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Episode 704: Dr. Sivana Dad and Catwoman Mom f/ Jordan Blum and Heath Corson
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Two of the creators behind the new Minor Threats mini-series The Brood join us this week to talk about their book, working through family stuff in comics, inevitable comparisons, The Brood (Marvel), The Brood (WWE), the aliens from the movie Alien, and more!
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Introduction & Podcasting Tools
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster, or you want to be a podcaster, and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster. They also have hosting options, and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes, or in the episode description, and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
Meet the Hosts: Chris & Matt
00:00:53
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast, and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. And Matt, the first Christmas present I bought this year was for my other podcast co-host, Benito Serino. I see how it is. I mean, yours was like the third.
00:01:24
Speaker
Actually, no, that's true. Yours was the fourth. Okay, that's fine. i I know, as you say, I'm hard to buy for. but here's here's the Here's the order, all right? It was ah it was one for Benito. ah ah One for AC, my wife. Right. One for our very good friend, El Collins. Okay. And then two for you.
00:01:52
Speaker
Okay, that's- You were four and five. Okay, I'll take that, I'll take that. Yeah. Also, you know it's not, order of purchasing is not an indicator of anything other than opportunity. No, I just wanted to i wanted to create drama. that's That's what we got to do with these podcasts. ah Why don't you save that for the show where all you two do is this talk shit about me? That's absolutely not true.
00:02:21
Speaker
We don't just do that. And also we're in mourning because Chucky got canceled. Cut us a break.
00:02:30
Speaker
My first Christmas present I bought was definitely for Marlene. And it was a situation where she like texted me a link and it was an Etsy link. And so I went to the Etsy page to buy it and it said it was sold out.
00:02:50
Speaker
And I was like, Oh no. And so I, there was a little box you could click that was like, let me know when this is back in stock. So I did that. An hour later, I got a message that it was back in stock. It was so weird. Well, what was it? It was a pair of earrings.
00:03:14
Speaker
Okay. Well, it is folks, it is the it is the holiday time, which means we are stringing up the lights here at War Rocket Ajax. We're loading up the car for our annual trip to Mount Primus in a couple of weeks. That's right. But in the meantime, we've got a great show for everyone today.
Guest Spotlight: Jordan Bloom & Heath Corson
00:03:30
Speaker
We do. Our guests on the show this week are someone who's been on the show quite a few times, ah but we love talking to him, Jordan Bloom.
00:03:40
Speaker
and a new friend, ah Heath Corson. Heath is the lead writer of the new minor threats miniseries, The Brood, ah which Jordan, you know, Jordan is generally overseeing the broader minor threats universe. Can can you say the name of that ah book one more time, Matt? The Brood.
00:04:11
Speaker
It's not about the w WWE stable or the Marvel Comics version of the aliens from the movie Alien. but know for sure that we're going to talk about both of those things in the end. It wouldn't be us if we didn't. That's right. Uh, so we're going to talk to them in a little bit, but Chris, before we do that, uh, we do have some business to take care of here at the top of the show.
Support the Show: Patreon & Reviews
00:04:36
Speaker
The first bit of business is thanking our newest supporters on the Patreon. That's right, Matt. Now these are the people who have gone all the way down to 703 gimmick street and you know what's there. Let's see the,
00:04:52
Speaker
Anarchist bookstore was at 702. I had forgotten that, but yes. Okay, so you let you tell me what's at 703. Oh, all right. Okay. Oh, I thought you had something. No, I did not. but all right I have my my map of gimmick street here. Oh, sure. I mean, it's not like- Gimmick Street Chamber of Commerce. I mean, obviously we're not making these things up. These are just things that are on the street.
00:05:19
Speaker
Right. It's the year-round Christmas tree lot. Oh, of course. Where you can buy a Christmas tree any time of the year. Yeah, and they they are specifically Christmas trees. like they they No matter when you go there, they have snow on them and lights. Oh, so they're already lit trees. No, they take the lights off when you buy them.
00:05:45
Speaker
I see. So the light are they they want you to be able to see what they'll look like when you put your lights on them. I see. It's a weird business. I think it's a front.
00:05:56
Speaker
It can't be profitable. ah Yeah, they're laundering money like crazy through that place. Yeah. But while you're good on your way down there, while you're because look, it is a great place to get a Christmas tree at Christmas time. That's for sure. Yeah. And if you are a Christmas tree purchaser,
00:06:12
Speaker
ah Then while you're on your way down there, why don't you get out that internet connected device that you have? probably the thing you're listening to this very show on and direct it to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax where you can kick in as little as dollar a month to help me and Matt help us keep the show going and help us do all the fun stuff that we do here on the show and most importantly for me specifically Help us pay those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail call bills, because they do keep sending them. They really do. They really don't stop sending in those gimmicks in the mail call bills. Chris, here are our newest Patreon supporters. Jonathan Breen. Ah, thank you, Jonathan. And Don. Thank you, Don. If you would like to be like Jonathan and Don,
00:07:07
Speaker
you can head over to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax as Chris said and kick in as little as $1 per month to make sure that we keep doing this show every single week that we do every story ever specials monthly that we do comics ketchup monthly I think we're gonna do that Scrooge story we talked about on the every story ever special for December so Stay tuned for that That's gonna be a fun one to talk about ah Movie fighters in snack situation all of those shows are made possible by your support on patreon and as a patron you get every single one of those shows so Completely ad free in your own feed on patreon um Spotify wrapped I mean, I guess you could put it on Spotify wrapped, but you don't need it. You're gonna get your own feed from patreon You can also get other cool stuff as a patron you can get a
00:08:03
Speaker
bonus content that we put on Patreon exclusively. That includes outtakes I cut out from the show and put up there, stuff we record especially for Patreon, um writing that Chris and I have both done over there on the Patreon. Chris is a good bit more than me. ah He's done some video game reviews on the Patreon as well as a spreadsheet of his thoughts on every survivors-like game that he has played, called spreadsheet survivors. You could easily sort them by whether or not there is a playable dog. What more could you want? If that ain't worth five bucks a month, I don't know what is. So all of that stuff, a huge collection of bonus content is there on the Patreon if you subscribe at that level. There's line stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Every Story Ever and Thursday Night Raw.
00:08:58
Speaker
Submissions for Thursday Night Raw are closed at the moment, but we are going to finish out our line-seper submissions that we have received for Thursday Night Raw ah through the start of 2025. And then we will start our new game a little further end into 2025. So ah we'll let you know what that is when we start it. And then there's also ah physical rewards like t-shirts. If you are at the t-shirt level,
00:09:29
Speaker
and recently joined at the t-shirt level, which some people have done, message me and let me know if you want a t-shirt and I will try to get you one before the end of the year. um I will hopefully have some time to do some mailing the week before Christmas. So let me know if you want me to send you a t-shirt and you're at that level.
00:09:52
Speaker
And I will do my best to send you one before the end of the year, because I do still have some left of this year's shirts, which are great. um Fantastic shirts designed by Jay Gonzo of The Machine. I don't need to tell you what those shirts do. The Machine will tell you.
00:10:11
Speaker
If you're unable to help us monetarily, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five star review on the podcasting app that you use. That would help us out a whole bunch, or you can just spread word of mouth about the show. Let people know that you like to listen to war rocket Ajax, that we're fun guys that are good to listen to. And maybe if you get your friends and family to listen to the show, they can.
00:10:41
Speaker
contribute to our Patreon. We would love that very much. Matt, I was thinking about something. Yeah. That I want, I meant to run by you before we started recording the show. Okay. And I didn't do that. So we're going to do it live. So we're doing it live. How far away from the funny weed number are we? 22. 22. Okay. That's, that's achievable. If we can hit that by the end of the year,
00:11:10
Speaker
i I think you and me take some edibles and do some boko. I don't know how fun that will be, but let's give it a shot. I mean, historically speaking, I'll get real sleepy. Yeah, I mean, that's that's usually what happens to me. when When I went to the dispensary over there in Cherokee recently, we got we got some gummies. And boy, all they did would make me real sleepy, pretty much.
00:11:38
Speaker
sometimes they make me really sleepy, sometimes they make me really good at video games. I will say I had taken one when I watched Hot Frosty. and oh What it made me do was notice the editing was bad. in but Which you don't think you would have noticed otherwise? It made me notice the editing in a way I don't think I would have otherwise noticed. Okay.
00:12:05
Speaker
Chris, with that, it's time we thanked our Patreon supporters. It's time for Comforts and Joys. It's December. Let's do it.
00:12:18
Speaker
Chris, what's your comfort this week? Matt, this is... only not a recommendation because I feel like I want to talk about it at length. Maybe on bonus content, maybe I'll i'll write a review for the Patreon. First of all, I played through ah the 2DHD ah remake of Dragon Quest 3, which was great. Okay. I really enjoyed it. And then I went into ah one that finally went on sale, that I've been wanting to get for a long time, ah which was Metaphor, Re-Fantasia, which is Persona, but instead of being in Japan now, it's in a D and&D world. Okay. And
00:13:09
Speaker
So it's got everything I like about Persona, and everything I like about D and&D, and I like it quite a bit. It follows the structure of a Persona game, but the changes they have made to that structure are such incredible improvements that they have taken away my one big complaint about the Persona games.
00:13:32
Speaker
And also, all of the boss monsters are based on Hieronymus Bosch paintings, so that's wild. If you've ever woken up in the dead of night and thought, when can I see some hunky anime teens fight Hieronymus Bosch monsters? Folks, it's time. I'm really enjoying it. I have a lot to say about it.
00:14:00
Speaker
I would recommend it, but I think I want to go a little bit more in depth. So just know that I am taking a lot of comfort in my ability to really just grind for gold in that game very easily. I have two questions for you, Chris. Yes. Question one, do you think this game would be fun to talk about in the BOCO if we breach the funny weed number? Probably. It would be fun for me to talk about. Okay. Question two, should I play this game? Do you think I would like it? I think you have a much better chance of liking this game than you do of liking Persona. Okay. Okay. Because I i have have been curious about it. It is a little bit, it has like a
00:14:54
Speaker
a tiny little bit more action RPG element to it. There is a button that makes you dodge roll. I know you love games where you do that. I like a lot of games where you do that. There are notably hate games that do it poorly. Well, in this one, it actually feels really good to run around and hit things with a sword. I would say.
00:15:21
Speaker
So maybe not something you like. You tend to like games where doing that feels bad. No, I don't. I like it when it feels good and it feels good in those games. You tend to like it when you run really slowly and like trip over things a lot. That's not what happens. And it takes you like an hour to hit something with a sword. But mostly that is like the sort of action RPG parts. When you encounter an enemy,
00:15:51
Speaker
There is a button that you can hit that will just send you right into a JRPG battle, like the like a squad battle, they call it, which is turn-based, JRPG, weaknesses, things that give you extra turns or take multiple turns, that sort of thing. Familiar if you've played Persona. What you can also do is attack the enemies on the world map, or on the, not really a world map, but you know what I mean, you can just attack the enemies without going into a turn-based thing. yeah If you attack them enough, you will start the battle with the enemy stunned and you will deal damage to them at the start of the battle. If they manage to hit you, you will start the battle taking a pretty, like, a
00:16:38
Speaker
early game devastating amount of damage. So there is a nice little risk reward thing. And then once you have leveled up, once you're stronger than the area that you're in, you can just ah instantly um kill the enemies with the regular overworld attacks. So I do like that element to it, but it it does get a bit more complex than that in a way that I think you might enjoy. I would recommend it. I think you should pick it up. All right.
00:17:07
Speaker
Good to know. If you're curious about it, and you don't want to dive all the way into a Persona, if you're like, man, I would love to play Persona, but I don't really want to have the option to romance my teacher, then I would say Metaphor Rephantasia. I don't know, though. I'm not that far into it. It might happen. I think it is the biggest flex in the world to name your game Metaphor. We're we're really getting into it.
00:17:37
Speaker
There's a part where I had to take a screenshot because I was like, hmm, I wonder if that's the metaphor.
00:17:45
Speaker
we'll We'll talk about that on some BOCO. Matt, what have you been taking comfort in in these wintery times? Well, Chris, ah I have not had time to play video games in a couple of months. i There was a hurricane, famously.
00:18:03
Speaker
ah that hit the city where I live and affected a lot of things and so I was not home for a while and then when I got back home I was very busy and just unable to find time to sit down and play video games. If you are a person who happens to like watching my video game streams on YouTube a series of streams that has become known as never been scared because I mostly play horror games and I say at the start and end of every session that I've never been scared. I have started back on my playthrough of the Dead Space remake. I will assemble all of those videos. I think there are 10 now.
00:18:56
Speaker
I will assemble all of those videos into a playlist and link it in the show notes. ah But I am a pretty good chunk into my playthrough of the Dead Space remake. And I like the gameplay a lot. I do think that they ruined my favorite part of the game by having the protagonist Isaac talk. Okay.
00:19:22
Speaker
He doesn't talk in the original Dead Space, which was one of my favorite things about it. He was a silent protagonist. And I think silent protagonists often are good. And for whatever reason, when they decided to make this remake, they just had him be a real chatterbox. And so a lot of my stream is going to be me complaining about characters talking so much and telling me stuff I already know.
00:19:50
Speaker
and repeating things that they don't need to repeat. And Isaac, for some reason they thought Isaac needed to talk. um Because he does talk in Dead Space 2 and 3, which I think makes Dead Space 2 and 3 considerably worse than the first game. But anyway, ah if you have any interest in in catching my playthrough of Dead Space, it is on YouTube, on my YouTube channel. ah And I plan to do more of it.
00:20:20
Speaker
and finish the game out pretty soon. ah Then I will probably play a game that I'm not going to stream because I got fee i got Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. That's my next one to play, I think. But then maybe I'll play the Silent Hill 2 remake. I've heard that game can be a little scary, but I guess that's not that's not a concern for you. Not a problem for me, but um you know as if if people have the ability and propensity of being scared. Silent Hill 2 may do that to them. Alright Chris, time for joys. What's bringing you joy?
00:20:57
Speaker
Matt, i I knew we were switching over from checks and recs to comforts and joys, and I wanted to really lean into that.
Game & Music Recommendations
00:21:03
Speaker
yeah ah And I would say this is bringing me both comfort and joy. I believe I have previously referenced ah the music of Mikel, or maybe Michael, M-I-K-E-L, okay that you can find on Spotify, who did some great albums that I like to listen to that are basically like chill, laid back,
00:21:27
Speaker
ah remixes of, ah well, there's two that are Zelda and Chill. ah So it's Zelda music that's kind of like, you know, nice and chill. ah One is Poke and Chill, which is Pokemon music, also great. But buddy, there is a new one, a hot new album for 2024. And it is, it's what I needed at the time.
00:21:55
Speaker
to ease my troubled mind. Matt, it's called Middle Earth and Chill. Oh, but that is right up your alley. It is chill remixes and arrangements of the music of the Lord of the Rings films. It's so pleasant and so relaxing.
00:22:20
Speaker
highly highly recommend it uh it's you can stream it on spotify i'm sure you can find it on other places as well but it is if you just want to read some comics and have like a little background music on or uh i can tell you this they're great albums for bubble baths then check out check out all four of those albums but like the new one middle earth and chill i I'm like pre-gaming for my annual Lord of the Rings rewatch, so I'm very excited. ah Matt, what is bringing you joy? Uh, my, my joy is also music. Uh, as the world is well aware now, uh, Kendrick Lamar dropped a surprise album. I think it was the day, was it on Black Friday or was it, it might've been the week before.
00:23:15
Speaker
Thanksgiving. Cause I've been listening to this album for a couple of weeks now. And, uh, a lot of people are describing this new album, GNX as Kendrick taking a victory lap after the pretty crushing win over Drake in their, their rap beef throughout 2024. Yeah, man, that he, he gave flash the baseball bat.
00:23:46
Speaker
No kidding. And like, you may disagree that Drake lost the rap battle. You would be deeply wrong. And the way I know that- I don't know how anyone could disagree. The way that I know that he lost is that his next track is a lawsuit. I guess his own label. Ridiculous. Nonetheless,
00:24:14
Speaker
um So you may call GNX a victory lap. And my response to that is, fuck yeah, it's a victory lap, and I love it.
00:24:27
Speaker
It's so good. ah It's like, Kendrick, like, I don't dislike Mr. Morrell and the Big Steppers. It's a good album. But you can tell on that album,
00:24:42
Speaker
that Kendrick was maybe running out of gas a little bit. Like I had a feeling at the time that that album came out that he was maybe retiring. Like he was perhaps on the verge of hanging it up. And what it took for him to get the spark back was just pure hater shit. And that energy continues into GNX. Like, GNX is not full of Drake diss tracks. In fact, none of the Drake diss tracks are on it. The song TV Off does sound a lot like Not Like Us, um but it is not like Not Like Us is not on the album. And there seem to be a lot of different reasons for that. But but mainly the album is, again, not
00:25:37
Speaker
a big Drake diss. It is in many ways a victory lap and then in other ways kind of an exploration of where Kendrick goes from here and also to other people he's mad at.
00:25:54
Speaker
But um my favorite song on the album is actually not about any of that kind of stuff. It's just like a nice song ah about hopefulness called Luther that uses a Luther Vandross sample. called ah The Luther Vandross sample is from the song called If This World Were Mine. And so it's a lot about like wanting to give all that you can to the people that you love. It's a duet with SZA. And I've been listening to that song so much. It's so good. But also TVOff is great.
00:26:29
Speaker
wacked out murals, which is the opening track is excellent. The title track is good. um Gloria, which is the last track on the album is really good. Like I think 2024 has been an especially good year for music and having a new Kendrick album to close it out has, has that brought me a lot of joy and is continuing to bring me a lot of joy.
00:26:58
Speaker
All right, Chris, those are our comforts and joys, which means it's time to talk about some comics from this week.
Comic Discussions: Batman & Venom
00:27:05
Speaker
Let's do it. Our Textures Choice winner for this week, Chris, is Batman number 155,
00:27:14
Speaker
and which got me so hyped by the end of the issue. i can't I can't tell you. Like the text that I had to send to you and Benito was,
00:27:27
Speaker
Batman 155, that's my shit. Boy, is it your shit. Yeah. It's your shit, and then a smattering of my shit.
00:27:38
Speaker
Because your shit is all the detective stuff. Yeah. And trying to figure out who killed ah Gotham City Mayor Christopher McConnell. Yeah. This is by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Fornes, by the way. So it kind of looks like Batman year one.
00:28:00
Speaker
And like it's clearly Chip doing a Batman year one riff. I think. Yeah. Like Jim Gordon has an affair. And, but like the way Batman looks in it and everything, like, yeah, it's, it's in many ways a ah year one. It is my shit. It's a lot of it because a lot of it, like there's a big fake out because the previous issue, Gordon.
00:28:28
Speaker
Like Batman was getting too close to something Gordon didn't want him to know. And so they have a some conflicts that breaks out that I feel like I've never seen before between Batman and Gordon. Right. And so here it's like Gordon is insistent that he didn't kill the mayor, but he has been having an affair with the mayor's wife.
00:28:52
Speaker
Yes. And so they send but him, and he and Bullock, Gordon Bullock send Batman to find out who really did it. And what Batman ends up finding is like, Oh fuck, I think maybe Gordon did do it. Yeah.
00:29:09
Speaker
which he has like a whole, he has like a whole crisis because also like there's a guy running around saying that he's oh Thomas Wayne's illegitimate son and Bruce Wayne's half brother. And he wants half of ah the ah the the Wayne fortune.
00:29:27
Speaker
ah And so then, Batman goes and confronts Gordon and he's like, okay, I found a piece of your, I found what I think is a piece of your glasses. And also I found a picture, I found a like surveillance footage where you're reflected in a car carrying evidence. yeah No, you fully did it. It seems like you're pretty fucked, Jim. And so Batman starts looking at Gordon's glasses and is realizing that it's got like Mad Hatter stuff in it.
00:29:59
Speaker
Which is, that is brilliant. Gordon was framed by his glasses frames. Yes. Yes. Yes. Framed. Yes. Framed. He was framed. Yeah. la Two things about this. Yeah. One.
00:30:21
Speaker
One, he's framed by his frames. That's the most Riddler shit of all time. Absolutely. Which, yeah, the big revelation is that the it wasn't Mad Hatter, it was Riddler. Okay, so we compared this to year one, but what we really should be comparing it to is Miller on Daredevil, because it ends with that you shouldn't have signed it. Yes. Here's what's great about that. Batman's like,
00:30:48
Speaker
That motherfucker, it was right in front of me because Riddler has seemingly gone legit, has a big skyscraper. He's got a company called Nigma Tech. The buildings under construction and like the the crane and scaffolding make a big T. He's like, it's between the E and the C of tech. So it makes it say tech, which is Jervis Tetch's name, Nigma Tetch.
00:31:19
Speaker
If you go back two issues ago, if you go back to fucking, uh, uh, Batman number 153 and to look at when Batman goes to the Nigma Tech building, it's there. Yeah. It's there right in front of you, baby. Well, in this one, he says you laid it out for me all along. Nigma Tech. Yeah. Love that shit.
00:31:46
Speaker
That's the part of it that's like, my shit is the, the real, the real heads know Riddler shit. Because Riddler like talks in that issue, like he's like, yeah, I'm using, like I'm using all the other villains technology. Cause what are they going to do? Like they're super villains. So I'm going to use like Mr. Free stuff. He tells Batman what he's doing.
00:32:14
Speaker
and you can see the T in the sign in the establishing shot. Yeah. It's so good. It's so good. Yeah, I have not been the biggest fan of Sideburn's Riddler since he appeared. but We're going on 13 years of Sideburn's Riddler, Matt. Yeah, I know. i Like, Tom King's Sideburn's Riddler was not my jam. Well, Tom King's.
00:32:41
Speaker
ah Yeah, this this is like this is the retribution the redemption the the return to form of Riddler and he just happens to be sideburns Riddler still um it's God, it's so good. I just love that. It's like It's like There's like three layers of clues that are such Riddler clues. And I talked to Scott Snyder once about the Riddler. And he was like, yeah, everybody's written Batman told me like, yeah, I love the Riddler, but you gotta write this fucking riddles. And that's so hard. Yeah. And here's Chip making it look easy. And like, I'm just gonna do it three times on the same thing. There's gonna be three different ways to figure this out if you really pay attention. Yeah.
00:33:34
Speaker
Unbelievable. um but Like, frustrating. I loved this issue. My only complaint about this story is that each of the three issues of it have had different artists. And after reading this one, I wish Jorge Fornes had done all of it. Yeah.
00:33:56
Speaker
Not that Jorge Jimenez or the artists on the previous issue were bad at all, but I feel like this fits what this story is the best. There is something to be said for the consistency of it. ah like Even if all like all three artists are are really good, I actually like Jorge Jimenez' stuff on it as well, but Jorge Fornes is Horia Fornes is often too good for the things that I've seen him draw. Yeah. But here, he's perfect for it. Perfect for this, yeah. Like, you know, I i don't want to say he's just doing an impression of David Mezkeli, because that's not quite what's happening, but it is similar enough to the look of Batman Year One that it really pushes that through, you know? Yeah, it's I mean, it's the best kind of thing where it is evocative of without being
00:34:51
Speaker
A pastiche. A pastiche or like just a recreation of. Yeah. I loved it. I loved it so much. Next up, we're going to talk about all new Venom number one, which I didn't even know that Al Ewing was going to be writing the Venom book. And here we are. This is Al Ewing and Carlos Gomez. I feel like building up, we were just talking about You are are famously a Venom hater. Yeah. You don't, you don't love, uh, Venom. I don't know. I feel like the way to really get Matt Wilson is to make it a mystery. A locked room mystery about Venom. Because that's what this book is. It is. We get four suspects.
00:35:50
Speaker
right off the bat. For wild suspects too. for For wild and wildly different suspects. Because here's what it is. The first scene of this issue is Madam Mask being on trial for the events for the events of Gang War. Gang War. And so the first suspect is Madam Mask herself.
00:36:17
Speaker
The second suspect is Luke Cage, the mayor of New York, who is attending the trial. isn't The third suspect, who's buck wild, is Robbie Robertson. Yeah, which is such a weird wild poll that it's like, okay, well, would he even be a suspect if it wasn't him?
00:36:41
Speaker
it's ah It's a great one to throw in to really make you wonder. Yeah. and So he's suspect number three. And then suspect number four is, oh and he's at the trial to like cover it for the bugle. so Suspect number four is Rick Jones. Also a perfect poll but because Rick Jones has been everybody. Rick Jones has been everybody. And that is even discussed in the issue.
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah, Rick Jones was Bucky. Rick Jones was Abomination. Rick Jones was a Hulk. Rick Jones was Captain Marvel. Rick Jones was dead. He's been everything. He's been everything. He was the the focal point of Avengers Forever. He's been a lot of things. He sure was. Yeah. And I think it's so funny that he shows up here wearing a Marvel Comics t-shirt with the logo from the 90s.
00:37:38
Speaker
the 90s logo, which should come back. It's the best Marvel logo. It's great. So a bunch of chaos breaks out in the courtroom involving aim. And ah I think if this trial is the funniest thing in the world, like no one in a real courtroom would ever talk like this. And Al Ewing is just leaning into it hard. Yes.
00:38:05
Speaker
He's having lawyers refer to Madame Mask as a symbiote, as like a metaphor.
00:38:14
Speaker
A witness in the trial is saying, oh, I work for AIM, but we were working with the Magia. Imagine if a witness in a trial for real was like, um yeah, we were we were ah dealing with organized criminals in the mafia.
00:38:35
Speaker
Uh-huh. Yeah. Anyway, the- I did- I read that and I was like, but like is module supposed to be secret? Like, are you supposed to not talk about it? As this guy is testifying, the head of AIM shows up in this like seemingly indestructible suit. Andrew Forsen is his name.
00:39:00
Speaker
He shows up in this seemingly indestructible suit suit and just like starts destroying everything. Madam Mask escapes. Luke Cage gets knocked out of a window. Robbie Robertson and and Rick Jones run out the front door.
00:39:18
Speaker
even though the aim guys try to stop them. So now they get away looking for help. Yeah. You know, like like Peter Parker sometimes those, right? So now any of these people could be venom who shows up and beats up all the aim guys. And then by the end of the issue, we get some stuff about Mary Jane and Paul. That's right. Paul's here. Sorry. Paul haters. Paul's back in venom.
00:39:46
Speaker
And they're hanging out with Eddie Brock's son, Dylan, who wants his symbiote back. So, I was looking for clues as to who this Venom might be. And absolutely, this is the way to rope me. Make who Venom is a mystery. Yes, yes, absolutely. The big visual cue is that Venom The logo and his eyes are gold instead of white. Instead of white, yes. That could indicate a couple of things, I feel like. Because what is Luke Cage shown wearing? A dark suit with a, like a golden rod shirt.
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah, this his yellow shirt evoking his classic Power Man hero for hire look. So you might say the gold is evocative of Luke Cage's costume, or what he wears typically. yeah You might also say that the gold is evocative of Madame Mask's mask.
00:41:00
Speaker
Or maybe it refers to Rick Jones back when he was Captain Marvel in some way. And he had the quantum bands. Yes. The only thing, the only person that doesn't mean anything for it is Robbie, but maybe that makes Robbie who it is. I love it. I love that it's like, clearly there are some clues on the page, but as of right now, they can all kind of point to all of them.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, my my initial pick for this, like my my suspect, based on that visual cue, is Madam Mask. Okay. A, Whitney Frost is the ah the only woman in the cast, um and Venom's kind of big bulky form is a great disguise for that. Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
Uh, like if it wasn't for the fact that Venom is Venom shaped, uh, it would be, you know, be pretty easy to figure out. and And she has a motive to fight these aim guys. She has a motive to fight the aim guys. yeah She also, uh, the, the yellow on Venom is not just yellow, it's metallic. Right. So I think that is,
00:42:27
Speaker
I think that and the fact that it's also the eyes are are the clue. I think that's a good call. I think it would be absolutely wild if it was Robbie.
00:42:41
Speaker
it would be like i think I don't think there's any way it's Luke. I think he's right out. Well, what what is the benefit to Luke Cage?
00:42:54
Speaker
of a symbiote, really. Like he's already bulletproof and everything else. Like, like, why does he, he doesn't need it. Yeah. And from a character standpoint, like that, I mean, he's already Luke Cage, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Everybody else, like, I mean, Madam Mask is already Madam Mask, but like Madam Mask didn't have a Netflix show. No one, know like nobody cares about, let's be, let's be real. Nobody cares about Madam Mask. Yeah.
00:43:23
Speaker
Uh, so I think, I think it's, it's, it's definitely not Luke Cage. I am leaning towards Madam Mask, but what a great fun. What a, what a fun premise for a Venom book. Yeah. Well, I, I love the idea that it could be Robbie cause it's such a wild poll. And like we said, it could easily be Rick Jones cause Rick Jones has been everybody. Yeah. So beautiful. Like, and like you can tell this is just how you eating like.
00:43:54
Speaker
having some fun with a book. Like I'm not saying that it won't turn into like a thing where in issue 10, we're like, Oh, but as of this point, as of this first issue, it does not feel like an immortal Hulk style statement book. It just feels like him.
00:44:17
Speaker
No, it does it feels not as far away from Immortal Hulk and Immortal Thor as you are likely to find. Yeah. But in a way that like, it does feel like we're going to talk about this in a little bit with ah with Jordan Blume. But like, this is a comic written by someone who fucking loves Marvel Comics, you know, for sure. It's just kind of like comics goofing.
00:44:40
Speaker
One last book we're going to talk about quickly is Absolute Superman number two. ah It continues everything I loved about Absolute Superman number one, where this version of Superman is a hero of the people. um It is once again ah by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval. There are two details in this issue I do want to point out though, that I think are very important.
00:45:12
Speaker
Detail one, like the cover of Absolute Superman number one has his cape on it, but his cape is not in the issue itself. His cape is in this issue. And it's like a cloud of dust. That's. Of like red dust or nano machines, I guess is what they really are. That like are behind him, which I think is cool as fuck. It's it is a.
00:45:42
Speaker
It's one of those things where like it goes so far past Barry Allen's bow tie that it's cool again. Like Superman wears a cape because Superman wears a cape. Superman wears a cape because it's a cloud of sentient nanomachines that his parents made. That's goofy enough to be great again. Yeah. The other thing I have to point out here,
00:46:09
Speaker
is we see a little bit of Clark or Kal-El on Krypton who is like school age. He's doing class over Zoom and and he's being told by his teacher that he shouldn't write his assignments himself because the AI is better and we'll do it for him. Jason, that's almost too real but also I adore that you're making statements in this book about like fuck generative AI doing assignments for kids in school. Point one, like i look I know it's the dark place thing, but
00:46:57
Speaker
I have said it and I genuinely mean it. I i do not care for subtlety. It is the coward's tactic. Uh-huh. Just, I don't care for subtlety and I'm glad that Jason Aaron doesn't either. The other thing is, it's kind of weird to read a Superman book where you're like, man, kind of fuck Krypton, actually.
00:47:18
Speaker
Well, I mean... Krypton sucks and they kind of... Oh, look, I'm not saying they deserve another planet exploited, but they kind of. Well, I mean, that's it. That's there from the first issue, right? Where this the very stratified, class-based society and like Jor-El, like ah original Jor-El thinks the council is going to listen to him, right? When he's like warning them about the planet being destroyed. This Jor-El is like, they're not going to listen to me. Yeah.
00:47:51
Speaker
Jorah, it's more Lara, which I thought was interesting. like She's like, they're not gonna fucking come on. But um I also think this version of Lois is really interesting. Like she's not, she's a, she's a private soldier. Like she's a PMC agent in this. And ah her relationship with Superman here is like,
00:48:18
Speaker
antagonistic, but then she's also like, he smells so good.
00:48:24
Speaker
But then there's a bit in here where she's like, I actually want to write this report because I feel like it's really important. And her commanding officer is like, you hate doing that. And she's like, well, I feel like I have to. And then she writes it and she's like, fuck, do I like writing? Which I think is amazing.
00:48:44
Speaker
Hunst among us has not had to ask ourselves that question. Yeah. Like at first I was like, Oh shit, this really, this is a lowest lane who doesn't like writing, but then it is resolved within the issue. Uh, which is, it's just great. I think the absolute books have been bat in a thousand so far. Speaking of bat in a thousand minor threats. Yeah. And we're going to talk to,
00:49:12
Speaker
one of the architects of Minor Threats, Jordan Blume, and the writer of the new Minor Threats miniseries, The Brood, Heath Corson, right now.
Marvel Comics Collection & Influences
00:49:39
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are very happy to welcome a long time friend of the show and a new friend of the show. We have the writer and co writer of Minor Threats, The Brood, Jordan Bloom and Heath Corson. Jordan's my executive producer. Yeah, out though sure. People in comics love doing that.
00:50:01
Speaker
ah ah Yeah, but to make comics TV. Make comics TV. ah Well, that's good. We can talk about The Brood with Heath. But before we do that, Jordan, I do. There's something that I want to talk to you about. All right. Let's hear it, Chris. This has been news all over. i got I got a press release about it like I didn't know, which I thought was very funny. ah But you and and Patton, friends of the show,
00:50:30
Speaker
ah put together a collection of your fave like the best marvel comics yeah that's correct my first question is where is marvel 2 in 1 annual number seven oh good question i feel like you guys own that one you know like that is and you i love that story and i agree with you you know ben grim greatest marvel character but i think that that is yours. Even when we're interviewed about the one we did and we put that Captain America story in, when I say the words, oh yeah, that's where Magneto put the red skull in a hole, I feel like that's almost TM. Like I try to find a new way to work that because I feel like you guys own that as well. So, um you know, i'm I'm constantly just like navigating, not ah not just stealing your show. um and Obviously, obviously now the good word has to be put in.
00:51:30
Speaker
for us to do our own collection. ah And it'll it'll probably just be like our top Marvel stories from the every story. Yeah, we've we've already done it. We've already done the work. That's right. That's true. And Marvel 2 and 1, number seven, which I don't know if it's in the top like seven or eight, but but we'll definitely put it in there.
00:51:51
Speaker
After this podcast, I will ring the head of the Folio Society, wake him from his sleep, and let him know the next book's ready to go. Yeah. it's The selections have been made. um They just have to print and ship. What i was but I was interested in, in addition to being like, all right, obviously, like I saw Amazing Spider-Man 33 is on there, and I'm like, well, yeah. like We can all agree and like that's actual. Yeah.
00:52:21
Speaker
That's not an opinion that Matt and I have. It's just the way it is. And I saw, of course, you know, uh, Captain America 367, uh, Magneto puts the word skull in a hole. I'm joking, but I don't want to, I, I don't want to insinuate anything because there is no way that me and Matt would have put a Peter David comic in this That's what I was gonna say. I think my name is cleared because I put my favorite X Factor story in there. and i I don't even know if you guys refuse to add it to the list. I can't even remember, but when I submitted it, so there you go. I think that's one issue of that run I've read, which is good. It is a great run.
00:53:00
Speaker
The thing I wanted to mention was Severance Package, which in the year following its publication, that story was reprinted like it was Amazing Fantasy 15. That story was everywhere, because they were like, oh my god, it's a Spider-Man story that's new, but that's like a really amazing single issue. like They put that thing in action figures. They put it in like one of those little like Best of Marvel all like paperbacks that they did, like the 100 Best Marvel Comics.
00:53:36
Speaker
i like if you' like lost i to me like I feel like no one talks about it anymore. Well, yeah, it was that's what I was getting at. It's this thing that like was everywhere and then everybody stopped talking about it. Well, we're bringing it back. yeah All right, let's talk about
Comic Creation: The Brood
00:53:53
Speaker
the brood. and I want to get the two questions that I feel like are the most obvious questions out of the way. So we can just put those aside. We can just get those out of the way. Okay. And I'm sure you guys have fielded this question a lot. Both of these questions, but we gotta to get to them. It's mandatory for us to ask. Sure. one One. Jordan, I know you're an X-Men guy.
00:54:24
Speaker
when When I see Jordan Bloom online, I'm like, that's the next wing guy. Right. I've got a brand, yeah. Did you, by calling this book The Brood, did you have any suspicions or feelings that you were going to draw interest or comparison to Marvel Comics stories, X-Men stories involving the alien race that resembles the aliens from Alien called the Brood. Well look, if the Xenomorphs can be the Brood, then the Brood can be not the Brood? is that but I don't know. um ah He came up with the title. Ask him.
00:55:13
Speaker
exactly ah You know, it's funny. It was on my mind because I came up with the title because my dad would always refer to us. I'm the oldest of four siblings. And so my dad would always refer to us as his brood. And that kind of stuck with me. And as much as I love an alien xenomorph, I was like, are people going to get confused? And I was like,
00:55:37
Speaker
That's not a bad thing. They could buy the comic and realize that there's no X-Men or aliens in it once they open it. um So, you know, I'm willing to take that risk. You're named Archangel that I made you change, so... That's true. You did. That's true. Good memory. That's not wrong. I did. Wow. Wow. So so this is just attempting it every way.
00:56:06
Speaker
to to get the attention of those Disney lawyers. That's what I'm hearing. Yes, that's correct. Well, they can get behind the band minor threats as far as Boston. They've never reached out to us. ah The other question I have to ask, like, um Jordan, I think you described this book as like, what if Gene Hackman Lex Luthor then became Gene Hackman in the Royal royal Ten of Bombs, um which is a very compelling elevator pitch for sure. Like I'm in immediately. The other sort of cultural touch point that I can't help but bring up ah as as I'm reading this issue is succession.
00:57:00
Speaker
ah hey are Are you ready for ah a slew of succession comparisons? ah yeah That's very much in the DNA. I mean, it's very I feel like you can't do you can't talk about um Dynasty and children inheriting a family business without a nod to one of the the best in the game to have done it So that is absolutely in the DNA of this book. um I think that even in one of the pages Ian I think Paige
00:57:34
Speaker
Four where we first see our bad guys in the conference room. There's very much a nod to ah The way that it's all set up and designed to secession there. Yeah Well, I feel like when you pitched it first to me that that was where my mind went But I feel like as the issues came in, stuff it it feels more royal tenon bombs to me, tonally. you know ah And I think the aesthetics and all that. So I felt like I almost forgot about the succession element as much. you know I don't think and don't think it drives the book as much as maybe the the first issue might suggest, but it's there. Yeah. And when you say Ian, you're talking about Ian Colbard, who is the artist on the book.
00:58:15
Speaker
Yes. who is ah yeah Let me say, Ian is responsible for every element of how this book looks. He is doing pencils, he is doing inks, he is doing colors, and he is spectacular. There is there is no book without Ian. He has brought just these amazing designs and his look and feel to it. This is his first time doing ah basically a super superhero book.
00:58:41
Speaker
I think he's done some Umbrella Academy, but this was his first sort of real step into a a cape world, and I think he just knocks it out of the park. Matt, I am glad that you asked about the aliens from the movie Alien. Uh-huh. Because I was very upset to not see Edge Christian or Gangrel. Yeah. But there is pro wrestling.
00:59:06
Speaker
There is pro wrestling. Which is always of interest to the two of us. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we make, you know, what's interesting and I, this was a convention that I very much picked up from the minor threats home home mother mother, uh, chip stories is that, um,
00:59:28
Speaker
Everyone you get to drop into different characters voices and you get to sort of play with them and so it made sense to me that agatha would be a big ah wrestling fan and So that was that was a ton of fun and then to get to pull that metaphor of the the baby faces and the heels which she would be so ah knowledgeable about and sort of reframe it in the world of comic books, I thought was really interesting, especially in the way that they're indicating, oh, this is the good guy, this is the bad guy, just so viewers just tuning in would know. And I was like, and and to have a character go, hey, that gets me angry. That's my dad you're talking about. Don't give him that weird Dutch angle where you could see his double chin. Like, that's not cool.
01:00:15
Speaker
I really loved the idea of someone who exists in a world of superheroes, where superheroes are real, and and therefore like you know they they are familiar with the ah conventions of a superhero universe. The scene of someone in that world watching pro wrestling and being like, oh, okay, I get it.
01:00:42
Speaker
was very, like, honestly delightful to me. Oh, good. That's awesome. That's that's what we're shooting for. Yeah, like, like, just like, Oh, right, right. Okay, so, so yeah, it's like, ah like, baby faces and heels, good guys, bad guys, I get it. Get it works for me. Yeah, stunner who shows up who is a ah tall and very muscular woman, who is the daughter of a pro wrestler, whose experimentation with
01:01:13
Speaker
The performance of Halsey Drugs has turned her into Big Barna, basically. Yes. Excellent. Yes. Well, you know what, and and all credit to Jordan and Patton here who have set the stage in the Minor Threats universe that you you can just weave something like that in the background. And it it and everyone goes, yeah, that makes sense. Like, you can deal with that. Like, that's not even an issue. That's a line on in a background of one of the one of the side characters.
01:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I loved so much about your pitch, is that it had that same sort of lived-in world. You know, we created this whole new city ah for for Napoleon to exist in, so it's not a proud city with with the minor threats. He's in much more of the Metropolis, ah Meteor Falls, and and with the searcher and stuff, but still it has a whole rogues gallery of characters who have just been there for decades, and they kind of pop in and out without you ever having to explain who they are, and I think that's such a fun way into a story. Is it a challenge to sort of take the frustrations of dealing with your family and and pressure from your dad and apply that like like extend that metaphor out to the extent of a superhero? Because I feel like that's that is
01:02:40
Speaker
for me, like that was the original trick of minor threats, right? Is that that first issue with, uh, with toy queen, hu where it it is like a whole thing of like having to grow up with that's your mom. right Like you're in the family business. You have no choice. Uh, suit up. Yeah. And continuing on with that, I thought was like, just like,
01:03:08
Speaker
It seems to be a recurring theme, and I'm wondering like if there was a challenge of making it, like extending it to something in a way that felt new. Because this very does very much feel new, largely because there's the succession angle where these are the rich people now.
01:03:27
Speaker
Right? yeah Well, as ah as as I would say to Jordan, you know, every every major league has a Miners. And we've been in the Miners, now we're going to the Major League. These are the Omega Threats. These are your Doctor's Doom. These are your Magnetos. These are your Lex Luthor's. These are the guys who are at, who you know, can call the meeting at the Legion of Doom. And everyone has to come, no matter what the fuck they're doing. You better drop everything, because Luthor just called a meeting.
01:03:57
Speaker
So I thought, like, that's an awesome idea to have these guys have to, you know, go to work and then come home and say, oh, you know, don't rough house with daddy because searcher dislocated his shoulder and and might have scratched his cornea. So, you know, daddy can't rough house today. And I thought that's so interesting because he still wants to be a father. He still wants to to to be a huge part of their life.
01:04:24
Speaker
For better or for worse, and and then to have all of these point of views of these kids who have a different take on who their father is and what he does seemed really exciting to me for storytelling. you know that they know dad's a workaholic and for he's been doing this for decades and they have some regret about it they have some betrayal about it they're like yeah it would have been great if my dad was at my fucking 10th birthday party but he was in a pocket universe fighting searcher and uh so i was there all by myself and i blew out my own candles and sang to myself you know and then the robots cut my cake and you just go like oh that's sort of achingly lonely no wonder these siblings kind of bind together and find their way to protect each other even though it you know they're all sort of competing and hustling and jockeying for the the best place to be in daddy's eyes yeah because i feel like whenever we're talking to people about doing playing in the minor threats universe the first question is do you have major problems with your dad and then if you a book and we let you deal with it
01:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's the first thing they asked. Where did you find a writer who had problems with their dad? It's so hard, Chris, to find these people. So rare.
01:05:54
Speaker
wait We've all written a story where someone beats up their dad. guess And gentlemen, I don't know if your fathers understand what it is you do, but I can tell you for a fact mine does not. I am curious about the structure of this book. It's a four issue miniseries, right? Yes. And even but even in a miniseries, I think there's a sense that comics are gonna
01:06:31
Speaker
be perpetually what they are, right? Like like they're gonna go on and on and on ah with infinite sequels. Because comics are one of the only mediums where like the end goal of a story is to never end, right? To just go on forever. To just do all act two. Yeah. Yeah, yeah exactly.
01:06:58
Speaker
and so there' It's set up in the first issue of this, of like, like at least nominally, there is a definite change coming. um Like, the the succession of it all is is really set up. um So I wonder if like, you are okay with eventually getting to that point of finality,
01:07:27
Speaker
or or like this dynamic totally changing or, you know, ah do you feel a connection note to Napoleon where you want to keep him around for forever?
01:07:41
Speaker
Well, that's too that's two different questions. say Structure-wise, um I love the sort of minor threats without a net storytelling where there's this world where it's all happening, like the Marvel Universe, but we can zoom in on any one place in time and tell and drop in for this story.
01:08:05
Speaker
And it makes, for me, the storytelling across the board, all of them, the alternates, Barfly, feels really fresh and exciting because it's going to end, because it is finite, because you are going to close that chapter, even if we get to see these characters again.
01:08:24
Speaker
It feels dangerous because anything can happen, right? where where We don't have to save Batman because so that he can go back into the status quo. So that's really cool. And I would say that's that's one of the most exciting things I think about this universe that Patton and Jordan have have come up with.
01:08:43
Speaker
Well, that's our other mandate. Never plan ahead. ah yeah know we we We try to, every single thing we write, we write as if it's our last comic and we want to tell a full story and we want to kind of leave it all in the field. And, you know, if if we're lucky enough where When a new story comes to us or we're greenlit to do a sequel to something, then I love being written into that corner and having to figure out how the story continues, but there's never this save it for the next one attitude where we need to get back to the way things were. So I think it just frees the writers and the artists to just tell the biggest, grandest, most interesting story they can.
01:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, and and either way, you're stitching a new thing onto the crazy quilt of this continuity, right? So i'm I'm carving out, I made a whole new city for them to play in and I made a whole new family in a world for them to to cherry pick and go, oh, let's let's connect this to this. um And there is some connective tissue in the minor threats world, ah not just with searcher, but as we move forward, we'll see there are some other ah connective tissue.
01:09:58
Speaker
that we will pick up later as well. But as was I ready to say goodbye to Napoleon? I mean, that was ah that's devastating. I mean, no spoilers, but I will just tell you, this is a story I'm basically writing about what would happen if ah your One of your parents got sick and then had to confront their own mortality. And while I was doing this, my mother got a cancer diagnosis and is in remission and is totally fine. But that was on my mind while I was going through this. And it was it was wrestling with quite a bit. and so
01:10:35
Speaker
No, I don't want to give up these characters. I don't want to say goodbye to them. And that's kind of what's so cool about it and powerful about it, is that the story is the story and we'll we'll see where it goes. And even if you don't want it to unfold in that way, that's that's how you set up all the dominoes to fall.
01:10:55
Speaker
that is a
01:10:59
Speaker
That is a stunningly personal revelation. Well, I mean, I keep saying this book is very, very personal. there There is no version where my siblings and my parents read it and they don't pick out all the little personal elements of that I've taken from them and put into this book. that It is all very there. ah My mom read the very first one and laughed out loud when Contessa says, Your father's a genius at many things, but loading the dishwasher is not one of them, which is something my mother has said about my father and something that I think is funny to say about maybe the smartest man on the planet. Well, it's a good thing your dad will never read it. And and my dad will never read the book, which if he did, there wouldn't be a book. I i feel like there's
01:11:50
Speaker
It's not a secret that we're all working stuff out on the page. Again, see previous comments rewriting a story about a guy fighting his dad. right but like ah do Is there ever a moment where like it gets like like when you're dealing with something that goes so far into the realm of superheroes, and then the superheroes are also a metaphor for a more realistic thing,
01:12:16
Speaker
that it that you feel like it loops back around and you you're like, oh no, I gotta, we gotta have more robots. I gotta throw in a giant, I gotta throw in a Watchmen squid in this.
01:12:28
Speaker
ah You know, i I think what's fun is that this it really is a family drama told through the prism of supervillains. So what was fun is we're going to have this this conversation that you've always seen, but we're going to have it in a real superhero-y place. And that's really fun to me.
01:12:48
Speaker
Um, right. I love like there's a, uh, not to spoil what's coming up, but there's like a giant scene of working stuff out while killing subterranean lizard people. And you're like, well, yeah, thats that they would hash it out. Right. yeah but or When Contessa takes Agatha shopping for the very first time, and we see their sort of rough history of shopping together, um and and that's a very relatable, very grounded thing, is a mother and daughter going to going shopping together. And yet, where they're going shopping is this underground of bunker where this aunt-headed woman who speaks French ah is selling her um weapons.
01:13:30
Speaker
and selling her guns and has even put her prescription in the scopes for her ah because it's sort of like a ah ah French boutique. And that's really funny to me. And then for for the mom to say, oh, did did you want something? And she's like, mom, um I have have a whole ah Armor in my body and she's like, okay, but you know what get her that cute little shotgun and it's It's just mothers and daughters and and parents trying to connect with their kids and kids trying to find their own way only told through this very odd perspective I did love that scene um because something I had never really considered was You know
01:14:16
Speaker
If your parents are Dr. Savannah and Catwoman, and you take after Dr. Savannah in looks, what a bummer. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's that's something else that I i think is is very interesting. Because you know Ian and I really sat down and made our Venn diagrams about you know when you're designing a family, you talk a lot about Where do they overlap? Where do they not? And even in their physicality, who gets this from who and who got this you know skill set and what what how are they like their parents and how are they not? How are they like their brothers? How are they not? you know It was really important to me that Napoleon dressed really sharp like my grandfather.
01:15:08
Speaker
and his son, Benny, who wants nothing to do with the family, dress only in athleisure wear, because he is is indicating, I don't want to be in this family. I'm not going to be anything like you. And then the youngest son, Simon, who is Spookshow, does dress like his father, who does more Savile Row cut suits. He's wearing much tighter Italian cut suits, double-breasted. So Ian and I would go like really into these details and dive dive dive into like okay how do we indicate I want to be like my father but I don't want to be that much like him I still want to be very different so there's all sorts of just amazing ah detail that Ian got to work into the the just the fabric of everything that's spectacular
01:15:56
Speaker
That's one of my favorite dynamics, I think, is is Napoleon Simon, his youngest, who wants to impress his father, but impress him in his own way. So how do you rebel against a mad scientist? you You chase magic. You become a dark magician. And the father's like, I don't get this. This doesn't make any sense to me. And I thought that was such a fun thing to play, where you can still see he wants his father's approval, but he wants to prove himself you know on his own path.
01:16:22
Speaker
I'm fascinated by the scene where we're first introduced to the three kids, because as we've discussed, like they become really fleshed out and and very distinctly there their own characters with you know, these clear traits that distinguish them from one another. But that first scene where they're introduced, where they're waiting on their dad to arrive, uh, for, for a meeting, ah hey there's this sense, this immediate sense, as soon as they start talking to one another, that they all get together and they just revert back to exactly who they were when they were kids. Yep.
01:17:07
Speaker
that's That's very much me and my siblings. Very much me and my siblings. but I love the idea that you know one comes in with the the new haircut or drives in with the cool new car and everyone's like, really? You're going to try to pull that off. That's what you're doing. you know And Simon's like, this is how I talk now. I'm a super intense magician. And his brother's like, oh, shut up.
01:17:31
Speaker
come on man and then he just flicks that coin at him and then his brother's like I'll burn you and he's like yeah all right he flicks the coin and breaks his concentration again and for me that was just I mean in the end siblings are siblings and I always go back to that there's a line in succession where Roman says I would never hit a woman but I'll beat the shit out of my sister And I was like, that's that's it. that's That's siblings. That's sibling life where someone's always the bad guy, someone's always the good guy. And that was something that we talked a lot about with this book is that it's great with superhero stories. There's that binary of good and evil. But when you translate that to a family, it sort of falls apart.
01:18:16
Speaker
where everyone at one point is the bad guy. Everyone's the good guy. And you're just constantly shifting and changing and trying to find your alliances and allegiances. And and that's really fun to me. It's a made up for a really fun world. We do have to kick it over to listener questions in a second. But before we do that, Heath, I do want to know, ah what single issue of Marvel Comics would you put in to a collection all of the best? Oh, wow. what did What did Jordan forget?
01:18:46
Speaker
ah Jeez, that's great. That's a great question. I mean, maybe Secret Wars 9. That might be one of the big ones for me. Is it 8 or 9? It's 9, right? Spider-Man 2? Spider-Man 1, yeah. Is it that one or 4, which is Hulk holding the mountain, which is sort of their bottle episode, which I freaking loved. Well, Heath, this is why I love you. It was on the list.
01:19:15
Speaker
Oh, come on. Was it really? Yeah, number four is one of an all all time for me. I love that one. I love that. That or or Howard the Duck for president, which was the treasury sized one where Howard the Duck teams up with the defenders while he's running for president, um which was one of my favorites as well, where Howard the Duck becomes master of the mystic arts for a second. And I thought that was insane.
01:19:45
Speaker
Uh, since I asked Matt, do you have one? Oh, I, well, I got to save it for our collection. Uh, no, the, the first one I thought of, I mean, cause I was like, Oh, they could have put this in there, but then I realized that amazing Spider-Man 33 was already in there. But the next Spider-Man single issue I would put in is nothing can stop the juggernaut. Oh, that's good.
01:20:15
Speaker
That is good. Because that's what we were trying to do was like, pick things that could stand on their own. You know, and some of them are part one and part four of this, but they i feel still feel like you get a full meal when you read the issue. For sure. It's great single issue stories are an art form unto themselves. ah I really think. um Chris, do you have one?
01:20:41
Speaker
ah Yes, it is ah Uncanny X-Men number 268, which is not yeah my favorite issue of X-Men, and it is not my favorite Marvel comic, but it is one that I have said, if you don't like that issue, you don't like Marvel comics. Oh, yeah. but gym it is It is arguably the most Marvel comic. It's the most Marvel comic. Yeah. The one that's got...
01:21:10
Speaker
Wolverine and Captain America and Black Widow on the cover. Yeah, yeah. yeah It's the Wolverine and Captain America Black Widow flashback by Claremont and Lee. Oh, Yes. It's also like that of retcon, right? We're like, everyone it was old men. Psy-locks in it. the Black Widow is a baby. It's wild. oh Oh, sorry. I guess that's the i guess that's the but's the spoiler.
01:21:40
Speaker
so But it it is true. With that, now that I've asked my question, we are going to let our listeners ask some questions. And Matt, how can the listeners of the show get in on that if they would like to? There are two places you can go if you want to ask questions for our guests on the show. You can go to Blue Sky, follow us over there at warrocketajax.com on Blue Sky. That is our Blue Sky handle. And you can wait for us to put up the call for questions there on Thursday night at 9.30 Eastern Time, that's 6.30 Pacific. Or ah you can join our Discord, um ask us for an invitation to our Discord, and we will get you one if you're nice about asking. And you can you can ask a question over there on our Discord. We got a whole bunch of questions on our Discord.
01:22:32
Speaker
ah I will skip over all the ones about the wrestling stable, the brood, because Chris brought it up already. ah So I will start with this one from WCWit on our Discord who asks, who's broodier, Batman or Daredevil? Ooh.
01:22:55
Speaker
Well I guess by I would say though right like if you mean who has a bigger brood in the way we're using it Batman has tons of kids. That's true. That's true. But who's better at brooding?
01:23:09
Speaker
Daredevil is kind of like right. Yeah. I would say Daredevil puts himself through the pain and also he, I mean, listen, nobody's got more, more, more parents stuff than Batman, but specifically Matt Murdock does is saddled with a lot of really, really plump daddy issues and Catholic guilt as Jordan and Catholic guilt. Yeah. Uh, here's a question from Christmas Cole on our discord.
01:23:37
Speaker
What other iconic sci-fi horror monsters should be X-Men villains? we know We already know that the aliens from the movie Alien are. More than once, more than what they have been X-Men villains. not Not just the brood, but then other things that look like Alien from the movie Alien.
01:23:58
Speaker
ah So, okay, what other sci-fi horror monsters should be X-Men villains? I always thought Mojo had those had the Freddy Krueger hands, didn't he? I think he did at one time, yeah. But Marvel owns Fox, or Disney owns Fox now, so they kind of own a lot of the monsters. So, like, why isn't that? How is no one done brood versus xenomorphs? One shot. Well, yeah. Oh, that's good.
01:24:23
Speaker
I think we had this conversation recently where it's like, they could just put the aliens in Marvel Comics now. Like, they tried to do it for decades. in right I mean, they did for decades, and but now they it could just be the xenomorphs. But there's like no reason to do a predator knockoff in X-Men. You can just put predator in X-Men. Default will bring already, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And the ah the aliens are currently fighting the Avengers in a book written by Jonathan Eggman. It's wild.
01:24:53
Speaker
It's a good one, too. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Other monster, other movie monsters.
01:25:03
Speaker
You literally have the Justice League fighting Kong and Godzilla right now. Yes. Very good. You just get the license now. It's like that question doesn't work anymore. license or Or in the case of like Kong and Godzilla or under the Warner Brothers umbrella. So it's like, you don't have to get the license. You just walk into a different floor, right talk to a guy. Yeah. All right. Oh, I got one. I got one. I got one. Sorry. All right. Hit me. Basket case should just be a student at Xavier's. I like it. ever basketball I like it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:52
Speaker
Let's get, uh, here's a question from wamzilla on our discord. When you're writing a miniseries in today's environment, do you really think in terms of any issue could be someone's jumping in place? Or are you just, as do you just assume that anyone who misses number one will come in with the trade?
01:26:14
Speaker
Jordan, you wanna weigh in first on that? I know, that's a tough one. Yeah, I'd say if you're doing a miniseries, you're kinda, you have four issues. You're not gonna like stop to introduce all the X-Men in the danger room, right? You're gonna be like, like we yeah we gotta keep this thing moving um as much as I love.
01:26:32
Speaker
that Claremont style, um, I think you have to keep these stories so lean that you'd be kind of giving up real estate to, uh, handled from what you missed in issue one, but I don't know. Uh, I should try it sometime and just buy a random issue too and see how lost I am.
01:26:50
Speaker
I would also say that's kind of the the lean-in sense of minor threats that that you guys have been doing anyway is it sort of is going and it's making references to stuff and it's because these people you you always say about the lived-in feeling of the world and you You don't need to explain to someone why there's a time corridor on the street they know they avoid that street like they all know that so In order to you don't stop to explain it all the time you're just going and it's one of the things I just love about it and getting to write in that real it makes for some real dense storytelling which I think is really fun to unfold on the page and Yeah, I think it's a bigger mandate just for the series, right? Or like, you you absolutely can pick up the brood having never read minor threats and be 100 the first issue and be like 100% clear on what's happening. Same thing with alternates all of them. And I think that you know, it's that continuity is there as more of a bonus than a necessity. And that's how we try to keep the universe at least, you know, connected is you don't have to, there's no there's never gonna be a minor threats handbook. Right.
01:28:00
Speaker
Right. That said, I think I do have every character who's picking up the narration introduce themselves on the first page. And it's only because Napoleon starts it by saying he's the he's the greatest villain of all time. And then all three kids basically echo that as as we move forward in the series. That's a good rule. Have every character say, yeah at least hear the name of every character said in in in the book. I think that's a good one.
01:28:25
Speaker
ah Mike Donahue, who is barely sushi.bsky.social on Blue Sky, says, minor threats comics always seem to be over overflowing with ideas, but there's only so much space in an issue. So is there stuff that ends up as essentially cut content from these books. yes I know you said that you write every story like it's your last.
Exploring Character Backstories & Crossover
01:28:54
Speaker
um So it's it's not like you're hanging on to stuff for the next one, but like is there is there like extra material? Well, you've answered, Heath, there is.
01:29:04
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I think there's like, oh, I wish I could go off and follow that character for a while or or get out their backstory or understand their relationship more, but they have to come in and do this one thing that that serves the story. But I think a funny thing of that is we have this thing.
01:29:21
Speaker
and volume two where Frankie has this vendetta against magic in in Redport and one of the new things is Queenpin is she's trying to remove all magic from Redport and we had a backstory in our head for what that was and now we I can't really talk too much about it we're doing a crossover with another publisher's characters And that story is going to play a huge part in that ah in that crossover. Once we announced it, I could talk more about it, but it was something that we had in our pocket that ended up creating a whole new story.
01:29:54
Speaker
Yeah. um I created in issue three, I saddled poor Ian with an entire Legion of Doom, which he had to design like basically another 11 characters that would have been in Napoleon Archimedes' Legion of Doom, which we call the Midnight Brigade, ah for a one splash page.
01:30:17
Speaker
And I gave them all powers. I gave them all backstory. I wove in sort of an interconnectedness. If if you read the series, you'll so maybe pick up that like Napoleon, his one of his sort of rivals is Baron Half-Life, who is a pops up a little bit in the series. But they had this rich backstory that we really don't even get to touch on. So I think that's sort of the being able to zoom in and then zoom out. and at some point down the road being able to go like, you know what would be really cool? Why don't we do a why don't i get to do one one shot about like what happened when Napoleon was young and why this guy who might have been his best friend totally pissed him off and we can we can dig into that history somewhat.
01:31:03
Speaker
Well, the coolest part, I think, of all this is that other people are like, hey, what was up with this character? And and we have this series we announced, Welcome to Twilight. And some of that is people going, hey, I saw this thing in a panel. I want to explore it. I mean, that's what Barfly was too, was there's a background character. So to me, it's even more fun than myself. Picking up the thread is is another writer, an artist coming in and going, this, we want to explore this whole world that was just in, you know, in the backdrop or in in a few panels.
01:31:32
Speaker
Here's a question
Humorous Listener Q&A
01:31:33
Speaker
from Stone Cold HCC, an a account that exists only to ask questions over we Rocket Ajax. Stone Cold wants to know, wouldn't it make more sense for porn sites to be the ones that end in dot .org?
01:31:45
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Ask an answer. 10 points Hufflepuff. Here's what you were asking for, ah Jordan, a question from Daniel Kibblesmith, who commands me.
01:32:03
Speaker
In the form of a listener question, make them fight about Chicago versus New York pizza. i know there's know that There's no fight. There's no fight. It's Chicago all the way. What a real monkey in all the wish to have Daniel write in a question. Yeah. Chicago is pizza. Yeah. It's fun to let Heath think what do he thinks.
01:32:27
Speaker
ah All right. This is going to have to be our last question. Here's the thing. Can you fold it? no Come on, can you swim in it?
01:32:39
Speaker
ah We talked about
Major Threats in Comics
01:32:40
Speaker
this a little bit. It it seems like ah the brood is kind of doing this. Michael Haida on our Discord wants to know if the minor threats franchise will ever feature major threats, like a Galactus or a Sun Eater, or is that just not interesting to explore in that setting?
01:33:04
Speaker
Napoleon is definitely a major threat of a type. He's definitely a major threat. And I think that the the kind of glimpses you get into his past with the searcher, they all feel like world ending stories. And I think we've hinted at them in the other books, but it's just like an annoyance for our characters, right? Like they deal with the aftermath of Galactus, ah because they're not going to be there for for the coming of Galactus. They're there when like half a street's missing.
01:33:34
Speaker
ah to no like yeah that i should we just stop now i don't know how but but
01:33:45
Speaker
You tied it up with a blow. um Yeah, that was it. Yeah, so yeah. but It has happened, but unless there's an interesting perspective, I think that's what the whole universe is about, is show us a perspective we've never seen before in the world of comics, or story, and or types of characters we've never followed. So if there's a way to do Galactus then and in an interesting way that we've never seen that doesn't just feel like a riff, then maybe.
01:34:12
Speaker
Well, quite a cliffhanger to end on.
Promoting Work & Closing Remarks
01:34:15
Speaker
Our guests have been Jordan Bloom and Heath Corson. Jordan and Heath, ah please let our listeners know ah where they could find you and when ah minor threats, their brood will be available. All right. I am ah on Instagram.
01:34:34
Speaker
at H. Corson and on Blue Sky. And the brood drops December 11th. That is Wednesday. So rush out and get it. Make sure it is on your poll list. I'm Bloom Jordan on ah Blue Sky and Instagram. And since you guys brought it up, ah ah on our unforgettable Marvel stories ah but by the Folio Society is out now. Perfect holiday gift.
01:35:03
Speaker
Um, amazing stories, clearly missing Marvel two in one, but other than that, uh, I think we nailed it. And, uh, it is beautifully printed. It's one of those things where they, they got like the newsprint. Look, it doesn't have that recoloring. I hate the recoloring. Um, and an original cover by Marcos Martin. Incredible. Martine. Martine. Marcos Martine. Our guests.
01:35:29
Speaker
have been Jordan Bloom and Heath Corso. And guys, thank you so much for coming on the show. Please come back anytime and we will keep talk about Edge, Christian and Gangrel. You just wished it's going to backfire. We'll be back.
01:35:46
Speaker
Thanks once again to Jordan and Heath for joining us. Always fun to talk to ah Jordan and Heath, a great new friend of the show. Matt, that does it. For this week's episode of War Rocket Ajax, it's a fun one. That's right. It was a fun one. This was number 704, my childhood area code. Nice. Weird. but we Mine was 803. All right. We'll get there soon. One number up, one number down. That's right. Interesting. Interesting.
01:36:21
Speaker
Bye, everybody. That does it, everybody. We will be back next week with another guest, another great episode as we barrel through December of 2024. Please join us then. Thank you for listening. Thank you for inviting us into your homes and your lives every week. Hope you're having a ah great winter or the Southern Hemisphere, a great summer. And until next time, do not forget Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime.
01:36:52
Speaker
Cops aren't your friends, but we love you. We love you.