Comic Relief Podcast

So, imagine this – you’ve been drafted to pull 7 characters, and 7 characters only – whether alive or dead, doesn’t matter – into each of these books. (And there’s none of, “I’d have this character working from their bases as a contact” to try and cheat as a number 8 or more). Whoever you have “working” at the base, counts towards your total.

So, with that – who would you put in the following books:

Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and let us know your thoughts!

Marvel Entertainment and Conan Properties International announced an agreement today to bring Robert E. Howard’s famed pulp hero back to the comics publisher beginning in January 2019.

It’s an interesting move, because Darkhorse has been publishing Conan for quite some time now. So, you have to wonder – is Conan that popular of a comic book that Marvel would seemingly go out of their way to reacquire the license? I suspect there’s more to this. I am wondering, if comic book sales are good enough, that Disney (under whatever ‘flagship’ movie studio they want to select) is considering releasing a brand new Conan the Barbarian movie as well? Perhaps something to try and capture the Game of Thrones and Vikings type market? I remember owning quite a few issues of Conan the Barbarian back in the day when these were coming out (issue #141 sticking out the most in my memory for some odd reason – I may even still have it somewhere in one of my Random comic boxes) – but, I have to admit, I don’t remember being very enthralled by the Conan the Barbarian comics – they were cool to pick up if no other new comics I collected came in and I had a spare 60 cents burning in my pocket, begging to be spent.

Marvel has not released any creative teams information; only that it will be coming out in 2019. They also released these two promotional pieces:

The events of the Phoenix Resurrection is apparently going to have rippling effects in the X-Men Universe. In X-Men Blue #16, they even tease this with a notice: Now for teasing upcoming projects, I can say that there are at least two new ongoing series in development. One completely unexpected and the other a fan favorite. It’s to early to get into any more information that that, but I am sure most X-Fans will be excited when we make our announcements. Keep your eyes and ears open!

There’s some speculation that the X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold books may also get renamed to Uncanny X-Men and X-Men, and drop the Blue and Gold names (no idea which book would get which title; it’d make the most sense if they go this route to make Gold the Uncanny book) and the books would resume the regular number of the titles. With Disney purchasing the “Mutant” rights back – it’s no surprise that they did announce a New Mutants: Dead Souls mini.

We know they’re doing a (Adult) Jean Grey led book called X-Men: Red, which – if they do rename X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold to X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, would they rename X-Men: Red to another name? Will it be released as something other than X-Men: Red?

X-Men Red doesn’t even count towards said two new books, I believe. So there could be potentially two other X-Men books coming out? It seems like New Mutants would a no brainer, to try and capture the audience that the movie may generate. What could be the other book? X-Force? X-Factor? It seems like since they said “unexpected” it could be something a little more off beat, like Excalibur.

What two books do you wish Marvel would release? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!

– Tawmis

It’s been a year, to this very day that we lost Carrie Fisher. (See my original post, a year ago – Remembering Carrie Fisher). It was strangely haunting seeing her in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, knowing that she was no longer with us. Each and every moment she was on the screen, the first time I watched the movie, was filled with a touch of anxiety, because I was expecting that to be the moment, that General Leia would be “exited” out of the movie. So, it’s no surprise (other than the fact that I, unlike some Star Wars fans, thoroughly enjoyed the movie), and went back and saw it a second – then a third time. It’s still difficult, even a year later, knowing she’s gone. From what I’ve read, she’s being written out of Star Wars – Episode IX, rather than giving her a death scene, which I think is probably the better way to go. I would love, if they did something with her (real life) daughter (Billie Lourd), who has been in The Force Awakens and in The Last Jedi, and do more with her. There’s only one more movie, for this trilogy – that they can’t do too much with her – I just hope that she appears in the final trilogy, so that we still get to see a piece of Carrie Fisher continuing the Star Wars franchise.

Carrie Fisher, May The Force Be With You, Always.

– Tawmis

As we had mentioned previously, it’s official – Disney has acquired the rights to 20th Century Fox films. While this gives them access to bring X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU fold (at long last – how the Fantastic Four were not able to be a part of this entire MCU tie in, is a sad, sad thing). The amount of doors this opens up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is … amazing. I am hoping that they weave the Fantastic Four into their own movie that has ties with the Avenges related movies; but on the flip side, I hope the X-Men movies, perhaps share the same universe (make references to what’s happened in the Avengers movies), but actually remain a little bit separated from the grand scale of the Avengers movies. I would like to see the X-Men movies pretty much stand on their own, and have their own epic build ups.

I dream of Disney handing us a movie that essentially starts with the Special Edition X-Men/X-Men #94 story line – where it just opens with a scene of the original X-Men on a plane, and we see flashes of things going chaotic and insane, as the plane seems to be destined to crashing – and then blackness. Then do a thing that says, Several Days Later… and show Cyclops standing in front of Professor Xavier explaining that something powerful took the plane down; and Professor Xavier explains that they must gather other mutants to rescue the X-Men. And we see them going and traveling to Canada to get Wolverine, Russia to get Colossus, Africa to get Storm, Germany to get Nightcrawler – and if they want to grab Banshee, Sunfire and Thunderbird, all the better. (They can even do a fill in for those two – for other mutants – I’d just like to ensure that Wolverine, Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler are at least recruited). If they grabbed everyone – would be an awesome way of showing diversity (which is a big thing right now) and pleasing comic book fans.

I wondered how the idea of the original X-Men being taken down by a living planet would go down in a movie; but with some minor story tweaking – they could essentially change it to a mutant who is able to control plants (similar to Plant-Man, but a mutant). And we can learn that the original X-Men were there to try and find and bring this powerful mutant into their fold. However, this mutant has secluded himself on this island, because in order to live, he feeds off of mutant powers… and tried to go away and die; but the hunger took over as soon as he detected the original X-Men flying in the jet overhead. So now the new X-Men must go fight this powerful mutant (maybe even just make it Mimic, for that matter!) and save the original X-Men. This allows Disney to bring in the “new” X-Men and also introduces the original X-Men, and from there – if they wanted could do two different movies (X-Men and Uncanny X-Men or whatever).

These are just dreams though…

And for those concerned about Deadpool: “It [Deadpool] clearly has been and will be Marvel branded. But we think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel-R brand for something like Deadpool,” said Iger. “As long as we let the audiences know what’s coming, we think we can manage that fine.”

Thoughts? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

– Tawmis

I admit it. I’m more than surprised; and pleasantly so. Generally, FOX has, time and time again, disappointed me with what they’ve done with the X-Men movies. So when I heard about The Gifted coming out to FOX, I admit, my expectations were pretty low; especially when I heard that one of the main characters was made up, specifically for the show, named Eclipse. I thought, “With all the mutants that are in the Marvel Universe, you still needed to make up a new character?” Well, apparently they did. But going into the show, Eclipse is one of the more humanized characters, that is easy to like (at least initially… I won’t go into the details of what he does later – admittedly, though – he was in a tough spot when he needed information!)

Just like any movie (not just FOX, Marvel/Disney has done this also – as has every movie studio) – the character origins are changed to suit the show. For example, in the comics, John Proudstar dies very early on, when he initially joins the X-Men. In The Gifted, the X-Men exist (and are repeatedly mentioned and referenced; but they’ve “disappeared” – and that hasn’t been explained). So for the sake of the show, John Proudstar never actually joins the X-Men, and thus he never dies the way he does in the comics. Which is a good thing, because in the show, he’s probably one of my favorite characters. I also like that they enhanced his powers a bit in the show; he still has his super strength and what not; but his ability to track and how he does it, seems to lend to having super senses.

Blink has a bit of a rough intro; she’s easy to get used to, but didn’t feel connected to her until you learn about her origin and the orphanage house thing she came from. I think that was a great turning point for her character, and she went from being a runner to a fighter. Now she had a reason to be personally invested in helping the mutant resistance. I do love that they’re not afraid to show her using her powers; and though sometimes they trim it, they still do special effects to show you she’s opening a portal.

As I said, Eclipse is the new character that was added to the show as an original character. And after watching the show, it’s immediately clear why. Because they’re using Lorna Dane (Polaris) in the show, and Alex Summers (Havok) has already appeared (and died… sigh) in the X-Men movies; they needed another love interest for Polaris, and Eclipse is that man. I do like that he has a pretty dark past, with his connections, and what he did as a mutant for his previous love interest (and how that comes back to haunt him in the series).

He’s the one you always sort of cheer for, because you know he’s done some bad things before, but he’s trying to redeem himself in the eyes of Lorna, whom he loves dearly. So you want him to succeed, you want him to come on top; but just like real life, sometimes the shadows pull you back into the darkness when you least expect it – and those actions always have a consequence, even if they’re not immediately known!

I love what they’ve done with the Strucker children too; Lauren and Andy Strucker. Now, you might be thinking, “But wait! That’s not the name of the Fenris twins in the comics! It’s Andrea and Andreas Strucker! Don’t worry! They address that as well; and quite beautifully. So it turns out in The Gifted that Andrea and Andreas are the grandparents of Lauren and Andy; and as it turns out, the power they wield, and the mutant gene is hereditary in all the children of the Strucker family tree… something that Reed Strucker’s (played by Stephen Moyer; whom most know, but I always associate him to True Blood and am waiting for him to say, “Sookie!”) father tried to stop from passing down. And there’s consequences to it! It was great, because the entire time, I kept saying, “I wonder if they’re going to hold hands and trigger their power, that’s even more powerful…” And sure enough, that scene comes, and it’s great! Their mother, Kate Strucker, is played by the beautiful Amy Acker (who most probably know from her brief appearance in Supernatural and her reoccurring role in Angel and Dollhouse, though she’s been in much more than that!)

Is the show perfect? Of course not. But it’s damn good. As a matter of fact, the only thing I can really complain about is… sadly, Polaris. And it’s not because she’s not like the comic book character… but it’s because the personality they dished her. She’s an emo, super angry, super aggressive, leather, big boots (I said boots!), pale skinned, constantly nagging, constantly fighting, over the top character. Literally can not stand the character. They need to drastically tone her down – a lot. Maybe they need to poke into her past, reveal the reason she is the way she is; because right now, she’s entirely too annoying to even bare.

They do a good job showing off mutants in the show (Eye-Boy even appears to make an appearance), along with other obscure characters such as Shatter (who appears in several episodes, with dialogue), and even (Beautiful) Dreamer, who is also one of the main characters of the show (and the main love interest of John Proudstar).

They do cool things like tie it all back to Trask Industries (who has a long history, in Marvel Comics, as being Anti-Mutant, and the developers of the Sentinels, which are giant, mutant hunting robots). What I also like is that they show the human side of dealing with mutants, as you learn one of the main, high ranking officers from Sentinel Services, Officer Jace Turner (played by Coby Bell), had his daughter tragically killed during a peaceful Mutant Rights March, that went south – and she died, at the age of 4 due to a mutant’s powerful explosion. They even dig deep enough to talk about the Hound Project, where they use mutants to track and fight other mutants. There was even a telepath that they introduced a few episodes ago; and I couldn’t figure out what her game was – was she helping the mutants? Was she a sleeper hound? Then in the latest episode – they gave a big hint – which I was able to guess, before she frees the folks on the bus!

This show hits it on all cylinders for me; and I can’t help but wonder, after watching this “Mid Season Finale” – how is it they get everything so right, but the movies can’t seem to do the X-Men lore any justice?

For me, this is one of the best super hero shows on TV (excluding Netflix), though Maico would disagree with me and say Legion is one of the best super hero TV shows (excluding Netflix).

Thoughts? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

• Tawmis

By now, I am sure you’ve heard the news and rumors. Disney is reportedly in talks of purchasing 20th Century Fox Films… Why would they do this? And how does it effect us – as comic book fans?

Well, I am pretty sure they’re doing this to logically regain the movie rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchise. That’s right – as you may (or may not? If you’ve been under a rock!) be aware – 20th Century Fox has the movie rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four. (Yes, this is why – except for those super, ultra, die hard, X-Men can do no wrong fans) – the X-Men movies (except for Deadpool, and some, other than me, might even argue Logan) were not good movies. Under Fox Studios, the X-Men movies have been an ongoing nightmare (similar to Marvel’s current state of comics!) – everything from actors being changed out due to the fact that the X-Men movies changed time lines every couple of movies (so Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Mystique, Professor Xavier, Magneto, among others were played by different people – and in some cases, more than one actor). Now, that’s not to say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t suffered the same fate! Why, there was Terrence Howard, who got replaced by Don Cheadle after one movie to play James Rhodes (War Machine) and there was also… um. There was also… Well, there might have been someone else, somewhere… right? OK. Well, regardless – moving on – the constant change in the cast, the team dynamics, the time lines, have made the X-Men movies a complete failure. Even if you look at them as individual movies; stand alone movies – the stories fail to deliver. Again, probably the only two exceptions being Deadpool and Logan. Not even the Apocalypse movie sat well with me or Maico.

But, if the deal goes through – and Disney takes over 20th Century Fox Films and effectively gets the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights back – could that be a bad thing? Disney would undoubtedly scrap all the previous ties to FOX’s version of the X-Men and Fantastic Four films – and we should cheer them for that, right – as they deliver Avengers, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy type caliber movies, yes? But what about Deadpool? While Logan has ended; there’s plans for a Deadpool 2 in the works (which will probably finish anyway) – but Deadpool 3? The New Mutants trilogy that was pitched? Will those be scrapped? And the concern that Disney does not publish R Rated movies, which Deadpool would need to be, to effectively work.

I’ve given this some thought. Want to hear my thoughts? If yes, keep reading – if not, head to one of your other favorite websites and go watch a funny video. Now if you’re still here – good. So, I was thinking – Deadpool has often broken the 4th wall – he practically lives out of the 4th wall. Because of this, Disney could actually turn a blind eye and let Deadpool continue to do whatever it needs to do; because it would not tie into the regular Cinematic Universe anyway. Now you ask – what about Disney doing an “R” rated movie if they took over 20th Century Fox and had to deal with releasing Deadpool 3: Deadpool vs the MCU. Well, while Disney has never directly produced any R-rated product under the “Disney” brand; Disney happens to own (or owned) a number of other subsidiaries such as Miramax Films, Dimension Films, as well as Touchstone Films. The movie The Crow, for example was released by Miramax/Dimension Films, while owned by Disney – and The Crow is Rated R. So I would imagine, if they do acquire 20th Century Fox, chances are they’d simply continue to release Deadpool through 20th Century Fox, and then bring in the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Because Disney would own both the Marvel Cinematic Universe/Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Fox Films – the Deadpool movies would have free reign to also use whatever characters they see fit (with Disney’s permission, of course).

Thoughts? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!

– Tawmis

So for those of you wondering where Illyana (Magik) went – well, she’s about to pop up in New Mutants: Dead Souls.

Based on the cover; we can see Magik, Wolfsbane, Rictor, Strong Guy and Boom Boom. The book will be written by Matthew Rosenberg (who is writing Phoenix Resurrection) and artist Adam Gorham (who worked on Rocket).

Apparently, from what I’ve gathered, it looks like Karma has gone bad (again, sigh) and will be manipulating her former teammates. The issues will see the team fighting off some supernatural threat; which seems to tie into what we saw in the New Mutants movie trailer; where it seemed to be a supernatural horror story. The book launches sometime in March of 2018. With a title like Dead Souls I am curious if we will be seeing mutants who have gone from the land of the living, to the land of the dead, surfacing up in this book. Seems likely between the title and the confirmation that it’s a “Supernatural” theme limited series.

If they showed some dead mutants – who would you like to see appear? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!

Well, it was no surprise that adult Jean Grey would be resurrected. Now we have Teen Jean leading X-Men Blue and Adult Jean leading X-Men Red. So… I will skip over the multitude of jokes of Adult Jean being back again (okay, just that one)…

It’s cool to see Jean leading her team. But what’s going to make her team different than X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold? Is the clue in the title? X-Men Red? Could she be forming a team to somehow find (Adult) Scott (and resurrect him too?)

Taking a look at her team… We have, Jean, who is an expert at resurrections (okay, maybe just that joke too), Nightcrawler, who has died and also come back… then we have X-23 in the Wolverine costume… and get this, the one behind her, with just one claw… that’s Gabby… so, X-23 is a clone of Wolverine, and I think Gabby is a clone of X-23 (apparently each time they clone, one claw goes away)… then behind Gabby is the Wakanda dude, Gentle… then next to him, is Namor… and finally, the bottom right who looks like a young, long haired, pony tailed, Monet, is a brand new character named Trinary, or some such.

I am going to give this book a try, despite only caring about Nightcrawler, and see what it’s about, just because it’s an X-Men book. But… I am not holding out much hope that this will resurrect my love for the X-Men franchise (okay, fine, last joke!)

• Tawmis

The folks at Freestyle Komics kindly reached out to us and asked us to review some of their books!

I love this kind of stuff! Let me say, I’ve had a comic book story (4 issue limited series, probably) in my head, for a little over a year. Nothing special, at all. Nothing ground breaking. Just a comic book idea I have scribbled for a plot; but lacking any form of artistic ability (and time to do much else), the story will probably remain stuck in my head forever. So I love seeing when others get out there and they make their comic dreams come true, any way that they can! Because these are the people I wish I could be; so when I am given a chance to read and help promote their work, I love doing it when time permits! (I am back logged at the moment with other books I need to get around to doing the same for!)

Let me talk about Hotshot first. Now, first of all, reading two issues in – I am not too clear on exactly what his powers are (aside from flight, and super strength, and some other unusual powers!) The villain looks like a villain, acts like a villain, and seems like a genuine threat to everyone and everything (especially Hotshot who he is out to kill!) The art is clean (although the beginning of the second issue has a few of the first couple pages that seemed a tad rushed, but the art cleans up soon enough!) The writing is very fun, very well thought out, and the pacing is just about perfect each and every issue. These guys love to end issues with a cliff hanger, so that you’re immediately grabbing for the next issue to see what the heck is going to happen next! The art, throughout the issues (especially in issue #3) is just superb! Very professional looking. (My only trivial qualm is how Michael’s girlfriend is drawn; she always looks like she has porcupine hair! But it’s an artist flair and style, and I get what they’re going for!) I would strongly recommend checking out their site (all linked at the bottom) and seeing if you can get your hands on these!

Next I want to talk about Heroes International. Now if you’ve seen any of my reviews on any comics, I always talk about how I am a “team comic person.” There’s exceptions of course; Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man (well, back in the 80’s, not so much anymore for me). Heroes International is a great team of some very interesting, and some very diverse characters, with diverse powers as well. The book does a great job of establishing personalities and power (explanations) for the characters throughout the book. Crag stuck out for me, as probably one of my favorites on the team, along with Hue-Man and his puns (as he changes colors and adapts to situations). The art throughout this entire series remains crisp, clean, and rock solid. One of the nicer things is that not all the characters have that “perfect, superhero build” – for example Titan, is not “built” like your ideal superhero; so it’s nice to see some more… realistic looking people who are also superheroes. The writing, as I said, does a great job of giving you introductions to these characters, and gives you early ideas of what you’re headed into.

Next on the list is Emerald Forest. The entire book has an anime artist feel throughout it (and most who know know that anime art is generally not my cup of tea). However, I can still appreciate the things that I may not enjoy myself, for their sheer artist talent – and the folks on the issue of Emerald Forest have talent in spades. (I had an issue where multiple pages throughout the first issue duplicate themselves; so once I realized that, I just skipped a page and life made more sense! Kept thinking I was in The Matrix… “Whoa… Deja Vu…”) The story is enjoyable, the art (anime and all!) is super sharp and clean. I think just about anyone could enjoy The Emerald Forest.

Next in line, we have The Cypher – now, here’s where, for me, anyway, things took a slight turn. Now the cover, to any straight guy, would be very appealing, right? (Whoever did the cover, I feel like they borrowed inspiration for the face and hair, from the cheerleader from Heroes, while the rump is borrowed… from JLo, and maybe that’s why she has the name JFab?) For me, while the story was pretty cool – the art wasn’t doing it for me. But hold up – hear me out! The artist is actually very talented. The art throughout the issue is consistent, clean, sharp, and professional looking. So what’s not to like then, you ask? (And let me be clear, when I say I didn’t like it – it’s not that I didn’t like it – it’s just it wasn’t for me). You see, our main character (seemingly at least from the first issue), is a regular woman by day, superhero by night (or whenever the need arises). Which is cool. Great to see strong, powerful women in comics. Give the ladies in the comic book world someone to look up to, like Wonder Woman. However… this is where I think it falls short, because of the art. You see, when she is in her “regular” clothes, every panel her nipples are on full blast, like they were detecting water, like the ends of a dowsing rod. And then, when she gets into her super hero attire, it gets “no better.” She’s literally wearing something that somehow is just covering her nipples from her super sized ample breasts. If they … filled out the front of her costume… er, filled it out with an actual costume, and toned down the breasts and nipples, I think this is a book that even most girls would enjoy without scoffing at the artistic style that seems to target young teenagers who aren’t quite old enough to purchase adult magazines.

But fear not! All is not lost! Because next we’re going to talk about Vigilance. Now, while I may have been a bit harsh on The Cypher, all of that goes away when I talk about Vigilance. She is everything I complained that The Cypher wasn’t. She’s a strong (literally!) female hero, who does heroic deeds, and it’s shown – she even saves cows and children! She reminds me of a female Superman, except the first issue, goes in hard to show you she’s here to be the hero that everyone needs, wants and can look up to! Heck, there’s even a panel in the first issue that tells you this!

The art for Vigilance has a rough look (not rough as in bad, but the art is dark and edgy – so I mean that in a good way!) Her costume is wonderful; it’s a great design. The characters in the book flow very well. Everything is nicely paced throughout. This really is everything that I had hoped The Cypher was going to be when I saw a striking woman on the cover.

The best thing about all of these books? These aren’t just one off books. All of these books happen in the same universe, so throughout the series, you will see references to – and sometimes, other characters – from the other books! So the fact that this is all a shared universe only adds to the charm and charisma of these books!

Do me a favor – go support these guys! How? Well let me get you their detailed information! I recommend checking them out on: Facebook, their website, blogspot, their patreon, and finally, their twitter!

• Tawmis