Badr: [00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the short podcast. The Short Box Podcast is recorded live. Jackson
Yoo Short Box Nation. Welcome back to the podcast. How are you doing today? Did you hear the news about Marvel bringing back the Ultimate Universe? Or, stop me if, if you heard this one before, there are rumors that we might actually get a decent Hellboy movie for once. All right. That I'm, I'm pretty excited about even the mere mention of the word Decent and Hellboy movie together.
If none of those ring a bell, no worries. You're in the right place cuz those are just a few of the topics we got lined up for you today. For all of you newcomers. My name is Boder. Ooh. I got my notification bells. Oh, that was good timing. , [00:01:00] did you do that on purpose? I wish I could. Uh, . Oh, I gotta put my phone on mute, but I, I still haven't figured out.
Wow. The MacBook lines up with the phone and all that shit. All right. That was Drew of all people too. Leave with the Drew course. You know, we always talk about Drew being the legal Disrupt liabilities. Yeah, the Disruptor . All right, newcomers. Welcome to the Short Box Podcast, the comic review and talk show where you hear the best conversations about comic books.
And other forms of pop culture, they inspire this episode 3 82 and today we're catching up with the latest news and pop culture developments that have made headlines this past week. I'll be honest with you, upfront, right? It's gonna be a lot of Marvel and DC news. Uh, they, they had a lot going on this week.
So of course we've got a lot to talk about. We've got things to talk about. In addition to covering the news, we'll also be announcing the winner of a pair of tickets to Northeast Florida's premier pop culture and comic event Collective Con. It's taking place here in Jacksonville, March 17th through the 19th.
Uh, and if you are, you know, a regular listener, you have definitely heard the ads [00:02:00] playing at every single one of our episodes. Our patrons, though, have not heard the ads cuz they get them episodes ad free. So maybe our patrons are late. What the hell? So, like I say, we got a lot going for you today, so please make sure to check out the timestamps in this episode.
Show notes if you're looking for anything, uh, specific or if you're interested in a, in a specific topic. I'll have all the timestamps in the show notes like I normally do. Now joining me for today's pod is my extravagant, immaculate. I know Immaculate starts, but I bear with me and a special co-host here in the studio.
Me, I got the ed. I got the Edmund Danza here with me. What's up? I'm gonna
Ed: be my rap name. E dash Maculate . That's my new name. A
Badr: K a e, immaculate. Damn. You see, I appreciate that nickname. Master over here. All right, and also joining us is another special guest co-host. Oh, shit. Whoa. John Cena, what
Lex: a get. I am false advertising.
Badr: Every single button No on this thing, except for the right one. Oh, no. All [00:03:00] joining us all right, is a special guest co-host, and he's helping me continue my comic podcast, homies World Tour. He's won half of the Wednesday poll list. It's a weekly comic podcast, four Nerds by nerds. He and his co-host Simon, are the friendliest pair of neighborhood comic reviewers out there.
Short Box Nation. Let's give it up for Lex. What up, Lex? Hey,
Lex: what's going on guys? Thanks for having me. I'm, I'm sorry I'm not John Cena, but I'm happy to be here.
Badr: Oh man, now, but you, you deserve, you deserve the John Cena intro, right? That's the very least we could do. Yeah, I dig it. Lex, you, you have, uh, I will go ahead and admit on, you know, in, in front of our 20 listeners out there that you have one of my favorite comic related accounts on Twitter.
And if I'm being honest, I get, I get hip to more comic news via your tweets and I do from like official comic websites. I think you're like, like the fastest gun in the west when it comes to like comic
Lex: Twitter. I appreciate that. And, and for the [00:04:00] record, if anybody out there decides to go to my Twitter account for news, it's a lot of, uh, sprinkled in nonsense too.
So it's hard to decipher what is real and what's fake. So you
Badr: kinda gotta be around for a while. I will say some of my favorite tweets is when you rile up the comic community with your hot takes on Batman and other, uh, uh, and other topics. It's so easy. so easy. They're just begging for it. Yeah, they are.
All right. Before we begin, uh, before we get started with today's, uh, topics and, and main show, I'd be remiss if I didn't shout out a few people to help make this show possible. Like our incredible sponsors, collective Khan and Gotham City Limit. You heard about Collective Khan. At the top of the show, we will be announcing our, our giveaway for those tickets.
Uh, on the second half, and you'll hear about our favorite comic shop later on. But you can't talk about the reason that we're able to keep this show going strong and not mention our loyal and badass and very spoiled Patreon committee. Mm-hmm. , I will admit, I, I started looking at other Patreon, uh, accounts and seeing what, uh, others [00:05:00] offer Ed.
I gotta say, uh, we should be, uh, charging way more for our Patreon. Do it . Oh, what's that? ? I was hoping you'd be like, nah, didn't deserve it. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. No, I agree a hundred percent. All right. Inflation's gone up. Everything's going up . But no, we love and appreciate our Patreon community cuz they help us keep the lights on and they gave us, they give us a reason to record bonus content and, and try new stuff.
And maybe, you know, this might be your first time listening or this might become as a complete surprise to you. But aside from doing our weekly Wednesday shows, we also have a spinoff co podcast. Where we talk about the best comic book cartoons and animated shows. Last week, me and Ed, we begrudgingly talked about GI Joe cartoons,
Um, granted it wasn't like the really good ones. It was kind of a, you know, a mid one, but it turned out to be much better than we thought. Yes. So, uh, we put that off as long as we could. Yes, we did. Uh, GI Joe Renegades was the cartoon, which once again turned out to be a lot better than we thought. What we probably would've.
Touch that cartoon. If it wasn't for our patrons. They just enjoy paying to watch us. [00:06:00] Uh, they, they basically, uh, pay to, um, uh, torture us , I think so a better term. It was a test, surprisingly. Uh, yeah. I'm still shocked as hell that GI Joe Renegades beat out static shock in our, in our Patreon poll. It's something I'll never forgive them for, but I'm, I'm past that now.
All right, I'm past that now. So I say all of that to say if you're a listener who cannot stand having just one episode a week to enjoy, or, or you suffer from regular short box withdrawals, I'm here to tell you there is a cure. All right? The only cure is to give us some of your money every month to get access to our Patreon community.
I'm telling you, just look. Take your support and listening experience at the next level. Go ahead and join our Patreon community by either clicking the link of the show notes or going to short bikes jacks.com. A million thank yous in advance with the sales pitch out the way. Let's go ahead and get started on what's been going on in the world of comics and and related pop culture so far.
Lex, you are our guest of honor. How about you kick us off, man? What, what's, what's been going on in comics? As you mentioned, there's
Lex: a lot of things going [00:07:00] on, lots of things we can talk about. The, the one thing that I wanted to talk with you guys about today is both major companies, Marvel and DC, have already announced their big summer events, even though we're just off the heels of multiple events from Marvel events from DC
Badr: and
Lex: it's nonstop.
So for Marvel, we have the contest of chaos and the tagline is, absolute chaos corrupts. Absolutely. So I imagine that this entire event was generated by AI and they just ran with it. . Yeah. They had Brian Hitch do the promotional art. I'm sure we'll talk more about Brian Hitch in a little bit. Yeah, and it just seems like Heroes Fighting Heroes, which we always, we get at least once a year.
Ed: There's a misunderstanding at first, and then they get along. There's something.
Badr: Yeah. Yeah. It'll take us, there's something, it'll take us 10 issues to figure out the misunderstanding , but we're gonna have a good time doing it. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Lex: And when it, when I was talking about it on Twitter, [00:08:00] it's just like, yes, hey, here's the announcements for this, but what I really wanna understand is how the super villains in the Marvel universe haven't won already.
yeah. Like the, if the superheroes are constantly just beating themselves up in the streets of New York, I would just be robbing banks. I would be, yeah. Doing anything else, just staying out of the way. ,
Badr: you know what I would do? And I'd actually set a better example. All right. That's what I would do. That's why, well, you know what?
Kingpin is someone that actually took that piece of advice. I mean, I believe in Dare da, when he ended up being the fucking mayor and all that. like, yeah, it's a low hanging fruit. All right. Like imagine being a super villain and running on a platform like you see what they're doing over there and they're your heroes, right?
Like, I can't do any worse. .
Lex: Yeah, he was on track to. His plan was to become president as well. And I see it happening , you know, all he had to do was stay the courts and just stay
Badr: out of the way. Yeah. So that, that's primarily mar uh, that, I mean, judging from this, um, uh, promo piece by, uh, [00:09:00] Brian Hitch for the contest of chaos, it, you know, face value, it, you know, a bunch of superheroes fighting each other.
Um, but DC's, uh, a big event. This, what is it called? Uh, night Terrors. Night Terrors. I kind of see a trend here that's been around for a little bit. Marvel. Nice. With a K with everything. Everything. That's actually a good one. Good observation. Okay. I'm just, I was, I was going with, you have Marvel that can't seem to get past like what Mark Malar set, you know, years ago of Civil War Heroes Fighting Heroes, right?
Mm-hmm. , they're still carrying that trope to this day. And DC lately has just really been leaning into like the horror aspect, like, you know, nightmares and, you know, uh, twisted versions of, of characters. Did, uh, uh, Lexi, you got anything report on, on this night of Terror? I agree with you,
Lex: first of all, ever since the success and wild popularity of the Batman Who laughs, dark
Badr: Knight Metals, yeah.
Lex: DC is like, yo, let's just double down on that. We need to sell Batana books. So , those people are buying it. Let's just [00:10:00] sell it. Apparently it's gonna start in July. The event runs from July to August. It's a mini-series focusing on the Trinity, and it's like some obscure villains that they're gonna have twisting the Trinity.
And apparently they have to team up with Dead Man, which I love obscure characters. Mm-hmm. . So that peaks my interest. Same, I, I don't have a lot of, I'm not a huge fan of like the DC horror stuff. Mm-hmm. , but we'll see. I mean, also event fatigue is a thing. Yeah. So, we'll,
Badr: we'll see. When I hear people talk about superhero fatigue in the movies, I'm.
Bro, you have no idea what fatigue is in superhero, our superhero world. Right? That's not real. You tried survive, you tried being a collector from fucking 2010 to 2015, just like that, right? All them fucking Marvel event
Lex: crossovers, reboots. Yeah. Soft reboots. Hard reboots.
Badr: Yeah. Now I'll say, I, I, I, you know, I'm kind of skipping through the, uh, article really quick, but isn't the difference of [00:11:00] night terrors that it's not going to have, it sounds like they're trying to control the, the amount of tie-ins, right?
Like they're only gonna have like, it sounds like two issue little spinoffs or things like that. That's what they're saying right now, , so we'll see. We have heard that before. You're right. Yeah. They just
Lex: did the, the Dark Crisis event and that I lost track of the books that were, they'll just have like
Ed: 35 1 shots and, uh, we did cross over technically.
Yeah,
Badr: that's it. Yeah, that's what I can't recall. I can't, I think it might have been around like the time of like, You're the villains event, or, or Forever Evil or, yeah, well, no, no. It was like, oh, I think it was called You're the villains. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, mm-hmm. , I think I can pinpoint that is when I kind of fell off of like collecting Maine, DC like continuity and stories, because I, if I recall correctly, it was like, you're the villain.
And they literally had two other events. One was like kind of a ice, uh, uh, Arctic kind of theme. Um, I'm, I trying to, I'm definitely drawing a blank, but it was around like that time and it felt [00:12:00] like there was two big events going on. Mm-hmm. and it was multiple tie-ins. And I think I just had a moment of like, yo, this is way too expensive to even try to make sense of, first of all.
Yeah. And I kind of fell off of that. What I will say that kind of intrigues me with this night of terrors is that I've heard great things by of Joshua Williamson, um, and Howard Porter, you know, I, I love seeing that he's still out here, you know, cranking out, cranking out the good work and, and drawing good stuff.
Yeah, I agree. All right. Good stuff. I'm gonna follow up with, uh, with, with Lex, cuz I think my, my first news piece, uh, correlates into this really well. I don't think this is a, uh, I mean, I don't know how big this event is gonna be, but it's definitely a new event coming out in, in the summer that's definitely piqued my interest because of one man in particular.
And that is Jonathan Hickman is teaming up with Brian Hitch for a new ultimate Marvel comic. It's called Ultimate Invasion. It's gonna hitch shops, uh, June, 2023. It sounds like it's gonna tell a news story heavily centered around the maker and Miles [00:13:00] Morales and is seemingly gonna pick up where, uh, 2015 Secret Wars left off, which was also written by Hickman and saw the end of the ultimate comic line and universe.
Uh, for those of you, uh, un. Ultimate Comics in, in the Marvel world was started in 20, in 2000, in the two thousands, thanks to the efforts of, of Brian Hitch, mark Malar and Brian Michael Benes to name a few. And then in 2015, Hickman came along and was responsible for its final chapter with Secret Wars. So it's kind of interesting that you've got, you know, the person responsible for the birth of, uh, of the Ultimate Comics line, Brian Hitch, and then the end of the Ultimate Comics line, you know, uh, Jonathan Hickman teaming up to bring it back.
So I think that makes for a really interesting, uh, pairing. It sounds intentful, it sounds like Hickman, uh, you know, just like Hickman is known to be as a writer amongst other things, it sounds like he's really kind of has an intent in this. He said something to the effects that, um, first of all, Marvel lay this project in front of them.
I guess they pitched the idea of bringing back the ultimate comic universe. And I got a quote here that, uh, h Hickman was [00:14:00] saying. We both knew there needed to be a good reason to revisit the idea of Ultimate Comics. Beyond telling a cool story or just getting to work together, which is something we've been trying to do for years.
So I like that idea of like, yeah, this sounds like a great premise, but you know, what is gonna be intent? What's the, the mission beyond just, you know, cool pairing and cool story. Uh, it also sounds like both creators are, are really excited about revisiting the ultimate universe and working together.
Brian Hitch went ahead and expressed like his fandom for Jonathan Hickman, and he also said, uh, quote, I get to bring two decades of new experience as an artist and storyteller to this. It's new, it's different and familiar. It's big budget, high concept, wide screen storytelling. I feel right at home. And whether you like Brian Hit's artwork or not.
I'll go to admit, I think Pa Past Ultimate, I'm kind of hit or miss for Brian Hitch, but one thing he is very capable of doing is drawing, kind of like, in my opinion, kind of Blockbuster comic books. Yeah. Those early Mark Malar, Brian Hitch, ultimate, not only the, were they like Blockbuster comic books, but [00:15:00] they literally were the blueprint for Blockbuster, you know, movies.
Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. , like they helped the mcu like in the early days, like Launch Off, that's what they were kind of primarily based off. So the fact that Hitch is, you know, once again excited to revisit, uh, ultimate, and I like this, this thing that he says, right, I get to bring two decades of new experience.
Brian Hitch is a seasoned comic book artist man. And to think that. It's been almost two decades since he's, you know, touched, uh, the ultimate universe. I'm crazy that it's right. That old yo that's , no bones hurt. . Exactly. So I mean, a part of me's like, damn, he's about to come correct with everything he's learned.
Um, so I'm excited to see how he approaches this and if he gets much better. Yeah. The fact that he's,
Ed: I dunno what's wrong with my voice. I'm sorry guys. The fact that he's excited about it, you know, and especially a lot of times when you work for so long, you kind of mm-hmm. are over. Yeah. Doing, you know, these characters.
Okay. That's my past. I'm onto to other things now. But the fact that he's excited about it. Yeah. And another thing I read that it was kind of hinted at maybe like, could be a [00:16:00] possible Illuminati reunion, like maybe the, the, uh, ultimate version of the Illuminati. That'd be kinda
Badr: interesting to. Yeah, I was gonna say there's a lot of familiar faces and helmets, right?
because of Maker. Where's ? A terrible joke. A terrible joke. But, uh, I know in some of the promo, you know, of course, uh, miles Morales is, is, uh, in the promos, the maker, uh, a K Evil, Reid Richards and a bunch of the Illuminati members, Reid Richards regular, uh, black Belt, Naor, and a few others. And the best part, I think out of, out of all of this is it sounds like this series is complete, if I'm reading in between the lines, uh, I think Hickman said something to the effect that we wanted this to be something that could really only exist in the comic space.
A new way of thinking about and enjoying a new version of the Marvel universe. I'm pretty happy to say that it feels like we've accomplished those things and we're very excited for everyone to get to read it. So I read that as this is about to be. and it's done. And I feel like mm-hmm. , you know, how many is he?
Ed: Cuz Hickman's on it. You're like, it's done. .
Badr: Well, [00:17:00] honestly, we're running with Hickman's track record , you know, he's, he's, a few of his stories have been known to like, take long hiatus or just never come back . Um, yeah, so I'm hoping this is a case of like, we got a lot of issues in the can or we've just completed it and we'll, you know, we don't gotta worry.
I do know that for anyone, uh, that's as interested as I am in checking this out, you can get a preview of the project before it starts in June. They're gonna have a lot of preview pages that'll be released as part of the free comic book Day Avengers X-Men number one title, which also have, uh, some previews of Hickman's, other mystery Marvel project that he's doing with, um, Valero Sheti.
So as a Hickman fan, this makes me super fucking excited that we're getting not one but two, uh, Hickman joints. And I wanna hear from you guys. Uh, I think it's probably safe to say, I think it's a unanimous kind of like a, a agreement that Miles morale is probably considered to be the ultimate ver ultimate universe's best idea that came out of that version.
The, the Marvel Universe. Yeah, easily. . Mm-hmm. . What are some ti when you think about like the ultimate [00:18:00] Marvel comic line, what are some of your, what were some of your favorite titles, or what are some of the things that stick out to you the most? The
Lex: Ultimate Universe was a weird time when it came out.
It's when it really got me back into comics. I, I've been collecting comics since I was a little kid. Mm-hmm. always just like the simple, the same stuff, spider-Man and then like just picking it up out of routine. But the ultimate Universe got me into it. And as I got older, you know, you realize that there's a lot of not so good stuff in there, sprinkled in some really, really good ideas.
And I loved the Ironman design. I could not get enough of how original it was. Uh, I love the first Ultimate. It was so good. I mean, even though there was some things that it was like, eh, it doesn't age very.
Badr: Okay. Ultimate, ultimate three, I think. Right. And Ultimate. Oh, ultimate Three. So Ultimate Three. So bad.
It definitely by the end of that, that lifeline you were kind of, or that, that run you were kind of like, yeah, this needs to go ahead and just end right here. [00:19:00] Right. Yeah. Hickman kind of did us a favor. It feels like Marvel kind of just, you know, the powers that be just didn't really know what to do with it.
And I think you just had so many titles, um, it just made sense to go out and, you know, get rid of the, the Doppel Gangers. It sounds like for you, um, the Mission of the Ultimate was successful, right? Like they started the Ultimate Line mm-hmm. to revamp and, and update the Marvel Comics line and like kind of bring the, the continuity to um, you know, like a more modern audience.
Lex: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it definitely did. And Brian Hitch at the time, I agree with you say, even though I'm not a huge fan of his artwork in the more digital era of making comic books back then, so Good. When he was on the Ultimate, when he was on the authority. was a huge fan of it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Now, I, I have different opinions now as it seems like he's gone, more digital , but that's a whole nother conversation.
So I'm, I do, I'm ready to see him back on this title, especially because he knows these characters so well. But yeah, it, it got me back into like [00:20:00] caring about comic book stories, even though they'd ended up with like an Ultimate Avengers where they're fighting vampires and then it was like, yeah, , we need to, we need to, we
Badr: need to end this.
Ed, what about you, man? What comes to mind when you think of the Ultimate?
Ed: I remember, like I said, I, it's been a while since I revisited it, but, you know, the Ultimate Spider-Man, the Miles Morales was I think, easily the best thing that's come out of that. I do remember them. I remember liking the art. I remember at that time probably still liking kind of the edgier Millar stuff.
Mm-hmm. . And it's just, I just think back at it now and it's like, these are very, they made these heroes, like very unlikeable to me. Mm-hmm. , at least from what I remember. And then it got kind of off the rails and weird. Like the Joe Mad run, was that the second
Badr: or the Uh, no, that was, that was the third with
Ed: Jeff Loeb.
So that with the, the Scarlet Witch Quicksilver like incest deal and the magic bullet and like that was definitely that one. What the fuck is going on? It was like, it kind of went off the rails to me and I was just getting that cuz oh, [00:21:00] this artwork is nice. And then reading it, it's like, what is this blob like biting wasps set off and just
Lex: really yeah, an ultimatum
Ed: bizarre stuff.
And like, yeah, just kind of like, this isn't fun, you know, I mean, it's like, and I understand that's kind of the, the point of that to, you know, the, of the line. But I think it just kind of went a little bit lean too far one direction, you know what I'm saying? And then I think it was good that they ended, I'm, I'm glad they've kind of adopted Miles Morales as almost like the sole survivor until now.
But if it's Miles Morales in the Maker, those are easily like the, probably the two most interesting characters and ideas to
Badr: come out of it. I didn't get into the Ultimate Comics until I'd say like 20 10, 20 11. So like, uh, almost 10 years after, uh, this initial launch. But I was consuming those back issues like, like crazy.
I was, you know, looking for the Ultimate X-Men, uh, the ultimate Fantastic Four, you know, the Avengers, like all of the, especially those early runs, like those first 10, 15 issues of, [00:22:00] uh, you know, all of those titles were fantastic, man. Mm-hmm. , I mean, you had mm-hmm. , you know, all the best writers do. Brian K.
Vaughn, I think comes to mind. I think he did fff, I can't recall directly, but Brian K. Vaughn, you know, mark Lar, Brian Michael Beez on Spider-Man, uh, and the Cubert Brothers, right? Mm-hmm. Andy and fucking Adam doing, um, X-Men and a Fantastic four. It was like the lineup of, of creators they had was like a plus stuff.
But I think Ed, you described it best off the rails, is where it went towards the, its end, his lifeline. Yeah.
Lex: It went into like shock value. Yeah. And then them trying to emulate. Mals, but like, how can we amp up what he did? And it just, it just didn't work.
Ed: There's a point where it doesn't fit the characters anymore, where you kind of like, if this was a different IP or a different thing, but it's some, okay, we can get, it's a, it's a blurry line, but you can get right up to it.
Like Malar I think is really good at mm-hmm. , but, but once you get over it, it just kind of, [00:23:00] to me it just kind of, all right. .
Badr: Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. So I'm, I'm excited to check out what Hickman does, uh, back at Marvel. All right. And I guess, uh, how can I, how can I smoothly transition this to Ed? You know, ed, speaking of, uh, comic books that have influenced, uh, um, comic book blockbuster movies, I think your next news piece is semi-related, right?
It's pretty good. Um, yeah. Um, can use a little word, but I freaked out that one. Fix it in .
Ed: Yeah. Millennium Media has announced that they're going to do a, another Hellboy reboot. So second reboot in what, three years, four years. Um, but an interesting about this, about this, uh, reboot is that, um, Mike Mc, Noah and Chris Golden are writing the series.
They are writing the, uh, the series. So it's gonna be the first time he's involved with a script. I was checking out I M D B and there's no casting information, but I've read that they're going to start filming in Bulgaria. [00:24:00] Oh man. My old stomp,
Badr: you're old Stomp Bo's. Old stompers.
Ed: I like 10 kids over there.
Um,
Badr: one of them kids are gonna be, uh, a background
Ed: actor. Yeah. They're gonna start filming. But I haven't heard any imdb just has, you know, Christopher Golden, Mike Mcno, the director who's interesting. Brian Taylor of crank fame. If you've seen Jason Statham s Crank movies. Oh yeah, yeah. And a ghost writer, spirit of Vengeance.
And, but he was also director. The happy that series. Yeah. So that's pretty cool.
Badr: And that is like every single one of Ashley's favorite things, ghost, ghost writer, uh, happy, I dunno if she likes crank, but we'll just assume So.
Ed: Yeah, I can't say anything. I have both of both cranks on dvd. I'm in the good movies.
Yeah. Yeah. They're hilarious. But he's interesting. Visual director, but interesting choice. It's a great story. If you guys haven't read it, it's uh, the Crooked Man, right? Yeah. The Crooked Man is gonna be based on the Crooked Man. And Richard Corbin illustrated that. And like I said, 2008 three issue series.
Uh, [00:25:00] it's gonna take place in Appalachia in the fifties. So it's, it's the first Hellboy storyline that has it used. Kind of a American folklore as its base. Oh, that's cool. As opposed to European and other countries. Um, but like I said, there's very little talked about it or little, and I'm thinking it's gonna be a lower budget.
There's shooting for an R rating, which. It doesn't mean they'll get it, but they're definitely not gonna shy away from the, uh, the gore and the horrors of somebody horror stuff in there. It's basically a story about a regional, like kind of witches in the area. Um, a devil, a guy basically who collects souls for, for the devil.
Um, and I think they're introducing a new character, kind of like a new, like a rookie agent. Whereas the original story, it was just Hellboy and kind of like a local returning from, uh, world War II, kind of investigating some disappearances and things like that. So it's, this is probably the quickest turnaround for a reboot outside of [00:26:00] Spider-Man
But the fact that Mike Mc Nola's involved, um, if it's done more as a classic horror than more of, than an over the top fantasy action movie with bad, questionable cgi like the last one. . Yeah. Now I'm thinking if they can keep it like, you know, You know, practical props and monsters and, and body horror effects and keep it, you know, he's gotta look good.
So hopefully he's, they have a really good makeup with maybe touches of CG to make it, make it work. But I think it's, uh, kind of interesting seeing what they do cuz it's definitely a, a, a different direction from the previous movies story-wise as well.
Badr: You know, why Ed? I, I feel like this is just, you know, my, this is my, my little theory, like we like to toss out on the show here.
I think they're trying to do this reboot so fast cuz they know that if they wait any longer pretty soon, that terrible fucking 2019 Hellboy movie will just solidify in our minds and it'll just warp the way we look at Hellboy. I think that's why they called him the [00:27:00] big one. That's why they were like, Mike, you are the only guy that can save your franchises.
All right. Yeah. David Harlow the
Lex: only way to make people interest interested in it. Like, I have no interest in watching another Hellboy movie after the last one, but that one was
Badr: hearing that he's tied to it. I guess that was the surprising part, was that this is gonna be Manolas first time writing a script for a, has he ever written a script, period?
I, I feel like he's gotta have been involved in some of the other, uh, movies that he's been attached with. Right.
Ed: But they're based on his comic stories, but, so I guess he get script writing is a different part of the process. Got it, got it. This, from what I've read, this is the first time he's, uh, done the actual movie script.
And then Christopher Golden is a author and he's done, he's a, he's been a co-writer for Mc Nolan for a while now. But he's also a novelist as well. So between those two guys, those are, those two guys have gotten, at least according to imdb, they have the full screenwriting credits, so.
Badr: Got it. Got it. Yeah, I'm looking at, I, uh, Mike Manolas [00:28:00] imdb right now, and he's got writing credits for the, the Hellboy movies.
Obviously Batman Gaslight. But to be fair,
Ed: I looked up the Fantastic Four movie, and Stan Lee has a writing credit there. Oh, okay. All right.
Badr: The writing credit can basically, because it's based on social, on a
Ed: creation. Got it. That doesn't mean
Badr: it's does a screenplay. Yeah. Well, that's cool. Well, then I'm all right.
That gives me a little more, a little more faith in this, uh, faith in this news. I'll say that much. Lex, how do you feel about Hellboy? You talk about Hellboy.
Lex: Yeah. I love Hellboy and it's, I've always thought that it works better in animation. Mm-hmm. just because Oh, for sure. Uh, it's simple. Uh, but I, I realize for these big budget movies, you know, we still don't think that animation can hang, even though Spider Verse was such a success.
So I was hoping that the next, uh, trilogy or whatever we got series of one shot movies with Hellboy would've been more of the animated route. Mm-hmm. . But I, I'm excited to see this, like I'm Practical effects works for me. I think it will work really good. So yeah, hopefully.
Badr: Well, maybe this might, might excite you.
[00:29:00] Cause I, I have a similar feeling too when it comes to the animated route. Were either of you familiar of this new, um, Hellboy game that was announced back in, uh, December? Hellboy Web? Weird. Mm-hmm. , it looks like it's got like the very heavily kind of animated, it looks like they literally took Yeah, it looks Mike Manolas panel, like comic book panels and threw it up into video game, like hyper sell shaded graphics, super animated style.
Yeah, it looks great. Unfortunately, there's no further word on when it's gonna be released, but that looks like it's going to be badass. Yeah. Dark Horse is
Ed: owned by a video game company now, so That's right. Yeah. These things will be pumping out,
Badr: I'm sure. And then that kind of caused me to go down a Hellboy video game, rabbit Hole,
And, uh, there's way more Hellboy video games than I thought. So he got his first video game treatment in 2000 with Hellboy Dogs of the Night on pc. Which would later get poured at a PlayStation as Hellboy Asylum seeker. And then in 2004, uh, Kami put, uh, put out the Hellboy Signs of Evil Game, uh, that was based on the, uh, Del Toro Hellboy movies.
So [00:30:00] he's, he's no stranger to video games. So I say all that to say I'm, I'm kind of look forward to this web of weird for sure. All right. Uh, ed, I'm gonna follow up with that. Uh, and I'm, I'm gonna talk about some manga. Okay. I'm gonna talk about, uh, DC releasing three manga titles starring Batman, the Joker in Superman in June.
Um, essentially these are like Japanese imports being given, like the English translation treatment. The three titles in particular are Joker One Operation Joker. You've got Batman, justice Buster, and Superman versus Meshk. And I'll read the solicitations for those in a second. But all three titles will initially be released as digital exclusives on the DC Universe app, which I still stand by, that it is probably.
The best. Yeah, no, not fucking. I'm, I'm gonna stand firm on them. Say it with my chest. I think the DC Universe app is probably the best comic reading app out there personally, minus sometimes the occasional crashing . But, uh, so they're gonna be releasing this, uh, these three [00:31:00] titles as digital exclusives on the DC Universe app.
Uh, they're also gonna be updating the app itself to, um, to be more manga reader friendly. So that'll be kind of interesting to see what they, what they mean by that. But, uh, fortunately for all of you physical media lovers, they will be following the digital releases, which are supposed to come out in June with, uh, print collections.
Um, and those will be released in comic shops sometime in the fall. Now, solicitation wise, and I think each one of these sounds fucking rad. So Joker one operation Joker, uh, reads, it's the joker, like you've never seen him. As a single father, q a laugh, track Q, laugh track. . . After a fateful encounter of Batman, the results in the dark night, de aging to a baby joker takes it upon himself to raise the child into the crusader of justice.
That wouldn't happen. That is a very funny, he would eat that baby. You know? He probably wouldn't. Yeah, he's a pig. All right. Second book in Batman. Uh, second book is titled Batman, justice Buster. To me, [00:32:00] it kind of reads like, you remember that movie? Uh, her, where it was, um, Scarlet Johansen and cannot recall his name right now, but he fell in love with his phone, the app.
Oh, remember that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, walking Phoenix. Yeah. Joaquin Phoenix. Thank you so much. I think that movie is called her. Hopefully I didn't fuck that up. Yeah. But this kind of reads like her meets Minority report. Here's a solicit. Gotham City has been under the protection of Batman for only a short amount of time.
But since the vigilantes appearance, crime has changed, it's gotten more bold, more destructive, as Batman tries to rise to meet these new threats, he develops a computer system called Robin to help him analyze the subdue, the rise in criminal tide, and hopefully one day put an end to crime in Gotham. So that was, uh, Batman Justice.
And last but not least, ed, I know you got, I, I dunno how active your, your food account is, but I think this one is right up your alley, right? . Really? This is up for, for any foodies alley, right? The, the third manga title is coming over, uh, to the US is called Superman versus Mesh. [00:33:00] It's hungry work being Superman.
That's why every day for lunch and Superman versus Meshk. Superman makes a quick stop over in Japan to try a new chain restaurant. Whether he's wild, it's he's an influence. He's fucking integrated. What a wild idea. weather is a hardy bowl of curry or conveyor belt sushi. The man of steel loves to indulge in that delicacies.
The country has to offer, he'll even share a meal with the other members of the Justice League from time to time, and in the hopes of showing them an incredible culinary experience. That's some shit you won't see in Zach Snyder's interpretation of Superman, . That's some sharing the love of food with his fellow Justice Leaguers, Anthony Bourdain, the
Ed: Superman
That's such a wild idea that
Badr: only a manga could, it only a manga. The Japanese can nail it. And all of these right now, if you want 'em in Japanese manga form, um, they're all available on eBay. I, I didn't take a look at how expensive they are, but you know, I'm more excited that they're coming over. Uh, so the company that DC has been working with is, [00:34:00] they've had a partnership with, uh, kocha, which is a Japan based publishing company that's been around for, for a long time.
They're found in 1909. Wow. And they produce everything from comics to novels, journalism, and picture books. And I guess for up until this point, DC has been the only Western company in, in partnership with Kha. Hmm. Um, that changed in, in, in November of last year. And in November, 2022, Disney apparently announced that they were going to expand their partnership with Kha and they were gonna start producing more like original, uh, anime material for Disney Plus.
So just some background information. Honestly, all three of these, uh, manga, uh, um, titles pique my interest, but I gotta go Superman versus Meshy. Superman is a foodie that's got, that's the wholesome shit that I need to read. All right. I wonder if he just, DS and
Ed: dashes, where do he keep money about
Badr: in those tights?
Lex: Yeah. That's, that's weird. I've heard all about the Joker one operation with him raising
Badr: Batman. [00:35:00] Yeah, I've seen, I've seen the, uh, um, I've seen like pictures of like pages and scans of pages and I just thought it was fan art. I thought it was like a, a fanzine or, or, you know, um, along those lines.
Lex: Same.
These other ones sound interesting. Honestly, Batman, justice Buster with uh, Robin beating AI is pretty cool.
Ed: Yeah. So when you said you thought of that movie, what, is there something, are you reading in between the lines of that description? , like he's gonna fall in love with , like the Carrie Kelly program.
Badr: Yeah, he said, I mean, you know, like anything, anything is possible. Okay. But I'm just saying like, I, it sounds like the, for Batman Justice Buster, the two big kind of components is, you know, this Robin AI system and it's just judging for the solicitation. It sounds like it might be a minority report situation.
Bernie, I dunno. I could see Batman falling in love with his fucking computer. He's a Coldhearted ambassador, right? ? He's BA's possible, very possible. But I, but like I said, I'm excited to see more stuff like this where it's, Marvel, DC you know, taking leaps into like the, the world of manga. [00:36:00] Yeah. Whether it be web tunes, but more importantly the fact that my, you know, membership that I pay for DC Universe gets me perks like this first.
Um, I think it is just further enticement of checking out DC Universe and I'm sure Marvel Unlimited will probably follow suit. Yeah. I'm
Ed: just curious, when they said that reader friendly thing, if they're gonna still keep them in those, like digest those mango books sizes?
Badr: Well, they're saying they're gonna, um, release them on the app in, in serialize form.
So I don't know if that means like one chapter a, a week or if it'll be in like, you know, one volume. I'm, I'm, I'm curious how they're gonna go about it then. Um, and yet to your point, I wonder what they mean by making it manga reader friendly, cuz I feel like the most digital comic reading. For the most part, whatever they, they call their particular system, they all kind of work function the same, right?
Yeah. Either you can go page view or you double tap and it does it, you know, panel by panel. This is go the other way, right? Like, so it's like that's, that's the only, that entitles it to be Mango Reader friendly. It just reads said
Ed: right to left. I remember [00:37:00] like early, when the early stuff was coming to the States before it was going right to left, they would usually mirror the pages.
Or for an example like Blade of Immoral, they would recut the pages so it would make sense reading left to right. But since more people, you know, adapted to the right to left, you know, manga style knows are everywhere now. I mean, what does that mean now? Does that mean it's just gonna read like whatever manga you pick up at Barnes and Noble or whatever, you know, this is just gonna be a right to level.
I'm just curious. And if they do print it, it's smart because. That stuff's everywhere, man. I mean, comics I think sell well, but Manga kills it. I mean, that stuff will be in target in Walmart. You know, there's a manga section in Target now. Yeah, yeah. Like a legit section.
Badr: It's wild. And that's why I'm, I'm curious to see if this trend continues, because obviously I think like, uh, you know, legacy companies like Marvel and.
No matter how big I feel like the [00:38:00] films are, that doesn't always translate, I guess, to new comic book readers, right? Yeah. Like, it doesn't matter how big a Antman movie is, I think there's a very small percentage that are going to a comic shop, you know, probably looking for, uh, these titles. But I think them leaning more into the manga market is, it will probably be more fruitful, right?
Like Oh, for sure. Those already readers, right? They're already readers. They're reading comic books. Yeah. You know, whether it be, uh, they're just Japanese comics, right? So for them to lean into the mango market, I think is a, is a good. Like I said, I didn't read the, the, the creators, but it seemed like they were all of like, you know, Japanese background that they were actually, I think, uh, for Batman, justice Buster, one of the creators, uh, has worked on Ultraman.
So I'm curious to see the interpretation of these classic superheroes in the, uh, from the perspective of like Japanese creators and mango of writers and, and illustrators. That's what I'm the most curious to see is like, what fresh ideas can they bring to, you know, characters that we've seen for years.
Like, you know, like we were kind of talking about like, you know, big event fatigue. [00:39:00] Well, this Superman versus Meshy, it's, it's silly as hell, but. I mean, it's definitely piqued my interest. That's for Man's Gotta eat , it's gotta eat. Right. I
Lex: love silly comic books too, so I'm excited to check these out.
Ed: It's interesting, it's like, as silly as it does sound, it will have an audience.
Cuz there is like manga that is all based on
Badr: food, yo. Exactly. It's just all
Ed: pictures. Yeah. Beautifully drawn food, pictures, . It is
Badr: crazy. Lex, what's your, uh, what's your favorite, uh, manga or anime interpretation of like, traditional Western superhero comics? You know, like how DC and Marvel have both, especially Marvel, you know, they, they had like that run of anime, uh, titles and then even like, uh, dabbled in like the manga Marvel verse.
What, what are some of the, does anything stand out to you? Does anything come to mind? I remember the
Lex: manga verse when it came out and I remembered loving it at the time. Cause I was huge in the anime, which I still am. But, uh, revisiting it was not very good , I think. Um, I don't know man, I, I enjoyed all the, that, you know, they had multiple series.
[00:40:00] They had Blade X-men. Ironman. Mm-hmm. . I enjoyed those. They just seemed like they didn't put a lot of stock into it though. They came out and they were just like, all right, we have 'em if you want 'em. Yeah.
Badr: I think it was like too early, you know, like, yeah. Like I was saying now, you know, we, we we're seeing manga sell very well, you know, and that's like an understatement.
I think when, when Marvel was trying their hand at the manga verse, I think of still kind of early. I don't know if it was like, you know, mango was as popular as it is now. And it was
Lex: still in like a, a western format too. Yeah. It wasn't even like, uh, stylized the same way. It
Ed: seemed to be like a, an authenticity that was missing out.
And it was almost like we've borrowed aesthetic things and then that's where we stop. And then there's no interesting, nothing interesting besides just how it looks. Oh, it looks more like manga now looks more like something Japanese, but there's not, it's like style of, more style than substance. You.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. When you have, you know, Japanese creators established Japanese creators taking shots at [00:41:00] Western Heroes, that's, that's interesting to me. Yeah. You know, cuz that's a whole new culture. So a whole, you get a whole new, like you Yeah. Like the Superman is a perfect example. It's like a whole cultural shift and a unlimited new stories that can come
Badr: out of that.
Yeah. I, I wanted to make a low blow joke about, uh, CB se, uh, Sebaski, uh, and his Japanese name, Maki Yoshida. Oh, that I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold up on that and just write and just write, you know, and just say hashtag Never forget Aki Yoshida. All right. That's almost same. Yeah. . All right. That was the last headline that, that we'll be talking about today.
Uh, listeners, like I said, very heavy on the Marvel and, and DC news. Obviously Ed brought us some, some Hellboy. So tell us if we missed anything. I am curious what type of, uh, headlines and news come out between this Sunday that we're recording and the Wednesday this episode comes out. If we miss anything or you feel like you know, or you want to ask us what we think about a particular headline or something like that, reach out to us, uh, via email, the short [00:42:00] box jacks gmail o.com, or hit us up on Instagram.
Right? I think it's a perfect time now to move into our next topic and figure out what comics future Botter is going to pick up next month. Let's go ahead and grab a fist full of comics.
You can neither have a mouth full of tea or fist full of comics.
Fist full of comics is a segment dedicated to helping all iconic, curious newbies find the best starting points in comics, and for the most loyalists of Wednesday warriors who are looking for something fresh to add to their polls. I couldn't think of a better, um, uh, segment for you to be involved in.
We're talking new comics Wednesday Warriors, you know, and you got the Wednesday poll. I, I, I think I love it. I think it's serendipitous. I love it. And to help us accomplish our mission of, of bringing you and highlighting the best new comics coming out next month. We've called on our friend Ben Kingsbury, the owner of Jacksonville's, uh, premier Comic Bookshop, Gotham City Limit.
[00:43:00] You guys already know by now. Uh, Ben lives his life by, by one creed. All right? And that's the live life to the limit, especially when it comes to comics. So his recommendations reflect just that these are the best comics worthy of your time and attention. He's gonna get some music going and see what he's got for us today on his list.
So, kicking things off, all right? He's kicking it things off. Uh, his list with a hot comic stock tip. All right, that the arrival of a new image, number one. You guys know how much we love those here on the show. Here's Ben to get us started. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, short Fox listeners.
I'm Ben K representing Gotham City Limit and there's no time like the president, so let's just jump right into it. First up, image comics presents ambassadors. Number one. There are approximately 8 billion people on this planet. Six of them can be gifted superpowers. Which six ordinary people would you choose?
[00:44:00] Ps? This first issue is artwork done by superstar Frank, quietly, oh and PPS first print runs of all new modern Mark Malar comics. I e nightclub Magic Order Nemesis. Reloaded. Sell out. Add this to your magical pull box. Now, like I said, hot comic stock tip. Hot comic stock tip. That was the ambassador's number one.
That'll be coming out through Image Comics on March 20. The reason why all of those Mark Menard, image number one cell, is because he's got that sweet Netflix deal. Mm-hmm. . And you never know which one of these is gonna get an n or, uh, a live action show. Yep. All right. Next up on this list is a crossover as iconic and in demand, A as pb and J.
And it's, and it's one that might remind you how old you truly are. Like it did Ben. All right. Ben had an existential crisis. Oh, no. Uh, sending this one in. All right. Here we go. Next up i d w publishing [00:45:00] presents Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ji Yojimbo. Where when? Number one at brand new mini-series. This is a classic crossover back with a brand new story and Art by Yugi creator Stan Secai.
The four turtles have pursued the evil cyborg genius, Dr. Wewe, through a time portal and have emerged in futile Japan. US and TM and t both have a reverence for Japanese culture, which has made it easy for crossovers to occur between the two in comics, multiple animated series and toy lines over the last 40 years.
And I've been alive for all of it. Wow, I just realized I'm freaking old. add this instant classic to your comic shopping list. Now sometimes you just realize, damn, I'm old as fuck. Um, once again, that was T M N T, your Saggy Yo Jimbo, uh, where, when number one that's coming out through i d w publishing. On April 12th, uh, I recently sold a [00:46:00] sweet usag, you Jimbo, um, TM and T figure on Anot a few weeks ago.
Oh, and I was this close to like, kind of pocketing that one. Like, uh, hey, I, I lost this. Sorry. . Um, such a cool character design. All right. And, and last but not least, th this next pick is, uh, the, this next voicemail is a little long. And that's cuz Ben said fuck the rules. And he gave us now one, but two picks and one oh for this last recommendation.
You know, he loves his themes and surprises. This is, this is a prime example of Ben taking it to the limit. And, uh, here's how you do it. Right? And last but not least, wait, hold up. Rules. Who needs rules? At the limit we make our own rules. So when I was politely asked, Hey, Ben, K, can we have three more f o c picks for this weekend, please?
I thought I do what I want. So for your listening pleasure, I present the horror comic double feature. Just like the cinematic experience of getting two movies for the price of one, here's two [00:47:00] horror comic picks for the price of one. First up, American mythology presents cartoon puppet horror theater, number one, which mixes your favorite puppets with abject horror.
And after a delicious dabble in puppet horror, come check out Vault comics. Nasty number one, what happens when your imaginary friend who happens to be a masked killer from your favorite slasher film comes to life? A story about evil, the power of the horror genre. Oh, answer shit, your pants tear. Don't let fear and fright prevent you from adding this one to your pull list.
Now, well, another week has come and gone, and I'm still Ben K representing Gotham City Limit. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility and always take it to the limit. It was the shit your pants terror. That allowed me to, to let that one slide. All right, , that, that's, that's Ben taking it to the limit.
Dammit. All right, Jens, of the four options presented today, which one are you most [00:48:00] interested in? Which one would you, would you, uh, realistically put on your poll list? Lex, what, what you got? Uh, I, I'm probably
Lex: gonna add all of them, honestly, but the TM n t usag, I'm, it's the one that catches my eye the most.
I'm a huge fan of both of those properties, so, uh, that's an
Badr: easy pick. Uh, stanza I drawn TM n t like before, all four turtles in, like in a, in a sequential comic before? That's a
Ed: good question. I think they've had crossovers before.
Lex: I don't think outside of a USI book. I don't think he has.
Ed: I mean, we'd have to go back to like Mirage Studio days.
Yeah. If so, you know when they were hiring their, everybody they wanted to draw a comic back then. Yeah.
Badr: And it looks like this'll be a, like either a three or four part series of nothing but all straight sweet stanza guy, uh, art artwork and writing. So that'll be dope. Uh, ed what about you? What's your pick?
Ed: Oh man. Well, as much as I like horror, I don't know. These two don't really is the puppet horror. I've kind of seen that like the happy time murders meet the Feebles. I've seen some [00:49:00] twisted puppet stuff. Is it gonna be better than that? I don't know. Like I said, maniac in New York kind of takes care of that nasty number one for me.
But the first two I'm definitely getting Ambassador one Frank Quietly and Mike Malar definitely. Oh yeah, that's gonna be awesome. And uh, the T M N t Yusak Jumbo, just cuz I'm a big stanza Kai fan. And. Like I said, it'd be cool to see that, that limited series and to see, like I said, I can't recall him drawing the turtles in a series outside of the pinups and stuff like that.
But yeah, those two are the two I'll probably pick up for
Badr: sure. I think I'm gonna take you a page outta Ben's book and I'm gonna pick two as well. All right. Fuck the rules. I think I'm gonna just copy your homework. , I think the ambassadors, uh, number one looks really interesting. And I don't know if, if Ben mentioned this in, uh, in his, uh, pitch, but the ambassadors is, I believe, a six issue mini series, even though I, I can, I only see, um, the first five, but every single issue is drawn by a different artist to reflect the, the, um, cause you know, the [00:50:00] premises, you know, six people out of a billion get super superpowers.
So every issue I think, uh, highlights one of those six individuals, right? And their superpowers. So issue one is going to be drawn by Frank quietly. Issue two is gonna be done by someone called Carl Kche. And then issue three is the one that really piqued my interest. It's done by his horn named Travis, uh, chars.
Uh, and this cover looks fucking amazing. That guy's an old school wild storm guy. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. All right. I get, I get that vibe here. Mm-hmm. and I believe issue four, which is the last solicitation I can look at is, uh, Olivia Corbell. Um, nice. So, um, that definitely piques my interest cuz I was literally having a conversation with Walt the other day about Mark MA's, uh, bibliography.
And I feel like he's got a under, I don't know if it's underrated, maybe he's appropriately, uh, praised and rated, but Mark MA's got some hits, man. Like when you look at everything he's done, you know, ultimate kick ass. Um, oh, I'm drawing a blank. I'm like everything he's done. , like it's a long [00:51:00] list. Or I'm drawing a blank.
But we, putter's legacy. Jupiter's legacy. Yes. Uh, super crooks nemesis are starting to come back, uh, the Wolverine series, like All-Star Superman. Wait, did he do All-Star Super? Mark Malar and Frank quietly, I thought, uh, officer Superman was done by Grant Morrison. Was it? You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My bad scratch that.
You're like, that's how, that's how good Mark Malar is. You're like, nah, he's, he's, you know, he's done a lot. But no, the fact that Mark Malar is still consistently putting out work and, you know, the battery in his back being that sweet Netflix deal. Mm-hmm. , I'm here for it, man. Cuz he's got, he's always teaming up some good ass artists.
And of course, team and t saga Jimbo, I, the covers look amazing. You know, I'm, I'm here for more Stanka. That's the list listeners. If Emmett, if any of those pique your interest, do yourselves a favorite, go hit up your local comic shop and get your pre-orders in now. As always, a big shout out to Ben for always providing us some topnotch recommendations and helping us take it to the limit.
All right. I, I appreciate every week that you know, he, he gets us out of our comfort zone. And remember, even if you don't live in Jack's, you can still take it to the limit by shopping at the Gotham City Limit online store for [00:52:00] comics and exclusive variants. I know they've got a, an exclusive Gotham City limit.
Tyler Kirkham X 23, uh, variant coming out. Here in the next week. Uh, so you can go to, uh, Gotham City Limits online store to, to go ahead and pre-order, uh, one for yourself. There's a link in the show notes if you're interested, interested in checking that out. Lex, man, thank you so much for the assistance today.
Thank you for the alley up. You've been great. I'm gonna have links to your socials. I'm gonna have, uh, a link to the Wednesday poll list pod in these show notes, uh, for people to give you a follow. Uh, but would you mind telling us, uh, what you and Simon got going on, uh, uh, or coming up next for the pod?
Lex: Oh man, I really don't even know.
It's always so
Badr: random. .
Lex: We are, we are, uh, honing in on getting a schedule and everything set. But yeah, just continuing to do trade reviews. We wanna start highlighting more weekly issues. Uh, but yeah, it's
Badr: more of the same. Good stuff. Good stuff. So a fellow, uh, fly by your, uh, fly by the seat of your pants podcast
You know, we've got the next week planned out, but don't [00:53:00] ask us what we're doing in April. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Lex, thank you so much for kicking out with us, man, and to our listeners, man, if, if you enjoy good comic book podcast content or when you're going through your short box withdrawals and you're not a Patreon subscriber, look, you got the Wednesday pull list, you can go ahead and hop on over to.
All right. Now next up we're going to announce the winner of our Collective Con Ticket giveaway, and we're gonna give you some recommendations that you should check out the next time you're looking for something to watch on tv. Or the next time that you're bored and you're like, I just want to try something new.
We got you covered. But first we're gonna go ahead and take a break. We're gonna stretch our legs. Here's some music from our guy Lum. Enjoy the music and we'll be right back.[00:54:00]
Yep. And we are back Once again, the music you just heard was produced by I Guy Lum. I got links to his YouTube, and I think it's even a SoundCloud in the show notes. Check it out. If you want more music, if, if you wanna hear more of his music, you should absolutely support him, of course. Now, as far as our next segment, like I said, we're gonna announce the winners of these collective con tickets.
Uh, if you recall last episode, and in some of the, the promos you might have heard, all you had to do was send us an email explaining to us who you were most excited to see when it came to celebrity guests. That'll be at Collective Con March 17th through the 19th, and we were just gonna make a decision from there, right?
And we got two entries today that we'll go ahead and read. One of them comes from our guy, [00:55:00] Trey Namo. He sent in an email that, you know, appropriately was titled Collective Con Tickets, and he writes, Obviously, the only correct answer for who we all wanna meet at Collective Con is John DiMaggio, because Bender's easily a top five robot of all time.
I don't know if I'm gonna argue with him on that one. Ed, I think, I think Bender's definitely a top five robot. Mm-hmm. . All right. He goes on to say, and for my second pick, I'm gonna have to go with his partner in crime, Billy the Goat West. His performances and almost any line of work is always perfection.
Plus assigned Fu ramma number one by both Billy and John would be the icing on the cake. I like that opportunist in you, Trey. That's, that's a, that's a good look. Big love and respect from your homie, Trey Namo. PS I'm gonna need a last of us review asap. Trey, I'm gonna give you a, a one sentence, uh, last of us review.
That shit has been awesome and very emotional lately. All right. I'm looking forward to, uh, seeing how it ends. All right, so we got John DiMaggio and, and Billy, Billy West as, as Trey's most, uh, anticipated [00:56:00] celebrity guest. All right. That's a, that's a good little line up right there. We got one more email from our guy, Jason Barnes.
He also wanted some of these tickets, so he wrote in and his email goes you. The celebrity that I'm most excited to see is Jim Cummings. He has been the voice of my childhood and parts of my adulthood. Star Wars fan, star Wars fan. He's the voice of, uh, hon, aka Disney fan. He's the voice of Winnie the Poo.
Tigger Ed from The Lion King. He's also partly scars singing voice. Look up the story. He's Monterey Jack and FatCat, Louie and Don Carnage, bonkers. The Bobcat Dark Wing duck, and Pete the dog. Oh, wow. Comic book fan question mark. He's savage. Dragon bury the tick. Modoc the shredder. Genghis frog leatherhead, and shocker
Oh, this list is not a stop. Wow. Gaming fan. Question mark. He's cyro. Dr. Robotnik. God. He continues going. Are you a pop culture fan? Well, uh, Jim Cummings is also the Tasmanian Devil and Fuzzy Lumpkins. Have I [00:57:00] said enough? Wow. Thanks. Jay Barnes. No, Jay, uh, I, I'm, I just got schooled. Geez, Louise. Yeah. Now his imdb goes, goes pretty crazy.
All right. Um, it picks, yeah. This, this is the tough part, right? Mm-hmm. , who wins these
Ed: tickets? I kind of like, The two for one Future Rama combo. That is good luck. He's not only mentioned them, but he. A reason to go, you know, get an autograph from him or he's got a, a mission to accomplish,
Badr: I should say.
That's a good point. I appreciate Trey's hustle. All right. Do you wanna talk about a guy that knows how to navigate? Mm-hmm. a comic convention and get the most out of it? Oh yeah. That's, that's the guy right there. I'm gonna go ahead and go inside of Jason Barnes. Okay. But he schooled us onto some stuff, man.
And, you know, I love to get, you know, informed by our listeners and I just got a whole crash course in the Jim Cummings. Yeah. I mean, the guy apparently has also voiced a lot of my childhood as well. So here's what I suggest. All right. We we're both kind of split evenly. Uh, we don't have a third party. Uh, we probably should have asked [00:58:00] Lex to stay for the, at least this part.
So what we'll do is we, we'll flip a coin. All right. I got a vo virtual coin flip tab on, on my Google Chrome right now. It's how broke we are. , subscribe to Patreon. . Don't subscribe to Patreon. You can have, so we can have at least a quarter to flip. I forgot to grab one. Um, but I think this is the next best thing, right?
I'm trusting Google to, to be fair. What you got? Heads or tails? Heads. All right. Heads. Trey wins these tickets. Uh, tails. Jason wins these tickets. All right. I'm, I'm flipping. Here we go. Here we go. Oh. Oh, this is a cooler animated Flip it's head. That was a really weak ass flip for the record, but Trey, it landed on heads.
Trey, you, you won these tickets, brother. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a round of applause. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. I hope you get your future Rama number one sign. And I also hope that it does not sour our friendship. Hopefully you're not like hating. Asbo wouldn't even choose me.
No big shout outs to Trey. Big shout. Google chose it. Sorry. Yo. Exactly. Ai, man. We just let, uh, , we let Batmans robin, uh, AI [00:59:00] pe So big shout outs, Trey and Jason for, uh, sending in an email and being a part of the give. Um, the good news is if you missed out on this giveaway, we are going to do a, um, we're gonna run, we're gonna run this contest back strictly on our Instagram, so we'll, we'll do have the same rules.
We'll ask people to chime in and leave a comment about who they're most excited to see, but that'll be limited to only, um, on Instagram. Matter of fact, uh, that post should go up either today or, uh, tomorrow after this episode airs. So stay tuned to that. If you still want to try to win some tickets to Collective Con, we got another giveaway, and that'll be, like I said, that'll live on our social media.
Moving on. Let's get on to, uh, champion season. All right. It's signed for our last segment of the show, but one of my favorite segments,
it's time, it's time
Ed: Champion
Badr: Champion, uh, champion [01:00:00] season. Is he part of the show where we highlight everything else that has consumed our free time, which includes the movies, the TV series, the books, the video games, and any other entertainment options that we personally recommend to friends just like you. Uh, ed, what, what you got for us today, man?
What you gonna champion?
Ed: I got a couple, well, first one I'll do real quick. It's, uh, um, the second season of Vox Mauna on Amazon Prime. It is, I love the first season. I'm not familiar with the characters, but I've been talking, I've, there's a couple people at work who are really into the podcast and is basically started as kind of like a.
Like a role playing game, but they turned it into like a radio kind of show, radio serial type of show. And like I said, the Amazon Prime came out with it maybe a year or two ago for a season. Loved it, loved the characters. And then season two dropped and it starts off, hits the ground running. It is awesome.
The episodes fly by quick. They're quick [01:01:00] 20, 25 minute episodes. If you're a role playing game fan, like I said, if you are a fan of the previous material, let me know how you like it cuz I'm, I'm in this brand new, so this is my introduction, but I love the show. Um, animation looks great. This one, like I said, basically four Dragons team up and just tear shit up right off the bat.
and it is, that's a good start. Incredible. Yeah. Second season really ramps up from the first season. So, like I said, I'm looking forward to the third season, like high production value. Beautiful, beautiful, uh, animation. Cool. And the second one, I'm gonna champion friend of the show, Jim Ru Hut Grand Design.
Like I said, this just dropped, um, this, this week, this last
Badr: Wednesday. And not just, not just the Grand Design. We're talking the Treasury Edition. Treasury Edition,
Ed: yes, sir. To go along with his buddy Ed Pico's, X-Men. Oh yeah. Grand Design. Yeah. So like I said, it is a 60 year, almost like love letter to 60 Years of the Hulk.
So basically [01:02:00] Jim Rug, he did the design of the book, he did all the artwork, and there's part scrapbook. He reprints, uh, an Eric Larson, some classic covers, an Eric Larson Hulk story, minis, uh, short, you know, like I said, some magazine covers like just, it's just like part. Almost like part fanzine, part
Badr: scrapbook.
Holy shit. I didn't actually, I won't lie, I did not flip to the back for the bonus content. That's
Ed: pretty rad sy. This was, I guess, a, a childhood favorite for Jim Ru. So basically he 60 years up to, it looks like the maestro Yeah. Feature and perfect feature and perfect. So he's reprinted some letter pages.
So it is a cool, basically it's a great reference book for any Hulk fan. It's, like I said, it is a, a love letter to Bruce Banner, and there's like mixer Mr. Fixit. There's even a little savage dragon thing. They did a little poke at him back in the day. So it's a, it's an awesome book. Highly recommend it if you like the, uh, [01:03:00] cartoonist cave fabe guys.
And if you wanna see a really cool tribute to the Hulk that looks nothing like mainstream ork, then yeah,
Badr: check it out. Yeah, well said. It's, it's, it's remarkable to think. One guy took 60 years of continuity. Yeah. And was able to dilute it down to like one, a two issue. Yeah. You know, recap series, and I think this Treasury edition is the most probably appropriate form to showcase.
Uh oh yeah. That series I, yeah. Matter of fact, I picked, I picked this up as well cause I saw Jim, uh, promoting it. I'm a sucker for treasury editions. Uh, and I also ended up picking up the Electra Black, white, and Red Treasury Edition. Oh. But I noticed that this Hulk Grand Design is much bigger than the, um, traditional, uh, treasury sizes.
So a little little exercise for our guy Hulk. Those are good picks. All my picks are like old, like, like two thousands old. Um, so my first champion is, uh, ultimate Comics, the Ultimate by, uh, Jonathan Hickman and East Side Ribbt. It came on 2011. I'm reading this, [01:04:00] uh, again, uh, I think for the second time probably, uh, because of the news of Hickman and, uh, you know, coming back to Marvel.
Um, this was. This was before he did his Avengers, uh, and New Avengers run. I think this is even before his fantastic fore run. It's even definitely before his, um, secret Wars run as well. To me, this was kinda like his beta run to doing all those big stuff. This is where he introduced the maker, um, and, and all of that.
So before he destroys the ultimate universe, you know, he, he contributes, uh, this run and in total it ran for 30 issues. But I'll be honest, I stopped after Hickman left, much like I I've done in a lot of his series, like x. Uh, he st he leaves after issue 12, but not af not before, like setting the groundwork for, um, introducing the maker and the children of tomorrow.
Um, and it's, and he really kind of pits, um, the Avengers, like basically like meets their match when they fight like the maker. Cuz you know, he's as brilliant as Reid Richards, he just fucking evil. And, uh, he, he builds like this dome in the middle [01:05:00] of, I think like in the Midwest and the side of this dome, uh, he builds like a civilization that like ages really fast.
Like they're, you know, centuries old, but they're brilliant because, you know, it's the fucking maker's kids. And they're called the children of tomorrow and at some point they end up busting out of this dome and they just completely just manhandle everybody. I think they, their. Victims are like the as guardians.
Like they completely decimate them and you know, now it's up to Nick Fury, uh, in the Avengers to figure out how the hell do we stop these guys. So if, if you love Hickman, you know at all and you haven't checked this out, highly recommend it. And Isad Rubbage, you know, brings it man. He absolutely brings it on the art side.
So I'll champion that. And then going even older than 2011, I'm gonna champion the movie Snatch, cuz I've just see, I just watched it for the first time last night. Huh? Uh, movie came out January, 2001. Right? That's how old, that's how behind the times I am. But I saw that it was on Hulu among some other, uh, gangster flicks that I need to, um, re-watch.
But I, I noticed, you know, it was on Hulu. [01:06:00] I'd never watched Snatch. I notice it'd like Drew, uh, drew has always kind of championed it. I know it's like a well loved gangster flick. Uh, have you ever watched it yourself? Yeah, it's been a while,
Ed: but yeah. Guy Richie, right. And yeah. Brad Pitt. Yeah. Comprehensible Tyler,
Badr: whatever he is.
And here's the thing, I watch everything with, um, with, with captions on pretty much. And I was really glad I had it on this side. Oh my god. Downside to captions that sometimes it takes up a lot of the screen depending on what service you're using. Yeah. Like Amazon Prime is like, 40% of the screen is this fucking caption box
But I needed it for this movie, cuz you're right, Brad Pitt is, I can't make out a word he's saying, but for anyone that hasn't seen it, if you're, uh, behind the curb as badly as I was, uh, the movies was directed by a guy Richie, who's directed movies like The Man From Uncle, the Charlotte Home Movies, uh, lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
And it was produced by Matt Vaughn, who has produced, uh, the Kingsmen Kick Ass in the X-Men movies. In the movie. You've got, uh, Jason Statham is in there, Alan Ford, Brad Pitt, Benicia [01:07:00] Deltoro. It's definitely like a, a really good lineup. Of actors, and it follows an illegal boxing promoter named Turkish, who's played by Jason Sta, who convinces, uh, uh, this gangster, uh, Alan Ford's character brick top, uh, on some bare knuckle boxing.
It's, it's, you know, it's illegal boxing, so they're throwing fights that causes trouble with another set of gangsters. And, and then you've got like this, uh, uh, giant diamond, stolen diamond, uh, that's at the center of the story. And, and, you know, it's, it's a lot of different plot points and characters moving about.
So if you like your gangster flakes, like blended with, you know, a classic style heist movie, uh, uh, tropes and then interweaving plot points, and like with a large cast of characters, I highly recommend you, you, you finally watch it like I did. All right. Um, definitely if it's been on your list for a minute, go ahead and watch.
It's on Hulu, so. And with my, uh, my, my Champion picks that, that kind of brings us to the end of this show. Short Box Nation. It's, it is your turn to chime in. All right. Whether you got a worthwhile champion pick that you feel that me and Ed should [01:08:00] check out, or if you got a piece of news, maybe a comic headline or a news, uh, happen in between us recording this and putting it out that you wanna share with us, we wanna hear from you, right?
Write into us via email at dho box jacks gmail.com or hit us up on Instagram or Twitter, right? Just let me know that you want me to read your, um, your, your DM on the show. And I'll do just that. Ed, do we got any, uh, uh, takeaways or, or lessons or parting words to, to leave our listeners with today?
Ed: Mm, man.
Parting words, I guess I never. I cared about what Superman eats in between fights.
Badr: you know what? Lemme see if I, uh, lemme see if I could, if I could help polish that crime. Fighting is a hungry business, and when you have the ability to travel anywhere faster than a speeding bullet, your options are pretty wide open. All right, and why not go to Japan for all the delicious? Where do you keep that wallet at?
Soup . I need to know. Do you think Superman even pays? You think he just shows up and they're like, oh shit, you saved my cousin a few months ago. I, I kind of owe you. Oh, man, I [01:09:00] don't know. Imagine being superman and saving people, but having, yeah. . Wait a minute. What? I saved the
Ed: world. I literally spun the world around the go back in time and beat somebody.
Inflation Superman
Badr: times are tough. We'll see if we dedicate a whole episode just to that manga series. , I feel like it's, it might warn a whole that sounds like.
Ed: Patreon
Badr: bonus. That absolutely sounds like it. Mm-hmm. . Well said, ed. Yeah, I like the opportunist. Yes, sir. I said I love it,
All right, well, there you have a short box Nation. Thank you for hanging out. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. A big shout out to our guy, Lex, from the Wednesday Poll List podcast. Please give my friend a follow if you're looking for more great comic podcast, uh, to add to your rotation. If you enjoyed this episode, the only thing I'm going to ask is that you spread the word to other comic fans in your life.
If you know someone that would enjoy our, our dialogue and loves comics as much as we do, please share the show with them or leave a fi leave us a five star rating review on Apple [01:10:00] Podcast or Spotify. That's also another great way to spread the word for us. Next week, I'm gonna try to have a, uh, interview lined up, but if that falls through, I'll probably share.
I'll probably do another Patreon preview. Like I said, me and Ed recorded. A bonus episode, uh, talking about the 2010 GI Joe Animated Show, GI Joe Renegades. It was part of our spinoff podcast series, uh, pilot's license. So if you're a fan of animated, uh, comic book shows or, or comic book cartoons, that is, that, that'll be right up your alley.
I might share a preview of that. If this interview falls through, regardless, come back next Wednesday. We'll have something new for you. And like I always plug, if, if you suffer from short box withdrawals and you want more content to hold you over, head over to our Patreon community. All right, for more content and bonus episodes, me and Drew are scheduled to record another previews uh, spotlight episode here in the next week or two.
Regardless. In the meantime, I want you to take care of yourselves. I want you to enjoy your comics too. I know you got a fat sack of books in the corner just waiting for you [01:11:00] to read them. Just like I've got. Go ahead and go ahead and find time to read your comics books and please continue to make mine and your short box.
We'll talk to you next week. Peace.
