Shows
The Iron Age of ComicsThe Authority (with Guest Cameron Kunzelman)When Bryan Hitch took over as artist on WildStorm’s low-selling StormWatch title, writer Warren Ellis was inspired to ditch most of the characters and reinvent the book from the ground up. The resulting series, The Authority, pointed the way to the future of mainstream comic books and stands as one of the milestones marking the end of the Iron Age. It’s an important and influential comic, so we’ve invited writer and podcaster Cameron Kunzelman (last heard on our X-Men: The Animated Series episode) back to read the entire Ellis and Hitch run with us. We discuss the ad...
2025-11-192h 38The Iron Age of ComicsMoon Knight in the Iron AgeA listener asked us some time ago if we’d consider reading some Moon Knight; instead, we read a lot of Moon Knight. We used Moon Knight Epic Collection Volume 3: Butcher’s Moon to take a broad survey of a Bronze Age character’s transition to the Iron Age. In these pages, the multiple-personalities angle of the character is de-emphasized, and multiple creative teams try to crack the character of Marc Spector in their absence. The Fist of Khonshu goes from a silver-suited urban vigilante to a supernatural avenger decked out with gold accessories, then back to a gritty and gro...
2025-11-051h 49The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #12: Mike Mignola's Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's DraculaHey, remember when they used to make official comics adaptations of major motion pictures? Hellboy auteur Mike Mignola drew one for the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula! We look at this unusual gem from Topps Comics and weigh in on how the subject matter plays to Mignola's strengths and how it functions as an adaptation of the film. Plus, history and context for the novel that started it all.Listen to the rest at patreon.com/ironageofcomics$5 for this episode, or $2/month for access to all Fifth Week Bonus episodes, plus our monthly...
2025-10-2908 minThe Iron Age of ComicsGhost Rider: Danny KetchGhost Rider was something of an also-ran character in the 70s and 80s, so when editor-turned-writer Howard Mackie was invited to pitch a revival in 1990, Marvel didn’t have high hopes. But, with a brand new human host created by Mackie and a gritty and powerful redesign by artist Javier Saltares, the Spirit of Vengeance soon became a massive commercial success. We figured the first Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch - Vengeance Reborn Epic Collection would be seasonally appropriate reading for Halloween, but there’s very little of the supernatural in these pages (except for the flaming-skull-headed biker himself). Instead, myst...
2025-10-151h 49The Iron Age of ComicsHellboy: Wake the Devil and Other StoriesThe Halloween season is upon us again, so we’re revisiting our favorite horror hero, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, in the next batch of adventures following his debut in ”Seed of Destruction.”We open with four short stories. In “The Wolves of St. August,” Hellboy investigates a town torn apart by werewolves and an ancient curse. Next, “The Corpse” and “The Iron Shoes” both detail conflicts with the fae folk of Ireland. Finally, we investigate the origins of Hellboy himself in “The Chained Coffin.”Then it’s onto the main attraction: “Wake the...
2025-10-011h 28The Iron Age of ComicsAstro City: Life in the Big CityFollowing the triumph of Marvels and from the ashes of a proposed sequel that fell apart, Kurt Busiek launched Astro City with Brent Anderson on interior art and Marvels collaborator Alex Ross on covers and character designs. On the series’ 30th anniversary, we look at the complicated development of the series and its first six stories. We also ask some conceptual questions. Should Astro City be considered part of the larger superhero deconstructionist movement of the Iron Age, or something else entirely? Are the series’ familiar-but-different superheroes “analogues” or “archetypes”? Is there such a thing as including too many Easter eggs...
2025-09-171h 57
The Iron Age of ComicsThe Final NightSUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR CONCLUDES! Where were you when the lights went out? Your hosts were reading DC’s 1996 crossover, The Final Night, in which the Earth’s sun is blotted out, robbing Superman of his powers. A somewhat somber alternative to the traditionally bombastic action-packed crossover, writer Karl Kesel with artists Stuart Immomen with Jose Marzan, Jr. craft a crossover without a main villain (except for the ones trying to help out), focusing instead on how superheroes cope with what looks like the end of the world. This issue also features the final fate of Hal Jordan/Parallax, giving Ron...
2025-09-031h 29
The Iron Age of ComicsZero Hour: Crisis in TimeSUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR CONTINUES! We’ve discussed tie-ins to DC’s 1994 continuity-altering crossover Zero Hour on a couple occasions so far, but now we finally tackle the main series itself. Billed as “The Beginning of Tomorrow!” and a fresh entry point for new and lapsed readers alike, writer-artist Dan Jurgens pits DC’s heroes against Extant and Parallax for the fate of the universe…and the good guys don’t quite stop them in time! The result is a new timeline (reflected in a literal printed timeline of events included in the last issue), a hard reboot for the Legion of Supe...
2025-08-201h 57
The Iron Age of ComicsAtlantis AttacksSUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR CONTINUES! Comic book annuals are a remnant of the newsstand distribution era, when Marvel and DC tried to get some extra-sized product on the rack for the summer. With the advent of the direct market, annuals lost a bit of their luster, so Marvel began using them as a vehicle for linewide crossovers. “Atlantis Attacks” from 1989 sprawled across 14 annuals, contriving a way for the Silver Surfer, the Punisher, and three non-consecutive Spider-Man annuals to somehow participate in the same story as the Avengers and Fantastic Four. While Atlantis does indeed attack the surface world (eventually), the main...
2025-08-061h 57The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #11: The Rocketeer, The Shadow, and The Phantom -- Pulp Hero Films of the 1990sIn the wake of Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman, Hollywood tried to recapture its blockbuster success by fast-tracking a number of movies featuring other masked heroes. It may seem strange today, however, that so many of those heroes were pulp and pulp-inspired adventurers in period 1920s/30s settings. The films that followed--The Rocketeer (1991), The Shadow (1994), and The Phantom (1996)--were neither financial hits nor critical darlings, but they each have their fans. In this preview episode, we theorize about why studios in the 1990s thought this was the way to go. If this discussion whets your appetite, you can find...
2025-07-3008 min
The Iron Age of ComicsMutant MassacreSUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR CONTINUES! Marvel’s X-titles are practically a superhero universe unto themselves, and the tradition of regular crossovers between them continues to this day. We take a look at the very first of these epics, “Mutant Massacre,” which follows the wholesale slaughter of the underground Morlock community through parallel story threads in Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor, while also winding its way through several other titles, both mutant-related and not-so-mutant-related. But whereas most crossovers are top-down editorial-driven stunts, the “Massacre” began as a storytelling experiment between writers (and friends) Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson. We look at the history of...
2025-07-161h 55The Iron Age of ComicsEXTRA: A Conversation About Jim ShooterThe Iron Age boys share a few personal reflections about former Marvel editor-in-chief, writer, and all-around controversial comics industry figure Jim Shooter on the occasion of his passing.
2025-07-0930 min
The Iron Age of ComicsInvasion!SUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR CONTINUES! Alien attacks on Earth are an almost routine occurrence in the DC Universe, but until 1988’s Invasion!, we’d rarely seen one treated as an actual global war, with campaigns on multiple fronts, chains of command, political negotiations and alliances, and massive casualties. In three 80-page giant issues, Keith Giffen brainstorms an alliance between the Dominators and several other alien empires, Bill Mantlo supplies the dialogue, and Todd McFarlane and Bart Sears bring it to life in the art. We weren’t sure what to expect from this borderline-forgotten crossover, so we were pleasantly surprised to enj...
2025-07-021h 19
The Iron Age of ComicsSecret Wars IISUMMER CROSSOVER SPECTACULAR BEGINS! Love 'em or hate 'em, big event comics were a defining feature of the Iron Age, cramming a whole universe of superheroes into a single miniseries and/or spreading a single story out over multiple titles. We begin three months of surveying the crossover phenomenon with one of the first major examples: Marvel’s Secret Wars II, written and architected by friend-of-the-podcast* Jim Shooter. Whereas the original Secret Wars was designed to take place relatively unobtrusively between issues of the regular monthly books, the sequel sprawled across the Marvel Universe for nine months. ...
2025-06-181h 59The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern by Ron Marz — Part Five (featuring "Emerald Knights")Concluding (for now) our look at the saga of Kyle Rayner, the last of the Green Lantern Corps (for the ‘90s, at least). Just when Kyle finally thinks he’s proved himself for all time as a worthy owner of the power ring, his future comes into question when a trip to the 30th century reveals the Legion of Super-Heroes have no record of his career as Green Lantern. His position isn’t much more secure in the 20th century after he picks up an unplanned stowaway on his travels through time: a novice Hal Jordan. By the time Parall...
2025-06-041h 45The Iron Age of ComicsGrendel: Hunter RoseMany artists look back on the work they did at age nineteen and cringe, but Matt Wagner keeps returning to Grendel, expanding and refining his youthful enthusiasms into an exploration of the nature of evil. Today, Grendel is a sprawling multigenerational saga that can be challenging to get into (and it was for one of your hosts), so we start at the beginning with the first link in the chain: a child prodigy who grows up to be the toast of Manhattan society as bestselling author Hunter Rose and master of the East Coast underworld as assassin-turned-crimelord Grendel. We’ll...
2025-05-211h 54The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern by Ron Marz — Part Four (featuring “Retribution”)In our continuing series on the early years of Kyle Rayner, our hero squares off against Fatality, a spacefaring warrior woman who wants to crush the Green Lantern Corps (even though Hal Jordan has mostly done the job already). Kyle also gets a new roommate with a connection to the GL legacy, introduces his girlfriend to his mom, gets trapped in a painting, and deals with a troubled friend who was indirectly responsible for Kyle getting the ring in the first place. Featuring team-ups with Green Arrow Connor Hawke, Superboy Kon-El, Deadman, and Kyle’s new JLA teammate J’Onn...
2025-05-071h 42The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #10: Flash Gordon (1980)Some people think Mike Hodges' 1980 Flash Gordon movie is cheesy trash and hate it; others think it's over-the-top hilarious and enjoy it. But some weirdos truly LOVE this exercise in tonal whiplash, and your humble hosts are two such men. We'll talk about the film as an adaptation of both the original Alex Raymond source material and the Buster Crabbe serials, and how it proudly defies Star Wars' revisionist sci-fi aesthetic. But we'll also try to dig underneath the spectacle to expose the genuinely rousing humanistic heroism at this movie's core. Plus: more beloved character actors than you'll know...
2025-04-3007 minThe Iron Age of ComicsStar Wars: Dark EmpireWhen Marvel let their license to produce Star Wars comics lapse in 1986, Return of the Jedi was three years in the rear-view mirror and it seemed possible there would never be any further installments in the franchise. But Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s 1991 miniseries Dark Empire would begin Dark Horse Comics’ 23-year run of Star Wars comics and help launch the Expanded Universe. Set six years after the Battle of Endor, Dark Empire sees Luke Skywalker tempted to the Dark Side by the newly revived Emperor, Han Solo and Leia Organa fleeing bounty hunters, and a new Imperial doom...
2025-04-161h 41The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern by Ron Marz — Part Three (featuring "Hero Quest")It looks like Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy have broken up. In an effort to avoid both the consequences of his own self-sabotage and improve his approach to being Green Lantern, Kyle decides to go on a cross-country trip to seek advice from Batman, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman. He’ll also stand with Adam Strange and the Darkstars against Darkseid’s secret son and seek his own long-lost father with the help of new Green Arrow Connor Hawke. If that’s not enough superhero guest stars, wait till you see who shows up to Hal Jordan’s funeral!
2025-04-021h 27The Iron Age of ComicsSuicide Squad: Trial By FireTake The Dirty Dozen, populate with supervillains and obscure DC characters, and plug them into Mission: Impossible-style plots. This is the recipe that John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell used to launch Suicide Squad, a series that takes place in the same mainstream post-Crisis DC Universe inhabited by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, but takes a very different look at the place of superhumans in it, while also casting a suspicious eye on Cold War-era U.S. interventionism. We’ll discuss how Ostrander spun this series out of little more than a name recycled from the Silver Age, his wo...
2025-03-191h 36The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern by Ron Marz — Part Two (featuring “Parallax View”)In our continuing series on the Iron Age Green Lantern, twentysomething ‘90s dude Kyle Rayner gets a new girlfriend (Donna Troy, formerly known as Wonder Girl, currently serving as a Darkstar), goes on a space adventure with his teammates in the Titans, meets Iron Age Flash Wally West and former Corpsman John Stewart, and is tempted to make a deal with the (literal) devil. But his biggest challenges will be confronting Major Force (the man who killed his previous girlfriend) and justifying his stewardship of the Green Lantern legacy when Hal Jordan returns and demands the ring back. And if...
2025-03-051h 44The Iron Age of ComicsSpider-Man: Kraven's Last HuntStill bummed that Kraven the Hunter’s solo film career failed to launch? We ease the pain with a look at the celebrated 1987 storyline by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck that made the character’s reputation in the first place. “Fearful Symmetry” (later known as “Kraven’s Last Hunt”) is an unusually dark and generally atypical adventure for Aunt May’s favorite nephew, but it speaks to the central appeal of the hero and remains one of the most celebrated Spider-Man stories of all time. We’ll look at the genesis of this story as a Wonder Man pitch, DeMatteis’...
2025-02-191h 43The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern by Ron Marz — Part One (featuring “Emerald Twilight”)Beginning an in-depth look at the life and times of Kyle Rayner, a new Green Lantern for a new era! It’s 1994, sales on the Green Lantern comic are down, and with anniversary issue #50 on the horizon, DC is looking to revitalize the title. New writer Ron Marz is brought on board with a mission: replace Silver Age stalwart Hal Jordan with a new character (in a new costume designed by incoming regular penciler Darryl Banks). The introduction of freelance-artist-turned-superhero Kyle led to Green Lantern climbing the charts, but it also courted controversy by turning Hal into a megalomaniacal vi...
2025-02-051h 44The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #9: Batman & RobinWhen was the last time you actually sat down to watch Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin? Jim had never seen it, and Justin hadn't seen it for years and years. Is it worth a second look? (Or in Jim's case, a first?) In this Patreon-exclusive episode available now, we try to keep a cool head about a movie that provoked a lot of vitriol to have a clear-eyed discussion about what works and what doesn't. Want to hear the rest? Support us at patreon.com/ironageofcomics!
2025-01-2906 minThe Iron Age of ComicsThe Dark Knight ReturnsIt’s the 50th regular episode of the podcast, and to celebrate, we’re finally doing a deep dive on a comic that helped ushered in the Iron Age and still stands as one of its most enduring accomplishments: Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight (better known in collected form as The Dark Knight Returns), aided and abetted by inker Klaus Janson, colorist Lynn Varley, and letterer John Costanza. But after 39 years of attention from the comics industry and mainstream media alike, is there anything left to say about arguably the most celebrated Batman comic ever published? Rather than t...
2025-01-152h 20The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Eight (featuring The Dark Flash Saga)It’s the final lap of our epic look at every issue of this legendary run! With Linda Park erased from history and Wally West merged with the Speed Force (again), a grimmer and grittier speedster takes over Flash duty. We’ll talk about the end of Mark Waid’s (and Brian Augustyn’s) tenure on the title, the transition to the Geoff Johns era, and the awkward batch of issues in between. Plus, we offer our highlights and lowlights of the entire run and reflect on the big picture: what these hundred-plus issues meant to us and to the deve...
2025-01-011h 38The Iron Age of ComicsMarvel Knights Black Panther: The Client / Enemy of the StateWhen Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti were handed creative control over some of Marvel’s B- and C-list characters in 1998, they offered the job of writing Black Panther to Christopher Priest…who didn’t want the assignment! But Priest was eventually convinced to take Quesada and Palmiotti’s Coming to America-inspired suggestion to bring T’Challa to Brooklyn and turn it into a radical reinvention of the character, years ahead of its time in merging superheroes with international political intrigue. Much of the basis for the MCU’s mega-popular take on Black Panther and Wakanda begins in this run, but Priest w...
2024-12-181h 40The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Seven (featuring “Chain Lightning”)Who is Cobalt Blue? Well, we’ll tell you, but you might not like the answer! In 1997, Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn took a 12-issue vacation from the ongoing Flash series to recharge their batteries. But during this so-called “hiatus,” they were busy collaborating on a number of stories and even a 96-page hybrid prose/graphic novel that would set up their upcoming “Chain Lightning” storyline, billed as “the ultimate Flash epic.” Fans didn’t react well to the shocking retcon that kicked off the story, but we found the resultant time-travel romp to be a bit of an overlooked gem...
2024-12-041h 49The Iron Age of ComicsVenom: From Deadly Enemy to Lethal ProtectorIn 1988’s Amazing Spider-Man #300, Venom debuted as a ruthless, psychotic stalker and quickly became Spidey’s top villain. Within five years, he was so popular that Marvel semi-rehabilitated him into an antihero with his own series. But by the end of the decade, the character had become overexposed and was removed from active circulation. In the wake of the release of Venom: The Last Dance, we look back at one of the strangest evolutions of the Iron Age and ask the big questions. How did David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane turn a four-year-old completed subplot about a new costume and...
2024-11-201h 41The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Six (featuring “Hell to Pay”)Conspicuous by their absence throughout most of this run, the villains of the Rogues Gallery return to menace the Flash. But Mark Waid (and newly credited co-writer Brian Augustyn) put the main focus back on the dynamic between Wally West and Linda Park, as they argue about how much information to reveal to the public about an impending global disaster, negotiate the Flash’s exile from Keystone City to his new home turf of Santa Marta, California, and find their commitment to each other put to the ultimate test when the devil Neron comes looking to make a deal. We...
2024-11-061h 55The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #8: Creepshow by Bernie WrightsonIn a Patreon-exclusive episode available now, we discuss Bernie Wrightson's adaptation of the EC Comics-inspired horror anthology movie Creepshow, directed by George A. Romero from a screenplay by Stephen King. As a Halloween treat, we're offering a taste of the conversation for free here. Want to hear the rest? Support us at patreon.com/ironageofcomics!
2024-10-3009 minThe Iron Age of ComicsThe Usagi Yojimbo Saga — Volume OneAt the intersection of Carl Barks and Akira Kurosawa, you’ll find Usagi Yojimbo, a longrunning indie comic about a rabbit ronin in 17th-century Japan. Creator Stan Sakai deftly balances somber meditations on honor and often surprising violence with funny animals and gentle humor, drawing on influences ranging from extensive historical research into traditional swordmaking techniques to Audrey Hepburn movies caught on afternoon TV. We dive into a big chunk of this series (already in progress, as it turns out) and discuss how despite its very specific cultural milieu, the universal themes and plots found in the stories (and th...
2024-10-161h 35The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Five (featuring “Dead Heat” and “Race Against Time”)In this episode, we get two epic storylines back to back. First, in “Dead Heat,” the Lightning Brigade faces the evil Savitar, who treats superspeed like a religion and has an army of ninjas to back him up. Next, “Race Against Time” finds Wally West lost in the future while a new Flash protects Keystone City (and makes time with Linda Park). But we’re less enthused about these stories than earlier highlights like “The Return of Barry Allen” and “Terminal Velocity.” Was writer Mark Waid starting to be stretched a little too thin as he ascended to the ranks of industry...
2024-10-021h 36The Iron Age of ComicsPlanetaryWhat if every superhero and pulp fiction universe was condensed down into one universe, which was also the Wildstorm Universe? The Planetary team uncovers the secret history of their world and, in the process, performs a metatextual analysis on genre comics. But to what end? With one fan of the series and one hater on board, we debate whether Planetary restores a sense of wonder to superheroes and has anything insightful to say about them, or whether it’s just more guys with powers vying for control of the universe while making snarky comments to each other. We’ll also...
2024-09-182h 00The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Four (featuring “Terminal Velocity”)It’s another big everything-changes-forever epic as Mark Waid hits “Terminal Velocity.” The discovery of the Speed Force as the source of superspeed in the DC Universe is transforming Wally West emotionally and physically, and his future with Linda Park is at stake. True love conquers all (sorry for the spoiler), but they won’t necessarily live happily ever as they have to pick up the pieces after the fairytale ending. We’ll discuss Wally’s often-frustrating tendency to keep his loved ones in the dark and debate whether it matters that the villain of the piece is a bit generic...
2024-09-041h 59The Iron Age of ComicsAnimal Man by Grant Morrison — Book ThreeIt’s the part of the run you’ve been waiting for: Buddy Baker can see you! And Grant Morrison can talk to you, too. We’ve seen Animal Man establish his superhero cred, straighten out his origin, and become an animal-rights activist. Now, in issues #18-26 closing out Morrison’s run, the very nature of his fictional reality is at stake as our hero also deals with the ultimate personal tragedy. In this episode, we interrogate the series’ interrogation of “the realistic superhero comic,” think about the limits of cathartic violence in fiction, explore Comic Book Limbo, and ask what the r...
2024-08-211h 40The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Three (featuring “Reckless Youth”)Professor Zoom has been defeated, Wally West has regained his top speed and put aside his insecurities about living up to Barry Allen’s legacy, and Mark Waid’s Flash is now a comic book to watch as 1993 turns into 1994. As rookie penciler Mike Wieringo comes aboard as new regular artist, Waid teams Wally up with Nightwing and Starfire (and his ex-girlfriend), puts the Flash on trial, and hints at the secret source of superspeed. We also meet breakout character Bart Allen, soon to be known as Impulse! We’ll guide you through a chunk of issues that may not co...
2024-08-071h 31The Iron Age of ComicsPREVIEW: Fifth Week Bonus #7: DC: The New FrontierA small preview of our discussion of Darwyn Cooke's DC: The New Frontier and how you can get the rest by supporting us at patreon.com/ironageofcomics.
2024-07-3105 minThe Iron Age of ComicsWeapon XBarry Windsor-Smith finally reveals the secret origin of Wolverine! Well…kind of. The biweekly anthology comic Marvel Comics Presents got a shot in the arm when it ran the serialized saga of Weapon X from issues #72-84 in 1991, and although the story has an amusing origin story of its own, it's fairly light on actual details about Logan’s past. Instead, BWS wrote, drew, and colored an intensely voyeuristic, occasionally psychedelic, and shockingly violent exploration of man’s inhumanity to man. We tell the story of how Weapon X (the serial) came to be and offer our own interpretations and impres...
2024-07-171h 34The Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book Two (featuring “The Return of Barry Allen”)Our look at Mark Waid’s legendary run on The Flash continues! After taking on his first major assignment as a writer, retelling Wally West’s origin, and paring down the supporting cast to help focus on Wally’s journey to maturity, Waid goes for broke with an epic, life-changing event storyline that today we know as “The Return of Barry Allen.” If Wally’s beloved mentor is back from the dead, where does that leave our no-longer fastest man alive? This very cinematic storyarc is perhaps the peak of Waid’s run, and along the way, we’ll also discuss pen...
2024-07-031h 39The Iron Age of ComicsNick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D.In its original format as a 1988 six-issue prestige/bookshelf format limited series, Bob Harras and Paul Neary’s Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a blockbuster, drawing readers in with lavish production values and a story that promised to upend everything you knew about the Marvel Universe’s premier espionage organization. It was collected in one of the earliest trade paperbacks in the developing bookstore market, launched a new Fury ongoing series, and even (very loosely) inspired the MCU’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. How does a book like this go from a bestseller to a foot...
2024-06-191h 36The Iron Age of ComicsPATREON LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENTWant to help us get our hands on the comics we read and talk about on the show? You can now support this podcast at patreon.com/ironageofcomics!
2024-06-1204 minThe Iron Age of ComicsTRAILER: The Iron Age of Comics PodcastListen to us wherever you get your podcasts, find us on social media where the handle is @ironageofcomics, and support the show at patreon.com/ironageofcomics!
2024-06-1200 minThe Iron Age of ComicsThe Flash by Mark Waid — Book One (featuring “Born to Run”)Like Chris Claremont on X-Men or Frank Miller on Daredevil, Mark Waid’s work on The Flash was so additive and transformative that later creators can’t help but draw from it. Writing or co-writing the book from 1992 to 2000 (minus a one-year hiatus), Waid did around a hundred issues, including annuals and other tie-ins…and we’re going to read every single one! Our eight-part look at Waid’s run begins with a brief history of the Wally West Flash series that launched in 1987 and focuses on the Year One storyline “Born to Run,” which redefined Wally from an unlikable jerk to the ul...
2024-06-051h 45The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #6: Tarzan vs. Predator At the Earth's CoreAn extra week between episodes takes us off the beaten path of our regular coverage and into a hidden dinosaur kingdom inside the hollow Earth, where Walt Simonson and Lee Weeks pit pulp hero Tarzan against the Predators of film fame in a four-issue Dark Horse Comics limited series from 1996. Along the way, we'll pontificate about the finer points of Edgar Rice Burroughs' often problematic pop culture icon, speculate about the recurring bit of X-Men lore that probably has its roots in Pellucidar, and pitch our own "Predator vs. ______" crossovers.
2024-05-2935 minThe Iron Age of ComicsBatman: The Animated SeriesFans love to argue about Batman, so why can so many of us agree that Batman: The Animated Series is one of the best interpretations of the character and his world in any medium? We don’t think it’s just the nostalgia talking! We’ll look at a selection of episodes from the first part of the series to illustrate how Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and the production team inclusively cherry-picked the best of multiple eras and multiple interpretations of Batman to create a show that was sophisticated and dramatic enough for an older audience but exciting and dynami...
2024-05-152h 09The Iron Age of ComicsIconMilestone Media’s Icon has a pretty punchy elevator pitch: “What if Superman was a Black Republican?” But with stories by Dwayne McDuffie and pencils by M.D. “Doc” Bright (both now sadly no longer with us), this book goes to some interesting and unexpected places. For one thing, this Supermanalogue has a sidekick: a teenage girl named Rocket who is arguably the real protagonist of the book and whose struggles and issues are the most complex and heartfelt that the book explores. We discuss how McDuffie and Bright tackle teen pregnancy in an honest and conscientious way through Rocket and...
2024-05-011h 30The Iron Age of ComicsThe Sandman: The Doll's HouseNeil Gaiman’s complete reinvention of DC’s trademark on The Sandman is inarguably one of the most influential comics of the Iron Age…so why haven’t we talked about it much yet? And why are we starting with the storyline that’s popularly considered “Volume 2” of the series? We’re focusing on the collection that introduced The Sandman to the bookshelf market (which originally included the landmark “The Sound of Her Wings” story) and marked an evolution in the comic from a horror reimagining in the vein of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing to a showcase for Gaiman’s brand of dark...
2024-04-171h 34The Iron Age of ComicsAnimal Man by Grant Morrison — Book TwoWe return to our coverage of DC’s 1989 Animal Man series—Grant Morrison’s first ongoing for the U.S. comics market—with a look at issues #10 through #17 (commonly collected in trade as “Origin of the Species”). Now that we’ve met Buddy Baker and seen him join the Justice League, we’ll follow his investigation into the mysteries of his secret origin (which, as it turns out, no longer fits into post-Crisis continuity). This leads us to discuss Iron Age DC’s haphazard approach to its own canon while also wading into more serious territory, as this is the part of the run th...
2024-04-031h 26The Iron Age of ComicsSavage DragonWhile many early offerings from Image Comics were deliberately designed to appeal to their popular artists’ existing fanbases, Erik Larsen took a different approach, reviving a character he created at his kitchen table while making homemade comics with his friends as a child. And 32 years later, Larsen still stands apart from his compatriots as the only Image founder still regularly writing and drawing his original creation: The Savage Dragon. In this episode, we talk about Larsen’s influences and early career, how the series marries Bronze Age-style soap-opera subplotting to a distinctly Iron Age attitude and self-awareness, and why some...
2024-03-201h 28The Iron Age of ComicsWildC.A.T.s and WildStorm ProductionsSuperstar penciler Jim Lee adopted less revolutionary rhetoric than some of his fellow Image founders after leaving Marvel Comics, but he became one of the most successful of the group, growing his WildStorm Productions imprint into a publishing empire. WildC.A.T.s, Lee’s first Image offering from 1992, takes his and co-creator Brandon Choi’s love of spy fiction and channels it into something that would have looked very familiar to fans of Lee’s X-Men. We look at WildC.A.T.s’ expansive cast and ask, “How much mysterious backstory is too much mysterious backstory?” We’ll also look at L...
2024-03-061h 35The Iron Age of ComicsGhost WorldWhen Daniel Clowes was writing and drawing vignettes about two cynical teenage girls in his groundbreaking comic anthology Eightball, he wasn’t sure Ghost World would add up to anything in the end, but its balance of bitter ennui and painful self-reflection connected with readers and led to a standalone graphic novel and a 2001 film adaptation. Kicking off our conversation with a discussion of the alternative comics scene, we then struggle to overcome our own inner critics to dig deep into the comic: the zeitgeist of the ‘90s, the vibrant mundanity of its setting, and how our identification with the...
2024-02-211h 40The Iron Age of ComicsBone: Out from BonevilleWith one foot in the world of DuckTales and another in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Jeff Smith’s Bone is so confident and assured from its very first issue that it seems to have arrived fully formed, but it was actually the result of years of refinement. Syndicates balked at Smith’s creative vision for a four-panel comic strip version of Bone, but their loss was comic books’ gain, as the series became an indie darling in single issues and eventually blazed a trail for today’s YA graphic novel market. In this episode, we take a look at th...
2024-02-071h 12The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #5: MallratsAnything goes on a fifth Wednesday, so in this episode, Justin and Jim look back at a blast from their pasts — Kevin Smith's comics-reference-heavy 1995 movie Mallrats — but arrive at somewhat different assessments about how it plays today. Along the way, they discuss what it meant to name-drop Wolverine in a Hollywood motion picture back in the '90s, the comics-style shared universe Smith's films existed in, the implications of the Stan Lee cameo, Jeremy London and Jason Lee's differing approaches to performing non-naturalistic dialogue, and much more.
2024-01-3150 minThe Iron Age of ComicsJustice League InternationalBWA-HA-HA! Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatties may not have originally set out to turn DC’s signature superteam into a workplace sitcom, but with artist Kevin Maguire they produced a screwball series still treasured by fans. With a roster assembled largely out of desperation and a constantly shifting status quo, Justice League International reinterpreted how the superhero would be perceived in a post-Crisis, post-Watchmen comics landscape by leaning into the absurdity instead of making its subject grimmer and grittier.
2024-01-171h 50The Iron Age of ComicsSquadron SupremeThe story of a faux Justice League who seize control of the United States with the best of intentions only to be undone by the resulting ethical nightmares, Squadron Supreme is sometimes called “Marvel’s Watchmen”: a 12-issue series examining the impact of superheroes on society and deconstructing the genre. But Mark Gruenwald’s magnum opus is a very different work in terms of tone and execution, as Gruenwald embraced the traditional comic book tropes and storytelling devices that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons deliberately eschewed. We look at Squadron Supreme both in comparison with Watchmen and on its own meri...
2024-01-031h 54The Iron Age of ComicsWatchmen — Part TwoOur continued deep dive into the comic book that defined the Iron Age begins with a lengthy appreciation of Dave Gibbons’ art and storytelling, then gets into the weeds talking about the novel’s themes, worldbuilding, and its legacy of superhero deconstructionism. We’ll also discuss the ownership dispute over the rights to Watchmen, and the various adaptations, sequels, and prequels that exist today because of that ownership dispute. Unorthodox opinions abound, and your hosts may have to resolve their disagreements with pistols at dawn before it’s all over!
2023-12-202h 26The Iron Age of ComicsWatchmen — Part OneWhat’s left to say about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ novel Watchmen? Plenty, as it turns out! In our first of two episodes on the subject, we talk about the changes in the larger comics industry that needed to be in place for Watchmen to exist, consider the degree to which the series relies (or doesn’t) on the Charlton Action Heroes for inspiration, and finally do a deep dive on the major characters and what drives them. Jim and Justin may disagree about how well Watchmen holds up today, but several assumptions about this book will be challe...
2023-12-062h 06The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #4: The Saga of Crystar, Crystal WarriorThis fifth Wednesday, the Iron Age boys throw a bit of a curveball by taking a look at an obscure fantasy series from the early 1980s! Designed to serve what was perceived as an untapped audience for Marvel and entice toy manufacturers to create a line of licensed tie-in action figures, The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior throws a few curveballs of its own with a somewhat conceptually abstract central conflict and an antagonist who's more of a victim of circumstance than your standard unambiguous bad guy. We discuss the comic, the toys, and the Marvel Universe guest stars...
2023-11-2942 minThe Iron Age of ComicsHellboy: Seed of DestructionArtist Mike Mignola made his first foray into creator-owned work with Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, a 1994 miniseries for Dark Horse’s Legend imprint. In time, Mignola would be responsible for every aspect of Hellboy’s adventures, turning him and the B.R.P.D into a miniature comic book industry, but for this initial story, Mignola turned to Iron Age stalwart John Byrne to help with the scripting. We’ll talk about Mignola and his cohorts in the Legend imprint, the horror and pulp influences that went into this series, and the historical Rasputin before discussing how Hellboy took Hollyw...
2023-11-151h 38The Iron Age of ComicsDeadpool #11When up-and-coming writer Joe Kelly got the keys to Deadpool’s first solo series, he subverted fan expectations by downplaying the character’s connections to the larger X-franchise. Similarly, he decided to fulfill the constant requests for the Merc with a Mouth to team-up with Spider-Man in a way nobody expected. We take a look at the innovative, Forrest Gump-inspired techniques used to insert a time-traveling Deadpool into a semi-obscure issue of Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. and discuss whether this oversized issue’s jokes about Norman Osborn’s weird hair and Gwen Stacy hold up today
2023-11-011h 23The Iron Age of ComicsHawkworldForget whatever you think you know about Hawkman! Tim Truman’s 1989 prestige format miniseries Hawkworld drew from inspirations including cop shows, Vietnam War movies, and The Count of Monte Cristo to update the winged warrior’s Silver Age origin for a grittier, more grounded era. The result is a science fiction adventure offering a critique of imperialism and class inequality that resonates just as strongly today. We’ll also dig into the confusing tangle of Hawkman’s post-Crisis continuity, but rest assured that Hawkworld itself won’t require you to be an expert in Thanagarian lore before or since.
2023-10-181h 39The Iron Age of ComicsAnimal Man by Grant Morrison — Book OneRiding the wave of comics’ “British Invasion” of the 1980s, Grant Morrison made their mark on U.S. superhero comics with the unlikely reinvention of an obscure DC Comics do-gooder. In time, Morrison and penciller Chas Truog would elevate Animal Man’s consciousness to a state of awareness about his own fictional nature, but in the early part of their run, the book is mostly concerned with a middle-class family man balancing a passion for animal-rights activism with his attempts to “make it” in the superhero biz. We look at the first nine-issue arc (collected in the first Animal Man trade), an o...
2023-10-041h 37The Iron Age of ComicsX-Men: The Animated Series (with Guest Cameron Kunzelman)As popular as the X-Men were in the comics industry during the Iron Age, the 1992 Saturday-morning cartoon adaptation found its way into more homes than the source material ever did, and it continues to be a nostalgic favorite for many X-fans. We invited our first-ever guest, Cameron Kunzelman (co-host of Just King Things, Shelved By Genre, and other shows on the Ranged Touch podcast network) to offer a fresh perspective. Together, we go through the first 13 episodes of the show and talk honestly about what holds up, what doesn’t, and what made this such a unique series for its ti...
2023-09-202h 17The Iron Age of ComicsThunderbolts: Justice, Like LightningWith the Avengers and Fantastic Four temporarily outsourced to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee in 1997, Marvel touted the ostensibly brand-new heroes of the Thunderbolts as the next big thing to a somewhat skeptical comics readership. The legendary twist ending to the first issue made the book into an overnight success but sometimes overshadows the work Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley did on the rest of the series, making this comic worth a re-examination. We’ll discuss the origins of the concept, the first year of the series, and how the creators refreshed Silver and Bronze Age superhero tropes while de...
2023-09-061h 36The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #3: Spider-Man UnlimitedThe first issue of the web-slinger's quarterly fifth-week title kicked off the 1993 14-part crossover "Maximum Carnage," but Spider-Man Unlimited #1's supersized page count left room for two whole backup stories as well. We talk plenty about the main feature's giant fang monsters and unconvincing serial killers, but also dig into the very nature of the anthology superhero comic and ponder what it could be capable of.
2023-08-3050 minThe Iron Age of ComicsTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesBefore they were a multimillion-dollar media and licensing franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were just a funny idea that two young artists in Western Massachusetts introduced in a black-and-white book with a 3,000-copy print run. For one of your hosts, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s original series is a longtime favorite by a pair of hometown heroes; the other is coming in fresh, having only ever seen the cartoon and movie adaptations. We’ll read the three-issue arc that kicks off the series, consider the Turtles in the context of the Black-and-White Boom (and Bust), and discuss how...
2023-08-161h 16The Iron Age of ComicsCaptain America: Operation RebirthAt a time in the mid-1990s when the Avengers franchise struggled for attention against the industry-defining X-Men and Image titles, Mark Waid and Ron Garney somehow pulled off one of the most celebrated Captain America runs of all time…until it was cut short to make way for Rob Liefeld’s “Heroes Reborn” revamp. We look at this creative team’s opening arc, “Operation Rebirth,” which used propulsive, slam-bang action plotting to try to maintain Cap’s relevance in the grim ‘n’ gritty ‘90s and reinvent a long-lost supporting character along the way. We’ll also touch on Waid’s broader superhero...
2023-08-021h 27The Iron Age of ComicsElektra: AssassinFrank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, at the height of their powers and industry clout, took advantage of the creative freedom offered by Marvel’s Epic imprint to produce the highly experimental (and somewhat improvisational) eight-issue miniseries, Elektra: Assassin, a dark comedy taking aim at politics, spycraft, ninjas, and the media. We'll discuss whether its cutting-edge approach to satire in 1987 holds up today, what this series suggests about the popularity and potential of the Elektra character, and why you probably shouldn’t worry too much about how this fits into Marvel Universe continuity.
(This comic book was intended for...
2023-07-191h 31The Iron Age of ComicsStatic: Trial by Fire and Milestone MediaThirty years ago, Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle, and Michael Davis founded Milestone Media to try to encourage diversity both on the comics page and in the talent pool. Static (minus the “Shock” at this point) was deliberately conceived of as a youthful Spider-Man figure for a new generation and went on to become the publisher’s most enduring character. We discuss the series’ balance of social issues and good-old-fashioned superheroics, the way it deliberately avoids easy answers and simplistic characterizations, and how Milestone stacks up against the other “startup” universes of the 1990s.
2023-07-051h 20The Iron Age of ComicsUltimate Spider-Man and the End of the Iron AgeIf the Iron Age begins with the Crisis/Dark Knight/Watchmen trifecta, where does it end? In this episode, we propose a turning point: Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. The brainchild of controversial publisher Bill Jemas, the Ultimate line sought to make longrunning superheroes more accessible for moviegoing audiences, but who could have guessed the decompressed storytelling and de-emphasis on continuity would lead to a brand new Marvel? (Or a brand NuMarvel?) We'll cap our first six months of exploring the Iron Age by discussing our thoughts on how and why the goals and aims of...
2023-06-211h 35The Iron Age of ComicsMarvel Knights Daredevil: Guardian DevilIn the late '90s, Marvel was struggling through a bankruptcy and looking for innovative ways to boost sales and find a wider audience. They turned to hot artists Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, who enlisted their pal, indie screenwriter and director Kevin Smith, to relaunch Daredevil to mainstream media coverage. The success of the Marvel Knights line led to a new era at Marvel and paved the way for more high-profile creators outside of the industry to try their hand at comics, which makes this series a crucial transition point to the post-Iron Age. But how does Smith's "...
2023-06-071h 28The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #2: Superman: The Man of TomorrowAnother fifth week is upon us, the perfect excuse to take a quick-hit look at one of DC Comics' actual fifth-week bonuses: Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #1, first of an ongoing quarterly title designed to ensure a Superman book came out each and every week of the year. We examine this curious artifact of a publishing strategy the market will no longer bear, along with a brief overview of Superman's subplot-laden "Triangle Era" in general. This mini-episode answers the two big questions: 1.) What would George Costanza think of '90s Superman comics? and 2.) Where do your hosts fall on the "...
2023-05-3129 minThe Iron Age of ComicsWonder Woman: Gods and MortalsWonder Woman is perhaps the most iconic female character in comics and one of the few superheroes to remain in continuous publication since the Golden Age, but Diana of Themyscira has had an uneven and somewhat rocky creative history. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, George Pérez took it upon himself to radically reinvent the character with co-plotter and scripter Greg Potter, emphasizing her mythological roots and attempting to address the patriarchy and its impulse to war. We look at the first seven-issue arc, "Gods and Mortals," and how it establishes a new status quo, engages with late-Cold War nuclear f...
2023-05-171h 19The Iron Age of ComicsMarvelsAt the height of the grim ‘n’ gritty superhero craze, Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross offered fans a nostalgic but innovative look at the superheroes of yesteryear with their 1994 miniseries, Marvels. Through a combination of man-on-the-street perspective and near-photorealist painting, this series brought Marvel’s Golden and Silver Ages to life like never before. Today, Marvels is rightly celebrated as an all-time classic, but we’ll take a look at how unusual this series was for its time...and the surprising role that Hellraiser creator Clive Barker played in getting Marvel to take a chance on the concept.
2023-05-031h 47The Iron Age of ComicsBatman: Year OneWe’ve seen several different tellings of Batman’s origin in comics, movies, and TV since Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s 1987 masterpiece four-issue “Year One” arc (Batman #404-407), but many fans still consider this the definitive version of who he is and how he came to be. This episode takes a look at why this story is so highly regarded, and what distinguishes it from the other post-Crisis revamps we’ve talked about so far. We also discuss the effects that Miller and Mazzuchelli’s more “realistic” and “mature” approach has had (and continues to have) on perceptions of the character.
2023-04-191h 38The Iron Age of ComicsWizard: The Guide to ComicsIf you were reading comics in the ‘90s, you probably also read Wizard: a glossy magazine offering irreverent commentary along with news, interviews, and the latest up-to-date price guides. To many fans, Wizard was all the hilarity and fun of comic book culture wrapped between two covers and sealed in a polybag; to others, it was a symbol of everything wrong with the industry. We look back at our own experiences as Wizard readers, walk through some of the recurring features from its heyday, and grapple with the magazine’s complicated legacy. We’ll also try to get to the bo...
2023-04-051h 31The Iron Age of ComicsFifth Week Bonus #1: Upcoming ScheduleMarch having a fifth Wednesday in it throws off our usual "every other week" release schedule, but you can't get rid of us that easily! We pop in for a quick look ahead at the next three months of episodes, plus a promise to get to reading the five-star reviews you've so graciously been leaving us. All this plus a John Byrne joke to tide you over until our next full episode.
2023-03-2905 min
The Iron Age of ComicsGreen Lantern: Emerald DawnWhile many of DC’s other heavy hitters were massively revamped in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Green Lantern Hal Jordan received a comparatively modest tune-up to his origin story. But Emerald Dawn’s attempts to retrofit a Silver Age icon with personality flaws met with resistance from many diehard fans. We look at the legacy (or lack thereof) of the 1989 miniseries, what effect the behind-the-scenes shift in writers might have had on the story, and how it sometimes seems to anticipate the Marvel Cinematic Universe approach to superhero origins.
2023-03-151h 10The Iron Age of ComicsPeter Parker, the Spectacular Married ManSpider-Man went through a lot of changes in the Iron Age, but not even the Clone Saga had as big an impact as getting married to Mary Jane Watson. What began as a multimedia PR stunt became a development that Marvel eventually felt it had to retcon out of existence entirely with “One More Day.” Fans and pros alike continue to argue whether marriage was a positive step in the evolution of the characters or a fundamental betrayal of the core appeal of the Spider-Man concept, and we’ll look at both perspectives.
2023-03-011h 30The Iron Age of ComicsThe Man of SteelWhen DC decided its flagship character needed a top-to-bottom reboot for the post-Crisis era, they turned to superstar writer-artist John Byrne. The six-issue origin series The Man of Steel introduced a streamlined, modernized, and arguably “Marvelized” Superman, but many fans felt that it threw the baby out with the bathwater. We take a critical look at Byrne’s influences and controversial changes to the Superman legend (both good and bad) and how his take on Superman defined the character for a generation...and even seems to resist subsequent attempts to reboot!
2023-02-151h 18The Iron Age of ComicsSpawn and the Image RevolutionIn 1992, Todd McFarlane and his fellow Marvel superstar creators jumped ship to found Image, creating a major independent alternative to the comics industry’s “Big Two.” In this episode, we examine how McFarlane’s most popular creation, the grim ‘n’ gritty supernatural vigilante called Spawn, became not just a sales phenomenon, but also an existential threat to the traditional way of superheroes throughout the Iron Age. We’ll also discuss McFarlane’s legacy and just what exactly went on in a given issue of the series.
2023-02-011h 15The Iron Age of ComicsX-Men #1While DC was breaking new ground with the Crisis/Dark Knight/Watchmen trifecta, Marvel entered a paradigm shift of its own with the rise of superstar artists like Jim Lee. Under Lee’s creative direction, 1991’s X-Men #1 became the best-selling single comic book of all time - a record it still holds - but in the process drove away Chris Claremont, the writer who'd made the X-Men a phenomenon in the first place in his initial 17-year run. In this episode, we look at this comic and how it ushered in the X-franchise’s total dominance of the ‘90s comics i...
2023-01-181h 17The Iron Age of ComicsCrisis, Dark Knight, and WatchmenFrom 1985 to 1987, DC released three groundbreaking series that kicked off the Iron Age and changed comics forever: Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. We’ll eventually do a deep dive on each one in turn, but our debut episode takes a high-level look at these three books as a collective phenomenon and examines the impact they had on the next 15 years of comics up through to today.
2023-01-041h 19The Iron Age of ComicsEpisode #0: Defining the Iron AgeHave we really been living in "The Modern Age of Comics" for over three and a half decades now? Or can we identify a distinct historical age for the first 15 years or so? This introductory episode contains an overview of the so-called ages of (American superhero) comics, a mission statement for the podcast, and a chance to get to know your hosts better. (Think of it as our own exclusive Issue #0.) Start here if you're interested in this sort of conceptual overview, but feel free to skip if you just want to dive right into the actual episodes.
2023-01-0435 min
Indefensible InkPREVIEW: The Iron Age of Comics – A New Podcast by Justin Zyduck and Jim CannonIndefensible Ink has ended, but retro comics enthusiast and Jim Shooter apologist Justin Zyduck is not done podcasting. Check out this preview of his new show, co-hosted by recurring Indefensible Ink guest Jim Cannon: THE IRON AGE OF COMICS, a critical re-evaluation of comic books from about 1985 to 2000… including, of course, the boom and bust of the '90s! Go beyond the chromium covers and grim 'n' gritty cliches for a deeper look at one of the most divisive periods in comics history. (This episode, minus the opening introduction and with the addition of different theme music, will be bo...
2022-12-2136 min
Indefensible InkNightwing: The Ric Grayson Saga – Part TwoOur look at the two-year-long “Nightwing Gets Amnesia” storyline concludes as Justin and guest Jim Cannon get to the bottom of a sinister brainwashing scheme by the Court of Owls that ultimately results in the creation of…”Dickyboy”?! Plus wrap-up and speculation on how DC might have been able to make a halfway decent story out of Dick Grayson losing his memory. Also discussed in this episode: Blüdhaven’s thematically named bar and tavern scene, which of the Legion of Substitute Nightwings is the “Kenny” of the team, and Red Condor: The Sensational Character Find of NEVER.
2022-10-1940 min
Indefensible InkNightwing: The Ric Grayson Saga – Part OnePlenty of superheroes go through an amnesia storyline or two in their careers, but Dick Grayson spent around 25 entire issues of his Nightwing series from 2019-2020 with memory loss and a new identity as a cab driver named Ric. Justin taps Nightwing fan supreme Jim Cannon to explain why Dick Grayson is so beloved both in-universe and among comics fans and to discuss whether this meandering storyline had any higher purpose than trying to put an end to jokes about his first name. Also discussed in this episode: racist episodes of Star Trek, the questionable relevancy of s...
2022-10-0539 min
Indefensible InkWhy Doesn't Batman Kill the Joker? Part OneSuperheroes don't kill supervillains...except for the ones who do. But it's a conceit of the genre that even if some heroes cross this line, they at least acknowledge the line exists. In this episode, regular host Justin Zyduck takes a break from critiquing specific comics to discussing the trope of the "code against killing" with returning guest Jim Cannon. They discuss the origins and general reasons for this rule of thumb—both philosophical and practical—and about Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Captain America specifically. ALSO DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: The legal ramifications of Indiana Jones' activ...
2022-08-0354 min
Indefensible InkCaptain Marvel by Peter David and ChrisCrossIn the year 2000, the comic book Captain Marvel belonged to Genis-Vell, a novice superhero trying to to live up to his father's name and keep up the momentum gained by his appearances in the popular Avengers Forever series. But series writer Peter David may have been more interested in chronicling the sitcom antics of Genis' odd-couple partner, longtime Hulk supporting character Rick Jones. David and artist ChrisCross' Captain Marvel (vol. 4) is fondly remembered by fans as a great series cut down in its prime, but does it hold up? Genis is headed back to comic store shelves this month...
2022-06-011h 06