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Episode 718 - Jurgies Into Mystery #15: The Reigning
1k Plays6 days ago
It's the beginning of the end of the Dan Jurgens run on Thor as we cover the story that's actually called "The Reigning"!
Covering Thor (1998) #69-74.
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Introduction to Zencaster 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.
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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
Righteous, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:38
Speaker
got War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator XC, go, go!
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. We are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt
Comic Book Visual Effects Discussion
00:01:04
Speaker
Wilson.
00:01:04
Speaker
Matt, if I could have any visual effect from comics appear in my actual human life... I would want it to be that that thing from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure where vibrating ah kanji that means the word menacing just appears around me whenever I'm feeling like a like like real tough customer.
00:01:31
Speaker
I do like that a lot. It's very good. I think that's great. Yeah. I know exactly what my visual effect from comics would be. It's in a lot of Spider-Man comics, but it's also in a lot of comics where people are fast.
00:01:44
Speaker
its we're It's just a ah depiction of people somebody being fast. Okay. Where there are multiple drawings of them in a single panel to imply that they've been to all these different places within a split second.
00:02:00
Speaker
Right. Right. I love that. That's one of my favorite things in the language of comics. I would love to be able to do that. I like that we both picked things that are not applicable to our lives at all. no No. No.
00:02:19
Speaker
I mean, I would like to be able to accomplish things quickly. but Yeah, but you are not super fast. No. Not by any stretch. I mean, are you...
00:02:30
Speaker
Regular fast? I would say average speed. Yeah, like I didn't want to be mean, but I didn't... Yeah, that's i mean that's kind of what I thought. Again, don't want to be mean. I mean, that's fine. It's fine.
00:02:43
Speaker
i've I was not a runner in high school or anything like that. And i'm like I'm not a very menacing person, generally speaking. I'm famously gregarious. You could be menacing. Yeah.
00:02:57
Speaker
and if If you really like applied yourself to being menacing. I'd have to work at it. Yeah. ah But folks, I don't want to menace you.
00:03:08
Speaker
i want to entertain you.
00:03:12
Speaker
With this week's episode. We got a good one.
Thor's Story Arc: The Reigning
00:03:15
Speaker
We do. We've read... The next-to-last set of Jurgies, because the last set of Thor comics we're going to do are not actually written by Dan Jurgens.
00:03:30
Speaker
They're written by Michael Avon Aming. But we're doing the penultimate set of Jurgies on the show this week. By covering the story arc called The Reigning. The six-part story arc that is actually called The Reigning. It's what we've been building to the whole time.
00:03:50
Speaker
And we we're going to do it. It's Thor number 69, nice, through Thor number 74. From late 2003 and early 2004. So we will get to that when we get to it and talk about those comics. But...
00:04:07
Speaker
Before that, Chris, we have some business to
Supporting the Podcast through Patreon
00:04:09
Speaker
take care of. The first piece of business being thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt. Now, these are the people who, if they wanted to support the show in the past, they would have had to go all the way down to 718 Gimmick Street.
00:04:26
Speaker
And you don't have to do that, folks. That's not where we are. We're not at 718 Gimmick Street anymore. Matt, you know what's there now. Yeah, it's our ancestral castle. It's our ancestral castle castle, Sims and Wilson Manor.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah. Which I heard is haunted. That's what I've heard, yeah. I i guess when when my old uncle, my old rich uncle who technically owns the property... and is Now, is this also my uncle?
00:04:55
Speaker
Our two rich uncles who own the property when... Who were roommates, unmarried bachelors in years past. They put in their wills that when they die, we have to stay there for one full night to get there the inheritance.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, but you definitely don't want to go there now. It's the wrong time year for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's wrong time of year for this premise.
00:05:20
Speaker
Instead, where you need to go is patreon.com slash warrocketajax. That's where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help support the show, help us keep doing the things that we do, and most importantly, help us pay those gimmicks they keep sending non mail called Bills.
00:05:32
Speaker
because food That's right, Chris. It's Bills time. Oh, it sure is Bills time. And it's also wake up, wake up, wake up the first of the month, which means we have some new ah Patreon backers to name.
00:05:44
Speaker
And here they are. Peter Hammerson. Oh, thank you, Peter. That's cool name. Is he Peter Gabriel's son? Because Peter Gabriel was a sledgehammer? Correct. You got it. That's a great question.
00:05:57
Speaker
Oren, you're Mia or you're Maya? Thank you, Oren. And Juan? Thanks, Juan. If you would like to be like those fine people and go to Patreon and help us out, all you have to do is go to patreon.com slash warrockandajax and kick in as little as $1 a month to be one of our paid patrons and help us continue to do this show weekly, to do monthly Every Story Ever specials, to do monthly comics catch-ups,
00:06:33
Speaker
We're going to do two for one in the month of April ah to do Movie Fighters and Snack situation. I think we've already decided that the April Movie Fighters is going to be Sonic 3, even though we've never seen Sonic 2. Having not seen Sonic 2 and having, honest to God, no memory of Sonic 1.
00:06:51
Speaker
I have the vaguest memory of Sonic 1, and it's very favorable depiction of a te Toyota Tacoma. I remember thinking that...
00:07:04
Speaker
Cyclops was definitely supposed to be a child.
00:07:11
Speaker
He's coming back as Cyclops, by the way. Get ready. In what? In Avengers Doomsday, my friend. right. mean, yeah, fuck yeah, you know? That's great. Him and 85-year-old Ian McKellen coming back to their old roles.
00:07:27
Speaker
And Patrick Stewart. we currently We are currently at 408 paid patrons. Now, you're you're going to say, that's less than last time.
00:07:40
Speaker
Well, at the start of every month, that happens. the The number of paid patrons is reduced somewhat because ah people's credit cards expire or for whatever reason their payment doesn't go through.
00:07:56
Speaker
So... Here's where we are at the start of April. we're recording this on April 3rd. We are at 408 paid patrons, which means we are 12 away from the Funny Weed number.
00:08:08
Speaker
It's so close. We are so close, and we have set a goal of at being at the Funny Weed number by 420, which two other things about that date that are funny.
00:08:22
Speaker
One, it's also Easter. And two, it's night two of WrestleMania. That'll be such a great day for us.
00:08:33
Speaker
That'll be such a great day for us. ah But if we reach 420 subscribers by 420, by Easter Sunday, ah then we will ah take an edible and record some boco.
00:08:47
Speaker
So... It is up to you to make that happen. You have, as of the day this goes up, 14 days to get us to 420 patrons, and I think it is very achievable.
00:09:01
Speaker
so As a patron, you get every episode of every show that I mentioned earlier completely ad-free. get your own special feed of totally ad-free episodes of the show. At other levels, you get bonus content.
00:09:14
Speaker
That is lots of stuff that we put up, um which would include the funny weed bonus content whenever we record that. That is at the $5 level. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our listener submission segments, which are currently Every Story Ever and 1 to 10 of Swords.
00:09:35
Speaker
I'm going to talk about that in a minute. And then above that, there are physical rewards that you can get. um And that is very cool. We had some discussions about the t-shirt design for this year.
00:09:47
Speaker
ah Those will resume shortly to make sure that we have a t-shirt design within the next month or two. So if any of that sounds good to you, ah head over to Patreon and help us out. If you are unable to help us out monetarily, which we understand might be a reality for you at the moment,
00:10:04
Speaker
You can help us out in other ways. so You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use. That might be ah Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever it is that you get your podcasts.
00:10:15
Speaker
Or you can just spread the word about the show. Tell your friends and family to listen to our little show here. We're Rocket Ajax. And maybe then they can contribute to our Patreon.
00:10:28
Speaker
That would be a great thing as well. So...
Transition to 'Checks and Wrecks' Segment
00:10:32
Speaker
Chris, with that, now that we have taken care of that, how about some checks and wrecks? Let's do it.
00:10:41
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Matt, it's ah ah ah is it's a fun, funny time in the world. I think we can all agree that. You wake up you'll look you see what's going on, and you're like, ha ha ha, what a fun, funny time.
00:10:57
Speaker
What a funny time. I had a funny experience, and that was that ah last week, my buddy, my longtime friend, ah a a member along with you of my wedding party, Chad Bowers, texted me, and he said, hey man, did you know we had a book out this week?
00:11:15
Speaker
ah And I did not know that at the time. I know it now, though, because there is a new collection, a new hardcover collection of ah Bad and Badder Blood.
00:11:28
Speaker
ah Bad Blood, the original graphic novel that Chad and I scripted with art by Rob Liefeld. And its sequel, Batter Blood, ah that Chad scripted with Rob.
00:11:40
Speaker
ah And ah it it is out now. If you don't have either of those books, you can go get them. Chad's stuff that he writes solo is great. And I am, again, like...
00:11:53
Speaker
Like many of the people in comics that I'm friends with, I'm also a huge fan. Chad and I started writing together just because i like we worked together at the comic book store and started writing together because we had very similar sensibilities and we wound up doing X-Men and Downset Fight and ah Deadpool and Guardians the Galaxy and all kinds of stuff. So if you have read any of those, but you haven't read Bad Blood, go get this one.
00:12:16
Speaker
It's good. it's It's got a lot of fun stuff in it that we put in there. And let me tell you, working with Rob was an experience.
00:12:26
Speaker
ah it's the I honestly had a great time. Had a great time working with Rob on those. but That is out. Like a couple days after the the text message, I did get a copy in the mail from Marvel. I got exactly one copy.
00:12:40
Speaker
Go to your local comic book store and tell him you want this ah big old hardcover full of ah full of comics by your boy. and And also Chad and Rob and Marat Michaels and Travis Lanham.
00:12:54
Speaker
It is now sitting on my friend's shelf. Because of its size, it is next to all the Frank comics. So, ah add it to your... Well, add it to your friend's shelf if you are one of my actual friends who listens to this, but also add it to your Chris and Matt shelf if you are just an Ajax listener.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yes. Either way, get the book. Either way, get the book. It is the Deadpool Bad Blood, Batter Blood ah hardcover. It's got some fun stuff in it. Matt, what have you been up to while I've been getting a surprise book?
00:13:30
Speaker
Well, this less what I'm up to and more a little bit of housekeeping that I'm about to be doing. We just started a new segment on the show, 1 to 10 of Swords, where we rate swords.
00:13:45
Speaker
Not rank. Rate. Rate. We rate. Don't try to... shoehorn this into being a ranking, folks.
00:13:57
Speaker
We're not going to do points, and you're not going to be able to put them on a sequential list. It's just not going to happen. Don't even try. yeah we already have We already have two 10s on there, so it's not it's not a ranking.
00:14:10
Speaker
Also, a couple of things I want to note. about submitting your 1-10 of Swords submission, as well as Every Story Ever lists, because this has come up a few times recently.
00:14:26
Speaker
The way to submit is by email. You email it to me at warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. When you submit it, Do two things.
00:14:38
Speaker
Actually, do a few different things. One, in the subject line... You can do $20. Yeah. In the subject line, put the full name of the segment.
00:14:50
Speaker
Put the name, the full title, Every Story Ever, or One to X of Swords, or at least X of Swords. Because when I search for the submissions in my email...
00:15:05
Speaker
I'm not just going to put in the word sword. I'm going to put in the name of the segment. And is so if you just send me something that said sword submission, i may see it. I may not.
00:15:15
Speaker
Do you want know how many emails we exchange about swords? Also, do you know how many emails i get ah about the show? Like, there's a lot of shit in my email.
00:15:29
Speaker
Make it easy for me to find. Yeah. ah Which a lot of it is people offering to help us improve the show. With the power of AI. Or to tell us about a comic that will heal our horrible political divide.
00:15:45
Speaker
body and I gained so much more sympathy for you, Matt. Because you know I didn't used to have any. Yeah, right. Yeah. But when, ah like, the Apocrypals, like, my email is associated with Apocrypals, so now I get all the people wanting to... I got so fucking mad at one fucking rando, like, robo-email talking about helping us improve the show.
00:16:15
Speaker
yeah i get those time. like, motherfucker, if you knew the first thing about me. i get those all the time. I get them all the time. Yes. And I just ignore them and delete them.
00:16:27
Speaker
but That one I responded, fuck you. so Put the name of the segment in your subject line. Also, if you're a line stepper on Patreon, there's a new line stepper password. Please use the new line stepper password.
00:16:44
Speaker
i will get I will use the old password again. knowing that those are it's you know for those submissions, but for everything from now on, please use the new Line Stepper password if you are a Line Stepper on Patreon.
00:17:01
Speaker
If you don't have the new Line Stepper password for some reason, get in touch with me. Third, if... You need to add something to your submission.
00:17:12
Speaker
Or you want to change your submission. Or whatever. If for some reason you feel like you need to get in touch with me about your submission, do not reply to your email.
00:17:25
Speaker
Because here's what happens when you reply to your email. It moves to the top of my inbox. So when I search, it's not in the position where you originally sent it.
00:17:37
Speaker
It's in the position where of whenever you replied to me. So I had somebody get in touch with me about like, hey, I know you guys were on Every Story Ever list from June 2023, but you didn't read mine out.
00:17:49
Speaker
And I was like, well, I wonder why that might be. And I went and I looked and they had replied to me some number of months later to tell me something else about their submission. And so it got out of order.
00:18:02
Speaker
So instead of replying to your email, to either send me a whole new email, a whole totally different email, or get in touch with me some other way. You're already on Patreon. You can send me a Patreon message.
00:18:16
Speaker
Hit me up on the Discord. Message me on Blue Sky. Whatever. But don't reply to your initial submission, because then it will get out of order.
00:18:27
Speaker
Okay? Okay. Now, there's been some discussion on our Discord about us doing things a different way, like setting up a Google form or something like that. ah We should have had that idea seven years ago. We're too dug in.
00:18:43
Speaker
We should have had a lot of ideas for what to do with this show roughly seven years ago. Yeah, we're too dug in. it's It's too late. We have too many submissions already sent by email already.
00:18:57
Speaker
So this is just how it's got to be. Don't reply to your own email. Put the full name of the segment in the subject line and use the new line separate password. And i everything's going to go great.
00:19:09
Speaker
We have so many X of Swords submissions already, Chris. I'm so excited. I'm so excited, Matt. i know I did ah check in on the Discord and I know there was a lot of discussion. yeah In the Discord.
00:19:20
Speaker
A lot of ah little sword discussion. it's Let me see. I'm already getting 1 to 50 of many. Great. We have a lot.
00:19:33
Speaker
That's very heartening for me because I honestly... i i knew we want like I knew I wanted to do to Ten of Swords, but I didn't know if any... like You were into it, I was into it, Benito was into it, I didn't know if anyone else would be excited to talk about swords.
00:19:50
Speaker
I should have known better. It's in one week we have gotten a lot of submissions already, so be heartened. Chris, time to make some recommendations. What do you have to recommend?
00:20:02
Speaker
Matt, it's ah it's a great week if you like professional wrestling-adjacent content. Do tell. Well, first of all, there is a new a Super Eyepatch Wolf video that expands on ah the video he made a couple years ago about Roman Reigns, the unreality of pro wrestling.
00:20:22
Speaker
ah This one is the unreality of pro wrestling. Finish the story. Yes, it is it is a lot of the same stuff from that video, but... Greatly expanded, yeah. Yes, ah with the a lot of the Cody Rhodes stuff added in, ah with interesting contrasts ah to Roman's real-life story.
00:20:43
Speaker
I think the what like it's a great video, and it's like three hours long. ah But the one thing that i really wish he would have gone into more is the idea of these two competing pro-wrestling families.
00:20:58
Speaker
Because as you know, Matt, wrestling has only one royal family. deter Yeah, great video. ah Love that guy. I mean, there's a lot of additional context that I wish he had added, but it's already like a three hour plus video, so I get it.
00:21:14
Speaker
It's also really fun to see... Someone who is so genuinely excited get into their interpretation of storytelling and be so visibly excited about a match that I did not think was good.
00:21:30
Speaker
And that I still don't think was good. Which one was that? ah The Roman and Cody. Oh, well, but the match itself the match itself wasn't what was important. it was the Yes, but i like if you watch that video, ah John, Super High Flash Wolf, ah really did like it a lot.
00:21:48
Speaker
ah and And goes in why. And like was, you know, even you know you know justified everybody's presence in that overbooked nonsense. It was, yes. That's true, yeah.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah. Because, like, look, like the Undertaker showing up in his fucking hoodie... Not for me. But I'm glad he was excited about it, and hearing him talk about how excited about it he was, very fun.
00:22:14
Speaker
But that's not actually what I wanted to recommend. Because the other... ah thing that is ah very pro-wrestling adjacent and fun ah this this week was the launch of the new season of Dimension 20, which is called Titan Takedown, ah featuring WWE TM, Superstar TM, ah Xavier Woods TM, aka Austin Creed, WWE Superstar Chelsea Green, WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston, and WWE Superstar Bayley.
00:22:39
Speaker
oh That is how they are listed in the opening. And your your Game Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. um This is one that I've been really looking forward to, and I know for you, Matt, for me, for a lot of people, is kind of a bummer, because it's like it's it's gotta to be like a WWE-branded thing, yeah but that you know...
00:23:07
Speaker
absolutely happened because Xavier Woods and Brendan Lee Milligan were at a con together. you know They were at the same con, they got to talking. like There's no way that that this happened through anyone but those two guys.
00:23:23
Speaker
You know? The actual episode is very fun. Three of those players, three of those wrestlers I was familiar with and like. One of them I was very unfamiliar with, Chelsea Green.
00:23:35
Speaker
um But she turned out to be extremely fun on the show. She's a hoot. She was an absolute blast. The most fun for me was watching... Xavier Woods, who I don't know how much RPG experience he has. Everybody seems fairly unfamiliar with D&D rules.
00:23:55
Speaker
I don't think anybody's like... I don't think anybody who's ah on the road with SmackDown is making their weekly game. don't know. Maybe that's not true.
00:24:05
Speaker
But seeing ah Xavier Woods, who has had like a ah video game YouTube show forever and and is pretty well known for it in those circles, seeing his gamer brain kind of spin up and as he realizes that he can apply...
00:24:27
Speaker
D&D logic to wrestling logic to D&D applied to wrestling, or to wrestling applied to D&D, is really fun. ah Because at one point, he is trying to... like They have like a battle mat set up, which is a wrestling ring, because the it's pro-wrestling Greek mythology.
00:24:47
Speaker
ah Which is itself very fun. ah But he's like, oh, she's running the ropes. can I cut the top rope in half so that she falls out of the ring?
00:25:00
Speaker
And I'm like, that is wrestling that is wrestling knowledge of what happens when the rope breaks. ah Which happened at a recent wrestling show that I went to. ah There was a first wrestling show that the the top rope broke about two matches in.
00:25:13
Speaker
um purpose or accidental? No, accidental. so the rest of the night they wrestled with just two ropes. Oh boy, that's... Yeah. Yeah. ah But yeah, it was like a really like it's so fun seeing the wrestlers kind of realize they can apply their logic to this like fantasy world.
00:25:34
Speaker
And for Brennan to... like you know His, I think, great skill as an improviser and DM is that you know he yes-ends. So him being like, yeah, absolutely. if you If you cut the ring, that is what will happen.
00:25:49
Speaker
ah if you If you cut the rope. ah And I really think that's fun. you know it's It's people bringing their expertise to a thing that is like merging them in a way that I think is really enjoyable.
00:26:01
Speaker
I do think it's a shame that the actual professional wrestling fan, Brian Murphy, ah who is in the Dimension 20 seasons and is the ah the DM on um ah Not Another D&D Podcast, which is also very fun, wasn't on it, but then he shows up at the end with Ify Nwadawe And like, like as ah commentators, like they, they do like a little recap at the end of the show in, in character as commentators, which is very fun.
00:26:27
Speaker
ah So yeah, check out a Titan throw down or Titan takedown if you haven't already. And if you haven't watched any dimension 20, there's also a video on there where they explain how to get into dimension 20, which is a weird little video, especially if you're already on dropout and you can just fucking watch it.
00:26:47
Speaker
I mean, i feel like that's for me, and I'm probably eventually going to dip my toe into it, and I'll see if I can get through those extraordinarily long episodes.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, i look, it is If you are not a person who needs something playing at all times, ah if that you are alone, so that you do not ah find yourself confronted with your own thoughts, I can see why that would be...
00:27:14
Speaker
Well, you wouldn't want a a two and a half hour YouTube video about pro wrestling or a multiple, a 100 hour D&D actual play show.
00:27:26
Speaker
i Look, I tried to do it as one of those things where like you put it on and you you do something else while it's on. But I routinely would find myself like paying more attention to it and then being like, wait, what's going on? What did I miss?
00:27:43
Speaker
And that's not a good feeling for me. a I don't like feeling that feeling of, what did I miss? And that feeling that you're feeling yeah is a real feeling, Matt.
00:27:56
Speaker
That's true. Matt, what would you like to recommend to people? Well, Chris, remember how last week on the show I was like, I'm falling into nostalgia. I'm reminding myself of what I remember as better times, even if they weren't necessarily better times.
00:28:15
Speaker
They probably were, but yeah. Well, everything's relative. We've talked on this show before about our favorite Girl Talk albums. Mm-hmm.
00:28:27
Speaker
And I believe that you said yours was Feed the Animals. I think I said mine was Night Ripper.
00:28:36
Speaker
The album of Girl Talks that I think is my least appreciated, at least, and is maybe the least appreciated of of many, is the follow-up to Feed the Animals, All Day.
00:28:51
Speaker
For whatever reason, i have been on a kick where I am listening to Girl Talks all day, all the time. Appropriate. And that album has some of the best mashups.
00:29:08
Speaker
Like, is it my favorite? No. But fuck, there's some good shit on there, dude. There's a very short bit where it um Craig Mack's flavor in your ear is mashed up with liquid swords, and it's raw.
00:29:24
Speaker
It's so good.
00:29:27
Speaker
And um very early in the album, what actually brought my attention to it ah is um I was at a ah show, an improv show, ah maybe about a week ago.
00:29:42
Speaker
between but like In the intermission, there's a you music playing in the in the the theater. And you know whoever's running in the booth is jamming out to some songs they like.
00:29:58
Speaker
And the song Strawberry Letter 23 started playing. ah You may not know the song by name, but you have definitely heard it. The 1977 cover by the Brothers Johnson.
00:30:13
Speaker
Produced by Quincy Jones.
00:30:16
Speaker
There is a bit in all day where Strawberry little Letter 23 is mashed up with ice cream paint job.
00:30:26
Speaker
And...
00:30:28
Speaker
I had some kind of like sense memory thing happen where like I was listening to the song and it was playing and I just started like almost inadvertently going like ice cream paint job.
00:30:42
Speaker
Like it's, it was a reflex to, to like remember the girl talk mashup for this song that was playing. Uh, and so i think if you haven't revisited it in a while Go back and revisit Girl Talks All Day.
00:31:02
Speaker
ah a really great ah mashup album. That is not as widely available as the other two, either. like You can't find it track by track.
00:31:14
Speaker
I think it's uploaded in its entirety on YouTube. Alright. That is one that I haven't gone back to in a minute, so i will go ah I'll spin that one. You should.
00:31:25
Speaker
I'll put that one in the CD changer.
00:31:30
Speaker
Alright, Chris, those are our Checks and Ricks, which means it's time to talk about some comics. Let's do it.
00:31:38
Speaker
Alright, before we get into it, we're we're going to talk about two Al Ewing comics. This was a heavily Al Ewing week of comics. The one we're not going to talk about is Immortal Thor, which I'm just going to tell you, whips.
00:31:56
Speaker
It's... That was the one I was reading when I texted you, Invenido. Is Al Ewing the best comics writer working today? like just like There's a lot of good writers out there.
00:32:08
Speaker
There's a lot of people making good comics out there. We said it at the start of the year, comics are good again. Comics are back, baby. But is Al Ewing the best? I think he might be.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. does not miss. yeah And is always playing with form. Like, this issue of Thor is not too far from the Judge Direct Christmas story.
00:32:32
Speaker
it's it It is very similar. it's It's all based on coin flips. And and ah yeah kind of a yes or no zero or one decision.
00:32:43
Speaker
And it's all formed around that. ah And it's great. um But... The first of the Al-U in comics that we are going to talk about, which I think we can call this one the texture of choice, because we texted about it first, along with Bonito.
00:33:05
Speaker
um And that's All New Venom No. 5, which does reveal the identity of the new Venom. isn Which... spoilers ahead, just so you know, was none of the four suspects.
00:33:18
Speaker
Correct. So i will I will say, look, it's not not about who was right, but I was right when I said it wasn't Robbie. you were You were right.
00:33:30
Speaker
i I was trying to play by the rules and think it was one of the four suspects, but it's not. um This is Al Ewing and Carlos Gomez on this one. And um it's not Robbie who is Venom, but it is Robbie who figured it out or thought he figured it out.
00:33:47
Speaker
I mean, technically, Robbie thinks that it is ah Dylan Brock. Is that what it is? Because i thought I thought Robbie knew who it was.
00:33:59
Speaker
Robbie thinks it's Dylan. Okay. And then the big twist at the end of the issue. And here it is, the big spoiler. So if you don't want to know, skip ahead. This got spoiled in a press email before I even read the book.
00:34:13
Speaker
It's Mary Jane. Mary Jane is the new Venom. Mary Jane Watson? Yeah. You know, Paul's wife? Paul's wife, Mary Jane. Or girlfriend?
00:34:24
Speaker
I think they live together. Paul's common law wife. cohabitant. Hilarious. ah Truly hilarious. Especially because Mary Jane already currently has a superhero identity.
00:34:40
Speaker
Absolutely, yes. I mean, so does Luke Cage and and, I mean, matt not superhero, but Madam Mask already has an identity, too, and yeah all of that, but Yeah, pretty wild.
00:34:52
Speaker
Fun issue, look like a big there's the end of that big MODOK fight is pretty much the first two-thirds of it. And the MODOK fight's very fun. Very, very fun.
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, man, like it's it's a it's a great reveal. it's it's I laughed. i I fully laughed out loud when I got to it, or when I when i figured out ah what was happening and who it was going to be.
00:35:15
Speaker
ah And it's like, it's a very... I think it's a very Al Ewing idea, but it's also like a very Marvel Comics idea.
00:35:27
Speaker
he
00:35:29
Speaker
if it wasn't if he wasn't in like the very first discussion, then Rick Jones had to be like, early on, somebody had to be like, well, you've got to put Rick Jones in there, because it is fully in character for him to acquire another character.
00:35:50
Speaker
Yeah. um the Superhero identity. Yeah. And I love that that is why he is in it, and that is kind of the the big misdirect. And the payoff to that is he's not Venom.
00:36:01
Speaker
He has a completely different symbiote. Right. He's the sleeper. That's so funny. He's the sleeper. Oh.
00:36:12
Speaker
God, it's funny. I will say my my my my reaction, my big reaction to the reveal, Was kind of to be like, but didn't Venom do some Venomy stuff?
00:36:27
Speaker
Didn't Venom, like, I don't know, kill some people?
00:36:33
Speaker
And I guess this Venom hasn't. Yeah, don't this Venom has killed people. Yeah. ah This Venom has gotten shot several times. But I don't think they've killed anybody. They've they've beaten some ass.
00:36:51
Speaker
but not But not killed anybody. so it all It all tracks. It all fits. It's a fun payoff. I'm very curious to see what's going to happen with the book now that it doesn't have that hook.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah. ah like because Again, I've enjoyed this book and I'm fully confident that it is going to be enjoyable. And I do kind of like the idea of Mary Jane...
00:37:20
Speaker
kind of being Madame Mask's arch-nemesis. My big question is, like is this the standing cast of the book? like Is it going to continue to be Robbie Robertson and Rick Jones and Luke Cage and Madame Mask and Paul and Dylan?
00:37:39
Speaker
like... i mean like Rick Jones and and Robbie aren't, like, doing anything else right now, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, like, the book seems to largely be about Madam Mask having sort of a plot to take over AIM, right? So...
00:38:00
Speaker
ah So that's that's where we're at. like That's the undercurrent going through everything. So we'll see. We'll see where it continues to go. ah The next book we're going to talk about, the next Al Ewing book that we're going to talk about, is Absolute Green Lantern, which is another absolute book that absolutely fits into the line, but also feels different from the others.
00:38:31
Speaker
it It feels like the exact midpoint between absolute Batman and absolute Superman and absolute Martian Manhunter. Yeah, I guess so. um It's Al Ewing with art and color by Genoi Lindsay.
00:38:47
Speaker
And... and's you What you texted about this, I think, is exactly right on, which is, Absolute Batman is, what if Bruce Wayne wasn't born rich? Absolute Superman is, what if Kal-El had grown up on Krypton?
00:39:03
Speaker
Or like gotten to a teenager on Krypton? Absolute Wonder Woman is, what if she wasn't raised on Paradise Island, but instead in Hell? And this book is, what if Hal Jordan wasn't Green Lantern?
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah. What if Green Lantern was good? What if Green Lantern was character you liked? Well, he's kind of Bruce Banner. Yeah, he's very much...
00:39:28
Speaker
Well, the the the the trick of the book, and this is the big spoiler, is that the whole issue, how Jordan has like literally his hand in his pocket, like he's Orange Cassidy, and the reveal when you finally see what it is, is not that he has a Green Lantern ring, but that he he's a black hand.
00:39:48
Speaker
Right. He was given something but by Abin Sir, but it wasn't a Green Lantern ring. Right. And ah and that's that's fun, because the person who got the ah Green Lantern ring was ah the good Green Lantern, Joe, from ah from Far Sector.
00:40:05
Speaker
Right. and And also, Jon Stewart is in this. And they talk about Guy Gardner. Yeah. So it's... it's ah A lot of the Green Lanterns we know are in this, but the one we see as a Green Lantern is Joe. Yeah.
00:40:19
Speaker
Yeah, Joe Mullane. I feel like the... good trick of all the absolute books is the problem with a lot of continuity free books or continuity light books. The problem with your ultimate books, right?
00:40:36
Speaker
Is that they want to be, you know, if you've, if you've never read a ah Spider-Man story, well, here's ultimate Spider-Man. And sometimes that works. I think, you know,
00:40:50
Speaker
arguably and demonstrably it worked in ultimate Spider-Man, but like sometimes you get those DC earth one books that, um, like don't work. And part of that is because they're trying to be like a new continuity free one, but they actively want to like, that they expect you to know things about the characters so that they can be like, it's not like that.
00:41:15
Speaker
Yeah. They're, they're trying too hard to turn the other way. And the absolute books are leaning into, hey, you know this guy. You know what this guy's deal is.
00:41:27
Speaker
You know Batman. ah So here's the bat you know a thing that has is changed about Batman that changes everything. yeah ah His mom's still alive and he doesn't have any money.
00:41:40
Speaker
And you know the the Wonder Woman stuff. like Yeah, you know what Wonder Woman's deal is. This lasso does not make you tell the truth. ah And I love the idea that this book follows Hal Jordan for the reveal that, like, actually Hal Jordan is a black hand and not Green Lantern.
00:42:02
Speaker
And it's ah the Green Lantern that is good. it's It's the one that, the one that if if I care about any of them at this point, it's her. I do have to say, though,
00:42:17
Speaker
I am very
00:42:20
Speaker
of two minds about the art style in this comic. Okay. It's not bad, but it is very manga.
00:42:34
Speaker
It looks like the art from ah Attack on Titan. You know, it's it's it's weird that you say that, because now that I'm looking at it with you having said that, you're right.
00:42:51
Speaker
I mean, I don't think it looks like Attack on Titan, but you're you're right. But having literally gone directly from reading One Piece to reading this, I did not notice that on my read-through.
00:43:02
Speaker
yeah This just looked like comics to me. Like, I don't hate it, but it's... It takes some getting used to. the There is not... And this isn't a complaint. It's just ah it's just an observation.
00:43:16
Speaker
There is not sort of an overarching artistic style to the Absolute line. Do you think there needs to be? I don't guess.
00:43:29
Speaker
this Artistically, this one is... Absolute Martian Manhunter was different, but it was different in a DC Comics kind of way. You know what i'm saying? Yeah, I mean, it looked like a Vertigo book.
00:43:42
Speaker
Yeah. like Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman are very much of a piece. If there are any two that are the most similar, it's those two.
00:43:54
Speaker
Absolute Superman looks like a very slick modern comic. Absolute Martian Manhunter looks like
00:44:05
Speaker
a 2000s Vertigo book, this doesn't look like any sort of DC comic that I can put my finger on, and I think that's the hardest part for me to wrap my head around.
00:44:17
Speaker
Interesting. But that's not ah that's not a huge – again, that's not necessarily a complaint. It's just the – it's interesting to see this sort of artistic take.
00:44:29
Speaker
Yeah, i would I would certainly rather that the Absolute books – had, like, each one had their own visual identity. yeah And I get what what you're saying in that they're, like, they're kind of not distinct enough to feel like... All the art is good, and I don't think you would confuse any of the art for the others, but it's not like ah each one is in a completely different style.
00:44:56
Speaker
So they don't have enough of a difference between them to be like, oh, it is a thing with the absolute books where they're all in a different style. As opposed to, you know, like each book has a unified style. So I can see that being a, an interesting thing about the line.
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah. But it's also like, it's, it's hard for me to even think of them at this point as a line, you know? They're all separate from each other, at least for now. Yeah, they're all their own thing.
00:45:27
Speaker
ah ah Attack on Titan is maybe not the best touchpoint. It's just the one I could think of. yeah There might all be yeah another manga it looks more like, but that's the one that came to mind. Our last book that I haven't read, but that you wanted to talk about, Chris, is Lore War, number one.
00:45:45
Speaker
Yeah, man. ah this is the ah This is the new Star Trek event. And here's two things I will tell you about this book. One, it kicks ass.
00:45:57
Speaker
ah Two, it is foreheads only. if you If you don't know what Stovocor is, do not read this comic.
00:46:10
Speaker
If you do know what Stovocor is... Boy, you're in for a treat. ah The premise of this book is that lore or has god power.
00:46:22
Speaker
Now, I don't know how that happened. but more that happened That happened in the regular Star Trek book. I think in, what was it, Star Trek 500? I know was it was hinted at or mentioned in there, yeah. there There has been an ongoing story in the main Star Trek book.
00:46:41
Speaker
involving lore that I think has been building to this. You know Secret Wars 2015? It's that with lore. Because it's literally that with lore.
00:46:54
Speaker
um And lore has remade the universe like Doctor Doom in Secret Wars 2015. like Literally the first thing that happens is a double page spread that gives you like 20 planets and what's happening on them.
00:47:07
Speaker
So like Each planet is has a world designation about whether it's it's labor or or quarantined or everyone has been killed.
00:47:18
Speaker
So, like, the Great Link in the Gamma Quadrant, which is where Odo's shapeshifter guys are from, that's they they've all been exterminated. It's very Days of Future Past. Hiroga, where the Hirogen are from,
00:47:31
Speaker
oh is is quarantine is walled off and only lore can access it. All the Vulcans have been killed. ah You know, it's super fun.
00:47:44
Speaker
And so you get to see like what's happening with all the people in Battleworld, essentially. And so, you know, you get Sisko and Big Bev.
00:47:56
Speaker
You find out what's going on with Worf and Alexander. You find out what's going on with ah Julian Bashir and Kira and everybody. And, ah Matt, there's two perhaps unexpected characters who show up in this.
00:48:13
Speaker
Let's hear it. One them is K-Less. K-Less, the legendary Klingon warrior. K-Less, the forgotten of ah the the the Klingon who murdered all the gods.
00:48:26
Speaker
Right. And the other Shax.
00:48:32
Speaker
Fucking Shax shows up and is like, and like, I mean, I'll spoil this. Shax shows up and kills Bashir.
00:48:44
Speaker
Like, disintegrates him. the The funny guy from Lower Decks? Yeah, man. Because he's part Lore's Secret Police now. Oh, because right. Because it's an alternate universe. right Yeah, because he's ah he's a fucking badass.
00:49:00
Speaker
ah That's funny. Yeah, man. oh Did you know that Ensign Sato was going to show up? Man, wow. It's a deep cover operative. It really is FHO.
00:49:12
Speaker
Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Heads only. i do feel a spiritual connection with this book because it is ah written by Christopher Cantwell, Colin Kelly, and Jackson Lansing. I'm pretty sure Colin Kelly and Jackson Lansing were the next people after me and Chad to write Darkhawk.
00:49:29
Speaker
I think you're right, yeah. I think I'm right on that. So clearly, and those dudes have something to talk about. Yeah, you you guys have some stuff in common. yeah oh You should read this book, Matt.
00:49:41
Speaker
Okay. Again, If you understood the words that I said, like Kwonos and Ensensato, then you should read it. But yeah, man. Lore.
00:49:53
Speaker
Lore war.
00:49:56
Speaker
It's a hoot, bud.
00:49:59
Speaker
Alright, I'll check it out. but With that, Chris, it's time to get into some jergies. Oh, I'm so excited.
00:50:15
Speaker
The children yearn for the mines, Matt.
00:50:19
Speaker
Thor number 69. Nice. great Very nice issue. um Is the reigning part one. And on the cover is Thor holding up Bjolnir, which he does not do at all in this story.
00:50:38
Speaker
On a like flying machine that we never see, surrounded by a city that's on fire.
00:50:48
Speaker
It looks cool as hell. i would I think so, yeah. I don't know if ah the penciler of this issue, Scott Eaton, drew this cover, but it's a good cover.
00:51:01
Speaker
Not especially representative of the events of the issue, though. Yeah. Yeah, this is Dan Jorgens, Scott Eaton, with inks by Cam Smith and Scott Koblish.
00:51:13
Speaker
Love Scott Koblish. Yeah. one of the best in the game. Do you think ah Scott Eaton is related to Beautiful Bobby Eaton? Boy, that's much to think about. That's much to think about. ah This issue starts with, ah much like the movie Aladdin. Aladdin.
00:51:35
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't make that connection, but correct. Where a young woman ah is stealing some fruit and also some money from people in a bazaar.
00:51:50
Speaker
In New Asgard. She gets caught stealing money. And so she has to run away by jumping around on the tops of merchant stalls and stuff.
00:52:01
Speaker
She runs away from the Not only is it like the opening scene of Aladdin, it's like the opening scene of Aladdin for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. ah Very true, yes. um ah We will eventually learn ah that ah Her name is whatever her name is.
00:52:21
Speaker
Jordal. Jordal. Yes, it's Jordal. Which I love. It comes from the great fantasy tradition of a name that is a regular name, but you change a letter. Yeah.
00:52:32
Speaker
And here's what I know about Jordal. She has the longest torso I've ever seen. It's, yeah. no No wonder that shirt doesn't fit right.
00:52:44
Speaker
like I don't want to i don't want to say too much bad about um Scott Eaton, the son of beautiful Bob Eaton, but there's a drawing of Jordahl climbing on a merchant stall where like you just see her midriff because her shirt is a midriff-exposing shirt, and like so you see part of her back, and it just fully looks like her ass is hanging out because her torso is way too long.
00:53:13
Speaker
A lot of body shaming from Matt Wilson. I'm just saying it's i' i I'm art shaming a torso being way too long. What I like is, you know how um fashion is cyclical?
00:53:27
Speaker
hu It turns out in 2170... ah which Which is when... yes this twenty one seventy is when this is taking place which i have some questions about ah home that we'll get to later we also see that she has like a a stash of technology because this is the feature ruled by thor where a lot of technology has been outlawed ah she goes into a room where she finds an iron and electric iron And she doesn't know what it's for.
00:53:59
Speaker
yeah She thinks it's like a phone or something. And Thor banning a lot of 21st century technology is presented as though it's a bad thing, but I think we can all agree that was the right call.
00:54:15
Speaker
As she's trying to figure out what the iron does, um our old friend T'Alfie, who we haven't seen in a while... comes out of a portal in the sky and falls right there in front of Jordal.
00:54:30
Speaker
And he's like, what happened? What year is it?
00:54:35
Speaker
And Jordal's like, what you mean, what year is it? You mean the the year of the bull? And Teofy's like, no, no, no, like a number.
00:54:47
Speaker
Like, tell me a number for a year. I do love, Teofy is like, no, like numbers. like That is a very funny bit, i think.
00:54:58
Speaker
ah Where she's like, yeah, it's the year of the hammer. like Last year was the year of the bowl. and he's like, okay, all right. Yeah. um Because Tioffi, I don't remember how clearly this happened in the issue where Asgard fell on New York.
00:55:18
Speaker
But Tioffi got into a fight with Zarco, the Tomorrow Man, And got sent from that exact moment to this moment in the future.
00:55:29
Speaker
So T'alfi has missed all of the rise of Thor to being Lord of Earth. They get hassled by the new Asgard. The new Asgard's is what they're called.
00:55:41
Speaker
Yeah. That's fun. That's fun. They get hassled by them, and Tiofee beats them up because he thinks that they're beating up an innocent woman. Yeah, and and they of course think that you know she's riffraff street rat.
00:55:57
Speaker
But Tiofee, he doesn't buy that. He doesn't buy that she's a thief because she's got an honorable sensibility about her. and i I cannot stress enough, though, that she is a thief.
00:56:10
Speaker
She's absolutely a thief, yeah. yeah um But he he he likes her, so ah he uses his speed powers, which I guess we knew he had those, but boy, if I remember it.
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's he's a ah he's from the the the myth where Thor ah tries to drink the ah tries to lift up the the cat that's actually the Midgard Serpent.
00:56:41
Speaker
Isn't he? That's the Elfie, right? Because he's he's as fast as ah as as thought. I think. Sure. Anyway, he takes Jordal home and he learns that Thor is alive and has taken over the world and ah he and that Esgard fell on New York And he's like, man, it's a lot.
00:57:08
Speaker
It's a lot. We find out that this story is taking place in Bostegard. Bostegard, yeah. um And also, Jordal has a TV, which she shows him.
00:57:21
Speaker
And she says, they say you could look at this and see people, hear them too. That it could show places from far away. Places that don't even exist.
00:57:31
Speaker
Then um Loki brings them into a dungeon. like Loki just appears to them and brings them to a dungeon. i think we've already seen him wearing Doctor Strange's cape. We saw that in the in the last the last issue, yeah.
00:57:49
Speaker
Yeah. But he's still got it. and He's also got Cerebro. Yes, in the and the Eye of Agamotto and all kinds of stuff. He's like, you both have been really disruptive.
00:58:02
Speaker
Are you some kind of mutant? And is this guy some kind of mutant? And then Thor shows up with underneath the broken Captain America shield that he keeps.
00:58:13
Speaker
And he's like, what's going guess keeps mounted over the door in his dungeon like it's a fucking horseshoe? Like it's a horseshoe. That's what it looks like. Yeah. Look, we see Thor.
00:58:25
Speaker
And this is a Thor. He's got one arm, one eye, two rings, and His left arm and left eye are both gone. Yeah. yeah I'll tell you what else he's got, though.
00:58:37
Speaker
He's got a good dog. He's got a big white wolf, yeah. yeah This dog is never named, but I assume it is one of Frankie or Gary's pups, all grown up.
00:58:52
Speaker
This is Chekhov's dog. It is going to be plot relevant by the time we get to this end the end of this set of issues. Yeah, and look, I will tell you this right now.
00:59:05
Speaker
We wanted to read this. We wanted to read this because you and I both remember liking parts of this run. Mm-hmm. And I feel like this run, even more than the Groonies, which had a lot of ups and downs, like, Thor number 25 is, like, one of the best comics of its era, I think. Like, great book.
00:59:26
Speaker
Captain America 350, one of the best comics of all time. The Thor run... has gone in a direction that is making me question things about Dan Juergens.
00:59:39
Speaker
Well, yeah, we'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. ah Thor number 70, The Reigning Part 2, has a cover by Rey and Ben Lai, where Thor is just standing there holding Mjolnir, and lightning is going around him. It's it's pretty yeah pretty run-of-the-mill Thor cover. He's of dapping you up.
01:00:00
Speaker
He's kind of dapping you up. But again, he has his both eyes, he has his left arm, and he's holding Mjolnir, which is not anything that Thor does throughout these issues. is kind of reminding... like If you want to be charitable, because I do think this was the era of like the bad Marvel covers, where every cover was just a poster and was iconic and had nothing to do with what was going on in the comic, you could at least...
01:00:27
Speaker
If you wanted to be like, oh, this is reminding you what Thor is supposed to be. Yeah. Because this is Thor as he looked in Thor number 66, you know?
01:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's a flashback in this story where he looks more like this, but even then he couldn't hold Mjolnir. So, I don't know. Anyway, this issue starts...
01:00:54
Speaker
In a totally different place than the last one left off, we see the sort of underground resistance led by a woman named Mistress Kya.
01:01:08
Speaker
Kya! Kya! Who is instantly recognizable as Scarlet Witch's daughter. Yeah. went to the yard on that one. Like, no question, that's who it is. Also, Scott Eaton is doing breakdowns, and Scott Koblish is doing finishes on this one.
01:01:26
Speaker
um So here's my question. This is Earth in 2170, right? In Thor number 68, that was like... a that was like Like 2020 or something like that?
01:01:42
Speaker
When we see the flashback in a couple issues, was 2020. That was 2020, When did Thor 68 take place? Thor 68 was 2020, yeah. It was the year when Scarlet Witch gave birth. So is Kya 150 years old? mean, guess.
01:01:53
Speaker
eight it's still it's twenty so twenty twenty yeah it was the same year when scarletwi okay paper so is ah hundred and fifty years old i mean i get Do you think they they messed up and this is supposed to be 2070?
01:02:13
Speaker
That would make a lot more sense.
01:02:18
Speaker
I wish it was 2070 because that would mean that things got back on track in 2099. Yeah. Like, in the last issue,
01:02:30
Speaker
they say that Thor has been in charge for like 200 years. Yeah, which would which would track, because if he becomes if he starts taking over in 2003, 2004, then yeah.
01:02:46
Speaker
But, like,
01:02:49
Speaker
this should be the Scarlet Witch's great-granddaughter, not her daughter. I mean, look, man, sometimes it's a secondary mutation. You live a really, really fucking long time.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah. Magneto! Magneto's like 100 years old. He keeps it tight. me
01:03:09
Speaker
I think this is so this is a timeline screw-up. It has to be. Take care of mutation. that's that's I get the no prize. Matt gets nothing. Okay. Yeah. that's ah That's a no prize answer for sure.
01:03:23
Speaker
ah Anyway, she says, the man from my mother's time has arrived. Before he died, Zarkos, the seer, wrote of this event. In his brilliance and wisdom, he gave us the means to triumph, so long as we survive the coming of war.
01:03:35
Speaker
And that's all we get from her. That's the only indication that you have that things have gone that terribly wrong. Yeah. Because no one should be referring to Zarko as brilliant.
01:03:48
Speaker
No one should give a fuck about Zarko the Tomorrow Man. ah Then we see a scene of some some
01:03:57
Speaker
nondescript part of the South Pacific where a hurricane is coming up. But if it's it's really the South Pacific, I think that should be a typhoon, right?
01:04:08
Speaker
um But nonetheless... About nitpicking. ah Someone who looks a lot like Thor comes in and stops it. But it's not Thor, it's Magni.
01:04:18
Speaker
Yeah, we see that he has an axe, for one reason. yeah um he's His face is not shown, and it seems like Thor, but it's not Thor. And one dude does go, that's that's gotta to be Thor!
01:04:36
Speaker
ah Then we go back to the dungeon where Jordal and... T'Alfie are. And Thor recognizes T'Alfie and he's like, hey, T'Alfie, you're alive. That's my boy.
01:04:49
Speaker
That's my boy T'Alfie. And he's like, welcome back home. like Man, so good to have you here. Let me let me take you around and show you around. And Loki, send this girl home. She's she's no big deal.
01:05:04
Speaker
And Loki's like, I think she is a big deal. I think she's a problem. ah Meanwhile, Kya is watching yeah so Thor and T'alfi and being like, oh, we got to get to T'alfi because he's like the key to everything.
01:05:19
Speaker
It's got to be Kya. It's got to be Kya, yeah. It can't be Kya. But it looks like Kya. Anyway, Loki also realizes that Kya is spying on him.
01:05:35
Speaker
Because he's got Cerebro. Yeah. And he's got you know he's got the Eye of Agamotto. He's got magic powers. He's a god. Yeah. um But she's a mutant also. So that you know reflects all of that.
01:05:50
Speaker
ah but loki But Loki only knows that he's being spied on. He doesn't know by who. And he immediately just blames Jordal for it. He's like, you did this somehow? And she's like, no I didn't.
01:06:03
Speaker
So she runs away from him and runs into Magni, who is like, oh, yeah, that's my Uncle Loki. He's an odious old fool.
01:06:16
Speaker
Magni has red hair ah so that you know that he's not Thor because he just looks like Thor. He looks like, like, it the pencils on this one, he just looks like classic Marvel Thor.
01:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, he's, like, Thor has become, you know... grizzled While Magni is basically Thor from the start of this run.
01:06:41
Speaker
Yeah. With red hair. Yeah. ah And he's like very invested humans humans and their lives and wants to help them and doesn't want to hurt anybody and is wants to be very heroic. and Thor is kind of like, why are you getting involved in these people's business?
01:07:04
Speaker
Yeah. Which you would think, mean, they're gods, right? Yeah. You would think that Thor would be like, yeah, man, it wasn't that long ago that I was really, you know, i was really into Midgard.
01:07:21
Speaker
you know I always had like a special love for the humans, but you can't get too close, son. like But he never does it. He's just like, hey, Magni, shut the fuck up. Yeah. I mean, he's become Odin, essentially, in many ways. Although he's also like, ah yeah, we also send people to re-education camps.
01:07:40
Speaker
Which is mostly Loki's thing, but I let him do it. and And I think the one of the better things that happens in this arc is that like,
01:07:51
Speaker
Thor goes, hey, I don't like that we send people to the re-education camps. And Loki's like, I mean, do you want to like do violence on them?
01:08:04
Speaker
Because we can do that, Thor. like This is a nice, safe way. and Nobody gets hurt. you know We just go in and and give them a little magical botany and everything's fine. But i mean if you want us to use violence and like kill people, I guess we can.
01:08:20
Speaker
Loki still being the like manipulator, I think, actually does come off pretty well in this story. It's it's one of the better executed parts of this story. ah So, Tioffi gets all the background.
01:08:34
Speaker
ah Thor glosses over losing Mjolnir and his eye and arm. He doesn't really explain how any of those happened. But he says that they've banned all religion but worshipping Thor.
01:08:49
Speaker
And that they have to ah use constant vigilance to keep people safe. ah The Warriors 3 are still alive, but Sith is deadyh is dead. She died in the destruction of Asgard.
01:09:04
Speaker
And... ah But he's like, look, everybody's happy. We keep them happy. Everybody's fed. Everybody gets to do what they want. And they talk to some people who were like, we we do art all the time. Yeah, we're artists.
01:09:16
Speaker
And ah I saved this page because all these artists show up and –
01:09:25
Speaker
Thor's like, yeah, this is an enclave of musicians and artists, but everyone has everything they need for a comfortable life. And Theolfi goes, you mean they don't work?
01:09:38
Speaker
Hey, fuck you, bud.
01:09:43
Speaker
And Thor's like, I mean, yeah, it ain't digging a ditch, but goddamn. And Thor's like, oh, the people who who want to do labor are And build things and stuff like that. Those are the ones that do that. Yeah, like he's like, hey, if you want to if if you like cooking, you become a chef. If you like doing art, you become an artist. If you like building stuff, you become a carpenter. It's that simple.
01:10:03
Speaker
Everyone has everything they need. They've got enough food. They've got enough whatever. And then he like he's like, yeah. oh biggest One of the biggest problems with humans is that they were ah destroying their environment because ah they were reliant on all that stuff for energy. we...
01:10:19
Speaker
we use geothermal energy and magic. yeah And so everybody has enough power now and they aren't destroying the planet and changing the climate. And also, like I've cured all diseases with magic, so nobody gets cancer anymore. And also, and also um there's there's been war in the Middle East and I've stopped that.
01:10:42
Speaker
And the way that they showed that... That's the one thing where you're like, okay, well hang on. Well, he's like, I got rid of countries. Yeah, he got rid of countries, and and he also got rid of their religions.
01:10:54
Speaker
Yeah, so but like but the the way that that's illustrated is he's like, yeah, this part of the world's been warring for centuries, and they're like flying by the pyramids, and Bud?
01:11:07
Speaker
I get it.
01:11:10
Speaker
But that ain't the part of the world you... That ain't the country you're talking about. Yeah, that ain't... It's... it's The most recognizable landmark from near-ish part of the world?
01:11:24
Speaker
I mean, I don't think that's why they drew the pyramids. I think they drew the pyramids because they didn't want to draw the Dome of the Rock because they knew that it pissed somebody off. I don't think I could have identified the Dome of the Rock by sight, not even by the great artist Scott Cutlish.
01:11:43
Speaker
it's Like... i I don't... Like, I think... I don't know. I think that's what it was. ah But yeah like like yeah, Thor has outlawed all religions except for the worship of Asgardians.
01:11:57
Speaker
um But also, we do find out later that like everybody has joined up voluntarily.
01:12:08
Speaker
According to them. According to them. So, you know, like yeah, a grain salt with that. oh yeah But... like There's parts of the world that are not under Thor's direct control. like He talks about Spain, um which is kind of a weird choice, but sure.
01:12:25
Speaker
um don't know, man. like Obviously, everything except the outlawing of all other religions, I'm kind on board with. I'm actually fully on board with.
01:12:36
Speaker
They give Tiofie the whole spiel, the whole... like sales pitch of like, we've made Earth perfect. What says man can be a faulty, weak creature.
01:12:50
Speaker
A few may not deal with the situation properly. In time, most will, for they will realize that freedom to pursue a better life, one formed by pursuit of higher intellect or accomplishment rather than the collection of goods or wealth, will elevate them to a higher state of being.
01:13:04
Speaker
And I'm like, damn, Thor is exactly the same kind of communist I am.
01:13:12
Speaker
ah Meanwhile, Magni and Jordal leave New Asgard through like a secret exit. And ah she learns that he's really the prince.
01:13:26
Speaker
And he's also like, oh, my Uncle Loki, he sucks. And then we get one more scene of Kaya ah where ah she reveals that she's got some kind of remote control that...
01:13:42
Speaker
they've been keeping under glass and, uh, and that they have Mjolnir in their little layer.
01:13:55
Speaker
Thor number 71. Yep. Thor number 71, uh, has, a more representative cover of Thor in this story where he's sitting on a throne and he does just have the one eye and the one arm.
01:14:12
Speaker
He's got Hugh Gennon. Yeah. ah Pretty good looking cover. I kind of like that cover. Yeah. I don't know who actually drew that one. it's not There's no signature that I can see. I mean i i think it doesn't look dissimilar to the art in the book. I would guess that it's Scott Eaton.
01:14:31
Speaker
yeah maybe so. This is, once again, Dan Jurg and Scott Eaton. Scott Koblish. um This starts with a party for Tiafie. Everybody's hanging out, sitting around a big table, eating and drinking.
01:14:45
Speaker
I like that ah the Thor's big dog has his own big old plate of food that he's left the bones. Yeah. oh And I also like that Loki has taken off the the ah Cloak of Levitation and just hung it up in the air behind him.
01:15:01
Speaker
That's always good fit. It's levitating behind him, yeah yeah. I know that bit is from Future Imperfect, like that's a George Perez bit, but also, it's always fun when it happens. Yeah, it's it's great. And also, there's like two harlequin Harlequins juggling bowling pins.
01:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's what games were the past, like. Bowling remains in Thor's 2170. What of bowling?
01:15:30
Speaker
ah what if bowling That would be my first question.
01:15:36
Speaker
Matt, I mean, you look, what what is bowling if not noble combat?
01:15:42
Speaker
I'm not even joking. I would be like, can I still bowl? Is there bowling? ah Anyway, Tiafie is like, okay, well, this has been fun, but I got to go.
01:15:52
Speaker
He literally goes, I got to go rock piss. yeah and i put this I put this panel up on ah on Blue Sky because ah there are signs to indicate the bathrooms. There are gendered bathroom signs.
01:16:10
Speaker
There sure are. the ah The gentleman's room is a Viking helmet, and the lady's room is like blonde like like just blonde hair with braids.
01:16:21
Speaker
It's like a pippy long stocking braid. Which I thought was very funny. like It genuinely made me laugh because it's so incongruous. And ah I did say that like if there's a gender-neutral bathroom, it should just have a picture of Loki's helmet on it.
01:16:37
Speaker
oh That would be very good. it should be It should be Thor's helmet and Sif's helmet, right? like That's what it should be. like It's bonkers.
01:16:50
Speaker
like It is genuinely bonkers that there are There's a men's room and a women's room in New Asgard. Like...
01:17:04
Speaker
they're They should just be pissing, right? like they like You wouldn't think it would be a problem. but You wouldn't think you you would think they would just have a bathroom. Right. But I mean, you know, it's 2170-2004.
01:17:18
Speaker
Right, yeah. um but yeah like also That little bit of modernity mixed in is something that like I always... Whenever that crops up, it's it's like it's almost like a gag from Top Ten.
01:17:30
Speaker
you know I thought it was fun. Yes. it's It's definitely a joke, but like it is so out of place. I'll tell you what i don't like. What's that?
01:17:41
Speaker
That's that the men's room the men's room has a bunch of sexy paintings. Of ladies. Of ladies. And then it's a stone trough, and I'm like, no, I'll hold it till I get home.
01:17:55
Speaker
Right. Like, again... open barrels of wine?
01:18:01
Speaker
Is that supposed to be wine, or is that supposed to be something else? I think that's supposed to be like the sink. like That's the like so the water barrel for the sink, but it's colored pink, so it looks like there's just like open bottles of wine.
01:18:13
Speaker
But like again, if you just have open troughs instead of toilets, what are you doing with gendered bathrooms? like Come on. but like i what what is It's like ah it's like a fucking...
01:18:24
Speaker
dirt track in Indiana. But yeah, like the pictures of the paintings, or the paintings of sexy ladies is like it's the bathroom at your local dive bar.
01:18:37
Speaker
Dave and Bjornsters.
01:18:40
Speaker
Thank you for laughing. Before that happened, Loki asked Enchantress, who is Thor's wife now, um what happened to Magni?
01:18:53
Speaker
And she's like, i don't know.
01:18:57
Speaker
And he's like, I think that boy is getting into some trouble. Anyway, ah when Tiafie goes to... You might be asking yourself, Chris, Matt, do we see Tiafie take a piss?
01:19:10
Speaker
We don't. We do!
01:19:13
Speaker
We do. Not really. Look at that panel and tell me that's not him. but's not a We only see his chest. We see him from like chin to navel. But look at the position of his arms.
01:19:25
Speaker
That is T'Alfie. That's T'Alfie Pism. Anyway, Kaya comes in to the Vikings room. And T'Alfie's like, you can't come in here.
01:19:36
Speaker
And she's like, don't worry about it. And she zaps him and takes him to ah her lair. And he's like, why did you kidnap me? And he tries to like fight them off.
01:19:49
Speaker
He takes their weapons. He's like, you're in league with Zarko. They mentioned Zarko. And he's like, you're in league with Zarko. Shut that guy! They're like, he's dead. he He throws rocks at them for a minute.
01:20:02
Speaker
And he's like, how dare you try to destroy what Thor has built? You're some kind of awful human resistance And Kaya is like, look, I'm sure he told you a bunch of good stuff, but the actual reality for people is way worse.
01:20:20
Speaker
And, ah like, we live in a cave. And he's like, treacherous vermin must always live like this. Yeah, the obvious, honestly, quite reasonable response is, why don't you not live in a cave?
01:20:35
Speaker
Because that actually is an option. ah So she reveals that her mom was a Scarlet Witch. Big reveal. She's 150 years old, I guess. and And she's like, Thor showed you one way, but I'm going to show you how it's different.
01:20:52
Speaker
I'm going to show you how what it's really like. Then we cut to Magni and Jordal. They're riding around on a flying chariot. um He takes her home after having an evening out.
01:21:09
Speaker
And some some guy with no eyeballs comes up, and he's like, would you like to buy a souvenir? and Jordal's like, no, no souvenirs.
01:21:23
Speaker
i guess I guess Thor and his court wizards have not fixed that one yet. I guess they haven't fixed having no eyeballs. Yeah. And the souvenir he was trying to sell is a spy tool from Loki, and he sees that they're out here.
01:21:39
Speaker
Like, in the streets where they shouldn't be. Magni so drops Jordahl off at home, kisses her on the cheek, and she's stunned that the prince kissed her on the cheek.
01:21:52
Speaker
He's so handsy. He's so handsy. oh I do want to say that Kaia and her cult, their little cave, they've got a bunch of posters. yeah In their cave of the world that they've lost.
01:22:04
Speaker
Remember what they took from you? yeah And it's like fucking brands. They have an F-150 poster that says like a rock on it. Yeah, they have a United Airlines poster, which if there's anything I would immediately ditch, it's commercial airlines.
01:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, so like, but this is this is the world you're yearning for? It's not doing a great job of stealth. I mean, you know me, Matt. Thor has done nothing wrong.
01:22:34
Speaker
But this, I'm like, really? that' That's what you want? Okay. Then we catch up with Tiafie, who has been sent to the set of a town in a western.
01:22:50
Speaker
And he walks into like a saloon, and ah it is... And immediately a lady goes, you got any drugs? Everybody who comes in here has got to have drugs for us to party.
01:23:03
Speaker
ah So, special guest writer Jack Chick. it's ah It's a denizen in there, and all the lights are red. Everything's red. And there are also like shirtless, barefoot, hungry children in there.
01:23:18
Speaker
Yeah. and There's a bunch of horny people like like giving lap dances on panel, and then like ah a bunch of malnourished orphans.
01:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, and he's like, this isn't what it's really like. these This can't be representative of what people are like. And Kaish appears in the sky, and she's like, go wherever you want, Tiofi, but open your your eyes and really look.
01:23:45
Speaker
It's like this everywhere. And so he goes running and he looks looks at what people are doing and they're like hiding out in basements reading Bibles because religion's been outlawed and they have a bunch of junk everywhere and they're not finishing building projects and fields are left to rot and so on and so forth. Okay, so here's the problem with this, Matt.
01:24:13
Speaker
move Here's the problem. It's all fucking capitalism shit that he sees. Because, like, yeah, there's there's all these abandoned like buildings that nobody finished building.
01:24:29
Speaker
But also, they don't need them. Like, we've we've seen Bostegard, where everybody has a house and plenty of food. Like, he looks at this cornfield, and he's like, yeah, nobody's harvesting all this corn. Yeah.
Discussion on Hunger and Relocation Issues
01:24:42
Speaker
It's like, well, yeah, well, everybody has food. They don't need to. So this corn is just growing. Like, that's just what plants do. i mean, i I guess what it should it should be established that, like, it should have been established that the the what he'd been told about everybody has enough food wasn't true.
01:25:06
Speaker
But it is. But, like, what I'm saying is, this part should have established that there are people who are actually hungry. And I mean, I guess the last bit with the emaciated kids showing that there are people who are hungry, but it could have been clearer. Yeah, but there's no indication of why these people aren't just living in New Asgard.
01:25:31
Speaker
like there's Well, that's just one city. It's not like we've been exiled to the cursed Earth, you know? It's just like... it's Because most of the people in this little ah shitty western town don't look malnourished.
01:25:45
Speaker
Everybody pretty much looks normal, except for these starving children. These two starving children. the Right, Chris. Why doesn't everybody just move to New York City, right? Or I mean, say, hey Thor, can you maybe ah build us a paradise artist's enclave here?
01:26:01
Speaker
ah You live in Alabama, right? Your government sucks. Why don't you just move? Why don't you just move?
Critique of Thor's Decisions and Social Issues
01:26:08
Speaker
Why don't just move to a blue state, right?
01:26:13
Speaker
You know what, Wilson? I did.
01:26:22
Speaker
I did what you're saying. I get what you're saying. The people in the bar fucking... just like doing heroin and and fucking on the saloon tables, are not the people huddling in their basement reading the words of Christ.
01:26:39
Speaker
like There's no unification. There's just kind of a bad neighborhood still exists. And well then this ah kid goes missing, and the main saloon lady's like, Braybo, which is a hilarious name.
01:26:54
Speaker
Very funny name. Where's Braybo, my son, Braybo? And it turns out that while she was busy getting high, he drowned. yeah And that is the most reefer madness bullshit. it's It's very close to the stuff you would see in a Jack Chick track. Literally, that happens in an episode of Dragnet about how how smoking pot will lead to LSD.
01:27:23
Speaker
And LSD will make you murder your baby. I do think the weakest part of this run in general is finding ways to demonstrate how Thor's abilities or Thor's decisions and policies are bad for people.
01:27:45
Speaker
Because this... this Yeah, this is a cartoon. like this is This is not a serious way of showing the effects of this kind of thing.
Security vs Liberty in Thor's Rule
01:27:57
Speaker
like I don't know if it's in this issue that we get it.
01:28:03
Speaker
yeah No, it it is. ah ah There's a panel of Theolphe walking around, and he says, ah he gave them everything. Food, medicine, shelter, the necessities. With no need to work, few aspire to anything beyond the next day's thrill.
01:28:19
Speaker
They've become fat. Lazy. The children yearn for the mines. this is This is fucking social Darwinist nonsense, dude. like like Basically, The Albi's walking around calling everybody a fucking welfare queen.
01:28:36
Speaker
You know? it yeah It's like... I don't know anything about Dan Jurgens. But the fact that he but he thinks Thor curing cancer is bad because people now don't have to have jobs is like, what are you talking about, bud?
01:28:56
Speaker
it Look, this comic's coming out in 2004, right? 2003, 2004.
01:29:04
Speaker
In the midst of the rise of the Department of Homeland Security... And this era of people being told, your security is more important than your liberty.
01:29:22
Speaker
And I feel like this... Two things. One, this is trying to point to or discuss that somehow and poorly.
01:29:38
Speaker
And two... This could have been a good allegory for that, but it it fails to be that. It's just so wild to me that this whole thing is, but people don't have jobs.
01:29:59
Speaker
it is It is like a weird, like... he He took away capitalism, and that was the good thing. yeah. yeah The fact that people had to labor to survive, and some and sometimes got cancer, ah that, like... I know Thor took away that, but at what cost?
Dissent in Thor's Utopia
01:30:19
Speaker
And it's like, well... Because the actually bad thing that they're doing is, like, when people dissent, or...
01:30:29
Speaker
rebel in any way, they send them to a camp to rewire their brain. yeah And they're being indoctrinated and they're not able to practice religion how they want, and there's a lot of implication that like ethnic and but religious identity is being ripped away from people.
01:30:50
Speaker
yeah yeah i mean yeah Not even indication. like That's textual. old Yes. That's the one thing where I'm like, that's the bad part. Religious in particular, but like ethnic is a little muddier in this.
01:31:02
Speaker
if But like you know if you're from Pakistan, like you know you you might have some pride in being Pakistani, but... like You don't have that anymore, right? not like Real quick, remind me how Pakistan was created and how smoothly that went, though. not again The is imposition of borders. Remind me how that went down. Not the best example. Yeah, not the best example. Move to a blue state.
01:31:35
Speaker
But you know what I'm saying. Well, it's it's even worse. i mean, you want to talk about like you know but being a product of its time. Yeah. We'll get to it in a second, but we do see the people who are like resisting joining up with Thor's utopian society, and they are cartoonish.
01:31:55
Speaker
They're like sub-Cobra cartoon terrorists. ah What matters in this issue is that after the after the tragic death of Braybo, who drowned in the bayou, i guess...
Mystery of Mjolnir and Thor's Regime
01:32:08
Speaker
ah ah Kaya takes Theolfi down and shows him Mjolnir, which has not been destroyed, like Thor says, but it's just there because he can't pick it up.
01:32:20
Speaker
And then he sees this dead body, this skeleton. Yeah, it's bones. but It sees bones. He's just bones now. He has become bones.
01:32:31
Speaker
ah huh ah But I'll tell you what's still there is his 170 years later is his clothes, That have his name tag on them that says Jake Olsen.
01:32:41
Speaker
Yeah. ah Which Theofi knows is Thor's humanity. And honestly, if that's me finding it, I just would have like, Jake Olsen, but that guy sucked ass. and Well, Theofi still is like, oh, that's not really Mjolnir.
01:32:57
Speaker
That's a trick. And Kaia's like, well, then try to pick it up. And he does, and he can't, and he's like... It is Mjolnir. What does this mean? That's... D'Alf's got an awfully high opinion of himself.
01:33:12
Speaker
ah If he thinks he could just... I can't pick it up, so it must be Mjolnir. It can't just be something pretty heavy.
01:33:21
Speaker
Thor number 72 has Magni on the cover. And he's holding ah a hammer with a really long handle, which is not what he has. He has an axe.
01:33:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:33:36
Speaker
Kind of cool cover. It's not a bad cover, but that is that is not what Magni... That's not his weapon. um Anyway, it opens with Tioffi thinking about like... This is the one where he's like, people have become fat and lazy.
01:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, they're fat. All these fat people. And he's like... Thor gave them everything and they got fat. He's like, i can't believe I can't believe Thor lied to me.
01:34:06
Speaker
and he can't and he And he lied to me about the hammer. He's unworthy to hold it. What's going on?
Generational Conflict in Leadership
01:34:13
Speaker
And that's when he overhears Thor yelling at Magni for not having been there the night before.
01:34:19
Speaker
because it's like Because it turns out the juggling party was a state function. It was a state function. And he's like, you gotta be at this stuff. And this was a special party for my buddy Teofy, and you should have been there.
01:34:31
Speaker
And so where were you? And Magni's like... i didn't think I'm sorry, Father. I didn't think it was important. It won't happen again. I'll be at all your stuff. and And he's like, okay, but where were you? And Mindy's like, why does it matter?
01:34:50
Speaker
and And then old Spy and Loki shows up, and he's like, he was with a girl?
01:34:58
Speaker
He was with a mortal girl? And that's forbidden. That's forbidden. I don't trust her. And Manny's like, get over it. It's no big deal. Come on, Dad. It's 2170. I can be friends with a girl.
01:35:12
Speaker
and And this is this is when Tiafie just says, like, hey, he's a lot like you used to be to Thor. And he does later tell Thor, he's like, hey, man, I know your dad's giving you a hard time, but, like, you know he used to be.
01:35:27
Speaker
he used to, like, he dated mortal girls. Thor's like, hey, Tiafie, why did you leave your own party? And she's obviously like, I don't want to say I was fucking. And then Loki's like... I got so horny from the paintings of those girls.
01:35:48
Speaker
Listen. i was I was just pissing in that trough. but Saw those horny paintings. Yeah.
01:35:58
Speaker
And, well, you know Thor, one thing led to another. Thor's like, haha, say no more, I love those horny paintings.
01:36:06
Speaker
I don't piss in that bathroom, I got my own, but I know what you're talking about. You should see the paintings in my piss trough.
01:36:15
Speaker
ah But then Loki's like, hey, we've got to stop talking about this anyway. There's trouble in Spain, so let's go to Spain and stop this uprising that's starting. And before they leave, though, Tiofi's like, hey, Thor, what happened to your hammer? What happened Mjolnir?
01:36:31
Speaker
And Thor's like, I don't want to talk about it! And his dog gets all mad. Yeah. But Loki's like, alright, come with me to Spain so that we can we can deal with these rabble-rousers.
01:36:45
Speaker
So they all get on their pegasi. Classic Norse mythology, the pegasi. Classic Norse mythology. ah what What are the winged horses in Norse mythology called? There aren't any. They're pegasi.
01:36:58
Speaker
yes Yeah, yeah. They all get on their pegasi and they they fly to Spain.
Ethics of Power and Rebellion
01:37:03
Speaker
and But Loki doesn't go. Because Loki's got something chained Loki's got to go down to where they keep Griffith in Berserk.
01:37:13
Speaker
For a year. He's got something down there that's chained up in a box that he's like, this is my trump card. Yeah, I might have to use what I've got locked up in my Griffith room.
01:37:27
Speaker
Yeah. With that little freak. They go to Spain. don't that little freak, Matt. No, I don't like that little freak either. um They go to Spain, and what they realize is that the people here have um like guns and stuff.
01:37:47
Speaker
And this makes Hogan in particular furious.
01:37:54
Speaker
He hates it when people have guns. Woke King. You know what? He's a woke king. ah But he's he is furious, and he's like, we now have to kill all these people.
01:38:09
Speaker
all these All these people have got to die. Yeah, because I believe they specifically have... No, I guess they don't have the guns that can kill Asgardians. They just have regular guns. They have regular guns.
01:38:20
Speaker
And there's one dude – well, Magni's like, hey, they're going to try to kill all these people. So he says to Tiafie, they're going to try to kill all these people. So we got to go down there and we've got to stop them. We see Hogan with this guy who looks like fucking Duke from G.I. Joe, who is cowering.
01:38:39
Speaker
ah at his feet as Hogan's like, I'm going smash this dude's head with a mace. And Theofi goes, stop, Hogan! You know, you they're beaten! Give them a chance to surrender! And this guy who is cowering at Hogan's feet, clearly defeated, because he was about to have his head smashed in, goes, I'll never surrender! And pulls out a gun and shoots at Hogan. Hogan's like, you see what treachery these pigs are capable of?
01:39:03
Speaker
wait Rules of engagement are bad, actually. ah Badam, badam. yeah and then yeah I thought it was the same guy. It's not, because Hogan does smash that dude's head.
01:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, different guy. And then a and bli ah different guy yeah ah Magni is like, ah hey, we're not here to slaughter a village. We're here to quell her a billion. Thielfi, use your super speed powers. Take their weapons.
01:39:30
Speaker
And Thielfi disarms everybody at super speed. And he goes, hey, Magni goes, hey, stop persecuting the people who follow the Asgardians, because that's why they're there. It's not that they're ah rebellion, it's that there are people there who want to join up with New Asgard, and they're being attacked.
01:39:47
Speaker
yeah At least according to what we've seen. And he's like, hey, all don't persecute our followers and accept our ways.
Internal Rebellion and Power Dynamics
01:39:59
Speaker
And a guy pulls open his shirt where he's got a wily coyote-ass amount of dynamite and a beeper. It is a choice. It is a choice in early 2004 to be like, suicide bomber. here's One of these bad guys is a suicide bomber.
01:40:19
Speaker
They're not Middle Eastern. and they are both The guy with the gun and the guy the suicide bomber are blonde. Yeah. Blonde white guys. But still. Those famous blonde Spaniards.
01:40:31
Speaker
ah But the guy like shows all this dynamite, and he's like got his thumb over the detonator, the plunger, and ah Magni like jumps on the guy and you know shields everyone from the explosion.
01:40:50
Speaker
And so does it die. These people just can't be reasoned with. yeah And they're they're actually persecuting Yeah. even though we're the ones who are in charge. There is a drawing of Magni post-explosion, where like his shirt has been exploded off.
01:41:06
Speaker
It's very sexy. And he goes, i had I had no idea they hated us so. But um I can't really tell what he's talking about or anything, because he looks just like Keefe from the Righteous Jets.
01:41:18
Speaker
He really does! He really does! I was literally just watching that before I came up here to record the show, and he clicked exactly the scene and the start of the third episode of the season.
01:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah ah yeah. I mean, I saw that panel, and I had to go to the pisser off, if you know what i mean. Yeah, boy. Yeah, boy, yeah, boy. ah He might as well have the fucking 666 tattoo along his is stomach.
01:41:45
Speaker
Anyway... i I can't tell who the bad guys are in this comic anymore, because, like, The people rebelling against... like like These people who are rebelling against what has kind of been presented to us as Thor's totalitarian regime, right?
01:42:02
Speaker
Are like caricatures of suicide bombers. They're they're caricatures of terrorists. Yeah, it seems like they should be sympathetic, right? but Yeah, of! They're not really...
01:42:13
Speaker
yeah um I mean, maybe this is like Deidre Jurgens being like... actually Actually, the people of of Afghanistan and Iraq are just fighting.
01:42:26
Speaker
They're just insurgents fighting for their rights. I think what's going to happen is we're going to ah get to the end of this run and Dan Juergens going to have a note on the letter column that's like, this run is dedicated to the brave men and women of the Mojahedin.
01:42:41
Speaker
yeah web man's terrorist is One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, right? Yeah. Kieran Reese, baby. Yeah. Meanwhile, Jordal is at home looking through a scrapbook, and and someone who looks like Magni shows up, and he's like, tell me about all that old technology that you have. Tell me about all of your illegal secrets.
01:43:10
Speaker
And it's
Moral Dilemmas and Leadership in Rebellion
01:43:12
Speaker
Loki. He's got green eyes. Yeah, Loki, and you know. You know it's not that Loki. Loki. ah Thor number 73 has Thor on the cover on his chariot with his goats.
01:43:28
Speaker
and in thatshroom toothrowndder That's him. and He's still got his left left arm his left eye, and he's holding Mjolnir. Yeah, that's that's like current-day Marvel Thor appearing in the pages of The Avengers.
01:43:42
Speaker
ah Except he's wearing his king outfit, and he has a beard. This one starts... We're so we're still in 2170. ah Loki is telling Thor all about this rebellion in Spain and how they had these weapons that they shouldn't have.
01:43:58
Speaker
And Thor's like, you must not be doing your job very well then.
01:44:04
Speaker
And Loki's like... Maybe I should use the the reconditioning centers more then. i And Thor's like, I don't like those. And this is that whole thing you were talking about where Loki was like, well, we could kill more people then. Yeah.
01:44:18
Speaker
yeah But then Magni and Tiafie show up and Thor's like, hey, why did you not like really put down all those people and just like try to deal with them peacefully?
01:44:35
Speaker
And Magni's like, because I don't want to hurt people. And Teofi's like, no, no, no. Magni actually did the right thing. Like, we needed to intervene, but we did not need to kill them.
01:44:51
Speaker
And there's just this panel of Thor looking very grim about this argument that's been happening. killing. don't like the sound of that. He says yeah he will consider Tioffi's point of view, and then he tells everybody that they're dismissed.
01:45:09
Speaker
And Loki's like, fucking Tioffi, he's messing everything up. And Enchantress is like, it's his buddy. Thor likes his buddy.
01:45:20
Speaker
Thor likes his dog. Yeah. yeah then there's more of Magni and Tiofie having a conversation, and Tiofie's like, Thor used to be different.
01:45:32
Speaker
Thor didn't used to be like this. ah And and like Loki, his relationship with okki Loki's all different, too.
01:45:43
Speaker
ah And then Magni flies off. Yeah, and I get get That it has not been 170 years in the current Marvel Universe.
01:46:00
Speaker
And yet, like, Thor's relationship with Loki has, you know, changed considerably. Yeah. As as Loki's relationship to the readers of Marvel Comics has changed significantly.
01:46:13
Speaker
But, like, also...
01:46:17
Speaker
th or should not be putting 2004 Loki in charge of anything. And Thor did that is a real dumbass move on his part.
01:46:33
Speaker
Then we flash back to 2020 at the Royal Castle. Who has arrived at the Royal the royal Castle? Dan, Dan, you nailed it. this This is pretty much what it was like.
01:46:47
Speaker
Yeah, pretty accurate. Just bad. Who has arrived at the foot Royal Castle? Captain America. Doctor Strange, who has no eyeballs. And new X-Men ass Wolverine. Yeah, man. 2004 Wolverine, baby.
01:47:04
Speaker
Wolverine in this continuity was like, let me keep that jacket. That was a good look. I'm going to wear that jacket for a long time.
Ethical Questions in Thor's Rule
01:47:12
Speaker
um So all of the all the heroes have shown up.
01:47:16
Speaker
Baldr is betraying Thor because he doesn't think that what he's doing is right. So if your question is, why did Thor put Loki in charge of shit instead of Baldr, this is kind of why? Except for Loki's already in charge of that shit.
01:47:29
Speaker
well I had spent a lot of reading this thinking, why is this T'olfi and not Baldr? Yeah. Because the the character who had been set up as being like the one who doubts Thor's authority and doesn't really like Thor's ideas about how to deal with people has been Baldur, right?
01:47:49
Speaker
I mean, I do think it narratively should have been Baldur. But this reveals that Baldur betrayed Thor much earlier and let the Avengers into his palace, right?
01:48:05
Speaker
um all the way back here in 2020. Yeah. yeah and All the good guys show up, Captain America, the Vision, the Thing, the Hulk, Wolverine. and ah And you might be like, wow, is there plan to like take out Thor?
01:48:23
Speaker
ah And no, it's not. like like Carol Danvers and Quicksilver are there. ah It honestly took me a minute to remember who Warbird was. Because that was not her best codename.
01:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cale Danvers is Warburg. But... Their plan... And this is, like, the most bananas thing in this entire story.
01:48:48
Speaker
um Steve Rogers. Cats in America. His plan... Is to kidnap Thor's baby son?
01:49:01
Speaker
And I guess hold him for, like... use him to force Thor to give up power? Well, I don't think, that i don't know that that is the initial plan. No, it absolutely is because they, like, Balder says that they're going to, like, uh,
01:49:22
Speaker
ah he said He says, ah you know where's the where's the target? And he says, in the North Tower's nursery, but I must ask, what are you going to do to him? And Doctor Strange goes, remove him.
01:49:33
Speaker
And so the plan, like the kind of reveal is that the plan is to kidnap baby Magni. Okay. But another part of the plan is that they're they have teamed up with the council elite of the Pantheons of Earth.
01:49:53
Speaker
To create a device that Doctor Strange uses to remove try to remove the Odin power from Thor. I don't think that's how that works. Well, they sure try it.
01:50:06
Speaker
And like there's also like a big attack on Thor. And we don't see how his eye gets cut out or his arm gets cut off.
01:50:19
Speaker
He just goes from having them to some panels of... like fighting happening, and then he next time we see him, he doesn't have them. Yeah. um In fact, I specifically went back to it because there's a scene where it looks like his eye is missing.
01:50:34
Speaker
Well, there's a scene where it looks like Wolverine chops his arm off. But he doesn't. But he doesn't, because he has it like in the next panel. Yeah. ah and then he And then he days of future past Wolverine.
01:50:48
Speaker
Right, Wolverine gets skeletonized right there. Man, so many people turn into skeletons. and But we see that he's killed Hulk and killed the thing Thor has.
01:51:00
Speaker
And then Baldur's holding baby Magni... And Captain America attacks and almost chops Thor's head off with his shield like he did to Baron Blood.
01:51:13
Speaker
But then Loki stabs Balder through the chest with a sword while he's holding Magni. And that's when Thor is like, my child is safe, but you ain't.
01:51:26
Speaker
And then he makes Captain America a skeleton as well. yeah Which isn't like as... i mean, I like the art. In these issues, like I think it's it's good.
01:51:36
Speaker
i mean, love Koblish, obviously. I don't think Scott Eaton's doing a ah bad job, but this fight scene is kind of lacking. it's It's lacking specifics, which so seems like a script problem.
01:51:51
Speaker
Yeah. the panic like The panel of a Thor chokeslamming Captain America and turning him into bones? Yeah. That shit's pretty good. That's pretty good, yeah.
Loki's Political Schemes
01:52:00
Speaker
Yeah. And also, like Loki's doing something in that panel, and it's kind of hard to tell what.
01:52:08
Speaker
like i think he I think we're supposed to take that as he's just taking Magni back to the nursery. Well, no, because he's doing magic, and Thor's mule is glowing. Oh, lovinging yes. his his um The like necklace that he has, the thing that was supposed to take away his Odin power is glowing.
01:52:27
Speaker
Oh, that's what it is. Okay. So it's Loki removing that. Yes, yes. Okay. And then Thor wakes up, and he's like, what ah what a dream. What an intense dream. Let me forward in and put my ah my evening skirt on.
01:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, that this is Thor in 2170. um Being like, I just remembered everything that happened 150 years ago when I killed all of the Avengers. And Enchantress goes like, that there's ah that's a wild dream, Thor. And Thor's like, it's not just a dream.
01:52:59
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, i remembered it as though it was happening like right now. So that means I have to take a big nap. I gotta to take a big ol' sleepy time. I'm cranky.
01:53:12
Speaker
ah And then, also, Thor, when he's got his clothes on looks like big and burly. Like Odin big and burly.
01:53:23
Speaker
But when he doesn't have a shirt on he's like still ripped as hell. Yes. Interesting. ah Anyway, goes back to Kaya and is like, alright, I'm with you. I want to end the reign of Asgard on Earth.
01:53:49
Speaker
And then we see Magni go to Jordal's house, which has been burned down. And he finds out that she's been taken to the reconditioning centers with her family. by Loki.
01:54:02
Speaker
Thor number 74. The reigning part 6. Has, on the cover, Jordal with her long torso. In her classic costume.
01:54:15
Speaker
Thor, Magni, Tiofie, and Loki. And it's got Magni holding up Mjolnir. Which does not happen in this issue.
01:54:28
Speaker
Does not happen in this issue. ah But this is essentially everybody as they are in this story, at least. yeah ah New artist on this issue, Roger Robinson.
01:54:42
Speaker
And I gotta say, i went back and forth between really liking this art and not being not being sure if I did. it is it's very It is page to page whether it's good.
01:54:55
Speaker
yeah It's weird. I fully agree with you. The splash page of Loki is really, really good. yeah And like the next four pages are bad, but then like there's some cool Magni stuff that's kind of almost berserk in a couple panels. Sometimes it looks kind of like 2000 AD art, I feel like.
01:55:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's definitely got like a little bit of that very... like very Oh, it's it's not Gary Frank that I'm thinking of, but it's somebody who does like that really... i mean, it's kind of like a Mobius influence, for sure.
01:55:34
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely kind of feels like that. um It reminds me kind of a Liam Sharp. Yeah, I can see that. um And then he tries to draw this dog, and the dog does not look good.
01:55:48
Speaker
Well, and there are certain panels where, like, faces are really like distorted and weird.
01:55:56
Speaker
it's It's really um stylized in a way that sometimes looks great and sometimes looks not great. yeah it's like It's like Cam Kennedy inked by Mobius.
01:56:11
Speaker
ah Anyway... ah This starts with a gun deal. I would read the shit out of a story drawn by Cam Kennedy and inked by Mobius, honestly.
01:56:22
Speaker
Sure. ah In New Asgard, there's a gun deal going down. And what we are going to learn is that the way that humans continue to get weapons is that Loki lets it happen.
01:56:39
Speaker
Because... This is a way for him to keep his re-education centers open. His way to convince Thor to keep letting him do that.
Thor's Leadership and Societal Control
01:56:53
Speaker
So, Sneaky Loki is allowing some of this rebellion to happen so that he can clamp down on people harder.
01:57:06
Speaker
Yeah. Which is pretty good. I actually think that's a good element. That's a pretty decent Loki plot. I mean, it's not dissimilar to what lore is doing in Lore War.
01:57:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And there's like there there's a scene here where like Thor comes in, Loki's sitting on a throne, and Thor comes in and he's like, alright, Loki, do more.
01:57:29
Speaker
like there's There's still uprisings happening. Do more, but do it in the boundaries of the law. And Loki's like, of course, of course I will. Of course I will, sire.
01:57:40
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not evil. ah Then we see a reconditioning center in Arizona, where there's a ah billboard that says Asgard is happiness, with Thor pointing.
01:57:56
Speaker
Which is like the only real... like kind of propaganda poster we've seen. GarthMaringiSuttleT.gif There should be more of that. There should have been more of that. um you know You'd think there would be, but then Thor would be a like ah full dumbass for not knowing.
01:58:18
Speaker
like You can kind of get away with it being here, because it's like, oh, Loki put this here. yeah like Loki made all this propaganda.
01:58:27
Speaker
But like If it was in the middle of Bostegard, Bostegard's so fucking funny, ah like then it would be like, okay, Thor, come on, man.
01:58:41
Speaker
i don't know. i feel I feel like if you want to if you want to say, oh Thor is a full-on dictator, he's like gone totally authoritarian, he like has no regard for people's rights and autonomy anymore, there should have been more of this.
01:58:59
Speaker
Yeah. That's how I feel about it. But nonetheless, Magni shows up in a hooded cloak, and ah people are like, you're not allowed to be here. You gotta leave.
01:59:15
Speaker
And he's like, oh, oh, really? And these like guards are like swinging axes at him and stuff. Yeah. and And they're like, kill him! Slay him before he can enter!
01:59:29
Speaker
And Monique goes, slay me? i don't think so. um And there's a pretty fucking incredible thing where a bunch of arrows get shot at him. yeah like that's the That's the panel that I was like, that's almost like Berserk.
01:59:43
Speaker
And he's like ah against this brick wall, and like all the arrows go into his body, and his hands are just like dug into the brick wall. I guess it's a floor.
01:59:55
Speaker
um But either way, like man it's it' it's a wall because he's like pushing, he's tearing the wall up. Yeah, he tears the wall off. perspective is weird. The perspective is weird. And I don't know if it's a floor or a wall, if I'm being honest, but ah he he tears the wall off.
02:00:12
Speaker
And there are just these like scientists in there reconditioning people. And Jordal is in there and he like grabs her and saves her. And stomps down on the ground and makes those scientists like fly backwards.
02:00:29
Speaker
Yeah.
02:00:32
Speaker
And he's like, you're ruining her mind. I think you are the people who need help. And like again, that is part of why this art is so weird. is like This is all cool looking, but it's also like distorted in a way that makes it A little hard to follow.
02:00:54
Speaker
You know what I mean? ah Then we come back to Loki, who is spying on Kaya and her people, who are raiding Asgard, or they're just outside of ah or do Asgard.
02:01:09
Speaker
And she just looks like Scarlet Witch now. Yes. She's just wearing a Scarlet Witch costume.
02:01:18
Speaker
And they're kind of standing by for an attack. And Loki doesn't quite know what what they're planning.
02:01:29
Speaker
So he goes to the door, and he can't open the door. And he's like, a mystic force keeps me from entering? Or he tries to go to Thor's room to like tell Thor about what's going on, and he can't open the door.
02:01:41
Speaker
And he goes, she's doing this. The witch. Magni and Kaia... ah go back to New Asgard. it's not Kaya, it's Jordal. um Or they go to like someplace on a mountainside and go inside.
02:01:56
Speaker
And Magni says, this girl needs help, and I had nowhere else to go, no one to turn to So he's taking her somewhere. Not New Asgard, somewhere else.
02:02:07
Speaker
yeah um i I really understand why Magni doesn't just go to this re-education camp and go, hey, I'm Magni. I'm Prince Magni. the son of Thor?
02:02:19
Speaker
A friend of mine was brought here by mistake. So, can i can I get her out of here? Can I just get her out of here? um But I guess the implication is that Loki has told his people not to trust Magni.
02:02:34
Speaker
I guess. don't know, because like these I don't know if these guys are like Loki's boys or if they're just like it's guy I hate to be this guy. Seems like a lot of people are just doing their job. ah four working at the ah boat Another day working at the re-education factoring.
02:03:01
Speaker
Yeah. ah They're just following orders. You're right, Matt. Damn, got me. Got me.
Rising Tensions and Moral Ambiguity
02:03:10
Speaker
Thor is looking at the fire in his bedchamber, wearing his nightskirt again.
02:03:16
Speaker
And Enchantress is like, ah, here's the here's the elixir that will start the Odin sleep. ah so So get ready. Get ready for sleepy time. And Thor drinks it.
02:03:28
Speaker
And as soon as he does, Tioffi is just there. Tioffi is just standing there in his bedroom. Yeah, Telfi is just there ah making a dumbass rookie mistake move.
02:03:43
Speaker
Of letting him know, as an assassin, he's letting his target know that he's there. Yeah, he goes, alright Thor, you drank your Odin sleep potion, and that's gonna kick in in a couple minutes, but let's fight first.
02:04:02
Speaker
Instead of just being like, Okay, he drank his Odin sleep potion like five minutes ago, and now he's fully asleep. Let me commit this murder. Now I'm going to stab him. Yeah, he doesn't do that. Yeah, because he says, like, I take no pride in fighting him in such a state. it's like, well, but you are, though.
02:04:18
Speaker
Yeah. you're Like, you're already going this far, bud. ah So Thor yanks a sword off the wall, and they fight for a while. And also have an argument where Tiafie's like, you're different now. You're not like you used to be.
02:04:34
Speaker
And Thor's like, look, man, I've been nice to you.
02:04:43
Speaker
Like, I did a lot to help you. um Oh, also, it was worth mentioning, the the the attack on the people in Spain reminded Tiofie of the Vikings killing his own family.
02:04:57
Speaker
Back from his origin story. Which I think is, you know, an important element to Like, that's clearly Dan Juergens doing that on purpose, to so have him make that connection.
02:05:13
Speaker
So Enchantress runs up, and she's like, kill him, Thor. Wait, no, she wants Thor to die. She's like, kill him, slay him before he can enter.
02:05:24
Speaker
Saying of Thor. No, she's on Thor's side. or saw Oh, that's right. and it's The word balloons are a little weird. Because I thought it was Thor saying, slay me, I don't think so, but it's Tiafoe who's saying that. yeah And he gets um a sword through the arm as he's saying that.
02:05:45
Speaker
He gets a sword through the arm like in a way that like you would that someone would be stabbed in like a play. Yeah, yeah. like it's like It's very difficult to tell if it is supposed to be him actually getting hit, but it is.
02:06:01
Speaker
Well, he, but it's just in the arm. Like, he's he's injured, but not mortally. But, I mean, do you know what I mean, though. Yeah. You know what I mean about how looks. Yeah.
02:06:12
Speaker
Meanwhile, um Loki's going out and attacking ah Kaya and her people with, ah like, weird tentacles.
02:06:23
Speaker
I don't know how yeah how else to say it. I mean, yeah. I mean, that's about as accurate as ah you can get, Matt. ah Thor is now extremely pissed off. He's shooting eye blasts at T'Alfie.
02:06:39
Speaker
And T'Alfie's like, oh, you're going to be asleep soon. Oh, boy, you're in trouble. You're going asleep soon.
02:06:48
Speaker
and And then Enchantress, who is on Thor's side, is like, ah, you forgot one thing. Our dog. And um that dog...
02:07:01
Speaker
I think bites Tiafee's head off. Yeah, man. That dog busts in and it's a good boy. That dog fully bites Tiafee's head off. Yeah.
02:07:12
Speaker
and And it ends with... And it's like, damn, that's what happens to traitors. Yeah. And then she says, rest easy, my husband, no matter what the mortals try, no matter what they do, they shall never destroy us. Your work is magnificent and shall endure forever.
02:07:26
Speaker
Across all of Earth, throughout the entire universe, one simple fact is undeniable. A being capable of defeating almighty Thor, Lord of Earth, simply does not exist. And we get an ominous shot of whatever door Magni went into.
02:07:41
Speaker
Yes. And that is the end of The Reigning. Yeah, man. that Every problem I've had with the run-up to The Reigning is really amplified in in this book.
02:07:54
Speaker
but Because it's like...
02:07:57
Speaker
like There's that that Sean video, ah ah the the USA about Harry Potter, that just very bluntly makes the point that Harry Potter owns a slave.
02:08:13
Speaker
And you kind of can't get past that. ah huh And I keep reading this and I keep going, Thor cured cancer.
02:08:23
Speaker
Thor cured cancer and stopped climate change. like why for like Why was Jake Olsen acting like that was a bad thing? no like acting like no one should have been acting like he was doing a bad thing.
02:08:41
Speaker
And even in this run, I'm like, yeah, outlawing all religions is bad. Like, unambiguously, I agree. Thor did cure cancer and stopped climate change and gave everybody food and housing. Like, Captain America tried to kidnap a baby.
02:09:04
Speaker
there're there are there are definitely ways this should have... made the consequence the the bad consequences of Thor's actions clearer.
02:09:14
Speaker
Yeah, if if if the idea... like We are meant to believe that Jake Olsen was Thor's humanity, right?
02:09:26
Speaker
Right, yeah. But Thor still, very demonstrably and very explicitly in this comic book... wants to help people and wants people to have a good life and wants like, doesn't want Loki to, ah like, you know, but he's, he's not, he has been convinced that the reeducation camps are a necessity, but he doesn't like it.
02:09:54
Speaker
So Thor has empathy and wants to provide to people and ease their suffering. So what is Dan Juergens think humanity is?
02:10:04
Speaker
Well, we have five... The desire to have a job? We have five more issues to tie this all up. ah we There will be five more issues of Jurgies, the five-part story, Gods and Men.
02:10:21
Speaker
And then that will be the end of the Jurgies. Although we will ah cover the remaining six issues, which are the um Thor disassembled story.
02:10:36
Speaker
Yeah. ah Which is going to wild. But man, I have this this series is as morally confusing to me as when Doctor Strange said heaven and hell were the same place and also God and the devil were the same.
02:10:56
Speaker
It's too bad that there's so many things about it that are extremely frustrating. Like, on an ethical and moral level. Because, like, as a story, it's pretty good. It's just like, you're telling me one thing and showing me something different. Yeah, that's exactly it Like, there's so many ways that you could have done a story of Thor's good intentions...
02:11:21
Speaker
leading him down the wrong path, and or you know and power eventually corrupting Thor. And this ain't it, but everybody's acting like it is. Yeah. If you would like to email us, get in touch with us, you can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com.
02:11:40
Speaker
We're on Tumblr, warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com. We're on bluesky, warrocketajax.com. We have a Discord. If you would like to join that, sin ah ask us to send you an invitation ah to ah that Discord, and you can join with that invitation and then be part of that community, which is a very, very cool place.
02:12:05
Speaker
Our website is warrocketajax.com. It has every episode episode of the show we've ever done. WarRocketWiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could ever need about this show, WarRocket Ajax.
02:12:17
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's my website, and it has links to the things that I do here and there on the internet, things that I've written, books you can buy that aren't the new Deadpool, Bad Blood, and Batter Blood collection, which you can and should buy, because once you buy it, I will get money from that, and I can pay those gimmicks and get some of them out called bills.
02:12:49
Speaker
ah You can also find me on blueskytheisb.bsky.social. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for listening. Remember, without a job, you're you're gonna you're not even you're barely even a person.
02:13:05
Speaker
No, that's not true. That's a weird thing in this Thor comic. What you should remember is that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime.
02:13:17
Speaker
Diversity is not the problem, and cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you. Yeah!
02:13:37
Speaker
to Flash.