House to Astonish Episode 192
It’s been a long old time, but we’re finally back, with discussion of X-Force: Killshot, Phoenix Song: Echo, the creative changeover on Amazing Spider-Man, Human Remains at Vault, Party and Prey at Aftershock, and Jeff Lemire’s upcoming pair of miniseries Mazebook and Primordial. We’ve also got reviews of Catwoman Annual and Black Cat Annual, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Loves You. All this plus a mouthful of bugs, sad knitwear of tragic lives and a Reebok-clad Scottish indie band from 2001.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page, and remember that there’s still plenty of summer days to come, so a swell House to Astonish t-shirt might be just the thing you need.
I started listening to this episode, and I got a bit confused because the guys were saying they’ll be taking a break til February or something. For Al’s honeymoon. Then when he said he was going to New Zealand, I finally realised I couldn’t possibly be listening to a 2021 episode.
Shame to hear that Wizard is shutting down though.
Regarding international heroes, did you read The Union? I suppose it falls into the “stereoptypes” that you mentioned, but I kind of think that was its point, even if the satire was maybe too subtle to be effective.
Regarding Nick Spencer’s Spidey, I’m reading the UK reprints, which between the usual reprint time-gap and COVID is still on the “Hunted” storyline, but so far it’s been … fine. It’s entirely possibly I’ll agree with you in 2-3 years (I’m already a bit irritated about the belief that repeatedly saying “Yes, this is a rip-off of Kraven’s Last Hunt” excuses it).
But I like the domestic sitcom of him housesharing with Boomerang, I like that he’s back with Mary-Jane, I’m cautiously intrigued by the suggestion we’re not just ignoring OMD to get them back together, and beyond that it’s, well, fine. Not spectacular, maybe, but not Howard Mackie gibbberish or JMS “I have been informed by editorial that this is the story I’m writing, but I hate it” either. If you like Spider-Man comics, this is a comic which recognisably has Spider-Man in it.
The name Auntie Ante, if anyone’s interested, also appears in the Discworld Roleplaying Game, where she runs the bookies at the Fourecksian Cart Wars Stadium (and quite possibly bears some resemblence to Tina Turner).
I have a vague recollection of a French superteam that the Thing joined when he opted out of Civil War, but I don’t know if they’ve ever appeared since. I’m also surprised that, as far as I know, there’s no Australian superteam; they just export mutant teleporters.
I really liked the Brand New Day/Webheads era too and I agree with Paul that the publishing set-up for it makes much more sense than having competing Spider-Man titles. I’m not quite sure why they ever got rid of it, especially for Dan Slott. I like Slott and his Spider-Man run was good, but he’s so bad with deadlines and had to rely on Christos Gage so much anyway, you’d think having a writer’s room behind him would have been a big help.
Luna Snow originated in Future Fight (along with the Sharon Rogers future Captain America, who looks and fights like a Final Fantasy Lancer for some reason). White Fox first appeared in Al Ewing’s Contest of Champions, but has been embraced by Future Fight since she is Korean.
I think Nick Spencer’s Spider-Man would have been ok if not for the never ending Kindred story. Most of the arcs are entertaining enough and could work just fine without him. But the way he is always there for 70+ issues with his what-ever-the-plot-demands powers and very little forward momentum just makes me exhausted.
I have a lot of fondness for Crusader, and the Initiative run at large. Christos Gage wrote some 200 comics for Marvel, but I think that run was probably his best work.
I have to admit I never thought Spider-Man writers would decide that the original Hobgoblin mystery was such a classic that they need to not only continue it but also write a new mystery just as dragged-out and convoluted.
I thought the batman/cat woman bit was going to lead to a discussion of THAT news story from a couple weeks ago.
Brand New Day wasn’t quite weekly, but three-issues-a-month (to replace the then three ongoing mainline Spider-Man books, with Amazing absorbing Sensational & Friendly Neighborhood).
While it did make for a more cohesive franchise, it was by all accounts a logistical nightmare, which is presumably why they hired Steve “52” Wacker to handle it… and it only lasted for a bit less than three years until they switched back to a more traditional model.
Slott’s run had a fortnightly schedule for most of its run (sometimes through miniseries/crossovers/etc.), and Spencer’s followed suit (with a bunch of short-lived companion series to fill the third monthly slot in). It looks like Beyond is set to go back to the 3-issues-a-month schedule, which indeed bodes badly for Non-Stop… but then the book barely comes out anyway, apparently due to Bachalo’s health issues that already got it delayed by a fair bit.
By the way, while Slott/Guggenheim/Gale/Wells were the initial BND team, it did shift quite a bit over time, with Gale dropping out before the first year was over, Wells contributing less as time went on, and a bunch of new writers being brought in, either on a semi-permanent basis (Waid, Kelly & Van Lente) or on guest spots (e.g. Stern coming back to do a Juggernaut arc or deMatteis providing backups for a Kraven storyline).
I loved the Brand New Day Spidey stuff – it was the best Spider-Man comics since the 80s, with a concerted effort toward creating new villains and supporting characters. It was good, and it’s a shame so many people boycotted it because of One More Day (which IMHO was a good and necessary move that was handled poorly).
The Slott stuff was OK to good (better than his FF has been), but the Spencer stuff has been tedious. I hate Kindred and I don’t really read Spider-Man to see the main character tortured to death and resurrected repeatedly by an inexplicably powerful Harry Osborne.
I’ve been watching the Olympics, and I think one of the fellas in the gymnastics just did a Sting’s Accountant.