Spider-Man Drama / Power Girl / Cat Fight
NEWS!
Mike and Greg dive head first into the recent Spider-Man drama and the death that shook social media. Was it earned? Corporate Synergy? We discuss and pull no punches. Oh, don’t worry, we also read some comic books. Greg reviews the new Power Girl one-shot and Cat Fight out on IDW.
OTHER TOPICS!
Patreon. Haunted Bed. Slice of Life. The Neighbors. Torrent. Dr Strange. Dead Romans. Spider-Man. Comicon. Last Ronin. TMNT. Sketches. Comic books. Jason Aaron. Valiant comics. Transformer. Girlfriend Material. Transformers. Fast and the Furious. Power Girl. Deaths.
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Mike D (00:08):
Hello and welcome to the First Issue Club podcast. We are your weekly comic book reading club. We're just like Sue Storm. We love a good read. Read Richards Sue Storm's husband, Mr. Fantastic. Sue loves Reid. We love Good Reads. Good read as in a common saying, R E A D, something that you read in this case in particular, comic books. Now you got the motif.
Greg (00:38):
Yeah, you may be wondering why we had to go do that and explain it so thoroughly. 500 emails we've gotten from our new catchphrase, just like Sue Storm would love a good read. So we thought we would just get it out, address it there, address, read gate, and explain what the bit was.
Mike D (00:56):
Yeah, some people have a really hard time with Phonograms.
Greg (01:02):
Is that what that is?
Mike D (01:03):
I think so.
Greg (01:05):
I don't know. I just read comics, man. I don't know nothing about no English.
Mike D (01:08):
Nope. That's not right. It's not a phonogram. Someone's now I got to Google it.
Greg (01:14):
Someone's screaming at us through the ether.
Mike D (01:16):
This is one of my favorite segments of the show and it's called F Google's
Greg (01:22):
First
Mike D (01:22):
Issue Club Google's stuff.
Greg (01:25):
While you're doing that, I'll remind everyone we have an F IIC hotline. If you have a question or want to ask a or give us a comment, then your voice will be on the episode. That number is 8 1 6 5 7 9 1 7 3 4. Data rates do apply. You can text or call. No one from first issue Club will respond in any way, shape, or form. So if anyone answers that call that you made, you've dialed the wrong number, hang 'em immediately.
Mike D (01:53):
And if you call, leave your favorite homophone.
Greg (01:57):
It's a homophone solved,
Mike D (02:02):
Boring. Again, we're tackling the world's problems, teaching you something new every single week
Greg (02:10):
While teaching ourselves something new apparently.
Mike D (02:14):
And we're going to enlighten you on the comic book news first. I'm Mike. I'm
Greg (02:19):
Greg,
Mike D (02:20):
And this week we are the first issue club, the OGs,
Greg (02:25):
The original two, the
Mike D (02:27):
Last remaining of the original cast of characters.
Greg (02:31):
All right. P
Mike D (02:33):
Vargas is in Texas.
Greg (02:35):
He's in route.
Mike D (02:36):
Wish him well,
Greg (02:38):
I hope he gets out of there as soon as possible.
Mike D (02:40):
You survive the experience. Everything is
Greg (02:44):
Bigger's what they say.
Mike D (02:45):
Yikes.
Greg (02:48):
Yikes. I cannot handle those Texas size burgers. No, they are too big.
Mike D (02:54):
Too
Greg (02:54):
Big for me. Too much bread, too
Mike D (02:56):
Big. Daddy, I, there's B bewildering comic book news this week.
Greg (03:04):
This week was a bit of a dumpster fire for a lot of reasons,
Mike D (03:08):
And this was, well, I guess I'll say big spoilers for Spider-Man 26. If you haven't read it yet and you want to hear it,
Greg (03:18):
Well, you know what? There's not going to be really many, many spoilers because Marvel spoiled it for you.
Mike D (03:23):
That sucked a
Greg (03:24):
Week before. Yeah, it actually
Mike D (03:26):
Happened. I know. All that stuff leaked and then I saw the cover, the reveal of the secret cover was more or less what did it, and a large news outlet just used that as the thumbnail for their headline. That was like Marvel kills off character. And I was just like, God damn it. I was so close.
Greg (03:49):
Damn, you. Entertainment Weekly. What are you doing?
Mike D (03:53):
Shots fired. We named you by name e w. It was you.
Greg (03:59):
You'll see us today pulling this shit.
Mike D (04:03):
But yeah, let's go ahead and talk about it. You've
Greg (04:08):
Been warn. Yeah. So here's the thing. You read it? Yeah, I did
Mike D (04:11):
Not. You did not. Okay.
Greg (04:12):
I read the aftermath on social media and Mike, if I could be so bold, people are mad.
Mike D (04:21):
Yeah.
Greg (04:21):
People are mad.
Mike D (04:22):
And we knew they'd be mad. I think when they did the preemptive thing that was like, Zeb Wells maybe shouldn't go to Cons for a year after this. I was like, it's going to be a huge death if they're saying that. And I just assumed Mary Jane Watson because
Greg (04:44):
That would make a lot more sense. Of
Mike D (04:45):
Course, with Spider-Man's luck.
Greg (04:47):
Yeah.
Mike D (04:49):
Another love of his life is going to kick the bucket. I will say too though, well, we can get into the conversation about Marvel's deaths and do deaths really stick, yada yada. But in the comic, the way it unfolded, someone was coming after Mary Jane, you often forget one of Kamala K's superpowers is that she can shapeshift. Not only does she have super fists that stretch and she can do her ambi thing, she can do that because the primary power is refolding her body into anything. She wants it to appear as correct. So she made herself appear to be Mary Jane, who a bad guy was after.
Greg (05:37):
Right. So first problem, identity theft. Yeah.
Mike D (05:41):
Right.
Greg (05:43):
I'm not saying that Kamala Khan should have died because of that. We just need to address it. Right. I had identity.
Mike D (05:48):
I'm glad you mentioned it. Okay,
Greg (05:49):
Continue.
Mike D (05:52):
Yeah. So she took the sword,
Greg (05:55):
Owes
Mike D (05:56):
The sword death by Oof.
Greg (05:58):
You don't see that. That's personal.
Mike D (06:00):
So the first, it would've been an amazing reveal at or a moment at the end of the comic where you think Mary Jane dies and then, oh, it turns out it's Kamala. The way it was written was great for it to be a twist,
Greg (06:20):
But Marvel can't leave well enough alone.
Mike D (06:23):
But Marvel just blew it and it was real. I just imagine there's been a couple moments I've had with comic books where things remained unspoiled for me, and it's just so exciting to get the comic on that day and find out what happened. And with deaths not really sticking. There's only so many things you can really like Wow. People with anymore. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the last time I was like, oh shit.
Greg (06:50):
Not for mainline Marvel, DC shit,
Mike D (06:52):
A big Marvel DC book. It's easier to do in indies. They've been going like 20 issues and then they kill off a big character and you're like, oh my God, I can't believe they did that.
Greg (07:02):
Totally. But saga still has the ability to shock and surprise
Mike D (07:06):
Me. Shape you. Yeah. Right. So repercussions of this
Greg (07:14):
In comics or out of comics? What are you talking?
Mike D (07:19):
My head was immediately going to out of comics. I can start with in comics.
Greg (07:25):
I'm just along for the journey. My man, Kamal
Mike D (07:27):
Has been an amazing Spider-man working for Norman Osborne and has kind of been bit bopping around, but not really a big part of the story. Definitely a character that people love, but has kind of been a little more sidelined recently. I don't know that, I don't think there's been an ongoing Miss Marvel book for at least a year now. Right.
Greg (07:54):
And I Does that sound right? And I don't know if they've completely abandoned the outlawed storyline for all superheroes under the age of, was it 18 or 21? Can't do superhero shit. There's kind of voting. You got to wait till you're 18 to go out and do stuff. So I don't know if they have continued that kind of story or if what I'm wondering is in M C U and in Marvel comics, Kamala Khan has different powers in each iteration. And so I'm wondering if they're just trying to figure out how the hell do we kind of make it more of a cohesive character that transcends in comics and in movies.
Mike D (08:42):
One of the things that we were hashing out on the first issue, club Discord this week. Someone mentioned that Kamal is an inhuman in the comic books and a mutant in the M C U. Right. And do they do some sort of Crico rebirth thing? Sure. For Kamala wherein, yeah, she was an inhuman, but she also had the ex gene. So her memory was captured by Xavier without her knowing, and then we're going to Crico and egg her and bring her back.
Greg (09:27):
Well, I think I've read an article where g Willow Wilson, who is I think the creator, one of the creators of Miss Marvel, the intention was to make her a mutant. So I don't know if this is going to be the fulfillment of that ark, or they're just kind of trying to write the wrongs that kind of spilled out from just normal comic book shenanigans. And they're just going to try to, what we just talked about is ACO Rebirth wherein she now has powers that are similar to what we're seeing in the M C U.
Mike D (10:05):
I would not be surprised at all if that happens.
Greg (10:08):
I wouldn't either.
Mike D (10:09):
They're doing a one shot that's like a Kamala funeral goodbye celebration of Kamala's life thing.
(10:21)
And I think j Willow Wilson's writing, if not one story, the whole thing. I'm not totally sure if it's going to be anthology style or not, but she's involved in it in some capacity. And part of me thinks that maybe they treat this, they did Wolverine where you killed off Wolverine and he was gone for a year or so, and that death had a big impact that even though it's Wolverine and you're like, you can't, ain't no way. Yeah. Ain't no way. He's one of the most popular comic book characters, period. Marvel, dc, indie comics, whatever you want to say. But having him gone for a solid year and then bringing him back felt like a real moment. Sure. Because they were like, yeah, we're really getting rid of Wolverine for a while. You can look at the solicits. There's no Wolverine books coming up for the foreseeable future, and it made death of Wolverine more fun to read knowing that he was going to like Yeah. Take a hiatus at least. And I think they wouldn't be releasing this goodbye Kamala comic if they didn't plan on having her gone for at least six months or so.
Greg (11:45):
Yeah. Because as we were talking about on the Discord, someone was mentioning just like the Marvels
Mike D (11:51):
That movie's coming out is
Greg (11:52):
Going to premier
Mike D (11:53):
September, something like that,
Greg (11:56):
About six months from now. Yeah. So you really hate to think it's corporate synergy. Yeah. That she'll return right around the same time as this
Mike D (12:06):
Movie coming out, maybe Rebirth. And I think by now it would be four months from now that by the time that movie comes out, so you could do a big Kamala Rebirth, excitement new number one that's like, yeah, she's a mutant, and here's some explaining of who Kamala is. Again, to a create synergy with the movie would not be surprising at all.
Greg (12:30):
I think people, so as I mentioned on social media, people were, I guess rightly upset with this because the conversation of Fring came up, which is a term that is used in the industry of just essentially just killing off a character for someone else's character growth or killing off a character just for the sake of killing a character. A character needs to die. We're doing this one. And the dialogue was actually kind of enriching and the back and forth was actually little more civil than when we found out that, what's Reed Richard's son's name?
Mike D (13:17):
Oh, Franklin Richards. When
Greg (13:18):
Franklin Richards finds out wasn't a mutant. Wasn't a mutant. I mean, yeah, I thought Dan Slot was going to have to move to fucking Europe. People wanted his head on us on a stick, but the conversation there was a lot just like, why do we allow this to happen? And why is it happening to Kamala? The narrative? Just like to have it happen to Kamala doesn't really make a ton of sense narratively. So because she
Mike D (13:46):
Was barely in the, I mean, she's been in the Spider-Man universe, but she's barely been in the comic books. Yes. When she shows up, it's like, oh yeah, Kamal is at Osco. Right. She hasn't been a mainstay or a normal character that feels like a part of the Spider-Man cannon that made that death more may. It maybe could have made that death more impactful if you'd been seeing and hearing a lot from her. And she had more of an arc, which she was definitely a background character in Spider-Man, which too, maybe Zeb Well's credit is that made the death
Greg (14:22):
Even more surprising, even
Mike D (14:23):
More shocking that Sure. What it was. Kamala again, I think we'd be having a completely different wow moment conversation if it hadn't been spoiled. Yeah. Ahead of time.
Greg (14:37):
Also, don't think for a second that this was Zeb Well's idea.
Mike D (14:45):
When we talked to Kelly Thompson, it was just like we decide Star Got would get a Infinity Stone, and she was like, oh, oh, dear boy. Yeah.
Greg (14:58):
Some Marvel editor was just like, listen, we need this to happen. Yeah, exactly. Fucking get us there. Exactly.
Mike D (15:03):
Right. And
Greg (15:04):
He gets that email, he's like, oh, fuck yeah, I guess I'm not going to C two E two this year because I'm going to get mobbed.
Mike D (15:12):
Yeah.
Greg (15:14):
So keep the Zeb Wells hate on fucking simmer for a little
Mike D (15:19):
Bit, and keep in mind that this happens all the time that we kill characters and we bring them back and it becomes a large part of the mythology and canon of the character. And you can't have these great cool redemption rebirth stories without killing off the character for a while. And again, we talk about earned moments and how maybe her death didn't feel earned, but it was certainly surprising. But maybe there's a moment they're working towards that will feel especially earned because Wolf had no Kamala for a little bit. And one thing we haven't said out loud yet during this conversation is that this is a Muslim character and the representation has been huge for people.
Greg (16:20):
Oh, sure. Yeah.
Mike D (16:22):
And that's one, I think the reason that not only is this a character that nerds especially gravitate towards, because Kamal is in a d and d video game head, big time nerd calls her sizing up power Ambien, which is if you're a nerd, where that comes from. So Hertz on that front just as a fan favorite, but there's just another layer of it because we as comic book fans and Marvel fans, that's one of the things you kind of love about Marvel is they made a Spider-Man that was black and Hispanic. They made an Asian woman, they gave Cindy Moon the same origin story as Peter Parker, and now she is his contemporary, more or less. They've done so many things to give you mainline versions of characters that represent different cultures who have historically not seen themselves represented. And I heard this story the other day that I'll tell really quickly that just made me want to cry, that the gal who got cast as the Little Mermaid
Greg (17:41):
Oh
Mike D (17:41):
Sure. In the new movie, just assumed she was auditioning for another part and was just like, oh, they mistyped when they offered me the role because she was just like, I'm not a white redhead. I just never considered myself having an inkling of chance of being cast as a lead in this movie. And you're like,
Greg (18:07):
That's fucked up. It had
Mike D (18:08):
This moment for me that it was just like, wow, you have so many people growing up who are just like, I could never be a Disney princess. And as goofy as that sounds, it's like none of us are actually Disney princesses, but it's really your childhood heroes. And those characters we love are just people who are other and not something you can see yourself in. And having Kamala Khan be an Am American Muslim character, it's like how many other huge pop culture icon, fictional superhero type characters or cartoon characters can you name that are Muslim that are popular where I think you have little girls who aren't otherwise really into comics who were dressing up for Oh, yeah. During Halloween as Miss Marvel because they've got that wonderful connection. So that's just a reason that needs to be said out loud that it's like that's why this hurts and is so shocking that it was just one of those characters that seemed untouchable because of those unique circumstances and how much of an icon of representation that character has become. So definitely hurts, but at the same time, just I think it's impossible. No, that this death lasts more than six months. And we just have to recognize that and know that she's going to come back and hopefully that moment seems really earned and cool and it validates
(19:54)
No and the death we got in the first place. And
Greg (19:56):
I get that because you have this bombastic character who dies in someone else's
Mike D (20:03):
Book.
Greg (20:05):
It's not even, she did something heroic in a Miss Marvel book.
Mike D (20:08):
Yes.
Greg (20:09):
She was just a bit player in an amazing Spider-Man book and sacrificed herself for someone else. And it's just like, that doesn't feel earned and it doesn't feel like Right. For the character
Mike D (20:24):
It, I'll say it was the way they wrote it. It was a world saving moment. If the way it was written was Mary Jane kind of existed as they do this big thing in Spider-Man now that's like,
Greg (20:43):
Yeah, he swings from buildings.
Mike D (20:45):
Yeah, exactly. Right. So yeah, you've seen it. Yes,
Greg (20:48):
I'm aware
Mike D (20:50):
Where different characters are the spider totem, and you exist as this archetype or symbol of something. And Mary Jane, for whatever reason in the storyline we won't get into was kind of this symbol of this religion or God, that they needed her sacrifice to bring the apocalypse
Greg (21:15):
Naturally,
Mike D (21:16):
And by killing her, they would bring on the apocalypse. Kamala prevented that death, therefore preventing the apocalypse. The world was saved by Kamala's sacrifice, but
Greg (21:31):
The lead up to that was just like, huh.
Mike D (21:32):
But it being maybe a shorter arc that it was like, oh, there's this bad guy who we just got introduced to four issues ago, and then the wrap up of that arc is like, oh, Kamala is here. All of a sudden. Oh, she died to save Mary Jane. It doesn't feel as world savvy as it maybe could have if they've maybe done this during Ax or a bigger event or something. You might have been like, just
Greg (22:01):
Seems convenient. Right. To serve a mean means to an end. But
Mike D (22:08):
Listen, oh, we also know that, I mean, the X-Men rebirth Captain America recently,
Greg (22:17):
So we know it can be done.
Mike D (22:18):
So we know they can hatch anybody in the Marvel universe. Anyone can be hatched in a matter of days.
Greg (22:25):
Yeah. Give it five minutes on 4 25. Right. You got yourself a new Miss Marvel.
Mike D (22:31):
Yeah, exactly. Right.
Greg (22:34):
As a longtime Daredevil fan, the first death is always the hardest, but this is Miss Marvel's first quote unquote, death in Marvel universe. Yep.
Mike D (22:44):
Welcome to the club.
Greg (22:45):
Welcome. You're
Mike D (22:46):
Really, you're
Greg (22:48):
Solidified, you're
Mike D (22:48):
Ingrained now. Yeah. Kind more or less, right? Yeah. It's like all the big characters have died and come back now.
Greg (22:55):
Now you're a legacy character.
Mike D (22:57):
If
Greg (22:57):
You died and come back, you're a legacy character.
Mike D (22:59):
That's one way to think about it.
Greg (23:01):
So she'll be back. But it has sparked a interesting conversation about how we handle deaths in comic books and what does it mean. And just because we know they're going to come back doesn't mean they have to be frivolous or without thought. So I did enjoy that part of it, and I'm excited to see the conversation that comes out of this and how she returns inevitably. Yep. I'm almost wondering if it's a huckleberry Fin Tom Sawyer thing where they're just in the rafters, miss Kamala cons in the rafters watching her own funeral, just listening to her eulogy, just like, man, people really did miss me. Yeah. She just falls through Kamala.
Mike D (23:48):
I love it.
Greg (23:49):
Oh man. Well, not much news other than
Mike D (23:53):
Yeah, that kind of spy dominated a lot of headlines this week. Huh?
Greg (23:57):
I went to Tower Con over the weekend. That's right. The mini Ken City that has officially become the mini official Mini con of first issue club. Yep. They're doing another one in September. We're going to be doing a live show during that.
Mike D (24:11):
Oh, really?
Greg (24:12):
Yeah.
Mike D (24:12):
I don't know if
Greg (24:13):
I knew that. They gave us the thumbs up. They want us to come out and do that. They gave us a booth set up and stuff, so that'll be great. So stay tuned in September for that. Other than that, I'm ready to get into comics if you want to get into comics.
Mike D (24:28):
I do.
Greg (24:29):
Okay.
Mike D (24:30):
It's a reading club after all, ain't it?
Greg (24:32):
And really, isn't that why we're all here to talk about what we've been reading and whether or not we liked it? First off, excuse me, folks. I read The Power Girl Special by Leah Williams and Joanna Starter.
Mike D (24:47):
Oh, how was it?
Greg (24:49):
It was good. It was I Okay that, oh, that didn't sound convincing. I'm
Mike D (24:55):
Sorry. I'll say I've really been looking forward to this book, and I've voiced some of that on this podcast before that. I think Leah Williams voice is so perfect for a character like Power Girl for a million reasons that I don't have to get into. Sure. But also, the short of it is Leah Williams is great at writing characters that feel sexy, love themselves, aren't ashamed of being babes.
Greg (25:32):
Sure. Yeah.
Mike D (25:32):
And
Greg (25:33):
See Exterminators.
Mike D (25:35):
Yeah, exactly. Right. I just think she's the perfect person to reclaim this historically male gazey off forgotten part of the Superman family. That is, why is this character kind of cast off to the side? Is it because she's got a certain body type and doesn't necessarily get treated with the proper a plume that the other Kent family characters get? And that has been directly acknowledged in the backup stories of action comics where she's continually getting to work with Supergirl and some other characters and being like, I'm not really welcome though. You don't have to say it, but we all know it. And seeing her work through her problems in those backup stories and kind of talk about herself a little differently than we've seen her be, like Self-Aware before was just really cool for me to see. And it got me so excited to have a new Power Girl series, and I thought that the one shot is probably going to be a good prelude to what the temperature or tone of that series is going to be. And so I was really looking forward to reading it. You have read it. Yes. You sounded very reluctant and hesitant. No, no, no. I'm wondering
Greg (27:08):
Why. No, no, no. And I apologize because my response is not indicative of how I enjoyed the book, because a lot of people do forget she's from Krypton. She's just every other member of the Super family, whether it be Superman, Supergirl, super Boy, crypto, all of them. But that's not really connected through any of her books, really, because she doesn't wear any of the insignia that the other super family wears, mainly because she doesn't feel like she's earned it. And that book kind of addresses this, and this is a direct fallout from Lazaruth Planet and the
Mike D (27:52):
One wherein she gets Psychic Powers. Correct. Which makes her more of a Jean Gray type, which is cool. Correct.
Greg (27:58):
And so she can do attacks through psychic abilities. She can interact differently than just physical BR strength. And so there's some exposition of getting you up to speed of what happened with Lazaruth Planet, why all of a sudden she has psychic powers, and I guess other people also got psychic powers through the Lazaruth Planet event or whatever. And so good
Mike D (28:27):
Guys, bad guys in between
Greg (28:30):
Everyone. And so she's dealing with that of coming in combat with these other new psychic ability villains, essentially. Yeah.
Mike D (28:40):
You're on the task force now that you've got that in your wheelhouse.
Greg (28:43):
And so the long and short of it is it basically Power Girl working through her issues of insecurity, of inferiority coming to terms with her new abilities and her new abilities either malfunctioning or just going away. So we maybe led to believe that these psychic abilities are temporary or they're just not completely honed yet through Power Girl. And so there's a lot of discussion of just, I think what really this book was trying to explain was what happened in Lazarus Planet and what it means to redefine yourself. Yes. It really explores the idea of just, I know who I used to be, this is who I want to be now. And that's what Leah Williams does really well. She does these big complex ideas inside of a comic book. And so you get your fun comic book story with a lot of great exposition and great character development, and that's what we're getting with Power Girl, a ton of fucking character development. And it's, it's rad. She's still powerful. She's still awesome and in your face, but she's also vulnerable now. And just wearing her heart on her sleeve and just trying to fucking figure it
Mike D (30:05):
Out. It makes me wonder if when we get to the ongoing, if it's going to continue that arc of self-exploration or if the backup stories and the special were meant to be the fruition of her being like, I'm owning the new me. And then the new book is kind of new Tone of Power Girl, almost like I'd compare it maybe to Dan Slots. She Hulk runs.
Greg (30:37):
Ah, yeah. Is
Mike D (30:38):
It Dan, was it Dan Slot?
Greg (30:40):
Dan Slot? Do she Hulk?
Mike D (30:41):
Yeah. So Dan Slot did the She Hulk that started with, she Hulk's a flue and got kicked out of
Greg (30:48):
The Oh,
Mike D (30:48):
Yeah. Avengers were partying too hard and had to find a new place to live, and then gets back into law and kind of finds herself again and reinvents who she is as not just a hokey jokey babe that she kind of was in the John Burn comics, which people love for those reasons of fourth wall breaking. I get that. But it was also, a lot of those stories probably wouldn't be told today.
Greg (31:22):
It was so tongue in cheek that blood was spilling out of its mouth and there was a hole in the cheek.
Mike D (31:29):
And I think there's a reason that a lot of people at Marvel, when you go back and hear if you've gone to panels and if John Burn's name ever comes up, nobody liked the guy. I think he was abrasive. I think he was sexist.
Greg (31:46):
Well, it's also come out in the last few years that he's compared them to, well, I won't say it on the podcast, but he's kind of a shit bag.
Mike D (31:56):
So yeah, I mean, we were just at a, and I went to a Chris Claremont panel and him and Roy Thomas were like,
Greg (32:06):
Ugh,
Mike D (32:07):
John Byrne.
Greg (32:08):
Damn. If you get Chris Claremont to be like, that dude sucks. You must be scum of the earth.
Mike D (32:14):
Yeah. He was very blunt. We didn't get along. Didn't like him. Wow. He was like, Chris or me because I was just not having his bullshit. And they were like, Chris,
Greg (32:29):
Hell yeah.
Mike D (32:30):
Go do something else, man. So Dan Slott did this thing in the first handful of issues of She Hulk, where it was kind of reset button. And then the rest of the story was like, sure, here's the new She Hulk, who's a very business career minded person trying to juggle that with having superpowers. And I just wonder if we're going to get more, if the next run of Power Girl is going to be her finding herself still, or if we're going to jump right into, I'm a new character now,
Greg (33:05):
So here's my prediction for that. Where
Mike D (33:08):
Yeah, I think based on how this one shot ended, you might have some insight
Greg (33:10):
Where I think Power Girl's going to go, she's going to try to repair her relationship with the Super Family. Yeah. Because in the book, I don't want to go too far in the book. In the book, there's a big psychic event around the world and everyone is in this psychic dream state. And so Power Girls's just going around real life reality, trying to save people, help people. And she comes across Supergirl's Journal, and Supergirl essentially is just like, I know that I am superior to Power Girl, but that just makes her the better person because she is more rooted in herself. She knows who she is. She's like, and she's like, she is pushing herself away from us, and I wish she didn't. And so now Power Girl kind of gets that insight of just like they do want me around, I'm my own worst. I'm getting in my own way. Well,
Mike D (34:04):
She also feels validated because you're hearing the person say what they think about you, what you knew they think about you is that they're better than you. Yeah. So that's got to feel good to at least feel validated and not constantly gas lit.
Greg (34:19):
And I also love the Sneaky Story, maybe Trick that is used in comics and TV and whatever, when they stumble across someone's personal journal and they just get the quick exposition, just like, let's move this fucking story along where we can just kind of get it done really quick. So I feel like Power Girl now is going to be like, I'm going to open myself up to this. And so we'll see more interaction with her in the Super Family. Yeah. We'll see her either dealing with having psychic powers or we're losing her psychic powers. However, that's going to work its way out. And I anticipate a lot of fucking Kick ass Girl Power Power Girl shenanigans. That's right. Leah Williams at the Steering Wheel. I expect nothing less
Mike D (35:05):
The, I've always thought Power Girl was an underpriced first appearance
Greg (35:12):
And Oh my God.
Mike D (35:12):
Yeah. It's over the last year. It has gone up because of these backup stories and action comics. And I'm glad I bought it when I did.
Greg (35:25):
Same.
Mike D (35:25):
I think that's another thing where you're just like, this is a member of the Super Family and there's not many DC first appearances that are attainable, at least for big characters.
Greg (35:38):
And if you don't think James Gunn's kicking around the idea of putting Power Girl into a movie.
Mike D (35:43):
Oh yeah. You got to be kidding
Greg (35:44):
Yourself. You're insane.
Mike D (35:45):
Yeah. So I'm gl I'm so stoked I have that book already. And I think even though it might be higher priced than normal right now because of that hype of a new story, yeah. It's probably still not a bad time to buy that book because I think it's going to go up, up, up. Yeah. It's wild what you can get it for, in my opinion, for It's like a seventies book, right?
Greg (36:13):
Oh yeah, it is. It was from all All-Star comics. Yeah. It's like
Mike D (36:15):
All Star comic star comics, which probably stopped in.
Greg (36:19):
Well, it's one of those things we talked about Squirrel Girl, her first appearance is in a Marvel Holiday special. And only people who are enthralled and really entrenched in comic book bullshit know that like, oh, that comic is important because yeah, power Girl is the first appearance there.
Mike D (36:39):
You get your Earth two first appearances,
Greg (36:42):
Get 'em Mother Hug. Is
Mike D (36:43):
It? It is Earth two,
Greg (36:44):
Right? I think, I don't know. Yeah,
Mike D (36:47):
That's, that's such a confusing thing where you're like, which is the first appearance to have Huntress or Earth two Huntress?
Greg (36:59):
It's like a tomato tomato kind of thing. They both go on a sandwich. One,
Mike D (37:03):
One is Helena Wayne, and then the other one is
Greg (37:08):
Wayne Helena. Bob Bar
Mike D (37:13):
Barton. It starts with a b
Greg (37:15):
I think Barton's, right? No, Barton is Hawkeye.
Mike D (37:18):
Yeah. Helena is something, I don't know. Yeah.
Greg (37:22):
Don't, my Chemical Romance wrote a song
Mike D (37:24):
About it. Don't message me about it either. I have Google too.
Greg (37:28):
So you heard this segment earlier in the episodes. I shut the fuck up. So to wrap up Power Grill. Yeah, it was great. Mainly its existence was to get you from Lads Worth Planet to Power Grill number one.
Mike D (37:43):
Yeah, right
Greg (37:43):
On. Which is fine. Yeah. You know it. Comic books do that all the time. Yeah. It was a way to get a lot of exposition Exposition out of the way. Yeah. Right. So go get it if you want. Is it key reading? I don't know.
Mike D (37:58):
Maybe Tell
Greg (37:59):
Me. You tell me. I also read Catfight on I D W by Andrew Wheeler in Elias Kza. It is about a cat burglar, not a really good peck cat burglar. Okay. And he slowly finds out that he is from a long line of cat burglars. Ooh. That has been, his lineage has been hidden from him by his grandmother. And they have to form essentially an Ocean Ocean's 11 style team of other cat burglars. Okay. So Sounds fun. It was cool. It was really, really cool. It, I d W's always a risk sometimes with their stuff.
Mike D (38:43):
You, there was a time wherein I was like, cool, I D W first issues, got to buy. And then why? When would I say that was maybe six, seven years ago. And now I'm like, no, thanks. I D W. Sure. I, when I'm doing my pre-orders, which are typically organized by publisher, where I buy 'em from, I cruise right on past the I D W section. Yeah.
Greg (39:12):
Cause it's mostly Sonic and Transformers
Mike D (39:14):
And Yeah. Yeah. Mostly
Greg (39:15):
Other licensed
Mike D (39:16):
Stuff, licensed stuff. And then the new books that they do, they used to do a lot of cool new original stories, but they've just kind of faded that. It's just like, I can't look through all those I D W variants and bullshit just to find one book that's probably not good. I
Greg (39:32):
Agree. Because it was like I, I'm right there with you. I D W used to be a big name for indie
Mike D (39:42):
Stuff. A premier indie publisher.
Greg (39:44):
And it sucks that they got kind of swallowed up. Greg.
Mike D (39:47):
You know what?
Greg (39:48):
Have
Mike D (39:48):
Yourself a real cough. Go ahead and
Greg (39:50):
Do that. I got it. It's gotten, it's taken care of. All right. Don't even say so. I don't even want to talk about it. It's got taken care of. Anyway, I dw, I got Fridged in my own conversation. It was so it's a good book. I'm excited to see where it goes. I made Trade Watch. Yeah. This one just cause it's easier that way for me. Didn't it? Didn't captivate me. Yep. Captivate me as easily and as much as I would've liked. But what can you do?
Mike D (40:22):
Not a lot, man.
Greg (40:23):
Not every book's a heater, but this book was sizzling. If I do say so myself. I was trying to get some information I was going to share with you. Oh, so Transformers, our buddy Lance from Comic bookkeepers, transformers did leave I D W.
Mike D (40:46):
Oh, wow.
Greg (40:47):
Okay. And he said, you can't tell me, but he says, we'll be excited to see where Transformers is going and it's going to be announced at San Diego.
Mike D (40:57):
Oh, how about that?
Greg (40:58):
So keep your ears peeled in your eyes. Open thinking maybe Marvel.
Mike D (41:06):
Marvel's getting a lot of licensed stuff lately. And we were saying with all the different production companies that they own and constantly merge with that. It's like, yeah, they almost, they own almost everything. And for whatever reason, the licensing for published work has traditionally been separate on a lot of these things, which it probably is for just a lot of stuff in general. You do licensing for licensing for comics. Sure. Licensing for novels, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But these larger brands have a shit ton of money to buy this stuff back. And the brands and the people tied to those brands have more incentive to go with the bigger company because they're going to be able to, someone like a Marvel is going to be able to promote the shit out of something like that.
Greg (42:02):
Let's, okay, let's just speculate that Transformers is going to Marvel.
Mike D (42:07):
Yeah. Who do we want to write it?
Greg (42:08):
That's going to be a fucking steam engine
Mike D (42:13):
Of
Greg (42:13):
Variance of writers. Like it is going to obliterate. And you thought Star Wars number one was a problem. Transformers back at Marvel is going to fucking annihilate the news cycle.
Mike D (42:27):
I don't think it'll beat Star Wars
Greg (42:31):
With excitement and anticipation.
Mike D (42:33):
I was thinking sales.
Greg (42:36):
I would be, I wouldn't be too sure of that. That's
Mike D (42:40):
Jason. Aaron. Star Wars number one sold so many copies
Greg (42:46):
With Initiative Variance and stuff like that. Well,
Mike D (42:49):
That was part of it was that there was over a hundred covers for it because there were so many. And one of those things, we've mentioned this before, wherein if you order a certain amount of copies, you can have your own cover for a lot of Marvel books. So everyone was doing that for
Greg (43:08):
Star
(43:08)
Wars stuff? Yes. Every retailer had a retailer exclusive. Every con had its own exclusive. I'm no shade here for Jason's, Aaron. Jason, Aaron, star Wars. Yeah, it, it's a good fucking book. But a lot of that sales stuff was fueled by retailer incentives, their own shit like that. Now Transformers not only coming back to Marvel, it was once at Marvel and now it is back. I think there would be a lot of excitement. The Transformers community at large is a pretty vast community now. Does that translate into comic book sales? I have no idea. I kind
Mike D (43:50):
Of forget how big of a property it is and how big the movies are, just because I don't even pay attention to the Transformers movies. They just seem like garbage explosion movies that I'm just like, I don't care. They're all this. I've seen one. I've seen them all
Greg (44:08):
Until Transformers merges with the Fast and Furious franchise. I'm not interested. I want to see Vin Diesel. Yeah. Inside Optimist Prime going. It's about family and then jumping over something. At
Mike D (44:22):
What point do you think they'd, how many Fast and Furious is would they have to be to get to that point?
Greg (44:30):
I hope, here's what I hope I could
Mike D (44:31):
See it being, fuck yes. A thing they consider, but they're obviously leaning in. One of the taglines for the movie this time around had to do with the absurdity of it.
Greg (44:42):
No, the Cars Kentucky.
Mike D (44:45):
I mean, they went to Outer Space. I mean, that was the moment that I was like, this ends with them going to space. And what do they do after that? And what they did after that was kind of brought it back down to Earth a
Greg (44:59):
Little bit. They started stealing DVD players again, back to their roots. They just reset.
Mike D (45:04):
Push the reset button.
Greg (45:06):
Honestly, it's either Transformers or fucking Vin Diesel driving fucking Lightning. Lightning McQueen around. Okay. And past the Furious 15 where No, because it needs to be time travel. The VIN fucking needs to find the, what is that fucking car from Back to the Future?
Mike D (45:29):
Yeah. What are those
Greg (45:30):
Called? I keep wanting to call Mandalorian. Do you know my man, my Mandalorian? The doors go up.
Mike D (45:38):
That has to be a meme somewhere. Or someone's made a Mandalorian.
Greg (45:41):
We just made it look
Mike D (45:42):
Like Bob Buffett. Yeah. I think Vin Diesel and his signature Deep gravelly voice talking with Optimist Prime and his signature Deep gravelly voice. Yeah. Just the two of them going back and forth like this. The entire movie would be fantastic.
Greg (46:04):
Optimist Prime. It's about family. I couldn't agree. More auto bots. Let's get those D V D players.
Mike D (46:16):
The
Greg (46:17):
Transformers hawk in all your shit. The new
Mike D (46:20):
One has the
Greg (46:24):
Animal. Animal ones. Yeah. The Beast Wars
Mike D (46:26):
Beast. Is that what there? There's Beast something. Yeah. And then the one before that had the dinosaurs.
Greg (46:32):
Dino Bots.
Mike D (46:33):
Dino Bots. That's right.
Greg (46:34):
Beast formers. Here's my thing. Do those creatures have souls?
Mike D (46:42):
Yeah.
Greg (46:43):
Do they go to church? They're just,
Mike D (46:45):
I think we're meant to
Greg (46:46):
Every Sunday they put on the suit and tie.
Mike D (46:49):
I think we're meant to believe that the alls,
Greg (46:53):
They're the true angels. That the biblically, biblically accurate angels is actually an optimist prime.
Mike D (47:03):
I think we're meant to believe that the all spark can gift sentience to these things. Yeah. I don't totally remember the arc or explanation of those things because it's almost like, well, don't even try to explain it. The robots that can talk, I don't fucking care. Do your explosions and I'll be fine. Yeah. Where those movies suffer is they try to make them deep and emotional and it's like, we don't care. Make them more fast. And the Furious where it's just like fun. Yeah. Oh my God. A robot car just went through a building and Yeah, went through a
Greg (47:42):
Building that's also a little robot.
Mike D (47:44):
Right. Leave the Mark Wallberg Wahlberg drama and contemplative scenes out of it. We don't need that part.
Greg (47:53):
Save that for a 24.
Mike D (47:55):
But I do think it's the All spark gives them a soul.
Greg (47:59):
Okay. Wow. So many questions. My son, Theodore loves Thomas the Tank Engine. And I'm just like, where the fuck do these things come from? Do they procreate? Is this a magic trick they did. A witch come and just tap these trains just
Mike D (48:18):
Waiting for him to be like, can you have a baby with a machine? Right.
Greg (48:23):
And that's why I'm always, I, I'm so fucking stupid. I can't just enjoy the kids show. I'm just like, do they kiss? What happens here? Do they eat food?
Mike D (48:37):
Yeah.
Greg (48:38):
And do they breathe? Obviously they need to survive somehow.
Mike D (48:43):
It is one of those things where if you s I feel like if I had no context for Thomas the train engine and you showed me that moon face on a locomotive, I would be like, that's a horror movie where someone has been human scented to machinery.
Greg (49:03):
Right.
Mike D (49:03):
Or this is Tusk, but instead of walrus, it's with locomotives.
Greg (49:09):
It's some kind of lovecraftian mashup. It
Mike D (49:13):
Does look just like an aberration or an affront to God.
Greg (49:20):
The All Spark has clearly left this thing. This is a repercussion from a Hell Razr thing. Right. Just like, oh, you love trains now you will become
Mike D (49:30):
One. Exactly. Right.
Greg (49:32):
Yeah. So I don't know how we got on all that, but
Mike D (49:36):
Boy am I glad we did
Greg (49:37):
Rough Business. And that's all the comics I read for the week.
Mike D (49:40):
All right, well we did it again. We've been a club. Yeah. We talked about two first issues and 1 26 issue. I hope you enjoyed the ride. Don't
Greg (49:51):
Forget, if you want more First Issue Club, go to patreon.com/first issue Club. Remember, you can get a seven free day trial of either tier to see if you enjoy the Patreon content. We hope that you do and decide to stick around longer. You can find us on all the social medias that are available. We are sadly no longer on. What's that one that I always make fun of?
Mike D (50:18):
Like a podcasting platform?
Greg (50:20):
No, it's the one where people put their resumes.
Mike D (50:23):
LinkedIn. LinkedIn. We got kicked off of LinkedIn.
Greg (50:26):
Yeah, we got kicked off of because apparently our resume was so shitty.
Mike D (50:29):
It wasn't businessy enough.
Greg (50:33):
First issue club.com is our website. All our episodes are there. Until next week, don't forget to. Bag and boredom.
Mike D (50:39):
Bye. First Issue Club is edited and produced by Mike Stasi. Greg Lick Tag and Andy Vargas. Follow us on social media at First Issue Club and check out our Patreon for videos, audio and more at patreon.com/first issue Club.