Tick tock, it’s podcast o’clock, as Paul and I talk about the Midnight line’s rescheduling, Alien v X-Men, the Absolute Batman animated series, the upcoming new volumes of Doom Patrol, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes, Crimes Against Nature, Bride of Frankenstein, and You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive. We’ve also got reviews of 100 Bullets: US of Anger and Iron Man, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is in need of a revival. All this plus product endorsements by both Jonathan Hickman and Paul O’Brien, She-Hulk v Legally Blonde and issue 16 of My Boss Is My Stallion.

The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky or via email.

The launch of New Thunderbolts is just around the corner, but first Paul and I are polishing off the Avengers/Thunderbolts miniseries with issues 4-6, as one fight runs for three issues and we learn just how much of a petty dillweed Captain America can be. Along the way, we’ll be ruminating on the possibility of Magnesium Man, boggling at an advert for the concept of doing things, and learning about “an MTV film that extreme right-wing moralists can be proud of”.

The podcast is here, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, or over on Bluesky.

Paul and I are back with more comics waffle for you to gobble up, as we send good wishes to Adam Hughes, chew over Marvel’s layoffs and its wider malaise, and discuss DNX, Challenges of Doom, Clayface: Celebrity Dirt, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Horse’s Marvel reprints and Jughead: Piemageddon. We’ve also got reviews of Fireborn and The Fury of Firestorm, and The Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has aged badly.

The podcast is here, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Bluesky, or via email.

(And yes, my audio is all wonky – we had to record remotely for the first time in ages, and I didn’t set up my mic right. Sailor V, as they say.)

Back once again with the renegade Masters of Evil, as we look at the first half of 2004 miniseries Avengers/Thunderbolts. There’s talk of Spider-Man working down the mines, Jean Grey’s ex-boyfriends and a deranged neo-Nazi who names everything after the letter X, and even some discussion of the Avengers and the Thunderbolts, so why not come and join us? Exactly, no reason, that’s what we thought.

The episode is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, or via email.

Paul and I have a lot of news for you this time round, as we remember Tatjana Wood, and talk 3 Worlds 3 Moons, Hulk War, Terminal, M.A.S.K., Skate Ali, Odin, Avengers/JLA, Jays of Future Past and Concrete: Stars Over Sand. We’ve also got reviews of The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery and The Punisher, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe appears subject to work commitments. All this plus the octopus that predicts the football results, donkey cigars and one unit of entertainment.

The episode is here, or available through the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, or via email.

(Also, I know the Vertigo book I was thinking of was End of Life rather than The Living End, it was late and I was tired)

It had to happen. And now, it finally has. It’s time for me and Paul to bite the bullet and step into the squared circle to take on Marvel’s Most Merciless, the Masters of Mayhem, the Mush-Mangling Mavens of the Marquis of Queensbury, the… Thunderbolts?

It’s Fightbolts time, but will they float like butterflies, or sting like bees?

The episode is here, or available through the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, or via email.

It’s only 348 sleeps ’til Christmas, so we’re taking the opportunity to look back at the best 2025 had to offer, as we run down our pick of our three favourite comics of last year in the 14th annual Homies awards. Will your favourite make the cut? What did your fellow listeners choose? Find out here, true believer! Or in the comments for the Homies post from the start of December, I guess, for that second question at least. Here is definitely more convenient.

The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, or on Bluesky, and here’s hoping you choose to stick around with us for 2026!

Jingle bells, Batman smells… or DOES he? Does he actually smell of GOOD THINGS, in an unexpected twist? How does he smell… compared to other comics? There’s only one way to find out – let’s have an end of year awards season! It’s time for the 2025 Homies!

As always, we want to hear from you about what you dug this year. As with last year, rather than give you a long list of categories, we’re concentrating on the comics we read that really did it for us. We simply want you to tell us:

What was the best comic you read all year, and why?

It could be a new release, it could be a relaunch, it could be another great year for a reliable ongoing. It could be a majestic miniseries or a great graphic novel, an incredible indie or a brilliant Big Two book. We’ll be reading them out on the show, so let us know what you dug and what about it made it so special for you.

Give us your pick, and may 100% of your Christmases be white.

Paul and I hit a major milestone this episode, as we reach the end of the first run of the original Thunderbolts team, and cover issues 72-75. There’s fighting, arguments, and weird things exploding, and that’s just the behind the scenes escapades of Bill Jemas. Will all the TBolts survive? Will they all get off Counter-Earth? Will they all make it to the next volume of the book? Find out the answers to two of these questions right here, true believer!

Next up, it’s the Homies, so look out for a post on that in the next few days. And then… sigh… it’s Fightbolts.

The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think in the comments, via email, or on Bluesky!

With NYCC in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to look back at some of the news coming out of the show, like the revamped Vertigo slate, Swamp Thing Is Killing The Children, DC K.O.’s unexpected crossovers, Marvel’s two upcoming symbiote-centric sagas, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Crowbound, the first wave of post-Age of Revelation X-books, the impending Spider/Super crossover and a smattering of other little newsy nuggets. There’s also reviews of Endeavour and DC K.O., and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a government man through and through. All this plus Warwick Davis’s bin rota, Jim Davidson’s Garfield and an unavoidable detour into “in a world…” voice.

The episode is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, or via email.