Episode #043: The Flash by Mark Waid — Book Five (featuring “Dead Heat” and “Race Against Time”) In this episode, we get two epic storylines back to back. First, in “Dead Heat,” the Lightning Brigade face the evil Savitar, who … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #042: Planetary What if every superhero and pulp fiction universe was condensed down into one universe, which was also the Wildstorm Universe? The Planetary team uncovers the secret history of their world and, in the process, performs metatextual analysis … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #041: The Flash by Mark Waid — Book Four (featuring “Terminal Velocity”) It’s another big everything-changes-forever epic as Mark Waid hits “Terminal Velocity.” The discovery of the Speed Force as the source of superspeed in the DC Universe is … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #040: Animal Man by Grant Morrison – Book Three It’s the part of the run you’ve been waiting for: Buddy Baker can see you! And Grant Morrison can talk to you, too. We’ve seen Animal Man establish his superhero … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #039: The Flash by Mark Waid – Book Three (featuring “Reckless Youth”) Professor Zoom has been defeated, Wally West has regained his top speed and put aside his insecurities about living up to Barry Allen’s legacy, and Mark Waid’s … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #038: Weapon X Barry Windsor-Smith finally reveals the secret origin of Wolverine! Well…kind of. The biweekly anthology comic Marvel Comics Presents got a shot in the arm when it ran the serialized saga of Weapon X from issues #72-84 … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #037: The Flash by Mark Waid – Book Two (featuring “The Return of Barry Allen”) Our look at Mark Waid’s legendary run on The Flash continues! After taking on his first major assignment as a writer, retelling Wally West’s … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #036: Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. In its original format as a 1988 six-issue prestige/bookshelf format limited series, Bob Harras and Paul Neary’s Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a blockbuster, drawing readers in with lavish production values and a story … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #035: The Flash by Mark Waid Book One (featuring “Born to Run”) Like Chris Claremont on X-Men or Frank Miller on Daredevil, Mark Waid’s work on The Flash was so additive and transformative that later creators can’t help but … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #034: Batman: The Animated Series Fans love to argue about Batman, so why can so many of us agree that Batman: The Animated Series, which debuted in 1992, is one of the best interpretations of the character and his … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #033: Icon Milestone Media’s Icon has a pretty punchy elevator pitch: “What if Superman was a Black Republican?” But with stories by Dwayne McDuffie and pencils by M.D. “Doc” Bright (both now sadly no longer with us), this book … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #032: The Sandman: The Doll’s House Neil Gaiman’s complete reinvention of DC’s trademark on The Sandman is inarguably one of the most influential comics of the Iron Age…so why haven’t we talked about it much yet, and why are … Continue reading Iron Age of Comics
Episode #031: Animal Man by Grant Morrison – Book Two We return to our coverage of DC’s 1989 Animal Man series – Grant Morrison’s first ongoing for the U.S. comics market – with a look at issues #10 through #17. … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
The Pan Book of Horror Stories Selected by Herbert van Thal Reviewing anthologies is always a tricky proposition. By their nature, an anthology is uneven and unpredictable. Every story has the potential to be the best thing you’ve ever read … Continue reading Paperback Punk
Episode #030: Savage Dragon While many early offerings from Image Comics were deliberately designed to appeal to their popular artists’ existing fanbases, Erik Larsen took a different approach, reviving a character he created at his kitchen table while making homemade … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #028: Wild C.A.T.s Superstar penciler Jim Lee adopted less revolutionary rhetoric than some of the other Image founders after leaving Marvel Comics, but he became one of the most successful of the group, growing his WildStorm Productions imprint into … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #028: Ghost World When Daniel Clowes was writing and drawing vignettes about two cynical teenage girls in his groundbreaking comic anthology Eightball, he wasn’t sure Ghost World would add up to anything in the end, but its balance of … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #027: Bone: Out From Boneville With one foot in the world of DuckTales and another in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Jeff Smith’s Bone is so confident and assured from its very first issue that it seems to have arrived fully … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #026: Justice League International BWA-HA-HA! Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis may not have originally set out to turn DC’s signature superteam into a workplace sitcom, but with artist Kevin Maguire they produced a screwball series still treasured by fans. … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #025: Squadron Supreme The story of a faux Justice League who seize control of the United States with the best of intentions only to be undone by the resulting ethical nightmares, Squadron Supreme is sometimes called “Marvel’s Watchmen”: a … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #024: Watchmen – Part Two Our continued deep dive into the comic book that defined the Iron Age begins with a lengthy appreciation of Dave Gibbons’ art and storytelling, then gets into the weeds talking about the novel’s themes, … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
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