May 30, 2010

ABC Podcast, episode #95 plus visual aids

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by HTTC, a new segment on the show that you just really don't want to know the origin of. We say goodbye to legendary runs on Wonder Woman and Power Girl, welcome back the Avatar of Death, cheer Jonathan Hickman's wise protest in Fantastic Four, and discuss whether Rise of Arsenal #3 is in fact the worst comic ever written, or just the second worst. Also make sure to stay through the end of the show to hear us take our cats to Taco Bell. This is not a euphemism for anything.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Also, see below for more listener-named Pokemon and some special fan art!

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from X-Men Origins: Emma Frost #1, cover by Benjamin Zhang Bin:


Evie's pick, from Power Girl #12, cover by Amanda Conner:

Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Power Girl #12, by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner:


Aaron's pick, from Gotham City Sirens #12 by Tony Bedard and Peter Nguyen:


Also: Danny Wall's Mike Allred-Rob Liefeld mashup (explanation here):


And, more prizes for submitting discussion questions!

For Lydia:

David:

And LOTR Dan:

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a heads up, your "here" link links to Ep. 94. The one in the sidebar's fine though.

owlyfan said...

I had thought about picking up Rise of Arsenal, but maybe not now.

I thought it had some promise after the first issue

Unknown said...

Thanks Anon, it's fixed now

Eric Lyden said...

I haven't klistened to the show yet, but I'm thinking maybe you guys need to institiute a new category- you need to have the regular Panel of the Week and the Cat Related Panel of the Week. Because it seems like any week there's a cute cat panel (or even a panel featuring Catman or Catwoman) it walks away with the award. While I have no problem with celebrating cats you may want to spread the wealth to non-cat panels.

battlecat said...

As wrong as it was, the kitten stuff in Blind Science cracked me up, especially the Jeffries line at the end.

Jay Kay said...

On the characters talking about the "Blackest Night" being stupid--it's certainly different from, say, House of M, because there was a prophesy that literally talked about the Blackest Night, established all the way back in the mid-80s when Alan Moore wrote about an event called as such that would destroy the Corps--so most of the characters in the DCU probably heard from someone who heard from someone that the event had been prophesied for millennia as the "Blackest Night" and started calling it as such.

Also--while the book was absolute shit, the thing about Roy being able to use anything as a weapon isn't new--that was kind-of his pastiche back when he was Arsenal back in the 90s.

Ethan Hoddes said...

Oh, that's what they meant by "turning him into a bullseye character" I thought they meant they were turning him into a giggling sociopath assassin, from the description of the story is seemed like a plausible interpretation.

Evie said...

Actually Ethan, I thought Aaron meant what you thought he meant too. Either one is plausible. I guess we'll never know what he meant.

Ethan Hoddes said...

I think that the fact that "And then he starts beating people that aren't there with a dead cat that he thinks is his daughter." was just a throwaway line in the Arsenal review is a great indicator of the general reaction.

Unknown said...

I love that in the Power Girl panels she's playing with her cat with her Laser vision the way that people use laser pointers. That is hilarious. I'll probably have to pick this up in trades when it comes out as I never followed it and didn't consider it until listening to the podcast. So... Good job, you've probably gotten someone to buy one of the books you love. I say probably because I am immensely poor.

Wrye said...

I really applaud ABCP's new focus on military hats of the late 18th/early 19th centuries, and presume it presages more coverage of topics of interest to historical miniature gamers. I can't wait to hear installments about such gems as the Shako, the Busby, the Mirliton, the Czapska, the Kiwer, the Tarleton, and perhaps even US favorites such as the Kepi. It was a great time for hats,

And folks at home, please note: the hosts are professional cat wranglers driving on a closed course. Do not attempt this yourselves. Cats not traveling in a car carrier have been known to:

a) panic and get under the driver's feet, which is really bad from a foot pedal/braking point of view.

b) escape at an inopportune time, such as when you are carrying Mr. Scruffins from the car back into the house, or worse yet, the vacation cabin in the mountains 4 states away from home.

c) launch themselves at a traffic cop just when you've managed to talk yourself out of a ticket.

d) raise awkward questions about your motives when you're using the drive through window at Yarn Barn at 3AM.

So be safe out there!

owlyfan said...

I'm really going to miss Power Girl. On another note, JT Krul is going to be taking over the Teen Titans book later this year. Whether that's good or bad is still yet to be seen.

Jay Kay said...

"On another note, JT Krul is going to be taking over the Teen Titans book later this year. Whether that's good or bad is still yet to be seen."

Yeah--Rise of Arsenal's been shit, but his work on the Titans in general during Blackest Night was pretty good, so I'm keeping up hope. :)

Martin Gray said...

I'm on the verge of giving up Jonathan Hickman's FF. I want to read about Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben, not just Reed and his brains trust. Give me the team interacting, exploring, adventuring ... Sue, we know, is sitting under the sea, being enigmatic, but who knows what's going on with Ben and Johnny? Not me.

Excellent hat feature, but what's Napoleon got to do with Hal Jordan? It was Napoleon, wasn't it?

Unknown said...

Pssh, it's Titans. How much worse could it really get?


(Don't answer that.)

Rohan Williams said...

Long time listener, first time commenter and all that - just wanted to say, yeah, Hickman's speech was awesome and the guy's a genius, but doesn't every FF writer lay down a similar manifesto?

Of course, Hickman's probably one of the guys who can really deliver on it (you could argue he already has been).

Ethan Hoddes said...

I seem to remember hearing that Mark Waid's opening manifesto was essentially "change is terrible and leads to Image".

Brigonos said...

I liked Reed being a total dick to those damnable intellectuals, but can't say I got the impression that Hickman was aiming Reed's comments about getting old at the comics industry, otherwise why would his rebuttal to stagnation be a bunch of characters like Leech and Alex Power, designed to appeal to the middle-aged nostalgics who comprise the majority of comic book consumers?

And there are not enough cats in your podcast. There, I've said it.

CasinoGrande said...

I'd agree that Hickman's speech in FF#579 was great, but I think it's really limiting to say that it was directed at the comics industry.

In works like Pax Romana, Hickman expanded on the limitless possibilities humanity can reach when we properly exploit the knowledge and resources we have (though hubris was of course a huge part of the story.) Reed attacked people who were insistent on limiting humanity's capabilities and lambasted Dr. Chang's "Approaching Infinity: The Dream of an Energy Neutral Life" and Clarke's "One Billion: The Optimum Population of Humanity" as neo-luddite.
I don't think the term "Luddite" really fits when you're talking about comics (It could refer to a kind of regressive storytelling, but there are better words to describe that and Hickman picks his words carefully.)

Of course, perhaps it was so well written that everyone just reads it in a way that fits their narratives. I took it much more at face value.
I personally find it much more controversial when it's not directed at the comics industry. I saw it as attacking the kind of people who refuse to have children because that child would be a burden to the planet.

aaron said...

Re: Reed

Maybe it was my own thoughts about the current state of superhero comic book writing interfering - but it felt like it was coming from a place of inner truth from the writer himself, which led me to believe Reed's speech was at the very least inspired BY (if not directed AT) the comics industry. But tt's definitely universal, which is why it's so effective.