Apr 20
House to Astonish Episode 218
Posted on Monday, April 20, 2026 by Al in Podcast
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.)
Marvel in recent years doe not feel like a shared universe which is was always it’s selling point above DC who at the moment really do. The clearest example was the Hulk appearing in imperial in a way that does not fit in is own book. But even with in lines there is no enough connective tissue such as between the x-books. The are some really good stories in isolation on Hulk, Thor, and FF but they don’t lift up any other books. Spidey is the only corner where things are hanging together a bit better, with Venom and Black Cat walking in out of the edges of ASM, A bit like Bat books are described above.
In DC at the moment there is a clear dialogue between JLU, Titans, Superman and the Flash and over recent years a handful of JLU mini’s that tie back to new watchtower.
But even then it is not the earth 1 books that are getting the spotlight it’s the alternate universe books in Absolute just like the Ultimate’s were at Marvel.
I think since neither Paul or Al or terribly familiar with Firestorm, they have neglected to mention the most interesting thing about the character, namely that he is an immensely powerful character whose only real limitation was that one half of him (the Ronnie Raymond half) was a mediocre high school student who didn’t know enough about chemistry and physics to properly wield his god-like powers.
Maybe they are most familiar with the outstanding John Ostrander run on Firestorm (which was the best Firestorm). Although, I believe the finale of Ostrander’s Firestorm was just ignored when DC decided to publish a Firestorm series again. I didn’t read that one, so maybe they explained it, but it seemed they simply ignored the Ostrander years and reset the character to his factory settings. The Ostrander issues might have been erased by Infinite Crisis or something, of course.
Then, there was the godawful New 52 relaunch, which…the less said, the better. I know Gail Simone was only scripting that awful mess, but it should show that Simone can do so much worse than her Uncanny X-Men. Yes, she could do far better too, but maybe we should be thankful for what we did not end up getting.
The Soviet Firestorm was during the Ostrander/Yale run, I think. But I don’t recall if they were writing it when Firestorm became the Fire elements,, during the time when they tried to tie people into the whole Swamp Thing elemental umbrella.
Yes, that was still during the Ostrander run. I’m not sure about Yale, but Ostrander was on Firestorm until issue #100, the final issue. I don’t believe Firestorm was seen again until after the year 2000, when DC kind of ignored what Ostrander had been doing with the character.
@Chris V- It’s complicated. After Martin Stein got separated from Ronnie at the end of Firestorm 100 and became Firestorm on his own, Ronnie regained his powers in the Extreme Justice series and joined the team which consisted of heroes like Booster Gold in ugly armor and Captain Atom. Ronnie operates on his own for a while as Firestorm. Then in Identiy Crisis Ronnie gets killed by the Shadow Thief and that sets up the next Firestorm series.
The new 52 Firestorm was about gail Simone proving liberals can play nice with conservative talent ethan van scriver and that’s the meta text driving the series. That was then, this is now. Scriver is a comicsgate troll too toxic for the big two. Moral of the story is don’t let you’re dipshit friends get in the way of a promising career.
I hope the Buffy series does a pleasant modernized version of the series without getting bogged down in the continuity of it. It’s about the allegory and relatable characters at the end of the day. Buffy fans don’t really seem the type to want to go the Trekkie route of demanding strict adherence to dawn of television era sixties-in-space continuity.
Of course, Ibissa could always become the official hero of…Ibiza
Al and Paul covered Calcium Master in a previous OHOTOHOTMU a few years ago! I remember it clearly because I thought tht bringing Calcium Master back in a new story has huge potential!
Hickman’s G.O.D.s was immediately recognized by fandom as a dusted off failed John Constantine pitch with only the names changed. No amount of marketing would change that. Still, the bigger point about marketing is right on. They need to stand behind their product instead of making everything an ongoing that gets canceled after 5 issues.
Really? I thought it was a Dr. Strange pitch, but Marvel already had plans for using Dr. Strange, so Hickman created new leads and threw Dr. Strange in as a guest-star. It would have stood out poorly as a John Constantine story. Hey, Grant Morrison initially pitched Nameless as a story-arc for JC, and Vertigo turned it down, so Morrison took the plot to Image. That ended up as one of Morrison’s best comics.
“Really?” -Chris V
No. I was being colourful. I meant what I said, but as far as I know it was never factually a DC pitch.
@Chris V and @Woodswalked: Well, he operated like Constantine but looked like Dr. Strange, so you’re both kinda right. Anyway, I enjoyed the series and would have continued reading.
Regarding song lyrics in comics: The only way I can see to make them work is to (1) make them thematically relevant and (2) lampshade the fact that song lyrics can never impress in a soundless medium (“Well, Dazzler, I can see why that new song of yours has hit the Top 40. The lyrics suck, but that is one sick-ass beat”).
Peter Allen David had the only song lyrics that I felt worked in comics. It helps that he reused a familiar song and just changed the words. It took no effort to try to interpret the melody or rhythm.
It also wasn’t played as a divine revelation blessed upon the lowly readership.
That was also a good choice on his part.
Woodswalked— if you’re not talking about the Ren & Stimpy bit in X-Factor I’m pulling a blank…
‘Multiple man, Multiple man does the things a multiple can..” to the tune of the 1960s Spider-Man theme song.
I don’t remember the issue number.
Last months Superman had Prime singing “superman Superman does what ever a super can” SO the song still works across universes
@Woodswalked: Peter David did a good job with “Multiple Man” (written to the tune of “Particle Man” by They Might Be Giants, I remember it being mentioned in the issue) but he also wrote the cringe-inducing “Mutant Rap” a few issues later so he doesn’t get a pass.
Even Alan Moore couldn’t make his song lyrics in comics work. That should be enough to discourage writers from trying.
I like Dan Abnett’s musical issue for Lawless. They recorded the songs when stuck inside during Covid.
https://2000ad.com/news/lawlessthemusical/
When Al mentioned Spider-Man spinoffs, I thought the countdown to mention Slingers was on.
The hero turned villain with matter controlling powers could also describe the Silver Age/Bronze Age Sargon the Sorcerer.
Long-time lurker/listener here. Enjoyed the podcast as ever, but when it got to the OHOTOHOTMU, I had this nagging feeling that Isbisa had been done before…
A check in the incomplete list I made during the COVID lockdowns indicate that you covered him in in Episode 156’s installment.
Not a complaint! just some completism, which hopefully isn’t out of place here.
The Calcium Master could be quite a formidable character if he controlled the teeth people still have. He could make public figures grin or sneer at inappropriate moments, ruining their careers. Or he could be a remote assassin by making somebody close to his victim suddenly bite them on the throat.
Of course people who wore dentures would be immune to his powers. Or maybe he could learn to control dentures too. I can imagine a Daredevil cover where DD was being attacked by a swarm of flying sets of false teeth.
Coming in late, but I just remembered The Muppet Show Comic Book by Roger Langridge had some fun one-page musical acts.
I think the key point here, and it also goes for “Multiple Man” (which ISTR is meant to be a Weird Al parody in-universe) and probably the Lawless musical, is that the comic isn’t trying to tell us this is an incredibly moving work that changes people’s lives. They’re comedy songs and they just have to be funny.
I think some of Alan Moore’s song-stories worked very well–“Old Gangsters Never Die” is basically just an illustrated poem, but it’s still brilliant. Both “This Vicious Cabaret” from V FOR VENDETTA and “Song of the Terraces”, the operetta chapter of BOJEFFRIES, really do amazing work at conveying a combination of rhythm and motion. Roger Langridge has done a *lot* of great musical numbers, especially in the BETTY BOOP title he did with Gisèle Lagacé.
As to DC vs Marvel freshness: I think that most of the apparent momentum that DC has right now is from the Absolute line. Which isn’t to dismiss that as unimportant! But it’s an interesting contrast to how below-the-radar the recent Ultimates line was. A big difference is that Absolute is a new venture driven by DC’s star writers (Aaron, Snyder, Thompson, Ewing, Lemire) while Ultimates is a revival driven by the hit-or-miss Hickman and a bunch of less popular creators (Brian Hill, Peaches Momoko, Chris Condon).
Worth noting that Deniz Camp has titles in both projects and I think the printing gimmick in issue 1 of ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER drove interest to that in a very clever but also hard-to-reproduce way.
Please note that when I refer to Hickman as hit-or-miss, I am *purely* referring to his ability to generate fan excitement and sales. I have my own mixed opinions on the quality of his work, but as noted in the episode, he’s capable of SECRET WARS and HOX/POX but also G.O.D.S and IMPERIAL. My understanding is that sales-wise, the new ULTIMATES was somewhere in the wide gap between those poles.