragon Ball?
00:20:00
Speaker
People had told me, like, oh, it's very, you know, it takes a lot of Dragon Ball influence. And I believed them, but I didn't realize that by that they meant that When Supergirl showed up, she's just gonna be Vegeta, and she's literally dressed like Android 18. She is wearing Android 18's clothes, and Brainiac is just Frieza. And then, spoiler warning for the end of the season, ah there's an incredible moment where Superman ah goes into the sun like in Superman 1 million.
00:20:33
Speaker
and then starts glowing with a gold aura and shoots a Kamehameha at Brainiac. Well, excuse me. Hey, Kamehameha. There's a slightly different pronunciation there. Yeah, man, it's good. It's a good time. It took me a minute to get into it because the voice of Superman is ah Jack Quaid, who is a ah ah very good voice, but I associate him so strongly with Bradford Boimler.
00:20:59
Speaker
that it was hard to see him as Superman. Which is a shame. He is a very good Superman. His relationship with Lois is really, really good. I think I mentioned not too long ago to you here on the show that there is a version of For the Man Who Has Everything that they do that is legitimately really incredible. So definitely, if you haven't already, like I said, I'm late to the party. Check out my adventures with Superman.
00:21:28
Speaker
I believe another season is coming at some point, and I really can't wait ah because i I have heard that the Metropolis kid shows up. And I just want to like i just want him to cut Frieza in half with a sword. I mean, he's already basically Trunks, so... He's he's not quite as Trunks as Cable. yeah pretty close Pretty close. Matt, what would you like to recommend? Well, Chris, my recommendation is a weird one, a bit of a weird recommendation but it's also two parts. It's a recommendation in two parts.
00:22:06
Speaker
My first recommendation is if you have not seen it, if you did not watch the Super Bowl, ah which I understand, you know there are reasons not to watch that event ah every year. I had to watch it for for my job or else maybe I wouldn't have. But I also really, really wanted to see ah Kendrick Lamar's halftime show. And so if you haven't seen it, it is available in full on its own with no football,
00:22:36
Speaker
at all on YouTube. So if you haven't seen it, watch it. It is a fascinating 20 minutes of performance. Yes, there's the bit where he calls out Drake by name that, you know, everybody was talking about and with good reason, because that photo of him giving his little smile as he says, say Drake, that is smile is legitimately among the like funniest things that also feel like they could reduce someone to a pillar of salt. Absolutely, yes. But the rest of the performance is really fascinating too and really good and worth watching. The second part of my recommendation is the YouTube channel of Open Mic Eagle. Open Mic Eagle is a
00:23:33
Speaker
independent rapper who has some really good music. You should go check out his music too. Also a commentator for a while he was on the show tights and fights when I thought I liked that podcast.
00:23:46
Speaker
And he was all always my favorite voice in that podcast. um But then he stopped being on that. And so now he will do kind of like daily streaming videos. I think he streams on Twitch every day to his fans and then puts up some of those videos on YouTube. And his last several videos have been about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance. And specifically like digging into the meaning of what he was trying to say through that performance. Like the through line of it being that it it was Kendrick playing a game and whether he succeeded at that game or not, because the stage was a circle, an X, a triangle, and a square, like a PlayStation controller.
00:24:46
Speaker
At the end of the show, it said game over in the stands. At one point, Samuel L. Jackson, who is Uncle Sam throughout the performance, says that Kendrick has to deduct one life. Open Mike Eagle has some some interesting and good reasoning, text analysis of what that game might be that he's playing and and trying to win through this performance.
00:25:14
Speaker
and and kind of what the Uncle Sam of it all means to the Samuel L. Jackson part of the show. So go check out Open Mike Eagle's YouTube channel. If you go on YouTube and search for Open Mike Eagle, you'll find him, ah you'll find those Kendrick videos pretty easy. But ah the other videos on his channel are really good too. Like he he talks about a lot of different stuff, um including wrestling, ah which is great. He also ah calls the Super Bowl, the Super Football Bowl,
00:25:44
Speaker
which is what I wanna call it now. Anytime he says Super Bowl, he says Super Football Bowl. He also started calling Kendrick instead of K dot, it's K period dot, so he started calling him K dot dot. And then Kendrick referred to himself as K dot dot in the Super Bowl halftime show.
00:26:10
Speaker
Coincidence? I don't know. Anyway. That's my recommendation. The Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime show and Open Mike Eagle's analysis of it on his YouTube channel. Chris, those are our checks and recs. So it's time to talk about some comics. I think we should.
Comic Critiques and Analyses
00:26:31
Speaker
The winner of the Textures Choice for this week, because we did have one text about it, is One World Under Doom number one.
00:26:41
Speaker
which I wanna say completely upfront is good. This is by Ryan North and R.B. Silva. I had a good time reading it. It's ah really well-written and beautifully drawn. It also has a problem. Okay, I'm interested to to to hear about it. I should say the the text that I sent was that it was very weird to read it in the context of having just read six issues of The Raining.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. The problem is this. Okay. For Comedy Sketchup, not that long ago, we read Emperor Doom. A a weird, prestige one-shot that Marvel put out, what, 40 years ago? Something like that. And what was weird about reading Emperor Doom was when Doom finally takes charge, he like does some stuff that's good, feeding people who are hungry. It's stated that he's doing that and ending wars and things like that. Right. This book also does that. Yes, this this is also a book about Dr. Doom taking over becoming the ruler of the world.
00:28:04
Speaker
And in doing so, he promises universal healthcare and no more war and education. And like, obviously all the heroes are reacting to this by saying, he's lying, he's not really going to do that. But at this point, as a reader, we don't know if he's going to do that or not.
00:28:34
Speaker
And so, like, if you take Doom at his word, he's only saying he's gonna do good things. right And then, later in the book, he's like, I killed Nazis, and they wouldn't do that. And you're like, oh, yeah, but fuck. Listen, Doom's making some very good points. He's making some very good points. Like, I don't agree with his murdering Reed Richards policy.
00:29:04
Speaker
huh But I'm not a single-issue voter.
00:29:10
Speaker
like the the The main thrust of this issue, this first issue, is that Doom has convinced all the world leaders that he should be in charge. Doom was the Sorcerer Supreme at the moment. He's also the Sorcerer Supreme. He's convinced all the world leaders that he should be in charge, and he's giving a speech to everybody in the world saying, hey, there's a reason why I'm in charge, there's a reason why everybody put me in charge, I'm gonna do these things for you. And the heroes watch it and they're like, he's full of shit, let's go stop him. So they go to Latveria to try to get into the country and they can't get out can't get in because of a force field. But Baron Zemo is allowed to come in
00:30:03
Speaker
because he's like, all these world leaders, no, I'm not going to allow this. I'm going to go take out Doom. Yeah, specifically because ah Doom is of Romani descent and Baron Zimos a Nazi. Right. He's like, yeah we're not going to, not one of these guys.
00:30:24
Speaker
So he goes in, and then next we see Baron Zemo, he's like, oh, actually Dr. Doom convinced me, and we're gonna work for him, and we're gonna build schools. Dr. Doom is chill, actually, so yeah oh everybody in Hydra go start ah dealing with landmines and building schools. Yeah. That Baron Zemo is revealed by the Avengers to be a Doombot. And so they tell everybody that it's a Doombot. And then Dr. Doom shows up later, and he's like, yeah, you got me, that's right.
00:30:54
Speaker
I killed Baron Zemo and I made him a Doombot, but I did it for a good reason. Because, um, actually fuck Nazis. Like the thing he says is like, yeah, uh, I killed him, which the event, like, the Hydra has been a problem since 1945. Uh, the Avengers have not ever really done anything about it. I killed this guy and I had all of his boys building hospitals and schools and now they're not doing that anymore.
00:31:23
Speaker
Because of the Avengers. Because the Reed Reed's like, motherfucker. like we like he He did this all on purpose. No, no. that yeah like ah The heroes are like, damn, he got us. Fuck, he got us. we We did exactly what he wanted us to do. Yeah. And now, every like he looks great. And we look like a bunch of dumbasses. We look like a bunch of dumbasses who wouldn't deal with Nazis.
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah. Like, ineffective dumbasses. And Doom is like, yeah, I killed the Red Skull too. Cause Nazis suck. Fuck Nazis, actually. He's not wrong! I'm like, damn, is Dr. Doom right? Yeah, Dr. Doom is ah correct, actually, on on those points. This comic had a lot of stuff that I really like. I do like... I feel like The Avengers shouldn't be naive enough.
00:32:19
Speaker
to be like, oh, if we just tell people the truth, they'll they'll understand that Doom is manipulating them. yeah and And he'll lose their trust and and we'll have the people on our side again. I don't feel like the ah the Avengers specifically should not be that that naive, as naive as to expect that.
00:32:44
Speaker
The moment where, like, Baron Zemo goes on TV and is like, hey, uh, fuck this guy because he's one of the lesser races. I'm gonna go kill him and we'll take over the world. And Tony Stark's like, what's that all saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend? And Catherine goes, so nope, not that guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, fuck that guy, actually. Right. Not not him and not Hydra. Never. I really liked that scene.
00:33:14
Speaker
That was good. Yeah. Like there's some good moments for the heroes here, but at least in this first issue, doom comes out looking squeaky clean and the heroes look like a bunch of dummies. Yeah. I mean, the, the thing that you, the thing that you have to kind of keep in mind going into it is that everything doom says in the beginning about offering like universal healthcare and free college and everything is a lie.
00:33:45
Speaker
Right. Like, when Doom's like, like, yeah, I'm the king of the world now, so what am I gonna do? Go kill Reed Richards? No, I'm above that. And it's like, is he though? Yeah, I mean, the one thing you can always count on Dr. Doom to be is Petty. So, that I think you can absolutely buy that that's a lie.
00:34:11
Speaker
um i Two things. One, I wonder where this is going to end up because in the Emperor Doom story, that story ends with Doom just getting bored of being in charge. And that's what stops him, is boredom. Like he sabotages himself. I'm curious if that's where this is going to go.
00:34:31
Speaker
i I would think Ryan North would probably do something different in the knowledge that that story exists. I'm really curious to see, like just on a functional level, like Ryan North writing like a major Marvel Universe event and and what that that's going to be like. Because Squirrel Girl is in this, as we might have expected. but bra Brain Drain is credited on the on the credit on the page like the title page too. He sure is. So we know braid raids going to show up, but like this is not like mostly it's not like jokey jokey. I mean, i mean his Fantastic Four run hasn't really been either, but, um, it's played pretty straight. Although there are some funny moments like the, the thing where, uh, they find out that Baron Zemo was dead. And Tony's like, damn, he killed him. And Captain Marvel goes,
00:35:31
Speaker
Dead Nazi big deal. yeah So there's another bit in here. This is just a small detail, it but I love it. So how they get to Latveria is that Sue Storm makes an invisible plane for them to all get on. And as soon as I saw that invisible plane, I was like, so is that a invisible plane that she made from scratch or did she make an actual plane invisible?
00:36:01
Speaker
And then Spider-Man and Johnny Storm have a conversation about that, where it was like, oh yeah, she made this plane from scratch out of force fields. And Spider-Man's like, why couldn't she have just made a regular plane invisible? And Johnny Storm's like, well, we couldn't afford a plane. And Spider-Man says, to we have Iron Man. Iron Man can afford a plane. Iron Man's got planes.
00:36:28
Speaker
I just appreciated that conversation because I was thinking about it immediately when I saw that play. ah Fun stuff, good stuff. i just I wonder what turn is going to actually make Dr. Doom look bad. Hey, fuck Nazis, by the way. Absolutely fuck Nazis. And I like that both Dr. Doom and Captain Marvel were like, hey, fuck Nazis, actually, and Captain America. like that's That's the one thing. We can join hands across the aisle for that. Yes, yes. That we could have some bipartisan ah consensus about.
Thor's Benevolent Actions and Society's Reactions
00:37:06
Speaker
um By which we mean bipartisan between the Avengers and Dr. Doom.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, I don't mean in the real world. Next up, we're going to talk about absolute Batman number five, which I don't want to say that I haven't had this thought before now, but this issue absolutely struck me as this is a Batman who is guts. cut Yeah.
00:37:38
Speaker
I mean, He's got a big axe, not a big sword. But but it in many ways, like this is by, ah as as the series has been up to now ah by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragata. And there's a bit near the end of this issue where Bruce is getting all stitched up but by Alfred.
00:38:04
Speaker
And there's like shots of him grimacing and you see his like shirtless body all like covered in scars and everything. And I'm like, fuck, this dude is guts. Yeah, man. like Especially with Bruce being as gigantic as he is in this. Man, there's a lot of berserk in the ah the absolute line, intentional or no. Yeah. I feel like it must be.
00:38:33
Speaker
Um, but also like the guys he fights, like, you know, his, his, the big bad of this first arc is, is black mask. Uh, and he's got his party animals who wear like skull masks. I mean, look, he does kind of look like Conrad. He, yes. And like these guys look like enemy soldiers from berserk and Batman's big ploy here is that Black Mask gave him a bunch of money. $200 million. dollars And ah he set it all on fire to make a bat signal.
00:39:15
Speaker
Fucking rad. I like that. like There's a lot of really cool inversions and callbacks to other Batman stories in this book. like ah The first issue had that sequence that is a direct homage to ah Dark Knight Returns, ah you know the seven working defenses from this position oh page, which is is done subtly enough that if you don't think about Batman all the time, you maybe you didn't notice it. oh I did. Batman arranging all the $200 million dollars in cash, which, where did he get $200 million dollars in cash? like You can't just go to a bank and get that. that but Black Mask is like, yeah, we did ah we did the transfer this morning, like the digital transfer. And Batman's like, yeah, I got it.
00:40:06
Speaker
And so he got all this money in cash, hilarious. Him putting it on the bat signal and then it burning is like a really interesting callback to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. With the Joker birds all the money. The Joker burning his money. Yeah. And whereas the Joker says like, you know, like one of the better lines in that movie where the Joker talks about how he doesn't need money because the things that he likes are gasoline and matches and they're cheap.
00:40:36
Speaker
Uh, I, I, I loved this panel so much. Cause Bruce says, I don't need cars or planes or computers. I don't need anything you have. All I need is Batman. Yeah. That, that line whips ass. Same. Same buddy. And that is when he starts wrecking these guys. Like he's fucking guts.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah, he beats the shit out of these dudes and like it's like one guy jumps on his back and he makes his, ah oh, it's the guy who's hand he cut off yeah in the ah in the first issue. yeah ah That guy jumps on his back and he turns his ah little smart fabric cape into like porcupine spikes and the guy gets like, he's like, I'm stuck.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah, he gets skewered. He gets skewered. It's, uh, it's, it's one of berserk was used to the North star.
00:41:36
Speaker
I'm digging it, man. Yeah. Like what I love about this, like, cause he does the, he does the line of about like all I need is Batman. And then later, as he's talking to the party animals, he's saying,
00:41:51
Speaker
Everything you did everything that made you corrupt everything that made you criminals was money If you're motivated by money I can't be yeah, and I love that Yeah, I also really like I mean it's it's a very Recurring theme of Scott Snyder that like the the villain of of every Scott Snyder comic is nihilism and Black Mask being like you know like, literally going on TV and being like, hey, everybody, the so world's over, so we might as well all just ah like murder each other, because that's more fun. Yeah. like Again, he makes some salient points. There's also like a very guts-like moment where Black Mask is talking to him, and he's like, what do you have now?
00:42:50
Speaker
And Batman is just like smiling and laughing and saying, like ah you confess to everything, I got you. And Black Mask is like, you haven't done anything. But ah the bit where he's like laughing because he he like hates this guy so much.
00:43:11
Speaker
like there's ah There's a big part of Berserk where it seems like Guts is only really having fun when he's like killing demons, killing apostles. And that's kind of what Batman's deal is here. like In the moment that he's fucking with these guys and saying he got Black Mask, that's what he's enjoying himself. I don't know if I would agree with you, but only in the context of, I'm not sure that Guts has ever had fun.
00:43:43
Speaker
There are times when he is the black swordsman and he's killing apostles that it seems like he's, if if not having fun, enjoying his work, let's say. you know you know this do You know what this is the most like this whole fight scene with Black Mask and his boys? It is ah when Guts ah tells Father Maz goes to fly your own ass to heaven.
00:44:10
Speaker
Yeah. It's a lot like that. Hey, are we ever gonna not be able to think about Berserk ever again? Absolutely not. I think about it constantly every day. It's really fucking good. ah One last comic we're gonna talk about that you requested, I didn't get a chance to read this, um is Marvel Mutts. Yes, this is Marvel Mutts by Mackenzie Cadenhead and Takeshi Miyazawa. Takeshi Miyazawa, one of my all-time favorite super underrated even though I feel like people love his work, like, you know, going back to, to runaways, uh, still like incredibly underrated despite folks who are familiar with his work. Absolutely loving it. Um, and this is a mostly silent, uh, book that is essentially a collection of like three, you know, two and three page, three and four page stories, uh, about lockjaw.
00:45:06
Speaker
Lucky, the pizza dog, ah Bats, the the ghost dog from Doctor Strange, and Cosmo from Guardians of the Galaxy, and a new character named Mittens, who is ah in an animal shelter when ah ah He is rescued by Ms. Marvel ah during a fight with Craven the Hunter and adopted. And so all these dogs hang out and it's just a bunch of little comic strips about all these dogs hanging out in the Marvel universe and it's very, very good. And ah how much this little dog hates squirrel girls, squirrels, ah which is very funny. The reason I wanted to bring it up today, in addition to like, it's it's about us as much up my alley as you can get.
00:45:48
Speaker
One Strip is about a bunch of different Marvel characters ah walking like working like walking the dogs for Ms. Marvel. And so you get to see what everybody does. So it's like, you know, Spider-Man has every, like, all the dogs webbed as leashes. Emma Frost is just making them sit. And ah the two best ones are Marrow and Wolverine. Marrow, the dogs love, for obvious reasons.
00:46:14
Speaker
and Because of bones. Because of bones. And ah the panel of Wolverine is ah Wolverine, Lucky, Bats, Cosmo, Mittens, and Lockjaw, all just sniffing at the dog park. It's very good. Sniffing the ground, not each other. Yeah. There's a ah extremely sad story about Cosmo and the other dogs in the Russian space program, which ah i I can't talk about or think about ah at all. And then another
00:46:46
Speaker
story about what all the dogs dream about. And buddy, this is the one that got me because Mittens dreams about all the dogs being superheroes. Lucky dreams about being in an entire city where everything is pizza. Cosmo dreams about all the other dogs from the space program that I can't talk or think about. Do you know what Lockjaw dreams about? The Inhumans? Lockjaw dreams about Black Bolt telling him he's a good dog.
00:47:16
Speaker
Black Bolt being able to talk and telling him he he's a good dog. Yeah. I, I was reading that a alone in my office and went, that is, that's done more to get Black Bolt over for me than Jack Kirby did. But, that but this, that's dream Black Bolt. That ain't Black Bolt. Yeah. But like to like the tragedy, like, yeah, yeah, Black Bolt can't talk cause his voice shatters mountains or whatever.
00:47:45
Speaker
He can't tell his dog he's a good dog. Yeah. He can't tell him he's a good boy. I mean, he can. He can sign to him. Right. But, like, not just wants to go on the moon, and he's a good boy. He got me. Tragedy. Yeah. A true tragedy. Good stuff. Very fun. I love, uh, I love dogs and Marvel Comics and the dogs in Marvel Comics. So.
00:48:11
Speaker
Great stuff for me. Alright Chris, speaking of Marvel Comics, it's time to start the raining. Let's get into some danger against Thor. Ain't no dogs in this one.
00:48:30
Speaker
Thor number 63 has a cover by John Paul Leon that um is cool looking. It's got like I'm kind of moodiness about it. It's just Thor kind of slamming Mjolnir down in front of him. It does look like a detail image from another drawing that got forced into being a cover. it like it's It's not a blown up drawing, but the way that Leon
00:49:09
Speaker
like you Like the heaviness of the outline because the like it's meant to be like the moment of lightning striking does make it look like that. yeah I think it's it's a cool image, but it does look more like a cool commission that you would get from John Paulian at a con than the cover of a comic book.
00:49:29
Speaker
Yeah, it there's also, I think, something about the logo placement. maybe The logo placement and like the thinness of all the lines in the logo really contrast with it. It it doesn't look right with the logo on it. It looks weird. yeah if If it was a poster, it would kick ass, I think. Yeah, it's it's not a bad cover, but it's weird. And I think most of the covers we're going to talk about through the rest of this episode fall into that category. Well, it's certainly not as jarring as when you open up the issue and it's Paco Medina drawing it. Yes. Paco Medina does the art on the next couple of issues and it's a pretty serious departure from the art we've had so far. It's that very kind of like exaggerated Humberto Ramos. Exactly what I was thinking of. It's like Humberto Ramos, Todd na
00:50:25
Speaker
Yeah. ah sort of Sort of thing, yeah. That kind of look. Which I like. I like all three of those artists. I love Todd Nock, love Humberto Ramos, and I think Paco Medina has done some good stuff. Weird choice for Thor, specifically. Yeah, Thor in these issues looks especially weird.
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah, especially for this being an issue that focuses almost entirely, like Thor's in it for like two panels. it's It's almost entirely about like normal people. Yes, and these normal people specifically live in a town in Maine. It's never stated in this issue that it's Maine, but it is in later issues. um They live in a town in Maine that is the economy of the town is entirely built around lobster ring.
00:51:16
Speaker
they They fish for lobsters and sell them, and they've been going out and trying to get lobsters, and there are just none in the water. The sleepy town of Cheddar Bay. Yeah. ah The the the lobstering industry lobster fishing industry is in dire straits. And so we kick off this issue by meeting Trent and Virginia, two high school students,
00:51:45
Speaker
Virginia's dad is a banker and Trent's dad is a lobster man. Well, that's he's a like a lobster fisherman. He wasn't clawed by a radioactive lobster. No, he yes, he he fishes for lobsters as his job. We see them leaving school on the first page.
00:52:09
Speaker
And there is a bit of dialogue that, Chris, you could not get over here on it's page one. It's very challenging, Matt. Trent tells his buddy, have a good weekend. He says, too bad the spring dances in this weekend, then I'd have something to do. And then Trent says, like you do anything but park your butt in front of that man thing 2004 video game 24 seven.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah, and it should be noted, Manthing is M-A-N, no hyphen, T-H-I-N-G. Yes. So more like a name, this perplexed me. What is Manthing 2004? Because like, ah usually, you know, ah say what you will about Chuck Dixon.
00:53:04
Speaker
Charles Dixon, as he is now known on the graphic novel adaptation of The Hobbit. When he uses like analogs for stuff in DC Comics, it's like, oh, this computer is running on curtains 98. And I know, I get it, Windows, right? Yeah, we got it. What the fuck is Man Thing 2004? Okay, I thought this over, and I think I've come to the conclusion That is correct as to how this happened. Okay. Can I say like our initial thought was that it's a weird play on Madden. Yeah, it's gotta be because this comic came out in 2003. I think that what happened is that in his original script, Dan Jurgens wrote Madden 2004, the title of the actual game.
00:54:03
Speaker
this book got maybe the lettering, and then somebody was told, hey, um we can't say Madden. We can't actually say the name of the video game Madden in a Marvel comic book, so you gotta change that. Like change it to some Marvel thing. Like it's a funny joke, and people think it's a funny joke.
00:54:30
Speaker
And so it was up to some editor. I won't name any names. It was up to some editor who maybe doesn't know a lot about sports and sports video games, but does know a lot about Marvel comics to replace Madden with something else. And they were like, man thing sounds like Madden. And that's how it got, that's how it ended up like that. Look, that's a great, that's a great solution.
00:55:01
Speaker
it It... Men thing doesn't sound like Madden. Like, I agree with you that that's kind of what it has to be. But it... the it's that That don't work, folks. That straight up doesn't work. Well, it it boggles the mind what the fuck that video game is. Oh yeah, it's fully beyond all comprehension.
00:55:27
Speaker
And was a game about Man-Thing coming out every year? Yeah, and why is, like, and again, why isn't it the name of the comic book character Man-Thing? Right. Like, it's it's so perplexing. This week in All New Venom.
00:55:46
Speaker
There was a a joke where ah some interpersonal drama is going on and one of the characters in the background goes, oh don't mind me, I'm missing Secret Hospital, so I gotta get my soap opera fix somewhere. Secret Hospital is a, that is a Marvel reference, right? Like that's the soap that Mary Jane was on back in the day. Yeah.
00:56:15
Speaker
Well, was there some kind of like legal issue where they couldn't reference SuperPro anymore either? I mean, they might have. I mean, Lord, hey, you're you're talking to one of two people who tried. Yeah, yeah. But like, it they ah surely they could have said, Greyfield 2004, or SuperPro 2004.
00:56:37
Speaker
Yeah. but Yeah. men Men thing, that makes no sense. It reeks to me of last minute lettering change. Yeah. And and i the the part of your story that I don't buy, Matt, is that this was not Juergens and that this was ah this was editorial that caused this because I feel like
00:57:06
Speaker
Like, Dan Jerkins has some weird quirks to his writing, and I feel like this is one of them? Maybe. Maybe. Because, what like, why wouldn't you just change it to, oh, you're gonna park your butt in front of that football game? That football video game? him All weekend. Right. Right. i Look, I get the the impulse to want to do something specific, to want to write something specific there.
00:57:34
Speaker
I would want to do that too. It's just weird that it's man thing for sure. So weird. All right, we have to be comprehensively so we have to move on. So we spend the rest of this issue meeting Trent and his family.
00:57:53
Speaker
As I mentioned, his dad is a lobster fisherman. He lies to Trent about having a great catch that day, when in fact, he caught nothing. He also has an aunt who's named Mary, who is a nun.
00:58:09
Speaker
And I'll just say it, she has drawn in this issue as a hot nun. She is... Yes. Yeah. She's not like wearing a sexy nun costume, but she is a sexy nun. Yes. She doesn't have the whole habit yet. She's a novice. Right. She's got, she's just got on like a little vest and a ah a stylish headband. that is when staa Is that what that is? Okay. Um, but it yeah, it's, I'll leave it at that, but she's, she's giving sexy librarian.
00:58:49
Speaker
Very much so. And also Trent, like, calls her his favorite aunt. Like, there they're very close. Trent is also a big Avengers fan. He's got Avengers posters all up in his room. yeah He also has comics on his bed, and he's got ah he's got Avengers comics. um And he also has an issue of X-Men. X-Me, I think you mean. Sure, X-Me.
00:59:19
Speaker
It says XB. It does. Paco Medina didn't know that people were going to be looking at this on anything but newsprint. That's true. Back then. And like normally I would see that and I'd just go like, oh yeah, because like canonically in the Marvel universe, ah you know Marvel Comics exists and publishes stories based on on these real life people. But after Man Thing 2004, I was like, what's in that X-Men comic?
00:59:47
Speaker
What's in that X-Men comic in 2003? In the Morrison era? Oh, great question. Yeah, great question. Cause that's a, that's not a Morrison style X-Men logo. No, it is a, it is a Jim Lee looking logo. Yeah. So ah Trent and his family go to church and the priest at their church is talking about how people are worshipping Thor now and that's bad and we have to reject his claims and how dare he challenge the one true God. Once again, this made me so mad.
01:00:32
Speaker
You know, I couldn't think about anything throughout this other than that one part very early in the run. where somebody came up to Thor and was like, yeah, but what about Jesus? And Thor was like, I'm cool with Jesus. Me and Jesus are tight. yeah I got no problem with Jesus. Yeah, which he will do later on in this set of issues. He has a conversation with some dude from the Vatican that made my mind melt out my ears. Because look, this comic is called Thor. Thor is the hero of this comic.
01:01:09
Speaker
Jurgens is doing a very good job of presenting us a Thor that we as fans can still get behind and and and think is doing good stuff. He's not doing a good job of presenting anyone else's viewpoint as though they are right at all. Thor is a hundred percent right in everything that he does and everyone is just being weird about it. The family leaves church and they talk to Virginia's dad who is a banker about the possibility of coming in to maybe get a loan. And he's like, I don't know, I'll see what I can do. Yeah, I wrote down in my notes ah that this comic expects me to believe that both Thor is wrong and that there is a sympathetic banker. Well, he turns out to be he turns out to be totally unsympathetic.
01:02:08
Speaker
ah Lars goes to work, Lars is the dad, Lars goes to work and he meets some guys who were like Thor worshipers, like a friend of his and then another guy who came in from New York or from Boston, who is like, yeah, yeah, yeah. If we start worshiping Thor, maybe like our fortunes will turn around. And Lars is like, I can't, I can't, my sister's a nun, I can't do it. The funniest thing about this comic is when the guy from Boston is introduced. And ah he's like, yeah, he's from Boston. He's seen what these superheroes can do. And I'm like, has he?
01:02:51
Speaker
who Who did he see, Emma Frost? Emma Frost, I'm like Spider-Man once. Yeah, Spider-Man went to Boston one time. Yeah. Lars goes fishing.
01:03:04
Speaker
catches nothing, goes to the banker. The banker's like, sorry, man, I, I can't do it. Uh, I can't, I can't give you a loan or anything and I can't buy your boat because it's old. And we've been forbidden from lending out any money, any more money to, to lobster fishermen. So, sorry. The funniest thing that in this entire set of issues is when this banker goes, it's tough being a banker in a small town where everyone's your friend.
01:03:33
Speaker
Tough because you have to say no sometimes. Who's making you? Yeah. yeah oh Oh, the bosses. Oh, the big bosses. Oh, yeah. Sorry. What? That dude, we find out that dude teaches Sunday school. That dude teaches catechisms. Yeah. And it's like, you fucking capitalist pig.
01:03:57
Speaker
So Lars has a conversation with his sister with Mary about how like he can't get a new job. He's 54 years old. He doesn't know what he's going to do. Life's unfair. Trent comes out and asks his dad for money ah for 40 bucks for pizza and soda. And Lars doesn't have it. So Mary gives him the money. Yeah. Seems like the Catholic church got plenty of money to throw around. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:26
Speaker
Uh, and so then that is so crushing to Lars that he gets on his boat and goes out into the, to the, to the bay. And it's like, I'm just going to, uh, drown, drown myself in a storm so that my family could get the life insurance money. Yeah. This fucking guy who, by the way, is like, like, do you know how hard it is for me?
01:04:54
Speaker
that my wife has to work. Like it' kind of fuck this guy. So anyway, when he's about Alexander the sixth over here, when he's about to die in the, in the, the choppy water, Thor shows up and he spins the water around for a minute. And now lobsters are jumping out of the water onto the deck of the boat.
01:05:23
Speaker
yeah he has He has totally rearranged the water to make it so that lobsters are back. He's changed the currents so that lobsters are here now. It's lobster first for Thor. That's right. And so now Lars can't do anything but be like, oh fuck, I guess I worship Thor now. So he goes to his buddy and the guy from Boston's meeting where they're like in like, I don't know, it's a building with a garage door out on the bay. It's like a boathouse at the docks. Yeah, like a boathouse. But they've painted a mule near and lightning bolt on the garage door to the building. Yeah, also these dudes are fully cosplaying as guardians, which is very funny. Yes, yes. Like, that's the thing.
01:06:19
Speaker
Thor is never wrong in this. Everyone's just acting like a huge weirdo. Like I'm not saying these dudes aren't huge weirdos. Thor number 64 has a cover. Real quick. Thor number 63. Real quick. Just want to point out. We don't know why Thor was in Maine. No. Like it is he, like he,
01:06:46
Speaker
and turns the the choppy sea into a water spout to like rescue the boat that that is in obvious danger but seems to just be kind of like passing through and the lobster thing seems to be completely incidental and I do wish that they would have played that up like if this story is missing one thing it's Thor himself being like no that was just like I didn't even know the thing with the lobsters was gonna happen
01:07:17
Speaker
I don't know. i I think you could read it that way and out or I think you could read that Thor was absolutely going there to solve a problem. Because there are Thor worshippers here praying to bring lobsters back. You told me Thor heard about lobster fast. He sure did, yeah. But like, we've seen Thor respond to prayers before. Yes. So, I don't know. It's it's unclear. It is unclear.
01:07:46
Speaker
Uh, Thor number 64 has a cover with Loki on it. It's fine. It's, you know, it's Loki. Yeah, you know, Loki. You've met Loki. Um, it's a Loki pin up. I, I don't know who drew this. I like his big old demon cape. He does have a cool cape and, uh, and big horns on his helmet, which is cool. Uh, this is another Paco Medina drawn issue though.
01:08:14
Speaker
ah So this issue starts with Thor going to meet this priest from the Vatican. ah And there's like a big splash page of Thor where he's, you know, meant to look very like majestic and god-like. And I don't know if Paco Medina quite pulls it off. Yeah, ah this is where the Umberto Ramos comparison really hits because he's got those big old impulse feet. And he's got hair that looks like it's made a silly string. And like, I'm not, I'm not, look, it's fine. Like, I'm not saying that as necessarily a bad thing. That could be a cool look. It's just, it's it's a little weird for this book. Agreed. This conversation with this, this fucking priest, it is what made my brain
01:09:11
Speaker
leak out of my ears. Uh, cause he's like, yeah, you know, you call yourself a God and Thor goes, yeah, I am a God, which is true. Thor is a God. And the guy goes, well, there's only, it's only one true God. And Thor was like, I don't care. And the guy was like, look, you've produced impressive results, but have you considered sociological and spiritual ramifications? You know, you claim Godhood and, and have brought heaven to earth. And it's like,
01:09:40
Speaker
This is like if they called Jonah Salk out to the desert to yell at him for discovering the polio vaccine and not patenting it and giving it to the world. Cause it's the same thing, right? Like that's what Thor is doing. Like Thor is curing diseases and like stopping people from dying. Like Thor literally says, ah I have never asked anybody to follow me in a religious sense.
01:10:09
Speaker
I am ah i'm strong enough to help and so that's what I'm doing. And the end of it he goes, do your God and I not preach the same doctrine that the strong must protect the weak, that life is to be cherished above all else? And the guy goes, none may place himself on par with the Lord. But like, but I mean, you do though, right? Like that's also what you tell people to do, right?
01:10:37
Speaker
It's mind boggling that everyone would react like this in a world where Thor is real. Thor soon makes a great point, which is you're not worried about me. You're not worried about the good that I'm doing. You're worried that the cat because the Catholic Church is a powerful entity, a powerful organization, that me being here is going to take some power away from you. Yeah.
01:11:05
Speaker
The Catholic Church has been around, has had hundreds of years to fix things and has fixed nothing. I'm fixing things. Look, he's not 100% right. Yeah. But he's not 10% wrong. um Yeah. the The panel that you ended up like grabbing from this is when Thor says, I see suffering. I remedy it. Where's the crime? Which is true. Yeah. where Where's the, where's the crime? Where's the crime? Like,
01:11:34
Speaker
If I'm supposed to sympathize with this priest or or like be like, ah, he's got a good point too, it doesn't work here. It doesn't pan out here. Yeah, the thing is, I cannot see... You and I like Dan Jurgens as a creator, generally speaking. I cannot see Reading this comic and in any way sympathizing with any of the people who talked to Thor and that is mind-boggling to me because that's the only way this story works and isn't just Isn't just idiocracy starring Thor Because you're giving people simple solutions to complex problems and Thor's like do you mean cancer? Like is cancer the complex problem that you're or that you're worried about me solving at least like hunger like
01:12:26
Speaker
People are hungry, I'm feeding them. People are under dictatorships, I'm getting rid of the dictators. yeah Like, it's not that complicated. Yeah, man. It's, again, mind-boggling. I think we're supposed to be like, well, both sides have good points, but no, Thor is right and he should say it. Yeah, the thor Thor has not reached the point of being a tyrant here.
01:12:54
Speaker
And so like anytime somebody tries to like kind of paint him as one, they seem like they have a different agenda. And so when Thor is like, oh, you're just worried about losing power, that is way more effective as an argument. Yes. Yeah. Anyway, we cut back to Maine, and Trent has brought bought a new van.
01:13:20
Speaker
His dad gave him his old van. Oh, that's right. And his dad bought a Cadillac. Because his dad's a fucking idiot who has learned nothing. His dad, in the last issue, talked about like being like a year behind on mortgage payments. But the lobsters are back, baby.
01:13:41
Speaker
Lobsters are back. Lobsters are never going to end. The lobsters are back. So instead of paying off his year of missed mortgage payments, he's buying a Cadillac instead. Mind boggling. So Trent picks up Virginia in his dad's van and he's like, Oh, we're on easy street now.
01:14:05
Speaker
This, okay, this also pissed me off because after he, Jiddy goes, seems like everyone's doing better these days. And he goes, oh, thanks to Thor. Word is he's the one who brought back the lobster crop. And the girl goes, it was God. And it's like, okay, yeah, maybe, but like, it was Thor. But how many people did you know growing up who would say exactly that?
01:14:34
Speaker
I mean, yeah. Like, look, if your' if your house is on fire and the firefighters show up and and they put the fire out, you're like, oh, thank God. You know, like, yeah. Like, legit. But it was like, in a very practical sense, you should also thank the firefighters.
01:14:55
Speaker
But no, I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about the kind of relieved, oh, thank God. I'm talking about the people you definitely knew growing up growing up, and I definitely knew growing up, who anytime anything good happened, even if you could point to a definite cause of that thing happening, they were like, it was God who did that. It was God that made that happen in a very forceful way. I mean, look, God is good.
01:15:24
Speaker
If you didn't just say all the time, you were not raised in the South. But like, if that- Or alternatively, you could also say God is great. ah She does say ah it was God. He's the one who allows Thor to do the things he does. If that's what people believe, then then what's the problem? yeah Because again, people have asked Thor like, hey, what about Jesus? And he's like, oh, Jesus is great. And you know, there is a God greater than me. There's the one above all.
01:15:53
Speaker
So why don't, people are like, oh no, God allows Thor. Okay, sure. Then what's the problem? Mind boggling. So we see Lars, and we talked about the the Thor worshipers larping as guardians.
01:16:15
Speaker
And now they're doing even more of that, having battles and duels in this little house. Yeah, they get in their little warehouse and they do SCA combat at each other. Absolutely. Which, again, I do feel like it is important to know that Thor has zero involvement in any of this. All of these churches have sprung up.
01:16:43
Speaker
and ah Thor is unaware and not in touch with any of these people. They are just kind of making shit up about Vikings. There is an Asgardian who's involved though. The guy from Boston at one point, like Lars is talking about how hard it is to give up his Catholicism. And the guy from Boston says, you knew your God had abandoned you to him.
01:17:13
Speaker
We're gonna find out that that's Loki. Yeah. Who again is not incorrect. He does look like, yeah, you were out in the ocean getting ready to drown yourself for the insurance money. Yeah. Sounds to me like maybe the problem is not Thor, maybe the problem is capitalism. But that's like, I'm not expecting a 2003 Marvel comic to deal with that. At one point, these dudes leave their little Boathouse Thor Church and go to get into a guy's car. and These are like Barbies standing next to a GI Joe car. They are so huge compared to this tiny car that is in the foreground. That is supposed to be Lars' new Cadillac. It's maybe a Miata. It looks like a Powerwheel. Yeah. yeah it's it's
01:18:09
Speaker
It's so small next to these. There's no way these men are fitting in that car. ah Virginia and Trent continue to argue ah more about Thor versus the Christian God. The priest catches them talking, and then the priest like brings in a bunch of people, including Virginia's parents, to have a conversation about what what we're going to do about these Thor worshippers.
01:18:36
Speaker
and a dark bearded figure in the church, who looks a lot like the guy from Boston, starts stirring them up too. At one point, in the argument between ah Trent and Ginny, she says, I'm kind of afraid where this will end up. With everything Thor's giving us, it's kind of like when Eve was offered the apple. How? In what way? In what way is it like when Eve was offered the apple. Because it's not at all. They're getting knowledge. It's more like a firefighter showing up.
01:19:16
Speaker
ah Eventually, the Thor worshipers get the news that the Pope has called on all Catholics to reject Thor because they see a newspaper that, uh, has a drawing from like six issues ago on the front. And, uh, and so they get all upset and we come to find out that these two dark bearded guys who have been riling up both sides of this conflict are both Loki.
01:19:54
Speaker
And ultimately the banker just shoots a bunch of Thor worshipers in the middle of the street. Yeah. They're all hanging out and he's like, get away from that boy Virginia. And then the ah bearded priest who looks like the guy from Boston, who is secretly Loki goes, uh, goes careful Charles. They're going to attack. Here's a gun. Yeah.
01:20:21
Speaker
yeah Uh, and then we find out that these kinds of incidents have been happening all over the world where Thor worshipers and the representatives of other traditional religions, uh, have gone into open armed conflict with each other. The death toll that is listed is fully bananas in, in Brooklyn.
01:20:49
Speaker
ah A Christian group burns down a church of the Asgardian order, and the order sets fire to the church in revenge, resulting in 200 deaths. That's so many. That's so many people, yeah. In a Canadian lumber town, 42 people die. Again, that's a huge number of people. In Los Angeles, the death toll is at over 300 and climbing.
01:21:16
Speaker
ah In Tel Aviv, 400+, reports from Rome dwarf those numbers. That's, look, I know how this story ends. So, you know, we'll get to it when we get to it. That's a bonkers number of people to be dying. True. Especially because,
01:21:40
Speaker
I mean, well, well will we'll get we'll get to that. Okay. Thor number 65 has a cover with Thor and the Enchantress on it ah looking like they're in a perfume ad. This is very accurate. This is by Ben and Ray Lye who do the art for this issue and I guess they did the last issues cover too of Loki. ah It's a very um sexual drawing of Thor and Enchantress I feel like. This issue starts with
01:22:17
Speaker
A group of characters who all refer to each other as Mr. and Mrs. ms Smith talking about how they got to deal with Thor. Like, events are spiraling out of control because this is, are spinning out of control, but they, you know, it's spiral. This story's called Spiral. um You get it, you get it.
01:22:42
Speaker
One of these Mr. Smiths has an all white suit, which I feel like is a direct reference to planetary.
01:22:50
Speaker
Okay. ah Maybe I'm wrong, but I couldn't help but think of planetary ah when that happens. so But they're like, we got to do something about Thor. Meanwhile, ah the Council of deities that we saw a few issues ago as well are also like Thor has gone too far.
01:23:10
Speaker
We told him that if he got involved in mortal dealings, people would lose their fucking minds. ah You know who's having that conversation? A couple of people, including someone who has, in all fairness, ah defended Thor before. Zeus. Yeah. Zeus. Zeus, Matt. Zeus is talking about not interfering with the lives of mortals. Zeus. You know Zeus from mythology?
01:23:38
Speaker
Zeus, who famously never interfered. This scene should have had Zeus being like, yeah, and he's not fucking anybody. He hasn't turned into a single bull and impregnated anybody. Ridiculous. ah Cut to Paris, where a cathedral is being burned down and people are pointing guns at each other.
01:24:03
Speaker
in the middle of the street as a news report is happening. Like on TV, they're doing this. And Thor shows up, Thor and Sif both show up. And Thor's like, I did not tell you to do this. yeah This guy's, look, this is not, this is not fucking Medina's best work.
01:24:27
Speaker
Ben and Ray Lie. Sorry. They're best work either. This dude's gun. Not everybody has to be like Punisher Armory or Gunsmith Cats or whatever. I think this is the gun from the anime Trigun, but drawn badly. It does look like that, yes. It does look like that. The perspective is all wrong on it.
01:24:54
Speaker
It is a weirdly drawn gun, but it does absolutely look like the gun Vash the Stampede carries a tri-gun. Thor and Sif show up. Thor's like, I didn't tell you to do this. I didn't tell you to bow to me. Stop fighting. I'm going to, I'm going to rebuild these buildings that they destroyed. And as soon as he starts the Odin power to rebuild both the the Christian Cathedral and the Church of Asgard, which it seems like an awful nice thing to do. Sif reacts to this, though, by saying, like, she knew you had done that. Odin never did that before. Yeah. And Thor goes, look, normally I wouldn't do that because people need to deal with, you know, people need to learn to deal with the consequences of their own actions. And but like this was done in my name. I do feel a responsibility for it. Yeah.
01:25:50
Speaker
And like, wow, what an asshole. What a real fucking dickhead that guy is, huh? As they're about to leave, Thor and Sif, a woman comes up wearing a Thor necklace and she says, my daughter died from snow smoke inhalation in the fire. Can you please please bring her back to life? Because her death was part of this.
01:26:19
Speaker
And Thor's like, yeah, okay. So he uses the Odin power to try to bring her back to life despite Sif's protestations.
01:26:33
Speaker
And as he's about to do that, like everybody gathered around are like, he can is he really gonna do this? Is really he really gonna bring her back to life? There's this one reporter who's like, man, if he could do this, even I will believe. So he tries first to bring her back and it doesn't work. So then he uses more of the Odin force to really try to bring her back.
01:26:59
Speaker
And what happens is her eyes open, but she's kind of just like an empty vessel yeah because what we'll learn, what we'll learn is that she's, he brought her back to life, but she still doesn't have a soul. Yeah. So Matt, but I run a D and&D game weekly. It's been running for about 11 or 12 years now. And one of the things that, you know, because you've played D and&D with me is that when I run a game, uh, the,
01:27:29
Speaker
The pantheon that I use is, I use the Norse gods because nobody knows what the D and&D gods are, but all of us read comics and so we all know about the Norse gods. so So I specifically use the Norse gods as depicted in Marvel Comics. yeah ah Like I call oh the goddess Hel, I call Hela, because I think that's it helps prevent confusion.
01:27:53
Speaker
um So I think about this stuff a lot from the perspective of, like, the mechanics and how it functions. But, you know, I've also read a lot of Marvel Comics. So if this conflict was between the worshippers of Thor and another group, then technically this little girl was a worshipper of Thor who died in battle. She's in Valhalla. He should just be able to go get her.
01:28:27
Speaker
True. Like, do you not? Like, can you just not go get her? And characters have been brought even out of hell before. Yeah, man. In Marvel Helix. Like, just go get her. Like, yeah, man, you brought her body back to life. You have access to her soul. Just go get her. I think that's an example of this story trying to do something that it really wants to do without necessarily working in the confines of Marvel Comics. You know, like like it wants to have these like big theological questions and quandaries. And so he can't just go to Valhalla and get her. He's got to like try to bring her back to life, but but make a mistake in the process of doing that.
01:29:25
Speaker
And Sif is like, you shouldn't have done that. Like they have a conversation after this where it's like, Sif is like, you absolutely should not have done that. You've made things worse by trying to bring this girl back to life. And Thor's like, I don't understand why that didn't work. It should have worked. And so that's where we end it. That's where we leave the issue. Like the, the two councils of people who've been watching Thor um are both like, he's gone too far.
01:29:56
Speaker
I forget what made me think of it, but this book definitely ignores the fact that Norse pagans do exist. Yeah. Yeah. Like there are actually people who worship Thor, like still in the real world. This has not happened. Uh, Thor number 66, uh, spider. Smaller scale. It did happen like circa the 10th century, but you know that the different stuff.
01:30:21
Speaker
Thor number 66, Spyro part 7 has, um I think the best cover of these this run of issues, um which is just like a super close up on Thor ah and Mjolnir glowing. I think this is a Tom Mandrake cover. um It looks pretty good. I like it. ah Tom Mandrake is the artist on this issue as well. but Honestly, huge upgrade. I love Tom Mandrake.
01:30:45
Speaker
Yeah, this issue kicks off with our guy, Zarko the Tomorrow Man. I i refuse. There's no world in which Zarko the Tomorrow Man is my guy.
Thor's Destructive Potential and Confrontations
01:31:02
Speaker
ah There's some some narration from him right at the beginning, he's like, I told them all about Thor, and none of them listened to me, and now it's all happening. And they don't know what's coming. They don't know what kind of terrible, horrible events are gonna happen. Sif and Baldur are talking to him and he's saying like, Thor's gonna thor' is gonna kill us all. Thor's gonna be our destruction. And you won't listen to me. And Baldur's like, this dude's lost it. And Sif's like, I don't know, maybe he's maybe's saying something. Maybe maybe he's onto something.
01:31:41
Speaker
and Baltimore should be like, you talking about Zuckos tomorrow, man? Then we cut to all the Mr. and Ms. Smiths again, and they're talking about they how they have this plan. They've been in communication with the Vatican um where they're going to get Thor away from Asgard and pull this attempt to get rid of Asgard and get rid of Thor.
01:32:08
Speaker
and ah They're like, I don't think this is gonna work. We tried to nuke Asgard once before and it didn't work and They're like it's gonna work this time So Thor goes to an island full of craters that we will learn is was a nuclear test site and He goes to talk to that priest again that we saw two issues ago. And they have a similarly deeply frustrating conversation, but the priest tells him like, look, the people who object to you, the people who don't like you, there are more of them because you tried to bring that girl back to life and and now she's just a husk. And you have desecrated God's work. And Thor was like, I was trying to do the right thing. I was trying to help his mom or her mother have her daughter back. And the priest is like,
01:33:02
Speaker
what you've done is an evil, an unparalleled evil. And he he keeps like trying to talk to Thor, like get Thor to admit that he's done something wrong. And all the Mr. And Ms. Smiths are like, what's this guy doing? He's going off script. He's going into business for himself. Two things. One, one thing that when they get to that island and he's like,
01:33:27
Speaker
He's like, oh, this is a ah ah an old atomic test site. I suppose it's something of a tribute to man's genius, as well as his appetite for destruction. Like, Thor should be like, yeah, bud. Like, maybe someone should stop them from using nuclear weapons. Yeah. Have you ever heard of the Hulk? One of those things made the Hulk. He's caused a lot of trouble. ah The other thing is, Thor's like, yeah. ah the girl, i I didn't get her soul back, but like I'm working on it. And the guy goes, her soul is in heaven with God. And I'm like, she's literally a heathen. Right? She like she was worshiping Thor in a church. She is like, yeah, she she was not baptized. If you've got like a, like if you've got a pantheistic sort of worldview, where you're like, actually, all souls returned to the Lord, like,
01:34:28
Speaker
cool, I guess, but what are we doing here? So ultimately the priest is like trying to get Thor to just leave. He's like, leave Earth, take Asgard with you, leave Earth and don't come back. And Thor's like, I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do that. And so the priest is like, all right, you made me do it. May God forgive me. And he presses a button and that island blows up in a giant nuclear explosion. Right. They nuke Thor.
01:34:58
Speaker
Yes. Then paramilitary groups invade Asgard and show up and start shooting. And start blowing up Asgard, destroying buildings, destroying various things. And so pieces of Asgard are now falling onto New York City. Yeah, they they nuke Asgard and drop it onto New York.
01:35:26
Speaker
This comic was published only two years after 9-11. Yeah, man. That's bonkers, dude. Pretty wild stuff. But like pieces of Asgard are just falling onto buildings in New York City. And like this group's plan is is going off. But one thing that they they didn't bank on is that Thor wasn't dead and we see him emerging from the rubble of the nuclear explosion. It did knock his beard off. It knocked his beard off. His beard is gone. His his beard was nuked off. Which is pretty funny. But he this isn't it like Batman coming out of his grave at Batman and R.I.P. exactly, but it did make me think of it, I have to say. Yeah, it's not dissimilar.
01:36:19
Speaker
Yeah. Thor number 67 is spiral part eight. I, this is the most generic cover I've ever seen. It's not very good. Uh, I think it's a Paco Medina or no, it's a Ben and Ray lie cover. It's fine. It's just Thor flying around. Yeah. Asgard has just been dropped on New York city. Millions are dead. Maybe like this was, I think in that weird era of Marvel covers where they wanted every cover to look like a generic image of the characters for some reason. It was always a pin up and rarely did they have like blurbs or anything for some reason. Which tells you nothing.
01:37:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's a weird approach to covers for a while. This ah issue has art by Max Fumara, and it's fine. It looks fine. It's not as good as the Tom Mandrake art from the last issue. It's weird how inconsistent the art is for this book. like this It's yeah really bizarre. We kicked this one off with Jake Olsen watching Asgardians and these pelo paramilitary guys fight in the streets.
01:37:34
Speaker
And Jake Olson's like, Heimdall, I know him, he's my friend. ah That's Todd. And and he's he's been exploded and I need to help him. And the paramilitary guys are like holding him back and saying he can't help Heimdall. And the paramilitary guys are like, don't gotta worry about Thor no more, he's dead. um Then we check in with the Mr. and miss Ms. Smiths for a minute.
01:38:04
Speaker
They're being told that Thor has been killed in the nuclear explosion because like even this helicopter got caught in the shockwave. Then, once again, Zarko the Tomorrow Man is like... your boy He's my boy. ah He's like, ah I gotta get out of here. I gotta get out of Asgard. It's exploding. Then Thor shows up where the Mr. and Ms. Smiths are, and his beard is back, by the way.
01:38:33
Speaker
He got so mad his his beard grew back in.
Unworthy Thor and Future Earth
01:38:38
Speaker
And ah he explodes the mountain that they live in. Just blows it right up. Kaboom. Asgard is falling to pieces. ah We check in for a minute with ah What's his name? what's What's the dude's name that was the Thor's assistant for a little while? Theophi, yeah. um He's like talking to Zarko. He's trying to defend himself from these paramilitary guys. Zarko says, no, man, i'm I'm a time traveler. This is going to be a time travel story. We just didn't tell you. Yeah. He tries to escape via time travel, but then Asgard is completely blown up. but
01:39:20
Speaker
And it just falls to pieces over New York City. Yeah. A a city falls onto New York City. Yes. Also weird appearance from dupe in this scene. In the background. Yeah. In the background. On a billboard. Yeah. Yeah. So New York City destroyed.
01:39:42
Speaker
Yeah, so Asgard is falling on New York City all around Jake Olson. Thor shows up and he's like, fuck all y'all. He's right. And he should say it. Uh, he throws his hammer at the pal and paramilitary guys, um, like blows up some of their equipment. And as it's coming back, Jake Olson jumps and, and catches Mjolnir and holds Mjolnir because again, he's also Thor.
01:40:10
Speaker
And so he can hold Mjolnir. And so he tries to fight off Thor for a little while, but Thor like quickly like just punches him out because he's still Thor. Yeah. he and And Thor says, not now, let me save them. Yeah. But Jake tries to stop him. And then Thor, this is what Thor kind of like
01:40:40
Speaker
lets it ah Let's lose a little too much. He blasts Jake Olsen with beams out of his eyes and essentially melts him. Yeah. And then he tries to pick up Mjolnir and he can't. Because now that he has killed Jake Olsen, he's not worthy anymore. Listen, man. Listen. You agree with me that that's bullshit, right?
01:41:09
Speaker
I mean, I guess if there's a time to have this happen, it you know I'll buy into the story. i i don't I don't know that it's exactly earned, but i'll i'll I'll buy it. Thor literally says, not now, let me save them. It is trying to save people. Okay, but it's not that he just stops Jake Olsen. He stops Jake Olsen and then melts his body.
01:41:37
Speaker
Yeah, well, Jake won't get out of this fucking way. And also, sorry, Jake's not a real person. Jake is half of him. Jake is, it it is mentioned here that Jake is ah Thor's humanity. But also, also it's bullshit for other reasons, because Matt, who put that enchantment on the hammer? Odin. And who has the Odin power?
01:42:06
Speaker
that does That is true. Yeah, it doesn't fucking work. that's ah okay dan I hate to say it, Dan Jurgens. That's some Jeff Johns shit. What about this explanation? All right, no prize. me If Jake Olsen is dead, ah hu then Thor is no longer a complete Thor. Okay.
01:42:32
Speaker
And thus, that is part of the reason, or at least part of the reason, why he can no longer pick up the hammer. Because the part of his, the part of him that was his humanity was part of his worthiness. And so thus, if he's not a complete Thor anymore, he can't pick up the hammer anymore. Alright. Okay. Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. Alright. He could still remove the enchantment.
01:42:57
Speaker
Absolutely, he has the Odin power, he can do that. He has the Odin power, yeah. Anyway, he says, you did this. You made me do this. And he screams as New York falls to pieces around him. And that is the end of Spiral. Thor number 68 has a cover that's actually pretty fucking good of Thor, a carving of Thor towering over ro Mount Rushmore. I like this because there is no mountain there. Correct.
01:43:27
Speaker
He had to have put one there. He had to have put one there and then was like, and also make it me, and also make me twice as big as these other dudes, because fuck those dudes. Although, the version of Brent Mount Rushmore that we see in the issue looks different from that.
Jane Foster's Resistance and Thor's Regime
01:43:43
Speaker
Yes. ah Which is even more hilarious, because it's it's Mount Rushmore, and then Thor is a fifth one, and then behind it is a mountain twice as big that's Odin.
01:43:56
Speaker
Yes. There was a real fucking daddy's boy and in this story. This issue is called Earth 2020. Very funny. Yeah, but like, that I was like, damn, you gotta hand it to any jerk-ins on that one. Nailed it. So this takes place 17 years in the future. And in these 17 years, um things have really taken a turn.
01:44:22
Speaker
Thor has taken over Earth, and there are no cars anymore. Everybody's riding around on a horse, including Dr. Jane Foster. Yeah, man. Fossil fuels were destroying the planet. That's true. Good point. ah So, Dr. Jane Foster's right about everything.
01:44:39
Speaker
Dr. Jane Foster um is making her way to a house in, I guess, South Dakota because we see her i pass mount rushmo in front of Mount Rushmore.
01:44:53
Speaker
um
01:44:55
Speaker
She encounters Hogan who stops her and is like, where are you going? And she's like, and and also she's like, hey, you're you're Jane Foster. I thought you were dead.
01:45:06
Speaker
He's like, Oh, damn, Jim Foster. Good, good to see you. I swore you were dead because everybody in New York died. And she's like, Well, I didn't. And she takes Hogan to a house where secretly Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are. Yeah, it's Scarlet Witch. They go to this village and it's very much like a a Viking by like village with a a couple of Kirby-ish touches. so yeah There's like you know dragon longships out on a lake. All the buildings look old style. Very Ren Faire. Yes. so Scarlet Witch is pregnant and giving birth to her baby.
01:45:53
Speaker
Jane Foster has developed a plan where Scarlet Witch is secretly gonna give birth, Quicksilver's gonna take the baby and get it away from there as fast as possible, and Scarlet Witch is gonna disguise herself as like a regular human woman. And somehow they get all of this past Hogan.
01:46:18
Speaker
like she tells Hogan like hey stay in this other room and don't come in here and he's like okay and buddy they are doing this for some real fucking anti-vaxxer bullshit like she's like yeah we need to get the baby away before it's registered they end up having to take scarlet witch uh jane foster ends up having to take scarlet witch to a hospital i love the establishing shot of the hospital because uh It's the emergency room and the word emergency is written in like, like a Norse runes font. Uh-huh. Which is very funny. And it's got like, it's got a picture of a Valkyrie on it, which I thought, uh, unintentional, but nice little foreshadowing of Jane Foster being a Valkyrie later. Yes. Yes. Totally unintentional, but yes. Um, so they takes it all at which to the hospital and to try to hide that she's given birth, they like,
01:47:17
Speaker
give her a wound on her abdomen. Um, but the doctor's like, Oh, um, that abdominal wound was and she just gave birth and also she's a scarlet witch. And so Hogan's like, you motherfucker, yeah I'm going to throw the book at you for this. We're going to do Asgard. You're going to go get judged. So they take He takes Jane Foster to New Asgard. that There, Jane Foster meets Loki, who is like, hey, what's up? I'm Loki.
01:47:57
Speaker
um'm but I'm helping Thor be in charge of things. Also, I'm wearing the Sorcerer's Supreme cape now. yeah the the The Cloak of Levitation. I like the establishing shot of New Asgard because it's very like, you know, Kirby Asgard giant statues of of all these Viking warriors with swords out, Pegasus flying by, and then also the Chrysler building.
01:48:20
Speaker
Right, it's on top of New York. So, I guess New York wasn't entirely destroyed because there are still old New York buildings there at New Asgard. The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building survived, ah but then they just rebuilt Asgard and New York as New Asgard, which... al Altogether, yeah. Yeah, pretty cool.
01:48:43
Speaker
Jane Foster, when she meets Loki, she's like, you're controlling Thor. You're making him do this. And then Thor shows up and he's like, no, he's not. I'm doing this. Loki helped me out. Loki's, Loki's, I trust him. He's my brother. But like, he's like he's not Loki's been a good and trusted subject as well as a friend and brother. And he's like, damn, Jane Foster, what's up? Good to see you. Yeah. Uh,
01:49:08
Speaker
And he's like, but no, he didn't make me do any of this, I'm doing this on my own. So hey, where's that baby? And Jane Foster's like, I'm not giving you that baby, because you're gonna register him and track him. This is the dialogue. You are aware of the laws regarding newborns, as guardian law dictates that each and every child has to be registered, so you can keep track of them, make sure they can never threaten you. Jane, like it's on the dial, the word blue starts, Jane.
01:49:37
Speaker
When you served as a physician in a New York hospital, each birth was registered. Yes.
01:49:45
Speaker
Like, Jane, I'm trying to give people social security numbers here. But, you know, Jane is saying, like, that's not what you're trying to do. You're trying to find threats and and subjugate them. um And then Enchantress shows up with ah his her and Thor's son, Magni, which is Thor's son in actual Norse mythology. Yes, we and and in current issues of immortal Thor. but Yes.
01:50:20
Speaker
Thor takes Jane to a village and he's like, look, let me explain why i do why I'm doing what I'm doing. New York got destroyed 17 years ago and I got to make sure nothing like that ever, ever happens again. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that happens. And because of that, I will tolerate no resistance. So where's that baby?
01:50:49
Speaker
And Jane's like, you are not the Thor I know. I've known you for a long time. I was Sith for a while. You're a different guy. And Thor's like, I'm a realist who has experienced betrayal on every level, even by you it appears. We find out the the Avengers also attacked Thor when he took over the world and Thor killed them. A lot of them, yeah. And so like,
01:51:19
Speaker
this is This is where Thor starts being, like, kind of not good anymore, right? Like... I mean, yes, but... But, Matt, he's like, yeah, it sucked that they attacked me. And, like, there's nothing to indicate that it was not self-defense. But he, went for you know... When Thor was like, hey, uh, wow, New York got destroyed. We gotta stop that from happening again, guys. And Tony Stark's like, you trying to take over?
01:51:50
Speaker
Like, okay. so i mean I can cure cancer. you just like can we not Just like the thing with Jake Olsen, Thor, a heroic Thor would figure out a way to do it without killing. Yes, I i agree. yeah But also, we've still not seen him do anything wrong. Except for maybe killing Jake Olsen, which I don't know. I'm not attached to Jake Olson. Jane asks Thor where his hammer is and he's like, uh, don't ask me about that. And then, uh, she also says, this is a wild bit of dialogue. She says, some think that you want to change the world so much that we won't recognize it in a few years. Is that true? Jane, what world are you living in? He, he already did that. Hey, Jane, Jane, buddy, that's called
01:52:49
Speaker
Time's arrow. That's called the nature of linear time. That is true. Jane, I'm sorry things did not remain as they were in 1998 forever. Lord knows I would have also liked that. ah Anyway, she sends, or Thor ends up sending Jane off to prison, along with Scarlet Witch. And and he and she says, what are you doing? And he says, maintaining security.
01:53:21
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, and yeah, did it be like, Hey, do you want me to, uh, uh, brainwash them in a reeducation camp? And Thor's like, yeah, I guess. and He actually says, treat them with the kindness and respect they deserve. And look, he goes very well. They will not be treated as Stark was.
01:53:49
Speaker
Ominous, ominous. And Jane goes, would you do this to me? Someone you love? You would do this to a child? They're talking about Scarlet Witch's baby. And Thor goes, loved, past tense. And I do this for the children, in memory of all those who died, and for those yet to be born. And then he tells Loki, process them. And and that's where we leave it. that's That's the prologue of the reigning. And next time,
01:54:19
Speaker
We are going to go through the reigning parts one through five, one through six. Then we have gods and men, five parts of gods and men, and that's the end of Jurgis. Very exciting. Very exciting. I look forward to maybe seeing Thor do something wrong for the first time.
01:54:43
Speaker
And then I guess we're gonna do those disassembled issues too, as as one last last little taste. As an epilogue. And you have to realize that I'm spelling that O-E. Right, for Michael Avon aiming. Yeah. Alright, we're done with this set of Jurgis.
01:55:06
Speaker
and like Everyone's so weird to Thor for no reason. ah You can email us at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast.gmail dot.com. That is where you can send every story ever lists or listener questions or drop us a line about anything else like possibly sponsoring the show. You can do that there. You can also follow us on Blue Sky at warrocketajax.com on Blue Sky. We're on Tumblr at warrocketpodcast dot.tumblr dot.com or you can join our Discord.
01:55:34
Speaker
If you ask us for an invitation to our Discord, you can become part of that community of War Rock and Ajax fans. Lots of cool, fun discussion over there. We got the fun question from the start of this episode there. So ah go join. Ask us for an invitation and and have fun on our Discord server. Our website is warrockandajax.com and it's every episode of the show we've ever done.
01:55:59
Speaker
WarRockitWiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could need about this show, WarRockit Ajax. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where could people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. That is my website and has links to the things that I have written and ah where you can ah hire me because I don't currently have a job. So you should do that, I think. I agree. You should. All right, that's it. We'll be back next week with another episode. Look forward to it. ah Thank you for for being here with us as we get through the jerkies. Until then, folks, do not, under any circumstances, forget that Black Lives Matter.
01:56:56
Speaker
Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Draggy's not a crime. And diversity's not the problem and cops aren't your friends? But we love you. Don't let the bastards get you down. We love you.