Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About Comics (Will Hines and Kevin Hines)

Kevin makes a really good case that this first appearance of Daredevil is one of the strongest first issues we've read. This is in contrast to the sort-of "second tier" status Daredevil will have for much of the 60s and 70s. Even after Frank Miller and Klaus Janson brought the title to the top of the sales charts in the early 80s, there have been almost no "bad runs" on Daredevil. Has he quietly been one of the best Marvel characters this whole time? Will perhaps unfairly compared this issue to the dark brooding stories he knows are coming in the title's future. It's also interesting that this issue is drawn by Bill Everett, creator and artist of the Sub-Mariner! He came out of retirement to do this one issue but had trouble hitting his deadlines. We also talk about the Guardians and the Galaxy video game a bit!

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The Milksops discuss the third installment in the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Kevin liked it more than Will, but Will admits that maybe he's just going through MCU fatigue, and he's not being fair. Both of us love that James Gunn got to finish this trilogy, and appreciate that he's kept the same tone and voice throughout the series. We talk about the challenge of balancing so many characters and places, and which characters have changed the most since the first movie in 2014. In our world-famous "Loose Screws" segment, Will talks about JM DeMatteis' self-produced Spellbound Comics. We also answer some mail, which include more discussion of who should be on the comics Mount Rushmore?

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Two relatively "simple" stories are up next for the Grant Morrison JLA run. First we get new supervillain Prometheus -- a sort of anti-batman, whose criminal parents were gunned down by police -- invading the JLA headquarters. He makes quick work of the JLA before suddenly becoming stupid and then losing immediately. Then we have a two part story where the Lord of Dreams, Sandman, needs help from the JLA to stop the world from falling asleep! You think he'd like that. We also read some email before announcing that we are almost up to episode 250!

We continue our examination of Watchmen with issue 2! A funeral for a friend! Not a friend so much as a violent amoral psychopath - The Comedian! Writer Alan Moore's narrative mastery is on display as we learn about the Comedian from a series of flashbacks that show us the way he changed over the years from a 16 year old would-be-sexual assaulter, to remorseless mercenary, to finally a frightened man begging for help from his former enemy.

We also learn more of the world of Watchmen and how things changed with the arrival of the superpowered Dr. Manhattan, which we will learn even more of in the next two issues!

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EPISODE 311 - The Incredible Hulk battles Half-Life, a brand new villain! Is he gamma-created? You know it!

We are continuing are examination of the run by writer Peter David and artist Todd McFarlane. Peter is starting to really dig in. Todd's artworks is showing tremors of his style that will soon erupt!

For Loose Screws, Kevin talks about his new Plastic Man reprtins and Will can't get his iPad to update!

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We finish our analysis of 1985's Squadron Supreme series and come to the same conclusion we had at the very beginning: it's good but reading it now isn't as fun as reading it then probably was. We also go over Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story even though Will is only 20% through it! #screwitinstapush is still in effect as make our drive to get 1500 instagram followers. WILL IT HAPPEN? WOULD WE NOTICE?

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Will and Kevin discuss one of the all-time great Marvel Comics characters: Ben Grimm, The Ever-Lovin' Thing! They also get into their admittedly insane plan for structuring this season, and some more email!

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Jack Kirby is picking up steam again! Although we're into a run where a high percentage of fights end the second people have a conversation. A moral lesson? Or hurried storytelling? YOU BE THE JUDGE! Plus Kevin and Will catch up on email again.

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We interrupt our flow of doing the Ditko issues to talk about two brand-new issues of Spider-Man, because they are so good! Instant Classics. One is Dan Slott’s final issue -- Amazing Spider-Man #801. And the other, Chip Szdarsky’s Spectacular Spider-Man Annual with a JJJ story. They both broke our hearts and we had to talk about it!

The Milksops realize that it's episode 250 and they should do something special. So we take a break from JLA and do these things: read promotional blurbs suggested by our listeners, force Kevin to answer trivia, go over an old collection of "imaginary" Superman stories from our childhood, and remember our favorite moments of the first 250 episodes. Also because we are dumb we thought it was 200 episodes at the time we recorded it, but as we explain in the cold open it really truly is 250, and yes that's confusing and we're sorry, except that it's funny, so we're not TOO sorry.

The Milksops begin their celebration / examination of legendary comics writer Kurt Busiek by doing a medium-depth dive on his breakout 1993 mini-series Marvels. With the stunningly realistic paintings of Alex Ross, Marvels was a critical and commercial hit that also proved that the classic Marvel characters and stories still worked in the collectors-edition froth of the early 1990s. The series established Kurt's knack for creating everyman characters who view the world of superheros from "street level." The Milksops argue that Marvels and Kurt's success also marked the beginning of a "back to basics" appraoch for Marvel comics stories after the constant showing revisions of the 1980s. Hey, fun. We also answer email, which is why this episode is a bit longer. Mail includes a question on the movie War Games, because this show doubles as Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About War Games.

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The current penciller (Joe Quinones) and colorist (Jordan Gibson) for “Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man” join Kevin and Will to talk about the psychological drama that is issue 24 -- Spider-Man Goes Mad! We get into: Ditko hands! Gangster Faces! European Therapists! And how a villain really gives away his guilt when he instantly tries to run away at the first accusation! We also talk about Joe and Jordan’s recent issues, which had modern Spidey meet Ditko Spidey! This is a CAN’T MISS ep!

We are reaching the end of Jack Kirby's FF issues, and the stories are maybe getting crazier? But still good. We've got a gangster planet that has alien gladiators, a witch babysitter for newly-named Franklin Richards, and a guy with a monocle tries a dumb plan which does not work!

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Kraven is back to hunt the ultimate prey: Spider-Man! Betty Brant has a trippy Spidey-themed dream! And Gwen Stacy is falling for Peter! All great stuff! So… why is this issue kinda… eh?

In his second to last issue, artist Steve Ditko turns in a good story! There’s subplots and great drawing and two weird-looking robots and the introduction of one of the greatest villains in the Spider-verse -- Norman Osborn! Corrupt businessman, terrible father and murderer! A not-great dude, but he makes for yes-great stories!

The Metal Master is a villain so powerful, so fascinating -- that we're pretty sure he's never heard from again after this issue. But we have art from Steve Ditko! Actual feelings expressed by Dr. Banner!

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The probably-quickly-named villain MYSTERIO is the bag guy of issue 13, and hosts Kevin and Will … no mystery here … like him a lot! He has a whole bag of tricks designed to scare Spidey which end up sending our hero to a psychiatrist! This series is turning into Mad Men, if Don Draper wore a mask and saved people (which of course, he kind of did). CHECK IT OUT!

EPISODE 283: The Milksops begin their dive into Peter Milligan's early 2000s run on The Human Target. 

Created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino in 1972 for DC Comics, the Human Target has had several runs over the years. The basic gist is this: if you're in danger of being killed, you can hire Christopher Chance who will dress up as you until he catches the killer! Very normal, simple strategy. 

In 1999, writer Peter Milligan and artist Edvin Biuković started a run which pushed the envelope of how far this story could go. For example, in this first story, Chance has an assistant who has gone so deep undercover he has forgotten he is in disguise. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in this complex, rewarded, thrilling four issue story. We learn that almost everyone we meet has a double life of some kind, and they're all trying to hide it for different reasons.

By the end of the four issues, Milligan and Buikovic had established that this character was a great inspiration for terrific stories. Join us as we sample from this terrific run.

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Today we are republishing a discussion on the first issue of Alan Moore/Dave Gibbon's landmark 1986 comic book Watchmen. We first released this on Nov 27, 2019.  At that time, HBO was airing its television series adapation of/sequel to the comic, so Kevin and Will went through the first issue of the comic. Now five years later we want to go through the entire series. Listen to this epsiode and we'll be here next episode with a discussion of issue 2!

Watchmen is, of course, a 12 issue comic book series featuring superheros that live in a world much more realistic than we usually see them. It's about a merecenary superhero, The Comedian, who gets quietly murdered, and another superhero, Rorschach, an emotionally shut down detective, who finds out. Even though the "masks" have been banned by the government, they all start communicating to unravel this mystery. The one legal superhero -- the supernarually powered Dr. Manhattan -- has used his power to cement America as an unchallenged sole dominant nation. When he is forced to leave Earth, the world seems destined for a nuclear apcolypse unless the non-powered, legally banned "masks" can save it.

"Realistic superheroes" is an idea that's been done, but never with as much command as Watchmen. Each character -- created forthis series -- seems lived in with a rich deep history. The story is deeper and more complicated than most comics dare to present. The dialogue reveals the character's personality while also making ironic commentary on the story. And all along, it shows the darker side of superhero comics tropes and archetypes.

It's funny, fascinating, challenging, and it changed comics forever. 

The Milksops review the new Netflix' series The Sandman. We already did 10 eps on the comics so you know we're fans, so was the show good enough for us? Short answer: kind of! We respect the shows' reverence for the source material, the great casting and visual goodness. But something is missing from the show, and we spend 45 minutes trying to figure out what.  But we love the Corinthian, maybe too much, and the show kept getting better and better as it went. We're hoping there’s a season 2 because we feel the comics ALSO got better as they went, and we think the show will too!

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The Milksops arrive at the Proteus saga, and notice that the already-great X-Men series is levelling up in quality. Multiple storylines intersect with a powerful villain to create tension, action and drama. Phoenix is powering up. The Hellfire Club arrives. Moira Mctaggert returns, as does her ex-husband. Colossus' inferiority complex goes away, and Wolverine remains his fun and brutal self. Our take: this comic is goddamn good. Plus the mail!

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Episode 307 - We wrap up our episode on Watchmen with a discussion of the animated film "Watchmen Chapter II" which was released to little fanfare (despite being having pretty stellar reviews) toward the end of 2024. 

Plus we read lots of the email we've gotten about this season!

Next season (starting next week): We go over the Peter David / Todd McFarlene run on Incredible Hulk.

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John Byrne is on-board and the X-Men stories are getting wilder, weirder and even more fun. We've got circus sideshows, robot nannies and Colossus saying "Lenin's Ghost" a whole lot more. Plus the Milksops read some email, with a very funny example of Moon Knight announcing his name before punching a bad guy out!

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Justice League International was such a hit that it spawned a spin-off: Justice League Europe. Kevin talks about how this title is better than the original and Will ogles Captain Atom's tiny waist.

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It's a bit of a valley in the X-Men saga, as we take a breath after the Death of Phoenix and before Days of Future Past. We get a funeral, a recap of... the entire X-men comics run, Kitty Pryde showing up to an empty mansion, a Wolverine/Nightcrawer trip to the world's richest government (Canada) and also real quick a trip to hell. In the mailbag, we get into X-adaptations, old cartoons and comic books filing systems!

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A lot of stuff happens in these two issues but maybe the most significant is the arrival of Spider-Man's black costume, which eventually becomes the super-villain Venom. But no one making Secret Wars had any idea that would happen! Isn't that weird?

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Two stories in one! The top half of each page details the return of Ben Grimm, and an almost-but-not-quite battle against the Dire Wraiths (who?) And the bottom half has Reed, Sue and Franklin in hell! Which is pretty fun! Then we read a bunch of mail, which Kevin has organized by THEME! Join our subscriber level for bonus eps (soon) - https://www.screwitpodcasts.com/

The Milksops can't stop obsessing over Frank Miller, so we're going from Dark Knight Returns to Frank's awesome return to Marvel's Daredevil: the Born Again stories. Along with artist David Mazzuchelli, this seven part Daredevil story is one of the greatest Daredevil stories ever and one of the great Marvel comics stories. The Kingpin finds out that Daredevil is really Matt Murdock and so he... ruins Matt Murdock's life. What could be a simple one or two issue story becomes a prolonged exploration of what makes Daredevil truly a hero. We see Matt Murdock go completely insane, Foggy Nelson being a new love affair, Karen Page go on a doesnt-age-that-well struggle with drug addiction, Ben Urich stand up for getting the true story no matter what the cost -- all wrapped up in taut, lively compelling crime fiction. Oh, and the best cliffhangers in the biz!

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Plot complexity level: you have been MORRISSONED. The issues remain extremely fun but the story becomes very hard to summarize. Unless you keep it simple like this: Lex Luthor finds a magic crystal to destroy the JLA, but instead lets an alien enslave Earth, until the good guys use time travel to undo everything. Except add in: hard light holograms, New Gods technology so advanced it ruins your mind, cosmic beings at the edge of the universe waiting for the battle at the end of time, Future Batman getting killed by Future Darkseid (spoiler) (kind of) and the JLA disbanding for almost no reason. But it's fun! Will re-caps this in a terse 35 minutes!

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Co-hosts Kevin and Will discuss the debut of the probably-not-that-great-villain The Scorpion! He can punch! He can also...well, he can punch pretty hard. Plus a boatload of reader mail!

EPISODE 309: Continuing our coverage of the Peter David / Todd McFarlane run on The Incredible Hulk!

We've got McFarlane's distinctive art style starting to poke through (evil Hulk in sillhouette), Peter David's style (grey Hulk's personality shaping up), plus Hulkbusters, The Leader and Betty Banner's long-lost husband question mark?

For Loose Screws, we discuss the movies Companion and Captain America; Brave New World.

EPISODE 282 - We finish our coverage of John Byrne's FF with the issue where Sue Richards changes her name from The Invisible Girl to The Invisible Woman. It's a fine issue that mostly features She-Hulk breaking out of Psycho-Man's fear spell. We also learn the story of Pearla, Queen of the Microverse!

We give some closing thoughts on John Byrne. For a good John Byrne issue, and there were many you got: strong confident storytelling, exciting purposeful battles, clearly told stories, a strong command of where your eye goes, and what your heart wants to know. Byrne in the 80s was iconic, truly one of the best and most popular creators in America.

The shortcomings: his art starts to get sketchier as he strives to produce more. His faces look... honestly, the same? It's almost strange how that DOESN'T hurt the story telling. He gets more and more about the references. Although funny, he's best when he isn't doing a book which is billed as comedic first and foremost.

But for the FF, he revitalized the comic, giving Kirby's creations an often upgraded portrayal.

Next season: Peter Milligan's run on The Human Target

Milksop Brother Three Brian is back with a quiz of comics-related questions for his older brothers. "What's your favorite comic" type of questions, but these go way beyond that. We thought this was gonna be a mini-ep, but Kevin and Will spend so much time discussing things that we got to a full hour. But think about how you would pick YOUR Mount Rushmore of Comics, and see if you can answer quickly. AND you KNOW we've got some Loose Screws™!

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We're nearing the end of our coverage of John Byrne's FF run. In one of the final stories, the (new) Hate Monger teams up with the (old?) Psycho-Man to create a third brand-new villain... Malice! And you'll never guess Malice's true identity. Ok, I'll tell you: it's the Invisible Girl! And this is the final adventure of the Invisible Girl! Not because she dies but because she changes her alias next story. 

We read some email, which I bet was great! Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com

In a few episodes we will begin our next season, coverage of Peter Milligan's run on Human Target.

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Amazing Adult Fantasy was an anthology comics series that featured stand-alone sci-fi and fantasy stories. They were short, dark, weird and often had twist endings. Think Twilight Zone, but five page comics stories. But this issue -- the series' last issue -- broke from its pattern in a few important ways. One, it changed its title to just "Amazing Fantasy." And two, it introduced Spider-Man.

We continue looking at the career of writer/artist Keith Giffen. This week we look at his "Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later" story. Starting from their creation in the late 1950s, the Legion of Super Heroes stories were sunny and optimistic. After all, these were teen heroes in the future who had been inspired by the (relative to their time) ancient story of Superman. Giffen had even been an artist and sometimes plotter of a run on this title in the early 1980s. But in 1989, Giffen led the characters into a big tonal shift. "Five Years Later" sees the team broken up, demoralized, often refusing their superhero names. The world has become dystopian, with an evil police state running things. A huge shift, and a fascinating and great story. We cover the first issue of this run. 

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Kevin and Will review the first five episodes of X-Men '97, the hit new animated Marvel show.

Does it hurt never having seen the original series?

How about never having read any Chris Claremony Uncanny X-Men until two years ago?

How about not telling each other what they think of the series before they started recording????

The Milksops review "Marvel Comics Assistant Editor's Month," one of the first crossover events Marvel ever did. Here's what happened: For comics dated January 1984, readers were told that the assistant editors had been given reign over the content since the regular editors were away at San Diego ComicCon. Some comics took this as an excuse to do very far-out stories (Marvel Team-Up featured Galactus and Aunt May), whereas some did only very small changes (Moon Knight has a typewritten letter from the assistant editor instead of a splash page) and others completely ignored it! But for those reading at that time, it was a striking and dare we say pretty fun event. Kevin theorizes that modern fans would dislike it. In fact, the readers of 1984 didn't seem to like it too much either. But here we are, discussing it anyway!

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The league starts to uncover the mysterious background of Maxwell Lord, the good guy who seems like a bad guy until we discover... he isn't! Maybe? I lose track. Also we discuss and propse catch phrases of super-teams!

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The Milksops introduce a new episode format: Mutants and Mailbag. For half the episode the cover the early Chris Claremont run of Marvel's X-Men (which they are embarrassed to admit they have never read before) and then for the other half they catch up on mail! In this ep, we go over Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-97 --- seismic issues that would transform Marvel Comics forever!

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Kevin and Will go segment crazy as they analyze the characters, themes and significance of the first eight issues of The Fantastic Four. Plus a deep dive on the team's brilliant, bossy, maybe emotionally bullying leader Mr. Fantastic!

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Keith Giffen does mainstream crossover event, and does it well. Here we cover the 2006 epic war story that is Annihilation. The brainchild of editor Andy Schmidt along with Giffen, this story features the "cosmic characters" in the Marvel lineup. Galactus and Silver Surfer? You know it. Thanos. Of course. Rohan? Yep. And a star turn for the main villain, who is not much of a surprise when you think about the title of this series. This series also leads very directly to the creation of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy. But back to cosmic folks: Giffen's writing is fun and crisp and tells an epic tale. But for the real gem, we suggest the Drax mini-series that preceded the main event. 

Stories within stories within stories! The Milksops continue their look at Sandman with a deepish dive into issue #55, called "Cerements" in which (inhale).. a journeyman from a city of burial experts tells a story he heard from his master about a story HE heard from HIS teacher, who also tells ... other stories! All within the story of the World's End Inn. Come get "incepted" with us!

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A catch-up issue where everyone catches their breath, then Arcade throws everyone into a giant pinball machine, and then oh yeah some guy named Arkon from another dimension or something shows up and fights and then befriends the X-Men! Kevin compares these comics to old Kirby FFs. Will likes the Wild West and confirms the least surprising thing ever: he has a crush on Storm. Plus the mail!

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These issues showcase the super-villain Doctor Doom, and he emerges as the main character of this story. Will loves Secret Wars and respect Jim Shooter's work on it, and Kevin brings him down to earth with some stories about Jim's behind the scenes arrogance or at least tone-deaf office humor. Still, these issues are fun.

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The Green Goblin is back and he’s meaner and smarter. Pete’s love life is once again falling apart as he can’t convince working girl Betty that popular rich girl Liz means nothing to him. Everyone loves the Human Torch more than Spidey. And then: a twist near the end that ups the drama and leaves this issue as the start of one of the best Spidey stories of the original era, at least according to your hosts Kevin and Will!

Kevin and Will welcome guests Kait Thompson and Mark David Christenson, the co-hosts of “Aw Crap, A Hellboy Podcast!” We get into: how Ditko makes a great action story out of a not-that-great villain! How JJJ’s cowardice is ratcheted up to farcial levels, and how Peter’s got sexy new duds!

Hilarious Correction Department: it's Emma FROST not Emma STONE. Anyway: A rival school for mutants drafts Kitty Pryde, and Storm switches bodies with Emma Frost. Plus a cute fairy tale that charmed Will and kinda was okay to Kevin, plus the Starjammers returns as Cyclops (again?) remembers the story of his father. In our mail, we are shamed for not mentioning the Daredevil cameo in "No Way Home" plus we have to pick the worst X-Men villains and Will just sys Galactus? Go to shortboxed.com/screwit to win a copy of a 2018 pressing of Dark Knight Returns #1 signed by Frank Miller and Klaus Jansen!

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We cover the first appearances of Iron Man and Dr. Strange. We find Iron Man has a pretty solid story. Extremely problematic depictions of the Vietnamese? Yep. But the character of Tony Stark is well-developed, and much like he will remain right up until his rise to the top of the MCU. And you know we visit the 4-page introduction of the classic red and yellow armor, designed by Steve DItko. Speaking of Ditko, Dr. Strange has a slower start. It has the the terrific Ditko art. But since the initial few stories are just 5 pages each, it takes a few chapters until we have much more than Dr. Strange entering ghost form and punching other ghosts. But soon we have some beautifully designed villains and surreal nightmare dimensions. The Marvel Universe is starting to feel like a full place.

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We continue going over Kevin's recommendations as we go over the very cool series Black Hammer, specifically issue #2. A group of superhumans are stuck in a small town, which is... not a small town. In these early issues we are learning the back stories of our main characters, each of which is part fun part mystery!

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We are well into the era where artist Steve Ditko had stopped talking to writer/editor Stan Lee, and it’s making for stories with very unique structures! For example, in this issue -- the battle is over at the halfway point, and then there’s about 10 pages of wrapping everything up! It’s… not bad! But it feels different than most super-hero books! Listen to hosts Kevin and Will talk about it forever!

CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of sexual assault figure heavily into this issue's plot.

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EPISODE 301 - Dan Gvozden of the Amazing Spider-Talk podcast joins us to discuss issue 9. In this issue, Dr. Manhattan takes Laurie to Mars to give her a chance to talk him into returning to Earth and preventing the impending nuclear war. Typical ex stuff. During their talk we learn about Laurie's life and learn the secret of who her actual father is. She's not excited about it.

Dan has loved Watchmen since he first read it. Just like Kevin and Will, he finds something new every time he re-reads it. Though he says this is the first time he realized there was a "big blue naked guy" in the book, so.. maybe he's not reading as closely as we thought.

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The X-Men (most of them) make it to the Savage Land. The Milksops talk about the trope of hidden lands with dinosaurs in them, people who look like they've read Lord of the Rings but haven't, and try to figure out what the deal was with The Petrified Man. Plus lots of email!

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This issue introduces what will be another classic Spidey villain: The Lizard! Spider-Man travels to the swamps of Florida to battle this tragic scientist-turned-lizard-man! And JJJ is along for the ride. Kevin is moved by The Lizard’s tears! Will realizes that he might like JJJ as much as if not more than Spider-Man!

We keep going through this legendary run by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. Will continues to like it, Kevin continues to think it's too slow. We both agree the "homage" to Ferris Bueller at the top (the boring professor who goes "voodoo economics") is... weird. We discuss the effects of getting to know Uncle Ben more. We observe how obvious it must be to Peter's classmates that he has supernatural powers. We see Peter's anger boiling up.

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The first year of JLI ends with Maxwell Lord smashing a computer apart while the Justice League fights... no one? Merton leaves mid issue and Will and Kevin can’t decide why we supposed to like Max.

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The Milksops go over the 1982 four-issue mini series Wolverine, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Frank Miller. This was part of Wolverine's ascendence to becoming one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe. Kevin was expecting a "bigger" story, something akin to what Miller would do on Batman: Year One or Daredevil: Born Again. It's not that seismic, but there's plenty of terrific Miller art and layouts in this story. There's also ninjas, Japanese culture, an expansion of the Wolverine character and world, the arrival of the assassin/would-be-love-interest Yugio and plenty of Claremont prose. The story is good, both Milksops agree, and they are glad to have read this story -- something that has been recommended to them for over 30 years! We also read mail!

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The Milksops go over one of Will Hines' all-time favorite comics: Love and Rockets. Done (mostly) by two Mexican-American brothers, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Love and Rockets mixes sci-fi, soap opera, folk tales, sexuality, surrealism and sometimes even good 'ol superheroes to make one of the coolest and most innovative comics ever. Published in various forms since 1981, this is a mammoth comics run. To spare our listeners (much) of Will just rambling forever, we are doing only 2 eps on this series. For this one, we focus on Jaime and in particular his late 80s story "The Death of Speedy." We talk about Jaime's superb art, the confident use of flashbacks, the assumption that you, the reader, are noticing all the detail in the panels, the aimless plot, the beautiful character moments, the mxiture of cartoonish styles with realistic drawing. Kevin assures Will that the story is not as hard to understand for newbies as he fears. Next ep: Gilbert and Heartbreak Soup.

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We've got three fairly Doom-tastic issues of the FF to go over. We get a day in the life of Doom running the show over in Latveria, and then a two-issue battle of Sue, Johnny and Ben vs. Terrax the Untamed (who's gotten his Power Cosmic back thanks to Doom). The FF end up winning, with the help of the Silver Surfer, but in the end one question remains: where the heck is Reed? Plus we get to some mail, where we cover 70s sci-fi recs, thoughts on Reed and Sue's romantic activites, how we would wrap up comics if Marvel were to come to an end and a little on Ryan North's current FF run.

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This is an excerpt of our interview with Scott Aukerman about his experience writing the new Astonishing Spider-Man comic. To hear the full one, subscribe at screwitpodcasts.com -- proceeds pay our costs and then go to the charity Hero Initiative. Thanks!

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Writer / comedian / podcaster Scott Aukerman returns to the podcast for a third time, this time to discuss his new comic book Astonishing Spider-Man. Available exclusively on the Marvel Unlimited app, Astonishing Spider-Man is publishing in the "infinity" format, meaning it's one long vertical page designed for viewing on phones and tablets. We talk to Scott about how he got the gig to write his own Spider-Man comic, the experience of writing for this format, and what aspects of Spidey Scott wanted to focus on. A lifelong Spider-Man fan, Scott is giving his all for this series -- we hear about the research and thought he's putting into the stories in an attempt to make the kind of Spider-Man comic he'd like to read. And we finish up with the five Spider-Man arcs which influenced him the most when writing this series!

The Milksops Three continue their coverage of Zot!, the late 1980s indie comic that featured a Golden Age style optimistic hero wrestling with the emotional challenges of "our" Earth. In this episode we cover "The Ghost in the Machine" which is Zot's three-issue battle against one of his main villains, 9-Jack-9. Jack is a legitimiately terrifying villain, an assassin who can travel via electrical wires, has no emotion, and is incredibly smart. By the way, he killed Zot's parents. But in typical Zot fashion, these stories differ from most superhero stuff in that they focus on the emotional angle way more than, say, punching. There's loss of family members, the struggle to not give up hope, the forgiveness of our enemies, all shown around the scary visage of the genteman Killer, 9-Jack-9. Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com

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For his second appearance, Spider-Man gets his own comic that contains two -- really THREE -- stories! He meets J. Jonah Jameson, the perpetually angry newspaper publisher who uses his media empire to paint Spider-Man as a MENACE! He meets the FF, who reject him as a member, for many reasons including that he basically breaks in to their headquarters and tries to show off! He meets the Chameleon, one of the dumbest villains in all comicdom!

The Milksops convene for a emergency episode to discuss their feelings on the new Spider-Man movie "No Way Home." Big spoilers starting at about 10 minutes in -- we warn you. Among topics discussed: Kevin balancing his wishes for MCU Spidey versus him actually enjoying the movies, fan service vs good story, the many redemption arcs for actors in this film, ranking all Spider films, what moments made our respective audiences burst out with applause and more!

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We pick right up where we left off with the FF going.. back in time! Wait, not, they are going SIDEWAYS in dimensions, but to the SAME TIME! A time where... the dark ages never happened, so society got very advanced! But then blew themsleves up so they are not! Wait, no they PARTLY are advanced because Reed's science genius dad has been here. Whatever. We get into it! We now have subscriber-only eps! See screwitpodcasts.com for more details! And we talk about this in the episode.

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Sometimes when you read superhero comics you want Actual Superheros doing Actual Superhero things. That's what you get in Grant Morrisson's 1990s JLA run. Extraordinarily powered beings battling the highest stakes villains. Creative uses of physically impossible abilities. The triumph of good over evil. And Superman being a great Superman. We cover the first 4 issues they wrote, the "Hyperclan" arc. Kevin gives us an overview of DC comics at this time (1996). Then Will re-caps all four issues, a stunning achievment for a man who normally does not read comics published after 1987.

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What if a superhero acted mostly like Bugs Bunny? We now take you to another Milksop favorite: The Heckler. Though it was cancelled after only six issues because of low sales, The Heckler has always been a beloved cult favorite, espeically for fans of Giffen. Kevin has loved this series since it first came out! Will didn't read it until after Kevin raved about it for the 100th time or so, but he also respects it. The Heckler is a superhero with no specific powers, origin story or explanation. What we are told is he is the owner of a diner in Delta City, who is tired of the various mob gangs running his town. There is humor in this story, a remarkably rich world, a demanding narrative style and generous helpings of meta jokes. The Milksops think Keith had Steve Ditko on his mind with The Heckler, but they do tend to think that about everyone. Join us for this deep dive into a commercial flop, critical darling - The Heckler!

Barely 12 issues into their run and the X-men battle with approximiately 100 newish characters and save the universe. We get into: Claremont and Cockrum putting themselves in the issue, the joy of new characters, the speed with which Claremont and team are changing the X-universe, Cockrum's insanely good costume design and the arrival of little rookie artist John Byrne. Also we answer a million emails. Plus: Screw It We're Just Gonna Talk About War Games returns!

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The FF finish their Negative Zone saga! We've got aliens that look like salamanders, Reed rebuilding his own consciousness, and a plan to save the end of the world that worked because the Avengers are able to, um, well... okay, we can't tell why it worked. But it DID work and so the FF return to their own Earth in time to stop Annihulus. Or maybe just scare him off? In our mailbag section, we get corrected and then (probably) make more errors!

We're gonna rock down to... electric Superman?!!! Yes, Electric Superman has entered the chat. So has Tomorrow Girl, a few angels from Actual Heaven,  Connor Hawke (son of original Green Arrow) and Starro. We cover a lot in this segment! We talk about how Superman is still Superman, even with new powers. We talk about how the "Green Arrow vs Overpowered Villain" story is still good in its own right even though it seems pretty similar to a classic Superman tale. And we talk just about how much we are enjoying the many moments of grand superheroism!

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After a whole issue of doubt, Spider-Man is back into action! For the first time in the comic’s run we have a whole issue where Spider-Man is joyously being Spider-Man, and it is FUN! Your hosts love this issue, which is zero surprise.

We cover "No Easy Way Down," an emotional and creative high point for this series. After the traumatic events of "Relentless" three three issues show us Selina, Holly and Slam all dealing with their feelings. The action is moved into the background as we hear the characters thoughts, see their dreams, and feel their pain! It's an incredible trio of books and a must read for anyone who likes good comics! Plus Will talks about the Barbie movie and we even answer a few pieces of mail.

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The Milksops Three (Will, Kevin and Brian) discuss the "black and white" era of Zot! comics. We discuss how much this comic levels up in terms of quality, ambition and emotion, in both art and story. We see Zot trying to convince Jenny that her Earth is worth living in, as she tries to convince him to visit more and more. We meet Jenny's friends, and even see a few tender moments of older brother/sometimes monkey Butch. Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com.

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Five more Claremont X-Men issues. We say goodbye to John Byrne with a cracker of Kitty Pryde story, followed by a Man-Thing story (the most awkwardly named Marvel character ever), followed by Cockrum Era Part II -- which means more Nightcrawler, kids! We are still loving these X-Men stories, so expect more. We also get into the mailbag, where we get helpful comments about the Dr. Doom story we read with Chris Gethard, and thoughts on the new Spidey movie and more!

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FF #250 has the FF vs Gladiator, plus the X-Men (kind of) and the Skrulls, in a double-sized fight-tastic story. Then #251 sets up what is going to be a run of stories set in the Negative Zone. Your hosts, the Milksops, like it all. Plus we've got mail. Sop it up!

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Two issues of bliss, two issues of blah -- that's how the Milksops see these issues. We get a fun look at Rogue and Storm's friendly in 185, followed by the double-sized Barry Windsor-Smith pencilled epic of Storm and Forge falling in love with each other! They're each fun, intriguing, exciting issues of the X-Men. And then we get two completely confusing issues where they face off against an alien race called the Dire Wraiths who come from the Marvel title ROM, which was one of those toy-first-comics-later comics that often doesn't work (Transformers, you get a pass). We also talk a lot about superstar artists George Perez and Neal Adams who sadly recently passed away. They each were impactful for their work as artists and work behind the scenes as human beings! In the mailbags portion, we pick an all-bald super-powered basketball team and talk about digital vs print comics! You can't miss this ep!

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We follow up last issue's sci-fi commnuist spy plot with... TOAD MEN! An alien race arrives with insane magnetic power to take over the Earth, that is... until the Hulk.... beats them up!

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Dr. Doom is on the loose! Wait, no, actually it's just his mask. But still! It's a fearsome powerful mask! We also talk about Spider-Man: Blue (which Will just read). In our mailbag, we do another quiz from Keith! We also get emails about Superhero Movie Fatigue, Epic Collections and our fantasy FF Movie.+

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In this "one shot" episode (a name I just made up where we examine a topic separate from our current season) we take a break from Catwoman to discuss the topic of "shelf appeal." This means roughly the way comics look on the shelves of comic shops. We bring on former guest Casey Bruce, co-owner of Danger Room comics in Olympia, Washington to talk about the challenges facing shop owners when it comes to making their product look appealing to customers. There's packaging, what editions are available, the impact of movies and television shows, how popular the characters are, and how long the title has been running. Kevin has a lot of hot takes in this ep! Back to Catwoman next week! __

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NO MAILBAG THIS EPISODE. For the "mutants" portion of our ep, the Milksops review the graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills" in which the X-Men ally with arch-enemy Magneto to battle an anti-mutant televangelist/murderer! This was also known as "Marvel Graphic Novel #5," which was part of a series where Marvel creators could make more adult content. This story contains brutal murders, commentary on how people use religion and media to manipulate the masses, a man killing his family and Kitty Pryde dropping the N-word in an argument about racism. It's intense! It's also really good and one of the most compeling and nuanced portrayal of Magneto so far!

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The THREE Milksop brothers (Will, Kevin and Brian) are home for the holidays and thus record an ep in person. They have a tradition of watching Batman movies together, which sprung out of their shared beloved experience of seeing the 1989 Tim Burton movie together on opening night in Danbury CT. Listen as we reminisce about lots of brother-bonding movie watching! Somehow we make a lot of Rodney Dangerfield references in this ep and they are: not relevant!

Things go from bad to worse for Ghost Peter as Spidey-Otto discovers his existence. We get into the many ways that Dan Slott keeps this story emotionally interesting, with surprising plot twists and oh yeah, the art is great too. Plus a great cover, dare we say iconic, of Peter and Otto fighting inside of Spidey's brain! -- SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify

In what Will deems the “worst issue so far of the Ditko run” we see the Molten Man return and Stan Lee turn in his strangest bunch of dialogue yet! BUT the issue does venture into “so bad it’s really weird” territory so CHECK IT OUT!

We go through a bad stretch: issues 9 through 24. Villains with ultimate power dispatched by... ignoring them! And also... calling their parents? Time travel only when you need it! Sue tries on wigs! COMMUNIST SUPER APES! Eeesh.

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Booster Gold joins the Justice League. He earns his place by fighting some adults who dress up as playing cards the same way most people get jobs. Plus Maxwell Lord annoys Batman and Blue Beetle unplugs something.

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Acclaimed comics writer J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League International, Kraven's Last Hunt, Moonshadow) is back to promote his new Kickstarter for the second issues of his DeMultiverse.

The DeMultiverse is JM's independently produced comics, which include four titles:

• Layla in the Lands of After, art by Shawn McManus
• Anyman, art by David Baldeón
• Godsend, art by Scott Koblish
• Wisdom, art by Tom Mandrake

Plus as a bonus an earlier project that had not been released:

• The Edward Gloom Mysteries, art by Vassilis Gogtzilas

To donate to the Kickstarter and help issue 2 of these series come out, go here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spellboundcomics/jm-dematteis-presents-the-demultiverse-phase-2-edward-gloom?ref=ksr_email_backer_backer_confirmation 

We go deep on each series to talk about his influences for each one. We get into the art styles of the many talented artists co-creating these stories. We talk about the promotion necessary to keep a Kickstarter going! We ask how JM stays so positive in an industry known to sometimes burn people out. We talk about letting the unconscious mind have time and space to generate ideas. We also sneak in a few quick questions about his past Marvel/DC titles too.

JM is one of our favorite creators and people. 40+ years in the business and he's still as enthusiastic to discuss it as someone writing their first book. He's curious about new work and inspired by what came before. We love that he's co-producing his own books and hope you consider helping out!

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Kevin and Will recap the first eight issues of the Fantastic Four. The Origin! The Skrulls! Doctor Doom! And Sub-Mariner! These are great!

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In preparation for the Disney Plus show, the Milksops review She-Hulk in the comics! We go over the Savage era, the Byrne treatment, the Sensational phase (Byrne II), the Slott epoch and the Soule chapter. Plus dips into the other stuff. We talk about how Jennifer Walters went from a very tossed-off rip off of Bruce Banner into her own indominatable indispensible part of the Marvel Universe!

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We go over the first arc in the Ed Brubaker Catwoman series. Guess what: it's good! We've got: Darwyn Cooke art, film noir aesthetics, questions of good versus evil, a for-real supervillain, a little Batman which all adds up to a great story.

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More fun issues, though there is a lot of recapping, even for Secret Wars. In one issue we have both Doom and Professor X checking in with everyone, and maybe Reed Richards too? It's hard to keep track. Also: the Lizard shows up, and the Milksops think that maybe Shooter had simply forgotten to include him up until now.

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We are so legitiamately thrilled to announced our guest for this episode: Chris Gethard. In addition to being an author, comedian, creator of the hit podcast Beautiful/Anonymous and host of the third biggest show on his own twitch network Planet Scum, Chris did improv with the Milksops at the UCB Theater for like 100 years. So we talk forever. Also, by the way, Gethard comes onto the podcast to talk about the ingenious, delightful, thrilling arc: FROG THOR. In the middle of Walt Simonson's legendary run on Thor in the mid-1980s, the Thunder God gets turned into a frog, a storyline that polarized readers who either loved it or hated it. Put us in the "loved it" camp. We get into many topics with Gethard: how he's a fan of this podcast, his love of Mark Gruenwald Captain America run, why the X-Men resonate so much, our mutual friend Jesse Falcon's apartment, the death of the Executioner and you know we get a little improv talk in there, too. This is a long one, and we were restraining ourselves to only talk for 2 hours!!!

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The milksops (Kevin and Will) go over the debut of Hob Gadling, the man who will never die! What's YOUR favorite invention of the last 500 years: chimneys or handkerchiefs?

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This is an all mailbag episode, including an email from Chris Gethard about our Ultimate Spider-Man coverage. Next week: FF#280!

Continuing our dive into Kurt Busiek, we look at his critically acclaimed series Untold Tales of Spider-Man. It's a masterpiece of going back to basics with the webhead, finding new stories from the old strategies. In particular, we dive into two incredible issues: UTOSM #16, which shows what Mary Jane Watson thought of Peter (and Spidey) before they met, and also UTOSM Annyal '96, which has the web-head go on a date with The Invisible Girl. These two issues have everything a great Spidey tale could have: action, humor, pathos, nerdiness, joy, severe punching and truthful emotional centers. We also go through some mail in which we find out we've made mistakes. But Will is still not convinced Matt Murdock has a personality.

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On the FF side of things, we learn about Frankie Raye's hidden powers, see the return of H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot, and watch the Inhumans move their city to the moon. Very solid issues sandwiched in between a few more iconic chapters that we will soon get to. From the correspondence side, we get questions about how to deconstruct The Enforcers, do we care about "collecting," and somehow start talking about The Last Action Hero!

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We are joined by Jordan White, who is Marvel Comics Senior Editor that oversees the "X books." Damn, pretty cool, right? Jordan talks about Amazing Spider-Man #334-339, which is the "Return of the Sinister Six" by David Michelinie and Erik Larsen. This arc which came out in 1990 is a long-overdue homage to the first Spider-Man annual that came out in 1963. We talk about Erik's terrific arc, the very fun story, the entertainingly insane reasons that these 6 villains need any help at all, and how everyone in Manhattan seems to place bets on whether or not hit men will murder their targets!

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We begin our examination of acclaimed comics writer/artist Keith Giffen. Perhaps most famous as a co-creator of the 1980s run of Justice League (the "B players" era), Giffen also either created or massively influenced: Lobo, Legion of Super Heroes, Rocket Raccoon (and kinda sorta Guardians of the Galaxy), the modern Blue Beetle and much more.

This episode, we're looking at Ambush Bug. Specifically a 4 issue mini series that came out in 1985. The Bug knew he was in a comic, made very inside baseball references to the comics industry, and was a hit with the young Milksops. Ambush Bug stories aren't just funny, they are ambitious comics that jump around different genres, skip around in time and space, refuse to hold the reader's hand --- all the while being genuinely funny. The Bug brought out the maverick in Giffen, and this mini series is a genuine joy. Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com

Hosts Will and Kevin talk about the original run of The Fantastic Four! This was the comics series that launched all of Marvel Comics. We get into the partnership of artist/writer Jack Kirby and editor/writer Stan Lee! The weird characters of Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben! The awesome visual design! The sometimes unhinged plots! And the awe-inspiring density of ideas!

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