The Short Box: A Comic Book Talk Show Ep. 393 - Flashpoint Comic Review w/ Greg Lickteig of First Issue Club
 
[00:00:00] Intro music plays

[00:00:21] Badr: Yo, Short Box Nation. Welcome back to the podcast. What's up? How y'all doing? If you're new to the show took you long enough, but welcome to the show. This is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comics and pop culture inspired by them. My name is Badr and this is episode 393.

[00:00:41] Badr: And you're in for a good one today. I probably say that all the time, but you're, you're really in for a good one today. Okay. Tell the truth this time. It's for real. One day I'll be like, you might not wanna listen to this one's kinda shitty. It's not our best, it's not our best Skip this week, but it's a really good one if you are a DC fan that's been waiting for us to finally show some love to dc.

[00:01:00] Badr: I know it's been kind of a, a marvel and interview heavy lately. Uh, but, but we're putting the spotlight on DC today, right? Today we're revisiting the 2011 Flashpoint Comic series ahead of the Flash movie premiering later this week. And the comics Flashpoint was a limited series that radically changed the status quo for the DC universe.

[00:01:20] Badr: Flashpoint single-handedly launched a publisher wide relaunch of their entire comic line and brought forth a new arrow storytelling called the New 52. And in a similar fashion, the hope and intention of the Flash movie, which is directly inspired by the Flashpoint Comic shares a similar goal, which is to reset the continuity and get the hell out the way.

[00:01:40] Badr: So everyone's favorite filmmaker turned Studio executive James Gunn can clean up this mess. All right. He, he's gonna lead fans into a new era DC Cinematic Storytelling, and he needs movies like this Flash movie, and I believe the Aquaman, a Blue Beatle movie to set the groundwork, but specifically this flash movie, since it deals with alternate realities and going back in time, et cetera, et cetera, now we aren't rebuilding an entire movie line.

[00:02:04] Badr: Uh, our job here is, you know, is, is much more simple. Our goal today is to revisit the comic series Flashpoint and see how it holds up today. And to see if we can spot any early parallels or similarities between the source material and the movie based on what we've seen in trailers and what we know so far.

[00:02:20] Badr: Now, if you're watching video version, you know already, I'm not alone in, in today's mission. Sitting with me in the short box Studio is the A special Edmund Danza. What's up? How you doing? Good man. Also joining us and calling in remotely from Kansas City is one of the hosts of the comic book Reading Club turned award-winning comic podcast.

[00:02:39] Badr: First Issue Club. First Issue Club is a podcast that specializes in Wait for it first issues. Huh? Why Specifically First issues? Because their goal is to help make comic books a more welcoming and communal reading experience for old and new readers alike. And I'd have to say they're doing a pretty damn good job at it.

[00:02:57] Badr: Ed, you surprised me. You are already aware of First Issue Club. Yeah. You've been listening to them for a while. Yep. You've been cheating on on me for a minute.

[00:03:03] Ed: I didn't know. I couldn't listen to other podcasts. I didn't know that was

[00:03:06] Badr: part of the contract. Nah, that's, that's the type of rule I got. I ruled an iron fist around here.

[00:03:11] Badr: No other comic podcast, but your own voice ed, you know that. All right, well, ed, uh, help me out here. Let's go ahead and welcome our guy, Greg Lick tag from the first Issue club to the show. Oh,

[00:03:23] Greg: hey, what an intro. Holy cow. Bonar, how do you fit? How do you fit a whole studio audience in there, man? All that applause and cheering.

[00:03:31] Greg: That's crazy.

[00:03:31] Ed: I saw that. Patreon money. We got a studio set up. Live crowd. I'm counting at least 50 people.

[00:03:38] Badr: That's right. Patriot. This is where your money goes. Right? To the Greg. Man, this is a, a long time coming. I always, I I've been joking the last couple of episodes that it feels like I've been on my, um, uh, comic podcast homies world tour and I've gotten just about everyone from our, from our little circle.

[00:03:57] Badr: Uh, and you know, it, I I was like, man, I gotta get Greg on. It's just been taking a minute. Mm-hmm. But you're here with us, man.

[00:04:03] Greg: You're in the land of, uh, barbecue and championship

[00:04:05] Badr: rings. Mm. There's no better that, that actually might be a nice candle. I would be down for that candle. Hell yeah,

[00:04:13] Greg: man. I'm, I'm super excited to be here.

[00:04:15] Greg: We, um, we hear the First Issue club are big fans of the Short Box Nation. So to be here with you guys is an honor and to talk about Flashpoint is even more exciting cuz it's one of the maybe the biggest events that happened in DC in the last 15, 20 years. So I'm excited to be here and talk about it and hang out with you guys for a

[00:04:34] Badr: little bit.

[00:04:35] Badr: What sets First Issue Club apart from other comic podcasts and what are some recent first issues that you guys have covered? Oh man,

[00:04:43] Greg: I don't really know. What sets us apart is, uh, you know, we started the show kind of out of a conversation we all were having in a bar one day about how we were only the three or four nerds that we knew in our little circle that read comic books and we're just like, how can we get more people to read comic books?

[00:04:59] Greg: And you know, we're just like, we got into the discussion of like, it's hard, it's hard to get into comic books cuz you don't know where to start. The numbering is weird. There's a lot of different people in spandex, like, which ones are the best ones? And then when you find out that they come out every week, you're even more confused because, you know, you feel like you're already, uh, 10 steps behind.

[00:05:19] Greg: So we started the show with the thinking of like, people will come to us to see what is the, the hotness of the week, what do they want to read, what's the good to read, save a little money to skip the stuff that's bad. And uh, we just wanted to have like a fun. Social club of like-minded nerds to join us in talk comics.

[00:05:38] Greg: And a, as far as the best ones that we've read so far, there's, oh my gosh, image is like just kind of dunking right now on Oh yeah. Incredible. First issues. So if, if you're a new reader, I always tell you, or, or tell them to go to the Image Comics and they're kind of their own contained little entity, Marvel and DC's a little harder to get into with their first issues because we always joke about how issue like 4 25 could be a number one instead of like 4 25.

[00:06:07] Greg: So it's just more confusing to get into. But j stay with the Indies, stay with Image. That's where the bread and butter is for the good stuff. And the cool

[00:06:14] Ed: thing about about Image two is they have those image firsts. They're at a buck. You can kind of, kind of just dip your toe in. And Marvel and DC used to do that, but they just reprint 'em at full price now.

[00:06:25] Ed: So Dude, so annoying. Yeah, it's super annoying.

[00:06:28] Greg: Those little facsimile things they do and they're just like, it's, it's $8 and it's just like, it doesn't need to be,

[00:06:34] Ed: that's everything's the same, but except the price, they like alter the price. It's to like current pricing, which is, it was a bummer cuz they, they were, for a while they were like their dollar, you know, issues mm-hmm.

[00:06:44] Ed: Of, you know, important storylines and things like that. But I love the fact that image does that dollar thing and, you know, good stores will have like a rack of just those dollar image, dollar firsts.

[00:06:54] Greg: Oh yeah. And I think they've already done like, uh, first of first, um, ones of like saga mm-hmm. And Sweet Tooth and not Sweet Tooth, but like, um, uh, monstrous and all those big heavy hitters that image has, they're just like, you know, and it's so smart to make 'em a dollar, to get, you know, new readers in and interested in, uh, in there to buy those

[00:07:13] Badr: trades.

[00:07:13] Badr: Mm-hmm. Before we get started talking about, uh, flash and flashpoint, let me address maybe the most important thing on my list today, which is welcoming the most recent new members of our short box Family, ed and Greg, help me welcome Mac Godwin in Steve Gamut to our Patreon community and, uh, and in getting their names added to the long list of Patriot Saints that we've already got going on.

[00:07:37] Badr: Big shout out to Mack. Big shout out to Steve. Thank you guys so much for joining our Patreon community. Thank you for taking your support to the next level, and I promise to do good things with your money. All right. Like, like adding it. To my existing amazing Fantasy Number 15 fund. All right, it's, it's growing in size.

[00:07:52] Badr: And one day I'll be able to buy it an amazing spider. 15, I can even say. Then the patron will be over. Thank you guys for this, uh, 10 year long project and helping me achieve my holy grail of comics. I appreciate all of you.

[00:08:06] Ed: Bye-bye. You're gonna need one of those scrooge McDuck vaults to dive in

[00:08:10] Badr: with all the coins.

[00:08:11] Badr: I wish it was like that for the Patreon money. I'd quit my job. That was the case. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It all goes back into the show. And one more housekeeping thing to shared before we get started. Comic-Con season is rampant up. All right. It'll be San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic-Con and, and all the other great cons before you know it.

[00:08:28] Badr: But my favorite one to attend is Heroes Con, and that's taking place this weekend, June 16th through the 18th. And I'm fortunate once again to not only be attending the event, I'll be there enjoying the festivities myself. But I'll also be hosting an an incredible panel with the creators of Berserker, one of the best selling comics that's coming out through Boom Studios right now.

[00:08:49] Badr: That's right. I'll be talking to Matt, Ken, and Ron Garney about the making of the book, what it was like working with Ke Reeves on the series and everything else you'd want to know about the Berserker series. That's second place Saturday, June 17th at three 30 in room 2 0 8. You don't gotta memorize that.

[00:09:04] Badr: It'll be on the Heroes Con schedule. So if you'll be at Heroes Con this weekend plan to attend the event, I'd love to meet you. If you're a short box listener, it'll be a good time. And speaking of Boom Studios, in this episode, we'll also be selecting the winners of our Boom Studio's Comic Bundle giveaway.

[00:09:20] Badr: That's right, the contest that we announced two episodes ago. We're finally picking the winners. We're doing that this episode as well. So we got a full show for you today. With that out the way, let's finally deep dive into Flashpoint. If you've never read the comic, like I said at the top, it's all good.

[00:09:34] Badr: We got you covered. Or if it's been a minute since you, uh, last read it like myself, I'm gonna go ahead and kick things off with a quick recap of the story. Consider this like a, a crash course into a Flashpoint. Flashpoint is written by award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer, film and TV producer and showrunner.

[00:09:53] Badr: Jeff Johns. The man has added a, a few accolades, his name since I last check. You've also got art duties handled by comic book royalty, like the incomparable Andy Cubert. And breathtaking inking and coloring work handled by Sandra Hope and Alex Sinclair, respectively. Uh, the story starts off with Barry Allen waking up at his desk and discovering the world he knows has drastically changed his family's alive, but former loved ones are strangers and close friends are either different, gone or worse soft.

[00:10:22] Badr: This twisted version of this world is also on the brink of a cataclysmic war brewing between Emperor Aquaman's forces and the Wonder Woman's devastating army of Furies. And to make matters worse, IRVs greatest heroes. You know, the, the Justice League, the team that the Flash is on? Well, they're nowhere to be found in this iteration of the world he's woken up in.

[00:10:40] Badr: It's a world where America's last hope lies in the hands of Cyborg and the few and fractured heroes of this world that still remain like Batman, but it's not the Batman. You know, this one's way more brooding if you thought that was even possible. Uh, he's way more violent. And he's not even Bruce Wayne, he's actually Bruce Wayne's dad, Thomas Wayne, and he's got a five o'clock shadow, which might be the most surprising aspect of all of this.

[00:11:04] Badr: That was the biggest sign. That's not the Batman I know. Anyways, this world is, is clearly running out of time, and it's up to the flash to find the villain responsible for flipping everything on its head. Now, spoiler warning on this 12 year old comic, but in important plot point, nonetheless, the real culprit and reason for this messed up world is none other than Barry Allen himself.

[00:11:26] Badr: All right, that's some real Michael Jackson staring at the man in the mirror asking him to change his ways. All right. It's all because of Barry. You see, Barry Allen decided to break every single time travel rule that movies like Back to the Future has taught us. He makes a brass decision based on grief and regret, and he goes back in time to prevent the death of his mother from the hands of his arch nemesis.

[00:11:47] Badr: Reverse flash, who is a diabolical son of a bitch? All right. For lack of better terms, he is diabolical. Pure evil and super convoluted. So that is a discussion for another day. But at the end of the day, it's Barry's haphazard attempt to change the past that fractures the timeline, and it's up to him to correct the past before he loses everything he's ever loved for good end scene.

[00:12:10] Badr: That's the gist of the story in a nutshell. But if you're unfamiliar of how comic events of this magnitude work, especially any publisher wide crossover events dealing with alternate timeline stories, Flashpoint was a monster event. It consisted of a total 61 issue, run the series crossover with other titles and DC characters.

[00:12:31] Badr: And there were 16 separate three issue mini-series. Don't ask me to do 16 times three right now cuz I would fail, but it's a lot. That's a lot of comic books that spun out of this event. And they each told isolated stories about this new world, uh, as well as the altered heroes and villains. You just got more in depth the further away you got from the core series.

[00:12:52] Badr: So if we wanted to cover Flash Boy in totality, we'd honestly need to start a whole new and separate podcast. Yeah. To cover the whole thing in detail. That actually might be what we use our Patreon money for. Oh, no. To start us. No. So for today's intents and purposes, we're only gonna stick with the core five issue story arc of Flashpoint.

[00:13:14] Badr: If I went any further than that, I think Ed would just quit the show. All right? He'd be like, I'm, I'm taking whatever. Leave Ashley. That's all I read. So I

[00:13:20] Ed: mean, I didn't read any of those other issues. So you're

[00:13:23] Badr: in the right place, ed, because that's where the main story takes place and that's where we're gonna live, uh, today.

[00:13:28] Badr: But that is for the most part, everything you need to know. Going to the rest of this review, reading the story, it's not required for this episode, but we always recommend you check out the comic for yourself. Which you can do on, on a few different, um, you got some options to do. So you can do, you can read it on the DC Universe app like I did.

[00:13:43] Badr: You could read on Comicology if you got a library card. Uh, it's available on Hoopla and Libby and first Sure. You could purchase the book at your local comic shop, uh, if you prefer a physical book as well. Is this anyone's first time reading it? Ed, is this your first time? No. Oh, okay. Second time. Second time.

[00:14:01] Badr: Greg, what about you? Yeah, sounds like second time. Yeah, second time. Second time here as well. So we're all kind of, um, in the same boat. Greg, do you, were you reading this real time when it came out in 2011? Uh,

[00:14:11] Greg: yeah, I think I was, um, it was, you know, the scuttlebutt of the local comic book shop. Everyone was talking about Flashpoint and everyone was, you know, discussing it like a at, at your local water cooler when everyone came in on Wednesday to Yeah.

[00:14:24] Greg: See, uh, you know, what was going on with Barry. It was, it was huge. And like you said, it, it. Reached multiple different series. They had an insane amount of tie-ins that was borderline too much. And, um, you know, it, it, it was a fun conversational piece that, uh, we hadn't really seen. We had, we hadn't seen for sure when it came out.

[00:14:46] Greg: And so that was what made it more, more exciting and kind of fun to keep up with, uh, you know, as it came out. Like you wanted to be in the shop that day when it came out to talk about it with other

[00:14:56] Badr: nerds. Well said. Uh, ed, what do you remember about this? Uh, were you working at the shop ed when this came out?

[00:15:01] Badr: No,

[00:15:02] Ed: this was, I wasn't really, this was a few, this was kind of, I was on Kama Kayas for, for a while. I got back into it a few years after this. So I did, when I came back, when I started working in the comic shop, was maybe a couple years into New 52. Okay. So then working there then, okay, well I should read this.

[00:15:20] Ed: So you saw

[00:15:20] Badr: the aftermath after this? Got it. Yeah. And all the.

[00:15:23] Ed: The cheers and cheers for the new 52 in general. Oh yeah. So I was like, what does this mean? I didn't know what any of it meant. I was like, new, what's new 50? You know, I didn't know anything cuz I've been out of the game for so long. So when I came back in and then I'll see what all the fuss is about cuz you know, people were still, I was still a, a big event.

[00:15:40] Ed: Mm-hmm So I just grabbed the trade and read it.

[00:15:43] Badr: Then at that time I was already buying anything with Jeff John's name on it. And I mean, Andy Kuer is, uh, Andy Kuer is like a top five artist for me. You know, top 10 if not top five artists. So it was like, this just was a power group, you know? It was like, oh, and I vaguely remember thinking this was gonna be the equivalent of like, this was gonna be DC's age of apocalypse was like the vibe I was getting.

[00:16:07] Badr: Was, you know, this was a, a anti, this was a, um, a postapocalyptic story. Characters, you know, all the promo had showed like, you know, a, a emperor Aquaman. He's got like the, uh, the scar on his face. Um mm-hmm. You know, wonder Woman's looking crazy. Batman. It's got the five o'clock shadow. So extra scary. Yeah.

[00:16:26] Badr: Red

[00:16:26] Ed: eyes. Red eyes in bother of you. The five o'clock shadow. Yeah. The more you were,

[00:16:29] Greg: yeah. It's the, it's the red eyes for me. Bonar.

[00:16:32] Ed: Him shooting pistols. Ev Everybody wait a minute. That five o'clock shadow is weird. I'm cool with the rest of it. He'll trust that beard he shaves every other day. That's fine.

[00:16:42] Badr: My, my first time reading it was really enjoyable. I remember thinking how like, edgy, how cool it was. It looked beautiful. I was, I can't recall all of the different spinoffs I was reading, but I know I read like the, the Aquaman spinoff and, and the Wonder Woman spinoff cuz I just wanted to understand the, the whole story.

[00:16:59] Badr: I was interested in going into all the different corners and nooks and crannies and, you know, finding out like how this character has changed, what this team is up to in this world and all the different, um, all the different shakeups that were going on in this. So I, uh, you know, this has definitely got a fond place, uh, for me and even to this day, the way I kind of view DC continuity, or at least my readership is still like, Pre new 52 and post 52 and, and you know, and when you consider that Flashpoint is the catalyst for that, um, uh, for that, that launch and that era books, it's definitely integral.

[00:17:34] Badr: I think to my, my relationship with DC Jeff Johns was.

[00:17:40] Greg: Kind of the architect for almost 10 years at DC of like, you know, he did Flashpoint, he

[00:17:46] Badr: did Rebirth.

[00:17:47] Greg: 50 new, 52 Doomsday Clock. Like he was this like giant puppeteer, just like making this whole intricate Multiuniverse story. And you know, flashpoint, I, I don't know if they expected it to be as gigantic as it is, like they really, no pun intended, caught lightning in a bottle and were just like, okay, let's just go with it.

[00:18:09] Greg: And then they tried to duplicate it a few times over the years to, you know, whatever success you want to call it. But I mean, flashpoint really was this huge, pivotal thing that I think multiple publishers looked at and was just like, okay, how can we copy what they just did and do it over here? So, you know, to everyone listening, flashpoint is a gigantic freaking deal.

[00:18:30] Badr: I'm glad you said that about catching lightning in a bottle, because this is one of those story, those plot points where in this day and age, We've seen it's, it's not a, a completely like new idea. Like I think even the CW Flash show, um, uh, did their interpretation of Flashpoint, right? Mm-hmm. And, uh, I feel like there's another instance I, I can't recall off the top of my head, but Barry Allen going back in time to fix something and then ha it having a butterfly effect feels like it is not a brand new idea in today's day and age.

[00:19:02] Badr: But if you put yourself in 2011, I, I could be wrong. And, and maybe a, a very diehard flash or DC fan will correct me. Isn't it wild to think that in 2011 this was the first time they considered doing this story, like flash going back in time to save his mom And this having impacts to the, the timeline, right?

[00:19:21] Badr: Like is there any other instance that you guys can think of of Flash doing this and it having, uh, uh, impact this maybe not this big cuz I think, uh, what Greg said is perfect. This is kind of an outlier, but. I guess, how often does flash go back in time and fuck things up? Is that a trope because of this series or has that always kind of been

[00:19:39] Ed: a thing?

[00:19:40] Ed: This definitely has to have be heavy influence because there's been multiverse shenanigans mm-hmm. For a while. But this is different because it's the same timeline. It's not, I don't know what the show is, but I know the movie, he's like running into another version of himself where this is like, his current timeline is being fractured and he's getting memories of what he remembers and then what this new reality is basically fighting.

[00:20:06] Ed: The memories are fighting each other. So it's, it's a unique. A take on it because it's not just, oh, that's just flash from Earth 85 and they're all, it's not cucumbers. Yeah. You know, it's, it's all, you know, it's, it's nothing like that. It's not like a ride off like, oh well that was Superman from, he's in the crime syndicate so he's the bad guy.

[00:20:22] Ed: He just looks exactly the same. Or someone with a goatee as the bad guy from another, you know, this is like the same reality that's basically being fractured in like in a huge way for what seems like one person, you know? Cuz that's when I first read it. Or when I first thought about it, it was like, man, is Flash's mom really?

[00:20:39] Ed: This instrumental for like everything going to shit. I guess she's super pivotal. I know. It's like, man, so if she's lives Aquaman and Wonder Woman fight across the earth, destroy, pretty much destroying it. Man, that's, that's wild

[00:20:54] Badr: stakes. Barry's mom makes a mean apple pie. When she died, the recipe died too.

[00:21:00] Badr: Right? And Barry's like, I gotta go back and restore my mom. To add

[00:21:03] Greg: on to that, think about this. If Bruce dies, his parents turn into either the Joker or. Another version of Batman. It's just like, how integral are these like little kids to see the survival of, I don't know, millions of other

[00:21:15] Ed: people. You kill Hitler on the way, on the way back.

[00:21:17] Ed: Yeah. Take hit Hitler and then come get your mom. Good. Then come back.

[00:21:21] Badr: The apple pie recipe priority first. All right. All right. What would you guys say are the larger, uh, themes and topics introduce or explored in this story? Let's start off with that and then I, I want to talk about the creative team. I think really

[00:21:35] Greg: the, the heroes hubris of, you know, I can,

[00:21:39] Badr: I can fix anything.

[00:21:41] Badr: This guy's good. Ed Hubris. That's a good word. Gonna be good.

[00:21:43] Greg: Hubris. I'm telling you, man, I did a bunch of homework for this show cause I didn't look like a fucking idiot. But I mean, that's the, the main one that hit me right in the head of just like, flashes in any superhero really, of just like, I have these great powers.

[00:21:56] Greg: That means I can probably fix anything. And then you go to fix something and you just fuck it up even worse, like, and so that's the one that just smacked me

[00:22:05] Badr: right across the face. That's a good one. And I want to add. Grief and, and regret, right? Mm-hmm. Like there's only so much we can, like, we can handle and, and do with grief and regret, like things that, you know, a lot of times like a, an internal journey when you lose someone or you re you, you've got regrets.

[00:22:22] Badr: Like a lot of times it's up to you to like resolve that in, in, in, up, in a positive way. But when you've applied those things to superheroes who have the ability, like Greg, you said, like to fix things, that makes for an interesting story. And, and I thought, and I think Jeff John's tapping into that made for a really good story.

[00:22:40] Badr: I just repeated myself twice. But yeah, I, I'm gonna say grief and regret were like, some were pretty large themes. Cause I mean, flash wouldn't have done that if he didn't feel these have these feelings. And then o obviously the temptation with power. Yeah. It's kind of

[00:22:53] Ed: encapsulating what you said. You have to accept that you can't change the past and you have to understand it.

[00:23:00] Ed: Even terrible things kind of shape who you are, right? I, I can't say it any better than you, Greg, but it's just like, oh, I have all these powers. I can go back and I can make everything perfect and you can't, you know, it's like you fix one broken thing, something else br and it never ends and you just end up going mad and becoming the villain.

[00:23:18] Greg: And like, and like what is perfect really. Because like, honestly, Barry may have had a perfect life cuz his mom was there and he was happy, but his dad died of a heart attack. So you lose something, you, you're always gonna lose something. And like, just because you have the perfect life doesn't mean that.

[00:23:33] Greg: You created the perfect light for someone else. See law of equivalent

[00:23:36] Ed: exchange like the, uh, full metal alchemist

[00:23:40] Greg: as Jeff Johns in that big brain of his just making,

[00:23:43] Badr: making it all happen. Obviously it's very selfish and narrow minded on, on Barry's part, you shoot him some bail because you're like, man, if I had the power to go back in time, think of all the shit I probably, you know, fix and, and all the caution that I would throw to the wind.

[00:23:58] Badr: Um, I think that's why this story, the, the premise for this story is fascinating, even though I personally felt like it took a little bit to get to that point. But I'll get into more of, of my, um, uh, uh, pros and, and and cons here in a sec. Let's talk about the creative team before we dive any further into the story.

[00:24:14] Badr: Uh, because we've talked a little bit about Jeff Johns and, and I agree with what Greg was saying. It feels like when you consider that he's, he wrote Flashpoint, which launched, you know, D new 52 and then that rebirth, like he was kind of, he was brought back to once again, restart the DC universe. That's pretty fucking epic.

[00:24:31] Badr: Jeff Jones is like, DC's was DC's Ace in the hole? Let's bring him into, you know, write a really good story to, to set a new stage. It's like we're starting over. Jeff,

[00:24:40] Ed: come in here. Yeah.

[00:24:43] Greg: That's like, let's, like when Marvel calls up Jonathan Hickman just like, Hey, we need some graphs and sharks, man. Exactly.

[00:24:48] Badr: Thank you. Jeff Johns is, is who DC calls for that, that level of like, you know, we wanna get a blockbuster out there. We wanna like get some hype and, and you know, make sure that these books sell. I've been personally, I've been a fan of Jeff John since like his oh five Green Lantern run and I cannot stress how important that series was to like my comic journey that was like that and Planet Hulk were the first two books I ever put on my own comic pull list.

[00:25:15] Badr: Like I you Jeff Jones could do No Wrong to me. From Blackest Knight to the DC Rebirth, I think he's a cornerstone for DC Comics. Full stop period. I dunno what, I just had to give him his props. But even before Green and Lantern, I mean, I mean, you consider his, uh, JSA run his Teen Titans run. I mean, hell, his flash run like the, the flash work he was doing with Scott Collins before doing Flash Rebirth or, or, or even flashpoint, like the dude has, has grinded and, and made a name for himself, like from the trenches of like writing monthly comic book, long form run series.

[00:25:53] Badr: That was a lot of words, a lot of adjectives. But you get my point. This dude is a seasoned writer. Now, I wanna also give credit to the art team as well, because Andy Kubert, what words come to mind when you think of Andy Kubert? Uh, Greg. Oh,

[00:26:09] Greg: he's like a, from a pedigree family of, uh, illustrators. Uh, yeah, you got Joe and you got Adam, and they're.

[00:26:19] Greg: School of art that he's teaching at right now. I mean, and if you're a kid in the nineties, y you know that name. It's just synonymous with comic books. It's like, just like, um, you know, Stan Lee and, um, Jack Kirby. Like, those are just the names that appear on your comic book, Mount Rushmore. You know, by default they've just been, you know, uh, chiseled into the history of it because they've just had a huge impact on honestly how comic books look and feel and flow.

[00:26:51] Greg: Like they've just, they reinvented, maybe not reinvented, but they definitely created a style that everyone either consciously or subconsciously kind of, uh, either rips off or pays homage to. I mean, you don't, you don't start your own art school because you like to draw. It's like, it's just a

[00:27:09] Badr: passion of yours.

[00:27:10] Badr: Yes. I, I think you could have stopped at the art school, right? It's like, this guy's so good. This guy's so good. His family, he comes from a family that draws so good. They teach other artists to be as good as them. Righted. What about you, man? What words come to mind about Cooper?

[00:27:26] Ed: He's really good. He's not just because of my aesthetics and tastes.

[00:27:30] Ed: He's not my favorite, but he, I can't deny. He's talented and, and good, and like I said, he survived the nineties when everyone was drawing, like McFarland and Jim Lee. His style was on par with those guys and kind of survived without him having to change his style. You know, his stuff is, I think when you ask somebody like what a comic book looks like, you'll see his art.

[00:27:55] Ed: You know, it's like, oh, this is, you know, everyone's. In proportion. Not, not too stylized. Yeah. But just super, super solid. I think even more technically proficient than, than Adam and his dad. I hate to say it cause I love Joe Hubert's, Sergeant Rock stuff. I had a ton of those as a kid. Um, but like he's just a solid guy and his work fits.

[00:28:19] Ed: Perfectly with superhero stuff. Like that's a guy you want doing big cinematic superhero work like

[00:28:25] Badr: Flashpoint. You're right. That's great. You cannot think of anyone better to draw Flashpoint. He's kinda like a drummer in a way. Like he, he'll, he'll find a pocket and he'll just stick to the pocket and it's consistent from like issue one until the very end.

[00:28:39] Badr: In this case, like all five issues are super strong all the way through like consistent from panel to panel, from the biggest splash page through the smallest little corner to the smallest moment. It's just very consistent artwork. He's very technical and like I said, he'll, he'll find like a pocket, he'll be able to tell you like a, a, a consistent visual story and then he will hit you over the head with like the fucking drum solo.

[00:29:03] Badr: And it's like this epic splash page man, like Andy Cooper is, is a rockstar.

[00:29:08] Greg: I think that's the thing about house artists though. That's why, that's why they get those jobs. There's just like, we need someone who can be consistent on time and like, you know, is dynamic.

[00:29:18] Badr: I'm going on a ledge here. I'm pulling a Barry Allen and I'm just making a brash, uh, statement here.

[00:29:24] Badr: But Andy Cooper might be one of the most consistent artist of his like, uh, uh, career. His generation or his, his generation or career worse, right? Oh, yeah. Like definitely the dude has been drawing comics for me since like the nineties, right? He's still drawing if, maybe, if not before that. And to your point, he's still drawing and it's still really good.

[00:29:45] Badr: And when you look at some of his peers and contemporaries who have been drawing as long, and I won't name any names, but there's a few now where you're like, man, that, that are constantly being compared to their old stuff. They're, they don't draw as, I mean, shit, we talked about it last time. I guess I, I wasn't gonna say names, but, but, and this is no shade to them.

[00:30:02] Badr: I mean, I like all of 'em. You're Frank Millers, your, your John Roto Jrs are the most immediate ones that come to mind in, in regards to fans bitching, complaining or being critical about their work today versus, you know, the prime stuff. I don't think Annie Cooper falls in that line cuz he's. He, he's good at what he does.

[00:30:20] Badr: Like, yeah, I think he can do this stuff with his eyes closed. Yeah.

[00:30:24] Ed: He's, he's, he's had longevity and consistency. Like you're right. Is key. And he is, he's never followed trends. You can look at it and think, oh, this is, could be from 1995 or this could be from last week. Yes, you can, you know, it's tell the, it's, it's, it is a timeless style cuz a lot of times these stylized guys, their work looks.

[00:30:44] Ed: Dated. It gets, you know, it'll look dated after a while, or Oh, that's a nineties look, or that's a, you know, like as much as I like Todd McFarland, I'll see a lot of his stuff and it's like, oh, that's like name too, bro.

[00:30:55] Badr: So they defined a generation and I think, uh, Andy Cooper's artwork kind of like, is always fit in regardless of generation.

[00:31:02] Badr: He's like, kind of

[00:31:03] Ed: like that blue collar guy. He's just coming in working draftsman technical, you know, he's not wanting to, I mean, he's already, the lineage is there, so he's not trying to build empires like Uncle Todd or Jim Lee. He's not trying to, Jeff Johns was good and then he just disappeared all of a sudden now that Jim Lee's president.

[00:31:20] Ed: This is weird.

[00:31:21] Badr: And this is not the episode of the Jim League conspiracy. All right. But I, I should have mentioned on the topic of the Kubert lineage, is it Andy's daughter? Is it Adam's daughter, but their daughter, uh, is it Emily Cooper? Mm-hmm. They're doing a

[00:31:34] Greg: book on

[00:31:35] Badr: image right now. Oh, wow. I don't even know.

[00:31:36] Badr: Even the, you know, even the next generation Coopers are that good at drawing, so, I didn't mean for this to turn into a Andy Cooper artist spotlight, but I'm here for it. All right. All right. Let's put a spotlight on Alex and Claire and Sandra. Hope, the colorists and anchor respectively. Cuz I feel like they both knocked it out the park and they really mm-hmm.

[00:31:55] Badr: Should be brought up more for their contribution. I think just in general, anchors and colors sometimes get like a second thought compared to the writer and artist. But Alex and Clare and Sandra Hope, the, the inks and colors in this were phenomenal. If Andy Cooper, if he brought the actors and the, um, in the stage, they brought the lighting, the, the, the soundboard, you know, they brought everything else to make this a, a complete blockbuster.

[00:32:21] Badr: Mm-hmm. There are some smash pages in here that feel absolutely cinematic. One in particular is when, uh, Barry. Wakes up in this new world. He's a little, he's confused. He's running around and he runs into his mom and they have like a moment where they hug, and it's a full splash page. It's right there in the middle of the, the police precinct.

[00:32:38] Badr: The lighting on that looked like something from a Broadway plate. There's cool lighting for sure. Ambiance and emotion. Yeah. Great package.

[00:32:45] Ed: Like a great team to bring this together, for

[00:32:47] Badr: sure. Long story short, the creative team on the flashpoint is a prime example of like every piece of the comic book puzzle all working together at the top of their game for a magnificent product.

[00:33:00] Badr: All right, moving on. I wanna hear how did it sit with you guys? Did you like it on, uh, for your second reread, any standout issues, panels, pages, or moments that come to mind? This

[00:33:09] Greg: event did something that was kind of unique. I, if you just look at the Flashpoint one through five, which I know is hard because there's so many different avenues you can go, if you just look through Flashpoint one through five, it told a pretty standard story because you only get an illusion to what's gonna happen in the future, like in the last three panels of the last issue.

[00:33:32] Greg: And that's totally different than what happens in events nowadays. They try to give you too much exposition too quickly, but flashpoint, you know, one through five is like kind of a beautiful story about trying to solve a problem. And this alternate, you know, um, main timeline that we're in, just like a, a fun detective story, um, told in this grand way that has huge repercussions that we don't even know about yet.

[00:33:59] Greg: Hit and hint the new 52. And I thought it was just like, if you just stick to issues one through five, it's kind of awesome just seeing it blossom and just like, Show itself. And like you, when you find out that Barry Allen is the real reason for all this happening, you're kind of just like sitting there just like, what the, like what the hell?

[00:34:16] Greg: When did that come from? And it was just so cool watching it kind of unravel like that. And I think we've gotten away from that with current Marvel in DC because for, you know, for whatever reason, they're trying to sell variant covers. They're trying to sell issues. You know, there's, there's different things we could probably talk about, but it's just like the nuance and the poetry really isn't there anymore.

[00:34:40] Greg: And I think Jeff John's was more concerned about telling a concise and fun story than just like a big

[00:34:48] Badr: payday for someone. Oh, said, I can get behind that. First time I read it, I thought it was edgy, beautiful artwork. Cool alternate takes on characters. I would've told you then this is a 10 outta 10 book.

[00:35:00] Badr: But that's because I had read some of the other splinter, um, uh, stories and some of the, um, spinoffs reading it today. Minus the rose colored glasses. I think this lacks just a little bit of the emotional punch and feels a, a tad anti-climatic because so much content context is needed, uh, for the time traveling elements of the story.

[00:35:23] Badr: I guess they didn't dawn on me then, but I found it interesting reading it now that it was only five issues for the core story when you're used to six being like usually the minimum and then sometimes 12 being the maximum, and a lot of times 12 is like, Way too much. And you're like, yeah, this should have wrapped it up at seven.

[00:35:38] Badr: And then when you have it too short, you're like, ah, it needs another issue. I'm gonna say I do wish I had another issue to let it breathe a little. Yeah. Because I thought the reveal where with eor th or reverse flash, uh, showing up last issue felt just a little lackluster because he shows up and he's like, surprise.

[00:35:54] Badr: It's you, Barry Allen. It's on you and memory punch. Yeah. And let me explain why it's you. And it's a lot of context. And they're having a fight. It's like Barry fighting, uh, uh, reverse flash and Barry's denying it. He's like, there's no way I did it. And he's like, oh, I'm gonna explain to you. Yeah. And it's just, it feels like a lot of talking head in.

[00:36:11] Badr: It takes, I think the focus out of the action. You know, I think that could have been delivered in a, in a different way.

[00:36:17] Ed: I'm looking at it from just this, if this was a standalone thing, these were like 60 books. You know, there was like 50. I mean, I understand like, I think

[00:36:25] Badr: she's added sixties, a terrible

[00:36:27] Ed: ratio.

[00:36:27] Ed: There's, people are starting to get mad. Now let's, let's tidy this up. But if this came out today as like a standalone thing, I think. Yeah, 12 issues please to like flesh it out more, but not reading the other tangential things, the Booster Gold and the one shots and all that stuff and not reading it during that time.

[00:36:45] Ed: This, like I said, oh this is great, but I'm not a big fan of having to read 60 books for one story. That's fair. You know, for one event that's basically gonna start from scratch. So essentially meaning what? Yeah, I think it's a bit just in this current viewing, like I totally agree with what you're saying.

[00:37:05] Ed: Like it is just, man, this is a lot crammed in here and I wish there was some more room to breathe and some more. Explanation and some more, you know, like I said, some more emotional beats, letting things breathe a little more to go to the positive things. I do love multiverse stuff. Oh yeah. I do love the sea list characters they bring out and like, it's like, oh, Demonn and grifter are on the team.

[00:37:28] Ed: That's weird. That's

[00:37:28] Badr: the best part of like, these, these, uh, postapocalyptic alternate realities is you're like, finally this z like Sam's like five

[00:37:36] Ed: kids jammed together by lightning.

[00:37:39] Greg: That was the most fucked up thing. It's like the Voltron up to make Captain Thunder or something. You're like, what? All of them,

[00:37:45] Badr: like how does that work?

[00:37:46] Badr: Eltron literally formed outta

[00:37:48] Ed: minors is crazy. And just the thing too of far as like just going over stuff like you have a, a boat with like clay face and, and um, death, just throat death and they death throat just get done in like a panel. It's like, what? I would like to see more of this, more of a, something with these main top tier villains, but we have.

[00:38:06] Ed: Grifter and we have like an Element woman who is a amalgamation of at least three or four people. I can't, I don't even know. It's like, is this Destiny and Metamorph and Poison IV mixed together? Who is this? And then Dime store Eant with her Halloween store. Whoa, whoa.

[00:38:23] Badr: Oh God. Put some respect on chance's name cuz she was probably one of my favorite characters in this.

[00:38:28] Badr: She was a badass. I'm on their side. No. Ah, she was kicking everyone's ass. That was pretty cool. She's the mole. She's the mole. And I guess I can't ding them too much cuz it's like, well this is why we have so many spinoff series is cuz we don't have time to make this core issue 64 issues. But I do feel like if they would've had one more issue or just spent just a little more time on this world, like letting me feel like, um, you know, get a, a sense of like the drama behind it because they kind of gloss over like what the beef is between, you know, emperor Aquaman and Wonder Woman kind of, they slept together and then, but they don't explain it in this core issue.

[00:39:02] Badr: Right. Explain. Oh, I'm thinking of the cartoon. They do. I think they either explain it in the, uh, in the Aquaman, uh, um, spinoff series or the, the Wonder Woman. It's like, for you to get all these pieces, you gotta go into all and Yeah. Right. And that's kind of like, that's always been our gripe, right? That's usually like all of comic fandoms gripe and, and bitching.

[00:39:19] Badr: It's like, why do I need to buy all these issues to get the cute story? But I feel like maybe one more issue or even two would've helped this one kind of let it breathe a little more. I guess for the most part, you just get a very high level introduction to the world, and I would've wished for just a little more context for the big conflict.

[00:39:36] Badr: Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the, the conflict is the internal issue of Barry, but I feel like you just spend so much time with Barry and Batman instead of like the, the world, right? Barry isn't a chair getting struck by lightning? Not once, but twice. I do

[00:39:50] Ed: like that. Just like, let's set up this electric chair on top of your mansion.

[00:39:53] Greg: Let's make Barry

[00:39:54] Badr: into bacon. Now, the last issue where, where Barry is, is talking with his mom, and he's like, look, I, I flubbed up. I've gotta, I've gotta go back in time to stop me going back in time from stopping you from dying. And, you know, he's like, I don't want, I thought that was really heartfelt. Like his mom even being like, you know, think of all the other people that you know, uh, that don't get saved or, or end up dying.

[00:40:16] Badr: Jeff Jones has a way of just writing really heartfelt, compelling. Uh, conversations and, and if it involves a mom, you know, it's a wrap. You're going to be crying at the end. If it involves parents, Jeff Johns is the man for it. I'd put up a little

[00:40:31] Ed: more of a fight though if I was the mom. I was like, so what though?

[00:40:34] Ed: So what? What?

[00:40:35] Greg: Only 40 million. I mean, I will make you your favorite cake every day.

[00:40:40] Badr: Barry, I still think you can read this core issue. And get a, a solid story like, like Greg was saying, I think at his core it is a solid story and you don't have to go deeper, but I think if you want to really feel like, uh, you lived in this world, it kind of behooves you to at least check out like the, the, the main character, like your Aquaman's and, and your Wonder Woman spinoffs.

[00:41:01] Badr: Yeah.

[00:41:01] Ed: This is a, that's a tough recommend for like a new reader. You know? This might be a bit much to like understand what's going on. This is a lot of like, like especially a lot of different takes on characters you may not

[00:41:13] Badr: even know about. If you failed time travel, uh, class, every time you got an F in time travel, this might not be your, your company tea.

[00:41:21] Badr: Yeah. Did we learn anything new about Flash from this story? Were there any major takeaways? Were there any other character arcs that you guys might have found interesting?

[00:41:29] Greg: I mean, I'm not really a huge Flash fan to begin with. So I mean, I always knew he could run fast, so I didn't really learn much, uh,

[00:41:37] Badr: different from that.

[00:41:38] Badr: But did you know he could run so fast so he could go back in time and crack issues?

[00:41:43] Greg: I know that now. Um, and I think the, what's cool was I, in doing the research in, in the new 52 Barry, he's also super fast at thinking now, like they changed his power set a little bit, where like, not only am I fast, but like I'm also really smart cause I can like think fast too.

[00:42:01] Greg: And like, I think that slight tweak in his like power set was really interesting and kind of took the character to another, uh, dimension. Because, I mean, think about it, if for the Justice League everyone's just like, oh, Batman and Superman, and like, they're like the most powerful, but like, can they go back in time and like totally fuck up the future?

[00:42:21] Greg: Like future, I think there's a, a conversation of like, is Barry Allen potentially the strongest. Or most powerful justices League member because he can do the most damaged.

[00:42:31] Ed: And then he's always kind of treated as like a goofball, like, you know, before that too. He's always

[00:42:36] Badr: kind of like, oh, totally goofy.

[00:42:38] Badr: Clown is a, a forensic scientist. I know. He's like,

[00:42:40] Ed: this guy's smart. He's not a, a dumb fast guy.

[00:42:46] Badr: Outside of Flash, is, is the obvious pick for best character in this Batman, or is Batman like the best character in this? Hmm. Thomas Wayne Batman. Ooh. I always thought like

[00:42:56] Greg: the emotional, uh, story. Batman had the most emotional

[00:43:00] Ed: one.

[00:43:00] Ed: The letter? Yeah. What did Crazy Ass Thomas Wayne write though? I couldn't imagine him writing a sincere letter at his mental

[00:43:06] Greg: state Every lottery number for the last 20 years.

[00:43:11] Ed: Bet on these teams.

[00:43:12] Badr: Yeah, I do like how the shoveled and just desperate and just down trodden this version of Batman. Even though like the regular Batman is usually you can apply the same adjectives as well.

[00:43:24] Badr: But this version of a Batman, Thomas Wayne, obviously did not take the loss of his, his son and wife lightly at all. I mean, you know, he, he ends up becoming Batman himself and the wife becomes the joker. Oh shit. That's right. Having just read the core issues, I wouldn't have known. Yeah, they don't tell you that for shit.

[00:43:43] Badr: Damn, I forgot all about that. That's right. She becomes a joker. The story goes what? It's Bruce that gets killed that night that they're leaving the theater and the grief turns. Uh, Thomas Wayne, that the dad into Batman and she becomes the Joker. That's right. I forgot about that. Wow. Yeah. Thomas Wayne all day.

[00:43:59] Badr: That is a hella interesting story. I just

[00:44:01] Greg: like it when like we get these topsy turvy interpretations of characters you already know and like to see Deathstroke as like a pirate with clay face. You're just like, oh, that's kind of fun. And like you just get like, I think it's just fun for the, for the creative team to be like, what if we did this to like, what if Superman was like really skinny and they're just like, make it happen.

[00:44:21] Greg: And then like, I just like the weird tweaks to like the normal that we're used to. This is what I really enjoy about this. And like metal and death metal, it's just like, just the fun, crazy shit that you get to see.

[00:44:32] Ed: The Superman, the imager is just so jarring. This is like with a weird stick body. Oh yeah.

[00:44:37] Ed: It really fucks you up. Yeah. I'm getting it. A lot of it mixed up too. Cause I watched the animation as well. I need to watch the animation series, which I think is a, a more streamlined, like, I think more accessible fan or a new comic fan friendly. Everyone's super jacked in it. It's crazy. Everyone's super jacked.

[00:44:55] Ed: Little heads, giant bodies. I think he lasers off Aquaman's. Armin. Oh damn. It's pretty nuts.

[00:45:02] Badr: Yeah. Oh hell yeah. How about we gonna shift gears to, um, uh, talking a little bit about the movie, right? So obviously we're recording this episode drops the Wednesday before the movie premieres everywhere. Um, and I want to get to talking about maybe some of the parallels and differences between what we've read and what we've seen so far in the trailers and such.

[00:45:21] Badr: I'm gonna read, I'm, I'm gonna kick it off by reading the premise, uh, for the movie as it's being advertised. It goes, worlds collide when the flash uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zad has returned threatening annihilation with no other superheroes to turn to.

[00:45:43] Badr: The flash looks to coax the coax, uh, a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue and imprisoned Kryptonian, albeit not the one he's looking for. So based on that and the trailers that we've gotten, I want to hear what are your thoughts and expectations going to the movies? Are there any noticeable parallels and differences that we can pull from, from just, uh, what we know so far?

[00:46:04] Badr: I

[00:46:05] Ed: am curious with the Michael Key because I, I remember when it was rumored, it was like he was gonna be Thomas Wayne since he was, he's an older guy now. Mm-hmm. But it doesn't look like that. It looks like he's just another version of Batman. The Z thing is interesting. I wasn't expecting Zad to come back.

[00:46:24] Ed: It looks very interesting and I've heard good reviews about it, but I'm not, it's gonna be a lot different. I don't think you should expect, you know, the Jeff John's version, it's

[00:46:35] Badr: gonna be, this is not a one for one. They take

[00:46:38] Ed: it off. Yeah, they take like the inkling of that idea and then basically change all the, the pieces to the puzzle.

[00:46:44] Badr: Greg, what about you, man? What are some of your observations? Well,

[00:46:47] Greg: um, to, to talk about the Superwoman thing, I think we are gonna get kind of a story like we got in Flashpoint with Superman. She does seem like she's breaking out of a building, so I don't know if she like, was kidnapped and then maybe that explains why General Zad is there.

[00:47:04] Greg: Like if no Superman existed, like he could come and, you know, start destroying stuff. So maybe she's being held captive. You know, Michael Keaton's Batman was cool. I don't know where that's gonna fit in. I think that's just a, a fun way to sell tickets to people who were

[00:47:20] Badr: fans. It is absolutely. The movies, the studio's break in case glass, emergency plan, Heaton.

[00:47:28] Badr: Get over here.

[00:47:28] Greg: This will make everyone forget about Ezra Miller. Michael Keaton.

[00:47:32] Badr: It does seem like the overall theme of time travel and butterfly and the butterfly effect that comes with, it's gonna be pretty prevalent, right? It's still Barry traveling back in time to change events. It looks like it. It's the motivation is still saving his mom.

[00:47:46] Badr: Obviously there is no reverse flash in this universe or in the, in the movie universe. Maybe yet. True. Maybe you're right.

[00:47:53] Ed: I'm hoping it's Gorilla Garage in a flash suit. That would make me so happy. Oh

[00:47:57] Greg: man, I'll see you twice. If that's the case,

[00:48:00] Ed: Oscars movie

[00:48:03] Badr: of the year, reverse flash would be a welcome surprise.

[00:48:06] Badr: But at the same time, you're like, and now what are you guys gonna do with him? You know, it's like this. James Gunn is about to erase all this shit. But back to what I was saying as far as Barry going back in time to saves mom, that seems like that's still gonna be the case. But Ed, you, you pointed out some of the differences.

[00:48:20] Badr: I guess we can't tell if this is like his universe or an alternate reality in the comic. He doesn't meet two flashes. He's in that moment. Yeah. This is him going back in his past. It's not him replacing himself in the past, but or, um, his current reality. See, time travel, man, I hate having,

[00:48:35] Ed: and there's Ben Affleck

[00:48:36] Badr: Batman in this too.

[00:48:37] Badr: Do you know how often I have to remind myself that Ben Affleck is in this movie? Because Michael Keaton is like, seems to be the only topic he's overshadowing

[00:48:43] Ed: everybody. Right? See, it's gonna be called Batman

[00:48:46] Badr: Flashpoint, even in 2023. Michael Keaton and Ben Atec, you know, it's like the, the subhead. And we don't know if Ke and or Affleck will be playing Thomas Wayne.

[00:48:56] Badr: It sounds like they're both just reprising their roles as their respective Batman. Um, and then, uh, Greg brought it up, but there's no Superman in this case. We've got Carra Jel being played by Sasha Cali. Um, some other differences I've noted, just from what I know so far, the main conflict slash world ending event isn't gonna be some war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman, even though I will say that would've been, would've awesome.

[00:49:19] Badr: Yeah, they could've done it and that would've been awesome. Like we would've seen a different side of Gal Gado.

[00:49:24] Ed: They could do a true reset with all the main Justice League people, right? Skinny Henry Gavel. Like make him get, lose a lot of weight. Like the Leah's, like the machinist, like Christian Bale, you know, ribs,

[00:49:36] Badr: Ugh.

[00:49:37] Badr: I think the biggest similarity between the two outside of like the time travel is the, the purpose for both of these, uh, for both, right? Like the comic was to usher in this new age of storytelling, right? Because prior to that, it was from like, what, 1985, up until 2010 was considered like post infinite crisis, DC continuity, and then Flashpoint comes along new 52 rewrites, you know, all those years of continuity.

[00:50:03] Badr: Well, we're seeing that same thing with this movie. Like the, the, the purpose of this movie is to go ahead and usher in a new era of, of storytelling. And I think that is, I think that's a cool parallel between the source material and the movie itself. Yeah. DC Studios, uh, state of movies was in such bad affairs that they're like, all right, bust out the flashpoint.

[00:50:23] Badr: We're gonna do the same thing that worked in the comics. Bring it over here.

[00:50:28] Ed: But they're all still, they still have. Aquaman movie and the Blue Beetle movie

[00:50:33] Badr: coming out. Right? I don't know which order. I think it's Blue Beetle First, and then Aquaman. I think Aquaman closes out the, the year I'll say this much.

[00:50:39] Badr: I'm, I was really impressed by the Blue Beatle trailer. Mm-hmm. And I absolutely planned to see that. Probably more so than Aquaman. Aquaman might not be like a, a first day opening night movie for me. But Blue Beatle is with the hopes that it, it still feels like on the topic of like Aquaman, Jason Mao and Gal Gado, it doesn't seem like they're giving us a definite answer if we expect to see, like, it still feels malleable, like the, the, the, uh, the door hasn't completely closed on them transitioning.

[00:51:09] Badr: Not like Henry Caval. I was like, nah, no. That door was closed and set on fire. But my hope is, is that if Blue Beetle performs well enough, maybe they'll, you know, bring him over. And I'm hoping like, and I'm hoping it, it sure, totally. It rightfully deserves that. I hope the movie is good and, and people are like, yeah, we wanna see more of this guy because I think DC needs that.

[00:51:30] Badr: I think it needs like a young, fresh face like superhero for like the, the, uh, a younger audience break from. I think it needs a little bit of that break. A break

[00:51:38] Ed: from Batman, please. As much as I like the last one. It's like, please.

[00:51:43] Badr: So we kind of just addressed this last topic, cuz this next question is in regards to maybe the biggest reason you'd be a little hesitant about seeing Flashpoint, even though it feels like no one else has been bothered by the, at least like critics and even, uh, uh, James Gun doesn't seem to be bothered by said was.

[00:52:00] Badr: Yeah. Really good. And I mean, obviously we're addressing the elephant in the room here when it comes to this movie and that's, The main hero himself. Right? The hero himself, or in this case themselves. Cuz Ezra Miller identifies as they them, the flash themselves. The lead star, Ezra Miller. Ah, man. What, what can you say?

[00:52:21] Badr: Maybe the greatest

[00:52:22] Greg: villain of all time.

[00:52:25] Badr: Oh, man. Do you think he was a, a deep and, and, and care, what do they call it? Uh uh uh, method acting. Method Acting. But he got it mixed up. He got it mixed up. Yeah. Instead of method acting as, as goodhearted do the right thing. Barry Allen, he's over here as Eor Th Oh, he's reverse slash Which means we might get, maybe that's it.

[00:52:44] Badr: Maybe Ed, you're onto something. We're gonna see reverse flash. It's him and all this shenanigans. These allegations, these accusations have leading up to, it'll be hilarious

[00:52:51] Ed: if he plays himself as reverse

[00:52:53] Badr: slash you'd be like, huh, okay. It makes sense. Starting fights during karaoke. Yeah, he just, it's probably safe to say anyone invested in comics or has, or is even slightly interested or aware of this movie has seen.

[00:53:06] Badr: Some sort of headline about Ezra Miller in the last, I think safe to say, at least this past year, we've seen a lot of headlines about Ezra Miller, but I think they've started it as early as like 20 20, 20 21. Mm-hmm. This person has had many, many, many, many allegations and serious legal issues come up.

[00:53:23] Badr: What feels like, uh, like that was the movie rollout, right? Like instead of the trailers doing the speaking, it's been Ezra Miller headlines. The greatest hype

[00:53:31] Greg: for a movie is his allegations and

[00:53:33] Ed: Misdoings. Maybe he really subscribes to the no such thing as bad publicity, but yeah, kinda. Sorry,

[00:53:40] Badr: Ezra, I want you to take everything you thought or heard about Ezra Miller and all of his, his baggage and, and drama.

[00:53:47] Badr: And I want you to realize that it is simply the air above the tip of the iceberg. All right? That is the air. It's not even the tip. There's a whole ass continental size glacier of drama and legal shit under the surface. I think he took, I think he took Kanye West Lyric, who's already a controversial, uh, person in saying also, also a controversial person this day and age, but he's reverse flesh.

[00:54:11] Ed: A movie would reverse

[00:54:12] Badr: with Kanye West and Esther Miller. Just being shitty people would be pretty awesome. Oh, no. I think about the Kanye West Lyric. I feel the pressure under more scrutiny and what I do act more stupidly. That's how I feel about Ezra Miller. Wh where do I start, right? There's a laundry list of, of things like fighting of patrons at a bar.

[00:54:33] Badr: Um, uh, physically assaulting a woman of a chair. There's multiple allegations, really gross allegations of him, like grooming minors and sexual harassment. Ezra Miller was on the run from authorities at one point, like avoiding being served papers. They've been charged with felony burglary and and and so on and so on.

[00:54:50] Badr: There is an insanely detailed timeline of events I shared in the outline. I don't know if you guys saw it, but on the Vulture website there is an outline that out outline, I'm sorry. There's an outline of the history of Ezra Miller's controversial career, and I'll leave it to the listeners to go find that article and read it for themselves.

[00:55:06] Badr: Just make sure you carve out like a two hour block, because I'm telling you, Greg, did you see how far, like, how much scrolling you had to do? Yeah,

[00:55:13] Greg: well, I mean like Covid affected us in a lot of different ways and I think it broke Ezra's brain. Like, he was like, I think there's a a point where they're like, he maybe started a cult on, on an island in Hawaii.

[00:55:26] Greg: And it's just like, what? Like, okay, sure. Like what else

[00:55:29] Badr: can you

[00:55:29] Ed: do? I mean, to be fair, that's a nice place to

[00:55:32] Badr: start a cult as your mother is a walking shitty person. Bingo card. Like think of the shittiest things someone can do outside of, outside of, of murder and, and genocide. It's that being a card is, is pretty full.

[00:55:44] Badr: The more I read about him, the more I, I started to see them as like this conflicted and polarizing person of, of a very interesting career. You know, like on one end, early in his career and even like still to this day, Miller has championed righteous causes and, you know, he's been an outspoken person for the L G B T Q community.

[00:56:03] Badr: Um, uh, they've been vocal about the environment. They've talked about corporate greed, but then you've got like all this other stuff that outweighs any of the good that you can possibly say about, uh, say about the person on the topic of. Things that might impact your enjoyment of the movie or might make you hesitant about supporting, um, you know, supporting this movie is Ezra Miller's Baggage, you know, to be nice about it.

[00:56:31] Badr: Does his baggage impact your, your point of view or you going into this movie? Um,

[00:56:38] Greg: yeah, a little bit. I mean, it's, it's, it's, you can't deny it and you can't ignore it, and it's, it is like, I'm gonna paint it in a, in a weird light. And then it's also just like, it makes it even creepier that the, you just have to think about like, why did the studio say, okay, well it's green lit anyway.

[00:56:56] Greg: If if none of the charges I've been wonder stuck, then we're gonna use 'em. And it's just like, that's even gross. Like, you get someone that does all these terrible things and then you get this big production company that is just like, yeah, we're committed to him anyway. And it's just like, I don't like that at all actually.

[00:57:12] Greg: Yeah. I, I will be watching it and watching his performance and just being like, I can, I even like it. Can, I like his, his interpretation of the flash and it's gonna be a weird, uh, viewing

[00:57:26] Badr: experience. This might be the first superhero movie where I don't root for the hero at all. Yeah. I'm rooting for all the other characters first.

[00:57:32] Badr: Reverse flash. But the flash. Yeah. I guess the EZ Ezra Miller controversy has kind of diverted attention from how much of a mess this movie has kind of been itself. You know, a, a ton of reshoots, I think I counted four different director changes, all of them. Oh wow. Being for like, creative differences. It might not have been four, it might have been like two or three.

[00:57:53] Badr: It was a few directors that have come and gone, uh, for this movie due to creative changes. Um, like I said, reshoots, um, obviously the pandemic had an impact on the release schedule. Uh, what else? What else did I see? Um, I wanna say I tallied up, it's been 10 years since this movie was announced to it being released.

[00:58:13] Badr: That's wild. Like 10 years. So, you know, obviously you're gonna expect, you know, some sort of issues of production or behind the scenes, but I, I don't think you would expect this level of like, you know, just Tom foolery and shenanigans going on. Um, and then when you consider like flashes a character in a property at, at that, that.

[00:58:35] Badr: For the longest time has, they've talked about a Flash movie since the, um, uh, who's all boy that played in the, um, um, the TV series? Uh, west Grant, Justin? No, no, not Grant Gustin. Oh, that's actually who they should have had. Oh, for sure. Yeah. If they would've charged us more money for the tickets to compensate for the reshoots in CGI to put Grant Gustin in there, I'd be happy with Gladly.

[00:58:57] Badr: Because, you know, who hasn't started a fucking cult in Hawaii is Grant Gustin. Grant Gustin looks like someone that would, that helps every person. Like a old lady across the street that's Grant Gustin, he's helping her out. All right. Little kid loses a, a balloon, he's climbing a tree to get it. Mm-hmm.

[00:59:12] Badr: Right. Like, yeah. That would've been a, a great PR move is to just like a get grant gustin, uh, involved. But I'm talking about the, the original flash from the TV show. I think his name is, uh, something Snipes.

[00:59:24] Ed: Oh, Wesley. Wesley.

[00:59:27] Greg: Yep. Nailed it. Got it. In one. Wesley Snipes as the

[00:59:30] Badr: Flash. I'm having a terrible brain fart at the moment, and there's someone always spit

[00:59:34] Ed: on black.

[00:59:34] Ed: And in Zoom

[00:59:37] Badr: there was a listener right now yelling the name of the actor. I'm having a hard time recalling, but since the like, flashes inception into the world of like live action, it has not been an easy ride for, for the character to finally like, get a live action, like movie adaptation. Obviously we've had like TV shows and, and the, uh, CW show ran for a while.

[00:59:56] Badr: It was successful. But as far as like entering the, the, the Hollywood world, the flash property has always been kinda like a difficult characters like to get off the ground in the movie world. So fans are finally treated to a dedicated flash movie. And you get like a shitty person. Baggage. Yeah. And then this shit happens.

[01:00:15] Badr: You get all this baggage and it's like the last one. It's like, okay, here's your flash movie. And it might be the last one. Yeah, yeah. But it's, but it's also conflicting, right? Like I, I'm saying all this stuff, but the studio is, is showing you something different. So Greg's point, I know when I started seeing these headlines, I was like, oh, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[01:00:34] Badr: I'm waiting for the studio to be like, okay, we're gonna pull a bat, uh, uh, a Bat Girl movie. Uh, move here. Yeah. Yep. And we're going to go ahead, we'll write it off and trash this movie to write it off. The publicity isn't worth it. We don't want to have to deal with the drama. But that's not been the case. I read that there's already a second script that was written by, uh, by the same guy that wrote the Aquaman, uh, uh, film script.

[01:00:55] Badr: He wrote it just in case, like, oh, okay, slash movie does well, then they've got another script. Well, then all this Ezra Miller stuff starts happening. And then I believe the studio was like, uh, we're gonna hold off. You know, we're not gonna go about it just yet. And then around January of this year, they were like, no, the movie is a go Ezra Millers in treatment.

[01:01:15] Badr: You know, like it started, they weren't openly being like, no, we support it. It's, it's a go. They were, it felt like a little cautious. And then they hit us with the, the trailer and we saw Michael Keaton and we forgot all about it. Yeah. Then we forgot about all the shit he did. Ed, you kind of, um, uh, hinted at it, but James Gunn has called Flashpoint one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen.

[01:01:37] Badr: And that's kind of in line with all the other early reviews and, and things I'm seeing from critics. They've all called this like a really great movie, but no one has really addressed, I don't, I haven't seen too many people like address that. You know, Ezra Miller's baggage has really kind of impacted their, their viewing experience.

[01:01:53] Badr: So maybe it won't be the case here, but I was curious to hear if that's gonna be the case for you guys. Like I said, I just won't be rooting for Flash. No. Uhuh, I'm gonna focus on all the other factors like the fact Ben AF athlete gets to, uh, um, you know, reprise his role. We get to see Michael Keaton. I'm very curious how, uh, Sasha Cali portrays Kara gi.

[01:02:14] Badr: All right. Jenz, uh, one last question on the topic of Flash and flashpoint. Do you got any other recommendations for flash reading material Besides Flashpoint, what are some of the other, uh, flash titles or kind of related comics that you would recommend someone checkout if they like Flashpoint, if they wanna dive more into the world, into this world?

[01:02:33] Badr: Flash has one of the

[01:02:34] Greg: more wackier rogue galleries of like, villains that he gets to face off with that are really cool. Um, I think there is like a rogue war or something like that where he just, like, they, they fight one another and they fight the flash, which is awesome. Uh, there's a black label book called like rogues where they kind of like have to team up to steal something.

[01:02:52] Greg: Like it's, it's a rich history. And honestly, flash could be his own publishing house of just like separate stories of all the, the stuff he has.

[01:03:01] Badr: Well said. I'm gonna cosign specifically the Jeff John's Flash run of Scott Collins. I'm a sucker for a creative team that sticks with a book for multiple issues.

[01:03:12] Badr: And, um, that was really my deep dive in introduction into the world of Flash. I, by the time I finished reading the Jeff John Scott Collins Flash Run, I was a fan of the whole flash mythos, especially his Rose Gallery. Jeff Johns makes you put respect on all of his wacky ass villains, mirror, master wi, uh, weather wizard.

[01:03:33] Badr: Yeah. Like all these wacky char uh, villains that you would think would be absolutely silly. Jeff Johns finds a way to make them deadly interesting, heartfelt, and, and all of that. Like, it, it, it's, it's, it's a masterclass and a hero is only as good as his villains and supporting characters. Some great supporting characters as well.

[01:03:52] Badr: Ed, do you got any recommendations? I'm not,

[01:03:54] Ed: I haven't read a ton of flash books. Like I said, I'm not a huge flash fan, but a good. A book that I like that where Flash is basically one of the main guys is, uh, Darwin Cook's New Frontier. Hmm. Oh yeah. Solid choice. Where basically, you know, Superman gets knocked out of the equation right off the bat, so you have kind of like your Silver Age characters coming to the forefront.

[01:04:19] Ed: You have like Green Lantern. It's basically like, it's, it's a Justice League book, but you know, green, it's a spotlight on Green Lantern and a Flash. And I think he's used really well because he's, you get to see him, you know, he's seeing all these like God-like heroes and he's wondering how he fits in and if he can contribute.

[01:04:39] Ed: He's like, I'm just the guy that runs fast. Yeah. I just, yeah, basically. Yeah, he says that I just run fast. I got

[01:04:43] good

[01:04:43] Badr: Nike sneakers,

[01:04:45] Ed: but he plays him and Greenland play an integral part too. To, uh, ending the story. So

[01:04:50] Greg: Ed, I don't know if you can see that, but right over there. Ah, we got the new Frontier.

[01:04:55] Badr: Nice.

[01:04:56] Badr: That looks like one of them. Uh, absolute additions. It is. Yeah.

[01:04:59] Greg: Yeah, it keeps the shelf in place. It's so heavy. Is fucking thick.

[01:05:05] Badr: It's holding up the wall. I'm gonna give, uh, one more honorable mention to um, uh, one more recommendation. The Flash Rebirth. If you don't feel like reading a a 20, I think the Jeff John's run is like longer than 20 issues.

[01:05:17] Badr: It's like 40, 60 issues. But the Flash Rebirth is also written by Jeff John's illustrated by Ethan Van Skier Skiver, yeah. Ethan Van Skiver. And that one is only six issues. If you know nothing about Flash, you could jump in with Flash Rebirth and absolutely probably become a fan. Cuz I know Jeff Johns has a, a soft spot for the character.

[01:05:35] Badr: But Flash Rebirth is also a really good, uh, flash series that doesn't take a lot of commitment or, um, knowledge going in. Besides that, I think we can call, uh, the review a rap. All right. I'm curious to see if any of the things we shared, our thoughts, opinions, et cetera, change when we actually see the movie.

[01:05:51] Badr: But let's get started on our next segment, which I think will go over really well. For a guy like Greg that likes first issues, it's time to grab a fist full of comics.

[01:06:04] Badr: You can have a mouth full of tea or a fist full of comics.

[01:06:11] Badr: Fist full of comics is a segment dedicated to helping all Yonic curious newbies. And loyal Wednesday warriors. Find the best new comics, the best starting points and creative teams that you can't afford to miss. You know, that we get help from our guy Ben Kingsbury, the owner of Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville's premier comic shop.

[01:06:28] Badr: Uh, he's compiled a list of the top three comics you can't afford to miss next month. He's kind of like our, our, uh, uh, miss Cleo. I need to get a little like psychic, uh, uh, sound effect. You know, he's like our Miss Cleo. He knows what comic books are coming out in the future and the ones that you'll probably enjoy.

[01:06:44] Badr: And he's got a pretty cool theme going with the list this week. So if you're a fan of horror comics, listen up because this one is catered to you. Let's get some music going and see what he is got for us today. All right. This first one is a familiar one because it got the cosign from Troy, Jeffrey Allen a few episodes ago.

[01:07:00] Badr: So if you're one of our Eagle Eared listeners, uh, you won't be surprised that this is also on Ben's listen, that he gave it a cosign. Here it is. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, short box listeners. I'm Ben K representing Gotham City Limit in Jacksonville, Florida. And here's three comics that you should add to your pollis asap.

[01:07:21] Badr: There is a common theme for these three comics as well, horror, so buckle up and let's take it to the limit. First up, a w A studios presents Ribbon Queen number one of an eight part series. When you hear the author's name, Garth Ennis, my guess is you think of the preacher, the boys, or maybe even his amazing Punisher run.

[01:07:42] Badr: However, Mr. Ennis penned one of my favorite stories of all time, red Rover. Charlie, please do yourself a favor and check out that iconic story, but back to Ribbon. Queen Garth has promised a fast-paced and thought-provoking horror series 10,000 years in the making. However, if I'm being honest, they had me at Garth Enes, that was the Ribbon Queen number one, written by Garth.

[01:08:07] Badr: Uh, and Jason Burrows on Art Duty that comes out July 26th. It wouldn't be right if we didn't have a DC comic on this list, and it just so happens it's that time of year for big comic events like Flashpoint to take place. So here's what DC has cooking up. Next up, DC's Nightmare Summer Event. Night Terrors number one of a four-part series.

[01:08:29] Badr: The Good News, the Event's only a four-part series. More Good news. Key Alert. The first appearance of the new villain Insomnia is in Knight Terror's First Blood number one. I heard that straight outta Joshua Williamson's mouth himself. Even more good news. No multiverse battles or time changing events.

[01:08:49] Badr: Just good old fashioned nightmare on Elm Street type of horror vibes. Bad news. There are over 20 separate two-part character series, joker Punchline, Batman, Superman, night Wing, black Adam Angel Breaker, raver, and more. Oh and a bit of more bad news. The artwork on the multiple comic covers for this event are beyond amazing.

[01:09:13] Badr: This one might just end up terrifying your bank account.

[01:09:19] Greg: That was good. That was

[01:09:20] Badr: really good. Ben, was that a pick or a warning? Like do you want people to fight Night terror? It was an Oman. That is

[01:09:27] Ed: very, it's very appropriate for a Flashpoint

[01:09:30] Badr: episode. Yeah, we, yeah. Well said. All right. Night terror number one comes out.

[01:09:36] Badr: July, uh, comes out July 11th. Once again, you've got, uh, Joshua Williamson on writing Beauties. You've got a, a few artists on that as well. All right, and last but not least, if you had any plans to visit the Majestic continent of Antarctica, anytime soon, you might wanna reconsider or just cancel those plans outright after you hear this Next one.

[01:09:55] Badr: Here's Ben for you. One more time. And last but not least, top in Image comics presents Antarctica. Number one, what's more terrifying than never returning from a secretive research station in Antarctica? Maybe having to go there yourself. Looking for your lost father. A new nonstop sci-fi action story rife with conspiracies abound, set on the most horrifying place on earth.

[01:10:23] Badr: Remember, short box listeners. The truth is out there. Ben just called Antarctica, the most horrifying place on wow. He knows something. You know what's more horrifying than Antarctica? A cult in Hawaii. All right. That, that is just a, that is just an oxymoron and, and I hate it. All right, Jen. We've got three options today.

[01:10:43] Badr: Um, we've got the Ribbon Queen number one at Knight Terror number one, and Antarctica number one, which I, I, I forgot to mention, Antarctica number one comes out July 12th. That'll be coming out through writer Simon Brooks and Willie Roberts through top cow and, uh, image comics. So, of the three options, what's the one that caught your eye the most?

[01:11:02] Badr: Which one are you most interested in? Uh, Greg. Do us the honors of going first. Which one? Which one you got. Well,

[01:11:07] Greg: for me this week, uh, for the three choices, it has to be DC's Night Terror. The event sounds super scary and super cool. I like the idea that it's like set in the dream scape doesn't have any real repercussions.

[01:11:21] Greg: In the DC universe. Um, a good thing, I know we listed a lot of bad things of this series, DC is halting all of their DC books for that whole, uh, event. So there's not gonna be like a regular Batman and a Batman Night Terror. So your bank account will feel the effects, but not as much as you think. They're absolutely right.

[01:11:40] Greg: The covers are badass. I've already pre-ordered, um, a few of them myself, so, um, I'll due respect to the other creators and books, but DC Night Terrors is my

[01:11:48] Badr: choice. Hell yeah. Solid Ed, what about you?

[01:11:51] Ed: I'm gonna go with the, uh, Garth Enni Ribbon queen. He's doing it for Awa and I liked his last series. I like Garth Ennis, I'll just, anyway, but his last series, uh, the Marjorie Finnegan Temporal Criminal and Some Rolls Off the Tongue.

[01:12:06] Ed: Um, that was a really fun series. And like I said, I'm always interested to see what he's, uh, what he's up to. It seems like. Little bit different than, I can't say his usual affair, cuz he does write pretty much every genre. So I'm hoping it kind of goes into like this with Awa, he's kind of doing some different things than his, I hate superheroes and war stuff.

[01:12:29] Badr: I guess it's gonna be a, an even, uh, a, a three-way tire, three-way split amongst us, cuz I, despite Antarctica being the most horrifying place in, in the world, been ice, I'm pretty interested by this, uh, by this comic Antarctica. Number one, for starters, it, the cover looks awesome. Secondly, it's a new creative team.

[01:12:49] Badr: I'm not familiar with Simon Berks or Willie Roberts at all. Uh, and that intrigues me cuz these, you know, especially of a new number one, right? So you got a number one. So the barrier entry is very low and then it's a new mm-hmm. Creative team. So I've got no, like, biases or anything to, um, you know, going in.

[01:13:05] Badr: Uh, so I'm going in like completely fresh and I, and I always welcome that, uh, with comic books. So I'm gonna go with Antarctica number one. For everyone else though, if any of those titles piqued your interest, Ben's picks will be linked in these show notes. So if you want to look into any of them a little further and, and make a decision for yourself, check out the show notes and then go to your comic shop, your local comic shop and get your pre-orders in as soon as you can.

[01:13:29] Badr: And remember, even if you don't live in Jack's, you can still take it to the limit. Comics, collectibles, and exclusive variant covers you won't find anywhere else are available on Gotham city limit.com. Big shout outs to Ben for the, uh, for the list this week. And with that being said, Greg, Our time together, uh, comes to a close, my friend.

[01:13:47] Badr: You have been a fantastic co-host. Yes, thank you. Thank you.

[01:13:50] Greg: I wish I could run back in time and start this episode all over again. I've had a killer time here with you guys. Um, thank you for having

[01:13:57] Badr: me on. I really, really appreciate it. Greg, are you saying that you would run back in time to stop you? Like, you know, it's like you taking of

[01:14:04] Greg: yourself?

[01:14:04] Greg: Don't, no, I, I would stop old me so I could take his place and start it again. Even if it meant Western Europe would be underwater and millions of lives that would be lost, you know, It was that much

[01:14:16] Badr: fun. That's the least I'd expect you to do for the short box. I appreciate that. But Greg, I'm gonna have links for first issue club listed in the show notes so people can subscribe to the podcast so that they can follow along with you and what you guys got going on.

[01:14:29] Badr: But do you have anything, uh, that you wanna share with the listeners yourself? Any upcoming episodes, special announcements, parting words, et cetera, et cetera? Uh,

[01:14:36] Greg: upcoming episodes. We're gonna hit episode 300, Ooh, within the month. Nice. And we got a fun show for that. Planned every, like, big mon monument or milestone episode, we do what we call like a, an improv, like a joke show.

[01:14:50] Greg: Like every Halloween and Christmas we do one. So 300, we're gonna have just like a fun, uh, goofy show, which we really enjoy doing. It's kind of crazy that we're hitting 300. You know, we started this show 2015, thinking it would last maybe a month, and, you know, we're still doing it this many years later. So it's been, it's been really fun.

[01:15:09] Greg: But yeah, if you wanna get more First Issue Club, go to our website, first issue club.com. We're on every social media you can think of. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever you, whatever you like to use, we're probably on it. And then of course, um, we have a Patreon, uh, patreon.com/first issue club. Um, other

[01:15:26] Badr: than that, I'll send it on to you.

[01:15:29] Badr: Hell yeah, Greg. I'm gonna check out that 300. Congratulations. Congrats, man.

[01:15:31] Ed: That's a big number. That's a big, big achievement.

[01:15:33] Greg: Thank you. Thank you, thank

[01:15:34] Badr: you. Next up we're gonna announce the winners of our Boom Studio's Comic giveaway here in this next part. So don't go nowhere. Here's some music for you.

[01:15:42] Badr: Enjoy it. Don't go nowhere. We'll be right back.

[01:16:18] Badr: Yo. And we are back once again, that was music provided to you by our amazing short box music team. I've got every member of our short box music team listed out in these show notes. So if you wanna hear music from the likes of Mecca, the marvelous DJ crumbs that electable beats learn. But we got a solid, actually, we got a pr.

[01:16:37] Badr: That group is growing like the Avengers. At some point, they're gonna have enough people to, uh, start their own podcast. But if you like any of the music on this show, please check out the links to the artists that I have in these show notes. Give them a follow, listen to their music on Apple Pod or Apple Music and Spotify and all that SoundCloud.

[01:16:54] Badr: They're also on YouTube. Show some support for the people that give us the great music. We're now going to read off a couple of emails. Uh, some of you Eagle eared listeners will recall what is it? I believe two episodes ago is when me and uh, ed did our short box news episode. We announced a contest for some badass boom studio, uh, comics.

[01:17:16] Badr: Uh, Greg, who was the guest at the time, donated a huge tear package of great boom studio comics. There's a bunch of variants for like berserker in here. There is something that's killing the children variant covers, uh, some trades in here as well. So a lot of comics that I would just want to give away. I wanna spread the wealth to our die hard and most loyal listeners ask you guys to send in an email or a short message.

[01:17:38] Badr: Tell me what your favorite boom studio, comic series was, whether it was current or recently finished, or just in general. And we got some good answers, ed. Hmm. All right. First and foremost, we got an email from Henry Hernandez. It's titled Boom Studio Giveaway, and he writes you short box. Great show as always, keep them coming.

[01:17:57] Badr: I got a few series I have recently enjoyed. I start with the most obvious one for me. It'd be Berserker by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kent, and Raphael grandpa. Well, I, I think it's uh, actually, uh, Ron Garney on Berserker, but maybe gra Raphael Grandpa did a few issues. Uh, he goes on to write, uh, Mosley is always a go with Rob Gilroy.

[01:18:15] Badr: Big Trouble in Little China since it's been one of my favorite movies of all time. There's a boom studio series called Faithless. Yes, I have some Triple X covers as well. Oh, uh, he continues King of Nowhere. This is, uh, WD Maxwell Nuff said another, uh, boom studio series that he likes. Claws and Proctor Valley Road from the Great Grant Morrison.

[01:18:38] Badr: Anything he writes, I'll pick up Ronan Island. Just felt a little bit of samura stuff and stuff of nightmares you like you smokes as a kid and this is a book for you. And on the topic of horror, I'll champion and recommend you guys watch from season one available on Apple Plus and Can't Wait For The Bear Season two.

[01:18:58] Badr: Keep reading Comics Big. Shout out to Henry Hernandez for that. He basically just listed every single Boom Studios series out there.

[01:19:05] Ed: Yeah. Big Trouble in Little China. I remember that was fun because it starts where the movie ends.

[01:19:10] Badr: Oh, that's cool. So it's pretty cool. Yeah. I love when comics are able to like, jump in, in the, in those points.

[01:19:15] Badr: I feel like that's a really good use of the media when it comes to like, movie and, and uh, uh, like movie and TV properties. Like find a little crack to fit in and tell like a story that mm-hmm maybe isn't big enough or, you know, it doesn't make sense to be told. Um, live action. We got another email, short and sweet email.

[01:19:33] Badr: This one comes from a, uh, a new email, maybe a first time e email. I wasn't familiar with the name on this, but it is Captain Bruce Squid. That's the name you had to remember for sure. For sure. Right. I'd be like, yo, it's our homeboy, captain Bruce Squid. All right. It looks like the contest brought out some, some new emailers, which we love seeing.

[01:19:50] Badr: He writes Ghost Lord is my favorite by boom. So far I've been dying to get into something. Is killing the children someday. For sure. Thank you for the awesome pod. You know what, thank you for the awesome email Captain Brew. Mm-hmm. Appreciate that. How'd you find out about something's Killing the Children?

[01:20:06] Badr: Um, you picked it up in trade or

[01:20:08] Ed: Yeah, picked up in trade. I, I liked a lot of the covers and then I was just reading every, I mean, everyone was a lot of rave reviews about it and I just picked up the trade and yeah, it's awesome. I really like it. There's a couple spinoffs now. I dunno if I like it that much.

[01:20:22] Ed: Mm-hmm. But I do like the main, the main book, so I'll probably pick up another trader or two when they come out. But yeah, it's good.

[01:20:29] Badr: All right. Let's see what else we got. We got a, uh, entry. I think they wanted to keep the email pr, they just wanted to enter in the contest, keep the email pr, but they did have a really good question about our thoughts and, uh, about AI and integrating with comics being used as a tool in comics.

[01:20:43] Badr: And Ed, I know I, I have some comments on the topic. Mm-hmm. That might be a little long-winded for this episode already. So to, uh, to Tommy Hazelwood who sent in the email, I'll say this much. Ed, how about we revisit this particular topic for an episode that we got a little time to breathe? Yeah. Because I imagine you as an artist, you've got a hell of a, a perspective on it.

[01:21:04] Badr: Yeah. Done deal. Well, Tommy, thank you for the email and, and I got you down for a submission in this contest and solid question. I promise we'll get to it. And we also got an email from our newest Patreon subscriber, Mack Godwin badass name. Uh, he actually messaged me on Instagram and he wanted this to be read on the show.

[01:21:21] Badr: So here we go. He writes, uh, hey short box team. My name's Mack. I'm a new listener from Lin New Zealand. Whoa, that's awesome. Short box global baby. He goes on to say, just writing in in response to the latest pod prompt. As cliche as it is, and you'll probably get a lot of this answer, but my favorite Boom Studio's title of the moment has to be something is Killing the Children.

[01:21:44] Badr: Just started volume three of the trades and it's amazing. I also bought House of Slaughter, so I'm excited for that. Just wanna say how much I love the pod and it's always the first thing I listen to when it drops. Other titles I have, but an absolutely loved recently have been do a power bomb real original.

[01:21:59] Badr: Righteous thirst. And he wrote real original infer. Not like I was saying, like real, like dissonant, you know, real original. Uh, he goes on to say, uh, righteous thurs for vengeance. Okay. And Bird King to name a few. And I'll always champion space writers, head lopper and curse words. Keep up the epic potting, solid list.

[01:22:18] Badr: Solid list. If Cesar was here, he'd probably do a really good, uh, a New Zealand New Zealander, uh, impersonation. I won't, because that'd be disrespectful. Yeah. And you'd probably quit our Patreon. So I'll just say this Mac solid list. Thank you for, for being a listener, man. Thank you for the email too. All right.

[01:22:34] Badr: And last but not least, what type of email segment would we have if we didn't hear from our guy tmx? And I'll go ahead and say this right now on air, right? I wanna apologize to tmx because he sent in, he sent in an email, uh, a few weeks ago, but I kind of like lost it in the episode. Technical difficulties.

[01:22:51] Badr: Mm-hmm. So TMX has been on it. All right? He hasn't dropped the ball at all. It's been me. Uh, he writes, boom, baby. And the emo kicks off with you. What up Short box? It's been a minute and that's been on my poor timing. Well, maybe on Cesar cuz he moves you guys off the regular schedule. Say lovey. Love hearing Shaggy on the mic at the start of the episode.

[01:23:13] Badr: But real glad we've gotten some sea. The Calvin Hobb spotlight was fantastic. Wow. This is a lot of catch up. We're talking about the Calvin, he's talking about the Calvin Hobbs spot. That was a few episodes ago. But anyways, uh, he goes, uh, I think my two favorite Calvin Hobbs strips, especially as a parent, are one, a wordless story showing Calvin waiting at the bus stop of Hobbs while it's raining.

[01:23:32] Badr: Calvin gets on the bus. Then you see Calvin's mom run out in the rain to get Hobbs two in a Rosalyn story just before his parents head out. Calvin's dad says to his mom about dinner, a conversation with real pauses. Can you imagine? Both are the epitome of life as a parent. Onto the Boom Studio's giveaway.

[01:23:50] Badr: Hopefully this isn't everyone's favorite. I'm going, if something is Killing the Children by James Tinian the fourth and Godzilla versus Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Oh, nice. I didn't even know Godzilla has team, the Power Rangers. Mm-hmm. That's kind of cool. I missed that one too. All right. You guys have been hyping something's, killing the children for a long time, and it's really good.

[01:24:11] Badr: My second pick Eye champion last year is just a fun read one Champion Blue Beatle Trailer, HAA Amigos. Thank you everyone for writing in. It seems like the commonalities in regards to Boom Studios at this moment, something is killing the Children, and I'd say by a landslide. I feel like that was the most recurring

[01:24:32] Ed: one.

[01:24:32] Ed: And the spinoff, the House of Slaughter is the spinoffs. Yeah.

[01:24:35] Badr: All right. How do we wanna do this? You know what? How about this? How about this? Because we got such prompt responses. Yeah. And I didn't have to ask a second time. You know, sometimes, like, it's like I, no one wants this free thing I'm giving Uhhuh, you know, the last contest was like that, where I got like one entry, which was cool, you know, but it was like, I'm giving free stuff away.

[01:24:54] Badr: I think I'm gonna reward the promptness, is what, is what I'm rewarding, you know? Call it a, a participation trophy if you want. Fuck it. You guys are getting free Boom. Studio comics. That's a hell of a trophy to get. Yeah. So I'm gonna send something to everyone that emailed Nice in an effort to encourage our listeners that when I announce a contest, get your email in, you might win.

[01:25:13] Badr: Right. So, tmx Captain Bruce squid, Tommy Hazelwood Mag. When you live in New Zealand, the, the poster is going be a little tight. All right, so that one's gonna take a little bit. Uh, and Henry Hernandez, obviously I got you guys covered. Expect something, uh, in the mail soon and since it'll be maybe a couple of, of weeks before we we're back on the mics together.

[01:25:32] Badr: Um, cause I like saving the emails when, when I've got you Ed. Um, I think I'll save, uh, a future contest, um, and prompt for another time. Mm-hmm. So if right now let's just go ahead and bask. And the glory that is our listeners winning, uh, this Boom Studio's comic giveaway. Give a round of applause all y'all.

[01:25:50] Badr: Congratulations. Thank you for the emails. Now, if you're listening right now and you're like, well, I wanna send an email just to, uh, champion something or share a recommendation or let you guys know my thoughts on your flashpoint review, I encourage you to send us an email at dro box jackson gmail.com.

[01:26:05] Badr: We're always accepting emails, all right? Whether it be for a contest or not, we love hearing from you guys right into the show or dms on Instagram and Twitter. Just let me know you want it read on the show. We love hearing from you guys. With that said, we're going to a very special champion season edition of the show and considering, uh, I, I guess depending on how long we talk about across the spider verse, um, maybe I'll drop this as like a separate, uh, thing.

[01:26:30] Badr: We already dropped an across the Spider Verse movie review. But we're gonna do another one cuz I want to hear Ed's take cuz we literally just got done for our private watch party and I'm curious to hear Ed into the surprise of absolutely no one. Ed and I were pretty damn long-winded when it came to talking about across Spider Verse.

[01:26:50] Badr: And since this episode is already pretty long, we decided to post that conversation as a separate episode over on our Patreon. So if last week wasn't enough across a spider verse, talk for you. Or if you're interested in hearing edge's, take on the movie, join the Short Box family over at patreon.com/short box.

[01:27:07] Badr: Besides that, There you have at Short Box Nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out for this conversation today, and a big shout out to Greg Lick. Tag from The First Issue Club for being a fantastic co-host. We couldn't have done it with without. If you enjoyed the episode, help us spread the word, share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do.

[01:27:27] Badr: And if you're feeling extra generous, feel free to leave us a review on Apple Podcast for Spotify. That won't cost you nothing, but it would mean a lot to us. Now come back next week to hear a very good conversation I had of graphic novelist and educator Leila Corman. It was recorded live at this year's Duval Comic and Zine Fest.

[01:27:45] Badr: We got the talking about her process, what it takes to be an Eisen nominated comic creator, and what it's like teaching sequential art as a college professor. That conversation drops next Wednesday, and if any of you will be at Heroes Con this weekend, catch my panel with the creators of Berserker, one of the best selling comic series coming out through Boom Studios.

[01:28:04] Badr: I'll be sitting down with Matt Kenton, Ron Garney on Saturday, June 18th at 3:30 PM in room 2 0 8. We're gonna be talking about the making of the comic and what it was like working with the incomparable Keanu Reeves on this series. So if you'll be at Hero Khan, I invite you to attend that panel. I would love to meet you as well.

[01:28:21] Badr: In the meantime, take care of yourselves, go read your comics and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll talk to you next week. Peace.