Weekly Comic Spotlight

[drew]

ditto to sam's point on the timeframe, too much time had passed for me to pick up the story and characters as presented, and even if it had been closer to my viewing, I didn't feel they were written well enough to engage me as a reader.

Quick Correction: on our Night of the Living Deadpool Review, I mentioned the shopping mall panel referencing Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The Monroeville mall (PA) was actually the setting for Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the sequel.

[JohnMayo]

ditto to sam's point on the timeframe, too much time had passed for me to pick up the story and characters as presented, and even if it had been closer to my viewing, I didn't feel they were written well enough to engage me as a reader.

I agree this issue wasn't as engaging as it should have been. The time lag between the release of the movie and this miniseries was exceedingly long.

[comicm]

The Gardner and Ice relationship was established in the new 52 in Justice League International which was one of the launch titles. They have also poked at it in Green Lantern Corps.


I also will try and seek out another Green Lantern/Red Lantern to file away or I will think at some point it is missing. The Ultraverse did these flip things quite a bit. It still fools me in thinking I am missing an issue when I know I have the entire run.

[jonah]

Just started listening to this weeks spotlights and am a little confused after your discussion on the Flash & how you believe it may muddy what happened in Flashpoint.
I'm not current on my DC continuity so this may be a question out of ignorance.

Has the Flashpoint story be woven into the New 52 canon ? I only remember it being the last event before DC hit the reset button on their universe. Not that it was necessarily an event that was crucial to the New 52 being birthed.

[JohnMayo]

Just started listening to this weeks spotlights and am a little confused after your discussion on the Flash & how you believe it may muddy what happened in Flashpoint.
I'm not current on my DC continuity so this may be a question out of ignorance.

Has the Flashpoint story be woven into the New 52 canon ? I only remember it being the last event before DC hit the reset button on their universe. Not that it was necessarily an event that was crucial to the New 52 being birthed.

Flashpoint rebooted the Post-Crisis reality of the mainstream DC Universe into the New 52 version of it. All of that centered around the specifics of the death of the Flash's mother. Change that and, in theory, all of reality could change. It wasn't just that it was the last event prior to the New 52 but that the New 52 was directly and explicitly created by the events in Flashpoint. Reading the Flashpoint miniseries would make that clear. It was a good miniseries and worth reading.

[jonah]

Actually have read it but guess I missed the part where the it created the New 52 universe. Unfortunately it's packed away right now so I can't revisit it.

Given it was the boot event, I'm onboard with your hope/belief that they don't touch it. Too soon.

[JohnMayo]

Actually have read it but guess I missed the part where the it created the New 52 universe. Unfortunately it's packed away right now so I can't revisit it.

Given it was the boot event, I'm onboard with your hope/belief that they don't touch it. Too soon.

It came out two and a half years ago so I can see how you might have forgotten about that part. As someone who read the overwhelming majority of the Post-Crisis continuity which ended with Flashpoint, the reboot was pretty memorable to me.

[drew]

Haven't heard much outrage over the low score for One hit Wonder and i guess we aren't alone:

2 out of 5 from CBR

IGN: Richie Reese is a bad guy who’s just plain bad

crave online: One Hit Wonder #1: Shooting Blanks

this guys take at crave sums it up for me:
The end of One Hit Wonder doesn't matter because none of the rest of the book matters. This is like something Sapolsky mined from Quentin Tarantino's dumpster. The art is terrible as well. Ariel Olivetti has a style that seems taken right from a dentist's office wall-art. No expression, nothing interesting, just panel after panel of easy characters and dull action. I'm not sure who at Image Comics approved this garbage, but lets hope their job is up for review soon.

Make me curious as to which creator owned series did not get the green light so this could see the light of day

hope this is a blip and not the quality to expect of image's next wave

[jonah]

Actually have read it but guess I missed the part where the it created the New 52 universe. Unfortunately it's packed away right now so I can't revisit it.

Given it was the boot event, I'm onboard with your hope/belief that they don't touch it. Too soon.

It came out two and a half years ago so I can see how you might have forgotten about that part. As someone who read the overwhelming majority of the Post-Crisis continuity which ended with Flashpoint, the reboot was pretty memorable to me.

I thought the Flashpoint event was excellent at the time I read it. Not so much the main story line but all the mini-series surrounding the event. I was favorably impressed by how quickly they built a world and it's characters with 3 issue runs instead of the typical 5 - 6 comic story arcs. Had hoped with the reboot they would tread the path instead of falling into old habits. Unfortunately, with the reboot, I think it actually got worse with the numerous crossovers they started doing between titles.

[JohnMayo]

Haven't heard much outrage over the low score for One hit Wonder and i guess we aren't alone:

2 out of 5 from CBR

IGN: Richie Reese is a bad guy who’s just plain bad

crave online: One Hit Wonder #1: Shooting Blanks

this guys take at crave sums it up for me:
The end of One Hit Wonder doesn't matter because none of the rest of the book matters. This is like something Sapolsky mined from Quentin Tarantino's dumpster. The art is terrible as well. Ariel Olivetti has a style that seems taken right from a dentist's office wall-art. No expression, nothing interesting, just panel after panel of easy characters and dull action. I'm not sure who at Image Comics approved this garbage, but lets hope their job is up for review soon.

Make me curious as to which creator owned series did not get the green light so this could see the light of day

hope this is a blip and not the quality to expect of image's next wave

I always try to treat the creators with respect even if I don't care for the material or the quality of it. I can understand why One Hit Wonder wasn't a hit with many people. The points in the Crave review are fair criticisms of the work but some of the comments lean a little in the direction of personal attacks. Questioning if the title should have been approved is fine but suggesting someone lose their job of it strikes me as excessive.

[JohnMayo]

Actually have read it but guess I missed the part where the it created the New 52 universe. Unfortunately it's packed away right now so I can't revisit it.

Given it was the boot event, I'm onboard with your hope/belief that they don't touch it. Too soon.

It came out two and a half years ago so I can see how you might have forgotten about that part. As someone who read the overwhelming majority of the Post-Crisis continuity which ended with Flashpoint, the reboot was pretty memorable to me.

I thought the Flashpoint event was excellent at the time I read it. Not so much the main story line but all the mini-series surrounding the event. I was favorably impressed by how quickly they built a world and it's characters with 3 issue runs instead of the typical 5 - 6 comic story arcs. Had hoped with the reboot they would tread the path instead of falling into old habits. Unfortunately, with the reboot, I think it actually got worse with the numerous crossovers they started doing between titles.

I loved who well the Flashpoint world was fleshed out inside of a few months. It set my expectations for the New 52 storytelling style. Needless to say, I've been fairly disappointed in that regard.

[SpideySavestheDay]

I'm a little behind on the Spotlights but Drew keep giving love to Thor. Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic are hitting it out of the park.

[drew]

I'm a little behind on the Spotlights but Drew keep giving love to Thor. Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic are hitting it out of the park.

No worries there they have been making it easy to love this series

[SpideySavestheDay]

Now that Weekly Comics Spotlight is on #350, it's time to reboot! Think about...all new #1 from the same website with the same hosts talking about the same topics and using the same format. Like I just said, ALL NEW! That should double your listener base.

In all seriousness, episode 301 was like a new #1; switching up longtime hosts can dramatically change everything for the good or for the bad. In this case I would say the former. Overall, the goal still seems to be finding good comics to read and you guys have done that. I read Elephantmen and Astrocity - two books I would have glanced over at my LCS if it wasn't for your reviews. Drew is right - more people should be reading Astrocity. I know at my LCS the number of pulls for the previously mentioned comics are in the single digits.

Regarding your review of Sinestro #1. I can understand why Drew did not enjoy it quite as much. Without the knowledge of Geoff Johns's run, this title would be difficult to read. Bunn writes the character so that he is familiar to Johns' fans. It's comforting to read a GL title that carries that legacy, something I feel is lost in Venditti's GL.

Also in Sinestro was the new threat of an emotional spectrum-less threat. They instantly reminded me of the Star Wars Expanded Universe's Yuuzhan Vong - a force blind race.

Completely agree on the idea of a roundtable about Amazon's acquisition of Comixology. Should be fun to hear everyone's viewpoint. Comics as a medium can use that shot in the arm from Amazon but not at the expense of the mom & pops or Apple users. The list of hopes and fears from this acquisition can be mighty long. For example...
> What if this is Amazon's first move in digital and print comics? Will they acquire a service like DCBS and capitalize on the market? I know they sell magazine subscriptions. Why not comic subscriptions?
> Does Apple or someone else make an iPad friendly digital comics marketplace to rival Amazon's?
> What can the comic industry learn from music's failure to grasp onto digital?

I'm sure I'll think of a few more and add them later.

Thanks for the great podcasts.

[fudd71]

Great episode gentlemen! I must say personally I really enjoyed Amazing Spider-Man #1. I haven't read Amazing since around issue #650 somewhere in the middle to end of Big Time. I don't think it was Big Time that got me to drop the book it was a delayed reaction to One Moment In Time and it took 5-10 issue till I finally actually gave up. Anyway, the point is I really enjoyed this first issue. Having missed 50 or so issues of Amazing and all of Superior I was concerned I might be a little lost but the creative team did a great job of telling a story that gave me all the information I needed to understand it. Even for a $5.99 book I thought I got value for the cost as well, it felt like at least 2 x $2.99 issues worth of content. While I didn't feel like the backup stories were just pitches for other series while reading it, I can certainly see that now that you all mentioned it that way. But I still enjoyed all the backups (I didn't read Inhumans, I read the first few pages and decided I didn't know the characters and was not interested). I am looking forward to this series moving forward, but I have decided to skip the Year One: Learning to Crawl one point issues.

You have both mentioned that you really enjoyed Original Sin #0, will you be getting into more detail when you review Original Sin #1 next episode? Personally having not read any Avengers or major Marvel event since Onslaught (Yes it has been awhile) I decided to give Original Sin (just the mini series #0-8) a shot. I enjoyed #0 but it felt like all setup (I know its a 0 issue what did I expect) and not much happened. I was introduced to the current Nova and his history, something I appreciate but assume regular readers already know. Other then that it was just a little history on the Watcher, again nothing hugely revelatory. Again I enjoyed it, but assumed a regular Marvel reader would find it a bit thin, especially for the price.

Next week you are also reviewing The 52 Futures End #1. Did you read the #0 issue of that series, will you be talking about it? Personally I loved the FCBD #0 issue and got a much better sense of what the series was about from that issue then I did the #1. The #1 issue was fine but the major setup really happened in the #0 issue.

Thanks again for the great show gentlemen.