Podcast
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
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
Episode #023: Watchmen – Part One What’s left to say about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ novel Watchmen? Plenty, as it turns out! In our first of two episodes on the subject, we talk about the changes in the larger … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #022: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction Artist Mike Mignola made his first foray into creator-owned work with Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, a 1994 miniseries for Dark Horse’s Legend imprint. In time, Mignola would be responsible for every aspect of Hellboy’s … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #021: Deadpool #11 When up-and-coming writer Joe Kelly got the keys to Deadpool’s first solo series, he subverted fan expectations by downplaying the character’s connections to the larger X-franchise. Similarly, he decided to fulfill the constant requests for the … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Forget whatever you think you know about Hawkman! Tim Truman’s 1989 prestige format miniseries Hawkworld drew from inspirations including cop shows, Vietnam War movies, and The Count of Monte Cristo to update the winged warrior’s origin for a grittier, more … Continue reading Iron Age of Comics
Episode #019: Grant Morrison’s Animal Man — Book One Continue reading Iron Age of Comics
Episode #018: X-Men the Animated Series – Season One (with Guest Cameron Kunzelman) As popular as the X-Men were in the comics industry during the Iron Age, the 1992 Saturday-morning cartoon adaptation found its way into more homes than the … Continue reading Iron Age of Comics
Episode #017: Thunderbolts: Justice, Like Lightning With the Avengers and Fantastic Four temporarily outsourced to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee in 1997, Marvel touted the ostensibly brand-new heroes of the Thunderbolts as the next big thing to a somewhat skeptical … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
Episode #016: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Before they were a multimillion-dollar media and licensing franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were just a funny idea that two young artists in Western Massachusetts introduced in a black-and-white book with a 3,000-copy … Continue reading The Iron Age of Comics
