Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 747 - Montana Origins f/ Daniel Kibblesmith
0 Plays2 seconds ago
Our GarFriend Daniel Kibblesmith returns to the show this week to talk about his new book So You've Been Bitten By a Radioactive Spider: How to Survive the Marvel Universe! We discuss having to decide what to feature in the book (and what to leave out), starting points for comics readers, Disney character sizes, and much more!
We make our show on Zencastr, and you can too! Follow this link to sign up now!
Join the WRA Patreon to help us keep doing the show and get rewards!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
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.
00:00:12
Speaker
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.
00:00:28
Speaker
I just, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:38
Speaker
got more rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator X's!
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.
00:01:05
Speaker
Matt, I have a question for you. Hit me. It's more of a scenario. As we do here at the top of the show now, yeah. Yes, i if you are a a new listener who doesn't know why this bit happens...
00:01:18
Speaker
In every episode. It's because I no longer wanted to ask Matt, how are you? Because we all know how we all are. So instead, I have to come up with a new question for Matt every week.
00:01:30
Speaker
Occasionally, Matt comes up a question for me. So Matt, here is the scenario. The year 1969. shockingly... and shockingly given that you are not a singer or musician.
00:01:46
Speaker
huh And I do not believe that you have ever... I don't believe you play an instrument. I do not. I tried to when I was a teenager.
00:01:59
Speaker
ah I tried to learn the bass guitar. And it it did not it did not take. Well, Matt, despite these shortcomings, you have...
Hypothetical Scenarios and Creative Fun
00:02:10
Speaker
achieved a number one country record. Okay. On, on, on the, you recorded at the Quonset Hut.
00:02:23
Speaker
You are, you are the toast of Nashville. Okay. Your phone rings. Who's that on the other, who's that on the line? Matt? It's Nudie Cone. Mm-hmm.
00:02:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You're going to be performing at the Grand Ole Opry. You got a number one. Buddy, that means you need a nudie suit. Of course, yeah. Of course. what is What is the the the track? What the name of the track?
00:02:47
Speaker
And what iconography do you have stitched onto one of Nudie Cone's famous nudie suits? The iconography I would have stitched onto the suit would absolutely be my own face.
00:03:07
Speaker
Is it going to be multiple Matt Wilson faces like on the front, or like a big one on the back, or what are we doing here? all All of the above. It it would be like like like designs featuring my face on the front, maybe making like a lot of different expressions. Okay.
00:03:22
Speaker
And then one big stitching of my face on the back. Okay. the um The song would be called i Want to Talk About Me, but it would not be the Toby Keith song.
00:03:36
Speaker
Ha!
00:03:39
Speaker
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. im um yeah I'm digging it. What's your answer? sir oh My song would be called Pups Bupington.
00:03:50
Speaker
Okay. Which is what I called Biscuit earlier. And I said that she was ah the richest dog in America. So there's just it's a story. It's a ballad. It's a story. saw it's It's like a Tom T. Hall.
00:04:03
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Kind of a little silly song about... oh A rich do getting rich. Yeah. Biscuit finding out that she's the heir of the the Buffington fortune, the millions.
00:04:16
Speaker
And so ah mine would be like a lot of Biscuit. And then also like money. like Like dollar bills, gold coins, packs with dollar signs on them.
00:04:29
Speaker
I like that our duty suits are themed around our songs, as they should be. Yeah. yeah Yeah, they gotta You only get one when you have a number one. Exactly, yeah yeah yeah. These are good. These are good songs.
00:04:46
Speaker
When you started talking about a musical thing in 1969, this is not the direction I thought this was going. ah so But I like it. I like it. Well, mean, look, it could be 1969, it could be 1975. It could be...
00:04:58
Speaker
yeah you know it could be it could be I thought we were headed to Woodstock. I thought... but i' Immediately in my head, it was like California Dreamin'. ah But no. it's ah We went a different direction. to now we're We're Nashville Dreamin', baby.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah.
Guest Introduction and Patreon Support
00:05:15
Speaker
We got a great show for everybody this week. It's going to be a good one. We're going to talk to Daniel Kibblesmith about his new book, So You've Been Bitten by a Radioactive Spider, How to Survive the Marvel Universe.
00:05:29
Speaker
A how-to guide. for living in the 616. And we're going to talk to Daniel all about how that book came together, how he decided on which scenarios, Marvel-style scenarios to focus on, and and more a little bit later in the show.
00:05:51
Speaker
But Chris, before we talk to Daniel, we do have some business to take care of, starting with thanking our supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt. Now, these are the people. they're not They're not just listeners. Although, presumably they are listeners.
00:06:06
Speaker
Because I cannot imagine ah cannot imagine them not being listeners And engaging in the act of giving us money. That would be surprising.
00:06:16
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Like, the only person I can imagine doing that is my mom, and she's broke. So, these are the people who want to support the show.
00:06:29
Speaker
And they're like, hey, maybe they're only slightly less broke than my mom. And that's okay. Because ah they can chip in as little as a dollar a month. To help us do the show.
00:06:40
Speaker
Help us ah keep doing comics catch-up. Movie Fighters, maybe? guess?
00:06:51
Speaker
We'll We're going to have a conversation about the future of Movie Fighters in the near future.
00:06:58
Speaker
Look, we do a lot of these things, regardless. And if people want to support them, they can go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax. That... and And when they're there, they can kick in as little as a dollar a month. Matt, you threw me off.
00:07:12
Speaker
You threw me off the pattern. They can get some rewards, they can help save Gimmick Street, and they can help us pay those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail called Bills. That's right, Chris. I don't actually have any new names to read off this week. We do have 428 paid supporters on Patreon currently.
00:07:32
Speaker
That's great. We have 595 total supporters, which means that there are a little less than 170 free Patreon subscribers who don't get anything.
00:07:46
Speaker
With a free subscription. there' is nothing There's you don't We do not have any free rewards on Patreon. So I would suggest that you're if you're one of those almost 170 people on Patreon, just bump it up to one buck.
00:08:04
Speaker
Just one buck a month, and you will get ad-free episodes of all of our shows, all the shows that Chris just mentioned. So I think that's worth it If you are at the $15 level, though, you get to join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society.
00:08:20
Speaker
And, Chris, this week's Gimmick Street Preservation Society... you We should say, Matt, there are also other levels between those? Yes, yes. well I'll get to those in a second. but Okay, okay. i want to i want to say what's Gimmick Street.
00:08:37
Speaker
seven forty seven give all right as suggested by tom fas Not merely suggested, but mandated. Mandated, because he is a member of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, where you get to name what is at an address on Gimmick Street.
00:08:57
Speaker
And 747 Gimmick Street is the it's it is the location of the McGraw Professional Wrestling Academy, where headmaster Bonesaw is ready to train up the next generation in the king of sports, alongside an all-star team of educators.
00:09:09
Speaker
His husband teaches costume design and textile arts. That's good. That's good. Yes. You know what? i think that's i I think that's the only way to save that line in what is otherwise a flawless film.
00:09:24
Speaker
That's right. the The one bad part of Spider-Man 2002 is when Peter makes a homophobic joke. Yeah. i think I think the only way to save it is to make it a genuine question.
00:09:40
Speaker
Right. It's not a joke. It's a question. about Bonesaw McGraw's husband, who to whom he is happily married. Yes. Yes. ah Thank you, Tom, for that Gimmick Street preserv for Preservation Society Tom's a a long time long-time listener.
00:09:59
Speaker
That's right. ah And yes, at the $15 level, you get to join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, but at other levels, you get other cool stuff. I talked about ad-free episodes at the $1 level. Any paid level.
00:10:11
Speaker
any paid level of patreon You get ad-free episodes of this show, Every Story Ever, Comics Catch Up, everything that we do. At the $5 level, you get bonus content. that and That's bonus ah audio that we record specifically for this for Patreon. and That is stuff that I cut out of the show, outtakes that I cut out and put just on Patreon that nobody else gets to listen to.
00:10:37
Speaker
It's writing that Chris and I have done over on Patreon. All of that stuff is exclusive to our Patreon, and you get it at the $5 level. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include 1 to 10 of Swords and Every Story Ever.
00:10:55
Speaker
I mentioned the Gimmick Street Preservation Society at the $15 level, and the $20 level, and at the twenty dollars level you get a t-shirt or annual t-shirt. As we have discussed the 2026 t-shirt, um we will start talking about designs for that in the near future.
00:11:12
Speaker
So if you want to get in on that 2026 t-shirt, you can do it now by joining at the $20 level. You might even get a 2025 t-shirt if you join at the $20 level and ask me for one.
00:11:25
Speaker
um I still have some shirts, but In most sizes, so consider it. If you're unable to help us monetarily, which we understand is it is a thing that you might be going through, it is, you know, a little bit of a rough time right now.
00:11:44
Speaker
You can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever that may be. Or you can just spread ah the word about the show, tell your friends and family to listen to this show or Rocket Ajax.
00:11:58
Speaker
And once they help you out monetarily and financially, ask them to kick you into the show as well. ah Once they become a fan and a listener or heck, they don't have to listen to the show to help us monetarily as we established earlier.
00:12:14
Speaker
um But we would prefer that they do. If you're friends with my mom. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:21
Speaker
convince her to help us. Debbie, get at us. all right
00:12:32
Speaker
Why does my mom sound like the Witcher? Matt, do you sound like the Witcher? That's how I would talk to Debbie if I was asking her to get at us.
00:12:43
Speaker
I guess that makes sense, yeah. Don't talk to my mom like that, though, dude. With that, Chris.
Comfort and Joy Segment
00:12:51
Speaker
Freako. Thanks to all our Patreon supporters. Now it's time to talk about some comforts and joys. What do you say?
00:12:58
Speaker
Let's do
00:13:04
Speaker
Chris, what's bringing you comfort this week? Well, Matt, as is tradition, you allow me to to lead off with comforts and joys. But I sort of have a combined comfort and joy. Okay, great.
00:13:17
Speaker
So i I think you should probably ah take this one. Okay, I'll go first with my comfort. um and And it may eventually become a joy recommendation, but I'm not there just yet.
00:13:34
Speaker
um Because I've only just kind of started playing... i i think I'm through the sort of tutorial portion of Metaphor Re-Fantasio.
00:13:46
Speaker
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I'm so excited, Matt. that i'm We're getting you in. We're getting you into Persona. Now, you'll recall, this this was months ago now.
00:13:59
Speaker
um I got, like...
00:14:03
Speaker
$400 worth of stuff from my Amazon wishlist from anonymous ah patrons. of Patrons not the right word. From anonymous gifters. um And I still don't know where they came from.
00:14:16
Speaker
um But among that stuff was Silent Hill 2, which I finally finished my YouTube playthrough of after I took like a three-month break from it.
00:14:29
Speaker
right To not play anything and then play Hollow Knight Silksong. um But then I finished Silent Hill 2. And then i started playing the other game that came with that group of gifts.
00:14:47
Speaker
Which was, in fact, Metaphor ReFantasio. Which, i Chris, I let you know that I'd started it minute one... from minute one There is a dude who I now know is the villain of the game.
00:15:03
Speaker
Who, like, I just texted you, this MF looks like Griffith. Yeah, man.
00:15:12
Speaker
He sure does. He basically is Griffith, from what I can tell. He's not not Griffith. Yeah. I am still on the fence as to whether or not I like the game.
00:15:24
Speaker
Okay. It...
00:15:27
Speaker
Gives a lot of options right away. And I definitely did... I did like a... An optional dungeon. Pretty early.
00:15:40
Speaker
ah Like, you're given a quest... There's this period... Where you're like in the main city... Like the capital city... And you have several days to kill... And you can kind of like... Boost your stats...
00:15:54
Speaker
And do other stuff around town before ah deadline where you have to do a particular thing. And one of the things you can do is go fight in an optional dungeon.
00:16:05
Speaker
And i did that. And it's like quite a long dungeon where like you can get to the boss of that dungeon.
00:16:16
Speaker
and I hit a situation where like I was out of magic and out of... Items that replenished my magic, and he could only be hurt, really, by one specific attack.
00:16:30
Speaker
Do you want to know the secret that the game doesn't tell you? Yes. If you are a If you're using like the mage class as your main dude, yeah then when you hit people on the map, it will restore your your SP.
00:16:49
Speaker
Okay, that's good to know. i this is and it's like it's it's not like hidden, and it's not like a secret, because it's like listed in... like It's listed somewhere and yeah in the instructions, but I missed that. and I remember when that game came out, I was talking to David Uzumari, and I was like, hey, this... Because, Matt, I think that's an optional dungeon, dog. I think you're just in the first dungeon.
00:17:11
Speaker
okay But I said, well hey, man. I finished it. I did get it, but like I cut it close. like I thought that I was going to like just not be able to finish it.
00:17:22
Speaker
But yeah I went back and reloaded a save and just played through it a little differently. When... You get to the point where ah if you want to be like grinding later on in the game, some classes... like There's a like merchant class that'll give you more money, and there's like the wizard class that you can use melee attacks to regain ah SP. So okay oh so yeah, like it is it's I am unsurprised that you ran into that, because I ran into the same thing.
00:17:54
Speaker
i The whole class system of the game... Which, they're not classes. What are they called? Archetypes? For some reason, they're not called personas, even though that is what they are.
00:18:06
Speaker
They're called archetypes in the game. ah They are a little overwhelming to start with, I have to say. Because, like, you are really just given like free reign to pick any.
00:18:22
Speaker
and
00:18:24
Speaker
They like level up as you go. it's it's It's similar to the class system in but Like a Dragon, actually. But like you can settle into, like okay, this is the class I think this character is supposed to be pretty easily in Like a Dragon.
00:18:40
Speaker
um In this game, it's very much like, well, I guess I'll try them all. And certain classes are just not right for certain characters and not right for certain...
00:18:52
Speaker
like parts of the game. So um I'm still kind of working through that. I did get through what I thought was the first required dungeon and got to the first like major boss.
00:19:07
Speaker
And it was pretty encouraging to me to see the Hieronymus Bosch influence on the design. Yeah, those own, actually.
00:19:21
Speaker
Those are extremely good. ah that that was like, okay, maybe I am more into this than I think. um and And I kind of like also appreciate what I've seen of the story of the game so far, which is very much like the utopian fiction of this world is like about a mundane existence.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yes. No magic. Yeah, man. I i really loved ah Metaphor because it is... it it is a Persona game in every way that counts.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah. And it is also like, it cuts out some of the more, not necessarily annoying, but it cuts out like a lot of the, it's actually kind of a stripped down version of Persona in a lot of ways. Cause there's no romance options.
00:20:16
Speaker
There's no like wrong choices you can make in the, in the social links. Um, And there's no school, so you can just, you know, hang out.
Game Discussions and Reviews
00:20:27
Speaker
You could just be an adventuring party, yeah. Yes, and so, like, Persona, but there's more action, and also all the aesthetics are, like, 60s mod fashion, and also you can skateboard on a sword.
00:20:42
Speaker
Yes, I've been doing that. That's, like, ideal video game. And Hieronymus Bosch-looking enemies. Yeah, and real real nasty weirdos. that That are called humans.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah, man. Which is very funny. And and they kind of reek to me as being inspired by like the angels from Evangelion. Yeah. which Which is good. That's my favorite part of the game so far. So I will let you know as I continue to progress through the game ah where I'm at.
00:21:12
Speaker
It did make me sad that the... um The ah socialist cat girl, I guess dog girl, because they're dog people and not cat people in this film. um but the The pink-haired socialist ah dog girl is not romance-able. who is like She's like the bounty hunter character? Yeah, she's she's your rival.
00:21:32
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've... I've come into her orbit. I've talked to her a little bit, but I haven't done much ah with her just yet. yeah Well, I hope you like it, Matt. Because i am like if you do, and you're like, I wish this was slightly more complicated, have I got something for you?
00:21:51
Speaker
a series of... At least five games? well Well, sort of. you're You're not going to play one and two. I'll tell you that for free.
00:22:03
Speaker
Okay, fair. All right, Chris, you have a combined comfort and joy. Yes. So tell me about it. i um purchased and began playing ah from our our friend, the Nintendo Corporation,
00:22:18
Speaker
Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment, ah which is Hyrule Warriors game that is canon. It is canon to the events of Tears the Kingdom. ah So you get to go back in time and follow Zelda as ah she is stranded back in ancient days with Rauru and Minoru in them.
00:22:41
Speaker
Obviously I was going to play this game. I am a, you know, listeners to this show know I'm a i'm a Zelda head. I'm a real Zeldou. yeah Not a Zeldon.
00:22:54
Speaker
ah So obviously I was going to play this game. And I actually really liked Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity. ah A game that is that fully creates Marvel Universe time travel in a way that I wish...
00:23:07
Speaker
I could watch a two-hour YouTube video about. But alas. So this is a Musou game. So you find out that, for some reason, Zelda can like just instantly murder like a thousand guys.
00:23:21
Speaker
ah Which... you ah How come... I mean, I guess that's why she was strong enough to imprison Ganon for a hundred years. But you'd think she would not need a knight, no matter how cool his sword was, if she was the main character on Dynasty Warriors.
00:23:38
Speaker
She's out here like Lu Bu. ah There is a problem with that game, though, that I think puts it in direct opposition to both ah Age of Calamity and ah age of Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition, which is also on the Switch.
00:23:55
Speaker
ah Which is that, by its nature as a canon game, and following Zelda. There's only like three people you know. Like, Link's not in it.
00:24:08
Speaker
Like, Link is is off in the future, waiting to figure out that his girlfriend became a dragon. It doesn't have Impa, or Pura, or anybody that you would know from like the main timeline because it has to be canon.
00:24:26
Speaker
So kind of everything is filled out with like, here's a couple of random Hylions. Here's a couple of random Zora. Here's couple of random Gerudo. And I do, I do like the kind of, you know, rebel Gerudo leader who's, who's leading the faction against Ganon. Like that's, that's a cool story. and But like these two kind of rando Hillians that show up, I don't know about them. I don't care about them. Neither one of them is Link.
00:24:53
Speaker
So, this leads to the crucial flaw with a game I would say is very enjoyable and you should check out. it It would be my check if these weren't combined. The crucial flaw is that it just made me want to play Tears the Kingdom again.
00:25:08
Speaker
a game that I think was my check or rec for like three months. Ha ha ha ha. A game that I did everything in. Found every Bubble Frog, found every Well.
00:25:21
Speaker
I don't think I found every Korok Seed, but like that down that road lies Madness anyway. So I started playing Tunes of the Kingdom again, and Matt, just getting good.
00:25:36
Speaker
It is good. It is a real good game. yeah um but like I would have played Breath of the Wild again, but I have lost my Breath of the Wild cartridge, and even I am not going to spend $70 to rebuy it for Switch 2. It is a big ask.
00:25:52
Speaker
It is a big ask, especially because I do already own it. It's just somewhere. But yeah, man, remember playing Tears the Kingdom. That game's good. That game's real good. Those Zelda games, Matt, they're good.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, top notch. Some people are like, I don't want to pay $70 for Nintendo games. And it's like, well, unfortunately, they are the one company that makes Zelda and Pokemon and Mario and Metroid.
00:26:16
Speaker
So those games are usually pretty good. Yeah, I mean, Tears of the Kingdom, like, I'm not going to say, I'm not going get into the whole conversation about, like, games being worth the money or not.
00:26:30
Speaker
But Tears the Kingdom is one you could be guaranteed is worth the money you're going to pay for. Tears the Kingdom is worth $150. Yeah. you You will get you'll get the time out.
00:26:44
Speaker
And also, it's like like think about how much it would cost you to play Elden Ring. And this is so much better. Because it feels good. yeah It feels good to play.
00:26:57
Speaker
I appreciate you not taking the bait, Matt.
00:27:02
Speaker
Anyway, that's ah that's that's what's up with me. my My comfort and my joy, the Princess Zelda. Matt, what's bringing you joy this week? Well, Chris, I wanted to talk about a movie...
00:27:16
Speaker
that you can watch now on internet flickering pictures.
Comic Book Reviews
00:27:20
Speaker
Although I believe it is still available to watch in movie theaters in some places around the country. And now having seen it on internet flickering pictures, I kind of wish I had seen it in the movie theater because the number one reason to watch this movie is production design.
00:27:39
Speaker
It is a good movie, but like it's a story you know. um it is Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. which is production designed up the wazoo, my man.
00:27:55
Speaker
It is so beautiful to look at and has so much color theory going on from ah frame one and has the two wildest looking coffins I've ever seen.
00:28:10
Speaker
Okay, interesting. Just to see those wild-ass coffins that both appear within the first 20 minutes of the movie, I would suggest watching Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.
00:28:23
Speaker
um But it is also like... like The music's beautiful. The costumes are incredible. The acting is largely very good.
00:28:34
Speaker
the the The only acting that I would... I'm a little shaky on, is Jacob Elordi as the creature. His physicality is amazing.
00:28:45
Speaker
Like, the way he moves in this sort of, like...
00:28:52
Speaker
as like an adult guy learning how to move is really good. Like all the physicality is great. Once he starts talking, it's not, it kind of loses something.
00:29:03
Speaker
um I ultimately, I feel like the first half of the movie is, ah is better than the second half. um But I do think the movie like overall is like really well done and really good.
00:29:19
Speaker
And while it is, pretty well just like the Frankenstein story from the book, um, far more than like, you know, your Boris Karloff Frankenstein.
00:29:35
Speaker
Um, it does change some things about the book to make it more about sort of the father son relationship between Victor and the creature.
00:29:47
Speaker
um But i largely, i think that part of it is really well done. it also changes the like the time setting to a degree, where it's like the mid-19th century instead of the early 19th century, but ah far more good than bad. And I'm very glad that I watched it.
00:30:07
Speaker
um So if you have not watched it yet on Netflix, um I would absolutely say go check out Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Just for visuals alone, it's it's worth a watch.
00:30:21
Speaker
All right, Chris, with that, now it's time to talk about some comics. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:30:29
Speaker
This is going to be an unusual comic segment. ah Usually, we talk about three comics we read and liked. ah This one is going to be a sandwich of two comics we read that we didn't like at all, with one in the middle that we loved.
00:30:49
Speaker
um So let's talk about one of the... one of the The piece of bread in the sandwich. The first piece of bread in the sandwich. The texture choice for this week. Which is Batman 162. Uh-huh. Which is Hush 2.
00:31:03
Speaker
two Part... What part is this? Part 5? Who can say? Matt? It doesn't even say what part it is on the title page. It is Chapter 5. It is Chapter 5. Man, this sucks shit. I think...
00:31:20
Speaker
man this sucks shit i mean Look, you're not wrong. you are You are, in fact, mega correct. Okay. the The thing that made Hush appealing was a story that was easy enough to follow with some good art, right?
00:31:40
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Easy to follow, i would say, is not really the case for Hush 1, but sure. Well, it okay, it was a lot of fan service. A story that's a lot of fan service with some good art.
00:31:55
Speaker
This is a story that makes no sense at all, where everyone is completely out of character. With some pretty okay art by Jim Lee, but where every character design is baffling.
00:32:08
Speaker
What is going on with Catwoman's costume in this comic? It is, i don't even, i can't even start to understand it. you You don't You don't like that Catwoman now has, like, overboob?
00:32:27
Speaker
Like, Riddler is bad enough. rid ridler I swear Riddler looks different in this issue than he did two issues ago.
00:32:38
Speaker
Oh, he's not nearly as wide was. He's not nearly as jacked, and then you find out that he's jacked because he's wearing a metal exoskeleton that fights like Batman, yeah which is... That's just, like... That's dumb.
00:32:55
Speaker
like That's dumb in a way that I find forgivable, but it is dumb. And he wears a hood like Green Arrow. Uh-huh. But, like... Batman is wildly out of character here.
00:33:08
Speaker
like Yeah, Batman... People keep saying... like like We've talked about how Batman shoots Jason Todd in the head. Yeah. in ah In this story.
00:33:20
Speaker
And then Jason Todd tells Nightwing, hey, Batman shot me in the head. And Nightwing goes, well, that's very out of character. And Batman keeps talking about stuff, and people will be like, why are you saying that?
00:33:31
Speaker
And I feel like that's not gonna...
00:33:35
Speaker
Maybe that's going to lead somewhere. Maybe Batman in the... Surely this is only a six-part story and not a 12-part story. Well, that means the next one has to be the last issue. The next one has to be the last issue, which would also be wild.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah. but But Matt, don't forget, we had Batman had Batman 160... one sixty we have batman one sixty Then Batman number one, then Batman 161, then Batman number two, then Batman number three, and then Batman number 162.
00:34:06
Speaker
two Yes. Yes. So who knows? But surely they wouldn't have launched the new Batman if they were going to do like eight more issues of this. So, okay. So like last issue, Batman got into a fight with Batgirl.
00:34:20
Speaker
And then in this, everybody's like, hey, stop, stop fighting Batgirl. And then he like, Like, tases her, essentially. He injects her with a drug.
00:34:33
Speaker
Is that what it is? Yeah, like it's a like, I feel like like that's a hypodermic needle he's putting in her, right? But it looks like there's an electric charge coming out of it, so I don't know.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's hard to say. Whichever it is, it, like, knocks her out, and then... And Batman's like, man, I probably shouldn't have done that, because that's probably going to remind her of the events of the killing joke. Fuck off.
00:34:56
Speaker
<unk> but like For sure, yes. And he's he's like, this is going to make Dick and Barbara mad, and they may never forgive me, but I had to do it. And then he goes into a church. Catwoman like comes smashing into the church and starts fighting him.
00:35:11
Speaker
or she's First, she's like trying to talk to him, and he starts fighting. And she's like, I don't want to fight. And then she's like, okay, what why did you fight Batgirl?
00:35:24
Speaker
Which, she knows that Batgirl's Barbara Gordon, which, does she know that? Does Catwoman know that? I don't know. I mean, she knows Bruce's Batman, so she she knows the whole fam, I guess. Whatever.
00:35:36
Speaker
But Batman's reaction to that is, she started it, and Catwoman rightly says, what are you, five? Yeah, like, everyone, including Batman himself, keeps being like, man, why am I acting like this?
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. And then she goes... those people are the closest to a family you're going to have, and then Batman's like, I didn't ask for any of that. Then why did you like keep adopting boys, Bruce? Yeah, no, you definitely did ask for at least one of them.
00:36:07
Speaker
Like, you have you have continually adopted boys. Like, we can say Tim and Babs and Damien all kind of invited themselves, or sure kind of dropped off by Mom. But...
00:36:22
Speaker
but Dick and Jason were like, no, those are two boys you went and got. yeah You went and got them boys. And like and like Damien showed up, but then Bruce decided to be like, no, he's with me, not Talia.
00:36:39
Speaker
right yeah yeah I decided as I was reading this, I like i finally realized who this is for. like Like, Hush, the first Hush,
00:36:51
Speaker
was for people who had never read any Batman before. ahha and And it was a place to start, right? And and and and it it referenced older stuff, particularly the Joker killing Jason Todd, but that was easy for somebody to tell you about. Yeah, or or like the Batman stories you have either read or heard of.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And so like that's who Hush 1 was for. Hush 2 is for someone who has never read anything. Okay, that's interesting because I have a similar but slightly different take on that question.
00:37:27
Speaker
And I don't mean any comics. I mean anything. Yeah. A story. yeah I think Hush 2 is for people who don't read.
00:37:40
Speaker
Yeah. that's And I don't mean that like they're not like regular readers. I mean they are buying this book and not taking in the words that are on the page. Right. Okay, the perfect example of that. Because we haven't even talked about the best part of this book yet.
00:37:57
Speaker
We're about to. we're about Okay. So, for whatever reason, Riddler is here hanging out with the Bat family. Well, it's just they because he showed up because he remembered all of the events of Hush 1, which is hilarious because that means the events of Hush 1, specifically vis-a-vis the Riddler, are going to get retconned twice. Right.
00:38:16
Speaker
Right, because a whole thing in the events of Hush 1 was that Riddler learned who Batman was. Yep. So, wt like Batman is like getting dragged down the street by Damien to try to stop him from doing whatever he's doing.
00:38:36
Speaker
And Riddler shows up and he says, Question. What time is it to expect the unexpected? and then he says, Chris? Answer. Nygma time?
00:38:50
Speaker
What the fuck is that? Nygma time, Matt? It's the Riddler's classic catchphrase that we all know. It's so... It's such nonsense that it's hilarious.
00:39:02
Speaker
No, I laughed out loud when I saw it, because that's not a riddle? No. Nygma time doesn't sound like anything. Nygma time only sounds like Ligma time.
00:39:18
Speaker
it's It's not a reference to anything. It's nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing.
00:39:28
Speaker
What is that? I have never read something – I'm sure I've said this before, but I'm going to pretend like I haven't – I have never read something where every line is placeholder dialogue.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's what it feels like. Every – single line is, we'll go back and, that's like, but he'll say something like, ah yeah, you know, like, what time is it to expect the unexpected? Nygma time. But, you know, like, something better. Yeah.
00:39:56
Speaker
Something that makes, something that's a riddle. Something that, like, sounds like a riddle. Like, at one point, Batman is, like, talking about how Dick is, you know, like, an actually kind of insightful thing.
00:40:12
Speaker
but like I mean, it's baby school, but you know it's ah I'll give it credit. It's like, oh yeah, you know Dick has an insatiable need to care for those he loves.
00:40:22
Speaker
Which, first of all, phrasing, not great. That's not usually the context in which we use the word insatiable, and it sounds yeah really weird there. well but it's like it's just Dick really cares about people. Yeah. like but that But that is like the core of Dick's character, right? like He is the member of the Batman family who is most extroverted and most outgoing and cares and about other people.
00:40:43
Speaker
Compassionate, yes.
00:40:46
Speaker
ah But like then, like three or four pages later... Dick Grayson, Nightwing, is throwing a ah one of his Eskrimsticks at Hush, who has a gun that shoots scalpels?
00:41:04
Speaker
That's dumb and great, actually. That's so stupid, it's good. That's so stupid, I love it. Yeah. His gun that shoots scalpels that the Huntress blocks by ah twirling around her staff really fast.
00:41:19
Speaker
oh so that's That shit's great. um And Dick's like, eat this, you bastard! Which is... That's not good Dick Grayson dialogue.
00:41:32
Speaker
no ah but Two more things, and then I gotta move on from this, but... Oh, it sucks. I love it. The Riddler only speaks by introducing his sentences with question and answer.
00:41:48
Speaker
Like, he's the fucking recorder.
00:41:52
Speaker
Man, busting out the recorder. I hate the recorder. I'll never forget how much I hate the recorder. But like he's never talked like that before. The Riddler didn't even talk like that in Hush 1.
00:42:04
Speaker
Why does he talk like that? Because I think if there's one thing we can learn from Hush 1 and Hush 2, it's that Jim Lee is still exactly the same.
00:42:17
Speaker
Jim you could... ah Maybe a little worse, but yeah. No, because he's always been bad at costume design. Sure, yeah, that's true. And, like, Nightwing put his mask on on upside down.
00:42:30
Speaker
In this. If you look at his mask, his mask is wrong. It's upside down, yes. And it looks like he's wearing upside down Ultimate Warrior face paint, but thats we can get into that later.
00:42:41
Speaker
ah Jim, like you could put this next to Hush 1. It looks like it could have come out the week after. Well, four months after. um Because it would have been delayed. But Jeff Loeb, I think, was bad and is getting worse.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah. Alright, we gotta move on from that, though. We've talked about it. as we'll see this Here's the other thing that's changed since Hush 1. I'm fucking loving it. it's like It makes me smile and laugh so much. I'm not mad at it at all, because I you know used to be very mad.
00:43:12
Speaker
used to be an angry young man. But this, I'm just having a blast. It helps that there's good Batman coming out at the same time. It does. It does. It helps that there is another book called Batman that is coming out that has the Riddler in it that is better.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yes. um Okay, let's talk about the good comic real quick. That's Supergirl number seven, which might be the best single issue Thanksgiving story I've ever read.
00:43:41
Speaker
I cannot imagine there is a lot of competition for that. Yeah. Because there aren't a lot of Thanksgiving comics that spring to – there's like JLA, JSA Virtue and Vice that happens on Thanksgiving.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um but Carl Spachego drew the hell out of that, but yeah. ah That didn't have a good dog in it, and this one's got a good dog all over it. ah In brief, Kara is late for Thanksgiving dinner, which Clark and Lois have arrived at, or Superman and Lois have arrived at, um because she has been turned into a mermaid and brought under the ocean by Princess Shark, who wants to save her what's Supergirl to save her from...
00:44:23
Speaker
the hag's curse that turned her into Princess Shark. And ah it is an absolute delight. Yeah, you want to know how to start a comic book? Page one, panel one of this comic, first line of dialogue.
00:44:37
Speaker
it do Well, it's ah a tough thought bubble, but first first line of dialogue. Oh no, I tried to investigate this weird crystal and now I've been turned into a mermaid. That's how you do it.
00:44:48
Speaker
yeah That's how you do it. and that Crystal turns out to be turquoise kryptonite. Great. ah um There's a whole subplot with Lesla Larr, who is the the other Supergirl from Kandor, having a grudge against Superman because of the way he treated Supergirl when they first met, when Kara first came to Yeah.
00:45:12
Speaker
And Superman is just like the nicest, smoothest, most easygoing guy about that all of that, about her being mad at him, which I adore.
00:45:24
Speaker
yeah Like, he never he never gets mad back. He never says a crossword. He's just like, hey, I understand why you're mad at me. I made some decisions I shouldn't have a long time ago.
00:45:36
Speaker
I thought I was doing the right thing, but I wasn't. Perfect. Perfect. unbelievably good. Yeah, man. Sophie Campbell's got it. Yeah. Sophie Campbell's about as good as is people making comics come, honestly.
00:45:51
Speaker
And and though the way that the the storyline with the hag gets resolved, also great, preserves Princess Shark as a character. i love how immediately,
00:46:02
Speaker
like Clearly, i don't well i don't want to put I don't want to put motivations into Sophie Campbell's art that I don't know, but if it was me, I would have drawn Princess Shark as a joke. Be like, okay, there's King Shark and there's Princess Shark, so that's who's fighting Supergirl.
00:46:20
Speaker
And then as soon as the last like stroke of the pencil was done, I would have been like, damn though, she shouldn't be a villain. like She should stick around. That's a pretty good joke. Yeah.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. And that's exactly what this accomplished. Great. 10 out of 10. ah in a Supergirl is like one of the best comics coming out right now. All right. Quickly, one last book is 1776 number one. Uh-huh. This is by JMS...
00:46:48
Speaker
ah
00:46:50
Speaker
you buy jms And who's doing the art on this? ah That's a great question, Matt. Because there's like five people's names on the cover.
00:47:01
Speaker
It's Sean Damien Hill and Ron Lim. yeah, that's right. Old boy Ron Lim. I do think there is one really good-looking page that is definitely a Ron Lim page in here.
00:47:14
Speaker
Where ah they open up a a portal through time. And, ah you know, Spider-Man's like, Cleo goes, avert your eyes. And Spider-Man's like, ah, come on, how bad can it be? And then you turn the page and it's a big, weird Ditko cosmoscape.
00:47:33
Speaker
Yeah. With eyeballs and shit everywhere. um
00:47:39
Speaker
Now, Matt, you... What I... what You said when I said, oh let's talk about 1776, was... You couldn't pay me. Yeah. Uh-huh. Which, I think, you know, that's that's quitter talk.
00:47:59
Speaker
Because, again, this is nothing. this is nothing Like Hush 2.
00:48:11
Speaker
i I feel like maybe what I have embraced is nihilism, which might be bad. Because I'm like, none of this matters. Hush 2 doesn't matter.
00:48:21
Speaker
None of it matters. So maybe that's not good. That's leading me to enjoy comics more. oh Can I tell you the funniest thing about this comic?
00:48:33
Speaker
Please do. It takes place in 1777. Yeah.
00:48:37
Speaker
Okay, that is very funny. That's really funny. That is very funny.
00:48:48
Speaker
like That got me, because like like you can't even can't even get that out of this. um it It happens at the... ah like like It concerns the Battle of Saratoga.
00:49:05
Speaker
Which, Steve Rogers, who of course knows all of American history, because he's Captain America, sure. You know what? that's That's dumb in a fine way. I i could buy that, yeah.
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah. ah Steve Rogers like, oh man, the the Battle of Saratoga. that was ah The you know historians call that the meat grinder. ah almost 2,000 killed on both sides, hundreds wounded, nearly 7,000 missing in action, presumed dead or captured.
00:49:36
Speaker
So I went and looked up the Battle of Saratoga, Matt. There were 530 casualties. were 6,222 casualties
00:49:46
Speaker
so not two thousand there were there work six thousand two hundred and twenty two British forces captured.
00:50:00
Speaker
Okay. 695 wounded. I mean, I guess it was different in the Marvel Universe. That's the no-prized explanation. Well, i feel like they're going to go back in time and change it.
00:50:11
Speaker
Which, if going to go back in time and change it, you still fucked up pretty bad if if that, like, 500 people died. Yeah.
00:50:19
Speaker
yeah But it reminds me a lot of that Quantum Leap episode where Sam leaps into a guy during the JFK assassination, and then you find out at the end, he's like, oh, I wasn't able to to stop him from killing JFK.
00:50:32
Speaker
And ah Al goes like, oh, but in the original timeline, Jackie died too. So, like, that's that's kind of the vibe that I'm getting from this.
00:50:43
Speaker
Okay. ah But, like, because I guess Straczynski maybe was not expecting anyone to be reading this and then have access to Wikipedia, the sum of all human knowledge, and just be able to type it in and go down to where it says casualties and losses.
00:51:00
Speaker
um That's trouble. That's trouble. um Also... Two things that are crucially wrong with this book. One, Bruce Banner shows up and none of the characters are named.
00:51:13
Speaker
And no disrespect to Ron Lim. I like Ron Lim. But there's just like a guy with brown hair standing around and no one ever addresses him by name until like halfway through the book.
00:51:25
Speaker
So I'm like, is that Hank Pym? is that Is that Bruce Banner? is that Who is this? It looks like Peter Parker, except the Spider-Man is there.
00:51:36
Speaker
Yeah, he's... it It's just... Captions. Captions. Michael. J. Michael. Captions. Uh...
00:51:48
Speaker
The other thing is, Jamie Kostrasinski has written so many fucking Marvel comics and does not understand how Marvel time travel works. Because they literally say, well, wait, we know that we can't go change the past.
00:51:59
Speaker
If it's a pivotal event, history takes its shape by just putting someone else in its place. That's why we can't go back in time and kill Hitler or whatever. um That's incorrect.
00:52:10
Speaker
That's not why you can't go back and change the past in the Marvel Universe. The way that you go into the past and change the Marvel Universe... Is that it creates a split timeline. You create a new timeline, right, yeah. That's why that one time Spider-Man went back in time in a Chib Zdarsky comic, he was like, Hey everybody, Norman Osborn is a green goblin! The thing is, like the' the most the movie that the most people on Earth has seen explains that.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yes. Correct. Correct. That's how time travel works in the Marvel Universe. And yet in this comic, you've got Iron Man, guy who might be the Hulk, and Doctor Strange standing around getting it wrong.
00:52:56
Speaker
And like, I'm sorry, dog, but there's more issues of what if than there are of 1776, a book that takes place in 1777. And 1778, apparently. That's like if 1602 took place in 1595.
00:53:09
Speaker
That's fucking funny. If X-Men 92 had taken place in 2015. That's all very funny. It's so funny. All right, we've talked about these comics we don't like enough.
00:53:21
Speaker
It sucks. Now we've got to talk to – no, we don't have to talk. We want to talk to Daniel Kibblesmith. Yes, let's do it.
Guest Interview with Daniel Kibblesmith
00:53:47
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are very pleased to welcome back a longtime friend of the show. A real Garf head.
00:53:59
Speaker
I think the only guest we've ever had on the show who didn't road trip with us, but we all went on a trip together.
00:54:10
Speaker
Boy, did we ever. We all i all went to the same destination. I was telling someone... about that recently. How we all went to a Garfield convention here and like we arrived thinking it was going to be really funny and then we immediately realized that we had like invaded these people's safe space.
00:54:35
Speaker
Yeah. This is pay that this was a essentially a Facebook meetup yeah in in actuality. It's a kind of thing like if we had if we had known what we were doing It might have been just like an indie documentary.
00:54:51
Speaker
like yeah think It was not a a fun time for regular people. yeah I don't think we were... It's Daniel Kibblesmith, by the way. Hey! That's right, I have a name.
00:55:03
Speaker
Daniel Kibblesmith is here to talk about ah the new book, So You've Been Bitten by a Radioactive Spider, How to Survive the Marvel Universe, which we will talk about shortly. It's not like we were going to the Garfield gathering to be jerks.
00:55:14
Speaker
No, no. But upon getting there, we all realized without speaking, oh, we need to be on our best behavior because we are yeah we are visitors in a strange land.
00:55:26
Speaker
yeah we We have got to raid in our irony, bro. Like, this is funny because Garfield, like, because we ironically like Garfield. Although I think increasingly we just like Garfield.
00:55:38
Speaker
Yeah. ah yeah Yeah, that is kind of how it happens, right? like yeah It's earnest when you're a child, but you know that that is still in there, like a sort of a latency. And then I think you just age into the extremely sincere folks ah that we that we met there. And and the other thing that we realized, in hindsight, for people who who don't know that we all did this...
00:55:59
Speaker
is that what was kind of described loosely as a Garfield convention was a lot more like a Garfield merchandise swap meet. Yes. They didn't really seem to be into Garfield the comic script or like, you know, watching the Halloween special or, you know, stuff like that. They were more like collectors of the stuff that came out, you know, largely in the 70s and 80s based on the the ages of the people and the kind of stuff they had on display. Yeah.
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah. That said, I still have stuff that I got there. Yep, me too. so I still have i still have the the Garfield cat food bowl that I bought, and the Garfield board game that I bought. I still have the shirt.
00:56:45
Speaker
I still have the shirt, too. I definitely still have the shirt. it was in ah For reasons that I cannot recall, it was a Ebenezer Scrooge-themed. The convention was Christmas-themed. the convention was christmas- themmed Yes, the convention was Christmas-themed despite being in like, July.
00:57:02
Speaker
Also, and despite no other aspect of it being Christmas-themed other than the t-shirt. it was yeah It wasn't July, because ah that would have made sense, because it would have been like a Christmas in July thing. But this was, I distinctly remember, it was during baseball season.
00:57:18
Speaker
It would be July. i guess that would could have been July. i don't know. it has The dates are on the shirt. I forget. The dates are on the shirt. Maybe it was July. and Maybe I just ignored that fact for the sake of mystery.
00:57:30
Speaker
ah Now, that is not the kind of situation that I think has ever come up in a Marvel comic, although... I would love to see a Marvel comic about someone going to a, specifically a merchandised cartoon cat convention.
00:57:45
Speaker
I would be so thrilled to come up with like the, you know, the, the off brand analog that, you know, like when you see Kitty Pryde holding a doll and it's obviously supposed to, mean, she's probably done Garfield, honestly.
00:57:59
Speaker
But like when you see characters interacting with things that are obviously from the real world that they're just like sneaking in there like Chewbacca or whatever. I would love to come up with a fake Garfield for the Marvel, the Marvel universe.
00:58:13
Speaker
Unless Chip has already done it. Like that feels like it does feel like somewhere. It does feel like maybe I missed that issue of Daredevil. yeah i Come them through those a little closer. Or when Chip was doing Howard the Duck. That seems like the perfect time. No, i would think it would have happened in Daredevil.
00:58:28
Speaker
Probably. you You know why? Because that would be funnier. It would be funnier, yeah. That would be extremely, extremely extremely funny. Yeah. This is the kind of book, Daniel Kibblesmith.
00:58:40
Speaker
That I feel like i would have and I would have never had the idea to pitch, but I would have loved to write, and you got to do both of those things. I didn't pitch it, but I didn't write it very the the book so they So they lost my number. Okay, that's fine. Exactly. fine Oh, no, no, they specifically told me about the level of animosity they had towards you.
00:59:02
Speaker
and well You want to spite your friend Chris? That's fair. That's fair. ah Yeah, so how did it come about? Because this does seem like the kind of thing, like, this is the sort of thing that I feel like you and me and Matt and the kind of friends that we have in comics and, like, the kind of friends that we would have made, like, back in, you know, me and Matt back on the ah comics blogosphere, like, these are the kind of conversations we have had.
00:59:26
Speaker
Yes, it's ah it's a lot of like, if you were there, how would you as a normal person react to things and and kind of survive? So ah for for folks who don't know yet, the book is it's a new hardcover handbook from Chronicle Books. that They do a lot of sort of gifty, illustrated stuff.
00:59:45
Speaker
And it's illustrated by Kyle Hilton, who did a very similar project, which was the Marvel... yoga deck that came out last year. So this is very much the kind of book you, you know, we used to call them like urban outfitters books, but Chronicle has this Marvel license. They do a lot of really cool stuff with it.
01:00:02
Speaker
Uh, Jeffrey Brown, who did the Vader and son, ah you know Obviously, he's a great cartoonist ah beyond this, but he did the Vader and Son series. He's started doing books about like Kid Thor and Kid Loki or the Kid X-Men hanging out together.
01:00:17
Speaker
so they i have the same editor as the Worst Case Scenario Guide, if you guys recall those from back in the day. and He thought it would be really fun to do essentially the same thing for the Marvel Universe. Yeah.
01:00:32
Speaker
And Chronicle's whole kind of m MO is that these are gift books, even if they are gifts for yourself. So what he told me at the outset was like, this is not just a book of jokes. I did get to write a lot of jokes. I i think it's a funny book.
01:00:48
Speaker
But he said, this is also a book that needs to have like real and actionable information in it, like the worst case scenario guides. Yeah. So my assignment was to do far more research than I've ever done for a project before and probably more research than this warranted and come up with like actual good advice for if you were deposited in the Marvel universe. So like when you get to the wall crawling section, i read actual information about like beginning rock climbing and, you know, always maintain three points of contact and push off with your feet. Don't pull with your arms and like that kind of thing. So yeah,
01:01:26
Speaker
ah it's It's really fun and really funny, but I'm also pitching people really hard that, like, oh, this is, like, there's useful stuff in here, or bare minimum, interesting stuff in here. And and I also think that, like, you know, I don't think this would be a bad gift for,
01:01:45
Speaker
like ah like, a preteen who likes Marvel movies. I truly had no idea going in, but like that's what my grown-up friends have been telling me, is that their kids have started stealing it, which makes me extremely happy.
01:02:03
Speaker
and And I think for them, this is a great resource to just like learn about kind of the building blocks of the marvel universe like there's there's like actionable like real researched real life scenario stuff in here but like also like if you want to know what the deal is with galactus or captain america or being a mutant like that's all in here too and like for people who have dipped their toe into the movies
01:02:36
Speaker
But haven't ever cracked a comic open. Like, I feel like this is like the perfect thing for them t like get started. Yeah, I would definitely hope so. I mean, it's it's funny. like When I started the project, you know my editor and I had a fairly narrow scope, which was essentially just do a worst-case scenario style guide to the Marvel Universe where I get to blend comic book stuff with real advice.
01:03:03
Speaker
But as I was doing it, I remembered that one of the things that got me into Marvel Comics was a little Spider-Man Digest reprint in black and white. That included the whichever issue it was, ah where they explained like how his web shooters worked.
01:03:20
Speaker
ah Yeah. And had like diagrams, and like, oh if he taps them, he can you know make a big wide net, you know that kind of thing. Are you talking about ah but the Spider-Man Annual No. 1? I think I might be, Yep.
01:03:32
Speaker
that a A crucial comic for a lot of us. Yeah, it's that nitty-gritty participatory stuff that I didn't even realize at the time and was kind of writing a whole book of.
01:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like a lot of us, of especially of our age, have like fond memories of comics or comics-adjacent books. That weren't really comics, but that were like kind of like guides.
01:03:59
Speaker
Yeah. or or Or diagrams or like you know informational things that's like, here's how these characters work. Here's how this stuff operates. Got it.
01:04:10
Speaker
The Spiralbound X-Men Guide to the Mansion? Yep. Again, did not even occur to me as I was writing this project how obsessed I was with that when I was that age. Yeah.
01:04:22
Speaker
yeah the The one thing that I think Grant Morrison has been wrongest about in their entire career, ah aside from thinking that issue set in Internet 3.0 was going to be a good idea, yeah a bit of a slog was ah that actually kids love knowing who put the air in the Batmobile's tires.
01:04:42
Speaker
but Like children of a certain kind who are going to be here for the long haul fucking love knowing that stuff. Yeah, especially when you get to like the X-Men and Spider-Man, that density of minutiae is is actually absolutely a feature and not a bug.
01:05:03
Speaker
Daniel, was there any temptation to just, like when you're talking about what to do when you've experienced like the origins of Marvel superheroes.
01:05:14
Speaker
Did you think about just sitting down at the old ah word processor, writing the words, talk to an oncologist, and calling it a day?
01:05:24
Speaker
I think that that ah version of that joke is definitely in the book, um probably more than once. There's definitely a lot of discussion of like, like okay, kids, this is important. And you know it's not for kids, but you know i'm the I'm the sort of Wikipedia-style editorial voice.
01:05:42
Speaker
Like, okay, reader. Yeah. If you are exposed to radiation real life... Right, I caught that joke. like in In any universe other than the Marvel Universe, do not get exposed to radiation. Yeah, yeah. However, in the Marvel Universe, you are a kid in a candy store.
01:06:01
Speaker
Because there are... Not only does radiation give you superpowers, there are flavors of radiation that give you different kinds of superpowers. Yeah. So ah yeah, in real life, avoid it at all costs and, you know, ah go to a doctor immediately and keep a close eye.
01:06:20
Speaker
So Daniel, I don't know what your ah conversations with your editors were like, um but I know when when the the the the idea, the thrust, the main goal is a gift book, um you usually want to keep things pretty tight.
01:06:39
Speaker
yeah there's ah There's a page count and a word count that you want to hit. And my guess would be that this was the the word count here was shorter then the many, many ideas and thoughts you had for things to include in here. Yeah, we cut stuff for sure. yeah I would love to do a second one.
01:07:06
Speaker
I would love to do a follow-up if this if this should do well. But yeah, i I want to say that this was supposed to be like 20,000 words or something like that, and I definitely you know blazed past that at no additional or requested compensation.
01:07:23
Speaker
ha! I was just like, you know, let's let's get a little more in here. ah Labor of love style. But yeah, I believe that I believe that the book and ah because I am a professional, I do not have a copy of my own book in front of me.
01:07:39
Speaker
But I believe that the final chapter, the outro has a little joke about something that I forgot to address. and And therefore, we we need to do a sequel. And there was a lot. There was a lot of that kind of stuff.
01:07:52
Speaker
Yeah, there's a bit at the very end about needing... Looks like we'll have to do a sequel. ah but My question about that is, like what is the most like odd, obscure bit of Marvel minutiae that you really wanted to put in here, but weren't able to?
01:08:14
Speaker
That I wanted to put in and i wasn't... That either got cut or that you just were like, that's this is this is not... Because like all the big stuff is in here. like Yeah. Well, a lot of it speaks to like what Marvel... you know When was I reading Marvel Comics? like What decades of Marvel was I super tuned into? So if the book is very informed by light the Silver Age, the 90s, and then like the 2010s when I had an office job.
01:08:45
Speaker
And I can go to... Challengers comics on Western every week and you know buy like you know Siege or whatever was happening at that time. so that's I think that if you read it, you know you can kind of see like where when was I really tuned in.
01:09:01
Speaker
um Something that I wasn't able to include... This is sort of not totally the answer to your question, but but something that I had trouble kind of like cracking and explaining is that ah technically this is a book derived from the Marvel Comics license.
01:09:20
Speaker
So we're not doing anything that originates in the movies. If we talk about anything that happens in the movies, it's because it happened in the comics first. So like something that they wanted, but that I was not able to provide and was more multiverse stuff pertaining to Dr. Strange because Dr. Strange is a multiverse guy as far as MCU fans know.
01:09:46
Speaker
ah But in the Marvel comics, it's like a little more complicated than that. And same thing with like the the Quantum Realm, is that that's like an Ant-Man place, as far as the movie fans know.
01:10:02
Speaker
But that was not really a thing in Ant-Man comics. ah before the movie started doing it. So it was less like stuff that I wanted to include and more just like expectations. I was having trouble meeting because, you know, they hired me. And I think, you know, when you hire a ah giant nerd, like any one of the three of us, I'm going to come back with a lot of like, well, actually it doesn't quite work that way.
01:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. I, I just, you know, if, if I would be, i would be aching to have like a little piece in here that was like so you've accidentally joined the enforcers oh yeah like oh i would on purpose join the enforcers matt you know that i love those dudes man or or like you know the the wrecking crew has arrived yeah no i god i do love both of those guys so much yeah no i didn't i didn't quite
01:11:03
Speaker
get there. i You know what I wish there was more Howard the Duck in it, honestly. There's a little bit of Howard the Duck stuff in it. But, ah yeah, that's i mean that's definitely like the grittiest corner ah that I personally am obsessed with, that like the average person could not care less.
01:11:19
Speaker
But because this is designed to be you know an introduction, so you know maybe maybe I'd be bringing Howard to the people. With 20 seconds of screen time, we could make everybody care about the Enforcers.
01:11:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's it's it's true. And, you know, even you know given the the trajectory of the MCU, that 20 seconds of screen time, it would still be like George Clooney as Fancy Dan. yeah Like, somehow. like Really, all we have to do is tell people, this guy's name is Fancy Dan. Everybody's going to be like, what's going on with what's going on with Montana?
01:11:51
Speaker
When does Montana origins come out? Yeah.
01:11:57
Speaker
um But yeah, that's that's a great question. I think it was just like the the breadth of it was, you know, i'm i'm kind of I'm kind of hitting all the big stuff. So I never really felt like wanting for anything. it was more just like, oh, I wish I could make this work.
01:12:13
Speaker
the way that ah people who are using the movies as their entry point are expecting. But in fact, in the Marvel Universe, like some of this stuff is actually a lot more complicated and and you know ah evolved over many, many creators over many, many years.
01:12:31
Speaker
So if it's an introduction to the Marvel Universe being a lot messier than people expect, I think that'd be really fun and satisfying too. I would love that. Because as you know, like i am...
01:12:44
Speaker
I don't... I have said this before. I am not a gatekeeper. I want everyone to love and and experience the joys of of comic books and the Marvel Universe in the way that I love them.
01:13:00
Speaker
But also, if you can't hang with just reading one random issue of Executioner's Song... ah when you're and not having any context for it, I don't think you're going to last.
01:13:13
Speaker
I just don't think it's for you. Because shit's going to get weird. Yeah, I fully agree. it's ah You can kind of only get thrown in the deep end, I think. if you're if you're It's something that you guys say about wrestling as well, that you don't catch up on wrestling.
01:13:31
Speaker
I feel the same way about reading the monthly Marvel comic books that come out on the shelf. like That being said, this can give you a lot of background about who these characters are and you know sort of the roles that they've had in that universe.
01:13:47
Speaker
more broadly over time as as archetypes. But then ultimately you do so still need to buy the comic book that is on the shelf that month. And what you're getting you know might be ah Legacy of Vader number 10, the comic that my daughter picked up at the comic book store yesterday.
01:14:09
Speaker
a child who has not seen Star Wars and is buying part 10 of a story about Kylo Ren. Ha ha! that's the That's the best way. Because it had skeletons on the front, and she was just captivated. like That, to me, yeah that's how I got into comics. I think that's how most people got into comics, because generationally, you had a lot less sort of on-demand curation. You kind of just went to the grocery store, and they had the ones that they had.
01:14:35
Speaker
So, yeah, I think that she had a really authentic experience. Yeah, i mean and and if if her experience is anything... is going to be anything like ours.
Discussion on Comic Culture and Complexity
01:14:46
Speaker
It's going to be reading that one issue over and over and over again until you make yourself understand it. Yes.
01:14:57
Speaker
Like, that's it. Because that's the, that's the comic you got, right? Like, like that's the one you picked up and like, you don't know when you're going to buy another one.
01:15:09
Speaker
So you've got to make this one good. and like you know There's a lot more access now to to all of those older comics where like I feel like people feel more of a need to catch up because they do have the access to all that stuff.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, but it can it can trick you into thinking that you need to treat it like serialized television, which you don't. I yeah will say, i do i don't think your daughter in particular is going to have a hard time finding ah second comic book.
01:15:48
Speaker
um Or, like, information on historical plagues, or... or anything like that, you'd given the household. Yeah, yeah. there's There's some some active beats around here.
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, but but yeah, like, I feel like that is... i have some sympathy for the people who are like...
01:16:14
Speaker
you know I saw ah Into the Spider-Verse, and I really liked Miles Morales, and I tried to find out more about him, but like even just trying to you know even just trying to figure out where to start with Ultimate Spider-Man, there's like five different series and whatever.
01:16:27
Speaker
And I just want to be like, yeah, but you already know. You already know what his deal is. You got it. He's like Spider-Man. Yeah. Right, right. Like, know, you've seen those movies, you've got it.
01:16:38
Speaker
Right, and you're smart, and these are like ostensibly like for children, you know? So you can probably hit the ground running. Yeah, you you already saw the movie where he got bitten by a radioactive spider and was Spider-Man because Peter Parker was dead.
01:16:52
Speaker
You got it. thats Just go find something with him in it and read it. Yeah, it's it's it's so it's so fascinating because like the industry thinks so much about jumping on points and And it really just is this ah kind of flawed and I think ultimately like sort of false idea. i think that books like mine come out all the time. Like we have this really beautiful, illustrated like women of Marvel book.
01:17:21
Speaker
And my kid and i read the the biographies of all these female superheroes. um And, you know, because it's a very male-dominated and universe, you can kind of always find them reaching the limits of it, where it's like, Pepper Potts is a hero in her own way because she supports Iron Man. and ah I see them straining against it a little bit, but ah they're the same thing. It's in an encyclopedia of character bios, essentially. And you know mine has a lot of like process in it and references to specific stories. And like all of this stuff is context that you can arm yourself with.
01:18:06
Speaker
And then ultimately, because it's just a really crazy thing, this giant, you know, 100-year-old ongoing story, there's like enough of a barrier to entry that once you crack it, it's really satisfying and you end up being a lifer.
01:18:21
Speaker
See, that's the thing that I really like as well, because that's the way to see a character that you become obsessed with, and to you they are the most important character.
01:18:32
Speaker
And then you find out, like, yeah, there's like six appearances. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Two of which are them getting murdered. Well, yeah. I mean, again, in the Women of Marvel book, um they're not all treated super well.
01:18:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like, oh, man, I can't wait to see what Thundra is up to this month. It's like... but it's like Man, i read that I read one issue with Karen Page. I wonder what happened to her.
01:18:59
Speaker
o it's ah but it's It's really interesting because yeah when you're coming at it sideways, you kind of know about who you know about. um My dad got me into Marvel Comics. And because he had just like a disproportionate focus on certain characters, the the superheroes that my grandmother was aware of were Superman, Batman, and The Watcher.
01:19:22
Speaker
And it was just inscrutable. it was just like, how did this happen? like, I guess dad mentioned the Watcher at some point. And she said, yeah, that sounds like the name of a superhero, right? He's like ah a Watchman, one presumes.
01:19:36
Speaker
And those were the guys she knew about. it's It's hard to have nostalgia for things that you know were bad. So I don't have like nostalgia for the direct market in 1991.
01:19:50
Speaker
ah But I do have nostalgia for my personal experience coming to love exactly the kind of comics that I like. Which, ah I do think there are people now who are getting as weirdly obsessed with minor characters as as we did. So I'm glad that that is a tradition that remains constant through the generations.
01:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean, like i'm you know I'm a sleepwalker guy. You're a sleepwalker guy. Yeah, absolutely. You ain't kidding. No, I'm also glad that you clarified that statement because hearing Chris Sims say that it's difficult to get nostalgia for things he knows are bad.
01:20:28
Speaker
like I listen to the show. i know where Maximum Carnage is ranked. Alright. Look, I think when I'm not actively reading Maximum Carnage, I actually think it's pretty good.
01:20:41
Speaker
Yes, yes. And then I read it. this is viddy rey And then I remember that it's bad. A phenomenon I'm well acquainted with that I live i live constantly.
01:20:52
Speaker
So, what of all the things that you included in this book... What would you say is the most likely thing to happen in our world?
01:21:05
Speaker
That's a great question. ah The one that I keep coming back to is that I, in my research for this book, I learned that cosmic rays are not rays.
01:21:19
Speaker
And that felt like a betrayal on the part of Mr. Zlee and Kirby, that cosmic rays are not rays. They are ah radioactive nuclei that have been stripped of their electrons.
01:21:31
Speaker
And that the Earth is bombarded with them constantly. ah But it is they're harmlessly absorbed by our atmosphere. So that was the one where I was like, okay, so four astronauts went up above the atmosphere with inadequate, inadequate shielding and got bombarded by these radioactive isotopes and altered their DNA.
01:21:56
Speaker
That sounds fundamentally plausible to me. You know, like I'm having trouble in that way that like the ocean is big. So I kind of believe in sea monsters because the ocean is so damn big.
01:22:07
Speaker
I have trouble looking at the parts of the Fantastic Four being like, well, so could, like... Could we try it? You know? Like, which... what would you know what would What would happen we weren't up there?
01:22:19
Speaker
Daniel, you wrote in your own book not to expose yourself to radiation. I know, but it's so it's so tempting. If we could just get rid of the atmosphere for an hour and a half and all get Fantastic Four powers. I do not think that is what would happen. No, I don't think you're i don't think we'd make it quite that long. Yeah, bud.
01:22:40
Speaker
But yeah, that's that's the one where that's the one i kind of I'm kind of like, i know that it alters your DNA in a bad way, but is there a one in a million shots where ah yeah where you come out of it with the with the human torch powers?
01:22:58
Speaker
This is high evolutionary talk, is what this is. Yeah, I'm in too deep, I think is we're realizing. I'm starting to want to play God. Yeah.
Humorous Speculations and Scenarios
01:23:08
Speaker
Now, if there was some kind of counter-earth that we could experiment with... What if I gave this to ah gave this to my Dalmatian and turned him into a guy?
01:23:20
Speaker
I also don't think we're too far removed from the likelihood or possibility of Doombots. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. Like, we've ah we've already got those weirdo...
01:23:37
Speaker
ah robot butlers that can't load a dishwasher. like we're We're on our way. Like the ones that fall down all the time? yeah those Yeah, those ones. Honestly, if those are our world's equivalent of Doombots, we don't need Fantastic Four powers. We've got this one. yeah Take care of that with like a piece of rope or something. Yeah.
01:23:56
Speaker
Just shove them. Yeah, Doombots is a good one. And then ah there's also a chapter in the book. yeah we didn't We didn't want it to be a bummer, so you know we we play it for laughs. But there's a chapter in the book about ah fearing that your workplace is a front for Hydra.
01:24:12
Speaker
Interesting. like you know You know what's weird in the real world is you would not have to fear that it was a front. right They would just tell you. Yeah, you'd be you'd get fired for ah you know writing an article for the major newspaper that you work for. yeah exactly. You would learn that they had joined a certain organization.
01:24:32
Speaker
There are things that I have read recently where I've been like, i work so hard writing. To try and make things make sense. To not just have people go, i love crime.
01:24:47
Speaker
yeah Yeah, we're recording this at a very particular time, and I don't want to timestamp it, but we are learning that a lot of criminals just are emailing each other about their crimes. and and treating And treating emails like text messages. that's the that That is unbelievable to me, the amount of just like brief replies within a few minutes that people that these people are emailing each other. real I don't know if that's generational or what, but that is yeah so funny. Yeah.
01:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's not. It's horrifying. But it's also like, you know, they're dopey enough that it's funny. It's like looking into a whole different world. Yep. Yep. yeah So don't work for Hydra, folks.
01:25:31
Speaker
Don't work for Hydra. you can avoid it, don't work for Hydra. Excellent advice. Even though it is canonical that they do offer a very good insurance and dental plan. Yeah. That's canon.
01:25:43
Speaker
Yeah, because you're going to die and they'll replace you with two guys. Yeah, exactly. ah But I think we have asked enough questions.
Listener Engagement and Interaction
01:25:50
Speaker
Matt, it is time to open up the floor to questions from our listeners.
01:25:54
Speaker
If the people want to get in on these conversations that we have every now and then on the show with folks like Daniel Kibblesmith, the writer of ah So You've Been Bitten by a Radioactive Spider, How to Survive in the Marvel Universe, how exactly can they go about that?
01:26:07
Speaker
Well, Chris, there are two places that you can send us questions. They're Blue Sky. They're at warrocketajax.com. Or you can join our Discord and head over to the listener questions channel there.
01:26:23
Speaker
um Ask us for an invitation to our Discord. We'll get you on there. Daniel is a member of our Discord, so you can join him there and ask questions there as well.
01:26:35
Speaker
um So those are the two places to ask questions. On Thursday night, usually at around 9.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Our first question for Daniel from our Discord comes from David L., who asks, Matt and Daniel, it may have already come up organically, but if not, please compare notes on how you acquired your Garfield Beanie Babies.
01:26:58
Speaker
Now, let bit let me explain what happened here.
01:27:04
Speaker
On the show, when we had Erica Henderson on the show a couple weeks ago, someone asked the question of, what is the least haunted doll? And Daniel, you shared a photo of a Garfield Beanie Baby that I believe you just like image searched. Yeah, i don't right I don't own. Correct. I just okay found found a doll that I considered to be the opposite of haunted.
01:27:31
Speaker
Yes, um it is specifically a Garfield Beanie Baby wearing sunglasses. Like a chill dude. I replied, I own that Beanie Baby, and posted a photo of myself holding that exact Beanie Baby.
01:27:45
Speaker
And I lost my mind. I was so excited. Now, you might think that I acquired that Beanie Baby at the Garfield Gathering Collectors Convention, but I did not.
01:27:58
Speaker
I got that Garfield beady baby when ah my friends Alan and Sam were moving away from town to another city. And Alan just had a box full of Garfield stuff that he was like, you want this, don't you, Matt?
01:28:15
Speaker
And was like, of course I do. Unreal. He had a box full of Garfield stuff. This is like ah this is like how how Garfield has his own Mario Kart game.
01:28:26
Speaker
like You stumbled into Garfield's quasi-proprietary ripoff of Toy Story. He's like, what if a box all the Garfields needed a new home? Yep, buddy, every time that Garfield cart goes on sale, I link Matt to it.
01:28:41
Speaker
Oh, man. i And I'm like, we could do it. I am completely certain that that game is malware, and I will not play it. ah This is a tangent, but what you know what else would we do on this show? Are are you guys aware of the Garfield-branded ripoff of Pokemon Go?
01:29:02
Speaker
yes Yes, I've heard of it's i think it's called Garfield Go, right? I think it's called Garfield Go. yeah i had it There's only like six characters in Garfield and that includes the jar of dog semen.
01:29:15
Speaker
it's Well, it's a mug, you know, because it's a much easier mistake to make if it's a mug. Why did Liz put it in a mug? Why is it a mug? Unclear.
01:29:26
Speaker
Very unclear. Let me make sure that it's called Garfield Go, but I'm pretty sure that it's called Garfield Go. I'd be very surprised if it was still available. But yeah, it just the Garfield machine, ah you know as as described ah by other friend of the show, Chip Zdarsky, is so complete that I think that like when a new video game paradigm comes out, they are just prepared to sort of like, let's see if we can throw the cat at this and maybe it'll stick.
01:29:57
Speaker
um I think you're right. i do I do not believe that Garfield Go is still available. it it It was made in 2017,
Humor in Comics and Cultural Commentary
01:30:04
Speaker
but there are multiple articles about people playing it.
01:30:08
Speaker
and There's still internet detritus of it, but there's the the game does not seem to be available for any longer. Probably for the best. Yeah. um All right. Here's our next question. This is from Chris Still Spooky on our Discord.
01:30:24
Speaker
Could Peter Parker write write for Colbert?
01:30:28
Speaker
ah ah No, it is an incredibly strict schedule. Yeah. yeah i mean, off the top of my head. The time constraints alone would make it impossible for him to do that. Yeah, I mean, ah don't get me wrong, it was a... it was a It was like a very, the hours were very human. You know, it wasn't like ah like a stay there all night television writing job by any means.
01:30:50
Speaker
But you you did have to be in every morning meeting. ah So no, Peter Parker could not write for the Colbert show. But he's funny. I think Spider-Man would have better odds because Spider-Man's one who makes jokes.
01:31:02
Speaker
See, that's what I was going to ask Do you think Peter Parker is funny? I don't think Peter Parker's funny. Because we know that he like runs his mouth. But is he actually funny? Or is this, much like we were discussing earlier in the show, is this like how he made a homophobic joke about Bonesaw McGraw?
01:31:21
Speaker
And now our only way to oh to salvage that is to assume it was an honest question. yeah Yeah, that's a group retcon project like like we all have to do sometimes.
01:31:35
Speaker
um i peter want to see I want to see Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man's Notes app, Apology. Oh, man. ah Yes. a screen Screenshot, right? The screenshot apology. Peter Parker, I've seen, like, he makes jokes to, like, cover for, like, he makes jokes that don't work.
01:31:56
Speaker
Like, he makes jokes to clear the air when he's late for a date or something. um I don't think people in the universe usually react to Peter like he's funny. That's my sort of vague meta memory of whether or not Peter Parker is funny.
01:32:11
Speaker
Spider-Man seems to be like funny in that sort of strategic annoying way that he has mastered.
01:32:19
Speaker
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene on our Discord wants to know, do you think that America in the DC Universe made a Crisis Remembrance Day back when a bunch of heroes died, or a Superman Day when he died, and then had to cancel them when everyone came back?
01:32:34
Speaker
Oh, man. um Okay, my gut reaction to this is that they definitely did that, but because those were like days off of school, that um they just kept them. like People would have been too mad if they tried to... They probably changed it to like Superman Celebration Day! Right, instead of Superman Remembrance Day, it just became...
01:32:52
Speaker
Like the day where we all thank Superman for everything he does for us. Completely. Completely. I mean, that to me it feels like we could easily pitch that in canon, and it would be like a great, you know, that would be like a great one-line joke in like a Fraction and Lieber Jimmy Olsen issue or something. Stone Cold ACC, an account that exists only to ask questions on War Rocket Ajax. Oh, hell yeah. Here we go.
01:33:15
Speaker
Is Poppycock a cuss word? Lord.
01:33:19
Speaker
No, no, Stone Cold. It's fine. You're not going to get in trouble. i Our buddy Ben on Blue Sky, Franz Ferdinand 2, wants to know, for everyone, which big two comics character has the biggest gulf between their best costume and their worst costume?
01:33:39
Speaker
o I mean, there's a lot of bad Batman costumes and a lot of bad Spider-Man costumes. i My first thought is Dick Grayson.
01:33:52
Speaker
the The disco suit? that's The disco Nightwing suit is terrible. but like That's a controversial opinion these days, Matt. Yeah, I don't like it. the Some of that, I think, is nostalgia and sort of revisionist history, I think, a little bit. like I think we can say that's objectively kind of crummy.
01:34:10
Speaker
But like the regular Nightwing costume is very good. um So that's just the first first thought, Dick Grayson. um I think the costume that he had after the disco suit, but before the ah like black and blue suit is pretty rough, actually. I think it's worse than the disco suit.
01:34:40
Speaker
and Fair. My hot take on this is that I like the red one. I think Nightwing in red is automatically kind of compelling, like sort of pops. That was like... Something's happening. His new 52 suit. The new 52 outfit.
01:34:55
Speaker
That is unfortunately objectively incorrect. Oh, I know. I know. But it worked on me. Okay, good. Good. Oh, you know what? i was I was not talking about the disco suit with the big collar. I was talking about the one you were talking about, Chris. Oh, yeah. That one's bad. Oh, I absolutely was talking about the one with the big collar. I think it looks dumb.
01:35:13
Speaker
I can't be can it can get excited about that thing. ah Daniel, do you have a ah a thought for a hero that has a really, really great costume and a really, really bad costume? Yeah, I went with first thought, first thought best thought, which is Shadowcat.
01:35:30
Speaker
um But her worst costume is like any time in the early 2000s where they tried to make her like a sexy ninja. And her o yeah her like okay kind like holes in her thighs, you know, like like ah sexy leg holes.
01:35:42
Speaker
And her best costume is the one that she made herself when she was a little kid. With the roller skates? Yeah, she had roller skates and the stripy socks. there's ah There's a huge gulf between those.
01:35:53
Speaker
You got a lot of takes. I sure man. They let me sit down and write a whole book about what I thought about the Marvel Universe. Listen, I appreciate that about you.
01:36:06
Speaker
Yeah, i' i' i asked ah I asked another friend, like, we were talking about video games, so I don't really play video games, and I asked him, like, where does my time go? And he he looked me dead in the eyes, and he said, you post.
01:36:19
Speaker
And i I just, it broke me. i was like, oh my god, you're right. I just put opinions online. Like, seeds of my own destruction. i mean, that's a that is a good friend who will tell you that. yeah he's a smart guy. yeah Because you shouldn't.
01:36:36
Speaker
Not you, specifically. None of us should. No, no. it's ah yeah It's like using leeches. We should be done. Yeah, exactly. You got it. I will also give ah maybe second place to Carol Danvers, who has probably had as many superhero costumes as anyone.
01:36:57
Speaker
I think all but one of hers are good, though. The original Ms. Marvel costume, where it's like a bikini bottom, and I mean, the top part is fine, but the bottom just being like a bikini bottom is not good. The open tummy?
01:37:13
Speaker
Yeah. I actually, I mean, it's weird that I call it a tummy, now that I've said that out loud. I've been talking about my dog to the veterinarian too much. ah I actually like that suit a lot. Like, it's not, it's not,
01:37:27
Speaker
my favorite, but i I think it's a good suit. The one of hers that I think is bad is her like mid 2000s militarized warbird costume where she's wearing like a flak jacket and. Oh yeah.
01:37:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is famously a pro jacket on superhero podcasts. Yeah, but this is just like a vest of like a bulletproof vest. And it's like, she is bulletproof. Isn't she?
01:37:50
Speaker
ah Yeah. Or, you know, like has like a energy fields type thing. yeah Why is, why is she in tactical gear? No, that's that's silly. you know That's like when you put Daredevil in the armor, of something that I reacted very strongly to as ah as a tween.
01:38:04
Speaker
Scott McDaniel. Yeah, and again, the nostalgia you know the nostalgia comes for us all, and now I'm like, oh, armor looks kind of cool, actually. i don't think it's that bad. No, I've warmed up i've formed up. Not the Disco Collar, apparently, but on the Daredevil armor, I've warmed up a bit.
01:38:20
Speaker
I actually, well... I was going to say like the the superhero armor trend of the mid-90s, I've kind of... I hated it for a while, and I was going to say I don't hate it as much now, but like I remembered what that Captain America armor looked like, and boy, it sucked.
01:38:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's the one that you really get you cannot follow him there. He looks like ah like a car. he likes to Wait, wait, the Grootie's armor? The Grootie's armor is bad. It's pretty bad. yeah It's bad. It's that's its rough.
01:38:53
Speaker
Cap at least is like wearing armor by default. like Yeah, he's got mail on if you look if you look close. If somebody bothers to draw it. Yeah.
01:39:05
Speaker
um All right. Dr. Cassino on our Discord wants to know – what's another take from you, Daniel? Are Bluey and her family dogs or are they people portrayed as dogs like Uncle Scrooge and Usagi Yojimbo? Oh, my God. Is this something that – because I was talking about this on Blue Sky today, so I don't know if this is – Something I brought upon myself or a total coincidence. either seems possible the I've lived my foolish life.
01:39:28
Speaker
um All that posting. Yeah, they're they're people. They're sand and there're sand-ins for people. because they like This is what I was talking about on on the social media, was that they meet other animals.
01:39:40
Speaker
ah there are times when they are talking about cats as though they are not like, you know, elves and dwarves, like these sort of warring species. They talk about cats the way we talk about cats. So it's a very Disney animal universe kind of thing then, where it's like, Scrooge McDuck is a guy.
01:40:02
Speaker
i have a... Look, I was not asked this question. I have a real problem with the idea that Scrooge McDuck is not a duck and Usagi Ujimbo is not a rabbit, but but we can talk about that. No, no, no. but i think that I think what we're getting into is a sort of like ah like a very elastic thing. Because when i I... I should also mention, I am the writer of the current Darkwing Duck comics.
01:40:22
Speaker
That's true. and one of the great honors and privileges of that is that I get to talk to Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, who's drawing a lot of our covers. And i gave ah an interview or a press release or something where refer to Gosling as like four feet of you know spirit or four feet of energy or or something like that.
01:40:41
Speaker
And he emailed me and said, hey, i love I love what you wrote. You really get the characters. You got everything right. ah Except Gosling is not four feet tall because Tad started as like an old school Disney animator working on stuff like Aladdin, you know, he's in it for real.
01:40:57
Speaker
And he says that he has fond memories of watching Donald Duck standing on Walt's desk when they used to do the animation live action hybrid bumpers and stuff.
01:41:08
Speaker
So apparently in the mind of Tad Stone's creator of Darkwing Duck. They are not like big, like they're not people sized. They are duck sized, but they are living in a city that is also proportionately duck sized.
01:41:23
Speaker
And that that blew my mind.
01:41:28
Speaker
i you know But you can go meet him at Disney World. I know! Scrooge McDuck will be six feet tall. I know, that's why I use the word elastic. This is like a hyper-time kind of thing. you know You just have to go with it.
01:41:42
Speaker
Even in animation, Goofy is huge. yeah Yeah, Goofy appears to be seven feet tall, but ah apparently their whole planet is just a little smaller.
01:41:54
Speaker
Okay, but Mickey is not mouse-sized. Mickey's definitely not mouse-sized. No, he's not mouse-sized compared to another dog. It's so weird. It's so weird. But when you talk to somebody who has this kind of like elder authority on the matter, and they tell you Darkwing Duck is small enough to stand on a desk, I just have to say, okay, I guess he yeah he flies on ah an airplane in the size of a wheelbarrow. Okay.
01:42:23
Speaker
All right, last question. This is from Reed Strong Strong Reads, who has this question for all three of us. If there was a Garfield dressed as you, what accessories or cute little outfit would it have?
01:42:35
Speaker
Oh, I like that a lot.
01:42:39
Speaker
um I think that ah my Garfield would come with prescription sunglasses that get lost immediately. ah That's pretty good. That's very good, actually. Yeah. Chris, what accessories would your Garfield have?
01:42:53
Speaker
He would have a a smaller Garfield doll dressed as Goku. That he carries around? That he carries around. That's pretty good. You'd be holding a little or a little Garfield in an orange gi with spiky black anime hair. It's got a little bit of a you know don't speak to me or my son ever again kind of yes get energy.
01:43:17
Speaker
and and And a cup of coffee. Okay, yeah, I can see that. My Garfield would have a beard.
01:43:27
Speaker
he Like, on top of his fur, there would be a beard. Sure. And also, he would wear a flannel shirt. I love it. I think I saw on the Discord somebody dropped, ah i'm I'm sorry, that I can't credit the person, dropped ah Orange Cat City. That's pretty good. Pretty good.
01:43:46
Speaker
Pretty good. um There's a lot of questions we didn't get to, ah so I apologize to everybody who we
Closing and Contact Information
01:43:53
Speaker
didn't get your questions. Guys, I'll be back. I'll be back. yeah Yeah. you can Wow. That's a bold assumption.
01:44:01
Speaker
will. You will. ah our guest has been our Our guest has been Daniel Kablesmith. Daniel, um please tell all our listeners where they can follow you and find you, um how they can get...
01:44:12
Speaker
ah So you've been bitten by a radioactive spider, How to Survive the Marvel Universe, and all your other work. You mentioned Darkwing Duck. um You've got some other comics that that are coming out. I do. um so So ah let them know i do where to find them.
01:44:26
Speaker
The easiest place to see what I'm up to is just my own website, kibblesmith.com, which I update. And ah those updates are also available as an email newsletter. that you can sign up for at kibblesmith.com. I'm also on bluesky at kibblesmith.com and on Instagram at daniel.kibblesmith.
01:44:48
Speaker
ah But posting is bad and I'm trying to do it less. Darkwing Duck is on sale just kind of whenever it comes out. I probably shouldn't say that. And ah I'm also writing the Rick and Morty comics right now. Our next series is called Rick and Morty The End.
01:45:06
Speaker
ah And that is an accurate title. These will be the last Rick and Morty comics that I am aware of ah coming out from Oni Press. So, ah you know, it's... it's ah It's a property that has had a lot of really public ups and downs.
01:45:26
Speaker
And um I'm a huge fan of it. I certainly was, you know, out of the gates. And I'm using this to explore sort of its role in the culture and and my feelings about it and trying to do some really interesting stuff.
01:45:39
Speaker
So if you don't read IP comics, but you like other stuff that I have made, ah definitely check out Darkwing Duck and Rick and Morty. And How to Survive the Marvel Universe is just going to be in...
01:45:50
Speaker
any bookstore you like. Go to your local bookstore, ask them to order you a copy.
01:45:57
Speaker
Our guest has been Daniel Kibblesmith. Daniel, thank you so much for joining us on the show. It is always fun. You will be back. I love you guys. I love the show. It is a joy to be back. Thank you.
01:46:08
Speaker
Aw, buddy.
01:46:11
Speaker
Thanks once again to Daniel Kibblesmith for joining us. It is always a joy to talk to him, a very long-time friend of the show. That's right. We talked about So You've Been Bitten by a Radioactive Spider as like a book for beginners, but it is also just like a fun read.
01:46:27
Speaker
Yeah. like I really got a lot of enjoyment out of reading it. so um Whether you're buying it as a gift for somebody you know or just for yourself, I think it is it is very fun.
01:46:40
Speaker
Yeah. I think we've all gotten the... ah the You like superheroes, right? Present ah yeah from a well-meaning friend or relative. And ah I gotta say, this is it is worlds ahead of most of those.
01:46:56
Speaker
That is true. If you would like to get in touch with us... ah You can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcasts at gmail.com. That's where you can let us know if you want to sponsor the show or send an Every Story Ever list or a sword for us to rate or anything else you want to get in touch with us about.
01:47:15
Speaker
You can also send us questions on Tumblr. We're there at warrocketpodcasts.tumblr.com. We're on Blue Sky, as I mentioned earlier, at warrocketajax.com.
01:47:27
Speaker
You can join our Discord and be a member there. Like I also mentioned earlier, you have to be invited to be a member of our Discord, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will get you one and you can join over there.
01:47:40
Speaker
And Patreon. We'll mention it again. Patreon.com slash WarRocketAjax to help us out. And you can also message us there. Get in touch with us on Patreon.
01:47:54
Speaker
WarRocketWiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could want or need about this show, WarRocketAjax. WarRocketAjax.com is our website. It has every episode of the show that we've ever done.
01:48:04
Speaker
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 can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. That is my website.
01:48:18
Speaker
It has links to stuff that you can read. It's got stuff you can read right on there on that website. Remember websites? Remember when the internet was good? They're back. They're back, baby.
01:48:31
Speaker
Google Reader never died.
01:48:35
Speaker
i think we might raid some swords next week. Hell yeah. Let's do it. And then we will take Thanksgiving off, and then we'll be back in December.
01:48:49
Speaker
that is That is the schedule as I know it right now.
01:48:54
Speaker
So come back next week for some sword raiding. We will be here. We hope you're here. Until then, folks, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights.
01:49:05
Speaker
Drag is not a crime. And cops aren't your friends. Free Palestine. we love We love you. We love you. Yeah.